Tuesday 15 July: The Government needs to realise the economic illiteracy of tax raids

Posted on by Geoff Graham

The Government needs to realise the economic illiteracy of tax raids

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592 thoughts on “Tuesday 15 July: The Government needs to realise the economic illiteracy of tax raids”

    2. As far as I am aware neither of the acts that appeared at Glasto and chanted about death to various people they opposed have been arrested yet? Incitement to violence, shirley, but as yet no arrests let alone fast tracked court appearance and gaol? And, of course, Davie seems to still be in his job.

  8. Peers Warn Grieve Islamophobia Definition Threatens Free Speech
    A group of peers from all parties have fired off a letter to Dominic Grieve, Chair of the ‘Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim Hatred’ Working Group, raising serious alarm bells over the definition of ‘Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim Hatred’. The peers warn it risks having a “chilling effect on free speech” and could “exacerbate community tensions.” The peers urge Grieve to:

    Broaden the Working Group to improve its credibility.
    Postpone any conclusions until after the public inquiry into the grooming gangs has reported.
    Drop the word ‘Islamophobia’ from the definition entirely.
    Make the draft definition public for full Parliamentary scrutiny before the government decides whether to adopt it.
    The letter makes clear that ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘anti-Muslim hatred’ are not the same thing, and warns of serious risks if institutions and disciplinary bodies misapply the definition. A timely reminder that definitions have consequences…

    Read the letter, signed by 37 peers, in full below:
    https://www.scribd.com/document/888147455/dominic-grieve-kc-14-07-25#from_embed

    Captain Thrush
    12h
    Dominic Grieve hasn’t got a conservative bone in his body. He’s a walking billboard of everything wrong with this country.

    daz
    10h
    All Farage has to do is say that Reform will destroy this legislation once elected.
    Labour are handing Reform more voters every day.

    Hmmm…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b84757091127a632b1efc899ddcb64775cc3e811706913b95340f49526079f8a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f442cbc0bee9e8f6e6f0b4d8fcd51ce3467ccae93ba7e6cacacdf166f6680658.png

      1. Sisal, I hope. We mustn't use nylon as that's made from oil and Millipede would be very cross with us.

  12. Dissident
    11h
    It'll be interesting to see how Starmer's human rights police will square this off with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's clearly in violation of at least 2 articles.
    I mean, we all know that the UDHR is a work of utopian scifi, and no country obeys all of it all the time… But still… They do like to harp on about "international law". Seems a bit too much to be oh so blatantly breaking it.

    Alan
    Dissident
    10h
    Yep, articles 19 and 20.

    fred finger
    Dissident
    11h
    Liebore MPs only look at the ethnic votes they lose if they do not kowtow

  13. Good morning all.
    Another bright start, but a VERY light drizzle was felt when I went out to check the temperature, hopefully a precursor of a more to come.
    Aforesaid temperature a slightly less warm 15½°.

  15. Morning, all Y'all.
    Been raining a fair bit, everything is wet, but the sun is breaking through.

  16. Michael Deacon
    Starmer’s claim that he’s tackling immigration now looks more ridiculous than ever

    Why on earth does the Government think we need to import poets and ‘diversity experts’?

    15 July 2025 6:00am BST
    Michael Deacon

    Why precisely is it that, over the past two decades, the UK has imported so many millions of foreign workers? Supposedly it’s because our country has severe “skills shortages”. Personally, though, I have my doubts. Especially now that this newspaper has unearthed a list of the occupations that immigrants can cite when applying for “skilled work visas”.

    And among them, believe it or not, is “poet”.

    Now, it may well be true that our country no longer produces great poets of her own. Even so, I’d be surprised if many British employers have been anxiously petitioning Yvette Cooper to allow in more poets from abroad.

    “Honestly, Home Secretary, we’d love to hire homegrown poets. Sadly, though, British workers nowadays are just too lazy and entitled to master iambic tetrameter. They’d rather sit at home claiming benefits than get up at 6am to do an honest day’s graft on a villanelle or a rondeau redoublé. That’s why we urgently need to recruit thousands of hard-working young poets from Poland, Pakistan and Somalia. Otherwise, this country’s Petrarchan sonnet industry will collapse.”

    Even more surprising, however, is another job on the “skilled visa” list. It’s “diversity and inclusion expert”.

    If there is one line of work in which Britain does not face even the faintest hint of a skills shortage, surely to goodness it’s “diversity and inclusion”. Every single year, without fail, our universities turn out hundreds of thousands of expertly brainwashed, virtue-signalling woke ideologues. That’s easily enough to staff the nation’s HR departments. So why on earth should we allow foreigners to come over here and steal these jobs in DEI, when our own deranged Left-wing fanatics could be doing them?

    Still, perhaps some good will come of this farce. The middle-class Left may finally turn against mass immigration, now it’s putting their own jobs at risk.

    The single stupidest trigger warning yet
    Readers have long grown wearily inured to the dismal sight of trigger warnings on books that contain politically incorrect language. Even so, the one appended to a new novel entitled Men in Love merits special attention. Because, despite stiff competition, it must be the single most pointless trigger warning ever written.

    “As a novel set in the 1980s,” it reads, “many of the characters in Men in Love, as in society in general, express themselves in ways that we now consider offensive and discriminatory.” The warning then hastily reassures us that the author’s use of such hurtful language is not “an endorsement” of it – it’s merely his “attempt to authentically replicate” the way that all too many people used to speak in those shamefully unenlightened times.

    At first glance, the above may seem no worse than any other trigger warning. But what makes this one so outstandingly imbecilic is that Men in Love happens to be by Irvine Welsh. Indeed, it’s a sequel to Trainspotting – his bestselling 1993 novel about the harrowing misadventures of a group of Scottish heroin addicts.

    Bearing this in mind, I’d love to know who exactly the trigger warning is intended to appease. Men in Love’s publishers, it would seem, believe that Mr Welsh has readers who will happily lap up graphic depictions of drug abuse, violence, underage sex and dead babies – and yet be horrified by the occasional scrap of sexist dialogue.

    God only knows what sort of complaints they expected to receive, if they didn’t add the trigger warning.

    “Dear Sirs,

    “For the past three decades I have been an avid reader of your esteemed author Mr Irvine Welsh. With unalloyed pleasure I devoured Filth, his charming 1998 tale of a psychopathic, cocaine-snorting, sexually abusive police officer with a talking tapeworm. I equally adored Porno, his joyful 2002 romp about a gang of thugs attempting to produce a pornographic video. And, like millions of other cinema-goers, I delighted in the 1996 film adaptation of Trainspotting – thanks not least to that splendid scene in which a gentleman with diarrhoea explosively fouls the bedsheets of his young lady companion, and then accidentally sprays the sheets’ contents all over her parents while they’re eating breakfast.

    “You will surely understand my disgust, therefore, when I opened Mr Welsh’s latest novel Men in Love – only to discover that one of the characters refers to a woman living with obesity as ‘a fat lassie’.

    “Needless to say, I was shocked and appalled. Never in all my years of reading Mr Welsh did I imagine that he would stoop to writing something so unspeakably offensive.

    “Please inform this sickening lout that, unless he makes his cast of violent working-class Scottish smackheads start talking like a panel of Guardian columnists discussing gender equality at the Hay Festival, I shall never read another word he writes.”

    3. Children at primary school are taught that calling someone 'fat' is unacceptable. That's not a problem for children in North Korea, oh…

  17. 409406+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The sleeping Army,

    Face the truth they are temporary billets until permanent accommodation can be arranged in the near future when they are recognized as kapo squads.

    As the indigenous are mandatory moved out along the lines of Jewish peoples early 40s, they, the kapos move in, signs are currently this will receive the royal seal and so far there has been only rhetorical resistance.

    https://x.com/EssexPR/status/1944837428961001588 https://x.com/EssexPR/status/1944837428961001588
    https://x.com/EssexPR/status/1944837428961001588

  18. Paul Goodman
    An institutional intifada is coming to crush a Reform government

    The so-called blob can’t be blamed for everything, but Farage ought to be wary of those who seek to bury him

    In England’s fractured five-party system – featuring Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Reform and the Green/Islamist/far-Left movement – a hung Parliament is certain sooner or later, in any event. Especially once Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are factored in, with their nationalists and unionists.

    This explains why Labour is likely to form a new government after the next election – even if it exhausts its stupendous parliamentary majority, the second largest since World War Two, in much the same way that it is exhausting the nation’s finances.

    For in a hung Parliament, one must have allies. And Labour has more potential partners than anyone else: the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish Nationalists, Plaid Cymru, Northern Ireland nationalists, Greens and Islamists.

    None of these may want to join a coalition government with Labour if one is offered. But they will surely be even more unwilling to form one with parties of the Right.

    Meanwhile, the Conservatives and Reform would have only – a few Ulster unionists apart – each other as potential partners, if one assumes that the Liberal Democrats won’t work with either. Which would be bigger?

    Perhaps by the next election the party of which I’m a member, the Conservatives, will once again be the main party of the Right – especially in the event of a crash in the markets that leaves other parties, with their promises of higher spending and lower taxes, over-promised and under-prepared. But as I write, it looks unlikely. It is no longer absurd to imagine Reform as the larger of the two Right-wing parties in parliament. What would happen next?

    Perhaps Nigel Farage would offer the disorientated Tories a coalition, and so swallow up whatever was left of them. For what it’s worth, I would prefer a confidence and supply arrangement – partly because I’m a convinced Conservative, even in these unpromising circumstances, and partly because I’m not convinced by Reform.

    But regardless of our party political preferences, we should want a future Reform administration to succeed: all of us, because it is in our interest for government to work, and Conservatives in particular, because – as conservatives with a small C as well as a large one – a legitimate Right-wing party should be preferable to a legitimate Left-wing one.

    But if parties with experience, like the Conservatives and Labour, find it hard to govern, one without it, like Reform, would find it next to impossible. Here are three illustrations.

    On day one, the new Reform administration instructs the Royal Navy to return small boats containing illegal migrants to France as they cross the Channel. Naval officers refuse, asserting that the French will refuse to accept the returns, that there is a risk that migrants will scupper their boats, and that in these circumstances refusing to take them to Britain would breach international law.

    On day five, Reform’s new Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a businessman with no political experience, is accused of bullying civil servants. Downing Street’s Propriety and Ethics unit steps in. Staffed by civil servants and based in the Cabinet Office, the unit has a formidable reputation. It helped to investigate Nadhim Zahawi, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and Chris Pincher under the last government. All were forced out, rightly or wrongly.

    On day 10, the new Reform home secretary, like Suella Braverman, demands that the Progress flag, which represents the LGBTQ+ cause, no longer be flown above the Home Office. He has no more luck than Braverman, who said later: “I couldn’t even get the flag of a horrible political campaign I disagreed with taken down from the roof of the government department I was supposed to be in charge of.”

    There is a fashion on the Right for blaming a “blob” of unaccountable quangocrats, activist judges, politicised civil servants and outdated international agreements for intensifying Britain’s problems. Some Labour MPs, since their party took office, have overlapping complaints. Both underplay the main source of the problem: a House of Commons that is no longer providing enough effective, coherent legislation and efficient, commanding ministers.

    But regardless of one’s view of the matter, there can be no doubt that a Reform government would be seen, in some corners of Westminster and Whitehall, as illegitimate. And would be met from day one by an institutional intifada.

    My impression is that those at the top of Reform think of themselves as Big Men with Strong Views. They certainly have the latter – hence the falling out of Farage and Rupert Lowe. And maybe, in government, they would prove themselves the former. Perhaps a Reform government would beat establishment resistance to a pulp (metaphorically, not literally).

    But as matters stand, it looks like Reform that’s cruising for a bruising – if it ever makes government at all. Getting the system to work takes time even if it likes the look of you. Tony Blair complained of “scars on my back” after trying to reform the public sector. The Civil Service came to terms with Margaret Thatcher only in her second term.

    Before she won her first election, John Hoskyns, a businessman, devised a plan for government to tackle the problems of the day: inflation, trade union militancy, decline. It was called Stepping Stones.

    If Farage is to follow in her footsteps, he needs a modern equivalent: a strategic plan for getting his most radical measures – leaving the ECHR, abandoning the net zero targets, scrapping the Equality Act – through Parliament (where they would meet particular resistance in the Lords) in order to ensure that they gain the democratic legitimacy to which the courts would bow.

    During the 1980s, the key question was what a new Right-wing government should do. Today, it’s how to do it. Are the Big Men thinking big enough?

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

    Steve McConnell
    1 day ago
    What I would be doing, if I were reform, is drafting a Deregulation Bill right now to wipe out key sections in everything from the Digital Communications Act to the Human Rights Act to the Environment Act. I would have instructed an appropriate law firm for the job so it could be ready without a single civil servant having seen a word of it. I would be talking to sympathetic organisations with the requisite legal knowledge, such as the Free Speech Union, to identify every section which might be used to block the necessary governmental agenda. I would table on the first day of parliament, with the same threat to the Lords as David Lloyd George made in 1909: "get in line or we are going to appoint several hundred new life peers who support us".

    Then I would gear up for an absolutely monumental fight, with probably things like an attempted general strike to contend with. I would be preparing legislation in a similar vain to deal with that too

  21. Going by the latest polls, even the new Lefty Fruit & Nutcase Party is as popular as Labour

    3. I showed that to runner son , who has a great national position for his age group (56yrs)

      What a tragic ending , poor Fauja Singh.

      1. Indeed. I saw a Severn Trent vehicle today. On both sides was a picture of an old black man drinking from a bottle with the slogan “fresh water on tap”. Quite apart from the fact it was bottled not tap water, I wanted to slap a sticker on it saying “in Africa? Are we paying for it?”

    1. I expect a nice little job will be coming his way in the WEF establishment when he leaves office.

  25. Girl, 12, put in isolation at school for wearing Union Flag dress on culture day
    “Courtney was so embarrassed and couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong."
    One child dressed in traditional farming clothes — flat cap and checked shirt — wasn’t allowed in.
    Another with a St George’s flag. One had a Welsh flag. All turned away.

    The event was billed as a celebration of cultural heritage, with a permission letter telling parents the day aimed to promote “inclusion, understanding, and appreciation of different backgrounds, traditions and heritages.

    What.. no police?
    .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/91859067c635e6fe7ac5212d1127e1c9c47d8c1882997b848587717d691dbaf4.jpg message from Head..
    Respect: for each other, the environment, our interactions and our celebration of individuality
    Resilience: be that to complete the essay, to understand a new concept or overcome a new challenge
    Kindness: to help the youngest and newest recruits into our community

    1. Phew it's Ok.. Ai issued an apology.

      Stowe Valley Trust said:
      “At Bilton School, we are proud of the diversity of our students and the rich heritage they bring to our community. We are committed to fostering an environment where every pupil feels respected, valued, and included.“
      We are committed to learning from this experience and ensuring that every student feels recognised and supported when expressing pride in their heritage."

        2. Diversity is when you have to behave as you’re told and can’t be diverse because you’ll upset someone. It’s better known as conformity.

    3. I wonder how she’d respond to someone turning up in a grass skirt and a bone through their nose. Cultural heritage or racial stereotype?

    6. Put the Headmistress in a full burka.

      If she continues on her current course she doesn't need the slit for her eyes in the veil as she is already blind.

  26. Heart of stone and all that..

    Mosque Caught On Fire One Day Before Inauguration
    A fire ravaged the newly constructed mosque in Piera, a town near Barcelona, Spain. LOL

    2. Comment of the day..
      Try selling your laugh-a-minute definition of islamophobia there.

    3. The Spanish had the problems of Islam long before they tried to take over rest of the world.
      They know what they have to do.

      2. Yes it makes him feel smug with himself but does sweet bugger all for the rest of the population.

        1. Typical of the people in politics.
          Basically a waste of time and money and absolutely useless.

  28. The Government needs to realise the economic illiteracy of tax raids

    It's nothing to do with illiteracy or incompetence

    The government is engaged in a conspiracy to foment a complete collapse of the UK's economy and a complete social collapse will follow shortly thereafter.

    It is the deliberate and engineered destruction of the UK

    The British people are completely passive, servile acquiescent drones who will just rollover and allow the British ruling class to crush their own citizenry.

    1. Convid was the rehearsal. The GBP proved they prefer living in the old East Germany.

    2. I think I should change my Avatar name , I am finding it seriously difficult corresponding to strange new Avatar names ..

      Who were you before your new avatar rename ?

  29. What an idiotic idea , just like Gordon Brown encouraging us to use economical diesel cars, but electric , for goodness sake !

    AI Overview
    The cost to fully charge an electric car at home varies, but it's generally between £4 and £20, depending on the car's battery size and the electricity tariff. Most drivers choose to charge overnight, taking advantage of cheaper off-peak electricity rates. For example, one provider offers a tariff where charging is under 3p per mile, according to the UK government website.
    Here's a more detailed breakdown:
    Electricity Cost:
    The cost depends on your electricity tariff and how much you pay per kilowatt-hour (kWh). According to British Gas, the average domestic electricity rate in the UK is about 24.5p per kWh, but this can vary based on your location and supplier.
    Battery Size:
    Larger batteries require more electricity to charge, so a larger battery will result in a higher charging cost.
    Charging Time:
    A typical 60kWh electric car, for example, could cost around £15 to fully charge, providing about 200 miles of range.
    Home vs. Public Charging:
    Charging at home is generally the cheapest option, with costs significantly lower than using public charging stations.
    Smart Charging:
    Some suppliers offer smart charging options, where you can schedule charging during off-peak hours (usually overnight) when electricity is cheaper, further reducing costs.

    1. EVs are such a good idea that they need constant subsidies, while ICE vehicles generate billions for the government through fuel duty.

    2. Our opposite neighbours took two hours longer to reach their holiday destination in Cornwall last month because of their electric car……
      I expect they spent money in the venue with the chargers as well.

      1. On a related financial topic.
        We pay a bit more for delivered milk.
        On the other hand, I don't pop into the corner shop and end up with tins of 'bargain' dog food, 2 almond croissants and a bunch of sunflowers. And forget the milk, so have to go back and …… you get the picture.

        1. As long as the parking is free. Stick to the list in hand and don’t be tempted by the shelves. 🤗
          We used to have our milk delivered but he made so much noise at around 4 am and the lights were a disturbance.

          1. If only I had been blessed with such willpower.
            Ours delivers between 9 and 10 in the evening, twice a week.
            Jolly handy in this weather as I can put the bottles in the fridge straightaway.

    2. Good morning .
      Hilarious , I had to focus my eyes ..

      PS ,

      Notional Trust, are you our much missed Grizzly , with a full on beard?

      1. "…are you our much missed Grizzly…?"

        Sadly not.
        Sorry if this disappoints.

  31. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunny, windy, much cooler, rain after lunch.
    What a good night's sleep nine hours in total.
    Today's Headline……the government are flat out utterly stupid, every single one of them. And the opposition don't rate very much higher. And its so obvious that we have run out of money because the allowed and strongly encouraged invasion continues, flat out.

  32. SIR – I wonder if the Chancellor watches Antiques Roadshow.

    On Sunday night, Andy McConnell was presented with a small, elegant jug made of white opaque glass, produced in south Staffordshire. He could date it precisely because we learnt to imitate ceramics in this way in 1740; when excise duty was imposed on British manufactured glass in 1745, white opaque glass was not included. However, in 1777, excise duty was added, causing manufacture to stop immediately.

    Some fundamental and inescapable laws of economics applied then as now.

    John Brady
    Haddenham, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – Anthony Rowland (Letters, July 14) bemoans the cost of his breakfast at a garden centre.

    He blames profiteering, but it could also be the result of pressures on the hospitality industry caused by Labour’s policies, such as the National Insurance hike and an increased minimum wage.

    Mark Williams
    Commugny, Vaud, Switzerland

    Titans of Wimbledon
    SIR – Listening to the on-court interviews after the Wimbledon men’s singles final (Sport, July 14) gave me hope for the future.

    There stood two young men from Mediterranean countries explaining their feelings in a language that is not their mother tongue, in a humble and eloquent way.

    This was truly a clash of the Titans, both physically and mentally. It was sport at the highest level.

    Avril Wright
    Ingoldisthorpe, Norfolk

    Yes , oh yes , and more from me ..

    1. Morning TB
      Is there a copy of the letter from Anthony Rowland it's a name I am familiar with. Was it from the St Albans area ? Where there are some expensive garden centre's.

        3. He’s only 3 miles or so from Horsell, the village where we live, where we have 3 pubs in the high street 2 of whom serve food. The Red Lion is our favourite for well cooked and presented food and very well trained staff. It’s as expensive as you want it to be as quite a few Nottlers will testify. We have three cafes in the village who all serve food 2 very English style and the other one an Italian owned and run where you can get 2 main courses for just over £20 and a whole host of different brands of pasta in various shapes and sizes as well à a fridge full of Italian meats, cheeses, olives etc to take away. The deli is open from 7 in the morning until 6.30 in the evening and family run.
          Mr Rowland really should get out.
          https://www.deliclass.co.uk

        4. I went to school in Ottershaw, just up the road from West Byfleet

      2. There was long discussion about it on here yesterday evening.

        Diners are right to be fed up with rip-off prices

        SIR – Although I am sympathetic to the hospitality sector in general, not least because of the way it suffered during lockdown, and latterly the unacceptable raise in employers' National Insurance contributions, it does seem a bit rich complaining about the Government's ideas to open cheap eateries for those who are struggling financially ("Restaurateurs deride war-time diners idea", report, July 11).

        Eating out in this country has become so expensive that most people, whatever their income, are beginning to feel ripped off. Recently I met a friend in a run-of-the-mill garden centre for a quick breakfast. He had scrambled eggs on toast. I had the full English, simply because it was cheaper than ordering the egg and bacon I wanted. The cost of the above with a small pot of tea and a coffee was £25. I then realised that the full English didn't come with toast (it did a couple of months ago), so I ordered two slices, costing another £2.85. An additional rasher of bacon was £1.80; a half of tomato, £1.50. This is profiteering at its worst, and it's everywhere you look.

        I realise that everything has gone up across Europe, but in the UK, we are being taken for a ride. Friends of mine over from Italy were shocked at the prices they have been paying to dine out in the most simple of eateries. Many of them are not very good, and none of them offer value for money.

        Where this all ends I have no idea, but it cannot go on as the pips are squeaking now.

        Anthony Rowland
        Byfleet, Surrey

        2. Some comments:
          – "cheap eateries for those who are struggling financially" – will one have to have a government poverty certificate to allow one entry? Or, will anyone be allowed in for a cheap noshup?
          – If folk don't like the prices, don't go. It's dull, but really as simple as that. Norway is expensive, and folk don't go out as much as we used to in the UK.

        1. Ouch. I make a point of tipping juniors, reckon owners can take care of themselves 🙂

          1. I've known the owner since she took over the business when she was a 20 year old.
            That took some guts and discipline. She still works three days a week and copes with a husband now sadly suffering with dementia.

          2. A sound person. Very sorry to read about her husband – a lot of cases about, my dad was one but he was in his 90s.

    1. Maxshep
      @maxshep21
      ·
      1h
      Singapore is a very wealthy nation, ranking among the richest in the world.

      It boasts a high GDP per capita and a significant amount of household wealth, with a strong economy driven by factors like its strategic location, robust financial sector, and high-value industries.

      Why would the UK need to give this Country tax payers money?. Labour is putting the UK in a very serious financial position. Why??.

  35. Good moaning.
    We have just proved that all this interwebby/cyber stuff is neither efficient nor time saving.
    After battle royal with a solicitors' website – photoing NOT photocopying stuff, trying to down load onto a recalcitrant interwebby form that died the death when we were merely entering our address, MB and I made a joint decision.
    "Sod it. We'll go back to the steam age and present ourselves at the office and they can copy what they want."
    It took me longer to merely photograph my passport to an "acceptable" standard than it will take to nip a mile or so up the road and present ourselves – and requisite documents – in person.
    It's extra annoying that the practice is the one we use – for wills and house buying – but we are now dealing with a different department.

  36. Good Morning!

    Today Graham Cunningham gives us an entertaining opinion on the nature of conservatives in his The Hitchhiker's Guide to Social Conservatism . Let us know if you agree or what your views are on what makes a conservative.

    In The WHO Treaty: A Quiet Coup Against National Sovereignty and Democratic Accountability , we appeal for you all to demand that the government rejects both the World Health Assembly's 2024 Amendments on the International Health rules, and the WHO's Pandemic Treaty, as they amount to nothing less than a globalist coup and a major step towards the borderless totalitarian New World Order our corrupt Establishment so clearly wants.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's electric power was sourced from Gas, 15.3%; Solar, 9.3%: Wind 32.9%; Imports, 16.7%; Biomass, 9.8%; Nuclear 13.8% and Miscellaneous, 2.1%.

  37. Rain expected after lunch – so off to carry on hedge trimming. Back later. Play nicely.

  38. Just had a run to Matlock to pick up medications and a few things as haversack rations for tomorrow's journey, but forgot to call in at Cromford Station to pick up my tickets!
    Will go down later.
    Now sat with mug of tea before getting to grips with packing.

      2. Hameln.
        Former home of 28 Amphibious Engineer Regiment and other RE units.
        Bridging the Weser https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/269de15c46aac6c9b671ea8c56a20114f4c5478348b7a25e445048367b7204c7.jpg One of the lads in front of his M2B Rig
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5cf25e01dd3c731d828b402216696508bab65c18a6e45fdce7ec10a35c60d14e.jpg And the Squadron Bar https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21f4d6ec37834687396064eb4045851316b264a05adb12d7ebf7bfaf26e6ff39.jpg

        3. In 1972 while stationed in Germany, my wife and I plus small daughter visited Hameln to see the annual (?) enactment of the Pied Piper legend. I believe that the enactments are continued, which is more than can be said for the many British military units that once were in Germany.

  39. Coming to control us all……….
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/whos-pandemic-agenda-is-all-about-profits-not-health/
    MUCH has been written on the amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) which most countries are making themselves subject to after July 19 (this Saturday). Many raise concerns of loss of sovereignty, censorship, corporate greed, and conflict of interest. But most are missing the main point: the sheer and outright stupidity and fallacy on which the whole pandemic agenda is based.

    Saturday is the last day that Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) can withdraw from the IHR amendments (without entering a multi-year withdrawal process). By failing to withdraw, they will be committing their taxpayers to fund the key surveillance aspects of a rapidly expanding industry that is the pandemic industrial complex. They will be required to set up an extensive network to search for well-established natural phenomena, including the tendency of viruses to mutate into variants. This has been part of the natural world for hundreds of millions of years, but demonstrating it has recently become highly profitable due to a confluence of technological advances and intensive marketing.

    1. But it wont stop

      And the British people need to wake up and accept that it is not going to stop

      I doesn't matter who you vote for either. It will not make any difference

      Our nation is being destroyed in front of our eyes by design, deliberately

      We sit passively by just waiting for our own self immolation.

    1. If she had turned up in a sari, would she have been accused of cultural appropriation?

    2. "The piece Courtney wrote for 'culture day'"


      "Today I want to talk about my culture — British culture — and why it’s important to me.

      In Britain, we have lots of traditions including drinking tea, our love for talking about the weather and we have the royal family.

      We have amazing history, like kings and queens, castles, and writers like Shakespeare. It's also modern, diverse and always changing – with music fashion and food from all around the world blending into daily life. And let’s not forget fish and chips!

      Its also the way we speak, our humour, our values of fairness and politeness, and the mix of old traditions and new ideas

      But sometimes at school, we only hear about other cultures — which is great because learning about different countries is interesting and important. But it can feel like being British doesn’t count as a culture, just because it’s the majority.

      I think culture should be for everyone — not just for people from other countries or backgrounds. Being British is still a culture, and it matters too. It’s part of who I am.

      So let’s celebrate all cultures — whether they come from far away or right here at home."

      How on earth could they exclude the kid's contribution.

      1. 409408+ up ticks,

        Mo,
        Pushing the lefty envelope, the types that have organised these knock-backs know full well they will never get away with most of their agenda but sadly they will with some, and piece by piece
        in time ………

      2. Patriotism is now viewed as far right extremism. I'm only surprised they didn't expel her from the school and report her to Prevent.

      1. The 1st step towards respecting, appreciating and understanding other cultures is to respect, appreciate and understand your own culture.
        Without that step any attempt to celebrate another culture becomes little more than the noise made by an empty drum.

  42. Weird cricket tests.

    W Indies second innings, extras was second highest total.

  43. Louise Ansell

    Wellbing and Culture Coordinator

    I wonder what the taxpayer is paying her for her non-job

      1. Don’t listen to the latest Delingpod. Apparently Matt Goodwin is controlled opposition…

        ““…But there's another really juicy piece, I thought, for me, was that their sort of Mr. Brains, Matt Goodwin, was actually not that long ago, a rabid pro-immigration guy, and he was working with Hope Not Hate. So Hope Not Hate, another inversion, is the sort of thought police, you know, way back in the day, trying to outlaw anybody that's questioning immigration. And so this thing that came in Prevent a week or so ago, this guy Nick Lowless, his name, Hope Not Hate guy, he was already working with Matt Goodwin in 2012 on this process.

        And I actually have a quote, this is the quote coming out of the work. So Matt Goodwin, when he was doing that work with Lowless, he did a survey and he classified the right as middle-aged or elderly working class men who lack qualifications and are pessimistic about their lives. And he sort of, and then Nick Lowless, bit later on goes, you know, his job was to say the more we understand about the extreme right, so he's taking the data from Matt Goodwin, be it BNP, be it UKIP, be it EDL, the easier it is for “groups like ourselves to campaign against them.

        So it was like a double act. Matt Goodwin generates the data and the all those surveys. Nick Lowless from Hope Not Hate then uses that to basically, you know, lawfare out of existence, people who question immigration.

        And, you know, and Matt Goodwin back then was smearing UKIP of all places run by Faraj in The Guardian saying, oh, these guys are, you know, far more right wing than they acknowledge. And so again, it's an inversion. So he's gone from that to being the like brains behind reform and standing up at the podium in reform going, you know, we've had enough, these bloody foreigners, get them out of here.

        He's really smearing foreigners, you know, like rapists. And he's using this NLP to sort of associate words like rapist, foreigner, child rape, you know, all the hot button stuff. And he's radicalizing the reform crowd.

        “So it's like the transition is literally beyond belief. It's and this I know you like things like this, but there's all kinds of finger handed signals going on when he's doing it as well…,”

        From The Delingpod: The James Delingpole Podcast: Alex Kriel, 14 Jul 2025
        https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-delingpod-the-james-delingpole-podcast/id1449753062?i=1000717164750&r=3699
        This material may be protected by copyright.

        2. I came across Matt (he, like me, is Nottingham graduate) in the days of the Brexit referendum. His language then was value laden and not impartial and he had a poor view of leavers.

  46. And that's the train tickets picked up.
    Yes, I know I could have picked them up tomorrow, but at least I know I've got them.

  47. 409408+ up ticks,

    Could we not have a referendum on electric cars in view of witnessing this odious issue ?

    Then again maybe not, could have the same endgame as Brexit Exit, beneficial to good heath & safety then morph into children never reaching adulthood, but what in your world comes first , the car or the kid?

    https://x.com/JamesMelville/status/1945054795120718151

      1. 409408+ up ticks,

        Mo,
        Kids, from nations that have submitted to the allah chap, we should as I believe we are a nation steeped in ” pull up the ladder jack” mass lethargy, be top of the requirements list

  48. Diversity experts can come to Britain on skilled work visas
    Diversity and inclusion experts can come to the UK on skilled work visas, The Telegraph can reveal.
    The Home Office has also safeguarded visa application routes for the vocations of poet and blogger on a list of protected occupations.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/13/diversity-inclusion-experts-skilled-work-visas-poet-blogger/

    Michael Deacon also mocks the absurdity of this and the muddle-headedness of our politicians.

    BTL

    When our second son read Philosophy at university he knew very well that there was not a crying need for philosophers; however he did know that the country will always need people who can think clearly.

    He found work in the computer business immediately on graduation and made quick progress. Aftrer a couple of years he decided that he would make even better progress with a Masters' degree in Computer Science and Data Analytics so he enrolled at York University for an external course which he did while he was still working in the computer business. He was top of his year and his M.Sc. certificate mentions that he passed with distinction. He now is employed to write sophisticated computer programs and is very well paid – indeed he earns far more than his parents ever earned.

    Clarity of thought is a commodity that seems to be almost completely absent in the politicians currently in The House of Commons.

  50. And it's raining!
    A decent moderate shower, not a heavy downpour, but not light either.
    That should full up the double tank I installed t'other day!
    Pics:- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/afea8f91ca0a405be20030d53ba69b771a5d3066e1a7802728997f9149076e79.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e57d271a5b8545999b0ab959a3896ab15aa796f4d2b05ddff33d1629cb402e9.jpg And the wall needs extending a couple of yards
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89e22df359300782c5307814afc8f4cde39a71b429f84db1b6f82c21f52288b8.jpg Some of the logs I tidied up yesterday before I tidies them
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06ea2bc0dadda48798bbedd278f358db0aad38de94fd6cc0ea081c2ee619dad3.jpg Some of the tree trunks waiting to be sawn and brought down the bank https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c3c0d778f6480076af8060ca8236614da01897f02c59d06330763d715c7d50ec.jpg And they are not far from completing the rebuild of Des's old cottage either https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b63afc5554faaf38a05a3056727b0b9a2b5f1e3929136555380b6a34d15308f6.jpg

      1. We've still got a decent moderate fine rain here. Forecast to last into the night, but stop before midnight, then mainly dry for the rest of the week.

      1. I do stress, the last photo of next door is not my work. It's being done by team led by the local contractor who just happens to be on the other side of the place!
        Can't get more local than that, can you?

  51. Beebsplaining
    15h
    Lee Anderson agrees " the British people need protecting " not global boiling but from Miliwatt 🫡

    Asked him a simple question by how much will temperatures be reduced if we achieve net zero?…….answer of course none🙄

    Beebsplaining
    15h
    Fragrant Tulip blubbing about Cop30 in HoC🤔 I think she has more important things to worry about, why doesn't she travel there or is she more worried about who catches her at the airports 🤔
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37cbaa7fd9b1e42d51b01847796094c669220d99442af5e94f6da86800d32832.png

  56. George Finchley
    3h
    Grieve’s panel is trying to smuggle the blasphemy law back in under a different badge. Parliament binned the common-law offence in 2008 precisely because a secular democracy cannot privilege sacred feelings over free speech. The replacement framework, religiously-aggravated offences in the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 and the “stirring-up hatred” clauses of the Public Order Act 1986, already protects all faiths and believers and contains a Section 29J firewall: you may criticise, mock or denounce any religion provided you don’t threaten violence or intend to whip up mobs.
    Stacking a bespoke Islamophobia code on top of that blows a crater through the settlement:
    1️⃣ Speech hierarchy – Jews, Christians, Sikhs and the rest stay under the ordinary rules; only Islam gets a custom shield. That is arbitrary and flunks Article 10 ECHR’s demand for viewpoint-neutral laws.
    2️⃣ Back-door blasphemy – If offence morphs into evidence of “phobia”, prosecutorial restraint dies and the heckler’s veto wins.
    3️⃣ Legal redundancy – Every violent, threatening or discriminatory act against Muslims is already chargeable today. Check the CPS guidance.
    Thirty-seven cross-bench peers can see the trap and have told Grieve to can it. Ministers should listen, or spend the next decade losing in the appellate courts while free-speech campaigners rub their hands.
    Drop the whole wheeze now. We repealed blasphemy once; we won’t let you resurrect it in woke clothing.

    1. Phobia is entirely the wrong word – it means an irrational fear – like arachnophobia. Fear of Muslims is entirely rational.

  58. WATCH: Labour Minister Says Taxes Won’t Rise for People on ‘Average Incomes’

    https://youtu.be/IZqLOKYl0B4
    In the run up to the ‘October Omnishambles’ budget Labour ministers are changing their definition of “working people” again. Here we go…

    Roads minister Lilian Greenwood was asked on Sky News about Heidi Alexander’s comments on tax on Sunday in which her boss said:“We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that.” Greenwood attempted to clarify:

    “Well, I think it means people who are kind of around average incomes.”

    Asked to specify a figure Greenwood could not:

    “I can’t tell you exactly what the transport secretary had in her mind when she said that, but our promise when we came in is that we wouldn’t hit working people with increases in employee national insurance, in income tax or VAT. And we’ve absolutely stuck to those promises… We’ve always said that we think those who’ve got the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden.”

    She later used the term “moderate incomes.” City figures are calling for less vague messaging ahead of an inevitable tax-rising budget. At least if you earn £37,430 you now know Reeves is coming for your cash…

    July 15 2025 @ 08:06

    Rick B
    3h
    As long as Serco keeps making profit from government contracts to pamper 'asylum-seekers'.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a41956b4d4b95c92c5c1b217a451011ac96782d6f9865f59724b10a90c62c6cc.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65da5b01fad8fe6b66bbde931e0ada2b163ada3e4493915cfdc7041a20e8fe5f.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78b72ac40c04282f3f8530df708e3a923beadf95aca93aa3930305b550408774.png

  59. Just been reading the strange story of Constance Marten the heiress and her nasty murderous lover, the couple who had five babies on the run and let the last one die of cold. What weird people they are. He was convicted of aggravated rape at the age of 14 and spent 20 years in jail in Florida.

      3. Both I think. Born with a silver spoon but her parents didn’t give her much attention. Intelligent but very unwise. I think her man was simply evil, but she seemed not to realise.

          1. Not really no.
            ” In January 2010, aged 35, Gordon was released on parole and deported
            to the UK, where he was forced to sign the sex offenders register and
            keep the police informed of his movements.
            Settling in east London, he began working as a labourer in the
            construction industry. Then, in 2016, a chance encounter in a London
            shop brought him and Marten together. “We went for a coffee and it went
            from there… he’s my soulmate,” she later explained.”

          2. Ah, the naivety of one possibly not known much love and care. Soulmate, says it all. He was 40+.

          3. He’d been in jail for 20 years. since his murderous attacks on neighbours at the age of 14.

          5. He also pushed her out of a window when she was pregnant, and caused her a ruptured spleen.

          7. She did have family but there seems to have been an estrangement. She had a trust fund to pay the bills.

          14. I know I replied earlier, just seen your reply again….can’t quite believe you posted it, Conway…:-))

      1. It will be like the hunting bill; nobody there to listen to the argument then all piling into the lobby to vote for it. Or in this case probably to vote to cover it up.

  62. One Fifth of Foreign Aid Budget Spent on Migrant Hotels in the UK

    A new report today from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) calculates that a fifth of the now-reduced foreign aid and development budget is now being used to fund asylum hotels. Global Britain…

    Under international rules some ‘in-donor refugee costs’ like asylum housing are counted as foreign aid spending – in the next financial year those are set to take up £2.2 billion of the UK’s £10 billion official development assistance budget. According to the ICAI’s analysis of Spending Review figures the share of foreign aid spend on hotels will then drop to £1.8 billion the following year and £1.5 billion by 2028-29. The ODA budget is dropping in 2027 too.Those figures assume Labour can fulfil its doubted promise to end migrant hotel use…

    July 15 2025 @ 08:30

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/793f509961a1428154cfa11c672f4e62d7ed53cf953307ecdc28b9b52d60b51f.png or a train driver
     https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f17a6275379dcd3f315c145e1ef963478a1afb5d5df0e4b1a5b8f985628b092a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b4aef20504bd93d6db191f72b1ec32a5895083ca77ae68bef7b2a67077d6ac3.png

    George Finchley
    4h
    Will we please call this racket what it is – a taxpayer-funded housing squeeze that fattens a handful of outsourcers?

    Who’s creaming it?

    Serco – £274 million operating profit last year on the back of a £1.9 billion ten-year asylum-housing contract.
    Mears Group – on course for £51 million pre-tax this year from a £1 billion turnover in “accommodation services”.
    Clearsprings Ready Homes – profits jumped to £90 million; its founder is now a billionaire after three years banking £180 million net.
    Corporate Travel Management (CTM) – margins on parts of its £1.6 billion Bibby-Stockholm deal hit 50 %.

    That’s before we add bit-players like Migrant Help, Stay Belvedere Hotels and sundry subcontractors, all billing the Home Office £1.3 billion a year just for hotel rooms.

    How they choke the rental market

    Serco & Co. scour Rightmove offering landlords five-year “guaranteed rent” leases , typically at least the full advertised price and often 10-20 % above local rates. Why juggle private tenants when the state signs a watertight, index-linked lease and picks up the repair tab? Unsurprisingly, properties vanish from the private rental pool, pushing rents and prices north for everyone else.

    The policy pretzel

    Keep the visa tap open – population up, demand up.
    Throw £2.2 billion of the foreign-aid budget at hotel contracts here in the UK.
    Whisper that Rachel Reeves will loosen mortgage stress tests – turbo-charging demand without touching wages or supply.
    Clap yourself on the back for “helping refugees”.
    It’s not humanitarianism; it’s assisted asset inflation. Shut the visa fire-hose, end the “in-donor refugee costs” wheeze, and spend the aid budget abroad where it belongs – before the entire housing ladder is sawn off beneath working renters.

    George Finchley
    George Finchley
    3h
    The clause no one is enforcing
    Every asylum-housing contract has a gain-share cap: once margins clear 5 %, HALF the excess must be repaid to the Treasury.

    The NAO says the kitty should already top £1 billion, yet not a single invoice has gone out. Stop hiding behind “ongoing audits”: bill them now and the foreign-aid pot looks a lot healthier overnight.

    The policy pretzel

    Keep the visa tap open → demand up.
    Spend £2.2 bn of “foreign aid” on UK hotel bills.
    Let Rachel Reeves loosen mortgage stress tests → demand up again, wages flat.
    Claim you’re “helping refugees” while you inflate assets for hoteliers and buy-to-let landlords.
    This isn’t humanitarianism; it’s assisted asset inflation. Hit the 5 % claw-back, close the in-donor refugee-cost loophole, and match visa numbers to actual housing supply, before the ladder is sawn off beneath working renters.

    (Over to you, Home Office: send the invoices or explain why Serco & co. keep the windfall.)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4a7beaa1321a51317f7e3d430cb84a03a464fbf22e98da8d73c57554f5131c0.png

    1. Nice work for the multi-billionaires who are in on this housing gig…

      1. Yup. They have figured out how to exploit HMG's stupidity…and the taxpayer gets screwed.

      2. Any of us could jump on the bandwagon – buy a cheap house, get the five year contract, rake in money.
        If one is a complete scumbag of course.

  63. Good afternoon, all. English summer day, warm, breezy, cloudy with rain forecast for later. Definitely NOT a climate emergency no matter what the Met Office/BBC claim.

    Alas, over in Canada it appears that the "climate emergency" and the "gender" nonsense are so intertwined that the situation is creating "hysteria" and making some people "wildly emotional". I'd like to think that people aspiring to be MPs and govern a country would be made of sterner stuff: then I remembered Miliband minor et al. and realised that we have our own wets here.

    https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1944706789175411015

    6. Those of us in the US always looked to Canadians to be rather more stoic than Americans. Except for the Quebecois of course. I guess those days are over.

    7. Those of us in the US always looked to Canadians to be rather more stoic than Americans. Except for the Quebecois of course. I guess those days are over.

    9. Remember feminist snow-clearing in Sweden? This fool is the spiritual sister of the feminists who tried that idea.

    1. The injunction was imposed after a govenment official leaked the names of the applicants.

    2. Because the Taliban would go choppy-choppy-chop to all those waiting in the queue to get to Blighty.

    1. She can want………doesn't mean she'll get. She'll blame everyone else for her failure.

    3. There are not even enough bricks TB, depending on the design and size there are between 7 and 15 thousand bricks per house. All from clay pits, many have been shut down and the heat used to fire the bricks would be off the scale.
      I think she came back with we will use wood………..Heads off then.

  67. Just testing………. had a small pork pie and a nectarine for lunch………hoping they won't be wasted.

        1. That was yesterday. OK today so far………breakfast stayed down ok. It was the fruit for lunch (my normal lunch) that came back rather quickly yesterday.

          1. Fruit can do that. Heart failure meds can do it too but that explains my bout at the weekend, not yours? Then the insects are back this summer. Good for the ecosystems but I wish they weren't so fond of my blood! Big bite on the tummy, just where my waist band rubs. Trying to wear looser stuff.

          2. I've had one or two bites but I think not as many as last year. I did more hand weeding last year but this year we used the strimmer on that patch. It seems to have a lot of lurking biting things. I had to get it cleared so we could see the little cyclamen coming up. This drop of rain will bring them on.

          3. I normally eat quite a lot of fruit and it doesn't usually have that effect. Definitely not heart meds……… maybe that since Thursday I'd been rather busy and perhaps my body was telling me to slow down a bit. Not doing anything much today.

            How's your heart getting on? What's the next step?

          4. Hopefully the full aorta scan will go ahead on Thursday, then the surgeon is away for three weeks. His assistant rang me last week. She'd hoped to have my valve op done before he goes away but if not, then at least have a date agreed for when he gets back in August. The Afib is persistent and wears me down sometimes but I don't have breathlessness and if my pulse goes up, it comes back down in resting mode. In that respect, the meds are working.

          5. I hope they can get it sorted soon.
            OH had a call yesterday from Jude (not sure of her job title) at our GP surgery, about his memory loss. She asked him about his hearing aids. (He lost one about three years ago and never bothered with them again) But apparently hearing loss can be a precursor to memory loss and dementia. Yikes – perhaps I'll have to ask her about my hearing loss. She's coming to see him at home next week.

    2. How are you now?

      Cross fingers ?

      I have just had a nice 1+ mile walk there and back to our local chemist , the strong breeze is so fresh , unlike the past few days , then a detour into the local hardware shop to buy some stuff for the outside bins , yes , a few maggots are visible , so Jeyes fluid and a spray might deal with the problem.

      1. Fine at the moment thanks. Not planning to do much today, just taking it easy and chatting here.

    3. How are you now?

      Cross fingers ?

      I have just had a nice 1+ mile walk there and back to our local chemist , the strong breeze is so fresh , unlike the past few days , then a detour into the local hardware shop to buy some stuff for the outside bins , yes , a few maggots are visible , so Jeyes fluid and a spray might deal with the problem.

          2. No need for the cork as the offending fruit came straight back up without touching the sides.

    3. These bloody political morons have deliberately wrecked our country. And obviously tried to cover it up.
      wastemonster and w(s)hite hall should be closed for ever.

  69. I can't be bothered to write what I feel about Millipede .

    Tim Stanley
    Miliband’s climate statement not so much historic as histrionic
    Ed delivers his eco-rant to a handful of Labour colleagues and a teenager with a green mohawk

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/14/miliband-climate-statement-more-histrionic-than-historic/

    M Donovan
    1 min ago
    Britain is the only country pursuing Net Zero. So, we pay the highest electricity costs globally, our wind and solar energy production is below 1948 fossil fuel levels, many thousands of hectares of food producing and high environmental land is being covered with 100 million heavy metal toxin bearing solar panels leaking long term poisons into soils/water. We are near blackouts, job losses, food and healthcare supply crises. And still British people do nothing? Or is it just Reform and the Conservatives who do nothing to stop this ruin.

    Comment by Paul Leigh.

    PL

    Paul Leigh
    1 min ago
    Meanwhile, we've just bunged 70 million quid to Singapore to aid with its 'clean energy transition'. Yup, that's Singapore – one of the highest GDP per capita countries in the world…

    Comment by Mark Sherfield.

    MS

    Mark Sherfield
    19 min ago
    Very funny sketch. Well done. Made me laugh amidst all the Liebore gloom.

    Comment by Stephen Griffiths.

    SG

    Stephen Griffiths
    27 min ago
    Re: The question by Lee Anderson that he wouldn't answer. I have just asked ChatGPT and here is the answer.

    …likely less than 0.01c by 2100.

    Comment by Harry Clarke.

    HC

    Harry Clarke
    43 min ago
    Net zero. They're all at it:

    Reeves – net zero growth

    Milliband – net zero impact

    Cooper – net zero boats stopped

    Rayner – net zero homes built

    Starmer – net zero idea, net zero credibility

    Comment by Pierrot Pierrot.

    PP

    Pierrot Pierrot
    53 min ago
    Who on earth would take any notice of a ranting fanatic with only the most simplistic knowledge of the technical requirement for his brief?

    The answer is no-one in their right mind and that is why Miliband should be "relocated" at the earliest opportunity.

    He is more dangerous to the UK than Putin, Xi JinPing and Khameini put together.

    2. Henry Cecil used to grow some peas that came from seeds found in the tomb of one of the Pharaohs. I understand they grew well.

    3. Thank you Ashes – I didn't know what they were called. Now where do I buy the seeds for my garden…..

  71. Shock! Horror! A spider just walked across me and i didn't see where it went………. will have to move seats.

    2. Meh, it's just one spider. What about the other thirty you haven't seen and so don't know are there?

      1. It was just a very ordinary long legged spider but to an arachnophobe like me it’s horrifying.

  72. Oh my goodness. Someone talking sense at long last. You cannot assume just because someone is a woman they will behave in x manner. And vice-versa. It’s all about the brain.

    “…“But this is already kind of telling you that this isn't about gender. It's about, you know, because you can't, you can't prejudge an individual man or a woman just from their gender. It's about the type of brain that they have.

    And so kind of bringing this into politics, if you like, it would be wrong to prejudge a female applicant in a job. Let's say the job is an engineering job based on her gender. Or if the job was all about communication skills and empathy, maybe you're being interviewed to be a good psychotherapist.

    Again, it would be wrong to assume that the woman would be the better fit for the therapist job and the man would be the better fit for the engineering job. Because it's not about your gender, it's about what kind of brain you have. And, you know, even if we see these on average differences between the genders, and those are interesting, we've been very interested to see whether one of the drivers of those on average gender differences are prenatal hormones like testosterone, which, you know, and the male fetus produces twice as much testosterone than the female fetus.”

    From The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast: 562. What Do We Actually Know About Autism? | Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, 14 Jul 2025
    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/id1184022695?i=1000717205624&r=4499
    This material may be protected by copyright.

        1. Too hot to work outside and I've drawn the blinds to keep the house cooler

    1. She had a venue cancelled here last year – they moved it to a local pub and it went ahead there.

    2. Spineless bar stewards – we need to stop the "permanently offended" from dictating what we can or cannot watch. If the protestors get violent, arrest them and ensure they go to prison.

  77. 409408+ up ticks,

    Head down arse up indigenous, more foreign gullets to service, working 24/7 will be the new order of the day, two twelve hour shifts, no more working from home, ALL indigenous WORK or, food supply will be withdrawn, anyone seen Spartacus,

    Dt,

    Revealed: 24,000 Afghans offered asylum in UK after data breach
    Super injunction lifted on leak that ministers feared would push cost of resettling refugees to £7bn

    1. These people in the most important jobs in our country are an absolute and catastrophic nightmare.
      They should be made to pay for their mistakes, then line up and shot.

  78. I see that the BBC is busy spinning that our government has got one over on Trump with their cunning plan to keep praising him in public, through appealing to his vanity, they now think they have got him on board.
    But they haven't realised that Trump has doubled bluffed them with his reciprocal praise in return for Starmer.
    Trump knows full well what our government is up to and is just playing along, while doing his best to highlight a Brexit beneficial trade deal over being in the EU thus putting Starmer in an awkward position with his cohort of cronies in the EU.
    After the way Macron has been sucked up to with his recent state visit, Trump must know full well that our British establishment is willingly caught up in the Brussels tractor beam and will not give up until we are fully locked back in the iron grip of EU supremacy over everything we can do.
    I can see Trump pulling the plug on any deals when the time is right.
    Hope it is before Starmer has to go for an IMF bailout, they will of course insist that we rejoin the single market as part of and bailout deal, finessing the ten year plan that goes back to just after we voted to leave.

  79. Afternoon all. Raining on and off here so the front lawn is on hold again. Distinctly cooler to upset the global warming fanatics. All I have managed to do is some deadheading and walk the dogs.

    If this government realised the illiteracy of tax raids it wouldn’t be Labour.

  83. 409408+ up ticks,

    Texas,

    Seemingly they have dropped 5 million flesh eating flies, dogs and deer are vulnerable,will devour a cow in two weeks, farts and all.

    The odious political crew that have infested parliament and are successfully telling the English when and how high to jump are, I believe awaiting the updated version that eats the milkmaid as well.

    2. And what is the identity of the channel migrants. Papers ditched in the water and the powers that be won't even do DNA tests on them because it breaches their rights. What use is digital ID with nothing other than "vaguely human" on it? You and I, on the other hand…they know who we are…

    3. Immigrants always had an id card until Jan 25 when it became, err ..digital. it is now called an e-visa and shows your immigration status. Mrs Pea has such an e-document.

      1. Ask Mrs Pea if under the conditions she is allowed to adopt one old fart and two small farty dogs.

        I would quite happily beat out roots in the village.

          1. Clever. Not only are they good life rafts but when they dry out they make good beds.

    4. Harman knows perfectly well the government are going to impose digital ids – she is just trying to persuade the public that they asked for them.

    5. Go on then, harm to man. You have one. On a government database.

      Just like the one that was lost about the afghans. Let's put a lot of information about you in there.

      Of course, it'll be perfectly safe. No dodgy contractor will leave it on the train, or on a CD on the bus (what sort of a spaffing gormless stain exports data to a disk then couriers it by some unknown dindu?).

    1. He was misinformed when they told him that the woman who discovered radium and polonium had a part-time job as a chef in an Indian restaurant.

  86. Two Teir?? No Siree
    4 years for chopping down a tree and your car seized
    I await the sentences of the violent airport thugs with interest

  87. Further to my comment about 6 hours ago re Arthur Rowland’s letter yesterday about the price of food in garden centres I mentioned Deli Class in Horsell.
    We took our newly qualified grandson, Master of Pharmacy, to that deli for lunch. Three meals, large Tuna steak in a Provençal sauce with half an avocado and salad, Lasagna and Calamari rings with half avocado and salad. Total cost £34. Unfortunately they don’t sell garden plants.

    1. Excellent value. I like the deli's in Horsell. Friendly talkative folk. I was pleased to see they did gluten free versions of their sweet pastries. Which pleased my neighbour no end!

      1. They now own a wine bar two doors away and have tables and chairs in their car park. Open lunchtime and evenings.

        3. I didn't realise that was theirs!! I'll give it a spin
          PS their breakfast ciabettas are to die for

  88. Wordle No. 1,487 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 15 Jul 2025

    Impose on Birdie Three?

    1. Birdie here too.

      Wordle 1,487 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟩🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Boring par again

      Wordle 1,487 4/6

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

      Todays excuse that I am in the car being driven home after an up yer bum oscopy

        1. It was the preparation that was less than fun. A 3AM purge is not something that would like to go trough again.

          The hospital bit was nothing, roll up at 7AM, flash yer bum in a half nightie before having a nap and being told it's all over – do you want water or ginger ale? Out for breakfast by 9AM.

          2. What i found idiotic with that procedure was they told me to eat all the stuff they tell you not to eat and then purge. White bread and the like.

            At mine i made sure i had a cheese and onion roll and a packet of fags as i waited for my car.

          3. They could damn well give more warning about the purge !

            I will also add that when they did mine i refused all meds and gas.

            They continued to offer gas as i was grunting so much but i refused as i didn't want to spend any more time there than absolutely necessary.

            I was in the clear. They did mention i had two haemmoroids forming though.

            I asked…Why didn't you take them out? They said they don't do that here.

            I ask you. They cut small polyps to check for cancer why the fuck don't they do the grapes at the same time !!!

    3. Guessed right second out of three options, so just a par….

      Wordle 1,487 4/6

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

    4. Well done. Oh my, a long early doors at the pub.
      Par again.

      Wordle 1,487 4/6

      ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  89. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu..
    Don't ask..
    Plenty more like him arriving day-in, day-out.

    1. Just like the blade runners taking down the Ulez cameras we are going to see a massive rise in vigilantism.

      1. But that won't stop the plague. The invasion must be stopped, now by any means and those vermin here removed – and be seen to be removed.

        Pack them in shipping containers and dump them. No one cares where. If Lefty wasters do, they can join them.

        1. It really is too late. They have been shipping them in wholesale for years. Legal and illegal.

          Both Boris, Cameron and May are guilty of this.

          At the end of the day it comes down to numbers and weapons and attitude.

          They have all three.

    3. Is he related to Haile Gerberslasie – probably the greatest distance runner of all time?

      If so, there's no bloody use chasing him…….

    4. The worst bit? Say that openly, publicly and the Left go for you, jailing you to get their own way.

  90. Can someone please explain to me the logic of putting savings, which are medium term investments, into stocks and shares at a time when there is a bull market?

    My experience of relying on the professionals in the highly profitable financial services sector is that first they charge extortionate fees, then they choose to invest their clients' money at a dip in the market, but declare the price at a peak in the market. They then tell their clients they have sold when the market has dipped (so sorry!), when actually they have access to split second timing to actually sell at market zenith, pocketing the difference. Clients rarely get the returns they were expecting, especially if these peaks and troughs are generated artificially by insider algorithms.

    The advantage of Cash ISAs is at least you get the interest advertised when taking them out, but even then, the moment interest rates change, they will drop like a stone for savers, but rise like a feather.

    Government is once again favouring borrowing over saving, virtual wealth over real wealth, and then we wonder why the pound is only worth sixpence today.

    1. Stocks and shares are not savings they are investments and should be for a minimum 5-10 years.our experience is that the growth over 5-10 years tends to outstrip savings accounts as most investors understand.
      Savings are also drastically reduced by inflation, the invisible drain.

    2. Sounds like the financial advice you are prepared to accept is different from advice given to me.

      If you are going to invest you need a portfolio which includes low to medium and high risk. Spread across new industries and of course currencies.

      Sadly it also means if you are going to invest and turn any sort of profit you put money in drugs and weapons.

      If you are not prepared to do that then stay in your LibDem/Green Eutopia and be poor.

    3. The intent of reducing the ISA limit is
      1. to take more of people's money in tax.
      2. To push money into share ISAs (because people aren't due to the stock market losing money)
      3. Once that's done Reeves will force those savings to be pushed into 'favoured' investment vehicles (same as with CDC housing bonds) to get cash for government waste.

      They will lose money and not keep up with inflation in returns. All by design. The UK stock market is hamstrung by hard Left legislation and regulation. Having to report how many women sit on your board is a complete waste of time but the Left think it matters – they want companies to 'reflect their vision of society' and penalise you if you don't.

      1. It is near Woking which is main line. Perhaps we should set a date and shame them !

  92. That's me for today. The rain returned but didn't come to much, Easing off now. About an inch in the rainwater butts. Pah!

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  93. Some big clouds rolling up, and humidity has shot to the sky. Rather sweaty, to be indelicate. Hope for some rain.

  94. John Torode is sacked from MasterChef after Gregg Wallace report found he used 'extremely offensive racist term' in the workplace
    The MasterChef star announced the finding in a social media post last night, but he insisted it had 'no recollection' of the incident and did not believe it happened.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14908147/John-Torode-sacked-MasterChef.html

    Amazement shock horror

    It is reported that Ainsley Herriot, may or may not, have referred to John Torode as 'white trash honky' as a harmless little joke..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fbe7164f1d93d0abb71f3586409e41bc8101a714de5e42b15a27db8f9269f938.png

        1. Me too! Thrown under the ‘bus for Davies sake! How the hell that guy is still there, I don’t know but he must have absolutely no scruples!

          1. Just as all those on the sinecure merry go round it will eventually come crashing down.

            What they will be faced with is utter destruction. Empires fall.

            I do hope they have made plans rather than promises.

          2. Not just scruples. Why would the DG even be there? Yes Yes i heard the PR bollocks and just like all PR…it’s bollocks. I know from experience.

      1. "I'm sorry you lost this evening, but wog's the matter, feeling browned off, nigger mind, go black home and maybe you'll feel all white in the morning."

        1. I must have missed the problem – it looks like nothing happened!

          PS all joking aside, I cant find a single example of what he is supposed to have said – are we all that bloody sensitive now??

          3. Not I. You cannot beat the disqus distaste for Guy Gibsons black lab.

            Your comment made it to the naughty step as well.

          4. amongst other racist insults, yes.
            I was commenting regarding what Torode might have said that caused such huge offence that he should be sacked years later.

  95. Reeves Pledges Red Tape Cuts in ‘Big Bang’ Mansion House Speech

    Rachel from Accounts is set to deliver her Mansion House ‘big bang’ speech tonight at 9 p.m., with the Treasury touting her “Leeds reforms” as the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 2008 crash. Expect more mortgages available at over 4.5 times a buyer’s income, plus a permanent government-backed mortgage guarantee scheme. Reeves is banking on this helping 10,000 first-time buyers every year…

    She’s also ditching the much-hated plan to cut the cash ISA allowance. Reeves claims these tweaks to financial regulation will create “a ripple effect that will drive investment in all sectors of our economy and put pounds in the pockets of working people.” With the government ruled by backbenchers and these reforms being relatively modest, don’t expect them to cause much of an impact…

    July 15 2025 @ 11:10
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf02c91ca78d9ee980fbc5e87a01ffcc98f1487ccc79ffa8651aef2b51359594.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/75e4a0f0a525442e2cd0160ed3722cf272f40d7fd750582582e2ed256a6f79f3.png
    Paleface
    6h
    Who will listen to the tear-stained Thieves?
    She thinks people on 40 grand a year are wealthy and so deserve to be taxed more

    I am assuming she will be granting exemptions to train drivers
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5381b01e98e9fec61b8ae6062a0cc7c96eb641e42194ada7645034fb98f59afc.png
    Leon
    6h
    Get it right Guido, Rachel was a complaints support manager at HBOS and was not qualified for accounts
    She was a Complaints Support Manager at LBG/HBOS. Not an Economist. #factcheck."

    The BBC says:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f8969ce68cbabfe83e4475413d692cea45881a5538771a1c2e0c16e9ef9e4fb4.png
    Keith Toolmaker
    6h
    Anyone remember the Last time Labour slashed red tape ? What could possibly go wrong ? hmmm.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d5500e89e302935c211a196750da29b2a122b4b06ce71466354d4a9ebf3e3753.png

    1. It's all rather pathetic that she couldn't just admit she is an incompetent woman with the brain of a sheep.No one would think less of her. The entire cabinet – the entirety of government – with very few exceptions – is populated by utter wasters

    1. "extra legal criminality" Is there any other kind? "Legal criminality", I suppose…

      1. Plenty of that here in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Jack. The Judiciary is now making and enforcing unjust laws, the ruling party is above the law and we have a many-tiered justice system depending on political position and/or skin colour. Oh, and we are also tolerant of anti-semitism whilst introducing draconian laws against criticising islam.

        We are no longer a democracy, but a totalitarian kritarchy

    1. Why did the UK fly in thousands of Afghans? WTactualF? Never mind the bastards boating over the channel, now the government is F*CKING FLYING THEM IN wholesale!
      When the first rape and murder happens, who takes the blame? HMG, I hope.

      2. If our incompetent morons had not released the "hit list" by accident it would not have been necessary.
        The individuals in question assisted British service-people.
        Now, you can argue that they were quislings helping us and deserve all they get, but this is one time that I have a little sympathy for the gimmegrants.

        2. My first reaction: Was this a false-flag operation, designed to facilitate import of yet more murderous thugs?

          1. Mohammed was a brilliant strategist with superb, murderous, and divisive tactics when confronting his enemies.
            What makes you think that the current Muslim leaders aren’t equally skilled?

            They’ve spotted the West’s weakest link (the UK) and they are going to exploit it.

        3. There's an awful lot of them compared with the number of squaddies out there – and I understand from people who were there, that the interpreters were not 100% trustworthy.

      3. Until home office staff are held directly accountable for the crimes of the vermin the invasion will never end.

    3. In a way, good on him. Tax is theft. If he had paid tax on that money then the state would take abour 400,000.

      It's his money. He should keep it.

    4. Doubtless on the advice of accountants. Maybe he'll spend the saving directly on funding school meals rather than give it to government and rely on CSs to do it.

  100. Speccie
    The £7bn Afghan cover-up

    Defence Secretary John Healey has apologised over a Ministry of Defence data leak that cost the UK £7 billion and put up to 100,000 Afghans at risk. In February 2022 an MoD official inadvertently leaked a list of thousands of Afghan names while attempting to verify applications for sanctuary in Britain. The 33,000-strong database was passed on – and one of the people who came across it threatened to publish it on Facebook, prompting fears the Taliban would be given a ‘kill list’. The top-secret Operation Rubific was established to prevent the details becoming public.

    The previous government fought to keep the leak under wraps, spending around £7 billion of taxpayers’ cash in the process, with almost 24,000 Afghans offered asylum in the UK. A superinjunction was put in place by the government in September 2023, preventing anyone revealing even the existence of such an order. But after a two-year legal battle with the Times, the injunction has been lifted after Healey ordered an independent review into the case as a result of ex-civil servant Paul Rimmer concluding that concerns about the Taliban had ‘diminished’.

    The Defence Secretary said this afternoon he was ‘uncomfortable’ about the constraint imposed by the previous government and added that since Labour came to power, it had appointed a new chief information officer and installed new software for secure data sharing. Now a lawsuit involving just under 1,000 of those affected is being prepared, with the legal action expected to cost the UK government around £250 million. A specialist data breach lawyer has criticised the Ministry of Defence for ‘seeming institutionally incapable of keeping information secure’, while the chair of the defence committee declared angrily in the Commons that the data breach was a ‘mess and wholly unacceptable’.

    As James Heale writes on Coffee House, Healey’s reassurance that parliament and its select committees will now be able to criticise the government to the full is a ‘masterclass in understatement’. Given the severity of the case, the level of criticism from public, press and parliament coming its way will be nothing short of swift, furious and damning.

    1. Just wait until all those Afghans are compensated as well, for having their names leaked.
      The costs are going to be astronomical.

      1. Yes, and I wonder what happened to the bright spark who leaked the list??

        No doubt lessons will be learned, jobs and pensions will be protected etc etc etc………

        2. 'evening, G4. It will be a CS…that sound you hear is the shuffling of little feet, all forming a group to protect their colleague.

          1. Evening KJ, yes, nauseating isnt it? I honestly dont know how on earth we can ever make that organisation accountable in any way – its just too big and too powerful, unless we can get a UK Doge – and, let’s be fair, that didnt last too long in the US, did it?

          2. Hello G4…yes, a very expensive luxury mostly unnecessary – my grandfather was a CS, retired I think age 50…he recommended it to me but it sounded really boring, I went to work in industry instead – always something going on there. UK Doge – perhaps. Trump fell out with Musk so he slung(?) his hook, perhaps he’ll help Sickear out….not holding breath. Right now, I see no party/leader UK I’m prepared to vote for……anyone with any sense leaving/already left, including businesses. Goodness only knows where/when it’ll end. Sorry to be so downbeat…x

    2. The greater disaster was ever getting involved in that blighted and savage land – again. You'd have thought that someone might have looked at the history books – Kabul 1842. Every foreign army that has fought in the Hindu Kush has lost or run away. Almost as many people died in the week of the retreat as Russians were killed there during their ten-year occupation. Another 457 British lives were wasted there in this century; the USA lost more than 2,400. Modern weaponry is no use against a militant population embedded in the vastness of those mountains.

      The Afghans who will be coming here (or are already here) are not liberal western types because they opposed the mujahideen/Taliban. They are of that part of the world and will bring that world to ours.

    3. Apologizing over the leak but not the action.

      Anyhow, they said they ae sorry so in their minds, no harm done .

      .

    5. I suppose it hasn't occurred to the MOD that they have employed Taliban under DEI…

    1. End it and repatriate most of those here. Don't work, no bennies. Scrap child benefit. Scrap housing benefit.

      1. Our government are not going to do that. I wonder what they would do if it wasn't just the super rich and the Non doms left but we all did.

  102. Why Corbyn's comeback is a threat to "deluded" Starmer..

    There was the IRA.. then there was the Real IRA.

    Anyhow a new poll suggests that the Jezbollah party would take half of the Labour vote.
    Oh dear, they only managed about 20% when they got elected….

    2. First the IRA, then the Provisional IRA and then the Real IRA.
      As someone told me in the 1970s, they started with bicycles and ended up with Mercedes.

    1. Did the co-pilot (First Officer) twirl his moustache?

      Edit: it was some form of subtle insult during the time of the Raj.

    2. Almost everyone in the world now knows how to cut off the fuel on a 787.

      Also the pilot saying "Why did you cut it off" means he saw physical evidence of it in an OFF position. So we can forget all the software glitch theories.

      2. To cut both means separate actions (it’s hard to throw both switched at once – you’d need to use 2 hands) and therefore deliberate

    1. We are being told that the 100,000 includes family members. The number of translators is about 20,000.

      1. Afghans..

        Why here , they killed our troops, they double dealt and betrayed our armed forces . https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76ec14666c153b48562a07edf189e77c9e29d9263d45ca4861d8a0493ada7aea.jpg
        'Remnants of an Army' by Elizabeth Butler portraying William Brydon arriving at the gates of Jalalabad as the only survivor of a 16,500 strong evacuation from Kabul in January 1842. This is a better copy of a file in Commons (this image is in the public domain due to its age).

        We are inviting a cruel cold Muslim enemy to reside here in the UK.

        We must be F########g mad !

  107. https://order-order.com/2025/07/15/exc-eyebrows-raised-over-reeves-two-homes-tax-history/

    I have a suggestion. It's a simple one: If you hold Left wing views on 'climate change', property, private rental, socialism, green, taxation or taking what others have earned in any way, then you have a 95% levy – one off (this year), mind – applied to your globally held assets.

    That'd mean taking – in it's entirety – Toynbee's villa in Spain and 95% of her wealth – including her property in London. Lucas would lose all 5 of her houses, bought with tax payers money. The Russell trust would have 95% of it's value consumed in tax. Starmer's pension would be demolished, as would Soubry's home and incomes.

    As for Blair – he'd be left penniless.

    But the Left don't think like that. They like someone else paying for their spite and malice.

    1. You still haven't got it, have you. A lefty firmly believes the what's theirs is theirs and what's yours is up for grabs, mainly by them, to give to….well take your pick, but be rest assured it won't be anybody you would approve of. There, simple isn't it.

    1. The Government grant will help people to buy EVs in the luxury car class whose retail cost attracts a much higher road fund tax rate.

  111. Did YOU see the violence? Please email tom.cotterill@mailonline.co.uk
    By NICK FAGGE and TOM COTTERILL

    Published: 14:14, 15 July 2025 | Updated: 17:44, 15 July 2025

    An asylum seeker accused of three sexual assaults in two days – which sparked ugly anti-migrant protests outside a hotel – had only arrived in the UK by small boat eight days earlier, MailOnline has learned.

    Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, appeared at Colchester Magistrates' Court last week where he was formally accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour towards schoolgirls in the pretty Essex town on Monday and Tuesday last week.

    The accusations against the 38-year-old are believed to have provided the spark for a violent demonstration outside a hotel in Epping, Essex.

    After landing on the Kent coast at the end of June, the Ethiopian had been put up at the Bell Hotel where some 100 asylum seekers are being housed by the Home Office.

    His arrest prompted a huge anti-migrant demonstration on Sunday – and a counter ‘Refugees Welcome’ protest which led to clashes between rival demonstrators.

    At least two people suffered injury but Essex Police reported no arrests.

    When he appeared in court, Kebatu denied charges of inciting to engage in sexual activity and harassment without violence.

    Prosecutor Serena Berry told the 45-minute hearing that one of the alleged victims had been approached 'on a busy High Street'.

    Hundreds of people were seen at the event, which later descended into violent mayhem

    Hundreds of people were seen at the event, which later descended into violent mayhem

    One man was seen with a nasty cut on his head and blood on his top as he walked past police following Sunday's disorder

    Police officers separate 'anti-racism' demonstrators from others protesting at the scene

    Police officers separate 'anti-racism' demonstrators from others protesting at the scene

    The allegations led to the leader of Epping Forest District Council calling for a hotel housing asylum seekers in the town to be closed.

    News of his arrest sparked fierce protests, with hundreds of demonstrators taking rallying outside The Bell Hotel in Epping – which houses migrants.

    Police were forced to break up a fight between two men as large crowds jeered, with some shouting: 'F***ing nonce', 'f*** off back to Walthamstow' and 'paedos'.

    The outburst of disorder ignited on Sunday evening, with shocking footage appearing to show one man bleeding heavily from his head as he limped to the hotel.

    'Go home you c***, go home. F*** off back on your boat and go,' one man is heard screeching as the injured male hobbles his way past a line of police officers.

    In another clip, two men are seen punching one another and wrestling next to a car before police charge in to break up the brawl.

    While in a third video, a large crowd of people – some of whom were waving the flag of St George – were seen massing opposite the three-star hotel and repeatedly chanting 'protect our kids', as about a dozen police stood guard.

    This morning, the hotel was seen daubed in graffiti telling asylum seekers to 'go home'.

    Police officers were seen talking to private security guards outside the front of the shabby hostel located on the edge of the historic forest today.

    Signs in the front door warned visitors the the hotel was 'not open to the public' and that the car parking spaces were 'no longer a public car park'.

    Slogans including 'Go Home', 'Die' and 'This Is England' have been sprayed on to two of the large front windows of the hotel.

    A migrant hotel where a protest turned violent has been graffitied with slogans 'go home', 'die' and 'this is England'

    The vandalism comes after Sunday's fiery rally outside The Bell Hotel in Essex (pictured)

    The vandalism comes after Sunday's fiery rally outside The Bell Hotel in Essex (pictured)

    Kebatu (pictured) denies the allegations against him. He is due again in court later this year

    Protest outside migrant hotel in Essex erupts into violence over 'asylum seeker sex attack'
    article image
    Meanwhile workmen were seen hastily erecting a wood-panel fence around one side of the front of the property.

    At least one window in an annex building of the hotel appears to have been broken in the weekend disturbance, with plastic now covering the window frame.

    The hotel accommodation is made up of a number of buildings – the historic front block which bears the iconic bell, a newly constructed red brick building and other buildings behind.

    All of the bedrooms have en-suite bathrooms with free toiletries and a sitting area. The hotel also has a sprawling garden and a library and self-service kitchen facilities.

    The graffiti comes days after a protest outside the hotel descended into bloody mayhem as activists brawled on the streets.

    Father-of-three Adam Brooks, an anti-knife campaigner whose dad was brutally stabbed to death when he was a child, was among those to witness the incident.

    The Essex-based publican said: 'There's a protest because a migrant is alleged and was charged with sexual assault against a young girl in Epping High Road last week.

    A man appeared to have blood all over his face following the disorder outside the hotel

    One man appeared to have climbed on top of the hotel's roof during the protest on Sunday

    One man appeared to have climbed on top of the hotel's roof during the protest on Sunday

    The migrant hotel is pictured on Tuesday morning following the chaos over the weekend

    The migrant hotel is pictured on Tuesday morning following the chaos over the weekend

    'There are worried mothers, worried children, there's grandmothers, fathers, uncles, grandads, and we've got an anti-racism lot that have turned up.

    'Things are getting heated here. I just cannot believe that an anti-racism mob would turn up against something like this.'

    In one video, police were seen escorting some counter-demonstrators away from the hotel as a huge crowd of people continued to jeer.

    Some of the counter-protestors were seen holding signs saying 'Refugees Welcome: Stop The Far-Right'.

    Nobody has reportedly been arrested following the disorder, which also saw a man scale to roof of the migrant hotel.

    Kebatu, who was reportedly a resident in the hotel, is now expected to face a trial within 56 days, District Judge Christopher Williams said.

    Announcing the news of his arrest on Thursday, Essex Police added: 'We were alerted to reports of a man acting inappropriately towards a teenager in High Road, at 5.20pm on Tuesday July 8.

    'Officers arrived quickly and arrested a man.

    'As a result of the work of officers, offences against a woman and another teenager, which were separate to those which had taken place on Tuesday, were then reported for the first time and an investigation was launched.'

    Following Kebatu's arrest, the district's Conservative leader wrote to the Home Secretary calling for The Bell Hotel's closure 'without delay'.

    Hundreds of people massed outside the migrant hotel to join the protest there on Sunday

    Hundreds of people massed outside the migrant hotel to join the protest there on Sunday

    Counter-protestors, carrying plaques saying 'Refugees Welcome: Stop The Far-Right' also attended

    Counter-protestors, carrying plaques saying 'Refugees Welcome: Stop The Far-Right' also attended

    The Bell Hotel has been housing asylum seekers for about three years.

    It used to charge a standard rate of £70 per night, with breakfast charged as extra, but has not accepted regular guests since 2022, it is understood.

    The hotel is owned by British businessman, Hassanali Somani, who is based in Hertfordshire.

    Mr Somani owns other hotels in Essex and Hertfordshire, including the Roebuck Inn, in Stevenage.

    Essex Police will continue to have a presence in the area for the coming days, a spokesman for the force said.

    Speaking after the protest broke up, Superintendent Tim Tubbs said: 'We respect everyone's right to protest, and we police without fear of favour – these are important fundamentals of our work when it comes to public order.

    'We'll be working with all our partner agencies in the coming days to hear their thoughts and establish how we can provide the most effective police response for events like this in the future.

    'As with all our policing of public events such as protests, we will review any body-worn video to ensure any offences are detected.'

    Those who joined the counter-protest were later seen being escorted away from the scene by police after things appeared to turn heated

    Those who joined the counter-protest were later seen being escorted away from the scene by police after things appeared to turn heated

    Chris Whitbread, the leader of Epping Forest District Council, insisted the authority had 'consistently and repeatedly opposed' the use of the The Bell as a migrant hotel.

    'From the outset, we warned the Home Office that this site is entirely inappropriate,' the council chief said in a statement.

    'Placing vulnerable individuals from a wide range of cultural backgrounds into an unsupervised setting, in the centre of a small town, without the proper infrastructure, support or services, is both reckless and unacceptable.

    'It puts pressure on local services, causes understandable concern for residents, and is unfair on those placed in the hotel.

    'The Home Office must now face the reality of the situation. The Bell Hotel must be closed without delay. Our warnings have been ignored for too long.'

    The council boss has set up a petition calling for the closure of The Bell Hotel – as well as the Phoenix Hotel in Bobbingworth, which also accommodates migrants. It has has received more than 4,500 signatures.

    The petition says: 'We are also deeply concerned about rising community tensions. Epping Forest has a history of extreme far-right activity, including the presence of groups such as the Homeland Party and previously elected British National Party councillors.

    'The Government's inaction risks fuelling division and undermining community cohesion. Our community feels ignored and let down. Epping Forest has been forced to carry an unfair burden in the ongoing illegal immigration crisis.'

    MailOnline has approached The Bell Hotel for comment.

    Share or comment on this article: Pictured: Ethiopian asylum seeker charged with three sexual assaults in two days – a week after arriving in UK on small boat -after angry protests at migrant hotel
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    1. 'Anti racism' demonstrators – hard Left rentamob troublemakers.

      Then I suggest they are packed in with the criminal vermin. See how they like being raped.

      You know, a dog never learns if you hit it. They can't associate punishment with the problem. This is why you reward good behaviour.

      Humans can, which is why when a human misbehaves – like demanding more criminal vermin are imported – they are properly punished by a solid beating until they accept that they are wrong or can't – whichever comes first. I _hate_ Lefties.

      1. We need to know who is paying for them arriving to counter these protests.

        Do these people not have anything better to do on a sunny afternoon?

  112. Thought for the day.
    If every "refugees welcome" protester with a young family was forced to take in and support totally two male asylum seekers from completely opposing cultures, I wonder whether they could civilise them so they they all lived harmoniously.

    Stupid question, of course the wouldn't and the poor children would probably be raped.

    1. Those with the posters expect other people to pay. As we are.

      I hate to generalise but as you say, once they suffer they won't understand, they will convince themselves it was a one off.

  113. Professor Barbie
    3h
    Meanwhile… we have 30,000 afghan interpreters arrive.
    Did you know we only deployed 9,800 troops to Afghanistan. And of those, only 2500 were combat soldiers.

    So we must have had about 12 interpreters per soldier. Talk about government wastefulness! I bet other countries would have efficiently had about 1 interpreter per company!

    Nilnine
    Professor Barbie
    2h
    The circumstances of the leak certainly look suspect. The leak was extremely valuable to 26000 people who have so far benefitted from £6bn in assistance and benefits, with more to come every year for them and their dependents.

    1. And still there are people who think this is a good thing, and nothing to do with replacement.
      Idiots

    1. Everyone in England seems to be convinced that it is an accurate portrayal of the dangers of the Internet. If you point out that it's fiction, you are met with a blank stare.

        1. That was the impression I had, his TV series have been very interesting to watch. It has certainly been an eye opener.
          And he seems like a decent sort of bloke.
          Now there is another TV series about canal people. Called Narrow Escapes.
          I first became interested when I read the Narrow Dog books.
          By Terry Darlington. But I’ve never been on a canal boat. 🤔

        1. I'd love to see the photo of the boat 'MAY CONTAIN NUTS' – would it be possible to upload the photo linked in the above article, please?

          One of my favourite boat names seen on the canals was on the Shropshire Union, a boat named 'Wrekin Havoc' with an outline drawing of the hill itself.

          3. Thank you! MoH and I decided that in the highly unlikely event that we owned a narrowboat, that is the name we would give it. Looks as though someone has beaten us to it.

      2. I intend to list it with another brokerage but this time it will be sold with a 'free tub of grease' (that should do the trick!)

  118. Interesting post from Naomi Wolf (my bold)

    "A new legislative tracker, LegiSector, allows anyone to make better-informed investment decisions by providing a living snapshot of the latest state and federal legislation. Dr. Wolf examines bills related to “solar” and “community solar,” noting that the market has lost confidence in private solar. Investors—including private individuals—are beginning to realize that solar “farms” eventually fail, leaving behind financial and environmental burdens for taxpayers and local communities.

    In response to this growing awareness, Democrats are proposing new state and federal bills that create “community solar” programs—meaning the government (i.e., taxpayers) underwrites the solar infrastructure, while utilities profit…." (Surprise, surprise!)

    Many of us in the UK are affected by the blight of solar power stations in areas that were previously deeply rural. I have wondered what will happen when the panels reach the end of their lives, and how much of the glass/metals will end up ground into the earth or expensively removed by stealing the topsoil.

    1. It is both very difficult and prohibitively expensive to recycle solar panels. The carbon fibre blades of wind turbines have to be disposed of by burying in the Earth.

      There is nothing remotely good environmentally about these technologies.

      2. They are polluting and destructive. Not to mention inefficient verging on the useless.

      3. The concrete bases of windmills will never be removed. I wonder what archaeologists will make of them. Some sort of primitive religious ritual, no doubt.

    1. Well perhaps it's a good thing that humans don't actually understand how the sun works or how the earth reacts to its influence otherwise there could be a chance that anthropogenic cooling our planet's temperature might really work. It will be of great consolation to younger generations that trying to achieve net zero will not work and that humankind will benefit considerably from increased temperatures and higher rainfall and then they can concentrate on building a society that will evolve to its new environment. This will solve much of today's prevalence of mental issues particularly in the young.

  120. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70539003421229de60e694c71e819f1e3e54a6ee0a65da4ff4eac7d87e8ad340.jpg

    The Sole Survivor of the Cabul Garrison, 1842 by Harry Payne. (PC)

    Dr William Brydon, wounded, exhausted, and with a tiring steed beneath him, is the lone survivor of a force of around 16,000 soldiers and others who had been ousted from Cabul (modern day Kabul) in November 1842. Assured of a safe retreat through the freezing Khyber Pass in January 1843, the force was treacherously slaughtered over many days. Those who remained were killed or taken prisoner at a last stand at Gandamak, but a few had become separated, including Dr William Brydon. The last six survivors were set upon by villagers and killed, with the sole exception of Dr Brydon, who escaped to tell the horrific tale.

    Afghans are NO friends of ours … murderous fiends ..

    What the hell are politicians doing .. what the blazes are they thinking of ..

    1. Nevertheless the Taliban are clearly more honest than the British government. No wonder they were desperate to jail Lucy Connelly, politicians and judges must be sh*t scared of her.

      1. "Nevertheless the Taliban are clearly more honest than the British government."

        It's a close run thing.

        2. “They” got rid of her before she could begin to reverse things. The one thing she did achieve, and I cheered, was to actually sack a (the) senior civil servant from the treasury. Which sealed her fate.

      2. Quite right that the Evil Traita May takes the centre.

        But why are Heath and Major are missing?

  123. OK, what's The Mekon after? Has someone put him up to this?

    It's time to admit that the founding principles of the NHS are ludicrous in modern Britain

    A former Health Secretary has spoken sense about our most outdated and ruinously expensive state institution

    Philip Johnston • 15th July 2025

    Easily the most depressing aspect of watching and writing about politics for more than 40 years has been to witness the abject short-termism of its practitioners. In no area of public life is this more evident than the NHS.

    Politicians have watched its slow immolation in the full knowledge that something fundamental must be done to avert its collapse. They refuse to countenance anything that might necessitate an inevitably fractious campaign to put the case for reform to the country.

    The point is that it takes time, often decades, to change opinion about an institution so deeply rooted in national life and culture. Throughout the years of the NHS's decline our politicians have rejected any suggestion that the way it is funded – almost entirely from taxes – might be its central flaw.

    We all know the history. Founded in the aftermath of the Second World War by a Labour government determined to socialise the entire country, it was set up along the lines of a nationalised industry. It was designed to equalise access and minimise personal costs but not maximise performance.

    The founding principle that treatment should be free at the point of delivery has become a shibboleth that no-one in public life dares to challenge unless they wish to invite ostracism. Nigel Farage tried to open a debate along these lines only to be shot down by his opponents on both sides of the divide. As Reform seeks to consolidate its opinion poll lead we can expect little more to be said about it.

    At last, however, a mainstream politician has stuck his head above the parapet, albeit only now that he has left parliament when it is too late for him to do anything about it. Sir Sajid Javid, a former Health Secretary, has written the foreword to a new report from the Policy Exchange think-tank accepting the argument that we cannot carry on this way.

    Of course, he makes the now-ritualistic genuflection before the great god. "The NHS is one of our country's most treasured and beloved national institutions – and for good reason. It speaks to the ideals at the heart of our national life – the principle of equality – that every British citizen deserves the same access to high quality healthcare – and the belief that we all have a responsibility for the health of our neighbours."

    However, Sir Sajid adds: "While the strength of our belief in these ideals has not wavered, our ability to deliver them is increasingly being called into question."

    Even this is an excessively charitable observation. I would maintain that cleaving to a set of principles dating to 1948 as the basis for a modern health service having to cope with an ageing population and the soaring costs of routine treatments is lunacy. As Albert Einstein purportedly said, doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.

    As Sir Sajid points out, the NHS now spends more every month than it did in an entire year when it was set up. Our health budget is the size of the GDP of Portugal – and it will only grow further.

    He calls for "a serious conversation with taxpayers about how we continue funding their favourite national institution". But no-one in politics wants to have such a conversation. Whenever it is suggested that social insurance might be the way forward they run a mile, even though countries with such systems have far better health care than is provided by the NHS. It is more important to remain with the herd than risk being picked off by the hyenas ready to pounce on anyone unwise enough to stray.

    When he was Health Secretary, Sir Sajid was required to cite the socialised creed, almost literally. In a speech in 2022 to the Royal College of Physicians, he said: "I believe in the NHS and I believe in its founding principles."

    Now, he acknowledges that the very best performing health systems work because they combine state subsidy, mandatory insurance, co-payments and individual choice. The Policy Exchange authors look at a number of alternatives around the world and say the Dutch is the best. It delivers extremely good coverage and affordable care, but also allows individuals to take more responsibility where they can.

    Sir Sajid raises the usual Aunt Sally about the grisly aspects of the American system which no-one wants to emulate. The problem is that to get from where we are now to Dutch-style health care will require a cultural and organisational upheaval that no party will contemplate.

    Indeed, how the Dutch got to where they are is a salutary lesson. Until the end of the last century the Netherlands had an insurance-based healthcare model, albeit with a tightly regulated, largely "statist" structure. Prices for treatments and procedures were set by the government, as was remuneration and compensation for doctors and hospitals, much as in the NHS today.

    In 1986, following an economic crisis, an inquiry into the structure and financing of healthcare advocated moving to a system of managed competition and greater consumer choice to promote innovation and greater efficiency.

    The report of the Dekker Commission was entitled "Willingness to Change", an absolute requirement which this country seems congenitally incapable of embracing despite Labour's election winning mantra last year.

    It then took the Dutch years to "have the conversation", devise the changes, push them through the legislative processes in the teeth of opposition from various vested interests, including doctors.

    Worsening waiting list times and rising costs provided the political impetus to reform in 2006 whereas here they are simply an excuse to pour more money into an unreformed system.

    The PolEx report describes the emergence of a healthcare funding model in the Netherlands based on private insurance and offering a basic healthcare package, giving fairly comprehensive service coverage, while a competitive market exists for healthcare providers.

    Dutch spending on health is lower than here and yet the outcomes are better with lower avoidable mortality rates. Its approach might not transfer seamlessly to this country; but adopting a mix of the best systems in Europe must surely be an improvement on the gradual collapse of health care in Britain.

    Sir Sajid says emphatically: "What we cannot afford to do is to bury our heads in the sand." Yet that is exactly what we are doing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/15/its-time-to-admit-that-the-founding-principles-of-the-nhs

    1. We need to acknowledge that the NHS was set up to serve a small, stable population who had paid in to use its services. It offered basic health care "from the cradle to the grave". None of that applies now, so the model is completely inadequate.

  124. In the BBC app, an article about the sacking of John Torode has the prominent sub-heading 'I apologised immediately'. The clear implication is that Torode said this, thus acknowledging that he had made a racist comment. However, later in the article, it becomes clear that Torode was simply explaining what someone else was saying about him. I have no idea if Torode actually made a racist comment or not but the BBC’s disgraceful mis-representation of the evidence is neither fair nor in the interests of justice.

  125. I cannot believe that John Torode is less that 5 feet tall!

    Is it true?

    From wiki

    John Douglas Torode is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's This Morning, he started presenting a revamped MasterChef on BBC One in 2005. Wikipedia
    Born: July 23, 1965 (age 59 years), Melbourne, Australia
    Spouse: Lisa Faulkner (m. 2019), Jessica Torode (m. 2000–2014)
    Children: Casper Torode, Lulu Torode, Marselle Torode, Jonah Torode
    Parents: Anne Torode, Douglas Torode
    Height: 1.52 m

  126. Fears over riots after secret asylum scheme made public

    Ministry of Defence told co-operation needed with government departments to 'mitigate any risk of disorder'

    Tony Diver, Associate Political Editor; Gareth Corfield
    15 July 2025 2:50pm BST

    Ministers fear riots will break out in Britain after the news that a secret resettlement scheme for Afghans was kept hidden from the public.

    After a superinjunction was lifted on Tuesday, it was revealed that the identities of 25,000 Afghans, including soldiers who had worked with UK forces in the country and their families, had been accidentally leaked following a blunder by the British military in February 2022.

    The leak prompted ministers to evacuate more than 4,500 Afghan soldiers and their relatives and relocate them in the UK under the Afghanistan Response Route scheme. A further 2,400 are eligible for the scheme, but have yet to travel.

    The Afghans have been settled in military accommodation and hotels across Britain at a cost of £400 million, with a total of £7 billion earmarked for the plans.

    However, the previous Conservative government successfully obtained a superinjunction that blocked news outlets from reporting the story, leaving the public baffled about sudden influxes of migrants to their areas.

    A Whitehall briefing note circulated on July 4, seen by The Telegraph, warned that when the injunction was lifted, the Ministry of Defence would need to "work with colleagues across Government … to mitigate any risk of public disorder following the discharge of the injunction".

    All government departments have been warned that the public could lash out after learning about the scheme.

    Officials argued in court that revealing the leak would endanger Afghans on the list. The MoD said the individuals would be at risk of revenge attacks by the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of British and American forces in August 2021.

    However, the superinjunction has now been lifted, with judges arguing that the Taliban would be likely to know about the list by now, and that many of the Afghans eligible for the scheme had already been brought to the UK.

    At one stage earlier this year, 20 per cent of MoD property was allocated over to housing those in the scheme, it can now be revealed.

    Documents from earlier this month said the Home Office had advised government departments that "such a risk [of riots] is higher during the summer period".

    Officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of last summer's anti-immigration civil unrest, which lasted for six days. The riots, encouraged by far-Right groups, followed the mass stabbing of girls at a dance class in Southport.

    The disorder resulted in more than 1,200 arrests and dozens of convictions. Sir Keir Starmer condemned the episode as the "actions of a tiny, mindless minority in our society", and announced the creation of a new violent disorder unit in response.

    It can now be revealed that a briefing paper circulated to Cabinet ministers two months later said the riot hotspots were largely in places where there had been a high number of Afghan arrivals.

    In the document, seen by The Telegraph, an official said: "The recent far-Right disorder targeting asylum seekers and Muslim communities was the worst outbreak of racial violence in the UK for decades. We know that 15 out of the 20 primary disorder hotspots are in the top 20 per cent of local authorities with the highest numbers of supported asylum seekers and Afghan resettlement arrivals."

    The statistic has fuelled fears that more civil unrest could now break out. It is understood Downing Street was monitoring the prospect of further riots on Tuesday.

    Whitehall sources said decisions about individual towns and cities that could be affected would be left to police forces. It is understood that there has not been a government directive for police to prepare for riots.

    The emergency resettlement scheme has now been closed down following the conclusion of an official review after Labour took office last July.

    John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said he was "deeply concerned about the lack of transparency to Parliament and to the public" when he heard about the leak and resettlement scheme, and apologised on behalf of the Government.

    He added that the Government had tried to contact every person on the list to warn them about the data leak and offer them asylum, and that the MoD's computer systems had since been updated to make them more secure.

    Mr Healey said: "This serious data incident should never have happened. It may have occurred three years ago under the previous government, but to all those whose information was compromised, I offer a sincere apology today on behalf of the British Government, and I trust the shadow defence secretary, as a former defence minister, will join me."

    A Downing Street spokesman said: "It's part of government business to continually assess the impact of government policy, and matters of significance such as this, and the impact that this might have on the public. "I'm sure that's something we are working on very closely across departments."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/15/ministers-fear-riots-secret-afghan-asylum-scheme-public-uk

    Healey had a difficult job. He's a member of a government which makes a show of not being critical of immigration, even if some its members might be privately worried. He knows that criticising the Tories because it happened on their watch will not impress the British public. He also knows that Afghans are here because of the UK's involvement in George Bush Jnr's demented quest for revenge when Labour was previously in office.

    The report says Afghans have been settled in military accommodation and hotels. In other words, they've been put in the same places as some of the Channel invaders. If it is shown that recent sexual assaults by migrants can be attributed to Afghans who were supposed to be 'on our side', matters will get very messy. Does Healey think that being contrite will calm the nation?

    1. 'Officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of last summer's anti-immigration civil unrest, which lasted for six days. The riots, encouraged by far-Right groups, followed the mass stabbing of girls at a dance class in Southport'.

      The governments own investigation stated there were no links to far right groups.

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