Sunday 17 August: Once again Vladimir Putin has left Donald Trump looking weak

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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500 thoughts on “Sunday 17 August: Once again Vladimir Putin has left Donald Trump looking weak”

    1. Sadly none of the present population will be here to see the secrets Blair hid with all his 'D' notices. He like Cameron for certain 'mischievous acts' and Johnson now starmer should have been arrested.

  3. Good morning chums – and Geoff.

    Wordle 1,520 5/6

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    2. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,520 5/6

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  6. Good morning, everyone. Off to the All England bowls finals at Leamington Spa to support our Ladies Senior 4s who are the Dorset champions.

  7. Morning folks.

    Just back from a short stay with family in Cheshire. One highlight was a trip to Gauntlet a Vulture breeding centre near Knutsford. Highlight of the day was the final display of 15 free flying African Birds. Normally they would have 35 birds flying at the same time. However, because the temperature was 30C a number of the Hawks etc couldn't be arsed to take part – a few snaps: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ce9d3a4d31444f24185b55e624f144e74671fdb82664227333b99510da46404.jpg

    – https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9bb2dc43ec8c770eb898b1d3f5aed915cc855635486aa1cff4321d48fb9c9de8.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f0239ca67bf2555e17665ec27055abf314a59882b800da3f55d6bfff30070af.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/802644fac5035d164eb6f6c0aa1000f138b025e90cae3c2f47c8b7c9aae2a03a.jpg

      1. The two Marabou Storks flew overhead before landing they had wingspans of around 8 to 10 feet!

  8. 411430+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I do believe they are well matched and both equal in statue.
    They both know what is needed, who is making monies, and who is stirring the pot
    regarding disagreeable power grabs, also they both have elements that will dissolve any troublesome parties acting behind the scenes.

    The serious action IMHO is not on the front line.

    Sunday 17 August: Once again Vladimir Putin has left Donald Trump looking weak

    1. Not from where I'm standing, Ogga. The Donald looks like a man of considered action from here – the only one actually doing anything positive to try & stop the Ukraine war. Nobody else is, in fact they all seem to want to keep on killing.

      1. 411430+ up ticks,

        Morning O,
        Granted, action man for sure Putin is fighting on two fronts I believe that both are aware that killing generates monies and there are many politico’s supplying petrol to the front line, while disagreeing totally with both Presidents on peace seeking.

      2. Indeed, the war will eventually be stopped by the two sides sitting down and talking. Only one world leader is interested in trying to achieve that. The MSM have no idea what was said at the meeting last Friday but pontificating as if they were sat in the room. Actually, the President of Indonesia visited the warring nations early on in the conflict to suggest a stop to the fighting but not surprisingly nothing came of it.

  10. Morning, all Y'all. Brilliant sunshine, but chilly.
    This stuff worries me: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/16/britain-tinderbox-union-flags-crackdown-could-explode/
    Britain is a tinderbox. This crackdown on Union flags could make it explode

    Labour councillors say they’re just worried about health and safety. But can they really not see how their actions could backfire?
    Have you ever been injured by a Union flag? Has one, for example, mugged you at knife-point for your iPhone 16? Or perhaps a gang of teenage Union flags, out of their minds on weapons-grade skunk, have ambushed you as you walk home on your own after dark?

    I’m relieved to say that I for one have never suffered any such misfortune. But then, I don’t live in Birmingham. And it would seem that the Union flags up there are an awful lot deadlier than the ones down my way in Kent.

    Lately, in England’s second largest city, patriotically minded residents have taken to hanging Union flags from lamp posts – in order, they say, to “show Birmingham and the rest of the country how proud we are of our history, freedoms and achievements”. The Labour council, however, is taking the flags down – because, apparently, they’re “dangerous”. According to a spokesman, “People who attach unauthorised items to lamp posts could be putting their lives and those of motorists and pedestrians at risk.”

    To me, at least, this seems a puzzling claim. Still, for the sake of argument, let us assume that these councillors mean well, and that they’re motivated not by Britain-hating wokery, but by an innocent if slightly excessive desire to protect residents’ safety.

    Even so, can they really not see how their actions could backfire?

    Put it like this. At the meeting where the decision was made, I’d like to think at least one councillor had the sense to say: “Hang on a moment, comrades. Isn’t there just a tiny risk that people might misinterpret this? Across the country there are protests against asylum seeker hotels, public fury about crimes committed by illegal immigrants, and a growing sense that Britain is a tinderbox that would need just the tiniest spark to go up in flames. Against that backdrop, how do we think people will react if they read that a Labour council has ordered the removal of British flags?

    “Do we think they’ll all nod, and say, ‘Fair enough. British flags are indeed very dangerous, even when gently fluttering 25 feet above one’s head’? Or will it reinforce their conviction that a) this country is run by people who despise it, and b) they now live in a two-tier society, because, in the very same week, their council has chosen to light up the Library of Birmingham first in the colours of Pakistan’s flag, and then the colours of India’s flag, in order to celebrate the anniversary of those two countries gaining independence from this one?

    “Obviously we can’t say for sure. In the current climate, though, I just think it might be wise to hold off. We may think that hanging Union flags from lamp posts is terribly dangerous. But removing them may be more dangerous still.”

    1. Commented just now:
      Nigel Bradley
      1 min ago

      What the article failed to mention is that in areas of Birmingham, Palestinian flags have been hung from lampposts and buildings. They have not been taken down.

      It has been suggested that the Council is scared to take them down as it could provoke the community.

      Welcome to 21c Britai

      n.

  11. See a trend here?

    Barts and University College London Hospital (UCLH).
    King's College Hospital.
    South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.
    Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
    Northampton General Hospital.
    Milton Keynes University Hospital.

    All ban private-school pupils who want to be doctors, and from undertaking any NHS work experience.

    What next? Must swear oath of allegiance to the Gaza state.

    3. Good God! Unbelievable… like the kids got to choose. I didn't, it was the result of parents working to educate Nigerians, in Nigeria, over 30+ years and a civil war.

    4. The Barts crowd need reminding that just because their hospital was founded by a court jester, that isn’t an excuse for extracting the urinal.

      1. I have to be thankful for Barts Cardiology department, they repair my afib a couple of years ago and I am eternally greatful.

    5. That's a particularly stupid thing to do.
      Not any of those hospitals but one I was attending for cardiology care a Couple of years ago seemed to get rid of one of the staff and secretary after complaints were made because of lack of care and respect for the patients.
      Both staff were from overseas.
      Perhaps a lesson learned.

      1. Hear you, Eddy. However, NHS hospitals likely to close if overseas staff no longer available. Our local service already demoralised …massive population increase, many new house builds…no extra schools, hospitals, teachers…etc…

        1. Totally agree, but my point was I wonder if anyone important had checked the previous record of the incomer who had taken up the job.
          I bumped into an old work colleague who when I asked him how he was, out of the blue told me that he had to change hospital because of problems with the same doctor and his secretary.
          When I wrote and complained those in charge seemed to be blaming me for the problems. Strange how not far down the line, both of them had somehow moved on.

          1. It's everywhere…was it always and we just weren't aware pre-internet days. Connection on and off here…that's all it'd take…the off button..

    6. That's terrible. How could anyone trust them to treat a privately educated child either? We truly live in an age of madness.

  14. Let it not be memory-holed that in Nova Scotia this year, it was made illegal to go into the woods on pain of a 25000 dollar fine, because of the hot weather.
    The climate lockdown was implemented on the excuse of "proactively fighting fires" and going in the forest was said to be "unnecessary."

    https://www.patreon.com/posts/federalized-how-136647565?post_id=136647565 at about 47 minutes there's a video clip of the Governor announcing it.
    One chap went publicly into the woods and has been hit with a fine of over 28000 dollars – apparently that includes a victim surcharge.

  16. Massey Ferguson
    12h
    According to the BB Barister, when Starmer made his angry man speech after the Southport murder protests and said people would be held on remand and quickly brought before the courts he may well have been interfering with the legal and judicial process.
    People were denied their right to bail, with no valid legal reason given for doing so.

    1. Vladimir Putin is of course a practicing member of the Russian Orthodox Church. We’re all practicing Christians. None of us will ever perfect it. Jesus forgives that if our repentance is sincere. Muslims and Marxists don’t do forgiveness? Sunday sermon over. Good morning!

    2. Where has Rob Jenkins been for the last year? Putin is at least a Christian. Maybe that’s why they hate him.

  19. https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Rod.png Of course shoplifters are scumbags
    Rod Liddle

    16 August 2025

    A familiar cliché, which in history has been disproved time and again, is that a police force cannot operate without the consent of the people. Tell that to the residents of what was once East Berlin. But that old canard raises a different problem. Which people are giving the consent? The ones who abide by the law, or the ones who are disposed to breaking it?

    I wondered about this when I read two stories over the weekend, both of which suggested to me that the police have long since lost the support of that first group of people, that more numerous community, the people who don’t habitually break the law. The first case concerned a nutter on the Tube, somewhere on the Hammersmith and City line, who decided to drop his trousers and underpants and display his pork truncheon to the various women, children and men who were his fellow passengers.

    There is a video online of what happened next. A male passenger remonstrates with the bloke and tells him to pull his trousers up. The nutter shouts ‘fuck off’ repeatedly and becomes aggressive – at which point three or four men wrestle him to the ground and out of the train at the next station, pinioning him with his hands behind his back. He is taken into custody by an off-duty copper and decanted into a convenient booby hatch. After the incident, British Transport Police revealed they were investigating the matter with a view to prosecuting the vigilantes for assault. Part of the statement read as follows: ‘The man had been assaulted by a number of other passengers and was initially arrested by an off-duty officer, before being detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital.’

    I am assuming you agree with me that it is not OK to drop your drawers and start waving your gremlins around at other passengers on public transport and that the men who intervened did the right thing, even if they were perhaps a little brusque. I would further venture that the nutter was remarkably lucky he didn’t get a good beating. And I suspect most people would agree with this assessment – but not the police. They are once again more interested in preserving the dignity and security of the offender than they are with the sensibilities of the public.

    The same applies to the frankly astonishing case of Rob Davies, who owns a retro clothing store in Wrexham called Run Ragged. He put up a notice in his window which read as follows: ‘Due to scumbags shoplifting, please ask for assistance to open cabinets.’ Somebody reported this little sign to the police and, true to form, a couple of dense coppers turned up at his shop and advised him to remove the notice lest it give offence to people.

    Mr Davies told me that he asked the coppers to whom the notice might give offence – shoplifters, for example? He also asked if the police’s view was that shoplifters were not actually scumbags, but did not receive an intelligible answer.

    The irony in this particular case is quite exquisite. Mr Davies said that his store had been the target of shoplifters on five occasions so far this year, and on only one occasion did the police turn up to investigate. In that instance they caught the shoplifter and returned to Mr Davies the shirt that had been stolen, but let the thief off without so much as a warning.

    The only good news to come out of this is that Mr Davies has rejected the advice to take down his notice – or, rather, he has taken the original scrawled sign down and rewritten it five times the size on a larger piece of paper. He believes – and I agree with him – that the police behaviour in this episode suggests that not only has shoplifting been decriminalised, but that the shoplifters constitute a ‘vulnerable’ community and that their sensibilities should not be disquieted by being called mildly nasty names.

    Again, I would suggest that a good 90 per cent of the country would be on Rob Davies’s side in this dispute, just as I would imagine a similar proportion would lament the fact that the coppers no longer give a monkeys about shoplifting. I daresay a few idiots will insist that it is not a crime for the starving to steal to save their lives – and that would seem to be the premise upon which the police operate: that shoplifters are the downtrodden, the poor, the ‘vulnerable’, and that one should give them every inch of leeway available.

    Both stories also indicate how our society is breaking down and both stories make life in the UK that little bit more perilous and dismal. The consequence of what happened in the first story is that surely fewer people will be minded to intervene if they see someone committing an illegal act, because they fear that they themselves might end up getting prosecuted by the old bill. And so instead they will sit and watch, rendered passive by a police force which has forgotten the reason it exists.

    And in the second case? What you will see is exactly what has happened in those liberal American cities which have more or less officially decriminalised shoplifting. The former streets of commerce will be a vista of boarded-up shopfronts, with countless small enterprises forced out of existence. And as a consequence of that, our economy will show even less inclination of growing.

    Like the landlords forced out of business because the fashionable view today is that all landlords are bastards and all renters downtrodden angels and owners of property should therefore not be able to do what they like with their houses, so the shop owners will go bust because we – or our authorities – have decided that shoplifters are nicer than shop owners and should never, ever, be called scumbags.

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

    Jo Beck
    3 days ago
    We need a zero tolerance attitude to antisocial behaviour: shoplifting, littering, phone noise on trains, cycling on pavements, road rage, smoking weed in public, treating the countryside like an Instagram amusement park, leaving plastic bags of dog poo everywhere . . . Zero tolerance.

    Spectator User Jo Beck
    3 days ago
    And zero tolerance of poor policing.

    Anna Spectator User
    3 days ago
    Agreed: and begin by deriding the usual excuse for incompetence on 'lack of resources' when three squad cars and seven policeman arrive at the door of an elderly man and arrest him for 'an anti-semitic tweet' which proved to be nothing of the kind; when they can visit another tweeter who shared a joke about transpeople to 'check his thinking'; when endless hours of police time are wasted every year on recording hundreds of non-crime hate incidents. Imagine: the police are too 'overstretched' to pursue criminals but have plenty of time to keep records of people who haven't broken the law. How mad is that?

    1. Well Only when they are obviously indigenous brits. Who have a legal address so the perleece can smash their front door in.

  20. Joanna Cherry
    The many blind spots in Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir
    16 August 2025, 12:02pm

    Throughout her memoir, Nicola Sturgeon emphasises her achievement in becoming the first female first minister of Scotland. While that achievement should not be underestimated, I’m sure I’m not the only woman who wishes she made a better job of it.

    In her political afterlife, as in her political life, she evades real scrutiny

    It’s not just her determined blind spot on the implications of self-identification for women’s rights which emerges from this memoir, but also the fact that her much trumpeted support for women, including those under attack in the public forum, seems not to extend to those who dare to disagree with her.

    There is widespread recognition that Nicola’s legacy is marred not just by the self-identification fiasco but by other notable policy failings in the fields of education, the NHS, drug deaths and public transport (ferries and roads). Not to mention her failure to advance the raison d’etre for her political career, Scottish independence, beyond the point to which her predecessor took it.

    For example, on her failure to close the educational attainment gap she claims that it took her a while to realise the role played by child poverty. This is hardly rocket science. Besides, the child poverty payment which she finally introduced in February 2021 was a policy which she initially dismissed out of hand when it was first presented to her by Alex Neil five years earlier in February 2016. But she doesn’t mention that.

    Clearly, she considers her handling of the Covid pandemic to be her greatest triumph. She cites the exhaustion it induced as one of the reasons for her resignation and says she came close to a breakdown in the wake of her evidence to the Covid inquiry. Yet, the chapter on Covid is curiously silent on some of the biggest concerns which have come to light since her daily broadcasts to the nation ended. Care home deaths merit a brief mention but there is no analysis or justification of strategy that led to them. Nor does she even attempt to justify the deletion of her WhatsApp messages despite her promise to a journalist to keep them.

    Nicola is very keen to remind us, repeatedly, of her love for books. But for all her reading, this book, like her speeches, is curiously short on big ideas or indeed literary references. Except for a very superficial treatment in the opening chapters there is little insight into why she is a Scottish nationalist and which political theories she espouses.

    Even where she does attempt to address difficult issues such as her sexuality, she dances around the issue and the reader is left not quite sure what she is trying to say. The confusion has not been cleared up by her media interviews during the publicity storm surrounding the book.

    Reflections on life as a woman in politics is one of two themes which dominates this memoir. The other is a thorough traducing of her predecessor and one-time mentor. Alex Salmond is clearly living rent free in her head except he isn’t because he’s dead and some think that’s in no small part due to the treatment he endured at her hands. Not content with the fact that he’s now gone and can never again be a threat to her, large parts of this book are devoted to further besmirching his character.

    Before the book was even published, Salmond’s political friends and independent observers like the highly respected former Green MSP Andy Wightman and the journalist David Clegg, were able to debunk some of the allegations against him. These include the ludicrous notion that Salmond himself might have been the author of the leak which led to the media storm around allegations that he was a sex pest and that he was opposed to gay marriage despite him having introduced it as first minister. The minister he entrusted with doing so, Alex Neil, claims that Salmond handed him the equal marriage brief because, ‘Nicola didn’t want to do it any longer as she was fed up with it.’

    Despite her efforts to heap further opprobrium on Salmond, Sturgeon scorns the idea that there was any conspiracy to do Salmond down and that she was involved. She states that there was neither evidence nor motive and leaves it at that. Thus, she avoids addressing the evidence of conspiracy that has been adduced by others – some of which has been revealed under parliamentary privilege by David Davis MP and Kenny MacAskill (former MP and leader of the Alba party) – including the existence of WhatsApp messages by her husband, Peter Murrell and other close aides in which the suborning of evidence against Salmond was discussed alongside how best to pressurise the police to act.

    Ironically the motive for removing Salmond from the political scene emerges in the glaring resentment of him displayed in her book. In addition, anyone who’s been paying attention to Scottish politics knows that he was manoeuvring to make a leadership comeback after she suffered one of her biggest setbacks with the loss of 21 SNP MPs in the 2017 general election.

    In contrast to her constant attacks on Salmond, her memoir is remarkably light on any explanation as to why she was unable to capitalise on the extraordinary legacy which he bequeathed her. Independence support was at its highest level ever and an explosion in SNP membership and support led to the party capturing almost 50 per cent of the vote at the 2015 general election.

    There is very little discussion of her strategy to capitalise on the opportunities afforded to advance the cause of independence during the Brexit saga and Boris Johnson’s premiership. She sums the situation up by saying independence could not be advanced because the British government would not grant her the permission to hold another referendum. However, she does not explain what if anything she tried to do about this apart from repeatedly banging her head against the brick wall of their refusal.

    She also omits any reference to the viciousness with which she and her supporters shut down any attempt to discuss or debate a Plan B.

    Likewise, there is no discussion of what advantage she might have tried to parlay in the 2017-2019 when her 35 SNP MPs were close to holding the balance of power at Westminster. Presumably because there was no discussion at the time. I know because I was there and was pilloried for trying to initiate such a discussion.

    Indeed, the reader will search in vain for anecdotes about the sort of tortured policy debates in cabinet or at the party’s national executive committee one normally reads about in political memoirs, because, under Nicola’s leadership, such discussions were neither encouraged nor tolerated.

    She writes that as soon as Boris Johnson became PM she knew there would be another general election. There is no mention of the opportunity that was afforded to take Johnson down after the UK Supreme Court had ruled his prorogation of parliament unlawful. Indeed, the unlawful prorogation, the most extraordinary upheaval in modern British constitutional history, does not even merit a mention. I can only assume that this is because she failed to appreciate its significance, rather than because I was partly the author of the court victory.

    On the scandal surrounding the SNP finances we hear little except about the impact the police investigation has had on her and her joy at her ‘exoneration’. Further discussion, she tells us, cannot happen because of the charges against her husband. How convenient. I guess we shall have to wait for another day to hear why she so determinedly shut down legitimate questions from party members and NEC representatives about the whereabouts of a £600,000 independence referendum fund that was supposed to be ringfenced.

    At the Edinburgh Book Festival last week she performed for a gathering of her dwindling fan base, while her legacy played out elsewhere in the festival city. There were rows raging over censorship by the Book Festival and the National Library of Scotland of the book, The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht (written by feminists, sex abuse survivors and lesbians). Kate Forbes, the woman who in a more mature Scotland might have been Nicola’s successor, was banned from a fringe venue.

    After over an hour with her adoring fans, Nicola spent a very tetchy 14 minutes with Scotland’s broadcast media and print journalists having cancelled all other planned interviews with them.

    In her political afterlife, as in her political life, she evades real scrutiny. For those hoping to understand better what was really going on behind the scenes during her leadership, this memoir will disappoint. It will be left to other memoirs to shed more light on what was really going on.

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

    Scottish Borderer
    19 hours ago edited
    I do not share JC’s politics, for I am no nationalist and I voted against independence, and would do so again if need be, BUT, I do share her low opinion of Sturgeon.

    Sturgeon ruled her ‘queendom’ as if the Scottish population only existed to service her private views. Her handling of public money, left shall we say, much to be desired. Her views on gender did not reflect the public view in any way. And a great many Scottish people believe Salmond was set up, by an insider with no prize for guessing who it could have been.

    An odious woman unbelievably prone to a bad memory when being questioned by those seeking after truth.

    Torymory
    19 hours ago edited
    On the accounts. NS & Colin Beattie together with Peter Murrell (aka Mr S) were the 3 signatories to the accounts filed at both Companies House & the Electoral Commission. Even if we accept that she had no criminal involvement, at the very least NS & CB have shown an egregious failure of their fiduciary & electoral duties, and should be banned from being directors, even fined. I suppose NS would try the little girlie defence. "I am a poor wee wifee, I don't know anything about money, my husband told me to sign." Not sure it would wash given she was FM & in charge of a budget worth billions. The auditors raised serious issues re. the number of undocumented cash transactions. Did she not ask questions? And she shut off access to the books to NEC members. Notoriously she was filmed on Zoom at a NEC meeting saying there was nothing to see. Incidentally early on Alex Salmond told her that being married to the CEO of the SNP was a massive conflict of interest. He was right, but I wonder whether his warning was a spur to her vendetta against him?

    Lamia
    16 hours ago
    the unlawful prorogation, the most extraordinary upheaval in modern British constitutional history…
    No, the most extraordinary upheaval in modern British constitutional history was the way so many Parliamentarians, with the assistance of a politically biased Supreme Court and a hysterical metropolitan media, tried to renege on a promise to implement the result of the 2016 EU referendum. This included the likes of John Major (who had himself prorogued Parliament in 1997) and Paddy Ashdown pompously lecturing the country just before the vote that everyone must respect the result, even if it was decided by a single vote… and then having a years-long tantrum after the actual vote as they demanded another vote until the electorate got it right.

    It demonstrated the utter contempt for democracy and their fellow citizens of so-called 'centrist' 'Europeans'. The Tories are still infested with such Traitors, as is the judiciary. One of the first steps to recovering this country (if it is still possible) should be the abolition of the Supreme Court (another idiotic idea which pretentious monoglot 'Europeans' like Blair obviously got, not even from the EU but from the USA).

        1. She took a lot of stick from the Nikeliar, so I imagine she’s enjoying her revenge!

      2. No love lost, good piece. Might like to check out reviews on Amazon of 'Frankly', also Spectator comments including mine. Sturgeon already approved for vetting as potential candidate. That's some brass neck.

        2. I’ve just done that!! If you value your sanity I wouldn’t go near it! I’m still reeling from the comment that she was ‘honest, and straight shooting’ ….😵‍💫🤯🤮

          1. 😅 Some SNP supporters are so off the cliff they even turn a blind eye to the missing £600k…apparently membership fees, would have thought that riled them – but now being blamed solely on Murrell.

    1. Good,…. I guess when your as we are, under attack, it's more than natural to fight back.

    3. 411430+ up ticks,

      O2O

      Fightback like for like,

      From the Tweed to the English Channel via hamlet, village,town, hoist a pair of
      Jack & George semaphore flags of liberty.

  23. Morning All 🙂😊
    Sunny Sunday again.
    I'm not sure Vlad set out to make Donny look weak perhaps that's a distinctive view certain journalists like to see prevailing.
    At least they didn't kiss and cuddle each other like left spot starmer and Ukrainian zoolensky did outside number 10.

    1. I'm sure if Trump was announcing the Second Coming, the press would find fault with him.

    2. 'morning Eddy…can we imagine Biden doing similar with Donny, very much doubt it. For now, I'm onboard with them – time will tell who's pulling whose leg…

  24. Good morning Nottlers, 17°C (forecast to rise to 25°C later), light wind, clear skies. A couple of the walking footballers, both former Killie players, are dragging me up to Kilmarnock for brunch and then to see Kilmarnock v Dundee United. I expect that we won't lack for hydration. Thankfully, we'll be in the West Stand, so warm but not burnt.

    1. The twins were at nursery, and now at school, with the son of the new Killie manager!

      1. As an Ayr United fan, I shall be strictly neutral today. My friends also invited me up for the last league game in May. It was a dire performance in a dead rubber. Hopefully, new blood will stir things up a bit.

    2. The twins were at nursery, and now at school, with the son of the new Killie manager!

    1. If you have to have them they may as well be pretty. Was it official or will someone be charged for defacing street furniture?

  26. Agreed – Don't know, but Tarpoley is the sort of place that doesn't have graffiti…..

    2. Good morning Citroen1 and everyone.
      As soon as His Holiness the Pope allows female priests in his empire, Islam will be obliged to modernise.

    3. When I see pictures like that I understand the damage Labour have done to this country.Cut off the welfare tap, scrap housing benefit. Stop paying them to breed, stop paying them to live.

      Get rid of them.

      1. Meanwhile Kinnochio is burbling it’s time to remove the two child cap! Time to reduce it to ONE methinks.

    2. It's true – Labour did not win the General Election. The Conservatives by their incompetence split the centre-right vote and allowed Starmer to enter No. 10.

      1. Oh Joy! It looks like we are heading for a Labour, Lib Dems & Greens coalition Government unless those planning to vote Conservative at the next election do the decent thing and vote Reform….

      2. Oh Joy! It looks like we are heading for a Labour, Lib Dems & Greens coalition Government unless those planning to vote Conservative at the next election do the decent thing and vote Reform….

    1. It would stop the boats if we were prepared to fire on them. Doesn't have to be the first option. A few warning shots should suffice. If they ignore it, let rip.

      I'm sorry, I don't care any more.

  31. Well – an anxious start to the day. Up at 7ish. Open door. Gus sauntered in and grudgingly had his breakfast. No Pickles. Not a sign. Been round the garden, up and down the road. Nothing. Gus acting oddly – clearly looking for his brother. Five minutes ago, there was Pickles, sitting by the back door – clearly well fed – and made his way indoors. Gus (for once) was glad to see him.

    Cats, eh? Take years off your life….

    1. Does a day ever go by when neither G nor P takes the Mick out of you and the MR & you are allowed to savour the peaceful Norfolk countryside?

    2. Relative had a cat, looking weightier by the day…also going to a couple of neighbours to be fed…bottomless pit..

    1. Nothing much to see, except willows, willow-herb, and grass,
      And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
      No whit less still and lonely fair
      Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

        2. Adlestrop

          Yes. I remember Adlestrop
          The name, because one afternoon
          Of heat, the express-train drew up there
          Unwontedly. It was late June.

          The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
          No one left and no one came
          On the bare platform. What I saw
          Was Adlestrop—only the name

          And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
          And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
          No whit less still and lonely fair
          Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

          And for that minute a blackbird sang
          Close by, and round him, mistier,
          Farther and farther, all the birds
          Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

  33. Good Morning!

    Iain Hunter's cracking Wind Turbines and the Dirty Roots of the Climate Scam exposes the damage these unholy, unreliable and unwanted monstrosities are doing to our fishing industry, wildlife and our nation's structure.

    Nanumaga wrote his Peace in Ukraine – What might it look like? Including: Zelensky vs Churchil l, on the Big Meeting in Alaska, a few days. he didn't do badly at all, better than many of the so-called experts. know.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's electric power was sourced from Gas, 23.4%; Solar, 8.8%: Wind 14.8%; Imports, 28.6%; Biomass, 9.8%; Nuclear 11.9% and Miscellaneous, 2.7%. The biggest source of UK's electricity supply was imports.

    Some of you have expressed interest in forming regional groups where you can meet in person from time to time. Anyone who would like to create or join such a group should email us, and we'll put you in touch. Freespeechbacklash@gmail.com – Groups. Incipient groups now in Greater Manchester, Cornwall and Bath-Frome areas (plus Scandinavia!)

      2. Personally, having worked for some years for the late BMC, I always liked "I'm Al Right Jack". And yes, the factory used battery powered fork lifts, which could be seen creeping back to the charging shed at the end of the shift. Stacatruck was the brand., as I recall.

  35. Labour's NHS vendetta against independent education escalates..

    Faaaaaaar right commentators on Medical Association forums strongly advises pupils who want to be doctors or applying for work experience at a Leftie NHS Trust to list Brixton Akadomi in the education section of your CV.
    Fortunately no one can check as all student records were destroyed in the fires of 2011 [both of them], 2020 and 2024.

  37. Once again Vladimir Putin has left Donald Trump looking weak

    I disagree, the wef controlled mainstream media doesn't want peace or to give Trump any credit.

    It has just made our Western wef controlled politicians look weak, including ours, the French, the German, the Canadian and the Australian leaders

    1. Trump is a master of control and manipulation. He will pull off this deal. Zed will give up the Donbas.

      1. It’s easy to pull off a deal if it gives one side whatever it asks for and denies even listening to the other side. It’s even easier if you signal beforehand that you will concede everything.

        1. Trump wants this irritating & expensive war over.. so he can prepare & focus on the biggie 8,700 miles away scheduled for March 2027.
          It seems that only: Biden family, Boris, Starmer, Zelensky and Dhobi Mick want this war to continue. I am sure you have your reasons.

          1. I acknowledge the point that you make in your first sentence but your last two sentences are cheap jibes.

          1. There IS no deal in town. All that has happened is that Putin has been given to green light to demand anything he wants and that Trump will give him what he wants without negotiation. Neither Putin nor Trump give a jot about Russian or Ukrainian lives.

          3. No. What I want is an honourable and lasting peace which doesn’t give the green light to military aggression for territorial expansion in other parts of the world.

  38. Good morning everyone , fresh breeze , cooler , still no rain . 19c, but it was a very warm night .

    The runaway mouse in son's bedroom has not been found yet, the cat is still investigating , we have put traps everywhere , in fact we now believe that there is a problem with mice, our neighbours have also told us they have a problem as well..

    We live 100 yards away from worked fields .. but where have the wild birds gone .. must be weeks since we have seen birds drinking or hopping or flying around , apart from crows .

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60e9ae0bafca00a8aca371ba173a430a00d82b02a6cd7824c5544092d86fe389.jpg

      2. I think they're in the GP waiting room, having gone to France and come back on a dinghy.

    2. The birds always stop singing in the high summer – it's moulting time. they will start to sing again in September.

      1. Big ones and little ones , killer ones and humane ones ..

        No evidence of droppings , just loads of scratching and scurrying in the eaves cupboards or even the roof space!

  42. 411430+up ticks,

    These political top rankers must surely be taken out of the political infrastructure via, IMHO, a no holds barred campaign.

    Sides have clearly been taken, the pro war drums beating loudly, seen through the headlines and starmer following his role model hitlers lead as in 1945, I hope calling for non existent battalions.

    https://x.com/JamesMelville/status/1956998192005865872

  44. From the Spekkie.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-ireland-became-a-haven-for-hezbollahs-cocaine/#comments-container

    How Ireland became a haven for Hezbollah’s cocaine

    17 August 2025, 6:00am

    In the end, it was a combination of the Irish weather, European maritime intelligence and engine trouble that scuppered a massive Hezbollah-cartel drugs shipment.

    The Irish government’s failure to patrol the coastline has made Ireland a safe harbour for the fast-evolving drug trafficking network merging terror and narco finance.

    Hezbollah’s involvement in the transnational drugs trade to fund its war against Israel is well documented, with the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam its main conduit into Europe. But evidence from an Irish court last month revealing ‘a major Iranian nexus’ in a cocaine ship off Ireland’s coast indicates that Hezbollah now sees Ireland’s under patrolled coastline as a ‘point of least resistance’ into the lucrative European market.

    One security expert is reported as saying Ireland was being targeted for ‘tonnage loads by Iranian Hezbollah.’

    In September 2023, a Panamanian registered cargo ship, MV Matthew, set sail from Venezuela heading for Irish waters. It had 2.2 tonnes of pure cocaine on board, funded by an alliance of Hezbollah, the Dubai-based Irish Kinahan crime gang and a South American cartel. The ship was to rendezvous at sea with a fishing trawler, the Castlemore, which would drop the drugs ashore at isolated coves for onward transport to the UK and Europe.

    Unknown to the Iranian captain, Soheil Jelveh, the European Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (MAOC), was tracking the ship across the Atlantic and tipped off the Irish authorities. But with just one large vessel to actively patrol a coastline ten times the size of Ireland’s land mass and depleted navy personnel, monitoring and intercepting both ships was always going to be challenging. So many things could have gone wrong.

    Luckily, the Irish weather lent a hand. A raging storm hit Ireland the day the Castlemore was due to rendezvous with MV Matthew anchored 13 nautical miles off the east coast. After two failed attempts in storm force winds and swelling seas, the Castlemore ran aground. Its crew put in a distress call to the Irish coastguard, setting a train of action in motion.

    The eventual capture of the Matthew was like a scene from an action movie. Over the course of two days the ship played a game of cat and mouse with the Navy ship, LE William Butler Yeats, engaging in evasive manoeuvres in lashing winds and swelling seas. The Iranian captain, Soheil Jelveh refused to comply with orders from the Yeats, saying the ship had developed engine trouble. In reality, he was receiving orders from a Dubai-based individual, ‘Captain Noah,’ a shadowy figure linked to Hezbollah, to change course and head for Sierra Leone. The Matthew was successfully captured after Army Rangers were lowered onto the deck from a rope suspended by a helicopter hovering overhead and the ship was stormed.

    The 2.2 tonnes of pure cocaine was valued at £136 million, rising to £650 million when cut, making it the largest drugs seizure in the history of the state. Jelveh, Iranian crewman, Saeid Hassani, and six other crewmen were jailed for a total of 129 years at the non-jury Special Criminal Court last month. It was a stunning success for the defence forces, thanks to the skill and bravery of the individual members involved. But it could have gone badly wrong.

    Just two of eight Irish navy vessels are currently in operation; the rest are tied up at Cork harbour because of insufficient personal. A former officer in the Army Ranger Wing, Cathal Berry, has said:

    ‘By not resourcing our Navy we have handed the keys of the country over to the drugs cartels to do with us as they wish. It is painful to see €250 million of naval vessels tied up at Cork Harbour unable to be put at sea due to a lack of crew.’

    Irish and international law agencies are now examining the ship’s telecommunication equipment to access the extent of the Iranian-Hezbollah involvement. There is little doubt Hezbollah is trying to increase its drug activity because it is under financial pressure. As one international law enforcement official put it: ‘When you are getting hit the way Hezbollah is getting hit right now by the Israelis, the only way you can make money exponentially fast is with drugs.’

    It is extremely unlikely that the Hezbollah-cartel alliance would have risked such a massive investment on the first run. It is a safe bet that Matthew was not the first or the last shipment to use Ireland as a gateway to the lucrative European market.

    Former head of MAOC, Michael O’Sullivan, said: ‘The Irish Navy is very strapped and that has not gone unnoticed. We cover an area almost ten times the size of Ireland. And time is of the essence. If you find where a vessel has left and you’re trying to track where it is, it’s not gonna stay in one place, it’s not going to go in the one direction… You have got to get somebody out there to get a sighting of it. If you don’t find it, it’s gone.’

    The implication is clear: Ireland is not just a strategic waypoint, but an exposed hub in a fast-evolving trafficking network merging terror and narco finance for which the depleted Irish Navy is ill equipped to deal with.

    2. Safe bet that Matthew was not the first or the last shipment to use Ireland as a gateway to the lucrative European market.
      Tip of the..

      1. Another reason why the border with the EU should have been outside of Ireland, offshore, not fudged into obscurity to facilitate EU arrogance.

  45. Every day it seems brings a fresh trickle of stories designed to bring the average Briton's blood to boiling point – yet still nobody is rioting.
    Mystic BB2 predicts that some faked event will happen soon that nobody can ignore.

  46. I see Two Tier, Never Here is living up to that as he and other European political nobodies are off to Washington to support the Ukrainian grifter!

    2. A “Rembrandt” session by Trump?

      (Being put in the picture a la; ‘This is how it’s going to be!’)

    3. Hopefully President Trump will tell the EU posse, NATO and Starmer to get lost. They are not a significant geopolitical force and should put up or shut up.

      No sane person in the west has fallen in love with the Green Goblin, as have our supposed collective leaders, but instead view Ukraine and the cabal running it as corrupt grifters. None of these western officials care one jot for the people of Ukraine and have freely expressed their intention to sabotage any peace process in order to keep the war going,

    4. It's notable though that they got to him, because that's where the real power is. The EU is just irrelevant. A political waffleshop.

      The Eu is desperate to get Ukraine inside it. It's an ideal candidate. It is utterly corrupt, poor, lacking the technology to make use of it's natural resources. It also produces masses of grain and food stuffs – when the command economy is implemented the EU will want control over that.

    5. According to a headline I saw in passing, Dumbo Harmer is promising to send our troops to Ukraine.

      1. Usual style of the sham leader -. "Follow me, I'm right behind you". He won't go a ywhere near the action while sending others. Why are our Toms always being sent to fight other countries' wars?

        1. What is he trying to prove, we and anyone with any commonsense already know that he is completely useless.

      2. Almost certainly already there, and in the UK the Army has been training Ukies for a couple of years.

      3. We had that yesterday, and as someone wise pointed out on Twitt: with hundreds of thousands young men in hostels with no women, no property, no jobs and no family here and the army sent abroad, we know where that's heading.

      4. Our troops have been in Ukraine from the start of the war and likely years before. Some are special forces and other Brits will include mercenaries paid for by our taxes.

        It is rumoured that many Brits have already been killed and there are regular flights from Ukraine bringing the bodies back to the UK.

  49. Here's what happens when an electrically powered narrowboat goes up in flames:
    https://youtu.be/dheevNbWUv0?si=sQ9a1eDCpcz1_nqw
    Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries were being charged at the time but, although these are reckoned to be safer than Lithium Ion batteries, when they do go off they they gas and explode more violently.

    Here is the commentary from an American Fire Training expert who uses Lithium Iron Phophate batteries himself. This video reveals the percentage of hazardous gases released in battery fires and the increasing dangers that this kind of electrical storage presents to firefighters should this technology catch fire after being installed near wind and solar farms

    https://youtu.be/JWBt6nv8U58?si=VIwwg1R9jq29tsVn :

      1. I was thinking of downsizing to an aluminium all electric boat – I don't think I'll bother!

    3. I don't know why they are bothering with a hose. Even if the boat sank it would still keep burning.

      1. That’s exactly what happened – they sunk the boat by opening the hatches and after they pumped the water back out the cells reignited.

  50. Afternoon all. Just popping in for a short visit between church this morning, parish tea and evensong.

    One thing we can guarantee is that the wokerati’s heads will be exploding because they don’t know who they should be hating the more; Trump or Putin.

    1. There's TDS & PDS everywhere!

      I've just been chopping off the spent parts of the perennial pea – which has excelled itself this year. There's just a couple of flower heads left but maybe it will have a second wind.
      Been looking for my dibber with no success. I've bought some narcissus bulbs so will need something to aid planting.

      1. I have just bought a net of trumpet narcissus. My lathyrus latifolia is having a second flowering.

      2. Ours too, a good year for it. Started when I nicked a fallen tendril from a hedge, out walking, pre-lockdowns.

      1. Given the state of UK at present a Union flag upside down is indeed a symbol of distress!?

  60. Two Shooters Attack Civilians In New York – 3 killed & 8 Casualties
    Coulter's Law in place

    Nah.. false alarm.
    a dispute inside a club.

  62. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccf3a588c1862fbf64719618d4c381e470ef3ba5d966737c928ef9196227b57f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c3df19d622247be31d861c5853408b16a011bbdf32923aa820fe7b5b18274f23.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/310fce91ab8a2f2a87f0ba13194b87974f62e2fe1e2510e6e142f25ccf49f7b4.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cda1490774cbe3d8bb5075faeff555c2cadcade05b1f823fd40186feddd10833.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7d2454c0462d65755f957c0fe66eec1bfb4f8177e195a1169044d842779e288.jpg

  63. Lord Farquard
    Q:
    Why doesn't Poland have MPs for G*za demanding blasphemy laws, teachers in hiding over a cartoon, mothers pleading for the life of a child who scuffed a book they own, or a two tier justice system?

    Mill House
    Lord Farquard
    1h
    Because unlike this country Poland is not a politicaIIy-correct, pusiIIaminous cesspit.

    1. 411430+ up ticks,

      Afternoon C1,
      I worked in Poland when there was a Russian behind every tree, the reason I observed so many bow legged Poles was the diameter of the
      balls was, exceedingly large and having no time or patients for political shite.

    1. Gab is also pursuing this iirc. But they are restricting access to anyone they think is in Britain to try and make them wake up.

      "foreign bureaucrat" lol they are foreign to us too.

    1. I hope you waved and blew them a kiss. Every girl likes a sailor.

      I bet they get noisy later.

      1. Aaarrgh – but these be Pirates and their shoulder perching birds have dropped down into their pants – let's hope they keep their beaks shut!

        1. Erm. I have no idea what you mean but i think we would probably have a laugh in a cocktail bar.

  67. What the hell is wrong with science in the USA? This comment chimes with BB2's image/meme of food in an earlier comment.

    Apples turn brown when peeled and sliced and a splash of lemon juice will reduce the effect. Potatoes also have problems when being prepared but the problem isn't so great that genetic manipulation is required, especially if that manipulation has been shown to impact badly on bees and mice.

    The EU allows the use of GMO food/crops but it's tightly controlled and individual nations within the EU can ban the use of GMO entirely. USA citizens do not appear to have the same protections.

    Worth expanding the comment in X to get a real idea of what is being done to the USA's food supply.

    https://x.com/RealDrJaneRuby/status/1954914097549427042
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68402a6eac4495677b4ea2f54dac3b5a07351b59610113ae381059e42552b70e.png

    1. GMO foods have to be labelled in the US, so people can choose GMO or non GMO. My local supermarket has both "ordinary" (but not GMO) fruit and certified organic stuff.

      2. I think they're supposed to be labelled over here too. But as the post points out, if they're served in a restaurant, the labelling is not required.
        Also, I don't trust manufacturers to label the origin of every ingredient in processed food correctly.

        I assume that for now, organic foods are probably safe, as GMO organisms are not allowed in organic labelled food in the UK. Never used to buy them much, but am doing so increasingly now.
        The Bovaer and the GMO factors are enough to make me pay the premium, never mind the amount of fertiliser/weedkiller etc which is significant in "Aldi Bio" fruit and veg.

        1. Pre-Covid/lockdowns we used to have Farmers Markets, food was more expensive but fresh and good to buy. Another thing not returned post lockdowns, or at least not here.

          5. Definitely, plus hard standing – including car parking spaces. And the weather not always welcoming to buyers. Farmers likely found different outlets, too.

          6. The local organiser here puts a notice in the paper each week to say what's on offer – regular stalls and they spread up the street quite a bit.

          7. I suspect a larger population, N…here just a small number of houses, mostly farming area. One supermarket I like is Morrisons, who say they support local farmers (don’t know if that’s actually true..)

          8. I go to Morrisons – they say their meat is all British, and they support farmers. The range of vegetables is limited but it’s a small local store. Tomorrow I’m going over to Gloucester as I have a dental appointment and I’ll have a look in Tescos – it’s a much bigger store.

          9. Be interested to read your verdict, Ndovu. I like Morrisons, shopped there long time, started home delivery during lockdown and stayed with it. Staff always well-mannered, more than I could say about Sainsburys – no thanks. Tesco good but nearest store too far away. Good luck at dentist..when a teenager, one tried drilling a tooth without anaesthetic….I punched him….yikes….’night xx

          10. Survived the dentist………and the hygienist……..had a look in Tesco’s – quite a big one in Gloucester. Bought some runner beans as Morrisons never have those. Had a look at bras……all either too fancy, too wired or too big. Looked at towels, but they didn’t have the colour I wanted.

          11. Well done, Ndovu…survived the day 🙂 My local Morrisons used to buy from local farmers, but I doubt they do that now, possibly too erratic supply. Many veg crops grown in those huge polytunnels. Take a look at Sloggi? Been wearing that brand a couple of decades at least. Comfortable, always a plus for me. I still have towels I bought from The White House, again couple of decades ago…perhaps even no longer in business? (how I feel some days 🙂 Anyhow, put your feet up, drink of your choice and easy supper…x …off to do similar…btw, you can send the ‘hog calendar when you like, all clear now thanks!

          12. I sent it last week Kate – it should have arrived by now………..

            I had a look at Tesco bras because I’m wearing one – very comfortable crop top style. No bones or fastenings. They had some nice colours and they looked ok but much too big for me – I’m not large or extra large!

          13. Possibly has, neighbour likely has it, thanks – I’m sure all be OK x Never had a Tesco bra but sounds very much like the Sloggi ones I wear (mostly black, white, neutral)…as to size…me neither :-DD, but Sloggi always fit…this from Amazon order..’Sloggi Women’s Double Comfort Top Everyday Bra, Black, 36 UK’ ( no way am I 36, I wish…)

          14. They have the ‘hog calendar….(thanks for letting me know and all that…kids…🙄…thanks again, N x

    2. I grow my own apples and pears and tomatoes and potatoes. At least I know what’s gone onto them.

    1. Beauty, thanks jack. I watch Trevor Pendleton (Ramblings of an Entomologist) every time he posts on YouTube.

  70. Wordle No. 1,520 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 17 Aug 2025

    Frightful for Birdie Three?

    2. Well done. An improved Wordle for me today, fitted one of my regular 2nd row words when none of my vowels in the 1st.

      Wordle 1,520 2/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Well done – just a pat today…..

      Wordle 1,520 4/6

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

      1. Rather depressingly makes me aware of my own mortality. The 'heroes' I grew up with are now dying from old age.

        1. Yes. I think we all feel that way.

          The thing to do is to spend the remaining part of ones life as if it was the remaining part of ones life.

        2. It's when well-known people die, you check their age and realise – 'they are almost the same age as I am' – that you become aware of your own advancing years.

          2. Sometimes when someone I know dies, I realise that they are, in fact, younger than I am.

    3. Still young in Modesty Blaise – along with the gorgeous Monica Vitti. It's on youtube if anyone is interested.

    4. He was so fanciable and sexy , and he didn't look too bad in old age either .

      RIP dear man .. you made young hearts beat faster , and gave us girls , when we were younger , nice warm thoughts .

  72. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/17/the-bank-of-englands-credibility-is-seeping-away/

    Mr Halligan raises many good points, but he forgets the crucial element: the political class are utterly insulated from the damage their policies are doing. They slap their costs on someone else. They don't pay for the problems they cause. They pick up non jobs in quangos to secure their retirement after inevitable failure.

    Their pensions are protected from these damaging elements. Heck, some don't even bother to pay for their own VPNs to get around the online harm bill.

    They're thieves, liars and fools and only when they are personally damaged by their stupid ideological mendacity will they be forced to change.

    1. We can at least comfort ourselves as history shows if they don't get out fast enough bad things happen.

        1. I am prepared to queue. I like chess. I like chow.

          In this case it is going have a Romanov flavour.

      1. Come on Phiz the 'king beeb can't put up with any patriotism. 🤔🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

        1. Pompey was always rough. I know !

          The BBC made a documentary about the denizens of Somerstown. A really deprived area. It featured people i recognised.

  74. "“We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the UK, and it will last for a very, very long time… Certainly we wouldn’t want to reach across US citizens, and we don’t, and that’s absolutely right. But in relation to free speech in the UK, I’m very proud of our history there,”.." Nasal whine.
    Starmer's OfComrade tries to ban US website 4Chan. LOL

      1. US citizens to forgo their rights contained in the The First Amendment.. five fundamental freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

        because Starmer says so. LOL

  76. That's me for this dismal day – brightened only by the return of the Prodigal Pickles (who, nine hours later, is still fast asleep.)

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  77. I see that the "heavy hitters" from the EU and Sir Kwier will be allowed into the meeting with Don and the Clown on Monday. I guess there will be a wrecking motion to ensure peace is scuppered. Can't have all those commentators being wrong following their withering comments after the first meeting.

  79. Back home after a weekend with Firstborn, including a Dynamic Pistol match, where I supported the others by coming last… 🙁
    (well, somebody had to!)
    Now home, where the Polish carpenter has done some truly superb work on the stairs, kitchen ceiling and floors. Breath taken away…

        1. And a sander….
          Like me 5 years on the bench making stairs, doors, windows etc and on various sites, technical college, exams. Then into the much wider world….
          Proper chippies.

      2. 'Sam, Sam, pick Oop tha' musket,'
        The Sergeant exclaimed with a roar.
        Sam said Tha' knocked it doon, Reet!
        then tha'll pick it oop, or it stays where it is, on't floor.'

  81. Here's a sad and uplifting story………..
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/my-husband-set-up-dream-life-canal-boat-died/?recomm_id=0a227bdd-1d42-4370-9746-2e90044564f3
    My husband and I set up our dream life on a canal boat. Then he died

    We combined our love of barging and music to set up the perfect business. This is how I carried on after loss.

    When I first sat down to play the piano onboard my canal boat, I cried. It had been silent for six months following the death of my husband Masayuki Tayama, or Masa as he was known.

    Masa was a professional concert pianist, who loved playing Rachmaninov most of all. We met in 2015 and got engaged a year later. I moved down from Orkney in Scotland, where I grew up, to be with him. Life was always very full and intense.

    4. I always knew there was a nought missing off the end of the Chief Medical Officer's recommendation of the number of units to be consumed!

  84. Popping orff soon, after a lovely face to face chat with number three in Dubai, in the 40c, too hot for us. He seems to be getting more of a grip on life. Not sure how long he will stay.
    I Cooked our roast ham, mixed sautéed veg herbs and olive oil, cheese sauce with herbs and mustard. Popeye didn't turn up. Probably too much vino.
    Goodnight all Nottlers till tomorrow, sleep well all 😴

  85. Moh and I have been busy , he was trimming bushes and some of the hedge by one of the gates .

    We noticed an ambulance up the road directly opposite to us ..

    Thought nothing of it really except it was still there a few hours later , and when we dashed into Dorchester at about 2.30pm , quick visit to buy some dog food , milk ,fruit etc from Tesco , and to fill up the car .. the ambulance was still there , as well as a police car .

    I went across the road and asked the police the obvious question about the distant neighbour .. and they didn't want to tell me .

    2 hours ago another police car arrived , and the ambulance left .. then a forensics wagon arrived ..

    No doubt we will hear more , but the middle aged single chap who lived there was a loner , and came and went , and had his own routine . We chatted and waved , and he gave me cooking apples and I shoved bars of nice chocolate through his letter box .. he loved chocolate..

    A few weeks ago he said he was recovering from a bad chest infection , but he said he still enjoyed his rollups.

    Apparently the forensic team are still searching his garden .

    1. All looks like a bit too much fuss for a bloke found dead at home, Belle. Must be more to it than that, although I hope not.

    2. Very odd, Maggie. Keep us nosy Nottlers informed. Haven't started digging up the patio have they?

    6. Found locked in a holdall, was he! You cant even imagine what some people get up to these days…

    6. Because Muslim countries already know that they're far, far, far, far, you get my gist, far more trouble than they're worth?

    9. It is not asylum they are seeking. It is domination. And, my goodness, we are making it super easy for them to achieve it.

    2. ….I'm going to remove all the rounds from your AK47 – if you get what I mean!"

  94. We're listening to a programme on Telly of Alfred Brendel playing……….. recommended as a follow on to the one on him we watched the other night. What a wonderful pianist………

  95. So little information given… can we fill in the blanks?
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/arrest-woman-fatally-assaulted-chadwell-heath-b1243330.html
    Three men arrested after woman in her 20s fatally assaulted in east London
    Police were called to Chadwell Heath just after 5.30am following reports of an assault

    Three men have been arrested after a woman was fatally assaulted in east London during the early hours of Saturday.
    A 35-year-old was arrested on suspicion of murder, alongside a 21-year-old and 22-year-old who were arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

    3. Early enquiries suggest this is an isolated incident and those involved are believed to be known to each other,

      Sorry folks, but this isn't an isolated incident, it happens regularly.

  96. Monday 18th August, 2025

    ashesthandust

    (aka Katy)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f15108925be65a9a2608d8e25edca14c950fe7218c958fddb1d38927a117d0b9.png
    We hope these words of Jack London are still as relevant as when we posted them on your last birthday!

    “I would rather be ashes than dust!
    I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
    I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
    The function of man is to live, not to exist.
    I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
    I shall use my time.”

    With very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    1. Happy Birthday Ashes! (But I thought you had one very much less than a year ago, 'cording to Rastus)

      1. Nobody may have noticed but I have been in England for the last week and I published upcoming birthdays before I left France in case I did not get back in time to post them on the right day.

      2. Thanks, Opoponax! No sense of time, me, so I can't guarantee I haven't been sneaking in extra birthdays. 😉 (Would explain the wrinkles… 🤣🤣) x

      1. Gracias, mi amiga. Ya comencé; arreglé una tanda después de medianoche ayer con un amigo bueno, bailé hasta las 4, y voy a bailar mucho hoy. Estoy contenta. 🙂

        Abrazo grandote x

    3. … and love and many Happy Returns from me, too!
      Hope it's the best birthday yet!

      1. Thank you!! Who knows what the day- or year – will bring? I like surprises. And am more fulfilled than I have ever been. 🙂 x

    6. Thank you both.

      That poem.will, I imagine, always resonate. it helped me make the leap of faith to my current life, and I would say I am enjoying glowing magnificently, except this is Nottl and I'd get inundated with recommendations for deodorant… 🤣🤣

  97. "Don’t cave to Putin, Europe urges Trump".. Well, I thought they would at least wait until morning. A wrecking delegation awaits. Years more killing ahead, Boris and chums will be pleased.

        1. Hmmmm, I'm guessing this has to be AI….. it's a real issue – every time I see or read something outrageous I have to double check that it might be AI, what a pain in the ass!

          1. Well were the dancing Plod at the Pakistani independence celebration fake? I don’t think so.

        2. Hmmmm, I'm guessing this has to be AI….. it's a real issue – every time I see or read something outrageous I have to double check that it might be AI, what a pain in the ass!

      2. 411430+ up ticks,

        Morning Mo,
        If so,
        lets not forget,
        People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men………..
        Sadly there will be collateral damage.

        We have dire need to have the “rough men”
        brigade fully employed on our behalf is my
        honest opinion.

    2. I have bought my flag; joined FSU; and have cleared my diary for September 13th. This is a peaceful demonstration; i am expecting agents provocateurs and dirty tricks from our national agencies.

      1. Take some flowers. It's harder to call peace-loving libertarians 'nazis' when they are carrying flowers.

  103. Well, chums, I am off to bed now, so I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all bright and early tomorrow morning.

    1. Does she plan to move, molamola? I had no idea. Can you give me any more details?

      1. This flat is going up for sale, so have been hunting. Fingers crossed I have managed, but shall not post until contract signed. Voy a disfrutar un barrio nuevo. 🙂

    2. Thank you, my fishy friend! Fingers crossed yes,; will spill when contract signed x

  105. Going to bed now , but I have just watched and listened to a wonderful programme about Frederick Delius .. so beautiful , His choral music is heavenly . BBC4

    Moh and dog are asleep on the sofa , thank goodness, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to view it .

    Delius was born in Bradford, his parents moved there from Germany , they were wealthy mercantile people.

    Where and how does one start to put together a beautiful piece of music .. to be inspired so fully has to be a gift sent down from above by God

    Have to go to bed , Moh will be up early to play golf .. Dog now wee'd and biscuited , so nightie night everyone , sleep well.

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