Tuesday 19 August: The disastrous implications of the Government’s squeeze on farmers

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.

620 thoughts on “Tuesday 19 August: The disastrous implications of the Government’s squeeze on farmers”

  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. I got a Par for today's Wordle.

    Wordle 1,522 4/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      One of those 'try everything else first' days…
      Wordle 1,522 6/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟨🟩🟨🟩🟩
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    1. I sincerely hope that you are not that infamous Polly Parrot, Annie! Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. :-). When I saw the original outline, I wondered why granddaughter had chosen a hot dog.
        Actually, it's a mitochondrion; colour is her choice. In their flat they also have picture of a mitochondrion in various shades of pink. (They are all bio-chemistry students.)
        The tufting guns give your hands a serious work out. They are very powerful and can easily run away with you; hence why the parrot looks as if he's moulting.
        But a real fun girlie day.

      2. That chloroplast is an invader from outer space that colonised Earth at the time it was previously inhabited by primordial slime. Very many of us are descended from it.

          1. Since the chloroplast is passed down the mother’s line, I may ask who defines “the normal way”?

  4. Puffff.. it's gone.
    All pretence of law & Order & juctice in UK has just been blown out of the water in Thurston County Superior Court.

    Honour killing isn't really murder anyways.. Ihsan Ali and his wife Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali found not guilty of trying to kill their teenage daughter in public.. caught on video.. for refusing an arranged marriage with an older man in another county.

    A bizarre situation where everyone outside the court referred to the case as 'the honor killing trial' while inside the term was never uttered.
    Prosecutor Olivia Zhou didn't even mention the barbaric Muslim practice in her opening statement, or allude to any motive for murder.

    Ihsan's treatment of Fatima at home was also banned from being be characterized as 'abuse'.

    Judge Christine Schaller gave him maximum sentence. He was ordered to complete a parenting class.

      2. Thurston, Washington State. USA.
        Many places in the US have the names of British locations.

  6. Good morning all.
    A dull and damp start after an overnight shower, also somewhat cooler with a tad under 16°C.
    And the bedding from the Van is still on the line outside! Bugger!!!

    Graduate Son needs to sign on and I've my ERNIE winnings to pay in, so a run into Matlock is planned.
    Also a Tuesday, so it's Doddery Old Bugger's Discount Day in Iceland!

    1. Don't forget it's £1 on your loyalty card for every shoplifter you point out.

      Easy money…just drop a tube of Poligrip in an old dears pocket. Then grass them up.

      1. I thought it was already open in Brussels, and it's a whole shopping mall just for EU employees.

    2. At this moment in time there are proposals to at least double the amount of flights at Luton Airport. It is centred near many homes to the north west and east and more open country side to the south being Hertfordshire. Most of the flights do not use Bedfordshire Air space.
      His policy looks increasingly clear…..as being utterly stupid.

  10. Good morning, all. Overcast.

    Have you ever seen our "leader" looking so… ?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39a06d1f4e89aafe1b0c97214f4ffa33c572d680b624998556b08950a6ecdd8a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7c0e97522442e8a90534e14936c13fb43aa76996d2436afa6ecc7535be45901.png

    That moment when you realise your hope of putting "boots on the ground in Ukraine" begins to fade, bigly!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b5d74539e4fdcbc5a145229a6f1be72074a722f2cc663086b41bf887889da2d.png

    1. He always has very much of a 'who am I and how did I get here?" look about him.
      Not really what a country wants in its leader.

      2. That's what we get with these chosen protegés who get shoveled into jobs they are incapable of earning on their own merits.

    4. Nature abhors a vacuum, and I'm not fond of #TwoTierKeir and his #KeirmerRouge either. He's like the WEF's Poundshop version of Joe 90, but even more wooden.

  11. Well, chums, I have another very busy day ahead of me. So I shall "sign out" for now and return later.

      1. Similar in Syria. Under Assad you could worship any way you liked.

        Now under Islamic terrorist rule you better go and hide.

        1. If ever an objective history comes to be written in the future it may well conclude that Assad was the best ruler in the Middle East.

    1. A few weeks back, a "starving" Gaza child was found to be suffering from a muscle wasting disease.
      Verify – "make sure or demonstrate that (something) is true, accurate, or justified."
      Good ole Beebspeak.

      1. That was my first thought when I saw the headline in the Mail yesterday. I doubt they will correct it, leaving the fake narrative in people's minds.

        1. But if people are dying of malnutrition is it because of the Israelis preventing food getting into Palestine or is it because HAMAS is stopping the plentiful food aid being distributed to the people?

          Why has HAMAS won the propaganda war when the MSM and the PTB know full well that HAMAS has always used ordinary people as human shields.

          1. I think if people really were starving, they wouldn’t be showing sick people in the press and passing them off as malnutrition victims. In this era of smartphone cameras, we’d be seeing the evidence everywhere. Apart from that, it’s impossible to know what is really going on.

          2. Most of the MSM is anti Israel.

            It's little different from the way the Viet Cong eventually won the propaganda war against the Americans.

  20. Colin Macinnes
    9h
    Government borrowing costs pushed higher on Monday as the interest rate demanded by the market on 30-year bonds rose to within a whisker of its highest in 27 years. Thirty-year gilt yields — which move inversely to prices — climbed 0.05 percentage points to 5.61 per cent.

    Continuing worries about government borrowing and stubborn inflation appear to have unsettled traders amid expectations that the base rate will not be cut any further for a while after the quarter-point reduction to 4 per cent on August 7.

    The cost of 30-year borrowing is almost 1 percentage point higher than during the chaos under Liz Truss of October 2022, when the yield spiked to 4.78 per cent.

    The yield on Monday was about the same level as reached in April, when President Trump’s “liberation day” tariff threats spooked markets. Before then, the yield was last at these levels in May 1998.

        2. Not only the bbc TB but at least 95% of advertising on TV now has people of diverse origin taking part. Not comparable to reality.

          1. Yep. I just threw an advertising flyer in the fire without looking further than the black woman on the front. Not for me.

        4. "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past"
          [George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four].

          The novel describes a dystopian future, where all citizens are manipulated by a single political party.

      2. In the meantime back in the day,…..he was busy wrecking a lovely successful part of Africa known as Rhodesia.

          2. It’s well-known that Zimbabwe is a heaven of peace, prosperity and democracy just like other countries in Africa such as….er’ well. OK, just like other countries.

    3. I once walked across that bridge in both directions (I had to walk back because that's where I parked the car!).
      It was quite an enjoyable experience.

    4. Boris wanted a bridge across the Channel I seem to recall. I used to drive up and down to Hell – sorry, Hull before they built it.

  22. SIR – I believe the reason we no longer enjoy picking blackberries is the difficulty of accessing them. The bushes are often surrounded by tall stinging nettles.

    Blackberries grow in abundance near my holiday home in Norfolk, but sadly I won’t have the fun of picking them with my grandchildren next week for this very reason.

    Sarah Harrison
    Woking, Surrey

    Stupid woman !

    Long sleeved shirt and a pair of Marigolds !

    1. Trousers and long sleeved shirts.
      And …… Watch Out For Rabbit Ho ………….. too late.

    4. We went (were dragged) every year to Beamish Woods (before they turned the area into a giant open air museum) to pick blackberries!
      I do love the museum, though! And blackberries!

          1. Me mither used to make apple and blackberry pie, but when she made blackberry jam she always burnt it so that is where my distaste for the stuff came from.
            Raspberries, though, are utterly heavenly.

    5. So nettles never grew anywhere in the past?
      That letter is such nonsense it should never have been published. Historians are going to look back one day and wonder, "so what were people talking about in the run up to the fall of Rome with Wifi? Oh yes, they were lamenting nettles around blackberry bushes….

    6. Morning Phizzee

      Part of a DT article !

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/defence-blackberry-picking/?recomm_id=8bd90ae7-1600-4566-b744-f4c35eaad1dd

      But worse than that, we’ve lost the ability to trust food that doesn’t come with a label. We have delegated responsibility for the safety of what we eat to the supermarkets, so if something goes wrong, it is their fault not ours.

      I’m often advised to pick only berries above dog-leg-cocking height, as if the (literally) low-hanging fruit was in some way permanently contaminated. My answer is two-fold: if it makes you feel better, by all means look further upwards for your berries. But also, don’t imagine that the pristine-looking produce in sealed plastic on the supermarket shelves has been untouched by wildlife or vermin, both in the field and in the storage units prior to packaging.

      So pick your berries, and wash them in a large bowl of cool tap water. TikTok may be awash (literally, again) with tips to use vinegar, salt, bicarb, or all three, but there’s no need unless you like the flavour of vinegary, salty or soapy fruit…

      Obviously, we don’t wash all of them. Quite a few (yes, ok, high-up ones) make their way into my family’s mouth as we pick. Partly it’s because there’s something very special about sun-warmed berries straight from the plant, but also there’s the game of chance – will it be sweet or sour? The different wild cultivars on a single country lane manifest themselves with subtle, and not so subtle, flavour variations. It’s biodiversity, the environmental buzzword of the decade, in action on your tastebuds.

  23. 411546+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    August: The disastrous implications of the Government’s squeeze on farmers all brought about via the polling station action.

    Criminal tactically childishly spiteful voting has brought about the danger these Isles are now in, as in, becoming a nation of lost persecuted souls.

    The situation is currently what comes first, the civil war or the General Election if the
    latter then try this time using your loaf and
    support the farmers 100%

  24. 411546+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    August: The disastrous implications of the Government’s squeeze on farmers all brought about via the polling station action.

    Criminal tactically childishly spiteful voting has brought about the danger these Isles are now in, as in, becoming a nation of lost persecuted souls.

    The situation is currently what comes first, the civil war or the General Election if the
    latter then try this time using your loaf and
    support the farmers 100%

  25. Morning All 🙂😊
    Grey again today but where is the rain ?
    Nothing forecast until next Monday, how on earth can even 'they' know that ?
    Familiar headline re government's plans.
    Sorry for the repeated statement but, it's the same old story, every single thing that these political idiots come into contact with they eff it up.. no change there.
    Photo on FB today from Washington, Star Mar shoved to the end of the conference table by Donny.
    Basically rightly regarded as totally unimportant.

    1. We appear to have had a light shower overnight.
      Could do with a bit more though.

      1. A few days after the car was cleaned we had a small sprinkle of dust filled rain and it's covered in dusty spots now, also velux roof windows. It looks awful.
        Apparently grass pollen levels are down. ….. 😊🤗

    2. Sorry , Eddy – the rain's all over here. Been tipping down since yesterday evening.

      1. Have a word with someone ashes 😊🤗🤭
        As they use to say in Oz 🤠 it’s as dry as a dead dingo’s donga here.
        Don’t ask me why……😉

      2. Current best thinking says it came out of the Wuhan lab in China. The Chinese of course deny everything that does not reflect well on their country. And have refused to co-operate with other researchers. It spread through China, and made it to the US west coast via travellers from Asia. Whence it spread across the whole country. It's still around but in a less lethal form, plus about 80% of the population have had Covid "shots".. As in other countries it had the worst effect on people whose immune systems were compromised, by disease or age.

    2. It was racist too, as blacks seemed to be affected more than others. Nothing to do with the propensity of their females to be obese, of course.

      1. Low Vit D was a huge risk factor, and people with more melatonin need more sunshine, so are more likely to be low in Vit D I think.

    3. Since covid my taste buds have been altered and I have never sneezed so much for no apparent reason in my whole life.
      But I'm not really complaining I had two old friends who died during that time.

    4. It's tiresome that so many people remain convinced that "Covid" was an air-borne "virus" doing what those claimed 'things' do. There's plenty of research through patent applications and data scrutiny (Dr Denis Rancourt) post 2021 that indicates "Covid" was no such thing. Based on a Corona virus but manipulated to be "Infectious, Replication, Defective" i.e. "a weapon" (© Dr David Martin), that could not be spread from person to person and therefore, was unable to create collateral damage.

      Partygate, anyone?

      Further, how about the rule when entering a pub/restaurant, mask on until you're seated at a table, then mask off: mask on again when you stood up to leave etc. How the hell does that make sense if "Covid" was such a virulent airborne pathogen?

      As for masking? Don't go there.

      Pure theatre to keep the plebs frightened.

      2. So how did it spread then? How come i never got it, or my mum and dad – but my husband, children, brother, his wife and children all got it?

        What’s so special about me???

        1. I’m unvaccinated and I never got it (to be fair I never did a PCR test either – see below) but I know plenty of people who claimed to have caught it, all vaccinated. People were told they had it after feeling ill, putting a swab up their nose and down their throat and sending that off to a PCR centre. By the way, Kary Mullis, inventor of the PCR process was quite clear when he said that it cannot diagnose illness. Ergo, cases – readily reported everyday – were not diagnoses.
          As for the spread, Dr Denis Rancourt after much analysis, called Covid, “the virus without a passport”. How could something claimed to be so virulent appear here and there but not everywhere? Imagination might help.

          Some people claim that Covid never existed, however, I’m with Dr Martin who traced its origin from the 1960s up to 2019 via the many patents granted. Dr Martin runs a company that deals with patents worldwide. If anyone knows…

          Other sources for details: Karen Kingston & Sasha Latypova.

    3. Happy Birthday to you, Hugh! Hope all is well and you have a lovely day! 🎂🍺

    5. Grattis på födelsedagen, HJ. Hope you are well and that your day is a banger!👍🏻🎂🍻😊

    8. As I said last night when this was first posted, "Have a very Happy Birthday, Hugh".

  28. 411546+ up ticks,

    We are truly cursed with a tribal electorate,
    witness their actions to date as in selecting lice to govern the nation.

    Not once but thrice "miranda" was in power ( criminal record aside) now we have to suffer louse almighty the TOOL
    starmer can it get worse ?
    This self inflicted political treacherous twat is hanging the Farmers out to dry, before our very eyes which begs the question are the peoples going to support the farmers or adhere to the regular voting pattern https://x.com/NoFarmsNoFoods/status/1957699293881487660

    2. The interviewer should have punched him in the face repeatedly. I loathe that revolting man. He's a liar, a crook, a cheat and a con artist.

      1. Good morning, Grizzly

        I seem to remember that you were an ideal pupil when you were at school and never were beaten?

        By contrast I was the most beaten boy in my house at school. The worst beating I received was for being 'a subversive influence in the prep-room'

        The six strokes of the cane I received were administered by a prefect who was the Devon schoolboy squash champion who had school colours in both Rugby and cricket and was Victor Ludorum on sports day when he set a new javelin record.

        After games we had communal baths and the stripes on my naked backside were so pronounced and colourful ranging from black to vermillion, scarlet and purple that boys from other houses came to see the spectacle and I achieved a certain kudos.

        1. Better or worse than being made to do PE in your underpants? Could you call on a mass throat-slitting of people you don’t like, on TV, cheered on by us, and get away with it?

        2. 🤣 At my school, Rastus, the cane was the official punishment administered only by the headmaster and recorded in the punishment book. I was never caned.

          Having said that the deputy headmaster (and technical drawing teacher), Bob Bailey, and the geography teacher, Joe Leaning, each had an “unofficial” chunk of wood, 12″ x 2″ x ¾” thick which they termed “the gentle persuader”. I was “persuaded” to behave on a number of occasions (as were dozens of other boys) for various misdemeanours that didn’t quite reach caning level. That “persuader”, applied with a modicum of force over the buttocks of a bent-over boy was eye-watering to say the least. Sitting back down again afterwards was not an easy task.😬

    3. If this gets over-ruled by the ECHR it will show who really rules Britain.
      As if we didn't already know that. /sarc

    4. What was known – in my day – as a vexatious litigant. Very short shrift would be doled out.

      1. Vexatious litigant is a far more polite description than i was thinking of. The judge clearly has a dog in the fight and should be removed.

      2. Vexatious litigant is a far more polite description than i was thinking of. The judge clearly has a dog in the fight and should be removed.

  32. Well, sitting by the hospital bed having been woken at 6am to prep for the op, when the surgeon came in to say that he’s so sorry but there’s a lifesaving emergency and it will take him all day. He promises not to keep me waiting more than a few weeks. Still waiting to be discharged.

    4. Sue, that's awful after getting yourself in the right frame of mind. KBO and best wishes to you.

    12. If it’s any consolation (not that I think it will be) the vet did the same to one of my dogs.

    2. Currency risk. Ten years hence, will sterling be worth (a) more or (b) less in terms of the dollar or the euro?

        1. Probably Starmer will have ditched the pound in favour of joining it before it goes tits up.

        2. People who should have known better gave it fifteen years at its outset. Nobody has left it, many have joined it, including Montenegro and Kosovo.

          1. It would already have died in 2011 (?)if it wasn’t in China’s interests to hold it together, is what I read. It’s very much a political construct rather than born out of free market economics.

          2. Not sure about the China aspect, but it always was driven by politics, not economics.

    3. Wadda loada bolero and lying BS.
      When stupid successive government's add 2 million plus people to the population and the rest of us have to pay for it all, it's costing billions. It can't be disguised with their stupid blaming the public BS anymore.

      2. Three young Ukrainians have been caught setting fire to the White House front door.
        As they claimed to know Stoma, it seemed only polite to send him ……

    3. "You have all been a grave disappointment to me.
      100 lines and detention every Wednesday of this term.
      And any prefects can hand back their badges."

      1. At Colne Grammar prefects were distinguished by their tie: green and silver stripes in place of plain green.

        2. Our half-prefects had a badge and red braid on blazer sleeves.
          Full prefects had red braid on the blazer edges as well as sleeves – I think they also had a pathetic red tassle on caps and berets.
          p.s. was Mr. Merson your Latin teacher?

          1. IIRC “Jock” Merson taught Latin and A level English. He never taught me as I took Chemistry as opposed to Latin. I much preferred science subjects. Also, he was my House (Ramsey) Master.

  35. This is an article which deals with the protest at an asylum hotel in Falkirk last weekend. Being Al beeb it fails to mention that the opposing bunch of numpties, who were not locals and sponsored by unions (note the placards) were bussed in from goodness knows where, but probably Glasgow and Edinburgh!
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxy19kdxnyo

  36. Unable to anwser post replys sent tomy mailbox. as whn I click read it will only let me do polls.

      1. I was there a year or so after Wilson had been wrecking the country from HMS Tiger and had been and was still making demands on Ian Smith that eventually wrecked thousands of people's lives and eventually destroyed the safe prosperous country.
        Travelling around the country it seemed very prosperous and well managed. Almost self-sufficient.
        apart from fuel. Wilson tried to stop imports via the eastcoast ports.
        Fuel was rationed.
        Of course now we have another farleft self important labour party leader in the same vein. A deluded tyrant.
        There's a decent book by Peter Godwin "When a Crocodile Eats the Sun".

  38. Well, my hearing test confirmed that I am deaf! "No, Mr Thomas, not deaf – you have hearing loss", the very efficient young audiologist said.
    Specsavers will give me an NHS "device" – in two weeks time. I shall give it a whirl, if only to give some respite to the MR. She is the one who really suffers from my lack of hearing. SS have done in two weeks what the Envy has failed to do in nine months. Funny that. Not.

    1. Sorry to hear that…..👂😉
      Erin keeps telling me that I'm deaf…..it's just years of practice 🤭🤗

      1. All joking aside, the upper range of hearing ability does go first; hence wives and other female family members learning to yell and repeat themselves without making it too obvious.
        (Epic fail on my part; that is where any acting ability disappears.)

    2. Specsavers are extremely helpful
      MB has been using them for (y)ears.
      They also do wax removals since GPs have given up on yet another job.

      2. It's appalling that GPs no longer do wax removals. Everywhere I look I see young people with white wax hanging out of their ears. Lol.

    3. Patient: "Doctor, I think I'm going deaf".
      Doctor: "Can you describe the symptons?"
      Patient: Well, Homer's bald and Marge has big blue hair."

    4. Patient: "Doctor, I think I'm going deaf".
      Doctor: "Can you describe the symptons?"
      Patient: Well, Homer's bald and Marge has big blue hair."

    5. It depends, I suggest, on where you are. My local NHS hearing clinic has been excellent and very responsive to requests for appointments. My NHS hearing devices (Bolero M70-M) are very good. They include Bluetooth which enables a mobile phone to control the devices and any any audio output to go straight to my hearing aids.

      2. Here I am lucky if I can get an appointment that isn’t the other side of Shrewsbury. If I do, it won’t be for ages and then, when they’ve fiddled with my hearing aids they are no better.

  39. Why I’d never date a man who carries a tote bag
    They think they’re making a statement and they’re heading this way – beware of the Performative Male
    Celia Walden : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/19/celia-walden-i-would-not-date-a-man-who-carries-a-tote-bag/

    You look rather too upmarket for Piers Morgan so when you decide to engage in a bit of spousal upgrading what sort of man will you go for?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b04d209725125af0fce75c73f0ac33300b1db8def9f02a4418feb693d3bcbcfa.png

    1. Is the daft bint suggesting that, despite being married to a ghastly self-obsessed nightmare, she IS thinking of "dating" other men?

      I think we should be told…(yawns, and drops off).

    2. Couldn't think of anything serious to write about, Celia? Is that the sort of vacuous shit you chat to your appalling excuse for a husband about over dinner?

  40. Its a bit of a sad day for me in the Garden. A short while ago I discovered by chance that Wisterias can develop a tap root 10 feet long. The one I planted 3 years ago flowered for the first time this year with flowers almost a yard long. I had inadvertently planted it directly above a 4 inch public sewer. When the house was refurbished in 2021 I had to replace about 20 feet of the sewer. Wessex Water kindly provided the new plastic sewer pipe free of charge. However, as the sewer was on my 'private' land I had to bear the cost of a largish excavator and steel shuttering for the trench which was 10 feet deep. Circa £7k Ouch! As you will appreciate I don't want to be faced with the prospect of another excavation which would necessitate the demolition of my new garden shed and neighbour's fence to get access for the digger. Consequently the Wisteria has had to go. My last task for this morning is to dig down and remove as much of the root system as possible.. :-((

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/857d836ecc4d5da30d11885c83bbddf23b249fcbd1d6a4c26657cc0a3b65b577.jpg

    1. Sympathies on the sacrifice of your beautiful wisteria.

      Opened the thumbnail expecting to see its murdered magnificence, only to encounter a reinforced trench…. Men!! 😉🤣🤣

  41. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d011b1830a62fb6e38b4f8b0b11e2bb1f539e5cef3db18c3c2b9dbdb6bac93fc.png
    Codger Ltd
    2h
    Starmer was known as an EU sycophant constantly running to the EU and telling them our negotiating position during Brexit.

    Ebeneezer Goode
    Codger Ltd
    1h
    Brexit was a useful exercise in revealing the true intentions of many, especially those who were willing to collaborate with overseas powers to Britain's detriment.
    We saw them and we still haven't forgotten.

    Hugh Culp
    2h
    It takes Trump to make ConLab really do things it really doesn't wanna do. Which is nice.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb91705354086ab4a5a19b8f78ebe0bfedb783b099d917ca277738898a3fac75.png

    2. Just standard Trump talk. He praises everybody until he decides not to, then they become the worst person on earth.

    4. Sadly so was Soubry, Grieve – by the back door. At least Starmer asked if he could betray the country.

      Two thirds of the political class were desperately trying to undo the democratic will of the public.

  42. Now listen here, you mullet. Why don't you just light your tampon, and blow your box apart? Because it's the only bang you're ever gonna get, sweetheart!

    RIP Terry.

    1. I keep telling ya.. if you want to shutdown the UK & Starmer.. park a couple of cars on every motorway then bring in the Farmer's Union.. then the SAS.

    3. So what exactly are they doing? Racing is going on strike earlier that week. Can’t they coordinate the protests?

  44. Bored so decided to do Wordle.

    Wordle 1,522 2/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. You could have made it last a bit longer!

      Now you are going to have to do Miriam Webster's Quordle…..

    2. Makes me wonder if it's a warning to proles to let the thieves off. They are Labour's children, after all.

      Imagine that – a problem Labour created and is now promoting the consequences of interrupting it. What will they do if all the decent, law abiding folk decide that, as law and justice only exist to protect criminals why shouldn't we all be criminals?

      Or, given the obvious, the state will fall like bricks on the first white person who tries it?

  46. From the Daily Mail

    lITV has reportedly launched a formal investigation into Good Morning Britain after viewers were left appalled by a 'humiliating blunder too big to ignore'.

    The popular daytime show covered the 80th anniversary of Holocaust Memorial Day back in January – but failed to say its victims were Jewish.

    Not surprised.
    On the Spanish new RTVE did the same.

    1. They could also have mentioned that Adolph also dealt with gypsies, the mentally defective and the physically impaired at the same time. What with "travelers" being a protected species, I'm surprised they were not all over that.

      Plus of course anyone else he did not like. An old friend here got out in the '30's as a small child as his parents were at risk because father had been a union official.

        1. Would not be surprised. Almost any group he did not like went. I thinks Jews made up 6-7 million and the other groups made up to the total. I've got Shirer's book and it gives the breakdown.

    1. No it’s quite deliberate. They’re trying to airbrush the holocaust, Something the Germans never managed to do but the woke crowd seems much more successful.

  48. 🤣 Oh, do pipe down about the plumber, Bill!

    He would have had to join the queue, anyway. 😉

    4. Curses; missed it.
      Too busy creating a mat with the image of a moulting parrot.
      (Forget the gym, try tufting. Doesn't wonders for the arms and shoulders.)

      1. Ah, but you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams with the portrayal of moulting!

        Not sure I trust myself to ask about tufting here. Enough possibilities for misunderstandings as is. 🤣🤣

    1. I think most women, presented with the prospect of an expensive trench, would be expecting a top-nptch coat…

  50. Yes, I think that the quality of NHS services is a post code lottery. The quality of schools, roads and other services is much the same.

  51. Just listening to an interesting podcast with Alex Krainer and Mario Inecco.
    Krainer's analysis of the Alaska summit was that Ukraine is just a distraction and trade cooperation was the main subject. He thinks Trump may want to push the Russia-Alaska tunnel again, to connect the Americas to the world island. This would mean that the Americans have come to terms with the multi-polar world and would benefit both countries.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shdlg6gCKek

  52. A quick search reveals it's a quote from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert .

  55. Good Afternoon Folks.
    The sun is coming out here now.

    I'm wondering now after seeing him in the White House if Zelensky's new irregular outfit is based on Michael Foot's old donkey jacket.
    It has certainly gone down just as well with the public.

  56. We got an interim tax bill for about $10,000 this week and then I see a newspaper article about this week's public service excuse for not working:

    Sexy drag show' on deck for public servants pride week
    Public servants are expected to enjoy a whole range of work-hour events including drag queen bingo.

    we are not amused at how our tax money is being wasted.

    2. Do you guys have to make quarterly estimated payments? Now that I am on pensions and such, not enough tax gets deducted in spite of requests to stop more at the source. The US has a thing where if you owe too much tax at the end of the year, you get to pay a penalty, so estimated payments are the best way to manage things.

      1. Tax owing over PAYE by non business people is estimated from the previous tax year. The amount has to be paid in 2 instalments (Jul & Jan). There are no penalties if it is underestimated and paid on time. Business tax collection has been changing but I know little about that subject.

        1. They were in full drag in an Aussie bar when Stamp said the line. That broke the ice. For a film featuring to gay guys and a Trans it was a really good watch. You have to like ABBA though.

  59. Somewhat remiss of me to start posting without greetings, so apologies. Afternoon all. I am not in the best of moods; the stable visit went off okay but there were no signs, which was confusing and the gallops were a long walk. When I got back Zen said it would have to cancel the order because my neighbour couldn’t be contacted but I could go with Openreach only it would cost more (Quelle surprise). Then I had a very petulant email from someone who had been refused a request. I want to give away some VHS tapes and now I am expected to deliver them. It isn’t far, but it’s an inconvenience. The postman delivered someone else’s letter along with a dozen or more junk mail leaflets (all the same). Tomorrow I am going to a funeral.

    As I drove to the stables I passed a sign that read “Wake up! No farmers no food”. Reminding me what prats we’ve got in Wastemonster. Tax and waste; it’s all Labour ever do.

  62. As the Labour government spokesman said:

    "When we came to power we knew that the Conservatives had already buggered up the country but our policy has been to f*ck it up as well."

  64. Part of an email from the World Council for Health on the digital id system:

    Saying No to Digital IDs
    ========================

    Politicians and the media love to give the impression that this is inevitable and you have no choice. They also excel at making people feel like their opinion and actions don’t matter. But they’re lying to you. You ALWAYS have a choice and you have agency.

    When people peacefully stand their ground, entire structures can crumble. We are not yet trapped in a digital prison – and we are not just digital ‘avatars’. We all have a voice and together, we can simply say no.

    #### Here are just a few ways:

    1. Send your representative a message in your own words. That can be your MP, or you can go straight to the top: to email Keir Starmer, click here.

    2. If you’re in the UK, respond to the UK Parliamentary Inquiry on Digital ID before the deadline on 21st August. Together has an easy template you can use to do this.

    3. Keep opting out! Remember that you can say no:

    1. At travel terminals, avoid machines like CLEAR kiosks in the US. Request manual identity checks. If you meet with resistance, calmly ask them to show you the specific legal statute that requires you to submit to biometric scanning to travel.

    2. When companies or agencies request biometric identity checks, ask for an alternative. For example, Companies House in the UK now requires company directors to prove their identity. One way is to submit biometric data – but it’s not the only way. You can visit a Post Office, or get verified by an Authorised Corporate Service Provider such as your accountant.

    ### Learn to Love Inconvenience

    Making this peaceful stand will inevitably mean more paperwork, more back-and-forth, more of your time. Instead of thinking of it as time wasted or as massive inconvenience, reframe the ‘problem’. This is you, asserting your right to live freely in the manner of your choice, for your own sake and also for future generations.

    —-

    The rest of the article is here: https://worldcouncilforhealth.substack.com/p/saying-no-to-digital-ids?publication_id=1135210&post_id=171255035&isFreemail=true&r=28gmek&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
    The article cites the rather discredited organisation Together, which is not good. It gives a lot of examples of worrying things from countries where the digital id is already embedded.
    But they raise a valid point about learning to love inconvenience. Make the beggars work for your data, don't just hand it over to them! I recently got several notarised copies of important documents that I've used to prove my id rather than giving a facial scan to some nameless private company somewhere which would have been more "convenient" for me. After the first couple of times, you get used to it.

  65. Brendan O’Neill
    It feels good to see the return of the St George’s Cross
    19 August 2025, 12:27pm

    There you have it: in certain parts of England it’s easier to fly the Palestine flag than the English flag. Take Tower Hamlets in London. The Palestine colours fluttered from lampposts there for months in the aftermath of Hamas’s 7 October pogrom. Yet when patriots tried to hoist up the St George’s flag this week, they found themselves surrounded by officious council workers. Their flags were unceremoniously yanked down. Seems English pride is haram in modern London.

    The flag wars in Tower Hamlets are so telling. There was a period when the Palestine flag was omnipresent there. It was untouchable. That perhaps wasn’t surprising: the council is led by Lutfur Rahman of the pro-Palestine Aspire party. His office said it would ‘destabilise community cohesion’ to take the flags down. It was only following a legal threat from UK Lawyers for Israel in March last year that the council finally dismantled all the bunting.

    The borough’s jobsworths were far quicker to act when some white fellas tried to fly the St George’s flag this week. Within hours council officials had their poles out to dislodge these wicked emblems from local lampposts. One of the men confronted the busybody flag-draggers. ‘The whole of the Isle of Dogs has paid for these flags to be hung’, he said, so who are you to demand they ‘be taken down’? Then he asked the killer question: ‘What about all the Palestine flags?’

    We should all be asking this. We should all be asking how on earth there’s a borough in the capital of the United Kingdom where you’ll get an easier ride if you fly the flag of a foreign nation than if you fly one of the flags of the kingdom itself. I won’t lie, that there are communities in London that felt more chilled around the flag under which more than a thousand Jews had just been murdered than they do around the flag of England itself worries me enormously. It horrifies me, in fact.

    It isn’t just Tower Hamlets. It isn’t only boroughs with large Muslim populations. You see the Palestine flag everywhere. It flies on university campuses. Bourgeois leftists wrap themselves in it on their depressing weekly trudges against the Jewish state. A vast Palestine flag hangs from the Cotswolds HQ of the green energy firm owned by sexagenarian hippy Dale Vince, much to the chagrin of locals. Never mind Israel’s supposed colonisation of Palestine – it sometimes feels like Palestine has colonised Britain.

    It feels good – admit it – to see the St George’s Cross make a comeback in the midst of this Palestine mania. The England-loving insurgents in Tower Hamlets who had the temerity to fly the flag of their own country were part of a digital movement called ‘Operation Raise the Colours’. The flag bug is spreading. From Swindon to Bradford, Norwich to Newcastle, the English flag and the Union flag are being raised by men and women sick of being told by their supposed betters to feel ashamed of their nation.

    These are stirring acts of resistance. The guerrilla wavers of the kingdom’s flags are implicitly revolting against the post-national, post-borders delirium of our technocratic ruling class. It sometimes seems you can wave any flag in the UK as long as it isn’t any of the UK’s flags. The Pride flag is festooned in military formation across London’s boulevards every Pride month, like we’ve been conquered by some genderfluid militia. The Palestine flag is inescapable. The Black Lives Matter flag was all the rage a few years back. Liberals wear Ukraine pins on their collars. Some of these people – not all, I know – would run a mile if they ever encountered an ‘oik’ with a St George’s pin on his jumper.

    So in 21st-century Britain you can be a ‘flag-shagger’ so long as you aren’t ‘shagging’ the St George’s Cross or the Union flag. Wave those flags and you’ll be branded a xenophobe, a ruffian, one of the dim little people who hasn’t quite caught up with globalist correct-think.

    The Raise the Colours people are pushing back against the noise and nonsense. Against the hyper-individuating flag of Pride, which promotes the sin of pride in the self, and the anti-Western flag of Palestine, which is really about expressing a frothing hostility to our great ally of Israel, they are waving the unifying flags of this nation. They’re hoisting up our kingdom’s great emblems of collectivity to counter the divisive, separatist drift of British life under the unforgiving boot of multiculturalism.

    I’ll be honest with you, reader: I was brought up to be wary of the Union flag. In the London-Irish community I come from, no one would have dreamt of waving it. Britpop, with its Union paraphernalia, was a nightmare for us foreign-origin teens. Now? Now I love to see Britain’s flags. Symbols of national interest and national pride in an era of woke Balkanisation and anti-Western hysteria? Yes please. Hoist ’em up.

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

    Dahlia Travers
    2 hours ago
    ‘It sometimes seems you can wave any flag in the UK as long as it isn’t any of the UK’s flags.’
    That’s not quite accurate is it Brendan? I suggest you substitute England for UK. One of the ‘in your face tactics’ of the SNP has been to cover everything they can find with the cross of St Andrew, albeit with the blue background gradually fading from Navy blue to French blue so they can dissociate it from the Union flag. And I don’t think there’s a shortage of Welsh flags in Wales.
    The demonisation of the English flag has been one of the insidious tactics of the left in Britain, along with making it socially embarrassing to admit voting Tory (so much so that the Tories themselves became embarrassed) and denouncing any objections to our being colonised by unskilled benefit-dependant immigrants as ‘racism’.

    2. The English rarely flew their flags at home because they knew who they were and weren't so vulgar as to have to brag about it (unlike them over the pond). Now they are having to state who they are in a country that will soon be very dangerous for everyone, ancestral or adopted.

    3. Dahlia Travers?

      Bertie Wooster's favourite aunt who is keen on hunting and whose husband, Uncle Tom, collects pieces of silver – such as cow creamers – and is both loved and feared by her nephew. Her principal hold over Bertie is that she has a marvellous French cook called Anatole, and if Bertie doesn't do what his aunt tells him to do she will never again have him to stay at Brinkley Court so he will no longer be able to enjoy Anatole's exquisite culinary masterpieces.

        1. Rosie M Banks was a waitress when Bingo first met her so it seems unlikely – but not impossible – that she and Dahlia Travers were related.

          However Rosie had taken the waitressing job to acquire background material for one of her novels which would be about a humble working-class girl marrying a member of the aristocracy.

          1. I was really wondering about the two people who were commenting online using those identities – seems odd?

          2. If you had to choose a P.G. Wodehouse character for your nom de plume which of the following would you choose:

            i) Sir Roderick Spode?
            ii) Sir Roderick Glossop?
            iii) Madeleine Bassett?
            iv) Tipton Plimsoll?
            v) Gussie Fink-Nottle?
            vi) Galahad Threepwood?
            vii) Aunt Agatha?
            viii) George Cyril Wellbeloved?
            ix) Percy Pilbeam?
            x) Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe?

            xi) Any other – please specify?

    4. Dahlia Travers?

      Bertie Wooster's favourite aunt who is keen on hunting and whose husband, Uncle Tom, collects pieces of silver – such as cow creamers – and is both loved and feared by her nephew. Her principal hold over Bertie is that she has a marvellous French cook called Anatole, and if Bertie doesn't do what his aunt tells him to do she will never again have him to stay at Brinkley Court so he will no longer be able to enjoy Anatole's exquisite culinary masterpieces.

  66. Medicated, fed and sent home. I hope it really will be weeks not months but not happy to have to go through the preparation all over again.

    2. My OH spent four weeks in hospital waiting for his op – he thought he was getting a valve replacement but in the end it was a triple bypass – and they sent him home five days afterwards………. but he recovered and is still with us.

      I hope you won't have to wait too long.

      1. Still working. I went to great lengths to organise cover. Grrr!! Mind, it’s going to happen at some point so at least now there are plans in place.

  67. Madeline Grant
    The joy of Giorgia Meloni
    19 August 2025, 2:30pm
    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/GettyImages-2230852248.jpg
    Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni (Getty images)

    There are not, as far as I know, any Italian top-flight poker players. Italians are hardly renowned for their ability to suppress their facial expressions or conceal what they’re really thinking. In this regard they are unusually well-represented by their Premier, Giorgia Meloni.

    Upon becoming Italy’s prime minister in 2022, Ms Meloni was written off by the bien-pensant Anglophone press as a far-right extremist, destined for her rag tag coalition to crash like so many Italian governments before. Contra this narrative, she took her seat beside president Trump at the leaders’ round table in Washington DC yesterday. He even complimented her longevity in a famously unstable political climate: ‘You’ve been there for a long period of time relative to others. They don’t last very long; you’ve lasted a long time. You’re going to be there a long time.’

    Such prominence for an Italian leader would have been unthinkable a little while ago. Italy’s schizophrenic political culture and its resolute failure to commit to Nato defence spending goals had made it easy for tho France-German alliance to usher the Italians into a side room alongside the Spanish, Greeks and other ‘full partners’ in the European enterprise.

    Not so now. Meloni is not only making positive moves on defence, standing firm on the issue of Ukraine (earning her the ire of the actual Italian far right) but is also overseeing one of Europe’s only successful economies. She is seen by many as a Trump whisperer, able to wrap the notoriously erratic and bizarre American president around her finger.

    Ms Meloni’s facial expressions at the Washington summit were a delight. Whether it was the eye roll during the pompous, drawn-out remarks of the German chancellor or her perma-scowl and crossed arms in the Oval Office, she has a remarkable ability to steal the show – and make her feelings abundantly clear – even in a room that contains more than its fair share of divas.

    Her visible hatred of Emmanuel Macron is often conveyed through withering stares; she looks at the French president as if he’s something that she has just stepped in on the notoriously unclean pavements of Rome.

    One person, by contrast, who can’t even make his words convey meaning, is our own dear leader. Sir Keir’s turn came on the round table and he duly filled his designated two minutes with waffle. The observation that ‘this conflict has gone on for three and a bit years’ was one of his more profound contributions. During his speech, Ms Meloni flicked her hair, pursed her lips and explained considerably more than Sir Keir ever could.

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

    Rosie M Banks
    12 minutes ago
    Mustapha Kanit (honestly!) is a top flight Italian poker player.

    1. "…but is also overseeing one of Europe’s only successful economies."

      Oh dear!
      It's either "…but is also overseeing one of Europe’s successful economies."
      Or "…but is also overseeing Europe’s only successful economy.

      It can't be both!

    2. Are there any fans of P.G. Wodehouse who can tell me who Rosie M. Banks is?

      She was a woman who wrote ghastly, sickeningly sentimental romantic novels which were commercially very successful. She also inspired fear in the heart of her adoring husband, Bingo Little, who was one of Bertie Wooster's best friends.

      1. Was she also the author in whom Psmith confided that he always saw dewdrops as fairies' tears and then warned her not to pinch the simile as it was copyright?

  68. The nation's cultural highlight takes place this weekend. Yes, it's the Notting HIll Carnival. Police leave is cancelled and anti-terror barriers will be temporarily removed. Bookies are no longer taking bets on the number of stabbings.

    I note also that there is no BBC Prom on Monday evening…

  69. Any idiots who still believe that we should re-join the EU had better realise just how much this will cost.

    European Council chief vows to press ahead with Ukraine's EU admission
    European Council President Antonio Costa has today said the process to make Ukraine a member of the European Union needs to advance and Europe has to be part of future peace negotiations alongside Ukraine, Russia and the United States.

    Costa, who debriefed council members about Monday's summit in Washington via a video call from Lisbon, told reporters afterwards that although there was much to be done and no guarantees of success, the very possibility of a bilateral meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin was 'an enormous progress'.

    'Now we all need to transform this possibility into reality, for the meeting to take place and be a success,' he said, calling for wider talks involving Europe to take place 'as soon as possible'.

      1. Raw materials and extreme corruption are all they would contribute, at a cost of hundreds of billions in reconstruction and other support, all being filched from EU taxpayers.

        1. Since most of the EU states are NOT net contributors, that would mean our money if we were unfortunate enough to let Starmer get his way.

      3. The EU poking in to Ukraine is what set Putin off (along with other issues) originally.

        The hated EU is desperate for Ukrainian resources. It is also utterly corrupt, suiting the EU's political attitudes.

    2. Many of the local councilors would not regard an English flag as "their" country's flag.

  71. "At a hearing last week, barristers for the council claimed Somani Hotels breached planning rules because the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel."
    Injunction granted by Mr Justice Eyre.
    Home Office upset. Appeal or new legislation expected.
    Clearly from a Planning Permission aspect, there are differences between a House of Multiple Occupation and a Hotel. Occupancy rights for example.

  72. "At a hearing last week, barristers for the council claimed Somani Hotels breached planning rules because the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel."
    Injunction granted by Mr Justice Eyre.
    Home Office upset. Appeal or new legislation expected.
    Clearly from a Planning Permission aspect, there are differences between a House of Multiple Occupation and a Hotel. Occupancy rights for example.

  73. Wordle No. 1,522 4/6

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

    Wordle 19 Aug 2025

    A boisterous Par Four!

    1. Made a 3 today.

      Wordle 1,522 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Chose wrong one of two – back to the bogeys…….

      Wordle 1,522 5/6

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

  74. Migrants must leave Epping hotel, High Court rules
    Home Office had warned that decision would risk being an ‘impetus for further violent protests’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/19/epping-hotel-migrant-court-ruling/

    So housing illegal immigrants in hotels is not the answer.

    Some Muslim countries house refugees and immigrants like this – why doesn't the UK do the same? After all the UK is all is favour of doing things in the Muslim way?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b912836204ce8dd93eb4164d5f73aa935904d74bb535f3ca9fe307f4c9617bb.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56520995d89abd4b5c0f6dc82c0cfc6b72ac7b9057ea1340fd03376b6ff3189d.png

    2. 5 ranks of 3 tier bunk beds, 30 to a container stacked 3 high, put a few more in each one, that's 100 criminals in a secure, locked environment. They keep breaking in to container lorries, after all. This just short cuts it.

      Seriously – when does this fiasco end? When all billion and a half of the third world wasters are here?

    3. Germany used containers in 2015. They're insulated and have water/leccy connections and stack on top of each other. V practical.

      However, if they start using containers, prepare for container blocks popping up in villages, which people will NOT appreciate at all.

      1. They can be made to look nice. A bit of wood cladding. Picket fence and a few pots dotted around.

          1. It would be a cheaper solution for homeless people. Bollocks to the illegals. They can go back to sleeping under a hedge…in Calais.

        2. I gather there were complaints about cra cra behaviour in villages….that seems to have cleared up now, at a guess the crazies are now medicated and the others have jobs.

          1. Being made of metal they could have smoke detectors and fire 50 thousand volts through it.

    4. Given the parlous state of the military, I would have thought there should be plenty of "spare" land. If tents, duckboards and palliasses were good enough for National Service squaddies, they are good enough for illegals.

  75. That's me for today. Good news about the Epping injunction – but DO NOT hold your breath. HMG will appeal this and a suitably selected bench will overturn it. With costs against the Epping Council. The apparent infringement of planning rules will be deemed to be of no importance. "A mere technicality".

    You read it here first.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. A serious infringement might affect the insurance coverage of the hotel, especially if 'Burn-'em-up' Connelly is ever released.

    1. I had an aunt and uncle who lived in a converted nissen hut at Blandford Forum when uncle was a major in the Royal Signals. On the inside it was a perfectly nice house.

      1. After the war, with the acute housing shortage (due to the Blitzkrieg), many Nissen huts were turned into houses at Metheringham.

  77. It's Getting More Dangerous For Them, Too by Carl Bejamin.

    Elites proclaim multicultural Leftiedom is quite safe. LOL
    However, Leftie teachers say they witness surge in abuse.. 30,000 attacks (with weapons)..
    Attacks on firefighters.. 1,000 per year.
    433 attacks per week on ambulance staff.
    22,536 attacks on paramedics.

    Hate to tell you.. you are the British State.

    Many incidents not reported.
    Welcome to the club.

    1. I have never understood attacks on medics and ambulance staff. I suppose they see them as an arm of the uniformed state. Or they are high on drugs.

      1. Usually it's the latter. Although firefighters have mentioned that arsonists will set fire to things just to attack them.

    2. They're just the front line.

      On another note, when those IVRs deliberately make you wait by not answering your calls they always say 'be nice to our staff'. I rather think we should be able to charge them for our wasted time.

    3. The lefties probably think it just needs more state re-education and eliminating the far right and everything will be perfect.

      1. More socialism, more of the same – the same mindset as the EU; it isn't working, so we need more of it.

    1. Merkel should be put up against a wall and shot. She was not working for or representing the people of Germany and the wider West.

    3. All the childish gossiping about Trump that was captured on cameras during his last term of office – they must be simple if they think that he wouldn't get his own back.
      They are all a bunch of sell-outs anyway.

      1. Trump is far more intelligent than that lot. Can you imagine if he had made a deal for us with the EU rather than the sacks of useless shit over the last 20 years?

        2. I think Trump is a place-man, but he’s certainly a lot more talented than the likes of Starmer and Macron.

          1. Trump is a realist. We will eventually have a world government. A natural progression. It just comes down to who is running it.

          2. No it is not at all a natural progression! It must be actively resisted because it will never be in our best interests! All that UN guff was just trying to bring people to think in terms of world government, it was never a benevolent project.

          3. We are already in a Technocracy. Corporations tell politicians and kings what to do.

            We began as hunter gatherers. This is the next step wether we want it or not.

            Wars will be fought over this but it will happen.

            There will be a one world government.

          4. Phiz, if you believe that, we’ve already lost. Countries are strong – ours may not be, but others are.
            We aren’t already in a technocracy – they don’t yet have the technological control that they want. If they get it, it will be because people gave up their freedom voluntarily, either from apathy, laziness, desire not to be inconvenienced, or because they believe that resistance is futile.
            We’re currently in a phase where the trap is open and they are trying to simultaneously lull and scare people into walking into it of their own free will.
            Every fight looks hopeless when the enemy has good propaganda.

    4. He is quite something, isn't he. No angry, just stoically defiant knowing he's right, confident of his opinion.

      The weak minded aggressors know they're failing as the world watches, bored and uninterested with the posturing weaklings.

  81. Well, folks the embuggerment of my day continues apace; I hobbled down to the opticians because I expected to have drops in that would make driving unsafe, only to find that the receptionist said, "it's tomorrow". What do you mean, "it's tomorrow?" The woman who made the appointment .yesterday said "we can fit you in tomorrow". "Tomorrow" yesterday is today, Turns out the silly woman had got the day wrong. That means I am going to have to do the same walk tomorrow after I've been to a funeral and leave Winston in his crate an extra few hours (he will have a break as I'll come home after the wake, but even so, I would have preferred not to as he's been crated twice today). One plus was that as I was walking past the barbers, I saw there was nobody in so I had my hair cut – that's gone up from £5 to £8 so he didn't get a tip, which I normally add on. It's been an expensive month or two. At least that means nobody will ask, "am I standing on your hair?" (it's a military funeral).

    1. Why were you expecting drops? I haven't had any for years and I do have eye tests annually.

    1. I wear contact lenses that correct my vision (ortho-keratology) while I sleep. I take them out during the day and have pretty much normal eyesight without lenses.

      1. I gave up wearing contacts about 15 years ago because my eyes became very dry. I wore them for over 30 years though. Hard ones.then soft ones, also some that stayed in for a month. Just specs now.

        1. That's why I switched from monthlies to ortho-K. I had dry eye. This regime is fine. I don't get on with specs when I'm gardening, riding, etc.

      2. I thought they had stopped doing that. I tried to get it for my daughter….but was told it had ceased. I have a friend who uses it and is impressed with it.

        1. It's the next best thing to having perfect eyesight. When I wore contact lenses I used to suffer dreadfully filling the hay nets (a very dusty job). After switching to these – no problem at all.

      1. A couple of them have their hand to their mouth – biting their knuckle? The woman on the left (as we look at it) isn't having any of it – she has a completely closed body language. Is she Meloni? Macron seems to be twiddling his thumbs. Is that Two Tier right at the back?

          2. Could be, but I think the ones at the back are White House staff. JDV is in front of them on the right but behind the EU lot.

          3. It certainly doesn’t look like 2TKweer!
            Looking at the pic poppiesmum posted below, he’s sitting on Meloni’s right, out of shot.

        3. It’s a brothel of politicians:
          full of over-used, very diseased, miss-spelled ex-king of England.

          2. Never having used the services of a prostitute I'll defer to your much greater experience, thus said I'm sure you're right.

      1. They are, really. They are there to be told what they will do by a man both vastly more competent, infinitely more powerful and a man who's ideology utterly opposes their own.

      1. I'd have moved it to be in front of the communist and cheese eating surrender monkey. A quiet reminder that the last time some bunch of Lefties tried to conquer Europe, Britain defeated them.

      2. They seem to have had Ronald Reagan beaming down at them from the right hand side if you look at John Leake's picture

      1. Is he the one on the sofa, looking like an otter, forgotten about and irrelevant?

        Meloni doesn't look happy at all, which is a shame because she's quite a woman.

  86. Not accidental i'm sure. Though they all insisted on going to make it look they were part of the negotiations.

    1. They don't want to. Labour started this to create a client state. Now I think the hard Left are just using criminal invasion as a weapon to spite people for voting to leave the hated EU.

      1. 411546+ up ticks,

        Evening W,
        labour started this via "PM miranda"
        ALL governing parties took a fully supported for decades,hand.

  88. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/19/reeves-must-take-share-of-the-blame-for-rising-inflation/

    Nonetheless, it is an achievement of sorts. Big increases in public sector wages and in the statutory minimum wage have played a key role in this process, so the Government can reasonably claim the credit.

    Yet hiking the min wage while keeping the tax allowance suppressed just makes the min wage another tax on business. Business is forced to pay more money for staff. Oh, the staff might see a minor rise, but the majority is taken in tax – mostly in NI. It's a triple whammy: reduce the tax threshold, increase the levy and then expand the amount that can be taken.

    It was a spiteful insult disguised as 'being nice'. After all, forcing someone else to pay for your hubris is the socialist way.

    A far, far better approach would have been to simply hike the tax allowance but that wouldn't give Labour leverage to say they've 'helped' people. So much of the budget was just malicious and spiteful it's actually rather sad.

    1. Raynor's a revolting woman. Sneering, incompetent, backward. I imagine she'd be happier in the world's oldest profession.

        1. Reeves looks utterly confused, unsure of what she is or why she's there.

          Starmer doesn't have a clue what's going on but Raynor – just looks like she's waiting for a particularly degrading porn film.

          Did they get lost and go to Tory conference ?

  90. Court rules asylum seekers must be moved from hotel

    Edward Brown KC, for the government, said any injunction could lead to other councils making similar applications. "That would aggravate the pressures on the asylum estate," he added.

    Imram Hussain, from the Refugee Council, said: "We think asylum seekers should not be in hotels – there are cheaper, better ways of supporting people and we think the government should end the use of hotels as fast as it can…they should be in dispersal accommodation around the country".

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy98gdnrl7lo

    It's all boiling up nicely. Hostels in towns or shacks in the countryside makes little difference. Sooner or later something very bad will happen and the two idiots quoted here will still be saying "But they're just good people looking for a better life."

    2. I'm sorry, they shouldn't be 'around the country' at all. They should never be 'in the country' in the first place.

      1. There should be a requirement that asylum seekers are placed as close as possible to the homes of MPs and their immediate family.

      2. Carney will probably offer refuge in Canada.

        As long as it is somewhere north like Axel Heiburg island, that's OK by me. 43,000 square kilometres should be big enough for the masses and they will probably bother no-one as it is north west of Greenland and uninhabited.
        Bonus – that far north should be a challenge for the faithful during ramadamadingdong!

  91. Apologies if this message from Rupert has already been posted:

    A busy couple of weeks for Restore Britain, with new members of the team joining and our advisory board taking shape.

    We’ve welcomed Lewis Brackpool, investigative journalist, who will be heading our investigations unit and whistleblowing efforts – new FOI offensives are underway. I look forward to sharing the full results with you all. There are already some shocking findings…

    Our whistleblowing platform will launch in the next week, I will email you all with details which will give you a chance to hand us leads to chase. This will be a team effort, so I look forward to sharing what we are developing.

    A secure system that will enable us to access information from whistleblowers all over the public sector and beyond. Stay tuned…

    William Clouston, SDP Leader, has joined our advisory board – bringing great experience and an ability to get things done. This is a cross-party movement, dedicated to delivering change now. More additions will be announced soon. We are building a movement that has never been seen before in British politics.

    Why let petty party politics get in the way of actually delivering change? This is what Restore Britain is all about.

    Our Direct Democracy platform will be launching soon, and is currently in testing. So please keep an eye out in the coming weeks for an email that will contain your unique access codes to the platform, and then the first vote will take place – on the mass deportation of all illegal migrants!

    I can also share some exclusive polling with you today, conducted on behalf of Restore Britain.

    You may have seen the news that the Labour Government is planning to fly in sick Gazan children from Palestine to be treated in NHS hospitals. I am fully opposed to this. I believe that British boys and girls should take absolute priority and should not be pushed further down the waiting list.

    I have taken a huge amount of abuse for making this argument, but it seems like the British people agree with me.

    We simply do not have the capacity to treat ill children from all over the planet on an already stretched NHS. We just don’t. I make no apologies for making the argument.

    37.8% of the public oppose the policy of treating Gazan children in British hospitals, compared to 29.4% in favour. 48% believe that these children should be treated in the region, in comparison to 28.3% who believe that should happen in the UK.

    And finally, a huge 50.4% support my position that we should not be offering asylum to any of these individuals, with just 26% disagreeing.

    Read our polling in full here…

    https://www.restorebritain.org.uk/restore_britain_gaza_polling

    Lots happening, so please encourage friends and family to sign up. The bigger our movement, the more influence we will have.

    https://www.restorebritain.org.uk/join_us

    More news to come soon – as always, thanks for your support.

    Rupert

    Restore Britain · United Kingdom
    This email was sent to diana.pendrich@btinternet.com · Unsubscribe

    Created with NationBuilder. Build the Future.

    2. Deportation of the boat people is all very well but they are only a small part of the post-1997 invasion started by Blair. Welfare dependent 'legal' migrants outnumber them many times over. How do we deal with these? Many have almost certainly broken the terms of their visas and work contracts.

      1. Got to start somewhere. Go for the illegals first, then the over-stayers and the criminals who came here "legally".

      2. Cut welfare payments – they are the "pull" factor. Make such payments only to people who have contributed. Ditto with medical care – haven't paid in? Here's the bill.

        1. Couldn't that also apply to the indigenous who have devoted their lives to living off the social?

          I can just see the exceptions being made to avoid upsetting the welfare votes – pregnant, single mother, adhd, headaches and so on.

    3. Deportation of the boat people is all very well but they are only a small part of the post-1997 invasion started by Blair. Welfare dependent 'legal' migrants outnumber them many times over. How do we deal with these? Many have almost certainly broken the terms of their visas and work contracts.

  92. I have just written for a second time (no reply from the first communication) to my Limp Dim MP about the racing-online gambling parity in the run up to the blank day on September 10th. They are totally cloth-eared. I doubt very much she'll bother to attend the Westminster lobby.

  93. Also, thanks to whomever posted the email from the Taxpayers Alliance last week. I have subscribed to the "nation of taxpayers" podcast…and I sent two proforma emails to my MP. One was re the Chagos deal and – wowsers! – I reecived a reply! First time ever. I shall try not to get carried away. Anyway my LimpDumb MP thinks the handling of the "deal" (my sic) was "shambolic".

  94. Has our seemingly two tier judiciary finally thrown in the towel with their decision to close down the Bell Inn as a hostel for migrants?
    Did the local authority finally pulled it's finger out for the people of Epping because of the big rise in votes for Reform and the local protests now panicking them into action.
    At least all the bused in left wing goose stepping in Epping failed to intimidate the locals.
    Are things finally going to change for the better?

    3. The council argued that the Hotel use was a planning use category. The occupation of the building by immigrants, legal or otherwise, rendered it a House of Multiple Occupation, a term used to describe a brothel in bygone days.

      I thought that appropriate because Starmer and his government are pimps.

    1. Cameron would be pleased to have a muslim PM. The country, on the other hand, would be finished.

  98. Spiders don’t bother me. I have just come up to rum the bath, and nearly drowned one. Once he has recovered, i need to put him somewhere else but this is the bit i always struggle with. It seems rude to throw them out of the window. I think in the past i have put them in my daughter’s room. But i could put this one in the bathroom sink. Thoughts?

    2. Edit. Well. That escalated quickly. Spider tried to make a break out of the bath but kept slipping down. I twice rescued him and he twice made two suicide bids back into the water. So he’s now in my daughter’s bedroom.

      1. I get them on the bath brush and they are usually happy enough. That gives me time to open the window and then – goodnight, Vienna.

    3. I catch them in a jar and put them outside, except in the depths of winter.
      If cellar spiders, in the garden.
      If huge spiders, at least a quarter of a mile away and on the other side of running water so they can't find their way back!

    5. "I think in the past i have put them in my daughter’s room."
      Quietly, I hope, so she doesn't wake up.

    6. I'm an arachnophobe – They really horrify me – but I wouldn't kill them – I get my OH to catch them and he throws them outside. Windows are good. It's not rude. It's not cold out there yet. I need my old man to stick around as I would really struggle without him!

      1. Hello J

        Would you believe me if I suggested a fresh Horse chestnut placed on every windowsill deters spiders ?

        Unfortunately, there’s no conclusive proof that conkers repel spiders. The story goes that conkers contain a noxious chemical that spiders avoid, but no-one’s ever been able to scientifically prove it.

        There’s hearsay that if a spider gets close to a conker it will curl its legs up and die within one day. Others say spiders will happily crawl over conkers with no ill effects at all. Plenty of people swear by conkers for spider control, what do you think?

        We have used fresh horse chestnuts for several years, putting them on windowsills and shelves during the Autumn , and we believe the trick works . Spiders stay away ..

        2. I don’t think they work…….. I love fresh conkers and I do pick them up in the autumn……. but I’ve never found they keep the spiders at bay. I think the spiders breed in dark places indoors like our downstairs loo or in the attic and spread out from there…….most of the ones we have are the cellar kind, not the really scary big black ones. Your house is probably cleaner and tidier than ours…….

      2. I visited the Nurse at our GP practice earlier today because I have a severe cough probably linked to my asthma diagnosis three years ago. My wife accompanied me.

        I was prescribed antibiotics after examination. At a point in the discussion about my health record the lovely nurse asked me how many lives I had left. DVT, Pneumonia, Bi-lateral Pulmonary Embolism, Thrombophlebitis, recently blocked bile duct and a bit more.

        I looked at my wife, who seems to think that I am a natural survivor and will live forever, and realised that I really must endeavour to keep going for her sake.

    7. Obviously not been to Australia 🤠
      Huntsman male and female house spiders are as big as your hand 😊🕷

    8. We always called my grandad Spiderman. It's not because he had any superpowers, he just couldn't get out of the bath.

    2. He was NOT sentenced to two years in prison for waving an England flag near a mosque. He "was arrested for a breach of the peace after swearing and shouting, while people inside the centre, on Roscoe Street in Scarborough, were at prayer" He had a "plastic bag of firelighters in his pocket". He "pleaded guilty to charges of racially or religiously aggravated harassment, having an article with intent to destroy or damage property, and obstructing or resisting a constable in the execution of their duty."

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy3l91ew5go

      I agree the sentence was unduly harsh, but he wasn't the innocent as portrayed by Basil the Great.

  100. Just had an automated reply from my MP reminding me I should put my full name and address (I had) and to check that I am a constituent (I know that I am). I have replied with my details again to point out that I know she's my MP and I'm a constituent.

    1. I am getting ever more short-tempered after the day I've had. I've managed so far to keep communications, both with the MP and with the petulant emailer civil. I think it may not last!

          1. Some days just go so badly that the sooner they end, the better!
            Hope tomorrow dawns bright.

    2. I think that's just the way they've set their auto-replies – probably not even read yours yet. I've had similar when I've emailed ours.

  101. When Pernille Sohl decided her teenage daughter’s beloved pony was in so much pain that it would be kinder to put him down, she could simply have taken him to the vet.

    Instead, she drove him to Aalborg Zoo, where he was euthanised and fed to the lions.

    The zoo, one of Denmark’s most popular, faced a global backlash last week after it issued a Facebook appeal for people to bring in not just horses but also smaller pets to use as food.

    Sohl, 44, wonders what all the fuss is about. “It might sound very dramatic and bizarre that you would feed your pet to animals in the zoo,” she said. “But they are going to be put down anyway and it is not like they are alive when they are given to the predators.”

    Many Danish pet owners appear to agree with her: so far this year Aalborg Zoo has received a total of 22 horses, 137 rabbits, 53 chickens and 18 guinea pigs, which have been turned into dinner for the lions, tigers, European lynxes and other carnivores who live there.

    Most other Danish zoos have also long since welcomed donated pets, so long as they meet certain health criteria. Cats and dogs are not accepted.

    It was in 2020 that Sohl, who runs a small farm in Assens in southwest Denmark where children with mental health issues can spend time with horses, decided that Chicago 57, a German riding pony, had to be put down.

    London Zoo says it only uses meat from verified sources that are approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs or have licences to supply zoos.

    “We have to be very careful regarding health and hygiene in order to keep the animals in our care safe and healthy, including knowing the latest health status and medical history of any animal that would be used to feed our carnivores,” a spokeswoman said.

    https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/i-sold-daughters-pony-zoo-lions-nm2p0tglg?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawMRse5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB2SDJwZlFxY2U2aW9Sc0pLAR4RQIenKQrM5qR-dWVNuzaXEo1JJBVA8mcTZCDjtbPhL1AweUS9x2N_qrnxQA_aem_UfpsR7dqRKmpazJRWBM3hQ#Echobox=1755614629

    1. They have a different attitude in Denmark………. remember Marius the young giraffe that was put down because he was surplus to requirements……..and dissected in front of children as a biology lesson.

  102. One for o1!

    Our Farage, who art in Clacton,
    Growing be thy fame.
    Thine election come,
    Reform be done,
    In Westminster as it is in MAGA,
    Give us this day our daily DOGE,
    And forgive us our taxes,
    As we deport boatmen who trespass against us,
    And lead us not into frustration,
    But deliver us from Starmer,
    For thine is the election, the power and the story,
    Four years, then ever,
    Amen.

    1. I thought that they had come up with a green sounding scam where they could grind up the turbine blades and reuse them (for something useless like hardcore for roads).

    2. And don't forget the hundred tonnes or so of concrete for each under ground that was poured in the support it all.

      1. Add to that the roadway that they needed to build to provide access for the installation of the turbines.

        They tried to put in six monster turbines near to us then found that the roads were nowhere near wide enough to deliver the bits and ended up extending about five miles worth of roads. The whole project was eventually cancelled so we have six rather well constructed foundation pads that have hardly been used.

    1. Can't read the rest of the top post, but isn't it likely they just got a call to go somewhere?

  106. That's me done for the day, spent a couple of hours on my shed roof picking large apples from our neighbours tree. I had to stop because the sun came out and it was in my eyes and I was sweating buckets. Two large tubs in the shed now more in the morning.
    Then all the chopping crushing and pressing starts.
    Good night all Nottlers sleep well 😴

      2. He's Afro-Caribbean. The ones who actually came to Britain were grateful for the jobs they had and the money they could earn. Succeeding generations, not so much.

        1. Back in the 80s I worked with a woman from Barbados. She and her husband had worked hard all their lives and bought their own house and planned in due course to sell up and retire comfortably back in the Caribbean. Sadly their son was a complete waste of space. Drug abuse had led to him being schizophrenic but he refused medication and could be violent. Such a shame.

    2. It's not Birmingham University, it's Birmingham City "University", which was Birmingham Polytechnic until 1992. From wiki:

      "Roughly half of the university's full-time students are from the West Midlands, and a large percentage of these are from ethnic minorities."

      Not expecting too many Einsteins then.

      As to what I would say to him, "The flags of England and the United Kingdom are the official flags of this country. If you don't approve, other countries are available".

      Read the whole Wiki entry. Typical trouble maker who hates the country but is more than happy to be paid by it.

    3. Good grief! Check out his Wiki page! He’s a really ghastly race-baiting lefty!

    6. I would give him the biggest insult by calling him a Very Silly Sausage and telling him to go and sit on the Naughty Step. Other NoTTLers might express similar views in much stronger language.

    10. He's up there with Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, the big stroppy, mouthy black woman who pops up on TV now and then to stir up trouble.

  109. And that is me off to bed.
    A small amount done, picked some blackberries to which the DT added some apple and put a crumble top on.

    A trip to the Solent area for next weekend is on the cards for the 50th anniversary of my old Morris Side, the Kings Johns. Will probably leave here next Wednesday or Thursday and have a week away.

    Good night all.

      1. Indeed. I understand that Tallis may have arranged the 8 five part voice sections so that pairs of the five sections were placed on each side of a square hall with the audience in the middle so they could experience the piece in quadraphonic sound…

        Morning / evening Katy…

          1. A couple of decades ago I watched a TV programme on ‘Sacred Heart’ music in the US. Imported from England the choir was arranges around the edges of the church and members of the congregation were invited to sit ‘in the box’ to experience quadraphonic singing (which pre-dates the victorian hymn dirges). One chap drove hundreds of miles to experience this….

    1. I think it's the Sierra Leone day out at Southend, Belle. I'm sure there's an equivalent knees up on a Freetown beach for British expats.

  113. Well, chums, it's my bedtime now. So I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and see you all tomorrow morning.

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