Monday 9 September: Starmer’s justification for the winter fuel cut doesn’t stand up to scrutiny

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

448 thoughts on “Monday 9 September: Starmer’s justification for the winter fuel cut doesn’t stand up to scrutiny”

  1. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff for today's new NoTTLe site. First!

    Wordle 1,178 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    🟨🟩⬜🟩🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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

    New World-wide security levels.

    We Brits. are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised our security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Brits have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great plague of 1666.
    The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability. It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert.
    Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing". Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."
    The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs". They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."
    Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.
    The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
    Americans meanwhile are carrying out pre-emptive strikes, on all of their allies, just in case.
    New Zealand has also raised its security levels from "baaa" to "BAAAA!". Due to continuing defence cutbacks. New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is 'Croikey, I hope Austrulia will come end rescue us.' In the event of invasion, New Zealanders will be asked to gather together in a strategic defensive position called "Bondi". The Maori HAKA, is also being reviewed to intensify its scaring ability
    Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be right, mate." Three more escalation levels remain, "Crikey!"; "I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend" and "The barbie is cancelled." There has never been a situation that has warranted the use of the final escalation level.

  5. Starmer’s justification for the winter fuel cut doesn’t stand up to scrutiny

    I see Starmer is behaving like all far left totalitarian extremists, keep the train drivers sweet.
    Send the elderly to virtual Siberia

    1. With tens of billions handed to the companies owning unreliables to produce intermittent, inefficient energy and lumbering the tax payer with those subsidy, the cost of backup, the grid upgrades as well as the bill to mitigate those costs on lower income households (see the state causing the problem and then inventing the wrong solution, adding to the cost) energy costs are only going to soar upward.

      It is so simple to reverse it, but big fat state is making a lot of money out of it. Look at the 'Climate change committee' – they're all demanding the unreliables get given more money while troughing away as directors of those companies. It's plain, simple corruption.

    2. When the Estonian prisons are full, then perhaps TTK will do a deal with Putin for long term leases for the gulags, for all who disagree with him.

  6. Disappointed..

    Disappointed that 2TK & Ireland's govt are letting a golden opportunity to hasten societal collapse slip them by.
    Why should USA bag all the best irregular engineers?

    "Can't Take It Anymore": Residents Of Springfield Ohio Beg For Help After 20,000 Haitians Overwhelm City, Eating Pets and Wildlife.

    Local resident posted to a Facebook group that their neighbor had a cat go missing – only to see it "hanging from a branch, like you'd do a deer for butchering, & they [the Haitians] were carving it up to eat."
    "Haitians are in the park grabbing ducks, cutting the heads off, and eating them."

  7. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/08/sir-keir-starmer-labour-unpopular-over-winter-fuel-cut/

    The Winter fuel payments were to offset the horrific price of energy. Energy made expensive by the 'climate change' act forced in by Mililoaf.

    The state has caused it's own problem and invented a solution – same as it created zero hours contracts to get around the unemployment created by the minimum wage.

    It will now set about a raft of tax hikes – all of which will – because Labour don't understand economics and certainly don't understand human behaviour – cause middle income spending to collapse, destroying lower paid jobs.

    If Labour compound this with scrapping zero hours contracts – in the false conceit that they're protecting lower earners – they will destroy hiring of those people, especially those whose lives it suited, such as folk with children, carers, those in education but wanting to work.

    Labour (and the failed Tories before them) refused to accept that what people need is flexibility in the workforce and low taxes to let those workers keep more of what they want, low costs of energy, fuel and food so their money goes further and less competition for resources so they can change jobs more easily.

    But government keeps creating the problems then creating solutions that don't solve the original problem (because it is ideoloigcally attached to it) but cause others. It's a malicious plumber that having found a leak caused by his negligence is now desperately trying to cover the other leaks and rather than turning the water off keeps bodging away and wrecking the house.

    1. It is the lawyers' version of polypharmacy.
      Keep adding another pill to the total to counteract the harm done by the previous drug. And the top it with another pill because the new pill causes other complications ….

    2. Probably in the 1930s, Buckminster Fuller linked economic growth to increases in the supply of energy.

  8. Idris Elba to work with Home Secretary to stop knives ending up in the hands of young people. 9 September 2024.

    Idris Elba will work with the Government to stop knives ending up in the hands of young people.

    Commander Stephen Clayman, the national policing lead for knife crime, will carry out an urgent review of “gaps in legislation” as part of a new initiative being launched on Monday.

    Elba, the Hollywood actor and campaigner, will join Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street to promote a coalition of organisations coming together to stop young people being dragged into violent gangs.

    This is of course absolute nonsense. It is the denial of reality. Are we to give up carving knives and tear the joint to pieces with our hands and teeth?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/09/idris-elba-home-secretary-knife-stabbing-gangs-campaign/

    2. End gimmigration.
      End welfare – especially child benefit.
      Restore married couples tax relief.
      Stop pandering to blacks
      Stop accepting knife crime as normal.
      Heavily profile police stop and search
      Harsher penalties for drugs and knife crime for blacks.

      Do that and the problem will stop.

      3. You liberal lefties are part of the problem. Simple to stop 90% of the bad behaviour listed above, but that would expose the elitists.

    3. Yes. But there will be no joint, just baked cabbage (if you're lucky).
      BTW, when every kid is tooled up with a knife, the next step is to be tooled up with a gun.

  9. Good morning, all. Welcome rain overnight, overcast this morning.

    Courtesy of WD's X account.

    https://x.com/wdunlap/status/1832826819533533526
    A similar problem here in the UK.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bd33494990062a9ca3b6ed67d4a428703ea795e795812851855a94791247d07.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/407434312a15d6448a9bbdf15e10bcfadb6d97f1a2cdf46735b899498c65811a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e32318599794809660c287a6e73179b0ea29e4b0832755931c422204f01800ee.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d226713a16e294bd32c7ff1b03691d16cbaf1c390acf552fd4df05f839c5dc0.png

    Finally, a thing of beauty. It's not all bad and things would improve immeasurably if the politicians would pack up their tents and piss off to somewhere they could impose their nonsense only on themselves.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad4740c7d16a28563b7165e67793ba7c4240a6516fdb14dfedbbfe13c1936513.png

    1. The Left cannot tolerate dissent because that exposes how daft their ideology is. This is why they play the man, not the ball. They have to attack the source – to keep the label 'the far right' in the mind rather than the message – because they've no defence against the message.

      It is sad. This country is heading toward the 1984 dystopia combined with Idiocracy when, for a small number of simple changes it could completely volte face and be infinitely better.

      1. Talking about dissent- a message to residents of west Kent:

        Fordcombe Hospital has been an outstanding private hospital for many years.

        It has now been purchased by the NHS.

        NHS management have now announced that all Fordcombe staff will have to be sent on courses to " learn to do

        things the NHS way".

        Oh dear!

      2. Talking about dissent- a message to residents of west Kent:

        Fordcombe Hospital has been an outstanding private hospital for many years.

        It has now been purchased by the NHS.

        NHS management have now announced that all Fordcombe staff will have to be sent on courses to " learn to do

        things the NHS way".

  10. 392752+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The quicker many of us wise up to the fact it was never meant to
    and

    The quicker many of us wise up to the fact it is well past time we, in a very strong manner STATE we as the indigenous peoples of these Isles are no longer to be used as targets for foreign invaders, and our children as playthings for foreign paedophiles.

    The political overseers for the last few decades, are certainly NOT from decent English saxon stock, more like power crazy,carpetbagging looters,scammers of the highest
    WEF / NWO order.

    Monday 9 September: Starmer’s justification for the winter fuel cut doesn’t stand up to scrutiny

  11. Good morning all,

    Cloudy overhead McPhee Castle, wind North-West, 11℃ to 17℃ later.

    Well now, what a surprise (not).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f40ec21afa61dcaeac350f0f31159086b57a9e136a9b8978674a8c70a1cd597.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/diet/nutrition/dangers-of-veganism/

    Yet at the same time, accumulating studies are suggesting that the metabolic benefits of going vegan are accompanied by a plethora of health risks stemming from the diet’s inherent restrictions which involves avoiding all animal products including meat, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, and honey. The emerging concerns range from a heightened risk of diseases relating to the skeletal and nervous systems, to conditions such as haemorrhagic stroke.

    “We’re basically not designed to be vegans,” says Dr Geoff Mullan, a functional medicine practitioner. “There’s some big macronutrients and micronutrients missing if you’re just eating a vegan diet. You can get plenty of proteins on a vegan diet, but there is a concern that you’re not getting enough of the right type of protein. Plant-based proteins are not the same as animal-based proteins or dairy, and our body doesn’t process them in the same way.”

    I bet insect protein is no good too.

    2. I've seen vegetablists take horrificnumbers of supplements to make up for dietary deficiency. It's odd that they insist their lifestyle is healthier.

      What I do take exception to is forcing their attitudes on their pets. One look at an animals mouth will tell you what type of food they should eat.

    3. People will regret not eating good meat. Are they happy taking B2 injections every month. derived from meat.

  13. Good morning all.
    Another dull, wet start. Light rain with 9°C on the Yard Thermometer.

  14. Good Morning all, after the recent three day summer, yesterday was dismal and cloudy but today is quieter with less cloud. Autumnal is the word.

    1. Same here in South Norway. Spectacular thunderstorm around 23:00 yesterday, banging, crashing and flashing, plus hooshing with rain. Weather forecast has a frost within a few days.
      Sigh

  15. Good Moaning.
    Apologies for downbeat start to the week, but all governments have been in cahoots over this development; including the reason why these human battery units were built in the first place.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/blairs-government-cant-escape-blame-for-the-grenfell-disaster/

    "Blair’s government can’t escape blame for the Grenfell disaster

    Peter Apps7 September 2024, 12:17pm

    ‘This is a difficult thing to say, but it’s the honest truth – however good your system is and however well-intentioned it is, and however hard people work, they’re going to make mistakes.’

    So said former prime minister Tony Blair on Sky News on Thursday – in response to being asked whether the Grenfell Tower fire represented ‘a failure of leadership’ by government.

    It’s possible that Blair – who spends his time these days trotting around the world representing his modestly named ‘Tony Blair Institute for Global Change’ – doesn’t really know much about what caused the Grenfell Tower fire and what the landmark report into it revealed on Wednesday.

    But if that is the case, he might have been better advised to avoid the question than to give a statement which is so categorically wrong.

    Grenfell was not a result of mistakes within a good system. It was a result of a failed system, easily gamed by those acting out of dishonesty and greed and not robust enough to prevent straightforward incompetence.

    And this was a system which Blair’s governments had more than a small hand in creating.

    In fact, it was Blair’s government to whom the most direct warning about the looming danger of a cladding fire was delivered in 1999, and Blair’s government which disastrously failed to act.

    A Select Committee of MPs investigating two earlier cladding fires had discovered a problem: fires were spreading via combustible plastic on the walls of the buildings and threatening residents in flats beyond the one where the fire started.

    The committee had received worrying evidence from experts that the official standard in government guidance permitted the use of some of these materials.

    This needed to be addressed, the MPs said, before a catastrophe. ‘We do not believe that it should take a serious fire in which many people are killed before all reasonable steps are taken towards minimising the risks,’ they said.

    And so they recommended a change to the regulations to ban all combustible cladding materials, unless a system had passed a large-scale test. And they recommended checks on existing buildings and further monitoring and risk assessment of any cladding systems to be installed in the future.

    But Blair’s ministers did not do this. The ‘large-scale testing route’ was implemented, but the worryingly low basic standard was left where it was. This was arguably the birth of the messy, deranged free-for-all we had before Grenfell.

    Not only that, the further recommendation of checks on existing systems was booted out entirely. The government felt it was not right to exert this kind of control over landlords, so it advised them to check their buildings, but did not force them to do so.

    It’s hard to overstate the importance of this missed chance. In 1999, when this warning was issued, cladding was still new technology. Almost all of the thousands of buildings with cladding on, which are currently causing misery for residents around the country (not to mention billions of public money to repair), had not yet been installed.

    Blair’s government was on duty when this chance was missed.

    This was directly singled out in the inquiry report in its very first paragraph on the failings of government, and described as a ‘failure’.

    At a similar time, the UK was supposed to be aligning its building standards with Europe and introducing the ‘CE’ marking – which provides additional assurance that something meets relevant safety standards. The government was warned in the early 2000s that we would become Europe’s ‘dumping ground’ for combustible materials if this wasn’t done.

    But it wasn’t. Why not? Wednesday’s report didn’t reach a conclusion, but the evidence suggests that cladding manufacturers didn’t want the CE standard because they then wouldn’t be able to sell their combustible products anymore.

    Foam insulation lobbyists had – for example – warned some of their products would be ‘prevented from continuing’ on the market if the new standards were implemented and said the move to European standards therefore ‘should not happen’.

    It didn’t. In fact, the UK government only announced it was implementing CE marking for construction products last Monday.

    Many of the products that would have been ‘prevented from continuing’ if this change had been made under Blair are now being stripped from the walls of our high rises.

    It still does not stop there. In 2001, Blair’s government paid for a series of tests on popular cladding products – a result of the changes recommended by the Select Committee.

    One of the materials tested was later used on Grenfell. It failed so drastically it nearly set the test lab on fire and the test had to be halted for the safety of those present. Officials were warned this product could be used under the current regulations. They did nothing to toughen the rules. Instead, this testing – according to Wednesday’s report – was ‘shelved and entirely forgotten’.

    There is more. Which government introduced the lax system of fire risk assessment where anyone with a clipboard could sell their services to assess a high-rise building? Blair’s.

    Which government fragmented the fire service and abolished the training college that previously provided a consistent level of professional performance? Blair’s.

    With all this in mind, you might think the leader of this government would be rather conciliatory in his comments about the fire and report – which marks another damaging blot on his legacy.

    The honest truth – to use Blair’s own words – is that a deregulatory government in the 1980s set the scene for Grenfell, and a deregulatory government in the 2010s missed the last chances to stop the fire from happening. But the government Blair led continued and supported this system, and missed pivotal chances of its own to put things right.

    This was not a good system let down by human error. It was a bad system which utterly failed its citizens. If Blair wants to speak about Grenfell, the first thing he should do is apologise."

    1. BTL Comment:-
      Am I the only one getting irritated by claims that the insulation CAUSED the fire?
      No it did not. The cause was, allegedly, a faulty refrigerator that caught fire which then spread to the insulation.

  17. Ed Miliband considers scrapping planned nuclear plant
    Move will fuel concerns that Britain’s ambitions for industry are being scaled back
    Matt Oliver, Industry Editor
    7 September 2024 • 5:01pm

    Plans to build a large nuclear power station in Wales are at risk of being scrapped as Ed Miliband seeks to accelerate Britain’s switch to a net zero electricity grid.

    The Energy Secretary has told officials to review future nuclear plans in a move that has thrown into doubt plans for a third new gigawatt-scale plant to be built at Wylfa, in Anglesey.

    The review will also reconsider the official target, announced under Boris Johnson, to deploy at least 24 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2050, The Telegraph understands.

    It comes amid concerns that the plans set out under the Conservatives were rushed out ahead of the general election and not properly thought through.

    On Friday, Whitehall sources stressed no final decisions had been made and that Mr Miliband remained strongly supportive of expanding British nuclear capacity.

    However, the move will fuel concerns that Britain’s ambitions are being scaled back, with the Conservatives accusing him of turning his back on the industry.

    Wylfa was only confirmed in May by the previous Conservative government to follow similar projects at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, and Sizewell, in Suffolk.

    The Welsh site is capable of hosting up to four large reactors and has attracted keen interest from major international firms including US-based Westinghouse and South Korea’s Kepco.

    It is understood that ministers remain committed to making a final investment decision on the £20bn Sizewell C power plant before the end of this year, as well as to the programme to develop the first mini nuclear power stations known as small modular reactors (SMRs).

    But sources said that the Government’s future commitments were being reviewed in the round as part of wider plans to transition to a net zero energy system.

    Possible revisions could still include building multiple SMRs at Wylfa instead of a large power station. Another large plant could still also be built elsewhere.

    Great British Nuclear (GBN), the government agency tasked with preparing nuclear sites, is carrying out the review for Mr Miliband and is said to favour building SMRs at Wylfa because officials believe they could be built and switched on more quickly, by the mid-2030s. They are also considering which option provides the best value for money.

    Because preparatory work on any large plant would need to begin soon, Whitehall sources said the question of what to do at Wylfa must be resolved as part of the upcoming Easter spending review, which will see departments agree multi-year settlements with the Treasury.

    GBN acquired both the Wylfa site and another in Oldbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, in a £160m deal in March. Both sites are seen as good options for the first generation of SMRs.

    A government spokesman said: “No decisions have yet been taken on the projects and technologies to be deployed at sites and any decision will be made in due course.”

    However, the revelation that ministers may scrap plans for a large plant at Wylfa – seen as one of the most promising undeveloped nuclear sites in Europe – will raise fresh concerns that Britain’s promised “nuclear renaissance” is being scaled back.

    Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, said: “Ed Miliband is shutting down the North Sea and now it seems he’s turning his back on nuclear.

    “You cannot have an energy system based on wind and sun alone.

    “This is total economic insanity. All it will mean is more imports from abroad and higher bills.”

    Industry insiders also warned that basing plans for future expansion after Sizewell on SMRs alone could be risky, with the technology still unproven commercially. This contrasts with existing, proven large reactor technologies.

    Talks about the future of Wylfa come as GBN prepares for the final stages of the UK’s SMR design competition. The current shortlist of five companies – Rolls-Royce, GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse, Holtec and NuScale – is expected to be reduced to four later this month.

    The remaining bidders will be asked to produce best final offers for developing SMRs before GBN selects two preferred candidates, either late this year or in early 2025. It will then negotiate contracts and award them sites.

    Each winner will be asked to build about four SMRs, or roughly 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, a person briefed on the process said.

    On Friday, a spokesman for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We are reversing a legacy of no new nuclear power being delivered, working at pace towards a final investment decision on Sizewell C and currently evaluating bids for Great British Nuclear’s small modular reactor technology tenders.

    “New nuclear power stations such as Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C will play an important role in helping the UK achieve clean power while creating thousands of skilled jobs and supporting our energy independence beyond 2030.”

    1. Design & testing for Hinkley C was started when I was still working in National Power, as I worked for a couple of years on the safety case. That was 1988-1990, when I moved to oil & gas. It still hasn't generated a single kW for transmission on the grid. That's 24+ years ago… "play an important role", my arse.

      1. Yo Ol

        Back to skule, boy: It is Thirty Four years.

        PS sums are not involved in your work are they?

      1. Let's face the facts, probably most people in politics should be locked in individual 6ft square cells. Think of the money we would save. They could never earn a living in the real world.

    3. Just another one of the useless political idiots.
      Everything they come into contact with………

    6. “The current shortlist of five companies – Rolls-Royce, GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse, Holtec and NuScale”. As far as I can see, the only one of the five companies that is British is Rolls-Royce. If I am correct, this exemplifies why our position in the world has been so damaged over the past few decades. We can expect no favours from foreign companies, nor should we, but we should expect preferential treatment by a British government for British companies providing an essential service to Britain.

        1. Oh, thanks from for that. I used to live very near Baltimore and a large Westinghouse factory was just down the road. I assumed that it was American but perhaps there was a UK company of the same name.

          1. Westinghouse was an American Company that opened a subsidiary in Britain to manufacture brake equipment for the railways that went on to become an independent wholly British owned company, so effectively there were two Westinghouses.

    4. I thought it was the 9th today. 🤔
      Have a lovely birthday Conners all best wishes to you. 🤗🥂🍾🍻cheers.

      1. Right day for Connors – date corrected. You can undown vote me!

        I'm clearly getting past it – would you like to take over the birthday list?

        1. Morning 😊
          I’ve never knowingly down voted any one and I’m not starting now Richard, anyone can make a mistake.
          Sorry you feel like that, please don’t take offence.
          I’ve never taken offence when other Nottlers have often picked me up for and at the time un-noticed errors.
          Please keep the birthday list going because it involves all of us.
          Many thanks. 😊

          2. Morning Ellie.

            I quite often hit the wrong button on my phone they key board is very small the down vote was a mistake as I said. Now rectified.

          3. Thank you for removing the down vote!

            Caroline was sure that it must have been a mistake – no offence taken!

            Who was that woman loosely connected with agriculture who made a point of down voting everybody. I was one of her main targets. She has left the forum but I think she had MHI. (Mental Health Issues)

          4. JenniferSP. The slightest disagreement with what she said and she had a massive abusive hissy fit. Geoff banned her.

          5. I liked her spirit. She seemed to be from Scotland, lived near the Welsh Marches and specialised in agricultural compliance, but her delight was using her keyboard as a sawn off. My supposition is that she needed a Phizzee in her life, who could have turned her crab apples into jelly.

    11. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, Connors! Hope you have a wonderful day and Kadi is good to you!🥂🎂🍷💕

    14. Happy Birthday dear Conway! Belting it out from the rooftops of a deliciously springlike Buenos Aires x

    1. How long before it will considered misinformation and criminal to state an opinion that Net Zero is a complete scam, there is no man-made global warming and that carbon dioxide is both necessary and beneficial to the environment?

    2. The replication of a 'Solar Farm' – as in your Canadian photo, KtK – would have a ruinous effect on farms, farming communities, rural villages – and all related infrastructures – in Nottinghamshire and elsewhere.

      By invoking 'National Infrastructure Planning', Millipede can overrule all local objections to this and other giant developments at a stroke. The list is long.

      This amounts to a catastrophic shutdown of democracy in England's Green and Pleasant land – and an economic catastrophe.

    3. The replication of 'Solar Farms' as illustrated would have a catastrophic effect on farms, farming communities, rural villages and all related infrastructures. By invoking 'National Infrastructure Planning', Milipede can overrule all local objections at a stroke

  22. As a National Trust member, I am disappointed that it is attempting to promote veganism

    Woke up, Sir!!!

    We left the NT years ago, because ot their attitude

  23. Morning all 🙂😊
    Very windy again hopefully blowing the grey clouds away.
    I doubt if anything Starmer and his seemingly dodgy attitude cabinet and their obvious disrespect towards the general public especially the elderly will ever stand up to justification.
    It seems as the previous mob in Parliament did, they are missing the most obvious point that is causing the 'black hole' in the economy. Boat invaders living off the British taxpayers. 10 million pounds each day I read around six months ago. And as the invasion continues more every day of the week.

    1. It's grey here as usual this year but we escaped the forecast downpours yesterday and had a good day at our last outdoor event of the season. Did you see my horsey pics on Fb? They made my day.

  25. 392752+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    IS "racism" the burka of many a sin, to be applied and active in 5he Great Ormond Street childrens hospital inquiry or will FREE SPEECH be given free reign.

  26. DT letters, same old .

    How ever , the comments are interesting .

    FB

    Farley Byzantine
    15 min ago
    Two tier policing, two tier sentencing – why is anyone surprised by the Government's two tier spending plans?
    £11.6 billion allocated to international climate finance while saving £1.5bn by scrapping winter fuel allowances for 10 million pensioners.
    There must be something seriously wrong with any Government which prioritises supporting foreign nationals over some of its most vulnerable citizens.

    Reply by Mark Huckstep.

    MH

    Mark Huckstep
    3 min ago
    Agree.

  28. Good King Wences'las looked out, on the Feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even; Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel, When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

    "Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling, Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?" "Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain; Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."

    "Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither: Thou and I shall see him dine, when we bear them thither." Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together; Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.

    "Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger; Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer." "Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

    In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted; Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed. Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing, Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Wenceslas

      1. Well, there will be no good King Wenceslas around to remind us that the giving spirit of Christmas should not happen just on that day.

        Unless the Starmer creature does a Uturn of course .

        1. The hard and far left are too busy running in circles TB.
          And Wrecking the lives of those who didn't vote for them.

        2. I believe that prior to the feast of St Stephen the good King Wences (sic) frequently looked out but, for some unknown reason, after one last look he stopped doing so on December 26th and never did so again!

        3. I believe that prior to the feast of St Stephen the good King Wences (sic) frequently looked out but, for some unknown reason, after one last look he stopped doing so on December 26th and never did so again!

  32. More on climate change from this man:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1dc08fe6acb6509385ab5e83d556266a25a3f8f2dc54db024c4e83cdfc392635.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/176d27690a45eafcf7ce0f2129bf8369df22349c767359b59f0a9e5e1fec8a63.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/36dda63bdc51e4764871feccb7c17c1b50bec59246e535e968b143198c718dbc.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/828a61d9f93bbbc2e945d603b5a0c4d6fec59467c1e1314dbd35b4ed23b623d1.png

    Mauna Loa is the 3rd largest volcano on Earth. It's spewing carbon dioxide out at quite a rate. Does Miliband minor know about this
    or does he not want to know.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b85f35a10dd28649ea7cbfcd5bc45705e6c15fa8ef59a439ba20975461834365.png

    Looks as if we're still in the recovery stage of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8bce28ff466898dfb58008585b242996fcebb35111cad0348a4addacba6b9413.png

    1. That's a lot of charts, data & facts proving what we all know.. the climate catastrophe is a scam.

      To which the psychopathic Progressive Litards reply..
      "So what? Whatya gonna do about it? We have your children on our side.. and we're in power indefinitely."

    2. That's a lot of charts, data & facts proving what we all know.. the climate catastrophe is a scam.

      To which the psychopathic Progressive Litards reply..
      "So what? Whatya gonna do about it? We have your children on our side.. and we're in power indefinitely."

  33. 392752+ up ticks.

    Any truth in that he is willing to go "on the game" for a week and ALL proceeds to go to an elderly warming fund.

    It is thought that his gesture could run into millions on account of the number of "so far right peoples" wanting to give him a good seeing too, so to speak.

    Dt,

    Starmer could compromise on winter fuel payments, minister suggests

  34. James Cleverly is public’s choice for next Tory leader
    Shadow home secretary narrowly outperforms his four rival candidates in head-to-head polling, while Keir Starmer beats all five hopefuls.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/09/james-cleverly-publics-choice-next-tory-leader-savanta-poll/

    However bad he is the DT's editor likes to have the occasional laugh!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2741f68339a15413839ec9c31faaa429499a1e670db9207f8dc337dd93dd825.png

  35. 392752+ up ticks,

    Way to go, in point of fact , the only way to go,

    Hungary Vows One-Way Bus Tickets for Illegal Migrants to EU Capital Brussels

    3. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      We should hunt down the companies responsible for Grenfell
      Comments Share 9 September 2024, 6:00am
      I am suffering – and I hope readers will bear with me – a failure of imagination in the aftermath of the Grenfell report. Not a total failure, mind. It is all too easy to imagine how failures of regulation, of maintenance, of oversight, contributed to the Grenfell catastrophe. It’s easy to see how, here and there, and without malice, but with disastrous consequences, amid fraying budgets and overworked bureaucracies, the people and systems which should have ensured that the tenants of Grenfell Tower were safe did not. A cascading series of small failures, missed opportunities and rules honoured in the breach. That, we can all picture.

      What is nearly impossible to imagine is how, in pursuit of still more profit, the companies contracted at handsome fees to supply supposedly flame-retardant cladding draped that high tower with what might as well have been firelighters. That they did so knowingly; that they did so in defiance of regulations – simply lying about the materials they were using and cheating the safety tests; and that they laughed about it amongst themselves as they did so.

      It seems to me that this shouldn’t be a matter of jurisdictional wrangling
      The inquiry heard, for instance, that Kingspan’s employees – having got their cladding assessed as suitable for use on buildings more than 18 metres high by the simple expedient of submitting a different material for the test than they were actually selling – giggled over email: ‘LOL’; ‘We lied?’ ‘All lies mate. Alls we do is lie here’. A named executive, Philip Heath, when a contractor queried whether the material was fit for purpose, told a friend: ‘I think they are getting me confused with someone who gives a dam [sic].’

      Two other companies – Arconic and Celotex – also supplied unsafe materials; and while their executives did not apparently leave so incontinent and grotesquely goonish an email trail, the inquiry found that both companies had cheated the tests too. The former ‘deliberately and dishonestly’ misled regulators; the latter had a ‘dishonest scheme to mislead customers’. Arconic didn’t even bother to give oral evidence to the inquiry.

      Most popular
      Gavin Mortimer
      Keir Starmer is falling into the same trap as Francois Hollande

      I say ‘nearly impossible to imagine’. Still, we’re on ‘nearly’: the world is full of crooks and shysters and greedy, boastful cheats (and they seem from this to be over-represented in the commercial cladding industry). That they will have revelled in their behaviour, while suffering a failure of imagination themselves – the failure to imagine that a few years on their cheating could have cost 72 human lives – is not outside the bounds of our experience.

      Nope. What seems to me quite impossible to conceive is what Michael Gove set out in a mortifying article in yesterday’s Sunday Times: which is that not only are these three companies yet to acknowledge fault or make amends, but that Treasury pragmatism and international realpolitik is thwarting attempts to make them do so. Kingspan is based in Ireland; Arconic and Celotex in France. As Mr Gove writes, ‘I pressed the Irish government to act against Kingspan without success. From France only haughty froideur‘, while ‘efforts on my part to restrict the import of these companies’ products ran up against the commercial purism of Treasury Mandarin Brain’.

      Mr Gove says that he fears that people within Whitehall – who will, no doubt, pride themselves on their cool-headed sophistication – are likely to block the pursuit of justice under the new government:

      In Whitehall I know there will be voices opposed to robust action. Those saying these companies can be partners in combating climate change. Those arguing that we shouldn’t pick fights with EU neighbours when we want a closer commercial relationship. Those claiming that pursuing individual companies abroad will send a negative signal on foreign investment when the priority is growth.

      Cool heads and sophistication and commercial purism be damned. Are we – having supposedly asserted our sovereign identity with the Brexit vote – really so weak and abject that, for fear of rocking the boat with our neighbours, we daren’t pursue justice from people whose greed and dishonesty cost 72 British lives? Can those neighbours, come to that, be so low and venal as to wish to protect those crooks?

      It seems to me – as it apparently does to Mr Gove – that this shouldn’t be a matter of jurisdictional wrangling, ‘Treasury brain’, or so-called realpolitik of any sort. This wasn’t a regrettable misjudgement: it was deliberate and systematic dishonesty. Wherever they are quartered, these companies should be going to the wall, and the executives responsible for deliberately cheating the regulators should be going to jail. They should be pariahs in the money markets, and pariahs as far as contracts to clad so much as a garden shed from now on go.

      In the context of the 2008 financial crisis we heard a lot about the concept of ‘moral hazard’: the idea that if banks were allowed to take dangerous risks with impunity they would be incentivised to take those dangerous risks. Same argument here – with ‘moral’ in that phrase taking on a special pungency. It’s both pragmatic and the right thing to do to ensure that companies which take that sort of cynical risk with human life, and what’s more do so in direct and knowing breach of the law, suffer the very gravest consequences. I’m with Mr Gove.

      1. They should hunt down the politicians who caused it all by changing the fire regulations on inspection in this particular case Blair.

      2. 392532+ up ticks.

        Afternoon R 232,

        Good post, I really do take many of today’s actions via political
        carpetbagging, scamming channels, to be on par with
        murder WITH
        unintended / intended malice.

  36. Private schools VAT tax raid timing is ‘cruel and punitive’, says prep school chief
    In a letter to the Chancellor, Dominic Norrish said the tax in January ‘did not give parents time to act in their child’s best interests’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/09/private-schools-vat-tax-timing-cruel-prep-school-chief/

    BTL (Percival Wrattstrangler)

    But cruelty is what Starmer, Reeves and Cooper do. They have been on the Socialist Sadists' Training Course at the LSE and all passed with distinction.

    Look at the removal of OAPs' heating allowance!

    1. Not sure the OPA heating allowance removal over yet, Rastus…watch that space (the one between the ears). Good morning btw 🙂

    2. Of course, if the Climate Change Act had never been passed and U.K. was still drilling for oil and gas in our own waters, a heating allowance would not be thought necessary in the first place! And companies and industries would have vastly less expensive energy to contend with.

  37. Nothing Starmer does will stand up to real scrutiny, and he has no democratic mandate for any of it.

    On Free Speech today, you might be relieved to hear from AI expert – a real one – that That There is No AI Revolution On The Horizon. In today's main article, Finknottle bashes BBC Bias over its downright malicious reporting of the Israel-Hamas war. On the subject of Hamas, we are waxing indignant – or trying to – in Today's Gossip over the Met arresting counter-demonstrators holding ‘Hamas=Terrorist placards while doing nothing about Hamas supporters attacking them.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. Thank you Tom, heading over there after lunch…I've noticed if I search for info online, a section appears at the top labelled 'AI generated', wonder how long it before we're not told that…

  38. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X on Saturday evening that the Starship mega rocket will begin flying Mars missions in two years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. The mission will be uncrewed and aim to test the rocket's ability to land intact on Mars, as Musk's dreams of occupying the Red Planet could become a reality within the next two decades.

    1. We can supply him with a list of residents right now. All in the area of London's Westminster.

    2. Let's hope Elon's mega rocket doesn't become unscrewed. There is a reason why certain words and phrases, such as 'manned' and unmanned' are used.

  39. Well – colour me surprised!
    "An anti-corruption charity says it has identified significant concerns in contracts worth over £15.3bn awarded by the Conservative government during the Covid pandemic, equivalent to one in every £3 spent.
    Transparency International UK found 135 “high-risk” contracts with at least three red flags – warning signs of a risk of corruption.
    Twenty-eight contracts worth £4.1bn went to firms with known political connections, while 51 worth £4bn went through a "VIP lane" for companies recommended by MPs and peers, a practice the High Court ruled was unlawful.    "

    This is the BBC though [someone called Andy Verity!] so maybe a pinch of salt required?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cevj3y7n33vo

  41. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Will David Lammy apologise to Grenfell judge?
    Comments Share 9 September 2024, 6:27am
    In the fall-out from last week’s devastating report on the Grenfell report, it seems one question has not been asked of the various Labour spokesmen out on the airwaves. In a 1,700-page report that apportioned blame for the 2017 tragedy widely, retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick spared no one in his excoriating judgements. Ministers, officials and the cladding companies were all lacerated for the disaster which claimed the lives of 72 people.

    Such findings must have come as a surprise to the man who is now our Foreign Secretary, David Lammy. As Dominic Lawson notes in today’s Daily Mail, Lammy’s reaction to the appointment of this distinguished judge in July 2017 was to trash his integrity. Sir Martin Moore-Bick is an ex-grammar school boy and the son of a dairyman: hardly a scion of the establishment. But that didn’t stop Lammy from suggesting that this ‘white, upper-middle class man’ should not have been trusted with the job, declaring that:

    I think the victims will also say to themselves: when push comes to shove, there are some powerful people here – contractors, sub-contractors, local authorities, ­governments – and they look like this judge. Whose side will he be on?’

    The side of the truth, it transpires. Moore-Bick’s work of six years has been commended and accepted by all sides across the political spectrum: including from HM Government in which Lammy now serves. Yet from our Foreign Secretary there has not been a word of regret or apology to the long-serving lawyer. As Lawson says:

    This is, of course, a trivial matter compared with the corporate depravity and dishonesty laid bare by Moore-Bick’s report, and the pain of the families still seeking justice. But if the Foreign Secretary were capable of ­feeling shame, he would publicly acknowledge his own deplorable misjudgment.

    Will he now do so? Don’t hold your breath.

    1. Of course Lammy can call Sir Moore-Bick a "white, upper-class man". But anyone who dared call Lammy something as incorrect as a "black twit" who be behind bars in two seconds. Why should people of Lammy's ilk get away with postulating that there is something wrong with a judge of a white country being white?

  43. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Blair’s government can’t escape blame for the Grenfell disaster
    Comments Share 7 September 2024, 12:17pm
    ‘This is a difficult thing to say, but it’s the honest truth – however good your system is and however well-intentioned it is, and however hard people work, they’re going to make mistakes.’

    So said former prime minister Tony Blair on Sky News on Thursday – in response to being asked whether the Grenfell Tower fire represented ‘a failure of leadership’ by government.

    This was a system which Blair’s governments had more than a small hand in creating
    It’s possible that Blair – who spends his time these days trotting around the world representing his modestly named ‘Tony Blair Institute for Global Change’ – doesn’t really know much about what caused the Grenfell Tower fire and what the landmark report into it revealed on Wednesday.

    But if that is the case, he might have been better advised to avoid the question than to give a statement which is so categorically wrong.

    Grenfell was not a result of mistakes within a good system. It was a result of a failed system, easily gamed by those acting out of dishonesty and greed and not robust enough to prevent straightforward incompetence.

    And this was a system which Blair’s governments had more than a small hand in creating.

    In fact, it was Blair’s government to whom the most direct warning about the looming danger of a cladding fire was delivered in 1999, and Blair’s government which disastrously failed to act.

    A Select Committee of MPs investigating two earlier cladding fires had discovered a problem: fires were spreading via combustible plastic on the walls of the buildings and threatening residents in flats beyond the one where the fire started.

    The committee had received worrying evidence from experts that the official standard in government guidance permitted the use of some of these materials.

    Most popular
    Roger Lewis
    What prompted Vivien Leigh’s dark journey into madness?

    This needed to be addressed, the MPs said, before a catastrophe. ‘We do not believe that it should take a serious fire in which many people are killed before all reasonable steps are taken towards minimising the risks,’ they said.

    And so they recommended a change to the regulations to ban all combustible cladding materials, unless a system had passed a large-scale test. And they recommended checks on existing buildings and further monitoring and risk assessment of any cladding systems to be installed in the future.

    But Blair’s ministers did not do this. The ‘large-scale testing route’ was implemented, but the worryingly low basic standard was left where it was. This was arguably the birth of the messy, deranged free-for-all we had before Grenfell.

    Not only that, the further recommendation of checks on existing systems was booted out entirely. The government felt it was not right to exert this kind of control over landlords, so it advised them to check their buildings, but did not force them to do so.

    It’s hard to overstate the importance of this missed chance. In 1999, when this warning was issued, cladding was still new technology. Almost all of the thousands of buildings with cladding on, which are currently causing misery for residents around the country (not to mention billions of public money to repair), had not yet been installed.

    Blair’s government was on duty when this chance was missed.

    This was directly singled out in the inquiry report in its very first paragraph on the failings of government, and described as a ‘failure’.

    At a similar time, the UK was supposed to be aligning its building standards with Europe and introducing the ‘CE’ marking – which provides additional assurance that something meets relevant safety standards. The government was warned in the early 2000s that we would become Europe’s ‘dumping ground’ for combustible materials if this wasn’t done.

    But it wasn’t. Why not? Wednesday’s report didn’t reach a conclusion, but the evidence suggests that cladding manufacturers didn’t want the CE standard because they then wouldn’t be able to sell their combustible products anymore.

    Foam insulation lobbyists had – for example – warned some of their products would be ‘prevented from continuing’ on the market if the new standards were implemented and said the move to European standards therefore ‘should not happen’.

    It didn’t. In fact, the UK government only announced it was implementing CE marking for construction products last Monday.

    Many of the products that would have been ‘prevented from continuing’ if this change had been made under Blair are now being stripped from the walls of our high rises.

    It still does not stop there. In 2001, Blair’s government paid for a series of tests on popular cladding products – a result of the changes recommended by the Select Committee.

    One of the materials tested was later used on Grenfell. It failed so drastically it nearly set the test lab on fire and the test had to be halted for the safety of those present. Officials were warned this product could be used under the current regulations. They did nothing to toughen the rules. Instead, this testing – according to Wednesday’s report – was ‘shelved and entirely forgotten’.

    There is more. Which government introduced the lax system of fire risk assessment where anyone with a clipboard could sell their services to assess a high-rise building? Blair’s.

    Which government fragmented the fire service and abolished the training college that previously provided a consistent level of professional performance? Blair’s.

    With all this in mind, you might think the leader of this government would be rather conciliatory in his comments about the fire and report – which marks another damaging blot on his legacy.

    The honest truth – to use Blair’s own words – is that a deregulatory government in the 1980s set the scene for Grenfell, and a deregulatory government in the 2010s missed the last chances to stop the fire from happening. But the government Blair led continued and supported this system, and missed pivotal chances of its own to put things right.

    This was not a good system let down by human error. It was a bad system which utterly failed its citizens. If Blair wants to speak about Grenfell, the first thing he should do is apologise.

  44. Bit late but, good morning to all. I thought I would cut and paste this article from todays Telegraph because it is a very relevant topic and not everyone here has access to the newspaper.

    The Left are waging war on whiteness
    Ireland is the latest nation to pursue an ‘anti-racist’ agenda which in reality means exactly the opposite
    Tim Stanley

    reland continues to thrive on the cutting edge of insanity. Last week, the Educational Company of Ireland (Edco) was forced to pull a section of a school textbook that, in seeking to promote diversity, came close to outright racism.

    On one page, Family A: a cartoon of four, white, red-haired yokels who, we read, “have potatoes, bacon and cabbage every day”, holiday in Ireland and play Irish musical instruments. “We get told off if we mix with people of a different religion… as they would be a bad influence.”

    On the other page, Family B: pictured holidaying in Italy and, by some miracle of online dating, composed of almost every racial group under the sun. Their favourite foods are “curry, pizza and Asian”, they love “reggae and hip hop”, ski in France and volunteer in Syria (I hope Mi5 is looking into this). “Which family is the more inclusive?” asks the textbook. “Which family [would] you choose to belong to?”

    There’s Edco’s first error: you can’t choose your family. If we could, I’d be a Beckham, with Victoria’s cheekbones and David’s pecs, and never work again. But the liberal-Left are addicted to reinvention – of individuals and societies – and assume rural Ireland must be populated by inbred Leprechauns, desperate to escape. Family A has even banned their daughter from teaching yoga – one assumes this is code for “closet lesbian” – because “it is not a proper job and she must stick to what she knows.”

    Well, bravo! Family A are farmers: yoga is nice, but food production is more important, and I’d rather live in a country that is well-fed than flexible. Edco’s second mistake is to think that we’d all run a mile from Family A, yet a lot of us crave the stability and traditions they maintain.

    Family B, by contrast, are awful: self-absorbed tourists – even though they are depicted at the Colosseum, they are shown taking a photo of themselves – on a perpetual journey with no terminus. It’s the idealised face of a new Ireland where one in five people were born abroad, and where there have also been a number of anti-immigration protests.

    Irish politicians have condemned the textbook for its offensive stereotypes but, as Edco points out, its goal was to introduce children to equality legislation and to “help students understand the importance of diversity”. In short, it was following the cues sent by politicians, media and business, who have decided difference is good and homogeneity is bad. The latter translates into old ways of being – old beliefs, tastes and attributes, including whiteness itself, which is sometimes evil, other times imaginary.

    Here in the UK we are told that our history is intrinsically racist, because we once tried to own or eradicate other people. Yet universities are also dropping the phrase “Anglo-Saxon” to describe the locals because, they claim, it peddles the lie that an indigenous people exists at all. Britain is and always has been a nation of immigrants; Family B is what we’ve always looked like.

    So, here we stand. You can be Punjabi British, Jamaican British, whatever; it’s all authentic and you qualify for a parade. But the one thing you cannot be with ease, let alone official commendation, is Anglo-Saxon British, even though my people have been moaning about living here for 1,500 years (before migrating to Spain).

    Racial sensitivity is cast through a political lens. No one cared about offending Jews during the Gaza marches, and a new report suggests the BBC has consistently linked Israel to alleged war crimes. The latter is unsurprising given the horror of the war; perhaps Netanyahu does belong in the dock. What is confusing and unfair is to live in a society that places a premium on kindness towards minorities, yet disregards the feelings of Jewish Britons and parodies the Irish as bigoted paddies. Probably because they are perceived as white by many, hence not regarded by the elite as especially interesting or oppressed (this elite needs to read a history book).

    It smacks of inverted racism. We were supposed to be stumbling towards the ideal that race doesn’t matter, that the individual should be judged on their character, yet the West has returned to saying it is the most important thing of all, embedded in our culture and history so deep that white people can never escape their Original Sin. In which case, some are bound to ask, why bother trying? Anyone who approximates to Family A will conclude that the system hates them – and the tragedy is that much of their anger will be directed towards anyone who vaguely resembles Family B.

    Of course, Edco’s final mistake is to assume we must choose between the two families at all. The liberal/Left is obsessed with purging a world that died out 30-odd years ago. In the modern British isles, there are plenty of Irish farmers who have tried pizza, and blended families who delight in local custom. Britain has demonstrated that a strong, eccentric national culture is an antidote to racism, because it’s so easy to opt in to – by visiting the National Trust or collecting Spode China.

    As for globalisation, it preserves as much as it disrupts. If the world of Family B, otherwise known as London, becomes so insufferably smug that I can’t take it anymore, I can always find a Family A on AirBnB, move into their barn and swan about the area telling people it’s good to be back in “the old country”. The Irish love it when you do that.

    1. At yesterday's country show where we had a stall for the hedgehog hospital, most of the crowds there were stalwart rural people. Wellies and Barbours at the ready for whatever the weather could do. Actually, in spite of the dire forecast, the weather was grey but kind, and we only had a shower at the end while we cleared up.

      We did well on the stall, but the highlight for me were the heavy horses (pics on my Fb page) and the display by Jonathan Marshall and his Free Spirits – https://jonathanmarshallshows.com/ with the beautiful black stallion Amadeus and the peregrine falcons. He didn't mince his words either – pouring scorn on the current idiocy of brainwashing young children with trans nonsense.

      I saw very few ethnic people there – apart from the two Bangladeshis running a clothing stall next to us. They were ok but left a lot of litter when they packed up. We cleared that up after they'd gone – there was no need for it as there were large bins nearby.

      The lowlight was the state of the loos.

      1. Jonathan Marshall's show looks spectacular. The picture looks photo shopped it's so perfect. Would love to see that performance. And I trust the hedgehogs did well?

          1. The falcon was much too fast for me to take a photo! – but seeing the bird fly through the moving horse's legs was spectacular. I did find his show very emotional.

          4. They are fab, only seen on film would have loved to see her. Rumoured one seen near here a few months ago. Sparrow hawks here, they fly very fast in the wood often only a few feet above ground level – juniors are slate blue on their back. I love the buzzards wheeling and mewing in the hot summer thermal…the freedom…

          6. Agree, corri…tail the giveaway. There are rumours about them taking young lambs 🤔 more likely rabbits imo. Also robbing song bird nests, more likely crows imo. I like to see kite birds, wheeling and mewing similar weather to your lovely photo ❤👍

          7. We see kites often at great height in the sky over the former Ridgewell WWII Airfield near us. There are buzzards too in the fields and trees near Clare.

            We have Sparrow Hawks nearby. They take the small birds, the females take the larger collared doves as I have witnessed in our garden. I once found a perfect circle of Greenfinch feathers with the beak at its centre then spotted a Sparrow Hawk with its orange eye perched in our Quince.

          8. There are more great birds than previously, or so it seems. Perhaps farmers no longer put poisoned bait down, as they were rumoured to at one time? The orange eye is quite something isn’t it. Not seen greenfinches for a decade, they had clubfoot apparently caused by virus. One day, they’ll return, hope to see them again:-) Not seen a collared dove for a few years, now mostly wood pigeon.

          9. We see buzzards, and more recently, red kites. I once saw a sparrow hawk just inches away as I was hanging out the washing one day. It was by my feet.

          10. What a beautiful horse. The whole earlier clip you posted was absolutely lovely, and gives faith in what people and animals can happily do together.

        2. We did very well, thanks – busy busy most of the time – I haven't done the full count-up yet. Too busy here!

      2. Sounds great apart from loos – used to be the case if unisex, now…not so much, pity the poor cleaners.

        1. There was a gents' section but all the individual portaloos appeared to be unisex. Still, when you think of the loos at rural shows when i was young – just a row of wooden platforms with a hole in over a trench………

          2. I haven’t seen that. But we (Mum and I) used to go to horse shows and agricultural shows in the fifties and sixties and the loos were memorable.

          3. I really like horse/agricultural shows, the traffic now is horrendous which puts me off as much as the facilities and the crowds all milling round in aimless fashion. Lovely memory for you to have with Mum x

          4. I used to love watching the show jumping, but especially the trotting races – the gypsy drivers were incredibly skillful and hung out at all angles to balance the flimsy frameworks. Some of the horses were pacers and others with normal gait.

            More recently at Gatcombe a few years ago they had “scurry driving” – pairs of well-matched ponies hurtled round an obstacle course.

          5. Hear you, I was once similar until I went to Appleby Horse Fair, never again. Scurry driving sounds interesting:-)

          7. I once visited stables, thought the stable girls quite mean to horses, punching them etc. Didn’t return.

      3. That display by Jonathan Marshall looks glorious! Thank you for posting the link.

        And congratulations on more successful hedgehogging, despite the loos.

        1. The Black Stallion was phenomenal! So beautiful and graceful, and so in touch with the man and the bird, with no physical contact. I missed the first part of the display, where he was riding the horse.

  46. With regard to todays letter to the Telegraph. A few months ago I would not have been particularly bothered by the loss of the winter fuel allowance. But just within the last three months my gas/electric bill has almost tripled. A reality that I don't understand in terms of how little energy I use and the fact that there has been no change in how I use it. Evidently the money is being dolled out to useless projects that will benefit no one, let alone the elderly. So now, it does worry me that the allowance is to go by the board.

    I feel that I live on a pension that has a magical element to it. Each week it seem to shrink while I buy almost exactly the same in groceries. So I have been thinking of late that, at least, the winter allowance will be some sort of cushion this winter. But that is not to be.

    It is said that the Irish navvies that built the railroads were in such rude health because they lived off piles of potatoes. Perhaps one week out of every winter month I can start the grill outside and live off potatoes and hot water. certainly would get my weight down!

    1. What I find extremely annoying about all this after working for over 53 years, 47 in the UK. My pension per annum as a self employed person despite having extra money taken by HMRC from my income, is less than a lot of politician's take home in two weeks in their expenses packets. We own our own home with no mortgage and have savings due to investments and being careful. Therefore I don't qualify for any hand outs. In fact if I do withdraw anything from my savings that is more then the 'annual allowance'. I am taxed rather heavily on it.

      1. It reeks of Burke and Hare robbery. But that is a Socialist government for you. Robbers and thieves happy to enrich themselves on the money that others make and save.

      2. This is why the cashless society is not going to happen, it's still king and always will be unless withdrawn and printing stopped. Digitally, any government can do anything it likes to us. You sound to be in a similar position to us, work/investments wise – we're not alone, Eddy, good luck – maybe check with your tax adviser if you have one, or search online should imagine those forums quite busy thanks to 2TK and Robot Reeves.

    2. It's disgraceful, a number of activists are energised by it so possibly not quite the done deal Reeves thinks. We can imagine the uproar if CP had done it. No wonder more of us shop at Aldi (and no surprise they're expanding). My husband been Type 2 for years, many different meds, recently started Carnivore Diet – now only eats once daily, no snacks inc fruit. His med numbers all now within range. Lots of info online, if interested, or just ask…good luck, Kate

        1. Thanks 🙂 Yes he told me so, when I initially posted husband diet. Not seen Grizzly lately, I think?

          1. Did he mention a few days away? Maybe my imagination. Not that I could see when I looked at his recent posts. He last posted at the beginning of this month.

          2. Thanks for checking, Ndovu 🙂 Hope he’s having a good time if he’s away! and hope to see him again soon.

    1. Yes, I had mine tested some years ago. Result? 48% British, some Scandy, some French, rest Far East incl Russia. It's rumoured Vikings came to Britain, abducted the best looking women they could find, set sail for Iceland….

        1. Sorry johnathan, lost in the mists of covid vaccine – possibly one called 'Ancestor' or similar? Good luck, be interested in your results if you want to share? Kate

    3. I used MyHeritage. The result was 65.5% English, 34.5% Irish, Scottish and Welsh. This was a bit of a surprise to me as of my four grandparents, 2 were Irish, 1 English and 1 Scottish, so I was expecting more of an Irish heritage.

    4. I thought about doing a DNA test for family history connections with long-lost cousins etc, but never got round to it, though I had no objection to it. More recently I've decided that I'm glad I didn't as it smacks of big brother monitoring.
      I know from my research as far back as the 1500s that my family is English, with a Welsh connection from my Gt Grandfather born in Pembrokeshire. No foreigners to be found.

      1. I used My heritage. I think it is Israeli, being based there. I trust them and the last thing they'd be likely to do is hand anything over to any Brother, especially not one based in the UK I'd say. I don't think they'd hand over your data without consent.

    5. I thought about doing a DNA test for family history connections with long-lost cousins etc, but never got round to it, though I had no objection to it. More recently I've decided that I'm glad I didn't as it smacks of big brother monitoring.
      I know from my research as far back as the 1500s that my family is English, with a Welsh connection from my Gt Grandfather born in Pembrokeshire. No foreigners to be found.

    6. There have been a number of studies of the DNA of the white ancestral British. It was thought that the migrations of the post-Roman period had only a small effect on the population and that Anglo-Saxon blood counted for less than 20% of the whole, as the New Scientist article suggests, overturning the idea that they had wiped out the Ancient Britons. However, that article is almost a decade old. More recent studies are less certain.

      1. I read that we still have 30% of a very ancient people in us, I forgot the name, the “bell beaker People”??? who colonised the island soon after the end of the Ice Age. So the true English can hardly be considered as immigrants. We qualify as natives, more so than most peoples.

    7. Yes, we sent away for 23and me.

      Moh and were gabberflasted .

      Our sample was sent to America, and it took 3 months before we had our results .

      We are not naive .. we gave no clues about anything , but my goodness , mine was accurate and so was Mohs .

      Tearfully accurate ..

      Moh is more Viking than me .. shocking but true .

      My result was incredible , mother came from SW Cork .. a small village on the coast .. and there it was in black and white and more , the Spanish Armada and raiders, and my father always assumed he was Viking , and he probably was . I will find a photo to show what I have always felt!

      Moh had a shock when 3 generations ago , 1800s , his ancestor came from Northern Germany .. but I did wonder whether there was a Jewish link .. but he also had Northern Europe ancestors also .. according to the genome

      1. Who did you go with? I sent away for one and it was useless. Mostly UK (whatever that was supposed to mean) but a little bit Irish, (not N Irish I take it) with a smidgeon from "Germanic Europe". Told me very little except that I wasn't Hispanic or African. I could have told them that…

        Edit – and some viking.

      2. Who did you go with? I sent away for one and it was useless. Mostly UK (whatever that was supposed to mean) but a little bit Irish, (not N Irish I take it) with a smidgeon from "Germanic Europe". Told me very little except that I wasn't Hispanic or African. I could have told them that…

        Edit – and some viking.

        1. Belle said 23and me. Probably best if you want a breakdown of origins. Ancestry are good if you want to use it to make connections with other family historians.

          1. Ah I read Belle's post as saying she sent for [a] 23and me (which I took to be a product) rather than to 23andme (as a company). Thank you, I will look into that.

      3. Who did you go with? I sent away for one and it was useless. Mostly UK (whatever that was supposed to mean) but a little bit Irish, (not N Irish I take it) with a smidgeon from "Germanic Europe". Told me very little except that I wasn't Hispanic or African. I could have told them that…

        Edit – and some viking.

      4. I looked up recommendations and Ancestry DNA genetic test kit seems to be tops. But I’m open to suggestions.

    8. Yep, done that. I have only 100% British Isles DNA. Smallest percent Scots, then Welsh, predominantly English and Celtic / Eire.

      The missus is similar but with highest percent English. Oddly, although we think we know generally where from, with 2% Afghanistan or round that area.

      In fact I could give the name of the English village where my male line descends from. People from that village I have heard still to this day bemoan the loss of their idiot 😁

      (not joking about the actual village location though).

    9. Two of my brothers tried it and got the same result so I expect mine would be like theirs. We're 48% European Jewish, so Ashkenazim. That's from my father. Mother was a Yorkshire lass so some Scandi was to be expected and there are Celtic roots on her side too.

      1. Interesting that so many populations, cultures, religions have their own schism; in this case, the differences between Askenazim and Sephardim (or Mizrahim). Also, those who were in the UK by the late 19th century quietly look down on the early 20th century emigrants from the Russian empire.

    1. Love his stories, VALIS is a great read, and Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan. Also a fan of Elon Musk.

      1. Wasn’t Dick expelled from school for non-attendance or similar? (good for him, and us, if so) . Currently buying all my old favourites for young relative, who thankfully loves reading (as well as gaming). Next up..Ballard…

          2. Not yet !

            I don’t think they download to kindle. Download to Kobo, tablet or laptop. Though i think there might be a way to download through Amazon to kindle but i haven’t confirmed that. Not a tech head.

            There are other free archives you could search for.

            Also when i do actually buy a real book i look at Abe books first as you can often get them second hand for a couple of quid.

        2. I’m not aware of that but he was eccentric enough to do almost anything. Lived in Berkeley too, sad to say we never crossed paths although, apparently we frequented the same haunts.

          1. There are always these personal narratives, johnathan, never know if true or not, but interesting. Maybe you didn’t cross paths because you secretly are him……:-)

          3. Yes, various drugs often have that effect, unfortunately. I believe he also came from a broken home, writing perhaps some kind of release for him.

  50. Russia takes another Ukraine town as it bears down on important transport hub. 9 September 2024.

    Russia said on Sunday its forces had taken full control of a town in eastern Ukraine as they advance on the strategically important city of Pokrovsk and seek to pierce the Ukrainian defensive front lines.

    Russian forces, which control about a fifth of Ukraine since invading in February 2022, are advancing in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to take the whole of the Donbas region, which is about half the size of the US state of Ohio.

    So much for the Kursk operation. The MSM have been avoiding the obvious for over a week now with cheap propaganda. Reality has obviously bitten. Much more serious than the impending seizure of Pokrovsk is the Ukie performance. Their front has turned soft. One hesitates to forecast the end of this war,since the US that is bankrolling it,wishes it to continue as long as possible. For that reason an actual increase in the violence cannot be discounted. Even direct action through NATO.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/09/russia-takes-another-ukraine-town-importnat-transport-hub/

        1. In the absence of any facts Eddy and based upon previous convictions I personally will just assume you're correct about them.

    1. It is the wide-eyed innocence that gets me whenever it's reported that a li-on battery caught fire. Hasn't anyone been paying attention?

    2. It is the wide-eyed innocence that gets me whenever it's reported that a li-on battery caught fire. Hasn't anyone been paying attention?

    3. Is been almost 25 years since the non-inflammable and very stable CFCs for refrigeration and insulation were banned in Europe and fridges and freezers were instead filled with highly toxic and inflammable replacements.

      These domestic appliances are effectively ticking time bombs aa well the insulation products used in building cladding.
      It's only when lots of people die in a conflagration that we try and find who is culpable for the disaster.

      Fires in EVs can therefore escape being noticed until they involve many casualties in public transportation – after all the prime driver for their uptake is net zero.

  53. British families are taking up Putin's offer to escape the woke West and emigrate to Russia, with 17 applications from Scotland in ten days, Moscow media claims
    By Will Stewart and Olivia Christie

    Published: 11:28, 9 September 2024 | Updated: 12:42, 9 September 2024

    Brits have already signed up for Vladimir Putin's offer to escape the woke West and move to Russia for its traditional values, reports in the country claim

    Already 17 people have been in touch with Russian diplomats in Britain seeking details of Putin's fast-track residence permits, Moscow has said.

    It comes after Putin changed immigration laws to tempt Westerners to embrace his dictatorship.

    The aim is to save them from 'destructive neoliberal ideological attitudes' in the West.

    Putin believes he is offering 'humanitarian aid' to people 'who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral values'.

    All 17 applied in the ten days after Putin's announcement via Russia's consulate-general in Edinburgh, according to the Kremlin-run Mash media outlet.

    There is as yet no separate figure for the Russian embassy in London.

    'In the West, it seemed like they were just waiting for [Putin's] document to appear – in the first 10 days alone, 17 citizens of Foggy Albion [Britain] wanted to move to us,' reported Kremlin-loyal Tsargrad TV.

    Read More
    China and Russia present unprecedented threat to world order, spy chiefs warn
    article image
    'Tired of the liberal agenda – that's how everyone who contacted the Russian diplomatic mission explained their decision.'

    Putin is waiving immigration quotas and the need for language exams for 'anti-wokers' seeking refuge in Russia.

    However, it is unclear if men accepted by Russia could later end up being pressured to fight in Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

    Russia paved the way for the new scheme by allowing entry to Americans Leo Lionel and Chantel Felice Haer along with their children, aged 16, 14, and 11.

    'Personally I want to thank your President Putin for allowing Russia to become a good place for families in this world climate,' he said.

    'We intend to use this opportunity to benefit our family.

    'I feel like I've been put in an arch of safety. And it's very important. Thank you so much.'

    'I just want to say that I feel very honoured,' said his wife.

    'It feels like I just got married to Russia, and I look forward to building a future here with my family.'

    Read More
    Anger as Russian drones violate the airspace of two NATO countries during aerial raid on Ukraine
    article image
    Major-General Irina Volk of the Russian Interior Ministry said: 'The desire to move to Russia for permanent residence arose against the background of the abolition of traditional moral and family values in American society, as well as the low level of education.'

    Another couple, Canadian Arend Feinstra with his wife, left the Canadian province of Ontario and moved to Russia with their eight children.

    'We didn't feel safe with our children there and for the future,' he said.

    'There's a lot of left-wing ideology, LGBTQ, trans, just a lot of things that we don't agree with they teach there now.

    'We wanted to get away from that for our children.

    'But also, for economic reasons, the farming has better opportunities. We felt that Russia was best.'

    Pro-Putin MP Maria Butina told Russians there was a 'liberal dictatorship' in the West.

    'It is important to emphasise that the peoples of these countries are not our enemies, but their governments, who have gone mad, are insane, and are imposing such policies,' she said.

    It gets to the point – for example, in Germany….that if your child comes to school and says that he does not support all these same-sex unions, then he is taken away and sent for re-education'.

    She said many Westerners 'would like to connect their future with Russia precisely because we have the opportunity for freedom and a traditional way of life.

    'And these are not necessarily farmers, many of them are representatives of academic circles, teachers, doctors, teachers.

    'These are qualified personnel who decide to sell everything, come to Russia precisely because they have a sufficient level of intellectual development, education and spiritual development to understand that if you stay in your countries, you can lose your children, lose your family'.

    Butina, 35, was previously jailed in the US on the espionage charge of 'conspiring to work for a foreign government'.

    Now an MP for the pro-Putin United Russia party, she was arrested in the United States in July 2018 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

    She pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.

    Butina was convicted of seeking to infiltrate conservative groups in the US including the National Rifle Association.

    She was deported to Russia October 2019 after her sentence was slightly reduced for good behaviour.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13829271/British-families-taking-Putins-offer-escape-woke-West-emigrate-Russia-17-applications-Scotland-ten-days-Moscow-media-claims.html

      3. It is very tempting, but hopefully we can salvage something here. Although the Blue Mink (I couldn't stand that group) Melting Pot in this country is on the boil. They gave it "1000 years or more", we are being forced to see it happen in decades.

      4. It is very tempting, but hopefully we can salvage something here. Although the Blue Mink (I couldn't stand that group) Melting Pot in this country is on the boil. They gave it "1000 years or more", we are being forced to see it happen in decades.

      5. It is very tempting, but hopefully we can salvage something here. Although the Blue Mink (I couldn't stand that group) Melting Pot in this country is on the boil. They gave it "1000 years or more", we are being forced to see it happen in decades.

    3. "Putin changed immigration laws to tempt Westerners to embrace his dictatorship". If Putin is a dictator then he is a relatively benign dictator. The dictatorship of 2TK and Turdeau is malign.

      1. All relative in the end. Once upon a time not too long ago we would never have had justification for making that sort of comparison

      2. All dictators are relatively benign unless you don’t want them, criticise their government or say a word out of place.

  54. Well, the wet weather has cleared up so I'm getting the wood I sorted yesterday from what the woodmen left last week.
    Still got a couple of days work to sort the remainder out.

      1. I didn't even get that far, chuck them all out labour government and fix your money problems.

        1. Labour government have their fingers in their ears – la-la-la I'm not listening. But I'll tax you 'til your pips squeak.

          Hopefully the cretins who voted for them will (eventually – they do seem to be rather thick) realise that neither they nor the Tories should ever get anywhere near Westminster again.

          2. Many of the people who voted for Labour are those who benefit most from a Labour Government. They may not be the most intellectually gifted of our citizens (or non-citizens) but they are not stupid and know a good thing.

          3. Their “good thing” might come back to bite them when they find that incomers are getting as much, if not more, than they are.

          5. No doubt, when they are all given the vote. But in such case various “independent” muslim MPs might continue to take votes away from Labour, I wonder if their belief will trump their desire for benefits?

    2. At this stage it would be a massive waste of resources to send them home. Eliminating an invading army is a perfectly legitimate exercise.

      1. It's normal for such thoughts to surface every now and again, but that process didn't end well last time.

      2. Welfare needs to be massively curbed, but then Labour would lose all their voters. The above is what they come for. Stop that and the illegal trade will stop.

  56. Times letters

    Paying twice
    There seems to be enough money to extend free childcare to nine-month-olds, but not for pensioners’ winter fuel relief. These are the same pensioners who had to pay for childcare themselves. We are robbed at both ends.
    Madeleine Bender, London NW10

    Prudence penalty
    The people who will really miss the heating allowance are those who are “just about managing” — those who have carefully paid into a pension scheme or saved a little money for their old age. They are the largest group and will never be entitled to pension credit or any other means-tested benefit.
    Having worked hard all their lives, often since the age of 16, they will be turning off the heating and going to bed early. They should not be penalised in this way.
    Linda Miller, Dereham, Norfolk

  57. On the subject of the Winter Fuel Allowance here was a sensible BTL comment from a Mr Simon Smith:

    Simple solution to this mess: compromise. Take the WFA and just add it to the November pension payment as a taxable part of pension. Poorest won't be paying tax, others lose up to 45% depending on marginal tax rate. Hardly any implementation expense.

    2. Far too sensible. Plus, governments like to look like they are being magnanimous when they do something like WFA – perish the thought that people weren't ever-so-grateful for it, so made it a separate "gift". Of course, in hard times like now, when we have to find money to give to foreigners (whether illegally here or in their own countries), we can't have "gifts" like that for our own people.

    3. He'll be scrapping the 25p weekly payment for the over 80s next – I'll never survive that!
      That 25p was an insult when it was brought out – you can't even buy an apple for that now

  58. What's the difference between Jim Jones and Kier Starmer?
    Starmer would have charged for the Kool Aid.

  60. Young people will not fight to save a country they've been taught to hate

    The collapse in pride in our history will have serious consequences

    SIMON HEFFER • 8 September 2024 • 2:00pm

    The British Social Attitudes Survey has reported that we are less proud to be British than we were a decade ago. In one or two respects, the decline is alarmingly steep, with only 64 per cent of respondents being proud of our history now compared with 86 per cent a decade ago.

    Sir John Curtice, the renowned psephologist who is also connected to the Survey, said with his customary air of infallibility on the BBC last Tuesday that this was because we are now more aware of slavery. Perhaps we also ought to be more aware that we abolished it some time before other great nations, and that one struggles to find any Briton who wants to bring it back.

    Sadly, a combination of some of our more politically motivated universities and the BBC, which talks of little else, appears to have left the public thinking that we have the most loathsome past imaginable. It is a shame that no-one is left who fought on the Somme, and hardly anyone who saw Belsen at first hand when we liberated it, to put them right on what our past and its values really were like.

    That, too, raises a serious question. We must all hope that we are not called upon again to fight a total war against a vicious enemy posing an existentialist threat to us and our way of life. But when one notes the malevolence and proximity of Vladimir Putin, the interference of Iran across the Middle East, the opportunism of China in imposing its values on much of the world, and our signal inability to prepare for it by increasing our defence budget to a sensible level, who would like to put money on our people not being called upon again, as twice in the 20th century, to save our country?

    And what is the chance of their willingly doing that if they have been brought up to despise it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/08/young-people-will-not-save-a-country-been-taught-to-hate

    SH fails to mention the more worrying aspect of this debate. Too many young people have been taught to hate the very idea of a country as a home, a point of origin, a safe place of familiar surroundings and habits. Apparently, the world belongs to everyone who lives on it; no people may claim a part of it exclusively for themselves, however long they have been there.

    2. Young people will not fight to save a country they've been taught to hate..

      It's not just the modern yuff.. This rant did the rounds awhile back.. an open letter from Matt Taylor, former Corporal at Royal Marines (1999-2009).

      I am the man in the street. A working class lad from one of the most impoverished towns in Britain who joined the military as a teenager. I am the backbone of the British armed forces, and I'm telling you after happily being deployed 5 times.. invaded Iraq, invaded Afghanistan, went to NI, Sierra Leone, went all over the place.. I was happy to do my duty because I was like most normal work class salt of the earth chaps.. I was happy to fight for my country because I felt I belonged there. I felt I was given a gift by my forebears. A precious gift. And it was my duty to fight for it. To bequeath that gift to the next generation. I was passionate about my country. It used to mean something to everyone.

      Greeks are proud. Poles are proud. Australian are proud.. and guess what Nigerians are proud too. It's human nature to try and be proud of where you come from so you don't hate yourself. To feel like you belong to a community a greater whole. It's common sense that a four year old could grasp, but the powers that be (Tories at time of writing).. they're imbeciles that run the UK & ignored their base.. The Somewheres .. and started pandering to people that will always hate them.. The Anywheres..

      The British govt took their base for granted. "We've already got the patriotic white working class vote.. let's try and woo purpled haired heffalumps that call themselves "self-avowed communists".

      When you talk about the likes of Ash Sarkar they are proudly telling you what they are. The likes of tom Tuggentwat.. they thought using propaganda they could convince literal communists, Guardian Readers and the woke, the social justice activists, the militant far left.. they thought they could somehow take the commies over. You won't. You'll pander to the people that absolutely despise you then they'll still vote for the commies anyway, and you'll be left with nothing. And lo & behold people like me who would have voted for a conservative option have abandoned them. And that neatly explains the recruiting crisis. Because if you think Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and Ash Sarkar and all these other chancers that have come over to the UK for a free ride and hate the country and run it down constantly you think they are gonna fight for you? They're not gonna vote for ya, and guess what? neither am I.

      I'm more likely to wanna fight for Isis than the British govt.. which is also rather ironic.. because lo and behold more British regulars at Alan's favourite snack bar have joined militia groups than serve in the armed forces. so.. well done lads. You've spent years pandering to that lot that hate you and always will. No matter how many nice adverts you put on the tele, No matter how many homosexual Nigerians you've got snogging each other on the adv break while I'm trying to watch the golf. Brilliant. So that's why you're shagged. That's why nobody wants to join the armed forces and why nobody wants to vote for you.

      A special needs eight yr old could have seen it coming but apparently Johnny Mercer, Tobias Elwood, Penny Mordaunt never saw this coming.

      Matt Taylor, former Corporal at Royal Marines (1999-2009). Former Royal Marines Commando, northern gobshite, and Angry Bootneck.

    3. Or crucially, the prices paid then and now, by rooted citizens to make their country safe and prosperous. The thinking seems to be that anyone (criminal or not) is allowed to blithely take what others have worked for. Good luck with that one. You can't alter human nature. Some will build, others destroy, some will give and many more will take. The elites (who more often than not) have had everything given: whether through family, carefully curated network friends; structured backgrounds to facilitate the best education and jobs – do not recognise these facts of life.

  61. Young people will not fight to save a country they've been taught to hate

    The collapse in pride in our history will have serious consequences

    SIMON HEFFER • 8 September 2024 • 2:00pm

    The British Social Attitudes Survey has reported that we are less proud to be British than we were a decade ago. In one or two respects, the decline is alarmingly steep, with only 64 per cent of respondents being proud of our history now compared with 86 per cent a decade ago.

    Sir John Curtice, the renowned psephologist who is also connected to the Survey, said with his customary air of infallibility on the BBC last Tuesday that this was because we are now more aware of slavery. Perhaps we also ought to be more aware that we abolished it some time before other great nations, and that one struggles to find any Briton who wants to bring it back.

    Sadly, a combination of some of our more politically motivated universities and the BBC, which talks of little else, appears to have left the public thinking that we have the most loathsome past imaginable. It is a shame that no-one is left who fought on the Somme, and hardly anyone who saw Belsen at first hand when we liberated it, to put them right on what our past and its values really were like.

    That, too, raises a serious question. We must all hope that we are not called upon again to fight a total war against a vicious enemy posing an existentialist threat to us and our way of life. But when one notes the malevolence and proximity of Vladimir Putin, the interference of Iran across the Middle East, the opportunism of China in imposing its values on much of the world, and our signal inability to prepare for it by increasing our defence budget to a sensible level, who would like to put money on our people not being called upon again, as twice in the 20th century, to save our country?

    And what is the chance of their willingly doing that if they have been brought up to despise it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/08/young-people-will-not-save-a-country-been-taught-to-hate

    SH fails to mention the more worrying aspect of this debate. Too many young people have been taught to hate the very idea of a country as a home, a point of origin, a safe place of familiar surroundings and habits. Apparently, the world belongs to everyone who lives on it; no people may claim a part of it exclusively for themselves, however long they have been there.

  62. I was about to post this comment on William Stanier's post which has been deleted – from Simon Heffer's article.
    So I'll post it anyway.

    The malevolent influence on young people and the denial of our history and way of life is coming not from Putin or China but our own government, the BBC, and the teaching profession.

    2. I don't know any young people even watch the news let alone the BBC. They do, however, get 'information' from teachers, have had a few conversations along those lines 'Climate Change' 'Net Zero' etc…

      1. The teachers have been brainwashed into spreading this misinformation to gullible young people. Frightening children is now their role, not educating them.

        1. Yes, gathered as much from grandchildren’s chatter, who aren’t as anxious about it after we talked it through. Nothing to do with CO2 levels – that exists and has increased crop levels worldwide. Climate Changes, always has always will, as we’ll see with the coming winter, or the one after latest. We’ll probably long for warmer weather when that happens. Meantime, someone’s made a lot of money from CC Agenda.

  63. Ofgem (the energy regulator) has announced the energy price cap will rise around 10% for a typical home from October 1 to December 31, due to the global cost of energy.

    That really surprised me (sarc)

    2. So it seems that all the uk windmills do is make a greater profit rather than lower bills. I think we knew that already, the message needs to be passed to mad Ed.

    1. Grossly overpriced***.
      With emphasis on the gross.

      ***Not that I'm in any way an expert.

    2. As I've said before, she has a certain Chavvy Charm and I'd rate her a 4 pinter at the Brompton Stomp "Grab-A-Grannie" Night.

  67. HMRC sacks 179 civil servants for gross misconduct. 9 September 2024.

    This is the highest number in at least five years, according to figures obtained by The Telegraph in a freedom of information request.

    Gross misconduct is behaviour so serious that it can warrant instant dismissal.

    Examples include bullying, theft, intoxication, damage to company property, gross negligence or other behaviours that could harm the organisation.

    I’d sack ‘em all.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/hmrc-sacks-179-civil-servants-for-gross-misconduct/

    2. It used to be said that the only offences that carried instant dismissal from the BBC were non-payment of the licence fee, being caught drunk on the premises or being caught having sex on the premises and the standing joke was how to accomplish all three simultaneously.

    4. Home Orifice and Foreign Orifice recruit 179 sacked civil servants as they are deemed perfect for dealing with corrupt countries and allowing in hundreds of thousands of suitably unskilled gimmegrants to freely enter the UK to live off the taxpayer.

    5. I phoned HMRC this afternoon and spoke to a guy who at least had a sense of humour. He told me not to even think about making a direct payment because the risk is just too high. You’ll send it to the wrong department, he said and have “eight months of misery” trying to retrieve it. I was attempting to pay a shortfall via bank transfer but discovered on my banking app that a long list of HMRC divisions all have the same account number. I was calling to ask which one to use. He told me to forget it, leave the money in my bank account and let them deduct it from my salary in monthly instalments next year.

  68. The Tory leadership contest is a three-horse race
    So far, nothing decisive has emerged in the campaign. But it is clear who deserves to make the next cut
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/09/the-tory-leadership-contest-is-a-three-horse-race/

    BTL

    Is it not time for the Conservative Party face up to the fact that the party's over and the game is up?

    The Conservative Party has betrayed its right of centre voters. The rot set in with the limply adulterous puritan, John Major, whose judgement and taste in mistresses was no better than his judgement on political matters. And then David Cameron took the party way to the left by his alliance with Cleggover and the damage was then augmented by Mrs May who tried to negotiate the worst possible Brexit imaginable using the Europhile Robbins as her negotiator and sidelining the Eurosceptic David Davis.

    When was the last time (apart from Johnson who temporarily deceived us into thinking he was pro-Brexit in 2019) that the Conservatives had a substantial majority? It was when Mrs Thatcher – a right of centre politician – was in charge. And when the right of centre Liz Truss won the popular vote among the party members the Party stabbed her in the back – just as they had stabbed Margaret Thatcher 30 years ago and replaced her with Sunak who led the party to its worst ever election result. And what executed the coup de grâce and torpedoed the Conservative Party in a confusion of metaphors this year? In a word: Farage – a right of centre politician.

    The party has too many Lib/Cons in it who should defect to Mr Davey's outfit – the rest should join Reform if Reform will have them. The Conservative Party as it is now is completely past its vote for date.

    1. Have you read Russia is on an migration drive, Rik…a number of Canadians already taken up the offer…

        1. Other side of coin…a Canadian family returned to Canada 'wasn't what they expected'….Trudeau to Putin and back again…..hmmm …..;-)

        1. They seem to be hoping for a better life and prepared to work towards that goal. Likely escaping Trudeau government, he’ll be out next election.

        1. Weren’t the Canadians looking for farmers a few years ago? I thought the Russia more or less fully automated now.

          1. Apparently they want to ramp up their agriculture sector. I saw a very interesting video with a French farmer who had moved to Russia, and seemingly there are more foreign farmers there too.
            Perhaps the Russians are taking seriously the warnings of a mini ice age kicking off within the next decade due to a sunspot activity dip, which would of course reduce crop yields.
            I don’t quite trust the Russians myself. But any food shortages would hit over-populated Britain in a catastrophic way, especially as most people haven’t picked up on consistent government policies to reduce the amount of food produced in the country. The deep state that decides policy direction certainly knows what’s coming.

    4. A €146 bill and probably €1,500 carbon taxes.

      Well at least that is how Trudeau would have it.

  71. When people emigrate because their homelands cannot support them they flee to lands of opportunity and as history shows many Europeans did just that. Traveling to America and other points around the globe. Bringing the best of their culture and food with them. That includes the Scots and the Irish BTW.

    What exactly is Islamic culture doing to improve them or our culture?

    I am Church of England by default but what they offer is belief or death.

    1. Choice one, you go somewhere where you have to work hard even to survive and nothing is given to you unless you pay for it and the chances are that you'll only ever be better off than you were at home after years of labour.

      Choice two, you go somewhere where you don't have to work to survive and everything is given to you and you don't pay for it and the chances are that you'll be even be better off than you were at home from day one.

      Not hard is it?

    3. Every where they go they inflict as many problems as possible on the recipient population.
      And so it goes on and on.
      As it always has.

    4. I'm sorry, Pip. The CofE is literally "a broad church". That includes "happy-clappy" evangelicals, and spikey Anglo-Catholics. I lean towards the latter – perhaps because I play the organ, rather than the Fender Stratocaster.

        1. opopanax, have you heard from Peta lately, last I heard she wasn't well, not seen her here – just wondering if she recovered OK?

          2. Me2… thx. …if I see/read her other than here (bit doubtful that) I’ll ask her to drop you a line if she hasn’t already x

      2. If I were to attend again, Geoff, I'd probably attend 'happy-clappy' church. Stratocaster supposed to be good for beginners (in theory anyway…)

      3. I am OK with happy clappy or Anglo Catholic, as long as they are Bible believing Christians. The only church I have ever left was a Church of Progressivism masquerading as Christianity.

  72. An impecunious Birdie Three?

    Wordle 1,178 3/6
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    1. Surprisingly, me too.

      Wordle 1,178 3/6

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      1. Very good.
        Wordle 1,178 5/6

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      2. I could never get it, Sue – so I switched to Spelling Bee, much better for my ego 😀 usually in the 'Solid' result section.

    2. Nice one Rene – massively fortuitous par here…..

      Wordle 1,178 4/6

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    3. A boring plodding to the answer par

      Wordle 1,178 4/6

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    4. A boring plodding to the answer par

      Wordle 1,178 4/6

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    5. Found it tough again today.

      Wordle 1,178 5/6

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      1. I got par 4 but can't copypasta again because copypasta'd something else afterwards and can't get back in. Ah well, tant pis as I believe they say in frogland. (Or t'ain't piss – I get confused :o))

        Edit: I got in and got it! No copypasta needed – now I know how to do it (not that it's of any importance but it's nice to find out how to do something new)

        Wordle 1,178 4/6

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  73. Net zero is gifting our future to an increasingly dominant China
    The world economy is facing a flood of cheap Chinese goods

    Kemi Badenoch 7 September 2024 • 9:00pm

    Xi Jinping, president of China, oversees a country seeking to enrich itself at the expense of others

    Every other year, 164 countries meet at the World Trade Organisation to discuss the rules that govern global trade. This year, representing Britain, I made the case for free trade as a force for good to raise global living standards.

    The week saw intense negotiation and plenty of disagreements. They were not between the West and the rest, but between those nations that support free trade and those that do not. However, the behaviour of one country was raised with me by other nations time and time again: China. Trade ministers were candid about the threat China poses to their development. Manufacturing economies fear the oversupply of cheap Chinese goods, particularly those in the automotive industry.

    As business secretary, I secured more investment into the British automotive industry in 2023 than in the previous seven years combined. But China has an unusually high number of loss-making firms that receive state subsidy. They are planning production capacity of 70 million electric vehicles by 2030, while global sales of electric vehicles are only estimated at 44 million for that year. Let’s be clear – this is unfair competition. Put simply, China is seeking to flood the market, driving other nations’ industries out of business.

    China is enriching itself at the expense of others. It’s not just competitiveness on production cost, it’s also that they don’t play by the rules, stealing intellectual property for technical advantage.

    Economic coercion
    A rare joint statement by the Five Eyes’ intelligence chiefs confirmed this last year. Many countries fear that this economic clout is descending into economic coercion. Last year at the G7 Trade Ministers’ meeting in Japan, I worked with our allies to stop such intimidation. Taiwan is the territory most at risk. Its proximity and economic interdependence to China makes it especially vulnerable. China is even now attempting to intimidate Taiwan with its naval and air assets, trying to put Taiwan on an expensive permanent alert. Furthermore, it is worth reminding ourselves of the brutal clashes China has initiated with ships from the Philippines and Vietnam in pursuit of its illegal seizure of the South China seas. Even if China would like to avoid a costly and violent war to achieve control of Taiwan, economic coercion is an obvious alternative. Taiwan’s allies need to do all they can to support the island’s economy and help it diversify its supply chains. As trade secretary, I strengthened trade ties with Taiwan with an Enhanced Trade Partnership Agreement – the first of its kind between Taiwan and a European country.

    Critically for our nation’s future, I also embedded the UK in the wider Indo-Pacific economy by leading the negotiations for the UK to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a free trade bloc worth over £12 trillion and covering 12 countries. CPTPP, with its high standards, will become the leading forum to establish new ways of like-minded allies fighting economic coercion. It is an important part of our future.

    In some sense, though, we are all Taiwan. For even if China chose to blockade the island, instead of seizing it by force, the result would lead to a catastrophic collapse in the global economy many, many times greater than what happened as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sadly, despite the threat China poses, too many of the world’s economies continue to develop a dependency on China, including the UK. This is dangerous for our economy and our freedom. We need to understand exactly how our exposure to China impacts our national security to ensure that we can’t be blackmailed. That could mean an annual statement on trade dependency from the Government, or a National Security Council annual report on dependency. Either way, we need to understand the problem, make it public and find solutions. But we must also mitigate that risk – and that means working to diversify our supply chains so that we become less dependent on China and more interdependent on the rest of the world. Free and fair trade, not global dumping and economic coercion.

    Sadly net zero has made dependency worse – and specifically our commitment to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Astonishingly, the decision came without a thorough cost-benefit analysis or any plan to deliver it. We – Parliament – signed up to this legally binding commitment after a 90-minute debate.

    China’s production capacity of solar modules is set to exceed global demand by threefold over the next few years compared to what is required to meet the net zero target. Again, it is flooding the market as a deliberate policy. This is a form of economic warfare against the industries of other nations.

    Genocide in Xinjiang
    There is an important human rights angle, too. Already, 98 per cent of solar panels in the UK are from China. Over 40 per cent of the polysilicon used in the solar panels is produced in Xinjiang province, and this is very strongly connected to forced labour concerns. The UK Parliament has passed a motion accepting that genocide is taking place in Xinjiang. It is also clear that slave labour is used to produce the polysilicon from Xinjiang.

    China dominates the mining and production of rare earth minerals. These make the tiny magnets without which mobile phones and the internet simply couldn’t operate. They are the “oil” of the 21st century. China also holds 85 per cent of battery cell production capacity – which partly explains why it is surging ahead in electric vehicle production.

    One final point. Today the UK buys more steel products from China than from anywhere else. I was determined to reverse this trend and defend steelmaking in the UK. Not least because of its vital role in our national security and to reduce our dependence on imports. That is why I delivered £500 million of investment to the Port Talbot steelworks.

    But part of the reason our carbon emissions have fallen so steeply is because we have exported so much of our manufacturing and energy-intense industries to other parts of the world. Why? We make others rich at the expense of British workers and pollute the world more in doing so. China builds two coal-fired power stations every week to produce the energy for these industries. So we subside China’s coal-powered development to sell to us the steel that we used to make. We are gifting our economic future to China. We need a clear strategy and we need leaders who are clear about defending our national interest; who understand that short-term growth from Chinese investment in certain UK sectors turns into their medium to long-term decline here. Strong growth and prosperity in the UK is the best way to counter China’s malign influence with confidence. I will be determined to champion our national interest and ensure that our policies support our people and lessen our dependence on China.

      2. I will probably never vote conservative again, KJ, but she would definitely be my choice for PM. She is magnificent.

        1. I think she’s going to need all the support she can get, opopanax, a number of her own party against her – as you say, magnificent. Have you heard this rumour Braverman set to join Reform?

          1. Heard the rumour but am not in the loop., KJ. I am actually loath to think about politics, as I am close to despair. If i get any opportunity at all, in goes the boot, otherwise I prefer to concentrate on fluffy lickoo wabbits and so forth (Semi Sarc)

          2. Know exactly what you mean, not quite given up the ghost yet, but you’re not alone, some of my own family not voting again including Him In the Workshop. Fluffy lickoo wabbits, guess you’ve given them all names 😀

    2. China would look very silly with their 70 million unwanted electric cars if the European manufacturers started making cars that people actually want, i.e. internal combustion engine cars.
      Oh but they won't do that, because the parasite class have decided to destroy the west so that the global south can dominate the next long economic cycle.
      Saudi et al are still selling as much oil as ever, they are just selling it to China and India, not to us.
      Badenoch knows this, but she chooses to play along with the net zero fraud and post pseudo-convincing articles like this one.

    1. 392752+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Cut the elderly pensions more, allah knows the pakistani in pakistaniland needs it more, put our elderly 3/4 to bed EARLY, RISE LATE allowing one hour walkabout.over the winter months remember keep the culling register up to date

      just as we learnt from our nazi brethren.

    3. It gets beyond words, as much as we agree with each other, what on earth can we do to make a really positive difference.

      1. An anger management course, cos its only going to get far far worse and I can do absolutely nothing about it. Will always support TR but they are about to lock him up with slammers and throw away the key. They will not risk his movement gaining ground and the state will destroy him. Sad.

    4. What? How come UK tax payers are funding £100,000 benefits to relatives in Pakistan? Good job I'm not in charge of benefits system.

      1. When you think of some of the hoops the indigenous have to jump through to get benefits – but this woman just gets everything through on the nod.

        1. Almost sounds like fake news, a wind-up. No further info far as I know. (Agree with what you say tho Hertslass.)

    5. What? How come UK tax payers are funding £100,000 benefits to relatives in Pakistan? Good job I'm not in charge of benefits system.

  75. 'Evening all. Shameless plug to follow.

    Next Sunday, 15th September, at 10:30 am, the rather splendid choir of St George. Bloomsbury, will be singing a Choral Mass at St Laurence, Seale (GU10 1HX).

    Since our local village church choirs are now largely defunct (thanks, Covid) this may be a stepping stone back to reality. Or not. I'll be there, but – for once – not at the organ console. I look forward to hearing the instrument from t'other end of the church. At the console, It's rather "in yer face"…

    1. Good evening, Geoff – good to see a post from you. Obviously I won't be attending, perhaps a video or recording made? A good event for all attendees. (I follow a few chaps on Instagram, thegesualdosix, beautiful sounds, love them. Have a great time, enjoy your time, Kate x

  76. Good Evening, all

    Miserable week just passed. I went down with a foul lurgi a week ago Saturday.. Arose on Tuesday out of sheer boredom to find that the internet was on the fritz. I made things worse by pounding my laptop into a pulp such that it jammed every time it saw me coming anywhere near. The local computer whiz got here to fix it on Thursday by when the internet was properly down, affecting everyone in this area. It got reconnected around lunchtime today. Apologies for the several messages/emails that I haven't replied to yet. I will attend to them ASAP. I wish that the world hadn't become so interconnected and complicated. https://i3.cmail19.com/ei/j/05/3EE/78B/csimport/Screenshot2024-09-09at16.27.05.162717.png ‘This is Ms Trellis, our drama teacher.’

    1. I understand there are no white girls at my old school (same one Rachel Heyhoe went to, only I was there a lot later in the 80s).

      1. The announcer was hardly able to pronounce about half the names! The be burqured ones declined to shake hands with the male presenter of degrees.

    2. Hmmm, jumping into the water to escape from an otter.
      I'm not convinced they thought that through.

    1. I can't seem to get into any articles now without there being a paywall. Is it something everyone is getting or have I a problem with my settings?

      1. No – the only way past the paywall now is to accept advertising cookies. I reject them all and I'm certainly not paying for the DM or the Excess.

      2. There are numerous articles one can’t get into, but I try only to link to free ones.
        It may be that being in France opens them up?

    2. Thank you, Bob. While our humble. rural parish has lost both of it1s choirs (thanks, Covid response), here in leafy Surrey, we have connections.

      On Sunday 15th, we have a visiting choir from St George, Bloomsbury, singing a Choral Mass. Anyone interested will find St Laurence, Seale, at GU10 1HX. 10:30 am.

      For once, I hope to sit far away from the organ. It sounds better, when the pipes aren't in one's face…

  85. "Starmer’s justification for the winter fuel cut doesn’t stand up to scrutiny."

    The fact remains £20 billion is, in the grand scheme of things bugger all.

    HS2, a month for the NHS, half the London Olympics.

    1. They already spend billions including health care, housing, feeding, clothing and keeping invaders warm.
      If Starmer and his Wokey crew don't know what is causing the black hole is by now, they'll never learn.

    2. They already spend billions including health care, housing, feeding, clothing and keeping invaders warm.
      If Starmer and his Wokey crew don't know what is causing the black hole is by now, they'll never learn.

  86. I like to offer birthday greeting to the individual but it is now past my bedtime.

    If you look in Conway, I hope you have had a splendid day and that all your nags ran like the wind.

  87. Good night all.
    Popping off in an hour or so, I carried out a couple of repairs on our kitchen units and doors. No one will notice, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
    I've got such a lot of left over ironmongery in one of my sheds, but it comes in handy occasionally 🤗

  88. Starmer is the Lord Protector of Britain's morose new Puritanism

    Merry Restoration followed the dour Commonwealth interregnum. The same fate may befall our new rulers

    ROBERT TOMBS • 9 September 2024 • 6:43pm

    We live in a gloomy age. Wars, famines, economic depression, chronic lawbreaking, climate panic, and random murders punctuate our daily news. Around the world, cheerful politicians are thin on the ground.

    A burst of forced hilarity for the cameras may be permissible at election time or when shaking hands with foreign visitors, but the unwritten rule seems to be that it must be switched off pretty quickly. Kamala Harris apparently laughs too much. We are unnerved when Putin, Xi or Kim look happy. Perhaps this has entered our collective consciousness from seeing pictures of Stalin, Mao or Hitler in occasionally jovial mood: we recognise it as the glee of a nasty child pulling the wings off flies.

    But today we have a surfeit of political gloominess. We must want it that way. Boris Johnson was reviled for inappropriate levity. Cake was his nemesis as it was for Marie Antoinette. Cake has a deep significance in British culture, standing for luxurious self-indulgence if not dubious morals ("having one's cake and eating it"). Sir Keir Starmer got away with drinking beer. Had Boris been swigging a stiff scotch, it might have been put down to the strains of office. Cake, no.

    Personality has always mattered for rulers. Medieval monarchs travelled around showing themselves to the people. Cheap newspapers, railways and a mass electorate made personality a political force. The first example in mid-nineteenth century Britain was probably the rollicking Lord Palmerston ('Pam'), when we were an insufferably self-confident country. At other times, people need calm and reassurance – think of Attlee replacing Churchill.

    Today a pessimistic world wants sententious and dogmatic politicians. In America, Kamala Harris's laugh notwithstanding, it is impossible to imagine Trump, J.D. Vance or Biden in a genuinely jovial mood, as Reagan, Kennedy, Roosevelt and Lincoln often were. On the European scene Macron is the classic humourless intellectual. Mélenchon and Le Pen are too angry to crack jokes. Scholz seems to be naturally miserable.

    Zelensky was a comic actor, but professional comedians are supposed to be sad inside, and for understandable reasons he has put humour aside for the duration. Yet even the bloodiest war does not necessarily require gloomy leadership – at least, there has been one glorious exception. Churchill's public cheerfulness, with cigar and optimistic grin, was partly a tactic for raising the nation's mood, but everyone knew it was based on genuine ebullience.

    At the moment, Britain is in poll position in international gloominess, with Sir Keir effortlessly glum and spreading it by the bucketful. Is this, I wonder, a Left-wing characteristic? The British Left has deep roots in religious Nonconformity: Methodism more than Marxism.

    The founder of modern progressive politics was Mr Gladstone, whose religiosity enthralled the Nonconformist masses, the "woke" of their day. One Middlesborough Baptist congregation hailed him as "a prophet of the most high God", and many prayed for his victory. He seems to have agreed: "I have hammered with all my little might at the fabric of the present Tory power… the triumph grows and grows: to God be the praise." God, he thought, was ensuring good weather for his public meetings and slipping the occasional political ace up his sleeve.

    Such confidence in one's own moral mission, and the dismissal of opponents as unrepentant sinners, is a formidable barrier to geniality. Prophets of whatever religion do not joke (Jesus was an exception). Indeed, they are suspicious of laughter, a sign of impiety. Nearly all witty or humorous sayings by politicians come from sceptical Conservatives, with Disraeli and Churchill well in the lead.

    Sir Keir's rather leaden solemnity is therefore more than just a personality trait. It reflects the zeitgeist, our new Puritanism. I can't think of a better term, though as readers will know it properly relates to 17th century religious conflicts, and before that to Jean Calvin, and way back to St Augustine. The characteristics of Puritanism are shared more widely: the fundamentalist application of ideology; the identification of oneself with a similarly-minded virtuous elect; the conviction that opposition or disagreement is immoral; readiness to use power to accuse, silence, censor and ban; and refusal to allow any questioning of sacred dogma.

    Hence, pensioners' heating allowances are cut and billions lavished on "renewable" power that will plunge us into darkness – until the age of miracles returns and after renouncing our consumerism we are wafted by wind power to a frugal green Celestial City. Hence, too, free speech legislation is dismissed as a "Tory hate-speech charter" – "hate speech" being today's term for heresy.

    The witch-hunt is the heart of Puritanism. Sin and the devil were omnipresent and had to be rooted out. Today we have "systemic racism", "transphobia", "Islamophobia", "misogyny", and the "far Right". Social media offers a novel way of finding and punishing today's witches. And if you don't believe in witches, it proves that you too are a witch. Thus, the snowball grows, picking up the ambitious, the conformist and the scared.

    I am not for a moment suggesting that Sir Keir is a modern avatar of the Witch-Finder-General. He is a decent man, a liberal, and a democrat. [The only error in this piece but a rather alarming one.] But he does display some of the milder symptoms of Puritanism, namely its suspicion of self-indulgence, its haste to forbid things, its rather alarming gusto for punishment, and of course a strong tendency to sermonising.

    The Labour Party – when it had a sense of history – used to identify with the Roundhead struggle against Charles I. Perhaps this is part of the problem.

    The Puritan Republic tried to ban Christmas because of its "carnal and sensual delights", and forbade "revellings at country weddings". "Dens of Satan" (pubs) were shut down en masse. They banned bull baiting, outraged less by the pain of the animals than by the pleasure of the spectators. We know how it ended: with the joyful restoration of the "Merry Monarch", Charles II, and the death of British republicanism.

    Today's Progressives would be wise to learn from history. Eventually, people reject being hectored, depressed, and made to feel guilty. They want something and someone positive. Suffering may be good for the soul, but not for the poll ratings.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/09/starmer-lord-protector-britain-morose-new-puritanism

    There will be joyfulness and great laughter in the shires if Starmer meets a sticky end.

    2. The DT could do just one thing that helps 2Tier meet a sticky end and that is to publish a headline in big bold print in tomorrow’s edition promising faithfully that they will publish every MP’s name that votes in support of the withdrawal of WFA for pensioners.
      They could but I fear they won’t because the MSM are in the pocket of those who control us.
      Bar stewards, each and every one of them.

      1. Details of HoC votes are always available and are published by the media.

        Edit:
        The Conservatives have called the vote on the WFA.

        1. The normal publication of HoC votes would not cause the necessary level of shame that support of the withdrawal demands.
          I have a Limp Dum as my MP, if she supported 2Tier I would like her name plastered all over the MSM and social media showing her for what she is to her constituents. Conversely if she voted against the government I would have to give her credit for IMHO doing the right thing.
          Well done the Conservatives for acting like HM opposition in the HoC, it is what expected of them. There is at last, signs of life from them.

  91. Chums, I'm now off to spend half an hour on the Internet. So I'll take this early opportunity to wish you all Good Night. Sleep well; hasta mañana.

  93. I've made it. I got to Roquebrune just after 9pm frog time (so an hour and half ago)
    I took the motorway as far as Valance then decided to go off piste – a lovely drove through (well up and over) several mountain ranges. It took a lot longer that I'd estimated so I arrived in the dark. Off to explore demain.
    A tout a l'heure 🙂🇫🇷

    2. Ooh! We stayed on a lovely campsite in Valence, right next to a wonderful chocolate factory! The smell was amazing!

  94. Just watched Catherine, Princess of Wales' video following her completion of chemotherapy – what a fabulous young woman she is and one who will ensure the popularity of the Royal Family for many years to come.

      1. Some women have very poor judgement as far as men are concerned just as some men have very poor judgement as far as women are concerned.

        I had a few false starts which led nowhere but finally, at the age of 40, I made the very best decision of my life and decided to marry Caroline!

        1. Just like Bill and his Most Recent, and Annie Allan and HER Bill. I am still seeking my own romantic relationship.

        2. Well – Caroline is beautiful and the woman for you! I remarried on my 49th birthday.
          I was 20 when I married for the first time and he was not a good choice, but we had the two boys and I don’t regret that.

    2. Sorry – puke-making piece of propaganda fakery, laying it on with a trowel. No questions asked why cancer is on the rise – the royals are affected, just like you and me! And those "simple things in life" – like having a giant estate to play around in.
      The last frames showed Oxford ragwort, I think, which any country person would be digging out with a fork and chucking in the dustbin, not using as a prop.

      1. Diet is now rumoured to be the cause, especially amongst young people. Fast food etc, plus sitting in front of a keyboard as we're doing.

  97. Bank of Mum and Dad calls in the lawyers to claw back gifts
    Family disputes on the rise as more first-time buyers rely on parent handouts
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/bank-mum-and-dad-calls-lawyers-claw-back-gifts/

    Financial dealings with members of one's own family can go wrong which is upsetting for all concerned. This BTL seems very sensible as it is especially important to have things open and clear from the beginning.

    When the BoE base rate was very low commercial mortgage rates were much higher – just as the interest paid to the depositor by banks was much lower than the bank base rate.

    We got our solicitor to draw up a proper mortgage agreement for our son and his fiancée. The interest rate was set at ½% over the BoE base rate and this enabled our son to get a cheaper mortgage than he would have got in the market place and for us to get a higher rate of interest than a bank would have given us.

    Fortunately we have an excellent relationship with our son but even so it was important to us all that the arrangement was properly set up at outset.

    Our son got a good deal and so did we.

  98. Wordle 1,179 6/6

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    Thought I should at least try it!

  99. Wordle 1,179 6/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Thought I should at least try it!

  100. I know it is late but having consulted the more reliable podcasts from around the world I have to say that our national broadcaster viz. the BBC is again way off the mark when it comes to impartial journalism.

    The fact remains that the Ukrainians are all but defeated in the proxy US war with Russia.

    The fact remains that Kamala Harris is essentially a lost cause in the US.

    The fact remains that the US Deep State is implementing every single lever of Federal power to prevent former President Trump from assuming the White House for a second term.

    We are in troubled waters when the fate of the US and by extension the UK are potentially in the hands of self interested US war hawks and arms industry manufacturers as appears to be the case.

    In the UK we are particularly susceptible to global economic suicide given our apparently limitless support for a bankrupt and defaulting Ukraine, our deference to mad EU dictates on sanctions with Russia (a hitherto friendly nation) and our stupid support both financially and militarily to the utterly corrupt regime in Ukraine.

    If someone can point me in the direction of a friendly English speaking refuge of a country please do. I am almost at the end of my tolerance for our stupid and geopolitically inept government.

    1. The English speaking countries are the worst, because England was the first country to fall to the Rothschild central banking system.

  102. Smothering its prey? One time I was out walking with my dog, heard what sounded like screaming…ran towards the noise, turned out to be a male woodpecker downed by a sparrow hawk – I started shouting and clapping my hands, dog joined in barking…both flew off. The hawk doubtless returned and caught either same bird again, or different one. All have to eat/shelter/mate, including us….what happened with your sparrow hawk, Ndovu?

    1. It flew off, empty beaked.

      Did you see my post one day last week, when Jessie brought in a tiny fieldmouse and let it run? It made me clean up the conservatory but we didn’t manage to catch it. Then John found it yesterday, dead.

      1. Don’t think so, don’t recall it anyway 🙂 It wouldn’t last long indoors – out of its usual environment.

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