Friday 10 June: Motorists squeezed by swindling oil providers and a tax-happy Treasury

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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615 thoughts on “Friday 10 June: Motorists squeezed by swindling oil providers and a tax-happy Treasury”

  2. Good Morrow Gentlefolk.
    Let’s Hope Frost manages to scare the buffoon into doing the right things.

    Lord Frost tells Boris Johnson: You have until autumn to save your job
    Prime Minister risks being forced out unless he delivers a new Conservative vision for Britain, warns former Brexit negotiator

    BTL Comment
    Many people have identified the true desires of the now and then Conservatives. To my mind the three biggest things demanded are:
    1, Stop the Net-Zero nonsense – it cannot be achieved and there is no will for it.
    2. Stop the illegal immigration – no benefits and an immediate return to whence they came
    3. Reverse the NI protocol – in fact tear up the agreement and enforce things like fishing rights, repealing any EU Laws, leaving the ECHR and particularly, repeal the Human Rights Act as a barrier to our ability to deport the criminal and unwanted.
    ‘Nuff said

    1. Forcing out one PM who is in lockstep with the globalist agenda and replacing him with someone else whose aims are identical will not solve anything. I’m sure that Lord Frost is aware of this but he has to start somewhere.

    2. 353090+ up ticks,

      Morning NtN,

      Hows the blocking business going ?

      Keep in mind that you need a very,very long spoon in regards to dealings with the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration /paedophile umbrella coalition,cut off one hydra head two more grow.

      1. Sometimes one needs that very long spoon (or keyboard) to converse with some people.

    3. Problem is, Frost isn’t speaking to Boris, he’s speaking to the WEF and the shadowy billionaires behind it. Frost is just aiding the illusion that we’re still in the 80s where the ruling party cares what the people think.

    4. I think David Frost is being way too generous and yesterday’s big public speech by Johnson provided ample affirmation that Boris is still combining his (inevitably authoritarian) NetZero “ambitions” with trying to please the Metropolitan chatterati ,,, (whoops, is that Shirley Bassey I hear singing “Hey Big Spender”)

    1. …and this is just part of the filth our government, shyster lawyers and lefty woke idiots, feel deserve a cosseted place among us.

    2. Yo VOM

      Man who murdered pensioner found tied up in chair at home sentenced to life in prison

      The Mirror sub editors are as bad as those at the DT

      The headline says the murderer was found tied up in the chair:

      Man who murdered pensioner (COMMA) found tied up in chair at home,(COMMA) sentenced to life in prison

      Would have been better

      1. I’m sure, OLT, that there are many sub-editors who don’t understand punctuation, its purpose and how to use it – correctly.

        1. Do sub-editors still exist? The journalists just file their pieces as they are and they get printed.

    3. 353090+ up ticks,

      Morning VOM,
      The reason it is NOT front page news is the fact in variations it is seemingly the norm brought about by the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration coalition ,
      supporter / voters.
      If he was born in Brum then deport his family to their place of origin, today, any legal attachments to join them in place of origin to fight any legal battles.

      First people MUST repent by tearing up & posting to head office their lab/lib/con party membership cards because these life thieving issues are NOT going away
      as we witness MORE potential mo the serial murdering bugler & buglers mate entering via DOVER, DAILY.

      Anyone still funding this, so bloody obvious political shite tagged as lab/lib/con are in my book knowingly aiding & abetting.

    4. Can you imagine the saturation coverage and demands for the whole country to change, if a white burglar had murdered an elderly muslim man in the same way?

  6. Motorists squeezed by swindling oil providers and a tax-happy Treasury

    All I see is the great reset trundling on while the powers that be try to create diversion by blaming the oil companies and the garages.
    If the government was concerned they would be cutting the taxes

    The plan is to get the masses off the roads, nothing more, nothing less.

  7. As the Tories descend into chaos, The Blob is taking back control. 10 June 2022

    The Government, in its blind panic, has been desperate for laws to pass and the Schools Bill seemed an easy one to push. The problem is that Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, had not gone through the legislation properly. Even he is alarmed at what it says and is now working with Agnew and Nash to remedy things as best he can. But let’s pause to consider the real question this debacle raises. If the Education Secretary isn’t really in charge of education policy, who is?

    The Government i.e. the elected representatives of the people certainly aren’t. The Civil Service now run the UK. They can get certain things done of course provided that the bureacrats approve. If they don’t it’s as dead as dishwater. It wouldn’t be so bad if they pursued a unified and coherent policy but they don’t. The NHS, Police, the Home Office etc. all pursue Wokery and self-serving ends. There’s really nothing to be done except wait for this whole rotten structure to collapse.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/09/tories-descend-chaos-blob-taking-back-control/

  8. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    A rather cool 14°C here, with a max of 17°C later (allegedly).  I look forward to flamin’ June finally getting off her fat arse…

    I have no idea what an ‘infrastructure tsar’ does or what he is paid, but I think he should be one of the first casualties in the public sector cull, ‘cos he’s obviously an idiot:

    SIR – Sir John Armitt, the infrastructure tsar, says gas boilers should be banned to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and help Britain meet its green ambitions.

    The problem with this glib statement is obvious: heat pumps only work effectively in well-insulated homes. You just have to look at estate agents’ websites to see the energy inefficiency of most properties, so, in effect, heat pumps will cost more in the bulk of British housing stock.

    There are far easier ways to reduce costs: cut green levies from utility bills, cut VAT on fuel and cut fuel duties.

    Charles Penfold
    Ulverston, Cumbria

    How, precisely, does the banning of gas boilers ‘tackle the cost of living crisis’ when it will have the very opposite effect??

  9. SIR – The Conservative manifesto was clear, the majority colossal, the opportunities immense, the Opposition all but ineffectual. Even allowing for Covid, what could go wrong?

    But things did go wrong. It is clear from the Conservative leadership vote that the status quo is unacceptable.

    The potential of 2019 still exists. Boris Johnson has less than 18 months to prove himself. Is it really so hard for him to sit down with the alleged brains in the Cabinet, draw up an action plan that brings party and country back behind him, and carry it out?

    Charles Holden
    Micheldever, Hampshire

    No, Charles Holden, that is well beyond his very limited ability. He would rather continue ‘doing an Osborne’ by wearing ill-fitting PPE and wandering aimlessly around factory after construction site in his cretinous belief that we think he’s doing something worhwhile. Government by photo-op isn’t cutting the mustard!

    1. People still don’t get, or the Telegraph doesn’t want to publish, that Boris is a WEF Young Leader. He’s always going to implement their policies, regardless of what’s on the rag that passes as a manifesto.

    2. Trouble is, Charles, the brains in the Cabinet are only alleged; they don’t, in fact, exist.

  10. Good morning all.
    Another bright & dry start, sunny with scattered clouds and 9°C in the yard.

    The van has been swept & cleaned. My camping gear loaded, just a few things to load up then I’m off for a few days meandering.

      3. Children’s Favourites.
        Saturday breakfast time when the weekend stretched before you in all its two day glory.
        (Sunday evening – frantically catching up on homework.)

    2. Yo Bob,

      Not even leaving a ‘nostalgic’ sack of rubble in the van then?

    3. Switch the engine off when going down hill to save fuel.

      Follow me for more tips. :@)

      1. and hope there’s no bends which entail moving the steering wheel past the steering lock position and you don’t need heavy braking

        1. If you’ve got the key in the ignition, you should be able to move the steering wheel, surely? Don’t know about the braking.

          1. As long as the key is moved to the first position ie steering unlocked then that’ll be ok but if the engine is not running then you don’t have brake boost and your brakes are not as effective. Another point is some car engines cannot be switched off if the car is moving – like my Renault although you might if the clutch is depressed, I haven’t tried that. You can retain all functions by just putting the car into neutral and letting it coast downhill (Believe this is illegal) which will save petrol

  11. West faces ‘moment of reckoning’ over China’s online influence, GCHQ warns. 10 June 2022.

    “Collaboration with our partners is absolutely essential. You know, this is a moment of reckoning for the West really.”

    She added that allies in the West are now coming together to counter this threat by coming up with a set of rules and protocols that transcend international borders.

    For example, she said that 61 countries, including the UK and US, recently signed up to a set of digital principles to create a “single global future for the internet”.
    This, Ms S adds, will be based on “democratic values [such as] respecting user privacy, encouraging competition, encouraging openness, encouraging accessibility.”

    In reality of course the internet is being de-democratised. The On-line Harms Bill just being the latest iteration of its demise. The more tyrannical a system, the less criticism it can bear. This “coming together” will actually mirror not oppose the Chinese!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/10/west-faces-moment-reckoning-chinas-online-influence-gchq-warns/

  12. SIR – Allison Pearson says “the Tories need to find an ace up their sleeves to win again”.

    They have one in Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, who was scrupulously loyal to David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, and can unite the party.

    Mr Zahawi is a staunch Brexiteer, a successful businessman, and a capable minister who over-delivered when in charge of the vaccine programme. The party’s best media performer after the PM, he is combative but polite, tough but likeable and a firm but pragmatic Thatcherite.

    His political instincts – including his support for grammar schools – are in tune with the vast majority of Conservatives, and would appeal to the millions of lower-middle and working-class former Labour and Ukip voters who comprised a decisive portion of the 2019 Conservative electorate.

    I would rejoin the party immediately if Mr Zahawi were at the helm.

    Philip Duly
    Haslemere, Surrey

    Not sure about Zahawi, but anyone would be a vast improvement on the present incumbent.

    1. Of course he should be our next PM

      The Wokeristas will say that historically all Prime Ministers of England/Uk have been hideously white and colonialistic.

      Countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India etc would just not accept having a white man in power over the people, so nor should UK

    2. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      “…and a capable minister who over-delivered when in charge of the vaccine programme.”

      Hmmm!

    3. He does NOT appeal to this UKIP voter. His loyalty to the trio of failures mentioned disqualifies him in any case and I’d like someone who was at least nominally a Christian in charge.

  13. SIR – Once again the latter-day robber barons in the rail unions are to hold the country to ransom.

    We must stand firm against them. I have never met an overworked railway worker but I have certainly met overworked nurses, who earn on average £13,000 less. How will they feel if the Government betrays them?

    Ian Cribb
    Poole, Dorset

    SIR – Bring on driverless trains and automatic signalling.

    Sandy Pratt
    Storrington, West Sussex

    The government seems content for the first – of probably many – strikes to go ahead. Why? Is there a master-plan somewhere or, as seems more likely, they are rabbits caught in the headlights? And where is ACAS when we need them? Surely it should be involved from the outset?

      1. ‘Morning, Tryers. I understand that the London Underground has been capable of being automated for some time now. And the DLR has been fully automated since 1987 so why not the remainder?

        1. The DLR is a small, simple, low-speed, closed system. The national rail network is a large, complex, high-speed, open system and thus far more hazardous.

          1. Yes, I can understand using automation on the Tube, but I would have grave doubts about its usage on open tracks.

          2. Given that even drivers exceed speed limits on bends and derail, or miss red lights and smash into oncoming trains on the same line, would automatic systems be worse? We have autopilot and fly by wire, what about George for trains?

          3. Driver SPADs should no longer happen with the new versions of automatic train control.

            The thought of driverless trains on a busy national network is a frightening one.

  14. SIR – Angela Merkel’s defence of her foreign policy is torpedoed by the fact that Europe has been here before.

    In 2009 Russia cut off gas supplies to most of south-eastern Europe in a dispute over Ukrainian debt. The message was clear: Ukraine complies or Europe pays. While Ukraine was not blameless, it was the impact on the rest of Europe that forced a settlement – and marked out Russia as an unreliable supplier, prepared to use Europe as leverage.

    Mrs Merkel was warned. What did she do? She increased Germany’s dependence on Russian oil and gas, and thereby the whole of Europe’s. Her legacy is a democratic West turned supplicant and an emerging Eastern European democracy pauperised by the loss of most of its coastline and connected natural resources, and further impoverished by its loss of young lives. Shame on her.

    Victor Launert
    Matlock Bath, Derbyshire

    I thought Angular Murky had a bit more nous…but who knows what private arrangement may have prevailed? She was, after all, born and bred in East Germany…

    1. Her father was a pastor in West Germany who deliberately went to the East.
      That does make you wonder about the political loyalties of the Merkel family.

    1. Good morning from the sunny south coast. Should be a scorcher today and tomorrow.

  16. Early doors par four

    Wordle 356 4/6

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

  17. SIR – On Tuesday you printed a picture of a young girl exercising her horse at Kirkby Lonsdale, heading for the fair at Appleby.

    However, there is a negative side to this event. The area has been under siege from illegal encampments for the past fortnight, and despite the Government’s new Policing Bill, which could prevent this, Cumbria police appear to have no intention of enforcing the law.

    I could give many examples of the law-breaking that has been allowed to take place in recent days. The primary school has told parents that children must not walk to and from school, and today, the busiest day of the fair, it has decided – in the interests of the safety of children, staff and parents – to close.

    Given the disruption to children’s education over the past two years, this is unacceptable.

    Lucy Berry
    Appleby-in-Westmorland

    Of course it’s “unfair” Ms Berry. Just as “unfair” as the police taking 40 mins to attend to a recent violent attack on a convenience store in Tunbridge Wells where the 4 yobs were smashing up the shop front. The shopkeeper who confronted them did so at great risk to himself. The police said that they couldn’t do anything, despite the fact that there is a police station in the same town. They reportedly said that they would attend straightaway if anyone was hurt! That could so easily have been a stabbed shopkeeper. Shameful.

    News item here:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00184wl/south-east-today-late-news-09062022

    1. Where was that in TW? We can’t get i-player here.
      We used to live in the area.

      1. Grove Hill Stores (Londis) in Grove Hill Road, down the bottom near Hoopers and the station.

          1. At least they’ve got a cop shop. Here, HQ is in Worcester and the one full-time plod is based in Market Drayton trying to cover the whole of North Shropshire!

          3. According to our Police and Crime Commissioner, hate crimes are their top priority! I heard him say it. It didn’t go down well. When someone asked if we were to do our own policing of burglaries, vandalism etc, the PCC said they would crack down severely on such “vigilantism” activity! To say we were not impressed was an understatement.

  18. January 6 hearing: Trump was at heart of plot that led to ‘attempted coup’. 10 June 2022.

    Their presentation featured never-before-seen video from the attack by extremist supporters of Trump who stormed the US Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win.

    In a cinematic display meant to grip a weary public, the panel weaved footage of the violence together with live testimony and videotaped depositions from some of Trump’s closest allies and family members.

    It will probably be up for an Oscar! The use of the words “insurrection” and “attempted coup” in the article tells you all that you really need to know about this pantomime.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/09/trump-january-6-hearings-capitol-attack

    2. A few unarmed people people in fancy dress walk into the White House and seize control of the entire USA without anyone being able to prevent them. It would make a great film…

  20. SIR – The plan to give housing-association renters the right to buy demonstrates how out of touch the Government is.

    It has failed to understand that thousands of private renters, earning perfectly reasonable wages, are stuck in the private rental market due to over-inflated house prices, lack of affordable housing stock and the reluctance of banks to lend money – especially to the self-employed.

    Selling social and housing-association stock to renters will still leave this generation of middle earners trapped, and probably leave banks with a swathe of borrowers who cannot afford their payments without government (taxpayers’) support.

    Thomas Le Cocq
    Batcombe, Somerset

    The recent announcement that renters on benefits would be entitled to buy their property with a mortgage is just one more example of a government that has no idea how the other half lives. Just another piece of headline-grabbing stupidity…

    1. Good morning Hugh

      A similar theme here , don’t you think .. Prince William selling the Big Issue creates that feel good factor .

      Another example of not having a clue how the other half lives..

    2. They only have to follow the example of Obummer’s sub-prime mortgages, handed out to all and sundry, that brought on the toxic debt problem of 2008 with banks and morgage lenders going bust all over the shop.

      History is there to give guidance, not to be re-written by some pig-ignorant little woke twat.

      1. Sub-prime mortgages were the brainchild of the Clinton Crime Cartel. The UK may have escaped the worst of it but for Snotty McDoom’s meddling. His formation of the FSA, which usurped powers of the BoE, allowed such chicanery to permeate our financial institutions, with disastrous results..

        The ‘insider’ reporting by the bBC’s Robert Peston shouldn’t be forgotten either. His emotive reporting, with the backdrop of desperate savers queueing outside of Northern Rock branches, generally followed his early morning Cassandra wailing on the R4 Toady programme; pushing his agenda, rather than reporting facts

        The #ScumMedia had plenty of practice before inflicting the past two years of Kung Flu melodrama on the great unwashed through their tabloid tv antics.

        As for our current financial travails. Rather than impose ‘austerity’ on the general public – although the Leftwaffe have spent the past decade plus complaining about such nonexistent measures – the governments since 2008 have stuck to QE and artificially low interest rates in the vain hope of ‘fighting’ inflation.

        Now, after 14 years of ducking and diving, topped off with effectively closing down the economy for the past two years, the financial pigeons are coming home to roost and TPTB and their supine meeja are attempting to pin all the blame on Russia – without mentioning that Russia is merely reacting to US sponsored chicanery in Ukraine since at least 2014; which occurred after the EU, in the shape of Barrosa, Drunken Juncker and Horse-face Ashton had taken us to the brink of WW3 a few years before.

    3. They only have to follow the example of Obummer’s sub-prime mortgages, handed out to all and sundry, that brought on the toxic debt problem of 2008 with banks and morgage lenders going bust all over the shop.

      History is there to give guidance, not to be re-written by some pig-ignorant little woke twat.

    1. The Conservative Party has been instructed by Schwab’s Word Economic Forum to do all it can to stamp out the spirit of free enterprise.

      One of the first government pronouncements when the Covid scam started was that when it was over the Conservatives would clamp down especially hard on the self-employed and those running their own small businesses.

    2. Yup.
      Clintonomiques.
      Reinforced with legislation that will make banks lend the money or be accused of racism.

  23. Morning all.
    Apart from the obvious rip off, I really don’t understand why our fuel prices are so high.
    As we always have we import crude from the middle east it arrives in huge tankers docks at the UK refineries where it’s turned into different types of fuel and delivered around the country where it’s needed. And now its been weaponised by the stupid idiots called a government who have assumed they know what they are doing.
    There’s a shortish video going around summing up Johnson and his lifestyle antics.
    I received it this morning from a friend via What’s app. Sorry I can’t post it here someone else might be able to find and post it.

    1. Also weaponised by the Refinery Blockers, ably assisted by the Pride Perlice.

      If Johnson had followed the ‘Be Prepared’ motto, perhaps he would still be our Prime Minister, not a conduit for a Very Very Green Agenda

      Wake up, Boris...

      You have to get out of bed and run the country (into the ground) , with Net Zero etc
      says Carrie-On-Regardless

      1. Johnson clearly needed to heed the advice given by Tom Lehrer in his song about Baden Powell’s foundation which suggested that a wise scout should always have a packet of Durex about his person.

        If you’re looking for adventure of a new and different kind
        And you come across a girl scout who is similarly inclined
        Don’t be nervous, don’t be flustered don’t be scared:
        Be prepared!

        2. Even my “jump on every green wagon going” friend was admitting that for most people who don’t have a drive, EVs are impractical. Then I pointed out the dirty mining of lithium and the propensity for such batteries to go on fire (she came back with an example!) and asked where we were going to get the electricity from because “renewables” wouldn’t cope. Answer came there none on that one. When I was in the Soviet Union in the late sixties, the Party Apparatchiks had Chaika cars and Zil lanes, everybody else walked, cycled or took public transport. Back to the (Communist) future, eh?

        3. Friend Dianne is three-and-a-bit years into a PCP plan for her Seat Ateca. A lovely car, with every imaginable bell and whistle. She was contacted by the supplying dealer a few months ago, suggesting that – with the shortage of chips – it would be worth her while to end the agreement early.

          So we looked at her typical mileage. Most days she only makes local journeys. She’s in Devon, and does the occasional run to Surrey, Birmingham and W. Sussex. But here’s the thing – she lives in a recently-built ‘zero-carbon eco home’, has solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall battery in the garage. One might think she’s an obvious contender for an electric car. But even a PHEV would cost far more than her current car to purchase, and the saving on petrol would never be recouped over three or four years.

          She’s going to finance the balloon payment, and keep the Ateca…

      2. It’s never going to happen is it BB.
        The political idiots have allowed around one million illegals to move in. It costs us around 13 billion pounds a year to support them. Thus the rip-off.

    4. If fuel stations are happily engaging in rip-offs why has the number of outlets been shrinking so much over the last 50 years whilst the number of cars refuelling has risen substantially?

      1. I asked a question about fuel prices yesterday. There is plenty of oil around. Petrol stations do not rip us off, their profit margins have generally been low in a very competitive business. (Car drivers can and do drive an extra couple of miles to another petrol station selling petrol at 1p less.)
        It is the politicians, financiers and market makers who manipulate the price of crude oil who determine the pump prices. If the word “Iran” is mentioned in the news, prices go up, despite Iran being only one player in a very big, broad industry. Why? It is hokum and profiteering, but not by the oil processors*, fuel wholesalers or fuel retailers, I think. The industry from refinery to forecourt has a vested interest in keeping up volume sales.
        Our government, which imposes various taxes which make up more than half the retail cost, is like a parasite battening on the lifeblood of the country even if the country dies as a result. One might ask why we do not have a free trade agreement with Venezuela, a country with the greatest oil reserves.

        * Crude oil is the basis for much of the plastics industry.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production
        https://www.newsweek.com/how-us-gas-prices-compare-other-countries-1714242

    5. Good morning, Paul

      I think this is the video about Johnson to which you are referring – it was posted by a Nottler the other day. It is clearly very partisan but it does not paint a pretty picture of a very pleasant person!

      What we need is the policies touted by Johnson before the last election without the odious mendacitor in charge. What the Conservatives must have in order to survive is Lord Frost as PM – a Nottler suggested this in the DT Letters yesterday but those in the parliamentary party seem to be as unintelligent as porcine excrement and cannot see it.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p-Ta83V7iw

      1. Sorry – posted this link before seeing that Richard Sk had already posted it.

      2. Well done Richard that’s it, everyone needs to see this. Although I do agree with some of the things he has said. It’s pretty obvious he’s just another of our hated political classes. And another word beginning with C.

    1. Well, Johnson says, our Hotel Industry was under great financial pressue from the, rightly imposed, Convid Lockdowns

      To alleviate the industry problems, we sanctioned Maritime Aid for the importation of starving refugees, who were crossing the Channel to freedom in unsafe boats, from oppression in their own lands

      Once ashore, the Government installed the refugees in UK Hotels: A WIn/WIn situation

      Refugees Rescued: hotel industry saved

      The question “where can Brits now stay, all hotels are full?”

      Johnson just said, Supply and Demand!

      1. It’s worse than that, the Brits who can’t find accommodation in the hotels are already paying for the rooms occupied by the economic migrants. A Lose/Lose situation.

    1. Doing what he thinks local voters want him to do. Out of Touch, thy name is Jeremy Hunt.

    2. I’m in Surrey, though thankfully not in Jeremy *unt’s constituency. I really don’t care. They can drill in my back garden if it helps.

  26. Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    The Times Higher Education reports the FSU’s victory over University of Essex

    As reported in our monthly newsletter, the FSU recently scored a big victory in its battle with the University of Essex. “Free Speech Union legal pressure forces Essex harassment changes,” declared the headline in the Times Higher Education this week. Noting that the university has now “revised its policy on harassment under legal pressure from the Free Speech Union”, the THE felt the result “spotlighted the [FSU’s] influence and the prospect of it mounting bigger legal actions against institutions if England’s free speech bill becomes law”.

    Professor Doug Stokes, Head of Planning and Development at the Strategy and Security Institute, University of Exeter, described this as a “major victory” for the FSU in a piece for his Substack account. Bryn Harris, our Chief Legal Counsel, is quoted in Stokes’s piece expressing his hope that other universities will adopt Essex’s “sensible and encouraging approach”. Stokes himself doesn’t think they’ve got much choice. For too long, he argues, “universities have used the Equality Act to push an ideological agenda and degrade liberal values”, which means that once the Higher Education Bill reaches the statue book, universities will quickly need to “revisit their own protocols”.

    His recommendation would be that they take sound advice to redraft their policies and ensure they’re compliant with the new law, and that they take that advice not from their own legal teams – “who to date seem to be getting the law badly wrong” – but from academic freedom and equality law specialists. What’s more, “given the legislation seeks to ensure higher education providers are actively promoting academic freedom, an Office for Students compliance regime will back this up and likely seek long overdue scalps. Universities should also formalize positions, to ensure faculties/departments are compliant. The clock is ticking.”

    The FSU writes to Cineworld after protests lead them to pull Muslim film

    On 3 June, 2022 The Lady of Heaven, an independent film about the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed, was released in cinemas across the UK, including at venues owned by Cineworld, Showcase and Vue. Yasser Al-Habib, the Shia Muslim cleric who wrote the screenplay, claims the film “conveys a message of love and peace”, although, as FSU Founding Director, Inaya Folarin Iman, pointed out for Spiked this week, not everyone appears to have got the memo on that one. The Bolton Council of Mosques called the film “blasphemous”, the Muslim Council of Britain described the film as “divisive”, and, according to Sky News, over 120,000 people have now signed a petition for the film to be pulled from UK cinemas.

    Islamic hardliners have also been protesting outside cinemas across England. According to the Mail, one protestor at the Cineworld cinema in Bradford took to his megaphone to announce: “We are very offended. We have the right not to be offended.” No you don’t, retorted Brendan O’Neill, addressing the protestor directly in his latest Spectator article: “None of us does. Muslims, Christians, Scientologists, trans activists, Remainers, Brexiteers, whatever: none of us has the right not to be offended. Occasionally feeling offended is the price we pay for living in a free society.”

    One video-clip on the internet appeared to show a cinema manager in Sheffield using a protestor’s megaphone (where do protestors buy all these megaphones?) to inform the gathered crowd that the film had been withdrawn from the schedule. “Allahu Akbar!” they yelled in victory. Brendan O’Neill described this as one of the most disturbing video clips he’d seen this year. It’s hard to disagree. “It wasn’t our decision to show it and we will not be showing it again”, the cinema manager can be heard to say at one point, and the fact that as he’s uttering those words he’s hemmed in on all sides by joyous protestors, with someone’s hand gripping his shoulder and another person’s arm placed around his back, lends the video an air of “solicitous menace” that’s not normally encountered in this country outside the pages of a Franz Kafka novel.

    The illiberalism of the protesters was shocking enough; but for many commentators it was the surrender they managed to extract so effortlessly from large, national cinema chains that ought to worry anyone concerned about freedom of speech. Cineworld was the first to cave to the demands of this small group of religious extremists, cancelling all showings of the film and depriving the vast majority of its customers of their right to see the film for themselves and make up their own minds about it. “An act of pathetic cowardice,” was how Toby Young described it to the Epoch Times. “Cineworld should not allow an angry mob to dictate what films it shows in its cinemas,” he added. (Baroness Claire Fox made a similar point on GB News.)

    In his capacity as FSU General Secretary, Toby has now written to the CEO of Cineworld, Moshe Greidinger, asking him to reconsider his decision to cancel all showings of the film. As Toby points out, the company’s decision to capitulate to the will of these protestors sets a dangerous precedent. Appeasement of this kind is all too likely to “encourage more extremist groups to make unreasonable demands, backed up with menacing protests” until, in the end, “the sectarian views of tiny, unrepresentative, hard-line groups will be imposed ever more widely on the rest of us”. If the right to free speech is not vigorously defended by all of us, he tells Greidinger, it “will simply wither and die”.

    You can read the letter in full here. Over the next few weeks, the FSU will also be writing separately to police chief constables in Bolton, Birmingham and Sheffield asking for their assurance that cinemas that wish to show the film will be able to do so, with their staff and customers properly protected.

    DCMS sub-committee on the Online Safety Bill hears free speech concerns

    Writing for ConHome earlier this week, the Minister for Technology and the Digital Economy, Chris Philp, gave an upbeat assessment of the Online Safety Bill. Rather than endanger freedom of speech, he argued, it would actually enhance it.

    It’s certainly true that there have been some improvements in the Government’s plans since the original White Paper of 2019. Nonetheless, and as City AM reported, a rather more circumspect view emerged from this week’s DCMS sub-committee meeting on the Bill. (You can watch the session here and some of the contributions from policy makers, academics and online safety experts have been clipped and are available on the FSU’s Twitter account here and here.)

    “Is the OSB damaging to freedom of speech?” asked the Committee Chairman, Julian Knight MP, kicking the debate off. “As it’s currently written, it could be,” responded Ellen Judson, lead researcher at Demos. Ellen’s concern was the “heavy focus” on automated content moderation as the “primary solution” when it comes to the removal of ‘harmful’ content, and the related possibility that the Bill could end up “incentivising over-moderation” of content that, while perfectly legal, would likely breach a company’s terms and conditions.

    The FSU shares Demos’s concern. Given that online providers will risk fines and other sanctions from Ofcom if they don’t remove “legal but harmful” content, but will be at minimal risk of punishment for failing to comply with the duty to “have regard” for freedom of speech, there’s a strong bias towards removal baked into the Bill’s regulatory structure. Our view is that if it isn’t kicked into the long grass, which looks unlikely, its free speech clauses need to be strengthened. In particular, we’ve argued for the imposition of two additional duties on providers: to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the right to freedom of expression is not unduly infringed by excessive measures taken in pursuit of the duties of care under the Bill; and to prepare and publish a policy setting out how they will comply with this duty.

    These amendments would mean providers had to be careful not to infringe freedom of expression while complying with the Bill’s various duties to protect users from ‘harm’. As it stands, the Bill will encourage an ‘if in doubt, remove’ approach, which would be inimical to freedom of expression.

    The FSU has been tracking the legislation’s progress through Parliament and has just submitted evidence to the Parliamentary Bill Committee. You can find our briefings here and our most recent press release about the Bill here.

    Register now for the FSU’s June speakeasy with Dr Joanna Williams

    Register now to receive the Zoom link for our next Online Speakeasy on Wednesday 15th June at 6.30pm BST, when the FSU’s Toby Young will be joined by academic and author Dr Joanna Williams. Joanna’s book, How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement that Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason, has been described as “fearless” and “forensic”. She points out that the “authoritarian cult of woke isn’t as powerful as it seems”.

    As a special offer for FSU members, Hewson Books, the independent London bookshop, has kindly agreed to provide signed copies of Joanna’s new book to those who purchase it via this special page.

    The FSU’s forthcoming Regional Speakeasies

    Some of you may have already come along to our in-person meet-ups in pubs and bars, where members can socialise with each other and share their views without having to look over their shoulders. During late June and July, a series of Regional Speakeasies will be happening in Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Oxford. You can check out the dates of these in the new Events section of our website, with more details being emailed to all members shortly. Members are welcome to bring guests, particularly those likely to join the FSU!

    FSU Comedy Night on 29th June – get your tickets here!

    London members, many of whom came to our packed meet-up in March, are encouraged to get tickets to our Summer Special Comedy Night on Wednesday 29th June, where there will be plenty of opportunities to meet other members, as well as the FSU’s staff. The MC for the night will be FSU favourite Dominic Frisby – who you can watch talking about the event here. Dominic will be performing a special set of comedy hits with his band the Gilets Jaunes. Also on the bill is comedy crooner Frank Sanazi, described in Chortle as “the extravagantly offensive love-child of Adolf Hitler and Frank Sinatra”. Frank will be joined by his legendary friends Dean Stalin, Spliff Richard and Tom Mones. As this event is also a fund-raiser it is open to the public – get your tickets here.

    The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill – the FSU’s amendments

    Days after he was hounded off a university campus by transactivists, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi reflected on his experience for the Mail on Sunday. “Free speech has to win,” he declared. “When exercising our fundamental right to free speech, we must allow others to do the same – and when we disagree, which will be often, we must respectfully and courteously debate the other side.” The fact that activists had “clearly intended to stop my speech and shut down the discussion” left Zahawi “more convinced than ever” that the crushing of free speech needs to be countered. “Put simply,” he said, “sometimes we must hear and consider points of view that we disagree with.” That is why “the Government is protecting these essential rights with our Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill for universities”.

    That Bill aims to strengthen protections for free speech and academic freedom in English universities by imposing more robust legal duties on higher education providers. These include the duty to take reasonably practicable steps to protect the free speech of academic staff, non-academic staff, students and visitors to universities, as well as to actively promote freedom of speech.

    The Bill goes to Report stage on 13th June, at which point MPs will be given an opportunity, on the floor of the House, to consider further amendments. In preparation, this week the Government published the amendments it’s intending to make to the Bill, including two put forward by the FSU.

    The first of these is to remove the caveat that academics should only be entitled to these new, stronger protections if they’re writing or speaking “within their field of expertise”. This is something the FSU has been campaigning for since academics should be free to share and discuss ideas across a wide range of issues, not just in their specific “field of expertise”.

    The second amendment – also accepted by the Government – is to extend the Bill’s scope to encompass student unions. This means they’ll also be obliged to uphold the new, more robust duties to protect free speech and, hopefully, will find it harder to no-platform controversial speakers.

    The FSU believe the Bill cannot be passed too soon. As Toby pointed out in the Mail last week, we “get about a dozen requests for help a week from university students or academics who’ve got into trouble for exercising their lawful right to free speech”. We’ve intervened in hundreds of cases and in almost every one of those the individuals would have been in a stronger position had the new law been in place. Our briefing on the Bill can be found here. No doubt there will be naysayers coming to the fore as the Bill gets closer to the statue book, so if you want to see the FSU’s rebuttal of some of the most common criticisms, our briefing should help.

    Professor Steven Greer interviewed by Bristol Free Speech Society

    Bristol University’s Free Speech Society recently caught up with Steven Greer, Professor of Law at the University’s Law School, for a chat about the way militant minorities are increasingly intent on censoring the content of university courses and silencing any opinions they disagree with.

    It was a great conversation, not least because Professor Greer was able to speak from personal experience. Back in October 2020, the University of Bristol Islamic Society (BRISOC) lodged a formal complaint against Professor Greer, claiming that one of his modules – ‘Islam, China and the Far East’ – was “Islamophobic”. Four months later, BRISOC launched a public campaign against Professor Greer, demanding the scrapping of that module. In July 2021, a Bristol University enquiry exonerated him, a verdict unanimously upheld on appeal in October 2021. However, at the start of the 2021-22 term the Law School removed Greer’s module from its syllabus to ensure “Muslim students do not feel that their religion is being singled out or in any way othered by the class material”.

    “Outrageous” was FSU General Secretary Toby Young’s verdict at the time in the Mail on Sunday. “By kowtowing to the Islamic Society, the university has issued a gold-embossed invitation to activists to submit vexatious complaints about its employees.”

    You can watch the interview in full here.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

  27. Middle-aged white men a ‘pariah’ in television and film, says Christopher Eccleston. 10 June 2022.

    I am a “pariah” as a middle-aged white male, Christopher Eccleston has said, as he reveals his acting work is drying up.

    The actor, best known for reviving the role of Doctor Who, starred in successful films and series earlier in his career, including Jude the Obscure and Our Friends in the North.

    But the British star now feels like a “failure” for being unable to secure similar work.

    Eccleston has said that his age, sex and skin colour have now made him a “pariah” in the entertainment industry, leaving his career plagued by uncertainty.
    “I’m white, I’m middle-aged, I’m male, and I’m straight,” said the 58-year-old actor. “We are the new pariah in the industry.

    Well they are pretty well pariahs everywhere. I’m not going to bleat sympathy for the media industry who have done much more than most to bring it about! The only good thing is that the world they created and nurtured is dying with them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/09/middle-aged-white-men-pariah-industry-says-christopher-eccleston/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget

    1. Wor Nicky should stand up on his hind legs and demand more work!
      [Nicky Hutchinson, Eccleston’s character in Our Friends In The North.]

    2. Unfortunately the entertainment world has shot its self in the foot. And are far Too Wokey to be normally acceptable and a normal existence.
      It’s not in the script of course but they should have ‘scene’ it coming.
      And Neighbours is ending after nearly 40 years on our screens. That to has been its own worst enemy having nearly always hideously white.

      1. I remember when ‘Neighbours’ was transmitted on BBC1 in the early 90s. It was broadcast between 5-6 pm – what had been prime Children’s Television time. At the time I had three children aged between 6 and 12. I was not happy that children’s programmes were being booted off to make way for some crap Aussie soap opera.

        1. I hate soap opera’s. But as far as I could tell it was never as seditious and as deliberately propaganderist as dead enders or any other British brands.

    3. Yet the whole campaign is driven by a small clique of very wealthy middle aged straight white men that most of the compliant population can’t even name. Hideously white? Well, certainly hideous.

  28. Some woman was whinging on Radio 4 this morning that some desperately poor people have to wait several years to get their own accommodation:

    A MESSAGE TO THE UK GOVT
    I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. What a beauty of a bird feeder it was, as I filled it lovingly with seed. Within a week I had hundreds of bird taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food. But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the shit. It was everywhere: on the patio slabs, the chairs, the table, everywhere!
    Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. Others birds were boisterous, loud and sat on the feeder and squawked. They then screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food. After a while, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore. So I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the garden. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be, quiet and serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.
    Now let’s see. The UK gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care and free education, Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly your taxes went up to pay for free services; Small flats were now housing 5 families;
    You have to wait approx 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; Your child’s primary grade class is behind other schools because over half the class does not speak your language. Squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties. Just my opinion, but maybe it’s time for our government to take down the bird feeder. If you agree, pass it on; if not, just continue cleaning up the shit!

    Being too kind can have consequences: Overcrowding breeds criminality.

    2. Perfect analogy, Ped.

      I found my bird feeder on the path this morning …!
      My resident squirrel had cleverly unhooked it from the pole removed the lid, took his fill and scarpered…

      I was left to pick up the mess!

      1. I keep finding hazelnut saplings all over the garden thanks to the visiting (I don’t think he lives here) squirrel. I got rid of an unwanted sapling from the lawn yesterday.

  29. Another good observation piece by Dalrymple. Blind and blissful.

    I was struck by this paragraph:

    The wish to avoid evident but uncomfortable truths, and to allow people to maintain their blindness to them, makes it difficult for politicians to speak about the real problems that confront their respective societies. One might almost define truth in these circumstances as that which people wish to evade or do not want to hear about. The wish to preserve a treasured worldview is another reason for blindness to the obvious: We prefer our worldview to the world. Such willful blindness is not confined to one political tendency; it is common to all. It is a human trait.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/blind-and-blissful/

    2. James II, when heir and married to Anne Hyde, was nominally Protestant. He came out, so to speak, when he married his 2nd wife Mary of Modena.
      And then there was the warming pan baby scandal.
      Some historians believe that Charles II converted as he was on his death bed. No-one truly knows what goes on in a person’s heart, mind and soul when they are near the end.

      1. Charles II in the Treaty of Dover signed up to converting to Catholicism. He just put off the moment because he knew it would be extremely unpopular among the plebs. There were anti-Catholic near riots in London and much opposition to Treaties with the French and Spanish. I’m currently reading A Gambling Man about the Restoration.

    2. “Perry said of the other witnesses to the potentially fatal incident: ‘No one actually did anything, they just wanted to record'”

      Sums up today’s mememe society.

  32. Good Moaning.
    Sunshine …. AGAIN ….. climate change …. Norfolk sliding into the sea …. chunter …. moan ….

      1. Plenty of viewers.
        Some are people to whom we would happily hand on the torch (you never really own somewhere like this; you are a temporary custodian). Others, quite frankly, would get it over our dead bodies.
        This sounds very hippy dippy, but there are those who are in sympathy with High Victorian, and others who are snow flakey and have about as much spark and life affirming qualities as a soggy dish clout.

        1. Agree, Anne.
          My fear for Mother’s house is that someone will buy it, not to love it and live there, but to demolish t and replace it with wee boxes in the modern style. That would be very sad.

  34. The 1922 Committee members who back Boris Johnson – and those who don’t
    With the Prime Minister’s future in the hands of the committee, The Telegraph looks at whether its officers are friends or foes
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/08/1922-committee-members-back-boris-johnson-do-not/

    This should not be just about Boris Johnson’s personality, morality and mendacity.

    He was elected on the basis of fulfilling some very attractive manifesto commitments such as ending the persecution of NI veterans, controlling immigration, reducing taxes, getting rid of the meddling of the ECHR and securing a proper Brexit even if this meant going for “No Deal” if necessary.

    What we need is the policies Johnson pretended to believe in for electoral purposes – but not Boris Johnson. The only person remotely capable of putting these things at the top of the agenda is David Frost and if the Conservative Party has any desire not to be wiped out it must get him into parliament and chosen as prime minister as soon as possible. Any other person would be as useless as Mrs May turned out to be and would fast track UK back into the EU.

    1. Boris Johnson is not British.His dad has now legged it to France and
      gained French citizenship.That family is extremely dodgy……Beware!!!!

      1. How did he get it so quickly?

        We know several people who have applied for French citizenship and it has taken them at least three years to get it.

        And of course Gerard Depardieu, the adipose French film star, acquired Russian nationality almost immediately a few years ago.

  35. As many Nottlers are aware, my lovely wife is a Roman Catholic. She plays the organ in church, she does the church accounts and she is a vital pillar of our local church community.

    Today she is hosting a Rosary Meeting and about a dozen old trout will assemble chez-nous for a prayer and discussion meeting. I shall keep well clear of this until it is time for tea and cake as Caroline has baked the most delicious looking chocolate cake for the occasion. However, I have suggested that among their prayers the group should pray that Justin Welby should continue his good work in antagonising and annoying the Anglican community as this is surely succeeding in driving more and more people into the arms of the true Catholic Mother Church.

    1. When our priest is wittering on about brotherly love and tolerance etc, my private prayers are for a Reconquista!

    1. The actual science demonstrates that increased CO2 levels lag warming by approximately 6 months. In other words increased temperature generates increased CO2, not the other way round as claimed by every nutter from Prince Charles to Greta Thunberg.

      1. Exacto! But is completely out of our control, so we should just ignore it, mostly.

      2. Proved by examination of Polar ice cores – i e, empirical evidence. Anyway, CO2 is plant food – check out the formula for photosynthesis.

    1. Good Lord, the DM really don’t want to admit that their precious disease was about as deadly as stubbing your toe to 99% of mankind, do they ? Nice use of ‘million’, too, to keep the fear ramped up. What scum they are.

          2. Don’t hear much about that once it became clear it affected gays, did we? Can’t have the life choices questioned, can we?

      2. 6.3 million out of a world population of over 7 billion is less than one in a thousand deaths.

        Yet we were told that this was the most lethal disease since the Black Death.

        Do you think that someone was lying?

        And why?

        1. And where were these deaths? Were they in countries with poor hygiene? Were they all deaths from covid, or with covid? Were they amongst a vulnerable group?

          As if 30 something’s suddenly start dying off in their thousands I’d be very worried, but for most it was a cough.

          1. A few days ago Ontario announced the latest daily covid case counts. Apparently two died of covid – so don’t relax, keep up those masks!

            Two deaths in a whole day, oh wow!

  38. 353090+ up ticks,

    Climate Crazy BoJo Ignored Calls to Cut Green Taxes to Ease Cost of Living Pressures,

    You sure ? or was it carrie the PMs whispering squeeze.

    Seems like the illegals must give their informed consent . for a trip to rwanda so there, no goeee white chaps wotch yer gunna do about it.

    2. I have been fighting Modern Movement crap all of my working life.

      Things took a turn for the worse when the teaching of Architecture was removed from practitioners and given to universities. You can only learn from direct experience of the industry and with the guidance of experienced practitioners.

      I cannot recall the architect of the monstrosity your photograph depicts. My guess would be an American (Paul Rudolph?) or else someone trained at Cambridge University when it had a School of Architecture. It has a sort of Denys
      Lasdun affectation to it with its Brutalist undertones.

      Edit: The house was designed by Peter Eisenman between 1972-1975 and is in Cornwall, Connecticut. Eisenman was a popular and trendy theorist when I studied at University College London in the seventies.

      1. A bit like the Lightbox in Woking.
        We think it got an award from the RNIB. :-))

    3. The only problem I have with older architecture is that people were smaller then, which makes doors, ceilings, corridors all uncomfortable for me.

      Both I and el Warqueen are tall and Junior is showing the same sign. Mongo is compared to most, a big dog, but beside me he looks no bigger than a Labrador.

      1. My former and late in laws had a 17th C house which was full of sloping floors and low beams. My ex, who was about 5’11 was always hitting his head. Being only 5’4- I didn’t have any problems.

        1. Our former Rector retired to a Tudor cottage in Hampshire. He’s tall, and keeps various caps at strategic intervals around the staircases.

      1. Seems to be popular these days, living in a shipping container. Can’t think why.

    6. (Peter Eisenman) EISENMAN ARCHITECTS – HOUSE VI

      Location: Cornwall, Connecticut
      Year: 1972-1975

      House VI is both an object and a kind of cinematic manifestation of the transformational process. Thus the object not only is the end result of its own generative history but also retains this history, serving as a complete record of it, process and product beginning to become interchangeable.

      The space of perception in House VI is Euclidean, that is, it has a frontal orientation. However, there are unassimilable idiosyncrasies in the house – no compositional uniformity or proportional congruencies, a lack of dynamic balance, etc. – that resist conventional perceptual relation. These “unassimilable idiosyncrasies” are signs of another geometrical order – topological – operating on a conceptual level.

      There is more verbal guff here: https://eisenmanarchitects.com/House-VI-1975

      1. As I came into work this morning on the bus there was a baby loudly proclaiming, “Gu-Goo, Goo, Gaga, Gugug, Goo”. I get it now. His new architectural creation will be unveiled shortly. His mum looked rather bored but then she’s heard it all before.

    2. I posted this late last night and the response was positive. I wasn’t sure whether the kid is ridding himself of the nonsence or showing that he ingested it?

      1. Surely to eject one must first ‘ingest’?

        At least he’s getting rid of the rancid vomit.

    1. The boys in the Lord of the Flies were prep school boys – not public schoolboys.

      Mind you the author, William Golding, was a teacher at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury where two of my best friends were pupils. The school took boys from the age of 11 up to the age of 18. In those days most ‘public’ schools just took pupils from the age of 13.

      BWS was different in that it was an HMC school and though it had its own independent governors it was a state funded grammar school. It is still flourishing both academically and in sport and is fielding some very useful rugby teams.

      1. It shows just how thin and fragile the veneer of civilisation is. And we see more and more evidence of that nowadays.

  43. Second Test at Trent Bridge – great decision by England to insert New Zealand on a dry pitch in dry weather. It says a great deal about the management’s faith in their top order. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out like Brisbane in 2002…

    EDIT: And no sooner did I write that than two wickets fell in two balls…

      2. NZ still in a good position at lunch though.

        I was surprised to hear their captain had pulled out because of a positive Covid test.

          2. There were masked customers and assistants at ASDA today.
            The woman on the till was wearing one of those thick ones. I did my daffy old dear act and pretended I couldn’t hear her, so she had to keep repeating everything.

          3. Hope there weren’t any Nottlers in the queue behind you. You know how sarcastic they can be…

          4. There was one like that on the till I went to, as well. A couple of mask wearers in the car park but the vast majority were mask free. I went earlier than usual and it was busy, so the proportion of masked was very small.

    3. In one of my local charity shops this morning (I went into town to pay a bill, but just thought I’d have a look), there was a framed and signed photograph of Sir Garfield Sobers plus a framed photo (but not signed) of the Ashes winning team. Not being in the least interested in cricket (my mother killed off any interest by dragging me to see Worcestershire play when I would far rather have been dealing with horses), I wasn’t tempted.

      1. You could have bought the signed one and inflated the price 10,000% and put it on Ebay.

        1. Unfortunately (because I have a lot of vintage computers to shift) I don’t do ebay.

    1. Monkeys respond by naming a particularly nazty virus that causes them derangement and gibbering:

      Sturgeonascalia.

    1. Fully support the call to prosecute the perpetrators of this scandal. However there doesn’t seem to be a well-known figure willing to lead the charge, let alone push for prosecutions. Does such a person even exist? I would like to think so but, at the moment, he or she is conspicuous by their absence. I really fear it may be a lost cause.

      1. I fear it will be the public that will take the law into its own hands ultimately.

        1. It will be the only way to get anything done. If anyone complains about the current situation I am minded to remind them that there’s a civil war on. When they ask, what civil war? I point out that the government is at war with the people.

      2. The whole point is that the push should come from ordinary people like you and me. We all need to be makimng a fuss with law enforcement and with our elected reps – they will seem to be deaf until the noise is loud enough.

  47. 353090+ up ticks,

    May one say,

    “If he is sent to rwanda his future and that of his children will be destroyed,” there will be many a nodding head in agreement in the UK electorate.

    They in majority actually support & vote for mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile importing party’s giving then succour in a covert manner while they are active abusing in the nastiest manner the indigenous children of these Isles.

    Those abused children’s futures are sorted mainly via mental issues..

  48. Good Afternoon All

    Another trip yesterday to offset the assorted beastlinesses , this time a first time visit to Dewstow Gardens just across the bridge from us in the Peoples Democratic Republic of Cymru

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfd53b91054a82cbab492517deb4a1e7d26e1b7c537c6335d4ada534a22e56ed.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f22b55937b120b2ddaca391fcb721aaf3d3a22a16475f05d06aa0f748f90aec.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25b48dd893b34aa4236134390467c42fa15fb4162373ff64d7ca5f56aca881e6.jpg

    and finally our PicNic companion

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bf9fb4ffe42a8eb416f827bc908643c77572bd186e0c30e79bedc43b555d1d5.jpg

    https://www.dewstowgardens.co.uk

  49. Good Afternoon All

    Another trip yesterday to offset the assorted beastlinesses , this time a first time visit to Dewstow Gardens just across the bridge from us in the Peoples Democratic Republic of Cymru

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfd53b91054a82cbab492517deb4a1e7d26e1b7c537c6335d4ada534a22e56ed.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f22b55937b120b2ddaca391fcb721aaf3d3a22a16475f05d06aa0f748f90aec.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25b48dd893b34aa4236134390467c42fa15fb4162373ff64d7ca5f56aca881e6.jpg

    and finally our PicNic companion

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bf9fb4ffe42a8eb416f827bc908643c77572bd186e0c30e79bedc43b555d1d5.jpg

    https://www.dewstowgardens.co.uk

    1. Yes, this was in the DT (and elsewhere for all I know). I didn’t put it up out of respect for raised blood pressures and some dodgy tickers.

      I trust that this ‘advisor’ has now resigned and therefore is no longer in receipt of public money. Failing that he has been dismissed…

      No, thought not.

    3. So Islam gets its own ‘adviser’ to the government on how not to offend its members. A full-time job, I’d say, since everything seems to offend Muslims. Do any other religions get their own governmental advisers to give them special privileges?

      2. Justin Welby sits in the HoL advising government on how to piss off Christians?

        1. Caroline has just finished her rotary prayer meeting and the chocolate cake was delicious.

          However, she did not go ahead with my suggestion that the group should pray that Justin Welby should continue to drive Anglicans out of the Church of England and into the Church of Rome.

          2. Gavin Ashenden is leading the way, doing his best!
            He has stated that the C of E has fallen into the dark way, & Welby isn’t a Christian!
            I’d love to know if our Queen agrees with her former Royal Bishop.

          4. I’m 20 months into a five year contract as Director of Music for the Parish, since it was decided that it was better to rent out my Verger’s Cottage on the open market. I’m not complaining, since I’ve secured a perfectly acceptable, reasonably priced alternative- which isn’t a tied cottage. It’s a retirement bungalow, owned by a small local charity, which just happens to be run by folk who are also churchgoers in the Parish. I don’t claim to have the gift of discernment, but there’s a view that divine intervention may be implicated. By 1st October 2025, if I’m not pushing up daisies, I quite like the idea of being free to worship wherever I choose. Always supposing the CofE is still extant by then…

  51. Right in front of our eyes, Britain’s entire political order is being demolished. Aditya Chakrabortty 10 June 2022.

    I could carry on. Petrol will soon hit £2 a litre. Swaths of our transport infrastructure are mired deep in chaos that shows no sign of ending soon. As schools wind up for summer, it is shamefully obvious that kids from less well-off families will never get the resources essential to catch up on the education they missed during the pandemic. And when elections roll around, polling stations open right next to food banks.

    What turns these symptoms of acute crisis into a chronic national breakdown is, as Lord Hill says, the rottenness of our political institutions. So profound is their decay that they can no longer properly face the problems, let alone tackle them.

    This is all perfectly true of course. The whole country is slowly disintegrating. Where Mr Chakraborrty goes wrong is that he thinks we should have more of the same to sort it out.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/10/britain-political-housing-health

      1. I thought it was a woman, but I could be getting it confused with another foreigner with a similar name.

    2. Doesn’t a trigomist deal with the mathematics of shapes?
      I’ll get me coat…

    1. He made the biggest mistake of his life when he married. I’m quite pleased he lives over there.

          1. They are both hideously white. Did Harry commission a surrogate mother? And if so did she have artificial insemination or the real thing – as The Chorus in Henry V put it: A little touch of Harry in the night!

    1. Exactly. Still, when people stop using their cars because they can’t afford to buy the fuel, he will have shot himself in the foot again.

      1. Yo Conners

        It happened back in the late 80’s.

        They also had a 60mph speed limit.

        and put fuel up.

        Total failure

        1. I seem to recall a 50mph speed limit and rationing was around in the seventies (I had to travel up to Hull regularly and it was like being in an EV these days – range anxiety! Could I find a petrol station open and would they let me buy any as they were rationing it and only serving regular customers?

    1. ‘Around Ten’ Recent Gay Sex Partners.

      I bet, that tey are not so Gay* now

      * active, airy, animate, animated, bouncing, brisk, energetic, frisky, jaunty, jazzy, kinetic,
      lively, mettlesome, peppy, perky, pert, pizzazzy (or pizazzy), racy, snappy, spanking,
      sparky, spirited, sprightly, springy, vital, vivacious, zippy

  57. How integration works in Bradford. The Imams have instructed the proles to ” Get stuck in”.

    One dead, one seriously stabbed. MEN who flew out of a car moments before a fatal stabbing were targeting males and laughed as one declared “ha we’ve f**king killed him now”, witnesses say.

    Arbaz Khan, 22, Aizaz Khan, 27, both of Yew Tree Avenue in the Daisy Hill area, Amaad Shakiel, 20, of Leaventhorpe Lane, Adam Qayum, 23, of Avenel Road in the Allerton area, Mohammed Adil Hussain, 18, of Kite Mews in the Lower Grange area, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named due to his age, all deny murder and attempted murder. The 17-year-old has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Tordoff on “diminished responsibility” on account of his mental health at the time and also pleaded guilty to wounding with intent in relation to Mr Lowther.

      2. Why on earth are we allowing these ghastly incomers to take over our culture? Are we really so stupid or just too nice?

        2. Neither. Our govt wants/needs these people here. The rest of us are muzzled by one-six letter word. There is only one way out of this, now.

          1. There is. We deport them. When statists kick up a stink, we sack them.

            When the legalists complain, we remove their money – which is our money anyway. These rent seekers exist only because we are forced to fund them. Once we remember that it is our money, not theirs then the problem – and the muslim – goes away.

        3. Neither. Our govt wants/needs these people here. The rest of us are muzzled by one-six letter word. There is only one way out of this, now.

        1. Had to do that on my course. Rub a swab between the toes then swab the petrie dish. Leave for two weeks and voila ! Mine produced mushrooms for some reason. :@(

    2. Islam is the ideology* that causes mental health problems.

      *It is not a religion because there is no separation between mosque and state.

          2. He came back after that incident under the name Peter Anderson. Then he disappeared again of his own volition.

          5. Chap’s real name is Peter ********. Goodness knows where the “Anderson” came from. Maybe it’s his Viking warrior name.

          6. Sorry Barney but you shouldn’t post a nottler’s real name without permission. Please delete.

          16. We could all be accused of being unpleasant from time to time. Written words are often misenterpreted and all the emojis in the world won’t help!

          18. I think you may have hit the nail on the head there. When speaking face-to-face (as I do in court) you can see all the visual clues about how a person is feeling. On a telephone, or online, none of those clues are available to one, therefore simple misconstructions abound.

          19. There was absolutely no way this rudeness and unpleasantness could have been misinterpreted.

          20. Oh, I agree. I’m referring to times when people’s innocent remarks are sometimes misconstrued. Overt nastiness is always that: overt.

          21. PTV was seriously ill, and hospitalised. A Nottler, who shall remain nameless gave him a great deal of support. In return, he called her out as a ‘wine thief’. He had more support from this site than his family, if such exists.

          22. I was aware of that (from the person at the receiving end). At the time, when PTV was going on about this person drinking all his wine, I thought it was shabby and ungrateful.

          23. Peddy was a long time Nottler. There was no mistake. However after a time in purgatory all are welcome back. Happened to me once. Now i’m the belle of the ball. :@)

          31. Peddy was visited by a Nottler who lived close by. I have emailed him but no response.

          34. I last emailed Feb 23 but no response. Am not pushing it- it is up to Peddy if he wants to respond.

          35. Poppiesmum went to see him around Christmas time as she was worried about him. He fobbed her off by saying his internet was down. I emailed him and got no response. Clearly he doesn’t wish to be part of this forum now.

          38. I was under the impression that one or two on here were in contact with him. The last I heard he was on extended “gardening leave”. Since then I’ve heard nothing more.

          41. I live about 40 mins away so I went round to see him to check if he was ok after Christmas end December – he was somewhat surprised, he said everything was fine. I asked him to let me know if he needed any assistance, he has my email address, and that was it, I have heard nothing since. I know we would all like to know how he is but I feel I cannot intrude again.

          42. I apologise if I’ve embarrassed you, it was not my intention. I should have thought before I posted that.
            I value your posts as they are always thoughtful and measured.

          43. No, no, you didn’t embarrass me, Alf – I was just explaining – no, I didn’t take it that way at all – I thought I should say something in case anyone was wondering why I hadn’t said anything about Peddy and his absence. It is as much a mystery to me as everyone else. And thank you for your lovely comment about my posts!

  59. Afternoon, all. The headline letter writer has it partly right, but the real squeeze on motorists is the tax take. Garage proprietors don’t make much of a margin of profit. Ironically, my local rag had an editorial about fuel price hikes and smoking. The writer made the connection about stopping people smoking by raising the prices to make it unaffordable and indoctrinating educating the young not to start, but completely missed the point that exactly the same thing is happening with people driving cars.

  60. The latest YouGov survey on Brexit puts those who think it was wrong 12 points ahead of people saying it was right. Dreary Exprezz

    In its regular poll, YouGov asked respondents whether they thought Britain was right or wrong to leave the EU. It shows that 49 percent believe it was wrong while 37 percent say it was the right decision. Don’t Knows are stable at about 12-14 percent.

    YouGov is an independent, unbiased polling organisation. To achieve a varied selection of opinion, all our polls are conducted at the BBC, Gay Pride gatherings, European Union sessions and Labour Party conferences. Our motto – IN COD WE TRUST.

    1. The UN is formally in a partnership with the WEF (it is on record) in order to implement Agenda 2030, which includes no borders.
      The UN is not our friend.

  62. Just had an e-mail from Nectar, asking me to Donate Points to LGBT+ Charities

    NO FFFing WAY!!!!!

    1. The Co op donated my dividend to some ethnic charity without asking me. Needless to say, they got a rocket and were told in no uncertain terms to pay me my dividend. The Co op and I have completely different ethics, which is why I seldom patronise them. I only have an account because they took over the Britannia Building Society when I had an account there, despite my voting against.

      1. Ethics? Co op? Lost them years ago! Rainbows, effniks, etc! Nothing about the roots of the Co op! Surprise surprise, they were white and British and proud!

        1. Don’t forget being anti-hunting, despite being based in Leicester (although they may have moved now).

          2. That’s why I initially fell out with them and closed my Britannia current account (I found out they were actually running it, not the Britannia). I kept the savings account until Britannia were eventually taken over. Then, of course, I discovered the Co op was being run by a Crystal Meth- odist.

  63. Just had an e-mail from Nectar, asking me to Donate Points to LGBT+ Charities

    NO FFFing WAY!!!!!

  64. https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/property/gallery/details-images-old-derby-police-7187547?fbclid=IwAR39t3HmyYig-fyj3zEeLwhu9dbcYKR_HPEUzon6mYg8cfzD3y4NnekhbbM#ICID=Android_DerbyTelegraphNewApp_AppShare Apropos a discussion, earlier today, about buildings from the 16th century still being in excellent condition while modern buildings soon become not fit for purpose, I present this article from a recent edition of The Derby Evening Telegraph.

    When I commenced duty as a police constable in 1973, Derby East sub-division had its headquarters in an old building at Pear Tree Road. IThat police station was deemed to be antique and ready for replacement so a newer, modern building was designed and built in 1978 at nearby Cotton Lane. It is that ‘new’ building that is now longer deemed fit for purpose (after a mere 44 years) and has been put on sale! Weirder still, the old Pear Tree police station, the one that Cotton Lane replaced, is still in use! You couldn’t make it up.

    1. I was confirmed in a 13th century church (which used to be the Mother Church of the diocese). It was replaced by a Victorian one in the 19th century because mining in the area was thought to be endangering the ancient one. It is still going while the Victorian one has been struck by lightning at least twice that I’ve witnessed.

        1. Aesthetically speaking, it wasn’t a patch on the old one (think Victorian Gothic). It had a tall tower with pinnacles on each corner. They were the ones (despite having lightning conductors) which got struck.

          4. How many bluddy times do I have to tell you and Grizz…proper trifle does not have jelly!

          9. Well? Where were you? I’ve been up since 5.45! Our daughters doggy Lyra, Hectors sister, has been umphing since yon time!

          2. Cherries in cherry jelly with almond panna cotta.

            Cherries in cherry jelly.
            (serves 4)

            [I used 36 cherries, from my tree last year, that were frozen in juice pulped from other cherries. However, I normally buy a large jar of Polish cherries in a cherry juice from the shops.]

            36 cherries
            400ml cherry juice
            3½ sheets gelatine

            Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water for 5 minutes.
            Warm the cherry juice to fairly hot in a sauce pan.
            Squeeze out the gelatine sheets and add to the cherry juice, stirring to dissolve.
            Place 9 cherries each into four serving glasses.
            Pour over the cherry juice and leave to set in the fridge.

            Almond panna cotta.

            2½ sheets of gelatine
            150ml milk
            400ml double cream
            60g caster sugar
            600g almond flakes
            1 tsp bitter almond essence.

            Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water for 5 minutes.
            Place the milk, cream, sugar, almond flakes and almond essence into a small saucepan and bring to the boil.
            Switch off the stove and allow the contents of the pan cool slightly.
            Squeeze out the gelatine sheets and add to the pan, stirring to dissolve.
            Allow the contents of the pan to infuse for 30 minutes.
            When cool strain the panna cotta through a fine sieve onto the top of the jelly in the glasses.
            Place back in fridge to set.

            Amaretti biscotti.

            200g ground almonds
            200g caster sugar
            ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
            1Tbsp Disaronno Amaretto
            ½ tsp vanilla extract
            3 medium egg whites icing sugar to dust (optional).

            Mix the dry ingredients well in a bowl.
            Add the egg whites, amaretto and vanilla essence and mix well to form a paste.
            Use a small teaspoon to form small mounds of the paste on a baking sheet.
            Bake in the oven at 150ºC for 25 minutes.
            When cool place four biscotti on top of each of the desserts just before serving.

            [All remaining biscotti will save, for nibbles, in a plastic container]

          3. Gosh! That’s a huge amount of work for something which will disappear in a couple of minutes!

          5. I don’t make puddings, though OH does if he’s in the mood….. I tend to cook simple things but usually from raw ingredients. I’ve never used a microwave.

          6. In my defence I will cook a meat and several veg meal in the winter when the Rayburn is running because I don’t have to heat the oven up especially and as I have an electric cooker (no gas on the premises) it can be very expensive to use that. I also make jam (very simple recipe) with fruit from the garden and bake a bara brith (ultra simple recipe!) when the Rayburn is lit. If I entertain, I usually invite people for tea; I can make sandwiches and there is a local cafe which makes home-made cakes and scones and does a take-away service. Alternatively, in a decent summer I can invite people for strawberries and cream and Pimms to be enjoyed in the garden (I have a strawberry dish with attached sugar and cream containers which looks very swish). I do have all the gear (and a modicum of idea) for a tea party (silver tea set, china tea service, dumb waiter, tea trolley, muffin dish, tiered cake stands and a Georgian toasting fork for when the fire is lit). I do like a proper tea; I’ve booked to take tea at Belvoir in a couple of weeks’ time – they invented it – and at Sandringham in August. I’ve had tea on the terrace at the Petwood Hall Hotel (the Dambusters’ Mess during the war) at Woodhall Spa several times and we took the French from our twin town to tea at Goldstone Hall. They were entranced. It is, in my view, quintessentially English.

          7. Sounds good! We haven’t got a Rayburn or an Aga, and no gas here either, so it’s the electric stove or nothing.

          8. I have really noticed the increase in electricity prices (I paid this month’s bill this morning) and the surge in cost if I use the oven to cook. The microwave, by contrast, is relatively economical. Thanks to extra taxes coupled with the loss of MOH’s pension, my disposable income is considerably less these days and economies are the order of the day.

          9. On the other hand, your ready meals probably cost a bit more than the raw ingredients.

          10. Iceland do some reasonably priced ones and sometimes have offers on. I do shop around in an effort to save cash. If it’s reduced because it’s near its sell by date and is freezable I’ll get it (providing I like it, of course) and freeze to eat later. I’m quite happy with BOGOF offers, too 🙂

        2. While I’m not a fan of recipes being posted (I don’t cook), I don’t object to it. If people don’t want to read them, they should, like me, just scroll past.

          3. Microwavable ready meals (cottage pie, lasagne, shepherd’s pie, moussaka, tuna pasta bake) with boiled veg, boiled eggs, stir fries (I don’t count that as cooking) with microwavable rice, sandwiches, cod in batter with oven chips (don’t count that as cooking, either), microwaved jacket potatoes with salad and various fillings … Things that don’t require much preparation and certainly don’t require me to stand over them for ages and watch! Probably the most complicated thing I do is an omelette or scrambled egg, although I have created a spaghetti bolognese with a pre-prepared sauce. 🙂

        4. Some of us have actually tried some of your recipes, successfully I might add!!

    7. Amaretti Biscotti steeped in Amaretto under the jelly and you have a trifle !
      I doubt your Lasagne al Forno is ‘bog standard’.

      I like to triple mince my own beef. You get a really nice texture.
      Do your dinner guests return the invites?

          4. Many of my Nottler friends like a good limerick. I rather like a bad one!

            This one is too outrageous for many sensitive Nottlers so I must hide it behind a spoiler:

            There was an old poofter from Kings,
            Whose mind was on heavenly things,
            he said: “All I require
            Is a boy from the Choir
            With an arse like a jelly on springs.”

          5. There once was a man from Devises
            Whose balls were of differing sizes,
            One was so small you couldn’t see it at all
            The other so big
            It won prizes.

          7. I do enjoy a good limerick, but cannot write them, so thanks for the giggle!!

          9. Many of my Nottler friends like a good limerick. I rather like a bad one!

            This one is too outrageous for many sensitive Nottlers so I must hide it behind a spoiler:

            There was an old poofter from Kings,
            Whose mind was on heavenly things,
            he said: “All I require
            Is a boy from the Choir
            With an arse like a jelly on springs.”

      2. Indeed they do. They are all good (Swedish) cooks. My al Forno was: beef mince, chopped onions, chopped garlic, canned tomatoes, tomato puree, balsamic vinegar, oregano, pinch of chilli flakes, celery salt, black pepper, pinch of sugar (to balance). It works really well.

      2. I’ve just posted the whole recipe, below, Ruth. The amount of gelatine given ensures a nice wobble.

  67. Here’s one specially for Damask Rose. My late cousin gave me this one – Rose de Rescht – the last time I saw her….. little did I know that it would be the last time, but she died aged only 57. I repotted it last year and it has paid me back – it’s beautiful and has a very powerful scent.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b789077972c777c07d759050b72e7f6f88b47e199dd5b119721fa20d81a06d24.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/acced7b48176852a0b661e2ca1868a3ac5ec740f32322c913e2d0c6451b4520e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a009665b0419d387138d0537899d097b93606fe8a230ae18c2da345c332ad2d8.jpg

        1. It will be fine in the ground, tough as old boots the older roses. They are the only ones I grow…. always come up trumps.
          If you are anywhere near Hidcote or Kiftsgate Court gardens Glos., well worth a visit.

          1. My cousin gave it to me in 2007 – it was neglected and stuck in a small pot till last year – it survived that ill-treatment.

        2. I was thinking of something like that to have in a pot on my deck, high enough to be out of reach of deer! Usually. I have annuals to give colour in containers but clearing out the pots and replacing plants every year, is getting too much for my arthritis!!

          1. It’s about two feet tall now – I had it on the low wall until recently when I moved it to ground level. We have a visiting roe deer which eats geraniums, but he didn’t eat the rose flowers last year. I haven’t noticed the deer here lately, but then the geraniums are not in flower yet – they’re rather late this year.

      1. I guess so, from the name. They are availablr from David austin Roses, and Peter Beales, and others.
        I neglected it, I’m sad to say, but it’s been very forgiving, and has put on a lot of growth since repotting last year. It will always remind me of my cousin Susan.

        1. The Gallica roses are usually this deep red with a magenta tinge.
          A rose is a lovely memorial.
          I bought one for sister after she died & it is soaring towards the sky again this year, ready to flower.

  68. A girl of nine has disappeared after using her mum’s moisturiser that makes you look 10 years younger.

  69. As the Tories descend into chaos, The Blob is taking back control
    Gove’s school reforms were a triumph. But little by little they have been undone by Whitehall
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/09/tories-descend-chaos-blob-taking-back-control/

    BTL

    Carrie Symonds managed to get Dominic Cummings sacked because she had her own agenda whereby she did not want the Blob to be curtailed in any way.

    I think that the influence of this malign and meddlesome woman will be discussed by historians for many years to come. Was she, they will ask, in the pay of those who wanted the Conservative Party to self-destruct?

    1. You are a genius, sweetie ! … x
      Mine’s a Par Four …
      Wordle 356 4/6

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

      1. #metoo.

        Wordle 356 4/6

        ⬛🟨⬛⬛🟨
        🟨⬛⬛⬛🟨
        ⬛⬛🟨🟨🟨
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Did OK today. 6 yesterday.

      Wordle 356 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Me too.
      Wordle 356 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Sue Barker was certainly one of the very best sports commentators on the BBC. She will be greatly missed.

        A Question of Sport is useless now without her, Tuffers and Matt Dawson. Does anyone still watch it?

    2. Sue Barker is a charming and knowledgeable presenter of tennis at Wimbledon; perhaps her charm and knowledge are the dual reasons for the BBC’s disgraceful decision.

    3. I don’t watch tennis, but I’m glad the Beeb lost the racing. La Balding used to drive me wild with some of the stupid things she said about the horses, particularly given that her father, uncle and brother all trained and her mother’s brother (William Hastings-Bass, later Lord Huntingdon) also trained for a while.

      1. My brother in law (ex jockey, now part racehorse owner), has a deep dislike of the ‘woman’!

        1. I have never met her, but I don’t like her commentating (nor her books). I, too, am a part-owner of racehorses, but I’ve never race-ridden 🙂

          1. She seems to exist purely as a lesbian. It defines her and she is unable to actually ‘be’ anything else. It’s probably why she’s a useless presenter/commentator.

  74. 353090+ up ticks,

    Boris Johnson Must Govern as a Conservative or Face Political Extinction, Warns Ex-Brexit Chief

    Boris Johnson’s former Brexit boss has warned that he will only survive politically if the government returns to conservative values.

    Brexit boss ? that is surely a jest in very poor taste. they handled Brexitexit as would Count Dracula a crucifix.

    Many, many of the whole lab’lib/con coalition politico’s would in reality see their rear exit holes seal up before becoming genuine Conservatives
    their long term supporters currently so sad to see & say, are worse in condoning party actions via the ballot booth.

      1. Peonies don’t like being moved. I had to move mine when I had the drains done and they never recovered.

          1. A pity really as they are such lovely plants. I’ve bought a couple of replacements, but I doubt they will flower until next year at the earliest.

  76. China’s big threat to the internet…GCHO spy chief.
    The West is facing a moment of reckoning…
    Daily Fail.

    Yes, we know…..

    1. I would be grateful to the Chinese if they could bomb the Daily Fail first….

  77. High Court rules #rwanda asylum removals flight is legal and can go ahead. Huge boost for Govt and Home Sec
    @pritipatel Labour oppose the policy

    6. Either way the policy is absurd. The illegals should be returned to France from whence they came.

      The policy of assisting illegal immigration in the first place, coupled with a false policy of deportation to Rwanda, doomed to failure in the courts, tells you all to need to know about Globalist Johnson and his part in buying into the WEF Agenda.

      The globalists intend to eviscerate us with swarms of illegals from God knows where, Africa, Eastern Europe, South America and just about any other failed country or state. We the English count for nothing to Johnson and his ‘Young Global Leader’
      accomplices and masters.

      Johnson is not English but a foreigner, part Turk and part American or else God knows what.

  78. Good evening all, went shopping for a resupply of Shiraz and was quite surprised that there are still a few (masked) that jump out of the way when one passes minus mask, possibly visiting our town? . Maybe they thought I might have Monkey pox?? I give up on people’s intelligence here in the UK.
    Decided on a night of: Ólafur Arnalds.

    https://youtu.be/9uotK3SoufQ

    Not everyones taste, but I do find his music quite soothing while reading a book:
    ‘Too Like the Lightning’ The first novel in a science fiction quartet called Terra Ignota, by Ada Palmer.

      1. Funny you should say that, yes I found some small bananas that last time I tried them was the nearest I found in flavour to freshly picked in Oman.

      2. Nah, but rumour has it that he’s got a lovely bunch of coconuts, though that might be Phizzee.

        1. You must have visited Dhofar as well, otherwise you would not be so flippant.

          1. The response was to the word bunch.
            If I’ve caused offence it was unintentional.
            Please explain what I’ve missed.

          2. No….
            As usual with comments on this type of forum, misunderstanding can be fatal.
            Dhofar is renowned for its coconuts 🙂
            I am enjoying the Shiraz and music on my hifi so the last thing I would do is get upperty.
            Just a thought, it was a reference to bananas from a day or so ago.

          3. One of Nottle’s great pleasures for me is the way that threads move from across various days and how one learns odd aspects.

            I didn’t realise that coconuts could thrive there.

          4. Coconut, banana, papaya, date palms, sugar cane, grapes, lemon/limes and (historically until now) the highest quality frankincense.

    2. The only sci-fi authoresses I ever read were Anne McAffrey and Ursula Le Guin. Are you enjoying Too Like the Lightning?

      1. Yes, it’s the second reading, because on the first pass I had not been sure I would like it.
        I now have all four and enjoying the adventure into a possible future.

        1. Just read on ‘Goodreads’ that 2nd reading tends to be better. I’ve certainly read books like that.

          1. In my experience, if it needs to be read twice to appreciate it, I’ve lost patience and it’s been ditched!

    2. Well, monkey pox hasn’t exactly excited the nation so they have to fall back on covid.

      1. I will have you know I was hanging upside down from a tree this afternoon! I was excited;-)

        3. If you were hanging upside down from a tree, were you trying to recreate Fragonard’s “The Swing”*? 🙂

          *One of the most erotic 18th century paintings because the lady wore no bloomers.

          1. I had my jeans on I will have you know. I’m a good girl I am. (Sometimes.)

          2. 18th century ladies didn’t. Bloomers were a 19th century invention. Bras were a 20th century invention. Odd really, that we obsess over these garments.

          3. Bras must have been invented by a sadist. Gawd- horrible garments but- well you know…

      2. It’s a hard sell to get people concerned over a disease that has the reputation of being spread (not very easily by all accounts) by contact with the lesions and/or homosexual contact. The very idea that a disease not spread by respiration requires the intervention of a mask is risible: as the CDC in the USA found out. The only problem to the foregoing is if the bastards have messed around with the virus via gain of function.

        Yesterday there was mention of another infection with very similar symptoms, I think the word ‘pox’ and its bad reputation is being used as the basis for the fright factor.

        1. I am suffering from ‘pandemic’ fatigue and completely poxxed out! I cannot summon the emotional energy to get remotely interested in this. I shall observe disinterestedly from the sidelines, as I did with ‘covid’. A pox upon them all.

          I suppose it is possible that this is a cover for one of the many adverse effects of the mrna injection – auto immune blistering disease appears on page 2 of the 9 pages of adverse effects that Pfizer was forced to reveal by the US Supreme Court. No wonder they wanted to keep this and the other data now being revealed under wraps for 75 years. The msm should be hung out to dry for not making public this information.

  81. Gardener’s world
    Monty Don is planting Trombetti.
    Bill Thomas will be wetting himself with pleasure.

  84. 353090+ up ticks,

    breitbart

    Three Algerian Illegals Arrested For Home Invasion Murder of 70-Year-Old Woman

    Three illegal migrants from Algeria have been arrested for the murder of a 70-year-old woman who was killed at her home earlier this week on Monday.

    The 70-year-old woman was found dead at her home, a residence for the elderly, in the city of Mulhouse in eastern France on Monday at around 4 pm in the afternoon in her bathroom.

    Prosecutor of the Republic of Mulhouse Edwige Roux-Morizot stated that the woman showed signs of “great violence” and had marks on her throat as well as her arms, indicating that she made an attempt to defend herself before she died, the news website Actu 17 reports.

    We in the United Kingdom have the same types operating here courtesy of ELECTED GOVERNMENTS.

  85. Goodnight Y’all. Enough is enough.
    “Now could I drink hot blood and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look upon…” or summat like that.

    1. Ophelia was probably better at preparing cold consommé rather than hot broth and that was why it didn’t work out well with Hamlet who said he wanted things hotted up even though he was all mouth and trousers and incapable of actually doing anything about his fratricidal uncle..

    2. Ophelia was probably better at preparing cold consommé rather than hot broth and that was why it didn’t work out well.

  87. Prince Charles brands Home Office Rwanda deportation scheme ‘appalling’ – but denies trying to influence government policy
    DM Story

    Okay Chartlie Boy.

    So you want to get involved in politics?

    So what is your answer to the problem of illegal immigration? Or do you want it to continue unabated and completely unchecked?

    2. As the heir to a constitutional monarchy Charlie Boy (I like that) should step back from both politics and his connections with the world’s self-acclaimed elite e.g. the Davos crowd. In addition, his heir should also take heed and forget all about greenery etc.

  89. 353107+ up ticks,

    A Great Mystery: Civil Servants Told ‘Woman’, ‘Female’ Cannot be Defined

    This can be taken as fact as ALL civil servants known to me as ( dollys)
    are lacking in mothers so cannot give a true definition.

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