Friday 1 March: Politicians must prioritise defence as the world grows more dangerous

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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625 thoughts on “Friday 1 March: Politicians must prioritise defence as the world grows more dangerous”

  2. Politicians must prioritise defence as the world grows more dangerous

    The world is becoming more dangerous and all our politicians have done is brought it here

    1. As long as we let politicians prioritise defending themselves against the threats that they have created, they will simply carry on creating more threats.

  4. Good morning, chums. A pinch and a punch, and White Rabbits. It’s March, and I’m off to do today’s Wordle.

  5. Revealed: how Putin plans to flood West with migrants. 1 March 2024.

    Russia is using private militias to control and “weaponise” immigration into Europe, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The Kremlin has influence over a number of the main routes into the continent and border police are warning that, with the arrival of spring, Russia is likely to “intensify” its efforts to move migrants.

    It has been widely feared that Vladimir Putin is using the tactic to destabilise Europe.

    I thought immigration was a good thing? Needless to say this is complete nonsense. The route to the Mediterranean is the result of Cameron’s destruction of Libya and France ruled the Central Arican Republics until only a year ago.

    The PTB seem to have abandoned any semblance to reality and trot out utter tripe at the drop of a hat. The choice of Immigration is interesting. This is probably desperation. Judging by this and other articles I think it is becoming apparent, even to the Political Elites, that the whole shebang is collapsing around their ears!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/putin-russia-wagner-militia-africa-immigration-europe/?li_source=LI&li_medium=for_you

    1. I would not be surprised if, in general, people dislike mass immigration more than they do Putin, so blaming Putin moves the disapproval in his direction in the hope that support for Ukraine will increase.

    2. As far as I remember the only person threatening to “weaponise immigration” to Europe is our steadfast NATO ally, Erdogan??

  6. Wordle 986 4/6

    Another four today:

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

  7. If anyone was in any doubt about how an immigrant block vote might affect the balance of power in the UK, Rochdale should answer the question.
    Yes I know the turnout was poor, but certainly larger than I would have expected and that everything was confused.

  8. ‘Morning All

    Well Gorgeous George will cetainly liven up parliament whatever your view of him nobody can deny as an orator he makes the current crop look like the feebleminded halfwits most of the are………

    Actual numbers

    George Galloway (Workers Party) – 12,335
    David Tully (Independent) – 6,638
    Paul Simon Ellison (Conservative) – 3,731
    Azhar Ali (on ballot as Labour) – 2,402
    Iain Donaldson (Lib Dems) – 2,164
    Simon Danczuk (Reform UK) – 1,968
    Last election
    Labour 24475
    Cons 14807
    Oops…………

  9. The post-Brexit immigration surge was an accident, not a conspiracy. Fraser Nelson. Telegraph. 1 March 2024.

    So often, the policies that most shape societies – for good and ill – come about by mistake rather than design. This is a classic example. Immigration has changed the face of Britain: newcomers account for one in five workers (a higher ratio than the US) and almost one in three new mums. A higher birth rate means the UK is one of the few major countries not fretting about a fall in the working-age population. So this is not the story of disaster: for all of the current tensions, Britain can still claim to be Europe’s most successful melting pot. But this wasn’t intentional.

    And if you believe this I have a very nice bridge, twin towers and all, to sell you. The whole thing reeks of sophistry. Along with the policies of the Telegraph and after having read a number of Nelson’s articles, I’m inclined to believe that he might very well be a closet Muslim.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/post-brexit-immigration-surge-was-accident-not-conspiracy/

      1. Morning MIR. It is frequently commented on the threads on the Spectator. The comments section is shortly to be replaced. I think that this will be to bring it into line with Telegraph where they can be more closely controlled.

    3. “Closet Muslim!? As in ‘water closet’ (WC) . . . or sh*thouse in common parlance? I have to agree with you on that!

    4. He followed Boris Johnson and Matthew d’Ancona as an editor of the Spectator.

      For many years I had a copy sent to me by post. It was posted in Belgium and it arrived very promptly. But now the postal system in Europe is as slow and as bad as it is in the UK.

      I cancelled my sub during Boris Johnson’s time as editor.

    5. 1 in 5 “workers” – really?? 3 in 5 benefit claimants I could believe but …

  10. Miserable horrid rainy day here. We are allowed to WFH on Fridays but I try to go in. But as it started to rain just as I was about to leave, I reconsidered. It’s no fun on either a push bike or a motor bike in this weather.

  11. Galloway’s big win proves that voter will turn out for plain speakers
    Just been listening to him being interviewed, he at least mentioned Labour covering up the grooming gang scandal and called Starmer and Rishi two cheeks of the same backside.
    Pretty hard to disagree with that
    It was in his campaign letter. “No grooming gangs in Rochdale”.
    I think if I lived there I might have voted for him too based on that.

  12. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a80ab70b4aed4d8328c6f3566eb1dc08e4576c3ff5ce7b3a820abd66f373f6b2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/597e6e47d9f1a92a7d050d21b4219c07951a5fe5c696ce65c44e99d734a7e50c.jpg Yesterday, our good friend, Ped, a wartime baby (born in 1944) was able to celebrate — for the 20th time — the anniversary of his birth on the precise date of February 29. This brought up a lot of confusion as to whether or not every bona fide Summer Olympic year since then had, in fact, been a leap year. [2020 was also one such year but the Tokyo Olympiad was postponed for a year until 2021 due to a worldwide malaise!]

    Let me put your minds at rest. The year 2000 (the last year of the 20th century) was indeed a leap year, as can be seen from the photographs I have taken of my Filofax diary of that year along with my work schedule diary. On 29 February, 2000 ( a Tuesday) I performed a late shift of 8½ hours (1400–2230) as a screening supervisor at Norwich Airport. I was also paid for performing that shift so it must have existed!

    2. Yo Mr Grizz,

      “Yesterday, our good friend, Ped, a wartime baby (born in 1944) was able to celebrate — for the 40th time”

      Shirley, if Leap Years are once every FOUR years, , Ped has only celebrated his precise birth date 20 times.

      Sorry

      1. Bugger!

        I knew that (I had worked it out in my head) so putting 40 instead of 20 was a senior moment! Damn! I’ll go back and amend it!😡

          1. I use mine daily. The cover is a bit scabby, these days. I’ll have to invest in a new one.

          2. I have two; a pocket version and an A5 desk version. I wouldn’t be without them.

  13. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a80ab70b4aed4d8328c6f3566eb1dc08e4576c3ff5ce7b3a820abd66f373f6b2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/597e6e47d9f1a92a7d050d21b4219c07951a5fe5c696ce65c44e99d734a7e50c.jpg Yesterday, our good friend, Ped, a wartime baby (born in 1944) was able to celebrate — for the 40th time — the anniversary of his birth on the precise date of February 29. This brought up a lot of confusion as to whether or not every bona fide Summer Olympic year since then had, in fact, been a leap year. [2020 was also one such year but the Tokyo Olympiad was postponed for a year until 2021 due to a worldwide malaise!]

    Let me put your minds at rest. The year 2000 (the last year of the 20th century) was indeed a leap year, as can be seen from the photographs I have taken of my Filofax diary of that year along with my work schedule diary. On 29 February, 2000 ( a Tuesday) I performed a late shift of 8½ hours (1400–2230) as a screening supervisor at Norwich Airport. I was also paid for performing that shift so it must have existed!

  14. Short Medley today too busy cooking multiple curry dishes for a family Birthday bash to trawl the net

    https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1761065640368947224?s=20

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHcTg2LXEAElVUB.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/94686604c40bd432be0cbf60e5066b52758c1ca4b299ede092f5ac4ec908ab48.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b585e742358650535ddfb28c894f726718282e5f55c5f12d1df5a20be0a2320.png

    Too Soon??

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e36e5dd1a427cc4421359a6f5d9e642f3c667a6549fdfeb0a2e8daf9a9625206.jpg

    1. Religion of Peace
      Anyone who thinks Islam is “peaceful” should take a look at https://thereligionofpeace.com/ . Since 2001 it has catalogued 44,826 deadly terror attacks. It does this month by month, with chapter and verse, e.g. Feb 17 to Feb 23, 2024: Attacks: 34; Killed: 117; Suicide blasts: 0; Countries: 11. That’s just a typical WEEK.
      Months are even worse – January 2024: Attacks: 162; Killed: 846; Suicide blasts: 5; Countries: 21.

    2. Last one is definitely too soon.
      Indeed, it is totally unnecessary; full stop.
      Dave Myers neither lied to the nation, was responsible for multiple unnecessary deaths or treasonously allowed this country to be destroyed.

    3. Would the Mayor of London say it was racist and Islamophobic say that Islam is not a religion of Peace – and would he protest if a jihad was placed on someone for saying such a thing?

      I am a Christian but I do not support charlatans like The Archpillock of Tercanbury* and I say what I think. Even Roman Catholics seem to be less convinced that the current Pope is infallible!

      * Which English novelist who was at school in Canterbury referred to the city as Tercanbury in one of his novels?

      1. Somerset Maugham was amongst the most popular and successful writers of the inter-war years. Born the sixth son of an English diplomatic lawyer in the British Embassy in Paris, Somerset lost his mother at the age of 8 and his father two years later, and was sent to stay with his uncaring uncle Henry Maugham, Vicar of Whitstable. From here he attended King’s School as a border in Walpole House. Somerset disliked the school intensely, was teased for his height and poor English, and developed a stammer. He left Kings to study literature, German and philosophy at Heidelberg University and went on to qualify as a doctor at St Thomas’ in 1897, but never practised. His many literary successes included Of Human Bondage, which described his unhappy time at King’s School, and Cakes and Ale which included unflattering remarks about the people of Whitstable. The main Canterbury connections follow:

        The camouflaging of Canterbury and of the school in Of Human Bondage is absurdly thin. Canterbury becomes Tercanbury and Whitstable Blackstable. King’s school keeps its name, and is given a potted history including its pre-conquest foundation, re-launch by Henry VIII, and reference to a poet ‘than whom only Shakespeare had a more splendid genius’ – ie Marlowe. The ‘high brick wall’, ‘look of a prison’ and even the ‘little door in it’ all chime with the present precincts.

        1. Of Human Bondage: The novel was semi-autobiographical – Philip Carey’s club foot was symbolic of Maugham’s stutter.

          I re-read his short stories and novels from time to time. It is amazing how well one remembers the plots years after having first read them.

          I remember seeing the film adaptation of the novel with Laurence Harvey as Philip, Kim Novak as Mildred and Jack Hedley as Griffiths when I was 18. This encouraged me to read all his stories but I must confess that I haven’t read all his plays.

    1. Shw mai, and iachyd da. Laverbread, bara brith and Welsh cakes for tea tonight?🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿😊

      “♬My hen laid a haddock on top of a tree …”♬

      1. I have sung in ten different languages and the Welsh national anthem is one of them The Breton anthem is sung to the same tune (and general sentiment). There are several versions of ‘My hen laid a haddock’ and some of them could pass for the real thing.

        Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus.

        PS: I may have sung in ten or more languages but I certainly didn’t understand most of them. I do miss the choirs since covid destroyed our way of life.

  16. Putin ‘could use chemical weapons on German cities’. 29 February 2024.

    During phase one, Russia would mount disinformation campaigns on social media and national media to undermine trust in German democracy and destabilise society.

    This would be followed by a second phase in which Moscow would deploy soldiers to the eastern flank of Nato states. It would also step up cyber-attacks, espionage and acts of sabotage to try to disrupt the troop movement of Nato members, including Germany.

    In the third phase, Russia would launch a conventional military assault on Nato’s eastern flank and strike targets, such as Germany, deeper inside the Western alliance.

    In the fourth and final phase, Russian troops would break through Nato defensive lines and invade Germany, leading to full-scale “land, sea and air” warfare between Russian and German forces.

    Good grief! This might have been written by a ten year old! The German Elites must be even more desperate than they are here.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/29/putin-chemical-weapons-german-cities-bundestag-nato/

    2. If the German ‘elites’ are as flaming useless as their British counterparts, then Russia needn’t waste its time on Phase One.

  17. Good morning all.
    A dull start with 0°C on the Yard Thermometer, currently dry with a dry day forecast and a trip to Stoke to see stepson planned..

  19. Obesity overtakes hunger as biggest threat to global health Michael Searles, Health Correspondent, Daily Telegraph (01/03/24)

    OBESITY is now a greater threat to global health than hunger, a Lancet study has found.

    One in eight people in the world is clinically obese, as the number passed one billion for the first time. It is now the leading form of malnutrition, with the number of people considered underweight falling to below 550 million.

    Being obese or underweight are forms of malnutrition because in both cases people are not getting the right nutrients, vitamins and types of calories that are needed to be healthy.

    Experts warned that children were paying the price for inaction on obesity by global leaders, with under-18s accounting for 159 million of those who are obese. A further 879 million adults were considered obese, bringing the total to 1.04 billion out of the world’s eight billion people in 2022. NHS leaders called the study’s findings “alarming” and said obesity rates were “a ticking health time bomb”.

    The analysis by a global team of experts, led by Imperial College London and World Health Organisation, revealed that the proportion of women who are obese has doubled since 1990 to almost one in five, and tripled among men to around one in seven.

    In the UK, which ranked 78th out of 200 countries for adult obesity levels, almost three in 10 adults were obese, with women slightly more likely to be overweight than men.

    The researchers compared obesity and underweight levels around the world to 1990, when only 226 million people, or fewer than one in 20, were obese, including just 31million children.

    The number of underweight people has come down over the same period, from 440 million to 347 million adults, and 219million to 185million children. Prof Simon Kenny, the NHS clinical director for children, said: “These figures will be as alarming to parents as they are to the NHS. Obesity affects every human organ system, and so at a young age can have a major impact on a child’s life, increasing their risk of Type 2 diabetes, cancer, mental health issues and many other illnesses.”

    He said the NHS had set up 30 specialist weight clinics but that the health service “cannot solve this issue alone”. “Joined-up action by industry and wider society is needed if we are to avoid a ticking health time bomb,” he added.

    Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’S director general, also called on the food industry to play its part in tackling the obesity crisis.

    He said it would “require the cooperation of the private sector, which must be accountable for the health impacts of their products”.

    Obesity — along with a massive tranche of ‘modern’ diseases — is not caused by the eating of animals or their products. You do not get obese, nor do you become unwell, if you eat meat, fish, animal fats (butter, lard, tallow, ghee, suet) natural proteins and dairy products.

    You become obese by consuming too many carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, pastry, potatoes and starchy root vegetables); sugar-laden items; alcohol; and highly-processed, ready-made, chemical-laden items sold as ‘food’.

    That is all there is to it. No mystery whatsoever. Eat what your species was designed by nature to eat and you will never get obese or acquire a ‘modern’ disease.

    1. Good morning, Grizzly

      When I see that I am wrong I like to come clean, unlike politicians.

      I owe you and Ped an apology. I thought that 2000 was not a leap year so your calculation was correct. Thus Ped had his 20th birthday yesterday not his 19th.

      In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII adopted the Gregorian calendar, which we now use, and specified that all years that can be divided by four are leap years, with the exception of century years, which would have to be divisible by 400 to be considered leap years — so while 2000 was a leap year, 2100 and 2200 will not be.

      So the next century year which will be a leap year will be 2400.

      2. Good morning, Rastus.

        No apology needed. We all make mistakes. I knew I still had my diaries from back then and could remember 2000 having a 29 Feb.

        Good old Greg. Without him we’d still be using Julian time.

          1. The son of our now passed on neighbours opposite, had this on his wall “Losers Let It Happen, Winners Make It Happen”.
            Now a very wealthy man living in Belgium making 130,000 pounds a year from his parents house,

      3. I think i would have noticed if I had had to wait eight years for another birthday.

        Note the ‘had had’. I first saw it in a book about 70 years ago and this is only the second time I have had occasion to use it. 🙂

        1. An oldie

          The sentence refers to two students, James and John, who are required by an English teacher to describe a man who had suffered from a cold in the past. John writes “The man had a cold”, which the teacher marks incorrect, while James writes the correct “The man had had a cold”. James’s answer, being more grammatical, resulted in a better impression on the teacher.[5]

          The sentence is easier to understand with added punctuation and emphasis:

          James, while John had had “had”, had had “had had”; “had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.[6]

          In each of the five “had had” word pairs in the above sentence, the first of the pair is in the past perfect form. The italicized instances denote emphasis of intonation, focusing on the differences in the students’ answers, then finally identifying the correct one.

          Alternatively, the sentence can also be read as John’s answer being better than James’, simply by placing the same punctuation in a different arrangement through the sentence:

          James, while John had had “had had”, had had “had”; “had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.

    2. Morning Grizzly ,

      An acquaintance who was raised in the real North , told me he was on a diet , and was going to take some responsibility for his health , because although very tall , he had piled on weight , but not tubby to look at .. So I said ah, you will be eating porridge for breakfast and some fruit ..

      He spluttered with indignation and in a real Geordie accent .. said ” Nah… fruit for breakfast and porridge , get away with you , I am not a soft southerner , nah, black pudding , bacon and sausage for me .. ” Funny thing is , my father , a proper Yorkshire man with very Northern antecedents , used to rile against my mother , when she used to suggest prunes/ grapefruit/ porridge etc .

      He loved brawn , home made pork pie , and pressed ox tongue for Sunday breakfast .

      When I used to visit them in SA. I would take him vacuum packed Yorkshire made black pudding rings hidden in my suitcase .. my treat for him .. and of course he longed for some decent beer as well .

      Poor daddy , he died as the result of nasty things in his liver .. caused by malaria and a waterborne disease caught in in Mozambique when he worked for the UN for a while .

      1. Morning, Maggie.

        That is a lovely story about your acquaintance and your father. Thank you. What most people have forgotten is that our grandparents (and those before them) knew what constituted good nourishing food. The global corporations, purveyors of muck, needed a strategy to stop people eating proper food and make them buy their sugar-laden, carb-laden, chemical-laden poison. Heavily bribing the so-called “health authorities” around the world to push their “message” was their first step.

      2. A good read, Maggie. In the late 80s I did a stint in Chad out in the middle of nowhere. We had a bush bar set up and had some nice evenings. Then I drank half a bottle of SA beer before realising something was wrong with it. Mild dysentery was diagnosed. To be honest my tummy/digestion hasn’t been the same since.

  21. Bugger!
    Was looking at yesterday’s forecast earlier and it’s bloody raining with hailstones.

    So, we now have an MP for the Hamas Party in Westminster.
    And will the people wake up???
    Will they buggery.

    1. No more excuses for these pllitical divots, everything they do just emphasises how collectively stupid they all are.

  22. 38four112+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 1 March: Politicians must prioritise defence as the world grows more dangerous

    Friday 1 March: Politicians must prioritise their defence as in, their appearance in court to explain their actions over these last four decades, and the very real reality of jail time when the guilty verdict is rendered.

    Real time must be served where rough justice if deserved is served for others to see, as in, “never again let go of the soap” for personal gain via treachery.

  23. 38four112+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 1 March: Politicians must prioritise defence as the world grows more dangerous

    Friday 1 March: Politicians must prioritise their defence as in, their appearance in court to explain their actions over these last four decades, and the very real reality of jail time when the guilty verdict is rendered.

    Real time must be served where rough justice if deserved is served for others to see, as in, “never again let go of the soap” for personal gain via treachery.

    1. 384112+ up ticks,

      Morning N,

      Then sad to say people will die and innocents will be incriminated.
      The political overseeing cartel cannot keep adding more pressure to an already over-pressurised indigenous race without deadly repercussions.

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    The Weather’s on a March eh, 4 degs and chucking it down again. Busy month ahead. Lunch with old friends Sunday. 3 Hospital appointments, docs appointments and cataract removal.
    Politicians prioritise defence, they only things they prioritise is their own self interest, time off and their ‘expenses’. They are absolutely useless.

    2. I wonder how difficult it will prove for him to “catch the Speaker’s eye”?
      Where he’ll certainly score is those badly attended debates, the problem being that they don’t get the reportage they deserve.

    3. He said on tv earlier that he wears the hat to cover the scars of a violent assault

      1. That cat moment with the striking Rula Lenska was not his finest hour. What woman could respect a man who does that?

    6. I just hope other ‘independants’ stand up for the people Westminster have been ignoring for years.
      It’s not all about Gaza.

    7. It also shows the power of Islamic block voting and the shape of things to come.

  28. Daily occurrences ensure that our society and culture is steadily damage. Ignoring this is the biggest sin of our political classes.

    1. 384112+ up ticks,

      Morning RE,
      And sad to say, these past four decades, the majority voter returning the same political class / party to power again & again as in continuing to vote for a political party name.

      The genuine Conservative party is no longer with us, it died early post Mrs Thatcher (RIP).

      1. I really don’t think there is much to choose from with either of the major parties.
        After all the lies and election BS aka promises. They just settle back to their normal way of life. Take take take and do and give nothing.

  29. Wonderful 10 minute verbal battle on Radio 4 with Jew hating Deputy Leader of Workers Party of Great Britain, Chris Williamson, shouting at some left-wing BBC news presenter and calling for the destruction of Israel and world Jewry. Williamson’s boss, George Galloway, who shares his views, has just been elected MP for Rochdale (Who knew there were so many anti-Semites in the Manchester area?) and the BBC thought it proper that Williamson should be given the opportunity to promote his party’s policies. Galloway, who once stood in front of Saddam Hussein and declared “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.”, was nicknamed the MP for Baghdad North, and Williamson (Highly paid presenter on state controlled Iranian radio) are just two examples of how low British politics has sunk – and it started from a very low position to begin with. God help us all!

    1. Galloway’s return to Westminster will reverberate far beyond the old Lancashire mill town. He will be the most skilful orator in the Commons, deploying his booming Scottish brogue, rhetorical flair and righteous fury for causes no other MP would dream of embracing.

      The fedora-hatted Galloway casts himself as a player in an international, revolutionary, anti-western tradition. The communist dictators Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez? Tariq Aziz, deputy to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein? They were his friends, his party boasts.

      Yasser Arafat, the late leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated prime minister of Pakistan, were also said to be in his friendship group. All are now dead but Galloway, 69, fights on.

      Galloway has accepted payments as a star TV host for the broadcasting mouthpieces of President Putin’s Russia and the ayatollahs’ Iran.

      Galloway first gained national prominence in the 1980s as the general secretary of the charity War on Want

      Galloway visited Baghdad in 1994. That year he was criticised for telling Saddam Hussein, right: “I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability”

      Many onlookers will be concerned that he has won a fresh democratic mandate to promote his troublesome world view. An ex-Respect activist said: “Being an MP gives him an international status and platform. He gets invites. He is important again.”

      A former parliamentary colleague said: “George uses the international stage to promote himself a lot more when he is an MP. He is desperate to have that accreditation. That’s why he stands in every election.”

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/george-galloway-rochdale-mp-workers-party-lmlq90khr

    2. Williamson slipped up attempting to answer the valid question about support for the 7th October raid on Israel, with the follow-up that precious few of the casualties of that were military targets, rather than innocent and even sympathetic Israelis. The interviewer set a trap that Williamson fell into, by suggesting it was just reprisal for the Intifada ongoing since 1948.

      A better response might have been the one that self-destructed the Labour campaign and let Galloway through – that it was a calculated act of covert treachery by the Knesset to provide all the pretext needed to invade. Clearly that reply would have aroused howls of gross offence from the mainstream parties, but might have been something the Workers Party could suggest without compromising their power base?

  30. So which is it, glorious Ukrainian soldiers smashing Russians or Ukraine losing badly?

    Why Ukraine might run out of willing fighters: Press gangs roam the streets and send those who can’t pay bribes to the killing fields, writes DAVID PATRIKARAKOS. After 70,000 Ukrainians died defending their freedom… it could happen here too

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13141513/Desperate-money-men-Ukraine-using-violent-press-gangs-snatch-soldiers-streets-tactic-thought-existed-history-books-writes-DAVID-PATRIKARAKOS.html

    1. Russia has won. The only reason that Ukraine survives and slaughters its young men is because it is being propped up by the West. Since that support is waning Ukraine will surrender at some point this year.
      The West also has to figure out how to pretend they really won and that it is a defeat for Putin. So more brainwashing garbage from the Americans and the likes of Boris in England.

      1. The West will be required to provide the money to rebuild the rump of Ukraine that Russia will leave behind.
        Vast amounts of the aid will disappear, probably in a similar way to that heading into Gaza.

      2. It would have been better for the Ukies to have thrown in the towel much sooner. Then they might have some young men left to rebuild the country.

        1. But that would stop Blackrock et al from making billions out of the rebuilding contracts.

  31. March brings breezes, sharp and shrill.
    Stirs the dancing daffodil.

    The Months (Sara Coleridge).

  32. I wonder what Fishi’s kneejerk reaction to the Rochdale result will be…

  33. If you do nothing else this coming weekend, listen to this.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c11d3edaca420f9b107832b7b28b8e978f5928813d131c42bf6b2f8798f7c83.png

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/justin-walker-the-bradbury-pound-and-fraudulent-banking

    It’s all here: The US ‘Greenback’; the Federal Reserve; the Bradbury pound; The bankers’ profits from WW1; the setting up of the BiS which set the scene for WW2 and the City of London’s Remembrancer. Justin Waker tells anecdotes about his uncle who was a director of the Bank of England and one or two of his uncle’s colleagues which reveal there are (or were) some good people on the inside who didn’t agree with the central bank’s direction of travel. Nevertheless, there were some eyebrow-raising moments in this 1 hour and 18 minutes. Just as Tucker Carlson’s recent one with Mike Benz is, it’s one of those podcasts to which I’ll keep going back.

    1. The Federal Reserve was set up by a group of New York bankers who took a late train to Jekyll island. See? I told you I know everything.

    2. I’m just in the middle of The Creature from Jekyll Island and have lost what few remaining illusions I had about nation states, specifically ours, and democracy. A cabal ruling the world isn’t a conspiracy theory or a story, it’s built into our central banking system.

  34. “I am sure I speak for many of my fellow retired officers”

    Brigadier Rod Brummitt (retd)

    I know this will come as a surprise to many of the Officer Corps, but the rest of the armed forces, from the lowest rankers to the most senior Warrant Officers have feeling thoughts and feelings about the present situation.

    It may come to the Brigadier as a surprise, that the services cannot operate just with officers,

    1. Old soldiers never die – they simply whinge away…. (present company excepted, natch).

      1. If he did, and it’s false, it shows he’s as mendacious as the rest of them.

  36. Rod Liddle
    How to write a modern screenplay
    From magazine issue: 02 March 2024

    I watched a film last week about a town in Swedish Lapland where a mine collapsed and caused lots of misery. I won’t tell you the name of the film in case, out of curiosity, you watch it yourselves and then later blame me for having alerted you to it. The plot was simple – a huge iron ore mine had left so many holes in the mountain that eventually it swallowed up the town.

    The problem I had was what we might call reverse-identification: I found the characters so odious and stereotypical (in the modern sense) that no conflagration or disaster would have been quite enough to sate my appetite for vengeance. And so instead of yelling at the TV ‘Run, run, run for your lives!’ as the earth began to subside and holes appeared on the main street – swallowing up all the resilient lesbians, stoical handicapped people, radical young things, gentle and caring immigrants – I was instead cheering their downfall and dismayed at how many escaped.

    It was useful, though, as a template for how to write a screenplay – or, rather, how to write a screenplay which will gain the approval of people who finance films these days: I have seen a countless number of movies in the past five years which follow the template exactly. I thought I might share this template with you. Follow it and you will not end up with a film you could possibly enjoy watching, but it will at least get made and might earn you some money.

    Much of my advice concerns characterisation. First, then, the relationships between leading characters. All ‘straight’ relationships, and especially married ‘straight’ relationships, should be founded on lies, hypocrisy and an imbalance of power and be perpetually on the verge of breaking up in rancour. The only exception to this rule is if it is a straight relationship between a white person and a person of colour, or better still between two people of colour (see below). By contrast, all non-straight relationships should be shown to express the purest altruistic love and should be seen to endure no matter what obstacles are put in their way by the straight, conformist society.

    You may need goodies and baddies. This is easy. A white male of middle age is always the baddie. If he isn’t the baddie then he must at least be shown to be weak-willed and pathetic and reliant upon strong women for his survival. So it follows that your hero should be a woman who is demonstrably more competent and intelligent than the sorry ranks of men who surround her. If you are putting a black person in your film – and you must, you must, even if it is set in bloody Lapland – then he or she is obviously on the side of the angels, despite perhaps being treated with initial suspicion by the white supremacists who comprise the other characters. Obviously, a black person cannot be portrayed as being in the wrong – unless you have decided to make all your characters black. You can get away with portraying an Asian as a villain, or at least as being a bit devious. But not if he is a Muslim Asian. Further, if he is a Muslim he must be shown to be of a uniquely kindly and pacific temperament and much more tolerant of homosexuality and feminism than all the people in your film who are not Muslim.

    Young people are a must. They should always be shown to be unhappy and rightfully distrustful of the adult characters, who treat them badly. They must also be proven right about their various grievances in the denouement of your screenplay. Their hair should be coloured pink or blue and they should have little rings through their noses, like a pig. They should scowl, rather than smile.

    You will need to give your characters something to do – jobs and stuff. Be very careful here. Bear in mind that anyone who works for a living has ‘sold out’, unless they are self-employed in some sort of artistic endeavour, such as a radical street drumming co-operative, or work for a charity or are perhaps a nurse. Anybody who works for a large company is a baddie, unless they are employed at the lowest levels in that company, in which case they can be shown to be redeemable as human beings when they throw off the corporate yoke and reveal the wickedness being perpetrated by their former bosses. Anyone in a senior position is a villain and chief executives should be portrayed as psychopaths and monsters.

    Remember, too, that all forms of industry are an expression of evil. Making money is an expression of evil. Commerce is evil. Wealth is evil. It is always, always, evil to dig something out of the ground, no matter what it is. The mining of anything at all is an evil beyond all other evils and will lead to the deaths of the polar bears and the end of the world as we know it. Everything which is dug out of the ground is toxic, regardless of whether it is coal, iron ore or uranium. Everything dug out of the ground will cause people who live in nearby towns to cough, choke, lose their hair, experience the discomfort of bleeding gums and eventually die, shortly before their houses are swamped in a flood, destroyed by a man-made earthquake or somehow blown up.

    As I mentioned, I have seen countless films recently which follow these precepts exactly – and so one knows exactly what is going to happen in them. But that’s OK, because people do not want genuine drama these days, just validation of their asinine prejudices. Incidentally, the Swedish mining film was supposedly based on a real-life event. Except that in the real-life event nobody was killed, the town was untouched and the mine is still open today.

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

    GCP
    a day ago
    Spot on Rod and when it is shown on TV, the Ad breaks will obviously feature at least 50% population Black, 25% Asian & 25% White. Any white men will be useless & married to strong, independent Black women.

    This exactly reflects the demographics in this fair land these days.

    John Thomas GCP
    a day ago edited
    I recently attempted to watch the new season of HBO’s critically acclaimed ‘True Detective’. It was abysmal and highly rated only by people who get a kick out of being spoon-fed woke garbage. So, virtually all the paid critics then.

    Essentially, all the female characters were strong and virtuous. All the men weak and detestable. ‘The message’ was obvious. I gave up after the first episode and rewatched the excellent first season starring the all pale, male crew of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.

    The decline in script-writing and casting choices over the past ten years has been astonishing, mostly thanks to the DEI cult. And it’s not just confined to Hollywood as you point out.

  38. Morning all. nottl has changed for me, not for Alf. The newest/oldest is now in the left of the page. Opening a new nottl made no difference. Any suggestions?

    3. You’re now so far to the right that even Nottlers are lefties by comparison?

  39. The liberal media must stop trying to hide inconvenient truths about criminals. 1 March 2024.

    Many liberal news outlets regard their readers with such contempt that they censor the news in the hopes of preventing the unwashed masses, who can’t be trusted with the truth, from coming to the “wrong” conclusions about groups they champion, such as illegal immigrants.

    Such was the case last week when Laken Riley, a University of Georgia student, was kidnapped and then brutally murdered while jogging on campus. A Venezuelan immigrant with a criminal record who entered the country illegally in 2022 has been charged with the crime. A host of blue-chip publications either ignored or downplayed the immigration status of the alleged killer, Jose Ibarra. Is it any wonder trust in media is at an all-time low?

    Not just here then?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2024/02/29/georgia-murder-migrant-media-suppress-inconvenient-truth/

  40. SIR – I am intrigued: just what does Lesley Thompson do with a “usual order of 4kg of sprouts” (Letters, February 29)?

    The only thing useful for sprouts:

    Pressure-cook them for at least 6 months

    Mash or ‘whizz’ them for half an hour

    Put them in a bucket

    Use them to fill local pot Holes in the road

    1. I like sprouts as long as they are not overcooked. We are having roast duck with roast potatoes and sprouts for supper tomorrow night.

  42. Henry Hill
    What has Amy Lamé actually done for London?
    Very little, it turns out
    1 March 2024, 5:01am
    From Spectator Life

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/H7B9T8_c0383e.jpg

    It’s no surprise that Britain’s night economy is in dire straight given a quarter of people told pollsters they would like to see nightclubs permanently closed even after the pandemic. Yet nobody embodies modern society’s contempt for club culture quite like Amy Lamé, Sadiq Khan’s embattled ‘Night Czar’.

    Yes, as she stressed in a recent op-ed defending her record, she did her stint on the scene herself. But as any investor will tell you, past performance is no guarantee of future returns – and Lamé’s record speaks for itself. According to figures from the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), since she was first installed in 2016, the capital has lost almost half of its nightclubs.

    The Night Czar has plenty of excuses, first and foremost the pandemic. But while lockdown obviously had a impact on the scene, the problem long predates it: between 2007 and 2018, London lost 40 per cent of its live music venues and half its clubs. Lamé’s abject record is a fall from an already terrible starting point. She assumed responsibility for a sector in dire straits, and has done absolutely nothing to stop the bleeding.

    Indeed, she has found plenty of time for globetrotting at the taxpayers’ expense, but a 2019 FOI of her diary found very little in it, and no meetings with the industry at all. None of this seems to have troubled Khan, who last year handed Lamé a 40 per cent pay rise – now at £120,000 a year – and allowed her to start being paid through a company, Amy Lamé Ltd, to cut her tax bill too.

    Perhaps this is why the Night Czar is so determined to pin responsibility for the state of the sector anywhere except its main cause: the politicians. The biggest structural challenge facing clubs, bars, and other late-night venues in London is licencing. It is all but impossible for prospective businesses to get the necessary permissions from local authorities, whose councillors answer only to a truculent minority of local residents that turn out for council elections or, worse, to licencing committee meetings.

    Even places that ought to be the capital’s dedicated nightlife districts, such as Soho, are being squeezed to death by locals who, despite choosing to live in a historic party area, feel entitled to the same peace and quiet one finds in the suburbs. Noise complaints shut venues – and where they don’t, they lead to ever-more early kicking out times, and music controls that kill the vibe even before that unhappy hour.

    If it isn’t residents, it might be the police. Remember the absurd battle over whether or not Greggs – not a rave club, not a dive bar, Greggs – would be able to trade from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., in central London? The Met warned it would become a locus for ‘crime and disorder’. A bakery.

    Naturally, there is no record of Lamé taking the fight to local authorities over this. Nor of Khan, happy to demand extra powers to set rent controls, seeking control over licencing to protect the capital’s nightlife.

    All this has been deeply corrosive to London. Spontaneous nights out, rolling from bar to bar as the flow takes you, are all but impossible. Destination clubbing, focused on larger venues such as Fabric and Ministry of Sound, has it slightly better. But the trend is still downward there too. Remarkably, two of the venues namechecked by the Night Czar in her defence of her record – G-A-Y and Printworks, the latter was consistently voted Europe’s best nightclub – have shut down.

    The real tragedy in all this is contrasting Lamé with Sacha Lord, her counterpart in Manchester. Lord, an unpaid adviser, has built a real profile as a champion of the night economy, and been unafraid to speak bluntly about the challenges facing the sector. Meanwhile Lamé, with her 97th-percentile salary, offers only excuses. Her boast that ‘London is the best 24-hour city in the world’ could be believed only by someone who has never visited another global city – or indeed, can’t read a clock.

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

    Albireo Double
    2 hours ago edited
    “What has Amy Lamé actually done for London?”

    Seemingly she’s prevented a great deal of obesity among the public, by eating all the pies, at every opportunity.

    MarkNowland
    3 hours ago edited
    She’s a fine example of the modern politician. They are invariably narcissists and sociopaths. She’s in that position because she wants power over people. She has zero interest in actually getting her hands dirty – serving the public is the literal opposite of what she thinks her role really is. As far as we’re concerned, all she does (as with millions of public sector workers) is adsorb public money.

    I am of the position now that 80% of these roles must go. Even anarchy is preferable.

    2. HMRC should challenge her employment status. It isn’t correct that she can be paid that way, unless it is allowed for her to substitute someone else to perform her duties. Something doesn’t smell right.

  45. Aye, a thousand times Aye

    Rory Sutherland
    The problem with self-checkout tills
    From magazine issue: 02 March 2024

    Our national malaise arises in part from the poor state of many of Britain’s private services. No, not a misprint. I mean private services. Many on the political right berate public services, implying that were they only to be privatised everything would be sweetness and light. Yet modern technology now makes it all too easy for companies to treat their customers with just as much high-handed disdain and bureaucratic inflexibility as any state enterprise.

    Drive into a pub car park and forget to record your number plate and you’ll receive a fine of £100. Contesting this requires several hours of your time trying to find a receipt to prove you bought a drink.

    Or consider the technological hoops you negotiate to read a utility bill, cancel a credit-card subscription or locate an ‘unidentified object in the bagging area’. New technology has offloaded work that was once performed by workers on to hapless customers. Soon we may need a four-day working week just to spend our Fridays changing our mobile phone tariff or updating 17 parking apps when our credit card expires. This nonsense needs to be curbed by legislation.

    When a right-wing capitalist like me, working in marketing, is calling for greater consumer protection, things have probably reached a crisis point. But why? Until this century, most transactions were conducted face-to-face. Such transactions are lubricated by a high degree of tacit trust and shame avoidance. By contrast, any online exchange must be designed to be proof against the world’s most dishonest people. This imposes a huge burden on the majority of honest customers.

    But the wider problem is caused by the tech-financial-consulting complex, which has sold the management of large businesses on the nerd-god of perfect quantification: the idea that every penny of a company’s outgoings must be justifiable in terms of immediate savings or instantly measurable gains. This causes firms to emphasise cost-cutting at the expense of customer service. It is far easier and faster to prove the gains from cutting frontline staff than it is to measure the longer–term gains from an improvement in customer trust. Since the finance function in a business (like the Treasury in government) has an effective veto over all expenditure, it is akin to handing the reins of decision-making to the most short-termist people in the room. By the time problems start emerging (self-checkout tills causing an epidemic of shoplifting), the finance-tech-consulting locusts have moved on to ravaging something else.

    But as the Dutch proverb has it: ‘Trust arrives on foot but leaves on horseback.’ This is why we need legislation. There are many good companies out there. But when trust in the overall system is eroded by a few rotten apples, the good companies suffer along with the bad. An independent consultancy called the Foundation, which specialises in the customer experience, recently published some research on this question, ‘The State of the Nation for UK Customers’. The research points to notable successes, some predictable (M&S), some less so (Aldi, easyJet). But the most telling statistic is that one in four customers had felt ‘truly enraged’ by a recent experience. One in six was ‘enraged’ in at least five areas of their life.

    Even if you run one of the good companies, and your customers are largely happy, this affects you. If consumers start approaching all transactions in a mindset of suspicion, you suffer by association. Our levels of trust are not calibrated on an average assessment, but by our worst experiences. Once bitten, twice shy.

    There is a glorious, creative side to technology. But a lot of it is extractive, bureaucratic, reductionist and dehumanising. It’s time we learned to distinguish between the two.

    1. Self-service checkouts are just as unpopular in France.

      I always avoid them and when I feel like a rant I loudly proclaim to the person manning the till that he or she should go on strike because ‘the management wants to replace you with a machine.’

      When I was in particularly good haranguing form the queue behind me burst into applause and said that they were in complete agreement with this vociferous and corpulent old English eccentric.

    2. The importation of loads of people for whom dishonesty is a way of life, together with the destruction of Christian values (“thou shalt not steal”) is at the heart of all this. I don’t suppose anyone will consider the back story.

  46. Just listened to Gwahoddiad sung by a Pickaninny. Very strange – sent a shiver down my spine.

  47. Good Morning all. Sun here but very wet after an awful lot of rain. My cat is staring at me because he wants to go out…….Cat now out and sitting there on the doormat with a look of disdain.

    Interesting video, Tucker Carlson, trouble in Brazil. If fate had taken me where I intended I would be speaking English with a Portuguese accent instead of a slight American twang. It was my intention to head to Brazil those decades ago, because I was fascinated by the great landscape architect Burle Marx. I didn’t make it. So, anyway, here’s Tucker and a Brazilian politician discussing what is happening in Brazil, the CIA had its filthy fingers in this pie, apparently.

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1763337098705162548

  48. Good Morning all. Sun here but very wet after an awful lot of rain. My cat is staring at me because he wants to go out…….Cat now out and sitting there on the doormat with a look of disdain.

    Interesting video, Tucker Carlson, trouble in Brazil. If fate had taken me where I intended I would be speaking English with a Portuguese accent instead of a slight American twang. It was my intention to head to Brazil those decades ago, because I was fascinated by the great landscape architect Burle Marx. I didn’t make it. So, anyway, here’s Tucker and a Brazilian politician discussing what is happening in Brazil, the CIA had its filthy fingers in this pie, apparently.

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1763337098705162548

  49. Phew!
    That was a short lived attempt to get to Stoke!
    Sleety rain leaving home gave way to sleety snow between Grangemill and Pike Hall, then wet slushy snow to Newhaven which was lying quite thickly so turned round and came back home.
    Not a day for driving over the Staffordshire Moors.

    2. Morning Bob ,

      We had a gale last night , more rain this morning , water meadows flooded all the way to Wareham and beyond , main road to Wareham just about passable , more landslides , and now can you believe the sky is blue and we have sunshine , 6c , breezy , bracing , but no sign of snow so far this year or lat year , just rain and more rain , and we have been landed with a huge water bill £1,450.. yet there is water everywhere !

      Rain due again later on in the morning .

        1. Do you think we should apply for one , Bill.

          Three of us in the house , and sometimes visitors , showers and heavy water use ..

          Will we be financing CEO bonuses ?

          1. Well, there are two of us. Use quite a lot of water. Annual charge = £210.

            Judge for yourself, Mags…

          3. You have quite a high rateable value and your water rates will be based on that, whereas with a meter you will only pay for what you use. I can’t say whether it will save you money or not. I don’t have a water meter because I don’t want nasty surprises. I may pay more, but at least i know exactly how much I’ll be forking out each month for nine months.

  51. Douglas Murray
    The sinister tactics of Hope Not Hate
    From magazine issue: 02 March 2024

    Of all the blights on our politics, there are few more tedious than the left-wing campaign group that masquerades behind some poorly constructed frontispiece.

    The Resolution Foundation – run by the gloriously named Torsten Bell – is a fine example. Torsten allows his publishers to call his Foundation ‘an enormously respected and influential economic research charity’. You may have heard of it, or you may be one of those who focuses your enormous respect elsewhere, but you will probably have seen the BBC and others regurgitate its press releases in lieu of doing actual journalism. The Resolution Foundation routinely discovers things like many people in Britain are poor or ill or suffer from mental health problems. The cause is always Tory cuts. The solution is always more money. Because if only we gave even more money away in taxes one day nobody in Britain will feel sad.

    I only mention this enormously boring organisation because it is of a type. Torsten used to be Ed Miliband’s head of policy (which makes it rather surprising he isn’t yet Lord Bell – give it time). In any case, as we gear up to an election, you can expect dear Torsten to release more reports ‘revealing’ nasty things to which Labour is the answer.

    These people are not even good at disguising their politics. Just this week Torsten was on Twitter writing that Suella Braverman’s warning that we are ‘sleepwalking into a ghettoised society’ was the former home secretary ‘talking garbage’. But don’t expect to hear Torsten questioned about his language next time the BBC gives a fawning interview to him.

    Most of these groups give themselves more obvious names; indeed they name themselves in a way which is meant to make them unopposable. Love Music Hate Racism is one such construction – as though there’s anyone who says: ‘I actually hate music, but I’m very much into the old racism stuff.’

    Worst among these campaign groups is Hope Not Hate (HNH). It is supported by a range of left-wing MPs and occasionally gets a reach-around from some Conservative or other. HNH calls itself an ‘anti-fascist’ organisation and that is what the media slavishly call the group when they report on its work. A few years ago, a classic piece of HNH reporting claimed that evil people are using video games to spread messages of hate. This crack journalism was picked up by the BBC, which quoted one of the group’s activists saying: ‘Once you’re in that world, then the radicalisation starts to happen.’ The man in question was referred to by the BBC as coming from the ‘anti-fascist organisation Hope Not Hate’.

    If anyone had any doubt that HNH is not, in fact, an anti-fascist organisation they might note several things. First – there aren’t many fascists around. We don’t like them in Britain. Perhaps thanks to a dearth of targets or perhaps because it’s full of far-left ideologues, HNH some while ago decided that its targets should be Ukip, Nigel Farage, Brexiteers and the Tory party.

    Naturally the group has had little to say about the hate marches in London each week. But they did swoop into action when a small group of people opposed one of the protests. This group – predictably enough – was portrayed by HNH as the far-right on the march. As we all know, calls for ‘intifada’ and ‘jihad’ are expressions of peace and love whereas saying ‘Eng-er-land’ is a notorious far-right dog-whistle.

    Anyhow, this week HNH was back at it, heralding another incredibly unimpressive ‘investigation’ online: ‘This is BIG. We’ve uncovered the private Twitter account belonging to Sir Paul Marshall, co-owner of GB News. And it’s littered with likes and retweets of racist and Islamophobic content.’ It was amusing in its way. HNH, of course, had not ‘investigated’ or ‘uncovered’ anything. Marshall’s Twitter account was public and all that the geniuses at HNH had to do was sit at home eating crisps and screen-shotting tweets.

    Nor was the material ‘racist and Islamophobic’. Most of it was just retweeting things which the rest of us notice as ‘events’ and ‘facts’, such as disturbing footage of Islamists running riot. HNH cherry-picked a few ‘likes’ from Marshall’s account and then presented it as representative not just of the man but of a wider, sinister movement.

    The usual dolts jumped on board. Alastair Campbell insisted Ofcom step in (because when it comes to reliable dossiers, Campbell is your man), as did Alan Rusbridger, formerly of the Guardian. Just as predictably, a group of ex-BBC journalists who call themselves ‘The News Agents’ joined in. These former Newsnight employees – who have given up any pretence of impartiality– thought this was major stuff. Indeed one bubble-dwelling creature called Lewis Goodall tried to claim it as their ‘exclusive’.

    All these people whipped themselves up about Marshall’s ‘likes’ in the same week that parliamentarians in Westminster were fearing for their safety because of pro-Palestinian mobs turning up outside parliament and, in some cases, outside their homes. Again, HNH and co. have little to say about any of this.

    Well I have something to say about them. Some years ago HNH published a list of ‘Islamophobes’. One – a scholar I know – subsequently had an Islamist come to his front door and try to shoot him in the head. I wrote about this at the time.

    A while later, HNH wrote a similar report and threatened to put me in it. When I lawyered up, HNH explained that if I removed the piece criticising it, it might consider removing my name from its latest hit-list.

    In other words, the group is not just silly but sinister. It wishes to change the political weather in our country, and it operates like a gangster. As with so many self-proclaimed ‘anti-fascists’, their name is wrong. They really should drop the ‘anti’ bit and rename themselves Hate Not Hope.

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

    MarkNowland
    a day ago edited
    There’s nothing new about this – this is how the left has operated forever. The Nazis were Socialists let’s not forget. And since you mention Fascism, let us remember that Mussolini was a Socialist and card-carrying Trade Unionist. Stalin wasn’t exactly small state, pro business either. You can probably pin over 100m deaths on leftist politics in the last 100 years.

    Not every leftist is bad of course, I know a few that are well meaning, if a bit thick, indoctrinated and economically illiterate. But a huge number are enraged, cruel, calculating, evil people, like Hope Not Hate. They are always the polar opposite of what they claim. Generally they’re angry because the world hasn’t delivered the life that matches up with their enormous sense of entitlement. In a capitalist society they are failures and so they want to destroy it.

    Julian Hughes
    a day ago
    Dear Mr. Murray, have you seen the report on the BBC entitled “Protests descending into mob rule”?

    I’ll quote: “Mass and largely peaceful demonstrations have been taking place across the UK since the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas…”

    Apparently calling for the destruction of a nation and, by implication, the
    destruction of most of the people who live there, is considered “largely
    peaceful” by our nation’s supposedly impartial broadcaster. I’m
    posting this here as I am one of the powerless. I have no column, no
    public profile. But I see this and want to alert someone with a soul.
    Make a noise! Embarrass them! Shame them!”

    Graham Ridley
    a day ago
    Excellent article. It’s outrageous that this hate filled organisation has charitable status. It is not only led by the ultra far left but by people who have allegiances to enemy countries.

    1. I used to write comments about Hate not Hope when it was after Mr Farage!

    2. It’s a national disgrace that supposedly serious newspapers quote material from Hate not Hope as though it were a reliable news source.

  52. I liked this thread on the DT letters comments.

    CH

    Colin Harrow
    41 MIN AGO
    Can we cut to the quick with what happened at Rochdale and what it tells us.
    Three very important things actually:
    1: It would appear to provide clear and unequivocal evidence that the consolidated vote of one particular immigrant community will always be firmly based on their heritage and culture which is more important to them than any attempt to integrate into a wider UK society.
    2: The postal vote, which despite the drop in voter turnout from the last Rochdale election (down from 60.1% to 39.7) , nearly doubled increasing from 14,000 to 23,000. This is of particular importance to this same community for a number of reasons, not least the fact that immigrant heritage families have a number of overseas connections, and poor spoken English, both of which make postal voting particularly favourable to these communities.
    3: Add to these the fact that the birth rate of those same communities – 25% of births in the UK are already to women who themselves were born outside the UK – is considerably higher than that of the indigenous population which is now experiencing its lowest birthrate ever, and the future picture for the democratic process in the UK would appear to be quite frightening.

    Reply by C I M Clarke.

    CI

    C I M Clarke
    35 MIN AGO
    Well said

    Reply by Katy Liz.

    KL

    Katy Liz
    33 MIN AGO
    The postal vote also appeals to patriarchs whose domestic absolute rule means they expect to dictate how every member of their household votes . There is no way of monitoring what inspection or diktat happens inside the home before postal votes are sealed

    Reply by Michael Geddes.

    MG

    Michael Geddes
    31 MIN AGO
    Terrifying is a better word, Colin. And your points are all correct. Culture and religion are the determining factor in voting pattern for a specific group, when the decision should be made on a variety of policies.

    Reply by Colin Harrow.

    CH

    Colin Harrow
    30 MIN AGO
    Thank you. It really is of considerable concern that in both effect and in substance we now have in the UK parliament George Galloway, MP for Gaza.

    Reply by Colin Harrow.

    CH

    Colin Harrow
    27 MIN AGO
    I would agree with you Michael. “Terrifying” is a far better word.

    1. I don’t understand how and why do so many people have to cast postal votes on main land Britain ?

      2. Because you can; and because it is easily manipulable.

        But i sense your question was rhetorical.

    3. There were only 31,107 votes cast in this election. If what you are saying about postal votes, then only 8,107 votes were cast in a polling station. Either something is amiss, or they’ll be closing the polling stations next.

    4. But don’t worry, we have to take ID with us now to vote in person. That’ll stop all the voter fraud.

      Oh…wait…

  53. Thinking of the weather, I did my last track recording run up the Welsh Valleys out of Cardiff 6y ago last night.
    I think this was Merthyr:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7addcf0a3e1a0d6a54787d5f9fb9f73e970715ed744d92cb3c85a7d7a157d9e4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76a0d64b0120b5897aed26d5a537dc91b6dad76e40e3cc2326852bb0a0f12cc6.jpg
    And looking down on the South Wales Main Line from the hotel in the morning:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b677b96a86300627e5aaf112caba3370102e3a91f126b730ee7f7bb7b31d860.jpg
    As I’d been working a night shift I’d been booked into the hotel until the 2nd, so, rather than head home that day, I opted to stop the extra night.
    Middle of Cardiff in the late afternoon:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87cff77e6a65146afa54a578937f80010ef171f38f49d7dc4866125ad0d619df.jpg
    And some students celebrating St. David’s Day later that night:- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f29ecbbfd99c04e30c9b70e9c99936219bb2baec2645d0fafaf8dbfdf97930e.jpg
    And to finish with, Cardiff Castle:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad865e21f5773b3c7a73a9ddf0e1f8c624625e394af0eb313af0a94be56202ec.jpg

    3. No graffiti, everyone is dressed normally and they all look civilized.

      1. Not very many fatties either! Ooh! There’s a knock on the front door…..

    6. No fatties either. Certainly a healthier and nicer looking bunch than the UK at present

    8. No one shitting in the litter bins, no police running away from rioters.

    1. We’re waiting by the ‘phone for news from Borders and General! Last thing I heard about 1.00 was expectant parents were eating quiche and salad!!

  56. Our boiler valve is now being replaced , chap arrived early , system didn’t need draining down .

    We had our boiler serviced in January .

    We haven’t had any proper heat for a heat, thank goodness the weather hasn’t been too cold , although oil fired radiators and the coal fire have helped .

      1. We replaced ours last year with this in mind (the banning) – it was 15 years old but we had no real problems apart from a call-out two years ago, but we thought under the circumstances it would be prudent to replace. Hopefully it will see us out; I can see the day coming when repairs will be banned, unless the masses uprise about the whole shebang. Our new boiler is much more efficient than the old one.

        1. Ours is about seven or eight years old now. J did have to call out our boiler people while I was away as a valve had shut down leaving him and the house a bit cold. Now that he knows where it is he should be able to manage that one if it happens again.

    2. Good news. I always dread the system being drained down. Invariably means bleeding the radiators.

    3. I would demand the money back from the servicing of the boiler. Or did the engineer warn you it was on its last legs?

      1. Yes nicely , although the sun is in the right place and shining in our rooms , warming the air . .

        Windows need cleaning though , gritty dusty and very rain stained .

    5. Heat pumps as replacement for 99% efficient boilers are getting the cold shoulder. The reason why heat pumps are so poor in generating hot water is that evaporation used as a heat transfer mechanism only works at low temperature differentials.

      Caldera have made a downsized thermal domestic storage unit based on their superheated commercial unit that holds energy created from surplus electricity at temperature of hundreds of degrees centigrade – just like an AGA cooker.

      These are far better as a replacement for gas boilers that heat old, poor insulated homes. These are not however due to come on stream until sufficient internal combustion vehicle engines have been recovered from scapped ICE cars and sufficient lava has been recovered from volcanoes.

      Here’s an explanation:

      https://youtu.be/0koE0f8k-Vc?si=v-xgMI05fmJhin23

    6. Heat pumps as replacement for 99% efficient boilers are getting the cold shoulder. The reason why heat pumps are so poor in generating hot water is that evaporation used as a heat transfer mechanism only works at low temperature differentials.

      Caldera have made a downsized thermal domestic storage unit based on their superheated commercial unit that holds energy created from surplus electricity at temperature of hundreds of degrees centigrade – just like an AGA cooker.

      These are far better as a replacement for gas boilers that heat old, poor insulated homes. These are not however due to come on stream until sufficient internal combustion vehicle engines have been recovered from scapped ICE cars and sufficient lava has been recovered from volcanoes.

      Here’s an explanation:

      https://youtu.be/0koE0f8k-Vc?si=v-xgMI05fmJhin23

    1. 384112+ up ticks,

      Morning TB,
      Why would one trust this hamilton chap talking of treachery after the odious capers he & the party NEc cut
      in 2018/19.

    2. ‘Western hemisphere’ can be a bit misleading. Warwick is in the western hemisphere, but King’s Lynn, not too far away is in the eastern hemisphere. The western ‘world’ might have been better.

      1. What it means is that in 1199 they were playing football in Warwick while, at the same time, in King’s Lynn they were still tucking their smocks into their pantaloons.

  60. Good morning. As our media won’t report it I have have published Putin’s speech to the Russian Federation complete. It’s amazingly lengthy, but remarkable – gives a real feeling for the sheer size of the place apart from anything else. The quote I have extracted goes to the heart of the problem we face.

    https://open.substack.com/pub/tarableu/p/putins-annual-address-to-the-federal?r=10qzvs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

  61. I care neither a jot nor a tittle for motor racing and its grossly overpaid superego proponents.

    However, the release of Mr Horner’s “private” e-mails and photographs calls into question (to this old legal bod) the reality of the result of the “ten hours of deeply probing cross-examination by a leading, specialist Silk…..”

    How did “Sam Ballard QC*” manage to overlook – or dismiss – this, apparently deadly evidence?

    Just asking…

    * One of Rumpole’s leaders.

    1. Perhaps he wasn’t shown all the evidence, or the leaks are very selective and taken out of context and/or sequence?

      If any Nottlers posts were trawled through and selectively edited I am sure most of us could be imprisoned on the back of them, even balanced individuals like Stig.

      1. True, when lampposts are ever mentioned in a comment it rarely has anything to do with their street lighting qualities.

    2. I guess Horner is in the pitts! Have you found the emails on t’internet, if so where (asking for a friend)..

      1. I saw the material in question on twitter, which I do not participate in. I just read stuff occasionally.

    3. They are showing Rumpole repeats on Moving Pictures (Free Sat 306) on Thursdays nights. Soapy Sam Bollard became Head of Chambers when Guthrie Featherstone became a judge.

  62. 384112 + ticks,
    One mans meat is anothers poison….

    The political stage in the United Kingdom is in such odious disarray, domestic issues now take second place, domestic issues as in foreign paedophiles ruling the
    rochdale /rotherham roost, covered up for years causing hardly a ripple regarding the
    political governing overseeing cartel.

    External foreign wars are holding sway over the internal problems suffered by the indigenous Brits, because that is what is happening.

    Conclusion,
    We have gone through the trot, cantor stage in the islamic stakes and are now into full gallop
    to achieve Sharia law status.

    1. He was corrupt to start with but was corrupted even more and did not go ahead with the peace negotiations that were about to happen when Biden and Johnson persuaded him to go to war by pledging US and UK support.

    1. I think there were threats of litigation if anyone published them, and I’m not familiar with the dark web, so I can only guess… Thinks Benny Hill and more!

      1. If threats of litigation stopped all publication one wonders whether some could be false and defamatory when full context is available.

        Hi, loved your picture the other day
        Yeah I should be in Playboy
        You’d look great as a centrefold
        You should be so lucky
        I’m lucky in love
        I know, you send Geri roses
        OK let me give you one.

        1. It could be, of course, that Soapy Sam DID see all the stuff and thought that it did not advance the complainant’s case.

          In which case – publish and be damned.

  65. Navalny’s funeral on BBC at the moment. All it lacks is Richard Dimbleby’s unctuous tones.

  66. Did they interrupt the Antiques Roadshow to broadcast it?
    That still rankles! We were watching it!!

  67. Richard Tice has posted this on XTwitter regarding the Rochdale by-election.

    “Now the polls have closed, people across the UK need to know the truth about this election campaign – and the implications for our democracy.

    To suggest that a parliamentary election in this country has not been truly free and fair is a very serious allegation indeed.

    Unfortunately however, the behaviour of certain candidates and their supporters in this contest fell very far short of this our traditional democratic standards. What we have witnessed and experienced in Rochdale is deeply disturbing.

    In recent weeks, Reform UK’s candidate and campaign team has:

    – been subjected to death threats
    – suffered vile racist abuse
    – been refused entry to hustings in a public building
    – had to be relocated for their own safety
    – suffered daily intimidation and slurs

    In one incident, Reform UK business supporters were threatened with a firebomb attack if they distributed our leaflets. Menacing behaviour was a feature of the entire campaign, including outside polling stations on the day of the election itself. In this ugliest of contests, we are also concerned by the sudden increase in the size of the postal vote, which has jumped from 14,000 to some 23,000 in this constituency since the last general election.

    The results of the Rochdale by-election should act as a stark wake up call to those in power – and the entire electorate. This is Britain. We are supposed to be a beacon of democracy. This shameful contest has been more characteristic of a failed state.
    Unless something dramatic changes, our fear is that it will be repeated in dozens of constituencies across the UK at the general election. By Christmas, we face the prospect of numerous extremist anti-Semitic lawmakers in the House of Commons”.
    12:41 AM · Mar 1, 2024

    1. This is Britain. We are supposed to be a beacon of democracy.

      Lol. I gave up on that years ago!

    2. If it is available it would be very interesting to see the breakdown of which candidates all the postal votes went to.
      23,000 total suggests most candidates got a considerable number.

    3. The BBC will give it the briefest of mentions, dismissing it as conspiracy theory while finding a way to insert the term ‘far-right’ into the report.

    4. The BBC will give it the briefest of mentions, dismiss it as conspiracy theory, and find a way to insert the term ‘far-right’ into their report.

      1. 384112+ up ticks,

        Afternoon BB2,

        We delivered thousands of leaflets
        supporting Gerard Batten when UKIP leader with, I must admit, no problems, could very well be the black hats/ white hats ALL recognised a true patriotic leader in GB.

        The best leader UKIP ever had.

  70. A loverly line from the much maligned Jordan Peterson when describing how the woke see normal people:

    You’re racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, ageist, ableist, privileged, colonialist, exploitative. .

    If only he would put that on a t shirt!

  71. The Muslim vote is starting to flex its muscles.
    There is no joy to be found in Galloway’s victory other than to say the Uni-party got spanked.

    1. Proof, if it was needed, that the interests of Muslims worldwide (the Ummah) are more important to Muslims in the UK than the welfare of British citizens. Politics has become sectarian in mainland Britain.

    2. 384112+ up ticks,

      Afternoon GQ,

      Been daily building for years
      waiting to be triggered, in parliament the Qua’ran rests betwixt the dispatch boxes and there is halal on the parliamentary canteen menu.

        1. 384112+ up ticks,

          Afternoon R,

          I believe the Serviettes are neutral.
          When I worked in there I stuck mainly to the Guinness.

          1. I went through a phase of manically counting calories. A friend of mine grew justifiably irritated and when we went out for a meal one time she snapped, “And how many calories in the table”!

    1. Where’s the vitamin C in this largely carnivorous diet? Why no scurvy?

      1. Is liver a good source of vitamin C?

        It’s
        also one of the best animal-based sources of vitamin A. One serving of
        beef liver, for example, provides more than 100% of your daily vitamin A
        requirement. Getting enough vitamin A has been linked to a lower risk
        of conditions like cataracts and breast cancer. Liver is also a good source of: Vitamin C.29 Sept 2023

      2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umQj1VpWv5A&list=WL&index=28 Every single vitamin, mineral and nutrient can be obtained from the human’s natural carnivore diet. It is what kept us progressing and getting stronger and brainier for over four-and-a-half million years.

        Humans only started to succumb from a plethora of diseases, becoming progressively physically weaker and mentally retarded after taking up the eating of grains and vegetation, brought on by the ‘agricultural revolution’ commenced by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians around 10,000 years ago.

        1. Just got a Côte de boeuf from the freezer. I will leave it in the fridge for a week or so. Then serve it with CHIPS AND PEAS!

        2. Archaeological data indicates that the domestication of various types of plants and animals happened in separate locations worldwide, starting in the geological epoch of the Holocene 11,700 years ago, after the end of the last Ice Age. It was the world’s first historically verifiable transition to agriculture. The Neolithic Revolution greatly narrowed the diversity of foods available, resulting in a decrease of the quality of human nutrition compared with that obtained previously from foraging, but because food production became more efficient, it released humans to invest their efforts in other activities and was thus “ultimately necessary to the rise of modern civilization by creating the foundation for the later process of industrialization and sustained economic growth”.

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution

          If the evolution of agriculture has led to mental retardation, the comparatively few humans who would now exist – because foraging and hunting cannot support billions of people – might very well have had a higher mental capacity, but they would have had little purpose. It was the population growth which spurred humans into ingenuity in order to sustain its greater numbers. City life and civilization as we have come to know it would never have happened, although I know some wish that had been the case, wanting the planet to be a largely untouched wilderness.

          2. I’m still listening to this long recording but I’m immediately struck by the evangelical obsessiveness. For one person to devote 10 years of a life to perfecting human diet is – to my mind – an unhealthy fixation. I’m aware – though – that humans with fixations are necessary for technological, educational and cultural development. I’m not one of them.

          3. I wouldn’t call it evangelical obsessiveness. The chap making the film almost died as a direct result of eating utter crap produced by global corporations and foisted upon him by so-called “health authorities”. He simply wanted to know why?

          4. Although I appreciate the effort of others in making discoveries, I simply don’t have the determination to follow suit.

            Astronomy is a discipline which delights me with its findings, but I’m damned if I’m going to spend thousands of hours of my life trying to uncover similar unknowns.

            You never read about are those who devote vast amounts of their life in pursuit of the unknown but who find nothing of any interest. I suspect that would be me.

      3. Scurvy comes from not having any source of Vitamin C. Historically tjose people defiecient had no access to fruit or meat !

  73. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/676f1feb728cb25711084af7a8bce14c884e4634f0170cd51bc4dd442508761d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33af2bda5ed08dab927ff68d2c9b8289d1b2e095c92cea43edef16716608f972.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7681db00ad1c63ea3aa53a370d4990e99ebce8d2c3a1d8bac1488b315f4311fb.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eab001436f9fc3538bcf356302c240764e1cf748d41324b90db8d4b1b1931886.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cec2151c4a63b538f2b9c543c894c6fa41a5208c0646638d3a47458bb37ea5ff.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac7544f40a119ae7926dcdfa4a7acab6249ac28cf24418fdbbd526d4ed8cb90b.jpg As soon as the snowdrops and winter aconites reach their peak display, they are quickly followed by other late winter delights. The hazel catkins are now at their phallic best and they look down upon the emerging dwarf irises, winter snowflakes and both white and purple hellebores. Out of sight in the outside border, the crocuses are just starting to show.

  74. Recent images of Prince Harry show a pronounced resemblance to King Charles.

    1. Just a typically unimaginative example of mainstream, androgynous-voiced, euro-dance-pop. If artificial intelligence were yet capable of generating a Eurovision Song Contest entry, this is what it would sound like; bland, inoffensive and capable of being the nomination for any of the competing countries. It follows the Erasure template of 35 years ago with none of that duo’s freshness.

      1. Null points, and I haven’t even listened to it, I’ll take your word for it, Stig.

    2. The turgid state of youth culture these days .. How dare he represent GB like that , morose rubbish, associated with drugs and deprivation , and he is white unfortunately .

      1. White? Not too sure about that. His father deserted him and his mother when he was a thirteen. He attended school at Coleford then Monmouth, during which he was the victim of harassment and suffered from bulimia and depression and he was bullied at school for being gay – even then. There looks like a touch of ‘Bradford’ in his genes – or was in his mother’s genes.

  76. Russia ready to hand over bodies of prisoners killed in plane crash. 1 March 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b24b4c11985936fd46752958a29a496d2dc74315fe298a9b710a661b292d2af0.png

    Russia has said it is ready to return the bodies of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war it claimed were killed when Kyiv shot down a military transport jet.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    These are the only three comments on the article. Almost certainly from 77 Brigade. No one else has bothered because they didn’t want to look stupid. The bodies of these soldiers were certainly those on the plane. Their injuries would match those of the victims of a plane crash and their DNA would match the identities of the prisoners that were to be exchanged later that day. You cannot just pick some body up off the battlefield. That too could be identified.

    The reason for this reticence on the part of the Ukies to admit this is because no one wants to carry the can for killing them even though it was mistake. If you were an officer on the team that shot it down it would finish your career and follow you around forever and this is supposing that it was not Americans manning (something I have long suspected) the Patriot system that performed the task.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/01/russia-ready-to-return-bodies-of-ukrainian-prisoners-of-war/

    2. Bodies recovered from plane crashes are rarely whole – if these are bodies then they weren’t from the plane, if they were pieces then it’s possible

    1. Are you sure? Someone, somewhere must, by now, have linked the shots to suicidal ideation. Isn’t it part of the masterplan to knock a few billion off the world’s population?

  79. MARKS AND SPARKS BRING BACK WHOLE MILK COFFEES AS YOUNG OPT FOR HEALTHY FATS

    MARKS and Spencer cafés have switched to whole milk as their default option, as full-fat milk experiences a health renaissance.

    If customers want semi skimmed or skimmed milk, they will need to ask for it specifically, as they have to if they want plant-based alternatives, such as oat or soya milk.

    The change follows a successful months-long trial of whole milk which M&S said results in “smoother, creamier coffee”. The most popular coffees that are served in the cafés are lattes and cappuccinos, both of which contain large quantities of milk and cost £2.70 for a large in most M&S locations.

    While it is not clear exactly how the change will affect the number of calories in an M&S cafe coffee, a cappuccino with 200ml of full-fat milk will have 35 calories more than one made with 200ml of semi-skimmed milk.

    According to the M&S website, a medium-sized cappuccino has 112 calories and a tea with milk has 24 calories.

    It comes as health trends which focus on gut health rather than restricting fat intake mean that younger milk drinkers have begun to buck the plant-based alternatives trend.

    Milk from grass-fed cows, as most cows are in the UK, is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and other vitamins, which are often removed when the fat is skimmed off. While low-fat versions of milk have long been thought to be healthier, some nutritional scientists are challenging conventional wisdom.

    Prof Tim Spector, a columnist and diet expert, told The Telegraph earlier this month: “As scientists dug deeper into the effects of fat on health, it became clear that full-fat dairy doesn’t have the negative effects on health we once thought.”

    Younger milk drinkers are more likely to be making the change. A third of people surveyed by Waitrose said that they had switched from a lower-fat product to a full-fat dairy product in 2023, with under 35s most likely to have switched. Figures from Waitrose showed that sales of whole milk have risen by 2 per cent over the past three months, resulting in the consumption of millions of extra litres.

    The yoghurt producer Yeo Valley said that the sales of its low or fat-free products have declined year-on-year, as awareness of the risks of ultra-processed foods grow.

    It comes after M&S launched its so-called “Magic Coffee” in cafés last January, after importing the trend from Australian coffee shops.

    The drink is made with two “ristretto” shots of coffee, which offer a more concentrated flavour than a traditional espresso shot, creating an end result which is similar to a flat white.

    M&S has looked to encourage a younger audience into its cafes with recent menu updates including the introduction of protein pancakes and bubble tea. Last year, M&S announced that it would start selling “whole” and “semi” oat milk in the same size bottles as cows’ milk. The oat milks are fortified with calcium and iodine.

    DT Editorial:

    The Milky Way

    The catchy song from the 1920s went: “You’re the cream in my coffee, / You’re the salt in my stew…” Both additives have been regarded as practically criminal for a generation or two. Before that, if someone had inquired: “Would you like skimmed milk in your coffee?” the answer would have been: “No, of course not. Why do you ask?” But now Marks and Spencer has taken a step in the right direction in its cafés by making whole milk the standard accompaniment to coffee. That is what the cow provides, and nature’s way has been found of benefit. Everyone has suddenly become aware of the microscopic inhabitants of their guts, which contribute to health in return for a bit of wholesome fat in the diet. Enthusiasm for starch in the collar, or even laces in shoes, has waned, but we’d still be lost without the creamier side of life.

        2. Yes, the cows are oat in fields eating grass.
          When they come in they are milked by the maids with big jugs.

        1. I prefer a little to none and you cannot have a cappuccino without it.

    2. I noticed the coffee at church has full fat milk but then one our church wardens is a great advocate of whole milk and real butter. I asked how come one of the ladies on the serving team seems to be ill so often and he said it’s because being a vegan, she’s malnourished.

  80. https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1j9U6I.img?w=620&h=413&m=6

    Not sure if the link will open but here is yet another nail in the coffin of our society.
    There are many other small towns and villages with free parking. And greedy councils are destroying the livelihood’s of thousands.

    Axing free parking in Bushey and Radlett could be the “final nail in the coffin” for some of Hertfordshire’s small high streets, a councillor has warned.

    Hertsmere Borough Council has agreed to introduce a one-hour tariff at car parks in the town and the nearby village.

    Tariffs will also rise by up to 50p for stays in Bushey, Radlett, Borehamwood and Potters Bar.

    The charges feature in a 33-page fees and charges schedule book which Hertsmere Borough Council members agreed at a meeting on Wednesday, February 28.

    “The proposal assumes every car park fits a common criterion,” said Conservative councillor Paul Morris, of Bushey Heath ward.

    “The Kemp Place Car Park has always been considered a location that supports the retail high street in this location.
    “The residents of Bushey deserve better from the Labour-Liberal coalition.”

    Motorists can park for free for one hour at the Kemp Place and Bushey Country Club car parks in Bushey, and the Newberries Car Park in Radlett.

    Afterwards, the fee rises to £1 per additional hour for up to five hours, then £6.50 for stays longer than this period, which matches the scale which the borough council uses its car parks in Borehamwood and Potters Bar.

    The new charges approved by the authority feature a £1.10-for-one-hour charge at all of the borough council’s car parks.

    Drivers face paying £2.20 for stays of up to two hours, £3.30 for three hours, £4.50 for four hours, and £5.50 for up to five hours. Longer stays are set to cost £7.

    “This will undermine the retail businesses,” Cllr Morris said.

    “This is a village high street with small businesses like Mavis the wool shop, Cowlings the hardware shop and Bushey Pharmacy significantly, all of whom would be affected by such a move.

    “It could … signal the demise of the local high street.

    “I’m at a loss to understand why, when the retail sector is already struggling, this Labour-Liberal coalition wish to put the final nail in the coffin of this local high street.”

    Conservative councillor Caroline Clapper represents Aldenham West ward on the authority, which includes Aldenham village and streets in the west of Radlett village.

    She said she “fully supported” a 2023 Hertsmere Labour manifesto commitment to “provide a free hour in all council-owned car parks near high streets”.

    Cllr Clapper said: “Radlett is just a short drive away from the retail park in Borehamwood which provides free parking and Radlett needs to compete with that.”

    She said Aldenham Parish Council had been asked to increase its £12,500 contribution to continue free parking to a “simply unaffordable” level.

    Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Shenton is responsible for Hertsmere’s budget.

    The Bushey St James councillor said: “We invited Aldenham Parish Council to pay the full economic cost of the contribution.

    “They had been making a contribution but it was tiny compared to the full economic cost.

    They decided they didn’t want to.

    “Consequently, we’re obliged to charge the same amount for Radlett car park as Borehamwood, Potters Bar, Bushey Heath, and all the other ones across the borough.”

    According to a meeting report, the potential lost income from a free hour of parking in Radlett is around £80,000 per year.

      1. With fat wallets.
        More bloody stupid tap to park machines.
        And 100 pound fines for making a mistake.

        1. This will result in shoppers parking in side streets, eg. Rudolph Rd, Park Rd. etc.which in turn will, eventually, introduce residents parking schemes for those roads. In other words, p*ssing everyone off. An enlightened town/city is Ely where all parking is f.o.c. Consequently it has a thriving shopping area, street market, pubs etc, and many tourists, shoppers and visitors and no extra pressure on residents parking. Win win.

          3. Waiting by the ‘phone! Elder daughter about to produce 3rd baby! Last we heard she was eating quiche and salad! Also doing funerals and family!

          4. Hello, old bean. At my age, the main place I meet old friends these days is at funerals.

          5. Absolutely correct Max.
            But we all know how serialy thick and easily led people in council jobs are.

          6. It’s a long time since I went to Ely. Maybe it’s time to think of paying it a visit again.

  81. HMS Gould (K 476).
    Frigate (Captain)
    .
    Complement:
    158 officers and men (124 dead and 34 survivors).

    On 29th February 1944, U-358 (Rolf Manke) was located by four frigates of the 1st Escort Group about 450 miles north-northeast of the Azores. HMS Affleck (K 362) (Cdr C. Gwinner, DSO, DSC, RN), HMS Gould (K 476) (Lt D.W. Ungoed, RN), HMS Gore (K 481) (Lt J.V. Reeves-Brown, RN) and HMS Garlies (K 475) (Lt R.L. Calpe, DSC, RN) dropped 104 depth charges in the subsequent attacks, which were continued all throughout the night. The next day HMS Gore (K 481) and HMS Garlies (K 475) had to withdraw to Gibraltar for fuel, but the other two frigates continued the hunt. U-358 was forced to surface after being submerged for 38 hours and succeeded in torpedoing HMS Gould (K 476) with a Gnat fired from the stern torpedo tube, but was subsequently sunk by gunfire and depth charges from HMS Affleck (K 362) only 20 minutes later.
    HMS Gould (K 476) was struck on port side in the aft motor room at 20.21 hours on 1st March 1944. The explosion broke her in two, the stern sinking rapidly and the fore part disappearing with a heavy list to starboard about 25 minutes after being hit. The commander, six officers and 116 ratings from HMS Gould (K 476) were lost. Three officers and 32 ratings were picked up by HMS Affleck (K 362) together with the sole survivor from the U-boat and were taken to Gibraltar, but one rating had died of wounds and was buried at sea on 2nd March.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-358 was sunk on 1st March 1944 in the North Atlantic north of the Azores by depth charges from the British frigates HMS Gould, HMS Affleck, HMS Gore and HMS Garlies. 50 dead and 1 survivor.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/de_hms_gould.jpg

      1. I’ve already suggested to our sons they are going to have think about moving elsewhere. Overseas.

          4. Well, Putin would appear to be the only world leader who stands in the path of the WEF. And a change of leader can change everything.

          6. All had drastic guidelines and were followed above and beyond the call of duty by the henchmen of their states during the covid years. They are going the same way as the UK. Although Milei seems at times genuine enough I get the impression that he runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds. It will be difficult to escape the tentacles of a global govt, in fact atm Putin is all that stands in the way of success for the WEF. Hungary, perhaps might be a possibility. But everything can change with a change of president.

          8. It’s authoritarian, intolerant of dissent and expects conformity. I dont think it would welcome me. As for its weather, its vastness encompasses a large climate variance.

          9. The UK is now authoritarian, intolerant of dissent and expects conformity. At least the Russian government is fighting the Russians’ corner!

    2. “….And then they came for you.”

      Slammers have taken over. That’s it, then.

      1. Great God! I’d rather be
        A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
        So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
        Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
        Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
        Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

        I learnt Wordsworth’s sonnet, The World is Too Much With Us, when I was a schoolboy. I still know it by heart. One of my contemporaries was a boy called Page and he acquired the soubriquet, Pagan, as was Dexter’s Inspector Morse when he was at school.

    5. I wonder if that display has public liability insurance.
      It was always (excuses) one of the reasons for banning St George’s day parades.

        1. If I were here illegally, I hope I’d have the nous not to declare my presence on a census form.

    8. It’s ok, we have been reassured that London has NOT, repeat NOT, been taken over by Islamists.

      1. I woz lied to – or maybe not. Perhaps there really was a fairy trapped under my food and eating up freed her and saved her from certain death. Either way, I mostly ate what I was given.

      1. Appearances! People with a lot of money washing around can also sustain big losses. I think he was managing other peoples assets as well, scope for digging yourself a very nasty hole. I stick with premium bonds..

        1. Poor people fritter away the little money they do have on trivial fripperies like food, electricity, rates and rent.

      2. Marriage on the rocks? A scandal about to emerge? Terminal illness?

        Sometimes it’s a complete mystery. I recall, in the 1980s, a woman where I worked who always seemed cheerful and happy. One day, out of the blue, we were told she had killed herself. Her bereft husband had no idea why she had done it.

        1. Owen Paterson’ wife committed suicide because her husband was hounded by the likes of Chris Bryant.

      4. Algernon

        Young Algernon, the Doctor’s Son,
        Was playing with a Loaded Gun.
        He pointed it towards his Sister,
        Aimed very carefully, but
        Missed her!
        His Father, who was standing near,
        The Loud Explosion chanced to Hear,
        And reprimanded Algernon
        For playing with a Loaded Gun.

        [Hilaire Belloc]

  88. Just catching up on the Great British Menu and the guest judge is a paraolympian who lost both his legs to an IED. It was referred to by another judge as an ‘accident’.
    I think she meant an incident…but she is of foreign origin and most of her restaurants are in the north west.

    1. Watched it last night. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of some of the dishes! 🤢 Actually, one in particular!

      1. On a wider note, I can’ help but notice that many of the cookery programmes around at the moment [such as those of Rick Stein] seem to concentrate on food from those nice diverse types, and there also seems to be much more vegetarian/vegan food. OK, I like a variety of food but I object to an agenda being pushed on us.

        1. The fact I like the food should not mean I have to approve of or accept the takeover by the culture

        2. Excuse me! I believe it’s now been rebranded ‘plant based’! And one of the ‘chefs’ last night is one of them!

      2. I don’t believe Michael O’Hare in his Pinky Boots would score so high if he didn’t believe it.

        I also believe that a crown roast of lamb at a banquet is a no-brainer ! As opposed to a plant based lasagna no matter how good.

        The Vegan might get through but it won’t be the main course.

        We are talking a banquet celebrating Olympians here. PROTEIN !

  89. British parents have forgotten their most basic responsibilities.

    More than a third of children in this country are starting primary school unable to hold a pencil, according to a new survey. Around a quarter lack basic language skills, such as saying their own name, 36 per cent can’t count to 10, 37 per cent are unable to dress themselves, and 24 per cent are not even potty-trained.

    The same survey, carried out by the early years charity Kinship Squared, provides some clues as to how this deplorable state of affairs came about. Both parents and teachers blame screens, which have largely displaced the formative experiences of early childhood: chatting, drawing, reading and playing with other children. The lockdowns didn’t help. Many children who should have been at nursery, socialising and learning through play, were stuck at home with parents who never looked up from their screens themselves.

    But here’s the statistic I find most shocking, and most telling. Half of parents don’t actually believe they are solely responsible for teaching their child to use a toilet. Half! That means there must be millions of these shirkers moving among us, seemingly unashamed.

    What did they imagine parenthood would entail, if not sole responsibility for another person’s excretions? Did they think the child would come accompanied by a personal valet, hovering discreetly at all times with a wet wipe over one arm? Did they think technology would eventually solve the problem, perhaps enabling the whole family to continue scrolling in comfort without the need for toilet breaks?

    It’s not completely far-fetched. Babies used to be potty-trained much earlier, and more willingly, because towelling nappies were so damp and uncomfortable. But the moisture-wicking technology of the disposable has made it possible for toddlers to sit for hours quite happily in their own feculence.

    Even so, teaching your child to use the toilet before it becomes embarrassing seems a pretty basic parental duty. Who else could be expected to undertake such an intimate, menial, timeconsuming, patiencestretching job? Why, teachers, of course! Teachers are now losing an estimated 2.5 hours a day – or one third of classroom time – dealing with issues related to “school unreadiness”. Safeguarding rules mean children have to be accompanied to the lavatory by two adults, so the whole thing becomes a double palaver.

    Teachers don’t want this responsibility – any more than they welcome Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to introduce supervised toothbrushing in schools. They want to crack on with phonetics and number bonds and cardboard models of volcanoes, not this shadow curriculum of Lessons that Definitely Ought to be Taught by Parents.

    Raising children is hard work. But teaching your child to go to the lavatory is not exactly shooting for the stars. In South Korea, you’re considered a negligent parent unless your child is privately tutored from the age of four in subjects such as maths, music and taekwondo. Of course, this perfectionist style of parenting has its own drawbacks. The cost, worry and strain has led to the lowest birthrate in the world, at just 0.72 babies per woman. If this trend continues, South Korea’s population will have halved by the year 2100.

    South Koreans take the duties of parenthood too seriously to have children at all. We keep reproducing, but have forgotten our responsibilities.

    My theory on the direct correlation between diet and stupidity is gaining traction. More irrefutable evidence is presented by the minute.

    2. Parents who don’t read and don’t have books in their homes are likely to have illiterate or semi-literate children.

      Bedtime story-time was the most important time of day when our children were little – I read to one boy in English and Caroline read to the other in French changing boys when a book was finished and reading poetry to fill in if one book was finished before the other.

      Both our boys were fluent bilingual readers at the age of 4 and communicated well because they had exceptionally large vocabularies for their age in both languages.

      1. I was really upset when Second Son decided he was too old to have a story read at bedtime. It was a lovely quiet time at the end of the day, and I miss it even now.

        1. Listen with caregiver of any or all self-identified gender or genders.

    3. Don’t know their own name and have poor language skills? Don’t know how to use a loo? Are they slammers?

  90. A middle-aged Bogey Five!

    Wordle 986 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. My son made the two guesses today!
      Wordle 986 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. You did better than me.

      Wordle 986 6/6

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

    3. I did better today.

      Wordle 986 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Resignation? Condemning the slammers for their take over?

      Nah – more kneejerks.

  93. Britain is fast becoming a failed state. Faith in the system is beginning to collapse. 1 march 2024.

    With Britain giving every appearance of becoming a failed state, is it any wonder that people are giving up any sort of responsibility, even for themselves and their families? School absence is at crisis levels and severe absence is at record levels. Worklessness is becoming an epidemic, with people in their 20s more likely to claim they are too ill to work than those in their 30s and 40s, according to analysis of Office for National Statistic (ONS) data by the Resolution Foundation and Health Foundation think tanks.

    Beginning? Becoming? Where has this woman been? It’s practically over. Only by delving into the bottomless taxpayers pit is it kept going. Soon it will collapse entirely. Things will turn really nasty then!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/01/mob-rule-rishi-sunak-sarah-everard-failed-state/

    2. Let’s vote the MPs another 30 million to protect themselves from hurty stickers, shall we?

    3. ‘it was found that much of the material Hundred Handers published was “xenophobic, nationalistic and vitriolic”.‘

      Is being xenophobic, nationalistic and vitriolic actually illegal?

  97. Sunak has just spouted utter bollocks about the multi-culti paradise of the UK. He has linked Nick Griffin of the BNP to Galloway and compared the far-right to Islamism as a threat. And put the cups away before you listen to him boast about his Hinduism.

    When the text is available, I expect you all to rip it apart.

  98. Picked up from Faceache:-

    WOW !!!
    Only in Rochdale , drove to the petrol station to get a few munchies when I drove in I noticed two coppers watching a woman smoking a cigarette, while filling up. I saw her & thought “what an idiot….with the coppers right there too”. I went in & got my snacks. As I was paying I heard someone screaming. I looked outside & the woman’s arm was on fire!!! She was swinging her arm & running around going ballistic!! I rushed outside to help & the coppers had put her on the ground & we’re putting the fire out with their coffee’s!!! Then, they put handcuffs on her & threw her in the police car. I was thinking “she shouldn’t have been smoking & pumping petrol!” But being the nosey person that I am, I asked them what they were arresting her for?
    The coppers looked me dead in the eye & said “WAVING A FIREARM AROUND!”

    1. My cousin was a very successful farmer and businessman in Zimbabwe Rhodesia. His farm was stolen by Mugabe and the farmworkers whom he had sent to agricultural college were murdered. He wrote his autobiography and called it:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96d7dcbb9c7f5476a644a7866aa10edb80f740df53a1860bc165581677572e8c.png

      a title which many people who gave their lives for subsequent generations could have used had they had foresight and written their own autobiographies.

    2. It will only come about through a military mutiny. Voting will change nothing. The country Britain First wishes to see will only be restored through much bloodshed and hardship.

  100. 384112+ up ticks,

    Judging by the tone & content of that CRAP we can fully expect the invasion to swell to unbelievable numbers and the poisoning to
    reach greater depths of evilness.

  101. Although Fishi is spouting the predicable bollox, I would suggest that it is unwise for a prime minister (in name only) to criticise voters who have just expressed their wishes through the ballot box.

    1. As far as the BBC radio news is concerned, he is criticising the extreme right wing lead by Nick Griffin.

      1. Well, you see, I never listen to or watch any news, politics, current affairs …

        1. You and me both, Bill. My blood pressure is all the better for it. One thing I know for sure; if a politician’s lips are moving, he’s lying.

      2. Well, they had to drag up someone from the past that people recognise even if he left the BNP years ago. Korma in the House was blaming Tommy Robinson for causing violence, unlikely at the moment as he is on police bail and banned from London. Fishys words made me seeth.

  102. That’s me for his day of two halves. Cold and wet morning – cold and sunny afternoon. Chilly night expected. Cold and rain tomorrow. Entirely normal weather for this time of year. A very agreeable walk in the sun (well wrapped up, though – the wind was cold).

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. Seems like a normal March. Watching the wind patterns.

      Any advice on when i should start planting ?

  104. Well, I get it, at least Rishi has put his foot down –

    If the Islamists don’t back down, I’m going to impose a complete ban on the white populations ability to complain without being nicked for Islamic blasphemy,
    That’ll teach em

    1. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, when presented with the speech by MI5, The Fakir asked: “Who is Nick Griffin?”

    1. Pay, to listen to Sunak? I’ll give that a miss, unless he’s talking about self immolation.

    2. Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Yawn.
      Rishi Sunak’s speech in full
      In recent weeks and months, we have seen a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality.

      What started as protests on our streets, has descended into intimidation, threats, and planned acts of violence.

      Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveal their identity.

      Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.

      Now our democracy itself is a target.

      Council meetings and local events have been stormed.

      MPs do not feel safe in their homes.

      Long standing Parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety concerns.

      And it is beyond alarming that last night the Rochdale by-election returned a candidate who dismisses the horror of what happened on October 7th, who glorifies Hezbollah and is endorsed by Nick Griffin, the racist former leader of the BNP.

      I need to speak to you all this evening because this situation has gone on long enough and demands a response not just from government, but from all of us.

      Britain is a patriotic, liberal, democratic society with a proud past and a bright future.

      We are a reasonable country and a decent people.

      Our story is one of progress, of great achievements and enduring values.

      Immigrants who have come here have integrated and contributed.

      They have helped write the latest chapter in our island story.

      They have done this without being required to give up their identity.

      You can be a practising Hindu and a proud Briton as I am.

      Or a devout Muslim and a patriotic citizen as so many are.

      Or a committed Jewish person and the heart of your local community and all underpinned by the tolerance of our established, Christian church.

      We are a country where we love our neighbours.

      And we are building Britain together.

      But I fear that our great achievement in building the world’s most successful multi-ethnic, multi faith democracy is being deliberately undermined.

      There are forces here at home trying to tear us apart.

      Since October 7th there have been those trying to take advantage of the very human angst that we all feel about the terrible suffering that war brings to the innocent, to women and children to advance a divisive, hateful ideological agenda.

      On too many occasions recently, our streets have been hijacked by small groups who are hostile to our values and have no respect for our democratic traditions.

      Membership of our society is contingent on some simple things that you abide by the rule of law, and that change can only come through the peaceful, democratic process.

      Threats of violence and intimidation are alien to our way of doing things: they must be resisted at all times.

      Nearly everyone in Britain supports these basic values but there are small and vocal hostile groups who do not.

      Islamist extremists and the far right feed off and embolden each other.

      They are equally desperate to pretend that their violence is somehow justified when actually these groups are two sides of the same extremist coin.

      Neither group accept that change in our country can only come through the peaceful democratic process.

      Both loathe the pluralist, modern country we are.

      Both want to set Briton against Briton to weaponise the evils of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred for their own ends.

      The faith of Islam, peacefully practised by millions of our fellow citizens is emphatically not the same thing as the extremist political ideology of Islamism which aims to separate Muslims from the rest of society.

      Islamist extremists and far rights groups are spreading a poison, that poison is extremism.

      It aims to drain us of our confidence in ourselves as a people, and in our shared future.

      They want us to doubt ourselves, to doubt each other, to doubt our country’s history and achievements.

      They want us to accept a moral equivalence between Britain and some of the most despicable regimes in the world.

      They want us to believe that our country, and the West more generally, is solely responsible for the world’s ills and that we, along with our allies, are the problem.

      In short, they want to destroy our confidence and hope.

      We must not allow that to happen.

      When these groups claim that Britain is and has been on the wrong side of history, we should reject it, and reject it again.

      No country is perfect, but I am enormously proud of the good that our country has done.

      Our place in history is defined by the sacrifices our people have made, in the service of our own freedom and that of others.

      And when these groups tell children that they cannot – and will not succeed – because of who they are.

      When they tell children that the system is rigged against them or that Britain is a racist country…

      This is not only a lie, but a cynical attempt to crush young dreams, and turn impressionistic minds against their own society.

      I stand here as our country’s first non-white Prime Minister, leading the most diverse government in our country’s history to tell people of all races, all faiths and all backgrounds it is not the colour of your skin, the God you believe in or where you were born, that will determine your success but just your own hard work and endeavour.

      We must be prepared to stand up for our shared values in all circumstances, no matter how difficult.

      And I respect that the police have a tough job in policing the protests we have seen and that they are operationally independent.

      But we must draw a line.

      Yes, you can march and protest with passion. You can demand the protection of civilian life, but no, you cannot call for violent Jihad.

      There is no “context” in which it can be acceptable to beam antisemitic tropes onto Big Ben in the middle of a vote on Israel/Gaza.

      And there can be no cause you can use to justify the support of a proscribed terrorist group, like Hamas.

      Yes, you can freely criticise the actions of this government, or indeed any government: that is a fundamental democratic right.

      But no, you cannot use that as an excuse to call for the eradication of a State – or any kind of hatred or antisemitism.

      This week I have met with senior police officers and made clear it is the public’s expectation

      that they will not merely manage these protests, but police them.

      And I say this to the police, we will back you when you take action.

      But if we are asking more of the police, we in government must also back up that call with action.

      To that end, this month the government will implement a new robust framework for how it deals with this issue.

      To ensure that we are dealing with the root causes of this problem and that no extremist organisations or individuals are being lent legitimacy by their actions and interactions with central government.

      You cannot be part of our civic life if your agenda is to tear it down.

      We will redouble our support for the Prevent programme to stop young minds being poisoned by extremism.

      We will demand that universities stop extremist activity on campus.

      We will also act to prevent people entering this country whose aim is to undermine its values.

      The Home Secretary has instructed that if those here on visas choose to spew hate on protests or seek to intimidate people we will remove their right to be here.

      And our Britain must not be a country in which we descend into polarised camps with some communities living parallel lives.

      It is not enough to live side-by-side, we must live together united by shared values and a shared commitment to this country.

      And I want to speak directly to those who choose to continue to protest:

      Don’t let the extremists hijack your marches.

      You have a chance in the coming weeks to show that you can protest decently, peacefully and with empathy for your fellow citizens.

      Let us prove these extremists wrong and show them that even when we disagree we will never be disunited from our common values of decency and respect.

      I love this country.

      My family and I owe it so much.

      The time has now come for us all to stand together to combat the forces of division and beat this poison.

      We must face down the extremists who would tear us apart. There must be leadership, not pandering or appeasement.

      When they tell their lies, we will tell the truth.

      When they try and sap our confidence, we will redouble our efforts.

      And when they try and make us doubt each other we will dig deeper for that extra ounce of compassion and empathy that they want us to believe doesn’t exist, but that I know does.

      If we can do that, we can build on our great achievement in creating today’s Britain, a country of kind, decent, tolerant people.

      We can make this a country in which we all feel a renewed sense of pride.

      This is our home.

      So let us go forward together, confident in our values and confident in our future.

      1. “We will also act to prevent people entering this country whose aim is to undermine its values”
        You keep saying that [Sunak] – I do not think it means what you think it means!

        1. Perhaps he has in mind Geert Wilders, Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orban et al…

      2. He was doing well until he equated to so-called far right with islamists. He has also showed that he does not understand the basic tenets of islam. The marchers have made their point but are now a costly nuisance. They have freely expressed themselves but now should be curtailed or banned. Enough.

      3. I hope the bastard comes back as a slug or a cockroach in his next incarnation.

        1. Better yet one of those freaks of nature that lives for thousands of years doing next to nothing such as an immortal jellyfish; appropriate for a fishy Rishi.

          1. Like a Portuguese man o’ war, a colonial organism, I guess they’re virtually immortal.

          2. Jellyfish are immortal right up to the point they meet a Chinese banquet. You need to add lots of chilli to disguise the bland rubbery sunak.

      4. Ahem, muslim women no connection with an islamic group? The man’s a lying idiot.

      5. Who chose the format of single-sentence paragraphs, which most of them are? It looks declamatory and tabloid. I feel as if I’m being hectored from a loudspeaker. I don’t take kindly to being shouted at, even in printed text.

    3. What was that anti-ad app you told us about a few weeks ago? Chrome I think, and it works beautifully.

  106. I don’t suppose our escort po-lice have ever inflicted a single persecution on king islamist holding up placards calling for the death, amputation and beheading of people who don’t support their evil deeds.

  107. Marvellous, isn’t it! They’ll be quaking in their boots – whoever they are, and whatever he’s going to do! 🤷🏻‍♀️

      1. I’d never heard Brash & Trash being referred to in those terms…suits them. {:^))

    4. Good grief, Sue Ed, that’s me on the LHS of the photo with my pet chinchilla over my shoulders, Lol.

    5. What I find interesting is that there are more than 10 women in the adverts!

    7. Class.

      I hear there is a rise in misogyny. A rise on social media like Barton and Tate. Given how many women in the public eye dress or rather don’t dress is it any wonder…..stupid question.

      1. A rise in misogyny? Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with an ideology which considers women to be goods and chattels, could it?

      2. Class, that was my first reaction as well, even before seeing the photograph.

  111. If Sunak really did want to change things for the better he would ban all masks and other face coverings and to Hell with offending the perpetually offended. Wearing one in public should be an arrestable offence with a massive fine.
    It would allow the police to photograph, identify and hunt down trouble makers and thieves. Too many such low-life use the mask to allow wrongdoing.

    1. “If Sunak really did want to change things for the better he would… ”

      So not a chance.

  112. That’s me off to bed.
    I wonder what ERNIE’s got in line for me?

    G’night all.

    3. Probably loadsa dosh, Bob. You seem to have had all mine (or rather MOH’s) since about 1956 🙂

  113. The unelected bloke who is sat in No. 10 doing everything in his power to keep us chained to the EU is concerned about democracy?

    1. Wow. Is there any right to appeal, does anyone know? How low can our justice system sink?

    3. Surely there must have been others that were worse?

      Calls for beheading is OK but these aren’t?

      1. It’s being said that the statement on rape gangs was the one that they couldn’t accept.
        Who isn’t against rape gangs?
        Who isn’t against criminals who target one particular race as their victims?

        1. I’ve been looking for other examples and it’s clear he was stirring the pot, BUT, there is no doubt that there is far far worse out there that the PTB turn a blind eye to.

          1. Stirring the pot…an agitator you mean. What a ghastly man to draw attention to the reality we live in.

      2. I suppose the charge was the catch-all, promoting racial hatred or the likes. Like all these new laws, they are made flexible and so can prosecute whosoever you wish, whilst being able to ignore those groups who will play the race card.

    4. Whereas support for Hamas is illegal, but the judge let them off. We can clearly see who holds the whip hand.

  115. Well, chums, I am now going to wish you all a Good Night, a restful sleep and hope to see you(r posts) all tomorrow.

  116. Evening, all. Another wet day, but not the delugeaggeddon forecast by the Wet Office. The only defence our lot of truffers will prioritise is their own against the problem they have created. The rest of us can go under.

  117. I started to highlight the nonsense in Snaky’s sermon in order to rip it but it became a case of what to ignore. The worst of it is the overriding sentiment of moral equivalence between the ‘far-right’ and Islam, and the attempt to distinguish between good Muslims and Islamists.

    Islamist extremists and far right groups are spreading a poison, that poison is extremism.

    It aims to drain us of our confidence in ourselves as a people, and in our shared future.

    They want us to doubt ourselves, to doubt each other, to doubt our country’s history and achievements.

    They want us to accept a moral equivalence between Britain and some of the most despicable regimes in the world.

    They want us to believe that our country, and the West more generally, is solely responsible for the world’s ills and that we, along with our allies, are the problem.

    Those who say ‘the West is responsible for the world’s ills’ are almost entirely on the Left and include a good many Muslims. I think I’m safe in saying that ‘far-right’ racists haven’t stood up to condemn the British Empire or the Industrial Revolution.
    __________________________________________

    On too many occasions recently, our streets have been hijacked by small groups who are hostile to our values and have no respect for our democratic traditions.

    SMALL?!
    __________________________________________

    When they tell children that the system is rigged against them or that Britain is a racist country…

    The system is rigged – increasingly against white children and by those who assert that Britain is racist.
    __________________________________________

    We will redouble our support for the Prevent programme to stop young minds being poisoned by extremism.

    Nothing will stop Ali, Raheem or Fatima reading the instruction manual…
    __________________________________________

    And our Britain must not be a country in which we descend into polarised camps with some communities living parallel lives.

    Too late…

    1. And he fires the one person who has been trying her best to tell him. Suella is my MP and she will be one of the few to retain her seat.

      1. Exactly. All Sunak’s words have to be seen through the lens of his obstructing Braverman when she tried to stop the boats.

  118. As a little light relief and distraction from the doom and gloom, the vet contacted me this afternoon to say I can collect the pawprint they took from Oscar last Monday week. I have spent the evening, downloading pictures of him and deciding which ones to print and put in a frame. Sad, but satisfying. His portrait has joined the pantheon of lost pets on the mantlepiece (there is one of me and Elisabeth, the Spitfire, but no doubt I’ll be joining them eventually).

  119. We have just become grandparents for the 5th time! Little boy, and Mum and he are fine! Dad is having trouble getting phone reception!

    4. Congratulations Sue – and to your family. I hope he brings much happiness to you all.

      1. Thank you pm! It’s been a bit fraught, but he’s a big lad at 9lb 9oz!

        2. 9lbs 9oz !! Good grief ! What do mums-to-be eat these days? It seems each generation weighs in more heavily than the next – I was just 6lbs, our two sons were 7lbs 3oz and 7lbs 5oz and our grandsons were 8lbs 4oz and 8lbs 9oz.

    5. Congratulations to you and yours! Hopefully, you will soon get to meet your new grandson.

        1. We felt so blessed when we were invited to meet our grandson at just 5 days old last September. Such a contrast to the ones in Canada. The first one we only got to meet at 7 weeks old because they were coming to England for other son’s wedding. The second one we were eventually ‘allowed’ to fly over to meet her at just over 2 months. (We had offered to go over sooner, just calling in to them for a day either end of a trip to elsewhere in Canada, but were told, in no uncertain terms, no!)
          While I have never met you, as a fellow grandparent, I’m so excited for you!

          1. Thank you again, MIB! It is exciting, and the worry we went through last night is just an indication that no matter how old they are, your children are always 7! Finlay was due on 21st Feb, so not only was he quite late, being the 3rd baby we assumed it was going to be a doddle! Ha! After 24 hours and her waters being broken, she need an emergency section! But they’re both fine so all is well!

          2. No wonder last night was worrying for you all. Thankfully, mother and baby are well. Now, we wish for a speedy recovery for the mother. Those early days are tough enough, and that’s without caesarean recovery thrown into the mix.
            As you say, no matter how old …..
            Our Grandson was just a week before his dates last September. Son’s partner is very sporty and fit, so we thought that might help with labour. But, after many hours, baby wasn’t budging (something to do with his lie), so the poor mother ended up with forceps. Luckily, she already had an epidural set up, so when she was whisked into theatre, it was all systems go. Not what they’d hoped for, but they were just relieved baby was healthy. We feel so blessed that not only are they only a two hour drive away, but we are given regular contact and frequent updates.
            The other wonderful part of our grandson’s arrival was that our son even phoned us to let us know they were at the hospital, and gave us a couple of updates along the way.
            Big contrast to the Canadian pair, where we didn’t know labour had begun (fair enough, she’s not my daughter), then when I announced the safe arrival of our first grandchild on my farcebook page the next day, I was in BIG trouble, because some of their ‘friends’ didn’t even know she was in labour or had the baby. Well, WE didn’t know she was in labour either until after the event, plus there were absolutely no ‘shared’ friends, so how the hell was that a problem?

    7. Wonderful news ! So glad for you all.
      It must come as a bit of a shock to you given how young you are… ;@)

    9. Ah! So the tense waiting is over and you can relax now!
      Congratulations.

    10. Congratulations to mum, dad and grandson.
      How we miss cuddling our grandchildren as they’ve grown up and are now 19, 20 and 22.
      How lucky you are.

      1. Of course the bonny wee chap will be given a proper name. None of that new age parp. I suggest Philip. :@)

  121. 384112+ up ticks,

    Musing,

    My kind of beneficial climate change, this odious lab/lib/con coalition party
    with the wind up.

    May it become a gale force power for change.

  122. 384112+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    Poison of extremism threatens British democracy, says Rishi Sunak
    PM issues plea for pro-Palestinian protesters to reject radicals and calls victory of George Galloway as new MP ‘beyond horrifying’

    The speech could be seen also as rhetorical
    chaff, distorting the other poison issue appertaining to the jabberee

    1. Rishi is horrified about Galloway becoming an MP.
      I was horrified that a Hindu became PM.

          2. Do you have one in mind? In the abstract I feel less easy, but I withhold judgement until I know the character of the particular person.

          4. It’s coming and our noses will well and truly be rubbed in it. We are all muslim now.

        2. It wouldn’t have been a problem for me either except that David Cameron said that was what he wished for.

          1. And just about everything that the repulsive Cameron said and did was wrong.

  124. Charles Moore being so decent – but who is Mr B? Hasn’t a Nottlander had a similar response from an MP?

    Many more Galloways will fill the vacuum left by the cowardly mainstream parties

    The Tories and Labour are alienating both Muslim voters and those worried about political Islam

    CHARLES MOORE • 1 March 2024 • 6:14pm

    Mr Galloway was duly elected (though the dramatic rise in the numbers of postal votes cast does make one wonder how well they were invigilated). But the total electorate in Rochdale is about 78,000. He won 12,335 votes – less than a sixth of that. On this slender foundation, he boasts (with Gorgeous George, everything is a boast) of affecting a major war 2,365 miles away.
    Unfortunately, Mr Galloway is not 100 per cent mistaken. At present, the classic issues of domestic politics are so badly handled by the main political parties that adventurers who exploit visceral issues can hog the stage.

    Those classic issues concern what used to be called “the condition of the people”. Both Conservatives and Labour understood this.

    For the Tories, that condition was better improved by independent institutions and a government that favoured entrepreneurism, property ownership and liberty. For Labour, government, trade unions and a welfare state were the chief engines of social betterment. Both parties engaged with subjects that mattered to all voters.

    At present, both are in a mess. Mr Galloway’s low jibe that Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are “two cheeks of the same backside” is not quite as unacceptable as one would like.

    The Rochdale result reinforces the widespread impression that the Tories are going nowhere. For Labour, it is worse. It increases the growing doubt about Sir Keir’s grip on his party and whether he can propose, as all oppositions should, answers for voters’ present discontents. Mr Galloway is eloquent, and wrong. Sir Keir is not eloquent, and not clearly right.

    The general reason for Mr Galloway’s success is the weakness of the political establishment, but the particular reason in Rochdale is the large number of Muslim voters there. He sent out a special by-election address “to the voters of the Muslim faith in Rochdale”. He had “fought for Muslims … all of my life”, he said, especially for Palestine and in Iraq.

    If I win, he told them, Sir Keir, “a top supporter of Israel”, “could well be forced out as Labour leader”. Invoking the will of God, he called on his Muslim “brothers and sisters” to “send a message that will be heard in all four corners of the world”. “Wa’ Salaam o Aleukum,” he ended. His sectarianism puts even Northern Irish politics 50 years ago in the shade.

    It is obvious that Muslim voters will, on average, care more about Israel/Gaza than the general population. The same applies to Jewish voters, usually from the opposite point of view.

    The important electoral difference is that Muslims, at roughly 6.5 per cent of our population, are well over 12 times more numerous than Jews. The Muslim vote remains too small to decide the fate of the nation but is now big enough to sway several parliamentary seats and raise the political temperature.

    The Gaza conflict, and the ensuing marches in Britain, have proved this as never before. The marches’ aggression and extremism have alarmed most Jewish voters, most Gentile supporters of Israel, and many millions who have no strong views on the Middle East and do not see why the subject should dominate our public spaces. In an overdue but welcome speech, Mr Sunak said that “What started as protests on our streets, has descended into intimidation, threats, and planned acts of violence.” People resent this embryonic mob rule.

    Their resentment is often related to a belief, which recent statistics confirm, that immigration is out of control.

    For some, it is Islam itself that is the problem. Readers quite often write to me about this. This week, I received an email from a gentleman whom I have known slightly for several years. He is a retired chartered accountant, of mainstream conservative views, living in southern England. I have met him a couple of times and found him pleasant and sane.

    He does not want to be named in public (which indicates our bad situation), so I shall call him Mr A. He showed me his correspondence with his MP, who is a Conservative. Since I am not naming Mr A, I shall not name his MP, but just call him Mr B.

    Here is what Mr A wrote:

    “Islam is a major threat to democracy in this country and elsewhere.

    “Islam cannot allow itself to be governed forever by non-Islamic rule. If you study the history of Islam and see how it is reflected in modern society, the clues are plain to see.

    “Muslims do not integrate into our culture. They do not become British except in law. Multiculturalism is a failure and allows minorities to take us over.

    “As a politician, you and your cohort and predecessors need to face the truth and not cast out someone like Mr [Lee] Anderson, with whose views I and millions of others in this country agree. It is politicians who have caused the problem with their fixation for allowing massive immigration and it is politicians like you who need to wake up and fix it.

    “As one Muslim said to me a few years ago, ‘We will win in the end because we have more babies than you’. I fear for my children and grandchildren, as should you.”

    Mr B’s reply, in full, was “I will not respond to your racist email, and shall no longer respond to correspondence from you.”

    As I said to Mr A when we discussed this exchange, I do not fully agree with him. There is indeed a strong anti-pluralist tradition in Islam which can work against integration and seems to have revived in modern Islamism. But the equivalent could be said of Christianity at many times and in many places in history. [It’s a long time ago, though, and hardly any danger now…]

    As a Christian myself, I notice how often people outside the faith mischaracterise it, drawing on isolated scraps of Biblical quotation to “prove” a hostile point. A great faith is a deep, immensely complicated thing. It is unwise to condemn it wholly. Better to focus on the bad things that extreme followers do in its name. Important, also, to acknowledge that Islam’s most strident spokesmen are self-appointed and untypical.

    But it is Mr A’s – and everyone’s – perfect right to criticise any religion. It is also his right to be worried by the failures of multiculturalism and of mass immigration and to share his anxieties with his elected representative.

    It is Mr B’s response which offends. I was about to write that it is extraordinary, but I fear it may not be: it has become quite commonplace to describe any criticism of Islam as racist.

    This cannot be right. Islam, like Christianity, is offered to all mankind, and has adherents of all colours. It is a belief system, not a genetic code. All belief systems must be open to challenge.

    To call someone racist is a serious charge. Mr B has no evidence for making it. By saying he will not respond to future correspondence from Mr A, he is failing in the duty each MP owes to all his/her constituents. He is entitled to disagree with Mr A, but should answer him properly, not cancel him.

    This case is a microcosm of the gap between voters and the political mainstream. If electors with genuine concerns about what they see as the effect of political Islam are insulted, how can they not be disillusioned with the political process?

    Seeing such cowardly mainstream leadership, many more Galloways will press home their advantage.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/01/more-galloways-will-fill-vacuum-left-by-mainstream-parties/

    1. Towards the end, Moore stated that the
      ‘…strong anti pluralist tradition in Islam …’ and ‘the equivalent could be said of Christianity at many times …’
      The big difference being that for Christianity it was long ago in the past, and Christianity has evolved and become far more civilised.
      Christianity also does not wage campaigns of terror, threats, intimidation and murder against non-Christians for not being Christian. If an extremist nutter Christian commits such crimes, virtually ever other Christian would condemn that. Whenever there is such vile behaviour by moslums, the silence from their fellows is deafening.

    2. The MP is lazy. “Cancelling” Mr A is the easy option. Refusing to engage in debate over difficult topics is de rigeur from the intellectual pygmies who regard themselves as superior to us plebs. But it’s only because they don’t have the mental capacity to do it.

    3. Joke on Headliners: to be fair, electing George Galloway isn’t the worst thing they’ve done in Rochdale.

  125. Nigel Farage adopts a rather more direct style than Charles Moore.

    We were ignored. Now everyone can see mass migration is ruining Britain

    Sectarianism is vile and repugnant. But thanks to our political elite, we can expect to hear much more of it.

    NIGEL FARAGE • 1 March 2024 • 10:16am

    It will be described as a bombshell, but the warning signs have been there for many years.

    I have long tried to warn people that UK politics was heading in a sectarian direction, but it was too inconvenient for our political and media class to accept my comments. Mass immigration, diversity and multiculturalism have become gods that we are all supposed to bow down to. The difference this time is that this religious sectarian victory is here to stay.

    I’ve been openly saying, too, that this new form of sectarianism will lead to the hard-Left Islamist party getting a foothold in Westminster. Again, people chose to ignore me.

    As we saw in previous decades in Northern Ireland, sectarian politics can be ugly and violent. And this by-election has been very ugly indeed.

    Galloway supporters turned on Reform UK candidate Simon Danczuk at the only public hustings of the campaign. This was followed by a clear death threat made against Danczuk, who was described in an online post as a “devil”. A local business that backed Reform claims it was threatened with being burnt down. Worse still, on voting day itself, we saw Galloway supporters openly campaigning at polling stations in direct contravention of the law. The police seemed to just stand by and do nothing. After all, they fear being called ‘Islamophobes’ much more than protecting our democratic system.

    In the upcoming British general election, there will be a well-funded campaign that will focus on up to 30 urban constituencies that have large Muslim populations. By 2029, this could really hurt the Labour party, which will serve them right in many ways for an irresponsible immigration policy.

    The sharp increase in postal votes which are open to abuse must also be investigated; it is going to make our country more divided than we have ever seen. In the Oldham by-election of 2015, even Left-wing publications described how very few people spoke English and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had low recognition, yet everyone was voting Labour. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that they had been told to vote Labour by their religious leaders and that, conveniently, their postal votes had been collected from their front doors.

    UKIP came second and I branded the election “bent”. My words were written off as being a bad loser. But in 2019, in the Peterborough by-election, it was even more blatant. At the count, there was even a Labour teller who was a man who previously served time in prison for postal vote fraud. Mass postal voting is wide open for misuse and intimidation and, when used in a religious context, can transform individual elections.

    Labour had signed up 24,000 people to postal votes in the Rochdale constituency. Until now, they have been the big winners of this new, badly thought through politics. But now it has come back to bite them. At the time of writing, I do not yet know what percentage of votes cast came through postal votes, but I bet it is a very significant proportion. This means that in some ways, the by-election contest was partly-finished two weeks ago.

    But I digress. We should not be surprised by Galloway’s victory. He has done this before. The Bradford West by-election of 2012 was the first time that I had seen people in England voting purely along sectarian lines. The scenes of the victorious mob outside the count and the following day were unlike anything I had seen before, too. The tensions over the conflict in Gaza have mobilised huge numbers of Muslims and members of the hard-Left of British politics.

    If you want to look into our political future, just consider the words of Chris Williamson, the deputy leader of Galloway’s ‘Worker’s Party of Britain’. On election night, he told GB News that more children are being killed every day in Gaza than were being killed at Auschwitz. It is vile, it is repugnant. But I’m afraid we can expect to hear much more of it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/01/we-were-ignored-mass-migration-is-destroying-britain

  128. NS&I paying out, Carol £625 me £350. Far better than any bank at the present whilst I admit there is some luck involved. Who cares!

    2. A mere £25 for the DT and bugger all for me!
      First null month in over 2 years!

      1. We have previously had the same experience. Fingers crossed you and the missus will benefit greatly at the next draw. It is swings and roundabouts.

        1. Well, it’s Dr. Daughter’s birthday today so she might get a decent Birthday Present!

  129. My thoughts on the conflict in Ukraine. I reckon the outcome of this war will be a return to a multi- polar world and the demise of the globalist elites’ ambition.

    The reports from the battlegrounds demonstrate the complete superiority of the Russian forces and equipment over that of Ukraine and that provided by the collective west. I would add that the military planning of the Russians appears to have outsmarted the supposedly superior US and NATO planners.

    It is clear that the US and NATO forces are diminished by their focus on Diversity and associated crap. In addition the aggressive western powers are not geared up to fight an attritional warfare of which the Russians are expert.

    Without superior air power Ukraine never stood a chance in confronting Russia. Despite gifting air defence systems to Ukraine it has proven impossible to filter these complex systems through Ukraine.

    The present reality of the events in Ukraine has yielded about half a million dead young Ukrainian men. This means that a half a million young Ukrainian women will never find a husband and procreate.

    Surely it is time for the Europeans to withdraw from this disastrous conflict with a little dignity as opposed to following Little Napoleon Macron a pure fool with neither knowledge nor education in modern warfare. The little shit has never served in the French military, unlike his predecessors in that office.

    I believe much the same applies to our own useless government, a government showing complete ignorance of world affairs, a government utterly corrupt and determined to fleece its own citizens and whose desire is to pocket any money at hand before scooting off to some distant shore, leaving us poor fuckers to live with and endure the consequences of their utter betrayal.

    1. I think it was why Vlad in his speech reminded the West he has weapons to shut them down if they get too rowdy.

      1. Crikey my friend, I normally post when everyone is retired or asleep. This is just because of my own circumstances and I do need peace and quiet when making my comments. Peace and quiet is post midnight as I am a sort of Night Owl. I do my reading in the early hours for much the same reason.

        We are witnessing the utter stupidity of the collective west and the perfect illustration of its innate corruption. People need urgently to wake up!

        1. I tend to avoid posting after 7pm because i can be a bit rude. Drink being the bane.
          This time of night the Zapain has kicked in and i’m more likely to ask you for a date. :@)

    2. Russia hasn’t made great progress westwards though, has it? If Putin wants to recreate Stalin’s empire, he might reach Poland in about 10 years time…

      3. Maybe he doesn’t want to? I believe he has no such ambition. NATO, the US and U.K. have provoked Putin as much as possible without, so far, any retaliatory action. The Minsk agreement I believe was to safeguard Russia’s borders, I,e,, no NATO members next to them. To me the west in general seem to be the aggressors.

          1. It’s very dangerous to believe everything a politician says in fact it’s becoming difficult to believe anything they say. They no longer reflect they original aims of their party and and don’t show any regard for the electorate whom they want to cast their vote for them.

          3. Oh, for goodness sake. I was merely mocking those who promote the idea that Putin wants to ‘conquer Europe’.

      4. I don’t think he has any desire to push westward. I think he moved into Ukraine to protect Russian speakers. The aggressors, as in all recent conflicts, have been the westerners. Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, need I go on?

    3. The multi-polar world is absolutely in the central bankers’ plan. They couldn’t resist telling us in 2015 in the you-will-own-nothing presentation.
      Even when we go back onto sound money (which we will in the end), if we’re still under the jackboot of central banks, nothing will really have changed – they will carry on conjuring money out of nothing.

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