Wednesday 27 August: Nigel Farage’s plans on illegal migration are a step in the right direction

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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509 thoughts on “Wednesday 27 August: Nigel Farage’s plans on illegal migration are a step in the right direction”

  1. Good morning all. Today's Wordle is a Par. And thanks as usual, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. AND – today I was first (just).

    Wordle 1,530 4/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Oops sorry! Good morning Elsie and all!
      With this letter combination, a four is a good result I think!
      Wordle 1,530 X/6

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

  2. Good morning all. Today's Wordle is a Par. And thanks as usual, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. AND – today I was first (just).

    Wordle 1,530 4/6

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

  5. Good morning all. Not a good nights sleep, was tossing & turning for far too long.
    14½°C, dry, Bright & sunny with scattered cloud and no wind.

    1. Sorry, Citroen1, but I just don't get it (the cartoon). You'll need to explain it to me. (Good morning, btw.)

        1. Thanks, Hertslass. But who is the man next to her – her partner/husband, or the estate agent? And what is the purpose of the punk with a bull terrier and the runner in the bottom left hand part of the cartoon? (Good morning, btw.)

          1. Good morning Elsie, and everyone.

            Not sure about the relevance of the things you mention except that Brighton (rather than Hove I thought) has a reputation for alternative types.

            The chap with her could no doubt be anyone (and given her allegedly rather colourful past with men) probably is. Anyone.

          2. Thanks yet again, Hertslass. I sometimes think that some posts and some political cartoons are just intended to confuse me. But there again, it's not for nothing that some know me as Confused of Colchester! Lol.

          3. I think the estate agent is telling her that the reports in the media will not be as pleasant as the view from her new, third or is it fourth? property.

          4. Yes. ( "Our" view of her.) It is apparently her second owned property – she (edit: owns another house and) also has a grace and favour flat in London.

          5. Although she'll lose that when she is turfed out of office.

            I don't know if it still applies but apparently they have to pay for those themselves?

            It's all very tiresome. We've gone from Lady T paying for her own ironing board to Cameron installing a kitchen (at his own expense) to this hypocrite troughing on a house she quite clearly cannot afford.

            Maybe she's subletting Admiralty house?

          7. I think he is a terrible cartoonist. Give me Bob any day. I wonder what has happened to him?

          8. Maybe an allusion to Labour finding the sight of those alternative types pleasing and the sea view comes a poor second in their priorities?

      2. 'Optics' is a play on words. In this cartoon it is the media word for 'people's opinion of you'.

    2. It has been mooted that a property in Hove will be a useful thing for Crayons when she is parachuted in to the seat that is much safer than her grasp on her present constituency. The 7th Century party threaten to outvote Crayons, Jess Philips, and Wes Streeting at the next election. As DPM, Crayons is beating the rush to safer areas, and I'm sure the present incumbent won't be too upset with his elevation for services to the party.

  8. Matthew Lynn
    Is France about to trigger the next financial crash?
    26 August 2025, 11:03am

    Its debts are out of control. There is very little space left to raise taxes any further. And the political establishment can’t agree on anything apart from postponing the whole issue for another year or two. It is a description that could apply to plenty of countries, and not least the UK. But right now, it is one that applies most acutely to France. With yet another government about to fall, and the CAC-40 stock market index falling sharply, the real question is this: will Paris be the centre of the next financial crash?

    The French prime minister François Bayrou yesterday took the plucky, if foolish, decision to recall parliament on 8 September for a vote of confidence. He is struggling to pass a Budget that would put in place some modest controls on public spending – not cuts, of course, but a slowdown in the rate of increase – as well as some symbolic gestures such as scrapping two public holidays. It seems highly likely that Bayrou will lose his vote of confidence. As such, the government will fall and President Emmanuel Macron will have to look for another PM – or else call fresh elections.

    It is hardly surprising that investors are growing increasingly nervous about France’s debt. The deficit is forecast to exceed 5 per cent of GDP this year and may well go over 6 per cent. Economic growth has ground to a halt. The tax rises imposed last year have done nothing to fix the hole in the nation’s finances, while the debt-to-GDP ratio has climbed over 110 per cent and state spending now accounts for 58 per cent of total output. Lots of European countries are addicted to state spending, but France is leading the way. It already has the third largest stock of outstanding debt in the world, after the far larger American and Japanese economies, and yet it keeps adding to it.

    Investors are fretting over the prospect of yet another government falling. The benchmark CAC-40 fell heavily on Monday and was down by another 2.1. per cent this morning, far more than by any other major market. The yield on the country’s 10 year debt is now among the highest in the eurozone. It has already overtaken Greece and Portugal, nations at the heart of the last crisis, and it is very close to overtaking Italy.

    Shares in major French banks such as Societe Generale and BNP Paribas, both of which are assumed by investors to be heavily exposed to French government debt, are down by 7 per cent and 5p per cent respectively today. The hedge funds are clearly targeting France, and shorting bank shares is the easiest way to play that trade.

    The high-risk scenario is that the bond markets crash, one or more of the major banks run out of money, and the European Central Bank has to step in with a rescue. Once that happens, no one knows how it will play out. But one point is clear: it will be very messy.

    Of course, it may well blow over – as it has in the past. President Macron may be able to find a prime minister who can cobble together a Budget. Or fresh elections may elect a centrist administration that can start the hard grind of bringing spending under control. But right now, it does not look very likely. No one knows where the next financial crash will start. But Paris is looking increasingly like the trigger.

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

    Jolly Radical
    20 hours ago
    Meanwhile, nobody seems to object to UK gilts trading at half a point higher than under Liz Truss – a moment of supposed national nuclear meltdown.

    Let’s not get too smug!

    PGBB aka Ngooozi Fulaaani Jolly Radical
    19 hours ago
    and heading higher…… they'll top 6% soon enough…..

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

    1. Pah. Budgets smudgets. This is France, one half of the EU racket.

      Everything points to a co-financing model that makes the EU increasingly independent of national budgets.. you may call it: ECB Lender of Last Resort

      This is from an EU newsletter..
      Institutional constraints—such as individual member states’ say—are effectively bypassed, as is the Commission’s original prohibition on borrowing. Step by step, the Union is transforming from a rule-bound confederation into a centrally managed financial actor, increasingly deciding over its own resources and priorities.

      Should debt ever spiral out of control, as has become common practice in the EU, the European Central Bank would be ready as a lender of last resort. This will work as long as the capital markets retain confidence in the EU’s creditworthiness, particularly Germany’s payment ability. If market faith collapses, the ECB would be forced to intervene in a way that would dwarf the 2010 debt crisis.

      And the markets would lap up the bonds.

      1. No doubt as a starter France will treble its "contribution" from the UK for its non-existent curbing of illegals crossing the English Channel.

        1. Whilst simultaneously increasing the volume of launches from their war torn shores.

      2. No doubt as a starter France will treble its "contribution" from the UK for its non-existent curbing of illegals crossing the English Channel.

      3. Yet that just pushes ever further into the inevitable command economy.

        We've been there before. It does. Not. Work. You end up with starvation, stagnation and economic collapse. It stops being a 'Oh, I can't get an iPhone' and becomes 'I can't buy bread' as it costs £500 a loaf.

        I know the EU is a bunch of gormless communists but is that really what they intend?

      1. Without my usual misanthropic attitude, it comes down to too many people.

        If there's too many people then they can't find jobs.
        They have to be paid welfare to live.
        Taxes are commensurably higher to afford the welfare for the people who can't work.
        The wages those people earn are suppressed because of supply and demand
        Lower wages means less tax revenue coming in.

        Government keeps expanding (even by subsidising businesses) 'to create jobs' .
        Those jobs disappear without state largesse so the state has to keep spending.
        The market is suppressed because of borrowing and taxation, making it far less elastic: folk look to government for money first.
        Big government then has to keep pushing cash into the economy simply to keep it going from a group that can no longer pay for it.

        Run that model a few hundred times and the red ink becomes a torrent. Before you know it the only way out is to cut off a limb to reduce the need. The problem is big government never, ever thinks to cut off it's own limb.

  9. Brendan O’Neill
    Migrant protests and the twilight of luxury beliefs
    27 August 2025, 5:45am

    There are dark whispers on the internet about Britain’s coming ‘race war’. The protests outside migrant hotels prove the ‘native English’ have had a gutful of these ‘invaders’, say nefarious actors on X. Others foresee a civil war: a showdown between a haughty left and a resurgent right over the very soul of the kingdom. I see something different: a class war.

    ‘Racists’, some shouted at the little people. Well, they’re uneducated oiks who like to wave the flag of their country – they must be racist, right?

    Okay, maybe not a ‘war’. It’s not the Russian Revolution, or even a rerun of the Battle of Orgreave. But the class tensions in these clashes outside migrant hotels seem undeniable to me. On one side we have the keffiyeh-adorned, often quite plummy defenders of ‘open borders’. And on the other, working men and women, many of them mums, all wrapped in the England flag as they state their case for the restoration of our nation’s sovereignty. Tell me this isn’t the ‘left behind’ finally standing up to the turbo-smug posh left that loves to lord it over them.

    Witness the clashes across the UK over recent days. In London, Liverpool and Bristol, and in parts of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland too, good people gathered to protest against the plonking in their communities of hundreds of unvetted men from faraway regressive cultures. And almost everywhere they were greeted by counter-protesters sporting the rictus sneer of people who know better. ‘Racists’, some shouted at the little people. Well, they’re uneducated oiks who like to wave the flag of their country – they must be racist, right?

    Their differing paraphernalia spoke to the simmering class antagonism. The counter-protesters waved the Palestine flag, the ultimate vanity accessory of the middle-class left. They wore keffiyehs, the uniform of the self-righteous. The other side had on normal clothes – nothing culturally appropriated from Arabs. And their only banner was the St George’s or the Union flag. They expressed pride in the nation, whereas their mockers on the other side of the police line seemed consumed by pride in the self.

    A grassroots longing for national restoration vs the hobby activism of the virtuous bourgeoisie: these are the battlelines today. For me, the migrant-hotel rebellion is the most thrilling showdown we’ve seen in years between ordinary people and the overeducated possessors of ‘luxury beliefs’. This is a revolt of ‘the plebs’ not only against the lunacy of giving four-star bed-and-board to the hundreds of illegal migrants who rock up on our shores every day, but also against the entire luxuriant moralism of an activist class blissfully blind to the struggles of everyday Brits.

    Are we living through the twilight of luxury beliefs? The thin ideologies of the professional-managerial classes seem to be dropping like flies. Their neo-religion of open borders is under savage pressure from that army of mums saying the thing you’re not meant to say, the thing that was madly branded ‘far right’ for years: that borders are important. That the very first principle of sovereignty is you must know who or what is crossing into your territory. Centuries of common sense marshalled against the new and nuts idea that nationhood is outdated.

    Before that, their post-truth ideology of trans took one hell of a beating. The Supreme Court’s ruling that a woman is a woman — duh – brought scientific reason to bear on that craziest of luxury beliefs: that you can have a penis and be a lady. Even Keir Starmer fell under the spell of that one. There’s been such a hearty uprising of British women sick of this sexist and unscientific nonsense that Britain has been christened ‘TERF Island’. Perhaps we’re the island where luxury beliefs come to die.

    And let’s not forget 2025 is the year when people finally pushed back against the idea that it’s ‘Islamophobic’ to talk about cultural tensions. The grooming gang scandal was forced back on to the political agenda by everyday Brits sickened by the idea that it’s more important to maintain the ‘multicultural peace’ than to speak frankly about what was done to working-class girls. The luxury of silence on such a grave issue is one working-class communities cannot afford.

    I wonder if it is the destiny of the English to do with peaceful protest what Donald Trump has done with executive orders – push out all the destructive eccentricity that has self-identified as ‘wisdom’ these past few years. There’s a brilliant gender-critical group called Sex Matters. To that we might now add ‘borders matter’. And ‘sovereignty matters’. And ‘communities matter’. That’s what I hear working-class communities saying right now to their too often indifferent superiors – we matter.

    1. I'm not entirely convinced that the "virtuous bourgeoisie" and "middle class left" are the only "class" that are fighting the "ordinary working class communities" (for that read "the rest of us"). It's too simplistic trying to shoehorn the problem to fit old perceptions of class. When I have seen non MSM coverage of the anitfa and other counter protesters, much of their composition has been pretty rough. Not necessarily bourgeois or middle-class or representative of any class really – just rough.

      The point is that the so-called middle classes and the educated get more air-time and are read and heard more easily. Their views are more obviously ubiquitous. Edit: For every one of the bourgeois or middle class neoliberal hand wringers there are several people of similar backgrounds who disagree. And I guess there may be or have been enough working class who support the idea of universal welcome to "refugees". Like Angela Rayner and her ilk.

      1. True. The legacy media just doesn't get it, even when they're supposed to be on our side. They also politely ignore the effects of the nudge unit and they talk about the English as being the only opposition to the invasion (we never hear from integrated people of migrant origin).

        1. You're entirely right. It seems a desperation to force a narrative that suits the state line.

          I think Rod Little (on Times Radio) pointed out that the media does this because it lives in the same atmosphere as the political class and needs the continued favour of the state to do it's job.

      2. The media deliberately choose the most useless representative of the 'normal' group to force a persona on that group. They'd never interview the Warqueen, for example.

        Equally they choose the opposite for 'their' side to force the narrative that it's tattooed yobs vs educated decent people. It simply isn't. It's a group of cowards on the Left, bitterly opposed to people telling them 'No' and on the other a bunch of folk tired of foreigners killing and raping people.

    2. push out all the destructive eccentricity..

      Smashey & Nicey way of saying..
      UndoBlair and remove from power all the Radical Lefties that infest every single institution that have been pushing; Islamification. Gang Rape. & Child mutilation.. Oh and the destruction of western culture.

      1. In a way, yes. Blair passed endless legislation to protect his voting bloc. when given the ability to refuse the gimmigrant the state actively forced them on us out of spite.

        Leftists often seek power over others as a way to achieve their own ends so are drawn to the state. The key is ensuring that when they're there they cannot actually do anything that stands against the popular will.

        Imagine a world where Blair, seeing that he could never do anything, couldn't get rich from troughing gets a real job as a middling lawyer. Brown goes to work as a paperboy for a bank. Grieve vanishes as 'human rights' law never exists.

    3. It isn't going to be white people vs everyone else though. It is going to be the left and those who wish to make Britain an islamic country vs everyone else.

    4. Even Unsurprisingly Keir Starmer fell under the spell of that one.

      Wonder what sex he assigns to the Ukrainian model citizens who torched his front door? Or was his back one?

    5. It's notable that when asked the Lefties never want to take a gimmigrant in themselves. They' always say 'we would, if we had the room'. It is odd that they never apply that at a national level. Nor are they willing to pay for one either.

      In truth, the Lefties don't stand for anything. They don't really care about the gimmigrant. They hate us. That's the saddest part. There's no moral centre, it's just bigotry and intolerance for people who think differently to them. This is why they cannot produce a coherent argument. It's why they don't know anything. It's why they don't read research papers or know statistics. They just hate, blindly.

    2. Love it!

      Before getting my toolkit out I would take a look inside the duvet cover; amazing what ends up in there although I close half of the buttons.

    3. :-). I always have orphan socks in a special drawer waiting to be reunited with their twin.

      2. I buy socks that all look the same. So, just pick two from the drawer in the morning.

      3. I thought i'd get round this by buying only identical black socks. Pairs always matched, but I made the mistake of telling a sister so she bought me a multi-coloured pack of socks for Christmas…

    4. It's part of the washing machine process. In return for washing your clothes, the goblin takes a sock which he uses to make his own clothes when you're not using the machine.

    5. That reminds me….way back our not very old washing machine kept shorting our mains. After a lot of investigation I discovered a piece of foil chewing gum wrapping had somehow altered the circuit pattern. I probably came from one of our boys pockets.

  11. Lord Farquard
    14h
    Strange phenomenon, the more a certain demographic try to make it illegal to hate them, the more I actually hate them

    1. Morning, Ndovu. I've quite got out of the polite habit of saying good morning or hello because I so often don't get here until quite late!

      2. Fair enough.
        Godmorgen.
        Blev flot igen.
        (Now THAT should impress Danish d-i-l. Just don't tell her I used Google.)

        1. I think you want "fint" rather than "flot" if you are referring to the weather. Flot tends to mean handsome or dashing if referring to a person's appearance, or generous if talking about a person paying for something.

          Still pretty impressive!

      3. I say good morning whatever time it is. Sometimes I can't remember, most of the time I don't really care.

        remembering what time zone I'm in is too much to worry about.

    2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/def679642766cc156bc56f8faeb7e77d85568d54791941851aa60feaf23016cc.png Credit: Tolga Akmen/Shutterstock
      Letters to the Editor 26 August 2025 10:30pm BST

      SIR – Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, has outlined how his party would detain and remove up to 600,000 illegal immigrants from the UK in its first term in office (report, http://telegraph.co.uk , August 26).

      Such plans are exactly what the majority of British people wish to hear – we accept it maybe very difficult to do but, at least Mr Farage’s party seem to have the right plan. Labour and the Conservatives seem bereft of ideas.

      Michael Edwards
      Haslemere, Surrey

  13. 411905+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    We are fast approaching curtain down, on General Elections via the polling stations readings these past thirty plus years, dictatorships are the way to go.

    As the electorate continue to show, thoughtless,refuse to acknowledge the past actions of parties /politicians, and forge ahead to yet another complete failure.

    If Reform, full of good intentions granted, go the same way as the Brexit party "WHERE DO WE GO THEN"

    Surely a safety net party, perched, waiting in the wings for the regular political treachery to make its play, is the common sense way to go.

    Going back to the dark ages we have trusted the farmers 24/7 can we say the same of the current governing political parties, and ANY politico's in parliament.

    Dt,
    Wednesday 27 August: Nigel Farage’s plans on illegal migration are a step in the right direction

    Talk's cheap money buys houses.

    My support goes under the Farmers Food and Freedom Party banner.

    1. Yes, I fear Farage needs to do far more to dismantle the system that brings them here – the NGOs, the quangos, the fake charities. All need to be defunded if only to reduce the cost of the state. It seems we are the only country that funds those groups who are opposed to govt policy and then immediately use that money to sue the government to make it do what they want.

    1. The Warqueen and I sat down a bit back and looked at the moving thing again. we decided when Junior finishes university (assuming he wants to go) and he's set up we would then shift from this monstrosity into somewhere smaller. 2 bedrooms, maybe even 1. A bungalow with a view like that. No waking up to the sound of a motorway or sirens.

      I'd like somewhere coastal, where the sea is there all the time. I know she'd like to get somewhere with land to get a horse. I don't mention the problems or frustrations she had with the mare.

      1. One day!

        What I find fascinating about the sunrises across the valley is the fact that in the Spring the Sun rises behind the tree in the far left of the photo. In Winter the Sun rises almost to the far right of the photo.

  16. Ok. So has the Editor of the Terriblegraph made this up, or are there really people out there who are this stupid?

    “SIR – Nigel Farage owns four homes in the UK. Are people similarly concerned about his property “empire” (“Angela Rayner adds to property empire with purchase of holiday home”, report, August 25)?
    John Polenski
    London SE1”

    1. er, John.. Johnny..
      Farage doesn't bang on about the evils of owning 2nd homes.. Farage doesn't roll out the red carpet for migrants including handing out fresh new homes. Der.

  17. SIR – I cannot understand why phones are not banned in the classroom. Whatever happened to enforced reading?

    Joan E Humphrey
    Toronto, Canada

    When the entire country — especially education — has been hijacked and taken over by the idiots; this is the anarchy you get.

      1. Mange tak, dejlige dame. Jeg dukker lidt sjældnere op her i disse dage.

        Mange kram.😘

        1. Grizzly, I do wish that you and Hertslass didn't swear so much at each other. Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

          1. Good morning, Auntie Elsie. It’s not really swearing; we just rejoice at being brought up under the Danelaw.😉

    2. I remember a video about illiteracy and that something like 20% of children are leaving school functionally illiterate.

      I read a fair few reddit posts as you sometimes see a real gem of an idea in the networking bit and people simply cannot spell. The proliferation of sentences without a capital, lack of apostrophes – heck, the Telegraph comments are bad enough. I saw a counsil in there the other day.

      It is sad that someone with thousands of dollars to spend on equipment cannot write a sentence. Oh, they're dyslexic, or something else. It's not an excuse. Einstein was dyslexic. So, apparently was Agatha Christie.

      These people are illiterate.

      1. They are not taught standard English — neither grammar nor comprehension — any more. They just pick up the vapid street slang of ubiquitous Americanisms and think that is ‘cool’.

        1. Even in my day, we were taught little English grammar at primary school. I remember being taught what verbs and adjectives were, but nothing about tenses, pronouns etc until learning French at grammar school.

          1. Same here, John. I learnt basic grammar at my secondary modern but, since I was always embarrassed by that rudimentary knowledge, took upon the task of teaching myself to a higher standard over the following 58 years. I’m still not there!
            I haven’t a clue what the hell a ‘dangling modifier’ is …. and I don’t really care.😉

        2. Not only that but correcting their illiterate offerings “stifles their expression “.

      2. Just seen this on Facebook.

        Who is setting? Off fireworks off down at by finch Court thank you for wake my kid up he is screaming because off the noise as he has asparagus and adhd 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

  18. Good morning, 16°C, a southerly breeze, overcast, and rain promised by noon on the Costa Clyde. I'll soon be ascending the north face of Tesco Irvine on my weekly shop. I was up in Irvine yesterday, down by the Harbourside. I took my folks along for lunch in the Ship Inn (under new management) and very nice it was too. I had an ulterior motive. Since I recently swapped cars from a VW Passat to a Mini Cooper, I wanted to check that my Dad, the more flexible of the two, could perform the human origami act required to clamber into the back seat. Test successfully passed. The more difficult thing will be buffing out the finger hold my Mum left on the dashboard, think 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles'. 😉

    1. Heh! I am a very relaxed driver until I make a mistake and then all hell breaks loose.

      My biggest problem is Mongo's eagerness to learn to drive.

      1. I am pleased to say that of late when I come back to the car having left Winston on the passenger seat he’s stopped moving over to the drivers side and looking ready to drive off.

      2. Not yet. 😄 I hasten to add that I kept to all speed limits, but my Mum is used to sitting in the back seat of the various SUV type vehicles preferred by other family members, not sitting on a go-kart.

  19. Good Morning!

    In John Drewry's Dichotomy – Part 2 we turn from the bloody to the bucolic, a journey by horse-drawn barge along Britain's canals, in his delightful story of two adventurous boys in the Britannicae insulae of the future. Let us know in the comments what you think.

    The article Gaza – Collateral Lies , supporting the UN's allegation that the famine in Gaza is purely Israel's doing, rattled a few cages and generated the sort of response in the comments FSB would like to see everyday! Please keep it up.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's electric power was sourced from Gas, 22.4%; Solar, 8.2%: Wind 32.8%; Imports, 15.9%; Biomass, 7.8%; Nuclear 10.1% and Miscellaneous, 2.9%.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. I always find the wind one interesting. We have enough wind capacity to power the entire country, yet it never peeks above 30 odd %.

      It's inefficient and unreliable. Pushing it into our energy mix is fine at a local level, same as solar. But for grid dependence? A nonsense.

      1. Dangerous nonsense wib, especially as what passes for energy policy is based almost entirely on the Unreliables, with shortfalls largely made up by imports from France.

  20. The annual rub yer nose in it..

    Clooney summer camp! Amal a prominent British human rights lawyer, George and their twins Ella and Alexander welcome a host of stars to $100m Lake Como villa..

    There are 240 schools in England where 90% of students barely speak English.. some where none speaky the English …

    Abingdon Primary School, in Middlesbrough, offers sanctuary to kids of 32 different nationalities, speaking 25 languages..

    1. I've just received a DM from George.. he said he constantly checks out of his many clerestory windows and he reports there aren't any migrants in his neck of the willow wood in Sonning-on-Thames Henley.. so what's all the fuss?

      1. 😂 i was a bit confused till i saw the word Middlesborough…then it all made sense

    2. Err, given that schools are required to provide education by law, what's this sanctuary bit about?

      Children not speaking English is more of a worry. How do they integrate? This is a problem of massive, uncontrolled immigration. How do we bring folk who cannot speak English into our society? How do they engage with it?

      Perhaps we need to mandate that foreign languages cannot be spoken in this country? Ban all interpreters. I don't mind someone struggling over words but it must be the default.

      2. That’s why my children ended up at the DSL (German School London) all those years ago. Local primaries were chock full of kids who couldn’t speak English, so I thought i’d beat them at their own game.

        1. Maybe at least they learned manners. Many years ago I went to school just round the corner from the French Lycée in Cromwell Road. Many of the children there were (or appeared to be) English or dual national. Some of them used to catch a bus at the same stop as children from my school, but they pushed and shoved and plonked themselves in front of the queue. Obviously more than the French language and Baccalauréat was taught…

        2. Maybe at least they learned manners. Many years ago I went to school just round the corner from the French Lycée in Cromwell Road. Many of the children there were (or appeared to be) English or dual national. Some of them used to catch a bus at the same stop as children from my school, but they pushed and shoved and plonked themselves in front of the queue. Obviously more than the French language and Baccalauréat was taught…

      3. They don’t integrate. They have non-English speaking assistants, translators and all the benefits literature is in multiple languages.

  21. Any news about possible Bob Vylan prosecution? It all seems to have gone very, very quiet.

    Some of us, though, haven't forgotten.

  22. Yo and Good Moaning all, from a sunny, at the moment C d S.

    Did some work in the garage yesterday, found it had a floor……..

    Next move, see if a car will fit in it

  23. Donald J. Trump @realdonaldtrump
    Keegan Bradley should DEFINITELY be on the American Ryder Cup Team – As Captain!!! He is an AMAZING guy. It will be a great Ryder Cup. At the invite of the PGA Tour, I will be there on Tournament Friday!!! President DJT
    Aug 24, 2025, 3:41 AM

    Why do Americans insist on using 'invite' as a noun instead of the correct invitation; while — curiously — at the same time use the ridiculous 'transportation' instead of transport?

    Is it their mission to bastardise every bit of standard English they can find?

    3. There seems to be a bit of a scourge going on on Facebook at the moment as well. The word's Neighbour and colour both having the U left out.

    1. Yep, can relate to that. When life was simpler and government wasn’t designed to put obstacles in your way…constantly

    1. Frank Zappa was bang on the money when he declared, “Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”

      I cannot refute that logic. Mankind has become moribund in its stupidity and it shows it, incessantly, by electing more and more stupid politicians, who make more and more stupid laws, and who govern them with more and more stupid decisions. Stupidity is the prime tool they use when formulating — and in order to put into effect — their insane policies.

  27. 411905+ up ticks,

    Born to swing, and I don't mean jazz,

    Berlusconi villa that hosted ‘bunga bunga’ parties set for €500m sale
    Mystery buyer lines up vast Sardinian property that has a colourful past and hosted world leaders.

    It boasts a Bond-like sea-cave with access to the ocean, an artificial volcano, a fake Roman amphitheatre and a colourful past involving “bunga bunga” sex parties, topless models and a naked prime minister…

    Has it got a replica public park toilet within the
    grounds ?

    1. A few years ago we (I) had driven all the way through France through the Mont blanc tunnel to Tuscany.
      We were booked in at HPB Stigiliano.
      At reception there was a lot of comment regarding the Blairs who had apparently arrive on the doorstep and demanded to stay. As it is a private members only organisation they were rightfully refused.
      But moved on after having a meal at a restaurant close by.
      It was assumed that they had been staying at the above mentioned residence and for reasons unknown had decided to move on. Ha bloody haha. 😊

    2. Thinking About the comment I seem to remember one of Berlusconi's properties being on a mainland cliff top.

    3. Sounds like Berlusconi is a fully paid-up member of the human race, unlike, say, "Charles Lynton" in a public bog.

    1. 411905+ up ticks,

      Morning TB,
      Answer,
      They achieved that remarkable result by scouring the country firstly for deformed brikkies as in one leg decidedly shorter than the other
      alternating the shifts to oblige the terrain, clever A.

    2. You'd think William the B'stard would be more assertive with the builders.
      He shouldn't have paid up front.

    1. C'mon what's he done? What's his accomplishments?
      Well, he masterminded the “EdStone” and has.. er joined the Treasury..

      1. He’s made a lot of money from never having done a productive day’s work in his life. That’s quite an achievement.

        We need more “lean” thinking in the public sector i.e. for every thing done, the question has to be: would someone pay for what i have just done on the open market?

        1. This is why referism and recall must be applied. If they know they simply can't force through ever higher taxes then such people would never bother.

        2. You're being far too kind and tolerant. Half a dozen small neutron bombs should do the trick.

  31. Morning All 🙂😊
    I'm a bit late today, was sunny but I looks like rain is forecast for the next seven days. Mind you they don't often get it right do they.

    Nigel's plans are a step in the right direction, that's a laugh, this downgrading exercise of our country and its culture and social and infrastructures, now the economy has been going on for decades. Come on Nigel try and keep up.

  32. The awful spectacle of la belle France dissolving makes me fear for Britain
    As the country deteriorates, useless technocratic elites are fighting battles on three fronts
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/26/france-is-dying-britain-could-be-next/

    BTL

    If in England live in Cornwall or Devon as I did; if in France live in rural Brittany as I now do.

    These French and British places so far have not been swamped by the malign invasive forces that are destroying both countries from within.

    2. Each country is blaming another country for the coming collapse!
      I just spoke to a German contact – apparently it's all due to Trump's stupidity and arrogance! (I assume that is what the German broadsheets are saying)
      Nobody wants to admit that half a century of loose money creation in their own country has caused problems.

  33. Belated Morning All
    This Lass is going viral
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a6494cef8b135a6325ae60755f4622877c561bd25d1b0bb19b1a67df349ad5a2.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0751a851f1b7a79baca9a2db2ceb7f505a3495028e94bea0d9090a1b7c6a387.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dfe8798eb48e61b2a2873b9aeea2aaf0f5b5643fde39c4e2f8cdaa2ed5bb6637.jpg
    Meanwhile how the hell do you just film something like this without immediately steaming in?? (apparently all ended well the men arrested and the child saved)
    https://x.com/BrianGarrigan/status/1960397621597757497

      1. The bbc and seemingly other channels can't seem to resist putting 'alternative ethnics' into their programs and advertising. It's not really necessary. What point are they trying get home.

  34. Labour-Linked Hope Not Hate Said Children Should Report Each Other for “Signs of Hatred”

    P A Lee
    13h
    Hate not Hope is a truly vile organisation, who funds it?

    Truth Hurts
    P A Lee
    13h
    Soros and no doubt Labour.

    Ciderdelic Sid
    13h
    Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate claimed there had been reports of an acid attack in Middlesbrough on m*sleeemmz. Has sir 2tier been notified ?

    Sir John Thomas
    13h
    The two nouns in the organisation’s name are the wrong way round…

    Stuart
    14h
    Straight out of the Stalinist playbook, as was done in the 1930’s in the Soviet Union. What next children informing on their parents and/or making people “disappear”…
    👇 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98bba843a3d65bd814ca4db6e2a55473fb4e7cc961fc48981a55a737d36ef37a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/54b7f932444cf52bbcfb285fe1fa996726a340c39c6520aaf94eb29a32f34e44.png

    1. The saddest thing about Lefties is their abject refusal to learn any history – thus they keep repeating their own.

    3. St. Jo Cox contributed – some of the money that was donated after her death apparently went there.

    3. I assume the Brixton militant female who was shot in the head two or three years ago is still costing the taxpayer £thousands in care.

    1. On that subject, a satisfying number of Colchester mini-roundabouts have been enhanced.
      I think they are the same ones KtK mentioned yesterday. Will check further when I venture into the badlands (east of the castle).

      1. I am reminded of Lady Nugee. Perhaps one of these patriotic artists could add a large red cross to the front of her house. ….sniggers

      2. A point which has been made by several commentators on varied social media – could these painted roundabouts affect house prices in the area, giving an indication of the ‘type of people’ living there? Sounds snobbish, but I wonder if there is an element of truth there.

        1. Nothing affects house prices like HMO's. Houses of multiple occupancy full of undocumented illegal immigrants.

          I doubt people in four and five bed houses care about a painted roundabout in their neighbourhood so much.

          1. The point about affecting house prices was that potential purchasers might be put off by such displays. The first thing that buyers usually do if they are unfamiliar with an area is to drive around the neighbourhood, getting an immediate impression of the locality. Some buyers might write off the area without even viewing a property based on a fleeting exploration of the district.

    1. Just wondering the same, sos (I've been away, often no internet). Hoping no news the best of good news.

      2. I spoke on the phone to my neighbour who’s had a hip replacement. She was sent home the same day!

        1. I said i would visit when she goes to the convalescent home. Hopefully bag a free lunch seeing as it's a private and paid for institution. :@)

          No point in visiting while she is getting over the anaesthetic in the hospital. Plus the food wouldn't be as good.

          2. I'm sure it has improved. Plus she is in the right place to recover from it. They will be watching.

            I had an extraction at the dentist recently. The anaesthetic numbed the whole side of my face right up to my forehead. As i got out the chair i went over ! They gave me some glucose liquid.

          3. Everything crossed for her. I wonder if anaesthetics are stronger than they were, or perhaps just different – guessing your balance awry because of it? Did the glucose liquid do the trick? Some years ago, dentist extracted a couple of teeth and implanted a couple in their place. I bruise very easily, jaw looked like I’d been hit….the strangest thing, out of all the people I know not one commented and quite a few even looked away. Guess they thought the worst and just didn’t want to get involved.

          4. The use of anaesthetics has moved on. Age, weight and lifestyle all taken into account. They don't use it like a cosh any more.

            I have had balance problems. Fallen quite a few times and cracked my ribs. My family just assumed it was because i am a bit of a piss head.

            The consultant said i was having intermittent loss of feeling in my left leg due to large blood clots.

            Families eh!

            I am much more careful now.

            I'm surprised people shied away from how you looked. I would have asked if you were okay if i saw that. Saying that…i have come out from a dentist with that gloopy stuff they use to take an imprint of the teeth and still had some stuck to my lip. No one said anything.

          5. Thanks for info, Phizzee:-) I’ve fainted a few times, low blood sugar. Not as much lately, everything changed with vaccine, slow recovery years later. Grandad had blood clots in legs, eventually couldn’t walk. Mum had a couple of aneurysms, didn’t recover from last one. Hopefully you are well looked after, including by yourself 🙂 I wouldn’t have shied away either if I saw someone looking as bad as I did…even odder as bruises faded a few even said ‘good to see you looking better’. I’ve had those imprints too, for implants…young grandchild wore braces for years to rectify overshot jaw, they worked although took a while. Bit of a piss head eh! good for you x

          9. I certainly will. Though i am sure Sue will scan these posts when she is up to it.

            After she pays the Bill at Claridges.

    4. I have a note on calendar saying she is due her op on Friday 29th, the day after tomorrow.

        1. I think Sue needed some help with administering the injections required prior to surgery.

          The poor thing had to go to A&E because of bleeding from buggeringit up having some difficulty.

          They took over.

  40. SIR – Nigel Farage’s proposals for mass deportations are not as radical as he would have us believe.

    The Illegal Migration Act 2023 places a statutory duty on the secretary of state to remove a person from the UK if they have entered illegally, and did not come directly to the UK from a country where they faced threats to their life. If the person tries to resist by making a human rights claim, the minister is required to declare it inadmissible.

    Parliament has already agreed what needs to be done. No new laws are necessary. Instead, we need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and other international agreements, and make deals with those countries to which the immigrants are to be deported. The latter is the real sticking point. Mr Farage (Commentary, August 26) does not say how such deals – with the likes of Afghanistan – are to be achieved.

    Without them the whole enterprise will fall flat and we would be left with reduced freedoms, internment camps on old airfields and ships bound for Ascension Island. Not a great outcome.

    Michael Robinson
    Onston, Cheshire

    My bold. My question is why the fuck aren't they doing it?

      1. What's the phrase? Understand who has power in your country by who you cannot criticise?

        Why does muslim need protection? It's because it's adherents are dangerous to our society.

      2. Essentially what they are attempting to do is ban the truth.
        This isn't about freedom of speech/opinion, it is about supressing the truth.

      3. Labour realises that a large part of its support comes from Muslims, so they must pander to Islam. Of course, this will change when Muslims form their own political party and switch their allegiance from Labour. Until such time, Starmer, Rayner et al are useful idiots to Islamists.

        1. There's already MCB (Muslim Council of Britain), Aeneas. Bit like a large trade union far as I can make out. Due to get much much larger.

          1. I doubt that it is registered as a political party with the Electoral Commission yet. That time will come.

          4. The whole charity sector needs a bloody great big broom sweeping through it

          6. Yet another government (tax-payer) funded, ruinously expensive QANGO that doesn't do its job. Huge savings to be had by abolishing it, firing its overpaid satraps and giving a genuinely clued up person the responsibility to ensure that charities are just that – not politics or money-making rackets for lazy, entitled troughers.

          7. I doubt that it is registered as a political party with the Electoral Commission yet. That time will come.

          8. Morning Kate – the Muslim Brotherhood is banned in most countries except the UK x

    2. Well said Mike Robinson. Legal migration is 90% approx of total under ECHR which is embedded in NI Agreement and signed by QEII (remember Sunak taking VonDerLyin to NI to witness Queen's signature). Illegal is around 10%, both more expensive to and more risky to those in small boats.

    6. Pistolic
      3h
      The ECHR has done nothing for the indigenous population of this country. It has worked only for the non-natives. Abandoning this insidious piece of international law is the only answer!

    7. Due to a technicality, broadly when the dinghy arrivals are brought here, they are not treated as having entered illegally if the people concerned are prepared to be examined by government officials. I couldn't find the document which sets the position out more concisely and I don't have the time just now to look for it, but the following Home Office Guidance gives a rough idea:

      "Section 3(1)(a) of the Immigration Act 1971 states that, persons who are not British
      citizens shall not enter the UK unless given leave in accordance with provisions in
      the Immigration Act 1971 or made under that act.
      Entry without leave is a breach of section 3(1)(a) and therefore constitutes illegal
      entry as defined by section 33(1) of the Immigration Act 1971 (as amended by the
      1996 Asylum and Immigration Act)."

      "Under section 24 (B1) of the Immigration Act 1971, a person who a) requires leave
      to enter the United Kingdom and, b) knowingly enters the UK without such leave,
      commits an offence which is triable both ways."

      "‘Entry’ is defined in section 11(1) of the 1971 Act as meaning that they have
      progressed through a controlled area having disembarked from an aircraft or vessel
      as a passenger, crew member or supernumerary and, during that process, have
      been granted leave to enter the UK or have some other right of entry. Where a
      person is detained and taken from the area, or granted immigration bail, they are not
      deemed to have entered the UK.
      Where an individual has not sought to evade the immigration control, but it is unclear
      that they qualify for entry, for instance, where they have been rescued and brought
      to shore, they may be detained pending ‘further examination’ of their intentions. This
      may include further enquiries being made to determine their nationality and identity
      and other factors that may include their circumstances, medical suitability and
      whether they represent a risk to the public.
      In all cases where a person has been intercepted and rescued under Saving of Life
      at Sea (SOLAS), and subsequently brought to shore by authorities, they technically
      do not ‘enter’, but ‘arrive’, and must be treated as arriving passengers." (My emphasis)

      https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6650731b8f4cb8fef9f64fad/Irregular+or+unlawful+entry+and+arrival.pdf

      1. That is why they have sent border force and the RNLI to collect them from the French. It stinks.

    2. They are too stupid to realise they will be replaced in short order. Jess Phillips is next. Brummie twat.

    2. As I walked past the war memorial today and read the inscription “love England. We died for England” I thought “you died in vain. England has been turned into shitholeistan by Two Tier and his wrecking crew.

  47. Just been down the High Street, of a local C d S village; there must be about a dozen Union Flags flying high

  48. Ofgem announce 2% rise in energy bills in October and Starmer's Nick Thomas is wheeled out to offer jam on a tomorrow that is so distant in time, and with inflation raging, that a £300 reduction will be nigh on worthless. Just more senseless bullshit being spread by this government.

    Miliband minor gets in on the act and forgets that people have access to real data, not the lies that are repeated time after time by him and government lackeys.

    …off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices and onto clean, homegrown power we control,

    How, exactly, does anyone control the capricious whims of Nature?

    Comments are vicious and littered with graphs etc. exposing Miliband's claims as false.

    https://x.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1960593323841696009
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89906ba95411bc6a42951546761f697625cb95dbe5a764e1555c6c08295d355b.png

      1. Gas prices are high because you tax them at 78%. Then you slap 'carbon credits' on them from the hated EU's carbon trading nonsense. That's the real reason energy has got more expensive. EU regulation.

      2. He needs to be told he is lying. Twitter comments / the other one allow this now, so his deceit cannot simply be ignored and will be made public.

    3. That twit Miliband knows full well that it is his government’s sanctions against Russian energy that has caused the enormous rise in energy costs.

      Energy costs in the UK far exceed those in other western nations such that de-industrialisation is accelerating at an exponential rate.

      Much the same is happening in Germany and for similar reasons viz. stupid green policies and ludicrous support given to the cretin Zelensky and his defeated war machine.

      Those policies have proven so disastrous that the UK is about to grovel to the IMF for a loan and more than likely mistakenly believe it can dodge a bullet by rejoining the wretched EU.

    4. Looking to reduce bills. In other words we’re feeding you bullshit because we know we won’t.

    5. I posted a comment on that article quoting the 'homegrown power we control' bit, asking whether they think they control the wind and the sun, and do they think they are God or something.

    1. I hope Farage is up for the fight with the CS (Chris Wormald the senior CS). My view is unchanged – UK real and permanent gov't. Thatcher one of the first to both recognise and claim it.

    3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e334deb7dc02f29a4533f3ba54f8b06dbf4f61edca526fddeec3c7cb8b12bf61.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/351955a5e0eb0f43e31ab62a8836060d31cf11b28589c4c2a8579006a92224d0.png
      Everywhere you look, here in Sweden, every day, flags and vimpels (pennants) are being flown. No one objects.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc1e2e5d0592adbe67ad6e8f9d56c3ec635a41f72b878bd358af221848597f04.png
      I have my own flags on display in my art studio. I've not yet acquired a cross of St George so, for the time being, a Union flag will have to suffice.

        1. 'Chuffing' is also a popular alternative — vernacular — word for 'bloody' in Yorkshire and other parts of the north.

          1. I’ve always thought of it, and used it, as being very pleased about something.
            I only looked it up because I wondered if it had a coarser meaning.

  50. Had some light rain in the last hour. Not enough to fill the butts or make a difference to the dry soil.

    Two tubs of begonias that are flowering well.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa6d0848d87af038c511e71535179e31ba2a9cd3667960a4e86afb8c3da8a36f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aabbbf7a34a0e621c8da67ea9d962d7b6fca433f76af778cfde779a338234bf6.jpg
    Planning to mow the meadow shortly. May have to wear a dust mask as the grass has all but disappeared in some places. The meadow is one item in the garden that I never water. It's rubbish grass and despite my efforts hasn't improved and it always returns to is usual condition when the rains return.

    1. Probably has a good number of insects, Korky…chuck a few wildflower seeds (bedstraw and the like) down next year, see how they go.

    2. Massive uncontrolled immigration is an act of spite – revenge for Brexit. Ignoring that the state is committing a crime in even bringing them here, refusing it's first priority to defend the population from threats foreign and domestic (the former leading to the latter), ignoring the massive burden they add to the welfare bill… the problems created are staggering, but big government resolutely refuses to stop the invasion and is actively encouraging it.

    1. More than anything it is sad. She genuinely wanted to do good and paid for it with her life.

    2. This isn't a first either..

      9 times out of 10 there is a reason they are homeless..

    3. This isn't a first either..

      9 times out of 10 there is a reason they are homeless..

    4. Perhaps this example is one of the reasons our stupid useless government has been thinking of taking over spare bedrooms.

    1. Today is overcast, drizzle. No sun, no wind (I hate turbines, lot of damage to flying creatures birds/bats on land and also sea creatures), have to be stopped if the wind is too strong, and need electricity to start up again. Only someone like Starmer could employ someone like Milliband E.

      1. We had some useful rain here for an hour or so……… sunny again now with a drying wind.

        1. Similar here….many fieldfares this year, I like to see/hear them. Wonder if it’s a sign of bad winter ahead….

        1. Large thunderstorm heavy rain thunder and lightning…now sun got his hat on to accompaniment of distant thunder. Been Southern Scotland recently, bitten quite badly…argh..:-D….are you drawing/painting/gardening/lounging…hope not chores xx

          1. I try to delete one job off my long job list every day but that's after I've done the DT X-word and the Squaredle. Did some strimming this afternoon and i like to get at least 1/2 hr on my keyboard every day. I've got a visitor next week so I'll be out of it. Maybe get some painting in this weekend – how about yourself x

          2. Always gardening jobs. Don’t do puzzles – get too many messages which I like but trying to spend less time online – have quit painting, if I do anything now it’s drawing, have a Seawhite sketchbook and a nice Staedtler Mars Technico with a fine pointed 2B lead so will do more or less what I like (altho’ still need an eraser time to time). Maybe I’ve run out of road with it, suspect so, spending more time walking with dog which she loves. I wish I was as organised as you 🙂 have a great time with visitor, weather looks to hold up xx

          3. Old RAF chum coming to stay – there will be much discussion of old times and, dare I say, some alcohol involved. G’night Kate x

          4. Sounds great, Alec…lots of memories and a few whiskies (or your choice). Wish we still had those times and not the ones we do now..’Night sweet Alec x

      3. No mention of the permanent damage to the 're-wilding' we spend quite a lot of time watching on bbc Country File etc. Funny how they managed to keep those hideous monsters out of the camera shots.

  54. The looming economic crisis comes as a humiliation for French President Emmanuel Macron, who once claimed that he was the 'Mozart of finance'.

    You mean..

    the guy who his colleagues said, did not even know what EBITDA was (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation), and yet David Rothschild moved to make him the youngest managing partner in the bank's history.

    The guy who was mysteriously given a free pass graduation from the elite École nationale d'administration (ENA) in 2004.

    1. Yet another one of these left wing globalist creatures puppets that rises from obscurity to a position of great power qv Obama.

  55. I have received a mail today from The Times newspapers informing me that my monthly subscription is to be increased from £26 per month to £30 – I think it's time to start cancelling and get a better offer.
    I've been doing this regularly with The Spectator and have been paying only £1 a month for the last 12 months at least……..

    The mail is from one Abdullah Ahmed, Director of Subscriptions.

    I'm now wondering if he has discovered that I frequent this site and the increase only applies to me and my fellow travellers – maybe to subsidise his co-religionists elsewhere?…….. Answers on a Quran, please.

      1. I only get it for the crossword, puzzles and Sport (they're pretty good at that) – I avoid their political slant…..

    2. The Times offers me £1 for 4 months, every 4 months! However I pay full whack for Speccy. Perhaps I need to cancel and wait for an offer.

      1. Sounds like we’re doing the same thing Harry!

        If you cancel the Speccy they will immediately offer you 3 months for £3, and continue to do so, in my case for over 12 months.

        Do you cancel the Times or do you just wait for special offers?

  56. I have received a mail today from The Times newspapers informing me that my monthly subscription is to be increased from £26 per month to £30 – I think it's time to start cancelling and get a better offer.
    I've been doing this regularly with The Spectator and have been paying only £1 a month for the last 12 months at least……..

    The mail is from one Abdullah Ahmed, Director of Subscriptions.

    I'm now wondering if he has discovered that I frequent this site and the increase only applies to me and my fellow travellers – maybe to subsidise his co-religionists elsewhere?…….. Answers on a Quran, please.

    2. "One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist".

      I can't remember who it was that said that about him.

      2. Not that he did any freedom fighing, but look what happened to Rhodesia after they chucked whitey out.

    3. Southern Africa never really learned anything from that obvious lesson.
      That sort of problem seems to be quite common in today's political world.

  59. Sigh
    Co-op to stock Palestinian beer after banning produce from Israel. Retailer ‘proud’ to sell lagers from brewery based in the West Bank.
    Two points
    It's brewed in Scotland and just branded "Pally"
    I thought alcohol was Haram??
    Pure virtue signal much??
    Bunch of tossers

    1. Co-op to stock Palestinian beer after banning produce from Israel
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/08/27/co-op-stock-palestinian-beer-after-banning-produce-israel

      Apparently, the brewery, Taybeh, is based in the West Bank and founded by two brothers who are members of the local Christian community. But it will be brewed in Scotland through a local company, Brewgooder.

      Sounds like virtue-signalling by the Co-Op. If other lagers brewed under licence in the UK are anything to go by, it will be crap.

    2. How disgusting, now it seems that we can have POS life changing diversity incidents delivered to our own premises by our more than useless political idiots.

  62. I'm back with a four: Lots of work to do in the wood and meadow – anyone want a job?
    Wordle 1,530 4/6

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

        1. New anycock'll do tails:

          The Angela Rayner: "Sex with the City"
          The Rachel Reeves: "Stuffed by the City"
          The Cursed Harmer: "Go round the back"

      2. 2. Waiting for Starmer's 3,000 metre sky jump with a parachute that does not open!

  66. Say it aint so..
    anyhow it'll backfire.. Lefties always get it wrong.

    Remember 14 and 15 year olds and foreign citizens in Wales can now register to vote.

    1. All pupils aged 14 – 15, or foreign citizens living in Wales can now apply to be added to the Electoral Register. Registering at this age will enable them to be on the Electoral Register when they turn 16 and are eligible to vote.

      1. I wonder if they'll vote Plaid, as the Left most certainly hope? Or, seeing the lack of jobs and a future will they vote Right?

  68. Wordle No. 1,530 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 27 Aug 2025

    An edifice for Birdie Three?

    2. Well well – it was the dreaded -O-ER which has done for me on at least two previous occasions!

      Fortunately my first word sorted that out – I resisted the urge to go for eagle, there were just too many options so played safe and took the straightforward birdie……

      Wordle 1,530 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Well done, very late on parade here with a 4.
      Wordle 1,530 4/6

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

  69. Just spoken to son and his partner who live in East Cowes ..

    Both were concerned but laughing because they told me that there were loads of African/ Carib types on the island taking a sailing course for a week .. I asked son whether they were really on a sailing course and he said definitely .

    Both of them commented that it was an unusual sight to see so many , but what they commented on was the limited language and rudeness of the student sailors was noticeable .. so was this a government present to migrants.

    1. Belle, you must be disappointed in the limited language and rudeness of your son and his partner. Give them a good telling off!

    1. … as she lays out .. earlier .. later this week??

      Looking at the BTLs a lot of people still seem to think believe the 7 million "economically inactive" would take ages to train to be employable, while the boat people are already hugely skilled!?? FFS.

    2. His answer was the desperate reaching of the unprepared.

      Immigration is, fundamentally an economic argument. It has since exceeded that to a criminal and national safety one, but it's basically economics. There are too many people not working – paid to do so by generous welfare (a demographic Labour depends upon). We did not need immigrants. We needed to cut welfare.

      However: welfare is a trap, made so by Labour to keep people on it and worse, poor.
      It's hard to get out of the welfare trap when tax allowances and taxes generally are so low and high (respectively).
      Labour don't want a working, educated, local workforce because that votes for things that Labour doesn't like – like tax cuts, better schools, better roads.

      It is genuinely sad that the Labour political party is supported by the appalling entanglement of those it has kept trapped on welfare and unnecessary immigration

          1. It can most certainly will do a lot of damage as it thrashes about before it’s finally killed off.

      2. I filled up with petrol on the way back and the radio was on. Someone said, “there are calls for Labour to help householders with their energy bills”. Cut the effing green taxes!” I muttered, knowing full well that such a solution would never happen.

    3. "Migrants make up a fifth of our work force."

      Pardon?

      "The NHS alone relies on more than 160,000 staff from overseas. Suspend all immigration tomorrow and who will fill these roles?"

      Err, did he think about that?

        1. Well, quite, but my point was that if those here satisfy requirements for the current population then we don't need any more.

  71. When the war begins in earnest.. The Litmus Test according to Charles Veitch is simply..
    Are you neutral/support Tommy Robinson.. or vehemently opposed.

    Sorry Nige. Epic fail.

    2. I don't see how TR can't be compromised after all that has happened. Also, I don't get the freedom march on 13th September, it feels artificial somehow.

  72. Just asked for a thyroid test as my always being too hot and this rash are now bothersome.

    I hope they don't find anything and can just address the rash. I've tried every cream, soap and shampoo, shower gel going. I can't believe it's foliculitis.

    1. I use Sanex in the shower. I sometimes also do a vinegar rub. I rinse my clothes twice.

      I also use O'Keefe's skin repair.

      If the rash is on the lower legs it could be athlete's foot.

    3. Try not using anything for 7 to 10 days, see if any improvement. Use something little to no scent for laundry. And check side effects any medication you're taking, including over the counter ones. Good luck wibbling.

    1. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (who is also known as Tommy Robinson) is a political target but surely by now the Left-wing police, the left-wing politicians and the left-wing media must be beginning to realise that their attacks on him are rebounding back on them.

      1. You must be joking.

        They're thicker than Muslim shit, which is even thicker than pig shit.

      2. To be hoped so, Rastus. Suspect he has too much support, and would get even more if released.

  74. I woke up this morning feeling terrible , Moh was off to golf and Son at home with injured hands was off for a run .. 12k .
    My mood was very low and bleak , not even Pip spaniel or the yowling cat lifted my dark feelings.

    I showered myself , dressed , dried my hair, took my B/P pills , then tidied up the house, vacuumed , put the laundry wash on in the machine , and thought what do I have to show for my summer .. which felt very much over ..

    A laundry wash takes 57 minutes , so I fiddled around on here , drank a coffee and thought what an absolute mess this government are making , and their priorities are mad!
    Then pegged the finished washing on my rotary line

    I struggled to think positively , Pip wiggled around , and I saw a weather window, took him for a walk on the edge of Egdon / Winfrith heath .. We walked through some forest /heathland/ sandy track around the outside perimeter of the decommissioned nuclear power station.

    Free roaming cattle had left piles of dung , no flies or insects like there used to be .. too many antibiotics I suspect .

    No insects anyway , a few crows and magpies , that's it .

    Where were the smaller birds hiding?

    Pip and I walked on through the very dry pathways created by the cattle and maybe deer .. The sky was dark , a breeze and a few spots of rain fell !

    By about 11.30 am we had a cloud burst .. lasted 20 minutes .. my washing on the line was soaked !

    A thought ran through my mind , Reeves has caused a hold up in house exchange sales .. how on earth are families coping with selling a parent's house who needs to be in a care home ..

    If the housing market is stagnant , so what is the rubbish about thousands of homes needing to be built?

    I don't get it .

    1. Good evening from a TESCO's from Evesham!
      Smaller birds will probably be moulting and keeping under cover.

      And I hope you feel better tomorrow.

        1. We all wish you well, Maggie. It’s hard sometimes to stay positive given the news. It’s the main reason I don’t listen to it anymore.

          1. News dire. Alt news even worse!

            Fortunately I am too busy to do more than follow a few financial commentators and they are bad enough!

    2. We had rain here just as I was putting the dogs in the car. When I got back it really tipped it down. Sunny now.

    3. Not a great day.
      Console yourself that the small birds are busy recovering from procreation and will soon be giving you pleasurable songs again.

    4. Good points. I suppose the stagnant housing market is due to houses being overpriced.

      The old lady who lived in the huge house opposite us died a year ago. There were various attempts to sell the house – originally on the market for over £3m. My husband met the new owners at the weekend- they are very young! And the husband apparently they said they got an extremely good bargain.

      1. Thanks opopanax. Tom one of the good guys. Trying to teach myself contrarian, some of those around me so miserable I start to think 'sod it, not let it get to me'…….

        1. I know. The article pointed to above is actually very helpful on this (a hard thing to do). Or at least I found it so.

          1. Will head over there before bed, not read him yet today. Cheers for h/t, likely see you there x

          2. They could pass as normal in today's High Street.
            Nobody would give them a second glance.

          3. Really sos? Where TF do you live for this to be so? Is France really as strange as that in the boondocks?

          6. Best not to look in any mirror too much 😀 grey hair always takes me by surprise. In my head I'm around half my age, just shy of 40.

          7. I’m still a child internally, KJ. The big birthdays marching in are a huge joke – also the glimpses in mirrors x

          8. I think we all are, opopanax…three score year and ten then start to go into reverse. I try not to think of the future beyond the immediate, shove it to the back of my mind.

  76. Afternoon all. Went shopping today in Ellesmere (I won some vouchers in a raffle, amazingly, so I went to redeem them) and on the way back I noticed several roundabouts were sporting St George’s crosses. Made me smile.

    I think the headline should read “Nigel Farage’s words are to be welcomed, but he needs to work out exactly how he will achieve it”. Asssuming he is sincere, of course.

    1. I can’t comprehend what type of government
      Close yer eyes Marjorie.. and think of Kamala Harris.

  78. Michael Deacon
    The Left’s hysteria over Farage’s deportations plan will only boost Refo    rm

    By calling his plan to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants ‘far-Right’, they’re also calling millions of ordinary voters ‘far-Right’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/8a79a75689116c01

    Michael Deacon
    Telegraph
    7 min ago
    pinned
    Evening everyone,

    Automatically denouncing all opponents as "far-Right" is of course a time-honoured tactic of Left-wing politicians and pundits. But, in light of the widespread protests outside migrant hotels, the sight of British flags flying from every available item of street furniture, and Reform continuing to surge ahead in the polls, is it possibly now time for the Left to consider a different approach — provided, of course, that they can actually think of one?

    I'm here for the next hour. Let me know your thoughts…

    1. According to Peter Whittle.. an insider within the Farage camp says he knows what he is doing. He claims Farage is ratcheting
      up the faa ffaa faa far right position very slowly.. as he is worried the normies frighten easily, they need to be nudged into the deportation space very gently.

  81. Tommy Robinson will not be charged over alleged St Pancras assault, police say. British Transport Police have said the Crown Prosecution Service has decided Tommy Robinson should not be charged

    LOL. What the MSN fail to mention is that the Leftie actor declined to give evidence. MSN & CPS did their best.. better luck next time.

  82. Speccie

    The analysis

    The answer’s not blowing in the wind The current head of energy policy in this country is Muppet-made-flesh Ed Miliband. While he makes a speciality of eye-catching policy announcements; notably playing a tuneless rendition of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ under a wind turbine, he is proving less capable of any form of actual policy implementation. His absolutism is increasingly bringing him into conflict with colleagues in other departments. Each time one of his ideas comes to the moment where practicality is involved, it dies. One is reminded of Thomas Huxley’s remark about Samuel Wilberforce when he fell off his horse: ‘His head finally came into contact with reality and it has proved fatal.’

    And so it proved today, as the energy price cap once again rose higher than expected, in defiance of the government’s pre-election pledge to reduce household energy bills by £300. When asked to explain the discrepancy between their longstanding assurances and measurable reality, ministers typically blame Russian aggression and wholesale gas prices for high energy bills; a fiction that vanishes with a glance at the international situation. Somehow, Britain has managed the unique achievement of keeping bills high despite lower wholesale prices overall and falling costs elsewhere in Europe and the US. Indeed, Britain’s energy-intensive industries are increasingly voting with their feet and seeking cheap American gas, rather than domestically produced green energy, to meet their needs.

    We are often told that renewables are nine times cheaper than gas, and that they are broadly cheaper than fossil fuels in general. This morning junior minister Michael Shanks repeated the familiar line that the rise in bills was evidence of the ‘fossil fuel penalty being paid by families, businesses and our economy’. Which presents something of a paradox – why then, when the UK is powering ahead with renewables, can it be enduring some of the highest industrial and domestic energy prices in the developed world?

    In a superb essay published yesterday, Dr Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford, offers a thorough explanation. Green lobbyists and supportive politicians, he explains, tend only to point to the low headline marginal costs associated with renewables, ignoring the vast hidden costs it took to generate the ‘same’ output. This includes upfront investments like upgrading the grid, building new pylons, the complex storage systems which intermittent power sources require for periods of unusually low pressure or sunlight, not to mention the vast sums committed in annual net zero subsidies. Dolly Parton wasn’t talking about renewable energy when she said it, but I am reminded of her iconic quip, ‘You’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap.’ As Professor Helm notes, these factors are rarely mentioned in the national conversation, though they will certainly be reflected in the ultimate bill. And this presents a serious problem for the government. While it cleaves to its net zero soundbites, a gulf is emerging between stated and revealed preferences, between ministers’ Panglossian pronouncements and the measurable reality in people’s bills and wallets. The longer this dishonesty continues, the greater the backlash will be.

    1. We don't need a professor to tell us what we all instinctively knew right from the outset, to be fair

      1. But it does help. immeasurably, when a member of the credentialed class sticks his neck out to say it in public. I am very glad to see Prof Helm speak out.

    1. Sorry, ogga. These seem to me to be dogs locked up best part of the day, not interacting with humans. Bored out of their minds, and likely hungry.

  84. Off topic
    We have a feral cat in the garden that is steadily getting thinner, possibly because of the heat/drought.
    We don't want it in the house.
    What can we feed it?

      1. Eventually perhaps, but tonight I put out some tuna.
        This is usually a very wary cat but once it smelt the tuna it wasn't remotely concerned by my emptying the tin on to the plant pot base.
        It's a very pretty cat, but very, very thin.
        I hope we haven't over-fed it.

        1. Don’t worry, sos. If you have (over-fed it), it will be sick. Cats are very good at that.

    3. Do not encourage it in any way. The only effect of putting food out will be for the cat to hang around, and if it is female, to present kittens at some point. Best to put it in a basket or somesuch and take it far away to release it.

      2. I've more than enough moles, mice, shrews and other small furry creatures to feed an army of cats.

        And yes, I do appreciate that if it's that thin it isn't a brilliant hunter!

        1. Just before pulling the trigger, remind yourself how many small birds cats like that kill. It makes you feel so much better.

          1. My garden is crowded with small birds.
            We deliberately leave large sections wild and do nothing to prevent them roosting under the eaves, in the walls and all the shrubs surrounding the house.
            I believe in live and let live (apart from certain religions) and the result is a garden that if it was in the UK would be designated a site of special scientific interest.
            Orchids, bats, reptiles, snakes, birds, in this type of terrain, you name them, we’ve got them.

          2. Where are you. We have all except the orchids here in Co.Durham, and though my son in Sussex has wild orchids in his garden.

          3. Dordogneshire. France.
            I have at least 20 different varieties of orchid, and over the year literally thousands, yes thousands of flowers.
            Chris Packham would wet himself.
            Admittedly I have over six acres of grounds and do everything I can to encourage the orchids.
            I hope the drought this year hasn’t harmed them.

          5. Oddly enough, the dry spell might be very good.
            The seed pods/heads produce very, very fine seed and the dry allows the cover to split easily and the seeds then go to the four winds.
            It’s the underlying reason why I have so many varieties.

          6. I know nothing about them. I’ve been to the orchid centre in Singapore. Not very dry there though.

          8. Likewise with the wild orchids in my son’s place. I would never have recognised them as orchids.

          10. No Sue, I count the feathers lying around my garden. Four wood pigeons (hurray), a jay and what was probably a starling this week.

          13. The sparrow hawk here has a collared dove a day and at least two other birds, from our garden alone. And the fantastic bird killing wind turbines account for many more than domestic cats. And that’s before you think about foxes, magpies, badgers and other undergrowth predators.

    5. We had a Maine Coone in our garden and my wife let it Into the house. It upset our other two cats and peed down the back of a sofa. We took it to a local vet, had its tussled and matted fur shaved and paid for the inoculations. We then delivered it to the Blue Cross in Cambridge who put it up for adoption. It was a beautiful creature after all of the attention we gave it.

      In-laws had a wild cat living in their potting shed, a lean to attached to the house. They fed and watered it for many years. When their indoor cat was run over in the road the wild one decided to come indoors and was fully domesticated. It lived to a ripe old age.

      If you like cats you can make or buy a small kennel-like structure, raised above the ground and with simple bedding. The cat will expect to be fed and watered but cat food is preferable to other forms of nutrition.

    7. MOH hates cats in the garden because of the mess it leaves in her veggie patch. In the past few days we have been dog sitting a Lakeland terrier for a hospitalised local lady. The Lakeland is a known hunter of small animals and is particularly desirous of challenging cats. The other day it found a cat sitting on the garden fence and, after a mutual stare down, the terrier was half way up the fence before we could entice it back down – we haven't seen the cat since.

      🐶?✔️🙀!

    8. MOH hates cats in the garden because of the mess it leaves in her veggie patch. In the past few days we have been dog sitting a Lakeland terrier for a hospitalised local lady. The Lakeland is a known hunter of small animals and is particularly desirous of challenging cats. The other day it found a cat sitting on the garden fence and, after a mutual stare down, the terrier was half way up the fence before we could entice it back down – we haven't seen the cat since.

      🐶?✔️🙀!

  85. 411905+ up ticks

    Stitches come undone on Tommys case.

    Tommy Robinson will not be charged over St Pancras ‘assault’
    Alleged victim did not want to make a statement against far-Right activist, say transport police

  86. I cannot wait for the schools to go back and for people to return to work from their holidays.
    At least it will ease the congestion of all the pop up holiday road works and make the traffic flow easier

    1. What's more annoying is that when the roadworks finish, there's almost no change – nothing actually repaired.

  88. Evening all I'm taking a bit of a break until my back is better. It's giving me a lot of gyp.
    Slayders folk. Be good and take care. 🤗😉

    2. I refer you to an earlier conversation.

      Just 'coz it feels much better is not a reason to overdo it!
      Live and learn!
      Good luck, I hope you'll feel better tomorrow.

    3. Hesitate to recommend, Eddy..I had bad back for many years. Bought a CD from Maiya Fiennes, 'Kundalini Yoga', around a fiver, sorted back problems out after spending too much on various physios etc. Think the CD is still available as a download to your mble phone. Good luck, it's a miserable condition, Kate x

    4. I did my back in lifting my son's robot out of a Robot Wars pit during filming with Philippa Forrester for one episode for TV.
      Some day's later our newfoundland dog, whose lead was strapped to a harness round my back, suddenly legged it diown a hilly mound and I heard a crunch – it was my back realigning and it was fine after that.

      1. I had a similar experience. I'd been having problems with my neck after a whiplash injury in a car crash. One day, I was mucking out the dressage horse when she put her head in the middle of my chest and knocked me backward. I heard "click, click, click" and my neck problems lessened from then on. Daisy the chiropractor!

  89. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/27/market-meltdown-will-force-starmer-into-an-early-election/

    What I find annoying is when the Bank of England crashed the economy to do Truss in, Al Beeb and every other fake money channel was bleating and squealing and eventually destroyed her government.

    Now, we have a far worse situation – and getting more so by the day – and not a peep from the media. I can only conclude they're protecting the Labour government.

    1. Yep

      Edit. My limp-dumb neighbour thinks lamestream media is agin’ the current government…..

    2. Yep

      Edit. My limp-dumb neighbour thinks lamestream media is agin’ the current government…..

  91. Tousi TV reporting on some trans nutter on a killing spree in a catholic church in minneapolis

    1. Laughing like a drain here, but the devils are backed by Fergie time, dodgy VAR and paid refs, so prepare for a late ‘resurgence’!

      2. Proper football weather too with a downpour at the start of the second half. What a shame it's not December and the pitch a sea of mud.

    1. 'Britain First!'

      Another group designed to water down Reform.

      I support Reform UK. Not because I believe they are the perfect solution to our problems, but because they have the momentum to rid us of our current and recent crappy political scum.

      1. I saw it on X and thought it amusing. I've looked it up and apparently Britain First was formed in 2011 and Reform in 2018.

    1. Well, Conners, I am back here to wish you – and Kadi and Winston – a good night's sleep. But also to let everyone on here that I just couldn't keep my eyes open at around 9.30 pm so went upstairs for an hour or so of shut-eye. And when I awoke it was 2 am. So back downstairs to wish you all "Bon Nuit". I shall now have a go at Thursday's Wordle and then see what to do next. Life is full of unexpected Plan Bs. Aargh!

    2. Well, Conners, I am back here to wish you – and Kadi and Winston – a good night's sleep. But also to let everyone on here that I just couldn't keep my eyes open at around 9.30 pm so went upstairs for an hour or so of shut-eye. And when I awoke it was 2 am. So back downstairs to wish you all "Bon Nuit". I shall now have a go at Thursday's Wordle and then see what to do next. Life is full of unexpected Plan Bs. Aargh!

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