Friday 12 May: The electorate will punish the Tories for broken Brexit promises

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

481 thoughts on “Friday 12 May: The electorate will punish the Tories for broken Brexit promises”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story, a bit crude but that’s life these odd days.

    And What’s Your Fetish

    A man walks into a bar and sees a beautiful blonde sitting alone at a table. After a few drinks, he decides to approach her. Soon they are chatting like old friends. Finally, the man asks why someone as gorgeous as her is sitting alone.

    “Well…” she says, “every man I go out with, thinks I’m too kinky.”

    The man sees an opportunity and mentions that he, too, likes to get kinky. So, she invites him to her place. When they arrive, she excuses herself “to slip into something more comfortable.”

    Ten minutes later, she walks back into the room wearing crotchless rubber knickers, carrying a riding crop and a tube of KY jelly. To her dismay, the man is pulling up his trousers and getting ready to leave.

    “Where do you think you’re going?” she asks in dismay. “I thought that we were going to get kinky!”

    “Sorry, dear,” the man replies “I fucked your dog, I shat in your handbag… I’m gone from here!”

  4. Good Moaning.
    Already done my pathetically suburban Victor Meldrew bit and put out the black bags. I don’t think I can cope with all this excitement.

    Extract from Allison Pearson’s article in the DT.

    Wot a contrast.

    Does Serbia accept English grannies as immigrants?

    “How to cut a backlog

    The strike action by doctors and nurses is estimated to have seen 500,000 operations and appointments cancelled. That’s at a time when the hospital waiting list is officially 7.2 million, but likely to be concealing the NHS’s guilty secret: a waiting list to get on the waiting list. No wonder a surgeon tells me that “self-pay” patients are at unprecedented levels. The cars in the car parks of private hospitals are no longer just those of the wealthy.

    It made me so happy to hear a story from Serbia where staff at the country’s second largest medical institution set about clearing their backlog with a will. “After 100 days of work and 12 consecutive working weekends, the doctors at the Clinic for Cardiovascular Surgery of the Nis University Clinical Center managed to achieve their goal, to eliminate waiting lists for operations,” reported a Serbian newspaper. Associate Professor Mladan Golubovic said they came up with the idea for “human motives”. Doctors had received information from the call centre that “a couple of patients they called for surgery had died in the meantime”. News of those avoidable deaths stung medics into action.

    A team of doctors and nurses proposed to work every weekday, including evenings, and throughout weekends. The management of the clinic, as well as all the other members of staff, said that they wanted to join in. “It took twelve weeks,” reported a jubilant Professor Golubovic. The team were finally able to leave the hospital to spend Easter with their families.

    When news got out, there was an incredible response from the Serbian people. They christened the exhausted staff “Heroes of the South”. “Wherever you are, walking around the city or going to lunch, our fellow citizens are delighted,” said Prof Golubovic.

    While “NHS Heroes” (ahem) are planning their next strike action, which will only add to the scary number of weekly excess deaths, it’s uplifting to know that there are still doctors and nurses who feel they have a moral obligation to their patients.”

    1. Not just the surgeons, but specialists, nursing staff, warehousemen would all need to be part of it, so that the whole cycle of care would function.
      Good on them! The opposite of a strike, and humanitarian action at that.

  5. Good Moaning.
    Already done my pathetically suburban Victor Meldrew bit and put out the black bags. I don’t think I can cope with all this excitement.

    Extract from Allison Pearson’s article in the DT.

    Wot a contrast.

    Does Serbia accept English grannies as immigrants?

    “How to cut a backlog

    The strike action by doctors and nurses is estimated to have seen 500,000 operations and appointments cancelled. That’s at a time when the hospital waiting list is officially 7.2 million, but likely to be concealing the NHS’s guilty secret: a waiting list to get on the waiting list. No wonder a surgeon tells me that “self-pay” patients are at unprecedented levels. The cars in the car parks of private hospitals are no longer just those of the wealthy.

    It made me so happy to hear a story from Serbia where staff at the country’s second largest medical institution set about clearing their backlog with a will. “After 100 days of work and 12 consecutive working weekends, the doctors at the Clinic for Cardiovascular Surgery of the Nis University Clinical Center managed to achieve their goal, to eliminate waiting lists for operations,” reported a Serbian newspaper. Associate Professor Mladan Golubovic said they came up with the idea for “human motives”. Doctors had received information from the call centre that “a couple of patients they called for surgery had died in the meantime”. News of those avoidable deaths stung medics into action.

    A team of doctors and nurses proposed to work every weekday, including evenings, and throughout weekends. The management of the clinic, as well as all the other members of staff, said that they wanted to join in. “It took twelve weeks,” reported a jubilant Professor Golubovic. The team were finally able to leave the hospital to spend Easter with their families.

    When news got out, there was an incredible response from the Serbian people. They christened the exhausted staff “Heroes of the South”. “Wherever you are, walking around the city or going to lunch, our fellow citizens are delighted,” said Prof Golubovic.

    While “NHS Heroes” (ahem) are planning their next strike action, which will only add to the scary number of weekly excess deaths, it’s uplifting to know that there are still doctors and nurses who feel they have a moral obligation to their patients.”

  7. How long-range Storm Shadow missiles could help Ukraine destroy the Crimea bridge. 12 May 2023.

    Britain is sending Ukraine Storm Shadow missiles in a significant upgrade to Kyiv’s arsenal, allowing it to hit targets that have long been out of reach, including the Crimea bridge.

    Storm Shadow, a land-attack cruise missile, has a range of 250-400 km, depending on the variant, though the version delivered to Ukraine is likely to be at the lower end of this scale.

    In any case, the missile will allow the Ukrainian armed forces to strike targets virtually anywhere in the country, denying Russian forces sanctuary on its territory. This also includes Crimea and the Kerch Bridge that links the annexed Peninsula to the Russian mainland.

    The gift of these weapons to the Kiev Regime is an act of Criminal Stupidity. It has escalated the war without any possibility of bringing it to an end and may well bring on the final confrontation.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/11/ukraine-long-range-missiles-storm-shadow/

    1. Agreed. I keep on thinking that the latest stupidity couldn’t be topped, then the arseholes come with a bigger one.

      1. 374219+ up ticks,

        Morning JN.

        By the same token dangerous idiots, are returning these political idiots, to power
        again,again,and again.

    3. Am I the only one who considers this BTL comment to contain more than a bit of sense?
      The responses to it are VERY intolerant.

      John Hughes
      3 HRS AGO
      Another bad decision sanctioned by the unelected head of the UK Government. Britain is now in direct military conflict with Russia. British and Northern Irish people if asked in a vote would I suspect vote for UK to cease fighting Russia and supporting Ukraine a non NATO country with a corrupt non democratic Regime. These missiles must not be given to a corrupt Regime in order to fire at another corrupt country which has not attacked Britain. Shame on the British Defence Minister for he has never served in a war zone and will send more British troops to Ukraine to fight a war for a non NATO country. Shame on the entire UK Defence select committee for pushing Britain further closer into a full blown direct military conflict with Russia. The majority of the British Electorate if given the democratic vote to pull out and cease all support and growing UK military participation I suspect would vote to stop all involvement. I implore the unelected PM of the UK Government to ask the UK voter Electorate to decide which direction to take our country in this matter. I am a senior military veteran and would vote to STOP all support to Ukraine and pull out the small but growing number of British combat troops out of Ukraine. It is not too late. I Implore the appointed PM to ask the Electorate in a National Vote to sanction or to Stop his war against Russia. We are running out of time Mr Sunak.

      1. John Hughes has to realise that the UK government doesn’t take heed of what the UK electorate either wants or doesn’t want, it answers to a different power. Electing the party waiting in the wings will not change the direction of flow towards the disaster that is coming for the UK.
        The Who had it spot on : Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

      2. I despair of HMG. There are so many acts of suicide they are carrying out, and have carried out, I truly don’t know which element I feel the most rage about. Our energy supply (under the sea and under the soil), eco loonyism, Net Zeroin its entirety, windmills, solar panels, the state of the roads, tax … the list really is endless. What on earth is there to look forward to?

    4. At first reading this news appears to be madness, absolute madness. However, as just about every political action these days is clearly agenda driven the decision to escalate the conflict is calculated and not a mere action of folly. The agenda’s control is disturbingly powerful: how has that come about?

  8. “Jeremy Hunt should reward Stay-at-home mums with tax breaks”
    “Go back to work and we can cut income tax by 2p says Mel Stride”     (Who the fcuk is Mel Stride? A Spice Girl?)
    So, no contradictions there, then, Telegraph

  9. “Alice Chambers was unknowingly stood beside Just Stop Oil members…”
    What, somebody picker her up and stood her there, like a mannequin?
    Gee, never mind the lousy journalism, what about writing in English, at least, Telegraph? Maybe Somali would be better, based on the uncontrolled immigration levels.

  10. Morning all,

    Defense Attorney:
    Will you please state your age?

    Old Lady:
    I am 94 years old.

    Defense Attorney:
    Will you tell us, in your own words, what happened the night of April 1st?

    Old Lady:
    There I was, sitting there in my swing on my front porch on a warm spring evening,
    When a young man comes creeping up on the porch and sat down beside me.

    Defense Attorney:
    Did you know him?

    Old Lady:
    No, but he sure was friendly.

    Defense Attorney:
    What happened after he sat down?

    Old Lady:
    He started to rub my thigh.

    Defence Attorney:
    Did you stop him?

    Old Lady:
    No, I didn’t stop him.

    Defense Attorney:
    Why not?

    Little Old Lady:
    It felt good. Nobody had done that since my Albert died some 30 years ago.

    Defense Attorney:
    What happened next?

    Old Lady:
    He began to rub all over my body.

    Defense Attorney:
    Did you stop him then?

    Old Lady:
    No, I did not stop him.

    Defense Attorney:
    Why not?

    Old Lady:
    His rubbing made me feel all alive and excited. I haven’t felt that good in years!

    Defense Attorney:
    What happened next?

    Old Lady:
    Well, by then, I was feeling so spicy’ that I just laid down and told him
    ‘Take me, young man. Take me now!’

    Defense Attorney:
    Did he take you?

    Old Lady:
    Hell, no! He just yelled, ‘April Fool!’ And that’s when I shot him, the little bastard.

    1. Now that’s what I call a funny joke. (Sir Jasper, please take note.)

        1. Morning. Paul the ‘Mod‘.

          I’ve still not got my ‘Rocker‘ badge! 🤣

          3. Nope.
            🙁
            But somebody is importing the Piaggio APE 50 3-wheeler vans and pickups to Norway! I’m really tempted with one, just to decide – van (good for advertising decals) or pickup (cool factor).

        2. Oh dear, I thought that from time to time I contributed a few “funnies”, such as “Coronation Turkey, but not the entire turkey you understand – just the crown”. Is my humour really considered to be that poor?

      2. I did more than take note, Elsie, I’ve nicked it for The Bumper Joke Book, you’ll see it in about a year or so – if I’m spared.

    2. I don’t get this joke, you can’t prosecute criminals after they’re dead.

      1. The criminal here is the (still very much alive) old lady who is being prosecuted for murder.

        1. Jeez, I have never had a joke analysed so much before, it’s a frigging joke, what’s the matter with you people?

          1. Er … I know its a joke, a very funny joke, and I appreciated and “got” it straight away.

            I tried to explain it to BB since she claims she did not “get” it.

          2. Nottlers are now worried that their frisky old mothers and aunties might still be concealing their desires, and firearms.

  12. The electorate will punish the Tories for broken Brexit promises

    But unfortunately they will be punishing themselves too

  13. Morning all.

    Two particularly stupid letters today in the Terriblegraph, from Alan Lloyd and Ian Middleton. It’s possible, of course, these people exist; but I’d like to hope the Terriblegraph made these letters up, to troll us.

    1. Morning, MIR.

      The standard of letters published in the DT has plummeted exponentially since the execrable and clueless Orlando Bird replaced Christopher Howse as Letters Editor. I keep trying to get him to publish one of mine but serially fail. Today’s effort will be similarly discarded:

      SIR —John Loudon McAdam developed the first ‘Macadamised’ (tarmacked) road surface in 1816 (Letters, May 12). This was slightly ahead of the first railway. Since that time technology has progressed at an astoundingly accelerating pace.

      A hundred year later we had the first aircraft; airships came and went; petrol- and diesel-driven road, railway, maritime and aeronautical engines took over the world; jet and rocket technology were developed; the land speed record overtook the speed of sound; space exploration became routine; communications developed to such an extent that we now have all the information we require in tiny hand-held devices.

      Yet we are still being asked to drive our motor vehicles on primitive, failing, sub-standard, early-19th-century technology.

  14. Just been thinking about Welby’s speech saying that the governments plans for illegally trafficked immigrants are immoral and unchristian.

    Does it imply that it would be okay for other faiths to adopt these plans, especially as a fair share of those at the top of government are not in fact Christians.

    Could what he said be deemed antisemitic and Islamophobic, in that context?

    And that only Christians can hold moralistic values?

    1. Yesterday the BBC reported that there are only two countries in the world that allow unelected priests in their Parliament:

      Britain and Iran.

  15. Good morning
    tl;dr; in 2021, a paper was published by two reputable scientists showing that the spike protein (and therefore the vaxx) increases the risk of cancer. It was later pulled by US public servants. Not a great surprise to most people on here, probably.
    https://brokentruth.com/nihgate/

    2. She is gabbling so quickly it’s difficult to understand what she is saying.

    4. Although not a fan of Harry Potter, I have a lot of respect for Ms Rowling, and also her late literary agent.

  18. Morning all 🙂😉
    Light grey but not wet yet.
    Headline related, how many times do politicians actually believe that they can get away with all this cheating and continuous bareface lying. It’s not your country you morons, do as you are told for a change.
    I just wish we could bring back the stocks or a ducking stall.

    1. Clearly, they can get away with it all the time, as they do get away with it all the time.
      Time for revolution and piano wire.

      2. If only our own military would grow a pair and round them up lock them away pending investigation and court cases. I doubt if any of them are innocent.
        Let’s face it they wouldn’t be missed, they don’t actually do anything useful. They only follow orders from Whitehall. Lock them up as well.

  20. 374219+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Do YOU really think they give a shite, they are a political criminal alternating COALITIO, the dangerous dumbo electorate majority
    are once again about to give themselves a good well deserved sound thrashing, trouble is the innocents have to suffer also.

    What the electorate majority NEVER heed is when they plant their Judas kiss X on their party candidates paper they should never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you.

    Even for the sake of the ersatz (ino) party.

    Friday 12 May: The electorate will punish the Tories for broken Brexit promises

  22. Anyone notice how the media coverage of the SNP has suddenly vanished from our screens.

    2. The MSM don’t want publicity for the way that legacies to a political party were rerouted for the benefit of private individuals.

      I wonder why?

  23. Good morning all,

    Oh, what a grey day at McPhee Towers and it’s not going to get much better. Wind from the Nor’ Nor’ East, 10℃ with 13℃ maximum and the chance of showers in the afternoon. Still no sign of temperatures getting near the 30-year average for May. I need some climate change.

    Speaking of climate change, or CONVID, or energy prices, or food shortages or the war in Ukraine, they’re all apiece with the UN/WEF. Here’s the best summary I’ve come across for a while. Former Republican political aide Marc Morano speaking at the Heartland Institute recently. Want to know what the Great Reset is all about? Here it is in 43 minutes. Morano starts at 6:00:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW8wdKhmPvQ

    This is what our politicians who are on board with the WEF support. And the King. The kindest thing we can say is that they have been duped and we have to somehow help them to see their error. Some of them, however, are really on board. People like Kier Starmer, Trilateral Commission member, who prefers Davos to Westminster. Or Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor whom no-one in the Conservative Party wanted anywhere near Downing Street. Or Penny Mordaunt, Bill Gates groupie, who had him write an introduction to her book. She’s summed up here:

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/will-the-penny-finally-drop-about-morphing-mordaunt/

    These people are fair game.

  24. South Africa ‘sent weapons and ammunition to Russia’ in clandestine port transfer. 11 May 2023.

    South Africa provided Russia with weapons and ammunition as Vladimir Putin waged his invasion of Ukraine, the US has said.

    The American ambassador said the country had loaded arms and ammunition onto a Russian vessel in December, despite Pretoria claiming it wished to remain neutral in the conflict.

    Reuben E. Brigety II said Washington was convinced its intelligence was correct and considered the arming of Russian forces to be “extremely serious”.

    You have to smile at the staggering hypocrisy of it all. The US has sent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry to the Quasi-fascist regime in Kiev and then moans about one boatload of small arms ammunition to Russia.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/11/south-africa-ukraine-weapons-simons-town-naval-base/

      1. Some times I use to walk back to my digs in Judith’s Paarl from Hillbrow around 2am and see many security guards outside premises holding their knobs kerry.

  25. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with longbow, blooded axe and marmalade sandwich in handbag .

    It’s still raining in East Anglia – I wonder when Spring will arrive.

    1. Good morning Kitty! It’s dry and cloudy here at the moment. Not especially warm.

      1. Two and a half weeks of constant sunshine and blue skies here. More to come in the next few days.

        1. Had so little rain last night you can count the drop splashes on the car and patio.

    2. We could use rain. Forest and grass fires everywhere. Please send some over.

    3. It has arrived, this is normal! My daughters birthday is in March. In California it was always a garden party. No such luck in the UK

  26. Teacher ‘sacked over pronouns’ for girl, 8.

    A Primary school teacher has claimed that she was sacked after refusing to use an eight-year-old’s preferred pronouns.

    The teacher is taking legal action against Nottinghamshire county council, which runs the school, for alleged unfair dismissal.

    She claimed that two years ago, the school where she worked decided to facilitate the social transition of a girl who wanted to be treated as a boy.

    The school instructed staff to always refer to the girl with male pronouns and a male name, and said that she should use boy’s lavatories and dressing rooms.

    The teacher said that she raised concerns about the pupil’s welfare and followed the school’s whistleblowing procedure to raise safeguarding concerns about the girl’s social transition.

    The school responded by writing to the teacher informing her that the child would be moved to a different class “to safeguard him from any potential harm”.

    The teacher, who is a Christian, was told that her “personal beliefs”, if acted on, “could be a direct breach of GDPR and an act of direct discrimination”.

    She is claiming unfair dismissal and religious discrimination. The employment tribunal is expected to hear the claim in August.

    Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is backing the teacher’s case, said: “This story exposes the confusion and untruths being embedded in primary schools which are developing into a public health crisis.”

    Nottinghamshire county council did not respond to a request for comment.

    When this 8-year old “it” uses the boys’ lavatory, how efficiently will it fare when standing at the urinal? That is not a rhetorical question!

    The increasing, out-of-control stupidity of the human species is now clearly and vividly described in every page of any newspaper you care to pick up these days.

    1. This kind of thing is purely a smokescreen for what is really going on behind the scenes.

    2. Not the first teacher to be sacked for refusing to go along with every child or teenage fantasy about sex change. During the one and only year that one of my children spent in the UK state system, a teacher was sacked for the same thing. Sacked, and not replaced – the class was left without an English teacher for most of the GCSE year.

    3. In order to create a totalitarian society they first need to make everyone afraid to speak up even in the face of insanity, public sector workers are all being groomed.

    4. I would be interested to know the breakdown of those pretending to be what they are not: by race, religion, and social class etc.

      My guess, without any knowledge to support it other than observation, is that it is predominantly among white middle class atheists/agnostics; in the case of older men to gain an advantage such as promotion, easier competition or special treatment such as being put in women’s prisons and in the case of children to draw attention to themselves, often with the parents “basking in the glory” of a trans child.

      The teachers and social services and paedophile perverts who support and push this agenda should treated with utter contempt and stopped.

    5. There are now make-believe willy-catheters for that purpose. I don’t know how well the work but you can bet you won’t be told if they leak all over her shoes.

        2. So either you walk about with that uncomfortable-looking thing in your pants or you pop into a cubicle to put it in to then step out to the urinals.
          Well. Not you, obviously.
          But who the hell do these people think they are kidding?!?

          1. In common with most inventions, they exist to make their manufacturers rich.

          2. You remember Pet Rocks? Made the genius that thought that up a millionaire. He made 4 million dollars out of the idea.

          3. Was that the charcoal?granite? from Oz that was supposed to neutralise dog pee so your lawn didn’t suffer?

        3. And after it’s been used, what do you do with it? Shove it dripping wet into a pocket or handbag???

    6. Ah, fond memories of primary school. Before it was knocked down for being unsanitary, my school had separate outdoor toilets for the girls and the boys. The boys had a trough and a low wall behind. We used to have competitions to see who could pee over the wall and onto the girls on the other side.

      How does that work when on is transitioning?

      1. I remember a cartoon sketch showing a boys’ school urinal with an inked line on the wall only a few inches below the ceiling with the legend: SCHOOL RECORD.

    1. I have every sympathy with him, it is very difficult to keep to such stupidly low limits unless one drives nearer 15 than 20 and that almost certainly means it is also impossible to overtake a slow moving cyclist safely in the distances likely to be available.
      To do so generally requires driving in a gear that is less efficient and more polluting due to the higher revs.
      The driver spends too much time glancing at the speedo, watching for the inevitable potholes and not concentrating on the road and other road users.
      The net result is less safety and more pollution.

      1. In Wales we have the joys of a 20 limit being imposed in September in all areas that were previously 30, unless exempted by the council. I can only imagine the frustration that will cause for drivers all over the land.

        1. The proponents will argue that 20 is more efficient, which in perfect conditions it might be if but only if one can maintain that speed.
          But that ignores the constant slowing and acceleration, even if gentle. caused by the higher traffic densities. It also ignores the effect on trucks and lorries and the greater time spent idling while trying to enter the main road from side roads and driveways etc.

          1. Actually the most fuel-efficient speed is 30. This is where top gear can be used.

          2. It very much depends on the car and the tyres and the prevailing traffic and weather conditions and the driver themselves.
            Most testing to produce quoted mpg is highly controlled and bears little resemblance to reality.

        2. Yer French tried that malarkey – reducing the 90 kph limit to 80 kph on roads that were not dual carriage.

          Most of the limits have been scratched. We tried to calculate the cost of replacing hundreds of thousands of “90” signs with “80” – then replacing them again…..

          1. The villages around here have had the central roads narrowed, huge sleeping policemen (ramps) erected on all approach roads and 30km speed limits imposed. That is 19.6 mph – a ridiculous limit. The speed limit on rural roads outside towns and villages was 80 kph (50mph), reduced to 70 (43 mph) then many returned to 80 kph. Speed limits in towns are 50 kph (30mph) unless posted otherwise. Motorways and dual carriages vary between 90 and 120 kph (64 mph).

        3. I found it incredibly difficult to keep to 20mph the last time I drove through a village in Wales. I had to keep braking to attempt to drive that slowly – and I don’t have a fast car.

      3. I would normally have sympathy with anyone in that situation however the more grief that twat gets the better

        1. Are you suggesting that God works in mysterious ways, his blunders to reform?

    3. Goodness I do have something in common with the Archprick after all – we’re the same age! Speeding at 25 mph? We really do live in clownworld, don’t we?

    4. Notice, that in addition to hefty £300 fine, there was a £120 ‘victim surcharge’. Who is deemed the ‘victim’ in this case?

      1. The (un)civil servant who was forced to write a letter reminding the Archprick he hadn’t paid the fine on time. Working from home he had his afternoon siesta disturbed.

  28. 374219+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    Will the royal cattle be introduced to any other injection other than the regular animal welfare jabs, also will there be a trustworthy
    Body working on the peoples behalf to oversee these injections given to cattle nationwide.

    Bear in mind many of these pretendee politico’s are working to a different agenda, dying for a rib-eye could mean just that.

    1. Have you not come across the Peoples’ Food and Farming Alliance? (PFFA)

      The relatively new organisation exists to promote Home Grown Food, Community Growing and Mixed Farming.
      Very high on it’s Agenda is a “Guard the Gate” action. They are seeking lawful ways of denying access to Government Officials in order to prevent use of MNR vaccines and the like.
      Their strap line is “Local Food for Local People”

      Anyone interested really should join up with them.

      1. 374219+ up ticks,

        Morning N,

        I was just casting a line to see what materialised on the vaxx front

        Guard the gate is very apt as in, put incarceration guards on gates & co,

        1. There is a proposal kicking around that all cattle should be injected with some MNRA substance which is supposed to control their methane output – do they really believe that we are fooled by this sh1t?

          Please do catch up with the PFFA or their sister organisation the Peoples’ Health Alliance. The latter has set up volunteer health hubs around the country for people who are finding it difficult to access primary care via the NHS.

          PFFA have set up a directory of farms which sell direct, along side a buying group and a seedbank.

          All useful stuff with more to come.

      2. This is a great movement! Thank you for the information. I am already involved with similar stuff locally, but hadn’t heard of this organisation.

  29. Just been out to the greenhouse. All well – but it is a HORRIBLE morning. Bitter, fierce north wind. Stove lit. So much for our plans for gardening today.

    1. At least we have a break from “experts” scaremongering about “climate emergencies” until the sun comes out again.

    3. 15:30 here in Moffat, Sun-shining and 14°C.

      This is probably The Borders’ Summer!

        1. Many a good tune played on an old upright.
          Release sha keys (Alicia Key’s)

  31. Politics latest news: Top Brexiteer criticises Kemi Badenoch in row over axing EU laws
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/12/rishi-sunak-news-latest-labour-kemi-badenoch-eu-laws/

    If John Redwood, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mark Francois and the rest of the ERG stay in the Conservative Party after this gross betrayal by the prime minister, Sunak, in reneging on his commitment to scrap EU legislation then their credibility is totally destroyed.

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    I think that Brexit could have liberated Britain. However with the majority of the MPs and virtually all the members of the House of Lords and Civil Service opposed to it and determined to thwart it it is hardly surprising that it has failed.

    We must accept that the UK is no longer a democracy – what the electorate want and what they get are very different things. We must also accept that it is not Brexit which has failed but those responsible for effecting it who have wilfully destroyed it.

    1. We must accept that the UK is no longer a democracy – what the electorate want and what they get are very different things. We must also accept that it is not Brexit which has failed but those responsible for effecting it who have wilfully destroyed it.

      It would be a big mistake to accept this. Recognise it we must but we must also fight back against it.

      1. I am sure that many of us remember school chapel chapel services when we were young. In my school, in addition to the services on Sundays, we had a daily service of about 15 minutes each morning. This consisted of a prayer and a brief talk from the chaplain, a hymn or a psalm and a reading by a school prefect from the Bible.

        My school was in Devon and one of the chaplain’s favourite prayers, which he frequently declaimed, was that of the famous Devonian, Sir Francis Drake:

        There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.

        The only hope for Brexit being completed properly and ‘thoroughly finished’ is for the EU to collapse so that by the time Starmer’s coalition with the Lib/Dems is in power the EU will no longer be there to rejoin.

  32. Good Morning folks.

    Sunny and bright here in lovely Wiltshire this morning.

  33. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/12/jeremy-hunt-miriam-cates-stay-at-home-mums-taxes-tory-party/

    No, he shouldn’t. Instead, he should cut taxes for everyone, across the board, especially those on energy, fuel.

    He shouldn’t help stay at home Mums who don’t work. He should make work pay and leave people enough money and flexibility in the workplace. In short, government should do nothing for one group but should benefit everyone by buggering off.

    1. What makes you say “stay at home Mums who do not work”?
      How are they not working when they are doing the most important job than anyone can do – bringing up the next generation.
      If more Mums stayed at home instead of consigning their kids to the group think Nursery environment it is quite possible that we mgiht breed a generation of kids who have decent values and love of country. They might also avoid many of today’s mental health ailments.

      I stayed at home with my kids until the youngest went to school. I am pretty sure they benefitted from that time.

      3. Hungary and Russia support mums with incentives to raise the next generation. We in the UK import outsiders to do that job. Race replacement.

      4. Work in terms of providing taxes to the economy. I’m not suggesting raising a child is not ‘work’, but it does not pay tax. In my view, work pays tax. Let me leave that as ‘my definition’.

        And yes, this would be the ideal situation – but they have to be able to fund that themselves. I do not believe it is the job of others to pay for my life choices.

        Now hear me out! mo/fatherhood is a critical role in society. A lot of the problems we have are simply because far too many people bunk off their responsibilities – the response shows none of you did. There are increasingly few who properly prepare financially for a child assuming welfare will pay the way. That is unfair.

        Look at it another way – why should other people pay Mongo’s vet bills? Ah, he’s a dog… yes… so? It is MY choice to have him. Same as Junior is my son, my responsibility at every level.

        But that’ll just mean ‘da wich’ will have children. Maybe, but that just shows how appallingly high our taxes are. A family should be able to raise children on one income, without the support of the state. The crux of the argument is that by constantly looking to the state to support them, the state destroys the family through taxation. Hell,, on the bus yesterday the ultimate abomination of 5 brattish, screaming children and one gobby, screaming mother got on and swore at these kids the whole time. That’s the problem. That is what, through the abolition of welfare must be solved. If that means people don’t have children unless they can afford them, so be it.

        Sorry – I am tired of paying for other people. Look at the country. Look at the litter, the graffiti, the scrawl, the screaming yobs, the over crowded schools. That is the end result of providing for a child being abrogated to the state. I *DO* support significant revision of the tax code for the nuclear family. That’s just sensible. Brown removed that because socialists hate the family.

    2. I have no doubt that when it is time for them to return to the barge half the bus passengers will not turn up.

    3. Just like these cruises where each day the vessel berths at a new port and the passengers go sightseeing, the difference here is that the passengers probably won’t be going back aboard.

    4. There seems to be no let up in the display of growing stupidity from our government and witless-hall.

    5. How lucky you will be to make so many more nice new friends. Bake a few cakes and invite them around for tea.

  36. Phew! I’m sweating!
    Have just done my morning sting of heavy graft, another 6 x bags of soil filled, carried up to the Folly, tipped and spread about.
    Now for a mug of tea!

    1. Will the ‘Hanging Baskets of Bonsall’ be open to the viewing public when finished?

      1. Never mind that- the Great Wall of Bonsall will be visible from space!

      1. I agree Araminta. It will be the public in the West who have fallen for the incessant propaganda of their/our respective governments and its poodle media. Hopefully it will be a lesson learned and the public will become more sceptical and demand change. If that doesn’t happen governments will simply go on to another lie to use as propaganda against the people and to justify their elitist policies.

          1. Yes thanks Araminta. Feeling better but out of touch. Didn’t keep up with news etc because I couldn’t see very well. But the eye drops for my incipient glaucoma worked very well although I have to use them every day for the rest of my life. Still, better than going blind I think you would agree.

  38. I went to the bank yesterday and an old man asked me help him check his balance.
    So, I pushed him over.

      2. After another row between us my wife broke the silence by saying, “This
        isn’t working, is it?”
        It was like a huge weight had been lifted of me and I turned to her and
        said, “Thank God you feel the same way! The thought of living in a
        loveless marriage for another 20 years was overwhelming me. I’ll get the
        divorce proceedings kicked off first thing in the morning.”
        As tears welled up in her eyes, she replied, “I was talking about the
        microwave.”

  39. OT – there was a very good two-part documentary about the amiable Mr Erdogan on t’telly this week. Apart from everything else, he was (is) – like Mr Putin – always immaculately turned out. Even during the recent, failed, military coup, when he was in hiding – he made a video from what looked like a cupboard – but was still smartly dressed.

    The “election” takes place on Sunday. I imagine the result is already known – just waiting for the right moment after the polls close to release it!

    The chap doesn’t like any opposition…..

    1. I’m very suspicious about that so called coup – I have worked with some very professional members of the Turkish armed forces and if they had really been involved Erdogan would be long gone!

      1. Well, there seemed to be a lot of shooting and tanks – but they could, of course, have been Erdogan’s. Perhaps he just wanted to gaol 50,000 people who didn’t like him….

    1. If only the BBC could tell the same truth about the UK and Climate Change!

      1. The BBC don’t even have ‘a few good men’. They can’t handle the truth !
        https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=1f2289db6cf3101fJmltdHM9MTY4Mzg0OTYwMCZpZ3VpZD0wMzNhZTVjOC1mODBmLTZkNmYtMmQ3YS1mNmM2ZjlkZDZjNWYmaW5zaWQ9NTE0Ng&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=033ae5c8-f80f-6d6f-2d7a-f6c6f9dd6c5f&u=a1L2ltYWdlcy9zZWFyY2g_cT1hK2Zldytnb29kK21lbitxdW90ZXMmcXB2dD1hK2Zldytnb29kK21lbitxdW90ZXMmRk9STT1JR1JF&ntb=1

      2. If only the BBC could tell the same truth about the UK and Climate Change!

        1. “Truth’s a dog, that must to kennel: he must be whipped out, when the Lady Brach may stand by the fire and stink.”

          [King Lear]

    2. Typically nearly every time africans take over something in it’s entirety, they f*ck it up big time, there was a huge and very important lesson to learn, from what that vile POS Mugabe did to Zimbabwe, after the whites were kicked out. He wrecked the place with his own form of racism corruption and mass murder.

    3. What were those warnings? Oh yes. That not enough power stations had been built because of an obsession with green. Coal is NOT unreliable. They are not maintain because there’s not enough capacity to pick up the slack FOR maintenance.

      Oh yes. Corruption. Such as MPs getting massive kickbacks for windmills. For appallingly expensive contracts for unreliables that, oddly, on retirement see civil servants join their boards.

      Again, the BBC lies by omission. The same is happening here. We will be in the exact same situation. The Left wing green agenda must be abandoned and rational energy policy imposed. After all, energy is a massive force on prices – inflation. The state lies about that as well. We should be building 20 to 30 modular reactors now They’d be on stream in 2030. Alongside that, gas plants, at least 5, ideally 10. Abandon the EU project HS2 and build energy.

      However, they won’t. When the lights go out they’ll say ‘we should have acted to combat climate change earlier’.

  41. Some English feminists, especially those in the Labour Party, will be looking at this proposal with interest.

    The SNP has declared war on justice

    Humza Yousaf’s administration no longer trusts juries on rape cases. It will mean more innocent people being locked away

    MATTHEW SCOTT • 10 May 2023 • 4:50pm

    You might think that sexual cases are often hard to prove because they frequently depend upon the credibility of just two people. You might also think that where juries find it impossible to be sure where the truth lies, it is better to let the guilty off than to convict the innocent.

    These views, however, are no longer held by the Scottish Government.

    For the SNP-led administration, the relatively high acquittal rate in Scottish rape cases is not attributed to the natural caution of ordinary people agonising over momentous decisions in the absence of conclusive evidence.

    Instead, it is attributed to what it calls “rape myths,” such as the belief “that previous sexual contact between a complainer and an accused is indicative of consent”. Since ordinary people can’t be trusted to eschew such wrong-think, rape cases need to be decided only by those who have been trained in right-think.

    In short: it does not trust juries to make the right decision.

    Whether all such “rape myths” are in fact “myths” is another question, but the belief that juries acquit because of them has long been an article of faith amongst campaigners. It was given some support by academic research on Scottish mock juries, although research on actual jurors who deliberated on real cases (albeit in England and Wales) reached a very different conclusion.

    The Victims Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill contains the most radical proposals for changes in criminal procedure in the British Isles since judge-only “Diplock” courts were introduced for terrorist trials in Northern Ireland. In many ways the proposed changes are even more far-reaching.

    Central to the Bill is the establishment of a “Sexual Offences Court” to try any case involving a sexual allegation. It will be “trauma informed.” Judges and advocates – whether prosecution or defence – will only be allowed to practise in it after completing an “approved” course of training on “trauma-informed practice.” This vague expression is defined as:

    “…processes and practices, based on [the] understanding of the effects of trauma, to seek to avoid, or minimise the risk of, exposing the person to any recurrence of past trauma or further trauma.”

    These are similar to the processes and practices which led the Metropolitan Police to “believe the victim,” even when the “victim” turned out to be someone like the shameless liar Carl Beech. Taking care not to upset Mr Beech – by seeking to avoid anything, such as scepticism, that might have exposed him to a recurrence of past trauma – seemed to lead to a blinkered investigation which sadly increased the trauma for his innocent victims.

    We don’t know exactly what these “approved courses” on trauma informed practice will teach, but it takes little imagination to guess that they will encourage practices that improve the chances of convictions. Courses focusing on the prevention of the considerable trauma of facing false allegations will certainly not be approved.

    There are many other proposals which are also transparently designed to increase conviction rates, and not only in sexual cases. Scottish juries currently consist of 15 people, and – unlike in England and Wales and most common law jurisdictions where either unanimity or near unanimity is required – can convict on a simple majority. Scottish law thus provides the unique safeguard of a “not proven” verdict.

    Now it is to be abolished. Instead, juries will be reduced to 12, with a two-thirds majority sufficient for a conviction. Without the safeguard of “not proven,” to allow convictions on such a slender majority makes a mockery of the need for the jury to be “sure beyond reasonable doubt.”

    But it is the proposal for the establishment of a judge-only court for rape cases that has attracted the greatest controversy. The court will run as an experiment for an indefinite period. If it leads to more convictions it will no doubt be judged a success and made permanent.

    Admittedly some of the criticisms of the proposal have been rather silly. Magna Carta has been cited, but King John’s settlement with the English barons has no relevance to the Scottish legal system. And nor is there anything inherently unjust about judge-only trials. Many minor criminal cases both north and south of the border are tried by Sheriffs or District Judges.

    What is truly objectionable about the proposals is that they are not being introduced to improve justice, but to ensure that those whom ordinary people would have acquitted will in the future be tried by a cadre of the elite who can be reliably trusted to find them guilty.

    Matthew Scott is a barrister at Pump Court Chambers

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/10/the-snp-has-declared-war-on-justice/

    1. Big government has never liked the idea of people getting involved in law. It can’t guarantee it will get the result it wants.

      1. That’s why the SNP centralised the polis, fire brigade, and are now attempting to do the same to care services! The ‘justice’ system is already half way down that route!

        1. Polis? Are the Jock police Swedish? 😉

          In Norway and Denmark they have Politi.

    1. They are incompetent. The OBR refuses to accept the fact that tax cuts create growth. The say they need more tax to pay off the debt, then hike spending. Their every decision is the wrong one. It’s not difficult to explain why the country is suffering, but the state simply doesn’t care.

  43. Alf has had letter from NHS following a Respiratory Medicine consultation. Smashingletter, mentioning everything Alf said and, as our memories are not what they were, I made notes while we were there.

    Just to say the NHS dip oils save an awful lot of money by using 1 page instead of 2. The 2nd page is just the patients address. It could easily be culled. Every little helps …

    2. All the letters I have, the first half of the lead page is taken up with headlines Numbers names and addresses.
      Only half wat down appears Dear Mr Patient ………..

    3. They’d save even more money if they sent emails out. Yes, make that opt in, but they ask for it, they should use it.

    1. The Telegraph did a review of this book in April: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/lady-suzanne-heywood-family-sailing-nightmare-childhood/

      We both read the article and concluded that we had done things very differently, particularly the formal education bit. We spent hours every day doing correspondence courses with our boys in order to ensure that they would not lose out in that way.

      While neither of our sons complain about having spent so much time on the boat, their experiences of going back into regular education were very different. Before we left on our travels, one of our sons was finding the social side of school life difficult and, when he went back into a proper school in the Sixth Form, he found school life difficult again. The other son had no such difficulties, either before our travels or after.

      Goes to show how personalities are rooted in genetics!

      1. Thank you Caroline. After what your husband has told us about your adventures i thought this story was from someone who didn’t know how to enjoy themselves or deal with reality. The opportunities alone compared to an ‘ordinary’ upbringing were stupendous.

      2. In that excerpt the author does sound bitter even though she is smiling in the photos.

  45. OT – nice story from yer France:

    “A teacher is to stand trial for burning his pupils’ Baccalauréat English exam papers in protest against a system he said was failing to teach the language.

    Victor Immordino was arrested after he tore up 63 completed papers from the school leavers’ exam, threw them into a metal waste paper bin, and set fire to them in the street outside his school in the northern 17th arrondissment of Paris on Tuesday. “I saw the exams. They were catastrophic. They will be given another opportunity to resit them,” he told the broadcaster BFMTV.

    “We see students who have spent seven years in this system and can’t string two words of English together,” Immordino, 29, said as flames engulfed the papers. A third of his students had handed in blank papers and only a handful had come close to passing, he said. “The fault is with the system.”

    Pupils at his lycée professionnel, who are destined for vocational jobs in trades and crafts, were discouraged and unmotivated by a rigid curriculum unsuited to them, Immordino said after reading an extract from an exam paper in gibberish. “This is to say the Baccalauréat is out of date and that’s what blocks any innovation in the secondary system,” he said.

    The contract teacher has been suspended and barred from approaching the school until his trial in October 27 for “destruction of property by dangerous means”. The offence is punishable by prison or a fine.

    The education ministry said Immordino was already in conflict with his superiors for giving pupils English exam questions in advance in order to improve their marks. His pupils would sit the exam again, it said.

    Many pupils still leave French schools unable to hold basic conversations in English despite two decades of efforts to modernise language teaching in the rigorous but under-performing education system.

    President Macron visited a lycée professionnel last week to announce a big overhaul of the vocational sector, which is attended by a third of school pupils, many of them relegated there after failing in middle school. To raise motivation and standards, the curriculum is to be modified and pupils will be paid for internships in enterprises.”

    Rings true to me. In Laure, a teenager who lived across the road spent 8 years doing English – and could barely form a coherent sentence.
    She became an “interpreter” – as she passed her English exam – by using the corrected material I had sent her! She never wanted to speak to us in English!

    1. If my experience of a (French) teacher of English at a lycee was anything to go by, it’s no wonder. She wasn’t very good at English at all (and her pronunciation was very dodgy).

  46. And before I wend my way to the wasteland of the supermarket…..

    My husband cooks for me as though I’m a goddess.
    He places burnt offerings in front of me.

    1. If it were to highlight the pointlessness of 20mph limits on many urban roads, it would be a good thing.

  49. 374219+ up ticks,

    UK First Country to Send Longer Range Cruise Missiles to Ukraine, Says They Aren’t for Striking Russia

    Smacks of mass extinction of the United Kingdoms indigenous peoples is truly on the cards.

    Cant complain really, these politico maniacs were the afterbirth of the polling booth.

    1. At last it will be over quickly, much better than the slow lingering death via net zero

      1. 374219+ up ticks,

        Afternoon B3

        That does sound like the proven lethal killer, voting pattern is set to continue, no hint from the party first electoral majority
        of a fight back then ?

      1. 374219+ up ticks,

        Evening Anne,

        Could it be following the United Kingdoms lead and culling their own & blaming Ivan of course, the road to RESET is paved with devilish, treacherous, deceitful actions.

  51. This is the end of online privacy. Spiked 12 May 2023.

    David Davis MP on how the Online Safety Bill could turn Big Tech into Big Brother.

    When governments seek to curtail privacy, they usually say it is necessary for people’s safety. In that sense, this power-grab by the government fits the usual trend. It also means that this is likely just the beginning of a wider erosion of privacy rights online. When the government finds out that, despite its best efforts, it cannot completely purge child-abuse content from the internet, it will inevitably demand tougher, more invasive measures. And even if it is not the current government that does this, future governments may use the bill as a basis on which to demand more general surveillance of private messages.

    Of course. It’s not the end of privacy but of Freedom. The Freedom to say what you like without fear of the consequences.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/05/12/this-is-the-end-of-online-privacy/

    1. I prefer virtual friends. They are cheaper to maintain.

      Actually, as i have got older i find i have fewer friends. Suits me fine.

          5. The outdoor staff and their Rhodesian Ridgebacks will help you find your way to the hospital.

          7. Bill’s a big softy really. He likes to keep it interesting for his guests. A bit like Hammer House of Horror with extra screaming. What larks.

          9. The Billy bit borne out by the statistics shown, that it’s much more a male problem.

      2. My sister and I were discussing this on Tuesday. We both have fewer friends now than when we were younger, and it suits us both! Lazy, intolerant, can’t be a*sed? Don’t know, don’t care!

        1. I have really good neighbours who have become firm friends. Parties and nights out in restaurants. Using each others larders when necessary. Other than that i enjoy having lunches with Nottlers. What a weird bunch they are !

    2. As a man, I’d agree with the trend. 1990 was a long while ago, had several close friends. Now reduced by distance and death to maybe 1.
      Wonder what their definition of “friend” is?

      1. Living in different countries must certainly be part of it. More time spent online?
        It’s still not good though. People who know their neighbours and get along with them are stronger than people who are isolated – as every good authoritarian dictator knows.

      2. My definition of ‘friend’ is someone you don’t see for a year and then pick up where you left off.

        1. I’d say that was a close friend. Had one of those, once, until they fell off the edge of the world.
          For me, a friend is someone who actively wants to be in your company.

        2. One of my French friends is like that. We don’t see each other for ages, but when we do it’s as though we’ve never been apart.

          2. Neil Oliver’s history podcast is up on YouTube- about the Highland Clearances. Very interesting and very sad. You might find it interesting.

          3. Yes I know the area well Ann – a beautiful part of the Highlands
            I laughed when he said “I was hit by Bettyhill” and wondered if he’d hit her back

          5. I don’t do links but if you go on YT and search Neil Oliver podcasts , it will come up.

          6. I got about ten million hits for that, and none of them looked like Highland Clearances. Or the vid above, by Spikey.

          7. It’s Neil Oliver’s Love letters to the British Isles, episode 68- “Destroying our way of life.”

          8. That’s wah confuses… thought it might have the words “Highland” and “Clearances” in the title.
            My Clan was dispersed around then. My bit went to NE England, others to New Zealand, Australia…

      4. My number of close friends has also declined through mortality, unfortunately.

    1. Does he blame the Mayor for being unchristian with these draconian speed limits?

  54. Radio 4 this morning: Not sure if I heard it right but it was said that a train driver can earn £500 per day if they work on their day of rest.

    The average train driver salary in the UK is £48,500 per year, £58,795 in London. That’s more than £1000 per week. Some earn more than £1,500 per week. Why are they on strike?

    3. More pay isn’t about economics, it’s about showing the Union is still relevant, exercising power, and sticking it to da witch Torwees.

    4. Can’t wait till, because global warming, we are all reliant on public transport and therefore in the hands of the oh-so-caring communist unions.

      Good job, politicians!

  55. I ordered a 2022 Hyunda Kona EV without test driving one on the basis of this video:

    https://youtu.be/emcZlJ45oVE

    I had no idea about what it meant to be more fun than an a Tesla but it’s turned out to much like any sports hatchback although its marketed as an SUV. This user’s experience of leasing one just about sums it up:

    https://youtu.be/r6OWwtKj13E

    Tesla acceleration:

    https://youtu.be/oSmU3siR2gA

    What I didn’t realise was that the Kona’s acceleration is not that far short of a Tesla 3 so I can understand how MOH felt when I put my foot my foot to the floor to lose a lailgater behind me:

  56. NO BACK WAY FOR PHIL? D Mail headline.

    What a load of bowlocks! It’s the only way with Phil (Schofield). Everyone knows he is gay, he admitted it himself three years ago. Can’t they get anything right! 😀

    1. I had never heard of this person when the Daily Mail became obsessed with him a few years ago, and I have still never heard of him outside their pages!

      1. Shirley knott, bb2? Did you miss the fuss about him and the blonde bimbo jumping the queue to pass the Queens coffin?

        1. I may have seen it in the Mail, but my brain can’t hold onto the important stuff these days, let alone sleb trivia!

          1. I think you may be pushing it with the sleb word! Well, someone must read the sidebar of shame…..

    2. It was all those years holed up in The Broom Cupboard with Gordon the Gopher.

  58. Heat pumps are starting to look like a conspiracy against the public.12 May 2023.

    British Gas has come out this week and stated what has doubtless been obvious for a long time to some homeowners who did take the plunge: that a standard heat pump runs at water temperatures which are too low to heat many properties. From now on, says the company, it will only agree to install a heat pump if it is convinced that it will succeed in getting the property up to a target temperature on the coldest days. If any of the heat pumps it installs fail this test, it says it will refund the money.

    Lol. The penny drops! Chalk up another one for the “Conspiracy Theorists!”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/12/the-heat-pump-farce-has-finally-been-exposed/

    1. Meh. The Telegraph doesn’t really believe it’s a conspiracy.
      Because, you know, why would anyone do that?

    2. Several roads round our way are closed …. because Cadent are replacing/repairing gas pipes.
      The old ones were probably installed by the Victorians, so are we looking at another 150 years of gas supply?

  59. Knowing my luck, I’ll be reincarnted as me again (not Meghan, you understand. At least she has money).

    1. Being (uncharacteristically) pedantic, I don’t think they DO mean the same.

      “Fat chance” = zero possibility of succeeding.

      “Slim chance” = just possible to succeed.

      (There is no charge for this advice…{:¬)))

  61. Took a sexual harassment course this morning.
    I think I’m going to be good at it!

  62. I was lonely until I glued a coffee cup onto the roof of my car.
    Now, everybody waves to me.

      1. Exactly! we need the “above average” temperatures to balance out the cold days!

      3. Wondered whether we should go to Bahrein for Easter. At least it would be warm.

    2. Oh yeah? Bloody freezing here – two pullovers, woodburner and STILL chilly.

    3. Just put the CH on.
      I’m quite worried about all the blossom being blown off in this freezing wind. And no bees for pollution.

    6. When I collected the Noddy car from the garage, the mechanic admitted that he’d cracked and put the heating on again.

    1. Russian authorities will launch construction of a village outside Moscow for conservative-minded Americans and Canadians next year, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.

      No Brits? I was going to put my name down!

    1. Perhaps the current dodgy US government has carried out this recent debacle in order to justify their pre-intentions to fake count and the amount of support at the next election. They will claim people voted against Trump because of the alleged way he was supposed to have behaved.
      It seems that nobody in any form of politics can be trusted. Honesty just does not exist anymore. Anywhere.

  68. Out of the blue in the last three days I’ve had two long lost cousins suddenly get in touch with me.
    And as far as I know I haven’t
    won the lottery. 🤩
    One from QLD and one from Bucks.
    They might have been in touch with each other I think. But two very nice, now elderly ladies.
    The QLD cousin use to live in Perth when we docked at Freemantle on our way to Melbourne 1976. She picked us up and showed us around we had lunch at King’s Park.
    We stayed with her near Brisbane on our long journey from Adelaide to Gladstone QLD.
    A Lovely surprise.

      2. This is outrageous. Its a totally unessesary figment of some insane morons imagination.

  70. I wonder what Russia’s reaction will be if the new missiles donated to Ukraine are used against the Russians in Crimea.
    Britain has said on many occasions that Crimea was illegally annexed.
    If it was me being attacked thus I would regard it as an act of war by Britain and I would be sorely tempted to retaliate in some way, perhaps an unattributable cyber attack via a third party country, Iran for example.

      3. Johnson’s parting shot last week was that Ukraine should come under the NATO umbrella…..

          1. I was shocked at his deliberate stirring of the pot to incite a provocative Russian response. Absolutely not. I couldn’t agree more.

        2. Johnson is beholden to the US and cares nothing for either the Russians or the Ukrainians.

          Bunter cares only for himself and screwing as much money as he can from any idiot foundation or university willing to pay him for his speeches.

          The conflict has arisen because twits like Johnson and those in the US wish to put NATO weapons on Russia’s border with Ukraine. They should have left well alone but instead put a comedian, Zelensky, in place to do their bidding. Putin took back Crimea as he understood the ambition was for NATO and the US to take over the naval base(s) which command navigation of the Black Sea.

          As matters stand Europe, UK and US have invested two hundred billions and more in training Ukrainian fighters and supplying every conceivable weapon, tanks, missile defence systems, and artillery to Ukraine. Much of this equipment has been stolen, finding its way onto the international black markets. The rest is presently being mercilessly destroyed by superior Russian strategy and forces.

          There can be no Ukrainian offensive for the reason that their army and arms have been so depleted. The best Zelensky can now do is plea for redrawn boundaries with Russia and agree to drop forever the idea of Ukraine joining NATO. I imagine the surviving Ukrainian people will take their revenge on their government for allowing this manipulation by the West (for the personal profit of fraudsters) and the near destruction of much of their infrastructure.

          Expect Zelensky to seek exile in the US.

    2. The RAF ‘Rivet Joint’ electronic intelligence aircraft already flies missions for the Ukes, albeit in NATO airspace. Supplying more sophisticated weapons increases the likelyhood of retaliation in some form.

      1. Agreed, if/when it happens we will have only ourselves to blame, and doubtless the congenital bloody idiots in charge will try to invoke NATO article 5.

    4. Didn’t France give Exocet missiles to Argentina during the Falklands troubles?

          2. And the French hierarchy have never been able to forgive us for saving them. Tom.
            But we’ve had some superb holidays in France. And also had help in difficult situations from decent French people.

          3. The ordinary folk are okay. Same as here in the UK really. I would add ordinary Russians are just as friendly.
            We all seem to end up with the worst type of leadership.

          4. It must have been 30 years ago.
            On our first visit with our then two sons in our volvo estate. I pulled into a garage on a Friday afternoon to fill up with fuel and it was card only. We didn’t use bank cards back then. I only had cash and the kiosk was closed. A guy on the opposite pump paid for my fill up with his card and I gave him the cash.

      2. I think so, but the real issue was the maintenance support for the Super Étendard planes which launched the attacks

      3. They used the excuse that they were under contract with Argentina.
        But they didn’t pay the EU fine when they, the french banned British beef when the BSE long after the out break was over.
        And they still sell undersize fish on their open markets.

  71. Par Four today.

    Wordle 692 4/6
    🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟩⬜🟩🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Five for me – but that’s better then a seven.

      Wordle 692 5/6

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

      1. Men too. Edit; Jesus, Me too.
        Wordle 692 5/6

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

  72. We watch Masterchef usually watch the beginning, give up and return towards the end.
    So far it’s a horrible vegan chocolate cake, lots of diverse contestants and John Torodes obsession with food as hot as possible- he is a philistine.

    2. Indeed.
      How many coloured people are there in the UK? According to yer Beeb, must be about 50%, so about 40 million or so.

      1. They really struggled at Chester – there were two over the three days (10,000 plus racegoers). Of course they also imported one, a “paddock expert” who seems to know very little but pontificates a lot (and is pandered to by the ITV team, of course).

      2. They do seem to want to push diversity in all their programming. Masterchef seems to be stuffed full of gay men too.

        However the tinted folk in these cookery competitions are not at all like the stabbers and drug pushers. These people want to make something of themselves.

    3. I understand what you mean. Some of the early ones are hopeless. I do like to see how people progress though.

      Also, John Torode has several books out featuring beef. He has fallen for all the advertising as Argentinian being the best beef you can buy.
      He made one of those travelogue programs and went to Argentina expecting to see the beef cattle roaming the pampas.
      The majority of Argentine beef is from cattle that spend their days on huge concrete rafts being fed dry food pellets.
      They forgot to edit out the look on his face when he found out.

  73. “Emmanuel Macron has been compared to a cult leader over a new law which would make it mandatory to hang the portrait of the president in all French town halls.

    While the majority of town halls have displayed an image of the sitting president since the 1800s, the new legislation, proposed by two members of Mr Macron’s party – would make it a legal requirement.

    “Town halls are like the house of the French of the French people,” centrist lawmaker Denis Masséglia told the National Assembly during a debate on the text.

    “So the portrait of the president – whoever it is – should be displayed there, out of respect for the democratic vote.”

    The amendment is part of a wider proposal to require town halls with 1,500 inhabitants or more to display the French and European flags.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5ad62d24b8def9dc542c4adea31ba908d7068ecb331fc198947070c47b98158.jpg

  74. Just back from a quick trip to Tesco to take advantage of the “25% off” booze – only to find that – although the interwebby thing (general – not Tesco) says that the offer is available until 15 May – it isn’t!

    Beware the interwebby thing. Still, got some hooch – which – on this bitter, winter’s day – will be handy.

    Signing off now. To put the hooch away (take that as you choose!!)

    A demain – when THEY say it may be sunny and marginally less cold. On verra.

  75. Great news. Couldn’t happen to a nicer chap (or country):

    “Iran has been invited to chair the 2023 social forum of the UN human rights council, despite months of crackdowns on protesters that have left hundreds of civilians dead.

    The appointment of Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, has been met with outrage by rights campaigners who say the dictatorship — which has also executed more than 200 Iranians since January — has no right to lead a global human rights forum.”

    1. Any advanced life form from another galaxy, viewing the current goings-on on this planet, would not believe what they were seeing.

      They would think humans were the least intelligent organism to have ever evolved … and they wouldn’t be wrong.

      1. The Saudis presided over a women’s rights forum, didn’t they? The UN don’t do irony.

    1. Well, bugger me. Hot in Spain in the summer.
      Who’d a thought it? It was the same in Sicily, and the hottest time in Northern Nigeria was April, before the rains came. Gosh…

      1. As its been so cool here this spring, the met people delight in letting is know that we have just had the hottest day this year. Not surprising as we are coming out of winter. I noted their words as my bones were chilled during a cloudy day, apparently a temp of around 20 had been attained somewhere in Scotland. They just dont give up.

        1. I believe 20°C is forecast tomorrow, here in the Borders, I don’t know what Spikey has forecast for tomorrow.

          1. 19 C here on the south coast tomorrow- not holding my breath. Forecast looks good but we shall see.

    2. “The Guardian article went on to make other unsubstantiated claims. One was that heatwaves in Spain killed 4,000 last year. This allegation originated in a report from the WHO, which also included the provably false claim that heatwaves killed 3,200 here in the UK last summer. What the Guardian omitted to tell its readers is that cold weather kills many more than heat does in Spain…”

      See below…

      There’s a chilling new punishment for those who question certain ‘facts’

      It’s ‘political correction’: the narrowing of debate by fact-checking bodies that purport to defend truth

      FRASER NELSON • 11th May 2023 • 9:00pm

      Ten years ago, John Humphrys made a documentary about the welfare state for BBC2. When he was growing up in Cardiff, he said, hardly anyone was on benefits. Now, vast numbers are. Why? What had gone wrong? A good question – but, as he found out, a suicidally dangerous one for any BBC journalist to ask. He was hauled in front of a BBC star chamber, accused of supporting Tory policy, then found guilty of breaching guidelines on impartiality and accuracy. I spoke to him about it afterwards: his lesson, he said, was never to do something like that again.

      He had run up against a new trend of our time: political correction. If you engage in frank discussions about certain topics – climate change, jihadi finance, immigration, transgenderism – then you can expect the equivalent of a lawsuit. A breed of investigators or self-appointed fact-checkers will swoop, posing as judges of the truth – even if they often get it wrong. What was intended as a test of objectivity, a remedy to “fake news”, has ended up becoming a new form of bias.

      I was thinking about this when reading a new book about politics and lies by Rob Burley, a long-serving BBC editor. At one point he claims to have been stopped from scrutinising the Vote Leave claim about the UK sending £350 million a week to the European Union. He saw this as unfair, but was it really? The referendum had just ended and the notorious claim had already been torn to pieces by Andrew Neil and others. So why choose to go over it all again? Would this, in itself, not be a form of bias?

      The BBC’s own team of truth-deciders, modestly called “Reality Check”, are rather selective in the realities they check. When David Attenborough’s excellent Wild Isles documentary claimed that “60 per cent of our flying insects have vanished”, it was a starting claim – but one the fact-checkers let slide. It can be tracked down to an amateur study asking motorists to count splats on their number plates. Had Attenborough said that more people die each year from cold than from heat, he’d face outcry and a full Nigel Lawson-style inquisition. The former chancellor faced a three-month investigation by a press regulator for making precisely this claim.

      Some facts are seen to be too exciting to check. When the French economist Thomas Piketty claimed that inequality was certain to rise because of his formula r>g (i.e. that the return on assets exceeded the rate of economic growth), it was hailed worldwide as a breakthrough. Time to tax the rich! But when the IMF produced a study showing Piketty’s claim to be nonsense, this seemed to generate no interest at all.

      During lockdowns, the heretic hunters worked overtime. An outfit called Full Fact decreed that the novelist Lionel Shriver was “wrong” to claim that the Covid vaccine did not stop transmission. She is no epidemiologist, but she was right about the vaccines. The latest estimates suggest that 86 per cent of the country has had the virus, against around 20 per cent when she wrote her article. Jabs prevented serious illness, but not the spread. Where was the fact-checkers’ challenge of those who wrongly claimed otherwise? At the time, vaccine passports were very nearly introduced – on what now seems to be a false premise.

      This is the problem. The rise of fact-checking is powerful and helpful in many ways, but is most needed in areas where there is a fashionable and unchallenged consensus. Whenever all parties agree (as they did on lockdown, and still do on net zero and international aid), the biggest policy errors are most likely to creep in. So it’s more important than ever that the major claims are held up to scrutiny. When fact-checkers instead target those who go against the grain, it serves to enforce groupthink.

      The Swedes have a word for it: the “opinion corridor”. If you step outside it, you can expect investigation, harassment or to be flattened. The digital era has put rocket boosters on all this as offending articles are more easily shared by activists. There are now professional campaigners who spend all day referring opponents to fact-checkers, regulators or university authorities. And not just for facts. It can be for hate speech or an offence against hazily defined “community standards”. In this way, the political correction phenomenon can multiply, ending up embedded into algorithms.

      Facebook has overtaken newspapers to become the number one source of written news. It uses several fact-checking agencies – but most of the work is done by algorithms. One article published by two leading academics scrutinising the case for face masks has been labelled “false information” by Facebook. Why? It won’t say. Only this week, it rejected a column by my colleague Douglas Murray on the grounds that his article somehow violated “community standards on hate speech”. How so? It never explains. Silicon Valley is beholden to no one.

      The most controversial questions defy black-or-white answers. The vaccines were good for stopping the spread of earlier variants, but not later ones. Channel Four fact-checkers ask if university tuition fees are “progressive” which is, of course, a matter of opinion. Much of this seems to stem from a technocratic view of the world: that it’s possible to burrow away, find facts and come up with an objective answer. But such questions are almost always a matter for debate: hence, politics.

      The Online Safety Bill, now going through the Lords, will make all this far worse by threatening huge fines for Silicon Valley firms that publish anything deemed to be “harmful” and visible to children. What does this mean? It’s unclear: so the censorship bots will work overdrive just to be safe. Sir Keir Starmer may tighten things further as prime minister, forcing newspapers to accept state regulation. Those who refuse would be forced to pay the fee of anyone who sues, win or lose.

      A decade after John Humphrys documentary, the question still hangs unanswered: what went so wrong with welfare? But given what happened to him, it may be quite a while before anyone makes a television documentary asking the question again. It would be tragic if, as the digital world opens ever-more possibilities, the opinion corridor ends up narrower than ever.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/11/chilling-new-punishment-for-those-questioning-certain-facts/

      I haven’t been able to find a reference to the Lawson investigation but I’m not surprised. As soon as he denounced climate change policy, he was a hunted man.

    3. “The Guardian article went on to make other unsubstantiated claims. One was that heatwaves in Spain killed 4,000 last year. This allegation originated in a report from the WHO, which also included the provably false claim that heatwaves killed 3,200 here in the UK last summer. What the Guardian omitted to tell its readers is that cold weather kills many more than heat does in Spain…”

      See below…

      There’s a chilling new punishment for those who question certain ‘facts’

      It’s ‘political correction’: the narrowing of debate by fact-checking bodies that purport to defend truth

      FRASER NELSON • 11th May 2023 • 9:00pm

      Ten years ago, John Humphrys made a documentary about the welfare state for BBC2. When he was growing up in Cardiff, he said, hardly anyone was on benefits. Now, vast numbers are. Why? What had gone wrong? A good question – but, as he found out, a suicidally dangerous one for any BBC journalist to ask. He was hauled in front of a BBC star chamber, accused of supporting Tory policy, then found guilty of breaching guidelines on impartiality and accuracy. I spoke to him about it afterwards: his lesson, he said, was never to do something like that again.

      He had run up against a new trend of our time: political correction. If you engage in frank discussions about certain topics – climate change, jihadi finance, immigration, transgenderism – then you can expect the equivalent of a lawsuit. A breed of investigators or self-appointed fact-checkers will swoop, posing as judges of the truth – even if they often get it wrong. What was intended as a test of objectivity, a remedy to “fake news”, has ended up becoming a new form of bias.

      I was thinking about this when reading a new book about politics and lies by Rob Burley, a long-serving BBC editor. At one point he claims to have been stopped from scrutinising the Vote Leave claim about the UK sending £350 million a week to the European Union. He saw this as unfair, but was it really? The referendum had just ended and the notorious claim had already been torn to pieces by Andrew Neil and others. So why choose to go over it all again? Would this, in itself, not be a form of bias?

      The BBC’s own team of truth-deciders, modestly called “Reality Check”, are rather selective in the realities they check. When David Attenborough’s excellent Wild Isles documentary claimed that “60 per cent of our flying insects have vanished”, it was a starting claim – but one the fact-checkers let slide. It can be tracked down to an amateur study asking motorists to count splats on their number plates. Had Attenborough said that more people die each year from cold than from heat, he’d face outcry and a full Nigel Lawson-style inquisition. The former chancellor faced a three-month investigation by a press regulator for making precisely this claim.

      Some facts are seen to be too exciting to check. When the French economist Thomas Piketty claimed that inequality was certain to rise because of his formula r>g (i.e. that the return on assets exceeded the rate of economic growth), it was hailed worldwide as a breakthrough. Time to tax the rich! But when the IMF produced a study showing Piketty’s claim to be nonsense, this seemed to generate no interest at all.

      During lockdowns, the heretic hunters worked overtime. An outfit called Full Fact decreed that the novelist Lionel Shriver was “wrong” to claim that the Covid vaccine did not stop transmission. She is no epidemiologist, but she was right about the vaccines. The latest estimates suggest that 86 per cent of the country has had the virus, against around 20 per cent when she wrote her article. Jabs prevented serious illness, but not the spread. Where was the fact-checkers’ challenge of those who wrongly claimed otherwise? At the time, vaccine passports were very nearly introduced – on what now seems to be a false premise.

      This is the problem. The rise of fact-checking is powerful and helpful in many ways, but is most needed in areas where there is a fashionable and unchallenged consensus. Whenever all parties agree (as they did on lockdown, and still do on net zero and international aid), the biggest policy errors are most likely to creep in. So it’s more important than ever that the major claims are held up to scrutiny. When fact-checkers instead target those who go against the grain, it serves to enforce groupthink.

      The Swedes have a word for it: the “opinion corridor”. If you step outside it, you can expect investigation, harassment or to be flattened. The digital era has put rocket boosters on all this as offending articles are more easily shared by activists. There are now professional campaigners who spend all day referring opponents to fact-checkers, regulators or university authorities. And not just for facts. It can be for hate speech or an offence against hazily defined “community standards”. In this way, the political correction phenomenon can multiply, ending up embedded into algorithms.

      Facebook has overtaken newspapers to become the number one source of written news. It uses several fact-checking agencies – but most of the work is done by algorithms. One article published by two leading academics scrutinising the case for face masks has been labelled “false information” by Facebook. Why? It won’t say. Only this week, it rejected a column by my colleague Douglas Murray on the grounds that his article somehow violated “community standards on hate speech”. How so? It never explains. Silicon Valley is beholden to no one.

      The most controversial questions defy black-or-white answers. The vaccines were good for stopping the spread of earlier variants, but not later ones. Channel Four fact-checkers ask if university tuition fees are “progressive” which is, of course, a matter of opinion. Much of this seems to stem from a technocratic view of the world: that it’s possible to burrow away, find facts and come up with an objective answer. But such questions are almost always a matter for debate: hence, politics.

      The Online Safety Bill, now going through the Lords, will make all this far worse by threatening huge fines for Silicon Valley firms that publish anything deemed to be “harmful” and visible to children. What does this mean? It’s unclear: so the censorship bots will work overdrive just to be safe. Sir Keir Starmer may tighten things further as prime minister, forcing newspapers to accept state regulation. Those who refuse would be forced to pay the fee of anyone who sues, win or lose.

      A decade after John Humphrys documentary, the question still hangs unanswered: what went so wrong with welfare? But given what happened to him, it may be quite a while before anyone makes a television documentary asking the question again. It would be tragic if, as the digital world opens ever-more possibilities, the opinion corridor ends up narrower than ever.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/11/chilling-new-punishment-for-those-questioning-certain-facts/

      I haven’t been able to find a reference to the Lawson investigation but I’m not surprised. As soon as he denounced climate change policy, he was a hunted man.

  78. That’s better.
    Gutload of tasty spaghetti ragu, with a touch of chilli in it. Now, cat on lap, Chianti and Nottl before early bed.
    Sigh…

  79. Surprise.
    Russians aren’t pleased at the UK sending missiles to Ukraine.
    “We see this as a very hostile act by the UK. Pumping more weapons into Ukraine, which will give a serious escalation of the situation, said the Russian Foreign Office.
    What I miss is the attempts to broker a peace, so the destruction can be stopped. Oh, silly me, that’s Trump’s position, so obviously it isn’t going to happen.
    EDIT: Sorry, quote is from NRK. Translation by me.

    2. Boris Johnson flew to Ukraine just as there was about to be talks to avoid military action. He is responsible for the gradual escalation when all could have been resolved peacefully. And now HMG have gone even further by sending longer range missiles to the Ukes. Utter madness.

  81. Anyone feel cold? considering putting the central heating back on, blow the net zero targets

    1. I have a sweater on and another one round my shoulders. My husband has a thick sweater on. We turn the heat on in the morning because it’s chilly.
      Sod net zero.

      1. Surprisingly I don’t have the heating on at the moment. It’s been a warm, sunny day here and it’s still 20 degrees C indoors.

          1. Still very sore, unfortunately, but thank you for asking. I had to do some shopping this afternoon and it was no fun at all to find that the damned supermarket had moved the stuff I normally buy onto the top shelf 🙁 Reaching up hurts like the devil. To cap it all, when I opened the back door of the car, to get the bag of shopping out, it fell on the floor and lots of items rolled under the car. Grovelling on the ground to retrieve them wasn’t much fun, either. I am okay as long as I just sit down and don’t do much.

    2. Wood stove has been on all day here. I’m doing my bit to promote plant growth by giving them some CO2 fertilizer.

    1. A Grace Davidson soprano solo; Martha and Nicolas didn’t get a look in, BoB?

    2. A Grace Davidson soprano solo; Martha and Nicolas didn’t get a look in, BoB?

  85. Last one tonight- I promise.

    How did you meet your husband?
    I work in a chemists and he came in to buy condoms. He asked for XXXXL.
    Only after we married did I realise he stutters.

      1. Double First in Greek from Trinity Cambridge. Ill when he sat the papers with a temp. of 104.

  87. Labour MP calls for 10mph speed limit
    Rachael Maskell’s suggestion for residential areas dismissed by Conservatives as ‘bonkers’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/12/labour-mp-rachael-maskell-10mph-speed-limit-mark-harper

    Senior civil servant meant to be scrapping EU rules is ‘on long-term sick leave’
    Official off for extended period as Kemi Badenoch faces criticism for Brexit betrayal
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/11/senior-civil-servant-brexit-law-bonfire-sick-leave

    2. Yup. Long term Covid leave.

      These bastards are still at it, claiming some illusory Long Covid infection whereas they are simply playing the corrupt system. If you do not turn up for work you get fired. You should not be paid for loafing around at home.

  88. Evening, all. I’d like to think that the Cons would be heavily punished not only for failing to deliver Brexit, but also for fiscal incompetence, tax and waste, failure to defend our borders and a desire to destroy the native culture. The only problem is, the people voters are likely to turn to in order to inflict that punishment will be those who won’t deliver Brexit, are institutionally fiscally incompetent, do nothing but tax and waste and are fully signed up to failing to defend our borders and destroying the native culture. It won’t end well 🙁

    1. I agree, we have too many people in politics who really should either be in lunatic asylums or jailed for life.
      I found out today from my local paper that our mp has been working on the side and making 2,000 per week and claiming expenses of more tha 3,250 per month for a house he’s allegedly renting and using in London. He’s hardly ever in Parliament. And his train fare from Harpenden would work out to around 200 quid a month. Another lying cheat.

    2. I believe we are in deeper shit given our support of the war in Ukraine.

      Not only are our contributions and advocacy of this futile war damaging our Treasury and further depleting our defences in terms of munitions and equipment but we are seriously annoying Russia. The donations of long range missiles and depleted uranium bombs is an abominable act by our stupid government for which there will be consequences.

      If as now anticipated by military experts Ukraine does go down there will be political consequences for the UK. This is because the inexperienced fools in our government are reckless and assume a certain impunity from such consequences. They are wrong because we are no longer a great power and are now faced with retribution by Russia. This retribution will likely be a complete withdrawal of investment in the UK. Supporters of Chelsea Football Cub are already witnessing the results as their team fails owing to lack of investment (ha-bloody-ha).

      To what end and to what purpose are our government contributing long range missiles and other armaments to a US proxy war, except to prolong the war at the behest of the US which will not contribute this type of weapon system.

      We seem to be paying a great price for our involvement in an essentially American adventure. If we disregard the enormous waste in materiel supplied to an evidently corrupt and dying Ukrainian regime we also need to count the cost of alienating the Russian people. Just think on it.

  93. Good night all 😴. Not been here much today. Had lunch out with three old school friends. Hedgehog AGM tomorrow morning. Concert on Sunday. Hope it warms up a bit. Wasn’t too bad when I set off this morning but not at all warm in the afternoon.

  94. White British children could be in a minority in schools in 40 years, an Oxford academic has claimed.

    Dr Paul Morland, a demographer and academic visitor at St Anthony’s College, said previous research had suggested that around 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the overall British population would define themselves as white British by the year 2060.

    However, this would likely mean that younger age groups in primary school – and the wider population in large cities – would already have crossed the threshold where white Britons would be in a minority.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/12/white-children-minority-schools-40-years/

    1. I’m surprised he hasn’t been called a racist with his ideas about race replacement.

  96. After all the doom-mongering about it being record hot in Spain, they had heavy rain, hail & snow yesterday.
    Hmmm… no record hot here in the North – in fact, it’s chilly, and the snow hasn’t melted away, so the grass hasn’t grown, and there’s shortage of cattle fodder.

  97. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cloudy, dull, chilly (long sleeve shirt weather – or as Firstborn called it when he was little, “down sleeve shirt”)

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