Thursday 4 September: Angela Rayner and the hypocrisy at the heart of the Labour Party

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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677 thoughts on “Thursday 4 September: Angela Rayner and the hypocrisy at the heart of the Labour Party”

    1. I'm not sure I follow this, Johnny. (Good morning, btw.) If in 1978 the richest paid over (or well over) 80% tax but they only paid 11% of total tax, how come they now are taxed at a much lower rate (45% tops) yet they pay almost three times as much (30%) of total income tax? Don't the rest of us pay any tax? Because I thought that this Government was taxing the rest of us much more. Or is the total benefits bill to the "refugees and asylum seekers" skewing everything?

      1. Laffer curve. There comes a point in taxing people where those who can, leave, and those who can't cut down on their work and buying goods and services. This means many businesses produce less revenue.
        Several of our sons' friends – chaps in their late fifties – have cut their hours, run down or sold their businesses because beyond a certain point, they are effectively working for nothing. And, if they are employing people, taking on extra hassle.

        1. The husband of one of my fellow students at art college refused promotion because the extra income would have meant he was actually worse off. It took him into a higher tax bracket.

        1. Same happened here in Norway when the Labour government increased the top level of tax. The rich just left – they have enough money to live anywhere. Amongst the leavers is the man who owns my employer, one Kjell Inge Røkke, a man who started off as a deck boy on a prawn trawler and is now in the medals for Norway's richest man.

      3. I would query his "richest 1%" claim that they pay 30% of total income tax.

        A very big part of that is the freezing of personal allowances, so that more and more people get dragged into the higher rate bands.

      4. Its always been that the higher the tax rate the less income. People avoid more tax when the rate is high.

    2. Those dum arse idiots have driven thousands of millionaire's out of our country since they took office.

  4. Thursday 4 September: Angela Rayner and the hypocrisy at the heart of the Labour Party

    It looks like Labour wants to have their cake and eat it.

    2. Good morning Bob3,

      The hypocrisy of the Labour party is legendary .. however, read this!

      On Tuesday, the non-profit organisation Index on Censorship reported the case to the Safety of Journalists Platform, a partnership between the Council of Europe and press freedom organisations that releases alerts on potential threats to journalistic freedom. The UK government is expected to respond to the alert within three months.

      1. There was a long item in the Daily Mail – I think it's now in the Tellygraff – about an unnamed "sleepy Suffolk village" that had "asylum seekers" imposed on it in a brand new housing development.
        Nowhere did the article mention the name of the village. However, there were enough clues for a brisk bit of googling to pin it down. It was the village of Mellis. I emailed a chum who lived round there until recently and she confirmed my fact finding; she knew the village but not about its latest settlers.
        The blatant coyness, the dancing round such a central fact, suggests that once again, the government is exerting pressure on the media to hide the effects of this disastrous policy.

        2. Yes , similar to JRM peering over a wall near his home in Somerset , old country mansion playing host to dozens of illegals.

          I reckon this is why Labour have shoved high VAT onto families who send their youngsters to private school .. school closes and then the government grabs the empty space of their dingy sailing occupants ?

      2. May well have been launched without the engine – to be fitted later. That would result in a high centre of gravity above the centre of buoyancy, and very easy to become unstable and roll over.

          4. The main problem, though, was the open hatches. It led to the same effect as the RORO that sank because it left the bow doors open.

  8. Good morning, all. A Wordle Bogey today.

    Wordle 1,538 5/6

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

    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Got a bit lucky today Wordle 1,538 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  10. Did I say good morning to all the early risers?

    Rain , wind , 15c and the morning light is making the garden look as if it has been coloured in by that synthetic acrylic paint , there must be a rainbow somewhere .

    On a different note .. how about this ..

    Sycamore Gap's age revealed: Iconic tree that was felled by yobs is dated using expert technique

    Probably just more than 120 years old ?

    What is dendrochronology?
    Dendrochronology, or tree dating, is the scientific study of tree rings to determine age.

    Samples are obtained by means of a borer – a simple metal tube of small diameter that can be driven into the tree to get a core extending from the exterior bark to the centre.

    This core is split in the lab and the rings are then measured and compared to sequences of other cores.

    Trees gain a new ring around once a year, and the width of each ring corresponds with the amount of growth per year.

    Because the growth of tree rings can be affected by climate, tree-ring dating is also used for the study of weather and atmospheric conditions dating back thousands of years.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15061609/Sycamore-Gaps-age-revealed-Iconic-tree-felled.html

    1. I'm sure I have a 150 year old sycamore in my garden too. Why do they want to keep this ridiculous, sentimentalised story about firewood alive? Because they are promoting the truly evil agenda of creating a new crime called 'ecocide' which will eventually expand to include you and I drawing breath.

      1. The reasons behind felling the tree are a complete mystery. What on earth did the vandalism achieve? It was an act of pure stupidity.
        However, there is now a Saint Lady Di feel to the outrage.

        1. The ‘outrage’ is pure fakery!
          I chopped down two trees last year for firewood, and will do the same again this winter. One of them was almost certainly over a hundred years old. It’s sprouting again healthily from the stump.

          1. I do love to see mature trees, but our neighbours Oak is more than a bit of a nuisance. Right now huge acorns hammer down on my shed roof. And three times each year I have to clear the guttering of debris. The roof rainwater keeps my wildlife pond topped up.
            On the other hand the neighbour on the other boundary has butchered our Rowan tree, and the dig rose, a totally unessesary thing to do. Hacked off all the the reachable branches on her side. Fortunately they live in France most of the time.

        2. All that fuss and Robin Hood couldn’t have hidden in it, only 100 years old, wonder why it took so long for them to count the rings.

    2. We once lived in an old farmhouse that had a monster beam running the length of the sitting room.
      The house was originally a lay brothers' farm house and dated from c. 1280. It had been bought from Richard Rich's estate and substantially rebuilt around 1580 by a local lad wot done good.
      The beam had a large crack in it, which opened up in dry weather and closed in the damp, so in a way it was still alive.
      I used to study that beam and calculate that it had been an acorn sometime between the Peasants' Revolt and the Battle of Agincourt.

        2. I had to explain to our not yet six grandson when a cottage was shown on A place in the country.
          Oak beams all over. My elder sister and BiL used to live in a large cottage that was once a pub. The Royal Oak the timber beams and joisting, fire Place etc were wonderful. The bedroom floor was way out of level.

          1. Morning Eddy , yes we found that out , our bed slid all over the floor boards .

            To say the earth moved in our early marriage was an under statement .. !

            We used to hear rats in the roof under the thatch , and the backyard was inches away from the rear of the sloping roof ..

            It was an experience , sadly those type of cottages do not let in much day light .. and the fear of thatch fire was always on everyone's mind .

            The cottage was on a narrow main road , and those were the days when drivers/ passengers threw their cigarette butts out of their car windows .

          2. See if you can find Royal Oak cottage lower Luton Road. Right on the river Lea. Has never flooded.

      3. Good morning Anne ,

        You must be a mind reader , because I was thinking just the same .. A few years after Moh and I got married , well during that period we had to move around a bit because of where he was posted to and the availability of properties to rent which was limited .

        We rented a thatched cottage in Chideock in the very early seventies for 6 months , cottage was listed grade 2 , built around the late 1700s.. with a huge original inglenook fireplace and bread oven , it was un modernised etc and the cosiest home we have ever lived in . The fireplace was built using the thickest wood I have ever seen .. and I remember at that time being so impressed and amazed because if the cottage was seventeen century , how old was the wood , it must have been oak ..

        1. Apparently during the height of the wooden ship building era – C16 – C18 – we actually had fewer mature trees than now because the oaks were felled to keep the Navy supplied.
          And mature trees were also used in house building.
          We have an old chest made from elm. (Remember mature, healthy elm trees?)

          1. Yes , you are correct re the mature trees in those days , but hauling those heavy trunks and slicing them must have been a heck of a job .

            I bought a really neat little Elm kitchen/ child's chair in a junk shop years ago , probably a couple of hundred years old , bought it for £20!

            The chair is so small and simple but sturdy , I keep a pile of dog towels on it .

          2. I saw something on tv yesterday, it might have been about Scottish rivers, wasnt really paying attention. But where a nice chap was making furniture from his own forest of trees. Steaming and bending the prepared timber for turning into fabulous looking very useful items. I wanted to (scuz the pun) join in.

      4. We have a mahogany dining table. The "planks" from which it is made are three feet wide. We reckon the tree was planted about 1600…..

        The table weighs a ton. The removers (who usually carry a fridge under each arm) said it was the heaviest item they had ever encountered.

        1. I have an oak press which consists of a base and a top piece. It took two hefty men, struggling hard, to bring each piece into the house. The floor boards are now bowed! I have no idea how old it is.

    3. Dendrochronology is a posh way of saying "count the rings on a tree", though I tend to do it to dead or diseased trees after I've felled them.

    2. Is that the first genuine smile we've seen from Starmer? The good-looking young man next to him on the other hand is giving a classic lips closed restrained smile.

      1. Hardly surprising, look where the boxer's left hand appears to be.

        (I suspect it's photoshopped)

    4. "Abstain from spending your money in their shops and economies, and invest in black-owned businesses.
      Boycott white man's iPhones, trainers, audio equipment, Audis with tinted windows n stuff.."

  13. Good morning all- 🌞 sunny after more rain. Google weather says it's raining now but it's not. Everything is very green out there now.

    2. It has rained so hard here over the last couple of days that there is now standing water on the roads nearly meeting in the middle!

  14. SIR – While I do not put ice in my lager (Letters, September 3), I did once ask for lime cordial in it.
    Despite this being more than three years ago, my drinking companion is still happy to report the infamy to any village newcomers.

    Lt Col Lyndon Robinson (retd)
    Mursley, Buckinghamshire

    FFS, Lyn, what on earth made you decide to dilute a decent lime cordial with cat piss?

    SIR – Worse than adding ice to larger is adding ice to brandy.
    Brandy should be served in a warm bowl, never chilled.

    Bob Wood
    North Weald, Essex

    Adding ice to a larger what, Bobby? A bucket of said cat piss?

    1. Love the smirk.

      "Most of us when buying a house.." employ a top wealth protection firm …split the ownership of our home with a trust administered by blue-chip law firm Shoosmiths.. then tell the dedicated ‘wealth protection team’ to tidy up the details. Yeah like we all do that.

      "supremely talented politician. this is a woman with talent & charisma coming out of her fingers." LOL

      1. She is actually very popular in some quarters, believe it or not. Anyone has talent and charisma coming out of their fingertips when compared to Starmer!

    2. Love the smirk.

      "Most of us when buying a house.." employ a top wealth protection firm …split the ownership of our home with a trust administered by blue-chip law firm Shoosmiths.. then tell the dedicated ‘wealth protection team’ to tidy up the details. Yeah like we all do that.

      "supremely talented politician. this is a woman with talent & charisma coming out of her fingers." LOL

    3. Rayner does get a lot of stick for being a working class woman, so that is a fair point. She wouldn't be such a target if she pretended to be middle class.
      I think this crass comment (in the 40 000 circumstances) is because they are all at it, and this woman genuinely can't see what Rayner has done that's worse than what the rest of them are up to.
      Is there a single poor senior minister?

      1. Yeah yeah.. but they don't call all those people Scum. Nor do they bang on about rich people=bad. Nor decry 2nd homes.

        1. In his book, Norman Tebbit said they were living hand to mouth the whole time he was a Minister…after he left the Government he took some directorships, journalism etc and were comfortable for the first time…that is how it used to be done.

  16. Not so smarty.
    Elon Musk, xAI founder and owner, admits he's been had.

    Chinese national Li Xuechen downloaded the entire xAI code repo used for training Grok including “cutting-edge AI technologies with features superior to those offered by ChatGPT and other competing products.”

    Li secretly uploaded a copy of data containing xAI’s trade secrets three days before his sudden resignation on July 28, 2025.
    Li also sold nearly $7 million in xAI company stock through two transactions facilitated by xAI, receiving $4.7 million on July 23 and another $2.2 million on July 25.

    1. Li Xuechen has accepted an offer from xAI competitor OpenAI to join its team starting Aug. 19.
      It's Ok he's promised —- cross my heart & hope to die —- not to steal anything.

      1. A few years ago Microsoft had a team of young Chinese people with execrable English manning the service desk for reporting bugs in their flagship product aimed at software developers, Visual Studio.
        When you reported a bug, the answer would unfailingly be, "we cannot reproduce this, please send us your code"
        I never did.

    2. Li Xuechen has accepted an offer from xAI competitor OpenAI to join its team starting Aug. 19.
      It's Ok he's promised —- cross my heart & hope to die —- not to steal anything.

  17. Good morning all.
    Fascinating organ, the human brain. Mike Warburton also feels a drop of sympathy for la Rayner. And my mind suddenly brought up the word' abstruse'.

    2. A drop of Sympathy ?
      They have all been at it at some stage.
      That's why they moved on Elizabeth Filkin.

    1. Morning TB.😊
      No room for B. liar in the photo ?
      I don't know if you have seen the Bond film Spectre, although a fictional organisation it seems to truly exist. But we have no Bond anymore.

  19. Morning All 🙂😊
    Grey day for back to school and it's just chucked it down again. 13 c jumpers and jackets on.
    I think the word hypocrisy is far to polite for the situation it seems to suggest that someone slipped up. Let's be honest these lying cheating deviants in Wastemonster have been at it for ever with their expenses claims etc etc.
    They got rid of Elizabeth Filkin when she was put in place to monitor them. The place needs closing down flushing out and new rules made. Then applications to re join should be very heavily scrutinised.

  20. I am cross.

    Last week, when I came in on the Tube with my folding bike, I realised too late that I was tail-gated as I came out of the Disabled barriers at Temple.

    Today, the same happened. I realised it was happening but because the barriers take so long to close, it’s really easy for the cheats to get through. I actually stood by ground and said to the man “are you tailgating me?” – but he was over 6’ and huge, and he just pushed past me, as did another man. I ran after them shouting “fare
    dodgers” but all that happened is that now everyone thinks I’m a nutcase.

    I spoke to the attendant in his booth. He said they have been told not to do anything.

    3. Very brave of you and you have every right to be cross.
      It just shows what a complete mess our once safe and enjoyable country has been turned into by our political idiots.
      Everything that they come into contact with……

  21. Good morning all. A bit of a lie in today, was awake to pump bilges just before 6 and went back to bed and reawakened at 8!
    14°C with a grey overcast, currently dry, but damp after overnight rain.

    3. To say nothing of the hardware. The West buys manufactured goods (the ones we used to make ourselves) with Western funds, and this is what China does with that funding. A warning to Taiwan, possibly morphing into action fairly soon.

    4. Bless them. Much like americans and their 'armed militia' argument for having guns: what's th epoint when your enemy has missiles and a helicopter gunship as the least of their weapons?

  23. Good morning, 13°C, a grey, damp start to the day with sunshine forecast later. I see Rachel from Complaints passed on the team onion to Crayons Rayner for her performative art yesterday. Crayons doesn't get it. It's not that she sought to play the system for her benefit – that's a given for those infesting Whitehall/Westminster/Holyrood/Cardiff – It's that she castigated her fellow travellers for similar behaviour. No wonder Whitehall/Westminster are so keen on their 'Online Safety Act', screen shots and quotes of Crayons and Co baying for blood is too readily available for those who seek to call them out on their hypocrisy. Still, with her union backing, though she'll probably have to step down from her non-job of Minister for Housing she'll remain DPM like a latter day Two Jags.

      1. Hello ‘mum…sorry to butt in on another thread, apologies to you and Rastus…had been looking for you on the McCann anniversary, have you heard the latest about the McCanns sedating their children so they wouldn’t awaken…thinking is MM may have been overdosed. No sign of any break-in.

    1. Poor girl had more than a probe when she gave birth at 23 weeks! See – the sympathy ploy is working!

        1. Probably because of the huge number of Pakistanis living here.

          Those figures are offences per 100,000 population rather than absolute numbers

  27. Angela Rayner fights for her political life: Ethics probe could seal her fate within days – as it emerges she 'used some of her disabled son's NHS compensation to buy second home'

    Wannabet?
    She'll be back.
    I give you Peter Mandelson

    1. The third lower level like Parish councillors have to declare their interests , business etc .

      Standards rules are very strict , even having to declare anything even gifts , attracts the full force of an inquiry !

      1. I suspect he's never gone away, Eddy – along with T. Blair. As for Ms Rayner, she's safe imo (for now).

          1. I heard the three Ukrainian lads spent some time there…and a chiropodist, I think….Ukrainian case up next April.

          3. I’ll go for pay up (but remembered). Soundly reprimanded – maybe a slap on wrist, Starmer needs her for old Labour votes incl unions. We’ll remember, Ndovu.

          6. Truth’s coming out. Solicitors deny giving her any tax advice. How long can Starmer cling onto her…24 hrs? that long?

    3. And, Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF – whom I mention above – was found guilty in court as a result of her collusion with the French crook Bernard Tapie.

      She should have been carpeted – excuse the bi-lingual pun – but she did not go to prison and she did not lose her job.

      As Rayner said : "There is one rule of us and one for them" before she changed sides and joined the side of those who do not have to follow the rules.

    4. She sold her share of the house to her son's trust….of which she was one of the administrators…..and used the money for her deposit.

      1. It's complex, she was supposed to be making his situation more secure, and I suspect she received poor advice.

        2. I suspect she was "advised" by the chav she lives with – who seems to be a bit of a geezer – many fingers in many financial pies….

          "Doncha worry, Ange, I've a pal who knows all the ins and outs…leave it with me…"

    5. Nothing will happen. She might get a slapped wrist but even that I doubt. They'll do everything possible to brush the mess under the carpet. Raynor will walk off unscathed , probably into a union post and Starmer will proclaim how amazing he is for his courage and behaviour.

  28. 412249+ up ticks,

    Tell me, why are these proven treacherous historical political party's still given credence, acting as if they will be returned to power ?

    The decadence of Kemi Badenoch Her party faces oblivion

    UnHerd
    https://unherd.com › 2025/09 › the-decadence-of-kemi-…
    1 hour ago — And if the Conservative Party is to survive the next General Election, it must hope that Kemi Badenoch bucks this trend. When, three years ago, ..

      1. She was completely useless yesterday! An open goal and she didn’t just miss, she skyed it!c

        1. She did miss an open goal.
          However … did she know about Ange's disabled son and that knowledge rather muted her attack?
          It is called the Westminster village. Such details are generally known.
          But the drawing on the trust fund seems a bit hooky.

          1. I’ve just said to Alan that women like me dislike women like her, because they use ‘being a woman’ as being an excuse for all sorts of stuff! Most of us women just get on with being a human being and getting on with life. I don’t need bleating apologists to ‘help’!

          2. I've always thought that women are capable people and deserve to be treated as such, not made allowances for just "because they are women".

          3. I’ve just said to Alan that women like me dislike women like her, because they use ‘being a woman’ as being an excuse for all sorts of stuff! Most of us women just get on with being a human being and getting on with life. I don’t need bleating apologists to ‘help’!

      3. There were two candidates: one a trained economist, with decades of experience at the IMF and competence recovering collapsing economies under Libertarian elements.

        The other was Lagarde, an incompetent, useless eurotrougher.

        The blob ensure their own get into posts to make sure that when they ruin things, they can be sure they'll get the right answers.

          2. Mine haven’t! Especially the naked one! Then he goes and pokes Phoebe, and off they go!

          3. Our two lovely girls have their moments, but mostly spend their days dozing or sunning themselves. If Jessie gets too close Ziggy will bop her one.

          4. Hilarious, isn’t it! There are moments when you think they’d never seen each other before! They are both 14!

          5. Not sure how old ours are – but Jessie was said to be eight and Ziggy ten, when we got them nearly two years ago. So 12 and 10 or thereabouts.

      1. According to my rain guage this can only mean that the world has moved into a global flooding phase.

    2. We now have three large rainwater butts full to overflowing! And a green 'lawn' instead of brown.

    2. They don't even borrow it. They are hired to do our will. The problem is the deck has been stacked so a pile of wasters get paid from the worker's income.

  32. I think we're in for a showery day………washing's on and it's sunny out there…….but will it last long enough to get it dry?
    I see poor Ange is still on the hook and squirming – she's going for the sympathy vote with the story of her disabled son and his difficult, premature birth…… while blaming her legal advisers.

    1. Spending the compensation money on a flat which presumably could be rented out to bring in an income to help look after him is not such a bad decision actually, although the papers are reporting it as more evidence of her depravity. It's certainly evidence of her massive hypocrisy.
      I think she should go, but then they all should, the only difference is that the rest haven't been reported.

          1. Cheques?? Never – they leave a track of where the moolah went. Folding readies would be the norm.

          2. Not these days. Try drawing £1,000 from your bank account. The Fraud Squad will be round in a trice.

          3. I just did. £250 on four successive days. Am now hiding behind my cottage in Savernake Forest; they don't call me Robin Hood for nothing. No sign of Plod or the Sheriff's men so far.

          6. That is the mystery.
            Surely, that £160,000 had to be drawn from the trust's fund of money put aside to care for the boy's lifetime care. That's what 'buying the share' means, doesn't it?
            And as he is obviously in need of specialised care for a possible 50/60/70 years I would imagine the amount could run into £millions.

          7. The Trustees of the trust fund.

            To me, they look pretty darned 'negligent' (i.e. bent) too. The £160,000 purchase of a 25% interest will have drained virtually all the liquidity out of the trust. If the poor lad has some immediate (epensive?) need there won't be the cash to pay for it. His 25% interest in the house is hugely illiquid; nobody would want to buy it other than a rich relative willing to help out. It stinks.

      3. The Soviet Politburo were exactly the same? They dictated how many square feet of living space the proles should be allowed while making sure they had a nice dacha in the country for themselves.

        2. Yes – I’m sure our Ange has no plans to hand 40% of her wealth over to the state when she dies.

    2. She deliberately tried to evade paying the correct amount of tax, being caught out she now tries to hide behind her disabled son and her "advisers".
      Just another very unpleasant socialist hypocrite, who in the present climate will probably get away with it. Remember taxes are only for little people.

  33. At market at 8 am in the sunshine. Shock horror. Tony's knock off stall not there. He has a week's holiday…..

    Home by 8.30 -at the MR has a working morning on Zoom. Now it is raining.

    1. Our local farm shop's on holiday too!
      Fortunately their holiday coincides with our pears being ripe, as I buy most of our fruit from them.

      1. A reputable as they come. He is an old fashioned barrow boy who provides superb cheese at rock bottom prices. Lots of other items, too.

      2. Tony buys 'distressed' cheeses. Repacks them and sells them on.

        Distressed can mean several things. Date of expiry approaching either by the supermarkets or the wholesalers. Still safe to eat but they can't sell it.

        Returned pallets for a number of reasons.

        Then you get people like Tony who can still make a profit out of it.

    3. My window cleaner was a week late. I asked he why. He said he had been on holiday in Egypt.

      I told him to ask permission next time. Oh how we laughed.

  34. Well, I've had my second cup of tea, so I'm going to take a bit of a break and head back to bed for an hour or so. Then up to do a final dust of my front room and a bit of reading. What I hope will be a much less hectic day today than the past four days has been.

    2. Of course they do; that's what multiculturalism is all about. No need to fit in, no need to learn the language, no need to anglicise anything.

    3. Of course they do; that's what multiculturalism is all about. No need to fit in, no need to learn the language, no need to anglicise anything.

    1. I'm just wondering why the narrator of this poem has transcribed Kipling's word 'English' to 'Saxon' and for what purpose?

      Not all the English hail from Saxon stock. A good number of us have much more Viking ancestry as well as Angle, Jute, Celt, Roman and Norman.

  39. Last night I took the boss out for a birthday treat at a coastal restaurant not far from here.The appropriately-named Maritim is an old restaurant on the harbour at Simrisham, a beautiful seaside town on the east Skåne coast.

    I was somewhat surprised to see sea bass on the menu, especially since that fish — along with many other species, haddock included — isn't found in the Baltic. I had assumed that the local fishmonger had sourced if for them from the west coast, where the Skaggerak enters the North Sea where they are apparently plentiful.

    It then shocked me somewhat when the waiter explained that another east coast fishmonger had them flown in from the Mediterranean coast of Turkey! Regardless of that my two (skin on, of course) fillets were delicious.

    [It was the first bass I've had in over 20 years, when a work colleague caught one off Cromer pier, rang me up, and I collected it at Aylsham. I cooked it in the Chinese style (after the necessary faff of descaling and gutting it) and it was consumed — and thoroughly enjoyed — within two hours of being caught.]

          11. I had a couple of pints in Plymouth last week. I took the opportunity as I cannot find it here in Stevenage.

        2. We were in Cardiff for the final of the Cardiff singer of the world in 1989, when he won the Lieder prize and Dmitri Horostovski the overall prize. Two wonderful singers & Dmitri left the world much too soon.

      1. Just bought some.

        I was inspired by a recipe from Marc Fosh. Michelin Chef in Palma.

        He made an emulsion of potato boiled in fish stock by adding olive oil and saffron.

        Wilted spinach in the same pan as the bass was fried.

        Soup plate. Emulsion. Spinach. Topped with the bass.

        Colours of the Med…

  40. I’m to be discharged today and and taken to the respite facility I’ve booked nearby in Stamford Brook. How long I stay there will be a matter of how I feel. A certain recommended item of clothing feels like a piece of armour but when asked to breath deeply, it did give helpful support. There’s a great temptation to just lie in bed and give in to being a care recipient. Will try to resist.

    1. I'd leave tennis for a week or two, Our Susan.

      Remember, discharge often takes several days to achieve…!

      1. There was another x-ray yesterday morning and the fluid had decreased so they decided not to drain. My weight was down to 53kg this morning. Close enough to my 8 stone normal. I’m 5 foot nothing!

        2. I'm married to a 5' lady.
          God makes such ladies small to hinder them from taking over the world!

        3. I don’t know what I weigh, but I have shrunk a bit over the years…… I can still get into very old clothes comfortably. Some of them were a bit tight a few years ago.

    4. Oh I say! You're wearing a corset!

      Very sexy! Best stay in bed lest you excite the other fellows.

      Rest up, be pampered.

    5. I hope you have a short stay and get back to what ever is normal for you ASAP. Take care don't over do it 🤗

    6. Is it a liberty bodice, Sue? Don’t tell Bill!
      Hope your stay is short, and your recovery is swift! 💐

    8. Never give up, Sue. But you are allowed to rest a wee while. You've been in the wars!
      Hope you are home, properly mended, soonest.

  41. Took the dogs out and as we got too far to go back it rained. Not minor dribbles, hammering, soaking thunderous,, pummelling rain. Was practically swimming in the stuff.

    None of the floofs really new what was going on but all are wimps and huddled under the emergency brolly. Yours truly, of course, got nudged out.

  42. If we learned anything under Bliar, these crooks don't resign by their own volition. they need hounding until they get shoved out the door.
    Mandelson (X2) being a case in point.

    1. Starmer should have resigned after the Ukrainian boy fires. Instead, it was swept under the carpet.

  43. The problem I had with these waters wasn't the bitter cold per se, but the spray, or goffer (a wave coming inboard) in the idiom, having turned to small ice chips and shot blasting any foolishly exposed flesh. It fucking hurt.

    HMS OPPORTUNE, an escorting destroyer, in dazzle paint, seen during rough seas on a Russian convoy patrol. Image taken from aboard HMS INGLEFIELD.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6cc5c9200b417ed34b6b9de5b6b73180d6c1f9e7ddd9cc313e7c76179119ab48.jpg

    2. Here was the previous Mayor of Brighton and Hove https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72p807kr9mo

      Mohammed Asaduzzaman was the first Bangladeshi Muslim mayor of Brighton and Hove, a city in the United Kingdom. He was elected to the Brighton & Hove City Council in the Hollingdean and Fiveways ward in May 2023. On 22 May 2025 the City Council elected Amanda Grimshaw as his succesor.

      The current mayor is .. https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/councillors-and-committees/mayor-brighton-hove

  47. Late on parade. Unexpected visitor from England.
    Not bad Wordle:
    Wordle 1,538 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          1. Similar – I suggested he joined the Navy he said 'why' I said 'Because they are always looking for powerful destroyers'.

  48. I'm not angry at the tax avoidance. That's practically essentials these days. The anger comes from the hypocrisy.

    Does anyone in Labour understand that?

    2. Precisely.
      A sad case; at the root of the problem is possible mismanagement of a huge sum of money gifted by the taxpayer via the International Health Service.

  49. Spent a couple of hours clearing the utility room out . Really a large long space , boiler , washing machine , drier , shelves of stuff I bought during lockdown .. cleaning kit, boxes of salt for freezing weather , dog food and now cat food . Overhead shelves ,casseroles , spare electric bulbs and a box of large candles .. probably about fifty .. what on earth was I thinking?

    There are 2 large trug type containers , which had cleaning cloths , dusters feathery things for radiators and window cleaning kit ..Oh yes , the mice had shredded lots of the microfleece cloths , chewed plastic , a bag of beanie hats , mouse traps had somehow shifted , and that mousie smell that the visiting cat latched onto ! She just sat there staring .

    Do the police really study our Twitter threads?

    1. Everything we write is sucked into big databases and analysed by AI to create a psychological and factual profile of us, I think. If it's not happening at this moment, it will be as soon as they've finished the nuclear reactors they need to power their AI farms.
      That is held by private companies of course. I think the police only study posts that are brought to their attention, surely?

      1. Have just sat down , the utility room took more than an hour .. my back really aches ..

        Have an assortment of tinned soup, stuff for emergencies , why do I buy lots of tins of sardines and pilchards , because we enjoy them on toast , and they are a cheap nourishing meal .. several old Christmas puddings , but they will be fine even though they are five years old !

        What is the oldest item in your store cupboard?

        1. During covid I stocked up for the first time…I’ve never been a prepper before. Still have the tins I bought then, also stuff like rice and dried lentils. I reckon they will be OK as they have been kept in the dark and dry.
          I think we still need the stocks for a few years yet.
          I had some cointreau that was the same age as my eldest daughter, but it seems to have got polished off recently!

        2. I recently found a sachet of Cadbury's chocolate drink powder in my larder. Use by January 2004! Had it for my night cap that night, tasted just fine! I see I have an old bag of raisins and a packet of yeast – don't expect the yeast to have any 'rise' in it but the raisins are probably OK.

          1. I think powders like cocoa, powdered egg, powdered milk etc last indefinitely as long as they are unopened. The only problem might be clumping but that is easily dealt with.

    4. Starmer: "You're going to Ukraine to save the world."
      British Army: "On your own, sunshine."

    5. No. Govt is trying to frame ordinary people who have had enough as “extermists”. They are trying to shut down conversation. To quote Lawrence Fox, they seek to murder your opinion.

  51. Well the washing almost dried between the downpours – it's now airing in the conservatory. I planted up some hanging baskets for the winter with some pansy plug plants – still plenty left over for a few pots.
    Time for a sit down.

  52. This is a photo of one of the osprey chicks which hatched this summer at Loch Arkaig. It was taken in Spain near Santander and shows Breac, who left the nest 15th August. His brother Darach, left 21st August with the father Louis!

          6. Here’s looking at you, kid.

            We’ll always have Nottle, and I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

            :@)

  55. The 'Greens' certainly know how to pick 'em!

    Mothin Ali, a councillor in Leeds, was elected co-deputy leader of the Greens on Tuesday to serve under Zack Polanski.
    Oct 8 2023, within 24 hours of the massacre of civilians by Hamas, Cllr Ali suggested that Hamas fighters were “indigenous people defending themselves” and that condemnation of the attack was “white supremacy”. a spokesman for Labour Against Anti-Semitism, described the views as “extreme”, adding: “It is sickening that on the morning of the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, the deputy leader of the Green Party appeared to justify it.

    Look on the bright side though – that's another million followers in Bradford, Birmingham, Burnley and Blackburn though.

    1. He's in the wrong party, and turning the Green Party into a sham far distant from its core vote of environmentalists. He belongs alongside George Galloway, but would be fine alongside the Islamic Independents or Sultana's Fruit & Nut party.

      The good thing is that this leadership is for a fixed term. The bad news is just how many Green Party members, especially in the cities, are socialists or islamists disillusioned rightly with Starmer brand of Blair revivalists. They are crowding out the rurals, who may well be doing sterling work in the shires.

      1. Jeremy I hate to break it to you, but the core of the Green party is people who want to impose an authoritarian government by a small elite…and islamists have always been at the centre of that. A previous deputy leader of the Greens in Britain was captured saying some pretty unpleasant things about Israel.
        About 20 years ago, islamists tried to infiltrate the Algerian parliament via a green movement…and Algeria is a secular muslim country…I was told that they were swiftly kicked out, but I haven't followed that story.

    2. Just so you know what we're dealing with.

      Green Party councillor who shouted 'Allahu Akbar' after election says critics are Islamophobic

      Mothin Ali says he has been 'subject to a lot of hate and hostility' after video of comments emerged

      Dominic Penna, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT • Tuesday 7th May 2024 • 12:00pm

      A Green Party councillor who shouted "Allahu Akbar" to celebrate his election has claimed his critics are Islamophobic.

      Mothin Ali also said his victory was a "win for the people of Gaza" after running a successful campaign in the Gipton and Harehills ward in Leeds.

      Mr Ali faced a backlash after footage of his comments circulated on Friday and he is also being investigated by the Greens over a number of controversial remarks about the Israel-Hamas conflict. These included the claim that Palestine had the right to "fight back" in the wake of the Oct 7 massacre.

      In a statement on the Leeds Green Party website on Tuesday, Mr Ali said: "Being elected to represent the wonderful community of Gipton and Harehills was one of the proudest moments of my life. The inaccurate reporting and misrepresentation of my acceptance speech has led to me being subject to a lot of hate and hostility.

      "I should also make clear that it is not unusual for somebody of my faith to use the words 'Allahu Akbar' as an expression of gratitude and celebration. Some have sought to misrepresent this and it suggests Islamophobia to me."

      The Telegraph revealed on Monday that Mr Ali claimed Israel had "control" of the mainstream media, while recording himself chanting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" at a pro-Gaza rally. In a clip recorded on the day after the Oct 7 attacks, he also said: "This didn't start yesterday, this started 75 years ago when the land of Palestine was invaded, the indigenous population was driven out…

      "It is white supremacism, it is nothing short of a European settler-colonialist state… When they fight back, all of a sudden the European media is up in arms."

      Addressing the backlash to his comments, Mr Ali said: "I am sorry for any upset my comments caused about the Gaza conflict. That was not my intention.

      "Like many across the world I have been deeply impacted by the dreadful conflict currently underway in Gaza. The International Court of Justice said this conflict meets the case for plausible genocide. I do not support violence on either side: violence leads to more violence and this is what I have tried to convey. I have consistently called for an immediate ceasefire and a release of all hostages."

      He added that he wanted to work with "a broad coalition including both the Jewish and Muslim Greens… to discuss sensible ways for us to work on communicating our shared passion of bringing the conflict to an end".

      The Greens called for a ceasefire within days of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in response to Oct 7, and benefited at last week's local elections from a backlash to Labour's stance on the Middle East after Sir Keir Starmer initially refused to echo ceasefire demands.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/07/green-party-mothin-ali-allahu-akbar-islamophobia-election

      ________________________________________________________

      From Wiki:
      Ali is an anti-racism campaigner. He started the DigItOut campaign, which aims to end racism in horticulture. This was a response to his own experiences of racism in the gardening world, including abuse he received on his YouTube channel, which worsened after the publication in 2021 of the findings of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.

      He is a long-standing critic of the UK government's Prevent counter-terrorism strategy, arguing that it embeds Islamophobia.In the wake of the 2024 United Kingdom riots, Ali criticised the racism of their perpetrators while also criticising what he saw as growing media and government encouragement of racist attitudes, and particularly Islamophobia, in the UK. As of 2024, he was campaigning to make Leeds what he called a "city of belonging", modelled on the concept of a City of Sanctuary.

      [City of Sanctuary is a British charitable organisation whose purpose is to build a movement of welcome across the UK, predominantly for asylum seekers and refugees, by coordinating and supporting networks of community groups across the UK and Ireland.]

      Why do so many want to come to such a horrible country? I just can't work it out…

        1. That was last year, before the general election. I expect Max has conveniently ignored it.

  56. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UObn_BwWd1A&list=WL&index=78 Whether you agree with this chap or not, I do feel that marching and shouting (like gobbing off on social media) will do nothing to persude the powers-that-be to change tack.

    Robert of Locksley, Robert Kett, George Loveless, Guy Fawkes, Benny Rothman, Wat Tyler, et al didn't moan on the internet or whine in the streets, they took positive action.

    Sir Francis Drake didn't just whinge about the approaching Armada while playing bowls, did he? Sir Winston Churchill was never seen to write letters of protest to The Times when Adolf sent over his doodlebugs.

    It seems that shouting and moaning have replaced proper direct action in these benighted times. Whinge and whine as much as you like: nothing will change.

    1. 412249+ up ticks,

      Afternoon G,

      Complete agreement, can you imagine these current politico's bombing their allies as Winnie did in regards to the french surrender and the french naval fleet.

    1. Graham Linehan threw away trans woman's phone after she challenged him over 'vindictive' tweets, court hears: Live updates.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15061189/graham-linehan-trial-harassment-free-speech-live-updates.html

      Trans activist linked to Graham Linehan arrest is disgraced police officer sacked for branding free speech campaigner a woman beater and a Nazi.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15065069/Trans-activist-Graham-Linehan-arrest-disgraced-police-officer-sacked.html

      1. Indeed.

        A council seeking to stop an Epping hotel from housing asylum seekers has lost a legal attempt to appeal to the Supreme Court.

        Epping Forest District Council had secured a temporary injunction from the High Court which would have forced migrants to leave The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, by 12 September. That was overturned by Court of Appeal judges last week and has been followed by the same court ruling the case cannot go to the Supreme Court, although the council said it can now make a direct request to the higher court.

        After months of demonstrations at the hotel, Conservative council leader Chris Whitbread called for protesters to consider stepping away as the town was "under great strain".

        Mr Whitbread said: "We believe the Court of Appeal decision to overturn the interim injunction for the closure of The Bell Hotel was wrong. "However, this is not the end of the matter. We consider we have a strong case for a final injunction… expected to be heard some time in early October. In the meantime, the council is keeping all our options open, including seeking permission from the Supreme Court to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal."

        The council said it was given "no reasons" by the Court of Appeal for denying permission for the case to be taken to the Supreme Court.

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0y0v471p3o

        1. One can always apply to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal, despite the Court of Appeal refusal.

  61. 412249+ up ticks,

    Why is it the animal kingdom is far quicker to protect their young than peoples are ?

    The JAY report pointed out quite clearly the rampant paedophilia in rotherham in 2014 and the sixteen plus year cover-up, ongoing but no one in authority was guilty of applying the rape & abuse of 1400/1600 youngster's concealment ? https://x.com/Enezator/status/1963295677091549266

    2. Er … people are also part of the animal kingdom.

      We are not plants (although with many it is hard to tell!).

    1. Lies, damn lies, statistics, damn statistics … which one would this poll be?

      I can't really believe that this Labour government would still attract the second highest number of voters in the country. If that is true then the piss-poor population must be much more vacuously and gormlessly stupid than even I thought they were!

      1. That is such a minor drop from the 20% last year that I suspect a spot of statistical massaging.
        Or 20% of the electorate is made up of bludgers and public employees in cushy jobs.

      2. According to Cummings there's 15 units or % of die-hard Lefties that want nothing short of total destruction of UK.

        1. Oddly enough, Talk radio finally got round to admitting that the Fabian’s are all for a one government world, and that they are implanted in every public body in Britain – police, education, justiciary, NHS, and government. Alex Phillips was at full throttle with Brendan O’Neill!

          1. Wonder who is meant to pay for this one world government and for the carrying out of its policies? The 'racists' I suppose.

      4. Look you. My parents voted labour, just like their parents before them. It is a family thing!

        Tax the rich!

  63. politics pol'i-tiks, n, corrupt, crooked, fraudulent, nefarious, rotten, shady, unethical, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, venal, base, bent, debauched, exploiting, fixed, foul, open, padded, profiteering, reprobate, suborned, tainted, bribable, double-dealing, extortionate, faithless, fast and loose, gone to the dogs, inconstant, iniquitous, knavish, mercenary, on the take, perfidious, praetorian, racket up, snide, treacherous, two-faced, underhanded, unfaithful, unprincipled, wide open …

  64. politics pol'i-tiks, n, corrupt, crooked, fraudulent, nefarious, rotten, shady, unethical, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, venal, base, bent, debauched, exploiting, fixed, foul, open, padded, profiteering, reprobate, suborned,tainted bribable, double-dealing, extortionate, faithless, fast and loose, gone to the dogs, inconstant, iniquitous, knavish, mercenary, on the take, perfidious, praetorian, racket up,snide, treacherous, two-faced, underhanded, unfaithful, unprincipled, wide open …

  67. In a crushing historical irony, Australia is contracting with the small Pacific island of Nauru to resettle foreign-born criminals who the courts have ruled cannot be imprisoned indefinitely.

        1. Probably. It doesn't look like there is anything else to eat…

          The effects of phosphate mining in Nauru have had significant negative impacts on the island's environment and economy.[153]

          One of the most prominent effects of the phosphate mining in Nauru is the extensive environmental degradation that has occurred as a result of the extraction of phosphates.[154]

          Large areas of the island have been stripped of vegetation and topsoil, leaving behind barren landscapes that are prone to erosion and degradation.[155]

          The mining activities have also caused significant disruption to the island's ecosystem, leading to a decline in biodiversity and the extinction of several plant and animal species.

          The perfect place for criminals.

    2. They use to keep illegal invaders in purpose built property on the Northern off shore islands, the scumbags kept burning the buildings.

  70. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba918751b15276f1887f5203a761d1778fcffd5b8183d1a2d1f2c40be8962271.png EXC: Rayner Ethics Report Expected to Be Completed on Friday Afternoon
    Guido hears from numerous insider sources that on Friday Laurie Magnus is expected to present his report into Rayner. PM…

    A Cabinet Office source said Laurie Magnus is meant to be going on holiday on Saturday so it will all need to be done by then. Reports that a conclusion could be reached today seem off the mark – though sources say Magnus is working quickly because he has fewer people than usual to interview…

    A Downing Street source tells Guido the public release of the report tomorrow would be ideal to “head off a weekend of chaos.” Downing Street staff remain down on her prospects, with one saying “we all assume she just goes rather than is shuffled” if things go wrong. It’s up to the PM when to respond and go public, maybe with an exchange of letters. Once the report is done a timer starts…

    September 4 2025 @ 12:02

    3 hours ago
    Magnus has a four decades long career in City finance.Anybody sentient knows Rayner’s been caught bang to rights,and that innocence or bad advice is no defence against non-payment of tax and Trustor malfeasance carries its own legal remedies.Looks like Magnus’ own credibility is on the line here.

    3 hours ago
    It was a mistake to bring him into this sorry mess, considering she has owned up (to an extent) and says she will pay the unpaid dues.

    A case of Stammer putting off the inevitable, whilst trying desperately to avoid having to make a decision. Wants the Ethics man to do his dirty work.

    2. "Ethics Adviser Holiday"
      I think it is a surprise to all of us to learn that they have an ethics adviser! Must feel like the most unrewarding job on the planet most days I should think.

      1. Only one? I would have thought they need an ethics adviser department if they want to avoid burnout.

        if it is like Canada, the ethics Commissioner condemned bad behaviour multiple times, Trudeau just ignored the findings.

    2. Hmm.. EM sees every post on X, ones he's interested in eg politicians. Wonder what he's been reading..

    3. Well, Musk can go bugger himself. I thought he was ok. Farage can be a bit soft. Advance UK aren't even in the polls, so all he's doing is weakening Reform UK, which, has a lot of decent members and potential MPs.

  72. Wordle No. 1,538 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 4 Sep 2025

    A recipe for Birdie Three?

    1. Well done, took me a while.

      Wordle 1,538 4/6

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

    2. Well done. I managed to work out all the places the letters wouldnt go and limped to a bogey…..

      Wordle 1,538 5/6

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

    3. TToo Much golf lately but another par

      Wordle 1,538 4/6

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

    4. Bogey seems to be becoming my par.
      Wordle 1,538 5/6

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

    2. So sad he had no family to see him off, but how great is it that so many "ordinary folk" turned out to see him off on his last journey. These are the folk that Starmer and his ilk should fear: Those that respect service.
      Brought a tear to the eye, so it did.
      RIP, man.

      1. I may have missed it but i didn't see a black or Asian face.

        Were any members of the council or government there to lay a 19 second wreath?

    5. I've attended a few such of ex-RAF personnel who have died without family. The forces ARE a family and we close ranks.

  74. Bloody Hell, I'm knackered!
    First shopping in Belper then making a batch of jam from the 1.7kg (about 3½lb) of damsons I picked from Jonjo O'Neil's gallops at Jackdaw's Castle as well as getting a 2 litre jar (ex-Cadbury's Roses from donkey's years ago) of Sloe Gin started, the sloes coming from the same source.
    Eight assorted sized jars of jam produced, with a similar amount of plums to be sorted in the next couple of days.

    I've also got another large amount of sloes, this time from the nature reserve at Welford that still need to be dealt with that should do for two full sized old fashioned glass sweet jars with another 2 sweet jars to find sloes for!

    A link sent to me by Graduate Son of music for a Chinese (I think) computer game series.
    The link is set to a couple of minutes before the concert starts and can be nudged through the first bit quite easily.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0IEvmdkwM4&t=4347s

      1. Statistisch unwahrscheinlich ism.
        1 x kidney failure, 1 x suicide, 5 x sudden & unexplained.

        1. Google Mistranslate won't recognise what you posted.

          Statistisch unwahrscheinlich.

          It appears the takeover is advancing.

          Unless of course they are made up words.

        2. eggypius pointed out that there are about 90000 candidates in these elections. It is the big one where everything from the parish council upwards gets elected in a particular Bundesland.
          Also, people are dying at the moment. Especially older people who are more likely to be candidates for no-hoper seats. We all know why so we don't need to go into that. Even AfDlers.

    2. A regional leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Thursday said the party has "no evidence of unnatural deaths" after several of its candidates passed away during an election campaign in western Germany.

      Martin Vincentz, the leader of the AfD's chapter in the state, said no evidence of foul play has emerged.

      https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/germanys-afd-no-evidence-unnatural-112933593.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEKK9pO3UNyNDfFtRyKxjqvjv9_ZOkuajqEmswofJllJAAcaV-ijRazjBeB8-FKtItts2j-ocG9XUg-kfH3OjbKYyY7xzRUO6qTofo9HMXXr9ESZexRtabzxgbYdIDDqPz27bkO9Q1Il5UOUHrf91xzc7d4ToapLaEGtwHfQVLXz

        1. If a rival party had dismissed the deaths as nothing unnatural, I might have shared your scepticism and that of Sam and Sos, but it came from a regional leader of the AfD.

      1. Ah! there you are.
        Apologies for not seeing any earlier posts.
        I hope you've had a splendid strip on your birthday.

    1. Ours is an arse parliament, sitting on a lava-Tory, Green with algae and Liberally overfull of shits.

  79. She is unable to tell the truth about anything…

    Angela Rayner’s lawyers: We never gave her tax advice
    Firm that handled purchase of £800k Hove flat accuses Deputy PM of ‘scapegoating’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/04/rayner-small-family-firm-stamp-duty

    Starmer ‘prepared to sack Rayner’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/04/politics-latest-news-angela-rayner-tax-son-stamp-duty

    Why is Angela Rayner’s house so much more expensive than her neighbours’?
    Deputy Prime Minister’s £650k valuation worth nearly twice as much as other properties on her street
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/buying-selling/why-angela-rayner-house-more-expensive-neighbours

        1. Agreed, but I don't like how it's being done.

          I hope she has plenty of documentation to take her legal and tax advisors down with her.

          1. Well her solicitors say they gave her NO tax advice. And – unless they are mad – they would not say that unless it is true.

          2. When completing on a purchase do the solicitors have a responsibility to check that all is hunky dory with regard to stamp duty etc?

          3. They act on the supplied information. I suspect that as some time had passed between the Trust transfer and the new purchase, Ange thought she would get away with it or call it an innocent mistake if discovered. I believe the conveyancing company were not solicitors as such, just authorised to do the legals on a property sale.

          4. There seem to be two things that people are latching on to. One is the stamp duty aspect, but the second is the fact that it appears she used trust money from the trust for her disabled child to buy her share of the property. That may or may not have been legitimate and/or reasonable use of the trust funds. The trouble is that it just doesn't look very good on its own, without more information about all the surrounding circumstances.

          5. Quite! Although I can understand the compo being used for a secure home, I would have thought it was mainly provided to buy suitable care for the boy, not the deposit for a love nest.

          7. It was a firm of Conveyancers, not Solicitors. They have said that they are not qualified to give tax advice.

          8. She asked for it by being so holier-than-thou over others, and by being scathing and demanding immediate sackings of others. Her chickens are coming home to roost.

          9. I'm sure she "deserves" all she's getting, but I still think she's being stitched up.
            And isn't it a marvellous squirrel to distract the public's attention from all the more important things that are going wrong!

          10. No doubt she is getting stitched up and that it is a convenient squirrel. But IMO the commentators are keeping their eye on the other things that are going wrong. In a way the general public can get overload from too many different things being uncovered and reported on – it then becomes "oh another thing", and they switch off.

            Perhaps a bit more ire here and there will gradually build up into something more.

          14. She asked for it by being so holier-than-thou over others, and by being scathing and demanding immediate sackings of others. Her chickens are coming home to roost.

    1. The MR – who spent an hour plus this morning dealing with upcoming exam marking – will appreciate that one.

    1. Does Saddo Kahn get all the funding for his Moslem-only homes solely from Moslem rate council tax payers?

      Thought not.

      1. How many muslims pay council tax? Would be an interesting piece of information, bearing in mind how many are on benefits, no doubt including housing benefit.

    2. I think they should build lots of tower blocks with minarets on top.

      Can't say more. I wouldn't want to share a cell with Lucy Linehan.

    3. London Mayor is not building 40,000 new council homes ‘prioritised for Muslims’

      30 June 2025

      What was claimed

      The Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan has announced a new proposal to build 40,000 new council homes prioritised for Muslims under the Muslim housing plan and they will be built near mosques and halal shops.

      Our verdict

      This isn’t true. There are 40,000 new council homes pledged to be built in London by the Mayor by the end of the decade, but these homes are not specifically for Muslims, or any particular demographic.

      A video which inaccurately claims that Sir Sadiq Khan has announced a proposal to build 40,000 new council homes specifically prioritised for Muslims is circulating again online.

      The clip, which has been shared on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where it has been reposted 19,000 times, features a woman who says that the Mayor of London has “just announced a new proposal to build 40,000 new council homes specifically prioritised for Muslims under the Muslim housing plan”. She adds these homes are “to be built near mosques and halal shops”.

      But as we previously confirmed, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London told Full Fact: “This claim is completely false.”

      While there is no source cited for the claims, they may have stemmed from an interview Sir Sadiq gave the Islam Channel, ahead of the May 2024 mayoral elections.

      While the caption of the interview, published in April 2024, asks how his manifesto was “going to affect the Muslim community”, at no point does he pledge any homes exclusively for Muslims.

      He actually said: “The other big issue facing Londoners, particularly Londoners of Islamic faith, is the issue of housing. And so we need to build far more homes in our city because you know often people from minority communities want to live near a mosque, near halal food, near places where there are other people like them for a variety of obvious reasons, and they’re priced out because there’s not enough housing. So we’re going to build at least 40,000 council homes, at least 6,000 rent control homes.”

      We have previously fact checked several misleading posts about this same interview, which made claims that Sir Sadiq had pledged houses as well as free education exclusively for Muslims.

      Before sharing claims about politicians online, first consider whether the information could be designed to mislead, and whether it comes from a trusted and verifiable source. Our toolkit gives you advice on how to navigate bad information online.

      https://fullfact.org/politics/sadiq-khan-muslim-housing-plan-40-thousand-false/

      1. “The other big issue facing Londoners, particularly Londoners of Islamic faith, is the issue of housing. And so we need to build far more homes in our city because you know often people from minority communities [i.e. guess who] want to live near a mosque, near halal food, near places where there are other people like them for a variety of obvious reasons, and they’re [i.e.I wonder who] priced out because there’s not enough housing. So we’re going to build at least 40,000 council homes, at least 6,000 rent control homes."

        That does read much as if the homes are going to be built near mosques etc. because that's what the people that are "priced" out want. According to that little scumbag the people who are "priced out" do not seem to include other Londoners.

        edited

        1. He was asked how his manifesto was “going to affect the Muslim community”, hence the slant of his reply.

          1. That doesn't explain why he specifically says is going to build homes near mosques and halal food. Housing is housing. Need is need. And why are the particular minority he refers to any more "priced out" by the housing shortage than anyone else? Why should the muslim community be singled out anyway when the mayor is discussing his manifesto – he is supposed to be mayor of London, not specifically of muslim London.

          2. Stig can fact check all he likes but we are seeing Muslim families installed in new builds rent and bills free besides the dingey people put up in 3 an 4 star hotels besides country mansions that we couldn't afford to live in.
            Then there are all the knock on freebies..Kayaking lessons for fuck sake.

          4. Possibly if someone other than Khan had given that answer, there would be less suspicion.
            Correction – someone other than Khan, Captain Hook and similar characters who seem to have become spokesmen for the Muslims.

      2. “The other big issue facing Londoners, particularly Londoners of Islamic faith, is the issue of housing. And so we need to build far more homes in our city because you know often people from minority communities [i.e. muslims] want to live near a mosque, near halal food, near places where there are other people like them for a variety of obvious reasons, and they’re [i.e. the muslims] priced out because there’s not enough housing. So we’re going to build at least 40,000 council homes, at least 6,000 rent control homes."

        That actually does read very much as if the homes are going to be built near mosques etc. because that's what the people that are "priced" out want. According to that little scumbag the people who are priced out are the muslims, not other Londoners.

      5. Come on! Taqiyya is to the fore. The people who allocate these homes will be muslims because that's the demographic that's wormed its way into positions of power (see Khan for a prime example). While they might CLAIM they are not for muslims only, the reality will be far distant. The koran says, "do not befriend the kuffar".

  84. A few DT articles I read this afternoon. I'm not so sure that I'm better informed rather than just more and more worn down by it all. It's hard to avoid Westminster and Whitehall, a grand parade of nonentities mouthing off inconsequentially. Max's stone-walling of Evan Davis was a particular low point. Lots of noise, no solution in sight, a country (world?) unravelling fast. I almost find myself wanting something terrible to happen that it might shake them up and bring about some real change.

    • Free speech in the UK is dead. It'll take a constitutional revolution to restore it
    • Hamas are Islamists – the police investigated me for saying just that
    • Linehan's arrest was meant to scare you into silence
    • Starmer's Britain is turning into a dystopian police-state
    • The police are further to the Left than Owen Jones now
    • Angela Rayner and the hypocrisy at the heart of the Labour Party
    • Labour's wealth tax isn't just economically ruinous, it's a moral disgrace
    • The ugly truth is Ukraine would be better off trading land for peace

    How did we sink so low?

    2. We didn't. Lousy politicians did (aided and abetted by my favourite hobby horse, civil serpents).

  85. Can anyone save Britain from self-destruction?
    Douglas Murray
    06 September 2025

    Tens of thousands of people turned out on the streets last week to protest against mass immigration. The protestors were promptly labelled ‘racist’ by their own government, ‘far-right’ by the New York Times and as having links to ‘neo-Nazis’ by the Guardian. The protests in question happened in cities across Australia, including Sydney – but frankly those sentences could have been written about similar protests in Britain and in almost any western country.

    Coincidentally, the past weekend also saw the ten-year anniversary of the German chancellor Angela Merkel opening the doors of Europe, saying ‘We can manage’ and allowing Europe to become the home of anyone in the world who wanted to move in.

    Merkel may have been more explicit than some of her counterparts, but similar open-door policies have afflicted almost every western country over recent years. In America the backlash to that protest has already begun, with the Donald Trump administration successfully starting not just to enforce its borders but to return people who are in the country illegally. But apart from the United States there isn’t a country in the West that has been serious about returning people who have come into the country illegally. Quite the opposite. In the UK the government has successfully challenged the courts over their rulings on hotels for illegal migrants. Questioned about this by the media, government ministers have admitted that the rights of illegal migrants trump those of British subjects who have paid taxes all of their lives. Indeed they have made it explicit that the rights of an illegal migrant who has never contributed to this country supersede the rights of people who are British and are down on their luck. The sort of people whom the welfare state was meant to support.

    In recent weeks ministers have appeared in the British media and claimed that the majority of people arriving into the country on small boats are women and children: a flat-out lie, disproved not just by statistics but by the evidence of anyone’s eyes. Look at any photograph of the illegal dinghies arriving across the Channel and you will find no raft filled with women and children. Still, it seems that the war on reality can be fought not just up to the point of defeat but long past it.

    So what is the way to answer this problem? Nigel Farage’s Reform party has finally moved to the position where it says that it will deport people who should not be in the UK. But I doubt whether this country can survive another four years of the kind of self-destruction that is now our daily news.

    Claims that this country is monocultural and ‘irredeemably white’ are echoed in absolutely every institution, from the nation’s museums and cultural centres to most of our media and politicians. Our towns and cities are said to be racist. The nation’s subjects and citizens are said to be racist. And of course our countryside is racist. As a reaction to demographic change, absolutely everything must be urged to become more ‘inclusive’. This is not just some left-wing brain-fart, but the response to the reality of a country adding millions of foreigners in recent years, with a further ten million projected to arrive this decade.

    The strain this puts on the welfare state is obvious, although it is denied by almost everybody in a position of power or influence. But walk into any British hospital or emergency ward and you can see for yourself how well our welfare state is coping with providing free services to the world.

    Of course this makes people angry. But at this point there is a temptation on the political right to presume that these things will reach a crisis point, at which stage – however late in the day – the country will come to its senses and course-correct.

    Yet even within the ranks of Reform it is hard to find anyone who has the kind of plan and personnel in place to correct any of this. When Trump tried to course-correct his own country’s lax immigration in his first term, he discovered that there was a whole bureaucracy in place which either couldn’t do what he wanted or actively worked against him. It took four years of exile and a resounding electoral success last year to even begin to undo the damage his predecessors’ open-borders policies created. On current trends, Trump and his successor will have to continue his deportation policies for the next six or seven years just to undo the illegal immigration Biden oversaw between 2020 and 2024. Are Reform, the Conservatives, Labour or any other political institution in Britain remotely capable of replaying that policy here?

    I read the other day that the Labour government may soon be in a position to deport 100 illegals. The same day as that was announced, several times that number of people arrived on the south coast in dinghies.

    Personally speaking, it is hard to know how to pass the time during a period of such national cultural suicide. But I am considering a trip to Pakistan, where I intend to write a report on the alarming monoculture and lack of diversity in the country’s cities and its rural areas. If there are no English pubs in the Pakistani countryside, I intend to kick up one hell of a stink. I am sure that any number of local or foreign universities will leap to publish my disturbing findings.

    ***************************************
    Charlieray15
    17 hours ago
    How is the Great Leader's migrant deal with France going? 3567 in, none out seems to be the current score.

    Richard Vine
    11 hours ago
    How is it that Indians have not only assimilated in their new country they have been an absolute boon. Anyone who has studied alongside Indian students will realise that they stop at nothing to achieve success. A look across British boardrooms will show Indians box well above their weight. Conversely the only area where our Pakistani migrants excel is getting into positions of power within local and national government with the sole intention of diverting resources and policy their way. The first thing Nigel must do as PM is ban postal voting.

    Beefbeefbeef Richard Vine
    11 hours ago
    Here in the West Midlands, it is well understood amongst the business community that ethnic Indians are generally no problem to deal with however ethnic Pakistanis are generally a nightmare. This has ramifications for the latter because many of us are familiar with their behaviour hence they get cut out of deals. When I hear them cry "racism" I think "well, you brought it on yourself".

  86. Evening, all. Had a busy day; coffee morning to start, then lunch out . I left my mac on the back of my chair and had to go back to get it, so took the dogs with me as they'd been left a while. As we were all out in the car, I took them to a local garden and had a stroll round. I had the place to myself apart from the gardeners! The rain held off, the sun came out and it was very pleasant. Labour is always "do as I say, not as I do", so why anyone should be remotely surprised, I have no idea.

  87. That's me for today. Hearing aids "clatter" and "click" a lot – but I can hear more. Sometimes. I had no idea that the indicators in the car made a noise when ne indicated left or far-right.

    An hour in the garden potting on stuff and then picking up a barrowload of rotten windfall apples.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain. Prolly.

    1. I'm wondering about getting hearing aids after lunch a couple of days ago where the background noise in a marble-lined restaurant meant that I could not understand a word said.

      1. What? I have the cheapest – indeed “free” ones. OK for my purposes but not good enough for wealthy NoTTLers who willingly pay £3,000 AND MORE for special ones.

        1. 3 grand? Cost of 2 decent dinners for 4 over here. Puh!
          But without, it's very isolating. Can't hear whats being said, can't join in, look like a weirdo (all right, I am…). Add in hat I need a bit of clarity to get the Norwegian too.

        1. I find it very isolating.
          At a meal with colleagues, can't join in the conversation 'cos I can't hear what they are talking about, so come across as silent and weird. Then excluded. It's not good, I tell you.

          1. My missus has some hearing difficulties and I keep nagging her to do something about it.

            Apparently hearing loss, and the isolation it can cause (as you describe) is one of the main causes of early-onset dementia…..

            Get it sorted, man!

      3. Him doing wood turning likes Conyat wireless earbuds Amazon black or white £8. These may not be what you're looking for, tho? not strictly hearing aids, but you may find something else on Amazon useful. Good luck Paul 🙂

          1. No probs. I know from m-i-l experience, can take a while trying different makes/styles etc before sorted. Good luck x

  88. Madeline Grant
    Paraffin Powell comes to Angela Rayner’s defence
    4 September 2025, 2:39pm

    Imagine a school assembly run by the most boring narcissists imaginable. Right – you’ve come close to picturing the first parliamentary business questions after recess.

    Lucy ‘Paraffin’ Powell, the woman who can always make a bad situation worse, began with a list of all the MPs who had married, had children, or otherwise managed not to out themselves as perverts over the summer break. Inevitably this was accompanied by self-back-patting on how much more family-friendly parliament was under Labour. Well, it increasingly resembles a crèche, of that there is no doubt.

    I pity Jesse Norman, one of the unambiguously impressive and intelligent MPs left in parliament. He has to suffer Powell’s clattering platitudes as he tries to ask her questions. Take his attempt to get an honest answer about the parliamentary time required to scrutinise the government’s massive tax increases. Instead he got the depressingly predictable harangue about Liz Truss’s mini-budget. On current form the government will be blaming the heat death of the universe on Kwasi Kwarteng. Mr Norman looked sort of depressed as she did so, like the man who realises that a ptarmigan cannot actually be taught the principles of nuclear physics. The gap in class was chasmic.

    Class was also something Powell tried to exploit. She criticised Mr Norman, son of a Herefordshire baronet, for ‘dying in a ditch’ while trying to save the hereditary peers. ‘We know on which side they are on’, she shrieked – as if the enemies of this country are impotent Dukes, Earls and Marquesses elected by their peers rather than the all powerful lanyard-flunky class who aren’t elected by anybody.

    She accused the Tories of being ‘for the few, not the many on education’; which was presumably a reference to their opposition to the VAT raid on private schools. Interestingly, neither Powell nor Bridget Phillipson have so far managed to explain when the promised 6,500 additional teachers that the spite tax was supposed to fund will materialise in state schools. This policy has the advantage of being neither for the few nor the many – shafting them both at once.

    As she made these statements I could hear one cheer above all others from the Labour benches – the terminally embarrassing Dr Jeevun Sandher, angling for a pat on the head from the party’s apparatchiks. Dr Sandher is a dignity vacuum, a sailor clamouring for promotion aboard the Titanic just as the last lifeboat is lowered.

    Hilariously, Powell tried her ludicrous ‘right side of history’ schtick while also riding into battle to defend the Deputy Prime Minister’s tax evasion. Mr Norman confessed he had a soft spot for Big Ange as she was ‘the one member of the front bench seeking to lower tax burdens rather than raise them.’

    Paraffin became incensed at this jibe against Ange’s obviously immaculate financial probity. ‘She is a huge, huge asset to this government.’ Well she’s certainly got hold of some huge assets while in government. Parrafin continued: ‘They have a go at her because she’s so bloody good at her job’. Lucy Powell has many faults and now we can add lame, twee swearing to them. She honestly thinks she is a plucky heroine in a Mike Leigh film as opposed to a footnote in one of the most embarrassing governments in postwar history.

    This continued as she listed the government’s ‘achievements’ in the ‘highly ambitious legislative programme’ when she allowed her chest to puff out, like a pigeon on anabolic steroids. It then dawned – despite all the evidence reality keeps on throwing up to the contrary – that these people really think they’re doing a good job.

    It’s becoming increasingly clear that one of Labour’s biggest problems is the monumental gulf between how they see themselves and how the general public see them. Powell earnestly seems to believe she is at the vanguard of the great progressive future. Alas, she’s not Rosa Parks, she’s a future answer on ‘Pointless’.

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

    Nelson
    11 minutes ago
    A case of mistaken nonentity.

    Jolly Radical
    4 hours ago
    Incidentally, the Luis Vuitton sunglasses Rayner was wearing on Tuesday are £350.

    Up the workers!

  89. Last post – a thought that came to me while laying the table.

    Ref the info about Ange and her lies – I posted earlier my suspicions about her chav pal. I'll go one further and suggest that said chav was looking a a substantial (undisclosed) commission for all the financial arrangements he organised.

    TTFN.

    1. I trust you aren't casting nasturtiums about her chav pal 'soulmate', Mr Thomas? It's nine years since Andrew Gilligan phoned me whilst investigating where Tarry actually lived. His claimed Sarf Lunnon address as he applied to be a councillor in that part of the world, where no taxi driver will venture, was utterly fraudulent. I know – I checked the marriage register. Brighton resident. Presumably, he wishes to stay in that part of the woke world, since he fathered two sprogs with Julia Fozard, before abandoning her for the ginger growler….

    1. Sorry about the size. It was even worse when I first tried posting it.
      Double click on it if you're having problems.

      1. I'm afraid the coven surrounding Stoma remind me of those awful girlie "in" groups at school.
        The ones who would club together against any other girls in their year and would alternate between active physical bullying or sending to Coventry.

        1. Goodness me , that brought back so many memories .

          I was the little girl who shone at GK and other things , so what an idiot I was to keep putting my arm up to answer a question .. so I was not part of the girlie crossed arms group who stood whispering in corners .. I didn't mind , because my teacher favoured me , which made matters even worse.. no not a teachers pet , but a receptive pupil who wore a brace on her teeth, I was the only one who did!

          1. When I changed to a new school at the age of nine, the only other girl in that class who had fair curly hair took against me. She resented the competition!!!!!
            A good punch-up sorted out the matter.

  93. Ref our Angie, I'm astonished there appears to be so much debate going on.

    Cut through the crap and it's a pretty binary position.

    It is totally immaterial whether she took good or bad professional advice on the Stamp Duty issue. The undeniable fact is that she was trying to minimise her tax liability. Like the vast majority of us would.

    However, this is from a woman who is on record squawking about people not paying their 'fair share' in tax which is massively detrimental to our already underfunded public services (her words) – she follows up by saying a former Tory Chancellor (I think it was Nadim Zahawi) should resign for actions that appear not too dissimilar from her own.

    This is a cut and dried case – she has to go…….

    1. That's the thinking, G4, Starmer has no alternative, especially since solicitor put out a statement saying no tax advice given. Perhaps she'll defect to Reform, along with Mad Nad? (rumours Johnson about to try, sincerely hope not)….

      1. If Farage has anything to do with Boris Johnson that will be the end of him and the end of Reform.

        2. Sorry Rastus about getting your name wrong…what comes of messaging late at night whilst going to bed and typing one finger!…Kate x

      2. So the Chancellor, Reeves, sympathises and excuses Rayner's criminal tax evasion because of her family circumstances.

        What about the family circumstances of Lucy Connolly – who had lost one of her own children and made an ill advised tweet – which she took down just a few hours later – when three little girls were brutally murdered.

        Starmer, Reeves and other members of the repulsive British government had no sympathy for her and made no excuses for her – she was sentenced to over 2½ years in prison..

        As Ms Rayner herself said:

        "There' one rule for us and another for them! !

  94. I've finished my task of zyder making despite dozens of lovely ripe apples still on my neighbours tree.
    Almost 25 litres of cider brewing now. It's been a lot of hard work. Probably my last ever batch. I can't find my Hydrometer. The cardboard box is available but I think someone might have broken it. Oh well its usually around 8 – 10%
    But I've added some light brown sugar because the apples are not very sweet this year. I hope the champagne yeast makes a difference in flavour.
    I'm not going to bed yet, but I'm feeling very tired after all the hard work, (and cooking dinner) and cleaning and tidying up. Compost bins nearly full with apple waste.
    I know it's early, I'm on my second glass of ozzie Shiraz, but goodnight all Nottlers.
    Sleep well 😴

    1. Big crop of Cox apples here too, Eddy. Usual neighbour who makes lovely cider and apple juice doesn't seem to be doing so this year. Oh well, sleeves rolled up….

    2. Love home-brewed cider, me. No additives, just fermented apples… wonderful.
      Lousy harvest at Firstborn's place, hopefully better next year now we have more bees.

      1. Make sure you put a bitumen wrap around the trunk midway.
        It’s not my tree but I’ve suggested my neighbour does it to stop the insects climbing into the developing fruit after pollination. I have to cut out quite a lot of nasty insect content. But all carefully cut out and put in the waste bin.

        I’ve got one bottle left from last year.
        But it takes 10 minutes to slowly open it so full of fizz.
        And it just needs a dollop of honey to sweeten it up.

  95. Because SWMBO is watching "Who do you think you are?" wih Ian Heslop, I asked ChatGPT if it could list all of those with the same surname as we have who were killed in WW2.
    Three have the same Christian name as is tradtion in my family: Alexander. That was surprisingly hard to read: Three direct relatives killed. Difficult to type becuse of welling up. RIP, lads.
    – Pte. Alexander Mathieson — Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regt.) — died 2 Jan 1945
    – Flying Officer Milton Alexander Mathieson — Royal Australian Air Force — died 8 Jan 1945.
    – Pte. Alexander Mathieson — (CWGC individual record).

    and one poor bugger, not Alexander, no less valuable a loss:
    – Ronald David Mathieson — Private, 2/1st Australian Infantry Battalion — executed in Germany, 18 Feb 1945 (Australian War Memorial).

  96. Ex-Tory minister Nadine Dorries defects to Reform UK

    Jeez, if you bunged her a tenner, do you think she might be persuaded to change her mind……

    1. She's an absolute fake.
      She is obsessed with BJ.
      The ill-thought-out repressive Online Harms Bill is her baby.
      Reform should make sure they have a very long spoon.

      1. Agree. If Johnson tries, Farage has to refuse. He accepts, he'll lose a lot of support. I noticed Johnson the other night on TV, if he's changed at all it's for the worse.

          1. Yes, doubt he sees himself as we do. Hope he stays other side of the pond, no idea what he’s doing now to earn a living.

          3. That may be his idea of himself, but I think she has his number. Amazed he was allowed out on his own 😀

      1. Well, I did say to her that I only had a fiver – she said ‘It’s OK, I’ve got change’……

          2. Ah G4, laughing now, what a great video especially last few seconds. Thanks so much, Kate x (and just as good, followed by Robert Palmer ‘addicted to love’…..g’night 🙂

  97. Rayner – Mad
    Reeves – Quite Mad
    Miliband – Insanely Mad
    Starmer – Institutionally Mad.
    But spend an evening out with self entitled lefties and
    all they want to do is slag off how awful Trump is.
    It's a funny old world

    3. That's what I love about this site – you see acres and acres of news coverage, your head is spinning with it all…then you come on here and Bob3 or ReadyEddy sums it all up with one short, beautifully written post.

      1. Having said that, almost all 'invasive species', whether plant or beast, have been brought, or invited in, by humans, for whatever reasons they might have had.

        1. Others have been released into the wild by ignorant brain-dead idiots. Coypu and subsequently mink, for example. Talk about fucking up the ecosystem.

          I wonder what the beavers will do to the environment – alleviate or increase flooding? Tricky one.

          . Or the Sea Eagles – glorious creatures with an eight-foot wingspan, massive talons and a beak like a whetted hatchet. Apparently foals are now being taken (in addition to lambs and domestic pets) in Scotland, where these majestic re-introduced birds continue to thrive and multiply.

          Don't leave babies out in their prams, and keep a watch on toddlers.

          1. I see your reasoning, but let’s not forget that the European beaver and sea eagles, along with wild boar and wolves, were here long before we ‘tamed’ the land. The way things are going, the British Isles will soon be ‘re-wilded’ without any help from humans.

          2. Dinosaurs were here before us too, but I don't really think it would be a good idea to clone them and re-introduce them.

          3. Nor do I. My point is that the human race. in general, is a blot on the landscape, and is getting worse.

    3. The rise of gilt yields in the bond markets is the story that the Raynor squirrel is distracting us from. Yes, I know it's boring finance, but it indicates that the people who lend money to the government think that our economy is going down the pan, because we are borrowing money to pay the interest on our national debt, and the government can't use the time-old tactic of allowing inflation to let rip to reduce the value of the debt because some total numpty in the past issued about a third of the bonds as index-linked to the rate of inflation. (The amount owed increases more the more that inflation goes up. imagine taking out a mortgage on that basis – the amount you owed to the bank increased with the inflation rate. Aaaargh.) So the country's finances are basically stuffed (that's the polite word – there are others) and there's likely to be a major fiscal crisis in the next year when the government can't make the payments (benefits, pensions etc.) and we can't go to the IMF as we did in the 1970's because the amount that we'd need in a loan is 100 times what we got in the 1970's and the IMF doesn't have that kind of resources.

      You'd need all the squirrels, circuses, etc. available to distract hoi polloi from that story.

      1. Gold hitting another all time high in nominal dollar terms….financial big beasts exiting overvalued stocks…Buffet indicator at 200%….

  100. If "doing it" is Pakistani Muslim culture, victim blaming is Labour culture.

    Labour council leader suspended after allegedly calling Rotherham grooming gang victims 'white trash'

  101. So okay, Rayner was a little bit foot loose and fancy free with her conveyancing malarkey details palaver.
    But it is not as if she sat eating cake and partying while farmers were forced off their land and children were forced out of their private education, was it,

  102. After my days exertions, I'm off for a bath and bed.
    Unfortunately my damson jam, which appeared to set quite nicely when placed on a cold saucer, appears very reluctant to set in the jars!
    Never mind, it'll still taste ok.

    1. Add a little apple peel another time, Bob – might help pectin, can remove it before eating (if you want :-)! It'll still taste grand…

        1. Did you ask me afore, LIR…:-DDD..nice to use as mixer, too…g’night everyone, sleep well….

      1. With aged Marmlade vodka….!!!

        Thanks for the weird cocktails this Summer. Just finished your gift.

    3. Damson is a difficult one to judge a set. When we had a Damson tree (wrenched and split by a passing massive straw bale truck and tender which overhung the narrow road) the jam would be bottled as runny but wind up a year or more later as jellied concrete.

      1. A bit of a bloody annoying way to lose a good fruit tree.
        After the past week I’ve realised how bereft Derbyshire is for decent wayside fruit trees.

    4. Damson is a difficult one to judge a set. When we had a Damson tree (wrenched and split by a passing massive straw bale truck and tender which overhung the narrow road) the jam would be bottled as runny but wind up a year or more later as jellied concrete.

  103. I'm persevering in my attempts to understand quantum physics. I have just read that some actions of electrons can affect the past actions of other electrons.

    It's twisting my melon, man. I don't think I'll ever grasp it.

    1. In simple terms:

      The actions of today's government can make the actions of the previous government look better.
      et voila:
      PhD

  104. I'm persevering in my attempts to understand quantum physics. I have just read that some actions of electrons can affect the past actions of other electrons.

    It's twisting my melon, man. I don't think I'll ever grasp it.

  105. I'm always cheered by reports of celebs inserting their feet in their mouths. Lily Allen, past her prime and presumably looking for a coin or two, has offered the world her opinion on flags.

    Lily Allen has appointed herself the high-priestess of English self-loathing

    It's easy for the singer to sneer at patriotism after abandoning her country for Brooklyn lofts and Broadway stardom

    Kara Kennedy
    4th September 2025 6:40pm BST

    Only in England could the sight of the national flag cause such pearl-clutching hysteria. In America, the Stars and Stripes are everywhere: on porches, including my own, outside schools, draped across pick-up trucks, even printed on beach towels. The French, Italians and Spaniards think nothing of waving theirs with gusto. But in England? The poor St George's Cross now needs a trigger warning.

    The latest outbreak of fainting fits comes courtesy of celebrities, Lily Allen chief among them, joined by Ellie Goulding and other liberal commentators who appear horrified at the idea that the English flag might be flown in England [below]. Patriotism, for them, is not a harmless show of pride but a sinister code. Ordinary people putting a flag outside their house? That must mean racism, nationalism, or, God forbid, working-class pride.

    It is the absurd inversion of modern England: we are embarrassed by our own national identity. The flag is not a unifying symbol, but a mark of shame – as if to love your country were some outdated provincial tic. Meanwhile, the cultural elite reassure us that it is more virtuous to stay quiet, head bowed, eternally apologetic.

    Lily Allen is, of course, the perfect high priestess of this creed. Born into the warm embrace of Keith Allen and Alison Owen, she was born at the summit of the greasy pole, skipping the climb entirely. She loathes the phrase "nepo baby", calling it sexist, though one can't help but notice how accurately it describes her rise. And yet here she is, positioned as the authentic voice of the downtrodden, speaking on behalf of a country she abandoned for years for Brooklyn lofts and Broadway cameos. It is almost touching, how little self-awareness is required to pull this off.

    What makes her crusade against the flag so exasperating is not simply that it is ill-judged, but that it is hypocritical. She lectures England on how it ought to behave, but lives far from the realities she so freely diagnoses. For ordinary England fans, the St George's Cross is not a declaration of war, but shorthand for football, family, and the chance to belong to something greater than oneself. For Allen, it is a prop for her latest moral performance. She sneers at patriotism, scolding the same public whose affection – and money – underwrote her career.

    The irony is that the English flag is one of the few things left that actually does unite people. On match days, it pulls together roofers in Croydon and accountants in Cheltenham. It is a way of saying: we are in this together, just for 90 minutes, just for fun. Compare this to America, where immigrants proudly display the Stars and Stripes not because they have disowned their roots but because they feel secure enough to embrace their new home. That is what pride looks like when it is celebrated rather than pathologised.

    But in England, the cultural gatekeepers will not allow it. They insist that patriotism alienates minorities, when in reality it is their constant suspicion of national pride that does the dividing. If anything, the flag could be a bridge: a reminder that whatever our politics, our backgrounds, our squabbles, there is still something shared.

    The uproar over the English flag tells us less about the flag itself than about the insecurities of those who despise it. For Allen and her fellow celeb globetrotters, sneering at patriotism is a way to prove their sophistication. For the rest of us, it looks very much like disdain. The St George's Cross does not belong to celebrities, politicians or activists. It belongs to millions who fly it not out of hate but out of pride. Until England stops apologising for its own flag, we will remain the only country in the world embarrassed by itself.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/04/lily-allen-appointed-herself-the-high-priestess-of-england

    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Lily Allen: Only acceptable time to fly England flag is World Cup

    Singer criticises 'sheer volume' of recent St George's Cross displays

    Telegraph Reporters
    4th September 2025 11:41am BST

    Lily Allen has criticised the "sheer volume" of people flying the St George's Cross and said the flag is "only acceptable" during football tournaments.

    The British singer-songwriter, 40, made the comment in light of the Operation Raise the Colours campaign, which has encouraged members of the public to display patriotic flags across the country. Allen told the Miss Me? podcast: "I mean, I think the only acceptable time for St George's Cross is if England have made it into the finals of the Euros or the World Cup. That is, for me, the only time that we need to see those flags."

    She said she was driving on the motorway when she noticed the "sheer volume of St George's Crosses and Union Jacks being hung from bridges and painted badly on roundabouts", adding that it made her "think about what is going on here".

    The display of patriotic flags in public has become a contentious issue in recent weeks, as Portsmouth city council said it would remove St George's crosses painted on road markings. Similarly, Dorset council leader Nick Ireland stated that the movement is "intimidating" residents, claiming the St George's flag has been "co-opted by certain far-Right groups to promote their agendas."

    Allen also remarked that St George himself would have ended up in a migrant hotel. On hearing that patron saint of England, Saint George, was not actually from England, and had connections to Palestine, she said: "You couldn't write this s—."

    Saint George was born in modern-day Turkey in about 270AD, and was buried in Roman Palestine, now Lod in Israel.

    Discussing what would happen to St George these days, Allen said: "No, he'd be being put up at a hotel and…' What's your name? You say St. George? Come, come. We've got a Premier Travel Inn with your name all over it'."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/04/lily-allen-only-acceptable-fly-england-flag-world-cup

    1. When I see a St George’s flag over a property I am comforted that someone cares about our country.

      When I see a Ukrainian flag hoisted above a property I think an idiot must reside there.

  106. I sensed this wasn't sincere and I was right – when I saw the comparison with Russia and Belarus.

    And then there's Jack Straw…

    Britain has extreme interpretation of ECHR, says Justice Secretary

    Shabana Mahmood says Europe sees the UK taking a 'maximalist' approach to human rights

    Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor
    4th September 2025 11:09am BST

    Britain has adopted an extreme interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), says the Justice Secretary.

    Shabana Mahmood said other European countries saw the UK as taking a "maximalist" approach in the way courts complied with the ECHR as she set out how the Government could reform the convention's application in UK courts.

    Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is considering legal changes that would curb the way judges and courts apply articles three and eight of the ECHR to limit their ability to block the removal of failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals from the UK.

    It follows multiple cases revealed by The Telegraph on illegal migrants using the ECHR to avoid deportation, including an Albanian criminal who was allowed to stay in Britain, partly because his son would not eat chicken nuggets, and a Palestinian family permitted to come to the UK under a refugee scheme for Ukrainians.

    Ms Mahmood told the Lords Constitution Committee: "Interestingly, if you talk to colleagues across Europe, there is a view that Britain is maybe more at the maximalist end of the spectrum when it comes to interpreting how we might comply with our international obligations.

    "I think it's perfectly fine for us to question whether we have drawn the line in the right place, and the work that the Home Secretary is doing has both, you know, fresh guidance, secondary legislation or primary legislation all on the table as potential options.

    "But as I say, the Home Office have done their immigration White Paper, where this work was a part of that, and they will be seeing more, a little later in the autumn, about progress on that front."

    She said the Home Secretary had potential options "all on the table" for reforming the ECHR within domestic law, though they fell short of leaving the convention. She said the proposals over Article 8, the right to private and family life, will be brought forward later in the autumn and "may expand" beyond that.

    Former Labour home secretaries Lord Blunkett and Jack Straw have called for the Government to consider suspending the ECHR or decoupling UK human rights laws from it, in order to enable ministers to deport more illegal migrants.

    However, Ms Mahmood said that withdrawing from the ECHR would put Britain in a "club" with two other countries – Russia and Belarus. She said she believed the Government could hold the line on defending human rights in the face of many political pressures.

    She said ministers are "believers in what the convention is trying to achieve" and "if people who support this instrument and want it to work can't have this debate in a sensible way, then I mean honestly there's no hope really at all, for anybody."

    Ms Mahmood said the Government was "not wanting to play, as you might say, populist politics with it". On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer told MPs that it would be a "profound mistake" to withdraw from the ECHR.

    Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had committed to quitting the ECHR, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to use her party conference next month to set out how a Conservative Government could take the UK out of the convention.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/04/britain-extreme-interpretation-echr-justice-secretary

    1. ashesthandust posted an excellent piece a week or two ago covering the UK's legal manipulations of these 'human rights' laws.

  107. I sensed this wasn't sincere and I was right – when I saw the comparison with Russia and Belarus.

    And then there's Jack Straw…

    Britain has extreme interpretation of ECHR, says Justice Secretary

    Shabana Mahmood says Europe sees the UK taking a 'maximalist' approach to human rights

    Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor
    4th September 2025 11:09am BST

    Britain has adopted an extreme interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), says the Justice Secretary.

    Shabana Mahmood said other European countries saw the UK as taking a "maximalist" approach in the way courts complied with the ECHR as she set out how the Government could reform the convention's application in UK courts.

    Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is considering legal changes that would curb the way judges and courts apply articles three and eight of the ECHR to limit their ability to block the removal of failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals from the UK.

    It follows multiple cases revealed by The Telegraph on illegal migrants using the ECHR to avoid deportation, including an Albanian criminal who was allowed to stay in Britain, partly because his son would not eat chicken nuggets, and a Palestinian family permitted to come to the UK under a refugee scheme for Ukrainians.

    Ms Mahmood told the Lords Constitution Committee: "Interestingly, if you talk to colleagues across Europe, there is a view that Britain is maybe more at the maximalist end of the spectrum when it comes to interpreting how we might comply with our international obligations.

    "I think it's perfectly fine for us to question whether we have drawn the line in the right place, and the work that the Home Secretary is doing has both, you know, fresh guidance, secondary legislation or primary legislation all on the table as potential options.

    "But as I say, the Home Office have done their immigration White Paper, where this work was a part of that, and they will be seeing more, a little later in the autumn, about progress on that front."

    She said the Home Secretary had potential options "all on the table" for reforming the ECHR within domestic law, though they fell short of leaving the convention. She said the proposals over Article 8, the right to private and family life, will be brought forward later in the autumn and "may expand" beyond that.

    Former Labour home secretaries Lord Blunkett and Jack Straw have called for the Government to consider suspending the ECHR or decoupling UK human rights laws from it, in order to enable ministers to deport more illegal migrants.

    However, Ms Mahmood said that withdrawing from the ECHR would put Britain in a "club" with two other countries – Russia and Belarus. She said she believed the Government could hold the line on defending human rights in the face of many political pressures.

    She said ministers are "believers in what the convention is trying to achieve" and "if people who support this instrument and want it to work can't have this debate in a sensible way, then I mean honestly there's no hope really at all, for anybody."

    Ms Mahmood said the Government was "not wanting to play, as you might say, populist politics with it". On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer told MPs that it would be a "profound mistake" to withdraw from the ECHR.

    Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had committed to quitting the ECHR, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to use her party conference next month to set out how a Conservative Government could take the UK out of the convention.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/04/britain-extreme-interpretation-echr-justice-secretary

  108. Scrap Islamophobia definition because of free speech risks, Starmer told

    'Spongy or inaccurate' terms could lead to failure to protect people and 'overzealous' enforcement, says terror laws adviser

    Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor

    4th September 2025 6:01pm BST

    Sir Keir Starmer should not introduce an official definition of Islamophobia because of the risks to free speech, the Government's top adviser on terror laws has said.

    Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said he was against an official definition of Islamophobia because it was "directed" at a religion rather than protecting people from anti-Muslim hatred. He warned that any "spongy or inaccurate" definition would threaten freedom of speech in face of a likely "overzealous" enforcement of it by police and other authorities.

    His intervention is the biggest challenge yet to the plans for a definition, which are being led by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, in her role as the Cabinet minister responsible for communities and social cohesion. She has set up a working group, chaired by Dominic Grieve, the former Tory attorney general, to draw up a non-statutory definition of Islamophobia that could become a template for the workplace policies of universities, governmental and other public sector bodies.

    It is designed to counter a surge in anti-Muslim abuse, but there are fears that it could stifle legitimate criticism of Islam as a religion and act as a de facto blasphemy law. Asked about it at a meeting of the Counter Extremism Group, Mr Hall said: "I am against an Islamophobia definition because it's directed at a thing, at religion, rather than an anti-Muslim hatred law, which is about protecting people.

    "I am very conscious about the free speech debate. I'm not JD Vance [the US vice-president], and I have a fundamental support for the outline of the Online Safety Act… So I'm not an absolutist. But if you see what has happened with a comedian arrested at Heathrow for tweets, there appears to be a sort of degree of zealousness among some parts of law enforcement.

    "And I suppose at the moment I wouldn't want to trust something too spongy or inaccurate when it comes to [free] speech and expression with the authorities."

    Mr Hall, a leading barrister, has been the independent reviewer on terrorism laws since 2019, and his role has since been expanded to advise the Government on legislation to protect the UK against state threats including Russia, Iran and North Korea.

    He has been called on by ministers to advise on proscribing the Iranian's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, tackling extremism in prisons and legislative measures to combat the threat from loners intent on extreme violence, such as Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer.

    His comments will intensify criticism of the Government's plans, which have already proved controversial. Last month, The Telegraph revealed that more than 30 peers had written to the working group responsible for the new definition to warn that the proposals risked a "chilling effect" on free speech.

    Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell Mama, a body set up to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, said: "The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation is absolutely right to oppose the government's plans to introduce an official definition of Islamophobia.

    "Former counter-terror police chiefs have warned for years a broad definition could be used by those being investigated by police and the security services to legally challenge those investigations and undermine counter-terrorism powers. "By pursuing this, the Government is putting narrow electoral interests ahead of our national security."

    Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said it was a "significant intervention" that should "act as a wake-up call" for the Government.

    He added: "We already have robust laws against discrimination. As Jonathan Hall says, the proposed Islamophobia definition will censor legitimate criticism of Islam at a time when free speech in this country is already under threat."

    Lord Walney, a former government adviser on political violence, said Mr Hall was right to "raise the alarm".

    "Defining the problem as Islamophobia implicitly protects a religion not a group of people – it risks heightening the climate of fear that has prevented institutions from tackling difficult issues like grooming gangs for fear of being wrongly labelled as bigots," he added.

    "Labour should focus on effective measures to tackle the very real problem of anti-Muslim hatred rather than stifling debate with a politically toxic definition of Islamophobia."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/04/scrap-islamophobia-definition-free-speech-risk-starmer

    Definition of Islamophobia

    All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims

    "Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness."

    Contemporary examples of Islamophobia in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in encounters between religions and non-religions in the public sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

    • Calling for, aiding, instigating or justifying the killing or harming of Muslims in the name of a racist/fascist ideology, or an extremist view of religion.
    • Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Muslims as such, or Muslims as a collective group, such as, especially but not exclusively, conspiracies about Muslim entryism in politics, government or other societal institutions; the myth of Muslim identity having a unique propensity for terrorism, and claims of a demographic 'threat' posed by Muslims or of a 'Muslim takeover'.
    • Accusing Muslims as a group of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Muslim person or group of Muslim individuals, or even for acts committed by non-Muslims.
    • Accusing Muslims as a group, or Muslim majority states, of inventing or exaggerating Islamophobia, ethnic cleansing or genocide perpetrated against Muslims.
    • Accusing Muslim citizens of being more loyal to the 'Ummah' (the transnational Muslim community) or to their countries of origin, or to the alleged priorities of Muslims worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
    • Denying Muslim populations the right to self-determination e.g. by claiming that the existence of an independent Palestine or Kashmir is a terrorist endeavour.
    • Applying double standards by requiring of Muslims behaviours that are not expected or demanded of any other groups in society, e.g. loyalty tests.
    • Using the symbols and images associated with classic Islamophobia (e.g. Muhammed being a paedophile, claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule) to characterise Muslims as being 'sex groomers', inherently violent or incapable of living harmoniously in plural societies.
    • Holding Muslims collectively responsible for the actions of any Muslim majority state, whether secular or constitutionally Islamic.

  109. Goodnight, all. I'm off racing tomorrow, although my horse wasn't declared, just entered. I'll be meeting up with friends anyway.

  110. Birth of England and legacy of its forgotten king 'should be celebrated'

    Two years shy of the nation's 1,100th birthday campaigners say more should be done to commemorate its little-known founder, King Aethelstan, crowned on the 4th September 925AD

    Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
    2nd September 2025 6:06am BST

    The birth of England should be celebrated and taught in schools, historians have said ahead of the 1,100th anniversary.

    England was unified under King Aethelstan in 927AD, yet few people have heard of the monarch, with most curricula opting to introduce English history from the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066.

    Now historians are calling for the forgotten king to be remembered and have formed a working group with Alex Burghart MP for a memorial to Aethelstan, and celebrations to mark the centenary of the foundation of England in 2027.

    Professor David Woodman, a specialist in medieval history at the University of Cambridge and biographer of Aethelstan, said: "I first came across Aethelstan as an undergraduate and was amazed that I didn't know about him; there was nothing about him in the UK's schooling system.

    "I think poor old Aethelstan has suffered because he didn't have a biographer so we wanted to raise his profile and the period of England's birth. There has been so much focus on 1066, the moment when England was conquered. It's about time we thought about its formation, and the person who brought it together in the first place."

    Aethelstan was the grandson of Alfred the Great and son to Edward the Elder, both of whom had made inroads into uniting England, but the Danish king Sihtric still ruled the Viking Kingdom of York. Within three years of coming to the throne Aethelstan had conquered Sihtric's kingdom, and taken the title Rex Anglorum – King of the English – creating the first centralised government.

    He reversed the decline in the church and learning, and summoned the Welsh and Scottish kings to take part in grand assemblies before crushing a major Viking uprising in 937AD at the Battle of Brunanburh.

    Previously, historians have tended to dismiss Aethelstan's status as England's first king, because the kingdom fragmented again soon after his death in 939AD, but today's experts believe he should have more acclaim.

    While the Domesday Book and Magna Carta are largely credited with laying the foundations of democracy, law and governance, the seeds were sown with Aethelstan, according to campaigners.

    "Just because things broke down after Aethelstan's death doesn't mean that he didn't create England in the first place," added Professor Woodman.

    "He was so ahead of his time in his political thinking, and his actions in bringing together the English kingdom were so hard-won, that it would have been more surprising if the kingdom had stayed together," he added. We need to recognise that his legacy, his ways of governing and legislating, continued to shape kingship for generations afterwards."

    Aethelstan was crowned on September 4, 925AD in the market square of Kingston upon Thames and the town has been commemorating this year with a series of events that culminate this week with a memorial service and address by historian Tom Holland.

    But campaigners, including Holland and TV historian Michael Wood, want a longer-lasting memorial for the king, such as a statue or portrait in Westminster or Malmesbury where he was buried. They are also calling for the history of Aethelstan's reign and the birth of England to appear more routinely on the school curriculum.

    Mr Burghart, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: "The mission is to make sure people appreciate just how England is and how significant 927AD was in history. The birth of England deserves to be remembered and given that England is just about the oldest kingdom to maintain its borders, 927AD is a significant date in European and world history.

    "This is an opportunity to celebrate England in a very positive way and perhaps remind ourselves of England's past."
    _____________________________________________________________

    David Woodman's 'The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom' is available from September 2.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/02/england-birth-should-be-celebrated-king-aethelstan

    1. Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg should get a mention.

      Thanks to Bernard Cornwell. A brilliant series of books and videos. I know it wasn't all factual, but lots bits were.

  112. President Putin has now described the EU as not so much an economic bloc but more a military bloc. Under this definition Putin will prohibit Ukraine from becoming an EU member state. Previously the Russians had no objection to Ukraine joining the EU when it was perceived as an economic organisation.

    It seems the efforts at threatening Russia and warmongering by Starmer, Macron, Van der Leyen and Mad Merx have had the effect of blowing yet another large hole in western credibility.

    We desperately need to be shot of Starmer and his incompetent government in the UK. The French and Germans need to follow suit and be rid of their current leaders Micron and Mad Merx. As for Ursula von der Leyen she should just vanish into oblivion and take the ill-gotten Covid Pharma money with her.

  114. Leccy off here a few hours whilst smart (lol) meter fitted. Saw a few msgs on my mble which I can no longer see…apols to anyone I didn't reply to. Kate x

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