Sunday 22 June: Don’t blame the police – it’s woke politicians who have given up on fighting crime

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

557 thoughts on “Sunday 22 June: Don’t blame the police – it’s woke politicians who have given up on fighting crime”

  2. Morning all! I had planned to get up early and go for a long walk, yet here i am, still on bed (with a cup of tea). Maybe i’ll just walk round Richmond Park instead.

    1. Crikey! She'll be disappeared before the day is out. The Left can't tolerate dissent!

  6. Morning folks.

    I expect Ayatollah Killmeni will be choking on his Kellogg's Cornflakes this morning……

    1. Good morning, King Stephen. I'm afraid that I don't understand your post. Is the Ayatollah (I imagine Killmeni is a joke meaning that he kills many?) known for having Kellogg's Cornflakes for breakfast? Deciphering posts on this site is increasingly difficult for me.

    2. There has long been a general understanding between nations that it is taboo to assassinate heads of state. It is the role of the little people to die, not the big fella.

      1. I'm not so sure that is true, tim5165. For example, in the past there were many attempts to kill Fidel Castro by the US government. (Good morning, btw.)

  7. Morning folks.

    I expect Ayatollah Killmeni will be choking on his Kellogg's Cornflakes this morning……

  8. Good morning, chums, and thank to Geoff for today's new NoTTLe site. I seem to be able to print my Wordle results today – a Birdie.

    Wordle 1,464 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      grumble grumble not a word grumble…
      Wordle 1,464 4/6

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

      But this four is a bit self-inflicted because my third guess, whilst a valid word, will never in a million years be used in wordle, especially not today!

  9. 408011+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    May one ask, "what repercussions for England" we the peoples have our own one sided war currently with what is described by some as a government.

    First job surely under the NEW war time PM is to lay seige to london as there is a pro Iranian hub operating within what was the capital city.

    Maybe "nige"has some marching thoughts on that seeing as he has marching experience.

    https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1936573183634645387

    1. Yet again I have no idea what you are on about, Oggie. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. 408011+ up ticks,

        Morning EB,

        We are IMHO so close to having our arses handed to us
        via nuclear confrontation as we can be, prior to becoming images within the paving slab

        1. A worse scenario would have been for Iran to have succeeded in making their own nuclear bomb. That is not now possible, IMHO.

          2. 408011+ up ticks,

            EB,

            I do agree, English bums are safe, momentarily from outside foreign forces, BUT
            not so from internal foreign forces.

          3. The enemy we need to worry about is within.
            Parliament, civil service, police and the millions of adherents to an alien creed who are bleeding this country dry ; and not just financially.

          4. O perilous fyr, that in the bedstraw bredeth!

            [Chaucer : The Merchant's Tale]

            The danger within, like a cancer, destroys from within.

            Unfortunately our current politicians are unready and unwilling to confront this enemy and defeat it.

          5. 408011+ up ticks,

            Morning R,

            I personally believe they are in a FULL BLOWN fraternization relationship.

        2. I think there is only one scenario in which the parasite class would let the world be destroyed by nuclear weapons, and that is if they thought there was any danger of them not being in charge during the next long economic cycle.
          During the cold war, we were fearing the wrong enemy.

    2. Some of the commenters that I follow support the US attacks on Iran, others are against them.

      Apparently Congress did not give permission for this attack, yet the US constitution clearly states that only Congress can authorise a war, which is causing some well known conservative names to have reservations.

      It's OK When We Do It…. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61ccdfba1bd347de92402a00a625d8ad32bbf95448db0375832add24be8695a7.png
      Iran's top negotiator was apparently murdered in the initial strikes by Israel (can't find where I read that to post a link)

      And finally not forgetting that Iran has been on the US neocons' hitlist for twenty years.
      https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/middle-east-war-plan/

      Everyone on this forum knows the history of US aggression in the middle east since the turn of the century – why on earth does anyone think it's different and more justified this time? The main difference is that China opened a branch of the Shanghai gold exchange in Saudi Arabia this year, so the petro dollar is toast however many bombs they drop on Iran.

    1. The news has certainly made things interesting. I imagine if a US base is attacked, there will be a barrage of weapons into Iran as never seen before. As Im traveling thro Dubai next week, I have a close interest!

        1. Feels like it. If you want to see where I am staying over the next 3 days, type Pulau Rimau into Google maps. Not much to do out there apart from swatting mosquitos and looking at the Oil Palms. Home thro Dubai on Sat night.

          1. I spent four months in Malaya. Based at the Jungle warfare school in the south and deployed as far north as Kota Bharu in the North East. Leisure time in Singapore. One of the most interesting events in my army career.

      2. The UK giving an intro to war meather at the moment, if all the hysteria is to be believed.

  11. Good morning everyone. Note that Iran was bombed by the USA on a Sunday, thus allowing the markets to digest the news well before opening on Monday. Keep an eye on Tokyo.

    2. Hitler invaded Austria (the Anschluss) on a Sunday. He reckoned no one would be expecting it. He was right.

  12. Good morning all.
    Already a warm start with a tad over 18°C on the thermometer.

    A BTL comment I believe at least two ladies on here will agree with:-

    Comment by Miss Alison Forrer.
    6 hrs ago

    When I was a Junior ( not “Resident “) doctor in the 1970s , nurse training comprised sessions in the classroom with ward-based experience.

    The nurses actually sat proper written and oral exams which actually assessed their knowledge and competence.One felt comfortable working with them.

    There was none of this degree-based modules which involved “assignments “ where the ability to write BS using the words “empathy” and wait for it……”empowerment “ were guaranteed success.

    I feel sorry for the students entering the profession nowadays.

    (Mr AF)

    1. One could criticise the Royal College of Nursing, responsible or lobbying (etc) for degree based nursing, and, I suspect, the EU Commissars.

      1. One of the significant consequences of degree based nursing is that it discriminated against mature women who wanted to return to work as a State Enrolled Nurse for which only a clutch of O levels / GCSEs were required. The alternative was to be employed as a Health Care Assistant otherwise known as an Auxiliary – not nearly so attractive…

    2. One could criticise the Royal College of Nursing, responsible or lobbying (etc) for degree based nursing, and, I suspect, the EU Commissars.

    3. My hospital visit was tolerable only because of the work the nurses did. For everyone who changed blood and pus stained sheets, to ones who took my blood pressure (every 3 flippin hours), to the ones who hooked up IV antibiotics – all were great.

      I think of any profession it is one where you have to 'do' to actually learn it, like driving a racing car. You can learn all about areodynamics, but nothing is going to substitute being behind the wheel.

      1. That's why trades used to have apprenticeships – you learned directly, hands-on, from some old git who would regularly tell you "Tha's mekkin a right booger of that!" – and once time-served, you were good at the job.
        Firstborn went the apprenticeship route and is a top-class mechanic, can deal with the electrics and controls for ICE and El cars, to the extent he is the groups technical specialist.
        I beieve nurse training follows the same philosophy: Hands-on under supervision.

        1. This, to me, is the worst result of "working from home". There is no older, wiser head to mentor the youngsters. When the older generation retires and later dies, the younger generation will have to start all over again to invent the wheel.

  13. Morning, all Y'all. Overcast, and cool. Quite a bit different to yesterday.

    1. That Golda Meir was such a pussy-cat! And didn't we have a famously soft female PM?

      1. We've had many good female PMs. The Iron Lady, Mrs Thatcher, Liz Truss. Sadly we've also had some not so good ones in May and Badenoch.

        May I think was undone by the times as her staid, methodical, procedural approach might have worked had we not needed a leader of vision.

        Badenoch is doomed again by events. The Tories need to 'be' different. At the moment it's same old, same old. They've nothing to lose and yet are fervently doing the same as they've always done.

        1. The Conservative Party annihilated itself by moving steadily to the left.

          It was this that has encouraged people to move to Reform in the hope if finding a well right of centre party.

          So what does Farage do? He makes the same mistake as Cameron, May, Johnson and Sunak made and is moving Reform to the left in the hope of finding more supporters.

          He does not understand that for many of his original supporters the party has lost its raison d'être.

    2. I refer the (dis)honourable lady to the UK in 1982, when under the Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, the UK went and kicked Argentinian arse, with the help of some SLRs (lovely weapon, BTW. Fired a round with conviction, so it did).

          1. Just as the indigenous people of the Chagos Islands have no desire to be Mauritian nobody in the Falklands wants to be Argentinian.

            The trouble is that this spurs Starmer and Hermer on – they are sadistic monsters who revel in damaging and hurting not only the British in the UK but supporters of the UK in the whole world.

    3. I think Hillary Clinton put paid for one and for all to the idea that if women were in charge, there would be fewer wars. IIRC, although thank God she was never President, she never saw a war that she didn't want to plunge the USA into.

    1. Morning Ndovu, it's a bit warm here. Not as hot as yesterday but is early. Less wind though, which is concerning.

    2. An ideal day for a spot of washing, which is my main task today. (Good morning, btw.)

      PS – Washing finished and virtually all dry. Have also been shopping to top up on vittles.

  16. Good Morning!

    Zhang Yingyue is back to tell us a Tale of Two Communities , about the completely different circumstances of the two largest Muslim groups in China. You'll all be generally aware of the Uyghur Muslims and their treatment, but likely enough few will have heard of the equally numerous Hui Muslims and their place in China.

    In Part 3: of our series No War With Russia we concentrate on The Economic Agenda Behind the War in Ukraine and how vultures like Blackrock are heavily invested in the war.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's electric power was sourced from Gas, 15.2%; Solar, 8.3%: Wind 31.5%; Imports, 17.4%; Biomass, 7.7%; Nuclear 16.9% and Miscellaneous, 2.9%.

    Please sign this petition, known as the Free Lucy Connolly petition , but which is a broader petition demanding the ending of jailing people for online comments.

    1. The uyghur muslim were violent thugs who kicked off repeatedly, attacking other Chinese, raping, stabbing, murdering, stealing. They were typical muslim who thought they were special and China kicked them in the face, as we should have done.

      Folk forget that muslim brought it on themselves by years of being scum, so all this 'slavery', justice and be nice to da muslim is irrelevant. They're in chains, treated poorly because they're inhuman savages.

      1. True enough, but read the article. The Hui are equally Muslim, but have none of the ‘issues’ the Uyghurs have. Why?

        1. Different sect, I assume. Same as there were muslims who fought in WW2 on the allies side and were selling poppies.

          Same as, I imagine, for so many damned things, there's good and bad people, and the bad people will always be bad and just want an excuse and muslim gives them that excuse.

          1. Visit the Muslim part of Europe. Eat and drink what you like, no need to cover up if you're a woman – in fact, you'd get some strange looks if you did. And admire the lovingly tended cathedrals..

        2. Different sect, I assume. Same as there were muslims who fought in WW2 on the allies side and were selling poppies.

          Same as, I imagine, for so many damned things, there's good and bad people, and the bad people will always be bad and just want an excuse and muslim gives them that excuse.

  17. I rebelled with a cause today. As the bin men don't collect the rubbish frequently enough despite paying more for them to do so, I sacked up the recycling waste into a bin liner and chucked it in the green bin. Our blue bin is properly full, so the state reaps what it sows.

    This annoys me because recycling and re-use is vitally important. Unlike Milioaf, I do actually care about the environment.

    1. While we're reliant on petrochemicals (not just fuel – look around you at the amount of plastic in everything) we're sunk.

      We could re-create the cold war and simply economically outpace these daft regions but the hard Left don't want that. For some reason, economic supremacy isn't being pursued. Socialism, however, is the goal. Why, when it has so obviously failed everywhere?

      Life knows. Why are the Left obsessed with importing foreigners who sit on welfare? Why do they keep handing out bales of cash to feckless breeders? Why does the state churn out translations rather than simply excluding the alien?

      Why is society being upended? Was it solely to create a dependent client class for Labour? Why are people getting so thick that they cannot understand the basics of supply and demand? Why doesn't the blasted treasury and it's legions of oxbridge ignorami?

      So many things are so obviously wrong that if we carry on like this our country will die, painfully from the cancer of massive uncontrolled gimmigration, welfare and debt. Starmer blithers on about increasing defence spending yet debt interest – interest, mind – is more than double the entire defence budget. He's… nuts. They're all simply delusional, deceitful nutters.

      1. Socialism by levelling down. We must all be poor and disadvantaged, not raise the poor up to our level.

    2. When Sarkozy was President of France the leader of a former French colony came whinging and asking for money.

      To which Sarkozy replied – the French left over 50 years ago – isn't it time you sorted yourself out and grew up?

    1. Hmm… since quitting Methformin, I have rediscovered energy in my body… hours of physical work yesterday, followed by a shower, dinner out, and bed at about 20:30. Today, fencing (as in boundary…). The poor old body doesn't know what's hit it, all this physical work and not a sofa in sight! It's so good, I've become a bore by banging on about it to everyone… Sorry 🙁
      I remember being like this some years ago, plenty of go, and now the methf is stopped, the brain fog is reduced, meaning I can remember stuff like that!

      2. Taking metformin can cause vitamin B12 deficiency.

        Deficiency:
        A deficiency can lead to anemia (low red blood cell count), neurological problems (like memory loss and balance issues), fatigue, and other symptoms.

        Were you taking B12 as a supplement?

        1. Yes. Maybe not enough, also no warning from medics, I had to read it for myself.

      3. Don't overdo it! You are getting older – as we all are – by the day and who knows what tomorrow will bring!

  21. 408011+ up ticks,

    The first issue the TOOL starmer must decide this morning is either to shape up or ship out in regards to
    the once capital city, we either lay seige or build a retaining wall to contain this festering hub of terrorism that is openly on display.

    Protesters march through London supporting Iran’s supreme leader
    Among thousands of demonstrators waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, people carried signs featuring Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

      1. I doubt there is another city with as many different nationalities living there.

        1. And they all sit, parasitically on welfare, living off the host.

          Four times I pointed this out and four times it was removed but the facts remained – as did the comment.

          1. That's not true.
            There are many hard working, tax paying foreign individuals in London who make a great contribution to the UK.
            I suspect they are equally anti the parasite criminal classes.

          2. I noticed many foreigners working at the Lanesborough. Africans, Orientals. Even the Sommelier was French.

            All efficient, polite and well trained.

            They are not the problem.

            Most of the problems come from the low lifes who live in social housing.

      1. Well, they're Lefties. What did you expect? The Left have always hated Jews. They tried to exterminate them in 39-45, after all. The hard Left just metastasized into the UN, EU, the woke, the whinging 'progressives' and Labour. Those evil fascists are still fighting WW2.

  23. 408011+ up ticks,

    Sunday 22 June: Don’t blame the police – it’s woke politicians who have given up on fighting crime

    Both are equally to blame, the politico for initially setting up the, in many cases,odious issues, the latter for aiding & abetting.

    1. Always easier to go with the flow, especially if one's career depends on it.
      Doing the right thing can be very difficult and painful, but in the end it needs done anyway and the longer you leave it the worse it will be.

      2. All it needs for evil to triumph is for good men (and women for Stormy) to do nothing.

  24. Good Moaning.
    Started off pleasantly cool, but now we're heading for another scorcher.

    2. Nice!
      22C here just now. Rain forecast. Yesterday was likely summer for this year…

      1. And the rain has started. Outdoor work ceased, and as it's lunchtime, I'm having a cider. Nice!

        1. Ditto here.
          The unknown bag of frozen meat has been identified as pork and is now bubbling in the pan with lots of other bits.

        2. Ditto here.
          The unknown bag of frozen meat has been identified as pork and is now bubbling in the pan with lots of other bits.

    3. Not here in sodden Antrim. Two beautiful days, now to be followed by two wet weeks. Our normal weather pattern.

      1. Enjoy what you get: warm weather for washing and gardening, wet weather for reading and jigsaw puzzles. (Good morning, btw.)

    2. At no part in the article does she mention other people than herself and the attackers. What were other shoppers/walkers doing?

      1. Probably just watching.
        It looks as though she may have been deliberately placed in the centre of a what would have appeared to the public as a general melee, rather than an attack on one person.
        From her description it looks organised and well practised.

          2. Not really anything a person can do unless they are proficient in the Martial Arts. I would at least get to kick one in the bollocks though.

    3. She went to UEA after soon after I had left – some of my friends knew her.

      I believe that Bill's MR was there at the same time as she was; I wonder if she was a friend of Carolyn's?

        1. Oh, what has happened? I've not been on here much because a) not a lot to say at the moment then b) problems with wifi (tech is all very well as long as it works) then c) I got out of the habit as a result of the combination of a) and b). Is Bill all right?

          2. He's fine, just totally fed up with all the bad news and not keen to join in..
            Today will not improve his worldview.

          3. Well, yes, me too, really. I am delighted though he is all right, alive and kicking.

          5. He is taking a break but says he will return like General MacArthur.

            Another deserter who, I hope has only deserted us temporarily is Grizzly. When last heard of he said he was visiting friends in the UK.

          6. Not so sure that is correct, Rastus. No doubt he will tell us when he next appears.

          7. Techn that doesn't work, reliably, consistently is pointless. That's why people get so annoyed with it.

  27. And that's why it also needs to happen to people who have power and influence.

    Until police and court attitudes change it's going to get worse.

    1. In the Mail today a security guard was sacked for blocking a troublesome drunk with many convictions from entering Tesco express after he had been abusing staff.

      Then there is the Dorset copper sacked for tackling a violent thug who had a knife.

          1. Before they were almost completely overwhelmed by woke liberal idiots a lot of Democrats had sensible views.
            Ronald Reagan was too, until he saw the light.

          2. And Trump was a Democratic party supporter until he decided he wanted to be president.

          3. He’s chopped and changed with the tides, but I would suggest generally leaning towards Trump rather than a particular party.

          2. Yes, he did come close to being appointed to lead the Met. Police some years back.

    1. 'Morning Rik, as ever your images paint a thousand words. Musk says he has the Epstein footage (and that Trump doesn't figure at all).

  30. 'Morning All
    Weekend Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/09da77b7c7b51021ab010e9cc40eee3e2afe56e1510519eac95c6be87a4cd468.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/317b34d2926f850bbed94e22927633b012e0c22a118498931fa529a0a4012cf4.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf94f74fb06231fd81e1a61db6ab413d26ceef6d8bfcbfb578db47b006eb88ca.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20264524f315b60d2d3482763f4b8f3318d0b0840e4f5c4cfdf74c882f7183f3.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbc303dd15ec3b21b1de3847f1f821c85eaae8d4ae164b5a99ef6b855fc7eb94.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/717ebb76531b18035085ba86b009a2211664d61ce212d19e05da1d0bdb466a97.jpg
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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1091b66794c0e033a60eab1d8e0d73de97debdfb414ee3f481ce8ea8c39ba36f.jpg

  31. I wonder if the nuclear sites attacked by the USA and Israel are now lethally radioactive and will have to be totally abandoned?

    1. 407011+ up ticks,

      Morning S,

      I'm wondering if there is a man with a suitcase wandering around london looking for a suitable site to plant a mushroom.

      1. I would not be at all surprised if they set off a "dirty bomb", they must have sufficient highly radioactive material, even before recent events.

        1. 408011+ up ticks,

          S,
          I worry at times, if such peoples targeted the
          HOC will Kier and all politico’s be safe ?

          Westminster station. It’s served by the District, Circle, and Jubilee lines.
          Nearest bus stop just round the corner.

  32. Anniversary of The German invasion of The Soviet Union. If memory serves me right, that went well .

    1. If you haven't read it I recommend Jonathan Dimbleby's, "Barbarossa, How Hitler Lost the War"

      1. Not yet, I'll think about it when I'm next at the library. Have read other references, general opinion….it was a bad idea.

        1. What I found very disconcerting was the great number of parallels between then and what seems to be going on in the world today.

    2. On YouTube or similar…a Canadian family (I think farmers) who emigrated to Russia, very interesting. My BH has spent time in Russia, says he doesn't recognise the Western image of Russia at all.

    3. As Caroline Lucas will tell you, it was stopped by climate change, so we must combat climate change to allow Germany to invade Russia.

      ??? Only in the mind of a Lefty!

  33. 408011+ up ticks,

    Dominic Cummings: The British state is fundamentally broken
    Speaking to The Daily T, the former advisor warns the old system can’t fix itself – only radical change offers a way forward

    A great many of us are well aware of the state of the
    nation and that radical change is the only option left to at least salvage something from the remnants of the United Kingdom.

    To me putting ALL the voting eggs in reforms basket
    without building on a safety net party is really tempting fate and brings into question how
    many times must the electorate be bitten?

    Sane conclusion,
    Bring into serious being the
    Farmers Food and Freedom Party.

    Footnote,
    At least whichever way it go's as in maybe defeat, the farmers will still be found in GB and NOT some exotic
    foreign climes.

    1. Thanks ogga…he wrote similarly in the Spectator. I don't think he'll go away again now, suits me 🙂

  34. Police move in.. round up school children in Ballymena at assembly hall.. confiscate phones to check demo footage with threats of parental child neglect if they resist.
    .
    https://youtu.be/_nRCwaVNN3o?t=111 .
    … officers got all the teenagers in the School to go to the assembly hall. The Police told all the kids that they would be seizing all the kids …

    2. ARE they allowed to do this?
      To be honest it sounds like MASSIVE over reach by PiSsNi.

          1. I believe them to be provocative posters who's sole intent is to wind people up.

    3. ARE they allowed to do this?
      To be honest it sounds like MASSIVE over reach by PiSsNi.

  35. A bit of wood sawn so now in for a mug of tea before swinging the axe.
    It got a bit cloudy earlier with a refreshing breeze but now getting brighter, though the Met page shows showers in about an hour.

  36. Yo and Good Moaning to you all, from a Sunny (now) and warm C d S.

    The thunderstorm visited Skeggyshire last night, wiith a vengance, how ever the rain that fell has disappeared.

    SWMBO was bad to me yesterday, she made me 'garden': I hate it. I only joined the RN, cus they do not have gardens on ships

  37. Good morning all,

    No rain, strong wind , my poppies are being blown to bits .

    Cloudy , warm, muggy , so far not as hot as yesterday .

    1. We must leave the ECHR. We must do so now, and get a gunboat in the channel, remove those who are here. Yes, we will have to renegotiate the Northern Ireland accords but given the chaos in Ballymena even the stubborn Irish have got to agree something must be done.

      1. Mass evacuations to France of all illegals (seeing as they have been taking the piss for years).

        Gunboats in the channel.

        Give Scotland, Ireland and Wales their independence and install border controls and passport requirements.

        Then stop giving them all our money.

        1. Um, installing border controls with Wales would make my life virtually impossible! I go in and out of the border several times on a journey some days (and I'd have to give up membership of Bangor races)!

      1. No, BoB and Maggie, the Grizzly Bear is at home exercising and laughing with Findus at my cat-stroking photos.

    1. But… but all the naughty pictures are online!

      I spend a fair bit of time with my friends – you lot! Then there's my whatspps to contact the chumocracy, business relationships – it's a tool. I also come home and build lego models with Junior and put the Warqueen's white tops in the tumbler on hot so they shrink a little bit each time.

      Speaking of, best get dinner in the oven as she'll be home from teaching her yoga thing soon.

    1. Oh I don't know, maybe they were worried about it being bombed, as others in the region have been in the past?
      I asked duckduckgo's AI programme whether there are any valid reasons and this is the result:

      "
      what are valid reasons why a nuclear power station might be hidden under a mountain?

      .
      GPT-4o mini

      There are several valid reasons why a nuclear power station might be located or hidden under a mountain:

      Safety and Security:
      Natural Protection: Being underground or within a mountain can provide natural shielding from external threats, including natural disasters (earthquakes, floods) and potential terrorist attacks.
      Radiation Containment: The geological formations can help contain radiation in the event of an accident, reducing the risk of contamination to the surrounding environment.
      Environmental Considerations:
      Minimizing Surface Impact: Hiding a facility underground can reduce its visual and ecological footprint, preserving the natural landscape and minimizing disruption to local wildlife.
      Water Management: Mountains often have natural water sources, which can be beneficial for cooling systems while also reducing the need for extensive water transport infrastructure.
      Regulatory Compliance:
      Zoning Laws: Some regions have strict zoning laws that may limit the construction of large facilities on the surface. An underground facility may comply with these regulations while still allowing for energy production.
      Operational Efficiency:
      Temperature Regulation: Being underground can help maintain a stable temperature, which can be beneficial for the operation of the power station and its equipment.
      Reduced Noise Pollution: An underground facility can minimize noise pollution, which is advantageous for nearby communities.
      Strategic Location:
      Proximity to Resources: Mountains may be located near essential resources, such as water sources for cooling or access to transportation routes for fuel and maintenance.
      Geological Stability: Certain mountain formations may provide a more stable geological environment, reducing the risk of subsidence or other geological issues.
      Historical or Political Reasons:
      Secrecy and Defense: In some cases, the location may be chosen for strategic military reasons, where secrecy and defense against espionage are priorities.
      These factors can contribute to the decision to place a nuclear power station in a mountainous or underground location, balancing safety, efficiency, and environmental concerns."

      So I guess there are some reasons.
      PS that is about the most obvious propaganda imaginable. Do better Mossad!

    2. Shielding, radiation, poplation fears, far more controlled environment, protected from the elements.

      I can think of a fair few legitimate reasons. It'd be a stupid place to put a nuclear weapons factory as really you want to build that to a far higher specification using layer composite armour.

      Apologies, I know folk think a bit of rock is tough but these days 100mm of composite armour is going to deflect warheads far better. Then there's power redundancy, connection redundancy, communications links (a dozen or more fibre in lines are far easier to bury, then there's anti air missiles and the power they'd need.

      I know what you mean, and to a degree you're right, but it's far more sensible to spread these sort of facilities out, with one bit doing one specific role so you don't lose everything in one strike.

  43. The details of this little spat are unlikely to interest many, however what it shows is a threat to third rate academia from AI.
    When his covid data analysis was criticised by a Stanford University academic, Steve Kirsch simply asked AI whether the criticism was valid. AI thought not, and exposed the weaknesses of the professor's arguments.
    https://kirschsubstack.com/p/stanford-medicine-professor-tried?publication_id=548354&post_id=166493371&isFreemail=true&r=28gmek&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

      1. I had one as a neighbour once. All they do is talk. Nothing else. 5 years to write a thesis while sunning themselves in the garden. A thesis that no one will read.

        During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong did send academics and other urban youth to rural areas to work in the fields and factories.

        Mao Zedong wasn't wrong about everything.

        1. Yet without science we have no future.

          The problem with communists is that because they destroy markets (net zero, taxation) resources are used inefficiently and wastefully. The best use for an individual may be as a researcher, but they're digging up sprouts because they have to eat. Farms are no longer giant affairs but individual plots, crushing efficiency again.

          The very reason we are the advanced economy we are is because at sometime in the past one chap said to another ''Look here, we've got 100 berries, we'll swap you them for some mammoth meat' and then that mammoth meat tribe specialised in mammoths and the other in berries.

          Markets WORK. It's as simple as that. It's why I get to play computer rather than take the washing to the nearest polluted stream with the other washers and just let the machine do it.

          Yes, 'climate change' has wasted vast amounts of money. One grant was for fusion and got about 2m, another was to study plankton in the Seychelles and got 14m, which is basically a diving holiday for ten years for the husband and wife researchers on the tax payer because they put 'climate change' in the brief. This is a classic example of political arrogance destroying real science but also of the strength of markets that the money was available to spend at all.

    1. You can't really blame them. Why should they get nobbled by a rocket just to say Iran was building nuclear weapons?

      2. I don’t blame them at all for staying out of range. Up til now though, they have said and the US accepted, that there was no active nuclear weapons programme.

  45. London's graffiti-riddled corpse is a warning of our apocalyptic future

    I do not think that spray-paint on public (or private) property can ever be called art. Sadiq Khan clearly thinks otherwise

    Zoe Strimpel • 21 June 2025, 4:30pm BST

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f226e79c644a02f5fa5cb17ef3f735548e7fcf93d6c378501d0d3b0a7085088.jpg
    It is a short walk from my door to one of London's busiest arteries. The first two minutes of the walk are usually pleasant, especially in summer, when a luscious thatch of untrimmed leaves bow down from the road's many trees. There is the occasional roar of an accelerating driver drunk on testosterone and the odd shouting voice, but mostly it's people padding along with their dogs and neighbours chatting.

    But then the idyll ends. The road that leads up to the Tube station and the artery has a major bus stop, a rubbish collection point, a taxi rank, and a Deliveroo rider rank. This culminates in one of London's most persistent homeless encampments, with tents, begging, traipsing, drug-taking, drinking and Tube loitering. The permanent residence for two cackling women is a stinking underpass. There are more stragglers and smells in the unavoidable (above ground) cement passage required to rejoin the pavement going north.

    Phone-muggings are frequent. As the main drag and its immediate environs have over the years become a hang-out for the shady, the criminal and the itinerant, all sorts of vandalism is left by the borough to rot for days – heaps of rubbish bags, litter, spillages, urine, fly-tipped stuff. It would be hard for even the best-run council to keep up.

    This is all unpleasant; how could it be otherwise? But the crown sitting atop this anti-social mess has to be the graffiti. I assume that some of the vandals behind it take their inspiration from people who are called "artists", like Banksy. They egg each other on online with cash prizes for being the first to hit targets, like the new fleet of Piccadilly line trains they hit while en route from Austria to West London last October.

    According to a report last week, roughly 33,000 pieces of graffiti have been removed from London Underground trains over the past two months. Often the vandals strike again within hours.

    I have been reading with interest of the antics of a group called Looking For Growth, who attract attention for donning neon vests that read "Sadiq Khant" and cleaning graffiti off train carriages and stations by hand.

    One of the founders, Joe Reeves, 28, shared his rationale for trying to save London, wash cloth by wash cloth. "I grew up in High Wycombe, which is a 25-minute train ride into Marylebone and then the Bakerloo line into Oxford Circus. The Bakerloo line was this symbol of 'I've arrived in the greatest city in the world.' I was going down the stairs and through this tunnel, and then I would appear somewhere in this amazing city surrounded by opportunity."

    Flash forward to his experience now, which most people will find familiar. "Every morning, I go to Lambeth North station to go to my office, and I see someone push past the barrier," Reeves says. "I tap in and follow them in, and then I share a lift with them down to the platform, this person that just stole from me and everybody else on the platform in front of me. They're playing music out loud on their phone. Everybody else is rolling their eyes, frustrated, but no one's doing anything, and the carriage is covered in graffiti."

    Personally, I do not think that spray-paint on public (or private) property can ever be called art.

    But when vandalism is just hideous it's somehow easier to take than when it becomes murderously political, which is the turn it's taken since, you guessed it, October 7 2023.

    With the license to treat London like a toilet or a rubbish bin firmly in place, courtesy of Sadiq Khan's bizarrely anti-improvement mayoralty, it wasn't going to be a big leap to target "Zionists", directly or indirectly, on as many public surfaces as possible, constantly.

    It's a perfect storm. In neighbourhoods like mine, a strong presence of illegal migrants doing their thing below the radar (some of it decent hard work, some of it not), hostels for new arrivals and asylum seekers, and lots of unemployed youths who have given the two fingers to education are all part of the meteorology of the moment.

    Once home to refugees from Nazi Austria, Germany, Hungary and Poland, my area of London became famous for its Mitteleuropean café culture in the mid-to-late 20th century. People who frequented these cafés in the 1950s and 1960s remember hearing strongly accented old people talking about psychoanalysis where vape shops and grungy middle-eastern supermarkets now sit.

    "The bus conductor would call out 'Jerusalem' or 'Vienna"! The German accent in the streets was predominantly Austrian," recalled Walter Gratzer, a refugee who became a distinguished chemist upon release from an internment camp on the Isle of Man at the start of the war. Now the same road is stalked by feral youths, people who speak no English at all, and has become a throbbing centre of virulent anti-Israel, sometimes Hamas-glorifying, noise-making.

    We hear it, we feel it, and we see it everywhere in bright ugly letters. That it has become an epicentre of such stuff is not a surprise: it is now home to a large community of people from backgrounds that make them more likely to give voice or be sympathetic to anti-Zionist outpourings.

    Over the past few years, I have come to see cars, even on the quiet tree-lined roads parallel to my own, emblazoned with emblems of the Palestinian cause – one has a map of Israel done up in green, red and black and a few lines of Arabic translating to "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" on its back window. It's not just unnecessary: it's aggressive.

    Other daily sights, albeit painted over quite quickly either by horrified locals or the council (I suspect the former) include scrawls (to take just a few recent examples) of "Israel kills kids", "F–k Israel", "Gaza" and "Free Palestine" and "Zionists out" over street signs, security grilles and protective covers of shop fronts, and buildings. You can't not see this stuff every day, no matter the route you choose. As soon as one vile message is taken down, another pops up.

    It's not all bad. For all the scary louts, the nocturnal vandals with spray cans, the phone-thieving chancers, the shoplifters, the music-blaring ruffians, the weed-smoking trespassers, the fare-dodging criminals, and the Islamist sympathisers there are lots of kind, decent people of all ages, backgrounds, both men and women.

    Someone is always on hand to enthusiastically help with a heavy suitcase or a pram and generally people are considerate on public transport. It's just that the exceptions to this have become painfully frequent and give a feeling of a society coming unstuck, brewing nastiness and danger of a type not seen since in several generations.

    We have a double society. We have the ugly, dangerous descent into lawlessness, the trashing of our cities by people who feel entirely free to visit their anti-social, crassly political impulses on public property.

    But we also have the noticeable, reliable kindness of people. I now believe that each type of behaviour is simply a matter of personal inclination, since nobody has much to fear from order-enforcing authorities anymore, either from police or other people's judgment. As the guys from Looking For Growth have found, people keep to themselves and say nothing because they are frightened to intervene. We all feel that fright.

    I just hope that the good people don't lose the courage and the decency to go on being good, as the cities around them decay into crime and the personal studios of people who mean not just "Zionists", but all of us, ill.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/21/londons-graffiti-riddled-corpse-warning-apocalyptic-future

    1. Get out while you still can. It is only going to get worse.

      As for graffiti on the underground. Aren't the platforms and carriages covered by cctv? I know they wear masks and hoodies but IMO that is good enough reason to stop and search. Decent law abiding citizens and taxpayers don't hide their faces.

      1. Oh yes they do if they resent facial recognition cameras!

        A spot of zero tolerance and yobs being sentenced to clean up their own grafitti is needed, not more high tech surveillance.

    2. "…the shady, the criminal and the itinerant, …"

      Literally, the 'shaded'. It's all down to the gimmigrant and massive uncontrolled gimmigration.

  46. British man arrested in Cyprus for ‘spying on RAF base’ for Iran
    The suspect, said to be of Azerbaijani descent, has been accused of espionage and terrorism-related offences after surveillance on RAF Akrotiri.

    A British man has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran on an RAF base in Cyprus used for the UK’s military operations in the Middle East.

    The suspect, who also holds Azerbaijani nationality, was detained by armed police in Cyprus and appeared at a court in the coastal city of Limassol Saturday morning accused of espionage and terrorism-related offences.

    Cypriot media reported that the man had been spying on RAF Akrotiri and Cyprus’s own Andreas Papandreou airbase, which is used by the US military, since mid-April.

    According to unconfirmed reports, a camera with a telephoto lens and three mobile phones were found at a property used by the suspect. He is said to have told Cypriot police that he was a tourist.

    Akrotiri is the main staging post for UK military operations in the region.

    Last year RAF Typhoons were scrambled from the base to strike Iranian drones targeting Israel. It could play a pivotal role if Britain were to intervene in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

    The RAF recently moved an additional six Typhoons to Akrotiri, taking the total number of British fighter jets at the base to 14.

    The suspect, who is said to have links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told police that he was a British tourist when he was arrested. A search of a property the man had been using in Limassol reportedly uncovered several cameras, telephoto lenses and three mobile phones.

    He was remanded in custody for eight days after his court appearance in Limassol, pending further inquiries. Cypriot police said no further details about the case would be issued, citing national security.

    IRGC’s al-Quds force is responsible for external operations and has previously been linked to assassination and kidnap plots against Iran’s opponents in the West.

    Meanwhile on Saturday Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar also accused the IRGC of plotting to attack Israeli citizens on Cyprus.

    “Thanks to activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in co-operation with the Israeli security services, the terror attack was thwarted,” Sa’ar posted on X.

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/man-with-iran-links-arrested-in-cyprus-for-spying-on-raf-base-rn0sj7prb

    BRITISH?

  47. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/06/22/why-naive-labour-cannot-fix-broken-britain/

    The article is well written, but fails on the basic premise: Labour reorganised the civil service to be incompetent. It wants this. It cannot blame the Tories when it left it bloated and overmanned. Labour hived out endless responsibility to quangos deliberately to expand the CS by proxy and, more, remove the ability of oversight from ministers – Conservative ones.

    It has poured ever more money into it yet made no demands for outcomes. If I spend money I want to know what I am getting for it and why. It has to return more value to me than it costs. Government just spaffed billions on the CS for no return. unreliables another example of waste: that's not investment, it's pure profligacy. So is the nonsense of 'great British energy'.

    Labour cannot now bleat and whine and wail oh woe is me because the mess and bloat of the state is entirely their own fault – by intent and design!

    1. It's really all about keeping Labour in power in perpetuity, imo, wibbling. The Labour Party and the Civil Service, two cheeks of the same ….(you finish the description).

  48. I'd also like to say [rant rant rant, rant rant, rant rant rant, rant rant, ranty rant mcranty].

    Sorry, just summarising my usual posts.

  49. Firstborn making an online application for UK passport. When it comes to gender, you have only 2 options: Female, or male.
    Attack of the vapours!

  51. I suppose their voter base isn't affected by the lack of outcome and just take more spending as they're welfarists or public sector, where more money and no actual achievement is considered good.

    1. Indeed. My grandfather was a CS, spent most of his time talking to girls in typing pool. He recommended me to join, retired early on full pension. I started working local chemical plant instead which was more interesting and better paid, private sector where expected to do your job.

      1. Had a summer job in the civil service, testing armour materials.
        Learned very quickly not to just bang on someone's offce door and blast in after lunch, as they'd be caught waking up from a snooze with their head on the desk… embarrasement both parties. Didn't do that again, instead bang on the door & wait to be called in.
        Never worked for government again (except as a taxpayer, of course).

      2. The SA80 rifle was called the Civil Servant. It doesn't work and you can't fire it.

          2. Note your second sentence, Conway – how often do you think that’s happened! Looks, to me, quite a complex piece of kit. My dad was in the army, parachuted into France, when I was young he watched endless b&w tv films about the army, the war. He loved the army life. (I grew up wanting to be a copy of Violette Szabo.)

          3. Don't you mean "Modified when the Top Brass & MOD Civil Servants finally realised how crap it was"?

  52. My Father was a Professor, Head of Department of Chemistry in ABU, Nigeria, with the personnel number 4. He was a doer, he started the place (funded by HMG) and rose to Deputy Vice Chancellor (politics dictated that the Vice Chancellor had to be Nigerian).
    He kicked arse, so he did. Especially during the Nigerian civil war, when the army wanted to come on campus and shoot rioting students: Father stopped the Army, and told the students to grow up and go home – and they did, so disaster averted. By then, the Nigerian senior staff had all run away… including the VC.
    So, not all useless windbags.

    How's that for a Sunday afternoon rant?
    ;-))

    1. 'So, not all useless windbags'.

      Of course not. The core sciences are worthy.

      But there is so much that isn't.

      You must be very proud of him.

      1. A hard act to follow. And, yes, I'm dead proud of him.
        I wish that Second Son had met him, but Father died before Second Son was conceived, sadly.

  53. For the hard of hearing, especially Leftie Hamas flag wavers.

    Iran's new president created a sense of outrage in the west yesterday by describing Israel as a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the face of the earth. 2005

    Iran tested a ballistic missile painted with the phrase "Israel should be wiped off the Earth" in Hebrew. 2016

    Iran has said that they want to wipe Israel off the face of the map. They would also like to destroy America. Oct 7.

    “The blind enemies should see that the wish of these people is the death of America and Israel.”

    “The nation of Muslims must prepare for the great war, so as to completely wipe out the Zionist regime, and remove this cancerous growth.”

    Our dear Imam [Khomeini] ordered that this Jerusalem-occupying regime [Israel] must be erased from the page of time.

    Ahmadinejad punctuates his speech before a large crowd with “Death to Israel”

    Soon this stain of disgrace will be cleaned from the garment of the world of Islam, and this is attainable.

    In the Middle East, they [the global powers] have created a black and filthy microbe called the Zionist regime, so they could use it to attack the peoples of the region, and by using this excuse, they want to advance their schemes for the Middle East.

    “Iran’s position, which was first expressed by the Imam [Khomeini] and stated several times by those responsible, is that the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region.”

    it was said that they were the source for such deadly diseases as the plague and typhus. This is because the Jews are very filthy people. For a time, people also said that they poisoned wells belonging to Christians and thus killed them.

    “One should fight the Jews and vanquish them so that the conditions for the advent of the Hidden Imam will be met.”

    1. LOL
      Jonathan Steele writes in the Guardian that Ahmadinejad was simply remarking that “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time. . . . He was not making a military threat. He was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. The ‘page of time’ phrase suggests he did not expect it to happen soon.”

      1. There's a name to conjure with. I wonder if he is related to Christopher Steele of dodgy dossier infamy.

    3. What is wrong with them? Why the h*ll can't they just ignore Israel and get on with helping improve their own country for their own people?

  54. For the hard of hearing, especially Leftie Hamas flag wavers.

    Iran's new president created a sense of outrage in the west yesterday by describing Israel as a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the face of the earth. 2005

    Iran tested a ballistic missile painted with the phrase "Israel should be wiped off the Earth" in Hebrew. 2016

    Iran has said that they want to wipe Israel off the face of the map. They would also like to destroy America. Oct 7.

    “The blind enemies should see that the wish of these people is the death of America and Israel.”

    “The nation of Muslims must prepare for the great war, so as to completely wipe out the Zionist regime, and remove this cancerous growth.”

    Our dear Imam [Khomeini] ordered that this Jerusalem-occupying regime [Israel] must be erased from the page of time.

    Ahmadinejad punctuates his speech before a large crowd with “Death to Israel”

    Soon this stain of disgrace will be cleaned from the garment of the world of Islam, and this is attainable.

    In the Middle East, they [the global powers] have created a black and filthy microbe called the Zionist regime, so they could use it to attack the peoples of the region, and by using this excuse, they want to advance their schemes for the Middle East.

    “Iran’s position, which was first expressed by the Imam [Khomeini] and stated several times by those responsible, is that the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region.”

    it was said that they were the source for such deadly diseases as the plague and typhus. This is because the Jews are very filthy people. For a time, people also said that they poisoned wells belonging to Christians and thus killed them.

    “One should fight the Jews and vanquish them so that the conditions for the advent of the Hidden Imam will be met.”

  55. A late good morning to all.

    Here's a rant that encapsulates exactly what "Change" really is about. It's not just this Labour shower, both the Tories and LibDums are up to their necks in the business of selling out the UK and its people.

    Re the Brize Norton security – or lack of – fiasco, Ben Leo makes the point that in former times the Defence Secretary would have resigned. Has the base commander resigned or been relieved?

    https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/1936522008583393745

    1. I thought as soon as Israel bombeb Tehran we should have increased security at all our Military and sensitive installations just as Trump is doing now. Now that he has hit them.

      1. We were about to be invaded by Vlad and his hoards a few weeks ago. You might have thought security might have been stepped up then to prevent any special forces sabotage. Well, unless the entire scenario was made up. Surely not….

    2. I always enjoy hearing Ben Leo's take on things – I usually agree wholeheartedly with him.

    3. Hi Korky! You do know the base commander is a she? Made her name in HR, apparently!🤣

      1. I do, Sue.

        However, the sex of the person in command is immaterial: there was a serious, and according to Leo, very expensive breach in security. Commanders must take their responsibilities seriously and respond accordingly when they fail.

        I live about a mile away from Merville Barracks housing the 16th Air Assault Brigade/Para Regiment, a breach there could be disastrous.

        2. Apparently when the USAF left, the metal fences came down. I think it does matter the sex and capability of the base commander. If it had been a man he’d have gone by now. The point is she was responsible for the security (such as it was) and should be leading from the front.

      2. Should be disciplined for letting the breakers in do work on the base without having passed diversity training then.

  56. That is all it'd take. Collar and chain some repeat youth offenders and make them clean graffiti. If they run, shoot them. Chances are it's their own scrawl.

    We shouldn't fete prisoners. They're in jail because they didn't think society's norms and laws applied to them, so make them serve the society they scorned.

    If they refuse, flog them. Then make them clean it anyway.

    1. For once I do agree with you Wibbers. Alas, there would be an almighty cry of "Outrage!" from the usual suspects.

      1. Then… ahem.. collar and chain them and make them clean the graffiti anyway.

        Seeing Lefties like Jones and Toynbee whining and complaining about how unfair it is to have to clean up the mess they have made would be funny.

    2. In Munich, they certainly used to make kids clean their own grafitti up. Someone went round photographing it and deciphering the scrawls and when a grafittist got caught, they would be presented with a list of their misdeeds to clean up.

    3. I took my mother to Sainsbury's yesterday. She has a blue badge for parking. As I pulled into a space two young people sauntered out of the shop, laughing and got into a car parked in the disabled space which was nearest the shop.

      As we had just come out I positioned our full trolley just behind their car so they couldn't reverse out then took extra long helping my mother into the car and then took my time unloading the shopping from the trolley to the car.

      Small victory but it made me smile.

    4. I took my mother to Sainsbury's yesterday. She has a blue badge for parking. As I pulled into a space two young people sauntered out of the shop, laughing and got into a car parked in the disabled space which was nearest the shop.

      As we had just come out I positioned our full trolley just behind their car so they couldn't reverse out then took extra long helping my mother into the car and then took my time unloading the shopping from the trolley to the car.

      Small victory but it made me smile.

  57. Late on parade again. Not easy today:
    Wordle 1,464 4/6

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

    1. I knew the word from the literary works of Conrad Aiken and Malcolm Lowry (Under the Volcanoe). Te-____ is used repeatedly by both authors to describe the murmur of a heartbeat. On at least one occasion it is used to describe the sound of a ship’s engines.

    2. I knew the word from the literary works of Conrad Aiken and Malcolm Lowry (Under the Volcanoe). Te-____ is used repeatedly by both authors to describe the murmur of a heartbeat. On at least one occasion it is used to describe the sound of a ship’s engines.

    1. Not nice for her and I'm glad she was not hurt.
      However, as much as I hate having to say this, if, perhaps, a few more of her profession went through similar experiences, we might see a change in the attitudes of the MEEJAH.

      1. I suspect that quite a lot of those from her profession went through similar experiences and probably have the same sort of attitude as most of us. However, unless they were those at or near the top of the profession, their voices are no louder or given more prominence than those of the overwhelming majority of the public. Why so many at the top of the profession are so woke is a a mystery.

  59. Yesterday I posted an remark about neutrinos – "One hundred trillion neutrinos careen through you each second.". I'll bet most of you ignored it as exaggerated nonsense – but it is true. One hundred trillion passing through your bady evry second. I first read about them in the late 1950s. They were detected by a special device in a alum/potash mine 1.2 miles below ground level near Boulby, Yorkshire. They pass through the Earth as easily as they pass through you. Look it up.

    3. Neutrinos – the snack you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite!

  60. And we have rain.
    Luckily Grad. Son got the wood stacked before it started.
    Only a small amount of wood to do to finish off the stack.

    1. 408011+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      One would almost be in their rights after paying the membership
      fee / fees, to the brexit / reform party's to ask "nige" when do we, and why have we not already marched on Dover ?

      Someone has treacherously translated to 7117 different tongues
      sticks & stones WILL break my bones
      but rhetorical parliamentary continued patter is harmless.

      1. KC prepared for this in advance by securing his status as a direct descendant of Mohommed of the child wife and a rumoured conversion.

  62. Nothing more certain than death, and taxes. Cummings wrote an interesting piece recently, I think on his blog. Skivers always present, private and public sector. As a friend of mine remarked, wherever you work, whoever you work for there will always be skivers and some bloke towing his ******** off. Job sounds interesting, want to say more about how the testing worked?

    2. I tested the adherence of protective coatings on aluminium armour by applying the coating, then using a tensile tester to pull it off. Then shear test to pull it off, and compare the several coatings for adhesion.
      Not very dramatic.

  63. I got into problems too. Retreated to my bedroom/office. Curtains drawn and the dehumidifier on. It certainly helped with my 40 a day fag habit/breathing.

  64. I got into problems too. Retreated to my bedroom/office. Curtains drawn and the dehumidifier on. It certainly helped with my 40 a day fag habit/breathing.

  65. Time to drive homw. Hoping that the traffic will be light as many folk are away on vacation… but heavy weather expected, with met office warnings of much rain & lightning. Very, very, frigtening! Gallileo… 😉

    1. We were supposed to have thunder, lightening, heavy rain all yesterday evening. Very little of it transpired – hopefully the same for you, Paul.

        1. Did you see the film Vietnam with Robin W. ….”you gotta window, open it!”….best way, I find 🙂

    1. Starmer thinks, wrongly, that he will retain the Muslim vote which gave him his majority. He is a fool and brazen hypocrite. Next time around the Muslims will vote for Muslim candidates, not Labour.

      1. "Next time around the Muslims will vote for Muslim candidates, not Labour." My constituency, Birmingham Yardley, where the fragrant Jessica Pi$$lips was nearly ousted at the last election by a muz man.

          5. Carl Benjamin was correct. A definite reject from the Brompton Stomp "Grab-A-Grannie" Night. Even I wouldn't touch her.

      2. Gosh. If only there had been a well-educated intellectual warning us about the dangers of communalism (allegiance to one’s own ethnic group rather than to the wider society).

        Oh wait. We did.

    2. Votes, votes, votes, votes …….
      Votes, votes, votes, votes ……………………….

    1. I’ve never worked in a unionised workplace! It takes about two years to get rid of a completely useless member of the team.

      1. Sometimes seems common sense lacking. Programmers employed because they ‘seemed a good fit’. My way would be to ask them to write a small section of code that worked….nope….

        1. That gets a bit old with more experienced programmers though. When you have been working in the business for thirty years, it’s kind of insulting to be asked to complete a programming test in an interview.
          Alternatively they could ask to see stuff you have coded in your own time. Or they could ask questions like what actually happens when you build C# code? Top notch C# programmers will know in excruciating detail. Competent ones will have some idea.

          Recruiting people who “seem like a good fit” automatically excludes older women from the vast majority of coding workplaces…and a lot of companies do it.

          1. The code was Cobol if I remember correctly? Something newer may have been quicker, they were trying to bolt several bits together. Or something. We had a couple of women coders, neither lasted long, one in tears. Hasten to add, I was only lowly admin, doubt I could have done it – too much pressure.

      2. Two years? At least!

        We've had a nurse on paid sick leave for over four years. Awaiting tribunal but as her manager is about to go of on a year's maternity leave, the tribunal has been postponed until she returns. It's farcical.

  69. Bluff to puncture US hubris or actually true?

    The US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites severely damaged the nation's nuclear capabilities, but did not entirely destroy a key facility.

    Sources told the New York Times that the B-2 strikes on Iran's facility in Fordo – a uranium enrichment site buried deep underground – did not entirely destroy the site.

    It comes despite top US officials praising the operation as a success.

    Presumably what is left is likely to be so contaminated that it cannot be resuscitated, even if it wasn't destroyed completely.

  70. Silly discussion on GBN just now. Is President Trump’s action in Iran illegal? Depends whose politically convenient whims you’re characterising as international law today darlings.

    1. Lefties pumping out their favourite slogans.
      No one is above the law.
      It's illegal.
      Trump has made the US a pariah state and will be isolated by the international community.
      Taco Trump has made himself a laughing stock.

  71. Several Cypriot news outlets reports a "British" man has been arrested for spying. LOL yeah right.
    The suspect was a man of Azeri ethnic descent and had been arrested in the Zakaki suburb of the coastal city of Limassol. The suspect was thought to have had a British RAF military base in nearby Akrotiri under surveillance.

    Home Office gives out Passports to anyone that asks.. nay, they don't even have to ask.

    2. This story reads like something out of the 1970s. Arrested with binoculars. I thought all that stuff was done by satellite these days.

  72. A reminder to every council, constituent, and institution of the UK.

    Ayatollah is absolute and his control extends to appointing senior figures in the judiciary, media and military.

  73. The idiot race-baiter Humza Yusuf says that Scotland could be guilty of a war crime if the US bombers used Prestwick! He really is a complete cretin!

  74. The moron Davey speaks! "The government should also distribute pamphlets to make sure every British home is "war-ready" and able to deal with blackouts and chaos caused by the net zero scam outbreak of conflict or cyber-attacks" Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey said. [BBC]. I've fixed it for you Ed; no charge!

    2. Protect and survive? I may still have the original leaflet somewhere. I rely very little on electricity now and I have my own generator. I'll just have to run lots of hot baths if Ed turns off the power when I've got the Rayburn lit (I need power for the pump to circulate the water and I haven't found anyone to "plumb" the generator into the circuit for the pump).

  75. The moron Davey speaks! "The government should also distribute pamphlets to make sure every British home is "war-ready" and able to deal with blackouts and chaos caused by the net zero scam outbreak of conflict or cyber-attacks" Lib Dem Leader Sir Ed Davey said. [BBC]. I've fixed it for you Ed; no charge!

  76. A propos the below.

    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-winston-marshall-show/id1727337401?i=1000713972779

    Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren joins The Winston Marshall Show for a sweeping conversation on Iran-Israel war — and why the West keeps failing to see the bigger picture.

    From near the end (c 1 hour in)

    “…“because of the British government's virtue signaling about Israel when they don't talk about other atrocities around the world, they just focused on Israel. Well, that's why…

    I think it's systematic by definition.

    But that's why they're deemed unreliable with the information.

    No, they also had gone to cut off certain… 36 types of military equipment that they had cut out, they weren't supplying to us.

    Right, okay.

    And I was strongly of the opinion that we should never buy another screw or a bolt from Great Britain for military purposes. You can't rely on them in a war, forget about it.

    Yeah.

    We'll purchase them somewhere else. It wasn't a lot of money, but it's significant. The Canadians did the same thing.

    I think we should not buy another screwdriver from them and be independent from them. But you can have a difference over way of countries conducting a war. But we are in a war against people who want to destroy us.

    And if you start playing that game with us, then you're not reliable, but by definition, you're not reliable. Yeah. And we should find alternative sources of supply.

    There are other countries in the world that[…]”

    From The Winston Marshall Show: Ambassador Michael Oren – How The West Enabled The Iran Axis to Grow Unchecked, 21 Jun 2025
    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-winston-marshall-show/id1727337401?i=1000713972779&r=3768
    This material may be protected by copyright.

  77. Message to Kaypea: 150 airlines, including BA and Singapore, have cancelled flights to Dubai because of the US attack on Iran, according to Norwegian news.
    Hope it's not a problem for you.

  78. Message to Kaypea: 150 airlines, including BA and Singapore, have cancelled flights to Dubai because of the US attack on Iran, according to Norwegian news.
    Hope it's not a problem for you.

  79. Afternoon, all. Well, summer's over; it was nice while it lasted. Dull, grey, miserable and rainy today with more than a bit of a breeze.

    The police force, like so many other institutions, has been infiltrated with the woke. Graduate entry fast-tracked so they didn't have to come up through pounding the beat was the start of the decline.

    1. II've just arrived home from French France. I'm quite happy that the the temerapture is a bit cooler.

    1. How very sad……( I remember him from the early days of the Guinness Book of Records!)

  82. J D Vance has a Lammy moment.

    'They dropped 30,000-pound bombs on a target the size of a washing machine and then got back home safely without ever landing in the Middle East or ever stopping other than to briefly refuel … And, of course, they did that in the air,' the vice president continued.

    My bold

      1. One knows what he meant and in the heat of the moment would not have realised how stupid it was.
        I would not mind betting that it gets turned into a mocking meme.

        OR
        The Yanks B2's really do have the ability to stop like a UK Harrier jump jet, in which case that is truly awesome and might explain the flying saucer/UFOs reported recently.

        1. How does a Veep come up with BS like that? To think, if something happened to The Donald, that muppet would be in charge!

  83. Wordle No. 1,464 3/6

    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 22 Jun 2025

    Buzz for Birdie Three?

    1. #MeToo! Second starter word nailed it today, birdie/bogey run continues…..

      Wordle 1,464 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. A bit of a dodgy word but same here.

      Wordle 1,464 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Wordle 1,464 3/6

      🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      Me too 🙂

    5. It’s surely not a word. I was just playing with the available letters.

      Wordle 1,464 4/6

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

  85. Spekkie on Group Capt. Bumps-at-the-Front.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/raf-brize-norton-chiefs-views-on-patriotism-revealed/#comments-container

    RAF Brize Norton chief’s views on patriotism revealed

    21 June 2025, 1:27pm

    On Thursday night, a group of Palestine Action protestors managed to enter RAF Brize Norton, spraying paint into a pair of Voyager jet engines and leaving the military base without being caught. The Prime Minister has since called it ‘vandalism’ and there has been talk of proscribing Palestine Action.

    But Mr S wants to know how they managed to get onto the base in the first place. The protesters videoed themselves on scooters, zooming about the runway, seemingly without a single soldier noticing them. It’s a major embarrassment, not just for the military but for the country – especially at a time of heightened global tensions. If some keffiyeh-wearing hippies can scoot into our military bases undetected, what of trained foreign operatives hoping to do real damage?

    The person in charge of Brize Norton is one Group Captain Louise Henton OBE, who has spent her time in the RAF working in personnel and administration – what we’d call HR on civvy street. Mr S did a bit of digging into her professional history and found that while studying at an Advanced Command and Staff Course in 2019, she wrote an essay for Air and Space Power Review, entitled ‘Military Culture and Human Rights Violations Committed in Iraq in 2003. Has the Military Learnt its Lessons?’ The essay makes for fascinating reading. In it she tells us:

    Personality traits such as patriotism and bravery are viewed as desirable within the military. This often encourages overt masculine behaviour amongst its members, therefore stepping outside the norm and challenging the group is often looked down upon and difficult to do. The task-focused approach can also lead to corners being cut if it is deemed that the ends justify the means, that certain actions or behaviours are tolerated if they achieve the desired result. The danger with this is that such undesirable behaviours, if tolerated for long enough, become the norm and the level of standards gradually erodes… Methods of bonding and creating team cohesiveness within the military often involve pranks and banter, but this isolates those who are different to the norm.

    Goodness me. Patriotism and masculinity are undesirable? Pranks and banter create a negative military culture? Far be it for Mr S to play armchair general, but perhaps Group Captain Henton ought to spend a little more of her time focusing on the basics, such as securing her base’s perimeter…

    1. Our ex RAF SiL was spitting feathers when they were here yesterday! Having been up at the air show in Lossiemouth last week he just couldn’t believe the lack of security or responsibility at Brize Norton! And the belief that if the station commander had not had bumps, he’d have gone!

      1. I've been saying for some time that the RAF has become woke and weak. The posters in No 1 Radio School (my only current contact with the Force) are about counselling if you've been bullied and diversity etc.

    4. OK, so that's the RNZN losing a ship captained by a woman and now this Bumps-To-The-Front muppet.

    2. Remember Starmer fought for a second referendum through the entirety of Brexit. He did everything he could to hamper, stop, and reverse that democratic process.

      The creature is a worm.

  87. Just opened a bottle of Chimay White Label Trappist beer, brewed in 2005, and supping… at 8%, it's good, smooth, nutty, light in the mouth. Truly a religious experience!

    2. Lovely. I’ve had to put up with a couple of pints of 'Bateman's XB' in my local boozer.

  88. European leaders beg Iran for diplomacy
    By Claudia Aoraha

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on Iran’s leaders to enter negotiations and 'not to take any further action that could destabilize the region.'

    In a joint statement after holding talks Sunday, they said: 'We will continue our joint diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions and ensure the conflict does not intensify and spread further.'

    The three leaders stressed that 'Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and can no longer pose a threat to regional security,' and affirmed support for Israel’s security, but stopped short of endorsing the American strikes.

    Just a day before the U.S. struck, top diplomats from the three countries and the European Union met Iran’s foreign minister in an attempt to find a diplomatic way to end the conflict with Israel and ease tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program.

    Until Iran stops funding and supporting its proxies this isn't going to end. It will also require the rest of the ME to step in and wipe out the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas etc etc etc; and I really don't see that happening.

    1. I am at least £200 worse off under this government, then there's the "green" taxes on my fuel (just filled up and it's gone up 1ppl since earlier this week).

      1. Council tax up, water up, tax thresholds frozen, employment costs up, rates up, stamp duty threshold massively higher, energy costs racing upward.

        Better off? Bollox. He's lying.

        2. If you’ve just come up from Africa and you’re living free of charge in a four star hotel, life is looking good.

    2. 19%? Who are these people? Are there really that many junior doctors and train drivers?

    4. Is this the pratt who claimed to be a solicitor,or was that another pratt. It's difficult to differentiate between Labour mps these days.

  91. Bit of a strange one here but the wife and I are suffering from a bad case of insect bites (probably mozzies).

    She went to the chemist to get some anti-histamine stuff and the pharmacist saw her, gave her antibiotics, and said they were inundated with people with the same thing – this is South Cumbria – and they were running out of treatments.

    Anyone else with the same problem?

    2. Take advice before using it, but we use something called "Onctose hydrocortisone cream" for bites and stings. We find it is very effective.

      1. We considered that but it wouldnt explain why there appear to be so many similar cases in the area?

  92. Cummings at home again..

    19:40 "Starmer doesn't understand the basics of his job.. Starmer can't do the job, he's just completely the wrong type of person to be prime minister. He obviously hates it. He doesn't know what he is doing."
    Oh Lord isn't Ange next in line?
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4nwUHi4Uts

    2. For such a senior and capable person his spelling is appalling, his sentence construction weak and using kiddie speak is extremely odd.

    3. It’s common sense really. After thousands of years of autonomy, they had no written language, hadn’t invented the wheel and were still eating each other. The bright ones have been educated by Europeans but the average IQ is still low. The Egalitarian Myth is a power grab. A bid for control that daily exposes relativism as a fallacy.

  94. One of the games on the merriam-webster website is an anagram game where you have to make the longest words you can out of a given 7 letters.
    Today's letters were H, C, M, O, E, R, S.
    Son came up with HOMOCHROMOSOMES, a word that he freely admits he made up, but it was valid…

  95. I have to confess I agree with you, but then I was born just about as far away from the sea (in every direction) that it's possible to get.

          2. Labour seem set for victory, Sue? SNP numbers fallen quite strongly, could that be anything to do with the (still missing far as I know) £600k?

          3. That, and the state of the country! It’s dirty, over run with ‘incomers’, expensive, bleeding business and jobs, and the NHS is beyond a joke. However the SNP and Green loonies are spending a small fortune on defending men pretending to be women, muslim lawyers and ferries which aren’t ready and don’t fit the terminals!

          4. I think there are girls in Dumfries affected by grooming gangs. Plus a planning application for a very large (if not the largest) mosque in UK. Suspect support will drop very quickly, but Scots can be stubborn – I know quite a few. I remember the signs during Covid ‘English Go Home’ etc…always happy to take English money, though.

          5. And Glasgow, and last week an Afghan done for raping a 15 year old in Falkirk! 4 miles from here! The judge blamed cultural differences!!😱

          6. ‘had to delete this bit’ WTF is wrong with these people. Sorry for temper, sciatica, diverticulitis, very bad hay fever this year, tabs not helping. off to bed, ‘night Sue see u tmrw

        1. I suspect any Gaelic speakers would be mightily relieved as otherwise how would they know it's an ambulance?

          Edit: to be fair it could easily be mistaken for an ice cream van……

    1. Medvedev is just a Kremlin goon – anything he says can be immediately discounted…..

      1. Possibly, but this comment rather gives the game away

        In a taunting post, Medvedev claimed: 'Enrichment of nuclear material — and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons — will continue.'

        Iran was lying.

        1. It's bizarre, the Russians hate Iran more than we do but, as Macchiavelli would say 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'.

    2. Totally tongue in cheek.

      It is a great pity that the Balfour declaration did not give Northern Ireland to the Jews.

      They could have been part of the United Kingdom and the UK would have been much, much more successful in the long term.

      1. Nowhere to hide.
        Put your sunglasses on and enjoy the flash for your last microsecond.

  100. Worms are useful in aerating the ground. This person doesn't even have that level of utlity, and would be better as fertiliser.

  101. I am proud to be a Zionist and you should be one too

    It is not acceptable to say that Iran should not exist. Why is it OK to say it about the Jewish state?

    Danny Cohen • 21 June 2025, 2:33pm BST

    Zionist bitch. This was what my friend discovered a colleague had called her. Not just a bitch. But a Zionist one.

    Over the past year it has become increasingly normal for people in this country to use Zionist as a slur. To say that simply believing in the State of Israel's right to exist is fundamentally reprehensible. I can think of no other religion or nation state that has to put up with this. It is only the Jewish state that has the right to its very existence challenged in this way. Only Jewish people who should be denied a homeland. A homeland in the place Jews have lived, loved, worked and prayed for thousands of years.

    It should be clearly understood that believing in Israel's right to a place amongst nations is not the same as saying you are in agreement with everything the government of the country does. Yet when it comes to Israel, growing numbers of people are unwilling to separate the decisions of politicians from the right to a national homeland. Personally, I abhor the statements made by Right-wing extremists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the Israeli government. Does that make me believe that an entire nation should be cancelled? A nation that also happens to be the only democratic state in the Middle East?

    Take Iran as a comparison. Israel and Iran could not be more different. In Tehran, free speech and political opposition are violently suppressed in a country run autocratically and often brutally by ayatollahs. Women are not equal citizens and the gay community have to live in fear. Yet do you hear anyone calling for an end to the existence of Iran? Are there placards at mass marches on Britain's streets calling for the extinction of that nation? Is believing in the right of Iran to exist an increasingly common insult in public, on social media or the workplace?

    The obvious question is why this is happening with Israel but not other countries. For me and many other people who share my faith the reason is horribly clear. It is because Israel is the homeland of Jews. The fightback against this denial of a Jewish state in the Middle East must be clear, determined and high profile. It must be led by those in our country who have the most influence.

    Let's start with the leader of our nation. Sir Keir, a simple question: do you believe in the State of Israel's right to exist? If the answer is yes, then please state publicly that you are a Zionist. Please say this loudly and clearly so that this growing tide of anti-Zionist hate, which is ultimately a mask for anti-Jewish hate, can be arrested before conditions worsen further for Jewish people in this country and become truly dangerous.

    I call on the Government's front bench MPs to be equally clear that they believe in Israel's right to exist, that they too are Zionists. In the current climate it will take some courage, but isn't that what leadership is all about? I declare proudly I'm a Zionist. I believe Israel should exist. Prime Minister, Government ministers, corporate leaders, what about you?

    Danny Cohen is a former director of BBC Television

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/21/i-am-proud-to-be-a-zionist-and-you-should-be-one-too

    Mr Cohen, the Cabinet is full of dolts and cowards. If any of them ever had any thoughts that Israel is being treated unfairly, they wouldn't dare say so because they would probably be fire-bombed at home by someone from the ummah. Labour is the party of the Stockport Slapper who, when Labour was in opposition, flashed her stumpy thighs in the House of Commons yet, a few months later during the election campaign, donned a full-length dress in the company of 'elders' from that ummah so that she could show how modest and respectful she was as she begged for their votes.

    They are all morally retarded and take pleasure in siding with the enemies of our country in particular and civilisation in general. They hate goodness, virtue and effort because they are qualities of the individuals who do good things in society without direction from above, qualities that they lack. Because of their own inadequacy they desire to control these people yet cower when faced with the psychopathy of the death cult that threatens us all.

    There are perhaps 15 million Jews in the world, outnumbered at least 120:1 by Muslims. For Labour, it's simply a numbers game; there are no moral considerations.

    1. You could say that the English are in a similar position. Who dare say proudly that they're English these days without being accused of being racist? The English are not even supposed to be a race. England doesn't have its own Parliament for England alone, unlike the Scots, and even the Welsh have their own Assembly.

    2. Why should we be proud to be Zionists? The State of Israel was born of terrorism and violence directed against the British Army. The Stern Gang and Irgun murdered British people. I find it difficult to sympathise with such tactics, which are no different from that of the IRA. The counter-argument is that they are 'freedom fighters'. That doesn't wash with me.

      However, the status quo is that the State of Israel does exist, so has every right to defend itself and its citizens, and the enemy is Islam. My attitude is 'your enemy is my enemy'.

      1. Not all of the Zionists supported the violence. They feared that it would harm their cause. Nor should it be forgotten that this happened after WW2 when Britain just wanted to get out but was obliged under The Mandate to 'police' the region. About 100,000 soldiers were sent there, many of whom probably didn't want to be. They became involved in a fight they didn't want to be part of. Some of them committed what would today be called war crimes as they tried to intervene in the dispute between Arabs and Jews. The militant Jewish groups saw this as a provocation.

        1. It always used to be said that the most militant Israeli citizens were those who came from Europe, especially from behind the iron curtain – a prime example being Menachem Begin, who hewed to the "God gave us this land" line. He of course had been the leader of Irgun which was responsible for the King David hotel bombing.

      2. Not all of the Zionists supported the violence. They feared that it would harm their cause. Nor should it be forgotten that this happened after WW2 when Britain just wanted to get out of the region but was obliged under The Mandate to 'police' the region. There were about 100,000 soldiers sent there, many of whom probably didn't want to be there. They became involved in a fight they didn't want to be part of. Some of them committed what would today be called war crimes as they tried to intervene in the dispute between Arabs and Jews. The militant Jewish groups saw this as a provocation.

      3. Not all of the Zionists supported the violence. They feared that it would harm their cause. Nor should it be forgotten that this happened after WW2 when Britain just wanted to get out of the region but was obliged under The Mandate to 'police' the region. There were about 100,000 soldiers sent there, many of whom probably didn't want to be there. They became involved in a fight they didn't want to be part of. Some of them committed what would today be called war crimes as they tried to intervene in the dispute between Arabs and Jews. The militant Jewish groups saw this as a provocation.

      4. Any people who had been through the mass murders that the Jews had been, and who had "allegedly" been offered a homeland (through the Balfour declaration) would have seized the opportunity.

        The British were playing "what the Lord giveth the Lord can taketh away."
        The Zionists/Jews were not going to give away what they had been promised without a fight.

          1. It's very long, probably written by Zionists, but that doesn't make it irrelevant.
            It's information, take it or leave it as you wish.

          3. I'm not sure that it does.

            I often post links to provide different perspective, even those perspectives I disagree with.

            The topic in question is extremely polarising

          4. Let’s talk about the Ottoman Empire. I find it fascinating that having had there arses well and truly kicked at The Gates of Vienna, come 1914, the Ottoman Turks threw in their lot with the Habsburgs, Romanovs and Hohenzollerns. In the dying days of Ottoman rule in the Middle East, the Arabs and Jews rubbed along in equal misery, as witnessed by Mark Twain in 1867. Yet it gets reduced to, “the Jews turned up in an Arab land in 1948”.

  102. I suspect they hate militant Islam, rather than Iran itself.

    Iran, once known as Persia, was part of the process of civilisation of the world.

  103. Ah but the Mizrahi Jews have been in the Holy Land 3000+ years. They never left. The Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. The Ashkenazi Jews returned in the 1880s in response to persecution in Tsarist Russia and bought land from the Ottoman Turks. They’re still only around 23% of the population. 20% are Arab. The Balfour Declaration was acknowledging an existing reality. Not really a catalyst.

    1. I don't disagree, hence "totally t-i-c"

      The problem with the Balfour declaration and what followed after WW2 was that people didn't realise the reality of Islam and particularly militant Islam.
      Muslims were never going to accept Israel and I strongly suspect they never will.
      Dreadful, but true.

      1. A lot of Arab countries would rather deal with Israel than the Palestinians who are basically the Dalits of the Arab world, used as "indentured workers" by the affluent Arab countries. If they get killed or die on the job, the host nation basically shrugs.

        1. Given the choice of Palestine for Palestinians and no Israel I suspect they'd opt for no Israel

  104. Afternoon, Nottlers. A beautiful 27C with warm wind to welcome me back to Canada after a week down in Minnesota and Wisconsin with a friend of mine. Back in time to host the drunken degeneracy a party for the summer solstice. He decided to take his EV – which was my first multi-day trip in one. Managed a range of about 490 miles per charge driving on mostly 55 to 65mph roads, so we charged overnight at a couple of motels.

    Interesting thing was seeing how many places sold pasties. Every small village had a 'best pasties in town' place, and after trying a couple they were pretty darn good. Apparently they became popular when Cornish tin miners came over to work the tin and lead mines that are all over the Upper Peninsula, offering better money that Cornwall and a chance for a new life in the colonies around the 1850's and beyond. Interesting stuff.

    Glad to be back home though!

  105. The Iranians are a very clever people, just suppose they anticipated the West going to war with them and have been busy flooding Europe and the UK with their operatives under cover of refugee status, how could we possibly defend ourselves from that in the event of war? we might just find our equipment has all been sabotaged, such as happened recently to our warplanes.
    Should we stop all people crossing the channel until hostilities cease?

    1. We should stop all people who are not European Christians crossing the Channel regardless of the hostilities status!

    2. Of course thats what they are doing/have done. How can the government past & present let this happen.

        1. I don't believe that the "idiots" – Labour, Tories etc. – believe that islam is harmless. On the contrary, importing a culture and belief system that is viscerally opposed to our own is a deliberate act of harm.

    1. Respect to all the Kwik Save staff, who work usefully for ordinary pay. Unlike most MPs who work uselessly for extraordinary pay.

      2. When did KwikSave get taken over by Somerfields?
        Bloody donkey's years ago!!

    2. Reminiscent of how the US and UK treated De Gaulle and his suspected colander-like entourage in WWII.

  108. How much is illegal migration costing? Talk about two billion dollar bummers!

  109. Afternoon, GQ.

    US Congress is also wondering why they didn't get to know until they woke up and heard about it on CNN.

    1. Hello mate.
      With the Labour Party they are A, irrelevant, and B, liable to phone the Iranian embassy and tell them.

    2. Not a mention of that in the Washington Post, normally a paper that prints anything and everything derogatory about Trump. All the president is required to do is notify the Congressional leadership, i.e. very few congress critters (as we call them).

  110. Apple ogies, I'm really having unpleasant problems with all the medication I'm having to take.
    Hopefully by the end of the next week I'll be closer to 'normal' whatever that means.
    Good night all Nottlers, take care. 😴
    I've just heard that Barry Gibb has died.

  111. Why are we hearing, do Americans support this or that. There are nearly 350 million people in the USA. Some do. Some don’t. Does a poll tell us what the majority think? No. It tells us what the people who were polled think, depending on how the question was framed. Do you agree with me or would you like to be shot at dawn?

  112. There are protests outside the White House
    hands off Iran, no war with Iran, yahdi yahdi.
    If protesters did similarly regarding Israel or the USA or Britain in Tehran those protesters would be dead before the night was out and probably their families with them.

    1. I thought they just slung a rope around the neck and used a crane to haul the victim up into the air?

  113. Hullo, Sue. I generally find that rewatching Yes Prime Minister to be a good reminder of what has always gone on.

  116. A properly constructed poll which takes a genuinely random selection of people can produce accurate results from a very surprisingly small sample
    The problem is getting that "genuinely random selection of people" and posing the questions properly

    It also assumes that those who answer are very confident that they won't be shot at dawn for their answers!

    1. Nottlers are not a representative sample of people in the UK as a whole – but poll results would be interesting.

  117. Off topic
    U21's Wendyball.
    Italy down to 9 players and 2-1 down in the last minute of extra time and they scored.
    I doubt they will win, but what an example of never say die.

    2. I wouldn't worry too much pal. It's all about playing the news cycle.

      COVID disappeared within 24 hour of Russia hitting Ukraine.
      Ukraine disappeared within 24 hours of Hamas hitting Israel.
      Hamas disappeared within 24 hours of Israel hitting Iran.
      Israel disappeared within 24 hours of the USA hitting Iran.

      2. I’ve lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War (I was underground in a bunker waiting to record air bursts) and now I’m nearly 77. If Armageddon, happens, it happens and there’s sod all I can do about it.

  119. Trump calling for regime change in Iran.
    Now, much as I would like to see the fall of the Ayatollahs, I don't believe it's up to outside forces to call for it.

    Where does it stop?
    Kick out Starmer, abolish Macron, remove Trump?

  120. Well, if it does, I’ll be sure to retract my comment inside of the 25 minutes it will take. 😉

  122. In bed now – catching up with some of the chat from today.
    We had a good day out in Bristol – talked to lots of people visiting our friends' garden it's amazing what they've made of a long, narrow suburban garden.
    I took lots of photos of flowers etc, and we had a light supper together with lots of chat.

  123. Farage: ‘I will charge non-doms £250k and give it to the poor’
    Reform leader wants a Robin Hood-style levy on ‘high net worth’ individuals so that low-paid workers receive £600 bonuses
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/06/22/nigel-farage-i-will-reinstate-the-non-dom-status/

    “O Judgment!” Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason!
    [Julius Caesar]

    Farage has gone completely to pieces – he seems to have lost all practical good sense and rationality.

    1. I used to support Farage but when I think of him now, this is what comes to mind:

      “A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
      base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
      hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
      lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
      glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
      one-trunk-inheriting slave”

      [King Lear]

    3. Happy Birthday Herr Oberst! Have a wonderful day! I didn’t realise you were sooo young!💕🍺🎂🍾

  126. Well, chums, bedtime calls. So Good Night, sleep well, and I hope to see you all early tomorrow morning.

  127. It's 6:45pm here and the outside temperature is still 97°F or 36°C. And humid with it.

    Meanwhile, thanks to the heat pumps, it is a comfortable 77 (25) inside. inside., and I am enjoying cold Pinot Grigio.

    Night….

    1. Lovely stuff, JTL. If you don't mind me asking – where are you and what heat pump did you go with? Air to air?

      1. Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. Or as the locals call it, God's Own Country.

        AIr to air HP's are pretty much standard in the US, although one neighbour has a ground source system. We looked at that when building the house, but it was an expensive option, so we passed. The units we have are from Bryant – part of the Carrier group – now 17 years old, but still doing the job.

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