Thursday 28 August: Only drastic spending cuts can get the country out of its economic bind

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

620 thoughts on “Thursday 28 August: Only drastic spending cuts can get the country out of its economic bind”

  1. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. Only did Wordle in 5 today (a Bogey).

    Wordle 1,531 5/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,531 4/6

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      1. Wordle 1,531 4/6
        Wotcha, all!

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      1. Hello Grizz. I am very fit and well. Still playing bowls in the first team. I put my wellness down to good genes, being married to the love of my life and the companionship of our well trained 10 year old Springer. I am a very lucky man.

  4. Don't be shy, Sue Mac, come and say "Hello" – we know you're hovering around there.

      1. No Grizzly, it is Sue Mac who has upvoted me and several others on today's page. (Good morning, btw.)

        1. Oh, I see. I thought you were asking for Sue E to emerge and tell us her operation had been a complete success.

          Which I fervently hope it has been.

          6. I think she was good to go and an emergency patient meant her operation was cancelled/postponed.
            She had also been having trouble self-injecting.
            molamola and Phizzee probably know more.

          7. That's about the size of it. The hospital took over the treatment in house which meant a longer stay before the procedure.

      2. No Grizzly, it is Sue Mac who has upvoted me and several others on today's page. (Good morning, btw.)

    2. Hello Elsie! Sorry, but two cats and a visiting Lab to feed, so not ready to sit down with coffee!
      You had an exciting night, didn’t you?

      1. I certainly did, Sue. I slept for England, then after trying to solve today's Wordle, I listened to some Angel Radio whilst eating a slice of mild Cheddar cheese. This resulted in a most strange sets of dreams! (Good morning, btw.)

  5. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f9150849133d98261480ce27b4ac94634472960f2196d8f93802351b666555d.png Mast glory. Saga Farmann, a replica of a 1,000-year-old Viking longboat, sails near Tower Bridge in London, during the final leg of a European voyage retracing ancient trade routes.

    50-or-so years ago this would have made a wonderful photograph. It is such a pity it is completely ruined by the hideous modern glass and concrete monstrosities on the left and right of this photograph.

    1. Yo Mr Grizz,

      Like on HMS Victory, it ws a bugger getting the sails down, when going to "Flying Stations: to Launch or Recover the ship-borne chopper (helicopter)

      1. Good morning, OLT. I hand idea that HMS Victory set sail with a helicopter on board. ?!?!?

        1. It's well hidden.

          The Viking vessel however is completely inaccurate. Where's the goal keeper missile defence turrets!

        2. Good moaning Auntie Elsie

          How else would they have founf the Spanish Fleet: Radar had not been invented at the time

          1. Perhaps the Royal Navy cunningly used a line of frigates and smaller vessels to signal beyond the horizon.
            In any case, Admiral Villeneuve was in a funk and his ability to escape was limited by weather patterns and orders from Bonaparte.
            Nelson sought to annihilate the enemy fleet, and the follow up events (in the Caribbean, etc) proved his genius.

    2. Over a thousand years ago, it would have meant trouble for the English inhabitants of London.

        1. Or from those of us living outsde of the Anglosphere: "Indeed. "Trade routes" my third of a metre!

      2. I thought that Saga Farmann was an early example of a Saga cruise for elderly passengers. Lol.

      3. My Dutch father-in-law loved reading the Diary of Samuel Pepys. Here is one of his favourite entries on Friday 19 July 1667 as a flotilla of Dutch ships sailed up the Thames..

        “I think the Devil shits Dutchmen.”

    1. Fairly inevitable. Destroy people's spending money and they don't. The result is unemployment and welfare demand.

      Of course, it's not just the lost jobs. It's the lost business rates, the landowner is no longer receiving rent so comedically they jack up their prices and lo! The lot stays empty. There's the loss of supplier vehicles, so more jobs lost in haulage and logistics. A warehouse no longer supplies and area so doesn't open a site nearby. The lorry driver doesn't stop for a bit of lunch. People don't go in to town and so footfall drops and other shops suffer.

      These are just a surface thinking about the problems high taxes cause. There are countless more. The Left keep taking as much as they can, but the result is the same: poverty. Unemployment. Permanent joblessness from a generation that only accelerates. The able (myself, the Warqueen) move to where there is work further impoverishing the local area but there's no other choice.

      High taxes ruin everything. The Treasury and OBR, for some very odd reason don't consider these damaging effects, or worse, assume that state spending on 'favoured industry', like 'green' compensates.

      Which it doesn't, as socialism does not, will not and never has worked: https://davidturver.substack.com/p/green-jobs-make-us-poorer

      1. The latest Triggernometry with Daniel Priestley is very good on this. Worth a listen/watch.

      3. Exactly! I went shopping the other day. There were things I would have bought if I had had spare money.

    2. This was written January 2024, so under the Torsocialist regime.

      Reeves will almost certainly have made matters far worse.

  7. Morning all,

    The EU Border CarbonTax

    I had to re-read this article several times to try to understand the implication for UK energy consumers:

    https://energyadvicehub.org/eu-carbon-border-tax-what-does-it-mean-for-uk-exporters/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20EU%20CBAM,deputy%20director%20at%20Energy%20UK.

    Basically, UK produces so much green energy for export to the EU from wind farms that because they don't know precisely where it comes from it will carbon taxed anyway. Ironically the EU border tax is supposed to help relieve those facing higher costs due to using non-green energy.

      1. The truly sad thing is search results exposing the sheer idiocy of inventing a system of selling 'carbon dioxide' are very, very difficult to find.

        It is an utter fraud yet again designed to give poor country's with no real energy sources our 'carbon' and thus offset ourproduction by paying them money.

        It is utter, complete, total gibberish.

        1. It's not gibberish, it's the planned deconstruction of the west. Not my words – this was admitted in public by a UN official a few years ago.

          1. Antonio Gueterrree whatever.

            He admitted (as you say) that it's about socialism. Nothing else.

    1. My mother insisted we 'dress up' to go to church. As she was constantly obsessed with her weight everything she bought my brother and I was too small and itched – these ghastly thick, long sleeved, horribly patterned, polyester shirts that barely did up.

      I also grew very quickly so nothing fitted in no time but she stlll demanded to wear them. Eventually I refused to go at all.

    2. I was never allowed a white shirt or black shoes 'for best' when I were nobbut a sprog. The shirts had to be a gruesome cream and the shoes were invariably brown.

      I haven't owned a cream shirt nor a pair of brown shoes since.

    3. Heaves a sigh of relief that all the slides from 1970s are fading fast in boxes up in the attic.

  10. At last we are seeing in the mainstream media a break in the consensus not to scrutinise our uniparty government policies on green energy under the guise of saving the planet from climate change.
    No longer can they powers that be get away with saying that wind and solar will lead to cheaper energy all based on loosely generalised misleading stats.
    The truth is our energy prices are some of the highest in the world and our country can no longer attract industrial investment while losing what we have left to countries that burn more fossil fuel than in the history of human kind.
    The end game doesn't appear to be about saving the planet from climate change but resetting the planet and the way we all live based on our carbon usage per head of population while individuals will be rationed for a global average.
    This is why countries with huge populations can burn seemingly unlimited amounts of fossil fuel without worrying the climate scientists.
    While people at home have been groomed into worrying about putting the heating on or running down to the shops in their car even if they can afford it.
    Globalist power and control in a new world order is what it is all about,
    Just be thankful that we still have Trump taking them on.

    1. Yep. The entire 'climate change' agenda has nothing to do with environmentalism. In many ways it forces moronically inefficient uses of energy – who would suggest building a windmill in the sea? It needs 2000 tons of concrete, a massive boat for each thing, the blades can't be recycled, it's a 1000 tons of steel, uses 1000 litres of oil, appallingly mined rare earth metals, a huge undersea cable per windmill and all for… 20% of it's rated use.

      That's just material waste. If someone produced a bottle that was made from plutonium, lead and then gold plated and despite being 1l only held 200ml, weighed 10kg and leaked, turned the water poisonous no one would buy it. It would never, ever be considered. Yet here we are. Big governments forcing the building of monuments to folly using our money.

      It is a lie. A hoax. It is simply forcing the public to use less, to do less, to accept a lower standard of living when they needn't all because of government hubris, arrogance and some demented, frenzied desperation to dictate how we live our lives.

      2. Why not just wear his underpants on his head and stick two pencils up his nose like other loonies?

        Why kill children? Why?

    2. My abiding question with these events is 'why'? Goodness knows, we've all been unhappy with ourselves at some time of our lives. Few of us think 'I'll go and kill someone', least of all a school full of children.

      Was he so starved of attention and egotistical that he couldn't see he was the problem, and so took his frustrations of inadequacy out on the world?

      Why?

      2. Mental illness meets mind altering medication and/or recreational substances.
        IMHO, many people do not comprehend complex concepts, as in the US Constitution: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
        Militia = plural noun.
        People = plural noun.
        My suggestion is that owners of firearms and shotguns should belong to a mess (small homogenous group, syndicate, team, etc) , absolute minimum of three people but preferably several more, with joint liability insurance and codified responsibilities.

        1. I've never understood the idea of a group of people with their assault rifles thinking they're safe from the government which has vastly more weapons and resources.

          1. I doubt the government of the time ever thought they would be targeted by the Militias.

  12. 411957+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The criminally, morally treacherously insane political overseers have and are constructing and supplying what we don't want and changing us top whack for it,

    The question is, how does this reflect on the mindset of the English indigenous peoples allowing this to continue increasing in such a blatant thieving fashion.

    The standing charges alone must bring hardship to many without the rising cost of food to put on the
    gas / electric ring.
    https://x.com/Artemisfornow/status/1960684659580215547

    1. Oh goodie. You Nefele as though I’m not really paying enough right now.

  13. 411957+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The criminally, morally treacherously insane political overseers have and are constructing and supplying what we don't want and changing us top whack for it,

    The question is, how does this reflect on the mindset of the English indigenous peoples allowing this to continue increasing in such a blatant thieving fashion.

    The standing charges alone must bring hardship to many without the rising cost of food to put on the
    gas / electric ring.
    https://x.com/Artemisfornow/status/1960684659580215547

  14. Good Morning!

    Today we continue the debate on the Israel v Hamas conflict with Gaza – Collateral Lies. But Who Is Lying? – a pro-Israeli response to Jeremy Morefy's anti-Israel article, Gaza – Collateral Lies , in which we argue that Israel is not responsible for the alleged famine in Gaza. Please do read and comment.

    And 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.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's electric power was sourced from Gas, 23.5%; Solar, 7.2%: Wind 32.2%; Imports, 14.1%; Biomass, 10.1%; Nuclear 10.5% and Miscellaneous, 2.4%.

    1. A quibble.
      Factor 76 might have been better, the year we had to beg from the IMF.
      94 was a Mexican crisis.

  17. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a055241dccc47142bd4c46a0174037d08ebf758766e730fe8c78b31663a321da.png Samantha Williamson had been drinking at the Captain’s Club Hotel & Spa in Dorset.

    Drunk diner asked to sit on stranger’s ‘big bamboo’ at his anniversary meal.

    A WOMAN who got drunk at a restaurant and “started grinding” on the lap of a diner during his anniversary celebrations has avoided jail.
    Samantha Williamson, 44, a mother of two, had been drinking at the bar of the Captain’s Club Hotel & Spa in Christchurch, Dorset, when she interrupted a couple eating a meal. She sat on the man’s lap and told him “I want to sit on your big bamboo,” before being pushed off and told by the man’s wife to “f— off ”. Williamson then took the drinks and a candle off the table and, behaving as though she was “possessed”, spat on the man and scratched him.

    Poole magistrates’ court heard the couple had travelled to Dorset on June 15 last year to mark their 40th anniversary and to celebrate the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, receiving the all-clear from cancer.Williamson had become progressively more drunk over the evening, argued with a man at the bar and began swearing and abusing other customers. The victim said before the incident happened they had tried to help her and offered to get her a taxi home, which she refused. Speaking after the conviction, the victim said: “My wife tried to help and make sure she got home safe. She was arguing with a guy at the bar. “I thought the staff would get her out but they let it go on for another two hours. She was shouting ‘c—’ and ‘f–off ’ but to no one. She started grinding on me and then swiped broken glass in my wife’s hair.”

    Victoria Hill, prosecuting, told the court: “He hadn’t previously met her and certainly didn’t want her sitting on his lap. She began pointing and being abusive. His wife said,‘why don’t you f— off ?’ The defendant then swiped the drinks and a candle on the table, causing them to go all over [his wife].
    “He stood up and took hold of her in an attempt to move her away from [his wife]. They fell to the floor because the defendant was drunk. He said she was behaving like she was possessed.” A victim impact statement from the man read: “I don’t understand how offering a lady some help could go so wrong. Getting covered in drink and broken glass was not how we expected our night to end.

    “I had received the all-clear for my cancer and thought it was a great way to celebrate my news and 40 years together. Instead we were met with a drunk, aggressive, very vicious young lady through no fault of our own. “Our time there was very expensive and we will never go back to that area again because it would be very traumatic.” Williamson, of Avon Terrace, Salisbury, admitted one offence of sexual assault. James Moore, defending, said she had got very drunk when her partner said they were going to relocate and she did not handle the news well.

    Mr Moore said Williamson was a vulnerable woman, having fled an abusive relationship in America and returned to the UK without her teenage son.
    He added: “Alcohol is her kryptonite… she has seen the GP and undertaken counselling.” District Judge Paul Booty said: “I had no idea what possessed you. It started off badly enough with you placing yourself on the lap of somebody and talking about a bamboo. If that wasn’t bad enough, it develops into a bit of a scuffle. “This was a gentleman out with his wife trying to celebrate their anniversary and dealing with a nasty illness. Taking everything into account this is serious enough for a community penalty.”

    Judge Booty gave her a six-month community order with a tag-monitored curfew between 8pm and 6am and ordered her to pay £1,000 to the victim.

    Where's Maggie?

    Are these the new social mores down in staid Dorsetshire nowadays? 😊

    1. From Salisbury, not Daarset. An army town, unfortunately now becoming a ghetto for gimmegrants.

    3. I'm surprised she didn't claim her drink was spiked.

      Given her loss of control it might have been.

    1. Good morning Citroen1 and everyone.
      Of course Miss Rayner does not own '3 homes', nobody does; she has three residential properties, of which one could be her current home.

      1. Good morning, all.

        A home is a place someone lives in. What's to stop someone living in three properties – she doesn't have to be simultaneously present in each.

        Anyway she only owns two – the third is a grace and favour flat, which is one of her homes.

      2. Good morning, all.

        A home is a place someone lives in. What's to stop someone living in three properties – she doesn't have to be simultaneously present in each.

        Anyway she only owns two – the third is a grace and favour flat, which is one of her homes.

      3. Home is where the heart is!

        However many properties she owns her home will always be in Hell.

    1. I think it was Katie Hopkins who coined the phrase "lego hair" in relation to Reeves. If the hair fits…

    2. Any immigrant who commits a crime should be deported. Thus any illegal immigrant should be immediately deported.

      We would be far better off simply saying 'no welfare for ten years' for any immigrant. Thus they have to contribute to school fees, pay for NHS care and so on. Doesn't have to be a lot. £50 a month is plenty each. This would help inner city schools hugely.

      We must also mandate speaking English as the default.

      1. Agree. A few days ago I saw a tinted disabled lad in an electric wheelchair jabbering away in a foreign language and couldn’t help thinking that’s all paid for by my taxes and you can’t even be bothered to speak English in England. For the avoidance of doubt he wasn’t speaking Welsh.

    3. Lefties, Labour, wet Tories & MSN on the wrong side of this argument. And it's getting worse by the day.
      I can't see how they can square this circle.

    4. Does this mean that over 20% of 'Brits' actually want rapists and paedophiles to stay in Britain?

  24. Morning, all Y'all.
    Lousy night last night, so staying at home to catch up on sleep. Drizzly weather, too.

  26. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3776c2709d43b0f693a5e61af77c7aaeecfdbae5f0bf07990be1bde1d5a6939b.png The F-35 fighter jet crashed on the air base runway at Fairbanks, Alaska, after the pilot had safely ejected

    Pilot spent 50 minutes on call with engineers before crash

    A US Air Force pilot spent 50 minutes on a conference call with engineers before his F-35 fighter jet crashed and exploded earlier this year.
    The pilot joined the call with five engineers from Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer, shortly after take-off on January 28, an air force accident report said. Freezing temperatures had ruptured his aircraft’s hydraulic lines and main landing gears.

    The pilot suffered an “in-flight malfunction” but was able to safely eject before the $200m (£149m) F-35 Lightning II jet plummeted to the tarmac below and erupted in flames at US Eielson Air Force Base, Fairbanks, southeast Alaska. Video footage showed the pilot parachuting slowly to the ground as a fireball rose from the wreckage. He was taken to Bassett Army Hospital.

    The F-35 is the most expensive US defence programme and Lockheed Martin’s biggest revenue generator, contributing about 30 per cent of its bottom line. The crash adds to concerns that the cutting-edge jets, widely considered the world’s most advanced stealth aircraft, are too expensive and prone to breakdowns. In Britain, a damning report from the National Audit Office said the country’s £11bn, F-35 programme had led to a “disappointing return” in investment, with only a third of the fleet available to perform tasks required by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The American crash report said the pilot attempted two “touch and go” landings to try to recentre the jammed nose gear, but the frozen hydraulic liquid prevented both the left and right landing gears from fully extending.

    Incorrectly thinking it was already on the ground, the F-35’s sensors transitioned to “automated ground-operation mode”, rendering the jet uncontrollable and forcing the pilot to eject, the report said. An inspection of the wreckage found that about one-third of the hydraulic systems in both the nose and right main landing gears had been contaminated by frozen water – the temperature at the time of the crash was -1F (-18C), the report said. A second F-35 suffered from hydraulic freezing just nine days after the crash, the investigation added, but that aircraft was able to land safely. In an April 2024 maintenance newsletter, Lockheed Martin warned that F-35 sensors could glitch in extreme cold weather, making it “difficult for the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft”.

    The air force investigation noted that engineers on the call had referenced the guidance and “likely would have advised a planned full stop landing or a controlled ejection instead of a second touch-and-go” that eventually led to the conditions that caused the crash. The US Air Force’s accident investigation board concluded that a lack of oversight for the distribution of the hydraulic fluid, inadequate aircraft hydraulics servicing procedures, and the crew’s decision-making, including the engineers on the call, all contributed to the crash.

    The report comes as the British Government moves to diversify its military forces. Britain has pledged to increase its defence spending to five per cent of economic output by 2035 as the US takes a step back from its traditional role as a defender of European security. In June, Britain bought 12 of the F-35A planes capable of firing tactical nuclear weapons.

    Let me get this right. A state-of-the-art fighter jet that costs £150,000,000 each, cannot operate in parky weather because no one thought about adding some antifreeze?

    1. It's not that – the pre flights warm the engine components and run the fluids through radiators to bring them up to temperature before the engine starts. This sounds as if a pump silently failed.

      £35 million quid down the tubes. Thankfully the pilot is worth more. Just.

      It's funny. During peacetime we prioritise the human, during war, the materiel.

      1. MOH bought a Subaru Forester ten years ago but it was time to trade it in – wasn't coping with potholes despite being built to drive up river beds. The previous model. however, had three drive modes rather than just standard and sport – super sport mode could only be used after the engine oil had reached a sufficiently high temperature.

        1. I remember earlier diesel cars had a dashboard dial showing a twiddly wire; you had to wait until it turned yellow?red? which indicated the car was warmed up enough to start it.

          1. The 16/17 year old VW Passat I recently part-exchanged had just such a warning light. It only meant a wait of a few seconds before firing up.

          3. I think that's entirely fair. It's the equivalent of your being unwilling to face the world until the 2nd cup of coffee.

      2. I think we learned from WW1 where we didn’t give pilots parachutes. In WW2 we recognised that pilots were a valuable resource. Not that this stopped training losses.

        1. Takes ages to train a pilot to be useful in a fighting aeroplane. Easier to run out of airmen than aeroplanes.

    2. Not just fighter jets.

      Daring class (Type 45) destroyers have struggled to operate effectively in warm seas due to a design flaw in their Rolls-Royce WR-21 gas turbine intercooler, which significantly reduced power availability and could lead to total power loss in hot climates like the Persian Gulf.

      One of the six destroyers has been in dry dock since 2017. The others, like the aircraft carriers, have all had multiple issues.

        1. Those Bird & Fortune sketches were brilliant! Much too close to the truth for comfort in many cases.

    3. I would offer the USAAF the Noddy car as she is more reliable.
      But I need her for tomorrow's shopping expedition.

    5. “Let me get this right”. No, you haven’t got it right – the report makes no suggestion that the absence of antifreeze had anything to do with the crash.

  27. Up early to empty washing machine and load tumbler.

    All put away/outside now. Then took the dogs for their morning walk. Saw a lass walking what looked like a rat. turne dout was some sort of bag dog. My three looked at it as if to say 'what are you?' but tails were wagged.

    The trouble with Newfies is everyone stops and asks about them. This young woman simply couldn't conceive of dogs that big. After lots of tail wagging and bottom sniffing – Lucy's head, by far my smallest was bigger than this thing's body – we all went our separate ways.

    Email from the assisted living where brother is on how he's doing. No tantrums, rages or attacks this week. The lady who took over as warden has settled and isn't too bad. I do miss the previous bloke as he wore the same things all the time. He said it is important to be consistent for the residents, the lady doesn't have that same approach and is she changes her hair from a bun to … err… not, then brother panics and thinks it's someone else.

    Home to the Warqueen complaining we had run out of fruit juice (we have) and why didn't I get any on the walk. Ditto milk, as she poured half of what was left into her milk frother thing.

    I've toothache, a headache, earache and could really have done without the unmeant – as it wasn't a jibe – comments.

      1. Still zero support from Farage Ltd. Even wet Tories are joining.
        Also, be rather interesting to compare with Home Office & Starmer's billion dollar report.
        The last one put focused on white men rape.

    3. Estimates are now appearing of up to 50,000 children have been exploited in this way. By Paki Muslim men.

      And still they are welcomed.

      1. 411957+ up ticks,

        Morning Pip,
        This points out clearly that there must be an
        ulterior motive for amassing such a gathering,
        and that does not bode well for the indigenous peoples.

      2. …by 'The Islamic Network' who have effective control of the Home Office and Pixie Cooper daren't say 'Boo'.

    5. And for decades, first reported by Anne Cryer (Labour MP for Keighley) to Keir Starmer who I think may have been DPP but took no action. His reward today, perhaps?

      1. Aren't rewards to be found in Heaven? Hope Starmer goes to collect his very soon!

  30. Good morning, all. Sunny.

    Political landscape today is as dire as it was yesterday. Something not too political for starters.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/801e08fa6aa1421b78fc9c8af3739f8307a721a3ee02faf43fca8ca836830bf0.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b12db12b6c4f5192b93c6d23c4b8368783ae15e94152cbff2f916ebcb88e5d13.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c19c7919ec7b1c79d3aa6cad46ba9b51215d68a19dbb84927f19f0e6abbbe8df.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1c5a2d6b38de792111e7a1f3f853e79b3ea9083eae91b052e9f920d19be7cca.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ace747867193fd942e3cb2f42a0f1e9e1ced73ed520ec8ed92ec6ca93c9d6268.png

    Bear's paw. The owner of paws like this can outrun and out-climb you. Teddy bears' picnic in the woods isn't for faint hearts.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eec2ab0e863655f3ab258f5f0773c2b886e5982f0aae77367e1e697644ddbe88.png

        1. A bit like my head has been used as the ball in the world series.

          Otherwise ok, but I would like these welts to go away. Apparently they're all down my back as well.

          3. That doesn’t sound good, wibbles. Have you tried changing your diet by eliminating one food at a time and seeing if there is any difference?

          4. Good advice. Perhaps also try changing laundry detergent, if bedding/pjs causing welts on his back.

          5. The three foods to which almost nobody is allergic are pears, rice and chicken. So the classic allergy diet test at one time was to restrict to pears and chicken, then introduce other foods slowly at two week intervals, starting with rice. Don't know whether modern medicine "knows better" now.
            A skin scratching test worked for me for common allergens too.

      4. Is she descended from the robust, sharp-eyed fellow Keats mentions as having looked at the Pacific Ocean from the vantage point of the Peak of Darien?

        Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
        And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
        Round many western islands have I been
        Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
        Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
        That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
        Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
        Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
        Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
        When a new planet swims into his ken;
        Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
        He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
        Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
        Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

    2. Dear Alexandria.
      You may not have heard of Godwin's law, but I am now invoking it.
      Aydolph and his chums held the same views as you.
      I believe it's called lying.
      Peace and Love.
      xx

    6. Bet AOC is no longer wearing the white silk dress with 'Tax the Rich' painted on it in red paint, now that she is one.

  31. Good Moaning.
    Had an "interesting", if rather strained, lunch yesterday with a friend who is not adapting too well to living on her own and not being frantically busy.
    Negativity on legs would be the best description.
    I wrote her a thank you email. She responded by telling me she was disappointed that MB and I didn't choose more exciting food.
    Since my reply would probably be on the lines that midweek lunches in nearby pubs tend not to offer a menu featuring larks' tongues and honey stuffed dormice, I decided to bite my lip. (aka, step away from the keyboard.)

    1. Why on her own? Divorce, death…?
      If you've been living with someone a long time, suddenly being alone can be really disturbing. Who to talk to, get advice from, calibrate your responses against?

      1. Death. But she could be pretty horrible to hubby when he was alive.
        She used to be a local big cheese and active politician.
        Now she has too much time on her hands and her conversation has shrivelled to death, illness and slagging people off.
        We keep in touch because we remember the kind and funny – if somewhat fiery – person she used to be.
        All very, very sad.

          2. She has done all that.
            Sadly, the negative side of her character appears to have taken over.

        2. Don’t know what to suggest but it’s good you are gritting your teeth and keeping in touch.

        3. Poor lady. Does she have any pets to keep her company? Just having a living being to talk to can be comforting, especially if it can go "miaow" back in sympathetic tones.

          1. Completely agree. Now have just the one terrier, she currently sleeps many hours – often an early sign of imminent demise in a pet. Will I get another dog? Not sure, now late 70s myself.

          2. Your place will seem empty if you don't get a replacement. Maybe not a colossus like Wibblings Newfies, something a bit relaxed and smaller, not needing too much exercise, and highly intelligent.

            Mother's care home has frequent visits from relatives of inmates, with their dogs, and the pleasure on the resident's faces (YouTube videos as evidence) is amazing. The dogs are loved and hugged to bits! And they respond with kindness returned to the inmates, with tail wags and licks.

          3. I’m up for it – you convinced me :-)) friend used to keep a rescue home, had several dogs from her (all foc apart from any donation welcomed). Now they charge hundreds of pounds, whole place gone to pot, dirty and unkempt including outdoor kennels. Warden has the look of an alcoholic….so will put the word out and someone will turn up with one 🙂 care home sounds excellent, if so must be weight off your mind x

          5. I used to take Spartie when I visited Elderly Chum.
            As you say, his presence brought the most introverted to life and they would chat about their past pets.

          7. We got a Springer pup when I was 79. She is 10 and has been a wonderful companion to us both.

          8. Now you’re talking, excellent dogs. Take one myself, in a heartbeat. Was looking on Pets4Homes or whatever it’s called nowadays. Looked a bit grim, a business trading in dogs.

          10. I would really like to. Local rescue place not what it was, grounds overgrown, outdoor catteries badly in need of repair. Whole place scruffy. Sat outdoors with a young helper, she was excellent but only a temp. What I thought about the one in charge the least said the better. They had a pack of hounds there staying temporarily…one caught my eye, seemed to be begging ‘take me’. I’ll never go back. During lockdown, I visited a woman advertising puppies reasonable rates…whole place disgusting, cages piled on top of one another in her living room, breeding pups. Skedaddled pdq. You know of a good local rescue place, Conway – just let me know plse? Had a dog most of my life, got my first when pre-school, I was four years old – dad fetched a pup home, mother went mad but made no odds. K

          11. I went to Manchester and Cheshire Dogs Home for Oscar. Have just been looking for a tennis ball to use for massage and found all his medication in a tin. It’s really upset me . Poor Oscar.

          12. It never leaves, Conway…that sorrow. Very similar to losing my parents. Chin up, all we can do is carry on best we’re able to x

          14. She and her husband used to have a lovely black labarador.
            He was a failed police dog (he was too nice to the criminals he was supposed to be dobbing in).
            Anno domini caught up with him two or three years back. I don't think she's now suitable for pet ownership.

          1. I'm sure it was the effects of loneliness, especially during lockdown, that brought on Mother's dementia. Then, even her oldest friends didn't visit in case they infected her. Isolation stopped her catching anyhing, but isolation did for her mind as well.

          2. We're of a mind, N – my post below. Something awaiting many of us, brain cells along with other cells no longer renewing as they once did…living too long…

          3. MB and I have discussed that one. I would say the worst aspects of her character are now predominating.
            One of the reasons why I nip in and see her every so often.
            Her children are around 60+ and live nearish by and visit her. It is far more difficult for them.

          4. “The worst aspects”….she has probably become less inhibited and will say what she thinks without caring how it’s received. Sad for her friends and family.

        5. My dad was similar, anne – eventually a diagnosis of Alzheimers. GP/Social Worker both said they could do nothing until situation broke down as the system was so overloaded. That's what happened – I got him into Social Care Housing and he started upsetting others, so warden called an ambulance, eventually ended up in Care Home where he died a couple of years later. Quite a while ago, suspect situation even worse now as many are living longer.

          1. I'm sorry about your Dad. That's not pleasant at all, witnessing it in Mother, who now doesn't recognise me. We're visiting shortly, maybe she'll recognise SWMBO or her Grandsons. I hope.

          2. I'm sorry about Mother too, Paul. Hope she recognises all of you…wish you all the best x…we both know it doesn't improve, and indeed only ends one way.

      1. Basic pub nosh. Chum herself makes a great hoohah about her dodgy innards, and orders a plain baked potato with gravy ("they know I always have that"); the chef sent out a potato topped with cheese ….. things then went rather medical and somewhat insulting to staff. Luckily, MB and I are used to conversations about digestive problems and eating at the same time. We silently ploughed on.
        We chose pub grub; fish pie and bangers and mash respectively.
        Drinks ….. oh God …… HOW can an order for tap water be so …..
        Anyway, let us say that one can understand why our hostess's social life is becoming somewhat sparse.

        1. Rude to staff is not acceptable.

          What do you think she would have preferred you to order in a pub?

          I wouldn't be quite so forgiving.

        2. I love basic pub grub, me. Don't have it so very often, and my absence of taste means that texture is the thing – and simplicity, too.

    3. Lonely folk tend to be hard work. It's not because they're unpleasant, they're deflecting internal unhappiness on other things.

  32. Israel's strike on Yemen should be applauded

    SIR – Israel has set an example to the world by taking determined action against Yemen ("Israel launches retaliatory strikes on Houthi rebels near Yemen's presidential palace", report, August 25). For too long the international community has allowed the Houthis to engage in piracy under the guise of supporting the Palestinian cause.

    The West already owes Israel a vote of thanks for holding the line against jihadist extremism in the Middle East. A failed state such as Yemen, run by a quasi-terrorist regime and funded by Iran, should not be allowed to hold the world to ransom by disrupting international shipping lanes.

    Mick Richards
    Malvern, Worcestershire
    __________________________________________

    SIR – When Israel was created in 1948, it was immediately attacked by all the surrounding Arab states, intent on its total annihilation (Letters, August 26). That and subsequent wars have produced refugees which the wealthy Arab states do not want to accommodate. The people of Gaza have instead had billions in aid pumped into their economy, but the money has been squandered on terrorist tunnels and weaponry by Hamas, whose sole aim is the same as in 1948: the death of Israel and the Jewish people.

    Benjamin Netanyahu's critics have yet to formulate a plan that would change the mindset of the terrorists on Israel's border.

    Joe Obrart
    Stanmore, Middlesex
    __________________________________________

    SIR – Penelope Fairclough (Letters, August 25) asks why the BBC is not allowed to report from Gaza. It should be noted that, while the BBC reports from Israel and the West Bank, it uses reports from local journalists in Gaza – journalists who are only allowed to operate with Hamas's permission and supervision, something the BBC rarely mentions.

    John Hill
    Stockport, Cheshire

      1. I expect they are about to ramp up the attacks on Iran again.

        This seems to be a feature of modern mind control – the media blows hot and cold on a particular issue, but always in such a way as to encourage two opposing and extreme points of view.
        Another example is the way they demonised Trump, and then the mainstream media supported the "Trump is a saint" campaign to the extent of reporting the obviously faked assassination attempt as real.

    2. Nice to see those views but it won't change the outlook of the "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts" brigade.

  33. Israel's strike on Yemen should be applauded

    SIR – Israel has set an example to the world by taking determined action against Yemen ("Israel launches retaliatory strikes on Houthi rebels near Yemen's presidential palace", report, August 25). For too long the international community has allowed the Houthis to engage in piracy under the guise of supporting the Palestinian cause.

    The West already owes Israel a vote of thanks for holding the line against jihadist extremism in the Middle East. A failed state such as Yemen, run by a quasi-terrorist regime and funded by Iran, should not be allowed to hold the world to ransom by disrupting international shipping lanes.

    Mick Richards
    Malvern, Worcestershire
    __________________________________________

    SIR – When Israel was created in 1948, it was immediately attacked by all the surrounding Arab states, intent on its total annihilation (Letters, August 26). That and subsequent wars have produced refugees which the wealthy Arab states do not want to accommodate. The people of Gaza have instead had billions in aid pumped into their economy, but the money has been squandered on terrorist tunnels and weaponry by Hamas, whose sole aim is the same as in 1948: the death of Israel and the Jewish people.

    Benjamin Netanyahu's critics have yet to formulate a plan that would change the mindset of the terrorists on Israel's border.

    Joe Obrart
    Stanmore, Middlesex
    __________________________________________

    SIR – Penelope Fairclough (Letters, August 25) asks why the BBC is not allowed to report from Gaza. It should be noted that, while the BBC reports from Israel and the West Bank, it uses reports from local journalists in Gaza – journalists who are only allowed to operate with Hamas's permission and supervision, something the BBC rarely mentions.

    John Hill
    Stockport, Cheshire

  34. Ed Davey has declared he’s boycotting President Trump’s state banquet in mid-September. LOL

    Sad Sac Khan?
    'National Treasures'
    Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Elton John?
    Miriam Margolyes
    Professor Kehinde Andrews
    Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu

          1. I know i know.

            Third rate clown that he is.

            He said it was in protest against Trump not stopping the malnutrition in Gaza. I doubt Trump will notice his abscence.

          2. Probably be relieved. Trump isn’t causing malnutrition in Gaza. It’s Hamas that needs to be boycotted.

        2. I declined the offer.

          Mr Trump is great, but Starmer and co are walking, talking, emetics and constipation cures

      1. Hey Bono, what time are you driving your car off the cliff? Asking for a few Friends
        Where/who do I send my petrol contribution too? Asking for dads of friends
        Hey Bono, please don't wreck a beautiful car. Can't you just ride a bike off….?

    3. Which reminds me – I don't think Bonio has yet driven his car off a cliff, which I seem to recall he said he would do if Trump was re-elected!?

  35. Yesterday there was at least one post on the news story about the young girl who was arrested for carrying a knife and an axe to defend herself from the unwanted attentions of an immigrant. As sometimes happens in these stories, the reportage in the American online media can be more informative than the media on this side of the 'pond'. Here's an example:
    https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/08/27/the-new-face-of-british-resistance-is-just-14-years-old-n4943081

  37. Morning everyone. I am just quaffing my second cup of coffee before taking the dogs for a walk.

    If we expect Labour to cut spending we’ve got no chance.

  38. French police refuse to tackle migrants in water
    Officers will not act without assurances they will be protected, properly trained and well-equipped, in blow to ‘one in, one out’ deal
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/08/28/french-police-defy-starmer-refuse-tackle-migrants-in-boats/

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/787dd6f09047a64fe21fb33b0aae6569f6051f3b22244a4e44bae56775815547.png

    BTL

    The French do not want these illegal immigrants any more than the British do. Why should they?

    They will happily take our money and take it with a sneer of contempt at our stupidity and naïveté.

    Starmer must be the very worst negotiator Britain has ever had. He gives in to the EU, he surrenders more and more to the unions, he gives way to his own backbenchers and he pays through the nose to give away the Chagos islands to Mauritius.

    2. 411957+ up ticks,

      Morning R,

      If we had someone in patriotic opposition as half as good as he
      successfully is at Country demolition then we would be on the road out of the shite marsh.

      Support the Farmers Food and Freedom Party to run back up or take over from Reform.

      Be careful less we become that that we most fear.

  39. Just tried to call Mother at her care home in Penarth, but she's out with a group at her and my Father's favourite pub, on the road to Cardiff. She's not been there in years, hope she has some happy memories of the place, and doesn't miss my Dad too much.

    2. My mother doesn't answer the telephone. Last time she didn't bother plod had to visit to see if she was still alive.

      1. I call the office, they transfer the call to the "closed department", the call gets lost… rinse & repeat a couple of times, until someone takes a wireless handset to her.

        1. Yours at least tries to answer. Mine doesn't out of spite. Her argument is that 'no one calls me, so why should I answer it.'

          No, I don't understand it either.

          2. As I am certifiably old, I'll have to work on being suitably cranky. Get enough illogic going and I would qualify for Labour party membership…

            Meanwhile, off to the North Carolina beaches with the family, leaving at the w/e. There will be 4 generations of us – me, daughter plus SiL, their offspring and other halves, and eldest grandson and wife's baby.

          3. My mother used to spend the first 20 minutes when I called her complaining about how long it had been since I last rang and how neglectful I was, etc. Never mind I worked full time in a stressful job that was very time consuming and had a household to run as well . In the end I stopped the complaint by pointing out I was ringing now, wasn’t she pleased to hear from me?

    1. It's rather sad that there are at least three stories of diversity raping or attacking women or children and another about the kid in Dundee with her axe being arrested.

      Plod refuse to protect us from the savages, so we have to. Our country shouldn't be like this. Everything is back to front. The savages shouldn't be here, the kid shouldn't need the weapons, plod should protect the citizen, not the criminal.

      Here we have a Lefty, desperate to protect muslim yet again. https://order-order.com/2025/08/28/labour-linked-hope-not-hate-racist-to-identify-ethnicity-of-grooming-gangs/#comments

      1. Hello Wibbling ,

        Here am I being sarcy , but remember when the woke lot banned Noddy books featuring Golliwogs chasing poor Noddy .. Strange really because those pictures attached to the story gave me bad dreams ..
        Why can't the Wokeratti understand that Golliwog types chasing and hurting youngsters in a majority white country is really not on ?

        1. The Left wing mind is an odd place. Hypocrisy, doublethink and absolute denial of reality runs through it.

          Besides, Lefties don't really care about gimmigrants. They hate those who think differently to them.

      2. 411957+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        My belief is this odious political tool has been entrusted with the final stage of
        “Take down England”and finding remarkable success with the help he is receiving.

        Organised these 30 plus years via the
        NWO / WEF/ with of late, royal consent.

        Many politico’s over the years have shown up to be master monopoly players Not going to jail and picking up a multitude of £200 enough in point of fact as on entering the HP sauce factory as a run of the mill mp and within a few years becoming property millionaires, how is this possible ?

        The paedophilia treacherous plague leads me to believe that much is concealed via the political pin striped arse bandits & renters
        throughout both mps & civil servants also many a councilor could not bare the heat of the spotlight.

  45. I was awake far too early , 4.30am , then couldn't go back to sleep .

    Moh took no 1 son to see the bone specialist at the hospital this morning , son still has to wear his splints , and he has been referred to a physio.. I cannot see him getting back to work this side of Christmas , he is self employed and on his own financially apart from living here with us .

    Thank goodness he has his running to occupy his time .. He ran 300 miles last month and maybe more!

    I took Pip to one of our favourite walking areas , had a brisk walk , damp underfoot and the sky looked so dark and the wind blew so we managed to get our walk in before the heavens opened .. started to tip down as I exited the woody walk , and saw a glorious double rainbow to the South West .. then down came the rain in stair rods .

    Arrived home and son and Moh were back from appointment .

    The wet weather has brought a different sort of thankfulness to the plants in the garden .. Hydrangeas are happy and so are the roses .

    I have booked the chimney sweep for September , I normally book him in May .. for an early clean .

    I was fortunate to have got an early slot because his appointment book is quite busy ..

    So if any of you have a chimney to clean , book your sweep now.

    1. We paid the university fees and living expenses for both our sons.

      But since they left university they have not asked for a penny piece form us; they both have bought their own homes, both earn considerably more than we do and each one has, respectively, a wife or fiancée.

      1. Lots of families are similar to you Richard.

        You are very lucky in the grand scheme of things ..

        Misfortune for many is a painful place to exist in ..

  46. You probably wont believe this but I have just started Wordle again but I have lost my previous list of possible starters so I consulted Rock Paper Shotgun and chose a word not on the list of previous answers – A chance in ten thousand, or more, perhaps: My fingers are crossed for Fridays Euro Lotto. I would like a new roof.
    Wordle 1,531 1/6

    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. So people who are here illegally [lest we forget] have more rights than people who were born here and live here legally? People who, in many case, are being taxed to support groups who will almost certainly become a burden on taxpayers for years to come?

    2. Timeline from the court case:
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/625ce431f34c6b10deba15b0202dbfdc5cf263af460e1fb3f65a3ae4fe69255e.png
      Can it be more clearly spelled out?
      You must give the asylum seekers food and shelter, or (hundreds of thousands of young men with no women, no money, no property and no family) will be a threat to everyone else.

      Now factor in that we are approaching the end of the current fiat currency and there might be a few weeks when the financial system is too chaotic to ensure regular benefit payments (See Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Weimar Germany, Poland…).

      Now factor in that the internet is awash with anti-white propaganda, blaming white people for all the world's evils.

      It makes sense to have a plan B, even if that's just a few extra tins of food hidden away so that you can stay at home with the lights out if it all kicks off.

      1. They can be totally destitute, then fcuk right off back to where they came, with the assistance of a 7.62 or 5.56 round or seventeen.

    3. The concept that the rights of British citizens in Britain are subservient to the rights of illegal immigrants is so wrong as to be farcical. It's just another sign that Labour views the country's citizens with contempt.

      p.s. I note the DT is not allowing comments on that article. I wonder why?

  48. Davey: I Prayed Over Boycotting Trump State Banquet

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f14c7e569240cf220b434aa83b2a37184472ea349c3da26dcb5893b6d562cdb2.png fred finger
    3h
    It is an empty seat; whether he attends or not !!!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97721c460b9d51219d8a629e5876d070987d42ad95a3ca6f885a02bad94c7201.png

    George Finchley
    2h
    Do we really see Ed Davey as Prime Minister material after this? During the election, he turned everything into a stunt: paddleboards, rollercoasters, photo-ops galore, and now, faced with a serious state occasion, his “big stand” is not turning up. That’s not statesmanship, it’s theatre.
    Back in the 80s and 90s, whatever you thought of Thatcher, Major or even Blair, they understood the weight of office and the seriousness of diplomacy. Today, we’re left with a Lib Dem leader whose idea of leadership is an empty chair. Sadly, it’s less about Davey himself and more a reflection of the calibre of people we have representing us today.

    keith waites
    3h
    Oh well, there will be no cabaret turn at the banquet.. he would have turned up in clown shoes and trousers, riding a unicycle whilst wearing a large fake red nose that flashed.. I mean, he's not the kind of person that likes to attract attention to himself, is he?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7086c1d8d20c9877f7565ab5030f3b5bab995a9aa04a98413afd93ac2307bed9.png

        1. Has Ian Hislop now lost his judgement and his ability to be humorous and impartial to such as extent that he is completely unaware that he has lost them?

      1. Well said, Paul:-)! What kind of an idiot would go waterboarding in Lake Windermere, knowing as he surely must that lakeside septic tanks are unloaded into the lake.

        1. Bit tough on the E Coli.
          Imagine floating aimlessly around in Lake Windermere indulging in a quiet bit of polluting and suddenly you're dive bombed by Ed Davey.

          1. Exactly, anne. If he doesn’t have the wit to realise it, or have useless advisers, what are voters to make of him – and his party.

      1. I remember the first time he ‘celebrated’ eid and posted on Facebook that he’d had a bacon roll before dawn!! What a cretin!

    5. Who put the poop in NINCOMPOOP?

      He might to try to hide behind a spoiler but we all know it is Ed Davey.

    6. Good man Davey – Go split the Muslim vote it will help stop Starmer being re-elected!!!

    1. The '70's was the decade I was commuting to London – car to station, train and then the Central line. And that video is how I remember things – and why I would never move back to England, as "my England" no longer exists.

      1. There are several interesting videos of London as it was on that X account. How it's changed……..

      2. The wonderful thing about those days was one would always bump into some one you knew or who knew you, whether on Westminster Bridge , Waterloo, Trafalgar square or even the theatre .. or cinema .. we all got around .. and we had 6 degrees of separation , didn't we ..

  50. History tells us many things.

    Do we ever learn?

    Have you ever wondered where the word 'Welsh' comes from? In a surprising twist of history, it's an old Germanic word that means 'foreigners' or 'strangers'.
    Around 410 AD, the Roman legions packed up and left Britain to defend their crumbling empire, leaving the native Celtic Britons to fend for themselves.
    Without Roman protection, British rulers were vulnerable to raids from the Picts and Scots in the north. They made a fateful decision to hire mercenaries from Germanic tribes, the Angles and the Saxons, to help defend their lands. ⚔️
    What started as a mercenary contract slowly turned into a full-scale migration. Over the next centuries, more and more Angles, Saxons, and Jutes arrived from mainland Europe, seeking new lands to settle.
    This wasn't a single, swift invasion like you see in movies. It was a gradual process of settlement that led to conflict, pushing many of the native Britons west and south.
    The new Anglo-Saxon settlers began to refer to the native Britons they encountered with the word 'wealh', their term for a foreigner or 'other'. This is the root of the modern words 'Wales' and 'Welsh'.
    In a strange turn, the original inhabitants of the land came to be known by a name that marked them as outsiders in their own home. This period laid the foundation for what would eventually become England. 🗺️
    This transformation from Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England was a complex and often misunderstood part of history, reshaping the island's culture and language forever. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2db5701b9a5118904b56925a6d04a22cca7b1d2493b3658743f6358d760c4902.jpg

    1. I thought "Wals" was a Celtic word for "West", hence quite a few villages across Europe called Wals or Vals.

      1. Welsh(adj.)
        Middle English Welsh, from Old English Wielisc, Wylisc (West Saxon), Welisc, Wælisc (Anglian and Kentish) "foreign; British (not Anglo-Saxon),also "not free, servile;" from Wealh, Walh "Celt, Briton, Welshman, non-Germanic foreigner."

        Among the English, Welsh was used disparagingly of inferior or substitute things (such as Welsh cricket "louse" (1590s); Welsh comb "thumb and four fingers" (1796).

    2. I was a blood donor (AB+) some years ago, the only one at the clinic. Had my DNA evaluated, I'm around 47% 'British'(UK), rest is French with some Russian/Asian. I suspect many of us are similar mongrels. Rumoured the Vikings took all the good looking healthy women, I'm still here, make of that what you will………..

        1. Obesity a modern disease due to modern diet/lifestyle. Friar Tuck and a few others the exceptions.

          1. Not forgetting that in days past, the upper classes tended to be obese purely from eating far too much. A man being fat was deemed a sign of prosperity.

            Look at Mrs Beeton's cookbook (1861) – huge meals described.

    1. Very much so, especially livestock which we will doubtless consume. I thought RfKJr had stopped mRNA livestock jabs USA?

      2. He is having mixed success. It could be there there is a big battle going on, as he does not seem to have folded as quickly as the classic politicians after promising what the public wants before an election. Or it could be that he’s compromised.
        If he is genuinely fighting, he is up against very powerful interests. It has been suggested that he will ban aluminium in jabs because autism, but the real reason will be so that they can replace the alu-containing jabs with mRNA ones.

        Even animals on organic farms will be mandated to have certain jabs, which could render all milk and meat inedible if spike proteins or other toxins come through in milk/meat, cannot be broken down with heat and can be absorbed into the bodies of those who consume the milk or meat.

        1. Seems Trump is no longer listening, other priorities, but RfK will likely continue his crusade. Myself, I will never have another vaccine, mRNA or otherwise, no matter the urgency or pandemic. Consider myself fortunate to have recovered as well as I have. Interesting what you say about organic farms, will have a check on that, thanks BB2.

        2. No-one knows what causes "autism" or any other neuro divergent issues.

          RFK Jr is about as qualified to be in charge of the US Health system as Ed Milliband is to be in charge of Energy in Britain. He has a history of jumping on conspiracy theories.

          p.s. I only know of one person with any negative reaction to a Covid jab – and that person is an old friend in England who had the AstraZeneca vaccine. He was bedridden with splitting headaches for a few days.

          Nearly all my friends here ended up with the Pfixer vaxx, but a couple had Moderna. None of us have had any side effects. And being old, we all get annual boosters.

          Fyi,

          "The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was not approved or authorized for use in the United States. The U.S. secured 300 million doses of the vaccine through a licensing agreement in 2020 and helped fund the Phase III trials, but ultimately did not authorize its use in the country. AstraZeneca has since discontinued its COVID-19 vaccine."

          1. I’m sorry, there have now been multiple studies connecting autism with vaccines. This is just one recent presentation on the subject
            https://drtesslawrie.substack.com/p/compelling-scientific-evidence-that
            I can look up other recent studies if you are interested.
            This is a general article about broader vaccine harms by a retired doctor
            https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/how-much-damage-have-vaccines-done
            I suffered from a chronic illness myself that blighted my teens and twenties, and may have been a vaccine side effect (doctors baffled & not interested etc)

            Research and analysis around the covid jabs is being published regularly now. I follow various doctors and scientists who have an interest in covid-related matters so it comes into my inbox.
            https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-eighth-study-confirms-mrna
            https://worldcouncilforhealth.substack.com/p/debunked-14-million-lives-saved-covid
            https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-study-mrna-injections-induce

            The distribution of harm was fairly random, so it’s entirely believable that you only know one person who was seriously ill. I know several, and now three died-suddenlys of working age.
            Recently I was visiting a village church in central Europe and they had a little card in the porch for every funeral going back to 2023. There were six people under fifty. I didn’t count the total number, it was maybe 30 or 40. That’s not normal in a village in a prosperous first world country! I would guess therefore that my experience is maybe more typical than yours.

  53. The Home Office appeal on the Epping business (referenced earlier):

    Injunction sets 'dangerous precedent', say hotel owners

    Lawyers for the Somani Hotels also say the "hardship" caused to the 138 asylum seekers at the hotel should be a reason to reverse the injunction.

    In written submissions, Piers Riley-Smith lists a number of factors which support refusing the order, including, "The hardship caused to the 138 asylum seekers currently housed at the Hotel who are settled and registered with GPs, and with no evidence where exactly they would go."

    Meanwhile, they argue the "perceived risk" of housing migrants in Epping is "fuelled by dis-information on social media".

    "The Appellant would firmly submit it cannot, and it also sets a dangerous precedent that protests justify planning injunctions.

    The document continues: "In fact, it is questionable whether the existence of protests on its own justifies a planning injunction."

    The lawyers went on to warn a "rush of similar applications" from other councils could follow.

    If the appeal is upheld, Starmer and Pixie will smirk and then pass emergency legislation banning any demonstrations outside invader accommodation. Living in the UK will become even more dangerous.

    1. If life is that bloody hard for them I suggest they eff off back to Shiiteholestan / Rapeothia / Sodamn and make a go of turning those benighted dumps into something resembling civilisation.

      1. If they could, they would have. Notice the pakistani areas in the UK – they fall apart quickly. Litter, mess, crumbling brick work. waste in the street – they treat this country like a doss house.

        1. Sop why go back to their old home? They have successfully replicated the old environment in the UK and as a bonus there are so many benefits.

    2. I wish they would stop calling them asylum seekers – they may well want to seek asylum but they entered the country illegally!

      1. 'They' tried semantics with 'irregular migrant'.

        It doesn't wash. And if they are Paki irregular migrants, neither do they.

      2. If they genuinely wanted asylum they could have sought it in any one of a dozen countries they passed through to get here.

      3. They want to pretend that's what they are to avoid the blunt reality that they're criminal immigrants.

    3. Shaping up to a nice showdown.

      Home Office Radicals & Islamists having a wild time.. and doubling-down.
      dis-information clampdown.
      banning all fa-fa-far right demonstrations.
      banning all gatherings.
      Can't close the borders to invaders.
      Can't override International law.
      Can't override ECHR law.

      It's in the national interest to import hundreds of hairy-arsed fighting aged men day-in day-out.
      And there's nothing you can do about it.

    4. Shaping up to a nice showdown.

      Home Office Radicals & Islamists having a wild time.. and doubling-down.
      dis-information clampdown.
      banning all fa-fa-far right demonstrations.
      banning all gatherings.
      Can't close the borders to invaders.
      Can't override International law.
      Can't override ECHR law.

      It's in the national interest to import hundreds of hairy-arsed fighting aged men day-in day-out.
      And there's nothing you can do about it.

    2. I'm surprised they even mentioned they were Paki migrants. They covered up Notre Dame well enough.

      1. It's vastly more likely that was a Frogman smoking up there, threw the butt away and walked off.

        They are incredibly uneducated over smoking. My memory of Europe was everyone puffing the disgusting things. One bint with her baby having a smokers cough just breathed the poison straight into her mouth even as the poor kid tried to get away from it.

    3. Two teens from Neath Port Talbot arrested following fire at former chapel.. last April.

      But it's the though that counts.

    4. Fact Check: Two Pakistani migrants did not cause fire at Welsh chapel, say police
      https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/two-pakistani-migrants-did-not-cause-fire-welsh-chapel-say-police-2025-04-29

      Two teenagers from South Wales have been arrested over a fire at a Welsh chapel, not two Pakistani migrants, police said on April 28, contrary to online claims.
      The blaze happened at the disused Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Port Talbot on April 24, said Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

      1. A bit worrying – this is apparently an old video [from April] and it was two teenagers, apparently not immigrants, that were responsible. I expect to see more such hysteria so that "they" can crack down on "far right disinformation"??

        1. No, you assume they weren’t immigrants. It said “Welsh teenagers “. Wasn’t Axel a Welsh choirboy?

          1. I doubt that even “they” would be that stupid so soon after last time! I assume nothing!

        2. The Welsh Choirboy was Britsh born, not an immigrant as such. Mind you, that part of Wales has plenty of other favoured ethnicities.

      3. Is this the same 'Welsh teenager' who stabbed two children and was later discovered to be a nigerian muslim?

        That sort of 'Welsh teenager'? Aeneas, with genuine respect, the state lies to hide the truth.

        1. A simple keyword search led us to several local news reports that said two teenage boys suspected of causing the fire were arrested. A report by Wales Online said that a 14-year-old boy from the Sandfields area and a 15-year-old boy from Bryn were arrested by South Wales Police on suspicion of arson. Both localities fall within Neath Port Talbot in Wales. The identity of the boys, including their full names or ethnicities, was not disclosed, likely because they are minors.

          https://www.altnews.in/welsh-church-fire-has-no-indian-or-pakistani-links-south-wales-police-rubbishes-social-media-claims

    5. Fact Check: Two Pakistani migrants did not cause fire at Welsh chapel, say police
      https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/two-pakistani-migrants-did-not-cause-fire-welsh-chapel-say-police-2025-04-29

      Two teenagers from South Wales have been arrested over a fire at a Welsh chapel, not two Pakistani migrants, police said on April 28, contrary to online claims.
      The blaze happened at the disused Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Port Talbot on April 24, said Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

    6. None of the news reports that I found mention anything except "teenagers" is there confirmation of further details?
      The chapel (Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel on Station Road in Port Talbot) was disused apparently.

    9. The Untied Kingdom is a constitutionally Christian Country with the reigning monarch being its head.

      If other faiths are allowed to practise in the United Kingdom it should be only under the licence of the Head of State who can revoke that licence.

    10. To quote Trudeau when somewhere around 100 churches were burnt in Canada – that's quite understandable.

  55. Farage's deportation plans will work

    Tory and Labour politicians have come up with schemes to tackle our immigration crisis. But only Reform has a programme that can succeed

    Martin Howe
    27 August 2025 5:03pm BST

    Nigel Farage's announcement that a Reform government would leave the ECHR, repeal the Human Rights Act, and deport migrants who have entered the UK illegally, has triggered a predictable wave of hysterical outrage and catcalling.

    But the idea that the government should detain and deport people who choose to turn up on our shores illegally without being obstructed by endless court challenges would have been regarded as perfectly reasonable – indeed necessary – before we were sucked into the legal spider's web of Tony Blair's human rights laws 25 years ago.

    The rule of law is now under grave threat because, thanks to that spider's web, it has now become virtually impossible to deport almost all illegal arrivals from our shores. The last government's Rwanda policy failed abjectly and ignominiously because the Tories were simply unwilling to pass legislation which would depart from the constraints imposed by Blair's legal web.

    Leaving the ECHR as Farage proposes is an essential step in order to regain control over our borders. It is possible for Parliament to legislate in a way which is incompatible with an international treaty such as the ECHR to which the UK belongs, and if it does so in clear terms then the courts will follow Parliament's intention.

    However, making major changes or exceptions to UK human rights law which depart from the ECHR while still remaining a member would be uncomfortable at best and would become increasingly difficult over time.

    Farage also proposes replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. This is a commendable project I have long advocated. We have the longest history of the protection of rights and liberties of any country in the world, stretching back to Magna Carta over 800 years ago. We should have the confidence to restate our rights and liberties in the terms of our own law and history rather than importing alien concepts from Europe.

    However, constructing a British Bill of Rights requires great care and will take time. Taking time is not compatible with the goal of rapidly shutting down the flow of illegal migrants into the UK. Therefore, I think that Farage's project should initially focus on the simpler task of excluding and modifying current human rights law to allow detention and deportation to take place without interference from the courts, with a British Bill of Rights as a longer term second stage.

    This simpler approach also avoids a problem raised by many in the human rights Blob, who argue that UK membership of the ECHR was part of the Good Friday Agreement and that leaving it would destabilise the peace process.

    It is true that Tony Blair wove part of his human rights spider's web into the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, which contains references to the ECHR. These however relate to making legislation by the Northern Ireland Assembly, or acts of public bodies there, subject to challenge in the courts for non-compliance with rights in the ECHR. This requirement can be satisfied by leaving the text of the Convention rights in force as part of UK domestic law without the UK needing to continue to belong to the ECHR internationally.

    But leaving the ECHR then gives Parliament a free hand to restrict the coverage of domestically retained Convention rights or to modify their interpretation so that they do not apply to illegal migrants, to detention for immigration purposes, or to deportation. The Northern Ireland Assembly is not responsible for immigration matters, so such exclusions would not affect the Belfast Agreement.

    How long would it take to change the law to allow Farage's detention and deportation policy to be put into effect? An incoming Reform government with a Commons majority might get the necessary Bill through to the statute book in about 6 months, if the House of Lords were to respect the Salisbury convention and pass the Bill without wrecking amendments.

    Given the overwhelmingly hostile present composition of the House of Lords, Reform should certainly not bank on that happening, and should plan if necessary to force the Bill into law over the objection of the Lords by using the Parliament Acts. With careful timing of the introduction of the Bill and of Parliamentary sessions, that could allow the Bill to pass into law within about 15 months of its introduction in the Commons. [15 months? Emergency powers should be granted within 15 days.]

    The other legal step is to leave the ECHR at the international level. This can be done by the UK giving 6 months' notice. There are legal questions to be resolved as to whether such notice could be given in parallel with progressing the Bill through Parliament or whether it would need to await the Bill becoming law.

    Even if that were the case, the new detention and deportation policy could be brought into effect during the tail end of the UK's ECHR membership when the political problems would be far less than if the UK were to remain a member of the ECHR long term. With the right planning, Farage's proposals would go a long way towards solving Britain's migration crisis.
    ________________________________________

    Martin Howe KC is chairman of Lawyers for Britain

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/27/farages-deportation-plans-would-work

    1. Given the overwhelmingly hostile present composition of the House of Lords

      Cummings & Starkey have already said.. HoL would need to be dissolved.

    2. Two very simple solutions: i) imprisonment for those who manage to land in the UK followed by ii) deportation.

      The solution is easy – it is the implementation of that solution that is difficult.

    3. This assumes everything works as expected. In reality, there will be massive resistance from the other parties – including the Tories. The Lords will unite against it then there's the judiciary and quangocracy.

      Every institution will fight Farage on principle of their losing power. Not to mention industry where idiot legislation about diversity and woofters is baked in to some organisations (especially universities who have nothing else to do).

    4. Who would do the deporting? Maybe the army would obey orders but I cannot see any public servant helping deport the unwanted.

      1. I imagine they'd go on strike. I think as soon as Farage gets in the unions will call a general strike out of spite. Trains stopped, buses, the entire civil service and quangocracy.

        1. The train drivers and the latter two should be summarily sacked. We can't afford such arrant grifters.

  57. I do remember infrequent references to the Dionne quins, but I didn't know these appalling details..

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/08/27/cecile-dionne-quintuplets-ontario-canada/

    Cecile Dionne, one of a rare set of quintuplets who survived infancy and became world-famous

    The state kept the quints in a nursery compound called Quintland where the public paid to view them from an observation deck

    27 August 2025 6:08am BST

    Cécile Dionne, who has died aged 91, was one of quintuplets brought up by the government of Ontario in a theme park called Quintland; ogled by paying guests from behind a gauze screen, this Depression-era sideshow became Canada’s biggest tourist attraction, enticing more visitors than Niagara Falls.

    In the era before fertility treatments, the odds of five babies developing from a single egg – and all five surviving – were infinitesimally small. It was thus a welcome source of international cheer when, on May 28 1934, Cécile Dionne and her four identical sisters were born in a log cabin in the village of Corbeil, to Elzire Dionne and her husband Oliva. The quintuplets, the first known set to survive infancy, weighed 13lb 6oz between them.

    The Dionnes, who belonged to the poor, Catholic, French-speaking underclass of Ontario, were treated as rustic curiosities. Their doctor, Allan Dafoe, who spoke no French, forbade the parents from touching the quintuplets, to protect them from infection.

    [Original caption] Honoured guest Dr. Allan R. Dafoe puts his arms around all five of the Dionne quintuplets Marie, Emelie, Cecile, Annette and Yvonne as they celebrate their first birthday in style
    [Original caption] Honoured guest Dr. Allan R. Dafoe puts his arms around all five of the Dionne quintuplets Marie, Emelie, Cecile, Annette and Yvonne as they celebrate their first birthday in style Credit: Bettmann Archive
    When it emerged that the father, who already had five other children to feed, had signed a deal with the Chicago World’s Fair to exhibit the quintuplets, the Ontario government made them special wards of the King, on the ground that the Dionnes had shown themselves to be unfit parents. The state then proceeded to monetise the quintuplets on a scale that dwarfed any ambition of the family. As Cécile Dionne put it: “We were just morsels to sell.”

    For close to a decade, under the supervision of Dr Dafoe, the “quints” were incarcerated in a hospital-nursery, attended by nurses who were ordered never to spank them, but never to hug them. An estimated three million tourists made the pilgrimage to view the girls at play from an observation deck; the girls were five or six, they recalled, when they realised they were being watched.

    The Daily Telegraph reported the minutiae of their progress: their weaning on to a liver-and-bacon diet, their adenoid removal. Their bathtime shrieks on their first birthday were broadcast to an audience estimated at 15 million.

    In 1936, “Quint” dolls outsold Shirley Temples dolls. The girls appeared in three “talkies”, graced the covers of Life, Look and Time magazines, and were used to endorse toothpaste, corn syrup and cleaning products. Beyond the wire fence of their compound, a bustling town sprang up, “Coney Island, a World’s Fair and Madison Square Garden rolled into one”.

    The Dionne quintuplets singing Christmas carols. Left to right, Yvonne, Cecile, Marie, Annette and Emilie
    The Dionne quintuplets singing Christmas carols. Left to right, Yvonne, Cécile , Marie, Annette and Emilie Credit: Bettmann Archive
    The quints only left the compound twice in that period, once aged five to be presented to the King and Queen in Toronto, and later to sing at war bond rallies. “How come they didn’t see how tired we were and how unhappy we were? I can’t – I can’t understand that,” said Cécile Dionne.

    By the time they were nine, public interest had dwindled, and sympathy was beginning to turn against the Quintland establishment, after disclosures about the vast sums of money that were being spent on its staff. The quints were moved back in with their parents and – by now – seven siblings, in a large house built with their earnings.

    Rather than a happy ending, however, it was the start of a nightmare. Cécile Dionne recalled the resentment of their family, who treated the quints as “their servants, slaves”. Their father, they claimed after his death in 1979, sexually abused them in his car. When they told their priest, he simply advised them to “wear a heavier coat to protect yourself when you go out in the car”.

    Cecile Dionne, left, and her sister Annette, in Saint-Bruno, Quebec, 2017
    Cécile, left, and her sister Annette, in Saint-Bruno, Quebec, 2017 Credit: The Canadian Press/Alamy
    Cécile Dionne would fulfil her two childhood ambitions, to become a nurse and have children. In 1957 she married “the first man who took me for a cup of coffee”, a television cameraman called Philippe Langlois, and had five children.

    Life did not give her much cause to be an optimist. By the 1990s, she was divorced and sharing a flat with the two other surviving quints, subsisting on a single librarian’s pension.

    The articulate Cécile spearheaded their successful campaign for a financial settlement from the Ontario government for funds mismanaged in their name. But one of Cécile’s twin sons, Bertrand, moved her into an old person’s home, then disappeared with her money, leaving her destitute and – once again – a ward of the state.

    An anonymous donor raised funds for Cécile Dionne by selling a 1937 painting of the five by Gil Elvgren, later famous for his pin-ups.

    Cécile Dionne is survived by one last quintuplet, Annette.

    Cécile Dionne, born May 28 1934, died July 28 2025

    1. I'd never heard of these quintuplets, Annie. As you say, the details of these poor children is appalling.

    3. Reading that unbelievable story is horrible , but I guess children forever have been treated as commodities , by cruel and thoughtless adults.

      Quins , the children look identical , their poor mother must have had a terrible pregnancy .

      Thanks for sharing the article, Anne.

  58. One doesn't need to be an (ex-)economist or banker to be concerned by this…

    The coming crash: the markets have had enough
    Michael Simmons

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ComingCrashWeb.png?resize=914,1080

    30 August 2025

    ‘The problems of financing our deficits have seriously hampered progress in achieving our goals,’ wrote Labour’s chancellor Denis Healey in 1976 in his letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Half a century on, little has changed.

    Britain’s numbers still don’t add up. Our demographics are the problem: we’re an ageing population with too few taxpayers. As births struggle to replace deaths, liabilities funded from today’s taxes become harder to sustain. If the picture looks bad now, the next few years will be disastrous. A crash seems almost certain.

    For years the government has spent more than it raises through taxes. It financed that gap through the kindness of others, or to put it more plainly: debt. Staggering amounts of it. Britain owes £40,000 for every person in the country. Every year, another £2,300 per person is slung on. All this adds up to £2.7 trillion – almost the same size as our entire economy – owed to banks, pension funds and foreign governments.

    In the past, that debt helped build things: schools, hospitals, roads, runways and train tracks. It strengthened the army and modernised the nation. No more. Increasingly, the government is borrowing not to invest, but to keep creditors at bay. Of the £150 billion we borrowed last year we had to spend £105 billion of it on interest payments – that’s around 4 per cent of GDP and double what we spent on defence.

    To borrow money, the Treasury issues ‘gilt-edged securities’, so-named because, when they were first used to fund war with France, the certificates were decorated with gilded edges. Those edges are starting to fray. In recent weeks, the yield (which goes up as debt becomes less attractive to lenders) on 30-year gilts passed 5.6 per cent – the highest in a generation. On Tuesday yields shot up again as the market threw a ‘Torsten Tantrum’ at the news that Torsten Bell, the former head of the left-wing Resolution Foundation, would take charge of economic policy in the run-up to November’s Budget.

    ‘The market hates Rachel,’ an international bond trader summarises. Rachel Reeves’s defenders argue that rising debt costs are a global trend. True, but Britain’s situation is the worst in the developed world. For the first time, our long-term borrowing costs are higher than America’s. Ten-year gilt yields now sit well outside the G7 range and our debt costs more to finance than supposed ‘basket cases’ such as Spain, Italy and Greece. Worse, when the Bank of England cut interest rates this month, long-dated gilt yields kept rising – something that just shouldn’t happen.

    Part of the explanation for this divergence lies in how British debt is structured. Five years after Healey went cap in hand to the IMF, the Treasury came up with a wheeze to encourage lending. The government would issue index-linked gilts, or ‘linkers’. Rather than just being repaid at face value, they’d rise with inflation. Since they hedged against rising prices, investors loved them and so were happy to buy debt at a discount. Margaret Thatcher’s monetarists loved them too because they incentivised keeping inflation and spending under control. That was the theory, anyway.

    But there were always dangers. A Treasury report from May 1981 warned: ‘Indexed gilts will be an expensive form of borrowing if inflation is high, and a profligate government could thereby store up problems for future generations.’ It concluded: ‘Only a government committed to a sustained reduction in inflation would wish to issue them.’

    Those conditions have not been met. Profligate government after profligate government gorged themselves on supposedly cheap debt, just as inflation returned. The Treasury’s Debt Management Office (DMO) has £674 billion worth of linkers on the books, which accounts for nearly a quarter of total debt. Including the other public bodies allowed to issue them, such as Network Rail, that figure rises to almost a third.

    The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) says Britain has the world’s highest share of inflation-linked debt – twice that of Italy, the next biggest issuer. Now that we appear to be stuck with high inflation, that debt has become crippling. In June alone, interest payments doubled to the second-highest monthly bill on record – two-thirds of which came from the ‘capital uplift’ from linkers. Britain now spends more on servicing debt in a single month than on policing our borders in an entire year.

    This type of debt also helps explain why Rishi Sunak’s premiership felt so paralysed. Linkers ‘kept Rishi up at night’, one former aide recalls. Each morning, he would log on to his personal Bloomberg terminal to check the debt markets. His obsession with controlling inflation had less to do with the cost-of-living crisis than its effect on Britain’s ballooning liabilities. In cabinet, he was horrified at suggestions that inflation could sweep away debt. Linkers made that impossible.

    And yet he kept issuing them. Why? The same former aide tells me Sunak was ‘nervous’ about being ‘seen to influence the DMO too much’, in case his meddling caused a Liz Truss-style market freakout.

    The risks caused by our debt don’t stop there. The government’s balance sheet does not include billions in unfunded public-sector pension commitments. If higher interest rates send those liabilities spiralling, debt servicing could overtake not just defence and education – but everything else.

    That said, it seems unlikely Britain will take a begging bowl to the IMF – unless Keir Starmer wants to use the prospect to threaten his MPs, as France’s finance minister did this week. Ultimately, the IMF’s member countries are also drowning in debt and simply couldn’t afford to bail us out.

    If there’s no saviour, what happens? The worst-case scenario is that the DMO’s weekly debt auctions fail as investors no longer believe that funding our debt is a risk worth taking, forcing massive cuts and tax hikes. But economists agree on three more probable scenarios. Firstly, a market meltdown in the autumn that brings down the government and precipitates a leftward lurch or early election. Secondly, enough good news in time for the Budget that the crash is delayed until around the general election in 2029. Or, finally, prolonged stagnation: no single crisis event, but an economy stuck in a rut and decades of lost growth.

    The third scenario – where markets give just enough for things to keep limping on – would be the bleakest of them all. It would mean politicians aren’t forced to confront the fact that there are now 700,000 more public-sector employees than before the pandemic and 2.4 million more people on out-of-work-benefits. Or the fact that, long after Covid has passed, total public spending is about five percentage points of GDP higher than it was in 2019, while tax receipts aren’t even two points higher.

    In the stagnation scenario, another generation would be condemned to know nothing but slow, methodical decline, wages eaten away by inflation and disposable incomes no better than they were decades ago.

    The difficult problem is that democracy not only offers no solution, but makes things worse. Polling from More in Common this month found that 79 per cent of voters regard breaking the promise not to raise taxes on working people as unacceptable while at the same time objecting to spending cuts in the largest departments. The result is that no party dares offer the austerity shock therapy that unserviceable debt demands.

    Labour’s successful backbench rebellions over welfare reforms and scrapping the winter fuel allowance for asset-rich pensioners revealed something that markets cannot stand: the government has lost control of its fiscal policy.

    Reform, the party on course to form the next government, is promising steel and water nationalisation with no attempt to tackle the debt problem. ‘Nigel knows there isn’t the money,’ a friend of Farage says. ‘But he’s not stupid enough to say it before he’s in No. 10.’ Reform’s plan may be to worry about fiscal problems once they’re in power, but the markets won’t wait. ‘There’s not even a seed of a conversation about what to do with the triple lock or other benefits paid out of current spending,’ complains one investor.

    The Tories want to position themselves as the only party willing to be honest about the economy, yet they still fall short of the cuts lenders deem necessary. When Kemi Badenoch was asked recently whether she’d address the biggest cost in the welfare state – the state pension and its triple lock – she dodged the question and merely said her focus was on ‘working-age benefits’.

    Inside the Treasury, meanwhile, preparations for Reeves’s second Budget are under way, and officials are jittery. So much hinges on how gilt yields look on the arbitrary date that the OBR locks in its forecasts. If yields spike again, the Chancellor will be in real trouble.

    Former officials say she’ll muddle through the Budget: ‘Torsten will find her some revenue raisers,’ one says. But that will buy her months, not years. ‘Then it dawns on everyone: shit, she cannot come back again on tax.’ If borrowing costs and yields keep edging up, Reeves will be faced with yet another crisis in 18 months’ time. What then?

    Politically painful though it would be for Labour, it may just be better if Reeves breaks her manifesto pledge and raises taxes on middle earners, who – even though the overall tax burden is at a post-war high – pay the lowest share of tax since the 1970s. Even a one-point increase in the basic rate would raise around £8 billion a year.

    Even then, though, we’d still just be buying time. In the long term, the only way out is for politicians and voters to fundamentally rethink what the state should and shouldn’t do. It’s not enough just to slash waste or confront the fact that 6.5 million people are on out-of-work benefits. Unaffordable promises, most notably the pensions triple lock, will need to be abandoned, whatever the political cost.

    If politicians fail to face this crisis, debt costs will spiral even more, consumer credit will seize up, the mortgage market will vanish, pension funds will wobble and both government and business will be forced into brutal cuts. Crash or no crash, bailout or no bailout, the reckoning is coming. Pretending otherwise is not just deluded; it is a dereliction of duty.

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

    Larry Shelton
    9 hours ago edited
    "Our demographics are the problem: we’re an ageing population with too few taxpayers."

    The reason we have too few taxpayers is not primarily due to demographics.
    It's because work isn't worth it. (1) Low earners can have a better life on benefits, (2) mid earners prefer to stay middle earners than cross over the tax cliff edges, (3) high earners have headed off to Dubai and Singapore.

    Chris Smith Larry Shelton
    5 hours ago
    UK has 1.3 million people who are not British citizens gobbling up taxpayers money in benefits….. This is obviously so wrong…
    R N
    9 hours ago
    I wouldn’t be averse to an increase in income tax to steady the ship, but not to see it spaffed up the wall on Net Zero, welfare and illegal immigrants. Starmer and Reeves are exactly the wrong duo for these times – they need to go.

    Mark F. Nowland R N
    8 hours ago edited
    For this reason I now view income tax as essentially theft. I get pretty much nothing in return. ‘My’ army is depleted. ‘My’ NHS doesn’t work. I can’t see ‘My’ doctor.‘My’ police ‘service’ works for my enemies. ‘My’ Roads are nearly undriveable and ‘My’ BBC is a Marxist mouthpiece.

    Apart from the fact that a high tax economy is ruinous in the long term, I utterly resent every single penny I pay in order to have my country colonised and fund a millions strong Socialist state. No party now ever stands by its manifesto so tax has become fraudulent.

    2. Yet they keep importing young men who will never be net contributors and are currently costing billions.

      If they don't have the money to pay pensions there are only two options: default on the pensions or reduce the number of pensioners.

  59. At the end of the [Brexit transition period]( https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/…/brexit…) (11pm on 31 December 2020) the UK left the single market and customs union. Great Britain and the EU no longer apply the same customs rules, regulatory standards or enforcement mechanisms, meaning goods crossing the border between Great Britain and the EU are now subject to customs formalities.
    Border checks are required to ensure that any applicable [tariffs]( https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/…/trade-tariffs) or duties are paid and that imported goods meet the relevant standards in areas such as food and product safety and disease control, to prevent smuggling and illicit activity, and to comply with international obligations.

    Interestingly this was the period when the huge increases in dinghy migrants all kicked off, which makes one wonder if similar numbers to now were coming over in the back of lorries all along, except they were hidden.

    So in a way the Remainers are right, Brexit has caused the dinghy boat crises, but not an increase in numbers, they are now just more visible and cannot disappear all over the country.

    It will be interesting to see if the numbers crossing by boat miraculously go down when the new deal on fewer border checks with the EU that is coming up.

    1. Are there tariffs on rubber dingy imports? Could this all be a ploy to bypass the grasp of the taxman.

    1. They haven't surrendered over illegal immigrants – indeed they are beating Starmer and Mrs Balls hands down.

  61. Following Ed Davey's declaration that he will fast during Ramadan might I suggest that for his next stunt he arranges to be circumcised in public with the cameras focused upon him to the sound of the Islamic adhan (call to prayer) broadcast from powerful and noisy loudspeakers in Arabic from the top of a mosque's minaret?

    2. He could declare solidarity with our antipodean brethren and adopt their daytime boundaries rather than the northern ones – after all, if you are going to do it then go flat out!.

    5. Apparently, Ed Davey professes to be a Christian. If that is so, why did he join in an Islamic ritual – that of a religion which denies the divinity of Christ and claims that Christianity is entirely false?

      1. Because he doesn't want his throat slit, thrown off a tall building or just angling for the odd demented Lib/Dem misguided Muslim vote. Who can say what goes on his his walnut sized brain.

    1. A step away from the Organ Harvest Festival, not that many Nottlers, me included, would have a lot worth harvesting.

  63. Wordle No. 1,531 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 28 Aug 2025

    Divide Birdie Three?

    1. Well done. A 3 here as well.

      Wordle 1,531 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩⬜🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          1. I guess technically it is, although I always think of an albatross more as a 2 on a par 5……

    3. Three here as well!

      Wordle 1,531 3/6

      🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. A seriously embarrassing bogey here

      Wordle 1,531 5/6

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

    5. Late on Parade. Forgot to take my mobile with me on trip to Sudbury for river walk along the Stour.

      Fortunate Eagle.

      Wordle 1,531 2/6

      🟩🟨⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  64. Stormy fresh weather here , afternoon walk for Pip shortly.

    Houses aren't selling very quickly here in this country area , yet Dorset council have sprung another Liberal minded shock on us all , instead of the designated 470 homes that were i the pipeline , on prime agricultural land , now Dorset Council have announced over twice that number and another few hundred , nearly 2,000 homes are now on the cards for here , this village will be ruined even further than it was when Labour were last in power , when the village doubled in size!

    We are nervous , furious and sick to the stomach ..

      1. Indeed house builders in the UK are closing down sites according one article in the DT….

    4. Find rare plants/creatures. Get a qualified person to assess the land unfit for building. Be nervous, furious and sick to your stomach but fight back too and don't give in. Local papers/MP should help you, and others.

    6. Hi Maggie. Mark Wogan has put his Mum and Dad's extensive house in a prime spot overlooking the Thames Valley on the market for around £3.75 m. Probably beyond even our Ange's reach, just yet. But he hasn't had a single enquiry, even from the purely curious.

      Speaking of the Deputy PM, amid the outrage over her "third," second home (she doesn't own her Admiralty flat any more than I own my social housing retirement bungalow).

      There's much pearl-clutching along the lines of "how can she afford it on her salary?". I don't disagree, but Nottlers with long memories may remember the curious tale of Sam Tarry's confusion about where he lived. See Andrew Gilligan for details. She saw the New Year in with Tarry in Lord Alli's New York apartment, the declared value of which was dubious.

      Tarry was based in Brighton prior to, during and likely after his marriage to Julia Fozard*. Having himself been an union official and MP, he presumably isn't short of a few quid. Given his new role, rowing Rayner's inflatable kayak off Hove beach – and the gushing article in the DM of March 2025 saying these soulmates were "officially" back together, one wonders why the media are treating the story as if she's eking out a solitary existence as a spinster? Has the media never heard of joint mortgages?

      I'm not defending Our Ange; God forbid. But once again, here we have a story in the media where – if one has any direct knowledge of the suibject – the stories are somewhat flawed, to say the least.

      Full disclosure: I have taken a mild interest in Tarry's career since I played the organ at his wedding to Ms Fozard in 2016, in Seale, and subsequently fielded phone calls from Andrew Gilligan, keen to have sight of the marriage certificate. During their brief marriage, he gave her a couple of sons.

      I was present when he made his marriage vows. Like every recent Labour politician, he lied. "Those who God hath joined toether, let no man put asunder. with the exception of future Labour Party Deputy Leaders"…

      Soulmates? Maybe. They certainly share a propensity to be less than transparent about their living arrangements…

  65. EXC: Essex County Council Offers “Support” to Staff “Unsettled” by St George’s or Union Jack Flags

    https://order-order.com/2025/08/28/exc-essex-county-council-offers-support-to-staff-unsettled-by-st-georges-or-union-jack-flags/

    Beebsplaining
    22m
    I've tried several times but will just post this to show who is out of touch😡 and who feels uncomfortable 😡 they just want division https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18dddd9bb6f6885b87c48f42460a18d3a262a6b1de06c4148b9cc8ee8720f91e.png
    Andrew Smith
    12m
    This Conservative controlled County Council asked the Labour government to cancel this year's elections so they could stay in office. The alternative was a wipe-out by Reform. If Reform had won there would have been no such wasteful expenditure.
    How much are the County spending to support the voters here who are distressed and at risk because of illegal immigrants in the Bell? None.

    If ECC employes people who dislike our national flags so much they should no longer be employed.

        1. Nope, that’s close close by. this is the Prime Ministers office building.

          If they flew that flag at a private hotel, all power to them, my choice would be to not stay there but this is an official public building.

          2. Now you've dunnit. You'll have to throw yourself off a tall building because Hamarse can't manage the steps in high heels.

      2. I noticed one on the door of my Doctor surgery this week. I was offended. Particularly when it said everyone is welcome and i have trouble getting a fucking appointment because all the incomers get priority.

    2. Explains a lot…more than 2Tier

      Ciderdelic Sid
      55m
      Helen Lincoln National Flag Hunter general
      Senior officer

      Essex County Council

      Children and Families, and Education

      Salary: £174,178

      Helen joined Essex County Council in July 2011 . Prior to this role, Helen held similar positions in Tower Hamlets.

    3. Is there another country on Earth where the display of the national flag could 'unsettle' the inhabitants?

      1. Yes. I have seen news items Propaganda from America where second generation immigrants say all those flags make them feel uncomfortable. It's trending.

        My question would be…Why do you stay?

        1. The difference is, in America anyone who dishonours the flag in any way is liable to get an attitude adjustment from the locals. Or have the s*** beaten out of them by the local rednecks.

    2. Hasn't that been the Home Office's attitude from the outset? It is determined to pour the foreigner on us and will do everything it can to ensure they are put before Britons.

    5. The article in the DiM said he was off to the shops and this weaponed up girl blocked his way with a big knife and an axe.

      He was going going shopping OKAY !

      This self absorbed influencer got clocked by a 14 year old girl and he filmed for his tiktok.

      I am glad to see teenage girls are waking up to this filth.

    7. How utterly repulsive. Why are all these creatures finalists for "person you would least like to be raped by"? Who can blame that wonderful little girl from defending her even littler sister with an ax and a machete? No-one in our "Police Service" is going to protect them.

  69. Lawyers acting on behalf of Yvette Cooper have said 'the rights of illegal migrants are more important than the people of Epping'

    Except for a couple of weeks every five years

  70. Now THAT is the way to open an article. Rod Liddle at his finest.
    Enjoy the taster. More to follow if you so wish.

    As a snapshot of our country, you’ll be pressed to find anything quite so resonant as the one which depicts a leading member of our Skankerati sitting in an inflatable off the southern coast of the UK with tattoo and vape in attendance. There has been much debate of late about the very large numbers of other people bobbing about in the English Channel – and the possible value they might be to our benighted economy. We could ask the same question about Angela Rayner. On paper she is a huge cost to the Exchequer, one which would easily outstrip even a fairly successful Albanian drug dealer.

    1. As a snapshot of our country, you’ll be pressed to find anything quite so resonant as the one which depicts a leading member of our Skankerati sitting in an inflatable off the southern coast of the UK with tattoo and vape in attendance. There has been much debate of late about the very large numbers of other people bobbing about in the English Channel – and the possible value they might be to our benighted economy. We could ask the same question about Angela Rayner. On paper she is a huge cost to the Exchequer, one which would easily outstrip even a fairly successful Albanian drug dealer.

      Henceforth, then, it would be unfair to call her Angela ‘Two Homes’ Rayner, because having bought a three-bedroom Victorian flat with a sea view in the debauched hell of Hove, she now has three homes. We pay for her grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House, as well as the council tax. Then she has the £650,000 pad in her constituency and now a flat in Hove, which sources close to the woman said she needed because her job requires her to be in and around London quite a lot. One might have thought that the Admiralty suite fitted that bill pretty well, being right in the middle of London, rather than a town 55 miles distant, but perhaps Ange hasn’t looked at a map recently. She certainly appears to be confused about where she lives, for she has not revealed which of the residences in her expanding property portfolio is her main home. She’s had that sort of problem before, hasn’t she? A certain forgetfulness about where she actually lives, and what properties are lived in by someone else entirely.

      The reason her latest purchase provoked a bit of attention is that in the make-believe world of left-wing politics, people are not supposed to have second homes, let alone third homes. Having multiple residences denies to the poor their right to a home of their own. Of course this is the most arrant crap, but Labour believes it, or pretends to. So we might level the charge of hypocrisy against Rayner, for a start. Now, many people would like a nice second home with a sea view – I’ve already got one, by the way – but many will have been put off by Labour and Green and Lib Dem councils whacking up the council tax to double its appropriate rate in order to punish ‘lucky’ bastards who have too much money for their own good, or for the good of international socialism.

      And then there is this: most people who yearn for a second home don’t have quite so many things paid for them by other people as Ange. This includes her computer, AirPods, phones, phone bills and council taxes, plus agreeable donations, such as the £800 freebie to listen to some bangin’ choons in Ibiza and Waheed Alli bunging her £3,000 to spend on clothes so that she might less closely resemble one of Catherine Tate’s more colourful creations, a project which has so far failed. Most people don’t get that kind of stuff. Most people have to, you know, pay for it all and then pay for quite a bit of Angela’s into the bargain. Cruel world, isn’t it?

      Still, Angela has done well for herself and most normal people would not resent her for having a sea view bolthole on the outskirts of Sodom. It’s only people like Angela who resent that sort of thing, isn’t it? People like Angela and perhaps also like Rachel Reeves and David Lammy, both of whom receive rental income in excess of £10,000 per year: and yet, on paper once again, Labour’s not a big fan of landlords, is it? Or there’s former homelessness minister Rushanara Ali, forced to resign when she evicted tenants from one of her buy-to-let properties so she could hike the price up, in direct contravention of her party’s policy.

      In a sensible society, one might commend Rayner for having dragged herself up to the position where she can afford a seaside third home. Just as one might praise Rushanara Ali not only for providing a home for renters, but also for looking after her own financial security. Or, in the case of Mad Mike Meacher, when he was around, quite exceptional financial security for his family: having divested himself of the opinion that owning more than one home was a crime against the working classes, he rented out nine.

      And of course there’s much more. The extraordinarily pleased with herself Shami Chakrabarti railing against selective schools while sending her brat to the £18,000-per-year private and selective Dulwich College. Emily Thornberry opposing selective schools but bussing her kid out of the area so that she might attend one. Or Diane Abbott – there is always Diane Abbott – sending hers to a private school having based her entire political career on railing against such privileges.

      The charge which is always levelled at Labour when these stories come to light is hypocrisy, then. And beyond all doubt these are hypocritical acts and we are right to mock the politicians, relentlessly, for them. But it is more than that. It is instead an acknowledgement that the party’s policies do not make the slightest bit of sense. They are gobbets of spite coughed up from an ideology which cannot possibly exist in the real world.

      Everything which Sir Keir Starmer wishes to do with the country is thwarted by the spite of his own policies. He would like to see a bit of growth in the economy – but the spite makes him drive out of the country the very people who make economies grow and the spite makes him hike up national insurance on the very companies who might make our economy grow. He would like to solve the housing crisis – but the spite makes him drive landlords out of the private rented sector so that there are far fewer low-cost homes to be rented out. And so he and Rayner instead make everything worse.

      Hope she enjoys the new flat.

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

      Veritas numquam perit
      12 hours ago
      And it still begs the question how does Angela Rayner afford all these properties. [She is not paying for it all herself – Citroen1]

      Keir Starmer's glasses Veritas numquam perit
      11 hours ago
      This! Who is funding this purchase, because we can all do the maths on her income. If her (estranged I believe) partner pays for her constituency house then the question should be where her main residence really is. One way or another Rayner is gaming the system and this story will not die!

      Julian Hodgson
      11 hours ago
      Taxpayers have paid every penny of everything Raynor has earned in her life. Every property, thread of clothes, stick of furniture, holiday, everything she owns has come courtesy of the hapless taxpayer. She was and will remain forever completely dependent on the hard work and enterprise of people less well off than herself. She is, in short, one of the most parasitical citizens of the United Kingdom and in a sensible world would be ashamed of this fact and seek obscurity.

          1. Ooh get you. You know the part of this God's own country you hold so dear now has more Mosques than anywhere else in the UK !

            It's all right for you living in rural Sweden. It won't help you though. They are locusts.

            Hey Grizz, mate. nice to see you. Got an attic or a cellar i can hide in?

          3. I've got a cellar, buddy, but it's quite depleted of Domaine de la Romanée-Conte and Château Latour right now.☹️

          1. I have no idea what you mean. I also have memory problems.

            A case in point. When they announce the winner of any competition i have been following i am happy for them but have no idea why.

            Aha…The butler has just served another drinkie poohs and nuts. I like nuts.

            Where was I ?

      2. "She is, in short, one of the most parasitical citizens of the United Kingdom and in a sensible world would be ashamed of this fact and seek obscurity."
        A tapeworm tart.

      5. Never mind shafting the landlords, the housing "crisis" is down to Starmer's spite in flooding the country with immigrants who all have to be housed.

    1. There will be a vacuum if Christianity diminishes and Islam is eager and ready to fill that vacuum.

      Ben Habib is a baptised Christian – is Farage?

  73. The old ones are the best

    Manchester United fan goes into a travel agent and asks for a holiday recommendation.
    Comes the reply: "You can't beat Grimsby at this time of year."

  74. The analysis

    The cornered queen of No. 11 Rachel Reeves likes to remind us that she was an accomplished chess player in her youth. Now it appears she is involved in an elaborate game of chess against her past self. Every desperate move she seeks to make to balance the books, she finds herself blocked by her party’s rash promises not to raise this or that tax. Fast running out of moves to make, and unable to get any meaningful retrenchment past her MPs, she and her team are scrabbling around for possible strategies to raise any form of money for the terminally dire public finances. The latest desperate move by the cornered queen of No. 11 is reportedly a suggestion to tax landlords, by imposing national insurance on rental income.

    Such a move will probably backfire. It may be a cliché that if you tax something you tend to get less of it, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Though some landlords would probably absorb the costs, others would inevitably pass them on to their tenants via increased rents or simply sell up – further exacerbating private rental shortages. In fairness, this problem didn’t begin with Reeves; government policy over the last decade has sparked an exodus of landlords from the sector. UK Finance data suggests that the number of buy-to-let loans approved fell by 14.5 per cent to 49,590 in the three months to June compared with 58,000 during the same period ten years ago.

    Some will no doubt welcome this trend, concluding that landlords selling up will help first-time buyers currently locked out of the property ladder. But what of the millions of private renters who lack the savings or income to meet a mortgage deposit and continuing payments on a property? A shrinkage in the supply of rental accommodation certainly won’t serve their interests. Landlord-bashing has become a popular pursuit in left-wing circles, but they may find they miss them when they’re gone.

    The question is – are Reeves and her Treasury team blind to how people change their behaviour in anticipation of new taxes, or do they simply not care that ordinary renters (rather than dastardly landlords) would pay the price? It may be the latter. Boxed in by her leader’s earlier promises, the Chancellor might be willing to engage in a certain linguistic sleight of hand if it raises money without ‘reaching Labour’s red lines. We have already seen ministers’ contortions to explain why a tax on ‘employer NICs’ did not constitute a tax on 'working people’ – a statement that requires us to accept both that employers don’t work and also that employer levies are never passed on to employees, in spite of the OBR’s and other protestations to the contrary. But admitting their error and potentially changing their red lines would be a fatal loss of face to an administration already lacking credibility. So, for now, irrational and ill-fated taxes seem a likelier prospect than honesty.

      1. I wonder if anyone has mentioned to her about bleaching upper lip hair. Or even the electric chair electrolysis.

    2. The silly cow needs simply to tell Starmer to stop gifting billions to his globalist mates via Zelensky. Then sack Ed Miliband and permit fracking and exploitation of North Sea oil fields and put a stop to all wind ad solar farms.

      Then sack at least half of the civil servants inhabiting the Foreign Office, Home Office and MOD.

      2. Corim, I love your final sentence, especially the word ‘inhabiting’.
        When I read a headline this morning which asked ‘how many people work in the Civil Service?’ my immediate reaction was to say “probably fewer than 30%”.

        1. As I grow older I try to use the most appropriate language and try not to launch into the many expletives I might have wished otherwise to
          describe my true visceral hatred of these people.

          I have long experience of the collective laziness of cvil servants through my profession when working as an Architect on government projects. I had to deal with the Crown Estates Surveyor on one project on the Millbank Estate in the seventies and with the Property Services Agency and DoE on Richmond House in Whitehall.

      3. I totally agree. There needs to be a huge clear out in the whole of Wastemonster and Whitehall.

  76. Every MP who is letting a house should be forced to put illegal gimmegrants in there rent free, so that they can enjoy the benefits that they are foisting upon taxpayers.
    Put the evicted tenants into the hotels vacated by the gimmegrants.

  77. Absorbtion. Restauranteur. Tumeric. Pronounciation. Marinade (as a verb). Sieve (as a verb).

    These are six, among many, routine howlers that are getting commoner and each one makes my blood boil.

    What are your misspelt (and mispronounced) bête noir words?

    1. Don't you mean more common?

      As opposed to commoner which sounds a bit Northern to me… :@)

    2. If I can understand what the writer or speaker is driving at it doesn't particularly bother me.

      Perhaps it's because I've worked in many countries with people who have many different home tongues and where English was often the fall back language for them all.

      1. I think our gripe is about native English speakers who misuse their own language. Foreigners very often have a better command of our language than English people.

        1. As the Greek girl on my MA course said about transformations, "it's all Greek to me!" The tutor remarked that if it were, she'd probably understand it better.

          1. Cassius: Did Cicero say anything?

            Casca: Ay, he spoke Greek.

            Cassius: To what effect?

            Casca: Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne'er look you i' th’ face again.
            But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it
            was Greek to me.

    3. Grizzly old boy, my absolute scream-at-the-radio howler is DISSECT, pronounced DYE-SECT by everybody on the BBC (and most others too).
      Dis-sect (correctly pronounced DIS-SECT) means to CUT APART.
      BISECT (correctly pronounced BYE-SECT) means to cut in half.

    4. My pet hate is "vunnerable" amongst many, many others, "disinterested" for "uninterested", for example

      1. Nah, I'm sorry O – the disinterested/uninterested one is a real killer, no matter how hard I try I still cant get it right!!

        One day….

        1. A judge must be interested in hearing the evidence put before him or he will not be able to reach rational judgement.

          However he must be disinterested in that he must have no personal interest or hope to gain from a case's outcome – he must be impartial.

      1. That really, really winds me up, too, Connors especially when I get corrected for the correct word. I can no longer be arsed to tell them the different meanings of the words, just watch them exchange glances and roll their eyes.

    7. Ha. My mum had an aneurysm which was successfully operated on, but her speech all over the place. It was improving until an unthinking neighbour told her it was, and progress stopped for a long time. Some months later, after I'd returned to work, mum phoned me one day saying 'mesembryanthemum', very pleased with herself:-))

      1. Mine is when 'convinced' is used instead of 'persuaded'. Also less/fewer. Not forgetting of/have!

    11. Misuse of collective nouns:

      The Government are ..
      The Civil Service are …
      The Army are …

      No, no, no!
      Is, is, is!

      Many TV presenters make this mistake, quotidie!

      1. Here's a sporting exception to quibble over:
        "Liverpool have won the league"
        "Liverpool has announced record profits"

  78. Anthropic AI?

    I know the difference anthropomorphic and anthropogenic but what is anthropic particularly in the context of AI.

    This article explains what Anthropic AI is and how it has been weaponised by hackers to carry out sophisticated cyber attacks:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crr24eqnnq9o

    One definition of anthropic however involves degredation. of the environment caused by humans rather than just the climate.

    This article could mark the start of our society's rapidy increasing degredation through the misuse of Artificial Intelligence.

    1. ITV's This Morning, presenter Rylan Clark made several statements about migrants arriving in the UK that were later criticised as either false or exaggerated. The comments prompted a significant backlash online, where he was accused of spreading misinformation.
      LOL

      1. It wasn't, not prior to WW2, not after it. The 'heroic' Windrush generation were, largely, brought over as cheap labour, demeaning to them, insulting to the resident British. Many of them ended up in dirty, low-paid jobs.

          1. Bit of a management failure there, really. That was the time of Valley Parade and Hillsborough, places that health and safety never reached.

  80. I know it's been done before, but only on a small scale.

    Anti-gimmegration protesters should be filming the "refugees welcome" people and trying to identify them.
    Once identified they should be tracked to their homes.
    Film teams, together with black/Asian British, who also object to the invasion, should arrive on their doorsteps demanding that they house, feed and pay for the pretend illegals and see their reactions.

    Expose the hypocrite, it's not in my home so it's Ok, for what they are

    You want them? You take them.

  81. Evening all, I have never really liked him but as far as I am concerned now, he was absolutely spot on.
    Only the grossly contemptible Dopey Wokies could go against what he stated.

        1. That's a printed cartoon I have.
          Fixed to a shelf in my 'office' Paddington walking with the Late good Lady, she is saying "My job is done, take me to my husband".

    2. Very realistic. Even the Union Flag is upside down (like so many now flying from lamp-posts).

      1. I can totally understand why the Union Flags are flown 'Upside Down' , it is a sign of Distress and boy, are we under "Distression"

    3. I've nicked that photo and the two below and posted them on the 'village community matters' Face ache site as there's been a fuss made about a Union flag having been tie-wrapped to a lamppost just up the road. I'll see how long it takes to get some abuse.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28c09d794946fce76206037b3b7d825257865302a35812bd63e078bbf2074fc0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba8eb7bc5bb111832cddf3053e7919d63e862f45774934b4c7ee6d1f047389ae.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c8256e051c6de8a6e268283676bdd2421671f049a3140150e6de4840da8538d.png

      1. Three have appeared on lamposts on my road. I hope they last and that even more get put up. I wouldn't fly th St George's flag (being Welsh an' all) but I applaud anyone who does.

    1. True, but a deranged budget could bankrupt the UK.
      Part of me says good, get it over with, rather than death by a thousand cuts.

      CUTS? Silly me, death by a thousand taxes.

    1. The notion that this country was built by immigrants was a bit of a stretch, wasn't it?

      2. These fuckers built nothing. Since their arrival in the fifties those who integrated replaced work opportunities for men returning from war and produced offspring who caused and continue to cause immense social problems.

        I left London in 1982 having experienced at first hand the Brixton riots of 1981 and having to deal with the mugging of my wife by blacks in 1982 in Clapham Common.

        I have no desire to visit my capital city until the place is made safe by the authorities and the vile foreign scum returned to the shitholes from whence they came.

      3. These fuckers built nothing. Since their arrival in the fifties those who integrated replaced work opportunities for men returning from war and produced offspring who caused and continue to cause immense social problems.

        I left London in 1982 having experienced at first hand the Brixton riots of 1981 and having to deal with the mugging of my wife by blacks in 1982 in Clapham Common.

        I have no desire to visit my capital city until the place is made safe by the authorities and the vile foreign scum returned to the shitholes from whence they came.

  87. There is now no choice. Bankruptcy is baked in. And I don't think that's an accident. These people are malign.

  91. 411957+ up ticks,

    Pillow Ponder,
    Dt,
    Asylum seekers’ rights are more important than the concerns of the people of Epping, the Home Office has declared…

    MAKE THE HOME OFFICE PROPER ENGLISH AGAIN.

    2. I can tell you who will be angriest about that, and that is migrants in Epping who have come the legal way, many of whom are doing low-paid jobs and sending all their spare cash home. For example, care workers.
      They are being told that the rights of other foreigners who entered the country illegally and are getting everything for free are higher than theirs.

  93. It was very sad her sitting alone, dressed in black, with her husband's coffin. Makes me quite angry.

    2. I have that photo on my laptop.
      That was the moment when I began to hate British governments of any stripe.

      1. Ditto. And PMs, especially Johnson. Azov Brigade complete with flag in No.10 the last straw.

  96. Strongly disagree.
    It is widely known "what they are capable of":
    9/11 and celebrating 9/11.
    10/7 in Israel.
    And for an amuse-bouche in the UK, the Southport stabbings.

  97. Strongly disagree.
    It is widely known "what they are capable of":
    9/11 and celebrating 9/11.
    10/7 in Israel.
    And for an amuse-bouche in the UK, the Southport stabbings.

  99. I am on my way home from a night out in London. I was meeting an old friend from Brum who now lives in Cambridge. The usual pace we go to-* wasn’t open this week so she suggested a tip she had from a friend. The Palladium in Argyll St (Oxford Circus) is staging Evita until 6. September and every night c 9pm “Evita” comes out onto the balcony to sing “Don’t cry for me” and we, the great unwashed public, become her adoring crowd. Results transmitted back into the theatre.

    Something different, lovely evening, back on my Brompton and am on the Tube home to Richmond.

    *Pegasus bar in Inner Temple, but don’t tell everyone or they will all want to go

  100. Goodnight, all. I had a disturbed night (severe cramp) so I'm going to turn in early tonight and hope I get a more unbroken stretch of zeds.

    1. Good Night Conners – and Kadi and Winston. And I hope you all get a decent night's sleep tonight.

  101. About 20 mins ago, on my way back from Richmond on my Brompton, i came across a mass gathering of barefoot Diversity on the banks of the Thames. Loads of them l, kids (who should of course be in bed) and all.

    1. It might raise a few hackles to have the raising of the English flag accompanied by 'Rule, Britannia!' which is just as wrong as the British flag being displayed when English sports teams were in action, as happened not so long ago!

  103. Having studied the imminent economic demise of the UK, France, Germany and Italy, I realise that the common denominator is the policies of the EU. The problem with each of these economies is the absence of growth.

    Reeves, Rayner and Starmer (reads like some shyster Lawyer outfit) should step aside now that their policies are proven to produce negative growth and potential runs on the pound and our imminent collapse via the bond markets.

    We should ditch everything we do in imitation of the policies of the EU. The EU has been the most destructive influence on our wellbeing in the UK. The entire EU globalist financial system has wrecked the economies of all member countries and with the support of Ukraine has added to the budget deficits of every EU country.

    The iMF does not have the financial resources to bail out Britain whiich would leave the US to provide the backstop and bail us out.

    Forget about the EU commission advocating Euro-Bonds, a desperate measure willing the ECB to buy them. The end of the EU is thankfully nigh. Lights out, game over for the EU.

    The people of Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom need to rise up and object to those advocating this crisis. Disintegration of the EU is now necessary. The theories that gave us this nonsense are defunct, thank God.

    1. Nobody's going to bail us out, corri. They hope to replace the EU with a technocratic one-world government, for which the EU was just a practice run.

      When they come at you saying, just activate this online ID, it is necessary for you to continue in your comfortable, convenient life…say no. That's all we can do at this point. Responding to their provocation by going on the streets and attacking our neighbours will achieve nothing.

  104. The anti-immigration protesters might well be thick but many of them are in the pay of globalists including the likes of Bill Gates and Soros, father and idiot son, and other actors.

  105. The Pope’s blessing is not a good look
    Blessing the anniversary of an irregular marriage will have conservative Catholics tearing their hair out
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/08/28/the-popes-blessing-is-not-a-good-look/

    This was the old pope not the new one.

    But the new one has hardly got off to a flying start.

    BTL

    But the new pope has put his foot in it by saying that giving the Chagos Islands to Mauritius – who had no claim on them – had corrected a historic wrong.

    The chap should jolly well get his facts straight before making such a mendacious and bogus statement.

  106. Where we are today.

    Club Statement: Monday 18th August 2025

    It's been brought to our attention that during Saturday's match a small group of AUFC supporters were singing pro-Tommy Robinson songs during the match.

    We utterly condemn this behaviour in the strongest terms. It has no place in football or society. Not only is it completely at odds with our values as a club but it also undermines the efforts of everyone at AUFC, including our players, staff and volunteers, who work tirelessly to create a warm and inclusive family club.

    If you are identified as having done this you will be banned. Anyone using racist, homophobic or discriminatory language of any kind will be removed from the stadium and banned.

    AUFC is a community club that strives to bring people together and foster an environment where EVERYONE is welcome. We have a zero tolerance policy to any discriminatory or anti social behaviour.

    https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/ashtonunited/news/club-statement-monday-18th-august-2025-2933562.html

    Ashton United play in the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League, level 7 in the English league setup. Their typical home attendances are around the 300 mark.

  107. Well, chums, I'm off to bed now. Good Night all, sleep well, and I hope to see you all bright and early tomorrow morning.

  108. Over in the US the Trump & Fed battle escalates..
    DEI judge Lisa Cook argues that claiming two houses as her 'primary residence' at the same time may have been a simple 'clerical error.' LOL

    Phew, the new DEI judge Jia Cobb, will weigh in on the case.

    Oh btw.. Cobb recently defied the Supreme Court after she continued to block the "expedited removal" of migrants despite a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legality of such removals.

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