Sunday 7 July: If the Conservative Party is to survive it must end the Leftward drift that led to defeat

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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718 thoughts on “Sunday 7 July: If the Conservative Party is to survive it must end the Leftward drift that led to defeat”

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

    The Art of Negotiation

    After being away on business, Rich thought it would be nice to bring his wife a little gift.

    "How about some perfume?" he asked the cosmetics clerk. She showed him a bottle costing $50.00.

    "That's a bit much," said Rich, so she returned with a smaller bottle for $30.00.

    "That's still quite a bit," Rich groused.

    Growing annoyed, the clerk brought out a tiny $15.00 bottle.

    "What I mean," said Rich, "is I'd like to see something really cheap."

    So, she handed him a mirror.

    1. How about a water filter for bathwater?

      Bathing in raw sewage may be trending in London, but the perfume is really only appealing to dogs. Where I live, a bucket of fresh pure Malvern water can be collected from the hill and doesn't need $$$. I wouldn't stoop so low as to offer dollars to the shopkeeper, even one made of ancient granite.

      I am a cheapskate of course, and have no wife, so I can be sensible about this.

      4. In spite of all the jokes about marriage and the fact that I did not marry until I was nearly 42 I have to confess that I have been far happier during the past 36 years since I married.

  2. 'Morning All
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41381874d553f2f617ed4075376339d4c0791019180ad4b5746e4c8d030b5aa4.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62a2b8108b1a19176b502d38d8ee63f0763f7f463aa4559c79221a08b8c733f7.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e15fa72e67cb53cfb8fda5c9c3e715aa0e7cafcd556f8568089907dc4bd38041.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab8752fdbd6d53f8c895b50b9da96f681f7558e2bd03bde6362ef8e7933497ce.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f34fe6c0e3c47f1c35617cdd76e7167b646c671245f7afb5c9acaf38495ea48.jpg

    1. The first image is confusing, since Tony Blair (for it is he, is it not?) was not in office in 2021 or 2023.

    2. The fourth one reminds me that all parents need to learn to become proficient psmackbottomists.

  4. Before the elecion, I came with some figures for a proportional voting strength ,with MPs weighted according to their party's standing nationally distributed betwee their MPs.

    Here is the same table, using the 2024 results, with weighting in 1000s and with a party threshold of 20,000:

    Adnan Hussein – 10
    Ayoub Khan – 13
    Shockat Adam – 14
    Iqbul Mohamed – 15
    Labour – 23 (412 MPs)
    Jeremy Corbyn – 24
    Speaker – 25
    Sinn Fein – 30 (7 MPs)
    SDP – 33 (1 Honorary MP)
    DUP – 34 (5 MPs)
    SDLP – 43 (2 MPs)
    TUV – 48 (1 MP)
    Plaid Cymru – 48 (4 MPs)
    Liberal Democrats – 48 (72 MPs)
    Conservative – 56 (121 MPs)
    SNP – 80 (9 MPs)
    UUP – 94 (1 MP)
    Alliance – 117 (1 MP)

    Outliers (suggesting an upper threshold of 200):

    Workers – 210 (1 Honorary MP)
    Green – 485 (4 MPs)
    Reform – 823 (5 MPs)

    This suggests that Reform and the Greens are both grossly under-represented under the current system, and their lack of permitted expression in Parliament may well lead to trouble, unless the present Government makes allowance. In addition if we add the Workers with the four Muslim Independents, we get a score of 63 (4 MPs). I would not add in Corbyn – George Galloway, the founder of the Workers Party, is well known as campaigning exclusively for the same issues as the four Muslim Independents. Corbyn, however, whilst sympathetic, has done so from his roots as a Socialist and not out of any special favour for Muslims; I firmly believe that the taint of "antisemitism" was put about as a lie by Blairite backstabblers in his former party, and there is little love lost between Corbyn and Galloway.

    Parties below the threshold, but over the lowest elected Independent:

    Yorkshire – 17
    TUSP – 13
    Alba – 11

    The Greens have been lumped in together here, even though the Green Party for England & Wales is a separate party to the Scottish Greens.

      1. An alternative system to proportional representation that allows for MPs to have a personal and unique relationship with their constituencies.

  6. Labour have all these new MP's, yet where is the talent?
    All the old rejects from the Blair/Brown era are returning to finish the job

          2. I thought that this morning when the prayers were for "the new government". I thought if anybody needs God's help it's us!

          4. You poor barstewards, nothing good ever comes from being associated with Trudeau (unless you are a liberal insider receiving nice big back handers) .

            Trudeau is so despised that he travels everywhere with an oversized security detail. He is refusing to meet with his caucus after a disastrous by election in Toronto.

          5. There is something worse than rubbing along with Blackface. It is known as the Zelensky Curse.

            Its many victims include Johnson, Truss and Sunak.

        4. Obama and Blair are the front men for the global elites. They were selected for their smarmy oleaginous salesman technique and their polish.

    2. …yet where is the talent?

      That is a concern, not only in the ranks but at the top. I suspect that talented people are too clever and self aware to want to associate themselves with the current Labour, Tory and LibDum cohorts that make up the majority of the current political class. Voting fodder is what the "leaders" want and voting fodder is what we have.

    3. Alan Milburn?

      Wasn't he the man who wrecked the NHS and been responsible for its failures under all Governments since 1999?

  8. 389450+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Why in heavens name would one want any of the lab/lib/con coalition to survive ? that have proved beyond doubt to be a recruiting arm for PIE via Dover, a serious danger to children's welfare, and on mounting evidence an alledged active participant in a worldwide culling program.

    may one ask any of those that voted for them, their good points ?

    Sunday 7 July: If the Conservative Party is to survive it must end the Leftward drift that led to defeat

  9. Only ‘Lord Almighty’ can tell me to stand down, says Biden. 6 July 2024.

    Joe Biden has said only the “Lord Almighty” can tell him to stand down, as more Democrats broke ranks and urged him to make way for a younger successor.

    The US president, 81, gave an interview to ABC News on Friday evening that was billed as an opportunity for him to recover support after a torrid week of criticism about his mental state.

    You only have to look at him in these interviews. He’s doolally.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/07/05/joe-biden-crucial-interview-make-or-break-presidency/

    2. They picked him because he was doolally so they thought they could control him. But that's backfired as he is doolally – one of the side-effects being irrationally stubborn.

  10. 389450+ up ticks,

    At least that should lead to more public park toilets
    constructed with "miranda" in mind.

    Starmer appoints two leading figures from Blair and Brown era to Government
    Douglas Alexander is now a business minister and Jacqui Smith is an education minister

    1. Jacqui Smith. Isn’t she the one who said the rape gang victims had ‘made a lifestyle choice’? And whose husband had charged the cost of porn to her expenses?

      1. 389450+ up ticks,

        Afternoon VW,

        I'l wager PIE will be delighted jackie smith
        education minister.

      2. Precisely so. Another retread from the Blair era returning to the trough and who actually resembles a fat pig albeit less intelligent.

  11. 389450+ up ticks,

    Peoples health& safety alert,

    Lest we want to forget, the Dover invasion beach-head is the daily gauge of intentions.

      1. 389450+ up ticks,

        Morning JB,
        Agreed , to many fake ZERO hero’s around inclusive of ed milliband.

      3. Fake, most definitely, hero, nowhere near. He's been looking ill lately.nothing trivial one hopes.

  13. Good morning, chums. Glorious sunshine this morning, but thunderbolts, lightning and rain predicted from 9 am onwards.

    Wordle 1,114 4/6

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    1. Wordle 1,114 5/6

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  14. Good morning, all. Watery sunshine. Rain later. Bloody Labour government.

    1. I don't think many – if any – on this site are happy that we have a Labour government, Bill, but you can hardly blame them for the weather. (Good morning, btw.)

      2. Why not.? The wont last long. I just look at the history of Labour in government and look forward to the young lefties learning a nasty lesson.

        1. Problem is, Johnny, they have to keep learning it. I wish they could move on.

        2. Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Blair, Brown, now Starmer. All of them fiscally incompetent and the latest ones nasty with it.

    1. The tragedy of the election is that the Conservatives won enough seats to think they are still alive and can be revived. The sooner they are completely dead the better.

  18. David Lammy faces a world in turmoil. 7 July 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/002d05f1b7b66b10de311f30195fbb82b3ad0230310ecdcfe141afdecd28b42f.png
    Challenges include two wars and global inertia on the climate crisis as hard-right populists from France to the US flex their muscles.

    David Lammy: ‘Britain has to start reconnecting with a dangerous, divided world’

    Would you trust this man with the future of the World?

    https://www.theguardian.com…

    1. More like David Lammy to create a world in turmoil. This should not be the face Britain puts out to the world.

    6. It might work. Leaders of all nations will be so occupied laughing at him that they will forget about fighting each other.

    7. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      The troubling truth about Keir Starmer
      Comments Share 7 July 2024, 6:02am
      ‘A politics that treads more lightly on all our lives.’ That’s what Keir Starmer – remarkably, our new Prime Minister – promised a weary nation as he was vying for their vote. Perhaps fittingly, he ended up with a victory that is incredibly light on voters – a huge majority on a lower vote share than any victorious party in the postwar era. Clearly, while Brits had grown tired of the Tory soap opera, they’re switching off from Starmer already.

      Keir Starmer is an empty vessel – a man for whom principles are fine until they interfere with getting elected
      Like so much Starmer says, that quote – and his insistence on the steps of No.10 that he’ll lead ‘a government unburdened by doctrine’ – is not all it seems. Because if you actually look at what he hopes to achieve in government, you see a programme that will intrude very heavily indeed on all our lives: dictating what we can and cannot say, further crippling our living standards, even shaking up the constitution of the nation in which we all live and call home. The paucity of his day-to-day, tax-and-spend economic ambitions lies in stark contrast with the deranged arrogance of his cultural, environmental and constitutional ambitions.

      Yes, Keir Starmer is an empty vessel – a man for whom principles are fine until they interfere with getting elected, or getting him out of a testy radio interview with Nick Ferrari. But the empty vessel has to be filled with something. And it’s abundantly clear that it will be filled with divisive wokeism, greenism and all the other terrible ideas that have very suddenly become inviolable orthodoxies among our cultural elites.

      His planned Race Equality Act has barely been mentioned at all this election campaign – and yet, if passed, it could be among the most consequential pieces of legislation in this parliament. It will give ethnic-minority Brits the ‘full right to equal pay’, even though paying someone less because of their race is obviously already illegal. In truth, the bill would smuggle in equality of outcome under the banner of equality of opportunity, It could turbocharge a culture of racial grievance-mongering, in which we agonise about disparate outcomes between groups, while ignoring class-based solutions that would raise everyone up – and while ignoring areas in which minorities actually out-perform white Brits. Of which there are many.

      Now, the gender issue has been discussed over this election campaign – due to the Labour frontbench’s seemingly eternal, stammering inability to admit in public that a woman cannot have a meat and two veg. But the idea that Starmer has ‘moderated’ on trans is nonsense. It’s all there in the manifesto: loosening gender-recognition processes, and thus imperilling women’s spaces, and banning ‘trans conversion therapy’ – a euphemism for banning therapy that doesn’t reflexively ‘affirm’ a patient’s belief that they were ‘born in the wrong body’. Given we now know, from the Cass Review, that the majority of gender-confused kids grow out of it and are often just in the process of coming to terms with being gay or bisexual, this ban on ‘trans conversion therapy’ amounts to the institutionalisation of gay conversion therapy – ‘fixing’ gay kids because they don’t fit in.

      If you wish to raise your voice in complaint against this, or just refuse to go along with the fiction that a man can become a woman at his say-so, I’d watch out: Starmer intends to beef up laws around ‘transphobic’ hate crime laws, itself a euphemism for clamping down on gender-critical speech. If you think that the prospect of someone having their collar felt or being dragged through the courts after they misgendered someone is far-fetched, this has actually already happened under existing legislation. Believers in biological reality, be on your guard.

      Those clinging to the vain hope that Labour – alleged party of the working class – will provide some relief from the cost-of-living crisis will be among the most bitterly disappointed. As we all know, Labour is now the parliamentary wing of the metropolitan elite and they are worshippers at the shrine of Net Zero. Despite reining in his £28 billion-a-year green investment pledge, Starmer is still committed to ‘zero-carbon electricity’ by 2030 and banning new oil and gas licences in the North Sea. Whatever magical thinking Labour is captured by, the simple fact is you cannot raise living standards while ditching cheap and reliable energy in favour of expensive and unreliable renewables.

      I know what you’re thinking. Starmer is hardly a conviction politician
      Then there’s Labour’s plans for the constitution. Lurking in the background of this new administration is Gordon Brown’s proposals to turbocharge devolution, replace the House of Lords with a new ‘Assembly of the Nations and Regions’, hand more power to the Supreme Court and introduce new ‘social rights’ to secure a minimum standard of healthcare or education. As many learned critics have pointed out, this would corrode British sovereignty – even handing the power to Holyrood to enter into international treaties – and turn political questions over public services into legal ones, to be battled out in the courts by activist lawyers. While Starmer says this is all on hold for now – he is currently ennobling people so they can serve in his cabinet – it’s one to look out for if he squeaks a second term.

      I know what you’re thinking. Starmer is hardly a conviction politician. As far as I can tell, his only guiding principle up to now has been wanting to be Prime Minister. Is he really going to wake up each morning, desperate to reshape Britain in his image? Isn’t he too sensible, cautious, boring for all that? But the quest for a ‘legacy’ beckons, and Starmer has simply outsourced it. After Covid and the BLM protests, he set up a task force to come up with his Race Equality Act. Ed Miliband – our new energy security and Net Zero secretary – is calling the shots on climate. Starmer still seems to be taking his cue on gender matters from Stonewall. And he both commissioned and fully endorsed the proposals by Gordon Brown, who is doubling down on devolution, desperate to ignore the terrible governance and separatism his New Labour reforms unleashed.

      Britain might be about to find out that a man who believes in nothing can be a very dangerous thing.

  19. David Lammy faces a world in turmoil. 7 July 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/002d05f1b7b66b10de311f30195fbb82b3ad0230310ecdcfe141afdecd28b42f.png
    Challenges include two wars and global inertia on the climate crisis as hard-right populists from France to the US flex their muscles.

    David Lammy: ‘Britain has to start reconnecting with a dangerous, divided world’

    Would you trust this man with the future of the World?

    https://www.theguardian.com…

  20. David Lammy faces a world in turmoil. 7 July 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/002d05f1b7b66b10de311f30195fbb82b3ad0230310ecdcfe141afdecd28b42f.png
    Challenges include two wars and global inertia on the climate crisis as hard-right populists from France to the US flex their muscles.

    David Lammy: ‘Britain has to start reconnecting with a dangerous, divided world’

    Would you trust this man with the future of the World?

    https://www.theguardian.com…

  21. Morning all 🙂😊
    Hardly summer temperatures but clear blue sunny sky.
    Let's face it in our ridiculous world of politics the whole system needs urgent attention.
    it's long past time for proportional representation.

    1. Fifty years ago, I met my first and very beautiful French girlfriend. Who'd have thought that fifty years hence, we'd look exactly like the two in this picture. They look nothing like Blair and Starmer.

  23. Morning, all Y'all.
    Heavy rain overnight, and not too far away, heavy snow… admittedly at height.
    Couuld use some of that global warming…

    1. Yesterday, I went to the Great War talk wearing winter clothes.
      I was just comfortable.

  24. Good morning all,

    Cloudy and cool at Castle McPhee, showers. Wind in the Sou'-West, 11℃ going up to perhaps, 16℃. Church bells and fishing today.

    Who is this young woman?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9a3040307f1f3bc6503c4579e54c831df6cb9e1edf625ca362d0882b75f3a05.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/06/i-voted-reform-because-i-want-my-country-back/

    Here she is in her own words:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/247ceb82209eb6877fc8e4f70266ea6eabdb339eb15aade99c6a7001245d08ee.png
    https://charliebentleyastor.substack.com/p/cv

    One to read, watch and listen to with interest?

    4. I'm not convinced, but she does have a protonmail email address which prejudices me strangely in her favour. Overall, her fondness for hearing the sound of her own voice would appear to be greater than her ability to contribute anything meaningful, but I guess that will please the legacy media editors who just want to fill the "Gen Z" box.

  25. Good Morning. 14C Grey overcast, showers. I was never in favour of PR voting. Now I am not so sure.

    1. That makes two of us. Starmer and his puppet and clown show, with the votes of just one fifth of the electorate, have no mandate at all. We need to keep shouting it.

    2. Like you, JN, I am beginning to swither. One has seen the chaos that it causes in some countries, where dozen of little parties try to form coalitions – and, often, nothing much happens because one group or another can stop it.

      Perhaps we should have a "second round" of voting (on FPTP) where voters have to choose between the top two candidates. That might have an effect where Reform was in second place….

      1. Good morning Bill ,

        The constituents in the majority of traditional Tory areas showed their wrath and disgust by voting Reform or Lib dem .

        South Dorset one of 6 constituencies here in Dorset voted Reform or Lib dem , and our Blue county became Orange and Red apart from one area.. Christchurch .. Sir Christopher Chope retained his seat, as did Simon Hoare for North Dorset

        The results were alarming , and decent Dorset Tory MPs , back benchers , vanished just like that .

        A 29 year old chap , parachuted in from Camden , but born and bred in Weymouth is our new Labour MP..

        Sorry to moan , but we have sold our birth right out to a real leftie mixture , and a non Christian sectarian bunch of Muslim usurpers .

        Modern history is now being devoured by a new terror.

        1. I see your view, Maggie, but people like Drax should have run as an independent and disowned the current Tory party.

    3. Good morning, John. I am in favour of a system whereby the electorate of each constituency choose the candidates that each party will have stand in an election. This will stop the parties telling you who they have chosen; most of their choices being inappropriate people for the electorate, but wholly suitable for the party.

      This system is called democracy. The one used at present is not proper democracy; it is an elective oligarchy.

      1. Each constituency party holds a primary? Isn't that how it used to work, before party managers decided they didn't get the "right" (arselikhan) candidates?

        1. Party managers need to be told, in no uncertain terms, that they are not the party. A Party is made up of its members.

  26. Good morning all.
    A damp start after overnight rain with 9°C on the Yard Thermometer and a light overcast. Showers forecast.

  27. I wish I'd had that sort of self-confidence when I was young. It may rub people up the wrong way but it gets you moving in the world.

    1. With all due respect, ability, qualifications and experience outrank self-confidence.

      1. Ability etc give self-confidence without the need to brag or get up people's noses.

      2. There is no point in having the first three if you are a shrinking violet. There will come a time when she has them all.

      3. There is no point in having the first three if you are a shrinking violet. There will come a time when she has them all.

      4. There is no point in having the first three if you are a shrinking violet. There will come a time when she has them all.

      5. There is no point in having the first three if you are a shrinking violet. There will come a time when she has them all.

    2. When I was young, the people who had that kind of self confidence were called Gove, Hunt, Johnson, Sikorsky, Illman, Rees-Mogg, Bagshawe, Bercow….

    1. Even if as expected the myriad smaller groupings unite to deny Le Pen a majority Macron will still be a lame duck President.

      Such cobbled together groupings with concocted arrangements simply lead to fractures and squabbling such that stagnation results.

  29. Good Moaning, Willem.
    That is exactly the system I support.
    Round 1: all who wish to stand on the ballot slip
    Round 2: the two R.1 top scorers on the ballot slip.

  30. Good Moaning.
    5 years to find an actual leader.
    Does the west still produce them?

    2. We have few leaders and none in either the shrunken Conservative, bloated Labour and Clown Liberal Democrat Parties. We have instead mere placement bureaucrats taking directions from various globalist elite think tanks.

      Farage is the closest we have to a political leader with a firm grasp of policies and a deft understanding of the public and its wish to live without government interference and diktat.

      In their ridiculous celebrations the Labour Party state and apparently believe they have a mandate. They do not. The vast majority never voted for them. The most depressing image I have seen is that of the grinning mob of deluded retreads including Blair era reptiles crowded around the cabinet table in Number Ten smugly watching the cameraman.

  31. SIR – Tobias Ellwood has said that the new Conservative leader must be chosen by MPs without any involvement from party members. It’s this sort of arrogance that has caused the downfall of the party.

    At the last leadership contest we were given two candidates to choose from, who had been provided by MPs – but it wasn’t much of a choice. The membership was correct in not choosing Rishi Sunak, as is now evident.

    Mr Ellwood went on to say that the party must move to the centre. He describes it as a broad church. That, to me, is the problem. Someone recently said that it is a broad church with no religion. Spot on.

    Clive Greig
    Felbridge, West Sussex

    If the jumped-up globalist, Tobias Ellwood, thinks that he is part of an arrogant and self-interested élite that does not need the support of the "little people"; then those little people — the rank and file, hard-working and fee-paying members of the Conservative and Unionist Party — should immediately defenestrate him from their party.

    Until the time that all such contemptuous, puffed-up, egotistical snotties are expelled from the party, this self-destructing malaise will perpetuate.

    1. Morning, Grizz.
      Yes, Elwood seems to have learned nothing from the recent defeat by "the little people" (patronising git, he is) – and so is doomed to repeat it.

    2. "Someone recently said that it is a broad church with no religion."

      Nigel Farage said it the other day. I don't know its origin though.

    3. BTL Comments:-

      R. Spowart
      6 MIN AGO
      Message Actions
      So there is much debate on whether the next Tory (In Name Only) leader, once Mr. Sunak is sacked of course, should be selected by MPs or party members.
      As Ron Billard writes, the selection of candidates should also be done at party member level, thus ending the disasterous dominance of CCHQ.

      Tracy Campbell
      4 MIN AGO
      Reply to R. Spowart – view message
      I thought that was a great idea. The selection of constituency candidates should also be returned to local party members.

      R. Spowart
      1 MIN AGO
      Reply to Tracy Campbell
      Message Actions
      It should never have been taken away from Constituancy level.
      Yes, by all means, CCHQ can suggest candidates, but final selection MUST be by the Party Member.

    5. The idiot, Ellwood, thinks that moving the Conservative Party to the centre will make it more left wing. The truth is that the Conservative Party has moved so far to the left already that a move to the centre would move it to the right.

    6. Someone recently said that it is a broad church with no religion.

      A bit like the Church of England, then.

  32. Just had a look at the Telegraph, before the paywall kicked in.
    Is everybody in the UK now "of colour"? Indian, African, you name it.
    For such an overtly racist country, it's impressive how many top dogs are wogs.

    1. I am indeed a "person of colour". Mucky pink is, indeed, a colour.

      I've never seen a white man. Even true albinos are not really white.

      1. I'm the colour that the old Central Line tube trains ceilings were, in the days of smoking allowed – so, nicotine yellow.

        1. Or, bearing in mind the quality of my skin, maybe parchment would be a better description…

      2. What colours do you use when you’re painting? I find magenta, ochre and white make a good skin tone, with more or less white for lighter or darker.

        1. A good number of combinations of pigments can make a realistic caucasian skin tone. The ones you mention are very good for that purpose.

          Recently I've discovered that a pigment called 'English Red' (also known as Terra Rosa) provides a good base, especially when tinted with white and 'knocked back' by the use of a tiny amount of a complimentary, such as viridian green.

          5. The (in)famous National Geographic cover picture. Used to live that magazine till it went Woke about 10 years ago. Of course, we didn’t know tgat word at the time. But all of a sudden every story was about “disadvantaged minorities” and weather (aka “climate”)?and the animals didn’t get a look in. Stopped subscribing thereafter but they probably don’t miss me.

        3. No you're not. You are a washed-out beige … with speckles.

          White is the colour of this page. No one looks like that.

      4. I remember seeing an albino black person on the Tube 60 years ago when I was about 18.

        I found it fascinating and difficult not to look at him.

        2. Albinism is more common in Muslim communities than in the general population. Something to do with recessive genes, I'm told, all a bit too complicated for me.

    2. Poème à mon frère blanc (Poem to my white brother) Léopold Sédar SENGHOR

      Dear White brother,

      When I was born, I was black,
      When I grew up, I was black,
      When I'm in the sun, I'm black,
      When I'm sick, I'm black,
      When I die, I'll be black.
      While you white man,
      When you were born, you were pink,
      When you grew up, you were white,
      When you go to the sun, you are red,
      When you're cold, you're blue,
      When you're scared, you're green,
      When you're sick, you're yellow,
      When you die, you will be grey.
      So, of us two,
      Who is the coloured man?

    3. Good morning Obe, and all the other kenobis.
      In the private sector, it's impressive, whereas in the control sector there is a tendency for 'positive discrimination'. Thank you for posting the dose of reality by Thomas Sowell yesterday.

    4. I was thinking that again this morning. Head of Wales now black – saw a picture of him addressing a very miserable white crowd. Still, it's all working out so well, isn't it? Quite like Suella and maybe Kemi but honestly, the optics aren't great for a country utterly sick of immigration whilst they see ethnics being shunted, very obviously, into top jobs. It's blatantly clear that this is not a coincidence.

      I like Suella though. Maybe she can see the cons of mass immigration more clearly than spoilt, ivory-tower, liberal elites whose only experience of ethnics is of staff or of the offspring of the rich from overseas, at their public schools, or whilst metro networking. I think Suella realises that meeting one is most certainly not the same as meeting them all. The same thing any person of sense realises. It is that kind of thinking that is putting us all in such danger as undocumented males from the most corrupt crime-ridden places on the planet are waved through and allowed to roam our streets. And whilst I'm on a rant. Many of these people will likely revert to type when the welfare money runs out. Chucking money at them will work for a while…

      1. Interestingly, the new Labour cabinet has just one black person and one Asian. I wonder how long before the effniks kick off about it?

  33. Just had a look at the Telegraph, before the paywall kicked in.
    Is everybody in the UK now "of colour"? Indian, African, you name it.
    For such an overtly racist country, it's impressive how many top dogs are wogs.

  34. SIR – Contrast the speech made by Suella Braverman, who held on to her seat in the near wipeout of the Conservatives at the general election, with those given by Grant Shapps and Robert Buckland, who did not.

    Ms Braverman gave an unequivocal apology for the Conservative government having let us down so badly, while the others blamed those who divided the party by disagreeing with their Left-of-centre approach.

    If it is to stand any chance of preventing Reform UK from mopping up many more disaffected supporters, the Conservative Party had better hope that the likes of Ms Braverman hold sway during the post-mortem, and that true Conservatives such as Lord Frost are welcomed rather than shunned.

    Tim Coles
    Carlton, Bedfordshire

    This letter states the problem with the Conservatives precisely.

    I voted for Suella as my constituency MP. No need to thank me. :@)

    1. She has bitten her tongue so hard there must be a hole in it now in order to get a crack at one of the top jobs, and she explained to us exactly why she was unable to do what she aimed to while she was Home Secretary. If there was more of that kind of honesty and less covering up of abuse in our parliamentary system, we'd be better off. I'd have voted for her too!

    4. The downside of having 4 wives is having 4 mothers-in-law (mother-in-laws?)

      1. Not necessarily.
        Don't forget they've probably married cousins so it could be only one.

    6. It’s an absolute f-in’ disgrace and i am bot going to apologise for my language. Sorry.

  36. Here's another for y'all.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/000e41719d3af2150f2fd457ae2633378360a772d5c556739da0be1785a9a036.png
    https://substack.com/home/post/p-146207761

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4183e0456ffba905cd95c8b3c49e4ba73efce6378b9768447be581cf4485f79.png She moved in the same circles as the powerful families, went to school and university with their children, was employed in their media businesses. She knows whereof she speaks. James Delingpole did a podcast with her recently. If you're not a paid subsciber to Delingpole, don't miss it when it comes out from behind the paywall in a week or so.

    1. I live in her constituency. It's ironic that her retort to the hecklers acknowledges that they don't like dealing with a strong woman. I happen to agree with that, but she was hitherto quite happy to tolerate that as long as she got their vote.

  38. I liked this collection of DTL comments .

    Rusty Nail
    18 MIN AGO
    Apparently there's a video doing the rounds on X, showing a group of Muslim men dancing around celebrating while carrying rather large bladed weapons.
    This happened in Birmingham with not a single police officer in camera-vision sight.
    Care to comment, Mr PM? EDITED

    Reply by Celia Molestrangler.

    CM

    Celia Molestrangler
    7 MIN AGO
    I gather Jess Phillips was upset at the reaction at some constituents to her re-election – the same type of people you mention above. Of course it's totally wrong that she was treated like that, but reap as you sow. Her party has spent decades pandering to them.

    Reply by Tracy Campbell.

    TC

    Tracy Campbell
    2 MIN AGO
    Hopefully Labour will now see the error of their ways and that they can win big without pandering to sectarianism. I can see a growing independent islamist political movement which I personally think is a good thing as it will be exposed to the daylight of western values rather than hiding behind the facade of an existing party.

    Comment by Andy Bebbington.

    AB

    Andy Bebbington
    21 MIN AGO
    Brexit supporters and Remain supporters are like matter and anti-matter. The two can't exist in the same place (in the same political party) for any amount of time without a large explosion occurring.

    Comment by Martin Selves.

    MS

    Martin Selves
    22 MIN AGO
    Not my post, but one I like …..
    "Never have so few (many) political lightweights, held power over so many people that didn't vote for them".

    1. I wonder if Celia Molestrangler is in any way connected to my old chum, Percival Wrattstrangler?

    2. Clearly Tracy hasn't sussed out that Labour only "won big" by pandering to sectarianism. Without the muslim vote (which will finish them off in the end in favour of an islamic party) they would have been stuffed.

  39. There should be a rule that anyone in possession of a PPE degree must be disqualified to run as a an MP.

    1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      The thrill of the Pamplona bull run
      Comments Share 7 July 2024, 6:00am
      The first time my friend Rob and I experienced Pamplona’s San Fermin festival was in 2017. Held every year from 6-14 July in the northern Spanish city, it’s most famous for its bull runs, or encierros: at 8 a.m., on eight consecutive mornings, the six bulls destined for that evening’s bullfight, as well as six docile oxen to guide them, run for almost a kilometre through Pamplona’s oldest quarters, accompanied by thousands of thrill-seeking human participants known as mozos.

      Rob and I have now run with the bulls of Pamplona four times – once that first year, once in 2018 and twice at last year’s festival (it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid). Next week we’ll be meeting in Pamplona again, to run our fifth and sixth encierros. If our girlfriends ever join us for San Fermin, which so far they haven’t, their reaction to how much we discuss our runs – tactics beforehand, minute analysis afterwards, starting at 8.05 a.m. over the best pint in the world – will probably be incredulity quickly followed by boredom.

      But there’s a lot to talk about, because several factors make it extremely difficult to run the world’s best-known encierros. Some of these are inherent to the tradition of bull-running itself, which started in Spain in the Middle Ages, as an offshoot of farmers herding their cattle from the countryside into town for bullfights or markets; others, though, are unique to Pamplona’s annual fiesta, during which more than a million visitors descend on the city for the 24-hour street parties, bullfights and bull runs, live music, fireworks and parades.

      The bovine protagonists of most encierros, including Pamplona’s, aren’t the kind of bulls you’d encounter in a British field: they are toros bravos, a species reared specifically for the bullring on vast, wild plains called dehesas. They are much more powerful and aggressive than any other species of bull, and despite weighing half a ton when they’re ready for the ring (at four years old), can run at astonishing speed.

      It usually takes the bulls between two and two-and-a-half minutes to complete Pamplona’s 848-metre course, although the fastest encierro on record (7 July, 1975) was over in just 1 minute and 50 seconds. An analogy might help here, because describing their speed as one sees it on the street is impossible (nor is it captured by the YouTube videos). The world record for 800 metres, held by Kenya’s David Rudisha, is 1:40; if Rudisha continued that pace over the extra 48 metres, he’d run the Pamplona course in 1 minute and 46 seconds – just four seconds quicker than the fastest ever encierro and only about 30 seconds quicker than an average one. This means that even if you were the only runner on the streets, you’d have to be a world-class sprinter to complete the course alongside or just in front of the bulls, which is why no-one even attempts to do so.

      Instead, you pick a specific stretch and try to run as close to the bulls as possible, for as long as possible, as they pass through it. The route consists of six different sections, each with its own challenges. So far, like many beginners, Rob and I have stuck to the town hall square, the encierro’s widest stretch, fenced in by specially-placed wooden barriers on each side. In 2023, for the first time, we stuck to the routes we’d planned the night before: out of the square, turning left onto another relatively spacious street, running for a few seconds in the vicinity of the bulls as they stormed through that middle section.

      This year we’re planning to tackle Calle Estafeta, the route’s most popular section. Long and narrow, with a slight incline, it offers the best chance of a run right in front of the pack. But Estafeta starts with a notorious 90-degree turn nicknamed ‘Dead Man’s Curve’, where the bulls sometimes fall and separate from the rest of the herd – and a loose, panicky, distracted bull is much more dangerous than one running with its brothers. There’s also no wooden fence to slip under if you need to escape, just boarded-up bars and shops on either side.

      The danger – and difficulty – of running any part of the Pamplona course comes not just from the speed and ferocity of the bulls, but from the number of runners packed onto the narrow streets, all of them fuelled by fear and adrenaline. On average there are about 2,000 participants, which creates a problem you wouldn’t have on the quieter bull runs of Cuéllar or San Sebastian de los Reyes (both of which hold their fiestas at the end of August).Falling is almost inevitable and once one person falls, several more will trip over them, so pile-ups litter the course. Any encierro veteran will tell you that if you fall down, stay down. Under no circumstances are you supposed to get up: a human being on their knees is the ideal target for a toro bravo running at 25 kph. You’re advised instead to curl up in a foetal position and wait until someone taps you, to tell you everything’s safely hurtled past. Though the mortality rate is very low (16 fatalities since 1910), there are always minor injuries and often hospitalisations.

      Four rockets explode above Pamplona’s rooftops during the encierro, to inform runners of the bulls’ progress: one when the doors of their pen have been opened, a second when all six, plus the oxen, are out on the street, and a third and fourth when they enter the bullring and corrals, respectively, to signal that the run is over. Because runners have to be on the course by half past seven, the 30-minute wait for that first one to go off, at precisely the moment when the town hall bells clang eight, becomes a vital element of the whole experience. Our memories of the runs themselves are hazy, and for me they seem to happen in total silence, even though there is constant noise from the hundreds of spectators who watch from balconies; but we always remember, with hard-edged clarity, the bells and bangs of the first two rockets – then the jumpy countdown until the herd rushes into our section. It is partly for the challenge of holding our nerve, for the drama and tension of the wait, that we keep going back.

    1. Pity about painfully amateurish video presentation as points raised are perfectly valid.

  41. Lammy will has already embarrass[ed] Britain. There, fixed it! I see the German Foreign Ministry have said that Britain is already seeking "closer ties with the EU" – Labour should remember that IIRC more people voted to leave the EU than voted for Labour in 2024?

      1. I had to dig around for the figures, and the 2024 ones aren't finalised [until ~19 July apparently?]. However:

        Leave vote 2016 – 17,410,742 votes – 51.89% of the votes cast, turnout 72.21% [Wiki]
        Labour vote 2024 – 9,731,363 votes – 33.8% of votes cast, turnout ~60%

  43. Tony Blair’s warning to Keir Starmer on migration
    To fight Reform, the former Labour leader says the government must focus on illegal migration, law and order and avoiding ‘any vulnerability on wokeism’

    Sir Tony Blair has urged the new prime minister to come up with a plan for controlling immigration to turn the tide on populism, ­warning: “If we don’t have rules, we get prejudices.”

    The former Labour leader, who led the party to its biggest victory, offers his advice to Sir Keir Starmer, including on the challenges he faces from Nigel Farage, in an article for The Sunday Times. Offering a three-pronged solution to the threat posed by Reform, which got 4.1 million votes in the election and won five seats, Blair says that the new government’s focus should be on illegal migration, law and order and avoiding “any vulnerability on wokeism”.

    He likens Britain to other western countries such as France where “traditional political parties are suffering disruption” and “new entrants” are “running riot”. He says the trend is being driven by “cultural issues, as much if not more than economic, issues” and that Starmer needs a “plan to control immigration”. He calls for the introduction of digital ID cards, which he unsuccessfully tried to bring in when he was prime minister, saying: “We should move as the world is moving to digital ID. If not, new border controls will have to be highly effective.”

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk…

    1. Digital ID is what they’re after anyway, nothing to do with illegal immigration. And I wish T. Bliar would just do a disappearing act.

      1. Quite so. If we are forced to have digital ID cards, the Home Office will no doubt be handing them out like confetti to immigrants while the rest of us will have to give details of our bank accounts, for the Government then to raid, if we have more than tuppence in them.

      2. Quite so. If we are forced to have digital ID cards, the Home Office will no doubt be handing them out like confetti to immigrants while the rest of us will have to give details of our bank accounts, for the Government then to raid, if we have more than tuppence in them.

    2. Digital ID is what they’re after anyway, nothing to do with illegal immigration. And I wish T. Bliar would just do a disappearing act.

    3. Considering Blair opened the floodgates it's a bit rich his saying we need to concentrate on focusing on illegal immigration. It's the NUMBERS anyway. This is a small island, not the African continent (although one coulg be forgiven for making that mistake when walking around urban areas).

  44. Since the appointment of Alan Milburn, exposing the true pernicious nature and intentions of Starmer, there now leaves the issue of how best to oppose his reimposition of Blair Davosism on the nation.

    The Conservatives, with their 121 MPs are out of it for now. They need to sort themselves out, get a new leader who can unite the party (probably Jeremy Hunt as a caretaker, whilst the party decides between the directions presented by Kemi Badenoch or Tom Tugendhat).

    This leaves the Liberal Democrats (72 MPs) to carry the can, but they cannot do it alone. First off are the nationally popular but grossly under-represented Reform (5 MPs) and the Greens (4 MPs). If this were a Borisesque party, they would be at one another's throats before even the first cocktail was served, but for the cause of national salvation, needs must. Davey needs to sit down with Farage (edited for the right man!) and one of the Green leaders and thrash out where they have common ground, and where they agree to differ. Perhaps we nottlers, purveyors of free speech and open debate, where this is increasingly under threat, can lend a voice?

    Farage has said that he is after Labour next time, but really he might well need the Lib Dems to help him along. They are not likely to tread on one another's toes, having quite different bases.

    As for the Greens, whilst I disagree with them drifting away from protecting the environment or promoting small local enterprise, they do have the capacity of outflanking Labour from the Left and exposing the Blairites for the traitors to the cause they are. They may even find common ground with Corbyn and the half million he inspired to join Labour when he was Leader.

    The nationalists are probably out of this, if the union is to be an issue, but if this is off the table, then they too could join in.

    Ultimately though, as the senior party, it is up to the Lib Dems to be the final arbiter before presenting the proposition to the nation.

    1. Kemi Badenoch won't unite the Cons. She's been too close to Michael Gove in the past. She's just another phantom leader who would follow orders from Davos.

      1. Tend to agree. Any thoughts re Braverman? I can't make up my mind, following activist interview C4 with Christys…

        1. I do not trust these 'new' people that appear from nowhere and take a rightwing stance. They often turn out to be placed so as to stop things moving to the right. The ones like mogg and Redwood never get top jobs as the ARE right wing.

          1. Definitely Redwood a RW Conservative, not so sure about JRM, Johnny. Both out of office/favour now. I get John Redwood’s Diary, daily, subscribed from his website (you can mail him directly if it’s kept short/to the point 🙂

        2. I like Braverman, but I want the Con party to die for at least a generation. We don#t want them splitting the conservative vote at the next election too.

          1. Seeming like she may be thinking of joining Reform, chatter around them being in talks. We’ll see.

        1. At this point, I care more about quality of the person. Just not convinced that Badenoch has it.

          1. I agree that she probably hasn’t got what it takes, but on the whole I think someone needs to have been here, and their family here before them for at least two generations. Badenoch’s mother flew in from Nigeria simply to take advantage of the fact that if Kemi was born here she would automatically get British citizenship (which I also think is very wrong). She grew up in Africa and the USA. With the best will in the world (which is not found very often), people who have not grown up with a understanding of this country and its history are often not going to treat this country as anything but a balance sheet. That is not saying that the indigenous necessarily would be or behave better, but I do think it counts among positive attributes.

            My comment was more emotional. Emotionally, there is a feeling that I want to be represented, and my country to be represented, by one of our own. It’s a bit like seeing incessant advertising with dual race families. There comes a stage where it feels unbalanced. Ability is one thing, but DEI is another. We were never asked…

          2. I agree that we have had enough of floating international citizens with no roots in Britain.

    1. Indeed. The gloating coming from the Left is quite astonishing – I haven't seen any recognition that 82% of the country didn't vote for them, or any attempt to accommodate the vast majority of people who clearly don't want a hard left agenda. They're living in their own little world, and they seem to believe that the country has approved it.

      1. The Conservative Party had to die – but I wish it had died quickly enough to be completely replaced by a proper right of centre party.

        Margaret Thatcher might have observed: "Après moi le déluge" but educational standards have fallen so far that today few people would understand the meaning the words or have any idea who Madame de Pompadour, to whom the words are attributed, was.

          1. Debate over French ladies all you like but 617 Squadron's appropriation of the phrase for the Squadron's motto is how I remember it. 617's and many others' exploits should definitely be taught in history lessons.

            Lest we forget.

          2. When 617 had a mess night, the printers put "the Damn Busters" on the menu. They thought it was hilarious.

      2. And that ignores all those who voted Labour purely and simply to get rid of the Tories.

  46. If the SNP are to survive they will need to generate some money from somewhere.
    The Westminster "Short Money" paid to political parties sees a loss of around £900,000
    made up from 39 fewer MPs @ £22K per year and 500,000 @ roughly 20p per voter. Many fewer votes in 2024 as against 2019 (1.2m falling to 700K)

    Additionally
    I believe all SNP MPs & MSPs (Holyrood) donate 10% of their salaries to the SNP every month.
    MPs are paid around £91,400 per year – 10% is £9,140 each
    The SNP saw MP numbers fall from 2019's 48 to 9 in last week's election.
    39 x £9,140 = £356,400
    If you add these 2 losses of revenue together this comes to £1, 260,000
    To put that in perspective the SNP spends roughly £5million per year.
    Overnight, literally, they have seen a drop of roughly 25% of their income – roughly the same as their annual staff costs!

    2. Have you read his diary? I wonder how his son, Lupin, is getting on?

  48. "Hello, Police? Yes, this is Starmer, 10 Downing St.

    I'd like to report the theft of a Sky Dish and receiver please. "

    1. No longer needed, Phiz…Blair's had a chip installed, now doing the thinking…so when Starmer's mouth is moving watch for the strings..faint but discernible 😀

  49. Any prroper conservative party would have welcomed Farage to rejoin with a view to becoming leader.

      1. I hope so, because I could see a right wing nutcase attempting to kill them, let alone a pro Hamas jihadist.

  52. I know you can all do with cheering up- From the Daily Titivation:

    "Dear Richard
    Our neighbours are lovely people but they waft around the house in various states of undress with the curtains open and no blinds or nets to speak of. The problem worsens in the summer months.

    Recently our six-year-old commented on this practice to us, and we gave him a little talk about how it’s their house, and bodies are nothing to be embarrassed about, and he nodded sagely and went back to his game. But our neighbours seem in most respects quite traditional, and I’m worried they don’t know how visible they are. Is there a tactful way to mention it without seeming censorious?

    — Robin, Kent

    BLT Comments

    James Higgins

    'Our very attractive and voluptuous neighbour sunbathes in her garden topless throughout the summer. My wife disapproves but personally, I'm on the fence.'

    William Lyons

    'Change your Wi-Fi name to “We_can_see_your_dangly_bits”.'

    ANDREW MCLAREN

    'This sort of behaviour can be highly dangerous.
    A friend of ours was cycling to work when the lady owner of a bungalow on route whipped open her kitchen curtains while topless.
    Poor lad hit the curb and went base over apex.
    To be fair the embarrased and now clothed lady rushed out to assist.
    Apparently neither of them mentioned the cause of the accident.
    Makes you proud to be British'.

    1. Not scared of the muslim – scared of the repercussions on their careers should they intervene.

      However, an idea is to stop and search every middle easterner in Brum and confiscate any weapons – even a screwdriver.

    2. At some point, which seems to be getting closer by the day, the army will have to be called out to shoot the bastards.
      I wonder if they will.

      1. 389450+ up ticks,

        Afternoon O,
        The party before Country, best of the worst, you gotta vote tory (ino) party keep out lab continued over the decades brigade, has certainly done a number on old Blighty this time.
        The way the set up currently is they are more likely to shoot us.

  54. OT – two weeks ago today, we went to the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer. I mentioned it in my summary of our time in France. It was a glorious, sunny day.

    The Memorial is stunning in its simplicity. It was good to see the JWK's wreath still in its place. In the field going downhill northwards from the site are arranged 1,475 silhouettes of sailors, soldiers, airmen and nurses who were killed ON D-Day itself. Gob-smacking. You can see the English Channel from which they landed in France and the slope up which they had to fight.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07495ebacca7b24100e0539a8bbc2ea4c639b338b4aef9e2f0fd029965429476.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c2aafe0000a952a7ad2088a03c15bcc0827dbe9afbbcab688befef110cb8444.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9750520adf2641c49dfc7ce982de30d0acaa1d19cfe9864502ea59dd86b093d5.jpg
    There were hundreds of people there. Mostly British but a lot of foreigners. No one made a noise, or ate or drank or played with their phones.
    Indeed, Carolyn told me (because I can't hear these things) that the ONLY sound was that of larks singing overhead.

    The crowds had come – of their own volition – to do something very old-fashioned but still remarkable. To pay their respects.

    The silhouettes will be there until 31 August. If you can get there – DO go.

    1. Very moving, Bill.
      I spent some time at the Allied war memorial in the northern suburb of Siracusa, Sicily. Very simple, immaculately kept, and as you walked through the gate, the sound of traffic was switched off as with a switch. No birds sang, it was totally still.
      Also visited Auschwitz – Birkenau (the camp wih the railway lines going through the forbidding building), as one of the adults accompanying school trip. No birds there, either.

      1. My very thought as we made our pilgrimage along the coast. The bloody Germans are running Europe today. I suppose the present lot are not quite as bad as Hitler and his chums….

  55. The rats are leaving the stinking shit.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13608321/White-House-staffer-Biden-disturbing-decline.html

    Words like 'heartbroken', 'doomed' and 'a f***king disaster' were all used by more than half a dozen Congress Democrats, according to NBC.

    At least five Democrats have since called on the president to drop out of the race, and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner is pushing party members in the upper chamber to oust Biden as the presidential nominee in favor of a younger candidate.

    House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is also assembling top Democrats to discuss the matter in a Zoom meeting on Sunday,

    1. 389450+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      The electoral rodents certainly gave Mr Bridgen a very undeserved slap in the kisser.

  58. Marbella to fine tourists £635 for urinating in the sea. 7 July 2024.

    Marbella has announced it will fine beachgoers who urinate in the sea €750 (£635) for anti-social behaviour.

    According to a new decree passed by Marbella council, “physiological evacuation in the sea and on the beach” will be considered an anti-social act and a breach of local regulations subject to a fine, with repeat offenders liable to pay a €1,500 penalty.

    Is this going to apply to the fish as well?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/03/marbella-to-fine-tourists-750-for-urinating-in-the-sea/

    1. How will the council know? (Unless the offender is actually standing on the shore).

    2. Quite right too, I was caught peeing in our local pool. The lifeguard shouted at me so loud I nearly fell in

      2. There used to be a chemical added to pools, turned the water purple if anyone child or adult pee'd …was that how you were caught:-)

        1. Yes it turns men’s pee blue and wome’s pee red – when me and wife were swimming lengths it was like the Red Arrows

    3. I think they are more concerned with people urinating on the beach on their way home from a night out. One person wouldn’t matter but if it’s whole groups night after night.

    1. The more trans weirdos scream, the more obvious it is they're seeking support and endorsement as they regret their choices.

  60. Please could someone reverse those sodding wndmills?
    We're frozen and some mornings we are still choosing porridge for breakfast.
    Normally, it sits in the cupboard from roughly mid-April to September.

    1. We had a the heating on here last night and this morning. Heavy rain again earlier on and now fairly bright for a while.

    2. With you, anne – we have absolutely no chance with Milliband E in power we'll get even more of the blasted things…:-(

      1. The solar panels on the roof are generating – now – about 1.6kw. Earlier when it was overcast, about 400. As a way of reducing demand on the grid they're a good idea. They, and windmills are not a means of powering a country, let alone a home.

        OK, I am thinking of a couple of batteries so the 'spare' energy tides us over the inconsistencies but you can't do that at a national level.

        1. We’ve had ours from the very first, when FIT was the best deal. Plus battery storage. Paid for installation quite soon, covers cost of electricity use. Cut wood from our own supply, so very very fortunate.

    4. Everybody commented in church how cold it was for July. Usually we can peel off a few layers by now, but we were all dithering.

  61. Your conservatives really are following in the footsteps of the Canadian conservatives.

    Aall was fine and dandy with the party losing conservative values moving closer to the centre until some upstart right wing conservatives formed a new party and stood against them for election.
    Enter thirteen years in the wilderness when the liberals started winning while the two conservative parties split the right wing vote. it took several lost elections before the party powers accepted that they needed to come together under one banner and won government back..

    Just imagine what Starmer and associates can do if reform and the conservatives don't get together. No need to imagine, just look at what Starmers buddy Trudeau has done in the past thirteen years.

    1. Look forward to the GB Polievre, richard – any ideas who that might be (male or female)?

    2. I can't imagine what posses people who would vote for a tyrant like Trudeau……….

      1. Me neither, the blackface one thinks he's such a charmer. Poilievre seems to have the right ideas.

          1. Definitely, wibbling, especially amongst younger/female voters. Poilievre support amongst working people, small businesses – what you might call ‘Conservatives’.

      2. I assume he must control the media in Canada. Its what happens to a spoilt people.

      3. Folk vote Labour, green and lib dem despite the appalling horror those fools inflict.

    3. I am like many Conservative supporters whose support has wained considerably in the past couple of years. However, although there are some Reform policies that are attractive to people like me, I don’t think that Reform will gain a great deal more support than it had in the General Election and there is too big a gap between it and the Conservative party for them to merge.

      Firstly, Reform is at heart a re-badged UKIP and over 60% of the electorate were insufficiently attracted to Brexit to vote for it in the Referendum. Given the large increase since then in the number of young people who can now vote and who, for the most part, seem to be pre-EU, a party that still seems obsessed with hostility to the EU will be unattractive to an increasing proportion of the electorate.

      Anyone who has strong support for Reform and or Brexit will refute this but I think that quite a lot of the vote for both Brexit and Reform was to give an deeply unpopular government a kick in the teeth rather than strong approval of the issue. Polls shows increasing numbers of people think that Brexit was a mistake, and time will tell whether or not Reform support gies the same way. If it does, then I can’t see there being much incentive for the Conservative party to to down the route of a merger with Reform.

      Secondly, Nigel Farage is a marmite figure and, although his supporters have raised him in their minds to sainthood, he deters many right-of-centre voters. The same was true of Boris, and look what happened to him. Every vote that Nigel Farage brings to Reform will lose them at least one.

      Reform could give hope to many like me but it would need to look to the future and not the past.

      1. Many Conservatives who voted Reform did so because they wanted to punish the Conservatives and because they were encouraged to believe Reform would win the election, they didn't expect Labour to win .
        The precious election that Boris Johnson won was a win for Leave – it wasn't about Left or Right as Red Wall votes prove . Leave won but they never accepted that fact . This election cleverly moved away from Leave and Remain and became about – Right, Left and revenge on the Tories.
        I believe this was a deliberate plot- look how easy it was – maybe the voters who voted for Labour or encouraged that vote for Labour, and vote for revenge didnt realise they were being manipulated to vote for Remain. We can see that Tony Blair was behind the scenes always, Starmer has brought Blairites into his government. Starmer with arch Remainer Blair pulling the strings want to resume our links with the EU – how devious are the Remainers and arch deceiver Blair . Remain have won . I think we have now returned to a Labour government of which has Blair pulling the strings – they'll change the electoral system, they have a Muslim Justice minister and they shan't easily let go again.

        1. Any voter in the 4 July General Election who didn’t expect Labour to win must have been living in parallel universe.

          In the General Election of 2019 when Boris won a huge majority there were undoubtedly many who were attracted to his slogan of “Get Brexit Done” but it is far too simplistic to suggest that his win was about all about Leave or Remain. For Conservative supporters, Boris seemed to offer a departure from the chaotic years of the recent past but a predominant factor for supporters of all parties and the neutrals was fear of a Corbyn Government.

          When I said in my earlier that Reform needed to look to the future and not the past, what I had in mind was that for the majority of people, Brexit is a done deal – Remainers have largely accepted it and want to move on. This constant banging on as though there was some sort of malevolent conspiracy by numerous influential and powerful people to turn the clock back has worn very thin. Expressing regret that Brexit has happened is perfectly legitimate but polls show that, although a majority do indeed regret that it happened, there is no great swell of desire to re-join the EU. The best truth during the Referendum campaign was that Brexit will never be as good as Brexiteers expect nor as bad as Remainers expect. There is far too much talk of “Remoaners” but most of the moaning is coming from Brexiteers. Leave won – get over it!

          1. I will stay with the Conservative Party and our very limited amount of MPs – around 10 on the list newly elected on the 4th July . I recognise some names on the list, quite a few I'm surprised are still there and my own MP. I'm a right wing Tory who'll stay with the few and hope they'll sort themselves out . Btw I do admire Nigel Farage and wish him every luck in his aim to take on Labour.

          2. Clearly remainers have NOT accepted it and want to move on. They have been constantly working behind the scenes (and now with Labour and the LDs openly) to overturn what little in the way of Freedom has been grudgingly granted to us. Is Common Law superior to corpus juris? No. Have we ditched all the EU rules and regulations? No, we have been signed up to all of them (incorporated into UK law) and are being signed up to new ones as they appear. We could have ditched GDPR and gone back to the Data Protection Act. That would have saved my council tax-payers £345 per annum in compliance (an expense that is a direct result of having signed up to the EU's GDPR). I could give more examples but life's too short.

          3. You say “clearly” Remainers have not accepted it but clarity shows the opposite. I accept that polls are not infallible but they all show that something like 65% of those polled do not either want or think it desirable to try and rejoin the EU. Of course there will always be some who do want to rejoin and will do all they can to achieve this. As long as they don’t do anything illegal, that is part of democracy. Had the vote gone the other way, fervent Leavers would have done the same sort of thing to try and achieve their aims. I respect your commitment to Brexit but I suspect that you and likeminded people will never get the kind of Brexit that you want and continued complaints about it are simply going to ensure that you and they will get further and further away from it. I’m not certain what point you are making with respect to Common Law and Statute Law but my understanding is that the relationship between them makes for a complex English legal landscape. I often justify a Committee decision by saying that I am observing ECL because the regulations do not prohibit what I am proposing, but I am probably bluffing somewhat. Brexit is water that has long passed under the bridge and has achieved a sort of unanimity of view in that strong Leavers and strong Remainers are equally dissatisfied with what we’ve got. Neither side are going to get what they want so let’s all move on.

          4. Personally, this fervent leaver would have accepted the vote had it gone against us. May and subsequent remainers in government have done everything they can to keep us as tied to the EU with as few changes as possible so it will be easy to slip us back in (we won't be asked, of course, it will be "for our own good"). Common Law is the traditional law of England and Wales (Scotland has a slightly different version which is more akin to Roman Law, on which the contintental system is based). It allows that everything is permitted unless a law is passed to forbid it. It is the basis of freedom. Corpus juris (the body of the law) is based on the Code Napoleon and states that everything is forbidden unless the state passes a law to allow it. It is the basis of state control over everything and everyone. They are fundamental opposites. Corpus juris (EU law) has been given precedence over Common Law. "Let's all move on" even though the winners haven't got what they want? So, a vote doesn't count?

          5. I am very well aware of what Common Law means and what its relationship to the NC is but I was trying to tell you gently not to tell your grandma etc. it is not just EU law that has precedence over ECL; as a generalisation, English Statute Law also takes precedence over ECL. I have some very learned friends in the legal profession and have discussed ECL, NC and associated matters with them – that it is a complex subject is an understatement unless you are satisfied with simplistic sound-bites.

            As for your comment that the winners haven’t got what they wanted, they will never get what they want because the prize was never set out in detail and, of course, the Devil is always in the detail. Yes, let’s move on!

        2. Sorry – I disagree. Not even Nigel expected Reform to win this time around. For all the MSM talk of a Labour landslide, their vote share hardly changed. After 14 years of betrayal of its core vote, the Tory party had to be taught a lesson. It's clear from press coverage the last few days that it won't. The Conservative Party has effectively been an uncomfortable coalition of two opposits since.. at least some years before Margaret Thatcher. She managed to keep a lid on the disagreements for several years, but the wets caught up with her in the end, and brought about ther downfall.

          An awful lot of people who believe themselves to be conservative, go along with the 'One Nation' narrative. Only three hours ago, as I accepted the usual lift home from Church with a neighbour and Churchwarden, I merely observed that the weather seemed to be giving its verdict on the election result. This triggered an outpouring of invective about the 'unacceptable comments' by Suella Braverman. Whereas, "poor Penny Mordaunt" had been treated abysmally by the voters. Damn those voters, Portsmouth apparently needs a new electorate.

          Discretion being the better part of valour, I conceded that Penny carries a good sword, and beyond that, we'd have to agree to differ. "Not to worry," I said. "Only 5 years until Nigel becomes PM." The response was a noise which doesn't easily translate into words… 😳

          1. Five years is a long time and one had to live their lives. All too late now

          2. Suella's statements were truthful. I voted for her because of that. She is also a good constituency MP who answers the people that vote for her. She has also done good works locally and is popular even though her majority slightly decreased this time round.

            The postie even commented on the House of Commons embossed envelope i got from her. :@)

          3. I agree, Phil. I would be delighted were Suella to cross the floor to Reform UK. She’s prolly the only Tory who I would welcome.

            Years ago, as a churchwarden in an interregnum, I used to receive letters from the Lord Chancellor’s Ecclesiastical Office, concerning potential new clergy. They all came in embossed envelopes bearing ’10 Downing Street’ . It kept the postie guessing…

          4. You are more connected than i am. How about i extend an invitation to Suella to my drinky canape party ?

      2. As someone who campaigned for Brexit (which we have not got yet) I can say that speaking to people on the street it was not a protest vote but a genuine realisation that the EU did not suit our needs, our history, our law nor our insular (in the literal sense – we are a maritime, not continental people) outlook.

        1. British history is one of adapting to new challenges and changes, most have worked out after time to our advantage. I am certain that by far the majority of people who voted in the Referendum thought that there were pros and cons for both Leave and Remain and voted for one of the other because, on balance, it was better than the alternative. That is why most people now have little or no interest in rehashing old arguments and just want to make the best of what we’ve now got. It is far from perfect but chasing perfection will achieve nothing.

          1. Chasing a genuine break from the EU will achieve everything. There is no point in putting up with imprisonment when you have voted for freedom.

        2. British history is one of adapting to new challenges and changes, most have worked out after time to our advantage. I am certain that by far the majority of people who voted in the Referendum thought that there were pros and cons for both Leave and Remain and voted for one of the other because, on balance, it was better than the alternative. That is why most people now have little or no interest in rehashing old arguments and just want to make the best of what we’ve now got. It is far from perfect but chasing perfection will achieve nothing.

  62. We're out this afternoon at a choral concert – Renaissance music, which I'm hoping will lift the gloom and depression I'm currently feeling. At least the sun's reappeared for a while. OH is watching Wimbledon and was a bit annoyed that he'd miss the Emma Raducanu match and would have to catch up on it later.

    1. Calm down, calm down…said in a scouse accent.

      I commented on the Tommy article.

      Takes a while to build a fanbase but it's a good looking site. It will take off eventually.

      1. I’m canny calm phiz, said in a Pitmatic accent. Just doing my duty.

          3. Burn the food philistine heretics at the steak medium rare 🙂

          5. Why would you not – good gravy is suitable on almost everything (not fruit pies or ice-cream, though)

          6. No thats wrong. When in Yorkshire, they like chicken parmo – chicken with cheese – yuk ! But I did bring home from Layburn a wonderful Yorkshire Brack cake so Yorkshire is forgiven for chicken parmo .

  64. Ah, a wonderful day. I had the warqueen barely dressed, on all floors in the bathroom. She looked am-azing. Golden hair flowing over herbare back, bottom in the air, breathing in that panting, breathy way.

    I said "make sure you get into the corners and along the base of the shower where the dust collects. There's more spray in the drawers."

    Oh happy day.

  65. What happened when I ate a 1960s diet for a week
    Spam, cake, roast beef and lard – that’s apparently how Britons stayed slim 60 years ago. Our writer puts the diet to the test
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/diet/nutrition/1960s-diet-healthier-way-to-live/

    We never had spam at home when I was a child but when I was sent away to a boarding prep school in the 1950s I discovered on the supper plate before me not only a piece if spam but also a helping of baked beans which I had never had before either.

    I have avoided spam ever since and I have never bought a tin of baked beans since we moved to France 35 years ago.

      1. I will give that combo a go sometime. What is your view on sprinkling grated Cheddar over the top or is that over the top?

        Heinz beans are rubbish compared to Branston.

        1. Ah – it’s the rubbishness that is part of the attraction! If I am feeling really bold – a poached egg on top. Deffo NO cheese.

          1. Poached eggs on beans ! That's disgusting ! Red and yellow do not go together !

          3. Bleugh…

            Have bought some special things for the party. Do you like Devon crab?

          5. Could not agree more. Eggs and anything tomato must not be served together under any circs

          1. I am addicted to HP fruity sauce now. Brown is dull in comparison IMO.

            Grizz introduced me to Henderson's rather than Lea & Perrins. More depth of flavour.

        3. My fave at the moment is avocado on marmite toast.

          Agree about the beans.

          4. The M&S cafes do avocado on toast with poached eggs. That’s a nice combo too.

        4. Marmite cheesy beans on toast. It’s the future. You heard it hear first (though i thiink i have mentioned it before).

        7. Toasted cheese on toast, covered with baked beans, topped with a poached (or fried) egg.

          That's cheese-on-toast, beans-on-toast, and egg-on-toast, all in one. Yum!

          2. Lose the fried egg? Sunny-side-up with soft yellow yolk and crispy-edged white? That’s the best bit!

            If I have Marmite on buttered toast, I want nothing else with it.

      2. Baked beans with a good spoonful of curry powder is pretty good as well!

        1. I do that too. Diced onion fried first then curry powder. I also add sultanas. Then the beans.

          1. Hmm, I hadn’t considered the onions and sultanas but that sounds very good so I’ll give it a try. Thanks.

    2. Military personnel remember Spam fritters with longing. You can buy them ready made from Iceland.

    3. We didn’t have Spam but had luncheon meat thick sliced battered and fried – fritters.
      Like baked beans but have to be Branston not Heinz.

    4. We never had condensed milk with our pudding – if it wasn’t custard, it was evap (evaporated milk)

      2. Conny-onny. I first encountered it as a student when someone made me a cup of coffee with condensed milk. Mmm …

        1. In the old days, when you could still buy condensed milk in tubes, it was great for taking camping! You can still buy condensed milk in tubes in Switzerland.

    5. Me too. And avoid baked beans like the plague. If I absolutely had to, I would eat a tbspnful in order to be polite and not cause offence, but that would be it. I haven't tasted spam since I was at primary school when I to stay for school dinners because my mother was in hospital. Mostly during the whole of my school life I came home at lunch time even though it meant a bus ride home and back. It was a welcome relief mid-day from school life, a rough, tough co-ed northern grammar school.

    6. No good having a high fat, high protein diet on today's working pattern. If you worked on your feet for 10 hours a day, walking to work, standing to work, manually labouring in some form or another then you need that sort of diet. If you sit at a desk all day you'll just get fat.

      2. It was the nearest we came at school to something that was edible. That and blocks of ‘chocolate’ rice-krispie cake.

    9. If that vacuous woman thinks that was what we ate in the 1960s, it shows that neither she nor any of her researchers have a single clue.

      1. No effing clue. I (confession) had a bit of a hankering for spam recently, but a quick read of the ingredients squelched it

  66. He is a role model to every lab supporter / voter, AKA
    miranda the thing that crept out of the crypt within a park public toilet and into the Bow street court court to be found guilty on a cottaging charge.

    One of the common denominators within the lab/lib/con paedophile umbrella coalition party.

    https://x.com/UnityNewsNet/status/1809931477930426842

        1. No, sadly, Blair is a just a petty, greedy, nasty little man who is the epitome of the problems with the current system of government: uncontrolled, excessively overpaid, awash with money without discipline or receipt.

          The public pay and pay and pay and nothing changes because that money flows into the pockets of scum like him, Gummer, Dale, Heseltine and the rest of the troughers.

      2. An old-school headmistress I knew in the 1970s could have told us he was bad. 'His eyes are too close together. He can't be trusted.'

    2. – So the country thought that they were voting for Gryffindor but sadly it appears that they were all under a mainstream media spell and it now looks like they have elected Slytherin, led by Keir Salazar under the guidance of Tony Voldemort.
      Nigel Potter, is the only person that can save the country from untrammeled fascism

      1. 389450+ up ticks,

        Afternoon B3,
        Being one that has witnessed the damage done in the past via the
        actions and treacherous tongue of farage my view is use him then lose him because that is his tactics, poetic justice.

        A complete new party void of any
        of the current politico’s, ALL are toxic in the extreme, should have been started yesterday.

      2. "Dimitte immigrantes!" said Sir Kier –
        "I've always wanted to use that spell" he added.

        "Sed quo vadunt?" warned Tony Voldemort.

    5. Reading XTwitter one could believe that most people have read the Book of Revelation but I expect most of them haven’t and blindly imagine that digital ID is for their own convenience. The BBC already insists on it in lieu of a season pass for the Proms, which is why I’ve gone back to buying seat tickets. Actual tickets. OK the piece of card has a bar code on it but it doesn’t carry my personal identification.

      1. The mark of the beast. I read the letter to the Corinthians this morning. If weakness is indeed power, we will be stong indeed.

        1. I hope you avoided the Janet and John "bible"…

          Raining on and off (mostly on) since lunch. Bloody labour gvernment.

          1. Modern English, but not particularly dumbed down, even though it was the family service.

          3. I do prefer the proper version, but as I didn't know I was reading until I arrived (someone had dropped out) there was no time to paraphrase.

    6. What you see is what you get. The personification of Evil, and not the only one. "My name is Legion for we are many".

    1. Any sort of shellfish is always potentially disastrous. Hope you are well insured….

      1. Devon crab is the finest in the world. The French haven't been anywhere near it so it is perfectly safe to eat.

        1. "Dog owners in Devon have been warned to check what their pet may be eating at the beach after a Siberian husky and a golden retriever died from eating poisoned shellfish."

          5. Lovely and sunny here on the costa del solent. Perhaps it's a question of attitude.

  71. It's raining cats and dogs here, very dark and cold ( East Anglia )
    Time for hot tea and buttered crumpets.
    I think from 4th July we've begun the eternal begotten winter of the future –
    prelude to doom .

    1. There's certainly rain expected. I'd quite like a couple of hours of really strong wind to blow the water out of the washing.

  72. The Church of St. John the Baptist, Bere Regis: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d76058a1ce1e665af7f59c093e39ac12daef6113664e36b496bc9e888e4b796d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c218655d556472384620989192344bffab524637003f57f880f621279d3b98aa.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39d2ca9f690f9ec7357a54229d28b469d567b8357cf49f872540762e319b8f50.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/192d557fdfd014af0aff896ace208812eed7631fe0685720629c86bb152c15fd.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0a4027fa6180468b20de11e62eed3d91e5bdb2701849d38e708cc8d374cf381.jpg

  73. In a gap between rain and more rain, the MR has just cut my hair – outdoors to avoid hoovering etc. Very chilly….but a nice feeling after a hot shower.

  74. In a gap between rain and more rain, the MR has just cut my hair – outdoors to avoid hoovering etc. Very chilly….but a nice feeling after a hot shower.

    1. The Blarite Starmer Pro EU government, they'd always planned to take us back into the EU. Brussels were joyful when Starmer won . Amongst the Blarites who've returned there is a certain David Milliband ( the chosen one who was stabbed in the back by his brother the energy secretary) .
      Maybe he should replace the Tottenham Turnip wannabee Mugabe Lammy as foreign secretary- at least he was eloquent .

    2. David Lammy: EU nations talks are 'just the beginning'

      Foreign Secretary embarks on tour to Germany, Poland and Sweden to reset relations without plans of rejoining single market

      7 July 2024 • 11:36am

      David Lammy has said his talks with EU nations this weekend are "just the beginning" of his attempt to "reset" relations with the bloc. The new Foreign Secretary has embarked on a tour of Europe on his first overseas visit on the job, with trips to see his counterparts in Germany, Poland and Sweden.

      Labour has insisted it has no intention of rejoining the EU single market or customs union or restoring free movement. But the party does want to "improve" the UK-EU trade deal agreed by the Tories in 2020. In particular, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has said that Labour would look to strike deals in the chemical and veterinary sectors.

      Writing for The Local, a European news website, Mr Lammy said his talks over the weekend were "just the beginning" of Labour's efforts to rebuild Britain's partnership with the EU. He said: "Over centuries, our individual and national stories have come together to tell a wider story of shared progress. Today, we all share a commitment to democracy, human rights and international law.

      "Tragic experiences in our continent's shared past have helped us to understand how our shared security and prosperity depend on these shared values. And I believe these values also offer a foundation for closer partnership in the future. My visit this weekend is just the beginning. I look forward to seeing Britain reconnect with our European neighbours in the years ahead."

      This comes after Simon Harris, the Irish premier said the EU wanted to work more closely with Sir Keir Starmer, the new Prime Minister, on relations with the UK. The Taoiseach said that there would be a "willingness" in Europe to work with a Labour government to deliver veterinary agreements and "student mobility".

      He told Sky's Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: "Is there space to have a veterinary agreement, is there space in terms of student mobility, is there space to work closer together on issues? I think there absolutely is. And I do think there would be a willingness in Europe to have those conversations in due course, should that be the wish of the British government."

      Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, said that he welcomed the "constructive attitude" from European partners. He told Sky: "We've got the same standards as the European Union, if we can sell more whiskey, more salmon, to a market which is so significant to us, of course we should explore an opportunity like that."

      But he insisted that the Government was not "open" to the free movement of people, insisting that they would not be "revisiting" the issue.

      Mr Lammy, who voted Remain and advocated for a second Brexit referendum, said ahead of his trip that it was time to "put the Brexit years behind us". In his article for The Local, he vowed to "reset relations with Europe as a reliable partner, a dependable ally and a good neighbour".

      "That is why I am travelling immediately to some of our key European partners. Sitting down with Germany's Annalena Baerbock, Poland's Radek Sikorski and Sweden's Tobias Billström, my message will be simple: let us seize the opportunity for a reset, working even more closely together to tackle shared challenges," he said.

      The Foreign Secretary also said Labour will "champion" EU holidays and school exchanges, which critics argue have been hindered by Brexit.

      He said: "We must do more to champion the ties between our people and our culture. Holidays, family ties, school and student exchanges, the arts, and sport (I was of course cheering on England in the Euros…). Thanks to this, our citizens benefit from the rich diversity of our continent."

      Labour speaks with forked tongue. Don't trust it.

      If the EU were nothing more than a FTA (rather than a customs union) with simple voluntary agreements between member states on specific matters (two examples are given above) then we might still be in it. It was being forced to pay £13 billion a year and having to accept everything, especially freedom of movement from 2004, with not even the tiniest democratic influence or control over anything, that won the referendum.

      1. Democracy? What democracy? Never mind that the plebs voted to leave, they'll get what they're given.

  76. Perhaps all your defects are caused BY eating seafood and shellfish all your life!!

  80. Following up on Lammy in La-La-Land.

    Business Secretary flip-flops on digital ID cards after refusing to rule them out

    Jonathan Reynolds says they are 'not part of our plans' hours after leaving the door open to introducing them

    7 July 2024 • 12:39pm

    The new Business Secretary has flip-flopped on digital ID cards after Sir Tony Blair championed the policy as a means to control migration.

    Jonathan Reynolds initially left the door open to introducing the documents, saying Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, would look at "all sources of advice" on the issue. But less than two hours later, he said he could categorically "rule out ID cards", in a rapid reversal of his position.

    Sir Tony, who advocated for ID cards when he was in office only for the idea to be killed off after Labour lost power, said in an article for The Sunday Times that Britain "should move as the world is moving to digital ID".

    Speaking to Sky News just after 8.30 am on Sunday, Mr Reynolds said: "The new Home Secretary will be looking at all sources of advice when it comes to that. But I would just say we have backed the points-based immigration system, we made difficult decisions, particularly when we thought legal migration was too high and it has to come down."

    Pressed again on ID cards, he said: "Well look, my colleague Yvette Cooper and the rest of the home affairs team will be looking at all sorts of things. I'm not going to pre-empt things they may or may not want to do."

    But less than two hours later, between 10am and 10.30am: "I can rule out ID cards for you. That's not something which is part of our plans. We'll be tough on crime, we'll be tough on the causes of crime. If we're going to hark back to advice from former prime ministers, I think that is the right method".

    Sources close to Ms Cooper said ID cards were not Labour policy and that had not changed.

    Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Tony said: "The only game-changer is the full embrace of the potential of technology."

    He added: "We need a plan to control immigration. If we don't have rules, we get prejudices. In office, I believed the best solution was a system of identity so that we know precisely who has a right to be here. With, again, technology, we should move as the world is moving to digital ID. If not, new border controls will have to be highly effective."

    Lord Blunkett, the Labour peer, has previously urged Sir Keir Starmer to bring back ID cards to tackle the small boats crisis. He floated the idea of compulsory identity documents in 2001, during his time as home secretary, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/07/business-secretary-refuses-to-rule-out-blair-backed-digital/

    1. "Tony Blair championed the policy as a means to control migration the indigenous population.

    2. The id cards that Blair wanted were actually introduced for immigrants and had a chip and photo embedded and know as a British Residence Permit. They are to be superseded this December by an e-version, which will be accessible as a means to prove your immigration status.

    3. The id cards that Blair wanted were actually introduced for immigrants and had a chip and photo embedded and know as a British Residence Permit. They are to be superseded this December by an e-version, which will be accessible as a means to prove your immigration status.

  82. Afternoon, all. It has been monsoonesque here; I was going to take Kadi to a local dog show, but the torrential rain and consequent black clouds dissuaded me. Looking at the sky and having experienced another downpour, I think I made the right decision.

    At church today one of the choir was crowing about the Labour victory. I didn't ask him today how old he is (I'd guess mid-thirties), I'll wait a couple of weeks until reality sets in. I suspect he's never experienced the Wilson-Callaghan troubles let alone Attlee and the post-war misery. When it all starts to unravel, Schadenfreude will be sweet 🙂

    1. Unfortunately Conners, schadenfreude is all we’ll have. I cannot envisage how awful this cretinous bunch are going to be, and the destruction they will wreak.

      1. I know. The only thing we can do is resist and become ungovernable. The church (not Welby's lot) will have to go underground as in the USSR. I gave the leftie a donation towards a fundraiser for the church. I should have added, I'll give while I can because Labour will tax me until I have no spare cash and I probably shan't be able to afford the petrol to drive to church.

        1. Good Lord, Connors, don't give those leeches money! They will use it to destroy the very fabric of the church, pay reparations to those who have never been wronged but whose ancestors were rescued from slavery by our nation, and even further destroy the Christian soul of our land.

          1. Come come – someone has to pay for the "descendants of enslaved people (spit)…"

          4. I gave the money because I couldn't attend a fundraiser that he was organising for the church. He may be a leftie, but he's in charge of the church's fundraising committee.

          1. Going underground? I used to be in the ROC – we were underground in a bunker 🙂

          3. Hole in the ground in a field in the middle of nowhere 🙂 I don’t play golf; it’s a good walk spoiled.

  85. A former warden – since moved from the village – used reams of A4 printing out J&J stuff for people to read. Average congregation = eight. He'd run off 30 copies…

    The new vicarette – thoroughly good person – actually USES the Prayer Book. Though, sadly, she does rely on the J&J….

  86. Lewis Hamilton first at Silverstone.
    But he's used to driving in wet weather.
    Silly haircut.

        1. Bunty goes to his club and meets Ponsonby and says:

          "D'you know, old chap, I just told young Carruthers that poor old Uxbridge lorst his leg at Waterloo. And do you know what he said? He said: 'Which platform?' "

          Ponsonby:

          " Good God! As if it matters which platform!"

          1. Of course, Uxbridge could have lorst his leg on the PIccadily Line….

            Reminds me: "Carruthers was a man's man – but he liked the company of women.

    1. He did have a hug with his mother after he'd hugged his pop.
      First time I've seen her. I assume it was her.

      1. Well, the tosser prolly loves his Mum (to bits) – it is just the rest of the white population that he despises.

        1. That’ll be 99.999999999% of the people who went to Silverstone today.
          I use to quite like him when he was a modest sporting personality.
          But like so many of his fellows male and female. He started moaning all the time. And there’s a lot of it about in this day and age Bill.

          1. Descended from enslaved people, I shouldn’t wonder. Just on his mother’s side.

  90. Midsomer Murders viewers warned they will see crime scenes. 7 July 2024

    Viewers of Midsomer Murders have been warned that episodes may contain violence.

    The move follows a growing trend to add trigger warnings to everything from Shakespeare’s plays to 1980s sitcom Terry and June for fear of offending those of a sensitive disposition.

    But it was ridiculed by stars of the popular long-running crime drama who said the very name of the show, which has been on air since 1997, rather gave the game away.

    I won’t because I have never watched it and i have no intention of starting now..

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

    1. It comes after streaming service BritBox warned viewers of BBC drama Call the Midwife that the show contained "surgical procedures and some scenes of distress"…

      One of the worst offenders must be 'Silent Witness'. Body parts everywhere.

      1. Gardening progs have a warning that, "There are pictures of plants being cut and dug up…"

        (Actually, I made that up – but you never know. I don't watch any such progs….)

    2. It used to be great when John Nettles was in n it.
      Now, it’s just another woke multiculti brainwashing exercise with a murder thrown in for good measure.
      I applaud you for not watching; but if you can get hold of some old episodes, they really are worth it.

      1. Yes, it was fun when it unashamedly took the p out of the English. Now, though…

      2. And the new Barnaby looks like David Cameron which is a great turn off.

        1. Neil Dudgeon played a villain in the earlier series. They think we don't notice.

  91. Midsomer Murders viewers warned they will see crime scenes. 7 July 2024

    Viewers of Midsomer Murders have been warned that episodes may contain violence.

    The move follows a growing trend to add trigger warnings to everything from Shakespeare’s plays to 1980s sitcom Terry and June for fear of offending those of a sensitive disposition.

    But it was ridiculed by stars of the popular long-running crime drama who said the very name of the show, which has been on air since 1997, rather gave the game away.

    I won’t because I have never watched it and i have no intention of starting now..

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

  92. Afternoon, all!

    One small silver lining to the (literal) dark clouds that are buggering up the English summer is that when people understandably complain, it's a great opportunity to mention the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption.

    When they say with amazement that they've never heard of it, I laughingly say that of course they haven't, as it doesn't fit in with the offical climate change narrative.

    I leave it at that, and supply them with the offical NASA report:

    https://www.nasa.gov/earth/tonga-eruption-blasted-unprecedented-amount-of-water-into-stratosphere/

    More than one person has started to think!

    1. That eruption was underwater and a huge volume of water vapour was injected into the stratosphere. Lots of excess water vapour in the atmosphere and we're suffering from cloudy weather and more rain than enough. Is joining the dots the answer?

    2. Well done, ashes. These people are seemingly immune to evidence and reason, though.

      1. Indeed. However, in this case, the appeal to authority (NASA) plus the rather obvious gap in official reporting does *sometimes* give them pause.

      2. Indeed. However, in this case, the appeal to authority (NASA) plus the rather obvious gap in official reporting does *sometimes* give them pause.

    3. The Greens seem also to be totally in denial of the worst ecological disaster in a century viz. the release of enormous volumes of gas following the US detonation of the Baltic Nordstream pipeline. More carbon dioxide than most of the world’s emissions.

      1. "It is estimated that more than 115,000 tons natural gas (CH4) were released over the course of six days and contributed greenhouse gas emissions comparable to approximately 15 million tons of CO2—or one third of the Danish total CO2 annual emissions) thus contributing to global warming."
        From Google search.
        Own goal, or is this indicating that the CO2 in the atmosphere doesn't matter?
        (Edit: Methane has much more greenhouse effect per tonne than CO2)

      2. "It is estimated that more than 115,000 tons natural gas (CH4) were released over the course of six days and contributed greenhouse gas emissions comparable to approximately 15 million tons of CO2—or one third of the Danish total CO2 annual emissions) thus contributing to global warming."
        From Google search.
        Own goal, or is this indicating that the CO2 in the atmosphere doesn't matter?
        (Edit: Methane has much more greenhouse effect per tonne than CO2)

    4. The Greens seem also to be totally in denial of the worst ecological disaster in a century viz. the release of enormous volumes of gas following the US detonation of the Baltic Nordstream pipeline. More carbon dioxide than most of the world’s emissions.

  93. A statutory Par Four?

    Wordle 1,114 4/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I was cutting it fine.

      Wordle 1,114 6/6

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

    2. Likewise, I was happy with it!

      Wordle 1,114 4/6

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

  94. That didn't take long.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13609157/Keir-Starmer-says-recognition-state-Palestine-undeniable-right-peace-process-Middle-East-new-Prime-Minister-tells-Israeli-counterpart-Benjamin-Netanyahu-clear-urgent-need-ceasefire.html

    And when he gets his wish will he do anything when Hamas et al continue their attacks as soon as that State is established?
    Because I guarantee they will start again

    Keir Starmer says recognition of the state of Palestine is an 'undeniable right' as part of the peace process in the Middle East as the new Prime Minister tells his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu there is a 'clear and urgent' need for a ceasefire

      1. Hamas will. though, particularly its operatives, supporters and MPs here in the UK.

        1. I wondered that, too. I also wondered whether, in real life, she voted Tory (or, even, Reform).

          1. Doubt it. Israel (and theJews in general) have always been incurably Leftie. They are very communitarian and compassionate people. Even what is going on now will hardly chip that with some, if not most. (NB: It is what attracted me to the country all those years ago, by the way – but I have resiled).

          2. Quite so.
            My secular Jewish neighbours are Labour enthusiasts (it’s really obvious as they sent their kids to private schools, have private health insurance, and a second home)

          3. Quite, Lola. Some do seem almost a template for the unrealistic smug left status quo. I stand with Israel, by the way, very solidly indeed. Am Yisrael Chai.

    3. There is indeed a need for a ceasefire, but it has to be mutual. Not one-sided, followed by a hostage taking and murdering episode.

  95. David Lammy: EU talks are ‘just the beginning’
    Foreign Secretary embarks on tour to Germany, Poland and Sweden to reset relations without plans of rejoining single market
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/07/david-lammy-eu-talks-are-just-the-beginning/

    Another BTL predicting what I have said here recently!

    The British voters can't say they weren't warned. It serves them right!

    I wonder if Starmer will get the UK back into the EU just before it collapses so that one week it will have to pay an enormous re-entry fee and the following week have to pay the major cost towards the EU's dissolution with the spoils divied up between France and Germany!

    The UK has become the champion country for being outwitted and made to look like fools.

    2. Lammy has apologised for Brexit . Did anyone who voted for Labour ( for whatever reason, or allowed them to win ) not think that they were voting to rejoint the EU . It was always part of the plan.

    1. Doing a Greenswill, is he? However, I can't find any reports to confirm the idea that he's heading for the USA! Yet!

    2. Just checking that his new job is still available?

      Despite him saying that he'll stay on as leader until a replacement is appointed – implying that he is there for the next five years – he'll be gone the day after Jeremy Rhyming (appointed by the CCP) takes over.

      1. The appointment of J 'unt was the writing on the wall, obvious to even the remaining deniers

    3. Didn't Cameron promise he would stay on as PM whichever way the referendum went?

      The Conservatives cannot be trusted to keep their word when they win and neither can they be trusted to keep it when they lose!

      1. Indeed he did and the following day, I had a letter published in the DT which read:

        David Cameron: quitter. Please discuss.

    4. I'll bet he was disappointed he didn't lose his seat. Then he would have been off like a shot. Now he has to apply for the Chiltern Hundreds.

    5. I'll bet he was disappointed he didn't lose his seat. Then he would have been off like a shot. Now he has to apply for the Chiltern Hundreds.

    6. He'll just resign in a couple of months due to family stress, or whatever, and leave a by-election up in north Richmond way as he swans back to the States.

    2. It doesn't matter anymore. Fortunately for Rastus, he lives in France and is spared of living with the consequences of a Labour govenment.
      Just wait until Isreal strikes Hamas or whatever terrorist organisation- how will the pro Palestinians here react. Starmer has appointed a Muslim for minister of Justice called something Mahmood.
      There is the new hate bill that will include islamphobia which will be drawn up soon. Labour will also soon be taking us back into the EU and have apologised about Brexit – at least Cameron didn't slyly try to overturn the democratic vote- unlike Starmer and his pro EU master puppeteer Blair. Farage himself has moved on and wishes to deal with Labour and accepting that Remain have won and they did so by making it about revenge on the Tories and about Left and Right and about Remain and Leave . Labour are the government- some must be grateful they dont live here and they don't live In Labour constituencies. A friend of mine has lost her very good Conservative MP because of all the ' revenge on the Tories ' its getting stale now .

      1. I feel the same pain, Kitty. We also lost our very good and loyal Conservative MP to Labour. Reform could possibly have won this seat if it had bothered to mount any kind of serious challenge, but it didn't (nothing). The upshot was that a few thousand people voted for the unelectable Reform candidate, as a protest, thus denying a decent conservative representative a seat.

        1. It is possible that the few thousand people who voted for Reform may not have voted at all had a candidate not been available – or voted for Labour as a protest. Being an excellent MP is no fail-safe when a constituency is on the warpath with the government of the day. The constituency in which we live used to have a 27,000 cons majority, over the years it has been whittled away somewhat – two days we turned lib dem (perish the thought) with a 10,000 majority. I woke at 3.00 am on the morning after the election and wondered what was the point of going on, I don't have many years left to me now although I am in good health. All I can see ahead is pain and worry, worry and pain.

          1. If I hadn't had a Reform candidate I would have stood myself. I dont want anything the "big four" have to offer so I couldn't vote for them. I've given up voting for what I don't want to keep out something I really don't want. I now want to vote for something I do want.

          2. I feel similarly. We are comprehensively disenfranchised. Except (ray of hope) my 17 year old grandson and all his lovely and cool circle of friends cannot wait to get their vote and to vote Reform = “it’s our only hope, Grandma”

          3. You have a 17 year old grandson? You must be about 99 years old – confirm and I will send a telegram on your birthday which you will treasure far more than the one from the King……..

          5. Hmmmm, that will make you around 48/49 – what will you be doing for your 50th? I’ll send a card this time!……

        2. Yes, it’s dreadful, I know . It’s the constituencies who had decent and hardworking Conservative MPs who’ll suffer and saying ‘ oh well attack Labour and try again in 5 years – 5 whole years isn’t going to cut the mustard- we all live in the hear and now. I think you and I were saying last week – vote for the person not the rosette – peoples actual lives today .
          Nigel has said that he’ll make Reform electable, make them democratic and professional- that he’ll do so in the next 5 years – but many did think Reform would win ( even if Nigel Farage couldn’t have thought that ) I do genuinely wish him well as a parliamentary MP and with Reform but what of our lives now . ‘ Destroy the Tories ‘ turned out to be destroying well run constituencies with hard working backbenchers due to revenge on those on the front bench. They weren’t ready – they never said.

          1. Don't you think that these "hard-working Tory MPs" should have done more to make the party at Westminster more conservative? If they had, they might not have been picking up their P45s.

          2. Many very good hard working Thatcherite right wing constituency MPs got chucked out with the bathwater, many who were always at odds with the front bench and arguing with whatever Prime Minister. The constituencies were grateful for that ahd told their MPs they did a very good job and they did.

          3. I think they did say that they weren’t ready, Kitty. And, although it’s brutal (what’s happened), there is no denying how comprehensively we have ben betrayed

      2. I feel the same pain, Kitty. We also lost our very good and loyal Conservative MP to Labour. Reform could possibly have won this seat if it had bothered to mount any kind of serious challenge, but it didn't (nothing). The upshot was that a few thousand people voted for the unelectable Reform candidate, as a protest, thus denying a decent conservative representative a seat.

  98. I stopped watching it when they shoe-horned loads of effniks and queers into it. It isn't the countryside as I know it (although the PTB have been trying to make life mirror art).

    1. We watched it when John Nettles was Barnaby, it was so very English and charming, even with Briars as a vicar committing murders, it had stories of true evil. It all changed when John Nettles left the series – it became full of Effnicks and the crimes were due to ' mental health issues ' . That lovely programme was ruined .

        1. It could be a reflection as the MR prolly took the snap through the window.

          She is a dab hand with a camera. She took all the snaps at the British Normandy Memorial.

          It was a fantastic billet, by the way. We hope to return next year.

          1. …Schengen border checks, fingerprints, huge queues, bolshie Frogs, permitting. It might be easier to offer to return one of those dinghies that the Border Force are kindly storing for their owners.

          2. Indeed. I did explain to the very charming owner that our return was dependent on us being able to make sense of and cope with the new requirements. "But you are not American," she exclaimed. We told her that the new bollox applies to everyone who does not have a member state passport.

            I just hope and pray (though now – wither even less expectation) that HMG will introduce reciprocal buggerment for EU people wishing to visit the Islamic Peoples Republic of Britanistan.

          3. Mrs Pea, being from a far off land, needs a Schengen visa to visit The Continent. The application process is just about as complicated as you could make it. But at least they have the common sense to want proof of health/travel insurance for your visit.

          4. We are going to do a champ d’essai in January – when few people cross the Channel to see if the bollox can be done at a quiet time and at our leisure. We plan two nights in Ostend – going (as always) via the Tunnel. If it is all too much (and I shall be 84) well, we’ll give up. I first went to France in January 1949 – and, as an adult, have been every year and often several times a year – so it will be a loss I can live with.

          5. We are going to do a champ d’essai in January – when few people cross the Channel to see if the bollox can be done at a quiet time and at our leisure. We plan two nights in Ostend – going (as always) via the Tunnel. If it is all too much (and I shall be 84) well, we’ll give up. I first went to France in January 1949 – and, as an adult, have been every year and often several times a year – so it will be a loss I can live with.

          6. We live inside Schengen, so flashing the Norwegian ID card solves all. No visa, etc.

          7. Mrs Pea, being from a far off land, needs a Schengen visa to visit The Continent. The application process is just about as complicated as you could make it. But at least they have the common sense to want proof of health/travel insurance for your visit.

          8. Mrs Pea, being from a far off land, needs a Schengen visa to visit The Continent. The application process is just about as complicated as you could make it. But at least they have the common sense to want proof of health/travel insurance for your visit.

          2. I didn't know Blackpool still had a zoo – it's been a very long time since I last went there. I had my very first flight in Blackpool – a trip in an Auster around the Tower and out to sea.

          3. Oh yes, it has a great 'back-in-time' Dinosaur Safari which he absolutely loved – I did as well!

            I also love the Pleasure Beach – as corny as it comes – and, for some strange reason, always populated with quite a lot of slightly scary Glaswegians.

            Still worth a visit though – bizarrely I had a couple of fantastic Stag Do's there in the 80s/90s – before it became de rigueur to Stag in some poxy Mediterranean shithole at a cost of several thousand quid!

            If you're ever up this way again – do go and have a look! The Tower's still there!!!!

    2. Holidayed there 44 years ago with the new wife (she wasn't the wife then, of course). We had a lovely time at the glorious beaches, village fêtes and restaurants.

    3. It's funny. Britons head off to France for a holiday, yet the criminal invaders want to come here.

      I wonder if we simply cancelled all forms of benefits if the problem would go away?

  100. We've a hailstorm here in the Surrey Hills. It's pissed down for three days. One could almost believe that the planet is making its views known re, the election…

    1. It's yer global boiling, The sky here is – briefly – blue and cloudless – but it is STILL raining….

    3. Tony Blair Is the anti Christ, evil serpent, Caliban and pulls Starmers strings, the almighty isn't impressed. Very stormy and cold here, signs of doom which will arrive very soon .

    4. Tony Blair Is the anti Christ, evil serpent, Caliban and pulls Starmers strings, the almighty isn't impressed. Very stormy and cold here, signs of doom which will arrive very soon .

    5. We've just had one here in Cambs. Thunder, hail hitting the windows sounding like stones being thrown at them and rain as if buckets of water being thrown at the panes.. Very much like March/April weather and temperatures to match. Intermittent blue skies with sunshine alternating with heavy showers of rain. I am wrapped up in a woolly blanket here (sheep still do wool but I expect the 'they' will put a stop to that soon) because we are too mean to put the heating on in July.

      1. That is such a good point, pop'smum. Wool is such a brilliant resource, and not just for insulation. I can't believe the idiocy around Net Zero. For example, every single blade of grass is a solar energy converter – go on from there.

  101. Reform got over 4 million votes and only 5 seats. Libdums got 3.5 million votes and 72 seats. The CONS got nearly 7 million votes and 121 seats and Labour got nearly 10 million votes but got 412 seats. This is not democracy. Labour are a sham government full of self-important weirdos. They intend to destroy our country and its tax paying citizens. How can this be? I don't know if PR is the answer but what we have now is not working.

    1. I did some calculations below, weighting each party MP with the national standing of the party to give a true representation of the national mandate whilst retaining a single directly elected constituency MP.

      I have modified and simplified it simply. By giving a voting score of 1 for a Government MP, I then give a multiplier to reflect the party national standing to give a proportional system that is not perfect, but considerably better than the current one MP, one vote system, ignoring the efforts of those not coming first in any ballot.

      The multipliers and the effect on total voting power per party is as follows:

      Labour x1: 412 votes (9,704,655)
      Conservative x2: 224 votes (6,827,311)
      Reform x36: 180 votes (4,117,221)
      Liberal Democrat x2: 144 votes (3,519,199)
      Green x21: 84 votes (1,943,265)
      SNP x3: 27 votes (724,758)
      Workers x9: 9 votes (honorary) (210,194)
      Plaid Cymru x2: 8 votes (194, 811)
      Sinn Fein x1: 7 votes (210,891)
      Alliance x5: 5 votes (117,191)
      DUP x1: 5 votes (172,058)
      UUP x4: 4 votes (94,779)
      SDLP x2: 4 votes (86,861)
      TUV x2: 2 votes (48, 685)
      SDP x1: 1 vote (honorary) (33,811)
      Independents x1: 1 vote each (10,518 to 25,238)

      Total number of votes: 1122
      Number needed for overall majority: 562

      The main anomalies I spotted were Sinn Fein (210,891) against Plaid Cymru (194,811) and Workers (210,194), and Alliance (117,191) against the DUP (172,058).

      Although Conservative and Reform combined (and also Conservatice and Liberal Democrat) have more national votes than Labour, they do not quite have the combined strength under this system to outvote Labour. This is intentional, giving a small advantage to actually getting constituency MPs elected, and allowing a modicum of stability in Parliament.

      It will not happen though, since the beneficiaries are all the Opposition parties, and any Government of the day would vote it down. However, Farage especially could point to these figures at every opportunity.

    2. But it’s always been like that and most people thought it was good system giving strong minority governments huge majorities. Otherwise we were told it would be like in Italy or some other despised place where it was difficult to form strong governments.
      Too late for tears now.
      Not important anyway because the system is not going to change.

  102. I did wonder during the run up to the election quite WHY Fishi and Cur Ikea had to parade their wives all over the place.

    The only thing we knew about Mrs Churchill was that she had the patience of a saint; and Mrs Attlee was always failing her driving test…

    Those were the days….

  103. I did wonder during the run up to the election quite WHY Fishi and Cur Ikea had to parade their wives all over the place.

    The only thing we knew about Mrs Churchill was that she had the patience of a saint; and Mrs Attlee was always failing her driving test…

    Those were the days….

  106. Half an hour to go to the exit poll in yer France. I bet there has been a fix…..

    Have a jolly evening watching the rain fall.

    A demain – one hopes.

  107. Half an hour to go to the exit poll in yer France. I bet there has been a fix…..

    Have a jolly evening watching the rain fall.

    A demain – one hopes.

  108. Is it not mainly due to the denseness of the population, in both senses of the word. White flight leaving cities that will then mean denser immigrant populations. Also Lib Dems seem to like to congregate and so certain areas attract them.

    1. The fish community has it tough, mola. presumably those that can skim across the top with their improbable sails up rather than those that bottomfeed have it better?

    2. Although. The CONS did nothing to even out constituency sizes. Every election i am cross that some people’s vote is worth four times mine.

  109. Is it not mainly due to the denseness of the population, in both senses of the word. White flight leaving cities that will then mean denser immigrant populations. Also Lib Dems seem to like to congregate and so certain areas attract them.

  110. I was sitting on the bog when i thought …blimey what a bush! So i got the strimmer out and gave it a good go and then dropped it in the pan. I reached down.

    Anyway…to cut a long story short the paramedic said i would be fine if a little frazzled once i reset the fuses…. :@(

        1. You sound like Nursey's brother in Blackadder. Nursey telling QEI to be careful having good ideas or her foot might fall off.

          Her brother had had the good idea of cutting his toenails with a scythe…

    2. Having no sensation below the knees, and thus somewhat susceptible to tripping over mains cables, I whole-heartedly recommend cordless tools. My Bosch mower, strimmer, hedge trimmer, blower, small chain saw, detail sander, jig saw and drill all use the same 18V batteries. I gave away a long reach hedge trimmer and pole saw when I moved.

      1. Dolly and Harry will be nailed down.
        I must say though in serious mode………every doorway in my bungalow is a trip hazard.

        1. Kadi was a trip hazard yesterday. He nearly brought me down three times. He hasn't done it before and he's been fine today, so what got into him I have no idea.

    3. I bought a battery hedge trimmer a while back. When I told my sister I needed a chainsaw she said not a chance. Hire someone.

  111. Yer France turns LEFT. Quel turn up for the book. (This is only on exit polls.)

      1. Delighted. What else? They don’t care about economics – or the future of France. Just ripoff (or kill) the “bosses”.

    4. Notable about a third of the vote won each. One thing the Left are good at is mobilising their support base.

      1. It seems to be a thing in French elections that the second round brings all the establshment out of the woodwork to scotch any progress.

      2. The left hit the ground running after the end of WWll and have been doing so ever since. The rest of us said "phew, thank God that's over"; we took our eye off the ball thinking the enemy had been vanquished….. and we are where we are today.

  113. All gone quiet.
    I'll be calling it a day, I've got lots of hospital things to sort out in the morning.
    We had an old friend pass-away towards the end of last week, his funeral is a hour after one of my appointments. I just want to bring the appointment earlier. But it's not as easy as it sounds.
    Night all.

    1. Goodnight, RE. The NHS never makes things simple. Sorry to hear about your friend. I'll be going to a funeral later this coming week.

    1. Why do we want to 'improve our relations' with an irrelevant political entity? A market responsible for barely 17% of world trade – less than our own as a single country.

      1. WE don't. The wasters in Wastemonster want to improve their prospects of sliding into a well-remunerated sinecure.

      2. "We have no permanent friends nor permanent enemies, merely permanent interests…"

        I was merely pointing out that certain unsavoury characters seem to adopt that colour tie which as it's the fashion to give colours names I think it should be called Soros purple in recognition of the bloke that broke the Bank of England……

  116. Starmer can easily stop the small boat problem
    He can ban all reporting of it.

    2. He can bring them all over on Eurostar, one departing Lille every 10 minutes.

      1. Biden has been doing something similar. While the focus has been on the southern border, and that is a huge problem, large numbers of additional migrants have been flown in.

        What links the likes of our political class to those in the USA, and elsewhere in the civilised West, such that they clearly hate the country of their birth so much that they are hell bent on destroying it?

  117. Full disclosure. I raided my pension and cashed my ISAs and looked down the back of the sofa and we have bought the children a house in Southampton. Technically my daughter’s but she now owes my son a lot of money. We are running on empty but it’s just a reminder of how 75% of the country is every day. The house was previously occupied by a filthy pig and he refused to confirm whether he would leave the place clean; and, true to his word, he did not. Anyway he is going back to West Africa so good luck to him.

    The point of this is not to complain, but to celebrate; courtesy of Freecycle and the van, we have a free old leather large sofa; a modern Heal’s sofa/sofa bed; rug; curtains; table; and washer/dryer (albeit supposedly for a fitted kitchen but we are not fussy). All perfect for a young girl setting out with no money. Ae like Southampton (so far as we know it) bit it does seem to be prone to traffic james!!!

    Edit: in the space of 3 days
    Edit: it helps to marry a handy man, but it was part of my selection criteria; you can keep your porsches, this girl is solely interested in your tool kit. No smutty inuendo thank you!

    1. Well done, you. It's a great help to get on the property ladder (and Labour will probably strip you of any money you had stashed anyway).

      1. Yes, that was part of the thought process. All done since March – very time consuming! As the younger child of two younger children married to a younger child (if you are following, only my brother and my daughter and my btother-in-law) are elder children, both my parents and in-laws were younger children too as am I and my husband), I worry my son will miss out but that is the lot of younger siblings everywhere and always has been.

        1. I am a younger child, too. I have had to make my own fortune. I have been spending my savings, too; making my house proof against the net zero malarkey as best I can.

      2. Yes, that was part of the thought process. All done since March – very time consuming! As the younger child of two younger children married to a younger child (if you are following, only my brother and my daughter and my btother-in-law) are elder children, both my parents and in-laws were younger children too as am I and my husband), I worry my son will miss out but that is the lot of younger siblings everywhere and always has been.

    2. Pre-retirement, my last job was building the Ocean Terminal in Southampton. Whatever I did with the company Mondeo, I couldn't get home in time for Thursday Choir Practice. So every Thursday, I left the car at home. Spending all day in the site office clad in one-piece leathers, gained a few raised eyebrows. But the joy of leaving all the traffic behind on an evening was hard to beat…

      1. You are bloody annoying me now. I think you don't like me !!!
        I have a full set of leathers. Not just the biking kind i'll have you know !

        1. Whatever, Phil. When I unexpectedly 'dropped' the bike at a local junction, I suspect there was oil on the road. The leathers did their job. I walked away. The bike – not so much. Ebay to the rescue. I sold it…

          1. What? Same as me. Neighbours came rushing out and helped me stand. I then told my brother i was done with riding. He took the bike and sold it for double its worth and kept the money.

          2. lol. I am also a motorbike aficionado…dream of touting the world one day on one…meanwhile I used to/still commute though of course motorbikes don’t”do” 20 mph and I have enough points to prevent me getting more … though (unluckily for them) I’ve always loved cycling and walking so happy to do any as a form of transport.

    3. I had a four seat, a three seat and a club armchair. BHF when they arrived they couldn't believe someone was giving away so much premium leather suite. I told them to take it. They did look at me as if i was mad.

    4. Good for you. It takes courage to do that. Doing all that so quickly sounds like a major miracle with a following wind!

      Our younger son and D-i-L furnished their first homes with items of which other people were disposing – we bought them a bed + mattress + mattress topper, we found someone who was giving away a beautiful set of inlaid ebony nest of tables. The rest came from Gumtree and Freecycle. And was returned for a further recycling in due course.

      1. When we set up home together we went to an auction to get our furniture. We set a limit and didn't bid above it (we lost several tables before we finally got one we could afford and I'm still using it now).

    5. Soton is often referred to as the city of traffic lights. To get into town from here there are 15 sets in a 2 mile trip.

      There was a lot of work done at the top of our (new) road. Traffic often runs more than half a kilometre down the road.

  118. My MP who was a political secretary to Margaret Thatcher ( hes in his 60s ) a good egg hard working constituency MP kept his seat .

    I can also say there are still some good eggs left amongst the 121 remaining MPs .
    But I'll also say that amongst them are 30 new Conservative MPs ( not many I admit )
    who are new to politics ( I know their names and backgrounds) from the age of 35 upwards – most of them seem in their 40s and 50s . They have all got careers and have won seats across the country. They have won against a back drop of revenge politics . They are not closet Lib Dems or Labour – they didn't want to join the popular Nigel Farage and Reform . They are Conservatives and are up for a long fight- They have not betrayed anyone – they'd not have stood for party if it was dying if they were career Politicians . Thatcher would've been proud of them .

          1. They’re clearly not career politicians as they already have careers in the real world, they don’t want to be popular or they’d have joined Reform .
            They are proper Conservatism .

          2. They may not be career politicians but how can they be proper Conservatives if they support all this climate change and net zero stuff?

      2. Oh, sorry, Conway, I just saw you made a similar comment. Me no readundery.

        1. No problem. It can't be said too often that we need a good dose of proper conservatism, not the faux Con-self-servatism that we've been subjected to.

    2. The Conservative Party is dead for a generation or more. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating thereof; let us see how effective is their opposition first of all. Labour put up no opposition whatsoever at all.

    1. Does that mean we are twinned with DR Congo? I've been to Kinshasa and would love to say that it is a vibrant, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic utopia – but I cant……

    2. It would be a bit more contiguous with Africa's coastline if GB was turned upside down – something I fully expect the in-coming administration to do!

    4. Hopefully I will be gone but I may have another 20 years, my rellies have lived well into their 90s, two of them 102 and 103. Perhaps we will all be gone much sooner if their depop succeeds, but who will pay for all the bennies then? Perhaps they will all drift away. You have to know this land, this terrain, this soil, to make it work for you – it has to be in the blood.

  120. Yet another example of 'if voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it'. There is always the perfect stitch-up waiting in the wings.

  121. I took my spaniel for a walk last night when the England game was being watched by son and Moh, I had to get away .

    There is a nice area of heathland and scrubby woodland managed by Dorset Nature , I used to see woodpeckers , green and spotted, bullfinches , yellowhammers , woodcock, pheasants , blackcaps , stone chats , dunnocks, wild flowers and now gorse and bracken has spread and spread , so someone in their wisdom put a few beef cattle on to graze for a few days a month , hoping that their turds would attract insects.. nothing .. no clouds of flies , beetles , sweet nothing .

    Near by is a small residential mobile home park .. very nice homes , some of which have been replaced , and the residents have been living there for years . When we first started walking in the area , the elderlies comprised of real characters , retired teachers , one elderly spitfire pilot , a writer , a retired nanny to a minor royal family , botanist , etc etc all lovely people enjoying a quiet sheltered country life .. and we knew them because they walked their dogs , knew the area so well, and appreciated the wild life around them .

    A lady who is a resident on the small retired complex caught up with me and my dog , she was walking hers and we chatted away, I hadn't seen her for a few weeks because the cattle had been on the heath , I asked her how she was , and she said she was remarkably sad because in the past few months 4 elderly residents had died in their homes , a shock for all the other residents .. nice tight community , where people know each other .

    Please don't get me wrong , but nature in some areas is facing mass extinction , and that is reflected in the lack of wildlife in many of the gardens in the village where I live .

    All that no mow May nonsense on the road side verges and roundabouts proved to be a useless exercise re insects .

    Got back home after my walk .. and of course there had to be another penalty shoot out .

    I don't know why they bother playing football , just banging balls onto a goal mouth would suffice , saves time and money!

  122. An exchange of BTLs under a DT article:

    Seán Ryan

    Not a bad weekend. Good elections in the UK, Iran and France. Perhaps the future isn’t so bleak. Now all we need is Biden to step down.

    Reply to Sean Ryan by Percival Wrattstrangler

    You're a troll fol-de-roll!
    Gruff Billy Goats should beware of you!

      2. I had a crap state education but I didn't let it bother me. I rose above all that because I'm super bright.😇

        2. I was fortunate enough to go to a Direct Grant Grammar School – remember them? Then Blair killed them.

          2. Well Elsie, it was that faggot Tony Crosland that started it in 1965, but Blair killed it off stone dead.

          3. I “failed” my Eleven-plus and was sent to a Secondary Modern. A lot of my former classmates who “passed ” that exam and went to the local grammar school ended up in manual jobs like gas-fitters and shop-assistants.
            A good number of my new classmates at the Sec Mod (who had also “failed” their Eleven-plus) became successful entrepreneurs and businessmen. One became the managing director of his own successful businesses and another the chairman of an engineering enterprise.

            The whole elementary education system was riddled with flaws.

      3. I had a state education including grammar school but left aged 15 and had a happy and successful working life. I also had the benefit of 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters and a great mum and dad.
        They completed my education.

  123. As someone who stood by UKIP over the years , I’d say Nigel Farage always got a hammering by those who judged his brand over the years.
    He’s got to put actions to his fine words and they’ve got to put action to whatever words they used to win their seats when everything was against them . The best luck to them all and Nigel .

  125. 389450+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    I would say that the results of the 4th July that the majority voter consented to, more money mills aturning, net zero succeeding, WEF / NWO on a high are the least of our troubles.

    We the indigenous can be easily recognised on the street, we are the ones with one arm tied at the back
    our need for a 2nd amendment has never been so dire.

    https://x.com/ScandicAtheist/status/1809941357185630482

        1. I know. I do not want to be caught, or have our politicians treating us like monkeys.

        1. Good morning. I would like to know why. ‘They’ can’t possibly want a caliphate can they?

      2. Is it the MSM pushing against TR, do you think, just because there’s only one of him whereas there are countless ‘others’ everywhere? I keep hoping!

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

    1. It certainly is. They don't have just a beachhead that they can push out from now, they have whole cities (and a government that supports them).

  128. Bit late but ..
    Wordle 1,114 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Well done. I did it at breakfast time but I’ve been out most of the day.
      Wordle 1,114 4/6

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

      1. Wordle 1,114 6/6

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

      1. Thank you!
        I only woke up to pump bilges twice before the 06:00 Quarry Tipper Rush Hour!
        There must have been over a dozen HGVs going past to & from the quarries within a few minutes.

  130. Well, chums, I am now off to bed, so Good Night, Sleep Well, and I'll hopefully see you all tomorrow.

    1. 'Morning, Geoff, very early today, but thank you for all the work and effort you have put in to keep us all going. Well done!

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