Friday 13 September: Only a complete overhaul can save the wasteful and ill-managed NHS

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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594 thoughts on “Friday 13 September: Only a complete overhaul can save the wasteful and ill-managed NHS”

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

    Water In The Carburettor

    WIFE: "There is trouble with the car. It has water in the carburettor."

    HUSBAND: "Water in the carburettor? That's ridiculous "

    WIFE: "I tell you the car has water in the carburettor."
    HUSBAND: "You don't even know what a carburettor is. I'll check it out. Where's the car?

    WIFE: "In the pool"

    2. I don't remember a time when there weren't calls to "Reform the NHS". Nobody can describe what it should be reformed to, so never get started. It would be useful to know what the reformed service should be achieving before anything is started. My suggestion below.
      How about a comprehensive review of all he health services in the West, including an evaluation of:
      – Waiting lists
      – Service costs billed to taxation
      – Outcomes of hospitalization
      – Patient satisfaction
      – Cost to patients
      Then, for the model that's achieving closest to best results on the above, adopt it.

  6. 'Morning All
    Mixed Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62ee5ca66487c70831dbb4ed12ee0e114749c12c4a2d157a884d04a2a872477a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d37f00cbae9eab29c2f9506fe4dbc99a6cc791693b26d90bbb793ad3fc19314e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9566ccec32c7418bbd7c19e4472feb10accff629c98e5dcd369f1751b0533402.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f40eb6f2af7561d7563c9465599c1aa939c7c426499362c0d2ca5356181726f5.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d0992405b8896a42fb833681715f4f67b21179b8b7017b795dd99c2c426e0e4.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c08e931d71566535c0c9d3a033feef70c65e4a2e2344f9f890dae0f81b1c7b86.jpg
    Finally this hasn't aged well…….
    https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1785303047704346728

  7. EU fears for its human rights credibility as Tunisia crushes dissent, leak shows. 13 September 2024.

    The EU fears its credibility is at stake as it seeks to weigh growing concerns about the crushing of dissent in Tunisia while preserving a controversial migration deal with the north African country, according to a leaked document.

    EU officials expect Saied to remain in power after presidential elections on 6 October. The buildup to the vote has been marked by the jailing of opponents and the prosecution of dissenters under the pretext of spreading false information.

    Lol. It’s universal isn’t it?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/13/eu-fears-for-its-human-rights-credibility-as-tunisia-crushes-dissent-leak-shows

  9. Good morning all.
    A distinctly colder start today with -1°C on the Yard Thermometer. Otherwise a bright start with scattered cloud and a forecast of similar through the day.

  10. Look on the bright side. This charmer is The Gambia's equivalent of our David Lammy.

    Candidates to lead Commonwealth urge reparations for slavery and colonialism

    Three African contenders for role of secretary general call for financial measures or reparative justice

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/90f45a14ec4c768814d35a45a680045c663a87f7/1639_678_3827_2296/master/3827.jpg?width=700&dpr=2&s=none Mamadou Tangara, the foreign minister of the Gambia, said he fully supported reparative justice and that the Commonwealth could make it happen.

    The three candidates to be the next secretary general of the Commonwealth have called for reparations for countries that were affected by slavery and colonisation.

    The candidates from the Gambia, Ghana and Lesotho expressed their support for either financial reparations or “reparative justice”, as they made their pitches to lead the 56-country organisation at a debate hosted by the Chatham House thinktank in London on Wednesday.

    Calls for reparations for the harms caused by slavery and colonialism have grown since the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020 sparked Black Lives Matter protests globally and led many governments, institutions and individuals to examine how they had historically benefited from the slave trade.African and Caribbean countries formed an alliance last year to pressure former slave-owning states to pay for “historical mass crimes”.

    “Financial reparations is good,” said Shirley Botchwey, Ghana’s foreign minister. “Whether or not the Commonwealth has a role to play will depend on the heads of government, who will give the secretary general her marching orders.”

    Joshua Setipa, a former trade minister for Lesotho, said he would not wait to get involved in the reparations debate. “I support the idea of reparative justice,” he said. “The Commonwealth has a long history of facilitating discussions around difficult issues.

    “We’ve dealt with racism, which was even more divisive than this,” he said, a nod to the organisation’s history in helping to negotiate an end to white-minority rule in Zimbabwe and later South Africa.

    Mamadou Tangara, The Gambia’s foreign minister, said: “I am fully in support of reparatory justice. The Commonwealth can use its convening power to facilitate the dialogue and make it happen.”

    The Commonwealth evolved from the ashes of the British empire. Its 56 members, all but four of them former British colonies, have a combined population of 2.7 billion. King Charles is the ceremonial head of the organisation, having taken over after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, who was its most enthusiastic proponent.

    All three candidates to succeed Patricia Scotland as secretary general batted off suggestions that it was a colonial relic, arguing that countries had made an independent choice to be a part of a grouping they said could advocate for action on climate change and youth unemployment.

    The leadership vote will take place at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Samoa from 21 to 26 October.

    1. I've been to the Slave Museum on the James river in Gambia
      I've read the contracts of sale between the tribal chiefs and the shippers
      Perhaps he could start there……….
      No,thought not

      2. If they admit that Tribe A sold Tribe B into slavery, it will mean the Routemaster bus together with the Diesel engine, the use of which the BLM accuse Mr Wight of general way transporting slaves to the seaports, was not invented in the 18 Century.

    2. Somebody do some sums:
      1 How much slavery cost the slaves?
      2 How much benefit it brought, long term

      2. ………and compensation for the many deaths of members of the West Africa Squadron whilst

        fighting the slavers and their ships.

    4. Starmer will probably jump at the chance to give money away. This will present him with a diverse way to make a black hole even deeper and blacker.

  11. Lammy: UK missiles are vital to stop Putin. 13 September 2024.

    Britain and America must give Ukraine the weapons it needs “to win” against Russia before a pivotal winter of fighting, the Foreign Secretary has said.

    Ahead of Washington talks on long-range missile use, David Lammy told The Telegraph the coming months were “crucial” in helping Kyiv get in a winning position.

    We are doomed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/12/lammy-uk-missiles-vital-ukraine-putin/

    1. It's a cunning ploy Minty getting Vlad to donate a few dozen megatons of energy to the UK for free
      Winter energy and heating crisis??
      Sorted…………….

    2. And Putin has said that an attack on Russian territory by said weapons means he will attack NATO.
      Looking good for armageddon…

    1. Vast majority are Sunni Muzzies who, as we all know, would never dream of engaging in slavery. {:^))

      1. I'm surprised it's still called the Whitehouse. They should rename it the Greenhouse seeing it's full of vegetables.

      1. They think pitchforking babies is barbaric. So they will behead them with machetes like their Hamas mates.

  14. There are so many flaws in this analysis. The cost is obviously far higher, perhaps double. The gimmiegrant smuggling gangs could start a new racket, demanding £250,000 from HMG for each boat person they keep in France and don't ship to Kent/Sussex.

    Low-skilled migrants cost taxpayers £150,000 each

    Pressure on public services outweighs tax take for low-earners, finds OBR

    Szu Ping Chan and Tim Wallace
    12 September 2024 • 7:16pm

    Low-paid migrant workers are an immediate drain on the public purse, costing taxpayers more than £150,000 each by the time they hit state pension age, according to the Government’s tax and spending watchdog.

    The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the average low-earner who came to Britain aged 25 cost the Government more overall than they paid in from the moment they arrived.

    The cumulative bill rose to an estimated £151,000 by the time they could claim the state pension at 66, the watchdog said.

    This is because low-paid migrants – who the OBR assumes earn half the average wage – put more demand on public services such as the NHS compared to their relatively low-tax payments.

    The OBR estimated the cost to the public purse rose to almost £500,000 if they lived to 80, and more than £1m if they lived to 100.

    By contrast, the average British-born worker boosts the public finances by £280,000 by the time they reach 66, even adjusting for education and health spending before they start work.

    While low-paid migrants are a drain on public finances, the OBR found that the average migrant worker pays more in tax than they receive in public services throughout their lives compared to British-born workers. This is mainly because they are not educated in the UK.

    Migrants also pay visa fees and health care charges, which the OBR estimates at around £12,500 for a migrant on a Skilled Worker visa who settles in the UK. Most migrants are also not eligible for welfare benefits for the first five years of their stay.

    The watchdog also highlighted the benefits of attracting more highly-paid migrants to the UK.

    Workers earning 30pc more than the average salary could expect to contribute a net £925,000 to the Treasury’s coffers until state pension age, the watchdog said.

    These people would “still be a net benefit to the public finances even if they lived to 100”, the OBR said in its latest fiscal risks report.

    By contrast, the OBR’s long-term tax and spending projections showed “an illustrative low-wage migrant worker arriving at 25 and earning half the UK average becomes less fiscally beneficial than the average UK resident in their early 40s”.

    David Miles, an OBR official said: “I think the characteristics of migrants, in terms of their earnings and how long they stay, are as important, if not more important, than the absolute numbers.”

    The OBR’s analysis will boost the case for the Government to cut down on low-skilled migration.

    Net migration rose to a record-high 764,000 under the Conservatives.

    Sir Keir Starmer has previously warned that employers have become “too reliant” on overseas workers and “should always have a choice of recruiting a British worker first”.

    The Prime Minister has promised to cut “sky-high” migration figures, but refused to put a target on his ambition.

    The Tories overhauled the UK’s visa system earlier this year, increasing the baseline minimum salary to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa from £26,200 to £38,700.

    The previous government also banned social care workers from bringing dependents on their visa.

    Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has said she supports “some further restrictions on visas” introduced by the Government.

    Mr Miles said that the wages of migrants made a “material difference” on Britain’s long-term debt trajectory. UK debt is already close to eclipsing the size of the economy.

    In a scenario where all migrants earn 50pc less than average in the UK, the stock of debt would rise to 350pc of GDP by 2074, the OBR said, instead of hitting 275pc.

    If all migrants earned 30pc more than the domestic population, debt would only rise to 225pc of GDP over the same period.

    “The characteristic of migrants, perhaps not surprisingly, matters a great deal,” said Mr Miles.

    The Imperial College professor has previously urged policymakers to get more people working instead of relying on immigration to reduce Britain’s debts.

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

    Voting Floater
    11 hrs ago
    So the conspiracy theorists, far right thugs, racists, bigots and generally concerned UK citizens were right all along!
    Well there's surprise!

    P R Yallop
    10 hrs ago
    Reply to Voting Floater
    Another quality quango, years ahead of the curve. 😂 Now let's see how many years it takes another quango to realise stopping them could save the tax payer money….

    1. Unfortunately Professor Miles has ignored the statement by the ONS that 1.1 million asylum seekers and immigrants stated on their

      applications that they had no intention of working.

  15. BTL:-

    R. Spowart
    just now
    Message Actions
    So, Labour wants to "Reform" the NHS?
    Agreed, that the NHS needs to be reformed is undeniable and what that reform should look like should have been a matter of intense debate for the past couple of decades.
    But that necessary debate has been somewhat noticeable by it's absence.
    Why aren't people having that debate?
    Because ANY proposed reform of "Our" NHS, particularly by the Conservatives, is immediately greeted by the same hysteric knee-jerk reaction and demented screams of "SAVE OUR NHS" and "THEY WANT TO PRIVATISE OUR NHS" and always from the same vested interests of the Unions & bureaucratic REMFs.
    And note that when they scream "Our NHS" they mean exactly that, THEIR NHS, not ours.
    We, the poor bloody taxpayer, are just an inconvenience who are expected to stump up ever increasing sums of money to pay for the burgeoning number of non-jobs they keep recruiting for.

  16. Morning, all Y'all. Clear & fresh.
    Magnificent display of Northern Lights last night (after I went to bed). I'll try & post some pictures later today, taken from the newspapers.
    Read this morning that Putin has said that if Western powers (ie, UK & USA) allow Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons against Russian territory, he will attack NATO. That's looking like a good move all round, isn't it?

    1. I saw that last night. Putin is right of course – it amounts to a declaration of war against Russia. A totally uncalled for escalation.

  17. UK Govt Crime Minister’s Purse Stolen While at Crime Conference

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2024/09/GettyImages-2153321870-e1726162326293-640×480.jpg
    Fiction could not be stranger: Minister of State for Crime Prevention has her purse stolen at a conference for senior police officers on preventing theft and shoplifting.

    Minister of State for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention Diana Johnson, a member of Britain’s new left-wing government, delivered comments at a conference for the Police Superintendents’ Association this week, where her purse was stolen.

        1. You are so very saintly, Bob. I roared out loud with laughter and clapped my little hands with glee. Best moment of the day.

    2. It would be interesting to know what was in her purse?

      ID cards? Expense claims? Private correspondence from ?

      Ms Johnson hasn't revealed anything.

      1. Codes and passwords to sensitive information regarding pursuance and prosecution of White Anglo Saxons and effective use of false and dubious information in securing a guilty verdict. Other restricted information on BBC and Parliamentary members indulging in paedophilia and divergence of public money for personal gain. TOP SECRET.

    3. Set a thief to catch a thief!

      She should call in Starmer and Reeves to help her find the purse and the robber.

  18. Switzerland: Migrant Politician Resigns After Using Mary and Jesus For Shooting Practice

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2024/09/pixlr_20240911185241620-640×480.jpg

    A left-green politician uploaded a video of herself using a print of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus for handgun target practice to Instagram, later claiming she had no idea that the image had religious significance.

    32 year old Sanija Ameti, until this week a Green Liberal Party (GLP) city councillor of Zurich in Switzerland is being ejected from her political party and has even lost her job at a public relations consulting firm after courting outrage. The left-wing activist, whose recent publicity stunts have including distributing condoms to fight “xenophobia” had published footage of herself on Instagram using a print of a 14th century painting of Mary and Jesus for pistol shooting target practice.

    It is claimed the politician, who migrated to Switzerland as a child with her family, has received threats after the act and is now in receipt of police protection. Even so, many quarters of Swiss society have called for forgiveness, including Swiss Catholics and conservatives.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GW70VzAXIAAYD6r?format=jpg&name=900×900

    1. Turkish parentage I believe.
      And, apparently, today is the anniversary of the Polish Hussars breaking the siege of Vienna.

    2. Ameti, herself a Bosnian-born Muslim, apologized shortly afterwards. She writes on Instagram: “As a template for the ten-meter shooting, I needed motifs that were sufficiently visible. I only had the Koller catalog at hand, which was large enough. I didn't pay attention to the content of the pictures. That wasn't right. I'm really sorry if I hurt anyone with this!"
      .
      "I didn't pay attention to the content.. honest."
      Her mother confirms she is a kind & gentle person.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b9ecad7d623070a3869b2f0e5d9dcc2e55e5a6431d929e24218132b63314861.png

      1. She has missed out on the sort of fun the people of Lewes have when choosing who is to be next year's Guy.

        Nominations please on a postcard to the good lady.

      2. What would be the reaction if someone had done that to a picture of Mohamed, or whatever his name is, he if the peace lovers. All hell would have been let loose.

  19. Good morning, all. Clear, bright and calm at the moment and the daily forecast is for more of the same.

    More essential infrastructure disappearing and job losses, of course. Usual politician's reaction from Miliband minor but apparently no mention of a plan to make up for the loss of the workers' livelihoods or the loss of production.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f02bd6507592a7f26bf953c14d25bcd8fb06be48ac7c02ae2ea5460d712454ac.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b3bfc9f2d1aa3fcb8a962348d0bea749fd757b5dd6482e8d1cd6247911b4254.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c28bf3f76742f5cad45bb6f0439fb78f661f17ed99bfe32251f4cc8697b9235.png

    Collectively, their stupidity gives rise to our belief that they could bend light, singly or collectively.

    Only very dense (DESNZ – Department of Energy Security and Net Zero) objects are capable of bending light… geddit?

    1. What if – as I believe will happen – the banning of new petrol cars from 2035 fails to achieve its end?

      There are growing signs of disenchantment, disillusionment and distress re the prospect of EVs among potential customers and current EV manufacturers.

      In these circumstances, premature closure of our last remaining oil refinery would be strategically naïve and a potential economic disaster.

          1. But being an intellectual pygmy as far as science is concerned, he is incapable of understanding the realities of engineering and physics!

        2. Who will be the first mainline politician to put his head above the parapet and declare, unequivocally :

          Man-made global warming is a myth; Carbon dioxide is both beneficial and necessary; and Net Zero i s a scam."

          In my dreams someone hits the Lunatic Miliband over the head with a heavy mallet and when he recovers his mind and personality have both been repaired and it is he who makes this statement along with a sincere apology for the damage he has wreaked.

          1. Dream on Rastus! It’s hard to believe he actually believes these lies. There’s another agenda there and it’s not a good one.

          2. Yes Ndovu. As has been said previously, many Marxists believe that communism will only be introduced

            when the economy collapses.

          3. In fiction megalomaniac monsters such as Dr Strangelove who are set on destroying the world are criminally insane.

            There is little doubt in my mind that Ed Miliband is completely mad or completely evil – or both; but the horror is that he is in the real world and in a position of power in the government.

          4. The heretic would be burned at the stake (all toxic and CO₂ emissions from said immolation to be offset by sending coal to China).

      2. What became of that little Welsh car manufacturer whose engineers took a good look at the respective merits of electric and internal combustion engines, coming up with a hybrid?

        The internal combustion engine can keep going all day, and is extremely efficient when cruising at a steady speed, but becomes very wasteful when stopping and starting, or accelerating and braking hard.

        The electric motor, especially one powered by DC, is superb at stopping and starting, it has remarkable acceleration and energy can be scavenged when braking, and yet if any range is expected when cruising, it demands a huge and heavy battery that pushes up the energy required to keep it going.

        However, by using an electric motor to do the stopping and starting, the accelerating and braking, and handing over to the ICE for the cruising, one can make both a lot smaller, and therefore far more fuel efficient without compromising on performance.

        Why isn't this technology being backed?

        1. Perhaps it doesn't fit the narrative i.e. the remaining little people will have no need/be allowed to travel (decided by the elites) when the 'sustainable' cities, aka 15 minutes neighbourhoods, are universally in place.

        1. You will be arrested and jailed for possession of a noxious and lethal instrument and made to work in a care home – for nothing!!

  20. Russia expels six British diplomats for ‘spying and sabotage’ . 13 September 2024.

    Russia’s FSB security service said on Friday it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow whose actions it said showed signs of spying and sabotage work.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    The West is going west.

    Putin is clearly rattled by Britain's resolve to resist his genocidal mania. We need to push on in our support of Ukraine's efforts to defeat Russia's armed forces and removing them from its territory.

    The Telegraph threads are infested with these warmongering Government Trolls.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/13/moscow-british-diplomats-expelled-russia-ukraine-zelensky/

    1. Putin is in a bit of a bind over proposals to use Western ballistic missiles within Russia. All depend on whose command these would be under.

      if they are controlled by Kyiv, then I cannot see why Ukraine owes Russian civilians any favours. They did after all elect Putin and are overwhelmingly supporting him in his military adventures. They only deserve precisely what Russia is dishing out to Ukrainian civilians.

      If they are controlled by NATO, then any attack on Russian civilians is strictly against the remit of NATO, a defensive organisation, and a violation of NATO's founding principles that could cause it to fall apart. NATO would then insist that any attack it supports within Russia be limited to a defensive strike, specifically on those missile silos launching strikes into Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure that is costing NATO members so dear in aid and refugee support. Anything else, and NATO support is summarily withdrawn, and Zelenskyy must know this.

      This leaves the third option. Ballistic support from individual states either allied to or sympathetic to Ukraine in its situation against Russian aggression. Putin can have no moral objection, since he himself is content to use Iranian weaponry and China and India to break sanctions imposed by much of the rest of the world. If America deems it is in their national interest to supply Kyiv with ballistic missiles, then it is not up to Putin, or even NATO, to object.

      Putin may then choose to influence this decision by interfering in the election process abroad, but then under 'What's Sauce for the Goose', he cannot object too much if, say, the CIA conspires to influence politics in the Kremlin. Putin's response should then be 'let then try!' if he is half the man as that bloke riding bear-chested on the picture.

  21. Russia expels six British diplomats for ‘spying and sabotage’ . 13 September 2024.

    Russia’s FSB security service said on Friday it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow whose actions it said showed signs of spying and sabotage work.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    The West is going west.

    Putin is clearly rattled by Britain's resolve to resist his genocidal mania. We need to push on in our support of Ukraine's efforts to defeat Russia's armed forces and removing them from its territory.

    The Telegraph threads are infested with these warmongering Government Trolls.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/13/moscow-british-diplomats-expelled-russia-ukraine-zelensky/

  22. Right, time to do the DT's mug of tea & bowl of cereal and fill my travel mug then, after getting dressed, off to Scunthorpe.

  23. 392948+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I do not say this lightly but peoples MUST seriously suffer and prematurely worse before serious opposition is triggered.

    The root of the NHS problems lie in the elected political overseers who for the last four decades have been openly busy
    destroying the nation as was, in orchestrated favour and "tickets to scam" under instructions via davos and the WEF / NWO with royal seal.

    No sense whatsoever in million time patches of monies and the battle construct / destroy rages on currently, it will never happen
    under the same type political capos.

    £600.000000 would surely be a good start for ,in short a parallel
    indigenous only paid up members NHS, it worked prior to the political mobsters & scammers came to town so WHY not again.

    1. 392948+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Alternative is, invest in bigger money shovels
      to feed the WEF NWO beast.

      Friday 13 September: Only a complete overhaul can save the wasteful and ill-managed NHS

    2. French health care system vs. Envy of the world NHS.

      238,000 beds vs. NHS 103,277.
      167.7 doctors, nursing personnel, midwives, dentists, pharmacists / 10,000. —- NHS 10.58/10 000.
      Specialist waiting time 10 days. GP 6 days —- NHS 18 weeks. GP 19-10 days.
      Ah but but but.. NHS has 800 diversity and inclusion officers.

      1. Oh and one healthcare system is modern, state of the art & pristine.. the other is more like 1960s Morrisons.

    3. French health care system vs. Envy of the world NHS.

      238,000 beds vs. NHS 103,277.
      167.7 doctors, nursing personnel, midwives, dentists, pharmacists / 10,000. —- NHS 10.58/10 000.
      Specialist waiting time 10 days. GP 6 days —- NHS 18 weeks. GP 19-10 days.
      Ah but but but.. NHS has 800 diversity and inclusion officers.

  24. Ameti, herself a Bosnian-born Muslim, apologized shortly afterwards. She writes on Instagram: “As a template for the ten-meter shooting, I needed motifs that were sufficiently visible. I only had the Koller catalog at hand, which was large enough. I didn't pay attention to the content of the pictures. That wasn't right. I'm really sorry if I hurt anyone with this!"
    .
    "I didn't pay attention to the content.. honest."
    Her mother confirms she is a kind & gentle person.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b9ecad7d623070a3869b2f0e5d9dcc2e55e5a6431d929e24218132b63314861.png

  25. A belated good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff – as always – for today's NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,182 5/6

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

  26. Here is a classic example of the difference between Christianity and Islam.

    St Mary is one of the holiest icons of Christianity, and the ritual shooting of this paragon of innocence and the mother of the founder of the Church, is in appalling taste. Yet the response is not the stoning of the perpetrator for this gross blasphemy, but a prayer to God that this sinner may come to her senses, and perhaps even, like Saul of Tarsus, see the light and learn to love Mary for who she is and for what she represents.

    Now imagine what would happen if someone took a pop at an effigy of Mohammed!

    1. I was just about to make the same point.

      Even publishing a picture of Muhammed could lead to you being brutally murdered so if you then took potshots at the picture all Hell would be let loose.

    2. We're surprised.

      As long as the girl was older than nine we didn't think that the CPS would want to prosecute.

    3. We're surprised.

      As long as the girl was older than nine we didn't think that the CPS would want to prosecute.

  29. Good morning all,
    Wow , 4c here , very Autumnal and pretty .

    We are holding back putting the heating on until October .

    Our Electricity bill this year is £250 lower than last year .. Why because the oven remains idle . We use other means now , and my gas hob .

      1. I've been told my electricity will go up £17 over the next year and a lot of that is standing charge

      2. We have just bought an air fryer. Caroline likes it.

        It has taken the place the toaster used to occupy on the kitchen worktop. Unfortunately its 'toast function' browns the bread nicely but dries it out too much so it is not nearly as good as toast made in a proper toaster.

    5. I would love a gas hob again. The Dower House has one of those bloody induction thingies.
      When we've had a breather, I will ask out chap about replacing it.

        1. We have a gas supply for our boiler.
          There used to be a gas fire in the sitting room but it was condemned and shut off
          There probably is a gas supply somewhere the kitchen, but we'll have to in the mood to cope with the expense and upheaval.

        2. We have a gas supply for our boiler.
          There used to be a gas fire in the sitting room but it was condemned and shut off
          There probably is a gas supply somewhere the kitchen, but we'll have to in the mood to cope with the expense and upheaval.

    3. Haitians have been sacrificing any and all animals, people’s pet cats and dogs, ducks and geese for a century and more. They practice voodoo too.

      Whoever thought it a good idea to drop 20,000 of these primitives on a small town in Ohio is mad. Just wait for the societal dysfunction and disruption. This is the work of truly evil people.

  32. Friday 13th, what an appropriate day for two of the stupidest heads of government to be meeting, potentially to decide the fate of the world through giving a clown the means and the opportunity to start WW3.

    Damn them all to Hell.

      2. I think all of the problems on this planet are only caused by a handful of people.
        Why by now hasn't it been recognised and they are stamped out.

    2. It's all part of the Great Reset so desired by Schwab and his disciples : the Idiot King, Biden, Starmer, et al

      (If the bombs are big enough there won't be anything to reset!)

      1. If you start to suspect your candidate can't even steal the election try to buy it, if that doesn't look as if it will work change your candidate and prepare to buy and steal simultaneously.

    5. Yet again we are having to rely on Putin’s restraint. I reckon by now Putin wishes Pontius Pilot like to wash his hands of the west and go take a nap.

  33. It was the late Prince Philip who once said "if it swims but is not a submarine; if it flies but is not an aeroplane; if it has legs but is not a table, then the Cantonese will eat it".

  35. Reposted from late last night

    Friday 13th September, 2024

    Anne Allan

    (aka The Pushy Nurse!)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f15108925be65a9a2608d8e25edca14c950fe7218c958fddb1d38927a117d0b9.png

    You have not told us your year of birth – doubtless prompted by Oscar Wilde:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2bb28af71d4743b58570ba7978905334632573fc204685262121582e848db880.png

    I think you are in severe danger of becoming "a treasure" on the Nottlers' Forum,

    With our very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    4. Happy birthday nursey I hope your day goes well, have a lovely time today as I did yesterday. Best wishes to you and yours. 🤗🤗🥂🍾🍹cheers.

      1. If it wasn't for Virgos the world would have nobody to tell it what to do.
        It would help if it occasionally listened.

      2. It does. I now know where Fratton Station is, though I'm not sure what I'll do with the knowledge.

      1. :-). So far, I've cleared away the last of the crabapple jiuce and bunged it in the freezer.
        I ran out of jars.
        Remind me to keep schtum next time my Sis-in-Law mentions she is pruning her crabapple tree.

    11. Good Moaning, Rastus and Caroline.
      Let's put it this way: Monty was so chuffed to hear of my arrival that it inspired him to whack Rommel good and hard.

  36. It's all part of the Great Reset so desired by Schwab and his disciples : the Idiot King, Biden, Starmer, et al

    (If the bombs are big enough there won't be anything to reset!)

  38. Morning all 🙂😊
    I guess as it's Friday 13th we are about to fall into the weather trap, it's cloudless and bright sunshine ☀ just as it started yesterday…….
    It's not just the NHS that needs a complete overhaul, Wastemonster and Whitehall needs urgent attention. Unlike the usually very helpful medically trained front liners in the NHS, the 'other places' need a total replacement clearout. They obviously don't have a clue what they are doing.

  41. If Donald Trump fails to make it to the White House, then perhaps here is an opportunity to front a new reality TV show for when 'The Apprentice' format gets too tired to air.

    A combination of 'Bake Off' and 'The Dog House', contestants are invited to prepare exciting and mouthwatering recipes for their family pets. It could be filmed in Ohio, where I believe there is already a tradition of that sort of thing.

    1. Well, I think that they might be thinking if people knew the extent to which the powers that be are doing all this, then they rather think there could be trouble, because they are going to great lengths to hide the facts. Matthew Goodwin's substack following a question by Neil O'Brien in a Parliamentary committee discussion. Some facts revealed:

      "*The Department for Work and Pensions has stopped publishing data on welfare claims by nationality, making it impossible for anybody to ascertain the impact of immigration on the welfare system (and the cost)
      *HMRC has stopped publishing information on the tax paid and tax credits received by nationality, again making it impossible to build up an accurate picture of how immigration is impacting on the national economy
      *the Home Office is now refusing to answer detailed questions about the immigration status of people who are imprisoned in U.K. prisons, making it impossible to gather information on how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime rates and imprisonment
      *even worse, the Home Office actually has these data but its is deliberately refusing to publish them
      *the Home Office does not collect either nationality or immigration data on those people who are arrested on these islands, again making it impossible for us to know how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime and social order
      *the Home Office does not reveal, in detail, what it is spending on hotel rooms and accommodation for illegal migrants in the asylum system, once again making it impossible to verify, dispute, or support claims being made
      *the Home Office says it does not know how much it is spending on loans to refugees which is, once again, taxpayer money."

      Go figure. As Tony Blair used to suggest during that time he was trying to force ID cards on us all – if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about. I wonder if the government is living proof of its own position.

      1. Good morning James. I suggest Mr Blair goes first, having nothing to hide and therefore nothing to worry about?

        1. Indeed KJ, good morning to you, too. I trust you are keeping well. Mind you, no need to rake up the past. He might just come clean about his current obsessions. That’d do.

    2. Well, I think that they might be thinking if people knew the extent to which the powers that be are doing all this, then they rather think there could be trouble, because they are going to great lengths to hide the facts. Matthew Goodwin's substack following a question by Neil O'Brien in a Parliamentary committee discussion. Some facts revealed:

      "*The Department for Work and Pensions has stopped publishing data on welfare claims by nationality, making it impossible for anybody to ascertain the impact of immigration on the welfare system (and the cost)
      *HMRC has stopped publishing information on the tax paid and tax credits received by nationality, again making it impossible to build up an accurate picture of how immigration is impacting on the national economy
      *the Home Office is now refusing to answer detailed questions about the immigration status of people who are imprisoned in U.K. prisons, making it impossible to gather information on how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime rates and imprisonment
      *even worse, the Home Office actually has these data but its is deliberately refusing to publish them
      *the Home Office does not collect either nationality or immigration data on those people who are arrested on these islands, again making it impossible for us to know how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime and social order
      *the Home Office does not reveal, in detail, what it is spending on hotel rooms and accommodation for illegal migrants in the asylum system, once again making it impossible to verify, dispute, or support claims being made
      *the Home Office says it does not know how much it is spending on loans to refugees which is, once again, taxpayer money."

      Go figure. As Tony Blair used to suggest during that time he was trying to force ID cards on us all – if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about. I wonder if the government is living proof of its own position.

    3. Well, I think that they might be thinking if people knew the extent to which the powers that be are doing all this, then they rather think there could be trouble, because they are going to great lengths to hide the facts. Matthew Goodwin's substack following a question by Neil O'Brien in a Parliamentary committee discussion. Some facts revealed:

      "*The Department for Work and Pensions has stopped publishing data on welfare claims by nationality, making it impossible for anybody to ascertain the impact of immigration on the welfare system (and the cost)
      *HMRC has stopped publishing information on the tax paid and tax credits received by nationality, again making it impossible to build up an accurate picture of how immigration is impacting on the national economy
      *the Home Office is now refusing to answer detailed questions about the immigration status of people who are imprisoned in U.K. prisons, making it impossible to gather information on how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime rates and imprisonment
      *even worse, the Home Office actually has these data but its is deliberately refusing to publish them
      *the Home Office does not collect either nationality or immigration data on those people who are arrested on these islands, again making it impossible for us to know how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime and social order
      *the Home Office does not reveal, in detail, what it is spending on hotel rooms and accommodation for illegal migrants in the asylum system, once again making it impossible to verify, dispute, or support claims being made
      *the Home Office says it does not know how much it is spending on loans to refugees which is, once again, taxpayer money."

      Go figure. As Tony Blair used to suggest during that time he was trying to force ID cards on us all – if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about. I wonder if the government is living proof of its own position.

    4. Well, I think that they might be thinking if people knew the extent to which the powers that be are doing all this, then they rather think there could be trouble, because they are going to great lengths to hide the facts. Matthew Goodwin's substack following a question by Neil O'Brien in a Parliamentary committee discussion. Some facts revealed:

      "*The Department for Work and Pensions has stopped publishing data on welfare claims by nationality, making it impossible for anybody to ascertain the impact of immigration on the welfare system (and the cost)
      *HMRC has stopped publishing information on the tax paid and tax credits received by nationality, again making it impossible to build up an accurate picture of how immigration is impacting on the national economy
      *the Home Office is now refusing to answer detailed questions about the immigration status of people who are imprisoned in U.K. prisons, making it impossible to gather information on how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime rates and imprisonment
      *even worse, the Home Office actually has these data but its is deliberately refusing to publish them
      *the Home Office does not collect either nationality or immigration data on those people who are arrested on these islands, again making it impossible for us to know how, if at all, immigration is impacting on crime and social order
      *the Home Office does not reveal, in detail, what it is spending on hotel rooms and accommodation for illegal migrants in the asylum system, once again making it impossible to verify, dispute, or support claims being made
      *the Home Office says it does not know how much it is spending on loans to refugees which is, once again, taxpayer money."

      Go figure. As Tony Blair used to suggest during that time he was trying to force ID cards on us all – if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about. I wonder if the government is living proof of its own position.

    5. Adam Brooks is an excellent chap.

      He appears regularly as a panellist on GBNews. He is currently squared up against a completely odious woman called Nina Mishcoff and she is one of the rudest people who appears on the channel although Tessa Dunlop is a strong contender in the Harpy stakes.

        1. NM is a seriously unpleasant woman. I change channels as soon as she comes on.

          I also change channels when Tessa Dunlop, Michael Crick, Rebecca Reid, Benjamin Butterworth, Amy Nickel, Joanna Jarjue and many others come on.

          I can understand the left's antipathy to GB News – their pro-Labour panellists are so nasty, muddle-headed and stupid that they must show how completely morally bankrupt the left has become.

          1. Every now and again Benjie says something sensible. Almost by accident. Makes me wonder how much of it is an act. Especially as the wedding photos show that he and Mr & Mrs Chrystys are clearly friends. (Mind, I have silly leftie friends too!)

          2. Here you, Rastus. We can trace it back, I reckon, to Wimminslib. Witness the fight in the US re: abortion, if that isn’t sufficiently ghastly in order for people to wake up, what would be? Things can only get worse when Harris elected, interesting today’s news re her earrings 😀 Unfortunately, what happens in USA often crosses the pond.

        2. NM is a seriously unpleasant woman. I change channels as soon as she comes on.

          I also change channels when Tessa Dunlop, Micheel Crick, Rebecca Reid, Benjamin Butterworth, Amy Nickel, Joanna Jarjue and many others come on.

          I can understand the left's antipathy to GB News – their pro-Labour panellists are so nasty, muddle-headed and stupid that they must show how completely morally bankrupt the left has become.

    6. Brilliant go for it Adam.
      i suspect the fraction of the British people who actually voted in this terribly government didn't know they were voting for a globalist party. There was never a mention of it in their manifesto. The election should now be forcably null and voided.

  45. Our so-called leaders are debating whether or not to launch attacks into Russia with British missiles.

    Whilst this act of folly wouldn't literally be 'marching on Moscow' it is tantamount to that very action.

    Page One, Rule One of the Rules of War "Do not march on Moscow".

    There's no doubt that the inmates are in charge of the asylum.

    1. The last few times it's been tried, it didn't go well.
      Definition of stupidity: Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

    2. A memorable exchange from The Goon Show:
      "I want political asylum"!
      "Well take a number eleven bus to the House of Commons. The finest political asylum in the world"!
      The number eleven no longer goes there but there are alternaitves. Spike nailed it.

      1. We've caught the No. 11 from Liverpool Street to the Strand. Can't remember where it goes after that.
        We always make a mad dash for the upstairs front seats.

    1. The West is absolutely determined to turn the Ukrainians into fodder for the meat grinder of war. If this goes on for much longer Ukrainians will cease to be a people able to replace themselves. According to Russia, the death toll is at half a million Ukrainian troops.

      1. Not to worry, millions of young male gimmegrants are pouring into Europe, they can be sent to Ukraine when it's over to rebuild everything.

        Starting with new mosques..

        1. Kiev is the “sacred city” for the Russians. They will destroy us all before they allowed that to happen. It is one of the things that the West poorly understands. Ukraine is not foreign territory to Russia. This is really a civil war, not a war between two nations. Kiev is the birthplace of “Holy Mother Russia.” And the Russians mean that quite literally, not as an abstract.

        2. Kiev is the “sacred city” for the Russians. They will destroy us all before they allowed that to happen. It is one of the things that the West poorly understands. Ukraine is not foreign territory to Russia. This is really a civil war, not a war between two nations. Kiev is the birthplace of “Holy Mother Russia.” And the Russians mean that quite literally, not as an abstract.

    2. It seems to me that Ukraine is acting in a similar way to Hamas.
      It's not easy to understand what they are trying to achieve.

    3. Why can't people like lammy undstand that more often than not, backing off can be the answer to saving lives. Oh yes I remember…..he's no master mind.

    1. And The Labour Government is intent on stopping Nigel Farage from broadcasting on GB News while he remains an MP.

      Of course it wants to close down GB News as it is dogmatically against Free Speech and the expression of any views it doesn't like – especially when it is the truth.

  48. Matt John
    @RDevil80
    ·
    14h
    My mate lived next door to Holiday Inn Sammy and recently Moved because of that exact Reason Fed up of these grown fighting Men Prowling his street and Staring at his young daughter!! everyone in our Area absolutely sick to back teeth!!
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    Gentle reminder:
    Easy Meat: Inside Britain's Grooming Gang Scandal
    Peter McLoughlin
    New English Review Press, 2016
    ISBN 1943003068, 9781943003068

    The govt, Keir Starmer himself, College of Policing, conspired to cover up the fact that 10s of thousands of little English girls were getting tortured, sexually assaulted, raped by these Islamic grooming gangs. Jack Straw said it himself.. they didn't want to purposefully say anything because they didn't want to appear racist.

    People say.. "So surely they're not willing to let that happen?"

    If they are willing to see children get tortured for this weird globalist woke religion that one shouldn't be islamophobic.. if they're willing to do that, they're willing to do anything. when you realise that.. the gloves are off.. they'll do anything. Lie about anything. They'll cheat.. They'll kill.. There is nothing beneath these people.

    1. At our Great Disputation debate (a tradition going back to the Middle Ages and recently revived) in St Barts last night, Winston Marshall (son of Sir Paul) gave a breakdown of the death toll from socialist regimes in the 20th century and the squirming in their seats unease among the audience was palpable, especially when he reminded them that those Germans were National Socialists. Everything he said was true though and both he and Ann Widdecombe reminded us that socialism is about state control. It puts the perceived needs of the collective above those of the individual and the individual, especially the dissenting individual, becomes dispensable.

    2. It's been said more times than could be counted. Everywhere they are or go to. Their soul aim is to cause as much trouble as they can possibly get away with.
      Usually by the time it's recognised its too late to react.

  49. Matt John
    @RDevil80
    ·
    14h
    My mate lived next door to Holiday Inn Sammy and recently Moved because of that exact Reason Fed up of these grown fighting Men Prowling his street and Staring at his young daughter!! everyone in our Area absolutely sick to back teeth!!
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
    Gentle reminder:
    Easy Meat: Inside Britain's Grooming Gang Scandal
    Peter McLoughlin
    New English Review Press, 2016
    ISBN 1943003068, 9781943003068

    The govt, Keir Starmer himself, College of Policing, conspired to cover up the fact that 10s of thousands of little English girls were getting tortured, sexually assaulted, raped by these Islamic grooming gangs. Jack Straw said it himself.. they didn't want to purposefully say anything because they didn't want to appear racist.

    People say.. "So surely they're not willing to let that happen?"

    If they are willing to see children get tortured for this weird globalist woke religion that one shouldn't be islamophobic.. if they're willing to do that, they're willing to do anything. when you realise that.. the gloves are off.. they'll do anything. Lie about anything. They'll cheat.. They'll kill.. There is nothing beneath these people.

    1. Five years ago, I would have agreed with poster; today I'm not sure that the majority do.
      As the ignoble convid period proved, all too many Brits are quite happy to be relieved of that troublesome activity known as "thinking for yourself".

  52. 392948+ up ticks,

    TAKE HEED,

    This will be, in the United Kingdoms realm, our fast approaching future if radical change is ignored and net zero adhered to, this will be achieved with NO Russian input.

    breitbart,
    Ukrainian City Without Running Water or Heat After Russian Strikes

    1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Why is Putin expelling more British diplomats?
      Comments Share 13 September 2024, 9:20am
      Another six bite the dust. The British Embassy in Moscow, already pared to the bone, is being reduced by another six diplomats. Their accreditation has been withdrawn because they were ‘threatening the security of the Russian Federation’ by ‘conducting intelligence and subversive work.’ It is bad news for international stability as diplomatic links become more and more attenuated, but perhaps something of a tribute to Britain.

      The Russian media today has been running two strikingly similar stories, one built around a statement from the Public Relations Centre of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the other comments by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s reliably acerbic spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. The upshot is that, in the FSB’s words, it ‘has received documentary materials confirming London’s coordination of the escalation of the international military-political situation.’

      This is the largest expulsion in the past year, after the flurry of extensive tit-for-tat purges which followed the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In February, Austria, for too long something of a safe haven for Russian spies, expelled four staff from the embassy in Vienna ‘for behaving in a manner inconsistent with international agreements,’ and Moscow retaliated in kind. In March, another was kicked out from Tallinn when, in the words of Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, ‘the Russian embassy interfered in the internal matters of Estonia in an unacceptable way.’ Again, the result was a reciprocal expulsion.

      Britain had expelled long-serving defence attaché Colonel Maxim Elovik in May as an ‘undeclared’ Russian military intelligence officer. It also closed several Russian diplomatic premises believed to have been used for espionage purposes, after two British men were charged with an arson attack in Leyton on behalf of a foreign intelligence service. Royal Navy Captain Adrian Coghill, the remaining British defence attaché in Moscow was duly declared persona non grata and given a week to leave.

      These have all been reciprocal acts, whereas this most recent set of expulsions came out of the blue. Is it possible that some or all of the six were indeed spies? Of course: London has even more reason now to be gathering intelligence on a hostile and unpredictable Russia, and the safest way to place officers abroad is in an embassy, under diplomatic immunity.

      However, beyond the age-old Russian assumption that Perfidious Albion remains its most subtle antagonist, this likely also reflects a sense that London is, indeed, continuing to play a crucial role in advancing the multinational effort against Vladimir Putin’s imperial war in Ukraine. There had been a cautious hope in Moscow that the new Labour government would be, if not any more friendly towards Russia, at least more interested in spending its money and political capital on domestic priorities. Instead, as Foreign Secretary David Lammy visits Kyiv alongside his American counterpart Anthony Blinken, and Keir Starmer heads to Washington for a lightning trip expected to see clearance given for Ukraine to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles on military targets inside Russia, the sense is that, if anything, this government is even more ‘Russophobic’ in Moscow’s parlance.

      The Russians are clearly trying desperately to prevent this. Putin even went on Russian TV to warn that if Ukraine hit Russian territory with western-supplied long-range missiles, ‘it will mean nothing less than the direct involvement of Nato countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine’ and that it means they would be ‘at war with Russia.’ However, it all seems in vain, and the green light is expected to be given.

      Nonetheless, the expulsions reflect a sense that Britain is both a tempting and a legitimate target. Tempting, in that it can be used as a proxy for the United States. Just as Moscow is so far limiting its escalating campaign of direct sabotage attacks to Europe, while confining itself to propaganda, disinformation and cyber operations against the USA, so too bearing down on London is a safer way of trying to communicate resolve to Washington.

      Britain is a legitimate target for Moscow because of its ‘coordination of the escalation of the international military-political situation’. Others call this leadership. As a Baltic parliamentarian told me this week, ‘Britain may not be able to be the biggest supplier of aid to Ukraine, but time and again it has stiffened others’ backbones’ and increased support from other countries. The UK’s pledge of 14 Challenger 2 tanks in January 2023, for example, was above all important in breaking a political stalemate and prompting subsequent transfers of larger numbers of US Abrams and European Leopard 2 tanks. Likewise, it is London that has been pressing a cautious US administration to allow wider use of long-range missiles.

      Are the expulsions meant to be a punishment or a warning? Perversely, there are already some regarding it as Putin’s most generous accolade to the UK.

      1. Could have worse. Imagine if they'd misgendered Putin.
        The British Ambassador would have chucked them out pronto.

      2. 392948+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R,
        Good post, thanks,
        I do see it as getting very near the point of saying ” where the hell has birmingham gone”

  54. Green steel is the only path to a British industrial renaissance
    The renewable energy revolution has give us an opportunity to revive our Victorian can-do spirit
    Amrose Evans-Pritchard : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/13/green-steel-only-path-british-industrial-renaissance/

    AEP is destroying the rest of a strong field in his determination to be awarded the total idiot of the year prize at the Daily Telegraph.

    BTL

    But 'green' steel is completely useless for many industrial purposes.

    While China builds two coal fuelled generators each week we set about destroying our own industries in the name of mythical man-made global warming and the complete Net Zero Scam. How more lunatic can we become?

    Britain does not deserve to survive – it has become a country of abject morons ruled by manipulative and sadistic morons.

      5. Happy, Happy Birthday, dear Anne! Belting it out across a Buenos Aires which finally seems to be edging into spring!

        Wishing you a wonderful day.

        K x

      8. Happy Birthday, Anne! I hope you have had a lovely, sunshiney day! 🌞🎉🍸🥂🍾🎊🍨🎂🍰🎈🎁🎉

    2. Thank the Lord.that I am old.

      WWI and WW2 will soon be removed from history books

      Life on earth will start with BLM and LGBT revolutions

        1. Risky Sunhat PM
          Sad Dick Khant Mayor of London
          Cur Starmer PM
          Lammy Mastemind Winner (you know the MSM is fixed)

      2. My 93-year-old ex-RAF mate and I are determined we're going to survive all the lunacy Starmergeddon can throw at us.

  55. Putin threatens Nato with war

    Ukraine-Russia latest: Putin expels six UK diplomats over spying claims as he threatens NATO with war

    Thank goodness we have that nice Mr Lammy advising Prime Minister Starmer . . .

      1. or to be posh

        Hand operated sexual mechanic

        or if not wanted 'anywhere by anyone'

        Self hand operated sexual mechanic, aka a "Starmer"

        1. Tom Sharpe, the scurrilous novelist who wrote Porterhouse Blue and other amusing novels, described one of his characters called Zipser, a post-graduate student living in rooms in Porterhouse College Cambridge, as : sexually self-sufficient.

  57. Eventually:
    Wordle 1,182 5/6

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

  58. Eventually:
    Wordle 1,182 5/6

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

    1. My starting word's been working well these last few days.

      Wordle 1,182 2/6

      🟨🟨⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  59. Kahnt is suggesting that newly released prisoners should be prioritised on council housing lists.
    How many band wagons are out there ?

  61. Off topic but very cheering for a change.

    I get numerous different birds in the garden but today there was a new visitor.

    I was cleaning the pool when a flash of blue shot across the water and a kingfisher landed on a poolside seat and stayed there for about 30 seconds before deciding there were unlikely to be any fish there.

    It is the first time I've seen one in the garden and certainly the closest I have ever been to one in the wild; it was about 6 feet away from where I was standing.

    3. Lovely. I had one land on my rod tip once when pike fishing on the Thames on a chilly winter's day.

      1. They must be less wary than I had assumed, perhaps because my usual sightings are near rivers where they are moving at speed before settling some way away.

        1. I've got a photo on my phone somewhere that I took of one that landed 10 feet from me and Oscar. A lousy picture taken with my shaky left hand while being pulled by the dog.

    4. This morning I've finished lacing in my summer raspberries for next year and just as I started work a fine looking fox trotted by, not four feet from where I was standing. It's probably the one that is digging holes under my neighbours gravel boards and scattering bark, stones and soil over my meadow.

      1. Driving home last night a fox crossed directly in front of us, stopped and stared at the car before moving on nonchalantly. I had visions of it turning back and us hitting it.

        1. One night, returning home, a fox trotted beside the car then suddenly it turned and shot across the front of it. I jammed the brakes on (I was only going slowly anyway, having just turned a corner and going uphill) and just brushed its brush as it sped off into the undergrowth on the right hand side of the road. I don't think it was harmed. We see a lot of roadkill foxes (and badgers) around here. Fewer rabbits (because of the foxes).

          1. It's ages since I last saw any rabbits – they used to be quite numerous. We often see foxes, occasionally deer, this evening a squirrel. Not so many badgers as there used to be.

    6. How wonderful, sos! I have never seen one live! I did see a couple of curlews today, on the foreshore of the Forth!

  62. SIR – Thank goodness for Sir John Bell, who highlights the fact that the problem with the NHS is not money (report, http://telegraph.co.uk , September 12). The problem is the hordes of mindless bureaucrats and regulators.

    N B Bentley
    London SW3

      1. In fact shut down all social engineering operations in all of our public institutions. Let the labour market find it's natural balance. The outcome won't fit the ideology of course.

      3. Whoever has promoted DEI has been extremely successful, in many organisations. We should put them in charge of everything, they obviously know how to get things done.

          1. I think KJ had a little bit of irony there. The only success DEI has had is in empire building itself at the cost of the organisation it is supposed to serve, like a true parasite.

            Anyway, DEI in the NHS should really be called DIE…

          2. I can’t because I don’t know of any. Various consultancies have promoted it, especially larger ones, so they’ve likely been quite successful in terms of fees. You don’t need to pray when you ask me something, but I appreciate the gesture 🙂

    2. Not to mention the hordes of adult parasites using it, who have never contributed a penny to the UK, let alone the NHS.

  63. I hear that Labour's plan to smash the people trafficking gangs is to arrest them and put them at the top of the list for social housing.
    That should scare them off.

    1. I think they should start by looking at the chaos and high cost of taking a car into town. Why not start by addressing the misery that can be caused by gangs of traffic wardens.

  65. Carol Vorderman’s manifesto is lazy, narcissistic and deeply depressing.
    Now What?, by the TV presenter-turned-anti-Tory commentator, epitomises the intellectual vacuity at the heart of online political debate
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-carol-vorderman-now-what-mission-fix-broken-britain/

    BTL
    She is a narcissist: she started out by impressing people with her ability with numbers. She then discovered that she would garner more interest by focusing people's attention on her mammaries and her unconventional sex life; now that she has pumped that for as much as she can she has tried to fascinate us with her incoherent left wing political views!

      2. She has had two husbands and now has five or six regular partners. They know each other but she didn't say whether they take it in turns or come all together – so to speak.

      3. Beat me to it, Paul…apparently something to do with a number of rough sex lovers…would alsations count..

  66. As many of you know I like to publish a couple of articles a day on Free Speech. But obviously, today's date being what it is, I can't take the risk. But I have penned a short article explaining how Friday 13th came to be associated with bad luck. I hope I'll get away with it.

    So please, nip over, have a read, and let me know if you would walk under a ladder today.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. "Penned" – perhaps not the right verb, but "keyboarded" is clunky at best and makes me show how pointy-headed I am.

      1. Aha, that’s where you are unlucky Oberst. I penned it and then read it into my computer! That method appeals to both the Luddite and the gobshite in me.

          2. I was just thinking today as I got held up time after time and swore about it, that I think I've developed Tourette's.

  67. This.

    https://x.com/cadders_senior/status/1834511926962876911
    I was speaking to a friend earlier who is worried about the removal of the WHA.

    In my response I mentioned that there are millions of OAPs who started doing the same from the very day the move was announced: worried, fearful, attempting to readjust budgets etc. It then occurred to me that this shameful move by the government, along with threats of the single occupancy discount, bus passes and blue badges being cancelled, has a strong smell of another government PsyOp. The threat is bad enough but the implementation could be catastrophic for many.

    Could the lesson have been learned?

    1. There's a lot of pensioners in the UK. Quite a voting bloc – if they chose to organise.
      Just saying…

      1. Hyper- and hypo- are very similar in spelling but are the exact opposites of each other. This mis-spelling rather defeats the meme writer's purpose.

        1. Visitors to Poland are confounded by the similarity of the word for Entrance (wejście) with Exit (wyjście).

    1. More Milliband nonsense, Johnny. Hope Norfolk residents protest long and loud, but there will be some who approve of it 🙁

    2. German renewable company RWE plans to install the biggest solar farm in the UK across 4,000 acres of land in Norfolk

      I understand that all objections by local famers, villagers, local businesses and schools will be overridden at a stroke by the Minister-in-charge: Millipede – by invoking a General Permitted Developments Orders 'GPDO'.

      This will bring about wholesale destruction of farms, villages and local businesses in the cause of a gigantic vanity project – without feasibility studies or the enormous costs of hooking up to the grid.

      If this – and other like projects – should fail, there will be a trail of wanton destruction in perpetuity.

      1. That MUST be ultra vires government powers, surely. Even if it is, Blair knobbled our legal system so Sillyband will get away with it.

    3. So what exactly is "GB" about GB Energy? Oh, the fact the the Government will compulsorily purchase English land for foreigners to profit from? How very caring.

  73. Just in from Scunthorpe. 6hrs in all, with 4h driving. I had 1½h in the town to look round.

      1. Yeah! No problems.
        Traffic going wasn't bad, but a bit congested on the M18/M1 coming back home.

  74. It has been suggested that pensioners should hold co-ordinated "Clap Happy" events, like the WEF organised for the NHS, when Convid ws rampant

      1. Friends……

        It has been suggested that the whole country should hold co-ordinated "Clap Happy" events, to complain about WFA and no discount on for Council Tax for single occupancy

  75. St. Mary and St. Nicholas at Wilton, a couple of miles from Salisbury and a glorious place to worship. The stained glass is a treat, and not done anywhere near enough justice by my photographs:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc04125c2c28df18443b2fdfda246b7187d5804fb0ed7a47c5ac40ca7a506a6b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f995af144f2c2388282a57d1af6c5970706ad77b3df16bbbbad270899c935ae.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dd8c7aa6737e1b42d4ee492fbd00aa9fb1aca22ec39a18b4c8d266f00840be11.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/164011430be44180cf9dea8b39f599d94ad5f8a27d5c1455156282be30511a55.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf3733175c7e86ee5181adaaa57401359baf869f074edf1d3729c98641f0b798.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/489e9cc93305847ede7c3dc2b7390daef89add6e86549c8629ad18f67258d9c0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4bb867b4d7a5b296fafc56599e850b082418cbb94f2d042fa282b1200dc3b13d.jpg

    1. "Grade I Victorian church built by Wyatt and Brandon for the Pembroke family at Wilton House". Lovely. Thank you.

  76. High Court blocks plans for Cumbria coal mine on climate grounds
    Friday 13!

    Another nail in the coffin for the future of British steel manufacture and related industries.

    Without coking coal and first-rate steel production, it is unlikely that Britain will be able to attract new steel-based manufacturing industry and employment.

      1. The RED corners, RE, the BLUE corner lot have had their arses handed to them in a sling and now they're going through the motions – take that as you will😎 – to try and find a 'leader' who will take them down the road to oblivion.

  78. Jenrick: I want to put Farage out of business D Torygaff

    Mr Jenrick is one of four candidates still in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader, along with Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat.

    Out of the frying pan into the fire, out of the fire and into the waste disposal. How much more must the public suffer before they get off their Rses and vote for a party that actually supports a free and independent UK and abandons 'Green' delusions and the poverty politics of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion?

      1. I would like the most gormless, stupid and unattractive Conservative Party MP to become party leader. The sooner the Conservative Party has had its final twitch and rigor mortis has set in the better.

          1. How about Ed Miliband crossing the floor, joining the Tories and seeing if he can be even worse at leading it than he was when he led the Labour Party.

    4. Well he has identified the problem, but I wonder whether he realises that putting Farage out of business will require a bit more than a few speeches pretending to be conservative? At this point, I doubt there is anything they can do to achieve that aim!

      1. He's a liar and an idiot and does not have the well-being of his country at heart, is all that I can say

  79. A random thought about the Harris v Trump debate on ABC. You do know that ABC is owned by Disney? "Muppet" is also one of their legal trade marks.

  80. Just back from a wonderful walk along the Forth from Bo’ness to Blackness Castle. 5.25 miles round trip and the wildlife and the views were stunning! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a898dc4df431de141f81f7869d4ab3b0aed184ca74de8fddd7b951b1b8e0033d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef063bba201156f1ce0ef088cbfecc90fd3861dd9693d0fab31bdd9de93bb748.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c8654cd8e94ab1a7a7d516d330b48eefe7adb0c24c9c4c4a3e9c310cb77b3ae.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c438d6c36ae212311393c413fd1005d4a8e9ab640e14cfddb3b994b1fb58708a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06e29c2ebd9af6b1ce5d154d911ad68c9c1718fcb23dc01b2c6ec47983e6c2ea.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6addc9a294733ef99decb4868512fe533c9839a3aef3b635534b065757d84c8b.jpg
    Can anyone tell me what this toadstool is? Also saw sandpipers, oyster catchers and some American tourists! The castle is called ‘the ship that never sailed’ because of its shape, but when you look at where it’s built, there is no other shape it could be! If you zoom in the pictures you’ll see the 3 Forth bridges, and the castle! I haven’t learned to zoom on my ‘new’ iPhone!

    4. It looks like a shaggy ink cap that has got old. They are edible mushrooms. But they rot very quickly from the edge of the cap upwards.

      Edit – sorry, nonreadunderry

  81. Thanks! I knew someone would know! It was enormous and looked different on the way back- much more open!

    1. It starts off as a rather prick-like structure and then gradually opens as illustrated. 🙂

      Lovely photos, Sue. But i do so wish that they would not put those horrible laminated signs in beautiful places. Presumably it imparted info on how absolutely awful this country is, especially whypipoo?

      1. I agree, and pretty much all it tells you is that Outlander? has been filmed there! Doh!
        Also, as it’s Scotland, it’s the naughty English wot coppit!

    2. Possibly. Almost certainly richer. I really don't care whether he graduated or not nor even what advantages he had at birth. Only what he's done with his wealth matters.

    3. I don't think he is that clever. He was put in the right place at the right time, so that his backers could control another rising industry. If you watch him speak, it's clear he's not very bright.

  87. A big shout out to Charlie Peters for being the only journo covering this scandal.

    Charlie Peters reports from outside Sheffield Crown Court where victim impact statements are being read out ahead of the sentencing of seven men on trial for child sex abuse offences against teenage girls in Rotherham in the early 2000s.

    BREAKING: Grooming Gang JAILED For Over 100 Years

    1. News blackout across the board. BBC etc.. etc..

      This was one of the most extraordinary and emotive experiences I’ve had as a journalist.
      Charlie Peters

    3. Yeah but there’s 50 of them….

      (Nb. I don’t actually know how many there are, but usually in situations like this when you do the maths, the average sentence is about 4 days).

    1. You've adopted the richardl method. Bogey for me today.

      Wordle 1,182 5/6

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

        1. Maybe I'm thinking of someone else but your second line doesn't include the three letters you'd already established as included in the answer. Testing another starter word for other letters?

      2. Well my method didn't work so well for me
        Wordle 1,182 4/6

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

    2. Nice one Rene! Boring boring par here…..

      Wordle 1,182 4/6

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

    3. My first words have been very lucky recently.

      Wordle 1,182 2/6

      🟨🟨⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  90. With Millibrain's Green Energy pensioners won't need the WFA because there won't be any energy for them to pay for.

  91. Hurrah.
    Now had a reply from the second of the three schools. Since I have written, the council has actually REMOVED a bin from the area. Literally watch this space.

    "Dear Mrs Allan,

    Thank you for your email regarding the litter in the green area. I am
    sorry to hear that rubbish has been found in the area.

    We will communicate the need for respect for the environment and local
    community in our student updates next week and also check the bins
    within the school grounds are being emptied regularly to ensure that
    any litter is not blown out with the wind or removed by opportunistic
    birds.

    We have also spoken to Colchester City Council about additional
    rubbish bins in the area. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

    Yours sincerely

    Mrs J Robinson
    Executive Support Officer"

    On Sun, 1 Sept 2024 at 17:26, Anne Allan <annieallan3@gmail.com> wrote:

    "Good afternoon, Mrs. Neill.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Anne Allan"

    2. We took our regular Friday afternoon walk from Waitrose in Sudbury along the Stour to Cornard. The river seems so wide and dark with glistening white swan gliding on its surface. Even so we see discarded plastic drinks bottles and cans littering the beautiful and serene surroundings.

      The pathway is used by cyclists often peddling away at terrifying speeds with no warning bells. I suspect the litter is thrown by these school kids.

      Even worse is the litter discarded on another of our favourite walks, the original perimeter road to Ridgewell WWII Airfield. These comprise mostly cans of Red Bull and other so called energy drinks with a dispersal of quarter size glass bottles of some cheap Vodka or other. Again, I suspect this is the motorised local youth, the same idiots who perform wheelies and handbrake turns so severe that they leave burn marks in the road surface.

      I despair daily.

    3. We took our regular Friday afternoon walk from Waitrose in Sudbury along the Stour to Cornard. The river seems so wide and dark with glistening white swan gliding on its surface. Even so we see discarded plastic drinks bottles and cans littering the beautiful and serene surroundings.

      The pathway is used by cyclists often peddling away at terrifying speeds with no warning bells. I suspect the litter is thrown by these school kids.

      Even worse is the litter discarded on another of our favourite walks, the original perimeter road to Ridgewell WWII Airfield. These comprise mostly cans of Red Bull and other so called energy drinks with a dispersal of quarter size glass bottles of some cheap Vodka or other. Again, I suspect this is the motorised local youth, the same idiots who perform wheelies and handbrake turns so severe that they leave burn marks in the road surface.

      I despair daily.

  92. The Labour 'top team' are taking a real bashing on social media and deservedly so. Here's a few: some clever wits out there.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfcd6ee04fe68f0ba54326e5de9bc31c2cbc12e2b253137f8ee3767e381c7c76.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb03982d33c10fbe16feb78a37ba7f5296f5dd11bb754e16d3d436ede1b90b0f.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/892065bfd62152a5433d8e3348b05e588ea6a5c8cbcda1fe00ea72128377325d.png

    Last but not least a 'you could not make this up' moment.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f8746e6940eddce8549073221fbfb7fe415edcd799385b0b82838425c9da188.png

      1. I have a recording of John Williams playing this while Cleo Laine sang the lyrics ; "He's so beautiful ….

        John Williams was the surprise guest 10 years ago at a birthday concert of Ralph Mc Tell who was 70 on the day that our Christo was 21. He accompanied Ralph Mc Tell playing The Streets of London.

    3. Even I could have predicted that. The Metropolitan Police have been charlatans and thieves for half a century. I suppose the other divisions are much the same.

  93. Biden resists calls to let Ukraine fire US missiles in Russia despite Storm Shadows plan. 13 September 2024.

    Joe Biden is resisting pressure to allow American long-range missiles to be used inside Russian territory, despite plans to let Ukraine fire Britain’s Storm Shadows.

    The US president is set to agree for Ukraine to fire British-made Storm Shadows inside Russia with the assistance of American targeting technology.

    But the Biden administration is concerned that doing the same for ATACMS missiles, manufactured in the US, could escalate the wars in both Ukraine and the Middle East.

    In other words you daft Limeys can stick your heads in the noose. We are sitting it out.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/09/13/joe-biden-ukraine-atacms-missiles-storm-shadows/

      1. Part of me feels that the doolalliness is an act (what fun it must have been!) for when the SHTF – it can be blamed on his 'dementia', he didn't know what he was doing, his judgment had gone to pot, etc giving free rein to the puppeteers behind him – they can do what they like with their figurehead to wreck the US. He certainly seems to know what he is doing when push comes to definite shove – slam the breaks on hard.

        1. TPTB behind Biden are clever. They’re manoeuvring things so that U.K. lights the blue touch paper and they will stand well clear. As for GB, well … we will, understandably, be first in the firing line.

          4. Mushroom cloud? Actually that would be overall good if I didn't have some friends and relations milling around amongst the alien corn

          7. The people behind Biden are as stupid and as geopolitically inept as he is.

            There is no special relationship between the US and the UK and neither has there ever been one.

            NATO in Europe has always been a means for the US to maintain bases in Germany and to provide a large market for US to EU in arms sales. The war in Kosovo was all about dividing a country to allow a massive American airbase on its land.

            This US dominance alone has caused an utter dependence on the US and the diminution of our own ability to manufacture our own armaments, diminishing our armed forces and leaving us utterly reliant on the US for our security.

            Whilst our Empire was lost after WWI its decline and US hegemonic status was established via WWII. I reckon WWIII will do for us once and for all.

            None of us in the UK sought wars with Russia. We were not asked to vote on this and we mostly object to it. Our political elites think they know best and are taking us to disaster through their ignorance of geopolitical realities and neglect of diplomacy for which we were once famous.

            I pray that Starmer and his useless cabal of corrupt Blair retreads do not last until Christmas.

          10. Just re-bread your post and wanted to uptick you again a million times. US is a warmongering monster and HMG trots along behind whatever PP is in office like an obedient little puppy.

          11. The people behind Biden are as stupid and as geopolitically inept as he is.

            There is no special relationship between the US and the UK and neither has there ever been one.

            NATO in Europe has always been a means for the US to maintain bases in Germany and to provide a large market for US to EU in arms sales. The war in Kosovo was all about dividing a country to allow a massive American airbase on its land.

            This US dominance alone has caused an utter dependence on the US and the diminution of our own ability to manufacture our own armaments, diminishing our armed forces and leaving us utterly reliant on the US for our security.

            Whilst our Empire was lost after WWI its decline and US hegemonic status was established via WWII. I reckon WWIII will do for us once and for all.

            None of us in the UK sought wars with Russia. We were not asked to vote on this and we mostly object to it. Our political elites think they know best and are taking us to disaster through their ignorance of geopolitical realities and neglect of diplomacy for which we were once famous.

            I pray that Starmer and his useless cabal of corrupt Blair retreads do not last until Christmas.

    2. Exactly – he won't allow US made missiles to be used but quite happy to let the stupid Lammys carry the can! We [or to be more exact the imbeciles in what passes for the UK government] surely can't be that stupid – oh, wait…

    4. Couldn’t Vlad just obliterate Davos/WEF. That would solve much of the problem. I’ve had a wander around the Palace of Westminster and it’s a beautiful building. However disgusting the current crop of inmates, it’s our heritage they’re occupying.

      1. The WEF are presently building a massive complex including tunnels and bunkers in Geneva. They intend to run the world from this fortified complex much of which is underground. There is evidently an underground highway connecting them to a secure airport runway.

  95. The asteroid may finally be approaching the EU

    The Brussels elites have run out of road, as it will soon have to dawn even on Sir Keir Starmer's Labour

    DAVID FROST • 12 September 2024 • 5:05pm

    No one can accuse the EU of not thinking about its economic competitiveness. It's a world leader at devising growth strategies.

    As long ago as 1993, the Delors Commission was endorsing a new strategy for "economic growth in a sustainable way". Its failure saw it replaced in 2000 by the Lisbon Strategy, to make the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world". By 2010 this had failed, too, and was replaced by the Europe 2020 Strategy for "smart, sustainable, inclusive growth". No such growth appeared, and so in 2020 we got Ursula von der Leyen's Green Deal "to transform the EU into a modern, competitive, and resource-efficient economy".

    Unfortunately, these growth strategies haven't generated much actual growth. Through all this blizzard of paper, the EU's share of the global economy has almost halved even though it has twice as many members as in 1993; and the income gap with ordinary Americans is over 50 per cent bigger.

    In some parts of the world, this might have been grounds for a rethink. Not in Brussels. Wheel on Mario Draghi, the all-purpose Eurocrat, central bank governor, former prime minister of Italy, and saviour of the collapsing euro. This week, he came up with yet another strategy.

    The Draghi Report blurts out some hard, if obvious, truths – for example that "high energy costs in Europe are an obstacle to growth" (as indeed they are in Britain). But his recommendations are the same as his predecessors': a bigger EU budget, more EU borrowing to finance public investment, more economic policy-making in Brussels, and a last-ditch attempt to make Europe a green energy superpower (a ship which has already sailed – to China).

    Draghi is an intelligent man. Even so, I'm sure he believes these ideas. But he must know that there is little chance of them being implemented – fortunately – because the mood among EU leaders for a further jump in integration is pretty limited. Brussels rules already constrain core elements of national sovereignty, so if anything now the pressure is the other way, as the rebellion against mass migration goes mainstream, and as Germany reintroduces border controls and starts closing Volkswagen factories. So Draghi's report can confidently be added to the long series of hefty tomes now propping doors open in the Berlaymont.

    The problem is that Brussels and its outriders are not able to rethink. Lionel Barber, former editor of the FT, wrote this week that the EU was "on the road to serfdom" if it didn't implement Draghi's report. Sadly that is about as much Hayek as the EU is likely to get, for its leaders won't go down the alternative route of allowing member states a freer hand to solve their problems. Nor can they bring themselves to lift the dead hand of statist EU policy-making and bureaucracy, "Brussels knows best" thinking, hostility to innovation, and simple suspicion of free-market capitalism.

    So the EU can't go forward, and won't go backward. So it will likely remain where it is now, less than the sum of its parts, prey to fractious internal argument, the Austro-Hungarian empire of the 21st century: more a source of worry to its friends and allies than a serious independent source of power in the world.

    Why does this matter to us? After all, we are largely out of Brussels' legal reach now, though Labour shows every sign of trying to reverse that.

    The reason is that we certainly aren't out of the EU's intellectual reach. Indeed, arguably we never left it. We have similar problems to the EU and we reach for similar solutions. Face it, there probably isn't going to be much to choose between the Sunak and the Starmer versions of economic policy-making. The same ineffectual efforts to boost investment, the same deficit spending, the same failure to reform and liberalise: all this will just be set at a slightly higher tax level under Labour.

    That's the EU norm, too. Joe Stiglitz, Mariana Mazzucato, Mario Draghi, Christine Lagarde at the ECB, all the fashionable statist economists who think they have infallible wisdom, are rampaging over what's left of the EU's innovators and entrepreneurs like brontosauruses in the swamp.

    But the asteroid may at last be approaching. In the end, reality will out. The EU's woes mean that Keir Starmer's project of boosting growth by resetting relations will eventually come to be seen as futile. I don't expect Labour to reach that conclusion any time soon, so we must do everything we can to stop them bargaining away our national independence. But the longer we can hold them off, the more obvious it will be that the economic future for Britain is not re-enmeshing ourselves in the Brussels net.

    "Brexit is failing" say know-nothing commentators here. In fact, if anything is failing it's the Monnet method, the EU institutions, and the existing European elites who prop them up. They've run out of road. They don't know how to proceed. Unless they can find it in themselves to abandon much of what they have come to believe, they will, sooner or later, be left behind by history – and by the rest of the world, too.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/12/the-asteroid-may-finally-be-approaching-the-eu

    There's not much difference between the EU's plans and Starmer's. Even when unemployment races past 3 million and the lights are going out, he'll still be blaming the Tories.

    1. That is the repeated message from Labour since the Election – "We have inherited a mess from the Tories" and "£22 billion black hole".

      Well, I'm fed up with it. Just get on and do something and stop blaming others. "Don't bring me problems – bring me solutions!"

      2. It reminds me of the Simpson's episode where they are desperately digging inside a hole in which they are rapidly disappearing.

        I think it's the police chief who says "Don't dig down – dig up!".

        2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

          Could Starmer face a smoking ban rebellion?
          Comments Share 13 September 2024, 1:19pm
          Oh dear. It appears that Sir Keir Starmer’s own MPs are rather unhappy about the Prime Minister’s proposed smoking ban that would see a crackdown in beer gardens and shisha bars – so much so that one has even tabled a motion to oppose it. Talk about trouble in paradise…

          It transpires that Mary Glindon, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, has launched a bid to fight back against Starmer’s ban – warning that the move would be rather detrimental to the nighttime economy. Not that Labour’s night czar hasn’t done enough on that front already…

          The Newcastle politician insists the ban will:

          Unduly restrict individual liberty where second-hand smoking dangers are negligible, drive some and maybe many pubs out of business and undermine the night-time economy; and urges the Government not to proceed with this option and, if it does, to allow a free vote on the proposal.

          Glindon has praised the 2007 indoor smoking ban but is rather opposed to further constraints – and Mr S hears she’s not the only one. How curious. The decision comes as part of Sir Keir’s crackdown on fun, which also includes blocking junk food advertisements before 9pm – a move that will be enforced by October 2025. All work, no play…

      3. It reminds me of the Simpson's episode where they are desperately digging inside a hole in which they are rapidly disappearing.

        I think it's the police chief who says "Don't dig down – dig up!".

    2. It's hard to understand how these morons can be allowed to cross the threshold of our parliament buildings.

        1. I think most people voted for the other availble parties
          The system needs changing it’s ridiculous.

  97. I wonder how long it will be before the Labour Government tells the CPS to stop the witch hunt for the sake of diversity? /sarc

    I hope Starmer and all the Labour people who tried to sweep this under the carpet are thoroughly ashamed of themselves, although I strongly suspect they won't give a toss.

    Rotherham grooming gang who plied girls as young as 11 with drugs and alcohol before raping them are jailed for a total of 106 years

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13847393/Rotherham-grooming-gang-plied-girls-young-11-drugs-alcohol-raping-jailed-total-106-years.html

    The BTL comments are scathing.

  98. How to waste money, Friday edition.

    The Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) paid $32,250 for a report examining space exploration through an intersectional and feminist lens, concluding that existing approaches to space are rife with “patterns of entrenched gender, racial and geopolitical dominance,” exclusions fortified by “discussions in technospeak,” and encourages practices considered “racist,” “exploitative” and “environmentally destructive.”

    It apparently doesn't matter that a Canadian female astronaut went on to become Governor General.

    2. Oh and they have just realised that the 34.8 million dollars worth of new sleeping bags that have been bought for the military are not good enough to keep soldiers warm on a typical Canadian winters night.

    3. There was a joke going around in the early 60s about intersectional space exploration.
      “By the year 2000 half the world’s population will be living on the moon”
      “What does half the world’s population have to say about that?”
      “Me no wanna go massa.”

      1. In reality, half the population are spaced out, so not so far off! Evening, our Sue, brill to meet the real character back at Phizz's quiet riot..

        1. I didnt KJ but he’s very old (that’s often forgotten when he’s compared to Biden). In truth I cannot stand the man, but he represents the best chance the West has of prevailing in the World Order – and for that reason I support him 100%….

          1. He can be a blowhard, G4 – the Republicans seem to have lost their mojo recently, and so does he. Makes me think there’s something else afoot.

          2. Hec seems to have changed since the attempted assassination incident – he may still be suffering from shock especially as he didn't let up the pace afterwards. Many years ago, in my teenage youth, I was in a car smash – I suppose it was not so bad as we were all 'walking wounded' needing only stitches but I was jittery and jumpy for probably getting on for six weeks afterwards, I felt below par. I suppose It has affected Trump to some degree despite his stamina and constitution.

          3. I think you’re right, ‘mum, had wondered if that might be something to do with it. If it were me or mine, I’d be apprehensive as youknowwhat. His family must be concerned, too. Been watching ‘Trump’ on Netflix, even as a young man he had great confidence in himself. Trouble is he can’t let up at present. Harris is a loon imo, we’ll need all the help we can get if she’s elected.

          4. Harris doesn’t bear thinking about. I suspect she is another Starmer, promises something before the election and reneges upon it afterwards. All out of the same WEF box of politicians.

  100. I think David Lammy should offer to supply all the missiles to be fired deep into Russia, nothing to do with America you understand, and supply Putin with the co-ordinates for London – makes sense to me!
    In return they promise not to ask him about Henry VIII…..

          3. I meant:

            "she'd bin married seven times before
            I'm 'er eighth old man called 'enery
            'enery the eighth I am I am!"

        1. Not according to lacoste above: “New shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the 2003 Rose Revolution took place in Yugoslavia, Marie Antoinette won the Nobel Prize and Henry VII succeeded Henry VIII”.

          1. Surely "Henry VII succeeded Henry VIII" is the same as "When asked who succeeded Henry VIII he responded Henry VII"? Either way, Lammy is innumerate and ignorant.

          6. Yes, you did but I replied to lacoste who said that it was Henry VIII. Not that it makes Lammy any smarter, of course.

          7. Hmmm… you actually replied to me but it's no big deal, honest!!!

            Also, given your moniker, I will defer to you on all things Tudor…….

          8. You are quite right, I’ve looked at the thread and it was you that a replied to. I apologise for the error and to lacoste who was totally innocent.

  101. Britain has manoeuvred itself into a position where the UK launches Stormshadow missiles into Russia whilst the Americans sit back and watch the fallout uttering “it was nothing to do with us” to Putin.

    This is idiotic and frankly insane. Lammy is as big a fool as Starmer. They seem to forget that Russia is a nuclear power with a sophisticated Army, Navy and Airforce and with a strong and calculating leader in Putin and the loyal Russian government.

    Our idiots are not dealing with the USSR of the early 90s but a modern well equipped and productive adversary whose systems actually work. Britain by contrast is a train wreck. We have probably insurmountable societal problems arising from mass uncontrolled immigration, a shrunken and demoralised armed services and a nation wondering what in hell has happened to our political system to saddle us with such an incompetent and inexperienced Labour government.

    The fools Starmer and Lammy are being set up by the American neo-cons, principally Blinken, Sullivan and Nuland.

    1. Meet the man Starmer Labour thinks can represent Britain abroad:

      New shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the 2003 Rose Revolution took place in Yugoslavia, Marie Antoinette won the Nobel Prize and Henry VII succeeded Henry VIII
      David Lammy MP was promoted this week in Labour's surprise reshuffle
      In 2009, he thought Henry VII acceded the throne after the death of Henry VIII
      He also got a football question wrong about his beloved Tottenham Hotspur
      The MP since 2000 scored just 13, with eight coming from his specialist subject
      This week, he said he was 'honoured' to be the new shadow foreign secretary

      By Stephen Wynn-davies For Mailonline

      Published: 13:09, 5 December 2021 | Updated: 14:01, 5 December 2021

      1. Our country is now represented by people who don't represent our opinions or our traditional values.
        I hope the rest of the world realise this.

        1. I think so many are in a similar situation. But somehow we have become the vanguard for this absolute shite

          1. What is more scary is that most of them have no first hand experience of war, it is just an exercise of power in remote locations.

            There is no incentive for these pretendy leaders to avoid warfare.

      2. It was 15 years ago. I'd be flummoxed by the occasion and give similarly daft answers. It's what ordinary people do when under media scrutiny. As for those who sail through, they are freaks. I'd be surprised if they have the social skills to have a mainstream conversation. I'd rather have a beer with David Lammy than some of the weird specimens who win Mastermind.

    2. Gotta be seen to be a leader on the world stage donchaknow! In my youth I was on the front line in Germany and everyone believed what they were prepared to fight for. Now I am fearful of being plunged into a proxy US war that is none of out business. The trotted out excuse is that if we dont stop Vlad he will soon be at the French coast ready to invade our degraded land. Well, he has not exactly got very far so far, by design or incompetence, I do not know. But it's all very well for the US to provoke a war, its not on their doorstep.

      1. Vlad will soon be at the French coast ready to invade our degraded land.

        He will have to queue behind the RoP Army, which is already invading us

      2. If Vlad popped across in a rubber dinghy they'd put him up in a 4 star hotel and give him some pocket money to boot!

      3. Putin’s response to the barbaric atrocities meted out on Russian speakers in Donbas since the US inspired regime change in 1914 has been most restrained. Putin had no interest in western Ukraine and absolutely no desire to progress beyond its own boundary.

        Putin merely sought to protect the Russian speakers in Donbas from vengeful killings and cultural purges by Zelensky’s US puppet installed regime. Crimea was different in that for centuries the western powers have sought control of the Black Sea, since Lord Palmerston in fact. The idea was always to deny Russian access to the Black Sea.

        Whilst Putin was always receptive to peace negotiations he has witnessed first Merkel and subsequently the whole collective western powers and the US renege on and otherwise deliberately sabotage all negotiations, most recently the US Fatboy Surrogate Boris Johnson performed this duty.

        We are witnessing the Shitshow of all Shitshows. I personally find it embarrassing as an Englishman watching the stupidity and incompetence of Starmer and Lammy, idiots both.

      4. Everything I have seen from the Russians is that they are trying to strengthen Russia. They're investing in agriculture and buying gold. I really doubt strongly that they want our broken, commodityless, third world populated land.

    3. I understand they're pretty good at things software related too, corrimobile. Quicker, less costly in terms of equipment and manpower.

        1. I’d say nought to zero, BB2. Equality tho, if you’re up to sniff..from going into space to clearing snow 🙂

    4. What worries us is the continual mischevious brinkmanship played by Starmer and Lammy over Ukraine.

      Sooner or later they're going to get it wrong and bad things will happen.

      As there appears to be a large pro-Russian standing army of young men from the Middle East already in this country we

      wonder whether our small and demoralised military can keep the peace here, let alone get involved in an European war?

  106. 392948+ up ticks,

    I believe it will be for over the weekend only, as a token punishment to show what could be for real.

    Dt,

    Seven men jailed for sex abuse of girls in Rotherham
    Tribute paid to bravery of victims to tell their stories and confront abusers

  107. Evening, all. Back from an horrific journey to and from Chester. I was stationary for about 20 mins just trying to get on to the roundabout to start the journey home (I left early before the end of racing so I could get back to Kadi in a reasonable time), let alone get round it and move on. I have concluded there are far too many cars on the road (and thus far too many people driving). We need to get freight on to the railways and improve public transport. Then, of course, there are the roadworks where nobody appears to be working, but the traffic is held up regardless. I was just pleased that Kadi had been a good boy. I couldn't have blamed him if l he'd left me deposits I was so long getting home. After all that, my horse finished plumb last and only picked up £47. He ran well for 5 furlongs – unfortunately, the race was over an extended 7 furlongs. I can't blame him, really; the ground was heavy, he was drawn widest of all (dire at Chester) and he had to use up a lot of energy not to be posted too wide round the bends. For anyone who's never been, Chester is about a mile round, so you are always on the turn. Favoured draws are 1 and 2, not 8 of 8!

    All these people advocating an overhaul of the sainted NHS! Ain't never gonna happen.

    1. I used to go to the evening meetings at Chester as a night out with everyone from work – it's a lovely course in a lovely city – bizarrely it always seemed to be populated by loud-mouthed Scousers (I can say that, I was born there) and people from Coronation Street! (and other soaps apparently)……..

  108. Well that's me off to bed.
    Run to Stoke to check up on Stepson planned for tomorrow, then Sunday will be continuing sorting out the felled logs up the hill.
    Could really do with getting stuck in with it tomorrow, but, heigh ho! Life's full of embuggerances!

  110. Bedtime for me, now. So Good Night, chums, sleep well, and hope to see you all hale and hearty tomorrow morning.

    1. Probably the Canadian army under the leadership of Trudeau.

      If this is the state of western masculinity, it makes me wonder how accurate are all these comments about Russia using nukes. Why bother when there is nothing to fight and they can just take over by using nasty hurty words.

    2. I'm amazed they found a time and a place in London when there wasn't a Death-to-the-Jews march passing by. That would have made for a fascinating confrontation…

    5. I don't think it ever did become normalised. It's not most people's idea of a fun day out. It's been pushed on us from above.
      I spent rather a lot of time in the car listening to Radio 4 recently, which I don't normally do, and there really is no cognitive diversity among the people who make and present its programmes. They are a million miles out of touch with the rest of us, but they don't realise it because they're living in a bubble where they've demonised everyone outside their own bubble.
      I doubt even most of the dim little workers who wear the rainbow lanyard realise what Stonewall is all about.

      1. So good I rec’d your msg twice, Geoff…now Sunday 8am, guessing you could be busy this morning, have a good one…hope all OK with you :-)) x

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