Friday 15 July: Suspicion hangs over Tory leadership hopefuls who propped up Boris Johnson’s government

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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731 thoughts on “Friday 15 July: Suspicion hangs over Tory leadership hopefuls who propped up Boris Johnson’s government”

        1. Good moaning, Olaf’s Relict.
          The down voter is the usual alphabetti spaghetti.

          2. Glaciers are Speedy Gonzales compared with house buying and selling.
            We have agreed to a price and have rented the potential abode for 6 months to give us a breathing space.
            A somewhat surprising move, but the house is beautifully revamped, it is in ‘our’ patch and is Allan Towers minus third floor and rooms that are a bit smaller, so ideal for down sizing. Houses around our leafy suburb rarely announce they are for sale.

        2. Good moaning, Olaf’s Relict.
          The down voter is the usual alphabetti spaghetti.

        3. 354267+ up ticks,

          Morning EB,

          SSHUUUs , it is my monitor for letting me know I am on target, mustn’t let him/her/ it know.

      1. Good morning, Elsie. I hope you have a nice day! I went back to sleep after my greeting, I am sleeping so badly these days.

        1. Sorry to hear that, poppiesmum. I hope tonight’s sleep is better for you.

  5. US citizens told to leave Ukraine immediately. 15 July 2022.

    The US Embassy in Kyiv issued a security alert late on Thursday urging all American citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately.

    The alert, which appeared to be in response to a deadly Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, asserted that large gatherings and organised events “may serve as Russian military targets anywhere in Ukraine, including its western regions”.

    A little tardy one might think! Is there something they are not telling us?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/07/15/russia-ukraine-war-live-news-weapons-vinnytsia-attack-updates/

    1. It’s probably code for “Russia is winning, and Ukraine stands no chance”. Let’s hope that’s what it means, and not “Get out quick, we about to nuke Ukraine”,

  6. SIR – Jeremy Hunt, a failed health secretary, is now backing Rishi Sunak, a failed Chancellor, to be prime minister.

    Ray Lines
    Romsey, Hampshire

    The Tory Party seems to be rather keen on failure these days, Mr Lines. The race to the bottom isn’t a pretty sight.

    1. Good morning, Hugh J. Two weeks ago it was “Anyone but Boris”. Be careful for what you wish for.

    2. There’s No Success like Failure – and Failure’s no success at all.

      [Bob Dylan: Love Minus Zero]

  7. SIR – Two of those running for the Conservative leadership were in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, and complicit in his shameful government.

    A clean pair of hands should be the order of the day.

    J P Shelley
    Lichfield, Staffordshire

    Oh dear, J P Shelley; apologies for repeating the point but what part of the principle of ‘collective responsibility’ are you struggling with?

    1. Surely if the requirements of Collective responsibility would result in betraying principles then you should resign?

  9. Suspicion hangs over Tory leadership hopefuls who propped up Boris Johnson’s government

    A leopard never changes it’s spots

    1. 354267+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,
      Bob in the nicest possible way I can put it, please refrain from, as with sheep, leopards.

        1. It was the (wrongly possessive) apostrophe that irked Elsie, Horace. Not the spots.

          Good morning to you and all Gentlefolk NoTTLers.

  10. SIR – I was inclined to favour Penny Mordaunt in the race for PM, but after reading Charles Moore’s article (Comment, July 12) on her “woke” views I changed my mind.

    I could not support someone who does not see the funny side of Dad’s Army – nor someone who has failed to acknowledge that a person carrying a baby in her womb is a woman.

    Susan Cunliffe
    Woodbridge, Suffolk

    Charles Moore is not alone. Yesterday we saw the normally mild-mannered and careful Lord Frost lay into her, stating in the process that, as Trade Minister, he found her so incompetent that he had to request her removal from the task in which they were involved. From what I have seen she might make a decent Deputy PM but I feel very uneasy about her in the top job.

    1. The BTL posters are really fired up this morning:

      Kevin Bell
      4 HRS AGO
      I just don’t get the PM for PM bandwagon as written about here. What is this great military background? She has been a Royal Navy reservist for ten years since she entered Parliament. Laudable but let’s not get carried away. There is nothing to suggest she is a ‘leader’ .
      She is without doubt a fully paid up woke warrior. Her deconstruction of It Ain’t Half Hot Mum as racist, homophobic and a shocking example of white supremacy sounded like Owen Jones wrote it not a Conservative. Her performance in government has not been great. She was quickly dropped as Defence Minister in favour of someone with real military experience. And not just Lord Frost but others have complained she is bone idle.
      She supports net zero by 2050 and hasn’t said what she would do about illegal immigration or the NI Protocol. David Davis may say she spoke out against Teresa May in Cabinet at Chequers but she didn’t resign either then or subsequently.
      Sunak is bound to get to the final two and the absolute worst thing for we Tory members is that the ludicrous Penny Mordaunt does too.

      * * *

      Of course, it may be the case that ‘Kevin Bell’ is working for one of the other campaigns…

      1. I used to laugh at “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum”. Never struck me as racist, homophobic or white supremacist.

    2. Andrea Leadsom drew our attention to the fact that she and Margaret Thatcher were both mothers but Theresa May was not. Indeed, this observation scuppered her chances of becoming PM. Penny Mordaunt is, to use Grizzly’s preferred term, ‘child-free’ just as Edward Heath, Angela Merkel and Emanuel Macron were. On the other side of the divide Boris Johnson was a most prolific and enthusiastic producer of progeny as is Jacob Rees Mogg.

      But Boris Johnson has a long way still to go to catch up with some of his predecessors – perhaps now that he is no longer hampered by prime ministerial duties he might like to go for the record as illegitimate offspring can still be counted as you will see from this list:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_children_of_prime_ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom

  11. SIR – The BBC’s wage bill for top talent has fallen by 1.5 per cent (“More BBC stars than ever in six-figure club”, report, July 13). In the previous year we cut our overall spend on on-air talent by 10 per cent, and this is stable year-on-year.

    Costs for on-air talent represent just 4 per cent of what we spend on content, with 95 per cent of spending – the overwhelming majority – going towards content and delivery. We 
are acutely aware of operating efficiently and ensuring value for money, which is why we have made more than £1 billion of savings in the past five years.

    The BBC operates in a highly competitive market, subject to inflation, and pays considerably less than commercial rivals – but audiences still want to see top talent on the BBC.

    Leigh Tavaziva
    Group Chief Operating Officer, BBC
    London W1

    It’s not just the extravagant salaries; it’s the stuff that they don’t cover and the lies and general wokery in the stuff they do.

    1. Live sport has vanished. Rugby union, golf, are the most notable absentees. The BBC won’t pay the going rates I suppose. They won’t show the Summer Tour games of the 6N countries, but will show ladies football. We cannot watch England against South Africa, or Scotland against Argentina but we can watch Italy ladies against Iceland ladies on “prime time ” TV.
      You cannot watch the Open Golf Championship but you can watch the Leaderboard “live”!
      The BBC will not pay the money to put on programmes of sport that people watch, but will pay presenters vast sums. The BBC has become a self-perpetuating clique of well paid luvvies, it seems like.

      1. There’s no racing on the Beeb any more (not that it was a great loss because the coverage wasn’t terrific). That’s the only thing I watch on TV these days.

    2. “The BBC operates in a highly competitive market”

      No you don’t. Your income is extorted from the population if they want to watch any commercial TV channel. If the licence fee was abolished, the BBC in its current form wouldn’t last five minutes. Which commercial organisations are queuing up to employ Gary Lineker?

    3. Well, that’s today’s MRD award sorted! ….the overwhelming majority – going towards content and delivery – in that case, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that the BBC aren’t getting value for money, considering the absolute carp they serve up most of the time!

  12. SIR – Fiona Bruce is paid more than £400,000 for reading the news and presenting Question Time. Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer get almost £2 million for talking about football. If I were on a bus next to Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, who is paid more than half a million pounds a year, I’d have no idea who he was.

    The public simply cannot carry on funding these obscene salaries.

    Ian Pinson
    Clun, Shropshire

    SIR – How gratifying it must be for viewers now facing renewal of the licence fee of £159 – particularly pensioners who were once exempt – that so many BBC presenters are about to receive substantial salary increases. Even some who have accepted reductions are nevertheless beneficiaries of six-figure salaries.

    John D Berman
    New Barnet, Hertfordshire

    And so say all of us!

    1. I would just like to bring to Mr Berman’s attention the current London mayor (let’s hope he’s ousted next time) would like to point out that he prefers Barnet Hertfordshire to be called the London Borough of….
      Or indeed anywhere else that is now inside the perimeter of the M25.
      My lovely grandmother was from Barnet, then Hertfordshire.

    2. I doubt very much that Tim Davie would be seen anywhere near something as plebeian as an omnibus!

  13. 354267+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Friday 15 July: Suspicion hangs over Tory leadership hopefuls who propped up Boris Johnson’s government.

    Suspicion,suspicion it was an in your face
    –ucking, racing certainty, the latter days of the turkish chap was reminiscent of the
    “20 July” 1944 meeting with hitler and the briefcase bomb prior to the bang.

    See the similarity as in a multitude of proper uppers in attendance.

    The usual cast of the electorate majority are
    swallowing the odious mind bending political fodder, ready to partake of what must surely be the near final act of the next ersatz government taking it’s peoples DOWN.

    1. It looks like the usual pattern of events is currently occurring in British politics.
      The public never get what they really want and never get what they are paying for.
      A simple but meaningful way of describing what is currently happening is. As usual the snidey bastards are pulling the stings.

      1. 354267+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,
        Maybe when many realise they are, via a membership fee paying for what they are about to receive things will change
        although it is very doubtful.

        Given a choice I would rather pay the bbc licence fee, & that will NEVER happen.

        1. They are too well established but mainly on long term trust and favor from viewer’s over many years.
          They don’t have any inclination for change. They know pay to view would make them bankrupt in a few months. It’s all too typical of the British attitude to almost everything.
          The customer is never right. And a take it or leave it attitude

          1. 354267+ up ticks,

            RE,
            Then leave it is the best option this could be proven in a clear cut manner by leaving lab/lib/con OUT of the voting pattern.

  14. Morning all 😃
    After a decent night’s sleep I feel fit to face the world. But possibly just my immediate environment. 😊

    1. Good morning, Ready Eddy. Glad to hear you slept well, as did I. Enjoy your day.

  15. SIR – I agree with Sally Jones (Comment, July 14) that the Welsh government’s proposal for a 20 mph limit in urban areas will backfire badly.

    I was a minor functionary of the Ministry of Transport in 1970, when a similar proposal was urged by some of Edward Heath’s government and strongly supported by senior officials.

    The transport minister John Peyton, always his own man, stoutly resisted. “I am not prepared to introduce legislation that incites customarily law-abiding citizens to defy the law,” he declared. “And any law that cannot be effectively enforced is bad law.” End of ill-conceived proposal.

    Patrick Hickman-Robertson
    Eastbury, Berkshire

    Indeed, Patrick Double-Barrelled!  Furthermore, 20MPH wastes fuel and increases pollution, as well as increasing journey times.  But hey, these drawbacks are as nothing to an egotistical politician paid by the taxpayer who couldn’t run a bath, never mind an assembly.

    SIR – Why not just go the whole way and ban cars?

    David J Hartshorn
    Badby, Northamptonshire

    For pity’s sake, don’t give the idiot ideas like that!

    1. The past years have criminalised all of us, whether we are drivers, concerned relatives or lovers of fresh air.
      As Mark Steyn says: “in Britain, everything is policed except crime”.

      1. Glad to see you are a Mark Stein fan too, Annie. (My regards and best wishes to Your Bill.)

          1. He has a missionary zeal on bringing our attention to the rape of children by Muslim gangs and the damage that has been done to people as a result of taking the anti Covid jabs.

            He is frankly one of the few journalists who tries to tell the truth which is why he is so loathed by the Powers That Be.

            Added to his zeal is a very wry sense of humour. Frankly I cannot think of a better journalist.

    2. A BTL poster writes:

      Leslie Ayre
      JUST NOW
      The Welsh Government wants to introduce 20mph speed limits – next year people with red flags preceding vehicles.
      The Welsh Government also want to stop children of 16 or younger buying tea or coffee – next year, snacks.

      * * *

      Wot’s all this ‘Welsh Government’ nonsense? It’s just an expensive talking-shop! (It’s very good at socialist dogma though.)

  17. Good morning, everyone. Sorry I missed all you NoTTLers yesterday, it was a very busy day.

  18. SIR – Like Melanie McDonagh (Comment, July 11), I have never been a great fan of large coffee-shop chains, but not because of their cost. My objection is that their tea tastes absolutely horrible – not helped by the accepted practice of lobbing a teabag into a cup with the milk, then jamming a plastic top on it.

    Whether at home or in the office, I use a little mesh ball with loose-leaf tea and leave it for four or five minutes to diffuse gently while I contemplate the world, catch up on emails, make a phone call or do anything but stand in a queue.

    Most teabags are made from single-use plastic but, ignoring the saving to the planet, I’d urge others to try this method because it is an infinitely better-tasting cuppa (as well as being significantly cheaper). But why can’t coffee-shop chains offer loose-leaf tea in a pot, as so many of the independents now do, when we sit down to drink there?

    Tony Parrack
    London SW20

    As a matter of principle I always avoid the chains, preferring the independents and family-run places for quality and service (and cost).  Round here we have such an enterprise where tea, in a mug, is a pound and the friendly, smiling and personal service is top notch.  Some might describe it as a ‘greasy spoon’ establishment, but in reality it is nothing of the kind.

    1. I’ve never been a fan of tea bags and always use loose tea at home. I seldom use the big chain coffee shops either.

    2. In my experience, some of the best food in Britain is served in so-called greasy spoons!
      True, I don’t frequent expensive restaurants, but mid range ones always let themselves down with microwaved or obviously frozen food of the type that really ought to be fresh, eg vegetables. The only people who won’t notice this are people who live on microwaved meals.

    3. Tea bags? I wouldn’t be caught dead using them! Loose leaf tea always!

    4. Tea bags? I wouldn’t be caught dead using them! Loose leaf tea always!

    5. Nothing wrong with a decent “Greasy Spoon”! A good cuppa and, if you are hungry, a decent bit of grub at a reasonable price!

    6. Most teabags are made from paper. There are various grades. I was working on an idea and asked a local mill for samples of permeable paper. They gave me more than I requested. While my project failed, I am left with a roll of teabag paper. A one kilometre roll. I make teabags for leaf tea. Very little trouble. I cut a square of the paper, lay on a scoop of tea leaves then tie up into a “dolly bag”, using string*. There is lots of space for the levves to swell when infusing.

      *String is reusable, paper/ tea are compostable.

      https://www.ahlstrom-munksjo.com/products/beverage-filter-media-and-packaging-solutions/tea-packaging-solutions/compostable-plastic-free-teabag-solutions/

  19. SIR – The attempts by Sir John Hayes (report, July 12) and Philip Johnston (Comment, July 13) to downplay the risks from the current hot weather are an insult to the hundreds of families whose loved ones are dying from heat.

    Each year the Government publishes figures showing that about 2,000 people in England are killed by heatwave conditions. Although most have underlying health issues, their deaths could be prevented if Britain managed the growing risks properly, for instance, by ensuring homes do not overheat.

    This heatwave is a natural disaster that is killing hundreds of people.

    Bob Ward
    Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
    London WC2

    We learn this morning that some ambulances are having to wait 10-11 hours to hand over their patients.  Are these vehicles air-conditioned I wonder?  Even if they are, I’m willing to bet that some patients will have had their chances of survival reduced, or removed altogether.  (It has also been suggested that some hospitals are using waiting ambulances as a means to slow down the admission of patients, thus depriving others of being transported urgently.  One hospital is said to have built up a queue of 25. It is scandalous!)

    1. A comment from a seasoned BTL poster:

      Edwin Pugh
      5 MIN AGO
      Some more on the Bob Ward post. The background to it comes from a paper first published in the Lancet in 2015 and given wider publicity in December 2020 when it was repeated in the Daily Mail.
      The Mail article report claimed that heat related deaths in the over 65s had doubled in twenty years as climate changed. It said that there were 8,500 heat deaths in 2018 double the rate between 2004 – 8.
      The Lancet article admits that the numbers of excess heat deaths are based on a computer model described as the Inter-Sectoral Input Model Intercomparison Project. This was programmed to assume that the hotter it is the more likely old people are to die. In doing so, it conveniently forgets to mention that cold kills more than warmth even in places such as India.
      The truth is that Britain always records higher excess deaths in winter and the lowest in summer. A direct comparison between 2018 and 2004 is not possible as the total number of deaths occurring during the year as a whole has been steadily rising since around 2009. Currently annual death tolls are about 30,000 higher than in 2004 due to the fact the population is both getting larger and older. Death playing catch-up if you like.
      What can be said is that according to the ONS the heatwave summer of 2018 actually recorded the second lowest number of deaths in a five-year period. Clearly that heatwave had no measurable effect on death tolls amongst the elderly at all.

      Edit: And another poster writes:

      Edwin Pugh
      6 HRS AGO
      I see Bob Ward (letters) is once more spreading misinformation by repeating a story that first appeared a few gays ago. I answered it here thus –
      The Red Cross has warned people of the dangers of very hot temperatures. Spokesman Matthew Killick said, “Climate change means we’re experiencing longer and more intense heatwaves, but a worrying number of people aren’t aware of the risks around hot weather. In England alone there were more than 2,500 excess deaths in the summer of 2020, and unfortunately it’s predicted that heat-related deaths in the UK could treble within 30 years.”
      Yes, one should take sensible precautions in hot weather, but Killick’s statements are just not true. Heatwaves are not getting worse, nor is there anything unusual about the current hot spell. In fact 60 out if the last 121 years have seen temperatures of over 30C and only three years have seen more than 40 days when the temperature has been over 30C.
      And the claim that excess deaths are increasing is just dishonest. According to the ONS mortality rates for the months of July and August have been steadily reducing since 2001.
      Yet another attempt to scare us by playing on the ignorance of the general public
      As a footnote – he made this claim almost a year ago in this journal on 20 July 2021.

      * * *

      Methinks Mr Ward has an axe to grind of course…the clue is in his title.

      1. Except that the ONS has been recording excess deaths for the last few months – not heatwave related but perhaps they don’t want to find the real underlying cause.

    2. I’m not sure how to react to seemingly Wokey Bob’s comments. Perhaps ‘climate change’ which has given him a reason to enjoy his job. Is assisted by queues of ambulances with there diesel engines left running.
      Just askin’ ……
      I’ll get me white coat.

      1. Given the price of fuel, I’m amazed at the number of people I see, sitting in their parked cars with the engine running – and it’s not just for a couple minutes. I seem to remember that in Germany it’s an offence to do that?

        2. If I come to a red traffic light and suspect I’ll be sat there for over half a minute, the hand-brake is applied, engine switched off and the van then put into 1st ready for the clutch to be depressed as I turn the ignition key when the lights go to green.

        3. If I’m stuck in a queue I turn the engine off. The only time I don’t do it is at night when I’m driving the motorhome; if I turn the ignition off, the lights go out!

    3. Morning Hugh

      Decades ago patients would be discharged from hospital to convalescent hospitals .. freeing up important beds on surgical wards etc, where patients would be given physiotherapy and care and attention before they were discharged home .

      1. The Passmore Edwards Convalescent Home in Clacton and the Lady Nelson Home at Thorpe-le-Soken are two that have disappeared from our area.
        They provided a valuable service that a fleeting visit from a district nurse or home help does not fill.

      2. I remember cycling past the Sanitorium near Stewponey as a child. Long gone and a housing estate now, I’d bet.

    5. Heart attack patients here in the sticks have been warned that they will have to wait hours for an ambulance. So much for the “Golden Hour”!

  21. Good morning all. A cloudy start here in Derbyshire with 11°C outside. A bit warmer than when I did the early morning teas at 04:00 when it was 8½°C.

  22. Just back from Morrisons. I’m getting all the shopping done in the coolth of the day and vegetating later!

    1. Sensible you. I’m off to the beach. Got a table booked at a Turkish restaurant. Hot Meze with paint stripper. (Turkish wine)

        1. Thanks. Found a couple of little gem restaurants not far away. A decent Italian and now trying the Turkish Kitchen which is two doors down. Very reasonable prices too. Hot Meze for two is £15. Bargain.

          2. Good morning.
            A Meze is a selection of small plates. Consisting of things like hummus, taramasalata, stuffed vine leaves, calamari, falafel, prawns, filo wrapped feta, spicy sausages, haloumi, spicy hot chicken wings and flat breads.

          5. I was sitting outside. Just about finished when my next door neighbour pulled up. Got a lift home. I needed it after 3 pornstar martini’s. Food was really nice.

  23. Here in the Scottish Borders it is another cool (cold) and windy day. It has been raining, and will rain again. Sunny day counter is standing at “3” so far this year.

  24. I’m backing Liz Truss for PM to lead the talented team that will deliver for Britain. David Frost. 15 July 2022.

    But, more than that, she has shown, in her plans for government, that she gets the need for radical change. She understands the need for competition and for reform and she is a convinced advocate of free markets and of freedom. That is what we need now.

    We need unity among free marketeers. Kemi and Suella Braverman set out convincing programmes, with differing emphases, for change. But Liz’s depth of experience, her energy and ideas – as well as the simple fact she has the most votes of the three – put her in the lead.

    So when the chips are down he’s just another Bullshi**er?

    Truss is quite probably the worst choice out of the lot of them! She’s a poser without one shred of integrity or real understanding of the political process. Her grasp of geo-politics is nil and she would quite happily lead us into a war with Russia while humming Land of Hope and Glory!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/14/backing-liz-truss-pm-lead-talented-team-will-deliver-britain/

      1. Good morning

        I disagree – should he have not mentioned that she was completely useless when she was in his department?

          1. Good morning, again

            Yes, but I thought your observation about Frost’s ‘treachery’ referred to his comments about Penny Dreadful who, according to him, was useless and lazy.

            As you know I would have liked to have seen Frost as prime minister – but is there anyone whom you would like to see in the job?

            We cannot choose the best – we can only go for the least bad. I am reminded of King Lear who is trying to decide which of his daughters, Goneril or Regan, is the less foul:

            Those wicked creatures yet do look well favoured when others are more wicked; not being the worst stands in some rank of praise.

  25. I’m backing Liz Truss for PM to lead the talented team that will deliver for Britain. David Frost. 15 July 2022.

    But, more than that, she has shown, in her plans for government, that she gets the need for radical change. She understands the need for competition and for reform and she is a convinced advocate of free markets and of freedom. That is what we need now.

    We need unity among free marketeers. Kemi and Suella Braverman set out convincing programmes, with differing emphases, for change. But Liz’s depth of experience, her energy and ideas – as well as the simple fact she has the most votes of the three – put her in the lead.

    So when the chips are down he’s just another Bullshi**er?

    Truss is quite probably the worst choice out of the lot of them! She’s a poser without one shred of integrity or real understanding of the political process. Her grasp of geo-politics is nil and she would quite happily lead us into a war with Russia while humming Land of Hope and Glory!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/14/backing-liz-truss-pm-lead-talented-team-will-deliver-britain/

    1. Morning Horace. The “Free West” will not allow me to access your link. Lol!

      1. I know. I cannot access it either. RT is reporting Ukraine attacks on town, and on Russian attacks on another town. The Italian President has rejected Italian PM’s resignation.
        Funny old world. We could listen to Lord Haw-Haw as the enemy bombs rained down upon us.

        1. We could listen to Lord Haw-Haw as the enemy bombs rained down upon us.

          Yes but we were a Democracy then! You could also say what you pleased and there was no nudge unit to direct your thinking!

          1. Good morning,
            Have you noticed that most of the ‘support Ukraine: flags website banners etc’ seem to have been quietly dropped over the last week or so.

          2. Morning Andrew. It’s difficult to see through this blizzard of disinformation but there appear to be some pointers that the Ukraine business is not going well!

          5. The chickens are coming home to roost and it will be hard to explain a defeated Ukraine, having spent so much treasure.

          6. Vietnam and Afghanistan being two examples of weapons being used against the original supplier.

          8. None to be seen in the East Riding anymore.
            Two weeks ago there was bunting, flags and in some cases posters asking for donations: all gone.

    2. Apparently Iran has been reverse engineering the US’s most advanced drones that they’ve captured and are now exporting that technology.

      1. That’s almost funny. Will Iran be exporting transistor radios any time soon?

  27. Good morning all,

    Moh playing golf this morning .

    We both feel anxious about the choice of candidates for PM.

    The Conservatives are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    Moh says none of them will do … and very soon the Tory party will become extinct because it is not representing rural Market town Britain.

    The Tory party is emulating the Blair era ..Too cosmopolitan really.

    The Tories do not speak our Conservative language anymore .

    I hate to say it , but our County Council appears to be managing our everyday doings far better than the government does the country.

    2. TB, emulating the Blair era??

      Readers of the Sunday Times will remember the report on Tony Blair’s conference called ” The Future of Britain”

      Amongst the usual creeps attending such as Lord Adonis, one person who stood out was Tom Tugendhat.

      Why was he oiling up to Blair who is a determined Remainer?

      Why was he there at all when he claims that he wants to be leader of the Tory Party?

      Why am I the only person who has noticed this?

    3. TB, emulating the Blair era??

      Readers of the Sunday Times will remember their report on Tony Blair’s conference called ” The Future of Britain”

      Amongst the usual creeps attending, such as Lord Adonis, one person who stood out was Tom Tugendhat.

      Why was he oiling up to Blair who is a determined Remainer?

      Why was he there at all when he claims that he wants to be leader of the Tory Party?

      Why am I the only person who has noticed this?

    4. TB, emulating the Blair era??

      Readers of the Sunday Times will remember their report on Tony Blair’s conference called ” The Future of Britain”

      Amongst the usual creeps attending, such as Lord Adonis, one person who stood out was Tom Tugendhat.

      Why was he oiling up to Blair who is a determined Remainer?

      Why was he there at all when he claims that he wants to be leader of the Tory Party?

      Why am I the only person who has noticed this?

    5. Unfortunately, Maggie, there’s a net zero chance of the winning candidate being of a Conservative bent.

  28. 354267+ up ticks,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    15h
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    Follow AltNewsMedia run by David Vance. Help them get their numbers up please.
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    As Mailchimp becomes the latest organisation to deplatform @TommyRobinson1 we ask, where are all the free speech extremists.

    Mailchump, Big Tech & Fascism – AltNewsMedia

    This week, mass email platform Mailchimp decided, without warning or explanation to end providing services to Urban Scoop, the independent media platform currently doing brave work exposing grooming and […]

    http://www.altnewsmedia.net

    Mailchump, Big Tech & Fascism – AltNewsMedia

    http://www.altnewsmedia.net

    1. As Mailchimp becomes the latest organisation to deplatform @TommyRobinson1 we ask, where are all the free speech extremists.

      Morning Oggy. Tommy quite obviously has his own department at Mi5. Though they’ve stopped the arbitrary arrests they still follow him around preventing his communicating as much as possible. They must also have a generous Slush Fund since I can’t see these people doing it for nothing!

      1. The desperation to control what people say is idiotic. If you silence one voice, you have to look at the others you don’t want to hear as well and before you know it, you’re only hearing what you want to, how you want to and then you stop thinking.

        Hell, they provide a mail service. It isn’t going to stop people reading the articles or having the views.

      2. Tommy’s naming names about the deep corrruption of the police in Telford and TPTB need that shut down pronto in the light of the Telford Report
        I suspect they can’t use the libel laws because it’s all true and he’s got the evidence,the next episode of his documentary is out shortly and must be suppressed at all costs hence the timing

        ‘Morning Minty

  29. 354267+ up ticks,

    O2O,

    One good thing about the mail is you get more for your pound in wood burner fire lighting material.

    1. Difficult to burn an online version, as I would never consider shelling out a penny for the printed version.

      1. 354267+ up ticks,

        NtN,

        I find it well worth purchase,gives great satisfaction and makes for better toast,
        lot to be said for roasting the mail.

      2. Once a chum brought it up on a screen without an blocker. Dear life. It’s horrific.

  31. Putin Signs Expanded ‘Foreign Agents’ Law. 15 July 2022.

    President Vladimir Putin signed into law Thursday legislation expanding the “foreign agent” label to encompass anyone deemed to have fallen under “foreign influence.”

    Russia’s registry of “foreign agents,” a name with Soviet-era connotations, lists “politically active” people and organizations that Russian authorities determine to have received foreign funding and subjects them to strict auditing requirements.

    Soviet Era my foot! Bit of cheap propaganda here! The |United States has had the so called Foreign Agents Registration Act since 1938. It was used for purely political purposes in 2018 against Maria Butina the young Russian woman accused of spying. It has domestic uses as well since it allows the US government to suppress dissent with the accusation that those accused are acting in support of Foreign Interests!

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/07/14/putin-signs-expanded-foreign-agents-law-a78298

    1. Any organisation funded by Soros/Gates needs to be closed down. That includes government ministers.

    2. Sadly true, we have similar and ours are even more draconian as they seek to silence all forms of debate on a whim.

  32. Putin Signs Expanded ‘Foreign Agents’ Law. 15 July 2022.

    President Vladimir Putin signed into law Thursday legislation expanding the “foreign agent” label to encompass anyone deemed to have fallen under “foreign influence.”

    Russia’s registry of “foreign agents,” a name with Soviet-era connotations, lists “politically active” people and organizations that Russian authorities determine to have received foreign funding and subjects them to strict auditing requirements.

    Soviet Era my foot! Bit of cheap propaganda here! The |United States has had the so called Foreign Agents Registration Act since 1938. It was used for purely political purposes in 2018 against Maria Butina the young Russian woman accused of spying. It has domestic uses as well since it allows the US government to suppress dissent with the accusation that those accused are acting in support of Foreign Interests!

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/07/14/putin-signs-expanded-foreign-agents-law-a78298

  33. Yo All

    Just been trolling about and found these

    I was walking through the Dockyard in a panic,
    When I met a matelot old and grey.
    Upon his back he had his kitbag and his hammock,
    And this is what I heard him say.

    I wonder, yes I wonder,
    Has the Jossman made a blunder,
    When he made this draft chit out for me,
    Well I’ve been a barrack stanchion,
    The pride of Jago’s mansion.
    But I do not want to go to sea.

    Oh I like my tiddy Oggie ,
    And I like my figgy duff,
    And I always say good morning to the chief.
    Good Morning Chief!

    Oh, I wonder, yes I wonder,
    Has the Jossman made a blunder,
    When he made this draft chit out for me.

    Anon

    Fleet Air Arm Version (of above):

    I was strolling through the gates at Lee-On-Solent.
    When I met a Wafu old and grey.
    He was seated by his toolbox on the pavement
    And this is what I heard him say :

    “Oh I wonder, yes I wonder, If the Andrew made a blunder
    When they made this Draft Chit out for me!
    ‘Cos I’ve served on all the Carriers,
    Serviced Wessex 5’s and Harriers

    But now there is no need for me.
    Oh I’ve been up North to Lossie and down south to Cul ‘D’
    And I always said good morning to the Chief –
    “Good Morning Chief!”

    Oh I wonder, yes I wonder, if the Andrew made a blunder
    When they made this Draft Chit out for me!”

    Credit Claimed by Ransford T Rogers

    L/F969339 5th Feb 1957 – 5th Feb 1979

  34. As a supportive spouse, I sat with the MR last evening while she watched Cur Momo Runaway tell his “pitiful” tale.

    One has always to bear in mind my aphorism – that nothing you see on telly is true. Assuming that the father was killed – then the impecunious wife did the obvious thing and sold one of her fitter children. Cur Momo became a slave – a word which the beeboids carefully avoided. He was lucky to end up with the slave-owner’s sister (if she WAS his sister) and to find that he could run.

    Now that he is rich and famous and a “knight” no wonder his family in their mud huts were pleased to see him. No doubt he dispensed lotsa “dash” to them.
    He lives in a nice big house (with an improbably naff dining room) with a nice wife and some dull children.

    As he said several times that he missed his real family so much, I did wonder why he didn’t sell up in the UK and return to the festering dung-hill that is Somalia – his wealth could probably buy a whole province.

    The MR said that I was being unkind. So I shut up…..

    1. You are so correct Bill, and I expect you wondered what on earth was going on .

      I wondered whether he was smuggled in to be used as an organ donation , but proved to be more useful…. COOKING and cleaning .

      Still very strange .

      1. But, apparently still attended school. So there would be records about his attendance, address, ‘guardians’ etc…. Wouldn’t there?
        I wonder if that school’s shredding machine has been working overtime?

        2. Didn’t they have a similar problem with Obama ?
          Nobody could remember him at school or college.

    2. The MR will doubtless know the wry observation of Enobarbus in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’

      That the truth should be silent I had almost forgot

      and the observation of the Fool in ‘King Lear’ :

      “Truth’s a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out
      When Lady the brach may stand by the fire and stink      ”

      She will also be aware of Philip Larkin’s words:

      It becomes still more difficult to find
      Words at once true and kind,
      Or not untrue and not unkind.

      1. 354267+ up ticks,

        Morning JN,
        I do not think so,unless you like marching & dodgy manoeuvres.
        Good people & party put down in the pursuit of very pro johnson actions.

        Anything with a farage tie is tory (ino) party top up

        1. Good morning ogga

          You don’t have to like Farage to see that while all parties to the right of centre fail to co-operate with each other they will never get anywhere.

          I was saddened to see that your favourite, Anne Marie Waters, has decided to throw in the towel. Let us hope that she is wise enough to give her support to the Reform Party.

    5. One wonders …….. he is reputed to like putting it about a bit. Didn’t he also go to Epstein’s island?

      1. They both looked so smug that did cross my mind too. Mordaunt will strain every sinew….

      2. He was divorced by his wife fairly recently. About the same time as the Epstein stuff became public.

    6. If Mordaunt becomes PM and tries to initiate WEF policies e.g. see Rutte’s attack of the Dutch farmers, then we do not comply. If clear WEF policies are being put forward then we have to assume that we have an illegitimate government: the UK government is voted into power to serve the people of the UK, not follow the diktats of a gang of unelected ‘elites’ that wishes to control every facet of our lives.
      WEF policies worked well in Sri Lanka, the country is in economic and societal meltdown. Make what you will of that particular outcome.

  36. Russia ‘using stolen Western weapons to commit and cover up war crimes’. 15 July 2022.

    Russia could have used captured Western weapons to commit and cover-up atrocities in Ukraine, officials fear, as Volodymyr Zelensky called for a Nuremberg-style court to hold Moscow to account.

    The Telegraph understands investigators are exploring evidence that suggests the Kremlin’s invasion forces could have used the tactic in an attempt to cover-up suspected war crimes.

    God this is desperate stuff. Is this the best they can do? What about baby-strangling or cannibalism?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/07/14/russia-accused-using-stolen-ukrainian-weapons-cover-war-crimes/

    1. One wonders how Zelenskiy would fare, when brought to account at a Nuremberg-style court.

  37. “Omicron varient is ‘troubling’ because people aren’t responding to vaccines, warns expert” (Telegraph – Friday 15 July).
    Of course, it has to be people who are at fault, not that the vaccine simply doesn’t work.
    I can’t give a link because I don’t subscribe to the Telegraph.

    1. Those naughty, naughty people with their own immune systems.
      Who DO they think they are!

      1. I can only argue from my own experience.

        I am fat and 76 and so, they tell me, I should have had the gene therapy jabs and not relied on Vitamin D, Vitamin C and Zinc tablets.

        So why, when Caroline and I got Covid this year was it very mild and not nearly as bad as a cold or flu when virtually everyone we know who were triple jabbed and got Covid at the same time we did were very much more ill than either of us were?

        Just a coincidence.

        Just good luck we suppose.

        Statistically irrelevant.

        Certainly nothing to do with the fact that we had not impaired our natural immunity by being jabbed.

        1. I still have my tonsils.
          Anecdotally, MB gets more colds than I do and they tend to go to his che ……….
          AAaaaaaaaaggghhhhh …… THUD.

          1. My tonsils were gouged out when I was six. In my teens I had a bad throat and the doctor I saw told me they seemed to have regenerated.

            Since then I have rarely had throat infections, apart from one or two corkers – and never a chest infection.

            In spite of my two AZ jabs, nothing since the virus I had in January 2020 – which could very well have been covid. We’ve both taken vit D & C for the last couple of winters.

          2. I had my tonsils out when I was six. When I was working, I had lots of sore throats – diagnosis? Tonsillitis! But I’ve had them out, I protested. They must have left a bit in, said the MO. Since I’ve retired, apart from Covid, I’ve had no problems with sore throats.

        2. The only people I know who had Covid recently were jabbed to the eyeballs. My Lead was very sick with it, too.
          Vitamins and zinc seem to work for Firstborn & me.

      2. As a child I had a really active immune system (the Heaf Test came up like Table Mountain!). It has served me well for 73 years. I’m not abandoning it now.

    2. It’s been broadcast far and wide by independent scientists/doctors that Omicron has mutated sufficiently far from the Alpha strain that, in their parlance, it ‘escapes’ the legacy “vaccine” i.e. the latter does not work. The Pfizer documents are revealing so many deficiencies in this product that it’s hard to keep up: efficacy being one example.
      As with all the excess ‘sudden’ deaths of people all around the World the ‘experts are baffled’: they are suffering from hear no, see no, speak no…

        1. As I see it the doctors who have blithely gone along with the Johnson government’s diktat, “Safe and effective,” cannot honestly now say that with a straight face. They HAVE to know that the “vaccines” are not only ineffective but down right dangerous. Ergo, they are in denial, they cannot admit to their patients that they, the medical profession, were duped into injecting patients with something awful.
          ‘We’ the people must not comply with any further intrusions into our freedoms and especially our bodily autonomy. Short of violent insurrection we must have patience and wait. As the deaths mount it will be impossible to hide the numbers and eventually someone, or more, will break ranks. Continually stating that ‘experts’ are baffled when excess mortality is rising is not a clever strategy: questions will be asked.
          I do not know how the many doctors and other health personnel who have administered this poison sleep at night and then go out and do it all again.

          1. They know! The three times I have mentioned and pointed out the red marks on my arms….they clam up and change the subject. My husband asked if his stent being blocked could have been caused by the AZ jab, as we believe, and he was given a load of pseudo psycho hocum.
            They know all right but have been told not to say anything.
            I was disappointed in the Mark Steyn programme about the vaccine issues as I was hoping for contact sites- email addresses etc.
            It did make me realise that we have got off fairly lightly. Others have had some truly appalling outcomes.

          2. We have got off lightly here, too. OH was quite poorly early last year with prostate troubles, so he has had a lot more to do with the surgery than I have. Although I told him not to have a booster jab, he allowed himself to be persuaded when he was there for his regular blood test appointment. However he did decline the spring booster.

          3. We have got off lightly here, too. OH was quite poorly early last year with prostate troubles, so he has had a lot more to do with the surgery than I have. Although I told him not to have a booster jab, he allowed himself to be persuaded when he was there for his regular blood test appointment. However he did decline the spring booster.

      1. Do you remember the photo of serious bomb damage?

        Fortunately none of the buildings had lost any of their windows.

        What a surprise?

      2. They do not care if we notice. It may well be all phoney but for Liz Truss this is enough evidence to start a nuclear war.

    4. It’s where they have parked the camera van, next to the burger stall?

  39. Tony Blair launches new drive for digital ID cards to tackle illegal immigration
    Proposal follows a doubling to more than 14,200 in number of migrants reaching the UK in small boats across the Channel
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/15/tony-blair-launches-new-drive-digital-cards-tackle-illegal-immigration/

    Once a snake oil salesman always a snake oil salesman.

    Blair is cashing in on the fact that most people want to see illegal immigration halted but they do not want digital ID cards for themselves.

    Of course what Blair wants is continued illegal immigration with none of the illegal immigrants having ID cards while the indigenous population has to have them.

    1. Yes, and what will the authorities do if they catch an illegal immigrant without an ID card?

      Anything different to what they do now?

    3. Border Force Official: “Hello Sir, I need to see your ID card”
      Suspected Illegal Immigrant: “Just a Mo! …I seem to have lost it!…it runs in the family!”

    5. He was a POS who opened the door in the first place. then he up set the people in the middle east and the have spent the last 25 years taking revenge on us. And they are still arriving on our shores. And because of vile self-aggrandizing creatures like him. The future for this country is dire.

    1. Because they are evil capitalists who want to make money by selling food to people.

  43. Met Office issues first ever red heat warning. 15 July 2022.

    The Met Office has issued the first ever red alert for hot weather, warning there is a “very likely” risk to life.

    Grahame Madge, Met Office spokesman, said: “We’ve just issued a red warning for extreme heat for Monday and Tuesday which is the first such warning ever issued.”

    And don’t forget to say your prayers and cool your jim-jams before you go to bed!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/15/met-office-issues-first-ever-red-heat-warning/

    2. And yet 1976 was a real scorcher; I don’t recall any red warnings then, just a need to apply a bit of common sense [and maybe a bit of sunscreen].

      1. I remember schlepping round the ward complaining that my shoes were full of feet.

        2. Classroom, 30 kids, limited opening windows, very warm day ….just after lunch….just setting the scene;-)

      2. Please will you not go on about the scorching Summerof ’76: I was freezing my nuts off in the Seychelles!

        1. Actually, looking at my notes, I was probably in the Med somewhere in ’76! It was ’77 when I was climbing sea cliffs in UK and that was plenty hot too!

        2. In ’76 I was living in Eastbourne. I stayed in the Duke of Devonshire’s pied-a-terre, Compton Place. Of course, being a pleb, I had a room in the servants’ quarters up in the attic, but I could climb out onto the leads. I don’t recall it being life-threatening; we just got on with our lives as normal.

      1. It’s hot but not that hot. Anyone who has lived in Africa and Australia would have experience heat and just put up with it.
        We had 43 degrees for about 4 days south of Adelaide in the late 70s. Shade temperatures. But it cooled down to 30 over night. And Christie’s beach at the end of Hunter Road was packed.

          2. No, I’m in White City with air con in the office. I just wondered what the temp is in the Middle East, where it gets seriously hot, so looked it up. When I visited Jordan in ’94 I was told that their climate is mild, as the temperatures only reach the 40s and not 50s.

          4. I once managed to go rock climbing in Oman – temperature in the low 40s, but very dry and so quite pleasant. The locals, in their air conditioned 4x4s, thought we were mad! Apparently there is also superb climbing in Jordan!

          5. October to May was the best time of year for rock climbing in Oman, especially if wanting to do Jebel Misht.
            Mostly mid 20’s and rarely over 30C.

            Ps. snow on Jebel Shams almost every December.

          6. I found the heat in the French Riviera unbearable – but then it was Nice! 😉

        2. Or the east coast of the US in summer. I’m not finding it too hot right now- bearable for me.

    5. The Met Office become more hysterical by the day. Meanwhile, the airports are packed with those paying a lot of hard earned cash to fly off to hot weather.

    6. The Met Office become more hysterical by the day. Meanwhile, the airports are packed with those paying a lot of hard earned cash to fly off to hot weather.

      2. I had a Pimms this afternoon, after I’d done all the cutting back of the overgrown hedges. I do like a No 1 sling 🙂

  44. Just received an email from Anglian Water advising us to go easy on water use.
    MB and I are doing our bit; we’re drinking a shandy.

    2. When the last big ‘drought’ was going on, we realised that the landlord of the pub that we used to go to after work had found the perfect water saver:

      He stopped watering down the draught beer

  45. Just received an email from Anglian Water advising us to go easy on water use.
    MB and I are doing our bit; we’re drinking a shandy.

    1. Eneergy – continue the net zero lies, push more green to get on the trougher circuit. Stuff people. Maybe there’ll be a push once folk start dying, but that won’t make headlines and a risible payout will be offered, stolen from the worker.
      Ukraine – ignore it.
      Net zero will continue full force, unabated and even more green nonsense announced.
      Yes, they’ll definitely bring in more covid restrictions.
      The NHS will get more money, will return ever less value and then will demand, and get, more money. More di-worse-ity, less health service.

      Pay for it? Well, higher taxes. Especially stealth taxes. This won’t work, so they’ll have to borrow more.

      Same old, same old.

    3. Not one candidate has said how they are going to deal with
      Carrieon,Regadless’ choice of wallpaper

  47. Another thought provoker from Dalrymple

    This is because judgment is inseparable from human thought. Even the decision, almost always insincere and taken with a certain pride and self-satisfaction, not to judge is itself dependent upon a judgment, and is therefore self-contradictory. I do not believe that anybody—or perhaps I should say, just to be on the safe side, many people, since humanity is so infinitely variable—can go longer than a few minutes without making a judgment, either moral or aesthetic. Man, said Aristotle, is a political animal; I should like to add that he is a judgmental animal, too.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/at-face-value/

    2. I’m a linguist; I subscribe to the theory that an Englishman can’t open his mouth without someone judging him 🙂

      1. Fine chance pm they closed the mecca bingo in tolerant Luton many years ago.

        1. Our MP was the previous Tory candidate in Luton (where of course he would lose).

          A typical career politician, who doesn’t give a stuff for his constituents, as long as he gets voted into Parliament with its perks.

        2. Our MP was the previous Tory candidate in Luton (where of course he would lose).

          A typical career politician, who doesn’t give a stuff for his constituents, as long as he gets voted into Parliament with its perks. Dean Russell is his name – his face is like one of the pigs in Animal Farm (just try and look him up and you will see what I mean).

    1. Actually, it is a TV reality show. The shows have become paradigms for reality. Reality now follows the patterns set by the shows. All other patterns have been displaced.

  50. Weird to visit old haunts. In The Stout House in Horsham. All that seems to have changed in 25 years is they painted the ceiling.
    Otherwise, the number of enormously “well-nourished” women is staggering (as are many of the women). Mostly unclothed, too. Gosh.

    1. Hattie Jacques was a large lady but she always looked elegant; her dresses were pretty and suited her build. What you see these days is truly horrific- Asda is crawling with over stuffed bodies, all unsuitably dressed.

    3. Could it be that the “well-nourished” women are those who, having given up smoking, then allowed the ceiling to be washed clear of nicotine and repainted?

      1. This time around, Operation Black Buck would have no chance whatsoever. No Vulcans left flying.

    1. Me neither, nor the extremely unedifying appearance on a ghastly reality TV programme, in her swimsuit! Not really PM material!

      1. What really appals me about the prospect of Dormant becoming PM is how woke she is, and how apparently lazy and thick. Some of the quotes from her book are really dreadful – the sort of carp I’d expect from Starmer, and with a forward by Gates!

          1. If she becomes PM the Tories are out next next GE. Maybe that’s what Gates et al want.

          2. I am beginning to suspect that, no matter who “wins” the leadership election, the Tories will be out next election. It will need a miracle (i e a truly conservative leader) to prevent that.

        1. Well, the prog was called ‘Splash’ so who knows?? Are you home now , Paul?

        2. Well, the prog was called ‘Splash’ so who knows?? Are you home now , Paul?

    3. She mentioned Mr Whitelaw’s willie yesterday and it won’t be long before she calls Ed Balls out by name. She is clearly obsessed with male genitalia.

      But we needn’t pussy foot about it and always try to find holes in her arguments and cracks in her chances. It may even stiffen and make her prospects less limp because cock ups are what the Conservatives specialise in.

      Jack Thackray was a keen poultry enthusiast.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8yHdBKd_Fs

    4. She mentioned Mr Whitelaw’s willie yesterday and it won’t be long before she calls Ed Balls out by name. She is clearly obsessed with male genitalia.

      But we needn’t pussy foot about it and always try to find holes in her arguments and cracks in her chances. It may even stiffen and make her prospects less limp because cock ups are what the Conservatives specialise in.

      Jack Thackray was a keen poultry enthusiast.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8yHdBKd_Fs

  53. As Ukraine grain deal emerges, U.S. aims to ease concerns over Russia sanctions. 15 July 2022.

    The U.S. Treasury made clear that the sale and transport of agricultural commodities, as well as medicine and medical devices, was allowed and would not be breaching a raft of sanctions that Washington has imposed on Russia.

    Washington also stressed that there were no sanctions on Russia’s production, manufacturing, sale, or transport of agricultural commodities, including fertilizer, and that providing insurance or reinsurance for the transportation or shipping of those products was not prohibited.

    I don’t doubt the duplicity or the ability of the United States to renege on any agreement it makes but it looks as though they’ve cracked!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-grain-deal-emerges-us-aims-ease-concerns-over-russia-sanctions-2022-07-14/

    1. Why would Russia export to “the West” if they can export to China, India etc?

      The sanctions seem to be hurting us more than them.

        2. “Have some nasty medicine, Your Blueness.”
          (c) Beatles Yellow Submarine movie.

      2. The sanctions seem to be hurting us more than them.

        Afternoon Sos. Yes! That’s what they’ve realised. If they keep on this road the whole system will collapse!

        1. Even WEF shills seem to be recognising they might have gone too far.
          How much can they rely on their military to shoot their own people is the question.
          UK forces are loyal to the Crown, not the government. Believe its the same in Norway. Netherlands? Who knows.

        2. Perhaps that’s what they want; not realising that the crocodile will eat them first, not last.

          2. “…which, unless rolled back, risk destroying the European economy,…”

            Bring it on, let’s have the EU imploding on itself.

      3. I think that was the intention from the start, but so that we would blame Russia and especially Putin.

  54. Joe Lamebrain Biden is in Saudi Arabia begging for more oil to assist the EU and Ukraine and to thwart Russia in its gas/oil reductions.

    As he wrapped up the first leg of a Middle Eastern trip before departing for Saudi Arabia, Biden visited a hospital in East Jerusalem and pledged a multi-year $100 million package of financial and technical help for hospitals that serve Palestinians He has planned to announce $201m for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, $15m for humanitarian assistance, and $7.2m for schemes to promote cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians (provided the Israelis hand over Israeli ‘killers’ wanted by the Pallies. I foresee another Peace Piss Prize heading for the USofA.

    1. Is giving money to the Palestinians a vicarious bribe to the Saudis? The Saudis have plenty of money they could give to the Palestinians. Is this a counterbalance to the money given to the Israelis for a joint weapon development?

      1. The Saudis have plenty of money that they could do lots of good things with – like take in muslim “refugees” from other countries, the way we seem to. But oh, no, not money for that. The Saudis stink, and their oil be damned. Oil is all they have.

        1. They’ve also got a oodles of spare land to take in their refugee co-religionists.

          1. Yes, and our Royals and our politicians still suck up to them, for their oil and their purchase of our produced arms. Sick.

      1. Our relatives in NZ said that there was a joke going around stating that when Jacinda and her large entourage returned from their

        foreign jaunt then she would immediately start on restrictive measures.

        Seems like the joke turned out correct.

    2. What utter nonsense! Don’t those numskulls realise that similar events take place all over Europe every summer in hotter weather?

    1. I hope our heathland doesn’t catch fire .

      Moh loves the heat , I hate it , I am freckly skinned , and the heat has always made me feel faint .

      In Africa the homes I lived in were built sensibly.. wide verandahs.. ceiling fans in the Sudan and Egypt, then later air conditioners in Nigeria .. thundering away.

      At least we don’t have huge spiders and other things slipping and sliding around .

      2. A huge hairy spider appeared on the floor last night; I spring into action and did the Savoy Stomp on it. Sorry but am not sharing my house with large hairy things…. well, apart from MH;-)

      3. I would HATE huge spiders – and I don’t give a toss if they are more frightened of me than I am of them…I had problems enough when I lived in Hong Kong – cockroaches the size of mice. Ugh, ugh, ugh! I dont care if we are all God’s creatures, there are some creatures I would prefer to live without seeing…

        2. Horrible .. yes and giant centipedes .. scorpions , we found a fat blighter had crawled into our suitcase ( that was in SA) oh and also a ghecko hiding in a shoe .

    2. The sooner TPTB realise that we need people who have successfully run a business to run the country the better – we don’t need career politicians, ex-councillors and social workers and anyone with a degree in politics or sociology, they are clueless. Furthermore we need people with a background in finance to run the economy, ex-military to run defence etc – it seems the cabinet always consists of people completely unsuited and unqualified for their positions – it’s all too matey matey. Once in position in the cabinet they should stay there – no swapping around, make the right choice to start with

      1. 354267+ up ticks,

        Afternoon ,FA
        We could see if Gerard Batten Richard Braine were open to offers
        inclusive of a written apology from each member of the lab/lib/con
        coalition for the rape & abuse of brexitexit, for starters….

          1. 354267+ up ticks,
            FA,
            A golden opportunity missed & taken down by the uKiP party nec / farage,
            them characters have a great deal to answer for.

    3. I agree – and even on a local level, when it comes to suspected fraud, who can you turn to? Police, no way. Council. erm there’s nobody in at the moment…

    1. How cynical we become, my first thought when I saw the video clip was that it was actors.

    2. No just cheap propaganda Poppie’s mum. You have presumably noticed that the talk about chemical attacks had died since they were first propagated. Probably because no one was interested!

  61. Beware, Beware, Beware
    Dangerof death and much worse
    It is going to be sunny from the 17/07, for a bit

    Extreme heat warning issued

    Author: Press Office 10:27 (UTC+1) on Tue 12 Jul 2022 Note time

    The Met Office has extended an Amber Extreme heat warning, as temperatures look to build later this week and early next week for much of England
    and Wales.

    Read the full crap here

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2022/extreme-heat-warning-issued

    1. The BBC weather wallah has just said that the heat could kill several thousand people , so cool off, get yourself to a library to cool off…. WHAT?

      2. Excuse me- some librarians won’t want all your hot steamy bodies in our libraries…..;-)))

      3. Anyone who dies of anything on Monday and Tuesday will have been killed by the heat. The Covid figures will mysteriously be lost due to computer error…

      4. Actually Belle, as I’m sure you know, libraries are temperature regulated to preserve and protect the books and other materials. Books kept in damp and dark places can get silverfish and mould. Yuk.

          1. Yep, but I bet the temps were kept constant. Well, I bloody hope so.
            There must be some libraries still open though- two round here are, as far as I know.
            This govt is mad and this country is a total mess.

        2. The books I got out of Hong Kong library in 1980 were falling apart – the glue was melting…

    2. Interesting that the chart for Monday shows a north easterly flow rather than winds from the roasting south as predicted. But what would I know about met charts…

        2. Air moves clockwise around high pressure so the airflow over the UK is southerly.

    3. Amber? You should be so lucky! Here it is a RED warning! Grief! It must be 25 years since we last had temperatures this high.

    1. I ‘ve just read that.

      OMG, what on earth was he thinking ..

      Son – Dad look at this article
      Son – Dad look at this article “Man ran over by hoover”
      Dad – What an idiot, did he Dyson?

    2. The Priest who couldn’t swear!
      Father Murphy was playing golf with a parishioner. On the 1st hole, he sliced into the rough. His opponent heard him mutter, “Hoover!” under his breath.

      On the 2nd hole, Father Murphy’s ball went straight into a water hazard. “Hoover!” again, a little louder this time.

      On the 3rd hole, a miracle occurred, and Father Murphy’s drive landed on the green only six inches from the hole! “Praise be to God!”

      He carefully lined up the putt, but the ball curved around the hole instead of going in. “Hoover!”
      By this time, his opponent couldn’t withhold his curiosity any longer, and asked why the priest said, “Hoover.”

      “It’s the biggest dam I know.”

      1. Jesus and St Peter were having a round of golf. St Peter drove one straight down the fairway, Jesus sliced his T shot and it went into a pond. Jesus walked after it and walked across the water to where the ball went in. A man walking his dog said to Peter “Who does he think he is Jesus Christ?” Peter replied ” He IS Jesus Christ but he thinks he’s Arnold Palmer”

    3. The vicar went out for a round of golf with an very loose-tongued member of his parish.

      This chap’s curses became more and more obscene as the round went on and the vicar was most alarmed.

      “My dear friend,” he said, “you really mustn’t swear like that or God will punish you by sending down a thunderbolt.”

      But still the lout’s blasphemy and foul language got worse at every bodged shot and every missed put and each time he cursed and swore the vicar warned him again of how displeased God would be and reminded him of the potential thunderbolt.

      On the 18th green the parishioner had an easy put which he missed: “F*cking hell, missed again.” he screamed.

      At that moment there was a flash and a bolt of lightning struck the vicar down dead.

      “F*cking hell, I missed,” said a voice from the skies.

      1. That actually happened to a Colchester vicar c. 1960.
        (I’m not sure about the swearing bit.)

  63. Checked in, sitting in departure lounge. Crowded, but there are seats.
    Making lebensraum by body odour – need a shower & new clothes!

    1. Make sure you have room to stretch out and sleep overnight…{:¬))

      Is the water back on? At Gatwick.

    1. Bogey Five Today PHEW TOO !

      Wordle 391 5/6
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Par 4 pour moi.
      Wordle 391 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  65. Parting evaluation of the UK:
    Councils have given up trimming verges, bushes and trees, and so the whole place looks run-down and abandoned like Pripyat / Chernobyl. Overgrown road signs make navigation difficult, there’s always an Audi trying to undertake, and nobody but us drove even close to the speed limits – and that includes cyclists.
    Pies were good, though. And cider. And pubs. And hard-working house clearers, and charity shop staff

    1. Oooh pies- as you have been known to say;-) Glad you got to eat some and have some small fun within all the very hard work.
      Are you now en route home? If so, bon voyage.
      Just seen below. Safe trip, mate.

      2. Was also good to meet a real, live Nottler – Kaypea!
        Nottlers aren’t bots, after all. Who knew?

    2. The run-down look is known as “re-wilding”. Gross neglect as we used to call it.

    3. Oh no no no councils haven’t given up, they’re embracing noble re-wilding, saving the bees, enabling wildlife and combating the council self declared climate crisis, I know this because the Libdum/Greeny North Soms. Council are at continuous pains to tell me.

      1. Here, it’s the matter that parish councils would like stuff done, but Highways (employed by county) don’t get around to it.

      2. Aah, it worked so well with the rivers a couple of years back, didn’t it?

        1. Shrewsbury council and wildlife groups are contemplating re-introducing beavers to the river Severn. I look forward to the result (/sarc)

    5. To be fair, overgrown road signs are the responsibility of the landowner whose hedge/vegetation obscures the sign. Undertaking is not confined to Audi drivers either. Otherwise, I take your point that we look run-down and abandoned.

    6. Many virtue signalling councils will not use weed killer on the growths between paving stones.
      Clearing gutters also seems to be neglected, so mulch builds up for even more weeds to grow.
      NTL added to the chaos by cutting through pavements and doing a bodge fill-in job. (The ants are happy because they can throw sand up through the cracks.)

  66. 354267+ up ticks,

    Listening to some gadgie on radio four telling of the illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel in small boats of their plight after the trauma of escaping from a free nation, found in Dover lack of accommodation and having to spend time on mattresses / floor in cramped conditions.

    whilst on jeremu whine radio two he was interviewing ambulance crews and patients
    waiting in ambulances, one instance for 25 hours, while potential patients have not let left france.

    Let that sink into the idiotic brigade waiting to vote in yet another political shyster.

    Advice on one of many issues, reform the NHS inside a protective wall, mortar mix MUST include a good % of common sense
    and DESIGN MUST NOT INCLUDE GATES.

    2. “Between May 6 and July 11 this year, there have been 1,735 confirmed monkeypox cases in the UK, and 1,229 of these were Londoners, according to UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) figures”. “Londoners” is used in the loosest sense here of course.

      1. “Londoners” not meaning people like in “Maybe because I’m a Londoner” people – but the dross that have come in and voted the carp Mayor in. WELL, they would, wouldn’t they?

        1. P.S Why not escape a sh!thole, if you can go to another country and get everything paid for and turn it into the sh!thole you left -and then vote same sh!ts into power.

          Khan said something like that bombs and violence were to be expected in big city. Well, Khan, maybe where you came from, mate, but not in the civilised West until your lot came here.

          1. We could end up like poor little Ceylon.. bankrupt and chaotic ..

            I mean , politicians of a certain calibre take what they want .

            This government outsources to places like that, and some one is raking it all in .

          2. It’s worse than that, Maggie, we are paying for muslim belligerent peasants to take us over.

          5. That Hindu is out for himself and will leave this country for his foreign estates the minute he has finshed destroying us. Like Boris and so many of the rest of them.

      2. Will the Mayor investigate and see if any of his co-religionists are behaving suspiciously in the regions near Regent’s Park?

    4. It is a good job, for a certain section of the male communities in many towns, that monkeypox is not carried by schoolgirls

      1. I’ve just had the demand to renew the licence. Slight problem; it’s in the name of my OH, who shuffled off this mortal coil in August last year.. I tried to change the name on the licence (there being no opportunity to say “licence holder deceased”). Guess what – they require written consent from the licence holder to the change! Good luck with that one! Do they have an ouija board?

          1. Yes. I was quite surprised how the time had flown. I am having some work done on the house (internal insulation on the external walls) and they want to start on the 11th, the anniversary.

    2. I didn’t realise there was a quota system vis-à-vis race for any England sporting team. I thought team members were supposed to be chosen on merit, not the colour of their skin.

      2. Don’t look at the Scottish curling teams, they all exhibit that sallow sun starved complexion.

    2. If all the runners for PM withdrew then Boris could stay caretaker PM until the end of the current parliament.
      Then Boris could ‘play politics’ as Sir Kier put it and frustrate all Labour’s tables for no confidence in something or other. 🤔

  71. Joe Biden compares plight of Irish Catholics under Britain to Palestinians under Israel
    The comments by the US president risk infuriating Brexiteers and Unionists
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/07/15/joe-biden-compares-plight-irish-catholics-britain-palestinians/

    And yet most UK politicians and the MSM clearly preferred Biden to Trump at the presidential elections even though it was perfectly clear that Trump was pro Britain and Biden was very much anti the UK.

    It shows just how stupid and degraded virtually all our PTB have become.

    2. 354267+ up ticks,

      Afternoon R,
      Yet they still receive the support of many of the peoples, this confirms why the mental health of the nation is in such dire straights.
      The politico’s like it that way.

    3. Biden sets great store by his Irish roots, yet none of his parents or grandparents were born in Ireland. If at least one of them had been, Biden would be entitled to claim Irish citizenship. They weren’t, so he isn’t. Another Plastic Paddy.

    4. Trump makes the mistake of telling it like it is and the establishment politicians don’t like to be faced with reality.

      Do you think that nato leaders liked being told to pay their fair share or the Europeans wanted to hear about the dangers of depending on Russian gas? No, head in sand and pretend all is OK.

  72. 354267+ up ticks,

    That excuse for a party should have gone into meltdown the same day the JAY report was published, has lynton, the ex PM still got an office in the park toilet?

    The tory (ino) party continued to iport foreign paedophiles and still finds majority support via the electorate.

    labour Party Blocks Public Inquiry Into Child Rape Grooming Gangs and Local Failures to Protect Girls

    You will think on this whenever casting a future vote won’t you, I just bet you will.

  74. 354267+ up ticks,

    We need some uplifting slogans something like ,

    Get rid of the political shits, open up the pits.

    You know whats lacking , we just ain’t fracking.

    Continue…

        1. I wondered who would be first.
          }:-)

          I almost wrote that under a spoiler when I posted

        2. You STILL at Gatwick????????? Have you checked in early for a plane tomorrow???

      1. Read that as “Make Britain FART again”.
        Guess I’d better go to specsavers…

  75. The question of height has been mentioned on this forum today so the question which dwarfs all others is: Who is the shortest: Sadiq Kahn, John Bercow, Rishi Sunak or Bernie Ecclestone?

      2. There’s hope for me yet! I used to be nearly 5’5″, but I’ve shrunk to 5′ 3″ 🙁

  76. Liz Truss vows to scrap green levy to hand £153 to families and reverse £16billion corporation tax rise as she ratchets up pressure on rivals for the Tory leadership – as bookies’ favourite Penny Mordaunt accuses opponents of using ‘black ops’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11017523/And-theyre-Tory-leadership-rivals-face-against-time.html

    She is looking better as a future PM, even though I don’t believe her!
    Let’s hope that if she is elected Putin doesn’t decide to get his retaliation in first

      1. She should get my chorister son to do the voice-over.

        His mimicry was so good one would think it was Thatcher speaking

          1. Pass, but whoever it was was also good.

            The first time I heard my son do it, I was coming into the living room and thought that the TV was on.

        2. I know you don’t like the guy but my son did an absolutely spot on President Obama. I came in one day and thought the President was in my house. The timing, the gestures and the voice. Spot on.

          1. It’s great to hear and watch family who can do the mimicry.

            And as a matter of interest, what makes you think I don’t like your son?

    1. The Victorians managed to run an entire empire with the same number of staff as a C21 borough council.
      They were fuelled by booze and medicines like the above. Maybe we should go back to being permanently drunk and stoned.

      1. Who says we aren’t drunk? I’ve just finished off a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon after my exertions in the garden!

  78. Has anyone researched / Wikied Lord Frost?

    I did in order to understand his pro Liz Truss stance – and his attempts to destroy Penny Mordaunt and eliminate Kemi Badenoch.

    I have read his background with disgust.

    – Civil servant thru and thru.
    – Strongly Remainer in the pay of the Scotch Whiskey industry.
    – Not fit to be an MP – let alone a PM.

    It would suit him to become Liz Truss’s Chancellor …

    A disgusting, self-interested, disloyal sh!t, IMHO …

    3. Absolutely. The man is a charlatan – posing as an old-fashioned Tory “grandee”.

      Anyone – ANYONE – who thinks that Untrussworthy is THE man for the job needs the lamppost/piano wire treatment. Sharpish.

      1. My guess is that Glove didn’t is because he suspects that whoever gets the job will be out of it after the next GE and that’s when he’ll play for leader.
        Assuming that voting is still allowed after a Starmer administration the next incumbent will become PM with a reasonable majority to wreak whatever damage they wish

    4. At least Captain Mordaunt is entitled by her awarded rank to wear the naval uniform and can also use Jackspeak to communicate with the Senior Service.

        1. Yes, it’s a pity Britannia no longer Rules the Waves howeever with Boris’s EU exit agreement it now means that Britannia Waives the Rules!

  79. That’s me for this tedious day. Andy the Wasp next killer promised to be here this morning. At 5 pm he texted to say his van had broken down……and it’ll be next week. Hope the garage stung him…{:¬))

    The MR wants to watch “the debate” ce soir. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

    A demain.

    1. Tell her not to waste her time.
      She should wallow in a mud bath to discover everything there is to know about the debate, and she might even find the mud bath cooling.

      1. She thinks Fishi is THE man… I’ve tried and tried – she won’t be moved.

        2. My best friend is a leftie of the highest quality. He believes, I kid you not, that Starmer would make a superb PM and that Lammy is utterly brilliant and would make a great Chancellor.

          Covidist, jab the population every month, NHS envy of the world and should have far more money, it’s the Tories raising oil prices, the BBC is honest and the only reliable source of news is the Guardian.

          Green and net zero is the way, Zelensky & Co are as honest as the day is long, China is the way we should go, nowhere near enough immigrants, Brexit is the worst thing to happen to the UK, EVER, etc etc

          We agree to differ.

          2. Hardly

            Same college staircase and then same digs.
            On matters political, I annoy him as much as he annoys me, but on almost everything else our tastes, standards, etc are very similar, we have had a lot of really great times over the years.

          3. Sounds like Trudeau would like to bring him in as a liberal voting immigrant.

          10. Sounds like he is short of a few rolls of padded wallpaper. He’s your friend? How can you stand it?

    2. Shuddar done ’em in yer self Bill.
      Like I did yesterday. Not for the first time in the past 4 years wasps have been trying to move into the roof voids in our facia and soffit over hang. Small holes lead to wide open spaces. Get some wasp powder and pump it in to hole they are entering. Then seal it off.
      Oh I just remembered ladders. Not a good.
      Wait for Andy. 🐝🐝 🪜

          1. We can get some hornet sprays that shoot the insecticide at least fifteen feet in the air. That would allow Uncle Bill to avoid ladders and keep his feet firmly on the ground.

        2. Well Bill it worked and not for first time. Telling to Buzz off didn’t really have any effect.

    3. I watched to see what the candidates had to say about matters and how they speak. The dark one seems to have the best conservative ideas and it was nice of Auntie to have the last question put by Leslie in the pretty dress (and adams apple).

          1. Must be the HEAT
            I happened to flick on Radio 4 News at 5PM (sorry, I confess!) and some female presenter was interviewing Penny Enderby (I think I got that right) from the Met Office who asserted strenuously that 40°C was life-threatening, especially to the elderly and that it was DEFINITELY due to Climate Change.

            There followed Sir John Hayes, (64 year old MP for South Holland and the Deepings – never ‘eard of it).

            He pooh-poohed the Met Office bint and said that the elderly had been through many heatwaves, (especially 1975) and were much more likely to close curtains and know how to keep cool than the Snowflakes we have now bleating about the ‘life-threatening heat’.

            I nearly cheered, till the interviewer gave the Met Office bint another go, to rubbish him and support the BBC’s preferred narrative: that we should all cower indoors and drink lots of water, (just as thousands of newly-liberated holidaymakers are heading for Southern Spain, where it’s now nudging 50°C – that’s 122°F in old money).

            Living in Kent we have a South-facing conservatory (a bad idea in retrospect) that regularly reaches 50-55°C (130°F) in August. It was a cosy 41°C just before lunch when I opened the doors and turned on the ceiling fan.

            When we holidayed in Perth, Western Australia in March 2007 it was a balmy 42°C in the shade and nobody seemed to take any notice, just got on with work.

            What’s the Woke World coming to?

          2. They don’t want us to be able to cope, to be honest. They want us to be frightened and looking to the government for advice to survive. Woe betide anybody who applies common sense to the situation!

          3. You must admit that it is a change from cowering in fear at whatever covid variant.

          4. It’s only a slight change in focus, though. Constant fear and uncertainty causes people to despair.

          5. But it is a covid variant, richardl, called “flippinus hottus” and the only way to counteract it is to have yet another vaccine (No 27?) Lol.

          7. People who only listen to the BBC really do live in another world.
            The people pushing these lies shouldn’t get away with it – there needs to be retribution, and not just gold-plated pensions at the public’s expense.

    2. BBC weather presenters have had recent special training at the Michael Fish School of Meteorolical Forecasting (MFSMF). 😉

    3. It’s so warm here I had my sweater/shawl round my shoulders! I am not feeling all this heat and this is the south coast.

    4. At least the invaders will feel at home in the warm weather. Nothing too much trouble… I expect there will be a cool drinks payment somewhere in the benefits offered.

    2. Once more the British electorate is being completely stitched up by the people they employ. As in the effing over paid and dangerously devious civil service.

    1. Parasitic evolution is an amazing thing. Try ‘Cuckoo, cheating by nature’, by Nick davies.

  83. Evening, all. Been a fairly hot (but not red alert) day here. Cracked on with cutting back the overgrown parts of the garden, but I was so knackered and my arthritis was so painful afterwards that I didn’t manage to clear all the prunings away. I’ll have to end up doing those tomorrow. As for the headline, they are all tainted. I really despair sometimes that we will ever see a government that actually likes and cares for the UK and its indigenous people.

  85. Tourist Information.
    Afternoon tea at Greyfriars Hotel, Colchester is absolutely the bizz.
    Thoroughly recommend it.
    (I will draw a veil over our guest chatting up the waiters!)

    3. How lovely, and has the wow factor by the sound of things .

      Did you wear a hat, Anne.

      I had a couple of Aunts who wore hats … hats for summer and hats for winter , and afternoon tea was an occasion taken seriously.

      1. It’s not just the hats.

        I have had dealings with the local dragons of the Womens Institute. You know you are in trouble when they arrive at meetings with their fancy lace gloves.

    4. Where’s Greyfriars’ Hotel, anne? I can’t place it from my time in Colchester. I remember a good meal at the George with an old school chum.

      2. At the top of East Hill.
        For yonks, Essex Eddication owned the building and inevitably made a right mess of the place.
        It backs onto Castle and Roman Road. Plenty of free parking!!!!!!

        1. I lived on East Hill for a while (just a bit down from the doctor’s surgery), but I can’t place it!

    5. Don’t think a veil is going to cover it 🤣

      Absolutely wonderful afternoon!

    6. I heartily agree with you, Annie. I should advise all NoTTLers that it was not I, Elsie Bloodaxe, wot was chatting up the waiters. In fact my most regular visits to the wonderful Greyfriars Hotel was in the recent two or three years when the Book Club club I am a member of met there once a month for an evening meal.

      PS – Their meals and afternoon teas are delicious and the staff service is first class.

    1. I don’t know anything about her, Belle. But to be honest, it’s got to the stage where if the next PM was a Nigerian transvestite calling itself a pregnant elephant, but had England’s best interests at heart, I’d be happy.

    1. Immigration isn’t a bad thing, IF the immigrants adopt and adapt to UK culture and IF they are net contributors.
      Sadly, most don’t and aren’t.

    2. The five candidates could only respond to the questions put to them by Channel 4 this evening, Maggie.

    3. The five candidates could only respond to the questions put to them by Channel 4 this evening, Maggie.

  88. Penguins are going on strike because of substandard fish and refusing to eat it. I say all penguins and those identifying as penguins should call an immediate strike.

    1. It’s all black and white to you isn’t it and none of those fifty shades of grey!

        1. Some nice pickerel in these parts at the moment – there are advantages to living near a Mohawk reserve!

          1. Do you fish for them? I would have thought the pike and muskies would be of a better eating size.

    2. All Snow Monkeys are, in the interest of solidarity with our comrades in the Penguin community, calling all monkeys to stop sitting in hot pools for the entertainment of the bourgeoisie tourist.

      Hold on until I find my Little Red Book.

  89. Eco-extremism has brought Sri Lanka to its knees

    An obsession with organic farming ‘in sync with nature’ triggered an unsustainable but predictable economic crisis

    MATT RIDLEY • 14 July 2022 • 4:55pm

    Sri Lanka’s collapse, from one of the fastest growing Asian economies to a political, economic and humanitarian horror show, seems to have taken everybody by surprise.

    Five years ago, the World Bank was extolling “how Sri Lanka intends to transition to a more competitive and inclusive upper-middle income country”. Right up to the middle of last year, despite the impact of the pandemic, the country’s misery index (inflation plus unemployment) was low and falling. Then the misery index took off like a rocket, quintupling in a year.

    What happened? There is a simple explanation, one that the BBC seems determined to downplay. In April 2021, president Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that Sri Lanka was banning most pesticides and all synthetic fertiliser to go fully organic. Within months, the volume of tea exports had halved, cutting foreign exchange earnings. Rice yields plummeted leading to an unprecedented requirement to import rice. With the government unable to service its debt, the currency collapsed.

    Speciality crop yields like cinnamon and cardamom tanked. Staple foods became infested with pests leading to widespread hunger. As Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute put it in March: “The farrago of magical thinking, technocratic hubris, ideological delusion, self-dealing and sheer shortsightedness that produced the crisis in Sri Lanka implicates both the country’s political leadership and advocates of so-called sustainable agriculture.”

    The government promised more manure, but it would take at least five times as much manure as the country produces to replace the “synthetic” nitrogen fixed from the air, and there’s not enough livestock or land to produce that much. In Glasgow for the climate summit last year, Sri Lanka’s president was still boasting that his agricultural policy was “in sync with nature”.

    At the time, his organic decision was widely praised by environmentalists. Sri Lanka scored 98 out of 100 on the “ESG” – environmental, social and governance – criteria for investment.

    Vandana Shiva, a feted environmentalist, said: “This decision will definitely help farmers become more prosperous.” She has been silent recently. Dr Shiva has led relentless criticism of the Green Revolution of the 1960s, which brought fertiliser and new crop varieties to south Asia, banishing famine for the first time in history even as population increased. Her (and others’) claims that traditional, organic farming could feed the world more healthily remain wildly popular among environmentalists. Sri Lanka has tested that proposition and found it wanting.

    As the agricultural scientist Prof Channa Prakash of Tuskegee University in Alabama once told me: “Sure, organic agriculture is sustainable: it sustains poverty and malnutrition.” Farming was organic when millions died in famines every decade and the US prairies turned into dustbowls for lack of fertiliser to hold the soil during droughts.

    But if you watch or listen to the BBC, you will hear little of this. On its website, under the headline “Sri Lanka: Why is the country in an economic crisis?”, you have to read right to the end to find a grudging admission that “When Sri Lanka’s foreign currency shortages became a serious problem in early 2021, the government tried to limit them by banning imports of chemical fertiliser. It told farmers to use locally sourced organic fertilisers instead. This led to widespread crop failure.” The Indian commentator Shakhar Gupta calls Sri Lanka’s organic conversion an episode of “mega stupidity” on a par with Mao Tse-tung’s order to persecute sparrows.

    In the Netherlands, too, farmer protests are mainly about a policy of reducing the use of nitrogen fertiliser. In this country, organic farming gets publicity far out of proportion to its actual contribution: about 3 per cent of Britain’s farmland is organic.

    If the world abandoned nitrogen fertiliser that was fixed in factories, the impact on human living standards would be catastrophic, but so would the impact on nature. Given that about half the nitrogen atoms in the average person’s body were fixed in an ammonia factory rather than a plant, to feed eight billion people with organic methods we would need to put more than twice as much land under the plough and the cow. That would consign most of the world’s wetlands, nature reserves and forests to oblivion.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/14/eco-extremism-has-brought-sri-lanka-knees/

  90. Ooh look a bribe. A three hundred dollar cheque from the government as part of their climate action incentive program (whatever that is). Hallelujah, I can buy a cord of wood for the wood fire.

    Suspiciously looks for news of upcoming elections!

    1. I guess the type of wood will determine the price. A cord of oak,here is (locally) about £300 plus. Probably gone up as I type.

  91. Sod it. I’m having trouble keeping my eyes open so I’m off to bed.
    A cooler day and at teatime we thought we were in for rain, but the heavy clouds passed over.

    Over the past week I’ve filled a one litre container with raspberries, now in the freezer, and today picked the gooseberries of the two clumps of bushes I have and also from another gooseberry clump t’other side of the mill pond. I’ve got about a 3/4 litre so far.

    1. My raspberries are the autumn fruiting variety so I have that pleasure to come. I rooted up the gooseberry bushes that were here when I took over. I don’t like goosegogs.

      1. I love gooseberries. Home made gooseberry icecream and gooseberry fool is delicious. It’s a long time since I heard them called goosegogs.

        2. Me too, poppiesmum. A few days ago I made some gooseberry crumble to enjoy with double cream in the near future.

      3. My raspberries & gooseberries are largely self seeded/propagated from those that were here when we moved in. I did try transplanting some of the rasps, but that was not very successful.

        1. Transplanting? Good grief! I started with one and now the whole soft fruit patch is covered with them!

          1. Heyup!
            My problem is that my main raspberry patch is in the wrong place and needs to be moved.
            Also the gooseberries are in two large clumps of several bushes each, probably all coming from the same two original plants, but totally different parts of the hillside.

    3. Good night, Bob. Enjoy your garden’s frozen fruit as a treat when the summer glut is over.

  92. Tony Blair has launched a new drive for ID cards as he claims it would tackle illegal migration.

    A report by the former prime minister’s institute, published on Friday, said the weakest link in the Government’s approach to migration was its failure to crack down on a black market fuelled by unscrupulous employers giving jobs to illegal migrants.

    It proposed a “digital identity verification” system for all Britons which would be required to claim benefits or work in the UK. To get an ID card, individuals would have to demonstrate they had a legal right to reside in the UK and verify their identity via their passport or equivalent document.

    It resurrects a plan that the former prime minister introduced when he was in government but which was repealed as soon as David Cameron’s coalition government took power in 2010 following opposition from human rights lawyers, activists, security professionals and IT experts.

    The proposal follows a doubling to more than 14,200 in the number of migrants reaching the UK in small boats across the Channel. There are estimated to be between 310,000 to 500,000 illegal migrants living in the UK, on top of a backlog of more than 100,000 awaiting an asylum decision.

    “The UK is an attractive destination partly because parts of our labour market are under-regulated, which means it is easier to work in the informal economy (and therefore disappear off the radar) than in countries where you must prove your right to work and reside,” said the report.

    “Common sense would suggest that this continues to represent a significant pull factor for those seeking to attempt dangerous journeys to the UK.”

    A poll of 1,055 adults for the report showed 55 per cent backed some form of digital ID verification, with 28 per cent opposed. Half said the Government’s Rwanda asylum scheme deporting migrants to the central African nation was unworkable and unlikely to deter Channel crossings.

    The report, written by Harvey Redgrave, a former deputy director in Mr Blair’s strategy unit, said that instead the Government should create new “asylum visas” that people could apply for at UK embassies abroad.

    Embassies would be beefed up with staff to establish if asylum seekers’ applications had a reasonable chance of success and, if so, they could be granted a permit to travel to the UK to have their claim resolved.

    ‘Humanitarian visa’ scheme
    The “humanitarian visa” scheme would be capped annually and targeted at those nations that accounted for the largest numbers of Channel migrants.

    The quid pro quo for the new legal route into the UK would be that anyone seeking to arrive in Britain without having applied through a managed route would be automatically deemed inadmissible and face deportation.

    “To enforce these rules credibly, the Government needs to urgently negotiate a new agreement with the EU (or selected EU countries) covering the safe returns of those who have had their asylum claims rejected or been deemed inadmissible, for example because they arrived in a safe EU country first,” said the report.

    This would also have to be backed up with a new agreement on joint operations against smugglers and traffickers.

    Mr Redgrave said: “In combining a safe route for asylum with a tough approach to spontaneous arrivals our proposals will deliver the compassion and control that the UK public wants.” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/15/tony-blair-launches-new-drive-digital-cards-tackle-illegal-immigration/

    1. Cut the bloody benefits and impose a 5 year before benefits rule and then get the Birder Farce and FN to tow the dinghies back to France and then sink the dinghies.
      No need for any new laws just protect our own borders.

      1. When they squawk for help, go out, drag them to france. If the french complain, tough. If the gimmigrants get uppity, shoot them.

        I’m sick of these vermin. They’re being brought here deliberately out of statist revenge. Jam them in with the civil servants and yes, I’m going to say it – those with wives and children. Make the scum promoting this trafficking suffer first.

    2. Cut the bloody benefits and impose a 5 year before benefits rule and then get the Birder Farce and FN to tow the dinghies back to France and then sink the dinghies.
      No need for any new laws just protect our own borders.

    3. Considering that fwording bwording scum forced millions of useless welfare troughers on us, all to build a voting block and then rammed the HRA through to stop their deportation when they inevitably commited crimes, the only ID he needs is a prison tattoo for the fwording firing squad.

    4. Total bs idea. They could bring in ID cards to be shown each day before starting work and there would still be shady operators taking advantage of illegals (for a slightly lower wage of course).

      The powers that be should be aware of where sweatshops are, they need to forget political correctness and seek out those that shouldn’t be in the country.

      Either that or mandatory ID cards for everyone and random roadside checks..

    5. The EU would never agree to taking back migrants, so that’s a non-starter. As for digital ID cards, I hate to say it, but if it acts as a deterrent, then I’m for it – assuming Plod doesn’t take it an excuse to stop innocent folk going about their business.

  93. Free to a good home- one husband.
    If you watch Patrick on Fridays you know he asks people to send him challenges.
    My, hmm, dearly beloved sent him one….”See if you can talk to my wife about Richard III for ten minutes without your hair turning grey.”
    Wish we had a bloody shed because he’d be in it tonight; GRRRRR.

      1. How long have you got? No, I can rattle on about R III and MH knows it. A passion of mine.

  94. Thank you all for your kind comments the last few days. I think what I was “suffering ” from was reaction. Too much to take in and not yet all resolved but we will figure it out.
    Am so much better today which is great!
    Husband has been given a reprieve as he’s the only one who can reach some of the cobwebs in Lake Lodge.
    Goodnight my friends and I hope y’all sleep well; I think I shall.

  96. Goodnight, Gentle NoTTLefolk and God bless – see you all again on the morrow.

  97. Yaay! Arrived in Norway, on time. First bags on carousel, bus to car park waiting, now in the car on the way home.
    Be home, showered & in bed soon.

  99. Good night, everyone. See you all in the morning. (Well, I’ll read your posts in fact.)

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