Friday 11 November: Conditions for nurses must improve – but strikes will be regrettable

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

625 thoughts on “Friday 11 November: Conditions for nurses must improve – but strikes will be regrettable”

  1. SIR – Like Alison Oakley (Letters, November 10), I am from Chesterfield and agree that the boundary between the Midlands and the North is somewhere around Matlock Bath. It is on a similar latitude to Clay Cross, due south of Chesterfield, which presents a distinct boundary between the North and the Midlands.

    Crossing that invisible boundary takes you from dialect and customs redolent of the North into the accents and habits common to East Midlanders. For example, guttural offerings such as, “dunna”, “munna” and “wunna” (don’t, mustn’t and won’t) exist alongside such arcane rituals as standing no further than six feet from a dartboard (“Derby distance, mister!”).

    Speech in the north of Derbyshire is often confused with the South Yorkshire dialect, to which it is similar. The south Derbyshire accent is pure Midlands-ese.

    Alan G Barstow
    Onslunda, Skåne, Sweden

      1. The old Beatnik was found wrapped up on an old Chesterfield sofa somewhere along Highway 61 which was being revisited at the time. He was then loaded on a fast freight which headed off to the West and legend has it, he’s still riding those rails.

        2. Hey, Dean. The last time I mooched alongside ol’ Highway 61 it was under a bogie on the fast-track LMS railroad that runs next to it. I was kicked off the railcar, by an old grizzled yardie, for smoking a Camel cheroot (I was fresh out of Chesterfields) so I had to bum a ride on the old Alfreton charabanc, Dude.

          1. Hey Beatnik, I had you down as a No6 Dude, hombre. Circa 1970, Man, those that I knew who wanted to look super-cool, smoked the Numbies or Guards but they weren’t cool, they just thought they were, old buddy!

          2. Hey Dean, Did you know me, Bro? I was indeed a No 6 sucker (tipped, my man) from ’63 thro ’83 until a croaky windpipe sent me to see the medicine-man with the swinging timepiece, Dude. Man, I was spaced out in his trance but an open-road breather of free fresh air ever since, Hombre.

          3. Hey Beatnik, that medicine man- what was he on, Dude? He needed a tomahawk and a rattler on a stick not some fancy white man’s toy, for the real long term fixaroo, hombre but you must have got lucky, pal.

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolk
    Putting the Cat Out

    We were dressed and ready to go out for a Dinner & Theatre evening.

    We turned on a ‘night light’, turned the answering machine on, covered our pet budgie and put the cat in the back garden. We phoned the local Taxi company and requested a taxi. The taxi arrived and we opened the front door to leave the house.

    As we walked out the door, the cat we had put out in the yard scooted back into the house.
    We didn’t want the cat shut in the house because she always tries to get at the budgie. My wife walked on out to the taxi, while I went back inside to get the cat. The cat ran upstairs, with me in hot pursuit.

    Waiting in the cab, my wife didn’t want the driver to know that the house will be empty for the night. So she explained to the taxi driver that I would be out soon. “He’s just going upstairs to say Goodbye to my mother.”

    A few minutes later, I got into the cab. “Sorry I took so long,” I said, as we drove away.
    “That stupid bitch was hiding under the bed. I had to poke her arse with a coat hanger to get her to come out! She tried to take off, so I grabbed her by the neck. Then, I had to wrap her in a blanket to keep her from scratching me. But it worked! I hauled her fat arse downstairs and threw her out into the back garden! She’d better not shït in the vegetable garden again!”

    The silence in the Taxi was deafening.

  4. 367577+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    May one ask,

    Why don’t we hold General Elections on the 11/11/11 reason being
    because we forget.

  5. With millions on benefits, we don’t need mass migration to boost GDP. 11 November 2022.

    Westminster hasn’t begun to grasp the scale of this scandal – five million Brits are on out-of-work welfare.

    We have never needed Mass Immigration. It was the choice of the Political Elites to create a Multi-racial and Multi-cultural State in the cause of Cultural Marxism and against the wishes of the indigenous population. .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/10/millions-benefits-dont-need-mass-migration-boost-gdp/

  6. 367579+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 11 November: Conditions for nurses must improve – but strikes will be regrettable

    On this occasion I do blame the unions of abusing a dying patient in this case the Country, they do seem to me to be backing the political overseers
    cause regarding the RESET program of totally destroy / build,build,build
    the repress,replace,RESET way.

    It was NEVER the English way to kick a body that was down.

    1. Tom, petitions to Parliament are no more than a Tony Blair ruse to “give the people a voice”. When the required number of signatories is reached, a small number of MPs discuss the matter in a small room and conclude that “the petition has been debated”. Action taken: none. So it’s a complete waste of time.

        1. Sorry, Tom, but I disagree. They operate in a “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind’s made up” mode. So I am just wasting my time if I sign petitions. Was it Einstein who said “Madness is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results”?

  9. We shall pause at 11am today and reflect what was done for us. and how politicians have repaid that memory.

  10. Good morning all.
    A 9°C start today with light cloud and, as yet, no rain.

    The first paragraph of Ann Roberts’s letter had my imagination working overtime!

    Price-capped presents
    SIR – Allison Pearson (Features, November 9) is right: adults don’t need Christmas presents. We do, however, like Father Christmas to bring a gift for us to unwrap.

    For years we’ve had a limit of £10. This year, because of inflation, it is £20. It is surprising what you can buy.

    Ann Roberts
    Market Harborough, Leicestershire

    2. 367567 + up ticks,

      Morning Elsie,
      You stood me up standing at the door this morning I do assume there was a good reason & the frostbite in my fingers and toes will heal….in time.

  13. A good response to another airy fairy suggestion for a Severn Barrage:-

    SIR – Just one tidal barrage (Letters, November 10) on the Severn Estuary would generate 10 per cent of Britain’s energy. Reliable, predictable and safe, it would need little maintenance or security, and the technology is well understood. There are no dangers with waste storage or eye-watering clean-up costs, and foreign technology and investment aren’t needed, beyond perhaps the initial capital investment.

    Keith Allum
    Christchurch, Dorset

    Michael Staples
    7 HRS AGO
    Keith Allum, in advocating a Severn Barrage to generate electricity ignores not only the upstream damage to wildlife, particularly birds, but the enormous amount of silt this river carries. Turbines would soon be clogged up and the river itself no longer being scoured by the tide would require constant dredging.

  14. ‘Morning Peeps, from an incredibly mild sarf coast.  Dry and partly sunny day is forecast.

    How appropriate for the DT to publish the obituary of a wartime aviator:

    Wing Commander Sidney Palmer, Lancaster bomber navigator who flew missions over Germany and occupied Europe – obituary

    He was awarded the DFC, and at the end of the war flew missions to photograph the devastation wrought by Allied bombs

    ByTelegraph Obituaries10 November 2022 • 3:49pm

    Wing Commander Sidney Palmer, who has died five weeks before his 100th birthday, flew 30 bombing operations in Lancasters and was awarded the DFC.

    After completing his training in Canada, he attended a conversion course on the Lancaster in May 1944 when he teamed up with his pilot, Frank Watt. They were to fly together until the end of 1945.

    Palmer joined 12 Squadron at Wickenby in Lincolnshire in July. His first operation was to Kiel on July 23, the first major Bomber Command raid on a German city for two months. The following day he attacked Stuttgart, the first of three heavy raids over a period of five nights.

    When Palmer and his crew returned to Stuttgart on the night of July 28, the German air defence system had been alerted and attacked the bomber stream in force. Palmer’s aircraft was engaged by a Junkers 88 night fighter. One of the Lancaster’s four engines was set on fire and put out of action.

    Its associated generator powered Palmer’s bombing and navigation radar – codenamed H2S – and he had to resort to navigating the aircraft on the long route back to base using astro-navigation. His squadron leader wrote “good effort” on his navigation log. Losses on this raid were heavy, with eight per cent of the force shot down.

    During early August, Palmer attacked oil installations in the Bordeaux area. On one occasion, the Lancaster was so low over the water on the approach to the target that it caused the wash from the propellers to generate a lot of spray, so much so that the rear gunner called out: “Hey, climb a bit! I’m getting absolutely soaked back here!”

    Palmer flew sorties to provide support for the Allied armies in Normandy before their break-out from the area, including attacks against the German strongholds in the English Channel ports of Le Havre, Calais and Flushing.

    During a raid on Essen, Palmer’s Lancaster was damaged by anti-aircraft fire which holed the pilot’s canopy. The resultant wind through the aircraft scattered his maps, but he recovered enough to navigate the aircraft on its return to base.

    On November 6, Palmer and his crew bombed the synthetic-oil plant at Gelsenkirchen during a daylight raid. Damage was extensive. This was his 30th and final operation and he and his crew were rested. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that Palmer and Frank Watt had been awarded the DFC.

    Sidney Joseph Palmer was born in Reading on November 21 1922 and educated at the town’s Collier Central School. He joined the RAF in December 1941 and began training as a navigator in Canada. He graduated first in his class and was commissioned.

    After completing his tour on 12 Squadron, he was posted to RAF Ludford Magna near Lincoln, together with Frank Watt, to become the test crew with the No 14 Base Major Servicing Unit. Lancasters from squadrons based in the area were flown to Ludford Magna for servicing and it was Watt and Palmer’s responsibility to air test the aircraft and their navigation and bombing systems before returning the aircraft to their units. During their 12 months on the unit, they tested scores of Lancasters.

    At the beginning of June 1945, they flew the first of many flights to photograph the damage to German cities and installations, known to many servicemen as “Cook’s Tours”. These flights provided an opportunity for the ground staff to see the devastation wrought by the Allied bomber force. Palmer made his last flight in a Lancaster on October 30 1946.

    In 1947, he transferred to the RAF Administration Branch. Among his many appointments he served in Germany for three years and later as the senior accountant officer at RAF Kai Tak, Hong Kong. After working in the Air Ministry for the Director General of Manning, he served at RAF Lyneham, the RAF’s major base for the tactical air transport force, where he was responsible for the management and maintenance of the large estate and its infrastructure.

    In October 1970 he became the commanding officer of RAF Brampton, the home of a major command headquarters and other specialised units. He was responsible for maintaining the large estate and providing all the support facilities for the senior commanders and their numerous staff.

    After three years, he assumed command of the RAF Unit at the international headquarters of Nato’s Allied Air Forces Central Europe based in the Netherlands. For his services he was appointed OBE.

    On his retirement from the RAF in October 1977, he was appointed bursar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, a post he held for 12 years. In recognition of his services, he was awarded an honorary degree.

    Palmer was very musical and learnt to play the saxophone in the outside lavatory at the end of the garden since his father would not allow him to practise in the house. He later played in a swing band, performing at many dance halls.

    During the war, he had sometimes played with an Ensa group and toured the country to entertain service audiences. He continued to play the saxophone for many years.

    He was a passionate golfer with a handicap of 11, frequently playing abroad. He also loved working in his garden.

    Sidney Palmer was twice widowed and is survived by his son.

    Sidney Palmer, born November 21 1922, died October 17 2022 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf3d7869d7240da2dea78fb41fa9d355e3b3ace21cda754b6366fa799606a2fe.jpg
    Palmer, third right, next to his pilot Frank Watt, centre, in front of their Lancaster https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2f7be8e597f8f6ef2edb734a873bc6616917128841cbdd3f0bca5cfa70f74f80.jpg

    * * *

    By coincidence I visited RAF Brampton with another old friend and former RAF Reservist just a few weeks ago. What is left of the Station is now looked after by a group of dedicated enthusiasts, including about a dozen preserved RAF aircraft.

    1. RAF Brampton was my first posting, where I worked in one of the specialised units. In three ‘tours’ I spent 11 of my 31 years service there. Two years ago, i visited it on my way to a Top Table at nearby RAF Wyton (where I did my trade training) and was saddened to see it has become just another new housing estate.

  15. And a load of waffle on how the world population is affecting Global Warming/Climate Change/The CLIMATE EMERGENCY!!/A CLIMATE CATASTROPHE!!!!!/{insert latest panic & scare mongering catch phrase here} gets a good response pointing out where nearly all population increase is taking place in Africa:-

    Getting a handle on population growth
    SIR – Next week the world’s population will top eight billion. Twice as many people live on our planet than in 1974. And the population is four times higher than it was in 1926.

    By 2050 the world could lose more than a quarter of its forests to food production alone in order to feed the growing population. That amounts to some one billion hectares – 1.5 times the size of the Amazon rainforest.

    Population growth is also a critical driver of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that GDP growth per capita and population growth remained the strongest drivers of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion in the past decade.

    Yet solutions exist that are friendly to both people and the planet. These include enabling all girls to stay in school and empowering women to access contraception, meaning that they can choose how many children to have. Despite cutting more carbon than all off-shore and on-shore wind power combined, these desperately wanted, positive solutions are rarely mentioned by climate campaigners.

    Robin Maynard
    Director, Population Matters
    London SE1

    Tom Archer
    1 HR AGO
    Robin Maynard
    Population growth is now overwhelmingly an Africa problem. The rest of the world is now heading either toward population stability or population decline.
    Blundering into Africa, wagging your finger and telling the local population to keep their girls in school and give them access to contraception is a recipe for a hostile response – there is a deep distrust of foreign intent on that continent.
    A more subtle approach is to focus aid on rolling out social media, making smartphones affordable to the poor – both as an information source – many girls in very poor countries have little understanding of contraception – and also by giving girls something else to do after dark..
    Access to media content will also show girls a world where producing a swarm of children is not what the cool people do.

    2. There is another demographic that is breeding at way beyond replacement levels, both their own and ours.

    3. If the world population is yet another (alleged) cause of MMGW, when does the human cull start??

      2. Already underway.
        Ironically, they do not appear to be targeting the parts of the world with the fastest rises in populations, but the areas where population was actually levelling off at a reasonable sustainable level.

  17. Enough is as good as a feast. Having been up and awake since 01:03, I’m off back to a warm bed. See you later…

  19. SIR – Many claim that the cost of wind-generated electricity is lower than that generated by gas.

    This claim is questionable, and diverts attention from the real and significant problem with wind generation, namely its reliability. Whether one or 10,000 wind turbines are constructed, little or no electricity is generated when there is little or no wind. A vivid illustration of this occurred earlier in the month.

    At noon on November 2, generation from wind was 16.7 gigawatts, but it had dropped to 1.25 gigawatts by 4.30pm the next day. This drop equates to about 15 huge wind installations, such as Seagreen in the North Sea, with its claimed one-gigawatt capacity, or about a third of total UK average daily demand.

    Fortunately there was sufficient alternative reliable generation available – mostly from gas – as back-up to prevent blackout. When the cost of having this alternative, duplicate and reliable generation is considered, the cost of wind-generated electricity is certainly not less expensive.

    G M Lindsay
    Kinross

    Try convincing the greeniacs of this fact, Mr Lindsay!

  21. SIR – Just one tidal barrage (Letters, November 10) on the Severn Estuary would generate 10 per cent of Britain’s energy. Reliable, predictable and safe, it would need little maintenance or security, and the technology is well understood. There are no dangers with waste storage or eye-watering clean-up costs, and foreign technology and investment aren’t needed, beyond perhaps the initial capital investment.

    Keith Allum
    Christchurch, Dorset

    The maintenance of such equipment in salt water isn’t straightforward, but no doubt we will crack the problem one day if the will to do so is there.

    2. Interruption to seaborne traffic for Cardiff and Bristol, and further upstream.
      Cost.
      Unreliability of seabed/midwater turbines.
      Silting.
      Loss of marsh birds habitat.
      Loss of Severn Bore
      and more green issues have prevented anyone from getting no further than the concept phase of developing a Severn Barrage.

      1. “Interruption to seaborne traffic for Cardiff and Bristol,”

        What?? The eco-terrorists have been glueing themselves to the sea?

    3. The Dutch manage large scale sea barriers very well. Place the barrier just North of Bristol and the only port with sea going traffic likely to be affected is Gloucester. Other than cost there’s no reason why a large lock couldn’t be incorporated in the structure. Generating at least 5% or more of the UK’s current electricity needs is a prize worth winning.

      Agreed there would be a loss of wildlife habit. (How many birds are killed by wind turbines (& loads more are promised) As for the Severn Bore to be honest I find it a bit boring…

      Good morning Hugh and everyone.

      1. The Dutch built the enclosure dyke to block off the North Sea 90 years ago. Wildlife concerns were less important than the threat of flooding. However, the wildlife just found somewhere else. In the 70s. they built a second barrier across the now fresh water vlake (Ijsselmeer) and created the Markermeer north of Amsterdam.https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24b6fb04c0c2ca7309fe79a222c5e9189e3a03fe1c67119cb0b6a0ed937e51ac.jpg msterdam.
        This newer lake is quite shallow and had begun to stagnate so they have been building some artificial islands near the second barrier which are already invigorating the water and encouraging more wildlife, especially birds.

    4. Near us we have the hydro-electric barrage between Dinard and St Malo at the mouth of the Rance. It has had bad environmental effects on wildlife and the river which is silting up and needs constant dredging. Added to which it has not proved as efficient at generating electricity as they anticipated and has proved more expensive they hoped it would be.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab5b8883c5c28d0ec3efc5ba4d70d94987c725117639dfc506d253508315c7f7.jpg

  22. UK marks Armistice Day as Cleverly condemns Russia over Ukraine war. 11 November 2022.

    The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will attend a remembrance service hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

    Cleverly said: “Since 1918 we have marked Armistice Day and paid tribute to the brave men and women who have served to give us peace. Yet as we salute our troops this year, this peace has been shattered by a Russian aggressor.

    “As we honour the war dead of the past, we also remember Ukraine’s fight for freedom today. The UK stands steadfast with our friends and allies in defence of freedom and democracy in Ukraine and I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with an historic ally in Paris today.”

    Yes let’s forget about Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, or that Ukraine is a deeply corrupt quasi-fascist state.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/11/uk-marks-armistice-day-as-cleverly-condemns-russia-over-ukraine-war

          1. Why are so many teachers left wing? One of my best friends, the godfather of my older son and an inspiring teacher of English literature is left thinking to the point of absurdity. And he hasn’t allowed time to enlighten his views – he is coming up to 80 and yet is still completely wrong-headed in his political ideas.

  23. I was about to post that we should expect hypocritical, crocodile-tear weeping politicians to parade and pontificate about Armistice Day ……and Minty thoughtfully (and clairvoyantly) posted his comment below.

    These armchair heroes make me sick.

  24. Yet another stupid offering from a thick African:

    “Kwasi Kwarteng: I warned Liz Truss over her radical reforms – Former chancellor says it was ‘mad’ to fire him”

    2. If I recall, at around the time of the royal funeral, Kwarteng was smirking “you ain’t seen nothing yet” and boasting that his Fiscal Event, engineered to sidestep parliamentary scrutiny was the start of huge deregulations and tax concessions for oligarchs that were coming in November.

      That doesn’t sound like a warning to me. I can appreciate that there is a thick brick wall between No.11 and No.10, but I was in Poland at the time and I heard it loud and clear.

        1. His behaviour at that occasion was disgraceful. He was laughing, giggling and pulling faces and using his mobile phone. He could well have even been abusing himself.

          I wonder why he was treated so lightly by the MSM – I wonder if they thought it was unwise to criticise the appalling bad manners of some one of his race who went to Eton and Cambridge and distinguished himself academically.

          1. They showed that clip on HIGNFY. No one commented. To me it was entirely obvious what was going on. You see faces like that in clubs all the time. Drugs.

          2. Which clubs? It is not like that at my club – the St Mawes Sailing Club. Mind you it might have been like that at the Royal Lymington – to which I used to belong until poverty forced me out – as it became far too fashionable and attracted very rich people with very fancy sailing boats.

  27. Good morning all

    Breezy mild day .. says 15c on my laptop.

    Moh golfing , early start .

    I had a bad night’s sleep .. too warm , changed over to winter duvet last week .. Moh is a cold morsel , he feels the cold more than I do .

    What about this then?

    “With millions on benefits, we don’t need mass migration to boost GDP
    Westminster hasn’t begun to grasp the scale of this scandal – five million Brits are on out-of-work welfare”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/10/millions-benefits-dont-need-mass-migration-boost-gdp/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. 367579+ up ticks,,

      Morning TB,

      Westminster hasn’t begun to grasp the scale of this scandal – five million Brits are on out-of-work welfare”

      They have the political finger on the very weak pulse of the nation 24/7 they orchestrated the current condition of the country every step of the way.

      Nobody but nobody could be this inept without it being intentional.
      .

  28. FOUR HUNDRED private jets arrived in Egypt during COP27 as climate delegates are accused of ‘hypocrisy’
    Climate delegates accused of hypocrisy as 400 private jets in Egypt for COP27
    Numerous posts on social media criticised delegates for travelling by private jet
    Posts and reports included various estimates for the number of such planes

    ‘More than 400 private jets landed in the past few days in Egypt,’ a source close to the Egyptian aviation authorities, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Thursday.

    ‘There was a meeting ahead of COP27, and officials were expecting those jets and made some arrangements in Sharm el-Sheikh airport to welcome those planes.’

    According to the European clean transport campaign group Transport and Environment, a private jet can emit two tonnes of carbon dioxide in an hour and is five to 14 times more polluting per passenger than a commercial plane.

    An online emissions calculator provided by the International Civil Aviation Organization indicates that a passenger on a commercial flight in premium class would produce around half a tonne of CO2 overall during a flight from London to Sharm el-Sheikh.

    There are more than 33,000 participants registered at the COP27, where delegates are holding high-level talks on scaling up finance for developing countries to green their economies and prepare for global warming impacts.

    Scientists say climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is worsening devastating disasters including floods, heatwaves and droughts, likely to intensify in the decades to come if emissions are not cut

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11416209/FOUR-private-jets-arrived-Egypt-COP27-climate-delegates-accused-hypocrisy.html

        2. And that’s the most prominent factor.
          Along with they are complete and utter bull shifters. (spl)

      2. Their hypocrisy flows from their sense of entitlement to behave without restrictions. The latter are for the ‘little’ people.

    2. Why don’t these private jet hypocrites come clean and admit two things: i) that CO2 poses no danger to the environment whose vegetation depends on it; and ii) they are well aware of this and so their use of their private jets is not as bad for the environment as people think.

      2. What they’re planning has nothing whatsoever to do with the environment though. It is about control. Putting in place the systems to ensure the transfer of wealth from the earner to the state machine.

      3. Taking every chance for publicity, I’ve posted this in the Mail’s BTL comments:

        Climate Change and You

        The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

        The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

        The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves.

    4. Private aircraft were made immune to emissions legislation by the EU. It’s alright when they do it.

  29. So now mainstream media reporters are getting arrested for just trying to cover the Just Stop Oil protests.

    The police and the powers that be obviously do not want the public to see images of them standing around idly doing nothing while a group of anarchist people funded by billionaire globalists try to bring parts our country to a standstill on a daily basis.

    I wonder if this will be a wake up call to our mainstream media, suddenly they are up in arms because some of their people have been prevented from reporting the news.

    They cannot really complain about suppression of news that the powers that be would rather be kept off our airwaves,

    There are protests all the time, here and around the world where Western populations are protesting about loss of freedom, lockdowns, vaccine mandates, the effect of the carbon zero agenda, farmers in Europe have their livelihood destroyed and their farms sold off, their animals culled to prevent greenhouse gasses, not to mention grooming gangs and serious terrorist attacks that are all played down under the auspices of not offending sections of the immigrant population or stirring up the non-existent far right, you people in the mainstream media have complied with suppressing news on that.

    So in a lot of ways the mainstream media have made their bed now they have to lie in it.
    It is no good now after years of cancelling and ignoring good people and that now there are no good people left now to defend you now they have come for you.

    3. The problem as I see it is, if the authorities arrest and process these idiots. They set a precedent and will have to arrest all others who block our roads and public areas. And we know where that will lead. Mass riots.

        2. I think it’s Too late Janet, things are already out of hand.
          The proverbial plot was lost years ago.
          I’m not a religious person but, someone one once said. “Forgive them Lord for they know not what they do”.
          There is no forgiveness for these people.

      2. No, it won’t. I used to think that. I used to believe that people were, fundamentally sensible and thinking, that they looked at the world rationally and questioned. Now it’s clear that far too many people are simply sheep, needing and wanting to be told how to think, what to do.

        It was a sad day to realise that if half the country demanded democracy, libertarianism and fundamental freedoms, the other half would drag them down simply out of ignorance and stupidity.

        1. That’s why our three plus party system is anti democratic. After the ‘election’ we always end up in a dictatorship.

          1. And why we must bring it to heel using referism, recall and direct democracy, If the state cannot pass a law, spend a penny and individuals be removed at will, it is powerless and must serve the public good.

    3. Many won’t. Many will blithely carry on, ignorant of the meaning or symbolism. Many of those people will be young, gifted the sacrifice, full of hatred at it, emulating that same desperate oppression that was defeated.

  32. Morning all 🙂
    I’ll not mention the weather 😉, …… but, according to the forecast, after today it’s going to rain for two weeks. But it’s warm for the time of year.

  33. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d107b3576a3b018c2a6056b86aea7bb305f28c3813d557749ef210f71865ee2.png
    A THAI video blogger has been arrested after filming herself eating a bowl of bat soup, leading to concern from health experts.

    The footage showed Phonchanok Srisunaklua, a teacher who also runs a Youtube channel called Gin Zap Bep Nua Nua, which translates as “Eat Spicy and Delicious”, eating a murky brown soup.

    Floating in the liquid alongside cherry tomatoes are several lesser Asiatic yellow bats, a protected species which Ms Srisunaklua bought from a market near the Laos border in northern Thailand.

    Bats infected with the closest relative to Sars-cov-2, which prompted the Covid-19 pandemic, are found in the same region.

    During the video, posted earlier this week, Ms Srisunaklua holds a bat up to the camera, pointing to the creature’s teeth. Moments later you hear the crunch as she bites down on its “soft bones”.

    The now-deleted footage led to outrage. “You’ll be damned if you start a pandemic,” warned one viewer.

    “You should not mess with bats,” Prof Teerawat Hemajuta, of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, told The Thaiger news website, as he warned that the mammals contain pathogens which could prove deadly for humans.

    Researchers have estimated that each year 400,000 people across south-east Asia and southern China are infected by coronaviruses carried by bats which could carry up to 10,000 pathogens capable of infecting humans.

    Experts say Covid-19 almost certainly originated in bats and there have been efforts to crack down on some wet markets in the wake of the pandemic.

    Last year, scientists narrowed in on the virus’s closest known relative in bat caves in Laos.

    “I was shocked to see [the bat] in the clip,” said Pattaraphon Manee-on, head of the wildlife health management group at Thailand’s department of national parks, wildlife and plant conservation. “The incident should not happen in Thailand and around the world, it is very risky behaviour, especially as bats have a lot of pathogens.”

    Ms Srisunaklua, who has since apologised, said she would not eat the mammals again. She was arrested for violating wildlife conservation laws and faces up to five years in prison or a 500,000 baht (almost £12,000) fine.Thai blogger facing jail after eating virus-riddled bat soup.

    YUM!

    3. Possibly a learning curve, bats live on insects. Apparently, humans are destined to eat insects.

      1. I checked a protein bar’s ingredients the other day, and amongst the soya and what not proteins was also insect protein.

    5. Morning Grizzly

      Great DT letter again , do they pay you?

      Ms Srisunaklua, who has since apologised, said she would not eat the mammals again. She was arrested for violating wildlife conservation laws and faces up to five years in prison or a 500,000 baht (almost £12,000) fine.Thai blogger facing jail after eating virus-riddled bat soup.

      It is all in the name !

      1. ‘Morning, Maggie.

        Thanks, me duck. I seem to get published more since Chrissie Howse retired as Letters’ Editor.

        They don’t eat them oop on Ilkley Moor … baht ‘at.

        1. It still doesn’t work for me though! However, I am glad that some of my faculties are still in working order.

          1. A very good friend, an erstwhile NoTTLer, received an email from the former editor the other day:

            Dear Mr *******,

            I am no longer Letters editor and have dumped the burden on Orlando Bird, to whom I have forwarded your letter.

            All good wishes,

            Christopher Howse.

            Mr Bird (whom I can’t find any reference to online) seems more open to publishing my missives than his predecessor was.

    6. But… we were told that the bat wasn’t the cause of covid19, and that it certainly didn’t come from China, or a lab in Wuhan…

      Do you mean… that… I can’t believe I’m saying this… did the government lie?

  34. Jeremy Hunt plots to hit small businesses with stealth VAT raid
    Chancellor expected to freeze threshold at £85,000, forcing thousands more to pay tax for the first time
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/10/jeremy-hunt-plots-hit-small-businesses-stealth-vat-raid/

    BTL

    And they told us Truss and Kwarteng would ruin the economy!

    When 80% of those working in the private sector are working in companies with fewer than 20 employees it seems clear that the Sunak/ Hunt team want to leave no stone unturned in destroying the people and the country.

    What dark forces were at work when Truss appointed Hunt as chancellor? She despised him as much as most of the Conservative MPs so she must have been blackmailed. I have even heard rumours that she and Kwarteng were having an affair and, of course, she has form as she once had an affair with Mark Field just as Kwarteng had an affair with Amber Rudd. Indeed, it was John Major who set the trend for members of the Conservative government to have sexual affairs with each other.

    2. I wonder how he manages his own finances. Does he see that he’s overdrawn with maxed credit cards and then think, I know, I’ll borrow a few million to pay it off and to have some spending money?

      I know the UK economy is not as simple as a household budget but at the most basic level it is. The state spends too much, this causes damage to the economy and services. The solution is not more tax on those earning the money, it is to spend less. It is a thoroughly stupid attitude typified by these Left wing socialists.

      Every day I am convinced this government is merely determined to force us into penury and thus a basic income regardless of work – except for the ruling classes, of course.

      1. No, he’ll just claim more expenses this year. As all of the Whitehall and Westminster crooks will.

    4. The UK has a reputation for supporting their own little businesses .

      This village I live in hosts many little businesses . Thatchers , hurdle makers , chimney sweeps , blacksmiths , riding stables , dog groomers , gliding school, all the other trades , hair dressers, bakers, deli, butchers, small DIY shop , farriers, people who work from home ..and many more interesting occupations .. oh yes and the holiday trade , cottages , caravans and housekeepers and car mechanics , etc etc

      Mrs Thatcher was the daughter of a grocer , she would be horrified by all these tax hikes .

      The morale of hard working people is being eroded and ruined .. People I talk to are depressed .. future outcomes will be tragic .

      1. Good morning Maggiebelle

        You have to ask yourself why our current government so despises enterprising and independent people who wish to be self-sufficient.

        I wonder what has happened to Bill Jackson/Jill Backson who used to infest this forum? He must be as happy as the animal despised by Muslims rolling about in excrement to see that the government shares his view on small entrepreneurs and wants to tax the self-employed out of existence.

        1. He took the huff and never came back after Garlands suspended him for one day for being annoying.

          1. Another person who became a bit of a bête noire with some Nottlers will be celebrating his birthday tomorrow. He has not been here much recently. I shall, of course post a Birthday greeting and I hope he will drop in to the forum.

        2. I remember Bill J – such gems as “Another thing the government should be doing is to tell people to avoid touching goofs in shops” and “To better enrage with London’s devise communities“.

    5. Firstborn is registered for our VAT, called MVA. That happened when his company passed Kr 500k in turnover.
      Sure, he pays VAT, but crucially, can reclaim it from equipment and services supplied to him. He’s a canny with the money, and has made it work for him nicely.
      If these small companies weren’t selling their product at market prices (which includes their competitors pricing, which will include VAT), then they are mad. Profits may take a bit of a hit, though, as they can’t raise prices much to include VAT this time. If they were 15% behind the competition on pricing, then they have an excuse to charge more. How is this a “raid”?

      1. A while back I considered going VAT registered. I found it all muddly, as we had to charge it but could claim it back. When people quoted us costs for work they’d include VAT or not, and I confess it became a minefield I farmed out to my accountant.

        I find it offensive to pay £500 + 20% simply because the government wants it. If that were the only tax, that’s be fine, but that £500 for the item isn’t . It has to factor in business rates, corporation tax, rents, energy taxes, postage (which includes it’s own morass of the same taxes). The state simply takes too much at every step.

        1. I know small businesses especially B&Bs who shut up business when they get their the threshold. It’s just not worth the compliance cost OR compliance risk.

    6. Aside from the lack of morality in politicians in general the whole point of what’s going in is to impoverish everyone to the point that “things are so awful we’re going to rejoin the EU” and the universal basic income will be introduced so as to “help hard working British families”. It’s so obvious and they make no bones about their intentions. The WEF are doing a grand job and there seems to be nothing the general public can do about it.

  35. Our PM, in panic, has allowed the Home Office to solve a self inflicted overcrowding at Manston by the invading illegal immigrants by distributing them wiily-nilly throughout England.
    Have these people been identified and their digital checks recorded on a data base? Have they been given health checks before being spread within the populace? Will they get priority at local hospitals for treatment?
    Does our PM realise that this decision is far from popular within the English population.

        1. Comment from another publication:

          No doubt Mr Carney and Mr Bailey are fully paid members of the globalists/WEF/Davos agenda, which is very much about

          moving towards a Chinese dictatorship model, applying an inhumane social credit system.

          The word ‘democracy’ is an obscenity to these despots.

  36. Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week.

    FSU’s ‘Orwell Surprised’ T-Shirts now available to purchase!

    We are excited to announce that you can now purchase our exclusive T-shirts online, featuring Bob Moran’s fabulous ‘Orwell Surprised’ cartoon. For only £20, including first class UK postage, you can show your support for free speech while helping us raise funds to continue doing what we do best. Due to popular demand, we have ordered extra stock. If you order before 1st December, they should arrive in time for Christmas. You can access the sales page by clicking here.

    The FSU Comedy Night Christmas Special – tickets now available!

    Round up your comedy-loving friends for The FSU Christmas Special, a one night only extravaganza of comedy with a fabulous line-up, organised in association with Comedy Unleashed, the home of free-thinking comedy. The event takes place on Monday 12th December, 7pm – 10pm at the Backyard Comedy Club, Bethnal Green. Master of ceremonies is comedy legend Bobby Davro, who will be joined on stage by stand-up comedian Lee Hurst, Comedy Unleashed favourite Mary Bourke and Radio 4 and GB News presenter Simon Evans. This event is open to the public, so please spread the word. Tickets are on sale here.

    Online Christmas Review for FSU members – register here!

    On Tuesday 13th December, all members are invited to join FSU staff at our Online Christmas Review. We’ll discuss the free speech highs and lows of the year and vote for 2022’s free speech heroes and zeroes. Register to receive the Zoom link by clicking here.

    The Online Safety Bill – reasons to be cheerful?

    “Defending free speech seriously,” writes Marc Glendening, “means defending the right to expression of those we vehemently disagree with, are embarrassed to be associated with, and whose outpourings we find repugnant” (Cap X). It’s for that reason that he thinks “political liberals worthy of the title” should be appalled by the decision of Westminster Magistrates Court to imprison two Metropolitan police officers, Jonathon Cobban and Joel Borders, under s127 of the Communications Act for sending “grossly offensive” messages via WhatsApp – to each other. Their messages on a private group that included PC Wayne Couzens, the murderer of Sarah Everard, contained what they claim was ‘banter’ about raping a colleague (a “sneaky b****”), tasering children and people with disabilities (“zap zap you little f******”) and “shooting some c*** in the face” (BBC, Guardian, Mail, Sky News, Telegraph).

    The messages they exchanged make for grim, deeply unpleasant reading, and you could certainly make the case for the Met suspending or expelling their two employees for breach of contract. But a custodial sentence for conversations that took place in what was supposed to be an entirely private setting and only came to other people’s attention thanks to Ms Everard’s murder? In a free society people should be free to be grossly offensive, Marc Glendening says, because any idea of what constitutes ‘the gross’ and ‘the offensive’ is, by definition, a matter of opinion.

    Section 127 makes it a crime punishable by up to six months in prison to post anything “grossly offensive” on an “electronic communications network”. In recent years, police and prosecutors have jumped at any opportunity to enforce this law whenever someone complains that they feel hurt by what they have seen online or on social media (Spiked). People who’ve been brought to heel in this manner include Scottish comedian Count Dankula (convicted of a hate crime for filming a pet dog giving Nazi salutes), Kate Scottow (fined for being rude to a trans activist on social media), Caroline Farrow (threatened with a criminal record for misgendering a trans activist) and Joe Kelly (someone the FSU is currently supporting in his appeal against a conviction for a social media post in which he rejoiced at the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore).

    For anyone who believes in freedom of expression, the current application of s127 is bad enough. But as FSU Advisory Council Member Andrew Tettenborm points out, what’s so worrying about the conviction of the two police officers is that it’s the consequence of a form of legislative ‘mission creep’, with the state now looking to use the Communications Act to police not just public, but private interactions. We got a taste of this earlier in the year when Paul Bussetti was handed a 10-week suspended sentence for filming a video of a burning cardboard mock-up of Grenfell Tower and sending it to a group of friends on a private WhatsApp group (Evening Standard). Two people have since been given prison sentences for sharing an offensive video in private groups on Snapchat (Mirror).

    The powers-that-be apparently see no problem in this. The sentencing judge in the case of PC Cobban and Mr Borders, for instance, found the fact that the policemen only conversed in private not so much a mitigation as an aggravation. In being covert, the judge claimed, their comments were even more damaging than if they had been made in public. “Let that sink in,” Andrew Tettenborm urges. “The judge seems to have seen the law as a tool for tackling heresy – for rooting out bad thoughts wherever they might occur and making sure that the people who express them are severely punished.” This use of the law to control private thought “should terrify us”, he says.

    Andrew does however think that there is “one hope we can cling to” – the Online Safety Bill. As unlikely as it may seem, this legislation, as currently written, will, on the recommendation of the Law Commission of England and Wales, repeal s127, as well as the Malicious Communications Act 1998, replacing those offences with a new harmful communications offence, whereby it becomes an offence, punishable by up to two years in prison, to say something that causes another person “serious distress”.

    At first glance that might not appear particularly promising, simply substituting one entirely subjective definition – “grossly offensive” – for another – “serious distress” – such that judges will still be allowed to criminalise anything they think is unpleasant or hurtful. Yet in its proposals to the Government, the Law Commission was clear that the new offences would set a higher threshold for criminal liability than the current rules. That message is reflected in the legislation. As per clause 151 of the Online Safety Bill, for a person to be prosecuted of this new offence the prosecution will need to prove the following:

    there was a “real and substantial risk” the message “would cause harm to a likely audience”

    the person intended to cause harm to a likely audience; and

    the person had no reasonable excuse for sending the message.

    The Bill goes on to suggest that an individual is a “likely audience” of a message “if, at the time the message is sent, it is reasonably foreseeable that the individual would encounter the message”. The FSU has concerns about how, in practice, a court will interpret that term – after all, it could be argued that a Twitter user’s “likely audience” is, in any given case, potentially the whole world – and our General Secretary, Toby Young, has written about those concerns here and here.

    That said, it’s a definition that would undeniably be helpful in instances where off-colour WhatsApp messages had been shared between individuals and then subsequently shared more widely – in such cases, an individual would not be liable, because he or she did not intend, or even foresee, that a wider audience would subsequently see the messages. That’s why on paper the Online Safety Bill looks set to reduce the number of people prosecuted for sending offensive messages to each other in private WhatsApp groups – or, as Andrew Tettenborm puts it, the state “tackling heresy” by “rooting out bad thoughts wherever they might occur”. The question now, of course, is whether it will do so in practice.

    You can read the FSU’s briefing on the Law Commission’s Proposed Changes to the Communications Act 2003 here. Our briefings on the Online Safety Bill are available here, here and here.

    Cambridge college master refuses to apologise for calling gender-critical speaker “hateful”

    The Master of Gonville and Caius who wrote to students calling Helen Joyce’s views “offensive, insulting and hateful to members of our community who live and work here” – this was after she’d been invited to speak at the College by a Fellow – has now written to alumni after furious donors threatened to pull funding (Mail, Telegraph, Times).

    Author and former Economist journalist Dr Helen Joyce had been invited by FSU Advisory Council member Professor Arif Ahmed, a Cambridge philosophy professor, to be interviewed by Sir Partha Dasgupta, in a talk entitled “Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced?” Dr Joyce believes biological sex is binary and immutable and has been vocal about her view that men and women are being “redefined” by trans activists, with laws and policies reshaped to privilege gender identity over biological sex.

    Given Dr Joyce’s gender-critical stance it was entirely predictable that students would launch protests, with the college’s LGBT reps all claiming to be “unanimously disgusted by the platforming of such views” and tutors opening a ‘safe space welfare tearoom’ for students during the talk [pass the smelling salts, dearie]. In the days leading up to Dr Joyce’s speaking engagement, the College Master, Professor Pippa Rogerson, and the Senior Tutor, Dr Andrew Spencer, decided to give the incipient mob a quick, coquettish flash of their own pitchforks, emailing all students of the College to tell them how much they disapproved of Dr Joyce’s views (Telegraph).

    No doubt suitably encouraged by Prof Rogerson’s highly suggestive language – some might even call it a ‘dog-whistle’ – around a hundred trans rights protesters, some masked, gathered outside the talk last month chanting “trans rights are human rights” and banging drums. Witnesses claimed a fire door was hit and microphones had to be turned to full volume because Dr Joyce was inaudible. (You can watch Dr Joyce’s address and assess the level of disruption for yourself here).

    The duo’s intervention led donors to say they were “embarrassed, appalled and absolutely disgusted” and would not give any more to the college without a retraction and an apology (Telegraph). One of the flurry of alumni to send protest letters was Nick Sallnow-Smith, 72, who graduated from Gonville and Caius in 1973. “I have been extremely upset by the way in which the master and senior tutor have behaved… it’s absolutely disgraceful,” he said, adding that: “With people like that in charge I will never donate again.”

    Writing in the Telegraph, Douglas Murray describes Professor Rogerson’s subsequent letter to alumni as a “U-turn”. Reading her mea culpa, he said, was “like watching the slowest kid in the class catching up with everybody else and then expecting applause”.

    But is there really that much for any self-respecting free speech warrior to be clapping? True, Professor Rogerson’s letter describes free speech as “fundamental”, but it also contains the sort of self-serving justifications for her own recent behaviour that make it difficult to believe she really does value free speech.

    There were “difficult and complex discussions” around trans matters, she says. That was why, in their email communication with students condemning Dr Joyce’s talk, she and Dr Spencer had felt it necessary to “express our personal opinions – as is our right”.

    Professor Rogerson and Dr Spencer’s email did indeed address students “in our personal capacities, not as Master and Senior Tutor, but as Pippa and Andrew”. Yet as the FSU pointed out in its letter of complaint to the College Council, they fired that address off from Professor Rogerson’s University email address while accessing official and reserved university mailing lists. That’s important because it suggests the letter may have constituted a breach of the College Master’s duty under section 43 of the Education Act 1986 – a provision which obliges every individual and body of persons concerned in the governance of a university to take reasonably practicable steps to secure freedom of speech within the law. Such steps are carefully set out in the University’s Statement on Freedom of Speech and were clearly disregarded by Professor Rogerson.

    “Having given the matter a lot of thought,” Professor Rogerson’s apology letter continues, “I disagree with [Dr Joyce’s] views, the way she presents them, and the way in which she responds to those who disagree with her.” Given the context, it’s what you might politely call an ‘indelicate’ remark. Rather than attempting to explain her own behaviour to the college’s wealthy, free speech loving and, up until now, open-handed benefactors, ‘Pippa’ decides instead to draw their attention to another of Dr Joyce’s perceived personal failings that either hadn’t previously occurred to her, or that she forgot to mention during her last publicly delivered character assassination — this dreadful woman isn’t just “offensive, insulting and hateful”, but ill-mannered too.

    The more pertinent issue, and one that Professor Rogerson’s letter fails to address, is the appropriateness of her own manner of responding to, as she might put it, “those who disagree with her”. As College Master, she is surely obliged to uphold the College’s Statement on Freedom of speech, which says: “The college expects all Fellows, staff and students to engage with intellectual and ideological challenges in a constructive, questioning and peaceable way, even if they find the viewpoints expressed to be disagreeable, unwelcome or distasteful.”

    There was nothing at all “constructive” in mischaracterising Dr Joyce’s views as “offensive, insulting and hateful”, her dismissal of Dr Joyce’s work as “polemics” or her public declaration that she wouldn’t be attending Dr Joyce’s talk. Indeed, does any of that even warrant description as “engaging” with “intellectual and ideological challenges” in the first place? The Master didn’t simply breach the requirements of the Statement – she acted as though it didn’t exist.

    According to the Telegraph, many Cambridge alumni felt much the same way. More have apparently since written in to complain, with others now threatening to pull bequests or urge their own children not to attend the university.

    Joe Kelly fundraiser – show your support!

    One of the FSU’s highest-profile current cases is that of Joe Kelly. It’s a case that will test your commitment to free speech to the limit. Mr Kelly was convicted and sentenced in Scotland for contravening the Communications Act 2003, section 127(1)(b), which makes it a criminal offence to make an electronic post which is “grossly offensive”.

    Joe was at home on 3rd February 2021 when he tweeted “the only good Brit soldier is a deed [i.e., dead] one, burn auld fella buuuuurn” along with a picture of Captain Tom, who’d just died.

    When he started receiving death threats almost immediately, Joe deleted the tweet, but someone has already reported him to the police and following a long legal process Scotland’s prosecution service threw the book at him. He was convicted and sentenced to a community payback order.

    Having had his appeal denied by the Scottish Courts, Joe is seeking to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. And we’re supporting him.

    Everyone at the FSU is heartened by the comments people who’ve donated to Joe’s fundraiser have been leaving on his appeal page. Here’s a few of them:

    “I’m a British soldier – but I’m also a member of the FSU, and for that reason I’m pleased to pledge my support for this campaign for justice.”

    “This pledge sticks in my craw but the principle is more important.”

    “Don’t like what you tweeted mate, but I’ll cough up to defend your right to tweet it.”

    We know this is a tough case and not all our members will support us. But if you do, please consider donating to the Crowdfunder – the link is here.

    This case is about more than Joe’s own fight for justice – the right to offend is a crucial element of free speech, as Lord Justice Sedley said in Redmond-Bate v DPP: “Freedom of speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative, provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.”

    We don’t think Joe’s comment was intended to provoke violence, offensive though it was. All donations gratefully received.

    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,

  37. Crucial Kherson bridge ‘blown up’ by retreating Russians. 11 november 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c8ed5683af21aefefb8196f0900d07f7af31b55c366946022dea65499d8b224.png

    A crucial bridge linking Ukraine’s Kherson to the rest of the region in the north has been apparently blown up by retreating Russian forces.

    Russia earlier this week said it was going to pull out all of its troops from Kherson in light of incessant Ukrainian attacks and move to the western bank of the Dnipro River, closer to Russia-occupied Crimea.

    This pretty well scotches all the stories about twenty thousand Russian soldiers being abandoned to their fate in Kherson City!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/11/ukraine-news-russia-war-kherson-retreat-latest-news-putin/

    1. I have long since given up looking at or reading ANYTHING about the Ukraine and Russia. Nothing in the MSM or on telly is true. I leave both sides to out- propagandering each other.

      1. Put Putin and Zelensky in a locked room and make them fight it out to the death.

        Then shoot the winner.

        1. And get Biden, Johnson and Sunak to be the referees who are then shot dead by the umpire when the two protagonists have slain each other.

  39. Tory managerialism is wrecking conservatism
    The outcome of socialist policies remains the same, even if a Conservative is implementing them.
    Lord Frost : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/10/tory-managerialism-wrecking-conservatism/

    BTL

    Lord Frost must resign from the Conservative Party, join the Reform Party, renounce his peerage and stand at the next general election in a Conservative seat where the electorate despises the Conservative Party and would prefer a real Conservative candidate.

  40. Just back from the memorial at the commune’s roll of honour.

    It’s a sobering thought that in this tiny village there are more names on that memorial than there were people in attendance on a beautiful sunny day.

    1. The commemoration at Laure was always moving – despite the cockups with music and microphones that didn’t work properly.

      The village had links with the (French) Parachute regiment stationed in Carcassonne. They would send a small party of soldiers who improved the occasion.

      1. Microphones on the blink here too for the messages, but the music was fine.

        The amalgamation of communes has meant that there are now 4 different versions of the same thing, only the names change.
        I suspect that the others were equally poorly attended.

        1. I always wished they would ditch the mikes. They are in every French church, too, and make it almost impossible to hear the liturgy, sermon etc.

          1. I refuse to use a microphone when I am asked to read in church.

            We were taught to read aloud at prep school and the person who was going to read the lesson was thoroughly coached so that he got the timing, the emphases, the pace, the pitch and the pauses correct.

          2. They now have a “sound system” in the church here in Fulmodeston. Useless. I urged the previous Rector to have a tasteful sign on the west wall reading: “For God’s Sake Speak Up”.

            Until the new thing was installed, it was almost always possible to hear people preaching, reading, running a service.

            I may have a word with the new vicarette.

          6. We have a sound system, too. The rectorette speaks so fast and indistinctly that it’s worse than useless.

          7. I refuse to use a microphone when I am asked to read in church.

            We were taught to read aloud at prep school and the person who was going to read the lesson was thoroughly coached so that he got the timing, the emphases, the pace, the pitch and the pauses correct.

    3. We are fortunate in our village that there is usually a good turnout.

      As Rastus said, I always do my bit by playing at the church service before the ceremony at the War Memorial. A bit of a disaster this time as the lady who planned the service put the wrong hymn on the hymn sheets, so I didn’t have the score for it and had to accompany the singing as best I could manage, and then, of course, everything went wrong. Nobody could understand the priest who, although well-intentioned, has a deep voice and speaks very softly, topped with a massive African accent – no amount of microphones, present or absent, are going to sort him out! The chosen communion hymn was quite upbeat and the lady directing the singing accelerated – a lot! – halfway through the first verse and I couldn’t keep up, so I ended up playing the occasional chord and ended up in a fit of giggles with the said lady after the event. Not very dignified, I’m afraid…

      The saving grace was that I was able to play the last hymn, which I dislike intensely, particularly well, and with pedals!

      1. So far so good apart from being in the clutches of the NHS
        Ordered home BP machine taking my pills,constant messages from surgery but no phone call to discuss treatment regime as requested
        Autosystems rule!!

        1. Compu’er says no!

          KBO. Remember if you need something and can’t get out we’re just round the corner.

  43. Iran and Russia find common ground through Syrian and Ukraine wars. 11 november 2022.

    “The biggest concern for the Syrian people is putting an end to the terrorist attacks that continue to murder their children and pursue the displaced across the country,” said the White Helmets, a first responder group that operates in opposition-held parts of Syria. “However, it is difficult to negotiate and make demands from a military machine that knows nothing but killing. It is also difficult to ask for help from an international community governed by political balances and regional interests away from human rights tracks.”

    Most Syrians live quite happily under the Assad Government particularly as the alternative; as here, is a branch of ISIS. That the White Helmets have always been allowed to operate in their territory tells you where their sympathies lie. The Russians did the Syrian people and the ordinary citizens of Europe a great service when they prevented a jihadist victory.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/11/iran-and-russia-find-common-ground-through-syrian-and-ukraine-wars

          5. With Better vision than any of our mob.
            And he’s shipped off a lot of his opposition. Camoron took care of that.

          7. Well – she was nice-looking 10 years ago but I don’t think I’ve seen a photo of her since then.

    2. The Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett reported witnessing members of the White Helmets shooting and robbing people who pleaded with them for help. Bartlett gave her testimony to the UN and was of course ignored.

      1. Often floods there J especially after the rain that’s been coming down the last couple of days – normal weather for us. I years past I’ve rescued many motorists from it

          1. That’s the one, Ndovu! Not some iconoclastic climate occurrence! We are enjoying tremendous winds and warm weather and my towels and dog bedding are held on the line by hurricane-proof pegs! Well, at the moment!

          3. Hi Spikey! We had a wind-break cherry tree taken down as the roots were underneath the garage and gazebo (circa 1900) so the washing is now horizontal! Smells great, though! When I can catch it!

          6. Not far off Sue. We had winds of 129mph about 18 years ago – I never found any trace of my shed. My neighbour lost the whole roof off his house. Damage to my house was 2 slates missing so I was lucky.

          10. Mine are out there too now – blowing well, mild and even a glimmer of sunshine now. I spent a while potting up some mini cyclamen which I bought from Morrisons the other week – they will probably just be deer fodder but I do love them and they are flowering now.

          12. Mine were eight for a fiver. Lovely colours. Last week I bought another one for indoors – one £.

          14. How are the deer getting in? You could try a low power electric fence wire. Doesn’t hurt them. Or would they just jump over?

          15. It’s normally just one roebuck who has developed a taste for flowers. He especially likes geraniums and anything pink. He doesn’t come round quite so often as he used to, so perhaps he’s found other pastures.

    1. 367579 up ticks,

      O2O,

      Very sad really how the majority voter today finds it
      necessary to neutralize any good done by Tommy Atkins & co in their pursuit of re-establishing democracy and losing their lives.

      1. The modern child Left are spoiled. They’ve never had to earn anything, never sacrificed. They willingly give away freedoms hard won in blood because.. well, the government tells me we need it – usually for a problem the government has caused.

        Although I am proud of Junior who read Dulce et decorum est for his class assembly. His teachers don’t really know what to make of him as his ‘book’ isn’t a dreadful Oxford Reading Destroyer but Animal Farm. He’s become a right wing market capitalist and regularly tells them that everyone being equal is silly.

        For Christmas he’s getting the Stormlight Archive hard covers.

        1. I thought that poem needed to be quoted in full, hope I’ve not jumped in here.

          Dulce et Decorum est.

          Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
          Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
          Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
          And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
          Men marched asleep. Many had lost
          their boots,
          But limped on, blood-shod. All went
          lame, all blind;
          Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
          Of gas-shells dropping softly behind
          Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy
          of fumbling
          Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
          But someone still was yelling out and
          stumbling
          And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
          Dim through the misty panes and
          thick green light,
          As under a green sea, I saw him
          drowning.

          In all my dreams before my helpless
          sight
          He plunges at me, guttering, choking,
          drowning.

          If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
          Behind the wagon that we flung him
          in,
          And watch the white eyes writhing in
          his face,
          His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin,
          If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
          Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
          Obscene as cancer,
          Bitter as the cud
          Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
          My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
          To children ardent for some desperate glory,
          The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

  49. Having just joined in (I timed it badly) I’m off to collect my car which has just had it’s timing belt changed….. It’s an hour’s walk to the garage – I anticipate being pounds lighter on my return……-£££££££££

    1. It’s an easy way to drop off the pounds, the walk and the cheque book. Did the same a couple of months back.
      Beats going to the gym!!

  50. Anthem for Doomed Youth

    What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
    Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
    Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
    Can patter out their hasty orisons.
    No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
    Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
    The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
    And bugles calling for them from sad shires…

    1. What candles may be held to speed them all?
      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
      Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
      The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
      Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
      And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

  51. Why did the just stop oil protester cross the road?

    Because I was dragging her by her stupid purple hair.

  52. The Just Stop Oil spokesbitch urged to stop screaming on live TV
    last night is a keen traveller racking up thousands of air miles when
    away from the stunning Welsh farm she grew up on, MailOnline can reveal
    today. Indigo Rumbelow, 28, appears to have travelled to Nepal twice
    since 2015 – posting a picture of herself jetting there by plane at
    around 30,000ft. The activist, who once glued herself to the M25 for
    Insulate Britain and was Extinction Rebellion’s arts coordinator from
    North East London, has also apparently enjoyed breaks in Sweden,
    Lithuania, Croatia and other beauty spots abroad. Last night she was
    begged to ‘stop shouting’ by Sky News veteran Mark Austin when her live
    TV interview descended into a cacophony of noise last night. The
    64-year-old broadcaster became exasperated when Indigo kept talking over
    him and then asked if he loved fossil fuels more than his own children.
    Miss Rumbelow was brought up at stunning £600,000 farmhouse with 35
    acres of land close to the Gower peninsula in south Wales – one of
    Britain’s most beloved beauty spots. After leaving university, she
    worked in TV and movies as an art department runner on several
    productions including the 2020 movie Misbehaviour, starring Keira
    Knightley.

    HIPPOCRITE !

    1. Nonsense, that private jet was powered by exercise bike. Shame on you if you cannot see her pedalling furiously as it gets off the ground!

    2. “Indigo Rumbelow”
      It is unkind to laugh at people’s names, but I can make an exception in her case. I blame the parents. Saddling her with a name like that was practically a guarantee that she’d turn into a loopy leftie.

  53. The Just Stop Oil spokesbitch urged to stop screaming on live TV
    last night is a keen traveller racking up thousands of air miles when
    away from the stunning Welsh farm she grew up on, MailOnline can reveal
    today. Indigo Rumbelow, 28, appears to have travelled to Nepal twice
    since 2015 – posting a picture of herself jetting there by plane at
    around 30,000ft. The activist, who once glued herself to the M25 for
    Insulate Britain and was Extinction Rebellion’s arts coordinator from
    North East London, has also apparently enjoyed breaks in Sweden,
    Lithuania, Croatia and other beauty spots abroad. Last night she was
    begged to ‘stop shouting’ by Sky News veteran Mark Austin when her live
    TV interview descended into a cacophony of noise last night. The
    64-year-old broadcaster became exasperated when Indigo kept talking over
    him and then asked if he loved fossil fuels more than his own children.
    Miss Rumbelow was brought up at stunning £600,000 farmhouse with 35
    acres of land close to the Gower peninsula in south Wales – one of
    Britain’s most beloved beauty spots. After leaving university, she
    worked in TV and movies as an art department runner on several
    productions including the 2020 movie Misbehaviour, starring Keira
    Knightley.

    HIPPOCRITE !

  54. The gift that keeps on giving…!!!!

    “https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11416163/Rebekah-Vardy-accuses-rival-WAG-Coleen-Rooneys-barrister-treating-appallingly.html”

    2. This is conclusive evidence that Trickle-Down wealth distribution works – from the highest to the lowest; from footballer to lawyer.

    3. The general tone of the BTL comments is “You lost, get over it!” although I did like “Is she still talking?”

      1. She is deluded (and dim) enough to believe that if she keeps on about how unfair it all is – the problem will just disappear…

    1. 2320h and the penny has dropped Phizz.
      Did you email that to me today? I work with a chap whose name is the same as yours and when that came through I called him and he said he hadn’t sent it. I thought one of us must have been hacked!

  56. 367579+ up ticks,

    We must surely exercise caution this action although seen to be excellent

    can also be seen as giving a few / gaining a many.

    There is NO place now for “party before Country” we are in deep shit, deny that and you are a part of the problem.

    Dm,

    EXCLUSIVE: Heavily-guarded secret dawn flight takes 22 Albanian criminals and illegal immigrants back to their home country
    The flight to Albanian capital was personally authorised by Suella Braverman
    Home Secretary ordered criminals and economic migrants to be flown back
    The flight landed at Tirana’s Mother Teresa airport at 10am on Wednesday
    It is the latest crackdown by Mrs Braverman on Albanian illegal migrants and criminals in the UK

  57. Hunt warns of ‘eye-watering’ decisions amid economic downturn. 11 November 2022.

    Jeremy Hunt has warned he will be making “eye-watering” decisions after the economy shrank in what is feared to be the beginning of the longest recession on record.

    The chancellor admitted there would be a “tough road ahead” after new figures revealed that the UK economy contracted by 0.2 per cent between July and September.

    It’s the taxpayers eyes that will be watering.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-economy-recession-uk-pound-news-sunak-hunt-b2222862.html

      1. The government will take over more and more. They cannot regulate anything properly so they cannot run anything either.

    3. Hunt was completely out of touch with normal people when he was an undergraduate. He never did a student job, was wrapped in the cotton wool of privilege and seemed to think that anyone outside his narrow circle was a denizen of EastEnders.
      He was quite pleasant when you spoke to him, but then he would sooner or later let slip his disrespect for you, for example, he would make creepy remarks to women.
      He has no idea what ordinary people are going through.

    1. They should show the poor soldiers, who liberated the camp, having to bulldoze thousands of starved and disease-ridden bodies into deep pits in Belsen too.

      1. 367579+ up ticks,

        Afternoon P,
        I am afraid facing filmed fact would be just to much, having to digest and learn from it would be sooo unacceptable.

        1. Whilst in RAF Germany, we were detached to Hahne which is right by the site where Bergen-Belsen had been. Now open countryside but you’ll not hear a bird sing or see/hear any wild animals. They all seem to know its been an evil place.

          1. I’ve heard the same from others. Visited Auschwitz, the same there.
            The spiritual energy there must be pretty heavy.

      1. Excuse me, Bill, but the thought may be mutual. It seems men are allowed to be unkind about women because of their … whatever but women have to put up with unwanted advances from men who should look in the mirror at themselves – many of them are hardly Adonis!

        2. Re the pretty lady:

          BTL in The Grimes:

          “In November 2021, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wrote to Ms Nichols and two SNP MPs after they were reported to be inebriated on a flight to Gibraltar as part of a Armistice Day commemoration. She responded that she had not been drinking heavily and had reduced tolerance due to a medication she was taking for a mental health episode, which the BBC reported was PTSD. On the same day, the Telegraph claimed that Nichols “required a wheelchair” to make her way from the baggage claim to a military minibus……whoops !!”

      2. “How much weaker can you get than to pay and house the invader?”

        Let them have at the children too?

  62. It would’ve been my brothers birthday last week, he would’ve been 50 years of age, if he hadn’t died at the age 14 . I was trying to imagine him as 50 years old – I couldn’t do that – for me he’s forever that boy with fair wavy hair and will be forever more .

    1. And as a schoolmaster I always remember former pupils whom I have not since they were schoolboys – some of whom must now be well up their 60s – as they were in their teens.

      I remember once the image of a 14 year old boy came very vividly into my mind for no particular reason. I was able to recall his surname but I couldn’t work out in which of the schools where I had taught that he had been.

      I discovered the following morning that he was not one of my former pupils at all but a junior boy in the same house as myself when I was in the Sixth Form and a chap with whom I had had virtually no contact. I discovered this from the Old Blundellian Old Boys’ Register update’s Obituary column which arrived in my post.

    2. Bless you, Lady of Wessex. Our youngest grandson is getting baptised next week and we are going to give him a christening mug which once belonged to my uncle. He died of TB aged 7 in 1939, and my grandfather never mentioned him again. I have 3 photos of him and I hope that Andrew will think of Mark Price as his family.

      1. The dear soul of your uncle, to have gone so young,
        and what a wonderful gift to your grandson on his forthcoming baptism.
        Your uncle will continue to be remembered and your little grandson will learn of his family members from long ago.

        1. I believe in eternal life as long as you are remembered. I know it’s not in fashion but I think of him and wonder what he might have become. My grandfather was born in 1890 and was a lancer in WW1. I remember him very well. Thank you Lady. 🌹

    3. That’s really sad. I’m sorry for your loss, that many years ago.
      But at least he is still alive in your memory,

    4. I had a brother – I never met him as he died before I was born. I always felt there was something missing when I was growing up and wished I had a brother.

      My mother never mentioned him, but occasionally let slip a clue which I picked up on later. After she died and I became interested in family history, I found his birth certificate and ID card. I sent for his death certificate – he died aged five days.

      1. That is just so terribly sad, your poor mother. It must have been heartbreaking for her. And you knowing something was missing.
        There is something wondering for girls about brothers, you felt it with the little one you never met and I with mine for those years. But five days is no life at all.. bless his little soul, one never forgets .

        1. The odd thing was – my grandmother told me (she lived with us from 1953 till she died in 1955) when I was five or six but I’d forgotten until after my mother died.

          Some memories are suppressed, but can be recalled, and some memories can be planted by psychologists and may not be real, but I recall the time my grandmother told me I had a baby brother who died, and I know that memory was real.

  63. I see that they are having trouble with logistics at their COP shindig in Egypt.

    They cannot organise a pisup for their believers, are we supposed to believe these the experts that want to plan our futures!

  64. I see that they are having trouble with logistics at their COP shindig in Egypt.

    They cannot organise a pisup for their believers, are we supposed to believe these the experts that want to plan our futures!

  65. Conditions for nurses would improve if they didn’t have to care for health tourists, the third world and all manner of immigrants ( legal or otherwise ) on one small Island.
    When is anyone going to point out excessive immigration has been detrimental to our public services including the NHS .

    2. Not just that, but our politicos think it is cheaper to import nurses from countries where the wages are lower rather than training our own.

      So we get nurses (often of lower calibre) from countries which pay peanuts. We pay brazil nuts and our home-trained nurses go to countries that pay a decent wage. We end up with the dross, and lots of our good home-trained nurses go abroad.

      The above is of course a complete generalisation – there are good nurses from abroad who come here. BUT there are also a lot of poor ones. There are well-trained nurses who are trained here. AND many of those go abroad.

  66. Goodness me. How terribly unexpected…..

    “Black Lives Matter organiser who helped run demo that toppled Edward Colston’s statue is charged with fraud involving fundraiser linked to the protest movement. Xahra Saleem, 22, will appear before magistrates in Bristol in January”

    1. The Al Capone method? If you can’t get them for being gangsters, take a look at their finances?

      1. Sixty years ago, the firm where I was articled was engaged to represent a man charged with 13 counts of fraud.

        And one of driving while uninsured!!

    2. I understand from a sneak preview of her defence, that she will say:

      “You is jus’ ‘ccusin’ me coz I is blark”

      Whereupon, with with bound, she’ll be free.

    3. Isn’t stealing money a requisite quality for becoming an officer of a left wing political charity these days?

    1. You lucky man! We go to Costco for the fuel at ridiculously cheap prices. Either to Glasgow or Edinburgh depending on our final destination. Both stores appear to be situated in Africa! It is truly astounding!

  68. ‘Gladys’ Macron has had another spat with the Fascist Italian leader who has refused a ship with 240 or so gimmigrants to land and it has set sail for French territory. He is livid that the Frogs will have to accept about 120 of them and the Krauts another 120. I don’t know why he is worried; they will only be there as long as it takes to get them to Calais and join up with the ten thousand queuing up to get a Coast Guard taxi to the UK. We must build a bridge then install a few thousand eco-nutters with banners and hand-glue and let the idiots fight it out amongst themselves (with our Police Farce on hand to calm down any angry exchanges or hurty words).

    1. He cannot BEAR anyone else being (if you’ll forgive the word) “hands on”…. He and ONLY he is in charge of Eurp.

  69. One of my sons came to visit today via M25. Before he set out I sent him this Tweeted STATEMENT (part 1 of 6) from the principal organiser (DISorganiser?) :

    STATEMENT: Just Stop Oil halts M25 actions
    From today, Just Stop Oil will halt its campaign of civil resistance on the M25. We are giving time to those in Government who are in touch with reality to consider their responsibilities to this country at this time. (1/6)

    It suddenly struck me that WHILE these protestors are engaged in climbing the gantries/Dartford Bridge and hanging up their banners, the traffic is just passing smoothly and SAFELY underneath (and probably thanking their luck that they got through just in time) until the POLICE arrive and CLOSE that section of the motorway.

    Why the Police can’t just leave the eejits in place is beyond me. And how the Police manage to GET TO the affected gantries through the busy morning traffic AND THEN block the roadways seems a lot like a blocking scheme engineered and planned by the police to advertise Just Stop Oil.

    1. The arrogance of ‘Just Stop Oil’ is beyond belief. They are graciously ‘giving time to those in government ….’.

      Hope they are all banged up in time for Christmas. Was it a coincidence that the enthusiasm of ‘Insulate Britain’ idiots waned after time behind bars?

    2. The Just Stop Oil movement are delegating the task of motorway disruption to the Police.

      The Police are disrupting the motorways!

  70. One of my sons came to visit today via M25. Before he set out I sent him this Tweeted STATEMENT (part 1 of 6) from the principal organiser (DISorganiser?) :

    STATEMENT: Just Stop Oil halts M25 actions
    From today, Just Stop Oil will halt its campaign of civil resistance on the M25. We are giving time to those in Government who are in touch with reality to consider their responsibilities to this country at this time. (1/6)

    It suddenly struck me that WHILE these protestors are engaged in climbing the gantries/Dartford Bridge and hanging up their banners, the traffic is just passing smoothly and SAFELY underneath (and probably thanking their luck that they got through just in time) until the POLICE arrive and CLOSE that section of the motorway.

    Why the Police can’t just leave the eejits in place is beyond me. And how the Police manage to GET TO the affected gantries through the busy morning traffic AND THEN block the roadways seems a lot like a blocking scheme engineered and planned by the police to advertise Just Stop Oil.

  71. One of my sons came to visit today via M25. Before he set out I sent him this Tweeted STATEMENT (part 1 of 6) from the principal organiser (DISorganiser?) :

    STATEMENT: Just Stop Oil halts M25 actions
    From today, Just Stop Oil will halt its campaign of civil resistance on the M25. We are giving time to those in Government who are in touch with reality to consider their responsibilities to this country at this time. (1/6)

    It suddenly struck me that WHILE these protestors are engaged in climbing the gantries/Dartford Bridge and hanging up their banners, the traffic is just passing smoothly and SAFELY underneath (and probably thanking their luck that they got through just in time) until the POLICE arrive and CLOSE that section of the motorway.

    Why the Police can’t just leave the eejits in place is beyond me. And how the Police manage to GET TO the affected gantries through the busy morning traffic AND THEN block the roadways seems a lot like a blocking scheme engineered and planned by the police to advertise Just Stop Oil.

  72. One of my sons came to visit today via M25. Before he set out I sent him this Tweeted STATEMENT (part 1 of 6) from the principal organiser (DISorganiser?) :

    STATEMENT: Just Stop Oil halts M25 actions
    From today, Just Stop Oil will halt its campaign of civil resistance on the M25. We are giving time to those in Government who are in touch with reality to consider their responsibilities to this country at this time. (1/6)

    It suddenly struck me that WHILE these protestors are engaged in climbing the gantries/Dartford Bridge and hanging up their banners, the traffic is just passing smoothly and SAFELY underneath (and probably thanking their luck that they got through just in time) until the POLICE arrive and CLOSE that section of the motorway.

    Why the Police can’t just leave the eejits in place is beyond me. And how the Police manage to GET TO the affected gantries through the busy morning traffic AND THEN block the roadways seems a lot like a blocking scheme engineered and planned by the police to advertise Just Stop Oil.

  73. Because I have finished cleaning the double oven I’ve been have a well earned cuppa. And watch a superb BBC prog called Super Cute Animals.
    I can’t recommend it enough.

  74. Rastus tells me yesterday’s terrorist attack in Brussels was not reported in the UK – so here goes.

    Last night, a policeman was killed and another injured when they were attacked in their car by a man wielding a knife and shouting “Allah Akbar”. The terrorist, Yassine M., born in 1990 and of Belgian nationality, was apprehended by a police patrol and wounded in the process, so he has been taken to a hospital where he is under arrest.

    But…

    Our Yassine is a known criminal and spent six years behind bars, from 2013 to 2019; he is also on the Belgian list of radicalised individuals. Yesterday morning, before the attack, he went to a police station spouting hatred. The story goes that he himself requested to be taken to a psychiatric unit – so the policemen escorted him there and left him in the care of the experts. Later in the day, the police called the psychiatric hospital to check that he was, indeed, still in their care, but they were told that he man had discharged himself, which he was perfectly entitled to do as his had been a voluntary admission.

    https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/policier-tue-a-bruxelles-l-assaillant-etait-fiche-par-les-services-antiterroristes-20221111

    So a known radicalised criminal, spouting hatred and behaving in a threatening manner, is allowed to leave a psychiatric hospital to go and commit murder.

    And the British press is rather shy about mentioning it…

    4. It seems to be the same in Belgium as it is in Britain – a Muslim who commits an act of terrorism is not a terrorist but someone with psychiatric or psychological problems but the poor old chap in his late sixties who threw a Molotov Cocktail at an immigration building at Dover before killing himself was an extreme right wing terrorist.

  75. Just received the weekly church email. Nice hymns for Sunday morning. The hers, or this one at least, will be carrying a candle and not singing very much.

    O God, our help in ages past
    Offertory: O valiant hearts
    Communion Hymn: Jerusalem
    Final Hymn: I vow to thee my country

    1. I hope that the service is memorable for you., Our Susan.

      I would have great difficulty in singing the first two hymns. For the first, the fifth verse is a killer.

      1. This first verse gets me every time…

        O valiant hearts who to your glory came
        Through dust of conflict and through battle flame
        Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved
        Your memory hallowed in the land you loved…

        2. I was on Songs of Praise in uniform a few years ago when it was filmed in the Garrison Church in Aldershot. That was one of the hymns we sang – it was difficult to get through without voice breaking.

    2. We sang O God Our Help In Ages Past this morning at the war memorial. No accompaniment and in the open air. We were valiant hearts (and voices) given there were only a dozen or so of us!

    1. My father told me that the further left or right wing you went (communism/fascism) you ended up the same! The circle squared!

      2. Your da was spot on Mrs Macfarlane. A few years back, Norman Tebbit, in the DT, explained the fallacy of the “far-Right” quite eloquently:

        NORMAN TEBBIT

        Today as in the 1930s, real fascism comes from the Left.

        Over recent days I have become more and more irritated by the skill of those on the Left in labelling any event of unreason or violence as being the work of “the far Right”, and the foolishness of us on the Right for letting them get away with it.

        James Bloodworth wrote recently in the New Statesman that Ukip’s Anne Marie Waters had “started out on the political left , but like Oswald Mosley before her has since veered dramatically to the right.”

        We have been fortunate in this kingdom in that we have had only one prominent fascist, Oswald Mosley, who never held office in government at Westminster. I often see or hear references his political journey to the “far Right” from the wilfully ignorant. The facts are otherwise.

        Mosley’s journey started from his Conservative roots and his election as a Conservative Member of Parliament in 1918. He then defected to Labour, losing his seat in 1924, but returning as Labour Member for Smethwick in 1926 and taking office in the Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1929. His advocacy of nationalisation of industry and a huge programme of public works (and who does that remind you of these days?) was rejected by the Labour government, and he resigned.

        Mosley then became impressed by the collectivist ideas of Mussolini’s Fascist Party and Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party, before founding the British Union of Fascists, which opposed war with Hitler’s Germany. He was interned in 1940 by Churchill’s wartime government.

        After the war his National Party of Europe campaigned for “Europe a Nation”, a proposed European super-state to have been run according to principles of “European Socialism”. Mosley died in 1980, still committed to the anti-Semitism he shared with the German National Socialists and Russian Communists, having never swung back to the Conservative roots he had torn up in 1923.

        1. I look with absolute horror and despair at the demented loon (nominally) in charge of Scotland. She’s not very bright, nor particularly charismatic, and she has a very dubious past but she has somehow lied and duped her way into a number of benny junkies and bone-headed anglophiles. I live here and I detest what she has ‘created’ with her nasty, divisive, anti-normal sh*t. I

          1. And, given that voters who support other parties will vote FOR those other parties, the Nats seem destined to rule for ever – or until civil war breaks out.

          2. As I pointed out ..thanks to Blind Gordon and Sleazy Tone! Revolting little sh one T’s

          3. Give her her damned referendum and have done with it.
            When she loses, hopefully we’ll be shot of her.
            If she wins, we’ll still be shot of her.
            A win win as far as I’m concerned.

          4. No sos. The majority do not want to be out of the Union. We have the most ridiculous election system (thanks Tone) which guarantees the wicked bitch and her horrible acolytes will be elected, no matter what the majority think. The loonatic greens had to be drafted in to give her a majority. She has bought and paid for the polis and the judiciary, and the press is a joke. She has stuck Dnotices on a lot of things and has zipped the mouths of her ‘faithful’ msp drones. We are living in a disaster zone. The nhs, the cooncils, the edyycation, the ferries, the roads, the everything. I cannot imagine a bigger disaster than this little cow has produced! And no one appears to care. This beautiful country, bear in mind I’m a Geordie, is being destroyed!

          5. I agree.
            Hence my call to give her her referendum.
            I think she would lose it and having done so could be consigned to history.

          8. The wee fishwife is revolting to look at and has a repugnant personality. If I were a Jock I would want to chuck her into a large vat of Cullen Skink and pelt her with Clootie Dumplings until she screamed for mercy. Then I would pelt her even more.

          10. I don’t mind you using mushy peas, Tom, as long as you use the piss-poor excuse for mushy peas that are served in southern chip shops and not the proper ambrosial nectar made in Yorkshire.

          11. The last time I had decent fish and chips was on a 4 day visit to York about 5 years ago. Deep golden brown and cooked in beef dripping. Chip shops here are mainly run by err…non natives and the chips are pale, soggy. Cooked, I assume. with the cheapest ingredients available.
            On my semi-frequent visits the the Netherlands, I never miss a chance to have some Vlaamse (Flemish) Frites, crisp, golden and delicious.

          12. You are making my mouth water, John. I have some beef tallow on order from a local butcher here in Sweden. I shall mince it and then render it down before adding it to my deep-fat fryer. Fish and chips cooked in vile oil are unhealthy as well as disgusting. In the north, mushy peas are made by soaking dried peas in water overnight before slowly cooking until they have broken down, they are then salted and slightly sweetened before serving. In southern chip shops (and I’ve visited a few) they just open a chemical-laden tin!

      3. The idea that Fascism is Right Wing is pure Soviet Agitprop dating back to 1920’s Weimar Germany where the Bolshevik inspired Spartakusbund, strongly supported by the USSR, was involved in street battles with the NSDAP for the control of Germany.

        1. Try Hugh Macdermid and his Nazi leanings and the rest of the ghastly leaders who were pro Nazi! The Jewish people in Scotland are still ridiculed.

      4. “Scotland is now a one party state led by a nationalist socialist.”

        Nationalist socialist?

        Nationalsozialistische?

        Nazi?

          1. She really can’t afford anything! The rest of us are blooming’ paying for her stupidity!

          2. As she was on television somewhere saying (I just caught it on Youtube) it’s Westminster’s fault for not sending enough money. Yawn.

          3. It’s always someone else’s fault! She blames Westminster, Brexit, the English..and at one point Margaret Thatcher….! She is a poisonous little dwarf!

    2. I’ve watched a couple of recent progs.
      But although he’s not popular, at least he’s feeding them all. And not sitting around moaning. And they are paid for that ?

          4. Oops, Sorry, Sue, I thought you were referring to the Sturgeon Mug but the © is on charmap.exe (Microsoft Win 7 )

        2. Yes I’m completely barmy.
          Erin likes to watch it. I’m not a fan by any stretch.
          The psychology is interesting.
          Most of the other contestants are pretty useless.
          Current affairs. It’s really all pretty stupid. And Australia doesn’t have any real jungle. 🤠🦘🕷🪱🪃

          3. It’s rainforest, not jungle, although I don’t know what the
            scientific def is of a jungle.

      3. I read somewhere he’s trousering £300K for appearing, some of the other slebs even more. How can ITV justify that?

  81. A man and a woman are seated next to each other on a flight.
    They start eyeing each other, and both realise they want to do the same thing.
    He slips a condom out of his pocket, and she looks delighted.
    Rear toilet? He suggests.
    Five minutes, she agrees and goes off.
    He waits five minutes, then goes and slips in there with her.
    Right, get that condom on, she says.
    Soon, they are both sighing with pleasure.
    But a sharp eyed stewardess has noticed them, and realised what they are up to.
    So, she humiliates them by making an announcement over the PA system.
    “To the lady and gentleman in the rear toilet, we know what you are doing, and it is expressly forbidden by airline regulations.
    Now, please put those cigarettes out and take the condom off the smoke detector.”
    And what were you thinking?

  83. Par Four today.

    Wordle 510 4/6
    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. 3 for me today but as is my wont I stared at it for a long time before the penny dropped.
      Wordle 510 3/6

      🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟨⬜🟨🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. No limit to how many times they can vote; after all, they’re not going to complain, are they!

    5. Precisely. Biden’s handlers just suckered a skip full of stupid college students into voting Democrat but mostly in Democrat areas and so wasted. This will not have affected the red wave planned and executed by President Trump.

      Democrats are evil and stupid. The Senate and Congress are going Republican despite rampant cheating in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Also revealed is a repeat of the methods of cheating by Democrats and the Deep State and their operatives such as Mitch McConnell and other RINOs.

    6. This will doubtless inspire Sunak to double the outstanding balances on students’ loans in the UK and raise the interest still further.

      I am convinced that Sunak and Hunt are united in their wish to destroy Britain completely in the hope of benefiting China (where Hunt’s wife comes from) and India (from where Sunak comes).

  86. Bogey five today

    Wordle 510 5/6

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

        1. One of my better efforts.

          Daily Quordle 291
          6️⃣5️⃣
          3️⃣4️⃣
          quordle.com
          🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
          ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
          ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
          ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
          ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
          🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

          ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟩🟨
          ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
          🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
          ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  87. 367579+ up ticks,

    They got stamina I’ll give them that, that was clear to see when they, as the brexit party under the grand old duke farage went hill marching in 2019 in a very pro tory (ino) / johnson manner.

    Why the name change nige ?

    ondon / Europe
    Farage: Populist ‘Insurgency’ Against ‘Globalist Conservatives’ Has Begun, as Reform Party Surges in the Polls

  88. A white chap is walking along a beach one day when he comes across a lamp partially buried in the sand. He picks up the lamp and gives it a rub and two blonde genies appear. They tell him he has been granted three wishes. The chap makes his three wishes, and the blonde genies disappear.

    The next thing the chap knows he’s in a sumptuous bedroom, in a huge mansion, surrounded by 50 of the most beautiful women ever seen. He makes love to all of them, then begins to explore the house. Suddenly he feels something soft under his feet. When he looks down, the floor is deeply-covered in £50 notes! Then, there’s a knock at the door …

    He answers it and standing there are two people dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits. They drag him outside to the nearest tree, throw a rope over a limb, and hang him by the neck until he’s dead!

    As the Klansmen are walking away they remove their hoods, revealing the two blonde genies. One blonde genie says to the other one, “I can understand his first wish about having all these beautiful women in a big mansion to fornicate with. I can also understand him wanting to be a millionaire. But why on earth he wanted to be hung like a black man is beyond me.”

    4. Sorry, George, but there is a difference between being hung and hanged. Perhaps the blondes didn’t know that.

      1. Not my joke, Tom. I nicked it from the Yanks, like you do, but I altered some of the wording back to English.

  89. A white chap is walking along a beach one day when he comes across a lamp partially buried in the sand. He picks up the lamp and gives it a rub and two blonde genies appear. They tell him he has been granted three wishes. The chap makes his three wishes, and the blonde genies disappear.

    The next thing the chap knows he’s in a sumptuous bedroom, in a huge mansion, surrounded by 50 of the most beautiful women ever seen. He makes love to all of them, then begins to explore the house. Suddenly he feels something soft under his feet. When he looks down, the floor is deeply-covered in £50 notes! Then, there’s a knock at the door …

    He answers it and standing there are two people dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits. They drag him outside to the nearest tree, throw a rope over a limb, and hang him by the neck until he’s dead!

    As the Klansmen are walking away they remove their hoods, revealing the two blonde genies. One blonde genie says to the other one, “I can understand his first wish about having all these beautiful women in a big mansion to fornicate with. I can also understand him wanting to be a millionaire. But why on earth he wanted to be hung like a black man is beyond me.”

    2. Yes – and what did they die for? Not what we have now, that’s for sure. But then I’m sure that neither Johnson nor Sunak lost anyone in their family fighting to preserve their family’s life in the UK. Neither family would have been here then.

      Ed. And now Sunak is agreeing to pay “reparations” to a country that has done nothing but send us rapists and bombers for the last few decades, for the fact that the industrial revolution, which helped the world, started here. That’s what you get from having foreigners with no sense of this country’s history, in power.

    3. Just for a moment that first one had me thinking Putin and Zelensky were showing Thunberg the grave.

  91. Evening, all. Lest we forget. Attended an Armistice Day service out in the sticks at 11am today. Even the rectorette managed not to eff it up (although there weren’t “aid agencies” in either world war, unless she meant the VAD and Red Cross).

    2. Wel if they allowed online voting and machine voting, results would have been out on Tuesday.

      Hell no, they could have published the results on Monday so that you could be guided towards the correct vote.

          1. Wot? Me? Think you’re confusing me with someone else….!
            I can’t be objective about someone I detest…

          2. WEE, sleekit, cow an’, untimorous beastie,
            O, what a panic ’s in thy breastie!
            Thou needna start awa sae hasty,
            Wi’ bickering brattle!
            I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee, 5
            Wi’ murdering pattle!

            I ’m truly sorry UK’s dominion
            Has not broken the UK’s union,
            An’ justifies that ill opinion
            Which makes thee prattle 10
            Ah me, thee poor earth-bound companion,
            Nae’ fellow-immortal!

            (With apols to Rabbie)

            For the avoidance of doubt the above doesn’t refer to any worked up Nottler!

        2. Clearly not worried about what the electorate think of her either. Gosh, she just gets more and more likeable, doesn’t she.

  94. Remember that tranny teacher who was pictured wearing enormous false boobies? The school board have just said that they do not have a right to impose a dress code on staff – human rights and all that.

    The same school board are considering bringing back a mask mandates for students.

    1. Richard, I read that it was a joke and he (the teacher) was trying to show how ludicrous the wokes were? I stand to be corrected!

  95. Why is the weather so warm this November?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63597025

    BBC Weather’s Simon King says the unusually high November temperatures are down to the jet stream and, more specifically, to the direction of the wind. “A south-west wind is dragging in air from the Tropics, around the Azores and Cape Verde – where it is still warm at this time of year – and that milder air is spreading north to the UK,” he explains. “This weather pattern, while fairly unusual for the time of year, is not linked to climate change.”

    While the warm air being dumped over the UK is “not a regular occurrence”, it is a weather phenomenon that we experience every so often in the UK – so it is not a one-off. The warmest recorded daytime temperature in November in the UK was in 2015, when temperatures reached 22.4C – an event that was also linked to the jet stream.

    However, he still goes on to link climate change and the jet stream:

    “Climate change may be altering the typical position of the jet stream further north when considering its horizontal position/latitude averages over decades. This is different, though, from this scenario where the jet stream is meandering north to south like a big U. However, the warmer weather we’ve experienced this autumn – and extreme overnight temperatures just seen – are the types of conditions we’re likely to experience more frequently in the future with climate change.”

    1. While the weather is warmer, we are not burning as much gas, so that’s good news for the planet, n’est-ce pas?

    2. While the weather is warmer, we are not burning as much gas, so that’s good news for the planet, n’est-ce pas?

      1. It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome – So much money and hype has been invested in this fable that the powers that be daren’t admit they are all bollock naked

      1. It’s basic O-level geography to know that low pressure in the Atlantic and high pressure over Europe draws air from the south, occasionally a very long way south. “So what?” should be the response when it occurs.

  97. WOW, what a match in the Rugby league, the commitment, the quality of the play, everything was outstanding, a sport at its epitome.

    Well done both sides and congratulations to the Aussies.

      1. Ho ho.
        The thing about league is that you get roughly 75 minutes of actual play as opposed to around 50 in modern thugby.
        Top level rugby isn’t the game it was, I find I even prefer to watch the women’s to most of the England men’s games.

        1. If you can describe pass tackle pass tackle pass tackle pass tackle pass tackle pass tackle kick as top level play, then you have a point.

          1. As opposed to bulldoze, grunt, pick up, bulldoze, grunt, kick high in the air, rinse and repeat?

            And I write as one who played RU for 20 years, before it turned into a bore fest for behemoths.

    4. That’s bad enough and pretty terrible, but here’s another one. Sudanese man arrested for knife attack in illegal migrants residency.
      Oh ‘king dear he’s got ‘king mental health issues. Did someone offer him a job ?
      I can’t wait until Sunday when all the ex PM AHs, that jointly caused all the problems in this country, will be lined and laying a wreath each wearing black and faking remorse.

  101. Looks like the Republicans will take control of The House and The Senate. So Biden will be a lame duck president. add to that the ammout of Governers that have won it willmake it difficult for the Democrats to do any more damage.

    1. So Biden will be a lame duck.

      “Will be”? He “has been a lame duck” for a long time.

      1. In terms of press stupidity I noticed today that some goon on CNN was suggesting Fetterman as the obvious replacement for Biden.

        I laughed at first but then realised that an inflatable doll could be President, kept in a basement, represented by some doppelgänger for Biden (a corpse would do with make up) and manipulated/dictated to by Obama and Clinton under the auspices of George Soros, and nobody would be any the wiser.

    2. I expect Pelosi, her mob and the RINOs will do all they can to put a wrecking ball to everything good for America and to continue to attack President Trump.

      The defeated Democrats will continue to do everything to prevent President Trump from standing again. In simple terms they and their corporate sponsors are shit scared of President Trump. It is corporate sponsors allied to De Santis who have been dropping anti-Trump propaganda for a year or more.

      There is no possibility that De Santis could garner the MAGA vote commanded by Trump should he force matters. Both men are admired but only Trump has the mass support of all Americans.

    3. The Democrats have until January 2nd 2023 to wreak more havoc on to the USA. The new Congress will be sworn in on the 3rd.

    1. Good night NTN
      And after a couple of glasses of my holm smade zider I’m oooorrrff asssss shwell.
      Nood sight. 🤭

      2. Alas no, Alec. Woke at midnight and couldn’t get back to sleep. So now (5.45 am Saturday) I’m off back to bed to see if I can catch up on some sleep.

          1. Have a catflap that only opens in response to your cat’s microchip (to stop other cats coming in).

  105. Since I’m still awake, having spent the day (a) nursing the parish copier back to life (Ricoh fault code SC400, if anyone’s interested), and (b) just finished printing, collating, folding and stapling around 300 orders of service for Remembrance Sunday (whilst watching The Crown), I thought one may as well post Saturday’s page, which is here. Good night all, and GSTK…

    2. When I try to find Saturday’s page by clicking on ‘here’ I get a ‘Not Secure’ notice.
      I have been trying for hours – getting nowhere!

      HELP!

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