Monday 4 November: Kemi Badenoch has the makings of an outstanding Conservative leader

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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739 thoughts on “Monday 4 November: Kemi Badenoch has the makings of an outstanding Conservative leader”

      1. Difficult question.
        The parliamentary petitions are given passing glance and then ignored.
        Maybe the NFU need to go large on the publicity.

    5. Also copied to the Bonsall Village Faceache page, but it might prove a tad too political for them.

    1. I dont think anyone was fooled by Labours intentions. Their policy has always to be tax and spend.

  5. Good Morning All – a new week beckons

    Today's Tales – Religion AND Law

    When Pope John Paul died, he arrived at the Pearly Gates at the same time as a lawyer. Both were ushered in to see St. Peter. He gave the lawyer a mansion with a swimming pool and the Pope had to share a double room and an old T.V. set. The Pope was disappointed and queried this decision. St. Peter explained.
    “We’ve got a hundred Popes up here, but that’s the first lawyer.”

    It was a sexual harassment case, and it had been a long day. The young lady accusing her boss said that she was too embarrassed to repeat the words that he said to her. The judge suggested she write them down and that the words be shown to himself and the jury.
    She passed the note, which read “Get your pants off and have a drink with me tonight”, to the judge, who then passed it on to Fred, the foreman of the jury. Fred passed it on to the next juror, a middle-aged spinster who had nodded off in the stuffy courtroom. He had to nudge her. She woke, read the note, winked at Fred and put the note in her handbag.

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

    Wordle 1,234 4/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟹⬜
    ⬜⬜🟹🟹⬜
    âŹœđŸŸ©đŸŸ©âŹœđŸŸš
    đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

  7. 395815+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    And so it continues reinforcing the coup with troops,
    reality must be faced, there is no other reason.

    Cannot be long now to when the lab parties burka comes off revealing BIG MO.
    The tool is piss taking BIG TIME,in he is surpassing "miranda" rubbing the nasal canals in ( at this stage well deserved ) shite https://x.com/SandraWeeden/status/1853326169698873827

    1. 395815+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Pensioners survival winter heat kit
      finance = ZILCH,

      Early Christmas bonus for starmer
      and the tools kit for services rendered unto the WEF / NWO / RESET cartel = ÂŁ75 mill.

  10. Britain can’t stop small boats by shouting at the sea. Yvette Cooper. 4 November 2024.

    The best way to strengthen border security is to work with neighbouring countries who face the same challenges.

    This is by way of doing nothing. A whole raft of measures could be taken unilaterally that would drastically reduce the flow and without any great disturbance. The elimination of benefits and accommodation first and then active detention and deporting of offenders would almost cure the problem. The truth is that there is neither the wish nor the intention of stopping the boats or the even greater numbers that simply walk in.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/11/04/britain-cant-stop-small-boat-arrivals-by-shouting-at-sea/

    1. Going out and picking them up doesn't exactly send a message of deterrence. I have read that if the boats make it to land they will be come illegal, whereas if the BF bring them ashore, they are irregular and thus get treated as a guest rather than a criminal. Just pushing back one or two would change the entire operation.

  12. Kemi Badenoch has the makings of an outstanding Conservative leader

    It wouldn't take a lot to make an outstanding leader, going by the previous leaders since Thatcher

    2. Maybe, in the enthusiasm for the Iron Lady, it might be sobering to consider that Thatcher achieved the same mandate in 1983 as May did in 2017. The difference between the two results stemmed from the Opposition being split in the 1980s, but in 2017, the Lib Dems were still out of it, Corbyn did better than expected, and it was the Tories that were split over Brexit. By that measure, Starmer is an "outstanding leader".

      I sussed Margaret Thatcher in 1971 when she addressed my school's Founder's Day assembly. She struck me as rather too eager to adopt the proposals of those she admired, without necessarily thinking them through, and then using her force of personality to push them through, regardless of the collateral damage.

      The last decent Tory leader may have been Harold "You've Never Had it so Good" Macmillan, a One Nation Etonian when Britain was a much better nation than it became since.

      1. Kemi has only just taken on the job.
        She has already made it clear that she has no time for identity politics.

      2. I blame the Royal Family for making it acceptable to spend ÂŁ30million+ on a wedding that eventually brought a racist bint with a chip on her shoulder to the fore .

      3. I stopped subscribing years ago, following pics of new offices/cars in glossy mag. What I've read, this appointment hasn't gone down well in said offices with colleagues.

    4. In 1822, the saying appeared in British Parliament. Warning that policies enforced in the British colonies may later be applied back in England, one speaker said, “As we sow, so shall we reap.”

  13. So last minute polls put Kamala in the lead, just as we all predicted so that when the steal goes in nobody will be surprised at the result.

    1. It's that passage of time. When you think about it there is great significance to passage of time..

      As for the Great Steal.. They've blown that too. They were counting on a tight race, then stealing the ten key swing states. However, the whole map of the USA is turning Red. And it's turning red because everyone thinks Kamala Harris is a complete looney leftie lying moron.

      1. I wouldn't describe that horrible woman thus. It is giving her too much credence as a political thinker.

    2. I wouldn't give house room to either of them. In fact, both are so irritating, I have to turn them off when they come on the news, along with their A-list cheerleaders, nearly all of whom I have never heard of, nor want to.

      I do wish Trump would talk more about Trump and less about Kamala. Yes, she deserves to be fired, but on present form, so does he. Nearly all his speeches are slagging others off, which is not hard to do. What does he have to offer the world. He is beginning to sound as tired and senile in his paranoia as Joe Biden, ahd Trump is not far off eighty himself.

      As a Conservative voice, he is not competing so much with the shrieking big-mouthed man-hating hussy that is Kamala Harris, but rather a black woman born in 1980 who has taken over the Conservative mantle in Britain, and might actually have an interest in the state of the world in 2030.

    3. Our parish council chairman remarked "it depends what happens tomorrow". The rest of us looked blank and said, "what happens tomorrow?" Clearly he's the only one glued to the Bbc.

  14. 395815+ up ticks,

    May one suggest that with survival of the decent indigenous now screaming LOUDLY to be serviced and maintained we kick the lab/lib/con, odious morally criminal cartel into touch, and nationwide support the NFU.

    This could very well be the kneelers "meeting his Waterloo" NO good us silently praying in protest about the abortion he is creating, but supporting the NFU
    en masse is a positive move in the saviour department.

  15. G'day all,

    Cloudy here at the McPhee demesne in the NW Hants/W Berks borderlands. Wind East 9℃ with 12℃ tops today.

    She's in hot water and she know it. Good.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b37dc305c8603aa2adff2775835aa95c25fefe1918939e6b57338df0431c598.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/11/03/reeves-we-cant-afford-farmers-to-die-tax-free/

    What she is worried about is that people can see now how openly Marxist and globalist they are. The mask is off.
    The Fabians have farked up in a big way. They have dropped the sheep's clothing and let the wolf out to slaver in our faces.

      2. Ugly in fact and spirit – what a deeply unpleasant person she is! And a liar too – even her CV seems to have a number of dubious claims?

    2. The lack of rural representation in the Labour Party may be the real issue here. They simply cannot grasp that farms are built up over generations, not according to the next quarterly return.

      1. The lack of rural understanding is one reason why there is a lack of rural representation in Labour. They have no idea how the countryside works. To them, it's a racist theme park.

        1. She should be made to farm a herd of dairy cows, pay the vet's bills, negotiate with the supermarkets, and still try to make a profit. She'd understand about black holes.

  16. Good morning all.
    A dull, grey start, still dry but, as yet, without the forecast mist or fog. A tad under 5ϡC on the Yard Thermometer.

  17. Good Moaning.
    Well, apart from it being Monday, grey skies and housework day.
    Tra la la and hey nonny noh ……

        1. Ah! I know the feeling! Our dishwasher is in bits on the kitchen floor
.new pump about to be fitted with much swearing! These white goods have an inbuilt end-of-life and we’re trying to resuscitate it! The twins are barred from the kitchen!

          2. But 
 but 
.. I thought the reason for producing grandchildren is to provide a source of cheap labour.
            Have I got it wrong?

          5. Not personally but Alan is lying full length on the kitchen floor with an inspection lamp!

          8. My washing machine decided to lock the door and refuse to open it ("sorry, I can't do that" style). There is no such thing as "can't" – it took a while, but eventually it released it.

      1. She has been groomed by Gove "The Siltherer"

        She is a WEF stooge. She talks a good game but I wouldn't trust her as far as I can spit. She is a WEF DEI hire.

  20. We are frequently fed the lie that some course of action, like stopping illegal immigrants crossing from France, cannot be done because it would be a 'breach of international law'. Today Free Speech has an article that argues that there is no such thing as international law, and that treaties like the UN Charter guarantee national sovereignty thus demonstrating that abiding by 'international law' is purely voluntary and that the 'elite's' lie that it has supremacy over national law is a lie, being used to undermine both democracy and the nation state.

    FSB is collecting for a services charity of your choice, with a poll at the top of Today page and below the short article on the charities involved, Help our Veterans . All donations made to FSB from now till Remembrance Day will be given to the charity with the most votes.

    https://www.freespeechbacklash.com/

    1. Worthy cause, Tom – made mine I think day before yesterday, not used Kofi previously but seemed to go OK.

  21. Morning all 🙂😊
    Same old, grey etc.
    Same as the outlook politically, when will they ever learn ?
    And most of the flowers are already gone.
    With a government overly bent on the further destruction of a long established culture and social structure. A new opposition leader won't make much difference no matter how hard they try.
    As has been the case and said many times before, history repeats itself. As The Invasion carries on, born and bred Brits are suffering the effects of outrageous fortune.
    Coming to a Hamlet, town or village near all of us.

  22. Massive fire in battery recycling plant. The explosions that resulted can be seen in the video at 4:25. One wonders how those downwind of the plant whose homes have been engulfed in the toxic fumes will suffer over time? It is hard to believe that such dangerous and unproven technology can be implemented so easily in a world that is obsessed by safety concerns. Net Zero madness triumphs over everything that would otherwise be considered problematical

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clFMazztSA8

    1. They're Americans, and are therefore immune. All that's needed is a winning smile saying "trust me" and all will be well.

    3. Yet recycling of materials is the best approach. We urgently, desperately need to do this sort of thing. Think of it – there's over 15 billion mobile devices in the world. Heck, there's 14 in our house of 3. If we don't recycle them that's hundreds of tons of metals – rare metals, plastics, glass, all going to landfill. If each contains 1 gram of aluminium that's 15,000 tons going to waste – or 200 747s (assuming a 747 uses 75 tonnes of aluminium).

  23. 395815+ up ticks,

    Home sec. cooper ( listen to her on the 8am news) is a
    barrel of lies / deceit and everything anti Brit.

    Tis not as first thought ÂŁ 75 mill. but ÂŁ 175 mill.
    may one ask, if this political criminal cartel are allowed to run the full term, how many new political millionaires will it regurgitate on completion.

    1. 395815+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Many have burnt their papers/ID,
      Then they MUST be returned to their last known address as in,

      THE BEACH, CALAIS.

      1. In the old days, they'd only let you in the country if you had a valid passport. Must I assume that since they changed the rules, the best way in is not to have one?

        1. 395815+ up ticks,

          Morning JM,
          You have certainly brought up a very factual valid point.

          Succour given all the way on landing.

      2. Farage has witnessed/recorded them cobbing papers/passports into Channel, thereby becoming whatever they want to be in terms of age, nationality etc, seeking sanctuary.

        1. 395815+ up ticks,

          Morning W,

          Don’t need the sally ann to trace their origin, last known address outside the United Kingdom should suffice, as in
          Calais bloody beach.

    2. Reeves is now also saying UK finances also much much worse than she's already discovered. Companies that are able to do so will move abroad. They're trying to kill SMEs and small family farms…why? Other than the reason that they're bloody socialists.

      1. It is to complete the 2030 UN agenda for the WEF. The larger picture is always there. Labour stole power on the back of a pack of lies, so why should we believe them now when they start moaning about their black holes and then: suddenly it is much, much, worse as well. First they came for the farmers, then they came for the SMEs, then they will come for us. Labour would do well to 'Remember, Remember, the 5th November' as would we all. I understand now, I understand with every cell and fibre of my being.

      2. 395815+ up ticks,

        Morning KJ,

        They follow the WEF/NWO/RESET
        agenda to the letter, and have done so these past near four decades, since the demise of Mrs Thatcher (RIP)
        The lab/lib/con odious coalition has found, via the polling stations, support ALL the way.

        1. Good analysis, ogga (‘morning :-)…I remember a few years back there was a subscriber(? was during the time of Telegraph subbers apparently use Disqus to post on Spec) name of Pretty Polly who used to post about WEF/Soros/Schwab and get roundly abused for his/her efforts. Not so much now, if s/he is still around, many others onboard.

  24. 395815 + up ticks,

    Morning N,
    If in England it would come under the NO WORRIES banner that many still believe in, as we have a jab to handle any fallout.

  25. She was standing for the leadership by the time Gove "discovered" her.

    I remember someone commenting that there are few, if any, images of Badenoch getting in with the Davos set.

    Even though she has a background in merchant banking, and is a former International Trade Secretary and Business Secretary, her economic beliefs are somewhat of a dark horse, but generally believed to be mainstream Conservative (small state, private enterprise). The news media seem much more concerned with her social conservatism, which is the norm in Africa.

    Her way in was through an early career as an IT systems analyst, rather than as a financier. She therefore might be expected to take a more logic-based approach to the economy than an ideological one.

    2. Thx. I wish her success..for me, the last roll of the Conservative dice, based on the TV debate. You'll know Gove is now Spectator Editor, my sub is running out but I'll look out for Badenoch pieces until it does.

    1. 'Morning 'mum…sounds about right, whoever wins it won't be pretty and that will continue. Some say could even lead to Civil War. When I saw 'Jack Straw' I thought blimey..wrong Jack Straw, natch 😆

      1. Yes, I thought that when I first saw the name! It is memorable…… He seems to have disappeared from the scene completely, whereas Blair and Brown (and Campbell) keep popping up like whack-a-mole. Good morning KJ!

        1. Cheers ‘mum :-)) I think socialists such as Straw, Blair, Brown, Campbell opened the door to the activists we now see and hear. Straw ‘elevated’ to HoL but I’m not sure what he did there, or pretty much what any of ’em do there, time for an elected upper chamber? Kate x

          1. No elected upper chamber. Restore ONLY the hereditaries, they are sensible and view the long-term future of Britain.

          3. An elected Upper House would be more of the same as we've got in the Commons. I agree with Tom; bring back the hereditaries – people who understand planning for the future and running a large estate.

          4. OK, will think about that…are there any such there at present, give me the names, and also suggestions for if we get such a second chamber? Thx

          6. Thanks. That’s a sufficiently good reason me to have hereditaries return. ‘Night Conway..tmrw be here before we know it 😮

      2. Jack Straw referred to Blair as the Head of State which was incorrect. The Queen was the Head of State.

        I'm a populist prime minister and I know how good I look
        When I stand beside my grubby minions: Blunkett, Straw and Cook
        Glib and Oily Mandy's lies and mortgage I could not excuse
        Twice I sacked the sleazy bugger though his spittle shone my shoes.

        1. ‘morning Rastus (& Caroline). He probably thought of Blair as Head of State (as did Blair) and the Queen irrelevant (good luck with her, saying that). You’re a poet! good man 🙂

          1. Not a poet – but I used to write satirical songs for fun which I performed for my friends, pupils and in folk clubs.

            No greatest hits but my greatest failures include: 'I'm a Populist Prime Minister from a Minor public school', 'Women's Lib's Destroying my Libido', 'Nouveau Riche', 'How I hate apartheid – But how I love to demonstrate', 'Hey Skip!' ,'The Bay of Biscay Blues' etc.

          2. You really are my secret husband…he does this stuff all the time, especially Christmas parties (his dad was the same)…can get quite competitive and more than a bit rowdy…

    2. Good morning PM

      I am just so shocked by the thought of Trump and Harris competing for top position and am saddened by the nasty election campaign we are witnessing .

      In fact the calibre of politicians is at an all time low .

      Regarding Kemi, I hope she does a good job . Nigerian women , none Muslims , do have impact in their homeland , and she is from a good strong family.

      I hope she is strong minded and isn't bullied .

      I suspect if things go wrong, politics will drift considerably , I hope for our own sake that we don't end up at civil war status .

      Labour have lost the plot.

      1. https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/islam-nigeria

        "Nigeria’s Muslim population continues to grow. Estimates suggest 80-85 million Nigerians identify as Muslim (roughly 50% of the total population), of which the majority are probably Sunni (60 million),"

        Slaughter of Nigerian Christians Warrants International Attention
        https://www.heritage.org/africa/commentary/slaughter-nigerian-christians-warrants-international-attention

        In its first full day in office, the Biden administration cancelled a modest grant to help persecuted Christians in Nigeria document atrocities against them.

      2. Actually, I like Trump, and I think many people's view of him is that given to him by the media and I don't watch tv, any of it. I do think he is a little old but as long as he is compos mentis and takes sensible advice then no problem. His rallies have been (continued) successful beyond measure and his NYC Madison Square rally was electrifying with people queueing for hours and hours to get in. I have not seen anything like it. I don't know how he does it at his age. I have wondered if he is on the other side in all this, I think possibly he was in the first instance when he threw his hat into the ring back in 2016, he was there to split the Republican vote, but he suddenly realised 'I can do this' and he went for it and won. He was then cast out into the wilderness by his former mates and the rest is history. Clinton's comment of "if that b'st'rd gets in then we're all going to hang!' is a pointer.

        About Kemi am not so sure. She is WEF and I suspect she will say all the right things and promise the earth because she knows she doesn't have to make good on it. I am hoping her surname is not prophetic, that God is not having one of his little jokes on us.

        Labour is useless. Worse than useless. They are the party of betrayal. They offer no hope for the native British. Whites are now the bourgeoisie in their view, by virtue of their so-called white privilege, regardless of status and circumstance. Immigrants, legal and otherwise, are the new proletariat to be cosseted and fawned over by Labour for their votes. They are traitors to the core. International communism is the name of their game, with assistance en route from the Tory party. Whites are there to be milked of their cash, nothing else.

        Edit: from continued it is continued….. it whizzed off into cyberspace before completion. I am blaming doggo in this instance…!

        1. I've no concern for the man – I don't think he's especially pleasant – but his policies did help America.

          5. He is a ruffian. Poppie was a demure little lady, who did in fact know her own mind despite being a lady.

      3. If she really wants to make a difference she needs to be absolutely teflon. She needs to take an entirely new tax code to the country, one that scraps capital gains and inheritance taxes, insurance taxes, green taxes, stamp duty. She needs to show that cutting tax means more revenue is raised. She needs to hold to this and not let the statists dictate.

        She needs to show that smaller, simpler government is the better type. That leaving people alone to make decisions is a positive thing. That companies with lighter tax burdens do better, that country's with lower taxes do better. That marketing needs to be started now.

        Badenoch cannot simply be more of the same continuity candidate. She needs to talk about scrapping welfare – as it is unfair. She should enlist IDS for this as his research was important.

        It's an uphill, exhausting struggle to make the case for government doing less – especially as the Left sell the easy lie.

  27. 395815+ upticks,

    Get patriotic ex RN old salts to crew two Channel patrol boats 24/7, 8 hour shifts, deny the politico's in England / germany their Christmas bonus.

    Dt,

    Small boat smugglers to face fast-track justice like rioters
    Prime Minister to order Crown Prosecution Service to speed up charges for people smugglers in a ÂŁ150 million package of measures

    By the by, in the eyes ( and the eyes have it, BIG TIME )
    small boat smugglers to face fast-track justice like rioters.

    The difference being in the main the rioters are innocent AS IS a political prisoner, one
    TOMMY ROBINSON.

    1. Also, DT headline: UK cannot afford for farmers not to pay IHT, says Thieves.

      But it can afford ÂŁ8m a day on illegal immigeants.

      They must think we are stupid.

      1. I find it comical that Reeves wants to 'balance the books' and have government spending only come from tax revenue, yet has announced more borrowing and tax rises – both of which reduce tax revenue. The state borrows nearly 600m a day. It spends 2.8bn. At least 150m of that is debt interest alone.

        Therefore, for the books to balance spending must be cut and not at the edges. They really have got to be put through the blender. Reeves won't do that though. She's ideologically incapable of cutting waste because her entire attitude is 'big state good'.

        1. 'Balancing the Books' is a complete smokescreen as are all the the other shenanigans coming from Labour since long before the General Election campaign began. Their fundamental strategy from the outset was to lie, disguise, and deceive as regards their objective of imposing a Marxist upheaval on UK society. This morning's assertion from Reeves that 'we can't afford not to impose IHT on farmers' is utter hogwash. They realise that some of their measures may be reversed by a future Government but the Marxist cause will have been advanced.

      2. Not to mention the aid to the Ukraine, to Africa to fight "climate change", money for "carbon capture" and all the other ludicrous schemes.

  28. Good morning, all. Overcast, dry with nary a slight breeze to rustle the leaves.

    How are those renewables doing? Thank goodness for gas, for the moment!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/69e942986e21c9214abe0e9a3c232723f5712b0cbd058d2a500470f62f6b2406.png

    Awkward. Advertising it on their website appears an odd thing to do but maybe USA law impels government departments to advertise their shenanigans?

    https://x.com/iceminn5150/status/1853204976069128492

    1. It's a tabletop exercise, and unless election day is a holiday I don't see it is as sinister as he's making out.

      1. OK.

        IMO, bearing in mind the multiple shenanigans going on in many states, for weeks in some, anything that the ‘Deep State’ has organised around, and especially on, election day, has to viewed as a threat.

        1. As my grandchildren would say ‘nutters’ (quite surprised to find out promoted in schools). Floods in Valencia also ‘Climate Change’. Have had a number of chats with neighbours about CC, quite surprised at first but something to think about, and search online to find out more. The coming winter may be more harsh, quite large numbers of fieldfares around.

        2. Ah hang on now.

          Surely then the counter argument is that the windmills were there to stop climate change, so they're saying that windmills are a waste of money in stopping climate change?

  29. Got it in two – Hurrah – but it isn't that easy.
    Wordle 1,234 2/6

    âŹœâŹœđŸŸ©âŹœđŸŸš
    đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

  30. Polly now posts on Tom's Free Speech Backlash site. She should contribute a Soros article?

    1. You jest, I hope. As long as they avoid criminal activity everyone should be free to spend their own money as they wish, and that includes billionaires.

      1. Is pushing not to prosecute criminals, reduce sentences for any that do get prosecuted, and releasing them early to commit further crime a criminal activity in your view?

        Because if it is, Soros is guilty.

      2. True but I think if you dig a little, there is criminal activity in the Soros camp. Remember Christine Lagarde is a convicted felon but still President of the European Central Bank. The whole establishment is rotten.

  31. Good morning to Everyone.
    Last night I started to watch Tommy Robinson final interview before his imprisonment. It's long 1hour 45 Minutes so I listened to the first hour but bookmarked the interview. This morning I discovered You Tube had deleted it across the board, that is, I could not retrieve it by using my VPN. But before I would forget, I wrote down a link for buying the book, ordered just before typing this. But in finding a link for the book I also came across a sound only recording of the interview so link is right after these comments. Tommy Robinson has some interesting things to say about the legal system, , accusing certain judges of corruption, naming them, and what they have done. My guess that is why the video has been taken down. He also has some interesting things to say about Farage. If what TR has to say is true, there is even less reason for supporting Farage. So here is the link to the sound recording. I think, if you listen to it, you will find some very interesting revelations indeed.

    He also talks about what was hidden from us by the government that caused the initial riots after the little girls were murdered. And the hotel riot. Again the government has been gaslighting us on a grand scale. Which, I suspect, was another reason why this video has been removed
    https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/5338301c-64e2-4f90-a816-cb0fa76c0110/episodes/ee3cc2d4-61ab-4875-9134-efbfecc86137/the-dozen-with-liam-tuffs-tommy-robinson-final-interview-before-his-imprisonment

    1. I utterly approve of his message and believe that the deep state is terrified of him. But TR needs to learn how to make his points in shorter vids. Few people have the time to spend more than an hour listening to him and even that is pushing it.

      1. There are short videos. But this one is all he had to say in one before being put in jail because he suspects that he may not come out alive. So yes, it is a lot, but there are some gems in this interview. Such as the things I mentioned above concerning the riots and what the judiciary did to the children who testified in the trial about the school. In short, they destroyed the children for the governments own ends and destroyed the headmasters life. You learn how deeply evil the people are who rule us.

      2. There are short videos. But this one is all he had to say in one before being put in jail because he suspects that he may not come out alive. So yes, it is a lot, but there are some gems in this interview. Such as the things I mentioned above concerning the riots and what the judiciary did to the children who testified in the trial about the school. In short, they destroyed the children for the governments own ends and destroyed the headmasters life. You learn how deeply evil the people are who rule us.

    2. Tommy Robinson is probably right about Farage but unless Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch can accept that they are in agreement on the key issue of the disastrous level of illegal and legal immigration then Labour will be more difficult to defeat and we shall have an ever-growing percentage of people who hate us, hate our values and wish to replace us in the UK.

      .

      1. I could tolerate Robert Jenrick but not Badenoch. She could not even bring herself to remove the EU rules that she promised to remove from the books.

        1. I would have preferred JRM but he was rather too refined to get himself involved in a vulgar affray!

  33. "Kemi Badenoch has the makings of an outstanding Conservative leader"

    They would say that wouldn't they!

    The truth of the matter, as I posted yesterday, is that either the Conservative Party or the Reform Party must go –

    "There ain't enough room in this town for both of them."

    1. Unless the pair of them agree to implement tactical voting. (Tories flatly refuse).
      Unless the wet Tories agree to embrace Farage. (Wet Tories flatly refuse).

      "If nothing else works then our total pig headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through". General Kemi Melchett

      1. In the July general election The Conservative Party and the Reform Party combined got substantially more votes than Labour but Labour won a very large majority. Both Badenoch and Farage must reflect seriously on this but if they are too pig-headed to see and understand the implications of this then we are doomed to the continuation of this Labour nightmare being imposed upon us.

        .

        1. As I understand Farage approached & reached out to Kemi in the Parliament bar a couple of months ago. She was extremely rude, unlike Robert Jenrick. She's not even remotely Conservative with a Capital C.

          Steerpike
          Badenoch’s feud with Farage continues

          1. Having read Tim Shipman's books on Brexit it's astonishing how appalling they all are. The bickering, infighting, rudeness, ego, arrogance and plain petulance would put any other organisation to shame.

          2. So the woman will show herself to be both bigoted and stupid if she plans to concentrate her energies on
            diminishing and rebuffing Farage and not attacking Labour.

    2. Morning Rastus. Frankly I am quite indifferent to who leads the Conservative Party. After a life time of being a Conservative, I will never vote for them again. I wont them and Labour destroyed, rendered completely impotent in the political realm.

      1. I agree – but unless and until the Conservative Party, to borrow your expression, is destroyed, rendered completely impotent in the political realm we may be lumbered with Labour indefinitely.

        We must somehow wipe out the Conservative Party pragmatically!

        1. Yes, I would readily concede that we have to do something about Labour. I don't have any sensible suggestions about that. I hope something will unfold as time goes by. Perhaps the Farmers will provide a catalyst and if the people support them and even join them…..

    3. First she would need to become a Conservative and then get rid of all the One Nation LibDems filling her party.

    1. Why do those who preach climate change still build houses in flood plains? The myth of man-made climate change has nothing to do with the problem but man-made building does.

      A couple of days ago I made the parallel between this disaster and the Somerset Levels – in both cases caused by EU interference by imposing their rules and banning flooding policies which had worked for centuries.

      1. The giveaway is often the address… who'd have thought that No. 3, The Watermeadows, might have issues with flooding?

      2. Why do those who demonise CO2 allow, nay encourage, the building of housing (urban hotspots) on hitherto green fields with the subsequent grubbing up of hedgerows and felling of mature trees?

    2. Dozens of dams have been removed from the area in recent years, so why were the dams built in the first place. its nothing to do with climate change.

      1. Ah, but it's a lot easier to scream that when you want to change how people live.

        Facts and reality mean nothing to the ideologues.

      1. Valencia government say that is disinformation. Only small dams and old weirs were removed.

        Who knows what the truth is nowadays.

    4. We did wonder about drainage systems.
      Countries with normally low rainfall tend to be a bit lackadaisical about drainage.
      (Here, we install them and then let them silt up.)
      Picture three features oxbow lakes, beloved of geography teachers, but never seen in real life.

      1. The crazy thing is that Valencia does not have "normally low rainfall". The geography of the area means that in the autumn there is often sudden, huge and prolonged rainfall, a phenomenon that used to be called a "cold drop" but is now known by a Spanish acronym, DANA, which is basically an isolated depression in the upper atmosphere. Because of the lie of the land, this depression cannot get away easily and so it drifts around in the area until it has dropped its load.

        I have read in the Spanish press that drainage canals have not been cleared for a number of years, and that the accumulated debris caused a lot of damage when it was carried off by the water. A number of people are accusing the ecologists of not allowing the canals to be cleared.

        Where the ecologists have gone wrong, I think, is that they have confused two things. Vegetation on hillsides and on the upper banks of canals and rivers stops mud sliding in and absorbs water, and should therefore be encouraged. But if vegetation accumulates on the lower banks or the bottom of a canal, particularly one that dries out in summer, then the flow of water will be impeded and this might well cause flooding.

        1. That's what I remember from my geography lessons; the old age stage with meanders eventually becoming cut off into oxbows.

    5. Spot on Caroline, it all comes down to drainage. Valencia kept building on flood plains and the end result was flooding. If the existing water management had been extended and reservoirs built there'd be far fewer problems.

    6. Obviously land drainage is part of your heritage, but the pictogram oversimplifies the situation.
      The tragedy in Valencia was avoidable; I accuse the European Commission, and Spanish politicians. Their actions were criminal negligence and/or misfeasance in public office.
      In 1957 there was a flood in Valencia capital when the river Turia burst its bank. Valencian engineers suggested diversion of the river into a new manmade channel south of the city; this was authorised by General Franco's government and paid for with a bunch of levies on this and that. It took several years to build, and it did not burst its banks last week. The construction history etc is explained on El Pais or 20 Minutos websites. However, the floodwaters inland from Paiporta ran through a channel which had clearly not been dredged and was overgrown with reeds or canes, like bamboo; these canes caused chaos when they were washed downstream, and in any case the arroyo in central Paiporta was narrower than the feed channel outside the urban area. It should have been wider, like an estuary. As for the 'dams' which have been removed further upstream in many parts of Spain, these acted like weirs, holding floodwater back temporarily.

      1. You’re absolutely right, of course. The pictogram is an over-simplification of what happens when vegetation on flood plains is cut down and houses are built. The Valencia tragedy was very much a perfect storm of many man-made factors.

  35. 395815+ up ticks,

    Maybe via the small picture where Badenough vee the tool can be scammed as political opposites, but via the big picture we can see that they are, in point of fact, bosom buddies via WEF / NWO / RESET.

    Kamal Ahmed
    Badenoch vs Starmer – at last a proper political battle
    The new Tory leader is “small state, low tax”. Can she convince the voters?

  36. Here in the UK, we love our eggs! But, do you know why eggs are different colours?
    Egg colour is down to the hen – white hens lay white eggs, and brown hens lay brown eggs. Some hens can even produce blue eggs đŸ˜€đŸ”đŸ„š
    No matter the colour, all UK eggs are produced to high safety and welfare standards, with the same delicious taste and great nutritional value!
    Source: BEIC Egg Info (British Lion Eggs)

    Apparently , the British eat 35million eggs a day?

    Another point of view..

    The colour of the eggshell does not have to be the same colour as the hen that laid it.
    The colour of the egg depends on the breed of chicken.
    A White Araucana lays a Bluish Green egg
    A Brown Leghorn lays a white egg
    Normally the colour on a hens lobe depicts what colour egg it lays.
    A Blue Maran would not lay a Blue egg.

    1. I'm about to cook 4 scrambled eggs with ham, on toast. It is my go to breakfast. Keeps me happy until at least 3 in the afternoon.

        1. Ober. Thanks for teaching me about lard, have been using it on a regular basis for frying. Have to say that things taste better.

          2. I haven’t done that for years. I think it would be a little strange with whole wheat bread. What do you use for that?

          3. As long as the lard is at the correct temperature and the bread is lightly done i think you could use any bread.

      3. I've never got scrambled eggs quite right – I think it's because they go from runny to rubbery despite my trying to reduce how long they cook for. It's because they cook 'after cooking', if that makes sense but I've never got that 'can be sliced thinly' texture quite right.

        1. Yes that does make sense. What you have to do is remove them from the pan while they are still a bit runny, they will continue to cook but not get rubbery. But you also need to cook on a low heat so the process happens slowly. To hot and, of course, they continue to cook much longer.

        2. According to my daughter, Clare, I make the best scrambled eggs in the World. And no; I'm not telling you how!

        3. The texture is very much a matter of preference – we prefer ours set but still creamy. I don't like them set firm enough to cut.

    4. We have stopped eating eggs. They are not good enough.
      There is nil taste and they are not like they used to be.

      1. We get our eggs from a chap who has Burford Brown hens in his garden. They're smaller than some supermarket ones but they're very nice. The birds are spoiled silly though.

        In exchange his wife – who uses a wheelchair – comes along with the dogs when we go to the park. She can't walk far and struggles to get up and down but it's a nice day out for her with the daft bears.

      2. In agreement with 'wibbling' below, I think Burford Brown eggs are much tastier than others; I buy them in Waitrose but I don't remember if I've seen them in Sainsburys.

    5. My good lady use to be a travelling rep for a Tring, Hertfordshire egg company.
      She sometimes use to bring home the eggs that didn't pass the size specifications. And double yokers.
      Even so she's not keen on raw eggs. Don't ask me why……..

    7. Or, talking of country matters, as the pantomime song asks:
      "Why does a brown cow give white milk
      When she only eats green grass?"

    8. The dogs have 3 a week – Monday, Thursday, Sunday – each. They have one hard boiled egg in their dinner chopped into quarters

      I'd not that they don't go Sunday/Monday but Sunday-> Thursday as too much of anything isn't good.

    9. The dogs have 3 a week – Monday, Thursday, Sunday – each. They have one hard boiled egg in their dinner chopped into quarters

      I'd not that they don't go Sunday/Monday but Sunday-> Thursday as too much of anything isn't good.

    10. In the USA and Canada eggs are invariably white, Maggie; "a nice brown egg" seems to a British notion!.

    11. We used to get eggs from a local farm.
      On one occasion we bought a dozen and I cracked three which were all doubled yolked.
      Out of curiosity I continued and hit seven in a row.
      I often wondered what the odds against that happening would be

      1. It's actually quite likely that once you've got one double-yolked more will be the same. One hen that produces d-y eggs will mostly produce all d-y. Young hens are more likely to do this, so if a farm has just got new young hens in there may well be several producing them the same. The eggs aren't randomised when packing, so a sequence of d-y eggs from a group of hens will probably stay together through the distribution system.

          2. Like the half Iranian Ratcliffe woman for whom Johnson paid millions to get released. Instead of saying 'thank you' she emptied septic tank loads of excrement on the UK.

            She should have been sent back to Iran and we should have got our money back.

          4. I’m going to assume that you genuinely don’t know. It is Yasmin Alibhai-Brown a Ugandan Muslim who left Uganda and fled to England before the pogroms against Asians by Idi Amin. She has been forever ungrateful and uses every opportunity to make it clear that she despises Britain, the British and all their works. Basically on the grounds that we are white and, of course, inferior to her, she wishes all white men were dead. She is a nothing but a ball of spite and hatred a really insufferable creature.

          8. And given the frequency of her media appearances, those fees must add up to quite a tidy sum. She is therefore obliged to be "offended on demand."

          10. Mandy Rice Davies applies.

            The threat is muslims. Namely her, for lying that it's anyone else.

          11. Didn't this horrible woman promise she would leave the UK if the referendum produce a Leave the EU vote?

            Why is she still her?

            She should buy a new Burka and go and live in Saudi Arabia.

          12. Now that you remind me, I believe you’re right. She did promise to leave the UK if we left the EU.

      2. She should be charged for such a racist slur. The Left were quick to jail those who told the truth that big government didn't like.

    2. Starmer is a very seriously flawed, megalomaniac character with moral compass which points South rather than North.

      He is a sort of weird Dr Strangelove with none of Peter Sellers's charm!

      1. The Midas touch but in reverse gear.

        He's so toxic that the mythical product of his touch – chills and shivers down the spine at that thought – wouldn't be any use in the garden, even after rotting for a year or two.

    4. I imagine he doesn't actually see she's done anything wrong. That Butler is a disgusting, ignorant racist is par for the course with Labour. I've yet to meet a Left who isn't a nasty, bitter character.

    5. "Starmer refuses to take Whip from Labour "MP"

      I would prefer "Starmer takes Whip fromto Labour "MP"

  38. Good morning, all. Late on parade. Problem with new PC. Wouldn't turn on. TRied everything. Told nephew who was planning to take a day off work to come up. Brilliant MR spent an age trying everything she knew (she is a wizard at IT) then spotted that the power cable had come out……

    Any news today?

    1. No battery? After my kitchen renovation, I complained that the new fridge didn't work. The fitter wryly suggested the switch on the kitchen lectrics panel marked 'fridge' needed to be on… ahhh, that one

    2. If in doubt, check the cables. Unplug and plug in everything. The number of times we get called on site due to loose connections I could make millions from. I probably have.

        1. Why would anyone think it was? It's so rudimentary. Same as my running about changing DNS configs and updating devices and changing settings when the provider tells me the line has gone down.

      2. Network Connections
        Wibbles, from 1994 to 1999 I was a Business and Network Manager for the NHS, when GP Fundholding was prevalent.
        We operated one of the first Wide Area Fundholding Networks of 18 GP Surgeries, connected to our little central office by 18 BT "High Speed" networks and a bunch of Cisco Routers. These links ran at 64kB/sec, (not very fast nowadays).

        Occasionally we would lose contact with one of the remote surgeries. I knew that their network connection was under a desk, was a bit loose and was held in place with a matchstick. Sometimes the cleaners would vacuum under that desk and dislodge the matchstick. I would then notice the dropped connection, phone the Practice Manager and ask her "politely" to stick the matchstick back in, to avoid me having to drive there and do it myself.

  39. Oh dear, the latest agitative public discussions seem to be causing a lot more problems than most people could imagine.
    Insulation that could cause problems with home insurance and put rental occupants in a impossible positions.
    Of course, as has been the previous and seemingly on going suggestion, the Insulation does not spontaneously combust.
    It only burns after it's been in contact with fire.
    There are hundreds of thousands of homes in the UK with loft conversions and home extensions all with foam Insulation in the buildings.
    Sometimes people in this country need to get more of a grip on reality.
    Common sense seems to have been completely pushed aside.

      1. IMVHO these people seem to be encouraging further problems with their wreckless reporting.

    2. But folk insulate because energy is so expensive – made deliberately so by the government's demented policies.

      I pointed out the mould all over and around a neighbour's window. They can't afford to heat their house properly and in this weather keep the windows closed to keep any heat in possible.

      It infuriates me that big fat state set about deliberately destroying our energy production capability without bothering to really look at housing stock. The UK is a damp, draughty island and houses need a lot of ventilation to move water and air about. Our houses are mostly old terraces and bathrooms are often on the inside, with no windows. Yes, we have cavity walls but filling them creates bridges between cold and warm, which transports moisture leading to mould.

      We've not built for long, Californian hot summers nor Norwegian winters so we don't build for them. Comically, building for one tends to make them poorly suited for the other.

      The UK needs cheap, flexible energy so it can throw open the windows in the morning and heat the house afterward if needed.

      Milioaf ignores all of those facts because he's a gormless cretin obsessed with a hoax he wants to use to force socialism.

    3. I used celotex in my bathroom, which worries me. My latest project uses sheep wool, which does not burn.

  42. Non-binary actor Emma Corrin tipped to play Elizabeth Bennet. 4 November 2024.

    The non-binary actor Emma Corrin has been tipped to play Elizabeth Bennet in a “progressive” adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

    Corrin, 28, who played Diana, Princess of Wales, in The Crown, is set to assume Keira Knightley’s former role for a new Netflix series adaptation.

    At the age of 20, Knightley was cast in the lead role alongside Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen for Joe Wright’s 2005 period drama, which received four Oscar nominations.

    Well we can give this a miss then. Knightley is probably the best Elizabeth Bennet that I have ever seen. She was unfortunately let down by a lousy script and Joe Wright who could not direct traffic onto a Motorway.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/04/non-binary-actor-emma-corrin-tipped-pride-and-prejudice/

    1. Had to look up Emma Corrin. Amusing.

      "Emma-Louise Corrin[1] (born 13 December 1995) is an English actor. They portrayed Diana, Princess of Wales in the fourth season of the Netflix historical drama…"

      1. Watched her in Deadpool and Wolverine on Saturday! She was dead boring! Her wiki thing summed her up!

      2. Watched her in Deadpool and Wolverine on Saturday! She was dead boring! Her wiki thing summed her up!

      4. Well, you see, she's not binary (as if a split personality isn't bad enough), she's legion.

      5. I can appreciate some anguishing over pronouns here – was Diana a woman or simply identifying as one?

    3. Isn't a non binary actor a tractor – Trans actor? Usually ridden over rough ground then abandoned in a dirty unwashed state?

  44. If I was in Trumps shoes and won the election, one of my first acts would be to confiscate every electronic voting machine where the results seem out of kilter and have them independently analysed for cheating.

    A story from the first referendum re EU .
    I was a teller and one lot of votes came in that was completely awry from the norms.
    When it was queried, it turned out that the box was from a large sheltered community and clearly someone in charge had interfered with the ballots.
    It couldn’t be proved, and ultimately it made no difference to the overall outcome.

    I strongly suspect that in the USA such shenanigans could affect the result.

    1. ‘Vote harvesting’, I think it is called, is rife in some areas of the USA. I wouldn’t be surprised if both the Republicans and Democrats use this system but the latter appear more adept at utilising the idea.

      1. The Democrats cheat on an industrial scale. I am still convinced that Biden stole the last election. There is far to much evidence that says so. Eye witness accounts that have never been contradicted. Statistical impossibilities in the voting patterns. And the myth that courts said there had been no cheating. When, in fact, what happened was that courts refused to entertain the accusations, mostly out of fear about what political upheavals it would cause.

    2. Actually, what he should do is an executive order that all voting be on paper ballots and that there are no mail in ballots apart from the incapacitated, military and Americans abroad. And all voting in the USA on the day of the election, not, in some cases, weeks before hand.

        1. Not to a Democrat that means you are able to vote, multiple times and live in a house on an empty lot. Quite amazing chicanery.

    3. The warden of my brother's community did a sterling job of encouraging people to vote. They had a little meeting about it and talked about it all, the pros and cons and why it was our right to vote and also right to choose not to vote.

      I think she did it all quite well. Needless to say, brother did vote and was very severe about it all.

    4. Best thing Trump could do is force open source the code. Doesn't change the owners or copyright, it just puts it out in the open. Say to the providers – open it up for anyone or lose the contract.

      1. I am sure that if the Democrats cheated in 2020 and stole the lection from Trump they will be perfectly capable of doing the same thing again in 2024.

  45. If Kemi becomes a great PM and they make films about her in the future, will they give the part to a white actor

    3. Clearly 3 years for tweeting hurty words is completely proportionate when set next to this
..you know it makes sense


    4. Clearly 3 years for tweeting hurty words is completely proportionate when set next to this
..you know it makes sense


    6. They say that rapists are motivated more by the desire to dominate and control their victims than by sexual desire.

      Sex and violence are often classified together but violence and compulsion play no part in the love making of people who are normally sexually well adjusted .

    7. They say that rapists are motivated more by the desire to dominate and control their victims that by sexual desire.

      Sex and violence are often classified together but in people who are normally sexually well adjusted violence and compulsion plays no part in their love making.

    1. That's two years ago, when many still believed the vaccines safe (my family no longer did following my reaction to them). Ask Badenoch what she thinks now, I'd be interested to read that.

      1. If it requires her to admit she was wrong I suspect that her hubris is at a level which will never allow her to do so.

  50. My bus this morning was painted in rainbow colours and bore the legend PRIDE IN THE COMMUNITY.

    1. The stupid woman makes the mistake of confusing 'pleading guilty' with the truth that is at stake.

      Yes, Tommy Robinson pleaded guilty to not obeying a completely unjust court order. But why should he tell a lie and say that he did obey the court order when everybody knew he did not obey it. His plea was NOT based on a lie – If Mrs Badenoch cannot see this then The Conservative Party has made a very grave mistake in choosing her.

      However he did not plead guilty to what was in his banned film which virtually anybody who has seen it can see reported nothing but the truth.

    1. Unherd subscriber, always something of interest to read. Comments seem freely allowed (to subscribers).

    3. Ofcom and Verify have been given very clear instructions not to be objective but to distort the truth to back up the official line.

  54. I wouldn’t worry about it. But the real problem is, it’s going to give surveyor’s a bit of a leg up in their bid for importance. And another problem for the sellers market.
    I think even sheep wool is combustible given the circumstances.

  56. Irony Alert. It's Islamophobe Month.

    The quiet, Co Wicklow village of Newtownmountkennedy in Ireland to be twinned with Petersdorf, Germany.
    So much in common.
    Both small in population. Both quaint. Both quiet and peaceful.
    drumroll.. both rejected EU allocation of 500 hairy arsed young male migrants.

    Both ignored.

    1. Locals may experience irrational fear the migrant influx could alter the community's dynamics, an issue being echoed by others across Germany, where immigration is a divisive topic amid broader EU policy "debates" on migration.

  57. Irony Alert. It's Islamophobe Month.

    The quiet, Co Wicklow village of Newtownmountkennedy in Ireland to be twinned with Petersdorf, Germany.
    So much in common.
    Both small in population. Both quaint. Both quiet and peaceful.
    drumroll.. both rejected EU allocation of 500 hairy arsed young male migrants.

    Both ignored.

  58. Reeves’ Tax Grab Sparks Record £2.6 Billion Exodus From Stock Market

    Rachel Reeves’ tax raid has sent investors fleeing from the stock market in droves, leading to a record exodus last month as they scrambled to withdraw their cash. In October alone, investors offloaded a staggering net £2.7 billion from equity funds—the largest outflow ever recorded—draining every category of fund in the process. Investors ran for the hills ahead of looming capital gains tax hikes. Now it’s been confirmed in the Budget, many more will follow


    This rush to withdraw came on the heels of September’s dismal figures, where savers also pulled their capital, marking the first net outflows in 11 months, according to Calastone. The recent sell-off has set off alarm bells for the London market, plunging the UK into a “doom loop” of Labour’s making. As UK company valuations nosedive, investors are bolting British stocks faster than you can say “economic mismanagement”


    4 November 2024 @ 12:00

    1. My investment portfolio (not quite as grand as it sounds) has taken a bit of a hit but nothing spectacular………..yet.

    2. Labour will love this.
      Only the rich own stocks and shares.

      They completely ignore the fact that much of that money is invested by pension funds to provide pensions that might, just might, keep people from having to rely on benefits in their old age..

    3. Quelle surprise! I have been spending my savings since Labour got a majority. Mind you, it's not uselessly spaffing the money up the wall (I'm not a leftie, after all), but buying things I need rather than putting off the expenditure.

  59. I'm consciously avoiding the news outlets for a couple of days until the US election result is in. A brief glimpse today suggests there's a big effort to 'call it close' etc. Apparently a massive slump in Trump support ever since the voting started. Yeah right!

    1. I am coming to suspect that all the news networks are promoting the fiction of a very close vote to stop people from going to bed and keeping everyone awake watching the ads.

    3. My husband an even bigger supporter of Trump than I am (I've become a tad fearful for DT lately).

  60. You simply could not make it up.
    Global grand Prix events, apart from racing, travel to and from. The world wide commercial aircraft movement, shipping, countries in the middle east that use only fossil fuel for their facilities. China that burns millions of tonnes of imported coal.
    And now it's the fault of people who want to stay warm.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/log-burner-owners-issued-with-urgent-warning-over-300-fine-as-temperatures-drop/ar-AA1ttc14?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=1403c5c0190d4732bcf525a9115cb74e&ei=32

    1. It's just fear porn. They're just warning not to do the stuff you shouldn't do anyway, like burning wet or unseasoned wood.

    1. Did she add:

      'we can't afford to spend billions in foreign aid'
      'we can't afford to throw billions at Ukraine'
      'we can't afford over inflation public sector pay rises – and pensions'
      'we can't afford Net Zero'
      'we can't afford to buy our own clothes' (that one for Lord Alli)

          1. I know what you mean, Sue. I think the Civil Service supporting them even more pieces of đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©đŸ’©.

          3. Nothing at all except you get sick if you eat them by the dozen. Look at their little faces…đŸ€ąđŸ€ąđŸ€ąđŸ€ą

    2. Did she add:

      'we can't afford to spend billions in foreign aid'
      'we can't afford to throw billions at Ukraine'
      'we can't afford over inflation public sector pay rises – and pensions'
      'we can't afford Net Zero'
      'we can't afford to buy our own clothes' (that one for Lord Alli)

    3. Been trying to find out who/what organisation owns the land where I am, 'mum…owner was a great friend, when he passed everything went to son, and we heard no more…suspect it was sold, have to pay a fee at Land Registry to find out. Returning to the vaccines for a moment, large numbers of cancer cases being reported in Japan – think older adults on their 8th booster.

    4. I don't think she said exactly that (I may be wrong). However the idea that inheritance tax applies to farmers is just stupid.

      However, the intent is to destroy farming. After all, big government would far prefer to build on that land and stick solar panels there. The national food strategy not once mentions food production. It's entire, appalling guff is on 'climate change'. Now look at he intent of destroying family farms in that light.

  64. So how do these clothing grants from Lord Alli actually work? Has he simply given all of them a clothes allowance? Which says a lot for the sartorial elegance of senior Labour politicians if the first funding demand is to get them decently attired – obviously Rayner is a work in progress.
    Or do you fill in an application form? Dear Lord Alli, I've been made Environment Minister and I have no wellington boots. Please send cash.

      1. I'd like to fill liebour politicians' boots (while they are wearing them) with wet concrete, then make the spiteful parasites walk the plank far out in a shark-infested ocean. A form of oceanic pollution, but all in a good cause, hey ho!

  65. No guessing or speculating.. you bigots.

    Victim’s hand cut off amid axe attack at French train station
    Six people were injured in the attack which took place at Ozoir-la-FerriĂšre station in Seine-et-Marne at approximately 8am this morning.
    Reda Belhaj told local news outlet BFMTV that the victims were “extremely young individuals”.
    It was also reported that the brain of the victim whose head was split was visible.

    Police interviewing someone and request help in locating someone else.

    1. When this sort of thing happens and there's no mention of the attacker we have a bet – she says blacks, I say muslim. I've lost 2/3 times.

      1. Only once have I known a case when no details were given of the culprit and the culprit turned out to be white.

        No details invariably means Muslim or black.

        1. Not much… they have now made the identity of the 21-year-old victim public, but not the name of the driver of the car who is presumably in a state of ghastliness. Complete silence about police enquiries is, I suppose, how it should be until such time as they make an arrest.

          In view of the fact that the road was strewn with bits of wood and small pebbles, the general view is that the perpetrators were adolescents who, having started, didn't know when to stop and egged each other on. Now that everyone is back in school, I suspect that someone, at some stage, will give something away. At least I hope so!

          A few years ago a car was set alight in a semi-underground car park in Dinan, with untold damage to the structure of the said car park which had to be closed for six months or so. The police gave nothing away and remained in complete silence for months and months and then, one day, the announcement came that they had arrested a couple of 15 year-old lads from a nearby village. I believe they had very fuzzy security camera footage but it wasn't good enough to identify the lads. Someone gave something away and that was that.

    4. Probably the local parish priest who got miffed when they refused to help him pick up his broken rosary beads.

  66. No guessing or speculating.. you bigots.

    Victim’s hand cut off amid axe attack at French train station
    Six people were injured in the attack which took place at Ozoir-la-FerriĂšre station in Seine-et-Marne at approximately 8am this morning.
    Reda Belhaj told local news outlet BFMTV that the victims were “extremely young individuals”.
    It was also reported that the brain of the victim whose head was split was visible.

    Police interviewing someone and request help in locating someone else.

  67. One day.. one day it'll be a pasty ginger haired green eyed jock. Then it'll remain front page news for thirty five years like Jo Cox & Stephen Lawrence.

  68. I guess there's farming, and then there's farming Bill Gates' style – you probably noticed his visit/s to No.10 recently – witness photos of shaking hands with NTK, gurning at each other. Get ready to look up how to cook insects and grains….(just kidding…)

      1. Reeves with the usual cheesy grin. Who’s the third wheel, Bob – I recognise Starmer and Boss Gates, the other one?

        1. Apparently a Black Rock Senior Executive.
          Now, whether he is pulling Gates’s strings or if Gates is pulling his is a moot point.

  71. Who is the worst of Labour's front benchers? Lammy? Thieves? Pinhead?

    Yvette Cooper
    Britain can’t stop small boats by shouting at the sea

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

    David Cooper
    13 hrs ago
    No one advocates shouting at the sea. However, if the magnet of hotels and benefits was withdrawn and replaced by secure tented barracks after DNA swabbing, fingerprinting and tagging, a major disincentive would be in place before we ever needed to get round to drone strikes on the small boats before they had left the French shoreline and any similar measures.

    PJ Spiers
    4 hrs ago
    Reply to David Cooper
    A duplicitous, cynical and hollow argument from a duplicitous, cynical and hollow Marxist politician.
    The only way to stop the boats is to to remove the incentives to come to the UK in the first place.
    As David says, and I have also been saying, rudimentary tented accommodation – and preferably on a small previously uninhabited Scottish island – would go most of the way to dealing with the problem.

  72. Kemi Badenoch makes her first frontbench appointment as Tory leader:

    Kemi Badenoch has made her first major opposition front bench appointment, naming Conservative former minister Laura Trott as her shadow education secretary. . . Spouse: Bahador Mahvelati. Fancy that!

  73. REVEALED: Chancellor’s Preferred Tax Hikes for Budgets to Come

    Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out further tax rises in later budgets. If she keeps to her rule of one fiscal event per year, we’ve got four more of these until the next election


    The IFS strongly predicts that departments will exceed the spending forecasts laid out in the budget. Reeves will have to get more money from somewhere – the first ideas she’s likely to draw on are her own. The Chancellor’s major report, called “The Everyday Economy,” was published only six years ago, after she had held several Shadow Cabinet positions. Two years later she would be ensconced in Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet. It outlines in detail her blueprint for the economy


    With four more Halloween budgets to come, here are some of the spookiest headline measures that Reeves recommended:

    Cap ISAs with a lifetime limit and reduce the annual cap to ÂŁ15,000.

    Replace inheritance tax with a lifetime Gift tax.

    Hike capital gains tax to income tax rates.

    Halve the annual capital gains tax allowance.

    Overhaul council tax and replace it with a property tax that directly impacts property owners.

    Introduce a global wealth tax.

    Introduce a land tax.

    Give “English cities, towns and counties” the ability to raise taxes. Not to lower them


    Set up municipal energy production and pension schemes.

    Limit higher-rate pension contribution reliefs and require that 20% of all contributions be invested in job-creating opportunities.

    Raise taxes on savings and investments of high earners.

    Force companies to report their pay ratios and the “differential between their highest and lower paid workers” in order to link this to the level of corporation tax they pay. Bye bye companies


    Ask Labour and they’ll probably say: “That was ages ago and old ideas of Rachel’s.” Not true – she explicitly referenced the report multiple times in her “landmark” Mais Lecture this year


    Reeves has installed a portrait of her “leading light” – the communist and Soviet asset Ellen Wilkinson – in No 11 before hiking taxes by £40 billion. Safe to say she’s already spelled out her strategy for subsequent spooky budgets. Something wicked this way comes


  74. I have again filched this shamelessly from BTL on the Daily Sceptic (edit: actually, Spiked). Biden/Harris signing the US up to more unelected UN government.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21086/un-world-governance-internet-censorship

    “On September 22, unnoticed by most Americans, the Biden-Harris administration adopted the United Nations Pact for the Future to transform global governance, which introduces the foundations of a world government. There was no debate, no media coverage, no press releases, and no interviews about the Biden-Harris administration's surrender of United States sovereignty to the UN.

    Americans were apparently not supposed to find out.

    These agreements usher in a dystopian future, where the UN — an active supporter of terrorism and arguably the world's most corrupt international entity… in partnership with the unelected and unaccountable World Economic Forum, led by Klaus Schwab… is given unprecedented power over the peoples of sovereign countries, who have had no say whatsoever on the contents of this pact, because it has been kept hidden from them.

    Buried near the end of the Digital Global Compact, in paragraph 30, is the only thing you need to know about it: "We must urgently counter and address… all forms of hate speech and discrimination, misinformation and disinformation…."

    The UN, its member states and the Biden-Harris administration evidently want to establish world-wide censorship that will make any future criticism of their power grab impossible.

    In 2021-22, the UN entered into a partnership with Google to ensure that the search engine only display information reflecting UN perspectives. Dissenting views would have to be erased. The UN did not even hide their totalitarian move, and issued a press release about it.

    Google is clearly doing the UN's bidding. If you try to google the words "climate change" today, every single dissenting view has been suppressed by the search engine. In the first twenty-plus pages of results that come up on Google, not a single of them deviates from the UN/WEF narrative, with most results only containing links to UN bodies or other institutions that partner with the UN, such as the EU, the World Bank, government websites and a few climate-alarmist articles from the Guardian, the New York Times, AP and Reuters.

    This is what UN censorship looks like now. Can you imagine what it will be in a few years, if countries do not immediately move to stop it?”

    1. I have a dream:

      Trump is elected, withdraws all financial support for the UN, and expels the UN and all its bodies from US soil.
      Let this corrupt tyrannical organisation head to somewhere more politically suitable, such as Tehran, Beijing, Riyadh or Johannesburg.

    2. Even worse, but remember they only stuff the results because the UN stuffs them. Worse is the notices 'climate change is scientists agree mostly caused by fossil fuels' – which is a lie. It's caused by the sun.

  76. All Starmer has to say to is .. Britain has banned Halal food , and Mosques and the call to prayer.

    This is a Christian country and we put our own people first .

    1. The problem is, the fake disabled ruin it for those in genuine need. And what happens when the number of disabled exceeds the healthy?

    2. I'm told all you need to do is make appt with GP (first hurdle, and the most difficult), limp in, bad back, they may send you to physio at first but it's a long waiting list so keeping going back to GP who will give you pain killers – throw those away but say you took them and they didn't provide any relief. Mention you are finding it difficult to live on your sick pay from work which will shortly stop. LTSB here you go…I want to doubt the veracity of this, perhaps the soaring bill shows I shouldn't.

      1. 395815+ up ticks,

        Afternoon pip,

        Why should they, they are NOT working for us and they cannot serve two masters, that would be dishonest.

      2. I think they're thinking 'right, we'll go for those rich gits who've bought farms as tax write offs because we want the money to spaff on dindus and suddenly, because the treasury is, these days full of stupid children they've actually been reminded that farmers gift their farms to their children and they've caused themselves a public headache.

        But, because they're utter, complete crooks they'll carry on with this policy solely to hurt those they hate.

    2. Yes, but we'll have lots of cheap farmland to buy and make an immense profit on turning it into third world ghettos.

    3. I wouldn't be amazed – saddened, more like – because here in rural communities it's an all-too common event. My horse vet shot himself, another farmer did the same, people have hanged themselves. Rural isolation, depression with no mental health back up, money worries, bad harvests, floods (with no compensation) – the list is endless.

      1. Yes, it's dreadful Connors and I have also lost count. I think that possibly diseases like Brucellosis (along with other biohazards that go with the trade) have played some part. I got Brucellosis in Israel and it really does blacken ones p-of-v.

  79. This is from Australia in 2006. Plus ca change.

    THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

    The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
    house and laying up supplies for the winter.

    The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the
    summer away.

    Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has
    no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

    —————————————————————————— —–
    THE MODERN AUSTRALIAN VERSION

    The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
    house and laying up supplies for the winter.

    The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the
    summer away.

    Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

    The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why
    the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less
    fortunate like him are cold and starving.

    The ABC and Channel 9 show up to provide live coverage of the shivering
    grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home
    with a table filled with food.

    Australians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor
    grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty.

    The Democrats, the Greens and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate
    in front of the ant's house.

    The ABC, interrupting an Aboriginal cultural festival special from North
    Queensland with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."

    Bob Brown rants in an interview with Ray Martin that the ant has gotten
    rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike
    on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."

    In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity
    and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retrospective to the beginning
    of the summer.

    It is quickly passed through the Senate.

    The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire
    grass hoppers as helpers.

    Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed
    retrospective taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

    The ant moves to Asia, and starts a successful agribiz company.

    The TV stations later show the now fat grasshopper finishing up the
    last of the ant's food though Spring is still months away, while the
    government owned house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old
    house crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it. Inadequate
    government funding is blamed, Kim Beasley now is appointed to head a
    commission of inquiry that will cost $10,000,000.

    The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose; the Sydney Morning
    Herald blames it on obvious failure of government to address the root
    causes of despair arising from social inequity.

    The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders,
    praised by the government for enriching Australia's multicultural
    diversity, who promptly terrorize the community.

    2. I've never changed a ruddy tire. I wouldn't have a bloody clue where to start. I'd call the sodding AA and hope for the best.

      This is just desperate.

    3. I don't imagine anybody outside a garage has changed a TYRE. Normal people simply change a WHEEL.

      Just saying….

          7. We often stay in Logis, essentially small family run hotels, in the 70Eur a night range.

            I was staggered to see a Bugatti SUV parked in the car park.

    1. I wonder if any of these 'experts' have considered that this budget was designed by people who have not an ounce of consideration for any single person working in the UK and was set up by the WEF. In their attempts to wreck our country. It's pretty obvious that for some time now our recent government's have had no interest in taking care of the people who have worked and lived in the UK for many decades.

      1. I think the budget was just another big state, high tax cash grab. It was solely and entirely focussed on expanding and feather bedding, gold plating (choose your epithet) the public sector – Labour's power base.

      2. HMG is just following the WEF/UN plan. You will own nothing and you will be happy. The farmers are just the beginning of removing the means to earn a living and to own whatever they produce. This is all intended and I think the U.K. has been chosen as a test bed.

    2. WTF do they mean by "working people"? They mean employees in secure jobs, pref Public Sector. They don't mean anyone else who works their socks off for less security and less return (because they love what they do?).

      1. They use the original language of Marxism which applied in the Soviet block where everything was owned by the state, there was only state employment for the proletariat and unemployment was illegal. Middle class people who work are dismissed as bouurgeois.

      2. They lied. They lied to get elected. They lied because it was easy to lie. They lied because the people they lied to don't understand taxation or economics. They lied because they could.

        Far too many times have I heard gormless lefties bleat that Amazon is too rich and should pay more tax. I replied 'how many jobs would that destroy?' And the Lefty always retorts with 'they should just pay more tax on their profits'.

        I sigh and ask why they should be uncompetitive, more expensive and go out of business, pay no tax at all. After a while the slow Lefty realises they're an idiot and shuts up.

        Well, they do in my dreams. Usually they just get louder and louder and louder and scream and squeam even more.

      3. They do not consider people who have proper jobs, particularly people who make or produce things, as "working people".

  82. 395815+up ticks,

    Could not agree more why end your days with a multitude of ploughshares and regular visits to the
    family residing in the cemetery having fell foul of the empty larder plague.

    Dt,

    Farmers want to be ‘militant’ in response to IHT raid, NFU warns
    Union’s president says something ‘has to change’ after Rachel Reeves announced the policy in the Budget

    1. I don't understand your first sentence, Ogga. What do you mean?

      Nothing will change. The metro socialist Left don't care about farms. To them, this is about wealthy landowners they want to hurt. Some nob in the Treasury pushed this as an easy way to close a loophole and hurt well off investors. It's backfired because that nob didn't think it through.

      Labour now can't backtrack because then folk would say 'what about the other stupid things you've announced?' and before you know it the budget has unravelled completely.

      2. 395815+ up ticks,

        Evening W,

        Swords to ploughshares in a time of peace is a good thing. .

        in my mind an abundance of ploughshares in a tine of war is anything but a good thing.

    2. 395815+ up ticks,

      Evening W,

      Swords to ploughshares in a time of peace.
      in my mind an abundance of ploughshares in a tine of war is anything but a good thing.

  83. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGhu-BPKFOXs%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2-pbd2DhyolgGO0hKG6CSLSoDvivYYoVW8H8OnX333r87EHlWEDwgC67I_aem_2CvlYXYRHarwfRTbUbJgTg&h=AT3D4x1S2CM7m-6vgDdUenHuhysyvIvXZZPLs7Oo7Pv_2At0qKTEDEjVSuV-H87vAMuLLP-YipltyQ9tXXRzlDxz4CZP4zMsNMA8xHd303yRJYxp4Xgauc3ankcf7V-5AkKLxJ55sdkxHA4gTOvo&__tn__=H-R&c%5B0%5D=AT0O-veuKHeeOYgFMT3DclyVoiVVc9nSb9mqpOhyzGWgodNjfd5UfgLoXmiCRAzA-LllQw-mYvizX3csWVyVeUvqn3tlwL6O1pu3bqE3qCl0HL2-k7HnsAL69Tq3FEXkJTdBOCYxpcaV1rdHjWnH0pgTbUeVk4E-OeuL4Jf-XLQYUtNlmWF0nSbGnHp79bLymTESdla4yXBpsAlCV3pZZoojNKm2uaw_xM4

        1. It's a reminder. People have short memories, as I'm sure you know. Look at the way they keep voting Labour.

        2. 395895+ up ticks,

          Morning W,

          Lost any trust in farage years ago.

          That is my Lest we forget link.

    3. What would the position, I wonder, if the father who owns the farm changed the ownership to include any children. If it was owed by 3 people would the IHT still apply.
      Point to ponder.

      1. They would still sting you for tax. The rules are complex but not inheritance or gift friendly.

    1. Not sure that is valid.
      Many migrants who DID want to assimilate altered their names to fit in better.
      Often because the indigenous had trouble pronouncing their actual names.

      The Jews did it to disappear.

      1. I always thought it was a measure of acceptance of living here that people anglicised their names and a good thing.

        1. My father anglicised his surname. His parents came from the Black Sea coast of Russia with a Greco-Turkish name, which historically does make sense. They were Jewish of course and if you go back far enough, the Hebrews didn’t have surnames at all, just patronymics.

    2. I don't use my full name. Brother prefers his middle name. Another fellow who was called Aurine something or other changed it to Chris.

      From now on Kemi Badenoc shall be known as….. (drumroll)

      Jeff Vader.

  85. Why am I suddenly seeing posts from someone I blocked – still shown as blocked on my list and there is no facility to block again – very odd!

    2. #MeToo. Hoo nose?

      Disqust has many faults.

      I only have two people blocked besides all the whores posing as MI5 agents. (did i get that the right way round?)

      One of them now appears in the text but he/it isn't on my blocked list !

        1. We have on occasion been spammed. Mostly offering sexual services. Unless interested in losing what is in your bank account best to block them.

          Also this feature allows you to block people you find boring or annoying…like me for instance. :@)

        2. I have never blocked anyone, despite extreme temptation – I'm much too nosy, Someone of whom I have never heard has blocked me on FSB, though. Perplexing.

    3. Try unblocking them on your profile and then re-block?
      I'm not a believer in blocking people, but then I have the hide of a rhinoceros, Hell I even put up with Phizzee

      1. Originally just Trolls – in this case someone who is invariably repetitious and very boring!

  86. Phonographic Par Four?

    Wordle 1,234 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟹⬜⬜
    🟹🟹🟹🟹⬜
    đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

    1. Likewise, could have been worse, I guess….

      Wordle 1,234 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟹⬜⬜
      đŸŸšđŸŸšđŸŸ©âŹœâŹœ
      đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

      1. Me too.
        Wordle 1,234 4/6

        âŹœâŹœđŸŸšâŹœđŸŸ©
        âŹœđŸŸšâŹœđŸŸšđŸŸ©
        âŹœâŹœđŸŸ©âŹœđŸŸ©
        đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

      1. My first two, I think. No cheating for first word – a random pick. Then, if I get any letters, look up a list of words with those letters – can be a lot.

        1. Wordhippo.com is my go to but it's often only useful once I've eliminated enough letters to narrow down the possibilities.

    3. Oh I wish that I was that good. I struggled to a bogey

      Wordle 1,234 5/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟹⬜🟹🟹
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      đŸŸšđŸŸ©đŸŸ©âŹœđŸŸš
      đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

    4. Only just after testing for the N position and by chance revealing the Y. Could have been trying otherwise.

      Wordle 1,234 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟹🟹
      🟹⬜🟹⬜⬜
      âŹœđŸŸ©đŸŸ©âŹœđŸŸš
      đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

      1. Hi Corim, tried given address (associates one) three times, message that domain name not extant. Any other established NoTTLer who has yours I might be able to contact (there are around 50 on our list)?

        1. I believe the problem is Google and seems to date from early 2024. Even our friends with gmail addresses are unable to receive emails from us. If you have something other than a gmail or yahoo address I may be contacted on the ‘associates’ address.

          Incidentally I sent an email to Bill Thomas but then realised that his address is also gmail so blocked by Google.

          I stay well clear of Google which is an evil company.

  87. 3 today, not 33.
    Wordle 1,234 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟹⬜⬜
    âŹœđŸŸ©đŸŸšâŹœâŹœ
    đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

    2. And me!

      Wordle 1,234 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟹⬜⬜
      âŹœâŹœâŹœđŸŸšđŸŸ©
      đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

      1. Apparently I've now done 791 Wordles. I wish I'd noted all the words down so I wouldn't try words that had already been the daily correct one. I saw this today, no clues or spoilers it says, but is it cheating, just knowing what's come before?

        https://www.fiveforks.com/wordle/

      2. I only got it because I ran out of other possibilities!
        Wordle 1,234 4/6

        ⬜⬜🟹⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜⬜🟹⬜
        âŹœđŸŸ©đŸŸšâŹœđŸŸš
        đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

    3. Wordle 1,234 3/6

      âŹœâŹœđŸŸ©âŹœâŹœ
      âŹœâŹœđŸŸ©âŹœđŸŸš
      đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©đŸŸ©

      Hier auch!

  88. Prevening, all. It will be a case of ave atque vale again as I've not long come in from the RAFA meeting and will shortly be going out to the parish council. Such is life at the moment. I'm sure Kadi wonders who I am sometimes!

    Is it me? Am I a far right bigoted racist to want someone European to represent me on the world stage? I am tired of being ruled over by foreigners. When we were doing the ruling it was colonialism and a bad thing …

  89. All Christmas shopping done. Junior asked for the Millenium Falcon expert kit so got that. Warqueen wanted some perfume so pinned her down on the exact type so got a little bottle of that – and a jumper that's a size too small which she'll like as she's been whinging about all her jumper's being too big (some people are never happy, nothing to do with her curling the wool sleeves around her hands).

    Mother in law got a week at a spa type thing that allows alcohol. It gets her out of everyone's hair.

    Lucy I bought a pair of scissors as against every demand the Warqueen stuck a pink bow on her. Mongo is spoiled anyway and Oscar got a better fitting harness. His is either too loose or too tight as too loose it clangs into his legs.

    I haven't bought myself anything as the best Christmas present I can have is having done all the shopping early.

      1. There's never enough bloody chocolate.

        A calendar a day would be more appropriate. I bloomin' dislike Christmas. In my family it was a cause of incredible stress as everyone tip toed around mother until eventually she'd erupt anyway. Didn't matter what. 'Do the tree' she'd demand. We would. She'd come home and do it again. Put up the cards, that'd be wrong/use too much, too little blutac. Put up the decorations. They'd be wrong.

        I said no one year as it was always wrong no matter what I did, so I wouldn't waste my time. That was wrong.

        She'd slave for hours over dinner, so we said 'we'll do it.' We did. It was wrong. We said 'let's have cheese on toast' . No, then the complaints about how difficult everything was.

        Christmas was a miserable, exhausting experience where you'd just want to go to your room – you'd get sent there eventually but weren't allowed to.

        Christmas in the Wibbling household is sausage rolls, cakes, peanuts, sandwiches, pate and toast (you're setting the toast), wine for her, gin for the mother in law, cheese straws, pastries and nuts. There might be pork pie as well. Sod cooking.

        What doesn't go in the dishwasher is left. Folk go where they want, do what they want. Usually this means humans and dog (be dogs this year) flop around.

        I might even turn the heating on.

        1. My mother used to pull the decorations down at least twice before Christmas Day. Mad as a hatter (with some possibly good good reason) and the current family think I'm totally 'Bah, humbug!', which is pretty true.

    3. "Warqueen wanted some perfume so pinned her down on the…"

      I stopped reading at that point to spare me blushing.

    5. I would bet that there were lots of women cluttering up the shops with their shopping.

      Wait until Christmas Eve and shop like a man Do you have anything left? That will do!

    2. The Canadian government are sniffing around digital ID as well. As they all take their direction from one master, I would assume that it is correct

      1. I have a driving licence and a passport – I presume they are both on some digital database – what more do we need?

    5. How can it be both mandatory and for those who 'wish to participate'. Forgers have a field day, btw.

      1. It's for those who wish to participate, but if you don't you will become a non-person, so to go about your daily life it will become mandatory.

    6. I’ve already got several govt digital ids. HMRC , NHS, NI pension, Driving Licence, Concessionary bus pass, LA Council tax there may be more 
..

  92. I like getting it done as soon as possible. It's just such a complete PITB. Aside from the big asked fors, they're all getting a few bits more. The look I got from the Warqueen when comfortable same-as-I've-already-got M&S underwear was unpacked was bliss.

    1. I admit to buying Christmas presents (and birthday presents) throughout the year as and when I see something suitable. I don't like last-minute shopping.

      1. I've tried that.
        Then either forgotten where I'd put the bloody things as Christmas approached, or forgotten I'd bought them in the 1st place.

        1. I have a cupboard in which I keep them. All is well, provided I remember to put them in the cupboard 🙂

  93. I, on the other hand, love Christmas but married a version of Scrooge (without the redeeming bit at the end). Now I only have myself to please, the house has cards and decorations, the dog gets a present and is grateful, I cook the Christmas dinner (one thing MOH did do towards festivities), I go to Midnight Mass without needing subterfuge and I can have as much booze as I like as long as I am not driving.

  94. Yes, we'll leave aside the Foot and Mouth debacle and the mismanagement thereof. Swine vesicular disease, bovine brucellosis, all take their toll.

  96. Phew. That's a relief. Kemi's just blown her chance in sinking Reform by airing her fascinating insights on Tommy Robinson on ITV. Zzzzzzzzzz

    "waffle waffle.. Not many young support people TR. waffle waffle. He pleaded guilty. waffle waffle. Our justice system is fair." LOL.
    "I want to bring people together.. where everyone has a place in our country no matter what their cultural heritage."

        1. I was saying that to my 93-yr-old ex-RAF colleague on the way to the meeting today. At least half the "Tories" are actually lib dem socialists and the rest are only pretending to be actual conservatives.

      1. Muslims have no place in a Christian country, nor do people who've lived here for years and never bothered to learn the language and accept our culture.

  97. That's me gone for this slightly trying day. First the PC isshoo (resolved by the skill and patience of the MR); then AGA man telling me that what I had thought was a perfectly working stove was "doing it all wrong". He claims to have solved it – as he left I told him I know where he lives…!

    Then it was grey and gloomy all day – and the same promised for the whole WEEK.

    So have a jolly evening choosing a tax haven to go and live in.

    A demain I hope!

  98. I'm always a bit wary of unnamed sources but it's clear that the Tories' troubles are a long way from over. Appointing Potty Priti won't go down well in the shires.

    New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has appointed Dame Priti Patel as her shadow foreign secretary and Mel Stride as her shadow chancellor, the BBC understands. Both Dame Priti and Stride, former home secretary and former work and pensions Secretary respectively, were candidates in the early stages of the Tory leadership race.

    The BBC has also been told that Badenoch's leadership rival Robert Jenrick has been offered several roles in the shadow cabinet but is yet to accept one.

    A Conservative source has said: "Kemi just doesn’t like Rob. She thinks his whole schtick about her and whether she has any policies has done her lasting damage with the Right and with Reform voters. This is only likely to further unravel."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9n304z0x7o

    1. Whoever the leader is, they're left with the same gang who failed over the last few years. Same old faces, just in different seats. There'll be a short term poll boost but it'll fizzle out.

  99. As long as it works, Bill. My long case clock stopped this morning at 11 (I was out and only discovered it when I got back). It had managed to jam the round weight that counterbalances the winding weight round the cog mechanism. Don't ask me how. It was the devil of a job to free it and get everything back in place. It's working now, I'm pleased to say – and when I dropped the heavy weight, thankfully it didn't land on my foot.

      4. Oh good grief! That’s exactly the way he should look! A pink eyed little snivel servant!

        1. Stays in a job a few months and gets promoted/moved.
          Probably knows SFA about the details, just pontificates.

  103. Night All
    It's Peanut Time !!!!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a842bfa1192e75c5da405ac730d5d7528fff04172d470fadd03bafd12c28178f.png
    https://i.imgflip.com/98up3q.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/941540b81984822f76b47bd44174bf32e5991ed32cc86f31323ed6ba706b88c9.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e4b3048ca4a711e929702953ad047d0e4952d68b84006e03b013b13613152b5.jpg
    https://media.notthebee.com/articles/article-6727b1bda6d94.jpg
    https://x.com/KellyLMcCarty/status/1852774565396807796

    1. No, I don’t, but there is no point raising it with my MP as she, like all other MPs, is in denial about the whole thing.

      2. Private Eye now have a regular column from a Conservative ex-MP called Dee Nial, it's very funny!

      3. I have a friend who was attacked FIVE years ago – she's finally going to court TOMORROW hopefully to get the attackers (who were known to the police and who tried to attack one of the officers!) sentenced. It's a disgrace. Both she and I think the scrotes will be let off with a slap on the wrist; either a caution or bound over to keep the peace.

  106. What time do you think they will stop the counts in the swings states?
    I think it was about 5am our time four years ago.
    Four years ago I went to bed thinking Trump had no chance according to the polls
    Put the telly on early next morning and Trump was miles ahead, those lefties at the BBC looked really downcast.
    Then extraordinary events took hold.
    The counts suddenly stopped, the observers were sent out.
    Then all of a sudden some time later the count restarted and lo and behold it all started to move the other way.
    The chaps at the BBC even looked puzzled.
    But as it turned out it was all Kosher and above board, nothing underhand went on.
    Biden got an unbelievable high turnout, the highest ever and so did Trump.

    1. They need to take some lessons from us. In Andrew Bridgen's constituency, the vote count did not start until 0200. The exit poll was cancelled. The ballot papers, which are legally required to be retained for at least 12 months, were destroyed the weekend after the vote. Electoral Commission? Nothing to see here.

    2. I remember the exact same thing. The BBC website had a great map of all the States and the votes cast. Shouted to the future wife, "Trumps got this for sure!". Then things just got silly.

  107. Patrick O’Flynn
    Starmer’s plan to stop the boats is a comical gimmick
    4 November 2024, 11:35am

    The shiny new Downing Street operation that has come into being since the departure of Sue Gray has decreed that this is going to be ‘small boats week’. They have created a media grid with the aim of promoting the idea of Keir Starmer as a strong and authoritative leader busily coordinating measures to accelerate Labour’s plan to ‘smash the gangs’.

    Rather comically, the Sun newspaper was briefed that Starmer will declare the border crisis a ‘national security issue’, announce a crack new team of investigators, hold talks with Giorgia Meloni and vow to end ‘gimmicks’. So that’s three gimmicks followed by a promise not to indulge in gimmicks. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

    None of Starmer’s activity addresses the key driver of the illicit Channel traffic: the fact that people who illegally gatecrash their way into our country are rarely detained in jail-like conditions and almost never removed. Instead, the bulk are put up in hotels, given spending money, allowed to come and go as they please and thus able to work in the cash-in-hand economy. Ultimately they can expect to win formal permission to stay and unlock for themselves permanent access to the British welfare state and possibly the right to bring family members to join them. Such access for a young man could easily be worth £1 million over a lifetime – truly a golden ticket.

    Yet Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper continue to peddle an approach to the issue which focuses exclusively on an alleged mission to destroy the very profitable people-moving gangs: all of them. The purported aim is to make sure there are no rubber dinghies available to take illegal migrants across the Channel (or more precisely, take migrants to the mid-point of the Channel from where UK Border Force or RNLI vessels provide a water taxi service into Dover).

    Unsurprisingly the strategy has yet to bear any fruit: no gang has been smashed. The numbers crossing have accelerated upwards too since Starmer and Cooper took over and pulled the plug on the Rwanda removals policy, having connived in its frustration for the previous two years. The BBC today reports that in October alone there were more than 5,000 arrivals,

    Yet for Starmer and Cooper it is an unconscionable sin to acknowledge that the migrants themselves have agency and are the key drivers of this trade. When he came into office in July, the Prime Minister wrote that: ‘Every week vulnerable people are overloaded onto boats on the coast of France. Infants, children, pregnant mothers – the smugglers do not care.’ The reality is that 80 per cent are young men typically paying £3,000 a pop and helping to carry the boats down beaches to the water’s edge.

    But still, the policy of zero deterrence and an exclusive focus on ending the supply of boats continues. Today, Starmer announced a doubling of the budget of his new Border Security Command to £150 million – an unprecedented investment in gold braid and epaulettes that may at least be of some benefit to the British textiles industry.

    Perhaps, sooner or later, a gang or two will be ‘smashed’ and Starmer will excitedly dash down to Border Security Command HQ to celebrate. But what will happen then? Anyone with a basic knowledge of economics will understand that a temporary downturn in the supply of boats will lead to higher prices for a seat in a boat, making the remaining gangs even more profitable until new gangs are drawn into the trade. It’s a demand-driven business.

    One Channel migrant is currently on a murder charge in a Midlands town. Not much has been written about it. Public anger locally largely remains below the surface – a result of Starmer’s summer law and order crackdown against ‘Far Right’ agitators, no doubt. British nationals are deemed to have agency you see, even when driven half-mad with grief about the killing of compatriots.

    Yet the tectonic plates of British politics are on the move. Reform’s MPs continue to highlight what they term an ‘invasion’; the Tories finally have a new leader ready to go for the throat of ‘Two Tier Keir’. The Starmer shtick – a former DPP with Action Man hair launching a never-ending stream of securocrat gimmicks – is already wearing very thin. The truth cannot be hidden from people for much longer: it is the ideological weirdness of the British left, embodied by Starmer, which facilitates the gatecrashing of our borders by ruthless and undocumented young men from other cultures.

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

    Rogue Broker
    8 hours ago edited
    I listened to his Glasgow speech. God, this man is boring.

    But lots to pick up here. Two phrases that particularly struck me.

    'Profound respect for international law' = foreign courts and activist lawyers will remain in charge.

    'Process (asylum) claims swiftly and humanly' = continued mass immigration.

    MikeBrighton Rogue Broker
    7 hours ago
    When Starmer talks about 'international law' what he really means is rule by lawyers and a system of law outside the UK takes supremacy over UK law.
    Want to deport an illegal immigrant…..not a chance!

    Tory scum Cunningham Lowe
    5 hours ago
    Italy has politely ignored over 2,000 rulings by the ECtHR in Strasbourg. The UK is prevented from doing the same by Blair’s HRA. This single-handedly created the whole UK industry of grievance seeking human rights lawyers.#

    Steve Walker
    8 hours ago
    It's always interesting to note that when the left condemn illegal immigration, they do so solely from the perspective of concern for the immigrants themselves; the views and opinions, indeed the wellbeing of those whose interests these politicians have been elected to represent, barely get a look in.

      1. And his ill-gotten ÂŁ millions confiscated and put to good use.
        First suggestion could be to build basic, very secure holding facilities for every single parasite on the 'watch list', and all the slammers and other immigrants who haven't learned to speak English.

        1. I would argue that in this particular instance it is “hung” not “hanged”.
          If the victim was killed by the hanging it would be hanged, but the point of the torture was for three lots of suffering: being hung up and cut down before death, having your guts removed while still conscious, and finally being killed through quartering.

    2. Just remember this: The small boats are a planned distraction from the REAL crime against the British people of 'legal' mass migration.

    3. Just remember this: The small boats are a planned distraction from the REAL crime against the British people of 'legal' mass migration.

  108. Another of Starmer's fragrant coven in his cabinet has come to show her true colours. Bridgett Phillipson (Education secretary)who, earlier this year pre election, said Uni fees would not go up. Guess what! Apparently her,now, 3.1 pct increase in fees won't actually cover the NI extra that her fellow witch imposed. Sigh

    1. Look on the bright side.
      Foreign students might stay, bringing their families' wealth with them.
      They certainly won't approve of gimmegrants.

      1. I know. He is the same age as myself. But he doesn’t have to iron, shop, persuade the dust bunnies out from under the bed, put bleach down the loo etc nor prepare an evening meal. And the rest.

        1. I don't iron……… that's OH's job…….. even though he managed to melt a patch on my favourite trousers a couple of months ago……….

          2. Yes – I was a bit miffed……….. but I managed to cobble some stitches together and it was fairly low down on the back of one leg. He got a stern talking to though. He didn't realise they were polycotton……

          5. I find ironing soothing, I iron almost everything, sheets, pillowcases, duvets, tea towels, knickers…. and of course nearly all clothes. It gave me a sense of being in control of my life even when it felt that things were falling apart and raising two small boys felt like herding kittens!

    2. Whenever I see Macon GA I have to remind myself that it is MAYcon, not the French pronunciation.

      1. Whenever I see any word that looks as though it has a French construction I automatically want to pronounce it à la français. Des Moines is the one that really gets me, I suppose it is pronounced Demoynes. Some Scottish words and towns also mess with my head in that manner.

        1. It isn’t just Scottish places; Norfolk has a fair few that are pronounced nothing like their spelling and Shropshire isn’t far behind.

  110. Another day without our landline.

    We are with Zen for ordinary land telephone line and internet, and normally they are better than others we have been with before. However, on Thursday our phone line went off – we phoned Zen and they confirmed it was a outside line problem, However Openreach couldn't look at it until today.

    7.30 pm today – still nothing. (Our internet is obviously different, and is (at the moment) working.) So we called and apparently Openreach had come out (to the junction box at the end of the road, I presume) this afternoon, but "it was too dark" so they went home. That is pathetic – they have torches and mobiles, and I don't think the person at Zen believed it either. So Openreach are in theory coming again tomorrow.

    I don't really know what role the service provider plays: as far as I know, with the old cables, Virgin is the only one with its own dedicated cables, and Zen, BT and the others all use other Openreach cables. So what part does the service provider actually play? It seems that they are responsible for whatever is inside the house, and provide a facility to use the phone etc. using cables they rent from Openreach. I wonder what pressure they can put on Openreach, given that it seems to be a monopoly. AlI know is that is frustrating!

        1. I don’t want everyone else to know, ssshhhh! I wasn’t being sarcastic, I was due to phone Hl tomorrow! The best laid plans, eh! And no doubt Wednesday will bring about a complete cyber black-out because of you-know-what….

          1. Phizzee suggests that you both go back to first principles, and use your witching bowls to communicate.

            };-))

    4. Most Openreach service use "Fibre to the Cabinet." In my case, the cabinet is in the next village. So I'm connected via extremely elderly copper wires. When my service completely failed, the Openreach engineer – despite risk to life and limb due to Covid – found a spare working pair of conductors.

      There are no plans to roll out FTTP (fibre to the premises) in my village, ever. Ironically, within a couple of months of leaving Seale, they had FTTP. Not to mention a pop-up wine shop. and Sainsburys at the local filling station. Being Euro Garages, it became ASDA. but now the Issa Brothers are no longer in charge, they now sell wine again. And use Deliveroo…

      1. There are apparently benefits to not having fibre – I believe this includes not losing your phone line completely in the event of a power cut. We are going to have compulsory fibre here in a year or two, and although I think our internet is fibre I would prefer to retain the copper…Progress?

  112. Spot the difference:

    Harris needs "A rse "list celebrities to get people to her rallies.

    Trump just appears at his.

  113. Thought for the day:
    If Harris wins is there anyone who doesn't lose in the long term?
    Anyone at all?
    Anywhere in the world?

    Silly me,:
    black crooks, SA cartels, warmongers, billionaire plutocrats, public sector workers scroungers, China, banksters, etc etc etc etc etc

    1. I actually muted our team zoom meet at work this morning because they were talking about the US elections. One of our ladies has a vote, as her husband is American and she insisted on introducing the subject but their Trump Derangement got the better of me. I knew anyway that Paula voted Dem. My brother and SiL in Pittsburgh will do the same, as they too suffer from TDS. A pity there isn’t a vaccine


      1. Believe it or not, I’m not fan of DT, but the alternative is a disaster for the USA and the free world.

          1. Whatever his faults and shortcomings, he a) started no wars and b) did things that were good for the USA and particularly for black Americans.

        2. I'm increasingly a fan, despite his shortcomings. Perhaps my subscription to Tucker Carlson Network has clouded my vision.

          I don't claim to have the gift of discernment, but unexpected things have happened in my life which made no sense, unless there were unseen protective forces.

          I'm no happy-clappy Evangelical type (for a start, their songs are shyte). Tucker and Trump seem to be in my camp. I've joked here, re. my microwave at my last home displaying 'end time', I see no reason to disagree.

          But the Butler rally was surely an act of God? No?

  114. I hope you realise you're missing a documentary on BBC1: The Chris Kaba Shooting. Presented, natch, by a black journalist. It's going to explain what really happened. Do they know that all this has been established in various investigations and in court?

          2. Speaking of which, I have some rhubarb in the freezer. It's been there for at least eighteen months, if not thirty. Would consumption of same result in instant death? Asking for a friend… 😊

    2. Chris Kaba, the full gamut of anti-white rhetoric and leftist lies.
      Kris Donald, tumbleweeds.

    3. OK, Richard – I'll buy a TV licence especially…

      Bugger. I see your post was an hour ago, so I missed the broadcast. Oh well, never mind, eh? 😊

  115. This Peanut story is quite a gift to Trump…I can't help suspecting that Musk had a team scouring X to look for likely stories that they could blow up just before the election to make everyone hate liberals.
    X is one of the most controlled arenas on the internet after all.

    1. Peanut has not died in vain. He has probably saved America single-pawed. And not forgetting his little friend, Fred.

      1. Do you think AI is advanced enough to select the most tear-jerking possible story that also shows Democrat authorities and the young, lefty looking female informer in a bad light?
        I am using the commercial one from MS for my work, and it’s pretty rubbish, I can tell you. “Copilot, how do I disconnect from Bluetooth LE programmatically in a C# UWP app?” It couldn’t even give the correct answer to that question! One of the key sources was written by a non-native English speaker.

        1. Does it?
          A significant proportion of his supporters would fit a rabble definition.
          They are disorderly, they are angry, and they are certainly noisy.

    1. I used to see scenes like the first one when I went cub hunting autumn hunting in the early morning. I didn't have a camera, though.

  121. Well, chums, it's my bedtime. So Good Night to you all, sleep well and I hope to see you all bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow morning.

  122. Bloody Hell! Is that the time????
    I'm off to bed.
    Goodnight all. Or rather who ever is left awake!

  123. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Spain’s King and Queen were pelted with mud yesterday when they visited Paiporta, epicentre of the flood disaster zone in the Valencia region. Over two hundred people have died in the flooding, dozens of them in Paiporta; more are thought to be trapped and, by this time, surely dead in underground garages and car parks. Local people are furious that the authorities were slow to issue flood warnings when the rains came last Tuesday and then very poor at coordinating what has turned out to be a seriously under-resourced relief effort.

    Locals seized the opportunity to vent their feelings of abandonment and desperation, chanting ‘Murderers’ and hurling slurry at the group

    Many people are still without electricity, gas and water. Streets remain blocked by huge piles of cars. Some locals say that volunteers bringing in food and other supplies have been of more help so far than the police or army.

    Protocol requires that the head of the regional government accompanies the monarch on official visits and Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, who had not yet visited the disaster area, also decided to join Felipe and Letizia. Unsurprisingly, locals seized the opportunity to give vent to their feelings of abandonment and desperation, chanting ‘Murderers’ and hurling slurry at the group.

    As the situation became increasingly volatile, Carlos MazĂłn, the regional leader, and SĂĄnchez were quickly extricated by security officials. But King Felipe and Queen Letizia stayed for over an hour to listen, trying to console local people. When his escort attempted to shield Felipe with an umbrella, he insisted that they take it down so that he could meet people face to face. Letizia, pale, mud-spattered and apparently close to tears, could also be seen listening intently and nodding as locals shouted and screamed in despair.

    Sánchez was surely right when he suggested that now is not the time to analyse negligence and allocate blame for the disaster, but that day of reckoning will soon come. Mazón is already being criticised for not declaring the flooding a ‘catastrophic emergency’ as soon as the scale of the disaster became apparent last week; that would have immediately transferred control of the situation to the central government.

    In a country governed at five levels – local, provincial, regional, national and European – the distribution of powers in such extreme situations is, as Sánchez has intimated, a key problem. During the pandemic, the bureaucratic confusion caused by too much government also quickly became apparent. And problems are compounded when a left-wing central government has to deal with a right-wing regional administration: instead of working in harmony for the good of the people, politicians of both sides soon succumb to the temptation to score points.

    Spain has an estimated 300-400,000 politicians; relative to population, that’s twice as many as France. The country’s politicians, while very numerous, are also seen as remote and unaccountable. And corruption is rife partly because there is so much administration. Both main parties, Sánchez’s left-wing PSOE, and regional leader Carlos Manzón’s right-wing Partido Popular, are constantly at loggerheads and mired in scandals.

    In normal times, Spaniards are noticeably tolerant of their venal politicians’ ineptitude. But these are not normal times. Once the dead are counted and some semblance of normality has been restored, the political fallout will be huge. Any attempt to blame this disaster on climate change or to pass it off as a natural disaster which has to be accepted as ‘one of those things’ will be given short shrift by a furious populace. Heads will surely roll.

    In the meantime, the monarchy’s popularity looks set to rise still further. Felipe, who’s 56, has done a good job during his first ten years on the throne. Taking after his mother rather than his back-slapping father, he’s seen as sober, hard-working and honest. Not surprisingly his June approval rating of 6.6 out of ten, according to IMPO Insights, is far higher than that of any of Spain’s leading politicians. The courage that he and Queen Letizia displayed yesterday will be remembered for a long time.

    WRITTEN BY
    Jim Lawley
    Jim Lawley is a former university lecturer who has lived and worked in Spain for 40 years

  124. From Coffee House, the Spectator.

    We need to talk about Dawn Butler. Following the election of the first ever black leader of a major party in this country, Ms Butler took to X not to congratulate but to sneer. Not to cheer this final breakthrough for racial equality in the UK but to share a poisonous description of the person who made the breakthrough as the ‘black face’ of ‘white supremacy’. It is one of the worst things a member of the ruling party has done since they came to power four months ago.

    Labour’s Dawn Butler retweeted tips for ‘surviving a Kemi Badenoch victory’

    Yes, when Kemi Badenoch was announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party, Labour’s Butler took potshots. She retweeted some tips for ‘surviving a Kemi Badenoch victory’ written by Nels Abbey, a London-based Nigerian journalist. He branded Badenoch ‘the most prominent member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class’. She’s the chief representative of ‘white supremacy in black face’, he sniped. And Butler pressed retweet, hand-delivering to her 240,000 followers this repugnant reduction of a black politician to a witless stooge of whiteness.

    How dreadful is that? Badenoch has risen through the ranks of the Tories by gumption and drive. This weekend, she shattered the final racial ceiling by becoming the first black person to head a big party. Yet here she was being depicted as mere dressing, as an exotic decoration for ‘white supremacy’, as the black mask our supposedly racist elites have decided to pull on. This is dehumanising talk: it robs Badenoch of her agency, of her very individuality, and treats her as little more than the mouthpiece of a nefarious agenda that hurts her own kind.

    Butler undid her retweet. We might be generous and think that perhaps she didn’t read all of Abbey’s words before sharing them. If that’s the case, she should say so. Because it is very serious indeed that a prominent figure in the Labour Party responded to Badenoch’s historic victory by sharing the foul view that this black woman’s chief role is to do the bidding of the white man.

    Abbey and Butler were not alone in suggesting Kemi’s victory was a victory for ‘white supremacy’. The writer Kehinde Andrews, in typically provocative style, shared his view that Badenoch is the ‘shining ebony example that the Psychosis Of Whiteness is not reserved for those with white skin’. Oof. Everyone’s attacked in that tiny diatribe: both white people (we have psychosis, apparently) and black people (your ‘ebony’ shade doesn’t grant you immunity to our madness, it seems).

    This cruel view of Kemi as ebony packaging for white supremacy exposes the left’s creepy disdain for black conservatives. Other Tories from ethnic-minority backgrounds have likewise been branded the fodder of whiteness. Priti Patel was labelled a ‘pawn in white supremacy’. She and the other non-white members of Boris Johnson’s first cabinet were written off as ‘ministers with brown skin wearing Tory masks’ (that was Kehinde Andrews again).

    There’s an ugly racialism in this slamming of non-white Tories. The belief seems to be that these people are traitors to their race, that they’ve cheaply sold their black or brown souls for a seat at the white man’s table. Yet the idea that non-white folk should all think the same way politically – that they should all be dutifully leftish, pro-Labour, pro-immigration, anti-Israel – strikes me as obnoxious. It treats people from ethnic-minority backgrounds less as individuals capable of deciding for themselves what ideas to embrace, and more as a big blob that must uniformly conform to correct-think as defined by the cultural elites.

    There’s an ugly racialism in this slamming of non-white Tories

    Some on the left almost seem to think they have moral ownership over ethnic-minority people, hence their spitting fury when any of them ‘betrays their race’ and support the Tories. Imagine pushing an idea like that and having the gall to call other people racist.

    It wasn’t only leftists who obsessed over Badenoch’s blackness this weekend, which they view as a mask for her ‘white’ beliefs. So did some on the very online right. Among those of an ethno-nationalist persuasion – of which there are more than you would like to think – the cry went up that an African is now in charge of the Conservative Party and that must mean it’s End Times. There were dark whispers of a ‘foreign’ takeover of the Tories. I’m not repeating it here – it was nasty stuff.

    There is normally little to unite the crank left and the gutter right, two of the noisiest online tribes. But on Saturday they entered into a bizarre unholy alliance on the matter of Badenoch’s race. The former have a problem with her because she’s the ‘black face’ of ‘white supremacy’, the latter have a problem with her simply because she has a black face. Neither side seems capable of seeing her as an individual. As a free-thinking woman. As someone who should be judged for what she says and does, not her ‘ebony’ look.

    These people are so out of touch. Most folk out there don’t care what colour Kemi is – they just want to know if she’ll offer an inspiring alternative to the disastrous Starmer government. It is only the identity-obsessed left and blood-and-soil right who look at Badenoch and see only a ‘black face’.

    Watch more on SpectatorTV:

    Brendan O’Neill
    WRITTEN BY
    Brendan O’Neill
    Brendan O’Neill is Spiked's chief politics writer. His new book, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation, is out now.

    1. Nottingham council is probably being incentivised by the offer of central Government money.

      1. It’s taxpayers money and the massive hike in tax means we will paying more to Nottinghamshire and other counties as the stream of unsustainable immigration, both legal (?) and illegal continues unabated.

  133. Will post this later on the new page but easier to post here first.

    ”Last week, I wrote about why I loved jail, but now I have to be honest about the miseries of incarceration. The first thing I did after arriving at prison was to make a ligature.
    Then, I learnt that the prison officers are trained to cut you down very fast, so you thereby fail to achieve strangulation. The risk was being resuscitated as a paraplegic, which I thought to be too high.
    I have also since learnt that there are other ways to kill yourself in here. But I no longer want to. When I came here, I thought that – whatever the justice or injustice of my captivity – I had brought the greatest conceivable shame and disaster upon myself. Prison existence was so alien to my concept of myself that I did not want to endure it.
    But now I think differently and I would even say that I could survive a long sentence. I say this because I think prison is far less effective as a deterrent than people imagine. And I am in no way special – I am actually a bit of a self-pitying, sulking wimp. But I think you too, reader, would find the experience equally endurable. Thousands do: my experience is typical, I would say, rather than exceptional. We need less than we think we do, and we are a lot tougher than we believe we are.
    But still, there are deep, scarring deprivations. The greatest is family – I strongly miss my children. For the first four months, I wrote to them every day. Then I discovered that if I did not think about them – stopped myself from doing so – it wasn’t so bad. The tears and the rage subsided a bit and then entirely.
    The vandalism of human beings, relationships and meaningful communication is what the criminal justice system specialises in. You have to get over that. And you adapt. You give away so many of the things that, in truth, align with your dignity, identity and independence, but which you are forced to accept have been stripped from you, possibly forever.
    We have hardly any natural sunlight; that is an extremely precious thing to lose. I am first out in the yard at 8am and last back in half an hour later. Our west-facing yard in Wing A gets no natural sunlight at that time of the morning between September and March, so I have already felt the last direct sun I will see for months. We are prescribed free vitamin D pills because it is recognised that we would otherwise be deficient, barring the small number of us lucky enough to get outdoor work in recycling or gardening.
    I raised my children to enjoy cycling, walking and swimming. I love nothing more than being out in the mountains with them. As a family, we were always happiest when we were in the Lake District, and the single biggest blow I’ve experienced was finding out they went without me this year.
    You can’t play tennis in prison (though you can play badminton) and you can’t swim. I enjoyed being one of those slightly boring middle-aged men who trawled up and down the lane in the local swimming pool.
    Outdoors – the sea or a cold, fast-flowing stream – is the most wholesome and exciting place to swim. The idea of the sea is always with me in here for the curious reason that a prison can sometimes feel like a ship, or an old-school hulk: three decks, metal railings, a suicide net that looks somehow rather nautical and cells like cabin doors, with little portholes behind which men don’t sail anywhere, except perhaps through time.
    At midday, when the overhead sun casts shadows down the landings, you can climb to the top floor if you’re out of your cell and lean out, maybe catching a bit of warm light. Like a forbidden pleasure, you can close your eyes and imagine the views – vast, oceanic distances, the beach and lands you’ve left behind receding even further.
    Next week, the Secret Prisoner writes about the relationship between prisoners and their guards”

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