Monday 25 August: It’s back to the 1970s as Britain teeters on the brink of economic disaster

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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576 thoughts on “Monday 25 August: It’s back to the 1970s as Britain teeters on the brink of economic disaster”

  1. Monday Chuckle

    Wow! am I first today?

    Good morning Geoff and NoTTL chums, it’s Monday again. For a change, here is a bunch of attributed ‘shorts’ on Ballet this morning:

    The Mafia once moved in and took over the New York Ballet. During a performance of Swan Lake, there was a lot of money on the swan to live. WOODY ALLEN

    I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn’t mine. RITA RUDNER

    Ballet: men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are. ROBIN WILLIAMS

    Ballerinas are always on their toes. Why don’t they just get taller ballerinas? STEVEN WRIGHT

  2. Monday Chuckle

    Wow! am I first today?

    Good morning Geoff and NoTTL chums, it’s Monday again. For a change, here is a bunch of attributed ‘shorts’ on Ballet this morning:

    The Mafia once moved in and took over the New York Ballet. During a performance of Swan Lake, there was a lot of money on the swan to live. WOODY ALLEN

    I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn’t mine. RITA RUDNER

    Ballet: men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are. ROBIN WILLIAMS

    Ballerinas are always on their toes. Why don’t they just get taller ballerinas? STEVEN WRIGHT

  3. Well, chums, here I am again after the complete break I took yesterday. More news on this later.

    Wordle 1,528 4/6

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    2. Only a four today – not much of this:

      Wordle 1,528 4/6

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      Sent from my iPhone

    2. Every time a chicken coughs or someone develops a rash, we brace ourselves for a lockdown.

  7. A little more news on Sunday's Rest and Relax day which I treated myself to yesterday. I have a long coffee table in my front room, and I noticed that it was piled high with "stuff". So I decided to spend some time dealing with this. I cleared everything off the top and gave the table a really good dust. Then I sorted the "stuff", binning some of it and taking most of the rest (books) upstairs to my study where I keep my bookshelves.

    I also spent some time in my garden tidying up my rose plants. Although I now have a wonderful gardener who does most of the work, he is currently having a well-earned holiday. So I did a little work there.

    I also re-read some chapters of an old Book Club choice. It is called A Gentleman In Moscow and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so decided to start to re-read it – around fifty pages a day. In the evening I enjoyed a meal of fish, florets and peas; no chips because I am watching my weight. And tonight, it being a Bank Holiday, I am treating myself to a lovely joint of Roast Lamb with Mint Jelly, and with Gooseberry Crumble for dessert.

    1. Sounds delightful, Elsie! Happy Bank Holiday, although we ‘oop North’ are having a normal day!
      Twins arrive at 7.50, I take them to school and then we’ve a funeral to go to!

    2. Sounds delightful, Elsie! Happy Bank Holiday, although we ‘oop North’ are having a normal day!
      Twins arrive at 7.50, I take them to school and then we’ve a funeral to go to!

      1. Aye, Sue Mac, your own Bank Holiday is next Monday. My cousin's husband has a birthday today, although he is of Scottish descent and is called Gordon. (Good morning, btw.)

    3. I'm planning baked potatoes with whatever cold meats & salads are available for the DT & Still-At-Homes.
      Though DT isn't home until 6ish this evening and Welder Son may not be back for food.

      1. I've got leftovers – everything diced into dog food sized chunks. A cube of pork shoulder that's been sitting, gradually reducing with each sandwich, in the fridge for a week, some more chunks of something meaty I put in the freezer some time ago, and which tastes of stripped paint, some boiled veg left over from Saturday's meal eked out with courgettes and beans that are in glut right now. Boiled potatoes, with their skins carefully removed, a bit of dried Moroccan cous-cous from a large pot I got on special offer once, and I had to take a saw to a yoghurt pot of Christmas turkey soup from the freezer, which got me nowhere, so I heated up a bread knife under tap, and managed to get some icy chunks off it for stock. Ten minutes in the pan to melt everything, then into the microwave to attempt to soften up the chunks.

        First bowlful yesterday, more today. When I'm sick of it, into the freezer it goes.

        As I remarked yesterday, nobody wants to live with me. Not even desperate and hungry refugees!

    4. We started the same exercise, Elsie. First – vacuum & mop the dust off the floors.
      Second – wipe down everything that needs moved back to it's original place, also evaluate whether it needs to go out.
      third – open the cupboards, empty the shelves, and wipe that lot down, too. Revert to stage 2.
      (we got to the start of third stage yesterday, already the place looks a million times better, and one can feel peace stealing in over one.
      Then – I attacked the garden. Pulled weeds and a huge harvest of rhubarb, trimmed the hydrangea, made everything lower but not so tidy.
      Today – blackcurrants and plums after work.

    6. That sounds lovely- glad you had such a nice day.

      Interestingly, I have just bought myself 'A Gentlleman in Moscow' to re-read at leisure. I first encountered it during the covid nightmare, at the point where I had finally met another sane human who saw through the lies and hugged me spontaneously, but this was not long after I had nearly succumbed to despair in my enforced solitary confinement, so it was a very intense experience. I am interested to see how I shall react to it now I have changed my circumstances so drastically. Certainly won't miss the petty thought that 'At least he was allowed to be near other humans, lucky sod'. (Wasn't proud of myself for that.)

      It was one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. I hope we both glory in its re-reading.

    1. Clearly the Age of Enlightenment has taken on a new meaning we are now living in the Age of Imbecility …!

      Good morning Johnny and all.

    2. Clearly the Age of Enlightenment has taken on a new meaning we are now living in the Age of Imbecility …!

      Good morning Johnny and all.

    6. All the while removing natural carbon capture features such as trees, hedgerows and green fields.

  10. Good morning all.
    Dry, Bright & Sunny with no wind and a comfortably cool tad under 15°C outside.

  11. Morning, all Y'all.
    Brilliantly sunny, although pleasantly chilly. Definitely autumn, as there are conkers falling off the horse chestnut trees!
    Getting the hang of the new floor heating, and the warmer house plus the absence of much of the reconstruction dust made going for a shower this morning a real pleasure!

  13. Oh the irony of the Bollinger Bolshevik 3 Pads Rayner necking a tumbler of champagne sitting in a rubber dinghy off the south coast.

    1. And we thought that ex bar waiter Prescott 'Three Jags' was a bad example of why someone people tap into politics.
      Three houses Rayner.

          1. Be careful what you wish for. A jag today has bits on it, by design, you wouldn't want in bed.

          2. It’s a long time since I’ve been in a jag. One friend had an E type.
            In the passenger seat it Scared the life out of me.

          3. He did. Allegedly quite frequently.
            And, according to a couple of his former constituents, so did his wife!

          4. My good lady worked with the wife of one of the captain's of the cable laying ships cabin boy Prescott worked on.

    2. Sea_Warrior
      Rayner is on-track to lose her seat (Ashton-under-Lyme) at the next election. She is 45 and won't want to go back to care-work.
      Hove is likely to stay red. The MP is Peter Kyle, who is 54. So, let's keep our eyes open for a chicken-run by our Ange to the Hove seat.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/201e26794c8870737e18c02d1051b5357e036cce3b6500bbaf4841648611f2ea.png
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68200975d7a6dbb3bdc3409f241b2ca21c93dcb2963f51752202e92b1303040f.png

      1. It was Penny Mordaunt's greatest political moment when, during Deputy PMQs, she had the joy of responding to Rayner's ritual "Tory Scum" salvo of criticism of Government sleaze. Congratulating the Growler for her eloquence, Mordaunt reminded the Speaker that Rayner's own sleaze exceeded any of that coming from Tories.

  16. Mike b
    8h
    Some businesses including pubs are refusing to allow people in because they are displaying England flags.
    …how was this situation allowed to happen..betrayed by the political establishment.

    Stuart
    Mike b
    8h
    Word will soon get around which businesses are doing this…

    Mike b
    Stuart
    8h
    On x the pubs are being named and shamed. Management claim that they won't get involved in 'protests' .

    1. Perhaps Pubs should take a side in this. Muslims don't drink. Without the flag wavers they won't have any customers.

    2. Will they let people in with “Palestinian” flags? Or irish tricolours?

  17. We are in the van with the bikes off to Wallingford to do some cycling.

  18. A breakdown arrests on Day 1 of the Hay Literary three-day festival

    Assault on police – 15
    Possession of an offensive weapon – 21
    Possession of cannabis – 25
    Possession of class A drugs – 6
    Possession of other drugs – 2
    Possession with intent to supply drugs – 19
    Robbery – 2
    Public order – 4
    Sexual offences – 4
    Other – 42

    1. Oh not that wonderful London Bank Holiday weekend again. It's getting worse every year.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunny and 12c could be 22 by 2 pm.
    The economy….Something else that our useless political idiots have effed up…..well actually everything they come into contact with.
    Happy Bank Holiday all. Enjoy 🤗🤩

    1. You're presenting that Labour's catastrophic assault on the economy isn't entirely by design. They wanted this. They intended to destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs, they wanted to ruin businesses, they wanted to force recession, they wanted to massively expand the debt, borrowing and waste.

      It's intentional.

      1. I realise that they have only been in charge for just over 12 months.
        But the writing was on the wall before they took over. The thousands of illegal criminal invaders were costing us billions before the recent idiots took over.
        And of course still are.
        I can't actually think of anything at all that this or the previous government has done that benefits the hard working population of this country..

  20. Good morning, all. Sunny and calm.

    Debating over whether or not to go out and buy a food processor. I have a large amount of cooked tomatoes that require processing and my old and faithful Braun hand blender isn't up to the job. A new tool would also be handy for making pastry etc. After all it's only money and if I do not spend it I'm convinced this government will misappropriate it in short order. Perhaps I better buy that Jag I've always wanted.🤣🤣🤣

    Politics at music festivals isn't what the punters paid for. Group brings out Palestinian flag at the Victorious Festival in Portsmouth and get silenced.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f055bea63396490454dfe0f0e7f30b772de601dbfc3ac4e174a4b07f0feda8fa.png
    Meanwhile, at Bristol, Zarah Sultana MP addressed the crowd.
    https://x.com/JuliaHB1/status/1959697301985013809
    Mixed bag of comments with most in the, anti politics at festivals, group.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d109e5e280af6a53a06fbd40b602c081ecd64e380d02103450ea676fff066a50.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ec49ac1bab3e242af6d64ec268234f9490c37452321a084696add71c1d6eeb8.png

    1. Cripes alive Sultana is a moron, isn't she?

      Why don't Lefties ever go and live in socialist countries? Is it because eating litter and mud doesn't appeal?

      1. Nope. We had 12 years of Blair, then another 14 years, now we've 1 year of StarmFuhrer.

        I honestly do not believe Farage has the will or drive to undo the goliath before him. I don't think he even realises the entanglement.

  23. Good morning Nottlers, 17°C, rising to 23°C this afternoon, with clearing skies and light, southerly winds on the Costa Clyde. Walking football followedby mowing the jungle await.

  24. Rick B
    42m
    I'm old enough to remember when the Middle East was all about Golda Meir versus Yasser Arafat.

    And both sides were doing pretty well out of the inexplicable interest that Western governments had in bringing 'peace' to the troubled land.

    The only thing that's changed in the decades since is that the conflict has spread to cities all over the West. Meanwhile the Western taxpayers are still doing tons of money over a situation that never gets any better while the same groups of people are still getting rich from the arms trade.

    Bit like the climate swindle.

  25. Lord Farquard
    15h
    Look at the sentences. Compare to Lucy Connolly's
    Counter-protesters jailed after attacking wh1te men wearing Union flag

    Leeds Crown Court shown footage of Asi*ns kicking and punching a smaller group

    Leeds Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of a group of Asi*n men kicking and punching a smaller group of four wh1te men, one of whom was draped in a Union flag and wearing a Union flag mask, on Saturday afternoon on Great George Street, Leeds.

    Sameer Ali, 21, of West Park Drive, Leeds, and Adnan Ghafoor, 31, of Spen Bank, Leeds, both admitted affray earlier this week.

    On Friday, Ali was jailed for 20 months and Ghafoor was jailed for 18 months, with Ghafoor being ordered to serve an additional 12 months for breaching an unrelated suspended sentence.

    2. And Not shown on any news broadcast.
      I've noticed that when blocking the identity of criminals the blocking shadows have increased in size. Because it was too easy to see the effect of diversity.

      1. 411771+ up ticks,

        Morning TB,
        Many believed that London was a safer city when the Krays were running the show.

        2. Wes Streeting is related to them.
          He is also the nearest this cabinet has to a recognisable human being.

    2. Absolutely correct and this is why someone above this slime bag government needs to step up, step in and stop it…….hello HMK…..

    3. They're socialists. Folk write articles and such about how bad things are, how they're getting worse, what could be done to recover them.

      Labour don't care. They don't want to improve the country. They want things to get worse. That's the genuinely terrifying thing.

    4. They're socialists. Folk write articles and such about how bad things are, how they're getting worse, what could be done to recover them.

      Labour don't care. They don't want to improve the country. They want things to get worse. That's the genuinely terrifying thing.

    1. Maybe now the gays will start to realise the slime attitude to homosexuality is not a made-up piece of propaganda.

      1. Now, I like Pride marches, and I like Free Palestine marches, but which one is better? There's only one way to find out –

        FIGHT!!!

    2. I think they just hate normalcy. A Lefty rentamob. Ignorant, uncaring, confused, spiteful, self righteous and petulant.

  28. UK Legislation
    4m
    The communist technocrats are the enemy of the people.. its them and their insitutions that need to be purged

    Corbett (2014) notes the praise heaped on China by representatives of the transnational ruling class in the years around 2010, including George Soros, Evelyn de Rothschild, Richard Rockefeller, and Henry Kissinger. Corbett (2022a) also notes the open affinities of Western political leaders with China, including Justin Trudeau (“There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China, because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime”), Angela Merkel (described as an “old friend” by Xi Jinping), Joe Biden (who calls Xi a “bright and really tough guy”), and Boris Johnson (who claims to be “fervently Sinophile”).

    Klaus Schwab’s son Olivier married a Chinese woman and has led the World Economic Forum (WEF) office in Beijing since 2011. Chinese officials of increasing importance have attended the WEF since 2009, including Xi Jinping in 2017. Schwab claims that the West needs to adopt the kinds of technologies introduced in China (Velázquez, 2020).

  29. Good morning everyone ,

    Sunny morning , 17c, although the spider webs are glistening on the hedges, and clusters of swallows already swooping around , gathering for the great journey.

    Spoke to both SA sisters last night .. Sis one is back home , bruised and comfortable , but badly bruised and stitches in both hands , she has been so lucky considering she is post day 4 re her hip replacement op.. her fall could have messed everything up again .

    Sis two is exhausted after she coped with Sis one trauma .. and the terror of following the ambulance 16ks in the wee small hours after midnight through dangerous parts of the Cape .. not knowing where she was in the 24 chaos of South African roads ..

    Anyway , normality has returned , Sis two coped , and will be staying with Sis one until next weekend before she flies north to her home near the Kruger .

    I didn't sleep very well , but before going 5o bed , Moh and I watched the Godfather on the Beeb ..

    Do any of you think that this government is similar to the Mafia , grabbing money from us , pretending it is a protection scheme, oh yes it is .

    Thirdly , when we climbed into bed at probably 0100hrs , we heard the heavy sound/ throb of aircraft high overhead .. this is the route for commercial and service aircraft ..

    So would any of you look on Flight radar to investigate?

    1. We had plod copter overhead last night. I've told plod if they want to make some money sit on the main road, lights off at 11-1am. They'll rake in a fortune from the kiddie boy racers.

      Once done though, please destroy the noisy, offensive vehicles.

    2. The war must end. It is so utterly senseless. Ignoring the moronic politicians who are using it for political ends – what do the people there want?

  33. Terrorism made up by Israel to marginalise Muslims, lecturer claims
    Jewish campaign group accuses Dr Tarek Younis of ‘anti-Semitic and highly offensive’ online posts
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/25/terrorism-made-up-by-israel-to-marginalise-muslims-lecturer/
    BTL

    Is it not strange that the Daily Telegraph gives space in its newspaper to those who are all in favour of using rape, murder, kidnap, the use of human shields and the manipulation of starvation they themselves impose on their own people in their propaganda?

    1. We all know that If Israel hadn't stood up to hamas and the rest of the Islamic agression they would no longer exist.
      Apparently accordingto recent news hamas has gone back to using hospitals to launch their attacks now.
      How long will it be before they are doing the same thing in our Western countries..

      1. And yet the moronic lumpen proletariat cannot see that if Hamas has sworn to go on raping and murdering and kidnapping and repeating October 7th until all Jews and The State of Israel are wiped from the face of the earth then Israel has no alternative but the total extinction of Hamas.

        1. IMHO.
          Islam with its inbred and well practiced and tradition of hate is a danger to everyone who is not islamic.

    2. I passed a “Free Palestine” flag earlier today. It made me wonder: free what, from what?

        1. It is very sad that the fascist Left refuse to acknowledge that they are simply perpertuating Goebbel's with his 'accuse others of being what you are'.

          Their hatred is so all consuming, so disgustingly self righteous, so utterly wrong. It poisons everything.

      2. One could describe Jesus himself as “off the spectrum but gentle” and certainly willing to be spat at and worse.

      1. 411771+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        You have every right to, use it or lose it.
        Lets not become one of the ” you can’t say that” brigade.

    3. Speaker's Corner can only exit in a country that has freedom of speech.

      Ergo – people should be allowed to say what they want at Speaker's Corner or the myth that the UK still has free speech must be abandoned.

  35. It is all too much, all of it. Every which way one turns, all directions, all institutions. It is overwhelming. Which is just the way they want it.

    1. I have to know the news, but I dread reading it.
      I reckon we'd need to go back to the reign of Henry VI to find the country so badly run.
      At least he had the excuse of being mad rather than evil.

      1. And Henry VI founded King’s College, Cambridge and Eton College. Will Charles III leave anything worthwhile behind?

        1. Good point. He was extremely pious, but not a suitable monarch, particularly in times when kings had real power.

          1. Well Charles III may be pious, but that doesn't make him a suitable monarch, either. Anne II would have been so much better.

        2. Charles III is by all accounts a minus. If we carry on with him and his political priorities, mirrored by Starmer and his coven, there will be no country of England as such but a repulsive Caliphate.

        3. Charles III is by all accounts a minus. If we carry on with him and his political priorities, mirrored by Starmer and his coven, there will be no country of England as such but a repulsive Caliphate.

      3. Indeed, I have become obsessive about the news, although not the msm on offer. I think the obsession is because knowing allows me to take evasive action to avoid trouble, if need be; forewarned is forearmed.

    2. I'd suggest it isn't the attitudes and abuses the state is perpetuating, more the lack of control we have over it.

      These are our servants. They are intentionally making our lives miserable, impoverishing us, wasting our money. That we cannot stop them from doing so and remove them from the ability to is the problem.

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

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

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

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

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

    Rudyard Kipling

  37. As I'm planning to head down to the Solent area for next weekend the King John's Morris 50th anniversary event, I took the quilt and pillow cases out of the Van last week to wash the cover and cases. The cover has now been put back onto the quilt and I've just put them back into the Van. Also made sure the leisure battery is fully charged.

    Leaving on Wednesday and will be dropping in on Eldest Daughter in Basingstoke to treat her to lunch, cinema and a Wetherspoons Breakfast.

  39. 411771+ up ticks,

    Many a tactical voter will now regret the heinous political creature they have unleashed on peoples of innocence, the current political creature heading up forty years of polling station criminal creative
    construct.

    Dt,
    Is this the beginning of the English revolution?
    Recent demonstrations under St George’s Cross reveal a country questioning who it is and who it wants to be

    VERY LATE IN THE DAY BUT ABOUT BLOODY TIME.

      1. muslim causes problems wherever it infests. Perhaps if they wanted to be free, they should have left their neighbours in peace.

    1. Yes. You would have thought such an ordeal would bring them together.
      Even before the past few years, it sounds like it was a dysfunctional family.

  42. We had an impromptu Christmas last night 🙂
    Family get together – one of neices said it felt like Christmas because we were all together. Next min BiL appeared with a box of left over crackers which we pulled. Hats on, other nice starts playing piano – lots of Carol singing.

    what a laugh😆😆🎅

    1. Entirely normal behaviour for the August Bank Holiday week-end. Only an idiot would go to the beach or similar.

      1. I went to a Secondary Modern and only transferred to the Grammar School for the Sixth Form, so it was CSEs not O levels but I got grade 1 maths quite easily. I couldn’t have done A level maths though. My paternal grandmother was illiterate but naturally numerate and I’d describe myself more as numerate than having a head for mathematical equations. I discovered later that that’s also a bar to studying logic.

        1. In my day, a 6 was a scrape-through at O level and my grade 8 was a step up from 9, the lowest. I probably got some points for answering most of the questions and spelling my name correctly. I managed to pass all the others.

      2. Last time around a banking crisis we discovered that the only person with a banking qualification was the chap who presented Eurovision whose face I can envisage but whose name I have momentarily forgotten.

        2. Antoine de Caunes? Though Terry Wogan did work for a bank before becoming an entertainer.

          2. And P.G Wodehouse worked in a bank while writing magazine stories and honing the skills which led him to become the finest humorous writer the world has ever seen.

      3. A-Level Pure and Applied Mathematics Grade B for me 1970.

        The old man (my father) was having a nervous breakdown which inhibited my study.

        1. Congrats! Just O level pass for me, but eldest (born in Essex!) has a M.Math degree from Bath University and is a Chartered Mathematician (CMath).

          2. Caroline got her first degree in French and Spanish and her PGCE at Bath University. Her Maitrise-ès-Lettres in Linguistics was awarded by the University of Rouen.

          1. On my first Degree course at the University of Sheffield having maths was necessary since we had lectures and examinations organised by the Department of Engineering. However those with no maths could opt to study a different subject.

            Without some knowledge of mechanics, integration and differentiation you would be lost.

            However when in practice I enjoyed the benefit of the services of expert civil and structural engineers so the need for calculations never arose. A bit of knowledge was no bad thing.

            In addition we had another set of industrial engineers in the specialist contractor category. I recall learning greatly from steel fabricators, specialist stainless steel fabricators, iron founders, aluminium and bronze fabricators and machinists of all kinds.

            I just hope that we would have retained those industries and the apprenticeship system that trained the operators. I sometimes doubt that any government appreciates the wealth of knowledge we as a nation accumulated over centuries of endeavour and innovation.

      4. Amazingly I did! Wonderful what you can achieve when you get marks for showing your working out.

    2. Our daughter-in-law-to-be has a Ph.D in Maths and is a university lecturer. In spite of this she is a lovely girl and our son (M.Sc with distinction in Computer and Data Analytics) is as lucky to have won her heart as she is to have won his.

      However we must not allow ourselves to be too impressed with academic qualifications as Rachel Reeves actually does have a B.A. in PPE from Oxford and a M.Sc. in economics from LSE.

      A general rule of thumb is that if you need your car's engine repaired the last person to fix it is an engineer; this is equally true of engineers meddling with outboard engines on boats.

      1. "Our daughter-in-law-to-be has a Ph.D in Maths and is a university lecturer. In spite of this she is a lovely girl…"

        Are having a Ph.D in Maths and being a university lecturer thought to be impediments which must be overcome in order to become lovely?

        1. May I recommend that Understanding Irony Course which is so highly recommended by academics and non-academics alike?

      2. My true love hath my heart and i have his
        By just exchange, one for the other given?

        Were you channelling your inner Sir Philip Sidney there, Rastus?

    1. Prophetic text in the script from over forty years ago..
      of course that type of council official has long gone.
      Replaced by the examples of J below.. in every single sector of the UK. Just a random sample from the Js.
      Jolly Jolyon & Jess
      Give up UK you're done for https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/721bf6da15d5743bd04c2ebdf57eb859dc73f684fe67b6ce7a4b5974485ae882.jpg .
      .
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f236fff5260aee033ee0277b3b826aa886d5ed8857a8949090921bfff99a9d7.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a38de3a0715ede0fe1fbef1461b2b4d61012957c430e2aebf51d49d39479d0f7.jpg

    2. Prophetic text in the script from over forty years ago..
      of course that type of council official has long gone.
      Replaced by the examples of J below.. in every single sector of the UK. Just a random sample from the Js.
      Jolly Jolyon & Jess
      Give up UK you're done for https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/721bf6da15d5743bd04c2ebdf57eb859dc73f684fe67b6ce7a4b5974485ae882.jpg .
      .
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f236fff5260aee033ee0277b3b826aa886d5ed8857a8949090921bfff99a9d7.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a38de3a0715ede0fe1fbef1461b2b4d61012957c430e2aebf51d49d39479d0f7.jpg

    3. "I there something I don't know?"

      Yes, mush. Prevaricate is NOT a synonym for Procrastinate!

      Procrastinate means to dawdle or waste time. Prevaricate means to tell a lie or falsehood; or to be deceitful with the truth.

      The number of people, these days, who cannot grasp this simple fact is terrifying.

      1. I am not sure being "deceitful" with the truth covers a common type of prevarication, i.e. not directly responding to the question as asked. Something almost all poiticians do.

        Here is the US, it is equated with telling lies – no nuances involved.

        1. Not so in the UK. Here it also means: to avoid telling the truth or coming directly to the point; to quibble.

          Obsolete uses of the word are: to deviate; to shift about from side to side; to undertake an enterprise with the object of wrecking it; to betray a client by collusion with his or her opponent; to pervert, transgress. [Chamber's].

  51. Africa's plan to redraw 'skewed' world map: 55-nation African Union calls for 'Equal Earth' map to replace those that 'misrepresent continent's true scale'

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15031237/Africas-plan-redraw-world-map-55-nation-Union-calls-Equal-Earth-replace-misrepresent-continents-true-scale.html

    I am totally in favour of this.
    It would show that there's so much space that nobody from there should be permitted to arrive in Europe claiming asylum and benefits.

    1. Saw that yesterday.
      It's the work of dumbasses – the map is "skewed" as a result of the projection of a sphere onto a flat piece of paper! It's NOT to do with white supremacy or any other such crap, it's geometry!
      I guess yer average blick doesn't do geometry.

  52. Even when the BBC affects to be balanced, you know which way it's leaning.

    National flags have started lining our streets. They may say something more

    Driving through the south west of Birmingham, it's hard not to notice something about the lampposts.

    For more than a mile, almost every one has a St George's flag or union jack attached – thousands of them.

    In one district, Weoley Castle, the BBC found two men carrying a ladder and shopping bags. A DIY trip this was not, because as we stop to talk to them one rests the ladder against a lamppost, the other pulls a union jack from the bag, and the next minute it's flying high.

    They tell us they want to spread "love, unity and patriotism", but don't want to be filmed or interviewed. They direct us to a local cafe, where flags and donations are being collected, to find out more.

    It's rare to see national flags lining our streets like this in Great Britain, beyond special occasions like royal, sporting or military events, so why are they appearing now – and does this say something bigger about people's perceptions of modern-day Britain?

    The latest phenomenon started in mid-July in Weoley Castle and spread to neighbouring areas. In the last week it has rippled not just across the West Midlands, but other parts of England including Worcester, Bradford, Greater Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich.

    In the cafe, we're told the first flags were put up in Weoley Castle's square in response to a story in the nearby town of Rugby about a 12-year-old girl who was prevented from making a speech about being British in her school, while wearing a union jack-themed dress.

    She was wearing the outfit for Bilton School's "culture celebration day", for which pupils were asked to wear cultural dress rather than school uniform. The school has since offered "unreserved apologies" to the girl over the incident.

    As the story gathered steam online, a group named the Weoley Warriors was formed, locals told us in the cafe, initially by three men but now said to have several dozen members.

    We know little about this group and who exactly is behind it. What we do know is that in the last few weeks, it has been prolific on social media with its bold lion-themed logo, mainly being shared by individual accounts. It has a private Facebook group of 1,600 members and has launched an online crowdfunder, raising nearly £14,000, which the group says will be used only "for flags, poles and cable ties".

    On the crowdfunder page, Weoley Warriors describes itself as "a group of proud English men with a common goal to show Birmingham and the rest of the country how proud we are of our history, freedoms and achievements, giving hope to local communities that all isn't lost and they are not alone".

    A TikTok account with the name Weoley Warriors has used the hashtag "operation raise the colours" in some posts, a phrase that many accounts are using alongside pictures of various flag locations.

    "Operation Raise the Colours" is also the name of another group that has encouraged people to put up flags and is alleged to have accepted a donation from the far-right organisation Britain First, The Times reported. According to the research group Hope Not Hate, Operation Raise the Colours was co-founded by Andrew Currien, otherwise known as Andy Saxon, who has allegedly had links with the English Defence League and Britain First. The group denies it is a far-right organisation.

    While the Weoley Warriors has focused activities on Birmingham, Operation Raise the Colours claims to have supplied flags to areas such as Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Staffordshire. On Thursday in London's Canary Wharf a large group of men, many masked, raised hundreds of flags in support of the campaign.

    In some other areas, the raising of flags appears to be spontaneous, coinciding with a highly charged political time in the UK, particularly England, when it comes to national identity and belonging. There have been protests outside some hotels housing asylum seekers where union jack and St George's flags have featured heavily among the placards.

    There's an ongoing legal battle over the closure of an asylum hotel in the Essex town of Epping, and more demonstrations are planned, where speakers often touch on themes of nationhood.

    But the fact that both the St George's flag and union jacks have been used as emblems for far-right political movements, over many years, has meant some residents in Birmingham have been uncomfortable with the motivations of some of those backing the Weoley Warriors.

    A man in the suburb of Kings Heath, where a roundabout was vandalised, said it was "not patriotic, it just feels like an excuse for xenophobia".

    Sarah Milne, who knows the original members of Weoley Warriors, tells us the idea behind it has been to show pride in the country and "to take the flag back from the racists".

    She believes it is part of a reaction to a general sense of malaise – "everybody's so upset with the way the country's being run, the way we're being treated".

    Weoley Warriors did not respond when BBC News tried to contact the group via social media and its crowdfunding page in relation to this piece.

    The group previously told the BBC's Midlands Today programme that its "primary objectives" were to put up flags, with "no particular thoughts" on roundabout spraying, and its main message was "we really hope it brightens your day and brings you joy and love for one another".

    All the locals we have chatted to in Weoley Castle support the flags, but for different reasons. Some say it's about patriotism and civic pride, some talk about immigration while others point to Palestinian flags that, while far fewer in number, have long flown in other parts of the city.

    The reaction six miles away in the flag-lined village of Barnt Green, Worcestershire, has been more muted with several people telling the BBC they are pleased about the flags but others expressing unease – one man fearing they might cause division.

    It gets to the heart of how many Britons' relationship with the union jack and the four nations' flags is complex.

    Sociologist and author Ellis Cashmore believes those displaying the flags probably have different reasons for doing so, but generally feel a sense of being left behind or overlooked. For some, the warnings of tax rises and economic pain potentially to come this autumn may be contributing to this sense of disillusionment.

    "If people reach the conclusion that they're being either silenced or ignored, they want to do something about it," he tells us.

    "Of course they don't have the means to make a formal protest, so what do they do? They start sticking out these flags, waving them… They want people to pay attention to them."

    Those raising flags on lampposts in recent weeks have used mostly union jacks, but others – particularly those painting roundabouts and zebra crossings – have chosen the St George's Cross, which symbolises the patron saint of England.

    The St George's flag has sometimes had a closer association with English nationalists, and the union jack has been used frequently by mainstream political parties including the Tories and Labour. Alongside these flags, you can currently see the Scottish Saltire, Welsh Dragon, and Irish tricolour on one of the busiest roads in Birmingham.

    In Greater Manchester, where flags have begun to emerge too, mayor Andy Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester: "I don't think you need to start going out painting your community.

    "You can obviously display a flag if that's your choice but I don't know, I do wonder about the times we're living in," he said. "It's like people are seeking confrontation."

    Flags have been seen near a Canary Wharf asylum hotel in London that has been the subject of protests

    It echoes a warning from Dorset council's leader Nick Ireland, a Liberal Democrat, who said on Friday that some residents were finding the St George flags appearing there "intimidating" and it was "naive" to suggest the emblems had not been "hijacked" by some far-right groups.

    As a political row develops over the response to the flags and roundabouts, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch waded in on Saturday to say councils removing the flags on lampposts were behaving in a "shameful" way and applying rules "selectively".

    Rather than being seen as an "act of rebellion" such flags should be "welcomed", she wrote in the Daily Mail.

    Meanwhile, the Labour-run city council in Birmingham has been accused of leaving Palestinian flags up but taking St George's flags and union jacks down. Initially officials said the latter were a health and safety risk and would be removed. The council has also said only 200 flags have been taken down since the start of January and none since 1 August.

    Many of the Palestinian flags in Birmingham have popped up sporadically, on only one or two lampposts rather than lining the streets. An exception to this was at the start of July when lampposts between the University of Birmingham and the Edgbaston cricket ground were bedecked with Palestinian flags – they were quickly taken down.

    Another Labour mayor – Richard Parker of the West Midlands – said safety and responsibility must come first when raising flags by roads, but added that "they are uplifting all of us… displays of patriotism are something I support" and "that is increasingly the position of the councils in the regions and politicians from all sides".

    The police have got involved in some of the roundabout-spraying incidents, with West Mercia Police saying this week it was investigating it as criminal damage in Bromsgrove and West Midlands Police saying it was carrying out inquiries.

    It remains unclear how long this will last. Will patriotic flags become a more permanent fixture of residential streets in Britain, like in many US neighbourhoods where they are commonplace?

    As flag flying and roundabout spraying grew in Greater Manchester this week, Burnham asked people to "chill out" – something many seem to find easier said than done at the moment.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx271162ee3o

    PS Spot the Muslim making a fool of himself.

  54. The 50 best animated films of all time, ranked
    Animation ushers us into the world of film and stays with us. Here are the best for adults and children alike, from Disney to Ghibli
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/best-animated-films/#10-perfect-blue-1997undefinedundefined

    When The DT is keen to fill up space on its paper it thinks of putting up a subjective list about the best 50 songs; the best 100 films; the 30 least sexy leading film stars and so on.

    Why doesn't the DT come up with lists such as:

    the Top 50 hypocrites in politics;

    the 15 nastiest members of parliament;

    the 45 worst Conservative, Labour or Liberal/Democrat party leaders;

    the 12 most illiterate and innumerate ministers of education;

    etc. etc.

    2. ALL lists are subjective and not worth the paper they are scribbled on.

      As for lists of "the best" or the "GOAT" (Greatest Of All Time) in any sphere of endeavour, they are simply written by clueless clowns who have too much time on their hands.

  57. They just cant bring themselves to say it.

    Girl, 17, 'stabbed to death in Amsterdam by asylum seeker' who 'raped woman days before'
    He also allegedly assaulted a third woman five days before.

    Lefties protest
    vrouwen willen levem
    veilig huis
    March Against Femicide in Rotterdam on Sunday carrying signs reading: "She had dreams, no grave needed" and "Not all men, but always men".

    1. Poor lass. Don't know what to write.
      That news has really upset me. I've become incoherent.

  58. Drove out to my nearest Argos branch, 4 to 5 miles, and every mini-roundabout, and there's plenty, sported a red cross of St George. One zebra crossing close to a mini-roundabout had also received the treatment. Due to traffic levels I took a slightly different route home and it was the same story.

    I imagine the "city" councillors are in a right tizzy state, poor dears.

      1. It would take a while to paint a Dragon & green on a mini roundabout. One muight get run over.

        1. The flags of St George and St Andrew are recognised as the national flags of England and Scotland, but the flags of St David and St Patrick are listed separately as they do not necessarily fall into the category of a country’s national flag.

      2. Lying again. When I was in town I saw a thing wrapped up head to foot and wearing a black mask for good measure. It was accompanied by its owner. I pulled a face – can that make me guilty of islamophobia? If not, I made the sign of the cross to make sure. If it was offended, the feeling is mutual. There’s nothing to keep it here if it doesn’t like it.

    2. There are two on the mini roundabouts outside Richmond Gate entrance to Richmond Park….

  59. "Fiat GB famously promised the Strada as being designed with a computer, silenced by a laser and built by a robot.

    From a total production of almost 1.8 million, Chris Reynolds’s 1981 example is the only surviving 75 CL Automatic still on the road in the UK and one of only 32 of all types in a roadworthy condition."

    I once had the pleasure of spending a week in the company of Harold Bridger, the eminent Industrial Psychologist along with a couple of others from Unilever. He told us that he had been invited to the Fiat factory where they made the Strada and he chatted to the workforce on the shop floor especially how they found working with the robots. One worker confessed that they "liked to show the robots who in fact was in charge'. "How do you do that?" Harold asked. "

    4. Fiats of that era were very probe to rust. As one US motoring journalist commented when the Chryslet Fiar merger happened. "Remember all those X1/9"s, rusting away on our roasdsides?"

  60. Afternoon all. I must have knocked the phone and damaged the screen yesterday. I went into town when I walked the dogs and found a phone shop open. They sorted it in 45 mins at a fraction of the cost of a new phone. Just as well as my bank account has taken a hammering this month.

    Have they only just realised that Labour is recreating the seventies on steroids?

  61. Warning to all blokes. When you're wife wakes up, don't refer to her as 'honey monster'.

    It really kills the mood.

    1. Mercator's projection probably understates how large Africa is compared with the other countries.

      3. Probably? That's probably in the sense that an elephant is probably bigger than a mouse, I take it.

  64. Take a deep breath…

    OPINION

    By Ian Birrell

    The i Paper columnist

    The hypocrisy in defending Lucy Connolly

    Human rights should be immutable – it is playing with fire to flirt with the far-right

    August 24, 2025 4:17 pm

    There is something profoundly depressing about the case of Lucy Connolly, the childminder sentenced to 31 months in prison for an inflammatory post on social media after the Southport attack last year and the riots that followed.

    Yet it does not really concern the issues of free speech claimed by her supporters, let alone her ridiculous claim that this person – who sought to stoke murderous arson attacks against asylum seekers in a newspaper interview after her release – was a political prisoner thrown behind bars by the prime minister.

    Instead, her lionisation shows how much the hatred promulgated by the far-right infects public debate while exposing the corrosive and toxic tribalism that pollutes our country.

    This foolish woman, wife of a former Tory councillor, should not be hailed as any kind of heroine. At a tense time – when a shocked country reeled over a lethal knife attack on girls attending a dance workshop and as wild rumours circulated over the assailant's identity – Connolly fired off an expletive-filled tweet urging people to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers.

    "If that makes me racist, so be it," her post concluded. These incendiary words were viewed 310,000 times and reposted 940 times before being deleted three and a half hours later. She was arrested several days later and charged with an offence carrying a maximum seven-year sentence.

    Connolly pleaded guilty at her trial, admitting to incitement of serious violence that could have led to deaths of human beings. The court of appeal did not believe her claim of failing to understand the consequences of this plea.

    At her trial, it emerged she had made previous racist statements, told a friend her "raging tweet" had "bit me on the arse lol", and said she would "play the mental health card" if arrested.

    There are also claims she was triggered by the death of her child 12 years earlier. Having lost my own daughter last year, I can sympathise with the enduring agony of parental grief, but find it puzzling to suggest this might make anyone wish to inflict such pain on others.

    With grim inevitability, her case was jumped on by the far right. "If you support Lucy Connolly, you're on the right side of history," claims hate-monger Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

    His stance was echoed by all the usual hard-right suspects in Reform UK and the Tories, who look more diminished by the day as they follow the footsteps of Nigel Farage. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp even pitifully claimed a jury's decision to clear a Labour councillor who pleaded not guilty over offensive comments was "alarming" evidence of two-tier justice compared with Connolly.

    There is valid argument that Connolly should not have been sent to prison – like almost all other women behind bars in a creaking judicial system.

    Most committed non-violent offences far less serious than her provocative agitation, posing no threat to society, yet if handed custodial sentences are more likely to re-offend than if given good community punishments. A majority have mental health or addiction issues; many have experienced trauma such as domestic violence. They are more likely than men to self-harm while cooped up in cells – and like Connolly, often have dependent children who suffer when their mother disappears.

    Yet many similar arguments apply to male inmates – as proven by far more effective systems abroad, such as in Norway with its humane prisons, focus on rehabilitation and low recidivism rates.

    Our prisons are costly, overcrowded and often ineffective, stuffed with damaged citizens failed by care, health and school systems alongside the gangsters, killers and rapists who deserve severe punishment. We have the highest per capita jail rates in Western Europe.

    And as former Tory justice minister David Gauke said in his recent government review, this is partly due to "prison populism" as politicians push for tougher sentences.

    So guess who are the worst culprits today? Yes, the same right-wing headbangers who are complaining about Connolly's sentence while demanding longer jail terms and more prison places, with Farage making puerile threats to be "the toughest party on law and order… this country has ever seen".

    Similar hypocrisy lies behind the free speech furore as warriors of the hard right fulminate over Connolly's supposed martyrdom. Yet most stay silent when people are branded antisemites for protesting atrocities in Gaza or demonstrating against the Palestine Action terror ban.

    Take former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman: she described protests for a ceasefire in Gaza as "hate marches" and said waving a Palestinian flag could be a criminal offence, calling on police to take "zero tolerance approach to Antisemitism.'' Now she says Connolly's case shows free speech is "on life support under Labour".

    We see the White House also stepping into this swamp even as it prostrates itself before Vladimir Putin's repressive dictatorship and ruthlessly abuses federal power to target domestic critics.

    The serpentine Vice-president JD Vance claimed with breathtaking hypocrisy earlier this year that free speech "is in retreat" in Britain. Now Connolly says she is meeting with US administration officials while Farage plans to use her case when testifying next month to a Congressional committee on threats to free expression in Britain. The Reform UK leader keeps running down our country while claiming to be a true patriot.

    Human rights should be immutable. Although it is sadly easy to identify similar examples of hypocrisy on the extreme left, mainstream politicians and commentators should be wary of turning this foolish person into a political pin-up at a time when protests are exploding over asylum hotels and our own flags being weaponised on streets.

    And indeed when Islam, one of the world's great religions – practised by millions of Britons – gets branded "medieval" and antithetical to the British way of life following grooming scandals, despite the string of abuse cases, paedophilia horrors, and institutional cover-ups that plague Christian churches.

    Ultimately, it is playing with fire to flirt with the far-right in such an angry, broken, and tribalised nation.

    https://inews.co.uk/opinion/championing-lucy-connolly-nigel-farage-dangerous-line-3876805

    This what we're up against. Do not think that a majority of the establishment do not support his view – they do. As for Lucy Connolly…well, she'd posted social media messages in a similar vein before but Birrell doesn't address the real question: why are so many people like her so angry and so scared? Just because they don't express their concerns like professors of philosophy doesn't mean they shouldn't be listened to. He lives in a world that for 99.9% of the population doesn't exist: one of peace, love and understanding between people of calm and even temperament.

    And he doesn't even use the i-word…

      1. Orwell wrote his major works as a commentary on the way Britain was heading in the post- war years……..as allegory rather than a training manual…… This writer seems to have taken them at face value and so have the judges.

      2. Thanks for the info but are we surprised that a Leftard wins a Leftard prize?

    2. I didn't get far with that……….her tweet may have been expletive-ridden but she was not seeking to stoke murderous arson attacks – she said "for all I care"………. and her interview did nothing of the sort.
      She didn't have a trial – as she'd been advised to plead guilty. She was only guilty of posting a tweet.

      1. Not only that, but apparently before the trial in front of the judge had even started, she (the judge) told Lucy that she was facing a long custodial sentence.

    4. He believes that dirt is an underprivileged diamond. That good and evil are just relative viewpoints and rather than face reality, he’s going to push his head further and further up his arse. Utopia must be in there somewhere.

      I’m sitting in Ward A9, HH. Just been reminded by one of the registrars not to worry about the procedure. As far as the surgeon is concerned, she said, “It’s his day job”.

      1. That's reassuring. You will be fine and we all look forward to seeing you after your convalescense.

      5. Blimey, you're already there?
        I thought you'd have to clock in tomorrow at sparrow fart.

    5. He believes that dirt is an underprivileged diamond. That good and evil are just relative viewpoints and rather than face reality, he’s going to push his head further and further up his arse. Utopia must be in there somewhere.

      I’m sitting in Ward A9, HH. Just been reminded by one of the registrars not to worry about the procedure. As far as the surgeon is concerned, she said, “It’s his day job”.

    6. Ha ShitLibs. Dontcha just love em.
      No mention of Nick Knowles who distributed misinformation causing Muslims to roam the streets with weapons. His claims included “acid attack in Middlesbrough on a Muslim female”

      Anyhow.. it doesn't matter a jot. The battlelines have been drawn. It's a fight to the death. They gave up debate yonks ago.

      1. A bit off topic. Well. Rather a lot but. I have had many different hairstyles over my 60 years.

        I have found people react differently. A skinhead cut tends to make people avoid you. Or at least be wary.

        I had a buzz cut at school in the 70's where everyone wanted to run their fingers over it.

        A long flowing mane at the last garden party where Nottlers were too polite to ask. Or didn't care. I don't know. Though it was mentioned.

        Sometimes dying your hair purple or green and having tattoos and nose rings doesn't necessarily mean you support Left Wing causes.

        Except that it does.

    8. Ian Birrell. Former speechwriter to David Cameron.

      At least now we know who wrote all the lies.

      What Connolly did was wrong. But i don't believe she deserved a prison sentence. If her post was to influence attacks on asylum hotels how many said hotels were burned down? None.

      How many were burned down by migrants? 15.

          4. I must admit i have not seen what she wrote. But i heard there were lots of expletives.

            I know they are not banned here either but i don't think it was an intelligent addition to the commentary.

            No. She should have got a slap on the wrist and perhaps a community punishment…If anything.

          7. We tend to only remove posts that are abusive to other members of this forum…….. not people's views on what happens in the world. If a post upset someone we might do.

          9. So, not “wrong” as in the way the Left use it (illegal); rather “wromg” as in “stupid”? Which is why she deleted it.

            What i didn’t appreciate was that before she deleted it, hardly anyone had seen it. It was a retweet by someone (presumably of the Left), after she had deleted it, which went viral. The reposter was trying to make political capital put of the fact she was the Tory councillor’s wife.

            It is this aspect which trouble me most. Why didn’t Plod go after the re-tweeter?

          12. Emotional hyperbole that expressed her feelings at what had just happened?
            I would say it did add to the debate by making people aware of how high people's feelings were running after such an appalling and horrendous event.

          14. Come on Phiz – it's understandable, and there but for the grace etc. Rants by their nature hardly ever add to the (edit addition having seen and agreed with BoB) intellectual debate.

    9. She did NOT “ stoke murderous arson attacks” she said if it happened she wouldn’t care. A view many are beginning to sympathise with.

    11. I don't think she urged people to set fire to the hotels – she said she wouldn't be bothered if people did, a different matter

      1. Made an example of imo, Alec – in order to discourage others. Starmer's record as DPP isn't exactly awe-inspiring. Guess we have to be more careful….xx

    12. "There is something profoundly depressing about the case of Lucy Connolly, the childminder sentenced to 31 months in prison for an inflammatory post on social media after the Southport attack last year and the riots that followed."

      But it is far more profoundly depressing to have a prime minister who covers up and lies until everyone can see that he has given us cover ups and lies. Indeed Starmer, more than anyone else, caused the riots when ordinary people saw that he was lying. It is also profoundly depressing that Starmer describes all those who do not agree with him as far right yobs and effectively instructs the lawyers and courts to be as harsh as possible on these mothers, child-minders and other far right yobs so that hurty words earn people more prison time than violent crime would have done.

      Just imagine the headline:

      Arsonist who set fire to a hotel full of illegal immigrants is given an 18 month suspended sentence.

  65. As you know, i live in the Lib Dumb paradise that is Richmond upon Thames; my neighbour is a prime example. A heart of gold but no idea about the world. She said to me today that Starmler (though she didn’t call him that, obvs) is doing a good job, it’s just the Press is against him and (literally she said this) 14 years of Tory rule.

    1. Proof that you can’t fix stupid. It occurred to me yesterday when I put forward my views on anthropomorphism and how it led to unrealistic views of what the natural world was like that similar presentation was behind the left’s Weltanschauung.

    3. I mentioned it's easy to get a table in London restaurants and fancy hotels and she asked why. I said there are many top earners and rich people leaving. I also mentioned estate agents tearing their hair out as the rich clients drain away.

      She said why are they leaving.

      Where do i start………………

      2. Thanks, Alec! Although having seen some of your other work I suspect you’re being a little hard on yourself.

      4. It does indeed look like that. Honestly never realised ears were quite so individualistic – or indeed quite so weird) until I fell into painting portraits!

        1. It is (and only one of the nicknames I have, was started by my dad and picked up by others). I got some uploads ready to go yesterday evening, but today have been travelling and now can’t find them…will check later. Travel always messes with me 😀

  67. We think it's bad here………and it is – but it's just as bad in Germany.
    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/migrants-in-dresden-harass-women/comments
    Late Saturday night, a pair of migrants on the Dresden tram (line 7) chose to amuse themselves by harassing two women, when a 21 year-old American man stepped in to stop them. The harassers tussled with and struck the good Samaritan; they left briefly, but one of them returned with a knife and slashed the man’s face open.

    This silent video, first published by German social media personality Anabel Schunke, shows the man’s injuries immediately after the attack:
    https://x.com/ainyrockstar/status/1959669369845305608/history https://x.com/ainyrockstar/status/1959669369845305608/history
    https://x.com/ainyrockstar/status/1959669369845305608/history https://x.com/ainyrockstar/status/1959669369845305608/history https://x.com/ainyrockstar/status/1959669369845305608/history https://x.com/ainyrockstar/status/1959669369845305608/history

        1. Snap.
          And I can't look at the pictures of the damage.
          Good on him for standing up for the women. A real man.

          1. I wasn’t able to view it because of our online Safety act. I’n not “uploading a selfie” to prove i am older than most of our imbecilic politicians

        2. In the book "The Sword' by a British Olympic gold medal winning fencing champion, the author mentions that facial scars arising from duels were converted particularly by the Prussians….

      2. He won't be. There'll be appalling scarring, plus the mental scarring.
        Makes one want to carry a firearm for protection of self and others.

    2. Wer es noch nicht mitbekommen hat: In Dresden hat ein #Syrer einen US-Staatsbürger mit einem Messer attackiert. Er wurde bereits nach 12 Stunden wieder aus der Haft entlassen. Er soll gemäß Aussagen des Opfers polizeibekannt sein. Ein zweiter Tatbeteiligter ist noch auf der Flucht.

      Das Opfer, ein 21-jähriger Amerikaner, ging dazwischen, als der Syrer Frauen belästigte.

      Quick and dirty translation. A Syrian, who was released on bail 12 hours later, known to police, a second involved has fled; the 21 year old American intervened as the Syrian pestered/harassed women.

  68. Repost of my comment from late yesterday regarding our imminent financial collapse:

    The UK has practiced a form of Merkelism along with the more successful Germany. Green policies have ruined both countries such that the German economy is now on the skids and the UK following at speed.

    We still have potential offshore oil fields which could be exploited and revenues given over to re-industrialisation. Instead we are denying cheap energy to manufacturers and spaffing billions of borrowed money on useless solar and wind farm schemes.

    Worse, we are spending more than ever on feeding a underclass of unproductive morons with over generous and undeserved welfarism. The VIP treatment of illegals just adds salt to the existing self inflicted wounds.

    The clue to our imminent demise as an economic power is shared by other European countries, a stupid slavish propping up of the decrepit and corrupt Ukrainian regime. It is as though Starmer and Merx have come under some sinister spell inclining them to follow the most absurd policy of alienating both Russia and the USA.

    Putin has pointed correctly to the fact that it is the European elites who are demonising Russia, not the European peoples.

      1. The EU is helping fund Ukraine by dipping into the capital from the “frozen” Russian assets in its central bank system.

        These assets once stood at over 200 Billion Euros. The EU have already filched the interest earned by Russian assets.

          1. The Left don't see it that way.

            Ursula losing 500 million down the back of the sofa.

            Impoverishing Greek pensioners to strong arm them into the Euro.

            Withdrawing a Winter fuel allowance while paying millions to keep people who just turned up on our beaches in 3/4/5 star hotels warm each Winter.

            I fucking hate them.

            Reeves is going after the middle classes now. And unless she does a Mao and send them to the fields they will destroy her.

          2. One can only hope – but Labour have a stranglehold on parliament and through it, the UK.

  69. I don’t listen to “The Rest is History” although i like what i have hitherto seen/heard/read about Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbook. I think i am put off by the reputation of “The Rest is Politics”.

    But Dominic was on the latest Triggernometry – well worth a listen (or watch if you do YouTube).

    “..“But ultimately, the nature of being a parent is also realizing that you can't control your child's destiny. So to some degree, you do your best, but there's not much point worrying about it. I just always think, you know, a thing that always plays on my mind, I think about this a lot, is what it would have been like to have been a German in 1910.

    You live in a newly unified country where life really has got a lot better than the last few decades. You live in one of the most sophisticated, civilized.

    The German people were amazing. This is the thing that we all lose because of everything that happened after 1910, quite rightly. They were an amazing people, so advanced in so many different.”

    From TRIGGERnometry: The Best Conversation About History You’ve Ever Heard – Dominic Sandbrook, 24 Aug 2025
    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/triggernometry/id1375568988?i=1000723330406&r=4361
    This material may be protected by copyright.

  70. Wordle No. 1,528 3/6

    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 25 Aug 2025

    Hilarity for Birdie Three?

    1. Well done – I was fortunate that my second starter word contains the key letter ( M ) or there would have been a few options!

      As it is I only had to choose from 2 and guessed right! Birdie….

      Wordle 1,528 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Happy To join you in birdie land

      Wordle 1,528 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Well done, I should do the pools this week.

      Wordle 1,528 2/6

      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Another bogie for me.

      Wordle 1,528 5/6

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

    6. I'm not quite splitting my sides
      Wordle 1,528 4/6

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

  71. Just opened the Daily Telegraph on the web.
    Be warned! Close to the top there's an article with the headline "Girl, 3, walks into hospital with knife stuck in her head" – and a picture of the wee mite with a knife sticking out above her right ear!
    WTF!?
    I was nearly sick!
    Jesus Christ, bad enough it happened, but a picture? What kind of … never mind.

      1. Police say six-inch blade became lodged in child’s skull by accident and confirm no criminal intent involved

        1. Why would we believe anything they say. They have been caught out lying so often.

          What would a six inch bladed knife be doing anywhere near a three year old child?

          2. On a counter and fell off when the child tried to reach it?
            Stabbed by another young child in the kitchen.
            Lucky not to lose an eye, or worse.

      1. No matter.
        What kind of monster stabs tiny children in the head – or anywhere else, for that matter?

  72. 'Night All
    Hate Facts
    The number of sexual offence convictions of foreign nationals has increased by 62 per cent in four years, according to new data revealing the scale of migrant crime.

    Foreign nationals account for one in seven (14.1 per cent) of sexual offence convictions last year, including rapes, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data drawn from the Police National Computer (PNC).

    The rate of increase between 2021 and 2024 is higher than for British nationals, whose sexual offence convictions rose by 39.3 per cent over the same period, according to the figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

    A similar pattern emerged for other offences, where convictions for theft by foreign nationals have risen by 77.9 per cent since 2021, against 55.8 per cent for British nationals. Robbery convictions recorded for foreign nationals increased by 18.9 per cent against 2.8 per cent by British nationals.

    Article in today's DT.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/337bf2c0b30a2bc3ec89f7030ccc0282997b4fc829d7e93b5f2aeb70960247d2.jpg

          3. Given what they are being taught in the Madrassas we now have posing as State Schools i don't think they will ever be British.

            And a lot of them have no intention with complying with a law and culture.

          4. They don't even have to be born here – just picked up the passport that came free with a packet of cornflakes.

          5. Like the lack of 'bad' news from Notting Hill.
            Was it really 'peaceful' or is the news being suppressed, adjusted or censored?

          7. A report in the DiM today said Facial Recog Cameras were a success. They were placed at a few places where they thought no criminals would be and they managed to photo 16.000 out of an estimated 2 million. They also told us that FRC's are not the enemy and are utilised to keep everyone safe. That may have been a quote from XI Jingping but who can tell nowadays.

          3. Let us assume he was well paid and had no idea what he was getting into. Much like the tens of thousands of groomed young girls.

      1. And getting nowhere. Still…at least we know where her three houses are so we can squat when Reeves steals ours.

        And when i say squat…

    1. Bunch of ugly inbred bastards. I wouldn't care if they spontaneously combusted.

      Nods to Lucy Connolly.

        1. You say spontaneously and i say sponteneity. Let's call the the ……………………..etcetera etcetera…

          1. I was quoting what you wrote. It would have been incorrect to put the word sponteneity in quotation marks…

      3. That bunch were from years ago – the ones doing it today are far more easy on the eye…..

          1. Careful – you can assassinate all of them for all I care (c. Our Lucy, Bless her)…..

            Hang on, there's somebody knocking on the front door – maybe see you in 37 months (or whatever)…….

          4. Hello darkness my old friend…..

            I worked for a number of years in Stockport, just by the viaduct – it is a bit of a shithole though…..

    1. The fact that a windmill company can lose that much just goes to show what a complete grift it is.

          2. That is increasingly the message Labour is putting out. Champion of the working classes? Oh, my aching sides! Champion of the shirking classes more like.

          1. "The slump has cast doubt over the Danish company’s efforts to raise 60bn kroner (£7bn) via a sale of shares. The funding is needed to cover a pre-existing financial shortfall caused by soaring costs."

          2. Oh dear. What a shame. Obviously hoards of investors did a runner as soon a Trump opened his mouth.

            Happy days.

  77. I've just had to ask myself if it's good to be disappointed by the lack of trouble in London W11 this afternoon…

    2. I saw some horrible sights in Shepherd’s Bush this afternoon. Great wobbling lumps of exposed cellulite filled flesh framed with glitter. If some of them could only see their behinds from behind.

      2. “Sure deck your lower limbs in pants; Yours are the limbs, my sweeting. You look divine as you advance– Have you seen yourself retreating?”
        Ogden Nash

        1. Poverty stricken people can't afford large amounts of burgers and kebabs. They also can't afford tattoos and nose rings or trips to Ibiza.

          I almost got into trouble recently at the Ivy in Winchester. My friend and i had a delightful lunch on a sunny day and decided to have a Cognac or two at the Bar.

          My guest mentioned to me why was the person on a table for four below us was wearing a diamond/diamonte large nose ring. Not just any nose ring but one big enough to drag a bull.

          Of course after my second Cognac i gave my response.

          Ooh..you should have seen the scowls from the staff serving that section.

          At this point i hadn't paid the Bill so they could only show disapproval in eye rolls.

          £248 and my card refused the payment Lol.

          2. Very true. Carbs when metabolised turn to sugar and then fat if too many are absorbed. I think i got that right. And big food Corps have made them as addictive as the drugs to counteract.

            Or am i being paranoid and they only have our welfare at heart to feed us cheaply and not their profit margin…hmm.

          2. No worries. My sister broke my nose already. She being ten years older and ten stone heavier when i sat down to eat a sandwich at our fathers house and then as i was about to take a bite she demanded i make her one. I refused.

            I know that all sounds like bollocks but that is what happened.

            Once i left and went to the bus stop she followed me in her car. Screeched to a halt and screamed at me that i had made our father cry. She then broke my nose.

            Of course she spun the story as if i had attacked her and like any psycho gaslighter she got her excuses in first.

            The most wonderful thing from this was it made it easy to decide to never speak to any of them again.

            I think my autobio would sell better than 'Spare'. And of course make a great deal more money than Bill Thomas's 1p books on Amazon.

            More if you want it…

          3. I'd suggest sitting in the pub and tell stories of your life, you will never have to buy a drink again! Off on my yacht soon, galley slave fully briefed…

          4. You obviously didn't imbibe in my local.

            The bucket calling for money for Ukraine really fucking annoyed me when we have three hospices and British Heart Foundation which they ignore.

            Promote the galley slave or move her to your bed. I will cook!!!

      5. I've often thought people should be compelled to watch a video of themselves from behind before they go out. They might, just might, clothe themselves a little more carefully.

        1. No I can't. I've got my own Protected designation of origin. I'm told i'm the one and only (One is enough apparently….!)

          2. We still have the Batley teacher and his family in hiding because the government and the local authorities were not prepared to stand up to them.

            And now…here we are.

          2. What have the Romans ever done for us, eh? Ad Astra was my school motto. I think the per ardua was taken for granted as it was a grammar school and high flyers were pushed hard.

          3. My grammar school moto was Ex Hoc Metallo Virtutem (From This Rough Metal We Forge Virtue)

      2. Johnathan last posted three weeks ago on Breitbart but he does have breaks when he's not well.
        Per last posted on 9th July – he'd been having computer problems and was also planning a trip to the UK. Hopefully he'll be back.

        1. Would be nice if he is in the UK to join a few of us for lunch at Raffles or Francatelli. at the end of the month. Anyone have contact?

      3. Rackham happens to be the name of a village in Sussex, and I guess that he might live in it, or nearby.

  83. Mrs Heartsease
    11h
    Thought for the Day BBC-style: 'On this bright and sunny bank holiday Monday, let us spare a thought for those of a tender disposition discombobulated, nay, terrified, at the sight of the union flag in their local food emporium. As I sat down to my breakfast of nutrient-free vegan cereal, I thought of that young woman who bravely wrote a complaint to the Guardian about a serious fit of the vapours brought about by seeing various vegetables in non-recyclable wrapping branded with the national flag……'

    I still smile when I see the flags on all the UK-grown produce. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c8745b2f667d6b591f7a478c334e0c5e238861138572e8c6f387dfd45dddd04.png

    2. That poor poor woman. Send me her address and i will publish it on the 'Only Fans Muslim Rapist site'…

  84. A bright and sunny day which meant the bit of hill calling its self "My Garden" is a sweltering suntrap, so I didn't do as much as I planned!
    I did however get the long reach loppers out and got a start made on doing something about a 10 or 15yo pear that I bought cut price from Aldi, which, probably because there have not been other pear trees near to pollinate it, has not only failed to produce a single pear, but has put all it's energy to growing.
    Unfortunately it is growing at an angle that has it interfering with the guttering at the back of the house!

    Ironically, the apple tree I call my Aldi Special which I bought at the same time has been an excellent little cropper almost from the year after it got planted!

    I've just been sat one of the walls I built sorting out the bulk of the brash of the pear and think I will now head up for a cooling bath.

      1. I did plant a pear tree two years ago and i have one pear this year. I worry wether i should pick it or not. Don't want to discourage the others !

        1. My previous neighbours had a pear tree that produced a solitary pear overhanging our boundary. Not 15 minutes after they left for a 2 week holiday a grey squirrel came bounding along the fence and with bluddy great paws plucked the pear and noshed it. To this day I've no idea if my neighbours believed me when I told them!

        2. It's been a good year for pears, Pip. All mine are so laden, the branches are nearly touching the ground. Even the one that had never fruited before has got a good crop.

          1. We had a bumper crop of greengages, and apples have done well – there was lots of blossom and no frost.

          3. Frosts have become increasingly scarce in the last dozen or so winters in this part of the country. Winter is now just a few days between autumn and spring.

          4. The last time we had a proper snowfall was 11th December 2022 – that was my OH’s birthday and he was in hospital in Oxford awaiting heart surgery……… I didn’t get there.

    2. Get another pear tree – Glow Red William, it is delicious – and then you will have loads of pears!

  85. My word I sat out under a sun umbrella late morning and chopped up dozens of large apples. Some had windfall damaged.
    I Put them through the shredder twice. And put the juicey remains into hessian bags and found the press didn't work….OMG the juice was running out already. Everything thing i do these days seems to go wrong. The lid of the large stainless steel juice catching container fell on the floor and the handle broke off. The press didn't work but it was because I'd forgotten about the safety device. In the end I had a gallon of fresh apple juice. Lovely day though.
    But because of my back troubles I was unable to carry on. But much later I picked up and cleared-up. I'm popping orff soon. I have a physio appointment at 11:30. I'll tell him about my back problem. It's supposed to be about my knee operation back in June.
    Have a good evening Nottlers and sleep well 😴

    2. I hope you have better luck with your physio than I had with mine; she gave me exercises to do that had made me much worse first time round, although I told her that. One I couldn't do at all because the pain was too intense. Still, envy of the world, you know. I'm going to see an acupuncturist tomorrow. I doubt he can do worse except to my bank balance.

      1. My best mate has already told me that I’m wasting my time.
        I think I had the feeling on my first appointment. 🤗

  87. Just watching the Edinburgh Tattoo – saw Swinney taking the general salute from the massed Army bands while they played God Save the King – I bet that stuck in his throat – ho ho effin ho

    2. The Edinburgh Tattoo also featured a load of Ukrainians or at least so it was claimed. More state sponsored propaganda, flying those damn Ukrainian flags to boot.

      There was a supposedly Scottish girl dance troupe. They interviewed two of them, both Americans, one from Houston and the other from San Diego.

      Now it is the turn of some Polish outfit, border guards they say. At least the Poles have secured their borders.

      1. An excellent show which the BBC managed to eff up at the end by talking over the Black Bear. I must admit I only watch it for the pipe bands, the girl dancers and the march off to 'The Bear'. You mark my words in a couple of years time there'll be the combined snake charmers of Palestine bands and a flypast of carpets

      2. In addition to my fame as having folk danced for my university, I represented my school in Scottish dancing displays at various fetes, etc. I used to cut a nifty figure with my kilt swirling 🙂 Then, of course, I was part of a Morris hand with bells, if not whistles. You are entertaining a Strictly performer unawares 🙂

        1. I remarked to my wife that had I been a part of one of those march routines I would have been conspicuous for going in the opposite direction than the correct one. I recalled country dancing classes at the junior school in Uphill near Weston super Mare in the sixties when I was put temporarily for a year or so in Muller’s Children’s Home nearby.

          My excuse back then was my dislike of having to link with girls’ clammy hands.

          Edit: I also mentioned that American dancers, some of whom featured in the Tattoo, owe much to the technique developed by Martha Graham and that Aaron Copland’s wonderful piece Appalachian Spring was dedicated to Martha Graham: “A Ballet for Martha”.

    3. I have avoided watching it in recent years because it was nothing like a Military Tattoo. I thought tonight's offering was a substantial improvement.

      2. The guncrew race was brilliant – I remember from my youth – Devonport, Fleet Air Arm and another I cant remember.

        There were some pretty gruesome hand injuries, I understand, including the odd finger lost etc….

        It was the only reason I watched!

        2. Worked with a guy who was a wheel man – the hardest position. He was a big lad, him: short and wide, so we called him Big John (as you do, when the name is John).

      1. Yes the BBC commentators talked over it – never got to hear the 'Oi'. I marched many times behind the Bear when I was an RAF apprentice – fill up when I hear it even now

        2. I hope it will be played as the curtains close at my funeral, it’s what I’ve requested

    1. A former client of mine, a shopfitter developer specialising in the restaurant business, visited me a few days ago wanting my advice on a planning issue with a property in Billericay.

      The council had outsourced the planning control function to some company the representative of which told him that because the building was Listed Grade II that he should not even be in the building without permission from the council.

      The works involve the stripping out of the fittings and finishes left by a former restauranteur occupier.

      The client has a planning advisor in place but who is predictably on holiday. The replacement council employed advisor was of course talking poppycock.

      I am concerned that councils, and for that matter insurance companies, are outsourcing areas of their own franchise to outside enterprises.

      In my case the insurer NFU Mutual outsourced the assessment of my electrical installation to a company named Riskstop (all one word). Their assessor proved to be incompetent. I suppose he was used to dealing with comparative innocents as opposed to an Architect with fifty years experience and more.

      Accordingly I had commissioned a local electrical contractor to check the condition of my electrical installation and agreed that the fuse boxes should be replaced and the entire system checked over. The certificate produced was better than that expected by the Riskstop agent who had asked gift a “Condition Survey” whatever that means or implies..

      Nonetheless I was obliged to demonstrate the fact and ask my electrical contractor to write confirming my opinion.

      I mentioned to Riskstop that I had also installed an ADT Intruder Alarm System and had included Smoke Detection Alarms with that package. This information was evidently not passed on to NFU Mutial who promptly increased my monthly premium from £130.00 to £160.00 or thereabouts. Either that or the formation was ignored in its entirety.

      I fucking despair of the amateurism now invading every single area of our lives. The entire edifice known as the UK economy is imploding faster than even I thought possible. We can all see why!

  91. Wel, chums, it's now time for me to climb the stairs to Bedfordshire. So Good Night all; see you all tomorrow morning.

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