Friday 17 February: Sturgeon’s successor must leave the politics of grievance behind

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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662 thoughts on “Friday 17 February: Sturgeon’s successor must leave the politics of grievance behind”

    2. 371211+ up ticks,

      Morning C,

      I’m adrift this morning, first lathering up nannies beard for a trim and her choosing to act the goat.

        1. If I didn’t have so much respect for him, I’d call him a Very Silly Sausage.
          PS – I think perhaps he’s trying to make up for his Senior Moment a few days ago when he forgot to give us the new day’s page! Lol.

          1. Yo Elsie

            Sir, Boss, His Exellency, Right Hand of God, The True King, el al was just checking on his subjects to see if, like Brenda, he would be missed.

            His worth was proven a Thousand time over.

            Bows to Boss and thanks him for today’s offering

  5. It is high time this Evil Nutter was either locked up or ridiculed on South Park.

    WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab Says Global Governments Must Harness A.I. to Become ‘Masters of the World’

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0722fec9f36ae197fa4e0814e3b3942ac95a8f64f45690288bf72db3705112e9.jpg

    World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab said that those who control emerging “Fourth Industrial Revolution” technologies such as Artificial Intelligence will become “masters of the world” while speaking at the World Government Summit.

    Appearing at the World Government Summit in Dubai this week, arch-globalist Klaus Schwab said that the world is heading towards a period of exponential growth of technologies, in which Artificial Intelligence, the so-called Metaverse, near-space technologies, and synthetic biology among others will become key levers of control for the world.

    “Our life in 10 years from now will be completely different, very much affected, and who masters these technologies, in some way, will be the masters of the world,” the German economist said.

    Apart from coining the ominous term ‘The Great Reset’, the WEF chairman also popularised the term the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, with his 2016 book of the same name. Schwab has previously said that this new phase of human economy will be characterised by transhumanism, with “a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.”

    In his speech at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Schwab said that his “deep concern” is that if governments do not act in a globalist fashion, then such technologies “will escape our power to master [them].”

    Continuing this thought, he said that governments must focus on the speed at which they adopt new tech, warning: “You cannot catch up with the new technologies, you have to be a frontrunner because otherwise you will be on the losing outside.”

    https://twitter.com/TimHinchliffe/status/1625155704985198596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1625155704985198596%7Ctwgr%5Ea8f513cee8bd4791dee5a38a23b30c021f6466fb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Feurope%2F2023%2F02%2F16%2Fwef-chairman-klaus-schwab-says-global-governments-must-harness-ai-to-become-master-of-the-world%2F

    Spelling out his vision of so-called stakeholder capitalism that he hopes will replace the current economy following the Great Reset, the WEF chairman continued: “What is absolutely essential is this cooperation of the different stakeholders of global society: government brings direct power, business bring the innovative power civil society brings the concerned power, academia brings the power of truth, and maybe I should add media, which brings the critical dimensional in this dialogue.

    “We need all those stakeholders to shape together the future.”

    What exactly that future will look like remains a question, however, in November, Schwab said that Communist China will serve as a “role model” for many countries during his predicted “systemic transformation of the world”. The authoritarian one-party state under the strict control of Chairman Xi Jinping has been at the forefront in introducing WEF pet projects such as vaccine passport apps.

    Expanding on this level of societal control, the president Chinese tech giant Alibaba, J. Michael Evans revealed at the 2022 WEF meeting in Davos that they are seeking to implement an “individual carbon footprint tracker” to record and track the behaviour of citizens and its supposed impact on the environment.

    https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/1616153827169665043?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1616153827169665043%7Ctwgr%5Ea8f513cee8bd4791dee5a38a23b30c021f6466fb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Feurope%2F2023%2F02%2F16%2Fwef-chairman-klaus-schwab-says-global-governments-must-harness-ai-to-become-master-of-the-world%2F

    1. Once more I imagine people are saying who the hell do you think you are and who voted for you ?
      Except of course your close and pampered allies.

      1. I thought that WEF was a thinly disguised smokescreen for globalism but now they are brazenly invoking “World Government”. Scary stuff.

    4. A most chilling and nightmarish prospect.
      Communist China as a role model – in how NOT to operate.

  6. I see Geoff is about early. ‘Morning, Boss.

    Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    In Dubai, they forgot one “LITTLE” thing!

    The modern Arab world!! You have seen those architectural wonders of Dubai.

    However, none are hooked up to a sewer system!

    The two-minute video below passes a line of poop trucks and never gets to the end of the line. What were these people thinking?

    An unbelievable amount of sewage is generated by the new high-rises and there is no place to dispose of it. Camel sense seems about right!

    Dubai doesn’t have a sewage system for all those big new buildings so they haul it all away in tank trucks.
    Look at the number of tank trucks that are waiting to dump their load.

    This is amazing. They wait for days to dump their load.

    You would have thought that by building all those huge skyscrapers they would have enough sense to put in a sufficient sewage system to haul away all that crap.

    You would imagine that those building that look amazingly beautiful were built on a well-planned system of utilities. But, that’s NOT TRUE!!

    Watch the following link:

    http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-pQdjwliLMA?rel=0“

    1. Morning Tom.

      Let’s hope the ‘manure’ is being spread in the desert in the hope of generating soil that can be used to plant drought tolerant crops….

    2. As a teenager might say, ‘OMG!’ All that sewage stored for a long time in metal tanks under the searing sun.
      Further proof that these savages are uncivilised and not over-endowed in the intelligence department.

  7. US ranking on abuse of power index hurt by inequality and violence. 17 February 2023.

    The US ranks worse on impunity than Hungary and Singapore, one a poster child for democratic backsliding and the other an illiberal democracy.

    The UK performs creditably at 147, only 26 rankings away from the most accountable state. Its score is brought down by its protection of offshore tax havens that facilitate tax abuse in other countries.

    Former colonies, many affected by the slave trade, fare poorly in the index, suggesting the experience of imperialist subjection has caused a continuing damaging legacy. Nearly all of the top 20 ranked in the index in terms of impunity are former colonies or touched by colonialism.

    The view from the Woke World! The idea that the Slave Trade, which finished 200 years ago, has impacted on present government is particularly hilarious.

    https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/feb/17/us-ranking-on-abuse-of-power-index-hurt-by-inequality-and-violence

    1. The Grauniad never fails does it – the double speak is astonishing! Hungary is a beacon of sanity in an ever more corrupt and anti-democratic EU – thank heavens for Orban! And given what the EU, and the UK, have become and the behaviour during lockdown, I don’t think calling another country an “illiberal democracy” is particularly wise!

  8. Wild, windy and wet here this morning, and I understand it’s worserer the further north you go.

  10. Sturgeon’s successor must leave the politics of grievance behind

    It’s about time we got rid of all these wasteful devolved assemblies altogether.

    Why keep the EU plan to divide us all up going?

  11. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Farewell then, Wee Burney – a nation mourns

    PUBLISHED: 23:42, 16 February 2023

    Conga, conga, conga, Nicola no longer, la-la la-la, la-la la-la. Or as the late, great Geordie darts commentator Sid Waddell observed when Jocky Wilson won the world championship: ‘They’ll be dancing, they’ll be singing, they’ll be Highland flinging in the streets of Kirkcaldy tonight . . .’

    Well, if not in Kirkcaldy, then certainly in George Square, Glasgow, where a crowd of jubilant Unionists formed a conga line to dance on the political grave of Nicola Sturgeon. It looked like Winston’s wedding in Still Game.

    Waving Union flags and swigging champagne, they partied like it was, er, 1997 — the year New Labour unleashed the separatist monster. Remember how Scottish devolution was supposed to ‘strengthen the Union’? Some of us saw through this Fantasy Island nonsense at the time, warning that it was your starter for ten.

    I can recall writing back then that if this cynical stitch-up was designed to bring our nations closer together, then why was SNP leader Alex Salmond sitting alongside Tony Blair at the inaugural press conference, grinning like the cat who got the cream?

    Over the past 25 years, first under Salmond and then his protege Sturgeon, the Nats have strained every sinew to rip apart the world’s most successful and longest-enduring constitutional partnership.

    In the meantime, maybe they’ll erect a statue to the great lady in George Square. And with any luck, like the Duke of Wellington, she’ll be immortalised for posterity with a traffic cone on her head

    Nicola Sturgeon has betrayed women. In the end she failed herself, too

    Salmond, aka Wee Eck, at least had the good grace to resign when the voters gave independence a resounding thumbs-down in the 2014 independence referendum.

    His successor, Wee Burney, refused to accept that ‘once in a lifetime’ democratic defeat at the ballot box and has spent most of the past near-decade trying to breath life into the twitching separatist corpse.

    Incidentally, I nicknamed Sturgeon ‘Wee Burney’ after the son of alcoholic waster and self-styled ‘creme de la scum’ Rab C. Nesbitt in the brilliant BBC Scotland comedy.

    At the time, others were calling her ‘Wee Jimmy Krankie’ because of her resemblance to the fictional Scottish schoolboy from central casting played by Janette Tough, a Jolly Jocko Land version of Just William.

    I was conflicted. Should I persevere with Wee Burney or give in to the consensus? So I decided to leave the final decision to the impeccable taste of Scottish Daily Mail readers, who came out in favour of Burney by a margin of at least ten to one.

    The reason I chose that moniker was because Rab C’s Wee Burney was a malevolent character, a poison dwarf. Jimmy Krankie was a much-loved figure of fun.

    And, to my mind, there was nothing amusing about Sturgeon. Malevolence is her middle name.

    Someone once said if you can fake sincerity, you’ve cracked it. Or words to that effect. Never has that seemed more bang on the money than during Wee Burney’s self-serving set-piece resignation this week.

    There was nothing amusing about Nicola Sturgeon. Malevolence is her middle name writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHN

    Even then, she failed to live up to her intention to present herself as a trembling victim. She couldn’t even get the bogus self-deprecation right. The crocodile tears wouldn’t come, no matter how much she tried to turn on the waterworks. A hard-hearted woman to the end.

    Once Salmond handed on the ceremonial skean dhu, she couldn’t wait to twist it in his guts. There’s gratitude for you. But, commitment to Scottish independence apart, there was a fundamental difference between these two SNP figureheads.

    For all his faults — for which he has been hanged, drawn and quartered — there was a human quality about Wee Eck, which is demonstrably absent without leave in Wee Burney.

    She’s stunningly devoid of self-awareness. Who else resigns to spend more time with their nieces and nephews — and then thinks the rest of us are so stupid to that we’ll swallow it? It would take a heart of stone not to laugh. Never mind Wee Burney, we’re talking Little Nell here.

    Salmond, on the other hand, was a sort of Caledonian Boris, bubbling with bonhomie. He managed to make the case for independence without slagging off the English at every opportunity.

    Even hardline Unionist Scots who viscerally opposed his policies warmed to him.

    As Randy Newman wrote of Lester Maddox, the divisive Georgia governor: He may be a fool but he’s our fool.

    Salmond (pictured) at least had the good grace to resign when the voters gave independence a resounding thumbs-down in the 2014 independence referendum.

    After a wee dram, Salmond sounded almost reasonable. I did a few TV shows with him in the dim and distant and he was great company.

    Back then his bagman was Angus Robertson, tipped as one of the front-runners to take over from Wee Burney, along with teenage Wee Free Kate Forbes.

    Robertson’s job was to go the bar for Alex at the Boisdale steakhouse in London’s Belgravia, run by cigar-chomping Scottish laird and part-time Elvis impersonator Ranald Macdonald.

    Salmond and his Whisky Galore sidekick Robertson always gave me the impression that they were much happier in Belgravia than they’d be in Belhaven.

    (The only question about Del Boy’s Uncle Albert-lookalike Robertson these days: Is he really only 53?) Oh, and when I featured that picture of Burney and Forbes in this column on Tuesday, largely as an excuse to wheel out the old Mike and Bernie Winters at the Glasgow Empire gag again, I had no idea what was coming down the bagpipe.

    Mystic Uncle Rich strikes again!

    Sorry, I digress. As Mike Parkinson almost said, you meet a better class of SNP leader down Memory Lane. The truth about Sturgeon is that she’s a Toytown Tartanista version of Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator who led his country into the international wilderness and gifted Britain so many talented Asian exiles.

    Over the past 25 years, first under Salmond and then his protege Sturgeon, the Nats have strained every sinew to rip apart the world’s most successful and longest-enduring constitutional partnership

    If Wee Burney had been successful in uncoupling Scotland from the rest of the UK, the border with England would have come to resemble the Rio Grande in Texas.

    Never would the Samuel Johnson quote have proved more appropriate: The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

    The exodus of talented, enterprising Scots would be this year’s Ugandan Asians. And may still be, if Sturgeon’s McTax rises aren’t reversed.

    Ultimately, Wee Burney imploded in a fit of hubris. Her ludicrous contention that a male rapist with an intact set of wedding tackle was a ‘woman’ was a camel’s back job. But the Gender Recognition Bill was in reality nothing more than a sideshow — an absurd overreach which sealed her fate.

    You don’t need me to spell out the assorted ways in which she has been an absolute disaster for Scotland. Her monomania over independence has disguised her leadership of a failed state.

    Others have documented her lamentable record on crime, education, health and so on and so on, and scooby dooby dooby.

    My loathing of this tinpot tyrant is entirely down to her tirades against the evil English, who she blamed for everything bad which befalls the people she is paid to represent.

    If an English politician had sought to attack the Scots in the same way, they’d have had Scotland Yard kicking in their front door with a hate crime warrant.

    She tried to present Scotland as a ‘woke’ fortress against English fascism. And, thank goodness, she failed spectacularly.
    Wee Burney sowed hatred, grievance and division. It was her wicked stock in trade.

    She tried to present Scotland as a ‘woke’ fortress against English fascism. And, thank goodness, she failed spectacularly.

    The plain fact is that we are one people, British. There’s little difference between the people of Kilmacolm and the people of Kidderminster. Whatever our party political leanings, we’re mostly small ‘c’ conservatives.

    She tried to pretend that the SNP — or rather, she — was Scotland. But she lost. Her ‘men are woman’ lie proved a Bridge of Weir too far.

    Shamefully, the cowed Scottish media — this newspaper aside — has been culpable up to now in surrendering to both her warped narrative and her phalanx of anonymous Cybernat bullies.

    And the useless, self-regarding, anti-Tory Westminster broadcast media bubble elevated this two-bob, small-town nobody in high heels to world statesman status.

    Now she’s gone, there are still questions to be answered. Such as: where did the £600,000 raised for the referendum go? And: where did Sturgeon’s husband get £107,000 to lend to the SNP?

    It defies belief that Wee Burney knew nothing about this ‘loan’. If I gave someone 107 grand, Mrs Littlejohn might just notice.

    ‘Tesco declined our debit card today. Went to the hole in the wall and there was £107,000 missing. Any idea where it’s gone?’

    Yeah, right.

    My best guess is that Taggart and Rebus are already on the case.

    In the meantime, maybe they’ll erect a statue to the great lady in George Square. And with any luck, like the Duke of Wellington, she’ll be immortalised for posterity with a traffic cone on her head.

    Two years ago, almost to the day, I wrote a denunciation of Wee Burney’s failed state, concluding with a couple of lines from Bruce Springsteen’s Bobby Jean.

    I’ll be at Murrayfield for Bruce in May. Meanwhile, as he might have written about Wee Burney . . .

    Heaven knows, we won’t miss you, girl.

    Good riddance, goodbye . . .

    1. ‘Morning, C1. Thanks for posting, my visits to the Daily Fail are rare these days and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this. Mr Littlejohn has excelled himself!

  12. French grumble as none of their cheeses appear in world’s top 10 list. 17 February 2023.

    France’s cheeses, which number in the hundreds, are a source of great national pride.

    However, they failed to reach the top 10 of the 100 best world cheeses on culinary site TasteAtlas, which promotes “local food around the world”.

    Italy wiped the floor, with parmesan in pole position, followed by burrata and grana padano. Indeed, only two of the top 10 were non-Italian – Bundz, a Polish cheese made from sheep’s milk, and Queijo Serra da Estrela, a semi-soft cheese made from the milk of two types of local sheep in Portugal.

    Parmesan!?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/16/french-grumble-none-cheeses-appear-worlds-top-10-list/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Yes…Parmesan!!

      Wiki:

      https://historyhouse.co.uk/gfx/samuel_pepys.jpg

      Samuel Pepys the great diarist was awoken on 2 September 1666 by his servant who told him of a great fire she had seen in the city. This was the start of the Great Fire of London which went onto devastate a large area of London.

      Pepys’ house was in the path of the fire and on the 3rd he borrowed a cart to “to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things”. The following day he personally carried more items to be taken away on a Thames barge, and later that evening with Sir William Pen, “I did dig another [hole], and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things.”

      But why did he bury his Parmesan cheese? What was so special about a piece of cheese?

      Like the many other items he saved from the fire, Parmesan cheese was valuable to him.

      Parmesan cheese is said to have been made for over 2000 years in the Po Valley area of Italy, although the first documentary evidence is from the 13th century. The correct name is Parmigiano-Reggiano. Parmesan is a French word that was adopted into the English language. Made from skimmed milk, the final product is in the form of a large wheel, on average 84lb in weight, although in Pepys’ time they could weigh up to 200 lbs. The cheese is matured for at least two years. The longer it matures, the more valuable it becomes.

      By the late medieval period its fame was well known across Europe and it was a highly sought after for its flavour and its elasticity. This demand meant the price was high, and before the days of efficient transport, to import the cheese into Britain would have been very expensive operation.

          1. I agree about the old sweaty socks smell but even grated and sprinkled, there still is a sickly smell pervading

    3. The French always grumble…….
      With posey macron as their big cheese what would they expect.

    4. I’m not surprised that Italy performed well in the cheese stakes. A hotel we found in the Langhe district near to Barolo had an amazing selection of cheeses and most were fairly local.
      I am very partial to cheese, including a couple made near Ipswich, and this one from Spain I came across in the last few years is very nice:

      Manchego is a cheese made in the La Mancha region of Spain from the milk of sheep of the Manchega breed.

      1. A lot of French cheeses are now made in a factory. Most British cheeses are hand made. The French have sat on their laurels for too long and have been overtaken.

  14. Free Speech Union weekly newsletter:

    Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join and help turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons at the bottom of this email. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Online speakeasy with Meghan Murphy – register for tickets here!
    Our next members-only Online Speakeasy is ‘Defeating Twitter Bans and Defending Free Speech’, featuring FSU General Secretary Toby Young in conversation with Meghan Murphy, the founder and editor of Feminist Current, a feminist website and podcast, and host of YouTube channel The Same Drugs. Join us on Zoom at 7.30pm on Wednesday 8th March for this online Speakeasy with Canadian journalist and writer, Meghan Murphy. FSU members can register for the event here. If you’re not yet a member, but would like to attend, you can join us here.

    It is of course de rigueur these days for any self-respecting, high-profile champion of women’s sex-based rights to be in receipt of death, rape and bodily mutilation threats from trans rights activists, and Meghan has certainly been keeping up appearances in that regard — indeed, at one point the #BeKind brigade’s campaign of harassment and intimidation became so histrionic that she required police escorts to travel between public engagements in her hometown of Vancouver (Telegraph). Meghan was also permanently banned from Twitter in 2018 for saying that transwomen are not women (Spiked). Thankfully, that ban was lifted by Twitter’s new owner and CEO, Elon Musk, in November 2022.

    In 2019, Meghan spoke about gender identity in the Scottish Parliament, urging legislators not to make the same mistakes as Canada and the US, where laws and policies around trans-identifying people were passed without proper consideration of how they might impact society – and women and girls in particular. So it will certainly be fascinating to get Meghan’s take on Scotland’s Gender Recognition (Scotland) Reform Bill, which recently passed into law, abolishing the requirement for people to have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before gaining a so-called gender-recognition certificate, and reducing the time someone has to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months.

    Does she agree with UCL’s Head of Social Research, Professor Alice Sullivan, for instance, that (gender) critical voices were ignored during the development and subsequent Parliamentary scrutiny of this legislation (Times)? Was she surprised when UN special rapporteur Reem Alsalem was given the brush off by the ex-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon after raising concerns that this “unfair, rushed, vague and contradictory legislation” could open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process (Times)? And what are her thoughts on the Scottish Prison Service’s policy (now temporarily halted) of housing violent, self-identifying transgender female rapists in women’s jails alongside a population of female offenders known to contain some of the most vulnerable people in society, often with complex histories of trauma, including sexual and domestic abuse (Telegraph, Times)?

    You can find Meghan on Twitter here and Substack here. To whet your appetite for the FSU’s Speakeasy, you can listen to Meghan’s appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience here and her TRIGGERnometry appearance here.

    Dis-/misinformation and the freedom to dissent – book your tickets here!
    So-called dis- and misinformation have been singled out by many governments, institutions, charities and commercial businesses as threats to democracy that require widespread censorship – only this week, for instance, the Czech government announced it is considering sweeping new disinformation laws to block sites that “threaten national security” and prosecute those deemed to be “spreading misinformation” (Reclaim the Net).

    But is this a genuine concern, or just an excuse to suppress dissenting points of view on issues like the Covid lockdowns, mRNA vaccines, the war in Ukraine and climate change? And even if the threat is real and the concern is genuine, how can we trust state agencies to accurately identify dis- and misinformation?

    Thanks to Elon Musk’s Twitter Files, for instance, we now know that the criminalisation or suppression of ‘fake news’ is often little more than an excuse for Big Tech and the US government to collude in silencing those with lawful yet politically inconvenient opinions. Closer to home, evidence has recently emerged of the UK Government monitoring people who questioned the wisdom of the Covid-19 lockdown, including journalists, scientists, and politicians. Ministry of Truth, a recent report by Big Brother Watch revealed that at least three government units — the Counter Disinformation Unit, the Rapid Response Unit and the army’s 77th Brigade — were deployed to track the social media activities of British citizens, passing on details of social media posts they regarded as problematic so their employers in Whitehall could then report them to social media companies using their ‘trusted flagger’ status in an effort to get those posts removed and their authors banned (Mail, Spectator, Telegraph).

    The FSU is bringing together a panel of experts to discuss these issues, including the Director of Big Brother Watch, Silkie Carlo, writer and broadcaster Timandra Harkness, and two people identified by a 77th Brigade whistle-blower as having been flagged for disseminating ‘misinformation’ about the Government’s pandemic response, the journalist Peter Hitchens and FSU General Secretary Toby Young.

    Join us in-person or online to discuss what lessons we should learn about how to counter the mis/disinformation police and defend the freedom to dissent. The link to register for tickets is here.

    New poll reveals “hostility” towards firms forcing staff to declare pronouns
    According to a poll commissioned by think tank Policy Exchange, firms pursuing ‘woke’ policies are “disliked” by the “majority of workers” (Sun), “inciting a hostile public” (Telegraph) and – particularly if you prefer your news to evoke the florid prose style of the Old Testament – “risking the wrath of Brits” (Mail).

    The company Polling People surveyed 1,169 people earlier this month, and the results were weighted to represent the wider population. One of the stand-out findings is that 58% of people say they believe companies should not force employees to declare their gender pronouns, with 45% disagreeing “completely” and an additional 13% disagreeing “somewhat”. Commenting on the findings, Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at Kent University, who carried out the polling, said a growing number of companies are now “adrift” from the wider public by “lecturing them about political issues and being seen to stifle their free speech and expression” (Telegraph).

    At first glance, an overall percentage figure of 58% might seem a little low to support that sort of fighting talk. Yet the dataset for this survey question contained a large proportion of respondents (26%) who either “didn’t know” or – more intriguingly – “wouldn’t say” what their view was. As a result, the 58% figure needs to be understood in light of the fact that just 16% of respondents agreed that companies should be able to compel this behaviour, with 7% “completely” agreeing, and 9% “somewhat” agreeing.

    Contextualising this finding for the Telegraph, Camilla Turner was quick to point out that gender pronouns are on the rise. “Britain’s biggest employers are increasingly asking staff to use pronouns to reflect their gender identity, with the City making particular efforts to shake off its ‘pale, male and stale’ image,” she wrote. That’s certainly true, although as the FSU’s ever expanding case files make clear, it’s quickly becoming a point of contention across many other, small and medium sized organisations too.

    We’re now regularly contacted by members and supporters asking what to do about the fact that their employer has asked them to declare their preferred gender pronouns, usually below their name at the bottom of an email or official correspondence. That’s why last year we thought it would be useful to pull together some FAQs on this issue (which you can access here).

    Can you be forced to declare your gender pronouns? As with so many free speech issues, there are some legal protections for employees who don’t want to, but there are also some legal justifications employers can cite for trying to get them to do so, namely, the Equality Act 2010. Then again, the Equality Act also provides some protection for employees if they’re being discriminated against on the basis of their religious or philosophical beliefs, such as the belief that sex is binary and fixed. So, it’s complicated…

    If you have been asked to publicly declare your preferred pronouns by your manager or boss and you believe you might suffer a detriment if you refuse to do so, you should contact a member of our case team. Over the years, we’ve accumulated a lot of experience in this area, and have often secured successful outcomes for members.

    Because of the privacy concerns at stake, we obviously can’t always publicise our successes, although one story we were able to go public with late last year gives a sense of the impact we can have when it comes to reminding bosses that employees have the right to their own political views.

    Following a tip-off that an elite performing arts college in South London had told staff on more than one occasion to declare their preferred pronouns on email in solidarity with trans people, Toby wrote to the college principal, Mr De Abreu, setting out the legal violations that may have taken place, and asking him to make clear to staff that whether they chose to declare their gender pronouns in their signatures was optional, and that they wouldn’t suffer any detriment, including harm to their promotion prospects, if they refused to do so. Mr De Abreu was happy to oblige. “We appreciate that this may have been interpreted as an instruction to include pronouns and certain logos,” he conceded in a statement issued to the Mail just before they ran the story, “but it is not, and has never been, the intention of Bird College to require any staff member to declare pronouns, or to appear to support any political group in their email signature.”

    FSU produces template document to support actuaries wishing to respond to IFoA consultation on the Actuaries’ Code!
    The only chartered professional body for actuaries in the UK, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), has begun a consultation on amending the Actuaries’ Code (AC) to include ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ – or DEI. The AC is the profession’s ethical code of conduct and one of the foundational documents governing the behaviour of members of the IFoA, so any changes will have considerable ramifications – not least because the IFoA has 32,000 members, including 15,000 student members and 46 partner universities.

    It’s clearly important for professionals to be held to high standards of behaviour, and as with many other, similar codes, the AC applies to members across a very broad range of circumstances – wherever conduct could reasonably be considered to reflect upon the profession. So, for example, social media posts or political activity in members’ personal lives are covered by the Code.

    Some of the new guidelines in the IFoA’s consultation are worrying.

    Take the proposed amendment that “members must show respect for everyone and treat others fairly”. At first glance, that might seem reasonable. But the problem with words like ‘respect’ is that their meaning is potentially – sometimes designedly – vague and subjective. Is the IFoA talking about ‘respecting’ individuals as fellow members of society, for instance, or ‘respecting’ their self-declared identity? The two aren’t equivalent – the latter might require members of the IFoA to use the preferred gender pronouns of trans people, for instance.

    And what about other people’s views? Will IFoA members be expected to respect them? When Richard Dawkins opines on religion, his manner may well be respectful, if by respectful we mean ‘polite and courteous’. But individuals with strongly held religious views may not find him at all respectful, if by respectful we mean ‘deferential and unquestioning’. So could an IFoA member be found to be in breach of the new Code simply for showing support for a public figure who expresses perfectly lawful criticisms of other peoples’ beliefs?

    This is just one of many concerns the FSU has about the proposed amendments.

    There’s a more general concern here too, in that the IFoA’s initial instincts highlight the changing role of professional organisations in regulating the behaviour – and speech – of their members. Where once these bodies would restrict themselves to upholding professional standards in the workplace, they now seem intent on collapsing entirely the distinction between occupational and private life.

    If any FSU members who are also members of the IFoA are thinking of submitting a response to the consultation, then please do get in touch with the team via help@freespeechunion.org – with the help of FSU member Katie Sokolowski we’ve prepared a template document setting out the issues at stake.

    Prof Steven Greer reveals extent of Bristol University ordeal after falsely being accused of ‘Islamophobia’
    Prof Steven Greer, until recently a law professor at Bristol University, spoke to the media this week about being forced into hiding and living in fear of his life after students made false accusations of ‘Islamophobia’ about his teaching materials (Express, Mail, Telegraph, Times, Times, Times Higher).

    The FSU first stepped in to defend Prof Greer back in 2021 after university authorities mishandled a complaint from Bristol University’s Islamic Society (BriSoc) in which it was alleged that teaching materials on Greer’s ‘Islam, China and the Far East’ module were ‘Islamophobic’. (You can read our initial letter to Prof Judith Squires, the VC and Provost of Bristol University here.)

    BriSoc claimed that a teaching slide that made reference to the 2015 terrorist attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo constituted “Islamophobic rhetoric” and, in addition, that he had given a “bigoted and divisive” lecture on women and non-Muslims in Islamic states and the penalties handed out under sharia law.

    A five-month inquiry led by a senior academic at the university found that BriSoc’s allegations were baseless. A senior KC appointed to look into his conduct also found no evidence of an offence under the Equality Act 2010 and concluded that his teaching material “did not amount to discrimination or harassment and was intended as the basis for academic debate by the students who elected to study it”.

    Despite both parties being asked to keep the investigation confidential, BriSoc engaged in a campaign of online vilification against Prof Greer both during and after the investigation, with the aid of an online petition and various social media platforms. In the digital storm which ensued, Prof Greer was at one point compared to Samuel Paty, the French school teacher beheaded in October 2020 by an Islamist militant who believed that illustrating a class discussion about blasphemy and freedom of expression with the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed justified his beheading.

    Speaking to the Mail, Prof Greer criticised students for putting the lives of academics at risk, and said direct threats left him fearing for his life. In his book published this week, however, he directs much of his ire at the university, which, even after he was cleared, cancelled his teaching module – because administrators didn’t want the course to attract any more complaints – and issued a statement saying that it “recognise[d] BriSoc’s concerns”. The lack of institutional support on offer was further illustrated, Prof Greer says, by the fact that BriSoc was not required to apologise or remove its online petition or social media content, even after the allegations had been rejected.

    Commenting on the case for the Times, FSU Legal Officer Karolien Celie said Prof Greer’s “horrific ordeal” was “yet another salutary reminder of the fragility of academic freedom in the contemporary UK”. It’s certainly interesting to reflect on Prof Greer’s case in light of recent debates over the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill. One of the arguments that critics of the Bill made repeatedly on its second reading in the House of Lords, for instance, was that the legislation’s new free speech duties address a non-existent problem. There is no free speech crisis at English universities, the peers claimed, because a recent review of 10,000 university events by Wonkhe found that only six had been cancelled and, as Baroness Thornton triumphantly pointed out, “four of those because of faulty paperwork”.

    But as Prof Greer’s ordeal so aptly demonstrates, cancellation of visiting speakers is not the only form of cancel culture on campus. The bureaucratic, unnecessarily drawn-out processes which universities use to investigate staff who, like Prof Greer, have done little more than exercise their right to academic freedom, tend to exert their own ‘chilling’ effect. As Baroness Fox observed at second reading in the House of Lords, it’s not the risk of downstream contractual termination, but the upstream process of being accused and investigated that becomes the punishment, leaving a blemish on a person’s reputation which other academics are then able to see, and reflect upon in light of their own potentially ‘inappropriate’ behaviour. Small wonder Prof Greer is warning that scholars in the fields of the arts, humanities and social sciences are now self-censoring and ‘dumbing down’ their courses for fear of being falsely branded as “hostile to minorities” by “woke student campaigners” (Telegraph).

    The FSU has been proud to support Steven through an ordeal that, as Jawad Iqbal points out in the Times, “violate[d] every principle underpinning a free society, and [brought] shame on the university authorities who were too quick to throw him under the bus”. In a recent email to our legal team, which Steven has very kindly allowed us to share with our members, he described “how phenomenally grateful I am to you all for your stupendous help and support over the past year and a half or so. Without you, my family and other friends, the BriSoc scandal would have been truly unbearable.”

    Help protect freedom of speech in the workplace by donating to Karen Sunderland’s fundraise!
    Karen Sunderland is suing her former employer after falling victim to ‘offence archaeology’. In 2018, when Karen was a Conservative candidate in the local elections, iNews dug up some tweets she’d posted in 2017 and managed to get her suspended by the party. The tweets reflected her sincere belief that aspects of Islamic doctrine are illiberal and unfair to women.

    Four years later, when Karen was embarking on a new career, someone tipped off her employer about this episode and she was fired. Karen believes her comments were protected political speech, and that her dismissal was unfair and discriminatory. Her claim makes two important legal arguments.

    First, her dismissal was either directly or indirectly because of her belief in conservatism, a belief protected by the Equality Act 2010. Establishing that conservatism is a protected belief would bring balance to the law: while there is case law protecting democratic socialism there are no equivalent protections for its right-wing counterpart. If she succeeds in winning this argument, the judgement would protect employees with conservative views which, while wholly lawful, are often distasteful to HR officers.

    Second, Karen argues that she was dismissed because of her belief in freedom of speech. In short, free-thinkers attract controversy, and always have – and employers who put rigid speech codes in place are disproportionately affecting those who believe in free speech. A finding that freedom of speech is a protected belief would give legal protection to other employees who manifest that belief by speaking their minds and testing received wisdom.

    Karen’s trial begins on 28th March. She is being represented by barrister Francis Hoar, acting on a direct access basis. Francis is one of England’s best barristers when it comes to freedom of speech cases and party-political matters: in 2021 he published In Protection of Freedom of Speech, with a Foreword by Lord Sumption.

    You can donate to Karen’s fundraiser here.

    Best wishes,

    Freddie Attenborough

    FSU Communications Officer

  15. 371211_ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Truly it can only be current lab/lib/con member / voters who continue in support of this treacherous propaganda monstrosity.

    ‘Truly amazing what we’re pulling off’ in forcing people to pay BBC licence fee, says Tim Davie
    Director-general’s comments show corporation’s ‘arrogance’, say critics

    The rat file,

    Timothy Douglas Davie CBE (born 25 April 1967 in Croydon, London) is the current and seventeenth Director-General of the BBC.

    1. Talking about the BBC, this is a quote from a letter written in January 2021:

      .

      The BBC don’t get it that national security is one of the major reasons behind the BREXIT vote.

      You cannot police a country if you cannot control who is in or resides in the country.

      Neither can you have a protective system of justice if courts outside your control can overrule your own courts.
      .

      Still quite relevant, isn’t it?

      1. I still have the feeling that one day soon we will all wake up to a ‘new regime’ and find thousands of uniformed armed none brits, marching through our Burroughs giving orders to stay in our homes or else.

    2. Talking about the BBC, this is a quote from a letter written in January 2021:

      .

      The BBC don’t get it that national security is one of the major reasons behind the BREXIT vote.

      You cannot police a country if you cannot control who is in or resides in the country.

      Neither can you have a protective system of justice if courts outside your control can overrule your own courts.
      .

      Still quite relevant, isn’t it?

      1. 371211+ up ticks,

        Morning FA,

        Good advice, when doubled up with “don’t support the lab/lib/con/current ukip coalition party” we have a win double of some magnitude.

  16. Morning all 😉 😊
    A bit early today, for me that is. Fed the dog let her out and in, made the tea back in bed. It’s not very nice out there but hopefully we’ll see an improvement as the weather slides further north east and batters Scandinavia.
    Did someone make a resignation ?
    Let’s hope the media finds another subject to brighten up our lives with today.

    1. ‘Morning Eddy. I agree – perhaps the media would like to report again the demise of Mrs Murrell. I really enjoyed it first time around and I’m sure it would be just as good if repeated!

  18. Good morning, all. Fairly bright with a breeze in N Essex this morning.

    Do we have here Antony Fauci backing off from respiratory vaccines in this paper he co-authored? Fauci pushed the “vaccine” and now puts his name on this!
    And Shapps’s best mate, Gates…

    Courtesy of The Highwire’s Jaxen Report.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70441636d8615241cb8962ba19a79ae58fcb58c240b919c4ac94258213467def.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae644914b2c64311cfcdabdb1d40c6e8b17c6ef85adc49508ec893123d035e2e.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2c956209a34a0c96b2355e8fb699db8c9b72c10b3207e7e2a28125831ea3e45.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13719047150d26f99091059675f7430ee5d356ca53825e833645e9927cf10bb6.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2136d6003188256b4ad5d5e4a51cae72f70467b70184e5483323e0b35f3371da.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b70625d85786f44aec64c16d39654e2f4cb90d0d0991fcd87c15cd6da266978f.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0efd1a7ad88783d303d455497d8f750c0ae68b4001496c0cc8cf194817a34da5.png

    2. If Fauci is rowing back on vaccines, it can only be because he has some even more dangerous “solution” in the pipeline.

    3. Unless he was taking profits to reduce the dollar value of the remaining holdings to what it was when he purchased his stake, that might make one think Gates knew it was time to cut his holdings significantly.

      Insider dealing ?

      Perhaps an SEC investigation is called for!

  19. Russia no longer has the economic means to wage offensive warfare. 17 February 2023.

    Putin’s war machine is massively out-powered by the West

    Someone obviously forgot to tell him. Can I just observe that this article is by A.E-P’s financial think tank. The military shills all appear to have gone to ground. This is particularly noticeable in the Spectator, that has published only one article this week about the War, where it usually manages two or three a day. I think that they’ve had orders to dial it down. They weren’t faring too well on the threads!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/17/russia-no-longer-has-economic-means-wage-offensive-warfare/

    1. Do people really believe this rubbish?
      We are in dire economic danger in the debt-ridden West – Russia grows food and has commodities.

      1. My BTL comment:

        “A wonderful piece of Western Propaganda. It will be interesting to see the results of the blitzkrieg Ukraine will have to sustain in a weeks time.”

      2. Yo bb2

        Oil agree with you there

        The whole thing is a bit of a gas, is it not

        The Russian Hooker, Mr Put In will agree not with this rubbish, in fact net zero chance

        1. This is why TPTB must camouflage the inevitable financial crash, in the same way that they camouflaged the last one with covid lockdowns.
          People who believe the mainstream media are going to be angry otherwise, if they realise that everyone except them knew about the looming disaster.
          Perhaps that is why Schwab keeps telling us that there’s going to be a “pandemic” of cyber attacks. Bringing the internet down and blaming it on the Russians would be a nice mask for bank bankruptcies.
          When you’re back on the internet, they explain that they had to take your money because Putin, but you’ve got some stock in the bankrupt bank as a present instead.

          1. ‘They’ have given banks and building societies the ability to close accounts without giving any reason. A recent case was a businessman who was giving (selling?) military vehicles to Ukraine.

            Barclays told him he had 30 days to open an account elsewhere. He was unable to do that as a black mark had been shared throughout the industry. He was considering opening an account in Singapore.

            Other people have had accounts closed without any notice at all.

            Lots of people have been affected. When they asked why they were stonewalled.

            I emptied all my accounts after i read that.

          2. I have the minimum that I need in the bank. That can include quite large bills though, which I try to pay as quickly as possible.
            I’m considering Kinesis (gold-backed card), but haven’t made the jump yet. Would have to be the gold backed one, not the silver backed one, as I don’t want to get into a fight with the revenue about VAT.
            My money would still be in the system (con), but would have the protection of gold (pro).
            The critical use case would be paying my mortgage, or other important electronic payment.
            If I understand it correctly, Kinesis is a gold storage service with a fancy front end, not a bank.

    1. 371211+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      These are no longer politicians , the decent peoples of these Isles are fighting on two fronts
      the in-house politico handle mind control, manipulation, culling etc, the Dover influx, joining those already in place will handle the physical side ( kapo’s)

    2. IMO Shapps is a shallow person and his posturing with someone like Gates in the hope that this staged greeting will impress people goes some way to confirm my opinion.

  22. Behind the Ditchley Park plot to ditch Brexit. Spiked. 17 February 2023.

    The secret meeting reveals how Remainer elites are scheming to ‘take back control’.

    Every time the Remainer establishment has had to put its pro-EU prejudices to a public vote, it has lost. To their lasting shock and bewilderment, Remainer elitists lost the 2016 EU referendum. Their subsequent attempts to derail Brexit were dashed first by the Brexit Party’s victory in the 2019 European elections, and then by the triumph of Boris ‘Get Brexit Done’ Johnson’s Tories in the General Election later that year.

    So it should come as little surprise to learn that top Remainers prefer to do their scheming behind closed doors, away from the prying eyes of the British public. That is the story behind last week’s top-level cross-party summit on ‘the failings of Brexit’, staged as a ‘private’ (aka secret) affair in the luxurious surroundings of Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire, a stately home with a history of hosting diplomatic skulduggery.

    You would have to have been Politically Blind with Amnesia to miss the lack of enthusiasm for Brexit among the Elites. It’s been obvious for three or four years that they have no intention of implementing it. Their problem is how to disguise the re-entry into Europe

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/17/behind-the-ditchley-park-plot-to-ditch-brexit/

  24. ‘Morning All

    A very British scandal rumbles on………

    “A postmaster who suffered a divorce and

    lost his home in the Post Office scandal has been forced to hand

    £322,000 compensation back.

    Duff, 80, was driven out of his business and forced to declare

    bankruptcy after he was persecuted for ‘thieving’ from his own till,

    when computer glitches were to blame.

    He was offered more than £330,000 from the flagship scheme to compensate postmasters, but is set to lose all but £8,000.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11745221/Postmaster-lost-Horizon-scandal-forced-hand-322k-compensation.html
    Untold misery heaped upon the innocent KNOWINGLY by the great and good followed by grudging pathetic compensation while they suffer nothing,not a loss of pension not a firing and certainly not the hounding and prosecution they so richly deserve!!

    1. When put against the Windrush issues the post masters have been hung out to dry. The Windrush problems arose from the fact that the immigrants themselves had not completed the admin process to legalise their status in UK, but have received compo. These post people have had their lives destroyed because of the fault of others and have only seen some sort of justice after a long and high profile campaign. The case stinks. I guess most of the PO victims were not black enough.

    2. I would have thought that postal products are all auditable and accountable. stamps, credits for franking machines etc. So when a postmaster is accused of underpaying, say £1000 to the Post Office, surely the PO could identify these sales?

      1. No doubt a neo Nazi, too.

        And a bigot.

        Odd, how telling the truth, being angry at state malice and pointing out the obvious has one labelled as ‘far right’, Nazi and bigoted – probably racist as well. Although how someone could be both far Right and Nazi is beyond me, as they’re at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

    3. I do not know what the event is, but Wes certainly scored a few goals with the audience!

  27. Friday Medley

    https://twitter.com/gerashchenko_en/status/1626215158912622592?s=46&t=BUvQsvYYV7eUP5xG5jVdjQ

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e11109d2228a290f8673dd4c3350d604e25714fd1615021d3ebc6f9e920c267f.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8335675518a4546e018b9e7acfd224f62bab53a0f12ad1392d5905e5d86e8398.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e9551085d86fcb7e09651936adcf5af356edd19d83d67ddc97a680669b35340.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b55578da26418764d479a7f8b78baf2b4a030205988c739f3e12dbf3e49e2e9b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4455a965495b8080abaf9aa3dbec675c252f05d1ef2dded91c1b21714a9141a9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/194d9a0d755600655e37060fa314aed283deb641d356b4ce94281fcd0f2135ec.png

  28. Is it possible that this young lady is correct? So much of what is happening is chaotic along with not making sense and those parameters are difficult to manage.
    If the criminals running this shit-show have realised that they are losing control will they enable a scorched earth policy as a punishment? Is the Ohio train wreck and the ensuing environmental disaster the start of the policy? There are reports of other derailments this week, some with toxic materials on board, but no further reports of contamination happening.

    https://twitter.com/nbreavington/status/1626328895652827137

    1. I think she’s essentially right about people like Fauci, Schwab and Gates.
      But I also think that these people were only ever tools of Rothschild, Rockerfeller, Bush, Windsor et al.
      The goal of the shadowy backers is to come through this with them still in control of a huge percentage of the world’s wealth, and with their luxurious lifestyles safe from the hoipolloi using up all their oil. So even if their depopulation technocracy is stopped in its tracks, it may already have achieved its goals.

    2. I totally agree, but…..what are all these young forgien men that are hidden in hotels here for ?
      How do they fit in with the depopulation adgenda ?
      Will we soon find them armed and wearing dark uniforms marching through our streets, making us stay in our homes ?

          3. Morning Ndovu. It’s the old boiling water trick I’m afraid. Put someone in the saucepan and heat slowly and they are cooked. Thrust them in when its bubbling and they jump out screaming!

          4. Thing is Frogs don’t just sit there and die. They do hop out after a certain period of time.

  31. Good morning all
    The hen-pecked hen has escaped its yard & is wandering about near my window.
    I gave her some biodynamic yellow pepper & she is much happier.
    She gets bullied by the others because she’s the coq’s favourite.
    Life, eh…

  34. Excellent BTL

    Steerpike
    South Park incinerates Harry and Meghan
    16 February 2023, 4:46pm
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c61785b962e3ba94f11cce13958295e367e7794fad7aa6cf2be35bc786483286.jpg

    If we hadn’t heard enough about ‘the Dumb Prince and His Stupid Wife’ – not Steerpike’s words – now South Park has dedicated an entire episode to mocking them and their faux pleas for privacy.

    Throughout the 20-minute episode, the long-running animated comedy’s writers really stuck the sword into Harry and Meghan, who have found themselves the butt of many jokes after their Netflix documentary and Harry’s moany memoir Spare. Just last week at the Grammys, host Trevor Noah said that James Corden was ‘living proof that a man can move from London to LA and not tell everyone about his frostbitten penis’.

    But in true South Park style – flapping heads, small black eyes and ludicrously over-the-top Canuck accents, eh? – they went a step further than to mock the prince for his private parts. Kyle delivered the most damning soliloquy during his quest to overhaul his ‘brand’, when he said: ‘This whole thing is wrong. They’re telling you guys to reduce yourself into products instead of people to be truly understood and loved. Don’t you guys want people to like you for you, instead of who they want you to be?’

    ‘Look, we all have our faults. God knows I do. But if we just tried to present a controlled image of us for people to see, we’re just performers instead of human beings.’

    The couple’s penchant for celeb talk shows was also addressed when they went on Good Morning Canada.

    The host says to Harry, ‘You’ve had everything handed to you. But you’re saying your life has been hard and now you’ve written all about it in your new book Waaaagh.’

    ‘Yes, that’s right.’

    Meghan adds: ‘Yah, I just told him you should totally like write a book because your family is like stupid and so are like journalists.’

    ‘So you hate journalists, right?’ the host replies. ‘Now you wrote a book that reports on the lives of the royal family. Right? So you’re a journalist.’

    The response: ‘We just want to be normal people.’

    Throughout the episode, the Sussexes are presented as nightmare celebrity neighbours. They move across the street from Kyle for total ‘privacy’. Harry plays his drum kit in the front yard and sings songs about how he wants to be left alone and the pair let off fireworks. Swap the drum kit for a camera crew and it’s not far off.

    After Kyle moans about his new neighbours to his friends, he is told that they are sick of hearing about them. And then comes the conversation that all of us have had over the last few months:

    ‘We just kind of don’t care about some dumb prince and his stupid wife.’

    Kyle claims, ‘I don’t care about them either’.

    ‘So then why do you talk about them all the time? Dude, we’re just kind of sick of hearing about them.’

    ‘I’m sick of hearing about them. But I can’t get away from them. They’re everywhere in my face.’

    ‘Yeah, now you’re putting him in our face.’

    ‘Fine. I won’t talk about them anymore.’

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

    An0nymousBosch
    16 hours ago
    I’ve been watching South Park since it started in 1997. In those days, it was patchy at best.

    Today, it’s the finest satire out there.

    Google “Trevor’s Axiom” and watch it on YouTube – the best explanation of how modern outrage-culture works.

    I’m amazed it hasn’t been cancelled, though. Its trans episode, “Mr Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina”, had a 10-year-old Jewish boy “transitioning” to become a 6’4″ African-American basketball player, whereupon the surgeon responsible convinced his father to become a trans-dolphin. He immediately started demanding separate bathrooms to cater to his unique needs.

    It’s double-episode on cancel culture, “Cartoon Wars”, also deserves re-watching. Screened in 2006, it was horribly prescient about the way that liberals will feign offence on the part of Muslims (who they actually don’t care about) to get something they dislike cancelled.

    MikeBrighton An0nymousBosch
    16 hours ago
    You forgot the bit about the trans Mr Garrison going to the abortion clinic because he must be pregnant as he hasn’t had his period yet, so he wants an abortion.
    “Mrs Garrison you can’t have an abortion”
    “Don’t you tell me what I can’t do with my body a woman has a right to choose”
    “But you can’t get pregnant”
    “I missed my period”
    “You had a sex change Mr Garrison but you don’t have ovaries or a womb and you don’t produce eggs”
    “but I paid $5,000 to be a woman. This would mean I’m not really a woman. I’m just a guy with a mutilated p*nis”
    “basically yes”

    1. I rather liked the fact they made them Canadian flappy heads.

      Apologies to our Canadian posters on here.

    1. If anyone is alone in a space then they should be bright enough to realise their own vulnerability and behave appropriately.

      If he was a member, he should know to bring an access card – if one is needed.

    2. The thing is he lived in the same apartment building in which the gym is situated and she had seen him before in the gym. In other words he was a neighbour, so she had no reason to not open the door.

  36. ‘Morning, Peeps. Breezy and damp here. Fortunately Storm Otto is oop narth…

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to resign as Scotland’s First Minister should be welcomed by Unionists throughout the UK, but perhaps especially by those living in Scotland, regardless of their affiliation.

    Her obsession with independence came at a huge cost to Scotland, and her successor will have much work to do to show the Scottish public that the SNP is fit for purpose. An immediate priority needs to be to rebuild the fractured and bitter relationship with Westminster, which only worsened during Ms Sturgeon’s time in power.

    Dr Alistair A Donald
    Watlington, Oxfordshire

    Yes, and the “huge cost to Scotland” has been, and will be for some time, at huge cost to the English taxpayer too. Still, witnessing the departure of the English-hater has helped me enormously to cope with her utter incompetence. And if there is something nasty coming down the tracks to engulf her – and, with luck, the Scottish Nasty Party – then that will be a welcome bonus!

      2. They can’t sue South Park, the cartoon constitutes free speech. Even Tom Cruise didn’t try when they accused him of being a closet queen.

    2. It is good that the Yanks are starting to see through this shallow pair of narcissistic weirdos.

  38. Kwasi Kwarteng: Net zero is ‘absolutely the right agenda’
    Former chancellor defends green targets amid cost of living crisis and says Liz Truss was wrong to sack him after mini-Budget chaos
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/16/kwasi-kwarteng-net-zero-absolutely-right-agenda/

    And we are constantly reminded of Kwarteng’s Eton education, incredible intellect and first class degrees!

    The man is a complete self-seeking buffoon and any sympathy one has for the treatment he received from Liz Truss is misplaced. But if Truss was right to sack Kwarteng what possessed her to appoint Hunt in his place?

    BTL from a Mr Nigel Hook

    Is this chap aware, along with the anti log burners, that there is at least one power station in the UK which is burning wood chips imported from Canada? Cut down living trees, chop them up into pellets, transport them across Canada, put them on a ship, bring them across the North Atlantic, unload them onto trains or lorries and take them to a power station and then………..burn them. My 4.5kW log burner pales into insignificance, as does gas and shale gas, if we had the cojones to drill for it.

    Talking of being sacked I wonder what Amber Rudd made of him in the sack!

    3. Mr Hook missed out the drying of the woodchips – presumably using gas or electricity…

      1. I used to enjoy Gill’s restaurant column. Very ascerbic. He and Joan Collins were famously thrown out of one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants.

        1. I never missed reading it too. Year’s later, Ramsey repented and welcomed Adrian back into his restaurants.

          I still have a five-star review by AA Gill that I cut from the Sunday Times magazine. It was for the Magpie Café, in Whitby, which he said cooked the best fish and chips in the world. This view was supported by Rick Stein on his Seafood Odyssey.

          I’ve eaten there and I concur. The exceptional cod and haddock served at The Magpie Café arrive at the table 30-minutes after being caught.

          1. Though they have well over 5000 excellent reviews there seemed to be rather a lot of disgruntled customers late last year on Tripadvisor. I would still go.

          3. Some. I have got good at reading them. If they only have one review to their name it is often a revenge tactic or a competitor. Someone with lots and lots of reviews tends to be more trustworthy.

    5. Kwarteng is one of those who should just keep quiet instead of reminding us what a fool he is.

  40. From today’s DT.  Trigger warning – this article my cause terminal apoplexy at the very least:

    Truly amazing what we’re pulling off’ in forcing people to pay BBC licence fee, says Tim Davie

    Director-general’s comments show corporation’s ‘arrogance’, say critics

    ByCamilla Tominey, ASSOCIATE EDITOR16 February 2023 • 9:16pm

    The director-general of the BBC has said it is “truly amazing” that the broadcaster is “pulling off” forcing households to pay the licence fee.

    Speaking to staff at a meeting on Tuesday, Tim Davie said it was “glorious” that the BBC had “better budgets than some of the commercial operators” and did not “need to make a profit on everything”.

    “It’s truly amazing what we’re pulling off by the way,” he said. “That most households are pretty happy paying a licence being a forced payment. It’s amazing what we’re pulling off.”

    Mr Davie’s comments come a week after Richard Sharp – the BBC chairman who has faced calls to resign over his friendship with Boris Johnson, the former prime minister – branded the £159 annual licence fee “anachronistic”, pointing out that those prosecuted for non-payment are disproportionately female.

    The BBC’s future funding model is currently under review after a report by peers last year said the licence fee was “regressive” and should be replaced with a “viable alternative”.

    Snippets from a recording of the one-hour meeting, seen by The Telegraph, show the BBC boss speaking candidly to staff at BBC South as journalists prepare to strike over cuts to local BBC radio services.

    There is also internal upset over the decision to merge the BBC News channel and BBC World News, halving the number of presenters as a result.

    Speaking about the licence fee settlement – the agreement with the Government on how much BBC users can be charged – Mr Davie, 55, said: “We’ve got to be careful at the BBC in terms of our message to the outside world.

    “People think we’re the cat with the cream at the moment and I know it doesn’t feel like that internally and I really am very sensitive about saying that.”

    Insisting that both ITV and Sky are “in crisis”, Mr Davie said: “Our budgets are slightly better than some of the commercial operators and the lovely thing is we can play long term as well, we don’t need to make a profit on everything which is glorious.”

    ‘People are switching off’

    Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory party leader, said the comments reflected the “arrogance” of the BBC.

    “People don’t actually think the BBC gives them what they want,” he said. “People are switching off. They are fed up getting spoon-fed this very central London, wokeish, apologetic view of their country.”

    Peter Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, added: “The comments seem to be from a parallel universe.

    “My constituents hate being forced to pay a tax for a TV service that most of them don’t want. If the BBC is as good as he says it is, then surely he won’t mind it being a subscription service?”

    Mr Davie also addressed the issue of bias. He said: “There’s a whole load of waffle talked about, you know, the Left. It’s not largely a Left or Right thing at the moment, it’s social issues, it’s rural affairs, what you think about the countryside, what you think about climate change, what you think about diversity.”

    Describing the BBC as “incredibly important to democracy”, he also suggested that corporation staff are underpaid – saying: “We’re in a fight for something, that’s why you work for the BBC, that’s why people take less money coming here.”

    In Sept 2021, Mr Davie’s annual salary rose from £450,000 to £525,000, an increase of 16.6 per cent. It came after pensioners lost free television licences as the corporation sought to make £1 billion worth of cuts.

    “You know I get extremely well paid,” he added. “But everyone in my top team takes a lot less money that they can get.

    “The BBC pyramid is actually not that bureaucratic compared to most. I can feel it at times but it’s me, 12 at the top, 60 very senior people, 300, then 1,000 line managers.”

    The former marketing director’s appointment to succeed Tony Hall in 2020 raised eyebrows, because he has no career history in journalism.

    After working for Pepsi, as well as Proctor and Gamble, he joined the BBC in 2005. He controversially recommended that 6 Music be shut down when he was director of audio and music in 2010.

    Tim Davie defends local radio cuts

    Joking that “I’m on my 16th sec of state”, he invited staff to ask him whatever they liked, including: “What the hell are we going to do about what’s happened with the chairman?”

    Mr Sharp has become embroiled in a row over how a distant family member came to secure an £800,000 loan for Mr Johnson while he was prime minister.

    Appearing to address the proposed cuts to BBC local radio, Mr Davie insisted: “No one loves radio more than me but look at the Rajars,” referring to the official listening ratings body.

    “I say it with a heavy heart but we’re just not going to be able to deliver that through linear radio alone. No one can.”

    Quoting an unnamed newspaper executive who said stories with “BBC, trans or royal” in the title got more clicks, he added: “The quickest way of getting reach is, you know, cat falling off fridge.”

    A BBC spokesman said: “Tim Davie has been speaking to teams across the BBC about the organisation’s strategy, alongside taking questions from staff. It’s not unusual for these topics – among many others – to be raised in internal discussions.

    “In talking with BBC teams, Tim regularly discusses the privilege of having the licence fee; the continued need to deliver outstanding content and distinctive journalism; the challenging circumstances facing the media industry, including the BBC; and the fact that the BBC can take creative risks that are harder for others to do. 
    “The commercial media sector generally pays staff more than the BBC does, however many people work at the BBC because they believe in public service and have access to great opportunities.”

    * * *

    And there you have it: arrogance with a capital A!

    1. ‘Morning Hugh.

      Isn’t “Pulling Off” a euphemism for … having sex in a room when one is alone?

    3. The BBC must go commercial – it is unfair that it is only them who benefit from the licence fee and that other TV service providers have to stand on their own two feet by making programs which viewers watch and hence attract advertising revenue. The BBC get nearly £4 billion per year whether the make good programs or not and whether they get any viewers or not. That’s less than the GDP of some countries yet they say they have a black hole in their finances – of course they do as the spend their money on crap programs and overpaid staff, what’s more they don’t have to account for any of it. You can still watch the majority of TV programs legitimately without a licence on the various catch-up services, the only time you need a licence is if you watch any TV, on any channel, live or on BBC i-player. Just having a TV does not make you liable for a licence.
      The licence fee should be scrapped – but it will no doubt be collected another way either by inclusion in council tax or on income tax but how do you get out of paying that? The crafty French cancelled the licence but put it on VAT so now it’s a tax per person not per household.
      The only fair way is to make the BBC show adverts, but they won’t get advertisers unless they make better programs. If you want to view without adverts then a subscription service could accommodate that.
      The BBC also have a number of companies with the BBC name who make programs and sell them to the BBC for your licence money so you pay twice.
      Tell TV Licencing that you don’t need a TV licence and they will not bother you for a couple of years after which they will ask you to confirm you don’t need one and give you another couple of years. You may get the odd letter which you can ignore. They might send a TV licence ‘enforcement officer’ to your house, they have no powers, they are salesmen trying to get you to buy a licence (for which they get a commission). You do not have to let them in, you do not have to talk to them – just close the door and they have to go away, they cannot force their way in. There are no detector vans and the only way you could end up in court is if you let them in and talk to them and admit you are viewing without a licence – the majority of convictions are of women who don’t seem to be able to stand up to their questioning.
      There are a number of Youtube channels devoted to this subject https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMva1clw0IhzdDP4u3ajw4VD0rJD4JBni

  42. Oldest Church destroyed by Turkeys earthquake. They are going to need funds because the Turkish government will not help. Since Erdogan came to power he has systematically persecuted Christians. Even closed the only seminary so no more priests can be trained. I sincerely hope that the political repercussions fro this quake lead to his fall. He is one evil individual.

    https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/02/16/religion-in-ruins-turkiyes-oldest-mosque-and-worlds-oldest-church-destroyed-by-earthquake

      1. Thoroughly agree with you Pip. If that ethos had continued they would be fully integrated into Europe and the West. As it is they are stuck in a throwback to primitive Islamic superstition.

    1. The Earl of Kent clearly went in for a bit of painting, plastering and decorating!

      My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him.
      [King Lear]

      A lavatory in Shakespeare’s time was called a jakes which gives us the etymology of the word john.

      1. A John was also the name of a prostitutes customer . . . . . . and also another name for a British policeman. 🙂

      2. Ok i am about to lower the tone but it is relevant.

        I hate modern toilets. I hate the push button as i think it is unhygienic. And i really hate the low water that we have now because often (look away now if you are eating breakfast) bits stick to the wall of the toilet that in the old days would have just hit the water. So i end up using tons of bleach in the loo, which i never had to in the days of decent toilets.

        Any the relevance of this rant. I am in (admittedly a nice hotel) an emerging market economy where they have decently designed toilets where you don’t have to worry about the s—t hitting the porcelain. So it can be done. It’s just we don’t seem able to do it.

        Rant over. Thanks for bearing with me on this.

        1. I have an old one with a lever and a good flush. An elderly neighbour, until quite recently, still had the cistern high up on the wall and a proper chain to pull. Nice dark polished wooden seat too.

          1. And what could be nicer, on a cold a frosty morning (in the old days; obviously), than sitting on a nice dark polished wooden seat, just after someone else has warmed it for you?😊

        2. Toilets with a foot button that got a blast of air to operate the flush mechanism used to be popular here – no need to touch any insanitary button or handle, or lift any plunger.
          Instead of bleach, we use the brush. When flushing after brushing, swish the brush in the flowing water to dislodge any clingons.

    1. Anyone who can’t see through that is so stupid that they are probably already a member of the Green party.

    2. …and the effect of the wood-pellet burning power station.

      How many wood-burners is that equal to?

  46. More stirring the pot.
    Nigerian Monarch Apologises for Traditional Rulers’ Participation in Slave Trade
    https://talktokemi.blogspot.com/2018/06/nigerian-monarch-apologises-for.html
    It turns out too that the disgusting racist, Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, is a hypocrite, aren’t they all? her grandfather in Nigeria was involved in the slave trade. Is there a single Englishman, Scotsman, Welshman, or Irishman who can claim an ancestor so close as to be within living memory, as a slave trader?

    1. That Shola Mos-Shog is a hypocrite is well-known. In the article, the African leader is quoted as saying, among other things “I’m apologising to the accidental blacks in Cuba, Brazil, Caribbean, America and other parts of the world. I want the victims to acknowledge our regret for the past and so we can move forward.”

      How about apologising to the rest of us FOR the accidentals etc. like Shola Mos-Shog, and those of the accidental people who have made our country a cesspit.

      1. Quite so. It seems to me that the white people who were also enslaved are thoroughly deserving of an apology.

        1. Indeed. But their descendants will never get one. The muslims have a bit of tidying up to do in their own house, but they will never see that either.

    2. I have a standard Tw@ter post prepared for a copy and paste response whenever I see her mentioned:-

      More of her anti-white racism.
      Has Dr Mos Shimmy-bambam ever addressed her own tribal connections with the slave-trade that saw her ancestors rise to among the wealthiest clans on the West African Coast?

      1. Of course not – her answer would be something to the effect that it was the white man’s fault because he paid for the slaves – ignoring the fact that the Africans were selling their own centuries before the first white man ever set foot in Africa. As for the Barbary Turks…

  47. Any sentient human — who possesses more than a single functioning brain cell — who believes, even for a microsecond — that it is feasible that there are massively more intelligent beings out there in the universe, who possess the technology to fly across countless light years, then still have the wherewithal to arrive on this planet and cause all manner of mayhem — needs locking up for their own protection. They are truly certifiable.

      2. I believe in ghosts because I used to live in a house that had one. I think I mentioned him/she/it before. What they are I haven’t a clue but I do think they are supernatural in the sense that we have no feasible explanation for them.
        I think you would be surprised at how many people have experienced something that can be described as a ghost or a haunting. You don’t have to have a screw lose in order to experience them. The one in my parents house would be experienced by us all collectively and individually. We referred to him by the nickname “Inky” we were so used to him.

          1. yes indeed one can have a collective hallucination. But a group of people can’t see a doorknob turn collectively without anyone suggesting it. And it can’t be a trick when the door is glass and footstep advance across the other room before the doorknob turns and you can clearly see that no one is there. By the way, this would happen on such a regular basis to the point we would take no notice other than to remark that Inky was at it again. It was a 17 century pub/tavern, converted into a house. Lovely house too. Pity my parents moved into a dull modern thing in a town. The pub was a short walk from Penshurst Place. Never went there though. I think in those days it wasn’t open to the rabble.

        2. Mother-in Law has experience of a ghost in her house hiding stuff. Not just her misplacing it, but actively hidden and found by accident at a later point and unlikely location in the house.
          I used to experience that Firstborn’s farm “felt pleased” that we were doing it up and getting it farming again – there was a feeling of encouragement about the place. Then, a ghostbusting TV show (Åndenes Makt) visited a neighbouring farm where a farmer named after Firstborn’s farm had been executed for murder a couple of hundred years ago and the ghost was causing trouble. The show interviewed the haunted people, researched the history and got a medium to release the ghost to wherever ghosts go to.
          On our visit to Firstborn the following weekend, the feeling of encouragement had gone. Maybe it was the old farmer, pleased that his place was being worked again, was the executed one now banished? Who knows, but it’s definitely a different feeling.

          1. I have experienced what might be called a ghost….
            After I completed my RAF apprenticeship I was posted to Leeming in Yorkshire. My unit had 2 hangars, one for serviceable aircraft and one where servicing was carried out. I was on night shift one night and detailed to lock up both hangars. I went into the one which housed the serviceable aircraft (Meteor NF14s) and the only lights which were on were 3 security lights in the roof. All the doors were locked except the last fire door through which I was going to exit, a guy in flying kit pushed past me saying goodnight and vanished through the fire door which I then locked and handed the keys into the guardroom. I started to think about this guy who passed me, there was something not right. I didn’t see him come into the hangar and there wasn’t an aircrew room where he could have come from. It suddenly dawned on me that he wasn’t dressed exactly like the current aircrew – he didn’t have a ‘bone dome’ but a leather flying helmet and wore a sheepskin jacket. I told the other guys the following night and they said others had seen the same guy but they never mentioned it to me in case it triggered the ‘sighting’. Apparently during the war a Blenhiem bomber crashed into the corner of this hangar killing the crew and the ‘apparition’ was the navigator. Never saw him again but the hanger did have an eerie presence in the dark. This was printed in a book called Ghost Stations IV by Bruce Barrymore Halpenny

          1. I’ve just bought a copy of Milton’s Paradis Lost. It’s going to be our lent book at church. A hell of a sight better than the book recommended by the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, “Dust and Glory”, apparently based on what Jesus taught about “mistakes and messing stuff up”. That Jesus is presumably an Hispanic mate of theirs, not the one who lived and taught in first centuy Judea.

          2. That’s what happens when you get politically-appointed higher clergy; especially when they have a strong Left-wing bent.

      5. I think it would be arrogant of us if we thought we’d be the only intelligent(?) life in the universe since it began.
        The universe is expanding – There are 2 unanswerable questions – 1) what is it expanding into? and 2) where is that?

        2. By definition the Universe is everything. Everything is expanding. Just you wait until that elastic band reaches its limit.

    2. Why do you assume they “fly across countless light years”? Perhaps the can fold space. Granted that is science fiction but who is to say they haven’t figured out a way of doing that or figured out something that is entirely beyond our comprehension. Are “They” even “Theys”? If you get what I mean. Perhaps they don’t even have being in the way that we comprehend it.

      1. “Fold space”? Ah, you must mean there is an intergalactic Nippon “out there” that has invented celestial origami?

        Or?

        1. Have you read “Dune”? It is the way they get about. Then there is, of course, worm holes as a mode of travel. That is, apparently, theoretically possible. It means that when you enter a wormhole you arrive spontaneously at the other end, which may well be the other side of the universe. On the other hand, perhaps they are beings who can travel by thought. Who knows. We used to think that all oxygen was essential for life, now it turns out not to be so https://phys.org/news/2010-04-scientists-multicellular-life-doesnt-oxygen.html. It is mathematically impossible that there are no other life forms in the universe. The problem for humans, it seems to me, is assuming that life most be like us and thus subject to the same limitations. Why?

          1. I have never closed my mind to the probability of other forms of life out there in the unfeasibly vast universe. What I cannot accept, though, is that those life forms will have an anthropomorphic resemblance to humans (only mankind’s unassailable vanity thinks so); or that they would have any remote capability of doing what I highlighted in my original post.

            As for science fiction: well, that concept is self-explanatory.

          2. Well, I thoroughly agree with you about the anthropomorphism, that was my point about what form they could take.

            As for science fiction.
            Science fiction, to be real science fiction, must be based in scientific feasibility. If it isn’t, then strictly speaking, it belongs in the category of science fantasy. Thus Arthur C. Clarke is science fiction and many of his ideas are taken quite seriously by the scientific community. Ursula K. Le Guin, on the other hand, is science fantasy. So science fiction is constrained to what is scientifically possible, science fantasy is precisely that, fantasy.

          3. I read a lot of science fiction at one point, and remembet some interesting concepts of life not based on oxygen, and in non-anthropomorphic forms.

            I thought about them when looking into octopuses during the bloody lockdowns. We don’t generally appear to be very good at understanding, or wanting to understand, that which is not how we are.

          6. No doubt ashes you are familiar with the theory that octopi are an alien life form planted here? Not that I think that likely.

          8. Man also seems to believe God is formed in the same way.
            Why would that be? Apart from to get buy-in by the uneducated and credulous from 200+ years ago.

          9. I seem to remember Hawking positing in A Brief History that the wormhole method might well be possible, but emerging at the other end actually alive was not a viable option. 🤣🤣

          10. For us, no. We would be squashed and dispersed into our various atoms. Nasty form of travel sickness😊

          12. Come to think of it, there have been a few times I would have been rather grateful for that when stricken by travel sickness…

          13. Same with generating a warp bubble. Theoretically possible but when you get to your destination you explode.

    3. I think the most incredible aspect of the alien stories is that they choose to arrive at the very moment when the US government needs to bury embarrassing news!

          3. Hej, Bamse!

            Well you never can, but nobody could have wanted to create that in any other way, surely?

          1. They are amusing, I don’t recall any that were not debunked, with the possible exception of the Sirius double star and he wasn’t the first to mention it.

      2. 42 years ago, Spikey, I turned up at work with a copy of Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken and, immediately, a workmate took it off me and told me to go and buy something more believable! I read it, but I took everything in it with a pinch of salt.

        Erich von Däniken was later condemned as a crank and fantasist by countless other authors.

        From Wiki:

        Von Däniken’s book, and much of his subsequent publications such as Gods from Outer Space and The Gold of the Gods, have drawn largely negative receptions from the academic mainstream despite being popular best-sellers. Many scientists and historians have rejected his ideas, claiming that the book’s conclusions were based on faulty, pseudoscientific evidence, some of which was later demonstrated to be fraudulent or fabricated, and under illogical premises.

        Soon after the publication of Chariots of the Gods?, von Däniken was accused of stealing the ideas of French author Robert Charroux.

        A 2004 article in Skeptic magazine[20] states that von Däniken plagiarized many of the book’s concepts from The Morning of the Magicians, that this book in turn was heavily influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos, and that the core of the ancient astronaut theory originates in H. P. Lovecraft’s stories “The Call of Cthulhu” and At the Mountains of Madness.

        An internationally bestselling book by Clifford Wilson, Crash Go the Chariots, was published in 1972. Ronald Story’s 1976 book rebutting von Däniken’s ideas was titled The Space Gods Revealed. Another negative criticism of von Däniken’s book came from archeologist Kenneth Feder in his book Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries in 2018. Referring to von Däniken’s support of the ancient astronauts hypothesis, Feder explains how his evidence is used and presented in a misleading manner in order to convince the reader that extraterrestrial life was involved in the development of ancient civilizations.

        One artifact offered as evidence in the book has been disclaimed by von Däniken himself. Chariots asserts that a supposedly rust-free iron pillar in India was evidence of extraterrestrial influence, but von Däniken admitted in a Playboy interview that the pillar was man-made and that as far as supporting his theories goes “we can forget about this iron thing.” Neither this nor any other discredited evidence, however, has been removed from subsequent editions of Chariots of the Gods?

        In view of the above, I’ll not be rushing out to buy another copy of his books.

        1. I have 5 of his books and found them interesting reading, I take no notice of ‘academics’ or ‘experts’ now. Nobody has come up with better explanations for some of the ancient drawings and artefacts illustrated in his books. We will have to disagree on this one although I must admit some of his pontifications are a bit suspect

  49. Medieval classics may be ‘racist and misogynist’, say Oxford scholars
    University puts trigger warning on works such as The Canterbury Tales as students told they might encounter ‘troubling’ themes

    Geoffrey Chaucer’s best-known work depicts pilgrims telling tales in the hope of winning a free supper.

    However, the stories recounted by the characters in The Canterbury Tales would be poorly rewarded in the present day, as academics at the University of Oxford warned that medieval literature may be “racist and misogynist”.

    The university’s English literature students have been alerted to the potentially upsetting themes in poetic works from the Middle Ages, the canon of which spans Old English works such as Beowulf up to the high medieval tale Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and beyond.

    According to a trigger warning given by Oxford academics, students tackling such titles have been told they may contain “racist and misogynist views” and they should seek support “if anything in particular about the materials troubles you”.

    The content note for a module on the English literature course said: “Mediaeval [sic.] literature often portrays extreme physical, emotional, and psychological states” as well as “graphic representations of violence”.

    Texts typically taught to English literature students include the works of Chaucer, who has been criticised in some academic quarters for his depiction of women in The Canterbury Tales.

    While the poet, at one stage, remarked that there is “nothing” better than a woman, the Wife of Bath is depicted as crude and promiscuous, and her tale tells of a knight who does not want to marry a hag because she is too ugly.

    This section of the 14th-century work also includes the line: “You say that just as worms destroy a tree, just so a wife destroys her husband.”

    The Prioress’s Tale has also concerned some academics as the eponymous nun calls Jews “hateful to Christ”.

    The Man of Law’s Tale has been studied as an early depiction of race in medieval literature, as it tells of an evil “sultaness” thwarting Christianity in Syria.

    Some experts have found a misogynistic outburst in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, when the title character accused women of historically tricking men after being deceived himself.

    While Oxford has not confirmed which texts specifically come under the warning about violence and extreme emotional states, Beowulf, which is typically studied by first-year students, contains passages about the hero slaying monsters and dragons.

    The Book of Margery Kempe, the 14th-century Christian mystical work also studied at Oxford, contains intense passages in which the narrator recounts how she “went out of her mind and was wonderfully vexed and laboured with spirits”.

    On another occasion, she “cried, she roared, she wept, she fell down to the ground, so fervently the fire of love burnt in her heart”.

    Blanket warning over ‘prejudiced views’
    In addition to the warning for medieval works, English literature students are also given a blanket warning about the material they will read, stating they may encounter “prejudiced views or language” and “graphic representations of inequality and violence”.

    It added: “As a faculty, we believe that one of the important roles of study in the humanities is to explore and challenge ideas that are shocking or uncomfortable, and to understand their origins, expression and influence.

    “We also recognise that these texts will affect students differently depending on their particular backgrounds and experiences.”

    A spokesman for the University of Oxford said: “The University has strong policies in defence of freedom of speech and believes that students should expect to encounter views that they find challenging or uncomfortable during their studies.

    “The University does not recommend or encourage the use of content warnings. We are aware that some academics choose to put content warnings on materials that they believe some students may find distressing, and we regard this as a matter for the individual academic.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/16/medieval-classics-may-racist-misogynist-say-oxford-scholars/
    One of the comments ..

    colin whyte
    1 MIN AGO
    Perhaps they should force the Government to put warnings on passports because there are some countries where racism and misogyny is rife, although I suspect that they would argue warnings about various countries is racist… some people are never happy.

    1. High time these ‘academics’ were weeded out and given a damn good public thrashing. Countless politicians would also benefit from the same treatment.

      1. I went up to Oxford thinking it would be like Dorothy L Sayers. Suffice to say that it was the biggest disappointment of my life. I then watched some of the worst human beings of my generation go into Ox/bridge academia. A higher quality of human being is found at the less prestigious universities in my experience – but they also have their fair share of the worst judging by stories I have heard.

      2. Perhaps if ordinary individuals were to go en mass to these individuals and demand that they justify their destruction of English and by extension, Western civilization, they would be more circumspect. They get away with this rubbish precisely because people in academia will not challenge them because it would cost them their jobs. It is therefore up to the people to confront them and weed them out. If I were fit I would organize a group of people to go to the University of Sussex in Chichester and do precisely that. I don’t mean prancing around with placards, bloody useless, I mean marching to their offices and confronting them there.

        2. I’m not sure those NOTTLers who wear glasses would agree.
          Or those with professional qualifications or even basic levels of literacy and numeracy.
          (Oh, all right, all NOTTLers would be residing in the killing fields.)

    2. Sever the people from their cultural heritage and leave them ignorant and rootles. Break their sense of identity and they become easy to control.

    3. The Wife of Bath freely discusses her sex life.
      But then it is hetero sex, so hearty boos and trigger warnings all round.
      Time universities stood on their own feet instead of bleeding the tax payer.

    1. No mention of the 14,000 Russian-speaking Ukrainians, murdered by the Azov Brigade on Zelensky’s orders.

    1. Ghengis Tebbit’s response is pretty good!
      Important is that as many people as possible realise that the morally bankrupt billionaire is pulling the government’s strings.
      Shapps is below contempt.

    2. Incidentally, does anyone else see the likeness between Matt Hancock and Grant Shapps?
      The boyish, cheerful chappie presiding over mass mortality?

        1. We’re in. Shattered. And despite being (we thought) pretty ruthless beforehand, are surrounded by junk. Boxed junk, but still junk.

    4. How on earth does a foreign national private citizen manage to get a meeting with a government minister, albeit a very dodgy one, to discuss scientific matters with a non scientist. I bet none of us could get a meeting with a minister. He also met bunter when he was PM.
      Let them try to say there isn’t corruption going on.

    5. Shapps Net effing Zero? As housing minister he allowed thousands of new developments in his constituency. Oaklands college farm fields are housing. I think also some allotments.
      Even Verulam school playing fields was built over.
      Net zero bull shite.
      I expect he’ll be backing the proposed 30 plus hectares solar farm on Hertfordshire Green belt and farmland.

  53. This morning’s task, to remove some dead elms, about half a dozen, from a clump just behind the sheds, leaving the few stems that appear to still be green, has been completed and the larger bits, ranging from 2″ to 5 or 6″ dia, stacked for later sawing to stove lengths, splitting and stacking.
    This afternoon’s task, should the rain hold off long enough, is to sort out the bits under 2″ for chopsawing and stacking in the mushroom trays.

    I don’t know if this has been posted here yet, but here is a brief taste:-

    Nicola Sturgeon is rewriting history
    She purged reason from the gender debate
    BY KATHLEEN STOCK

    So it’s goodbye from Nicola Sturgeon. During a relatively expansive press conference on Wednesday — the prolonged duration of which somewhat undermined her claim that she always knows when it’s time to go — she offered the official version of why she was stepping down. No, this was definitely not a response to “short-term pressures” such as the Isla Bryson prison controversy or the ongoing investigation into SNP financial irregularity. As if delivering a shocking revelation to her audience, she confided that the real reason was because she was “a human being”. Politics has more “intensity” and “brutality” these days than it used to, she said, and her heart is no longer in it.

    During her address to journalists, the First Minister’s well-honed rhetorical abilities cast their usual spell — broken only during the Q&A, when she was asked about her legacy of a collapsing NHS, widening attainment gaps in literacy and numeracy in schools, and soaring numbers of drug deaths every year. Before that, though, we were firmly in Sturgeonland, where — a bit like being on a Highland distillery tour — reality tends to disappear in a euphoric haze and temporarily everything looks better than it actually is.

    https://unherd.com/2023/02/nicola-sturgeon-is-rewriting-history/

    2. The Chinese have form on this – they used to cut a hole in the centre of a circular table, put a live monkey with the tope of its shaved head sticking through the hole, and the rest is too gruesome to relate here.

      1. Monkey gland steak is good.

        There again no monkeys are injured in the preparation of the sauce.

      2. Back in December 1900 Samuel Clemens introduced a youthful Mr W S Churchill who was to speak to an audience in New York city. Towards the end of his introduction, Mark Twain mentioned that the United States had welcomed immigrants from all around the world, with the exception of one people, the Chinese.

    3. There seems to be a certain type of Chinese mentality (and I don’t suppose it is everybody) which has no empathy whatsover for other sentient beings. While staying in India some years ago we were told a very disturbing story of a Chinese restaurant where bear paws could be cooked while you wait. The paws were still attached to the bear.

    4. What the hell is the matter with these people?
      This form of totally gratuitous cruelty needs to be remembered when dealing with them.
      I can’t even watch the video.

  57. Good afternoon.
    Aaaaarrrgghhhh ………………….. we thought we’d had a pretty thorough prune.
    Looking at what appears to be a junk shop, let’s just say that more cruel decisions need to be made.
    Just off to the tip – again.

      1. As well as these things can go.
        Good Move proved to be just that.
        Sonny Boy and his sprogs have been absolute Trojans in this past week.
        Will be making many, many, many trips ( to misquote Lady Counterblast) more, before the blasted booking system starts.

        1. You could just put a sign on the door – “Help yourselves – door unlocked”.

          Glad it is over – sort of. DON’T do too much.

        2. That’s good – still a lot more to be done then. We’ve had a booking system at our tip for several years now and it seems to work well – but maybe not if you need to make multiple trips.

  61. I’m sick of this crap

    Scotty is a seasoned mechanic and knows a lot about all sorts of cars and the limitatiins of dealers who are spupposed to be able to service them.

    He a few choice words about where the trends of motor vehicle production is taking developed countries and particularly England which he illustrates as a country that has got it completely wrong.

    Yes, i have bought an EV but not for being seen to be green but as a more comfortable way of travelling 50 miles in a mobility scooter:

    https://youtu.be/nL5S2WlCYyk

    https://youtu.be/BBE9nL86p1w

      1. Westwood pushed the boundaries.

        I like him as an actor. Withnail and I was hilarious. Especially when he was freezing to death in an unheated flat and he covered himself in deep heat.

  64. Had a email notification saying Virgin Experience Days. My mind is boggled, should I open it. :-))

      1. Bill Watterson had the same prescient wit as Bob Moran, Gary Larson and Matt Pritchett. His Calvin and Hobbes cartoons were curtailed after a 20-year period. I still read them on a dedicated FaceAche page.

    2. Just like David Attenborough in Planet Earth 15+ years ago, saying that the world population was six billion; nope, it’s eight billion now.

    2. Wonderful! The tiny hedgehog I found last month is there, as is the seal pup found by mad Harry’s dog walker! It’s a great place! SSPCA is a much better organisation than RSPCA. They don’t just euthanase things!

  68. One for this year’s Darwin Awards:

    “this week, some thieves received the ultimate dose of justice when a woman in California accidentally ran over and killed a man that was in the process of attempting to steal her catalytic converter, the New York Post wrote.

    The woman had been sleeping inside of her Ford Excursion in the parking lot of a shopping centre when four thieves pulled up – two hispanic men and two hispanic women. One man laid under the SUV and started sawing off the catalytic converter, the report reads.

    The LA Sheriff’s Department said: “The victim woke up from the sound, turned the car on, put the vehicle in reverse, and felt a bump like she ran something over.”
    When Sheriff’s arrived at the scene, they found the Ford partially moved and the man still underneath the vehicle. He was then rushed to a nearby hospital where he was found dead and later identified as a Grand Theft suspect. The other members of his party were detained and the case has been classified as a homicide. …..

      1. The general BTL view is that the police have to treat the case as one of homicide but it is unlikely that the driver will be prosecuted.

        1. If they treat the case as a homicide then they will not have any option other than to prosecute her.

          However, I would doubt that any prosecution would lead to conviction.

        2. It’s one of those situations where common sense must apply. Why would she expect someone to be under her car? Why then should she have to adapt her actions to adapt for an individual intentionally putting themselves in danger?

          Frankly, the more stupid scum killed the better.

    4. Manslaughter, I would have thought; she didn’t do it deliberately, did she? Unless, of course, she reversed over him several times.

    1. In the light of one TB’s reign and 13,000 new pieces of legislation, I came to the view that our country would be far better off if we simply paid our elected representatives to stay away from Parliament.

          1. Well, we’re in. Sorting out/further culling is desperately needed.
            We thought we’d done pretty well, but large houses make you lazy and disorganised.

          1. Nooooo. Place looks an absolute tip. On the other hand, BT really came up trumps – except that I need to regain our old phone number, but that can wait till next week. Don’t fight too many battles at once.

    5. A significant number of the replies indicate that it is earlier footage of storm clouds taken elsewhere at a different time of the year.
      I certainly hope that’s the case for the sakes of the poor sods under it.

      Either way, the derailment is an ecological disaster.

    7. Suggest this needs to be investigated by Mr net zero Shapps and his new colleague.
      Our Green everything martyrdom is being undermined.
      I expect that filty black cloud will be drifting in an easterly direction soon.

  73. Discovery of 4,500-year-old palace in Iraq may hold key to ancient civilisation. Tobi Thomas. 17 February 2023.

    Girsu, one of the earliest known cities in the history of humankind, was built by the ancient Sumerians – who emerged between the sixth and fifth century BC. The ancient city was first discovered 140 years ago, but the site has been the target of looting and illegal excavations.

    Despite the headline, and it being one of the foundation blocks of history, Ms. Thomas was still unable to calculate the number of centuries that Sumer existed Before Christ. Is this because she is Female and Black or much more likely an innumerate and illiterate example of the modern education system? There is little doubt in my mind that the latter is the answer. We have raised a generation of gormless credulous fools!

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/17/discovery-of-4500-year-old-palace-in-iraq-may-hold-key-to-ancient-civilisation

    3. And this thrown in, it gets even worse, or better, if you want a laugh.

      “Girsu, one of the earliest known cities in the history of humankind, was built by the ancient Sumerians, who emerged between the sixth and fifth millennium BC.“

    4. I think they’ve changed it, someone at the Grauniad must have been told about the stupid dates errors.

    5. Clearly Tobi Thomas hadn’t heard of the Indus Valley, Harappan civilisation that existed around 3,300 years BC. Predating her Sumerian claims by 800 years or so. Then, of course, there is Ancient Egypt. Plenty of conjecture about which civilisation arose first; the discovery at Göbekli Tepe has thrown a huge spanner in the works of ancient history.

    6. I have observed that a lot of “clever” academic people are unaware of the year/century counting system.

      Many will tell you that an event in 1745 was in the “seventeenth” century.

          2. Nah! We’ve had a good week! Got rid of the evil bitch Nikeliar, SNP in disarray, garden and pond plans underway, house clearance ongoing, grandchildren glorious and our Ruby wedding plans underway! Also having a cheeky couple of days away and get to see a Nottler!

          7. How long until your special day?
            Son and DiL in Canada had planned on being here for our Ruby anniversary in summer 2021, and to hold a party for us. Of course, there was no travel permitted for them then so the day passed happily enough but was much like any other. That’s about the only time I have been glad about travel restrictions. Had convid not happened, the day would have been most unpleasant – though our other son would not have wanted to be there because of them. Our sons fell out big time (many years ago), and are unlikely to be in the same room as each other until our funerals. As with the heir and the spare, the toxic wife of one son is at the root of the problem; everything was hunky dory until she came on the scene.

          9. It is. The other son cut all ties with them a few years ago; he will never forgive them (her in particular, and his brother for not standing up for his mother) for the way I have been treated. The guilty pair, older and supposedly more educated, are still harping on about things from over 10 years ago. Accomplished grudge-bearers, just like harry whingeing about events that went on from adolescence.

          13. Ah mib! The joys of family. As parents you put in all the good stuff – the morals, the family and social awareness, the kindness, the money and the back up! Then you stand back and let them grow up. Their choices don’t always chime with ours. So sorry for you – it’s so difficult when family fall out.

          14. I am so lucky in that my daughter in law is a sweetie and, as she’s a professor of Lit., we get on very well. Also, my husband’s son and his wife are lovely. We are very fortunate.

          15. I always got on well with our other son’s ex. Unbelievably, before younger son got married, the toxic one ‘warned’ her about me….. Last summer, the toxic one claimed that the nice one warned HER about me. I hadn’t even mentioned them but it was just one of her many vile untruths (maybe, like Markle, this was ‘her truth’ ie LIE ) attacks. Experience had taught me to not raise any potentially ‘offendable’ subject for her to twist, distort and criticise but then I was in the wrong for that too – it spoilt her ‘fun’. :))

          19. In the ‘Eighties, several fellow members of the local yacht club commissioned a ‘POETS’ tie: a vertical hoist of International flags:
            P
            O
            E
            T
            S
            on a navy blue background.

            I don’t know how to reproduce it here, Griz; perhaps you will create it here?

      2. Life is a bowl of cherries they say, in my case a pub lunch and some glasses of ale with old friends.
        Now starting to consider a road trip to Portugal in late spring in my milk float. Must seek Mrs VVOF’s wisdom on said thoughts.

    2. Man came around to photo the house. Not quite sure what to make of it. A lot of memories in here – where junior drew his and Mongo’s height, where there’s a smash in the wall after some overexcitement.

      I’d rather like a bit of a lie down with a packet of biccies.

      1. VVOF went up in the loft to have a clear out. Trouble is VVOF gets easily sidetracked looking at lots of things stored up there for a very long time. I came across some TT medals ranging from 1965 to 2004 and to ensure they never went back in the loft I took a photo then skipped them. Progress is slow but interesting.

        Selling the house would be difficult with all the memories.

    1. You must be a complete and utter fool if you believe either the Cowboy or Indian in this cartoon has any intention of seeing Brexit done.

        1. He could well be gone before years end, the local election results later this year could be the end for him. Those MPs that imposed him are looking rather foolish now.

          2. Only they are part of the Conservative Parliamentary Party. No names as it was a secret ballot, they wouldn’t like people to know who they are or whose orders they were following.

          3. As I’ve written before, I can’t help thinking his and the Conservative’s demise would be better than the death by 1000 cuts that we are enduring now.

          4. I pray for the utter destruction of the Conservative Party. Only then we may perhaps have a conservative minded party to replace them and start working for the UK, not the WEF, UN or WHO!

    4. “Well, Nicola, if you want to know what a woman is, I can tell you – I’ve had plenty of experience in that field. Not the same one as Prince Harry, mind you”.

      1. I showed that to ‘him indoors’ when he came home – he is a Yorkshireman by birth and found it hilarious. Good natured rugby fans with a tip-top sense of humour.

    4. *sigh*

      Hardly surprising the twenty-something, metropolitan BBC sub-eds/caption writers can’t spell Yorkshire dialect…

  78. 371211+ up ticks,

    What is the big surprise awaiting us within the next few days, is that a latch lifting wedge sunak is carting around in his briefcase
    his mindset being we will be safer under the wing of the eu post
    “big shock”……..

    https://gettr.com/post/p28lmky27f4

      2. Might a qualified lawyer, such as yourself allegedly, I’ve not seen your certificates, report him independently of the CPS?

    2. If that is all true, and in the public domain, Shirley the judge should be ‘defrocked’ (or whatever the term is) and be no longer a judge.

  80. Ah! After chopsawing another 4 trays of sticks, I did the dinner.
    Using up the left over fried veggies and gravy from yesterdays sausages in gravy, I did a rather nice Cottage Pie adding an onion, pound of mince, red pepper, and a half dozen each of cherry tomatoes and mushrooms with a small amount of cheddar mousetrap shaved off and spread over the top.
    VERY tasty!

    Just catching up on the past few days worth of R3’s Composer of the Week. They covered Thomas Tallis so it’s a must listen for me.

  82. Exhausted, thanks to everyone on here for an entertaining day. Sweet dreams to you all when you hit the hay.

    1. Don’t worry, it won’t be a plant that produces convid jabs so you will still be able to get ‘boosted’ to keep you ‘safe.’

    2. The only laboratory in Montreal that produces covid jabs is being shut down. They could not get who approval for the vaccine (yes a real vaccine) because a part owner of the facility is involved in Tobacco. (So much for the urgency of getting a working vaccine).

      As far as we know that is!

  84. Time for me to go. Must look up some chemical plant to ignite over the weekend. There must be something local….

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. Just in case you hadn’t heard the wonderful news. I’m sure you’ll want to send Sir Anthony a letter of congratulations. {:^))

      Epsom College appoints Sir Anthony Seldon as new headteacher after Emma Pattison tragedy

      Education veteran will take over on March 1 and pledges to ensure the school ‘embodies the values’ that guided the former head’s life

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/epsom-college-appoint-new-headteacher-honour-emma-pattisons/

    2. Just in case you hadn’t heard the wonderful news. I’m sure you’ll want to send Sir Anthony a letter of congratulations. {:^))

      Epsom College appoints Sir Anthony Seldon as new headteacher after Emma Pattison tragedy

      Education veteran will take over on March 1 and pledges to ensure the school ‘embodies the values’ that guided the former head’s life

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/epsom-college-appoint-new-headteacher-honour-emma-pattisons/

    1. And that the builders stole and cheated on the building, too much sand in the cement, inadequate brickwork, unskilled bricklayers, inadequate design…

          1. I’m certain it was, but the possibility that it was “man-made”, which it could have been, is dreadful.

          2. A bigger-than-usual-quake? As Bill mentions below. I struggle to see the hand of th cIA in this.

          4. I suspect it’s a conspiracy theory, but don’t rule it out.

            Look up Tesla’s experiments, Tesla’s steam-powered electric generator or oscillator was a device which was intended to produce electric energy but could be also modified to generate mechanical vibrations.
            Powerful enough to shake buildings.
            Here’s a link to an explanation/debunker odd that it comes from last year!

            https://www.editorji.com/in-depth/the-hook/doom-tech-usa-s-earthquake-weapon-nikola-tesla-s-design-haarp-truth-conspiracy-theory-decoded-1658517563354

          5. I’m not sure the BGS or USGS seismic monitors could be fooled to be honest. Earthquakes do have ‘signatures’ with mainly 3 types of waves that are generated, P waves, S waves and L waves.

          6. True.
            But where have you seen the monitors confirming/ruling out alternatives?
            As I write, it’s probably a conspiracy theory, but is it actually impossible and, more importantly, do you think anyone who could prove otherwise would dare to be a whistle-blower, given what’s at stake?

          7. Embassy staff from the US and many West European countries were withdrawn a day or so before the Turkey earthquake, allegedly.

    2. The really good news for Turkey is that this recent Earthquake wasn’t on the Northern Anatolian fault which runs just 20km south of Istanbul. The bad news is one day in the future a significant shallow earthquake will hit this fault….

  86. Brexit latest news: Rishi Sunak says ‘no deal yet’ on Northern Ireland Protocol
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/17/nicola-sturgeon-latest-news-rishi-sunak-brexit-snp/

    BTL

    I am an Englishman resident in Brittany. Should I wish for a British court to have the same level of jurisdiction in Brittany as the ECJ has in Northern Ireland?

    But why not? What would the difference in principle be – after all all Brittany is a part of France and the EU in the same way that Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom?

    2. There will never, ever be a deal. Sunak doesn’t want one. The whole thing is a farce. He knows what he’s doing, the EU knows what he’s doing and the public are being conned.

  88. ‘Night All

    Laffs

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b43bea0ad28421f76611b6638c167953c37018cdd614d3e0659d8272f97b8c07.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/225f49444c3263965ea335d0b3814e280030601b864e07f624fc3cead6ffe7c9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7314e431f2517cc511907c8bd665fab55b9981afb139ac0c437c90ff2e399f37.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88ce9abe7756baa36638479909a96567c7423a300195291d7d0b0f5c4051e428.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea33623fc7a376f0daad7a664f977606e48483d1c39b5e12129bcc6d97462fba.jpg

    https://static.explosm.net/2023/02/01145940/pills-3.png

      1. Politicians are habitual and pathological liars. It’s all they have.
        Doctors are too busy carrying out work in the private sector.
        Building More houses is not green you political idiots.

        1. Lots of people are joining this debate on Facebook now. It needs stirring up to its maximum. Our government is horrendous.

    5. They are NOT “Illegal immigrants”. OK?

      They are an invasion force and should be treated in the same manner as any other invasion force that threatens the security and wellbeing of the realm.

  90. Well, I shall be up for quite a bit longer, but don’t plan to return to this site until tomorrow. So a hearty Good Night, chums, and sleep well.

  91. To the surprise of none, the inquiry into use of the Emergency Act last February has decided that Trudeau was justified in invoking the act. Police at all levels are blamed for bad management of the freedom convoy.

    I guess that is what comes when Trudeau selects the judge to lead the review and sets the review mandate. Rouleau, the judge in question has been a liberal supporter, advisor and party insider who worked for the same law firm as former PM Chretien – not that there would have been any bias in the inquiry of course.

    In the meantime, blackface is in the Bahamas at a Caribbean country conference (Canada in the Caribbean?) giving away our money and promising navy intervention in Haiti.

  92. Ooops

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11762915/Bizarre-dementia-symptoms-revealed-Bruce-Willis-diagnosis.html

    I give money to beggars
    My sense of humour annoys Nottlers
    I’m so scruffy the beggars refuse to acknowledge me, even when I give them money.
    I only park if I can drive straight in to the space, I’d rather walk the extra 100 yards than mess about getting the tank into a small parking spot.
    I swear frequently, particularly at the selfish fucking bastard who left his tailgate open so that his bloody garbage shat all over the road and he couldn’t be arsed to stop and clear it up, the cunt.
    Filter? Fucked if little things ever resound

    That’s me for the care home!

    1. Dr John Campbell produced a video on youtube in the past few days reporting on an autopsy performed in Germany that proved that adverse changes in brain and heart cells of the deceased could only have been caused by the Covid Vaccine. 🙁

      1. Fuck me, are you saying I’m already dead?

        Thanks for being honest and for your kindness in the way you let me know…

    3. Despite all the gloss polish and constant blah,blah,blah. Still our green belt and agricultural land, wildlife habitat is being destroyed all over England in the pursuit of profit.
      Until that stops, if it does exist, climate change will continue.
      But as is the general and rather monotonous ruling, whatever is happening that’s bad, it’s never the fault of the greedy money makers.

    4. The BBC is desperately biased. It’s assumption is that not only is climate change a problem that requires solving but that it is down to man’s activity alone. There are no dissenting voices, no balance, no assessment of the facts.

      It’s just bent.

  95. Evening, all. Had a busy day meeting various friends for coffee (and having to struggle to get the bank to provide the service I need).

  96. Finished watching, on iPlayer, Surgeons: On the edge – Wednesdays episode correcting 100 degree Scoliosis unbelievably incredible surgery, hammers, chisels, drills, screwdrivers all working 1mm from the spinal chord.

      1. This is the bit of the NHS that week by week shows its exemplary side. It really makes you wonder how they envisaged doing this operation on a teenage lad whose operation was delayed for 3 years because of that bloody virus. His scoliosis went from 55 degrees to 100 degrees and without this surgery would he have been totally disabled and unable to move. It’s like watching a miracle.
        It sure beats talking about covid, climate change and almost everything else.
        I hope you, Ann, and your beloved OH are improving and it would be marvellous if they could find a miracle cure for you both.

        1. Thanks for those kind wishes. There are 3 hospitals in our area; one is pretty good, one is OK and the other awful. I am sure there are some excellent hospitals and staff.

          1. Watching that programme gives a ray of hope in a world so full of despair and endless stupidity of those in authority.

        2. Bollocks!

          I – aged 79 – was diagnosed with scoliosis in early 2020.
          When I asked why my GP was no longer on the Local surgery letterhead, I was informed that ‘he had moved to Ayrshire’.

          I was scheduled for a ‘whole body x-ray’ at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in March 2020 – but it was cancelled.

          I haven’t seen a GP or a Consultant since then.

          I am housebound and need a walking frame – but cannot carry it down stairs to Street level.

          There is no prospect of NHS treatment; unfortunately, scoliosis is a one-way deterioration.

          I will have a Cognac nightcap – Cheers!

          2. I feel sorry for your plight and obvious disability but this was a terrific operation and saved a teenage lad from a life of certain total, and yes it would have been total, disability.
            I have had good service from the NHS as well as downright awful service however it doesn’t stop me admiring incredible skill and care when I see it.

          3. Princess Eugenie had, and was treated for scoliosis. The consequences – titanium inserts – were clearly visible in her low-backed wedding dress.

          5. No recognisable cause. No significant sports injuries.

            In my late ‘Seventies, I recognised a growing asymmetry of my abdomen.

            When, eventually, I photoed my back, there was an obvious ‘S’ shaped deformity of my lower spine.

    1. Yes, par 4 today.

      Wordle 608 4/6

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

      1. Boring Bogey Five here!

        Wordle 608 5/6
        🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
        ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
        🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
        🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  101. Not to worry…
    Biden’s on the case.

    EXCLUSIVE: Toxic cloud left Ohio family coughing up blood and forced them to flee their newly purchased home as creek water turned blue and wildlife disappeared after chemical train disaster
    Nathan and Kelly Izotic were forced to flee despite living outside the designated ‘danger of death’ zone created by the February 3 Norfolk Southern derailment
    The couple revealed wildlife has fled and they now fear their newly bought 15-acre property, two miles from chemical train disaster, may never be repaired
    They were forced to leave their East Palestine home the weekend after the environmental catastrophe when they came down with aggressive symptoms

    oops sorry, no he’s not.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11760073/Ohio-couple-left-coughing-blood-wildlife-fled-thanks-chemical-train-disaster.html

    1. The Ohio incident is the worst environmental disaster in American history. In addition, the deleterious effects on the local population is immeasurable.

      The most sickening thing about the Biden administration response has been to deny FEMA aid and assistance, ludicrously to blame the incident on the Trump administration and to wallow in the suffering of the impoverished Trump voters affected.

      Biden has opened the Southern border to all sorts of jialbirds, cartel operatives, perverts and criminals but many have missed that fact that the true reason for the open border policy was to allow hordes of Chinese operatives and spies into the country. Biden has been bought by the Chinese ZCmunist Oarty. He is such a weak and narcissistic person and in his dementia years only partly aware of his Obama directed Treason.

      Biden is truly the worst and most vindictive piece of shit ever to occupy the White House.

      Meanwhile the vile piece of shit is rattling on about his support for Ukraine, Zelensky, an equally vile and contemptible piece of shit, donating billions in aid and military support, whilst Americans suffer real depredations.

      God, how I hate politicians of all stripes.

  102. Sailor who hurt back after being flung across warship cabin sues MoD
    Joleen Williams claims that incident on board HMS St Albans left her with injuries and cut her Royal Navy career short

    Joleen Williams was flung across the room while enjoying dinner with Commander Catherine Jordan, one of the Royal Navy’s most senior female officers, after the frigate they were serving rolled in rough seas in2014.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/16/sailor-sues-ministry-defence-back-injury-hms-st-albans/

    I just give up

    The sea makes ships ‘rock and roll’

    Warships are not ferries or cruise liners etc, they do not run on straight courses
    What was a ‘Leading Hand’ doing having dinner with the Commanding Officer?
    On a warship, 24/7/365(+1) you are always aware of what is the ship is doing.

    It is all a load of Krapp

    But, what do I know, I only did nearly 30 years in a Blue Suit

    1. Amazing – frigate rolls in bad weather – who’d have thunk it? Like OLT – many years in the RN – most at sea.

    2. 20+ years on the briny for me, not navy though. Fallen out of a few bunks as well. I never could sleep in big seas.

    4. I’ll send that to my nephew, he was a navigator on one of the small boats in the Cod wars. Then a mine hunter in the gulf, he finished his service on HMS Manchester.

  105. I have just spoken to no 2 son ,, it is no 1 son’s birthday today.. his brother sent him a wonderful b/card .. an online company called Moon pig copied a wonderful old photo of the two of them when they were little boys , and when older son saw it , he was shocked and delighted .. there they were leaning on our old Citroen blue Dyanne circa 1977,

    Sadly no 2 son broke his ankle badly slipping down London Bridge station steps before Christmas in a crush, an he was operated on last month .

    He now has complications .. his leg is badly swollen , possibly a clot and has been put on blood thinners . He has been having physio etc , and has just recovered from another bout of Covid .

    Why is everything so complicated?

    1. ‘Cos that’s life, my dear Maggie.

      Tell me about complications – I could lead off alarming. Meantime let’s hope that younger chappie gets sorted ASAP for peace of mind all round.

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