Sunday 1 September: Labour fails to grasp the dangers of policing ‘non-crime hate incidents’

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

507 thoughts on “Sunday 1 September: Labour fails to grasp the dangers of policing ‘non-crime hate incidents’”

  1. Good morning, chums – first! And thank you, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,170 5/6

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    1. Good morning. Lucky guess here…
      Wordle 1,170 3/6

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      1. Good Morning, Steve

        I agree with you. The cartoonist's penmanship is appallingly inept. It's supposed to be me.

        1. Of course I know it is supposed to depict 2TK. I was commenting on the ineptitude of the crap cartoonist

      1. I do hope so!
        It were pretty parky last night (clear sky) and misty this morning, but now the mist has gone and the dew burning off, it'l looking like another good day to make cider!

  8. Police watchdog Andy Cooke: ‘The entire criminal justice system is dysfunctional’

    HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary wants a review of policing and prisons, and far better funding for forces to restore the public’s trust.

    Lol. He noticed. The return of trust in particular is impossible. The police are our enemies. They are the bully boys of the Political Elites. The UK Stasi.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/31/andy-cooke-interview-criminal-justice-system/

    1. Just about to post it. But thought I’d check no one else had first! Re the bit I’ve bolted. They had PLENTY of choice.

      “The entire criminal justice system is “dysfunctional”, the police watchdog has declared.
      Andy Cooke, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, says that neither police forces nor the judiciary can “hold their head up” and say they are properly working for the British public. In an exclusive interview with Telegraph, he also warns police not to “give the perception” of two-tier policing in the wake of riots that swept Britain last month.
      His comments come ahead of the Government’s early release scheme, which starts next week and will involve prisoners being freed after serving one-fifth of their sentence to ease overcrowding.
      Mr Cooke says that police forces, prisons, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts are not working as they should be. “None of the organisations can hold their head up and say ‘we’re doing all we can’,” he says. “The entire criminal justice system is dysfunctional, undoubtedly dysfunctional.”
      More than 5,000 prisoners will be released early across September and October as part of a new Labour government scheme. It comes after an emergency contingency, Operation Early Dawn, was activated to control prison arrivals on Aug 19 because of overcrowding in the wake of unrest following the Southport stabbings.
      Asked about the state of the nation’s jails, Mr Cooke says: “It is a nightmare. There’s no easy option because there are not enough prison spaces. The Government had no choice other than to release people early, but it does put a strain on the rest of the system, because probation are understaffed and underfunded.
      “They need to keep communities safe and that puts an extra burden on them, and police officers are dealing with increased criminality from those who are being released earlier and will need to be dealt with.” He goes on to warn that this could create a vicious cycle in which offenders “come out… commit more offences because they haven’t been rehabilitated… [and] then go back in”.
      Mr Cooke rejects suggestions of “two-tier policing”, the claim that Right-wing protesters are dealt with more harshly than Left-wing demonstrates, in the wake of the riots.
      However, he adds: “Forces need to be very careful they don’t give the perception that there’s two-tier policing in what they say or how they do things.
      “Communication could be better in relation to explaining what they’re doing and why. But one side will always say they are too soft, and one side will say they’re too hard. They’ll never get it right for some people.”
      Mr Cooke insists that the police must treat different political groups “in exactly the same way, and that’s without fear or favour”.
      Mr Cooke, 60, is a former chief constable of Merseyside Police and has been responsible for “policing the police” in his current role since 2022.
      He declares that policing has “lost” the confidence of communities and must win it back by properly dealing with day-to-day anti-social behaviour and criminality. “Too often, policing is getting the basics wrong,” he says.
      “That is about just what the public would expect the police to do, which is answer the phone quickly, respond quickly, do the right things when they get there, investigate it properly, keep victims informed of what’s going on, hopefully catch the offender.”
      A government spokesman said: “We are getting a grip of the crisis we inherited so our frontline staff can keep locking up dangerous criminals, cut crime, and make our streets safer. We will get thousands more police officers back on our streets, build the prisons we need and make sure our court system can deliver justice for victims.”

    3. Does HMCIC understand what the implications of his plea would really mean? Money isn't the solution, not by a long chalk.

      To quote a politician with a rating that has utilised warp speed to drastically fall into negative territory in a matter of weeks, HMCIC will have to "rebuild the foundations" of Peel's concept.

  10. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    A Mule is Not A Nag

    An old country farmer had a wife who nagged him unmercifully.

    From morning till night, she was always complaining about something.

    The only time he got any relief was when he was out ploughing with his old mule.

    He tried to plough a lot. One day, when he was out ploughing, his wife brought him lunch in the field.

    He drove the old mule into the shade, sat down on a stump, and began to eat his lunch. Immediately, his wife began nagging him again.

    Complain, nag, complain, nag – it just went on and on. All of a sudden, the old mule lashed out with both hind feet, caught her smack in the back of the head. Killed her dead on the spot.

    At the funeral several days later, the minister noticed something rather odd. When a woman mourner would approach the old farmer, he would listen for a minute, then nod his head in agreement; but when a man mourner approached him, he would listen for a minute, then shake his head in disagreement.

    This was so consistent, the minister decided to ask the old farmer about it. So, after the funeral, the minister spoke to the old farmer, and asked him why he nodded his head and agreed with the women, but always shook his head and disagreed with all the men.

    The old farmer said, 'Well, the women would come up and say something about how nice my wife looked, or how pretty her dress was, so I'd nod my head in agreement.'

    'And what about the men?' the minister asked.

    ”They wanted to know if the mule was for sale.”

    1. As always, you're far too late coz thee no readundery. I think the Grimes cartoon is betterer so there!

  12. Why rough sleeping is surging in the shadow of Parliament. 1 September 2024.

    As the light fades in Christchurch Gardens, a man, hooded with a soiled blanket hanging across his shoulders, rummages through a bin. Another is having a violent argument with an invisible enemy under a streetlamp. A drunk retches loudly into a flowerbed.

    Welcome to Westminster, the gilded backdrop for a crisis that mixes mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, migration and homelessness into a horror show for tourists. It is home to the Houses of Parliament and one of the richest boroughs in the country – but also where the number of rough sleepers is highest.

    Only fair innit? They are responsible for this shambles.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/01/why-rough-sleeping-surging-in-westminster/

    1. I hear that Park Lane is nice at this time of the year. All those campers pitched there agree.

  13. 'Morning All
    Round One
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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51e8712a047cd5be3a88b59659fafe898253ec2ab7f97729b84ca1583a335b82.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a57868e66d88e3a5900cbacb9ca1f2aea976d3b53f0922b56d778ea2188b6848.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4309f74c0bd939eda23220b5dd58ad6fd042072a92afb2066bfcac7dbfb88ad0.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a1822abcaff4f4bcc8ce7e0befbee4cc5faa36674d137a7933256566355fab9.jpg

    1. If only he were a swaying ineffectual Welsh windbag, with John Smith in the Treasury rather than the joyless autobot Rachel Reeves.

  14. Round two
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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/77b292d14e250a30d32e799e811a2f133e964e5bd7370c79041225b4c30d8c26.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e2b18a46b900aab9862767e77bd246b79e2085904eeba43e3cb5f69b3f849b7.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e984b6883565ca3879c1b1afa99886102ac79fc34da7f8a1b8736d2ff5f80df9.jpg
    https://www.rumormillnews.com/pix/So-whats-the-plan_-.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a61c0871f9e4d4707320fac2c9e3d3535350797bb1abdaac8fa85b67c1bae4c.jpg

  15. Morning, all Y'all.
    Becoming sunny. Many apples squished yesterday, more to do today. It's been a really good autumn for apples and other fruits – I expect Firstborn's bees helped, too.

    1. The 20% Government's intention is that nobody can afford to stay old apart from the uninvited boat people and their extended families who are protected by law.

      1. Oh, and fat, drug-ridden tattooed chavs, especially if they are alphabet. They have entitlements.

    2. It cannot be a pension AND a benefit, unless you are a quantum physicist. If the PTB and the Blob* were to call it State Means Tested Taxable Retirement Benefit, that would be more accurate.
      Similarly National Insurance does not attract Insurance Premium Tax, so it is not 'insurance'.

      In the early 19th century, William Cobbett used the term 'the Thing'

    2. And the #bekind sh1ts parade weekly round London with impunity in support of these terrorist thugs. It is just appalling.

    5. Who are "Our Foreign Staff"? I understand that the Israelis do not let in war correspondents from independent foreign news agencies, leaving just Hamas and the IDF to report the news in Gaza.

      As far as I know, these beautiful innocents could have been killed by IDF bunker busters out to destroy Hamas tunnels in "safe areas".

      My blame goes to the border guards, knowing that a Hamas-led raid was underway, neglecting to shore up a 20 mile frontier and not allow anyone back into Gaza, especially not anyone bearing hostages. It all smacks me of agents provocateurs providing the Knesset with the pretext to go into Gaza and clear it of subhumans, but like most such operations, it went beyond what was planned, leading to too many Israeli victims.

      They were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off.

    1. Good morning Delboy

      A Lancaster bomber flew over here in Wool and Winfrith yesterday afternoon , everyone was so thrilled , Moh and I experienced goosebumps .. we were delighted and in awe of it . Earlier on the Compton Abbas Spitfire flew over , again more goose bumps .

      Obviously the Lancaster was performing for the crowds at the Bournemouth Air show , but us rural dwellers were delighted to see it droning overhead .. simply wonderful.

    2. Copt are regularly killed in Egypt.
      Those poor sods were kidnapped and killed working in Libya.

    3. It would have been Islamophobic to have protested.

      And this morning shows that Hamas murdered six more Israeli hostages in a tunnel.

      A genuine fear is not a phobia.

    1. Starmer claimed "CHANGE", but he is merely precisely carrying on what George Osborne started in 2014 – handing over the cost of Government to the Council Tax payer. It was rudely interrupted by Corbyn, but he's been dealt with, and it's business as usual.

      So much for change!

  23. Don’t mention the elephant in the room…

    “SIR – You report (August 25) that the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents civil servants, is calling for all public sector workers to receive a 10 per cent pay rise.
    What the PCS conveniently fail to mention is its members’ pensions.
    The employer contribution to the civil service pension scheme averages 28.9 per cent of a civil servant’s salary. The pension is also a lucrative final salary defined benefit scheme – so is based on length of service and pensionable earnings at (or near) the time you leave, rather than the amount you’ve contributed.
    In 1997, 46 per cent of all private sector employees were contributing to defined benefit pensions, but by 2021 this had fallen to less than 28 per cent, reflecting the closure of such costly schemes to new entrants.
    For those not on such a scheme, the average employer contribution to a private pension is now less than five per cent.
    The Government – of whichever stripe – should by now have addressed this huge and unaffordable burden to the taxpayer.
    While there have been some attempts to reduce costs (such as moving to career average earnings), these are nowhere near enough.
    The private sector cannot squeeze the taxpayer to cover ever-increasing costs – instead, firms must manage their finances and take decisions that are unpopular with employees. Why can’t governments do the same? Phil Stamp Chawleigh, Devon”

  24. I posted this late last night so I apologise for posting it again.

    I am dismayed by the fact that there seems to be a determined effort to make the next generation more stupid than the preceding one.

    Look at the popularity of TV shows like Countdown, The Chase, Mastermind, Only Connect, Who Wants to be a Millionaire – people love quizzes and children, as adults do, love to be given the chance to answer questions.

    These idiot teachers deliberately want to pander to the lowest common denominator.

    Stop testing children on times tables, unions tell ministers
    Teachers demand grammar exams are also stripped back to ‘curb student anxiety’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/31/stop-testing-children-on-times-tables-unions-tell-ministers/

    Come on children. Let's join the race to the bottom – let's see who can do the worst.

    Cheer up, John and Lucy – you both got 10 out of 10 but not everybody can come last.

    3. My concern goes beyond that. ‘Student anxiety’ is being enhanced because children don’t get tested sufficiently to habituate them to the experience. If spelling tests and tables tests are a weekly occurrence, children develop a certain amount of resilience. Obviously, it is more difficult if you are thick but, equally, it is more difficult for those who (like me) were always in the last couple to be picked for a team sport or always came last in a race. You have to deal with it.
      Many years ago Firstborn attended our (highly regarded) local primary school. I was unhappy about the complete absence of demand put on the kids and the fact that although we had taught him to read and to know his tables, this was not built upon at school. We switched him to an independent prep at 7. They had a weekly maths test at which his scores were:
      Week 1 40%
      Week 2 70%
      Week 3 90%

      Had he developed Maths skills in 3 weeks? No, he had got his act together when he realised that excuses, dropping your pencil, needing the loo etc didn’t cut it and when he realised that other kids who he didn’t think were better than him were getting better results.
      This pitch from the teaching unions is very disturbing because the advent of AI will lead to coursework becoming even more discredited than it already is. I think there will be a return to the relentless written and oral exam system that I am a product of. The kids need to be prepared for that.

  25. I’m on fire today. There is more but I promise to stop (perhaps) after this.

    ”it was meant to project an image of confidence as Britain got to grips with the perils of the internet age. But three years after Ofcom opened a gleaming new office in Manchester’s Circle Square technology hub, critics fear the media regulator is still stuck in analogue mode.
    Ofcom is yet to adopt any powers to tackle online harms – and concerns are growing that it is simply unequipped to take on the power of the Silicon Valley technology giants.
    The summer riots laid bare the scourge of misinformation coursing through social media – and the inability of authorities to stop it.
    But it is not just online safety causing a headache for Ofcom. The rise of GB News – and the channel’s laissez-faire approach to broadcasting rules – exposed anachronisms in media regulation and left the watchdog open to accusations of inaction.
    Meanwhile, Ofcom’s ever-expanding responsibilities and its politicallycharged efforts to regulate “big tech” have fuelled unease in the organisation’s ranks.
    So as Sir Keir Starmer vows to review the UK’s social media rules, Ofcom has found itself in the spotlight and will have to prove it is the right organisation for the job.
    Stewart Purvis, a former ITN chief executive and a former Ofcom content partner, says: “For its first 20 years, no one hardly ever said a bad word against Ofcom, and now they’re getting battered all over the place. When I worked there, it was sunshine every day … I think those days have gone.”
    For all the real-world damage of August’s riots, the unrest was largely a symptom of a battle playing out online. Disinformation originating on X, Elon Musk’s troubled social media platform, helped push the far-Right into violence that spilled out on to the street.
    Yet while the police cracked down on the rioters, authorities were virtually powerless to tackle the spread of online hate. With online safety laws not due to come into force until next year, Ofcom had little recourse to act.
    The riots mean that the new laws are once again up for debate. Sir Keir has committed to a review, including a possible rethink of the previously scrapped policy of banning legal but harmful material. But fundamentally, many in the industry are sceptical that Ofcom will be able to bring recalcitrant billionaires such as Musk into line.
    Dame Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom, acknowledges that expectations are high and that regulating ultra-powerful technology companies based on the other side of the world represents a new challenge.
    “But in the end the UK is a very important market for these companies and I’m confident that most want to be able to come to the right side of this regulation,” she says.
    “I’m sure there will be some who decide they want to contest the rules and we’ll be ready for that – we’ve got a range of enforcement powers.”
    While online safety is the newest of Ofcom’s responsibilities, the regulator is facing an ever-growing to-do list.
    The emergence of opinionated news programming, spearheaded by GB News, has proved a regulatory quagmire that has repeatedly put Ofcom in the spotlight. Despite opening almost 20 investigations into GB News, the regulator has yet to penalise GB News for breaching broadcasting rules, leading to accusations that it did not act decisively enough to protect impartiality. GB News has accused Ofcom of “trampling on free speech” and launched its own legal challenge.
    In telecoms too, Ofcom’s desire to spur on competition in the full-fibre broadband market is under scrutiny.
    Rising interest rates have put pressure on the debt-funded business models of dozens of challenger alt-net firms. And the industry is bracing for a wave of collapses, with Ofcom drawing up plans for a “supplier of last resort” regime.
    Even when it comes to postal services – perhaps Ofcom’s most archaic function – it is under fire. Royal Mail boss Martin Seidenberg has accused Ofcom of dragging its feet on critical reforms to the universal service obligation, which include its requirement to deliver letters six days a week. For some observers, Ofcom’s troubles can be blamed on its ballooning remit. “When you’re so big and so – I would say until recent times – trusted as Ofcom, it’s just an inevitable place for a government to put new responsibilities,” says Purvis.
    “It never really wanted Royal Mail, it never really wanted the BBC, it probably never really wanted online safety. So it’s now got this range of responsibilities which are becoming stressful in a number of areas and I think it’s fair to say that they’re being tested.”
    Ofcom has been ramping up hiring in its new online harms division as it seeks to cope with the new responsibilities. Its headcount rose to 1,424 in the year to March, from 1,256 the year before, as a revolving door with Silicon Valley opened up a path to the regulator beyond its traditional pool of lawyers and economists.
    But it has come at a cost. Ofcom, which makes most of its £190m annual income from licence fees paid by the companies it regulates, recorded a deficit last year after staff costs jumped to £127m. Meanwhile, executives in the broadcasting and telecoms industries complain that the regulator is being distracted by its online harms remit, leaving it unable to properly engage.
    Dame Melanie denies that Ofcom’s focus had been diluted and insists a smaller number of larger regulators are better equipped to serve the country. “Obviously, our remit has expanded and that partly reflects the disruption, and the change and the new challenges that we’re seeing in the sectors that we regulate,” she says.
    “But from my perspective, it does all make sense, it all connects. Our sectors are increasingly integrated, actually.”
    Others argue that the regulations themselves are to blame. Broadcasting rules have not been updated for more than two decades, which many argue leaves the watchdog unable to cope with modern-day media. “Ofcom is tied up in knots,” says a senior industry source. “The rules are no longer fit for purpose – they were never designed for the world of 2024, where discourse happens on multiple platforms at the same time.”
    A former TV executive adds: “It’s set up for a broadcasting environment in the 1980s at the very best. It’s not fit for purpose in that it’s not got any progressive thoughts on how to handle the digital explosion in communication.” Moreover, Ofcom’s role has changed fundamentally. Once focused on regulating BT and overseeing mundane but lucrative mobile spectrum auctions, the regulator has now become an arbiter of key issues such as free speech and online safety – becoming inextricably embroiled in politics as a result.
    “Ofcom has a siege mentality about what’s going on in the world,” says the industry source. “They’ve become a politically motivated organisation … They’ve got to put audiences first.”
    A Government spokesman said: “Our priority is swiftly and effectively implementing the Online Safety Act which will empower Ofcom to combat the spread of illegal content online.”

    Meanwhile, at Al Beeb, channel 4 and LBC, situation normal….

  26. Starmer is building an Ozymandian Colossal Wreck. Nothing beside will remain of the UK as we look into the arid desert future.

    3. Ozymandias

      By Percy Bysshe Shelley

      I met a traveller from an antique land,
      Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
      Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
      Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
      And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
      Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
      Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
      The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
      And on the pedestal, these words appear:
      My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
      Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
      Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
      Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
      The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

      1. Christo and Henry learnt this by heart when they were children.

        A marvellous metaphor for the vacuity and futility of human vanity!

      2. I never understand why blank verse is written as it is, rather than in a form easier to read:
        I met a traveller from an antique land, who said “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, tell that its sculptor well those passions read which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, the hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; and on the pedestal, these words appear:
        My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
        Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away.”

  27. Good morning all.
    A dank and dull start with mist clinging to the trees up the valley sides after yesterday evening's drizzle, but less cold with 11°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    So, it appears Hamas, in revenge for the IDF rescuing a hostage t'other day,

    Brian Gedalla
    14 min ago
    It is becoming clear that the humanitarian mission by the IDF last week to rescue a Bedouin Muslim hostage, an act that the entire Jewish world, inside and outside Israel, celebrated, led to to the brutal murder by the scum of Hamas of six more hostages.
    Remember that whenever you hear the blood libels of "genocide" and "apartheid" by Israel.

  28. SEPTEMBER
    by John Updike

    The breezes taste
    Of apple peel.
    The air is full
    Of smells to feel–

    Ripe fruit, old footballs,
    Drying grass,
    New books and blackboards
    Chalk in class.

    The bee, his hive
    Well-honey, hums
    While Mother cuts
    Chrysanthemums.

    Like plates washed clean
    With suds, the days
    Are polished with
    A morning haze.

  29. Morning Nottlers

    Free Speech has a new article today written by a regular poster, Frederica' lamenting what we have lost as a country. I'm sure many of you have the same thoughts. Please do read it and leave a coment, as writers really do appreciate them. It's a good article and I hope you will all encourage her by leaving a comment.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  30. Good morning from here , 16c

    Thundery sky, was very warm during the night .

    The garden greenness seems to be enhanced by the strange hazy light , almost acrylic .

    I do hope the weather change holds off for a while because no1 son was up and away an hour ago , running to Corfe Castle with a pal .. yes running .. what on earth did I give birth to .

    He took part in the Weymouth 5k park run yesterday and came 4th .. 19mins 5seconds, out of over 400 competitors.

    It is amazing what a diet of fish , chicken and the occasional steak and lots of rabbit food can achieve!

    1. Sun's out here now after a very grey start. Looks like a nice day for the village fete we're attending with the hedgehog stall. Dog show as well…….

  32. Starmer start to this one – Complete waste of effort:
    Wordle 1,170 5/6

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    1. I still haven't tried yet, Ped – however, husband and daughter both very competitive, and both crashed and burned on this one…not much hope for me then 😀 Update: Yes, the old crash and burn as predicted…tomorrow's another day (and another try)…:-))

  35. Morning All 🙂😊.
    Sunny again.
    What a wonderful day we had yesterday, lunch at Mid Herts Golf Club. The food was excellent drinks flowed well for all.
    A once in a lifetime event. 45 people a lovely collection of family and friends came. Twelve or so couldn't make it for various reasons mainly living overseas.
    We had a wonderful day. Mainly organised by my good good lady, the golf club were excellent. We had a guy bringing in two sessions of singing old standards.
    The 'Speeches' went down well mine and our three sons. The grandchildren behaved until it was time to go.
    If any of you have trouble sleeping please give what we did yesterday a go. After the event the family came back to our house they were gone by 8:30. We were retired by 9:00. I slept for ten hours.
    As Mr Punch use to say "Thats the way to do it."
    And conincendenlyt it's the first of the month.
    Thank all very much for your good wishes responses prior to the event 🤗😊

    6. Hi Eddy. Great that you had a wonderful time. One for good memories to look back on in the future 👍😊😊

  36. A bit windy? Dead leaves all over the bloody lawn? Still, could be worse eh?
    The view from the bridge of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS SHEFFIELD as she battles heavy seas while escorting convoy JW 53 to Russia, February 1943. The ship suffered severe structural damage during three days of storms and had to return to port for repairs.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/edaba0fe73c38416ea1bb3f082f7f008cde2e128ec2af97a16a00cf524177e92.jpg

      1. He will certainly need to stay alert for trouble. We're talking about the sort of blinkered fools who would travel from South Yorkshire up to Glasgow to stab a shopkeeper for wishing his customers a Happy Easter.

  38. Interesting article which if the author's suppositions are correct mean we could be in one of the most serious times since 1962….

    "Even if the globalists can’t convince western populations to give the thumbs up for ballistic attacks on Russia using weapons paid for with our tax dollars, the powers-that-be have a contingency plan. Ukraine has recently announced that they have developed their OWN long range ballistic missile, and those weapons supposedly don’t fall under the supervision of the US and Europe.

    Eventually these kinds of strikes will lead to a Russian response that will appear brutal; and western warhawks will squeeze that event for all it’s worth. They’ll run with it straight to the Pentagon and demand a plan for US military conscription. If this is the agenda then they’ll need to make it happen BEFORE the elections in November.

    Donald Trump is looking increasingly likely to be the winner of the presidential race. I have long held that the globalists will wrap up an economic collapse or a world war and throw it in Trump’s lap. They already tried to do the same thing with the covid pandemic and the inflationary crisis.

    The timing of the Kursk offensive and the call for missile strikes on Russia is not a coincidence. Trump claims that his intention is to end the Ukraine war as quickly as possible once he enters office. This will likely mean a leveraged peace settlement that will involve Ukraine giving up the Donbas region to Russia. If Trump is sincere, then there are many elites in the Atlantic Council, the WEF and NATO that will not be happy.

    They need to escalate the war into something bigger, something that can’t be undone. Right now, the war can be ended – All it takes is some diplomacy and forcing Ukraine to understand that they’re not going to get the Donbas or Crimea back no matter how many lives they sacrifice. But if there are massive civilian casualties on either side, the situation becomes irreversible. I suspect this is what the globalists want."

    Full article here:

    https://alt-market.us/globalists-are-trying-to-escalate-the-ukraine-war-into-wwiii-before-the-us-election/

    1. Pray like hell that Trump becomes President because if the Democrats win, we will have a terrible time of it. Russia has won, as I keep saying. the reason that the fighting hasn't stopped is that the West, NATO, is feeding the Ukrainians weapons to keep this murder going. It is completely unnecessary, all it is doing is killing people for no gain whatsoever. Zelenskyy is, in my opinion, a war criminal responsible for the genocide of his own people. I believe there was another little man in Germany, that behaved in a very similar manner. Only, I have no doubt that Zelenskyy will run away to live in a mansion in the USA.

      1. From day one, johnathanr. Had quite a few discussions early days – I'm not the type to fall out even when I disagree. Current times, most are coming round to my pov, not that it gives me any satisfaction – all the dead, all the ruin, and for what and to whom? Trump/Vance/Kennedy/Shanahan '24 all the way….

        1. For whom? To line the pockets of Black Rock, Halliburton and the rest of the Democratic swamp. Zelenskyy is their puppet.

        2. As I have said before, I know enough about the history between Russia and Ukraine to know I don't know enough.
          The Russian invasion of Ukraine was yet another episode in a scratchy thousand + year history.

          1. They will still be next door neighbours at the end of current events, anne – will the West (i.e. US) want to continue funding death and destruction ad infinitum…hmm….

  39. Good Morning to all. Today it is going to hit 27 here 80f, in the proper way to measure temperature. We are supposed to be out of the EU so why are we still using centigrade? Anyway, that is way to hot. It's going to ruin my day.

    This video is the Lotus Eaters, with Carl Benjamin. He decided to research our Starmarfuhrer, his personal life and what makes him tick. If Benjamin is right, we are dealing with a very mentally sick, individual that we have every reason to be afraid of. To quote Benjamin: "It's hard to believe that one man can be as evil as he is".

    A question too. Is there a way that a general election can be forced by the people. i.e. For example, can unrest reach a point where an election has to be called?

    The Starminator.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4KJv30Pq_c

    2. I've watched half of the video and nothing revealed has surprised me so far. Frightened/worried me, yes. He's on a mission and if half of what has been revealed in half of the video is anywhere near true then we are in for a very rough ride.

      Perhaps the Labour party will have to remove him to try and secure any possibility of a very distant future for the dregs that will remain.

  40. Good Morning to all. Today it is going to hit 27 here 80f, in the proper way to measure temperature. We are supposed to be out of the EU so why are we still using centigrade? Anyway, that is way to hot. It's going to ruin my day.

    This video is the Lotus Eaters, with Carl Benjamin. He decided to research our Starmarfuhrer, his personal life and what makes him tick. If Benjamin is right, we are dealing with a very mentally sick, individual that we have every reason to be afraid of. To quote Benjamin: "It's hard to believe that one man can be as evil as he is".

    A question too. Is there a way that a general election can be forced by the people. i.e. For example, can unrest reach a point where an election has to be called?

    The Starminator.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4KJv30Pq_c

  41. From football matches to Taylor Swift tickets, Starmer’s penchant for perks is a disconcerting trait

    Owen Jones (Corbyn loyal)

    Let’s call it the Boris Johnson test. When our rightly disgraced former prime minister was collecting numerous freebies at a time of acute social crisis, were you outraged?

    It’s only eight weeks into Keir Starmer’s administration, but he has made clear how he intends to rule. The refusal to scrap George Osborne’s two-child benefit limit imposes poverty on 250,000 children, and drives 850,000 kids further into hardship and squalor. Labour’s decision to radically restrict winter fuel payments in England and Wales, meanwhile, will withdraw support from 800,000 impoverished older people who are eligible for pension credit but don’t receive it – an inevitable evil generated by means testing – as well as another 1 million pensioners just above the breadline.

    These are choices Labour has made in power. Meanwhile, there has been no talk of meaningful taxes on the mega-rich to raise revenue and ensure security for all citizens from cradle to grave (the richest 350 British households have a combined wealth of £795bn: bigger than Poland’s annual economy). Then there are the choices that cast Starmer’s own behaviour in an unflattering light, as he inherits a country that has suffered an unprecedented squeeze in living standards.

    Here is a man who has clearly long had a taste for comfort: when he was director of prosecutions, taxpayers reportedly coughed up nearly £250,000 for his travel costs, including first-class flights and a chauffeur-driven car. Apparently he deemed the latter a requirement, even though he lived just five or so miles from the Crown Prosecution Service offices, which were easily accessible through a direct tube journey. Notably, he claimed nearly three times more expenses than his successor, who had the job for the same amount of time.

    David Cameron and Enda Kenny talking at a Downing St fireplace with the Thatcher portrait above it
    Keir Starmer ‘gets rid of’ 10 Downing Street’s Thatcher portrait
    Read more
    Look at this behaviour as Labour leader, and something of a pattern emerges. By last summer, Starmer had accepted more freebies than all Labour leaders since 1997 combined. As analysis by openDemocracy uncovered, that included multiple gifts from wealthy donors and companies, days at the races, an Adele gig, two Coldplay concerts and hospitality at Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur matches.

    In total, he received £76,000 worth of freebies in the last parliament. These ranged from hotel stays to more than 20 football tickets (bear in mind that, as leader of the opposition, his £128,291 annual salary hardly left him wanting). Throw in VIP tickets courtesy of the Premier League to see Taylor Swift, worth £4,000, during the general election campaign and, well, you get the gist.

    Notably, Starmer also received “work clothing” worth an astonishing £16,200, and “multiple pairs of glasses” worth £2,485 from the Labour lord and businessperson Waheed Alli. This is the Labour donor who has since been embroiled in a cronyism row after being granted a pass to No 10. Again, apply the Boris Johnson test: would you be perfectly comfortable with a wealthy Tory donor being granted access to the heart of power after showering our ex-PM with expensive suits?

    This matters. A love of the finer things and a willingness to accept generosity from the well-to-do helps bind politicians to the interests of the rich. You inevitably feel gratitude towards those doling out gifts, and you spend time in the company of those with thriving bank balances living the high life.

    All of this cements a sense of class solidarity. When Labour scrapped the Tories’ VIP helicopter contract, they said it represented a past government that was “totally out of touch with the problems facing the rest of the country”. Does the same apply to the current prime minister or not?

    As it is, Starmer is the most unpopular leader of the opposition to be elected prime minister since party leader ratings began in 1977. His ratings are dropping like a stone: one poll shows him on minus 16, down 27 points from where it was last month.

    The looming attack on pensioners’ entitlements and accusations of cronyism after the appointment of multiple loyalists to civil service posts have not, to say the least, gone down well. What happens when energy bills surge, winter bites, and projected cuts hammer already ravaged government departments?

    Starmer’s speech promising misery now for long-term gain is merely a less optimistic riff on David Cameron’s opening statement as prime minister in 2010. The lack of a vision for a crisis-ridden nation becomes ever more apparent to the public.

    Everyone now agrees that the warning signs with Johnson were there from the start. That Starmer self-evidently craves the lifestyle of the jet-setting rich, while imposing destitution on children and pensioners alike, well, the evidence is glaringly apparent. And an already unsympathetic public is going to notice it.

    Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/31/keir-starmer-perks-disconcerting-cash-strapped-britain

      1. Heh. No; unidirectional worm, that one. People here may think that Owen is criticising a Labour leader. For him, though, Starmer's position, being way to the right of Owen's, relegates him to 'honorary Tory'. Hence the attack.

        1. The Jones boy is a Corbynista. He is not going to praise #TwoTierKeir whilst Corbyn waits on the wings, ready to swoop in and save the Labour party. There's no chance of that happening, even though Corbyn gained more votes in GE19 than Starmer got in GE24.

    2. The redeeming factor when Rishi Sunak ruined his extremely expensive suit standing in the rain without an umbrella was that at least he paid for it.

      2. I suspect he had been advised to avoid any 'The Wally with the Brolly' headlines that a former football manager endured.

    3. The article gets off to a bad start. No, the two-child benefit cap does not put over a million children into poverty and squalor. People having more kids than they can afford to bring up does that. But that’s what you expect from Owen Jones.

    4. Starmer admitted it openly, he perfers Davos to Westminster. Davos, the playground of billionaires…
      I don't think he is in politics to make things better for the average Joe.

  45. Mobilisation here in the UK, and probably in some EU countries, will be a sign of real trouble pending and not just in the Ukraine. Would the Labour 'government' survive a call to arms in support of the Ukraine regime? The MSM certainly would go up a gear or two to push the narrative.

    I'm not convinced that in today's political climate, especially with Starmer's popularity rating down the toilet, that a move towards war would be a cohesive move. Divisive, certainly.

    1. If Corbyn's popularity rating was down the pan and Starmer's is actually worse, then perhaps down the sewer is a more apt description of the man who owes his 20% mandate overwhelming authority to a system where even fewer liked the Tories and Reform and the Greens were denied proper representation, finding it handed over legally to Lawyer Starmer.

      1. It is possible that voting papers with RFK's name on them have already been printed and 'prepared' i.e. 'the fix' (or one of them) 'is already in'.

        1. Most voting in the USA is electronic so removing someone isn't that monumental a task. Oh, and good morning 😊

        2. Most voting in the USA is electronic so removing someone isn't that monumental a task. Oh, and good morning 😊

    2. If she does there will be a crisis in America, Ndovu. And likely a disaster somewhere – possibly from the Southern border (which was her one job to sort out).

    3. I wonder how many Americans will die before November; the 'suicides' that were prevalent wherever the Clintons held sway.

  47. Labour fails to grasp the dangers of policing ‘non-crime hate incidents’

    We are now in the realms whereby everyone can fall victim to hate crime laws as it is all down to interpretation.
    The powers that be can now pick off people that they consider a threat to them at will.
    It's all just groundwork for when we are ruled by social credit apps

    1. The Kipling Society
      https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk › poems_tommy
      For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' Chuck him out, the brute!" But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot; An' it's Tommy this, an' …

      History repeating itself.

      Tommy Robinson

    2. 392811+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,

      48% of the nation wanted to submit to eu incarceration, lab/lib/con via the family tree supporter / voters still finds favour in the polling booth.

      Tis a tough battle we WILL eventually win there is no other option, IMHO indigenous blood will flow, NOT as in WW2 but within the nations borders.

      2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        Labour’s age of miracles
        Comments Share
        I am not yet eligible for the winter fuel allowance. Nor am I especially in favour of it, regarding it as one of those times when the government bribes the public with the public’s own money and expects gratitude for doing so. Like anyone who pays taxes, I rather resent a government of any stripe using my earnings to make themselves look good. I’d go so far as to say it irks me.

        Still, I have watched Labour’s abolition of the scheme with something like awe. I know pensioners who appreciate the couple of hundred quid that the government lobs their way each winter. But last month the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, simply scrapped the universal winter fuel payment. Some ten million pensioners will no longer be receiving the cash.

        What would have happened if a Conservative chancellor had scrapped the winter fuel allowance?
        Yet it isn’t the decision itself which interests me so much as the response – or non-response – to it. Sure, there has been an online petition (and if Reeves cannot stand her ground against this then she might as well give up now). Otherwise there has been almost nothing.

        All of which is intriguing, because I keep wondering what would have happened if a Conservative chancellor had made this decision. If the saving had been made by George Osborne, Sajid Javid or Rishi Sunak, I can say with considerable certainty that there would have been outrage. Much of the media would have claimed this was fresh evidence that the Conservative party’s policy platform included freezing the elderly to death. One of those crock left-wing campaign groups would have conjured up a figure of how many pensioners were likely to die this winter because of the cut, and the BBC would have run the story every night. A group of left-wing street movements would have organised protests – filled with the obligatory Socialist Workers party banners – alleging a cull of the population by the Tories. And so on. Yet the response seems to be that a policy that would have been genocidal in the hands of the Tories is mere economic sense in the hands of Labour.

        Most popular
        Alexander Larman
        The cynical manipulation of ‘dynamic pricing’ for Oasis tickets

        I have mentioned before that I sometimes wonder if only a Labour government will be able to tackle the problem of illegal immigration because they are allowed to do things which no Conservative government is. As if on cue, last week the Home Office announced that it is planning a ‘large surge’ of return flights out of the UK for failed asylum seekers and others who have been found to have no right to be here. The levels that Yvette Cooper and co are currently aiming for would only return the UK to the still woeful performance of the Theresa May government in 2018. But it is a start.

        Once again there has been a remarkably quiet response to this. The various ‘institutes’ and ‘observatories’ that claim to take an impartial interest in these matters have either nodded sagely or clapped quietly. For their part, Labour MPs seem to accept that Cooper is trying to mend a broken system and good luck to her. She has not yet been denounced as a white supremacist, a member of the KKK or ‘literally Hitler’. I would not expect the usual raft of ‘human rights’ groups to prevent the deportation flights from ever taking off or for Bad Samaritan members of the public to ‘save’ these poor migrants from said flights.

        Yet I don’t need to imagine – because I can recall – what happened when people in a government which was nominally conservative said they would perform a similar task.

        Had Priti Patel or Suella Braverman announced this policy, certain publications would have depicted her as a demented bull and their comment sections would have been wall-to-wall denunciations. Crank publications and radio hosts would have announced that Britain had officially gone full fascist. There would be protests in the streets (again with Socialist Workers party banners) and these would have attracted large numbers of people, from students who genuinely believed the Conservatives were ushering in a Fourth Reich to elderly political agitators who just love to make trouble.

        I wonder what the next miracle will be? My money is on the NHS. Any political party that is in charge of the nation’s finances knows that the NHS is an unreformed money-pit. And while they have to lie about it a lot, and coax it and stroke it and flatter it, they also know that they cannot endlessly feed it. For want of other solutions, they tend to realise that some type of greater integration of private sector provisions into the NHS would enormously advantage patients.

        ‘Yes Darren, it’s just like when Daddy has his fingerprints taken.’
        The Conservatives have been extraordinarily loath to enable NHS reform because they know which political cudgel will be smacked against their heads the minute they do anything. The public may find it impossible to get a GP and almost impossible to book an appointment. But we are still fed the ‘envy of the world’ myth. For decades the Labour party has claimed that the Conservatives want to destroy or privatise the NHS (two things that are synonymous in their vocabulary). Again the campaigning left in the media and on the streets are ignited by this issue. Labour MPs and others enjoy nothing more than pretending that a Conservative government wishes to destroy the NHS. They will make this claim even while Matt Hancock (for instance) turns on a vast spigot of cash for the NHS and goes around wearing an ‘I heart the NHS’ badge.

        I suspect that the Health Secretary Wes Streeting will be the next cabinet minister to benefit from this miraculous Labour immunity. When he inevitably announces some scheme for NHS patients to have access to private hospitals and practices to shorten waiting lists, just remember that he will not be planning to privatise the NHS. He will be saving it.

        Lucky Rachel. Lucky Yvette. Lucky Wes.

        1. The Liebore party were up in arms a few years ago when the Tories considered scrapping the WFA – as usual they've done a U-turn

      3. And we have to encourage good people to enter politics. We've been far too complacent and it has allowed intellectually weak and rotten people to dominate our political landscape. We've been easy pickings.

  48. rubbish.. "If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. allahu akbar. God willing."

    1. Although I'm no gardener, I've seen the amount of bulbs MB has bought and I have nobly offered to help with planting.
      I will spend the evening polishing my halo.

      1. Oh my that’s backbreaking work anne…someone told me a ‘trick’ many years ago, has to be in soft ground..take a fork or spade, put it in the earth to spade depth and push earth to one side, drop three or four bulbs (depending on size) into gap and let earth fall back to cover them. I planted daffodil bulbs this way and they were lovely first few years, but then they start to multiply and become a bit overcrowded. Anyhow, a polished halo can be quite a while before it loses its glow…

        1. Huh!!! Front garden was like concrete; with old tree roots to make it even more bloody.
          Luckily still had my mother's garden fork with very pointed tines which loosened up the soil, otherwise, the bulbs would still be in their packets.

  50. The Order: Jude Law stars in a smouldering new thriller. 1 September 2024.

    In his latest film, Jude Law is a husk of a man: Terry Husk, to be exact. The British actor stars as a dried-out and world-weary FBI agent in Justin Kurzel’s smouldering new thriller, about the true-life thwarting of a violent white separatist clan in the 1980s Pacific Northwest.

    It’s those pesky far-Right terrorists again. And in an election year. Who would ever have thought it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2024/08/31/the-order-venice-jude-law-review/

  51. The Thames Frost fair, 1814 (the last frost fair)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4d35fb7751639366c16dc36219c6955cee39d0dc9bcb7e40ed37dbf2b451bb0.jpg
    The Frost Fair of 1814, by Luke Clenell.
    The frost fair of 1814 began on 1 February, and lasted four days, between Blackfriars Bridge and London Bridge. An elephant was led across the river below Blackfriars. Temperatures had been below freezing every night from 27 December 1813 to 7 February 1814 and numerous Londoners made their way onto the frozen Thames.

    Tradesmen of all types set up booths to sell their wares, and pedlars circulated through the crowd. Food and drink was being sold including beef, Brunswick Mum, coffee, gin, gingerbread, hot apples, Old Tom gin, roast mutton, hot chocolate, purl (wormwood ale), and black tea. Activities included dancing and nine-pin bowling.

    As the ice broke up starting on 5 February, several people drowned.

    Nearly a dozen printing presses were also on the ice, producing commemorative poems.] A printer named George Davis published a 124-page book, Frostiana; or A History of the River Thames In a Frozen State: and the Wonderful Effects of Frost, Snow, Ice, and Cold, in England, and in Different Parts of the World Interspersed with Various Amusing Anecdotes. The entire book was typeset and printed in Davis's printing stall which had been set up on the frozen Thames. The book contained an account of the frost, humorous sayings, anecdotes, various weather-related histories and specifics about "skaiting" according to a 1814 review.

    This was the last frost fair. The climate was growing milder; old London Bridge was demolished in 1831 and replaced with a new bridge with wider arches, allowing the tide to flow more freely; and the river was embanked in stages during the 19th century, all of which made the river less likely to freeze. There was nearly a frost fair during the severe winter of 1881, with Andrews (1887) saying, "it was expected by many that a Frost Fair would once more be held on the Thames".

      1. You set me up nicely, Stephenroi:

        Dr Zharkova’s work in examining the sun as it moves into a solar minimum in the late stages of solar cycle 24 and into solar cycle 25 has captured the interest of an international audience. Her work suggests the long range forecast for the sun in the next two or possible three solar cycles will lead to a dramatic decrease in the volume and intensity of solar radiation in our solar system.

        Careers That Matter: Valentina Zharkova (Professor or Mathematics, Northumbria University)

  52. History repeats itself
    We had Charles and Cromwell.
    Now we have Charles and Stamer.
    All as bad as one another.

    1. I think you are wronging Cromwell by equating him with Starmer. Cromwell had the odd redeeming feature.

  53. A university has removed the term Anglo-Saxon from module titles in a bid to 'decolonise the curriculum.'

    The University of Nottingham is removing the expression from a number of courses, including History and English Literature, and replacing it with the more favoured 'Early Medieval English.'

    Academics have been campaigning to replace Anglo-Saxon with 'Early Medieval English' due to concern the former suggests a distinct, native Englishness.

    It follows concerns that Anglo-Saxon has become too associated in recent years with racists – particularly those in the US – who use it to describe white people.

    The Russell Group University is also looking to 'problematize the term "Viking"' – according to The Daily Telegraph.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13801595/university-removes-anglo-saxon-module-titles-decolonise-curriculum.html

    I am so angry , I can't read the rest of the article.

    1. Don't get angry. That's what these trivial, irrelevant attention-seekers want. With most, it is a desperate ploy to save their unnecessary jobs. Expect more of this kind of stuff from increasingly useless academic departments. Very well-paid rebels without causes. #DefundAcademics.

    2. University chancellors are the modern equivalent of the Third Reich's Gauleiters. They are so sh*t scared of losing their wealth and position that they blindly follow orders from Headquarters – 10 Berliner Straße, WeißeHalle, London SW1A

      1. But, but…English didn’t exist in the Early Middle Ages. It developed out of the melting pot of Anglo Saxon, Old Norse, Norman French and Bad Latin (Latin words, Anglo Saxon grammar). Not diverse, since they were all white Europeans.

    4. The University of Cambridge has a (small) department that calls itself 'The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic'. I wonder if it will jump on the re-naming bandwagon.

    2. And that was just from the BBC’s radio commentary box.
      Edit: We just won by 190 runs so more corks to come.

    3. And that was just from the BBC’s radio commentary box.
      Edit: We just won by 190 runs so more corks to come.

  57. Phewww! just had to pack up trimming the trees – it's just too hot to work
    Edit – got cloud cover now so it's cooled down enough for me to continue

  60. I see it's being put out there.. 2TK may be gay, but not in a Macron kinda way. Or perhaps something else.

      1. wants us to pretend..

        and change our language to submit to the delusion.
        and employ the full force of the Law to maintain the delusion.
        and seek compo if anyone fails to maintain the delusion in day-to-day conversation.
        and permit access to women's spaces.
        and permit access to women's very private openings for arousal.
        and evangelise in the kindergarten to convert your children.
        the list goes on.

      2. wants us to pretend..

        and change our language to submit to the delusion.
        and employ the full force of the Law to maintain the delusion.
        and seek compo if anyone fails to maintain the delusion in day-to-day conversation.
        and permit access to women's spaces.
        and permit access to women's very private openings for arousal.
        and evangelise in the kindergarten to convert your children.
        the list goes on.

    1. A politician speaking the truth – I am gobsmacked . . . and so will he be, probably in an automobile accident or a plane crash.

          1. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you! Who knew a Morris Marina could travel at high speeds.

          3. Who knew there were any Morris Marinas still on the road?

            They were certainly not roadworthy in the 1970s.

          5. Is it any wonder high ranking politicians feel obliged to make, what would appear to ordinary folk to be, insane decisions?

          7. Very interesting. Many, many perverted clergy and politicians escaped justice for their sickening crimes – and it is almost certainly continuing to this day. A curse on them all!

        1. I know, I meant on a personal level. Biden aided by Blinken. Johnson fitted perfectly being half-American, sense of 'adventure', wanting legacy of 'statesman'…we could go on couldn't we…

          3. Without reference to the subject quoted above, I would imagine any person who is heavily compromised would be an ideal candidate for high office as a little tweak here or there could get things done…..

          6. There’s that, Grizz, but also the CP and the wider electorate. I myself voted Conservative as I’ve done since Thatcher, he (& Gove) fooled me too (and about Brexit, sunlit uplands/ trade/ yadda yadda. I’m more ashamed about persuading others to vote similarly. Consider myself fortunate they’ve forgiven me. Lesson learned.

          9. He has charisma – not all respond to it but many do and the fact that Cameron is rude about him means he can’t be all bad;
            He had a reasonably good track record as Mayor of London (contrast with what we have now);
            He was our only hope for Brexit being delivered after the shameful betrayal of Theresa May, her sidekick Barwell and the verminous Grieve, Soubry et al, the beyond repulsively odious Bercow, the puerile shower that is the Lib Dems, and the cess pit dwellers of the Labour Party – Corbyn, Starmer and the self-evident traitors Cooper and Benn just for a start.

          10. Sorry, Lola – I cannot see any charisma in Johnson, I would use different descriptions for him. Cameron even worse. BJ had a good team in London, I understand they did most of the work although he may have set the direction. I wouldn’t want him around any female relative of mine or anyone else’s. As for Brexit, I guess it could be worse, but some now think what was the advantage to us, where are the sunlight uplands we thought we were promised (the ones re migration and trade)? How did it affect N.Ireland? Johnson himself didn’t know which side he was going to come down on until the last minute, not exactly a conviction. Believe me, I hear what you say about the rest of them…do we really deserve the politicians we get? Many of us think the (Un)civils run things anyway, that’s how low it goes. All this and more is why people support, and intend to vote for, Reform – for me, they have some way to go. The new leader will be either Jenrick or Badenoch, we’ll see how that goes and vote accordingly next election.

      2. The Ukraine War was effectively activated by the Evil Triumvirate of the senile Biden, the corrupt and avaricious Zelensky and the self-aggrandising buffoon Johnson.

        (RFK's exposure of the machinations which has the potential of leading to WW3 needs watching – It was posted on this forum earlier today)

        1. Your first sentence, Rastus – spot on. Your second sentence, yes been watching/listening to him for some time re vaccine damage. As with WW3 machinations, follow the money. I have a lot of respect for him, we’ll see the progress he makes with Trump (I like him too).

      1. He's a really good guy, Sue, interesting he's joined Trump campaign (from both their perspectives). And he's completely right re Ukraine/Russia/NATO, imo. I'm relieved more voices are being raised similarly, finally.

    1. Sung Eucharist this morning was led by one of our retired associate clergy. I arrived early as I was serving and he was sitting on one of the benches in the churchyard enjoying a cigarette. Fine by me but I wonder how long before there’s an obligation to put up a no smoking sign, even among the dead?

      2. There is a serious problem between friends in the offing – The BBC loves fags and has them everywhere but the Government doesn't want them in public spaces – Fight! Fight!.

        1. Many years ago I saw an American drama where a boy was given his last meal before execution. He wanted a beer with his last supper but as he was under 21, this request was refused

    1. That is downright evil. It only goes to prove than government is not the friend of the people.

  66. Holy Trinity at Bowerchalke. Not my favourite it has to be said, but still a wonderful place. People have been worshiping in this place since the mid 900s:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73c2823127872955da155488e8862f090bce0aed8a078ba55b7b0b9ef780bed1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41b89e8459ed820d2b7ac8e01936a900d39c9b5bcd09ce9069ab32f67eed3db0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3591d55efbfd1d42b863ffdd2682c797df1de79336929e7fad959e213e24ef8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37e7217c69cfc157a46bd9f46806b76f6b8508fa1eafaefbcee712a98d16b0bf.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6b5ee315b3b7303fa12ec7ffe9a639937596943d080a88496fa897ff8378860.jpg

      1. …of Rich recollection. It still astonishes me and my Big Brother (a genuine historian) how on earth Trevor-Roper is allowed to exist in the nation's memory. He was always a lying shit.

        1. Appalling snob; well-connected; friends in high places; married very well (and money); believed himself to be the best historian since Julius Caesar…

          Apart from that….

    1. Well, someone's in someone else's pocket……..TBI an interesting read, setting up future politicians.

        1. When I posted I saw your Douglas Murray video but not the Eva one – I probably needed to refresh.

          Anyway, her words are usually to the point – I used to see her on the Mark Steyn show on GB News before he was disgracefully sacked.

          But you love a Swedish woman rather than a Dutch one don't you!

          2. It is perhaps ironic that though you live in Sweden and I live in France and our soul-mates are not English we are are both, though different from each other, quintessentially English.

  72. I suspect she has said that she'd leave him, take him to the cleaners and he'd never see his children again for more than five minutes once a year…. (or similar!)

      1. He's the best thing the Kennedy clan have ever produced.

        The polar opposite to the detritus, Ted Kennedy. I would've paid to have had him shot!

          1. The Kennedy clan are grifters profiting from the family name.

            One of the women said that RFK had disgraced the family name seemingly oblivious to the events at Chappaquidick. RFK is a great and accomplished man treated abominably by the deep state and his own family members.

          2. Yes. As i understand it bootlegging bought the Presidency.

            Just as with President Putin when you get a President like Donald Trump all the thieves and grifters have to run for the hills.

          3. Prescient how there was a rock band called Dead Kennedys, but never one called Dead Reagans or Dead Trumps.

    1. Well done, par here today.

      Wordle 1,170 4/6

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

    2. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,170 4/6

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

  77. Today's Back to School Deal from Amazon

    Calgon 4-in-1 Washing Machine Cleaner and Water Softener Tablets, 75 Count , Removes Limescale, Residue, Dirt, Rust & Malodours , Deep Clean , XL Pack Size £12.68

    2. Perhaps Amazon mean that now the sprogs have gone back to school, parents now have the time to do all the remedial cleaning.

  78. All comment is superfluous.

    "A man may have been dead in a hospital coffee shop for “several hours” before anyone noticed.

    The NHS has launched an investigation into the circumstances that led to a man being left slumped over a table in a hospital cafe on the day he was discharged.

    The 36-year-old was found dead at Sandwell General Hospital, West Bromwich, on July 10 by a security guard, the Sunday Times reported.

    He had been seen by medical staff and discharged with a referral to Hallam Street Hospital, a mental health facility across the road.

    The man, who was from Birmingham, was seen going into the hospital’s Costa Coffee branch shortly after midday, where he sat down, but was not seen moving after 1.30pm.

    Passersby and customers, including doctors and nurses, as well as patients and members of the public, failed to notice the man who it is now understood had died."

    3. A tragic and shocking occurrence, but with his implied mental health problems, at least the poor bugger is now at rest.

    5. There was the suggestion that this chap was homeless. And all those medics and nurses who went in for their overpriced muffins and donuts walked on by.
      I understand why people stand back because they don't want to get involved but this is seriously fucked up in a HOSPITAL.

      I have experienced something similar myself. (not to take anything away from this poor chap and his friends and family). I could barely walk and was almost on my knees trying to get to the main Entrance of QA. Lots of people in scrubs walked on by. I phoned a friend and they had to again travel the length of the hospital to get my medications. The new wing is miles away from the pharmacy. And it still took two hours.

      I want those in charge and in particular politicians to experience the same thing. Then………………………..i would tell them the computer says NO.

        1. I got wise. Being sent from floor to floor and then having to traverse back and forwards i took my E chair. The last time when i had a 24 hour nose bleed i fluttered my eyelashes and the young lady pushed me all the way to my taxi.
          It is miles away from the main entrance. The nurse suggested i walk before they re-examined me. Those nose probes are a fucking nightmare.
          So i walked the corridors. At most there were one or two people in each side ward in ENT. There were 16 wards which have 10 beds.

  79. Just arrived home after a very enjoyable, traditional village fete – like the ones we used to have when I was young. No loud music, no bouncy castles and stuff like that – just stalls with various things for sale, charities like us and ordinary people doing some business. Dog show as well, and Morris dancers, and in the earlier part of the day, a samba band.

    It stayed fine most of the day but rained a bit as we were packing up.

  80. I have just sent this email to the three headteachers of the nearby schools. I have also sent it to both a local and a country ouncillor.

    "Subject:
    August is the kindest month.

    Good afternoon, (name of head).

    For 31 days of the year, dog walkers, joggers, cyclists and those just taking a constitutional can enjoy the fields, woodlands and the walks around your school without having to encounter litter.
    Plastic bottles, empty Cola and Monster cans, crisp packets, wrapping from filled baguettes, discarded lecture notes, chocolate and sweep wrappers….
    For most of the year the mess is constant and creates a degrading and depressing environment.

    This creation and acceptance of ugly surroundings indicates ugly minds. It indicates a disdain for fellow human beings. It indicates a self centred ill-discipline; the behaviour of spoilt children.

    There are myriad litter bins within walking distance of the school. They appear to be invisible to many younger eyes.

    Many of us try to clear the litter; there are those who try to stem the tide of rubbish by going out armed with litter pickers and large plastic bags. Some pick up what they can and deposit the detritus in the litter bins. Others take old carrier bags and clear as much as they can from short stretches of pathways.

    It is a constant, ongoing battle. It is also noticeable that the problem is far worse during term time. By the end of school holidays, the area actually looks like a green lung, rather than an annexe to the local rubbish tip.

    And then schools return, and the whole dispiriting cycle starts again."

      1. "Dear interfering busybody. Don't you write to me like that. If you do not like the way our diverse and inclusive students leave the area – then go a different way. Nosy cow."

    2. That's you cancelled.

      I regularly look at a webcam overlooking a French beach – a place which we like visiting. Yesterday and today, there was a big "event" – a training and recruiting day for lifesavers. A dozen tents; eating arrangements; canoes and kayaks all over the place. And a 100 people.

      Tonight – apart from lots of footprints in the sand – not a trace of this event. No litter; no mess; everything as it was before the chaps came.
      As I looked at it – I thought of Glastonbury/Notting Hill etc etc – where the detritus is measured in TONS….and sighed.

      2. It was the same in Hyde Park after the country people protesting against the Hunting Bill had left. Spotless.

    3. Spare the rod and spoil the child. They certainly need more discipline, and I don't mean caning or whatever. (Though it didn't do me much harm…)

    5. I once wrote in a similar vein to our local school in Warrington and suggested the headmaster made them clear up the mess. He just said 'he'd have a word' but nothing changed

    6. Dumping a couple of carrier bags worth of suitably slimey rubbish outside the headmaster's office door might help get the point across…………

      1. All schools nowadays are surrounded by fencing and gates that used to only be seen around prisons.

    8. When did civilised behaviour, classic deportment, good grace, thought for others, decent manners and proper dining etiquette become unfashionable?

      And how? And why?

    10. That is brilliant. I am going to send that to everyone. And everywhere. We have the same problem in our local park. When i walk Dolly i see and speak to the others they say exactly the same thing.

      One of my invited guests who didn't bother to turn up or say he couldn't come is the headmaster of the local primary school. He also seems to have plenty of time to moonlight as a gardener with this crew… https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/14146776/officers

      He will be coming soon as my neighbour has employed him/them to do work next door. Any suggestions?

  82. That's me gone for today. Quite nice and sunny. Took things gently. Shocked to report that GUS has just woken up after sleeping for TEN HOURS (bit like Eddy last night!!). I do wonder what they get up to during the night. Prolly better if one doesn't know….

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

    PPS Are Ceylon just crap at creekit? Just asking – again…!!

    2. Stop being so negative. There are dozens of people who speak quite highly of you. Good tea in Ceylon.

      1. Are you using a Diane Abbot calculator? I count four and three of them are just being kind. I don't include myself in that !

    3. The cats creep into trees under the cover of darkness. Scare off mummy bird then crunch crunch on the chicks in the nest. What do you think they do?

          1. Norwegian Forset Cats can climb down trees forwars, not needing backwards.
            We have two of the massive buggers. They can.

        2. Do you know? I think i love you. Next time a nuclear bomb goes off near me i want you to tell me everything is okay. :@)

    4. Not really – they arrived here and had virtually no time to acclimatise to very different cricketing conditions.

      Add to that England are pretty good at the moment (Root is the best batsman in the world by a country mile, plus some of our new quicks – Atkinson, Potts, Stone – look good) so it's no surprise they were walloped!

  84. Trying to contact Our Susan

    Repeated attempts to book two tickets for the September Event @ St Bart's have lead to Laptop melt down and failure. Can you help? It's the sort of event that my big brother might like to attend, hopefully without my sister-in-law. Coming from Wiltshire will be K(atharine) a good friend of Nagsman but never a NoTTLer because her views were always too Far-Right to be acceptable herein.{God rest her soul}. Phizzee knows how to get in touch with me but. lovely lad, is a born liar.

    1. You got me. As i have said to Geoff, most of what i post is utter bollocks. Normally to raise a smile or a laugh. Though all the medical stuff is true but that's boring.

      Would you like me to contact Sue on your behalf or contact a ticket tout? :@)

      1. Madonna Louise Ciccone when she was young, fresh faced and not so up herself. It was actually quite a good movie.

        1. Glad we are on the same page regarding entertainments. Haven't watched it in years but probably worth another go.

          Regarding Rules. We seem to be all set. Max tells me they are off to the Adelphi to have an evening with Joan Collins later. Perhaps you could snag a ticket…or not.

          Last memory of mine with Joanie was her in a lift in a fur coat, high heels and no knickers. Oh sorry…that was Oliver Tobias. :@(

  85. 'Night All
    A nicked thoughtful comment
    "I always think that it is interesting to look at atrocities in reverse. Imagine the global outcry if Israel had taken 6 Palestinians as hostages, kept them locked up for 11 months and then killed them in cold blood. Imagine if the "far-right" rioters had actually stabbed to death a couple of bystanders. Imagine if a group of white Nazi thugs had groomed and raped underage Muslim girls. You get my drift. The media display grotesque double standards and consequently pave the way for two tier policing and a two tier justice system to be , not only acceptable, but actually preferred."
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5fa2d172b400d965777cb3b0efc30ca8b09e974b2e194e743f184640d661628f.jpg

    1. I love the small Churches of the People – not at all grand, no flimflammery as found in cathedrals to get between you and God. Just quiet, Peace and a release of emotion fit to make one cry.
      Norway has such small churches – typically, wooden (Stave churches), and nearly as old.
      That's where you find God. Not in amongst grandeur, but in simplicity.

      1. Absolutely. I am blessed with many wonderful churches near me, along the Chalke Valley and across the Cranborne Chase, a lot of them on the sites of Saxon churches.

  87. Well, it's been a great weekend!
    Magic dinner Friday at Firstborn's local French restaurant.
    Beautiful sunny weather all weekend.
    Heavy work collecting/picking apples and squishing them for over 40 litres of juice to be cider, now bubbling gently to itself.
    The physical work and gorgeous weather meant that last night I dreamed the solution to work problems that have been stressing me out something shocking… now I know how to approach the solution.
    Ricasoli Chianti and pizza for supper… deffo need to shower before bed, the BO is even putting off the cats!
    All down to the weather. Sunshine = energy = getting stuff done = lower stress = happy!

      1. Thank you.
        I've been down for quite a while now, can't get anything done or think anything useful, and suddenly two days sunshine, and BOOM! Brain and arse in gear, problems solved as I used to be able to do… magic!

        1. Welcome. I wonder if you’ve suffered a bout of ‘SAD’ the seasonal depression syndrome…lack of sunshine, less daylight generally..just a suggestion, look out for it next winter/spring? Very glad to read brain and arse in gear..:-) familiar with them being out of step.

          1. It's been cold, raining, dull…
            Difficult times at work, changing projects and excluded from social arrangements.
            Looked at early retirement…
            SAD hasn't been a problem so far, but the tendency for me to have a heart stopping moment and fall off my persch hasn'nt helped. I find out, by being collected by the ambulance at the kerbside, and all kinds of bodily dents. Sigh.

          2. Ah, we’ve spoken about this previously, I think? apologies for slow memory….mine is syncope/vaccine….yours much more serious. Wish you all the best to be safe and well, Kate x

          3. Memory problems? I forget… Synkope is often related to heart problems, so now I'm equipped with pacemaker. So far, no great success, so a week of 24/7 monitoring just finished.
            But 2024 hasn't been easy.
            Hope it goes better for you, Kate, and thank you for your kindness.

          4. I think you mentioned your pacemaker previously, you were possibly having an adjustment that time too? I’m sorry to read it isn’t fully successful and I hope it’s sorted soon, it’s a drag having to keep attending health appointments. I have stml since vaccine, bothers family more than me, I was anti-vaccine and they persuaded me to go. I’m better than I was. Hope the rest of ’24 brings improvement for you, and ’25 even better. Most welcome to a bit of kindness 🙂

          6. Sorry to interrupt but have you considered natural sunlight bulbs? In the dark and grey days i have all the lights on.

        3. It must have been all that magic food you ate at Friday's magic dinner, Herr Oberst. Lol.

    3. How very inspiring, Paul! Very pleased you’re feeling less stressed and more positive! Long may it continue!💕

      1. Thank you, Sue!
        I'm even looking forward to going to the office tomorrow! I've even polished by arse-kicking shoes as well!

    4. Even i am getting the pheromones over here. BO can be quite attractive you know !

      Glad you de-stressed.

  89. Is the removal of Thatcher's portrait, both misogynist and a hate crime.
    Should Starmer get a visit from the police?

  90. The BBC have finally dropped Sports Personality of the Year in favour of a new one called Political Personality of the Year.

    One of the first politicians put forward was Two-Tier Keir. However, he failed to make the final list since he is completely devoid of personality, not to mention charisma and panache.

    A separate category of Bland Twat of the Year has been mooted since his vacuousness, gormlessness, peevishness and resemblance to a 3D AI zombie seems to fit the bill.

    1. I forgot my manners, Grizzly, laughed so much at your final para choked on my hot milk n buckwood……he'll likely win it for the next few years too…'night, see you tmrw, hopefully :-))

    2. I do hope with all honesty that he doesn't die horribly in a car crash where he is slow in dying from his injuries while burning to death. Let us all hope that doesn't happen any time soon.

    1. This shit is getting so close to making me switch nationality, from British to Norwegian.

    1. So, can I get this straight?
      You can die in a hospital cafe, and nobody notices FOR FUCKING HOURS? In the Name of the Man, WTF?

      1. Cafes and pubs like Spoons with WiFi are crowded with people with a small drink surfing the net for half the day. Glad to hear that you are feeling better, now, if you have any dreams about any winners at Newmarket…. I can offer a 50:50 split! Off sailing in Turkey in 3 weeks from Fethyie with 4 other family members to escape the approaching winter.

        3. The thing about Wetherspoons is you can get constant refills of coffee – or at least you could. Haven't been in one since the plandemic.

          1. You still can. At around £1:50 its great value. You can get constant refills of beer also, pity though, you have to pay for them!

          3. The issue in Turkey now is that their economy is in tatters with 75% inflation, so prices in the yachting areas are sky high. I have a willing galley slave and with a few jugs of Effes lager we make the best of it on board the boat in the main.

        5. I'm doing similar. Off to Malta to shorten the Winter.
          O/T After meeting you i find it difficult to match you with your avatar pic. In the flesh you seem very young for an old man !
          Also………….my neighbour said she was surprised to find Kiki smoking cigars in her garden !
          I just laughed.
          It was great to see you both. :@)

          1. 69 in a few months, maybe 70 is the new 40. A great weekend for us as we also caught up with some others on the journey. Must change that old photo for a more glamorous shot, I’ve also sold the sports car as I was struggling to get out!

      2. You can also die in a hospital toilet or a waiting room , and no one would notice either .

        You can writhe in agony in a hospital bed , behind screens and no one would care either.

        You can be left to die alone in a side room , because your time is due , is finished , and no one will hold your hand …

        You can be slumped asleep , for a million years on a train seat and no one apart from a brave passenger will be curious enough to ask questions .. and alert the right people ..

        This is modern Britain , people have lost compassion and love of their own kind .

        2. Been happening a long time, Belle…in the summer of '76 was left alone, in labour, in a side ward over 24 hours, hooked to a machine which spewed paper everywhere, supposed to be monitoring baby heartbeat. Pre-computerisation, how would anyone know any problems outside the hourly or two hourly checks or overnight. Wherever I go, I see people hovering over mbls…

          1. I am so sorry you went through such a horrid experience when you were in labour .
            I had a similar experience when I was in labour in 1969, in a well known hospital , and I was so badly handled that I discharged myself afterwards , which was unusual for those days .

            My district midwife was brilliant when I arrived home and visited me for ten days , then the health visitor took over , such as things were in those days , when we had dedicated district nurses and midwives .

            Once trust vanishes , it never returns , and doubt always remains re the NHS and hospitals and GP's in particular .

          2. Thanks Belle, I in turn am sorry to read of your experience. I honestly think it was and still is widespread (see recent experiences). I had another baby 18 months later, very similar, the same two sisters and an auxiliary run off their feet. I remember a young meduc visiting me he said his last call before going off duty, been on longer than 24 hrs. Now, we have thousands more to see and cater for. GPs don’t help, shunting patients to A&E if they can’t just give you medication. Sorry for ranting.. 🙄🤨 good for you for taking charge of your own treatment..I had similar midwife experience to yours. Now, they call and fill in a form then vanish, or at least they did until recently. NHS seems on its knees, for various reasons. ‘ Night, likely see you tmrw Kate x

          3. Things don't seem to have improved. There are many stories of very badly managed maternity units. I am glad the Letby case is being looked at again.

          4. I recall my mother who had five children, including me, often remarked that on the birth of my elder sister Eunice, which was a painful birth, the Matron shouted “Anyone would think it was your first, not your third”,

            My late sister Eunice was evidently reluctant to enter this world and never enjoyed much of it. She died twenty five years ago.

            I have some reserved hatred for our supposedly superlative health services. I have received on occasion exemplary services but others I know have received far less.

          5. I recall my mother who had five children, including me, often remarked that on the birth of my elder sister Eunice, which was a painful birth, the Matron shouted “Anyone would think it was your first, not your third”,

            My late sister Eunice was evidently reluctant to enter this world and never enjoyed much of it. She died twenty five years ago.

            I have some reserved hatred for our supposedly superlative health services. I have received on occasion exemplary services but others I know have received far less.

          6. I spent all night in A&E with a friend who had a heart attack. The Para was brilliant. Then the Ambo arrived. Took us to hospital. I must admit i did enjoy the lights and sirens. Off my senses at the time. Anyhoo…chum hooked up and then the wait….beep beep beep beep…all night. Then he raised his arm and hit the damn thing to shut it up so he could get some sleep. No response from the medics.
            Reminiscent of the Monty Python sketch.

  93. We listened to Gardeners Question time on the radio whilst driving back from Weymouth in the storm this afternoon .

    It was broadcast from Blenheim Palace.

    Can you believe that Sir Winston Churchill was born there 150 years ago … that long ago ..

    Born: 30 November 1874, Blenheim Palace
    Died: 24 January 1965 (age 90 years), Kensington, London.

    I wonder what he would think of the current mess the UK is in .. He would be shocked to see Britain full of fuzzy wuzzies , wouldn't he ?

  94. Evening, all. We've had dire warnings about thunder, lightning and hail. What we actually got was a torrential downpour during Evening Prayers; lighten our darkness, O Lord!

    Labour, frankly, doesn't care about the dangers of non-crimes or unlimited invasion.

        1. You are welcome. It also appears we have mutual virtual friends. I am in Hampshire. Any time you fancy a cocktail just say………Oi ! where's my drink !!! :@)

      1. I watched a bit of it as my wife is addicted.

        The flat faced fraudulent bitch who has wrecked Question Time actually admitted that she had no knowledge of the stone formation known as Blue John. She presumably has never walked Kinder Scout and has no knowledge of the Rambler's’ Association.

        Why do the BBC promote such ignorant people as presenters. The ghastly Fiona Bruce woman has little enough knowledge of antiques yet even less about politics.

      1. This is a shocking riddle which a Jewish friend of mine told me. I have posted it before but I have hidden it behind a spoiler so that I shall only offend those who are prepared to be offended!

        Q. What is the difference between a Morris Dancer and a Jew?
        A. A Morris Dancer is a complete prick!

        (I might add that when Caroline was at Bath University she played the melodeon for the Morris Dancing Side but she did not dance herself – at that time only the men danced)

      2. This is a shocking riddle which a Jewish friend of mine told me. I have posted it before but I have hidden it behind a spoiler so that I shall only offend those who are prepared to be offended!

        Q. What is the difference between a Morris Dancer and a Jew?
        A. A Morris Dancer is a complete prick!

        (I might add that when Caroline was at Bath University she played the melodeon for the Morris Dancing Side but she did not dance herself – at that time only the men danced)

      3. Hope you had a good turn out and made some money. One of those Morrises is definitely a woman. I can tell even if the fukkwit PM can't.

  98. From the DT an appreciation of Leonard Rossiter in Rising Damp and the wonderful script:

    "The best comedic actors on TV make an ordinary gag sound like dynamite, and a good gag sound like the trumpets of heaven. Rossiter took Chappell’s lines – precision-crafted to begin with – and, with his runaway-train delivery and physicality that suggested boiling repression and bubbling venality, elevated them further. Take Rigsby on his long-lost wife: “Married in name only, Miss Jones. It was a long time ago. At the end of the war – VJ night. She surrendered the same day as Japan. We resumed hostilities a week later.”

    Or, from Miss Jones: “Just because young girls are taking the pill, Mr Rigsby, it doesn’t mean they’re doing anything wrong. It’s a precaution. After all, you pay fire insurance but you don’t expect the house to burn down.” Rigsby replies: “Yes, but you’re supposed to try and extinguish the blaze, Miss Jones – not lie back and enjoy it.”

      1. Me2. My dad a dead ringer for Rossiter, looks, speech, posture, behaviour. He could never see it himself, or so he said 😀

  99. It's 10 pm so bedtime for me, chums. Good night, sleep well, and I hope to see you all hale and hearty tomorrow.

  100. What a wonderful weekend we have had with our family and friends alfresco dinner this evening. And another lunch tomorrow as well.
    Good night all. 😴

      1. Only a few, one the bridesmaids lives in Melbourne close to her parents. The other in South Africa. Best man and my two sisters and hubbies were there. I think it was around ten altogether.
        It was mainly more recent friends and family under 50 years old.
        The original photographs were on display via a TV screen. The group of people at the wedding day was 60 plus.
        Two mayor’s stood out, both standing on the top steps of the church entrance.
        Thetford and Wembley.

        1. I have just two friends now who came to both my weddings. All close family have passed on – two sons are next generation.

    1. It occurred to me a long time ago that someone was supplying outboard motors and very large inflatables which were arriving at the French coast. These items including life jackets would need to be transported there.

      One would need at least a long wheel based van to make the delivery.

      The obvious question is why are these vehicles not stopped and searched.

      I think we all know the reason why.

  103. Rant for today (Monday). Really?

    “LABOUR was forced to cut winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners to prevent a run on the pound, a Cabinet minister has said.
    Lucy Powell, the Leader of the House of Commons, said the markets would have lost confidence in the Government’s economic plan if it had not slashed the benefit.
    Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has faced criticism from opponents, campaigners and some of his own MPS over the decision to means-test the payments, worth up to £300, in an attempt to fill a “black hole” in public finances.
    Ms Powell said there was “no alternative”, claiming the cut was needed to avoid an economic catastrophe.
    Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, she said: “If we didn’t [find savings] we would have seen the markets losing confidence, potentially a run on the pound, the economy crashing – and the people who pay the heaviest price for that are not you and me, Trevor … We’ve had to take some of those difficult decisions, as you say.”
    She made a similar argument to Times Radio, saying: “[We] faced this huge additional black hole for this current financial year, borrowing higher than anybody understood. If we hadn’t taken some of these tough decisions we could have seen a run on the pound, interest rates going up and crashing the economy.”
    On LBC Radio, she said Labour’s approach was not the same as George Osborne-style austerity because the former Tory chancellor, unlike Labour, chose “to dramatically reduce the size and the reach of … the welfare state”.
    She said: “They’ve overspent on the asylum system to the tune of nearly £7 billion, they knew that the public sector pay deals that were sitting on their desk before the election would be honoured by them or any incoming government, and they hadn’t set aside any money.”
    From this winter, the fuel payments will be restricted to pensioners who are on pension credit. The Government has begun a campaign to encourage those eligible for the benefit to claim it.
    But the Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of deliberately making pension credit “inaccessible” to retirees, with a 22-page form that includes questions such as: “Does your partner agree to your application?””

      1. Then there's £3Billion, for as long as it takes, to Ukraine.

        Add up foreign aid, Ukraine and hotels for illegal incomers and the "black-hole's" attractiveness disappears and it leaves this universe.

    2. 'On LBC Radio, she said Labour’s approach was not the same as George Osborne-style austerity because the former Tory chancellor, unlike Labour, chose “to dramatically reduce the size and the reach of … the welfare state”.'

      You can't get more bare faced lying than that. I have an idea to save a few billion. Stop paying benefits to people who are not British and don't live in this country.

Comments are closed.