Friday 17 June: Selfish strike action will push Britain’s railways into terminal decline

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

653 thoughts on “Friday 17 June: Selfish strike action will push Britain’s railways into terminal decline”

      1. 353262+ up ticks,#######

        Top of the morning W,

        Pleased to say, very rare, I have quietly built up a profile of it’s being and find the only answer is a silver stake driven home at the hight of a raging thunderstorm.

        Not may I add to give me satisfaction, but out of compassion and to do it a service.

    1. Good Morning. I was contemplating a blank forum, and then you popped in!

  4. Nothing to report. I wonder if it was like this at the end of the Roman Empire?

    1. Hope so, Minty, I’m longing for the destruction of the WEF, WHO and UN and the implosion of the EU.

        1. ‘Morning, BB2, if we could be rid of WEF, WHO and UN, then there is no threat to middle-classes and no slaves to dominate.

          2. Yep, I sometimes think that it’s only NoTTLers who are awake and aware. See my comments on bullies and bullying.

      2. All parasitic rent seekers. Until tax payers money is permanently removed from such groups nothing will change.

  6. Russian spy tried to infiltrate the Hague, claims Dutch intelligence. 17 June 2022.

    A Russian spy used a fake identity to apply for an internship at the Hague, the Dutch intelligence service said.

    Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov pretended to be a Brazilian national called Viktor Muller Ferreira to try to infiltrate the International Criminal Court (ICC) in April, according to the Netherlands.

    The only question that springs to mind here is; Why? What possible secrets could the ICC hold that would be of any interest to Russia? Neither they nor the United States are members and the latter is actually opposed to it and will not allow their citizens to be tried by it. It looks like a False Flag!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-crimes-putin-latest-b2103150.html

    1. Canteen menu, possibly. In the UK ,police station canteen menus are protected by the Official Secrets Act. I suppose a similar thing might apply in The Hague.

  7. SIR – Is it not time that intermittent strikes were outlawed?

    When employees return to work, even after just one day, the strike should be considered over, and a further ballot carried out before another can be undertaken. The present system allows employees to cause massive disruption with little loss of pay.

    Roger Jarman
    Frome, Somerset

    But that would take a government with balls, Mr Harman, and we haven’t got one of those, more’s the pity. All we have is someone called Shatts yapping away on the sidelines. I’m sure the rail unions are terrified!

  8. SIR – I was bemused when, on a recent tour of the Elizabeth Line prior to its opening, we were repeatedly told how high-tech it is. So I asked Andy Byford, the Commissioner of Transport for London, why it wasn’t driverless. He replied that the trains do not have a dedicated network and share part of the line with others, so would never pass a safety assessment.

    So the unions now have even more power over the blameless commuters.

    Marcus Lawrence
    London W9

    We are doomed.

    1. Before writing his letter, Mr Lawrence should have read the comments about driverless trains on here.

    2. That’s ok – but let’s start to move to an automated network. Offer an incentive to drivers for working with the automated trains as ‘sit ins’. Run them outside of core hours under controlled conditions with specific goals to prove a ‘feature’ live.

      Once we have the automated network with drivers in them and it’s shown the drivers aren’t needed after a few years, then make the drivers redundant. If we never try, we will never improve.

      1. BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit, the equivalent to London’s tube is completely automatic, ran by computers located in Oakland. However, in order to reassure passengers, each train has a human driver, thanks to the unions, that sits there twiddling his thumbs. For this cushy job he is paid $36.00 an hour, roughly £30.00.

  9. SIR – According to the chatterati, the UK is breaching international law in seeking to amend the Northern Ireland Protocol.

    I suggest that they actually read the Protocol – and, in particular, Article 16 and Annex 7. Then they might realise that our Government is acting lawfully, by using the safeguard mechanism laid down in the Protocol.

    Plans made in theory do not always work in practice. The revisions put forward by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, are a reasonable, practical way of making the Protocol work for all sides, including those of us shipping to Northern Ireland every day.

    Alastair MacMillan
    Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire

    SIR – You recently published letters from readers who had suffered – in flagrant disregard of the no-duty limit of €150 (£128) – punitive customs duty requirements for packages sent to Europe from Britain.

    I run a small business that delivers across the EU, so I know that this outrageous practice is widespread. Just this week, a customer in Belgium reported a customs duty requirement of €24 on a package – with the correct paperwork – that had a value of €21.

    The Government is keen to avoid a trade war with Europe over the Protocol. It needs to wake up to the fact that this has already started.

    Richard Light
    Hitchin, Hertfordshire

    It’s either cowardice or ignorance – or in Johnson’s case probably both.

    1. Is it not about time we started to be sensible? Ignore international law. Most of it was conceived to confound the UK. Ditch all treaties, conventions and laws we do not like. Leave NATO and the UN. Enter free trade agreements that are free trade, with no tariffs, but only with Commonwealth countries and a few others, such as Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico and Japan, for example. Quintuple all tariffs on imports from China. If any of this brings us up against the EU, bring it on!

      1. “Is it not about time we started to be sensibletough?”

        ‘Morning, Horace, I’ve changed it because, like all bullies, they only back off once they’ve received a jolly good hiding and that lesson is coupled with their cowardice.

        The only fly in that ointment, is that we have no ‘hard man’ to step in for us, as our PTB are a supine bunch of cowardly bullies themselves.

    2. Yet the application of tariffs is applied by the post offices ‘liberal’ interpretation of the rules to profit as much as possible at the expense of the vulnerable – the sender and receiver.

      I despise the pointless EU, but here it’s just created yet another unnecessary situation based on animosity and where there’s work there’s graft.

  10. SIR – Forty years ago this week, Britain was victorious in the Falklands war. This achievement is rightly being remembered all over the country.

    At sea the naval task group consisted of more than 100 vessels, half of them civilian-manned. Without the Merchant Navy, we would have lost the war.

    Indeed, without the Merchant Navy we would also lose the peace, since so much of what we need must always come by sea to reach our island home.

    September 3 is Merchant Navy Day, honouring the service and sacrifice of civilian mariners. This day needs to be more widely recognised. One way of doing so would be for Her Majesty’s ships and shore establishments, at home and overseas, to “dress ship” with masthead Red Ensigns, highlighting the bond between the Royal and Merchant navies, which face the same dangers at sea.

    Captain Malcolm Farrow RN
    Petersfield, Hampshire

    Excellent idea, Capt Farrow.

    1. So pleased to read that we still have a Merchant Navy, apparently….

      Morning Hugh & All.

  11. SIR – Celia Walden is right that education should prepare children for the real world, and that requires getting used to the correction of errors.

    “Half of teachers don’t mark pupils’ books,” she says. That is cruelty, not kindness, because if pupils are not shown when they are wrong, they will never learn what is right. They will grow up stroppy, resenting criticism.

    Red-pen corrections by our teachers were really helpful and could be referred to as often as necessary. A one-time spoken comment would have been less effective and easily forgotten. It would take too long for each teacher to tell each pupil privately what he or she had done wrong, while written correction can be done at any time, far more quickly. At university level, my students had many misunderstandings that I discovered only through their written work and was able to correct by my red-biro comments.

    Correction is to help, not condemn, and is necessary in all subjects.

    Dr Bernard Lamb
    President, Queen’s English Society
    London SW14

    Yes, a “See me” in red ink at the top of some homework always put the wind up me, and therefore I did my best to avoid it. One master in particular would go into hairdryer mode for a good five minutes, leaving this hapless pupil feeling rather small. It did the trick of course, but today would be put down to ‘bullying’ or some such similar crime.

    2. I had hoped this BTL comment was a joke, but I’m not convinced:

      Hereward Woke
      49 MIN AGO
      I give Dr Lamb 6 out of 10 for his letter. He is correct about correcting errors. However he overlooks the harm that can be done by using red ink. Red is the colour of blood, has connotations of violence and may be distressing to young people. I would advocate the use of more loving colours such as purple and violet when marking.

      Harry Stotle
      27 MIN AGO
      So post vans are moving blood banks are they? Actually the natural colour of violence is yellow as in wasps and their warning livery. Your comment is truly pathetic.

      * * *

      I’m waiting for another suggestion, it can’t be long in coming – use rainbow ink?!

      2. The idiotic idea children can’t cope with red ink is comical. No harm is done by a colour. I remember once a young lass in my class saying ‘Miss! Miss! I’ve cut my finger off!

        I thought it was the striping that indicated danger as few animals have colour vision.

      3. We were told back in the 70s to stop using red ink to correct. We ignored it.

    3. When I taught you sit with the pupil and go through the mistakes, then what you liked. Children don’t read the teacher’s remarks. Talk to them. Set a simple puzzle to have them use as many contractions as possible. Make it interesting to encourage repetition.

      1. The frequent final question for our Friday afternoon class quiz was “Which is heavier? A ton of feathers or a ton of iron?”
        Every time, numpties would fall for it.

  12. More drivel from the BBC about the bad Russians. A Czech pilot has a look at a (possibly) Russian patrol plane. He seems to speak English quite well, but is an imbecile. He claims not to know what type of plane he was flying alongside and filming. I don’t know either, as the film is not very good. However, is it even a Russian plane as it is a four-engined type and I do not see that the Russians have anything like it in service?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-61834997

      1. Might be. Modern “reporters” have described the Spitfire as a”jet”.

      1. Update. The film report looks cobbled together. However, I have now identified the plane. It has it’s number on the tail, Duh!
        It is an Ilyushin IL20-M reconnaissance ECM/Elint plane, NATO code Coot-A.

        Edit: Perhaps someone could tell the Czech Air Force?
        In colour by the RAF:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwgdf21eSYU

  13. SIR – Full credit to the pilot who helped keep the show on the road by loading baggage. I was a pilot for British airlines for 42 years. It was the norm for most of the crews to do all they could to get passengers where they wanted to go as quickly as possible. We were very conscious that they paid our salaries.

    I loaded and unloaded passenger baggage and freight pallets, refuelled, cleaned cabins and toilets, serviced engines and generally did everything legal to keep to schedule. Calming psychiatrically disturbed passengers and dealing with drunken hooligans on board were other duties.

    We never expected, and rarely got, recognition from management, but at least I knew I had done my best.

    John Eagles
    Hopwood, Worcestershire

    Good, old-fashioned service is sadly lacking in some quarters – yes, snivel serpents, you know who you are. However, in the example given by Mr Eagles and his colleagues, I would probably draw the line at, say, an aircraft cleaner standing in for a pilot…

    1. Quite so, better to have a teenage gamer who has probably flown lots of planes, virtually. Not if he had the fish, of course, or was it the chicken?

    2. We’re heading for a complete compartmentalisation of skills simply due to regulation and legislation.

      Although I did like when a pilot asked a difficult passenger to leave the plane. Common sense prevails!

  14. Drivers face fresh petrol price blow as oil giants turn to reserve supplies. 17 June 2022.

    Oil producers will be forced to tap into “dwindling” spare capacity as supply runs short, the world’s leading energy authority has warned, leaving countries perilously exposed to potential shocks.

    Supplies may “struggle to keep pace with demand” next year as China emerges from the pandemic and sanctions on Russia grow, the International Energy Agency said.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Bobby Moore.
    There is plenty of Oil and Gas on the planet to last for 100’s of years and technology is advancing to allow us to replace fossil fuels over next 100 years without any panic or existential problems. The issue is the absolute madness of woke Western governments obsessed with Net Zero and their rush to condemn and cancel everyone who doesn’t share their LBGTQI++ (or whatever the letters are now). All the pain is self-inflicted and there seems little prospect of anything changing anytime soon. India, China, Saudi and Russia will be fine…the US will ditch the Democrats in the mid-terms which will improve their recovery chances…I see no prospect of any improvements across the EU or in the UK for many years to come

    Difficult to disagree with Mr Moore!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/15/russia-sanctions-force-world-tap-dwindling-oil-supplies/

  15. 353262+ p ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 17 June: Selfish strike action will push Britain’s railways into terminal declin e

    In keeping with the Country then, the treacherous duffers have have finally hit the buffers I believe, ALL CHANGE.

    Automated trains we have already, expand on it.

    ALL this bad shit is orchestrated & upraised in the media then pushed out as fodder for trusting fools,, any good shit either rhetorical or actions taken is suppressed as with any good leaders / peoples.

    Once again the majority of the herd are being led by a treacherous bullshit ring through it’s collective nose heading most assuredly for the
    halal knackers yard.

    Another orchestrated issue taking off successfully is the “hate your kids in a loving manner” campaign FGM has always found favour with lab/lib/con supporter / voters but introducing your boy to treatment that should be reserved for paedophiles ( the chop) seemingly cut & tuck & -uck your luck in the future seems to be trending, old joe mengele could learn some lessons from this lot.

    1. That raised a laugh from the Other Half – he’s definitely a coffee person. I’m drinking my usual large mug of tea.

    2. We’d better stock up on coffee before the coming planned famine then. No doubt the supply lines for green tea mysteriously won’t be disrupted.

  18. SIR – Years ago, I was the director of a busy ear, nose and throat department while also working as a full-time clinician.

    To get just one badly needed junior clinician appointed, the application had to be approved by a series of administrators via endless committee meetings, locally and centrally. It was usually rejected because of the cost.

    At the same time, new administrative posts were created by administrators without any reference to the clinical staff. At one committee, two new administrators were present. I asked what they had been employed to do and was told: “Save money.” That was more than 30 years ago.

    Keith Ferris
    London SW1

    Nothing changes. Just before I retired I applied to my local Hospital Day Centre to become a volunteer driver to get patients (now ‘clients’) to and from the Centre. In those days it was run by the NHS and the bureaucracy had to be experienced to be believed. After completing the seventh form with yet more duplicated information I told the administrator that if an eighth form arrived I would go and find something else to do. Thankfully it didn’t and I enjoyed ten years doing what I had applied to do. During that time the NHS relinquished control of the Day Centre and it was taken over by the Hospital Friends. Seven forms became one, and so far the place hasn’t collapsed. And no more training sessions miles away that had little relevance to volunteer drivers – just one simple session and a driving assessment every couple of years. The NHS has a lot to learn, although with two nurses in the family it sounds as though it never will.

    1. In the 1970s, the hospital introduced a new ordering system. On certain days in the first week of the month, you could order basic housekeeping items for the wards – crockery, cutlery etc…. Miss those days and that was it for the following four weeks. The list always arrived in the second week.
      Eventually, when we were so short of necessary plates, cups etc… that I was nipping to the locked ward (a ward with an understandably high attrition rate) to ensure the old girls had something to eat and drink from, I went mad and ordered everything on the list… and then some.
      I clocked on at 1.0 pm the following Monday to find an hysterically laughing ward sister frantically unpacking boxes and boxes of ‘stuff’ in her office; as she said, her office looked as if it were Christmas. We secreted the goods away from prying eyes and the NHS was no doubt landed with a stonking bill. All because of ‘the new improved system’.

    2. If the NHS were paid after it performs the operation it would, overnight become more efficient. It wouldn’t bother with requisitions and forms, it would just focus on doing the job. Waste would cost real money, so the focus would be on efficiency. If they need a specific role filled, the recruitment of that role becomes paramount because without them you’re not getting paid.

    1. The cat missed an opportunity, it could have told them they’ll all end up in tins of pet food.

  21. The Government has given coal a reprieve because despite being dirty just like diesel combustion engines which are definitely on the way out, we still need it. It’s because we now need electicity to power the surge in electric vehicle uptake, the energy needed to pull heat out of the air and ground for central heating as well as the additional electric cooker points to replace gas and oil fuelled AGAs.

    Ironically this can all be achieved through this Turkish designed CFB boiler steam generator which can use many grades of solid combustible fuel including coal and biomass and yet is very efficient and also environmentally friendly.

    This is the sustainable future of power generation in which British coal is an essential ingredient for the UK in this world of energy shortages.

    Here’s a video of a CFB boiler with some dramatic music:

    https://youtu.be/4MQVJ6qbRuE

      1. Without spending hours watching videos and reading learned articles, I guess the programme was termiated because it worked?

      2. That’s just burning money.
        Mind you, some people have been doing it anyway but for the reason they thought it spread COVID-19.

  22. Morning all 😊.
    That’s it really.
    Selfish strike action what ever next ?

        1. I have vague memories of a student being arrested for suggesting a police horse was gay.

        1. It’s not a flag. Only countries have flags; anything else is just a banner.

  24. Good morning all. A rather warm 13°C here this morning with a slight overcast.
    A run to Derby to take stepson out for a couple of hours is planned for the day.

  26. Probably best to take deep breath before reading this article in today’s DT – and put away all sharp objects:

    Exclusive: Dirty cost of keeping the Government’s net zero strategy alive revealed

    Plan to hit green targets relies on burning the equivalent of the New Forest every five months, Telegraph analysis shows

    By Hayley Dixon, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
    16 June 2022 • 9:30pm

    The Government’s plan to reach net zero relies on burning the equivalent of the New Forest every five months, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Ministers plan to use technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere in order to compensate for sectors such as aviation, agriculture and heavy industry, and meet their 2050 climate targets.

    The proposals rely largely on capturing the smoke from power plants, which burn wood to create electricity, and piping it under the North Sea using a system known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (Beccs).

    Because these biomass plants are considered to be carbon neutral, largely because the trees they burn will be replanted, any of the emissions that are captured and stored are counted as negative.

    To create enough emissions so that the removal can balance the books and reach net zero, the power plants will need to burn the equivalent of 120 million trees a year, an analysis of government modelling by The Telegraph has found.

    It came just days after the food strategy promised to use huge swathes of the countryside to grow crops, with scientists warning that there is not enough land to deliver on all the competing pledges.

    Concerns were raised over how the technology will work at scale and whether burning wood for electricity is a genuine renewable energy source.

    The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac), the association of national academies across Europe including the Royal Society, has called on policymakers to “suspend expectations” that they can use Beccs to reach net zero.

    Its analysis found “that there are substantial risks of it failing to achieve net removals at all” or that the removals will not happen quickly enough to meet climate targets.

    Dr Michael Norton, the environment programme director at Easac, told The Telegraph that belief in Beccs is based on “flawed assumptions”, adding: “Our conclusion is that it is a bit of a castle built on sand.”

    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said that the plans are not final, and it is looking at other waste products that can be used as biomass and other carbon capture technologies.

    Biomass is a renewable energy under international carbon accounting rules and is seen as sustainable on the basis that the trees grow back.

    However, some of the world’s leading scientists warned that if trees are replanted, the system creates a “carbon debt” that will take decades, if not a century, to pay back.

    While classed as carbon neutral, Drax, the UK’s largest biomass station, is also the single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, having burnt the equivalent of 27 million trees last year.

    Drax received £932 million in green subsidies from consumer bills in 2021 and is expected to receive more than £31 billion over the next 25 years for its development of Beccs.

    The industry, including Drax, said that all its wood pellets come from sustainable sources and they are made not of whole trees but the offcuts from other industries.

    An investigation by The Telegraph last year raised questions over the sustainability of the wood used and the impact on biodiversity.

    In the wake of that investigation, more than 50 MPs wrote to Kwasi Kwarteng, the Energy Secretary, demanding that he end the “scandal” of burning wood for electricity.

    Mr Kwarteng has so far refused to meet MPs, and it can now be revealed that the Government has been quietly planning to expand the industry to create more than four times the current emissions.

    The net zero strategy recognises that “to help compensate residual emissions”, technology will need to remove up to 81 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) a year.

    Buried in the strategy, released in October, is a plan to capture about two thirds of those emissions, up to 58 MtCO2e, from the burning of biomass.

    An analysis based on the current emissions, and the number of wood pellets burnt by biomass, showed that increasing the emissions by this scale would require burning the equivalent of almost 120 million trees every year. The New Forest has an estimated 46 million trees.

    Dr David Joffe, a government adviser from the Climate Change Committee, has told MPs it is “really important” that the “vast majority” comes from the UK so they can be certain it is sustainable.

    However, scientists have warned that this would take a “huge amount of land” and would compete with government pledges, including on food, rewilding and tree planting to combat climate change.

    Dr Daniel Quiggin, a senior research fellow with the environment and society programme at Chatham House, said: “The tension over land is going to be absolutely extreme the world over and that is the same in the UK. Adding in biomass at the scale net zero has indicated is going to be very difficult to achieve. It is very difficult to square all of these things.”

    A Beis spokesman said that they “do not recognise this characterisation” of the number of trees being burnt.

    “We need to generate more home-grown power in Britain and sustainable biomass is widely considered a renewable, low carbon energy source,” they said.

    The spokesman pointed out that materials other than wood are currently being considered to create biomass, adding that “no decision” has been taken on the final reliance on Beccs and they are also looking at other greenhouse gas removal technology.

    The scenario in which Beccs removes about two thirds of the residual emissions is the only one proposed in the 368-page net zero strategy.

    Benedict McAleenan, an adviser to The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, said that the science behind Beccs was backed by world-leading climate scientists at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

    He said: “Bioenergy is not driving forestry activity. It is using what would effectively waste material from the forestry sector. Sustainability has to be front and centre, it always has been.

    “The IPCC has said that carbon dioxide removal technologies are necessary to limit global warming and Beccs is one of the biggest of all of these.”

    * * *

    The BTL posters are not impressed:

    Carpe Jugulum9 HRS AGO

    Ideas of a ‘net zero’ reliant on growing trees and burning them can only roam free in the empty minds of the truly stupid. Unfortunately such minds exist in abundance in parliament and the civil service.

    A few basic facts.

    Wood has a far lower energy density than coal and takes far more energy to harvest, process and transport.

    A monoculture forest would be an ecological wasteland of block squares and logging roads covering hundreds of square miles.

    It is a policy of sheer moronic stupidity peddled by witless drones clutching arts degrees and drunk on distilled dogma.

    Agatha Blaine57 MIN AGO

    I have a sense the whole carbon offsetting industry is a giant fraud. Who is checking what’s being offsetted and how, when a tree is planted at what stage is the carbon offsetted, the day it’s plated and an estimate made of its carbon capture once fully grown? What if the tree dues, is a new one replanted.

    If the carbon offset company goes bust in years to come, will someone just buy the forest and cut it down?

    One company provided solar cooking equipment for families in Sudan. They obviously measured the carbon saving by using these implements and then no doubt extrapolated the saving for 20 years of future cooking. I’d imagine they ship off thousands of these kits, for them to be piled up in Sudan never to be used again.

    The industry is obviously a fraud.

    1. It’s all complete nonsense isn’t it – but they know that if they repeat the lie often enough – as they are doing – that the vast majority of people will believe it.
      Follow the money. Some people are getting very rich from this scam.

    2. I think it is time to explode the myth that this is the making of Green environmentalists or anyone that any understanding of the science of ecology.

      It seems to me that the “Net Zero” that we are being sold by our Betters is not doing what it says on the tin, but rather the opposite. It carries about the same credibility among true environmentalists as Sergei Lavrov’s protestations that Russia is a peaceful nation and that there is no war crime committed by Russians or on behalf of Russia in Ukraine, and what they are actually doing is bringing peace, prosperity to all there, and beautifying their cities with Russian know-how.

      I must say now that I am myself using a biomass generator to heat my home, but I am not cutting down the equivalent of the New Forest, replanting it and hoping that there is enough water, land, and goodwill to bring the replacement saplings to maturity. Instead, I started planting the trees in the 1990s, mostly from weed saplings in the wrong place in my garden. I also got a £70 grant once from the Council to plant a hedge along my boundary, so I got some saplings from a nursery near Hereford to add to my self-sown transplanted weeds. Some took well, and others such as sweet chestnut (which does not do well here) perished, but that’s nature for you. The neighbour’s horses had some of them.

      I am now at the stage where I can thin them out. I mostly coppice or pollard them, so they then spout out new growth from the existing roots, further thickening the hedge. The electricity supply contractors shortened those getting too close to the overhead cables, but I instructed them to leave the brash for me to sort out. Anything thicker than my thumb is stacked and left for a couple of years to dry out before being cut into lengths and either put in the wood store or into bags for kindling. Anything smaller is piled up on the boundary or where I want to build up a bank and it can rot down in its own time. Eventually, it turns into top soil.

      I then have a ready supply of firewood to see me through the winter, and allow me to turn the boiler right down. Last year, I barely used half a tank of gas.

      As for my garden, there are many more trees there than there were when I moved in, but any that cast too much shade end up in the wood burner. What I do know is that all this extra CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere when they burn down the Amazon, California, Siberia, the Congo or Borneo is making my own trees grow faster, but only for as long as I look after them and not let a developer have them.

    3. The forests of oak trees that covered England were almost all removed over the course of three or four hundred years as the trees were used to build ships. An oak tree takes along time to mature.
      Personal note: The oak that planted itself in a large pot in the front garden is coming along nicely.

    4. d to generate more home-grown power in Britain and sustainable biomass is widely considered a renewable, low carbon energy source,” they said.

      Burning trees is not sustainable, nor local. They may not recognise the characterisation, but that’s because they are happily ignoring the facts. Widely considered… by civil servants obsessed with the green agenda. Not by anyone sane. We have coal beneath our feet, and shale gas. The state should use that. In fact it should be *forced* to use that.

    5. d to generate more home-grown power in Britain and sustainable biomass is widely considered a renewable, low carbon energy source,” they said.

      Burning trees is not sustainable, nor local. They may not recognise the characterisation, but that’s because they are happily ignoring the facts. Widely considered… by civil servants obsessed with the green agenda. Not by anyone sane. We have coal beneath our feet, and shale gas. The state should use that. In fact it should be *forced* to use that.

    6. This Net Zero, lark is becoming a bit of a death wish cult juggernaut, a new religious zealotry that quite a lot of the population appear to swallow with relish. Is it the biased education they’re receiving or the MSM churning out the “It’s the only way to save the planet.”?

  27. Probably best to take deep breath before reading this article in today’s DT – and put away all sharp objects:

    Exclusive: Dirty cost of keeping the Government’s net zero strategy alive revealed

    Plan to hit green targets relies on burning the equivalent of the New Forest every five months, Telegraph analysis shows

    By Hayley Dixon, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
    16 June 2022 • 9:30pm

    The Government’s plan to reach net zero relies on burning the equivalent of the New Forest every five months, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Ministers plan to use technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere in order to compensate for sectors such as aviation, agriculture and heavy industry, and meet their 2050 climate targets.

    The proposals rely largely on capturing the smoke from power plants, which burn wood to create electricity, and piping it under the North Sea using a system known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (Beccs).

    Because these biomass plants are considered to be carbon neutral, largely because the trees they burn will be replanted, any of the emissions that are captured and stored are counted as negative.

    To create enough emissions so that the removal can balance the books and reach net zero, the power plants will need to burn the equivalent of 120 million trees a year, an analysis of government modelling by The Telegraph has found.

    It came just days after the food strategy promised to use huge swathes of the countryside to grow crops, with scientists warning that there is not enough land to deliver on all the competing pledges.

    Concerns were raised over how the technology will work at scale and whether burning wood for electricity is a genuine renewable energy source.

    The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac), the association of national academies across Europe including the Royal Society, has called on policymakers to “suspend expectations” that they can use Beccs to reach net zero.

    Its analysis found “that there are substantial risks of it failing to achieve net removals at all” or that the removals will not happen quickly enough to meet climate targets.

    Dr Michael Norton, the environment programme director at Easac, told The Telegraph that belief in Beccs is based on “flawed assumptions”, adding: “Our conclusion is that it is a bit of a castle built on sand.”

    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) said that the plans are not final, and it is looking at other waste products that can be used as biomass and other carbon capture technologies.

    Biomass is a renewable energy under international carbon accounting rules and is seen as sustainable on the basis that the trees grow back.

    However, some of the world’s leading scientists warned that if trees are replanted, the system creates a “carbon debt” that will take decades, if not a century, to pay back.

    While classed as carbon neutral, Drax, the UK’s largest biomass station, is also the single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, having burnt the equivalent of 27 million trees last year.

    Drax received £932 million in green subsidies from consumer bills in 2021 and is expected to receive more than £31 billion over the next 25 years for its development of Beccs.

    The industry, including Drax, said that all its wood pellets come from sustainable sources and they are made not of whole trees but the offcuts from other industries.

    An investigation by The Telegraph last year raised questions over the sustainability of the wood used and the impact on biodiversity.

    In the wake of that investigation, more than 50 MPs wrote to Kwasi Kwarteng, the Energy Secretary, demanding that he end the “scandal” of burning wood for electricity.

    Mr Kwarteng has so far refused to meet MPs, and it can now be revealed that the Government has been quietly planning to expand the industry to create more than four times the current emissions.

    The net zero strategy recognises that “to help compensate residual emissions”, technology will need to remove up to 81 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) a year.

    Buried in the strategy, released in October, is a plan to capture about two thirds of those emissions, up to 58 MtCO2e, from the burning of biomass.

    An analysis based on the current emissions, and the number of wood pellets burnt by biomass, showed that increasing the emissions by this scale would require burning the equivalent of almost 120 million trees every year. The New Forest has an estimated 46 million trees.

    Dr David Joffe, a government adviser from the Climate Change Committee, has told MPs it is “really important” that the “vast majority” comes from the UK so they can be certain it is sustainable.

    However, scientists have warned that this would take a “huge amount of land” and would compete with government pledges, including on food, rewilding and tree planting to combat climate change.

    Dr Daniel Quiggin, a senior research fellow with the environment and society programme at Chatham House, said: “The tension over land is going to be absolutely extreme the world over and that is the same in the UK. Adding in biomass at the scale net zero has indicated is going to be very difficult to achieve. It is very difficult to square all of these things.”

    A Beis spokesman said that they “do not recognise this characterisation” of the number of trees being burnt.

    “We need to generate more home-grown power in Britain and sustainable biomass is widely considered a renewable, low carbon energy source,” they said.

    The spokesman pointed out that materials other than wood are currently being considered to create biomass, adding that “no decision” has been taken on the final reliance on Beccs and they are also looking at other greenhouse gas removal technology.

    The scenario in which Beccs removes about two thirds of the residual emissions is the only one proposed in the 368-page net zero strategy.

    Benedict McAleenan, an adviser to The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, said that the science behind Beccs was backed by world-leading climate scientists at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

    He said: “Bioenergy is not driving forestry activity. It is using what would effectively waste material from the forestry sector. Sustainability has to be front and centre, it always has been.

    “The IPCC has said that carbon dioxide removal technologies are necessary to limit global warming and Beccs is one of the biggest of all of these.”

    * * *

    The BTL posters are not impressed:

    Carpe Jugulum9 HRS AGO

    Ideas of a ‘net zero’ reliant on growing trees and burning them can only roam free in the empty minds of the truly stupid. Unfortunately such minds exist in abundance in parliament and the civil service.

    A few basic facts.

    Wood has a far lower energy density than coal and takes far more energy to harvest, process and transport.

    A monoculture forest would be an ecological wasteland of block squares and logging roads covering hundreds of square miles.

    It is a policy of sheer moronic stupidity peddled by witless drones clutching arts degrees and drunk on distilled dogma.

    Agatha Blaine57 MIN AGO

    I have a sense the whole carbon offsetting industry is a giant fraud. Who is checking what’s being offsetted and how, when a tree is planted at what stage is the carbon offsetted, the day it’s plated and an estimate made of its carbon capture once fully grown? What if the tree dues, is a new one replanted.

    If the carbon offset company goes bust in years to come, will someone just buy the forest and cut it down?

    One company provided solar cooking equipment for families in Sudan. They obviously measured the carbon saving by using these implements and then no doubt extrapolated the saving for 20 years of future cooking. I’d imagine they ship off thousands of these kits, for them to be piled up in Sudan never to be used again.

    The industry is obviously a fraud.

    1. This is the problem. Don’t hold them by the shoulders, use their hair and yes, cable tie them to the barriers. They don’t seem bothered by disrupting other people’s lives so why should they complain when we disrupt theirs?

        1. No no, Still, that’d be violent. Although, they are hard to manhandle and if you accidentally stood on them forcefully a few times no one could complain.

    2. In my day we would have simply arrested them all and locked them up, pending a quick appearance before a magistrate the following morning.

  30. Good morning all

    A few clouds in the sky , 17c inside .. warming up outside .

    Moh playing golf.

    He is so brown , he could be mistaken for , oh well that is another story.

  31. Good Morning Folks,

    Nice sunny start, already been for a long walk with the hound.

  32. Good Moaning ….
    Climate change inflicting another sunny day and Essex in 2022 now has 20+ vineyards.
    Can anyone explain why the medieval centre of Colchester has a south facing slope called Vineyard Street?
    Following a Roman tradition? Farting wagon horses? Or savvy monks in St. John’s Abbey?

      1. Mine is still on. And since I have all the windows closed and the curtains closed to keep the house cool, it may well come on today at some point!

      3. Colchester contains a wonderful example of the attitude to foreigner infiltrators.
        We have Victoria Road: a wide road, then on the edge of the west side of town and containing houses designed for professional and business classes.
        Another Victorian development is Albert Street; a row of workers’ two up two down terrace cottages in a rather frowsy part of the town beside what was then a polluted river

    3. The Romans grew vines. It was global warming, innit? When not drinking local wine*, the Romans disported themselves in baths, and on the beaches at Skegness.

      Transportation by cart was pretty crude in those sunny, far-off days. Even the finest Chianti was undrinkable by the time it got here.

      1. Don’t worry. By the time the greeniacs are finished we’ll likely be driving carts as well. If you want an investment in a future fuel, go for oats.

        1. Aren’t many Greeniacs Vegan? If so, exploitation of horses to pull carts is a no-no. So it will be purely shanks’s pony in future.

          1. Don’t worry, they’ll get the indigenous natives to pull the carts if they can whip them hard enough. Slavery doesn’t apply if you are not in a protected category by law.

          2. All the greeniacs will be dead. Mobs will turn up when they start preaching and plod will be too busy priding/greening/pandering/letting rapists off/diversity to do anything.

          3. That will be POOR people’s shank’s pony.
            Buy shares in sedan chair makers.

    4. There was wine grown in Norway during viking times.
      And glaciers all over before that – my garden cliff shows scrape marks where the ice slid by.

      1. Glacial striations! I’ve waited 51 years to be able to use that term in its proper context. Thank you Paul for giving me the opportunity to do so!

      2. We are on the line where the glaciers ground to a halt; hence all the gravel pits.
        Or they couldn’t face travelling on the A12.

  33. Day 5 without the Warqueen and life continues. We have nearly eaten all the freezer food. The dog has been brushed. The child fed – although it could be the other way around. Apart from one day of Junior putting his shirt on inside out there have been few casualties.

    She’s off at Ascot with her school mates (bunch of public school wonks) and they took the tanker. 4 women and a trailer for the luggage. For 5 days!Ruddy woman had 2 of those giant pelican cases just for herself!

      2. Crikey!

        I couldn’t do that to her. For one thing, 5 days wouldn’t be long enough. For another, I’d only have to put them back when she returned.

        I do most of our cooking anyway, and it’s usually me who gets Junior to school. She tried walking him a few times but got lost in a thought and wandered past. She only stopped because Mongo had been a good boy and huffed and stood in front of her.

        I can’t stand the heat – physically or dress code wise so I don’t go to those things. The one time I did it was about 30’c and was stuck in a top hat that was melting from the sweat on my hair. On returning the rented nobbles we lost the deposit as it was ruined. I am a bit Lee Evans.

        1. I assume this is when it happened but I came over to UK to see very sick brother. Marriage was already very shaky. Luckily I had hidden my passport, NI card etc. When I got back I couldn’t find my diploma etc. He shredded them. Contacted the uni and college etc to no avail. Records not available after X number of years.
          We are not still together and I am so much happier with my husband now.

          1. There were a couple of incidents when my first husband tore up things of mine he didn’t like – photos, cards, things like that made him jealous. I had the photos reprinted.

            I divorced him 30 years ago and have been happily married to my current one for 25 years. Silver wedding next month!

          2. That’s awful. Firstly, it’s not theirs, more importantly it’s just sheer spite.

          4. My ex did similar stuff. Smashed up or broke anything of mine at any opportunity. Pure spite.

          5. Some men are so childish, aren’t they?

            Mine went on to threaten suicide to get the sympathy vote. He didn’t get much from me so he turned to my so-called ‘friend’ and she was very sympathetic.

            After two years of this kind of treatment I managed to get him to leave.

        1. Shove in his ear: super efficient cotton buds, right through to the other side.

          1. Note to self: next Christmas send Maggie a pair of steel capped boots – shins for the kicking of.

  34. SIR – Your editorial is right to call for stern action to counter the strike.

    Given the inconvenience to travellers and loss to businesses (including union members in other industries), how can well-paid rail employees – who benefit from secure and indexed retirement pensions and subsidised train travel – possibly justify such action?

    In 1989 firm action was taken in Australia in response to industrial action by high-salaried airline pilots. Faced with community damage, not least to the vital tourist sector, Bob Hawke – the Labor prime minister who had himself been a leading trade unionist – authorised the wholesale sacking and replacement of the militant pilots. Normal service was quickly resumed.

    John Kidd
    Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

    Of course he did, John. Bob Hawke was Australian and even their Labor [sic] politicians are more Right-wing than our Conservative MPs are. Aussies, in general, also have more balls and brains than any of the cretins in the Palace of Westminster. That is why I would invite Tony Abbott to become British prime minister without a second’s hesitation.

    1. Unfortunately this letter by John Kidd is not accurate. A friend in Oz previously told us:-

      “There was considerable chaos in the aviation sector, only alleviated by hiring many foreign pilots with foreign licences. It was

      subsequently discovered that many of these had incomplete or forged paperwork/licences.

      It was later revealed by the Press that Mr Hawke had “financial connections” with Ansett Airlines”.

      …which reminds us. Did anyone else see on TV the head of the CBI demanding that foreign pilots with foreign licences should

      be allowed to fly British aircraft in Britain?

      1. Oh dear, Janet.

        “Mr Hawke had ‘financial connections’ with Ansett Airlines.”

        Sounds a bit like Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples, who had vested interest in a road haulage concern and road-building. Oh, yes, that Ernest Marples, who commissioned Dr Richard Beeching to find a way to destroy Britain’s railway network so that all freight could be put on his new motorways and be carried by his lorries.

        Power = corruption: corruption = power. And thus it ever was.

    2. Wonder what Sir Norman Tebbit thinks of this? I recall, before politics, he was secretary of BALPA!

    3. So what has happened to Australia over the last two years? Tyranny because of a moderately unpleasant virus?

  36. Well in the South we are having the hottest day of the year.

    Just think how hot it would have been had we not be paying double the price for our gas and electricity to prevent global warming.

    2. Well It is windy and raining today, and dull. It was warm and sunny yesterday, with showers, following four days of cold, gloomy weather with lots of rain. I blame Ms Sturgeon.

    2. 35326up ticks,

      Morning LD,
      According to lab/lib/con coalition party current member / voters, you are very alone and they reckon, deservedly so.

    3. As long as the barbed wire is strung around the deepest part of the Channel, I wouldn’t object.

    2. I am quite shocked that a good number of NoTTLers (on an ostensibly Daily Telegraph forum) obsessively read that idiotic comic.

      1. I don’t go near it, it’s full of drivel. The DT is bad enough.
        Morning, Grizz!

      2. I’m grateful to those that do as it draws our attention to the lunacy being acted out in the ‘Western ‘Liberal’ ‘Democracies”…….

        1. Morning, Stephen. I simply move on to better things. Life is too short to read such drivel.

        2. Quite.
          And judging by the constant stream of complaints about sub-editing and grammar in the Times and the Telegraph, subscriptions to them are not money well spent, particularly when the news items tend to be lifted from the major sources, Reuters AP etc..

          1. Quality newsprint sadly lacking….they’ve all gone woke so as not
            to upset anybody….

            Guardian always good for a laugh….

          3. There are some good ones – most of Allison Pearson’s and also the one on net zero, shared here this morning.

          4. There are some good articles in most papers, but I’m not keen to pay a subscription for them when there are so many free alternatives nowadays.

            I try to get things from across the spectrum and then form a judgement.

      4. Grizzly ,

        I suppose you are wearing your police hat , and showing authority and pomposity, or did you have a tongue in cheek moment ?

        I am shocked as well, but one sees some risque stuff on the DT.

        Anyway , I read that little gem on Twitter

  41. I’ve mentioned this one before and make no apology for doing so again. It’s positively my favourite small garden tree, now apparently called Amomyrtus Luma. Covered in highly and uniquely scented flowers in late April/May, and then this excellent display of red at this time of year, the flowers gone but replaced by the young berries. Unlike some myrtles which seed everywhere, this one self seeds for me only occasionally, which is a further advantage!:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4ce2b41b8a7bc18e78f718f57484b981a5ff1eda9cd159d5a0ded46be49e861.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc86cb4f3dbdc2529e735f8dd2164bd148f5dd47c20f2eaa862385e71cca7dc8.jpg

    1. I haven’t experienced, yet, the scent of a Myrtle. My personal favourite garden scents are:
      1. Honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum.
      2. Mock Orange Philadelphus coronarius.
      3. Jasmine Jasminium officinale.

      I cannot stand the scent of most lilies, which I find quite emetic.

      1. Try Mexican Orange Blossom (Choisya ternata) – the leaves, when rubbed, smell of rue or basil and the flowers of orange. It is evergreen and the honeybees love it. There is a golden leafed variety too – Sundance. Green (or yellow) throughout the year.

          1. There are several ‘cultivars’. Sundance is a lovely yellow colour and is smaller than the usual one.

    2. We have a Daphne boluha ‘Jacqueline Postill’ that flowers through February and March. It has the most beautiful ‘citrus’ scent rather than the heavy sickly floral scent, it does need protection and is semi evergreen.
      The front of our house faces north and we have 2 varieties of Sarcococca that flower in January/February. The flowers are insignificant but the bouquet is wonderful. A pleasant welcome home in the winter and they later develop berries.

  42. I’ve mentioned this one before and make no apology for doing so again. It’s positively my favourite small garden tree, now apparently called Amomyrtus Luma. Covered in highly and uniquely scented flowers in May, and then this excellent display of red at this time of year, the flowers gone but replaced by the young berries. Unlike some myrtles which seed everywhere, this one self seeds for me only occasionally, which is a further advantage!:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4ce2b41b8a7bc18e78f718f57484b981a5ff1eda9cd159d5a0ded46be49e861.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc86cb4f3dbdc2529e735f8dd2164bd148f5dd47c20f2eaa862385e71cca7dc8.jpg

  43. Well, the latest golf major championship is underway in the US of A (three out of the four are held there, for some reason). There are 156 competitors in the US Open: 85 of those are Americans, the remaining 71 are from the rest of the world.

    Why are the Yanks permitted to over-dominate this ancient Scottish sport? They should be permitted just one major: The Masters. The others should be The Open, and two more chosen annually from: Australia, South Africa, Scandinavia, Japan and a few other countries where golf is a major sport. If Lawn Tennis can do it, why not golf?

    1. We even accepted the larger ball that the Americans wanted to make it easy for them.

    2. It doesn’t matter how many world golfers are invited, the TV coverage we see is almost exclusively focused on US players in the tournament.

      Only almost exclusive coverage they always find time for Tigers greatest exploits.

  47. Good morning all, it’s the epitome of ‘gie dreich’ this morning here on the Costa Clyde. I attended the funeral of my friend Wattie yesterday in much better weather, so all is not bad. He was seen off in style, but unfortunately the ‘Guard of Honour’ from his fellow caddies at Royal Troon GC failed to appear.

    It was good to see so many friendly faces again but some have fully signed up for the meeja-sponsored scamdemic. No doubt, once ‘pride’ month is over, they will be quaking at the surge of monkeypox which will consume the tabloid tv content.

    Meanwhile at Project Fear HQ, I see Anthony Fauci has succumbed to the Kung Flu. Coincidentally, I’m sure, he was due to appear in front of the US Senate today. What bad luck. No doubt he is thanking his lucky stars that he has allegedly been jabbed four times, whilst hiding behind his mask.

    2. Dashed clever, these viruses. Covid smut Prince Andrew at just the right time.

      1. When I went to the market on Wednesday , there was a stall selling ethnic clothes .

        The colourful material reminded me of African markets .

        I was also amazed to see a stall selling Okrah and Sweet
        potatoes , masses of chilli and other things that I will not eat .

          1. Back to the 70s – in all too many ways.
            We must raid the attic for our flares and cheesecloth shirts.

          2. I really liked cheesecloth. It was iconic of the age, and now steeped in nostalgia. I trotted off to the Greek islands with a couple of cheesecloth tops in my backpack. Another girl wore my M&S nightie as a frock.

  51. Temp in the house 23c .. outside is very warm , with a warm brisk breeze .

    The sky looks greyish blue .. dusty almost .

    Moh’s black car this morning was covered in a fine dust .

    Prickly eye weather .

      1. Where are you sos? The temp inside is about 28’c in ‘Ampshire but that’ll rise by 2-3pm.

        1. Dordogneshire France
          It’s now 38 and still heading north.
          Over 100 in proper money.
          The pool is now approaching 30 and for me it’s too warm to swim more than a few hundred metres at a time

    1. Wow! And wow again.
      I keep trying to introduce cornflowers but with little success.
      I remember the children in Russia selling bunches of them on the village quaysides.
      Peonies also seemed to do well; there was a monastery garden absolutely covered in them.

      1. Morrisons free “Seeds of hope” this year were cornflowers – we’ll see if they do anything.

  53. Patel has sentenced Julian Assange to many years in prison.
    The people in charge really don’ take kindly to any form of whistleblowing,

  54. How the various central banks are reacting to inflation:

    Fed: Hikes 75bps
    SNB: Hikes 50bps
    BoE: Hikes 25bps
    ECB: A plan to make a plan
    BoJ: Operation ostrich

    https://twitter.com/FerroTV/status/1537395088724303872
    But it must be added, that the Federal reserve is still pumping imaginary money into the system at the same time as raising interest rates, which, if I understand it correctly, is just going to make inflation worse…

        1. Thank you, Wibbles, I have problems with unexplained TLA/FLAs and similarly unexplained abbreviations.

          2. I did, because I have a mortgage, and therefore have been listening to the financial news!

          3. Me too, Tom. Perhaps we could bring out a dictionary-type book called “TLAs explained” and make ourselves a fortune.

        2. Thanks for the explanation, wibbling; I was as confused as Tom. But if it means “base percentage points” why not “bpp”?

    2. Yep. This mess was caused by the state first taking too much out of the economy, then borrowing to put too much back in, then wasting what it took out. Good for it, as the consequences for big fat debt burdened state are it can keep buying headlines for pointless agenda. Bad new for us who’s incomes, savings and economies are destroyed.

        1. That’s why our economy is in the toilet and why a coffee that cost £1.50 in the 90’s is £5 now.

          1. The end of the fiat pound, euro, dollar and yen in a welter of over-printing was inevitable from the moment they were launched free from the gold standard.
            Most people still don’t get that.

          2. Heck blackbox2 – most folk can’t spell economics, let alone grasp the difference between supply and demand. You still find utter morons squealing for companies to pay more tax.

    3. Faced with higher mortgage rate hikes what employee, with a mortgage, isn’t going to want higher wages and if granted if that doesn’t fuel inflation then I simply don’t know what does….

  56. Hallo all, me again but not Meagain who is currently ensconced in Montecito with her bathrooms and her peevish husband. I am back again but still feeling fragile so will be confining myself to discussions about Neem oil as a pesticide and what to do in a rockery. Anything that gets me worked up, politics etc, exhausts me in minutes flat. I will be tempted to reply to certain things I shouldn’t but will not reply if it gets me worked up to do so.
    In the meantime, nice to be back and I hope that everyone has been doing well.
    Now something to amuse
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl_4I7vLLc4

    1. That’s really funny, thank you. Glad you’re feeling a little better and hope you continue to improve.

      1. I wont. I have to limit things quite severely. Get exhausted quite quickly.

    3. Lovely to see you back. The weather gives you an extra excuse to pamper yourself.

    6. Good to hear you are back here and on the mend. One day at a time and take it easy.

    1. Lack of suitable pollenating wasps?
      We lost our good fig tree during the Beast from the East spring 3 (?) years ago.
      Now for the first year, son or daughter of that tree is bearing figs.
      When we visited Delos, there was a ginormous fig tree on a very barren site; what we think kept it going were its roots in an old water cistern probably dating from when the temple was built.

      1. I must compare notes with you, Annie. My knee-high plant bought in an autumn sales some 3 years ago is now growing like topsy and is almost 12 feet high, but the figs are still rather small and never seem to ripen. How many more years do I have to wait? You and Korky must come round for an afternoon tea/BBQ soon and give me some horticultural advice.

        1. We had a mature Fig tree in our garden in south London. It produced lots of figs but they never ripened. My dad said that it never got warm enough. It became diseased and was shopped down- a shame as it was a handsome tree, right in the middle of the rockery.

      2. I must compare notes with you, Annie. My knee-high plant bought in an autumn sales some 3 years ago is now growing like topsy and is almost 12 feet high, but the figs are still rather small and never seem to ripen. How many more years do I have to wait? You and Korky must come round for an afternoon tea/BBQ soon and give me some horticultural advice.

      3. The B from the E was early March 2018. We were in Kenya at the time and our neighbours coped valiantly with the ensuing flood through the ceiling from the thawing water pipes one of which had sprung a leak while frozen. We arrived home to a cold, damp house, with no power and no running water. If out n-d-n hadn’t been feeding our cat, it would have been even more of a disaster. As it was, it was a good time to have a new carpet in the bedroom.

    2. I love eating figs fresh or dried.
      One of my sisters had a problem with her fig tree, I told her 20 years ago to restrict the roots with buried paving slabs. Sadly she’s cut if down now.
      Perhaps I should plant one but we have a lot of problems with wood pigeons and grey squirrels. They’ve already stolen all our gooseberries, the grapes will be the squirrels next target. I’ve tried netting them, they chew holes in the netting. Steal them long before they are ripe enough for us to eat.

  59. Julian Assange: Priti Patel signs US extradition order
    Home Office says there are ‘no grounds’ to block extradition of WikiLeaks founder to face espionage charges in America

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/17/julian-assange-priti-patel-signs-us-extradition-order/

    American justice has an extremely poor reputation and the truth is not relevant. Of course Assange’s main crime was that he exposed things that the PTB wanted to remain hidden.

    Prince Andrew would have undoubtedly cleared his name in court if he was guaranteed to have a fair hearing.

    BTL

    Let us face it Prince Andrew would have taken his case to court in America if he had not been advised that he would be found guilty regardless of the facts.

    Ms Maxwell is in prison for trafficking young girls to Epstein’s Lolita Island – found guilty in an America court and murdered in an American prison but as far as the court is concerned there was not a single client who received her ‘goods’ in spite of the fact that several very prominent politicians and businessmen – such as Bill Clinton and Bill Gates – made several trips to the island on their private jets.

    1. I could never really understand what his ‘crimes’ were but surely by now he’s definitely been punished enough to make certain points by the world hierarchy.

      1. I think his treatment is to scare the shite out of anyone else into not releasing any compromising material (showing the illegal actions of states that purport to be squeaky clean) that may come into their possession.

        1. Same applies to Tommy Robinson here, i’m not a fan, but what has he ever done to deserve such persistent abuse from the police etc ?
          But it’s Okay when slammers block our shared streets with their parties and marches etc, nobody does a bloody thing about it.

          2. If any of us carried placards like those we would be arrested and jailed for threats to life.

          3. And they had a free police escort to protect them from any offensive language or something as damaging to their mental health and joint well-being as one of these 👆🤔

        2. Exactly. They want him to be permanently housed in that supermax prison in Colorado. That way they can wheel out his punishment every time they want to scare others off.

      2. I think his treatment is to scare the shite out of anyone else into not releasing any compromising material (showing the illegal actions of states that purport to be squeaky clean) that may come into their possession.

    2. As a matter of interest is there a single Nottler who believes that Epstein committed suicide?

        1. Murdered? – Possibly.

          Removed? – Possibly.

          Committed Suicide? – No way.

    3. Being found not guilty in an American court is similar to a non American boxer having to get a knock out to win a draw.

  60. Julian Assange: Priti Patel signs US extradition order
    Home Office says there are ‘no grounds’ to block extradition of WikiLeaks founder to face espionage charges in America

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/17/julian-assange-priti-patel-signs-us-extradition-order/

    American justice has an extremely poor reputation and the truth is not relevant. Of course Assange’s main crime was that he exposed things that the PTB wanted to remain hidden.

    Prince Andrew would have undoubtedly cleared his name in court if he was guaranteed to have a fair hearing.

    BTL

    Let us face it Prince Andrew would have taken his case to court in America if he had not been advised that he would be found guilty regardless of the facts.

    Ms Maxwell is in prison for trafficking young girls to Epstein’s Lolita Island – found guilty in an America court but as far as the court is concerned there was not a single client who received her ‘goods’ in spite of the fact that several very prominent politicians and business – such as Bill Clinton and Bill Gates made and several trips to the island on their private jets.

  61. 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 us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    FAQs on what to do if you are asked to declare your preferred gender pronouns

    We have been contacted by many members recently 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. Consequently, we thought it would be useful to pull together some FAQs on this issue.

    As with so many free speech issues, there are some legal protections for employees who do not wish to declare their gender pronouns, 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. The bottom line is that 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.

    FSU Comedy Night on 29th June – get your tickets here!

    London members, many of whom came to our packed meet-up in March, are encouraged to get tickets to our Summer Special Comedy Night on Wednesday 29th June, where there will be plenty of opportunities to meet other members and the FSU’s staff. The MC for the night will be FSU favourite Dominic Frisby – who you can watch talking about the event here. Dominic will be performing a special set of comedy hits with his band the Gilets Jaunes. Also on the bill is comedy crooner Frank Sanazi, described in Chortle as “the extravagantly offensive love-child of Adolf Hitler and Frank Sinatra”. Frank will be joined by his friends Dean Stalin, Spliff Richard and Tom Mones. As this event is also a fund-raiser it is open to the public – get your tickets here.

    TRANS – When Ideology Hits Reality: register for our July speakeasy event here!

    We are delighted to announce that at our next Online Speakeasy, on Tuesday 12th July at 6.30pm BST, we will be joined by journalist, author and campaigner Helen Joyce. Helen has been instrumental in opening up the debate about sex, gender and women’s rights. Helen will be interviewed by Dr Jan Macvarish, the FSU’s Education and Events Director. Register here to receive the Zoom link.

    The FSU launches its Scottish office web page

    Back in April, the FSU opened a Scottish office due to overwhelming demand from its Scottish members who are concerned that free speech is in peril north of the border. This week saw the launch of our new Scottish office webpage, which you can access here. Not only does the page showcase the work the FSU is already doing on behalf of its Scottish members, it also acts as a great first point of contact for members – or prospective members – who are concerned that they’re being penalised for exercising their lawful right to free speech and need to get in touch with our case team. As Fraser Hudghton, our Director of Case Management and the Director of FSU Scotland, notes, “There are specific challenges in Scotland with devolved legislation and it’s vitally important Scots know that we are there to provide help when they need it most.”

    The FSU’s forthcoming Regional Speakeasies

    Some of you may have already come along to our in-person meet-ups in pubs and bars, where members can socialise while exploring free speech issues. During late June and July, Regional Speakeasies will be happening in Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Oxford. You can check out the dates of these in the new Events section of our website, with more details being emailed to all members very shortly. Members are welcome to bring guests, particularly those likely to join the FSU!

    Lady of Honour film cancellation – a request for information from our readers

    In last week’s newsletter we reviewed press coverage of the decision by Cineworld and Showcase to cancel showings of the film Lady of Heaven in response to aggressive protests by some Muslims who regarded the film as offensive. As we pointed out, in bowing to the demands of a tiny group of religious extremists, they were depriving paying customers of their right to see the film for themselves and make up their own minds about its contents. We’d now like to follow up on that point and want to know whether any of our members, supporters and friends were affected by the protests in Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, Bolton, Blackburn, Birmingham or Stratford. Do please get in touch if you or your family members were prevented from seeing the film by the protests, whether that’s because your local cinema cancelled it, because you felt intimidated or because protestors blocked you from getting in to see it. You can reach us via help@freespeechunion.org or by direct messaging us on Twitter (@SpeechUnion), Facebook (@SpeechUnion) or LinkedIn (“The Free Speech Union”).

    ‘Legal but harmful’ content and the Online Safety Bill: Toby Young v Chris Philp

    In a piece for ConservativeHome this week, FSU General Secretary Toby Young “goes to the heart of what’s wrong” with this Bill: “Not only is the concept of ‘legal but harmful’ content a weaselly way of trying to restrict free speech – of trying to square a circle that cannot be squared – but it is a breach of the fundamental principle of English Common Law that unless something is explicitly prohibited it is permitted.”

    It’s well worth a read, not least for the superbly exegetical manner in which Toby accounts for the discrepancy between the FSU’s understanding of the Bill, and the public statements currently being made about the Bill by Chris Philp, the minister tasked with the “nightmarish” job of seeing the legislation through the Commons.

    Briefly, the FSU’s position, which Toby set out in an earlier piece for The Critic, is that the Bill will “force social media companies to remove ‘legal but harmful’ content from their platforms”. The bottom line, he added, “is that stuff it is perfectly legal to say and write offline will be prohibited online”. Last week, however, Philp wrote a piece for ConHome in which he denied that, saying social media companies could actually “choose to allow it [i.e., ‘legal but harmful’ content] on their platforms”.

    As Toby points out in his recent ConHome piece, Philp was certainly right to say that “while ‘Category 1’ providers will have an obligation to stipulate how they intend to respond to ‘legal but harmful’ content in their terms and conditions, they will not be required to remove it”. But in suggesting that this would leave providers with the ability to “choose” what to do about ‘legal but harmful’ content the minster was “being disingenuous.” That’s because the Bill describes the four different responses available to providers in such a way as to deter them from taking Philp’s “laissez-faire approach”. Briefly, the four choices are: 1. Taking down content; 2. Restricting users’ access to content; 3. Limiting the recommendation or promotion of content; 4. Recommending or promoting content. Choosing simply to “allow” content that is ‘legal but harmful’ to adults on their platforms isn’t one of those four options, and “it is frankly inconceivable that YouTube, Facebook or Twitter will choose option (d) after the Government has designated the content in question ‘harmful’”.

    At one point in his article, Philp remarks that the Commons committee currently scrutinising the Bill has heard evidence from a “wide range of people… welcoming this pioneering internet safety law”. Maybe so, Toby says, but as this little legislative contretemps suggests, “had the committee invited the FSU to give evidence – or, indeed, Index on Censorship, Big Brother Watch, or any other pro-free speech organisations – the response would have been less enthusiastic”.

    The Online Safety Bill and the spectre of “press regulation via the back door”

    The version of the Online Safety Bill that passed through second reading and has now reached committee stage was designed to grant special protection from online censorship to “content of democratic importance and journalistic content”. The fact that the clauses in the Bill that protect such content cannot be overridden by secondary legislation suggests the government is taking great care to avoid a de facto system of state regulation of the press once the Bill reaches the statute book.

    These forbiddingly technical points made an appearance in the popular press this week, after it was revealed that Labour MP Kim Leadbeater had put forward an amendment to the Online Safety Bill stating that safeguards in the legislation protecting online media content from being removed should only be open to those newspapers which are “a member of an approved regulator (as defined in section 42 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013)”. Her reasoning, as quoted by the Times, was that “the bill as drafted has far too many loopholes and risks granting legal protection to those wishing to spread harmful content and disinformation in the name of ‘journalism’”.

    For the Mail, this was little more than a “cynical plot to put free Press in peril” (also see the Times leading article on 14th May). As the paper went on to explain, the amendment was making a clear allusion to “one of the most controversial aspects of the Leveson Inquiry into Press standards”, namely, “the demand that newspapers should sign up to a state-approved regulator”. All major national newspapers have of course steadfastly refused to sign up to a state-approved regulator on the basis that it would give the government a way of controlling the press. A state-approved regulator, Impress, was set up after the Leveson inquiry, but as the Mail reminded its readers, no major national newspaper is part of what it described, with a wonderfully condescending turn of phrase, as “this set-up”. Instead, most papers have opted to sign up to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), “a regulator which is neither controlled nor funded by the State”. It was in this context that Iain Duncan Smith described the amendment as “a Labour attempt to bring in [press] regulation by the back door, and the Government must stand very firm against it” (quoted in the Mail).

    Apparently, they did. “Ministers sink threat to free Press” declared the headline to a follow-up piece in the Mail the next day. “Ministers yesterday saw off an attempt to introduce State regulation of the Press by the back door”, the article continued. Maybe so, but later on in that article one finds the following, rather less settled description of the current state of play: “Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, the MP for Batley and Spen, agreed to withdraw the amendment to allow more discussion on the issue.”

    Incidentally, one of the points Toby made in his piece in the Critic about the Bill is that it would only need the slightest of tweaks to usher in state regulation of the press – and he described exactly the risk that materialised in the form of Leadbeater’s proposed amendment. One of the great dangers of this Bill is that even if the current Government stands firm on this issue, it has signposted a simple way for a Labour Government to bring in Leveson by the back door.

    The “staggering” verdict in Carole Cadwalladr v Arron Banks

    The FSU welcomes the verdict in the Arron Banks v Carole Cadwalladr case. As Rebecca Vincent from the press freedom campaign group, Reporters without Borders, said, “It wasn’t just Ms Cadwalladr’s reputation that was at stake, but also the ability of the press to report freely on such issues.” Over in the Spectator, Brendan O’Neill took a similar view, suggesting that “you should never sue people for what they say, even if it is untrue or hurtful”, before urging those more litigiously minded of his readers to counter the “codswallop” of their detractors “in the public square instead”.

    That said, it’s not difficult to understand why Brendan O’Neill went on to describe the Judge’s verdict as “pretty staggering”. Arron Banks, the founder of the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU, brought the action in relation to two public utterances made by Cadwalladr. The first came during a TED talk in which she said: “I’m not even going to go into the lies that Arron Banks has told about his covert relationship with the Russian government.” The second utterance took the form of a Tweet that linked to her TED talk and made similar claims. Banks’s case was that both of these utterances were false and defamatory. Mrs Justice Steyn did in fact rule that the first utterance was both false and defamatory of Banks – who has, by the way, always strongly denied the allegations in question – but she accepted Ms Cadwalladr’s “public interest” defence (BBC), rooted in the fact that she could not have known it was false at the time.

    So far, so unremarkable, you might think. It’s at this point, however, that, according to Brendan, things started to get a little “weird”. With respect to the tweet, for which there was no public interest defence, and which was also deemed to be false, Mrs Justice Steyn rejected the claim it was damaging to Banks’ reputation on the basis that “it would only have been seen by Cadwalladr’s online fanclub, most of whom will already have thought Banks was dodgy”.

    In other words, “It was only Twitter, M’lud.”

    The FSU welcomes this legal precedent and looks forward from now on to that argument being applied to all those who use Twitter, not just blue-tick ‘Follow back, pro-European’ (or FBPE) campaigners, activists and journalists.

    Cancel culture realises social and racial benefits, say the Open University

    According to the Mail, the Open University has established a fruitful working relationship with online training provider FutureLearn and Labour frontbencher David Lammy. The result has been a training programme tailored to the needs of UK university staff and students. Organisers say the course – titled Union Black: Britain’s black cultures and steps to anti-racism – was developed in response to a Universities UK report from 2020 called Tackling Racial Harassment in Higher Education. It’s proved remarkably popular too, with nearly 100 universities across the UK now offering the course to their staff and students.

    According to the Telegraph, course materials suggest that during training sessions, “academics are urged to become ‘active allies’ in advancing racial justice, and are taught about the advantages of ‘cancelling’ people and institutions”. Helpfully, the online module then goes on to explain what those advantages are. “Cancel culture” has, for instance, “been shown to realise benefits” in relation to “racial and social justice”. The course maintains that “holding people or entities accountable for immoral or unacceptable behaviour” is a good thing, as is “promoting collective action to achieve social justice and cultural change through social pressure”.

    FSU General Secretary Toby Young wasn’t impressed. “The practice of publicly shaming your intellectual opponents and calling for them to lose their livelihoods is absolutely abhorrent and has no place in universities,” he told the Telegraph. “Academics should be free to dissent from prevailing campus orthodoxies without fear of punishment.” Over in the Mail, Dr Bryn Harris, the FSU’s Chief Legal Counsel confessed himself to be “disappointed, though sadly not surprised”, adding that it was yet another “sad example of UK universities’ inability to be serious about academic freedom and freedom of speech”.

    In fairness, the course does concede that any academics wishing to dust off their pitchforks should first engage in “due diligence before effectively ‘cancelling’ someone”. But given that – as the Telegraph points out – participants are told elsewhere on the course that “white superiority is embedded in the linguistic and cultural psychology of the English language” and that, as a result, it is “covertly woven” into all of our minds, one wonders how “due diligence” can possibly be performed without ‘unconscious biases’ of various kinds affecting the process. Perhaps Morse Code, silent Zumba or Semaphore might offer more socially just, equitable alternatives to the endemically racist English language.

    Areo magazine – take a read and show your support!

    Areo is an independent digital journal with free speech at the heart of its mission. Named for John Milton’s 1644 Areopagitica, a pioneering call for freedom of the press, Areo publishes on politics, society, culture and the arts, fearlessly giving a voice to heterodox thinkers at a time when cancel culture and illiberalism seek to narrow the range of debate. One such heterodox thinker is Richard Dawkins, who calls Areo “the place to go for unintimidated sanity in a bullying mad world”. FSU supporters looking for a bit of “unintimidated sanity” can read Areo here and support their Patreon here to get exclusive content from contributors like Dawkins and Stephen Pinker.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    1. Good afternoon, Grizzly. I am very much interested in joining the FSU, but your final sentence concludes with “you can find our website here”. Where, exactly?

      1. Posted above. The only problem when I copy and paste the newsletter is that all the links disappear!

  62. Here we go with more invented Bull Shite.
    But it’s okay if major countries with massive populations still use coal for generating electricity, and it’s okay o in the UK to cutdown thousands of 25 year-old conifers own by millionaires turn them into wood chips and burn them to create hot water as long as the ‘do gooders’ mention it’s hot water for elderly people in a local care home owned by an overseas millionaire who charges around 1500 pounds a week for the accommodation.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/homeowners-warned-to-think-twice-about-using-log-burners-after-alarming-discovery/ar-AAYy3r3?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=999d1e4edf3c458a8e9eb7211c226cbc

    1. I was just reading that wood pellet boilers and stoves get you a kind of grant when purchasing them, I wish I had the money to buy and keep a place in the back of beyond burning wood pellets flat out.

    2. Did you see the fiasco when GM introduced their latest EV.
      A reporter dared to ask where the power came from to charge the little beast. Smug GM VP pointed at a wall socket and claimed that they were using clean energy from renewable sources. The reporter then told the GM bigwig that 95% of the power they were using was from coal powered generation stations.

      Not the best of press experiences.

      1. I spoke to an elderly chap last week in Devon he had recently paid about 30k for a Nissan Leaf, because he only has the usual supply of electricity under 60 amps. It takes him 17 hours to fully charge the car batteries.
        To install the upgrade would cost a lot of money and work.

        1. Most houses here have a 200 amp service so it is just a case of adding in the charger.

          We are moving to an apartment at the end of August, there are no power points in the garage. Not that I would fancy living above 30 cars a charging or catching fire.

          1. Richard, some one told me that houses built during and before the 50s wouldn’t have enough input to withstand the new power adapter.
            Can you imagine rows of Victorian terraced homes with chargers. Let alone the parking problems.

      1. Ayup, young Grizzly. Where’s your link to the FSU (Free Speech Union, for those unfamiliar with acronyms)?

    1. I don’t think Bore-us has ever made use of ethics and he probably doesn’t understand the meaning of the word.
      Especially in the meanings of Code of Duty and Honour.
      There is another one of that type who has just been ‘knighted’.

      2. I don’t think it’s just him. When you look at the type of person who goes into politics let’s say they have a ‘flexible’ interpretation of the truth.

        1. My all time favourite is “habitual and pathological liars”. Did I mention that the very species took home between them 132 millions in expenses last year alone. I wonder how many flexible interpretations were submitted with the claims.
          No wonder they quickly got rid of Elizabeth Filkin.

          2. Shame you weren’t all train in secret service assassination techniques. 😏💉

    1. If you’d mixed it up yesterday, Eddy, then put the dough in the fridge overnight, and baked it today, it would have doubled the flavour. I urge you to try it sometime. 👍🏻

      1. I’ve read it makes a difference I’ll do that next time Grizz. Thanks, is that before knocking back and proving ?
        Mines pretty tasty though the family love it.
        The trouble is the half kilo whites are massive.

        1. I’ve just answered Anne Allan on the topic, Eddy. You put it in the fridge (or a cold place in winter) directly after kneading. I got the recipe from a report in the DT about a baker in Yorkshire who makes a selection of breads including his “sleepless” overnight loaf. He said that since he introduce it it flies off the shelves, his customers can’t get enough. The science behind it is that water and flour, when mixed, react over time to form what is called an “autolyse”. The longer this reaction takes place the deeper the flavour that ensues. Same day bread is delicious. Overnight bread is delicious +. 😊

        1. No. You mix the ingredients, knead well then cover the bowl and put in in the fridge overnight. It may or may not rise slightly overnight depending on the yeast content. Next morning take it out and put the bowl in a warm, draught-free place (I put it in the oven @ 20ºC to let it have its initial rise). After that, knock back, shape and place it in a warm place for its second rise [i.e. to ‘prove'( which means that you are proving that the yeast is still viable)]. After it has doubled in size, then bake as normal.

    2. She may have gotten away with it if his first name was Mike rather than Jeremy….

  67. Ha! Plasterer in MiL’s flat. Artex in the kitchen is being pulled off, so more boards needed to fix it properly.

    On the upside, going to swap out the triad of angle lights for spot lights, which should make the room feel a little ‘bigger’.

    1. Why didn’t they just put a skim coat over the artex (or was it tested for traces of asbestos and so had to be removed by specialist asbestos removers)?

  68. ‘The World At One’ on R4 has just gone full-on ‘Apocalypse Now!’ because of the warm weather. You don’t need me to describe it – you’ve heard it all before. However, one contributor had me reaching for the baseball bat. She was Baroness Worthington (no, I’d never heard of her), one of the authors of the Climate Change Act. She was the Brighton Pixie with attitude. Save the world with household insulation, solar panels and wind turbines (and drop the veto on onshore wind). That’ll do it. We’ll all live happily ever after. “It’s up to politicians,” she said,” to save us if they just listen to sensible people like me.” She was contemptuously dismissive of the continuing use of fossil fuels even in the short term: “Now that they’re so expensive, renewables are even better value than before!”

    Unless the political establishment can separate the meteorological data from energy policy, we really are doomed. It’s impossible to debate the subject.

    1. I would have the lot of them up in court for promoting this scam and robbing their fellow citizens, fines and hard labour all round.

    2. BarrenMess Worthnothing – A brain dead moron who has never produced anything of use in her entire adult life. ‘Worked'(sic) for charities and parasitical organisations such as Friends of the Earth and environment propaganda groups. Is chauffeured to and from the House of Lords in a Bentley or a Rolls Royce. Green scum.

    1. How… how will Daily Mail readers now they’re wrong? Who will call Remoaners morons? My ‘banned from the guardian’ hall of fame…

      1. Exactly. Someone has to at least try to educate the thickos, even if only a little sticks in their tiny brains.

  70. ‘We’ll spend every waking hour fighting until he is free’: Julian Assange’s wife and lawyers vow to appeal US extradition and warn the WikiLeaks founder may ‘take his own life’ if sent to American jail
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10926609/Priti-Patel-signs-order-extradite-Julian-Assange-face-espionage-charges.html

    DM Story

    This is an euphemism.

    Assange would not commit suicide any more than Epstein committed suicide – he would be murdered just as Epstein was.

        1. How can you say that? I’m shocked that you could even think it.
          That sort of thing only happens in Russia or China! so I’m told.

          I’ll go back to my glass of Shiraz and become comfortably numb. 😔

          We seem to live in a strange world these days.
          ps. he should have been free years ago.

          1. As far as can see, he obtained classified data from Manning, and released it. It’s all old news now after 10 years and nobody has questioned its veracity.
            Release this man!

    2. When the body of epstien was removed from the prison cell where he had hung himself with some bits of string.
      The TV cameras were on hand and low and behold the sheet covering the ‘body’ was drawn aside enough to see the person on the stretcher that didn’t really resemble Epstien. And if he was dead looked peaceful.
      My assumption at the time was it would have been quite easy for someone as rich and influential as he was could have easily faked all of that and been removed from jail hours before the TV cameras were allowed in.
      He’s probably hiding away in luxury somewhere, having invested in plastic surgery. I doubt if that isn’t the first time this type of event has happened.

  71. Now that the hot weather is here and there is a greater risk of us senior members dying I thought I’d record the status of my vital signs with one of my newer oximeters.

    The plythysmogragh signal can be seen on the attached gif sequence and newer pulse oximeter models like this one use complex algorithms to derive the Perfusion Index (PI) – the percentage ratio of ocillatory blood flow to average blood flow at point of measurement. In hot weather this can be as high as 20% whilst in the cold it can be down to 2%.(i.e, 2 up to 20 displayed on the oximeter).

    Also another algorithm derives the Respiration Rate (RR) but despite all this technology nurses still look at your chest wall to check your breathing rate – after all you can never trust electronic devices to tell if you’re alive.

    If your pulse oximeter alarm goes off it doesn’t mean you’re dead – it might have fallen off youre finger. Neverthess if you have a recording pulse oximeter on your finger overnight whilst asleep you can check in the morning if you almost died during the night.
    I showed my GP one such recording but he didn’t want to be my GP any more.
    Still, I suppose there isn’t a prescription drug for almost dying syndrome (ASD).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0db7dc297dd3362293c35d6d4e3baa1aae6fb266b2ef417e4893d47f665573b5.gif

      1. Well a SpO2 of 95-98 is quite normal and a pulse rate of dead on 60 pulses per min is what I would expect given the heart failure drugs I’m on. It used to be 85 ppm as you can see from my avatar before the drugs.

        As for PI it just means I’m hot and RR at 20 per min means I’m still alive and breathing

    3. After the second paragraph, this sprang to mind.
      “Dem Bones, Dem Bones …. Dem Dry Bones ……”

  72. Forget alcohol. A small quantity of Belvoir Farm elderflower cordial, topped up with tonic.That is THE thing….

    1. Just glugged a pint of the Allan Towers brand; well diluted, it’s an old, very strong recipe.

      2. They wood spin that. As is happening with the slow but sure adaption of transatlantic spelling.

    2. Oh my word another set of instructions from the current experts of all opinion. 🙄 🤔

  78. Where are you Plum?

    Wordle 363 4/6

    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
    ⬛⬛🟩⬛🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. On a sherry run.
      Wordle 363 4/6

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

  80. 353262+ up ticks,

    Post
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    2h
    As an MEP I was the only elected politician who defended Assange from extradition to Sweden under a European Arrest Warrant.

    It was a matter of priciple. The EAW required no evidence, & the British courts & Home Sec had no powers to stop it.

    I said that it was being used to send Assange to Sweden on spurious ‘rape’ charges so that he could then be extradited to the USA for ‘political crimes’.

    As it turns out the UK is now doing it itself. The UK-USA Extradition Treaty should be torn up & thrown in the bin. It is a one-way treaty that protects US citizens but not UK citizens or residents.

    Trump could have ‘pardoned’ Assange. He chose not to.

    1. Where;s the ECHR supporting him? Or do they only promote the invading paedophile rapists?

    1. I am bemused: if as the msm would have us believe, Russian troops are running amok in Ukraine, why is it safe for these visits?
      I’ve seen families visiting seaside resorts and areas where life seems to be going on with little disruption.
      No wonder we are being restricted in what can be seen from there.
      Joseph would be so pleased that his ideas for population indoctrination had been so successful, even if it took a few years of trial and error.
      No wonder government hates VPN/Onion Internet connections.

        1. Not if one starts from the premise that the bastards are lying to us, which they are.

    1. Par Four for me; my first two shots drew ‘blanks’!
      Wordle 363 4/6

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

    2. Even worse, six…
      Wordle 363 6/6

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

    4. Four today. Mostly by establishing which letters are NOT included.
      Wordle 363 4/6

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

        1. So I missed out a comma 😉 Been to supermarket and waited far too long for our cab.
          Sick of all the BS too. When is the sorry excuse for a PM going to address some of the pressing issues in this country instead of farting about, pretending he’s a statesman. Ye gods!

          2. Shush, we would be glad to send you Trudeau in exchange.

            We think he is bad, here is a comment from the paper this morning about the deputy PM.

            Chrystia Freeland is more vexing than Justin Trudeau. This is quite a milestone. We all grant that she is smarter. But we thought he had commanded that other territory as all his own.

            The shine is definitely off the liberal halo.

        1. It is ours, we have several large beds among the acres of grass.

          No river view like you have. Do you have a toboggan for winter trips down to the rivers edge?

  84. Assange’s lawyers should take his case to the ECHR.
    If illegal gimmegrants can be found impossible to deport , then Assange, facing what amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in America, should certainly be allowed to stay.
    He won’t of course, but it will prove conclusively the Court is biased.

    2. The first reply? “It’s no different from the killing of Stephen Lawrence.”

    3. I would suggest that hyenas are more civilised. What appalling behaviour and still, these horrors are allowed into the UK.

  86. Covid cases rocketing, monkeypox on the rise, Assange to be deported, I wonder what the authorities are about to announce/hide under cover of the distractions.

      1. What does he think he is doing? The man is utterly insane. I thought Ukraine was a war zone?

        1. “I have returned from Ukraine with peace for our time”.

          May we all rest in peace if this fiasco goes nuclear…

          1. I’m afraid my resources don’t stretch to making NoTTL nuclear-proof. Although I was once involved in a project constructing facilities which were. If Putin chooses to make an example of Airstrip One, the EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) will lkely knock out the interweb thingy, anyway.

            But here’s a thought – we are represented around the planet. The WordPress part of the site is hosted by Bluehost, which is American. Disqus, ditto. If any trusted Nottler who lives far from Airstrip One would like to act as a safety net (whether or not a moderator), do let me know.

            Not you, Polly.

            Next month, I’m renewing the hosting arrangements for three years, so the site could outlive us all. Hopefully not. But I could step under a bus tomorrow (unlikely where I live), so UK-based substitutes are also welcome.

          2. Nottle probably ranks higher on Putin’s respect list than Bojo, so we may be lucky…

          4. I would offer to mod again Little Bro’ but have too much going on right now. Maybe in the furture.

        2. Boris is projecting himself as the ‘Western Democratic Hero and saviour of Ukraine’ – against Putin’s Russia.

          ‘T would best be resolved by Guns at Dawn …

          Avez-vous des paris s’il vous plaît?

          1. Mais non, je m’excuse. Donc, j’ai deux parapluies disponibles pour vous d’emprunter. Beaucoup plus approprié que les armes à feu.

        3. I think it was written in the Spectator that this is one of the few wars where no one is shouting for peace. Where are the snowflakes and anti war protesters when you need them.

  87. Hullo Nottlers, In case the BBC don’t mention it, this is what Putin said today in St Petersburg.

    “The European Union has completely lost its political sovereignty, and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else’s tune, accepting
    whatever they are told from above, causing harm to their own population and their own economy. . . . Such a detachment from reality, from the
    demands of society, will inevitably lead to a surge of populism and the growth of radical movements, to serious social and economic changes, to
    degradation, and in the near future, to a change of elites. . . . It is a mistake to suggest that the times of turbulent changes can be waited out and that things will return to normal; that everything will be as it was. It won’t. . . . The West’s elites cling to the shadows of the past. They believe that the dominance of the West in global politics and economy is a constant, eternal value, but nothing is eternal.”

    — Vladimir Putin, St. Petersburg International Economic
    Forum, June 17, 2022

    1. And he’s correct.
      History merely repeats itself in slightly different ways, often in accordance with the dominant religion or weaponry but the world invariably carries on until the next change.

    1. They were against us anyway. They only need an excuse. We should never have bothered in two World Worls – they really aren’t worth it.

  90. Prince William praises ‘selfless’ officer killed defending US Capitol
    Duke of Cambridge writes letter of condolence to partner of Brian Sicknick, who died when rioting Donald Trump supporters stormed building

    By Hannah Furness,
    ROYAL EDITOR (certainly not a journalist)
    17 June 2022 • 2:29pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/857da5df33d6c5f85ff279e1f1081ad2ffe1e3cf943d2783fedec947316a65fb.jpg

    The Duke of Cambridge, pictured with the Duchess, wrote to the widow of an officer killed during the riot at the US Capitol last year CREDIT: AFP

    The Duke of Cambridge has praised a police officer who died after being assaulted during the US Capitol riot, in a letter to his grieving partner.

    The Duke, who often writes to the families of British emergency services following a tragedy, told the girlfriend of Brian Sicknick he wanted to pay tribute to his “patriotism and selflessness” in upholding American democracy.

    The officer, 42, died after trying to fend off a mob who laid siege to the Washington building on January 6 last year.

    He had been pepper-sprayed and hit with a fire-extinguisher as a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the building in the hope of blocking the confirmation of Joe Biden’s presidency.

    Sandra Garza, his girlfriend, has now revealed the Duke wrote to her in the aftermath, expressing his condolences and praising her partner’s actions.

    In the letter, shown to US television channel CNN by Ms Garza, the Duke said: “Please forgive me if I am intruding but I wanted to write and let you know how sorry I am about the death of your partner, Brian.

    “Having recently watched documentary footage of the harrowing events that took place at the Capitol building, I wanted to acknowledge the patriotism and selflessness of Brian.

    “By all accounts, Brian performed valiantly whilst on duty and despite suffering injuries continued to do his utmost to protect those inside.

    “I was terribly saddened to hear he had passed away the following day and I hope you can take some comfort from knowing that it is thanks to law enforcement officers like Brian that the situation did not escalate further and democracy was upheld.”

    The Duke’s letter was shown to US news channel CNN
    Signing off with “thoughts and prayers”, the Duke added: “I know that words cannot hope to provide comfort to you at this dreadful time, but I wanted to let you know that you and Brian’s family are very much in my thoughts.”

    In an interview, Ms Garza said she had received no message of condolence from Mr Trump.

    Sandra Garza praised the Duke while saying that Donald Trump ‘does not give two craps about law enforcement’

    “Trump does not give two craps about law enforcement or Brian, and yet Prince William took the time to honour me and Brian,” she said.

    The Duke regularly meets, telephones and writes to Britain’s first responders, making it a cornerstone of his work during the pandemic to keep in touch with the key workers to thank them for their service.

    Even the BBC reported that officer Sicknick died from natural causes, on Jan 7th, with no sign of internal or external injury. I look forward to news of William’s similar letter to the family of unarmed Ashli Babbitt, shot and killed at point blank range by a ‘cop of color’, who has faced no sanction for his actions.

    I’m frankly disappointed. I had hoped that William would be a safe pair of hands, following Charles’ brief and disastrous reign. Guess we’ll have to wait for George…

    1. I saw that report elsewhere and thought as you have expressed it.
      I have moved from being a staunch Royalist to a Republican.
      My only condition being that the Head of State cannot be a politician, such as Blair nor media personality, such as Zelensky

      1. If they would recruit the Head of State from NOTTL, I’d be 100% for a Republic.

        Otherwise, our best bet is to go Jacobite.

          1. I know! And far higher calibre than Charles, I believe….

            Edit: Not a German however – he is a Bavarian.

          2. Bavaria is part of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland so he’s a German – but so are the Windsors.

          5. They are all Hanoverians. There were 50 people with a better claim to the throne than George I.

          9. Not if you count Roman Catholics and descendants of such – then the number diminishes
            little. (ed I meant to say “rather”). But there is no gainsaying that Charles I was a twit.

          10. All claimants to the throne above George I were Catholics, which is why they were excluded by the 1701 Act of Settlement. Protestant adherents had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with the Hanoverians.

          13. We’ve had this conversation before, but Bavarians are Celts, not Germans. The royal family is not typical of the country of course, but they do have some Scottish blood too after all.

          14. In the same way that Scots may be Celts, they are also British. So Bavarians are Germans.

          15. There are German speakers in France, Italy, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria and Slovenija. Are they all Germans too?

          17. Then you can’t have the Windsors being German, and you must allow everyone who gets a British passport to be British…it gets very murky very quickly…

          18. It’s undeniable that the Windsors are British, and that The Jacobite claimants to the throne are German. By Act of Parliament, the Hanoverians and their descendants have a right to the throne, whilst the Jacobites are excluded.

            As I am an anti-monarchist, the question is completely irrelevant to me anyway. Viva la Republica!

          19. If you look at their family backgrounds, the Windsors up to and including William are probably more Germanic than the Bavarians! The Hannoverians’ claim to the throne rests on them being more obedient to the aristocracy, who held the real balance of power after the civil war. That’s not set in concrete, much as they would like us to believe that it is.
            To be a successful Republic, we’d need men of the calibre of the founding fathers of the US otherwise we’d get a weak democracy in thrall to whichever dictator comes along next.
            The monarchy has protected us from that until now (which is why I was a monarchist until recently) – and I think it is significant that the RF is so tightly connected to the technocratic dictatorship now threatening us. They’ve gone along with it and encouraged its stealthy march through the institutions at every turn.

          20. My comment about both the Windsors and the Duke of Bavaria being German was a bit flippant. It was meant to make the point that the British authorities had to scrabble around to look for Protestant heirs to the throne, as the first 50 were all Catholics. The best they could come up with was the Electress of Hanover, Sophia, and her offspring. Like William III before him, George I was more concerned with the advantages conferred on his native land by taking the British throne(s) than any consideration for his new British subjects.

          21. Bavarians are really, really not Germans. They still celebrate Celtic festivals in the back hills. A typical upper Bavarian (the core of Bavaria) is small, stocky, easy-going and full of jokes. Their old Celtic religion is still just under the surface (not the same as the Germanic one).

          1. You are selling, Anne? I seem to have mised something momentous – no doubt you have a good reason to do so. D and I are in the position where I am thinking of a drawdown equity release (of a relatively small amount which I could pay back out of my pension, if it came to it. IT’S ALL A MINEFIELD!)

            My sympathy to what you must be going through – selling is a pain – are you in a chain to buy as well?

            Well whatever, heartfelt empathy and good wishes to you.

          8. Apart from an awful lot of scarring around both knees I might get by.

            I’ve got good calves from a misspent youth doing lots of sport.

          12. Her continuous and abhorrent attitude is filled with tribalism, surely she should be on trial for hate crime.

          1. If you haven’t- read Devilwater by Anya Seton and any biographies of James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater. A brave and valiant man.

    2. What an absolute, bleeding heart idiotic thing to do. Messing around not only in politics, but in the politics of a foreign country.

      I fear Charles and William are very deeply bound up in the stinking cabal behind the great reset (which was of course, famously threatened by Trump).

      1. Charles and William occupy positions at the higher echelons of the globalist elites. Charles has been in Klaus Schwab’s pocket for decades.

        1. Or Schwab is in Charles’s pocket.
          The people running this thing aren’t that much cleverer than the rest of us, they are just far, far richer.

      2. Charles and William occupy positions at the higher echelons of the globalist elites. Charles has been in Klaus Schwab’s pocket for decades.

          2. I read a piece about him in the architectural press a few years ago and following his retirement. It figures as I would have been about ten years younger than him. Trench & Farrow were project managers on my buildings in Pimlico, the tower built over Pimlico Underground and the long block along Rampayne Street.

            The architectural historian, Roland Jeffrey, who is writing a monograph on my boss Sir William Whitfield, advised me that the Pimlico building is listed Grade II.

            My other major building for Whitfield, Richmond House Whitehall, on which I made fewer errors, is listed Grade II*. Roland organises tours of Whitfield buildings in the City and in Westminster.

          3. He was awarded a CBE following his work on the Millennium Dome and completion of the British Library.

            I have been inside Richmond House and from memory it has a rather grand staircase…

          4. Yes. I designed it. I used polished brass and stainless steel for the balustrade supports and toughened glass panels. The appearance of a ‘floating’ staircase was achieved by making the string in a series of rectangular Bath stone blocks tied to a stepped reinforced concrete waist.

            The company who made the metalwork was Starkie Gardner of Ipswich, now no longer trading but remembered for the fact that the best text on English Ironwork (architectural metalwork) is written by none other than J. Starkie-Gardner. Edit: I checked my copy. The book is dedicated by the author to the Architect Sir Ernest George.

    4. Unbelievable. They really do live in ivory towers. After Her Majesty is done…so am I.

      1. They should fire every one of their advisors and hire Nottle.
        Present company excepted, of course…

      2. I don’t call that an ivory tower, I call it open support for their gangster buddies.

    5. Recent photos of William and Kate do not portray a picture of a ‘Happy Couple’ – far from it …

    6. Credit to him for caring but the tensions in America caused by the election, Biden’s utter incompetence, the refusal for a recount (although I believe that is standard), the dodgy voting machines the thoroughly anti democratic nature of congress, the relentless assault of the media on Trump.. it adds up to a smelly, messy situation.

  91. Lovey place to be right now, glass of red, bottom of the garden, cool wind in my hair warm smell of garden fragrances rising up in the air. Birds taking drinks and splashy baths 12 feet away. Some smaller species parking up the hawthorn while the black birds take preference. Lovely time of year. Almost silent.
    Feet up as well. I hope I don’t snore. 😴😏

    1. I would love to hear the birdies in the trees – but all we get nowadays is ack ack ack from magpies. I feel like shooting them.

      2. We occasionally get small flocks of the green red neck parakeets flying around our gardens. Apparently some escape from London aviaries a few years ago and they have spread, making a living out of garden bird feeders.

  92. Gawd, I love this weather. The media are bleating on about extreme temps and how to cope etc. It isn’t hot, it’s warm. Lovely stuff and the more the better.

      1. No. I loved my job and made some good friends but I hated Georgia. And we had AC. In CT we didn’t and that could get hot- on the few days when it got above 90F .
        To emulate serious heat and humidity- soak a large woollen blanket in boiling water and wrap yourself in it….that’s real heat and humidity!

        2. We had the humidity (not quite the temperatures) when I lived briefly in Hong Kong. It was an eye-opener to me, from England, to go leave a cinema (A/C of course) into the dark of the night, to be greeted by a blast of hot air.

          There was severe A/C in the hotels and swanky places, so that the rich Chinese women could show off their furs (this was the early 1980s).

      2. I can play that on the guitar 🎸.
        Like many of the great American standards it’s a lovely tune and lyrics.

        1. A great regret that I have is that I was too damned lazy to learn to play an instrument.
          My parents tried to start me off with the violin and I hated it and rebelled!

          2. I used to, until my voice broke. I sang in the Church choir and school choirs and was often a soloist.
            Then I grew and shrunk an octave or two and became very, very ordinary as a singer. I still enjoy singing, badly!
            All my children had excellent voices and one even sang solos in Canterbury Cathedral on Easter Sunday, I could have burst with pride.
            During rehearsals, when the tourists were still milling about, he was doing one of the pieces and the whole cathedral stopped and listened.

          3. It only looks easy Sos I tried to teach one of my neighbours but he gave up after only a few weeks.
            But it’s all relative, when I’ve been to see a live pro player after I come home I feel like taking an axe to mine it seems so pointless when you have sat and watched players like Australia’s Tommy Emannuel for a couple of hours.
            Google him. He’s one of the world’s greatest.

          4. The very best always make things look easy
            I was lucky enough to play several sports at a high enough standard to really appreciate just how good those at the top of the tree really are

          5. I once walked into the squash centre at Christie’s Beach mid week mid afternoon nobody about. Started to knock up, the guy in charge called out do you want ‘a hit’ yes I said. You know when you’re on a hiding to nothing when your opponent can warm up cross court volley the ball back hand to fore hand.
            I was a B grade local league team player, he played like ‘king Johna Barrington.

          6. There are several sports where a small difference in ability can make the game a total no-contest, squash is one of them and apart from badminton, I can’t think of a worse one.

            I loved playing squash but became convinced that I must have been the world’s worst player.

            Most of my friends were sportspeople and unbeknowingly, I generally played against county standard players.
            So it was usually 9-1, 9-1, 9-0.

            I was dragooned into making up numbers for round table and soon discovered that there is a heaving mass of people who think they are good, but are anything but!

          7. Playing twice a week, It kept me fit, I weighed just over ten stone when I was 35.

          8. I was an athlete, 100 metres and cross country, school goalkeeper and other teams after my schooldays. I played squash and now I have problems walking. Had a hip resurface and now arthritis in left knee.
            Google earth Norlunga south Australia. I used run from the jetty to the Onkaparinga river mouth and back in soft sand with out stopping.
            Ouch now it’s Pay back time.

          9. I’m similar; new hip, new knee, all joints appear riddled with arthritis.
            Knowing then what I know now, I would still have played the sport.

          10. Same as Sos. I forgot to mention 25 years of golf twice a week. I am hoping after my Cardioversion in mid August to be able to play the occasional round gain from a buggy of course.

          11. I swim twice a day throughout the summer, I’ll click over the 30 km mark today and the daily distances should continue to move up over the season and I still walk for exercise during the winter.
            I enjoyed golf but wasn’t any good; I couldn’t swing a club now, my wrists are shot and shoulders and back not great either, thank goodness for a superb physio on call day and night for me.

          12. I can swim but can’t be bothered to put much effort into it. I loved walking but I just can’t cope with it any more.

          13. I’m second cousin to a fish, at one time I had aspirations for the Commonwealth games until glandular fever took the better part of a year to recover from, by which time I was too late.
            Badly timed injuries, the story of my sporting career.

      1. We, on the south coast, are basking in sunshine. I included commas especially for you Lacoste;-)

        1. Don’t go there, we went camping in Scotland not long after we were married in the mid (midge) seventies and had continous drizzle. We lasted three days.
          Drove back to North London dried all our gear out in my parent’s garden and drove to South Devon. Lovely weather.
          We’ve never been camping since.

        2. The last midge died five minutes ago; there will be a farewell with bagpipes …

      3. Would you care to swap? I saw that the Shetland Isles were having a heatwave and the temperature was 14. 14!

    3. 52c and 95% humidity is hot and uncomfortable.
      UK is never happy, no matter the weather (maybe I should say the MSM) it’s either colder than, hotter than (pick country or continent) .
      Love being warm and getting lots of natural vitamin D.
      A cold beer or a glass of chilled white wine works wonders.

      1. We went on holiday Fjord climbing before Junior was born. I found it just right and climbed in a t shirt. The war queen had 18 layers of coats, hats, trousers. We do different holidays – she likes sitting on an island in the Maldives in her pants, I like cold, wet weather. I hiberate through summer and enjoy winter, she loves summer.

          1. Thank you for introducing me to a new word!

            Two, Four, Six, Eight
            Why do we Estivate?

    4. Totally agree, Lottie (people used to call you that. May I or would you rather I didn’t? I think it’s such lovely diminutive).

      Hope everything is going onwards and upwards for you.

    5. Rash, blurred vision, headache, insomnia discomfort… I think what some folk consider comfortable others find very uncomfortable.

  94. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22ec0cc3c97ee5c0727f5658db8ca5abbe38638e77f8202b3f562d8ab68c2fd6.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e1bc53ec35de439ba94e5c5848c0bd29be2397f45358243aa5beabd5b3c4b313.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96386373cb883fa80f2f7c3fe9fe42d9b610dc67f63a01d411a93be145b91682.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3093d6e3569fd427ba2671f08585a9f75556f06ead041889828743f91d22e986.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a956d9bebbadbff332848aede5fbb7e8e7988a3005cfb7798d910a87b86b2509.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38dec9f84a7c826c160a7555ad828de9eeb4b191769301df0dde7fc4ce588ffd.jpg A dazzling array of my favourite flower hues of ultramarine and violet in the garden this year. Periwinkle, lupin, lobelia, petunia, iris and aquilegia are resplendent in the border.

      1. Thanks, but … Hmmmm … not really, Dukke. I’m allowed to do some heavy work but I have to keep away from the flowers since I have a previous conviction for weeding out the blooms and leaving the weeds! ☹️ xxx

      1. The aquilegias are lovely when viewed from afar, but when you get close up to one, they are indeed breathtakingly gorgeous.

    3. I once spent a whole 30 pence on a small pot of Iris Siberica which over the next 35 years produced a wonderful array of blooms

          1. Thank you.

            With the recent move I’ve started digging the new garden by hand to remove bindweed and chunks of rock prior to planting. I’ve ordered some climbing plants three different species of Jasmine a few azaleas and a couple of tri-colour Camellia Japonicas which I’m told produce Pink red and white flowers!..

          4. An absolutely beautiful series of photographs and a splendid garden.
            Congratulations.

            That barge must be ENORMOUS

          5. Thank you. Sadly I no longer own it to garden there but in a couple of years, all being well, I shall be able to put up some fresh photos of the new garden. The Wisteria I planted a few weeks ago has already climbed 10 feet to reach the top of the terrace above the garden room. As for the barge other than the water level algae that the ducks are prone to gribbling at 4:00 am in the morning it is bereft of vegetation

          6. My wisterias had heart attacks, a very hard frost just as the leaves were forming. I’m hoping that the shoots might recover.

          9. ‘Pink Perfection’ on the right is 45 years old…The orange azalea 43…

    1. Used to get that a lot in NC.
      I heard a lot of birds chirping outside this morning while slurping my coffee. Looked outside and there was one of the resident Magpies hopping about but, in a flowertub, was a young one. At first I thought it was a Blackbird but then saw the markings. It had obviously found something to eat in the the tub. It was hopping round the edge and fell off. It has been named Tuffers. (Check out video of him batting if you don’t get it!) It quite made my morning.

    2. ‘When you meet Bojo tell him to fuck right off, and then fuck off some more!’

      (Well it is way passed the watershed!)

    4. A man walks into a bar and it’s empty – it’s just him and the bartender.
      He sits down and orders a drink.

      After a few seconds, he hears someone whisper, Pssst… I like your tie.

      The man looks around but doesn’t see anyone.

      Pssst… that color looks nice on you.

      He asks the bartender, Excuse me, but…are you speaking to me?

      The bartender rolls his eyes and says, No, sorry about that. It’s the peanuts… they’re complimentary.

    11. “Sorry, we don’t need any of your surplus white flags, Monsieur le President!”

  97. Goodnight you nutty people. See you tomorrow. Sleep well Y’all.
    Don’t let the cicadas bite;-))

  98. English Weather
    I just read something about weather in England:

    The Archbishop of Canterbury and The Royal Commission for Political Correctness announced today that the climate in the UK should no longer be referred to as _’English Weather’._

    In order to no longer offend a sizable portion of the UK population, it will now be referred to as _’Muslim Weather’_ — partly Sunni, but mostly Shi’ite.

    1. We sat outside this evening for our dinner- the first time this year. Very pleasant temperature and a breeze.

      The Beeb banging on about record heatwaves – one warm day is hardly a heatwave.

      1. They are self obsessed nutters.
        I mentioned yesterday that I was sitting out around this time watching the birds taking drinks and bathing in our stone bird bath. Today I discovered I have 5 mozzie bites from yesterday. Were are the bats, we usually have a few flying up and down and I even made homes for them attached to a shed and an oak tree.
        After the gargantuan effort made earlier today to cut the grass I’m knackered and will be asleep within 15 minutes of plugging my phone into charge.
        So it’s good night from me…..and….

      2. They are self obsessed nutters.
        I mentioned yesterday that I was sitting out around this time watching the birds taking drinks and bathing in our stone bird bath. Today I discovered I have 5 mozzie bites from yesterday. Were are the bats, we usually have a few flying up and down and I even made homes for them attached to a shed and an oak tree.
        After the gargantuan effort made earlier today to cut the grass I’m knackered and will be asleep within 15 minutes of plugging my phone into charge.
        So it’s good night from me…..and….

    2. How do they expect people to carry on working if they have hard physical jobs or very stressful work.
      I suppose it would suit them if people dropped dead before they could draw their pensions.

      1. …it would suit them if people dropped dead before they could draw their pensions.

        Sounds like a plan…

    3. IMO Johnson, like Biden in the USA, is so far into his destruction derby of the UK that he knows he is, politically, a dead man walking. Therefore, with nothing more to lose he can disregard any further opprobrium his future actions generate. His interminable pledges re the future, farming and food production, tree planting, the jobs the green revolution will generate etc. etc. can be ignored completely as the rantings of someone who really has lost the plot. He and his weak and useless government, as well as being dangerous, have become tiresome in the extreme.

      1. Yesterday I really did wonder if things could have been any worse if Mr Corbyn had won the election…….

        Morning Korky

        1. Morning, Stephenroi.

          Probably not but Corbyn advertised his destructive policies and was rejected by the electorate, whilst Johnson played the fraud card and won. And here we are!

    4. I’d kind of assumed that I’d be working into my seventies anyway, after bringing up four children on one wage.
      I heard a financial expert on a youtube interview casually saying recently “there isn’t a pension company in Europe that’s solvent” i.e. can deliver what they’ve promised to savers. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but I’m certainly not relying on the Government returning any of the money they’ve stolen from me over the years either.

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