Thursday 4 July: The hero of 2019 has left the Conservative Party reeling in 2024

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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710 thoughts on “Thursday 4 July: The hero of 2019 has left the Conservative Party reeling in 2024”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s (recycled) story

    Lottery Winner

    Sammy Cohen, having luckily survived the Holocaust as a young man, moved to England and worked hard as a tailor for many years, just barely making a living.

    One weekend he decided to buy a National Lottery ticket, and was thrilled when he won 10 million pounds!

    He gave up work and had a wonderful country home built, with a swimming pool, ballroom, marble columns, statues and chandeliers… He invited all his friends to a sumptuous housewarming party.

    At one end of the ballroom there was something on the wall covered up and Sammy got everyone together to see it unveiled. He pulled a cord and there was a gasp of horror as a life-size portrait of Adolf Hitler was revealed!

    "Sammy, for God's sake!" they said, "This money must have lost you your sanity! How can you, a Jewish person, have a picture of Hitler on the wall?"

    Sammy grinned, pulled up his sleeve, pointed to his forearm and said, "Who do you think gave me the winning lottery numbers?"

    1. Aah! That's better. Mustn't forget the pills, though I'd rather it were pils.

  4. Rachel Reeves is giving advice on how to run a successful small business under a Labour government.

    Start off with a large business

  5. The hero of 2019 has left the Conservative Party reeling in 2024

    Things were all going well until Biden stole the election

  7. Good morning from Mercia and Helicon, not much dancing today but happy 4th July to my Texan friends. Sadly I expect a super Labour majority with the Islamification of the House of Commons as a vast amount will be Muslims. Hopefully my excellent Conservative PM will keep his seat but I don't expect many others will . I hope Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson get / keep their seats but I hope more Reform will get seats – they'll be needed. The Lib Dems will help Labour get their majority sadly .
    The country has gone left and woke – I realised that when I saw those rainbow flags in Grassington of all places. Their will be no single opposition party on the opposition benches- just a dusting of mixed parties. I'll expect Labour will change the electoral system very soon . I hope to be wrong but fear I am not . I really don't think online will be safe now that Labour will have its hate law in place and I'd not wish to discuss Labour and politics anymore. Just cheery things in life .

    1. They can't imprison all of us. If they implement fines for all of us it could well implode on them. People can only get away with so much unpopularity. The electorate will flex its muscles. We are a hair's breadth away from active resistance, I think.

    3. Well done, Minty. I shall do the same on the way shopping today. I wonder how many will forget to take photo ID with them.

  9. Good morning, all. Something has gone wrong here. There is a bright blue sky and, er, sunshine. Can't possibly last, of course.

    Much happening today?

    2. Yes; politicians are going to stop promising the world and start delivering a peanut.

  10. A little par four here
    Wordle 1,111 4/6

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    1. Got it FINALLY, but do not feel very clever today…
      Wordle 1,111 5/6

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    2. Very happy with a 3.

      Wordle 1,111 3/6

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  11. A little par four here
    Wordle 1,111 4/6

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  12. it’s 9 degrees here, windy and sunny. A bit like a nice day in March!
    Vote Reform!

          5. Not according to BBC Scotland this morning – you have until 5pm to get a form filled and signed by a doctor or (if for work reasons) your employer

          6. But I think Tom has known for some time that he couldn’t get to the polling station. Hence he applied for the postal vote. He’s been disenfranchised. Will probably find a pile of postal vote forms in the main office of his facility, not distributed.

          7. Or on the way to the electoral office after they were completed in the approved manner.

        1. I think you're right, if Farage had been or is funded by these reptiles like soros or gates he would have been a lot further advanced by now and not being shoved aside by our msm.

          1. That's not how it works though
            If you want to win, you want to own all sides. Then it doesn't matter who wins. You can let the media squabble and cheat as much as they like.

        2. I don't think so.
          Ask yourself who is funding Reform and Laurence Fox's outfit.
          Only these two parties get publicity, other small parties never do.
          Tice and Farage toe the line on Ukraine and covid.
          Tice was famously pictured laughing with Matt Hancock, his girlfriend is a paid up member of the controlled opposition.
          Farage is an ex City man and in my opinion, has always worked in the interests of the City.

          1. The Reform website states Reform would investigate excess deaths so where does that leave your theory?

            There's a pic of Tice laughing with Matt Hancock – or 'at' Matt Hancock?

            Farage works 'in the interests of the city'? What does that even mean?

          2. It’s not my “theory” it’s what happened.
            Farage banged pots and pans and he wanted Blair to be in charge of the vaxx effort. Both he and Tice supported lockdowns and vaxxing.
            They’re promising to investigate excess deaths now that it’s too late. What do you think an official enquiry will produce? Very likely nothing constructive.

            Tice was a guest at Matt Hancock’s book launch in the immediate aftermath of covid, and he was photographed laughing with Hancock. This has been known for several years.

            In reply to your third point, Brexit benefited the City of London because they became independent of scrutiny from the EU.

            I like Farage, he is a good politician and Reform is probably the least worst option, unless you’re in David Kurten’s constituency. But don’t let’s have any unrealistic expectations about them. Reform top brass works for the parasite class just like all the others that are showered with publicity by the media. Of course you can point to the hopeless BBC excluding them – but they’ve consistently been publicised along with Laurence Fox, ever since they were founded. Most people are completely unaware of other small parties standing in the election like the SDP, Britain First, Heritage Party or UKIP. That is not a coincidence.

          3. Reform have been publicised by MSM because of their wide support and because Farage is able to command attention. He is able to command attention because what he says resonates. Farage has been anti-establishment (in its modern guise) for years. And remember, MSM have been highly zealous in advertising the series of hit jobs and smears perpetrated by the uniparty on Reform. The publicity has hardly been favourable to Reform.
            Why are you trying to portray Farage as Johnny come lately? Farage has great provenance. He hasn't just suddenly appeared on the political scene. He is a household name because of his political longevity.

            The City of London should be independent of scrutiny from the EU.

            Isabel Oakeshott is Tice's girlfriend and she wrote his bio. She also leaked all his what's app and text messages etc. which led to Hancock losing his job. So no, I hardly think they are all great friends.

          4. And how did Reform get their wide support?
            Because they were publicised in the media from the start, as was actor Fox.

            Of course Farage has longevity, I am not saying otherwise, and as I already said, I like him. But he has yet to show that he isn’t serving a more powerful master – I’ve already cited some of the times he has shown his allegiance, but you simply ignore them.

            Tice and Oakeshott belong to the Westminster bubble – for someone in the public eye it is the politician’s ABC not to put himself in situations where he gets photographed laughing with someone he’s supposed to be opposing. What that photo showed is that Tice does not despise Hancock in the same way that members of the public who see through the covid scam do. They’re colleagues, not enemies.

            There is no hero who is going to save us. We’re going to have a financial reset and a lot of people are going to lose everything and get very angry. TPTB can’t afford politicians who aren’t with the program.

          5. Maybe, maybe not but all you are giving me, essentially, is fact free opinion. Which I don’t share.

          6. Well you have ignored all the facts that I’ve put before you. There have been lots of other things over the years. The latest being the openly Goldman Sachs tainted financial contribution. Real opposition doesn’t get donations from Goldman Sachs people!

          7. Tice's girlfriend Isabel Oakeshott was the co-author of Matt Hancock's Pandemic Diaries, which is probably why Tice was at the book launch being best buddies with Hancock.
            They're all in the Westminster bubble together…

          8. Isabel Oakeshott did a hit job on Hancock. She published all his what’s app/text messages and he lost his job because of it.

          9. You do realise that independent investigative journalism is a fairy tale, don’t you?

      3. Soros and Gates have fingers in a lot of pies. I expect they have investments of investments. I think it might be hard to avoid investments which have any kind of association to them. Bit like trying to be a vegan. Practically impossible.

  13. Good morning all.
    A tad below 7°C with a fine sunny start.

    Feeling a bit better, but knackered after a very disturbed night.

    3. Morning Bob, kinda sunny up here but damp too.
      Gig at the care home this afternoon

  14. Labour will begin the hard work to make our streets safer from day one. Yvette Cooper. 4 July 2024.

    Labour is determined to put law and order at the heart of what we do. We will start by rebuilding neighbourhood policing with our community policing guarantee, putting 13,000 neighbourhood officers and PCSOs back on Britain’s streets and a named officer for every community. We’ve set out a fully-funded plan based on the work of the independent Police Foundation to save up to £400 million on wasteful contracts and duplication across 43 police forces, putting money back into the front line. We will work with neighbourhood police to curb antisocial behaviour, with powers to tackle off-road bikes and town centre crime.

    Tackling knife crime must become a mission, not just for the government but for us all. That means laws to stop dangerous weapons being sold online, including sanctions for tech executives who don’t comply. We will set up a bold Young Futures programme to prevent young people being drawn into crime, with 100 youth hubs and youth mentors in A&E, custody suites and pupil referral units. Time once again to be tough on crime and tough on its causes.

    Be afraid. Be very afraid.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/03/cooper-labour-will-start-making-streets-safer-on-day-one/

    1. our community policing guarantee…

      Pledges, promises and now guarantees, non of which are worth the paper or pixels they're written on.

      Next up, assurance, bond, commitment, undertaking, vow…? All worthless ingredients in the word-salads that the political class are so fond of using.

      1. 389297+ up ticks,

        Morning KtK,

        Next up, mass civil unrest the GE in my book is just a temporary slow up fire break prior to the inevitable.

        1. See my post re energy and Miliband. Lack of energy will be a big factor in the the people getting seriously pi$$ed off.

          1. 389297+ up ticks,

            KtK,
            Agreed, I also believe that mass paedophilia, killings, knifings, etc,etc will eventually ring an alarm bell among the indigenous,
            then again 1400 / 1600 victims covered up in rotherham for 16 plus years aided & abetted by council / police, do the political overseers & their supporters really care ? seeing it as spoils allotted to the victorious invaders.

      1. Why not? We already have 40 Sharia courts. Of course a muslim woman has no choice if she wishes to divorce her husband. Sharia all the way.

    3. Where have I heard the sound bite "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" before? That worked well, didn't it?

    1. What a surprise. /sarc

      Ofcom says it won't investigate Channel 4 after Nigel Farage's Reform UK accused the broadcaster of 'electoral interference' and using an actor as a 'plant' during an undercover sting

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13598691/Ofcom-wont-investigate-Channel-4-Nigel-Farage-Reform-UK-electoral-interference-actor.html

      But on Wednesday, Ofcom said after 'urgently' assessing the complaints against the due accuracy, due impartiality and offence rules under the Broadcasting Code, 'we have concluded that they do not raise substantive issues warranting further investigation'.

      A spokesperson for Channel 4 News said: 'Since this report aired, Channel 4 News has strongly stood up for its accurate, rigorous and duly impartial reporting, which speaks for itself.'

      2. OFCOM is completely impartial:

        Headed by completely impartial Conservative Party life peer Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, CBE,
        Controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 (1988–1997), chairman of the board of governors of the BBC (2004–2006)

        How could you be so badly misinformed? (sarc)

  16. Morning all! Bright and sunny here but none too warm……….we had to be up bright and early too, as the dishwasher repair man phoned at 7.00 and was here by half past. He seems to have got it going again. We were fed up with handwashing the dishes and last week OH ordered a new one……. then had second thoughts and asked if it could be repaired. So we'll see how it goes from now on.

    1. Good morning J

      We replaced our 20 year old Neff dishwasher a few months ago .

      The best deal came from https://ao.com/dishwashers?mmref=dishwashers||Dishwashers|6_0_0.

      We searched around , and they were the best , and they installed it in minutes because of the kitchen fitments , hidden behind a door , they were quick considerate and thorough , and took the old one away

      1. Thank you, Maggie, I am also looking at AO because I'll need installation.

        What are the best dishwasher tablets?

      2. I had a look at them – and had a go at OH for ordering a new one from Bosch without discussing it first. Then he had second thoughts and cancelled the new one and asked them to send an engineer out. He said the reason it wasn't working was the water sensor had failed and cut out. So he's fitted a new one and we'll see how it goes.
        It's going through the cycle now, empty. But we're both fed up with hand washing all the crocks for the last few weeks.

        1. The closest we ever came to divorce (apart from the quarrel about getting another dog) was when the dishwasher broke down.

          1. It’s been a long six weeks – and not just the election campaign. Still the repair cost a lot less than the new one he ordered (and cancelled) so hopefully it will live a bit longer.

  18. Just look all the articles in the MSM about how tactical voting today can prevent uncontrolled hard left socialism.
    Don't these people realise it's far too late?

    The biggest hope we have, to avoid a Labour landslide, is a combination of apathy and complacency on one side and determination on the other.
    Lefties not bothering to vote because it's in the bag and those keen on Reform getting out in force.
    The worse the weather, the better our chances.

  19. A late Good Morning from me today. I was wide awake after posting my "Good Night, chums" so I read a book until around 3.30 am and have only just woken. So, a big thank you to Geoff for today's site. Don't forget to vote chums.

    Wordle 1,111 3/6

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  20. 389297+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Keep in mind also those that initiated mass morally illegal immigration via "miranda power" and also that leaves the choice on offer, inclusive of well tainted saviours, as very limited if a choice exists in regarding the coalition.

    In my book a General Election at this point in time is a form of political safety relief valve to starve off very,very, serious repercussions for
    political / pharmaceutical services rendered these past four years.

    Health tip,

    If voting for the four main contenders wash your hands thoroughly on leaving the ballot booth.

    https://x.com/SandraWeeden/…

    1. There's no evidence except the bodies and the statements from the people who live there and have been harmed.
      But all that doesn't count, it's just another brick in the wall.

      1. "Actually.." still there for Roger to view at all Israeli Embassies. Forty years worth of Hamas Go-Pro bodycam footage merged with CCTV, with painful audio from mobile phone telecons.. (that's a helluva lot of no-evidence).

        Beware though, Roge. As you arrive at the Embassy, you will be accosted by a crowd of vile scumbags like yourself & pro-Palestinian demonstrators constantly playing painfully loud police sirens and hurling insults at you such as “shame” and “baby killers.”

      2. "Actually.." still there for Roger to view at all Israeli Embassies. Forty years worth of Hamas Go-Pro bodycam footage merged with CCTV, with painful audio from mobile phone telecons.. (that's a helluva lot of no-evidence).

        Beware though, Roge. As you arrive at the Embassy, you will be accosted by a crowd of vile scumbags like yourself & pro-Palestinian demonstrators constantly playing painfully loud police sirens and hurling insults at you such as “shame” and “baby killers.”

    4. His father, the son of a coal miner and Labour Party activist, was a schoolteacher, a devout Christian, a conscientious objector and a Communist Party member. I wonder where he got his opinions?

  22. Good morning all,

    Sunny skies at McPhee Towers, wind in the West, 12℃ with 17℃ forecast. Storm clouds on the horizon as the nation goes to the polls. Batten down the hatches for a seriously bad few years. I'm going fishing and will vote this evening.

  23. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright and breezy free and easy, England expects and all that.
    I can't quite remember anyone being a hero in 2019. The tar brush has no known selective instincts.

    1. Hero is a much over-used word. And women are not heroes; they are heroines.

      2. That's exactly why I don't remember anyone being a hero or even a heroin, in 2019.

  24. Good morning, all. Sunny with a breeze forecast for the day: washing is on and garden beckons after my visit to the polling station.

    Here's hoping that the recent rain and the forecast sunshine will bring on the potatoes, beans and other vegetables.

    Tomorrow will likely see Miliband return as Labour's energy guru with all the disasters that that appointment will bring upon us. All in the name of saving the planet.

    The energy situation also has potentially dangerous geo-political edge that green fanatics either cannot, or choose not, to see. China is making hay while the US, UK and European countries fiddle with Net Zero as their industrial bases are starved of a plentiful supply of cheap energy. It's madness but don't expect Miliband to change direction.

    The lack of reliable energy sources will be an area where Smarmer's government will have problems. Promising change, and one change being the onset of power cuts, lack of heating etc. will expose Labour for the charlatans they are. A hungry, thirsty and cold population is a dangerous population for foolish politicians claiming to be saving the World.

    Here, Dave Walsh lays out what is happening worldwide re energy.

    War Room – Dave Walsh

    1. How long do we think it will be before Starmer's house of cards gets blown over and there is serious trouble on the streets and in the hills? One year? Two years? Three?

      1. Labour are a joke , and to think that Lammy will be in charge of foreign policy and a ginger haired slapper will be plastering us with housing estates and migrants pushed in to every rural community , and the plans that the Milipede has is a joke..

        I hope they all lose their seats, but they won't will they ?

      2. 389297+ up ticks,

        Morning FMP,

        Bout 5 minutes, followed by 5 years of treacherous torment minus 5 minutes.

      3. How long would Starmer last before being replaced by a more islam-friendly Prime Minister?
        Do those fools voting Labour even realise that they may be voting for Sadiq Khan?

      4. How long would Starmer last before being replaced by a more islam-friendly Prime Minister?
        Do those fools voting Labour even realise that they may be voting for Sadiq Khan?

      6. I’ve speculated with others that 2 to 3 years will tip the balance and Labour will go the way of the New Tories. It has taken a number of years for the New Tories to be rumbled but that was starting from a low base of scepticism: the latter re politicians is much, much higher now and the lead time to absolute frustration will be shorter. The problem, as I see it, is, how much damage will Davos admiring Man & Co inflict on the UK in that period of time?

  25. Hero is a much over-used word. And women are not heroes; they are heroines.

  27. Are Britons going to demonstrate, today, that collectively they are as 'corny as Kansas in August'?

    A country gets the government it deserves. If the majority of people ignore history and overwhelmingly vote into power a Labour government, one that goes on to destroy the economy and the standard of life of the population, then that ruling party will only be doing what every previous Labour administration has done. There is no cure for stupidity and the suffering the population will surely experience — as a direct result of their group imbecility — will be self-inflicted.

    1. The problem we have Grizz is we have never really had a solid democracy.
      There are always millions more who have voted against our incoming government's. More than a two political party system, really does not work for democracy at all.

      1. Before Blair dismantled it, we had the most stable governance in the world.
        The two party system with elections every five years plus checks on the government by the country's biggest landowners delivered a mostly benevolent, elected five year dictatorship.
        A benevolent dictatorship is acknowledged to be superior to a democracy.
        Blair ruined that with postal votes, Scottish and Welsh parliaments, the Supreme Court that was completely unnecessary, and removing most of the landowners from the House of Lords.

        1. His questionable 'treacherous behaviour' has been a learning curve for those who have followed in his muddy footsteps. That's why we have so many self interested people in politics.

      2. The problem is, Eddy, that we've never had a democracy.

        In a democracy, the electorate would be able to choose all the candidates, who would then be put up against each other in the election. We've never had that.

        All we have is a choice from a group of candidates, selected by the parties, and whom the party system tells us that is all you will be getting to choose from; take it or leave it. This is not democracy: it is nothing more than an elective oligarchy.

        1. This is precisely why Westminster and Whitehall needs a good clear out Grizz.

    2. Good morning, Grizzly

      I cannot believe that Sunak, Starmer or Davey is that wonderful guy with whom the voters should be in love.

      They all deserve to be Rodgered at the polls.

      Hang the Union Flag and the Flag of St George at half-mast.

      (And staying in punning mode – why were Ofcom, PTB and the MSM so keen to Hammer Steyn?)

    3. Trouble is the rest of the population will suffer for the stupidity of the majority.

    4. Voting Labour, Conservative or Lib Dem today is voting against the interests of the UK.

    5. Bit harsh as most will not be voting Labour. They will win by default. And most of us had no say in how the government system was implemented.

  28. Morning, all Y'all.
    14C and raining. Perfect day to go and tile a honey processing room – if the aches from yesterday will allow, that is.

  30. 'Morning All
    Off to vote shortly
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ecb83194982c7a8f01022c594058b91ab57128d4c5b13328360e31a51f3cbae3.jpg
    Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2d724361948f556f834adb688d975334d75dae313870731be12a2b7e9aea517.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a28efe619bf40a85815e5cb1d1dc3ed034bec7fb15d268f44885e0a0baa859dc.jpg
    https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=568,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/163/223/159/original/67ff53fadc878b94.jpeg

    1. Instead of virtue signalling with rainbow shoelaces, I'd like to see a couple of obviously homosexual police officers mince their way through one of these Muslim communities in plain clothes, discreetly followed by two straight officers, also in mufti, ready to arrest anyone who commits a public order offence.

    5. Ah but, have you seen the leaflets the Christians have been putting out around Rotherham saying, "Please Be Courteous to Your Christian Neighbours: many Christians live in this area and rape, grooming and misogyny are considered a bit impolite. Keep your dogs on a leash and away from the Christians in this community"?

      Nah, me neither.

  32. The marginal seats where postal vote delays might swing results
    Some 34 constituencies with majority of 5pc or less are affected by problems for which councils and Royal Mail blame each other
    https://nttl.blog/thursday-4-july-the-hero-of-2019-has-left-the-conservative-party-reeling-in-2024/

    Postal votes violate the whole principle of democracy.

    A person on his or her own should enter a voting booth where his or her vote cannot be seen by anybody else.

    Those who cannot vote in person for very severe health reasons should be visited by an official to register his or her vote again in private and that vote then placed in a sealed container which can only be opened on polling day.

    I do not trust postal votes. Many people are still highly suspicious that Biden's party stole the 2020 US presidential elections through postal votes and fear the same thing will happen in the UK.

    2. I'm casting two proxy votes today, as well as my own. (And, btw, all three for myself.)

          1. Good luck then, and if the miracle does happen, make sure to hold the leaders’ feet to the fire!

    4. I agree, it is a red carpet to abuse of democracy. 20% of the electorate vote through postal votes. The UK has sadly changed and the old ways and standards, no longer apply. Voting has to move with the times. But then would we trust electronic voting? I think for a GE we have to have, like you say, a voting booth where many can witness privacy and anything untoward. Postal votes need tightening up.

      1. A "travelling booth" to visit those, such as Sir Jasper and my Mother, who cannot get out, is a good idea. Otherwise, get your sorry arse down to the polling station.

      2. When I was a boy Bath was a Conservative seat often occupied by some Pitman or other from the Pitman Press, a major employer in the fifties. Employees of the Pitman Press were expected to plaster their windows with Conservative messages and put signs in their gardens.

        On voting day my dad would decline a lift to the polling station if offered by a Labour Party helper but accept a lift from the Conservative. He would then vote Labour. When I asked him why he said that he preferred the comfort of the Rover 90 to the discomfort of a Ford Anglia.

    5. A good idea about the voting, for those of us who are housebound. Well said, Richard.

    6. We have had postal votes since we retired, simply because we didn't want to miss a vote if we were away for a few weeks at a time, should a snap election be called. (Not that these longed-for holidays ever happened – MH seems to hate the idea of any holiday other than visiting the son in Canada…. and that is certainly not a holiday.
      But given the risks from certain communities having bulk postal votes, I think you have a point about them being harder to sign up for.
      As for entering the polling booth – how would the identify of the letter-box shrouded creatures (many of whom don't even speak English, never mind being able to read the ballot paper) be confirmed?

    7. The 2020 US presidential election was a special case though. This was at the height of Covid lockdown. Very many Biden-supporting Democrats were too scared to venture past their front doors to vote, and so would have voted by post. Trump-supporting Republicans had stiffer upper lips and didn't care about such silly things – 'go forth and be damned' was their mantra, and they would have gone to the polling stations and voted in person.

      In 2024, Biden would be considered a success if he managed to pick up the pen, whereas Trump would probably throw it at the returning officer.

  33. 389297+ up ticks,

    The repercussions may not be too bad on the endgame final take over, if ALL muslim offenders are released and all remaining indigenous offenders are double,treble, quadruple in numbers to fit cell numbers.

    Dt,
    Labour to be told to authorise emergency prison measures within ‘first week of power’
    Prison chiefs expected to advise new government legislation is needed to increase number of prisoners released early

  34. I am the wife of a football loving husband , nearly 56 years of the game has devoured weekends , mid weeks, competing with golf etc.

    I had no idea sport like that as such would be a dominant feature of our relationship .

    My father enjoyed cricket and rugby , Moh used to play cricket as did son number one .. but the football thing is a mood changer for Moh, especially his home team SAINTS (Southampton)

    Football annoys me , irks me , makes me grit my teeth .. and the only real game I can remember was the 1966 match when England won against the Germans , why , because I was a young nurse then , and we all moved the patients into the centre of the ward to watch the match on 2 ward TVs in black and white , and provided the men ( all RN ) with bottles of beer , how generous was the Royal Navy .

    Sorry to wander off course .. but this letter featured on the DT must be one of the kindest I have read for a long time .

    Southgate’s swan
    SIR – Many of England’s supporters, and all of the experts, have misunderstood Gareth Southgate’s masterplan for his team.

    This is clearly based on the tale of the ugly duckling, in which an unprepossessing creature at the beginning of its life (England in the early stages of Euro 2024) develops bit by bit into a beautiful swan (England after Jude Bellingham’s wonderful equaliser against Slovakia) before progressing all the way to victory in the final.

    Is Mr Southgate our very own Hans Christian Andersen, the master footballing storyteller of our age?

    Andreas Smith
    Bishop Auckland, Co Durham

      1. Morning, Tom.
        At best, it's dull. And I just cannot see why so many people get so excited over it, to the extent of calling their children after their favourite players.

    3. Sport does not cause any friction in our home. We have a television in the library which I can watch if there is a rugby match and the very occasional game of Kevball, snooker or the Olympics so I do not need to disturb Caroline. Caroline has her sewing machine and her organ on the mezzanine so she can make her own clothes – which loves doing, rehearse for church services and her music classes and produce the monthly magazine for the parish; otherwise she goes to the kitchen because she loves cooking delicious meals for her husband!

  35. Might have done better:
    Wordle 1,111 4/6

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

  36. Gentle reminder..
    Things have to get much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much worse before it can even begin to get better.

    1. at least you can rest assured knowing that things will be getting much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much worse.

    2. at least you can rest assured knowing that things will be getting much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much worse.

    1. Don't worry, an adult in the room at the FO at long last. He'll soon give those nasty Zionists a bloody nose.

    5. But who are we to criticise cultural norms?
      We are merely white racists who pay taxes to maintain the vibrant enrichers.

  39. I think this morning could be crucial for the undecideds or stay at homers. Just come from DT and there are loads of posters suddenly advocating Conservative. I think it a put up job by Con Head Office. A couple of days ago practically all commenters were supporting Reform. Please, if anyone has a few minutes, head over to DT and put a few pro-Reform comments in.

    1. I think a lot of these shy Tories have been sitting on the fence right up until Polling Day. Each one must make a decision on the day on the evidence.

      I think very many would dearly love Reform to make a breakthrough, and wishing that Farage would pull a rabbit out of a hat at the last minute. The Conservatives do not deserve a win this time, but it must be said neither does Starmer's Labour, who when stripped of the veneer of media approval, promises nothing other but more of the same, but worse. Establishing Starmer as PM reminds all too many of the time when Liz Truss took over from the disgraced Boris Johnson, killing off the Queen in the process.

      Whilst I am always impressed by Farage's energy and resolve, and that is all too often right about a lot of things, he is not a party. They brought in Ann Widdecombe who produced a cracking speech, and by far the finest of this campaign, but where was this reported?

      In truth, I was very disappointed by the quality of the election literature that landed in my letterbox. They had an opportunity to put their case for replacing an ancient and long-established party with an upstart who would, for a change (how Starmer debased that word!) get things done, and they blew it. They could not even print a picture of the local candidate. The Tories would have had their candidate turning up, even for ten minutes, at every community event going, to show their face and get noticed.

      Now, this is in West Worcestershire. I don't know whether this was the case in Essex or the Red Wall seats that might otherwise revert to Labour. Maybe others here living there could enlighten me?

      1. Our Tory MP for the last four and a half years has been active locally and has done a lot for local issues. She doesn't deserve to be kicked out but she will be. The Labour candidate is a local GP and he will be elected. The Greens always do well here and the local council is now majority Green. The LIB Dems are a bad joke. My OH is sticking with the Tories, and I will vote for Reform. Their candidate is an electrical engineer who knows that NUT Zero is a nonsense.

      2. Conservatives had a war chest fighting fund. Reform does not. And yet still the Conservatives (and Labour) fear them.

    1. Except how to be an extreme see you next Tuesday!

      Sorry about that, Jules, but it had to be said.

  41. This analysis of where we are regarding public knowledge of the medical treatments that were pushed and are still being pushed is illuminating. There are out-takes from a discussion on Australian TV- quite a revelation and other aspects of what appears to be a wave of information that will be disquieting to the authorities:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSkSVvtErEw

    1. Thanks Nickr, lot more info this subject today's edition of Daily Sceptics. Finally, finally, all seem to be waking up.

  42. From Twitt: (my bold)

    Graham Linehan
    @Glinner
    This just arrived and I think it's too important to sit on overnight. The only thing I've changed is the name of the woman who wrote it.

    "Dear Graham and team,
    Thank you for your commitment to women's rights and all of your work. We are incredibly grateful. We are a women's group, many of us are in minimum wage roles and we have been keeping an eye on changes in our workplaces.
    We are sharing this with you (and other women who we believe can help) because this cannot be tied back to our group. The members of our group who this will affect cannot afford to lose our jobs.
    We have recently discovered that Tesco's have amended their toilet policy for colleagues and based on discussions with people higher up in Tesco's it has been stated that this policy extends to customers. Tesco toilets now operate on a self-id basis.
    No changes have been made to mens toilets. Such that there are no bins or period products. This accommodation is one way.
    Though the policy below says it has been in place since 2022 it has not. This policy change was not openly shared with colleagues, colleagues were not consulted and there is no evidence that an EIA has been carried out. The only women's space in stores no longer exists. We have canvassed Tesco's stores in 3 of our nearest cities and a large proportion of the staff are muslim women, many of whom did not know about this change in policy.
    With regards to the extent of this policy (attached below), it should be noted that:
    There is no enforced policy for colleague protection for any other staff. In our group alone members have been spat at, threatened (physically and verbally), and harassed. Tesco's has not acted in their protection on any occasion. One of our group was stalked around the store by an angry male, the managers just looked the other way.
    Please help to get this out into public awareness.
    Kind Regards,
    Sarah
    12:31 AM · Jul 4, 2024
    ·

        1. not at all.. there's plenty of info out there by women's groups such as Kellie Jean Keen aka Posie Parker that have been banging on about the hypocrisy of Labour bints like Jess Phillips & the Ginger Growler.

          Labour activists have been pushing this Leftie nonsense for over a decade now, in schools, in the workplace.
          The point I'm making is.. I betcha anything that the "We are a women's group, many of us are in minimum wage roles" will still be voting today for the "KFC for chickens" that is ushering & enforcing in this nonsense.

        2. not at all.. there's plenty of info out there by women's groups such as Kellie Jean Keen aka Posie Parker that have been banging on about the hypocrisy of Labour bints like Jess Phillips & the Ginger Growler.

          Labour activists have been pushing this Leftie nonsense for over a decade now, in schools, in the workplace.
          The point I'm making is.. I betcha anything that the "We are a women's group, many of us are in minimum wage roles" will still be voting today for the "KFC for chickens" that is ushering & enforcing in this nonsense.

  43. My Reform vote is in the ballot box,
    I expect on FB, I'll receive some hard knocks,
    But by next election, it will be the norm,
    For millions to go out and vote for Farage and Reform.
    While the cross gendered Lefties will be at home wearing frocks

  45. One of the benefits of not being a professional journalist is that I am allowed to comment on party political matters on polling day.

    Every morning I finally drag my creaking body out of bed without all the aches and pains all old people enjoy adding to their daily moans, at least able to stand up unaided, which is a blessing for anyone over fifty. Thoughts of all the things on my 'to do' list that I might finally tackle, or the stream of ideas to put among online friends, to vanish into the memory hole tomorrow, are distracted by the daily chore I must confront each day, and often during the day, of wiping an old man's bottom. Since retirement, this is my primary occupation. I was once asked at a job interview what gets me out of bed in the morning, and the correct answer is to prepare eagerly for a day's hard work. I would be lying if I said that, and almost certainly the true response would not get me the job.

    There was a piece on the radio about a terminal cancer sufferer confronting death, and the dread guilt of all those tears coming from loved ones. I am spared that guilt though. One aspect of divorce, not always considered by those who think this a great liberation for women and therefore a good thing and social justice, is that constantly I am reminded that for the last 33 years, three people who were once the dearest to me, would not care a jot if I were dead, and might even consider that a relief from an ongoing nuisance in their lives. Therefore to sing 'The Laughing Policeman' at my funeral might even get bums on seats there, when otherwise it might be just a council worker turning up to toss my remains in the skip.

    So we come to this election. I have decided to vote Liberal Democrat this time, for the first time since 2005. For all the guff spouted at this election, nearly all of it of no interest to me, a few things stuck out.

    Ever since I was once the youngest voter in a general election, I have always taken the process of democracy very seriously and carefully considered all the options presented to me, and make a judgement according to them, rather than out of prejudice or tribal loyalty. Over the years, I have voted for pretty well every party that has stood for election where I live.

    I read all six election communications carefully. Since there is no way my vote could or should unseat the incumbent Tory, who is facing the novelty of sitting in Parliament for the first time from the Opposition benches, I vote for the most impressive candidate regardless of party, I ignore the sales hype and the lies and the dodgy PR statistics, as well as the 'Motherhood & Apple Pie' platitudes that anyone can come out with, and concentrate on who they are and what they will do.

    Only three candidates had enough respect for me as a voter to do this, leaving it between the Tory, the Liberal Democrat and the Green. Of the three, the best offering came from the Liberal Democrat Dan Boatright-Greene, who explained how a military background gave him a culture of public service over personal or party advancement, and he therefore gets my vote.

    I read elsewhere that he was once homeless and understands what this is like. Normally this would be a positive, but I am mindful of the defections three years ago of four Lib Dem councillors to the Independents (including two former parliamentary candidates) when the local party voted to propose building social housing over land earmarked for a community nature reserve. I'm sorry, but sometimes there are more important things than housing economic migrants, or puffing out Persimmon's executive bonus pot.

    A friend of mine the other night was very dismissive of the Liberal Democrats. He was particularly appalled by Jo Swinson at some solemn religious event grinning at the camera in her thrusting manner when all around her were praying. I have no time for Swinson, and felt she was dealt due justice by being unseated last time.

    I think what can be said about her successor Sir Ed Davey (who on earth appoints these knights that turn the Round Table into a circus?) is that he a clown and proud of it. He once said that it a noble and ancient profession, and the court jester a valuable member of any royal court since there have been kings and queens. Clowns are supposed to be funny though, and I must say that Davey is as good at it as Theresa May is an elegant and graceful dancer. He is attempting to be like Boris, but with rather less panache.

    Nevertheless, he carries a serious message, and that contained in a very impressive party political, which showed him with his disabled son, giving over a large part of his life caring for someone whom many might regard as beyond care and fit only for an institution. One major issue is adult social care, how to do it and how to pay for it, and Sir Ed has more experience than most politicians of this very thing.

    By clowning around, he is telling the nation "always look on the bright side of life", and when confronting life's gristle, it is best to do so with a smile, even if Mr Potato Head's smile is bit wonky.

    1. Good for you, Jeremy. A considered decision. I would take a moment over Davey's status as a "clown", though. A proper clown I always think is the fool from King Lear. A person who reflects folly and dispenses insight, as you allude. More of a buffoon is Mr Davey, I'd say.

  46. "… Postal votes need tightening up…"

    Certainly do JB, I didn't get mine!

  47. Been to t'market. Busy but VERY cold wind making it very unpleasant. Then voted. What a sodding rigmarole. Hat off; glasses off – "It makes such a difference when trying to identify people". Notices all over the room about being welcome and how to be confident when voting… I ask you. So different from the old days – 20 years ago – when the bloke at the desk was Ted Fellowes, the Building Inspector. "Morning, Mr Thomas – all well with you. Extension still standing?"

      1. The old bat was the sort who would tell you, with a sickly smile on her face, "Oh, I am afraid Doctor is far too busy to see you this week…."

      1. And unfortunately Anne you're probably right.
        I expect that there will be a high percentage of fraud taking place today.

    1. I disagree, as the black and ME immigrant criminal community becomes more emboldened under Labour, the number of white victims will increase.

      1. Now I thought there were stats (ahem), sos…showing that black on black makes up the highest number of incidents?

        1. They do, as I pointed out.
          What I am suggesting is that under Labour criminals will likely be treated more leniently and as the diverse community gets away with more, what little constraint they have will be substantially reduced, and the proportions will change.
          Looting or shoplifting? Try and stop me if you don’t want a knife in the gut.
          Look at the USA, it’s coming here if we aren’t careful

          1. Prisons we have are currently full, probation services overloaded, do you think sosrabac that government of any stripe will improve matters? I don’t. Do you think any taxpayer will vote for extra taxes for any government that makes empty promises to improve matters? I don’t.

          2. Labour has already hinted that they want early release for prisoners to relieve over-crowding. It won’t improve the probation situation.
            That suggests more essentially unsupervised criminals on the streets.
            As to a government improving matters I don’t think so.
            Building more prisons and jailing people earlier in their criminal careers might help.
            If they have to go for early release the promise of the early time being doubled AND a separate but consecutive sentence for another crime might help.

            It will never pass, but I can’t help thinking that a public flogging at half time at football matches and being left sobbing at the exits for the public to see the outcome and humiliation might work. Allegedly, when the IoM did it and put them still crying on the next ferry out, nobody ever returned for a second dose of the medicine.

          3. Absent policies will only encourage crime, the obvious ones we all see when out and about. If we ever take on CBDC, financial crime likely to increase – although some say no, will decrease. From what I read (no direct experience) prison life is quite dysfunctional with drugs rife and numbers of inmates higher than can be safely accommodate. Probation service also struggling with large numbers of referrals. Perhaps return of the stocks and rotting vegetables might help (supermarkets assist here, they cob a lot of out of day veg & fruit). Never happen. Hadn’t heard the IoM episode, no sign of UK trial far as I know.

          5. Thanks, sos…have always tended not to be in favoured of corporal punishment, we had a bobby on the beat in my small village (talking 7 decades ago), the sight of him was sufficient for us all to behave. Now, things are done differently, I think differently, the past another country.

        2. The Civil Service is fighting tooth and nail not to release crime figures by race. We all know the reason why.

  49. An article in the Daily Torygaff detailing the poor state of the Royal Navy and a mention of who is partly responsible: A longish read but worth it.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/03/houthi-missile-strike-uk-warship-point-class-royal-navy/

    "Meanwhile the present Foreign Secretary, whose decisions as Prime Minister from 2010 onwards had much to do with us being in our current unfortunate position, is now lecturing other nations on strengthening their defences. The chutzpah is breathtaking".

    1. I shivered when I saw this comment .

      Peter Bennett
      4 MIN AGO
      How many Houthi cells have arrived here by rubber boat???!!

      Why did I shiver , because my early childhood years were spent in Africa , Sudan , Egypt, Nigeria .. they were harrowing times , riots , independence nonsense , Suez crisis etc.

      Parents then decided to say good bye to Britain and move to South Africa in 1967.

      I stayed in my lovely safe Britain , this Sceptered Isle .

      How naive was I , and I doubted the wisdom of my father who declared Harold Wilson was an idiot , the Labour party hadn't a clue about overseas politics .. ie Rhodesia and the rest , and the country would be damned by unions and internal divisions .

      Now I am in my seventies , how and why did politicians allow this rot to happen , our Lion of a country that once was admired , no longer , and our capital city reduced to a third world black hole and and the centre of a knife crime drug ridden thieving enclave .

      Government these days resembles a giant Ponzi scheme .. 650 + new MP's .. and a Labour government will relieve us all of our miserable savings and frugal lifestyles .. like a Madoff fraud ..

    2. I shivered when I saw this comment .

      Peter Bennett
      4 MIN AGO
      How many Houthi cells have arrived here by rubber boat???!!

      Why did I shiver , because my early childhood years were spent in Africa , Sudan , Egypt, Nigeria .. they were harrowing times , riots , independence nonsense , Suez crisis etc.

      Parents then decided to say good bye to Britain and move to South Africa in 1967.

      I stayed in my lovely safe Britain , this Sceptered Isle .

      How naive was I , and I doubted the wisdom of my father who declared Harold Wilson was an idiot , the Labour party hadn't a clue about overseas politics .. ie Rhodesia and the rest , and the country would be damned by unions and internal divisions .

      Now I am in my seventies , how and why did politicians allow this rot to happen , our Lion of a country that once was admired , no longer , and our capital city reduced to a third world black hole and and the centre of a knife crime drug ridden thieving enclave .

      Government these days resembles a giant Ponzi scheme .. 650 + new MP's .. and a Labour government will relieve us all of our miserable savings and frugal lifestyles .. like a Madoff fraud ..

    3. When Cameron was appointed, I think they had run out of talent. Cameron was singularly inept at negotiating terms with the EU, and his adventure in Libya didn't end terribly well either. Hague would have been better if the Tories had to go retro.

      An inspired choice I suggested a while back, but was never taken seriously, was Jacob Rees-Mogg. His classical training would have served us all well, since a lot of classical literature is about winning battles. The Right were talking of him to be a Chancellor, but I wouldn't trust him with a fiver. As Foreign Secretary though, he could beguile foreigners or nobble them with aplomb. Too late now though, he's likely to lose his seat.

          1. I used to know somebody who was at school with Hague. (In York, if I remember correctly) She said he was a prat even as a young teenager.

    4. Yo Ped

      I believe chains are being laid everywhere on the sea bed, so that the Torpoint Ferries can be brought into use as Active Service ships, for the RN.

      If left to have new ships built, they will need to have sails, not engines, as when they are completed in 2040, we will be called:

      The New Greenland, not the United Kingdom

  50. Very likely. Of course this does not affect you, but women might be interested in the fact that men are now allowed to hang out in the women’s loos in Tesco. Such trivialities do affect us.

    1. Any decent male should be outraged about the undermining of women's right to safety and a peaceful life free of scumbags and threats of violence.

      1. The invasion of women’s lavatories by men has been an increasing trend in my lifetime, even before the trans wave. They always get angry if asked to leave, and accuse the women of being unreasonable.
        On a cross Channel ferry two years ago, I went into the loos at the start of the crossing – there was a man in there – so I retreated. Went back near the end of the crossing thinking I really don’t want to stop at a service station for the loo…there was another man in the same women’s loos. I didn’t want to complain because the man only had to say that he identifies as a woman, and I’d be the bad guy.
        And that’s just inconvenience – danger of being attacked (in isolated public loos) is far worse.

        1. Yet, strangely, here in Norway the toilets are typically a vestibule with individual stalls, some with a male silhouette, some with a female one on the door. And there seems to be no fuss, no assaults, no problem.
          Is this issue a British thing, I wonder?

        2. I would have waited for him to come out and if he didn't appear in a reasonable amount of time report it to the purser. Hanging around in loos is importuning.

        3. Why didn't you say something like, "one of us is in the wrong place and it isn't me"?

          4. I don’t know. The local police held self defence lessons for women a while ago here. In my view, it’s going to be more necessary than ever in the near future.

    1. A distinct shortage of white knights, BB2.

      Even if my armour doesn't squeak, I'm now too old.

  52. Over the next 24 hours the British people must decide what kind of country they want to live in – and who is best placed to deliver it.

    It is a straight choice between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. Voting for any other party is a sideshow – especially Reform UK which will be lucky to return more than a single MP.

    Don’t be gulled into thinking your vote doesn’t count. The predicted Labour landslide is not assured.

    As our eight-page tactical voting pullout shows, small shifts could yet change the result in more than 130 constituencies. If 130,000 people switched their votes in the right seats, Sir Keir would be denied a majority.

    This is not a by-election, where voters can give the ruling party a bloody nose without any consequence. This is serious. It’s about who rules Britain. They must all use the power of their vote wisely. That means not only deciding who you want to be in charge, but also who you don’t.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13598541/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-election-future-country-not-past-major-issue-migration-tax-burden-Labour-make-things-worse.html

    I disagree re denying Starmer a majority.
    If he has to get into bed with Islamic parties or the Greens the trade offs will be even more horrendous than a Starmer government with a working majority.

    1. Yes, there is always the possibility of Starmer doing a Netanyahu on the country – they are both utterly lacking principles, but with an excess of self-advancement at all costs. I don't think though that any trade-offs with Galloway or the Greens would be any worse than if he had absolute power.

      I have just gone out to vote, and I have never seen it so busy. Witching hour for Tories is 11am, so this suggests that Dame Harriett is home and dry here, and may even get an increased majority. West Worcestershire is a political backwater at this election though.

      If turnout is any indication, I think we may be in for a shock and the Tories will do better than expected or deserved. The big winners may well be the Liberal Democrats, who are hoping to overtake the SNP and get back their Third Party slot at PMQs, and be a thorn in the side for Starmer, appealing to a conscience he simply does not have. Farage would be noisier though!

      1. I don't think Starmer is particularly egotistical. I don't think he knows what he wans. Perhaps not caring what happens as long as he gets paid is more appropriate.

        He's a lawyer, and approaches politics as one: he supports whichever client happens to be today's. He has no values, ideas or opinions of his own.

    2. Yes kiddie, it IS serious. You can't be allowed back in office. You can't be allowed to be the opposition, either. You need a drubbing you don't get up from. Your party is responsible for Labour getting in. You have done nothing but make everything worse. You will pay for that arrogance.

  58. Morning all. Rather nice day here in West Sussex, sunny and cool. Will, no doubt, warm up throughout the day.

    Dear sosraboc. I do like you, at least I hope that I make that clear when replying to your posts. We tend to be 99.9% of the time in agreement. But I cannot possibly agree with you that voting Tory would be useful. I think it would be a truly wasted vote. They are not going to win, not anywhere near it. On the other hand a vote for Reform strengthens the hand for all of those who see the obvious, that we need to reform the voting system of this country. As long as it remains as it is now, we will simply slide into greater disorder in a system that is on it last legs. The only vote that is worth anything is a vote for Reform because that is what is truly needed, reform of a system that is so obviously stagnant and that we will never get that from the usual suspects who do not represent us anyway.

    1. Thank you.

      I did not say vote Tory, nor did I directly suggest it would be useful.
      I have voted Reform myself, but being a postal vote it probably won't arrive in time.

      What I do suggest is that a Starmer government needing support from the minority left of centre parties/Muslim Labour would be much worse than a Starmer Govt with a working majority.

      As to reforming the voting system, the thought of almost certain left-wing green coalitions in perpetuity appals me.

      1. Good. I did think that you were implying that we vote Tory. Glad you voted Reform. I think they are going to have a greater impact than people expect. I expect at least a dozen seats. No doubt that is wildly inaccurate, the product of wishful thinking.

        1. It will be interesting.
          I too think they could do better than expected. However, the types of forum I frequent cannot be regarded as representative, so I’m crossing fingers but not holding breath.

      2. Reform may get a seat at the table, they may not….nevertheless keep voting with your conscience (my advice to myself). And Reform aren't going anywhere.

      3. Voting should be reformed in that universal franchise should be revoked. It is wrong that anyone and everyone has a say inn the running of the country when they take money out of it rather than pay for it. We should move to a customer/service basis.

        The vote is then earned through social good – providing for your neighbours, litter picking, graffiti cleaning and so on.

  59. SIR – When he was a teenager, our younger son, now in his mid-forties, worked in hospitality at Royal Ascot. The pay was abysmal but the tips were generous.

    A bottle of champagne was about £30. On a number of occasions he was given a £50 note and told to keep the change.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire.

    I also worked in Hospitality. In one job if i earned more than £32 a week i was subject to tax. Even if i only worked two days that week and only earned part of that amount £10 on top was taken from my wages as HMRC had estimated what my tips were. One condition of the job was i was not allowed to claim benefits. Not that there was any such thing as the top ups that people can now claim.

    No wonder so many don't work and the Gig economy and the black economy and the black market are so prevalent.

    2. I also worked in hospitality from 1980 onwards – we did outside catering for weddings, etc. Certainly saw how the other half lived. We occasionally had a bottle, very occasionally a tenner as a tip, more often a fiver or less. I never earned enough to pay tax until I worked full time, and kept on the catering job as well for another ten years.

      1. Before I started my nurse training , I decided to go for a summer job to earn money to buy my nursing books , clothes and save some money .

        My parents were spending three or four months in Tenby , on leave , and I managed to get a job, chambermaiding .. hard work , sand on carpets, bed making etc .. loads of time off and also waitressing , helping at the bar etc .. and living in the hotel !

        Pay was miserable but the tips were amazing .. so my summer season was fruitful and enjoyable .

        I even took part in an advert that involved being a passenger in an Aqua car .. shocking the holiday makers .. the driver drove the car into the sea and we sped off on the waves out to sea and back again , to great applause .

          3. No , in Tenby , South Wales .. my parents were on leave , their house had a tenant , so they decamped to Wales for a few months , and decided to earn some money to pay for my study books etc, and had some fun, many other students did the same , no such thing as bank of Mum and Dad in those days , we just got on with things !

    3. Reminds me of our Spanish neighbours in Laure. The elder son – mid-50s – was unemployed. I commented to his mum one day that I'd seen him workn for the local builder. "Of course he works," she replied, "He can't possibly manage on unemployment pay." !!

    1. Under Labour this will only get more prevalent. It is a sign of the decadence of our nation that plod no longer bother themselves with crime and instead pursue thought crime.

  63. PR has its problems, mostly a disconnect between the representative and the constituency, but at least you get close to the representation that matches the number of votes.
    Using the current system, in theory, you could get a 100% Labour victory if they got 50%+1 votes in every constituency – so, possibly, 650 people choose the government.

    1. That may be true, but PR has a nasty tendency to produce left of centre coalitions where legislation which does no good and can be harmful gets pushed through in the horse-trading.

  64. I'm wondering about the results in constituencies where the council officers 'forgot' to send out postal votes.
    Whatever the result it must be nul and void as an average of 20% of that constituency's electorate were disenfranchised.
    (And the cost of re-running the election in those places should come out of the council officers' pockets.)

    1. That was well practiced when the last London mayoral election took place.
      Most of the Jewish people in certain London areas didn’t even receive their ballot papers. Put down to an administration error. More lies.

  65. I'm wondering about the results in constituencies where the council officers 'forgot' to send out postal votes.
    Whatever the result it must be nul and void as an average of 20% of that constituency's electorate were disenfranchised.
    (And the cost of re-running the election in those places should come out of the council officers' pockets.)

    1. We are just about to sally forth with traditional dog and weapon (black ball-point pen) to do battle at the polling booth.

      Britain is self-loathing only by those in charge. Let us hope that things are changed today, and a new Reformation commences. Onwards!

      1. Just back from a walk to the polling station with twins and mad Harry! I look as though I’ve just hosed myself down but I met several friends and dog walkers on the way back through the field and Grandpa took the boys to the shop. Jelly babies for lunch today!
        I took my black pen too!

      2. There was boat in Falmouth Harbour called Sally Forth against whom we competed in regatta week. I always thought that was an excellent name for a boat!

        1. I remember a boat, tied up near Fishermans' Wharf In San Francisco that was named A Friggin' Queen.

        2. I remember a boat, tied up near Fishermans' Wharf In San Francisco that was named A Friggin' Queen.

        2. Sorry, ashes, I missed the point there, too early in the day for me! The weapon did try to crawl under the table and lick the officials (clever, these ball-points, y’know..)!

  68. Well – we've done the deed. It's a five mile round trip for us. We cancelled each other out – but at least it's two votes not for Labour. Now for another cup of coffee.

  69. As the majority believe we are going to have a Labour government i held my nose and voted Conservative. I know they are going to be defenestrated but Suella Braverman is my MP and she is the best constituency MP we have ever had.

    The reform chap although having lived in the area for a long time speaks of people as if we are all victims. True to some extent given the way we have been misgoverned for so long but i wanted positivity not more victimhood.

    Hopefully Farage will get in and give Labour hell at the dispatch box.

    1. I hope so. I think Reform voters will be disappointed either way, but that from almost nothing in a month to something is good. It shows a willingness to change. Farage is then talking about professionalising the party which is also good.

      1. If Reform manage a seat I'll be happy. If they manage five I'll be ecstatic. If they get a candidate at Westminster then I'll feel that I am at last represented. That's a massive change from the past couple of decades.

    2. Always vote for the quality representative if you can. There are so few worth it regrettably.

    3. Braverman is one of the few Real Tories in the Consocalist Party, so worth voting for. I would too, if I could.

    4. As I have been repeating time and again over these past weeks: vote for the person not the rosette.

      1. Her office did respond to me and when i questioned further i received Embossed house of commons … not sure what good it will do but she is here and Rishi without a satellite dish from a suburb of Southampton probably supports a team that would make Richard Snook aka ‘Wannafight’ have a heart attack. :@)

  71. Back from the polling station where Tory PPC, James Cracknell, was talking to a pair of mature ladies. Unlike the rude food delivery youth I didn't walk between the conversing people and took to the other side of the entry ramp. Cracknell, tall, athletic and attired in a dark blue tracksuit looked the part of the Olympic and World champion that he is. I also avoided him on the way out.

    Surprisingly, there was nobody from any party recording numbers.

    As instructed I took photographic evidence of identity and as advised, my polling card. The latter has my name and address clearly printed and I handed this to the lady checking ID, I also showed her my driving licence but she didn't like the plastic covering. I then showed her my bus pass, again under a plastic cover, and she was satisfied with this item. Next, after inspecting my 'papers', she asked me to confirm my address: rather tersely I asked her why what I had shown her wasn't sufficient. She grudgingly agreed that my 'papers' were in order and handed me the ballot slip on which I placed a large black cross with a broad tipped marker pen.

    I'm all in favour of ID being required when voting but why would I need to confirm my address after handing over my ballot card with my name and address clearly displayed and provided photographic evidence that confirms that I am the person presenting the evidence? The lady in front of me hadn't taken her polling card and she was asked to confirm her address, that I can understand. Robotic training?

    I'm turning into a tetchy old fellow!😎

    I hope that checking IDs is as robust in all areas of the UK as it is the Colchester constituency!

    1. It was quite robust at our little polling station in the community hall. There were two Poll Clerks – one, Martin, is our neighbour. The other was a sour-faced woman. We handed over our polling cards and passports together. She looked at John but she was looking at my passport……….. I said "That one's mine"……..she tried again. Anyway Martin asked us about the swifts and she moved on to the next one having asked if our address was correct.

    2. I almost told the old bat at our polling station that I had found a driving licence in the gutter and thought I'd try my luck….

      1. A thoroughly British impulse – good for.you. (i've learned to control it now, even when.asked such fatuous questions as "Do you have any bombs in your luggage?"… 🙄)

        1. Indeed; the attempt at humour can result in a world loa of embuggeration.

    3. Asking you to verbally state your address is a legal requirement even though they have it in front of them.

      1. You can suffer from dementia and still be eligible to vote. In some countries, you can even run for President.

        Best thing to say then is "I forget. Why am I here, and how do I get home?"

        1. P.S. Can any American here explain how to run for office without falling over?

        2. And you may ask yourself “where does that highway go to?”, and you may ask yourself “am I right or am I wrong?” and you may say to yourself “My God, what have I done?”

          Irish Joe has yet to reach the last of those.

        3. I'm dashing over to have my brother vote. We'll take him along and he'll read out his address and his voting card. Last time we went he had an awful tantrum as the man handed him a card instead of letting him take it but after bro explained we got there.

          That's actually a big step forward as being able to tell people why is part of his therapy.

          So we will go, he'll vote – no idea who for – and that'll be his adventure for the month.

          1. And fails miserably.

            Just look at Police Scotland and NHS Scotland, both incompetent (incontinent) failures.

        2. The lady who looked at my details is a friend of mine and I still had to produce my ID🤬

          2. We laughed about it Sue – I will see her again tomorrow when I collect my prescription 😘

      3. No mention of that requirement on my polling card, only photographic evidence. Small electronic devices being used here, no scrolling through the register to put a tick alongside my name. I’m not sure how ‘secret’ my vote remains when QR codes are being utilised.

        1. I was told at the polling station. Sue said it is different in Scotland. Perhaps some are more officious than others.

    4. The power has gone to the head of the ID checker.
      "I hope that checking IDs is as robust in all areas of the UK as it is the Colchester constituency!"
      We hope in vain. The dodgiest of them will have postal votes, for which no scrutiny is applied. Mister Mo uses his own version of his wives'/mother's/daughters' signatures, as he did when he first registered them.

    5. The power has gone to the head of the ID checker.
      "I hope that checking IDs is as robust in all areas of the UK as it is the Colchester constituency!"
      We hope in vain. The dodgiest of them will have postal votes, for which no scrutiny is applied. Mister Mo uses his own version of his wives'/mother's/daughters' signatures, as he did when he first registered them.

    7. Essex usually known for good humour, so a bit sad that. My experience quite the opposite. The pair behind the desk very good humoured and we had a good chat, but maybe it being so quiet there helped.

      Sounds like yours were miserable council apparatchiks parachuted in for the day.

      1. Our invigilators were fine.
        I complimented them on having sharpened pencils in the polling booths.
        The clerk laughed and said they liked to spoil us.

    8. I had to queue for entry to the portacabin (tiny compared to the Church Hall which used to be used). I produced polling card and driving licence and said my name. The diverse gentleman checking the list appeared to be having difficulty differentiating my name from my husband’s so needed help from his colleague 🙄

      1. What was the Musket Club building on St Michael’s/Montgomery estate.

        What I noticed as I walked to the polling station was the very neat grass verges and clipped shrubs within the boundaries of part of the estate that had been sold off and the foot high weeds and tufty grass outside of this small area. A man sitting astride his very powerful mower was cutting an area of weeds and grass adjacent to this neat area and he was leaving such a mess behind with grass and weed cuttings everywhere, including all over the paths. Reminiscent of what recently happened on Boadicea Way, council/contractor quality job.

    10. I didn't take my polling card (I'd mislaid it). I just gave part of my address to find the right table to get my ballot and then gave my full address to the woman with the list.

    1. He is an embarrassment to the Royal family and to this country. The steady stream of vindictive outpourings and outright lies from him and his controller wife have probably given the King more support and sympathy than he otherwise would have.

    2. He might have added that he was scarred for life by being born second. Just HOW unfair was that?

          1. The main ingredient in Worcestershire Sauce. Not a lot of people know that.

      2. It explains a great deal about my life.
        I could have been a contender if my self esteem hadn’t been wrecked by having to wear hand-me-downs, not to mention having to go to ballet class just because my elder sister did. I have been overcoming PTSD all my adult life.

        1. I wore hand-me-downs…….. but they were from neighbours, not elder sisters……..

          1. I wore things from the Army and Navy stores – I once went as a Japanese general

    3. Was Harry, born in 1984, ever subjected to the song 'Sing a Song of Sixpence', which would surely get banned today?

      Remind me what the black bird did…

      2. They couldn’t wait to poke fun at his freeze willy. https://nypost.com/2023/01/06/prince-harry-ripped-over-frostbitten-penis-bombshell/

        Prince Harry is being ridiculed online after revealing that he suffered a frostbitten “todger” during a 2011 North Pole trip — which made for a miserable time at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. His frosted phallus fiasco was one of many bombshells broken by Page Six after obtaining a copy of the Duke of Sussex’s much-hyped memoir “Spare” ahead of its official release on Jan. 10.

        “Upon arriving home I’d been horrified to discover that my nether regions were frost nipped,” the now-38-year-old ex-royal had described of the shrinkage-inducing saga, which transpired following a 200-mile Arctic charity walk in March 2011. The prince’s penile frostbite was reportedly so bad that he was still reeling while with his older brother at Westminster Abbey on the latter’s wedding day on April 29, 2011.

        Harry told his father, Prince Charles, and company about the “discomfort of my frost nipped ears and cheeks,” but remained mum on his painful South Pole, per the memoir. “While the ears and cheeks were already healing, the todger wasn’t,” lamented the pained prince, who promptly sought treatment following the ceremony.

        1. His claim that he supposedly only discovered the frozen end when he arrived home is unbelievable.

          2. There are those stories doing the rounds that the children aren't really theirs …… 🙂

          3. (Bit of a non-PC comment coming – anyone who is easily offended needs to scroll on)
            Maybe it did turn a bit black and that’s what attracted his ‘boss’ to him ……. After all, she is black, isn’t she? (When it suits)

    4. Oh Blimey! There are none so traumatised as those whose whole shtick depends on it.

    5. How can you tell it really is a genuine Harry memory?

      "You're" instead of "your"

      1. Perhaps they were paraphrasing from his book. I haven't read it…no spare time.

    1. Sigh! These days are behind me – the best I can hope for at my age is for it to be wiped.

    2. He does seem to be a bit of a brat, albeit somewhat entertaining to watch at times. I wonder what he is like at home and in class?

        1. it's his facial expressions which I find interesting. They, for the most part, are acceptable and not really poor behaviour. Same with him covering his ears when the fly pasts are right overhead.

    3. Now he'll to his psychiatrist
      His little psyche's queer
      But what he really needs
      Is a psmackbottomist, my dear

  74. Just spent 1½ hours up a ladder cutting back the jungle that was growing over the gutters into the roof. Gosh – wisteria does GROW fast. Two more lots to do – another day….

        1. Very sensible, she wouldn't want you falling on her, even the new lighter you.

  75. Well they could be hers………but I've seen it suggested that she was never pregnant.

    1. Some rumours even claim she had a hysterectomy when she was younger. Maybe that explains how she held her bump awkwardly…..

    2. A lot of DNA testing required not only for Harry's children but for his father too?

      1. I think Charles is Harry’s father – the older he gets the more he looks like Charles. Much more than William does, who is more like the Spencers.

  76. I think we will all be needing a stiff drink (or 3) by this time tomorrow.
    I'm not sure where I picked up the 3rd image, possibly from farcebook, or maybe from somebody here yesterday. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3fbc4e1947580c24a12affd0e892aca5e2d68f665d96c25821217f2bb3c61aff.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3882360d02da753306699170cea7d77f159eb1955eb9d07556878e072061a33.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad266116eafbbe2abc11a1edb9b762c4498caae7086bfb5dedf63728d37b4ba3.jpg

      1. Really? I quite liked her. She was the first MP to sack a head of department and boy, they didn't like it!

  78. Just come in from doing the dirty deed. The presiding officer tells me it's been a 16% turnout so far, but that it's early days.

    1. Indeed, James. Think it was '79, then husband strong socialist deliberately bunked off in our only car and came back late so I couldn't vote for MT's party. Didn't have a phone so couldn't organise a lift, small children finally in bed…dear readers, we divorced but at a later date…

        1. And kill everyone's desires and dreams, don't forget. Conformity, obedience and above all, The Party is the Socialist creed.

      2. Hmm, sounds like you might have done the right thing there, KJ. Hope you took a moment to kick him in the nads on your way out through the door.

        1. Metaphorically at that stage, James, but divorce followed and eventually new partner – just re-married after best part of four decades to swerve IHT which I understand the laws around that are about to change…doh….seriously, made no difference to us at all except a lovely champagne fuelled day 🙂

    2. We all voted together. Mongo and Oscar were very popular with the election staff.

      The Warqueen probably spoiled her ballot or voted raving loony (as they're all the same), I voted for Reform.

      1. Officialdom can be hard to crack, but taking a prop along, such as a dog or a pet ferret on a lead is always an ice breaker. I had time to relate the story of my ex father in law today, now long dead, who used to preside over a ward in Peterborough for many a decade, every election. He was a council office man and had a mischievous friend colleague who used always to turn up in disguise as a doddery old deaf bugger in a dirty old coat. He'd bumble around claiming not to have heard anyone and saying things in a loud voice such as, "What do I do? I want to vote for the nice Conservative man. I had him in for tea when he came round last week."

        1. Interesting. In the days when I had a dog – 1975-1991 – my late hound was NOT allowed to enter the polling station.

          3. Best way. Like with the exempt lanyards you can print off. Let’s face it the ones who are trouble are pretty obvious. Big teeth…no control. biting frenzy.

            If your dogs are relaxed whatever the breed there isn’t a problem.

            You don’t have a shaved head and tatts do you?

          4. Well, if you presented like that and touted a brace of chihauhuas i guess the punks would run scared

          5. Well, if you presented like that and touted a brace of chihauhuas i guess the punks would run scared

          7. Might still be a rule as far as I know. But then there are rules and then there are rules…

          8. The sour-faced woman here certainly applies as many rules as possible….

          10. Glad you said that, rather than me!!

            The pushy NoTTLadies will be after you!!

          11. No, heaven forfend. I’m sure the NoTTLadies are the very models of affability and accommodation.

          13. My dogs have always accompanied me to the polling station when I voted. Perhaps it depends on the polling station.

        2. Interesting. In the days when I had a dog – 1975-1991 – my late hound was NOT allowed to enter the polling station.

        3. I refer you to earlier posts where our peaceful friends are demanding we change our relationship with our pets, to suit their sensibilities. All in the name of tolerance and being kind, of course

          1. Yes, I did add my two ha’porth to that. Sectarianism is going to be quite sport for the next few years.

        4. When I lived in Seale, the polling station was a short walk up the hill to the Village Hall. One could easily waste half an hour or more, chatting to the officials, who were rather bored. An occasional neighbour or parishioner would turn up. A certain amount of ribbing would take place. "He said he was who?"…

          Now, my polling station is a three mile round trip on foot. Which is fine, for those with feet. So – I have a postal vote, and have used it. But I feel somewhat detached. Local buses run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, which doesn't help at all. Incidentally. the postal vote dates from when Guildford BC moved the Seale polling station to The Sands – the next village – since there was a prior booking in the Village Hall. Deffo no public transport there… 😕

          1. Always been a problem, mobility. Do the activists still offer you transport to the station if you promise to vote for them? My old mum was a terror for that. Every canvasser that came to the door she used to tell them she’d love to vote but had no transport. It was the 1960s so that’d be true. First one who said yes she’d promise to vote for their party. Never actually did, so she said. Always voted Labour I think until late seventies where her opinion was, ‘unions have too much power, so I’ve changed to Conservative now’.

          2. Being fiercely independent, I would have politely declined. But this time, the only canvasser was a Lib Dem. Having given him a few home truths, transport was unlikely.

          3. Lib Dems are everywhere around here. The only counter on the door was a LD
            He wanted my polling reg number naturally but I just told him straight that I would be voting Reform. Conversation snuffed out.

          4. The only counter on our door was LD. I ignored her and walked straight past. A woman went up to her and showed her polling card. Presumably one of the indoctrinated.

          5. Inevitably.

            I went out twice in the car today, about an hour between journeys. Both times the same two canvassers scurrying around the same village next to mine. He a frightened looking caricature of the breed. She a bossy looking type still wearing face knickers despite the Plandemic being over for years now and a very pleasant wind cleansing the air. I know I’m biased, but… They wonder why you cannot trust these people on sight.

          6. One of our few protections from complete authoritarianism is the secret ballot. Why didn't you just tell them to FO?

          7. Because I took great pleasure in watching that look of disappointment spreading slowly across his visog.
            😁

      2. Kadi got lots of admiring remarks. He took it all in his stride. When the woman at the desk asked if I'd got ID and I replied, "oh yes!" She said, "I know".

    3. Wow. I reckon 35% will be good. The country will be ruined for want of people voting

      1. I suspect round here it’ll be low, but elsewhere I don’t know. It’s 17:00 – 20:00 on election day when you get a truer picture.

        1. When I went about lunchtime it wasn't packed but there was a steady trickle.

  79. 3892967+ up ticks,

    Health & warning Alert,

    If you must continue to feed the political farce may one suggest to protect the children at least, you take a crash course in turning ploughshares into weapons of protection against what we are about to receive.

    AMEN.

    1. I have been thinking for a while it is time to tool up.

  80. Now it's summer, the rain is sheeting down. It's so grey and de-energising, can't be arsed to go and do anything, even under cover.

        1. Oh Labour will be worse. I still believe they'll do so much damage we're forced to the IMF who'll in turn force us back into the EU. The state will then smugly say 'righty, no more democracy for you'.

          Every problem this country has is the fault of big government. It's all easily avoidable. The state just seems to want the nation to decline.

  85. Good day to you all. keep your chins up whatever happens. We need to keep on fighting for freedom, under threat now as never before from our own government, be it Labour or Tory.

    I'm sending out my first Free Speech Backlash Newsletter (or trying to, who knew being an editor (me!) was such hard work?) and my lad is away at the moment so I'm on my jack, though reinforcements are on the way. Anyhow, if you are on the mailing list can you let me know if you get it please, as follows:

    Good day to you all. Today is apocalypse day, as you know, the apocalypse caused by the last 14 years of Tory betrayal and woke, globalist misrule. But there might just be a silver lining to give us hope. Survation says that Reform are likely to get 13 MPs into parliament, on a 17% share of the vote. I reckon they’ll do better, at about 20%. The treacherous Tories might be reduced to 64 seats, down from 349 at the last election when many fell for their pretence at being a conservation and patriotic party. And the sad state of our democracy is likely to be further exposed with Labour getting a landslide on just 37% of the vote, down from 40% under Corbyn. And, shamefully, the useless LibDems seem set to get sixty (60) seats on a mere 12% of the popular vote.
    Come and join the debate at Free Speech Backlash (freespeechbacklash.com), and look out later today from another superb piece from Paul Sutton. For me, 13 reform seats is a very good start. What do you think? See you soon.

    1. I see the price of 7 or more Reform MPs at Oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/reform-party-seats is evens. I'd be very pleased with lucky 13.

    2. Hi Tom. Perhaps I'm not trying hard enough, but "newsletter" and "Mailing list" return zilch, using the Search function on your site. Early days, I know. Keep up the good work…

      1. Thanks. The newsletter was sent out at 16.09. I’d forgotten that I’d put myself on this list, but I got it. Hopeless ‘editor’ that I am, I don’t now know how you would sign up for it. More research…………..

          1. The problem is me Geoff. I’m not a natural office person and am still in awe of the work my lad did, and too dozy to fully understand it all yet.

          2. Actually, Tom, “your lad” has worked bloody wonders. The site appears to me to be more professional than many established ones. TCW and Daily Sceptic included. But you’ll get to grips with it. Rocket science it is not…

  86. Taking a break from ladder work – glanced at paper from earlier this week…WTF was Failed Fishi DOING allowing himself to appear on ITV with "Britain's Most Tattooed Woman"?

    Why did his CCO minders not stop him?

    He really is a completely useless idiot.

    1. Probably a misguided attempt to make himself look comparatively decent, clean-cut and normal.

    2. He just wants to make certain he won't continuing as PM, his job here is done.

  87. Afternoon all,

    What brief note would you like to leave for whoever becomes Chief Secretary to the Treasury in our next Government?

    Here's an example of the kind of appropriate format:

    https://www.theguardian.com…

    1. "You'll find the magic money tree on the log pile, the leaves are on the compost"

    1. Very true but Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain lived from 1835 to 1910 and universal suffrage in the USA dates from 1919 so a helluva lot of people weren't allowed to do it anyway!

      1. If you like continuity, Mark Twain introduced a young Winston S Churchill to an audience in New York city, circa November 1900.

  90. Well Mrs smileymiley & I had an enjoyable time at Burghley House this morning, a lovely full English breakfast with a walk around the gardens.
    Back home & walked up to our Polling Station in the village, had to join a queue! With one forming behind us too… never known it before.
    We voted for Reform, I hope that those in the queue did the same 👍

    2. Were the rotors aerofoil? Didn't look that way.
      Nothing to stop counter-rotation of the body.
      I don't think Sikorsky or Eurocopter need fear the competition!

      1. no way of altering the pitch via a cyclic control – I think he made it as a vibrator for the missus

      1. One Nottler’s suggestion that the home made chopper had been designed as a vibrator suggests that a different sort of elevation had been in mind.

  92. En-route to the polling station this morning, a horse drawn hearse passed by me on Shepherd's Bush Green. Glass carriage carrying a coffin, appropriately kitted out driver and two lovely black horses with plumes. They weren't accompanied by a funeral procession so I assumed it was symbolic.

    2. We saw one like that some time ago in Oxford when we were going to the JR hospital. Maybe they have to train the horses in traffic conditions.

    3. Very popular in this part of Wales, particularly amongst the non-mobile travelling community, for whom whole towns are shut down in order to enable the processions.

  94. "A woman with terminal breast cancer has been convicted of not paying for a TV licence in the latest outrage from Britain’s controversial fast-track courts.

    The 50-year-old mother told a TV Licensing inspector on her doorstep that she had been diagnosed with cancer. And in a heartbreaking handwritten letter to the court, she wrote: “I have been very stressed and depressed. I’m currently having on-going treatment for terminal cancer.

    But after the Evening Standard highlighted her case, TV Licensing issued an apology, admitted that she should never have been taken to court, and vowed to have the conviction overturned."

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/single-justice-procedure-fast-track-courts-tv-licence-prosecutions-b1168599.html

    Why did they only realise this once it had been broadcast in the paper?

      1. In the article, it's reported that she told them on her doorstep. But nobody is allowed to use discretion, seems the inspectors were Crapita people, so allowed even less than zero discretion.
        Apparently, a magistrate can sit alone and hand down criminal sentences based on written evidence alone. Since when?

      2. Given they've 'opened an investigation' into us and yet can't seem to bother naming the residents from the electoral role tv licencing are just salesmen.

        1. I've had about four investigation started letters sent to the Occupier..
          I'm beginning to think my home is the most investigated in the uk. I had a so called inspector visit about four years ago, and he seemed to agree with me that tv was extremely boring and not worth watching. And so it goes on.

        2. Opened an investigation? How dare they? I would seriously think about suing the perverts for harassment.

      3. They always pick on women because they know they can physically push past them to get evidence that there's a TV on the property. She should have just thrown the toxic thing out then she needn't have bothered with a licence!

        1. Having a TV is not an infringement of the licence – it's using it to watch live television.

          1. Don't let them in. Don't sign anything. Don't speak to them except to order them off your property. It's a pantomime of officiousness. It is legal to own a TV and watch Netflix or any 'other channel which streams anything but live tv programmes. You can't watch the official designated catch up channel either. Can't remember its name: i something? Do not answer questions. They get paid to get you to sign papers to incriminate you. Just write to them (can be done online) saying you do not watch live tv. They will send a letter once a year and write back telling them each time that you do not watch live tv. I usually write a couple of ranty paragraphs insulting their output but that is by the by. Do not be duped by their officious sounding letters or their nitwits that they may or may not send round. How they are allowed to send such letters or send round their fools beats me. What a farce. I tell them each year that they should be paying me to watch their depravity and to listen to their outright lies. What an outfit. I think it the Jews who call the TV a sewer which runs through the living room. They've got that right.

          2. They do not have statutory right of entry so there is no need to let them in.

  95. I'm not thinking about any of it, not listening to the news, and I shan't read the papers tomorrow, I cannot stomach Labour's smug faces.

  96. From Kessler's evening newsletter from the Evening Standard.

    I suspect he's correct, but I would love this smug left-wing bastard to wake up to a hung parliament where Reform are the third largest party behind Labour and the Tories and the rest don't have enough votes to form a government with Starmer.

    Alternatively, you could just go to sleep at a reasonable hour and wake up to discover whether Keir Starmer's majority is visible from space or merely quite large.

  97. I don't know the rules re Presidential pardons regarding family members, but Harris might be able to for Hunter.

    Perhaps that might persuade Joe to stand down.

  98. A premier Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,111 3/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 1,111 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
      🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Me too.

      Wordle 1,111 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. I hate you all! signed, Bogey Boy….

      Wordle 1,111 5/6

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

      1. Be careful lacoste, the bogey twins will get you one day

        Wordle 1,111 5/6

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

        1. Well said, Rich – dont f*ck with the bogey boys – they’ll always disappoint you!

  99. All those who did not get their postal votes should demand a reduction in council tax.

    1. Or get themselves to the polling station and show their ID. There'll be some who genuinely can't but the majority of those with a legitimate right to vote almost certainly could.

        1. When MB and I were at the polling station, a woman brought in two – presumably completed – postal votes in their envelopes. She had to fill in a form for them to be accepted by the clerks.

  100. Sorry to trouble you again folks, has anyone who signed up the the Free Speech Backlash Newsletter received the one sent out an hour ago?

    Freespeechbacklash.com.

      2. You scroll down to Donations right at the bottom, and click donate, which takes you to our paypal page, and then just do a normal transaction. Hope that helps. Donations are, of course, welcome as I do have running costs, but comments and participation are at least as valuable. Takk for gaven. My second foreign port when I went to sea was Narvik (iron ore) and went back several times on that ship. I got quite friendly with a local lass. who taught me a bit of Scandivanian. Actually, we almost spoke the same language. If I said ‘am gan hyem to the bairns’ she fully understand. And I hope she gave me what my memory tells me she did.

          1. Honestly Herr Oberst, it’s comments like that which give me the encouragement to battle on.

    3. You're not troubling anyone Mr Armstrong, you share comraderie here and I know you've your own site to build and need to drum up trade but you are amongst friends and have been for many months.

      1. Kind words AaM, and very much appreciated. Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing when I signed on to this ship.

        1. Margaret Thatcher said something about the entrepreneurism of the British spirit, British are capable of great things when they have the freedom to grow and free of the state.

    2. "Australia's Human Rights Commission prohibits lesbians from holding female-only events on the grounds that it discriminates against men who identify as female."

      No further comment necessary.

    3. " A poll from 2021 determined that almost 40 per cent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 now identify as LGBTQ. Given the vast majority identifying as such do so as ‘trans’, ‘nonbinary’ and ‘queer’, this means it is statistically certain that gay people are now the minority in this coalition."

      One or two might think 'Serves the bu@@ers right!'

    4. As well as being fast-tracked up the police ranks, amongst other public sector employment, it would appear.

  102. Spekkie article.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-problem-with-outdated-commonwealth-voting-rights/

    The problem with outdated Commonwealth voting rights

    4 July 2024, 11:16am

    "It’s time to decolonise Britain. And no, I’m not talking about tearing down statues of Victorian imperialists, or running roughshod over the school curriculum with self-flagellating historical revisionism. Instead, I’m talking about the fact that more than two billion people worldwide have the automatic right to vote in British elections, thanks to an archaic feature of our post-colonial citizenship laws.

    Ludicrous as this might sound, Commonwealth citizens – that is, citizens of any of the Commonwealth’s 56 member states – enjoy automatic voting rights in the UK, whatever their reason for settlement in the UK and regardless of their intention to seek citizenship. When the ballots are finally tallied at this year’s election, hundreds of thousands – potentially millions – of foreign citizens will have participated, diluting the democratic rights of British subjects in the process.

    The reason for this absurd loophole lies not in national masochism, but in the messy and asymmetric end of Britain’s empire. Before the second world war, residents of Britain’s overseas dominions were legally British subjects, enjoying the same rights as those born in the home islands. But, as global realities shifted post-war, those dominions – reconstituted as ‘the Commonwealth’ in 1947 – began to drift away from the mother country, creating a need to reform citizenship rules.

    In 1948, the British Nationality Act drew a distinction between British subjects and Commonwealth citizens, but still afforded generous rights to the latter group, including the automatic right to vote and settle in the UK. At the time, Britain enjoyed close cultural, political, and economic ties with its former dominions, such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The number of Commonwealth citizens living in the UK was small, and most of those citizens shared close ties of culture and kinship with their British neighbours; allowing them to participate in British elections was a low-impact way of ensuring the continued cohesion of the post-war Anglosphere.

    More than seven decades on, this post-colonial hangover remains, preserved by a mixture of inertia and sentimentality. After decades spent tethered to Brussels, Britain has deemphasised its Commonwealth ties. The old club has changed shape dramatically since its inception, growing from a small club of settler colonies into a sprawling international community of fifty-six states, some of which were never colonised by Britain at all. The cultural ties are now thinner, the number of Commonwealth citizens far larger, and yet governments of both parties have refused to review these rules. For a certain sort of Briton, our fraying ties to the Commonwealth represent a valuable connection to the glorious past, which ought to be maintained regardless of changing global realities.

    Only a handful of small Caribbean states, including Jamaica and Antigua, retain automatic suffrage for Commonwealth citizens. In New Zealand, Commonwealth citizens lost the automatic right to vote in 1975 and in Australia, the right was rescinded in 1984. In countries like India and Nigeria, Commonwealth citizens never enjoyed special suffrage rights. Amongst large Commonwealth states, Britain is the outlier in extending suffrage rights to all Commonwealth citizens.

    At a fundamental level, the right to vote enables those with a stake in society to have an influence over how their society is run. Democracy functions best when predicated on a high-trust society, in which participants share some degree of cultural and ethical commonality. When we extend that right to people who come to this country, we should do so carefully, in the knowledge we are giving them a stake in how our society is run – extend that right too widely, and we risk undermining those common touchstones that make British democracy so successful.

    In the face of historically unprecedented mass migration, much of which originates from Commonwealth countries such as India, Nigeria, and Bangladesh, continuing to allow Commonwealth citizens to vote risks upsetting the delicate balance of British democracy and enfranchising those with neither a stake nor an interest in the success of our society.

    What’s more, we risk adding fuel to the growing fire of sectarian political campaigning, in which candidates appeal directly to voters from particular ethnic or religious backgrounds. This year’s general election has seen the emergence of Muslim advocacy groups, Hindu and Sikh manifestos, and an explicitly Yoruba political party in south London. Introducing hundreds of thousands of new voters a year, most of them culturally distinct from the British mainstream, is likely to exacerbate this problem, turning our politics into a zero-sum competition between different identity groups.

    Forget Labour’s plans for votes at sixteen – there’s a far bigger suffrage scandal already underway. We simply can’t afford to let post-imperial nostalgia about our Commonwealth compatriots cloud our judgment. At a time when Britain is already struggling under the enormous pressure of sectarian voting, it’s time to end the scandal of Commonwealth citizen suffrage once and for all."

  103. Election news..
    turnout much higher than expected.
    Labour suffering from complacency.
    Polling data lagging by 7 days.
    Reform tops 10 million threshold.
    Farage is PM, at 10pm exit poll.
    outbreak of stroppy flounces within BBC & C4 studios.

      1. Luvvit. One of the most interesting musicians/singer/songwriters ever. I love the way that all his songs are through composed and not formulaic. And I love the way he sings them, in his beautiful and unique voice without a single nod to fashion, from the heart. Thank you , Rastus

        1. In Dreams, my favourite Roy Orbison single is an incedible song on so many levels. His vocal range is astounding. The second half of the song features each line being in a higher key than the previous. This is repeated around ten times giving the finale an almost falsetto quality.

          Elvis Presley considered Roy Orbison to be a much better singer that himself.

      2. Love the Big O! I'm a big fan of the Traveling Wilburys also, what a great line-up!!

        1. So am I a fan of the Traveling Wilburys, and if she is still looking into Nottl, so was Plum Tart , who we all miss dreadfully, she was around on this forum for years , but succumbed badly to Covid I believe .

  104. A cynic writes: How many ballot papers where the Reform candidate was voted for – will find their way on to the "Spoilt papers" pile…..

    Just pondering………………………..

    1. In theory, all spoilt papers should be inspected by the candidates or their agents and the decision of the returning officer agreed.

  105. I think we all need a little light relief from the looming doom. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6ccf75709fa383518b762c25099948b60896d379e68d3cde695939f5e50cb37.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2bb7387a00601cfccf77fdee956344a57f22a3a9a9e15cb35bafa653282f444.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5cec035c3f71292a673763dcda67069e77fced6875b5444783f67c56633e1a07.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/093260aef1858188e9c41869f68313c58055dd527ada3a35f460d35284e265c3.jpg

    2. They're fantastic jokes, thanks. Couple of glasses of wine and they are the funniest things ever.

  107. Right – that's me gone for this day of several halves.

    A bit sunny – then very cloudy – sunny – OLD – etc etc repeat… Managed useful ladder work – My thoughts and prayers (another ghastly modern cliché) are with ME – hoping that (a) it won't rain overnight and (b) it will be dry up to noon – so I can complete the gutter clearance and removal of jungle growth.

    A funeral at .1.30 – a lady from a family of 12 (none of whom could read nor write) who married a village boy in 1952. After serving in Korea, Billy became an ace woodworker, builder, real gent. He could do anything except electrics. "They are a killer," he told me!!

    I was abroad when he died. The MR recalls that our little church (which he never attended) was so full that 40 or 50 mourners stood in the churchyard. He built his own house by demolishing an old cottage, spending six months to clean the bricks ("They don't come cheap, you know…").

    Long after Billy's death. his widow went quite round the bend but "sochul services" did bugger all – because "She owned her own house". Neighbours would find her in her nightdress a mile down the road…..on a wet night, bare foot. "Nope, sorry(!!!) Nothing we can offer"…..a bastard, illiterate spokescreature for Norfolk County Council said…

    So – that's my morning taken care of.

    Have a jolly evening – DON'T FORGET to vote….Reform.

    A demain – on espère.

      1. Sadly, ladders don't work with prosthetic legs*. Neither do organ pedals.

        *I have had some success with two ladders, side by side, the problem being that the suspension sleeve limits the knee movement.

    2. I did manage to cut both lawns before it started to rain (again). That scuppered my plan to relax on the lounger with a large Pimms and admire my handiwork.

  109. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn09xn9je7lt

    "Why is it all about dogs at polling stations today?
    published at 18:01
    18:01
    It's been a day (and a page) filled with a variety of animals sitting, standing or slithering outside polling stations around the country.

    But why?

    It's because our coverage is restricted while voting takes place, usually to uncontroversial factual accounts like what's the weather's doing and, of course, pictures of dogs at polling stations. Anyway, here's a picture of Nigel Farage kicking a dog."


    1. It's just confirmation of Nigel's assessment that previous governments have sent the country to the dogs.

      "Where's you lead?"

      1. It could be a response to muslims being bussed in to vote and Dolly Chichuahahahaha holding fort. We have gone to the dogs.

  110. I wonder if Plod will be on special alert tonight. I can envisage enraged Labour supporters attacking successful Reform candidates, lined up at the front of the stage, right arms outstretched, first finger extended, shouting 'Fascist! Fascist! Fascist!' in that peaceful and tolerant manner so typical of the respectful and democratic Left.

    If it does happen, you know how the BBC will report it…

      1. "A Reform candidate was seriously injured when fighting broke out between supporters of the far-right party and Labour members."

  111. Evening, all. If the Con party is reeling it has no one but itself to blame. I went out to vote – unlike a woman down the south of the County, I went on foot, rather than on a Connemara (I have given up riding for the time being), but I took Kadi with me and unlike all the pooches shown in the local rag, he didn't have to wait outside. He came in and was admired.

    Like the ancient Chinese curse; we live in interesting times.

    1. We've lived in interesting times for at least ten years, Conners. I'd quite like to return to boring times, but there's fat chance of that…

        1. Not much different from the 4th July then apart from the party welcoming them.

        2. Kier's song"

          Blow the wind Starmmerly, Starmmerly. Starmmerly
          Blow the wind south O'er the once blue seats
          Blow the wind Starmmerly, Starmmerly. Starmmerly
          Blow bonnie breeze my voters to me and bring them to me
          They told me last night there were Ribs in the offing
          and I hurried down to the deep rolling sea
          But my eye could not see it wherever might be it
          The Lifeboat that is baring my Voters to me

          Rayner's response…

          Dance to thy daddy, my little laddie
          Dance to thy daddy, to thy mammy sing;
          Thou shalt have a Rishy on a little dishy,
          Thou shalt have a Rishy when the vote comes in.

          2. They may be the first two items but I’m certain they won’t be the last things spoilt by Labour!

        3. They'll simply come over in the Eurostar. There will be one every five minutes. There will be no more boats. The left will be able to sleep easy in their beds at night, knowing no more migrants will be facing perilous storm-tossed seas.

  112. Not am i not able to respond to comments i am also having emails mirrored back at me. I

      1. I gave in and lit the Rayburn again. The year is half over and I'm still having to have the central heating on!

      2. I lit mine when I got back from the gig – at least I can turn off the heating when it's lit

  115. Goodnight everyone. I have my mourning clothes ready to put on in the morning. R.I.P. Great Britain.

  116. Well I cast my ballot today with a clear conscience. I voted for freedom and not further enslavement. Hope you did too!

  119. Utterly off topic.
    We have what they call night markets, Marchés Nocturne, where stall holders sell food and drink and there is usually entertainment.
    The local fete committee sets up the tables chairs etc etc.
    There is no charge for entry.
    The stall holders are charged to attend by the village, so they need to sell their products.
    I get very annoyed by the people who bring their own wine, water, bread etc. saving perhaps a few euros, if that, but their refusal to support the local traders threatens the whole market.
    Selfish, penny pinching, bastards.
    Tonight we had the President of the local committee explaining just that, and moving from table to table doing so.
    It was interesting, yet shaming, that he was concentrating on the British attendees.
    I was dismayed to see that despite his pleas there were Brits sneaking bottles and baguettes from their panniers.

    And no doubt they will be the first to complain when the markets die.

    2. It's like the campervans (spit spit) that come up to the Highlands, they bring their own food and park in laybys – they contribute nothing to the economy and even less to road safety when they crawl along holding up local traffic with their ignorance of how to drive on single track roads. A pox on them.

    1. I love the serenity one.

      The original is probably my favourite prayer (if one can have such a thing).

      1. One of my favourites too, but my problem is finding the wisdom to know the difference 😄!

  121. You wonder why they go if they are not prepared to buy the products on offer. They could have their own wine and food at home.

    1. They buy the "mains" but the marginal bits and pieces are what the traders rely on, particularly wine, side dishes and bottled waters etc.

  124. Avoid ITV'S live election coverage. Wee Krankie is one of the guests.

  125. Away from all the wall-to-wall election coverage. Lovely touch at Wimbledon this evening when Sue Barker came back to do the post-match interview with Andy Murray after his (losing) farewell doubles match with his brother. It was very moving and a reminder too, of just how good she was and a sadly now bygone era.

    1. Dont! You'll miss all the… you'll miss all the…….errrr G'night Bob….

  127. Mainly tourists to be fair, but lots who claim to live here, and in my view should know better

    2. My great hope is that all Reform voters told the pollsters that they had voted Labour or Conservative.

    3. I'm waiting for the total number of votes per party. I'm hoping for 5 million plus for Reform.

    2. I didn't expect them to win in a million years but I really hoped they'd be the official opposition.

      3. If they get 13 that's "seismic", as no doubt the commentariat will be parroting by lunchtime tomorrow. As for official Opposition, who cares? They'll be the actual opposition on those numbers.

        1. In New York Rudi Giuliani stood several times and was defeated time and again as the place deteriorated and businesses left under the governing Democrats.

          The question then in New York as now in the UK was “is it bad enough yet?” We are mostly in sync with the US and my own personal view is that we are in reality on the cusp of change.

          We are living in North Essex now within the Braintree constituency whereas when we moved here 31 years ago the constituency was Saffron Walden and our MP Sir Nicholas Hazelhurst, a Tory grandee.

          Since then we have seen boundary changes, disposed of a pornographic MP Brooks Newmark since when we have been stuck with James Cleverly, perhaps the most inappropriately named MP as he is as thick as two short planks bolted together with the bolts staggered on line.

          I retain great hope that Cleverly will be deposed this time around by an excellent Reform Party candidate.

          Boundary changes may have altered my equation but time will tell. Almost everyone around this part of Essex voted demonstrably for Brexit so I remain hopeful.

          1. I think the only real message is that Starmer stands with a vast majority but no love. I just read that he was returned with a reduced majority. Cleverly regrettably reelected in Braintree did I read?

            I went to bed around 1.30 so missed it all, but what struck me was the blind, out of touch talk from both Lab and Con. It’ll definitely get worse for a while; however, they must be very disappointed that Farage was elected.

      1. I'm hopeful that it will, in fact, be better than that – 'Shy Reform voters' ??

  131. I’m a bottle of champagne down and a bottle of rose Prosecco too. Well. Might as well go down with the ship.

    2. I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy… (sorry)….

      1. It was, to my memory, "I'd rather a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.", which just has a better rhythm.

    1. I remember when this song came out. I was a sixteen year old schoolboy. Lesley Gore was a couple of months older than I was but she looked very much older than the 17 years she was in this video clip.

    2. Starmer will be the cause of some tears, Belle, I'm just happy (touch wood) that Reform looks like they'll have a voice in Parliament.

  136. I am waiting to hear the total votes cast for each party. If it turns out that once again more people voted for Farage's party than for the Lib/Dems and the SNP combined (as happened in 2015) then this will help Farage's campaign for a Reformed voting system.

    2. I wish you were right, Rastus, but I fear you are wrong. If you were a Labour MP, would you want to change the system which has just given you power?

      1. You are correct – that is the key problem.

        For many years the LIb/Dems were all in favour of PR but they are less keen on it now that there is another party with more support and fewer seats than they have. And of course neither the Conservatives nor Labour want PR.

        But the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib/Dems wanted to stay in the EU but Farage got us the referendum and Brexit followed. If Farage could get that against all the odds then he may be able to get us PR.

    3. I think there's a good chance that Reform will have more votes than those two parties combined, with just a fifth of the resulting MPs.

  137. From X:
    "Exit polls are only taken from 130 of 40,000 polling stations.
    Anyone remember the referendum exit polls?"

    Edit: 5 hours later, I am awake and cannot get back to sleep, so here I am – I now have a vague recollection that there was to be no exit poll in the 2016 Referendum – the only time in recent years.

    1. I vaguely remember that they predicted Remain to win, but I can't think by what margin. Farage was conceding defeat at 1 a.m. I recall too.

      i was watching a little figure showing in the background screen marking live percentage changes as results came in. I really couldn't see why the Beeboids presenting it were so sure the exit polls were correct if you watched that figure I decided on bed about 01:30 convinced Leave was going to win, based on that.

      I'm not even bothering tonight. I'm watching Moulin Rouge on the telly and just dipping into the news occasionally.

  138. Houghton and Sunderland South have returned first, in the usual race. Labour 1st, Conservative 3rd and Reform 2nd.

    Interesting.

    1. I had a small hope that this one might return a surprise but no: Lab 1,655 more than Reform and Con combined but only 51% t/o.

      1. It’s hard for a new party to break in. The interesting thing is the many seats where Reform came second. That’s their work for the next five years frankly, if Labour actually manage to last that long, that is.

  139. Ok have demolished half a packet of chocolate biscuits.

    Tomorrow we go to Southampton to sort out the house we have just bought (completed today) out of my pension for our two children. The thinking is, give them their “inheritance” whilst they can benefit from it. With nothing (probably) to follow. I wasn’t keen on raiding my pension fund, but reckon one of the first things Liebour will do is raid private pensions again. So i spent all year getting my TFLS (tax free lump sum) out to effect this transaction.

    The only problem: I am the youngest of four (2 cousins, one brother) and i was obviously and inevitably at the end of the food chain vis a vis property and possessions passed down; so although i have structured it that my (older) daughter owns the place and she owes her (younger) sibling half the value, I lost out in a similar arrangement back in 1988/89 to my brothet who got his hands on the money 18 months earlier and then property prices doubled. I don’t mind: I’d rather be me, and most people get nothing so it’s churlish to complain. But in today’s parlance, i worry about ”equity” for my son.

  142. Going off grid. We will see re the future. Theoretically i will work till April 2027 when i hit 60 but i am prepared to bale earlier if taxation becomes too much (bearing in mind i am a 60%/45% tax payer). Making plans tonight to sell up; obvs. we have the children to consider.

    PS younger son has just come home and announced all his “luxury belief” friends have voted Liebour (how edgy!). He is still of the belief Reform are “racist”; i do my nest to dispel this.

    1. It's difficult to talk politics to your kids. I'm still hurting from explaining things to my NHS daughter last week.

  145. Another day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless all you Gentlefolk. If we are spared! Bis morgen früh.

  146. How do these failed politicians manage to find so many vacant seats in the House of Lords for so many disreputable colleagues of theirs. Are the numbers unrestricted?

    Time to bring down that particular pack of cards.

  148. It hurts to watch the BBC and GB News coverage of the GE. I don't watch either and I'm actually feeling a bit sick just listening to their ghastly self-serving interpretations of the results.

    Turned off the sound now.

    1. I turned the sound off when the guy in Sunderland started pontificating – load of lefty bollux, as usual.

  149. Jeez election pundits on various channels Alky Cambell lammy Rory Stewart god save us

  150. Off to bed now. Good night, chums, and I hope to see you rested when you awaken tomorrow and some of the major General Election results are in.

  151. Gawd, what sickens me is listening to these stuck record statements. No wonder I don't watch TV or read the MSM!

    I won't be watching/listening much longer.

  152. Final snifter, the I really am off to get a few zeds before Geoff raises the stakes!

    1. I'm probably not far behind. The BBC lefty grovelling is driving me to distraction!

      1. Kinnock wheeled in .. can't bear it .. never have I seen such a muddle of people ..

        Keir Starmer only got over 18,884.. turn out 54%

        1. That Kinnock victory, after years of that family on the gravy train, is utterly vomit-inducing.

  153. Yawn , creak groan .

    Hells bells , a wipe out .

    What hints have I missed , is my judgement flawed .. Is this a punishment election , whopping swings to Labour ..

    How and why, but I guess the turn out has been miserable, and people will always do what they have always done .

  156. Reform ahead of Tories across the country.. confirming "a vote for Conservative was a vote for Labour.."

  158. South Dorset gone , Richard Drax no longer .

    Counting complete

    Change compared with 2019

    Labour,
    Lloyd Hatton
    Votes
    15,659
    Share
    31.9%
    Share change
    +7.1

    Conservative,
    Richard Drax
    Votes
    14,611
    Share
    29.8%
    Share change
    -29.4

    Reform UK,
    Morgan Young
    Votes
    8,168
    Share
    16.7%
    Share change
    +16.7

    Liberal Democrat,
    Matt Bell
    Votes
    8,017
    Share
    16.3%
    Share change
    +5.6

    Green,
    Catherine Bennett
    Votes
    2,153
    Share
    4.4%
    Share change
    0.0

    Independent,
    Joy Wilson
    Votes
    192
    Share
    0.4%
    Share change
    +0.4

    Independent,
    Giovanna Lewis
    Votes
    185
    Share
    0.4%
    Share change
    +0.4

    Independent,
    Rosie Morrell
    Votes
    52
    Share
    0.1%
    Share change
    +0.1

      1. Yes, thank God, she can't come back as a minister to annoy us! I expect she will be promoted to the Lords so that she can torture us while wearing ermine.

  160. What is wrong with people, voting Labour? The same fools who voted for Sadiq Khan, falling for the son of a bus driver rhetoric.
    Just looked quckly at the results before heading off to work.

      1. Though I like Rees-Mogg he is the one least deserving of any sympathy. He knew what was wrong with the Tories and yet refused to speak. He could have jumped ship and joined Reform and been Farage’s sidekick in the Commons.

  162. “sir – Tony Parrack (Letters, July 4), suggests SUV ownership is “selfish and irresponsible”. I wonder if he feels the same about large houses, eating meat, drinking alcohol and foreign travel
    – all of which could be considered unnecessary, with negative social and environmental consequences.
    Perhaps he should take a leaf out of our American cousins’ book and celebrate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
    Phil Stewart
    London SW14”

  163. As the Legal Beagle predicted Reform got lots of votes (500,00 more than the Fib Dems) – but 50 seats less than them apparently….

      1. Morning ogga. The referendum result was like being given the Menu in a Michelin 3 Star restaurant only to have to wait years for the waiter to come and take the order and when the waiter eventually arrived on the 4th July he announced the restaurant was going into administration and the taste of freedom flight was off the menu!

      1. I’ve been in that group for most of my voting life. 2016 was an exception.

    3. Reform is also quite likely to get less seat than the various pro Gaza independents. This is much more worrying. I had previously thought that PR would put us at risk of getting an Islamic party that could hold the balance of power. Now we are getting it with FTTP as Starmer will be under pressure to be even more friendly to the demands of these people in order to try to woo them back to Labour.

  164. As the Legal Beagle predicted Reform got lots of votes (500,00 more than the Fib Dems) – but 50 seats less than them apparently….

      2. Most of my horrible university contemporaries are still in . Who votes for these people!

  166. That worked well for the Tories, then —- ditch your core voters and concentrate on winning the hearts & minds of readers of The Guardian.

    2. 'Morning, Geoff and thank you for all the work and effort you have put in to keep us all going. Well done!

      1. Morning Tom,
        Hear, hear.
        Geoff and all Nottlers certainly help to keep us sane in these times of madness.

Comments are closed.