A damp squib of a Budget from a government at the end of the lineThursday 7 March:

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

1,687 thoughts on “A damp squib of a Budget from a government at the end of the lineThursday 7 March:”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story
    A CUP OF TEA

    One day my Grandma was out shopping, and my Grandpa was in charge of me.
    I was maybe 2 ½ years old. Someone had given me a little ‘tea set’ as a gift, and it was one of my favourite toys.

    Grandpa was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought him a little cup of ‘tea’, which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Grandma came home.

    My Grandpa made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because he thought it was ‘just the cutest thing he had ever seen!’ Grandma waited, and sure enough, here I came down the hall, with a cup of tea for Grandpa, and she watched as he drank it all.

    Then she said to Grandpa, (as only a Grandma would know), “Did it ever occur to you that the only place in the house that she can reach to get water, is the toilet?”

  2. I see what Hunt did there with the budget, another Labour budget to take the wind out of their sails, that will do it every time.
    Especially the clincher at the start, one million for a Muslim war memorial just to get everyone from the right to switch off.

    2. Sorry…Muslim war memorial!?!? To celebrate their attacks on the West? Why do Muslims need a separate one? I am pretty sure that religion is the last thing that soldiers consider whilst fighting alongside one another. Indeed, a visit to the battlefields of France has Christians, Jews, and those of all faiths alongside one another.

    3. Perhaps someone could inform Rhyming-Slang about the Cenotaph. The rather large memorial just up the road from his place of work that commemorates ALL of the UK fallen.

      1. There is also the Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial and, in Delhi, there is the India Gate Memorial…

  3. Good Morning All. 4C with a sunny day to come.
    If the Tories think yesterday will improve their chances it shows just how deluded they are.

  5. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny & frost. Much scraping of windscreen this morning.

  7. Good morning, chums. I hope you slept well. I did today’s (Thursday’s) Wordle in five and posted it half an hour ago as the latest post on Wednesday’s site since I wanted to be one of the first posters on today’s site. Enjoy your day.

  9. Good morning all, I have migrated from the left wing rag, where Carter and Nick Harmann are boasting about how all the so called ‘nutters’ are leaving and soon it will only be the likes of them left.

    Which I suppose is kind of true, the establishment lackey Fraser Nelson clearly hates us and wanted us gone. Bit like the fake Conservative party really

    3. I have my share of nutter posters I’ve blocked [edit- note to me, try to use the right word first time round!], but I enjoyed my engagement with Carter – on some issues, I agree and on others I oppose, but at no time did we descend to ad hominems.

      I don’t think Fraser Nelson’s move to ban us was down to politics. He was advised by his management team that everything has to be monetized, including the unpaid contribution we made to his rag below the line that so boosted its circulation figures and the influence The Spectator had, which went way beyond its core readers. They have been trying to scupper the Disqus loophole for ages, and finally got their software developers to cut us out.

      It’s their loss. I am hoping that Tom Armstrong’s forthcoming project, along with the nottlers, will come up with something to compete with The Spectator’s (and also the New Statesman’s) precious London-based columnists. It will be like YouTube versus the BBC, before YT was taken over by Google.

      1. Carter was ok, just wrong on most things. It was Harmann who was the wicked, spiteful one. Nasty, nasty man

        1. And, ‘john’ (aka Mid Atlantic) was an amusing American ignoramus. He also had a spiteful side but it was far easier to silence him than it was Harman.

    4. I have my share of nutter posters I’ve blocked [edit- note to me, try to use the right word first time round!], but I enjoyed my engagement with Carter – on some issues, I agree and on others I oppose, but at no time did we descend to ad hominems.

      I don’t think Fraser Nelson’s move to ban us was down to politics. He was advised by his management team that everything has to be monetized, including the unpaid contribution we made to his rag below the line that so boosted its circulation figures and the influence The Spectator had, which went way beyond its core readers. They have been trying to scupper the Disqus loophole for ages, and finally got their software developers to cut us out.

      It’s their loss. I am hoping that Tom Armstrong’s forthcoming project, along with the nottlers, will come up with something to compete with The Spectator’s (and also the New Statesman’s) precious London-based columnists. It will be like YouTube versus the BBC, before YT was taken over by Google.

    5. So true Michael. I cancelled my sub with the Speccy yesterday. The editor’s contempt for us and what they did to the comments was the last straw. Seeing Harman’s comments again after blocking him for a couple of years sent me over the edge!

        1. Yes I remember that oddball too. Maybe his lefty intolerance just couldn’t cope anymore!

    6. I still have my subscription, but as my main reason for maintaining it was the below the line community, it is hanging by a thread. With so many people now gone, the atmosphere has been ruined. If the aim was to monetise below the line, then it has completely failed as what was a benefit subscribers paid for has been destroyed. One of the articles on the budget had only five comments, five hours after it was posted. Nelson may not care, but I’m sure a lot of the journalist, especially those who interact with readers, are a bit pissed off!

  10. Morning chums
    On the train today as I am meeting my old assistant for a catch up after work.

    1. When did your old assistant decide to run away from you, i.e. how long will it take for the train you are on to catch up? Lol.

  11. Morning chums
    On the train today as I am meeting my old assistant for a catch up after work.

  12. Britain is already too far down the road to serfdom to turn back now. 7 March 2024.

    Hunt even claimed, absurdly, that “the NHS is rightly the reason most of us are proud to be British”, which tells us everything we need to know about this supposedly conservative Government’s political philosophy and sense of history.

    It’s too late. Britain is a supertanker aiming straight for the rocks, and the Sunak government has failed to shift its trajectory. This latest Budget will neither fix the Tories’ political problems nor cure any of the pathologies crippling Britain’s economy and society.

    I have to admit that this claim about the NHS being a source of Pride for every Brit made me wonder what sort of world Hunt occupies. It is; like the rest of the UK’s institutions, on its last legs; only propped up by vast infusions of taxpayer’s cash. When this runs out and the whole State collapses into ruin it will make the Fall of Rome look like a minor inconvenience to its citizens. This and the gratuitous gift to an Islamic War Memorial indicate the UK’s future as an Islamic Caliphate.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/06/britain-already-too-far-down-road-to-serfdom-to-turn-back/

    1. Just read it. Heath is increasingly an anomaly at the Left drifting Telegraph which has embraced the corporatist managerialist consensus. He understands that tinkering won’t stop impending disaster and that the UK needs radical spending, regulation and welfare cuts along the lines of what Milei proposed. The trouble is that politically it’s so difficult because such a high proportion of the UK population are in effect parasites living off the state.

      1. He was good when he edited City AM. You’ve just reminded me I never read it now.

      2. As soon as they stop the benefits to the army of young single men they have imported, all hell will break loose.
        I think that’s the plan for when they can’t go any further with the debt-based fiat pound, and then people will be begging for the central bank digital currency, aka digital food stamps in order to stop the looting and violent robberies and restore some order.

      3. Sherelle used to get it but her post-Brexit writings have been hit and miss.

        1. Yes, and she’s moved more on to the cultural issues where being half African she can speak more freely than a white native.

          1. She does have a corker of an article from time to time but not with the same Brexit-wars regularity.

    2. That is exactly the kind of stupid, patronising Hunt gaffe that he used to come out with all the time when I knew him at university.
      He seems to see people in two groups “rich, upper middle class people like me” and “everyone else.”
      He doesn’t seem to distinguish between “everyone else” and he seems to have gained his knowledge of them by watching something like EastEnders, because as a young man, he seemed to lump together tarts from Union Street, Plymouth with university undergraduates straight out of single sex private schools. We all knew he only fancied far eastern women, but talking to him made you feel slightly grubby as he made inappropriate ‘jokes’ that he clearly thought would be amusing to the likes of you, even though you were ugly and unattractive to him.
      So it’s entirely within his character and abilities that he has learned off by heart that common people worship the NHS, so he must throw in a comment paying tribute to the NHS. He has probably never used it in his life, and that is not hyperbole, it’s serious. Because he is talking about something he knows nothing about, of course the comment comes over as fake, which it is.

      1. There is something creepy and robotic about him. He reminds of the line from the Chesterton poem about our new unhappy Lords “they regard us like flies”.

      2. We came across Hunt at the hustings during the Conservative party leadership campaign..
        He made ad hominem attacks on Johnson that, by being so personal, were distasteful. I would say he showed no generosity of soul.
        Boris has proved to be a disappointment (a good campaigner, but not able to settle down to the detailed work), but never once did he make snide remarks about his opponent.

        1. Boris (for whatever else he may be criticized or praised) is not petty-minded.

      4. I would love to say that Hunt is no upper-middle class but his father was an Admiral, his grandfather an Indian army Brigadier and his family history is relatively illustrious. Quite what happened to him – he does not come across as a member of the gentry; rather he comes across as a borish, middle-class liberal who’d be happier sitting on the yellow or red parties’ benches.

    3. MB has a wisdom tooth that needs some work to stop it causing further problems. (I will avoid snarky comments about not knowing he had wisdom tee … oops.)
      We have already decided that if the NHS mucks around, we will fork out for private work.
      That’s on top of the various operations we have already paid for plus regular maintenance like dentistry, glasses and chiropractic work.
      We are the mugs who started work in our teens and even ran businesses that provided employment for others.
      We are dinosaurs from an age where working and improving your lot was A Good Thing.

      1. I am just having another round of expensive dentistry. I think one has to be realistic and factor it into life costs.
        This is a very interesting book though: Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel.

        It includes a lot of studies, some dating from before the war, of people eating traditional diets whose teeth repaired themselves. One group was from the Outer Hebrides, where they ate a lot of fish, another was Swiss farmers whose diet was high in meat and dairy products.

        Needless to say, the quite frightful diet recommended as “Good for you” by the Gubmint does nothing for your teeth…but don’t worry, they are putting the neuro-toxic fluoride in the water to reduce your IQ so that you won’t notice fix your teeth.

        1. We make the calculation: does being able to see and eat comfortably outweigh the benefits of an expensive holiday?
          We prefer being able to eat and see the world around us.

    4. The Church of England responds to the axing of orchestral musicians by local authorities, ruined by Equal Opportunities lawyers and demands by central Government to shift the cost of its statutory services (adult social care, including that for migrants, and child protection and “Diversity & Equity” onto those who did not vote for them.

      £1 billion is to be transferred from its traditional support for church musicians towards punishment handouts for violent American racists, descendants of African slave traders and current slave traders in the Islamic world, and in reprisal for the people who abolished slavery in the reign of King William IV.

      I have been banned by The Spectator (along with many nottlers here) for suggesting that good music (and I do not call tuneless rapping to be music) is essential to restoring mental resilience to our fragile young and towards restoring national morale essential to any recovery in our fortune.

        1. Clearly, like winter snow that’s disgustingly white, I’m the wrong sort of liberal Green.

          I also got the curt notice “you have been banned by the Spectator” when trying to post something about sound recording techniques.

          1. We have had our disagreements but I always recognised you as being well meaning if generally wrong. 🙂 It’s unbelievable they have treated you like that.
            I left on Monday because I could see the way it was going.
            Disqus is USA based and is governed by the rights conferred by the First Amendment. Likewise if you have a VPN and set it to a country like Switzerland which has very strict privacy laws your personal data is highly protected. Moving to a UK based Speccie system means that those protections are bypassed.

          2. Our disagreements go back to Henry VIII and his reformist zeal when it came to the old Church. It led to civil war, and rumbles on in various guises (Thatcher’s hardwoking [I spotted that spelling error, but thought it somewhat Freudian, so I left it be] roundhead spivvery versus the louche cavalier claretery of Roy Jenkins).

            Impassioned argument are the spice in the curry. It’s no fun for anyone if we all agree we are right. It would be like ‘Have I Got News for You’ where everyone smirks their rightness as they sneer at outsiders who are by definition wrong.

            I was a keen naturist in the 1990s before my body became an embarrassment. The great thing about this is that it is impossible to hide anything from one’s friends. An etiquette therefore evolved, whereby one’s openness to scrutiny is never exploited, and I found considerably more respect to one’s privacy there than I found in places where everyone is ordered to cover up.

          4. Harsh but fair.

            I confess my anger against The Spectator is akin to someone done for speeding. “A fair cop” sounds horrendously old-fashioned and a bit Dixon of Dock Green!

            I felt that many of us below the line paid our contribution to the Spectator though the quality of our conversations below the line that matched the quality of writing of their columnists above it, and all unpaid for by the magazine. It was an unwritten deal that they would turn a blind eye to us failing to pay subscription on condition that our written efforts had a positive effect on their circulation, which I think it did. It was a pity their management consultants took a narrower view.

          5. I hadn’t realised how many non subscribers were making it such a great place!

          6. There were a few non-subscribers who were less welcome: ‘john’ for starters (although I had fun taking the Michael out of him!).

          7. I cannot say what pleasure it gives to see so many familiar names on this site, which I have only just discovered. What idiots the Spectator management are!

          10. Jeremy….when did the “ban” kick in? I too had issues with this earlier in the week. It transpires that our “old” accounts cannot link to the Spectator; rather the Spectator appears to have created its own Spectator-specific Disqus which does not permit accounts not linked to a subscription (which includes our “old” accounts) to comment (one can still “like” comments though). In other words, we can only use our “new”, Spectator-specific accounts to comment. I have the peculiar situation now of “Following” my “new” account with my “old” one in order that I can see the comments that I made with my “new” one.

          11. Some one mentioned somewhere that what they are using now is a form of WordPress.

          12. Did the ban extend to your opinions on other matters? When I was banned (for offensive language – used the word P*ki in a question about acceptable linguistic usage) they never even told me, and I found out by accident months later.

          13. I don’t think so. It seems that this was a general cull of commenters who had not paid their subs, and management policy.

    5. Won’t be long before non-Muslims will be paying Jizya in what used to be our own country.

      2. We already are? From the ONS:

        “In 2021, people who identified as “Muslim” had the lowest percentage of people aged 16 to 64 years in employment (51.4%
        compared with 70.9% of the overall population); this resulted from the high percentages of people who were students or looking after home or family in this group.”

        Given how many more Muslims arrive on our shores each day, that percentage is likely to have increased. If our paying for their existence is not Jizya….what is!?

    6. Interestingly, I found my copy of the Road to Serfdom on Wednesday evening, whilst rummaging through my skiing bag (I must have taken it skiing with me the last time I went in 2019). I will be re-reading it when I go skiing next week.

    7. Hunt is a disastrous man for the role. He either hasn’t a clue or is deliberately Uncaring about the shame of Saint NHS.
      That’s the NHS that we taxpayers can barely access, where being honoured with a GP appointment is even less likely than winning the lottery.
      I find the prospect of becoming ill decidedly frightening.
      With my long series of skin cancer treatments last year, I was mightily relieved that I could self refer and bypass the GP for that through our health insurance.

      Because so many more people are using self funded private healthcare in the last 3 or so years, because they cannot wait for the waiting times for private doctors, even initial private appointments are subject to waiting times of months.

      Having to cancel the now eye-watering subscription will be the last resort. MH hits 70 this year so I expect an even steeper price rise than usual.

    8. Heck (or words to that effect), I somehow deleted the comment. Our new tablet is odd, no edit option showing (or maybe it’s a Discus oddity).
      Filling in time while trying to get through to a human on car insurance. 35 minutes and counting.
      Hunt is a disaster for his job (or,for that matter, any other government role). I find it hard to believe that he really doesn’t know about the current unacceptable problems we have in trying to get a GP appointment, never mind the long waits for even an initial hospital appointment.

      I started the comment late morning, then son and grandchildren arrived from Canada. Somewhat non-stop until now.
      I eventually got through to the car insurance, only to find out they wouldn’t add our son as a temporary driver, in spite of clean licence etc……. unless we were willing to add him for a full 12 months for the bargain price of £1002!
      The same company accepted him last time he was here 5 years ago. They gave me the name of a company they refer such cases on to, but they also refused.
      Tomorrow, son is going to hire a car. Wish us luck.I
      Goodnight.

  13. How to ensure that your mustard keeps its kick.

    SIR – Some time ago I concluded that a jar of Colman’s was becoming too expensive and decided to try Tesco’s own brand, which was considerably cheaper.

    Expecting it to be slightly inferior, I was delighted to find that it had, in my opinion, a superior taste. I have continued to use it ever since.

    Bill Mason
    Chorley, Lancs.

    Are you a Yank, Billy boy? Foods do not have a ‘taste’, they have a flavour (there is a huge distinction).

    Taste is a sense, which you use to discern the flavour of a food. Foods do not possess a tongue (unless, of course, you choose to eat raw, live, animals), but they do have a distinct flavour, which you appreciate by tasting it with your tongue.

    1. I remember learning that the tongue can only detect five distinctive flavours, and that most of the subtleties of flavour come through the nose. Curiously, wine buffs refer to the “nose” of what they are quaffing.

      My father, who was once an advertising consultant, had this thing about “quality” used as an adjective. He used to say that rubbish could be described as “quality”; it doesn’t need to be good quality.

      My bugbear is the weasel term “up to”, as in “up to 5% off the price”. “Up to” includes zero.

      2. “We got a result!” Oh, how nice for you. Do tell me, was that “result” a win, draw or loss?

        Your father was spot-on with that appalling misuse of “quality”.

        My current bugbear is the ever-increasing silly, noisome, American habit of substituting “convince” for persuade as a verb.

        1. My big bear is the dreadful “reach out to”, instead of contact.
          It sets my teeth on edge

          1. Me too. If I sat down and thought about it, I suppose I could come up with an extensive volume of vapid Americanisms that have percolated into what passes as ‘English’ these days in the UK.

          3. Yes, I was stunned the first time I heard it at work.
            Reaching out sounds as though you are desperately pleading with someone to help you! Yuk!

          4. Whenever I see one of these “Words and expressions I hate”, threads, I scroll down the list, nodding in agreement, Then I come across a phrase I use myself…scroll quickly on! 😉

  14. I’m having trouble posting pictures of last night’s book weighings. Bear with me. We have a mighty 6 oz 0 3/4 and 5 oz 11 3/4. But i still can’t find my Hitler book.

    And for the thought police monitoring here searching out far-right extremism. It’s Kershaw’s biography of the man, and I studied history and German at University. So calm down.

  15. Good Moaning.
    One to send your blood pressure through the roof.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/03/06/vj-day-kiss-picture-us-ban-non-consensual/

    Famous ‘non-consensual’ VJ Day kiss spared US government ban

    Photo of George Mendonsa kissing Greta Friedman breaches sexual harassment guidelines but will stay in veterans facilities

    Tony Diver, US Editor6 March 2024 • 8:29pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9928753d9e8ba032e9bb53ef5e1a5c2f61433360ab8d469416e51cee3133d8b2.jpg

    An historic photograph of an American sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on VJ Day narrowly escaped a ban by the US government’s veterans affairs department for breaching its sexual harassment policy.

    Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph, which has become one of the most famous images of the 20th century, shows US sailor George Mendonsa kissing Greta Friedman as New York City celebrated the end of the Second World War on Victory over Japan Day.

    But the US veterans secretary was forced to intervene on Tuesday after a more junior official attempted to ban it from the building.

    RimaAnn Nelson, the department’s assistant secretary for health for operations, said in a leaked memo on Tuesday that the image would no longer be displayed in an attempt to provide a “safe, respectful, and trauma-informed environment”.

    She said the image “depicts a non-consensual act” which is “inconsistent with the VA’s no-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment and assault”.

    Forced intervention

    The memo sparked backlash online, forcing the intervention of Denis McDonough, the veterans secretary, who said he had not been consulted on the plans.

    “Let me be clear: this image is not banned from VA facilities – and we will keep it in VA facilities.”

    This man and his contemporaries had just experienced things that no human being should ever have to experience.
    If it wasn’t tempting fate, I would say we need a good war to readjust people’s priorities. While there is certainly no such things a good war, it’s also becoming apparent there seems to be no such thing as a good peace.

    1. I like this bit from Wiki:-

      Ms. Friedman also maintained the acquaintance and accompanied George and Rita Mendonsa to civic events and anniversary commemorations of V-J Day, although advancing age limited these appearances. Over time, their individual stories and life histories became more widely documented.

    2. If it wasn’t tempting fate, I would say we need a good war to readjust people’s priorities.

      Morning Anne. I’m beginning to think that it is desirable. Better a quick end than perpetual servitude.

      1. I have been suggesting this for some time now. But who would fight for the UK? I would not wish to defend the UK as it is. The government despise people such as myself. Why would I ever wish to put myself forward to defend something that I disagree with?

        1. ‘Morning Anglomicronesian, another fleeing Spectator refugee. Welcome aboard.

      1. I thought it was Ancient Rome’s hideously white version of Black Friday.
        Then I saw that no purloined tellies or air fryers were involved.

    4. What about those many films and photos of women kissing soldiers as they liberated Europe? Were they consensual? Obviously it’s ok when we do it!

    5. “…breaching its sexual harassment policy.”

      Did the policy exist in 1945? No. Therefore it could not possible breach a policy which did not exist. It’s extraordinary that these lunatics keep on applying their policies, etc. retroactively.

  16. Good morning all.
    A dull and misty start to the day in the Derbyshire Dales. Clear enough on the valley bottom, but the mist is clinging to the sides. A tad under 1½°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    Total shambles of a budget but can’t be arsed to look at the details, the Tories have screwed us and themselves.

  18. I have just noticed that some Nottlers have either a + sign, or a ‘tick’ against their names.

    What does it signify please

    1. Morning OLT. I think it means that they have been marked for extermination in the coming pogrom of Christians.

        1. I too joined NTTL in 2013 as NoToNanny but have never seen the +

          Must be some sort of ‘Black Spot’.

          2. It’s there, but perhaps you can’t see it on your own post. I can’t see it on mine.

    3. A plus sign means you can follow them on Disqus. A tick means you already are following them.

      Some people have their profile set to private, meaning you can’t read their past comments and they therefore aren’t available to follow.

    1. Princess NutNut latching onto a “mature” man with high earning potential.
      As my parents used to say “It’s better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s fool”.
      PNN obviously listened; I didn’t.

  20. Boris has an inate understanding of how other people tick that Hunt doesn’t. They both move in the same circles and have the same WEF patrons, which makes such ad hominem attacks even more hypocritical.

  21. There is no plan. Our politicians are not capable of thinking beyond the immediate short term and platitudes. They don’t understand anything – look at the shambles of Net Zero.

    1. I think we are assuming that politicians are capable of planning anything – other than winning the next election and staying on the gravy train.
      But the end result, whether produced by design or drift, is the same.

      1. The UK is an out of control supertanker piloted by idiots without a map and the rudder has seized.

        1. They have a map, I would argue. It’s just that none of them can read one.

          Speaking of which, I was watching the great comedy The Apprentice last week. The episode follows (I paraphrase), “Britain’s next generation of enterpreneurs” (let us hope not as they’re all complete idiots), driving around Jersey to procure objects that Lord Sugar had listed. Hilariously, none of them knew how to read a map, with one team driving aimlessly around the island. I wonder how many of today’s youth can read a map; with maps on phones, I bet the answer is very few.

    2. I think it is a mistake to assume that Net Zero is being pushed due to stupidity. It’s a fraud that was created to push central control by the few, same as communism was. These world-wide frauds like the pandemic response and the CO2 scam to name just two, clearly come from a source above our politicians.

      1. I know someone who runs one of the huge investment funds that the government need to fund much of the Net Zero infrastructure. His view is that it cannot work in anything like the timescale, that much of Whitehall knows it cannot work, but that the politicians have bought in and won’t listen to radical watering down because they know they won’t be around when the lights go out. Politicians like Milliband, May and Johnson were never interested in the practicalities and had no understanding of them anyway. but just want applause from their peers at the jamborees that are climate change conferences.

        1. It goes far deeper than that. Milliband, May and Johnson don’t control the EU, the WEF and the UN, who are all pushing this scam. They take their orders from the same people, that’s all.

      2. I know someone who runs one of the huge investment funds that the government need to fund much of the Net Zero infrastructure. His view is that it cannot work in anything like the timescale, that much of Whitehall knows it cannot work, but that the politicians have bought in and won’t listen to radical watering down because they know they won’t be around when the lights go out. Politicians like Milliband, May and Johnson were never interested in the practicalities and had no understanding of them anyway. but just want applause from their peers at the jamborees that are climate change conferences.

  22. Putin is on an historic mission and will not stop until he is finally defeated. 6 March 2024.

    In recent weeks, more and more Western leaders have begun publicly warning that their countries may soon become targets of Russian aggression. The latest leader to sound the alarm was French President Emmanuel Macron, who stated on February 26 that Russia could attack NATO member states “in the next few years.” Macron also sparked a heated debate by refusing to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine.

    Not everyone believes a victorious Putin would inevitably go further. Many remain skeptical and claim the Russian dictator is only interested in Ukraine. Others point to the Russian army’s well-documented difficulties during the current invasion as evidence that any Russian attack on the NATO alliance would amount to military suicide. These arguments reflect a fundamental failure among many in the West to grasp the true motives behind Russia’s invasion and the nature of the threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions.

    This is one of those propaganda articles about Vlad setting off to Conquer the World that might be paraphrased as: “Yes we know Russia is not strong enough but he’s going to do it anyway.” The reality is that even the United States,which is the richest and most powerful country that has ever existed cannot build or afford to run an Empire. This is the reason for its foreign adventures. It seeks to keep the American Hegemony in place by a series of geopolitical wars that maintain its position. There is also the point that Ukraine serves to distract the hoi polloi from the invasion and occupation of their own countries.

    https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putin-is-on-an-historic-mission-and-will-not-stop-until-he-is-finally-defeated/https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putin-is-on-an-historic-mission-and-will-not-stop-until-he-is-finally-defeated/

    1. If last week’s ‘leaked’ Luftwaffe chat regarding Ukraine, on an unsecured social media chatroom, is to be believed the US and UK already have forces in Ukraine actively providing targeting and other assistance against Russian targets. So who are these ‘Western troops’ whom the warmongering Micron is urging to the Eastern front on the Dnipro River?

      http://www.eugyppius.com reports on German matters, including Ukraine, and the scamdemic.

      1. It is perfectly justified, considering what has been going on since 24th February 2022, for Ukraine to have enemy targets, and also to call in alliances as Russia has also done. This is when it becomes dangerous though, and could easily escalate into world war, as it did twice in the 20th century. Restraint therefore is necessary, but not surrender.

        Hard reality must eventually establish itself, and very little movement has been made from a line from the Russian border to the Dnipro for many months, with only raids on Russian shipping and Ukrainian cities to show for it. Eventually, both sides will have to accept the unpalatable:

        Putin would have to live with the residue of Ukraine, including the Russian icon city founded by Catherine the Great, becoming members both of the EU and of NATO. The Russian outposts in Moldova and Kaliningrad would also be reliant on goodwill with the West, as access through the Bosphorus depends on good relations with Turkey.

        Zelenskyy would have to concede the loss of Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the Donbas, its fisheries in the Azov Sea, and the strategically important Crimea, as the price for preserving its cities and its citizens from further carnage.

        1. AFAIAA, Putin has never had miltary ambition beyond protecting the Russian speaking areas of eastern Ukraine and Crimea. There are plenty of Russian targets within eastern Ukraine without US/UK assets targeting within Russian borders.

          The ‘west’ seems determined to escalate the conflict, but at who’s behest? The eastern Ukrainians, bombed and shelled between 2014 and 2022, are as safe as they will ever be. I believe it’s the military-industrial complex and the western bankers (who must realise their ponzi scheme is near collapse) who ‘need’ a war. Too many of our fly-by-night politicians cannot see further ahead than the next election cycle. Geopolitics is well beyond their grasp.

  23. Napoleon in reverse.
    What, precisely, would Putin want with a small, overpopulated and heavily indebted nation that has run out of natural resources – including the oomph and brain power that once made it great?

    1. The dynamics of Empire are inherently unstable and require a sense of advance and dominating neighbours as a means of suppressing instability at home. Russia is an Empire after all and one with a weak domestic economy and suffering dramatic relative and demographic decline. Add in a despotic ruler of advancing years with a sense of imperial restoration – Putin has consistently said that the collapse of the USSR was the greatest disaster of the post War years – and you have a recipe for disaster.
      The tragedy of Putin is that if he had seen himself as a right wing figure like Pinochet or Franco who would drag the nation back from disaster and stabilise it before making way to constitutional government he would have been something of a hero in historical terms. Unpleasant but in historical terms a success, but he cannot get past the USSR, and of course absolute power corrupts absolutely and he is absolutely corrupt.

      1. Putin has consistently said that the collapse of the USSR was the greatest disaster of the post War years.

        Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no head. Vladimir Putin.

        1. Any right thinking person was glad to see the back of a failed communist empire replete with gulags, queues for basic necessities and Chekist oppression.

          2. You’d be amazed! People yearn after aspects of their youth, even when it was under communism. There’s Ossie-nostalgia to this day in Germany – on BOTH sides of the former border!

          4. I agree with that. When I was having my teeth done in Krakow, I chanced upon the Kafe Rewolutcja. This was a small establishment whose proprietors were deeply nostalgic for better times.

            There were communist-era photographs and posters all over the walls. The place itself was very familiar to the sort of places I knew when I worked in Poland in 1979. The service was dour and surly. The chairs and tables were basic – something like a 1950s transport cafe. There were only two types of beer available – small or medium. They sold pizza mainly, but would have a selection of two or three traditional Polish dishes on the menu, and that was all they had. On the other hand, the food was nutritious and plentiful and it was cheap, and the beer was fine. Anything more would just be costly bling and not necessary. I went back there often.

            The irony of it was that, along with the heritage railways in Britain, it could only exist in the private sector.

          5. I take it, BB2, that by Ossie-nostalgia, you’re referring to Austria and not Australia.

      2. Do you have any connection with either a well known pub chain or a hit US comedy show of the late ’70s to mid ’80s?

        J D Wetherspoon
        Our founder and chairman, Tim Martin, set up J D Wetherspoon in 1979. Why ‘J D Wetherspoon’? Because ‘J D’ form the initials of Sheriff JD Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard TV series, of course, while Mr Wetherspoon was one of Tim’s teachers in New Zealand!

        https://www.jdwetherspooncareers.com/about-jdw/#:~:text=Our%20founder%20and%20chairman%2C%20Tim,we%20also%20run%20Lloyds%20No.

        1. 1. I have all the Dukes episodes on dvd, something marking me out as ‘far right’.
          2. I know Tim Martin, rate him highly and his pubs are very good customers of ours.

      3. Do you have any connection with either a well known pub chain or a hit US comedy show of the late ’70s to mid ’80s?

        J D Wetherspoon
        Our founder and chairman, Tim Martin, set up J D Wetherspoon in 1979. Why ‘J D Wetherspoon’? Because ‘J D’ form the initials of Sheriff JD Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard TV series, of course, while Mr Wetherspoon was one of Tim’s teachers in New Zealand!

        https://www.jdwetherspooncareers.com/about-jdw/#:~:text=Our%20founder%20and%20chairman%2C%20Tim,we%20also%20run%20Lloyds%20No.

  25. Just opened my water bill. It used to have the whole amount on the first page and an instruction to pay half in April and half in October.

    Noticeably this bill just has one amount on the first page. Pay £400 in April.

    Turn over a few pages and you get the whole amount and the fact you must also pay £400 in October.

    Why this sleight of hand, Thames Water?

    Edit. It’s a 12.3% increase on last year.

    (Rhetorical question, obvs).

    1. How do you rack up a water bill that huge? Mine is just over £100 every six months. Water meter here, best decision I made many years ago. South East Water here but I do pay Thames Water for the sewage part.

      1. I used to refuse to have a water meter as i bathe every evening and we had a lot of washing.

        Now it’s ideological. Thanes Water wants to fit a compulsory water meter (and keep telling me it will – it just hasn’t got round to it yet) to “save me money”. I don’t need (at this stage) for them to “save me money” on my water bill and certainly don’t want to be worried about how much I use (like my water-metered parents do). I an flying the flag for democratic choice.

        1. I’m with you on this; I don’t want a water meter either. I don’t want to have constantly to be wondering what the bill is going to be at the end. It would have been horrendously high while MOH was alive because of the taps being constantly left running. At least this way, I know what my bill will be and can budget for it.

  26. Did you post under a different name on the Speccie? I post on some for (spiked) as AngloWelshDragon.

  27. A BTL Comment and response:-

    21 min ago
    Reparations for slavery?
    At the time when slaves were growing cotton white children were being “apprenticed” in British cotton mills.
    Those children were signed up for ten years, worked 14 hour days, lived in their work place and were fed with semi solid porridge so it could be dolloped into their right hand to save time and the cost of bowls and utensils.
    If they escaped, as some tried to do, they were pursued and recaptured if possible. Once recaptured they were punished.
    The same people who owned the cotton mills owned slave plantations.
    Why do we hear no calls for reparations for the descendants of those children?
    The rich and powerful have always abused the powerless for their own benefit if they could. It took good people in Parliament to reduce working hours in the mills and to end slavery.

    4 min ago
    John, how do we know these details?
    Was it because Lord Salisbury and other Peers and MPs commissioned investigations into the ABUSES of employment in factories, mines etc so that Parliament could gauge the magnitude of the problem and take more effective action?
    Who investigated and recorded those employers who treated their workers well and provided exemplary conditions, both working and housing?
    There were many enlightened employers who did their best to provide for their workers, many of them driven by their Christian beliefs, but very seldom were those works recorded and certainly not by way of Official Commissions of Investigation.

    1. Indeed. Millions of white British slaves worked in the mills mines and factories. Little children working in coal mines, never seeing daylight with rickets as a consequence, not to mention the inherent dangers of working underground. I’m sure as they shuffled off shoeless to their unlit, unheated hovels for a few pennies a week, they, were all thinking: “Could be worse- I could be a slave in the colonies!”
      At least the slaves were well fed and had better weather!

  29. Packing on the carbs at breakfast makes you toast in the attractiveness stakes

    EATING a breakfast packed with carbohydrates, such as white toast, pastries and cereal, can make people look less attractive in as little as two hours, scientists have found.

    The puffiness and bloating that accompanies eating refined carbohydrates is known as “carb face” but until now scientists have never studied its impact on attraction.

    For the study, French researchers asked 104 volunteers to consume either a breakfast high in carbs, or a low-glycemic breakfast which can include foods such as porridge, eggs or fruit. After two hours participants had their picture taken and additional volunteers were asked to say which images they found most appealing.

    Statistical analysis showed that consuming the high-carb breakfast was associated with lower facial attractiveness ratings for both men and women.

    In contrast, eating a diet in fat, such as cheese or milk, made people appear better looking.

    The team also asked volunteers to fill in questionnaires about their general eating habits, and found that chronic consumption of carbs throughout the day was associated with general lower attractiveness, while high-energy foods was linked to higher attractiveness ratings. Men, however, were perceived as more good-looking if they snacked on carbs in the afternoon. The opposite was true for women.

    Claire Berticat, of University of Montpellier, said: “We found that the results differed, at least for men, according to the different meals of the day.”

    Researchers said there were scientific reasons why a high-carb diet may affect facial attractiveness, including triggering hypoglycemia which affects blood flow and the skin. It may also influence sex hormones which can change face shape. The research was published in the journal PLOS One.

    Hope you all enjoyed a good night’s sleep (I did), got up, did your stretching exercises, took care of your ablutions, then stuffed your bellies with “face-bloating” carbs.🤣

      1. Afternoon, Maggie. When I were a young ‘un, a chain of baker’s shops called Davy’s had branches in most towns and cities in our area. They were exceptionally good and their crusty cobs filled with a delicious ham salad were the stuff of legend.

        Unfortunately Davy’s was bought out in the late 1970s by a firm called Hagenbach’s who produced similar food, but at a much reduced quality. After a decade-or-so, Hagenbach’s were bought out by Greasy Gregg’s. Nothing ever lasts!

  30. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Light cloud overhead Castle McPhee, wind in the East, 5℃ with the Met Office neo-Marxist climate cultists forecasting 10℃ this afternoon. Staying dry so I should get the fences finished and be able to carry on with turning over and mulching the borders.

    Well, it is indeed a damp squib of a budget from the damp squib of a WEF/CCP puppet chancellor.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f671ea5607b64f5a4807a598b0f5b0cb4fe4efec480cc8d319f4b7c3d9991b7.png

    The noose around the w⚓︎’s neck is fiscal D_R_A_G. It can’t drag him off the political stage soon enough as, very soon, those existing on a state pension alone will be pulled into the Income Tax net. Utterly reprehensible. Unforgivable.

    There is much more I could rant on about concerning the continuing existence of our Byzantine tax system but I’ll leave it at that.

    1. They, HMRC, already tax my 2nd pension which should yield £120.00 per month, but it only produces £73.89. Swindle.

  33. Obscure banking news, interpreted on Twitt by a couple of people and AI…I’m not expert enough to comment on it myself, but it doesn’t look particularly reassuring
    “In short, the safest asset in the world is now the riskiest asset in the world. If banks are forced to value US Treasuries correctly, they’re dead, so they are refusing to participate in Treasury markets unless the accounting rules are faked.”

    https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1765440858403537196

    1. “In short, the safest asset in the world is now the riskiest asset in the world. “

      This is what comes of weaponising the dollar. Treasury yields have largely climbed because of sanctions on Russia.

      1. Minty, it’s the years of reckless money creation, which is effectively looting wealth from the world by a clique of ultra rich central bankers. It was always destined to reach this point.

      2. The Sodding Arabians are looking around for alternatives to the petrodollar. BRICS may provide them with a way ahead via the rouble or yuan. As I read recently, the Euro is not being considered as it has no bullion to back the printed notes.

  34. As a smoker (albeit one who resides in France), I always keep an eye on duties for cigarettes. I see they rose again yesterday. At what point will the government realise that if they continue to make cigarettes so expensive (and, given, that smoking is a habit for many working class people who do no earn significant amounts), smugglers will supply the demand.

    I also observe that – as one who flies regularly between England and France – that it is now cheaper to buy a return flight to a European city with Ryanair and to buy a carton of cigarettes each way. The basic calculation is:

    Ryanair flight (based upon what I pay regularly): €38 return (or £32).

    Cartons of cigarettes x 2 (purchased on the plane, rather than in duty free as the latter is more expensive): €100 (or £85).

    A carton of cigarettes in London: £170.

    Therefore it is 31% cheaper to fly to another European city (and have a nice day out) and to buy cigarettes in the air, than it is to buy them in the UK.

    1. In some coastal areas over 70% of the cigarette packs recovered from public bins etc are contraband or no duty paid.

      1. Does not surprise me in the slightest! I used to buy Korean cigarettes from my local chippy when I lived in Chelsea. £5 a pop (vs. around £10 at the time). Why wouldn’t I?

    2. I gave up smoking in 1977. I seem to remember paying 46p for 20. Does the £170 carton consist of 10×20 packs? If so, that means £17 for a pack of 20. I’m saving a fortune!

      1. Yes, a carton is 200 (10×20), thus £17 a pack. When I started smoking, a pack of ten was £1.37. I used to sell cigarettes to the younger students at my school to get mine for free. I used to drink beer for free via the same wheeze.

          5. Alas no. They’ve adopted virtutis fortunes comes (fortune favours the brave). Looking at their Wikipedia entry, they’re gaslighting people by suggesting filii means children. It means sons and is plastered all across the school.

      2. I gave up smoking tobacco in 2016 but converted to vaping with 3 mg of nicotine to satiate the nicotine craving after 60 years of tobacco smoking.

    3. In the days before open borders, and all European countries had border posts, I used to do a bit of border hopping during my motorcycle trips to the continent. I befuddled one Dutch officer between Aachen and Vaals (I loved nipping into Maastricht between Germany and Belgium, just to add another country to my list). I found out that petrol was cheaper in Germany than in the Netherlands, so I turned round and went back to the border. Border Guard asked me where I was going. I said “home”. He looked at my GB plate (this was before Britain identified with Ukraine on its international nationality plate) and looked quizzically at me “But England’s that way”, pointing in the opposite direction. I said I was nipping back into Germany to fill up. He didn’t bother to stop me again a few minutes later when I came back through his border, the right direction this time.

      1. I had two and a half happy years stationed in Maastricht. I also had two years in York – double bonus.

      1. I’m just trying to understand your prior incoherent statement which implied either that Putin brought down the USSR, something which is manifestly false, or that he wants to restore it, which would accord with all his statements and many of his actions.

          1. As ever you just evade any substantive argument and just make throwaway quips. You cannot argue because your perspective is completely flawed and not based on evidence or reality.

  36. Harman is a truly nasty piece of work. in fact, I will probably keep my subscription and continue to comment just so he can’t win! He blocked me about six months ago and not having to see his comments was a delight so it’s quite annoying that we can now see each other.

    1. Oh yes, I was in the Harman banned club too. Another downside of the new comments system was having to see that wretched man’s thoughts again

      1. Possibly. Harman is his real name but now he goes by Robert Bidochon which sounds like the bastard love child of a bidet and bichon frise. Which is appropriate: yappy and full of shit.

  37. Hello everyone. I am a Speccie refugee just dropping in . Many thanks for your offer to host us occasionally. Lovely to see people’s avatar too, even though I haven’t got one 😊

    2. Hope you stay mrs C, welcome back. We have a family saying ‘a crocodile question’. Bit of a long story, years ago a wildlife photographer giving a talk to young children, told them he wanted to film crocs underwater but crocs kept attacking his cage – did they have any solution. Children agreed ‘dress like a crocodile’ i.e. obvious solution…bit like if the Spectator doesn’t want us to post on their site, we won’t will find where we can post:-)

      1. It was just bad luck that the photographer chose the mating season to dress like a crocodile.

        1. Song does say that…also, I think it was in Alice? about his gently smiling jaws…:-)

    3. Why are people being cancelled on the Speccie? I’ve just posted there and I seem to be OK – despite what I’ve posted in the past whereas I’m shadow-banned on the DT.

      1. You personally are not being banned, although that’s what the message says. The Speccie has banned making comments from disqus.

      2. I don’t know. I can still post there, but I have come here because it’s not the same, now all the interesting people are leaving.

    4. Are you married to peddytheviking?

      A former Nottler with a love of Crocs

      Welcome

      1. I could have added Welsh to my moniker. Indeed, I state on census forms that I am Anglo-Hiberno-Cambro-Micronesian. But that is rather a mouthful !

        1. I’m Black Sea-Yorkshire but hadn’t thought of entering that on census forms. Maybe I should!

          1. You should, Sue! It’s great fun playing around with the questions. I used to be “British – White” or “British – Other” and then leave it blank. But anyone reading, “Anglo-Hiberno-Cambro-Micronesian” would be baffled !

          2. Some of us, who’ve studied genealogy are not baffled. I’ve managed to trace my mother’s side to 530 in Uppsala, Sweden. Alas,on my father’s side I can only get to 1580.

          3. Father’s side I can go back definitively to 1169 (we participated in the Cambro-Norman invasion of Ireland), but semi-definitively much further, including Charlemagne, Clovis I (aka Louis I), and back to a Roman centurion. My mother’s side…were chiefs of the islands and under folklore were very ancient although as their history was not written down, no one can quite tell when! My mother’s family do have a very interesting family “crest” which was essentially battle colours: the head of a frigate bird covered in the blood of our enemies (we were also cannibals, mwahahaha!).

          4. Not a drop of Celtic blood, except for the mother of Queen Matilda and she’s Caladonian.

          5. I have so many different bloods! Celtic nations, English, Norman, Frankish, Viking, Italian…and that’s just my father’s side. On my mother’s: polynesian, micronesian, and a bit of Chinese!

      2. I am still Mrs Croc wherever I post.
        I have seen your comments and they are very interesting.
        My mother was Welsh, maybe I should be Celtic Croc! 🤣🤣

        1. Yours too. We right wing women aren’t afraid to show our teeth because we aren’t hypocrites hiding behind #bekind baloney!

  38. Thank you, Sir J! I still look at the Spectator but not being able to interact with other BTL people has killed off the main purposes that it had. Oh well, there appear to be a grand number of us here now!

      1. Do people here actually read the Telegraph? I don’t want to pay for it, and the trick of using the Escape key to get round the paywall no longer seems to work, unless my fingers are becoming less agile.

        2. I cancelled recently, because it’s become like the Daily Mail in terms of its reporting. The final straw was an article this week about one of the Beckham children, speculating as to whether he might be more successful than his parents.

          Given he is not a footballer, seems he won’t be more successful than his father and, frankly, it was only because his mother was a Spice Girl – and then married Beckham – that she has been successful. I do not envy the Beckham parents; they made the most of their talents. Nepo-babies though: yawn.

        3. I tested my variation of the Escape key method and achieved partial success. I click the X near the address bar. It stops the page loading any further but timing is critical. I click immediately the scroll bar on the right suggests that the text below the headline has loaded. Too soon and the text body will be missing; too late and the text body will be truncated by the Telegraph’s invitation to commence a free trial. I managed to read a couple of news and opinion pages but not always at the first attempt.

  39. Good morning, all. Dull, low overcast but calm this morning in N Essex.

    On the agenda this morning: three post holes to be dug for the new supports for my thorn-less blackberry. The latter put on a vast amount of growth last year, pruned out yesterday, along with more fruit than I could deal with and requires much sturdier support.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e12469e5d8e715141f79cf089f42df415096d43ea9d597ab2c9a6888f0a2b676.jpg

    The World today…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/504bc05c3f764e83e1fdadfe0027f3d0484bd4b44f01753fcae46b6d6401cafd.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/364e390afc40abbe034248e680b4e76bcaddc021565136e20abebec3ae820dc0.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb1376a1a8a268071c98f31d81e3e2cb8c12df54fb44b19e5785eeb286a7491a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05b3c031b76f51540dcbae1e5ad23cdcf3d95b2a0c917e1a86934fccf562cceb.png

    It’s not just here in the UK that pandering to illegal immigrants is de rigueur for governments with a hidden agenda.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4a011ff9c1b2d4ae047c86e25ec373df4a40c7c0be1cfd6e57dfdf16ec5efe1.png

  40. Good morning all ,

    Damp dull day, no sunshine here in these Purbecky parts . 6c

    What sort of monument will the Muslims agree to?

    Radical Muslims trashed every monument in their home countries apart from Mosques and the Pyramids .

    Will they want something vulgar like a Dubai type of skyscraper ?

    Muslims who fought in WW1 and WW2 were different people, or were they , to the appalling idle heckling cruel murdering individuals who have caused grief in the UK , like Lockerbie , Manchester , 9/11, beheadings / London bombs / suicide bombers / throat slashers ,.

    That idiot chancellor is a grovelling fool for awarding a prize to a religious sectarian body, who have probably wrought financial ruin on the Town halls they manage , and KHAN must now have more mandate to further his campaign of madness .

      1. I’ve just finished reading “Unveiled” by ex Muslim Yasmine Mohammed. Highly recommended.

      2. Morning Tom ,

        It is too early to discuss ‘ologies.

        Islam ‘submission [to the will of God]’) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad, the religion’s founder.

        A false monument for Muslims costing a £million + to erected in the UK is a pig in a poke and an absolute insult to us all .

        2. But he is right Belle. Islam is far more than a religion. Jesus said ‘give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s’ thus introducing a dichotomy into social affairs. In Islam everything is given unto God and nothing is separate from God, including control over society. And as that control must be absolute, with unbelievers, heretics, schismatics and apostates all being regarded as enemies to be given the sharp edge of a sword, it is fair to characterise Islam as a politico-religious ideology.

    1. Morning Sue, not sure what that is about. There is no explanation of what happened to him.

        1. Very low, to try and use his name without even paying him, let alone the misrepresentation that is bound to have crept in.

  42. Morning all 🙂😊
    No other way to describe the usual scene out side. Grey once more. But not as chilly.
    Sadly there is no real and effective way of grabbing our useless and rather pointless political idiots around their necks and insisting that they make immediate alterations that they know would benefit the majority.
    Once more as if we actually need any further details from them. They have more than underlined how useless, cruel, apathetic and case hardened they ALL are.

  43. Sad to say it was much, much worse than a damp squib, it was yet another nail in the coffin of our prosperity, freedom and social cohesion. It was the work of a far left zealot intent on destruction.

  44. Belated Morning All

    Medley

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c539ffcb4980c13c57c1cd2add9f7e1bcba5c85af881b9f09969f569556d3ce.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d79d5b15c128fac8278cad429f7fc6372a6c30c625337a9ef11bbb76fad817e.jpg

    https://i.imgflip.com/8ia30i.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8555e40639574fc31ff2202d44ec7fe1d64b3753483d32297a50375e10e9c3dd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e2511d720f933543135ba89424f9d007d09009d121f778f2f97474261cd67b5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a564e74964064fa8e20476d4d3065bea634cad1ec4ef2181ad7a71a9ff0eedd2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e1d4a796bf69d2b0baf30698d6a330d96ae6b3ee5714c2f5a9978a254970d812.gif

    2. The smug faces on the government bench say it all. Their policies won’t hurt them. But they seem incapable of realising the pain they’ve caused to the British people.

  45. A corker of a piece in TCW today from Prof. Dalgliesh. Sorry can’t do the link on my phone.

    2. J, sorry to ask , but have you seen this ?

      ‘Super-tuskers’ killed by trophy hunters in Tanzania
      A 30-year-old deal to protect Kenya’s prized bull elephants appears to have broken down, with tragic consequences for the animals that cross an unmarked border

      News of the hunts have emerged in local reports and included unsettling details. At least two of the carcasses were burnt after the hunts which took place in September, November and last week. Such a practice is not usual in Tanzania and meant the animals’ unique identifying features were lost.

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/super-tuskers-elephants-killed-trophy-hunters-tanzania-t89608w2h

      1. Yes. Though not the piece in the Times. A third one has apparently just happened. It’s appalling and there used to be an agreement that hunting would not take place in this border area.
        Elephants know no national boundaries and that area is part of the Amboseli ecosystem. Apparently too there are licences for more hunts in the offing.
        The fact they burnt the remains is part of the cover up.

  47. Yesterday’s cough is getting better already. Must’ve been short Covid.

  48. Re compensation from the church for slaves .

    I cannot recall my parents discussing compensation from the government when they and my sister and I were caught up in the Suez crisis 1956 , mother sister and I evacuated , and daddy and around 400 expats rounded up and taken away with sacks over their heads by the Egyptians , and imprisoned / interned in Cairo for three months .. 2 of whom included Army padres, one the 2 was badly injured .

    As you can see by my anti attitude , on how I react and feel to the invasion of Britain by the same similar barbaric people who spat and shouted and threatened our school bus which was protected by the Army soldiers before the Government withdrew the armed services in 1955!

    Thus also witnessing sudden violent reactions and mobs in Ismailia and Moascar .. I was just a nine year old child .

    Do I suffer from early onset PTSD?

    1. Your early experience has stayed with you for life, and shaped your later responses to other issues. It’s probably too late to change now.

    2. You are suffering from nowt but a clear mind and memory Belle. It must have been terrifying for a nine year old though. I’ve been caught up in riots in Karachi, Pakistan, and Hindu-Muslim riots in Ahmadabad, India both of which seemed to come out of nowhere and which had me shaking in my boots. I nearly got banjoed by the Indian police when they responded with a lathi-charge, the ferocity of which was something else.

      1. Certain memories do stay with us, and the Lord only knows what what war does to the mind , my late father was based on aircraft carriers and shore based in Southern India and Ceylon during WW2…

      2. Getting caught in tear gas outside a French underground station when i was 20 was terrifying enough.

    3. A very Interesting story TB.
      Perhaps someone will work out how much compensation British and Irish possibly French families are due in compensation while for an estimated 700 years the ‘moors’ stole thousands of their children from our shores, while the islamist were taking over Iberia aka Spain.
      No holding of breath please.

    4. One of the symptoms of PTSD is awful images flashing up all the time. There are ways to deal with that without drugs.

      The trick is when it happens is to overlay the image with another one.

      I picture an apple. Focus on the apple and add more and more detail. Then add a leaf. Intensify the colour. Do that often enough and when the bad image flashes up it immediately becomes blocked by the apple. Takes a bit of practice but it does work.

      1. I hate large crowds , and lots of noise .

        Your advice is wonderful Phizzee.

        I used to have night terrors , even into our early married years , wake up screaming , nothing like that for years .

        1. I don’t like crowds either. I become disorientated.

          I also have difficulty in recognising faces of people i know. I met up with Alf and VW not long ago. Alf stands out because he is so tall (jolly green giant) but i couldn’t describe VW to you and i was sitting right next to her.

  49. 384455+up ticks,

    Morning Each.
    Thursday 7,

    A damp squib of a Budget from a government at the end of the lineThursday 7 March:

    The mindset that the political overseers are working for the benefit of the indigenous peoples is well out of order and has been so these past 4 decades.

    The road to RESET is finding success each day that passes,
    via the political overseeing lab/lib/con coalition, & I believe 48%
    of the electorate.

    So the budget is in point of fact catering for the WEF / NWO
    agenda, by the by, with royal seal no doubt.

    1. As usual it Seems to be hitting pensioners harder than anyone else.
      We’ll all be dead soon. That’s what they know and rely on.

      1. 384455+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,

        Then don’t tell them your name to give them any satisfaction.

        1. Too late OG. I have a stack of paper work from government crooks regarding the stealing of my 47 years of contributions to my pathetic pension payments.

          1. Looks like I spoke too soon, I seem to have won a lucky dip on Saturdays National Lottery.

          3. 384455+ up ticks,

            RE,
            Then the only thing I can suggest is Y FRONTS ( clean) over head to stop immediate facial recognition.

  50. So this is where you’ve all got to! The Speck is missing out, and looking rather moribund. I wonder how long it can last.

        1. Much better for being here thanks 🙂 Still reading and posting on the Speccie though – for the moment!

  53. I have spent far too long here, neglecting what I need to do in the garden this time of year. Once again, my summer weeding will resort to “if it’s six foot and seeding, I’ll give it a tug”.

    Job for today is to clear out the interesting weeds from my onion bed, so I can get the sets in. I am a cheapskate, and loath to spend £5.99 for a pot of something in the garden centre I can dig up from my veg bed. The obvious thugs, such as dandelion, creeping buttercup, nettle go in the compost. Interesting things such as chickweed, herb robert, forget-me-not, mallow go into a sin bin – a bit of cleared ground that are my refugee camp for the unwanted. They then take their chances. Many succumb, but what survives and emerges there provides more interest than just the “distinct, uniform and stable” that is commercially available and officially approved.

    1. I compost everything, even ground elder, and don’t have too much of a problem. I also have a plastic dustbin that i fill with water and chuck all sorts in, weeds, flowers, old tomato plants and so on. All the nutrients in this stuff is transferred to the water which I use on my plot. And very effective it is too. I have separate bins for nettle (regarded by some as the most nutritious plant on the planet) and comfrey, which I combine with a bit of crushed bone and wood ash to make a very effective and free fertiliser.

      I also drink nettle tea, and Mrs Armstrong makes nettle and potato soup. Surprisingly good!

      1. I was once on Gardener’s Question Time, and the answer to my question was Ground Elder.

        Happy days.

  54. As a refugee from the Spectator I’m just finding my way around your excellent site folks, so let me know, and forgive me, if I’m beaching etiquette by introducing a subject remote from the piece in the DT.

    This is a bit of news that seems (un)surprisingly absent from the MSM but which is pure dynamite. Andrew Bridgen MP is accusing the government of murder.

    I’m setting up own on-line magazine, freespeechbacklash . com and though it will not be up and running for a couple of weeks, I am writing pieces for it all the time. This is taken from my Conspiracy Corner article about mRNA vaccines which tells the story and ends:

    Conspiracy theory or conspiracy fact? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
    But before you comment, please consider breaking news about the contents of a letter Andrew Bridgen has sent to Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the MET police, saying that he has very disturbing new and damming evidence that crimes may have been committed in the process of the Covid 19 vaccination programme roll-out. The crimes Mr Bridgen lists are terrifying, including:

    • Misconduct in public office.
    • Misfeasance in public office.
    • Manslaughter
    • Gross Negligent Manslaughter
    • Gross Corporate Manslaughter
    • Fraud
    • Murder
    • Grievous Bodily Harm.
    As well as conspiracy to commit and aiding and abetting the listed crimes.

    We are not normally given to superlatives, but wow! Just wow!

    1. Also, the not supporting of the likes of the SAS in NI and Afghanistan.

      They are being thrown to the wolves,

          5. I hope so too. My grandmother was from S Shields and I’d be highly miffed if I thought those lasses were going soft.

          6. I’m from Low Fell originally, went to school in Newcastle! I live in Scotland (husband on missionary work in the North East!) and I miss Newcastle!

          10. I’ve heard that Newcastle is the best place for New Year’s Eve.

          11. It’s been several years since I’ve experienced it, but in my youth it was spectacular!🎊🎉

      2. I might have considered a nude selfies as a lad, though selfies were not then invented, but at my age the embarrassment would likely be terminal.

    3. As long as it’s interesting those who wish to will comment.
      Sometimes putting:
      “off topic” before the post lets people know and might even encourage them to read your contribution.

      1. Good idea to post “off topic” when you are, especially if you are just posting a recipe 😁! Maybe make it a house rule? It isn’t a difficult one to follow and shouldn’t offend.

        1. You’ll find that recipes are always “on topic” on Nottle.

          One of the nice things about Nottle is that there are very few house rules, most posters tend to have their own ways of presenting things and the mods tend not to interfere. If it works for you ,use “off topic”

          2. There are several Nottlers who will contribute, eg Phizzee and Grizzly as well as several of the womenfolk. Pretty much all tastes catered (ho ho) for.

    4. Hey Tom!

      Fin (formerly sfin on the Spectator and TCW) here. I said I’d sign up and I have – to the email updates at least. I’m very much looking forward to your magazine and wish you all the best for the launch.

    5. Yep Tom, I have registered. Big news that one. Where did it come from? I’ve not looked at the news yet, not that it’s going to be there of course.

      1. I picked it up from the admirable Dr John Campbell on Youtube yesterday, and verified it from various sources. The letter was written on 22 Feb, but just made public.

          1. And given the hot shiite he’s had chucked at him, and looking at the list of witnesses, my guess is that it is very well prepared. I think he would be well advised to look into what some folk think happened to David Kelly!

          2. Ah yes, David Kelly. I do bring that one up from time to time but fair credit to Bliar, most punters don’t even recall it until I go into details. The memory hole is a very deep thing.

            That one’s on HP letterhead, so he must be sure of his ground, surely.

          3. He’d be very foolish to have published such explosive allegations without being sure. As he he has two lawyers and a policeman as supporting witnesses as well as experts in their very relevant field, I think he must be certain.

          5. Ah yes, David Kelly. I do bring that one up from time to time but fair credit to Bliar, most punters don’t even recall it until I go into details. The memory hole is a very deep thing.

            That one’s on HP letterhead, so he must be sure of his ground, surely.

    6. Morning Tom. I’ll drop over when you are running and post “Vlad for Prime Minister!” which should get Mi5 in a tizzy!

    7. Looking forward to this.
      A question or two, will the comments be locked after a day or so?
      Is that a Disqus thing, or decidable by site?

      1. I’m sorry Smeggie I don’t know. My intention is to keep them all open but as I’m using disqus I’ll have to follow their rules. I’m not clever enough to build the sites structure and have recruited No.2 son, who has his own company making websites among other things, so I’ll ask him. Any other suggestions will be most welcome.

        1. No probs. Angelina seems to know about the workings of Disqus, already lot of useful posts (including directions to this place).

          1. Aye, she’s the reason I’m here. To be honest, I’d never heard of it before.

    8. Looking forward to your mag’s debut, Tom. Keep us posted. Looking for writers by any chance?

  55. Back from t’market. Tony still had those outstanding cheddar truckles – so bought two more. Morrisons – far fewer staff, we noticed – have the 25% off six bottles of wine. So bought a dozen – to gawp at until Easter Day!

    Sun briefly out but gone again.

    I do hope that we are not going to be swamped by the newbies…now that they have come out of their rubber boats.

    Perhaps a test might be a fish pun thread. They may carp at that…

          3. Took me a couple of minutes to get that, while the wh eels got going in my head!

          2. Observers Book of British Fish! Or it might have been The Little Mermaid!

          11. Ha! I shouldn’t wonder if his tuna’l change if you knock him off his in-temperate perch.

      2. Better get back on-topic or it will become a damp squid on the end of a line.

  56. Politics of envy.

    Spiteful attacks on both the affluent middle class and the wealthy.

    This is the traditional nasty policy of OLD LABOUR.

    The treatment of the Non-Doms shows that Hunt is far more Old Labour than Conservative. The Non Doms will leave (I expect that the Sunak family have already booked their flights) and tax revenue will fall!

    The government’s refusal to challenge Starmer’s plan to squeeze private schools – a squeeze which will inevitably suffocate them into closing and swamping the state sector with displaced pupils.

    So vote Conservative = Vote Old Labour

    (Maybe not the best electioneering slogan?)

      3. Yes it is Rastus. I know this is fiction but it has consequences in the real world in which children, due to ‘Hollyoaks’, may end up maimed for life and condemned to a life of misery. There are few things more evil than to encourage the destruction of children.

  62. “Let me have men about me that are fat.”

    Julius Caesar was not entirely wrong – after all the best post war male prime minister we have had was the very corpulent Winston Churchill.

    Peter Mandelson and Jeremy Hunt have the lean and hungry, untrustworthy look that Julius Caesar disliked so much. Both of them mock the burgeoning adiposity of Keir Starmer who has a long way to go to catch up with me!

    1. I have lost 3 1/2 stone since 16th May last year and feel fantastic.

      1. I cut down on carbs about a year ago – lost a bit of weight without even trying and I’m well. I don’t know how much I lost because I don’t weigh myself but clothes are looser.

    2. Hmm. I wonder if Caesar had a secret passion for tango? One of my favourite dance partners at the moment is a massively obese Brazilian. It’s fabulous to watch him and his wife dance exhibitions, but, when up close and personal, even more astonishing the subtlety and speed of movement transmitted through his paunch.

        1. I was belly to belly with Ashes. And before Sosraboc gets all smutty it was to show me the posture for Tango.

  64. Our neighbour lost his heat pump at 8 1/2 years – totally worn out.

    Ours is 7 1/2 years old and definitely giving signs that it’s coming to the end of its life.

  65. Good Morning all.
    I mentioned, yesterday, the guy who has been sentenced to two years in jail for stickers. Today, I came across two videos about it. I’m posting both because they both contain information that differs. Lauren Southerns video discusses the history of the judge, when convicting people. David Kurten discusses the fact that the man has not even broken the law.

    I have another video that I’m going to post after these two. But on another subject.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XC4SjpE3z0&t=364s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExnfLNcfw7w&t=187s

  66. Hello everyone. Just having a look at this place via information at the Spectator comments.
    Have cancelled Telegraph subscription, I came across somebody on the comments posting with exactly the same name as me.
    Very disconcerting I must say….

    1. Hallo Christopher. There are thousands of people with your name. Just had a look on ‘Facebook’, no I don’t use it! There are so many ‘Christopher Edwards’ that I gave up scrolling down to the end. In other words there really are thousands of them. Have you got a middle initial, perhaps adding that would help?

      1. Yes Johnathan I appreciate the plethora of Christopher Edwards names every where.
        My point to the Telegraph team was this:- If someone posted something under my name that was defamatory, or libellous, I would have difficulty in proving it was not me.
        Aside from that the ‘other ‘ Chris Edwards would have opinions that differed from mine, perhaps on an ‘industrial ‘ scale.
        So I thought it best to nip it in the bud…

          2. I guess it’s possible. I have three Ndovu accounts with different images so I know which one I’m using. This is my main one.

          3. I use a specific denotation in my post’s so that I know it’s me , and can point to same as being definitive proof of the post being mine Ndovu….

          12. It can. It was quite popular to do so about a year ago I seem to recall on the Spectator thread, but you could always tell by comparison with the original poster’s account. Those people, trolls mostly, got found out too often and the practice diminished significantly.

          14. I did, years ago – but was challenged to repeat an “edgy” comment using my real name. So I did. And have done ever since.

        2. Your IP address would prove you hadn’t posted those comments.
          Good morning and welcome.

          1. Not if you’re using a VPN I’d guess. Disqus has a responsibility to keep a unique identifier in their database. I think it’s the unique name in your account.

        3. You’d probably be ok regarding proof. Your real name sits under your profile picture in your Disqus account. That string after the ‘@’ symbol never appears under anyone else’s account known as “Christopher Edwards”.

  68. He’s not a gimmegrant so won’t get legal aid. Unless he’s rich or gets outside funding, probably not.

  71. This is the third video that I mentioned. Please stay with it because you might assume it is another racist rant by black Americans. In fact it is the very opposite and that becomes clear a little way through the video. This was a “light bulb” video for me. Because the gentleman in the bottom right hand corner mentions the Kulaks and what was done to them. In the context of what he was saying about American farmers I suddenly connected the fate of the Kulaks with the persecution of the Farmers in the EU, Canada, England, and so on. Had a little epiphany concerning what is going on here, why farmers are being attacked and what it means for the rest of us.

    UNEXPECTED! Black Conservative Destroys Woke ‘Morning Joe’ Professor
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRa1ZbwdpT8

    1. Candice Owens, another black female American conservative, is also worth listening to.

      1. I know. She has the good sense to be married to an Englishman. Whats not to like! I expect her to become a congresswoman at the least. I would be delighted if she ran for the presidency.

        1. She’s certainly one to keep an eye on. I also like Tulsi Gabbard even though she’s a Dem.

    2. Thank you for posting, yes – control the farmers and you control everything, not just the food supply – communism under cover of the climate change scam this time round. I wonder how much the resistance we are seeing from the farmers has been factored into their plans, have they factored it into their scheming or have they got carried away on a jet stream of euphoria?

      1. Control the farmers and you control everything – see Stalin’s Holodomor in Ukraine in the early 30s.

  72. I don’t know if the departure of Victoria Nuland has been discussed here- I have not seen it at the DT where real news has little traction- not least as it is counter to the narrative. This dangerous appalling woman is on her way, at long last and it is probably a signal that her Ukrainian debacle is hitting the buffers. An utterly reprehensible woman and Glenn Greenwald discusses the lowlights of her career.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8J13OdXjz8

    1. It’s good to see the back of warmonger Nuland. Let’s hope it is a sign of a degree of intelligence, or at least reality, breaking out in the Biden regime.

    3. It is possible that Victoria Nuland was sacked given the failure of the proxy war she constructed in Ukraine.

      I also understand that the murder of Gonzalo Lira by the Zelensky regime, one of her most vocal critics, may have a bearing on all of this. Zelensky is close to being deposed.

      I recently saw a picture of ‘Toria’ Nuland, when she worked under Chainey and was incredibly beautiful, next to a photo of her present self. I would draw a comparison with Tony Blair and of course that painting in the attic.

  73. That’s why the Romans introduced it into Blighty.
    Altogether now: What have the Romans ever done for us?

  74. When will something be done about this Vile man.

    https://newsaddicts.com/top-eu-leader-blows-whistle-wef-elites-climate-change-depopulate-earth/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

    Will everyone wake up before it’s too late?
    Why these people haven’t been arrested is beyond me as the WEF has no legal standing. Our useless pathetic leaders seem to bow down to them though…it doesn’t make sense. And in the mean time are filling our own country to bursting.
    I hope the thirty pieces of silver are worth it.

    1. This relates to the video I posted below ‘UNEXPECTED! Black Conservative Destroys Woke ‘Morning Joe’ Professor’. There is definitely a movement designed to destroy first the farmers, subjugate them and the rest of us to a dictatorial regime of elitists who think they know better —-for themselves, not us.

      1. We will be eating insects but you can bet your bottom dollar ‘they’ will still be eating fillet steak.

    2. Wrong, the WEF does now have a legal standing. Last year the Swiss government gave it international institution based in Switzerland status.

  75. Well i must say…it’s like one big family reunion on here now. Welcome all.

    Today i am about to cook Côte Du Boeuf with a Miso Bearnaise sauce. Saute potatoes. Sorry. Only enough for me !

    1. I’m very suspicious of food with French names. Comes from my days at sea in the Merchant Navy when anything with a froggie handle was always vile. And example was cauliflower our gratin, which meant that the cauliflower had gone bad so they covered it up with melted cheese”

  76. Has anyone seen Fraser Nelson’s Underpants (the poster on Disqus, not an actual pair or Y-fronts)?
    Or have they been hung out to dry?

  77. I seem to have missed the reason for all the new members, has something happened elsewhere

    1. Speculation is that the Spectator has woke n up to them and served eviction notices.

    3. The Spectator has removed Disqus as a commenting platform & replaced it with a poorer version.

      https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-new-comments-system-for-the-spectator/#comment-6397498154

      P.S. I see posting links direct need approval – which on the Spectator site, never arrived.

      Edit: and one can’t delete posts in the limbo state.

    4. The Spectator has removed Disqus as a commenting platform & replaced it with a poorer version.

      https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-new-comments-system-for-the-spectator/#comment-6397498154

      P.S. I see posting links direct need approval – which on the Spectator site, never arrived.

      Edit: and one can’t delete posts in the limbo state.

  78. It’s interesting to see that youtube video links can be posted directly on here. How do you do that? I would like to put up a video of the Angry Bootneck, found on Youtube and very funny. His latest, on our far left government’s lunatic plan to spend a million of our money on a Muslim war memorial is a gem. By the way, bootneck is a nickname for a Royal Marine Commando.

    The links is https://www . youtube.com/watch?v=ReGFbuqhrFQ

    1. Oops. I didn’t expect that! I posted a link and the video popped up all by itself. Great stuff folks, great stuff.

    3. Select video on YouTube and start play. Right click the video and select ‘copy URL’ Then paste here.

  79. Off topic
    Looking at an online TV guide I noted that Crufts is on.
    The reason I spotted it is that it appears as a “sport” when I filtered the channels.

    Has Phizzee finally succeeded in getting dogging recognised as a sporting activity?

    1. But you won’t get any notifications if someone replies to your comment, or if your comment garners any upticks.

  81. Blimey, 477 comments and only just gone midday. Navigating the forum is going to take longer.

  82. Is anyone else getting tens of alerts from this website? Some are posts from people I’ve not messaged, never heard of…

      1. Thank you. Already turned off but somehow keep getting through. I keep deleting batches of ’em. Only dealing with ones actually messaging me.

      1. If you click on the balloon next to your name you should get a screen with “most recent” and “replies”
        Replies are as they say, most recent includes up votes. Down votes don’t get notified and merely appear on the relevant comment.
        There is an unwritten gentleman’s agreement on Nottle that people don’t down vote unless they also make a comment as to why they have done so.

        1. Good standard to keep. I have never downvoted anyone in all of my thousands of comments. If anyone has noticed a rare one by me then it’s got recorded by mistake as my thumb scrolls up the screen in error.

    1. Fried in ghee and beef dripping 5 mins a side. Rested for 15 mins. I am eating it this minute. Rare.
      I have two chihuahuas flanking me giving me the evil eye. I don’t think they will allow me to leave the room.

      1. I love beef dripping! As a lad we younguns begged our mam for dripping and bread scrapings when she roasted the Sunday joint. Bon appetite Phiz. Oh, and chihuahuas are quite tasty too.

        1. Worth roasting a joint of beef just to get that fantastic jelly under the dripping. I find that supermarkets trim too much fat from the meat so i use online butchers for my meat.

    1. He’s just another globalist enacting the great reset he cares not one bit for this country or it’s people ~
      Just like post politicians are

    2. And by growth he means GDP, which will rise in line with population, especially as he’s also chucking billions at non-productive immigrants, £32 billion between 2020 and 2023 alone. The real effect however is to lower GDP per capita, making us all poorer, and of course in productivity, making us poorer again. It’s hard not to conclude that making us poorer is what the fake conservative Tories want.

    3. What workforce crisis?
      What are the IQs and qualifications of the channel migrants? The only thing we know about them is that they are prepared to break our laws and happy to receive free money and benefits. I very much doubt that any “workforce crisis” is going to be solved by them.

    1. Have you sign up to this

      Comments will appear under your real name unless you enter a display name in your account area. Further information can be found in our terms of use.

  87. Perhaps replies to your comments posted before 4th March?
    The last post on that article I linked to above is mine, can you reply to it?

  88. Harbour Energy, which is the biggest oil and gas producer in British waters, faced an effective tax rate of 95pc as the UK’s windfall levy took $565m (£443m) out of its 2023 earnings – leaving a profit of just $32m

    This government is out of its tiny mind. They want to bring in a British ISA account. Who would want to invest in British companies this way when Jeremy rhyming slang has announced the extension to 2029 of the energy windfall tax.

    And HMG claim to “want to encourage investment and businesses”.

    1. The energy tax will drive the companies elsewhere. They certainly won’t invest in UK projects unless “renewably subsidised”.
      I am willing to bet that if Green companies ever make a real rather than subsidised profit such taxes won’t apply to them.

  89. Har bloomin’ har.

    Dolly dog is the daughter of a Crufts winner. He was best puppy. His name is Veejim DeltaForce at Taradonna. We call him Archie.

  90. The CEO Ms Cook said Harbour now plans to shift investment abroad so that UK production would shrink from 95pc of Harbour output to just 25pc. They have ceased North Sea exploration with future investment focused overseas. Great own goal.

  91. Yes, but that was prior to the Spectator consciously uncoupling from the disqus platform, therefore, those comments are still registered on my disqus account.

  92. OT – On Tuesday this week, Morrisons’ petrol was £1.53 a litre. Today, it is £1.45. Wonder why…

    1. I noticed our local’s fuel price had gone up while I was away. Haven’t needed to refuel yet.

      1. My fuel price from eonnext dropped from 15p/kWh down to 11p/kWh – that’s over 25% reduction.

    2. I get diesel for £1.45 near me and petrol is £1.32 too. That is well below average though, even for round here. I only mentioned it to try and make you jealous.

      But yes, one wonders why.

        1. Suffolk, but the Esso garage in question is on the A12 by Capel St Mary. The Jet just a mile down the road from him is duly forced to peg his prices at 2p above the Esso because of that. The others such as Tesco, Morrisons and so on are continuing nevertheless to take the supermarket based pee, along with the usual suspects at the top end, (Shell of course).

  93. Thank you for spotting that. Some of us were beginning to wonder if such a refugee influx all at once was such a brilliant idea.

      2. As long as they realise that Nottland is more public bar than senior common room.

      3. I tend to disapprove of segregation, but perhaps an initial solution might be for Geoff to start two daily threads, one for original nottlers and one for Speccie refugees. There could be some cross-over between the two, but it would keep both groups happy, and avoid us newcomers from overwhelming the locals. Just a thought, 🙂

      4. I tend to disapprove of segregation, but perhaps an initial solution might be for Geoff to start two daily threads, one for original nottlers and one for Speccie refugees. There could be some cross-over between the two, but it would keep both groups happy, and avoid us newcomers from overwhelming the locals. Just a thought, 🙂

    2. Here’s a surprise…I entirely agree with you, Uncle Bill!

      I certainly find that we’ve swamped and there’s too much to wade through. whenever I come to take a look and trade insults.

      So I’m orfff for the time being. xxx

  95. He’s just another effing idiot.
    Not one of them will ever get any where close to paying back what they have costs our taxpayers.

      1. I’ve added some of the refugees to our trusted list – if they get unpleasant I will take them off.

  98. We have identitarian politics already firmly embedded as the norm; however, we are fast returning to the sectarian variety.

    Nothing new of course, just the whip hand is now with Islam. I do yearn for the days of Mary, Elizabeth and Walsingham from time to time. Sectarianism had a much better public face back then, I feel.

      1. I’m more a meme than a person. So yes, very very old.

        As an amusing aside though, when me and the other half who is also very old attended our grandson’s (Archie), birthday party some years ago, a very earnest young lad of about 7-years of age said to her, “Archie’s grandma, why are you so very, very, old?”

        Stifled giggles all round, as you can imagine.

      2. I’m more a meme than a person. So yes, very very old.

        As an amusing aside though, when me and the other half who is also very old attended our grandson’s (Archie), birthday party some years ago, a very earnest young lad of about 7-years of age said to her, “Archie’s grandma, why are you so very, very, old?”

        Stifled giggles all round, as you can imagine.

  99. The plot thickens:

    “The female employee who made allegations of controlling behaviour against the Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has been suspended.”

  101. Harry is a long haired blue. I didn’t ask about his ancestry. I’m sure the breeder would have said if he had illustrious relatives.
    I have kept him intact and am considering breeding him to offset the costs. His puppies will sell for £1000.

  102. Decadent Britain is joining Europe in surrender. Coin Coughlin. 7 March 2024.

    In the weeks leading up to yesterday’s statement, the parlous state of our Armed Forces has been laid bare for all to see. The Army is too small and ill-equipped to conduct overseas combat operations at any meaningful level, the Royal Navy has two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers that have neither the manpower nor combat aircraft to make them fully operational, while the Royal Air Force is desperately short of combat aircraft.

    This wanton reduction in Britain’s military strength, moreover, is taking place at a time when, as Lord Cameron observed only in January, “the lights are absolutely flashing red on the global dashboard”. The Foreign Secretary pointed out that it was “hard to think of a time when there has been so much danger and insecurity and instability in the world”.

    Coughlin speaking sense! Whatever next? Mind you he has flagged the wrong enemies. They are landing on the beaches everyday.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/07/decadent-britain-is-joining-europe-in-surrender/

    1. The Foreign Secretary pointed out that it was “hard to think of a time when there has been so much danger and insecurity and instability in the world”.

      I immediately thought of the Cuban Missile Crisis but I suppose Cameron has to be excused as that happened before he was born. Maybe he’s entirely unaware of it.

      1. As he was unaware that the Americans were not in the War in 1940 I think that’s highly likely.

  103. Decadent Britain is joining Europe in surrender. Coin Coughlin. 7 March 2024.

    In the weeks leading up to yesterday’s statement, the parlous state of our Armed Forces has been laid bare for all to see. The Army is too small and ill-equipped to conduct overseas combat operations at any meaningful level, the Royal Navy has two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers that have neither the manpower nor combat aircraft to make them fully operational, while the Royal Air Force is desperately short of combat aircraft.

    This wanton reduction in Britain’s military strength, moreover, is taking place at a time when, as Lord Cameron observed only in January, “the lights are absolutely flashing red on the global dashboard”. The Foreign Secretary pointed out that it was “hard to think of a time when there has been so much danger and insecurity and instability in the world”.

    Coughlin speaking sense! Whatever next? Mind you he has flagged the wrong enemies. They are landing on the beaches everyday.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/07/decadent-britain-is-joining-europe-in-surrender/

  104. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34d83caf1f3aec2f4f9317daa7b66f86c86940f5a35e0c412c1e76eef8e6e31b.jpg
    It has been pointed out that many muslims are not happy that muslims fought against the Turks, and that muslims from various parts of the British and French empires fought for the Germans.
    I cannot help wondering whether the proposed memorial will end up as a memorial to those who fought for the nasties, for example if it says something like “for all muslims who died in the world wars”

    2. I wondered the same , and I always assumed the Indians did more for us , they were part of our Empire , and as far as I know more loyal .

        1. Yeah, if history taught me anything, it taught me that Alexi Sayle did a deal with the N@zis for a Roller.

      2. But the war was before the Partition of the sub continent into India and Pakistan.

    4. I’ve just heard Tom Harwood on GB News (radio) being quite supportive of a memorial to Muslim service men & women, at the National Arboretum (I think is was).

      OFCOM will be imploding at the the sound of “far right” commentator not being “far right”.

  105. It’s best to tilt your head back as otherwise you have to try sucking it from the can or bottle.

  107. Justin Welby accuses MPs of hate speech as he reveals he carries a panic alarm. 7 March 2024.

    The Archbishop of Canterbury has accused members of Parliament of hate speech and revealed he carries a panic alarm because of threats made against him.

    The Most Rev Justin Welby said he had heard MPs and members of the Church of England making hateful comments “in the last few weeks” without specifying the incidents he was referring to.

    They would be people who don’t agree with his ant-white agenda then?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/07/justin-welby-archbishop-canterbury-accuses-mps-hate-speech/

      2. They’ve just passed ‘legislation’ at Synod to protect vicars from ‘bullying’ PCCs, ‘bullying’ meaning PCCs who disagree with the latest woke madness being imposed by the hierarchy.
        I’m very much of the view that the parishes are better off in interregnum, finding their own ministers and not paying the Common Fund. If enough parishes do that the Dioceses will all go bust very quickly – some are on the edge now. The best way to save the CoE is to bankrupt the hierarchy and return it to a decentralised volunteer led organisation.

        1. Can the parish and its church go independent?
          Be Anglican but not actually kowtow to the CoE?

          1. Grey area – legally no one know who owns the buildings. PCCs are in effect trusts for each parish.
            Your question is one I ponder a lot. Stopping paying, ignoring the hierarchy, finding volunteer ministers, including retired priests, staying below the radar while not formally breaking away is probably the best bet.

        2. Well, we were certainly better off during the Interregnum. We were able to pay our full parish share. Since the wrecktorette was inducted, the congregation has disappeared, the money supply has been cut off (people took their wallets with them when they voted with their feet) and we are barely sending a quarter of the former parish share to the Diocese. Yet still they support her against the PCC (they’ve already accused us of “bullying” by wanting her to do her job properly).

          1. We have tonight just had the most appalling meeting with our Rector who has since being appointed less than 18 months ago has manipulated people, told lies about the churchwardens and undermined the PCCs, and then tried to force us to merge parishes to which we said ‘No!’. Tonight we were subject to lies and character assassination and then he announced his resignation. He is truly shown himself to be a petulant and nasty piece of work.

      3. They’ve just passed ‘legislation’ at Synod to protect vicars from ‘bullying’ PCCs, ‘bullying’ meaning PCCs who disagree with the latest woke madness being imposed by the hierarchy.
        I’m very much of the view that the parishes are better off in interregnum, finding their own ministers and not paying the Common Fund. If enough parishes do that the Dioceses will all go bust very quickly – some are on the edge now. The best way to save the CoE is to bankrupt the hierarchy and return it to a decentralised volunteer led organisation.

    2. Many pots call kettles black but Welby is pretty hateful towards all those who actually believe in Jesus Christ and in Christ’s reaching.

      1. Welby’s most at risk from those of us in the parishes who serve on PCCs and as Churchwardens who increasingly detest his dismantling of the parish structure and theological unorthodoxy. Parishes are increasingly refusing to pay the Common Fund.

          1. I’m an early member Sue. It’s our early warning system of what madness is coming down the track. Most disturbing is the secret plan to close 1000 churches – it’s just the start. We’re also fighting hard against attempts to merge our parishes – our PCCs are robustly independent and all the Diocese’s blackmail and bullying founders on the rock of our legal autonomy.
            Are you a member?

          2. Our Nottler friend Conway usually appears in the evening and may have something to say on this topic.

          3. Yes. I’m on the serving team at St Barts and Marcus is our rector of course. I went to the first summer conference in York but missed last year. Will try and make it to Bristol this year. The first meeting in the HoC was interesting too (in the 1922 committee room). We have a good number of representatives on Synod now. I do hope they can assert some influence?

        2. A fish rots from the head. We (the PCC) are struggling with a useless rector foisted on us and completely supported by the Diocese.

      3. Yes I look forward to Irreverend every week. What they report is happening in the CoE beggars belief.

    3. There’s no direct link I can think of which would turn the ire of the easily offended from an MP’s utterances to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Perhaps he’s regarded as a symbol of an elite which embraces not just MPs but also other establishment figures. Another possibility is that the less well informed of those on a hair trigger think that the AoC is an MP with little consideration given as to whether or not he is one of those who’ve said something – anything – which can be leaped on with alacrity in order to threaten an ageing white bloke.

    4. He needs a panic alarm in case anyone reads the Bible within his hearing. Like holding the cross up to a vampire.

      The irony of all his diversity wokeness is that the Anglican churches of the Global South no longer recognise him as their “first among equals” and de-facto leader.

      1. I was told by a very senior cleric that Welby was picked by Cameron from obscurity to force gay marriage upon the church. The same cleric also told me that he suspected of Welby being of the Arian heresy. Similarly, a retried Bishop who lives hereabouts told me not to believe a word from the hierarchy or Diocese.

  108. Has anyone else ever bought books by the kilo as we did when stocking the bookcase in our student house?

  111. Nicked

    Oh what a remarkable uncanny totally unplanned coincidence that of all

    the chippies in all of the world you found a Muslim woman in a Hi Viz

    jacket just randomly sitting next to two empty stools.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6e098e72983624a374a12a92e28bb232546c5663530b041b1898cc8f8bd0abb.jpg

    Muslim ✔️
    Woman ✔️
    Workers ✔️

    Most politicians would “raise a toast” in a pub not a kebab shop. But alas no random Muslims can be found in a pub.
    When did Dajid Savage first book her?
    They really do think we are idjits

    3. Especially as Muslim women are the least likely of any demographic to be in work. She’s a plant.

      1. Our TV media trawl the depths for these ‘plants’. In nearly every program shown now

    4. Dare I say Jeeeeeez,…… everything is so staged these days it’s so king obvious.

  112. The BBC are finally putting The Now Show out of R4 listeners misery.
    What will they replace it with?
    Favourite so far is a Just Stop Oil activist reading out the weeks collection of posts on X from Owen Jones, whilst wearing a Palestinian flag.
    Close second is a pack of lard, or the 21stC equivalent, Sir Son of a Toolmaker Starmer, reading poetry by Angela Rayner & India Willyby.

    Who would you like to see occupy the vacant slot?

    1. Hallo, Smeg Kettle,, I’ve not seen you here before so I can only assume that you are another Speccy refugee. Welcome aboard.

    2. When it first started The Now Show wasn’t bad at all.
      Then it went downhill.

      1. Same, because it was observational & more importantly, topical.
        Even Brigstocke was funny back then.

        What is ironic about all of the BBC now, is that they won’t have a bad word said about their preferred politically charged ideology of “woke”, or the loony left as it used to be known. Not in news, or comedy, despite it being the ripest fruit in the basket.

        And because of that, once loyal listeners & viewers have just switched off the BBC. In their millions.

        1. Do you remember the excellent “Week Ending” late on a Friday Night?
          I was on a pre-Northern Ireland Battalion Photographer Processor Course at RAF Cosford and hitch-hiking home up the M6 for the weekend when I suggested the programme to the HGV driver who’d given me a lift.
          On the run up the Lune Gorge towards Tebay he was in absolute stitches!!!

          1. I recognise the name, but am struggling to think when I would have listened to it.
            I got into R4 in the mid 1990s & back then, the comedy seam was rich & deep.
            Week Ending was around until the late 1990s iirc. I downloaded a lot of shows, but not this one.
            I must have listened to it, though.

            I used to love R4 comedy, particular faves are (not in any order):

            Doon Your Way
            Trevor’s World of Sport
            The Cheese Shop Presents Fellah’s Hour
            15 Storeys High
            The Skivers
            Dan & Nick: The Wildebeest Years & 40 Nights in the Wildebeest
            Think The Unthinkable
            The Museum of Everything
            Talking & Not Talking
            Reluctant Persuaders
            On the Town with the League of Gentlemen
            Chambers
            Ankle Tag
            Fab TV
            The Consultants
            Recorded for Training Purposes
            Radio Active
            The Nick Revel Show

          3. I sometimes recorded Week Ending to play in the car. When Radio 4 produced good comedy.

  113. Taki on form

    The first act of tin-pot dictators upon seizing power in banana republics is to abolish free speech. Newspapers and radio stations are warned to follow texts that are given to them. In the U.S. and lesser so in the U.K., wokesters followed the banana republic script by doing away with our freedom of speech by making our most precious liberty politically incorrect to begin with, and absolutely a non-sayable today. By being offended, and using the offense card to demand that they be prevented from saying it, the woke have managed to become a dictator’s dream, because the next step is punishment for saying something the woke don’t like.

    Oh yes, I almost forgot. After doing away with freedom of speech, there is diversity. It has now replaced religion, and nations are judged by diversity rather than identity. The new on-dit is that the contribution of migrants and their descendants is what makes a country. The mix of history, institutions, language, culture, and rules means nothing. Only the D-word matters. Diversity, according to woke Nazis, is our only strength.

    So, dear Takimag readers, freedom of speech in order to denounce these woke Nazis is all-important. Do not be afraid to use this most precious of freedoms, the right to declare out loud our opinions.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-dictatorship-of-the-minority/

      1. Hallo, Mr Gatehouse, I’ve not seen you here before so I can only assume that you are another Speccy refugee. Whatever, welcome aboard.

        1. I am indeed. I don’t usually go far afield on the interweb thingy; however, very glad to be welcomed here.

          1. Hope you stay long enough to understand the strange sense of humour hereabouts. Welcome.

          2. I’ve only been here five minutes, as another Speccie refugee, and I think I already recognise the style of humour. Thanks for the welcome.

          7. I had a colonoscopy recently. No drugs ! Obviously i have masochist tendencies.
            No sign of the big C. Couple of polyps removed to be examined by the Lab.
            When they excise the polyp they then use a mini heat element to sear the wound.
            I quite enjoyed that part…NOT !

            After this less than enjoyable event the nurse told me i had two small piles forming. I asked her why they didn’t deal with them then and there. She said the camera crew were going off shift.

    2. This is an unusually robust article by Taki. It’s calling a spade a spade. Not something, as he remarks, that would appear in the MSM.

    1. Some time ago in the Sunday Times a government department stated that 1.1 million asylum seekers had written

      on their applications that they had no intention of working once established in Britain.

      We didn’t realise that there are more than 1.1 million asylum seekers !!

  115. The East Anglian mafia has always been around. My other half says the three seaward counties ought to declare independence. Others I say that to around here say, “No boy, better to stay. Cause more bother that way.”

  116. Taki leaving the Spectator was a big warning of the way it was going. I often didn’t agree with him but he was always interesting and challenging.

    1. Straight talking, opinionated and unafraid to share them politely while you share yours. Couldn’t ask for more.

          5. We had a service last year to commission two lay pastoral visitors. One was the Rector’s wife. Fairy Nuff. The other is from Leftpondia, has a background of worship at Holy Trinity Brompton. And one of her offspring is related by marriage to bloody Welby. I had an interesting chat with Tim of that ilk, without knoowing who he was…

          7. Exceptionally true. It’s very difficult for a Woke lefty to survive in the light. They have very many inner dialogues consisting mostly of untruths to maintain. Can’t possibly speak openly about those, just would not do.

    2. Mark Steyn and Rev Mullins were others. Delingpole being confined to film reviews was another. There isn’t a real right winger now that I can think of.

    3. Wasn’t he required to take gardening leave because of possible pending legal action against him, JD?

    4. Who is worth staying for?

      JB is mostly on form. Steerpike for the gossip. There was a very good article I stumbled over today, from James Kirkup back in 2019. He’s usually good. Daisly & Gareth Roberts too.

    1. Thanks, Tom, I just changed Disqus settings, so not getting so many now :-)) knowing me, I’ll change it back when I miss them 😀

  118. Phew!
    That’s the last bit of cabling stripped ready for weighing in.
    Still got quite a bit of other scrap to sort out though.

    1. Oh dear. I think Jerry has an “interesting” POV.
      Not accurate – just interesting.
      The Spekkie has become a Leftie mag; only the iconoclasts like Rod Liddle, Julie Burchill, Lionel Shriver, Douglas Murray and Toby Young keep me subscribing to it.

      1. My subscription has been teetering on the edge for a while. It certainly isn’t what it used to be. If it had banned me that would finish it.

    2. My reaction to Gerry Hassan’s article. Who is this little man and where does he steal his sour grapes from?

    1. This constant Lawfare by the Leftards is getting very dispiriting, isn’t it? Like the vexatious complaints againstGB News. But unfortunately it is effective as the judges are all activists as are Ofcom employees.

      1. There are several Christians here; Orthodox, Anglican, RC to name but a few. Nobody, as far as I know, has a good word for the Arch bish.

  124. Robert Wilkinson
    @robertwlk
    I was alone in the bath and nearly died of fright when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

      2. A nun was sitting in the bath….

        ….when there was a knock on the door.

        Oh no, she thought. I can’t let anyone in here while I’m taking a bath. “Who is it?” she called out in trepidation.

        “It’s the blind man,” came the reply.

        Well, I suppose if it’s a blind man there’s no harm letting him in, thought the nun, and she told the man to come in.

        A man in overalls walked in holding a tape measure and wearing a
        tool belt. “Nice tits love,” he said. “Where do you want your blind?”

      3. I thought she had covered her lower privates with a bowler hat. And the plumber said “Well that’s yer toe sorted but i’m not sure what I can about Acker Bilk”.

  125. I’m feeling a bit guilty that we refugees are overwhelming this thread. The locals must feel like they are being spammed. Over at the Speccie we tend to roam like angry nomads from one article to another so you didn’t have huge threads to monitor but several shorter ones. On the flip side from my own pov coming here is further confirmation that “it’s not just me”. Our speccie posse has helped me hang onto my sanity and coming here is yet more confirmation we are not alone. Our views are still the majority view and we must never lose sight of that or stop propagating them.

    1. Hi Sue. Welcome to our humble corner of the interweb. I expect the forces of evil will evwntually drive us underground,, but ‘whatever’…`

      2. When you are considered fodder for Prevent for watching great train journeys and reading Douglas Murray I have no doubt that anywhere patriots and conservatives gather to talk will eventually attract the attentions of the agents of our overlords.

      3. Hello Geoff, good to see you here, many congratulations on your new blog and its popularity! Have you taken a peek at the Spectator website….pretty quiet over there…eeeeek…..

    3. To be fair, Sue, you and the other Spectator refugees have restored the comment count to where it once stood. It’s quite some time since we’ve had a daily four figure tally. They were not infrequent here at first.

      1. When one spends a couple of hours away from the computer it makes catching up on the comments a bit of a chore though!

    4. I think I can explain, at least in part, the “thinking” behind The Spectator Comments Crackdown.

      1. I thought it possibly likely due to the number of comments from non-Spectator subscribers, also the buyers likely want an accurate list of subscribers/advertisers for return on their investment (Telegraph too)…..what’re your thoughts, Lewis?

        1. Yes, the possible sale of The Spectator is probably part of the explanation. The buyers are likely to want the information you refer to.

          Here’s what I think:

          Do you remember “Elinor”? Well, her antics would be impossible in the new commenting system. That’s because she relied on manipulating her Disqus account in order to remain at large on the site. Now every comment made is linked with a Spectator subscription – so it isn’t possible to leave comments “written” by anonymous sock puppets created on Disqus. Every word in the comments section can be traced to a subscriber, and if anything is deemed “unacceptable” then your subscription account could be closed. They have your real name and address and credit card details, so they have the upper hand in any dispute.

          It may be that The Spectator’s editors are anticipating the “online harms” legislation, and they are covering themselves against any liability for publishing libels, for example. They may also wish to avoid alienating powerful interests as the Spirit of the Age becomes more blatantly authoritarian. Unruly posters in the comments section could upset their applecart.

          What all this boils down to is a blow for free speech and the loss of those Disqus feedback functions that made posting comments at The Spectator a pleasure and an education.

          PS: Thanks to Geoff Graham for giving me the space to make these observations.

          2. Thanks very much for putting detail on my thought, Lewis:-) I was just over there, out of curiosity, I commented ‘tumbleweed’… I do indeed remember Elinor, and quite a few others (Truth Revealed, for one), but they enlivened the discussion. I always thought a number of comments possibly came from Telegraph subscribers who were also Spectator subscribers (perhaps even a discount, if not, should have been, same stable). It is a great pity, for us as subscribers, the journalists who write the columns, the cartoonists, and not least Fraser Nelson himself. I suppose there could be a slim chance the sale won’t go through, in that case possibly only a short relief until a further (worse?) buyer found. Days of wine and roses behind us it seems. Geoff Graham a good guy, and likely businessman, a gap in the market cries out to be filled:-)

      2. Is that Lewis Duckworth as was, or another Speccy refugee? If the latter, Welcome aboard.

        1. No, I’m not Lewis Duckworth. I came here for the first time a couple of days ago to find a link to Tom Armstrong’s new site that Angelina K had mentioned at the Speccy. I posted a couple of comments to her, and regret that I did not introduce myself. I did not know this site was to become a refuge for Speccy refugees.

          Thanks for your welcome.

    5. Actually Sue, I think most of us are pleased for the new blood to join us. And yes, like you I think we represent the majority, we are just those who choose to chatter rather than be completely quite like the silent majority of the native people of these islands.

    6. No need to feel guilty. New blood is good news.

      We are a bit of an echo chamber here but we don’t care.

    7. Hello Sue, good points.

      I didn’t see your reply to my post on the other page, until after the comments were closed.

      1. Serious comment. Did you ever think of setting up, “Not The Spectator Thank God” or similar? That is how we exist, thanks to Geoff.

          2. I am, freespeechbacklash . com, due to be operational early April. But I’ll still call in an keep an eye on you lot as well.

        2. No, I only saw a link to Geoff’s site the other day & the Spacca only made their comment platform change public a couple of weeks ago. Plus, I’m not well versed in HTML5 or whatever is used to build these sites.

          But if ever I do, it will be called Not the 9 o Clock Views.

    8. Hello Sue,

      What’s your take on why people are being banned at the ‘Speccie’? I posted there yesterday to see if I was still permitted to. I was but I half-expected not to be in view of what I’ve put up there foprm time to time (critical of FN, rudely on occasions).

      1. My understanding is you have to be a paid subscriber to comment now (which I am) but that’s no consolation if all the best commentators have been locked out.

        1. I was just over there, Sue, only seemed to be around half a dozen comments on any one column, shurely shome mishtake and there are many more subs, perhaps they mostly read the printed copy? Won’t be worth buying if not!

        2. I always felt that free online comment was a loss leader that delivered to The Spectator a lot of writing talent, working for free, a much broader readership base leading to the feeling that the Spectator had some influence over events, and a captive audience to entice people to subscribe, which no doubt quite a few did, considering the increased circulation at a time when most other publications were losing readers.

          It was a misguided and rather mean act by management, determined to monetize everything out of sheer greed, that will no doubt do immense damage, and lose them a great deal more money than a hundred or so unpaid subscriptions.

          I was a refugee from The New Statesman, which abandoned its BTL commenters eight years ago. This not only lost that paper its influence, it also diminished the capacity of the Left to think through its policies and principles, and the result today is a Labour Party lacking both that few people have much affection for, despite the unpopularity of the Conservatives right now.

          1. That is the best analysis that I have seen. It has taken me ages to see what is happening.

        3. It is merely the case that the Spectator has stopped their contract with Disqus (and maybe Facebook and Twitter – I don’t subscribe to those so don’t know). That means that trying to comment via Disqus on any Spectator reply that your received up to 4th March generates a response that you have been banned – an infelicitous and misleading choice of words. You can now just comment directly on the Spectator site if you are a subscriber but you can’t review your comments or be notified of up-votes or replies like you can on Disqus – something many are very unhappy about as it tends to kill the conversation. If you are happy to use the same name for commenting as you use for your subscription that is fine. If not, you should go to your Spectator account and choose an alternative soubriquet. I am now posting under a different name on the Specs because I’d prefer to make it more difficult to track me on other sites, should the Stasi tendency worsen.

    9. No, you are definitely not alone!
      The Stand in the Park movement is all about connecting with like-minded people who live close to each other, to exchange information and tips and support each other. So is Dick Delingpole’s Third Wednesday movement, I’m told. Online communities are good, but neighbours in real life are better!

    1. You’ll have to ask him. He does have a bit to say about the wokey female cleric they have.

    2. No, but I am on my PCC. Our troubles (to which I referred briefly earlier) are well documented.

    1. Indeed. They took something that didn’t belong to them, trashed decades of heritage & turned it into Owen Jones’ dildo drawer.

  130. Makes me wonder how the BBC survive, James. Apart from on the obligatory TV licence that is. I’ll be 75 shortly, already lined up for the freebie.

    1. It’s not a freebie now. We all have to pay. I would gladly not bother but OH likes to watch the sports. And sometimes the Noos.

      1. Oh yes, thanks – just looked it up, have to be in receipt of Pension Credit too. Him Indoors pop a vein when I tell him, looking forward to all sports freebies. LOL.

    2. It’s not a freebie now. We all have to pay. I would gladly not bother but OH likes to watch the sports. And sometimes the Noos.

    3. Sadly no longer free for the over 75s. as I understand it, the BBC agreed to fund over 75s licences, in return for a package of benefits to them, in an agreement that the BBC chairman described as “a good deal for the BBC”. Once they had that agreed, the BBC unilaterally reneged on their part of the deal – the government was its usual spineless self and instead of removing the benefits to the BBC as they hadn’t kept to their part of the bargain, let them get away with it!

      1. Exactly so, need to be in receipt of Pensioner Credit. Haven’t told the sports fan Him Indoors yet…biding my time on that one:-D

      1. Just discovered v.unlikely now James, as don’t receive Pension Credit. Oh well..I’d have only spent it on paint/brushes/paper etc can’t remember last time I bought clothes/shoes…tramp is the look I go for 😀

    5. Only if you are in receipt of benefits, Kate. My Other Half (MOH) had the benefit of a free licence for precisely ONE month before they changed the rules.

      1. Thanks Conway. Yes, so I’ve been told – I’ve been robbed! Still, I suppose someone has to help pay for certain fines etc…would have been even more sloughed if I’d had one for a month – was it taken away retrospectively…barstewards….

  132. How many times do we come across children , either when we are shopping or somewhere in a public place , hearing a child have an atrocious temper tantrum or melt down

    Here is an interesting article I have just read in the DT .

    The one thing I wish people would stop asking me when I tell them I have an autistic child
    Are we making too much of a ‘thing’ about neurodiversity? Our writer, speaking from experience, argues that we’re not

    “Ninety per cent of brain development occurs after birth, during the first two or three years of life. It is during this time that the genetic material is triggered to express itself in healthy or in disordered ways,” he says. “The most crucial of these inputs are the subtle and often unconscious emotional interactions between the infant and his caregivers.”

    In other words, neurodiversity is down to the neurological pathways formed in the first few years, which are determined largely by the interaction from parents. So if a child has a traumatic time in those formative years they are, according to Dr Maté, more likely to develop ADHD.

    That’s just one theory, though. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/parenting/children/questions-for-parents-with-autistic-child/

    Schools are full of children with ADHD, and the school budgets are suffering because schools need extra teaching assistants etc

    I don’t know what the answer is , but one never ever heard of ADHD in the seventies or eighties , so is it because society has changed so much from being relatively solid to a multi family muddle , with loads of step parents / children / and lack of stability?

    1. There were no fat children in the fifties and sixties, nor any autistic ones or with ADHD.

      Children with “learning difficulties” were “backward”, but far fewer than they are today.

      1. Agree and if I recall correctly, only one child in a class of 40, was considered “backward” and was able to receive the attention needed.

      2. A number of those categorised as having learning difficulties were dyslexic….

          1. Agreed. Some years ago a Clinical Psychologist told me that in the early 1970’s a team had got around to doing a proper assessment of the large number of residents in a large hospital for what was then termed “Mentally Handicapped”. The team discovered a couple of residents that were not mentally handicapped but profoundly deaf. They had been placed in the institution in the 1930s. They were quickly taught some sign language and thereafter enjoyed being able to communicate….

      5. Just what SWMBO and I have often remarked. You can see it in old footage on the TV from that time. Everyone was smartly dressed too.

      6. Just what SWMBO and I have often remarked. You can see it in old footage on the TV from that time. Everyone was smartly dressed too.

      7. There were no fat kids in the time period you mention because these things called “mothers” went to the shops almost daily and then cooked meals from scratch. As for autistic children they were packed of to institutions and died there.

          1. Error. But I have to depend on automatic correction, especially later on in the day, glaucoma and exhaustion from my other ailments will do that to you.

      8. I disagree.

        I was at school in the 1960s, and remember very well my gratitude to the form fatty. I was rubbish at sport, and always came second-to-last in the cross-country. One of the PE masters liked boys and gave special attention to the boy who came last in the cross-country. I was spared that indignity for as long as Fatty Hall was running,. who was built like an elephant, but without the speed.

      9. Robert Kennedy Junior has written extensively about autism and likened its growth in children to the many vaccines they are given.

        A doctor in Bath was forced to leave the country for making similar statements linking autism to the MMR vaccine.

        1. Steve Kirsch has also been running surveys about that link. The number of doses pumped into American children these days is shocking.

      10. Um, just as one black swan will ruin the generalisation “all swans are white”, I was a fat child in the fifties and sixties 🙁

        1. You managed to lose it though?

          I’d forgotten Pat, the fat girl in my year. Her mother was huge too, and my mum said it must be a “glandular problem”.

    2. Certainly never heard of it in the 40s (when I was born) 50s or 60s. It says a lot about the subsequent quality of parenting.

    3. The trouble clearly got worse when women were encouraged to go out to work and place the children in the hands of others from far too early an age.

      We were very lucky to be able run our courses at home and do the admin and selling by mobile phone, email and computer on Mianda as we sailed around the Med. We were able to be with our children until they went to boarding schools for the Sixth Form.

      I went away to boarding prep school at the age of 8 but in many ways I took far longer to grow up than my two sons did and they are far more independent than I was at their age.

      1. My mother worked very hard on her family, on the social side of my father’s job and on her hobbies but she never had a paid job; Caroline’s mother gave up being employed soon after she got married as did my elder sister, Belinda. Only two of my contemporaries from university days had wives who did not go out to work – but they were very wealthy. One became a director of a merchant bank in the city and the other the personnel manager of a multinational company. Caroline has never stopped working since she married me!

        Are there any other Nottlers whose mothers did not go out to work after they got married or who did not work themselves after marrying??

        1. Mine didn’t and 10 years after my sisters were born I came along a disrupted her social life

        3. Mine didn’t until my father died when I was four. I had to start school and she started full time work. I didn’t work when my children were pre-school, and then only part time.

        4. Mum would have prolly stayed at home and looked after young Geoff, were it not for the fact that Dad was wiped out in a car crash in 1963.

        5. My mother didn’t go out to work until I started primary school. Then she worked for a family firm who ensured that women workers with children didn’t start until after the children had gone to school and finished before they had to pick them up in the afternoon.

    4. As I understand it schools are given extra money for ADHD children. (Just as doctors are paid extra to prescribe statins).

    5. My neighbour, good friend and teacher of 40 years at a Plymouth primary school, says the problematic children numbers just grew and grew as time went by. Kids are increasingly being expelled (excluded) at primary level.

      1. Some used to come to us (comprehensive secondary school) with a dossier from the primary school INCHES thick!

    6. I think there is a multiplicity of things going on here. Diagnosis is obviously one. (On a side issue, before the Second World War there “was no coeliac disease” because nobody had twigged that it existed. People (including very young children) with coeliac disease had chronic digestive problems, didn’t put on weight and eventually died and nobody understood why this happened to some people and not to others. It was that simple!)

      The collapse of the nuclear family is, in my view, definitely also a contributing factor to the rise in cases.

      I suspect that the advent of television might also have something to with it. We’re looking at neurological pathways here: surely all those bright, moving pictures in front of which very young children were placed to keep them quiet must have had an impact on their brains? I find it fascinating that in some cultures babies are deliberately kept quiet, literally under wraps, so as not to over-stimulate them.

      But I’m totally convinced that the advent of i-pads and mobile phones is having a massive impact. I’m noticing this in my pupils – shorter attention spans, lower levels of attention quality, lower levels of effort and determination. It seems that children who have grown up with this technology expect knowledge / entertainment to be handed to them on a plate, and if that doesn’t happen, they go ape and get diagnosed with ADHD.

      That being said, we once had a delightful girl on one of our courses with huge problems: every dys- in the book as well as ADHD. Parents both doctors, and very concerned about her. I was alarmed when I first saw her as she wouldn’t even look at me to begin with. But she turned out to be quite amazing: every morning, she would get up a couple of hours before everybody else because, she said, she knew that she was slower than the others and that she needed more time than they did to learn her stuff. So she would work for an extra couple of hours, all by herself, in the early morning. With that level of guts and determination, she eventually ended up with a degree in Spanish and is now a teacher herself.

      So I guess that brings it back to supportive parents…

      1. Caroline , thankyou for writing such an insightful response .

        I do agree with you .

        Have you written papers on ADHD, if not , why not .

        Children are similar to blotting paper , babies imitate and copy from a very early age , even from just a few weeks old .

        I have a theory that prams or pushchairs , with baba facing their mother are healthier than the remote indifferent other way round push method.

        1. “I have a theory that prams or pushchairs , with baba facing their mother are healthier than the remote indifferent other way round push method.”

          That never occurred to me but, now you say it, it makes complete sense!

  134. Some argue it’s due to the multiplicity of vaccines that are now required (If I remember correctly over in the Us it is approaching 100 shots…..)

    1. Following my own vaccine experience, can well believe it….100 sounds excessive say the least.

  137. Sounds a bit complicated. I guess you’re just a bit excited to have a space to chat.

        1. Au contraire – an enema would be very useful in helping to get heads out of arses for those that so obviously need it!

  139. We could have a sweepstake on guess the weight of Vince Cable (assuming he hasn’t departed this life)….

  141. Please know that many of us in the rural parishes are immensely grateful for what he and the rest of you are doing. We are literally fighting for our existence against a corrupt and domineering hierarchy who just want to close us all down and sell off our buildings. I have come to the conclusion that the hierarchy now work for the other side. 🙂

  143. …but one never ever heard of ADHD in the seventies or eighties…

    Afternoon Belle. There is of course a view that there in no such thing. That it is an invented malady!

    2. It prolly started when women were forced out to work in droves instead of staying at home with the nippers.

    3. It prolly started when women were forced out to work in droves instead of staying at home with the nippers.

  144. …but one never ever heard of ADHD in the seventies or eighties…

    Afternoon Belle. There is of course a view that there in no such thing. That it is an invented malady!

    1. My father was fluent in Arabic – indeed before going out to the Sudan he was top in his year in the civil service Arabic exams.

      In one of the Hergé Tintin books a character speaks in Arabic and the speech bubble has Arabic letters in it.

      I was impressed i) by my father who could read it and say what it meant, and ii) with the publishers who had printed coherent Arabic and not just squiggles.

      No I can’t read your post – but my father could have done.

      1. I think it is just nonsense for the jokes’ sake. I could be wrong. Perhaps one of the Spexiles could translate.

  146. To be honest Geoff TCW went a bit mad in Covid. I think Laura Perrins stepping back might be part of the problem.
    Mullins is a huge loss.

    1. Agreed, JD.

      My organist friend may have had difficulties with Mullins, having been through woke university indoctrination.

      Nevertheless, he’s a former singer with Voces8, and Director of Music at at least two churches

  149. A young guy gets paired with an elderly stranger for a round of golf

    A young guy gets paired with an elderly
    stranger for a round of golf. They’re on the fifth green, the old guy
    is lining up a putt, when they notice a funeral procession passing by
    the course.

    The man backs away from the putt, removes his cap, bows his head for a quick prayer, crosses himself, and then returns to his putt.

    After the hole, the young guy says “I’m impressed with your show of respect for the deceased.”

    Old guy says “Well, we were married for 42 years… Least I could do.”

    1. The old ones are the best, JN. I first heard that on Newmarket Golf Course in 1955!

    1. Then I feel truly sorry for you. You do sound like the right sort though. I’m sure a visa and permanent residency would be granted. Hmm?

  153. That’s very decent of you, Phizee. The problem is we have a lot of say and the Speccie was becming increasingly circumscribed and censorious. 🙂

  154. My primary school was a little village one. The “backward ” child was my friend’s brother and at 11 he went to a “special school”. A couple of others were a bit slow but they got special attention and lots of help with their reading.

    1. In the states they have a polite term for the ones that a backward. They are the ones that go to school on the short bus….

        1. You’ll have to forgive Sue – She’s from up North…..

          Correction… I’m so sorry Sue – I read that as Windy Nickers….

  155. I’m told that schools these days are required to integrate ‘screamers’ into the normal classrooms and that has a tendency to disrupt the education of dozens of children….

    1. Yep! I had a quarter (7 out of 28) of my class with “learning and/or behavioural difficulties”. I spent most of my time stopping them stabbing each other with compasses or trying to keep them in their seats.

  156. I saw this article from 2019 earlier. Very, very pertinent in more ways than one.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists/

  157. I read somewhere yesterday that it’s the change in teaching arrangements that seems to have caused a problem. The traditional teacher at the front of the class and children at separate desks makes it easier for ‘backward’ pupils to concentrate and listen. Tables of noisy children are distracting.

    1. That makes sense, but I’m just an old fashioned girl, teachers in my day did not try to be my friend!!

    4. When I did my teaching practice when I was at Southampton University in the 1970s doing a PGCE my tutor came and sat in on one of my classes to see how I was getting on.

      After the lesson he told me that he had not seen anyone try and teach like that since the war. I don’t think he entirely disapproved.

      1. I used to teach like that (management disapproved!) because if children have got their backs to me, they are not engaging.

  159. 887 892 898 comments today (so far). How many new joiners are there? If the ‘Speccie’ is no longer fertile ground for those of us who are to the right of Attila the Hun perhaps we could try to persuade the Salisbury Review to step up.

      3. We’re not quite as consistently political in terms of linking to stuff, as we used to be? But perhaps we all know the bl**dy stuff that is spewed out nowadays, and nothing is really that new now.

    2. I was there around 10 minutes ago, commented on the very few (around six) comments on the thread I was reading. Tumbleweed time.

  160. 887 892 898 comments today (so far). How many new joiners are there? If the ‘Speccie’ is no longer fertile ground for those of us who are to the right of Attila the Hun perhaps we could try to persuade the Salisbury Review to step up.

  161. That’s two naysayers. You and citroen.
    I’ll tell them all about how famous you are if you like. They will all start saying lovely things to you…

    1. Do what you like. There is joining a forum and taking the damned thing over. Just saying.

      1. I once had the privilege of spending 5 days with a chap called Harold Bridger (he advised Volvo to use 7 man teams to make their cars) several industrial Psychologists as well as a number of Clinical Psychologists and a similar number of managers. The theme was : Understanding how Working Groups work. To explore this they arranged to put all the participants into what was called ‘Bath-Tavistock T Groups’ We were asked to monitor and assess how each of these groups worked. The group dynamics were changed as some participants were asked to join other groups and new participants were invited to join one’s own group. I mention this only because it is fascinating to see how our group dynamic has changed and how members react….

        2. You don’t need expensive psyche test groups to understand people don’t like change.

      2. It’ll all shake down in time.
        One practical problem is that you can’t read down to see if someone’s already posted something

  162. I have many more like that. like 2 eggs boiling in the pan one says to the to the other, boy its rough in here . The other replys this is nothing just wait till they take you out of the pan they smash your head open.

    1. If you hurry you can catch the last stage coach out of town before i set fire to it.

    2. I’m not clear as to what crime has been committed and think that the correct charge of ‘wasting police crime’ should be considered.

  165. I found this today in and old note book.
    Apparently By Bosch Fawstin ??

    The reason why multiculturalism exists is to pretend that inferior cultures are not inferior and that superior cultures are not, superior. It’s way to tell nice lies about rotten cultures and rotten lies about nice cultures. And from this, we have set our selves up not only to believe the enemy propaganda, that “islam means peace”, but to propagate this our selves, all while blaming our selves for the enemies war on us.

  166. My attention has been drawn to a new film, currently showing in cinemas, called Wicked Little Letters. It’s set in a small seaside town in the 1920s and is based on a true poison-pen letter mystery. A great deal of attention has been paid to making costumes and film sets realistic for the time and place. The casting, not so much.

    https://images.app.goo.gl/XxbPsRxRkiv7cun86
    https://images.app.goo.gl/df3mQQLdBntXKJKU8
    https://images.app.goo.gl/C1ijskQPgeT2gkhD6
    https://fame-pro.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/6-1024×684.png

    1. Really is tedious when they stick in the black person. It’s gratuitous and annoying because it is false. I can see the possibility of an Indian at that period, but even that would border on the fantastic. I do wish they would stop polluting our history especially since they are destroying our present and future.

      1. “I can see the possibility of an Indian at that period…”

        Lancashire had a famous Indian doctor in the 1930s.

          1. Red stains on the carpet,
            Red stains on the knife,
            Oh! Doctor Buck Ruxton.
            Has murdered his wife!

      1. Eventually? I would have been interested in going to see it until I saw the above.

        1. Eventually, as I think the same thing will happen with advertising. It will put the majorities off the products.

      2. Already has, I think, R E. As soon as I see the “protected species” on TV I think, “not for me, then”.

        1. I liken these adds to watching cookery programs when they use kidneys. I doubt if it encourages many people go out and buy kidneys.

    3. Looks like shit. Same colour too if you have been taking iron tablets.
      Try ‘Boardwalk Empire’ for a period drama. Or even ‘The Gilded Age’ where black people are portrayed as normal people and not as victims.

      1. Thoroughly enjoyed Boardwalk Empire, originally on one of the cable channels I think.

    6. It’d not just Fake News it is also Fake Olds!

      If you don’t approve of the past you must woke it up a bit!

    7. It’s entirely possible that some of the overgrown children who make these programmes really believe that people of African and Asian ancestry were a common sight in Great Britain in the inter-war years. That would account for so many more of them appearing in 1950s dramas…

      1. I have just watched “The Colour Room”, a film about Clarice Cliff in the early 30s in the Potteries. You keep seeing diverse people poked in here and there just the keep up the appearance of anachronistic normality.

    8. One to miss then. Just from those photos there are so many inaccuracies that would spoil it for me.

  167. I have found them all very pleasant. Some of them even laugh at my jokes. :@)

    I would sooner have an invasion of like minded folk than the opposite as we see at Dover.
    I can just imagine future Nottler lunches. We will need to block book the entire restaurant.
    I can’t wait !

    1. Before or after i have beaten them about the head with a baseball bat covered in barbed wire?

      1. Now you are just testing our Moderators’ skills …. the clock is ticking…..

  176. It’s just shaking off the humdrum, and getting our mojos back!! Or some such psychobabble!

  177. I think that applies members of the public expecting the police to arrest suspected burglars caught in the act.

  178. I’ve just been watching David Cameron at a “Presser” in Berlin. There’s something quite surreal watching someone talking about “aggression”, particularly when you know that they are no stranger to it themselves. Cameron is of course responsible for the Libyan Calamity which has essentially destroyed the country. One always hopes that someone from the Press Corp will stand up for a question and ask how he feels about this!

    1. Words cannot describe my loathing for David Cameron. During his time as prime minister, I first understood how much my parents loathed Heath.

      1. He’s also a homosexual but neither factor changes the quality of his biography which should be assessed on its merits alone.

  182. Have to go now. All the red wine has gone to my fruity bits and i’m going to get a bollocking.

  184. You may remember that Elinor made a personal attack on Julie Burchill and got away with it for quite a while by deleting her Disqus account and creating another. I don’t think someone who abused one of the staff would last 5 minutes now.

    Mind you, I’m not saying that abusive readers like Elinor should be tolerated. I’m just pointing out that having an “in house” comments system instead of Disqus, will tighten things up – a lot!

    1. I doubt anyone making a personal attack on JB would get away with it, not after she’d seen it anyway. Certainly pretty tightened up over at the Speccie now :/-

    2. Elinor was seriously abusive to PetaJ and Elizabeth Robertson and probably others as I usually blocked her. She started in an apparently rational manner then rapidly spiralled out of control. I suspect that she had ‘mental elf’ ie a lack thereof, and I’m not sure that providing her with a forum for attacking strangers was a good thing as she seemed to be self-reinforcing. X is full of such people according to the anecdotes one hears, and their contribution is not conducive to the good of anyone.

          3. Too true! And given this ghastly Scottish administrations attitude towards anything other than greenie energy, we’re stuck! And they’re looking to close Grangemouth!

    3. Lower bills? Clearly they are on Planet Zog. I see “more investment” and I think of Gordon Brown. “Fiscal responsibility” reminds me of Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Blair and Brown.

  190. Not at all. How little you know. I am not giving up and will carry on doing what I have always done. The invitation to a fish pun thread was a test. All but one failed.

    3. But they have only just arrived !!! They do understand Norfolkese….after a while.

  193. They are all on their best behaviour. Wait until the novelty wears off and their true personalities appear.

    1. Were you ever on the Spectator blog? Do you have any knowledge of what any of them are like?

          1. MB has a sense of humour. There are several posters who appear to exist only to aggrieve and upset; contrarians with a vicious streak.

        2. Do they make unfound allegations about each other’s supposed identities? I guess no forum is in a position to throw stones.

        3. Do they make unfound allegations about each other’s supposed identities? I guess no forum is in a position to throw stones.

        4. Do they make unfound allegations about each other’s supposed identities? I guess no forum is in a position to throw stones.

      1. The wrong answers must have been the result of guesswork by those who had never heard of Horsepower. I imagine that some of the Horsepower answers were guesses, too, by others also unfamiliar with the term but, obliged to select one of the answers, had a stab at Horsepower and got lucky.

          4. No. I used BTU’s when sizing radiators for the first central heating system I installed in 1978.

          5. The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1lb of water through 1°F???

        2. Being kind to people who have the equilavent IQ to an Orangutan (65) does them no favours. And certainly not to the bloody apes !

  197. Right! We’ve well exceeded 1000 posts today!

    Play nicely folks as I have go out shortly…….not one but two meetings this evening – back to back.

    2. I wonder what sort of Moderator i would be. Shall we give it a try? Ming the Merciless… Conan… or…

  200. It’s ok, we just don’t know them yet, we don’t know their likes, dislikes, how to wind them up….!

    1. “A stranger is a friend I haven’t met before” (improving wall poster).

      1. Or a potential murderer I’m about to meet (not aimed at the newcomers on here, I hasten to add) 🙂

  201. Phew: A Double Bogey!

    Wordle 992 6/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟨🟨⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I made a silly mistake with my second guess but otherwise got lucky today.

      Wordle 992 4/6

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

      1. Don’t know how people managed to get that in two!
        Wordle 992 4/6

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

    2. Tie

      Wordle 992 6/6

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

    3. Don’t like to boast but …
      Wordle 992 2/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      Changed my first word and bingo.

        1. That’d be nice. ‘cept haven’t done it for donkeys years. Since before it went up to £2.

        1. I don’t know, the wife watched me do it. It was also a word I had spoken in the morning.

  202. Yes. That’s the plan. Anyone can submit an article, on any subject. Well, most subjects, from any point of view. Free speech is the aim. The site is up now, but only a welcome page where you can leave an email address for updates when its running. If you are interested, get typing……….

    (freespeechbacklash.com)

    1. Thanks, Tom. A year to 18 months ago I had quite a few pieces published on TCW and I have a Substack. I’ll update some of those for starters and run them by you when you’re ready. What’s your ideal article length going to be? Will you prefer real names or will nommes de plume be ok?

      1. Great. All up to you. I guess long enough to make a coherent piece, but not too long to try the patience, and that’s purely subjective.

        1. You could have put a spoiler over it… Not nice words to see. You may alarm the newcomers.

          8. No doubt they do. It is a personal thing. People can (and do) say what they want in NoTTLand – I have even used some foul language myself – but tend to put a spoiler thingy over it in case others are offended. I know at least two lady NoTTLers who do not like to see foul language.

            I like your neologism!!

          9. Thank you.

            It’s not as if we NoTTLers spend much time in foul language anyway. Just the very occasional Pip slip. :o)

          12. Not me: 11 years working for the military, 22 consulting in construction and married to an HGV driver. I have a mouth like a sewer when required.

          14. Haha! My husband can turn it off like a tap but I think I may be borderline Tourette’s!

          15. There’s a version of Contract Whist known as Tourette’s Whist on the account of the number of expletives used during the game…..

          20. There’s a version of Contract Whist known as Tourette’s Whist on the account of the number of expletives used during the game…..

          21. I suddenly develop Tourette’s when adverts for the RNLI come on, along with all those begging chuggings for Africans. What the F in L have they done with all the billions we’ve poured into the bottomless pit over the years? And still they hate us.

          22. But i thought you were a lovely lady. Well brung up and all that. Next time we meet i want you to whisper dirty things….

          23. I’m liking you already. Contact Hertslass for email connect. Though when we do meet in person we follow napkin etiquette……mostly. :@)

          24. Sue won’t be able to contact me because she doesn’t have my email and I can’t do the previous thing of putting it up on a past page because comments are now locked very quickly. Geoff made his email public a few days ago, so if he doesn’t mind, I can put people on our little List if he sends them my email (which he is welcome to do). I will do all the explaining about what List-ing is about, of course!

          25. You are a shining example of how to get things done…….. Next time i see you …you get a big hug. I will try to divert my erection in the other direction …but who can say :@)

          28. There is obviously some very interesting but undisclosed backstory here. Please do explain!

          29. It goes back to the early days; Phil (Phizzee) pretended to be a chihuahua. Then the rest of the country caught up by allowing anybody to self identify as whatever they liked 🙂

          32. Are you saying he does not actually cohabit with those cute chihuahuas? That it’s all a front?

          34. Please be more specific, Hertslass. Does he have those chihuahuas or not? I need to know.

          37. I am fairly innocent and er , well sheltered , however I love the ripe genuine sound of our English language when one has run out of conforming to politeness .

            Words , we use them well , because they cut better into the ineloquent thin skins of the Wokeratti .

            I love wordsmithery and its many uses .

      2. I’m seeing Andrew Lawrence at a comedy gig in a couple of weeks. He’s excellent

  205. They’re burning, AK.

    I’ve been mostly absent over the last two days, since I woke in yesterday’s early hours , to find everything somewhat blurred. Fortuitiously, I had an appointment at the Eye Clinic. So I’ve had a ‘small bleed’, and will have a laser appointment within the month.

    Meanwhile, the mists are clearing…

    1. Sorry to read that, Geoff. Hope all returns to normal and your laser appointment clears all (pun intended) ;-))

    2. Oh, sad to hear, Geoff. Does that mean someone else is doing the daily switch-on? What time? Should I reset the alarm? I hope you can see your way clear to inform us. Are you going to attend thr Lunch/Dinner, Richard Scott is organising?

    1. Our gutless politicos will never allow that to happen, because it will serve to unline that are absolutely useless.

    2. Was saying today that everything that is wrong in this country can be traced back to Blair – devolution, HRA, dumbing down education, politicisation of the police, judiciary and other institutions, wrecking of the House of Lords, opening the floodgates to aliens who hate us, destruction of the family unit … you name it, Anthony Lynton Blair would be behind it.

      1. He was also, allegedly, done for cottaging in his youth. An interesting idea considering his ghastly, countryside-hating wife’s revelation that he was a “four times a night” man . eeeewwwwwugh.

    1. Very well. You have convinced me. I will insist Geoff installs me as the Supreme Moderator (with all the gold i can eat) of the known Nottler Universe and any Nottlers who complain about the weather to be hunted down given tea and cake……………

  211. As he would meet a lot of the parents he thought it might be a home caused problem at first, but has moved on to think it’s the increased vaccinations.

  212. I’m the one that finally got her banned so despite the current situation with the Speccie I remain very grateful to Tom the Head of Digital. I’m something of a free speech absolutist and I never blocked anyone but I won’t stand by and see decent people being slandered. Many of those people are here now. It was really off the charts abuse. I hope she gets the help she so clearly needs. Weirdly she was often spot on about politics but she required everyone to take the knee to her. Anyway, enough about her. We treat her like Voldemort – best not to say her name in case she materialises!

  215. If you look at the base of the comment box, you’ll find an icon of an eye with a line through it. That is the spoiler icon.
    To use it, highlight the section of text you want to hide and then click on it.
    Easy

    1. Cleverly – aka Stupidly – is looking for a job after he is slung out of Parliament. Do you really think he cares?

      1. We are being duped .

        Britain’s net migration set to rise by 315,000 annually – enough to fill Doncaster

        But the net arrivals would see enough people arriving in the UK to fill a city the size of Doncaster every year.

        The UK’s net population is set to rise by 315,000 over the next five years, the economics watchdog has warned.

        The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) bumped its net migration forecasts from 240,000 to 315,000 for each year up to 2028 – an increase of 70,000 people, and a 28 per cent increase since its last forecast in autumn.

        https://www.gbnews.com/news/britain-net-migration-rise-thousands-annually-doncaster

        Migration Watch UK chairman Alp Mehmet said the updated forecast would mean the UK’s population would see an increase of nine million people by 2046, meaning it’s set to rise at a higher rate than it has over the previous 22 years.

        Mehmet said increased immigration “will mean massive added pressure on services and housing”, and claimed “neither party is being honest about the scale of immigration and its damaging impact on our economy and society”.

        1. The fastest way to reduce it would be to allow anyone in but they will be told
          They MUST chose either the country they claim to be fleeing from or declare their nationality when they arrive
          They will be allowed to work, provided they can demonstrate competence.
          They will be given:
          No housing
          No benefits
          No health care
          No education.
          Unless they or their community pay for it.

          If arrested for any imprisonable offence immediate deportation to the country they claimed to have fled from or they are nationals.

          3. Because they have over-developed muscles in their dominant forearms, like Fiddler Crabs, and repetitive strain injuries to boot. “The trout, the whole trout and nothing but the trout. So help me Cod”. (Late to the feast)

          5. And then you woke up. Our current politicians in our current system will NEVER do that.

    3. Cleverley is my MP. He succeeded the American Flasher Brooks Newmark as MP for Braintree. He will be toast at the next election on account of his placing illegals in vast numbers on the MoD airfield at Wethersfield and caught bussing the migrants into Braintree for relaxation and a spot of shopping.

    4. The state will do absolutely nothing to stop the invasion. It is revenge for Brexit AND a massive source of demand for state services. To them, there is no downside.

  219. That’s me gone for today. Nice haul of 25% off hooch at Morrisons. Managed to avoid going shopping in Norwich. The MR likes it. Extraordinary!

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain – when the Wet Office says it will be sunny. But cold.

    1. I’ve now moved from Tesco to Morrisons for Home Delivery. I used to shop for myself but no car and inability to walk. Hey-Ho!

  221. I know it’s early but…

    …Another day is done so, I wish you goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

  222. Good evening everyone! My, what a big thread you have!

    I’m on grandchildren duty at the mo so may not get around to saying thank you to everyone for what appear to be very entertaining posts and discussions, so please do consider 1,213 (and rising) thanks to be delivered to each and everyone and big squodgy extra ones to our genial hosts (even the grumpy ones). : -)

  223. Evening, all. Was at an excellent, if somewhat depressing, lunch. Excellent in that the food was tasty, plentiful and beautifully cooked, but depressing because the other people on my table were going to vote LD. “I’m sure she’s achieved a lot,” one said, but when pressed to name one achievement that had actually been accomplished, couldn’t come up with anything. Admittedly, the MP has a good publicist; there isn’t an edition of the papers but she’s got her name and photo in it. There would, on that evidence, be no point in an alternative candidate standing; he or she would lose the deposit.

    1. Good evening, Sir.
      Because they are unlikely to actually get into Office on their own bat, the Limp-Dumbs actually have the ability to propose different mutually exclusive policies to different parts of the country and get away with it.

    1. A chap who viewed my house (sale fell through) almost two years ago told me that he was working on the move of Museum of London to Smithfield Markets.

      As you state, very good news as it was under threat of demolition and redevelopment for years.

      1. Looks as if you’ve answered my question.
        Are there any plans for the London Wall site?

        1. I am not sure but expect the site at London Wall to be redeveloped.

          The problem with the London Wall site was always that of public access owing to its island location.

  226. Still thinking of buying an EV? Another fault/disadvantage to add to the list.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cec6a3ca6344eb8e80232ef31163f0d2b7597d5bd37581dfcd73b954a9e1172e.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/07/jaguar-i-pace-alleged-malfunction-driver-fear-life-m62/

    The latest incident happened as he was travelling home from his first day as a crisis support worker with children in Ormskirk, Liverpool, on Wednesday at 2.30pm.

    “The car literally just started speeding up,” he told the MailOnline.

    “The speed was going towards about 100mph in the high 90s, going to 100. I thought this was a bit wrong.

    “It came up on the dashboard saying there was a battery malfunction in my car. I kept trying to press the brakes but nothing was happening. So the next thing I thought I should do was call 999 and tell them what was happening.”

    At least eight vehicles from Merseyside Police and Greater Manchester Police were forced to escort him down the busy motorway.<The latest incident happened as he was travelling home from his first day as a crisis support worker with children in Ormskirk, Liverpool, on Wednesday at 2.30pm.

    “The car literally just started speeding up,” he told the MailOnline.

    “The speed was going towards about 100mph in the high 90s, going to 100. I thought this was a bit wrong.

    “It came up on the dashboard saying there was a battery malfunction in my car. I kept trying to press the brakes but nothing was happening. So the next thing I thought I should do was call 999 and tell them what was happening.”

    At least eight vehicles from Merseyside Police and Greater Manchester Police were forced to escort him down the busy motorway.

    Officers closed off two lanes of the four-lane motorway as they tried to bring the Jaguar to a stop.

    How does someone who works as a ‘crisis support worker with children’ afford an £80k Jaguar? Just asking.

    2. Once they’d stopped him, they gave him a fine and 6 points on his licence for using a mobile phone while driving.

      1. I remember standing on the roof of the flats i was born in and watching the smoke from the fire in 1958. As I remember it went on for weeks. I was 11.

      1. I don’t know. Nothing to do with me, I couldn’t get rid of them. See my comment below.

  227. Anyone know their new council tax yet? Woking have been given permission to increase by 10%. Gee thanks Conservatives.

    1. Dorset Council , 5% .. bringing ours to over £3,500+

      We are pensioners , the bills are piling high , the fun is going out of life .

      1. What’s worse, Belle, is that the same fools who caused the mess don’t face any consequences for their incompetence.

        1. I thought it looked a bit like the spaghetti meal in LADY AND THE TRAMP. Lol.

      2. It took a bit of beavering away with a sketch app to create an acceptable image.

    1. Getting out of it would mean leaving the ECHR and repealing the HRA. I approve of both, but the state simply won’t let any government do it. They’d deliberately drag their heels even more than usual – because it interrupts their beloved EU.

      1. I’ve been told the ECHR is embedded in the NI Agreement, to ensure compatibility with Republic, therefore we can’t leave it. Whilst I don’t know if true (not a lawyer) sounds plausible, what do you reckon?

        1. As I recall, the jurisdiction of the ECJ is enshrined in the agreement. Hence we are not free, sovereign and independent.

          1. Then we renegotiate that part of the agreement. It happened to be part of something that this country was bound by at the time. It has been done so many times in other contexts.

          2. Ah, but the state will pretend we can’t, make doing so incredibly difficult and tiresome for politicians.

            This is why, even if reform were to get every seat going it would make no difference. The real enemy is the state machine.

          4. I don’t think we should negotiate. i think we should tell these little martinets to f*ck right off. For crying out loud. Who the h*ll do they think they are? We are a sovereign nation and our parliament is where we have invested that sovereignty.

          5. We should have taken that approach from the beginning. Said, we’re using WTO rules so like it or lump it.

          6. Our parliament seems to ignore that – apart from thinking that it is sovereign to the people who elect its members.

          8. The 1975 referendum was based on a lie. Ted Heath lying through his tombstones to tell us, it would not affect our sovereignty.

        2. We could leave it and we could change the Northern Ireland agreement. Of course, Sunak made the Windsor agreement international law, so that’s harder to repeal.

          At every step they’ve set about to stitch us up to ensure nothing changes. The knots are just tied tighter.

          1. Oh no it’s not harder – Germany decided not so long ago that EU law didn’t override its own constitutional law. We actually have Constitutional law too – it’s just that successive parliaments and monarchs have ridden roughshod over it.

      2. I’m not sure what you mean by “the state” in this context. “L’etat, c’est moi” – but who is moi?

  230. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/acbb877d3e3064f636cf5984a83b70b3fbb38c5aee64f3846312ebb989e34c8c.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5815ec7579127157b15d9da13bff4ec1934f06d62dd73bcf45484c157d63dbc2.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1961f41b4ad3f8be6556bfe1caf714e171180b2d5f3e6835b2b2ff77afaab1fa.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/84507e6e44fc7111d6fc09cc01659c85bc03c51bdd1534aba160fcf824473551.png

    The DT just loves to put up photos of military hardware these days. I was doing this stuff 50 years ago but we just didn’t make a fuss about it and get our mugshots taken and splashed about in those days. You’ll notice the jet (An F35 Lightning II A model) belongs to the USAF. The RAF were in the Officers’ Mess bar.

    “As low as 500ft”. Gosh! That high?

    1. During the 1980s, a friend and I went on a week’s riding holiday in Wales.
      We have never forgotten the jets flying below us as we rode up through the hills.
      The horses were completely unmoved.

      2. I used to ride in the hills overlooking Loch Ness when I was a kid and I could look down on the jets practicing low flying manoeuvres along the length of the Loch. Wonderful!

        1. I used to ride under the flight paths of the helicopter training school. A bit difficult to hear the instructor sometimes, but the horses weren’t particularly phased (but some dressage tests were livelier than others).

    2. It’s quite an odd sensation to see an aircraft flying down the valley below you – happened a few times when I was rock-climbing in Wales, although that was a few years ago [and biplanes don’t get those wing tip effects!!]

  233. David Top Cat is our MP, and he used to be thoroughly sound. For some bizarre reason, he switched (quite suddenly) to supporting Sunak and here we are, he is Welsh Secretary but has no credence on any front.

      1. He used not to be, KJ. It really is like “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” if you remember that film. Each day a new individual subsumed into the pod people.

        1. I do remember it. Wonder if he has an eye on future promotion, sensed the direction of travel, and acted accordingly. Wouldn’t be the only politician to do so, or any other profession. Becoming a bit of a cynic, old age 😀 (yes, still got it, still under tree)….

      1. He’s right in everything he sys. The budget was a destructive, insulating, abusive, cruel, petty, spiteful joke presented by a liar, endorsed by braying fools playing student politics.

        They’re destroying my son’s future through hard Left, socialist, proven failure politics all because of their own egotistical onanism for the next cushy non-job.

        Not only must democracy be restored and the public required to accept or reject the budget, but government must never, ever be allowed to spend any money without our permission or consent. Laws must be repealed on demand. Hunt should have stood up to the sounds of chains clinking around the collar on his neck.

        1. Wibbling ..

          There is no scrutiny and review , they are throwing money away too casually ..

          Same attitude when they gave each other a pay rise , and of course money for protection and security .

          The damned idiots have created their own hoist to their own petard .. and damned the rest of us .

          I hope they all eventually are rewarded with a ghastly old age , in as much as the worry and penury they have carelessly thrown at the public .. will be pay back to wolverines of Westminster .

          1. I don’t want them to live a long time. Ideally every single one would immolate, right now.

        2. You are too kind, as always, Wibbling.

          Greetings to Mungo from Jasper.

        2. A voice I find far more obnoxious is Boris Johnson’s. His voice and his pauses and stutters drive me crazy.

  235. Well, chums, I had a busy but enjoyable day today, so I shall now wish you all a very Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all rested tomorrow morning.

    2. Was that a special day trip ?

      We often hear the whistle of specially commissioned steam trains during the summer as they rush down to Weymouth through Wool station , coming from where , I don’t know where the trains set off from .

      I know the tickets are very expensive .

    3. Reminds me of the the first time my missus came to the UK. She’s from China, and we got a train from Kings X to Newcastle to go an introduce her to my folks. The train stopped at York and, on departure, she noticed a gaggle of blokes at the end of the platform with cameras and notebooks. Look, she whispered, the secret police!

        1. I’ve been insulted before by experts, but that’s the worst insult of my life!

  237. Let battle commence.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb0cdd705edaf611d886527adcf16453b79b7cfd8455f395918d7f0bea578e9f.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/07/steve-bannon-gladiator-school-alt-right-politicians-italy/

    Steve Bannon’s plan to turn a medieval monastery into an alt-Right “gladiator school” was given a new lease on life on Thursday when an Italian court threw out a series of legal challenges against it.

    Mr Bannon hatched the plan a few years ago to convert the 800-year-old Trisulti Charterhouse, in the mountains east of Rome, into an academy for leading exponents of the nationalist, populist Right.

    He was supported by his British acolyte, Benjamin Harnwell, a former political secretary to a Conservative MEP. The pair dreamed of schooling their disciples in conservative Catholic values and teaching them how to defend the Judeo-Christian roots of the West.

    But the plan became mired in political controversy, local opposition and years of legal challenges. Mr Harnwell was accused of failing to pay the rent on the 13th century monastery, neglecting to maintain it and fraudulently engaging in the tender process for the lease.

    He was evicted from the monastery in 2021, with his removal hailed as a victory by Dario Franceschini, the then centre-Left culture minister, and Nicola Zingaretti, the governor of Lazio region.After a long legal battle, however, the charges were thrown out by a court in Rome on Thursday.

    “This case has been rolling on for four years,” said Mr Harnwell after the court handed down its decision. “The culture ministry arbitrarily and unilaterally annulled the lease and kicked me out. They knew the accusations they were making against me were false even when they were making them.”

    He claimed that centre-Left politicians “could not bear to have Steve Bannon’s gladiator school under their noses. They just wanted me out”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41cee0b5566a83cd411d3f6e8632e8639ae0dfd1cf54a8bed107dc91bdd800df.png

    Nice. I wonder what the fees are?

    1. Ben Harnwell is based in Rome and is one of the very best and most articulate of those hosted by Steve Bannon on War Room. Ben is a well read and educated man.

    1. Oh goody. Another place to go and play. There aren’t enough hours in the day.

    1. I saw him a few years ago; I estimated his height as no more than 5’10”, and now he seems to be 6′ plus. Oi reckon he is a ringer.

      1. Quite. I remember him heaping praise upon the CCP for immediately interning her upon arrival at the airport. This man is a bad, bad apple – and one that we have consistently voted against. Yet there he is, in power (or at least in office on our shilling). I do sometimes (often) despair.

        1. Yes, but she got special treatment. She wasn’t interned in a ghastly compound but in her own house.

        2. What was done to Truss to get her to appoint Hunt as her chancellor just before she was forced out of Downing Street?

          Burning needles under fingernails? I don’t know what torture or blackmail was used but it certainly worked.

  241. Sorry O, it’s a bleedin’ open forum – end of. Nobody decides who can and cannot contribute….

    PS Nice to see you too!

    2. It may be an “open forum” but we expect people to respect traditions and not leap in with both size 12s.

    3. Oh yes they do – we have some pretty good mods. But contrarians abound here too. :o)

    4. Arriving late to the party, I have just read this this series of exchanges and the view from here is that you seem to be enjoying baiting and antagonising.
      Yes, it is an open forum and anyone can join but they’re expected to follow club rules. The way you have engaged so far with Conners, who occupies a soft spot in all original Nottlers’ hearts, is likely to drive away those who make the site what it is and what makes it one you’ve chosen to join.

      1. Apologies, Stormy, it really wasnt intended – the Speccie site appears to be significantly more roughhouse than this one, so we newbies should remember that.

        I do enjoy a good punch-up though, dont you?

        1. Apology accepted. Thank you.
          We’re quite a genteel and close knit bunch; many of us have met in person at one time or another so we’re not just nom de guerres and avatars.

          I don’t know what’s been going on or what has caused the Spexodus but you’ll be enclosed by all if you don’t try to change us.

  242. 384455+ up ticks,

    May one say,

    If radical beneficial change is really needed then Lawrence Fox
    is looking for ten, from each London borough, nominators, that very round hole of an ex capital could be roundly,soundly plugged
    by the right man.

  243. It gets worse, doesn’t it? Some have suggested that the stary, glazed eyes are related to the fashionable nose-powder to be found on every surface within the HoC these days

  244. You’re at it again. You don’t take a hint, do you? We “locals”? We “hosts” you mean.

    1. You’re not the ‘host’ – Geoff is the ‘host’ and I know him well from his Spaccie days.

      Thanks for the warm welcome though (that was ironic as well, did you get it?)

      1. Geoff may be the boss, but we all play our part. You’re welcome! (that was ironic, too).

    2. Sorry, I don’t really understand. We are grateful to you for welcoming us (so we thought) and while greeting old friends looking forward to making new ones too.

      1. It’s that time of night I’m afraid, when folk grow argumentative. We should all take a deep breath and greet one another in the morning!

      2. We are welcoming. I just don’t like digs from people I haven’t yet got to know.

        2. Personally I like what I have seen of our new incomers. I haven’t got to know one of them, but I think he is a good sparring partner. A bit like Pip except that I love Pip!

          1. I think he and I will not get on unless he changes his tone. This was a nice, friendly site and I appreciate all it did for me at a very difficult time. I just don’t like the snide undertone considering he doesn’t know me from Adam.

          2. Underneath all that lies a heart of gold and, sometimes, a knight in shining armour. Trust me, I know.

    3. I quite like being a local. Being exiled to rural East Anglia from W.Yorkshire for almost fifty years it’s quite nice being a local once again. I have a home!

      1. Having a home – putting down roots and having a sense of place – is never to be underestimated

  246. GG’s fine, and can be very entertaining. Leave him to me – I know how to handle him, just ask his wife 🤣

    1. He has a wife? There are places to help Co-dependants, you know…

      nya Gaspar, he’s not the only one with a ironic thingy :o))

      1. A very long-suffering one – mind you, a little birdie tells me that they don’t often have house-guests because of the frequency with which he is banished to the spare room😁🤣

          2. Every dinosaur is beautiful to its mother – or something like that. Not that I am suggesting that she mothers him. :o)

    2. I’m afraid I don’t find him funny, although he probably thinks he is. It’s too much, too soon, too supercilious.

        1. We do pull each other’s legs, but then we’ve known each other a long time (a decade or more in some cases). We had to learn each others’ foibles and sense of humour. Leaping in without testing the water is not an endearing trait.

        2. Not everyone will like that too much too soon. He’s going to get what he gives, from me. x

  248. Bob of Bonsall of this blog has many times suggested that our politicians should be subject to the same testing he endured during his time in the rail industry if you can’t drive a train stoned off your face maybe you shouldn’t make laws in that state……………

    1. Remember the state of Kwasi Kwarteng at the Queen’s funeral…… glazed and sweating. and a fit of giggles.

  249. On my way home after a lovely night out. Bumped into two former colleagues as well! Sometimes it’s nice to forget about the problems of the world for an hour or two.

      1. I came here when the moderators at the DT shadow-banned me.

        I don’t remember the DT being that insipid?

        They outright banned me, about three or four different accounts. Then they shut down Disqus altogether. I first dropped in here shortly afterwards.

  252. I feel sick to the heart about the Speccie, Hertslass, and have cancelled any renewal of my subscription. I am not sure when this will become effective, but will do as you suggest if wanted and if I can. At present it does seem that it would not be welcome amongst many of your community.

    1. That is dreadful and I can feel for you – bastards!

      I simply meant that (unlike today and yesterday) we often do bring in lots of info. and articles from outside, with links or whatever. It gives us all an idea of lots of different stuff that is being written – as well as telling each other about the weather, our ailments and other things which we also mention. It’s a funny site – not all about news or articles, but quite a lot here and there, and aa sense of camaraderie between many.

      1. I can see that. It’s a most lovely site. Bless you all for welcoming us battle-scared (or is it bottle-scarred) spexiteers. I am confident that we will all value the golden eggs rather than kill the goose that laid them.

    1. Been here 18 months, undermined everybody and just resigned badmouthing us. Tipped to make Bishop. Says it all about the hierarchy.

          1. Please do! The congregation has shrunk to single figures. The finances are dire, she’s sacked the choir and the director of music, constructively dismissed the churchwardens (to install a crony), won’t call a PCC meeting, says the services as though she has no idea what the words mean and won’t wear the chasuble. She doesn’t do pastoral visiting either.

          3. You need the churchwardens to hang tough, stay in there and be supported by the PCC. Then the vicar is pretty powerless and our’s just gave up and we think he has another job lined up.

          4. The rectorette has got rid of the useful and effective churchwardens and relies on her crony. The PCC isn’t allowed to meet. She is trying to get all decisions made by a standing committee to be rubber stamped by us.

          6. The pronoun tells us most of what we need to know, Conway. The Church in Wales is infested with giggly right=on female and or gay vicars and bishops with a woke agenda. it is intolerable.

          7. The church where I now worship has a woman priest who is excellent and there are at least two other local churches with female incumbents who are good.

    1. Weeeelllll, you start with a pair of outsize wellies and a ball of hairy twine…. my Welsh mate Dai Laffin taught me that…

  257. Out of curiosity, is there anyone who thinks it is a good idea to try and appease Muslim rioters in London by building them some kind of memorial to their co-religionists who died in the World Wars? I think it a fatuous idea of the Chancellor’s, personally, and one which even Ethelred the Unready would have scoffed at.

    Half of them were fighting for the enemy in any case. Are they to be included? Or do they get a separate memorial of their own?

    1. The more the government appeases, the more they will take. They see compassion as weakness. All they understand is strength.

      1. Indeed. Luckily we are to have a new government shortly who will, erm, attempt to appease them in ever more ridiculous and humiliating ways whilst opening the floodgates to their compatriots still wider.

    2. I posted yesterday, repeated here:

      My father fought in Burma during WWII when serving in the Royal Artillery and I have his medals which include his Burma Star.

      My dad said little about his experiences in the jungle but often remarked that he greatly admired and respected the Indians alongside him and especially the Gurkhas. Those Indian regiments comprised mostly Hindhus and Sikhs. My father never mentioned Muslims.

      It would be as well to resist the idiot Hunt and his useless government pretending that Muslims fought for Britain in WWII. They assuredly did not. Go and read Kipling for goodness sake and stop this nonsense in its tracks.

      I would venture that the only reason the dolt Hunt is advertising his budget allocation of £1,000,000 of our money to some Muslim monument is to appease Muslims following the Rochdale election debacle.

      1. Interesting. My father fought in Burma too and said exactly the same thing about the Gurkhas. His opinion of the Japanese, however, was pretty unprintable!

      1. Who knows? Things which a few years ago were regarded as laughable such as men becoming women and vice versa are now treated as unchallengeable facts by vast swathes of our ‘Establishment ‘.

    4. There’s already a memorial. It’s called the Cenotaph.

      Will there be a memoral in Kandahar for the British soldiers who died in the Afghan Wars?

      2. They didn’t respect the Cenotaph. But woe betide anyone who doesn’t bow in front of their memorial…

    5. More than half, I suspect, when one factors in disgruntled members of the British and French empires as well as ideological supporters. I can see it coming over the horizon that we will be told not to discriminate against muslims based on which side of the war they chose to fight on…

  258. Out of curiosity, is there anyone who thinks it is a good idea to try and appease Muslim rioters in London by building them some kind of memorial to their co-religionists who died in the World Wars? I think it a fatuous idea of the Chancellor’s, personally, and one which even Ethelred the Unready would have scoffed at.

    Half of them were fighting for the enemy in any case. Are they to be included? Or do they get a separate memorial of their own?

    1. We had one like that years ago though to be fair, it was his wife who was behind all the trouble. The damage can be repaired depending on his replacement. We got lucky with a real star!

  261. 384455+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    Is this the twinkle in the eye of the WEF / NWO political overseers
    prior to giving birth to the mandatory RESET campaign ?

    Is Golders Green todays Alamo ?

    Pro-Palestinian protests ‘making London no-go zone for Jews’
    Counter-extremism tsar Robin Simcox warns of ‘permissive environment for radicalisation’ developing in UK

    1. Pro-Palestinian protests ‘making London no-go zone for Jews

      One of the most succinct observations about all this, who first said it escapes me, along the lines of….

      If Hammas gives up fighting, there’ll be no more war. If Israel gives up fighting there’ll be no more Jews.

  262. The truth is the younger ones are nowhere near as good or genuine as the older ones.

        1. From what I hear it is probably a valid worry, or send you more of the same. Do the church-wardens have a say in who is appointed?

          1. Sort of but not really, but last time we had two applicants, one of whom the Archdeacon vetoed, so in reality no.

          2. Yes, in theory our churchwardens are supposed to select two candidates from applicants then the Bishop chooses one of them. It doesn’t always work that way though. When we had the disaster I mentioned the Bishop actually parachuted the new priest in though did allow the churchwardens to go through the motions!! Thank God he did too, but it was a long time ago before the CofE got “captured”.

    1. One’s anatomy counts for nothing. Self-perception is all that matters, regardless of any conflicting evidence to the contrary.

      1. 384466+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,

        As I have prior posted self respect plays a major part, an example being, a decent person would hesitate before casting a vote for a proven
        paedophile umbrella coalition party.

    2. I would have said yes I am pregnant and I wonder what the reaction would have been.

  264. Evening all.
    AWOL for a month and now late on parade. I promise to buck my ideas up.
    Wordle 992 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Hello, Stormy! You will find our numbers have been greatly augmented by fugitives from the Speccy.

      1. I am still posting on The Spectator. It is much more difficult to have fun there since Nelson’s emasculation of the comments, but still possible if one restricts one’s comments to a couple of threads.

      2. Indeed. Phizzee emailed me a couple of days ago and mentioned something about it. I dint quite appreciate the degree of swamping though until I logged in half an hour ago.

    2. Classy wordle result. For once, I managed a birdie as well

      Wordle 992 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      Late? Not if you are here for Friday.

    1. Happy birthday Geoff, and many thanks for keeping us sane, for allowing us to vent every now and then!! Cheers!!

  266. The cretins of Westminster continue to regulate ordinary life out of existence.

    How can rural churches join the war on terror?

    Even in the bad times through which we are living, the chances of a terrorist attack in rural England are vanishingly low

    CHARLES MOORE • 5 March 2024 • 6:00am

    Be a little wary of any new legislation named after an individual who has suffered. It so often proves that hard cases make bad law.

    Martyn’s Law is coming soon. Named after Martyn Hett, one of the 22 murdered by the Manchester Arena bomber in 2017, the Bill has the laudable aim of better protecting premises from terrorist attacks. Its consultation period, for those with “smaller premises” such as churches and schools, ends on 18 March.

    The churchwarden in our country parish, who happens to be my wife, has been looking into what this means. All churches will be required to register with a new regulator. This would be a big new undertaking because charities, which already have a regulator, will now have to face an extra one, imposing extra duties. The regulator could issue fines of up to £10,000 for non-compliance. “Workers” would have to be trained for the new anti-terrorist tasks at the churches’/schools’ expense.

    My wife points out that, even in the bad times through which we are living, the chances of a terrorist attack in rural England are vanishingly low, whereas the chances that the 14th-century church’s fine roof will at some point need expensive repair are 100 per cent. It is a real struggle to raise from about 700 souls the average of over £35,000 a year required for all existing repairs, “parish share” to the diocese etc.

    The church has no paid workers, only volunteers, most of whom are over 70 years old, their numbers more than decimated by Covid. As churchwarden and treasurer, she is overworked. Should she really be forced to become a security guard as well?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/05/how-can-rural-churches-join-the-war-on-terror/

    1. We all know whence the terror will come. As for the chances of such an attack in rural England being low, even in my rural county, I have seen immigrants being bused in and housed (and thus descending in mobs on market towns).

          1. I sold both of mine 15 years ago. I wish I hadn’t. I suspect it will be much more difficult to get a shotgun/firearm certificate these days.

          2. Trust me (I have friends who have licences) it is. I am storing a friend’s bow and arrows. Perhaps I’d better take up toxophily.

          3. I sold both of mine 15 years ago. I wish I hadn’t. I suspect it will be much more difficult to get a shotgun/firearm certificate these days.

    2. They’re not cretins. They, or the people who issue their orders, know exactly what they’re doing.

      After 100 prior examples we know it’s not incompetence – it’s deliberate warfare.

    3. Saw it. Right now the CoE is suppressed under the Welby Progressive Terror, starved of resources and threatened by liberal poisons.

    4. Actually, the chances of terrorist attacks on churches are pretty high, as they have had in France. If not an attack on the congregation, an arson attack.
      Churches do need to wake up to this possibility, but their requirements are obviously very different from a concert venue.
      What churches really need is to be let out of the rules for listed buildings. I’d rather have a church in the village than a church with all the ridiculously expensive costs of a listed building being sold off.
      Listing church buildings is making practising Christianity difficult.

      As always, the government effs up whatever it touches.

  267. Testing…testing. Hello all! I have just been informed that I “have been banned by the Spectator”!?? despite having a fully paid up subscription! Has anyone else got this response post the downgrade of the comments there? Could it be related to that?

    1. Yes, something similar happened to me. I had a Speccie comments thread open on one tab where I was happily commenting, went to another Disqus thread on a different website, commented, then went back to the Speccie and got the ‘You are banned’ message when I tried to post a comment. On that tab I changed to a different Speccie article and was able to comment again. I’m not sure what exactly is the cause of it, but I recognise a flaky system when I use one, and the new Speccie comments system is just that – flaky.

      I reckon that possibly what F.Nelson has tried to do is close a ‘backdoor’ that allowed people who weren’t subscribers to log on to comment on articles by going in via Disqus. However, I wonder whether the checking aimed at blocking this backdoor access (which is what gives the ‘You are banned’ message) is catching people who are subscribers, but have used Disqus on a different site.

    2. The Speccy has, in the venerable tradition of the Daily Telegraph, CNN, The Independent, ABC News and other respected media outlets, decided to scrap Disqus and switch to some creaking, clunky comment system. A system designed to give the user the authentic feel of 1990s online commenting.

  268. They did rather take over. It was difficult to get a post in edgeways. I am hopeful that it will settle down and they will integrate and enter into the spirit of the forum.

    1. Much of the new traffic is about Spectator refugees greeting one another and recounting the shabby treatment they and others have been subjected to by that publication. There are also greetings being directed towards them by long term habitués of this forum. Once they’ve found their feet here, the new arrivals will concentrate on expressing opinions about other matters. Any feelings of being swamped will gradually dissipate. While the comment count is unusually high at the moment, I welcome their rejuvenating influence.

      1. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not objecting to them (although there is one that I don’t warm to) and I am sure eventually sanity will return.

  270. Friday, 1 am – And still nothing in the letters about Hunt’s £1million giveaway to the Ropery.

    1. Why announce that as the first item in the Budget. I can’t think of anything more likely to enrage the few Tories who are still thinking of voting for these smirking morons.

    2. ‘ Morning, Geoff and thank you for all your efforts on our behalf.

      I hope the eyesight’s improving.

    3. Thanks Geoff! Hope you are clear eyed and bushy tailed for your birthday! Wishing you a very happy day, and having had a couple of days at this age, it’s not too bad! Have a great time! 🎂🥂🎉💕

    6. Good morning and Fanx, Your Majesty.

      Your Domaine is expanding expod exponesul exponshul exponnentsh a lot

      and a very Happy Birthday to you, and equally important, the 364 Happy Unbirthdays, til tis time next year

    9. Just in case you don’t appear on Friday’s threads.

      Have a very merry birthday.
      The sun must be over the yardarm somewhere.
      Thank you for your stalwart efforts with Nottle.

  272. Just read about Biden’s fiery speech in the speccie and how he is seen as a stable force who listens to his advisers! What?! He’s supposed to direct, not take instructions from
    advisers, what is the point of having a vote in that case.
    It seems that only unelected people who are chosen get to decide how Americans live and under what rules, with the president playing Father Christmas with the power goodies.Very democratic!
    The difference in this country is that we have a puppet government enthralled to the civil service, big corporations and the public sector and certain special interest groups. It makes a big show of pretending to do what people want and then complains that it wasn’t their fault, those big boys stopped me just when I was about to do it.
    The point of expert advisors is to advise you on the best and fairest way to get your plan done and your vision realised, which is your manifesto that people voted for you on.
    This does not mean they should be allowed to dump the whole lot in the bin and do what they’ve always wanted to do if they ever got anywhere near power.
    It’s been a lovely system most of the last thousand or so years, evolved to suit this particular little country and the buildings are excellent.
    However we can’t have idiots getting into powerful positions where everyone else’s lives hang in the balance and are dependent on their current whims and beliefs.
    The world is too big now for countries who still want to play in it to have individual local say over the country they”manage” for the world leaders.
    We either stop prancing about the world, joining international clubs of world power; dump international law in favour of our own and recreate our island home to suit our needs.
    Or the other is to completely dump the parliamentary system and the lords and create something that can truly hold these supposed leaders to account without wasting five years whilst they finish mucking things up for the next lot, or having to pay for more appeals than an asylum seeker, or an enquiry that goes on forever, tells you nothing and no one carries the can.
    To end this rant; if I hear the words”we are very sorry for the pain/death this has caused and our hearts go out to the families affected “, or, worse of all, “lessons will be learnt”, one more time, I cannot guarantee to be responsible for my actions!

  273. Apparently it’s Women’s Day today. In honour of this ‘fact’, Radio 3 has designated the entire day to broadcasting music by, erm, women. Petroc Trelawney quoted one of these wimmin, who said classical music has no relevance in today’s world, and that music should be able to reach the heart and make one cry, etc etc. Incredibly, Petroc agreed with her views. He then proceeded to play some grotesque motete by said woman, which certainly did bring tears to my eyes. I wondered if it would be acceptable to suggest that rap and hard core hip hop has no relevance in today’s world, or if it’s only the utter beauty and genius of classical (western) music that is under the woke spotlight.

    1. I saw it was women’s day, so left my wife the ironing. Never say I’m not a generous man.

  274. I’m struggling to disengage from the world.

    I find it very hard. I’m intelligent, well educated and blessed with an INTP personality that quickly identifies and collates logical flaws.

    All I see when I look at the news is a western world sinking fast. The USA is still protected to a degree by a constitution that the blob cannot wreck but I doubt that will last.

    What can I do? I actually decided that withdrawing from the world around me is the best solution for my sanity but I’m not dim enough to be able to do it.

    Intelligence can be a great benefit. It can also be a terrible curse.

Comments are closed.