Wednesday 5 February: Neighbourhoods united in dread of unaffordable council tax rises

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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554 thoughts on “Wednesday 5 February: Neighbourhoods united in dread of unaffordable council tax rises”

    1. Must be fake news, Rik. That doesn't look at all like RFK Junior nor even President Trump. Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

  3. Good morning, chums, and a special Thank You to Geoff, who regularly updates our daily NoTTLe site.

    NOW HERE IS A MOST IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: I have decided to take an extended break to clear my mind and reflect on the future. And so I will be away from this site from tomorrow until late on Monday the 10th of February. Be good, play nicely, and I'll see you all when I get back.

    Wordle 1,327 3/6

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    2. Good morning Elsie and all
      An internet fast has been very helpful to me in the past, hope it works for you too.

      Wordle 1,327 4/6

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      1. Never you mind, Ndovu. There are burglars about, and I don't want Annie Allan or Korky the Kat knowing whether I am away or hiding indoors with an AK47 in case someone tries to break in. Lol.

  7. Midweek Medley
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        1. Yes , same here , Moh's car is iced up, and he is now out of the door and off to play golf .

          I haven't topped up my bird feeders , usually do that late afternoon ready for the morning feeding flurry.

    1. Afternoon Obs, cooler day today about 25c but due to hit above 30c tomorrow, still pleasant after temperatures had been in the low 40’s at times during the past week.
      The problem with all of that is it will feel really sub zero when I return to the UK even if isn’t.

        1. We are in Australia visiting family. We have struck out on our own for a few days to have little explore. We traveled from NSW into Adelaide and have now arrived at Mt Gambier, home of lagoons, sink holes and wineries.
          I have tried to post a couple of photos but keep getting network error appearing.
          As my old school report used to say, “must try harder”

  10. Stop scaring kids witless about climate change. Spiked. 5 February 2025.

    To accompany these findings, Greenpeace has just published a guide to supposedly help parents and teachers discuss climate change with children. Written by psychotherapist Caroline Hickman, these new guides are not offering disinterested advice. They are propagandistic tools, urging adults to cultivate children’s fears about the climate. Hickman even warns parents that any attempt to ‘shelter [children] from scary truths’ about climate change is ‘neither feasible nor helpful’.

    I’m assured that the absentee rate in schools is now one in five. I’m only surprised that it isn’t more. Childhood should; so far as is possible, be free of angst and fearmongering. Good must always triumph and evil be defeated. Only that way can they gather the mental and moral resources to deal with life when adulthood beckons. This has of course already passed away. Children are seen by the Political Elites as the vehicles for which their policies can be transmitted into the future. They are simply message carriers. Inculcated with all the prejudices of their elders it is almost certain this process has already led to the unhinged nature of modern debate where the denial of reality has become the norm. Common Sense has become Uncommon. Dogma and Paranoia now rule.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/02/05/stop-scaring-kids-witless-about-climate-change/

    1. Compare and contrast with the Bible, whose most oft repeated instruction is "Do not be afraid"…

    2. I fear we have got beyond the "will somebody please think of the children", for it is their parents and grandparents now that need reassuring that the world is free from angst and fearmongering. Only then can they convey this to their children, even though we are often told by our betters "always keep away from children" to safeguard them from abuse, real or presumed.

      There was a similar sense of doom in the 1930s with the threat of a major war looming and a great depression. Is there something we can learn from this?

      I have called out forlornly for a plea to set abuse aside for a while and work instead on love and trust, and to bolster these virtues up enough so they can be relied on. Then the young can have the resilience to tackle the bogeys of the day, be they war, worries about climate change or mass extinction of species and degradation of habitat.

      How are parents and elders capable of achieving this until they grasp the concept and validity of love and trust? Rap "music" and shows such as 'Traitors' are not helping any more than those horrid US soaps of the 1980s.

      1. “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” ― G.K. Chesterton

        1. Thanks for the link. I’ve just looked it over, checking the MoT history. The price is reasonable.

          The biggest issue over this car is that the chassis was patched last year. Normally such a patch does not last long, and nearly all 2CVs these days are on their second (usually galvanised) chassis. It cost me about £1500 to swap over my chassis back in 2000, and the pound is worth a third of what it was then. A galvanised chassis usually outlives the car.

          Other advisories over general body rust and an oil leak and manageable. I suspect that this car is just beginning to bring trouble, but still presents fairly well. F-reg means it was made in Portugal, where they used thinner metal to keep weight down. Academic these days, when rust is inevitable at that age. The best metal was used in the pre-1982 drummers, but a lot of these were scrapped in favour of the more modern disc brake versions.

    3. I should think climate change indoctrination is the least of parents' worries. A friend of the woman I teach dressage to is home-schooling her children because she discovered that at 11 they were being taught about masturbation, anal sex and other inappropriate techniques!

  11. I am feeling pretty suicidal right now over a recurring nightmare that seems to have come true yesterday.

    There are two repeating scenarios that plague my subconscious – one is over my own failing faculties and flaky memory where I get lost in a fuzz of dementia and do not know where I am going. The other is over relying on someone whom I thought I could trust, a professional, only to find myself taken advantage of by exposing my vulnerabilities, seriously let down and then left in an impossible position.

    I have an elderly 2CV and many times in my dreams, I have entrusted the car to someone only to return to find it completely trashed, and told by the smirking pro "well, what are you going to do about it?". I am completely stranded and emotionally wrecked and at this point I've had enough of this nightmare and wake myself up and do not want to get to sleep again to have to sort it out.

    In real life, I've been taking my car to an old boy who patched it up for the MoT each year. This time though, it needed a more thorough restoration, so I took it to a specialist in Hereford who is highly spoken of in the 2CVGB car club. He emailed me yesterday to inform me that he's stripped it down but reported "It could end up being very expensive. Almost every part of the car is unserviceable for some reason. Everything is worn out or rusty". So I am stuck with a car in bits, and no way of waking up from this.

    This must happen with pretty well every car owner that has to comply with the MoT, which is little comfort. There are no cars sold today I would give house room to. I like the 2CV's versatility, simplicity and charm, and know all too well that no car is less than 35 years old and really need preserving, but at some time even 2CV owners must find themselves at the mercy of the professionals.

    Does anyone here know of a 2CV for sale at a sensible price? A few years ago, I could pick up a decent one for about five grand, but now they seem to be fetching £15-20k.

    4. What a worry Jeremy. My OH parted with his car this week – it was a Toyota Yaris hybrid 2013. But it died on the drive so having found a chap who could get it started, he was quite relieved to see it go.

    5. Blimey.. suicidal thoughts.. epic stress over costly car maintenance & MOTs..
      Don't buy a forty year old classic car.
      Agony Aunt

    6. Do you have an estimate for the resto costs, Jeremy? If it's of the order of a purchased replacement, it might be worth going for the resto, and you'll get your old friend back as a bonus.

      1. I’ve only got part of it so far. He is suggesting 6.4k for the structural welding and 2.3k for the suspension and steering. Nothing worked out yet for any painting, engine and gearbox or for any of the non-structural parts, and carries a warning that costs may well rise. A new bodyshell can be found for 6.8k and 8.8k painted, but the restorer is reluctant to use that warning of extra work required to fettle it. 2.8k for a reconditioned engine.

        I found a 40-year-old secondhand 2CV in Stratford-upon-Avon for 7.5k, and two are already coming to view it this weekend. Another from a dealer in Wiltshire for the same price had a patch welded on the chassis, which is bad news, since a broken chassis normally needs to be replaced. Fully restored from dealers are fetching around 17k.

        Some of the bits off my car are worth a bit – engines for spares about 350, gearbox 150, headlamps 150, four new wheels about 400, and there are others too. If I abandoned the car, would he keep them if I could not disassemble them and take them away in time?

  12. TTK has pledged to Mauritius a settlement of £18bn.
    FFS is it now a 40 Billion black hole??
    This is beyond incompetence this is treason

    1. It's actually worse than you think.. Trump team are negotiating to purchase the islands off Mauritius.
      Keeeerching.. nice little double-kickback for Team Starmer.

      1. No wonder he's in Trump's good books right now. I detect the claws of Mandelson at work here. Mind you, if Starmer did not agree to an offer he could not refuse, I could easily see a 25% tariff slapped on us.

        All standard business practice of course, and good for growth.

      2. Here's a thought – why don't we sell Chagos, which we OWN, direct to Trump. Cut's out the middle man and saves us umpteen billions – oh wait, that means TT/FG/NH's mate – the legal advisor to Mauritius – doesn't make a penny!

  13. 401127+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 5 February: Neighbourhoods united in dread of unaffordable council tax rises
    As I said yesterday to myona indoors WE MUST UNITE
    and also seek overseas aid maybe from the
    Chagos Islands or Pakistan.

    Do NOT say YOU will not pay explain the reason being
    to survive our priorities are FOOD and energy, as in eating & heating, as in nourishing the children and the elderly whilst maintaining a shelter, not hard to understand.

    One thing we must insist on in the very near future before the " RECKONING " is finally triggered is that we receive the same rights as the invading foreign forces
    ensconced in 5* hotels that being when needed accommodation, food and a weekly stipend for extras that are required.

  14. Political Islam is already in Britain
    Lutfur Rahman and the case study of Tower Hamlets

    Artillery Row
    By

    Daniel Dieppe
    4 February, 2025

    The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is under the full political control of an exclusively Bangladeshi-Islamic male-only political party, called Aspire. Replacing Labour as the party in power in 2022, Aspire shocked the political establishment by winning the local elections with no mainstream support, sectarian campaigning, and a leader, Lutfur Rahman, previously banned from office due to electoral fraud and practicing undue spiritual influence.

    The case of the Aspire Party, which only operates in Tower Hamlets, has become increasingly common in multicultural Britain under the increasing influence of Islam. Whilst Muslims make up 6.5 per cent of the total UK population, they account for 40 per cent of the Tower Hamlets population — making it the most Islamic and most Bangladeshi local authority in Britain. Although still unusual, the election of several independent “Pro-Gaza” MPs, the disruption of Parliament and political meetings has alerted political commentators of the increasingly isolated political views of British Muslims from the mainstream. Tower Hamlets, in a sense, is the first British manifestation of such opinion.

    The power-grab in Tower Hamlets by an ethno-religious political group has not been without consequence. The Aspire Party has spent twice as much as Labour, largely to the benefit of its own voters. In 2023, The Times revealed that Rahman gave £250,000 for a mosque engagement charity with an annual income of £20,000 chaired by a man who publicly declared that it was important for Islam that Rahman won.

    More incriminating is the 2015 court judgment which found Rahman guilty of electoral fraud and undue spiritual influence in the 2014 local elections. No fewer than 101 Imams and Muslim leaders signed a letter to “Make Lutfur Rahman Victorious” before the election, resulting in the first charge of undue spiritual influence since the 19th century. Explaining the judgement, the Judge said Rahman’s career had, “relied on silencing his critics by accusations of racism and Islamophobia … ” and “ … if he had not enlisted the help of the Muslim clergy to put unlawful pressure on Muslim voters, the result would have been very different”. Tower Hamlets contained eight Bengali television channels all entirely supportive of Rahman and there was a very supportive Bangladeshi press. The letter signed by 101 Muslim leaders was only published in Bengali, making it inaccessible to the scrutiny of the English-only-speaking electorate.

    https://thecritic.co.uk/political-islam-is-already-in-britain/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIP7GJleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHaAv3TEDqCziFvtP8qKJErA45lF8VdmVu9BNbEP4OEGgPonE2S9Q1NmEOQ_aem_xFFTYIRWzH1ceTJZ3wwp4A

    2. I suggest that all those exhibitionist trans "women" take a sachet through Tower Hamlets. With dogs.

    3. As there seems to be no official scrutiny, It's well known that inorder to win elections they cheat with the results.

  15. Dontcha just love Trump.. he knows the Palestinians are trouble where ever they go.

    Trump unveils extraordinary plan to 'take over and own' the Gaza Strip, relocate ALL Palestinians then rebuild it into the 'Riviera of the Middle East' – and threatens to send in US troops 'if necessary'..

    Lefties scweam.. There must be oil there.. Palestinians are perma trouble.. perma-victims. A bit like Lefties.

    1. He can't be serious, surely? I think he's just putting forward an idea so wild that it takes everyone by surprise and forces the Palestinians to consider sensible options.

      1. I think that's exactly what Trump is doing.
        To mix metaphors, he is flying a very large kite and watching the Leftoids' heads expolode.

        2. Pretty well anyone in Europe anxious about a large influx of asylum seekers with a chip on their shoulder about Jews might be having exploding head syndrome right now.

        3. At the pub last night the three of us agreed that we don't like him, but he's doing the right thing at the right time. Unlike our nasty mob we don't like any of them and they hate us and will never be 'doing the right things'.

        1. Trump is talking about not just rebuilding Gaza but taking it over and expelling all the Palestinians.

        2. I rather think the Soviets had a hand in the rebuilding of Warsaw and Dresden. Not sure about Coventry, or why they bothered.

    2. That was the intention of the Israeli zealots all along. The plan was to evict the existing people into exile, as the Jews were under the Babylonians, use the IDF to clear the site (demolition is largely done now, subsidised by America, who no doubt want some return on their investment) and then flog it off to American real estate developers to turn it into Malibu and make shedloads of dosh. I understand that the U.S. President has some experience in real estate.

      All good business and good for growth, so we are told.

      As for two million marauding, traumatised, dispossessed and vengeful people with nothing more to lose – that's Europe's problem. America and Israel are laughing.

  16. Good morning all. A frosty start today after yesterday's rain.
    Surprisingly the temperature is still marginally above freezing at 0.7°C so either the thermometer is slightly inaccurate or, being hung on the wall of the house, is in a sheltered position.
    Maximum temperature was 10.3°C.

  17. Good morning all. A frosty start today after yesterday's rain.
    Surprisingly the temperature is still marginally above freezing at 0.7°C so either the thermometer is slightly inaccurate or, being hung on the wall of the house, is in a sheltered position.
    Maximum temperature was 10.3°C.

    1. Have a lovely time
      MB and I have been called in by the GP's surgery to check we're still breathing.
      I'm not sure how we'll cope with the excitement.

      2. Watch it – they'll keep on and on at you. And put sarky comments on your "patient's notes".

        1. Given his multiple heath probs, MB is already well ticketed and docketed.
          Since I've made it very clear what "advice" I will and will not accept, I can only assume the procedure is nice little earner.
          Oh, for the days when going to the doctor did not feel like being summoned to the headmaster's study.

          1. A woman rang me to demand that I attend my "annual review". First, I'm deaf (and have been waiting for 3 months for a referral to the hearing clinic). So I find an unexpected phone call tricky. Second, at the time I was (with the MR) engaged in a zoom with a near hysterical 18 year old grandchild. I find on the notes: "Patient sounded very busy and distracted"….. Well, I bloody was!

          2. Good morning Bill

            Oh dear , a near hysterical 18 year old , what was that all about .

            I had a near hysterical 56 year old son yesterday , after he arrived home from work , who had received a letter from the inland revenue .. a tax demand for nearly £8k.

          6. Concentrating on breathing helps. Stops the mind flying off in all directions and reduces blood pressure.

          7. Bill

            Remind her of that lovely song from the King and I ..

            Whenever I feel afraid
            I hold my head erect
            And whistle a happy tune
            So no one will suspect I'm afraid

            While shivering in my shoes
            I strike a careless pose
            And whistle a happy tune
            And no one ever knows I'm afraid

            The result of this deception
            Is very strange to tell
            For when I fool the people
            I fear I fool myself as well

            I whistle a happy tune
            And every single time
            The happiness in the tune
            Convinces me that I'm not afraid

            Make believe you're brave
            And the trick will take you far
            You may be as brave
            As you make believe you are

            You may be as brave
            As you make believe you are
            While shivering in my shoes
            I strike a careless pose
            And whistle a happy tune
            And no one ever knows I'm afraid

            The result of this deception
            Is very strange to tell
            For when I fool the people
            I fear I fool myself as well

            I whistle a happy tune
            And every single time
            The happiness in the tune
            Convinces me that I'm not afraid

            Make believe you're brave
            And the trick will take you far
            You may be as brave
            As you make believe you are

          11. But the makers of the film version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC realised that Julie Andrews did not need any help from Marni, so they gave her (Marni) a role as one of the three nuns singing "How Do You Solve A Problem Called Maria?" Correction: I changed "mean" to "need". What is it with auto-correct?

          12. Julie Andrews was the first choice for Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady since she had made the role her own on stage. However, the producers of the film wanted Audrey Hepburn in the part but her voice wasn’t up to standard, hence Marni dubbing the singing voice.

          13. Indeed, Grizzly. The producer of the film (i.e. Jack Warner) made the decision not to use Julie but rather the more famous Audrey as he thought that would increase the box office. As a result that left Julie free to star in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, so at a later awards ceremony she openly “thanked” (sarcastically) Jack Warner for her SOUND OF MUSIC success.

      3. They will will want to put you on Statins.

        I am sure that they are all on commission to do so

  20. Good Moaning.
    Wonderful "stage set' sky earlier.
    Now we have a bright yellow object peering through the windows and showing up the dust.
    Should we be worried?

    2. Good morning Anne

      Oh yes, the sun shone on and off yesterday , so I applied myself to a bit of non G Tech vacuuming , ie using the small hosed vacuum to do along the edges of carpet all around the house , stair creases, under sofas, cobwebs etc etc. Moh very kindly , after cleaning his shoes with wax , used the G Tech on the carpets.. so loads of activity .

      My back and hips were aching , and Moh's sugar levels dropped away so he felt wobbly , so after tasks were finished , sat down , coffee time .. and we heard a noise , not the cat who has taken up residence, not the dog who was curled up on the sofa , it was a scraping sound ..

      I investigated .. it was the window cleaner .. He usually messages or knocks on the door , nope , he just got on with the job.

      He has huge tanks of distilled water in his wagon and a pressure hose attached to his brushes .. the distilled water doesn't create a streaky effect , because here we have really hard water, chalky .

      In the old days years ago , previous window cleaners used to need their buckets filled up from my tap.

      Does anyone here have their windows cleaned , and what is the going rate ?

      Anyway , after he had finished , we had a chat , and he is as newsworthy as any local paper , I can catch up with all the local news .. So the visit was worth it really .

      Windows look clean , but the insides need to be done sadly.

        1. All the houses around here suffer from grimy dusty windows, ag fields worked, tank ranges , sometimes see plumes of dust in the distance , and salty gales .

          Many dormer windows upstairs as well as high Velux windows are a night mare to clean , used to do it myself , but now I do the insides !18 windows are hard work .

      2. Our cleaner uses the same system. We have a lot of glass. (Think Several windows 8'x4') plus triple sliding doors and french doors) He charges £42 which includes VAT – six times per year.

      5. Why not cheer up and do the insides of the windows cheerfully?
        Asking for a friend…

        1. I cleaned ours inside and outside mid January for free. And the next day for three days it chucked it down with rain. But they don't look bad despite the weather.

      7. Once a year by my goodself.. free. I am then a point up on Mrs Pea who does the inside. I dont trust this fancy water they clean with these days, just snake oil in mho.

    1. Reminds me of the American tourist who goes into a pub in a rural English village.

      "This place must be the arsehole of the world!" he says to the barman.

      "Just passing through?" replies the barman.

      2. Allison Pearson

        On Islamophobia and migration, Labour are asking us to believe the impossible

        Angela Rayner’s new ‘de facto blasphemy law’ is the kind of irresponsible ‘wokery’ that has sadly become a daily feature of this government
        2789
        Angela Rayner
        Deputy PM Angela Rayner is planning to set up an advisory council on Islamophobia, designed to tackle anti-Muslim discrimination Credit: Future Publishing
        Allison Pearson
        04 February 2025 7:04pm GMT
        Allison Pearson

        Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

        “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen.

        My friend Geoffrey reminded me a few days ago of that glorious exchange between the Red Queen and Alice in Through the Looking Glass. We were discussing the Labour government which, whatever your reservations, is certainly giving us a lot of practice when it comes to believing impossible things. Off the top of my head, a selection of their impossible things:

        1) Rachel Reeves insists growth will spring from measures which kill growth.

        2) Ed Miliband claims the headlong pursuit of net zero will see energy bills come down and GB Energy will create 1,000 jobs. Unhelpfully, the chairman of GB Energy just admitted that would be over a 20-year period – 50 jobs a year at around 10 million quid each. Impossible to believe? Not if you get enough practice. (The decision to replace an efficient energy system based on carbon with an inefficient renewables one requires vast acres of British farmland to be carpeted with ecologically-disastrous windmills and solar panels.)

        3) Sir Keir Starmer thinks that having a voice coach round on Christmas Eve 2020 during the Covid lockdown, when London and the South East were under Tier 4 restrictions (no household mixing, only work from home; some who obeyed the rules suffered the anguish of missing their parent’s death), was perfectly fine. Not just “two-tier” Keir, then, but Tier 4 Keir! The Labour leader still sounds like a Dalek with sinusitis. It casts a certain amount of doubt on the “voice coach” story. Bear in mind this is the hypocrite who thought Boris should resign over a bit of cake during lockdown.

        4) Angela Rayner plans to create a “council on Islamophobia” to advise on drawing up an official definition for anti-Muslim discrimination. Essentially a de facto blasphemy law which could criminalise white people, black people, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, atheists and other non-Muslims who don’t want a parallel society in their country with Sharia law and attitudes too often hostile to liberal democratic values. Objecting to special treatment for a section of the population with minimal integration, where women and girls are often treated as second-class citizens, is not a “phobia”. It’s a perfectly rational dislike of seeing our once-harmonious society descend into ugly religious separatism and politically-motivated favouritism. Instead of launching an urgent national inquiry into the mainly Pakistani origin child-rape gangs as it should, Labour prefers to come up with a new law which could make commenting on that scandal an imprisonable offence. The majority white population loses its right to object to its own demise. “Sentence first, verdict afterwards!” Lewis Carroll’s Queen would approve of the chillingly authoritarian Starmer Socialists.

        Of all the impossible things we have been required to believe since a far-Left government came to power last July, surely the most Alice in Wonderland in its surreal, upended logic, is the bold new plan to tackle the small boats crisis. The key to solving the problem of illegal migrants is, wait for it… to make them legal!
        Alice and the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland
        Labour’s government is operating on Alice in Wonderland logic Credit: Alamy

        Under a new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, the Government will repeal swathes of the Conservatives’ Illegal Migration Act (2023) which stipulated that if you entered the country illegally you would never obtain the prize of British citizenship. A major deterrent to those forking out thousands to cross the Channel and tap into the UK’s absurd largesse is slyly disappeared. The Act also stated that asylum seekers could be treated as over 18 if they refused to take a scientific age assessment.

        Pity the poor foster carers who are obliged to believe an impossible thing: the asylum seeker just delivered to their door is a “child” when he has a surprisingly vigorous beard and size 11 feet. Yes, that actually happens. Smuggling gangs actively advise their customers to claim they are minors because children are more likely to be granted refugee status: some 1,300 tried to pull that trick in the first half of last year alone. So British youngsters, in dire need of a foster place, have been discriminated against because a fraudulent non-child from a foreign country is considered more deserving. And let’s not worry about all those undocumented young males from violent, war-torn countries parachuted into secondary schools where they are free to molest girls who may be 10 years younger – Labour clearly isn’t worried. As long as it means “reducing the number” of illegal migrants while, er, keeping that number exactly the same.

        A mere seven months into a Labour government and the public has already had enough of this nonsensical charade, I think. The crazy tax and spend, the wokery, the suicide of net zero, the insult to national identity and free speech that is Islamophobia. Unlike Lewis Carroll’s Queen we are no longer prepared to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Nor do we wish to be helpless spectators as we watch Britain, gradually destroyed by a dim sanctimony of politicians and civil servants, hurtling towards recession while the people whose taxes pay for everything are sent to the back of the queue. By now, it is pretty clear that the mass immigration inflicted upon us, both by the Conservatives, and even worse under Labour, is so ruinous as to amount to treason.

        Desperate for hope, former Tory and Labour voters are turning to Reform UK which this week pulled off the historic feat of topping a YouGov poll. Nigel Farage’s party is on 25 per cent of the vote while Labour is on 24 per cent (down 3 per cent) with the Conservatives on 21 per cent (down 1 per cent). I wasn’t a bit surprised, were you? The establishment’s usual trick of threatening to ostracise anyone who dares to vote for racists/populists/Nazis simply doesn’t work any more. We are aware we have little left to lose, and not much time to save what is precious and remains.

        Only fools and BBC presenters hold to the view that closing the borders is racist. Look at Sweden, a self-styled “moral superpower” which let in hundreds of thousands of refugees and where foreign-born citizens now account for 20 per cent of the population. Last week, after Salwan Momika, an anti-Islam activist who repeatedly burned the Koran in 2023, was gunned down in Stockholm, its ashen prime minister admitted they had “lost control”, with immigrant gangs exploding 30 bombs since the start of the year.

        Today’s deadly attack on an adult education centre that offers Swedish classes to immigrants adds to the terrifying cycle of violence. Sweden, where liberal idealism went to die – or be murdered.

        Now look at the US, where President Trump’s sparky young press secretary told astounded journalists earlier this week that the administration would be deporting illegal migrants whom they regarded as “criminals” because they “entered the country illegally”.

        “So simple, but so right,” as Farage texted me yesterday. Quite. We have had too much practice believing impossible things. America has rejected delusion and decline. So must we.
        Join the conversation

        1. Angela Rayner can go and cucumber herself if she thinks that she can curtail my freedom of expression.

          It will simply never happen.

          1. Marrow herself would be more appropriate Grizz as c**ts don't come any bigger than her

        4. believing impossible things.
          5) Continuity soggy Wet Tories will drain the swamp, regain control of the borders.. and undo Blair.

        5. "Ed Miliband claims the headlong pursuit of net zero will see energy bills come down"

          Well, I suppose they will, but it will be when there's no energy coming through our gas pipes and electric lines.

  25. Yo and Good Moaning all, from a sunny C d S

    Solar panels are charging …. just

    OAT (outside air temperature )+ 3 deg C

  27. SIR – If Network Rail wants to “speak passenger” (report, February 3), a good start would be to do away with ungrammatical announcements, such as that the train is “arriving into” the station.

    Jonathan Mann
    Gunnislake, Cornwall

    You are flogging a dead horse there, Jonny lad. Standard English is long history in the entire English-speaking world. The idiotic grunting of 'hip' Americanese slang has supplanted proper English everywhere. All part-and-parcel of the incessant and deplorable plummeting of standards in every area of modern life. It will only get worse

    1. The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language.

      (attributed to George Bernard Shaw)

  28. Morning all 🙂😊.
    Lovely sunny start today still chilly.
    No doubt about it, this horrible lunatic government are relentlessly robbing the British public. We have all ready paid tax on our savings as we earned it. Now I read anyone with anything over 5000,1 pounds in a bank account needs to take some sort of precaution.
    How do we do that ? There won't be enough cash in the banking system to meet the demands of a draw down. And cash under the bed is going to spur on the newly arrived robbers.
    What these political idiots upto ?

    1. Blimey – I got so used to zero interest rates that I just left my cash in the current account….. will have to put it somewhere else.

    2. Assets outside the financial system. Jewelry etcx.
      For once, you can't blame the political idiots. The financial stuff is being forced upon them.

  29. Top trolling by President Trump so much for Moslem solidarity Saudi et al having hysterics at the thought of having to rehome any Pallies noone wants the Sand Pikies of the ME
    Oh Wait Starmer to the rescue…………..

  30. Right …… time to go out – my lift is picking me up at the bottom of the hill…..
    Catch you all later.

  31. SIR – I too have been guilty of the selective reading of Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Letters, February 4). I particularly enjoy the tips it gives on flower arranging.

    Isobel Barker
    Torpoint, Cornwall

    When we cleared late MIL's house of all the bits and pieces years ago … I felt embarrassed and intrusive when I investigated the contents of an old paper bag inside her wardrobe on the top shelf .. an old Penguin copy of Lady C's Lover ..

    Moh was shocked , his image of his mum was Pears Encyclopaedia , knitting magazines and patterns , the Daily Mirror crossword , steak and kidney pudding and carnation milk and tinned peaches and Bingo 3 times a week .

    I wonder what items belonging to me my adult children will be shocked at , and of course Moh .

    I must have a good sort out .

    1. I have just gone to my bookshelves and found my copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover in amongst Women in Love, The Rainbow and Sons and Lovers. My copy was printed in 1960 when I was 13 or 14 – an impressionable age. I am surprised that it didn't put me off D.H. Lawrence for good!

      Some of my pupils enjoyed his poem, Snake:

      A snake came to my water-trough
      On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
      To drink there.

      In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree
      I came down the steps with my pitcher
      And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.

      He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
      And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough
      And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
      And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
      He sipped with his straight mouth,
      Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
      Silently.

      Someone was before me at my water-trough,
      And I, like a second-comer, waiting.

      He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
      And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
      And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,
      And stooped and drank a little more,
      Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
      On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.

      The voice of my education said to me
      He must be killed,
      For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.

      And voices in me said, If you were a man
      You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

      But must I confess how I liked him,
      How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
      And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
      Into the burning bowels of this earth?

      Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
      Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?
      Was it humility, to feel honoured?
      I felt so honoured.

      And yet those voices:
      If you were not afraid you would kill him.

      And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,
      But even so, honoured still more
      That he should seek my hospitality
      From out the dark door of the secret earth.

      He drank enough
      And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
      And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
      Seeming to lick his lips,
      And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
      And slowly turned his head,
      And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
      Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
      And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

      And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
      And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered further,
      A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,
      Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,
      Overcame me now his back was turned.

      I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
      I picked up a clumsy log
      And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.

      I think it did not hit him,
      But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste,
      Writhed like lightning, and was gone
      Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
      At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.

      And immediately I regretted it.
      I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
      I despised myself and the voices of my accursèd human education.

      And I thought of the albatross,
      And I wished he would come back, my snake.

      For he seemed to me again like a king,
      Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
      Now due to be crowned again.

      And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
      Of life.
      And I have something to expiate:
      A pettiness.

      2. I stand with Auberon Waugh (when he was editor of Literary Review) on poetry. He oft repeated, "It is not a poem unless it rhymes, scans and makes sense."

        That excellent piece of prose by Lawrence makes sense, but as it neither rhymes nor scans it cannot be regarded as poetry.

        And don't start with any of that "blank verse" nonsense. Neither Bron nor I had/have any time for that tomfoolery.

    2. As a ten-year old schoolboy, back in 1961, a favourite playground for my chums and me was an old dilapidated garage site
      where we would play cricket and football.

      One of the garages had a broken door and we could shelter inside if it rained. One day we discovered, partially hidden under the roof, a dirty, well-thumbed copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

      I can only assume that the owner of said garage did not wish his wife — or his servants — to discover it.

    3. A video of you singing?

      verse 1
      "This old Hat of mine has seen some stormy weather
      The inside is quite new, but the outside's getting battered,
      As I cast this hat side into the flowing tide
      Thank Christ I never joined for ever"

      verse 2
      This old coat of mine has seen some stormy weather

      Verse 3

      This old skirt of mine has seen some stormy weather
      and so on
      , complete with actions?

    4. A video of you singing?

      verse 1
      "This old Hat of mine has seen some stormy weather
      The inside is quite new, but the outside's getting battered,
      As I cast this hat side into the flowing tide
      Thank Christ I never joined for ever"

      verse 2
      This old coat of mine has seen some stormy weather

      Verse 3

      This old skirt of mine has seen some stormy weather

      and so on,

      complete with actions?

  33. She kept it hidden from Moh's Dad , I expect , he wasn't heavily into books and reading .

    He was busy collecting stamps , doing the Pools and keeping the garden in order , and marquetry .

      1. No, he had an older brother , who left home when he was 15.

        Moh was close to his mum, but I do believe both he and his mum had/have a form of Asperger’s syndrome or what ever you call it , clever but different , not easy , as do my sons .

        His brother took a £10 trip to Australia in the early 1970’s , married and that was it .

        Tragically , 2 months after their mother died in 2016 , Bob died, he fell out of a hospital bed (in South Australia , he was waiting to have an operation for a melanoma on his back , and bled to death. How and why I don’t know , but he was also severely diabetic and had many other problems .

        We were in absolute shock .

        We were the ones who carried the weight of his parents illnesses , and actually it was me who for many years dashed backwards and forwards , and coped with the late onset of her dementia , and the nursing home eventually..

        We were the ones who missed out on holidays and good times and we carried the can , it wasn’t easy ..

        So in fact yes Moh was alone , but had to have a dialogue with his brother overseas .. and his brother and his wife questioned everything we did .. and made a total nuisance of themselves when they kept ringing the nursing home . They couldn’t believe MIL had dementia, Frontal lobe .. she was 91 when she died .. 9 years this year.

        1. Oh….. that certainly made things very difficult for you. But very sad that Bob died in such an unfortunate way.
          Why couldn’t they accept that she had dementia – it wasn’t as though they were there to see how she was?

        2. Oh….. that certainly made things very difficult for you. But very sad that Bob died in such an unfortunate way.
          Why couldn’t they accept that she had dementia – it wasn’t as though they were there to see how she was?

  35. I see Candace Owens managed to draaaaaaaw out her latest update pt2 on the debauched shenanigans of Emmanuel & Brigitte Macron.
    It's well known that pdfs are a close knit bunch of evil deviants. And so brazen. All with that Jimmy Savile smirk that says.. We're untouchable.

    I hope this has legs.. and escalates.
    btw, Brigitte secretly visiting Docteur Patrick Bui the well known tranny surgeon doesn't help her case.

    1. Macron trolls.. all hands on deck.. red alert.

      False rumours that Brigitte Macron is transgender have been spreading for years. Now Candace Owens, an American far right commentator, has published a video repeating them and gaining millions of views.

      1. She is certainly an avid Trump supporter and a Republican but is she 'far right'?

        What she says about Brigitte Macron being born a boy seems beyond belief – but so many things are beyond belief that some of them might be true!

  36. Bog standard four:
    Wordle 1,327 4/6
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟨🟨🟩⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  37. Staff considered not giving Nottingham killer antipsychotics because he was black

    Report reveals repeated NHS failures to treat Valdo Calocane’s paranoid schizophrenia
    269
    Photo issued by Nottinghamshire Police of Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane
    Failings in Valdo Calocane’s care led to him being free to kill three people in Nottingham in June 2023, a report has revealed Credit: Nottinghamshire Police/PA
    Michael Searles
    Health Correspondent
    05 February 2025 6:59am GMT

    Staff treating the Nottingham killer considered not giving him a long-lasting antipsychotic injection because he was black, a report suggests.

    An independent investigation into the care of Valdo Calocane has revealed failings in his care that led to him being free to kill students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both aged 19, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, in June 2023.

    The 302-page report was published in full after the victim’s families convinced NHS England to U-turn on its plan to only publish a summary, amid reports of concern over data protection issues.

    Health officials earlier told the families that the full report could not be published because it contains his confidential medical details, The Times reported.

    The investigation highlighted repeated failures to treat his paranoid schizophrenia and violent outbursts.
    Composite photo of Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar
    Calocane’s victims were Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley Kumar Credit: Nottinghamshire Police/PA

    Doctors responsible for his care ignored repeated requests for Calocane to be given a community treatment order and long-acting antipsychotic drugs despite pleas from nurses treating him in the community, who managed the risk to themselves by not visiting him alone.

    He was admitted to hospital and sectioned under the Mental Health Act four times between 2020 and 2022 because of his violent behaviour and refusal to take his medication before NHS services lost track of him and discharged him in the months before the attacks.

    The investigation found Calocane’s care team accepted he didn’t want to take the long-lasting drug for reasons including “him not liking needles”.

    It also said the clinical team at Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) “were influenced” by the draft Mental Health Bill in 2022 – around the time of his fourth admission – which called for a reduction in restrictive practices [forcing medication on patients], and highlighted the “disproportionate use” of such measures “for black people”.
    ‘Pressure to avoid restrictive practice’

    An internal investigation by the trust considered whether “the team involved in Calocane’s fourth admission felt a pressure to avoid restrictive practice because of his ethnicity given the publicity surrounding the overuse of the Mental Health Act and restrictive measures with black African and black Caribbean patients”.

    The consultant responsible for his care said staff “were acutely conscious of the link” but said he was “confident that this did not influence his decision making”.

    The investigation found his race had not been discussed by the team caring for him as part of his treatment plan, although they acknowledged that it had been on their minds.
    Still from CCTV footage of Valdo Calocane's arrest after his attacks in Nottingham, on 13 June 2023
    Calocane, seen here being arrested, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act four times because of his violent behaviour Credit: Nottinghamshire Police

    The independent mental health homicide review by Theemis Consulting Ltd concluded: “Whilst Trust staff reported that they considered race in relation to the use of restrictive practice, there is nothing in the notes to suggest that this important factor was discussed as [a multi-disciplinary team].”

    It said this would have allowed clinicians “to have an open conversation to help to ensure that their decision-making is based on clinical presentation and need and is not influenced by other factors”.

    One Trust executive said the team would have been thinking “about the over-representation of young Black men under the Mental Health Act”.

    They said: “Personally, I think that there is a need to treat people as well…when people are experiencing symptoms of mental health. Particularly when I think about [Calocane] and his risk escalating and the damage it was doing to him, although most probably he wasn’t able to always articulate that, you do have to balance that, don’t you?

    “I think that if you can justify that you’ve tried everything else, which is least restrictive but still you are not able to minimise the risk or to minimise the symptomology, which was so distressing, then personally I think that actually [long-lasting] medication could be enabling, not restrictive, if it allows somebody to maybe carry on with their life a bit.”
    ‘The system got it wrong’

    Health officials said it was “clear the system got it wrong”.

    The investigation found that NHS leaders were aware of the issues facing the Trust, the concerns about safety and the absence of risk management processes, but left it for “front line staff to manage”.

    It said systemic issues meant the risk to patients and the public was “not isolated to this case” and that other patients cared for by the same mental health trust had also committed 15 “extremely serious” acts of violence between 2019 and 2023, which mostly involved stabbings. There were three fatalities.

    While some of the victims were known to perpetrators, in some incidents the victims “appeared to be strangers”.

    “Most notably, in February 2023 there was an incident where a patient in receipt of mental health services from Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust was arrested for stabbing five people over the course of a weekend,” the report said.

    The review team looked to see if these incidents had been discussed by the trust board but found “limited evidence regarding discussions of these particular serious incidents or subsequent investigations”.
    Failed to take medication

    The authors also echoed concerns from a report published six months ago by the Care Quality Commission, which identified five missed opportunities to deal with Calocane’s violent psychosis.

    It found Calocane regularly failed to take his schizophrenia medication and there was a “theme running through his clinical records” that he did not believe he was ill, which it said “may have meant that he lacked full capacity” to make decisions about his care.

    It found the care plan on his second admission was “cut and pasted” from the first and that there was an absence of a robust discharge process.

    It criticised the decision to accept “non-engagement” with services as an acceptable reason to discharge a patient, particularly without a face-to-face appointment.

    Investigators said NHS England should examine the “dissonance between what people think should be happening, for example, care described in national policies and guidance, compared to what is actually being delivered in some services”.

    Calocane was convicted of manslaughter by diminished responsibility and sentenced to an indefinite hospital order.
    ‘An injustice of the highest order’

    The families of the victims said the report’s findings meant the “court may not have been given the full picture, potentially leading to an injustice of the highest order”.

    “He may have been spared prison on the basis of incomplete evidence,” they said.

    “The picture presented to the court with regards to his mental capacity was very different to the one in the notes of those treating him. This was a man who actively avoided his medication and treatment, knowing when he didn’t take his medication that he would become paranoid and violent.”

    They added: “That is why the full statutory inquiry must now happen as soon as possible, not only examining what happened to our loved ones, but also the wider failings in the care, treatment and sectioning of those with mental illnesses, as we cannot keep allowing innocent people, and communities, to be left at risk.”

    The mother of victim Barnaby Webber described the report into the care received by her son’s killer as a “horror show” and said mental health teams missed opportunities because “they just didn’t do their jobs properly”.

    She said: “It’s been additional trauma, horror, disbelief and fury – but all of that was anticipated and expected by all three families.

    “But when you see it, and when you read it you are made aware of how many – in the NHS alone, as an agency – opportunities for people to stop all of this happening were missed.

    “They missed it because they just didn’t do their jobs properly. This report is a horror show, it uncovers failings on an epic level.

    “It leaves us feeling horrified, heartbroken, but even more determined now to make sure that it’s addressed – that the Government and the agencies react and listen properly.”
    Wes Streeting: ‘Failings at every level’

    Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said in a statement: “It is important that the families and the public have confidence in the system, and we have worked closely with NHS England to ensure the publication of this report in full. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

    “The findings will help to support an inquiry into this attack and we’ll set out the next steps as this develops.

    “It’s clear there were failings in how the care provided to Valdo Calocane was managed at every level…

    “I want to see the recommendations from this new report implemented as soon as possible and I will be keeping track of progress and performance to make sure that they are.”

    Dr Jessica Sokolov, the regional medical director for NHS England in the Midlands, said: “It’s clear the system got it wrong, including the NHS, and the consequences of when this happens can be devastating.

    “This is not acceptable, and I unreservedly apologise to the families of victims on behalf of the NHS and the organisations involved in delivering care to Valdo Calocane before this incident took place.”

    Claire Murdoch, the NHS England’s national mental health director, said the health service had instructed hospitals not to discharge mental health patients who do not attend appointments.

    “It is clear there were failings in the care provided to Valdo Calocane which is why the trust responsible was placed in our highest oversight and support programme, which has seen them overhaul their risk assessment processes.

    “Nationally, we have asked every mental health trust to review these findings and set out action plans for how they treat and engage with people who have a serious mental illness, including how they work with other agencies such as the police.”
    ‘We apologise unreservedly’

    Ifti Majid, the chief executive of NHFT said: “The events of 13 June were tragic, and once again our deepest condolences go out to the families of Valdo Calocane’s victims who died – Ian, Grace and Barnaby – and to the victims who were injured Wayne, Sharon and Marcion.

    “We apologise unreservedly for the opportunities we missed in the care of Valdo Calocane and accept the Theemis report in its entirety including its findings and recommendations.

    “We are making clear progress with a Trust-wide plan, which is already delivering key improvements in areas such as risk assessment and discharge processes. We are also improving the way we listen and engage with patients, families, our colleagues, and local partners – to make sure concerns are acted on as quickly as possible.

    “I know that this will never undo the catastrophic damage caused by these events – when three lives were tragically lost, and others changed irreparably. But we will do everything possible to prevent similar incidents happening again and remain totally committed to improving services for the communities we serve.”
    Join the conversation

    1. It depends on the political structure in place. Lebanon was a fantastic place to be, bikinis before the French Riviera was even heard of. Then the politicians of a certain type got involved and the whole place became a cesspit. Such a shame, but I suppose its called progress?

  39. Good morning, all. Frost early, now sunshine.

    Late on parade because I took a friend of mine to Colchester Hospital where she is due to have a cancerous growth removed from a breast. Day surgery, no less, but it might be better if she is kept in overnight. NHS has been very good in this instance: she discovered the lump in mid-December, GP saw her the same day; appointment at Breast Clinic a week later, two days before Christmas, but she deferred it until just after Christmas; biopsy showed early stage 2; several total body scans over the next week showed everything else clear; offered pre-med within days and today she is being operated on. Around six weeks over the festive season with all the tests and scans included.

    Lee Anderson trolling Starmer?

    https://x.com/LeeAndersonMP_/status/1886702390109220920

      1. Thank you, Belle. Her op was scheduled for 14:00 and I’m waiting for her phone call to say all is well, ready to be picked up and taken home.

    3. My second breast cancer removal in 2010 was also done by day surgery. The NHS can do a good job sometimes.
      The friend who hosted the coffee morning today has just finished radiotherapy on her neck following removal of a skin cancer. She was on good form, though her neck looked very sore.

    4. Wishing your friend all the very best.
      My friend with breast cancer is receiving top notch care, though hers is incurable.

  42. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday withdrawing the United States from the UN Human Rights Council, UNRWA, and UNESCO – ending funding to the UN agency which deals with Palestinian refugees.

    1. Oh dear – Deep Seek's comment "China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries and advocates for the resolution of disputes through peaceful dialogue." Tibet springs to mind for some reason?

  44. I think Allison Pearson's latest article has already been mentioned, but in today's DT is an excellent article by Madeline Grant [Sanctimonious Starmer sounds like a bad joke] – sadly I can't reproduce it here as I read it in the printed paper! One of the main points is Labour's claim that Tier 4 said "work from home if possible" and voice coaching wasn't possible form home! Grant's article makes it clear that in fact Starmer's voice coach [now there's an uphill task!] was at the time advertising that her course could be done over Zoom! Madeleine also introduced me to a word I hadn't come across before – bloviate!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c3295c43e0b17a954f62dc7c13baf211610a3d2d2f073fc0f496cce2921a0154.png

    1. Madeline Grant

      Sanctimonious Starmer sounds like a bad joke

      After campaigning against sleaze, Labour has shown it is guilty of an even worse crime: rank hypocrisy
      260
      Starmer
      Madeline Grant
      05 February 2025 6:56am GMT
      Madeline Grant

      Imagine being Keir Starmer’s voice coach. It’s like being David Lammy’s academic advisor or Bridget Phillipson’s charm consultant. Still, money for old rope I suppose. You almost have to admire plucky Leonie Mellinger for claiming she can do something about the PM sounding like a hectoring, clipboard-wielding bore – and charging for the trouble.

      Learning that Sir Keir’s still exceptionally grating voice is being “coached” puts me in mind of Abraham Lincoln’s quote when accused of being two-faced, “if I was, would I wear this one?” Yet, it transpires that not only is Sir Keir paying to sound like that, but it is something he thought so important that it was worth potentially breaking lockdown for.

      Hilarious though the whole concept is, however, it masks a serious point. Cast your minds back to lockdown; when pompous, bloviating Sir Keir set himself up as a titan of morality against the sleazy Tories. Consider the particular context of December 2020; a wide-ranging lockdown with London suddenly plunged into Tier 4 restrictions (then a new invention due to surging case rates); people were depressed about missing Christmas.

      Voice-coaching can assuredly be done via Zoom; during lockdown Mellinger posted pictures attesting to her remote teaching setup. Yet it emerges that she was summoned to Labour HQ on Christmas Eve, as if perfecting Sir Keir’s mellifluent tones were a matter of life and death. Shortly afterwards, Starmer called for a full national lockdown, including schools.

      The incident goes to the heart of one of the things most fatal to this government: its hypocrisy. Maybe, just maybe, if you were having obviously frivolous meetings while agitating for further restrictions then you might tone down the Grand Inquisitor act just a tad. But no, at every turn Keir Starmer opted for full moralism and full outrage. Never mind the realities being slices of cake or glasses of wine, he always went into Cotton Mather mode. Each condemnatory syllable dripped with satisfaction.

      Dredging all this up again feels stupid and frivolous, taking us back to the “lockdown lobotomy” period of policymaking, when local authorities fenced off children’s playgrounds and genuine arguments raged over the proper diameter of a Scotch egg. I come at this as one who believed many of the restrictions were ridiculous, and wrote that at the time. Keir Starmer, however, did not. Lockdown is something that he has even sought to revive for political expediency within the last few weeks.

      Pushed on Louise Haigh and the mystery of the disappearing smartphones at a recent PMQs, Sir Keir snapped that both Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson had received “convictions for breaking Covid rules”. This is an outright lie; a fixed-penalty notice is not the same thing as a conviction, something you’d expect a former Director of Public Prosecutions to understand. But in the heat of the moment Starmer saw a chance to divert legitimate criticism by assuming his familiar perch on the moral high ground, and took it.

      Patronising moralism is not just the mode du jour for Sir Keir; it has seeped into Labour DNA. Saying “I will not take any lectures from the party opposite” has become something of a verbal tic in ministerial circles. This line continues to be trotted out long after it’s become clear they are in no position to lecture anyone on competency or moral probity at all. Last year we were treated to scolding lectures from Labour MPs about how – unlike all the horrible Tory donors – Lord Alli was a concerned and civic-minded philanthropist who just happened to enjoy fitting out Sir Keir and his wife in designer specs and new frocks.

      Now it turns out, sure as night follows day, that Lord Alli’s influence went further than that. The Times’s Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire also report that while in opposition the peer personally scuppered Labour’s plans to announce a ban on foreign donations to political parties.

      The diagnosis must now be that words don’t mean anything anymore. David Lammy can crow “Britain is back” while selling out to the CCP and pushing forward a deal on the Chagos Islands so costly, so destructive of the national interest that it is genuinely inexplicable. Bridget Phillipson can boast of “driving standards up” while systematically undoing the measures that boosted educational standards in the first place. There is a rank, deep-in-the-marrow hypocrisy here.

      Of course, all governments run into the slough of sleaze eventually; what’s interesting with Sir Keir is that it has happened so fast and so completely. It would normally be a sign of an administration out of ideas, so lacking in purpose that corruption and dissemblance replace unifying principles. We certainly saw this with the Conservatives as their term progressed.

      One reason why it has happened so suddenly is perhaps simple: there never were any big ideas or underlying missions beyond moralism, beyond being the not-Tories. When that’s your only card to play, a swift lapse into hypocrisy, and an equally swift decline into being the butt of the joke, is inevitable. And when they’re laughing at you, it’s already over.

      1. "One reason why it has happened so suddenly is perhaps simple: there never were any big ideas or underlying missions ……"

        The big idea and its underlying missions were completely to destroy the Unite Kingdom's economy.

        I must say they seem to be being remarkably successful.

        1. I agree – we are in the middle of a genuine Big Idea – a technocratic one world government – being pushed on us.

      2. For once, I get the impression that MG is actually angry.
        There is a roiling rage under her usual light hearted writing.

  45. OT – funny thing.

    We had to get up very early this morning, as the MR had a work zoom as dawn was breaking. Now it feels like mid-afternoon but it has only just gone 11.30!

  48. Gawd they're all at it..
    except Sir Whatsit.

    Switzerland halts all foreign aid to Eritrea over refusal to accept rejected asylum seekers..

    1. Starmer will probably say to Switzerland "Don't worry – we'll take all your rejected asylum seekers. And we'll pay you for them, too".

      1. Will Starmer take all the Palestinians when Trump creates the MAGAstrip and levels all the rubble into a golf course with views over the Med?

        1. Probably. "Refugees welcome". Even though Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt etc. will not touch them with a bargepole.

        2. Probably. "Refugees welcome". Even though Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt etc. will not touch them with a bargepole.

        3. Probably. "Refugees welcome". Even though Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt etc. will not touch them with a bargepole.

  49. And there goes Temu.. and ebay.

    Concern, confusion as US stops taking parcels from Hong Kong
    South China Morning Post

  50. It appears that when the PM does PM's Questions – Reform's Membership numbers go up…I can't for the life of me think why……

    1. The surge in shoplifting in London, according to Khan, is due to the fact that there are so many shops in London and people are too poor to pay for the things they want!

      How can the leftist politicians expect us to take them seriously?

      Of course they are absurd but the damage they can inflict is mounting by the minute.

      1. According the morning TV today they are busy setting up to make many changes to our long established constitution.
        IMHO they have no right to do that, just because it fits in with their own far left bandwagon purposes.

  53. JD Vance hasn’t just defeated Rory Stewart – he’s exposed the hollowness of the globalist elites
    America is slashing foreign aid. It’s time we prioritised Britain’s national interest
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/04/trump-vance-stewart-foreign-aid-globalism-nation-state/

    We know that Rory Stewart is an oddball – but as bizarre oddballs go he must surely be at 10 on the scale from 1 – 10 for strangeness.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22b81c4b01342663f7f64990ec479900e78531922192cfc748cd61405d80e971.jpg

    2. The man is so strange looking that if Spitting Image caricatured him they would have to create a "normal" looking puppet.

    4. I know that the European Powers should never have colonised Africa, but for all the wrongs that were done in the colonial era, our biggest crime was handing the continent back over to the Africans.

      2. As you know when my father returned to the Sudan a few years after retiring as governor of the Northern Province a group of elders told him:

        "The only thing you ever did wrong was to leave us."

        The carnage in the Sudan only started after the British had left the Sudan and since then there has been endless civil war, Islamic slaying of Christians, economic collapse, genocide, plague, famine, decaying infrastructure and partition.

    5. I know that the European Powers should never have colonised Africa, but for all the wrongs that were done in the colonial era, our biggest crime was handing the continent back over to the Africans.

    6. Some of the raped and burned female prisoners had their children living with them in the prison wing

    7. As bad as that reads, I don't want it to be used as an excuse to import even more from Africa into Europe.

      After all tyrannies, such as this, have been going on since Nebuchadnezzar were a lad and they will continue, ad infinitum, sine die.

    2. You only need to kickstart something when it's not working but you must have pedal or a starting handle if the battery is flat or you've run out of fuel. If you're using coal as a fuel then the fire must have gone out.

    3. You only need to kickstart something when it's not working but you must have pedal or a starting handle if the battery is flat or you've run out of fuel. If you're using coal as a fuel then the fire must have gone out.

  58. Russia supported sabotage spree in Germany to roil election campaign, report says. 5 February 2025.

    German investigators believe that a wave of car vandalism across Germany, initially blamed on radical climate activists, is actually part of a Russian-orchestrated sabotage campaign, according to a Spiegel report published Wednesday.

    More than 270 vehicles were damaged in Berlin, Brandenburg, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Saboteurs sprayed construction foam into car exhaust pipes, rendering vehicles unusable, local police departments told Spiegel.

    These people and their stories become more stupid every day.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-hit-by-suspected-russia-backed-sabotage-campaign/

    1. Obviously a coordinated plot that only got as far as the letter B?? Let's see – lots of climate activists around, no concern for other’s property, but of course it was Russians /sarc.

  59. Indian media is reporting an unprecedented first – that US military flights are being used to deport illegal migrants from India.

    Regional reports are citing a US official who say this is the furthest such flight involving military transport flights for migrants, also amid reports that illegals are also being flown to the US Army's base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Here's what the English-language Times of India says in an unconfirmed report:

    In the first such operation of its kind involving India since the return of Donald Trump to the White Hosue, the US dispatched a C17 miliary aircraft carrying an unspecified number of illegal Indian migrants to India. Anonymous US officials were quoted as saying dozens had been deported, and unconfirmed reports put the number of number of deportees at north of 200, but there is no confirmation about the same by either county.

  60. Afternoon all,

    When I looked up the new eyesight requirements when renewing my three year driving licence I hadn't realised that apart from reading a car number plate from 20 metres I had to have a visual acuity of 6/12 on the Snellen scale.

    I found that this requirement was not adequately catered for in the UK Government internet renewal driving licence dialogue so I did a paper renewal declaring that I met the standard for driving.

    https://www.gov.uk/driving-eyesight-rules#:~:text=You%20must%20have%20a%20visual,scale%20in%20the%20other%20eye.

    I received my new licence today ten days after posting to DVLA.

    I runs now to 2028 – only four years short of the end of roads as we know them:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqx9dgpx98go

    Unfortunately this article doesn't mention how big the asteroid pot hole will be.

    1. That's disgusting! Mealworms contain a lot of chitin and which can lead to bone deficiencies.

        1. People give them to hedgehogs too as they love them but too many will cause calcium deficiencies.

          1. The chitin is also carcinogenic and can cause allergic reactions especially if one is allergic to shellfish. We don't have the digestive enzymes to cope with this stuff. A disaster waiting to happen but they don't care, they won't be eating it. Check the contents of all foods that are processed that you may buy especially those containing flour. Because it is an allergen by law it has to get a mention in the ingredients. Allegedly.

    4. Larry Fink & Bill Gates require the UKs farmland.
      A deal's a deal.. and Sir Keir is a man of integrity.
      Any-thing & every-thing is up for grabs. He'll even pay you to take an asset.

    5. Mealworms? Luxury!
      We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

    1. Pork barrel politics.
      Most of these politicians and particularly the Democrats get elected on the back of offering "investments" for, and kick-backs to, their supporters

    2. As far as I know, Musk has never been elected to any office and he is not a government worker. It rather reminds me of one of the reasons the UK voted to leave the EU; that is a dislike of power being in the hands of unelected functionaries.

        1. Unelected functionaries (well, I suppose they were elected but by a minority….):
          Starmer
          Reeves
          Raynor
          and the rest of them …..

  67. I was walking along a riverbank.
    A man on the other side
    Shouted "How do I get across?"
    "You are across" I replied.

    From "The Book of Upside Down Thinking" by Brian Patten which MOH bought me for Christmas.

  69. Wordle No. 1,327 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 5 Feb 2025

    A clawless Birdie Three?

    1. Impressive. Took me four tries. I was at St Mary’s, waiting for blood test results and using up phone battery and data. Still a good distraction.

      Wordle 1,327 4/6

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

        1. Well, Nurse Lorna chased up the results because I’d been waiting 4+ hours and she was told that she could remove my cannula and send me home, so I think we both took that as good news. There was also a consultation with my cardiologist this morning and she increased my meds and gave me to understand that the aortic valve is going to need replacement. Before that, though, I’m to be supplied with the kit to monitor my weight, pulse and blood pressure at home. There’ll be a tablet with an app that relays the data back to the heart failure team.

          4. Oh yes. My maternal grandmother died aged 35 of heart failure and one of mum’s sisters was only 27. My eldest brother has had heart surgery too and I’ve a nephew who’s developed Afib in his 40s.

          7. I occasionally chew a wriggly piece of gum after a meal. This morning I picked up an 80mg statin tablet that I'd avoided last night, and chewed it for a while before I realised how awful it tasted.

    2. Nice one! I was faced with a choice of 3 (although one I dont think would be used as a Wordle word) so got lucky!

      Wordle 1,327 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. I am puzzled GGGG. Your first try gave you two correct letters, albeit in the wrong position. Why did you only use one of them on your second attempt? (Confused of Colchester.)

        1. That's because I tend to use up to three 'starter' words as a tactic. My first starter word gave me an A and an E which hardly narrows down things.
          My second starter word has the other three vowels in it so I thought that was a waste of time.
          So I used my third starter word which gave me an L.
          From that point I spent a bit of time and came up with three possibilities;
          PEDAL
          DECAL
          FECAL
          I didnt think the third word would be used so it was down to two – and I guessed right! Yee-ha!

          Edit: See how much easier it would be if we could be open about our answers after 5 o'clock!

        2. I see a lot of nottl Wordlers are doing this, Elsie. Not my cup of tea, but it does appear to produce good results.

    4. Late to the party but a so so par
      Wordle 1,327 4/6

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

    5. Late to the party but a so so par
      Wordle 1,327 4/6

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

  70. Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gifted Donald Trump a golden pager, a symbolic reference to the covert operation that turned Hezbollah devices into lethal explosives in a bloody attack last year.

    “That was a great operation,” the US president responded, according to Israel’s Channel 12 news.

    I hope he put the bluddy thing in a bucket of sand!

    1. I thought it was the Hamas pagers that went off, Stephen. Hezbolla's activities are seldom commented upon. They are just as much terrorists as Hamas.

  72. Just been up the Lime Kilns clearing out my share of the logs that were ready to shift and get them into the van ready for taking to welder son's place.
    Also started bucking a 12" fallen ash trunk that I'll partially finish off tomorrow and Friday.
    Some piccies:-
    The view across the pond to the Mill.
    The water level has been dropped and you can see how badly silted up it is now. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/404b44e34ce750965327ded491f82869af94b024924637acdfd25e1af2be57ad.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/acd366c71e0658b3420bf64eb88b04527454f1a5c1f5479fd8926f2a7cd299ff.jpg Looking up in the other direction you can see some of the stumps left behind by the contractors
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/248d3d14ddda668a15d76cbcbbe2464f8f729376d16ef5ffed5bd7cd734c0112.jpg The long reach tree mangler
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/248f46939990a5a83aed0e68129a8eb539dc2bbe8efe7f25fb3d183ecd57cbb7.jpg And the chipper
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fad431d330881446389e43e1bc90894f8c090ca0ec46d648ee01705f4cc7577a.jpg There is another machine for felling larger trees, but that is working further up the road.

    The track heading up to above the Lime Kilns https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/996340272c6ec4ed0440486e811e643c4af45c8abc4ccea5c133e519f0c53ee9.jpg A dead elm I dropped t'other day. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3fffb76f9e6d172797a23ff8d355b0995ba14eb40c8d20f4b8140a6a31b5f54.jpg And another view of said dead elm https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b408e42083742901c36efe00e90ec35403967b51b49cd596f0af549b8cef2dc0.jpg

          1. Yes – and terribly earnest and cute. Just look at the reactions of fox and badger. BoB is not to be messed with.

          2. For a minute I thought you were referring to Bob. Earnest yes, Cute well that's a matter of pespective!

          3. Yes – and terribly earnest and cute. Just look at the reactions of fox and badger. BoB is not to be messed with.

    4. The picture you posted the other day of the old lime kiln sadly seemed symbolic of British Industry today, thanks to Red Edward and his predecessors. No idea who owns the mill pond (dam), but it wouldn't be difficult to dredge it and/or scour away the silt. Simplest method is to repeatedly fill it with water & then empty it. When clean it could be stocked with fish, or used to generate some electricity.

    5. The picture you posted the other day of the old lime kiln sadly seemed symbolic of British Industry today, thanks to Red Edward and his predecessors. No idea who owns the mill pond (dam), but it wouldn't be difficult to dredge it and/or scour away the silt. Simplest method is to repeatedly fill it with water & then empty it. When clean it could be stocked with fish, or used to generate some electricity.

    1. Was he refused bail since his arrest last year? If so what compensation is he due for wrongful arrest?

    1. Good heavens , we knew this would happen .

      That is a total failure of planning and some one must be called to account .

      The twerp Miliband should take note .

      1. They're ginger, aren't they? We have recently seen, on this very page, what such cats get up to in their spare time

      2. They're ginger, aren't they? We have recently seen, on this very page, what such cats get up to in their spare time

      1. We had this problem with the first influx of those from behind the iron curtain when it fell. Everything was fair game. Our local canal, for example, used to team with huge feral carp (a truly unappetising fish, but Eastern Europeans love to eat them). It swiftly ceased to teem, and now there are none. They were beautiful and it was fun to feed them. RIP.
        https://peterkenny.co.uk/2013/01/22/three-worlds-m-c-escher/
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51bbeb41514970f00f83b4ceb88b49a9f5a70cf3c5233e318b7af0001b375ee8.jpg

  80. Isn't it a blessing that we have such an incorruptible Metropolitan Police Farce….?

          2. It was perfectly obvious they were socialising. The excuse was they had been working hard and had takeaway. Fine. I bet factory workers/bus drivers/bin men wouldn't have got away with that excuse.

          4. Quite. I know that a funeral of a very dear friend i was sitting on the right and another friend was sitting on the left and the father in the middle took some comfort from us being so close as he couldn't stop shaking.

            At the time if you went to a Bar serving food it was only safe to sit at a table and eat a measured scotch egg or a measured piece of pizza.

            They were standing up drinking from bottles.

            Despicable hypocrites.

          8. Although she was the Monarch, that picture reveals her as a little, old, Granny who just lost her husband of very many years and could use a massive hug. It’s so sad.

        3. It's so distressing to see that terrible creature on my television screen in my house. I can't allow myself self to accept his presence.
          Off off off.

  81. That's me for today. There was some sunshine – but it stayed chilly. This damned global boiling is getting me down.

    Took G & P to the vets for their annual inoculation. What a palavar. Gus refused to co-operate and go in his carrier; I needed brute force!
    Pickles mewed piteously all 5 miles and back. Then, of course, AT the vets they both kept trying to get back in the carriers before she had finished her inspection!! Cats, eh?

    Tomorrow – the market. Then – possibly – some ladder work on the largest wisteria.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. When i take the dogs i leave the carrier out for a couple of hours. They tend to go straight in it. I expect if you did that with G&P they would be off up the trees.

    2. When i take the dogs i leave the carrier out for a couple of hours. They tend to go straight in it. I expect if you did that with G&P they would be off up the trees.

  82. So I assume those council's with cancelled elections will not want any council taxes from those that have been disenfranchised from the democratic process.
    Have the council tax payers agreed to these reorganizations?
    The tenure is up for the old council, they have no democratic right to govern

    1. Odd, isn't it, that folk haven't realised that government is utterly anti democratic. Why can we not control councillors? Why can we not sack council management? They're staff, after all. Why can Raynor simply say 'yeah, whack up taxes, stuff the proles'. Why can we not get rid of her?

      The current system of government is wholly undemocratic. It's a dictatorship. When we can remove these fools, refuse their spending, force them to repeal their appalling laws and sack them on a whim we will have a democracy.

  83. RM Jamie Michael innocent.
    Please be reminded in this cultural civil war..
    1/ Never plead guilty.. they'll jail you for life.
    2/ The remand is the deterrent.. for expressing views that Sir Keir & his NBFs don't like.
    3/ Do not serve in the military.
    4/ Don't trust a wet soggy Tory let alone the Cultural Marxists.
    5/ Don't expect any leeway just because Starmer's NBF have butchered some little girls or smeared concert goers across the arena walls.

    1. Oh & the BBC couldn't be bothered to report it.. though gave the story maximum coverage when arrested.

        2. But he's absolutely right, not far right or anywhere near there, just spot on right. Grow up and handle it you bandwagon lefties.

          1. Well, yes you can! The anus is capable of differentiating between solid, liquid and gas (usually). Which makes the average anus about as bright as Angela Rayner……

          2. So what you are saying GGGG is that Angela is like water in that it can exist in three different states?

          6. Well, the average anus does not benefit from Trades Union backing (as far as I’m aware) so, probably not….

      1. They will start doing to him what they have done with Tommy. In myriad ways they will make his life intolerable. Though he speaks truth, they don't want to hear it.

    4. Folk forget how evil the Left are. Their malice knows no bounds, nor does their fear of being exposed.

      They are and always have been, fascists.

  84. Meanwhile outside a Bruxelles metro.. engineers exchange fire with their Amazon-semi automatics.

    1. They were merely celebrating their diversity with the toys they brought with them from home…

  85. Stop being nasty at Football matches.

    Premier League stars to face punishment for taunting the opposition and winding up fans with celebrations, as part of a new crackdown by officials.

    The clampdown began last week when Everton forward Iliman Ndiaye was shown a yellow after celebrating his winning goal at Brighton by imitating a seagull, flapping his arms in the air towards the home crowd.

    2. Proper fans always sing to Brighton fans;

      We can see you
      We can see you
      We can see you holding hands!
      We can see-ee you holding hands…..

      1. That is wrong on so many levels.. it's as good as bullying and the offending fans & club should feel the full force of the law.
        Also we need to address the ishooo of unconscious-bias against black & Muslim managers. Make Eniola Aluko manager of Man Utd.

      2. That is wrong on so many levels.. it's as good as bullying and the offending fans & club should feel the full force of the law.
        Also we need to address the ishooo of unconscious-bias against black & Muslim managers. Make Eniola Aluko manager of Man Utd.

    4. Just wait until big fat state forces a football regulator. The entire market will collapse, billions lost and everyone disappointed – except the 500,000 a year quangocrat boss and the army of utterly unnecessary jobsworths.

  86. If Palestine belongs to the palestinians, does that mean England belongs to the English?

      1. There is a concerted effort to destroy us. If they succeed….who is going to pay the bills?

        3. Short-term advantage: Promise the world, open for illegals, grant them voting rights, permanent labour government – plus, itter destruction of the economy and culture, and anything of any value. Country like Soweto.

      2. There is a concerted effort to destroy us. If they succeed….who is going to pay the bills?

    2. In the intersectional victim hierarchy, no, because the English ruled over the greatest empire the world has ever known and the Palestinians are a bunch of Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, Lebanese and Saudi losers their home countries don’t want.

    3. Don't be silly. The fundamental of the Left is hypocrisy.

      The bit I don't get is – Gaza is a mess. It's a (in)complete toilet because it's mostly occupied by muslim who have no skills or utility.

      They get uppity and the other Palestinians attack Israel and we go around again. Trump has offered a rational middle ground: rebuild it, make it a nice place to live. If that means no pallys, so be it. They've proved themselves unwillingly to live peacefully.

  87. A Pakistani asylum seeker was awarded almost £100,000 after complaining that she was “treated like a criminal” when she overstayed in Britain.

    Nadra Almas, who initially came to Britain on a student visa, fought a 16-year legal battle to remain, arguing that as a Christian, she would face persecution if she was forced to return home.

    In 2018, she was handcuffed and detained by Home Office officials, who told her she would be deported but released her two weeks later, the High Court was told.

    The Government then took almost three years to grant her refugee status, during which time she was not permitted to travel and was unable to work or claim benefits.

    She won compensation after claiming it breached her human rights.

    She claimed that having to rely on friends and family “undermined her self-esteem and caused her embarrassment”.

    Details of Ms Almas’s case emerged at the High Court in Birmingham after the Government appealed a lower court judge’s original decision to award her £98,757.04 in damages for her “outrageous” treatment.

    Time to introduce a fine of £100,000 for anyone (irrespective of nationality) overstaying their visa!

  88. I was watching an old Western the other day, Gunfight at the OK Corral.
    Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp cleaning up the West against the bullying outlaws, the Clantons with Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday his makeshift deputy, played by Kirk Douglas.
    Where men were not afraid to speak the truth and hold up the rule of law.
    In many ways it is reminiscent of the West today.
    Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, standing up for law and order, for good against the corrupt evil, cattle rustlers are just like modern day human traffickers, crossing borders for personal gain.

    1. The Goodies did Bunfight at the OK Tea Rooms. High Noon was about masculine honour in the Wild West too?

  92. Well that's me for today, I've been mildly busy in doors. I was looking for a pack of drawing pins that I know are somewhere. But found far too many packets of photographs from way back and became addicted to looking at our family, relations and friends from around thirty years ago. I dont remember our eldest going to New York with a girlfriend. But good fun all the same. But I did repair a broken draw that is akso stuffed with the sort of things you just can't throw away.
    Goodnight all 😴

  93. Quite a pleasant day weather wise which has given way to a clear sky and bloody cold night.
    With which, I'm off to bed.
    G'night all.

    1. Sad to say but it seems it is more productive to Pi55 into the wind for all the notice 'our elected representatives' take of these petitions….

  95. A 15-year-old English lad has been stabbed dead by an Albanian immigrant named Omar in Sheffield.

    The English victim has been named as Harvey Willgoose (below).

    Harvey was stabbed to death in a vicious and violent attack.

    To make matters worse, it has now emerged that the same secondary school, All Saints High School, was locked down only last week as Omar was threatening to stab Harvey with a shard of glass.

    Following this incident last week, Omar was suspended, but came back to the school yesterday and murdered Harvey.

    The headteacher of the school is allegedly very 'woke' and has been downplaying the incident last week.

    Poor Harvey is the latest in a long line of British children who have lost their lives to mass immigration and 'multiculturalism'.

    Well, who is listening ?

    1. Lessons learned, usual lies, lone wolf, nothing to see here, not muslim, diversity strength if you talks about it we will destroy you, yadda yadda.

    1. Of course it doesn't. That's the point. It buys tin pot african dictators the ability to buys guns and drugs for their savages.

    1. Do you know, the remoaners fought that bus continually. They hated the slogan because it was the net amount without the rebate. They were so angry at the exposure of waste that theywent to court to try to stop it multiple times – the last one was over the bus colour.

  109. No, and the police have warned us plebs to refrain from commenting.
    A certain MikeHunt1917343 on X has posted a photo of a teenager who is not remotely connected with Sheffield, absolute disgrace.
    I could not look on my computer because I am not registered on X.

  111. Having run out of puns and bon mots I think I should turn in. Good night good people …..

  114. The cancellation by president Trump of USAID is causing panic among various agencies, NGOs and news agencies.

    Unsurprisingly the BBC is a recipient of USAID funds, presumably for promoting propaganda and putting a gloss on reality of the war in Ukraine. Likewise many millions of US dollars are found to have funded the Ukrainian press which is now thankfully without funding.

    The depths of depravity to which the previous US governments have succumbed in establishing USAID, an alarmingly large slush fund, under the pretence that it is a source for good is seen to be utterly fraudulent.

    Long live President Trump.

  118. Evening, all. Am late on parade today. I turned up at my usual coffee morning and ended up attending a funeral (one of the usual attendees had died and the funeral was today and the wake where we have the coffee morning). Unexpected, but a good service and I knew a lot of people at the wake because they also attend the coffee morning.

    Then I had a meeting in the evening and that went on a bit. Glad to be home. The Rayburn was almost out, but I think I've resurrected it.

    Labour's only answer to everything is to tax and make everything too expensive.

  120. Well, chums, that's me for tonight. So, as Frank Sinatra sang at one of his farewell concerts "Excuse me whilst I disappear." I hope you all sleep well tonight and don't get into any mischief whilst I am away. Play nicely – I shall return on Monday next (rather late, I'm afraid.)

    2. That's far too long a time for me to forgo getting into mischief! 😈🤣🤣

      Have a lovely and refreshing break.

  122. Just had a text message saying someone had tried to withdraw £500 then £250 @12.45 and 12.48 am from my account. I called the number in the text then woke up !

    Called the number on the card instead. Card cancelled so it looks like Nottlers will have to send me food parcels. (joking)

    They automatically blocked those transactions which i am happy about but my BP has rocketed.

  123. Just had a text message saying someone had tried to withdraw £500 then £250 @12.45 and 12.48 am from my account. I called the number in the text then woke up !

    Called the number on the card instead. Card cancelled so it looks like Nottlers will have to send me food parcels. (joking)

    They automatically blocked those transactions which i am happy about but my BP has rocketed.

  124. Off to the airport, may be around for a few hours later but unlikely. Maybe tomorrow. Have fun!

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