Friday 16 February: Bold thinking is required to lift Britain from the slough of low growth

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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535 thoughts on “Friday 16 February: Bold thinking is required to lift Britain from the slough of low growth”

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    DEFINITELY NOT PC

    If you are easily offended please refer to your offensive counsellor and contact the local thought police

    A twin-engine passenger plane has an engine failure and the altitude and speed are both decreasing rapidly. The pilot speaks over the intercom…
    “I’m sorry it has come to this ladies and gentlemen, but unfortunately we are going to have to jettison the luggage in order for the aircraft to remain airborne”.

    Baggage is thrown out but still the plane’s speed continues to decrease. Once again, the pilot gets on the intercom, “I hate to do this, folks but in order to save the majority we are going to have to start off-loading some passengers. The only fair way is to do this alphabetically, so we’ll start with the letter ‘A'”.

    “Africans? Are there any Africans on board?” There was no answer so the pilot calls, “Black people, are there any black people on board?”

    Again silence. “C – coloured people? Are there any coloured people on board?

    Still there is silence. A little black boy sitting near the rear of the plane turned to his mother
    and whispers, “Mum, ain’t we African? Ain’t we black? Ain’t we coloured? Mum responds, “Let them do the Muslims first. If that don’t work, we is Zulus”.

  6. Good Moaning.
    Well, you can learn something new every day.
    As MB and I blundered blearily around in the drizzle with black bags and food caddies, we learnt that Sainsbury’s deliver at 6.30 in the morning.
    Good grief, I have problems making storage decisions around lunchtime, let alone at sparrow fart.

    1. #MeToo, Anne hence I set my Tesco deliveries for 20:00 – 21:00

      I’m going to try Morrison.

      I won’t touch Sainsbury (Socialist) nor Asda (Muslim).

      1. Morrison late deliveries are only £1.50 use them regularly especially for the heavy stuff beer water etc good service so far

      2. To my annoyance, the convenient garage that actually sells 5 (as opposed to 10) whatever petrol has just been taken over by ASDA from the Coop.

        2. And i also won’t do CoOp as it’s too Woke and it had the cocaine guy in charge. Luckily Tesco deliver but you have to watch them like a hawk on fresh food best before dates. Lidl for top-ups.

    2. #MeToo, Anne hence I set my Tesco deliveries for 20:00 – 21:00

      I’m going to try Morrison.

      I won’t touch Sainsbury (Socialist) nor Asda (Muslim).

    3. I think they start delivery at 6 am. It’s the supersaver slot costing £1. They give you a block of about 4 hours which makes it easier for them and cheaper for the customer. My delivery window was between 7 am and 11 am @ £2 and he turned up on the dot at 7 am. Got me out of bed lol. I think they offer the cheapest delivery. Except for Iceland which is free but they don’t carry as good a range of products.

  7. Bold thinking is required to lift Britain from the slough of low growth

    The only way to increase growth is to add some fertilizer and compost.
    Net Zero wont allow that

  11. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2622410e2d289d0fff2510439b91b45efe64e5476395289fb81063670fff5814.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c16fba420c8f001bd2cd37e957d15a4191f388b69f34a140015961e58dc1cebf.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea94c1159262154725f6e06c66c44a7680736d300b6f4b27df8822c29cc32e33.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21aea28f28a287404abc81ccc479f429235939b6667bf72e887eb128e113f0da.jpg

    https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1758234991203647619?t=iGD-6z-p4Wt217jH34c9sw&s=19

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccb7bbac289117456be8e3ca29892cb2a44d83933e10603a95e0cc09ec5b0aae.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59bdc87fdd3afd52c5dc5e2a41deb5835f74833b74b8bd49ffbec5a60a7886f9.jpg

      1. To mount a revolution you need an angered population who possess both brains and balls.

        Ergo: we have an angered population but there will be no revolution.

        1. Increasingly I wonder if this is why the state has ensured people are so thick and buys them off with welfare.

  12. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2622410e2d289d0fff2510439b91b45efe64e5476395289fb81063670fff5814.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c16fba420c8f001bd2cd37e957d15a4191f388b69f34a140015961e58dc1cebf.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea94c1159262154725f6e06c66c44a7680736d300b6f4b27df8822c29cc32e33.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21aea28f28a287404abc81ccc479f429235939b6667bf72e887eb128e113f0da.jpg

    https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1758234991203647619?t=iGD-6z-p4Wt217jH34c9sw&s=19

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccb7bbac289117456be8e3ca29892cb2a44d83933e10603a95e0cc09ec5b0aae.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59bdc87fdd3afd52c5dc5e2a41deb5835f74833b74b8bd49ffbec5a60a7886f9.jpg

  17. Starmer ‘on course’ to be next PM, says polling expert. 16 February 2024.

    Sir Keir Starmer is “on course” to be the next prime minister after Labour’s by-election victories in Wellingborough and Kingswood, Professor Sir John Curtice said.

    The polling expert told the BBC: “For Labour, frankly, this is all pretty much good news. They will be slightly disappointed that they didn’t do better in Kingswood, they can’t complain much about what they achieved in Wellingborough. Sir Keir Starmer, one has to say at the moment, still looks to be on course to be our next prime minister.”

    Labour snatched both seats away from the Tories overnight in a major blow to Rishi Sunak. The Conservatives now have lost more by-elections in a single parliament than any administration since the 1960s.

    Same old. Same old. Those who have simply switched their votes to Labour have voted for the extinction of their way of life and the future of their children.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/15/wellingborough-kingswood-by-elections-results-live-updates/

    1. Ahem

      Labour: 13,844 (+107)
      Tories: 7,408 (-24,869)
      Reform: 3,919 (+3,919)
      Lib Dems: 1,422 (-2,656)
      Green: 1,020 (-801)
      That’s not a swing to Labour,that’s the Tory vote staying home in disgust
      ‘Morning Minty

      3. Good morning, Rik. Are you saying that Labour won both seats (or even one) with just over 100 extra votes?!?!?

    3. The turnouts are on a par with local elections.
      It looks as if many Conservative voters just sat on their hands.
      I do wonder how the Reform voting figures will go as their numbers increase. Critical mass as people flock with the herd, though there appears to be quite some way to go.
      Are the Conservatives facing a Liberal party type demise of 1922?
      Personally, I feel completely disenfranchised.

      1. I suspect many conservative voters will grumble and then vote Conservative anyway in the General Election, for fear of being subjected to a Labour government under Starmer, Rayner et al.

        1. I think that’s inevitable at this point, regardless. Besides, it really won’t make any difference. What will they do? Hike taxes even more, punish the earner, reward the shirker, push ever more woke?

          Sunak’s going to do that anyway.

    4. Good morning, Minty. “The Sheeple” (WSC). He also said that the best argument for not having a democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.

      1. People are dim. They just do not know what they’re talking about. They blame energy companies for high energy prices, supermarkets for high food prices, petrol stations for high fuel prices. They’re dumb. They don’t understand what inflation is, where it comes from (debasement of the currency). They are frightened of AI, think wifi is their connection speed, think ‘shareholders’ are evil and that ‘da wich’ should pay more tax.

        People are envious, ignorant, lazy, greedy, selfish and petty. I know, I am one.

  18. This Spiked/Spekkie article was posted yesterday (by Anneallan?). Have added some of the BTL.

    Tom Slater
    Tan Ikram and the corruption of the justice system

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

    Demosthenes
    15 hours ago edited
    This is only the beginning…

    When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind 9/11, was being interrogated in Guantanamo, he told the intelligence agents, “We will win, we will win because you don’t have the guts to do what needs to be done in order to stop us from winning.” He said that, far from being impressed by our compassion, generosity and tolerance, they see such traits as a weaknesses which Allah has placed in our hearts to make it easier for the true believers to destroy us from the inside out.

    What many people don’t realise is that Islam is a highly dualistic religion. It has a kindly, Jesus-like face and a hardened, ruthless, Genghis Khan-like face. If you read the literature then it’s clear there are really two Qurans and two Mohammeds: the one before he arrives in Medina and still acted more like a conventional holy man, with a few dozen followers; and the one after he arrives in Medina, whence he promptly began his politico-military campaigning, which resulted in the entire Arabian peninsula’s submission within a decade.

    One face can be deployed just as legitimately as the other when the occasion suits it. Muslims are incredibly concerned about minority rights when they themselves are in the minority, but wherever Muslims become the majority, minority rights are nowhere to be seen. We in the West might see all humans as equal, but that is simply not the case for the rest of humanity, where most people see themselves as part of a tribe, to whom they owe their allegiance above anyone outside it.

    Islam does not operate under a unitary ethics system, as in Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, etc.. In other words there is no golden/silver rule in Islamic theology; there is instead a dualistic ethics system. Muslims are taught to only feel sympathy for fellow Muslims, non-muslims (or kaffirs as they call us) are sub-human animals. For Muslims, the world is divided between dar al Islam (the house of submission) i.e. the land already controlled by muslims and under sharia law, and dar al Harb (the house of war) i.e. the rest of the world that is yet to be submited. Both Mohammed and the Quran explicitly say that moral empathy is to be extended exclusively towards fellow believers, the Ummah. Kaffirs are to be fought and humiliated and forced to submit by any means necessary, overt or covert.

    The so-called ‘extremist’ muslims and the so-called ‘moderate’ muslims act as the good cop/bad cop routine of Islamic supremacy. First the ‘extremists’ come in with guns blazing and knives flashing to forever silence the infidels for mocking their prophet; then the ‘moderate’ muslims come out with “yes it was bad and all, but you know, they really shouldn’t have mocked our prophet so they kinda had it coming.” Never forget that Charlie Hebdo won the ‘Islamophobe of the year’ award a few months after their staff were massacred. You see the same thing with the ongoing rape jihad in Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, etc. where a significant proportion of the local male muslim population; among them doctors, lawyers, politicians, etc. all actively work together to sexually enslave an entire generation of kaffir girls, then the wider muslim community attack as racist anyone who tries to accurately identify the group responsible.

    To slay a demon you must first say its name, a fact which muslims, including this evil judge, understand all too well.

    Jon_Redman
    15 hours ago
    Ikram jailed the plod because he disagreed with his racism, but let the women go free because he agreed with theirs.

    Araminta Smade
    16 hours ago
    Tan Ikram and the corruption of the justice system.

    It’s not only justice though is it? Every State Institution is rotten to its core and on the edge of collapse. This is the reality of multiculturalism.

      1. Morning, Tom. I’ve deleted your comment above. To publicly call for the slaughter of a serving member of the judiciary is overstepping the mark, to say the least. And unbelievably stupid, considering the recent record of said judge. If he’s willing to jail police for private whatsapp messages, what do you think he’s likely to do in this instance?

        And who do you think is likely to carry the can?

        Feelings are running high at present. But I would implore everyone to think before they post. This site remains a valuable ‘pressure valve’ for people to vent their frustrations, but not so valuable that I’m willing to give up my liberty for it. While I’m happy to give time to maintaining the site, I have no wish to ‘do’ time. Understood?

        1. You’re right, Geoff. I “liked” both of Tom’s posts without thinking of the repercussions, and I have now “unliked” both of them.

        2. I agree with what you say but I fear that it is too late.
          A trawl through all the Nottle posts would probably see most of the regulars fall foul of the foul laws.

    2. There’s clearly a problem. The UK used to be known as a fair and just country specifically because law applied equally to all. If it doesn’t any more then that reputation is in tatters and it can only be ascribed to the mass influx of foreigners who do not share it and refuse to participate in it and demand special treatment. Our morality – our shared beliefs – is what binds us as a nation together. Without that we are just a set of tribes with our own agenda and goal

      Either law applies equally to all or it doesn’t. If the judiciary are not held to a higher standard then we are simply living in anarchy of the arbitrary.

    3. There’s clearly a problem. The UK used to be known as a fair and just country specifically because law applied equally to all. If it doesn’t any more then that reputation is in tatters and it can only be ascribed to the mass influx of foreigners who do not share it and refuse to participate in it and demand special treatment. Our morality – our shared beliefs – is what binds us as a nation together. Without that we are just a set of tribes with our own agenda and goal

      Either law applies equally to all or it doesn’t. If the judiciary are not held to a higher standard then we are simply living in anarchy of the arbitrary.

    4. Muslims are taught to only feel sympathy for fellow Muslims, non-muslims (or kaffirs as they call us) are sub-human animals. So say these sub-human SAVAGES. Better to be an animal than a savage.
      How can anyone, of whatever background (but especially those who regard the law of the land as subservient to, and trumped by, their own barbaric ‘rules’), become a judge if they are not prepared to uphold the law?

    5. Muslims are taught to only feel sympathy for fellow Muslims, non-muslims (or kaffirs as they call us) are sub-human animals. So say these sub-human SAVAGES. Better to be an animal than a savage.
      How can anyone, of whatever background (but especially those who regard the law of the land as subservient to, and trumped by, their own barbaric ‘rules’), become a judge if they are not prepared to uphold the law?

  19. University anti-Semitism tsar to be appointed as Jewish students face death threats. 16 February 2024.

    The Government plans to tackle universities which “appease” anti-Semitism following a string of incidents across the UK which left Jewish students and chaplains fearing for their safety.

    Robert Halfon, the higher education minister, said: “I am really worried that some universities are not safe for Jewish students”.
    He said that the Government would create a new post of Expert Adviser on Antisemitism in Higher Education because vice-chancellors are failing to be “pro-active” in tackling hatred on campus.

    The Government also plans to introduce a “seal of quality” awarded only to universities that adhere to “the highest standards in dealing with anti-Semitism”, where staff have been trained on how to tackle it and where robust complaints processes are in place.

    Lol. That’ll teach ‘em!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/16/university-anti-semitism-tsar-to-be-appointed-as-jewish-stu/

    1. “Jewish students and chaplains”. Do Jews really have chaplains? I thought they had rabbis.

      1. A Chaplain (originally a priest who had charge of a chapel) is now a member of the clergy (of any religion) appointed to minister to members of their flock in institutions like the Armed Forces, Hospitals, Prisons, Universities etc. So there are Christian Chaplains, Jewish Chaplains, Muslim Chaplains etc. I believe there are even Pagan Chaplains.

        1. Jedi chaplains, Net Zero chaplains, Democrat chaplains, the possibilities are endless once the religion is approved by non-religious authorities.

    2. Create a problem i.e. importing a mass of people who are implacable to Jews; whether by intent or sheer incompetence, it is difficult to know with the useless politicos, and then create a raft of solutions in an attempt to cure the problem.

      Better, surely, to not create the problem in the first place but when you’ve bought into a narrative, whether intended or because you’re incapable of seeing the ramifications of following said narrative, it’s nigh on impossible to free yourself from having to follow it.

      And here we are. Sadly, anti-Semitism isn’t the only problem these politicos have created. Truly, we are very poorly served by the politicians who clearly have goals that are inimical to what the British people desire.

      And then there’s the Wellingborough result, will people ever wake up?

    3. Another massive load on university time and money which will achieve nothing. If you want to stop antisemitism, stamp on muslim in every day life.

    2. What was I saying this time last week about the courts going soft on woke demonstrators supporting everything from Just Stop Oil to Hamas, even when the police can be bothered to enforce the law?

      Look no further than Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram, who decided ‘not to punish’ three women brandishing paraglider images on an anti-Israel march in the wake of the October 7 pogroms.

      They were accused of glorifying terrorism, after being exposed by the Mail on Sunday. The police tracked them down and the Crown Prosecution Service brought charges under the Terrorism Act.

      But although they were convicted, and could have been sentenced to six months in jail and an unlimited fine, Judge Ikram let them off with a conditional discharge because ‘emotions ran very high at the time’.

      He concluded that they had not ‘shown any support for Hamas’ – despite the fact that the murderers and rapists of Hamas had crossed into Israel on paragliders and filmed themselves doing it – video seen around the world.

      Lawyers for the three women claimed preposterously that the images were ‘symbols of peace’.

      Even though the law states clearly that a guilty verdict merely requires that any ‘reasonable person’ would consider that the images amounted to support for a terrorist organisation, Judge Ikram decided to show extreme leniency, even though he said they had ‘crossed the line’.

      It has since been revealed that Judge Ikram recently ‘liked’ a social media post by a Left-wing barrister who specialises in conspiracy theories about Israel.

      The post, by Sham Uddin, who is standing as an independent MP in East London, read: ‘Free Free Palestine. To the Israeli terrorist both in the United Kingdom, the United States, and of course Israel you can run, you can bomb but you cannot hide – justice will be coming for you.’

      Ikram now says that he ‘didn’t know’ he had liked the post and it was a ‘genuine mistake’. Sorry, but this streches credibility to the limit.

      He’s a senior judge, for heaven’s sake, someone who is supposed to have a heightened grasp of detail. How could he not know he’d liked it? A genuine mistake? Pull the other one. At the very least we are entitled to question his impartiality.

      Ikram’s record on the bench has since been subjected to well-warranted scrutiny. He hasn’t always shown such leniency in other cases.

      In 2022, he jailed police constable James Watts for sharing racist memes on WhatsApp about the sainted George Floyd, whose murder by a Minnesota cop sparked the Black Lives Matter madness. He then boasted about that sentence to a gathering of American law students.

      In December he handed out suspended prison and community service sentences to six retired police officers who shared racist jokes about Meghan Markle, again on WhatsApp.

      How would he have reacted if they’d all argued that they couldn’t remember sharing the jokes, or that they’d made a ‘genuine mistake’?

      WhatsApp messages are supposed to be private. What’s the difference between what they did and Ikram liking a racist post on Instagram, another online forum?

      The paraglider images were displayed in public, on the streets on London, in the aftermath of the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. The weekly pro-Palestine/Hamas marches in London and elsewhere are throwing petrol on the flames of the worst outbreak on anti-Semitism in Britain since the 1930s.

      We can argue until the cows some home about whether these women should have been brought to court, since far worse hate crimes against Jews are being committed on the same marches and going unpunished. We can also debate where free speech and legitimate protest ends.

      But there can be no argument about Judge Ikram’s application of double standards. Happy to hand out jail sentences to police officers over private WhatsApp messages, but soft on those considered by the police and CPS, and ‘any reasonable person’, of glorifying terrorism in public.

      For defence counsel to claim that paragliders are a ‘symbol of peace’ is taking us – and the court – for fools. And for Ikram to show sympathy because ‘emotions ran high’ is farcical.

      Emotions are often running high when a crime is committed – whether someone bottling a bloke for looking at his bird in a boozer on a Saturday night or invading the pitch because his team has just gone three down after ten minutes. But it’s no defence.

      Yet when it comes to crimes committed in the name of wokery – including blocking motorways and glorifying terrorism – emotion frequently trumps natural justice these days.

      In Judge Ikram’s opinion, making private jokes about Meghan Markle is a far more serious offence than glamourising Hamas murderers.

      And to add insult to injury, one of the women was excused having to pay costs because her ‘immigration status’ prevents her receiving benefits. You couldn’t, etc.

      For once, there can be no criticism of the Met or the CPS, both of whom diligently pursued the arrest and prosecution of these women.

      But Judge Ikram’s decision not to punish them, coupled with his liking of a ‘Free Free Palestine’ social media post by an anti-Israel conspiracy theorist, not only throws his impartiality in to question but again raises the very real suspicion that Britain now operates a two-tier justice system, in thrall to wokery.

      Ikram has been rightly criticised by everyone from Downing Street to the Jewish Leadership Council and former Home Secretary Sue Ellen Braverman.

      Critics say he should be suspended from the bench until a full review can be carried out into not just his motives in letting these women off scot-free but also how he was ever allowed to hear this case in the first place.

      I second that emotion.

    4. The judiciary are desperately biased because they can afford to be. They’re isolated physically and socially from the problems they create.

      Besides, we are increasingly seeing one law for them, another for the rest. That means the law is nonsense and should not be adhered to. I’s utterly absurd, just as the state suddenly finding the race relations act or HRA being used *against* slammers. It was designed to protect them from everyone else and was never intended to be used the other way around and big government didn’t know what to do.

  21. Central Banker Admits EU Green Agenda Won’t Make People Richer, Predicts European Energy to Cost Five Times More Than in America

    European lawmakers should level with the public about the economic costs of “greening” the economy which will come with similar supply shocks to the energy crises of the 1970s, the head of Belgium’s central bank said this week.

    Appearing before the European Parliament in Brussels this week, Governor at the National Bank of Belgium Pierre Wunsch urged Eurocrats to be honest about the negative ramifications of the bloc’s climate agenda so they won’t have to face the anger of disappointed voters when they find out that the promises of a green economic miracle do not materialise.

    “This transition is not going to make us collectively richer,” Wunsch said in comments reported by POLITICO. “We should be more candid… don’t lure people into thinking that greening carries positive opportunities that could augment GDP and create millions of well-paid jobs.”
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/02/15/central-banker-admits-eu-green-agenda-wont-make-people-richer/

    1. One of the manifesto articles to be included in the amalgamated parties’ manifesto. Would YOU vote for that?

    2. Transition. There is no transition. It’s destruction. The entire point of the demented green nonsense is to force the nation backward, to destroy our ability to progress and succeed. It’s all force to prevent the UK accelerating away from the hated EU.

    3. That should work out well, economically speaking. Almost as if the US wanted to do down the EU economy…

  22. Good morning, all. Rain in the night. Clearing skies now.

    Reform didn’t do as well as it should have – if it wants to be taken seriously.

    1. Time for the minor, vote-splitting parties to overcome their leader’s egos and amalgamate. It’s the ONLY way we’ll get a party that appeals to the electorate. FFS just do it!

  23. Good morning, chums. Overslept today. Will try Wordle, post it here, then return later on in the day. Wow, I managed that quickly!

    Wordle 972 5/6

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

      1. Good morning, Bob3. Not for me. After three attempts I was just one letter short, and I found two possibles for the second letter. I chose the one which I thought would be most likely – it turned out to be the other letter.

    2. I got there in the end
      Wordle 972 4/6

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

    2. Hmm I note the “gagging” orders to make sure the public can’t know and hence can’t protest

      We have the “online harms bill” to silence us the French are even more draconian

      “Today, a law was passed in France qualifying any opposition to mRNA-LNP injections as a “sectarian aberration”. It carries a penalty of up to 3 years’ imprisonment and 45,000 euros.”

      – So sad to see that the repression of medical dissent under what critics are calling the “Pfizer article” has been passed by the French Parliament. This is anti-science and is pushing France ever further in the direction of totalitarianism. Even France’s Conseil d’Etat condemned the law as a disproportionate and unjustified attack on freedom to express dissenting scientific and medical opinions.

      https://twitter.com/davidjthunder/status/1758130048719335621
      They haven’t given up on the poison shots Plandemic 2.0 is rattling down the tracks and all opposition WILL be silenced………..

      2. Remember this comes from the EU.

        Do remember though – you’ll never be forced to take the vaccine. You’ll jus face extraordinary penalty for refusal.

    3. We must foil them. Keep on keeping on. Good morning Sir Jasper. I’m on grandchild duty today. 20 miles to go. Got to dash.

    2. My response to her:-
      Bearded Old Codger
      @BeardedBob7282
      ·
      15h
      No, we don’t “hate” you, it’s just that you hate us and we are starting to react against that.
      If you do not like British Society, then why stay here?

    3. I don’t hate you and this is not islamophobia. You are dangerous – muslim terrorism – and you are intrusive. By demanding you have your own way in everything and refusing to fit in you’re sticking two fingers up to us. You’re the problem. Don’t like being told no? Go somewhere else.

  26. Ref the phoney slammer “judge”.

    For balance, remember the white “judge” who sympathised with the XR terrorists and let them off scot free.

    1. But had the XR judge also jailed a number of police for seemingly awful crime of making hurty comments in a private Whatsapp group? I think that might be the real issue.

  27. 383498+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 16 February: Bold thinking is required to lift Britain from the slough of low growth

    A more truer view,

    Friday 16 February: Bold thinking is required to lift Britain from the slough of low growth,
    low integrity, low self respect, low patriotism,
    low church attendance etc, that IMHO is an honest view of England today.

    May one suggest we twin, as a nation, and a beneficial move for both Countries, with Beijing, as in 26 Nov 2023 — Thousands of mosques have been altered or destroyed as Beijing’s suppression of Islamic culture spreads, they view it as a mental issue and are thinking of the indigenous peoples welfare.

    2. There is no need for bold action at all. What’s needed to be done is comically simple. It sounds bold because no statist official will ever consider it.

      The state must be focussed on service delivery and only within it’s remit, without spreading into other unrelated areas. Big fat state likes adding to it’s waffle which costs more money and achieve very little.

      Therefore we need to simply cut taxes and shred the state.

      1. 383498+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        Surely cut taxes and mass hang political top rankers and minions, on grounds of
        treasonable acts ongoing.

        1. Removal of their passports, NI numbers and bank accounts would suffice. Non-person them. It’s what they do to others? An eye for an eye was always meant to limit, not escalate, revenge.

  28. A bit late on parade today, so belated good morning to all.
    A lovely bright sunny start to the day with clear skies and 5°C outside.
    Hopefully, I’ll get refilling the Hollybush stack finished off today.

  29. Good morning all and the 77th,

    A nice morning at McPhee Towers, wind in the West, 9-11℃.

    It looks as though Dame White may have finally achieved her purpose – the destruction of the JL partnership – if the BTL comments are anything to go by. It’s been going down hill for years but this is surely some sort of precipice.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2eb02cfb1d10f3bce606b371229133c996b178aedfc4ac0b868e3c2c6bada9c2.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/15/john-lewis-staff-magazine-breast-binders-trans-children/

    3. “Unemployed scrounger” seems to sum it all up. Don’t they need a cleaner at one of the many mosques in Rochdale?

  31. Good morning, BoB. I also overslept today. I too am hoping to finish a job today; not refilling a Hollybush stack, but instead a jigsaw puzzle.

    1. Once that stack is refilled I can then get on with other projects such as rearranging the back of the van into it being convertable between being a load carrier and a camper.

  32. Results reveal mortal threat Reform poses to Rishi Sunak’s re-election dream. 16 February 2024.

    Friday morning’s double Tory by-election defeat is confirmation that the Reform surge is indeed real. It is confirmation, too, of the mortal threat it poses to Rishi Sunak’s hopes of pulling off a shock re-election.

    Much as I would like to believe it I think that is a little strong. One would hope that there is tipping point where the numbers become attractive and there is a stampede to vote Reform. I’m not holding my breath!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/16/wellingborough-kingswood-reform-uk-richard-tice-by-election/

    1. There are still far too many Tories who need to wake up to the fact that The Conservative Party is finished and they must defect to Reform.

      Conservative voters are obstinately stopping the drastic changes that are needed in our democracy by continuing to vote for the extinct Dodo.

      1. Well as the UK appears to be intent on chopping down trees perhaps that Party needs a new logo…now let me think…Yes the Dodo!

        1. The by elections have shown that Sunak has got it the wrong way round. It is people still voting Conservative rather than Reform voters who have not woken up to the fact that the Conservative Party will never again win a general election and a Labour victory is inevitable in the coming general election.

          A new slogan for the Reform Party.

          A vote for the Dodo Conservative Party is a vote wasted.

          Talk about electoral dysfunction! And how about a rampant and vigorous bantam cock as its emblem: a bird of a different feather!

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07e97b662d2cfe8c26e15ce0da79ee67b7055811a395be736e3d2885b95b09f0.png

      2. 383498+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        So if 100% defected to reform surely you would have reform = tory (ino) party MK2.

        As in, brexit party = reform party = tory (ino) party MK2

        1. The voters should vote as they please as long as they do not vote Conservative, Lib/Dem, Green nor Labour.

          The sad truth is that a fragmented right is never going to win and the main blockage is the Conservative Party which needs a laxative.

          1. 383498+ up ticks,
            R,
            It is in itself a major laxative
            proven by the fact it is giving a large percentage of the nation “Delhi belly”
            As with the islamic vote
            ( a united front) gaining strength daily via Dover.

    2. Good morning, I for one would love the opportunity to vote reform, but as my constituency has been true blue since the ‘arc’ no alternative party will field a candidate. We have a choice of Con, Lab or Lib dem. Green if you are ‘lucky’.

      2. Faced with that, one only has the option to spoil the ballot paper with “None Of The Above” so that at least the protest is registered and included in the count, even if it doesn’t affect the outcome?

  33. Post has just arrived. Includes my cheques, or rather “warrants” from ERNIE, so a trip to Matlock is on the cards. 11:00 bus after doing a bit of wood sawing & splitting.

    I see the Tories (In Name Only) got a well deserved kicking at the By-Elections yesterday.#
    My heart pumps purple piss for them.

    1. It is interesting that Reform received over three times as many votes as the LibDems.

      Now can you guess which political parties will be on BBC’s question Time?

      …………and which political party will be ignored?

    2. Do you not just have winnings reinvested, or have you sufficient bonds that you’re receiving a decent return to spend now?

      1. I’ve the full amount so get the winnings as cheques.
        The DT’s still a bit short of the max, but £5,000 closer to it than she was this time last month!

  37. The EU is in an even worse state than Britain, but Rejoiners couldn’t care less
    The strange desire to return to Brussels’ embrace isn’t rational. It’s based on a wilful ignorance of Europe

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/15/eu-in-even-worse-state-than-britain-but-rejoiners-dont-care/

    BTL

    IN SPITE OF BREXIT (as they say)

    UK is still the most Europhile country in Europe.

    I live in France and France will probably leave the EU in the next six years as will the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and some of the former Eastern block countries.

    It will amuse us here to see Britain’s Remainers finally triumphing and getting UK back into an empty EU.

    1. If one cares to read the requirements to join, or rejoin, the EU you will notice that any joining nation

      is now required to join the Euro.

      An interesting revelation on the real reason the Continuity Remainers are so determined.

    2. Morning Rastus. I doubt that most of it is based on ‘wilful ignorance’. My bet is that the vast majority of pro-EU cretins are just plain selfish and they are miffed because it interferes with their holidays and other reasons that are quite superficial. Sovereignty? Who gives a jot! Democracy? Who cares? Would rather live under a tyranny and swan off to France or Spain than care about Rights.

  38. FBI informant charged with lying about Bidens’ ties to Ukrainian firm. 16 February 2024.

    A former FBI informant has been charged with lying about United States President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s ties to a Ukrainian energy firm.
    David Weiss, the special counsel leading a criminal probe into Hunter Biden, said on Thursday that a grand jury had indicted Alexander Smirnov on charges of making a “false statement” and “creating a false and fictitious record”.

    They aren’t prosecutung Christopher Steele for the Trump Dossier then. Lol!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/16/fbi-informant-charged-with-lying-in-bidens-ukraine-bribe-claims

    1. Wicked creature that I am, this made me laugh because it brought back a recollection of someone I know telling me about how a cousin of hers was working at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital during covid and how busy he was and how many times he caught covid from his patients. I listened without comment at the time but I now know what her cousin does. He’s a colorectal surgeon. What an arsehole!

    2. Bull! When I was in hospital my entire ward of 8 people tested positive for Covid. Not one of us was any sicker than we were before hand. The effect was so minimal I thought that the hospital was lying for a reason I wasn’t able to understand. We were quarantined, notices went up that no one was to enter and disinfected everyday. It was absurd. I’m sure for some people Covid was fatal but so is the flu for a few. With both Cancer and Emphysema I fully expected that I would die if I got Covid, so the propaganda would have it, but for all of us in the ward it was nothing. Not even as detectable as a cold.

      1. They turned my hospital into a maze with some doors locked with posters on them saying no access. I just waited for a medic to swipe their ID and tailgated them. There’s always a way.

      2. They turned my hospital into a maze with some doors locked with posters on them saying no access. I just waited for a medic to swipe their ID and tailgated them. There’s always a way.

    5. I thought that covid was past its due date, the big fear nowadays is supposedly Alaskapox after someone died from this disease recently.

      One fatality since the disease was discovered almost twenty years ago!

  41. Good morning to all. I discovered to today in my usual morning perusal of the papers that the ‘Daily Mail’ is now behind a pay wall. Thought that some might be interested to know that if you have a VPN you can simply switch from being in England to the US and paywall disappears. Frankly it’s pretty disgusting that the paper which ranks 6th in the world would be fleecing the public of yet more money in these times. It has a readership of 3.95 million each day and the advertising revenue per year is in the region of £1.205bn to £1.215bn. And why only pay wall the UK and not the USA where they make most of their money?

      1. There is no detectable difference between the two that I can see. I wanted to read about the renaming of London train stations and when I went to the USA via VPN the story was in exactly the same place on the website. I didn’t try switching back to England to read the rest of the paper because I rarely read the Daily Mail except for stories that grab me or I’m directed to by other people.

        And good morning to you too. Hope you’re well?

        1. Thanks.

          I’m fine thank you. Just managing my conditions though i must say they are nowhere near as serious as yours !

    2. Here’s today’s offering from Richard Littlejohn:

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13088069/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-judges-shameful-decision-paragliding-girls-anti-israel-post-hamas-terrorists.html

      RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: How can a judge who ‘liked’ an anti-Israel post decide the fate of three women who supported Hamas terrorists?

      What was I saying this time last week about the courts going soft on woke demonstrators supporting everything from Just Stop Oil to Hamas, even when the police can be bothered to enforce the law?

      Look no further than Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram, who decided ‘not to punish’ three women brandishing paraglider images on an anti-Israel march in the wake of the October 7 pogroms.

      They were accused of glorifying terrorism, after being exposed by the Mail on Sunday. The police tracked them down and the Crown Prosecution Service brought charges under the Terrorism Act.

      But although they were convicted, and could have been sentenced to six months in jail and an unlimited fine, Judge Ikram let them off with a conditional discharge because ‘emotions ran very high at the time’.

      The moment protestors with paragliders stuck to their backs in reference to the Hamas atrocities chant ‘England is a terrorist state’ on the streets of London

      The moment protestors with paragliders stuck to their backs in reference to the Hamas atrocities chant ‘England is a terrorist state’ on the streets of London

      This Morning’s hosts confirmed: Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard revealed
      He concluded that they had not ‘shown any support for Hamas’ – despite the fact that the murderers and rapists of Hamas had crossed into Israel on paragliders and filmed themselves doing it – video seen around the world.

      Lawyers for the three women claimed preposterously that the images were ‘symbols of peace’.

      Even though the law states clearly that a guilty verdict merely requires that any ‘reasonable person’ would consider that the images amounted to support for a terrorist organisation, Judge Ikram decided to show extreme leniency, even though he said they had ‘crossed the line’.

      It has since been revealed that Judge Ikram recently ‘liked’ a social media post by a Left-wing barrister who specialises in conspiracy theories about Israel.

      The post, by Sham Uddin, who is standing as an independent MP in East London, read: ‘Free Free Palestine. To the Israeli terrorist both in the United Kingdom, the United States, and of course Israel you can run, you can bomb but you cannot hide – justice will be coming for you.’

      Ikram now says that he ‘didn’t know’ he had liked the post and it was a ‘genuine mistake’. Sorry, but this streches credibility to the limit.

      He’s a senior judge, for heaven’s sake, someone who is supposed to have a heightened grasp of detail. How could he not know he’d liked it? A genuine mistake? Pull the other one. At the very least we are entitled to question his impartiality.

      Ikram’s record on the bench has since been subjected to well-warranted scrutiny. He hasn’t always shown such leniency in other cases.

      In 2022, he jailed police constable James Watts for sharing racist memes on WhatsApp about the sainted George Floyd, whose murder by a Minnesota cop sparked the Black Lives Matter madness. He then boasted about that sentence to a gathering of American law students.

      In December he handed out suspended prison and community service sentences to six retired police officers who shared racist jokes about Meghan Markle, again on WhatsApp.

      How would he have reacted if they’d all argued that they couldn’t remember sharing the jokes, or that they’d made a ‘genuine mistake’?

      WhatsApp messages are supposed to be private. What’s the difference between what they did and Ikram liking a racist post on Instagram, another online forum?

      The paraglider images were displayed in public, on the streets on London, in the aftermath of the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. The weekly pro-Palestine/Hamas marches in London and elsewhere are throwing petrol on the flames of the worst outbreak on anti-Semitism in Britain since the 1930s.

      We can argue until the cows some home about whether these women should have been brought to court, since far worse hate crimes against Jews are being committed on the same marches and going unpunished. We can also debate where free speech and legitimate protest ends.

      But there can be no argument about Judge Ikram’s application of double standards. Happy to hand out jail sentences to police officers over private WhatsApp messages, but soft on those considered by the police and CPS, and ‘any reasonable person’, of glorifying terrorism in public.

      For defence counsel to claim that paragliders are a ‘symbol of peace’ is taking us – and the court – for fools. And for Ikram to show sympathy because ‘emotions ran high’ is farcical.

      Emotions are often running high when a crime is committed – whether someone bottling a bloke for looking at his bird in a boozer on a Saturday night or invading the pitch because his team has just gone three down after ten minutes. But it’s no defence.

      Yet when it comes to crimes committed in the name of wokery – including blocking motorways and glorifying terrorism – emotion frequently trumps natural justice these days.

      In Judge Ikram’s opinion, making private jokes about Meghan Markle is a far more serious offence than glamourising Hamas murderers.

      And to add insult to injury, one of the women was excused having to pay costs because her ‘immigration status’ prevents her receiving benefits. You couldn’t, etc.

      For once, there can be no criticism of the Met or the CPS, both of whom diligently pursued the arrest and prosecution of these women.

      But Judge Ikram’s decision not to punish them, coupled with his liking of a ‘Free Free Palestine’ social media post by an anti-Israel conspiracy theorist, not only throws his impartiality in to question but again raises the very real suspicion that Britain now operates a two-tier justice system, in thrall to wokery.

      Ikram has been rightly criticised by everyone from Downing Street to the Jewish Leadership Council and former Home Secretary Sue Ellen Braverman.

      Critics say he should be suspended from the bench until a full review can be carried out into not just his motives in letting these women off scot-free but also how he was ever allowed to hear this case in the first place.

      I second that emotion.

    3. Stop free access to editorial & people stop clicking through on the advertisements with it. Thus strangling ad revenues.

    4. Stop free access to editorial & people stop clicking through on the advertisements with it. Thus strangling ad revenues.

    5. I wish I had known that, DM is its normal UK rubbish for me and I am in the US at the moment without VPN enabled.

      1. yes. Stories labelled “M+” are unreachable. It is not clear if there is any more truth in them than in the free ones, however we can be certain that the propaganda they want us to see will be free to view.
        Cynical? Moi?

      2. Hi David. Well, now I’m confused because today is Saturday and the paywall isn’t there? But perhaps it isn’t going to operate on the weekends??? I will try again on Monday and see what happens.

  42. Good morning to all. I discovered to today in my usual morning perusal of the papers that the ‘Daily Mail’ is now behind a pay wall. Thought that some might be interested to know that if you have a VPN you can simply switch from being in England to the US and paywall disappears. Frankly it’s pretty disgusting that the paper which ranks 6th in the world would be fleecing the public of yet more money in these times. It has a readership of 3.95 million each day and the advertising revenue per year is in the region of £1.205bn to £1.215bn. And why only pay wall the UK and not the USA where they make most of their money?

  44. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely and sunny.
    Just taking a break, hoping to stop coughing soon.
    Feeling a bit fed up at the moment.

    1. Cough sweets might give a bit of relief. Plus the sugar in them might help with energy levels. I also use Chloroseptic to ease the throat.
      Hope you feel better soon.

    3. Reckon I coughed up pretty well everything, and finally stopped. Bliss! Sympathies, Eddy.

  45. 383498+ up ticks,

    Tis clearly obvious to me that the tories (ino) party have NOT been harsh enough regarding the indigenous peoples as these two by-elections show.

    The tory (ino) party is calling on its odious big brother within the coalition party to take a hand.

    Hardship, give us more hardship is the cry of the majority voter, your wish is our desire to
    fulfill, reply from kneel starmer.

    Reform not the same threat to Conservatives as Ukip was, suggests Tory chairman.
    OGGA! added under Gerard Batten leadership.

    1. If the Con party are really interested in winning the coming GE they would stop talking about any of the other parties. I’m sick of hearing one lot say “they” won’t…, someone else “has nothing to offer” … etc.etc. Just shut up.

      Come up with policies that are good for the country, why don’t they. There’s a challenge!

  47. Out and about this morning, I saw a man wearing a mask, but it didn’t cover his nostrils.

  48. 383498+ up ticks,

    The Brits decent peoples lament,

    🎵,
    Spring was never waiting for us,
    It ran one step ahead
    as we followed in the RESET dance
    The nation is melting in the dark
    All the sweet, green icing flowing down
    Someone left the UK out in the rain
    I don’t think that I can take it
    ‘Cause it took so long to bake it
    And We’ll never have that recipe again
    Oh, no

  49. I keep looking at the enormous pile of well rotted horse poo. Still looking. Neighbour delivered his wheelbarrow. Still looking. I might even look at it again tomorrow.

    Oh i give in. Just emailed the gardener.

        1. The horse lives across the road. He is very “productive”. This is six tons – from his last six months!

          3. Just think, if we give up cars and go back to horses, we could be wading knee deep in that stuff.

          5. The streets were deep in doo doo when horses were the main form of transport, so yes. Learning how to make a good muck heap will be a valuable skill.

    2. I colleted 20 bags of peat free compost One or two per week from the supermarket. the gardeners have just mulched the boarders for me. It looks like peat smells like peat but is in the state that it is called something else before its caled peat. its a little heaver and much better. A green con.

      1. The gardener just got back to me. He’s busy. I have just done three wheelbarrows full. That’s enough for today.

  50. Morning all. Sunshine – yay, and brighter today. Flower buds on the Pyrus Chanticleer tree, daffy out, spring on our doorstep at last. Seems to have been a really long winter. Excerpt below from letter to DT.

    “Of course, fluoridation is just one way to tackle the alarming rates of tooth decay we are seeing in this country. We also need robust regulation of sugary food and drink, and funding for and access to supervised tooth-brushing! “.

    From Greg Fell, President, Association of Directors of Public Health. (Wonder how many directors there are?).

      2. The obsession with fluoride is very sinister. I saw a study done in the states showing a difference in average IQ of a couple of points between US states with fluoridated water and those without.
        Meanwhile they are pushing a high carb diet that will result in more tooth decay even if people eat less sugar.

      3. They “do” everything they shouldn’t and do nothing they should. Serves them right when they are obliterated at the next GE. I’m past caring that ‘the others will be far worse’. Don’t see how they can be.

    3. One of the shortest winters, in my experience. Little frost and virtually no snow. A single overnight dusting which soon disappeared. Proper winters are becoming increasingly infrequent.

      1. Well we had enough very cold weather to last me until next winter! and I doubt winter is finished yet – this is just the February Ha-fooled-you.

      2. Hello Grizz. OT. I am reading a novel translated from Weegie. It is called ‘The Troubled Man’ and written by Henning Mankell. It is about a policeman based in Skane. Immediately thought of you.

        2. Greetings, Del.

          I have a number of the Kurt Wallander novels by Henning Mankell. They are set in the town of Ystad, just 15 miles from me on the south coast. Wallander’s favourite coffee shop, Fridolf’s Conditori, actually exists and I’ve been there a number of times for a decent cappuccino and a bakelse (a cream bun of sponge cake, jam and cream covered in marzipan).

          Wallander has appeared as a drama on TV a few times. The Swedish versions starred, firstly, Rolf Lassgård (the best), and secondly Christer Henriksson. A sub-standard English version starring Kenneth Branagh followed but that was far inferior to the Swedish versions.

      1. I played at all the RAF stations, a couple of Army camps and a couple of USAF camps, a lot of bars and dance halls in Limburg area of Holland, The Storyville jazz club in Cologne (on the same bill as the Fortunes) and Milord Night club in Aachen

        1. Pedant alert: I was stationed in Maastricht, Limburg. It was most definitely not in Holland, which is not a country.

          1. Please explain – Limburg is part of Holland or is the pedantry calling the Netherlands Holland

          2. North and South Holland (Amsterdam, Rotterdam )are just two of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands. Limburg in the South and East is not Holland. It is a common mistake., like foreigners referring to the UK as England.

  52. Just visited BBC online to read about (the late) Alexei Navalny. My attention was drawn to a BBC Sounds link, where the subheading is ”

    Sándor Szűcs was hung for trying to escape communist Hungary with his lover, Erzsi Kovács”. I imagine that he was well hunged. To be fair, the introduction then uses the word ‘executed’ to skirt around the ignorance of today’s BBC employees (apart from Our Sue). https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4xf4?at_mid=RWZeAfDUZU&at_campaign=Witness_History_Hungarian_Footballer_Executed_for_Love&at_medium=display_ad&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_origin=promo_box&at_audience_id=TV&at_product=sounds&at_brand=p004t1hd&at_ptr_name=bbc&at_ptr_type=media&at_format=image&at_objective=consumption&at_link_title=Witness_History_Hungarian_Footballer_Executed_for_Love&at_bbc_team=BBC

  53. Alexei Navalny dies in prison. 16 February 2024.

    Alexei Navalny is dead, the prison service of the Yamalo-Nenets region where he had been serving his sentence said on Friday.

    The jailed opposition leader fell sick during a walk, fainted and died quickly after that, the prison service said in a statement.

    In a statement published on its website, the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said that Navalny “felt unwell” after a walk on Friday, and “almost immediately lost consciousness”.

    It’s Christmas for Nudge Unit trolls!.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/16/alexei-navalny-dies-prison-russian-opposition-leader-putin/

  54. Double bl**dy letters!
    Wordle 972 6/6

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

      1. If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. Leviticus 20:13. Just saying …..

    5. Outsider Insight (Neil G)
      @outsider63
      ·
      24s
      What a coincidence. How could Sir Keir Davos’ party manage to select a pro-Israel, pro-gender-bending and climate-change-obsessed candidate?

      1. 383498+ up ticks,

        Evening TB,

        The odious type politico’s have always had form on “selections” going back decades.

  57. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ad54c6619c077b1fcce882bcc9fdeb7386399c94/0_0_3119_4134/master/3119.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7b833e51204913d0cee4768e7fcdee83
    Unused advert design that heavily features the action and the women in the movie – and not Connery, only seen in a small picture, who at that stage was largely unknown

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2f312f24f6a3d354b8aa3b01e72983c0545cb4a6/0_0_3653_3976/master/3653.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=663650443bd2ea9c54f3ca588351f15d
    Jamaica, February 1962

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c8c8681a1d7f3122a4255497d48ca750c121a829/0_0_4483_3543/master/4483.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=10e1f0095ba7db260e555c81ec99a444
    Producers Cubby Broccoli, far left, and Harry Saltzman, far right, flank Ian Fleming (sitting) and Sean Connery for a promotional shot taken at the Eon production offices before filming began

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/022da161af2bf0b73da88cd776c45d7e2d4c762d/0_0_3113_3377/master/3113.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=20ad9326880f37eb396409e78cf16581
    Connery sitting with Bond author Ian Fleming, right, who visited the set. Connery said: ‘When I spoke about Bond with Fleming, he said that when the character was conceived, Bond was a very simple, straightforward, blunt instrument of the police force, a functionary who would carry out his job rather doggedly. But he also had a lot of idiosyncrasies that were considered snobbish – such as a taste for special wines, etc’

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c60a9bca67b425bd2da65ec986920f695d36bf6a/0_0_3780_4724/master/3780.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=d78bd196aa01b2fc1e8782ee84fa7943
    Set of production stills of Connery and Ursula Andress shooting the first ‘white bikini’ scene, filmed at a private beach at Laughing Waters in Jamaica. The contact sheet shows former bodybuilder Connery fooling around for the camera, and director Terence Young applying blanco to Andress’s belt

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/93b521db918f912d373ee4a20e0e6f5f06333735/0_0_4638_3543/master/4638.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=8cfe17836529ba3e15e4bfe2267f9394
    Dr No director Terence Young, sitting under the camera, films John Kitzmiller (the American actor who played Quarrel), Andress and Connery

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1baf8a264a2a56515619f4c212eb1f8cb14b0497/0_0_4919_4724/master/4919.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=72e2e9c0b9ab155de8008cccfd5d1075
    Andress and Connery waiting between takes, with Andress covered with a blanket to stay warm. The production was plagued by bad weather, forcing the crew to delay shooting until the sun came out

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/41cd75e66c1160ad4158d721615ed1986aeadf4a/0_0_4096_3268/master/4096.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=b2b22c357b59927b78674975bb31e753
    During a break in a filming, Connery bops with Marguerite LeWars (centre), a former Miss Jamaica who played Dr No’s photographer Annabel Chung. Local ska outfit Byron Lee and the Dragonaires were cast as the hotel band

    1. Khan is like a child from a past age who runs through a room of well-to-do, prim and proper people shouting “Fart! Bum! Titty!”

    1. A good inflation proof pension from the public sector helps too!

      In your case you have developed a very wide range of interests and have become proficient in several fields. Those who have nothing else going for them seem to fade away after they retire.

      A lively mind is an asset which most Nottlers have – even if they don’t all have an inflation-proof pension!

    2. I retired at 52 from proper work Grizz – after the move to Scotland it was just hobbying like wrought ironwork, photography and recovery driving

    3. I don’t have many hobbies like you. Not very good artistically except for food. I like lunching with friends. Menu planning. Arranging dinner parties ( not as easy as you would think where Nottlers are concerned. It’s like herding cats ! )

      I have one coming up in July. A 60th birthday. His favourite is roast pork and crackling. I have a huge joint which i will cook Hairy Bikers style https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roast_pork_58280

      I have bought a refectory style table so we can all eat in the garden under the pergola.

      I have also bought magicians flash paper for when i present the joint at the table. That should set the party off with a bang, flash, wallop !

      Other than entertaining i don’t do much else except to potter around the garden instructing the gardner.

      1. Freshly-roasted , crisp, bubbly, pork crackling is the pinnacle of food; the ultimate flavour and texture sensation. Nothing else comes remotely close.

        1. Timing will be everything because at the end of the day i like to show off. You and plus one are invited if you like. I even know a Copper from Derbyshire who you could moan about modern Policing. See !!! I provide everything for my guests !

    5. Our little company was taken over by IBM and the first few months of their overbearing bureaucratic environment was enough to make the retirement decision was easy.

      There is so much that I have been able to do without work getting in the way that could open up new career opportunities if I could be bothered – I am now a certified Curling club ice technician and curling instructor, a licensed bartender and for summer I have golf rules certification.

      That’s too much of a good thing, I need to sit down and enjoy life.

  65. You gotta laugh.
    DM
    “Families’ fury as care home residents open
    Valentine’s Day cards to discover they were sent by the local
    undertakers in ‘appalling’ stunt to ‘attract new customers’.
    Bosses at Whitegates Care Centre in Surrey, where prices start at £1,300 per week, incredibly backed the insensitive stunt.
    The cards, which had a pink bow and a heart on the front, opened up to read: ‘Sent with love from T.H. Sanders & Sons.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/268f9a06f89400c0020e1ffe376e3adf8da3c61e816b2a62a06b7f2e6dbdbbad.gif

      2. One I heard at school, probably more pertinent today:

        Roses are red-ish
        Violets are blue-ish
        If it wasn’t for Jesus
        We’d all be jew-ish.

        No offence meant to any Jewish people, that was just the rhyme at the time (some 50+ years ago).

    2. A holiday Inn costs £50 a night. Call it £400 a week.

      Where’s the rest of the money going?

      1. The owners’ pockets? Other than the big companies, there are a lot of, shall we say non-indigenous, owners. Not that that kind of opportunism is limited to them, of course, but they do seem to prevail. A bit like buying and doing up properties to rent, it seems.

    1. Have you told them that? Not that they would are – particularly not Sunak, who will be offski to the USA as fast as his little legs wife’s money can take him there.

    1. That darned cove should absolutely be drummed out of the Drones Club. What ho! Jeeves. Aunt Agatha would agree of course.

      1. Actually, I have a certain sympathy for their viewpoint. Imagine the kind of women who would become members!

        3. That was my feeling about ordaining women. What I’m seeing is that some are very good but many are, as I feared, doing it for the wrong reasons.

  68. 3834 98+ up ticks,

    Wellingborough and Kingswood by-
    elections live: Richard Tice rules out Reform-Tory election deal,
    just heard that farage chap explaining on world at one how HE threw in the brexit parties lot with the tories in 2019 I do wonder just how many of the brexit candidates agreed with the up hill down dale treacherous stand down if they were asked that is.

    Wellingborough and Kingswood by-elections live: Richard Tice rules out Reform-Tory election deal

    The farage bloke ruled it out on the World at one, he showed his true colours in 2019.

    2. I know he did, and I find it hard, as a former Kipper, and then Brexit Party supporter, to forgive – I certainly won’t forget. What I found even worse was the way he turned on UKIP members, calling us all sorts of epithets. He forgot that he was one himself.

      However, I also think that he knows he is mistrusted, and he has admitted that he made a mistake. (Some mistake!)

      At the moment I can only see Reform as a first small step, but that step must be taken. Its leaders know that they are under scrutiny by people who are both informed and sceptical. They have not had the years to build up the arrogance and the corruption and cronyism that exists in the Uniparty/ies.

      1. It was the branding of UKIP members (who had worked and campaigned for him) as bigots and racists that turned me against Nigel.

    3. As I said at the time – and have repeated here several times – not contesting seats held by sitting Conservatives MPs was Farage’s worst mistake as leader of the Brexit Party.

      He has come to see that the consequence of this is that Brexit has not been properly done: a part of the UK has been effectively given to the EU, our fishing industry remains crippled and the HoC is still stuffed with remainers.

      In 2019 I thought the best possible result would have been for the Brexit Party to have held the balance of power. The worst possible thing for Reform to do now is to give any quarter to the Conservatives: they must stay clean and not sully their hands by close contact with the filth and the slime that adheres to the Conservative Party.

      We must accept that Labour will win the next election by a landslide but the the good thing that could come out of it would be the total extinction of the repulsive Conservative Party and a new party of the right – be it Reform or something else – to take its place.

      1. Had the UK insisted on absolutely no concessions to the EU, a hard border between the Republic and North would have followed, something few either side of the Irish border wanted.

      2. 383498+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R In the nicest possible way, your mistake is in believing the farage chap makes mistakes,apologies come easy after the dirty deed is done.

        1. Forgiveness is a hallmark of the Christian philosophy; lack of forgiveness has the whiff of Islam about it!

          1. Yes. But only when they admit their mistakes !!! You don’t just forgive because you are a nice person !

      3. I agree, although the way that Farage constantly hovers at the edge of the Conservative Party stinks of a man desperate to re-join the Establishment club. I just don’t trust him any more, although I recognise his ability to gather voters to him and his party.

    4. If you add the Tory votes and the Reform votes together it still doesn’t produce a majority.

      The Tory voters stayed home. They are totally fed up with ersatz tory MPs messing up Brexit in the hope that an

      economically exhausted Britain will collapse back into Brussel’s embrace

  70. Of course Putin is being blamed but, to me, that makes no sense. He gains nothing from it, in fact it is to his detriment as a weapon of propaganda against him. Putin, as leader of Russia, has 80% support from the people. He is invulnerable and although Navalny was bigged up by the West he was, in reality, a minor irritant to Putin.

    Alexey Navalny dies in prison

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH_2GuqJ4LM

  71. Something that Nagsman failed to mention yesterday when she was regaling NoTTLers with tales of how I had fallen in love with her new puppy was that, when she emerged from The Great Western Hospital, Swindon after her appointment on Tuesday afternoon, she became mildly distressed because her chauffeur was nowhere to be seen in his ‘Tortilla Brown’ limousine at the pick-up point. To mark the importance of the occasion and unbeknownst to her, I had been to the local carwash to reveal a bright blue Skoda Estate, free of three years of accumulated cowshit. {:^))

      1. Noo fear, I have the morning and half an afternoon to myself .. it is what works .

        Except I am always sp0alttered with mud walking with my spaniel.. and thinking about what food I need for a reasonable meal .

        Haddock fish cakes from Sainsbury, salad and new potatoes , the tiny ones !

  75. 383498+ up ticks,

    The by-elections,

    Did I hear right, 20000 did not vote when there was plenty of independent candidates available, could that show the mindset of many, tory IN NAME ONLY party, or none.

  76. From The Spekkie

    ‘The Bigger Picture

    Egypt has begun building a wall near the Gaza Strip in preparation for the potential of one million Palestinians becoming displaced during an Israeli operation in Rafah.’

    I wonder where they got that idea from?

    2. Don’t worry, Camerrooon has invited them all over here. Diversity strength and all that.

        1. At least he can take pride in the fact that Hunter Biden is his son – if he still remembers him!

        2. At least he can take pride in the fact that Hunter Biden is his son – if he still remembers him!

    4. I share your view that AEP has been beyond the pale for eons past and will be an annoying worthless twit for evermore.

      You, Rastus, have an established track-record on this ‘ere blog of attributing many of our nation’s leaders and opinion-formers public failures to having gone to the wrong sort of school or university, unlike lucky you or lucky me. AEP went to Malvern followed by Trinity, Cambridge, that hotbed of useless awfulness, when not being semi-competent Soviet spies.

      AEP is the only child of of Sir EE Evans-Prichard (Winchester, Exeter Oxford, and LSE – Ugh!) who was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1946 to 1970.

      https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/Evans_Pritchard_%281902%E2%80%931973%29_in_Sudan.jpg
      E. E. Evans-Pritchard with a group of Zande boys in Sudan. Picture taken in the period 1926–1930

      His two major works were Evans-Pritchard’s theories of religion
      Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande       and The social organization of the Azande of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1928)

      As you have told us umpteen times, your father and family had a significant role in the Governorship of Sudan and must have crossed paths with Sir EE A-P. Thus you, as an erstwhile schoolmaster, are at least partially responsible for the awfulness of AEP…..QED

  79. Sorry, Harry and Meghan, but your performative hand-holding fools no one
    These two clearly want it to be known that they are inseparable – and nothing like William and Kate
    Judith Woods : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/02/15/harry-meghan-holding-hands-invictus-games/

    A string of BTLs

    Peter Kitson : She’s clinging onto her meal ticket until something better comes along – that is, someone with more dosh.

    Reply to Peter Kitson by Heyman Howman : Too late. She’s too old now. Scrawny chicken legs and all. And a total bunny boiler.

    Reply to Heyman Howman by Michelle Brosnan: I doubt any man with a fortune and reputation to protect would want anything to do with her.

    Reply to Michelle Brosman by Percival Wratt-Starngler: In the trophy wife stakes she has become the wooden spoon!

    2. ‘Scrawny chicken legs’ – my dear old Dad would have said, ‘There’s more meat on a sparrow’s legs.’

  80. David Cameron: Hold Putin accountable for Navalny’s death. 16 February 2024.

    “We should hold Putin accountable for this,” Lord Cameron said, speaking to reporters in Munich. Asked if there should be consequences for Russia as a result of Navalny’s death, the foreign secretary said: “There should be consequences, because there’s no doubt in my mind, this man was a brave fighter against corruption, for justice for democracy.”

    The toe-curling hypocrisy of it all! Who is to be held to account for the destruction of Libya? Who is responsible for the million deaths in Syria? It is not Putin who has opened our borders to Islam.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/16/russia-ukraine-zelensky-putin-war-latest-news5/

      2. And he does so in the full knowledge that he won’t be held to account by the servile media. Sickening!

      3. And he does so in the full knowledge that he won’t be held to account by the servile media. Sickening!

    1. Yay! A par four for me.

      Wordle 972 4/6

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

        1. I’m way behind today!
          Wordle 972 5/6

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

      2. Someone earlier mentioned ‘double letters’ and that probably gets into my choice of letters.

    2. Just back from 5 o’clock club. Not bad for an old sot.

      Wordle 972 3/6

      🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. And 130,000? That’s about £100,000. Report says 500 bottles were destroyed. They must have some very expensive booze in Aldi – £200 per bottle!

        1. Does seem strange but then the clean up and the store closure would add to the cost. Besides the human element. Who would want to work in such a place on the tills when people like that can walk in and do whatever they want when they want….

        2. Does seem strange but then the clean up and the store closure would add to the cost. Besides the human element. Who would want to work in such a place on the tills when people like that can walk in and do whatever they want when they want….

    4. This is all leading up to a morality police just like in Iran. It will be interesting to see how the LGBT respond when they become the focus.

    5. This is all leading up to a morality police just like in Iran. It will be interesting to see how the LGBT respond when they become the focus.

  83. That’s me gone for another day. Quite mild. A bit of food shopping – then the MR got serious and bought a small, electric chainsaw. I was most impressed. We’ll try it over the weekend.

    Then a two mile walk a bit of pottering in the garden. Next depressed myself by reading The Spectator – it makes the New Statesman seem far-right.

    To buy three laburnum plants tomorrow. All go around here!

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  84. This despicable savage is just the tip of a very large iceberg, and she was only found out when the brave victim managed to tell a teacher when she was 16. At least the waste-of-oxygen savage has been jailed. To subject any fellow human being, never mind a child little more than a defenceless baby, to such barbarity, is deserving of the strictest punishment. her claims of not understanding what was going to be done to the child are utter lies. Maybe fellow inmates will provide some painful ‘treatment’.
    ‘In 2003 she was granted refugee status in the UK before she became a British citizen in 2005.
    Giving evidence Noor, assisted by a Somali interpreter, said she did not know what the words meant at the time.
     She’s been here for almost 20 years, no doubt completely funded by our taxes, and still needs an interpreter? Nobody should be allowed a ‘free’ interpreter beyond a maximum of 6 months. Nobody should be granted British Citizenship unless they can speak English – both understand what is said to them and to be understood by others.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13092575/Woman-female-genital-mutilation-British-girl-Kenya.html?login#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

    In contrast, my son has a young Nigerian man working for his team. This young man speaks English well, but is aware he needs to improve his ‘work’ vocabulary, so, when needed, he asks my son for advice. That’s the sort of foreigner we can accept.

    1. What is female genital mutilation (FGM)?
      Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured or changed, but there’s no medical reason for this to be done.

      It’s also known as female circumcision or cutting, and by other terms, such as Sunna, gudniin, halalays, tahur, megrez and khitan, among others.

      FGM is usually carried out on young girls between infancy and the age of 15, most commonly before puberty starts.

      It’s illegal in the UK and is child abuse.

      It’s very painful and can seriously harm the health of women and girls.

      It can also cause long-term problems with sex, childbirth and mental health.

      Source: NHS

      More noticeable when visiting a Muslim country , the poor girls and women sort of shuffle along , they are sore and uncomfortable and urinating hurts, stings painfully .

      How dare those prehistoric stoneage people interfere and damage the health of vulnerable females.. but I also suspect the same applies to baby boys who are circumcised crudely and badly by the elders .

      1. As I said, we can only hope she experiences some severely traumatic and life-changing ‘treatment’ while incarcerated.
        She should also have her citizenship revoked and should be deported.

        1. I’m wondering what sex all her children are and if she’s done the same to her own daughters. Just an idle thought though.

      2. As I said, we can only hope she experiences some severely traumatic and life-changing ‘treatment’ while incarcerated.
        She should also have her citizenship revoked and should be deported.

      3. Complete removal of the clitoris, thus ensuring no sexual pleasure for the rest of their lives – just as the Arabs want their women – docile.

    2. Nobody should have a free interpreter ever. They need one, they pay for it. Official forms should not be translated into dozens of foreign languages, either. It isn’t as though English is not a world language.

    2. If only grey squirrels were as easy to attract. Just think how many you could dispose of safely…

  86. Greedy universities don’t seem to care about white middle-class British kids

    In advocating high-paying international students, this sick country is discriminating against its own

    ALLISON PEARSON • 14 February 2024 • 11:00am

    A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the scandal of some of our best universities making lower offers to high-paying international students than to our own young people. This is clearly a subject that vexes many readers. I guess it’s proof, were any needed, that we Britons are increasingly a low priority for many of our institutions, from the Church of England offering a sacrament for failed asylum seekers who are then at liberty to seemingly throw drain cleaner at women and children, to the Home Office inviting staff to celebrate “World Hijab Day”.

    As my excellent colleague Steven Edginton revealed, the Home Office’s Islamic Network, a voluntary group for Muslim civil servants, enthusiastically described the hijab as being “brought to women as a way of protection”. Most British women (remember us?) would shudder at such condescension. In fact, it has taken four generations to consign such thinking to the past and now, apparently, our taxes are being used to extol it.

    I have no objection to any woman covering her head if that is her personal choice (my mum used to put on a headscarf to pop to the shops when I was little; mind you, that was probably to preserve her perm). But government departments have no business commenting either way on female attire.

    At a time when women and girls in Iran are risking their lives to cast off their headscarves – currently some of the bravest people in the world, if you ask me – the officials to whom those Iranian females might apply for asylum in the UK, were they lucky enough to escape that Handmaid’s Tale hellhole, are endorsing the very religious dress code they are fleeing. A frightening thought. We want asylum seekers to be assessed by someone who shares mainstream British values, don’t we?

    The blatant discrimination against some of our British candidates in our universities only reinforces the sense that preservation and promulgation of our culture is of negligible interest to our globalist leaders. Scores of parents and grandparents responded to my original article with tales of fuming injustice.

    Nicholas said his extremely bright and dedicated boy – 12 grade 9s at GCSE, predicted four A* at A-level – had worked in a medical laboratory before applying to Exeter to read medicine. “He wasn’t even selected for interview,” reports his father.

    I believe this is what you call “widening participation”, Nicholas, AKA social engineering at the expense of white middle-class kids.

    One university administrator confirmed this when she told me that a candidate “not speaking English at home” is considered an advantage. Big tick.

    And reckless is the youth who dares admit on his application to being heterosexual. Some, I am told, now lie routinely and tick Bi(sexual). In case they manage to get in and are spotted with a girl- or boyfriend.

    Garlanded star pupils struggle to get onto STEM courses, which are dominated by Chinese and East Asian students. “My son’s school got 30 offers from Oxbridge this year,” reports another reader, “but not a single one for science subjects or medicine, even though it’s a science-based school. My son, who is right at the top of the class, didn’t even get an interview because he wanted to study a science. Foreign students are getting in with significantly less ability than many British students who are being rejected. It’s a disgrace.”

    Jamie tells me his son took a gap year and applied to Durham with his three A*s, including a score of over 90 per cent in the A-level that corresponded to his degree. He simply could not have been better qualified. “They still rejected him,” says his dad.

    Blatant discrimination not only violates our national sense of fair play, it can have serious knock-on effects. “My husband works at a leading medical school,” wrote Diana, “Last year, 25 per cent of first-year undergraduates failed their exams – an unheard-of proportion. The result of skewed entry criteria granting sought-after places to students who, ultimately, turned out to be not sufficiently able. The international students are not allowed to be rejected, as they pay for their course. Instead, they are allowed to resit and, if they fail that, they go into special measures meaning extra work for staff, who have to cram knowledge into them so that they pass.”

    Failing international students is not allowed, according to one engineering lecturer who emailed me, even if their English is terrible and it’s pretty clear they’ve lifted their work from the internet. The wealthy customer is never thick.

    A country that makes a virtue out of discriminating against its own young is a sick country, I think. The Department for Education doesn’t see the problem. Burbling excitedly about its “International Education growth strategy”, it explains: “At its heart is an ambition to… increase the number of international higher education students hosted in the UK to 600,000 per year by 2030.”

    God help us. What do they think the effect of that tsunami might be on our overburdened services, let alone British teenagers who have worked their socks off? Clearly, they don’t give a damn. All they see is £££ signs. But our government should be wary of tearing up the social contract between generations.

    I was alarmed by what Sasha, a worried mum, had to report. “Universities preferring high-paying, low-quality international candidates to bright British kids completely reflects the situation of my upper sixth son and his friends,” Sasha wrote. “We made the mistake of going private – to a school where Will’s cohort scored in the top 20 of GCSE results for the entire country. Yet, out of 15 boys applying for humanities subjects at Oxbridge, only one got an offer. These are all boys with 10/11/12 grade 9s at GCSE and with at least three A*s predicted. Some have offers of AAA at Exeter, Leeds etc, but most are now waiting to hear from Durham and Edinburgh. But they aren’t optimistic. How can you not be optimistic when you have achieved such great grades? It does make the boys wonder why they bothered working so hard.”

    Just wait until they graduate, Sasha, and discover that the highly educated white British male is knocked out of the recruitment process by top firms obsessed by DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).

    “These are the same boys who now read that, with World War Three forecast, they are expected to train up, enlist and head into battle,” says Sasha. “Ironically, the same boys that they are excluding from our best universities are the ones who’ve done their CCF (Combined Cadet Force).”

    The other day, around the family kitchen table, Sasha says it was fascinating to hear her son and his mates talk about conscription. “An absolute no-no as far as all the boys were concerned. They said, why would they fight for a country that doesn’t support them, doesn’t even appear to like them?”

    It’s quite the feat to get middle-class boys to despise universities and their own nation in one fell swoop. Honestly, who can blame them?

    Memo to politicians counting on British kids enlisting: ask not what young people can do for you. Ask what you did for your own young people.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/02/14/britain-white-middle-class-teenagers-greedy-universities/

    1. I am so glad my sons went to university before the madness really got a grip. Not that it wasn’t an issue at all. A girl from a poorly performing comp and ‘deprived’ home was accepted with ‘sympathy’ grades onto the same science degree at Oxford as our older son; she struggled throughout the 1st year, forever asking to copy other students’ work, and failed miserably in 1st year exams. She was kicked out after also failing resits. Another place lost for another better-suited and more able candidate.
      The same is true for so many suitable British medical school applicants.

    3. These kids have to buck up their ideas a bit. University rejects you? Reject it. Study abroad or bypass studying altogether and educate yourself from the internet, or go into a trade where you can earn $$$.
      The most valuable lesson to learn is to think for yourself! Something that Oxbridge hothouse schools aren’t very good at teaching kids.

      1. Some BTL comments suggested UK students go to foreign universities but why should they have to? It’s a bloody scandal that they are passed over for inadequate foreigners simply for money. If you were to argue that too many go to university I would agree but in many cases those are 3rd rate institutions that don’t deserve to be described as universities. When good UK students are being rejected by good UK universities for the reasons given, there’s something rotten going on.

        1. Of course there is, but if you’re 18 with great A levels, there’s no time to hang around trying to reform the corrupt university system. The kids have to look after themselves.

      2. That’s why I left school at 15½ and joined the Royal Air Force as a Boy Entrant, under training as Air Radar Mechanic for 12 years beginning when I was 17½.

        1. I wonder how many ex-RAF Apprentices and Boy Entrants bring quality to this particular forum. Quite a lot, I think, and even more if you add the equivalents of the other two Services.

  87. Taken this afternoon:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eabb9d5e5f045543bd4c37a4923f7987289fba44332cacdcf2c6de36d0d520c8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34f2892cb2d872ffb8e9f4e53568b9e6109a9070748e9cbf545dfeb1874dc114.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed32b5dc04589a57608505efd3003856a265aabe8e9ca45b99060e8b59dc2042.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f2a53625fa06cd267cd740a995dbd6d9896addcd097c5de0fc38698be70f8f3.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d459eaa74735d8176c8f7c0ea672acedb952467002ef75e43f55f6b39ee78e8c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f61b4b01988e1d4af2f820f698978f4ade76f8be2b8453e943a2652bd090e7ed.jpg

      1. It’s a very good camera, with the only drawback being some of the photos are over 7.5 megabytes.

        1. If you are using a Mac you can click on the image, In Preview click File, then Export and you can then use the slider to decrease the size of the file to below 5 Mb which then becomes a JPEG file. Press save and the JPEG image will appear on your desktop.

    2. Very clear photos!
      Quite a few snowdrops, crocuses and early daffs & narcissi in my garden too. Even some tulips are sprouting through the compost.

    4. Here in Sweden my snowdrops and winter aconites are just appearing. It will be another month before I see any crocuses and even longer for the daffs.

  88. “Bold thinking is required to lift Britain from the slough of low growth”

    Or possibly a Conservative government not hell bent on creating the conditions where they can say “Oh, we need to re-join the EU.”

    1. I reckon what will happen is Labour will continue to drive the nation further down – as the uniparty want. After a while we’ll be forced to the IMF who’ll say ‘we’ll help you, but you must rejoin the EU.’ The state will say ‘Oh no, after we all voted and did so much? Must we? – smirk, grin smirk.

      The public, having seen no real benefit from leaving the EU – because the state is fighting any positive change whatsoever precisely for this point – will say ‘What? Oh, may as well.’

      And the entire establishment will have won. Democracy defeated and statism enforced. For those listening it’ll be confirmation of the fascist state. Remoaners will rejoice – too stupid to realise what has happened. Everyone else will carry on as normal, shrugging and saying ‘nothing’s really changed’.

      This was always the plan. To screw over the voter.

    3. Christ, Belle, what are they eating with such ghastly relish? The teeth look horsey, but maybe a pig?

        1. Bollocks!

          It was second, hence my meticulous and praiseworthy posting of several Stills from the filming of Dr No earlier today. If you don’t believe me, ask Elsie – she knows everything about fillums.

          Dr. No (1962)
          From Russia with Love (1963)
          Goldfinger (1964)
          Thunderball (1965)
          You Only Live Twice (1967)
          On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
          Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
          Live and Let Die (1973)

      1. My personal favourite too, but just because I like him. I’m not saying he was the most ‘Bond-like’.

      2. Sean Connery would be the only one Ian Fleming actually met of course and he was presumably happy with the casting.

        1. And there’s the rub, Sue. I only read one Bond novel, From Russia with Love. If we’re talking spy novels then John le Carré wins hands down every time. Easy watch films, then Fleming’s stories are more popular.

          Edited for drunken spelling.

        2. Fir shore. 😉
          There is a HPB in Dorset, Langton House, at Langton Matravers. We have stayed there. Its where young Fleming was once at boarding school.
          There are a few strange stories regarding the Head Master.
          Have a look, it’s a lovely building and surrounds. You can walk to the coast through farmland.

    2. If the world’s human population had still been just like it was ©1939–1945 then there would be much hope.

      It isn’t and there isn’t any hope whatsoever!

      My only question is this: Once the WEF and its acolytes, the global corporations, have completely destroyed Homo sapiens imbecilus, where will those left they get their food from? They will surely self-destruct and leave the planet to eventually regain its balance of nature.

      2. If mankind becomes extinct do you think humans would re-evolve or would the chimps say;
        “Oh no you don’t, not this time brother”

    3. When it comes i would like to do her hair. I have learned some techniques. Curly hair brushes with a hot blow dryer.

    2. Well………….Do you have any poisoned dart shoes? Any spear guns hanging about? Perhaps a crossbow or two? Next thing you will be telling me you have you left the microwave door open by accident !!!

  96. Putin
    Hmm Tucker interview went well millions of views,another major defeat for the Ukies about to happen what shall I do for the trifecta??
    I know I’ll murder a no-mark political rival that’s ALREADY banged up in a siberian prison………
    Aye right,,,,,,,Cui Bono
    The warmongers perchance………??

    1. Am I alone in being irritated by the American pronunciation of Putin as Poo-tun? I checked and the Russians pronounce it as we do.

  97. Salisbury’s first ever Muslim mayor has been expelled from the Tory party after allegedly suggesting ‘Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death’.

    Atiqul Hoque, who leads Salisbury city council in Wiltshire is alleged to have made the anti-Semetic comments on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.

    The Salisbury Conservative Association said had expelled the councillor following an investigation after it received a formal complaint about ‘offensive and inappropriate comments’.

    Mr Hoque, who became the cathedral city’s first ever Muslim mayor when he was elected in May last year, is appealing the sanction and vowed to continue ‘representing the people of Salisbury’ as an independent.

    In messages, which have been leaked to the Salisbury Journal, Mr Hoque’s WhatsApp account is seen writing condemnation of ‘Zionist paymaster[s]’ and making reference to Jews being Christ-killers.

    He wrote: ‘Finally, I’ll tell you what the Quran says… this will happen oppressed and opression you might call me crazy ask any muslim they will tell you end of time or the sign won’t come unitl Israel becomes a complete esate, resistance will come when they touch Al Asqa mosque.

    Later in the message he writes: ‘Don’t forget who planted the crucifixion of our beloved Jesus Christ peace be upon him, they are good at that… do you think in the second coming JC will agree the blame of blasphemy NO! What does that mean… his not god he’s a messenger a prophet.’

    In a statement to MailOnline Mr Hoque said he was disappointed the story has been sent to the media when I was told to keep the matter confidential.

    He said: ‘There is no truth whatsoever in the allegations that I am antisemitic.

    ‘I will be fighting to clear my name as I am entirely innocent of these allegations.

    ‘My track record speaks for itself; over many years I have worked for all the people of Salisbury, regardless of their religion or ethnic background.

    ‘I am proud of having Jewish friends and supporters, and those I have heard from have sent me messages of support.

    ‘As someone who has experienced occasional racism and discrimination myself, I believe there is no place for either at all.

    ‘In due course I will be happy to share all the communication with everyone was involved as I have nothing to hide.’

    A spokesman for the Salisbury Conservative Association told the BBC: ‘Following a careful examination of the evidence, it has been determined that councillor Hoque’s comments are in clear breach of the standards expected from individuals holding public office.

    ‘We take such matters seriously and prioritise the maintenance of high ethical standards and values within our party.’

    The association added it was ‘committed to upholding the values of tolerance, diversity, and respect.’

    ‘We take such matters seriously and prioritise the maintenance of high ethical standards and values within our party’ he said.

    Mr Hoque’s comments, came from a WhatsApp group of Salisbury city councillors on Nov 28 last year, according to The Telegraph.

    The remarks have been seen by some to be a reference to Jewish deicide, a historic conspiracy theory that Jews of all generations are collectively responsible for Jesus’s death.

    Over the centuries the belief has led to pogroms and massacres of Jews during the Crusades, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.

    Mr Hoque has been a Conservative city councillor for St Edmund’s ward in the city since 2015.

    The Tory anti-Semitism row comes after Labour has been emroiled in a series of issues with its own party members.

    The party withdrew support for its Rochdale by-election candidate, Azhar Ali, after the Mail revealed he had made anti-Semitic remarks at a meeting last year.

    But Labour was criticised for being slow to act after The Mail on Sunday reported Mr Ali said Israel ‘deliberately allowed’ the October 7 massacre to get the ‘green light’ to invade Gaza.

    The party also later removed its backing for former MP Graham Jones, its candidate for Hyndburn, after it was reported he had used the words ‘f****** Israel’ at the same meeting.

    Sir Keir is under pressure to come clean over who attended the Rochdale meeting where the vile remarks went seemingly unchallenged.

    Yesterday a poll found just 3 per cent of voters think Keir Starmer has successfully tackled anti-Semitism within Labour.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13091293/Salisburys-Muslim-mayor-expelled-Tory-party-anti-Semitism.html

    What on earth is happening in Salisbury , a blooming Muslim Mayor, I cannot believe it .

    How did that happen?

    1. Well to be honest we don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s their “culture” and we are behoven to validate other people’s “culture” in the name of multiculturalism.

      1. Eff that, MIR, deport the lot of them to the sh*tholes whence they came from – we don’t need them nor does multi-culti, in whatever guise.

    2. “Later in the message he writes: ‘Don’t forget who planted the crucifixion of our beloved Jesus Christ peace be upon him, they are good at that… do you think in the second coming JC will agree the blame of blasphemy NO! What does that mean… his not god he’s a messenger a prophet.’”

      It sounds like Atiqul has been drinking strong spirits again, is that a ‘Flinging from the rooftop offence?

      1. No – he is merely stating Islam’s view of Jesus Christ – that he was a prophet, not the Son of God and the Saviour. This is why Islam and Christianity are totally incompatible – Muslims deny the divinity of Christ.

      2. He seems to be inferring that the Jews crucified Jesus but surely it was the Romans wot did that. Jesus was a Jew and He is God. He keeps sending His mum back to earth and she says so, so there! Anyone had a visitation from Mo?

        1. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

          Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

          2. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus

            Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

        1. Same way as all the other places that have muslims in charge. Numbers and political correctness.

    4. Wasn’t it Pontius Pilate who condemned Christ to death? Crucifixion was a Roman punishment. What have the Romans ever done for us?

  99. The cast list on this evening’s ‘Any Questions’ on Radio 4 – Director of Popular Conservatism Mark Littlewood, Shadow Employment Minister Alison McGovern MP, Cabinet Office Minister Esther McVey MP and Observer columnist and chief leader writer Sonia Sodha.

    From the intro:
    “Popular Conservatism is a campaign group launched by Liz Truss to promote conservative values. Littlewood was previously was DG of the IEA for 14 years. He’s also a former campaign director for Liberty and until 2007 was head of media for the Lib Dems.”

    He obviously had a conversion at some point…

    It began with a predictable question about Nalvany. McVey and Littlewood spluttered away with grave indignation, McGovern and Sodha were a little more measured. Bad as Putin may be, I never hear how we got here i.e. Ukraine. I suspect if any panellist on AQ or Question Time on BBC1 were to point out that this ‘kleptocratic, far-right Russian nationalist’ (Littlewood) was, in part, a creation of the West, he or she would be lynched.

    Littlewood told us that Putin was a threat to the West. If his army continues through Ukraine at its current rate, it might reach Poland in about 15 years, by which time he’ll be dead.

  100. SIR – I thought the same as Mr Heath in 1975, when I decided that I had to live in another country. I despaired of three-day weeks, power cuts and cold, dark nights when I arrived home after work, with no hope for the future.

    Then what happened? Britons woke up, Margaret Thatcher arrived, the country got to work fixing itself and became the envy of Europe. I look forward to another rejuvenation.

    Gordon Moore
    Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

    Daddy decided to take my mother and younger siblings away from the UK for good , in 1967. Harold Wilson was in power then .

    Parents sold up , I wish they hadn’t sold their house in Littlestone on sea in Kent , dad was back here again in the UK , as one of the QS’s when Dungeness power station was being built .

    I think the fog horn , gloominess and general political nonsense in the UK accelerated the wish to leave Britain for SA where he assumed life would be an improvement on life in general .

    He sold his precious Daimler , said goodbye to all the relatives in the North , including me ( I was as student nurse )

    If only they had settled down in Surrey and not gone to Kent .. but he couldn’t cope with Harold Wilson and his tiny little mind .. and as well as the Rhodesia issues, he had friends over there .. who were moving across to South Africa.

    Sorry I am rambling on a bit .

    1. My father mentioned SA at the time. I was still at primary school. Mum talked him down…

    2. A good choice at the time no doubt. SA, compared with Nigeria in ’67, would have seemed a great place to go.

  101. I read on Twitt that Screaming Lord Cameron says we should “hold Putin accountable for Navalny’s death.”
    Really? Really?
    Since when did David Cameron discover such a burning love for humanity and justice that he would willingly march into battle to avenge the death of a random Russian politician, especially when nobody at this point can know how or why he died, unless they killed him of course?

    Oh sorry – Cameron won’t be marching to war, he expects OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN to go!!

        2. Proof — if it were ever needed — that a ridiculously expensive education (Eton and Oxford) does not provide intelligence or instil common sense.

          In many cases quite the opposite is true.

    2. Lord Greensill might do well to remember that Epstein apparently died in an American prison while on suicide watch, when purely by chance all the cameras also failed. Is he going to hold Biden [Clinton] accountable??

    3. The heir to Blair is hoping to outdo his forerunner by inflicting even more evil and misery as the master did himself.

    1. It’s one thing to have more than suspected it but quite another to have it put in front of you in black and white. Thank you for posting this link.

  103. One of those frustrating days that begin lovely and then turn cloudy & wet as the day progresses.
    Still, got a lot of the small diameter green sycamore cut and split for the stick trays, 10 trays worth.

    Off to bed now so good night all.

  104. Evening, all. Just back from a quiz for the church. We didn’t win, but we didn’t come last, either. We got a very respectable 74%.

    I don’t know about “bold thinking” unless they mean tax cuts plus slashing red tape and the dead hand of EU regulation is bold. If we actually had Brexit, it would help.

  106. Donald Trump and his family business have been fined a devastating $364 million for inflating property prices worth following a blockbuster fraud trial in New York.

    Judge Arthur Engoron also banned the former president from serving as the director of a company in the state for three years in the crushing ruling issued on Friday that puts the future of his business in the Big Apple in doubt.

    His son’s Eric and Don Jr. were fined more than $4 million each and his former CFO Allen Weisselberg was fined $1million for the scheme to massively inflate prices of his properties including Mar-a-Lago to get favorable loan terms from lenders.

    This is a disgrace. A political kangaroo court.
    Does that idiot judge really believe that lenders take the word of their clients as to the worth of anything?
    All banks do their own due diligence.
    Trump could tell them anything, but they would still check, given the amounts involved.

  107. UK:

    Church is banned from displaying a Pride flag with a cross on its altar ‘for trans people’ after campaigners complained that it was ‘politicising’ a place of worship
    St Nicholas’s Church, in Leicester also proposed adding a cross to the flag

    USA:

    Manhattan’s Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral attracts colorful crowd for funeral of atheist transgender former sex worker, with poster with word ‘whore’ in Spanish displayed on altar and words to ‘Ave Maria’ changed to include her name

    Christianity is being undermined everywhere.

  109. Bl**dy Ginge and Cringe in the news again. From one of the articles,

    “It was followed by reports that the parents of two are now using “Sussex” as the official surname for their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, rather than Mountbatten-Windsor, their given name at birth.”

    I thought Her Duchessness was supposed to be a champion for women’s equality, one of the world’s most influential women, apparently. Why then does she not give her offspring the surname Markle, I wonder?

    1. I recognise, Stormy, that there was an element of urine extraction, but the easiest way to refer to a duchess is ‘Her Grace’.

      1. I sat next the duchess at tea,
        Her grace was most gracious to me;
        But her rumblings, abdominal,
        Were something phenomenal.
        And everyone thought it was me!

  111. Wordle 973 5/6
    Saturday’s result posted here, since the Saturday site is not yet open:

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

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