Friday 18 November: This rudderless Tory Government has nothing left to say except that Labour would be worse

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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797 thoughts on “Friday 18 November: This rudderless Tory Government has nothing left to say except that Labour would be worse”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, Today’s funny

    There are two statues in a park…

    One of a nude man and one of a nude woman. They had been facing each other across a path way for a hundred years, when one day an angel comes down from the sky and, with a single gesture, brings the two to life.
    The angel tells them, ‘As a reward for being so patient through a hundred blazing summers and dismal winters, you have been given life for thirty minutes to do what you’ve wished to do the most.’
    He looks at her, she looks at him, and they go running behind the shrubbery.
    The angel waits patiently as the bushes rustle and giggling ensues. After fifteen minutes, the two return, out of breath and laughing.

    The angel tells them, ‘Um, you have fifteen minutes left, would you care to do it again?’

    He asks her ‘Shall we?’

    She eagerly replies, ‘Oh, yes, let’s! But let’s change positions. This time, I’ll hold the pigeon down and you shït on its head.

    2. That’s a cracker Tom. Good morning and thank you. I look forward to your morning funnies every day. 😂😂😂

  5. Conservative Party likes talking tough while avoiding hard choices. 18 november 2022.

    This was a very curious Autumn Statement. For the last month, we have been told that Britain needed to re-establish the confidence of the markets and put in place renewed fiscal discipline, supposedly so carelessly squandered by Liz Truss. “Eye-wateringly painful decisions” were coming for all of us.

    But when the statement came, it wasn’t quite like that. Public spending is protected for 2023 and 2024, with restraint, such as it is, coming only in 2025 and afterwards. Frozen tax thresholds will take time to have an effect.

    Meanwhile, the immediate tax increases fall on business, energy companies, dividends, capital gains, and the “rich”, with only the 12p increase in fuel duty – if it survives the storm that is surely coming – likely to be really noticeable to most next spring.

    The title is the nub of the matter is it not? Hunt’s Autumn Statement is an exercise, not in economics, but in creative accounting. He is robbing Peter to pay Paul and then shovelling the cash into a failing enterprise which will simply delay its inevitable collapse. What is needed is a drastic reorganisation. The axing of large parts of a State Machine that no longer functions. The ending of Foreign Aid. The closing down of the Channel. Net Zero removed as a policy. And these only the beginning!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/17/conservative-party-likes-talking-tough-avoiding-hard-choices/

      1. My reply:

        Come on then Foxy, team up with Reform, stop the vote-splitting and present an amalgamated centre- right party, with a manifesto to appeal to the sensible majority of the electorate.

        1. The last thing the opposition, and I don’t mean the group of wasters in the HoC, needs is people’s egos getting in the way of forming a pact that will challenge the status quo in Parliament. It’s clear that the people are in a fight for their freedom and the threat comes from those in the HoC who are supping with the globalists.
          Reform and the SDP have agreed an election pact, so what is holding Fox back?

          2. It isn’t the time for people who rail against the PTB to be self-centred. We need real leadership if we are to break this globalist hold on our political class.

          5. 368026+ up ticksl

            Evening KtK,
            Could be caution after the actions of the brexit party under farage, a truly pro tory in name only pro johnson proven group.
            Some within will already be building tory (ino)
            Mk 2.

            IMO, Mass membership
            build behind one leader,
            for me that is Lawrence Fox.

      3. Of course, private jets will be exempt from any fuel duty rises, isn’t that correct, Billy Goats?

    2. Dream om, Minty. They like Labour and Limp Dumb are hell-bent on ruining the country and dragging us back, kicking and screaming into the Un-economic EU. with its failing €uro.

      1. ‘All the World ‘s queer
        ‘cept thee and me
        and even thou art a little queer’

        Saying from somewhere North of the Thames. Morning Bob3 and everyone

    4. Why FIFA have set this up is beyond a belief. This country is built entirely on the use of modern day slavery.
      But I expect a few shekels have changed hands.

    7. Their country, their rules.
      I assume it’s now too late to get a refund for anyone who booked tickets…

  9. Morning all 😊
    All I can say is…..its not raining…..yet.
    I have to take our car for its second MOT.

    2. Mark Steyn touched on this very point with one of yesterday’s guests. More to follow I imagine…

      ‘Morning, Rik.

    3. Does this apply to the illegals bringing in Diphtheria, TB and all the other previously eradicated diseases or is it just aimed at white people who pay taxes?

    4. This “success of the existing standards” that is mentioned? Is it destroying the reproductive capacity of women and their unborn children while destroying the health of those that have been jabbed? The number of people I know who have manifested strange ailments this last 18 months is extraordinary. Then there are those who have died of strokes…

      1. 368126+ up ticks,

        Morning Bob,
        Could be said that the common denominator within the palace of westminster politico’s is one
        anthony charlie lynton, Bow
        Street Court records show.

    2. 368026+ up ticks,

      Morning JN,

      Reform has form as the name change from the brexit party points out,plus many a tory (ino) nasty will form the
      necleus of tory (ino) Mk 2.

      Personally I favour Lawrence Fox.

      Anyway tis the correct route to take in
      rooting OUT the 650 political knotweed plants.

  13. Good morning all.
    A tad over 4°C outside and it’s not raining.
    Yet.
    It actually looks a clearish start but there is rain to the West which should be here in an hour or so.

  14. 357026+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 18 November: This rudderless Tory Government has nothing left to say except that Labour would be worse.

    All that now leaves the party first before Country brigade now is to be first among equals.

    The coalition / members must be given credit these past four decades for the dedication they have shown in bringing down a nation battling against such misguided enemies as the far right, racist ,fruitcakes, and their inglorious stand.

    The coalitions actions will remain forever in the memories of their children whilst spending their days in the children’s RESET education camps.

  16. Cheeky pay four today

    Wordle 517 4/6

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

  18. ‘Morning, Peeps.  Here is an item from GBN, where the owner of a successful hotel and glamping business in east Kent has told the home office what it can do when he was asked to use his premises to house illegal immigrants:

    THE owner of a luxury hotel in Kent has told GB News he rejected a government offer to house asylum seekers because he “couldn’t think of anything more absurd”.

    Richard Martin, who owns the Blazing Donkey boutique hotel near Sandwich, has confirmed he was offered almost £1.1 million for a one-year contract.

    The successful hotelier said he was not prepared to make most of his 50+ staff redundant and let down the community, who rely on his venue for weddings and other events.

    The hotel, which is tucked away in the east Kent countryside about 12 miles from Dover, has won awards for its service and been voted one of the UK’s top glamping sites.

    Mr Martin showed us around the luxury tents and huts, some with copper bathtubs in the rooms. Part of the deal with a Home Office contractor would have meant asylum seekers being housed in the glamping cabins, as well as the hotel’s other high-end rooms.

    The owner said when he was contacted by a Home Office contractor, they promised him full occupancy for a 12 month deal worth £1,080 million.

    His first thought was: “This is interesting, 100% occupancy.

    “My second thought, when I realised how they were going to achieve that, was one of complete astonishment.”

    The hotel employs 25 full time staff, but that number swells to more than 50 in peak season. Most of those employees would have lost their jobs, as the basic contract did not involve catering and other services provided by the hotel.

    Like many people, the hotel’s director Trefor Squire, was made redundant from his previous job during Covid.

    He told GB News the thought of going through all that again was unbearable. “You know, for me and some others here it would have been terrible.

    “We live here, me another couple of employees as well. This is our home. This isn’t just a job, this is my home and I see it as a home.

    “And you know I’m not a young man, so it would have been terrifying.”

    Richard Martin is proud of the giant marquee in the grounds of the hotel which has played host to hundreds of weddings and other events in recent years.

    “When you come in here you can just see actually how unsuitable this would be for an asylum seekers’ venue entirely.

    “This is used exclusively for our special events, mainly weddings, and we’ve hosted 2,500 in here since we created this space.

    “And so, for the asylum seekers that were intended to stay here, this has absolutely no purpose and it’s a valuable asset for the people in this local area.”

    Even though he was being offered a significant sum of money, Richard Martin said he was not even tempted.

    “Well, it sounds a lot of money on its own, but our business is very well established and it wouldn’t change anything here. And of course it would only be for one hit. So absolutely out of the question.

    “We’ve got clients that have got weddings booked into 2025. We’ve got staff here that need looking after.

    “So our responsibilities are not just to ourselves as shareholders but to our customers and of course all those staff that have worked for us over of years.”

    The Home Office does not comment on individual asylum seeker hotel contracts. But the government is under enormous pressure to find a solution to the Channel migrant crisis, which has seen more than 42,000 people cross in small boats so far this year.

    However, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said recently he was committed to reducing the Home Office’s reliance on hotels, which is costing around £7 million every day.

    He also said those asylum seekers housed in hotels should be staying in “basic accommodation”.

    No one who has visited the Blazing Donkey hotel in Kent would ever describe the accommodation there as basic.

    * * *

    Hats off to Richard Martin!  If more like him refused these generous offers (from the taxpayer) then it might bring this shambles to a head that much sooner.

    1. Well said, Richard Martin. Never mind instant profit, your thoughts are with your clients, staff and, above all, your country.

    2. Most of the hotels that originally signed up were crap chains like Britannia. They never cared about the customer only about profits.

      1. Are there going to be any cheap hotels left in Britain at this rate? Still, they want to stop us travelling, so I guess we won’t notice!

    3. All the staff were to be sacked and Serco personnel used. Catering would also be Serco or one of its buddies.
      Apparently Nicholas Soames’ brother is one of the directors.
      Farage highlighted the difference between Churchill’s attitude to an invasion via the Kent beaches, and that of his grandson.

    4. I read that these invaders are to be spread around into houses in rural communities, villages and small towns rather than just hotels in big towns and cities. Anyone who claims these unwanted men are in need of our protection and money can volunteer to have them in their own homes at their expense. This £7 million a day bill just for the hotels, never mind their free healthcare and spending money, is totally unacceptable and unsustainable.

  19. It’s hard to spot the difference between the Tories and Labour now. 18 november 2022.

    Despite the obligatory lip-service to the world of enterprise, work and investment, there was little in the Autumn Statement to revitalise and enliven them.

    The message was instead loud and clear; the harder you work, the more you will be expected to pay for the leviathan of the National Health Service, the state pension and the ever rising claimants bill.

    Hardworking families face being sucked remorselessly into the imprisonment of higher tax rates, taking the overall tax burden to a new peacetime record; but the monstrosity of state spending continues to grow as if entirely insulated from the economic shocks that have afflicted virtually everything else.

    Oh I don’t know. Labour might now be marginally less Socialist than the Tories just as Russia might now be a shade more Democratic than the West! Strange times!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/11/17/hard-spot-difference-tories-labour-now/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  20. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – With its frequent repetition of the phrase (borrowed from Labour) that taxpayers “with the broadest shoulders will be asked to contribute the greatest share”, the present so-called Conservative Government has finally completed its journey to Labour-lite.

    What adds extra irritation is the “will be asked” part. No, they won’t. Asking implies that the person has a choice, which they most certainly don’t when it comes to paying tax.

    Another point is that when tax is levied on a percentage basis, those who earn more automatically pay more tax: 40 per cent of £1,000 is a lot less than 40 per cent of £10,000.

    I have been a Conservative voter for many years. But no longer – unless the present lot is either replaced or returns to true Conservative values. To argue that Labour or the other alternatives will be worse is hardly an inducement to vote Tory.

    Raymond McErlean
    Elstow, Bedfordshire

    Just one of many disgruntled DT readers.

    1. And here’s another:

      SIR – After completing my engineering degree, for which I worked very hard, I now pay the higher rate of tax.

      This means that the state confiscates 52 per cent of any raise or bonus, plus 40 per cent income tax, 3 per cent national insurance and 9 per cent student loan repayment (a tax masquerading as a loan). I also pay a 6.5 per cent interest rate, while the state picks up the tab for graduates who don’t earn above the £27,000 repayment threshold.

      On top of this I pay council tax, VAT, and fuel duty. In exchange I get a terrible healthcare system, a terrible education system, crumbling infrastructure and useless police. Oh, and the debt continues to soar, so I’ve got that to look forward to as well.

      As a young, ambitious professional, why should I stay in Britain?

      Theodore Abbott
      Heswall, Wirral

      I have no idea, Mr Abbott!

      1. But where else will he go? Canada and Australia are both run by absolute fascists, the US by a demented left wing stooge and most of Europe is in thrall to a totalitarian EU.

      2. There will be a brain drain , similar to the 1960s and 70’s

        Infact my father did that after the war , he was determined to escape the misery of post war Britain .and cleared off to Africa, and that is another story!!!!

        Many FAA pilots like Moh resigned their commisions in the 1970’s after serving 12 or more years in the RN, where pay was miserable and hot footed it to helicopter companies servicing the growing North Sea oil expansion.. they had to complete their CAA exams to fly in the commercial sector but months of retraining opened up a different world .

          1. U.S. Department of Transportation

            Federal Aviation Administration

            800 Independence Avenue, SW

            Washington, DC 20591

      3. Mr Abbott, droves of engineers have asked themselves the same question since Major, Blair and Brown discarded engineering and manufacturing in the UK.
        That’s why every engineering company in Australia, Canada, Germany and many in the US as well, have British engineers working for them.

    2. …unless the present lot is either replaced or returns to true Conservative values.

      The ‘Conservative Party’ as was, no longer exists, it has already been replaced and is incapable of returning to its true values. Who, in their right mind would trust, not only the shower in the HoC but the whole organisation that built and supports that shower? The Conservative Party has to be destroyed electorally, not only to save the people from its predations, but as a warning to Labour to change its ways or suffer the same fate.
      Time to understand that very few MPs are working for the people and not one of the parliamentary parties is involved in that enterprise.

      1. 368026+ up ticks,

        Morning KtK,

        🎵
        We tried to tell then they were wrong.

        Ex long term genuine UKIP member

    3. We never get a thank you for out contributions either- just demands with menaces to pay more.

  21. SIR – Was the Autumn Statement the second-longest suicide note in history?

    Andrew Adamson
    Chichester, West Sussex

    1. No Hugh.

      It will do what it was designed to do, to force Britain back into the EU.

      Fortunately the EU is building it’s own army to make sure that there are no more attempts for freedom.

  22. SIR – Bill Tait makes a valid point about the visibility of cyclists on our roads, contrasting it with that of horse riders.

    At a recent speed awareness course, my group was asked to describe hazards that drivers might come across, and how to react to them.

    Mention of horses as a potential hazard appeared to surprise the instructors and the instructed alike.

    Not so many years ago, the Highway Code made the point that highways were originally designed to be used by horses, whether ridden or in harness. As such, they should be given priority of passage on our roads.

    Riding a more modern form of transport, cyclists too often seem oblivious of their capacity to surprise and spook a horse, coming silently from behind without so much as a cheery “Good morning”. Do they leave their manners behind the bike shed?

    Sam Sandbach
    Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

    The Lycra Louts have much to answer for. However, some horse riders are not exactly helping themselves…a few weeks ago I came across three of them, all wearing dark clothing, who stepped out onto the road from a side track when I was almost on top of them. This took place under a dense tree canopy in the rain at around 4pm on a November day. When I suggested to them that they should be wearing high viz, and listening for traffic before stepping out, all I got was a shrug of the shoulders. I have seen the results of accidents between vehicles and horses and they are certainly not pretty. Injury to the rider and the destruction of a badly injured horse tends to stick in the mind.

    1. One of the most obvious problems with so many ‘expert cyclists’ who have spent massive amounts of money on their specialist and often spectacular equipment. Very few, if any, do not bother with audible warning devices. Surely it should be compulsory to have something as simple as a thumb operated warning bell on the handle bar.
      There is nothing worse than walking along a public footpath when a cyclist or even several suddenly appear over your shoulder. Some shouting obscenities as they rush past your elbows.

    2. SWMBOs late Brother and his Hillman Imp collided with a horse as it emerged from a gateway. Both horse and car were written off.

    3. I’ve never forgotten a beautiful chestnut mare called Sadie who was killed in a road accident sometime in the 1950s. When I passed the spot (I didn’t see it happen) the mess on the road was there for ages. She had been a favourite to see on my way to school as was Bruce the labrador.

    4. You can’t tell some people (and people who work with horses are some of the worst). I can attest to the fright caused by lycra louts who whizz past a horse who doesn’t hear them coming (and neither did I or I would have turned the horse’s head so he spotted them before they arrived). Don’t get me started on motorists who seem to think that their sole purpose on the roads is to catch your stirrup with their wing mirror and remove it from your foot …

        1. Blue sky here too. Croissants and bacon for breakfast ! I have a dog sitting on each foot so i can’t get away !

  24. SIR – We regularly buy stationary from a moderately sized online retailer, which always arrives by post.

    However, a recent communication from the company informed us that it will no longer be using Royal Mail because it is too expensive and too unreliable, and will instead be using a courier firm. I wonder how many other companies will be doing the same.

    Do the postal unions not realise that, far from defending workers’ rights, they are actively destroying their members’ livelihoods?

    David Pound
    Charwelton, Northamptonshire

    “Stationary” just about sums up the Royal Fail these days!

    I avoid any online purchase where it states that they are the carrier, for the same reasons given by Mr Pound. Problem is – this isn’t clear in some cases, but it is when the generally rotten ‘service’ becomes clear later! Particularly annoying is their refusal to leave an item with a neighbour, and instead taking it back to the sorting office for collection by me at least a day later. Not easy with restricted opening hours in my case. The alternative is to spend time online trying to fix an alternative date – and don’t even think about phoning to rearrange unless you have time on your hands!

    1. In our experience here, in relatively rural France, the postal service is excellent. It arrives 6 days a week usually between 11 am and noon.

      Within France we have found most letters arrive within two days of posting and often the next day, if posted at a post office.

      1. You are luckier than we were in Laure. We had a brilliant postwoman – whom we saw grow from 21 to retirement! – but the actual service of La Poste was lamentable.

        1. I wonder why the difference?

          It was one of the aspects that surprised us, given how many of the addresses around here were essentially “get to the hamlet and ask”. We have only recently been allocated a road name and a house number and it’s over 10 years since we arrived and in that time we’ve had several different post men and women.

          1. No – I meant nationally. Letters within France could easily take a week. Once they arrived at Trèbes (our “post town” ) – Katia always spotted letters coming to us despite sometimes minimal address!!

          2. Those few letters we send outside the local four or five departments also do well, but that may be because we tend only to post “official” stuff any distance.

          5. What is the difference?
            They are human beings and not robots. People doing the same job do it differently. Human nature.

          6. That is true, but why is it the case that what is essentially the same task can be done so efficiently in one place and shambolically in another?

          7. Bad management.
            There are good and bad managers and therefore differing levels of motivation.

      3. Just received a postcard from Munich posted five days ago – The Krauts and the Frogs are obviously working to a UK timetable.

        1. I don’t think that that is too bad, it’s worse from here to the UK. Not invariably but certainly the majority of cases.

    2. “Do the postal unions not realise that, far from defending workers’ rights, they are actively destroying their members’ livelihoods?”
      Ask the BL unions, and Red Robbo, NUM, and many others.

      1. Our postman is great. He really is. While I respect their right to strike doing so for more money during these times is simply idiotic.

        With fuel, energy all at catastrophic expense due to policy and taxation the risk is to jobs to cut costs, not to workers pay.

        I honestly cannot conceive of a government more moronic, more willfully destructive, more vicious, more spiteful than one that actively destroys jobs, lives solely for an ideological cause. It’s war – worse, a crusade. Replace energy and net zero for final solution and you’re at the same point.

  25. There are some superb anti-government rants from the BTL posters this morning, and far too many to put up here. However, this one caught my eye, and it is epic (as his usually are):

    Cuthbert Thomasson
    7 MIN AGO
    Grateful nation rejoices !
    Autumn Statement Thanksgiving Service held at Westminster Abbey.
    Millions who owe their lives to Sage behavioural science sadists , psychotic cod science quacks and fear-mongering bbc merchants of morbid model gloom give thanks with broken minds.
    Millions of miraculously alive Fake Pandemic Survivors watched the Autumn Statement ceremony on their ‘Track n Trace useless Lockdown panic phones, crying tears of gratitude.
    As millions more deriliously happy ‘ cases’ delivered from uttermost imaginary danger difficult to believe as it never actually existed, except according to Sage Communists and inhuman bbc barbarians banged pots & pans against their foreheads on cue of marxist panic mongers to give mindless thanks for being unquestionably saved from certain death as the deadly plague swept all sense and reason before it.
    Heralding the plague of psychotic Lockdown fanatics & compulsory surrender to Net Zero Climate Quack Fantasies.
    And so, we thank goodness for the despoilation of Western civilisation by imposing CCP barbarity to control the uncontrollable whether virus or weather.
    By abolishing everything we so stupidly previously believed in, and raise taxes for Cop27 to atone for our sins and welcome in all who just happen to feel like invading, to claim their ‘rights’.
    Marvellous, what wonders of mockery mock conservatives achieve with consummate, green communist ease.

    * * *

    I had to smile, and there’s not much opportunity for that today!

    1. The funniest part about the Brownite budget was having Labour stand up to challenge it when it’s their own big state, high tax policies.

      What can they possibly say?

          3. I don’t think they know that now. I despair at people these days.
            We’ve both had colds and people still talk about testing. Heaven help us.

    2. Come come – the daft bint NEEDED her phone to find her way…. GPS and all that malarkey. No one has any knowledge of geography any more. Maps? Schnapps!

      1. Sorry. I didn’t think about that. I sometimes wonder how I managed to get to school … or work … without a GPS.

          1. Bit hard to know which turning to take when trying to drive and use a map at the same time.

            Sat nav is a wonderful thing

          2. Especially in a strange city, in the dark and rain, and on your own, so nobody to read the map for you.

          4. Only for my tom tom. The rest is about 4 years old. The only ‘modern’ gadget in the house is the Warqueen’s telephone, and that’s a work one.

          5. Coming down here initially I took endless wrong turns and went many times the wrong way in pea soup fog. I followed the signs to ‘motorway’ and went left – because that’s where the sign indicated. Now I know that’s a nonsense as the motorway is, in fact, straight ahead, not left.

            With modern HUDs and nice big chevrons, radar cruise control I sit behind a car in the 3rd lane, get to 60 and let the car do the rest. All these are driver aids to reduce fatigue on long journeys.

          6. You may think that, I could not possibly comment.

            On the rare occasions when I have travelled as a passenger in a car with a sat nav working, I find it a terrible distraction; I shudder to imagine what it would be like as a driver…

          7. A doddle! A little box in the corner says ‘this road for this long, next junction is in x miles/kilometres’ and you need to take this exit.

            Compare that to juggling a folded map on your lap while doing 60 on a motorway….

          8. Until the driver arrives at multiple exits, very close together, and takes the wrong one because they were concentrating on the Satnav and not the actual road signs; and the satnav says “take the next exit” just as it is level with the one it means, so it’s too late and the driver goes the extra distance and finds they are at the wrong one and vice-versa, where it means the second exit and they start to head off at the first one..

            I’ve seen it happen regularly in France that drivers slam brakes or swerve violently and can only conclude they were on auto-pilot rather than paying attention to the signage.

          11. I map read off the sat nav. It tells me which turning to take and I check the road, road signs and turnings by looking out of the window rather than relying on the heads up display.

          12. It was for me when I was out on the road and rarely visiting the same place twice. The time I saved in route planning and getting lost was incalculable. When I went self-employed it was the first thing I purchased as I could see just how much time it would save me – not to mention the frustration of blocked routes thanks to roadworks, accidents and so on. Balancing a map on the passenger seat was never very successful in my case, and it was unsafe, too.

          14. It was for me when I was out on the road and rarely visiting the same place twice. The time I saved in route planning and getting lost was incalculable. When I went self-employed it was the first thing I purchased as I could see just how much time it would save me – not to mention the frustration of blocked routes thanks to roadworks, accidents and so on. Balancing a map on the passenger seat was never very successful in my case, and it was unsafe, too.

          15. I find that; I travelled all over and Charlie was a wonderful companion, but he could neither map-read nor give me directions 🙂

          18. The last time I tried that it said, “please consult a map”.

            We send detailed instructions to people and suggest they do not rely on the satnav.
            I’ve lost count of the number of times we have received the call:
            “Help, our satnav says we’re with you but we’re in the middle of a forest and lost.”

          19. That has happened to me, sos. It’s not the fault of the Satnav; It’s the huge area covered by a single postcode.

          20. Can send a lat & log position for satnav. Precise enough to send them to he front door or the back door.

          21. If heading anywhere ‘new’ I consult a map beforehand to get the lie of the land. Satnavs are useful tools but I only use mine as a rolling map as the ‘commentary’ becomes irritating.

        2. Hey Beatnik, you just followed those rails, Dude. When you ended up at Grand Central Station, pal, you knew you weren’t at school, Hombre.

          1. Hey Dean. They ripped up them rails, Man, at the same time they silted up the canal. Ol’ Beeching called it ‘progress’ and Ol’ Brindley is rollin’ in his grave, Dude.

          2. Hey Beatnik, that was the “wrong kind of progress”, Dude. Today, all progress is that kind and those ole Mop Tops would write a song entitled “It’s Getting Dreadful All The Time” for the Zeitgeist, Man, and Sergeant Pepper would disband his Lonely Hearts Club Band, fella! If it’s not Bad News, then it ain’t wanted in this World, Bro- Bad News is the New Normal.

          3. Hey Dean, that’s why it’s good to be a bum with a bum’s lifestyle. No bad news on the road or rails, Hombre. Every half-smoked stokie or joint found in the bottom of a trash-can is a plus in my book, Dude. Feasting on the rich dude’s left-overs at the roadhouse and crashing in the hedgerow at night brings me closer to nature, Man.

        3. You might have to, Grizz, when certain hostile countries take out some or all of the GPS satellites…

      2. But, if you cannot use a mobile phone while driving a car, is riding a bicycle not just as dangerous?

    3. That looks like Tower Bridge. Odd they didn’t open it a yard or so to let the water flow into the Thames….{:¬))

    6. I worry about people like that. They can’t see the road, they’re on an electric bike, in water. No doubt not pedalling either, while concentrating not on traffic or obstacles, but on a telephone, leaving them less in control of their vehicle.

      It’s ‘how many things can you do wrong’ in one photograph. No doubt a fervent net zeeroer, communist Lefty who thinks all those things she relies on will exist in her utopia.

    7. Have been in a hotel for the last week enjoying some warmth, I see many small children at the dining table with a tablet stuffed in front of them and Mum also on the social meeja. These kids are unlikely to learn to interact normally and I imagine socialisation is going to be difficult for them. Well, we are not going to change the world, so we will have to get on with it but I recon the next generation is sleepwalking into a strange world.

  28. Good morning everyone ,

    Fine sunny start to the morning . 7c .. Golfer golfing .

    Twitter has restored me .. so I can Tweet .. the frightening thing about Twitter is , I spotted a lovely Tweet a few days ago , one of those nice entertaining cat ones , so I clicked like , and instantly I was flagged up , and a message flashed across telling me I was forbidden to hit the like button because my week/ 10 days in purgatory was still ongoing .

    How autocratic is that , and are we all being monitored by humans and not bots.

    Seems that the DT operates the same way, one has to be very careful not to upset the woke moderators.

    1. I think it’s just a bot that’s set to do that. Now your time’s up you are released from jail.

    2. Whenever arbitrary decisions are made on what is and is not acceptable there’s conflict.

      The state tries to force a specific attitude and will always fail. The best thing to do is to allow twitter and so on to be either publishers or platforms. As a platform they hold no legal responsibility and are immune to challenge. As publisher they do, but can be sued for censorship.

    1. 368026+ up ticks,

      KtK,

      According to the electorate majority the “British peoples have been “sucking it up” contently these past 40 years

      1. Herr Goldfinger may have been a megalomaniac but at least he was following his own twisted plans.

  31. Swedish prosecutor confirms remains of explosives found at site of Nord Stream sabotage. 18 November 2022.

    During the crime scene investigations that were carried out on site in the Baltic Sea, extensive seizures were made, and the area has been carefully documented. Analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found. Advanced analysis work continues in order to be able to draw firmer conclusions about the incident.

    No doubt they will be contaminated with Novichok!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/nov/18/russia-ukraine-war-live-missile-strikes-leave-10-million-ukrainians-without-power-says-zelenskiy

    1. The giveaway was the Russian passport – clean and dry despite being in the water for a week!!

    3. It’ll all come out in the wash.
      Like King John’s crown jewels …. um … may be I could reword that.

  32. Today’s laff…..( Authored by Henry Root no doubt?)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/17/how-reduce-dogs-carbon-pawprint-almost-700-per-cent/

    “How to reduce your dog’s carbon pawprint by almost 700 per cent. Your choice of dog or cat food makes a radical difference to the amount of carbon dioxide you produce, scientists have found.”

    Feeding your dog dry food instead of tinned meat can help to save the planet, scientists have found. Analysis of almost 1,000 pet diets, including both dog and cat menus, found that a wet food diet produces almost seven times as much carbon dioxide as a dry food alternative. A ten kilogram dog, like a dachshund, needs around 534 calories a day and if they get this entirely from dry meals then their carbon pawprint is 828kg (130st 5lbs) a year, the study found. However, carbon emissions for a wet food-only dog diet total more than six and a half tonnes, an increase of 689 per cent. This level of greenhouse gas emissions is almost the same as an average Brazilian person’s annual emissions, the scientists write, making a dachshund’s wet dinners as bad for the environment as having another person living in Brazil. “These results bring to light the importance of the role of pet food in the discussion of sustainability since its impact can be extensive,” the researchers from the University of Sao Paulo write in their study. Most of the emissions from dog food comes from meat as it requires lots of land and water to produce and churns out vast amounts of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. Almost 90 per cent of the calories in wet pet food comes from animal sources, compared to just 45 per cent for dry meal, which is more vegetable than meat but has the most energy per gram. However, the scientists say dogs and cats are carnivores so going vegan and removing all meat from their diet in favour of more eco-friendly protein options, like peas or beans, could be bad for their health. The scientists also said that using other ingredients may help lower pet food’s emissions, with insect protein being one viable option which “could improve sustainability” as 100 grams of protein from mealworms makes just 14kg of carbon dioxide, compared to 35kg from beef. The study is published in Scientific Reports.

  33. Jeremy Hunt said something at the end of his interview on BBC Radio 4 News this morning which I agreed with. He said rejoining the EU was not the answer. The people voted to leave the EU and we could do just as well out of the EU. [ I paraphrase]
    Keir Starmer said he would not rejoin the EU as the people voted to leave the EU. The Lib/Dems and the Green party may have different views.
    Cheer up.

        1. Sadly Sue I have problems with my hearing but that is the gist of what he said. He cannot go back on that. Perhaps his boss, Rshi Sunak is a genuine Leaver.

          2. There are too many Nottlers on this site giving up hope for Brexit. We need to stand up for it and get it completed. I am living a pure life at the moment as I have a 6 monthly Diabetes check next month.
            I had to take the bus yesterday to the Hospital which was quite a walk with my stick to the hospital from the town bus stop. I couldn’t let old women onto the bus before me as they insisted that I got on and off first. a passenger friend insisted on walking at my slow limping pace across the busy roads all the way up to the Hospital entrance. Heavy lorries stopped to let us cross and the Hospital staff were very considerate. It is amazing how considerate people are to a person limping with a stick.

          6. I haven’t given up on Brexit – we need to fight the remainiacs everywhere – but I don’t believe any of the lot in Westminster have any intention of letting us have what we voted for.

          8. Sunak was imposed by the WEF to get the result they wanted after Truss was elected and set about reversing the decline they are engineering.

      2. It’s all in the language. ‘Oh it’s not going to solve the problem. The IMF will do that for us and then we can wail and thump our chests with rage and anger at the conditions… and smirkingly get what we want anyway.

        The solutions are simple. They really, truly are. The statists don’t want a positive outcome though. They *want* to destroy the country.

    3. But since when did our current politicians give a toss about what the people actually voted for?

    4. Sorry clydesider. I should have replied to you directly. My old man listens to R4 news and I am sometimes astounded at the lack of objectivity and obfuscation.

      1. That’d be the BBC for you. It regularly says how trusted it is. Trusted to lie and cheat, maybe.

    5. Ha! Should have read this before i posted above.

      “They” will have is back in the EU as soon as they dare. First they are breaking our spirits to make it easier.

        1. She did that quickly! Almost as if it were planned. Doesn’t there have to be some debate in Parliament before she could do this?

          1. We thought that there would be a debate, but it must have been a very quick one as it wasn’t even mentioned on the MSM news

        2. As I have posted above, some of Truss’s actions do make you wonder if she was a part of an extremely duplicitous plan to secure Sunak’s prime ministership so that he could destroy Britain completely.

  34. This could turn out to be the week that the Tories lost the next election
    Perhaps Sunak’s bleak economic pessimism is all part of a plan. Perhaps his party has just given up

    Fraser Nelson: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/17/could-turn-week-tories-lost-next-election/

    Reading the BTL comments it certainly seems to me that the Conservatives are now very much more hated by lifelong Conservative Party voters than Labour ever was under Corbyn.

    A week or two ago the view was that people would never again vote for the Conservatives UNLESS they did this or that.

    They have now run out of unlesses.

    Many people no longer fear that the Conservative Party’s representation in Parliament will be down to single figures after the next general election – they vehemently hope and pray that they will be down to single figures.

    Gone is the feeling that it is impossible for a new party to emerge in the way that the SDP failed to get any real traction. And the fear that a vote for the Reform Party would split the right vote has morphed into a realisation that if the Conservative Party no longer exists there is no right vote to split so everyone must unite behind the Reform Party. As I suggested yesterday, it is now time for the decent Conservative MPs who presented themselves as Conservatives at the last election to resign en masse and join Reform.

    This is from the top BTL Comment from a chap called Paul Rodwell:

    Two months ago, when it was clear the PCP was going to kick out Truss, I started doubting I would vote Conservative at the next Election.

    Two weeks ago, when the anti-business and anti-wealth “leaks” started coming out to soften us up, I decided I would definitely not vote Conservative and, faced with no attractive alternative, would stay home.

    Today, faced with an absolutely travesty of a Socialistic anti-wealth, and anti-growth so-called “Budget”, I sent a contribution to the Reform party.
    I want to see the Conservative Party completely annihilated, as it serves no useful purpose

    1. My suggestion for the Reform Party’s posters at the next election:

      DON’T SPLIT THE RIGHT VOTE BY WASTING YOURS ON THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY

      1. We have got to get rid of them. Never before have they had so much opportunity to restore the country and deliberately wasted it. So much could have been done during covid. There was no need for the machinery of state to stop. Civil servants working from home can still work on removing endless laws.

        1. All they need to do is make sure they have a candidate in every constituency. Nobody with any common sense is going to vote Conservative again.
          Don’t make the same mistakes as Farrage and UKIP did.

          1. Good morning Paul

            Farage’s fatal mistake was to withdraw Brexit Party candidates from standing against remainer Conservative MPs.

            While I admit that Farage is without doubt the finest orator in British politics and proving to be an excellent journalist there is a great question mark hanging over his courage, his judgement and his ruthlessness when it comes to the crunch. Why did he not take Johnson to the wire in 2019? Why did he not get an electoral pact from Johnson? Leaving the House of Commons stuffed with remainer Conservative MPs has not done any favours to Brexit at all as we can now see very clearly as the most ardent of Conservative remainer MPs is now a chancellor determined to ruin Britain’s economy and take us back into the EU.

            The party which had won more votes than any other party in the EU elections failed to win a single Westminster seat. If Farage had not surrendered I am sure the result would have been very different and the Brexit Party would have won enough seats to prevent Johnson’s Brexit sell-out in Northern Ireland and British fishing waters.

          2. If only that were so. In our area, a flea-infested rat with a blue rosette would still get elected.

          3. I think that is changing. Even the most diehard supporters of the Conservative Party wish to see its total destruction. Many people such as myself have a more vehement hatred of Sunak and Hunt than we ever felt towards politicians of other parties. The mere sight of Hunt’s smugly oleaginous and repulsive face induces in me a strong desire to vomit – it is, literally, a gut reaction but a gut reaction backed up by one’s rationality.

          4. I think that is changing. Even the most diehard supporters of the Conservative Party wish to see its total destruction. Many people such as myself have a more vehement hatred of Sunak and Hunt than we ever felt towards politicians of other parties. The mere sight of Hunt’s smugly oleaginous and repulsive face induces in me a strong desire to vomit – it is, literally, a gut reaction but a gut reaction backed up by one’s rationality.

    2. They’ve not given up. This is all by intent to destroy the country and force us to the IMF and from there into the EU.

      If I am wrong, I will be very happy, but the state is a vicious, bitter, spoiled bunch who have hated the concept of democracy. This massive expansion in state waste is endemic of ruin.

  36. Tax tax tax…..unless you are wealthy of course.
    What ever the government hand out, they’ll take it by stealth.
    Nothing changes it’s all they know and all they have in their repertoire.
    Car passes MOT, great stuff…..off to collect it.

    1. Yes, and the Chancellor must have somehow forgotten to mention that fuel duty will increase in March next year….

      1. Probably slipped his mind because it won’t effect him, or any other of the mobsters in his profession.

          1. I filled up last night near the hospital and it was £1.85.9 for diesel, 4p cheaper than our local garage. Living where we do, a car is essential, not a luxury.

          3. This will hit everyone except of course the political classes. Who will claim refunds as expenses..
            But all these massive increases are to try and cover up the appalling mess the government has made. Most of the money will be used for supporting the illegal invaders.
            They can’t cover it up forever.

  39. We are allowing another culture into Britain, single priapic Muslim men by the thousand , who come from countries who treat their women appallingly.

    Social care is now in a mess , our NHS isn’t functioning as it should , my repeated question here is will Muslim men work in social care .. ?
    I cannot imagine for one moment that they will tenderly care for disabled children , care for the elderly , or nurse , mix happily with teaching both sexes in schools ..

    What are they here for.. what careers are they capable of?

    The blighters will bring their own stone age culture and instantly create no go areas and hang around in idle clusters , because the reason they are here are the freebies that they couldn’t get in France , Spain or Italy.

    Look what is happening in Southern Ireland , what a shock those Irish numpties are experiencing .

    The financial burden that these people are having on the tax payer is colossal .

    Qatar imported people from Ceylon and India and elswhere to build their football stadiums and flash infrastructure , they depended on impoverished Asian acquiescence, hundreds of lives were lost because no one cared for them and they were treated like slaves , why weren’t the the so called economic migrants/those escaping from war enticed to build .. religion again , the different types of Muslim .

    Illegal immigrants housed in luxury hotels in the UK is madness , there are people who are homeless sleeping in doorways or camping in woodland ?

    1. 368026+up ticks,

      Morning TB,
      The in-house politico’s are nurturing another culture in parliament and releasing it’s evilness upon this nation
      thinking they can control it in regards to RESET, the political heads will be first to roll.

    2. I have a seriously autistic godson, now 12 and at a special school. Bright and happy boy but with major gaps in his understanding of the world around him. I dread to think what will happen to him in the future.

  40. Ray Williams, rugby union referee who was acclaimed as one of the finest in the northern hemisphere – obituary. The great All Black captain Sir Wilson Whineray told him he was ‘one of the good guys – neutral, fun and fair’

    Perhaps the ultimate honour for Williams was the request from the All Blacks that he officiate at three of their touring Tests in 1963-64. In his first two, the New Zealanders beat Wales 6-0 in Cardiff and England 14-0 at Twickenham, but in his third, at Murrayfield, Scotland held the best side in the world to a 0-0 draw

    I was at the Scotland New Zealand game in 1963, my first international, though I had no idea who the ref was. In those days there was only one stand at Murrayfield, the rest of the ground was open terraces, no seats, just those bars you stood at. 5/- a ticket.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/11/18/ray-williams-rugby-union-referee-who-acclaimed-one-finest-northern/

  41. Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week.

    Joe Kelly fundraiser – one last push to get the case up and running!

    We know this is a tough case and not all our members will support us. But if you do, please consider donating to the Crowdfunder — with less than a week to go until the campaign closes, we really need one final push from members and supporters to help reach our funding target and get this important legal case up and running. The link to find out more about the case and pledge your support is here.

    Joe Kelly was convicted and sentenced in Scotland for contravening the Communications Act 2003, section 127(1)(b), which makes it a criminal offence to make an electronic post which is “grossly offensive”. Despite showing remorse — even confessing that this was one of the most stupid things he’d ever done in his life — and despite his counsel’s attempt to defend his right to free speech (which includes, as Lord Sedley stated, the “heretical, unwelcome and provocative”), Scotland’s prosecution service decided to throw the book at Joe, convicting and then sentencing him to a community payback order.

    Having had his appeal denied by the Scottish Courts and having been labelled an “example case” to deter others from “pressing the blue button” and posting allegedly offensive content, Joe is now seeking to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg — and the FSU is supporting him.

    The case Joe’s counsel will make focuses on ensuring this “deterrence” (i.e., “chilling effect”) on free expression does not materialise. It will also ensure Scotland is not left behind as the only country in the UK in which it’s illegal to say something “grossly offensive”, which it will be if the Communications Act is repealed in the rest of the UK.

    Statements made by means of a public telecommunications system, like Kelly’s tweet, should not need to have artistic or political meaning for them be protected by the right to free speech laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights. If applied in the way that the Sheriff did in Kelly’s case, the term “grossly offensive” is far too vague and his conviction will indeed have a chilling effect — a person’s right to freedom of speech should not be subject to interference on this basis.

    Any donations made are to fund the legal expenses associated with preparing an application to the European Court of Human Rights. If permission to hear the case in Strasbourg is granted, we hope the remainder of the case will be funded by the Court’s own system of legal aid. You can pledge your support here.

    FSU Christmas Comedy Night – book your tickets!

    Round up your comedy-loving friends and family for The FSU Christmas Special, a one night only extravaganza of comedy with a fabulous line-up, organised in association with Comedy Unleashed, the home of free-thinking comedy. The event takes place on Monday 12th December, 7pm — 10pm at the Backyard Comedy Club, Bethnal Green.

    Comedy legend Bobby Davro is our Master of Ceremonies for the evening. Bobby will be joined on stage by stand-up comedian, comedy entrepreneur and star of They Think It’s All Over Lee Hurst, Comedy Unleashed favourite Mary Bourke and comedian and Radio 4 personality Simon Evans. This event is open to the public, so please spread the word. Tickets on sale here.

    Free Speech Cambridge book launch event – register for tickets here!

    Free Speech Cambridge would like to invite FSU members to a friendly pre-Christmas drinks and celebration at the Potting Shed, Waterman pub in Cambridge (postcode: CB4 3AX) on Tuesday 6th December. The occasion will also be a book launch for Jerome Booth’s Have We All Gone Mad — an investigation of the rise of groupthink. We’ll chat to Jerome about all things free speech and leave plenty of time for general socialising and good cheer. Please arrive from 6pm with the talk starting at 7pm. Copies of Jerome’s book will be on sale, so please bring your wallets. To confirm attendance, and to join Free Speech Cambridge’s mailing list, please contact freespeechcambridge@gmail.com

    Politically motivated financial censorship in the news… again

    A County Court judge has refused to strike out a Christian organisation’s discrimination case against Barclays Bank, following spurious attempts by the multi-billion-pound corporation to have it thrown out (Belfast News Letter, Christian Concern). Core Issues Trust (CIT) is the only registered Charity in the UK currently offering counselling and therapeutic support to those leaving the LGBT community. The Christian organisation is alleging that a “co-ordinated harassment campaign by LGBT activists” back in 2020 caused Barclays to capitulate to demands that it cancel the group’s account (Critic, Forbes).

    Barclays — which is regularly lauded by controversial LGBT charity Stonewall as one of the best performing employers for LGBT employees across the UK — had previously argued that it can terminate any bank account by giving two months’ notice without explanation and said there is no evidence that CIT has been discriminated against.

    At the hearing in Belfast County Court, however, lawyers for the bank instead chose to challenge CIT’s case on technical, procedural grounds, arguing that a Belfast court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case. Having heard legal arguments from both sides, the judge rejected this application and decided the case would proceed to a full hearing in Belfast next month.

    Elsewhere this week, ticketing website Eventbrite was accused of conducting a “campaign of cancellation” against gender critical events after pulling tickets for a book launch organised by Woman’s Place UK, and a screening of Adult Human Female, a documentary critiquing gender ideology (Telegraph, Reclaim the Net). In both cases, ticket holders were suddenly refunded their tickets, all trace of the event was removed from the Eventbrite website, and organisers were informed by Eventbrite’s Orwellian sounding “trust and safety team” that the event violated policies on “hateful, dangerous, or violent content”. Last month, an event organised by Sarah Phillimore, a barrister, and Graham Linehan, the comedy writer famous for Father Ted, to promote their book Transpositions — a collection of testimonies from people concerned about gender identity ideology — had its listing and tickets purged in an apparently identical fashion (Epoch Times, Scottish Daily Express, Telegraph).

    Taken together, these incidents serve as a grim reminder that PayPal’s recent, headline-grabbing attempt to demonetise the FSU wasn’t some sort of aberration, but part of a global trend towards weaponising Big Tech and financial services systems to suppress dissent of every kind (Critic, Spectator, Spiked, Spiked). We saw it in the case of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shutting down the Freedom Convoy earlier this year (Spiked). But there are other, less high-profile instances of people with dissenting views being deplatformed by companies like Eventbrite, Ko-Fi, CrowdJustice, GoFundMe and Patreon.

    As we hurtle towards a cashless society, the creeping trend of Big Tech platforms financially censoring groups or individuals who express dissenting views needs to be checked before it starts to become institutionally normalised. Indeed, if we don’t pass a law to rein in financial services providers soon, we risk the emergence of a Chinese-style social credit system in the UK, except instead of ideological dogma being enforced by the Communist authorities it will be enforced by woke capitalist corporations.

    In a sign that politicians are beginning to wake up to the problem, earlier this month, Conservative MP Sally-Ann Hart proposed an amendment to the Financial Services and Markets Bill that would make it illegal for payment-processing companies to withhold or withdraw services from customers for purely political reasons. Following discussions with Andrew Griffith, the Bill minister, Sally-Ann withdrew the amendment because he promised to come back with a constructive proposal about how to address the problem.

    That’s only good news if we keep up the pressure, urging legislators like Mr Griffith to do more to address this issue. That’s why we’re again asking you to send our template email to your MP and let them know how opposed you are to this new and sinister form of censorship. The link is here and the whole process only takes two minutes.

    Now that you’re back, having popped off momentarily to send that email to your MP, it’s worth pointing out that the FSU’s Research Officer, Carrie Clark, has looked at the terms and conditions of the major payment processors and crowdfunding platforms and has given them a score out of 10 according to how friendly towards free speech they are – the link to the full briefing is here.

    QAA urges universities to “decolonise” and acknowledge West’s “white supremacy”

    The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), which advises universities on course standards and degree content, has for the first time introduced advice on decolonising courses (Epoch Times, GB News, LBC, Mail, Telegraph, Unherd). The independent charity’s so-called “subject benchmark statements” describe the nature of study and the academic standards expected of graduates across a total of 25 subject areas and are intended as “reference points in the design, delivery and review of academic programmes” (QAA).

    This week it was reported that the body had updated its benchmarks, telling higher education providers to teach about “colonialism”, “white supremacy” and “class division”.

    In one example, the QAA told universities that “computing” courses should address “how divisions and hierarchies of colonial value are replicated and reinforced” within the subject.

    In the “geography” document academics are told that the “core values underpinning geography’s inclusive learning community” should be “informed” in part by theoretical concepts and ideas drawn from “critical race theory”; that is, a divisive, racialised offshoot of critical theory, which, in turn, was the brainchild of the ‘Frankfurt School’, a group of 20th century cultural Marxists.

    The “classics and ancient history” benchmark advises that such courses “must now engage with and explain” the connections between the subject and “imperialism, colonialism, white supremacy and class division”.

    Meanwhile, the QAA consultation document on “maths” curriculums suggests that they “should present a multicultural and decolonised view of mathematics, statistics and operational research, informed by the student voice”, while the equivalent document for “economics” invites respondents to consider whether students should be taught that it is “still predominantly a white, male and Western field”.

    And so the long march through the institutions continues.

    Reflecting on the significance of the QAA’s updates for the Mail, Professor Frank Furedi points out that in contrast with universities in totalitarian states like China, which promote government doctrine, our universities have always been autonomous and free to decide on their courses and their content. What charities like the QAA and, for that matter, the “egregiously woke” Advance HE, have exposed, however, is that in our “unusually centralised” system, bad ideas that emerge among one particular cadre of activists-cum-academics can quickly be integrated into the systems and procedures of other universities. That’s why Professor Furedi believes the QAA’s updated benchmark statements may end up dealing “a catastrophic blow to freedom of speech and the academic rigour it supports”, turning universities into “indoctrination factories” which take their cue from a de facto “central political body: the QAA”.

    John Armstrong, Reader in Financial Mathematics at King’s College London, feels much the same way. The QAA’s attempts to embed ‘decolonisation’ into mathematics are not just “objectionable” on their own terms, but also “symptomatic of a more general trend for the charity to try and dictate what universities should teach” (Spectator, Mail). It’s telling, he says, that the QAA’s benchmark document defining the common mathematics curriculum “has grown in length by 50 per cent in just three years”. This top-down approach is “antithetical to the academically led approach that should be the hallmark of higher education” and is now “slowly homogenising university teaching and diminishing true diversity of thought”.

    Speaking to Mark Steyn about the issue on GB News, FSU General Secretary Toby Young pointed out that the problem with all this talk about the need for peoples’ thought structures to be ‘decolonised’ is that it cuts both ways. Take the UK-based academics who prepared the QAA’s updated benchmark statements on the charity’s behalf — isn’t it the case that in “propagating the cult of woke”, as Toby put it, these 21st century beneficiaries of the enlightened, European notion of the liberal academy have done little more than demonstrate the extent to which their own minds have been colonised by the divisive, race baiting identity politics of the US higher education system’s grievance studies sector? Perhaps the doyenne of postcolonial theory, Franz Fanon, was right after all when he wrote in his magnum opus, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), that the problem with colonialism is that it is never “satisfied merely with emptying the native’s brain of all form and content” but that “by a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures and destroys it”.

    Music college tells students to report females who want single-sex spaces to ‘transphobe hotline’​

    Why is it, the French philosopher Michel Serres once remarked, that we conceive of time as an irreversible line, yet we are always simultaneously making gestures that are archaic, modern and futuristic? Were he still alive he would no doubt have found much to puzzle over in the actions of an elite London music school that decided this week to deploy the uber modern, 21st century technology of the QR code as part of its brief, ultimately unsuccessful attempt to revive that once much-loved medieval tradition of witch-hunting.

    As reported in the Mail, the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) was “forced to issue an apology” after erecting a large sign on campus that urged students to “report” any fellow female students overheard either directly opposing transgender ideology or saying something that could be construed as indicating some sort of latent preference for single-sex toilets and changing rooms to a ‘transphobe hotline’.

    The badly written sign got things off to an inflammatory start with a remarkably dehumanising question in which complex, multifaceted individuals are reduced to a particular set of apparently distasteful political beliefs: “What is a TERF [a derogatory term which stands for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminists’]?” “TERF ideology”, the sign went on to explain, “is a specific form of transphobia. The primary TERF assertion is that trans women are not women, and accordingly have no place in women’s spaces. This ideology also affects trans men, as TERF’s assert [sic] that people assigned female at birth, but identify as male [sic], shouldn’t be allowed into women’s spaces either.”

    The sign added that ICMP had a “zero-tolerance” approach to TERFs, before helpfully providing a QR code so students could use their smartphones to report delinquent peers to an official ‘Report and Support’ university complaints website. As the philosopher Kathleen Stock wryly remarked on Twitter: “Witch hunts have QR codes now. Find the witch, use the QR code, ‘report and support’. Modern life is wonderful, isn’t it?”

    Thankfully, ICMP has since removed the sign and chief executive Paul Kirkham has issued an apology on its website, admitting “we got it wrong”.

    Now might be a good time for Mr Kirkham and his colleagues in ICMP’s senior leadership team to reflect on the legal implications of the judgement handed down in Maya Forstater’s recent employment appeal tribunal.

    Ms Forstater lost her job after posting a series of tweets in which she set out her ‘gender critical’ — or as ICMP might put it, “TERF” — beliefs that someone’s sex is biological and immutable and should not be conflated with their gender identity.

    It was in a test case at the Employment Tribunal back in 2019 that Maya first attempted to establish that her tweets should be protected under the Equality Act 2010. Employment judge James Tayler ruled against Maya, saying such views — that sex is binary and immutable — were not “worthy of respect in a democratic society” (Critic).

    Undeterred, Forstater appealed this judgement in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, where High Court judge Mr Justice Choudhury ruled that the judgment handed down by the original tribunal had “erred in law” and promptly sent the case back to the Employment Tribunal to decide whether the claim had been proved on the facts.

    The significance of that ruling was wide-ranging because Mr Justice Choudhury carefully enunciated the proper parameters for the exercise of free speech in a democratic society, making clear that even if a belief has the potential to “offend, shock, or disturb” that is not enough for it to be deprived of protection under the Equality Act, which designates “religion or belief” as a protected characteristic (Times, Guardian).

    Maya’s original case then went back to the Employment Tribunal so it could be reconsidered in light of the fact that gender critical beliefs are protected. Then, earlier this year, the Tribunal ruled that Maya’s employer had breached employment law by discriminating against Forstater in virtue of her possession of certain protected characteristic, i.e., her gender critical beliefs.

    The ruling stated that gender-critical beliefs, including the belief that sex is immutable and not to be conflated with gender identity, was a protected philosophical belief. As Ms Forstater pointed out in a statement published after the judgement, her case “matters for everyone who believes in the importance of truth and free speech”. We are all “free to believe whatever we wish”, she added. “What we are not free to do is compel others to believe the same thing, to silence those who disagree with us or to force others to deny reality.”

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    Best wishes,

  42. It’s interesting to ask what is the effective income of an asylum seeker who shares a 4-star hotel room with one other, plus heating, food, no council tax, a mobile phone (is use paid for/), all food, plus £38 per week. Also no tax payable. It’s certainly up near a pre-tax £1000 a week.

    1. Good opportunity for us all to contact our MPs and tell them that we know why the government is ripping everyone off.
      And inform them we are not going to vote for them again.

      1. Worse than useless – downright danger to the general public and national security. I doubt a single one has any intention of ever integrating.

          2. Still alive………he phoned this morning to tell me not to bother going in to see him today as nothing was happening. He spent a sleepless and uncomfortable night in a chair (though they did give him a cushion). He’s hoping the cardiologist will see him sometime today and they’ve said he will have a bed by tonight.

          3. I have a camp bed he can borrow. Quite comfy, really, as long as you have a mattress pad to keep the cold out.

          4. Don’t mean to be flip, Jules. It’s bad enough being in hospital without being uncomfortable and sleep-deprived too. My sympathies to the both of you. Always very worrying.

          5. Thankyou. I felt a bit calmer today after he phoned – I was very stressed yesterday on the journey there and having to drive home in the dark. My eyes are much more sensitive now to the oncoming lights, especially the very bright ones.

          6. I really feel for you , and now with driving in the evening , our eyes do change ..car headlights seem to be so bright .. even when they are dipped . How far is Gloucester from where you live?

            Please take care , I hope J has a bed tonight and that the are feeding him properly.

          7. So do I – he’s very picky with food, but he’s got some chocolate and nibbles to keep him going until the starvation period starts.

            Gloucester is about 15 miles from here. The journey there took ages yesterday afternoon as there are roadworks and contraflows everywhere and it was school chucking out time. At least it was quieter on the way home.

          9. True!

            Time to get the washing in now, then go over to Cirencester to pick up some of our calendars from the printers, then do some shopping. Difficult to plan the food shop as I don’t know how long I will be on my own.

          11. Goodness knows where he is! Last time he was there, a year ago, he spent the night on a reclining chair while waiting to be signed off by the consultant who did his hernia op. This time, just a chair.

            I didn’t sleep too well – until it was beginning to get light.

          13. A night in a chair? That is a terrible way to treat a very unwell person. Even a trolley would have been better. I bet if one our uninvited male ‘guests’ presented, they would have been more appropriately accommodated and treated.

          14. Quite possibly – all human life in microcosm was there in A& E – several very poorly – looking old ladies with carers, one of whom we knew and she didn’t get home till late in the evening. At least J was seen quite quickly and I only had to pay for two hours parking.

          15. Here’s hoping there’s now a bed available and you have some positive news before the day is out.

          16. Thank you. It is good to be here amongst decent people. Oh, that our politicians had a fraction of the intelligence of Nottlers. I have been limiting my exposure to any news, even sensible ones like here. Too much badness going on elsewhere that I find so thoroughly depressing – avoidance helps!
            Canada was stressful! But quite entertaining in some ways. Shockingly large numbers of people walking around central streets wearing masks. Not just the Chinese residents. Turdeau has the Canadians well and truly brainwashed. Just as disturbing, though in different ways, was the number of strange looking adults in the streets. Weird and not-wonderful ‘genders’ ten a penny. I had never noticed any on previous visits.

          17. The news is depressing, but at least here we can share a laugh about it, or commiserate.

            Canada sounds pretty ghastly – but then we knew that from RichardL – and the disgusting way the Truckers were treated.

            Masks are a cult – at least it seems to be optional in Gloucester Hospital – needless to say, we didn’t wear one – but others did. Last week, waiting for the echocardiogram, I estimated 60/40 against masking. In Stroud hospital the week before, they were compulsory but I refused to wear one and nothing bad happened and I wasn’t challenged.

            I hope you were able to spend some good times with your grandchildren in Canada at any rate.

          18. Oh, yes, it was certainly wonderful getting to spend time with the little ones. Inconsolable tears at bedtime before we left. Shed a few myself!

    3. I suggest it is significantly more that £1000 a week. 4 star hotels are around £250 plus per night, council tax around £40 a week, mobile phone similar. Food £30 a week, heating, water etc £150 a week, so all in all I’d suggest the figure is more like £2000 or so. All paid for by us.

    1. It’s corruption. Indians buying up using shell companies getting paid by tax payers at horrific cost because of government malice. No taxes coming in, massive amounts going out and government policy forcing it all.

  44. I wish they would stop calling it a Tory government, its not a Tory government at all. It has totaly changed to a left wing government.

    I will never vote for them again.

  45. My letter to MP on Nov 11th.

    The UK has a reputation for supporting their own little businesses .

    This village I live in hosts many little businesses . Thatchers , hurdle makers , chimney sweeps , blacksmiths , riding stables , dog groomers , gliding school, all the other trades , hair dressers, bakers, deli, butchers, small DIY shop , farriers, people who work from home ..and many more interesting occupations .. oh yes and the holiday trade , cottages , caravans and housekeepers and car mechanics , etc etc

    Mrs Thatcher was the daughter of a grocer , she would be horrified by all these forthcoming tax hikes .

    The morale of hard working people is being eroded and ruined .. People I talk to are depressed .. future outcomes will be tragic.

    My husband and I are retired and we are in our late seventies , so we have seen the best and the worst of government fiscal mishandling over the years .

    Britain is no longer a green and pleasant land , politicians are out of touch with their constituents . Huge economic pain is being felt .

    “With millions on benefits, we don’t need mass migration to boost GDP

    Westminster hasn’t begun to grasp the scale of this scandal – five million Brits are on out-of-work welfare”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/10/millions-benefits-dont-need-mass-migration-boost-gdp/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    The hard working British are being trampled on .

    We are all very concerned regarding the bad decisions the Cabinet are making .

    Kind regards

    1. Very well said. But you’ll be lucky to get even a mealy-mouthed reply. And just to add to the fun, I read a headline that there are now plans to house the invaders in rural locations, villages and small towns. So much for being relatively safe in our villages.

      1. Hello MumisBusy

        I am not expecting a reply from him .

        We had a good handful of lost looking dark male migrants , standing on the street corner in our village stuck to their mobile phones about 2 weeks ago. they lingered for a couple of days , then vanished .. where to, anyone can guess.

        What on earth is going on .. we are under threat re huge building plans .. hundreds of new homes .

        1. Thank goodness those ones seem to have gone away. But how long before they are replaced? To think some folk in our village objected when plans were made some years ago to build a couple hundred over-50s hutches. Admittedly, one of the sensible objections was access via a single road through an older housing area onto the main village street. 1000 of those would be preferable to just 1 to house the unwanted creeps.

      2. Yep. Even in our rural neck of the woods they’ve been busing them into Shrewsbury (and turfing out paying customers to house the useless invaders in hotels in the process). Once they escape (and they will), no one will be safe.

    2. But the problem is TB, they don’t live in the real world and any tax rises and loss of income will not affect any of them. Even the predicted rise in Fuel Duty, they’ll claim back on expenses. As long as their own lifestyles are not directly threatened, they just don’t care.

    3. I’s when you read the truly insane comments from Labour voters who saying ‘Reeves is right wing’
      or ‘this budget is for their wich fwends (as that’s how they speak)
      Or ‘well, that’ll help da wich
      ‘Twickle down economics dun’t werk, ev’ryfink so ‘spensiv’ now’
      Or ‘torwees, always stealing from da pour and givin’ to da wich. ‘

      It’s at that point that not only do you realise the average Labour voter is a class A moron, but doesn’t understand the budget or simply hasn’t listened. Earners, workers and investors are getting hammered. Not a little bit, but absolutely hammered.

      Energy is making everything expensive. Prices are soaring because of government policy. They’ll get even higher. Unemployment will spike because of higher taxes.

      It’s staggering that these people are allowed to vote. They simply don’t have the mental capacity to think logically nor the reasoning skills to go beyond their own bigotry. They need to be prevented from voting.

      1. Crazed teacher friend came with all that crap about the Kwarteng/Truss budget-that-wasn’t, that it was- good to the rich and bad for the poor. Wonder if she changed her tune since?

        1. Chances are she only looked at the BBC output, of someone on the highest rate would now get a tax rise (it’s never ‘pay less’) of X thousand. Of course, the BBC ignores that the person is paying £18,000 in tax to start with.

          The deliberate, intentional Left wing, big state, tax and waste spin was sickening and the Left lapped it up. They intentionally ignored that the biggest beneficiaries were the lower earners.

          1. Reminiscent of the story about the group of drinkers who pay for their drinks according to how wealthy they are. It finished by them beating up the chap who pays the most and then finding that when he no longer contributes that they will all have to contribute more.

            One of my sons is an aerospace engineer working on robots; the other is a computer software programmer specialising in artificial intelligence. They are both likely to be severely hit over the next few years by the current British government’s taxes and if/when they decide to join the coming brain drain and move elsewhere it will not do much good to the British economy. By themselves they are not significant but as the Scottish saying goes: Many a Mickle makes a Muckle and if many competent young people leave it will be a disaster.

    1. Listening to Sunak speaking, his diction and style is like he has come out of a B-Liar clone factory.

          1. I guess criticism of Con budget statement is allowed as it doesn’t mention illegals, spongers or lgbtqxyz types.

          2. I avoid anything political on Farcebook – but occasionally have been drawn into some unpleasant spats.

          3. Apart from on posts by friends, I never comment either. Apart from anything else, it seems to attract unwanted attention from spamming sleezeballs who want to befriend you.

    2. Time gov’t investment was introduced to galvanise our now moribund manufacturing industries.

      At a stroke, it reduces our dependency on China and similar rapacious, slave-driven manufacturing and brings prosperity and enterprise back home.

      1. I have a relative in the US who thinks that global interdependence is intended to prevent wars. Yeah, right.

        1. Global governance is more likely to lead to uprisings, brutally repressed as they do in China or Iran.

      2. No! Instead of government investing, just remove all the burdens and blocks that prevent us making things. Bin the waste taxes, the green taxes, the capital gains taxes, the recycling taxes, the endless unrelenting regulation.

        Get rid of those, get cheap energy in and just cut taxes. Get out of the way and business will flood in. We don’t want pollution but we’ve got it anyway despite literal mountains of paperwork so the law is clearly not enforced when fines don’t equate to the cost of dealing with the problem (Or, mor elikely the company has been refused permission to build a sewage treatment plant under EU law.

        The only thing the state should be doing is loaning energy generator companies cash to build a plant and then levying taxes to recover that cost. Once the cost is recovered, the loan is amortized and the taxes stop.

      3. Bingo – new manufacturing established and jobs for the gimmegrants, all tied up nicely. No need to interrupt the busy lives of our home-grown ‘don’t work, won’t work brigade.

  49. I have noted how many people have worked out that it is a good idea to get your retaliation in first.

    The Conservative Party did this as it knows people will criticise it for being sexist and racist which is why it has now had three women PMs (two of which were very unsuccessful) and now has a government in which all the principal great offices of state are occupied by non-whites or, in the case of the chancellor, someone married to a Chinese woman.

    From its outset GB News knew that it was going to be attacked for being extreme right wing and racist. It got its retaliation in first by making sure it chose the most lucid, agreeable and sensible non-white commentators such as Calvin Robinson, Shaun Bailey and Dominique Samuels to present arguments based on common sense and the most offensively stupid white people such as Benjamin Butterworth and Amy Nickel to represent their absurd and extreme leftist views. In that way GB News hope they will be seen as impartial and balanced. Butterworth and Nickell are completely sincere in their views but they have failed to see that they have fallen into a trap.

        2. I made sure my friend (who is low paid) filled up her car today. Diesel looks set to be over £2 a litre here soon (it’s already 195.9 ppl in places).

        2. Yup, thanks!
          The marriage certificate destroyed a pet theory of mine – all our family hand-written birth, marriage, death certificates are written by the same person, judging from the handwriting! I assumed every British one was, but perhaps yours being from Abroad Britain explains it?

          1. I think it depends upon who digs out the original and then has to copy it.

            I take it you’re talking about the Gibaltarian one.

            Typed and delivered to us immediately after the marriage.

          3. You have to remember, Paul, that Gibraltar is a very small enclave (and fiercely British) beset by a huge and rapacious continent – not least the Spanish who don’t/won’t understand what “In perpetuity” means. They value their freedom, find handwriting tedious and typing or using WORD, as a template, far faster and easier, in order to please those rare couples who want to be married on British soil rather than Spanish.

  51. It is 3ºC here in Skåne with a biting easterly, which is bringing blizzards that are alternating between hail and sleet. I may not go out today!🌨💨

      2. The rain has stopped here! A cause for squelchy celebration! The little birds are a bit mud-bound!

          2. Hi Tom! We’ve been a bit wet for a couple of days! I want to tell you that I am the nearest Nottler to you and if you need anything at all I’ll be here! Contact Hertslass and ask for my details!

          3. That is very thoughtful and caring of you, Sue.

            It has prompted me to ask Hertslass for those details, so expect a missive within a few days.

  52. Garden calls. Or, rather, the MR does. Plants to prepare for winter. Earthenware pots to store. Busy, busy – that’s me…

    Back son.

  53. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad5b077160281198857a1b00db75059e6448ff1096112e398fa2015dc1c1147c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/839c4b90a4352746c3c613cf2aead2ac6f3ba0281ebc5ba13e7e8090c2fc9326.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79780d7ee2f77fe19e3e2d7233344ffdbfd5bfcb26fe0647ab133fc6b8c89c38.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1459aaa679499774877a3d45e6bcbe24310f00d7e01b27b8cb4c33c6679826bd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f38cc444508f6fb25f4587c3db1a3ba16ac905952df523f589dce2d3b5bd8f97.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18862228fc5b3fc13af0a851745ee7d3d07a1e6711589ba943dfa554400acb36.jpg No butchers, no bakers, no bloody candlestick-makers! I have to be all three here, so I have to roll up my sleeves and be all three!

      1. I can’t find any of the above in Sweden, so I have to make my own. I’m certainly not going to settle for a diet of smoked fish and Jansson’s Frestelse!

      1. I’d send you some, Pet, if it were possible. 😘 In fact I’d share some with all NoTTLers.

        1. Caroline is already a fan – if you could produce gluten-free boulangerie and pâtisserie she would be heading toward Sweden!

          She is following a Naomi Develin gluten-free baking video course which she is finding very useful.

          5. She was indeed. It’s just that my crap icing kit is a bit … sub-Woolworths! If I did more I’d invest in better kit (and a decent rotating cake stand).

          7. Well done! It looks excellent – as does everything else you’ve produced!

            I understand your frustration about the piping – mine is pretty much the same. It’s a really difficult skill to acquire and the professionals who do it with apparent ease have had many, many hours of practice. Did you use a piping bag, or a syringe? I find that I get slightly better control with the syringe but they have a habit of breaking just at the critical moment so I end up with a massive splodge.

          8. Thanks. I have a very rudimentary piping bag that I don’t practice enough with. Mum used to have a syringe but I found that very unwieldy. I’m reasonably good at piping decorations (and macarons ) but I fall down when trying to pipe words, even though I am very good at calligraphy with a pen (a hobby I started as a schoolboy).

        2. Caroline is already a fan – if you could produce gluten-free boulangerie and pâtisserie she would be heading toward Sweden!

          She is following a Naomi Develin gluten-free baking video course which she is finding very useful.

        3. No worries, we’re already on our way – cider, pork & honey clutched to our sweaty breast.

        1. You gave your recipe out a while ago Grizz, and i made a mix.
          They cook up a treat in a Scandi waffle machine! Easy as, and delicious result.

        5. Would be keen to get your oatcake recipe if you ate willing to share it. Preferably in old money.

          1. My pleasure.

            DERBYSHIRE OATCAKES

            INGREDIENTS

            4 oz (114g) porridge oats
            4 oz (114g) strong flour
            1 teaspoonful salt
            ¼ oz (7g) dried yeast [or ½oz (14g) fresh yeast]
            1 teaspoonful sugar
            9 oz (255g) water
            9 oz (255g) milk
            1 tablespoonful lard (or butter)

            INSTRUCTIONS

            Put the flour, oats and salt in a bowl and mix.

            Weigh out the milk into the jug and half the water. Add the remaining water from a recently boiled kettle so that it is tepid.

            Put the yeast and sugar in a small bowl and about 3 tablespoons of the milk mix. Stir the mixture and leave for a few minutes until bubbly.

            Mix the yeast with the remaining milk and stir into the dry ingredients.

            Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to activate for an hour.

            Melt the lard in a frying pan over a medium heat.

            Pour in a large ladleful of the mixture and swirl the pan so that the base is evenly coated.

            Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes and bubbles start to appear on the surface.

            Loosen the base with a spatula and flip the oatcake over for a further 2 minutes.

            Slide the oatcake onto a plate and cover with greaseproof paper to stop the next one from sticking.

            Cover the oatcakes in foil to keep warm and repeat the process for the remaining oatcakes.

            Note: Whizzing up the oats first in a food-processor makes the batter smoother.

            What is the difference between Derbyshire oatcakes and Staffordshire oatcakes?

            Oatcakes from Derbyshire are thicker than the Staffordshire ones, which use more water in the batter mix.

The Derbyshire ones were traditionally eaten hot at breakfast and the Staffordshire oatcakes were originally sold to mill workers as a hot snack at the end of their shift.

      1. Thanks. I bought a special cake tin for that from Lakeland. It works very well. My personal favourite is the vanilla slice (called ‘custard slice’ by some).

          1. Vanilla crème pâtisserie (confectioner’s custard). I don’t like those with just cream in them (the only sort my other ever made!).

      1. I would if I could guarantee its safe (and edible) arrival; not to mention if Customs would permit it, which they won’t. If I still lived in the UK it wouldn’t be a problem.

      1. Not completely. To be on a carb-free diet indefinitely is not much fun. I shall start again for a few months in the new year then have another rest. Life is for living, not tolerating.

        1. Absolutely! Eat what you like in moderation. I cut down on carbs but not out completely and I feel better for that.

  54. Basketball star Brittney Griner sent to remote Russian penal colony and ‘trying to stay strong’. 18 November 2022.

    Russian penal colonies are known for their harsh treatment of inmates, unsanitary conditions and lack of access to proper healthcare.

    Among those being held in them is opposition figure Mr Nalavny, who on Friday said he had been moved to a “cell-type room” to silence him after prison officials accused him of being an “egregious offender”.

    The transfer came just days before his mother, father and wife Yulia were due to visit him four days, he said.

    He described his new room as “a regular cramped cell, like the punishment cell, except that you can have not one but two books and use the prison kiosk, albeit on a very limited budget.”

    His visitation rights have also been curtailed.

    He accused the Kremlin of “bestiality” and manually controlling his “entire incarceration”.

    “They’re doing it to shut me up. So what’s my first duty? That’s right, to not be afraid and not shut up,” he wrote on Twitter.

    He wrote on Twitter! Lol! He should thank his lucky stars he’s not in an American gaol where violence, intimidation and homosexual rape are the daily fare.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/18/basketball-star-brittney-griner-sent-remote-russian-penal-colony/

        1. Poorly written article. It leaps about from Griner to Navalny, so it’s easy to get confused about the sex of Griner.

          1. That’s what mixed me up.
            An article today in the Mail, I think, about a cyclist on a zebra….a crossing, of course, but not worded well.
            The standard of writing in the papers deteriorates on a daily basis.

      2. Brittany Spears is facing competition in North-West France from Normandie Arrows and in Africa from Nigeria Assegai.

        .

    2. unsanitary conditions and lack of access to proper healthcare

      This sounds like the UK particulaly after recent reports.

    3. unsanitary conditions and lack of access to proper healthcare

      This sounds like the UK particulaly after recent reports.

  55. 368026+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    Will it ever be recognised by the electorate majority that
    via their voting pattern we can no longer, nor have we been able to for many a year afford these
    peacock,posing,political,prats & parties.

    I cannot see in all honesty “honky” filing out of this Country in a quiet subdued manner, I can see the overseeing political element with a seriously bloodied nose.

    ,

  56. BBC News at One – Loss and Damage Talks – Sharm El-Sheikh 2022
    (Otherwise known as COP27)

    Extended talks are focussing now on how the world should compensate countries for their losses and damage arising from the now accepted rise of more than the target 1.5 degC in global warming.

    Whilst rich land based countries (apart from the UK that is) have the option of digging downwards to keep cool from the heat, Finance Minister from Tuvalu says that this is not atoll an option for his country which is already half under water.

    Any ideas of what to do with all the spoil that is extracted by rich hole digging counties? 🤔

    1. They keep going on about Tuvalu being swamped by rising sea levels. It is simply not true. Tuvalu is sinking because of erosion !
      Tuvalu gained many hectares of land also by deposits of sand and gravel after storms.

      3. They should stop grovelling and start gravelling and building sand castles!
        🏝➡️🏜

  57. Having seen the amount of food that Grizz bakes – I’d say he has a dozen Albanians living in his garden shed….

  58. Do any of our Dorset residents know of Chris Loder MP? He’s also a churchwarden and hosted the Save the Parish event in Parliament on Tuesday evening. He got together a group of MPs and a couple of lords who all take issue with Welby and the Wokies spending millions of pounds raised at parish level in order to expand their already huge diocesan bureaucracy while sacking priests and selling off parish property.

    The finances have been investigated by a team lead by Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent. When his findings were challenged from Church House, he asked them to provide evidence to the contrary but it turned out their figures were exactly the same. Chris Loder told us that most of his fellow MPs are not aware of their responsibilities with regards to the established church and urged us to enlighten them. Of course many are now not Christian.

    The comment that really stayed with me came from Canon Angela Tilby, she of Radio 4 fame. She stated that from her experience of being involved with selection boards it was clear that the quota system was leading to many people who are neither “emotionally nor intellectually fit” being put forward for ordination. I found that especially striking coming from one of the earliest women ordained in the CofE.

    Actually gaining entry to the Palace of Westminster was quite a rigmarole. First step is an out building where all visitors are put through airport style security checks. Watches off, coats/jackets off, everything in trays and walk through a scanner then bags also searched and everyone also frisked and body scanned. At the end of all that, you’re released straight into Westminster Hall, which is balm for the soul. Beautiful. From there, upstairs into the main lobby and on Tuesday we were directed up to Committee Room 14 House of Commons, which is where the 1922 Committee meet. A large panelled room with some impressive paintings hung high up around the walls. A lovely building. Just such a shame many of its current occupants are not worthy.

    2. Irreverend very good today – “Clown Church”. They are not happy about the virtue signalling in the Church wrt the “climate emergency”

      1. We had that at last year’s harvest festival courtesy of the bishopette of Birkenhead. She exhorted us to get out of our “gas guzzlers” then got into her Porsche to drive home! It didn’t go down well in a rural parish where there’s no public transport.

    3. One of my nieces was a professional cordon bleu cook and she ended up being in charge of the kitchens and the catering at Lambeth Palace.

      Although I thought that Rowan Williams was a muddle-headed old goat Sarah said that she liked him and he was popular with the staff. On the other hand Welby was despised by virtually everyone who worked there.

      1. Rowan Williams was a “holy fool” kind of Bishop, wasn’t he?
        Welby is just a snake in the grass and seems to be very dishonest.

      1. Very large canvasses. Quite dificult to sneak out under your jumper :-))
        I wonder if every room is so well endowed – probably.

          10. Just a bit of reconfiguration by GCHQ to establish who’s been complaining about the WEF’s budget.

    2. My mobile which I use most of the time, has developed a mind of it’s own over the past few weeks.
      And if I open a link on my PC, then if I close the link, the whole page dissappears and occasionally I have to log in again. It drives me nuts.

        1. Ahhh… so out of date! Win 11 for me, with updates minute by minute… er … and a Microsoft-branded tablet PC, SurfacePro that is the first PC that works like a PC should always have worked. Pen, keyboard, touchscreen, can write on it even with your hand touching it. Excellent.

          1. As I said earlier – you young people – obsessed by gadgets!!.

            I have one desktop PC. No laptops, tablets*, pads or pods. No smart phone. Yet I manage OK…….

            * except the prostate one…

          3. Huh, I’m happy to stick with Windows 7 Professional on my laptops. I can’t get on with the initial format of 10 or 11. Updates with neither style nor substance.

          4. I was very happy with Win 7 after I had tweeked it to my preferences. I updated toWin 10and run ClassicWindows Shwell to make it look like Classic Windows. I won’t bother with W11.

  61. I am beginning to wonder if Liz Truss was in league with Sunak, Gates, Soros and Schwab from the outset and the £115,000 for life as an ex prime-minister was the bribe dangled before her in order to get her to play the game.

    Why else did she sign the PESCO agreement, why did she do so many credibility-destroying U-turns and why oh why did she appoint the repulsive Derisible Spoonerisable Corrid Hunt as her chancellor if she truly wanted to remain prime minister for more than 40 odd days?

    1. I have considered they were all in it together from the start of the selected election, when Hunt was the first to be thrown off the list and when it became obvious that Sunak was not going to win. The £115,000 life was Truss’s reward for playing her part. It was the manner of her departure that confirmed this for me, she did not seem concerned but almost joyful despite the heaps of burning coal that were being piled upon her head by Parliament, the media and the financial sector. All theatre for the public. The signing of the PESCO agreement was disgraceful. They should all be charged with treason, but it seems that hurty words only are of any consideration these days.

      2. I believe that you’re right, pm! Theatre is all we are getting! “See what we are doing!” Nothing mentioned about what is not being done. The things that really need to be taken on.

        8. They look like conniving partners in crime to me. Enlarging the image reveals the true horror. It is stomach turning (and churning).

    3. Good point and a fair analysis Richard, It wouldn’t surprise anyone, she didn’t seem very bothered about her short stay.

      2. Sunak couldn’t give a toss about this country except what he can get out of it. Like some others…

    2. And we thought Traitorous May was bad! This ghastly little creep is a disastrous place-man! How I loath him and rhyming Hunt.

    3. If one asked nicely I’m sure the local housing department would you you a breakdown of the ethnic composition of its workforce…..

    3. As the 650 plus the Lords are totally and utterly useless. I wonder how much money this country would actually save each year. My guess is 500 millions.

  65. Britain is no country for young men. 18 November 2022.

    If I had to give one piece of advice to Britons under 30 it would be this: go. Leave. Skedaddle. Get one of those work visas for New Zealand or Canada and start a new life. Fret not over the details. Those can be worked out once you’re there. Don’t make excuses, don’t defer, don’t delay.

    This would be excellent advice if there were somewhere to go but the unfortunate reality is that the Anglosphere is now finished.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/young-britons-should-emigrate-now/

    1. My sons are both under 30 and in good jobs which could take them to work all over the world. In addition to which they are bilingual. We shall see what they will do but one has a wife in tow and the other one a fiancée.

    2. Agreed, I have told all my grandchildren their future lay outside the UK. The problem is I can’t tell them where is a good place is to go to!

      1. Ukraine, it will have untraceable money pouring in from all directions and all they will need to open is a laundromat.

      1. He’s a dog, you have to make allowances. And he spends a lot of time going walkies, so he’s streetwise and knows the patois.

          1. Former girlfriends are one thing – indeed Caroline gets on quite well with some of them – but I should imagine ex-wives are a more difficult proposition.

      2. He’s a dog, you have to make allowances. And he spends a lot of time going walkies, so he’s streetwise and knows the patois.

  67. The Left-Wingers’ Book of English History.

    The Ancient Britons tried (but failed) to prevent the invasion of their country, successively, by the Celts, Romans, Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans because they were RACIST!

    Hadrian built his wall because he was RACIST!

    Offa built his dẏke along the Welsh border because he was RACIST!

    Richard I crusaded in Palestine because he was RACIST!

    Edward II took on the Scots at Bannockburn because he was RACIST!

    The English lost against Owain Glyndŵr because they were RACIST!

    England fought the French during the Hundred Years War because they were RACIST!

    The Yorkists battled with the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses because they were both RACIST!

    Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake defeated the invading Spanish Armada because they were a pair of RACISTS!

    The Royalist Cavaliers were defeated by the Parliamentarian Roundheads for being RACIST!

    Jenkins lost his ear for being RACIST!

    George II and The Duke of Cumberland defeated the Scots at Culloden because they were a couple of RACISTS!

    Robert Clive defeated the Nawab of Bengal because he was RACIST!

    James Wolfe captured Quebec and Montréal because he was RACIST!

    George III fought the American War of Independence because he was RACIST!

    Lord Nelson and The Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon because they were twin RACISTS!

    Lords Raglan and Cardigan fought the Crimean War because they were twin RACISTS!

    Florence Nightingale interfered in that war because she was RACIST!

    David Livingstone thought he knew best in Africa because he was a RACIST!

    Robert Baden-Powell fought in the Boer War because he was RACIST!

    George V, Herbert Asquith, and Lord Kitchener fought the First World War (against the Germans) because they were RACIST!

    The RACIST Winston Churchill defeated Adolf Hitler for no other reason!

    Anthony Eden got involved with The Suez Crisis because he was RACIST!

    Margaret Thatcher defeated the Argentinians in the Falklands and the NUM in the coal fields because she was a RACIST!

    Footnote: It must be noted that the Right Honourable Sir Tony Blair was NOT a racist when he invaded Iraq. He was a Freedom Fighter in the best tradition of his comrades.

      1. I may have seen that face somewhere before.

        It calls to mind Uncle Mac on Children’s Hour on BBC radio in the 1950s. Thinking that the microphone had been turned off at the end of the transmission the avuncular old boy said: “Thank God that’s finished with the little buggers for today!” It got him the sack.

          1. News veteran John Simpson has claimed that the BBC gagged him when he tried to expose the behaviour of an unnamed children’s radio presenter who fits the profile of corporation legend Derek McCulloch.

            Simpson spoke in thinly veiled terms about a sex abuser he called “Uncle Dick”, who was famous as a children’s radio entertainer from the 1930s to the 60s. Simpson told The Sun that the abuser was one of the BBC’s biggest names from the 1920s until his death in 1967.
            “Week after week, children from all over the country would win competitions to visit the BBC and meet Uncle Dick.
            “He would welcome them, show them around, give them lunch, then take them to the gents and interfere with them,” claimed Simpson.

            BBC home of perverts, paedos and ponces.

        4. Derek Ivor Breashur McCulloch OBE

          McCulloch was born in Plymouth, Devon, the youngest child of (William) Lionel Breashur McCulloch and his wife, Bertha Russell. The First World War interrupted his education at Croydon High School, and he enlisted in 1915 in the Public Schools Battalion of the 16th Middlesex Regiment at the age of 17. He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 within 20 yards of the German front line. He was then shot by an enemy stretcher party and lost his right eye. During three days and nights in a shell hole, he incurred further injuries from shrapnel. He crawled back to his own lines. He served until 1921 with the infantry, where he was commissioned into the Green Howards, and in the Royal Flying Corps as an equipment officer, including a spell on HMS Valiant.

          After the war, he travelled in Europe and South America. He was working for Central Argentine Railway when his health deteriorated, and he returned to England where a bullet was extracted from his lung.

          In 1938 he lost a leg as the result of a road accident, and thereafter remained in constant pain.

          What a man!

          1. That brings back memories of listening to the wireless. Later when a little older it was Your Hundred Best Tunes introduced by Alan Keith.

          2. Well pet, having heard you play I’m not at all surprised! Good on you!
            👏🏻👍🏻💕

      2. We never did see the Panorama programme on “Charidee salaries” which apparently included Children in Need – I wonder why?

  69. BTL comment under a Tellygraff article on awful hotels; funny now, but not so at the time!

    “I swear the following story is absolutely true and without embellishment.

    Some 45 years ago I stayed at the Cullompton Hotel in Silverton. (I think that is correct although it may have been the other way around).

    It was an old country style hotel and I thought that it might have a snooker table so I asked at reception. “Yes” the lady said…. and nothing more. “Where is it?” I asked “Down there on the right” came the reply. The door was locked and I returned to reception to ask for the key. “It’s lost” she answered.

    So I went to the bar where there was a schoolgirl in one corner doing her homework and the barman polishing glasses. “Good evening” said I…. “I hate you.” he replied….. Somewhat taken aback and thinking I had misheard I asked if I could have a beer. “I suppose so.” he answered snarling. I got my beer and was about to leave when he said quite unprompted “See that fat little (word the Telegraph won’t allow) there… manager’s daughter. Well, he calls himself the manager but he threatened to sack me one day and I told him I would come back and cut his throat and you know what, he hasn’t got the guts…..”

    So making my excuses I went into the restaurant where two solitary salesmen were eating and seeing I was alone they invited me to join them. There I discovered I was not the only one to meet the rather odd barman…

    I made sure my door was locked that night!”

  70. A passage from the Evening Standard’s “West End Final” daily newsletter:

    “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubblegum.” This is not a direct quote from Paul Johnson, director the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, but it is a close approximation.
    As Britain’s tax burden is set to hit its highest levels since the Second World War, Johnson said he would be “most surprised” if it returns to “its long-term pre-Covid average at any time in the coming decades.” That is ‘decades’ plural.
    Business Editor Jonathan Prynn has got his calculator out and estimates that the changes to income tax thresholds mean that 900,000 middle earners across London and the south east are set to be dragged into the higher 40p tax band over the next six years. We are talking workers such as teachers and senior nurses. Not minimum wage jobs, sure, but now deposited in a tax band never designed for them.
    The Chancellor announced that the threshold, already frozen by Rishi Sunak until 2026, will now be left at £50,270 until 2028. For context, and it is an imperfect comparison, but a single person in the US only starts paying the top rate of federal income tax of 37 per on earnings in excess of $578,125. Which is more.
    With all these taxes, we can expect high-quality public services, right? Anyone who has tried to secure a GP appointment or frankly interacted with the British state in any capacity might suggest otherwise.
    Where is the money going? Much of it is now being siphoned off on debt interest. Johnson points out that by 2027-28, interest will hit £100bn a year – more than spending on any public service bar the NHS.
    Whose fault is it? In addition to global headwinds, the fastidiously independent Johnson blamed the government’s “economic own goals” and years of “cakeism”.
    The tragedy is most stark in the collapse in living standards. Real household disposable income per capita is expected to be a third lower in 2027–28 than we might have expected in 2008. A third! “The truth is we just got a lot poorer,” Johnson said. And the fact is, we weren’t doing that great to begin with.
    The criticism of the British electorate has long been that we want US-style taxes with European-level taxation. Now, we are saddled with the opposite.

          2. Berlin schwartzbier is best, even better than Guinness. Meet you there for a beer or several on a tourist barge next spring?

    1. Just par.

      Wordle 517 4/6

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

      1. Me too. What an odd word.
        Wordle 517 4/6

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

        1. Bogey Five for me.
          Wordle 517 5/6

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

      2. Me too, mola

        Wordle 517 4/6

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

    2. We watched staff clear the snow from the driveway.

      Something to be said for living in a condominium.

      1. I hope so Richard, they all seemed to enjoy it. now booked for another 2 gigs there before Xmas

      1. The residents remembered me and it’s the first time I’ve played at this home since before the pandemic

        1. They love it . I remember being with my mother in her care home and the entertainment was present. They all sing along. She had a portable radio with lots of different music on cassettes, it played almost constantly. Amazing how the memories are refurbished by music and song. Great stuff Alec.

  75. After 100 years, the BBC is an ancien régime

    Parliament should commute the licence fee and invite the BBC to finance its dogmas, temples and priesthood by other means

    CHARLES MOORE • 15 November 2022 • 7:00am

    The BBC made its first broadcast 100 years ago yesterday. This was celebrated with due ceremony on the Today programme. It was all very jolly, although the opening news broadcast of the morning promoted Private Pike of Dad’s Army to the rank of captain, an error which must have had the late Arthur Lowe (Captain Mainwaring) turning in his grave.

    I was honoured to appear as the one party pooper, pointing out that the BBC licence fee is a) an unfair privilege and b) obsolescent because of technology.

    As one who has enjoyed so many BBC productions, I did feel a bit churlish.

    I can vividly remember, aged 11, watching the very first opening credits of Dad’s Army with the swastika being repulsed from the English Channel by the Union flag and recognising that this one was going to be a winner. On our staircase at home stood (and still stands) a pike used in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which had briefly done service in our village Home Guard in 1940. The programme completely understood the inherent comedy of the diverse nation it depicted as well as anyone since Shakespeare in Henry V. Yes, the BBC could do amazing things.

    But I must not surrender to nostalgia, because in the BBC’s beginning is its end. Although it was established in 1922, its key date is 1926. It was then, under its general manager, John Reith, that it ceased to be the private-sector British Broadcasting Company and became the British Broadcasting Corporation with a royal charter – with Reith as its first director general. Ever since, it has been the poll tax-funded, privileged autocrat of our cultural life.

    The life of Reith suggests that he was virtually mad, but also a genius (the two things being traditionally near-allied). “He seems to talk as if he were in charge of national well-being,” one contemporary critic remarked. He saw his mission as part-imperial, part-religious. He invented the Empire Service and persuaded King George V to start a Christmas message to the Empire which, in modern, post-imperial form, George V’s great-grandson, our new King, will deliver for the first time next month. In job interviews, Reith asked applicants whether they believed in the teachings of Jesus. In programming, he made sure that no one could have fun on Sundays.

    Reith was bravely independent of government, but it seems never to have occurred to him to doubt for one second that he had an absolute right to force his idea of life, the universe and everything upon the British people. Many of his aims and prejudices were admirable. He disliked television, for example, much preferring radio. But he was innocent of the democratic belief that people should be free to choose.

    This remains the BBC’s problem today. The teachings of Jesus have long ceased to hold sway in Broadcasting House, but the dominance of doctrine is the same. In news, in drama, in documentaries and even more in magazine programmes, such as Today, which include news, the orthodoxy is multiculturalism, diversity (which means ethnically diverse but politically uniform), victim culture and exposés of government for not spending enough money on things. In another echo of old-time religion, there is even a constant “The End is Nigh” theme, in the form of global warming.

    One is all in favour of people being able to hold these opinions. One is less in favour of making the rest of us pay for them. In the 19th century, Parliament finally commuted the tithes, the taxes which lavished money on the Church of England. In the 21st, it should commute the licence fee and invite the BBC to finance its dogmas, temples and priesthood by other means.
    ________________________________________

    Much is currently made of the BBC commitment to regions. It beats its breast about how it should do more things out of London yet it is cutting back on valued local programming. I have recently received unsolicited complaints about the effects of its decision to drop broadcasting from Oxford and Cambridge. Was that made, perhaps, because the names associated with the highest levels of education might sound “elitist”? [It’s some years since Oxford lost its separate BBC identity and became part of The South.]

    The BBC decision was mysteriously justified by the need to “move decisively to a digital-first BBC to better deliver value for all audiences”. What this means in practice is that local people and institutions that have built up solid relationships with local journalists in or near either city have now lost them. If you are in Oxford, you must make contact with Southampton – almost a different universe. If you are in Cambridge, your Look East programme will now come – surely a power grab by Alan Partridge – out of Norwich.
    ________________________________________

    I must not leave the subject of Lord Reith without pointing readers in the direction of a wonderful interview conducted with him in old age by Malcolm Muggeridge. An edit of it is currently circulating on Twitter.

    Muggeridge asks Reith, a Scot, why he had insisted on a “BBC accent” that sounded English. Reith defends himself, citing the need for an “educated” way of speaking which ensures clarity. Muggeridge objects that this accent identified the BBC as being “the organ of the genteel and respectable elements in society”. Reith turns his great granite head round and stares at Mugg. “Anything wrong with that?” he asks, witheringly. In the age of the consonant-free Amol Rajan, one can only cheer.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/15/100-years-bbc-ancien-regime/

    1. There is a great difference between regional accents which are commendable and common accents which are not.

      1. I don’t give a damn about accents, there are only two criteria:

        1. Can I understand what the speaker is saying
        2. Can I understand what the speaker is saying!

      2. Each individual has a unique accent; many thousands of individuals may be recognised within a few seconds/ a few words – however they vary like music – from tone dumb to oratorical …

  76. After 100 years, the BBC is an ancien régime

    Parliament should commute the licence fee and invite the BBC to finance its dogmas, temples and priesthood by other means

    CHARLES MOORE • 15 November 2022 • 7:00am

    The BBC made its first broadcast 100 years ago yesterday. This was celebrated with due ceremony on the Today programme. It was all very jolly, although the opening news broadcast of the morning promoted Private Pike of Dad’s Army to the rank of captain, an error which must have had the late Arthur Lowe (Captain Mainwaring) turning in his grave.

    I was honoured to appear as the one party pooper, pointing out that the BBC licence fee is a) an unfair privilege and b) obsolescent because of technology.

    As one who has enjoyed so many BBC productions, I did feel a bit churlish.

    I can vividly remember, aged 11, watching the very first opening credits of Dad’s Army with the swastika being repulsed from the English Channel by the Union flag and recognising that this one was going to be a winner. On our staircase at home stood (and still stands) a pike used in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which had briefly done service in our village Home Guard in 1940. The programme completely understood the inherent comedy of the diverse nation it depicted as well as anyone since Shakespeare in Henry V. Yes, the BBC could do amazing things.

    But I must not surrender to nostalgia, because in the BBC’s beginning is its end. Although it was established in 1922, its key date is 1926. It was then, under its general manager, John Reith, that it ceased to be the private-sector British Broadcasting Company and became the British Broadcasting Corporation with a royal charter – with Reith as its first director general. Ever since, it has been the poll tax-funded, privileged autocrat of our cultural life.

    The life of Reith suggests that he was virtually mad, but also a genius (the two things being traditionally near-allied). “He seems to talk as if he were in charge of national well-being,” one contemporary critic remarked. He saw his mission as part-imperial, part-religious. He invented the Empire Service and persuaded King George V to start a Christmas message to the Empire which, in modern, post-imperial form, George V’s great-grandson, our new King, will deliver for the first time next month. In job interviews, Reith asked applicants whether they believed in the teachings of Jesus. In programming, he made sure that no one could have fun on Sundays.

    Reith was bravely independent of government, but it seems never to have occurred to him to doubt for one second that he had an absolute right to force his idea of life, the universe and everything upon the British people. Many of his aims and prejudices were admirable. He disliked television, for example, much preferring radio. But he was innocent of the democratic belief that people should be free to choose.

    This remains the BBC’s problem today. The teachings of Jesus have long ceased to hold sway in Broadcasting House, but the dominance of doctrine is the same. In news, in drama, in documentaries and even more in magazine programmes, such as Today, which include news, the orthodoxy is multiculturalism, diversity (which means ethnically diverse but politically uniform), victim culture and exposés of government for not spending enough money on things. In another echo of old-time religion, there is even a constant “The End is Nigh” theme, in the form of global warming.

    One is all in favour of people being able to hold these opinions. One is less in favour of making the rest of us pay for them. In the 19th century, Parliament finally commuted the tithes, the taxes which lavished money on the Church of England. In the 21st, it should commute the licence fee and invite the BBC to finance its dogmas, temples and priesthood by other means.
    ________________________________________

    Much is currently made of the BBC commitment to regions. It beats its breast about how it should do more things out of London yet it is cutting back on valued local programming. I have recently received unsolicited complaints about the effects of its decision to drop broadcasting from Oxford and Cambridge. Was that made, perhaps, because the names associated with the highest levels of education might sound “elitist”? [It’s some years since Oxford lost its separate BBC identity and became part of The South.]

    The BBC decision was mysteriously justified by the need to “move decisively to a digital-first BBC to better deliver value for all audiences”. What this means in practice is that local people and institutions that have built up solid relationships with local journalists in or near either city have now lost them. If you are in Oxford, you must make contact with Southampton – almost a different universe. If you are in Cambridge, your Look East programme will now come – surely a power grab by Alan Partridge – out of Norwich.
    ________________________________________

    I must not leave the subject of Lord Reith without pointing readers in the direction of a wonderful interview conducted with him in old age by Malcolm Muggeridge. An edit of it is currently circulating on Twitter.

    Muggeridge asks Reith, a Scot, why he had insisted on a “BBC accent” that sounded English. Reith defends himself, citing the need for an “educated” way of speaking which ensures clarity. Muggeridge objects that this accent identified the BBC as being “the organ of the genteel and respectable elements in society”. Reith turns his great granite head round and stares at Mugg. “Anything wrong with that?” he asks, witheringly. In the age of the consonant-free Amol Rajan, one can only cheer.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/15/100-years-bbc-ancien-regime/

  77. That’s me gone. Got the Daturas into a shed for winter. The Thalia fuchsias – tomorrow.

    Have a spiffing evening – we are hooked (again) on House of Cards. What a good drama it was. I’ forgotten the girl reporter.

    A demain.

  78. In Qatar why is the Western issue all about gayness re the World Cup , why the hell isn’t it all about the appalling conditions the imported workers have suffered / killed and the high probability of the shocking conditions they are living in and whether or not they are slave labour and not paid sufficient money , and also whether their passports were removed or not .. Bearing in mind that the imported construction workers work long hours in intense heat .

    2. Nobody cares about poor brown people, Belle. And yes, there they hold the passport to make sure you stay.

      1. I heard that because of terrorism and covid in Sri Lanka, tourism had tanked , so workers were persuaded to leave and work in construction in Qatar, they worked in terrible conditions , not used to the searing desert heat many suffered under bad management and no pay for weeks.

    4. It is their country, Belle no matter what we think. It is really none of our business how they run their lives. When they are handed a tainted and paid for World Cup we should either not go, or stop carping.

    5. Why the issue of Qatar, at all. Homosexuality is forbidden in islam for all its 2 billion followers wherever they are. Its not as if they have a different line at the mosque in Bradford, and its not as if we have just found out they are muslims in the Gulf states. Protests outside Friday prayers? I think not. Plod would be down on you as quick as they were on Tommy Robinson.

          2. #metoo.
            Second time, bought entry to the Diners Club lounge. Still crap, but some free refreshments and better seating.

    6. There is nothing new about such exploited labourers in the Middle East. I have posted the following before:

      I’ve worked in Qatar and seen the teatment of labourers from the sub-continent first hand. That was building the Dolphin Energy gas terminal. This treatment of third world workers is nothing new – it’s been going on throughout the Middle East for decades. The whole of the gas and oil infrastructure was built using such labour. Did the hand-wringing classes ever feel guilt-ridden when filling their cars with products from these countries? But as soon as football goes there it suddenly becomes an area of concern. I like my football but I hate it when the game is hijacked to promote social and political issues.

      1. “Lord I’m 1, Lord I’m 2, Lord I’m 3, Lord I’m 4, Lord I’m 500 miles away from home.”

        1. Children that young shouldn’t spend so long away from home.
          I prefer the version by the Proclaimers…

  80. Yeah yeah, I know it’s the Fail, but just look at all the crap that is going on and then try to tell me you don’t believe the UK is FUBAR,

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

    Fit and healthy father, 49, died after doctors mistakenly gave him a cancerous kidney transplant, inquest hears

    Brace for a ‘new era’ of PERMANENTLY higher tax: 8MILLION Britons face 40p rate after ‘stealth’ raid despite plummet in living standards as IFS slams government ‘own goals’ and Hunt is hit with Tory backlash

    Civil servants to go on strike for a MONTH: Pay dispute will bring MORE chaos to airports, ports, driving tests and DVLA – as 350 baggage handlers walk out at Heathrow

    The ‘genderbread person’ will see you now! NHS trust could start sticking ‘unscientific’ gender identity posters up as part of inclusivity drive

    Head of Scotland Yard’s catastrophic VIP sex abuse inquiry faces gross misconduct proceedings over ‘misleading comments’ at end of £2.5m probe

    and it goes on and on and on in a similar vein.

    1. On a happier note, we have just had a lovely visit from UK relatives, ending with the wedding of our eldest grandson last weekend. Now there is just the two of us at home, hopefully a quiet, peaceful weekend to recover!

      1. What a happy time for you all, jill! Hope you had a wonderful time with you all together 🌹 Any photos?

      2. What a happy time for you all, jill! Hope you had a wonderful time with you all together 🌹 Any photos?

      4. Wonderful!
        I hope it was champagne or similar rather than a pail of water.

        Perhaps you and the lad could have a tumble to celebrate?

        I hope all is well with him, he hasn’t posted for ages.

        1. The lad is fine and we both are enjoying life here in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia, in the land of the free!!! He may well come back sometime when the mood takes him!

  81. The ‘genderbread person’ will see you now! NHS trust could start sticking ‘unscientific’ gender identity posters up as part of inclusivity drive
    EXCLUSIVE: A poster featuring a ‘genderbread person’ could be used in the NHS
    Critics have branded the NHS poster’s woke content as both ‘false and sexist’
    It also features a controversial claim that babies are assigned a gender at birth
    The poster is currently being considered for approval by Welsh NHS officials
    By JOHN ELY SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 14:02, 18 November 2022 | UPDATED: 16:12, 18 November 2022

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11438917/The-genderbread-person-NHS-start-sticking-unscientific-posters-up.html

    Look at the art work on those posters .. must have cost an absolute bomb.

    1. Confusing for small children. Made up BS. “Cis-gender” is a patronising and offensive term for ordinary people dreamt up by self-important lunatics.

    3. Here’s a short and to the point BTL “More proof the NHS is OBSCENELY over funded and overstaffed“

      1. And with Patricia Hewitt now in charge of things that Hunt promoted her to , well heaven help those on the receiving end . She will be as much use as a soluble tampon.

  82. MB back home.
    Currently having a fight with his email.
    At this rate, he’ll wish he’s back on the ward!

    2. Good news that he is safely home anyway!
      No more updates about wandering lunatics from CGH 🙁

      1. Elderly chum is in CGH.
        (Complicated saga involving broken a broken leg and being shuttled twixt Colchester and Cambridge.)
        When I visit her, I’ll have to look out for more lunatics (not exactly Mission Impossible).

    7. Phew , that was a close one , and so glad he is back home .

      The getting better bit will be noticeable with home comforts .

      Your updates on the Catch 22 of the NHS were really amusing , ward life never changes.

  83. My current passport has expired. If the fluckers present at the recent G20 uprising have their way and insist on vaccination passports they can go fluck themselves. I shall withhold my patronage of airlines and foreign hotels accordingly.

    1. Keep it up to date, you never know when you may need to flee to civilisation, Russia or Hungary for example!

      2. I renewed mine 2019 intending to have a trog round bits of the continent by public transport and then the bloody Wuhan Virus arrived so the bloody thing is sat in a drawer still waiting to be used.

    3. I renewed mine this year. If memory serves me right it took 18 days from start to finish. Quite how that happened I have no clue, after all my name is not Johnson, Gove, Sunak, Hunt etc, it must have been a mistake!
      Perhaps it is a tease, “we have issued the document for you to go abroad but we plan to stop you driving or flying anywhere”.

  85. So much hysteria about the effects of the budget – I expect the football stadia to all be empty for tomorrow’s matches.

  86. I recently had lunch and a very interesting chat with a rather elderly Colonal in my villiage.
    He pulled the seat out for me and he often offers women his coat when they are chilly, he has done so for me when I’ve misjudged the weather, I think such old fashioned courtesy very nice but I know both men and woman who think it silly. The Colonal suggested that younger men need to emphasis both their masculinity and appear to neglect the traditional male role of being a gentleman because women aren’t old fashioned gentle ladies. That they are more assertive, compete with men and do the ‘ male ‘ role too . Im not too sure what the women of his age in the women’s guild etc would think of that conversation because they are not young and very assertive- they say they had to fight to be assertive in a day when women were expected to take on a certain role in life . Yet they didn’t demean men which happens now and women are also demeaned for calling themselves women. With the lunacy of transgenderism, those male and female debates are a thing of the past when you can apparently chose your own gender .

    1. I think he is right. Also, you can be a strong woman without being unfeminine. This is what western feminists have forgotten.

      1. The comment of the day, bb2! Why do women today find it necessary to pretend to be more masculine in a mixed work/social situation? It impresses nobody and looks ridiculous!

        1. Agree. My grandmother and mother had to be strong because of their circumstances. It didn’t mean they weren’t feminine.

          Edit. My daughter is feminine, beautiful and strong ❤️

      2. I love strong feminine women. My mother, my sister and my wife are all strong feminine women and they need men who are strong, compassionate, masculine and humorous,

    2. “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”
      Said it all.
      What price companionship?

    3. Forgive me, Lady, but is that a colonial, as in a ‘fine southern gentleman’, or a British old fashioned colonel with good manners?

    4. I hate it when you hold the door open for a ‘female’, you can get a frosty look from her, as if you were insulting her.

      1. I love it when a chap holds a door open for me. MH always helps me on and off the bus and up steps. Now I use a stick (grrrr) I need the assistance.

  88. Had the van serviced yesterday and had also asked the garage to clear the spurious engine fault indication that it’s plagued with.
    They’d done the servicing, but hadn’t managed to persuade the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) to recycle and would I mind leaving it down there so they could have another go.

    Needing the van tomorrow, I went back down to pick it up about 3ish, but they’d not got round to looking at it again. Agreed to bring it back next week and went to drive the thing home.
    Put the key in and started the thing and then thought, “Where’s that bloody warning message?”
    The damn thing had cleared by its self.

    Did have a bit of sad news though. Fiona, the lass in the bungalow next door, about 100 yards down towards Cromford apparently died in hospital last month.
    Strange lass, she’d made a lot of bad decisions in her life and had suffered from the consequences.
    Still, at least she’s at rest now.

    1. Busy old time, Bob. How is your son? I take it no sign of the bike parts?
      Sorry about your neighbour. Always a shock.

      1. Not a shock, more or less expected. Poor bugger was in total shit state.

        T’Lad is now able to hobble about with one crutch and even take a couple of steps without it!
        The reason I need the van is to go and assist him in taking parts off the bike remains. It’s now in a local bike breakers, at last!!

    3. Such sad news to hear a neighbour had died, Bob.

      I have just read your bit about the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) out to Moh, because my car has that warning message which drives us mad , our garage chap cannot clear it either . We haven’t a clue how to clear it.

      1. Alec will probably know but the DPF needs to be blasted with a longish journey at speed to burn off the particulates (lots of short journeys are not good). Some garages have bow acquired DPF cleaners (I’m told they cost around £45k that can clean a DPF for a price but the alternative may be a new (expensive) DPF….

      2. I’ve been told that you need to give the vehicle a good thrash down the motorway, yes, I know a bit awkward in Dorset, for the van that means keeping it in 4th while doing a bit above 60mph for 15 to 20 miles, keeping the engine RPM above 3,000.
        The garage today said Cromford to Newhaven in 3rd might do the trick.

        When the DPF gets partially blocked up, the increase in temperature is supposed to burn off the carbon particles and clear the thing.

    4. Such sad news to hear a neighbour had died, Bob.

      I have just read your bit about the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) out to Moh, because my car has that warning message which drives us mad , our garage chap cannot clear it either . We haven’t a clue how to clear it.

    5. I forked out and bought an OBD2 diagnostic analyser for my old Mazda5 diesel that was throwing out the fillowing diagnostic trouble codes arising from the engine fault light:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b5caa71a8c434d193e0c515b8e4c1a9c394a3b58523dd5f2ac7212609ea2fd9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7b8ff508b21eff3740b31a51dafc307f7e4e7c66aa737055f1b699421a7516e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2eff781626b42ea15454f88b6bc34f78fbaf8c288988b56a26f2f132c986d16.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ebf3a9bba2a555a548dab1b26f8acabd71c8138b54c3586a2c9a6474835d141d.jpg

      I could actually clear these codes using the analyser but they would reappear after a time.
      I concluded that the dealer had not been carrying out the proper procedure for regenerating the DPFwhich entails running a parked regeneration undet the control of the diagnostic analyser.

      This entails the diesel being run whilst parked with an exhaust temperatuure of over over 500 degC until the heat in the DPF converts the soot in it to ash and emits it through the tail pipe. Thr DPF may be so blocked however that the analyser may abort the procedure.

      I guess that many dealers and garages will not bother trying to undertake such a hazardous proccedure and try a less than satisfactory high revving road trip.

      Consequently there has built up bespoke DPF treatment speciallists that employ avariety of different ways.of cleaning DPS properly.

      I gave up on my diesel at this stage and traded it in for a new EV which is ideal for frequent short trips amd refuels overnight on off–peak electricity:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e505236aa6224939055efe6dbda69120f6a917b6a12eb64118f1bdb631ca6d5a.jpg

  89. We’ve had guests for a couple of days. I was surprised & delighted to learn that the brother of the husband retired from the RAF with the Rank of Air Vice Marshall

        1. All I got was to join the Royal Observer Corps and serve down a hole in the ground (I went all the way to Biggin Hill for RAF selection and failed the medical!).

          7. I think it’s a reference to missiles slung under wings (fires-streak) and they had a red cone on the nose as an all-weather cover.

          8. Correct:

            The Hawker Siddeley Red Top was the third indigenous British air-to-air missile to enter service, following the de Havilland Firestreak and limited-service Fireflash. It was used to replace the Firestreak on the de Havilland Sea Vixen and later models of the English Electric Lightning.

          10. I was introduced to them around that time at RAF Wattisham. I was told each one cost £250,000….

          11. “… the English Electric Lightning.”

            A fabulous aircraft. Saw it at a Leuchars Airshow in the early ‘Seventies …

            Took off, rose to vertical ascent – disappeared into cloud c.20,000ft.

            Wow!

          13. Absolutely stupendous aircraft. Saw one perform at Leicester Air Show late 70s. Amazed.
            Parents bought a duvet – duvets were new at the time.

          16. I think it’s a reference to missiles slung under wings (fires-streak) and they had a red cone on the nose as an all-weather cover.

          17. All I remember were Sparrows and a few others, something ‘Streak’ and then my mind drifts off as I didn’t enjoy my time.

          1. Thanks, a bit but I won’t whinge. Good thing is we are both sleeping well which helps- and the sun has been out today. It’s amazing what a difference it makes!

    2. And for railway afficinados, husband is a keen railways enthusiast. His father designed locomotives.

    3. That’s one senior officer.

      Did you explain that you moved into barging as the Marshall of Vice?

          6. There’s enough space in front of the weir in Bath. I have on one occasion gone round in circles in front of the weir just for the fun of it! I think the bemused onlookers on the banks probably thought I was lost and trying to figure out if I could navigate the weir!

  90. ”Night All

    Great comment on the DM

    “We are approaching Scandinavian levels of taxes to pay for Eritrean level public services”
    Ain’t that the bloody truth!!

      1. As I said in New Labour’s reign:

        One Blair (Eric) presented Nineteen Eighty Four as a nightmare vison; another Blair (Tony) saw it as a practical instruction manual for government.

    3. Problem is, they know nothing about Scandi taxes. Here, the government collects national tax and loca tax, and sends the local tax to where you live. So, no rates/council tax. Suddenly, the national tax doesn’t look so bad – typically about 22% basic total, made up of 8,65% to the State and 13,35% to the local authority. Base level is incresed depending on earnings – £100,000 and over adds 16,4%. So, that means total 38,4% including the Council tax.
      Need to compare apples with apples.
      And the pay is better, too.

    4. Couldn’t have put it better myself. Half of Eritrea is over here, too, so they are obviously going to feel at home.

  93. Strikes to hit airports and ports over Christmas
    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63682695
    We just (as in an hour ago) finished planning the detail of the Chritmas trip to Ma-in-law. All booked & paid, now this.
    Just sack the whole sorry crew, and shut down border farce completely. If you can just roll up and get accommodated, by inflatable, why not by plane? Border control? These is none.

    1. What a total bummer! This country is a complete and utter shambles. I hope it all works well for you.

    2. I wonder how many of us “they” consider to be the optimum number necessary to be allowed live to keep them in their positions of wealth and power. After all the fastest most opulent galley ship needed slaves at the oars.

    1. I liked the photo of the old wireless and the music was good too. But I couldn’t hear what the weather conditions were like in the Bay of Biscay. Lol.

        1. Yes, Ndovu. Strange, but I didn’t hear anything about those areas either. So the title “Shipping Forecast” is false news, then. Lol.

  97. Have a job to keep my eyes open I like the music. A tribute to Kenny Rodgers.
    I’ve been awake since 5:30 am.
    Good night everyone. 😴

  100. Evening, all (if anybody’s left here!). The sad thing is, Labour wouldn’t be much worse, if at all. There’s not a fag-paper’s difference between the lot of the. They are all eco-nutters, full-on big state, high tax and wasteful spend enthusiasts.

    2. I’m here just thinking how many of our countrymen and women are shivering in their homes tonight afraid to put the heating on because of the cost.
      I defy anyone to justify the Great in Great Britain these days, running a taxi service to help land tens of thousands of illegal immigrants onto our shores, spending untold billions of a vanity train project, giving our money which has had to be borrowed to countries who are rich enough to have a space program and weapons of mass destruction, deliberately pursuing an energy policy that will cause economic and personal hardships while all the while sucking the economic life out of us and our country.
      The saddest part of all, just watch all those who are complaining revert to type at the ballot box next time round.

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