Thursday 18 July: The King’s Speech laid bare Labour’s intention to govern by diktat

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

695 thoughts on “Thursday 18 July: The King’s Speech laid bare Labour’s intention to govern by diktat”

    1. Dianne Abbott managed to do it in just eight months. Even though some of the pieces were forced into place.

      1. There was the Irishman who couldn't complete a 2 piece jigsaw because the picture was missing

  3. From this morning's Grauniad

    Politics Weekly UK Politics
    The king’s speech: can Labour keep the optimism going? – podcast

    I think I'll skip that one.

  4. Good Moaning.
    Strange place for a couple of "British" businessmen to visit when, presumably, promoting their travel agency.
    Hardly the Costa del Sol, is it!

    "Fosie (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈfûːsɪɛ]) was a city district (Swedish: stadsdel) in the central of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with the city district of Oxie, forming Söder. In 2012, Fosie had a population of 43,889 of the municipality's 307,758. The area was 1,243 hectares.

    The district is largely composed of apartment blocks built in the 1960s. The district covers most of Fosie parish which was incorporated in Malmö 1931. Fosie has many faces: tall buildings and industries, parks and houses with a long history and country houses. Fosie church, stone, and especially many of the housing estate names leads to the past. The future is symbolized by the green roofs at Augustenborg's eco-city of the future industries in Fosie företagarby (literally "Fosie company village") and proximity to new relations with Europe.

    Inhabitants in Fosie originate from many countries. There are similar variations in the composition of the population and housing. An important element in the district is the Fosie industrial estate with some 10,000 jobs and 300 businesses."

    1. "Inhabitants in Fosie originate from many countries" – none of them Sweden.

    2. Morning Anne. One can understand the lies about geopolitics, though not approve of them. This indifference to truth has now permeated every aspect of the MSM. One can read nothing now without wondering how much of it is true and how much fabrication?

  5. Good Moaning.
    Strange place for a couple of "British" businessmen to visit when, presumably, promoting their travel agency.
    Hardly the Costa del Sol, is it!

    "Fosie (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈfûːsɪɛ]) was a city district (Swedish: stadsdel) in the central of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with the city district of Oxie, forming Söder. In 2012, Fosie had a population of 43,889 of the municipality's 307,758. The area was 1,243 hectares.

    The district is largely composed of apartment blocks built in the 1960s. The district covers most of Fosie parish which was incorporated in Malmö 1931. Fosie has many faces: tall buildings and industries, parks and houses with a long history and country houses. Fosie church, stone, and especially many of the housing estate names leads to the past. The future is symbolized by the green roofs at Augustenborg's eco-city of the future industries in Fosie företagarby (literally "Fosie company village") and proximity to new relations with Europe.

    Inhabitants in Fosie originate from many countries. There are similar variations in the composition of the population and housing. An important element in the district is the Fosie industrial estate with some 10,000 jobs and 300 businesses."

  7. Good morning, chums! And thank you, Geoff, for Thursday's NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,125 4/6

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  8. Wicked, wicked taxpayers for not paying for a limitless stream of sprogs…

    Benefits
    ‘It’s put so many families in poverty’: people on the impact of the two-child benefit cap

    As Labour backbenchers call for Keir Starmer to scrap the cap, families reveal their struggles as a result of the two-child limit

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d4fae9bcec14f227e00ce2cb10fa071c07d1212f/103_230_3059_1836/master/3059.jpg?width=700&dpr=2&s=none

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/17/families-in-poverty-impact-two-child-benefit-cap

    1. STARMER CAPITULATES TO PRESSURE, LAUNCHES ‘TASKFORCE’ ON CHILD BENEFIT LIMIT

      Downing Street has just announced a “Ministerial Taskforce” on child poverty after days of open clamouring from backbenchers for the government to scrap the two-child benefit limit. Liz Kendall and Bridget Phillipson will lead it. There are “heavy hints” it will address the two-child cap and probably get rid of it…

      Labour left-wingers planned to table an amendment to the King’s Speech which would remove the cap. Is backbench clamouring and a few tense media interviews with Cabinet members all it takes to ditch “fiscal responsibility”?

      https://order-order.com/2024/07/17/starmer-capitulates-to-pressure-launches-taskforce-on-child-benefit-l

      1. Can't afford children – don't have them. Hell, the NHS even dole out pills and condoms free of charge!

        1. Only people who want to provide for their own children find it difficult to afford the cost of so doing.

          On the other hand those who live on benefits and live fecklessly can breed like rabbits as they know the state will provide.

          As we know the current government is ideologically against education, self-improvement and self-sufficiency so the more people of limited aspiration and intelligence who breed the better!

      2. The vast majority of people who claim poverty because of the cap are unmarried slappers who allow countless black men to impregnate them, Gypsies with their large extended families and the Muslim demographic determined to outbreed the indigenous whites.

        2. What percentage of the UK population is comprised of gypsies?

          My guess would be microscopic.

          1. They don't all live in caravans. As a protected minority they get offered social housing.

          3. As a percentage of the population it is a small group. However there are more than 100,000 of them and those are only the ones that identify as Roma.
            You can be sure they are all on benefits.

          4. Many of the itinerant people in France have very luxurious caravans pulled by Range Rover, Mercs and BMWs.

          5. Same here. And all the Turkish barbers with no customers drive luxury vehicles.

      3. The taxpayer should not be expected to subsidise a lifestyle choice. If you can't afford to support children, don't have them.

    2. If the money was to go to larger families which suffered from misfortune, fair enough. But it would go to feckless parents who make a living out of benefit Britain.

  11. The evil aims of the billionaires funding the Great Reset. 17 July 2024.

    Entering the stage of cultural manipulation in 1979, the Hungarian financier George Soros launched his Open Society charity. His modus operandi was and is to change society through non-governmental organisations, working closely with United Nations agencies. His Open Society Foundations operate in countries around the world, influencing elections and policy. He gained influence on the UN through his collaborator, the British diplomat Lord (Mark) Malloch Brown. Soros has played a prominent if unpublicised role in British politics; for example in the Climate Change Act 2008 passed by the Labour administration and in David Cameron’s liberal and ecological policies, and a higher-profile one on the Brexit referendum.

    Soros is an advocate of identity politics and demographic change through mass immigration. He helped to fund the Black Lives Matter campaign which escalated to riots in several US cities in 2020. His contempt for white Christian culture, national identity and social and sexual norms has made him a bête noire in conservative circles. Slayer of the nation-state, he has instigated several ‘colour’ revolutions. Soros was banished from China, and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has made him unwelcome. The global powers-that-be, however, are on his side, as shown this year when Georgia was sanctioned for passing a law to make NGOs more transparent.

    These are our real enemies. Not Vladimir Putin or even President Xi. They are mere distractions to the Globalist Agenda.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-evil-aims-of-the-billionaires-funding-the-great-reset/

    1. As a committed environmentalist since childhood, I despise those that lump in the vaguely fascistic identity politics of BLM, islamists, feminists, entitlement socialists and Pride with concern for environmental protection and preservation. They are quite different.

      Where is this false witness coming from? America?

  12. We'd just like to remind Nottlers that today is Vidkun Quisling's birthday.

    Don't be surprised with the grovelling of some of our politicians towards the Europeans.

  14. Good start. I pick a different starter word every day.
    Wordle 1,125 3/6

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  15. 389795+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Missed energy opportunities,

    Refugee who attacked officer ‘should not do community service as he can’t speak English’
    Unpaid work order for Jordanian ‘would require translator and could raise health and safety issues’

    Get bloody real, he would have NO NEED to speak in any tongue
    employed on a treadmill.

      1. Their King Mother is an Ipswich girl – from the days when the English still lived there.

      2. Let's see, probably converted to Christianity, or a homosexual, but more likely a wanted criminal in his own country.
        And our new lords and masters are welcoming this type of scum by the tens of thousands. Labour has always been rotten, but this lot are taking it to new depths.

    2. You don’t need to be able to speak English to pick up litter. Disgraceful

  16. 389795+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Missed energy opportunities,

    Refugee who attacked officer ‘should not do community service as he can’t speak English’
    Unpaid work order for Jordanian ‘would require translator and could raise health and safety issues’

    Get bloody real, he would have NO NEED to speak in any tongue
    employed on a treadmill.

    2. 389795+ up ticks,

      Morning Ped,

      Many of us do not realise how some people suffer, sob.

    4. I feel rather for those going to KFC hoping to find something edible, nutritious and appetising.

      When I was a postman in Dorking in the 1980s, there was a large pillar box I emptied on a Monday morning opposite a converted cinema (long now demolished to make way for a car park for council staff) that served as a Kingdom Hall for Jehovah's Witnesses. Next to the box was a KFC. I would often find half-eaten meals posted in the box, leaving me somewhat sorry for the JWs going hungry.

      They'd have been better off going to the carpet shop. I've heard that clothes moths taste of nuts and may well turn out to be the new superfood.

  18. Two British men feared murdered in Malmo travelled to Sweden to promote travel agency. 18 July 2024.

    Family friend Yussef Amiah, 32, told The Telegraph: “It was confirmed yesterday. I’ve just gone to the mosque where we heard the news.”

    The married father-of-two played five-a-side football with Mr Abdulrazak twice a week and said his death “doesn’t make sense at all”.

    He said: “He was like an older brother to everyone. It’s so hard to take in what’s happened – he’s just so faultless.”

    Mr Amiah, who runs an automotive company, added: “From growing up and playing football together, I remember just being a little kid and him giving me advice and helping me to be better.”

    Ahhh. He loved his Nan as well. It makes you want to sob in your Cornflakes.

    PS. No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/17/two-british-men-murdered-malmo-sweden/

    1. …… "Mr Amiah, who runs an automotive company" …….
      The technical term for these companies – even in the staid surrounding of planning committees – used to be "Fred's Metal Bashing".
      Nowadays it would be "Farouk's Metal Bashing".

    1. Some one I know had to recently go into hospital for chekups and caught covid as a result. I've caught a bad cold, sore throat and headache. Probably from our grandchildren. It happens.
      But I have an appointment for ear investigation this morning and out of respect for those at Boots Chemist, I will wear a face mask.

  20. Starmer unveils his Big State Britain
    Nationalisation, new rights for workers and more power to unions in King’s Speech

    You don't say. Whod'a thunk it?

    1. And an increased version of slave labour for the working tax paying population and home owners, who cover the costs of all the ongoing expenses and terrible mistakes the government gets us into.

      1. The problem is that the majority of voters of the UK — those whose decisions installed this putrid gang of commies into power — are far too stupid for adequate description.

  22. Reported that CNN says that Nancy Pelosi has told Joe Biden he cannot beat Trump.

    1. The most worrying thing is that Biden hasn't realised, or that nobody has told him yet.

    2. Unlike in 2020 the Democrats seem to have no confidence that they can invent 10+ million illegal votes.

  23. SIR – The best British bangers have to be the award-winning sausages from Frasers Butchers in Bolton.
    People flock from miles around. One of the tastiest comes from a recipe found behind a wall when they were renovating.
    They also do a mean pork pie.

    Carol Kelly
    Horwich, Lancashire

    Calm down, Carol. Such hyperbole will give you a seizure. The 'best' is simply your subjective opinion; no doubt thousands of others have their own 'best'.

    As for the 'mean' pork pie. Does that mean the butcher scrimps on the quality of the pork; does he fill it with floor-sweepings; or is the pastry a bit limp?

  24. Morning all 🙂😊
    Another lovely start to the day, amazing.
    Starmer probably won't last long he's handing over too much to the evil union bosses.
    There will be price rises galore and strikes just to rub the public's noses in to remind us of their hate filled nasty ways.
    After labour have been kicked out. The other lot will continue until they are kicked out. And so it goes on. Ad infinitum.
    We seriously need a better way to run our country and the organisation of the public security and general welfare.

    1. The Glory that was Greece and the Grandeur that was Rome. It’s true, we must hold fast to that legacy.

      1. 389795+ up ticks,

        Morning SE,
        🎵,
        I was terrible alone and forgotten in tower hamlets……..

  26. Wandsworth council blamed “an Excel spreadsheet issue” for missing 6,558 votes which meant 13 per cent of all ballots cast in the seat were not included in official results.

    Felix Burford-Connole of Rejoin EU won 332 not 289.

    Shock.. Felix Burford-Connole is a remainer. well, i never.

    2. Hopefully someone will get a move on and sort out the problem.
      It's not the first time someone has been elected in London due to Administration errors.

      1. Funny thing.. there was no announcement.. just an eagle eyed voter noticed all the figures had mysteriously changed overnight on council website.

    3. It's not the votes that count; it's those who count the votes.

      Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (?)

      1. Coincidence? you be the judge.
        Previous elections in Wandsworth have been won by a handful of votes – three years ago, a by-election in Tooting was won by a single vote..

      2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        The Tories must share the blame for Labour’s illiberal smoking ban
        Comments Share 17 July 2024, 2:50pm
        When Rishi Sunak called a summer election, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill didn’t make the pile of ‘wash up’ legislation to be rushed through Parliament. His plans for a generational smoking ban, and a crackdown on vapes, were paused. But this was never going to be more than a brief delay.

        Labour has used the King’s Speech today to confirm that it will see Sunak’s smoking ban through. Or rather, the party might argue that it’s reclaiming the idea. It was Labour, after all, that floated the policy before the Tories adopted it at their party conference last year.

        One day, a 63-year-old will be able to purchase a tobacco product legally while a 62-year-old will not
        ‘I was shocked when I saw that the Conservative party is nicking the Labour party’s plan for a progressive ban on tobacco,’ Wes Streeting, then-shadow health secretary, wrote in the Yorkshire Post earlier this year. ‘Indeed, when I first floated this proposal, Conservative MPs called it “nanny state” and “an attack on ordinary people and their culture”, and I was accused of “health fascism”.’ Streeting noted that he was ‘delighted’ that so soon after he suggested the idea, the Conservatives tried to implement it.

        Sunak will now get his legacy policy, but he’ll share it with Labour. There is no doubt the ban will go through, which will see the legal age to purchase cigarettes rise every year, so no one born after January 2009 can buy them. The Bill also includes a crackdown on vapes, giving ministers power over what flavours are on offer (‘How do I get on that committee?’ one Tory MP quipped to me earlier this year.)

        In theory, the Bill covers all tobacco-based products – including cigars – though it was thought the legislation could be watered down under the Tories to allow for some exceptions. That possibility seems less likely now – not least because Labour is happy to embrace the nanny state agenda, with the Prime Minister saying he’d be ‘up for that fight’ at the start of the year.

        In addition to resurrecting the smoking ban bill, Labour are also going to put through the ‘junk food’ advert bans the Tories had put on the backburner. Prepare for debates over whether strawberries and cream can be aired before the watershed.

        Labour were always going to embrace the nanny state – indeed it was one of the few areas of public policy leading up to the election where the party was crystal clear about its intentions. What’s changed is that the Tories have given the government a free pass to do so. Cries about personal liberty will ring hollow, as it was the last Tory government that ignored legitimate concerns about the role of the state, to push through its own nanny state agenda. The refusal of most Tory MPs to stand up for lifestyle freedom only a few months ago makes it much more difficult to win those arguments now.

        But perhaps most worryingly, the Tories have given Labour a new tool for curbing liberty: age-specific bans that create two tiers of consumer rights. That one day a 63-year-old will be able to purchase a tobacco product legally while a 62-year-old will not is not simply absurd: it opens the floodgates for age-specific bans on a whole range of goods or activities that the government of the day declares unholy.

        It’s worth noting that several of the leading names speculated to enter a Tory leadership race voted against the second reading of the Bill back in the spring – including Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick. It seems likely that the former government’s support for the nanny state (and indeed the past 14 years of endorsements from the Tories) may be something that pivots under the next Tory leader.

        But this will take work, and in the meantime we should expect an even more meddlesome nanny state. This was always Labour’s plan. It was the Tories’ decision to render themselves powerless that was the real surprise.

    4. It's not the votes that count; it's those who count the votes.

      Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (?)

    5. Blamed an excel spreadsheet? Not the incompetent or corrupt clown who actually dealt with the spreadsheet? No heads rolling, then?

  27. Glad to learn that Biden's vaccinations are up to date.
    That explains why he's only had convid three times.

  28. Morning, absolute cats and dogs so far today. Worse July for many a year.

      2. Lucky you! I think we’ve got this cold windy, wet weather for at least today.

      2. Even when blizzards become the norm in June, July and August and vegetation ceases to grow the Net Zero fanatics will still be incapable of admitting that they may have villainised carbon dioxide wrongly and that man made global warming is a myth.

        Talking to our students last week they told us that they were being taught that global warming is a fact and that the science was settled. They were completely mystified when we suggested that science is never settled. In fact such a statement is deeply pessimistic if we shall never discover anything new again! Many reputable geologists and climate scientists do not believe in man-made global warming but their views are deliberately suppressed.

        Young people should be taught to have more open minds.

        1. Anyone that says the science is settled does not understand science.

          Headline writers prefer to take shortcuts with the truth in order to make it readable by those with an attention span of a goldfish. However, true science does not deal with facts, but with significance. This usually means a 95% probability that something happens rather than a random occurrence, and this is calculated after an error analysis has been carried out.

          It can be reversed or modified at any time, and scientists are natural sceptics who love debunking a colleague's work if they can. Those that do not are usually paid by someone not to.

          I might argue that the resorces of big global corporations with an interest in profiting at the expense of the environment may offer bigger tips, such as research grants, than environmental charities relying on voluntary donations and passionate appeal. This turns upside down the common argument I hear from the Right that the scientists have been nobbled by Greenpeace. More likely Monsanto has been at them, but I don't think anyone is squeaky clean if they can get away with a bit of hype.

          Interpretations of evidence can and often are manipulated to further an argument, and this can work both ways. It is after all an elementary part of legal justice, which requires arguments on both sides to be tested by their respective opponents, and advocacy is a vital tool.

          In the end though, it requires a patient investigative journalist to burrow into the minutiae, small print and jargon of the scientific papers to appreciate what is really going on.

    1. Wow. That should be a HUGE story, if only the legacy media could be bothered.

      1. 389795+up ticks,

        Morning MiR,

        Make no mistake,they are bothered only in a more desperate manner of cover-up containment ,
        tis getting harder by the day.

    2. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, lacoste! Have a wonderful day! 💕🥂🍷🎉🎂

          1. I ended up being wished a happy birthday on to different days last year. My real birthday and, I suppose, a NOTTLER birthday. But we also seem to have some new people?

      1. Good morning, Jules

        Just wait till it's your turn to be in the spotlight. Your day will come!

        1. Thanks to you and Caroline, that was sweet.
          As for Lacoste, as I was born at 2.30 am I think I’m probably the older twin! 🤣🤣

        1. I'll read the aticle this evening – best time to go through your site, Tom. Mornings is for more in-the-face news…

          2. My routine is to start the day browsing NoTTL, then Aftenposten, followed by two local papers, then NRK (Norway's BBC), look at the aircrash of the day, then later fill in with Evening Standard and a few other news sites in the evening, including yours, when there's more time to be thoughtful.

    1. 389795+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      They swore to up hold the will of the peoples and that is precisely what they are doing, just NOT the indigenous peoples but the invaders.

      Well meant advice,
      When voting try reading the small print & party pedigree under the party NAME.

    2. Were any of the police locals or were they recruited from Iran's Revolutionary Guard?

  35. Ursula von der Leyen’s future as EU chief rests on knife-edge as MEPs prepare to vote. 18 July 2024.

    The European parliament will decide whether to confirm Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president in a knife-edge vote on Thursday that will either result in a second term for the EU executive’s first female leader or tip the bloc into a summer crisis.

    I’ll bet that Soros has splashed some cash out here to get the right result.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/18/ursula-von-der-leyens-future-as-eu-chief-rests-on-knife-edge-as-meps-prepare-to-vote

  37. Biden's Covid.

    Will it be an excuse to withdraw, or turn into a miraculous recovery showing how fit he is?

        1. We must not forget that the Democrats did not wish to abolish slavery.

          Why people – especially the young – allow themselves to be hoodwinked into thinking that they are nicer that the Republicans is beyond my comprehension.

      3. Surely they would have to pick Kamala Harris? That is the normal succession. JFK to Lyndon B. Johnson, as an example.

          1. Haven’t written my morning comment to NOTTLERS yet but please see when up.

          2. Haven’t written my morning comment to NOTTLERS yet but please see when up.

  39. I am not too sure about Americans , they were probably nicer 80 years ago .

    How and why am I so judgemental .. I have my reasons .

    1. Belle, the deterioration is within the last 20 years or so. Before that they were actually nicer than the English. Warm, friendly and generous to a fault.

      1. Mass immigration has not improved the general level of politeness and consideration of others even amongst the indigenous population.

        1. I would agree. The USA is being put under massive strain by uncontrolled immigration and it is tearing the country apart. People think there is plenty of space in the USA but when you take into account desert, mountains, and other forms of hostile terrain and uninviting climate, there isn’t that much space for literally millions of people pouring in every year. Look at a population map and you will see that most people hug the East and West coasts and that the vast majority of states are, in comparison, empty.

          https://images.mapsofworld.com/usa/thematic-maps/usa-population-map.jpg

          1. Here's a thought. Wonder what would happen if all the POC came to the whitelands (as they are doing) but all the whites went to the countries abandoned by the POC. Fast forward fifty to a hundred years. Wonder which countries would be prospering now? Wonder which would have the highest crime rates? Wonder which countries would have strategies in place to raise the poor? Wonder which countries everyone would be trying to live in?

      2. That’s interesting you say that. Alf and I were on holiday in 1992, having a boat trip on Lake Washington. We started chatting to a young couple, we were mid40s and they I think were a little younger, but they looked at us most suspiciously and most definitely did not want to engage. The rest of the trip people were really friendly but this couple stuck in my mind as being quite the opposite.

    2. 80 years ago they were still a rootin' tootin', gun-slinging crew of gringo hombres.

  40. Morning all Nice day so far, no sun yet, morning mist which I rather like.
    Watched Hillbilly Elegy last night, the film about Vance the prospective vice president. Thought it rather dull. The usual saga of someone rising above the poor white trash that so much of Appalachian life consisted of not so long ago. I knew one of those people who has escaped the same trap. Took me back to her home for a visit. Terrible conditions to live in. The film has a home that's modern suburbia but the houses I saw were fit for the bulldozer and the people in them were profoundly ill educated, frankly ignorant but good and kind. They had mountains to climb, literally and figuratively and it is a wonder that some escaped. My friend did not wear shoes until she was 12 and the floors in the house were literally dirt. This was in the 70s, before computers. Communication was a land line phone, if you had one. People who got out of that were, inevitably, remarkable people. Anyway, I thought the movie was dull but please don't allow my subjective opinion deter you. If you know little about how things were in Appalachia, you will find it interesting, But bear in mind that it is actually a cleaned up version of what life was like there, it was worse than the film depicts. Ironically, now a days, it is all holiday homes and the locals are being pushed out because they cant afford the prices. Sound familiar?

  41. I loved this letter, and laughed .

    Skunk escape
    SIR – Last year a skunk (report, July 17) escaped from a home three miles from our house.

    It bit my dog, sprayed the two terriers in the garden next door, and then went on its way. Its owner, who came to try and find it, said it had never sprayed before and was a lovely pet that was very sociable.

    The neighbours had to buy shampoo from America specifically designed to treat skunk sprays. Our dog’s treatment came to more than £1,000 in vet bills, none of which we could claim back from the owner. Luckily our vet didn’t laugh too much when I asked who their skunk specialist was.

    Zanzie Griffin
    Cullompton, Devon

    Decades ago , my late mother in law gave me a beautifully designed knitted jumper, it had taken her quite a while to knit it , and design it … sadly but carefully designed with an African Grey parrot design … YES! (But NO thanks )

    Moh said to me one day decades ago ), "you haven't worn that jumper my mum made for you " I replied , I will, when the weather gets colder .

    The day came , weather turned very cold , and I wore the jumper .. then we went shopping to the local shops ( We lived in the Wimborne area then )

    On the way back home , Moh driving , we were on a country lane , and he said there is something sitting begging in the middle of the road .. Stop the car .. I jumped out to investigate , and it was a domesticated pale ferret . it was pawing the air , so I picked it up , I wasn't bitten but the wretched thing sprayed ferret smell all over my new jumper … !!!!

    It stank to high heaven . really tearfully stank .. but the poor ferret was quite loving , tame and snuggly .. but so smelly .

    Moh suggested I leave it , but I said it was someone's pet , we must locate the owner , we weren't too far from home , Moh said I don't want that thing in the car , well , you know , I also stank of ferret , there was a large dog box in the rear of the car , so I popped it in there , and Moh jumped out of the car , handed me the keys , and walked home .

    I would have walked home with the creature , but ferrets are wriggly scratchy creatures .

    When I got home , I handed the ferret over to a neighbour who kept al sorts of creatures , and sad to say I had to ditch my lovely parrot jumper , and refresh the car with better smells .

    As I write this , I can still remember that ferret smell .. The spray would make your eyes water !

  42. 'Morning All
    But heaven help you if you stick up a few posters or send a few nasty emails to a sleb……….
    DM – Two asylum seekers who robbed a reveller of his £25,000 gold Rolex in London's West End walk free from court
    Egyptian Yousef Garef and Algerian Amin Abdelkadar were both spared jail and handed community orders on Wednesday. The pair, stole a gold Rolex off Kris Smith in Soho, London on July 21 last year.
    ——————————————————————–
    DM -Jordanian asylum seeker, 27, who assaulted a police officer after drunkenly pestering female joggers is spared community service as 'he does not speak English and would require an interpreter'
    ——————————————————-
    Can't blame the police but our court system is now a bad joke

    2. They have to be careful with that, or people will take justice into their own hands, and that won't be pretty.

      1. 'Morning Paul but then the full weight of the state will be used to crush those that defend themselves with draconian punishment
        I am minded of the group of Sikh men who well and truly "sorted" a Moslem grooming gang preying on children of their community
        Their reward??
        9 years each for "Affray"
        The upside??
        Moslem gangs moved on to softer targets without male relatves willing to act……….
        Edit
        The max for Affray is three years so they used Conspiracy to get the sentence up

      2. We warned our Police and Crime Commissioner about that. His response? We will crack down heavily on vigilantism.

  43. OT – old age and deafness creeps up.

    I didn't go to the market today as I was expecting a delivery of CH oil. I had ordered 1200 litres but wanted to tell the driver to fill the tank to the top.

    1 minutes ago, I went to see if Pickles was in the porch (he was) and found the delivery ticket on the mat. The chap had been – dragged his hose 60 yards up and down the drive – and I hadn't heard a thing! The tank could have taken another 250 litres…. Never mind, eh?

  44. ‘Anti-Zionism is a dagger at the heart of the Jewish people’. 18 July 2024.

    I do think that there is something in this. The West really can’t cope with the fact that it was complicit in the greatest crime in human history. Germany was the centre of it, of course, but the Holocaust happened because people turned their faces away from the rampant anti-Semitism at the time. Making the Jew into a Nazi effectively frees the West. After all, if the Jews can become Nazis, then any of us can. And so there was nothing particularly terrible about the Nazis and nothing particularly terrible about our failure to deal with it at the time.

    No we really weren’t Melanie. The “West” is not obliged to come to the aid of any group because when it is, as now, it finds itself meddling in insoluble hatreds. Does Israel seek to end the Ukraine War or prevent the Rwanda genocide? Of course not. Such a policy would see eternal strife.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/18/anti-zionism-is-a-dagger-at-the-heart-of-the-jewish-people/

    1. It's a funny old world Minty
      I note Ukeland and Gaza seem to have largely vanished from the media
      what squirrel will we be chasing next?/

      3. All is well in the world now that our beloved Labour has been elected…apparently.

    2. Remember the Kindertransport? I worked with two recipients of that action, Professor Solt and Professor Bloch. Fine gentlemen both.
      The UK didn't ignore everything.

  46. What do you DO with all this stuff you cook? Do you have an army living in your garden?

    1. I have this concept that is called a chest freezer.

      I also have a number of Swedes who enjoy English food.

      1. OK. But if you are forever stuffing the freezer with new preparations, surely the amount of food available is always getting larger?

        1. Not at all. I've been reducing the capacity of the freezer these past couple of months in preparation for the colossal number of cartons of home-made, uncooked, sugar-free jams that are made, annually, by the boss from the glut of soft fruit in her mother's garden.

          1. Lovely, Grizz! Sugar-free jam… drool.
            SWMBOs low-sugar lemon curd is getting a good reputation around here… it's truly scrummy!

          4. Hmm. We are still eating jam (and chutney) from 2022. There is a risk that a glut of fruit makes one prepare too much!

          5. Caroline has a fanatical zeal for creating delicious new jams and pickles. She gives most of them away but I am currently enjoying some marmalade at breakfast dating from 2018.

          7. I don’t eat any of that jam but the amount put into the freezer each year keeps the boss in breakfast jam for an entire year.

            I am not making (and therefore freezing) that much food, certainly not as much as you think I am. Four 4″ pork pies; I eat one over the next few days, another in the freezer, two given away as gifts.

            The bacon I cured (and the sausages I made) will last for over six months in their dedicated box in the freezer. Apart from the home-rendered lard, there is not much else in the freezer. Some chicken portions, some fish fillets, a few sausage rolls, some frozen bitter orange juice and apple butter (for sauces), a few rib-eye steaks, a few tubs of mushy peas, a couple of tubs of lamb curry. That’s the lot.

          9. What I don't think you understand is the fact that you can waltz into any butchers, bakers or supermarket in the UK and readily buy anything you fancy.

            I can't do that, here in Sweden, since much of their food is unappetising to me. If I fancy anything of decent flavour, i.e. food that I am used to, I have no option but to roll up my sleeves and make it myself.

  47. More from clown world:

    “A “GENDER critical” council worker was sacked after protesting about the use of pronouns on his email signature.
    James Orwin was furious when Caroline Lacey, the council’s chief executive, invited employees to “consider adding pronouns to your email signature, should you wish to do so”.
    In protest, Mr Orwin, an IT project officer, changed his email footer to “Xychromosomeguy/adulthumanmale” rather than he/him.
    Mr Orwin said he believed remaining silent when “morals and principles are under threat facilitates the steady creep of evil”.
    He insisted East Riding of Yorkshire council was not promoting equality but implementing a “political position it had no mandate to adopt”.
    He also claimed the use of pronouns was a “political gesture designed to intimidate anyone who does not embrace the contested ideology of gender identity”. In Ms Lacey’s email, she wrote: “Clearly this is a matter of individual choice, but I am keen to ensure that all staff know that the choice to do so is available to them and that they will be supported in that choice in line with our workforce principles.”
    Mr Orwin said he thought the only way to challenge the policy was “to adopt deliberately provocative pronouns”. He was suspended and eventually sacked from the council after repeatedly refusing to remove his protest pronouns by bosses who warned they posed a “serious risk” to the transgender community and the council’s reputation.
    Mr Orwin sued East Riding of Yorkshire council at an employment tribunal for religion or belief discrimination and unfair dismissal.
    He lost his case, with Ian Miller, the employment judge, concluding he had not been discriminated against by being told to change his pronouns.
    Mr Miller said: “[Mr Orwin’s] email footers were seeking to make a point that mocked and derided the suggestion that people could identify their own gender regardless of their physiology.”
    He said the implementation of the council policy was “poorly thought through and badly executed”, however “this does not detract from our conclusion that the purpose and intention of the policy was to comply with its public sector equality duty”.
    Given his refusal to change them, the judge concluded the council was left with “no choice” but to dismiss Mr Orwin as it was “well within the band of reasonable responses of a reasonable employer”.
    Dismissing his claims of discrimination, he said: “None of the treatment he experienced was because of his beliefs… it was because he used a provocative email sign off that was not acceptable to [the council].””

    1. "…[the] intention of the policy was to comply with its public sector equality duty…"

      In a nutshell, the madness – the pointlessness – of it all. Does it make the emptying of householders' bins more efficient?

      1. You've hit the nail on the head. Idiots like Caroline Lacey invent moral standpoints to detract from their prosaic characters and uninspiring stations in life. Same with all these prominent woke gits. They're often failed bores but cleave to crazy beliefs in order to make themselves sound more interesting and relevant.

      2. No, but it costs a fortune so householders have to pay to have their green bins emptied to fill the black hole in the coffers.

  48. Belated Medley
    One for Rastus
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3bfee4da0744ed3068364a5b47d69e769e12abcf09587fe54f71535538a9fcb.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3809a71dc330a87c69b045425c981b20103ea0beedf97f7c09ffb50bb873e63b.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1089d8a10bb526343f0cb13ccdc587d3972ac15df815e1badffac37a1ef57181.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0bcb66f124f257c6e5105ee84ce8659d18ea69ba0c99ae624e27a4e49b9e4e6.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/648be41da680f575d51428f85fd6486a47a5a38117f9817abdd5fb0f67e79a34.png
    https://x.com/KingsleyCortes/status/1813340423391244783

  49. a heap of letters bemoaning the lack of skilled people in this country. A few days ago, I listened to a podcast where the chief economist of Santander said that, as a country, we would have to import the skills we needed as we don’t have them.

    But but but

    We were told by Bliar that sending half our children to university would…do something. But clearly not provide us with the skills the country needs (without having to import people).

    Am I the only one smelling a gigantic con?

    podcast from the ICAEW – “How to get Britain going”. The Santander lady’s remarks were round about the 14 minute mark. I was faintly horrified by them – from where are we supposed to be importing these workers who are “more skilled” than anything we can apparently produce? https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/accountancy-insights/id1573790261

    ”SIR – It is hard enough to find a decent, experienced tradesman now. Where are the plans to find and train the skilled plumbers, electricians, carpenters, bricklayers, decorators and heat-pump installers required to achieve the massive increase in the annual rate of housebuilding that Labour is promising to deliver? David Palmer”

    1. Technology is advancing faster than learning through education.
      Being taught how to do things allows the individual to advance their skills by finding out how not to do things and making mistakes because technology has moved on.
      Thankfully YouTubers can now find out how not to do things by going on the internet.
      Making mistakes is ironically the way to make progress and now thanks to AI. we can even make things better by making more mistakes and even faster than before. 🤔

      1. Doesn’t fix the plumbing or heating though, nor does it build houses.

        1. Thats why a lot of early cathedrals fell down.
          Master masons had worked out not to use aerated concrete.😉

    3. Funny, I have had work done by a plumber very recently and I shall have some electrical work done by an electrician shortly (and oddly enough, they both know each other although they are from different towns). Perhaps it's because I don't live in London.

  50. a heap of letters bemoaning the lack of skilled people in this country. A few days ago, I listened to a podcast where the chief economist of Santander said that, as a country, we would have to import the skills we needed as we don’t have them.

    But but but

    We were told by Bliar that sending half our children to university would…do something. But clearly not provide us with the skills the country needs (without having to import people).

    Am I the only one smelling a gigantic con?

    podcast from the ICAEW – “How to get Britain going”. The Santander lady’s remarks were round about the 14 minute mark. I was faintly horrified by them – from where are we supposed to be importing these workers who are “more skilled” than anything we can apparently produce? https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/accountancy-insights/id1573790261

    ”SIR – It is hard enough to find a decent, experienced tradesman now. Where are the plans to find and train the skilled plumbers, electricians, carpenters, bricklayers, decorators and heat-pump installers required to achieve the massive increase in the annual rate of housebuilding that Labour is promising to deliver? David Palmer”

    1. Green energies are going to provide jobs for the countries that get it right.

      That's absolutely true.

      The countries that continue with cheap energy will take the jobs from the countries that don't because those that go green won't be able to provide goods and services at a price that competes, because of high energy costs.

  52. Just hung out the washing. Believe or not, it is actually quite WARM. I must remember to keep indoors….drink a lot of water (regular ickle baby sips) and warn people to avoid touching anything in the garden because it might be hurty.

          5. I was going to post that picture but i was enjoying your struggling to do something that simple. :@)

  53. My money is on pensions tax relief. It won’t affect the public sector, but it will give the stupid working little people a good and hard kicking where they deserve it. Exemptions for “hard working doctors in our NHS”, obvs.

    By Adam Smith (no, not that one – this one is the former something or other to our esteemed former Chancellor, the fragrant Jeremy).

    “My first day in the Treasury wasn’t as well-planned-for as Rachel Reeves’s was. Even so, when I arrived with Jeremy Hunt I was smoothly ushered into the special advisers’ office situated between the chancellor’s and his team of private secretaries. I was just in time to see Jeremy being clapped in before we headed straight into briefings on the state of the economy, the public finances and quite how quickly we needed to rip up the mini-budget in order to calm the markets. Despite what I’m sure we will continue to hear from the new Government, it has inherited a much calmer economic and fiscal situation than I faced. Inflation is back to normal, growth is powering on and debt is falling.
    Even so, the official preparations for a new government would definitely have included a list of possible options to raise more revenue.
    Labour has a long list of areas where it wants to increase spending, and planned tax increases that are unlikely to cover them all. So officials will have prepared the usual list of revenueraising measures. It was a list I saw on a number of occasions in my time in
    HM Treasury. Broadly speaking, these measures fall into three categories.
    First there are the straightforward rate rises or threshold freezes. For the Autumn Statement of 2022, officials advised Hunt on a whole set of threshold freezes. Obviously the freeze to income tax thresholds has become the most politically salient. And every time we needed to raise revenue, extending the freeze was always an option on the table, including in the run up to the latest Budget, where it was swiftly rejected.
    Labour hasn’t explicitly ruled that out, but having made so much of not increasing taxes on working people, it would be political suicide to extend the freeze again. One option that raised more than £5bn a year back in 2022 was the freeze in the secondary threshold for employer National
    Insurance contributions. This is the amount someone can earn before an employer has to pay the standard rate of employer contributions. It was one we got away with and one that will be looked at again. Another option that never seemed to go away in my time, despite us never seriously considering it, was a VAT increase. A one percentage point rise raises £8bn.
    Now that inflation is back to normal, Labour may be tempted to repeat George Osborne’s trick of pulling the VAT lever and blaming the previous government. It was certainly on every draft budget scorecard I ever saw.
    On top of this are what get described internally as “good tax policy”. These are often tax reforms or simplifications that policy wonks love and that also raise money. Top of this list is pensions tax relief. Restricting this to the basic rate would raise billions of pounds. Successive chancellors have looked at it – including while I was at the Treasury. It is complicated and risks a massive backlash from Middle England, but is definitely something officials used to say could be done at the start of a Parliament.
    Equalising capital gains tax with income tax rates was always next in this section, but this would go against the grain of Labour’s partnership with business. Politically easier for Labour would be removing inheritance tax (IHT) reliefs. The final category always on a list of revenue-raising measures is welfare changes. The Treasury would love to get rid of the triple lock. This was top of the list ahead of every difficult fiscal event and one we got close to doing in the autumn of 2022. Likewise, means testing winter fuel payments was a repeat offender that we regularly dismissed. Restricting it to just those on pension credit raises a reasonable amount, so I suspect Reeves and her team will have been given it as an option like we were.
    There are only so many options that raise large amounts of revenue. And the list was essentially the same each time I saw it. By reforming the non-dom system and extending the windfall tax on oil and gas, we took some of the options that used to be on the list off the table in a meaningful way. But there are plenty of options that we dismissed for either political or economic reasons. I suspect the new Government will come to different conclusions on some of them.”

    1. Of course countles billions could be saved by simply slashing government spending but that option will always be "off the table".

      1. “Inflation is back to normal, growth is powering on and debt is falling”.

        I cannot credit Adam Smith with believing this utter nonsense. It is complete hogwash.

  54. Following on from the pronoun sacking on East Yorkshire, more local politics at their worst.

    Banned mayoral robes

    SIR – In 2023, the Labour-controlled Worthing Borough Council voted to ban the mayor from wearing robes of office (Letters, July 17) at meetings and public engagements.

    The robes have been worn by successive mayors for almost 135 years, having been purchased through public subscription. The argument was that the ban would promote inclusivity. This is nonsense; the mayor in 2022-23, Henna Chowdhury, is a Muslim and wore the robes with pride and great dignity. The newly elected mayor, Ibsha Choudhury, was born in Bangladesh, and may wish to wear the robes, but is prevented from doing so.

    I attended a meeting of the council in May, when a motion to reintroduce the robes was debated. As there appeared to be cross-party consensus, it was thought that the motion would be passed. Instead, Dr Beccy Cooper – then a councillor and now the Labour MP for Worthing West – tabled a last-minute amendment that the robes could be worn, but only once replaced by those with synthetic material rather than fur trimming.

    This looks like a cynical ploy by Labour to delay the reintroduction, as the cost of these new robes was known to be prohibitive.

    For the past year, Worthing has been blighted by a council that seems determined to erase its heritage.

    Dr Alf Crossman
    Rudgwick, West Sussex

    3. One of the many reasons my son and his partner moved to the IOW , where they are much happier.

      They had a nice flat on Worthing seafront , sadly the place is blighted with druggies and drop outs and violence . They decided after nearly 6 years to move , up sticks and take a risk .

      Moh and I are looking forward to visiting them soon ( when the cricket, golf etc are not the focus of his attention) and when we can afford it.

      1. Doctor as in Bachelor of Medicine it seems but doesn't appear to've practised, except as a "Health Care Pathway and Programme Manager". Ominous.

    1. Can't open it – get a silly thing telling me to log in or "proceed with google"…

      Can't be arsed.

  57. SIR – Neil Record ("Ed Miliband is the new face of Britain’s net zero folly", Comment, DT, July 16) suggests abandoning net zero to make the lot of ordinary people better.

    Yet deploying low-cost generation, such as wind and solar, along with proven battery storage, would mean that the wholesale cost of electricity (the largest single cost in an energy bill) could be drastically cut, as we would be better able to manage energy pricing – rather than being at the mercy of an international price for gas. This is why people are installing solar panels and batteries in their own homes. They want to spend their cash on improving their lives, instead of giving it to energy companies.

    Ralph Anderson

    Stadhampton, Oxfordshire

    Where do you start in dismantling this nonsense? Low-cost it is not. A huge capital investment for a very modest output which is so intermittent and variable that managing energy pricing requires complex and expensive contractual arrangements with conventional (thermal) producers to cope with that intermittency. It falls at the first hurdle in a national strategy.

    However, installing solar panels on your property, residential or commercial, is entirely a matter of personal choice but those panels will make only a tiny contribution to the nation's electricity requirements.

    1. Has the pillock never looked at the taxes on his bill? Renewables are subsidised up to the hilt and we're all paying for it. If we went for a cheap, reliable source of power (gas turbines, even small reactors) and ditched all the "green" taxes, energy bills would drop considerably.

  58. SIR – Neil Record ("Ed Miliband is the new face of Britain’s net zero folly", Comment, DT, July 16) suggests abandoning net zero to make the lot of ordinary people better.

    Yet deploying low-cost generation, such as wind and solar, along with proven battery storage, would mean that the wholesale cost of electricity (the largest single cost in an energy bill) could be drastically cut, as we would be better able to manage energy pricing – rather than being at the mercy of an international price for gas. This is why people are installing solar panels and batteries in their own homes. They want to spend their cash on improving their lives, instead of giving it to energy companies.

    Ralph Anderson

    Stadhampton, Oxfordshire

    Where do you start in dismantling this nonsense? Low-cost it is not. A huge capital investment for a very modest output which is so intermittent and variable that managing energy pricing requires complex and expensive contractual arrangements with conventional (thermal) producers to cope with that intermittency. It falls at the first hurdle in a national strategy.

    However, installing solar panels on your property, residential or commercial, is entirely a matter of personal choice but those panels will make only a tiny contribution to the nation's electricity requirements.

  59. Good day all,

    Scorchio here at Castle McPhee.

    I've been missing in action for a day or two because I've had to do a bit of work around the house. One of the tasks was to have a clear out of the garage. I opened a box in which some items were packed in newspaper – bits of the Telegraph from 16th September 1987.

    Here's a story that's of that time.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab5a5d79c9c741c932e4084fc00cb2d8c918914499e2df9acebbd417fa353abc.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e418d2d2e63bc59fca787f48f20a066ff73af7dc31f9a1cba3034a69e14fdb96.jpg
    Wouldn't be like that now, would it?

    Gorgeous George was at it 37 years ago.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2069b6ede04611e17cc089b9b93c793ac09a1c1d0d74ee7bf55f94525ead9553.jpg

    1. The girl's pupils should be larger and rounder but I don't think that's physically possible.

        1. I have a variety of tomato growing that is purple black. It's called 'black moon'. I will let you/Nottlers know what they taste like when i harvest.

          2. Supermarket tomatoes don't taste like tomatoes. The heritage varieties all have nuanced flavours. Silly boy !

          3. What is a "supermarket tomato"? I have grown my own for 60 years.

            If you are blind-folded, I'll bet you a shilling you cannot tell the difference between varieties – heritage or not.

          5. I bet you don’t have a shilling and even if you did you wouldn’t part with it.

          6. I have a delicious variety of tomato growing called Ruth. She is every bit as sweet as our own Ruth.

          9. Of course they will be ready for the party. Doesn’t mean you are getting any. Unless you remember how to scrump.

    1. There's one of Biden as well – except that rhe missing piece is near the Cerebral Cortex.

  63. Conversion therapy

    SIR – Labour's proposal to outlaw so-called conversion therapy (report, July 16) in order to appease aggressive trans-rights activists risks terrible unintended consequences for children, their families and those therapists trying to help them.

    Conversion therapy is already illegal, so legislation is not necessary. Talking with a child about the causes of gender confusion before moving to irreversible medical and surgical intervention is not conversion therapy, but best clinical practice. There are many young adults de-transitioning because they realised they made a mistake – but their bodies and fertility have, in some cases, been irreparably harmed.

    The other huge risk is that psychotherapists and others in this field will refuse to treat gender-confused children because they don't want to be forced to affirm the child's view that they are in the wrong body. They will be prevented from helping children explore why they feel this way, for fear of being prosecuted.

    On top of all this is the concern that parents desperate to help their children will be criminalised.

    Alison Levinson
    Hastings, East Sussex

    1. Just a ruse to stop him getting on stage and complimenting Abraham Lincoln on surviving his assassination attempt.

      Covid…the most highly convenient complaint in the world.

  65. In defence of Mahler's Eighth Symphony

    SIR – I must respond to Ivan Hewett's critique of Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony, and its "ghastly gigantism" ("Oasis? Kubrick? Wagner? The West Wing? Admit it – they're all rubbish", Features, July 12).

    Yes, the so-called "Symphony of a Thousand" (a gross exaggeration) is big, loud, long and wears its heart on its sleeve; but listen closely and you will discern a rare beauty in its formal construction, its wondrous counterpoint and its sumptuous melodic development.

    Stravinsky was but one of a number of musical luminaries in the early 20th century to belittle Mahler's legacy. But since then, perhaps only Dmitri Shostakovich and Hans Werner Henze have come close to matching his contribution to the symphony as an art form.

    Simon Park
    London SW1

    In 1995, I went to the Albert Hall to see a performance of this (not a Prom, but a Mahler series with the LSO). One of the soloists was Alessandra Marc, a woman so fat that she couldn't get up the narrow stairway from the stage to the choir stall. She had to be bodily shoved upwards by members of the orchestra and hall staff.

    I've struggled to take the work seriously since then.

    1. Jessye Norman used to tell a story about how she couldn't get through a doorway in the RAH and when a staff member there suggested that she try going through sideways she responded, "My dear, I don't have a sideways"! Another of her stories was about the time a cab driver in New York was playing very loud rap or some such and when she asked him to turn it off he said, "Why? Don't you like music?"

    3. Would that be Simon Park of the eponymous Orchestra which recorded the theme tune for the TV detective series ‘Van der Valk’ in the early 1970s?

  66. The Conservatives had Michael Gove. Labour has Ed Miliband. I can't work out which of the two has the most idiotically vacuous physiognomy.

    Is there a Ministry for the Gormless that I wasn't aware of?

      1. At least he was quite a bright chap!
        Edit ‘is’ quite a bright chap! He’s still with us!

        1. Indeed, Pet, and he was my favourite to succeed Maggie in preference to the grey Major.

    1. So you sell it, something of inestimable value tangible and intangible. Then you go on continuing to plunder the countries treasures and at the end what do you have to show for it. A country that has lost its history, its soul and any meaning that it ever had and nothing to treasure at all. Your country has become a wasteland. I loath the sanctimonious sentiment of people who think everything can be reduced to materialism and the spiritual bankruptcy that that sort of thinking represents.

  70. The Irish elite would rather destroy their country than reduce immigration. 18 July 2024.

    Ireland’s Taoiseach, Simon Harris, was quick to voice his shock at the “sheer thuggery” on display during the riot. But the violence, while never justified, was far from surprising. In 2022, the Irish government received a cabinet memo warning that a large influx of asylum seekers could threaten “social cohesion,” particularly in deprived communities. Little heed was paid to the warning, as ministers proceeded to let in 100,000 Ukrainians and tens of thousands of asylum seekers from the developing world. The increase in arrivals has since been exponential: by June of this year, Ireland has had more than 10,000 non-Ukrainian asylum applicants, a near 100 per cent increase from the same period in 2023, and up 350 per cent from 2019.

    His shock? If it were left to me he and his fellow globalist lackeys would be hanging from trees.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/18/the-irish-elite-would-destroy-their-country-immigration/

    1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Keir Starmer is deluding himself about the EU
      Comments Share 18 July 2024, 12:13pm
      ‘We cannot let the challenges of the recent past define our relationships of the future,’ declared the Prime Minister ahead of today’s meeting of the European Political Union at Blenheim Palace. The meeting, he added, ‘will fire the starting gun on this government’s new approach to Europe’. The subtext to this is: the grown-ups are back in charge, and from now on we are going to have a far more constructive relationship with the EU. Keir Starmer has even promised a renegotiation of Britain’s trading relationship with the EU, which is supposedly going to make life easier for our exporters.

      Keir Starmer has even promised a renegotiation of Britain’s trading relationship with the EU
      He can dream on. If he really thinks that the EU is going to treat him in a fundamentally different way than it treated David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, he is in for a rude awakening. The EU will carry on behaving as it did throughout the Brexit process: do all it can to try to ensure that Britain gets as bad a deal as possible, even to the point of cutting off its own nose to spite its face and making life difficult for EU companies which want to do business in Britain. It will do so because it has become a macrocosm of the old East Germany. It needs to erect barriers because it is terrified of losing more member states – a threat which has intensified following the election of far-right MEPs in the European Parliament elections in June.

      The EU could have avoided Brexit altogether had it treated Cameron with a little less disdain when he went to try to renegotiate the UK’s membership ahead of the 2016 referendum. It should have been obvious that it needed to send Cameron home from Brussels boasting of some kind of victory. Instead it treated his request for a brake on free movement with contempt – in spite of knowing the high levels of concern in Britain (not to mention other EU states) that free movement was undermining local labour markets and overloading public services in some places. All the EU would offer was a one-off four year set of restrictions on benefits paid to migrant workers. Even then, Britain would be obliged to pay child benefit to children who were not even living in Britain, although payments could have been reduced to reflect the cost of living in the country where the children lived.

      The result of the EU’s intransigence was a referendum which was narrowly lost, followed by Brexit itself. During those negotiations, lest it be forgotten, the EU refused to discuss anything until Britain had agreed to pay a large bill for leaving. It declined to enter talks for a trade deal until we had actually left and were trading under the transitional arrangements. When a trade deal did come into force we soon learned that that the absence of tariffs was more than compensated for by non-tariff barriers – i.e. petty forms of regulation – designed to make life a misery for UK exporters to the EU.

      That is the kind of ‘constructive’ attitude which Starmer can expect again. The first test is going to be the Prime Minister’s promise of a ‘migrant returns deal’ under which France and other countries would agree to take back asylum-seekers who have travelled to Britain from EU countries.

      But there is, needless to say, a sting in the tail. Such an agreement would depend on Britain accepting a certain number of refugees already granted asylum in other EU states. A genuine, balanced treaty of this kind would make sense, but it is not hard to guess where this is going to go. The EU will eye up Britain as a suitable dumping ground for migrants. The EU will try to make sure that the numbers of migrants which Britain is bound to accept vastly outweigh the numbers currently making the Channel crossing to Britain. And will France really take back migrants who have travelled to Britain anyway? We are already paying France supposedly to police its shores and stop the boats, yet is France really doing all it can to prevent boats from entering UK waters?

      Maybe I am being too cynical, but I will believe that the EU is prepared to enter a new, more positive relationship with Britain when I see it.

      1. The EU has already marked Britain as a dumping ground, years ago. France is happy to send them here, but won't take them back – how exactly does that work?

        1. Not to mention they get paid not to let them in! Nice work if you can get it (and in the EU you usually can).

      2. We should ignore the EU. There are many more countries out there to trade with and WTO rules work fine. It's only the remainiacs in charge who think it's important.

      1. No idea Bill. They hide behind the front desks, vacuous comments meaningless forms.
        And continuous lying.

  72. — The findings of the Covid inquiry seems a bit odd when we compare what we did here and with what other comparable Western countries did, the only country that didn't follow the lockdown consensus was Sweden and they got pilloried for it and so did anyone here that suggested we follow them.
    We got hit with project fear especially from the Left and anyone that tried to suggest doing things differently got called a tin foil hatter and that they were killing granny.
    The Left wanted to lock down longer and harder.
    Sweden turned out to be right all along.

    2. I live in Sweden and I supported Sweden's policy wholeheartedly, despite me getting a frequent barracking from friends and relations back in the UK.

      I flatly refused to take any experimental vaccines and I flatly refused to wear a face-nappy. As a direct consequence, my health did not suffer and I remain free of any infection.

      1. And now they tell us that Joe Biden has Covid in spite of having had all the jabs and boosters.

        Do the PTB and the MSM seriously believe that we should conclude from this that the jabs are safe and effective and will stop you getting Covid?

        1. The sad thing is that it is not just the PTB and MSM who are complicit. Millions of members of the public still argue blindly that is the case.

          You simply cannot educate pork!

          4. Large numbers can't wait for their next booster, and plenty who are not in the target groups demand to know why they can't get jabbed.
            It's only a matter of time before we get the endless invitations/reminders to book the autumn booster. I wonder what proportion of invitees actually get the jabs. Maybe the jabs are still pushed because they have so much surplus stock. Still, plenty of gullible fools are still falling for the fear.

          5. Large numbers can't wait for their next booster, and plenty who are not in the target groups demand to know why they can't get jabbed.
            It's only a matter of time before we get the endless invitations/reminders to book the autumn booster. I wonder what proportion of invitees actually get the jabs. Maybe the jabs are still pushed because they have so much surplus stock. Still, plenty of gullible fools are still falling for the fear.

        2. Covid and its sister Long Covid are now a pathetic excuse for idleness and the wishes of many to feign illness and take a free holiday at taxpayer expense.

          There are hundreds of thousands in the UK who have been and continue to be adversely affected by the poisonous mRNA jabs.

          The Covid Inquiry has not challenged the pushers of these harmful jabs nor those medicos administering them. Neither has the Inquiry exposed the immense fraudulent activities in purchasing of useless PPE and other scams, enabled by our utterly corrupt political class and deep state.

          Until those responsible are put on trial for crimes against humanity we can have no faith in our institutions. A glimmer of hope is visible in the US where by some miracle Trump has survived a devilish deep state assassination attempt and is now working alongside Robert Kennedy Jnr to expose and investigate the fraud.

      1. Scientists must have been bats to think that the virus originated in a cave.

      2. We ain’t seen nothin yet. What about the U.K. being the first to authorise lab-made food. Granted it’s for animals but what about in the future.

  74. Paris Olympics 2024: Your ultimate guide
    When the Paris Olympics 2024 start and end, torch relay information, sports, ticket news and details of the Olympic medals
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2024/07/18/paris-2024-olympics-when-next-games-event-date/

    Arthur Daley's boy, Tom, the BBC's new star presenter, would have ticked all the necessary boxes if only he had been an ethnic minority,

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de4b91d4e0dc7c5cd8d5866fc72edd40c0b783b16bcefbba07a2009f5e53f67a.png

    1. I've never heard of the woman (and I only know about him because he's queer and goes on about it). No mention of an eventer riding through the streets with the torch, I suppose. That would be elitist, no doubt.

  75. Ursula von der Leyen hails ‘emotional moment’ as she wins further five-year term. 18 July 2024.

    In a press conference after the vote, Ursula von der Leyen said “this is a very emotional and special moment for me now.”

    She noted that she won the vote by a bigger margin than in 2019. “Much better,” she said, to laughter in the room.

    “This sends a strong message of confidence, and I think it’s also recognition for the hard work that we carried out together in the last five years,” she said.

    Well who would ever have imagined that? Soros's cash was well spent there.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jul/18/europe-live-ursula-von-der-leyen-faces-crunch-vote-european-commission-president

      1. About the same as in North Korea. Did you send the email you mentioned re the 10th, nothing seen yet. I could just go to the area and follow the riot squad who will attend when the assembled oldies become drunk and disorderly..

        3. PS It is sent from my proper email – the one you wrote to is a new one that I set up just for putting on here.

    4. Ursula is a busted flush, an unelected former German Defence minister who failed upwards. The EU has destroyed itself economically by promoting the mad war in Ukraine. The sooner the EU is abandoned as a failure and we return to Nation States the better for all.

      1. Pardon my prolixity but as I have said before on this forum I reckon Starmer will manage to take the UK back into the EU the week before it collapses and will then be left to pay the majority of the costs of disbanding it.

  76. https://x.com/True_Belle/status/1813937740750410091 Repeating lies by these pro Palestinians, whose remit is to sow division and hatred, doesn’t make them true, no matter how often they are uttered, like demented parrots.
    Bilel Yassin, of Bournemouth PSC calls Bournemouth “our town”.
    I wonder how long this gentleman has graced these shores to call it such, given that the Bournemouth Jewish community precedes any Muslim presence there by a long chalk, going back to 1905.

    1. To slammers, anywhere is "theirs" as soon as they set foot in it. The number of slammers trying to use OUR freedom of religion laws to justify the niqab etc. or using other laws and rights which have been hard won by the people of this country over centuries, for very different purposes, is pathetic.

      Some people (not just our politicians) are hypocrites, liars, and a menace to this country.

  77. Labour election victory a ‘gamechanger’ for UK-EU relations, says Irish PM

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/07/18/TELEMMGLPICT000385994928_17213097405910_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqrzHTgVMnTlujZqy3DSabszfSKDZvIFmbTwOUcCBU4o4.jpeg?imwidth=680
    He's quite tall for a leprechaun

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

    Today is the start of Labour’s Brexit betrayal

    The government misunderstands the EU’s willingness and ability to provide a favourable new trade deal with Britain

    JOHN REDWOOD
    18 July 2024 • 12:34pm

    The government is pressing for a reset of its relationship with the EU. They inherited a grand event, the European Political Community meeting. Without a hint of irony, they confirmed the venue as Blenheim Palace, named after the famous battle.

    Then the British with their allies defeated the French and Bavarian forces as part of a war to stop a strong Franco-Spanish alliance dominating the continent. The Brits were for self determination and the French for centralisation and control.

    At today’s meeting there are less violent struggles for influence on display amongst the 44. But there is another long and bitter European war dominating deliberations, as the community discusses who will give what support to Ukraine.

    The Prime Minister may well make overtures to EU members in the margins of the meeting, but the discussion of details of the UK’s relationship with the EU is not a proper topic for this wider group – with almost as many non-EU members as there are EU states. The meeting is a reminder that Europe is more than the EU.

    Mrs Von der Leyen, the European Commission President, had to be at the European Parliament to help her planned re-election to the post by the new MEPs. This blunts the EU response whilst they sort out who will form their new administration, and what changes of policy they may want in the light of the European election results. There is no sign that the EU itself wants an early or major reset of its relationship with the UK. The topic was not live in their election.

    The government is mistaken in thinking there is an easy diplomatic win on offer. Their wish to make trade easier within the free trade agreement will be seen as “cherry picking” by the EU. The EU extracted a high price for a deal and wished to create some border friction for things like food and agriculture. It is only possible to reset a relationship if both sides make compromises. If the EU continues to hang tough as it did to Mrs May there will not be a deal, only a capitulation.

    It is an odd idea that closer links with the EU would help growth. The so-called single market is a low growth Customs Union seeking to keep out non EU goods and services, or seeking to impose high regulatory costs. It was set up to give the EU big powers over many parts of government in member states, and was driven by excessive law making and regulation.

    Because it specifies so many things in so much detail it is hostile to innovation and unfriendly to small business. No wonder the digital revolution is powered by a series of US large corporations. The EU watches the online world from the sidelines, and seeks to fine and regulate their success.

    The UK government seems to want to photocopy more of the EU laws and rules, arguing that this could make doing business with them easier. The trouble is that doing this might embed more anti-business and anti-innovation measures in our system. It is better to keep us free of them. Larger companies that wish to export to the EU anyway need to meet EU requirements on their export activity. It might make it more difficult to sell goods and services elsewhere.

    GDP per head in the EU is half that in the US. The UK is a bit higher than the EU average, but still way below the US. The US is our single biggest trade partner and we run a surplus with them. We run a big deficit with the EU. Common EU policies have made us ever more dependent on imports of food, fish, timber, electricity and much else from the continent. Their refusal to open up services as much as goods has meant our huge export success owes more to the rest of the world than the EU.

    The best way to boost our growth rate will be to win back lost markets from EU exporters. We should become more self-reliant for energy and food. The government, which likes President Biden’s approach, needs to copy more of his onshoring policies where he, like his predecessor, has attempted to make the US make more of its products.

    The government will find a reset to the EU means accepting more of their rules and ways of doing things. History shows that means much slower growth and lower living standards than the US. Why volunteer to be held back?

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

    Michael THATCHER
    2 HRS AGO
    France is on the verge of bankruptcy and Germany is in terminal economic decline since the cheap oil and gas tap has been turned off from Russia and the collapse of exports particularly cars to China. And the IMF says the UK will have the largest economic growth in the G7 over the next 12 months. Yet REMANIACS still think THE EU IS AN ECONOMIC WONDERLAND. Opening the borders in 2004 to millions of low paid workers from poor Eastern European EU COUNTRIES was the biggest economic mistake in modern history. It pushed down wages for millions of homegrown workers from 2004 until 2020.We have millions of people working in 2024 who earn less in real terms than their counterparts did in 2008 and only survive by getting thousands of pounds in IN WORK BENEFITS. And REMANIACS want to go back to freedom of movement and the next generation of low paid workers from poor Eastern European countries undercutting the homegrown workers as they did in 2004.

    2 HRS AGO
    Reply to Michael THATCHER
    Look at the growth rate of Poland whose inhabitants will be richer per person than those of the UK by 2030.

    1. Look at how some of the East European workers live – sharing flats like students. Then they have the nerve to say that British can't be bothered to do those jobs – the British don't have another country to retire to, with the money they have sent back. The British aren't prepared to work in order to live like students, in their 30s and 40s.

    3. Poles richer? Likely, because they have been poor & Soviet within recent memory, so work extremely hard and effectively. The same cannot be said of many Brits, whose main skill seems to be that of goofing off.

    4. “We should become more self-reliant for energy and food”.

      that’s rich coming from a Conservative backbencher. What does he think the previous government did to create /encourage self-reliance for food? What an absolute joke. And energy. It was the Conservatives who pushed up our costs by ignoring, no, shutting down North Sea oil and gas exploration.

      The Conservatives became a leftist wokeist anti-demos party who deserved their pretty near wipe out at the GE. They were utter traitors to the whole British people.

    5. RE the Poles – couldn't have anything to do with a lot of them being over here, working and sending money back home, could it? I have nothing agains the Poles – Christian, European and generally working (I know several over here) – but they do send money, particularly child benefits, back home to children who aren't here. I doubt very much that loophole has been closed.

  79. The Irish elite would rather destroy their country than reduce immigration
    The people of Coolock voiced their opposition to migrants in the area for months. Their government isn’t listening
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/18/the-irish-elite-would-destroy-their-country-immigration/

    Surely if the majority of people are never asked if they want mass immigration or not the PTB must expect trouble when they discover that they don't.
    Isn't democracy about asking people what they want and then acting accordingly?

    On the other hand, if you don't destroy everything and bulldoze the rubble away how will you clear the ground in order to dig in fresh foundations and build back better when you construct your wonderful brave new world?

    Indeed it is not just Schwab and the WEF who want this but our new King, Charles lll, wants it too!

  80. Good afternoon, all. Beautiful warm sunny day here in N Essex.

    Today's plan was for a day out with a friend and her two friends, whom I'd never met before yesterday, probably to Felixstowe Ferry for seaside walks and lunch in the Ferry Boat Inn. Sadly, friend woke up this morning and was having an attack of vertigo: day out cancelled, friends of friend returning to Kent and I'm acting as nurse. Previous episodes last about 3 days and so I'll be hors de combat as far as completion of the paver surround to my new shed base this weekend. Hence, I have time to plague Nottlers with my thoughts and nonsense.

    A response to ogga1's earlier post.

    In the Cult & Waffle Corner we find our esteemed Minister of State for Industry and Decarbonisation, one Sarah Jones MP.
    Degree in History (Durham), with politics and the civil service featuring heavily in her background since university.

    https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/1813624430171447804

    In the Sane, Pragmatic and Knowledgeable Corner we have one Dave Walsh.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b1612abb96eaa8944be548614445b010fd02126e3534bf1d68936f868a8e9d78.png
    https://youtu.be/xNbqsLu8I7M
    Whom to believe?

    2. First principal is never believe a politician.
      Second principle take note of the expert who’s been in the energy business.

    1. I expect they were worried about being in the water with lightning around, oh, wait a mo….

      1. Hooda thunk it? I'm shocked to the very core! I hope they lock them up and throw away the key.

  84. How the West’s ‘absurd’ bet on hydrogen imploded

    Hopes of a seamless transition to the clean fuel are crashing into economic reality

    Matt Oliver, INDUSTRY EDITOR
    18 July 2024 • 6:00am
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/18/the-wests-big-bet-on-hydrogen-fell-apart/

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

    Ed Martin
    5 HRS AGO
    PINNED
    But think about the logic. With natural gas you simply extract it from the ground and then you burn it. With hydrogen there’s an intermediate, but costly, step – you have to make it. Do what you will, but hydrogen will cost more. Our entire net zero is a house of cards constructed in wishful thinking. We are going to waste trillions to make ourselves poorer.

    David Newton
    4 MIN AGO
    Production is a problem.
    Distribution is a problem.
    Storage is a problem.
    All require expensive solutions. Money that we do not have now. It is utterly ludicrous to consider hydrogen as a fuel outside of extremely niche applications. In those niche applications it may well be useful, but by definition niches are limited.

    Diogenes McMaximus MacMinimus
    9 HRS AGO
    I’m an engineer of some 41 years in the energy industry – oil runs in my blood and I produce plenary if gas too…
    Hydrogen is NOT a fuel I would have in my home or my transport – the bang hydrogen makes is a lot bigger than natural gas – it’s atoms are a lot smaller so it leaks VERY easily and couple that with the BIG BANG it makes when things do go wrong it’s not something you would wan total be around.
    Coupled to that it IS A LOT EASIER TO IGNITE – i.e. it needs less energy (or a smaller spark) to ignite than natural gas when it does escape. It is not anything I would recommend to anybody to have around their loved ones.
    Hydrogen can even leak THROUGH some metals because its atoms are so small..
    NUT ZERO is a con – to make most of us a lot poorer and a very few elites a lot richer.
    Wake up
    Open your eyes
    You have been tango’d with NUT-ZERO, the UK actually meeting its target will make ZERO DIFFERENCE TO ANYTHING ANYWHERE EVER IN ANY WAY TO THE ENVIRONMENT – AND THAT IS A FACT
    ……PLEASE WAKE UP!

      1. From what I gather from the above is if you put all your eggs into the hydrogen basket so to speak the Economy will bomb….

    2. We used to separate hydrogen and oxygen (from water) in the school science lab using a contraption called a Hofmann's Voltameter.

      1. I remember that experiment. It proved there were two hydrogen mollecules to one oxygen (and then we popped the hydrogen in the test tube). Ah, the good old days before elfansafetee.

    3. I know someone working in the hydrogen industry, in Germany. He assures me the best and brightest of minds are working on it. A really decent man, I hope he's right, but I fear he isn't.

    4. The storage of a single proton as gas is a real problem. It diffuses through steel, no problem, and through aluminium even faster. It burns well on the outside. It takes a shedload of energy to create. What fcukking idiot thought tis was a good idea? Milliband?

  86. What a shame….{:^))

    Extinction Rebellion founder jailed for five years

    Roger Hallam sentenced after being found guilty of conspiring to block traffic on the M25

    Telegraph Reporters
    18 July 2024 • 4:06pm

    The founder of Extinction Rebellion has been jailed for five years in what is believed to be the longest sentence for non-violent protest in the UK.

    Roger Hallam was found guilty of conspiring to block traffic as part of a Just Stop Oil campaign on the M25 over four days of disruption in November 2022.

    Four other activists were given four-year sentences for the protests, in which demonstrators climbed the gantry above the motorway and displayed Just Stop Oil banners.

    The court heard that each of the defendants had recruited activists over a Zoom call to take part in the demonstration, which the prosecution said had caused economic damage of nearly £750,000 and cost the police £1 million.

    Daniel Shaw, 38, from Northampton, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 34, from Derby, Louise Lancaster, 58, from Cambridge, and Cressida Gethin, 22, from Hereford, were all sentenced to four years in prison.

    1. I don't like those buggers and think them seriously misguided, but 5 years in chokey? Way over the top. £1 000 fine might even be too harsh.

      1. But they will be out in 2 years. I think all the folk stuck in. traffic for hours on end would think they deserve more..

        1. Calculate the total man hours "wasted" by their actions and make that their sentence.

      3. They would brush off such a fine in a five minute whip round.

        The sentence might just discourage a few people and the more that are discouraged the better.
        They may be considered martyrs to the cause but why should they have the right to disrupt thousands of people's lives?

      4. A fine would be paid in a trice. Chokey is what they need – to bring them to their senses. Something to be frightened about.

        Though I suspect the sentences will be suspended when they appeal – as they naturally will.

      6. I'd have given them double that just as a warning to all the other ecomuppets

      7. I’m inclined to downvote you for that. They caused immense distress to hundreds of thousands of people. Knowingly and deliberately. You cannot allow that in a civilised society. Sentence is about right imho but a shame they will be let out by our wonderful new Govt. before they even get there.

    2. They'll be out in 2, maybe less. Far better to put them in a compound where nothing made from oil can be within it.

      Yes, that's a death sentence but hey ho. They want to 'just stop oil'. We should help them.

      1. I'd have preferred him to have been sentenced to 100 thrashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails.

        That would have served the double purpose of reorganising his thought patterns and saving the exchequer a fortune.

    3. Millipeed Junior Just Stop Oil, should be slammed for at least twenty years, now!

  87. Just presented this by YouTube: My comment underneath.
    https://youtu.be/dDxav1FME4Y?si=O0SCKrz3YTcgFC8z "I lived in Bow and Milwall back then, in shitty, about-to-be-demolished apartment blocks.
    Takes me back to those times – where we had to go to the butcher to see what they were going to throw out before the weekend shutting, so we could buy meat to eat.
    No money, in retrospect wonderful times. Great people, living in Bow and Milwall back then    ."
    The Kray years, before mass immigration. We had no money, yet we survived. The weekend treat was one only pint of beer on Friday night. Spurs one on to advance a bit, so it does.

    1. I attended a 2 day course in the big smoke in the early 80s, (Wapping) long before Canary Wharf grew, and we all met up at a very amazing seedy tavern nr the Thames , almost spit and sawdust , and full of some real croaky characters . (The Captain Kidd)

      Very much a blokey place , but the woman were similar to a Carry on film set .. the place had atmosphere and stank ..There were a few of us attending the course from Dorset , in one of the new super duper buildings near Canary Wharf .

      Chas and Dave music reminds me so much of that experience , so much atmosphere, I loved it but was glad to return home . The other two girls and I were as my avatar suggests .. glitter and swish hair .. my thirties were great years.

      1. Things are usually better when you were young – fewer creaky joints, at least.
        Recently, I've been harking back to those days, when all was shit but we were young. Weird, isn't it? It's all changed now, become islamic.

        1. Come on OB.

          I have been blessed despite things tumbling down sometimes , to have had some amazing life experiences , even recently .

          I am older , plumper , sometimes creaky but will never lose my sense of humour , and I am so lucky to be able to connect with people and reach out .. and I hope and pray that I continue to bumble along in the same vein .

          1. Life has been hard at the time, (no money, separation) but, likely as a result, is kind now, with wonderful wife and sons.
            I'm not complaining, but the problems to be overcome were simpler – involving hard work, in Scotland, Sudan, Libya, Kuwait, Sicily, Spain, UK, Norway, onshore & offshore… then moving to Norway to become fat aand complacent.
            It's been an interesting journey. My two lads don't seeem to be so adventurous.

  88. Guildford Four, Birmingham Six.. now the Whole Truth Five..

    Cressida Gethin, 22, told the court: "People are dying already, my generation is being cast into the dust … We are told this is a functioning democracy, but that direct actions like this are not justified..

    Not just dying but lidderally boiling in their skins..

  89. A geeky Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,125 3/6
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Thank you, Maggie!

        Your the first and only Nottler to send greeting, Maggie; I guess his nibs has had too much wine!

        I'm at home in Helensburgh, lots of calls and emails.
        I'm about to open the wine!

        5. Greetings lacoste. I visited Hill House Helensburgh 1974 and took many photographs of the interiors. I trust it is still standing unlike the scandalously mismanaged Glasgow School of Art.

          At the time I was detailing the reconstruction of the ‘Macintosh House’ interiors at the Hunterian site and detailing other parts of the gallery and ancillary galleries and lecture theatre.

          I retain a love of Macintosh both as Architect and painter and retain a certain fondness for the Glasgow of that period. The loss of St Enoch’s station shed was shocking to me on a visit twenty or more years ago.

          Everywhere I look I see ghastly monstrosity after monstrosity yet those memories of a glorious past keep me hoping for a better tomorrow.

          1. I was at a party in Hill House during 'Clyde International Fortnight' – sailing – in 1966.

            HH – built for the Blackie family – was then owned by Campbell Lawson who became my neighbour in Shandon in the late 'Seventies.

        6. Greetings lacoste. I visited Hill House Helensburgh 1974 and took many photographs of the interiors. I trust it is still standing unlike the scandalously mismanaged Glasgow School of Art.

          At the time I was detailing the reconstruction of the ‘Macintosh House’ interiors at the Hunterian site and detailing other parts of the gallery and ancillary galleries and lecture theatre.

          I retain a love of Macintosh both as Architect and painter and retain a certain fondness for the Glasgow of that period. The loss of St Enoch’s station shed was shocking to me on a visit twenty or more years ago.

          Everywhere I look I see ghastly monstrosity after monstrosity yet those memories of a glorious past keep me hoping for a better tomorrow.

        1. Happy Birthday!🎉🎈🎁🥂🍾🍷🎂🍰🍨🍹🎉 I hope you have had a lovely day. Did you visit your favourite restaurant? I remember the photo from a few years ago.

    6. Happy Birthday! Hope it's been a good one.

      Par for me.

      Wordle 1,125 4/6

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

      2. Well done. Just a 5 for me today.
        Wordle 1,125 5/6

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

        1. Cannot claim credit for this one, my son got it…
          Wordle 1,125 3/6

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

    7. Boring par here
      Wordle 1,125 4/6

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

      Happy Birthday Rene!!

      1. FGS G4…tried this for the first time (having forgotten curiosity killed the cat)…feels like an addiction….what is the 1,125 4/6 and why is Sue's the same?

        1. Hi KJ, the 1125 is just the number of the Wordle puzzle – 4/6 reflects the fact that it took you 4 guesses (out of a maximum of 6) to get the right answer.

          If you want to post your result, when you’ve finished, just scroll down to the green box with ‘share’ on it and click on it (it will say posted to clipboard or something like that) then come onto this site, say what you want to say and right-click ‘paste’…. Voila! Let me know if it doesnt work!

          1. Thanks for info, which I’ll digest…I may be gone some time until I get my head round it. My mum was a crossword fanatic (and I do mean that) she would spend hours chasing down the last few clues…..game on:-D

          2. Dont worry about it, just have a go and let me know if it doesnt work , I’ll talk you through it, I’m a doctor (I’m not actually, but you know that…)

            My dear old Mum was a crossword fanatic also (Telegraph concise), it passed to me, I’m a big contributor to the Times Crossword solvers site – in my own name!!

    8. A birthday birdie. Hope you've had a good one.

      Wordle 1,125 6/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      Thought I'd blown it.

    1. In other words, the process of shoving us back in the EU (they don't mean "Europe") has begun.

  94. Evening, all. Been an absolute scorcher today. I toiled in the garden trying to get as much done as I could manage before the forecast thunderstorms hit tomorrow. I also contacted the sweep to get the chimneys done before proper winter sets in and the electrician to connect the genny (before the electricity company cuts the power off at the end of September to do work cutting down trees near the power lines). That's one whole list that can now be scrapped because everything on it has been done!

    Of course Labour rules by diktat. It's in their DNA. They know darn well that if they had to govern by consensus we'd all tell them to get stuffed because their ideas are so impractical and loony.

    2. Still cold and wet in Co Antrim, it has been quite a miserable month so far. Still an excuse to start the red wine, sorry, whine earlier than usual, and bugger Labour..

        1. May I ask what on earth put that idea in your head? It’s not even my favourite flower.

      2. I needed a rest after the efforts in the garden, so I took a glass of red out and enjoyed the sunshine, reading a book and lounging on the chaise longue.

          1. Trouble with doing that is that I notice all the things I still need to do! I do enjoy my garden but it's a thing of joy and a job forever.

        3. Just had a Whatsapp call in the garden with crazed Teacher friend. Is recommended!
          PC/mobile, glass wine… no cost…

  95. OT – NoTTLers who still have memories may recall that four years ago I was in hospital for a week – suffering from a very bad asthma attack. Despite it being during the plague, and although attention was patchy – the Envy of the World DID save my life. Today, the consultant under whose care I was telephoned me for an annual checkup.

    I was able to tell him that I was normal – cycling, walking, swimming (when the sea is warm enough) and doing everything I normally do. He said, "Thank you for making my day – it has been a terrible one and this is the best news I could have." I told him to strike me off his list and repeated my thanks for what he and his team did.

    Time (almost) for a little drinky-poo, I think.

        2. How inspirational you are , Bill, considering the ups and the fall downs (🙄😊😉) you have experienced.

          I suspect he will ring you again , because all doctors love good news.

  97. I am orf. Lovely day. Lotsa gardening. Two loads of washing dry in a trice. I expect it'll rain tomorrow.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    1. 👍

      Do you prefer the aerial view, or the landscape view? I think we should be told!

    2. 👍

      Do you prefer the aerial view, or the landscape view? I think we should be told!

  99. 389795+ up ticks,

    We must now, on the pandemic inquiry in what many see as a criminal investigation, suffer the biggest ARSE COVERING as yet on record.

    No one deserved the shifting chairs, deaths in isolation, blackmail,intimidation, manipulation, you would be hard pushed to receive that treatment in a gulag.

    We as a trusting nation was handed just that, via the current politico / pharmaceutical top rankers,.

    1. Nothing in the report will stop exactly the same, or maybe even worse, restrictions being mandated when the next fake pandemic is declared. Mandatory jabs, harsh lockdowns, the lot.

      1. Fear not – Mrs Justice Hallett has earned her (share of) £70 MILLION…..

          2. Groan…found the Wordle App, as if I don’t have enough to waste my time on…however did I work all those hours before….:-DDD

          4. Sounds like good advice…I started art when I retired, had always wanted to….yet…here I am…:/- :-DD

      3. 389795+ up ticks,

        Evening Mib,

        I would believe that full on mandatory jabs would be the trigger for full on civil unrest, and they are too cunning for that, it suits them that there are enough gullible trusting fools out there to
        carry on awhile.

        1. Let’s hope they don’t make future jabs compulsory, but I wouldn’t bet on it not happening.

          1. 389795+ up ticks,

            Evening Mib,

            If the peoples stood for it then in ALL honesty, they deserve it.

      4. My take on it is that is what the report is all about. Harsher restrictions (from the WHO) under the guise of a better, swifter and more caring (ahem) response. And a bash at awful 'national' government leading up to see how much fairer and better it will be done under the WEF's NWO One World Government.

    2. And all the time we are not supposed to notice that the same or worse things happened all around the Western world.

      1. 389795+ up ticks,

        Evening W,
        I haven’t trusted political overseers
        these past forty years.

    4. For me, ogga, the lasting moment in time will be the Queen, in black, at her husband's funeral, sitting alone.

      1. Never mind that she was Queen, she was an old lady who has lost her husband of decades. I was really upset by that picture. Poor lass. What happened to humanity?

      2. I have that picture safely tucked away on my laptop.
        I will certainly never forget. Or forgive.

  100. So Obama is now calling for Biden to step down, no fourth term for him then.

    I suppose he is not much younger anyway

    1. Biden is going to step down – that was always on the cards – but the timing will be such that there won't be enough time to have a competition for his successor; Michael Obama will slot in nicely.

    1. Now scrap welfare. Get rid of hosing benefit and child benefit. He, and his tribe, will leave.

      If we stop paying for them they will go. As with anything, if you tax it, you get less, if you subsidise it, you get more. Thus the welfare classes are breeding and producing the next generation of criminal wasters and the workers are not.

      It's obvious where this will go.

  102. I see Ed Davey is suffering from memory loss.
    It’s amazing how dementia comes and goes with those in power only suffering it when caught out!

  103. If you haven't done so, please pop over to Free Speech and look at the article on whether the Trump shooting was a cock-up or conspiracy. There's some very good comments as well.

    1. After the failed attempt the top Democrats are trying much harder to get Biden to step down

    2. Just use live ammunition. Yes, it's a waste of ammo, but it will get rid of them.

    3. Well there were a couple of white lads in there, albeit not many, but if you've never turned over a cop car you havent lived!

      1. I don't give a bu@er about the Colours of those involved – if they can be identified everyone who contributed to the destruction of that police car should be billed an equal share of the cost of its replacement and if they can't pay immediately then the bill should be met from NI contributions which will be deducted and not count towards their state pension / credits etc

          1. No just peed off with the way the State squanders taxes whilst those that cause mayhem get way Scot (other nationalities are available) free….

          2. Well they sent those Extinction Rebellion clowns down for a good stretch! What cracking news that was – I still fear the sentences will be commuted on appeal – pour encourager les autres, as they say in Spain!

        2. What makes you think they pay NI ? Most of them don't work. It's why they have plenty of time for rioting and raping.

    4. Well, Plod ought to police, without fear or favour, and not tiptoe around our “diverse” friends, worrying about being called racist.

    5. The damage the usual idiots have done to our country is endless and irreparable.
      But bullets are cheap and useful.

      1. The trouble is that younger generations will not have clue about the hard work, but fairly easy going , class ridden , you / non you/ social manners the British enjoyed before the war and for a few years afterwards . I am so pleased I was born after the war , and was brought up the way I was .

        Wrong’uns were swiftly dealt with .

        1. Pardon me, but the book was entitled "U and non U" (one of the Mitfords – Nancy, I think).

          1. U and non-U English usage, where "U" stands for upper class and "non-U" represents the aspiring middle (pretentious) classes.

          3. Thank you, Connors, for the correct use of our once-beautiful language. A thousand up-votes!

    1. Surely the whole point of “diversiteeeee” is the avoidance of groupthink. At least, that’s what we were told. So are we saying our government and its numerous advisors aren’t “diverse” enough? Or am I to conclude that “diversitee” is a crock of shite, and if you employ people who think like you, regardless of their skin colour, you end up with with groupthink. Hmmm.

      1. Good lord no. The point of diversity strength is to force everyone to the same lowest denominator, to erase different opinions and ideas, to thoroughly and permanently squash any other attitudes but those prescribed by the nutters.

    2. Surely the whole point of “diversiteeeee” is the avoidance of groupthink. At least, that’s what we were told. So are we saying our government and its numerous advisors aren’t “diverse” enough? Or am I to conclude that “diversitee” is a crock of shite, and if you employ people who think like you, regardless of their skin colour, you end up with with groupthink. Hmmm.

  107. Ah.
    Cancel recent reponse. Didn't know that.
    Sue the arse off them, too.

  108. So the law has finally caught up properly with Roger Hallam. He was once acquitted by a jury of criminal damage (of King's College, London), arguing in his defence that his actions 'were a proportionate response to the climate crisis…and lawful under an exemption in the Criminal Damage Act that permits damage if it protects another's property'.

    Don't choke on your non-organic prison food, Mr H.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist)

    3. A useful idiot who didn't realise that he would be thrown under the (electric) bus…

    4. "On 18 July, at Southwark Crown Court, Hallam was sentenced to five years' imprisonment while the other four defendants each received four-year jail terms."

      Excellent!

      1. It was either going to be that,or a knighthood. Who can tell in these crazy times?

  109. What a day.
    It was wonderful to see so many old friends we haven't seen for years. Even though it was the funeral of a very popular Character. Just 3 years short of a century.
    With the banter and chat amongst us other oldies. We laughingly discussed a sweep stake. We all.put 200 quid in the kitty and the last one to survive gets a partly paid for funeral. Tomorrow is another day.
    😆🤩

        1. As a side comment to my Tonto joke above, the Spanish word "Tonto" means "Silly" or "Stupid". So in South American comics he is known as "Toro" (the "bull").

      2. They call it a minodge in Scotland! Think it comes from the French ménage.

          2. I thought it was a savings fund amongst neighbours, workmates etc! I first heard the word in Glasgow where I was working!

          3. I seem to recollect reading reports from late 19th/early 20th century (book is in a box in the garage somewhere) of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Glasgow (masonic) having their annual menodge to raise funds for charity/benevolence. My impression was it took the form of jumble sale/raffles/sales of tea and cake etc.

      3. The Wrong Box.

        The Wrong Box is a black comedy novel co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, first published in 1889. The story is about two brothers who are the last two surviving members of a tontine. The book was the first of three novels that Stevenson co-wrote with Osbourne, who was his stepson.

      4. Tontine, No longer legal. Oh well, we’ll just have to put some money behind the bar…..

    1. We can expect plenty of comment along the lines of "With prisons overcrowded with violent offenders, why are we jailing for five years a man who campaigns peacefully to save us from environmental destruction?"

      I doubt we'll see them in Lincolnshire campaigning to save 3 square miles of prime farmland from Millipede's madness. EMT featured this, with a 20-something blethering about energy security, powering thousands of homes and using only a tiny proportion of the land available in Lincolnshire. Arse.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87556651093d8726aa7eb4fc7758ff479a2f23811a87157eaca0919518e3494b.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e58632a7642ee548ee37d18d126496771c712c59ed16eaec72d89478fe2a2da.jpg

      1. It isn't cheaper for one thing. nor is it abundant; it relies on the sun shining and the wind blowing just right, not too hard and not not at all. That we don't need "net zero" is clearly not in their understanding (such as it is).

  111. He has served his purpose, now they want him out of the way.
    A bit like that bloke that stood outside parliament for years with the megaphone

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

  113. 389795+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    Depending on the peoples response it could very well be a regular yearly feature, give them credit the WEF / NWO agents and their legions of supporting trusting fools they have done well.

    Up until now we have seemingly been fashioning, from our plough-shares, implements of incarceration, and NOT retaliation.

    Dare face it or not the peoples electorate via Lethargy & criminal stupidity have led us thus far down the pan I make it down to them to lead us OUT by what ever means possible, they owe the kids that much.

    https://x.com/david_r_morgan/status/1813914091339345958

  114. Well, chums, the time approaches 10 pm which is my bedtime. Good Night all, sleep well and I hope to see you all feeling refreshed tomorrow.

      1. BBC: "What were once peaceful multicultural, multiracial communities, a beacon to the world, have been driven to despair by fourteen years of Tory mismanagement of the nation."

    4. Time to call in the armed troops with licence to kill.
      Don't hang about Liebour government more lives are at risk if you hold back.

      1. Liebour don't care about lives! only bank balances – their own; just like Tories.

      2. Liebour don't care about lives! only bank balances – their own; just like Tories.

  117. 389795+ up ticks,

    Peoples open war front on police in Harehill Leeds, looks like police are coming second.

    GB news live.

    1. David Icke
      @davidicke
      In fact, it's just what the 'globalists' want – they have infused the West with migrants from other cultures to trigger 'civil war' while the same hands hold the strings attached to both 'sides'. It's classic divide and rule (just like 'left' and 'Right') and unless both 'sides' realise they are being played, whether in Ireland or Leeds, the 'globalists' (the Global Cult) will get exactly what it wants.
      Why have the migrants been dominated by young adult men? For this very reason. We have seen nothing yet if both 'sides' don't get wise to how they are being manipulated to a long-planned end.

      1. As I suggested ironically earlier today: if you don't destroy everything and bulldoze the rubble away how will you clear the ground in order to dig in fresh foundations and build back better when you construct your wonderful brave new world?

        Indeed it is not just Schwab and the WEF who want this but our new King, Charles lll, wants it too!

        1. Clearly these people like schwab and others are full on lunatics.
          How did they become so dominant in world affairs, who put them in such powerful positions. What are they trying to achieve or even prove?

          3. No, I personally believe that evil does walk the earth, but I appreciate that some don’t.

  120. Friday 19th July 2024

    Jules

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3176aef7ce874ef0fdd3b9cd884240df9d4f02a611febf0c1fcefb81787664b0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png
    and very many Happy Returns and welcome to the 76 club!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/765a6ae67132e329961369ba89587241cbf02e8606006709800b35319a4e28b0.png
    Some may try not to notice an elephant in the room – but we shall never fail to notice Jules at the Nottlers' forum!

    With very best wishes from

    Caroline and Rastus

      4. Have a very happy birthday and hopefully your family are going to make a real fuss of you. xx

  122. More on Hallam:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ffcafe6003b01d1a8482191fcc4727a433c799b581930569654d101c46075102.jpg
    The case threatens to become a cause celebre among Labour activists, opening up a potential rift in the party for Sir Keir Starmer. In opposition, Labour voted against the policing Bill that introduced the new powers to jail the activists.

    Dale Vince, the green energy tycoon who gave £1 million to Labour earlier in 2024, urged the Prime Minister to step in to reverse the "injustice" while supporters cheered as the prisoners were taken from court to prison on Thursday afternoon.

    Hallam and his fellow defendants were prosecuted under a new law of conspiracy intentionally to cause a public nuisance introduced by the last Tory government in an attempt to crack down on disruptive protests.

    Judge Christopher Hehir told the five eco-plotters: "I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns are shared by many, but the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change."

    "People missed flights, people missed funerals, students were delayed for their mock exam," said the judge. "A child with special needs on his way to school missed part of the school day and [missed] his medication which placed the taxi driver at risk as he can become volatile without his medication. "An individual suffering from aggressive cancer missed an appointment as a cancer patient and had to wait another two months for another appointment."

    In a defiant statement released after he was jailed, Hallam insisted his only crime had been: "Giving a talk on civil disobedience as an effective, evidence-based method for stopping the elite from putting enough carbon in the atmosphere to send us to extinction."

    The sentencing was condemned by Michael Forst, the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders. "Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom," he said.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/18/extinction-rebellion-founder-jailed-for-five-years/

    1. Perhaps we'll have to consider civil disobedience as a method for stopping the powers that be impoverishing us all in the non-existent cause of net zero. Carbon dioxide is plant food.

    2. Hallam may be correct – we live in a corrupt country- just not in the way he thinks it is.

      Classic narcissistic/Cluster B behaviour:
      Deny
      Attack
      Reverse Victim and Offender

  123. More on Hallam:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ffcafe6003b01d1a8482191fcc4727a433c799b581930569654d101c46075102.jpg
    The case threatens to become a cause celebre among Labour activists, opening up a potential rift in the party for Sir Keir Starmer. In opposition, Labour voted against the policing Bill that introduced the new powers to jail the activists.

    Dale Vince, the green energy tycoon who gave £1 million to Labour earlier in 2024, urged the Prime Minister to step in to reverse the "injustice" while supporters cheered as the prisoners were taken from court to prison on Thursday afternoon.

    Hallam and his fellow defendants were prosecuted under a new law of conspiracy intentionally to cause a public nuisance introduced by the last Tory government in an attempt to crack down on disruptive protests.

    Judge Christopher Hehir told the five eco-plotters: "I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns are shared by many, but the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change."

    "People missed flights, people missed funerals, students were delayed for their mock exam," said the judge. "A child with special needs on his way to school missed part of the school day and [missed] his medication which placed the taxi driver at risk as he can become volatile without his medication. "An individual suffering from aggressive cancer missed an appointment as a cancer patient and had to wait another two months for another appointment."

    In a defiant statement released after he was jailed, Hallam insisted his only crime had been: "Giving a talk on civil disobedience as an effective, evidence-based method for stopping the elite from putting enough carbon in the atmosphere to send us to extinction."

    The sentencing was condemned by Michael Forst, the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders. "Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom," he said.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/18/extinction-rebellion-founder-jailed-for-five-years/

    1. I absolutely loved Bob Newhart (if I'm honest I didnt realise he was still alive!) but he is astonishingly funny, his riff on Sir Walter Raleigh is just classic; talking about tobacco (apologies for possible errors) – 'So, Walt you have this thing called tobacco and what do you do with it?
      You put it in your mouth and set fire to it? Hey, we've got nutty Walt here……

  129. More quotes from the Hallam case:

    Hallam said in a statement during the trial: "The corruption of our judges by the carbon state has crossed a line in the sand. This is an opportunity, and an obligation, to act. We only have a limited amount of time to halt the unimaginable horrors of climate and social collapse – and to save our democracy."

    Packham said the "five peaceful protesters had been denied the right to properly assert what motivated their alleged crimes" and that the jurors had been "robbed of their fundamental right to acquit defendants on the basis of their conscience".

    He told those gathered: "I stand here because I believe this represents the direct theft of our freedom, the destruction of our democracy, the deliberate and calculated intimidation of protesters, and that that unless we resist this, the very real danger is that our species will destroy life on Earth."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c880xjx54mpo

    Hallam's reference to corruption concerns the judge's actions in dealing with protestors who tried to disrupt the trial and influence the jury.

    I don't know whether Packham's remarks are just foot-stamping or whether he is accusing the judge of misconducting the trial.

    My message to both of them is that our society is already collapsing but it's nothing to do with climate change.

    1. Typical hysterical hyperbolic Leftards (and, yes, i realise the irony). But i genuinely think in their own minds they believe what they say. They are literally mad with the ideology.

  130. Meanwhile, Teletubby woke Police farce wobble away from 3rd world riot in Leeds..
    Labour put on a serious concerned compassionate statesman like face. Lefties blame hate from Clacton.
    More of same on its way every day of the week.

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

      Let's hope that Trump and Farage do the same.

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