Monday 18 August: A Ukraine deal that rewards Putin will only invite future aggression

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

611 thoughts on “Monday 18 August: A Ukraine deal that rewards Putin will only invite future aggression”

  2. Good morning Geoff – and other NoTTLe chums. Managed a Birdie today after several days of Bogeys.

    Wordle 1,521 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,521 4/6

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

  3. Good morning Geoff and NoTTLer chums. Here is a trio of Monday Chuckles

    A man was walking through the woods when he came across a lamp. Hoping that there might be a genie inside the lamp, he picked it up and rubbed it, and, sure enough, out popped a genie who immediately granted him three wishes. “For my first wish,” said the man, “I’d like £5 million”. And POOF! Five million pounds appeared. “What is your second wish?” asked the genie. “I’d like a new Ferrari,” said the man. And POOF! A gleaming new Ferrari suddenly appeared. “And for your third wish?” inquired the genie. The man thought for a moment. “Well, I’ve got the money and the car, so I guess I’d like to be irresistible to women.” And POOF! He was turned into a box of chocolates.

    A man received a phone call at work from his wife asking him to pick up some organic vegetables on his way home for that night’s dinner. The husband arrived at the store and searched everywhere for organic vegetables. Eventually he had to ask a young member of staff where they were. “Organic vegetables?” said the store worker. “What do you mean by organic?” Exasperated, the husband explained: “These vegetables are for my wife. Have they been sprayed with poisonous chemicals?” “No, sir,” replied the store worker. “You will have to do that yourself.”

    A minister went to his local golf course in the hope of finding someone to play with. As luck would have it, there was a member in the professional’s shop looking for a game, so they were introduced and went to the first tee. The member asked: “What’s your handicap?” “I’m a twelve,” said the minister. “Me, too,” said the member. “Would you like to bet a pound a hole?” The minister agreed, and when they had finished their round, they retired to the clubhouse, where the minister solemnly handed over £18.  As he parted with his cash, the minister said: “Say, I’d like you to come along to the church some time.” The member replied: “Sure. I’d like that.” Then the minister added: “And bring your mother and father. I’d like to marry them.”

  6. A Ukraine deal that rewards Putin will only invite future aggression

    As I understand it, a deal has to be mutually beneficial to both parties, that is unless it is one that Labour have signed us up to.

  8. Good morning all.
    An overcast start to the day – are we going to get rain? None forecast but cloud expected to clear early afternoon and it's a tad above 17°C.

    Only spent one night in the Van, did a very enjoyable couple of walks but was so hot, sweaty and knackered yesterday when I got back to where I'd parked it, I opted just to head home.
    Still, as I said, an enjoyable couple of days.
    Some photos:-
    Seen en route to Crewe when I stopped for the cashpoint was a Moggie Thou van badged as an Austin:- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f645d77c40c2ad908e225282a55c09cf46d95fef3ba0bd8e90e5c7dcfe3d0318.jpg Parked my Van at Froghall Warf and did a walk to the Fox And Goose at Foxt where there was a music event on, so stopped a bit longer than I planned and had a third pint. Also took some photos of the 1st live set:- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/762266a34cf0e5ea06e42998f9b765280aeb26e657655e1d26090a0c0c8e69a7.jpg Very often the drummer is hidden by other band members so I made sure I got some of him; https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01c05b7b411a677a6862fec080118728936c70d18a2390ff4b7a648633b3ac34.jpg The lead singer is a local lass so I'll be passing the pictures on to the pub in return for a couple of pints! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/282cb92877109ef0a10b59b8d74bb22bb4a8f716632ec5be5411de725846dd0a.jpg And not forgetting the barmaids in the tent; https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/703670ba5e9027475c2d51fcb249184d4444f4847e3695e4e9ae2bd7fa321823.jpg Walked back to the Van via a slightly longer route through a bit of woodland https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/899eb3e80de3258e018ff845600ff99865d1b809925b633406e97a1f1b026223.jpg Which turned out to be a bit of a scramble in places https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf39791d2396d4a2b5af991bb27eb32c380b53eab868486f191a50c88f8e995a.jpg With lots of deer tracks on the muddy bits https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e474673aa1e4cf93fdea855d7803763d545e1b1a34a1a55757641d90aa540614.jpg And, because the in that woodland are more than a bit overgrown, the junctions not waymarked and more than a bit weathered https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/046eea54d3f683448afa630d4a8bf2210fe23b2019be89efdef2073b1237c07b.jpg I eventually came out where I didn't expect, which actually worked to my advantage as I was able to take photos of this as it came into the warfe and allowed it's passengers to get off. More later. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61afc76a92dc10b9fd0dd0b9a9ce5d8331ead5992632fabce58217b091af5f7d.jpg

      1. It was a bloody good walk for the most part, but the crossing and diverging paths towards the end were not easy to find.
        Froghall Warfe is the end of the Caldon Canal, but there is a lock down to the basin that apparently formed the top end of the Uttoxeter Canal https://www.cuct.org.uk/uttoxeter/history that was filled in and replaced when the railway was built.
        Here's a few more photos of the barge going into the lock and down into the basin. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95a7afe95b5897c1a4eab39a8d6d938a60bfa63dff797c06f3807cac8c488681.jpg
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/abc6887e27b6f741a616b5b094ae219787fc19084e1eaf19970ecfe4cb373f95.jpg Powered by a 1930s Gardner 2 cylinder which sounds lovely! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf652ac6dd432c5aa302e325ff9409931a3ef0327ad2149fc7faed626173e9c0.jpg And the happy customers disembarked https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8ae2a6fa941fd4a9abda46a1d24185f06998ab5fdebf31319754ea0a2e21e93.jpg
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a5287e67b04408c3a427feac7b9d5d46795724c48cf52ff32970496b97ecb345.jpg Allowing the boat to lock down and be moored up; https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/766e3a7e0b00f2200c19ac96888ae805b0dff9c58ae967013efedd0edbe33eda.jpg
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/160c64be0ace6291a17f7511d01caed27f487bd882ae5b3af2373b711806e57d.jpg
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57249c5e72a4c0f3b87d0f641f2dd1180d70e31d161f1be2a10070cfe7b1d699.jpg

    2. It was a frequent design fault problem with the Morris 1000 ("Moggie Thou") for the front wishbone suspension to fail when a pin broke making the wheel(s) collapse.

      It was a common sight, in my youth, to see a striken example of this model lying forlorn by the kerbside.

      1. That happened to my Morris Traveller – A kingpin snapped (for the lack of grease) . Fortunately the car was parked at the time. A doubly fortunately a couple of weeks earlier I had borrowed £15 to buy a 1957 Morris Minor (MOT failure due to floor pan rust) so the Traveller was cannibalised for spares and eventually towed away by a scrap dealer….

        Morning Grizz and all…

        I'm off shortly to fit a new alternator belt for the domestic battery bank….

      2. Yup. The pin should be greased regularly, frequently, and generously to prevent this. Otherwise, it dries & seizes.

  10. Good Moaning. (Cool and grey. Sorry, sunworshippers, but Temperate Zone Gal is happy.)

    Here we go again. Of course, despite 60+ years of independence and freedom, it's all our fault just because …….

    Hundreds of thousands of children ‘facing starvation’ as last Nigeria aid points set to close

    Here are a few pointers to the problem – again.

    The Islamist group Boko Haram

    With polygamy and child marriage commonplace, and fertility rates often exceeding an average of seven children per woman

    At the heart of the crisis is a persistent economic and social divide between Nigeria’s north and south.

    The split dates back more than a century, when British colonisers fused the predominantly Muslim north with the Christian south, two regions with deeply-rooted and contrasting religious and ethnic identities.

    The Christian south appears to be doing all right.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/hundreds-of-thousands-of-children-face-starvation-nigeria/

  11. SIR – Donald Trump will now be remembered as the Neville Chamberlain of our times.

    For all his strong words, when face-to-face with a murderous dictator he gave in and stabbed Ukraine in the back. I don’t think that “coward” is too strong a word to describe him. The Nobel Committee should make clear that giving in to aggressors and bullying democratic countries does not count as peacemaking.

    Phil Coutie
    Exeter, Devon

    Unless your name happens to be Obama.

    1. I lost confidence in Donald J Trump after that phone call to Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

      At the time, there was a bloody civil war raging in Syria, with numerous factions, mostly dishonourable and vicious, all fighting it out, pushing very civilians into destitution or exile. One of the worst was the self-styled 'Islamic State' – an extreme and merciless form of Sunni Islam – which had harvested a large amount of US-made artillery from fleeing Government forces in Iraq, and used them to conquer the Euphrates, including much of Eastern Syria. Assad failed to deal with them, and other places, such as Turkey and Israel, might well have been using them to further their own territorial aspirations. Only the Kurds, that had created a stable province around Erbil in Iraq in their bid for sovereign recognition, had the means and the motive to clear the Euphrates of Islamic State and set up a corridor linking Erbil with their Western outpost in Afrin without having to go through hostile Turkey.

      Key to this was the town of Kobani right in the middle of this corridor. Stationed there, under Obama, was a garrison about 70 American GIs, providing mostly moral support to the Kurds, who were doing the actual fighting, but crucially acting as dog-in-the-manger to Turkey, which wanted to prevent the Kurds setting up any corridor to Afrin, which they were campaigning to take off the Kurds. Turkey could not move into Kobani without attacking the Americans, leaving NATO with a serious problem. The Kurds themselves were exhausted fighting Islamic State and needed all the help they could get. They also had a large number of prisoners-of-war to guard, with limited resources.

      What Trump did in that phone call was to arrange with Erdogan to withdraw the American garrison from Kobane, giving Erdogan a green light to move his troops into Syria and attack the exhausted Kurds. Under fire, the Kurds were forced to release their prisoners, many of whom were distributed to Africa by the Israelis and into Europe via the asylum seeker route by Erdogan. The Kurds were then forced to sue for protection from Assad and the Russians. I do not know their relationship with the current regime in Damascus, but Kurds have long got used to living (and often dying) as a subordinate province in Iran, Iraq, Armenia and Turkey, and Syria is no different.

  12. Stuart
    1h
    Cry me a river…

    As seen in the Herald (Scotland)

    “Soaring demand for housing from homeless refugees could cost Glasgow City Council £66 million next year, according to new forecasts due to go before councillors this week. Susan Aitken, the leader of the SNP local authority has called on the Home Office to help.” The SNP who gave priority to “refugees” over their own homeless? The same SNP gov’t who are funded by the Barnett formula? The same SNP that claims yon English are stealing Scotland’s wealth? Oh the irony…

    1. I wish people would stop referring to them as refugees. The vast majority are not.

      The UN Global compact on migration is a WEF inspired plan to flood wealthy Western countries with migrants to impoverish them thus making them easier to control.

  13. SIR – In the early 1970s, I was living the life in London and learnt to make a style of spaghetti bolognese (Letters, August 16) from one of my flatmates. This involved beef mince, red or green pepper (as available), fried onion, some garlic (very glamorous) and tomato puree, although no actual tomatoes. To me, it was superbly continental.

    Prior to this, the dish, as served by my mother, had been the Vesta packet version. Having shown Mum how to make a “proper” bolognese, I was appalled to discover some time later that her version had come to include small diced potatoes. “But Dad and I like it that way,” she replied.
    If that’s how they liked it, who’s to say it was wrong?

    Alan Phillips
    Brighton, East Sussex

    Not a lot o' people know this, Alan, but there is no such thing as 'spaghetti bolognese' in Bologna where the bolognese sauce originated. This is a dish invented in the UK by those who thought they knew best. There may or may not be a 'proper' bolognese, but it never involves spaghetti.

    In Bologna they invariably enjoy their dish with the far superior forms of pasta, tagliatelle or linguine, never spaghetti. Try them, they are far better.

    1. Are you telling me, Grizzly, that I have been doing it wrong all of my life? (Good morning, btw.)

    2. It's quite possible that the only pasta available in the 70's was spaghetti.

      Also, I doubt there was any fresh pasta of any sort in the supermarkets.

          1. I remember the one with Gyles Brandreth standing at the base of Nelson's column explaining that the lions had to be sold to pay for the upkeep of the column and statue.

            I was briefly outraged and then felt very foolish.

        2. I remember watching the original broadcast of that!
          At the time the only spaghetti I knew about came in tins and was one of the 57 varieties of Heinz!!

    3. When I started cooking, it was called "Spagg Boww" – and tagliatelle wasn't available in 70s London as far as I recall, at least not to a student existing on a tiny grant.

    4. In Italy in the 70s I discovered that pasta with sauce was usually a starter, to be followed by a separate meat course.

      1. Indeed, and the simpler the sauce, the better. Like pasta with melted garlic butter… mmm!

          1. Drool!
            Eaten with a glass or two of good Italian red – I like Corvo Rosso, from Sicily, not easy to get.

        1. I liked the one about a Royal butler overhearing Prince Philip saying to the Queen at Meghan's wedding … 'Thank fuck that's over'.

  15. Morning All,
    Can someone put the photo on of Corbyn 'I was nearly Prime Minister' Yes dear, have a cup of tea?

    need to send it to a soschie friend of mine who keeps voting for him.

  17. A twist in the tale of the woke staff mutiny at The Bull in Oxfordshire that forced the Cotswolds pub to turn away JD Vance.

    JD & Trump were used to this kind of behaviour in the US, and would send his people in and offer to buy coffees all round and sit down for a chat & debate. And so a similar offer was passed on by the manager at The Bull.. but, of course, the Lefties refused..

    probably because they had forgotten all the slogans that Sir had taught them last term.

  18. A twist in the tale of the woke staff mutiny at The Bull in Oxfordshire that forced the Cotswolds pub to turn away JD Vance.

    JD & Trump were used to this kind of behaviour in the US, and would send his people in and offer to buy coffees all round and sit down for a chat & debate. And so a similar offer was passed on by the manager at The Bull.. but, of course, the Lefties refused..

    probably because they had forgotten all the slogans that Sir had taught them last term.

    1. Everyone is very pissed off with the road closures etc. I now avoid the Cotswolds as much as possible as it is infested with satanic slebs these days, signs to dens of iniquity etc which annoy me (I am only half joking!).
      This could be the background to the staff rebellion, not all wokeness.

  19. Morning All 🙂😊
    Grey today still no rain forecast. 17c might get up to low 20s. Younger Grand children here later, both parents have to spend time in head offices in that lundun.
    Deal not even confirmed and already some of them are blaming Vlad for future problems.

  21. Reposted from late last night)

    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

        3. I think of that every time I dance with a blind man, which actually happens from time to time. 😎

    4. 'My candle burns at both ends;
      It may not last the night;
      But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
      It gives a lovely light!'

      (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

      Noel Coward's Mrs Wentworth Brewster discovered – in the nick of time – that life was was for living as did many of us Nottlers such as Katy!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0kasR5d8gg

      2. That actually made me laugh, as I got to bed at fiveish, only to be woken by a call from my aunt at seven… 🤪 Great sentiment! 🙂🙂

    8. Grattis på födelsedagen with many hugs from Sweden, Katy. Hope your birthday is a belter with lots of barbecued beef and copious amounts of Fernet-Branca, Hesperidina and Amargo Obrero! 😘🍸👍🏻🎂🎼🍾🎉xxxx

      1. Thank you, dear G! Recipe for a great day (if a slightly musty next morning 🤣) there. I shall take your recommendations and add a hefty dose of tango and a spot of daubing, I think. Hugs back x

    2. Is that real or a joke? I looked it up recently and it wasn't as thick as that. But who knows the reliabiltiy of any such data?

    1. And we remind all pupils, particularly the girls and those purporting to be girls, that it is a very bad idea to go anywhere near the young males who will be sniffing around the school gates.

    2. The amazing thing to me is that these people think their beliefs are held by a majority of the population.

    4. Dear Council. Are you aware of the definition of democracy? Please stop pandering to minorities and focus your attention on those of us who live, work and contribute locally. Signed Disgusted of North Somerset.

  30. The new, "we'll let you speculate," expression for describing an incident.

    Westminster Bridge closed as police rush to deal with 'incident' – sparking early morning commuter chaos

    The Met Police said the bridge was shut due to a mental health incident, but declined to comment further. There have been no injuries.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15009749/Westminster-Bridge-closed-police-rush-deal-incident-sparking-early-morning-commuter-chaos.html

    1. Why don’t we get any non-mental health-related incidents? Why do we have to import all the nutcases?

      1. Ah – they are NOT nutcases. The words "mental health related" are used to describe murderous slammers because NO ONE must ever say anything that might upset them.

  31. From Steve Kirsch's substack, who knew…

    "Brain eating amoebas (Naegleria fowleri) sound like they are science fiction, but they are real. They’ve killed over 150 people in the US in the last 60 years so the risks are absurdly low, but they aren’t zero.

    Here are the ways you can minimize this happening to you:

    1. Never swim in warm natural water (over 77 degrees) that hasn’t been tested.

    2. NEVER get untreated water up your nose. Use nose clips, avoid forceful underwater activities, etc. By far the best solution. Swallowing the amoeba is safe, but getting it up your nose is a big no-no.

    3. Swimming pools are chlorinated so are generally safe from Naegleria fowleri. The organism simply cannot survive at recommended disinfectant levels.

    4. NEVER do a nasal rinse with tap water. NEVER."

    https://kirschsubstack.com/p/12-year-old-dies-from-a-brain-eating?publication_id=548354

    1. Perhaps that's what happened to Abi, the freelance journalist who wants a 100% inheritance tax? {see above, depending on how you sorted the page!]

  32. Good morning, all. Remaining overcast after earlier rain.

    Is this for real? Grand theft UK.

    …imagine if we could use that money for the greater good

    Who, may I ask, would be empowered to piss all the revenue up the nearest wall? Uni-party governments spending the people's money for the greater good: it's never going to happen. Naïve doesn't cover this idea.

    https://x.com/seamus_coughlin/status/1957109187827138761

    1. Dontcha love a bit of virtue signalling on a Monday morning? No! It makes me ill!

    2. Dontcha love a bit of virtue signalling on a Monday morning? No! It makes me ill!

    3. And when there is absolutely nothing left to tax, but still a huge welfare client state?

      That would probably be accomplished in well under a generation, 25 years.

    4. Presumably Ms Wilkinson has arranged her finances so that she pays the maximum taxes, and further will donate as much as she can to charitable organisations. After she's purchased her very own hair shirt, working in a soup kitchen. Always easy to tell others what to do, how to spend their own money. Socialism in action.

      1. The 'greater good' to a vacuous, vacuum-brained, refuse, detritus, Pinko bitch is probably nothing that those of use with a working mind can comprehend.

    7. I thought this was a spoof but, unfortunately, it's all too real, published by The Guardian (24/07/2017).

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/24/utopian-thinking-fund-welfare-state-inheritance-tax

      In essence, she writes that the greater good trumps the wishes of the individual, especially as the deceased is no longer able to object to – or have cognisance of – their wishes being usurped. She said that other taxes are more iniquitous and that those who inherit have done little to deserve their benefaction, whereas others, perhaps more deserving, receive nothing because they are not connected in any way to those with wealth. She doesn't examine, however, the perverse outcomes of such a punitive tax. Those able to plan for their demise will try to gift much of their wealth during their lifetimes, perhaps in the expectation that the beneficiaries will care for them once the wealth has been disbursed. However, we know of cases where the beneficiaries are by no means thankful and gracious, leaving their benefactors in dire straits, let alone instances of those who die suddenly, without having planned for their demise. This will leave some without any inheritance will others, connected to the similarly wealthy, will be major beneficiaries if gifted by the wealthy during their lifetimes.

    4. Given the people like Katie Hopkins have their shows cancelled for the council 'not being able to guarantee safety'. I would have thought that two murders and plenty of criminality shoud get the drug fest banned forever.

    3. The clip was spoiled by the unnecessary (and unnecessarily coarse) accompaniment. It's just one more example of a pointless desire for 'mood' music, as if the visual content with natural sounds and voices is unable to convey it.

  37. Reading the papers today is absolutely hilarious. No commentator can decide who they hate most, Trump or Putin. They all want the war to continue so they don't have to give credit to either man for bringing peace.

    1. I'm sick of all the idiot comments. Kudos to Trump for opening a discussion – that's more advancement than there has been for a long time.
      More kudos if he & Putin can land an agreement to stop killing people.
      Fcuk all the others, who want the fighting to continue forever.

      1. What Oberst said.

        End the war. Stop killing people. Hell, those ordering it are never the ones at risk.

    2. They also want the war to continue for other, darker, reasons. It seems that Ukraine is crucial to WEF plans.

          4. Sorry. I have to disagree with you there. Seeds can cause blockages in the smaller organs. Bile duct…Appendix
            I know from my own experience they can come embedded.

          6. Remove dentures before eating.

            I have teeth (as does the MR) and neither of us suffer from what you describe.

          8. I never had problems with tomato seeds. Raspberry seeds, however, were always a nightmare.

    2. Which ones are sweet/fiery…guessing..one on the right is the peppery version…(they all look superb, no insect marks/dead skin areas)..

        1. Happens every year. Probably to keep the prices high.

          What is worse is some of the canneries buy in tomatoes from China.

      2. It doesn't care. The more people complain, the more it kicks back and the more invading dindu gimmigrants are brought in.

  42. We had a few hours window with a really big customer of ours. Their maintenance window was midnight to 6am and they wanted to do a latest -1 firmware update to a set block of switches.

    Now, we're not idiots : we did this properly when we installed the network. Multiple routes or each server, four core monster aggregation switches, each proper server multihomed (2 port network cards) and redundancy built in. The only non-redundant group block are the desktop users and that kit is basically disposable.

    Thus when we updated one core switch traffic kept flowing without issue, their website obviously saw some spikes as traffic was routed about but overall, we were rather pleased with our work, especially as it was 2am and our planning and effort had paid off.

    All told, we got half the site upgraded and shifted the 5 technical contacts in the departments over to 'the new' side who'll use it and report on oddities for a month when we'll update the other half of the site. With about 500 people affected if there's an outage, let alone the lost revenue from ecommerce; the customer isn't buggering about.

    In the end, we hoofed off home at about 4am with the automated and physical tests all green. A week of planning paid off and, bluntly, our wages paid.

    I won't pretend he's an easy chap (the customer) to work with having an explosive temper and we've walked off site more than once due to it, but he knows his stuff, as do we and we've reached a decent détente. Mostly because I don't hide what we're doing or that we're stuck so the customer is never left with 'a product' but the full technical docs (he's used to having to figure it out again and realise the installers were berks).

    Next is the desktop access switch upgrades – there's 10 48 port devices – and a month after that the wireless network. There's consideration to update them as well as 'brand new!' (year old) kit has passed validation.

    There are things we want more visibility of in our equipment choices and are talking to the kit people about that but overall a good 'day'.

    As the dogs were walked at 6 and fed at 8 (I am being fastidious to do everything possible to help Oscar's tummy). The vet suggested walking, then waiting, then feeding as that makes them dopey and sluggish until we get to about 6pm when we'll go for a longer walk, usually down to the river and they'll play in that, then home and food by 8 and then sleep it off until morning.

    I am rambling because been up since 11 so off to nap.

    2. 8 rounds and he didn't kill the swine?

      If we'd had that accuracy we'd have been shouted at.

        1. Nice. I have three plants too. Some of the tomatoes have gone a bit mushy on the end. Do you know what i am doing wrong?

          1. Where to start…..

            On tomatoes, The books will helpfully tell you that it is either because of over-watering OR under-watering. Could be too much heat; not enough air (if grown in greenhouse).

            As gardeners say – “There is always something…”

    2. My grandfather had allotments, with a couple of greenhouses where he grew grapes, tomatoes. His method was ‘kill all insects’. Okaaay, grandad….

    3. We had a large variety this year including some of those, but the best ones for taste are the Cherry toms
      grown out side, still going strong.

      1. A slammer was prosecuted in Tower Hamlets for stuffing ballot boxes. Two years later he's on the Council.
        He should have been banned for life.

        1. Should have been flogged. They're bringing their corruption and foulness here, we should deal with them in a more rational justice system.

        2. Think that's been happening quite a while, Lutfur Rahman et al..well known inhabitants vote on behalf of wives/relatives. Democracy deadder than dead dead mcdead.

  46. Hammersmith Hospital have a bed for me. I’m to be admitted between 2-3 pm this afternoon. Heart valve surgery tomorrow. Will be back here in a few days, God and hospital WiFi permitting.

    4. God be with you, Sue! Will remember you in prayers – everything will be fine and we'll be reading your positive update in a few days.

    10. Best of luck Sue. Don't forget to let us know if you want visitors while convalescing.

      I will double up on visiting you then Claridges. :@)

    11. Game changer, home in no time – follow your orders! All the very best, will be thinking of you (and looking out for updates/posts) Kate xxx

    15. Good stuff, Sue! Wishing you all the best and sending love and good wishes! Thinking of you!💕💐

      2. 'eyup lass…birthday or so I hear…lots of love and kisses, and many more birfdays….xxx

  47. That's a couple of hours weed pulling up by the new steps.
    A burdock actually on the steps, a couple of cow parsley type plants with roots that give credence to the Mandrake potting class in Harry Potter, and an already cleared patch where brambles and ground elder still keep popping up.
    Aforesaid cleared area also expanded by a 10" by 15' strip.

    Next task? Stripping my bedding out of the Van and getting it washed.

        1. You'd have to buy your own tea plantation to keep him in the manner to which he is accustomed.

    2. I got out of bed. That's about as productive as I can be.

      No, scrub that. Going back to bed is probably far more productive.

      1. A corona discharge unit was among the orchestra of machinery that I once conducted.

      2. We had Dickman's of Newbiggin, Waters & Robson in Morpeth, actually still going by the way and Middlemas & Son of Kelso when I lived in Wooler.

  48. Culinary note. I talked to Cook over lunch. Passata = the tomatoes have been put through a mouli. Tomata – they are just roughly chopped.

    That's it.

    2. He really is an obnoxious little git – and as for "open and robust debate" it appears that is only available when people don't disagree!

      1. Saddiq Khan would be best used as mine clearance or firing squad test subject, noose tester.. something suitable to an odious, disgusting muslim rodent. .

    3. He doesn't care. He doesn't have to. Half the population of London are diversity welfare. He has a job for life. This is why he, and all his ilk must be expelled.

      1. A country in which a nasty little man like this can rise to the position of Mayor of London is surely a country that is well on its way to oblivion.

        1. One where a woman with no experience, no academic ability and who has lived on benefits and corruption her entire life is deputy PM.

          A thoroughly corrupt bunch of liars, thieves and fools infest our political establishment. We are governed not by able, dedicated patriots but by the utter dregs of society.

      2. Funnily enough two of countries which are red on the map, France and Turkey, are lay states and there were strict rules on what religious clothes and icons you were allowed to wear and display at the workplace if you were employed in the public sector.

    7. Come on BB2! What is it? Don't hold usin suspense?

      Unless it's a map of how many people understood what the map was about…

      1. OK – it is a map of the % of the population who suffer from chronic constipation without any known cause.

        The bowel-obsessed Germans score far better than their Gallic neighbours (I am just reading "The Sioux" by Irene Handl), BUT….
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04e76efccbb0f78e977419e0d8b7971a4ff539e38c2a0986c0751ae985107163.png
        So at the end of the day, the chronically constipated French seem to do better.

        PS That reference from an AI is the American Central Intelligence Agency – yes, they keep a website on life expectancy in different countries around the world – well that's not at all creepy is it…

  51. Seaside Council Offers Asylum Seekers Discounts on Beach Hut Hire

    Asylum seekers in Portsmouth are being offered 40% off beach hut hires. Might was well walk with towels and beach bags straight off the small boats…

    After Guido’s asylum freebiegate series, CCHQ went full tilt with an attack ad highlighting perks for Channel migrants housed in asylum hotels. Now, ConHome reports an internal row among Tory MPs over the ad, with some pointing out that asylum freebies were handed out under a Tory government. Reform jumped on the advert in that vein…

    In Portsmouth Council, asylum seekers are given free ‘Portsmouth Leisure Cards’ that offer them the following discounts:

    40% off beach hut hire for two weeks a year
    40% off paddleboarding, sailing and kayaking
    50% off swimming and gym lessons
    50% off table tennis and climbing
    40% off learning about D-Day
    Discounts on tickets to the cinema
    10% off Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

    People on benefits are also offered the same discounts. Meanwhile the council has complained last week to the Home Office that it can’t take “any more” migrants, after hundreds were quietly housed in the council without their knowledge. Stop the huts?

    August 18 2025 @ 11:16

    philip
    2h
    Just 26 miles of water separates them from a life of penniless vagrancy and a 4 star luxury existence where everything is given for free, is it any wonder they come in their droves.

    Foulan
    2h
    Shouldn't the taxpayers be the ones getting discounts?
    After all. they are ones who work hard and (involuntarily) pay for this socialist largesse?

    1. John Noon
      just now
      The news that injured children in Gaza will be airlifted to hospitals in the uk seems at first glance to be responsible.

      Until you are informed that relatives coming with them can apply for refugee status.

      Is this the back door for Palestinians to be allowed in, usual entitlement to bring extended families.

      Where is Saudi Arabia Egypt and other neighbouring countries, with excellent facilities in all this.

      The health services are under constant pressure as it is.

      (I won't be receiving the results of my MRI for 8 weeks .. I had the procedure on August the 6th )

      1. I've read Palestinians would go to Israel for health care esp operations, facilities much better than Palestinian ones. King Abdullah likely to say Jordan done their share already.

    2. FFS they did not come here on holiday! Many people born in Britain whose taxes pay for these subsidies can't afford any of these things.
      This is the most rampant, blind, left-wing racism, assuming that migrants are just brown-skinnned versions of middle class Britons with the same culture and aspirations.

      1. Giving people stiff for nothing is anathema to them as well. They cannot value things if they are not made to pay for them in some way. They think we are weak (which out government is) and that encourages them to misbehave. The whole thing is an unmitigated disaster

    1. It would be useful to know the demographics and reasons why.

      A chum plodder was suspended for using 'excessive force' while apprehending a suspect. The standards people deemed that his restraint was overly harsh.

      They ignored that the suspect was high on heroin, had a rock in his hand and 30 prior arrests for theft, assault, assault, assault, rape… you name it.

      He left the police force soon after. 20 years, a good officer chucked it in. He now does freelance social and network penetration work. He hires a lot of the Warqueen's ex glamour model chums to do social engineering. I blame Sneakers, personally.

  54. EXC: IDS Writes to Nandy Calling for ‘Urgent Action’ Over Alleged ‘China Links’ in Telegraph Takeover

    Sir Iain Duncan Smith has written again to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, demanding she issues a Foreign State Intervention Notice over RedBird’s attempted takeover of The Telegraph. He flags reported links between RedBird’s chairman, John Thornton, and the Chinese state. Last week, nine human rights and freedom of expression groups also called on Nandy to halt the deal and investigate RedBird’s China connections…

    The former Tory leader goes on to claim RedBird may have already breached the 2024 Public Interest Merger Order, designed to prevent major management shake-ups or the removal of key staff before approval. He points to The Telegraph’s editorial budget being cut by £5.3 million two weeks ago…

    A spokesperson for RedBird said: “There is no Chinese involvement or influence in RedBird Capital’s proposed acquisition of the Telegraph.” Read the letter in full below:

  55. I've just come across a couple of one-liners that seem relevant these days:
    Integrity is like oxygen. The higher you go, the less there is of it. PAUL DICKSON
    Any organisation is like a septic tank. The really big chunks rise to the top. JOHN IMHOFF

  56. I've just come across a couple of one-liners that seem relevant these days:
    Integrity is like oxygen. The higher you go, the less there is of it. PAUL DICKSON
    Any organisation is like a septic tank. The really big chunks rise to the top. JOHN IMHOFF

    1. And another:

      Life is like a toilet roll, the closer it gets to the end the faster it goes.

    1. Nah, this is nonsense. Firstly, a standing army is pointless in a foreign country.

      Second, these come from country's which are so disorganised you can't create such anyway.

      3. They haven't the technical fire support or armour to support such.

      4. They're not going to be able to store weapons in sufficient quantity.

      More likely, as theses vermin have always done, they'll form terror cells, 8-12 at a time, individually armed and supplied. The security services would have no way of knowing where the next attack would come from. A small group carrying weapons can do incredible civilian damage – see muslim atrocity everywhere – with impunity and there's nothing the state can, or will; do.

      This is why the alien must be kept out.

      1. 411459+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        Tad late in the day
        for the "keep them out" advice, and the invaders could very well be trained up in the use of arms.
        I don't believe the endgame will be left to these posing as a government, far from it.

        1. Firing a gun is simple. Taking a life with it is much harder.

          Government is the reason for most of our ills. The country's problems are not difficult to solve, they just involve the state being put through a blender, countless laws repealed and markets being left alone to operate freely.

          The state simply doesn't want to allow that though.

          1. 411459+Up ticks,

            W,

            The “state ” is working successfully to an anti British agenda.
            The indigenous must admit we are at war with the “governing body” and have taken serious hits in the killing & maiming departments.

          2. Taking a life with arms is a lot less harder if you think you're doing it to further your cause. Don't apply Western (basically Christian) values to the enemy. They are neither.

      2. Similar used to be said about IRA training camps, NW England. I never saw any footage, far as I remember.

      4. I doubt it's a standing army, more a battalion or so of sleepers waiting for the call (to jihad). As for where to store the weapons – mosques are no-go areas. Plenty of room there. Armour – probably not, but this will be a guerilla war, a civil war, so house to house, street to street.

    1. I sure do. When the muslims try to take over the parks, we should do the same. In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti.

    1. Another consequence of the government's tax grab; racing will be going on strike for the first time ever on September 10th. Enough's enough. That's about £200k lost.

  60. 411459+ up ticks,

    The Reform party with such a mixed pedigree that when it wins the next General Election little if any will change in suffering terms, as to what we have today.

    In short we do need a standby, back up, safety net party, for when treachery strikes AGAIN.

    Tory peer could defect to Reform over ‘woeful’ migration failings
    Lord Jackson of Peterborough says Conservative Party appears unable to offer ‘compelling and attractive alternative’ to Labour

      1. The deaths of any British people who die on the waiting lists, having been bumped by Gazans, will be blamed on the IDF and Israel, with banner headlines on the lines of:

        "IDF killed seven British pensioners in wilful atrocity."
        "Israeli actions slaughter British children"

    3. The policy doesn’t seem to have much support – perhaps these kids should be housed in Labour Ministers' houses; said Ministers would also be responsible for all the costs incurred during their stay?

    4. Just as with the visa scheme opening up to accept Nigerian poets this is just another ruse to flood this country with worthless shit.

    6. I daresay that many of the children will be burdens on the NHS for many years having sustained mental and physical damage. The availability of social and disability benefits will keep the families thanking their god, of course.

    7. May? There's no "may" about it, they will. Nobody connected with them will have paid a penny, either. Enough is enough. I'm fed up with being taken for a ride. I'm also about to raise the St George's flag in my garden. I'm fed up with oikophobia as well.

  63. ‘Breaking the Law’ Exclusive: President Trump Warns Rampant Judge-Shopping Is the Left’s ‘Final Weapon’ That Could ‘Take Down America’

    Alexander Marlow
    17 Aug 20251,646
    5:30

    In a piece published yesterday, I documented how anti-Trump activist Judge James Boasberg was assigned a series of “Trump cases” in the early weeks of the second Trump administration. He then blocked and stalled part of the president’s first wave agenda.

    So, how did one left-wing judge get assigned so many sensitive cases? Part of the answer is the legal tactic known as “judge-shopping,” which was patented by lawfare general and activist attorney Marc Elias.

    In an exclusive interview I conducted as part of my research for Breaking the Law, President Trump has called out the practice and warned that “judge-shopping is rampant at levels never seen before. You know the outcome of a case as soon as the judge is picked.”

    “And the radical left is using this, their final weapon, to take down America,” the president told me.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1acaf173daccfdc088cdcfb974ef141cab9c0740ca1a77881304d1e945801091.png
    Judge-shopping is a straightforward idea: A politically interested party will bring a case to a court with mostly favorable judges to make it likely they get their desired outcome. For example, some courts have only one judge, so it can be easy to anticipate how a judge will rule if you bring the case to that judge’s court. Other powerful courts, such as the D.C. District Court, is composed of mostly of judges who appear to be ideologically on the left. The venue rules for federal cases (28 U.S.C. § 1391) make it so that virtually every case brought against the federal government can be filed in that court since it is often where the defendant resides or where the relevant events occurred.

    Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer credits Marc Elias, a high priest of lawfare if there ever was one, with popularizing the venue-shopping tactic. According to Schweizer, Elias was able to swing the highly contested 2008 Minnesota senate race for Democrat Al Franken over Republican Norm Coleman by finding a specific court to legitimize over a thousand ballots that had previously been rejected because they had potentially been cast by convicted felons.

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2025/08/GettyImages-521291704.jpg
    Marc E. Elias of Perkins Coie LLP poses for a portrait in front of a projected map of the United States on April 11, 2016, in Washington, DC. (Matt McClain/ The Washington Post via Getty Images)

    The recount and trial lasted six months, the longest re-count in American history; and in the end, the former Saturday Night Live actor won a narrow victory. According to Schweizer, Elias engineered this feat by venue-shopping for a favorable court. A subsequent study suggested that many felons did in fact illegally vote in the race, which may well have tipped the election to Franken. That race gave the Democrats a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate, which allowed then-President Obama to pass enormous pieces of legislation such as Obamacare.

    Though many courts assign cases to judges at random, some courts are small and more predictable. Others are stacked with judges with similar judicial philosophies, so a smart lawyer keen on venue-shopping can hope to match a simpatico judge to his case. Attorneys will also file similar or identical claims in multiple jurisdictions. For example, when Trump tried to end birthright citizenship, four judges blocked him. Judges in Boston, New Hampshire, Seattle, and Maryland—all deep-blue areas—issued injunctions.

    Attorneys also file cases at times when they believe that a specific judge is most likely to get assigned the case. This appears to have happened in the Alien Enemies Act case. Boasberg was the judge who “happened to be available” first thing Saturday morning to take the case, despite the fact that he was “away” that weekend. A charitable view of the court transcripts indicate that Boasberg was tipped off that the case was coming. A more cynical take: He may be part of a grand conspiracy to rig cases.

    All of this is manipulative, against the spirt of judicial impartiality, and highly effective.
    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2025/08/GettyImages-1248222941.jpg
    James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, on March 13, 2023. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    The left has used Elias’s tactic to great effect, politicizing the courts and ensuring there is no equal justice under the law for political conservatives.

    It is imperative we move to end judge and forum-shopping immediately. The damage a politicized judge can do goes beyond injunctions and TROs. These judges decide the rules of the court, who and what goes in and out, what decisions juries can and can’t make, etc. As was the case in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, the jury instructions and other peculiarities of a particular judge’s courtroom can determine the outcome of the case.
    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2025/08/AP24074570351588.jpg
    Judge Juan Merchan poses for a picture in his chambers in New York City on March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

    What replaces judge shopping will need serious thought and deliberation. This could be a complicated web to untangle, and I offer some ideas in Breaking the Law.

    Yet, if we want to restore equal protection under the law for American citizens, that deliberation has to begin now.

    This article was adapted from portions of Breaking the Law.

        1. There was one in the news today. A knife wielding drug dealer given leave to stay by a judge who is also on a charity to settle migrants. The bitch should have recused herself.

  64. Well, that was very agreeable. A two mile walk on a mild afternoon among newly harvested cornfields. Some with those amazing "cotton reel" bales – standing so silently and stretching into the distance.

    Very bucolic.

    2. Over here, they are called "tractor eggs", Bill. No manual handling, they are too heavy.

  65. Here's yet another ageist hate dig by our useless political classes. Now All drivers over the age of 52, will now have to provide written evidence of health checks. Positively another invented and nasty anti social pway to treat and place unessesary restrictions on older people. Meanwhile the roads are filled with drivers who have never taken a test in the UK and probably many who don't even have a driving licence at all. And obviously no insurance.
    I don't have a link, but i'ts in the news.

          1. Only a week ago I sent in my application for my licence renewal and the questions are extensive.
            And there is a small narrow box at the bottom of the page which the applicant must sign their name in with nothing but black ink. Obviously the signature should resemble the applicant’s but unless you are use to signing in a very small area it requires some practice. Hopefully my new replacement will be returned soon. 🤞

      1. This is just another of those totally artificial burdens that the government is dumping on us, so that when they unveil the digital ID, we are supposed to heave a sigh of relief and cry, "What a wonderful invention, it will make our lives so much easier!"

        It will have a space for health records as well as a digital driving licence. They're trying to create demand for something that's completely unnecessary.

          1. Call it out as ludicrous and laughable on the internet with memes etc.
            Not get the certificates if people are feeling bold, but then how much worse will it be if we don’t stand up to it? The next thing will be digital certificates and no driving if you aren’t vaxxed.
            It’s very sinister that they are trying to label 52 year olds as having one foot in the grave. Perhaps that is just a ploy and the real goal is health certificates for all drivers over 65? 52 year olds are still working after all.

    4. I can't believe that. There aren't enough doctors to provide everyday care. How will they find time to carry out health checks on hundreds of thousands of motorists?

          5. Animals don't count. They don't even realise that if you treat your animals well, they give you better service. Mind you, I know plenty of managers who don't treat their lower ranks well and don't realise that, either!

          6. Parts of Africa and SE Asia where human lives are cheap, animals don't even appear on the compassion scale.

    5. I didn't make a mistake with my comment above, I've just checked it again and they have changed the age from 52 to 62 now. Probably originally written by a 12 year old civil servant.

    6. Well it’s not as if the average GP has anything better to do. Or are we supposed to pay for this piece of paper?

      1. Of course you will. If you wish, having turned 70, to retain your C1.D1 entitlement you need a medical, cost £70 – kerching!

  66. Wordle No. 1,521 3/6

    🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 18 Aug 2025

    A matter for Birdie Three?

    1. Well done #metoo – after my first two regular starter words it was pretty much a shoo-in!

      Wordle 1,521 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Well done.

        Wordle 1,521 4/6

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

    3. Well done, same here.

      Wordle 1,521 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
      🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  68. Back from my trip to Glawster……… 20 minutes of torture with the dental hygienist, xrays with the dentist, a look round Tesco (bought some beans) changed the bag of Waitrose Easy Cook white rice Husband bought in error……… they were ok with that and I found some Essential brown rice………. picked up a few windfall apples………. drove home.

    1. Post the dentist, I'm also due a clean and check up, it sounds like you were foraging rather than shopping.

      1. Well it's a mile or so walk from where I park the car – pleasant enough on a nice day though it was windy today. On the way back I just happened to notice the windfalls – looked like Bramleys and OH does like his apple sauce.

        1. Well done, we will need to do some apple preserving soon, they are huge and plentiful this year.

          2. These were not particularly large but looked ok. The biggest one had a bit of a bruise but most was ok. If I hadn't left the bag in the car I could have picked up a few more.

          3. Picked four pounds of windfalls just now. A lot of apples – some looking as though they will be large when the picking starts. Last year was 5 October – earlier, I suspect this year.

          5. Preserve them by turning them to juice, fermenting it, and bottling the result! Lovely, so it is!

          6. The MR stews them to have with her breakfast porridge. The compote freezes well. She was still using last years apples until June this year.

            I make (a rather good!) chutney.

    3. Exciting day then Ndovu…almost as exciting as mine. Dog ran off but only briefly, came back more or less straight away. That's it. 😂😂

  69. Here's a new one starmer getting off a plane in Washington shown on tv 5 News. The commentator was heard to have said. He's arrived to make sure the Ukraine get a fair deal.
    He's totally out of his depth. The British public don't even get a fair deal. But it seems that he wants to make sure that everyone except the British public does.

    1. Starmer has no chance against Trump. Trump's a business man who deals in the real world and he surrounds himself with like-minded people. Starmer, on the other hand, …

      1. New photo of the useless turd at the end of the table in Washington.
        Trump’s shoved him out of the way.

      1. It could be but not if you're driving past. Depending on the weapon there's a green patch which could be suitable.

    5. Lindsey Green, the leader of the Conservative group on Stroud District Council: ‘I do take umbrage with anyone who flouts our planning rules’ .

      Yes dear. Try complaining strapped to a tree and have a gag shoved in your throat while multiple muslim men rape you then cut off your breasts.

  71. Prevening, all. Back home now and the internet seems to be behaving. I went on a shopping trip with the dogs (it's only money!) this morning, then visited the vampire lady at the hospital (she wasn't as painless as usual!) then I took the dogs to my friend's house (I'd been lent the key) so I could use secure and reliable internet to do my online banking. I've only just got back. Tomorrow I'm off to visit David Loughnane's stables, about half an hour away, to have a look round (and ignore all urgings to buy a share in yet another horse!) followed by an appointment at the opticians. It's all go!

    I suppose rewarding the EU and NATO for their interference which caused the war in the first place would be fine with the wokerati.

    1. I thought you'd resisted succumbing to online banking, and still went in person and wrote cheques…………
      Sounds like a good day anyway.

      1. I have and I do, but I have one online account (First Direct) – it's a long story, but when I was raising money for the Bob Champion Cancer Trust I opened an online account – it helped that they gave a financial incentive to open an account, which I donated to the cause – to keep the monies I raised separate from my own. When the fund-raising was over, I had an account that had served its purpose, but I kept it on for my money. That's why. With various bank closures, I now use the savings account for my money (and the associated current account is how I access it). From choice I would NEVER have an internet account! Every good turn, as they say.

        1. I've just kept the same account I've had for many years………. since 1987 I think. My previous account I made a joint one – bad move! (with the ex)……… So I needed an account in my name again. We do have a joint account for the bills and shopping but we've each got our own accounts as well.
          I don't think it was online when I started the account but it went that way.

          1. I've had First Direct for a very long time (think it was initially HSBC), never had a problem with it. Check in most days to see what's gone/going through a/c.

          2. Just a tip. Any account you use to buy anything online like Amazon or even Charities it is best to have a separate card which you top up as needed.

          4. I find Amazon to be very good if one has a problem but my point is to have a separate account for purchases.

    2. Met a Rhodesian Ridgeback bitch today, at the pub, in the sun and warm, on her period.
      What a beautiful animal! Warned that she was a bit fractious, I was dead impressed (and this from a cat person). Smooth short hair, decent size, intelligent and good-looking. What's not to like?

    1. She's part of the resistance! LOL yeah right.. protesting on behalf of Goldman Sachs. LOL

      1. I really have no idea where all this hatred comes form. It can only be from an outside source.

        1. I don't know personally, but I think there must be a good amount online…facebook, X….etc

        2. Much as we try to adapt, most of us are still living in the rational world in our heads, where you can have a conversation with someone holding another point of view.
          That pair thought there was no need to justify their opinions, and the way to win an argument is to point out that I’m a woman and you’re a man. That rigid mindset is what sends people to concentration camps.

          1. He was questioning yes. ?

            i have to watch again.

            Oh. I see. Sort of.

            I do wonder what people like that young lady will happen in the end game.

            Anyone want to give me a history lesson?

          2. I don’t know, their beliefs are so kooky I think they will go to their graves believing in them. Well, plenty of people have lived and died believing that Lenin and Stalin and Mao were heroes.

      2. The younger woman was a nasty, bitter Lefty who knew she had no argument and was just desperate to abuse.

        The older bint was just a nasty bigot.

        Lefties. Pathetic, stupid, ignorant, weak, arrogant, cowardly and vicious. The worst of humanity.

    3. In a free country you should be able to deny the holocaust. You could say it was all made up if you wanted.

      That's the point of freedom: to say things people will disagree with. Yet… the freedom to is paralleled by the freedom from.Specifically to be able to reject the person making the silly statement against the facts.

      Note that many things that have no basis in fact the state now wants to criminalise speaking out against.

  74. That's me for this pleasant day. No sunshine but mild and not much breeze. Delightful walk with my best girl by my side. G & P remain asleep – they started at 9.30….. I DO envy cats' ability jus to sleep for hours on end. If only…{:¬((

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain (a bit later than usual as I am going for a hearing test. I said I am GOING FOR….at Specsavers. On the Envy…apparently.

  75. Farage Red Flag #22

    "I suggest they're (Lowe & Habib) also going down a rabbit hole in their obsession with Islam and immigration.“
    says Reform chairman David Bull.

      1. I have no intention of doing so if there's an alternative. I'd rather spoil my ballot paper. Someone asked me the other day if I was Reform. I said, "No, I'm UKIP." "I knew there was something special about you," she said and shook my hand!

    1. What Narinder Kaur..? Million quid? The grifter's grifter and former OnlyFans 'star' who would show you the inside of her bacon battleship for a tenner?

    2. What Narinder Kaur..? Million quid? The grifter's grifter and former OnlyFans 'star' who would show you the inside of her bacon battleship for a tenner?

    5. Who is she anyway and why should we pay any attention to her ill-informed comments?

      Any relation to Sara “I don’t get death threats because I’m a nice person” Khan? (roflmao)

      2. Unfortunately, she is one of a huge number of cretinous bimbos that GBNews has transformed into meedja commentators by giving them airtime and spurious credibility. One of the major reasons I cannot stomach GBNews any more.

        1. Sounds familiar. Attack from within.

          I wonder what voice these women will have once they win or rather lose the argument.

    6. Says the antisemitic Labour voter. Pot, kettle.

      The Left live in a bubble of absolute hypocrisy.

  77. Owen Matthews
    The pygmies of Europe still haven’t realised how irrelevant they’ve become over Ukraine
    European and Nato leaders chose moral grandstanding over diplomacy, and now they’re being sidelined..

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/18/europe-no-longer-has-a-say-in-what-happens-to-ukraine/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMQPopleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB2SDJwZlFxY2U2aW9Sc0pLAR47CW96ZTKwQP5TnOmJYJDOsZhPc7jODo_taULmQQKf_cHWGKDXmK0Bq2ztWA_aem_qldOaQ6GSNJyB4SqfDFCFw

    Rather than open talks with Russia, Europe continued to insist that Russia could be defeated in the field if only we could supply enough weapons. That’s the same fatal logic as in Vietnam after 1968 or in 2009 in Afghanistan during Obama’s surge when the US military told their political masters that the war was winnable if only they could drop enough bombs.

    It has taken Trump’s forceful intervention to put an end to that magical thinking. Some wars end in victory, but no war in history has ever ended with justice.

    In the wake of the Second World War nine million innocent German civilians were ethnically cleansed from Pomerania and East Prussia by Stalin’s Red Army. Likewise, the Ukraine war will inevitably end with the partition of Ukraine. We can change that only by declaring war on Russia ourselves.

    Those European leaders who believe that they are channelling the spirit of Churchill should bear in mind the great man’s words on the wisdom of talking rather than fighting. As Sir Winston told President Eisenhower at a White House lunch in 1954, “Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war”.

    Recommended
    Eudoxus Cnidus
    4 min ago
    If you sup with the Devil you need a long spoon – not a red carpet.

    1. Oh my ! Anyone know i can get an arse pop?

      Erm…good news for me little doggies. Minced beef ice cubes.

    1. This government is filled with hate for the established British way of life, social structure, culture and infrastructure.

    2. To fertilise an allotment properly one must first machinate and then plough them in. Red haired and black skinned work best. Best to leave fallow for a year or two so the acidity level drops.

    1. I think we do.

      Then we move our loved ones as far away from that ideological insanity as far as we can possibly do.

  81. Well that's me done for the day. DT X-word done , solved the Squaredle, hoovered and polished the inside of the car, mended the breadmaker, chain sawed some stumps, cleaned and lubricated the chainsaw, strimmed the end of the drive, cut grass front and back, watered the plants, had an hour on my keyboard – I'd have toted a bale but I haven't got one

    2. Hello Spikey,

      Do you hire yourself out at all, would you wander down south to do a few tasks .. do you like decorating , gluing things , setting mouse traps, hanging doors?

      1. I like 'doing things', mending broken things – I can do most things around the home – plumbing, electrics in fact everything except decorating. Reminds me of the saying "The man who invented decorating wants f***ing and the man who invented f***ing wants decorating" :o))

    3. Sincerely hope I'm wrong about this. Watched some of it this pm, didn't look so good…Trump rambling on and on. No Putin, nor any Russian presence. Zelensky looked even smaller than he usually does. Trump still rambling, hope someone in the administration knows what to say and do, otherwise could go very badly, for the West generally. End of the day, Ukraine still the other side of the world, Russia sharing the same border.

      1. The difficult negotiations behind the scenes have only just started. The good news is that those talks have begun.

        2. Thx Kaypea. Can only hope good outcome, soon as possible, and both sides stand by agreement.

  83. The St George Flag hasn't been captured by the far right, it has been cancelled and binned by the far Left.
    Proving that the Left being a cult are all addicted to flagellation.

  84. Forgot to get the vanillagreek yoghurt from Marks and the Spencer and subbed Tesco normal.

    It reminds me that I don't like greek yoghurt, so going to get some of the better stuff tomorrow.

      1. It hasn't gone down very well with the troops. We need milk anyway, so will get another blob of that, some cream and the proper yog.

        1. If you can't get your choice, wibbling, Fage Total yogurt (different fat% available) might be good second for you, at most supermarkets. Whatever, good luck with troops the main thing….:-)

  85. Caroline and I returned from a week in Devon and Cornwall last night. We stayed in Kingsbridge with my niece, Nicola, and her new husband, Pete, on Sunday and Monday night; on Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed with Jeremy – who was a former pupil who sailed across the Atlantic and back with me in 1984/85 – and Kay, his wife; on Thursday we stayed in St Mawes – where I spent much of my childhood – with Krysia, a childhood friend from many years ago; and on Friday and Saturday we stayed with another niece, Susie, and her husband, Joe, in a village near Tavistock on the edge of Dartmoor. We arrived home yesterday having had a marvellous time but somewhat tired.

    In St Mawes I was given a presidential cap with : MAKE ST MAWES GREAT AGAIN written upon it.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4075b5f6dff934574994ae9bd7719421e9c8e0262d2afdbb515ceca7f464000.jpg

  86. I'm Orff early, Erin has a 'Book club' meeting in our lounge I'm stuck in a spare room with a TV Only Connect, Garden Rescue, Coronation Street……. snore…… I'll be heads down within the hour.
    Grand children here today and can be very wearing, lovely but keep us alert.
    Good night all Nottlers sleep well 😴

  87. Possibilities:
    1. Putin is an absolute dictator, a man so powerful that he controls an enormous country single-handed. No one dare challenge him. He has unique powers to deflect all opposition. He is a new Superman, completely untouchable. He defies the laws of nature.
    2. Putin is a dull, unsmiling frontman for something much bigger and nastier. Oust him and into power will come the kind of people who ended the first Moscow theatre siege, the Beslan school siege and who flattened Grozny – psychopathic, ask-no-questions, take-no-prisoners monsters who have no regard for casualties.
    3. Putin is just a grubby little criminal laughing at the impotent, emasculated West.

    Add your own entries below the line.

    2. I think he really does care about his country and he figured out early on that he could rule it like a teacher with a class of bullying fifteen year olds, where the teacher always has to stay one step ahead (eg 'give me my pen back'), and has an effective punishment system to back him up (eg the Russian security services and a few open windows). Brutal but effective. But ordinary Russians are a lot better off now than they were when Putin came into power so I guess that is the test by which he will be remembered.

    3. Putin is the man who showed exactly how incompetent and corrupt our own leaderine swine are.

      1. Moscow is very clean, people are very friendly. Somewhere online there's a Canadian farming family emigrated to Russia and bought a farm there (which they couldn't afford at home in Canada). And many beautiful women, Alec 🙂

        1. Yes Kate I don't think it's a country like they West try to make it look. Off t'pit now. Goodnight and sleep well Kate xx

    5. 4. Putin is a Christian who loves his country and wants to defend it from the mistakes he can see being perpetrated by the West.

      1. Eh? He's a psychotic mass murderer who chucks his political enemies off very high buildings!

          1. Heh heh, very good.

            However I continue to fail to see why anybody would be supportive of that murderous smirking git.

            Yes, he espouses causes and values that one can relate to, particularly given the lack of spiritual guidance and leadership from our own 'elite' but that should never take away from the fact that he is one evil bastard.

          3. Maybe, and that made me smile, but the reality is (as far as I'm aware) Starmer has never had someone chucked off a high building…… give it time, possibly……

          4. 'Ey-up, Vlad…..how do you know…anyhow what about Alexei Navalny, think a few anti-Putinistas learned that lesson…

          5. Well, maybe not off high buildings, but his policies (importing third world savages) have caused rapes and murders. Not of his opponents, necessarily, more innocent civilians. I suppose you could call it "collateral damage".

          7. You mean there haven't been rapes and murders committed by the illegals Starmer has encouraged? That would be a pretty silly stance to take given the evidence.

          8. I am sorry to disagree but in my view the enemy of the UK is Starmer and the idiots he has appointed to high office. Starmer is just another WEF puppet of the Globalists. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission and for all I know a top Mason to boot.

            Starmer’s misdeeds far exceed throwing persons from tall buildings. The man is an abject object of derision because he is a tool of powerful others and has little or no empathy with his own people.

            The principal opposition to the Globalist Agenda remains the combination of President Putin and President Trump. We need these leaders to succeed.

          9. Putin is for Russia and the vast majority of Russians who support him. In the UK, Starmer has little to no respect from general population, but from sycophants/unions etc who've been one thing or other. Whatever, he'll be off to EU soon, and then we'll have the Rayner Revolution to live through.

          13. And it may not even have happened. The Western media continually lies to manipulate the public against people they want us to hate for their agenda. How do we really know? They lie about so many things. It is what they do today. Look at Starmer for an obvious example, look at the covid con, the climate hoax, all the lies that go with these – there are so many.

        2. Yes, that too, although not so much lately, prefers playing cat n mouse with Western leaders.

        3. You are joking aren't you?
          The only 'group' that does that are homophobe muslims.

          Not forgetting that all political opposition in Ukraine have suffered a similar fate.

          Please name me a single living person in office in Ukraine that is still breathing?

          2. Just as many fall off balconies in Ibiza.

            I have always suspected that it is our own side doing the pushing to make him look bad.

          3. Oh come on, you're better than that!

            I simply cannot stand by while people tell me how wonderful Vladimir Putin is. I have worked in Russia and I speak (pretty poor) Russian and I can tell you he is 'respected' in Russia but equally feared – it's pretty much the Russian psyche.

            I despair when people find him aspirational……

          4. I don't think people are saying he's wonderful; rather that he almost certainly isn't as bad as the Western media make him out to be. You aren't the only one who speaks Russian. Mine is pretty good (I studied in Moscow). I agree about the Russian dusha.

          5. Straswitsche Tovarisch! (I cant type in Cyrillic) – we should compare our Moscow notes! Our office was just off Red Square – we always dealt via third parties but we decided to open 'direct' in a new and revitalised Russia.
            We'd only been trading a few months when we were visited by a couple of heavies packing serious hardware who, and I'm not kidding here, basically told us 'things could get broken' if we didnt pay the appropriate 'funds'.
            It got a bit tense as we had armed security ourselves (everybody did) and after a bit of a standoff they backed off.
            I should add that I worked for a big US IT multinational so when I informed my American masters, they told me to shut the operation down immediately, which unfortunately I did.
            Such a shame, I really liked the Russian people, they were so warm and generous…..

          6. I think Putin cares more for the Russian people than our current western leaders. Russia as it exists today should not be conflated with the USSR. The two are distinctly different.

            As Otto Von Bismarck once stated “the secret of government is to ensure good relations with Russia”. Or words to that effect.

          7. I studied at MADI. It was pre Glasnost’ and Perestroika so very controlled. I am sure they were looking to compromise the students with a view to recruiting them.

          8. Blimey, you must have been a trailblazer – I’m pretty sure we had a couple of MADI lads in our technical support team, they were excellent quality (and unbelievably cheap!).
            I was there at the end of the 90s and the back end of Yeltsin’s presidency – rampant corruption and like the Wild West – great fun though and great memories…….

          9. Probably nothing compared with the use of blat pre Yeltsin. I was there in 1968 – of course we couldn’t travel before we joined the EU (selon the remainiacs).

    6. Far as I recall, Politburo were initially all men he knew and he placed them in positions of power especially re: Fuel and Food, good profits to be made. Determined history wouldn't repeat itself, he employed a very clever young woman (sorry, misplaced name and too tired to look it up) as Finance Minister, and of course Lavrov the brutal charmer never far away but not quite as physically strong today, it seems. Perfect situation for Putin to seek other resolutions in order to stay in power.

    2. Jacob supporting the narrative whilst dressed as Lord Peter Wimsey.
      Consider that two of the figures involved in this drama have previously been involved in other state-run psyops. Both Ray Connolly and Ricky Jones had walk-on parts in the media during the Deadly Plague.
      What are the odds of that happening by chance?

      2. It could be that we're supposed to think that, and support abolishing jury trials (nudge, nudge).
        In fact, Mogg makes a valid point that trial by jury is better than by judge.
        He's standing up for jury trials here – but with him, it's always a limited hangout.

    4. "Neither involved a physical action"

      The Labour councillor made the action of throat cutting, as JRM says.

      I couldn't watch all of it because he was part and parcel of the 15 years of Tory misgovernment. It's easy to jump on a 'populist' bandwagon when it suits your agenda.

    2. I know the Home Office is compromised but now it seems our police and security services are too.

      If you have an escape plan please let me know.

  91. And that is me for the night.
    But before I go, a BTL thread from earlier today:-

    R. Spowart
    12 hrs ago
    Message Actions
    This post will NOT be well received, but here are selection of pre-invasion news reports, largely from here in the UK, that appear to have been totally forgotten:-
    https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-nazi-collaborator-birthday-holiday-anti-semitic-1272911
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/02/neo-nazi-groups-recruit-britons-to-fight-in-ukraine
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/29/ukraine-fascists-oligarchs-eu-nato-expansion
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/imf-warns-ukraine-halt-40bn-bailout-corruption-christine-lagarde

    Carol White
    12 hrs ago
    Reply to R. Spowart
    Not forgotten but with little relevance today. A lot has changed in the last three years.

    Olivia Wilde
    12 hrs ago
    Reply to R. Spowart
    Exactly Robert
    Many have no real knowledge of the history of this region

    Philip German
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to Olivia Wilde
    Just you, EP and now, I guess, RS.

    Is that the case?

    R. Spowart
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to Carol White
    Message Actions
    On the contrary, Carol, I think VERY relevant today, especially with the involvement of Western influence in those days exacerbating what was already a somewhat fraught situation.

    The Hunter Biden/Burisma scandal being a prime example of how Western influence seemed more concerned with asset stripping the country rather than helping secure it and trying to improve relations with Russia.

    R. Spowart
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to Philip German
    Message Actions
    Well, ask yourself the question, Philip.

    How much of what is reported in those articles was you still aware of, how much had you been aware of but forgot and how much were you totally ignorant of?

    Hunter Biden's Burisma activities were not the only example of Western Financiers assisting former Ukrainian Nomenklatura and Apparatchiks in the asset stripping of the country, thus weakening and destabilising an already fragile political situation.

    Then ask yourself, how much of that already fragile political situation was, at least in part, due to other Western interference?

    R. Spowart
    10 hrs ago
    Reply to R. Spowart – view message
    Message Actions
    It would be interesting if those four who downvoted me would be kind enough to explain why?

    Do they not accept that the articles I posted were genuine?

    Or were they simply upset that I posted something which goes against the current narrative?

    1. Well done.
      It's a great pity that the modern narrative has completely forgotten/ignored what was happening a decade or so ago.

  92. I love all three of my dogs, but next time, I'm getting a cat. Navigating the sitting room is like stepping over giant islands with attached coral reefs. That move.

    3. The trouble is, wibbles, you didn't impose order from the start. Mine are sleeping together in one spot (admittedly, they are a fraction the size of yours) so they are easy to avoid. The first thing I taught Winston when I put a lead on him was, "I go first!". He soon cottoned on to that. Then the next thing was, "you don't do that." Now he doesn't 🙂

  93. TBH, I thought my posting on Putin might stir up the members a bit more than it did. It was a bit of devil's advocacy but there is an important point to be made about what happens next. Putin is a bit old KGB. The Litvinenko case demonstrated this, as does the buzzing of UK air space. It's not clever. He was also a bit dim over the Maidan business and really should have let the CIA and its proxies‡ make their mistakes and sow doubt in the minds of western governments and the media. The seizure of towns in the Donbass by the Russian military is sometimes presented as independent but I'm sure he had a hand in that. Either way, it turned the West against Russia.

    His critics will use his interference in the Ukraine/EU deal against him but this wasn't properly reported at the time. Ukraine was an important member of the CIS. Russia and the other members were entitled to ask what compensation they would get if Ukraine left (cf. UK and EU).

    ‡ As Bob of Bonsall points out, where once the media reported on Ukraine's 'ultra-nationalists', today it's remarkably quiet on the subject.

    1. Putin wouldn't be able to do anything right for the current Western governments; he isn't woke.

      1. That's the wrong way round. It should have been about not doing anything wrong, about not giving the West the opportunity to point the finger, even though it was the West (well, the USA) that spent more than 20 years shouting 'Ner, ner, losers!'

        Of course, Europe feared Russia long before the Bolsheviks.

      2. That's the wrong way round. It should have been about not doing anything wrong, about not giving the West the opportunity to point the finger, even though it was the West (well, the USA) that spent more than 20 years shouting 'Ner, ner, losers!'

        Of course, Europe feared Russia long before the Bolsheviks.

    3. 'TBH, I thought my posting on Putin might stir up the members a bit more than it did'.

      Why?

      We have done it to death over many years on here.

      Radioactive trails on an aircraft. Lol.

      Russian spies on camera on arrival and then on cctv wandering around.

      Then apparently pasting some nasty shit in a door knob.

      Then a police officer investigating a table in a restaurant becoming ill who then miraculously not only recovered but also disappeared.

      A bit like the third man in Dr Kelly's case.

      Then you can add the second rate houdini who managed to suicide by hold all in a bath.

      It isn't Putin it is our own government.

      Why the super injunctions?

      Why the secrecy over Dunblane?

      Why the mis-direction over Lockerbie.

      Why after 9/11 they went after Iraq when it was the Sauds?

      1. Why? Because it might have been regarded as a bit anti-Putin by some of the hardliners on here.

        And yes, the Salisbury business was deeply suspect, almost farcical with Sally Davies pushed out in front of the TV cameras

      1. I think anyone with children should get out now. As fast as they can. Most of the Jews who saw the writing on the wall who were able to leave did so.

        History is repeating itself. And not just for them but for us to. Be warned.

          1. Then at least have a weapon handy. Can't let them have it all their own way.

            Hint. Caltrops.

    2. The problem now is that children don't have to be afraid of the bogeyman under the bed or in the cupboard anymore, because they're moving into hotels nearby.

      1. Where they can come and go as they please. Fancy hanging around near schools? No problem. Loiter in local parks. Not an issue.

        Make a complaint?

        4.am raid by four police vans with sirens. 5 police cars. All your electronics taken.

        Just an exaggeration. Except for the fact that this is happening.

        1. I saw that. That is the most perverse thing i have ever seen.

          Dear Santa. I am six years old but my brother is seven. He has a very nice bottom which he is happy to bacha bazi for you.

          Please send me a dolly before you rape me.

          Signed…..The Labour Party.

  97. Well, chums – and Geoff – bed calls. So I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning.

  98. Well, chums – and Geoff – bed calls. So I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning.

Comments are closed.