Sunday 15 September: The Prime Minister must soon honour his commitment to a free vote on assisted dying

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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640 thoughts on “Sunday 15 September: The Prime Minister must soon honour his commitment to a free vote on assisted dying”

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

    The Phone

    A young man wanted to get his beautiful blonde wife something nice for their first wedding anniversary. So, he decided to buy her a mobile phone. He showed her the phone and explained to her all of its features.

    Meg was excited to receive the gift and simply adored her new phone.

    The next day Meg went shopping. Her phone rang and, to her astonishment, it was her husband on the other end
    .
    "Hi Meg," he said, "how do you like your new phone?"

    Meg replied, "I just love it! It's so small and your voice is clear as a bell, but there's one thing I don't understand though."

    "What's that, sweetie?" asked her husband.

    "How did you know I was at Tesco?"

  6. Morning, all Y'all.
    Sunny! Yaay! The lawnmower calls…
    It didn't take long, did it?
    Government defends early release scheme after freed prisoner charged with sexual assault
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvdy22gje4o
    The government has defended the early release of prisoners after it emerged a former inmate allegedly sexually assaulted a woman on the same day he was freed.
    Amari Ward, 31, was released on Tuesday as part of the policy, which aims to ease prison overcrowding.
    He appeared at Croydon Magistrates' Court on Thursday charged with sexual assault and is due to attend Maidstone Crown Court next month.

    She should sue the Government for "Aiding & Abetting a crime"

    4. To a Marxist, the criminal is always, “more sinned against than sinning”. It’s a pity that the Bible references prisoners as an oppressed class. It surely refers to political prisoners incarcerated by tyrants but it’s too easily twisted and misinterpreted.

    5. If I were done for sex crime, and languishing in a cell with just a copy of the Beano and a shaking hand for comfort, what do you think would be the first thing I'd do to celebrate my early release?

    6. Daily Star newspaper, 2012.
      "A**** W***, 19, robbed two men after advertising a scooter for sale on the Gumtree website.
      He arranged to meet them at garage lock-ups but instead turned up together with a gang of armed thugs. They beat up the men and stole the £500 scooter cash, their watches and mobile phones before running off. But one of the victims remembered seeing a link to a rap video on YouTube on the Gumtree advert posted by W***.
      The video, by a rapper called R*****, showed W***, from Brockley, south London, posing in the background.
      The police were informed and W*** was promptly arrested and later caged for six years, convicted of robbery and conspiracy to rob at Woolwich Crown Court last week."
      The PTB can delete as much as they want from search engines in Europe, but sooner or later someone will have to revise the procedures for trial by jury.
      Edit: I have removed the link to the article, just in case.

    7. Daily Star newspaper, 2012.
      "A**** W***, 19, robbed two men after advertising a scooter for sale on the Gumtree website.
      He arranged to meet them at garage lock-ups but instead turned up together with a gang of armed thugs. They beat up the men and stole the £500 scooter cash, their watches and mobile phones before running off. But one of the victims remembered seeing a link to a rap video on YouTube on the Gumtree advert posted by W***.
      The video, by a rapper called R*****, showed W***, from Brockley, south London, posing in the background.
      The police were informed and W*** was promptly arrested and later caged for six years, convicted of robbery and conspiracy to rob at Woolwich Crown Court last week."
      The PTB can delete as much as they want from search engines in Europe, but sooner or later someone will have to revise the procedures for trial by jury.
      Edit: I have removed the link to the article, just in case.

  7. Good morning, all. Light high cloud with lingering 'trails' and milder than of late.

    The Metro raising the spectre of conscription again: is this an alarmist piece to fill column space or the re-start of a government project attempting to convince people that conscription will become a necessity as the Ukraine – Russia conflict drags on?

    The very idea that the UK would unilaterally, or even with the tacit agreement of Biden & Co, attack deep into Russia with Storm Shadow missiles is a folly beyond imagination.

    Sadly, put nothing past our current uni-party politicians. Small men with grand ideas are a serious threat to our health and well-being.

    https://x.com/MetroUK/status/1834523785791181166

    Top generals are warning that the UK’s military is currently much ‘too small’ to handle such a conflict on its own.

    No shit Sherlock! The UK's military is incapable of ever being large enough to tackle Russia on its own. However, the inclusion of "currently" is a bit worrying if "top generals" really are thinking along those lines.

    Perhaps these "top generals", should they actually exist, dust off the history books and do a bit of reading.

    Who writes this guff?

    1. From my childhood recollections, Korky was anything but a small man with big aspirations, but never mind, I'll ask it anyway.

      How else would you stop the Russians lobbying heavy artillery into civilian areas in Ukraine? The same could be said for similar tactics on humanitarian aid "safe spaces" in Gaza. Same intent, similar provocation, different bullies.

      Appeasement has been tried before, and while it works with those of good will (and both Russia and Israel have been sanctified by the Pope and made holy), it is not so effective with those who regard it as a sign of weakness and a green light to lay into the troublesome Untermensch, to dominate and assimilate.

      Knocking out the heavy artillery, I would have thought, was a critical defence manoeuvre to stop the bombs coming. If this can be done without laying a finger on either Russian territory or Russian civilian infrastructure, so much better. This is maybe why Zelenskyy is asking for precision Western counter-missiles, rather the clunky Soviet era blunderers with a five mile tolerance for accuracy.

      The alternative, as demonstrated in Gaza, is to accept one's punishment like a man, and do the decent thing and die.

      1. I would add that any peace settlement in either place be on the same terms:
        You stop sending rockets into our civilian areas (even those harbouring cowering enemy soldiers), and we would cancel any application to our allies for better counter-artillery targeted on wherever these rockets are coming from.

        If these enemy soldiers in civilian areas content themselves with hurling abuse and the odd hand grenade, then this is only to be expected, but the moment they start to threaten civilian areas abroad, the settlement breaks down, and back to the negotiating table we go. It may take several goes until they cool down and order is restored.

        This rule would apply as much to Zelenskyy and Hamas as it does to Putin and the Knesset. It tests whether the latter pair have intentions for peace, and exposes any pretence that they are purely defensive.

        If it turns out that these intentions are genuinely and aggressively hostile, and in violation of international law, then the UN has every justification it needs to muster whatever it force it can to bring them to order. That's why it is there. Let Putin and Netanyahu declare war on the UN if they must.

        1. The EU and the US stop trying to take over Ukraine. War over. No more artillery lobbed into civilian areas.

      2. Frankly, I wasn’t much concerned with Russia “lobbing heavy artillery”, I was commenting on the very possible escalation of the conflict by the PTB and something rather nastier than “heavy artillery” being employed. Also, I am concerned that conscription could place British military in the Ukrainian charnel house.

        Currently the Ukrainian – Russian conflict is an intractable problem: and then you had to mention Israel – Gaza.

    2. The intercessions prayed for peace in these "uncertain times" this morning. I'm afraid the cynic in me thought, "fat chance with this lot in charge".

  8. Good morning all.
    Bright but cloudy 20 minutes ago has turned to a full overcast. Dry with 6½°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    I see euthanasia is being promoted again. They never give up, do they?

      1. With that attitude, you could have been a successful General in the First World War, shooting or imprisoning soldiers for cowardice.

    5. Stalin was correct to respect the thieves, because the very worst of them are more humane than most British politicians.
      Edit: tough decisions made by, for example, Australians, have saved lives.

    6. Stalin was correct to respect the thieves, because the very worst of them are more humane than most British politicians.
      Edit: tough decisions made by, for example, Australians, have saved lives.

    8. They aren't 'migrants' they are illegal immigrants and they'd still be alive if they'd stayed in France. It isn't war-torn.

  10. Tony Blair wants to launder his past. 15 Sepptember 2024.

    London too has plenty of consultancies and PR agencies gleefully signing up autocratic clients. There is, however, one key difference. While the US industry has many fathers, in the UK there is one man who single-handedly launched the modern lobbying industry, laundering the reputation of tyrants, and showing others how much money can be made in the process: Tony Blair.

    Getting the blood out of his socks will be a problem.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-does-labour-want-tony-blairs-advice/

  11. Good morning all, another overcast start to the day. Most disappointing summer for many a year.

  12. Good Morning Folks

    Bright start here.

    I see the Starmer family are embroiled in more controversy, we always thought they were a dodgy outfit.
    Will they come up with a good alibuy?

  13. Good Morning Folks

    Bright start here.

    I see the Starmer family are embroiled in more controversy, we always thought they were a dodgy outfit.
    Will they come up with a good alibuy?

  14. After just two months in office, the Government is on course to wreck Britain’s car industry.
    [Telegraph View 14 September 2024 • 10:00 pm]

    In its manifesto, Labour promised to reimpose a ban on the sale of “new cars with internal combustion engines” in six years’ time. Now ministers are set to announce a climbdown, but only for hybrid vehicles, which use both petrol and electric engines.

    By imposing the toughest target for switching to electric vehicles (EVs) of any Western country, manufacturers feel coerced into rationing the supply of petrol, diesel and hybrid cars, despite the fact that many consumers prefer them. So popular are hybrids, indeed, that Toyota, Volvo and other firms are stepping up production.

    The arbitrary date of 2030 for the transition ignores a depression in consumer demand for EVs that is already causing European giants, such as Fiat, to slow down their rollout. Electric cars have a growing number of supporters, but many drawbacks remain for mainstream users, including cost, limited range and a lack of recharging points. On the supply side, such unattainable targets risk flooding the British market with cheaper Chinese electric cars . . . .

    1. Effectively that's just a weight, fire risk and cost tax on petrol cars then. You see these hybrids in the ski resorts in winter, filling up at the petrol station for the drive back to the Netherlands….

      1. Hybrids are criticised because their drivers prefer the easy route of a quick fill-up, rather than the faff of finding a recharging point and then hanging about.

        Why not go with the flow though? I pointed out a day or two ago that the internal combustion engine is more effective than electric whilst cruising, and is the preferred option for long journeys. Electric motors are best in stop-start urban traffic and country lanes, where the speed is constantly changing. They are also cheaper to run. They come into their own with the commute or the school or shopping run.

        Hybrids combine the best of both worlds, meaning that both engines and the battery can be smaller and lighter, or alternatively using less hazardous and more sustainable materials: whilst a large lithium battery is dangerous and can only be sourced in a few places, a sodium battery is sourced from seawater, which is not that scarce nor beholden to a rogue state. The technology exists today that can balance and optimise the two together, which did not exist a generation ago.

        1. But with hybrids, all electrical power in the battery comes from the petrol engine – so, how does that help the CO2 emissions? As well as carrying around batteries and electric motors, making the car heavier, too.

          2. 20 mph zone create more air pollution as the engines need a lower gear.
            It’s all about control. The scamdemic set the scene as, it appears, a majority fell for it.
            Now the government knows people will comply they will continue to try in other areas.

          3. Sad Dick Khan says he is concerned about the number of Londoners dying from pollution from cars entering his city but if you give him £12.50 a day he'll overlook it – it's not really about control but revenue raising

          4. I recently came back from a 4-day break in Wales, and noticed that the increased time spent driving in 2nd gear at 20mph increased my petrol consumption (and therefore exhaust gases) by over 10%. Government stupidity again.

          5. It's also really difficult to constantly drive at 20 mph. Stray a few mph over the limit – snap! then kerching! I know several people who've been caught that way.

        2. The only advantage I can see to an EV is that one is not going to energise the vehicle with the wrong fuel during a moment's distraction which happened to us last week. Fortunately it wasn't me who did it….. or I may never have heard the end of it. Cost – £400 plus refill. The AA man said he had 4 – 6 callouts a day for this problem, I don't know over how big an area.

  15. Morning!

    It is Battle of Britain Day!

    Free Speech is having a patriotic party, and former RAF fighter pilot has a superb article about the Battle and the men who fought it.

    freespeechbacklash.com

          2. Do it every year for Battle of Britain Day (this year the Sunday happens to be the 15th). Ditto for Armed Forces Day and Armistice Day. Then I fly the cross of St George on 23rd April. Lest we forget.

          1. Ah, yes, you’re probably right. But I remember the mention of Lacey – maybe the author’s description of who Hebblethwaite was modelled on?

          2. Unlikely. Ginger appeared as a fifteen-year-old in The Black Peril which was written in the early thirties ('34?). Algy Lacey, Biggles' cousin, appeared even earlier, in the WW1 stories.

          4. The Biggles books of Capt WE Johns (he was really only ever a 2nd Lieutenant!) are a bit of a speciality.

      2. Good post Ped. Can I ask you to re-post it under the article in FSB please.

        freespeechbacklash,com

        Click on the picture of the Spitfire.

  17. Good morning all

    Lovely morning here , very Autumnal .

    No1 son was up at the crack of dawn preparing to meet up with a friend , they driving to Fordingbridge to take part in an early morning 18 mile race through the New Forest. https://bigfeatevents.com/index.php/portfolio-item/bigsky-trail-marathon-18-mile/

    Son is 55years old .. he had a midlife crisis when he was in his late forties , and although he was a cricketer , squash, etc and outdoorsy chap in his earlier years , sports injuries clobbered him .. so he went from couch potato to 5k races and then onwards and upwards in about 10 years .

    Moh has always been very competitive and slender and very sporting , and a runner still at 78 years, but not big race stuff anymore .

    Yep, my contribution is making sure the running kit is fresh and and available, no missing socks .. that sort of thing ..

    No 2 son broke his leg and ankle last year and is still having problems with the mend process.

    1. We've had sleaze governments for decades. It's just more recently that it's so bad they are finding it impossible to cover it up.

  19. Isn't it amazing that despite all the highly paid advisors and civil servants around No 10, that when Prime Ministers caught on the fiddle, "they were poorly advised or mislead".

    1. The Prime Minister's what is caught on the fiddle?

      Does what you say he is doing rhyme with 'bank' by any chance?

      1. Just been reflecting on what I said and notice you put it in the plural.

        One more letter to add to the alphabet – I would suggest 'B' for binary (in that some folk have two of them and may even identify as a black lesbian to get round equality laws), but that's already been taken. Suggestions?

      2. Good morning Jeremy and everyone.
        No, Lady Starmer has a (safe, generous & helpful) sugar daddy, because when you become a First Lady you need to be dressed properly.
        You are too young to remember, but the late Edward 'Ted' Heath also had to be discreeetly gentlemanised around the time he became leader in the mid 1960s.

          1. According to CNN:
            Victoria Starmer, Britain’s new ‘first lady,’ is a former lawyer turned public health worker.

          2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

            What’s behind China’s overseas policing drive?
            Comments Share 15 September 2024, 6:00am
            So China wants to make the world more ‘safe, reasonable and efficient’ by training thousands of police officers from across the globe to ‘help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities’. The offer came this week from Wang Xiaohong, China’s minister for public security, at a police forum attended by officials from 122 countries in the eastern city of Lianyungang.

            There were few details, but then few are needed. Authoritarian countries will see China’s frequently brutal approach to law and order, coupled with its zero tolerance for dissent, as rather appealing – and many will already have invested in the technical side of China’s surveillance state. However, even the most thuggish admirers of the China model should pause for thought, because as is usually the way with the Chinese communist party, self-interest is paramount. The party is deeply concerned about the fate of many of its global investments, which are now going sour, and the ability of some of the biggest recipients of its largesse to protect Chinese assets.

            Beijing now seems to have concluded that they are dangerously exposed
            At a less well-reported meeting in Beijing late last year, organised by the China-Africa Business Council, officials pushed for the rapid expansion of Chinese private security firms. ‘Outbound Chinese investors face security challenges and a complex environment,’ said an official statement. ‘A tailor-made approach is needed for international security projects. It must differ depending on the industry or country.’ The meeting was attended by China’s leading security firms, many of which are already active overseas – particularly in Africa – but have preferred to operate below the radar.

            Officials are concerned about the fate of programmes under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which started as a global infrastructure programme, but has evolved into an umbrella for just about everything China does overseas to further its influence. Projects have stalled or collapsed under a mountain of unsustainable debt and growing resentment at the outsize role of Chinese firms and labour. In Pakistan, for instance, Gwadar Port, built by China as key part of a $62 billion (£47 billion) China-Pakistan economic corridor has been under virtual siege by Baloch separatists, who have targeted Chinese engineers. Chinese-owned mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo have also been targeted.

            Most popular
            Gavin Mortimer
            The EU is disintegrating before our eyes

            A BRI working group recently highlighted the need to ‘hammer out the safety protection in a detailed way,’ according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency. ‘Guidelines are needed for corporations on containing risks’.

            The image of brave Chinese soldiers and mercenaries riding to the rescue of their besieged compatriots in far flung places has long been prominent in popular Chinese culture. The top-grossing 2017 movie Wolf Warrior 2 was a jingoistic Rambo-like flick about the rescue of African and Chinese citizens from the clutches of white mercenaries in an unnamed African country. Operation Red Sea, another patriotic chest thumper, was inspired by the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s evacuation of Chinese citizens during the 2015 Yemen civil war.

            China now has overseas economic investments and assets worth well over a trillion dollars by most estimates. It has set up around 47,000 overseas firms across 190 countries or regions, according to the Ministry of Commerce. They are engaged in energy, mining, infrastructure construction and manufacturing and much more and have hired more than four million people. Beijing now seems to have concluded that they are dangerously exposed, particularly at a time of growing economic stress and geopolitical tensions and require a local security apparatus to match.

            The Solomon Islands provide a template for China. Last year, they signed a deal on police cooperation with Beijing as part of an upgrade of their relations to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’. The Chinese telecoms company Huawei is building a cellular network on the Islands, and a Chinese state company plans to redevelop the port in the capital, Honiara. The deal covers drone training, cybersecurity and the provision of vehicles and equipment and the government claimed it would plug security gaps exposed by anti-government protests, which destroyed a large part of the capital’s Chinatown district.

            China had less success with Thailand, where the government scrapped plans for joint patrols with Chinese police in popular tourist spots following criticism that it compromised Thai national sovereignty, and a rebuke from the country’s police chief. There was also anger on social media. ‘Thailand will become a complete surveillance state’, was one typical response, though among other autocrats more welcoming of Chinese, that seems to be precisely the point.

          3. The other side of the pond have got it wrong as they usually do about this side side of the pond. We have a Prime Minister not a President.

          4. According to CNN:
            Victoria Starmer, Britain’s new ‘first lady,’ is a former lawyer turned public health worker.

        2. It seems sleazy – she got her clothes sponsored, as did he.
          Can't they buy their own shirts, and what favours does he provider get for a couple of shirts?

          2. I think Denis got tips from Bill Deedes who was a government minister and MP as well as being the editor of the Daily Telegraph, which, in those days, used to be a good newspaper. But as good newspapers go it did what good cooks do and went – in the DT's case to the dogs!

          3. How many pensioners could have kept warm this winter on the amount of money the wasteful Waheed squandered on gold-plating the whoopsy?

    2. It's the same 'advisers' that guide them on Net Zero, electric vehicles, war with nuclear armed enemies, heating allowances for pensioners, assisted illegal immigration, how many billions to give to countries with space programmes and corrupt governments, which Trades Unions to reward with pay increases etc.
      I wouldn't mind a job like that but I don't have the requisite skills in lying, conniving and skiving just to get a foot in the door.

      1. Morning Ped,

        I still think Starmer has all the makings of a reborn Hitler .. and his Gorgon women followers are just as dangerous .

        He is an absolute bully, the sort who pokes and prods to hurt , and I expect he and his cohorts enjoy the cries of pain as they issue more edicts that will become even more evil the longer he is in power .

        Napoleon or Mussolini, or Franco or even worse .. yes he is a strutting anchor .

        1. I cannot understand how he succeeded in wooing an attractive looking woman like his well-dressed wife – a wife lavishly dressed at great expense by Lord Waheed Alli – described on the Internet as one of the openly gay Muslims.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef40b1ca85e941c6c19811d674e40bb46cf0ae0e86f22f605a2c3936eee1eddc.png

          Wanting women to be well dressed and being homosexual are not usual Islamic traits – I wonder which is more important to him – his faith or his sexuality? And I wonder if Mrs Starmer is a pleasant as she looks.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81f33eb54f20d61428f704d35d5223ace8e1f6bf3dc7147c9c5c30867af6877e.png

          2. Political power and money are, so they say, great aphrodisiacs.

            Fortunately most of us can get by without either!

  20. Morning all 🇬🇧🙂😊
    Lovely start again, apparently rain later.
    I wonder how far the subject of assisted dying has been debated around the cabinet table I'd guess all have taken part and its been mass debated. Perhaps we need some high ranking volunteers to show the audience how it's to be done.
    In the meantime Let's keep our fingers crossed 🤞 for a glowball warmer winter.
    And look after our faithful very elderly who without their determination and war efforts most of us Nottlers wouldn't be here today.

    1. This reminds me of a time when Prince Philip once attended a Battle of Britain memorial event. He asked one of the ladies serving teas "and what did you do in the war?". She replied "Not a lot – I was born in 1953".

      My own mother was a teenager in the ATS.

  21. Didn't win the Lotto either:
    Wordle 1,184 5/6

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

    1. Same here!
      Wordle 1,184 5/6

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

    1. Very happy 😊 birthday wishes to you VOF, yet another Virgo and a good time around Christmas many years ago.
      Have a lovely day🥂🍾🍻cheers.

      1. Last year I gave him three verys which was too many – but I have given him the soubriquet of Methuselah and have settled on two verys at your prompting!

          1. I think you may be right. I myself am at an age (Shellac 78) where it is not impossible to be a bit confused from time to time!

            Can anyone clarify?

          2. I think you may be right. I myself am at an age (Shellac 78) where it is not impossible to be a bit confused from time to time!

            Can anyone clarify?

      1. We know you are 88 years of age but we don't know vvof's age. Which of you out-Methuselah's the other? Is he trying to challenge your position as The Father of The House?

      2. We know you are 88 years of age but we don't know vvof's age. Which of you out-Methuselah's the other? Is he trying to challenge your position as The Father of The House?

    11. Judging by the frequency of the messages, our parents really enjoyed Christmas.
      Happy Birthday, VVOF.

    12. Thank you all for your kind thoughts. Another year gone, I have a feeling that the next one or two will be rather challenging for all of us.
      I’m not sure my posts are particularly incisive but at my age I will take any compliment that comes my way.

  23. Did any of you enjoy this letter?

    SIR – I was lucky enough to be the daughter of the late spider expert, Dr W S Bristowe (“They’re coming! How to spider-proof your home”, Features, September 8). He wrote many books and papers about spiders and travelled to many corners of the world looking for them, discovering and naming many. A fascinating hobby.

    He taught my sisters and me a great deal about these animals from an early age. I highly recommend his delightful Penguin book, simply called Spiders, for children and adults. There are lots of pictures showing the lovely patterns and colours on spiders’ heads and bodies. Some really are beautiful.

    I always remember him saying that, if your clothes cupboards have a spider or two in them, you won’t get any clothes moths. They are so clever – just look at the beautiful webs they make. And they are clean – no droppings or mess. They eat nasty things like flies and mosquitoes, which get caught in their webs, and they won’t bite you in Britain. I’ve never been nipped by one here, though I did get a very nasty bite from one in Cyprus.

    Don’t shut them out. They won’t do you any harm, and at this time of year they may be seen high up in the corner of a room or accidentally trapped in a bath. I had a monster in my bedroom a few nights ago, scuttling across the floor. I opened the door and sent her across the passage to my son’s room. Enjoy your spiders – they won’t trouble you.

    Belinda Brocklehurst
    Tunbridge Wells, Kent

    I rescued a monster Wolf spider that couldn't climb out of the bath , I lowered a flannel for it to grip hold of and then off it scuttled behind the loo.

    The only spider I hate , which fortunately is a rare visitor , is a False Widow spider .. their bodies are similar to black currants, with markings .. and they bite!

    1. They do leave droppings. Our house is full of spiders – mostly the thin spindly sort which live in corners of the ceiling. I can live and let live, although I'm an incorrigible arachnophobe. I have to check the shower before I use it and get OH to rescue and evict them each time.

    2. When you see a nest of little spiders there's loads of 'droppings'
      I've been bitten by one that somehow found its way into my pyjamas (before you ask – no, there weren't enough legs)
      I rescue them from the bath regularly

    3. When I was young, we had one we called Agatha which used to do a circuit of the living room while we were watching TV in the evening.

      I know some folk eat their pets, but I watch mine.

      1. At around 10 years old, I use to catch flies in our kitchen and take them into our outdoor coal shed and flick them into the spider's webs.

      2. Many years ago we had the same, until one night a babysitter ….. .let us just say, fate was not kind to poor spidy.

    4. When I was much younger people use to call my grandfather spider man.
      I assumed that he was considered to be a local hero in helping local people face difficult challenges etc.
      But as I grew up I discovered that it was much simple than that.
      It's was because He himself couldn't get out of the bath.

    5. I have tens of cellar spiders, the ones who weave those crazy gauze like webs with no apparent rhyme or reason. No idea what they're eating, insect numbers generally seem down this year, possibly insufficient dampness in weather.

          2. I hear you, Ndovu. They don’t always seem to, just morph into something (someone?) else. Plus we’re a different society now, even if we had politicians of similar calibre to Thatcher, Fielding etc. Blair’s tentacles everywhere.

      2. Those delicate spiders are amazing and can take on prey heavier than themselves. They knit a coat of silk around a struggling victim like a granny on speed.

        1. Yes, I’ve seen the little cocoons they leave me everywhere:-) Populations wax and wane, depending on seasonal weather and viruses – used to have many green finches, they developed club foot sometimes both claws, reported as being caused by a virus. Not seen them now for a number of years. Similar with gold finches. Or red squirrels – what we do have is a plague of greys, apparently both having fought off the reds and also passed on a virus. Plus the Scots Pines been very weak for a while. I don’t believe Climate Change is caused by excess CO2 – we do have that, I can see it in the greenery all around, but climate change occurs naturally, for various reasons, as enumerated by various bloggers.

          2. Indeed. They listen politely but continue to believe, almost as though CC is a religion. Perhaps if they did have religion/church attendance in their lives, their attention to CC might possibly minimise or even disappear.

        1. Location unimportant…it’s an old property ‘modernised’ including all sorts of cladding and ****…better to let a place breathe, put on an extra sweater or ‘jumper’ as some say. All creatures need a certain amount of moisture to thrive including oldies like me..

          1. I didn't mean your address! Where has had "insufficient dampness" this year? Most of the time I've needed wellies to get past my studio.

          4. It has that habit, but that’s the North generally. Last few years less rain/fog/ice/snow…ah Climate Change…it’ll change again possibly as soon as coming Winter.

          5. We have a “yellow warning” for fog tomorrow. I expect it will have dissipated by the time I get up.

    6. I must get Caroline to read this – she always gets me to deal with spiders – I catch them with a glass and a sheet of paper and throw them out of the window so they are not killed or harmed. I enjoyed Bob Monkhouse's story when he said he was very proud of the fact that his grandchildren thought he was a Super Hero and called him Spider Man – until he discovered that the nickname was given because he found it difficult to get out of the bath!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df60752a3171ae866b21ce77c5039308a202011f21d77c2f0d3d206642fdf5ac.png

          1. That’s the arachophobe mind at work! The bigger, blacker and more hideous they are – the louder the screams when one appears….. Did I tell you about the one in India? it was as large as one of those glass ashtrays….. we’d just returned to our room, which was a single-story, cottage type one – OH put the key-card in the slot and I rushed to the loo in a hurry….there it was by my feet. I screamed – he removed the card from the slot so the light went off. I was already mid-stream so couldn’t move. He put the light back on……. after I’d put a wall in between myself and the beast, he threw a t-shirt over it and picked it up and shook it outside. Then, moments later we heard a scream from next door……

    8. It's only those scuttling wolf spiders that scare me. The long-legged spindly ones that stay put in their fine, almost invisible webs, appear to have taken over locally don't bother me. A neighbour was bitten by a false widow lurking in a gardening glove and had a swollen finger for a few days. They don't seem to come into the house though and prefer sheds and garages.

          1. The politicians are the worst! It was bad enough here with the petty restrictions during the ‘pandemic’ but the Aussies, the NZers and the Canucks had it far worse.

  25. Patriots of the world unite – behind Reform
     https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/patriots-of-the-world-unite-behind-reform/ : Tristram Llewellyn Jones

    This article in The Conservative Woman is well worth reading. I agree with most of the points he makes.

    BTL from Reuben Wade

    Mr Farage's recent complaint that, despite Reform UK''s four million votes, not one Reform UK MP has been picked to sit on any of the twenty-six parliamentary committees, should remind us: i) that the Schtarmfuhrer is determined to have no opposition as Labour steam-rollers forward with the destruction of Britain's stability, security, prosperity and culture while giving away our terrain and assets to foreigners; ii) that Labour's conspiracy and collaboration with Conservatives to ensure that every UK government always ignores and dismisses the views of patriotic British people in favour of foreigners, foreign billionaires, or unelected supra-national control-freak entities such as the U.N., is in safe hands and to be continued 'seamlessly'; iii) that Reform UK is the one party whose members the Schtarmfuhrer is afraid to see on any committees, because Reform UK is the only patriotic party in the Commons.

    Whatever reservations one might have about Reform UK, the news that its members have been blocked from every parliamentary committee tells us that it is on the right track. The same desperate, underhand tactics are of course being employed all over Europe to frustrate the political advance of concerned patriots trying to salvage what is left of our civilisations. The way forward is, as the author states, a groundswell of local area activism that sweeps the anti-British activists out of the town halls. Spend five years doing that, and, no matter what damage Labour does in the meantime, there will be at least a platform of some sort for the fightback.

    These May local elections are the Battle of Britain over again, but this time with the enemies of Britain on the government benches…as they have been for the last thirty years, if not the last sixty years.

  26. Patriots of the world unite – behind Reform
     https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/patriots-of-the-world-unite-behind-reform/ : Tristram Llewellyn Jones

    This article in The Conservative Woman is well worth reading. I agree with most of the points he makes.

    BTL from Reuben Wade

    Mr Farage's recent complaint that, despite Reform UK''s four million votes, not one Reform UK MP has been picked to sit on any of the twenty-six parliamentary committees, should remind us: i) that the Schtarmfuhrer is determined to have no opposition as Labour steam-rollers forward with the destruction of Britain's stability, security, prosperity and culture while giving away our terrain and assets to foreigners; ii) that Labour's conspiracy and collaboration with Conservatives to ensure that every UK government always ignores and dismisses the views of patriotic British people in favour of foreigners, foreign billionaires, or unelected supra-national control-freak entities such as the U.N., is in safe hands and to be continued 'seamlessly'; iii) that Reform UK is the one party whose members the Schtarmfuhrer is afraid to see on any committees, because Reform UK is the only patriotic party in the Commons.

    Whatever reservations one might have about Reform UK, the news that its members have been blocked from every parliamentary committee tells us that it is on the right track. The same desperate, underhand tactics are of course being employed all over Europe to frustrate the political advance of concerned patriots trying to salvage what is left of our civilisations. The way forward is, as the author states, a groundswell of local area activism that sweeps the anti-British activists out of the town halls. Spend five years doing that, and, no matter what damage Labour does in the meantime, there will be at least a platform of some sort for the fightback.

    These May local elections are the Battle of Britain over again, but this time with the enemies of Britain on the government benches…as they have been for the last thirty years, if not the last sixty years.

    1. I have my reservations about Reform but until something better comes along it is far better than the repulsive Labour Party and the party of impotent faux Conservatives.

      Rupert Lowe's maiden speech in the HoC certainly shows how superior he is to any of the aspiring Tory Party leadership candidates:

      https://www.rupertlowe.co.uk/

      Interesting that the HoC was virtually empty when he delivered it – just as it is empty when Andrew Bridgen told the truth about the deadly Covid jabs scam.

        1. Telling the truth does not make you popular with the electorate so most politicians lie to get elected. Look at Starmer: before he became PM he lied about everything and now we are seeing the dire consequences of his mendacity.

      3. I've just seen another lying labour politician on TV telling the world about the difficulties of the desicion to remove the heating allowances from elderly people except of course those on benefits. Or anyone else that doesn't fit into the niche they seem to so willingly approve of. I'm not defending wealthy pensioners of course.
        But how do People who have never done a days work in their entire lives and those who have never paid a single penny into the system including the NHS and national insurance. But rely solely on handouts to exist, Qualify ? And people who have saved for the imminent 'rainy days' don't.
        But then are taxed on the savings they may now gave to use to help pay their energy bills and other now rapidly increasing costs implemented by this vile and hate filled government.

        1. We lost £500 as OH is over 80. Still we have a shed full of well-seasoned logs and a full oil tank so we will survive.

          2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

            Why the ‘two-tier Keir’ jibe isn’t going away
            Comments Share 15 September 2024, 6:00am
            Popping champagne, skulking off to smoke a spliff and pledging to become a life-long Labour voter. Anyone concerned about criminal justice in Britain will find the well-documented glee of the 1,700 prisoners given early release around the country this week galling indeed. As domestic abusers and career criminals walk free, many will have been struck by the contrast with the government’s response to last month’s riots, bringing to mind that most irresistible of epithets: ‘two-tier Keir’.

            In the Commons, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage duly used his first ever question at PMQs to punch this bruise. Many of those leaving prison will be effectively swapping places with those arrested last month in the disturbances following the barbaric Southport attack. While some of those locked up were violent rioters, others, said Farage, were merely ‘those who have said unpleasant things on Facebook and elsewhere on social media’ (like the grandmother and sole carer to her elderly husband, Julie Sweeney, given 15 months for a single crass Facebook post). Then came the question: ‘Does the Prime Minister understand that there is a growing feeling of anger in this country that we are living through two-tier policing and a two-tier justice system?’

            Unsurprisingly, Farage’s question met with loud groans and jeers from the Labour benches, and with the PM not answering. Labour really does not want to talk about two-tier policing, with Starmer insistent it is a ‘non-issue’. Last month, after the billionaire owner of X, Elon Musk, stung the Prime Minister by labelling him ‘two-tier Keir’, Labour MPs had to be warned to steer clear of the topic entirely on social media by their chief whip. Others are rattled, too. Think of prickly Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, slapping away a reporter’s microphone when pressed on it, or attempts in the mainstream press to dismiss it as a ‘myth’.

            Most popular
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            Yet the question continues to be asked. Labour’s technocratically minded politicians would no doubt love to be able answer it by saying that the police, the courts and the justice system are independent of ministers and should be left to get on with the job. But such an excuse is no longer credible.

            After all, the whole country has just witnessed how the wheels of British justice, just as they did in 2011, can be made to speed up or slow down at the command of Starmer the prosecutor.

            The PM’s crackdown on the riots was fierce. At their height, Starmer was giving regular press conferences denouncing all those involved as ‘far right’. As they raged, he notably refused multiple opportunities to say that while the violence was wrong, it might reflect some underlying grievances that ought to be addressed. Instead, he pledged to raise a ‘standing army’ of police offers against his own citizens, introduce authoritarian facial recognition technology and so-called ‘preventive action’ to snag prospective rioters ‘pre-crime’. His Home Office proved so eager to boast of reaching 1,000 arrests on social media that, as the Free Speech Union has argued, it may well have placed itself in contempt of the very court system it’s in charge of.

            Labour has sought to take political credit for all this, with Starmer pledging to ‘take all necessary action to keep our streets safe’. Indeed, just as grandmothers and 11-year-olds were being fast-tracked into custody, the PM is in the process of fast-tracking honours for those who helped put them there – especially, as Guido Fawkes reports, ‘community leaders’, who ‘made sure targeted groups felt safe’.

            Yet while Starmer may have enjoyed playing the tough guy, his highly visible crackdown will in the coming years pose a major problem for Labour when it comes to law and order and two-tier policing. He has demonstrated a simple principle: where there is sufficient political will, criminal justice can be swift and unforgiving. Which means that every time it appears lackadaisical and soft-touch, it will be seen as a political choice – as indeed it is. Post-Southport, anytime anything even smacks of two-tier justice, the cry of ‘two-tier Keir’ will inevitably go up.

            Back in July, two men were caught on camera appearing to assault three police officers inside Terminal 2 of Manchester Airport, leaving all three with head injuries, including a female officer with a broken nose. Yet the suspects, brothers Muhammad Fahir Amaaz, 19 and Amaad Amaaz, 25, have not yet been charged. Why has Starmer, who has long sought to position himself as defending the police, or the Home Secretary, who this week called anti-police violence a ‘stain on our society’, said nothing about this? Could it have anything to do with the fact that after their initial arrest, a sectarian mob assembled at Rochdale police station to demand their release and issue threats?

            Indeed, it seems the authorities are more interested in pinning the blame for this incident on the police officers who were attacked. Two officers remain under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, with one suspended, after footage emerged of the infamous head kick against one of the suspects. It was only when the Manchester Evening News published further footage that showed the men attacking the officers that this narrative started to unravel. Now, the MEN reports that it is being menaced by an IOPC investigation asking it to reveal its source. (Quite rightly, the paper is refusing to be bullied.) It seems that an alleged leak of the footage of this potential offence is deemed more serious than the offence itself.

            Or take the case of Mohamed Osman, who threw a can at protesters amid disorder in Bristol following the Southport attack, and pleaded guilty to violent disorder. Mohamed will not do jail time: last week, he received a two-year suspended sentence, though he did get a measly 150 hours of community service. A stark contrast with the fate of Bradley McCarthy, who, also in Bristol, shouted at police and a police dog and engaged in ‘racist football-style chants’ – and received 20 months behind bars. Does anyone think that’s fair?

            With the summer holidays over and the anniversary of 7 October looming on the horizon, the capital can likely expect the weekly pro-Gaza marches to soon start up again in earnest. This is another case where apparent double-standards in policing have been on regular display. In a recent report on the matter by Policy Exchange, even the man responsible for the force’s response to the protests, assistant commissioner Matt Twist, concedes that ‘we didn’t get everything right’.

            So try as Starmer might, two-tier policing is not an issue that his blunt denials will make go away. Reform, sensing weakness, has in recent weeks been enthusiastically hammering the two-tier button and will no doubt continue to do so. Even some braver Tories outside the parliamentary party are doing the same. In this, they are only responding to demand: YouGov finds that public perception that there is two-tier policing is now widespread. After all, everyone remembers that Starmer’s response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter ‘protests’ in London – after dozens of police officers were injured – was to take the knee. It’s something his critics will not let him forget.

          3. I think they’ve tried to bring some restrictions – in towns, etc, and also on non-compliant stoves and wet logs, etc. As far as I know, ours a clean-burner and the logs are good and dry. Most of our neighbours have log burners too, and there is no gas supply.

          4. We have newish neighbours in our road, they moved to mid Hertfordshire from Richmond.
            They seem to have a problem with existing residents in our road or nearby who either use wood burners, garden bonfires , or as we did, a controlled fire pit we sat around at the bottom end of our garden, on a very still evening with our old friends from Perth WA. It’s not been used for more than three years.
            They moan on our road FB page saying that they can smell the smoke.
            And it forces them to close their windows. Which are very rarely open.
            It really doesn’t bother anyone else
            nor has a nasty smell.
            Another nearby neighbours has been using a lounge fir log burner.
            And visually the smoke can be seen vorticity leaving the chimney at the height of the roof.
            Richmond Wokies. 🤔

          5. It's like the townies who move here (to the countryside) who complain about the smells (manure on the fields), the dirt (mud on roads off the fields), the noise (church bells and cocks crowing) and the "lack of sophistication" (which I presume means no skinny lattes).

          6. They are an effing PIA.
            When we had an allotment the renter’s right at the lower end of the plots had a polytunnel (no problem tonany one) excpt ‘out of town’ new commers who’s garden backed onto the allotment plot nearly 100 yards away, they found reasons to complain.
            I wonder how they will feel when all the allotment holders give up and the land becomes a huge likely profit for the local council and they build a hundred houses on it.

          7. People must live and let live – these newcomers will make themselves very unpopular if they keep complaining. We are fortunate here to have a supportive group of people, most of whom have lived here many years.
            The much younger couple on the small farm at the bottom of the hill had the decency to post on the What’s App group yesterday to warn people they were going to burn the ragwort (they keep horses) but would leave it till the evening.

          8. Totally agree. Where we use to live our garden fence was the boundary of farm land. They use to burn off the stubble (now no longer allowed)
            But we shut the windows and got on with country life.

          9. I've only lost £200 as a now single pensioner. I've offset that by not paying my TV tax and not paying my council extra to empty my green bin. Unlike the government, if my income drops I have to reduce my expenditure.

          11. I’m expecting that, too. I’m in the middle of assembling a bed; I’ll have to take in a lodger (of my own choosing to avoid having one foisted on me courtesy of the government).

        2. Eddy, the reason given by the Tories for not means testing the heating allowances was that the expense of

          means testing would cost the taxpayers more than the allowances.

          However, the cost of employing the many extra civil servants administering the 243 question form appears

          to have been "forgotten".

          Cynics might say that is because the Civil Service Union is reputed to be the most left wing union in the country.

          1. Let’s be honest Janet, they, excluding none are absolutely ‘king unless at every thing they attempt during their time in employment.

      4. Agree Rastus. Don't trust Farage but better him than any of the insincere hypocrites in the two mainstream parties.

    2. In SE Cornwall there has been a bit of a post-GE Reform UK kerfuffle. It's slowly getting sorted and there's enough time before next May's council elections. Our GE candidate received 9,000 votes, the highest of the Cornish constituencies and so has attracted wannabee contestants.

    1. I hope he's right, but he overlooks the fact that, while Islamists may be a minority of Muslims, the majority tacitly want the same thing or will do nothing to prevent it – Sharia law in the UK.

      1. Islam means submission – the submission of the whole world to their ideology. It's the be all and end all of islam. We need to keep that firmly in mind.

    2. Hi Poppie. Listened and I'm largely in agreement with his take on the Muslim population. I have read that up to 70% of Muslims are secular, culturally Muslim or outright atheists. The problem for them is that societal pressures within the Islamic community are so strong and fraught with danger if you go against the consensus, that most just keep quite. Its not exactly inviting to declare your unbelief due to the nasty habit that such people tend to lose their heads or end in some other way. But if and when, because it will happen, I suspect those people will be largely on our side. It might surprise people to know too, that most Muslims in the UK see themselves as British first and Muslim second. What I'm saying pertains to settled Muslims, not the illegal immigrants who are, without a doubt, a wild card.

      His take on the king is wrong. Charles is interested in all religions, not just Islam. And in fact, at the Coronation the traditional title was used. The King actually gave a statement making it quite clear that the tradition, as is, was to be continued by him. The problem will be William, not the present King. However, my suspicion is that Charles actually leans to Orthodoxy due to his father being Orthodox. Evidence, his trips to the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos) and other Orthodox Holy places and that, in the Coronation we not only had an Orthodox group chanting Psalm 71 but also, what is less known, is that he was anointed with oil blessed by the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the anointing screen was made by an Orthodox. Non of this is surprising when you remember that his father was Greek before becoming British due to his marriage to the late Queen Elizabeth.

      Good point about the Labour Party though, hadn't thought of that. However, this was obviously made before the rise of Reform. At this point I thing it is Reform that will be the dominant player in the next general election, not the Conservative Party or Labour.

      1. Thanks so much for your interpretation, interesting regarding KClll. It does not come across to the average person (e.g. me) very well.

        1. In order to understand the Kings attitude to other religions you need to read his mentors works, Laurens van der Post. Charles regards him as his 'Guru'

  28. SIR – For many years now my wife has made her own mincemeat for our seasonal mince pies (Letters, September 8) She has already made this year’s in order for it to mature.

    These are without doubt far superior to the offerings of any supermarket, and the resulting popularity within the family means my wife’s efforts are in constant demand well into the New Year.

    David Elliott
    Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire

    The most interesting, informative and interesting letter for years.

    Well done DT

    1. Apparently Samsung has a silver-based battery under development that is promised to be lighter and safer than the lithium one. Only snag, there is not enough silver produced annually to supply demand.
      Unless of course very few people have cars in the future…

  30. Labour’s dangerous prison releases will come back to haunt their ailing Government. 15 September 2024.

    People see Labour making unforced choices. It chose to give public sector unions unconditional pay rises. It chose to cancel North Sea drilling licences. It chose to impose new burdens on employers. It chose to order a woke new national curriculum. And, yes, it chose to decant selected scoundrels back into society.

    The man Starmer has brought in to run prisons, James Timpson, makes no secret of his view that there are too many people inside. “We’re addicted to punishment,” he told Channel 4 News. “So many of the people in prison in my view shouldn’t be there.”

    I agree. If I had my way a large proportion of them would be hanging from gibbets.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/15/labours-dangerous-prison-releases-will-haunt-them/

    1. We are always told that the death penalty is not a deterrent. Now we are out of the EU should we not put this theory to the test again?

      3. EU membership is almost immaterial. It's being a member of the European Council which requires that we be a signatory to and to abide by the European Convention on Human Rights that obliges the country not to restore the death penalty. Also, an apparent unwillingness on the part of the electorate to vote in large numbers for parties committed to its restoration.

        1. I think that there would be far less demand for the return of the death penalty if life imprisonment really did mean life imprisonment.

          When a murderer is released and then murders again the public feel they have been betrayed. This short story by Evelyn Waugh has been dramatised into a a 30 minute BBC playlet starring, Leonard Sachs, Prunella Scales and David Warner.

          It is well worth watching!

          https://www.google.com/search?q=M+Loveday%27s+little+outing&oq=M+Loveday%27s+little+outing&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQLhgNGIAEMgkIAhAAGA0YgAQyCQgDEAAYDRiABDIICAQQABgNGB4yCAgFEAAYDRgeMggIBhAAGA0YHjIICAcQABgNGB4yCAgIEAAYDRgeMgYICRBFGEDSAQg5ODMxajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ffbab350,vid:fjukuOGikx4,st:0

      4. The death penalty to a mussie would be considered a bonus as they all seem to want to join the mythical virgins promised asap

    2. We are always told that the death penalty is not a deterrent. Now we are out of the EU should we not put this theory to the test again?

    3. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/prisoner-early-release-scheme-amari-ward-assault-b2612921.html

      Could this report be misinformation or disinformation? We should be told.

      Meanwhile, is this statement reportedly by the Foreign Secretary mis, or dis information. Again, we should be told:

      "Israel’s actions in Gaza continue to lead to immense loss of civilian life, widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure, and immense suffering”

      1. May I fiddle:

        Hamas's actions in Gaza continue to lead to immense loss of civilian life, widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure, and immense suffering”

        1. Sounds like you need to become Lammy’s scriptwriter. That way at least he’ll sound like he’s saying the right thing even if none of it makes sense to him personally.

          1. I would become his ‘ghost’ writer, bu I would soon run out of Two Letter words.

            He cannot read any words with more than 2

    5. Even more will be in prison who shouldn't be there once they start jailing the dissidents for wrong think.

    6. Certainly they should be deported, where possible. But Starmer wants more, not fewer, of those kind of people in OUR (only just) country.

  31. Labour’s dangerous prison releases will come back to haunt their ailing Government. 15 September 2024.

    People see Labour making unforced choices. It chose to give public sector unions unconditional pay rises. It chose to cancel North Sea drilling licences. It chose to impose new burdens on employers. It chose to order a woke new national curriculum. And, yes, it chose to decant selected scoundrels back into society.

    The man Starmer has brought in to run prisons, James Timpson, makes no secret of his view that there are too many people inside. “We’re addicted to punishment,” he told Channel 4 News. “So many of the people in prison in my view shouldn’t be there.”

    I agree. If I had my way a large proportion of them would be hanging from gibbets.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/15/labours-dangerous-prison-releases-will-haunt-them/

  32. Labour’s dangerous prison releases will come back to haunt their ailing Government. 15 September 2024.

    People see Labour making unforced choices. It chose to give public sector unions unconditional pay rises. It chose to cancel North Sea drilling licences. It chose to impose new burdens on employers. It chose to order a woke new national curriculum. And, yes, it chose to decant selected scoundrels back into society.

    The man Starmer has brought in to run prisons, James Timpson, makes no secret of his view that there are too many people inside. “We’re addicted to punishment,” he told Channel 4 News. “So many of the people in prison in my view shouldn’t be there.”

    I agree. If I had my way a large proportion of them would be hanging from gibbets.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/15/labours-dangerous-prison-releases-will-haunt-them/

  33. Good morning, chums. I was so snug and warm in bed that I decided to have a long lie-in. And thanks, as usual, Geoff for today's NoTTLE site.

    Wordle 1,184 6/6

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

    1. Have you heard from Grizzly recently? Is he on holiday – he has not been on the forum recently?

        1. I thought it was just around 10 days, Spikey. Must have misunderstood, so thanks for the update.

          1. I think he said I wouldn't be getting my daily crossword for 2 weeks Elsie but I may be wrong, his email has self-destructed

    2. It was a hard one. Took me four goes and not one right letter in the right place.
      Wordle 1,184 5/6

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

    1. Oh yes, love that song. The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, you know.

  35. Right……..I need to shut down this page and get on with typing up the notes from a very long and boring meeting I attended last week. Back later.

    1. Nigel Farage is often applauded for his political bravery but Tommy Robinson is his Achilles heel. As our friend Ogga often points out, Farage dumped Robinson when he thought an association with him would be bad for UKIP's image.

      But we have move several years along the road now. Public schoolboy Farage likes to mock Old Etonians in politics and this is inverted snobbery; he mocks Tommy Robinson too – but this is straight snobbery.

      I think it is high time that Farage grew up and accepted that even though Tommy Robinson may be 'rough and ready' his popular appeal is not dissimilar to his own and they share many of the same political opinions.

      The best way for Farage to treat his Achilles heel is to have the bravery to confront his fear of Tommy Robinson and have a rapprochement with him.

      1. Agree Rastus. Tommy can muster a hundred thousand people in less than a month. I doubt that Farage could do that. I think the problem here is that Farage would be eclipsed by Tommy and his ego can't possibly accept that. It is a fundamental difference between the two. Farage is ego, Tommy hasn't got much of one. It is that selflessness and willing to sacrifice that makes him so appealing. Farage cannot approach that. With Tommy as leader, people would go into battle, not so with Farage. Tommy has won over Jordan Peterson and his wife and many other high calibre people, Joe Rogan is another example, because of his obvious sincerity and willingness to speak the truth. It makes him, by far, the superior person. On the 26 of October Tommy has called for a demonstration outside 10 Downing Street, against Starmer and his policies. I hope it dwarfs the demonstration in Trafalgar Sq. and leaves Starmer very uncomfortable indeed. There will be a film exposing the treatment of those who have been jailed by Starmer and his lackeys in the judicial system, which, apparently, will prove to be explosive.

        1. "Tommy can muster a hundred thousand people in less than a month. I doubt that Farage could do that."

          Well he did manage 4 million in 6 weeks.

          More generally it's not about snobbery or bravery. Farage is the leader of a political party. The route to victory is through the ballot box, not the street. TR is simply too toxic w.r.t. the potential Reform voting base.

          1. At the Trafalgar Square rally, Tommy asked for a show of hands from everyone who voted Reform. Many thousands of hands went up.

          4. If things continue as they are, I have the feeling that the ballot box will become irrelevant. That is voting will come after the event, not be the event. In other words, the will of the people might overwhelm the normal method we use for change. 5 million people have already seen Robinsons appeal to meet on the 26 October at Downing St. That is since Friday. That is remarkable. How easy would it be to call for acts of civil disobedience?

      2. It can be observed that Robinson shares many of the personal characteristics of Churchill. Both impulsive madcaps in their youth, both are tenacious, refusing to be worn down by opposing forces, both patriotic to the core, a strong streak of ruthlessness and both only half English. The difference is one of class, and all that goes with that, in which Churchill's madcap endeavours were legitimised by his stretch in the military in India. I have to say the account of Churchill's youth surprised me greatly.

  37. As a respite from the woes of the World here's a few snaps from yesterday – The village Show…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8cc1953711f6a4fc65f835245c79faf42428b46e17cae6243e7d6defbdf0e386.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4118c1b83082fa9c86d760a8fcf47a2102ec06b95ae0d0c2e939355fd835fb6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2aaad1ef05c7d2b8fc1fe224f366eeb2f2621adfde7c247b546b1fad441eb45.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ce6332aa1254068966875fec65d32ae5653cbaee4ebf1b9b75aa8427c3401b3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9996f6514da4c84e4014ed2114b9011fece6a2dfecf537d03444b1468892131.jpg
    Yes!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ea9b2c245a454a2ad33777723a344fb6fd81d32d9cc6f954280704e0f02f50f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33c93062feca577f06b49c81cafaee249c365870088a412a893bd90be058e16b.jpg

    3. I love little local shows like that.
      Unfortunately, due to Dr.Daughter's ceremony at the start of the month, I missed the Turnditch & Windley Show.

    4. I love little local shows like that.
      Unfortunately, due to Dr.Daughter's ceremony at the start of the month, I missed the Turnditch & Windley Show.

        1. They really are beautiful and jewel-like. My Swedish friend does something similar, although on a smaller scale (i e pan holders).

  38. I was once in the cockpit of a military cargo plane flying over the Indian Ocean when all the front lit up with a spectacular display of St Elmo's Fire. Beautiful yellow and orange flames whirling around the propellers and running along the wings. Like something out of a science fiction film. Chatting with the pilot and admiring the display when, all of a sudden, a mighty flash and bang as lightning struck the starboard wing. I could see a circular black scorch mark in the centre of the wing where the fuel was stored. He didn't seem too perturbed but admitted it was a bit more of an impact than the usual lightning strike. The rest of the journey was in beautiful clear skies.
    https://scontent-cdg4-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/459089627_122134548422362048_916892910815785639_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s600x600&_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=J85dVOw99ZAQ7kNvgGTgVZ-&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-3.xx&_nc_gid=AicxaivfHhDA9H6WPt0ecnU&oh=00_AYAp3BKpLp0yr8GxRnr17xeKJUE9TrNCk905UT54EUwxmg&oe=66EC6FC5

    1. Lighting has been involed in bringing 1000s of planes down since 1963.

      Runway Centerline Lighting System (RCLS). Runway centerline lights are installed on some precision approach runways to facilitate landing under adverse visibility conditions. They are located along the runway centerline and are spaced at 50-foot intervals.

      Now LightNing is another matter

        1. The last commercial aircraft crash caused by lightning in the United States occurred in 1963 over Elkton, Md. A lightning strike ignited a fuel tank, causing the "explosive disintegration" of the left outer wing. All 81 passengers and crew perished.

          The NTSB database, which contains reports on more than 140,000 aviation accidents dating back to 1962, lists only 24 incidents caused by lightning strikes, including the Elkton crash. Most of the other 23 incidents involved small private planes or helicopters (and in one case, a hot-air balloon). And only four other incidents involved fatalities, for a total of 11 deaths.

    2. Lighting has been involed in bringing 1000s of planes down since 1963.

      Runway Centerline Lighting System (RCLS). Runway centerline lights are installed on some precision approach runways to facilitate landing under adverse visibility conditions. They are located along the runway centerline and are spaced at 50-foot intervals.

      Now LightNing is another matter

    3. One of our Lightnings was hit by lightning, there was pock marks in a line from the rear of the cockpit to the port wingtip which I had to dress out. All the jockey felt was a flash and a crack apparently.

  39. Outside the weather was grand…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a5dcb4cb6785b65140b51b40a78a4a1fa81f11709fd0d1e07d04b0486044549.jpg
    The Morris Dance side were established by a teacher in the local Primary School 90 years ago. They seem to have aged well. I particular like the FO Covid Dancing….!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dea9fd0f7787ca3a7bafed5aed240ae75e33d7618d381cf2915169f52e6b4782.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8862d21489a55ff510ebcb8b9bef125bd6f76875682acafa65c3d85a6278f5ab.jpg

  40. Outside the weather was grand…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a5dcb4cb6785b65140b51b40a78a4a1fa81f11709fd0d1e07d04b0486044549.jpg
    The Morris Dance side were established by a teacher in the local Primary School 90 years ago. They seem to have aged well. I particular like the FO Covid Dancing….!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dea9fd0f7787ca3a7bafed5aed240ae75e33d7618d381cf2915169f52e6b4782.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8862d21489a55ff510ebcb8b9bef125bd6f76875682acafa65c3d85a6278f5ab.jpg

  42. Email from Zoopla this morning .

    Stamp duty rates set to rise next April

    If you're selling and buying at the same time, you could save thousands in Stamp Duty by finding your next home this autumn.

    Right now, home movers don't need to pay stamp duty on the first £250,000 of a home they're buying.

    But from April 1, 2025, that threshold is set to drop to £125,000.

    On average, it takes 25 weeks to buy a home.

    So completing before April 1 means you could be spending some of that money on a new sofa instead.

  43. Ayup, Na then, and How do?

    I'm back from me break and rarin' to go. Trouble is, I've a lot to do at home yet, but I'll keep a look in.

    A huge Grattis på födelsedagen to all those NoTTLers who celebrated their birthdays in the past fortnight. I'll raise a glass to each and every one of you!

    Skål! 🥂😊 🎂👍🏻🍺

        2. Nah, tha’ means grand, surely…nowt personal like…can we stop now, Grizz I’m starting to sound like my dad…:-D

          1. Oh, heaven forfend, Katy.

            Perish the thought that I would ever sound like, look like, or have the feeble, selfish mind of … the sub-standard bloke who fathered me!

          2. Sounds like neither of us a chip off the old block(head) 😀 My mother once told me she married my father ‘because she thought he looked like Gregory Peck’ – he didn’t. These are the pair who conceived and raised me…I always used to think I was adopted even as a very young child..

          3. My dad used to brag that he resembled Charles Boyer. He may have done since he wasn’t fat enough to resemble Charles Laughton.

          4. My dad looked quite like Boyer. I think Laughton would be more interesting, and engaging (Him currently having a kip looks quite like him….)

  45. Each September, the Royal Air Force holds an annual Battle of Britain Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey. This year, the 84th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Service of Thanksgiving and Rededication will be held at 11:00 on Sunday, 15th September 2024.
    https://www.vsc.co.uk/news/battle-of-britain-memorial-service-2024/#:~:text=Each%20September%2C%20the%20Royal%20Air,on%20Sunday%2C%2015th%20September%202024.
    https://x.com/Memorial_theFew/status/1835219663598281050

  46. Each September, the Royal Air Force holds an annual Battle of Britain Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey. This year, the 84th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Service of Thanksgiving and Rededication will be held at 11:00 on Sunday, 15th September 2024.
    https://www.vsc.co.uk/news/battle-of-britain-memorial-service-2024/#:~:text=Each%20September%2C%20the%20Royal%20Air,on%20Sunday%2C%2015th%20September%202024.
    https://x.com/Memorial_theFew/status/1835219663598281050

  49. Now turned wet so tidying up abandoned.
    These are the logs awaiting being turned into firewood:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5eed7a7026a3710847743f6b381b5d28a81863576423aa6905a904b28ab6a120.jpg
    There's a mix of ash and elm, most of the elm still being green which is stacked separate to the ash and will be given extra time to season:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6cc8cec38b4ad645b30b3cf2ae46167fa175595f07ba19fd41ec3a3c97db080.jpg
    And there are still some ash stumps to take down too:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b963e3629a1012aaa1c3e18f53b726b717fd46458969e18ac2cd01b87c4257ad.jpg
    And a large stack of sticks to be cut and stacked in mushroom trays:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ee2e400e1ec9b90f8d575412acfb7eec34d7c9ffbbc097fc57336305cf3aae5.jpg

      2. As I've already got sufficient wood chopped & stacked under cover for not only this winter's burning, but also the start of next winter's, the ash is unlikely to be burnt until early 2026 and the elm not until 2027/28.

  51. Afternoon All
    Funny Old World
    Ukeland MOAR WAR!!
    Middle East CEASEFIRE NOW!!
    Well before we all vanish in a bloom of nuclear fire we might as well have a few laffs
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a8c519bc81c308f871bf0f1f7a56d36f1d88b7cd7ce9db750d538ccf511a8aa.jpg
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a208297ad28b56c3570cb5880a5df8e9739a958531a3e793e867663cf9f16e24.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4ae40c7d5638977d99a2e7c39b54a0c5eab0aa6027fe351e77dad540e0df8ca.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca6729fb7e61f862b6b5bb24b039555d6748f6f06f7ab6261f142364f55c44c2.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81c8a0b99b624292a2201ab0c74b8d24ff54129160e50a10d36dd53eb67f2f72.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e1563a2293d6680dcf4fc63f86889dbc9095753981eea02e04091c6b78e77c3d.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d92909046f2e5961bef127ded527c121056f2ce9d2c9e516783bfb4416f8390b.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d36bb0904211355e7d86fc81ded033e8f1599f780920644cd29e5c84353128fe.jpg

    1. One of our best friends, David, is very competent musician who ran a successful Music Department in a good independent school . In addition to playing the organ and the piano he also plays a Celtic harp and a trumpet – indeed he seems to be able to play anything he picks up.

      He also was very fond of our boxer dog, Rumpole, and his friendship was enthusiastically reciprocated.

      One evening when he was staying with us in Brittany David produced his Northumbrian pipes and started to play them for us. Rumpole let out a woeful howl of protest and tried to drown out David's 'music' with a plaintive and loud wailing.

      David was not easily forgiven. When he came down to breakfast the following morning and cheerfully said 'good morning' to Rumpole Rumpole just returned his greeting with a growl and a very dirty look and didn't even get out of his basket.

  52. A quick reminder patriotic Nottlers. Today is Battle of Britain day, and Free Speech is having a Patriotic party under former RAF fighter pilot Iain Hunter's article article explaining what happened in one of the world's most critical and decisive battles.

    Freespeechbacklash.com and click on the Spitfire.

    1. I was rather disappointed at church that no mention was made of the Battle of Britain at all, despite the fact that we have RAFA and RBL banners in the nave. I pointed it out over coffee (and lots of cake) so it didn't go entirely unnoticed. I have given up going to the service in Westminster Abbey – London is a foreign country now. Why did they bother?

      1. It seems to have been ignored alround. Who would be surprised to find that they had dug up the unknown soldier and replaced him with a Wndrush ‘veteran’?

    2. Just read it (and the BTL responses). Very interesting. I have flown in a Spitfire over the White Cliffs towards Hellfire Corner. France is frighteningly close – very little time to get enough height to meet the Bf109s.

        1. Three grand. Worth every penny! We flew over Capel-le-Ferne and Dover, then looped the loop and barrel rolled. Spending the non-existent children's inheritance 🙂 Mind you, I think I might do it again to stop Two Tier getting his hands on my savings.

          2. I need a project for next year now I've completed my visits to every racecourse in mainland UK. Perhaps I'll fly out of Goodwood when the Glorious Goodwood festival is on. Time to see if my old flight suit still fits (and if it doesn't, time to slim down to get into it!).

  53. Visited here earlier, the Church of Saint Martin at Fifield Bavant in the Chalke Valley, Reputed to be the smallest church in Wiltshire.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7226b0827758918476b65336c99476d784d30c2288ba54ebfccb1073c69d7aa4.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0491c513018a929cd0c89e7ab0d8cd48858d68455c1913cde919dbff35610bd2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/655ced51a6d5f4840fcf0efd84a4ce8e9b367e05edcd5c2c35ecedeb0dfd3b3f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/908a6b54261e57437648ab4b113567970ce6e93682c90485651fe3c66d6413ea.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c59ecadc7ff9b47b7b1f62e4403e41224fc0e3ab435ccd44928f69c89efca22d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c9b3f8732bd7ca79387c9b52341050615bb2c0cbc4bd1d928000d517b81efa9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7462dfc02fe407e66eecec61994a07326fb0dada782c3c73045dcf25ec3e2538.jpg

    2. Lovely looking church.
      Noticed only 5 sheep in the field. Are they waiting for muslim poachers?

        1. “Bradford on Avon’s prison history is more interesting than you might first think.”

          I must confess, Bradford upon Avon’s prison history is not something that’s ever crossed my mind before.

          3. Well when you cross the Avon from the North side you go straight to Jail. And since Labour came to office OAPs no longer collect £200…..

  54. weird letter of the day.

    ”SIR – Kamala Harris may have won the television debate, but the lady in Arizona who stopped cutting my hair for 10 minutes to extol the virtues of former President Trump will not be swayed.
    I switched off while she was listing conspiracy theories. Luckily I did not have much hair to cut.
    Edward Page
    Milford on Sea, Hampshire”

  55. The garden is just starting to wind down for Autumn.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0635d970c04842975f61141f16cb50df00bd4a6f4e1d7ec122ca0e4ead8380d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad03f83b1959ae0c73c884bbfd3ce308a4bfcec5a50f92ade6eac81c992ba1cd.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/50ede80308c623a1a42a6cdf51339844320d025c62375e69a447ea6c2261570d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a89293aaef2ec9056936c87681eafbb5413bb16b7b98be052a8cba135cac29b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce8f7ca69b6c1e173930a7a54f447c1da50b7fa538c79c0362a7e05b45d4b820.jpg

    1. Very nice. I have les dernieres roses d'ete. One of my unknown pink roses is still covered in buds and flowers. It's unknown because I grew it from a cutting and never did know the name of the original bush.

    3. Beautiful! The last two roses are really impressive, actually it's the same Rose isn't it? Got the name?

      2. M-i-L bought me a lovely climbing rose earlier this year, had a lot of flowers and still at it 'Bathsheba', if it's a climber you'd like 🙂

  56. Afternoon, all. Apologies for absence yesterday. Setting up and hosting the garden party (thank goodness we had sunshine and not the torrential rain we've had today!) then clearing away afterwards meant I was flat out. I am really starting to notice the signs of ageing now; I can't do as much and what I can do, takes twice as long.

    Starmer and "honour" in the same sentence? He'll only do what suits his agenda. Legally killing off people will probably go through on the nod, with a clause hidden somewhere in the minute text that it can be done forcibly to "save our NHS".

    1. You're right about ageing – although I'm well and have no painful illnesses, it does take me a lot longer to do things than it used to.
      Starmer has no honour – he's like an automaton and has to do whatever his minder decrees.

    2. I easily get over-tired, Conway (post-vaccine in my case). An old yoga saying 'listen to your body' – I try to do that, but push on as I realise I'm running out of time. It's good advice to rest awhile, though – have a cuppa too:-)

      1. After an incredibly stressful week last week (far too many jobs to do in one short week) I've spent most of this weekend – when not out in the garden keeping on top of the weeds – in bed sleeping. Now at last I feel a lot more rested. Back to numerous "jobs" tomorrow.

        1. Good to read, Elsie, especially the weed-free garden. Stress is not good. Jobs seem to secretly breed in a cupboard somewhere, take it easy with them 🙂 I sleep like a log, get tired after lunch so have a short rest then. Taking Floradix again, seemed to help before. Cuppa always good, Tetley Gold….

  57. Well I got the meeting report done – and received a thankyou so that was good. Had a catch up with TCW and one or two other things I usually read so now I'm back here and it's spotting with rain so I don't feel guilty that I'm not outside in the garden.

    1. Only "spotting" with rain – it's been of Biblical proportions here. Shame the reading wasn't about Noah building the ark! The roads to church were awash and the floods at the edges were meeting in the middle 🙁

          2. It started to rain here about 8.00 pm. We are off on our holibobs tomorrow, south Devon. Fingers crossed. It is difficult to know what to pack.

          2. Ha ! Malti don’t eat in these places. Unless on expenses of course.

            It is sublime. I thoroughly recommend.

            Harry Kobeans has been ordered by the management (Mrs Kobeans) to book for 2025.

            I’m thinking my next Nottle house party might be somewhere around here. :@)

  58. Biden delays decision on Storm Shadow missile strikes to end of month. 15 September 2024.

    Joe Biden has signalled there will be no decision on allowing Ukraine to fire Western-made missiles into Russia until he meets with Volodymyr Zelensky at the end of the month.

    Biden is trying to postpone the decision until after the election. A Trump win and it’s a definite go. Kamala and it’s a maybe; if it doesn’t look too risky.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/15/biden-pushes-back-storm-shadows-decision-until-end-of-month/

      2. Trump will have them sat down around a table within a couple of months. The lessons of the last century seem to have been forgotten by the present leaders of the Western world. I believe Ukraine is one area of policy where GB has actually had influence on European leaders who are normally not so bellicose as those from this island.

        1. That would be my bet too.
          The problem we now have is that the damage is far greater than it would have been had BoJo and the Yanks not encouraged Zelensky to carry on.

      4. I think that Trump will put a stop to this nonsense on day one. Hence the need to prevent him being returned by any means at all.

        1. A nuclear winter would certainly put the kibosh on global warming. Perhaps on the future existence of mankind.

        2. A nuclear winter would certainly put the kibosh on global warming. Perhaps on the future existence of mankind.

    4. I think you have a critical typo.

      My own personal view is that Trump will turn off the money tap to Ukraine and seek a peace with Putin.

      As regards Starmer’s lamentable foray into the Biden White House this is pure cinematic distraction. It enables Biden to turn his attentions away from the disaster in Ukraine whilst allowing Starmer to supposedly save face by claiming that he did everything to support Ukraine but was prevented from doing so.

      The political and geopolitical damage Starmer has caused in his few weeks in charge is immeasurable. The man is a cretin and should not be anywhere near the levers of power.

      1. seek a peace with Putin.

        He won't seek a peace.. he's already informed the world that he will demand peace from Ukraine & Russia within 24 hours.
        If Zelensky refuses.. Trump has said he will stop all arm shipments.
        If Putin refuses.. Trump said he will arm Ukraine to the teeth and allow them to annihilate Russia.

        Exxon BP Microsoft Siemens and google much prefer Harris.

  59. How many of you knew about this?

    𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝’𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐞
    In 1801, the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, faced the threat of starvation due to harsh winters and blocked supply routes. Enter Thomas Telford, a brilliant Scottish engineer renowned for his groundbreaking work on canals and bridges. Telford was commissioned to design and construct the Göta Canal, an ambitious project that would connect Sweden’s western and eastern coasts, providing a vital supply route.

    Despite challenging conditions, Telford's engineering expertise helped complete the canal by 1832, allowing food and goods to flow into Gothenburg. This engineering feat not only saved the city from the brink of starvation but also revitalized Sweden's economy and cemented Telford's legacy as one of the greatest engineers of his time.

    Buchanan, R.A. The Engineers: A History of Engineering. Penguin, 2010.

      2. Yes, Annie, and another brilliant Scottish engineer was Mr MacAdam, who invented road coverings (Tarmac – first used in Ayrshire) which was a wonderful invention until the advent of potholes. Lol.

  64. Clearly I married the wrong man.
    Today I bought 3 t-shirts in Primark and had to hand over £10 ….. of My Own Money!!!!

    1. Good stuff Rene! Likewise here….

      Wordle 1,184 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Well done, par for me.

      Wordle 1,184 4/6

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

    1. Glorious Goodwood is about four days of top class horseracing. Are you thinking of the Festival of Speed or the Goodwood Revival?

  67. I was in Marsaslokk for lunch today…https://www.facebook.com/harbourbyjohann

    The most incredible seafood. Couldn’t manage any buns or scones as i had Frito Misto for 2 all to myself…Just sitting. Gazing out at the little boats on a blazing hot day drinking chilled Sauvignon.

    I DON’T WANT TO COME HOME. But i do miss my little doggies.

  70. Fun and games. I was completely oblivious as I was facing away from him but apparently there was a man behind me who undressed himself during Evensong this evening. No one batted an eyelid until the end of the service, when there were giggles all round and much chatter. We don’t know whether he was caught on camera. It’s going to be necessary to watch on YouTube to find out. I’m told it wasn’t a pretty sight!

    2. Oh dear I wonder what point was he trying to make ? Heating allowances ?
      Did he bend over and pick his own clothes up.
      It reminds me of the golf club changing rooms.

  71. I was just thinking that the old age pensioners should wise up and take a leaf out of Lord Alli's book.
    They should get out their knitting needles and pattern books and start sending Starmer some nice cardies and sweaters, might as well throw in some bed socks for those cold nights and maybe a balaclava for when he goes incognito to the horse racing.
    Then maybe he might not be so eager to take away their heating allowances.
    If you can't beat them then join them, I say.

          3. Sos did explain, but even then I had to look it up. I am not keen on golf (or any other sports which do not involve a mane and tail, to be honest).

        1. I learnt at a very early age never let a dog lick your fance. White Hart Lane much more pleasant than a high Bury.

          3. Haha bloody speculative spelling.
            Problems with cataract removal and no longer having reading glasses.

          1. Naturally, to a betting man.

            It was a score of ten out of ten and then an additional mark for effort.

      1. Yes, that’s what I think too.
        There would have to be a landslide victory. Something that couldn’t be rigged and that’s not going to happen.

    2. And you can't even eat Vegans, unless you want galloping diarrhoea.

      Or so our resident chef Phizzee tells me

      Edit for masking

      No not Phizzee's masking: tape, Gonzo, fetish

    3. And you can't even eat Vegans, unless you want galloping diarrhoea.

      Or so our resident chef Phizzee tells me

      Edit for masking

      No not Phizzee's masking: tape, Gonzo, fetish

    1. I played off 12 too under the old system but it all went tits up despite spending loads with the pro to solve my problems. The end came when I put all my balls (ahem – golf) in a lake so the clubs followed and I've never touched one since – that was 52 years ago

      1. I was told a few days ago that a golfer was having such a bad time that he threw his club into the lake and a few moments later threw his entire bag of clubs into the lake. His bother who was also playing told a companion . "That's an expensive set of clubs – I'm sure he'll come back to get them but if he doesn't I'm going into the lake to get them".
        Sure enough the golfer came back too off his shoes and socks and waded into the lake to retrieve his bag of golf clubs . Having retrieved his car key he threw the bag back into the lake!

        1. Yep, I've heard that story many times all over the country, I guess it must have happened to someone.
          This is something I experienced – I think I may have told it on here before…..
          As you know the markers on the tee are usually red for ladies, blue for gents and white for competitions.
          I was on the first tee outside the clubhouse addressing the ball between the red (ladies) markers with a 3 wood. A guy comes running out of the clubhouse and shouts "You're obviously a visitor – here the men tee off between the blue markers"
          I thanked him and continued to address the ball. He shouted at me again "Are you deaf? men tee off between the blue markers"
          I replied "Yes ok I heard you the first time" and continued to address the ball.
          The guy came running across to the tee and shouted right in my face "I'm the club secretary and if you don't tee off between the blue markers I'll have you thrown off and banned from the course"
          I replied " Why don't you fuck off and let me play my second shot"
          He hadn't seen me top the ball from the blue markers and it had stopped between the red ones, he walked away muttering something about my parentage

    2. I very genuinely don't care. Starmer's a crook who's a boring, tedious, infuriating authoritarian bureaucrat.

      He has the wit and charm of a house brick with none of the utility or value. In a world of electric windows he's a plywood sheet. Labour are always like this. When the budget comes through and every tax is hiked the economy will decline and we will all get poorer. Starmer won't understand why and his advisors will blither on about 'fixing the foundations' as if sloganeering gibberish lapped up by their gormless and stupid fanatic followers will do anything for the poor, cold and unemployed as they set about a brutalist 1970's blitzkreig of inflexibility, price fixing and red tape.

      They're all revolting fools. The bit I am most disgusted by is the Tory 'hopefuls' wanting the job are the ones responsible for exactly the same policies Labour are now forcing on us.

  79. Get out your smallest violins, folks, it's gonna be a rough one;

    Today started by stripping and then remaking the beds. Those went into the washing machine while the bathroom was cleaned.

    When that wash finished and was hung out the bath/loo mats and other sundries went in the wash. While that was doing clipped my own and Junior's toenails and then hoovered upstairs.

    Hung the washing out and hoovered downstairs and cleaned downstairs bathrooms then did a shop around 2 and got tea on for the troops. At 4 sat down put it looked like rain so got the washing in. T'was nearly dry so stuck the big stuff in the tumbler, set that going.

    Hoovered again as some chaff had found its way on the floor and that meant changing the hoover bag. Put the bin out and off to bed.

    Do other folk find life just one big drudge? Is it because so much piles up – such as the bedlinen and bath on the same day?

    1. Everyone runs their married lives as it suits them and so you do whatever works for you. But life could be a bit of a drudge if the chores are one sided as you seem to indicate. I have a touch of ocd and in my previous life I felt I was always slaving away at home whereas the other side thought she was doing her bit! Did I see that you have the added pressure of a move on the horizon?

      1. We do bits together and it's not so much the warqueen not pulling her weight – she does a gym class on Sundays and it's an outlet for her as much as anything.

        It just seems an endless stream of chores – 3 wash loads to go out, dry and come back, changing hoover bag, hoovering, shop (some woman had left her trolley in the exit of an aisle and I banged in to it), cooking and then it rolls around the next week.

        Aye, we are. Some things went up for sale, I've been working on reducing the hobby clutter. It's 4 years away but this year has passed in a blink so it'll come around soon as we stop thinking about it.

        Still not convinced of this heat pump thing. It was chilly the other day and you'd want to tap the heating on to get it to 19-20 (it was 17 or so) but you simply can't with a heat pump.

        1. You are spoiling your warqueen , and I guess you have a considerable age difference .

          She must be on cloud nine .. Perhaps she can afford a daily help , whilst she is at work so that you can get on with the things you enjoy .

          1. She's 46 and I'm 45 – 18 months ahead. She'll be 47 in October.

            I've thought about a cleanery person before and had one when I broke my back but generally I think if I can do it, I should.

            I don't think she'd say she is spoiled. When she worked 5-11 it was sort of 'well, you're home more, and you can't expect her to and Sunday is her day. She does this yoga thing and disappears for 2 hours – really 3 as the wimmin gossip.

            Bah, I'm just ranting.

          2. Okay , now another tactic .. Do you have a gym nearby .. Join it .. for a while , trial run .. I hear from others that Gym showers are wonderful, and the sauna facilities are excellent ..

            Sorts the hot shower probs out , just have a gym time table.

          3. I have learned to live with the chaos and dirt. (It’s not that bad). My husband won’t have a cleaner and i refuse to spend my weekends cleaning. I am out of the house 12 hours a day, him not so. So he does superficial cleaning. I do however break my non-cleaning vow periodically and deep-clean the rooms one-by-one as my spirit saps, usually if i am at home on my own ag the weekend.

        2. I sometimes think life is a drudge but always remind myself that I have a nice place to live, a happy family, mortgage free and just about kids free so enough savings to do what I wish. Life is better than most of the inhabitants on the planet, so I thank my lucky stars! My Glass is half full…. so I'd better get Mrs Pea to fill it up.

        3. I sometimes think life is a drudge but always remind myself that I have a nice place to live, a happy family, mortgage free and just about kids free so enough savings to do what I wish. Life is better than most of the inhabitants on the planet, so I thank my lucky stars! My Glass is half full…. so I'd better get Mrs Pea to fill it up.

        4. Wibbs – being happily single, the division of labour thing is irrelevant. I agree re. clutter. Sooner rather than later, I need to put a shedload of stuff on eBay.

          As for heating, I've turned my Nest thermostat down to 17. I can always ask Alexa to set the temperature higher (in advance of a shower, say) – or wear more clothing.

    2. I don't play the violin. I could turf out the digital pipe organ from its cupboard and play something appropriate, but it's late.

      Thankfully, I don't have a Warqueen equivalent, and my good friend and former partner, who used to use this place as a staging post to cultural stuff in London (I'm next door to a station in leafy Surrey) has met someone (at 72) and is in love. Good for her, I say. But since no-one else visits, this place is turning into a shonethole…

      1. It's not a rant about the wife, more just the endless drudge of chores. She does her bit (although it's mostly complaining there's no hot water).

          1. I've wangled the tank to boost from 11-12 (when she gets in) but it's not enough time really.

            Bah, we all miss the flexibility of gas. I think that's wht the government want to stop – choice.

          3. You still have a tank? Sadly, I have a combi boiler, and an electric shower. Hence I waste gallons of (metered) water. As far as possible, I divert them to the water butt.

        1. Nah… I can be tidy / clean when I have to be. The procession of tradesmen imposed by the new landlord has much the same effect. And I'm not relegated to the sofabed…

    3. It is called routine housekeeping , darling .

      In the old days you would have had to put the carpets on the clothes line to beat the dust out of them .

      Perhaps you would have needed to get down to the communal well to draw water.

      Your washing would be done in a large tub, and then put through the mangle , very difficult .

      You might have needed to empty your lavvy pot over the garden vege plot ..

      Perhaps needed another hole to deposit your waste . If you had a few chickens to feed, you might have had to decide which one to use for the weekly rations .

      If you were lucky enough to have had servants , then you would have nothing to worry about .

      1. Aye, you're right and in many ways we've never had it so good what with roomba hoovers and so on but it just seems that as soon as you sit down an alarm goes off to say the pie is ready or the carrots need to go on, or the washing's playing it's tune, or the tumbler's needing it's tank changed….

    4. I tend to space out my chores if I can manage it – sometimes there's an emergency and I have to do two things together or one quickly after the other, but not normally. At the moment, the only chore I HAVE to do daily is the Rayburn; riddle it, empty the ash, stoke it and refill the hods. I have to feed and walk Kadi, of course, but I don't consider that a chore and I try to incorporate the walk into chores like paying bills. There are advantages to a single life 🙂

      1. Mongo will walk with Junior quite happily, but Oscar won't and Lucy is still a twitchy lass so it's tricky.

        It sort of has to be all three of us together, which is a commitment and a half – then the great brute will decide he doesn't want to go for a walk and stand staring at the ruddy pavement for 10 mins.

        2. Ah! There is also an advantage to having a dog you can pick up should he decide to have a strop 🙂 Not that Kadi ever has; where I go, he goes. He isn't nicknamed "Velcro" for nothing!

    2. Good for them – perhaps shops ought to stop serving these people, gas, oil and other utilities should stop supplying them then perhaps they'll take notice after all banks can do it

      1. I'm not sure that would help. The visible population of Aldershot now appears to be mostly Nepalese. I admire them, but Joanna Lumley did them no favours by bringing them here.

      1. It was almost exclusively Labour MPs, plus a couple of Greens. Every other person and party – and one labour MP (now expelled from the Party) – voted against. I believe there were some labour abstainers. What a craven lot.

    4. She will just spin it by saying it was only a few far right thugs and her constituents support her sad but necessary actions.
      Until each and every Labour MP, County Councillor and town councillor is voted out at the next earliest opportunity they will remain unrepentant for what they have and will continue to inflict on the country.
      However, to be banned from every pub, restaurant and shop in the meantime would be a good start.

    1. Hehe!

      Aye, the number of times the call goes out 'Mum, Dad, Mongo's stopped'… I know stubbornness is part of the breed but his Dad wasn't like this. Maybe it's the other two and he's finding his place again.

      I've carried Wiggy when he had a thorn in his pad on my shoulders. Didn't seem to worry then, but It was 12 years ago.

  83. 'Evening, all. This has been a very good day. A couple of our parishioners hosted an "away weekend" for the choir that their son has now joined. They have done the same for his previous choir: Imperial College Chamber Choir, who have repaid us in annual concerts.

    So, we were treated to a Choral Mass. The choir of St George, Bloomsbury, ventured away from their Hawksmoor church to our 'umble village.

    They sang an assortment of Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei. Never found out who the composers were all Italianate, and the last composed by said son in the style of Puccini.

    To be honest, a choir of four singers with their volume set to at least fifteen, and in 'opera' mode, doesn't work for me. All are aspiring opera singers. But I've had no less than Sheila Armstrong in one of my choirs, and she understood the need to tone things down. My old assistant organist sang Tenor with Voces8 for several years. At no point would you have mistaken him/them for opera singers.

    Nevertheless, since both choirs in our united parish have largely dissovled since Covid, this morning was hugely uplifting. I'm happy…

      1. Indeed. For me, the best bit was the offertory hymn: Glorious things of thee are spoken. Common Praise (our hymn book) has an alternative arrangement of the tune Abbots Leigh, with a descant, which frankly had passed me by. Cue organ interlude after the penultimate verse, and change of key…

        Hopefully, I'll be back down on earth by tomorrow morning, when I put the bins out…

          1. Austria is good, but has connotations. I like Abbots Leigh, but congregations always get the final part of the last line wrong. Since this morning's 9 am service had already been delayed by 10 minutes or so for idle chat, I was somewhat grumpy.

            Hence, at the end of the third verse, I stopped playing. Everyone gets the last couple of bars wrong. I taught the handful of attendees the correct notes. With a bit of tuition, they all sang the final verse correctly…

        3. We had Chopin this evening with our dinner – piano concertos 1& 2.
          Where would be be without music?

  87. Well, chums, it's 10 pm and so I am off to bed. Good night, sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow morning. PS – As Conners is still awake, may I say in advance: "Good night Conners – and Velcro" Lol.

  91. Trump would be assassin pathologically obsessed with the Ukraine War. Zuckerberg has taken down the shooter’s Facebook page.

    The chap is evidently a recruiter for the war effort in Ukraine. There is every possibility that the DHS, CIA and FBI must have knowledge of this person. At least this time around the shooter is still alive for questioning and investigation.

    This event also exposes the deliberate compromises made by the US Secret Service on the direction of the Biden administration as regards Trump’s vulnerability to assassination. The Secret Service devotes enormous resources to the protection of non-entities such as Hunter Biden annd Jill Biden and deliberately exposes President Trump.

    Even now the Democrats are ‘toning up’ their hateful rhetoric with MSNBC in particular openly wanting Trump dead.

    1. I think there is a crystal clarity. The Left need Trump out of the way — permanently — and they are determined to succeed in this venture.

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