Friday 25 July: The BMA’s behaviour should alarm any doctor with a sense of vocation

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

383 thoughts on “Friday 25 July: The BMA’s behaviour should alarm any doctor with a sense of vocation”

    2. I'm on a project for AkerBP, the Norwegian arm of BP. Yggdrasil, a 3-platform installation in the North Sea. So, plenty oil & gas this side of the divide.

    3. Turns out the shareholders weren't very happy with the future of their investment being based on government whim.

  4. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page. Got my Wordle in 4 today (a Par).

    Wordle 1,497 4/6

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

  6. I have just taken my daughter’s car up to the garage for its MoT, which is due on 22nd August. I want it services first and any problems that would cause it to fail its MOT put right first. There is a problem with the windscreen washers which my husband thought he had fixed, but turns out he hasn’t. So I pointed it out to the guy (not the owner) who was opening up as I dropped the car off.

    He said, best thing to do is the MOt and then when iT fails we can fix what’s wrong.

    I said no, the best thing to do is put right the things that would cause it to fail an MOT and then it passes its MOT.

    He just wouldn’t buy it. What is wrong with people?

    1. Many garages do a free MOT re-test, often as part of the original test. So any problem found in the test will be rectified immediately and the MOT certificate issued with the only extra cost being the price of the repair.

      1. Mine does similar. They run an MOT, tell me if anything's failed, fix the problems (if needed) then run the MOT proper.

      2. Yes but once it’s failed it can’t be driven. Until it’s failed it’s still driveable. Am i the only one who gets this?

        1. Not necessarily. If it is a non-dangerous fault and the previous MOT certificate is still current, you can still drive it.

          1. Yes you can but once it leaves the testing station you have to pay the full cost of another MoT whereas if it's fixed there and then the retest only covers the fixed fault – or that used to be the case

          2. Again, not necessarily. The garage I use says this:-

            MOT Testing
            Claiming a Free Retest

            Your vehicle may be able to have a partial retest free of charge under one of the following two circumstances:

            Leaving your vehicle at the test centre following a failed test
            If the vehicle has failed the MOT test and is then left at the test centre for repair and retested before the end of 7 working days following the day it originally failed, then only a partial retest is needed. There’s no fee.

            Bringing your vehicle back to the test centre following a failed test
            You won’t have to pay again if the vehicle’s brought back to the same test centre before the end of the next working day for a partial retest on one or more of the following items only:

            access panels
            battery
            bonnet
            boot lid
            brake pedal anti-slip
            break glass hammer (Class 5 vehicles only)
            doors (including hinges, catches and pillars)
            door open warning device (Class 5 vehicles only)
            drop-sides
            electrical wiring
            emergency exits and signs (Class 5 vehicles only)
            entrance door remote control (Class 5 vehicles only)
            entrance/exit steps (Class 5 vehicles only)
            fuel filler cap
            headlamp cleaning or levelling devices (that doesn’t need a headlamp aim check)
            horn
            lamps (excluding headlamp aim)
            loading door
            main beam ‘tell-tale’
            mirrors
            rear reflectors
            registration plates
            seatbelts (but not anchorages)
            seatbelt load limiter
            seatbelt pre-tensioner
            seats
            sharp edges or projections
            stairs (Class 5 vehicles only)
            steering wheel
            tailboard
            tailgate
            trailer electrical sockets
            towbars (excluding body around anchorage points)
            tyre pressure monitoring system
            vehicle identification number (VIN)
            windscreen and glass
            windscreen wipers
            windscreen washers
            wheels and tyres (excluding motorbikes and motorbikes with sidecar)
            Paying for a Retest
            Bringing your vehicle back within 10 working days

            If the vehicle is removed from the test centre for repair and returned within 10 working days following the day it originally failed, then only a partial retest is needed. In this case a partial retest fee of £14.75 will be applicable.

            In all other cases, you’ll need to get a full retest and pay the full MOT test fee again.

        2. 3 years ago my Honda CRV failed it's MoT. The problem on the 10+ year old car was that the "Amber Indicator Bulbs" had faded.
          The retest followed new bulbs – Cost of bulbs was £2.
          The car was then serviced knowing if there were any other issues (no other faults).
          The process works BUT a first Fail on the Car's MoT History

          In my 11 years ownership of my Swindon built Honda the Total repair bills was under £250!

    2. My car goes back to the main dealer each year. I point out one or two things that need attention and they do the rest. It's never failed the MoT yet.

    3. Good morning, that's how I deal with my 16 year old VW Passat. At a small local garage, I book a full service and MoT. In carrying out the service any issues are highlighted and, after checking with me, dealt with in order to pass the test. Over the past 8 years there have been a few advisories (some bizarre, as if a jobsworth was seeking relevance) but no failures. When I first took my car to them I was asked whether I intended to keep the car or sell it. The garage wasn't touting for sales, just assessing the level of work required. Suffice to say, I usually need to give them 3 weeks notice of my request for a service as they are very busy servicing the vehicles of others who have fled the sky high costs of the dealerships.

      1. Similar arrangement for my 17 year old Skoda Octavia Estate here in Wilts. Each year they advise me to hang onto it because it works and is uncomplicated.

    4. The tequirements of an MOT are more stringent than the check list for a service, so it is better to do the MOT first.

    5. They do the MoT then if it fails they put the faults right and redo the test when it passes. You don’t have to pay for the second test.

  7. ”The Chancellor is struggling to balance the books, so where better to look than Gordon Brown’s favourite cash cow?
    It is becoming increasingly likely that she will have to follow in the footsteps of the chancellor whose framed photo she kept as a student, by launching a raid on retirement pots this autumn.“

    But only private “pots”. There are no “pots” in the unfunded public sector world. So nothing to tax there. They wil, still get their “promises”, paid for out of future taxation.

    The whole thing stinks but people in the private sector (and public sector) don’t understand the pensions apartheid at work,

    Reform (or another non-uni party alternative) should find a way to advertise public sector salaries including the pension uplift. At the moment t we compare apples and pears, so a private sector pension might be advertised at £50,000 with a 5% employer contribution but the public sector might be advertised at £40,000 and DB pension. But if you calculated it out, the public sector job “pays” more.

    1. Morning, LiM
      My private pension, the result of savings since 1988, was offshored a long time ago, for this precise reason.

      1. There should be legislation that any changes to pensions policy only take effect at minimum ten years after enacting. This would ensure morons didn't see our savings as a pot to rob and enforced care and respect for their purpose.

    2. When I joined the civil service 35 years ago, the pension was seen as 'deferred pay' as the pay was not great but I needed a job. I'm glad of my pension now.
      The DB pension has changed now to a "career average" one rather than "final salary".

      1. Some time ago that was the deal: pay was lower in return for a lifetime of service and a very good pension.

        The problem we have now is that there are over half a million civil servants rather than the 20 thousand we likely need and their pay has been creeping up to remain 'competitive' with industry yet having a thirtieth of the work, no risk, no marketing, no costs.

        After demob I worked for the MoD for a bit. I left because it was a useless nest of idiots who didn't have a clue which end of the pen to use.

    3. The problem with taxation – as none of these fools ever learn – is that you get one bite that year then the money is moved away or just not there to rob the cost still is.

      While folk can disagree, the government is a household, like any others. It has cashflow and spending. Some is necessary, most is discretionary. Continuing to tax and waste just leaves the debt without the revenue.

      I'm a dimmo and I know this. Why can Thieves Reeves the moronic woman not understand that, or does she think it all a comedy where just destroying the money supply solves all problems?

  9. It's getting like Lenin versus Trotsky, Mensheviks versus Bolsheviks all over again with the split in Labour.
    Farms are closing, pensioners freezing, protesters sent to Siberia, the Praetorian Guard militia movement and cohorts of Antifa and Hope Not Hate sent at a minutes notice to disrupt peaceful protests against attacks on women.

  11. Morning, all Y'all.
    Another brilliant sunny day. Was told off by Big Cat for being slow with his breakfast this morning. But he got salmon chunks (well, something in small bits, grey-coloured) in gravy, and seemed pleased.

    1. I've a new doorman to keep my wake up call out. Although they do rather whuff at one another loudly enough to wake you up anyway.

      Mongo pushed the door open (it's either leave it ajar or wake to find it's not there) and Oscar boffed into him, with both sniffing and whuffing at one another until Oscar resolutely blocked the door in a polite, but firm manner.

      Mongo, being used to going and doing as he pleased was a bit taken aback so went off to get reinforcements (in the form of teenager)- who refused to reinforce as it was in the early hours and instead suggested he go back to sleep.

      1. I had the back door open as the weather was fine, when suddenly both dogs set up a racket of barking. The postman had arrived with a couple of parcels.

    2. When I was cutting the front lawn, Kadi kept barking at me. I looked at my watch and it was nearly time for their tea. His clock was fast as usual.

  12. Captain Sensible 9h
    I met this bloke at Land’s End who was feeding cannabis cake to the seabirds. He left no tern unstoned.

  14. Good Morning!

    In Surrendering the world's most expensive real estate: Luxury hotels for boat people in Canary Wharf? Why not! Frederick Edward looks into the lunatic world of illegal immigration in UK and predicts dire consequences.

    There's still one act of personal discrimination freely and openly practiced in our society, fearlessly exposed in Age hate, a perfectly acceptable form of prejudice by Mrs M Ducks. Have experienced it? Has your protected characteristic been discriminated against? let us know in the comments.

    And two more things: it seems that some of you have not been getting out (almost) daily newsletter. If that's the case please let us know and sign up again. Secondly, we now have ' Our Picks' Page f or stuff we like on Amazon. I know, but the unsung hero of this site, No.2, gets a small commission if anyone clicks on an item. It's the least I can do for him. If you spot something you think our readers will like on Amazon, let us know and we'll include it.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  16. 410029+ up ticks,

    Morning Each

    With what we know now, in what is planned for us going into the future if we are not strongly
    supporting / building on the Farmers Food and Freedom Party then we need our collective arses kicking, and ALL the 3D food we and our deformed kids can gorge.

    With 48% at the last count (referendum) seeking foreign ruling could this be applied also to islamisezation ? with the only party opposing the political overseers 50% leadership in place already.

    Sad to say IMHO the only honest patriotic hand that feeds us, without radical change, will receive a rather nasty bite.

    Telegraph View
    Labour’s scorched-earth farming policy is having its inevitable effect
    As with the VAT on private schools, the true motivations behind the tax raid appears to be punishing traditional opponents of the party

    1. The national food strategy never talks about growing, producing and moving food around. It doesn't want to. It far prefers to grow flowers. The strategy is about destroying food production. Same as the energy strategy is about destroying energy production and industry about destroying jobs and business.

      This government produces strategies that are the exact opposite of what they pretend to discuss. It's utterly laughable.

      1. As the SBO said to the German PoW camp commandant, “you can’t eat flowers, Colonel”.

  17. Good morning all.
    An initially cloudy start has given over to clear sky and sunshine with a temperature of 14°C.

    A thread of BTL Comments:-
    Pauline Maridor
    1 hr ago
    Elsewhere in the DT: “Move migrants from Epping, demands Essex police chief”
    Starmer hasn't failed to do anything…They are rubbing ours noses in it. They seem to be intent on goading the British people into some form of civil unrest.

    This is exactly their plan!

    Ian Spectre-Blake
    55 min ago
    Reply to Pauline Maridor
    It could be a bigger volcano than Starmer at the moment realises. It will transpire but in isolated places, most parts of our great nation will carry on regardless.

    Pauline Maridor
    43 min ago
    Reply to Ian Spectre-Blake
    I admire your optimism… “It will transpire but in isolated places, most parts of our great nation will carry on regardless.”

    No one should underestimate the anger in the country at the 2-tier policing, when they brazenly escorted the pro-immigrant mob to a peaceful protest, in the full knowledge that they would likely to cause trouble.

    R. Spowart
    20 min ago
    Reply to Pauline Maridor
    Message Actions
    Pauline, sadly those of our country who are feeling anger are very much in a minority and are, I strongly suspect, very much outweighed by the ignorance and apathy section of the population who find political matters either beyond them or simply are too busy earning their own living to be able to take note of what is happening.

    Prime examples are the hard working builders currently working on the cottage next door to me. Blooming hard working craftsmen who have no real idea of what is going on in the upper levels of our country.

    TheVoiceof Reason
    19 min ago
    Reply to R. Spowart – view message
    But they should. It’s easy to work hard all day and not have time or inclination to do anything but watch probably biased headline tv news. But I bet they do have time to collapse in front of a tv programme or even chat with friends. They use our roads, they call the police if attacked, their kids go to schools.. everyone has a duty to take an interest in who rules their country. Show this letter to them.. next time they complain about anything.. tell them it is in part their fault.

    R. Spowart
    1 min ago
    Reply to TheVoiceof Reason – view message
    Message Actions
    I know they should VoR, but try talking to them about things political and you see the shutters come straight up!

    Sadly, because we live in a relatively non-enriched area, the realities faced by others just pass them by.

    My welder son says the same of his workmates.

    1. I think most people, including my OH, are completely uninterested in politics. They might go and vote and that's it.

      1. There's politics and seeing brown and black faces everywhere, doing nothing, laying about while white van man drives past on the way to a job, wearing pyjamas at their doctor's surgery, seeing some bint in a bin bag in Tescos.

        That's not politics. It's simple observation to realise the country is overrun with anti social, bigoted, idle foreigners.

        1. Some years ago, we had a visit from the UK, including brother-in-law's then girlfriend.
          One observation she made, in downtown Oslo, was "Isn't it white?".
          I wondered if she was in downtown Lagos, she'd have said "Isn't it black?" – the skin coloration of the indigenous being so, it only being incomers who have different skin tones.

          1. Why do white British people from the UK who move to European countries to work and live have very little trouble integrating?

            The fact that we are white, earn our own living, and can communicate in the French language helps! I cannot lose my English accent but everyone in France thinks that Caroline is French from the way she speaks.

          2. That's because you know the language and had every intention of fitting into the life there. People who fit in are not resented and I don't think it's just due to skin colour.

            The problem with the invaders is their religion and way of life are alien to ours. There's also the fact that they are arrogant and have infiltrated local and national politics and the civil service.

          3. They have no desire to fit in – they want the home shitehole, just with more money for them.

    2. Robert – glad you had a good trip. Could you tell me your route? You seemed to have had a lot of changes of train. I remember when there was a train every day from the Hook to Moscow – via Hanover, Berlin etc…..

  18. David Lammy Neglects Own Substack Blog for Six Months

    Even Private Eye are turning
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/783fc57513b100d1cc1ddaa7510d73ac9d36247e1d0403c9447ffc408e46e201.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10c4332c7d7ac4b52e139eca181ea98b0df72b84b075e0a01bc1b3f064cce4ea.png
    Vladimir WARHead
    13h
    How on earth is a rancid Turnip still in post as a Minister of State…… ?
    How far the UK has fallen … in such a short time.

    George the Dragon
    Vladimir WARHead
    8h
    He's the DEI hire

    Mill House
    Vladimir WARHead
    13h
    Only in that position because of his pigmentation.

    Beebsplaining
    13h
    Just like to say, stand firm the good People of Epping tonight 🫡

    Captain Sensible
    12h
    Pity. I was looking forward to reading his essay on how to walk and chew gum at the same time.

    There was an MP once for Tottenham
    Whose manners – he’d wholly forgotten ‘em.
    At tea at the vicar’s
    He took off his knIckers
    Explaining he felt far too hot in ‘em.

    1. Are the entire front bench not DIE hires? Certainly they can't do anything of use.

    1. Lefties look at what other people have and say 'I want that' then set about using state force to take it from those who have it and give it to themselves. To disguise their laziness and greed they use words like 'equality' and 'equity' and 'fairness' but really, it's just plain, tired theft.

  23. Dirty barstewards…

    Labour opens door to extraditing Hong Kongers

    The move has been labelled as ‘morally indefensible’ and an ‘act of betrayal’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/07/24/TELEMMGLPICT000316669058_17533769785010_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqRo0U4xU-30oDveS4pXV-Vv4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=1280 Protesters rally against the extradition bill in Hong Kong in 2019 Credit: Anthony Kwan/2019 Getty Images

    24 July 2025 7:19pm BST
    Genevieve Holl-Allen

    Labour has opened the door to extraditing Hong Kongers for the first time in more than five years.

    The Home Office has said it is amending legislation to “enable cooperation” between the UK and Hong Kong on matters of extradition.

    The previous Tory government suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in 2020 after China imposed its tough national security law in response to widespread political protests.

    The move by Labour has been branded an “act of betrayal” of the some 150,000 Hong Kongers who came to Britain under a special visa scheme launched in early 2021.

    But Dan Jarvis, the national security minister, vowed that the Government “will never allow a situation where Hong Kongers or any other nationality is extradited for politically motivated purposes”.

    The Hong Kong national security law criminalises anything considered to be secessionist from China, and has led to a crackdown on critics of Beijing. It has also allowed cases, in certain circumstances, to be tried in mainland China.

    Mr Jarvis announced that Chile, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong were being redesignated “to enable cooperation under the Extradition Act 2003”.

    In a letter to Chris Philp, the Tory shadow home secretary, he wrote: “It is in our national interest to have effective extradition relationships to prevent criminals from evading justice and the UK becoming a haven for fugitives.”

    He suggested that changes needed to be made as no extradition to Hong Kong can currently be agreed “even if there were strong operational grounds to do so”.

    Mr Jarvis added: “The way to resolve this situation is to de-designate Hong Kong and Zimbabwe from the Act so that we can co-operate with them on the case-by-case ad hoc basis available for non-treaty partners.”

    The Government has insisted the move would not lead to a restoration of extradition co-operation with Hong Kong, but was a necessary legal step to allow the “severing of ties”.

    But including Hong Kong in the Extradition Act will provide a pathway to extradition of Hong Kongers for the first time since the previous treaty was suspended.

    All extradition requests received by Britain are considered by the UK courts, and if judged to be politically motivated the request would be deemed incompatible with human rights laws.

    It comes as the Government has sought to develop closer links with Beijing, which Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has said will be “crucial” for economic growth.

    Mrs Reeves visited China in January, reviving economic meetings with Beijing that had not taken place since 2019. The Government is also considering giving the green light to a new Chinese “super-embassy” in central London.

    Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, said that the proposals showed “this government has lost it completely when it comes to China”.

    He told The Telegraph: “This is another act of betrayal by the present British Labour Government, and I have many friends in the Labour Party who will be as appalled as I am about this idea. I don’t know what they think they’re doing. Chasing stupid money from China is never going to work.”

    Lord Sumption, a British judge, resigned from Hong Kong’s highest court last year, warning that the rule of law there was “profoundly compromised”.

    Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister, said: “Reinstating extradition with Hong Kong is morally indefensible. The Chinese Communist Party has turned Hong Kong into a surveillance state where freedom of expression, rule of law, and basic civil liberties are systematically dismantled.

    “This move risks legitimising a regime that imprisons critics, silences democracy activists, and uses extradition as a tool of persecution.

    “The Government must immediately abandon this proposal and guarantee that no Hong Konger will ever be sent to face justice in a system that has no justice to offer.”

    Mr Jarvis said: “It is entirely incorrect to say the UK has restored extradition co-operation with Hong Kong. The 1997 treaty remains suspended and this legislation simply completes the severing of ties between the British and Hong Kong extradition systems. This amendment is in order to give legal effect to the suspension of the extradition treaty with Hong Kong.

    “This government is unwavering in its commitment to upholding human rights, the rule of law, and the safety of all individuals in the UK, including the many Hong Kongers who have made this country their home.”

    Mr Jarvis added: “The UK is proud to have welcomed around 160,000 Hong Kongers since our British National (Overseas) route was opened in 2021. These communities are making a much-valued contribution across our country.”

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

    Kate Bero
    12 hrs ago
    Utterly, utterly disgusting. Most of the Hong Kongers who came over from here to avoid being persecuted by China, are educated professionals and business people. This government would rather import unskilled, uneducated, illegal migrants but send back to Hong Kong, tax paying professionals to be persecuted by the Chinese.

    I Mortimore
    12 hrs ago
    Reply to Kate Bero
    Educated professionals and business people are unlikely to vote Liebour, unlike unskilled, uneducated migrants.

    1. 'Prevent…the UK becoming a haven for fugitives', whilst simultaneously flooding the country with unvetted illegals from Africa and the Subcontinent. Jarvis speaks with forked tongue.

  24. Rachel Reeves urged to halt 'wealth exodus' with immediate action

    "A millionaire leaves the UK every 45 minutes…" along with family, contacts, capital & tax revenue.
    Exactly matching the intake of hairy-arsed fighting age dinghy men.

    1. Norway's richest and ugliest citizen, John Fredriksen, is selling up in Chelsea and moving away. He did this to Norway when we got the current Labour government, so he has form. He was one of many rich folk who left, including the owner of the outfit I work for.

        1. You took the words right out of my mouth….

          Although, it wasn't while you were kissing me.

          They simply don't understand, do they? Why are politicians so damned thick?

      3. Why stop at 2%?
        How about 20%? Reeves is short of dosh for the state to waste…

      5. A 2% wealth tax will not touch the sides for this spendthrift government's plans. No amount of money will make an improvement when we have financial wastrels' and incompetents' hands on the cheque book.

      6. Why did the shaved panda need to deliver anything to the government? Hasn't anyone told the virtue-signalling halfwit that he's in the government?

    1. Source.

      Irony Alert..
      In Lambeth Council’s (@lambeth_council) ‘Anti-Racism Training’.
      Taxpayer-funded division.

      Figures for 2017 recorded 41.5 percent of the population in Lambeth as being from black, Asian and ethnically diverse groups.

    2. Oh bugger off your racist, misandrist black woman. I don't care about you. If you take offence, that's your problem. Grow up, or better still go away.

    3. Yeah, i got about 1 minute in. I notice “comments are turned off”.

    6. It's a pity that every white employee doesn't complain that these creatures are "playing the race card" every time they whine.

    1. When Starmer finally tells the truth the Earth will split asunder with shock.

      Everything he says is a lie, doublethink, falsehood and deceit.

      1. They have tried to use truth machines in the past but so far the results have been unreliable.

        When AI has mastered an infallible lie detector then everything Starmer says – and has said – must be tested.

        My younger son writes computer programs for AI – I must see if he can come up with anything!

        1. One looks instinctively for deviation from the norm, an anomaly.
          Araminta Smade was (is) an expert at that on these pages; it may be that women are simply more efficient at detecting false results or false information, because …; I hesitate to mention evolutionary biology because it is a pseudoscience.

  27. 410029+ up ticks

    Dt
    Move migrants from Epping, demands Essex police chief
    In letter to Home Secretary, Roger Hirst says presence of asylum seekers at hotel ‘clearly creating community tension’

    Should demand,

    Move migrants from Epping, demands Essex police chief
    In letter to Home Secretary, Roger Hirst says presence of asylum seekers at hotel ‘clearly creating community tension’ and MUST be moved to Calais via Dover along with a packed lunch and a few francs bus fare.

      1. 410029+ up ticks,

        Morning VOM,

        Well meaning advice , lay of the bloody 3D fodder, madness is perched on your shoulder, awaiting.

  28. Morning All 🙂😊
    A decent sunny start, must be a problem with the weather again 🤗🤭🤔
    The BMA…… I'm not the only person who seems to be having serious diversity issues inside the care of the NHS. My best mate has told me that yesterday he was treated with an obvious air of indifference by certain members of staff who don't seem to have the dedication of past members of staff. But they want more money.

    1. Fairly still air. Not the best weather for the dogs as it's quite humid and – speaking as a big, heavy, hairy object – that's quite hard to breathe and rather energy sapping. We get back from our walk to the water and back and none of them want to play in the stream. They flop down and stop, panting.

      Oscar I'm particularly careful with due to his recent difficulties, so we go even more slowly than usual and stay longer to recover before going back.

      1. We had a lovely black Lab for 11 years and she use lay flat out in the summer but could never resist her walks.

  29. Rod Liddle
    Is Bella Sankey sorry for calling the police on me?
    25 July 2025, 5:25am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-24-at-14.20.15.png
    Brighton council leader Bella Sankey on Newsnight (Credit: BBC)

    The grotesque halfwit who tried to have me prosecuted for ‘incitement’ was on Newsnight on Wednesday night, spouting the usual gibberish. This is Labour’s Bella Sankey, who runs Brighton council, although her presence on the BBC was more a consequence of her past directorship of Detention Action, an organisation that appears to campaign against everything her government is trying to do regarding illegal asylum seekers. Sankey is one of the causes of the enormous trouble in which we now find ourselves, then.

    Seeing this besom jabbering, her eyebrows so high up they seemed to be behind her ears, reminded me of when she dobbed me in. In a piece where I made it very clear that we shouldn’t drop a bomb on Brighton, she contacted Sussex Police with the allegation that I had incited people to drop a bomb on Brighton. Even a cursory reading of the article made it clear I had done no such thing.

    I rang Sussex Police to ask them what action they were taking. They replied: ‘Sussex Police swiftly reviewed the matter considering current legislation, the Home Office Crime Recording Rules, and the Crown Prosecution Service Guide for Prosecutors. It was determined that no offences had been committed and therefore, no crime would be investigated or recorded.’

    No, I replied, I’m not talking about my article. I’m talking about whether you are doing anything about Sankey wasting police time. They replied: ‘The investigation has been closed with no further action to be taken against any involved parties.’ I don’t find this response satisfactory…

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

    MacGuffin
    3 hours ago
    Bella Sankey looks like she may have a few rogue chromosomes in her DNA chain.

    Bifferidge MacGuffin
    3 hours ago
    Put it this way. If the Spectator ran an occasional series, Munters for the Punters, I think we would have found our Miss July.

    1. Brighton has already been bombed. It didn't improve it. The problem isn't that these pointless squealers pop up, it's that they are funded by the taxpayer.

      She will now hop from state job to state job, adding a few tens of thousands to an already obese, expenses fuelled salary and never, ever contribute to this country while actively seeking to destroy it from within.

      She is the epitome of failure and the problem with the entire state machine. Such as her should be barred from ever 'working' in the public sector – not that she has ever worked a day in her life.

      1. It speaks volumes for our soft society that non-entities like this can do so well. And it’s the private sector paying for it all.

        1. It's just evidence that we do not live in a democracy. In a true democracy such as her would now be removed and forbidden back to the tax payer trough.

          But no. Failure is rewarded in big fat state.

      2. Resurrect John Betjeman and see if he can tell us where we might find a few of the friendly bombs he wanted to use on Slough.

        1. "There isn't grass to graze a cow".

          When we stayed at Trebetherick mid nineties, I walked down to the church of St Enodoc and paid my respect at his grave.

  32. Good morning all

    Another day without rain , thank goodness we don't have a water meter , our neighbours were trying to persuade us to change to one , nope .. we use water ! So does the garden .

    Migrant murderer with poor English ‘should never have had student visa’
    Tory shadow minister says Habibur Masum, who was jailed for life after stabbing his wife, should not have been allowed to enter the UK

    A migrant who murdered his wife as she pushed her pram down the street should never have been given a student visa to enter Britain, the Tories have suggested.

    Habibur Masum, 27, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years earlier this week after stabbing Kulsuma Akter dozens of times in broad daylight last April.

    The killer came to the UK from Bangladesh on a student visa in 2022 after enrolling on a master’s degree in marketing at the University of Bedfordshire, which allows international students to show Duolingo tests proving their English language skills in some cases. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/24/migrant-murderer-poor-english-never-visa-bedfordshire/?recomm_id=a9ecd2e3-b40d-427e-a888-f28c9cef9932

    MS

    Martin Sach
    13 min ago
    The underlying scandal is that our higher educational system is not focused on educating your British people but on international students. A knowledge and skills economy should be investing in human capital for the benefit of the future UK economy not educating overseas students.

    Comment by Robert Mawby.

    RM

    Robert Mawby
    17 min ago
    Daily Telegraph Editor,

    There are far too many articles in this newspaper that you have decided that us, your contributing readers, are not allowed to comment on and the few that we are "allowed" to comment on are heavily censored. Why do you think you have the right to stem and stop us commenting? This country is on a knife edge at the moment, and your decision to gag the great British public is only adding to the suspicion and distrust the people are feeling towards the so-called authories already known to be lying to us.edited

    Me writing this , okay.

    One woman has been killed every three days in the UK since 2009.

    Leicestershire had the highest rate of femicide over the period, followed by Merseyside, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and London.

    Killed women involved in prostitution were younger and less likely to have been born in the UK.

    Children witnessed at least 163 femicides, while 37 women were killed alongside 53 children, most commonly by their father.

    https://www.femicidecensus.org/reports/

    1. Mr Mawby, chances are the Telegraph can't risk the legal implications, so turns off comments for it's safety.

      Considering you can study duolingo anywhere, let alone learn English off youtube (the Warqueen had a Japanese tutor in Japan when she was learning that language. There is no reason for the dindu to be here.

      Sadly, universities are happy to take such 'students' because they pay higher fees and, well, once they get here they anchor themselves, claim endless benefits and generally stink.

    2. As we’ve discussed before, Belle, a water meter will undoubtedly save you money even if your usage goes up in the summer. We’ve not long ago and our monthly bill is £34 but expect this to go down when reviewed in November. If you have money to waste continue to pay according to your council tax band.

      1. Before we (just one couple) had a water meter installed at the stopcock on our driveway our bills were very high. Since then the bills have more than halved.

      2. Our house – and the adjoining one – cannot have water meters; something to do with the pipework arrangements from the 1920s.
        However, the Anglian Water chap who checked and made the discovery (most of the other houses on our road are metered) made sure we were emailed a questionnaire about resident numbers and our appliances. Our projected water bill practically halved straightaway, with the excess we have been paying credited to the new estimate.
        I suspect the default for estimated bills for a house like ours is a family of four.

        1. That's interesting, and could conceivably apply to us too. What is the specific problem, do you know? Our supply pipe is too small, and we don't have unassisted water pressure on the first floor.

    3. Our grandson graduated recently as a Master of Pharmacy. We watched it on TV as Birmingham University streamed it live. Out of the 200+ students graduating only between 20-30 were British.

    4. 28 years …..that's going to amount to more than one million pounds for his keep. As opposed to 20 pounds for a strong rope and half a day hire for a digger and driver.

  33. Move migrants from Epping, demands Essex police chief
    In letter to Home Secretary, Roger Hirst says presence of asylum seekers at hotel ‘clearly creating community tension’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/24/move-migrants-from-epping-demands-essex-police-chief/

    The French in the region of Calais are not best pleased by the fact that thousands of people are waiting in their area to take a rubber dinghy to England. It is the fault of the English, they quite rightly claim, for making England too attractive for such people – it is the 'pull factor'.

    Patrick Chrystis showed on GBNews how these migrants near Calais live in squalid tents in barns or disused warehouses until they can get a place on a dinghy. If these people are housed in hotels, fed and given pocket money in the UK then this is an enormous 'pull factor'. The French are subject to the same ECHR as the UK and they put people waiting for a dinghy in tents so why does the UK not offer the same conditions to migrants waiting for their applications to be be processed?

    1. This bloke is not a "police chief". He is the (pointless) Police and Crime Commissioner.

      1. In the final three for the honour of being Conservative candidate in the Essex Mayor contest.

    2. The French also run a free bus service into Calais which the illegals take advantage.

      1. Good morning, Phizzee

        If you were offered a choice between:

        i) a free bus ride into town and living in a squalid tent;
        or
        ii) comfortable accommodation, food lodging and pocket money then which would you choose?

    1. The more I read that kind of thing, the more I feel utter revulsion for the bastards.

      1. Starmer and The Idiot King should be locked in a room together and forced to watch this until they are prepared to admit that multiculturalism does not work.

        1. All cultures are not the same. Imagine if the Mayans were still knocking about, loads emigrated to Britain and they started arguing for their right to mass human sacrifice.

    2. The Idiot King himself was, shall we say, sexually incontinent even after marrying his teenage bride, so no wonder he is on the side of Islam.

    3. Feeling uneasy that your fellow religionists hold such a view, perhaps leaving the religion is the way forward. Oh wait on a minute, what's the policy on apostasy?

  35. 410029+ up ticks,

    This is likely starmer the TOOL giving reluctantly a little ground, far,far, more truth be told,

    Dt,
    Half of public think Islam not compatible with British values
    Recent survey found four in 10 polled think Muslim immigrants have a negative impact on the UK

    2. This 'Special Award'? Does it involve the taxpayer handing over a financial reward and if so why wasn't I and my fellow taxpayers consulted?

    3. Considering how destructive that tax is, how it was aimed at the well off who have invested in land and now this tax won't even touch them all the tax has really done is ruin farmers, cause havoc and destroyed lives.

      That's nothing to be proud of.

    4. Strange how the award is for ways to raise money, not save the stuff. I guess taxpayers are infinitely rich cash cows, especially those who work with actual cows.

    6. One headline said that farms were being sold at an increasing rate post the IHT grab.

  37. Yo and Good Moaning to you all, from a Sunny C d S.

    Is it not strange, but when school holiday periods start, the Sun always seem to go in and the rain clouds visit us.
    Should we blame Millitwit?

    2. There are 4 'brats' here today. Junior, his 'gurlfriend' (who is competing with the Warqueen, not that she's has noticed) and two boys who're actually quite well behaved. I imagine mostly because I'm in a bad mood as Mongo and I are off to the children's hospice today.

      Oscar is hiding in our room and I've brought him up his bed, toys and dentist chewy bone so he doesn't have to brave the screaming. He's used to a far quieter, calmer household of 80 year olds, not children. He also has a fan going and the curtains closed to keep the light out.

      With that, we're away.

      1. Yo, wibbles

        Follow my system and you will have a calmer household of 30 year olds,

      1. Pro Palestine agencies seem to be in control of the news which the MSM is happy to publish.

        I am afraid I think that if the people in Palestine are starving it is because of Hamas and not because of the Israelis. We must never forget that Hamas never tells the truth and is happy to sacrifice their own people as human shields for propaganda purposes.

        Remember when a Palestine state was on offer Yasser Arafat rejected it. The two state solution is not possible – it is not a two state solution if the Jewish state has to be obliterated and all the Jews killed as it will be a one state solution!

          2. I think the Israeli spokesmen have given up, as too many other countries have a "don't bother me with facts, I've made up my mind" mentality.

      2. Everywhere muslim are or arrive at they cause problems. And when people rise up to defend themselves. The defenders are wrongly recognised as the problem.
        And It's started here now.

    1. I like the Labour Party so much that I'm glad that there are now two of them.

  42. If you have ever been in love and vulnerable then you should listen to this song's lyrics. I found it moving.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFdGFzaJ7hQ
    The choir at Gresham's sang an arrangement of the song when Christo was at school there.

    He went to a Billy Joel concert in Cardiff last August.

  43. The Third battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), 31st July – 10th November 1917.
    Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, 20th – 25th September 1917 .
    A camouflage-painted 12-inch howitzer of the 104th Siege Battery, R.G.A., in front of Zillebeke, 24th September 1917.

    The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, sometimes called "Battle of the Menin Road", was the third British general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres in the First World War. The battle took place from 20 to 25 September 1917, in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front. During the pause in British and French general attacks from late August to 20 September, the British changed some infantry tactics, adopting the leap-frog method of advance.

    Waves of infantry stopped once they reached their objective and consolidated the ground, while supporting waves passed through the objective to attack the next one and the earlier waves became the tactical reserve. General adoption of the method was made possible when more artillery was brought into the salient, by increasing the number of aircraft involved in close air support and by the Royal Flying Corps giving the tasks of air defence, contact-patrol, counter-attack patrol, artillery observation and ground-attack to particular aircraft.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/343427c40fe2872985f4501b5aeb43a54d6ee7e8cc930cdfd440fb4c7bd180f5.jpg

    Following the success of their BL 9.2-inch howitzer, Vickers designed an almost identical version scaled up to a calibre of 12 inches, the Mk II entering service on the Western Front in August 1916. Eight complete equipments*** are reported as arriving in August 1916 and being in action in France shortly afterwards.

    *** An 'Equipment' is the gun and it's carriage as a complete unit.

    It was found that the arrival of a 12" howitzer round in your locale would ruin your afternoon off.

  44. It seems to me that the disingenuous arsehole Jenrick is employing the old Labour tactic of resetting history to zero when his party gets kicked out of power. The problem with this is of course, is the pesky proles he is trying to fool have memories that not even the most arduous of propaganda campaigns will totally erase.

  47. Well that got a bit stupid.
    Just got back from Matlock, traffic backed up to the A6 from Water Lane, so turned up Scarthin only to find it backed up there too.
    Turns out the garage had waste oil to get rid of and, instead of clearing the forecourt to allow the small 4 wheel tanker to pull off the road, forced it to sit on the main road.
    Chuck in the "I Must Keep Up With The Car In Front Of Me" mentality and it was blooming chaos!

    1. It must be nearly Peak [in both senses] holiday time – we took the A6 from Matlock to Bakewell a couple days ago and there are 5 separate roadworks! Some are very near roundabouts or junctions, just to increase the potential to cause absolute chaos as people block the roundabouts or access to turnings!!

  48. Morning All
    Does anyone have a direct email address from out side of the virgin media addresses where I can send a complaint. My email won't work, they don't recognise my details and obviously I can't sign into my account. They are an absolute bloody nightmare I've been trying to get in contact for days. Even several phone calls get me nowhere. 🤔😏

        1. But don’t you still need an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and it sounds as though Ready Eddy is being prevented from getting onto the internet by Virgin? A possible way round this is to use a mobile phone to send the email or set it up as a hotspot.

    1. They the shop owners should take the government to court and demand the money comes out of the political idiots own pockets.

      1. They are not supported by the police or the local councils. They will eventually give up.

        Which suits the overall WEF plan to destroy all independent businesses. Leaving corporations in control of everything.

        1. Jigsaw – one of those corporates – locks it's door and only let's customers in after verification.

          That's how far this country has been pushed by the Left.

        2. Shops should be permitted to use violence against them, once they leave the premises with their loot.
          A baseball bat to the knees or elbows would be a reasonable deterrent in the majority of cases.
          Nothing to the head but open season on the rest of the body, until they are subdued.
          Then take back what they stole.

    2. Notice they even jumped the turnstiles at the tube.

      Higher prices all round.

    1. A couple of weeks ago a lady tourist in Africa was trampled to death by a female elephant.

        2. A terrible thing to happen.
          Whilst driving along the north side of the Zambesi river towards Kariba at night we rounded a bend and had to slam the brakes on in the tiny VW beetle. In the fading headlights Mike and I saw a huge male elephant standing in the road staring at us.
          The headlights went out.
          Fortunately he decided to follow the rest of his herd into the undergrowth.
          When we reach Salisbury and stayed over, the family showed us photographs of cars that had been virtually flattened in a similar situations. Face to face 🤔🐘 those elderly Bull’s are great big old boys.

      2. Got between Mother and calf, perhaps? In the West, same thing happens when people get between cow & calf.

  51. That's me done for today. Off to Firstborn's place, to work with my hands as opposed to the PC. I'll log on later, God willing.

        1. Neither – I just want to watch the highlights tonight. I will keep away from this site between 11am and 7pm whilst cricket is on

          1. Apologies, I thought it was the scores rather than aspects/milestones that you avoided.

            Am I allowed to say that you’ll certainly enjoy the highlights!

  54. https://youtu.be/hjsTNlRdLXc
    Leon
    2h
    It's time it was redefined what a charity is. Those lot are no more than political groups taking the mick and abusing the system. Trouble is Labour would never do that and neither did the tories,

    1. "Charity" is solely a tax status. Not an intent of good will. The term has been perverted.

  55. Whenever I come back from the hospice I find myself deeply frustrated that such young people should suffer so much and yet utter sewage should be alive. That so little goes to their care and so much is wasted on vermin.

    For all those 'dindus welcome here' I ask this: why does some criminal, rapist vermin deserve a hotel, cash and freebies when a 6 year old girl is dying from cancer, so many needle marks up her arm you'd think she was a drug addict. Yet when some daft ball of fur waddles in she laughs and laughs as she rubs his immense belly.

    I ask you all – why is this country so damned twisted that paki rapists are protected while children die?

    1. That's lovely of you, Wibbling. You and the Bear. The scene you describe brought me to tears – we'd love a little grand-daughter, and for someone else to be losing theirs is heartbreaking – let alone the little girl who won't have a grand-daughter of her own.
      You can't fix the problem, but you can make bearing up under it much more tolerable. Good on you – and your woofits.

  57. Caption Contest (In a Bad Modi Edition)
     https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6821ba2b3748e23f628943d3a2623705081f859bb633eda6960b4fe97bee23c2.png
    Leon
    53m
    Nothing to fear here girls, he bats for the other side.

    Two Tier Swampy
    54m
    We now understand what Labour's Net-zero policy is – No white people.

    Rogueslr
    38m
    Welcome to the actors in adverts awards ceremony presented by Sir Kier Starmer.

    Ricardo T
    47m
    My Dad was a vindaloo maker

    Sir Jimmy Savile OBE
    48m
    "And this will be what the British population will look like when I leave office,."

    8. 'I can't quite get us all in"
      "No worries – Sir Kier will have no problem!"

  58. There are at least two articles in today’s Telegaffe that keep referring the the "far right" – get a grip DT, you stand more chance of seeing Bigfoot!

    1. Why do our long established news papers insist on jumping on some sort of silly invented political band wagon?
      There is no such thing as 'far right' there is normal which is alright and disgustingly left as far as anyone can imagine.

    2. The Mirror had screaming hijabs on the front page saying something must be done about Gaza. Yes, get rid of Hamas.

      1. Pass. Don't really care. His guilt is obvious but from hearing the judges remarks – dear freakin' life.

        Remember when the courts were open long hours and at weekends to process all the 'far right' thugs Starmer so hated disrupting his spin over the slaughter of children? Suddenly disappeared when it's muslim criminality.

    2. It was a mistake by the police officer Marsden to stamp on the bloke's head. But clearly that was the result of the earlier violence to the two police women and the other guy.

  60. Some good news to share with you all. A couple of years ago having noticed missing heart beats I was sent to the quacks and was diagnosed with a high burden of ventricular ectopic beats – as high as 40%. Nothing was done then apart from putting me on blood thinners. I was monitored last year and then this year. A 24 hour Halter monitor showed that the venticular beat issue has drastically reduced, to just 3%, although there is still an issue with the atrial ecoptic beats which is considered benign. This afternoon I had another echocardiogram and although I await the official results the nurse suggested they looked very good. There is a suggestion that they no longer will need to monitor this, in effect I have been cured.

    This follows bowel colography earlier in the year which showed no sign of cancer and my regular review of my prostate and PSA which although high seems to have stabilised and no further action is needed at the moment (I had radiotherapy for it in 2016).

    So I am fit and well despite my 76 years and counting.

    Oh and no sign whatsoever of industrial action at my local clinic, but not sure if many junior doctors actually work there, it is largely an urgent care centre with various other facilities around it.

    2. Well that's good news for you Dave – now you can stop worrying about your health and enjoy the rest of your Life!

    3. Very good news.
      They say that it takes about 10 years after the radiotherapy to be confident it's stabilised. Well done, I hope you did not suffer side effects from the radio.

    4. So pleased you are settled and happy with your positive results , Dave .

      Keep on with the good work and skip along and go naked , well you know what I mean .

      Stay happy x

  61. Press statement of the week..

    “It is important that the Government ensures that there is a full package of support for those staying at the hotel."

  62. Police find multiple bodies in Cornish woodland
    The remains were found in Paramoor Woods near Sticker as officers were investigating the disappearance of a 43-year-old man
    BREAKING
    Updated 5 minutes ago

    Multiple bodies have been found in a woodland in Cornwall following a police investigation into a missing man.

    Officers from Devon and Cornwall police were searching Paramoor Woods near Sticker, in Cornwall.

    The force had been examining the site after finding human remains in a search for Daniel Coleman, a 43-year-old man from St Austell.

    James Desborough, 39, has been charged with his murder.

    Alison Hernandez, the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for the area, has said “dead bodies” have been found by police.

    She said the National Crime Agency had been called in to help.

    “Some of the elements of that operation I can’t speak about but some of the things are very obvious,” she said.

    “As you know there is a large crime scene that has been identified in Cornwall that is requiring a lot of effort to even scene guard the area.

    “The level of expertise, some of the mutual aid we’ve brought in, is expertise in specific types of investigations that we didn’t have.”

    This is a breaking story. More to follow.

    UK
    Crime https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/paramoor-wood-cornwall-bodies-murder-kfxl68dwx

  64. Starmer’s Palestine Action ban could be breaking international law, says UN
    Human rights chief says proscription could breach protesters’ right to freedom of expression
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/25/starmers-palestine-action-ban-could-be-breaking-internation/

    BTL

    They have worked out that Starmer will always give in if International Law is mentioned even when it has no jurisdiction. Look how he gave away the Chagos Islands when he had no legal obligation to do so and his dealings with the EU and the ECHR have shown the world that Britain under Starmer will always give in.

    Remember O'Bama saying that Britain would be at the back of the queue? An American president saying it is one thing but for the UK prime minister actually to put the UK at the back of the queue is nothing short of treachery.

    2. Protesters' right to freedom of expression does not include causing criminal damage to RAF aircraft. Therefore Palestine Action has proved itself to be a Terrorist organisation.

  65. Dame Cleo Laine, outstanding British jazz singer gifted with striking stage presence and vocal range
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/07/25/cleo-laine-jazz-john-dankworth-sometimes-when-we-touch/?recomm_id=6c3cf6f7-961d-44e5-b220-523935f116eb
    Her marriage to John Dankworth, the clarinettist, saxophonist and band leader, was one of the most successful partnerships in music history.
    Dame Cleo Laine, the singer and actress who has died aged 97, was not only the best jazz vocalist that Britain ever produced, but was also one of the most versatile and enduring musicians from any part of the world.

    With a voice that could soar easily from a throaty C below middle C through a honeyed contralto to high-pitched trills on top A, Cleo Laine sang professionally from the mid-1950s until well into the 21st century, becoming the only performer to receive Grammy nominations in the female jazz, popular and classical categories. She also won jazz lifetime-achievement prizes, cut gold and platinum hits (Feel The Warm, Sometimes When We Touch and so on) and, over the decades, appeared in theatre and on numerous television shows.

    Her marriage to John Dankworth, the jazz clarinettist, saxophonist, arranger and band leader, was one of the most enduring and successful partnerships in music history. A Cleo Laine song was usually a John Dankworth setting, daring and enlivened by delightfully unexpected touches.

  66. Seems that Cleo Laine has just died, aged 97.
    I can't believe she's so much older than me.
    RiP, Cleo.

    5. We saw her and Johnny at the Kennedy Center some years back. Spectacular 4 octave vocal range. And she did a memorable Turkish Delight. Still I have a couple of her and Johnny's CD's…

      1. I was most impressed when she and her husband organised a concert at their home. Cleo sang for about an hour, after which she informed the audience that Johnny had passed away an hour before she started, but she didn't want to tell them that until she finished, since she didn't want to spoil their enjoyment. What class and strength of character!

        1. Local beer and wine place sells Moonshine, in jam jars no less, though the distillers in question are legal. But I am assured by people who should know that the taste (or lack of it) is "right".

  68. Wordle No. 1,497 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 25 Jul 2025

    Dogsbody for Birdie Three?

    1. Blimey – you've done very well there! It was the dreaded -O-ER which has done for me on at least two previous occasions – there are so many letters 'in play' with so many options.
      I got lucky with a key letter in guess 4 and breathed a big sigh of relief to escape with just a bogey!!

      Wordle 1,497 5/6

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

    2. Four here and nearly five. At least one more word would fit.

      Wordle 1,497 4/6

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

    4. Well done, problems here again with choices.

      Wordle 1,497 5/6

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

    1. From the BTL comments is seems the good doctor might be misrepresenting things a little? Certainly not a lot of support!

  70. That's me gone. Sunny day. An hour gardening (on my knees!). Finished the crosswords etc. (The Times was a snorter…)

    Will check what cook is up to. Flower Show tomorrow – so a frantic morning awaits…

    A demain.

    1. You finished the Times today? It was the toughest I've ever seen – I gave up with about 8 clues unanswered – the btl comments on the site I frequent (timesforthetimes.co.uk) were scathing and went on and on about the setter trying to show off about how clever he was – there was some very clever stuff but it was just too oblique for my liking!!!

        1. Very well done – the Snitch score (the measure of difficulty) was over 250, I’ve never seen it so high!

  71. My posh friend keeps pretending he is working class – it’s infuriating
    Baz is rich, mortgage-free and sends his kids to private school, but he’s got a mockney accent, gold chain and Oasis makes him ‘mad fer it’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/25/oasis-posh-friend-pretending-working-class/

    Quite a mischievous article but I enjoyed it.

    This BTL comment also amused me:

    I greatly enjoyed this article being somewhat posh myself. (In my breeding rather than money – I would place myself somewhere between Upper, Upper Middle and Lower Upper Class)).

    I sympathised, without empathising, with Baz but the writer was clearly sending himself up as well as his friend.

  72. Pelt shoplifters with fruit in stocks, Labour peer demands
    ‘Public humiliation’ would act as deterrent against surging crime rates, says Lord Glasman

    Dominic Penna
    Political Correspondent
    25 July 2025 12:31pm BST
    Sir Keir Starmer must bring back the stocks so shoplifters can be pelted with rotten fruit, a Labour peer has demanded.

    Lord Glasman, the founder of the socially conservative Blue Labour group, said the historic form of punishment would act as a deterrent to the growing shoplifting epidemic.

    It comes after official figures showed that shoplifting hit a record high of 530,643 offences reported to police in the year to March, marking a 20 per cent year-on-year increase.

    The number of snatch thefts of mobile phones and bags also reached a 20-year high last year, with 99,000 devices grabbed from people by thieves.

    Lord Glasman told GB News: “It’s impossible to live in London without having your mobile phone getting nicked on the street out of your hand. That’s palpable.

    “I think we’ve got to think imaginatively about deterrence and punishment, I really do. This is vital.

    “I’m quite in favour of public humiliation of these shoplifters, bringing back the stocks, pelting them with rotten fruit. The old ways are the good ways!”

    The peer went on to say he felt “humiliated” when he had his own phone stolen, arguing there must be a form of “counter-intimidation” for shoplifters and phone thieves.

    He added: “I really think we’ve got to think about it. There is a will to get policemen back on the beat, to get them on the street but I think we’ve got to talk about alternatives to prison that are punishments.

    “Certainly getting the rotten vegetables and fruit from the supermarket and people having a chance to express their disgust at what they’ve been through, I don’t think that’s such a bad idea.”

    Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is hoping to make it easier for police to break into the homes of phone thieves without a warrant if the victim has been able to track down their device.

    The changes form part of the Crime and Policing Bill, which cleared the Commons earlier this year and will soon have its second reading in the House of Lords.

    Lord Glasman has emerged as a staunch critic of Sir Keir’s administration on a number of issues including human rights laws and mass migration.

    Earlier this month, he warned that Sir Keir had just six months to save his premiership and that the public would find out in that time whether the Prime Minister “has got it or not”.

    Lord Glasman is viewed as an important voice in Labour and his wider political thinking is believed to have had a significant influence on Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s chief of staff.

    In a speech at the Policy Exchange in May, Lord Glasman called on Sir Keir to lead a working-class “insurrection” if he wanted to face off the threat of Nigel Farage and Reform UK.

    He has previously broken with Sir Keir’s line on issues including the controversial deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius at a cost of £9bn a year, as well as the appointment of Lord Hermer as Attorney General.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/25/pelt-shoplifters-fruit-stocks-labour-peer-demands/?recomm_id=5ae5a4b7-5a9d-4b8d-9e80-05ce9b4396c9

    Barbara Hetherington
    2 hrs ago
    No – let's put lying, incompetent, cheating, per verted politicians in the stocks every time they fail to stop illegal migrants, children being stabbed, elderly being robbed, drug and drunk driving………yeah thought not! These crimes and shoplifting, phone theft and scamming are causing serious harm and misery in our poorest communities. We need police presence on the beat, preventing crime and solving crime, with the CPS and magistrates fast tracking this scum into prefab jails. Stop wasting all police time on protest marches, VIP holidays and social media policing.

    2. No mention of the sorts of people doing these crimes I notice. If the police cracked down on them and practised zero tolerance it would soon improve.

  73. THE GREEN PARTY FILES: Green Activists Instructed How to Identify and Report ‘Queerphobias’

    https://order-order.com/2025/07/25/the-green-party-files-green-activists-instructed-how-to-identify-and-report-queerphobias/#comments

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03186f2b0ad1af9a7f7e9de32e4b40803e3c5cce4ae91cc24d42e904f177dcd0.png
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  74. Obnox
    22m
    If anyone still believes that Lucy Connolly's sentence wasn't manifestly excessive then you only have to look at the story of the guy who, irritated, using his Land Rover chased down a pair of cyclists, one of whom, a young mother, is no longer with us and the other had his leg amputated. The creature was also a drug dealer. 5 years and 3 months.
    The judge in sentencing said 'you had no intention of hurting anyone' and even seemed to be impressed that he had written a 'mature' letter of apology. Incredible.

    4. So you can just murder people in Britain now and say you didn't mean it? Wonderful…

  75. Evening all. Both lawns are cut and the place is looking reasonably respectable. Sky is dark grey, though. I hope it stays dry for tomorrow.

    Are there any doctors (or nurses) with a sense of vocation these days? Many of them seem to view it as a job and a 9 – 5, Monday to Friday one at that.

    1. Had my first baby late 1970s, was already going that way…auxiliaries did most of the work.

    2. It's a bloody disgrace – First do no harm????? They should all hang their poxy marxist heads in shame!!

      1. In case they haven't noticed we are all in the same boat. Except of course for our self serving political idiots.
        Just get over it and get on with your jobs.

      3. £21 per hour over an estimated 1850 hours a year is £38 850.
        Brilliant interview.

  77. Busy old day. Am on my own as husband is with his girlfriend (calm down! It’s the boat, the love of his life). Am out tonight and tomorrow and also have The One True Sport accounts to do. And a splash and dash to Wolverhampton on Sunday as my brother is passing through and it’s nice for mum. How am i supposed to get all the nothing done that i want to do (with apologies to Calvin and Hobbes).

    1. A friend of mine told me (this was a long time ago) that he pretended that the name of his car was the same as his mistress – so that if he called out the name in the night his wife wouldnt be suspicious.
      Unfortunately, it wasnt Christine……..

        1. Nah, you're alright….. unless the boat is called something like Pussy Galore……

  78. Apropos nothing I have just spent a couple of days in North Wales with the family in a delightful holiday let in a place called Talacre – a bit Blackpool but I loved its shabby charm!
    We 'did' Snowdon (I thought I was going to f***ing die) which, despite the fabulous weather everywhere else was shrouded in low cloud….
    Highlight of the holiday was a trip to Conway (yes!) and the castle there – its also a wonderfully interesting and attractive town – we did a 'treasure hunt' type thing around the town with grandson which was great fun!
    Back home now and still knackered…….

    1. In the words of the old BR ad, you should have let the train take the strain. Grandson would have loved it.

      1. Actually jack that was the plan – Me and Grandma and Grandson would take the train and Mummy and Daddy would yomp up to the top.
        Surprisingly (?) the train was fully booked so we all had to walk …… ouch….

        1. Book in advance another time…lovely family outing, did you have grandson on your shoulders :-))

          1. We tried to book in advance, KJ, albeit just the day before, but it was still a good day out – I had grandson on the shoulders for a (very) short while – managed to convince him he wouldnt have really climbed it unless he did it mostly on foot!

          2. I can tell you had a good day…grandchildren fab…give mine more leeway than I did my children 😊

          4. Definitely..Great memories to cherish. Back to earth with a crash..just watching footage various parts UK..depressing, blood boiling…

    2. My father yomped us up Snowdon at a hell of a rate of knots (because he said it was nothing compared to Helvellyn 🙄). Desperate for a drink, the café at the top was most welcome, but upon my wondering how it was filled with people who were obviously unfit to climb mountains, an evil smile spread across his face… 🤣🤣

      1. Actually ashes, we were amazed at some of the people attempting the climb – they made me look young, fit and thrusting!! I was partly expecting to find the odd body strewn across the paths on the way up.
        PS I cant do Helvellyn, particularly Striding Edge, as my vertigo kicks in and I virtually freeze!

  82. I'm struggling to stay awake, probably Monty (on tv) Don's fault, gardening on tv is such a bore.
    Spent most of the day trying to get my virgin media emails back to life.
    Something seems to have gone terrible wrong.
    But at least I've been able to recover three weeks of more Internet rubbish. Oh well I guess it's mainly self inflicted.
    Good night Nottlers, sleep well. 😴

    1. Similar here, Eddy…and only ten days, internet managed to get itself in a twist. Sleep well yourself, and all Nottlers. Kate J.

  83. Warm evening here .

    After the cricket finished , Moh and I took Pip spaniel for a run on the heathland near Arne , at around 7pm .. just us .. no other dog walkers , the lowland heather is in full bloom , so pretty and the scent is gorgeous , lots of bees and butterflies, and little birds flitting around , Stone chats etc. A few soaring buzzards , no sign of Osprey , darting swallows and sand martins .

    In the still of the night which is now drawing in .. not seen many moths or bats though.

    Rattle of the harvesters near us , so the farmers are busy .

    1. Sounds good to me, T_B. Seen a few buzzards, very high. A few pipistrelle still exiting from under roof tiles (how do they not bake during the day). Have seen precisely one Painted Lady, and a few small moths couldn't identify – perhaps egg laying time insufficient air moisture? Heather sounds wonderful, none here.

    1. Blimey, they made a great deal about his passing Ponting to be no.2 on the all-time runs scored in Test cricket – but (I dont recall) if this was ever mentioned.
      There's a funny story about Joe Root (who's a lovely lad) who set all sorts of junior cricket records whilst at school but failed to win the school's Sportsperson of the year – it was won by one Jessica Ennis!
      Perhaps that has spurred him on to amazing heights?

      1. I remember the best athlete at my school was ‘Victor ludorum’.

        On one occasion our physics master, an old boy, slipped the winner two half crowns bcause his long jump record for the school had been broken.

    1. I detest that guy, but the clip is obviously fake. The synching isn’t even very good.

  88. Got warm here this p.m., it's 4:30 and 36°C and the sun is still blazing down.

    1. Did you not see my question early today – asking about your route to Hamelin?

      Do keep up!!

      1. Cromford – Nottingham
        Nottingham – Norwich (because there was no convenient quicker service from Ely to Ipswich)
        Norwich – Manningtree
        Manningtree – Harwich Parkstone Quay as was.
        Ferry to Hoek van Holland
        Then this was the route planned, but I started travelling 2h earlier than the times given here. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3614d965228ba1ad221e482b52f707615709833c04ae67a035ded52c9fe5af4b.png Same route planned for the way back, but I found that if I stayed from Henglo I could change at Den Haag for a service that went direct to Schiedam, cutting out Rotterdam Central. That route actually took 20 minutes longer.

  90. Women are turning against mass migration. Can the Left really defend it?

    Mothers have every right to be fearful when up to a quarter of sexual offences are committed by foreign nationals

    Miriam Cates • 25th July 2025, 3:52pm BST

    Britain's political history is littered with the names of significant men. Churchill, Wilberforce, Disraeli, two Cromwells and countless others have all left their mark on the country we know today. But while the glory and the statues have usually gone to male leaders, the collective efforts of passionate and determined women have been responsible for some of our most important social reforms.

    Women in Epping are hoping to secure another such reform. Over the past week, mothers from this small town in Essex have organised protests against the housing of migrants in The Bell Hotel after an Ethiopian asylum seeker who was residing at the hotel was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl. One of the mothers at the protest, Lindsey Thompson, told GB News that the town has been "ruined" and their children's safety "taken away".

    The Epping mothers have every right to be fearful. There are growing concerns about the behaviour of many young men housed in such hotels across the country and numerous reports of appalling sex crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Data shows that men from countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea – from where a large proportion of illegal immigrants originate – are significantly more likely to commit sexual offences than British men or immigrants from Western nations.

    Over recent decades, significant political, legal and cultural efforts have been made to reduce violence against women and girls. Yet as a result of the failure of successive governments to prevent men from misogynistic cultures arriving in the UK illegally, the fear and prevalence of sexual violence are growing.

    For the mothers of Epping – and I suspect millions of others – enough is enough. Ordinarily, women tend to avoid gatherings where there may be a risk of violence; riots are by-and-large a testosterone-fuelled sport for young men. But when mothers believe their children are in danger, and when ordinary women start organising protests, history teaches us that the tide may be about to turn.

    In the 19th century, women's organisations played a significant role in ending child prostitution. Female anti-sex-trafficking campaigners in the United States, headed by young mother Laila Mickelwait, have succeeded in forcing the tech giant Pornhub to take down 10 million videos. The tables have turned on trans activism, largely because ordinary women saw the danger to their children and started campaigning. Mothers like Londoner Clare Page and the brave women of the Bayswater Support Group have risked jobs and reputations to raise awareness of the threat of gender ideology to children. The smartphone-free childhood movement is another such phenomenon, where much of the running has been done by everyday mothers appalled at the damage being done to their children by screens.

    But women's protective tendencies are not always deployed constructively. Some of the political movements most detrimental to women and children's safety – campaigns to welcome more immigration, allow men into women's spaces, or extend the abortion time limit to birth – have also been spearheaded by so-called feminists. When women's instincts drive them to protect children, who genuinely lack the means to defend themselves, they are an enormous force for good. But when female "compassion" is employed to make excuses for adults who have agency, the results can be disastrous. All too often, women who demonstrate this "toxic empathy" are being used by men who want to exploit women and girls.

    The maternal instinct is extraordinarily powerful, driving women to risk everything to protect children, often without any desire for recognition. Perhaps this explains why, when women get the bit between their teeth, things – eventually – will change. When it comes to Britain's broken immigration system, that change can't come soon enough.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/25/women-are-turning-against-mass-migration

    Toxic empathy. That's new to me.

    1. I think Gaad Sag jas coined the phrase “suicidal empathy”

    1. Why?

      Because Starmer is a foul, subhuman sadist who models himself on Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot.

      1. It is has been made quite clear that the state will take down any views or actions that oppose its views. TR is the prime example. But you already knew that.. evening all!

  92. These are not extremists. Ordinary British people are being criminalised

    This is how civil order dies – not in some dramatic coup, but in the slow erosion of trust

    Suella Braverman • 25th July 2025, 12:18pm BST

    It is becoming harder by the day to pretend this is all normal. Epping, a leafy Essex town not known for rabble-rousing, has suddenly become a bellwether. It is not extremists making the noise, but mothers: ordinary, decent, quietly exhausted. One protestor's placard said it best: "I'm not far-Right. I'm worried about my kids."

    Eight days. That's how long it took from Hadush Kebatu's illegal arrival on our shores to his alleged assault of a local teenage girl. This criminal charge has pierced through the political haze, not because it is an anomaly, but because it is no longer rare. The British people are not imagining the chaos. They are living it.

    They see it in Canary Wharf where the once-prestigious Britannia Hotel, now rented by the Home Office at eye-watering prices, is being used to house illegal arrivals. The images are not abstract. The anger is not theoretical. The reality is visible from their windows.

    In Waterlooville, my own constituency, 35 illegal migrants are earmarked to be placed right in the centre of the shopping centre. Shopkeepers ask how this decision was made. Residents wonder if they were consulted. They weren't. They never are. Indefensibly, the local Lab/Lib council failed to even respond to the Home Office's inquiries about the suitability of the location, such is the level of incompetence.

    Meanwhile, 1.3 million British citizens sit on housing waiting lists. But when it comes to newly arrived migrants – many of whom have crossed the Channel unlawfully – there are apartments, hotels, hot meals, legal representation and round-the-clock care. The Prime Minister breezily told Parliament this week that "many local authorities have spare housing" for asylum seekers. Has he visited them? Has he walked through the town centres now marred by decay, disorder, and despair?

    This is not fringe rhetoric. It is the mainstream voice of Britain. And yet it is silenced, patronised, and, increasingly, criminalised.

    Up to a quarter of all sexual offences in the UK are committed by foreign nationals. That is not a "talking point." That is a statistical fact, available in verified data. And yet to mention it is to risk professional ruin, or worse.

    People are not fools. They know what they see. Their communities have changed beyond recognition. They watch their taxes rise, yet their schools and hospitals crumble under unmanageable pressure. They are told to tighten belts, while millions are spent accommodating those who arrive in rubber dinghies with no papers, no background checks and no right to be here. This is not just policy failure. It is a moral abdication.

    And who stands for the British people in this storm? Certainly not the Prime Minister – polished, rehearsed, and utterly insulated. His concern is always too little, too late, and too forced to mean anything. He is not just out of touch. He is out of time.

    As for law and order, one cannot look at the response of Chief Constable BJ Harrington without concluding that something is deeply rotten in British policing. His now-infamous press conference confirmed what many had long suspected: that there is, in practice, a two-tier system of policing in this country. One for "approved" protestors and minority groups; another for everyone else. It is not simply ineffectiveness. It is complicity.

    This same Chief Constable was responsible for the vexatious use of non-crime hate incidents against a journalist, Allison Pearson. But this week, he has surpassed himself. His officers allegedly escorted "anti-racism" protestors directly into the vicinity of the Bell Hotel, knowing full well tensions were high. Violence followed. Who could have guessed?

    Public order policing has long relied on one simple principle: keep hostile factions apart. On that day, it was abandoned. The result was predictable, and avoidable. But this is not incompetence born of error. It is ideology dressed in uniform. The same ideology that now governs our police academies, civil service departments, and – let's be honest – most of Westminster.

    Of course, BJ Harrington is not alone. He has the precedent of Sir Mark Rowley at the Met, who has all but codified two-tier policing in the capital. Antisemitism is waved through on London's streets while British Jews are told to hide their symbols and stay indoors. This is not safety. It is surrender.

    And it leaves ordinary people with an impossible choice: submit, or act. That is how civil order dies – not in some dramatic coup, but in the slow erosion of trust, until citizens begin to take matters into their own hands. We are closer to that cliff edge than most in power realise.

    This country is walking on glass. Every step, more fragile than the last.

    What is needed now is not platitudes. We need leadership – honest, unflinching, and brave. We need a politics that respects the people who built this country, not one that apologises for their existence.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/25/ordinary-british-people-are-being-criminalised

    1. No. Hadush Kebatu's culture is as valid as ours. I know, because the Leftards told me.

  93. Labour's scorched-earth farming policy is having its inevitable effect

    As with the VAT on private schools, the true motivations behind the tax raid appears to be punishing traditional opponents of the party

    Telegraph View
    24th July 2025, 9:00pm BST

    In Whitehall, Rachel Reeves's inheritance tax raid on farmers and pensions has been a storming success. So much so, in fact, that the civil servant whose "analysis" was "needed" to introduce the changes has been awarded "Expert of the Year" by HMRC.

    Back in the real world, the effect of this tax increase – and as shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins notes, the "crippling" National Insurance hike that accompanied it – appears to be a slowly unfolding debacle.

    The tax raids appear to have triggered a cull of Britain's population of farms, with a record 6,365 agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses closing in the last year. With just 3,190 opening, the result is a precipitous decline in Britain's rural business sector.

    It is a policy combination that appears hard to justify on economic grounds. Britain's farmers are already facing a difficult combination of rising fertiliser costs and hostile weather conditions, with 240 growers in East Anglia hit by an Environment Agency ban on irrigating their crops without any prior warning.

    Under these circumstances, the last concern of the Government should be piling additional burdens on the sector. Yet that reckons without the ideological disposition of this Labour Government, and its clear willingness to use the tools of office to pursue long-standing vendettas.

    As with the tax raid on non-doms and the imposition of VAT on private school fees, the true motivation behind the policy appears to be punishing traditional opponents of the party. Regrettably, in this respect if not in others, it appears to be succeeding.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2025/07/24/labours-scorched-earth-farming-policy-reeves-tax

  95. Saturday 26th July, 2025

    Delboy

    The Revered Father of the Nottler House

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f5be29a89f55bfd67df7a0bc6406dfb29a03fb7287383da71f906a7a7146305.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c256d819a1eec45b1c6aa15fee349967e3464c354d2107ab89e83a303b613ca1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d827fa8adcd43546b6d76d7d30aa7e86accd36ada4f968b141e57c1b5b4db3bf.png
    We always enjoy your very amusing and apt contributions to the forum

    With very best wishes

    Caroline and Rastus

  96. Once again, it's just past my bedtime. So I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  98. Just back from my night out. I egregiously cycled home from my friend’s house in Kew via Richmond, Kingston, Teddington and Richmond (again). Beautiful warm evening and a surprising amount of night fishermen about.

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