Saturday 2 August: The case for a third runway at Heathrow remains as shaky as ever

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

440 thoughts on “Saturday 2 August: The case for a third runway at Heathrow remains as shaky as ever

    1. Answer:

      Clearly, they're not controlling our borders and all the problems that emanate from that one lack of action: therefore they do not want those, and many other, facts spread/discussed by the people.

      They want the British people to be pliant, docile and silent on the issues that greatly affect the people and the Country. It's beginning to look like that time is past.

    1. Good morning. I decided to drop the haute cuisine for today. Minced beef and onion pie and mash. :@)

        1. On Wednesday next I am off for a meal with former Rotarian friends. I have chosen lasagne for the main course and Eton Mess for the dessert (or pudding as the organiser calls it). Tonight my meal is my traditional day for Spaghetti Bolognese with a glass of wine and berries with double cream. Something I always look forward to.

          1. Oh, I didn’t realise that. It’s rather like my calling a sofa a settee, and a napkin a serviette. I must have had a rough upbringing.

    1. Labour to limit Civil Service internships to working class

      Candidates will be judged based on what jobs their parents did when they were 14

      01 August 2025 8:56am BST
      Genevieve Holl-Allen

      Civil Service internships will only be offered to students from lower income families in a bid to make Whitehall more working class, ministers have announced.

      Only young people from “lower socio-economic backgrounds” will be able to apply to Whitehall’s internship programme, the Cabinet Office has said.

      A student will be judged eligible depending on what jobs their parents did when they were 14. Students with parents who are receptionists, electricians, plumbers, butchers or van drivers would be among those eligible for the programme.

      Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, told the BBC: “We need to get more working-class young people into the Civil Service so it harnesses the broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country.

      “Government makes better decisions when it represents and understands the people we serve.”

      The current work summer placement programme, which lasts up to eight weeks and is paid, is open to undergraduates in the final two years of their degree.

      But from summer 2026, only students from poorer backgrounds will be accepted onto the scheme.

      Young people will be given experience writing briefings, planning events, conducting policy research and shadowing civil servants.

      Students considered successful on the internship will be fast-tracked for entry to the Civil Service Fast Stream graduate scheme.

      ‘Leftist social engineering’
      Ahead of the general election, Labour promised to be “the most working-class Cabinet of all time”, with a majority of its ministers having been state-educated.

      But the Conservatives accused the Government of “Leftist social engineering” with its plans.

      Mike Wood, the shadow cabinet office minister, told the BBC: “We believe in opportunity based on what you can do, not where you come from.

      “We all want to see greater opportunity for working-class young people. But this scheme sends the message that unless you fit a particular social profile, you’re no longer welcome.”

      Socio-economic backgrounds are defined by the Social Mobility Commission and commonly used by employers and educational institutions.

      Mr McFadden has been a key proponent in Cabinet of slimming down the state and has been at the forefront of Civil Service reform.

      The Government announced in May that it would cut the number of civil servants working in London by 12,000 and shift jobs to a series of new regional “campuses” across the country.

      The Cabinet Office minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said that the move was in part to cut rental costs for office space in the capital.

      It is expected that 11 office buildings in London will close and two new major sites created, one in Manchester focused on digital innovation and AI and one in Aberdeen for energy.

      Other roles will be created in Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Darlington, Newcastle and Tyneside, Sheffield, Bristol, Edinburgh, Belfast and York, with the changes expected to bring £729m to the local economy by 2030.

      Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said: “Under my leadership, a Conservative Government would scrap all this rubbish and hire the best people.”

        1. Exactly. It’ll be combined with DEI. Just think of the dross they’ll enrole. Are these to be paid internships? Internships usually aren’t, which is why they attract people of means.

          1. They will probably get a lot of bright second generation migrants whose parents did menial jobs on arrival in the UK – a very bad result because second generation migrants famously kick against their parents’ choice and react against the country they grew up in.

      1. How many are offspring of parcel delivery drivers, car washers and Turkish barbers?

        As for the decentralisation of the Civil Service beyond the M25, how many are in rural areas or even market towns? How on earth can they formulate policy fit for these places? They closed the Civil Service campus in Worcester, and it is now a housing estate.

      2. Only young people from “lower socio-economic backgrounds” will be able to apply to Whitehall’s internship programme, the Cabinet Office has said.

        How patronising.

        1. So were mine. When I was 14 my father and mother both worked in manufacturing. If I were younger, I would qualify! They’d regret it, though.

          1. Actually neither of them wanted me to teach. My mother thought I should work in a bank. Not a good choice of career given my number blindness.

  1. Yesterday's excitement in the markets was provided by Leftie activist & Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics.. as she released Job Numbers in the US.. revised downwards of course to harm Trump.
    When numbers shift from estimates of a few percent to decimal points wrong you know the numbers are cooked.

    Let's see.. angry haircut….Joe90 heavy black plastic glasses….weird smile. Yep it's a Leftie.
    .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ae67c22b1a0e4e11aaa0f114948887226d839182b4007937da74ce7303424a2.jpg

    1. Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he is ordering his team to fire Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer "immediately".

    2. If she is intentionally fiddling the figures then she should be sacked (as should the head of the ONS here, which has become utterly unreliable while it tries and fails to spin the facts to suit the Left).

    3. McEnTARFER.
      Must go to Specsavers. I thought her name meant she'd overdone the beans with her haggis.

      1. Annie, you need to speak to your Bill. Any Scot knows that haggis is accompanied by keeps and patties and a liberal dose of whisky. (Drat that autocorrect. Please change "k" with "n" and "b" with "t".)

  2. Beebsplaining
    1h
    Hilarious irony laid bare.
    Putting aside the point that I doubt the turnip could find Gaza on a map of the world this is a perfect illustration of how their apeasing is never enough for these de ranged mobs🤔

    It's the same with net zero and the likes of XR / chris Packham🙄 or unions and the NHS 🙄 or gimmigrants and borders🙄 or muzloons in general 🙄 or the gold platers and the panicdemic 🙄 all egged on by the legacy media

    When will they ever learn and the tories were the same

    So while they drag an unwilling country ever closer to ridiculous positions in a pointless attempt to maintain power these types get ever emboldened 🙄 its an abdication of responsibility and proof they are not fit for purpose

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67b9b6dccfca1da7829ce280c9c1de73be26e2941f46e57aba33b7924aa47a8e.png

    1. Surely an opportunity to ship these 'pro pallywhacks' back to pallywhack. If they like it so much, have them live there.

      But also note the mental trans lobby are now destroying Leftist MP Wes Streeting's constituency office. They're utterly deranged. All Leftists know is violence and thuggery.

  3. Good morning, chums – and Geoff. Jeepers creepers, what a hassle I've had today getting logged into this site. Ah well, the wonders of computers.

    Wordle 1,505 6/6

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

    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Impressed that you managed to find four words with these first three letters!
      Wordle 1,505 4/6

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

    1. Good morning, BoB. This is a most fascinating website, including a collection of historic photographs and artwork from over two centuries onwards, despite the final few pages becoming a bit of a plug for LGBT-etc and Saving The Planet propaganda. I recommend it to all NoTTLers.

  4. Michael Deacon: “Five years ago the BBC website published an article headlined: “Is It Time the All-White Period Drama Was Made Extinct?” Well, it clearly is now. These days every period drama has an ethnically diverse cast, regardless of when it’s set: the 1920s (Wicked Little Letters), the 1530s (Wolf
    Hall: The Mirror and the Light), even 1066 (King and Conqueror, the BBC’s forthcoming serial about the Battle of Hastings). So it came as no surprise to read, this week, that Netflix’s new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice will have a diverse cast, too.
    Personally I find this a fascinating trend. Producers of period dramas always go to the most painstaking lengths to ensure that costumes, furniture and decor look scrupulously authentic. Yet when it comes to casting, they do the opposite – and pretend that, 200 or 500 or 1,000 years ago, England was every bit as multicultural as it is in the 2020s. They would die of embarrassment if, in the background, viewers were to glimpse a set of solar panels, or double yellow lines. But black Anglo-Saxons? No problem at all.
    It’s a peculiar combination. If we’ve decided that historical verisimilitude no longer matters in casting, surely we should be consistent, and decide that it no longer matters in clothing or behaviour, either. Let Regency noblemen wear Arsenal shirts. Show the Normans riding into battle in Chinooks. Have Sir Thomas More take a selfie on the scaffold.
    At any rate, the author of the BBC’s article about making the “all-white” period drama extinct seemed to approve of this new trend in casting. “Finally,” she wrote, “the industry is demonstrating that period drama is a genre in which racial diversity can be both reflected and celebrated.”
    This is all very well. The trouble is, it makes it look as if racial diversity has been “celebrated” throughout our history. To viewers, this must be puzzling. In recent years, we’ve been endlessly told that Britain’s past was shamefully racist. Yet period dramas tell us it was a multicultural utopia, in which people of all races were welcome at every level of society.
    Still, we mustn’t carp. I’m sure this colour-blind approach to casting applies equally to all. I look forward to the BBC airing a period drama about the Windrush, in which the main passengers are played by Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley.”

    1. Do you remember all the fuss made when Michael Bates played an Indian in 'It Aint't Half Hot Mum'?

      Peter Sellers also had a hit single in the 1960s playing an Indian doctor, but they seem to have forgotten about that, except a team of four real-Indian comics who named their show after this song. They were constantly making fun of the English; it was great!

      Then there is Ali G, played by a Jew, who also caused a diplomatic incident in Kazakhstan and was lynched in the USA (and had to be rescued by Hugh Laurie, famous for his portayal of English upper class twits, who was playing an American at the time) with his brazen cultural appropriation of Borat.

      A lot of actors revel in playing something they are not; it is what they do best. It helps though if their portrayal, even in parody, is plausible.

      1. Michael Bates, born in India, served with the 9th Gurkha Rifles and he spoke fluent Urdu.
        The problem is not racism, but that he was, swoon, a Conservative.

      2. White actors 'blacking up' is irrelevant to the argument. They were playing African or Asian characters who could plausibly have been present at the time the programmes were set. Pretending that African and Asian people were commonplace even in the 1920s, let alone Tudor England, is an insult to the intelligence.

        1. They were commonplace in Roman times though, often slaves that had earned their freedom.

    2. The TV series 'The Gilded Age' set in the 1880's doesn't do colour blind casting but there are plenty of meaty roles for black actors.
      It makes far more sense to do it this way.
      Though at the time black and white society were in parallel rather than mixed, it stays closer to the truth than any of the mangled rubbish the BBC now puts out.

  5. Michael Deacon: “Five years ago the BBC website published an article headlined: “Is It Time the All-White Period Drama Was Made Extinct?” Well, it clearly is now. These days every period drama has an ethnically diverse cast, regardless of when it’s set: the 1920s (Wicked Little Letters), the 1530s (Wolf
    Hall: The Mirror and the Light), even 1066 (King and Conqueror, the BBC’s forthcoming serial about the Battle of Hastings). So it came as no surprise to read, this week, that Netflix’s new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice will have a diverse cast, too.
    Personally I find this a fascinating trend. Producers of period dramas always go to the most painstaking lengths to ensure that costumes, furniture and decor look scrupulously authentic. Yet when it comes to casting, they do the opposite – and pretend that, 200 or 500 or 1,000 years ago, England was every bit as multicultural as it is in the 2020s. They would die of embarrassment if, in the background, viewers were to glimpse a set of solar panels, or double yellow lines. But black Anglo-Saxons? No problem at all.
    It’s a peculiar combination. If we’ve decided that historical verisimilitude no longer matters in casting, surely we should be consistent, and decide that it no longer matters in clothing or behaviour, either. Let Regency noblemen wear Arsenal shirts. Show the Normans riding into battle in Chinooks. Have Sir Thomas More take a selfie on the scaffold.
    At any rate, the author of the BBC’s article about making the “all-white” period drama extinct seemed to approve of this new trend in casting. “Finally,” she wrote, “the industry is demonstrating that period drama is a genre in which racial diversity can be both reflected and celebrated.”
    This is all very well. The trouble is, it makes it look as if racial diversity has been “celebrated” throughout our history. To viewers, this must be puzzling. In recent years, we’ve been endlessly told that Britain’s past was shamefully racist. Yet period dramas tell us it was a multicultural utopia, in which people of all races were welcome at every level of society.
    Still, we mustn’t carp. I’m sure this colour-blind approach to casting applies equally to all. I look forward to the BBC airing a period drama about the Windrush, in which the main passengers are played by Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley.”

  6. We should talk to North Korea. Have Dover twinned with Pyong-Yang. They need the money and have the space, it's a 'safe country' so we just ship countless hundreds of thousands there. Have the Lefty lawyers and freeloaders go with them.

    As there's no communications out we'll never hear from them again.

  7. 410533+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I do truly believe this display is a WAKE UP, as of yet,
    passive call to arms.
    The decades of abuse in use, and consequence of the polling stations as in "you gotta vote tory ( IN NAME ONLY)" to keep out LABOUR ( IN NAME ONLY)"
    You gotta vote LABOUR ( IN NAME ONLY) to keep out
    etc,etc,/ other option being the best of the worst,
    have succeeded in putting this nation up for grabs via the lowest of the lowest inheriting this planet.

    We, the indigenous, in continuing, decade on decade, to put tribal trust in politico's and PARTY NAMES are losing the ONGOING BATTLE for a decent way of life and will, with NO RADICAL CHANGE really find out what life is like at the bottom.

    https://x.com/addicted2newz/status/1951344619439948021

      1. 410533+ up ticks,

        Morning S,

        Small amendment
        All at half mast, mourning the passing of England, unless………..

      1. Ooh! didn’t see any like that – road ones. Lots of classic cars, lorries and buses, and steam traction engines.

    1. A hand full of academics Bruce ? Wrong,…..a load of irrelevent Dopey Wokies putting their left arm in and shaking it all about. To the tune of the Okey Cokey.

      1. I see that the bbc are joining in on this nonsensical charade now by advertising a programme where they are claiming our ancestors were not even white……

          1. Ah of course, the same one who must have spent three life times walking from Africa all the way to cheddar caves but found his relatives had moved out and not left a forwarding address.

    1. Too true.
      Referring to yesterday's post on Norman Tebbit – where are he and Margaret now we really need them?

  8. Morning, all Y'all.
    Cloudy. Looks like autumn, except the trees are green.
    Waiting for the Polish builders to reappear – my God, but do those guys work! The Tiler is a magician – beautiful job, and that's just grey floor tiles…

  9. 410533+ up ticks,

    Along with the RNLI this should put paid to the RED X
    in the donations department.

    As a nation we are rapidly being watered down to the level of the lowest denominator, and then, unable to help, as we have in past NORMAL times any genuine cases.

    Dt,
    Red Cross flies migrants’ families to Britain
    Warnings of pressure on housing as charity funds travel costs of relatives

    1. It is of course the British Red Cross Society, not the separate International Red Cross.

      1. I'm surprised it isn't the Red Crescent doing it, the people involved are extremely unlikely to be non Muslims

  10. Morning all 🙂😊
    Grey and rain forecast.
    My battery was drained yesterday, not just the phone either. It's not that far from Southwold to St Albans normally just over two hours 120 miles. But Yesterday well over three, but the traffic was horrendous and it absolutely chucked it down with rain. And still the lunatic drivers came rushing past well over the safe speed limits. Some even without any lights on. And the 'powers that be' want to get elderly drivers off our roads.
    I can't believe that our political idiots are going to add another runway at LHR. I thought that their much informed arch colleague Millipede was on the case. Obviously they are not taking any further notice of him.
    Oh well back to reality, onwards and upwards a suprise party, gathering this afternoon for my old buddy ex neighbour who turned 80 on the 31st.
    Slayders folks. Have a good day all.

    1. The speed that people drive in the UK these days never ceases to amaze me. Elderly drivers are definitely not the problem.

  11. Good morning everyone .

    Very sunny and blue sky, 15c.

    I think we will have an early Autumn , there is a crispness in the early morning air.

    WE have had no significant rain, not a heavy drop , nothing .

    No 2 son , living on the IOW has reported severe flooding in East Cowes and elsewhere .. huge thunderstorm , and isn't it the start of Cowes week?

    Here is dry dry dry, but the heathland near by is beautiful , the colour of the heather equals that in N Yorkshire , Durham and Scotland , the best I have seen for a while , bees are buzzing and I can smell the heather .. My walk yesterday evening with Pip spaniel near Arne was glorious .

    1. The wet office has made the most of the warm weather by its hysterical reaction. I think they might be winding up again for next week when it should be warm, but as you say the evenings are too cold to sit out with a G&T.

  12. Like an election in this country, the Disqus poll has once again failed to produce the option that I would vote for. It is like AI restricting us to a set of unacceptable options, whilst denying us access to what I really want or need. In the past, if I explored long enough, I could track it down, but their algorithms are expressly shutting off this option now.

    The question is: Which part of modern life feels most broken?

    The multiple choice answers they offer are:
    Housing costs
    The job market
    Healthcare systems
    Social media
    Work-life balance

    None of these affect me half as much as Professional ethics, but that is not an option, and will not be counted in any survey report, no doubt will not be considered by those whose lives matter.

    1. What a superficial bunch of nonsense they offer!

      It's the currency, stupid – everything else follows from that!

    1. Use 10% to buy a euro millions ticket next Tuesday, someone has to win 140 odd millions. 🤗

  13. Tom Lehrer, hilarious scourge of the self-important
    Vlod Barchuk : August 2, 2025 : https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/tom-lehrer-hilarious-scourge-of-the-self-important/

    I first came across Tom Lehrer when I was eleven years old and he became an idol and an inspiration for me.

    As Vlod Barchuk says of Tom Lehrer in this article in The Conservative Woman:

    "He seeks to destroy his targets by mocking them, and nothing angers the self-important more than being laughed at "

    Not long after Blair came to power I saw that the best way to attack him was by mockery and though I am no Tom Lehrer I used to write satirical songs. I wrote this and sent the lyrics and a recording I had made of it to the Conservative Party and offered to come and perform it at the Party Conference. Unfortunately in their wisdom they decided not to have me there and the consequence was that Blair remained unmocked and won two more general elections.

    Here's the first of its six verses!

    I'm a populist prime minister from a minor public school,
    I love your adulation so I've made Brittania cool
    I'll toady to your prejudices, wreck the House of Lords
    And if you vote 'New Labour' you'll have joined my mindless hordes
    I'm the Third Way politician and I know how good I look
    When I stand beside my grubby minions: Blunkett, Straw and Cook
    Glib and Oily Mandy's lies and mortgage I could not excuse
    Twice I sacked the sleazy bugger though his spittle shone my shoes

    and here are a few lines which drew attention to how the slimy chap exploited the Princess of Wales's death by associating her with the People's Labour Party:

    The People's Party, People's Dome, the Peoples's lottery
    I am the people's laxative so the people swallow me
    Pragmatic opportunism has given me success
    A sad girl died and so I dubbed her: 'The People's Princess'.

    1. Morning Richard,

      I just love our language , it is quirky and sometimes cruel though , but still produces a wry smile ..

      Do we have a different mindset to other nationalities , I think we do.

      We don't need any Wokey governmental interference , we say things , and then that minute passes, done and dusted ..

      I do honestly think that by and large , most of us have a sanguine attitude to life, part of our cherished inherited Anglo Saxon makeup perhaps .. ( please google Anglo Saxon .. and of course Celts)

  14. 410533+ up ticks,

    Is there no end to this bastards out and out treachery
    and evil doings, and refusing to allow even a chink of what course his future actions are to take.

    Does the herd realise that winter approaches, are the bare arses of the elderly once again to be left to the tender mercies of this political "detestable gastropod" and his likes ?
    Dt,

    Miliband refuses to publish details of green energy deal with China
    Calls for full disclosure of net zero tie-up amid concerns over Beijing’s involvement in UK projects

      1. It's what his father would have wished.
        Proving that, as Blighty gave him refuge from Aydolph, no good deed goes unpunished.

      2. At least the Chinese would object to the slammers, with their hands forever out for government money.

  15. And that's me and the two Still at homes off to Derby to meet up with t'Lad.
    TTFN all.

      1. I'm guessing their luggage will be brought up later and the envelopes, or whatever they are, contain instructions how to claim benefits.

      2. 410533 + up ticks,

        C1,

        All supplied, replacements for losses incurred ” escaping” from Calais

    1. If one of them had swung a punch, that film would be banned for promoting violence.

  16. Good morning everybody.
    The PTB don't get it, do they. Except for the Most Secret schemes, such as importing Paki-taliban people under the smokescreen of a super-injunction, all information is a mouse click (no, auto-correct, not mosque-click) away.
    Here is a link to the charity commission page for the BRC:
    https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/220949?_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_organisationNumber=220949
    Relevant details IMHO:
    In year ending December 2023, the British Red Cross received UK government grants & contracts amounting to £66,094,963.
    Total income was £330,600,000, so 19.99% came directly or indirectly from the Treasury.
    Of the 3548 employees, 183 were paid annual salaries exceeding £60,000; within the group of 183, seventeen earned in excess of £100,000.
    The CEO is Belgian.
    Another edit: The Charity Commission website can list charities by Parliamentary constituency, useful if anyone is looking for a local grant-giving organisation.

          1. Musicians used to play the saxophone quite sweetly earlier last century. Then in the 1960s they started to play in a "tougher" manner. Now, the instrument is played in an extraordinarily raucous manner and you can see that when you look at the cheeks of the saxophonists. Blowing at full blast and making no attempt at breath control.

      1. Yes. And to claim that Candace Owens or various Somali top models for example, are not genetically favoured is ludicrous as well as insulting.

  17. 410533+ up ticks,

    Rite of passage role models, currently I believe if you named an indigernous baby Nelson you would find yourself doing six years hard.

    Dt,
    babies being given the same name as a murderous Hamas terrorist?
    Not a single ‘Keir’ was born in 2024. Yet some 583 infants now share their name with the architect of October 7

  18. An interesting article by eugyppius about Europe's place in the world. If he is correct, then we can look forward to a longish period of turbulence in Europe, as people are discontent with paying more to support the continent whilst remaining under America's thumb (eg not being allowed cheap gas from Russia)
    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/trumps-tariffs-and-those-goddamned?publication_id=268621&post_id=169815526&isFreemail=true&r=28gmek&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
    My son told me that the Algerian leaders met with Italian and Vatican City leaders to discuss importing Algerian gas directly into Italy.

      1. We have a show off thurifer at church who loves to swing the thurible full circle. It isn’t unheard of for a thurifer to whack the priest on the head, though I don’t think ours has done that…yet.

    1. Eugyppius is a German blogger, always has his finger on the pulse of German events/Europe generally. What starts there usually ends up here, but strangely never seems to reverse (clue: benefit claims).

      1. Benefits are more generous in Germany I think because there is no cap on the number of children (is that still a thing in the UK??). But the Germans are harsher about going back to work – you can’t dodge the system over there like you can in Britain.

        1. Yes, I think that’s one of his beefs (most UK will only have two or three children, but some UK communities will have more). Have read about returning to work, UK soft, as per.

    1. From the BBC report on the sentencing (January 2025)

      "A knife was found hidden in the boot of his car and when his home was searched officers found weapons and a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf, the court heard."
      I'll bet they did….

      Two likely explanations: they were planted there OR he is an asset who stoked up the riots deliberately and is not now in jail, though the sentence serves as a warning to others.

  19. Lord Farquard
    12h
    There are British parents who are mourning a child lost fighting in Afghanistan. I wonder how they feel knowing the regime has flown 30,000 Afghans here, 1 in 16 of whom are possibly genuine cases, and many are Taleb*n fighters- their son's killer could be in the next town, living on benefits and threatening teachers or schoolchildren who may accidentally scuff a k0r*n.

      1. I never joined facebook – too modern and open to manipulation. I'm probably 'The Quill Generation.'

      1. It takes a month of detailed research to find anything at all that is remotely worth calling UK Muslim heritage that actually benefits as opposed to harms the UK and its people..

    1. Does she believe that bullshit or is she just thinking of how much she will be paid for lying?

  20. Summer camp boys aged eight to 11 'were given sweets laced with sedatives' – as man, 76, appears in court on child cruelty charges – DM. Odd than the details of any slammer miss doings are sub judice whereas this one has the full details. Saves a long trial, I suppose.

    1. Janine McKinney, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS East Midlands, said: 'The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised the prosecution of a 76-year-old man with child cruelty offences following a police investigation into a summer camp held at Stathern Lodge, Leicestershire.
      'This decision has been made after reviewing a file of evidence from Leicestershire Police.

      'Jonathon Ruben will be charged with three offences of wilful ill treatment of a child relating to three boys. He will appear at Leicester Magistrates' Court on Saturday August 1.

      'This has been an extremely upsetting and shocking moment for the community, and especially for the children and parents most directly affected.

      'We would like to remind all concerned that there are now active criminal proceedings against Mr Ruben and he has the right to a fair trial.

      'There must be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online that may in any way prejudice these proceedings.'

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14964815/Man-appears-court-charged-summer-camp.html

      1. Christian camp. Accused is a man with a surname of possibly Jewish origin.
        Would I be sensing the authorities dancing with glee?
        I bet we won't be waiting until next summer for any trial.

        1. He's so dangerous that he's been remanded in custody!
          Unlike certain police assaulters.

    2. We were told yesterday that he tried to poison them. Sedating them isn’t poisoning them? More a chemical kosh.

  21. Jeremy Clarkson was asked on Times Radio if Keir Starmer was still banned from his pub:

    “Oh God yes. I hate very few people in life but I do hate that man. He’s awful. He’s definitely banned. He’s just so flippant about farmers. whenever you ask him it’s just like ‘Well who cares about them?’ And that’s one of the things I really dislike.”

    1. Hamas are immoral disgusting savages. And anyone supporting them too.

  22. Clarkson's farm 'locked down' for two months after TB outbreak

    Former Top Gear host 'devastated' after news that all affected cattle will have to be culled

    Tom McArdle, Joe Pinkstone, Science Correspondents
    1st August 2025

    Jeremy Clarkson's farm will have to be locked down for at least two months after his beloved cows were hit by an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis. The former Top Gear host, 65, said the outbreak was "absolutely dreadful" and that his Oxfordshire Diddly Squat farm was "sort of paralysed".

    Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an infectious disease of cattle and badgers that often results in the culling of every animal that tests positive. Clarkson said the affected cows would have to be culled because "it's the law".

    Speaking on Times Radio about the bTB on his farm, he said: "It's awful, it is awful. You have a test every few months on the cows and then you sort of become blasé, it's a hypothetical threat. Then the vet looks up as he did yesterday lunchtime and said, 'I'm really sorry this one's failed'. So that means we're now locked down and it's just dreadful, absolutely dreadful."

    He added: "What's been hypothetical is now very real here. Nothing can come onto the farm and nothing can leave it – we're sort of paralysed."

    On how long it would impact the farm, he said: "Certainly two months because that's how long we have to wait before we do another test. It's only been not even 24 hours since I found out and it occupies my mind. Honestly, farming? I'm not enjoying it this week."

    He was clear the farm shop would be "unaffected" and that cows were the only farm animals with the disease.

    As well as the emotional trauma of losing his cows, their culling could cost the presenter tens of thousands of pounds and lead to a shortage of beef products in his shop. Clarkson has spoken before about how badgers are rife on his farm and how he has tried to keep them away from his cows.

    The animals are protected by law from being killed, leaving farmers with little defence in protecting their herds and livelihoods from the pathogen. The Diddly Squat herd is thought to be Beef Shorthorn, which is a pedigree breed that produces a high standard of meat and is ideal for British climes.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/01/clarksons-farm-locked-down-for-two-months-after-tb-outbreak

    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Jeremy Clarkson 'devastated' as his farm has TB

    TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson said everyone at the farm is "devastated"

    Curtis Lancaster, BBC News
    31st July 2025

    In a social media post on X the former Top Gear host said everyone at his Diddly Squat Farm in Chadlington, Oxfordshire, was "absolutely devastated". He later wrote that the infected cow was "pregnant with twins" at the site, which featured in Amazon Prime documentary series Clarkson's Farm.

    Cattle that fail a TB test, or animals that have inconclusive results for two consecutive tests, and are classed as "reactors", must be isolated then sent to slaughter.

    Bovine Tuberculosis (Bovine TB) can be infectious to all mammals, including humans. It is mainly a respiratory disease, which can be transmitted through nose-to-nose contact and also through contact with saliva, urine, faeces and milk. It is recognised as a problem that devastates farm businesses.

    Badger culling has long been a part of the government response to the disease, despite criticism from wildlife and animal welfare campaigners. The government last month said it would not be extending the badger cull and retained its commitment to end the practice before the next election.

    Oxfordshire is an "edge area" for TB, meaning it is a buffer zone between high risk and low risk areas – so most herds are subject to six monthly TB tests by default. There have been several cases in the area of Oxfordshire near to Diddly Squat Farm in recent weeks, according to ibTB, a mapping platform for the disease in England and Wales.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c17nd5xe2pvo

    Typically, some on social media apparently interpreted the closure as terminal and were celebrating.

    1. The cynic in me would not be totally surprised if it was sabotage of Clarkson.
      He's not a favourite of the Left

    2. That's dreadul. Poor old Jeremy, and bad news for the remaining herd. My experience is that farmers actually like their livestock, so to see them knocked off will likely break his heart.

    3. It’s hard to lose stock that you’ve spent years building up. Never mind the financial loss.

      1. It is suspicious. We are being told not to grow veg or keep chickens for reasons of bird flu and or co2.

        I wonder if Jeremy is clever enough to realise his stance on farming has made him a target?

        His Clarkson's farm prog is popular. And it certainly goes against the Chris Packham narrative.

        1. The chicken registration stuff is just beyond. Kick up the proverbial is what is needed.

        2. There are obviously many nasty people out there and Clarkson will have many enemies.

  23. Clarkson's farm 'locked down' for two months after TB outbreak

    Former Top Gear host 'devastated' after news that all affected cattle will have to be culled

    Tom McArdle, Joe Pinkstone, Science Correspondents
    1st August 2025

    Jeremy Clarkson's farm will have to be locked down for at least two months after his beloved cows were hit by an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis. The former Top Gear host, 65, said the outbreak was "absolutely dreadful" and that his Oxfordshire Diddly Squat farm was "sort of paralysed".

    Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an infectious disease of cattle and badgers that often results in the culling of every animal that tests positive. Clarkson said the affected cows would have to be culled because "it's the law".

    Speaking on Times Radio about the bTB on his farm, he said: "It's awful, it is awful. You have a test every few months on the cows and then you sort of become blasé, it's a hypothetical threat. Then the vet looks up as he did yesterday lunchtime and said, 'I'm really sorry this one's failed'. So that means we're now locked down and it's just dreadful, absolutely dreadful."

    He added: "What's been hypothetical is now very real here. Nothing can come onto the farm and nothing can leave it – we're sort of paralysed."

    On how long it would impact the farm, he said: "Certainly two months because that's how long we have to wait before we do another test. It's only been not even 24 hours since I found out and it occupies my mind. Honestly, farming? I'm not enjoying it this week."

    He was clear the farm shop would be "unaffected" and that cows were the only farm animals with the disease.

    As well as the emotional trauma of losing his cows, their culling could cost the presenter tens of thousands of pounds and lead to a shortage of beef products in his shop. Clarkson has spoken before about how badgers are rife on his farm and how he has tried to keep them away from his cows.

    The animals are protected by law from being killed, leaving farmers with little defence in protecting their herds and livelihoods from the pathogen. The Diddly Squat herd is thought to be Beef Shorthorn, which is a pedigree breed that produces a high standard of meat and is ideal for British climes.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/01/clarksons-farm-locked-down-for-two-months-after-tb-outbreak

    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Jeremy Clarkson 'devastated' as his farm has TB

    TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson said everyone at the farm is "devastated"

    Curtis Lancaster, BBC News
    31st July 2025

    In a social media post on X the former Top Gear host said everyone at his Diddly Squat Farm in Chadlington, Oxfordshire, was "absolutely devastated". He later wrote that the infected cow was "pregnant with twins" at the site, which featured in Amazon Prime documentary series Clarkson's Farm.

    Cattle that fail a TB test, or animals that have inconclusive results for two consecutive tests, and are classed as "reactors", must be isolated then sent to slaughter.

    Bovine Tuberculosis (Bovine TB) can be infectious to all mammals, including humans. It is mainly a respiratory disease, which can be transmitted through nose-to-nose contact and also through contact with saliva, urine, faeces and milk. It is recognised as a problem that devastates farm businesses.

    Badger culling has long been a part of the government response to the disease, despite criticism from wildlife and animal welfare campaigners. The government last month said it would not be extending the badger cull and retained its commitment to end the practice before the next election.

    Oxfordshire is an "edge area" for TB, meaning it is a buffer zone between high risk and low risk areas – so most herds are subject to six monthly TB tests by default. There have been several cases in the area of Oxfordshire near to Diddly Squat Farm in recent weeks, according to ibTB, a mapping platform for the disease in England and Wales.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c17nd5xe2pvo

    Typically, some on social media apparently interpreted the closure as terminal and were celebrating.

    1. As I have said before, time without number; why do you think British governments have spent the last thirty years disarming the law-abiding?
      The only people with any access to fire arms are heavily regulated shotgun owners and selected public employees.
      The only people with unlimited access to effective weapons are criminals.

      1. To think that my late mother used carry a mini dillinger in her handbag !

        Not mentioning my late father's guns

        He taught us all how to use a gun .. 2 sisters and brother and me !

        I went clay pigeon shooting a few times , but the kick back of a shot gun hurt my shoulder ..

        The girl school I attended , "Honour before all " used to wax lyrical about the brave women and men who were part of the great SOE Agents during WW2.. and of course the war had only ended 15 years before I was parcelled off to Boarding school …

        The school seemed to be encouraging archery and other skills .. Archery was also hard work , especially if one was small , young and not so strong ..

          1. I think she met Derringer, well known for "pocket sized" guns all the way back to the Wild West.

          2. Thanks for the correction , Jack .. lucky I didn't confuse it with anything other than that .

            I remember it being a very small gun, and idiotically us children assumed it was a cigarette lighter … but it wasn't , because we were forbidden to even pry!

        1. Kick back from a shotgun? That's nothing. Try firing a .303 to find out about recoil. 🙂

    1. That advert has gone viral.
      This is the third time I've seen in a couple of hours.

    2. Yeah well.. ha bloomin ha.
      Leftie hipster ad agency Mother moved to its current offices in London's Shoreditch.. nuff said.
      Funny how the irony didn't extend to Khan, vibrant knife crime, green bollx. Oh and funny how usually 99.9999% of actors in ads are black, however for this little number they stick with obese white folk.

      Notice no pisstake of the biggie.. industrial gang rape by Pakistanis, and its cover up by Lefties, still to this day.

      1. 410533+ up ticks,

        Afternoon KB,

        “still to this day”
        Agreed, and gaining strength with every English Channel crossing.

    1. How dare the snoopers do this .. We are the post war generation , our parents fought for freedom , and we have been brought up to protects our country and criticise the evil monsters who want to kill our national spirit .

      Commies and Wokedom , to hell with them all .

  24. The Dartmoor farmers raging against Chris Packham's eco-warriors

    The TV presenter and campaigner has blamed grazing livestock for declining biodiversity, but the Commoners say the truth is more complicated

    Simon de Bruxelles
    29th July 2025, 1:00pm BST

    Everything has changed on Dartmoor since Richard Gray was a boy. Every winter his family farm at Holne would be cut off by thick snow for days at a time. Within his lifetime, winters have changed beyond recognition.

    "We've gone from having 20 to 30 days of lying snow every winter to just five, an incredible difference," says Gray, 46. "We've lost hard frosts here. It's so different to what I remember as a child in the early Eighties when all the pipes would be frozen. We'd go sledging day after day and the snow ploughs coming past the farm would leave walls of snow higher than me."

    Climate change is not the only reason farmers in one of Britain's oldest national parks are feeling under siege. Environmental pressure groups, including Chris Packham's Wild Justice, blame overgrazing and poor land management for a concerning decline in biodiversity on the moor.

    There are 850 Commoners who jealously guard their ancestral right to graze livestock on Dartmoor. They include sheep, cattle and the world-famous Dartmoor ponies. The Dartmoor Commoners Council was taken to the High Court earlier this month after Packham successfully campaigned for a judicial review, claiming the council is failing to enforce controls on grazing and the number of livestock.

    The rights enjoyed by the Commoners were granted under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, which details the statutory responsibilities the Commoners Council has towards the conservation of the commons. These include restricting the number of animals each commoner is allowed to graze.

    Wild Justice says that DCC has failed to meet these responsibilities, as well as neglecting its general duties under wildlife laws and regulations. Before the hearing, Chris Packham, co-director of Wild Justice, said: "Sheep, subsidised by the public, are doing significant damage to lands which should be maintained in the public interest as rich repositories of biodiversity. We are paying many farmers and commoners to damage our own interests. And the sums run into millions of pounds each year. Greed is driving this abuse, pure and simple, and it needs to stop. Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] and Natural England have proved incapable of regulating this, so Wild Justice has stepped up. We are in a crisis – change is essential, and this reckless destruction needs to stop."

    In particular, Wild Justice has highlighted the spread of purple moor grass which forms impenetrable tussocks that make the moor difficult to negotiate on foot and is too tough for livestock to eat. They are also concerned about the decline of wild heather and the sphagnum moss, which creates the peat bogs for which Dartmoor is famous, and the decline of some moorland birds such as skylarks and ringed ouzels.

    The Commoners, most of whose families have farmed on Dartmoor for generations, have simply got it wrong, says Packham. They confirm that Dartmoor is not what it was, but insist that climate change, which has effectively prevented frosts from keeping gorse under control, and restrictions on age-old ways of managing the moor such as burning, are more to blame than overgrazing.

    Richard Gray's farm lies on the flanks of the plateau which forms much of Dartmoor's 400 square miles. From his door, he can see the sea at Teignmouth nearly 20 miles away. The home he shares with his wife and two teenage daughters is a wooden chalet formed from two static caravans squeezed beneath the eaves of an enormous barn. To supplement their modest income from farming, they have two large shepherds' huts on wheels that are rented to visitors.

    Upland farming may be one of the least financially rewarding jobs in British agriculture, but those whose life it is say they do it because they love it. They say lowland farmers with lush green fields are able to follow trends and change their crop to follow food fashions. They have no such luxury.

    Being a Dartmoor hill farmer entails long days in summer and shorter, colder, wetter ones in winter. Climate change has at least spared Gray one annual chore. "The snowline on Dartmoor always used to be 1,000 feet, which is where our farm is," he remembers. "My dad and granddad talked about digging sheep out of the snow drifts. I've only had to do it twice in 20 years."

    Dartmoor is like a doughnut with common land known as the Forest of Dartmoor owned by Prince William's Duchy of Cornwall at its centre. The "forest" is so called because it was once a royal hunting ground, not because it was covered in trees.

    Commoners complain that frost and fire, their traditional allies in controlling the spread of inedible vegetation such as purple moor grass and gorse, are either restricted by law or no longer put in an annual appearance.

    The centre of the doughnut is surrounded by a ring of Commons which in turn are enclosed by open moor, much of which is increasingly covered in the spiky gorse and inedible bracken which has forced the native heather into ever smaller enclaves. The reduction in burning has allowed the spread of pests such as heather beetle.

    Until the Second World War, livestock would be driven from farms across Devon to spend summer on Dartmoor in much the same way as cattle spend months in lush meadows in the Alps.

    Commoners say that contrary to Packham's claims, much of Dartmoor was more heavily grazed in those days than it is now simply because there was more livestock around. What happens when the cattle and ponies don't graze is that the vegetation has a chance to grow and soon becomes too woody to be appetising to the sheep who prefer younger, fresher shoots. It is a delicate balance to keep the animals moving between old and new pasture to ensure everything gets a gentle and appropriate trim and isn't completely nibbled to death.

    Archaeologist Alan Endacott grew up in a traditional farming family and is a former curator of the Dartmoor Museum and former vice-chairman of the Dartmoor Society. He claims his family has been farming on Dartmoor since the Bronze Age. He is angry about how eco-groups portray Dartmoor farmers as damaging the area when, in fact, it is their lifeblood as well as their livelihood.

    "This is an indigenous hill farming community," he explains. "If they were Native Americans or Aboriginals, people would be up in arms defending them. It's been proven by ancient DNA studies that Hill farmers on Bodmin Moor are a distinct group that also goes back to the Bronze Age.

    "They don't go anywhere because you marry your neighbour's daughter and it's self-perpetuating. It is a kind of cultural genocide. This whole business is killing off a way of life, a community going back all those thousands of years."

    Endacott says he met a farmer in tears because his family has lived on Dartmoor for at least 1,000 years and he didn't see a future there for his own children. "He said, 'They don't want us any more. It's the end of it all'. It really did upset me. That's the end of that family's heritage, our heritage, the whole bl—y moor."

    Dartmoor breeds have to be hardy because they are kept outside all year round. As the common land is not enclosed they are taught to stay in their own areas, a practice known on Dartmoor as "learing" and as "hefting" elsewhere in the country. Once the livestock have been leared, they don't stray. The same appears to apply to Dartmoor's human residents.

    Steve Alford and his wife Hayley from Elvan Farm near Throwleigh grew up in neighbouring villages. They hope their baby son Tommy will one day take over the farm.

    Steve's father Crispin Alford, 73, bought his first sheep at the age of 12. He says the streams which flow freely across the moors suffer when they are undergrazed because the hooves of livestock help drain the bogs and prevent deep patches of mud forming. "We haven't got the stock out there keeping these places drained," he explains. "A lot of the crossing places you can't get in because it's too boggy."

    There have been severe restrictions on swaling [controlled burning], which the Commoners claim is responsible for the spread of heather beetle as they are no longer allowed to control it by burning "fire breaks". They also claim swaling encourages new growth because the heather seeds are activated by burning.

    "Our family goes back generations here," says Crispin. "Generations farming the moor and using the moor pretty much for everything. What's the future for Tommy?"

    Steve resents being told how to look after the landscape by people like Chris Packham and "rewilders" who would like to see it covered in trees, something that hasn't been the case since at least the neolithic period 8,000 years ago. "I feel that we are being attacked and I feel that they obviously don't want farmers and farming on Dartmoor," he says.

    "Farmers in general have been thinking about the environment for much longer than people think. We were thinking about the environment before any environmental schemes came in because we wouldn't want to damage it in any way because that would be against our interests.

    "We try our best to get a mosaic of habitats. I think that we could do much more if we were allowed to. Because we are out on the moor so much, we see a lot of wildlife other people don't see, like two ring ouzels which are incredibly rare.

    "There have been thousands of years of farming on Dartmoor. We are very passionate about Dartmoor and we love living here. It's a way of life. We don't particularly do it because we're going to get rich off of it, but we do what we do because we love it."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/29/dartmoor-farmers-versus-chris-packham-eco-warriors

    1. Can someone living near to this little cretin not drive past with a large full muck spreader?

    2. Give it time and the snow and frost will be back. The damage Packham will do won’t be so easy to undo.

    1. Yes, I saw that…wonder if the training they get may be a little more energetic than they expect. One can hope…..

    2. 20 acres already.

      My God that's a huge amount of land.
      It's roughly 0.0002 of the size of Gaza.
      They'll house millions of neo Nazis on such a vast expanse.
      /sarc

      1. 410533+ up ticks,

        Afternoon S,

        I like the cut of Phizzee rhetorical jib on this one, keeping in mind, the longest journey starts with ………….

          1. Oh come on. You already know you can't land fish because of another country saying so.

    3. Well there is one group that's buying up land to create enclaves for themselves, and they are white, but I'm sure the DM doesn#t mean them…

  25. Lord Farquard
    5h
    BBC Politics London has been told that gr00ming g*ngs are operating in London and the situation is “more catastrophic” than anywhere else in the country.
    Yet here is Susan Hall asking that disgusting thing in the mayor's office how many MRGs operate in London.

    He deliberately misunderstands the question and pretends its about county lines. He pretends he has no idea what gr00ming g*ngs are.
    https://x.com/i/status/1941787290121978042
    https://youtu.be/noJCNh60lfk

    1. Wow. That’s something for al-Beeb to admit.

      i believe Khunt thiugh. Clearly although the grooming and rape gangs were operating in every city and town inhabited by our peaceful friends, it is entirely credible (and i use that word advisedly) that nothing of the sort was going on in London.

    2. Is he deaf, stupid or just trying desperately not to give a straight answer? I know which I think it is and we've seen this before when he was quizzed about whether London has been safer since he took office, when he denied actual, factual data!

  26. Rick B
    Mike b
    4h
    It is the ambition of every dead-eyed communist dictator to simply do away with elections.
    The Soyatollah is no different. We've already seen him 'postpone' inconvenient council elections.
    Just needs an appropriate state of emergency. Say an uprising or another totally convincing global pandemic apocalypse nightmare.
    What is the media FOR, after all?

    keith waites
    Rick B
    2h
    There will be a 'behind the scenes' unit working on just that

    Ernest Nowell
    Rick B
    4h
    And Free Speech.

  27. Why white working-class rage is surging in Britain

    Soaring crime rates and unchecked immigration are fuelling a political wave the establishment can’t contain
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/08/01/TELEMMGLPICT000434371126_17540753787440_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    Fresh protests have broken out this week outside a migrant hotel in Epping, Essex

    02 August 2025 6:00am BST
    James Frayne

    What a difference a year makes.

    Compare the Labour Government’s approach to disorder outside migrant hotels last summer, following the Southport murders, with how they are handling protests and disorder now.

    The serious violence around last year’s protests demanded a tougher response from the state (which the public supported) than this summer’s events.

    On August 4 last year, Sir Keir Starmer, the newly elected Prime Minister, began his statement on the riots by saying, “I utterly condemn the far-Right thuggery we have seen this weekend.” In conclusion, he added, “I won’t shy away from calling this what it is: far-Right thuggery.”

    That there was far-Right thuggery involved in some of the protests was clear to see. But what Starmer failed to do was acknowledge the genuine concerns held by ordinary people who were neither thugs nor members of the far-Right.

    This summer, as protests spread across the country, Labour politicians are going out of their way to show they understand protesters’ concerns about mass immigration.

    An official summary of a recent Cabinet meeting quoted Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, saying that “economic insecurity, the rapid pace of de-industrialisation, immigration and the impacts on local communities and public services […] are having a profound impact on society.”

    Starmer’s spokesman reinforced her comments, saying that “high levels of immigration over the last 10 years, including illegal immigration […] have had an impact on our social fabric and social cohesion.”

    Rayner’s intervention was particularly striking given that six years ago she described the Brexit Party, the predecessor of Reform, as a “racist party”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18941db5924f11d0688ed21b3db8aa3f03416712a2516ba4c463cae074ea32bc.png

    What is behind the shift?

    Outlet for working-class voters
    On the surface, the emergence of Reform has transformed politics.

    Recent election results and polls show they represent a significant portion of the public; the Government knows Reform is currently heading into government.

    But more than that, what has changed is the rise of politically organised white working-class rage. While this rage has been a feature of British politics for 25 years, it was fractured and its power diluted.

    Although working-class voters dealt many shocks to mainstream parties over the last two decades, in referendums as well as local and European elections, they continued to support mainstream parties at General Elections. Their anger often seemed to have dissipated or even died away.

    This was never true; rather, their rage had no real outlet. Ukip and the Brexit Party were niche parties focused on the side issue of the EU. Reform is different: their primary focus is immigration, but they are developing a policy platform designed to tap into public discontent about other key issues too, especially crime, as well as public service failures and economics.

    When it comes to public service failures, there is more than enough to fuel frustration. Working-class people with no chance of going private even occasionally are struggling desperately to access the NHS. Many are genuinely fearful about how they will cope with sustained illness or the daily challenges of old age.

    The Office for National Statistics data this week showed the British population rose by more than 700,000 in the year to June 2024, the second largest increase since records began in 1949, which will have added to these concerns.

    These sentiments are what could change politics and power in Britain.

    Resentment towards Tories and Labour
    It is hard to overstate the anger white working-class voters feel towards the main parties and their senior politicians.

    Earlier this week, Public First, the opinion research firm I ran until earlier this year, hosted a focus group in the Midlands where one working-class participant described Britain as “a tinderbox; there’s a lot of pent-up emotion and frustration at the moment.”

    On the protests themselves, which have taken place outside migrant hotels across the country, another participant said, “It’s where they live and they’re getting loads of unknown people being skipped in. It’s not racist, you’re just concerned about your safety.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/02/why-white-working-class-rage-is-surging-in-britain/

    Another added, “There’s got to be a reset and they’ve got to get to grips with it. People need to feel safe in their communities.”

    Elsewhere, during a recent project in the north of England, a researcher started a conversation with a young man in a pub by asking what he thought were the top issues facing the public. The instant response was, “Labour, because they’re a–holes; they don’t give a f— about us; Starmer is a w—–.”

    Football fans have begun to chant similarly graphic insults about Starmer. At a recent England game, hundreds of fans were singing, “Starmer is a c—.” While hardly scientific research, the fact that Starmer and politics were even on fans’ minds during a national game is extraordinary.

    And the polls paint a dismal picture for Starmer’s Labour.

    Public First’s polling reveals a third of white working-class voters hold an unfavourable view of both the Conservatives and Labour, compared to a quarter of professional voters. More than half of this disaffected working-class group is planning to vote Reform. Asked if Sir Keir represents people like them, 45 per cent of white working-class voters say “not at all”, compared to 35 per cent of professional voters.

    Research suggests anger is intensifying. On YouGov’s tracker, the proportion of working-class people who agree that none of the main parties represent their priorities and values has risen from 42 per cent in 2019 to 56 per cent in June 2025. Over the same period, those saying at least one party represents their priorities and values fell from 35 per cent to 24 per cent.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/02/why-white-working-class-rage-is-surging-in-britain/

    (”Working-class” respondents fall into the C2, D and E social grades, which include manual workers, state pensioners, casual workers and the unemployed.)

    YouGov’s general tracker on Government approval shows working-class voters disapprove rather than approve of their record by 68 per cent to 10 per cent; working-class disapproval hit 73 per cent in May 2025, which was only topped in recent times by the fallout from the Truss mini-Budget in 2022.

    People gave the Government some slack on most issues after last summer’s election, and hostility levels fell as the new administration settled in. But on immigration and crime, among other issues, public hostility towards Labour is now nearing the peaks last seen in the final days of Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.

    Clueless ministers
    The main parties are flailing badly in response. Given how strongly the Conservatives are seen to have betrayed working-class voters, they will not begin to shift public opinion until they present specific policy plans to address their mistakes in power. Until then, all their breathless rhetoric and social media videos are a waste of time.

    From their earliest days in government, Labour strategists were said to view Reform as their primary medium-term opponent and Reform voters as their main targets. Yet this is hard to reconcile with their approach to almost every issue. From cutting fuel payments for older people to releasing serious criminals early, and dragging their feet on investigating grooming gangs, it is as if Labour set out to alienate working-class voters.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/02/why-white-working-class-rage-is-surging-in-britain/

    Over time, it has become clear that Labour has no idea how to handle this growing anger. In recent weeks, Labour politicians have pointed to everything from social media to school truancy to explain working-class frustration. Immigration is mentioned only in passing, as though it sits alongside a dozen other concerns.

    The main parties’ inability to come up with an appealing policy response reflects two key misunderstandings. First, they do not seem to grasp who makes up the bulk of angry working-class voters. Second, they refuse to accept that these voters mean what they say when asked about their policy priorities.

    On the first issue, there is a tendency to view angry working-class voters as very poor. After these voters helped power Vote Leave to victory in the EU referendum, politics was awash with analysis describing them as “left behind” or “at the bottom of the pile.”

    Politicians often see working-class people as helpless victims, almost like children who will change their minds once properly educated.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/02/why-white-working-class-rage-is-surging-in-britain/

    But the working-class voters who delivered Brexit and who now plan to vote Reform are, by most measures, fairly ordinary working-class people. In my experience as a political strategist, those genuinely living in poverty tend to be completely disengaged from politics. They do not vote, rarely express political views and never turn up at protests.

    This is clear from the pictures of the hotel protests this summer, where most of the protesters appear to be relatively well-off, working-class people with stable lives.

    In reality, while these angry voters usually self-identify as “working-class”, they are more accurately a mix of working-class and lower-middle-class people, mostly from provincial England. Although the highest-profile protests against migrant hotels have taken place in Epping, in Essex, working-class anger is strongest along the coast and across the English Midlands and the North.

    Unsurprisingly, these are Reform’s heartlands.

    Politicians in denial
    Politicians’ misunderstanding of these voters’ priorities is particularly odd, given the wealth of opinion research and actual election results that reveal their policy preferences.

    Left-leaning politicians and commentators especially tend to emphasise the broad, complex causes of white working-class anger because they find it hard to accept that so many people simply want to cut immigration drastically and reject most asylum seekers, especially those arriving in small boats.

    https://cf.eip.telegraph.co.uk/illustrator-embed/content/07c3e24da94db8f35ed1a6f84232aa15a6517711/1754067612866.jpg
    By stressing multiple, complex causes, they also avoid having to act in the short term. They can claim to be working on long-term solutions that will get to the root of the problem, rather than looking for a “quick fix.”

    The reality is that white working-class anger has, on and off for 25 years, been driven by hostility to large-scale immigration.

    This cannot be avoided: many voters will remain angry as long as legal immigration runs into the hundreds of thousands, and many others will stay angry if they feel politicians do not have control of the borders.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/02/why-white-working-class-rage-is-surging-in-britain/

    This is not new, although the intensity of opposition to large-scale immigration has grown alongside the scale of rising numbers. This pattern has been evident since the 1970s; Ipsos-Mori’s historic polling shows that the number of British people who considered immigration an important issue broadly tracked the rise in immigration levels, which surged under Tony Blair’s “open door” approach to arrivals from the EU.

    Unless and until politicians stop the boats, reduce legal immigration, and reject most of those caught in the asylum system, they will make no progress in easing white working-class anger. This is not to suggest that immigration is the sole cause of white working-class frustration. It is simply to recognise that their hostility to large-scale immigration exists and cannot be explained away.

    Fairness and control
    Angry working-class people have always talked about immigration and asylum in terms of fairness and control – almost never race, religion or culture. When you look at how opposition to large-scale immigration has evolved, from concerns about pressure on public services to lower wages or welfare claims, it almost always comes back to these two core issues.

    In the recent wave of hostility to asylum seekers being housed in hotels, for many working-class voters it is the very idea of hotels being used. For many, hotels are a luxury they could never afford. In numerous communities, hotels are where life’s biggest moments are celebrated: weddings, christenings, anniversaries and so on. The idea of people receiving long-term stays in such places for free creates a deep sense of injustice.

    Anti-immigration protesters gather outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Britain
    Anti-immigration protesters outside The Bell Hotel in Epping reflect growing anger over fairness and control Credit: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
    It isn’t limited to housing. Other stories about immigration have touched the same fairness nerve. In January, The Telegraph revealed that asylum seekers could receive quicker treatment in a major London hospital. While those who designed the system may see this as the decent thing to do for people with particular needs, it is hard to think of a single idea more likely to drive struggling working-class voters into Reform’s camp.

    In Epping, and increasingly elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, there are also concerns about the safety of local communities, especially the safety of young women. There have been several high-profile reports of crimes committed by young men from abroad staying in these hotels.

    This links to the second major theme: control. This has always been the other main driver of hostility to government immigration and asylum policies, repeatedly raised over the past 25 years. Many feel the state is unable or unwilling to exercise proper control over Britain’s borders, and, more broadly, over laws that shape immigration and multiculturalism.

    These are the themes Reform is tapping into so successfully.

    Sense of unfairness
    Think about Reform’s recent pivot to crime and Farage’s claim that the country is lawless. This could prove so fruitful for them because it speaks to a broader feeling that Britain, while barely governed, always seems to make decisions that help other people – not just recent arrivals, but also the rich, big businesses and others. This sense of unfairness has intensified dramatically since Brexit.

    Look at almost any policy area and the same story appears. Sometimes immigration deepens feelings of injustice, as with the NHS and housing, but the theme stands on its own.

    The NHS is in crisis and most people struggle to get timely GP or hospital appointments. Meanwhile, the wealthy can simply pay to skip the queue. Wages remain stagnant and people have to work harder for the same pay, yet millions are seen to exploit the welfare system. Crime and anti-social behaviour are widespread, but serious criminals get only a slap on the wrist.

    Working-class people face rising living costs, yet believe businesses are profiteering during tough times. Young people can’t afford to live in the areas where their families have been rooted for generations, while others receive help to do so.

    In short, working-class voters feel the country is failing and lacks any real sense of natural justice.

    Police keep apart anti-immigration and pro-immigration protesters gathered outside The Chine Hotel, Boscombe, Dorset
    Police keep apart anti-immigration and pro-immigration protesters gathered outside The Chine Hotel, Boscombe, Dorset Credit: Max Willcock/BNPS
    Farage recently faced criticism for saying he would like to explore deporting serious criminals to harsh prisons in places like El Salvador. Critics dismissed this as unrealistic and said it showed he was all talk. But, as ever, Farage was tapping into something real. At a time when anger runs so deep, driven by these emotional themes of fairness and control, working-class voters want someone who sounds like them, who is as angry as they are and speaks in the same blunt terms.

    Why?

    Because only someone like that, they believe, would ever come up with the right policies in the first place. And in any case, someone prepared to talk about sending hardened criminals abroad might at least settle for building a few new prisons here in Britain. For many, that would feel like a fair and reasonable result.

    Cultural concerns
    The Left has long assumed that white working-class anger is ultimately driven by nationalism and a desire to protect British or English “culture”. Over the last 25 years, I can honestly say these themes have barely featured in the many focus groups and polls I have run.

    Even when I interviewed British National Party (BNP) voters in the late 2000s for an anti-BNP campaign, the working-class men I spoke to talked almost entirely about their wages being undercut and the strain on local services. They rarely mentioned culture at all.

    However, the sheer scale of recent arrivals is starting to shift this slightly. It isn’t that people now talk about Britain being historically white; you certainly never hear them discuss threats to Christianity or the monarchy.

    Instead, you hear complaints about protests over foreign wars, where people who were not born in Britain take to the streets as though everyone shares their views. The recent protests over the Middle East are a prime example; most people simply find them baffling. You also hear frustration that ordinary displays of patriotism are treated as suspect or offensive, while everyone else is encouraged to express their own identities freely.

    Until now, national and cultural concerns have barely featured among most working-class voters, but they are growing quickly. This is what risks giving rise to a movement that drifts in more troubling directions. Reform is a mainstream party and will keep a lid on this sentiment for the majority, but around the edges we could see some of the extreme behaviour that Starmer claimed was widespread last year.

    Either way, Britain now has a fully-fledged working-class movement born of anger.

    In the short term, Reform will benefit most. If the mainstream parties cannot find a way to respond to at least some of this, they risk being swept aside.

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

    James Richmond
    9 hrs ago
    It is not a class-based rage. Everyone – from rich to poor, old to young – is in deepening despair over this traitorous, vindictive, and feckless government.

    Gordon Fairheart
    4 hrs ago
    Reply to James Richmond – view message
    its not just the government, its the whole establishment, the civil service, the police and the judiciary the BBC they all on the side of the criminals and the migrants and the are limitless examples to prove this

  28. Afternoon all. Been busy trying to prepare for the advent of fibre to the property and arrange a time for my neighbour to help me drink a bottle of Prosecco.

    Heathrow expansion, like other airport developments, is the height of hypocrisy given they’re taxing us to bejaybers on the grounds of “global warming “.

    1. I was at the "Greatest Gathering" 200y of Railway event in Derby.
      And I'm bloody knackered after it.

      Good event though.

  29. Michael Deacon
    If even Pride & Prejudice has to have a ‘diverse’ cast, the English period drama is dead

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/08/01/TELEMMGLPICT000434039512_17540662155440_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    TV bosses may think they’re being inclusive. But I’m afraid there are two small problems

    02 August 2025 6:00am BST

    Five years ago the BBC website published an article headlined: “Is It Time the All-White Period Drama Was Made Extinct?” Well, it clearly is now. These days every period drama has an ethnically diverse cast, regardless of when it’s set: the 1920s (Wicked Little Letters), the 1530s (Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light), even 1066 (King and Conqueror, the BBC’s forthcoming serial about the Battle of Hastings). So it came as no surprise to read, this week, that Netflix’s new adaptation of Pride & Prejudice will have a diverse cast, too.

    Personally I find this a fascinating trend. Producers of period dramas always go to the most painstaking lengths to ensure that costumes, furniture and decor look scrupulously authentic. Yet when it comes to casting, they do the opposite – and pretend that, 200 or 500 or 1,000 years ago, England was every bit as multicultural as it is in the 2020s. They would die of embarrassment if, in the background, viewers were to glimpse a set of solar panels, or double yellow lines. But black Anglo-Saxons? No problem at all.

    It’s a peculiar combination. If we’ve decided that historical verisimilitude no longer matters in casting, surely we should be consistent, and decide that it no longer matters in clothing or behaviour, either. Let Regency noblemen wear Arsenal shirts. Show the Normans riding into battle in Chinooks. Have Sir Thomas More take a selfie on the scaffold.

    At any rate, the author of the BBC’s article about making the “all-white” period drama extinct seemed to approve of this new trend in casting. “Finally,” she wrote, “the industry is demonstrating that period drama is a genre in which racial diversity can be both reflected and celebrated.”

    This is all very well. The trouble is, it makes it look as if racial diversity has been “celebrated” throughout our history. To viewers, this must be puzzling. In recent years, we’ve been endlessly told that Britain’s past was shamefully racist. Yet period dramas tell us it was a multicultural utopia, in which people of all races were welcome at every level of society.

    Still, we mustn’t carp. I’m sure this colour-blind approach to casting applies equally to all. I look forward to the BBC airing a period drama about the Windrush, in which the main passengers are played by Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley.

    At last: a Labour policy I actually like
    Normally I believe that a job should always go to the best-qualified candidate, and that preferential treatment should not be given to “under-represented” groups. On this occasion, however, I’m going to be brazenly hypocritical and toss my principles aside. This is because, from now on, the Government wants all civil service interns to be working-class. And I think it sounds like a great idea.

    Of course it’s not meritocratic. But Whitehall is the one place that might actually benefit from a bit of naked class warfare. Remember that Laura Kuenssberg documentary from 2023, which revealed that, the morning after the EU referendum, civil servants were “in tears”? How many working-class staff would have reacted like that?

    If Nigel Farage is worried that a Reform government would be stymied by Brexit-hating mandarins, this dramatic change in recruitment policy should please him no end.

    The trouble with the ‘Islamo-Left’
    In 1999, the writers of the satirical website The Onion published a very funny book called Our Dumb Century. It consisted of spoof newspaper front pages, inspired by the key events of the previous 100 years. And among its countless highlights was the headline of a story about Japan entering the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany. It read: “Japan Forms Alliance with White Supremacists in Well-Thought-Out Scheme.”

    I always remember that phrase “Well-Thought-Out Scheme”, whenever I read about the Western anti-Israel LGBTQIA+ group that calls itself Queers for Palestine. Yet, no matter how often critics argue that it might as well call itself Chickens for KFC, its members remain undeterred.

    Mind you, they aren’t the only ones who believe there’s a happy and united future for the so-called “Islamo-Left”. The new party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana is likely to attract many others who see no drawbacks to forming an alliance between one group that’s extremely liberal on social issues, and another that is sometimes, shall we say, a bit more conservative.

    I wonder how many of these adorably well-meaning Corbynites are aware of what happened a few years ago in Hamtramck, Michigan. When the city elected America’s first ever majority-Muslim council, local progressives were jubilant. This was a glorious victory for marginalised minorities – and a crushing defeat for small-minded bigots.

    Imagine their shock, therefore, when the Muslim council then banned the flying of the LGBTQIA+ Pride flag from city property. According to the Washington Post, the local progressives felt not just appalled, but “betrayed”.

    “We welcomed you,” wailed a retired social worker. “We created nonprofits to help feed, clothe, find housing. We did everything we could to make your transition here easier – and this is how you repay us, by stabbing us in the back?”

    Sadly, as Robert Burns more or less put it: the well-thought-out schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.

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

    Speedy Oculus
    10 hrs ago
    I’m looking forward to the remake of 12 years a slave , with a cast of white slaves. You know, so to be ethnically diverse and all🤪

    Stephen Pointing
    8 hrs ago
    Black actors can be every bit as good as their white counterparts but the authenticity of the drama is undermined. If 3 of the Bennett girls are played by white actors and 2 by black ones you’d be asking yourself what Mr Bennett had been up to. It just doesn’t work.

    1. Any black people in wealthy Regency households were strictly below stairs servants. They weren’t allowed above stairs. Pointless to judge. That’s simply how it was. Indians were employed as personal servants – valets and governesses – but never black Africans.

          1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5324c8fedda9f7b44871def5440ed9ae3541585ac16da45335344a0014fdff52.png Dido Elizabeth Belle (June 1761 – July 1804) was a British gentlewoman. She was born into slavery as the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy officer. Her father was Sir John Lindsay, a British career naval officer who was later knighted and promoted to admiral.[1][2] Her mother was Maria Belle, an enslaved Black woman in the British West Indies. Lindsay took Dido with him when he returned to England in 1765, entrusting her upbringing to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Mansfield. The Murrays educated Belle, bringing her up as a free gentlewoman at their Kenwood House, together with another great-niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray, whose mother had died. Lady Elizabeth and Belle were second cousins. Belle lived there for 30 years. In his will of 1793, Lord Mansfield provided an outright sum and an annuity to her.
            [Wiki]

    2. Any drama must persuade the audience to accomplish "that willing suspension of disbelief" in order to enjoy its narrative. Seeing black actors playing historical characters who were most definitely white is a step too far for me, and distracts my attention from the play or film. In the past, white actors used to black-up to play parts such as Othello, but no-one would dream of doing so nowadays, so why is the reverse acceptable?

        1. No, but I was referring to actors playing characters of a noticeably completely different race.

      1. A post i made earlier about 'The Gilded Age' by Julian Fellows. Plenty of black actors in good roles and they were good representative roles of their time.

        To just insert black people in roles from our history doesn't really work. I don't think black people benefit from this ideology either.

  30. Wordle No. 1,505 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 2Aug 2025

    Intimidation for Birdie Three?

    1. Well done, lacoste, same here.

      Wordle 1,505 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Well done, lacoste, same here.

      Wordle 1,505 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Just too many options for me – I still had to choose between two at guess 6 – squeaky bum time!

      Had a short power cut earlier on and the Lions were rubbish, so all in all a pretty average day – I'm going to get a beer (or several)!!

      Phew……..

      Wordle 1,505 6/6

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

        1. I just couldnt see their game plan – it's like they didnt have one, or they couldnt adapt to the shocking conditions.

          I think it boiled down to the old saying – the Aussies just wanted it more.

          Shouldnt take away from what was a thoroughly successful tour, however…..

          1. I think they were extremely lucky to win the second test.

            I suspect that the All Blacks and the Saffers would slaughter them, and I would not be surprised if a fully fit French team would too.

          2. Cant disagree (unfortunately)…….
            I like Andy Farrell but I really dont think he is the messianic figure that he’s made out to be – I thought today exposed his limitations as a coach, he shouldnt lead the next Lions tour….

        1. Yes, I know Tracy is the Puzzles Editor of the NY Times, but I’m not sure how that should affect my choices….particularly in this case (?)

    4. Pick a letter, any letter – no not that one or that one or . . .

      Wordle 1,505 X/6

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

    5. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,505 4/6

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

    6. Birdie here too. Thought I had Eagle but chose wrong start letter.

      Wordle 1,505 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨🟩🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Look at Africa or palestine and tell me it is superior to Oxford colleges. Go on, Lefties.

      We ARE better than them. It clearly does present a problem. Look at the prison stats.

      Our society is under threat. It is being destroyed.

      1. There was very little diversity at the event today – crowds of people – families having a good time. Many tattoos, and obese and overweight people but entirely peaceful. Hardly a brown face to be seen, apart from the two stewards on the gate.

    2. I keep saying it but relativism is the fallacy of our age. They have to lie to maintain the fantasy. The brilliant Arab or African exists but he’s the exception not the rule. He isn’t proof of the equal value of his culture. He has overcome his culture.

    1. I wonder if they're photographing the female pro migrant protesters so they can seek them out later for a bit of quick and dirty, knowing those women are less likely to complain?

      1. Nah – those ones are all too old and wrinkly to be of much interest to the new arrivals.

    2. Enjoying the mayhem they have caused in the country in which they have illegally entered.

      Correction. “irregularly” entered. Because they have been picked up by our friends the RNLI (although FrogPlod doesn’t feel the need to rescue them when they are in self-inflicted “danger” in French waters).

        1. Not quite, but give it time.

          Plenty of "useful idiots", like Mr M, to support terrorists.

    1. The IDF right now is very much a terror organisation, and its controllers are also demanding independent country with Jerusalem as its capital.

      So they agree on something. They also agree to perpetuate the war until there is total unconditional surrender, which ain't going to happen.

      1. And you're loving it.

        The Jews, always to blame.

        Why don't you apply to be the official Hamas spokesmancreature I'm sure you'd be excellent.

      2. Israel is already an independent country with Jerusalem as its capital. The IDF is that country's legitimate armed forces.

      1. "It's a significant part of her culture. How dare you question her actions, you racist pig."

          1. I thought it was a caption competition, if I had wanted to insult Citroen, I'd have called him Phizzing racist.

          2. I have met Michael three times now. He is tall, well dressed and handsome. He has a cut glass accent that puts minor Royalty to shame. He also fetched beer for me at my garden party.

            All true.

            Your turn. :@)

          3. Then he recognises you as a pleb?

            Accents are strange things.
            I said to the hearing aid specialist that I found it was weird that I thought the test voice was me. I asked was it done by AI so the listener recognised what was being said.

            She stated that the voice used is BBC British from the 50's/60's and can be understood by almost anyone who speaks English and that that is exactly how I sounded to her!

          4. He knew i was a pleb before he rushed off to ASDA with Annie Allan directing him. Then they got lost and ended up exploring the boondocks…(Go Spit).

            Regarding what your hearing specialist said is true. Though that statement will annoy Grizz.

            It is also often the case when the incomers pretend to not understand spoken English i feel rather than taxpayer interpreters we should be paying people to catch them out in their lies.

          5. When I moved to Norway, the county provided free Norwegian class for 3 months then "it's over to you, friend."
            Seemed to work out OK.

    1. The word hack is being increasingly used online nowadays to mean a quick clever solution that solves a problem, but does not solve it particularly well.
      Labour's online safety bill is a bit like a hack, they think they can keep the public safe, happy and on board through ignorance of the truth by censoring the awful crimes that are happening in communities carried out by newcomers arriving through our non existent borders and also the resulting backlash that is now unfolding from ordinary members of the public that fear for the safety of their children.
      If we do not know what is happening, or if the news is spun with gaslighting and obfuscation, that is not a solution, they tried this same tactic with the grooming gangs, evil was just allowed to flourish.
      Politicians that are willing to go to these lengths to impose their agenda do not belong in a free democratic country.
      They are a throwback to the old soviet union totalitarians.
      We need a general election now before it all gets much worse as history tells us it will under these ruthless people.

      1. The online safety bill was a Tory policy which has just become law. They are all as bad as each other.

      2. And if we did have an election, what would we get instead? The illiberal undemocrats or continuity Reform?

    1. I remember doing events. All the pack and load. Then a full two or three days. Then pack and load. Hope yours was successful this time round.

      Though often at Marquis weddings no one could remember where the crates of Champagne were after everyone had left… ahem.

        1. My memory fades now but i did one near Winchester. Apartments in what was once a castle. There was a lake and grounds and i was given the use of one of the apartments for the duration.
          I was so busy the whole time i only used the en suite once and took a bath.
          The apartment clearly belonged to someone as all their things were there.
          I respected their privacy and didn't rummage or pry.

          You can't blame me though if the people that supplied the booze left early (3 a.m) and i had to erm….clean up.

    1. It was not part of their blood,
      It came to them very late
      With long arrears to make good,
      When the English began to hate.

      They were not easily moved,
      They were icy-willing to wait
      Till every count should be proved,
      ‘Ere the English began to hate.

      Their voices were even and low,
      Their eyes were level and straight.
      There was neither sign nor show,
      When the English began to hate.

      It was not preached to the crowd,
      It was not taught by the State.
      No man spoke it aloud,
      When the English began to hate.

      It was not suddenly bred,
      It will not swiftly abate,
      Through the chill years ahead,
      When Time shall count from the date
      That the English began to hate.

    1. Thanks for posting. Interesting. I liked the male interviewer but could find no blurb saying who he was. Any ideas?

  31. Lance Corporal James Thomas Duane Ashworth (26th May 1989 – 13th June 2012), Reconnaissance Platoon, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards.

    St James’s Palace, London SW1

    22 March 2013 The Queen has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Victoria Cross to the under-mentioned:

    ARMY

    Lance Corporal James Thomas Duane Ashworth, Grenadier Guards, 25228593 (killed in action).

    On the 13th June 2012 the conspicuous gallantry under fire of Lance Corporal Ashworth, a section second-in-command in 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards Reconnaissance Platoon, galvanised his platoon at a pivotal moment and led to the rout of a determined enemy grouping in the Nahr-e-Saraj District of Helmand Province.

    The two aircraft inserting the Reconnaissance Platoon on an operation to neutralise a dangerous insurgent sniper team, were hit by enemy fire as they came into land. Unflustered, Ashworth – a young and inexperienced noncommissioned officer – raced 300 metres with his fire-team into the heart of the insurgent dominated village. Whilst two insurgents were killed and two sniper rifles recovered in the initial assault, an Afghan Local Police follow-up attack stalled when a patrolman was shot and killed by a fleeing enemy. Called forward to press-on with the attack, Ashworth insisted on moving to the front of his fire team to lead the pursuit. Approaching the entrance to a compound from which enemy machine gun fire raged, he stepped over the body of the dead patrolman, threw a grenade and surged forward. Breaking into the compound Ashworth quickly drove the insurgent back and into an out-building from where he now launched his tenacious last stand.

    The village was now being pressed on a number of fronts by insurgents desperate to relieve their prized sniper team. The platoon needed to detain or kill the final sniper, who had been pinned down by the lead fire team, and extract as quickly as possible. Ashworth realised that the stalemate needed to be broken, and broken quickly. He identified a low wall that ran parallel to the front of the outbuilding from which the insurgent was firing. Although only knee high, he judged that it would provide him with just enough cover to get sufficiently close to the insurgent to accurately post his final grenade. As he started to crawl behind the wall and towards the enemy, a fierce fire fight broke out just above his prostrate body. Undaunted by the extraordinary danger – a significant portion of his route was covered from view but not from fire – Ashworth grimly continued his painstaking advance. After three minutes of slow crawling under exceptionally fierce automatic fire he had edged forward fifteen metres and was now within five metres of the insurgent’s position. Desperate to ensure that he succeeded in accurately landing the grenade, he then deliberately crawled out from cover into the full view of the enemy to get a better angle for the throw. By now enemy rounds were tearing up the ground mere centimetres from his body, and yet he did not shrink back. Then, as he was about to throw the grenade he was hit by enemy fire and died at the scene. Ashworth’s conspicuous gallantry galvanised his platoon to complete the clearance of the compound.

    Despite the ferocity of the insurgent’s resistance, Ashworth refused to be beaten. His total disregard for his own safety in ensuring that the last grenade was posted accurately was the gallant last action of a soldier who had willingly placed himself in the line of fire on numerous occasions earlier in the attack. This supremely courageous and inspiring action deserves the highest recognition.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Lance_Corporal_James_Ashworth.jpg/250px-Lance_Corporal_James_Ashworth.jpg

    1. The surviving enemy is probably now ensconced in a hotel over here somewhere living off the fat of the land thanks to the UK taxpayer.

    2. We need men like him to run the government, never mind blowing away enemies.
      RIP, man.

    3. Good grief, he looks like a dark haired version of my grandson.
      What an appalling, heart breaking waste.

  32. There is a small Marks and Spencer store nr the promenade in Weymouth ..

    Very small , the food hall is on the ground floor , with the mens clothing , but the cafe and children/women's wear is upstairs , and the products consist of a minimal boring offering ..

    I bought a few bits and pieces for the fridge .. some very fresh looking cod fillets.. lunch tomorrow, a very nice looking largish papaya and a packet of fresh figs , blondish in colour .. from Israel .

    Now that is the first time for ages that I have seen any fruit grown fro sale grown in Israel ..

    Remember , we used to see lots of Israeli citrus fruit etc. didn't we ?

  33. Vitals Without Monitors"
    A tribute to the generation who measured life by presence, not pixels.

    They didn’t watch screens blink
    They watched patients breathe.
    No beeps. No graphs.
    Just instinct, empathy, and years etched into steady hands.
    They felt for the pulse
    Not with sensors,
    But with fingers trained by time
    To find life beneath the surface,
    To hear what silence was saying.
    They didn’t need machines
    To know when something was off.
    They saw it in the eyes,
    In the rhythm of a chest,
    In the stillness that wasn’t peace
    But warning.
    Their vitals weren’t measured by wires
    But by watchfulness.
    A trembling lip,
    A sudden sweat,
    A whisper too weak to finish the sentence
    That was their alert system.
    They didn’t rush to chart
    They rushed to care.
    They counted breaths out loud,
    Watched skin color like scripture,
    Held wrists not just to feel
    But to be felt in return.
    Before telemetry,
    Before smart beds and Bluetooth cuffs
    There were hands.
    And hearts.
    And nurses who stood at the edge of dying rooms
    And kept the line between life and loss from breaking.
    They didn’t miss a thing.
    Not because tech told them
    But because they paid attention.
    Real, full-bodied, soul-deep attention.
    So today,
    When we scroll vitals on screens,
    Let us not forget:
    There was a time when presence was the only monitor.
    And somehow…
    They still saved lives

  34. It was not part of their blood,
    It came to them very late
    With long arrears to make good,
    When the English began to hate.

    They were not easily moved,
    They were icy-willing to wait
    Till every count should be proved,
    Ere the English began to hate.

    Their voices were even and low,
    Their eyes were level and straight.
    There was neither sign nor show,
    When the English began to hate.

    It was not preached to the crowd,
    It was not taught by the State.
    No man spoke it aloud,
    When the English began to hate.

    It was not suddenly bred,
    It will not swiftly abate,
    Through the chill years ahead,
    When Time shall count from the date
    That the English began to hate.

    1. Turning and turning in the widening gyre
      The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
      Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
      Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
      The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
      The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
      The best lack all conviction, while the worst
      Are full of passionate intensity.

          1. I know that I shall meet my fate Somewhere among the clouds above. Those that I fight, I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love. Edit – Don't know why there are no returns in this!

        1. The Second Coming.

          ………..And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
          Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

    2. Turning and turning in the widening gyre
      The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
      Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
      Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
      The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
      The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
      The best lack all conviction, while the worst
      Are full of passionate intensity.

  35. Thought for the day:
    If tube stations were good enough for the British to shelter in during WW2, why not close the Victoria line and clear every station and place every illegal gimmegrant on platforms. Feed them there but don't allow them above ground.

    If it's good enough for Hamas hostages, it's good enough for gimmegrants.
    Free tickets home to all who decide to leave.

    1. They used the Piccadilly Line during the Blitz? I think it was the deepest. The sub and sub-sub basements of Selfridges too. Best not let the gimmegrants in there though?

    1. See the agenda?
      The innocent muslim shop keeper is threatened with being called a paedophile by the wicked 14 year old white girl.

      This is just part of the same program of promoting division and hatred among the multi-culti groups in Britain. They want people hating and blaming in all directions except themselves until nobody knows what is going on any more.

      1. I am not sure their propaganda will work in this instance.

        People who do frequent their local shop often run by someone from the Asian ethnicity are very happy with the service provided. The main one being Pharmacies !

        1. In our case, the best grocery I have ever frequented. So much choice! Amazingly fresh vegetables and fruit. You could just browse for hours there.

      2. We also know from the at least 250,000 grooming rapes of young white girls the new crop can be again groomed to discredit decent shopkeepers. Some of whom have already been murdered because they said 'Happy Christmas'.

    1. I've been watching it all evening, mostly very good natured but a few punchups started later.

  36. Rayner declares war on allotments

    Councils could cash in on public gardens to tackle funding crisis under new rules

    Tony Diver, Associate Political Editor
    2nd August 2025, 3:41pm BST

    Angela Rayner has given the green light for cash-strapped councils to sell off allotments to raise funds.

    As Housing Secretary, the Deputy Prime Minister has given councils "flexibility" to sell some assets, including allotment sites, to fund day-to-day spending. She has already personally approved the sale of eight allotment sites across England since Labour came to power. Under the Allotment Act 1925, any disposal of allotment sites requires Westminster to give the go-ahead.

    Those that have already been sold include a site in Storrington, West Sussex, that will make way for 78 new homes. Residents have said the decision is "extremely disappointing". Ms Rayner has also given approval for two allotments in Ashfield, Notts, and two in Bolsover, Derbyshire, to be closed.

    The Telegraph previously reported that the new rules on council asset sales could lead to the disposal of school playing fields, which a Government spokesman said should only happen where "absolutely necessary".

    But the changes allow local authorities "to determine how best to use this flexibility", according to Jim McMahon, a housing minister, in a response to a parliamentary question from the Conservatives. He added that the Government "expects all decisions to demonstrate value for money and to be in the best interests of local residents".

    Sir James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, condemned the changes and said they displayed a "complete disdain for protecting valued green spaces".

    "Angela Rayner giving the green light for councils to sell off allotments is a kick in the teeth to local people who don't have access to their own gardens," he said.

    "On top of the Labour Government encouraging councils to sell off their playing fields, it yet again shows Labour's lazy embrace of building on parks and green spaces rather than places where homes are needed and wanted."

    The news is likely to come as a blow to Jeremy Corbyn, a passionate gardener who recently established a rival Left-wing party to Labour. A representative for the former Labour leader, who has said his favourite vegetable to grow on his North London allotment is a marrow, declined to comment on the Government's approval of sell-offs.

    Councils, who the Local Government Assocation has said will face an £8bn shortfall by 2029, may be tempted to dispose of allotment space to raise money. The local authorities are demanding the power to raise more of their own taxes, but those plans have been rejected by Rachel Reeves, who is concerned about giving up power to councils from the Treasury.

    Despite Ms Rayner's department announcing that the new rules would "extend the freedom" of councils to sell off assets, a spokesman said they had been allowed to dispose of some sites since 2016.

    The spokesman said they "should only do so where it is clearly necessary and offers value for money", adding: "We know how important allotments are for communities, and that is why strict criteria are in place to protect them, as well as school playing fields."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/02/rayner-declares-war-on-allotments

    Worzel Corbyn shouldn't be too worried. For obvious reasons the Slapper won't go after city allotments.

    1. There is no evil this Government won’t stoop too.

      Imagine a Conservative Government f doing this.

      1. Many allotments (and school playing fields) were sold under Tory governments in the 80 and 90s. My maternal grandmother lived next to the enormous Bordesley Green allotments in Brummagem. Once more than 60 acres, barely a third is left.

        1. Allotments were sold in our local town under the Tories too, and half the school playing field.

      1. I thought so, too…but if the land can be sold at a good price for house building, or even kept on the books for house building, then that's what Local Authorities may do instead.

          1. Moss Bros supplied William Boot with a stick and sent it to their cleaver for him.

    1. Guessing you'll have seen coverage of today's/this evening's marches, Maggie…quite a bit of free speech there. A lot of support out there 🙂

  37. Goodnight, all. Had a better night's sleep last night, so hoping for the same tonight.

    1. Good night, Conners – and Kadi and Winston. And I hope you sleep well tonight also.

    1. Thanks, I'm really not a 'birthday' person though. Popped up to the pub (don't normally do Saturday evenings) because there was an excellent guitarist/singer scheduled, and stayed longer than I should. A poor turnout though, but he brought about 20 of his family with him. Glad I went.

        1. Thank you, Maggie.
          There's a lot of large giant bluefin tuna about to descend on the west side of the English coast. Usually they turn up about now.

    1. I had heard that this was a good film, but never had even seen a clip of it. Tomorrow I shall spend some time back on this page watching it in full. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, molamola.

  38. Well, chums, it's now my bedtime. So I wish you all a Good Night, a good night's sleep, and I hope to see you all tomorrow morning.

    1. Who else in this ragbag of a Labour Party are similarly affected?

      The Tories betrayed the people for 14 years and now are paying the electoral price. Farage and Reform need to ensure that they do not fall into the same political cesspit as the legacy parties: the people are becoming aware and that awareness is generating anger

      1. But most of our political classes are of the same ilk. After a very short time they display one particular thing in common.
        That they have no interest whatsoever in public opinion and are only taking part for what they can personally get out of it.
        Unfortunately this has been the case for many decades.

        1. They’ve conveniently forgotten that they are elected public servants whom the people can dispose of at elections. Now, elections…

    2. How many reasons have to be displayed to get rid of him and his front bench. They are an absolute nightmare.

      1. Do not get rid of him under any circumstances.
        Just see out the five years.
        Angela Rayner & her husband are the real-deal commie Pol Pot.

        1. A good test is to look at the faces and behaviour of people and imagine that you are working for them in a menial capacity.
          Now do that with Angela Rayner…

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