Thursday 18 September: Britain’s immigration policy will fail unless it addresses the pull factors

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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511 thoughts on “Thursday 18 September: Britain’s immigration policy will fail unless it addresses the pull factors”

  3. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. I managed Wordle today in just 3 – a Birdie!

    Wordle 1,552 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  6. EU tells Starmer: Accept young workers or forget trade deal

    Britain must concede to demands on youth mobility to progress with food safety agreement, Brussels insists
    *
    *
    Paul Smith
    9 hrs ago
    Good! Just say “non!”

    A fantastic excuse to rip up a crappy deal negotiated by our Wallace and Gromit plasticine PM.

    Then get the Royal Navy to escort all those French and EU trawlers out of British waters and let’s catch and exploit our own fisheries.

  7. Good morning all.
    A much better start to the day than yesterday, 15°C, dry, with scattered cloud tinged red from the rising sun with very little wind and the sun started illuminating the top of the other side of the valley shortly afterwards.
    Unfortunately the cloud has thickened to a dull overcast.

    2. Hang in there, Mr. Redwood.
      You have always been 'overlooked' because you are capable of independent thought.
      (And no good at miming the Welsh national anthem.)

      1. He should have been applauded rather than ridiculed for not knowing any Welsh. It is a shame that he tried to pretend to be singing in Welsh – he should have openly sung: " Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb."

        It is to his credit that the poet Dylan Thomas did Llareggub as far as speaking his native tongue was concerned – he did not go gentle into the classroom to learn Welsh – he had to be dragged there burning and raving and never truly mastered the language.

        1. I sing the welsh national anthem and the Breton one too. The same tune but completely different lyrics – same national pride.

          Welsh first verse:
          Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,
          Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri;
          Ei gwrol ryfelwyr, gwladgarwyr tra mâd,
          Tros ryddid gollasant eu gwaed.

          Breton first verse:
          Ni, Breizhiz a galon, karomp hon gwir Vro!
          Brudet eo an Arvor dre ar bed tro-do
          Dispont kreiz ar brezel, hon tadoù ken mad
          A skuilhas eviti o gwad

  14. Bjorn Borg has cancer. He and I are the same age, and I owe him a debt of gratitude as a teenager.

    Until I was 17, all the girls wanted was "tall, dark and handsome", so I was ritually placed in the friend zone for being fair. Then this blond hearthrob turned up at Wimbledon who looked like me, and at last I stood a chance attracting the girls.

    If he dies soon, then as a nun who tried to run down my father once with her driving once said, he'd be going to a better place. I am getting so despondent about where the world is going, I might well be tempted to join him. Three-score-and-ten holds little appeal to me.

    1. What kind of cancer has Borg? It's not necessarily immediately terminal.

      You're a long time dead Jeremy – enjoy life while you can. Go for a walk; listen to the birds or listen to some music. Be thankful you still can.

    2. Four score and still going, don't give up, I'm discovering more and more people too dislike, and moan about on a daily basis. It's being so miserable that cheers me up!!!

      2. It’s the Diana Trent spirit that keeps the spirits up of those of a certain age, and I must confess a little enjoyment of making a fool of the automatic customer services system, relying on AI algorithms incapable of answering anything that is not in the programming. It is about time they had a bit of their own medicine, not that they feel anything.

        There is a bit of the noble savage about it though, as if being human rather than machine is somehow more virtuous. There are still plenty of stupid people about, just as there are stupid machines. Some of these are called lawyers, and will only answer questions I could answer myself, but refuse to answer those to which I have no answer and need professional help.

        One thing that is increasing with age is the realisation that my life really doesn’t matter, and nobody would barely know when I am gone, just as in the Sara Teasdale poem.

        1. There's a surprising number of people who will be dismayed by your absence, Jeremy – me, for one. Your involvement and contribution, even in the background, contributes to making the NoTTL site the only chat site I frequent… good humour, much life experience from around the world, knowledge, experience – that's why I'm back pretty well every day. Your absence would be a huge blow.

    3. You sound like our dear and much missed Tom/Sir Jasper/No to Nanny on one of his gloomy days.

      This world nys but a thurghfare ful of wo,
      And we been pilgrymes, passynge to and fro.
      Deeth is an ende of every worldly soore."

      is how Chaucer put it in The Knight's Tale

      or as an American I met while sailing around the Caribbean put it:

      "Life's bitch and then you die."

    4. Don't check out too soon, Jeremy. You'd be missed by lots of us on Disqus who enjoy your posts here on NoTTL. Life is better with you in it!

    1. Greenmantle, Annie? You are really John Buchan and I claim my £5 postal order. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. Godmorgen, Olaf's Relict.
        I have no idea why the pub has that name.
        It is an old building, so which came first? Did John Buchan frequent it as a student?

      2. Good morning, Elsie.

        How many films have been made of The Thirty Nine Steps?

        John Buchan did write some other books about Richard Hannay's adventures:

        Greenmantle (1916)
        Mr Standfast (1919)
        The Three Hostages (1924)*
        The Island of Sheep (1936).

        I read them all when I was at prep school.

        * (They were rather silly sausages to have allowed themselves to be taken hostage!)

        1. From memory, Richard, the original film was in B&W directed by Alfred Hitchcock with Robert Donat as Hannay and John Laurie as the strict Presbyterbian crofter. Then in the 1950s it was remade with Kenneth Moore as Hannay, and towards the end of the last century it was filmed again with Robert Powell as Hannay. Ii believe that a TV version was made with one of the actors who starred in TV’s spy story series (gosh, I just can’t remember the name of the series – was it called MI5?) as Hannay (the actor’s name was Rupert something-or-other – Penhaligon or something similar?). As I say, this is purely from memory, which is not as sharp as it used to be – I used to be able to reel off the names of all the actors, actresses, directors and release dates for films at the drop of a hat.

          PS – I liked your “silly sausages” joke. And I think John Buchan at a later date was made His Majesty’s Governor General of Canada before they declared independence and started to elect their own rulers, i.e. Prime Ministers.

        2. Well, Richard, I wrote a long post in answer to your question and then – after posting it – it has somehow disappeared. To summarise: it was filmed in B&W by Alfred Hitchcock with Robert Donat as Hannay. Then in the 1950s, Kenneth Moore played Hannay, followed by Robert Powell in the 1980s or 1990s. Much later, one of the stars of the TV series Spooks, Rupert P. (Penrose?) played Hannay in a TV version. All of this from memory, which is not as sharp as it used to be. I also posted that I liked your "Silly Sausages" joke. Let's hope this post doesn't disappear.

      1. :-). Written by the quiz master (or rather mistress – a Kiwi with an impenetrable accent). She could be a trainee doctor.
        We suggested the A Team, but the non-Allan element objected; so something long and unmemorable was suggested.

        2. When I embarked on a long winning streak at The Pigs in Edgefield, Norfolk (before the locals contrived to defeat me by foul means) I called our team — just the two of us — ‘Team Sweden’.

  16. Good Morning!

    Today in Has The Fuse Been Lit? JB Shurk looks at former Department of War Studies head Michael Rainsborough's writings on UK's descent to civil war. Rainsborough was dismissed from his post for “thought crimes” after illustrating “the hollowing out of British democratic institutions” and the dangerous rule of an elitist, permanent and authoritarian governing class. Shurk says that the situation is similar in all western countries, but offers a glimmer of hope – in a Nepal moment.

    Nothing can divert our minds from the grim reality of the Starmbot's UK like the arrive of intergalactic aliens from an infinitely superior civilisation. And today we have an inside account of the second visit of Lord Farscrape and his mission to harvest earth's valuable carbon dioxide. Lord Farscrape's Back! is a well-crafted, well-written and slyly witty piece, ideal for a welcome break.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's average power requirement was 30.7 GW, sourced from Gas, 12.8%; Solar, 3%: Wind 51.1%; Imports, 14.6%; Biomass, 7.2%; Nuclear 8.2% and Miscellaneous, 3.3%.

  17. 413031+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Britain’s immigration policy will fail unless it addresses the pull factors

    Truth be faced it has been in the state of failure since
    the criminally treacherous "miranda" lifted the entry latch and laid the path for france to rid itself of any foreign reptiles foisted on it via brussels, and get financial rewards for doing so, FROM THE BRITISH.

    The English are currently fighting on two fronts, with its own odious governing body and, the french.

    I believe when the civil unrest openly breaks out on the pavement of England, and judging by the show of patriots in London on the 13th, we may break even but, unless the daily invasion fleet is stopped we will face a very bitter future.

      1. I’ve never heard of him but i bet he has a nice life (and an interest in a building company).

  19. Good morning, all. Overcast with a light breeze.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d3380f1f651b4a40a59f2474ca39944b645b561e2e89b90c504630be8963b07.png

    The government is failing at the macro-protection level of its primary duty by allowing open borders, especially the Channel invasion. That failure drip-feeds down to the micro level with this example: the reaction of the authorities is unbelievable, especially when one considers Southport.

    Amazing that a few comments actually attack Adam Brooks.

    https://x.com/EssexPR/status/1968378702762492059

    1. An Egyptian asylum seeker put up in the Hilton Hotel who was jailed for raping a woman in London's Hyde Park is a convicted Islamic terrorist..

      You'd think you couldn't make up these stories.. but in clown world any thing ludicrous is possible.

    2. An Egyptian asylum seeker put up in the Hilton Hotel who was jailed for raping a woman in London's Hyde Park is a convicted Islamic terrorist..

      You'd think you couldn't make up these stories.. but in clown world any thing ludicrous is possible.

    3. Reform is tainted by Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf. Adam Brooks should put his support behind the Advance UK Party.

      1. Farage simply isn't offering anything new. So much needs to be unravelled and undone if it all were done, rationally, logically without obstruction that work alone would take a decade. To see the benefits maybe 15 years. It's been forced for over 30, after all.

      1. What?!?! They charged you thirteen shillings and a ha'penny to have your head chopped off for the theft of goods? Lol.

  21. An aggressive form of prostate cancer, diagnosed two years ago.

    I suspect oesophagus for me, since I have a dull pain there, which is debilitating, coughing up phlegm every morning, acid reflux after eating anything carbohydrate, have difficulty swallowing sometimes and feeling generally yuck. It won’t get diagnosed here though, because we have our NHS dependent on AI, which doesn’t even consider me human, and while my call is important to them, any tests they deem appropriate (such as on a mouth lesion I’ve had for years) are strictly limited to what their algorithms are programmed to understand. I am just part of “The British Brand”.

    I did enquire about a test on trial involving swallowing a bit of sponge on a stick, but this is not available in the region where I live.

    1. Ah.. misread post.

      Have you thought about..
      A do it yourself.. PSA test is a blood test to measure prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by the prostate gland, used for screening and monitoring prostate cancer, and for diagnosing other prostate conditions.

      Cheap as chips. £16.

      2. It’s Borg who’s got the prostrate cancer, same as the King. Mine is the usual problem with old boy waterworks. They gave me tablets, but they actually made it worse, so I’ve given up on them.

      3. I must admit I did not enjoy the examination I had about ten years ago when the doctor investigated my prostate which turned out to be enlarged. However, it is benign and I have a PSA test each year which seems to confirm its benignity.

        1. A friend of mine had BPH (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia) and, after tests, was issued with some pills which he takes daily and which enable him to visit the loo and "pass water" as if he were a young man in his early 20s without any need to strain.

    2. Ah.. misread post.

      Have you thought about..
      A do it yourself.. PSA test is a blood test to measure prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by the prostate gland, used for screening and monitoring prostate cancer, and for diagnosing other prostate conditions.

      Cheap as chips. £16.

    3. You should get it checked out. Make an appointment. You will get seen eventually. We have no complaints about our gp service here and we’re not so far from Malvern.

  22. 413031+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Britain must have a united Opposition
    As the current Government appears set to do further damage to the economy, the Right cannot afford to be divided

    The right these thirty plus years past have been wrong via the polling stations, constructing our present odious stance as a nation.

    The future opposition needed will not be, in my book, from the reform party which is morphing into the
    tory (INO)party, but from external parliament sources.

    Build on a decent honest base that has proved itself over the centuries, as in

    The Farmers Food and Freedom Party.

  23. Dontcha just love the staged faux protest from the Islamic Human Rights lawyer.

    Now the Home Secretary blasts lefty lawyers on Day 2 of Starmer's delicious human rights humiliation! Shabana Mahmood says migrants are 'making a mockery of our laws'

      1. 'Lights on, no-one's home' Kaypea. (h/t Robert Palmer). Will politicians/government start listening…doubt it…

      1. It doesn't get anywhere near 'trust'.

        Just as she's an avowed and devout slammer, so I am certain that she is lying at every turn.

  24. Dontcha just love the staged faux protest from the Islamic Human Rights lawyer.

    Now the Home Secretary blasts lefty lawyers on Day 2 of Starmer's delicious human rights humiliation! Shabana Mahmood says migrants are 'making a mockery of our laws'

    2. This is the depravity for which Islam has the solution. It’s only weird that the degenerates don’t understand that.

    1. Susan Hall, for one, stands up to him – she's the one should have been elected, but Khan had numbers on his side. He's now proposing closing a number of police front desks. Many people no longer have a landline – let's hope signals/online holds up if you need to report a burglary, what's the betting 'crime numbers' go down (because they've not been/can't be reported).

    2. I last went to London for a demo in 2019. I doubt if I'll go there again though Saturday 's rally was glorious.
      At least this part of the country is still ours.

          2. The marches I went on between 2012 and 2019 were for animal rights – against trophy hunting etc. The March for Cecil in 2014 was a very memorable one – there were quite a few over those years. All well supported, noisy and good humoured. I haven’t been on any others since the March against trophy hunting in 2019. Lots of pics on my Fb page if you do a bit of archaeology.
            https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213882763935645&set=pb.1604910378.-2207520000&type=3

    3. Does it start with the dindu screeching? I imagine it would.

      Someone will edit the video to replace all the dogwaffle with someone being stabbed, theft, shop lifting and rape by the diversity.

    4. From Khans reaction to last Saturday. I think he was reminded that this is an English country, not a multicultural no mans land. To see the native population in London shocked him and reminded him that we are the real natives of this land regardless of his propaganda. And, I think it frightened him to see that we might have woken up. And I say 'might have' because actions count and if we fail to act we will sink back into the same malaise that we have been suffering for to long in which he had the audacity to say a white English family was not representative of our own capital and receive almost no backlash.

    1. Socialism eh, Belle. Even the Russians, the home of communism i.e. socialism, have turned away from that – why Putin will stay in power. And it's why Starmer will be defeated, no wonder Reeves sobbing.

      1. Yet despite the continued, repeated evidencing of the failure of Leftist policies, statists continue to force them. Why? Do they want to destroy the economy and country?

  28. Phew!
    That got a bit bloody wet!
    After the dry start this morning, we has a passing shower, then the rain paused.
    So, having noted that the rear guttering was overflowing, I went up to get the short ladder that hangs on the back of the larger shed, taking another concrete block up in passing, gathered a standard bucket with handle plus a medium sized builder's bucket and proceeded to clear the guttering.
    And it started a heavy drizzle shortly after I began.
    At least I got the job finished with the builder's bucket now half full of a rather decent looking mossy compost.
    I need a long handled rake to clear the moss off the back of the roof.

      1. We have had two nocturnal visits from wild boar this week and they have made a mess with our lawn.

    2. Good morning Bob ,

      How long have you lived in your present home ?

      Did you realise it would be such hard work putting things right , and stopping disasters like the forest sliding down onto your home , or your home being flooded ?

      I expect most of the Nottlers like me worry about you and feel exhausted just reading about the heavy tasks you set yourself !

      1. Where possible, whatever heavy tasks I do are done in small stages, often with a mug of tea between each stage.
        Though I will say that when I start mixing the mortar for laying the concrete blocks, it'll have to be done in a single stint, hence the need to get the blocks up ready.
        Looking at the rain radar map I'm not expecting to do a lot today.

        1. Yes, but your small stage is building 14 kilometres of wall using 5 ton blocks, two each side with a sally trail between them up to a height of 10 metres.

      1. A workman tried something similar with Ulrika Jonsson.
        It was reported he shouted out to her: "Come and sit on my face!"
        To which she replied allegedly: "Why? Is your dick too small?"

        2. Reminds me of a true story.

          At a local hospital’s nurses’ home in Chesterfield, back in the 1970s, there was an alleyway that was a haunt of flashers. Many young nurses had been horrified when encountering these pervs. It was not an easy job to keep observations there due to the topography, the saddoes could see any approaches and could disappear well before you got to them (oh, for a drone or two!).

          One day a more mature nurse was accosted by one as she walked down the alley. He opened his mac and said to her, “What do you think of this?”

          She simply sneered and said, “Well, it looks like a bit like a penis … only much smaller.”

  30. Who funds the STATE VISIT..

    Do Tax payers pick up the bill ?

    If people were asked to contribute £ for their presence at the banquet , many millionaires were there .. including Murdoch , how much should they have contributed?

    2. A lot of background business dealing is done in these things. International trade deals and so on. While expensive, they are productive – well, they would be if Starmer were not a cummy wet sock.

    3. We pick up the tab because it is state business. But bear in mind that in one discussion among many that will take place an agreement, business, political or other may well be made which will cause the cost to appear to be chump change. A state visit can well blossom into something historic in its importance and often has.

      1. Of course I don't know this, but I imagine that while many deals may benefit the nation, there will be as many, if not more, that benefit those sitting at the table. I believe Trump is someone who wishes the people of this country well.

    4. Here you go Belle is this worth a state dinner?
      "To coincide with the visit, Britain said U.S. companies had pledged 150 billion pounds ($204 billion) in investment in the U.K, including 90 billion pounds ($122 billion) from investment firm Blackstone in the next decade. Investment will also flow the other way, including almost $30 billion by pharmaceutical firm GSK in the U.S."

      Starmer and Trump signed the deal today

      https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-09-18/trump-and-starmer-sign-a-tech-deal-before-holding-private-talks-on-tariffs-and-war

  31. Good morning folks

    Here's an interesting urban battlefield development…..

    https://x.com/gazanotice/status/1962056494569893975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1962056494569893975%7Ctwgr%5Ec0b176b119e225fb5eecdb555554e77f56570876%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fexplosive-laden-robots-pour-gaza-city-more-devastating-air-strikes

    It was only as recently as 2024 that these suicide robots were observed operating and carry out destruction on the Gaza battlefield. Israeli ground troops have been subject of ambushes by well-armed Hamas militants who can swiftly emerge from Gaza's underground tunnel network. Sending robots to clear areas ahead of time is a tactic Israel's infantry increasingly relies on.

    Each of these robots is loaded with highly explosive materials, sometimes weighing up to seven tonnes.

    1. When I saw the carnage I thought this was normal rather than a ruin.

      Frankly, destroying a building to flush out snipers/tunnel bombers is good practice. Israel is simply fighting a good war – minimising their casualties, maximising those of their enemies.

        1. Always assuming that they were allowed to leave and not held back to become part of a propaganda coup by being blown up by Israelis.

          2. By Hamas & their folk. The problem is, Israel tends to respond predictably, with a shock & awe approach, so if you can get them to apply that to a school or kindergarten, you can get a real propaganda coup of the Israelis blowing up said school and kids in it.

    2. If you look down the threads of 'Gaza Notifications'.. you'll see post after post of bombing & killing of people of Gaza.

      A child and his mother were killed, and several others injured, after Israeli forces bombed a residential apartment on Eidiya Street, west of Gaza City.

      However, sifting through the history books you'll see city after city, country after country.. with exact same scenes when a dominant Muslim populace interface with a block of non-believers. This just so happens to be Israel.

      1. Any death is a tragedy, but we also know that muslim puts the innocent in the way of their soldiers. They don't care. Showing you won't attack when they're using human shields gives carte blanche to disarm your opponent.

    2. You're just up the road!

      If I went out at lunchtime for drinkies the Warqueen would never forgive me for not letting her come along.

          5. The apartment i was staying had comments about sharing an evening with Mr Niven. It was a large framed and signed photograph of him holding a cocktail, smiling.

  33. Did anyone else pick up on this article from yesterday?

    Former police chief ‘covered up grooming scandal to avoid racial tensions’
    Senior officer reported to National Crime Agency after allegedly blocking attempts to investigate children’s home

    Charles Hymas
    Home Affairs Editor

    A former senior police officer who allegedly covered up a grooming scandal has been reported to the National Crime Agency by Chris Philp.

    The shadow home secretary has asked the agency to investigate claims that a chief superintendent with West Yorkshire Police blocked attempts to look into grooming allegations at a children’s home in Bradford.

    The allegations were made by retired Det Ch Insp John Piekos, who claimed the police chief told him to stop investigating the grooming for fear of stirring up racial tensions in the community.

    Mr Philp said Mr Piekos was willing to provide a full statement to the NCA, attend an interview and give evidence under oath to support his claims about the cover-up.

    The shadow home secretary provided the NCA with the name of the former chief superintendent but did not make the details more widely available.

    In a letter to Graeme Biggar, director general of the NCA, Mr Philp said: “I believe that [redacted] reported behaviour in his capacity as a police chief superintendent amounts to the common law offence of Misconduct in Public Office.

    “Misconduct in Public Office concerns ‘serious wilful abuse or neglect of the power or responsibilities of the public office held’.

    “The detailed criteria are set out in published Crown Prosecution Service guidance on this offence and appear to be met here, based on the facts as recounted by John Piekos.

    “I urge you to reach out to John, interview him and fully investigate this matter.”

    ‘Children missing late at night’
    Mr Philp said Mr Piekos began investigating a children’s home in 2010, when he was working for a charity after having left the police.

    “He observed multiple incidents of children going missing late at night. John said these girls would often be gone for long periods of time,” he said.

    “As part of his investigation, one night he followed a car that collected a girl from the home and he then witnessed the young girl apparently being abused in the car. He believed the driver to be of Asian heritage.”

    A meeting was organised with police, social services and local children’s charities, chaired by the Bishop of Bradford, to consider the allegations and what action should be taken.

    Mr Piekos alleged that he was told by a senior social services officer following the meeting that “if he did not stop looking into the situation”, they would have him arrested.

    “John told me that he was shocked to be threatened in this way,” said Mr Philp.

    While driving back to his office in Manchester, Mr Piekos was also called by the former chief superintendent, warning him off investigating further.

    ‘This is about protecting little girls’
    “[Redacted] went on to say all this work was being put in jeopardy because the far-Right would use this to start rioting and fomenting hatred between the various community groups,” said Mr Philp.

    “It was clear to John that [redacted] was primarily concerned about community cohesion and racial tension, not the sexual abuse of young girls. John recounts that he then said to [redacted]: ‘This is not about race; this is about protecting little girls.’

    “John asked what he should do then and [redacted] replied, ‘Can’t you just go away?’

    “John says he replied: ‘Seriously… you just want me to go away?’ [Redacted] repeated that John did not know what he had strayed into, and the call ended shortly afterwards.”

    Mr Philp said it was clear the chief superintendent had no intention of investigating the crimes “as he was obliged to do”.

    “He was also seeking to actively influence or warn John Piekos away from looking into them himself, in John’s capacity working for the charity,” he said.

    “There is now evidence from across the country that those in authority (particularly in local councils and the police, but possibly also the CPS) covered up these rapes because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani heritage.

    “Covering up the rape of young girls for that reason is immoral, yet not a single person has ever been held to account for these cover-ups.”
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/17/former-police-chief-grooming-scandal-avoid-racial-tension/

    1. Yet those who get into these roles do so precisely because they will toe the line. They're specifically chosen because they say and do the 'accepted' thing. Are considered 'a safe pair of hands' by the blob.

      This wasn't an accident, or one person's mistake or choice. Protecting the pakistani muslim padophile rapists is an endemic, entrenched, intentional policy from the very top.

  34. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/18/assisted-suicide-campaigners-mitchell-and-webb-sketch/

    Art imitates life.

    I don't know where I stand on this issue. I've talked about this to the Warqueen (who, like Ursula Andress in 'She' will never die) but what if someone hasn't?

    I know a chap with a severely disabled son – a motorbike accident destroyed his brain. Regularly he reports the son falling out of his chair, banging his head and so on. From an outsiders view that sounds like a man trying to kill himself yet Dad keeps the lad going, in constant pain and indignity.

    My mother is also chronically ill. She has all sorts of problems and keeps going, but despite all the tablets has no life – I think she lays in bed all day except to get up to feed the cats – yes, she is a mad cat lady. I wouldn't see this bill as a way to kill her off. She plays no part in my life.

    1. Both probably require professional care to improve their quality of life. That’s expensive. For that reason, among others, the bill will certainly be misused.

      1. It is expensive, Sue…possibly why auxiliaries pick up the slack. Some are good people, some not so much. I've seen this myself, visiting my dad (dementia) in his care home.

    2. I also believe that we should be able to control our own destiny. We are all going the same way in the end and if life is Physically miserable, and you are mentally competent to know what you are doing, then you should have a way out.

      1. If you can do it yourself, then fine. The problem with assisted suicide is a) roping in someone else to do it for you and b) being encouraged to do so when it is inappropriate.
        I would not be definitely against it for people with a terminal illness who have reached the end of the road. But the bill in its current form is wide open to abuse.

          1. Michael Deacon on this topic.
            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/18/assisted-suicide-campaigners-mitchell-and-webb-sketch/?recomm_id=4f272cf1-8583-43b3-896e-9a4a335b0080
            Assisted suicide might not seem like the most fertile material for comedy. David Mitchell and Robert Webb, however, have made it the subject of the most blistering piece of satire I’ve seen in years. For their new sketch show on Channel 4, they’ve created a spoof advert for a chillingly dystopian company called “Deathlitas” – which specialises in euthanasia for the old and unwanted.

      2. Agreed, Kaypea. As long as it's your free will to take the way out, that it's guaranteed and painless and won't make your condition worse rather than ending it – and that's awfully easy to do! Even a bullet in the brain might go awry and wreck your brain but not kill you.

    3. "She plays no part in my life."
      That's a very sad little sentence, Wibblers. I'm sorry for that – it's quite depressing to just read, let alone experience.

    1. Threatening AV company.. the suppliers of stage & sound system.
      AV company must have a name of Westminster council official who threatened them?

  37. Went to market – very successful. Gus was asleep in the living room. Upon our return there was no sign of him anywhere. I searched every nook and cranny. We assumed he had slipped out when we opened the front door.

    Ten minutes later he was asleep where we had left him. He must have a secret refuge somewhere in the house. Cats, eh?

    1. My cat does the same thing and since he has feline epilepsy and is old I always think he has gone away to die. Then he reappears, in the usual spot he hangs around in, after making me plunge into gloomy thoughts about his welfare. Cats like to discipline us, keep us under control with their weird activities. I think they slip into another dimension just to vex us. I think they laugh at us from there because on reappearing they get a treat and an extra bit of fussing.

  38. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c10f3e6eb66f4802fa562accc1fbf6e2c1ea24c804c3ac98d4da330fbd90fab.jpg I received quite a surprise when I got up this morning. I went down into the kitchen as usual to feed Findus. In the gloomy light I noticed, on the floor beneath the sink, a small object that at first I thought was a dead leaf that had been brought inside on a shoe.

    On closer examination I was shocked to see that it was a young common (smooth) newt Lissotriton vulgaris that I presume had entered the house after hitching a ride from the garden on a shoe … or a cat!

    This tiny amphibian was only 2" in length from nose to tail tip. It wasn't quite dead but it appeared to be moribund. I placed it in the sink in a shallow draught of cold water and it stirred, but weakly. I then took it outside and left it on a rain-soaked railway sleeper. I've seen them in the garden on a few occasions — where they come from I know not since there is neither pond nor watercourse in the area.

    1. Notable lovers of newts, efts and other small amphibians are Gussie Fink-Nottle, and Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London.

  39. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c10f3e6eb66f4802fa562accc1fbf6e2c1ea24c804c3ac98d4da330fbd90fab.jpg I received quite a surprise when I got up this morning. I went down into the kitchen as usual to feed Findus. In the gloomy light I noticed, on the floor beneath the sink, a small object that at first I thought was a dead leaf that had been brought inside on a shoe.

    On closer examination I was shocked to see that it was a young common (smooth) newt Lissotriton vulgaris that I presume had entered the house after hitching a ride from the garden on a shoe … or a cat!

    This tiny amphibian was only 2" in length from nose to tail tip. It wasn't quite dead but it appeared to be moribund. I placed it in the sink in a shallow draught of cold water and it stirred, but weakly. I then took it outside and left it on a rain-soaked railway sleeper. I've seen them in the garden on a few occasions — where they come from I know not since there is neither pond nor watercourse in the area.

  40. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c10f3e6eb66f4802fa562accc1fbf6e2c1ea24c804c3ac98d4da330fbd90fab.jpg I received quite a surprise when I got up this morning. I went down into the kitchen as usual to feed Findus. In the gloomy light I noticed, on the floor beneath the sink, a small object that at first I thought was a dead leaf that had been brought inside on a shoe.

    On closer examination I was shocked to see that it was a young common (smooth) newt Lissotriton vulgaris that I presume had entered the house after hitching a ride from the garden on a shoe … or a cat!

    This tiny amphibian was only 2" in length from nose to tail tip. It wasn't quite dead but it appeared to be moribund. I placed it in the sink in a shallow draught of cold water and it stirred, but weakly. I then took it outside and left it on a rain-soaked railway sleeper. I've seen them in the garden on a few occasions — where they come from I know not since there is neither pond nor watercourse in the area.

    1. I think Boris might have made a better fist of Brexit had it not been taken over by the scamdemic. The whole country was locked at home and shut away for the best part of two years and business in particular suffered, as well as ordinary people, some of whom were taken in by the fearmongering.

          1. That was so odd, I think now very likely fake, odd no-one else caught it at Cabinet meeting except Hancock who had no symptoms but tested positive (on the kit his friend mass produced), to say nothing of the many hands he shook at the races. There was a video of BJ in hospital, on a ventilator, one of the nurses mother circulated it. It then disappeared, as did the nurses and the mother. I'm now convinced we were conned, for whatever reason (but likely financial gain).

          3. He definitely looked it, in a short space of time. I wonder if he perhaps volunteered to test the vaccine, my suspicious mind following my experience with it. I still tire very easily, been reminded today I used to take B12 and D3 supplements, going to renew that practice see how I go.

          4. There was no vaccine until later on. You definitely need to take the vitamins – I started to take vitD3 and C in 2020 and have done so each winter since then from October to March. I haven’t taken B12 but a deficiency can cause memory loss in the elderly.

          5. I definitely have memory loss, slightly improved lately but fear backtracking. Will take B12 and D3, see how I go. Thanks for support, appreciate it.

          7. He looked terrible on that Thursday clap evening before he went into hospital. I think he was genuinely ill. Whether he was at death’s door is another matter. I think it frightened him, and of course he was obese and not particularly healthy.

        1. He'd always been like that LIR, wasn't new. What he was, was a weak man – ideal for mass vaccine experiment.

      3. He caught something, Ndovu, witness the clanging of pans or whatever on the steps No.10. How odd Carrie didn't catch this super infectious virus. Correct to define it as 'scamdemic', really about mass inoculation grand scale experiment new type of vaccine.

        1. Oh yes. But that Thursday evening at the clap he looked terrible. He was ill but of course not at death’s door. But an overweight middle aged man – prime candidate.

          1. I was unaware that he had had a dose of the clap but it wouldn't surprise me if he had had.

      3. Reminds me of the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe in which Alan Bennett was playing the part of a vicar delivering his sermon.

        He was confronted aggressively by an employee of the railways when he tried to go the wrong way up a bridge over the railways lines designed for people coming the other way.

        "Where do you think you're going?" said the enraged railway worker.

        "At least that is the gist of what he said," said the vicar sotto voce as he decided to use the question as the theme for his sermon.

    3. Phone call this am from CP CO, noting I'd not renewed my membership, would I like to do it now. They must be trawling records, quite a while since I was a member. (answer: no thank you).

  43. A very common word but it took a lot of finding:
    Wordle 1,552 4/6

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

  44. Khan breaks ranks with Starmer to accuse Israel of genocide
    Labour Mayor of London’s intervention follows almost two years of party splits on the issue
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/18/sadiq-khan-keir-starmer-israel-gaza/

    BTL

    How many Jews call for the extermination of all Muslims?
    How many Muslims call for the extermination of all Jews?

    The answer to these two questions might give some indication of who are the advocates and eager would be practitioners of genocide and who are not.

    1. He's way above his job's values and political station I hope he pops across to Gaza and doesn't come back.

      1. He should not be assassinated but he should be tied to a post in a public place and pelted with rotten vegetables.

          1. Oi! You leave bacon rashers alone. I've just put a lovely piece of fatty Danish pork-back in the fridge to cure.

            I placed the pork with some salt, Prague powder #1, and a little golden syrup into a vacuum-sealed bag before popping it in the fridge inside a plastic box.

            In eight days' time I shall rinse it off, then dry it out in the fridge for two days, before slicing it up and sampling a fried rasher-or-two.

  45. Emma Brockes: Never heard of her before. I wonder which side she is on; Soft Left – Hard Right? Hard to tell.

    I quit the US and Britain seemed like a sanctuary from Trump’s Maga movement. Now I wonder, for how long
    Story by Emma Brockes •

    This time last year, I had just moved back to Britain from the US and was enjoying the almost universal envy of American friends. While they were looking down the barrel of a second Trump presidency with its guarantee of chaos and division, we had elected Keir Starmer by a landslide and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. I remember people congratulating me on the prescience of my move, which I absolutely took even though politics hadn’t been part of my decision (not least because, for most of 2024, I had assumed Trump would lose). Anyway, here we are a year later and who’s laughing now?

    I guess the answer to that is Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party, which has somehow managed to harness the anger, disappointment and shame felt by large numbers of people who voted for and were then let down by Brexit, and are now in search of another fire to light. To this extent, the roots of the rightwing march last weekend and the rise of Reform generally feel broadly of a piece with their US antecedents: a case, at least in part, of people clutching at anything that promises to rip up a system that has serially failed to reward them. What has felt shocking to many of us this year, however, is how quickly the political landscape seems to have changed in this country, and how a leader as frivolous as Farage could get anyone to follow him anywhere, let alone in the direction of No 10.

    And by frivolous, I don’t mean in the Trump/Boris Johnson style. You can despise those men while recognising their talent as mass communicators. Farage by contrast is a jackass, a grinning fool roundly mocked to his face by Democrats in Congress earlier this month when he showed up, at the invitation of Republicans, to give evidence before a House judiciary committee on free speech. (Smirking in a way that seemed to poke fun at lingering American assumptions that a British accent makes you cleverer, Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Maryland, prefaced his remarks to Farage with a sardonic hat tip to the MP’s “erudition”.)

    Farage didn’t organise the ‘unite the kingdom’ rally on Saturday, of course; that was Tommy Robinson, the former BNP member with convictions for violence, drug possession and fraud – facts that, British broadcasters were at pains to point out on Monday morning, shouldn’t tar all those who showed up at his march with the same brush. Americans will recognise this as a pivot-point: a parallel moment to that period of Trump’s rise in popularity during which his supporters were given endless sympathetic profiles in the US national press, and invited to explain why following a man who said monstrous things didn’t make them in the least bit venal or monstrous.

    Meanwhile, the whiplash speed of Reform and Robinson’s rise means that the country Trump is visiting this week is seemingly very different to the one he went into business with in January. There may be a moment when the US president pauses to admire his own work, and he will surely be gratified to see British white nationalists gaining ground. But he is also a man who abhors and is quick to distance himself from “losers” – a category into which, arguably, his pal the prime minister currently falls, and who we can assume he will drop as quickly as he embraced him.

    For the rest of us, it is a question of waiting to see how much traction our own version of the Maga movement will have. There are crucial differences between the two countries that leave certain large constituencies who came out in the US for Trump without direct British equivalents. British white nationalism nods to the Christian church as an influence, but evangelical Christianity has no purchase in a country where, historically, foxhunting is a bigger wedge issue than abortion. And I can’t see JD Vance’s pronatalist leanings, rooted in his fanatical Catholicism, being much of a goer here, either. In fact – and this may be pure jingoism on my part – Vance strikes me as the type of American who even Britons on the far right might regard instinctively as a creepy little piece. On the other hand, if enough people are willing to pledge allegiance to a thug or an ambitious pub bore, these are differences that may hardly matter.

    Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

    4. Is there a cure that doesn’t involve drugs or violence? In theory it should be possible to drag her head out of her arse.

    5. clutching at anything that promises to rip up a system that has serially failed to reward them.

      Gotta love how the Lefties always, without fail.. summersault & invert the truth & the history.
      She tries to hide..
      a great system that gave the world Modernity, innovation and a high trust society.. that was expertly vandalised with great precision by Globalist Trot Tony Blair.. then Brown, Cameron & May.. corrupting every single institution.. that has serially failed to listen to them.

      1. Female education ….. h'm.
        Article written on computer …….. h'mm.
        Powered by electricity ……. h'mmm.
        While sitting at a desk in a warm, well-lit room ……. h'mmmm.
        Possibly after travelling by bus/train/taxi/bicycle ….. h'mmmmm.
        Dressed in clothing bought with money resulting from her career as a writer ….. h'mmmmmm.
        Not feeling hungry or thirsty …… h'mmmmmmm.
        I think we can say that the system hasn't serially failed to reward Emma babe.

    6. clutching at anything that promises to rip up a system that has serially failed to reward them.

      Gotta love how the Lefties always, without fail.. summersault & invert the truth & the history.
      She tries to hide..
      a great system that gave the world Modernity, innovation and a high trust society.. that was expertly vandalised with great precision by Globalist Trot Tony Blair.. then Brown, Cameron & May.. corrupting every single institution.. that has serially failed to listen to them.

    7. I know your'e joking but. Not hard to tell, she ticks off all the points that make it clear she is far left and as they are want to do, talking drivel with an admixture of lies and misrepresentation. The left really can't get along with the plain truth, it isn't in their nature because truth doesn't fit their warped ideology.

    11. Yeah from the Guardian. The articles are becoming more lengthy. Very turgid piece, impossible to get through. I used to enjoy the Guardian many years ago despite the Jill Tweedys and other daft writers
      This piece is of course unreadable. I wonder how much they pay her for this Not surprising that every article carries a literary begging bowl

      1. They used to put up some reasonable articles and the begging at the bottom of the page was easy to ignore – but now it is almost impossible to read anything.

    12. Yeah from the Guardian. The articles are becoming more lengthy. Very turgid piece, impossible to get through. I used to enjoy the Guardian many years ago despite the Jill Tweedys and other daft writers
      This piece is of course unreadable. I wonder how much they pay her for this Not surprising that every article carries a literary begging bowl

    17. No American pledges allegiance to anyone. So, Emma, read the pledge before writing about it. As you live in New York, there's really no excuse for getting it wrong.

      And most Americans agree with Vance – that's why he is popular and will probably be the next president.

  46. Morning all 🙂😊
    Had a terrible night last night. A new patient was admitted into the ward at 1:30 Am the usual BP tests every 3 hours.
    just seen the very nice doctors and I'm free to go home later today. I'm so pleased.
    Slayders peeps…..😶😆😄

      1. I won a little competition when I was a little girl .

        Kellogs Cornflakes ..

        My logo was East or West , Kellogs are best !

        My prize was a set of paints , a magic painting book , a badge and lots of little Kellogs packets of cereal .

        My mother approved of Cornflakes and nothing else so the little packets of flavoured cereals were binned .

  47. Anyone else spotted this hidden deep within the Terriblegraph?

    “The Southport murderer was discharged from mental health services just six days before the attack took place, an inquiry was told.…”

    2. No wonder Starmer wanted to hide this and accuse anyone who objected to the fanatical Muslim murderer as being far right thugs.

  48. First small boat migrant returned to France under 'one in, one out' deal

    They've searched and searched and searched and finally they've discovered a doctor to return.
    /sarc

  49. The Midults: Everyone is so angry we are planning a child-free wedding
    We understand that childcare can be complicated and expensive, but we don’t want little ones running around. Are we being unreasonable?
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/relationships/midults-child-free-wedding-everyone-angry/

    BTL

    We had children at our wedding and they all behaved themselves because our friends whom we invited bring up their children well.

    Weddings are symbolic of 'children to come' so the existing children are an important part of the celebration.

    Might I suggest that parents who are not bringing up their children to behave properly are not invited to the wedding?

    Remember that marriage was not only ordained for mutual comfort and the avoidance of fornication but also for the procreation of children.

      1. I was child free until the age of 47.

        But I would argue that the world sorely needs more children like mine and fewer of the sort of children who are destroying our culture and British civilised life.

        It is true that your children can bring you great sorrow – but this is outweighed by the far greater joy they can bring you.

        1. Horses for courses.

          My four (all younger) siblings had, respectively: 3, 2, 4 and 1 offspring (10 in total). Added to my zero makes an average of 2 each shared between the five of us.

          Job done. No net contribution to overpopulation here.

      2. It was an easy decision for me. Growing up with five older brothers and sisters. There was no way i was going to replicate that mad house.

      3. How old was your bride, rob232? Lol. (I have just added this Lol to show that my post was simply a joke.)

        1. In 1959 I went to my mother’s cousin’s wedding in Manchester. We lived in the US and the wedding was one the highlights of our trip I suppose. How old was the bride? I can’t imagine she was much more than 20 or 21.

          2. To repeat what I posted a short while ago, but which has now mysteriously disappeared: I asked how old was your bride, rob232, and not how old was the bride. Lol.

          4. I think you are being deliberately obtuse, my friend. But you’ve beaten me – I concede defeat.

      1. I was bridesmaid to two of my aunts. Second time, the dresses were yellow – as I was, recovering from jaundice. Photos all in b&w….

    4. Entirely up to the couple concerned whether children are invited. I can see both sides of that coin, as the biggest issue is probably that they have friends and/or relatives who have done a lousy job of bringing up their children, and they know said children will be allowed to run amok. No-one (hopefully) would want to have to deal with that at their wedding.

          2. I think they closed some in the less affluent areas and possibly sold what was left. This was Winchester.
            It was an absolute delight. Even the people in the street would smile at me while passing.
            There were some market type stalls so i bought some Greek Honey and a sheep.

          3. You bought a sheep in a branch of Côte, Phil? A simply dish of roast lamb with some vegetables would have done for me.

          5. Not at all, Annie. This year I have enjoyed a meal with friends at branches of Cote in both Oxford and Cambridge.

      2. From the DT
        an American citizen living in Slough, was confronted by an officer from Thames Valley Police after someone complained about an offensive Facebook post.

        The mother of two, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer, was told if she did not apologise for the online comments she could be interviewed at the police station.

        Thames Valley Police later dropped the case after the FSU instructed lawyers.

        She was never told what the offending post was and despite the FSU making a subject access request to Thames Valley Police, the force has been unable to provide further details. (“Unable”????)

        She was visited at home by a single officer in June and informed that Thames Valley Police had received a complaint about her.

        In video shared by the FSU, the officer said: “Something we believe you have written on Facebook has upset someone.”

        She then asked: “You’re here because someone got upset? Is it against the law? Am I being arrested?”

        The officer confirmed that she was not being arrested and explained: “My plan was that if it was you who wrote the comment, you could just make an apology to the person.”

        She replied: “I am not apologising to anybody, I can tell you that.”

        The officer told her: “The alternative would be that I would have to call you in for interview.”…

    2. I saw this earlier, not sure if she was a FSU member at the time, but she is now. Toby Young has come a long way since his footie supporter days, good for him – and everyone else.

    2. I voted for her, on the basis of the tv debate I saw. Regret that decision. Someone phoned me from CCO today asking if I'd renew my membership, I declined.

    1. It's full of dindus, so probably the best thing to do with it. Although, oddly there never seems to be a single flicker of CCTV when you need it such as in the event of robbery or assault but as soon as the state wants something from you, it has all the images it wants.

      This is where AI would circumvent the ideological humans and present only the data.

  53. Ignore Burnham, the person going after Starmer’s throne is Miliband
    The deputy leadership contest is a proxy fight, and the biggest potential winner is the Energy Secretary
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/18/ignore-burnham-the-person-going-after-starmer-ed-miliband/

    Is The Labour Party about to come up with an interestingly original strategy: to replace one failed leader, Starmer, with another failed leader, Miliband? If so then why isn't Corbyn also in the running?

    BTL

    Kent: Is this the promised End?

    Edgar: Or image of that horror?

    [Final Act: 'King Lear']

  54. This report says that the pilots of the doomed Air India flight realised too late that the flap deployment required for takeoff had been cancelled by the plane's overriding fly-by-wire software due to an uncalibrated actuator recovered from a different plane.

    The flight displays did not present the reality of the takeoff settings.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqDknZO28kc
    I've spent the last few days diagnosing why my boiler has been getting a signal to supply heat when both HW and CH actuator demand valves were closed.

    Looks like a stuck microswitch.

    2. The vid is a load of rubbish. Somehow the fuel to the engines was cut off, you're not going to get very far without thrust in a jet plane!

      2. I’ve only summarised what the video presented.
        The legal case against Boeing focuses on dual engine failure and the fuel switch locks. One report said the plane thought it hadn’t taken off and another said the plane’s electrical ciruits had a low voltage supply during takeoff.

        Perhaps they are all rubbish just to divert attention from the real cause.

  55. Who marches against Tommy Robinson?
    Rod Liddle

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Rod-Getty-2235004777.jpg
    20 September 2025

    Isn’t it time we banned such marches as the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, given the thuggery and lawlessness which ensued? A hate-fest organised by the fascist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Hitler. No fewer than 528 arrests, 50 of which were for possession of a weapon and 21 for crimes of a sexual nature. It would seem that this demonstration was undertaken by heavily tooled-up Nazi pervs. It is shocking that we should allow it on our streets.

    Oops, forgive me. I’ve got my facts wrong. I had all the arrest figures written down on a piece of paper. Then, when coming to write this article, I picked up the wrong piece of paper. Those arrest figures above are for the Notting Hill Carnival, a yearly expression of joyous diversity and of rich cultural significance not merely to black British Londoners but, in a very real sense, to all of us, which is why we are so anxious to attend.

    The number of arrests for the Unite the Kingdom rally was precisely 25, none of them – so far as I can ascertain – for crimes of a sexual nature. But then it did rain a little, which may have dampened the toxic libido of all those fascists. Also, according to most of the media, everyone on the march was male so you wouldn’t expect much in the way of sexual shenanigans unless they were homosexual fascists.

    Anyway, forget the figures for a moment. This march was purely about one thing – racism. How do I know that? Because Diane Abbott attended and said it was. In a lengthy column in the Guardian she wrote: ‘The kind of people who were marching usually take exception to being called racists. But it is hard to know what else to call those of them who gathered in the capital to demand mass deportation and insist that black and brown men are a unique threat to white women.’

    Now, OK, given that this is Diane Abbott we are talking about, it may well be that she turned up to the wrong march in the wrong city on the wrong day. But this is an issue that Diane knows a lot about, remember. It is rare for Diane to go much more than a day without accusing someone of racism. And she was present at the march as part of the 5,000-strong posse of Stand Up To Racism counter-protestors. Trades unions forked out for the cost of transport, so if you were a social justice warrior, or even if you were not, you could have a fun day out in London, shout at the fascists and then take in a show, all nicely subsidised.

    I heard lots of people from Stand Up To Racism being interviewed by the TV and radio journos, explaining why they were there. It is OK to interview them, because they are not fascists, you see. Stand Up To Racism is a branch of Unite Against Fascism (UAF), which was set up by and remains linked to the Socialist Workers party. The SWP wishes to overthrow the government of our country even by violent means, believing there is no parliamentary road to socialism. The SWP has in the past supported the IRA/Sinn Fein and of course Palestine Action.

    Let’s meet a few of the people who, besides Diane, have played a prominent role in Unite Against Fascism. There is Martin James Smith, for example, a former national secretary of the SWP before he was forced out of the party in 2013 having been accused of sexual assault (an accusation he denied). Or how about Azad Ali? Ol’ Azad is a star turn. He was elected as vice-chair(man) of UAF in 2012 and he believes the 2008 jihadist attacks upon Mumbai and the 2017 jihadist murders on Westminster Bridge were not terrorism. He has described al Qaeda as a ‘myth’ and written approvingly of Osama bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. He has threatened a journalist and delivered himself of his views on democracy: ‘Democracy, if it means at the expense of not implementing the sharia, of course no one agrees with that.’ He has also supported the killing of British soldiers overseas, quoting on his blog: ‘If I saw an American or British man wearing a soldier’s uniform inside Iraq, I would kill him because that is my obligation… I respect this as the main instruction in my religion for jihad.’

    It is hard to think of someone who could be more culturally, politically and religiously at odds with everything that the United Kingdom stands for, or stood for. Incidentally, UAF seems to be rather relaxed about Islamic fascism, having said that there is ‘no such thing’.

    Then there’s the former trade unionist Hugh Lanning, who was banned from Israel eight years ago on account of his alleged ties with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

    One could go on and on. And yet such is the naivety of the broadcast media that the groups linked to these characters are treated almost as if they are not political at all, simply a convocation of charming people who want us all to be kinder to each other and entirely neutral in the debate as to where our country goes. Try running that idea past Azad Ali.

    I was not on that rally on Saturday. I am no fan of Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley Pinochet-Bastard) and fear his presence makes it all too easy for politicians to dismiss the legitimate objections about freedom of speech and immigration from people who are simply concerned patriots. But given a choice between Robinson and Stand Up To Racism, I know what side I’m on.

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

    Spectator User
    10 hours ago
    The SWP, Stand Up To Racism, Unite Against Fascism, The Stop The War Coalition, Hope Not Hate and so on and on and on. They turn up everywhere, often at very short notice and always with placards professionally printed by the SWP. Where is the money coming from and where is the curiosity from ‘investigative journalists’ usually very keen to follow the money when it comes to the Right. They could start with the SWP; utterly opaque in its leadership and decision-making; 2000 – 4000 members but seemingly massively well-funded.

    GrimPol Spectator User
    7 hours ago
    We are funding it with various "charities" that the tax payer subs.
    Is there a comprehensive list of "charities" UK and Over seas that the tax payer funds, like Hope not Hate (placard providers) the Kids Company which was nearly wholly funded by the Tax payer, but nobody knew what it did but certainly spent the money. A dose of DOGE would horrify us I bet.

    Spectator User Spectator User
    10 hours ago
    A clue to funding may be found in the radical Left’s soft- pedalling on political Islam, despite the many obvious incompatibilities between the two faiths.

    Bloss Graham Ridley
    7 hours ago edited
    If you go on The Daily Sceptic there is an article by Charlotte Gill which analyses the funding they receive and points to them being almost one and the same, turning up all over the place but changing their placards.

    Prince of Fundy
    10 hours ago
    I continues to be amazed that charmers such as Azad Ali are tolerated, nay nurtured, by the British State (civil servant at the Treasury!) whose entire life appears to be undermining Democracy and any remaining vestiges of what remains of British Britain.

    1. I was not on that rally on Saturday. I am no fan of Tommy Robinson

      Course you weren't Rod.. like Farage, Lowe, and all of Reform.. afraid of being cancelled.
      However, no doubt when the tide turns and the wind blows in the opposite direction.. you'll come running over claiming you're one of them.. my people.. giz us your votes..
      One problemo, the tinternet has receipts.

  56. Just walked down to the post van & back. Shared a bit of gossip with Debbie who does the van on Thursdays. Calendar season has started again.

  57. I was on public transport again today as i’m poorly-bad and don’t feel like cycling 25 miles. Anyway, as I left Temple tube, a young man collecting for the Veterans Association caught my eye. I always try and support volunteers!collecting for good causes, especially if everyone else is ignoring them. He was good at his job; he talked me into making a very generous donation (IMHO) – of course subsequently I thought, they should get us to Gift Aid it, they’ll get even more.

    Even later i wondered if the Veterans Association had gone woke and if i would regret it. I’ve just looked on their website and they seem OK. Does anyone else have different intel? They appear sound and i want to help our “Veterans” to have a bed to sleep in and proper treatment for PTSD – all the stuff the illegals get for nothing, for zero contribution.

  58. Apart from everything else (family friend of 2Tier and Victoria Sponge, the other creepy people she is surrounded by, her self-promotional hollow husband, etc. etc.) she just doesn't look right. https://buzblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ChatGPT-Image-Jul-7-2025-09_49_17-AM.png

    Steerpike
    Tulip Siddiq under scrutiny over citizenship claims
    18 September 2025, 11:45am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2155344175.jpg

    Oh dear. Former government minister Tulip Siddiq has come under scrutiny over former claims she made about holding a Bangladesh national identity card. The Labour MP is on trial in abstentia in Bangladesh after being accused of influencing her aunt, the deposed authoritarian ruler Sheikh Hasina, to buy plots of land for her family. She has denied any wrongdoing – and last month, Siddiq denied further claims made by prosecutors that she has been issued with a national identity card and passport. However, as reported by the Times, files have emerged that appear to show the Labour MP was indeed issued with these documents. How very curious…

    Officials in Dhaka have come across passport records that seem to prove Siddiq was issued with one in London in 2001 – when the politician was 19 – and given a national identity card in 2011. Meanwhile entries in Bangladesh’s passport database appear to show Siddiq had applied to renew her Bangladeshi passport in 2011. Both records see her permanent addresss as listed as a house in Dhaka that her aunt owned. Electoral Commission database entries also seem to show she has a voter registration number.

    In April, Siddiq had an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over alleged corruption charges. In one of at least three investigations against the Hampstead and Highgate MP, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has accused Siddiq of putting pressure on her aunt to give plots of land in a Dhaka residential development to three of the parliamentarian’s family members. The MP has also been accused of helping Hasina siphon off large sums of money intended for eight infrastructure projects.

    In January, Siddiq was outed for owning a £700,000 London flat, given to her for free by a political ally of her aunt. A subsequent probe by Sir Laurie Magnus found Siddiq ‘misled’ the public over her flat and the politician was forced to resign from her government job in January after an official probe found her family’s links to the ousted Bangladeshi regime exposed the government to ‘reputational risks’. The warrant was issued by a judge in Dhaka after the ACC submitted a criminal charge sheet against the politician – who was formerly, um, Labour’s anti-corruption minister. The jokes write themselves…

    The ACC, which has been probing Siddiq and members of her family, has since said that she is being tried as a Bangladeshi citizen after her passport, national identity card and tax identity number were found. A spokesperson for her lawyers told the Financial Times last month that ‘Tulip has never had a Bangladesh national identity card or voter ID and has not held a passport since she was a child.’ When presented with the newly uncovered records, Siddiq’s spokesperson claimed they were ‘fabricated’ as part of a ‘politically motivated smear campaign’ by Bangladeshi authorities.

    The Labour MP’s spokesperson added:

    For nearly a year, the Bangladeshi authorities have pursued a politically motivated smear campaign against Ms Siddiq without producing a shred of credible evidence. They are now circulating fabricated documents in a desperate attempt to justify their so-called trial. Ms Siddiq has never held a Bangladeshi national identity card or voter ID, and has not held a passport since childhood. This is a deliberate and desperate attempt to undermine her credibility and reputation.

    Sir Laurie Magnus CBE, the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial standards, has already cleared Ms Siddiq of any wrongdoing following a thorough investigation. Now almost 12 months since these allegations were first made, Ms Siddiq is still yet to receive any communication from the Bangladeshi authorities. Ms Siddiq has been clear that she has done nothing wrong and will respond to any credible evidence that is presented directly to her or her legal team.

    The plot thickens…

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

    Jimbob
    3 hours ago
    Please could 2TK urgently express his full confidence in her?

    Blindsideflanker
    3 hours ago
    In January, Siddiq was outed for owning a £700,000 London flat, given to her for free by a political ally of her aunt.

    Of course nothing wrong with this, after all it is common for someone to give a £700k property to someone else out of the goodness of their heart , the more cynical of us though would see this as graft , the corrupt process of buying political favours, a common practice in corrupt third world countries.

    Dahlia Travers Blindsideflanker
    2 hours ago
    She is also said to be living in a house that is owned by an Awami league member. It is strange that someone would let out the flat they own and pay tax on the rent while simultaneously using their taxed income to pay rent (likely to be £40K -50K per annum) on a different property. As she is a London MP, I don’t think she can claim expenses for her home or have I missed something?

    Cunningham Lowe
    3 hours ago
    What with Rushanara Ali as well Labour seems to have a problem with women of Bangladeshi heritage. Rupa Huq too who had to be suspended over racist comments about Kwesi Kwarteng, I believe. Are there any others? What about the woman, whose name escapes me, who said everyone should shut up about the rape gangs to maintain 'community' cohesion. Was she of Bangladeshi heritage too?

    Blindsideflanker Cunningham Lowe
    3 hours ago
    Naz Shah , at one time she was the Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion

    Mr R M Bellamy Blindsideflanker
    3 hours ago
    Her mother was convicted of murder and she herself went to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.

  59. Ross Clark
    Why didn’t TfL publish the truth about LTNs?
    18 September 2025, 2:10pm

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-1569180917-1-e1758200908468.jpg

    Policymakers must, of course, stick to the evidence and base their decisions around proper, peer-reviewed research. Until, that is, the evidence starts to tell you what you don’t want to hear. The Mayor of London’s office appears to have been caught red-handed in refusing to publish a study it had itself commissioned into the behaviour of residents following the imposition of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs). The study, by the University of Westminster, found that the presence of an LTN resulted in more people cycling, but it did not decrease car use and had no discernible effect on walking. It reached this conclusion by quizzing more than 4,500 London residents, some of whom lived in LTNs and some who did not.

    Shouldn’t we be allowed to know this? It seems that City Hall would rather we didn’t. In spite of agreeing to pay £82,000 for the study, officials cancelled it before it had even concluded, declining to publish it on the grounds that it did not ‘offer sufficient new insights to justify further investment in continuing the survey’. They say they are ‘committed to supporting high-quality research that helps us understand how our policies and programmes are working’ and ‘remain confident that LTNs can reduce traffic levels in the area, making streets safer and enabling more walking and cycling’.

    Except this study clearly has provided a new insight. Until now, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has always made out that LTNs would make us less car-dependent. The evidence now suggests they haven’t. In fact, given that LTNs have increased the length of some car journeys, they may well have helped to increase the amount of traffic overall.

    What TfL really wanted was a study that reaffirmed Khan’s existing beliefs – provided confirmation of old insights, in other words. They must have thought that they had gone to the right place: the academic commissioned to undertake the study, Professor Rachel Aldred, director of Westminster University’s Active Travel Academy, has produced several previous studies whose findings City Hall did take a liking to. Her personal views on the subject are not in doubt: she has previously been a trustee for the London Cycling Campaign. But evidently she was not prepared to twist evidence in order to help justify the creation of LTNs – and quite rightly not.

    Why couldn’t TfL have published the research and said ‘it is good that LTNs are encouraging cycling. It is disappointing, nonetheless, that they do not appear to have persuaded motorists to leave their cars at home and walk – and we are going to be taking another look at these schemes to see what more we can do to cut congestion and pollution and make them work for everyone’?

    Instead, TfL have undermined the whole exercise by being selective in what evidence they see fit to present to the public. From now on, research pumped out by City Hall is going to have to have a big asterisk placed next to it with the warning: beware that studies published by the Mayor of London may have been subject to a policy of selective publication.

    I am not personally against LTNs – at least not when they are enforced by physical barriers rather than these wretched cameras which seem designed to catch people out in order to raise revenue through fines. If I lived in London, I would want to live plumb in the middle of an LTN – although I might take a different view of them if I found myself living on the edge of one, to where the traffic had been diverted. But LTNs are only going to work if they persuade people to make short journeys on foot rather than by car. By seemingly suppressing evidence that they are not currently doing this, TfL is undermining the whole case for them and quite possibly hastening their demise.

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

    Eddie B
    an hour ago
    If Khan worked on making the streets of London safe from knife attackers, e-scooter mounted thieves and mass protests, then perhaps more people might walk or cycle.

    1. Just checked and sure enough, Hammersmith and Fulham is supposed to be an LTN. Well I never. Wood Lane and Shepherds Bush Green frequently resemble a car park. Lots of cameras. Lots of bikes. No reduction in cars.

  60. Countries with the highest number of arrests for online comments in 2023:

    United Kingdom: 12,183

    Belarus: 6,205

    Germany: 3,500

    China: 1,500

    Turkey: 500

    Russia: 400

    Poland: 300

    Thailand: 258

    Brazil: 200

    Syria: 146

    India: 100

    Iran: 100

    France: 54

    USA: 50

    Vietnam: 45

    Egypt: 20

    Saudi Arabia: 15

    Azerbaijan: 13

    Hungary: 10

    1. Damned nearly as many as the rest of the world combined and that was pre two tier.
      Heaven knows what the current figures must be.

      Free speech?
      Ha bloody Ha.

    3. With the 1st Ammendment in the US I would be interested learn what that 50 got nicked for. The Brandenburg ruling made it a call for inciting immediate violence.

      1. That's pretty much it. There was a previous finding that the 1st did not support shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre. The Brandenburg case superseded that by requiring that the speech was intended to cause "Imminent lawless action".

    1. Forcing entry for… what?

      This is deeply, deeply disturbing. Plod have just become the stasi to enforce Leftist control freakery.

      1. They're on the wrong side of history when they're being that heavy-handed with someone who's never been in trouble (as she says and there is no obvious reason to disbelieve her) and is a mum of a disabled child.

    3. You only have the right to protest if it’s a Lefty cause, such as Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil or BLM or Pro-Hamas.

      Otherwise there is no right to protest

      1. Already a member. Although I think I aught to do a donation, it’s been a long while since I joined.

    1. Obviously a far right racist bigot. His daughters would be safer in the care of the local authority. Erm…

    2. The clash of civilisations. The Left and Liberals believe human beings are just interchangeable units. Culture and upbringing is nought to them.

  65. A useful day, despite the weather.
    After clearing the rear guttering, I peeled cored and chopped enough apples to fill my 26cm pan, stewed them and got them into sterilised jars.
    Then, waiting to the lunch, baked potato and fish fingers, made an Eve's Pudding with the surplus stewed apple.
    My 1st ever effort at making a sponge type mixture, which appears to have been successful, though next time I'll double up on the mixture.

    After lunch, as the weather had cleared, I shifted the blocks I hoiked up onto the wood pile yesterday taken to where they are going to be used.
    If the forecast for tomorrow's weather is accurate, I should get a mix of mortar done and the blocks laid.

  66. GD departed. Took her to King's Lynn where she discovered a situation to which she will be come increasingly used.

    15.42 to King's Cross = cancelled. We left her there – she has several books and her phone….

    Just checked – the next train – the 16.40 – is twenty minutes away from KL.

    2. is the Norwich – Liverpool Street service any better? Used to be proper expresses when we lived in Essex.

      1. No. First, it takes much longer to get to Narridge Station. Secondly, the journey time is much longer. KL to KX is 1 hr 45 mins. When it runs. Thirdly, there are frequent delays on the Norwich route.

        1. I have memories of heading out of Liverpool St many years ago behind a "Brittania" class steam loco. Always loved the sound and fury of steam – came from all that Harry Potter style journeys to/from school, I suppose.

    3. When we lived in Cambridge and I commuted to London Liverpool Street I felt sorry for the poor blighters who traveled from Kings Lynn. The service was a diesel engine with smelly seats with wooden legs. I would get the 6.15 am to be on site in Whitehall by 8.00 am.

      In summer the carriages were too hot whereas in winter they were freezing. When the line was electrified I was privileged to experience the “wrong type of snow” and it took me over 12 hours to get back to Cambridge. The problem was that a stranded train could no longer be shunted but recovered by a another train coupling on to to it.

      All services into London would have to wait until a platform became available in those days (40 years ago) and there was a section of line in north London where power had to be switched over which involved long waits.

      I reckon to have squandered a substantial part of a lifetime on commuting. Nowadays those who can get away with it work from home.

      1. Been there, done that.
        AND Cambridge station is well outside the centre, so one spent time cycling to get there too.
        I hated it.

  67. Wordle No. 1,552 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 19 Sep 2025

    Blade for Birdie Three?

    2. A struggle for a bogey

      Wordle 1,552 5/6

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

    3. Well done, I'm not as sharp as you. Par here.

      Wordle 1,552 4/6

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

    4. Occasionally I get lucky and make a right choice.

      Wordle 1,552 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Well done, cobbled together par here!

      Wordle 1,552 4/6

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

  68. The bitter Farage-Boris feud that means Reform will never unite with the Tories
    The pair’s political beliefs are oceans apart, and neither figure is suited to playing second fiddle
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/18/farage-boris-feud-reform-tories/

    Arrogant hubris has discredited both Farage and Johnson and neither should forgive the other!
    Johnson treated Farage with contempt in the same way as Farage has treated Rupert Lowe and Ben Habib.

    BTL

    Johnson's great mistakes were not deselecting all the Conservative candidates who were not wholeheartedly in favour of Brexit before the 2019 general election and making no accommodation with Farage's Brexit Party,

    Farage's great mistake was not contesting all the Conservative seats held by pro-remain Conservative candidates. Farage lacked the killer instinct when he had Johnson by the short and curlies.

    The consequence was that Johnson gave in to the EU giving us the most pathetic Brexit deal betraying both Northern Ireland and the British fishermen. This has left the door wide open for a subsequent prime ministers, Sunak and Starmer, effectively to rejoin the EU.

  70. That's me for today. Took GD to market; couldn't get an offer! Then to chum for coffee and GD being presented with important books on Eng Lit. Then lunch and drive to King's Lynn to find train cancelled. All now well – train approaching Cambridge.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    1. It is a pity his vids are so long. I think anyone who understands effective communication will know that a concise argument is better than a rambling sermon.

          1. Funny you mention that…I have run out of the Vodka so it's Gin Crack time…blows a smoke ring……….

      2. Except the vid is 90% Ludna telling a very fascinating story about Hill-Billy pakistani muslims. der.

      3. Except the vid is 90% Ludna telling a very fascinating story about Hill-Billy pakistani muslims. der.

  73. 413031+ up ticks,

    The starmer charmer will not heed president Trump in regards to the money mills too many are financially creaming of the positioning of the scam units.
    Dt,
    Abandon wind farm ‘disaster’ to bring inflation down, Trump tells Starmer
    Donald Trump dismissed wind farms as an “expensive joke”, labelling the source of energy a “disaster”.

    Does Donald realise that the TOOL is only answerable to a covert board of directors, as in, the WEF / NWO as is old Dons royal host.

    Dt,
    Trump: I disagree with Starmer on Palestinian statehood
    Donald Trump was asked about the UK’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state and why he thought that was wrong.

    If the TOOL does not comply then from within the labour party will appear the fattest fatwa ever issued.

  74. Starmer's vile lawyer friends know just what a sucker he is.
    https://order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Featured-Images-44-2.png
    Starmer Faces UK Reparations Claims Ahead of Palestinian State Recognition

    Keir Starmer’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state this weekend may open the floodgates to costly lawfare against Britain. Pro-Palestinian lawyers are already limbering up for a major lawsuit demanding reparations for Britain’s historic role in the region. A Chagos-style surrender bill for the UK taxpayer could be looming…

    A group of Palestinians has filed a legal petition accusing the UK of “serial international law violations”, marking the launch of the campaign ‘Britain Owes Palestine‘. The group demands official acknowledgment of wrongdoing, a formal apology, and hard cash compensation for what they call a “century of oppression”. The Palestinian Authority hasn’t been shy about its intentions either. Back in September 2023 Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas openly declared:

    “We will persist with our pursuit of accountability and justice at the relevant international bodies against Israel… as well as against both Britain and America for their roles in the fateful Balfour declaration. We call for reparations, we call for compensation in accordance with international law.”

    Has Starmer secured any guarantees that Britain won’t be dragged into court before he recognises Palestine?

    September 18 2025 @ 13:00

    4 hours ago
    The rule of lawyers and not the law😡

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a8706d98fec23e98f67138458b3f64881855e506ba59aee97bb3e75c6a6157bb.png
    Whose idea was that bollocks and what floated to the top to keep that going😡 oh😡

    3500.jpg
    B
    3 hours ago
    Probably the two vilest bookends ever!

    P
    1 hour ago
    You missed out the vile Harmer

    2. They have set out and agreed on the ruination of our country and its culture, social structure, now the economy their adgenda between them is ruinous.

  75. Trump warns Starmer 'illegal migration will destroy the UK from within': US president says PM should deploy military to stop Channel boats

    Trump is correct, illegal migration will kill countries.

    And the dagger is Islam

    1. Oi ! I only ad em once and that was when i was taken advantage of…I then went to boots the chemist and asked a young lass for some Quellada. She said they only had litre sized bottles. She wouldn't take any money for it. Can't imagine why. It's not like they thrive in wallets.

      1. I thought you ate crabs regularly and thoroughly enjoyed them, or am I confusing you with Grizzly?

      3. I first met Nellie Hawkins down the Old Kent Road
        Her drawers were hanging down, she'd been out with Charlie Brown
        I pressed a filthy tanner into her filthy little hand
        Cos she was a dirty old whore – chickaboo chickaboo chickaboo

        Oh, she wore no blouses, and I wore no trousers
        And we both wore no underclothes
        But when she caressed me she damn near undressed me
        What a pleasure no-one knows

        I went to the doctor he said; Where did you knock her? I said
        Down where the green grass grows
        He said in less than a twinkle that pimple on your winkle
        Will be redder than a red, red Rose

  77. Madeline Grant
    Donald Trump and Keir Starmer make a very strange pair
    18 September 2025, 6:01pm

    There is just something innately funny about seeing Keir Starmer and Donald Trump together. Two men so obviously different; in character, interests, ability and shape, forced together by circumstance. Watching them at the press conference today was no exception. They put me in mind of Bialystock and Bloom from The Producers: the bombastic Broadway shyster and his hapless sinusitis-suffering goon.

    First, for their ‘business roundtable’, they sat together behind a comically small table inside a marquee, which made them look like an unlikely scoring partnership at a village cricket match or as if they were signing the registers at a low-budget gay wedding. Alternatively, they looked a bit like they were appearing on a Radio 4 panel show. I can think of a title: Don’t mention Mandy! Two statesmen have to get through an Anglo-American bilateral summit without mentioning the sacking of a certain ambassador just last week for high-profile nonce-adjacency!

    Sir Keir spoke first, about the substance of the deal that they were about to sign, but also gave himself a series of pats on the back for having achieved it. ‘It comes down to leaders who respect each other, to leaders who genuinely like each other.’ At this point the Prime Minister gave the President a weird sort of tap on his shoulder which I think was meant to be affectionate. Donald smiled a smile which might have been a Cheshire Cat grin or could have been the sort of smile a Mafia boss gives when he makes a note to have someone killed for a minor slight.

    When it came to his turn, Trump repeated that it was the first time there had been a second state visit, three times, which was numerically quite confusing. Then again, so much of how the President operates comes down to his truly bizarre use of the English language. It’s almost hypnotic. Again the contrast with Sir Keir couldn’t be clearer. Starmer speaks in robotic, staccato sentences. Everything. Is. Designed. To. Sound. Like. A. Safety. Briefing. In contrast Mr Trump embarks on long sweeping sentences, beautiful sentences, often with an aside about something that a lot of people don’t realise, which is OK, before ending up on a subject completely different from where he started.

    Certain words were used by Trump again and again – ‘beautiful’, in particular. Things the President believed were beautiful varied from Her Majesty Queen Camilla, Sir Keir Starmer’s renovation of Chequers and the British aerospace industry. He did speak briefly about the deal before going into one of his meandering concertos of consciousness about the things that made America the ‘hottest country in the world’. Awkwardly for Sir Keir, one of these was getting the border under control. As he did so, the PM sat there, going both pink and grey at once, like a condemned tin of luncheon meat. Still, Donald eventually came into land with a final nod to Britain and, as if by magic, folders appeared for the men to sign, the Prime Minister with the Parker pen which he doubtless got for free for just enquiring and the President with a massive Sharpie.

    After lunch, the unlikely duo hosted a press conference in front of a Jacobean fireplace and enough national flags to make Emily Thornberry squirm. The President thanked British subjects for their condolences following Charlie Kirk’s murder, and spoke of Vladimir Putin as if he were a philandering ex: ‘He’s let me down. He’s really let me down.’

    Bev Turner of GB News asked the Prime Minister a question about Christianity – which in fairness is one of the few beliefs Sir Keir has never professed to hold. But perhaps not for much longer; the avowed atheist spoke of being christened and the importance of the Church of England throughout his life. Given how desperate his domestic situation is, perhaps a conversion is on the cards. To paraphrase Voltaire on his deathbed when asked to denounce the devil: ‘Now is not the time to be making enemies’.

    Turner also asked a question about the free speech situation in Britain – a subject which triggers palpable discomfort in the PM, who always reaches for the same identically-worded answer. ‘We have had free speech in Britain for a long time,’ he droned, inevitably, through his nose. For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is quite the defence Sir Keir perceives it to be, especially coming from him. After all, we’ve had agriculture since probably the Bronze age and he seems pretty determined to destroy that.

    Finally a reporter invoked the Mandy-shaped elephant in the room. President Trump having denied ever knowing his former ambassador, the question passed to Sir Keir, who shuffled his notes and gave another answer that sounded like it had been dictated by a solicitor or crisis-comms team. ‘New information came to light,’ he snapped. ‘It’s very straightforward!’ Luckily for him, there were no supplementary questions.

    It was all smiles, but I suspect the Donald knows that next time he comes to visit his favourite foreign country, it might well be someone else meeting him off the plane.

    2. "As he did so, the PM sat there, going both pink and grey at once, like a condemned tin of luncheon meat."
      It's such comments that make Madeline Grant a delight to read.

    3. If Trump really cares about the UK and the US he will kill the Chagos Islands treachery today. It is not yet irreversibly on the statute book – he can do it but:

      "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well. It were done quickly."

    4. Delicious! If nobody objects, I'm apparently an atheist, God bless America! At least in its present incarnation.

  78. Evening all. I have limited internet access today. I am in Upper Sheringham and hope to get to Wells next the Sea tomorrow. I have managed to get the awning up (it isn’t really a one man job and the dogs were no use at all).

    I thought flooding the country with people who hate us was their immigration policy.

  79. Well that went off well, didnt it?

    Trump talking about the US/UK relationship; 'Priceless and eternal, irreplaceable and unbreakable'.

    $150Bn investment in the UK by US BigTech creating at least 7,000 jobs.

    Trump telling Starmer; 'Illegal immigration destroys countries from within'.

    Trump diplomatically avoiding the issue of free speech in the UK, but by choosing not to comment he made it clear where his views lie – alongside his VP Vance!!

    On a lighter note it was great to watch Melania, looking astonishing at 55, and Kate, looking fabulous as she does all the time, anyway, playing with the Squirrel Scouts – it was heart-warming!

    The general euphoria was dampened down by the nasal drone of that f*ckwit Starmer, looking like he wasnt sure what the hell he was doing there.

    Comment of the day? Trump on Mandelson 'I dont know him actually' despite having welcomed him to the Oval Office earlier this year. Nice one, Don!!

          1. Never 'eard of him!

            I would have gone for Grant Batty, the All Black scrum half in the Seventies, or David Batty, the Leeds and Blackburn hard-tackling midfielder – and one I used to watch with my Dad and my two sons at Ewood Park!!

          2. Never 'eard of him!

            I would have gone for Grant Batty, the All Black scrum half in the Seventies, or David Batty, the Leeds and Blackburn hard-tackling midfielder – and one I used to watch with my Dad and my two sons at Ewood Park!!

      2. "What's that, you've forgotten the combination? Time locked until 2099? Shame, better turn the lights out in there to save the planet. Good night, Jones."

    3. Shame that Miliband is going to make that impossible by pricing electricity to make profits impossible.

      1. I think he's about to be distracted by the chance to have a go at becoming leader – as utterly barmy as that sounds……

    1. That was very good – it's the first time I've seen a different take on the usual Downfall clip – very funny!

    2. "Oh, it's you Adolph. How's tricks?
      I've decided to follow your disciples by supporting the 'kill all the Jews' genociders currently called Palestinians.
      Thanks for your excellent lead."

    3. It important to spend lots of money on people like Lammy and Abbott. It is the only way to bring those stinking monkeys down from the trees.

  81. David Lammy gets to stay in the Foreign Secretary's £25million grace-and-favour home despite being given another job in the reshuffle – after spending almost £50,000 taxpayers' money on a summer party

    David Lammy will continue to live in the Foreign Secretary’s £25million grace-and-favour home despite being given another job in the reshuffle.

    He will retain use of the flat in One Carlton Gardens, seen as the grandest of all official ministerial residences, even though he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary earlier this month.

    His successor Yvette Cooper will have use of the Regency-era property for diplomatic receptions however, as well as sole use of Chevening, the Foreign Secretary’s country residence in Kent.

    Meanwhile it can be revealed that Mr Lammy spent almost £50,000 of taxpayers’ money on a lavish party for his cash-strapped department before moving jobs.

    The then Foreign Secretary invited 1,001 people to a summer reception in the garden of palatial Lancaster House, details obtained by the Mail show.

    He splashed out £3,696 on entertainment for the event for diplomats, political advisers and staff, at which pop star Heather Small sang her hits ‘Proud’ and ‘Moving On Up’.

    Another £19,997 went on food, including fish and chip canapes served on tiny pieces of edible newspaper, along with £10,510 on staff and £252 on drink, with the rest provided by sponsors.

    Figures provided to this newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act show the total cost of the party, attended by 560 people including 145 Heads of Mission and 98 other Foreign Office staff, was £49,652.

    The Foreign Office insisted it was an ‘annual summer reception for the Diplomatic Corps and UK Ambassadors and High Commissioners’, but guests also gave Mr Lammy a round of applause as the July 1st event came just days after the 25th anniversary of him first being elected as an MP.

    It also came weeks after the Foreign Office was hit with a 7 per cent cut to its budget at the spending review, which will lead to hundreds of staff being cut, while overseas aid will be slashed by 40 per cent from 2027 to pay for higher defence spending.

    And it comes despite departments being told to scrap wasteful spending including staff away days and team-building exercises, while ministers have been urged to think twice before accepting generous freebies.

    Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Mike Wood told the Mail: ‘Only months after Pat McFadden announced new hospitality limits, it beggars belief that David Lammy’s department signed off nearly £50,000 of taxpayers’ money on a summer party.

    ‘The Government must explain who approved this spending and why the rules don’t seem to apply to them. Only the Conservatives have a plan to control government spending.’

    Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: ‘The contrast to the life of luxury lived by many ministers with the desperate situation of businesses and families could not be starker.

    ‘While politicians are toasting to their failures, family farms are fighting to survive and business owners are working through the night just to keep the lights on following Reeves’ devastating tax raid last autumn.

    ‘Ministers should think again about throwing similar events in the future.’

    A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The Foreign Secretary’s summer reception is an annual event which provides an opportunity to bring together London-based foreign diplomats, senior Foreign Office officials, and a range of high-profile individuals across the UK private and public sectors.

    ‘As per Cabinet Office guidance, all expenditure on receptions and events is heavily scrutinised to ensure value for money.’

    1. Poor old Lammy, that party is going to go down in infamy as one of the last monstrous extravagances funded by funny money before the whole thing implodes.

    1. Oh, i do beg your pardon kind sir. My mistake. I thought they were monkeys but in reality they are just a bunch of cuntconuts

        1. I didn't think monkeys had tails to tell. Except whinging and moaning about 'these bananas in the UK are not as good as mother in her mud hut rammed down our big fat gobs'.

          Nod to Diane.

          1. The main differences are that apes are generally larger, have no tails, have broader chests, and exhibit more complex intelligence and communication skills than monkeys, which are smaller, typically have tails, are more narrow-chested, and have simpler cognitive and social structures. Apes' larger brain-to-body-size ratio enables advanced problem-solving, tool use, and complex communication, while monkeys rely on sounds, gestures, and body language.

            Which may mean that Lammy and Abbot are strange off-shoots, being tailless but huge, with little intelligence but lots of sounds, gestures, and odd body language.

    1. Funny that during the 'pandemic' I mentioned several times to medical professionals that my Atrial fibrillation problem was probably caused Covid Jabs topped up with Flu jabs……they did not agree or noticeably disagree.

      1. Two friends of mine who were most insistent on questioning whether I had the jab have since died, one with an aeortic valve rupture and the other from pancreatic cancer which pre-jab had been in remission.

        The medicos and politicos pushing this shit need to face justice. I am thinking of you Blair and you Hancock for starters.

        1. One of our friends was a retired Dr of medicines at Hertford. A reasonable fit and active person he had a stroke they took him to hospital and he had a massive heart attack and died.

      1. Neither Carol nor I had the Covid jabs. I had the advantage of having designed research laboratories at the animal testing Babraham Institute near Cambridge and John Innes in Norwich and knew how rigorous testing could be. I understood that it takes up to ten years to successfully bring a new drug to market. Launching GMO was also fraught with difficulties.

  85. Well arse and elbow day. I was told at around 10:30 am that I could go home from my stay in hospital today. But when at 6:45 this evening I asked the nurse where my medication was for leaving, she came back ten minutes later and said your not going to like this but the doctor wants you to stay another 24 hours to monitor the made changes in the meds made a day previously. I had a shower this morning, changed out of my pajamas this afternoon, packed my belongings and was ready to be collected at 7 pm by my wife and number two son. Right now I should have been sitting feet up watching TV with a glass of. I feel terribly disappointed. The four of us in the ward even had to suffer from a unpleasant loud over zealous 'skin infection' from two very loud 15 stone African nurses. The other three allowed it but I told them it was not relevant to my stay in hospital….or words to that effect.
    Good night all Nottlers. Tomorrow is another day. 😏😴

      1. It’s been so frustrating.
        Especially now I’ve discovered that my medication has been wrongly prescribed for quite a long time.
        Too many beta blockers.
        I think they have discovered that I don’t actually have a heart problem.

      1. When ever I have seen mention of hospital discharge, the dispensary procedure seems to be a shambles. It really cant be that difficult!

      3. This I believe goes back a few years.
        I had a stay over after a 14 hour wait in A&E they loaded me up with medication and it seems that nobody has ever checked the outcome. As in arse and elbow. One hand doesn’t seem to know what the other is doing or does.

    4. Last time my father was in hospital, that happened twice…he only got out at the third attempt. Most of the staff were really nice, but there was such a lack of coordination. Hope you are discharged today.

  86. And that is me for the night.
    Was planning to start my block laying tomorrow, but I can't find my tools. I suspect Walder Son has "borrowed" them.

    1. When you see him next, BoB, tell him he is a Very Silly Sausage and send him to the Naughty Step without any supper. Lol.

  87. My niece has just popped round. She is 3 weeks into her teacher-training, at a school in Wembley. It sounds horrific, with the Muslim boys showing no respect to women or anyone else really who isn’t “one of them”.

    Diversity
    Is
    Our
    Strengh

    1. They have been brought up to regard women as inferior, and will perpetuate that attitude by bringing up their own sons to think the same way. Nothing will change until Muslim women start speaking out, but as most of them seem to delight in wearing the hijab or the niqab, that isn't going to happen any time soon.

      1. Not so sure about that, Aeneas. Remember that in the days of Iran before the Aytollah took over from the late King the women delighted in dressing in the Western style.

        1. Women led the descent into extremism in the 80s though. They only needed a bit of indoctrination about the sin of showing their legs or hair, and they changed their own wardrobes.
          It is incredibly easy to brainwash people into damaging themselves – and after covid, we can't kid ourselves that the west is immune to that either.

        1. This is absolutely not the case for muslim women I have met. They regard themselves as superior to non-muslim women, and seem to be quite happy with that status.

      3. The women are also indoctrinated into believing they are inferior, don't forget. They all follow the same rulebook.

      4. And what does our home secretary, a woman for whom her Muslim faith is the most important thing in her life, think about the way many Muslim men treat women.

        Maybe she was wise not to get married and so she has not had to experience for herself how Muslim wives are treated.

      5. It's muslim women who push these ideas most strongly. The boys learn it at their mothers' knee. Westerners have to realise that muslim women are never going to speak out. In my experience, they regard themselves as superior to other women with very few exceptions. They have no universal concept of humanity in the way other religions (Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists) do.

    2. Teaching must be a very challenging occupation these days if one has any sense of fairness and reality.

      1. I suppose I ought to feel ashamed of my lack of diversity – but I don't! I spent the whole of my time as a schoolboy in private boarding schools and all my time as a teacher in independent private boarding schools

        1. You were very privileged, but I wouldn't care to be a teacher at my old school these days (all girls city school). A glance at the website shows how extreme and intolerant of cognitive diversity it has become.

    3. That whole NW London area around Wembley/Harrow/Neasden has become a muslim enclave. Arrogant and ignorant, they are not compatible with the established way we are.

    4. My son's experience of one year at a college for further education about five years ago was that the muslim pupils were openly bullying other kids, especially anyone who admitted to being Christian.
      But given the rise in Christianity among Gen Z, perhaps the bullying has had a different effect?

  89. Well, chums, I got so engrossed in watching a couple of "Out Of Town" episodes on TPTV (Talking Pictures Television) that it's now turned midnight. I had a go at the Friday Wordle and got it in 5 (a Bogey) so now I shall finally head for my bed. Good Night all, sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

    1. Missed where you've got to, but somehow the shadow of the palm tree hints it isn't Scotland. And the colours are fabulous!

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