Wednesday 4 September: Labour failed Israel when it most needed the support of close allies

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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586 thoughts on “Wednesday 4 September: Labour failed Israel when it most needed the support of close allies”

  2. Good morning, chums. And thank you, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,173 3/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Ms Pickup misunderstands why John Lewis management allows these things to happen.

      It is not sympathy with trans men, it is purely to be very trendy so that Dame Sharon White (and possibly some of her senior colleagues)

      can look good in the eyes of the lefties in Government, and get a well paid senior post in either the Civil Service or one of the numerous

      Quangos which infest the administration.

      The ultimate gesture politics at the expense of her employees.

    2. A first class article on the stupidity of enforced equality for transvestites and gender perverts and the cowardly compliance of the directors of John Lewis and company. Well put Lesley Pickup, I hope you take up the cudgel in support of those oppressed women and knock some sense into our stupid politicians, bureaucrats and corporate executives.

    3. If a woman is suffering from domestic abuse then she should seek help from the authorities. Maybe that's easy to say as a man but it seems odd that that woman would be allowed to go to work.

      The real argument is without consent or discussion – because you wouldn't give it, would you? We live in an era when the minority rule the majority. Where the rights of one (depending on ethnicitiy and gender) can be forced on everyone. Where truth, reality and normal are upended to pander to individual fantasy. This is why everything is back to front: giving an individual power over a multitude is stupid as everyone has wishes and demands. When one is raised above others you don't have a society. You have conflict.

      But that's the plan, isn't it? Give some more rights than others specifically to generate dissent – just as communist Russia did.

      1. You make an interesting point about the minority ruling over the majority, and share common ground with J.K.Rowling, who complains bitterly that the minority identifying as women are ruling over the majority, who are women. The lives of men, a minority albeit a large one, do not matter. Not the right sort of minority unless they are gay, black, Muslim or identify as women.

      2. Sorry Wibbling I may disagree a bit on thos. I don’t trust the “authorities”. I might try a women’s refuge but these have been taken over by men too, in some areas (not all, of course). But it isn’t as simple as “seeking help” and that’s what the letter was saying.

      3. Those women would be timed the moment they left the house.
        And I doubt they would see their money.

    4. I get “This page is not supported”.

      🙁

      Edit. Ok if i “follow” him i get access!

      “I’m grateful to Lesley for granting permission to publish her resignation letter. For over 70 years, John Lewis has had a unique ownership structure in which staff members collectively own the business through a trust. However, it now seems that trans activists within the company are compromising the safety of female staff and customers, and many partners are not happy.
      My name is Lesley Pickup. I am employed as a Selling Partner on the first floor in your Cheadle Branch.
      For the past 20 years, I have been involved with female victims from all faiths, cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds who have been subjected to domestic and sexual violence and psychological abuse by men.
      They have lived and continue to live terrible lives, in constant fear of violence both physical and emotional. They have no autonomy at home, no voice, no self-worth, accorded no respect, and all too often ignored by a Police Force and CPS who should be there to protect them.
      For many their only escape from such a life is work. Work offers them physical and emotional safety. It is a place where they are treated with respect, where they are treated as human beings and where their opinions matter. Where people listen to them. Where they can, for a few hours in the day, live a NORMAL life and where they are free from a world where they are expected at all times to be subservient to needs of men or face severe consequences.
      With a predominantly female work force the law of averages states that there will be such victims employed by John Lewis. John Lewis may never know who they are for many will not want to contaminate their only safe, normal space with the life they live outside. If no such ladies work for John Lewis, then it is probably the only company in the UK.
      Work offers the only time in their lives where they should have guaranteed female-only safe spaces free from the demands of men regardless of who those men claim to be.
      Sadly, I have found this no longer to be the case for the female employees of John Lewis, where without negotiation, unilaterally, arbitrarily and WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT or any say in the matter whatsoever, they are now expected to be completely and without question subservient to the needs of their male colleagues.
      Married, male colleagues, with full male genitalia, not transitioning to female, who live as husbands at home but choose to dress as women at work, assuming female names, and expecting full access to toilettes and locker rooms which were previously female-only employee safe spaces. This regardless and without one moment of thought or consideration for any negative effects and consequences on their female colleagues.
      Female colleagues who I know to be triggered, caused anxiety and mental distress by these men’s presence in previously safe female spaces.
      Female colleagues who live in fear of dismissal if they speak out. So just like home they put up and shut up and acquiesce to the demands of men.
      Their oppressive home lives being replicated at work.
      Just like home they don’t matter because JOHN LEWIS has never sought their INPUT or CONSENT for this intrusion into their safe spaces.
      Nor has JOHN LEWIS ever sought the CONSENT of its female employees whose faith forbids them from being in such close intimate spaces with men who they are not related to or married to. It’s one thing being on the shop floor surrounded by customers and colleagues its quite another to be in a locker room or toilette.
      Likewise, JOHN LEWIS does not inform nor seek the CONSENT of the parents and carers of young female work experience students below 18 YOA to permit their daughters to be in female-safe spaces with men with full male genitalia. I can find no written available safeguarding policy acknowledging John Lewis’s duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of these young female students, or any students for that matter. There is no commitment to ensure safeguarding practises reflect statutory responsibilities, government guidance and are in line with Ofsted requirements. A Policy which should recognise that the welfare of young female students is paramount in all circumstances which includes female safe spaces.
      Parents, carers, female employees of all faiths and none may have freely give their CONSENT for this. They may have no problem with men in their safe spaces. But John Lewis doesn’t know because it has never asked. Opting instead to impose an unnegotiated policy, unilaterally and arbitrarily upon its female employees with no knowledge of their back story nor regard or concern for the consequences for their safety and mental health. At the moment it’s all about the men who identify as women, whether transitioning or NOT.
      Dismissively, John Lewis state female employees can use the disabled toilette and be provided with a small locker for a purse and car keys away from the female changing rooms. Nowhere to hang their coats up or deposit wet umbrellas etc and only the disabled loo to change in which quite rightly they can only use after their disabled colleagues. Why is it that your female employees have to change their behaviour to concede to the demands of their male colleagues? You instruct them to discuss this matter with their manager. Managers who have no authority and dare not challenge the company line.
      John Lewis, you just don’t get it. Victims don’t want to tell their manager. They don’t want to contaminate the only space where they once felt normal and safe. They don’t want to draw attention to themselves or have to admit to another and themselves about their awful home lives. They don’t want their colleagues noticing or discussing that they behave differently from everyone else, whilst waiting in the corridor to use the disabled loo. Respectfully your managers are not qualified to discuss such matters with women.
      We are told it’s in your terms and conditions. It was not in my contract of employment which was the only document I was party to pre-employment.
      This policy has no benefit to the profitability of John Lewis.
      I am sure if I get any response to my concerns, it will be dismissive, with name-calling and condemnation from the top table. But I don’t care. I only care about those women less fortunate than myself and that such women are safe at work and treated with respect and understanding.
      I am grateful to be in a financial position where I no longer have to put up with a situation that causes me distress to witness. I have no mortgage and an excellent final salary pension.
      Sadly, the majority of your female employees are not in such a fortunate position, instead being forced to put up and shut up to pay the rent. They are not happy about this situation. You can see it on their faces if you care to look.
      Therefore, please accept my resignation from John Lewis with effect from Wednesday 07 August 2024. I will not be serving out my two weeks’ notice as I am not prepared to set foot in an establishment, either as an employee or a customer, that chooses to treat its female members of staff with such disregard when it comes to their safe spaces, placing the demands of men above all else.
      Shopping in JL used to be a great, fun experience. A fabulous distraction from the trials and stresses of everyday life. It was pure theatre. What your female employees didn’t know about the goods you sell wasn’t worth knowing.
      Not anymore. It’s now full of anxiety, controversy, and abuse of your female staff.”

    1. The result of a decline in Christian ethics and the enforced indoctrination of the younger generation by Marxist Socialist schools, universities and national broadcasters such as the BBC/Ch4 and the mass media. We are on a downward slope and it is getting steeper, Time for a revolution.

      1. Once our generation reaches real old age forgetfulness and senility , none of the younger generation will have any knowledge of how we were .

        Just as we don't know how life was midway between both world wars .

        But , who remembers the fear that gripped Britain during the Cuban Missile crisis, or when British spies were revealed , and the the mess created in the seventies re Callaghan etc .

        The decline of the British spirit has been caused by greed , the media and the decline of standards everywhere .. and proper strong family life .

          1. I think that the silver content of pre-decimal “silver” coinage is worth moe than their face values. I recall vaguely that pre-1950 something coins have a higher silver content than later issues. That’s my reason to horde a box of old silver coins, anyway.

          2. If I recall, silver coins before 1920 were sterling silver. Between 1921 and 1946, they were 50% silver. After 1946, they were cupro-nickel. The old silver 3d was replaced by a brass coin in 1937.

            However, the currency has plummeted so much in value, they first reduced the size of the 5p, 10p and 50p coins, and now the lower denomination coins are made of plated steel because even the nickel and copper content exceeded face value. Anyone who drives a 2CV knows that 8p buys a set of handbrake shims, extending the life of the brake pads. It was originally designed to be the same size as the French franc (as well as the old British halfpenny, which used to work in French slot machines in the 1960s).

            A couple of years ago, I reckoned the current pound was worth about the same as the sixpence of my childhood. It’s less than that now. A pound troy weight of silver is worth about £240 today, so a pound is worth a penny’s worth of the promise on the front of the banknote.

        2. The Cuban crisis was Oct/Nov 1962. I was in the army then. J F Kennedy was assassinated Nov 1963. I was on a 'Good will' tour of Central and Western Canada with an Royal Artillery Battery at the time and we all believed that the Russians were deeply involved in it. We were really p*ss*d off because we thought the tour would be cut short and we would have to return to Europe and fight the Ruskies. It wasn't, and some of us ended up on Canadian television dancing the Twist with some lovely girls from Calgary – We were in full dress uniform. A very memorable tour of duty.

          1. MB and I had our first date during that week.
            We were vaguely aware that other things were happening.
            p.s. the film we saw was "Spartacus"!

          2. What could possibly have distracted you and MB at such an important time in world history? What were you thinking about?

        3. Ref your first sentence, I am reminded of the last few epilogue lines in the excellent 1996 movie “The Last of the Mohicans” :-

          Chingachgook: “The frontier moves with the sun and pushes the Red Man of these wilderness forests in front of it until one day there will be nowhere left. Then our race will be no more, or be not us.”

          Hawkeye: “That is my father’s sadness talking.”

          Chingachgook: “No, it is true. The frontier place is for people like my white son and his woman and their children. And one day there will be no more frontier. And men like you will go too, like the Mohicans. And new people will come, work, struggle. Some will make their life. But once, we were here.”

          Words that could soon apply to us “then our race will be no more , or be not us. But once, we were here”.

          1. Enri

            If you could see me now , I have read those beautiful words, there are have tears on my cheeks ..

            Perhaps you will enjoy this ?

            The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
            Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
            Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
            Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it

            Analysis (ai): This poem explores the inevitability of fate and the futility of resistance. The “Moving Finger” represents the inexorable passage of time and its power to shape events beyond human control. The speaker’s pleas for intervention or alteration are met with indifference, reflecting the inescapable nature of fate.

            Compared to Khayyam’s other works, this poem shares themes of transience and the power of time. However, it is more concise and direct, focusing on the unyielding nature of destiny rather than the beauty or pleasures of life.

            It also reflects the historical context of the 12th century, where the inevitability of fate was a common belief. The poem’s brevity and philosophical tone align with the minimalist and reflective aesthetic prevalent during that period.

          2. I spent almost 50 years serving the defence and security interests of this country, half in uniform and half as a Civil Servant, so it makes me weep as well as you to see what has become of us. It took the Romans hundreds of years to eliminate the Celtic Britons, and the Normans almost as long to remove most of Anglo-Saxon culture but we have changed beyond recognition in just a few decades. At least the Romans and the Normans gave us plenty to be grateful for but the recent invasion has brought us nothing but heartache.

            That beautiful poem you cited speaks of the inevitability of fate, and perhaps what we are currently experiencing is that inevitability. However, I don’t think that matters are completely beyond recall or, at least, cannot be improved. Many Britons during the Roman occupation became more like Romans than Britons so that is not the sort of route that we should wish for. The Norman occupiers, though, become more Anglo-Saxon in language and culture. – I hope that we can absorb the newcomers as the Anglo-Saxons did with the Normans but, frankly, I doubt that we can or even have the will to do so. Isn’t Omar also saying that we can't do anything to change the past but must live for the present – we can’t change what has happened to our country but we can still stop it changing any further?

    2. The penultimate image of VE-day is rather spoilt with the serviceman wearing an American police cap. I thought the British soldier of the time wore this thing worn diagonally across the forehead.

      The final image also rather exposes Mr Blower's own bias – prominent is the Palestinian flag and the Soviet hammer-and-sickle, but noticeably absent are the more relevant LGBTQI etc rainbow thingie currently hanging over a prominent building in the middle of Great Malvern instead of the the cross of St George or the Union Flag, and of course the black Islamic State flag that glorifies murder for murder's sake, rather than out of self-defence. Furthermore the punk yobbo in the foreground is nearly fifty years out of date – where are the tattoos, and wouldn't such a creature these days have more blubber? The black hoodie is accurate though, even though its face is disgracefully white.

        1. It is actually very hard winning back freedoms lost. I doubt any of them willingly lost their lives.

      2. It looks more like what RAF Apprentices of a bygone era called a “bashed hat” – a No 1 Service Dress hat with the internal wire removed so that it looked less like a flying saucer.

  7. Morning, all Y'all.
    Torrential rain, flooding, dark & gloomy. But enough of me! Hope all Y'all having a great early morning!

  8. 392439+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    In ALL fairness and give credit where due, you cannot whack labour in the failing democracy / decency stakes, winners every time.

    The lab/lib/con coalition parties are just facades, false ones at that, in reality fronts for the WEF / NWO

    The confiscation of the elderlies winter fuel payments is from labours culling, take away menu.

    We have been at war internally with these political miscreants since the passing of Mrs Thatcher (RIP) many of the herd in disbelieving mode continued to refuse to face reality and continued, in the family tree mode of supporting / voting for these, so bloody obviously criminal cartels.

    Wednesday 4 September: Labour failed Israel when it most needed the support of close allies

    1. 392439+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Surely if this statement has any substance it calls for the immediate arrest of "MIRANDA"
      on security charges.

          1. Thanks, O1. For reasons I have no explanation for, I rather thought that it was Ed Milliband.

          2. 392439+ up ticks,

            EdA,

            I believe within the political daisy chain brigade, I believe he is tagged as fingeretta.

    2. Labour have already invaded this country with Leftwaffe poison. They're now taking their petty conflict to the entire country.

      We do not live in a democracy. If we did, these fools could be stopped. Can you imagine the look on Milioaf's face as he is forced to repeal the net zero insanity and climate change act? As he sees the back hander subsidy be wiped away and a market restored to energy?

    1. Morning Bill. Got the washing out. Anything out is better than it being indoors. Rain expected at midday-ish.

  12. Good morning, all. Overcast and calm here in N Essex.

    Why would the democrat party oppose voter ID after flooding the USA with millions of unassimilated immigrants? A one word answer will suffice.

    The Republican Speaker and party leaders in the House of Representatives are, finally, considering doing something about this abomination.

    https://x.com/OldeWorldOrder/status/1830664094002880655

    1. At what point do the lunatic shitLibs stop the madness of the clown world?

      The Mayor of Aurora, Colorado just CONFIRMED that Venezuelan illegal migrant gangsters have indeed taken over several apartment complexes and have pushed out property managers to EXTORT rents from the tenants directly
      The Mayor further confirmed that Tren de Araguas has given orders to its members to start attacking police officers..

      Answer: Never. Never. Never.

      1. Aurora Spillover? Masked Tren de Araguas With AR-Style Rifle & Pistol Ransack Home In Denver Suburb..

        Zero arrests.

      2. Please don't swear. It's unnecessary.

        You're ignoring the fundamental hypocrisy of the Left wing mind. They don't care about the thuggery because it's gimmigrants. Admitting there's a problem exposes that it is their fault entirely.

        I can't imagine what it's like inside a Lefty mind. The cognitive dissonance must drive them insane. Maybe that's why they are always screaming and hurling abuse at people, foaming at the mouth nutters.

  13. Good Moaning.
    My loathing for this current government is off the scale.

    "SIR – What a good job it is that the Israelis will not respond to our Government’s foolish suspension of arms export licences by restricting exports of medical apparatus and pharmaceuticals to Britain – which are perhaps as important to us as their need for arms is to them.

    Gary Shaw
    London NW11"

    1. Labour think that they can do what they like without consequences. It's why they keep hiking taxes. They don't understand the concept of cause and effect.

      As Lefties are wont to say 'that's not proper socialism' is simply because there is no solution – only tradeoffs.

    2. Wasn't Britain the world leader in providing medical apparatus and pharmaceuticals? Or maybe they've flogged it all off to the globals to pay market bonuses?

      The argument goes that if we didn't profit by licensing weapons of mass destruction to a vicious regime bent on revenge on local troublemakers and ethnic cleansing of their ilk, the French would.

      1. Or perhaps the intellect that created those products have emigrated to their ancestral homeland?

  14. Labour are friends with muslim because muslim votes for them because Labour give them other people's money. The muslim then sets about killing people.

    Labour, then, are supporters of terrorism – no surprise, as they're economic terrorists.

    Labour are an embarrassment to this nation.

    1. Labour are friends with muslim because..
      it brings the downfall of the evil western culture one step closer.

      1. I don't understand why the Left are so determined to destroy this country (and others). I appreciate they're ignorant of history but really, they've got to learn.

        1. A pathological quest to prove that everybody is born equal.. a journey that must be taken, even if everybody dies in the process.

  16. 302439+ up ticks,

    Understatement of the century

    "Sir Tony Blair admits influx of migrants under his premiership placed ‘strain’ on communities
    Sir Tony’s administration almost directly aligns with the start of modern mass immigration to the UK

    Sir Tony Blair admits influx of migrants under his premiership placed ‘strain’ on communities

    sir tony's administration almost directly aligns with triggering the start of mass uncontrolled / government controlled, morally illegal, mass immigration.

    It then went on to opening up mass child rape & abuse via foreign paedophilia,then continued decade on decade with terrorism acts, mass knifings,numerous killings & serious injuries ongoing,

    Decade on decade, little wonder in making this statement "miranda" sported, I believe, a fear sweat whilst running finger betwixt neck and collar.

    Modern morally wrong mass government controlled immigration to the UK.

  17. Good morning all.
    A dull but dry start this morning with 8°C on the Yard Thermometer.
    Yesterday the woodmen started cutting back the diseased trees on the Ball-Eye Quarry land that adjoins the small chunk of hillside that passes its self off as my garden, so I spent an hour last night recovering the logs they left behind.
    I plan to go up and trim the brash off the branches they've also left behind.

        1. Yes and still is – I've been coppicing all morning so that and the heat has knackered me

  18. Good morning all,

    Light cloud overhead Castle McPhee, wind North, 13 to 17℃, showers later. Not that it matters because we won't be here – off to Pembrokeshire for a few days.

    I wonder how much Allison Pearson was paid to write this? Just when you think a liestream journalist has seen the light and gets it, they do something like this. Ah well, the bills have to be paid, I suppose.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98e013d07c17529b20ed3bd85fcdc0094208de1af0d95426be5fd3d0652c9af6.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/04/mounjaro-weight-loss-jab-changed-my-life/

    Drugs are never the answer, Allison. Just lay off all the ultra processed muck and sugar, drastically cut your alcoholic libations and take regular moderate exercise and it's Roberta's your Auntie. Job done. No need to shell out £250 a month and risk unwelcome side effects.

    I'd leave a comment but I'm shadow banned so she wouldn't see it.

    1. I thought exactly the same. Do it properly, through diet and exercise. Don’t be lazy.

    2. Allison hasn't written any serious articles for over a month. Is the editor knocking them back? Perhaps she has written this for the paycheck?

    4. If that is weight loss I hate to think how bad it was before. It must have been a bus or taxi ride to get past her on Oxford Street!

      2. She has put on a bit of weight but she is not an unattractive woman. Indeed in her younger days she was very attractive. Don't we all feel we looked better when we were younger.

        1. She is probably a very nice woman, one of us 'Far-right Nttlrs', but she has let herself go. She has ditched her husband and is living over the brush with another man – no idea why. She was declared bankrupt in 2015 but is worth several millions now. She once upset Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, by suggesting her daughter Princess Beatrice was overweight. Sometime your words come back to bite you. I wish her all the best for her effort to lose weight.

        2. No, I was one of life’s geeks when at school – I was no good at sports and wore glasses. Now, I am still in reasonably good shape (I assume through genetics primarily), have a good head of hair, no longer wear glasses after cataract surgery and, more importantly, am still alive whereas many of the good-looking lads at school are dead. I can now smile at a pretty girl and usually get a smile back whereas, 65 years ago, it would have been a sneer or worse. Of course, the smiles might now just be ones of pity but they are pleasant nevertheless.

        2. I will confess to having had, in the dim and distant past, some very enjoyable times in the company of ladies of a similar build.

    5. She has written a piece slamming Lammy as well.
      I guess she needed the lightweight piece as well to pay for her slimming drug.

    6. I put a BTL comment under this article:

      Since the unadmitted high number of deaths from the Covid jabs I would be very wary of having a new jab. I would rather continue to look like a slim hippopotamus.

    7. Say hello to lovely Tenby from me.
      There's a very nice family run Italian restaurant about half way down the hill to the harbour. On the left.

    8. Your solution has an additional and very useful effect: It reduces the tubby one's spending!
      What's not to like?

  19. Good morning all,

    Light cloud overhead Castle McPhee, wind North, 13 to 17℃, showers later. Not that it matters because we won't be here – off to Pembrokeshire for a few days.

    I wonder how much Allison Pearson was paid to write this? Just when you think a liestream journalist has seen the light and gets it, they do something like this. Ah well, the bills have to be paid, I suppose.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98e013d07c17529b20ed3bd85fcdc0094208de1af0d95426be5fd3d0652c9af6.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/04/mounjaro-weight-loss-jab-changed-my-life/

    Drugs are never the answer, Allison. Just lay off all the ultra processed muck and sugar, drastically cut your alcoholic libations and take regular moderate exercise and it's Roberta's your Auntie. Job done. No need to shell out £250 a month and risk unwelcome side effects.

    I'd leave a comment but I'm shadow banned so she wouldn't see it.

  20. Good morning all,

    Light cloud overhead Castle McPhee, wind North, 13 to 17℃, showers later. Not that it matters because we won't be here – off to Pembrokeshire for a few days.

    I wonder how much Allison Pearson was paid to write this? Just when you think a liestream journalist has seen the light and gets it, they do something like this. Ah well, the bills have to be paid, I suppose.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98e013d07c17529b20ed3bd85fcdc0094208de1af0d95426be5fd3d0652c9af6.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/04/mounjaro-weight-loss-jab-changed-my-life/

    Drugs are never the answer, Allison. Just lay off all the ultra processed muck and sugar, drastically cut your alcoholic libations and take regular moderate exercise and it's Roberta's your Auntie. Job done. No need to shell out £250 a month and risk unwelcome side effects.

    I'd leave a comment but I'm shadow banned so she wouldn't see it.

  22. The full text of the X-Tw@ter post Johnnie Norfolk posted earlier.
    I think it bears repeating:-

    Graham Linehan
    @Glinner
    Resignation letter from a John Lewis Partner
    I’m grateful to Lesley for granting permission to publish her resignation letter. For over 70 years, John Lewis has had a unique ownership structure in which staff members collectively own the business through a trust. However, it now seems that trans activists within the company are compromising the safety of female staff and customers, and many partners are not happy.
    My name is Lesley Pickup. I am employed as a Selling Partner on the first floor in your Cheadle Branch.
    For the past 20 years, I have been involved with female victims from all faiths, cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds who have been subjected to domestic and sexual violence and psychological abuse by men.
    They have lived and continue to live terrible lives, in constant fear of violence both physical and emotional. They have no autonomy at home, no voice, no self-worth, accorded no respect, and all too often ignored by a Police Force and CPS who should be there to protect them.
    For many their only escape from such a life is work. Work offers them physical and emotional safety. It is a place where they are treated with respect, where they are treated as human beings and where their opinions matter. Where people listen to them. Where they can, for a few hours in the day, live a NORMAL life and where they are free from a world where they are expected at all times to be subservient to needs of men or face severe consequences.
    With a predominantly female work force the law of averages states that there will be such victims employed by John Lewis. John Lewis may never know who they are for many will not want to contaminate their only safe, normal space with the life they live outside. If no such ladies work for John Lewis, then it is probably the only company in the UK.
    Work offers the only time in their lives where they should have guaranteed female-only safe spaces free from the demands of men regardless of who those men claim to be.
    Sadly, I have found this no longer to be the case for the female employees of John Lewis, where without negotiation, unilaterally, arbitrarily and WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT or any say in the matter whatsoever, they are now expected to be completely and without question subservient to the needs of their male colleagues.
    Married, male colleagues, with full male genitalia, not transitioning to female, who live as husbands at home but choose to dress as women at work, assuming female names, and expecting full access to toilettes and locker rooms which were previously female-only employee safe spaces. This regardless and without one moment of thought or consideration for any negative effects and consequences on their female colleagues.
    Female colleagues who I know to be triggered, caused anxiety and mental distress by these men’s presence in previously safe female spaces.
    Female colleagues who live in fear of dismissal if they speak out. So just like home they put up and shut up and acquiesce to the demands of men.
    Their oppressive home lives being replicated at work.
    Just like home they don’t matter because JOHN LEWIS has never sought their INPUT or CONSENT for this intrusion into their safe spaces.
    Nor has JOHN LEWIS ever sought the CONSENT of its female employees whose faith forbids them from being in such close intimate spaces with men who they are not related to or married to. It’s one thing being on the shop floor surrounded by customers and colleagues its quite another to be in a locker room or toilette.
    Likewise, JOHN LEWIS does not inform nor seek the CONSENT of the parents and carers of young female work experience students below 18 YOA to permit their daughters to be in female-safe spaces with men with full male genitalia. I can find no written available safeguarding policy acknowledging John Lewis’s duty of care to safeguard and promote the welfare of these young female students, or any students for that matter. There is no commitment to ensure safeguarding practises reflect statutory responsibilities, government guidance and are in line with Ofsted requirements. A Policy which should recognise that the welfare of young female students is paramount in all circumstances which includes female safe spaces.
    Parents, carers, female employees of all faiths and none may have freely give their CONSENT for this. They may have no problem with men in their safe spaces. But John Lewis doesn’t know because it has never asked. Opting instead to impose an unnegotiated policy, unilaterally and arbitrarily upon its female employees with no knowledge of their back story nor regard or concern for the consequences for their safety and mental health. At the moment it’s all about the men who identify as women, whether transitioning or NOT.
    Dismissively, John Lewis state female employees can use the disabled toilette and be provided with a small locker for a purse and car keys away from the female changing rooms. Nowhere to hang their coats up or deposit wet umbrellas etc and only the disabled loo to change in which quite rightly they can only use after their disabled colleagues. Why is it that your female employees have to change their behaviour to concede to the demands of their male colleagues? You instruct them to discuss this matter with their manager. Managers who have no authority and dare not challenge the company line.
    John Lewis, you just don’t get it. Victims don’t want to tell their manager. They don’t want to contaminate the only space where they once felt normal and safe. They don’t want to draw attention to themselves or have to admit to another and themselves about their awful home lives. They don’t want their colleagues noticing or discussing that they behave differently from everyone else, whilst waiting in the corridor to use the disabled loo. Respectfully your managers are not qualified to discuss such matters with women.
    We are told it’s in your terms and conditions. It was not in my contract of employment which was the only document I was party to pre-employment.
    This policy has no benefit to the profitability of John Lewis.
    I am sure if I get any response to my concerns, it will be dismissive, with name-calling and condemnation from the top table. But I don’t care. I only care about those women less fortunate than myself and that such women are safe at work and treated with respect and understanding.
    I am grateful to be in a financial position where I no longer have to put up with a situation that causes me distress to witness. I have no mortgage and an excellent final salary pension.
    Sadly, the majority of your female employees are not in such a fortunate position, instead being forced to put up and shut up to pay the rent. They are not happy about this situation. You can see it on their faces if you care to look.
    Therefore, please accept my resignation from John Lewis with effect from Wednesday 07 August 2024. I will not be serving out my two weeks’ notice as I am not prepared to set foot in an establishment, either as an employee or a customer, that chooses to treat its female members of staff with such disregard when it comes to their safe spaces, placing the demands of men above all else.
    Shopping in JL used to be a great, fun experience. A fabulous distraction from the trials and stresses of everyday life. It was pure theatre. What your female employees didn’t know about the goods you sell wasn’t worth knowing.
    Not anymore. It’s now full of anxiety, controversy, and abuse of your female staff.
    Lesley Pickup

    1. Ms Pickup fails to spot the irony over the threat her tirade, hostile attitude and open prejudice poses towards the genuinely male employees at John Lewis.

        1. All men get tarred with the same woman-molester image as the trannies who disturb the female employees, would be my guess.

          1. That's a bit of a big leap – men who are trans ARE men who are potentially threatening women, one way or another, in women's spaces. Why don't they go to men's toilets? Because they are "women" they would argue. Why can't the trans- go to the disabled toilets? "Because they are not disabled" they would argue – but women who fear men in their spaces are disabled?

            "All" (other) men don't encroach on female spaces, so how is objecting to those men achieving access by being "trans" tarring those other men?

    3. Based on UK DSE estimates, the UK won defence orders worth £12.0 billion in real terms in 2022. This is a £4.6 billion increase on the previous year.

      UK defence exports are dominated by its aerospace sector. This accounted for 68% of the total value of UK defence exports over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022.

      The Middle East was the largest market for UK defence exports, accounting for 43% of total exports over this period, followed by Europe (22%), North America (19%), the Asia Pacific (6%), Latin America and Africa (both 1%). The remaining share (8%) was exported to a mixed or unidentified region.

  24. 392439+ upticks,

    Good question, you really could fill a great number of black holes
    starting by going down to Dover and raising the entry drawbridge.
    then commencing with a massive deportation ( with a sizeable
    resettling payment) immediate same day incarceration for any returnees.

    Any indigenous finding fault with this proposal incarcerate them also under a common sense peoples wartime ruling regarding health & safety, and security of Nation.

    https://x.com/LeilaniDowding/status/1831220870393512066

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    More rain over night still no sunshine today.
    Labour failed Israel when they were most needy. It also clashed with the huge demonstration in Oxford Street that because of huge pro Palestinian banners being waved and mass kneeling on the road brought the whole place to a stand still.
    The police seemed to be used as escorts.
    Labour party are viciously vindictive and have absolutely no respect for public opinion or any other opinion but theirs.
    They will continue to wreck our relationships with others and only seek to gain favour from people who have no respect for British traditions it's long established culture and social structure. They have quite deliberately set out to wreck our country. But where is the opposition why are they not making noises and trying to stop these horrible people and their vicious attacks on our long standing friendship with others around the world. Their vindictve behaviour could possibly upset our tourism industry as well as nearly everyone else in our country but their protesting allies.
    With only around 30% of the vote they obviously do not have the backing of the majority.

  26. He might still be depressed after his laughable appearance on Master Mind.
    Therefore viciously vindictive.

    7. Many thanks! At this age, I shall never stand in another general election. I'll just have to find another hobby. Or spend more time starting arguments.

      1. I hope you have had a lovely day, Happy Birthday! (Phew, just in time!) 🎉🎊🎁🍷🥂🍾🍨🎂🍰🎊🎉

    1. Same grumble about the US cop hat, the lack of alphabet and ISIS flags, the disgustingly white face on the hoodie and the punk lady is far too scrawny and has no trending tattoos (or trout pout for that matter).

      1. Similar grumble. The Na zis did not 'down arms' but surrendered unconditionally. Important not to confuse May 1945 with the Armistice in November 1918.

    1. Would just about cover your electricity provider's standing charge, depending on your tax situation.

  31. A very vulgar riddle brought up-to-date:

    Q. What is the difference between a bucket of effluent and the foreign secretary?
    A. The bucket.

    1. Sorry Jeremy – even people who are politically right of centre can sometimes be vulgar and plebeian!

  32. 392439+ up ticks,

    A proven truth sayer sayeth,

    Gerard Batten,
    @gjb2021

    ·
    18h
    If this happens the USA will reveal itself as a fully fledged third world mickey mouse banana republic.

    And I wouldn’t be surprised if Two Tier Sir Keir Stormtrooper didn’t send his congratulations.
    Arcturus

    @Arturus

    Sep 1

    Rumors are rampant that New York will arrest Trump within the next couple weeks, and he will be in for well past the election 🤔 and that the military are being spotted in hotels throughout New York City to quail the possible uprising that may take place 🤔

    1. Trump must be seriously hoping to be arrested soon, and may even be pleading with NYPD to do the honours. Getting arrested never did his political standing any harm.

      1. If they did that all my worries that he will lose will be quelled. He will win by a landslide. But if the Democrats tried that and succeeded in winning, it would prove that they are indeed manipulating the ballot and there would, I'm certain, be rebellion and bloodshed that would end the Democrat Party for ever.

      1. 392439+ up ticks,

        Morning O,
        They are still in the early stages of fabricating a reason I believe.

    1. Glad to see that the Government doesn't have a shortage of money.

      Perhaps they could spend some on the protection of churches and synagogues?

  36. 392439+ up ticks,

    SEEN I would believe as a very beneficial, much needed virus, spreading throughout many a Country.

    breitbart,

    The Kids Are All Right: Anti-Mass Migration AfD Most Popular Party Among Young Voters in Germany

  38. I will confess to having had, in the dim and distant past, some very enjoyable times in the company of ladies of a similar build.

  39. She is 5ft 7in. The average ideal weight for her age and height should be 9 stone 9 pounds. I think ideal weights are a bit ambitious – call it 11 stone.

  41. Right, the overcast has broken up and I'm off up the hill to sort out some firewood for next winter!

  42. These “adjustments” mean I shall be worse off by up to £1,000 each year. I wonder if the Chancellor has any ideas about how I should budget for this.

    A simple three-letter reponse.

    He wants you to DIE/DYE

    Been removed twice from DT BTL

    1. Serious crime in progress – I think you have "mis-gendered" the Chancellor!! Order a new front door now, while stocks last!

  44. From a seaside village in Valencia

    Rainfall Warning State Meteorological Agency 19°C
    Wednesday 11:03 Light rain showers
    Pouring with rain
    High 24°C

  45. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/04/politics-latest-news-tory-leadership-badenoch-jenrick/

    Jacob Rees-Mogg's continued affection for the Conservative Party is not rational – it is emotional and sentimental. He needs to grow up and reposition his political allegiance more sensibly and with better judgement.

    BTL

    It is high time that Jacob Rees-Mogg faced up to the fact that he would be politically and philosophically far happier in The Reform Party than he is with this pathetic group of faux Conservatives.

    1. Funny isn't it. The entire MP cadre of Tories it seems sometimes, has spent the past 13-years labelling itself Tory and yet shouting other people's political views as if they were their own. I can only conclude that they were always deluded as to where they really belonged. Jacob yes, bless him. Rory Stewart, Michael Gove, Rishi Sunak, there's not enough space to list them all.

      1. We assumed that after Blairs new Labour , the Tories were well and truly the nasty party , no intellect , no patriotism and a snivelling sniffy Cameron and Clegg ruined Mrs Thatchers legacy .

        1. Hmmm… many might have Belle, but I've never known any good come from the intentions of what is basically a niggardly little collection of disgruntled prigs who hate us all.

        2. Where the Tories went wrong is in not really wanting to confront the issues that were causing them problems because they were more interested in squabbling to force socialist ideology than to do public good.

          What should have happened is simple:
          Minister: repeal the climate change act, one piece at a time.
          Civil servant : yes minister., bu there's this this and this….
          MP – then sort those out, then repeal it. 3 months?
          CS, 3 months later: we've been unable to as well, we don't want to.
          Minister – you're fired. Get out. The rest of you – you've now 24 hours to do this.

          Rinse, repeat. It'd have so many useless incompetents pouring out of Whitehall that it'd be a river of wasters.

          1. They are not incompetent. I joined a large Civil Service Department some 40 years ago. Almost all the top people had worked their way up through the ranks – they tended to be a bit Dickensian in their management style but knew the job and were committed to excellence. Then the era of the “cadet” started to take hold. Young men and women were recruited for their academic prowess, given preferential treatment in jobs and mentored towards rapid promotion. Some were very good but many were arrogant, interested only in themselves and had no interest in or commitment to the role of the department other than to pursue their own ambitions. Once they got to the very top, they recruited people in their own image so that, within a few years, the Department was ruined although this was well-hidden by the anointed ones because other Departments had gone through the same process and, thus, the anointed ones everywhere looked after each other. They are not incompetent – they just look down on the little people, they know best and will do things just as they think fit. I suspect that Grizzly will agree that the Police have also suffered in much the same way.

        3. Many of us here would agree that the Conservative Party completely lost its way when it chose Cameron rather than David Davis as its leader.

      1. Whoever gets elected will be deposed by election time. The state wants a controllable, pliable, unthreatening leader. The Party wants the same. One who won't ask them to do anything or point out their failures. Who'll be a simple continuity candidate to let them continue troughing away without actually wanting them to 'do' anything.

      3. Read that as "Who should be the new leader of the Communist party"
        My subliminal self gets it right too often for it to be funny.

  46. In news that will surprise precisely no one with half a brain, pricing controls imposed by net zero targets are forcing the rationing of car sales. It seems that the prigs running our country weren't listening when someone with better economic sense pointed out that, "you can't buck the market".

    Government forces car sales rationing

    At least there's some dark hope in that having a government of the profoundest mediocrity such as this one it'll probably all fall apart sooner rather than later…

    1. Maybe I should lock the Noddy car away in a safe at night.
      She'll soon be worth more than the Crown Jewels.

        1. Should I get her cleaned first?
          Or will a patina of dust and spiders' webs add to her antique charm?
          I won't charge extra for Spartie's fur in the interior.

          3. Got many of my own. They’d have to fit in you know. Mine tend to eat each other if one turns its back.

          4. They do…two front legs exceptionally long for that specific purpose (as well as extensive web building)…

        2. Yes indeedy wheelbarrows of cash for the car!!
          Which maybe will buy a loaf of bread…………

          1. Ah the old nostalgia rush. Bring back the mark I say. Make it a more authentic experience.

    2. And then we'll get falling sales and eventually we won't have a motor industry in the UK. Aston Martin already produce a limited number of cars because producing more means they face massive fines.

      It's ludicrous. It's sodding communism, a command economy where the state thinks it can control everything. It does. Not. Blasted. Well. Work.

      Next we'll be queueing for bread.

    3. To be fair, this was a Tory wheeze but red Ed is doubling down on the lunacy so one has little hope.

      1. Or the way I see it one wing of the deluded dragged their heels so the other came along saying, “no more Mr Nice Guy”.

      2. Or the way I see it one wing of the deluded dragged their heels so the other came along saying, “no more Mr Nice Guy”.

  47. In news that will surprise precisely no one with half a brain, pricing controls imposed by net zero targets are forcing the rationing of car sales. It seems that the prigs running our country weren't listening when someone with better economic sense pointed out that, "you can't buck the market".

    Government forces car sales rationing

    At least there's some dark hope in that having a government of the profoundest mediocrity such as this one it'll probably all fall apart sooner rather than later…

  48. Is anyone really that surprised that Labour would ditch Israel? We all know that Labour is stupid enough to believe it has an advantage in catering to the Islamic vote in this country. It is actually an Islamic strategy that when it lacks sufficient strength, to side with political entities it deems pliable, take them over and then when it decides that the time has arrived by converting a certain quantity of the population, to take a country by force.

    Just remembered this. Go to 13 min. in for a brief dialogue between two Islamist on how to take a country over.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cn0Nw37cfk

    1. Not surprised, but thoroughly ashamed.
      I feel sick with anger at this appalling government. I loathe it; at least the "Conservative" government of the past fourteen years was merely despicable.

      1. Frankly I don't even see the former government as despicable, just foolish and unaware to a breathtaking degree. What else can you think of people who went on their merry way completely ignoring the signs that were telling them loud and clear that they were heading full speed for the buffers and inevitable disaster?

          1. It's their enthusiasm for fighting one another and doing nothing for the country. They just couldn't be bothered and seemed completely without focus or direction, with the only ethos of 'trough trough trough'.

          1. Trapped in the bubble of Westminster and to arrogant in thinking that they knew better. Stupid enough too to think we believed there lies about leaving the ECHR and that they would deal with immigration when they very obviously were just waffling and clearly, doing nothing.

      2. The Tories are responsible for this carnage. They had 14 years to implement serious change. Yeah yeah, covid and so on, but why would that stop them enforcing the revocation of law? Civil servants were still expected to work. An endless stream of legislation could have been repealed and revoked. Those 4000 eu laws should have gone but no. They did nothing.

        Labour could have had to campaign against a thriving economy with low taxes and less government than ever. We could have had an episode of Clarkson's Farm where he doesn't mention the pig police/cow police/soil police because defra simply wouldn't exist.

        But no. The Tories did nothing but bicker and snipe to do one another in.

        1. They were and are still suffering from a sort of ideological schizophrenia. That party is still fighting the internal battle that's been going on since they ousted Thatcher, between the Wets and the rest. The last 14-years was one of inertia, because to do anything would have caused too much internal disruption. Completely and utterly irresponsible of them yes, but until they cure themselves of their paralysis they will never change. People need to move on from them.

          There needs to be much blood spilled onto the carpet at CCHQ before it'll ever be worth voting for them. As for their current leadership manoeuvres, these are mere pantomime frankly. And just like with all pantomimes, for them there'll be another one along next Christmas.

          2. Well make sure you don’t call her “bad” Enoch. There’s nothing bad in Badenoch she tells us. It’s “Bade” Enoch.

          3. Wouldn’t dream of it, for now anyway. I’ll see first of all if she’s elected and take it from there.

        2. The Tories have led the U.K. right to the brink. I think the balance has now been tilted towards the Peaces of Rope and I can’t see what can tilt it back. I really hope my three grandchildren emigrate. Australia, maybe.

      3. Try Reform? If they get sufficient support/seats they may be able to do a deal with some Conservatives, and change policy. (More in desperation than hope 🙁

  49. SIR – Jeremy Corbyn must be very proud of the craven Foreign Secretary, now that he has surrendered to activists in the Labour Party.

    In doing so, he has provided succour, encouragement and a public-relations triumph to the savage murderers seeking to destroy Israel.

    David Crigman
    Birmingham

    SIR – What message is the British Government sending to the world other than that Iranian state-sponsored terrorism is fine, but Israel is not allowed to defend itself?

    Kim Potter
    Lambourn, Berkshire

    Good letters, and the DT actually printed them ..I have had a feeling that the DT is censoring good wordsmithery and becoming rather leftie .

    2. Iran's full of muslim so Labour doesn't care. If it gets uppity they'll give them more money. As it is, Milioaf has made us dependent on them for fuel.

  50. Belated Morning All
    Cynical Rik's antennae are twitching violently after the safe arrival of hundreds of boatloads of solely fighting age men the latest channel drowning was filled with women and children,just as calls are made for "safe routes" "processing in France"
    Emotional manipulation just like a dead child on a Turkish beach??
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98ae2507663f84e295d4568874e2c081536c3ae7d7c0663891c3196c5f4c1e45.jpg
    Rest
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2b5795112aca3d975f68c9ee55ba1c9735c49f0b981aaeea7d5aad092722884.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d5bf86162acf0443b4b3231a3ac3aa95c93fdac3b5b14868107a1edcd00eb341.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7d470f03cbdd12548b6ca77d9fd86cac5dca468421c7b2e410688c4e85e1054f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d2aae288bb563a2504724aa91b2762da6ecbf55823974a9be608d10a044122a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/732ac1099d7d3711b44d91d73af5990b8736d5a364af389d892c7eaf180a9dc3.jpg

    1. Yes, there should be safe routes. It's called keeping them in France. Getting in a dinghy is not safe, therefore should be stopped.

      Any safe routes through countries should stop at the first country's border. Why do they come here? Because we give them housing, money, food and demand nothing. They don't go to Switzerland because they get shot.

      The invasion cannot be permitted and the ones here must be returned. Now!

      1. Strictly speaking they should make their asylum applications from their home countries.
        But could we trust White 'all to process them correctly ?

        2. Yes. It's very easy. You get a big stamp that says 'Denied'.

          There is almost no reason an Eritrean has anything useful we want or need.

    3. Where is the evidence of “pregnant women and girls”? I don’t believe a word they shove down our throats.

      1. How very dare they assume these people’s gender (sic). For all we know, the drowned birthing people were men and boys. Someone needs sacking for a macroaggresion.

  51. Never mind the Channel traffickers , what are the government going to do with the feral youths who are tormenting all areas of towns , villages , there is an inversion of bad behaviour.. it is spreading .

    Moh and I were out in the car on a narrow road yesterday afternoon , Arne area , where there are cattle roaming, horses and donkeys and now pigs and their piglets .. cars travel slowly , there are few passing places ..

    We had just passed a group of little piglets snuffling the mud by the side of the lane , and a VW van came hurtling at us and honking, we had no way we could have backed off down the lane .. I indicated there was a passing place behind him .. no way was he going to move back , and he then revved his wagon and came close to the nose of my car screaming his head off and Moh said lock the doors .. I thought I was going to faint .. he wasn't going to budge , he had his door open .. and I thought we were going to die , I reversed slowly alongside the ditch , didn't want to squash the piglets , and he then slammed his door and revved , honking his horn , shouting .. I hope he dies a nasty death , he probably wont, because he will end up killing some one else instead

      2. I always remember some bloke having a go at me because he hadn't given way at a roundabout. He got out and so did we – the four of us coming back from a Muay Thai match.

        It's funny seeing people cower.

        Another time a chum was giving me a lift to work and a bloke behind kept flashing his lights and when we pulled in got out and quite heated. As chum had booted me out for the garage to sort the car out the bloke visibly shrank away. Why can't people just sod off and be polite and learn the highway code!

    4. I'd have switched off the engine and taken the key out. He could have ranted and raged as long as he liked.

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

    It Pays to Argue

    A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

    For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.

    In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.

    When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totalling $95,000.

    He asked her about the contents.

    'When we were to be married,' she said, ' my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.'

    The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears.

    Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving!!
    He almost burst with happiness.

    'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?'

    'Oh,' she said, 'that's the money I made from selling the dolls.'

    2. A proper story – rather than an improper one – for a change!

      Which reminds me, does anyone remember Saki's short story "The Story Teller' in which Clovis keeps a group of children quiet on a train journey.

    3. I rather agree. I argue withe the Warqueen a bit, but often I don't really know why she's grumpy. Yesterday's wass about how I'd parked the car. I'd got home to find the tank that she takes in the middle of the driveway, so I got out of the pootler, moved the tank over and turned it around so it was facing out – thinking it'd be easier to drive off. I then parked the pootler beside it, facing again, out.

      This caused a riot of 'what was wrong with her driving/parking/why didn't I park behind her/why did I correct her.

      I thought… I just moved the cars thinking it'd be easier for both of us? When I said this that caused another tirade about where the keys were left and that she could never find them (because she often takes mine as she'll leave hers where she's 'stopped').

      It was very strange to be arguing about parking. I think it's more to do with personal space but not sure. I just took it and tried to listen for clues but that was wrong as well.

      1. For a peaceful life I always give in to what Caroline says and I do what she tells me to do. A man's place is in the wrong and a woman's place is in the right and the acceptance of this simple, undeniable fact has given us both 36 years of blissfully happy married life so far!

      2. I once threw an egg at my husband after he washed up a yoghourt pot that had what i deemed to be some yoghurt still inside it. Funny the things that make us cross.

  53. Phew!
    That's the lighter wood left by the woodmen yesterday sorted, gathered and stacked ready for cutting, chopping, where necessary, and stacking once I've an empty wood shelter to stack it in!
    I've absolutely lathered and in need of a mug of tea!

    1. Sounds exhausting Bob. In contrast I got up, put the washing out then went back to bed. Since then I've fiddled about on our work board.

      I'd better have another lie down!

      1. My pleasure – I liked Fairport Convention when I was younger and I think Sandy Danny’s voice was lovely. There was another song on that LP which became quite well-known I am particularly fond of called “Meet on the Ledge” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3uBlSnp-TI

        My goodness, it was released in 1969!

    2. 392439+ up ticks,

      Morning Ped,

      I would like to see, in the political department a multitude well earned long drops on short ropes,
      it would certainly be beneficial to old blighty.

  56. OT – I have decided to take a break from NoTTL. It has become unutterably depressing recently – and I have enough misery of my own without sharing the country's woes.

    I'll be back later in the month. Meanwhile – play nicely and try to find a bright side to glance at….

    TTFN

    3. Look after yourself and your lovely MR.
      You’ll be missed and we look forward to seeing in a couple of weeks.

    6. I do agree with your sentiment but Nottl is merely a reflection of modern life. You will have to cut off all media to get away from it all. Those hippies who decamped to a shed in Wales in the 60s were probably on the right track. Any news that did get through was ameliorated by imbibing certain substances. Maybe some pot plants next year in the greenhouse.

    8. You Premium bond winners winners can never resist an inclusive 5 star fortnight in the Costa Tropicala.

  57. A question to ponder over:

    If white people who speak the truth are right-wing protesters,
    could the government please list 'left-wing' organisations/individuals in the order they are in in veering to the left

    1. The state has no threat from the Left and it would prefer if there were more 'Left' as it's a mutual reinforcing loop. This is why big fat state must be constrained by the public and simply cut off from wasting our money.

    2. Get a chainsaw out. Give them the choice of taking their hand off themselves or cutting it off at the wrist.

    3. Glue is only temporary. For a more effective result two or three nails in each hand should be sufficient.

    4. What about the cost of filling the hole and the nuisance(!) caused to the motorists trying to get to work,plus the cost of calling out the rescuers. Just ban them from ever ‘protesting’ again. Or shoot them? Or, how about putting them in stocks ?

    5. I can't remember if it was the Spanish or the Germans but they cut out the piece of tarmac that the hand was glued to and sent him on his way.

      1. 392439+up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        Precisely, but I’m calling for a larger piece of road surface to be bequeathed, and repair bills to be covered

    6. Put a cone in front of them and leave them there. Call a contractor in at their expense when they wish to leave.

  59. The Grenfell enquiry report has just been published. Lots of deserved criticism but the BBC reports make a great deal of deregulation 'over the last 30 years' to point the finger at the Tories in the 90s and again in the coalition years (the refurbishment with the cladding was announced in 2012 and carried out in 2015–16). There were many such refurbishments in the Labour years.

    Nowhere yet have I heard any mention of why so many buildings received this treatment or why sub-standard materials were used. The answer is, of course, EEC regulations and the Blair government's decision to apply EEC/EU standards rather than UK.

    I have also read that 'regulatory reform in 2005…effectively shifted the responsibility for a workplace building's safety away from fire brigade safety inspectors and on to private fire safety inspection companies and/or those who owned the buildings'. https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/grenfell-materials-would-never-have-been-allowed-under-old-rules-30-07-2018/

    But what the hell – bash the Tories because they're evil, aren't they?

    1. As always, the BBC never tells the whole truth. It has a narrative and that's what it wants to push.

    2. We had higher standards before the change. Grenfell and all the other fires would never have happened. The people responsible for the change in regulations are the ones responsible for the deaths.

    3. Spot on. A visit From the fire inspector was to be feared but this was all removed by Blair. That is the cause of the fire. It would never have happened with the old syatem.

  60. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/03/volkswagen-electric-car-brand-would-be-wiped-out-eu-tariffs/

    The article rather misses the point: the vehicle is really made around the world, but the parts are manufactured in China. The climate change farce is sending work overseas to cheaper areas. The protectionist bloc of EU tariffs will do nothing to protect German industry as the green, socialist movement is destroying them anyway.

    I'm thick, and I can see this. The EU has made manufacturing expensive. To keep jobs, it slaps taxes on imports – but those imports are of 'German' cars. It has caused it's own problem.

    Same for here. Milioaf might blither on about 'green jobs' but they're in China which makes the steel, motors and blades for windmills and solar panels because we can't make them here because the green agenda has destroyed our manufacturing base and welfare, tax and deskilling means we don't have the ability to do so locally. It's just too expensive.

    Do the political class honestly not understand that they are the problem or do they think destroying jobs to gift them to our competitors is a good thing for the ideological (not economic, practical, engineering) purpose?

    1. They aim to destroy the European civilisation that invented everything by giving it all away to the third world in order to achieve redistribution of wealth and the appearance of equity. It won't work because the inequalities were produced by a natural disparity which is not removed by throwing money around.

  62. Radio headlines: "The UK and French governments have reacted with horror to yesterday's drownings in the Channel."

    The hypocrites…

    1. Why? To them it's fewer clients for bennies. Less demand for the state to use as an excuse for tax.

    2. If the UK government was remotely horrified they would be doing something to stop the illegal immigrants coming to Britain by refusing to house, feed them or give them benefits when they arrive and taking them immediately back whence they came.

      1. Such migrants are supposed to claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. Instead, they are shunted through to Calais where they accumulate waiting for a crossing. Schengen has a lot to answer for. We should insist that the EU enforces its own rules.

  64. With Bill announcing his stepping back I share and understand his frustrations. We have become negative but that's inevitable due to the awful legislation this government (and the last one) has forced on us.

    The bigger annoyance is that we can seemingly do nothing about this appalling state of affairs. All we can do is rant.

    1. I'd actually apologise for my part in that as I've been the worst culprit. I shall try to stick to the dogs. Maybe Mongo's diary.

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Stop trying to make ‘weird’ happen
      Comments Share 4 September 2024, 10:30am
      Where American left-liberal rhetoric leads, British left-liberal rhetoric invariably follows. Hate speech, reparations, decolonisation, white fragility; there is no intellectual fad so inane that it will not be enthusiastically mimicked, with childlike credulity, by journalists, academics, civil servants and broadcasters, regardless of whether it even makes sense in a British context. The impression you get is of status-conscious provincials seizing, herd-like, on the latest fashions and conventional wisdom from the imperial centre.

      The accusation of weirdness is a striking example of the decline of political rhetoric
      So it is that barely a month after the Democrats and their allies in the US media adopted ‘weird’ as their attack line on Republican Vice-Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, some on this side of the pond are trying their best to make it a term of derision in British politics. The Guardian reports of research by the think tank More in Common which allegedly shows that some voters are beginning to regard the Tories as ‘weird’.

      This output is extremely unsurprising. More is Common is a classic blob outfit. Their money appears to come almost entirely from grant-making organisations totally captured by progressive activists. Their key purpose seems to be what some commentators call ‘consensus laundering’, i.e. giving the appearance of popular civil society support for policies which are in fact the pet projects of dogmatic elites, and command minimal popular enthusiasm.

      The accusation of weirdness is a striking example of the decline of political rhetoric. We have, sadly, left behind the old expectation that politics should consist of robust rhetoric and agonistic debates, conducted without lasting personal animus, in favour of what you might describe as a Mean Girls culture.

      In the new dispensation, passive-aggressive digs and snarky attacks are the order of the day, backhanded attacks on reputation rather than straightforward exchanges of ideas. ‘Weird’ is a fundamentally juvenile and thoughtless insult, redolent of the cruel ostracism faced at school by children who look or speak or behave differently to the crowd.

      Most popular
      Jawad Iqbal
      When will the Channel migrant horror end?

      It also has no real content, because even if we take it more seriously than we should, as an honest attempt at description, it simply means something like ‘incongruent with the norms of a particular group or institution’. So from the perspective of the Biden-Harris White House, which hosts parties for men who pose topless with fake breasts, and which briefly employed a ‘kink activist’ who was later charged with stealing women’s clothes at airports, then J.D. Vance – a married conservative and observant Catholic with three children – probably does seem very weird. For Mr Vance himself, I would imagine that things look a little different.

      Similarly, in the UK, promoting the idea that Tories are ‘weird’, presumably because they are well-spoken or well-dressed or well-educated, feels like nothing more than pandering to anti-intellectualism or reverse snobbery. And frankly, the last thing we need is a race to the bottom, where any politician who wants to look the part, or discuss complicated matters, or choose his words with precision, faces the accusation of being out of touch or strange.

      There’s an inescapable element of projection in the charge, too. Britain’s progressive rulers espouse all sorts of beliefs and attitudes which would seem entirely bizarre not only to previous generations, but to most people in the world today. That a man can become a woman is the most obvious of these, but there are others: net zero fanaticism, disdain for the history and traditions of their own country, ferocious adherence to the diversity cult. None of these things are really ‘normal’ or popular, but they are the unquestioned axioms of the ruling class so their sheer strangeness is under-discussed.

      Of course, organisations using dubious data to paint the Tories as oddballs might have another purpose, namely to narrow the Overton window, to limit the range of policies that can be openly discussed. There is a growing sense on the right of politics that a new radicalism is needed – on energy, on borders, on free speech, on national identity, on crime, on parliamentary sovereignty.

      Hence the attempt to force the idea that it is ‘weird’ to want to abandon net zero, or to reform the Human Rights Act or the Equality Act, or to abolish the various committees that have assumed enormous quasi-judicial power over MPs without any of the due process protections that true courts offer defendants. The Tories must not let themselves be bamboozled into accepting this account. The ‘centre ground’ is a chimaera, an illusion. Attempting to occupy it is like trying to catch fog in a net.

      There is no point at all in simply trying to avoid the appearance of weirdness by embracing the pre-emptive defensive crouch. The trick is to render the claim nonsensical and trivial with a laser focus on fixing the country’s problems.

    3. No, don't get upset. See it as a long-term project. Write to MPs and politely express concerns. They need de-brainwashing. And if you don't they will take silence for consent. Join Reform and offer it your support in practical ways if you can. Try not to use DD for the big bills, let them chase you. Again, silence is consent with the egotists running these big corporations. One email every couple of months collectively, will cause them to question themselves. Email large institutions/charities. Be polite, persistent but logical. Stop subscriptions for a while if an article goes too far. The Overton Window can be shifted with our wallets and our persistence. .

    4. Now You know what we feel about Trudeau. We have no way to legally remove him from office, the prime ministers office and the cabinet basically do what they want with no regard for the population.

      Canada has so many raw material reserves that could be exploited and revenues used to benefit everyone. Instead we have a government intent on shutting down resource industries and forgoing royalties and taxes that are so desperately needed to fix the broken healthcare and education systems.

      Now we have the idiotic plan to bring in up to 50,000 refugees from Gaza – that will really help social cohesion.

      1. That is insane. You will get nothing but grief from Gaza. Hasn't your government asked why no Arab state will accept them? Everywhere they go violence and death follow.

      2. You could give the Palestinians the whole of Ontario as a homeland and they still wouldn't be satisfied.

    5. What we must try to do is combine negativity with ironic humour.

      We certainly do have several Nottlers who try to be amusing.

      It would be good to find a pub called the Jolly Whinger or the Mirthful Moaner

        1. To the tune of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious:

          Jollymirthfulwhingingmoanereverythingsatrocious
          Even though profound it is something's are quite atrocious
          If you whinge loud enough you'll always sound precocious
          Jollymirthfulwhingingmoanereverythingsatrocious
          Um-do Nottl-um-Nottl-I
          Um-do Nottl-um-Nottl-I
          Um-do Nottl-um-Nottl-I
          Um-do Nottl-um-Nottl-I

  66. Not sure when I'll be back online today. Going to trek to a point on the island where I can cast into 50' depth of water. Looking for decent pollack on the lure. Wind picking up a lot though.

    Wordle 1,173 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ………

      (He looks about 13 but he says he has left school and is at college. Funny how people look older or younger than their actual age: our first son, Christo, could buy a pint of beer in a pub at the age of 16 and no questions asked; his younger brother, Henry, was still asked to produce evidence that he was over 18 in a pub when he was 24.

    2. Many years ago the Mayor of Calais was thoroughly annoyed with the fact that her town was being overwhelmed by people of non-European background polluting the place on their way to Britain.

      She put the blame firmly on the British and said it was disgraceful that we welcomed them with open arms and fed and housed them so generously and gave them absurdly high social benefits.

      Is it kindness or is it just weakness?

      Our politicians had a self-destructive zeal deliberately to ignore the wise warnings of Enoch Powell

  71. 392439+ up ticks,

    Education,education,education suffers from a form of palsy damage gained via the current education system in regards to a developing brain,no sense of feelings, and respect for others and self completely lacking.

    Bhim Sen Kohli loved life, his allotments and his dog. How did his horrifying death happen?
    Friends and neighbours mourn the gentle 80-year-old allegedly attacked yards from his home

  72. Going on a shopping trip , to buy a winter duvet for cold nights . Moh likes a 15 tog .. we have no C/h heating upstairs apart from a portable oil filled electric thing in the bedroom and other rooms upstairs.

    Dunelm , here I come .

    Weymouth now have a store , and about time too.

    John Lewis and Next are too far away.

    1. If you can afford it, a silk duvet is much lighter for the same tog rating, although some people like the extra weight of down etc.

      1. We use Night Lark coverless duvets. We buy 2 singles rather than a king size so they fit into our washing machine with ease. Wish we had found them years ago.
        https://www.finebedding.co.uk/collections/night-lark-coverless-duvet?g_network=g&g_productchannel=&g_adid=691598682209&g_acctid=295-808-1825&g_locinterest=&g_keyword=night%20owl%20duvet&g_campaign=account&g_adtype=&g_keywordid=kwd-298183581023&g_ifcreative=&g_locphysical=1007056&g_adgroupid=162046041351&g_productid=&g_source={sourceid}&g_merchantid=&g_placement=&g_partition=&g_campaignid=18734736633&g_ifproduct=&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&klar_source=google&klar_cpid=18734736633&klar_adid=691598682209&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiuC2BhDSARIsALOVfBJGJ0daurwyjdQoRkCcnOqrdQgPrNJGX7aYY6qUW6tVhWukAbzY92EaAvBfEALw_wcB

        1. Apologies Johnny, I posted mine (above) before I saw your comment. Ours are Nightlark too, bought from Amazon.

          3. Oh I see. I was going to say I bought night owl, before I read your post about the name change.
            Got mine from Amazon too.
            Best thing I ever did, lovely and no impossible duvet covers needed.

    4. 2 single duvets, one each. Then move downstairs and create a shower room suitable for the future when you get old. Stairlifts are ghastly.

  73. The US is turning the screws on Nicolas Maduro. 4 September 2024.

    Actions often speak louder than words. And in the case of the US seizing President Nicolas Maduro’s luxury multi-million dollar luxury aircraft this week, that perhaps rings true. The international tip-toeing around how best to respond to Venezuela’s election result – considered fraudulent by many – and the turbulent repression that has ensued, has had global leaders scratching their heads for over a month.

    I don’t know enough about Nicolas Maduro or Venezuela’s travails to make any informed comment but the idea of the US, with its recent history in mind, pulling faces at the election results seems a little hypocritical to say the least.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-us-is-turning-the-screws-on-nicolas-maduro/

  74. Olympic marathon runner suffers 75 per cent burns after alleged petrol attack by boyfriend
    Attack is the latest against a female athlete in Kenya, some of which have been fatal
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2024/09/03/rebecca-cheptegei-hospital-burns-petrol-attack-ex-boyfriend/

    BTL

    It is a mystery to me why any sensible women in the UK are in favour of mass immigration by people from different cultures who think that women are inferior to men and should be subservient to them.

    It is also a mystery to me why so many women working in prisons should have sexual affairs with violent prisoners.

    2. Alpha males. No interest in caring about them, the risk of being caught, the knowledge it's wrong, that the partner is utterly unsuitable and as the Warqueen said – to be used.

    3. Alpha males. No interest in caring about them, the risk of being caught, the knowledge it's wrong, that the partner is utterly unsuitable and as the Warqueen said – to be used.

  75. Olympic marathon runner suffers 75 per cent burns after alleged petrol attack by boyfriend
    Attack is the latest against a female athlete in Kenya, some of which have been fatal
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2024/09/03/rebecca-cheptegei-hospital-burns-petrol-attack-ex-boyfriend/

    BTL

    It is a mystery to me why any sensible women in the UK are in favour of mass immigration by people from different cultures who think that women are inferior to men and should be subservient to them.

    It is also a mystery to me why so many women working in prisons should have sexual affairs with violent prisoners.

  76. The BBC is currently discussing the Grenfell Tower fire. About the seventeenth time this week alone. Hours of blaming the Tories for allowing building to be 'improved' with unsuitable materials. Never a mention of the occupant of the flat where the fire started. "The flat's resident, Behailu Kebede, was awoken by a smoke alarm. After discovering smoke coming from the fridge freezer in his kitchen, Kebede alerted his lodgers and neighbours, before making a call to the London Fire Brigade". (Wiki) The first fire engines arrived six minutes after the call – too late, the kitchen was a raging inferno. Why did he delay in calling the Fire Brigade? What was he frightened of? The turds at the BBC claim he was blameless – I think there is more to it than a simple fridge fire. I lost a friend in that fire. I doubt we shall ever know the truth.

    1. Blair is to blame as he ended the role of the "fire inspector" from the local brigade. these fires would never have happened if he had not done this.

    2. If the fridge freezer had been on an inside wall. The fire couldn't have spread to the cladding. It's difficult to imagine how it could have been sighted on and outside window wall. Because the sink and worktops would have been there.
      Never a mention of or any interview with the person from the flat where the fire started floor 6, flat 16.
      Assumed to have been an electrical fault with the fridge. But of course everyone else has been accused of the fire breaking out. Even though it didn't seem to happen that way.

      1. I've a feeling it was an opium bong. I know that's not especially welcome but it explains the delay in noticing and warning and the way the man made his way outside.

        Modern furniture is genuinely tricky to set fire to. It takes quite some time. A fridge – unless the refrigerant is leaking is quite safe and being plastic and metal is also fairly difficult to burn. I think the Egyptian fellow was off his face.

        1. Apparently his family were elsewhere that evening.
          There was also mentions of a rubbish chute being blocked and piles of rubbish being left on the landings.
          That all went quite.

    3. Have they mentioned that the cladding went on to meet climate change policies, or has that quietly been forgotten?

    5. My own personal view is that the saga of the Grenfell Tower inferno perfectly illustrates everything that is wrong in our country.

      It starts with Ken Livingston goading Thatcher into abolishing the GLC after he hung banners from its Thameside headquarters. There followed the dispersal of many documents to the London Boroughs and the subsequent loss of coordination on everything from rivers, sewers and drainage to electrical infrastructure.

      The next fatal decision was to abolish the London Building Act and the experienced highly qualified District Surveyors and to replace them with so called Building Control Officers lodged at the various council offices. Everything was now under the Building Regulations. At the same time London Fire Brigade was relieved of its duty to be involved in all building works and fire strategies.

      Meantime the UK was having to switch from our own Codes of Practice and British Standards to the European “equivalent” Codes. The European Codes were statutory.

      In my own professional career I relied greatly on the advice and expertise of the Building Research Establishment, the London Fire Brigade and in the case of two of my government (Crown) buildings, the Home Office Fire Inspectorate. I enjoyed a charmed existence and experience in those respects.

      In relation to the Grenfell “rainscreen” cladding and insulation the manufacturer of both could cite that their materials complied with the European Code for Fire Performance. This was however quite contrary to the advice given by the Building Research Establishment which recognised that the configuration of different materials in the context of the overall building construction was needed for fire testing and certification of materials.

      The BRE advice was ignored and the inadequate EU Code preferred. This meant that when the outside cladding ignited the flaming droplets caused the Celotex insulation to burn fanned by the stack effect of the air gap between the two.

      I could never accept that form of construction nor the materials chosen for such an enormous height and extent given that safe non-combustible materials were available if more expensive.

      There appears to have been no architect control of the process just a bunch of ignorant persons making self interested and cosmetic decisions.

      I will end by stating that the council could not provide a bona fide list of the occupants. This allowed tens of chancers to claim enormous sums many of whom had no connection with the building at all. Then there is the case that flats were sublet and or housed “lodgers”.

      It seems that just about everything in our country is broken everywhere you look we see societal disorder, bad behaviour on a monumental scale and a complete collapse of the systems we trusted and relied on for decades.

    6. His wife and family lived elsewhere.
      He used the flat as a base when he was working/driving.
      Two african women were his lodgers. If the refrigerator had really overheated, surely the RCD would have tripped.
      When the PTB decide about the CPS bringing manslaughter charges, Mr Kebede should be included.

    7. His wife and family lived elsewhere.
      He used the flat as a base when he was working/driving.
      Two african women were his lodgers. If the refrigerator had really overheated, surely the RCD would have tripped.
      When the PTB decide about the CPS bringing manslaughter charges, Mr Kebede should be included.

    1. In order to get a more balanced view we must hear what Mark Knopfler, Hank B. Marvin and Eric Clapton have to say about the jabs.

  78. Who will be first out of the Tory leader race?

    I'm not sure why the UK would need another Labour party. The one you have is bad enough.

      1. Nice. I'm still harvesting. I have dozens of bags of pasatta in the freezer already. I make up different types to go with different dishes. Some with lots of herbs. Others made up with a chicken carcass thrown in. And other types. Labeling becomes verrry imporrrtant.

        Also, i always roast the toms first. Supposedly intensifies the flavour.

        I like to grow several different varieties. Cherry, Beefy and standard but this year for the first time i grew Black Moon F1….I like the way they look.

        I purposely left off harvesting some plants until after my party so the guest could admire how good i am at showing off ! :@)

      1. I put a max/min thermometer by the solar panel and this summer it measured over 40 degC even with the greenhouse autovents, the side windows and the door open.

        1. Ooh. Sunhat time. Of course i would expect a discount for all the carbon dioxide i breathe out invigorating your fruity bits….erm….

      1. Yes, the internal water tank allows a fixed anount of water to be treated with tomato fertilizer as MOH deems necessary to maintain her crop’s health.

        1. Ah so, makes sense now. If it were just water you wanted that tank would be superfluous. Spot on.

  80. Grenfell final report: Fire was caused by ‘systematic dishonesty’ of cladding firms
    Inquiry into fatal inferno also exposes failings by government ministers and officials who ignored warnings about building safety checks
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/04/grenfell-fire-systematic-dishonesty-cladding-inquiry/

    BTL

    The fire was caused by the carelessness – or even the malice – of a resident: it was not caused by the cladding.

    Ineffective cladding may have not restrained the spread of the fire but it did not cause the fire – it did not spontaneously combust.

  81. The Grenfell tragedy was about more than cladding

    CHRSTOPHER BOOKER • 1 July 2017 • 9:30pm

    By way of offering faint cheer in these darkling times, I have more than once observed here that "there are still a lot of good people in this country – the trouble is that none of them are running it". This was again borne out in spades by the extraordinary scenes following last weekend, when Camden's Labour council decided that up to 4,000 people must immediately leave their homes in five tower blocks on a council estate in south Hampstead.

    Everything about the mindlessly cack-handed way in which that panic evacuation was handled was astonishing. Presiding over the chaos was Camden's council leader, Georgia Gould, daughter of the PR man who, with Peter Mandelson, was the chief architect of Tony Blair's "New Labour". How on earth could this hopelessly inexperienced 31-year-old be put in charge of a major London borough?

    Back in the early Seventies, when I lived near that estate, I and my then-colleague Bennie Gray were awarded as Campaigning Journalists of the Year for relentlessly exposing Camden as London's first "loony Left" council, above all for the reckless way in which it was razing whole tracts of the borough to replace them with concrete towers and blocks of council flats. But even then, Camden never created quite such a cruel shambles as it did last weekend.

    Of much wider significance, however, as the great post-Grenfell Tower "cladding crisis" rolls on, is the way it has been emerging that the real cause of that disaster was not simply the "cladding" itself at all.

    The real story began back in 2000, when a Commons committee held an inquiry into the fire risks of cladding on multi-storey blocks, following a fatal fire in Scotland the previous year. The MPs were particularly impressed by the evidence of Peter Field from the Building Research Establishment (BRE), who told them that the existing fire standard, EN 13501, was seriously inadequate, because it required only a "single burn" laboratory test of each separate material used in "cladding" operations.

    What was needed, said Field, was a much more realistic test of how all the materials involved might behave when installed together. This is crucially relevant to Grenfell and many other towers because, contrary to what everyone has assumed, it was not the thin outer skin of external decorative cladding by itself that caused the fire. The problem was a combination of the 6in of combustible Celotex plastic foam insulation behind it, next to a void which, once the plastic was set alight by the fire from a flat, created an updraught, sending the flames roaring upwards. In fact, the BRE had already devised a new British standard, BS 8414, which the MPs recommended should replace the wholly inadequate EN 13501. But the latter had come from the EU, making it mandatory. So, under EU law, the new British standard could only therefore be a voluntary (and more expensive) option.

    The relevant minister who could have gone to Brussels to call for a much more effective EU standard along British lines was John Prescott. But his officials at the time were concerned only with new regulations to improve insulation required under the EU's Energy Performance of Buildings directive. This was designed to comply with the Kyoto Protocol on global warming (signed for the UK by Prescott in 1997). The need to deal with fire risk seems not to have entered their heads.

    The ultimate irony is that the maker of Celotex actually claims that its "product" does comply with that British standard, BS 8414. Its website gives details of its self-certified test, but this bears no relation to the context in which the product was installed at Grenfell Tower. The small print of its brochure even emphasises that its test is valid only when it is compatible with the "end-use system", which its own evidence suggests it cannot show.

    When John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn's deputy, famously described the Grenfell victims as having been "murdered by political decisions", he clearly had no idea of the role his own party had played in this murky saga. At least we must hope that the learned judge who looks into the causes of the fire will come to understand why, if only full compliance with the BS 8414 standard could have been made mandatory, as the select committee intended, that fearful conflagration would never have happened.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/01/grenfell-tragedy-cladding/

      2. Who once asserted that keeping alternators spinning with no load on them used as much energy as when there was a load on him.

    3. The problem with the excellent insulation product celotex and others similar is, it's been very successfully used as insulation materials in many loft conversions and home extensions.

      1. Happy birthday.
        Ignore the trombones; toot your flute and blow your own trumpet.
        Hope it was a good 'un.

  83. GB News15.45:

    Priti Patel kicked out of Tory leadership race after first vote
    The former home secretary only received 14 votes as MPs narrow the field in their search for Rishi Sunak's successor.

    1. …MPs narrow the field in their search for Rishi Sunak's successor.

      Yes and that's what they are looking for. Another lib-dem.

    2. When one looks at the numbers of votes it really hammers home how the Tories were decimated in the GE.

  84. One for those who know more about such things:

    Given the way the fire appears to have spread, is it possible to put in firebreaks as a temporary stop gap to prevent such rapid spread? It might be quicker to create a safer environment than the proposed stripping down and replacement.

    1. What fire? Do you mean the big one indirectly caused by a left wing 'greenwashing' policy, where loads of people perished?
      NB sorry about the children.

      1. The prisons are too full of far right racists to have space for the hundreds who should be inside for this debacle.

  85. Ukraine’s Russian incursion has failed to turn the military tide. 4 September 2024.

    It is quite the achievement. Facing poorly trained conscripts and largely evacuated towns, Ukraine exposed Russia’s alarming defensive weaknesses, the shallowness of its nuclear threats, and has no plans to leave Kursk anytime soon, thereby eroding the possibility of a ceasefire that freezes the front lines – something Russia could now not agree to.

    This poor protection was because Kursk is the road to nowhere. The Ukies have seized it and – nothing. They lack the resources to exploit it and dare not venture far from their bridgehead in case they are cut off. The Russian haven’t even bothered to attack. They like the idea of three Ukie brigades sitting twiddling their thumbs while their comrades in the Donbass are fighting for their lives.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/04/ukraines-russian-incursion-turning-point-or-failed-gambit/

    1. Precisely. Kursk has no military importance.

      Kursk is forested with numbers of isolated and very small thinly populated villages. The Azov Brigades there are trapped and will be picked off by the Russians at will and with ease.

        1. Considering that monkey pox is basically spread through intimacy, the best prevention would appear to be good old-fashioned faithfulness if in a relationship, or abstinence if not!

          From the WHO website
          Mpox spreads from person to person mainly through close contact with someone who has mpox. Close contact includes skin-to-skin (such as touching or sex) and mouth-to-mouth, or mouth-to-skin contact (such as kissing), and can also include being face-to-face with someone who has mpox (such as talking or breathing close to one another, which can generate infectious respiratory particles). During the global outbreak that began in 2022, the virus mostly spread through sexual contact.

          3. May I suggest that you attach yourself to your barge pole?
            But be careful that Phizzee hasn't sat upon it recently.

  87. Just logged into the telegraph. Can find absolutely nothing to read that wouldn’t send my blood pressure up or make me feel sick!
    It’s turning into a combination of manic doom mongers who end the article with the equivalent of there is nothing you can do; strangely combined with a series of features articles that prattle on about your wardrobe and diet, and where to buy property or go on holiday.
    The cognitive dissonance is eye watering.
    Didn’t even look at the bit on the conservative debacle. That really is a complete waste of time.
    If it carries on like this I will have to dump it.

      1. Conservative woman, spiked, here and free speech backlash.
        I used to get the spectator, but they became to globalist for my taste.
        I used to look at the Guardian occasionally to make sure I wasn’t living in an echo chamber, but since two tier was elected, I just can’t bring myself to do it!

        1. V.similar, incl unherd. On Speccie special until end of this month. I get the free Guardian update, like to keep an eye on what they’re saying. Apart from that the climate ones Not a Lot of People and Climate Change Despatch. Spend far too much time online:-D Oh and Bloomberg…

          2. I know what you mean. Think it’s gradually improving, more comments than there were…will look out for you! 🙂

  88. This is not ‘leading the world’. It’s economic suicide
    It matters, as you’ll soon be required to have electric heating and an electric car
    Neil Record
    3 September 2024 • 5:58pm

    We have consistently been told that renewables are cheaper than gas generation. That was briefly true in the Ukraine crisis when Russia closed its gas supply to the West, but is far from true now. Now, with the power of market flexibility, gas prices have fallen, while UK electricity prices continue to rise. They will keep on rising if we insist on continuing to subsidise investment in renewables, making the UK increasingly uncompetitive, and hurting consumers.

    This is not ‘leading the world’, it’s economic suicide.

    Neil Record is Chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs. He holds an MSc in Economics. He has worked in the Economic Intelligence Department of the Bank of England, and as an economist in industry

    2. Five on the bounce for me – the tension is crippling!!!

      Wordle 1,173 3/6

      🟨⬜🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I don't think much of him either , nor that Tom character ..

      They are tame , mild hollow chaps , in fact all the chaps are .

      Tories need a Trump type of character , I don't think Farage cuts the mustard either .

      They are all similar to a squabbling sack of polecats.

      We need a proper statesman , and not an old Etonian this time .

      Some on who has had experience overseas, ex military , solid back ground , nothing to do with the Royal family , someone with philanthropic ideas.. In fact we could do with an old European , a Hungarian or a Greek or similar, daft thought , yes or no ..?

          1. I don’t know, Tom. They broke the mold when she was made. Do you have the energy for it? I’m too broken.

          3. #metoo.
            Also, I hate politics and politicians. It would like signing up to Child-Molesters Central.

  92. Came across this when surfing X accounts. Apologies if it has been put up previously.

    The video from Paul Burgess B.Sc., M.Sc., C. Eng (Retired), linked below, exposes the folly of pursuing the chimera of Net Zero. If Mr Burgess is correct then both the costs of Net Zero and its negative impact on so many fronts will flatline the UK across the board.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9PhGhgjfiw

    1. We are all going to suffer his green nuttery especially if the coming winter is cold. That might mean he's shuttered out sooner rather than later, meantime look out for any vulnerable folks we know.

        1. Have around 30 acres of mixed, he cuts I load and stack:-) Ash is a lovely tree, still a lot of dieback to deal with.

    2. Ed Miliband is mad. He needs to be put in a straitjacket and put away somewhere under lock and key.

      1. Miliband minor has had almost a decade and a half simmering on the back-burner of climate change and Starmer’s elevation to PM has brought him to the boil, via green energy, of course.

        Now, off the leash, he can impose his fanaticism on to the people. Does he have any understanding of the crippling costs, both financial and societal, his pursuit of Net Zero will entail?

        A government that is concerned about a ‘run on the pound’ re £1.6Billion to help keep pensioners warm but isn’t perturbed by spending hundreds of £Billions, if not a £Trillion or more, on the back of disputed science, cannot, IMO, claim to have a realistic “fully costed” financial plan.

  93. I hought I had a three:
    Wordle 1,173 5/6

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

    1. Wordle 1,173 5/6

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

    2. Mine worse, Ped…always tomorrow…husband and daughter very competitive, they both did it in three.

        1. Wordle 1,173 5/6

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

        2. I did earlier today, or thought I did, lacoste…but here it is ….(I am always hopeful for the next day..:-DDD)

        3. I already did, think I may be getting duplicate msgs…
          Wordle 1,173 5/6

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

          See what tomorrow brings, doubt any improvements. Think daughter did it in three today :/-)

    3. I did, I id have a three

      Wordle 1,173 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜🟩🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. I've noticed this on several occasions.
        You make a second choice that appears to ignore your earlier correct letters; are you eliminating possibilities rather than attempting to score a better result?

        1. Yes that has always been my approach. I have three normal starter words that go through much of the alphabet and then try to solve it from there. I am not advanced enough to keep myself restricted to only using letters that have already been selected.

          Better a par or bogey than a miss.

  94. I hought I had a three:
    Wordle 1,173 5/6

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

  95. The annual renewable energy auction saw a record 131 contracts agreed yesterday, a far cry from last year’s round which saw no bids from offshore wind developers. The 9.6 gigawatts (GW) of projects – almost half of which are wind to be generated by nine giant North Sea schemes – could provide electricity to the equivalent of 11 million homes.

    How can we explain this dramatic turnaround to produce what the Government called the “biggest round ever”? Simple: the state has offered a much higher subsidy in the event of prices falling.

    The auction system guarantees developers a fixed price for the electricity they generate over 15 years. They are paid the difference between the fixed price agreed with the Government and the wholesale price when they sell their electricity, if the wholesale price is lower. If the wholesale price is higher than the fixed price, companies have to pay back the difference.

    Several of the offshore wind projects already had contracts but were rebidding in order to receive a higher price. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, said they were “securing investment into our country” but at a cost to consumers. His boast that average household bills will be £300 a year lower in 2030 than now is beginning to look unlikely, not least for older people whose winter fuel allowance is being removed.

    Even the 5GW of wind is not enough to meet Labour’s unrealistic target to decarbonise the grid within six years. There is also the small matter of transporting the electricity, which will require one of the country’s biggest ever infrastructure projects.

    Where are the plans for that?

  96. It's actually the largest ingredient in that pie, sos. As I said earlier, keep an eye on vulnerable neighbours/relatives. And pray for a mild winter.

    2. Zharkova says that the fact that CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now increasing is a good thing. "We don't need to remove CO2 because we would actually need more of it. It's food for plants to produce oxygen for us. The people who say CO2 is bad are obviously not very well educated at university or wherever they studied. Only uneducated people can come up with such absurd talk that CO2 should be removed from the air," says Zharkova.

      The Sun – a natural driver of climate change
      In fact, Professor Zharkova can go on at length about what CO2 does or does not do in nature and how it behaves, but she does not actually study it directly as a scientist. Zharkova is an astrophysicist originally from Ukraine. She graduated in mathematics from Kiev National University and did her PhD at the Main Astronomical Observatory in Kiev, Ukraine. She has worked and done research at various UK universities since 1992 and has been a Professor of Mathematics at the Northumbria University since 2013, teaching key Maths and Physics modules.

      However, her research has focused on the Sun and she can confirm that, unlike CO2, the Sun plays a major role in Earth's climate change. So much so, in fact, that Zharkova's research suggests that we have entered a colder period, or essentially a little ice age, in the next 30 years, as the sun's activity weakens in the context of global warming.

      In other words, there is not a question of Zharkova – or any other scientist who is justifiably skeptical about the omnipotent power of the CO2 molecule to warm the air – denying climate change. On the contrary, climate change and the cooling or warming of temperatures are very real, she asserts. For example, Zharkova points out that in Scotland, where she has lived for many years, the weather was much warmer 2,000 years ago. "The Romans were growing grapes and making wine in Scotland at that time, for example," she says.

      However, between 1645 and 1715, for example, the period known as the Maunder Minimum, when the Sun's activity weakened particularly sharply, the weather in Europe became much colder. Britain's major rivers – such as the Thames and Tyne – could be skated on, and the Dutch canals regularly froze over. Alpine glaciers widened and absorbed large areas of arable land, and the ice mass expanded strongly southwards from the Arctic. Temperatures across the planet were much lower – in Europe and North America, for example, up to 5 to 7º C colder in places. This is a huge change.

      1. ‘Evening, lacoste – I’ve been telling neighbours et al for a number of years – look around you, see the greenery – what do you think might be happening to crop yields around the world? They don’t want to know. Now, however, they could be correct sooner than we know…because limits are changing, see where we are in a couple of years. Paul Homewood is good on this.

      2. Your knowledge is very impressive, Rene, are you a 'specialist' in this area, or just an enthusiastic amateur? ;-))

      3. "Temperatures across the planet were much lower – in Europe and North America, for example, up to 5 to 7º C colder in places."

        Come along now, keep up. There was so much volcanic activity during the Little Ice Age that the dust blotted out the sun. Every modern climate expert knows this.

  97. My late father , he died in SA in 1995, left the UK for good when Harold Wilson came to power.

    He first went to Africa in 1951, with us his family , we were small children .

    I heard him say many times that we should have been more hospitable to Israelis , and he knew Jews were smart and were excellent doctors , the brains and IQ of them would have elevated the UK..

    He was furious that the Windrush people were allowed in and that migration to the UK from Muslim countries was gathering pace , especially Pakistan .

    He knew that that bombed Britain needed to get back to work , but bringing unskilled people into the UK was not the answer , and besides the British were suspicious of non whites who didn't share lifestyles, culture etc .

    He used to travel back here to see me and other relatives , Mum was killed in a car crash in SA.

    He was shocked as hell to see huge high rise flats in London , as he journeyed from Waterloo station to see us , and to him they were no different to prewar tenements , they were full of migrants , overcrowded flats and unsafe neighbourhoods ..

    Problems in so called flats in SA were dangerous , fires , Africans , some of them ,have no idea how to live in modern buildings , their old habits of cooking , sheesh pipes , clearing and cleaning , toilet use were appalling , I suspect the same applies in all European cities.

    Dad served in the RN during the war , so did Mum .

    Years ago , in the 1970s here in my part of the world , a doctor from some part of Africa , set fire to his kitchen in his flat because he was singeing hair from a goat carcass with a Black and Decker paint remover ..

    Yes I know chip pans, toaster, grill pans and faulty electrics are also responsible ..

    The third world meets first world .. and now many people will be at risk of all sorts of things because of lax planning regulations and rules , and shoddy alarm systems etc .

    Sorry I have wandered off track , but many people are absolutely useless , do silly things and pose a risk to many inhabitants in blocks of flats .

    1. A wise man. Say what you like about the Jews, but they are true enrichers. (When they told me, two Jews are an argument, I said, where do I join?)

    2. My father was Jewish so he wouldn’t argue with that. He spent time in Ghana and Nigeria during WWII and very much enjoyed his time there. He liked the people he met in West Africa but held out very little hope for them effectively governing themselves.

      One of Dad’s favourite Africa stories was the time he had to attend a funeral which was carried out with much pomp and ceremony until the procession reached the graveside. There the coffin was opened and the body was unceremoniously tossed into the hole. Dad was clutching his sides with laughter. He couldn’t help himself. The coffin was kept to be reused.

      1. Africans are just that , they are innovative and amusing .. and can be generous .. They see Europeans as easy targets for dash and know when to hold out a begging hand .

        Your dad would have seen some amazing sights and experiences .

        When my Richard was working in Nigeria in the seventies, my younger son and I joined him a few months later , married accompanied and son no 1 was at boarding school ..

        Young son and I flew to Lagos , but had to catch a Nigerian Airways flight to Port Harcourt .. ancient old smelly aircraft , jet , cannot remember what type but all the locals were onboard with their live chickens and young goats and parcels of smelly stuff..

        It was a hilarious journey , the cabin pressurisation didn't work so we flew almost treetop height , well nearly , and everyone was praying and shouting .. All I could think of was the Nicene creed, and clung on to my 4 year old youngster as we bounced around in the air , stormy tropical weather .

        Yep , there were tears of joy when we landed , and as there were very few Europeans on board , big mamas, fat dadas and everyone hugged each other including us , it was a wonderful experience , I mean it , it really was an incredible feeling , fear causes adrenaline to rush and as the aircraft was so hot , the smell was ripe , but we were all together on a dodgy flight …with our God !

        1. My first flight from Lagos to PH was not at all different from yours, and that was in '88. Luckily I always travelled drunk back in those days.

  98. Grenfell again…

    From the BBC website: "Experts warned of the risk of cladding fires in 1992, the year after a fire at the 11-storey Knowsley Heights tower on Merseyside…"

    The Tories were in office until 1997 and then from 2010 to 2017, when the fire occurred – 12 years. Labour was in office for 13 but it's still the Tories fault, despite another warning in 1999 after a fire at Irvine in Scotland.

    And Wiki tells us: "On 19 March 1997, the Building Research Establishment was also privatised, meaning that the safety testing of building materials was no longer conducted by the public sector, but by a charitable trust, increasingly by the manufacturers of building materials themselves."

    The BRE still warned of the dangers of cladding and the weakness of EU standards but was ignored.

    I hope we hear more about this and the Blair government's part in it. Who will volunteer to read the 1,700 pages?!

    1. The Grenfell deaths were preventable should a resident not have been using an inflammable freezer in the building.

      I bought a fridge from a well known manufacturer a few years ago and it should have had a 'non inflammable' non CFC refrigerant in it. But after losing efficiency, repairs were attempted under warranty but the replacement compression fitted still leaked.

      What alarmed me was that the fitters, whilst refilling with refrigerant, had vented the residual gas to the garden outside through a long pipe. My own gas detector recorded an inflammable gas was being emitted.

      Whist trying to review refigerant trends today I could not confirm the current recommended preferred refrigerant in various contexts but found that the common CFC replacement, R134a, can cause explosions under certain conditons. This would be an additional hazard to fridge/frezeer insulating foam which cannot be recycled due to its inflammability.

      1. Blimey.
        I always read your posts on various matters scientific with a great deal of interest, but I am beginning to believe that you must live in a science laboratory

    2. The experts can't seem to understand the cladding does not self ignite.
      it needs defined human interaction to set it alight.

    4. Blair with the EU changed the regulations that ended the involvment of the local fire inspector from the local fire brigade. Having been inspected many times by the fire inspector at many locations they would never have passed these buildings. They had the power to close any building that failed their inspections. Blair is to blame for all this.

    1. Net Zero was a May initiative. The EU's Energy Performance of Buildings directives go back to 2002.

    2. Truly appalling thermal insulation standards in the UK almost made a case for more EU integration. (I got my coat a long time ago.)

  102. 'Robert Jenrick has finished top in the first round of voting in the Tory leadership contest as Dame Priti Patel was eliminated from the race.

    Mr Jenrick secured the backing of 28 Tory MPs, putting him six ahead of Kemi Badenoch who finished in second place with 22.

    James Cleverly was in third place with 21, Tom Tugendhat was in fourth place with 17 and Mel Stride was in fifth place with 16. Dame Priti finished in last place after securing the backing of 14 MPs.

    Mr Cleverly posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Momentum is on our side, but the work continues.”

    I suspect Jeremy C will be a tad perplexed….

      1. Do you mean Cleverly, lacoste? the guy who joked about giving his wife Rohypnol. that one….can't wait to show you my divots…

    2. "Conservative" MPs will try every trick in the book to ensure that Kemi Badenoch is not one of the final two.

      2. Not as effective as. Cutting the heating allowances and raising taxes on everything. Plant illegals in house's own by oldies to 'take care' of them.

    1. Five years ago, I would have thought PW was heading for the Tinfoil Hat Award.
      Now, not so sure …

  105. Things we have moved on from:
    P.C. Keith Blakelock.
    Kriss Donald.
    Lee Rigby.
    Muslim paedophile rape gangs.
    The Manchester Arena.
    The London tube and bus bombings.

    Things we haven't move on from (and are never likely to):
    Grenfell.
    Stephen Lawrence.
    George Floyd.

    1. If you want to see how the PTB try to obfuscate the statistics look at this freedom of information request.
      The question was very straightforward, the answer anything but.

      Deaths related to terrorism from 1992 to 2022
      You asked
      Please supply statistics for deaths from Islamic terrorism of British citizens at home and abroad, year by year from 1/1/92 to 1/1/22.

      look at the reply
      https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/deathsrelatedtoterrorismfrom1992to2022

      1. His brutal murder by an Islamist led to a twittering debate in parliament about the need for censorship of the internet. My soul cries out. Another feature of his death was that the police refused to let his Father Confessor through their cordon to administer the Last Rites, so that this good man died unshriven. I can't think of an adequate word to encompass these twin obscenities.

  106. Off topic
    It's interesting (at least to me) that the total number of countries that won any type of medal at the Paris Olympics was 84.
    As of this evening, 71 different nations have won a medal, or more, at the Paralympics.
    I think it shows just how far medicine has advanced around the world.
    Particularly considering how many fewer opportunities there are to win them in the Paralympics.

    EDIT
    1 Looking at it in more detail my figures aren't right, but the principle is still valid.
    2 The difference is still small

  108. Maybe some hope.
    The NDP were in an almost coalition with the Liberal Party over here in Canada, their combined vote in parliament guaranteed they could survive any confidence vote.
    However, the NDP withdrew their support from this agreement today, which leaves the liberals in true minority government territory.

    It is a log way from bringing the government down by voting against the liberals ( especially when their pensions are not yet vested) but there is some hope that they might for once think of king and country before politics.

    Maybe, pretty please. . .

  109. The Scottish are getting really angry with the £ 500 million budget cuts that are going to cause so much hardship north of the border, I almost felt sorry for them when I heard the list of cancelled services on the news this morning.
    Yet that is the same amount of money we have given the French for trying to control the immigrants crossing in dinghies.
    We don't appear to have got much value for money out of the enterprise when compared to the cuts in Scottish public services.
    Should we be asking for our money back?

      2. Just a thought, without the Scottish vote, I wonder what percentage of the vote Labour would have got had they continued to vote SNP.

      1. I'm sure that "they" have asked this. I'm equally sure, in my suspicious mind, that they have so far been unable to cook up a plausible reply between the corrupt lot of them. Hence the continued silence.

    1. Ah, sos ….I have my contacts, and am reliably informed recycling is a load of whoshotjohn, mostly burnt, buried, lost at sea. How many plastic items have you seen proudly proclaiming 'I'm made from recycled plastic' or similar cute statement.

    2. Those rubbish filled clear recycling bags issued by my very own Braintree District Council turned up in Malaysia a few years back. Damnable corrupt Masons occupy the Executive.

      Still charging us Council Tax over £300 per month yet verges overgrown, potholes and collapsed verges everywhere. One wonders what the money is being spent on if not their extortionate expenses and pension contributions.

  111. It appears that being a pensioner and warm in your own home makes you Far Right.

  112. The opening paragraph's of Deacon's piece in the DT sums it up nicely … no need for the rest:

    "This week, the Tory leadership candidates have been launching their campaigns. Unfortunately, however, they’ve got a problem. Which is that, right now, ordinary voters have got absolutely zero interest in a single word that any of them has to say.

    And frankly, who can blame them? After all, every time a Tory leadership candidate promises to slash immigration, or boost spending on defence, or end wokery in schools and the Civil Service, voters are bound to roll their eyes and snort: “Oh, give it a rest. You had 14 years in government to do all this stuff – and yet you totally failed to deliver. So why on earth should we believe you now?”

    1. Ditto with Harris across the pond.

      One moment claiming everything is fine and then almost immediately informing anyone who is daft enough to listen, that she will fix all of the problems that she/Biden/Biden's controllers have created. Politicians of this stripe are beyond stupid and uncaring.

  113. Lord Cameron insists Holocaust memorial must be built next to parliament

    Former prime minister calls opposition to monuments location 'surrendering' to anti-Semitism

    Nick Gutteridge, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT • 4 September 2024 • 8:53pm

    Lord Cameron has insisted a national Holocaust memorial must be built next to Parliament despite objections from peers.

    The former prime minister said moving the site for the monument from Victoria Tower Gardens would be "surrendering" to anti-Semitism. In his first major speech since the Tories' election defeat, he said the project would be "a bold unapologetic national statement" against hatred. He made the remarks after some peers opposed the plans, describing the design of the memorial as an "eyesore" and "a lazy choice".

    The comments were made after the Government retabled legislation that would allow the Holocaust memorial to be built in a park next to Parliament. Victoria Tower Gardens, by the River Thames, is protected by a 125-year-old law that forbids the construction of any buildings on its site. The design for the monument includes a series of 23 bronze fins, one for every country the Holocaust occurred in, and there will be an accompanying museum near the site.

    Lord Cameron said: "There's a real power in bringing together the monument and the education and having it at the heart of our democracy. This is not just some monument to something that's happened. It's a permanent reminder and that's why it's so important that it's co-located with our parliament. I want to unashamedly put my cards on the table and say this is the right idea, in the right place, at the right time, and I hope we can make it happen."

    The former foreign secretary said the monument was necessary because anti-Semitism is "getting worse, we've seen that tragically in recent years". He acknowledged that there would be security concerns around the site, given that it is in a public park that joins onto Westminster Palace.

    But he added: "The very fact the issue of security is so great demonstrates why we need to do it so badly, and why locating this somewhere else because of security would be a surrender to those people that don't want to commemorate the holocaust and don't want to learn from it."

    Lord Black, a trustee at the Imperial War Museum Foundation, said the proposals for the memorial could be summed up as "great idea, wrong place". In a speech to the chamber he criticised the "botched decision making process and lack of consultation", which led to Victoria Tower Gardens being chosen.

    Lord Black, who is also a deputy chairman of the Telegraph Media Group, said: "Virtually everything with this proposal is wrong. The right answer is for a memorial and education centre to be housed just a stone's throw from Parliament at the Imperial War Museum, which has held the national collection for the holocaust for a quarter of a century.

    "The IWM is already the central location to which people young and old instinctively go for remembrance and learning. Why on earth would we want to build another memorial and learning centre which will inevitably be inferior to that offered by the IWM?"

    Baroness Deech also criticised the proposals, calling the design of the memorial an "eyesore" and saying it had been compared to a "giant toast rack". She said that the site would also have to be protected by "armed guards" because of both rising anti-Semitism and its proximity to Parliament.

    Lord Khan, a housing minister, defended the proposals though added: "I also want to stress that I accept there will never be universal support."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/04/lord-cameron-insists-holocaust-memorial-built-westminster

    Perhaps we can console ourselves with the thought that whatever memorial is erected over the grave of Dave, it will be located where it will be seen only by his family and, possibly, friends (if such people exist).

  114. Her first article for several weeks.

    Labour's Israel arms ban is a shameful betrayal of a heroic ally

    Israel is an oasis of democracy in a desert of tyranny – and our Foreign Secretary's grandstanding appeases terrorists

    ALLISON PEARSON • 3rd September 2024 • 7:51pm

    Call me soppy and nostalgic, but I preferred it when Labour was controlled by the trade unions not the Gaza Party. At least the wily leaders of ASLEF and the NUM merely wanted improved wages and conditions. They did not expect to dictate British foreign policy.

    Unbelievably – although maybe all too believably, given this fledgling Government's ability to do the most awful thing in any given situation – David Lammy announced that the UK was suspending some arms export licences to Israel. It would have been a controversial decision in normal times, but it came immediately after one of the most anguished days in Israel's history. Six young hostages, who had been in a living hell in the tunnels under Gaza for 11 months, were executed with a bullet to the back of the head by their Hamas captors. But not before that genocidal group had recorded each hostage in order to have a gloating video to release on the day their parents buried them.

    To hear Lammy say he was suspending 30 of 350 arms export licences because there was a risk such equipment "might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law," presented a bold challenge to the limits of satire. The only group which could possibly benefit from such a pause had literally just committed the most grievous possible violation of international humanitarian law: the mass murder of innocent civilians.

    In opposition, Lammy, an overpromoted chump whose arrogance is in inverse proportion to his intelligence, specialised in embarrassing sixth-form politics. For instance, in 2018, he branded President Donald Trump a "neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath" because insulting the thin-skinned leader of the Free World never has any repercussions, does it? Now the Foreign Secretary, might Lammy surprise us and grow up, developing the maturity and tact that great office of state demands?

    Unfortunately, the Muslim vote is far too valuable for Labour to allow foreign policy to get in the way of preserving it. Throwing our Israeli allies under the bus while they face an existential threat on all sides was clearly considered a small price to pay if it could appease sectarian extremists here in the UK who pose a demographic challenge in Labour strongholds, even knocking out prominent names like Jonathan Ashworth at the general election.

    As if to confirm our worst suspicions, Lammy's announcement came on the very same day that four new MPs, elected on a pro-Gaza ticket, and a former Labour leader, informed the Speaker they were founding a group known as the Independent Alliance that would sit together in the Commons – Jeremy Corbyn, long-time Hamas sympathiser; Ayoub Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Bar; Adnan Hussain, MP for Blackburn; Shockat Adam, MP for Leicester South; and Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley (where a teacher went into hiding with his family in fear of their lives after an angry Muslim mob objected to an RE lesson on blasphemy in which he showed a picture of the Prophet Mohammed). Nothing to worry about, ladies and gentlemen. Just an Islamic separatist caucus now sitting in our Parliament with the aim of influencing government policy towards views which are inimical to our values and traditions. (Can you get arrested for mentioning British "values and traditions"? Asking for 30 million non-brainwashed people.)

    This arms embargo that isn't an arms embargo is deeply odd. Only a few weeks ago, the RAF helped to defend Israel, shooting down Iranian drones. Israel is a hugely important partner, sharing vital military intelligence, selling us state-of-the-art weapons and a hefty dose of all medicines used by the NHS. Why would you do something designed to upset them? You might almost think the Government hasn't got a blinking clue what it's doing.

    The UK actually provides less than one per cent of Israel's armaments. So the cut Lammy announced was only ever crude gesture politics. The man is such a giant numpty he probably hoped he could earn himself a few brownie points with the Independent Alliance and far-Left, pro-Palestinian Jew-haters while still avoiding a diplomatic incident.

    His timing was appalling. As Lammy revealed his shabby, treacherous plan to the Commons, I was watching Rachel, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, give a eulogy at the funeral of her "sweet boy", who will forever be 23 years old. "It's not that Hersh was perfect," she began, "but he was a perfect son for me. I am full of gratitude to God for giving me the privilege of being Hersh's mother. I wish I could have had more time with you…" At that thought, she almost broke down irrecoverably, but managed to continue: "Go now on your journey, because finally, finally…you are FREE!"

    Rachel's courage, eloquence and resolve in the face of the cruellest fate imaginable – her only son fallen among Islamist barbarians whose charter commits them to the extermination of the Jews – has been both astounding and humbling. If Rachel Goldberg-Polin is Joan of Arc, David Lammy is a child playing with a box of matches.

    The Foreign Secretary badly underestimated the repugnance which his disrespect to a sorrowing Israel would provoke. Foreign minister Israel Katz left him in no doubt. "This step sends a very problematic message to the Hamas terrorist organisation and its backers in Iran," Katz said. "Israel is disappointed by the British Government's recent series of decisions… Israel is a law-abiding state that operates in accordance with international law… we expect friendly countries, such as the UK, to recognise this… especially just days after Hamas terrorists executed six Israeli hostages, and in light of recent threats by the Iranian regime to attack the State of Israel."

    Lammy even managed to earn himself a stinging rebuke from the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis who has shown heroic reserves of patience with Sir Keir Starmer and his insistence that anti-Semitism has been purged from the Labour Party. (Don't think for a moment the Prime Minister didn't approve the decision to suspend those arms exports. It has emotionally-constipated robot written all over it.)

    "Israel faces down the threat of Iran and its proxies not just to its own people, but to all of us in the democratic West," tweeted the Chief Rabbi. "Britain and Israel have so much to gain by standing together against our common enemies for the sake of a safer world."

    Millions of us would agree with that sentiment. We know we owe Israel a huge debt of gratitude for sacrificing her people to hold the line against the erasure of our civilisation which, despite its problems, we still prefer to any other. It shouldn't be complicated. Either you stand against a regime which arrests and kills young women who refuse to cover their hair and hangs men from cranes for being gay, or you give comfort to the devil.

    It has only become complicated in this country since we had MPs who parrot the propaganda of a proscribed terrorist organisation. Too many now regard our "common enemies" as friends. I feel sick knowing there are men in our Parliament who think the fiends who abducted sweet Hersh and the others have a point. Every week, we see further disturbing evidence that there is a parallel society within the UK which abides by different civilisational norms to our own – most recently a man convicted for beating up three young women at a petrol station who dared to wear make-up and not dress in "conservative" fashion. Dismayingly, the Labour Government has just shown a willingness to promote the interests of that parallel society over and above the one we know and trust. So we end up with a nonsensical, two-tier foreign policy.

    What can be done? In a hugely impressive speech on Monday, launching her campaign to become Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch said: "When everyone was talking about the five new MPs from Reform, I was far, far more worried about the five new MPs elected on the back of sectarian Islamist politics – alien ideas that have no place here. That's the sort of politics we need to defeat – and defeat quickly." Identity politics, political laws, according to Badenoch, are "used by Left-wingers to protect certain groups above others". Yes, and those groups don't include Jews.

    I am travelling to Israel very soon. I am steeling myself to meet the remarkable person whose job it was to prepare the bodies of the women murdered on October 7 for burial, who bore witness to the diabolical sexual violence the women and girls endured at the hands of Hamas and who restored to them some dignity, some final tenderness. I could cry thinking about it. The whole world should be crying.

    I will apologise to every Israeli I meet for the tawdry betrayal by the British Government. I will explain that Israel is still our valued ally, an oasis of democracy in a desert of tyranny, our Foreign Secretary is a grandstanding halfwit and Labour is just trying to appease groups with whom most decent people disagree. I will say that and I will hope, actually I will pray, that it's true.

    Am Yisrael Chai.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/03/labours-israel-arms-ban-is-a-betrayal-of-a-heroic-ally

    2. I couldn't read all of this in the DT, and I can't now. Nor can I find the words to say how I feel, not that that matters in view of the grief and misery that is visited upon Israel yet again. Am Yisrael Chai.

    3. Lammy, an overpromoted chump whose arrogance is in inverse proportion to his intelligence

      Lammy to a tee.

      1. Whatever the question, the answer must be Lammy…or possibly not Lammy..or possibly the Queen, or 1984…or….

    4. It’s come to a pretty pass when Saudi Arabia does more to protect Israel. Donald Trump can take much of the credit for that of course.

      1. Yet another reason why he is demonised by those that seem to believe that they can control the universe

    5. Lammy is a fraudulent nothing man ..he is only 52 years old ..

      An imposter living in a role way beyond his paygrade .

      We are being duped!

      Lammy married the artist Nicola Green in 2005;[6] the couple have two sons and a daughter.[116][117]

      Lammy is a Christian.[118][119]

      He is a Tottenham Hotspur F.C. fan.[120]

      He holds dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and Guyana.[1][119][121][122] His great-grandmother was Indian, from Calcutta, who moved to Guyana as a labourer as part of the Indian indenture system.[123][124]

      Lammy features as one of the 100 Great Black Britons on both the 2003 and 2020 lists.[125][126] He has regularly been included in the Powerlist as one of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent, including the most recent editions published in 2020 and 2021.[127]

      In November 2011, he published a book, Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots, about the 2011 England riots.[128] In 2020, he published his second book, Tribes, which explored social division and the need for belonging.[129]

      Lammy was a stand-in presenter on LBC and hosted a weekly Sunday show, from 10 am to 1 pm, between 2022 and April 2024.[130]

      During the 2019–2024 parliament, Lammy received the highest income on top of his MP's salary among Labour Party MPs.[131]

    6. Does Lammy have the authority to block those licences? Given the seriousness of the situation i would think it deserved a vote in Parliament.

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      The real reason Keir Starmer keeps forgetting he’s prime minister
      Comments Share 4 September 2024, 5:44pm
      When Sir Keir Starmer faced off against Rishi Sunak at the despatch box today, in the first Prime Minister’s Questions after the parliamentary recess, he seemed to be rather unsure what his role was. Over the course of their exchanges, the ostensible leader of the country referred to his opposite number not once, not twice, but five times as ‘the prime minister’.

      It was bad enough when Starmer made this mistake back in July, though after four years in opposition and just weeks into the new role, we might perhaps understand it having become a habit. But to do it again? After he’s been in office for two months, attended a Nato Summit, given numerous grim-faced Downing Street speeches and announced a raft of nannying laws? For Sir Keir to forget who’s running the country a second time is a ridiculous error. One can imagine Starmer squinting down at his briefing cards ahead of the next PMQs: ‘Note to self: YOU are the one in charge – not Rishi Sunak, not Sue Gray, not the OBR, not “international law”.’

      But in light of his poor performance at today’s PMQs, where he appeared unwilling to take responsibility for any of the government’s actions, it seems perhaps this gaffe is worse than just a slip of the tongue. It came as Rishi Sunak pressed Starmer on his government’s decision to suspend 30 out of 350 of Britain’s arms export licenses to Israel. Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the suspension on Monday, saying that there is a ‘clear risk’ that the equipment in question could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. It’s a move that gives credence to the claim that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, which will no doubt please Hamas. The Chief Rabbi has said it ‘beggars belief’.

      The Conservative government was generally a strong supporter of Israel in its war against Hamas, and Sunak’s question was the obvious one: how would this decision help to secure the release of the 101 hostages still being held by the terrorist group?

      Starmer was apparently unable to speak about the effects of this decision, and could only answer in legalese. ‘The legal framework is clear’, he insisted, explaining that his government ‘arrived at this decision’ after consulting the relevant ‘guidance’. He maintained, strangely, that the suspension of licenses to Israel was ‘not an Israel issue’, it was in fact ‘a legal decision, not a policy decision’.

      Of course, we know this would suit the former prosecutor very well, since it would appear to absolve him of any political responsibility. But the fact is that this was a decision made by his government and he bears responsibility for it. As Sunak pointed out, the fact that it was made on the day of the funeral of Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas understandably stings.

      It’s also a decision with geopolitical consequences. Starmer’s bleating about international law has not stopped Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu from blasting this decision as ‘shameful’. Nor has the suspension gone down well in Washington: the White House has pointedly not followed suit, with US sources reportedly saying they felt ‘let down’. Starmer apparently doesn’t have the wherewithal to understand that on the grand stage of international geopolitics, his arcane, lawyerly appeals to ‘guidelines’ and ‘frameworks’ simply do not carry weight.

      Some may agree with this decision, some may not. But whatever you think of it, or wherever you stand on the Israel-Gaza question, it’s a mark of Starmer’s weakness as a politician that he thinks it’s right to subordinate an important foreign-policy decision to legal proceduralism. Surely our stance towards Israel should be determined by our national interest, and Starmer should be able to justify it in such terms?

      As it is, the prime minister risks giving the impression that his foreign policy is being determined by whatever some mandarin happens to have drawn up years ago. It also means he can claim little credit for this move – how could he, when it is merely a ‘legal decision’? – though it will not stop him receiving plenty of blame.

      Indeed, whatever Starmer’s claimed rationale, many will connect this decision with the fact that in the year since 7 October, an increasingly strident pro-Gaza vote has been breathing down Labour’s neck. At the last election, Jonathan Ashworth was just one of several prominent Labour casualties to the grim emergence of sectarianism in British politics – a problem Labour is naturally anxious to make go away. In this climate, the attack lines are writing themselves: Labour has jeopardised our relationship with our closest ally, the US, in favour of its own special relationship with the ‘Muslim community’.

      With his approval tumbling as parliament resumes, Keir Starmer’s political honeymoon is clearly over. But the former prosecutor still seems to be working out that as prime minister, the buck stops with him. That he, not the Tories, is now responsible for the government’s decisions. Making decisions – and defending them – is about more than just robotically following rules and coming to a ‘legal conclusion’.

      If Keir Starmer continues to refer to his opposite number as ‘prime minister’, perhaps that’s because that’s because, deep down, he wishes he still was.

    1. I once tried to find out, Belle, about how widespread halal meat is in the UK. I couldn't. It wasn't marked as such in any supermarket, or for school dinners etc, so the assumption was that most was halal. Possibly independent butchers may know, especially restaurant suppliers. If any reader here knows, please say?

      1. I know when I was at university doing my fine art degree (graduated in 2008), the chicken sandwiches in the canteen were labelled halal. I took my own food.

          3. My prints were anything but small 🙂 Not very good, either. Frankly, it was a waste of time. I wanted to improve my sketching, drawing and painting, but I got virtually no tuition in that – we had to organise our own life drawing in a lunchtime! – in fact, I felt all three skills deteriorated. All they wanted was installations (the whackier the better) and performance art. Still, being a student for three years did reduce my council tax bill 🙂

          4. I was never much good at anything academic, spent too much time in artroom. Teacher used to get a bit exasperated, I think he thought I should be doing more classical stuff whereas I wanted to do what I wanted to do. Ornery just about sums me up. One thing I’ve never done is life drawing – not nudes anyway, keep meaning to sign up…always something else on the old board. I started full time work age 15, never been a student – good it reduced your council tax bill, shame that didn’t continue, really shocking amounts now 🙁 (btw, large prints sound fab)

          5. I am definitely an academic. I also did a life drawing class locally – someone put it on for a few weeks – and when I was doing my foundation art course. It’s quite a challenge and frustrating sometimes. Students don’t count for council tax purposes so if there are two of you in the household and one’s a student, you are treated as if there is single occupancy. Now, there is only one so even being a student again wouldn’t be much help.

      2. My local butcher and I had a long discussion a few years ago regarding the supply of halal meat in supermarkets, all supermarkets.
        He stated quite clearly that to avoid halal meat you needed to purchase from independent butchers.
        As I was a regular customer of his shop I supposed he was not trying to drum up trade by such a statement, I was buying his produce anyway.

        I don’t suppose for a minute the situation has changed to any great degree, and the sad fact is that the great majority of supermarket customers would not, does not care.
        Why would supermarkets want to change their supply chains with that being the case.

          1. Good morning. Welsh and Scottish lamb is expensive by comparison but the flavour is beyond compare.

          2. Lakes quite good too. UK lamb generally always a lot more expensive than NZ lamb which is usually frozen.

  117. Well, chums, it's now time for bed. Good night, sleep well, and I hope you all awake refreshed. I am off to London for the day tomorrow, so may not post again until Friday.

  119. Evening, all. Late on parade tonight because I've been out at a meeting.

    Labour is a failure on legs, frankly.

    1. Taking to drink is probably the only solution, or leaving the country. I have 2 fridges to cope with demand!

      1. I'm a bit too old now to start life as an exile. Besides, where would I go? I must admit to owning a fair stock of wine 🙂

  123. interesting comment in the piece on Grenfell in the PressReader version of the Terriblegraph. I hadn’t thought of it from this perspective but I think he may have a point:

    “It is those who have imposed high energy prices on us , who are the real criminals here. They created the building cladding industry. In an attempt to make buildings built at a time of low heating costs , viable enough to live in. That is the issue here.”

Comments are closed.