Friday 19 July: Labour has shown its true colours when it comes to rural Britain

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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808 thoughts on “Friday 19 July: Labour has shown its true colours when it comes to rural Britain”

  2. Good morning, chums, enjoy your day. And thanks to Geoff for this morning's NoTTLe site. And a Happy Birthday to trombonist Ndovu!

    Wordle 1,126 5/6

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  3. Good morning, chums, enjoy your day. And thanks to Geoff for this morning's NoTTLe site. And a Happy Birthday to trombonist Ndovu!

    Wordle 1,126 5/6

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    1. Many of them are reliant on state benefits US paying taxes, to keep them.

      Send them back
      Send them back

    2. Bobble on the fence
      Bobble on the fence
      Wibble wobble wibble wobble
      Bobble on the fence?

    3. Are there more roses out of sight on the left hand side of the picture?
      Bobble looks as if something has sitirred him up.

      1. No, that is a pink hydrangea behind Bobble. It's my garden where there are lots of roses.

  8. Six million people at risk from extreme heat in England, campaign group warns. 19 July 2024.

    Inadequate climate protections mean at least 6 million lives are at risk from extreme heat in England, an analysis has found.

    A report by the campaign group Friends of the Earth found older people and young children were the most high-risk groups for heatwaves, with 1.7 million under-5s and 4.3 million people over 65 living in the most heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods in England.

    The analysis builds on previous research by the University of Manchester and Friends of the Earth which identified 15,662 heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods. Birmingham was found to be the city with the most such areas.

    Heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods are defined as those exposed to prolonged periods of very hot weather, with an average of 27.5C (81.5F) or higher for five days or more, conditions which are becoming more common amid climate breakdown.

    I wish I was one of them. I didn’t turn the central heating off until four weeks ago.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/19/six-million-people-at-risk-extreme-heat-in-england-campaign-group-warns

    1. 389899+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,

      Extreme heat area, one can currently take Leeds as a prime example.

    2. GGood morning, figures consistently show that 10x more people die from cold weather than succumb to the heat each year in the UK. Does this mean the climate scammers of Friends of the Earth are suggesting that 60 million people are at risk from cold weather in England?

      Perhaps someone should tell Millibean Minor, the SoS for Energy Security OR Net Zero, before he demolishes the remnants of our reliable energy generation facilities. His windmill generating plants and the solar panels he intends to destroy prime agricultural land with are simply not up to the job.

      1. No doubt his bro has lined up a place in California for him when the sh!t hits the fan.

    3. ..identified 15,662 heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods.


      I have one of those in the garden close to my bungalow, I call it a suntrap. I use it when I feel the need for warmth, also, I have not-so-hot-spots that I call shade. I move to the latter when the suntrap becomes uncomfortable. My requirement for shade this summer hasn't been too evident to date.

      High temperatures are usually associated with sunny weather and these climate change activists are all for solar generated energy and the sunnier the weather the more often they will have their 4 hours of peak generation – fewer hours the farther north the arrays are positioned. I wonder if that is news to the activists? Clearly, they can't have it both ways

      As for Birmingham, I was under the impression that that city has a large percentage of its population from much warmer climes.

      Here's the inevitable propaganda tag-line.

      …which are becoming more common amid climate breakdown.


    4. A report by the campaign group Friends of the Earth found older people and young children were the most high-risk groups for heatwave

      NSS.
      How much did they pay themselves to conduct that report? Generations have already known that

    5. 🤣🤣🤣 i love this!! Absolutely the first thing that springs to mind about Birmingham, the tropical conditions! 🤣🤣🤣

  9. Six million people at risk from extreme heat in England, campaign group warns. 19 July 2024.

    Inadequate climate protections mean at least 6 million lives are at risk from extreme heat in England, an analysis has found.

    A report by the campaign group Friends of the Earth found older people and young children were the most high-risk groups for heatwaves, with 1.7 million under-5s and 4.3 million people over 65 living in the most heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods in England.

    The analysis builds on previous research by the University of Manchester and Friends of the Earth which identified 15,662 heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods. Birmingham was found to be the city with the most such areas.

    Heat-vulnerable neighbourhoods are defined as those exposed to prolonged periods of very hot weather, with an average of 27.5C (81.5F) or higher for five days or more, conditions which are becoming more common amid climate breakdown.

    I wish I was one of them. I didn’t turn the central heating off until four weeks ago.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/19/six-million-people-at-risk-extreme-heat-in-england-campaign-group-warns

  13. Good morning, all. Bluish skies. Touch of sun.

    Riots in Leeds… Clue: "Community members were forced to plead with the rabble when police failed to act" The locals are reacting to slammerdom perhaps?

    1. Cur Ikea "promised to deliver change that the people had voted for"….Here it is, suckers.

    2. Through the 70's 80's and 90's we saw this type of behaviour from these people in their home countries. It was only men like Ghaddafi and Hussein who could keep order. Now it's here.

    3. I rather think most of the "locals" are slammers. It was the gippos they didn't like.

  14. Morning all 🙂😊
    Summer again today.
    And today another hospital appointment sent yesterday while my phone was switched off at the funeral. Set up by GP practice, 10 am this morning. It's all go eh !
    And rural England takes it all again and not so much the leftie labour allies in NI Wales and Scotland. More room for the wrecking (aka muck spreading) to take place.

    1. What is the point of having a vaccine – any vaccine, even one that works – if you already have the disease to which it is targeted?

      1. 389899+ up ticks,

        Morning K,
        Maybe it goes towards settling a troubled mind somewhat.

  16. Happy Birthday Jules, have a lovely day Ellie 🐘 not so much a mammoth occasion. But cheers🥂 🍾 🤩🍹enjoy today.

    1. Thanks Eddy! Coffee & brunch this morning with the girls and dinner tonight with J as it's our Anniversary too. 🥂🥰

      6. Singing Happy Birthday loud and clear from Buenos Aires!! (Yurss, bit late, I know. Time differemce. 😉)

        And your anniversary, too! Congratulations.

        May you have an absolutely wonderful day, and wishing you health and happiness for the year to come x x

          1. You mean you didn’t hear it?? Damn; wind must have been in the wrong direction… 😉🤣🤣

  17. Border Force takes Channel migrants to France for first time as Starmer seeks Europe returns deal. 19 July 2024.

    Border Force took migrants rescued from the Channel back to France for the first time on Thursday as the Prime Minister said he wants an asylum seeker returns deal with Europe.

    In an unprecedented step, a British vessel transported the 13 asylum seekers to Calais, signalling closer Anglo-French cooperation on the small boats crisis.

    This could of course have been done at any time in the last five years. That it wasn’t is due to French obduracy and British spinelessness.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/18/border-force-takes-migrants-back-france-channel-rescue/

      1. Oh, but it's headline stuff – just LOOK what we are doing to combat the Takeover…

  19. Labour has shown its true colours when it comes to rural Britain

    Surely everyone knew Labour's true colours, didn't they?

    1. Not that the last set of Wastemonster idiots made our country a safer better place to live in. But over turning and setting police cars alight is just the beginning. One of the Dopey Wokies favourite expressions is, Going Foward…… omg whatever can we expect from them next, they've only been in office a week !

  21. Looking after baby grandson for a few days while parents are away.
    I may be gone for some time

  22. If you live anywhere near Leeds suburb Harehills.. you probably think J D Vance was right.

    1. I haven't yet heard why they are rioting on the mainstream media, how can this be?

        1. Their idea of "honour" is nothing of the sort. A bit like another sector's notion of "respeck". Both are civilised concepts, totally lost on uncivilised people.

          1. and Lefties turn a blind eye to both concepts.. social cohesion at any cost.

          4. Well if those people can be socially adhered to the road – preferably the first road out of this country – that's fine too.

        2. Their idea of "honour" is nothing of the sort. A bit like another sector's notion of "respeck". Both are civilised concepts, totally lost on uncivilised people.

      2. There was passing mention that children of Pikeys were being taken into care.
        Another untouchable race.

        1. Oh FGS just put them back to Ireland. And stop free movement of Irish to this country..

          1. The Irish have the sense to make their trespassing a criminal, not a civil, offence.

  23. Have fun, how old is the little fella ?
    Two or our sons and their separate families are now on their way to Cornwall for a week. Along with some friends.
    I must send them a message, "are you nearly there yet"?

      1. 😊🤗Hard work. Our youngest was 12 Months last Monday. She's just started to walk and is into everything with in reach.

  24. 389899+ up ticks,

    Bloody ironical is it not in 39/45 we suffered ass destruction at the hands of the third reich and fought our way out of it.

    Todays destructive issues are grass root self inflicted, and we are in many respects trying to fight our way into it by condoning "more of the same"

    1. All those brave souls who gave their lives to make our country safe. All their sacrifices and efforts laid to waste by our useless totally disrespectful politician's.

    2. Grattis på födelsedagen, Jules. Hope it's a lovely day.😘🍷👍🏻🎂😊

    3. Very Happy Birthday to you, Jules! Hope you have a wonderful day! 🎂🎉🍷🥂💕

    5. What a loverly day you're chosen for your birthday.
      Have a good one – and spread it over the weekend for good measure.

  26. Late on parade as I was watching Trump's Speech but…

    Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s (recycled) questionnaire

    The 5 Questions Most Feared By Men Are:

    (This seems to pertain to married men but what the hell)

    1 What are you thinking about?
    2 Do you love me?
    3 Do I look fat?
    4 Do you think she is prettier than me?
    5 What would you do if I died?

    What makes these questions so difficult is that everyone is guaranteed to explode into a major argument if the man answers incorrectly (i.e., tells the truth).

    Therefore, as a public service, each question is analysed below, along with possible responses.

    Question # 1: What are you thinking about?
    The proper answer to this, of course, is, "I'm sorry if I've been pensive, dear. I was just reflecting on what a warm, wonderful, thoughtful, caring and intelligent woman you are, and how lucky I am to have met you."
    This response bears no resemblance to the true answer, which is probably one of the following,
    a Sex
    b Football
    c How fat you are
    d How much prettier she is than you
    e How I would spend the insurance money if you died
    Perhaps the best response to this question was offered by Al Bundy, who once told Peg, "If I wanted you to know what I was thinking, I would be talking to you!" (My personal favourite!)

    Question # 2: Do you love me?
    The proper response is, "YES!" or, if you feel a more detailed answer is in order, "Yes, dear."

    Inappropriate responses include,
    a Oh Yeah, shit-loads
    b Would it make you feel better if I said yes?
    c That depends on what you mean by love
    d Does it matter?
    e Who, me?

    Question # 3: Do I look fat?
    The correct answer is an emphatic, "Of course not!"

    Among the incorrect answers are,
    a Compared to what?
    b I wouldn't call you fat, but you're not exactly thin
    c A little extra weight looks good on you
    d I've seen fatter
    e Could you repeat the question? I was just thinking about how I would spend the insurance money if you died

    Question # 4: Do you think she's prettier than me?
    Once again, the proper response is an emphatic, "Of course not!"

    Incorrect responses include,
    a Yes, but you have a better personality
    b Not prettier, but definitely thinner
    c Not as pretty as you when you were her age
    d Define pretty
    e Could you repeat the question? I was just thinking about how I would spend the insurance money if you died

    Question # 5: What would you do if I died?
    A definite no-win question. (The real answer, of course, is "Buy a Corvette and a Boat").

    No matter how you answer this, be prepared for at least an hour of follow-up questions, usually along these lines,
    WOMAN Would you get married again?
    MAN, Definitely not!
    WOMAN Why not, don't you like being married?
    MAN Of course I do.
    WOMAN Then why wouldn't you remarry?
    MAN Okay, I'd get married again.
    WOMAN You would? (with a hurtful look on her face)
    MAN (makes audible groan)
    WOMAN Would you sleep with her in our bed?
    MAN, where else would we sleep?
    WOMAN Would you put away my pictures, and replace them
    with pictures of her?
    MAN, that would seem like the proper thing to do.
    WOMAN And would you let her use my golf clubs?
    MAN, she can't use them; she's left-handed.
    WOMAN – – – silence – – –
    MAN Shit

  27. Two shooters? Analysis of the shots. Jimmy Dore was having a laugh at the Secret Service on his show asking why the hell they had snipers inside the building- with Crooks camped out on the roof. This analysis suggests that some of the shots did indeed come from inside that building as well as on the roof. It appears that this is really going to be analysed still further and it will be hard for the authorities to keep to a simple "lone nut" narrative.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LouUbMYb7Bc

    1. Is it possible that the magazine had two different qualities of ammunition? The shooter had recently bought new ammunition.

      1. Different rifle types have different audio signatures. It is possible that ammunition quality might change the sound very marginally but I doubt it.

        2. Thank you.
          I was more interested in the velocity aspects. Presumably a bigger charge would make the same weight of projectile fly faster?

          1. Certain rifles were known for their high muzzle velocity- the SLR is an example- it fired a large projectile – 7.62mm and all the victims of "Bloody Sunday" were hit by rounds from the SLR- really nasty wounds. Back in 1969 as a cadet I fired the SLR on the range and I only got off one shot as the boy next to me fired- the spent cartridge casing ejected out of the chamber and smacked into my temple and I was out cold. This was annoying as I had just knocked down the metal plate X hundred yards away- the only one from the school cadet force to do this in this challenge and I was sighting up for my next plate when I saw a super nova of stars. The sergeant from the Royal Hampshire Regiment had said "Desperation Shot, Jimmy Pillock" when I hit the plate and was going to show him that my marksman badge had been well-earned! The SLR had quite basic "iron sights" unlike the 303.

          2. We had both .303 and .22 rifles using what I presume were identical stocks, just different barrels.
            The .303 had quite a kick, the .22 hardly noticeable.
            I have no recollection of how fast the spent cartridges were ejected, although I am fairly sure one had to withdraw the bolt and for the .303 the magazine replaced the old with a new; I’m almost certain the .22 were single shot.

          3. You "cycle the bolt" to eject the cartridge and chamber the next round while the SLR ejects the cartridge automatically and it comes out at speed!

          4. I have a vague recollection that one of the modern rifles’ earlier designs did that straight into the face or arm of the shooter, I may be mistaken, and there had to be a design change.

          5. The point about the Lee Enfield 303 was that as you cycled the bolt, your sighting eye could remain on the target while other bolt action rifles did not allow this and it explains -as well as the smooth bolt action, why the 303 could be used accurately and speedily. As for ejecting the cartridge into the shooter's face- that's really bad design. I was wearing a beret when I was hit in the temple but it could have been into my eye although that might have been closed as I sighted up using my right eye. Happy days!

          6. Certain rifles were known for their high muzzle velocity- the SLR is an example- it fired a large projectile – 7.62mm and all the victims of "Bloody Sunday" were hit by rounds from the SLR- really nasty wounds. Back in 1969 as a cadet I fired the SLR on the range and I only got off one shot as the boy next to me fired- the spent cartridge casing ejected out of the chamber and smacked into my temple and I was out cold. This was annoying as I had just knocked down the metal plate X hundred yards away- the only one from the school cadet force to do this in this challenge and I was sighting up for my next plate when I saw a super nova of stars. The sergeant from the Royal Hampshire Regiment had said "Desperation Shot, Jimmy Pillock" when I hit the plate and was going to show him that my marksman badge had been well-earned! The SLR had quite basic "iron sights" unlike the 303.

    2. Interesting video, but my God does he go on. It could have taken max 10 minutes to say the same, with evidence.

  28. If Starmer can strike a deal with the French and the EU and the dinghy boat people stop coming.
    Then it means that they could have stopped them coming whenever they wanted and were just using the issue as leverage and a bargaining chip.
    The smuggling gangs weren't untouchable, maybe they were even establishment funded
    What sort of people plays with other peoples lives like that?
    Supremacists at world government level, I expect.

    1. While Starmer hosts a Euro love-in, the French let our border force tow a dinghy back to Calais. Pure coincidence.

      1. It's a publicity stunt, designed to lull the gullible into thinking we ought to scuttle back into the EU.

        What the hell is a British Border Force boat doing in French waters anyhow?

  29. G'morning all,

    Bright sunshine, a second scorchio day in prospect for McPhee Towers. Winds light and variable, 19℃ right now but 28-30℃ later.

    Got to go out and do some renovation of jointing compound in the patio and paths before it gets too hot.

  30. Morning gentrle Nottlers. Here's my daily request that you pop over to Free Speech for a while and browse and comment.

    But today we have something special for you – Part Three of Iain Hunter's superb essay on the real Climate Crisis. Honestly folk, you need to read it.

          1. That’s their plan, at least as far as ‘the masses’ but the picture shows cold water being poured over it.

    2. Morning, Tom.

      Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. If you’re reading this and you’re not already a paying member please join today, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

      In Today’s Newsletter
      Write to your MP about Labour’s “full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices”
      Cass event video and lessons for free speech
      FCA warns UK’s biggest banks over politically motivated de-banking
      EU offered secret “censorship” deal to X, says Elon Musk
      Cyprus proposes five-year prison sentences for spreading “fake news”
      Germany rejects ‘counterspeech doctrine’ in favour of banning a right-wing magazine
      Latest episode of the FSU’s weekly podcast out now
      Secrets, suppression and authoritarianism – tickets now available

      Write to your MP about Labour’s “full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices”
      The Prime Minister said in Wednesday’s King’s Speech, in which he sets out his legislative programme in this parliamentary session, that Labour intends to bring forward a “full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices”.

      We fear any such ban will curtail the speech rights of parents, teachers, religious leaders and health professionals wishing to advise gender-confused children to pause and reflect before embarking on a pathway that leads to irreversible, life-changing surgery.

      Given the implications of this Bill for free speech, we strongly urge you to voice your concerns by reaching out to your local MP. Please take a few minutes to fill out our template letter here.

      It’s a simple, fast process that can have a significant impact. We’ve provided a template, but feel free to personalise it with your concerns. Your voice matters and this is an important opportunity to make it heard.

      We’ve written in more detail about the free speech issues involved here.

      Cass event video and lessons for free speech
      Members wishing to know more about why the government’s conversion practices ban is a free speech issue can now watch the video of our groundbreaking recent event, ‘After the Cass Review: Lessons for Free Speech from the Tavistock and Beyond’ on our YouTube channel here, and if you’re an X user you can find some clips here, here, here and here.

      The video is of the panel discussion we organised last week involving the whistleblowers from the Tavistock’s children’s GIDS who brought to bring to light what went on there.

      Their stories are truly shocking. As cautionary tales about why concerned clinicians, academics, parents and teachers should be free to question the basic tenets of gender identity ideology, they could scarcely be improved upon.

      FCA warns UK’s biggest banks over politically motivated de-banking
      Yesterday, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) told financial firms to do more to ensure parliamentarians, senior public servants and their families aren’t treated unfairly. This is in response to the de-banking of Nigel Farage by Coutts last year. (Guardian.)

      The FSU has been campaigning against de-banking since we were de-banked by PayPal in 2022 and had persuaded the last Government to amend the Payment Services Regulations to make it harder for banks and payment processors to close customers’ accounts because they disapprove of their politics. Unfortunately, the statutory instrument that would have amended the regulations wasn’t laid before Rishi Sunak called a snap election.

      In light of the FCA’s advice, we will be writing to Tulip Siddiq, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister, to remind her that these amendments to the Payment Services Regulations enjoyed cross-party support and the present Government should now get on and make them.

      EU offered secret “censorship” deal to X, says Elon Musk
      Elon Musk has accused the European Union (EU) of offering him a “secret deal” to “quietly censor” users of his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and thereby avoid millions of Euros worth of fines.

      The Tesla billionaire made the extraordinary claim after the European Commission – the EU’s executive body – said that X was “in breach” of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force last year, establishing a regulatory framework that critics have likened to an “incoherent, multilevel censorship regime” that will have a “chilling effect on free speech” and will ultimately cause “the death of free speech online”.

      Full details here.

      Cyprus proposes five-year prison sentences for spreading “fake news”
      In yet another sign that Europe’s political elites are intent on weaponising the law against those who dissent from progressive orthodoxy, Cyprus is proposing an amendment to its criminal code that will introduce prison sentences of up to five years for anyone caught spreading “fake news” or writing “offensive” comments.

      Sadly, Cyprus isn’t the only EU member state dabbling in the criminalisation of vast swathes of speech that are currently legal.

      Are national laws of this kind compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights? Er, no.

      Full details here.

      Germany rejects ‘counterspeech doctrine’ in favour of banning a right-wing magazine
      Germany’s interior ministry has shut down the country’s most influential right-wing publication for “inciting hatred” as the liberal-left government continues its campaign to suppress its political rival, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.

      Inspite of – or perhaps because of – the German’s government’s various attempts at suppression, the AfD recently reported a 60% surge in membership after jumping to second place in nationwide polls. A recent survey carried out for the liberal newspaper Der Spiegel also indicated that 47% of respondents nationwide would now find it acceptable if the AfD was involved in government at the state level in the future.

      It’s an episode that nicely illustrates a point FSU General Secretary Toby Young made during an interview with Spectator Australia TV, namely, that the current obsession among our ruling elites with suppressing arguments they happen to find ‘distasteful’ only serves to draw attention to them.

      As he says, they would do well to remember the words of US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who in his concurring opinion in Whitney v California (1927) said: “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

      Full details here.

      Latest episode of the FSU’s weekly podcast out now
      Talking points on the latest episode of our podcast include our recent groundbreaking event on the free speech lessons of the Cass Report and why open inquiry and freedom of speech are essential to protecting us from pernicious ideas; and the news that Labour-run Camden Council has affixed a QR code to a statute of Virginia Woolf that, when scanned, warns people about her “unacceptable imperialist attitudes and offensive opinions”. (If only she’d had the ideological foresight to write A Gender Neutral Room of One’s Own).

      Click here for all the biggest free speech stories of the week with FSU staffers Tom Harris and Ben Jones.

      Secrets, suppression and authoritarianism – tickets now available
      Our culture is one in which authenticity is highly prized, where we’re encouraged to speak our truth and bring our whole selves to work – yet we all know that things are not as they seem. While those who hold views that align with the new codes and conventions are free to express themselves, those of a more questioning disposition have become used to sharing their views with extreme caution.

      We have two fantastic speakers to help us explore the significance of this phenomenon on Monday 22nd July: Winston Marshall, the co-founder of the Dissident Dialogues festival of ideas who was previously best known as a member of the Grammy award-winning folk-rock band Mumford & Sons; and the journalist and YouTuber Andrew Gold, whose new book, The Psychology of Secrets: My Adventures with Murderers, Cults & Influencers, takes a deep dive into the significance of secrets as a social phenomenon.

      Full details and tickets are available here – you can also pre-order Andrew’s book for £14 at check-out, for collection and signing on the night. Online registration for members is here and you can order the book for UK delivery here.

      Sharing the newsletter

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

      Best wishes,

      Freddie Attenborough

      Communications Officer

      1. I think the PayPal banning of the FSU – and probably other organisations – has done PP harm.
        From nothing, now about twice a week I get emails from them begging me to use their "service". I have never subscribed to it, but possibly one or two companies with who I have placed orders may take payments via the system.

        1. I attempted to use PayPal (after much urging) a couple of times a few years ago. The experience was not "user-friendly" so I stopped using their facilities and have not done so again since.

          Nor shall I.

        2. I used Paypal frequently and I'm also a member of the FSU. I topped using PP after their ban on the FSU.

      2. I’m a member, and hope to enlist their support on a free speech campaign I hope to run.

          1. I’m hoping to enlist their support to get anti-SLAPP legislation pushed through, as SLAPP (Strategic lawsuits against public participation) are a major threat to free speech. I have an article about to be posted in Free Speech on this. Hope you’ll join me Grizz.

  31. Good Moaning.
    Strange yellow thing in the sky.
    It's a sign, I tell you, a sign …..

      4. Global swarming, millions will die for lack of gin and tonic and lawn chairs.

          1. BH Calcutta (Failed). Baby Grumplin’ with Gladly My Cross-Eyed Bear. Fiscal Yere. And of course vacant-eyed Marlon with his inch-thick ketchup sandwiches.👍🏻

          1. Thankyou! Out for coffee with the girls shortly, then do the weekly shopping, and this evening out for a meal for our anniversary as well.

          2. Thankyou! Out for coffee with the girls shortly, then do the weekly shopping, and this evening out for a meal for our anniversary as well.

  33. Reposted from late last night.

    Friday 19th July 2024

    Jules

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3176aef7ce874ef0fdd3b9cd884240df9d4f02a611febf0c1fcefb81787664b0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    and very many Happy Returns and welcome to the 76 club!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/765a6ae67132e329961369ba89587241cbf02e8606006709800b35319a4e28b0.png

    Some may try not to notice an elephant in the room – but we shall never fail to notice Jules at the Nottlers' forum!

    With very best wishes from

    Caroline and Rastus

    2. …and my repeat from yesterday:

      "… Have a happy, happy day, Jules, followed by 364 happy unbirthdays.

  34. SIR – It is said that the problem with banning smartphones for under-16s (“Starmer rejects calls to ban mobile phones for under-16s”, report, July 13) is that they are necessary for parents to keep in touch with their children throughout the day.

    There is a simple answer: buy basic, inexpensive models without internet capability. That would protect pupils from online harms, yet still enable instant contact with family and friends.

    Michael Smith
    King’s Lynn, Norfolk

    Yet again, I seem steeped in my naïveté about modern social mores. Will someone please inform me, in an easily understood form, why (and when) it became a necessity for parents to keep in touch with their offspring … all the time?

    In a much more sensible era (i.e. any time before the advent of the 21st century) a child would have no contact — whatsoever — with its parents during school hours.

    1. Quite frankly, I didn't want my parents knowing what I was doing; 20+ years later, I knew that I did not need to know every detail of our sons' daily life.

    2. When at boarding school in the 1950s I didn't speak to my parents for 13 weeks at a time. The one payphone was out of bounds.

      1. Morning Bill,
        Agree with you totally, the same with me .

        Years later when Moh and I were in Nigeria , son no1 was at prep school in Surrey .. We spoke to him once from a British ship's radio , which was berthed in Port Harcourt . It was a useless transmission , broken up by squeeze this , then that , and me feeling guilty for upsetting son .

        Anyway , when I was a child , according to my parents , children should be seen and not heard . They were quite stern and matter of fact.

      2. Same here, Bill. Plus, my parents were in Nigeria, so international calls would have been very expensive and impossible anyway.

    3. Even simpler option, instead of the state blanket banning whatever it feels like because some chav has misused it, why not properly put the onus on the parent to be responsible? That of course means responsible parents, which means stopping paying people to breed, so ending welfare. That means leaving people more of their own money, so that means tax cuts.

      It really is simple resolving the problems this country has: cut off the taps and make people work, roll back the state and let them keep their own money.

    4. Don't know how it is in the UK, but in Norway, everything goes through the phone – bus ticket, payments, security checks, codes to enter buildings, you name it. The lack of a phone would be seriously limiting – can't get to school, no bus ticket. For example.

      1. There is a move to make it that way here in Sweden too; however, I resist such changes and continue on my merry way as old-fashioned as I can be.

        The only thing that I do here, that I didn't do in the UK, is to make all routine purchases via a card-reader. I have not used cash for over three years now and I do not miss it.

        1. I don't use much cash but I like to keep a small amount handy. I don't use my phone to make payments.

          1. I have one SEK500 note [currently £36·27] in my wallet that was a birthday gift in 2021. It remains there, lonely but not yet moth-eaten.

        2. I still have cash from some years ago in my wallet – habit rather than anything else. Otherwise, cards for me.

      2. How does it cope with maddening old biddies who refuse to learn how a smartphone works? (Such as my mother – who, despite clearly being able to buy things off the internet steadfastly refuses to message my sister and I).

        1. When Mother was still at home, I called her after a couple of weeks phone problems. Normally I called on Sunday evenings… when I got contact, she berated me for not calling, so I asked her "Was there a problem with her phone?" – she said no, and was very puzzled, so I explained that it clearly was malfunctioning, as it didn't make any outgoing calls.
          That's the great thing wih phones – you can call someone, and they can call you.
          But it gets tiring and irritating to be the one who always initiates the contact.
          :-((

    6. Quite. We were assumed safe unless proven otherwise. It could be said though – but won't be because it isn't fashiionable to acknowledge it – that overall we lived in a much safer environment.

  35. Aren't we all lucky we are not flying anywhere today. Microsoft IT outage,…..vhoopchs.

      1. Oh no =- we'll have to pay for their food, copious champagne and 5* hotels. Put them on a ferry.

      2. I'm sure Jamie Churchill just needs the money and publicity for his estate but a bunch of socialists gathering at an aristocratic country seat does have it's quota of irony?

        1. Especially when one considers “Blenheim” in an historical context…!!!

  36. SIR – Is there a single Labour MP who owns a pair of Wellington boots? I suspect not.

    The lack of any mention of farming in the King’s Speech (report, July 18) was surely an indication of this Government’s attitude towards rural communities and their fragile economies.

    James Cookson
    Morpeth, Northumberland

    Here you will see the voting statistics for the GE 24

    Nothing surprises me , but reading the graphs , I think as the younger generation becomes older, Labour will be in power forever .

    https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/49978-how-britain-voted-in-the-2024-general-election

    2. The 'national food security strategy' expressly omits any mention of growing food. It's like the socialist worker. An oxymoron. Same as the energy security strategy is just dogwaffle full of 'climate change' drivel.

      The state would far and away prefer farmers didn't grow food so big fat state can meet their net zero targets and get that six figure trougher job.

      Harry Metcalfe presents it far more lucidly, calmly and rationally than I – and he's an actual farmer.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJCrfujVZIk

    3. I bet your bottom dollar that there are plenty of hereditary peers about to be abolished in the Lords that have plenty of Wellington boots.

  37. If VAT is to be charged for private education can someone explain why it should not be charged on university fees as well?

      1. Indeed, but inconsistent application makes for bad laws.
        Perhaps VAT on university fees should be charged to ex-state school pupils and not ex private school.
        That would be fair.
        /sarc

        Edit for typo.

      2. Indeed, but inconsistent application makes for bad laws.
        Perhaps VAT on university fees should be charged to ex-state school pupils and not ex private school.
        That would be fair.
        /sarc

        Edit for typo.

      3. Well known case – are Jaffa Cakes cake or biscuit. There was a court case and they are vat free which makes them……..?

        2. I think it was Jaffa cakes that argued they were not a cake (or biscuit), cannot remember that far back.

          1. The way to tell whether something is a biscuit or a cake: leave it in the open air. If it's a biscuit it will go soft; if it is a cake it will go hard.

      4. It's charged on a lot of things most people would not consider "luxuries" – loo rolls, toothpaste and brushes, soap, shampoo, wahing powder, washing up liquid, cleaning materials to name but a few. Clearly the government thinks we should remain the great unwashed.

    3. Oh my goodness, please don’t give them ideas. Our grandson is about to start his 4th year university course in pharmacy, plus a year’s refistration working under supervision. I have no idea how he is going to repay the student loan and I shouldn’t think his parents have, either. The loan must be well over £100,000.

    1. A reader posted a video of the riot on Free Speech's Gossip page late last night. You could hear what they said. The riot was in Urdu.

        1. I heard it was about the authorities intervening into what appears to have been an honour killing attempt. I doubt if we’ll find out from the MSM.

          1. Tucked well away inside The Grimes this morning. Nothing to see here – move along…

          2. Endless screeds of text describing what anyone could see by watching the pictures that's all. Vague mention of "an address" in Hareshill and "an agency". No news content in it at all.

    3. At least the clear images of the thugs setting fire to the bus will make it very easy for the plod to arrest them. (sarc).

          1. I hear that our much esteemed home secretary was shocked, I wonder how many of those involved were house guests of hers in her second home. Oh, none, because that was a politicians promise, not worth the paper it wasn't written on.

  42. Good morning all. Well it's already hot out there. Opened the door to let Caticus, my cat, out and it was already like a furnace.

    I discovered something interesting about who could run if Joe Biden stepped down. Apparently the rule is that all the money in Bidens war chest has to go to the vice-president. I don't know if that means if the party doesn't want her that she can sign over the funds or what. But it does seem to me to be a logical rule.

    All of you are, no doubt, aware of the riots going on oop north. So I thought this instructive. The wonderful Dr David Starkey explaining it all, the why's and wherefore's

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG1K7GOieqI

        1. Or discover that no insurance company is willing to insure his car (a la Bridgen)

        1. I note a number of the audience have the attention span of a flea and are not interested in listening to a well presented pov.

          1. They don't want to listen. It would upset their small minded leftish world view.
            Several of us on NOTTLERS grew up in foreign countries under colonialism and know very well that much of what is said about it is lies. So it is gratefully appreciated to have people like Rafe defend it because in essence he is defending us, the people who actually lived the Empire and know that it was good.

            Here is more of Rafe singing the praises of the British Empire
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjLRNe-rPhE&list=TLPQMTkwNzIwMjRb4zP6As9q7w&index=2

  44. Morning all,

    This doctor presents his observations on patients he sees with dementia and cites three mainn contributors to its onset.
    These include overpresciotion of blood pressure medications, lack of human contact and insulin resistance:

    https://youtu.be/BqvEXdF-GCA?si=ri8BNsEuLPScl4w_
    He points out that the brain is mainly fat so reducing fat consumption is bound lead to a fat chance in cognitive decline.

      1. He didn’t mention Statins in this video but they are on his list to avoid if possible because of their adverse neurological side effects.

          1. I couldn’t possibly comment – I can’t thnk what on earth the jury are doing in that room.🤔

    2. Mother was alone at home in the countryside in Wales after my Father died in 1997, and her friend stopped visiting once Covid hysteria started – never went back. She's been on a low-to-no fat diet ever since whenever, and diabetic.
      She was diagnosed with dementia 2-3 years ago, now lives in a care home, in her own little world. Supports the doctor's thesis.

      1. Are we saying eating butter, full-fat yoghourt etc is good for us over the “low fat” varities?

        (Please! I love my butter and full-fat stuff and have recently lost a lot of weight by eating this very stuff).

  45. Morning all,

    This doctor presents his observations on patients he sees with dementia and cites three mainn contributors to its onset.
    These include overpresciotion of blood pressure medications, lack of human contact and insulin resistance:

    https://youtu.be/BqvEXdF-GCA?si=ri8BNsEuLPScl4w_
    He points out that the brain is mainly fat so reducing fat consumption is bound lead to a fat chance in cognitive decline.

  46. Morning all,

    This doctor presents his observations on patients he sees with dementia and cites three mainn contributors to its onset.
    These include overpresciotion of blood pressure medications, lack of human contact and insulin resistance:

    https://youtu.be/BqvEXdF-GCA?si=ri8BNsEuLPScl4w_
    He points out that the brain is mainly fat so reducing fat consumption is bound lead to a fat chance in cognitive decline.

  47. 389899+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Serve it up firstly to the political treacherous dogs in the halal parliamentary canteen, after eating their fill may they ALL in the main, proceed to lick their combined arses and put their necks out of joint

    UK Becomes First European Country to Approve lab grown meat for public sale

    For use seemingly for animals progressing to gullible humans.
    without doubt.

  48. Chaos as internet down and flights grounded around the world. 19 July 2024.

    Television channels, airports and banks around the world have been knocked offline in a massive IT outage causing Windows computers to suddenly shut down.

    Patients have been left unable to make appointments with their GPs and rail commuters have been told to expect long delays as IT systems were plunged into chaos.

    Sky News’s breakfast show was taken off air, while supermarkets checkouts went down as the disruption spread across Britain and the globe.

    It is the End of the World as we know it Nottlers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/19/outage-tech-internet-broadband-banking-uk-australia-world/

    2. I have rung Bill Gates to advise him to try switching it off then switch it back on again.

      2. It's an anti virus software called Crowdstrike causing the problems. Windows is a badly written mess that can't decide if it wants to be an ad engine or actually just an operating system that gives software far too many routes into its core workings (because the original messy code it is built on allowed this).

        1. Thanks wibbly, I do know all of that. Just a joke really. I liked your description of the hapless computer engineering by the way. Trying to get pints from quart bottles is great fun in so many fields.

          Crowdstrike I suspect suffers from the same thing as many software providers: too few genuine experts in programming at every layer spread too thinly. The result being too much software being written in higher level languages often using pre cooked inadequately tested macros. If you’re doing OS, then getting back to basics always a good idea, something MS has not really done for years, I don’t think. Just my two ha’porth.

          3. Happy! (More or less. I seem to remember – from wondering the same myself – that hap meant something like luck or good fortune.)

          4. Anne Boleyn adopted the motto "the most happi" at her coronation. Didn't do her much good, though.

    3. I have a day off today. I feel I should 'phone work to check if they're affected – busy clinic day today.
      Then again, they need to learn how to manage without me in a crisis.

      1. If the place cannot survive without your being there then your processes aren't right.

        I told the Warqueen this a she would constantly be on call to her clients and she said 'you really are dim, aren't you?

      2. #me too. We are on our boat, in Cornwall. The problem is that we were halfway out of the river when husband noticed the port engine’s fanbelt had snapped; so we are back on the anchor and poor husband is battling with changing it.

  49. Interesting discussion in the last few days on the DT letters about Angostura bitters. My parents had some kept in a vinegar shaker. I mistakenly put some on my chips once – bleugh, never again

  50. Fun day today. A customer had a 'mate who does computers' and he's bought half a dozen – admittedly not bad – switches and has asked us to link them together.

    I've spoken to this bloke and he's an enthusiastic fellow. Unfair to call him an amateur as he has made it clear to our customer that the uplinks are limited – the things switches use to talk to one another – and I don't think the customer really understands this. It's like road traffic. Drop 2 lanes down to one and you get a bottleneck. Drop ten lanes down to one and you get accidents.

    He's got 100 seats and a couple of big servers. Usually we'd plumb them together with two 10GB core switches at top of rack and uplink port 1 on every switch would go to one switch and port 2 to the second switch. The two switches would then connect to the router on an active/passive role. If we were really being clever we'd send half the traffic to one uplink and half to the other

    This chap is going to push 100MB from two machines and then wonder why he's only getting 50MB – or less. I think he'll get really poor performance with constant retry requests. One 'interesting' idea suggested was having multiple network cards in their servers, so each had a direct link to each switch, but when my headache passed and the apprentice jobbie stopped laughing we realised they were serious!

      3. I've sent this to Henry, my son, who writes programs for AI and may understand it.

      4. Basically one of our customers is creating themselves a traffic jam. On a network, as on a road, if people can't get out of a side exit they push in, or else sit there waiting for someone to let the out.

        Networks are no different. You get collisions and hold ups. With a network that's dropped connections or 'retry' messages. So if you're putting info into a database it might fail before you can because someone else is saturating the 'road'.

        Apols, didn't mean for it to be overly technical. Just another one of those 'my mate/son does com-putas and can do it for cheap.'

      5. Happy Birthday Jules 🎂🥳🎂 have a wonderful day. The sun is shining for you 🐘🐘🐘

      6. Think of a line of elephants holding the tail of the elephant in front. All going at the same speed.

        2. Lucky you. Ours have been mollicated by the cold weather. Tiny little circles. First ever failure.

    7. Now that's what I call the idiosyncrasies of asynchronous technologies……

    1. I seem to recall that I sent him Cobra seeds when he returned to Norfolk, as they were difficult to get in the UK for some reason.

      I sellotaped them to sheets of paper to try to avoid them rattling in the package, so that customs would not be tempted to have a look at what was causing the noise..

      1. They were "Contender". Impossible to find in the UK. That's why we went for Cobra – – climbing variety.

  53. Farage under fire for dubbing Leeds riot ‘politics of the subcontinent’. 19 July 2024.

    Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, said he had spoken to Harehills residents affected by the “very serious” scenes after returning to his constituency late on Thursday.

    “They care passionately about their community,” Mr Burgon wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

    “They want the disorder to end. They want those pushing misinformation from afar to stop.”

    Lol. I’ll bet they slammed the phone down laughing. “Stupid Kuffar.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/19/farage-under-fire-for-leeds-riot-politics-of-subcontinent/

    1. "“They care passionately about their community, but have absolutely no desire to integrate with the indigenous white population."

      1. Apartheid wasn't such a bad idea after all, was it!

        Put all the indigenous white British in England and all the rest in Wales and Scotland!

          2. To them into the Atlantic and pull the plug. Unless they go home and never set foot here again.

          3. No, but Wales and Scotland are more than happy for England to fly the "aren't we welcoming" woke flag on behalf of Britain, and ro put up most of the immigrants. Sturgeon wanted more (as long as they ended up here, having registered in Scotland).

      2. They care passionately about their community, but their absolute favourite is being 100 to 1 against police, burning a car or bus, or stoning an advancing police line. All followed by a Curry and a big lie-in.

        2. Why cannot we residual indigenes also care passionately about our community, especially now it is under constant attack from our own government?

    2. Burgon has a long history as a practicing idiot. "Zionism is the enemy of peace" (he denied saying it even when recordings of it were played to him), supported the 'socialists' in Venezuela, refused to condemn the persecution of Uyghurs in China because to do so would fuel anti-Chinese racism, and called climate change "the greatest ever market failure. It is a failure driven by capitalism's endless focus on profits whatever the cost". Oh, and after Fidel Castro's death, he stated that the dictator "…was a giant. A man of ideas. A man of action"

      1. If he were only practicing it wouldn't be so bad. Quentin Crisp was once asked, "Are you a practicing homosexual"? He replied, "No, I've perfected it".

    5. Burton is a very simple lad, with a loud bellow. They really shouldn't give him any sort of credence.

  57. The DM reports that Zelensky's love in at the Cabinet meeting this morning has resulted in permission to fire British weapons at Russia. Just as well I've nothing booked over the next few weeks although booking a prolonged holiday in Australia might be a good idea. If we can just get to end of the year when the Donald will bang some heads together.

    1. If this ghastliness in the Ukraine should have taught the idiots one thing, it is that if you keep poking the bear it will attack you.

      2. I don't think Ukraine's politicians would have taken the line they did without being persuaded to by others. As the months have passed more seem to recognise that and even more of us saw it for what it was from the start. Anytime Johnson appears, be wary, especially if he speaks. The photo of him in Downing Street with Azov soldiers and their flag is quite something if true, apparently authenticated.

        1. I don’t believe the propaganda coming from either side, but I am certain that thousands of young men on both sides are dying unnecessarily..

          With my tinfoil hat: those men will be replaced by gimmegrants.

          1. Point one spot on, sos. Point two, the East will belong to Russia – Putin told TC he doesn’t care about the rest, he’s going to make it rubble to make sure it stays down. He won’t have anything to do with immigrants unless they’re from an ally (Belarus etc) – we should be so lucky.

          2. Zelensky’s Ukraine will need repopulating and rebuilding and part of the deal will be to take migrants.
            Putin’s will too, but his will likely come from Russia or pro-Russian countries.
            I don’t believe Putin will try to prevent the West from rebuilding infrastructure.

          3. I don’t believe that either. He’s said quite openly he wants the four oblasts plus deep sea port. Says he’s not interested in the rest of Ukraine – my bet is he will if there are attacks on the East and especially in greater Russia. Stop poking the bear.

          4. If the war is pursued to its bitter end then likely Ukraine will shrink back to the Cossack territory it originally was and Russia will take the land to the east of the Dnieper River and the Ottoman lands on the Black Sea. I'm not sure that the American warmongers understand why they can't win. Their ideology seems not to take account of any of the historical complexities of that region or their own failures in Korea, Vietnam, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria?

          5. First sentence Sue, that’s what’s going to happen imv. Problem is US arms manufacturers need activity to stay in business, and the government needs them to stay in power. We’ll see where America goes next, possibly even their own border troubles – if Trump has anything to do with it. More power to him.

          6. Are you seriously trying to tell me that Putin won’t want/need people to rebuild and then manage those lands; and to have sufficient population to repel any invasion?

          7. Are you seriously trying to tell me that Putin won’t use his own people (in addition to those Ukrainians in the East who will want to work with him)?

          8. Given how many of the “right age” have been killed, yes I am.

            He will have to.

            He may be careful over who goes/gets placed but it will require large numbers.

          9. I agree it’s one heck of a mess, shouldn’t have started but now it’s where it is. To watch for is America withdrawing funding, especially if Trump is elected, that would be the beginning of the end imo. Ukraine has lost, and continues to lose, a large number of its young men, now recruiting younger and older, and rumours Russia is similar but numbers not as high plus they seem to have a larger pool to draw from. Presumably you’ve heard the risk of nuclear bombs being used.

  58. The DM reports that Zelensky's love in at the Cabinet meeting this morning has resulted in permission to fire British weapons at Russia. Just as well I've nothing booked over the next few weeks although booking a prolonged holiday in Australia might be a good idea. If we can just get to end of the year when the Donald will bang some heads together.

  59. Local MP slams Nigel Farage for 'inflaming' Leeds riots 'with misinformation' as Reform leader says 'politics of the subcontinent are playing out' in the Yorkshire disorder. Labour MP accused Farage of inflaming tensions when he said that he had 'warned' of scenes like those in Leeds.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13649719/Nigel-Farage-blasted-inflaming-Leeds-riots-Trumps-rally-without-properly-briefed-footage-emerges-Reform-UK-leader-awkwardly-dodging-Channel-4-questions-actually-invited-summit.html#newcomment

    Import the third world – get the third world.

    Clearly the most important thing from the point of view of the Lab/Lib/Con politicians and much of the MSM is that debate is closed down. Diversity is our strength – that's it. If you think otherwise the police should arrive on your doorstep to straighten out your thinking!

    If you think that multi-culturalism cannot produce a stable society with shared morality, values and aspirations then you are clearly a racist. The important thing is to ignore the evidence.

      1. Lee Anderson said words along those lines so he will be in for the flak. Thing is, we don't just import the third world, we actually pay them to turn us into the third world. How long before benefits run out? Like ostriches in the sand, our politicians. They know we cannot afford this.

    2. as Peter Hitchens said something along these lines..

      The dogmatic egalitarian spitemongers.. are determined to continue with this great social engineering experiment to the bitter end.. even if it kills us all in the process.

    3. Well Farage is right isn't he? Wasn't it all about a spat in Pakistan being fought over in Leeds?

      1. Balgladeshis squabbling about riots in Bangladesh.

        cf: The Gaza "protests". Nothing whatever to do with the UK but the slammers revolt. Again.

        2. Politicians will accommodate any of this. In their minds if foreigners come to Britain and want to express themselves according to their cultural norms, then it would in their minds be racist to stop them. To them it’s just a few taxpayer funded buses and police cars in some godforsaken northern wilderness. A stabbing or two in the back streets of London due to some warped sense of “honour”? No probs. And so on. They know what’s going on. Their message is that people need to learn to get on with each other and stop rocking the boat basically.

          1. There are also the naive souls who can't or won't understand that when you give people money you pay for what they are and not what you want them to be. One of my brothers insists that everyone coming to this country just wants what's best for themselves and their families and he can't get his head around the fact that these people define the good life differently and don't want what he wants. He also lives in a quiet monocultural suburb of York.

          5. I dream about Acomb. Formative years, I guess. I was born there and moved away aged 19. 50 years ago.

          7. I dream about Acomb. Formative years, I guess. I was born there and moved away aged 19. 50 years ago.

          8. But just imagine we all up-sticked and settled in say Tanzania. We would be accused of being colonialist. Not quite sure how this immigrants coming here and living in their little ghettoes is any different

          9. They are very different, because at least we brought something of benefit to their countries, and if we went now, would not come with hands out for accommodation, money, food etc.

      2. "Wasn't it all about a spat in Pakistan being fought over in Leeds?"

        That was a separate matter.

    4. "Newly elected Clacton MP accused Farage…"

      Farage is the newly elected Clacton MP. Cut-and-paste error there I think, Mr T.

    6. The attitude is the same as Chambelains attitude to Hitler. It will end in tears.

    7. Uncivilised Romanian Roma in this case. A drain on society. I would have let them go back on Saturday to their 'homeland' as per their plans, and never allow them back in, saving the tax payer a fortune in the process. Instead, we have to stump up to keep their 6 children in the care system, and continue to subsidise their part-time cleaner wages with generous benefits.

    8. If you think that multi-culturalism cannot produce a stable society with shared morality, values and aspirations then you are clearly a racist realist. Enoch was right.

  60. Local MP slams Nigel Farage for 'inflaming' Leeds riots 'with misinformation' as Reform leader says 'politics of the subcontinent are playing out' in the Yorkshire disorder. Newly elected Clacton MP accused Farage of inflaming tensions when he said that he had 'warned' of scenes like those in Leeds.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13649719/Nigel-Farage-blasted-inflaming-Leeds-riots-Trumps-rally-without-properly-briefed-footage-emerges-Reform-UK-leader-awkwardly-dodging-Channel-4-questions-actually-invited-summit.html#newcomment

    Import the third world – get the third world.

    Clearly the most important thing from the point of view of the Lab/Lib/Con politicians and much of the MSM is that debate is closed down. Diversity is our strength – that's it. If you think otherwise the police should arrive on your doorstep to straighten out your thinking!

    If you think that multi-culturalism cannot produce a stable society with shared morality, values and aspirations then you are clearly a racist. The important thing is to ignore the evidence.

  61. Just had the most awful news. Chum we have known for 40 years went swimming yesterday at Frinton. Died. in the water Early 70s. Saw him last week – he was in cracking form. Next Saturday we were invited to their 40 wedding anniversary.

    Makes one go cold – this sort of news.

    1. Oh dear oh dear, how very sad and shocking for family and friends. Awful. My sympathies to all.

    2. Dreadful news.
      During my cardiac rehab I was given numerous warnings not to suddenly immerse in very cold water.
      I always used to jump/tun in to get the shock over with.

      1. Yes, even young people's systems can seize up on sudden entry to cold water. Worth reminding younger ones too. Best just to wade in slowly. Not that that probably happened in Bill Thomas' friends case but while we are on the subject, it reminded me, with the weather warming up.

        1. Just in from my pool, a very pleasant 30 degrees at the moment with the air temperature 35.

    4. Oh, Lord. I'm sorry, Bill – and he didn't quite make the 40th anniversary, as well. Really takes the wind out of your sails and the shine off the day.
      Condolences.

      1. And from me. My mum died suddenly (aneurysm), never quite got over it – dad certainly never did.

          1. I sympathise, Oberstleutnant. I know someone whose husband died following cancer…spent several years on ‘Talking Therapy’, an NHS service. Whilst this is initially useful, I wonder if as time passes the sorrow becomes a permanent feature of the memories, and possibly more difficult to accept one’s situation. The only treatment my dad was offered was anti-depressants. Went through quite a process..church service, cremation, burying ashes, raising ashes, drying ashes, scattering ashes. I wonder if some quite like being in permanent grief – witness Queen Victoria.

          3. Certainly a crutch to lean on. I know sorrow can be difficult to adjust to, let alone overcome. Possibly the priest or vicar would help in the past, not so much now perhaps.

          4. There are some who would say he was weak, but there is no time limit on grief.
            When I became emotional at the end of older son's UK wedding 'party' (The wedding had been a couple of months earlier, in Canada.), older son (the tricky one in Canada with the hard wife) told me, 'It's been 8 months now, you should be over it.' I was glad my Mum never knew how he turned out, as she doted on him when he was born after Dad died.

        2. And from me. 40 years ago on Monday gone, my dad died suddenly (only in his 50s). My Mum then spent 30 years as a widow. You never get over such a loss.

          1. Can be very difficult for wives whose husband used to look after family affairs, bank accounts etc, especially if elderly. I know someone like that.

          2. My dear Mum was only in her early 50s, but had never written a cheque in her life. Dad used to write out the cheques to pay the bills and she would get the bus to town to pay them in. We had to teach her so much, but she gradually became, for the first time ever, an independent person, and blossomed for it.

          3. A number of women had similar experience – good for them – be as independent as possible.

    5. Sorry to hear the bad news. It reminds us of our own mortality.

      Many of our Nottler friends have been married for 40 years +

    8. Sorry that you have lost a friend Bill but, at least it would have been quick. How old are you? I ask because I often feel that the end is coming. What is vexing is not actually knowing when.

        1. I honestly hope I last that long. I know it is inevitable that we will die but we live on a wonderful world and I will be sad to leave it and its beauty.

      2. I lay awake at night over-thinking because I am certainly on that downward slope. So much clearing, very cluttered house (but the usual reluctance to get rid of stuff 'it may be needed') because we don't want son to have to deal with too much when the time comes. MH never throws anything out, including heaps of games and related paraphernalia (Dungeons & Dragons type) that has laid untouched for over 20 years.

        1. I understand that feeling. I also have periods of thinking about what to get rid of and what to give to whom.

    9. Crikey, what a shock. Very sorry to hear such news. Unexpected deaths are a shock we can never fully get over.

    10. Oh, Bill! What dreadful news! Sudden death is always a shock, especially when the deceased had seemed to healthy.

    1. Very well. But I realised that they are very low growing, and thus difficult to pick. So we went for a climbing type.

  63. 'Morning All (just)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb6b67d6b673225c72e1345cbddc22b27562f8c260c891f651d389b4198e263a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af96145951e45ca5d65f4ffce65013f7c780a652c94c514abcd601355cce3aef.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/edecc823becf5c282e23ce1b35f091bd4ba51511c4e1796d97b4ab131a395c6e.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae69c933620fd47399c988565ab9708b5597418682e8b307630f323fcff024ef.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2cf92e75dab4e0379b01a4baf31e90fedfa507516b7c56434da0113691ec98e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/acf8cb79fcf16d308c5d28bfc85f911c0f402bbf788907fcd2bc7c9f0f08150c.jpg
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/82bb43032d4c9892924748aa659a578f1061478dd41bd3a99ebdbe7b8229ec87.jpg

    3. Never once got to the top. Half way, if that. A regret, to this day.

      1. I had to be winched to the top of the mast when a job needed doing and so my sons decided it was far better for them to learn how to do the job and go up the mast themselves while I did the winching.

    4. Ah, that rope climbing takes me back. I would have done better had there been a snake charmer to play and help me along.

  64. Moh playing golf in the heat , he loves the heat , but he worries me to bits ..

    He has things he should see the doctor about on his skin , lots of them , never protects his skin , despite the array of high factor lotions I have bought for him, he is type 2 diabetic and doesn't drink enough liquids , so I insisted he take 2 bottles of water with him to put in his golf bag and trolley and to drink frequently .

    He never listens , ever.

    If anything happened to him I would be clueless re matters of importance .

    Hot here , and now I have been doing some tiding up of drawers whilst he away , I am now going to the tip and will enjoy the air con in the car on my 6 mile road trip!

    1. My father ran his financial affairs privately but called me over one day to list all his accounts and investments. I was able to take control of everything with a PoA which was fortunate as he declined with memory loss and a touch of dementia. Knowing everything made his administration simple and after he died has made administering his estate straight forward. You really dont want to be in the dark at a time of bereavement. I think you have a son, perhaps he is in the know. Is he an executor to the will? I have discussed my financial affairs with my son and have drawn up PoA for myself. Its something that needs to be discussed although I can see it will not be easy. Bring a son in to help.

      1. When my father passed away, we had to teach my mother how to write a cheque. In her 90s she really wanted a smart phone but none of us could face having to teach her how to use it, which was bad of us.

    2. There have been some very hot days here as well and the humidity makes it pretty tough for golfing.
      A friend just admitted that when hubby got home from golf last week, her response was to just turn the hose pipe on him to rinse him off..

    3. You worry about your Richard as much as my Caroline worries about hers!

    4. Citizens advice can help you there. They will tell you who to contact to track down investments, policies and bank accounts.

      2. Thanks for that info, Phizzee, I have the same problem as Belle in that respect (and very similar in others).

    6. All these people toting round bottles of water. No need for it at all. You drink when you are thirsty.

    7. He's a grown man.
      You've had your say.
      If he chooses to ignore advice that's his look-out.
      And don't do yourself down. You would cope perfectly well with 'matters of importance'.
      You've held down responsible jobs and were educated to be resilient.

  65. If you want to change lives and prevent the Leeds type of rioting, here is the liberal government way of approaching the problem.

    Create blacks only legal system, with reduced sentences and easier bail, a blacks only federal department, black specific job training programs and housing, not to forget the all important reparations for slavery.

    https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2024/06/release-of-the-external-steering-group-report-an-important-milestone-in-the-development-of-canadas-black-justice-strategy.html

    One can only weep.

    1. "Create blacks only legal system, with reduced sentences and easier bail, a blacks only federal department, black specific job training programs and housing". Isn't that apartheid?

        1. Of course the South Africans pronounced the word "apart ate"

          You've seen me in the papers, you've seen me on the box
          I complain of Vietnam – or the hunting of the fox
          Of hunger in Biafra – or the nuclear atom bomb
          And where the filthy capitalists get all their money from

          How I hate Apartheid,
          But how I love to demonstrate

          I say that what we need is tolerance and peace
          In proof of this I smash up cars and throw things at the police
          I refuse to hear a point of view that's different from my own
          A really reasonable debate's a thing I've never known

          How I hate Apartheid,
          But how I love to demonstrate

          We really had a field day with Springbok sporting tours
          We cut up cricket pitches for the multi-racial cause
          When we stopped the Lions' rugby game it was our finest hour
          But we don't see any racism in those clamours for black power

          How I hate Apartheid,
          But how I love to demonstrate

          But now, alas, my student days I'll have to leave behind,
          I'll put away my banners and I'll regiment my mind
          I'll shave off all my whiskers and I'll wear a pin-stripe suit
          And catch the 7.50 – cos it's such fun to commute

          It was great to demonstrate,
          But now it's time to vegetate.

          1. Was that written with Peter Hain in mind. My word! I'm my dreams I would have loved to have thumped his smug face.

          2. Was that written with Peter Hain in mind. My word! I'm my dreams I would have loved to have thumped his smug face.

  67. CrowdStrike's President and CEO, George Kurtz says pilots in the air should not land, while planes on runways cannot take off.
    Righty-Ho.. can't see a problem here.

    1. They're still passing overhead as they line up for Hearthrow over Peckham.
      Should I be worried?

    2. They're still passing overhead as they line up for Hearthrow over Peckham.
      Should I be worried?

  68. It has now hit 26 and is going to rise to 28 by 3 o'clock. Time to lie down, I think.

    2. 26C here, too! Sitting on terrace enjoying a glass of red with lunch! Bliss!

  69. We were human shields for police – councillor

    Green Party councillor Mothin Ali, who attended the scene on Thursday night and attempted to calm the situation, has been speaking to BBC Look North in Harehills.

    He told reporters how he and others tried to protect officers.

    "We were trying to shelter the police, act as human shields for the police because they were there without helmets, without shields, being pelted with bricks and bottles so we were trying to calm people down and act as a protective barrier."

    He says while the local police team was "absolutely fantastic", the decision to withdraw may not have been the right one.

    He adds: "The idea was not to try and antagonise things, to let things fizzle out.

    "In hindsight we could criticise that but at the time when they're making the decision, it's tough.

    "I don't know who was in charge but I'd like to speak to them [sic]."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cgrl8kew20zt

    I think Mr Ali is speaking with forked tongue…

    1. Get the Army with loaded weapons. Shoot the rioters, after due warning to disperse. As per the 1960s, before everybody became nancy & mincing (other department stores are available).

  70. 389899+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Serve it up firstly to the political treacherous dogs in the halal parliamentary canteen, after eating their fill may they ALL in the main, proceed to lick their combined arses and put their necks out of joint

    UK Becomes First European Country to Approve lab grown meat for public sale

  73. – Is it just me or does some technical disaster always befall the travel industry and those travelling on holiday the first week the schools break up for the summer.
    I suppose a tin foil hatter would suspect we are deliberately being put off travelling.
    By 2030

    1. We used to take the children on a fell walking holiday in the Lake District. in October. We never had a problem.

      1. Apart from the rain? I visited my home city of Carlisle earlier this week. Always great to recharge my Northern batteries, but – frankly – Carlisle was closed. When I left, there were at least 5 department stores, not counting Woolies. Now? None. The Station Hotel [known to Sue McF as the Cumbrian] is handy if one arrives by train. Buit it only does breakfast, and charges £6+ for a pint of IPA in the bar.

        I resolved to visit my parents' grave. But Stagecoach buses wouldn't recognise my bus pass, which is valid throughout England. Stops on the Stagecoach app don't necessarily exist. Hence I was given a severe bollocking by a driver who already said he was unfaniliar with the area. My stumps were sore. He went to the next stop. Then said "for future information, this stop is Trevor Street." Fine, I replied, but the Stagecoach app says there's a stop called Tyne Street, and you just ignored it. He called me a liar. "Listen, Smartarse, only a few minutes ago, you told me you weren't familiar with the area. I grew up here, but I left 37 years ago. There have been changes, so I used the app to plan my journey. It shows a stop at Tyne Street." "GET OFF MY BUS!"

        On the way back, I asked the driver whether Tyne Street existed, or had ever existed, as a stop. "Never" was the reply.

        I thought it would be good to visit Gretna "Outlet", but since it's in Scotchland, I guessed, correctly, that my English pass would fail.So I paid £9 for a Carlisle Plus DayRider ticket. And waited patiently for a bus. Which never came.

        I hate to say it, but I've been ripped off in Carlisle far more than I ever have in Surrey.

        1. So many places are not what they used to be.We are happy to give away billions rather then help our own people & places. Its about 20 years I last visited Carlisle.

    2. Just wait for the 24 hour queues at ports and airports (and stations) when the new (pointless) EUSSR ID stuff starts in November.

      1. Does he really thinks he matters in this world? He’s a disgusting, deviant sex pest, should be in prison.

    3. Brendan Cox was touching up women at his workplace to such an extent that he was asked to leave.

      Apparently his marriage was already 'on the rocks' at the time of his wife's murder This murder was one of the rare cases when the chap committing it really did have mental health issues but he was still branded as an extreme right wing fanatic in the MSM and by the Left.

  75. Re this "worldwide" IT breakdown.

    I wonder whether Mr Gates thought – "I wonder if I can stop everything across the world just by pressing this switch…"

    1. I'm sure he could, but I don't think he did in this case! The problem is a piece of anti-hacking technology supplied to Microsoft by a completely separate company called CrowdStrike. Interestingly, people with older Windows programmes (like me!) aren't affected.

        1. Each to their own, Kate. Everywhere I worked used Windoze. It has its issues, but so does Apple. Even in (nearly) retirement, while I still do the printing for the Parish, no-one sends me anything formatted for macOS….

          Trust all is well?

          1. Hello Geoff 🙂 yes indeed. Have used Google for years, a good product, although I think was initially nicked by Schmidt(?) and others. It’s pretty stable. My neighbour does all the paperwork/printing for church….I don’t envy that job…all is well with me and mine, and I trust with you and yours:-)) Kate x

          2. All well here, Kate. Last autumn, the second-hand printer, bought for a song from eBay for around £1809, perhaps eight years ago, suffered terminal problems. My plaintive cry that we needed a replacement fell on stony ground. Eventually, I put my hand in my own pocket, and bought one for £500, with no intention to claim the cost back. I advised the Parish, said the machine was mine, and would remain so beyond the end of my employment contract. I was happy for the Parish to have the use of it, but would exprct them to cover any maintenance / consumables cost.But I was told by a (thankfully ex) Churchwarden that this was unacceptable, and I had exceeded my authority. Has anyone thanked me? Not bloody likely.

            Presumably this applies to all the laptops I've bought at my own expense in the last 19 years?

            I like living in Surrey. But a significant proportion of the population are wealthy See You Next Tuesdays. The one mentioned above is Deputy Lieutenant and former High Sheriff. In the brief period she was entrusted to the Treasurer's Laptop, she appaently decided that paying my meagre salary wasn't worth bothering about, since she handed the laptop and all the files to a potential candidate for Treasurer – just for review, you understand – on the day I was supposed to be paid…

            I managed to intercept the transfer of the laptop, and payment was arranged tout suite.

          4. Maybe so, but it’s history. Let’s just say that – along with relationship friendship issues,plus a brief dalliance with so-called-Covid a week before Christmas, I’ve had happier times. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, OK?
            We have a good Rector, but he’s been seriously ill. He may return to his duties next month. He’s one day younger than me, at 67, and franly looks ten years older.. Clergy have to retire at 70. He owns a place in Wales. If I were him, I’d just throw in the towel. Being as bloody-minded as I am, he won’t…

          5. Geoff, my old friend – I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, did a bit of both, including a red haze. I’m very happy to read you stood your ground, as you say the See Yous are everywhere. Quite a number of hard noses in our local church I’m told – I take comfort from an old friend of mine sadly deceased who would say ‘more Christianity outside the church than in it’. As for computers/printers …goodness knows where we’ll sit once AI really kicks in. I think it will come in under the radar at first so we hardly notice, then gradually increase. Long time since I’ve been in Surrey, we had a customer there one time, Surrey Satellites – think they were taken over by a much larger outfit who recognised their potential. When you say ‘she’ I recognise how some are, hopefully not yours truly. So glad you spiked ’em Geoff, keep that up. As ever, Kate x

          9. Ha….I did wonder if you'd bought some kind of elite printing press…:-DDD no worries…

      2. I believe the affected machines are running Windows 10.

        I'm on Windoze 11, and have no issues. I had difficulties with bluetooth keyboards, this morning – hence the slight lateness of the new page. I couldn't log on to my Lenovo AIO machine. So I dug out my elderly laptop, which has miraculously healed itself, some years after having wine spilled into the keyboard. But all seems to be working now. Among the dead* Bluetooth keyboards, I found one which works.

        I had to switch to my emergency laptop this morning, which is running Windows 10. It seemed slow, but today's page was only a few minutes late.

        *Illuminated Bluetooth keyboards are as rare as hen's teeth. I'm using one of my 'dead' Logitech MX Keys. All the keys work. The illumination? Not so much. But I've found disassembly instructions online. And I have copious quantities of isopropyl alcohol. Wish me luck…

        1. Good luck. My Win 10 laptop (which I loathe with a passion) suddenly turned off the mouse pad for no reason I could discern. It's done this before and the solution is to plug a mouse in and re-enable the pad via the Control Panel. I plugged the mouse in and got a moveable cursor. Unfortunately, although it moved it wouldn't click on anything. After much cursing I changed the Microsoft mouse for a Logitech one and bingo! I could access all areas again.

          2. I've had some similar weirdness, Conners. I use a Logitech MX Master mouse, and it has been behaving strangely. I have more than one MX Keys keyboard. I like them because the touch is good, they're illuminated, and connect via Bluetooth. There is a suggestion online that the illumination may have a longevity problem. That's certainly been my experience. Though it's likely connected to the lack of protection from… er… spilt wine. But three of them refused to work yesterday. They're fine, now (apart from the illumination).

            When I have the time and inclination, I'll strip one down, immerse it in isopropyl alcohol, give it a damn good clean, dry it out, and see if the illumination comes back. I'm not hopeful, but these are hundred quid keyboards, so it's worth a try…

        2. Thanks Geoff, but that is all far too technical for me :D! When I have a problem I can’ solve by rebooting I pick up the phone and call my tech geek!

    3. The crash is the perfect example of why we shouldn't have globalism. I bet Russia and China are unaffected.

        1. When I was in town earlier in the week, a very worried chap came up and asked me if I'd seen a mobile phone lying on the ground (I hadn't). He said he only realised he'd dropped it when he couldn't pay for his goods. No wonder I don't do banking on my phone!

        2. The previous gov and this one already load debit cards for relatives in Pakistan.

        3. The previous gov and this one already load debit cards for relatives in Pakistan.

    4. Sadly, all 3 places I visited today had card systems that worked.
      So no free croissants, petrol or office bits and bobs.

    6. I think it stinks…they are telling people to delete a driver, without saying what it's supposed to support. So if genuine, something will stop working – but they haven't said what!

    1. There been plenty of cops standing around the site of upheaval and destruction since it was all over.
      The people who allowed all this disgusting trash into our country should be arrested for Treason.

      2. The Tour de France rider allocated No 13 has worn the number on his back, upside down for the entire race.

        I've never understood triskaidekophobia.

        1. :-). I was referring to the Plodmobile.
          Being a repository of useless facts, I did know the Last Supper factoid.

      4. The number 13 may be associated with some famous but undesirable dinner guests. In
        Norse mythology, the god Loki was 13th to arrive at a feast in
        Valhalla, where he tricked another attendee into killing the god Baldur. In Christianity, Judas — the apostle who betrayed Jesus — was the 13th guest at the Last Supper.

    1. Try that in Leeds and they would just go on the rampage again and steal whatever they wanted. They know their power.

    1. I found myself being rather disappointed by Tucker Carlson when, in Australia, he started spouting anti-British rhetoric. Telling the Australians to throw off the oppression of their masters in Whitehall, amongst other nasty and inaccurate remarks about the UK. I did not realize that he was infected with that tiresome anti-British prejudice that one often gets from certain Americans. I thought better of him. It has forced me to revaluate his honesty.

    2. Hmmm, this just makes me more inclined to believe that the whole thing was set up to make Trump look as though he walks on water, so that Americans will follow him when he leads them into slavery

      1. I do not think it is. You just don’t get it. Freedom not slavery . You know like he did last time.

        1. I don’t know who did what, but it reeks of being more than a simple lone gunman. So I look at the effect – what happened after this shooting?
          Trump is now wildly popular and a lot of establishment “rebels” like Elon Musk and JD Vance are suddenly with him.
          Therefore, I conclude that Trump is probably the one who’s supposed to “save” us, whilst ensuring that nobody abolishes the Federal Reserve when the financial reset hits. Actually, it is already hitting, but the Chinese are managing it with infinite patience to avoid a sudden collapse.

          The currency has been destroyed during the era of central banking. What that means is a huge transfer of wealth away from citizens and into the pockets of the ultra-rich. We may have forgotten the fights over the establishment of central banks in the US in the 19th C and in Britain in the 17th C, but you can be sure that the central bankers haven’t. They are desperate to maintain their control into the next long economic cycle and beyond.

    1. And the slammer families room to erect their private tents and leave plenty of room on the east sides for Qibla finding for the kneeling.

  82. I must admit I am a little surprised that the Muslims of Leeds (if Muslims the rioters be) burned buses and police cars to show much they cared for Roma people. It wasn't so long ago that Sheffield had street clashes between Muslims and Roma (although it should be pointed out that they were described as Yemenis and Slovaks).

    Perhaps Leeds and Sheffield are different…

    PS to Nigel F: just hold your tongue next time and let your opponents dig their own holes.

    1. I don't believe a word of the story being circulated about babies and windows.

      It was slammers up to no good. End of.

      1. I've just noticed that our morons have started to slip them into TV advertising now.

  83. I must admit I am a little surprised that the Muslims of Leeds (if Muslims the rioters be) burned buses and police cars to show much they cared for Roma people. It wasn't so long ago that Sheffield had street clashes between Muslims and Roma (although it should be pointed out that they were described as Yemenis and Slovaks).

    Perhaps Leeds and Sheffield are different…

    PS to Nigel F: just hold your tongue next time and let your opponents dig their own holes.

  84. Modern Life Curiosities No 263

    Yesterday, in Fakenham market, Willy Weston, the fishmonger, had samphire on sale. Funny stuff – I have never quite seen the point – bit like eating seaweed without the luxurious flavour (!!). Anyway, it grows wild a few miles away on the North Norfolk coast. The MR asked Willy if it came from Cley or Brancaster. "No," he replied, "It is illegal to pick samphire. This comes from France…."

    1. With all due respect, Mr Weston is a fishmonger, not Halsbury’s Statutes. A few minutes fishing on the net produced this gem of information:

      “Folklore

      It has been reported that it is illegal to

      pick samphire – this is true in that it is illegal to uproot a plant

      under the Wildlife and Countryside act but authorities are not overly

      worried as there is so much of it and it is an annual species which

      produces a lot of seed. Even so, I don’t uproot the plants but cut them

      above the woody stem. This allows the plant to continue living and

      contributing to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere by

      photosynthesysing.” https://totallywilduk.co.uk/2023/08/15/identify-marsh-samphire/

      2. That was quite interesting until the writer spiraled off into madness in th e last two lines..

    2. Edgar, disguised as Mad Tom O' Bedlam, tries to convince his blinded father, Gloucester, that he is on the very brink of a cliff near Dover

      Come on, sir; here's the place: stand still. How fearful
      And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
      The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
      Show scarce so gross as beetles: half way down
      Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!

      [Shakespeare: King Lear]

    2. For goodness sake. Why are we giving these crooks yet more money we will never see again?

      2. Amazing how we get rid of one set of devious dangerous idiots. And another lot move straight in.

    3. ‘Loan’. Yeah, right. And it’s Money we’ll have to borrow anyway, the U.K. is broke. Oh and btw we’re back to funding the UNRWA. More borrowing.

    1. The USA should be embarrassed by displaying him for all to see. He’s supposed to be the leader of the free world,! Poor man.

  91. Torygraph

    Biden faces down calls to quit and will return to campaign next week Updated 7 minutes ago

    Trump eyes up Democrat strongholds amid hopes he can wipe out party in landslide

    Former president’s senior advisers hope to expand the Republican electoral map in states considered out of reach just a few weeks ago

      1. I'm not up to speed with reform (or much else come to that :0 ), but I read that it is a limited company rather than a political party.

  92. Anyone else?
    Wordle: 1,126 3/6

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    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    I usually do this early evening when I’m reminded by seeing other posters’ numbers so a bit early today.

          1. You are probably right, but I could never resist the obvious. Please don't think the numbskull referred to anybody living.

          2. You are probably right, but I could never resist the obvious. Please don't think the numbskull referred to anybody living.

  95. Decades ago before the 1960's , our water supply was fresher .. our British diet then was vegetables and meat , fruit bread and cake and Ale . Now we have imported millions from a different culture where spiced foods , curry and drugs are compromising the water we drink.

    Our wonderful British rivers will die from pollution , because those who have polluted their own rivers like the Ganges and Brahmaputra and Indus , are now living here in Britain , and the stink of curry will last forever.

  99. Afternoon, all. Am having a lazy day today after having slaved in the garden the last couple of days and accomplished everything I am going to do until I spend (yet more) money on items.

    Those of us with any experience of Labour knew they were lying through their teeth when they promised to respect the countryside. They hate it; it's alien to them and filled with self-reliant, small-C conservatives who are still, despite Labour's best endeavours, largely white indigenous.

      1. When I was at boarding school I had to make my own bed. I was astonished to discover that when I went to live in UEA's residences at Horsham St Faith that a woman came to clean my room every day and make my bed.

          4. 🤣 Nah. Physically groping passengers travelling through Norwich International.

  105. I'd put money on it being their envy and spite that was behind Millipede's sudden approval of the very large solar sites in traditionally Conservative Lincolnshire.

      1. Must be punished. We also don’t have our ‘fair share’ of savages. (For now thankfully, but not for long)

  106. A cited Bogey Five?

    Wordle 1,126 5/6
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    1. Me too.

      Wordle 1,126 5/6

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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Well that sucks…
        Wordle 1,126 X/6

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    2. Yeah, 5 seems about right.

      Wordle 1,126 5/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
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    3. Same over here
      Wordle 1,126 5/6

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    4. Got lucky today
      Wordle 1,126 4/6

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  107. Lily Allen issues plea for help as she's left stranded at Heathrow Airport.
    It's lidderally an open air concentration camp.

      1. Ah, is that boarding a rubber boat to cross the Channel?

        (aka a deluxe pun?)

      2. Ah, is that boarding a rubber boat to cross the Channel?

        (aka a deluxe pun?)

    3. How is she stranded? I've just looked online at the departures board for Heathrow and it looks perfectly normal. Some flights delayed, some cancelled, others boarding. Isn't that normal? I took note that a direct flight from London Heathrow to Pittsburgh is boarding. It used to be necessary to go from Gatwick, when there were any direct flights at all. I have family in Pitt, so it's of interest.

    5. We had a couple of students with us last week who are at her old school – Bedales. They were rather pleasant young people.

      1. Bedales has always been thus – but it has got worse. I believe that the noxious Emma Watson was also nurtured and pampered there (she of the "married myself, as I am the only person I could ever fancy" persuasion

    6. Just pop her on a random plane to Outer Mongolia and allow her only non-oil derived products to eke out her poisonous little existence

    7. Why is she flying anywhere anyway? Or (and this is rhetorical) is she one of these “do as I say, don’t do as I do” luvvies?

    1. No idea, but if they shake things up enough, and can in some small way, influence matters ……

    2. No. They will soon get bored – once they realise that 5 dissenters have no clout in Westminster.

  110. Correct…an unusual organisational form for a political party demanded by Nigel because he is such a control freak and the corporate structure gives him and Tice total command. For this reason among others, Pat Bryant wanted to have nothing to do with Reform. For many years, she was a member of UKIP's National Executive Committee and, I've been told, was the one member who Nigel was genuinely scared of. Her children and I repeatedly pointed out to her that it was because she was the greater control freak. {:^))

    1. The Brexit Party had the same structure. Yes, Nigel is a control freak. He doesn't do consensus.

  111. Correct…an unusual organisational form for a political party demanded by Nigel because he is such a control freak and the corporate structure gives him and Tice total command. For this reason among others, Pat Bryant wanted to have nothing to do with Reform. For many years, she was a member of UKIP's National Executive Committee and, I've been told, was the one member who Nigel was genuinely scared of. Her children and I repeatedly pointed out to her that it was because she was the greater control freak. {:^))

      2. Yep, did decide to indulge in a pint of the dry hopped lager. Got to keep the fluids up on a hot day. I think that's the official NHS advice in any case.

      4. In ten years in East Anglia, I was never keen on Adnams, for some reason. Or Tolly Cobbold, for that matter. Greene King's brewery was just around the corner from my office. The Dog and Patridge is next door to the brewery. It was the location for Lovejoy's local, in the earliest series, and where we repaired to on a Friday lunchime from rhe regional office. When we were relocated to a Terrapin office on the edge of the A14, the Linden Tree was a great improvement.

        GK IPA was superb there. 10 miles down the road in Thetford, where I lived at the time, it was.,. OK, ish.Now that it's more or less available nationally, it's clear that it doesn't travel well. Abbot is better..l

        1. All of those brews were of my adolescence.
          I loved Adnams, but have moved to Harveys relatively recently.
          Abbott isn’t a patch on what it was in the late 60’s early 70’s.
          I was never a fan of Tolly.

          1. Harveys is good, but not generally available hereabouts. All I’m saying is that Abbot is better than what passes for IPA these days.

            I rarely have an opportunity now to visit the local village pubs, so I tend to factor Wetherspoons in Aldershot to any shopping there. Three days a week, a rare local bus brings shoppers back from Guildford or Woking at 13:30 or 14:10, and terminates at Aldershot.

            I can wander up to Morrisons (not my favourite supermarket, but never mind), then wait for the 16:30 bus home in Wetherspoon’s Queen Hotel, which is on the way to the bus stop.

            While there, I tend to favour Doom Bar. If it’s off, there’s usually Ruddles Best, at less than £2 a pint. Call me a cheapskate, if you will… 🙂

      1. No brainer. If only politicians could think as quickly as us the country would be in a much healthier state, I'd say.

      2. No brainer. If only politicians could think as quickly as us the country would be in a much healthier state, I'd say.

      3. No brainer. If only politicians could think as quickly as us the country would be in a much healthier state, I'd say.

      1. No real breeze, it's less than 5-mph, but the beach huts provide a nice shadow from the sea wall behind me and with the tide coming in it's like sitting by the fridge with its door open. Luvverly.

  113. Britain stands on the brink of a terrifying new era of violence, crime and disorder
    The rioting in Leeds, harassment of MPs, and mob rule all add up to an alarming picture for the country

    Camilla Tominey https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/19/britain-on-brink-of-new-era-violence-disorder-crime/

    Telling the truth is racist, isn't it?

    “We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.”
    Enoch Powell

    And how mad do we have to be now to allow more than ten times that number?

    1. Dispite the obvious lack of police officers leading up to and during this terrible event. There were dozens of them to be seen at the scene of all the damage afterwards.
      Somehow this is typical of the situation in our nation. Too little to late in every single situation.
      The Whitehall and Wastemonster idiots are going to make a decision PDQ.

      1. Silly you – did you think they sent officers in to restore order and calm events? They probably only sent them in to 'protect' the savages living there, or in case any normal person uttered some hurty or waycist words.

      2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        Don’t let the syntaxidermists ruin language
        A brief dictionary of stupid

        Comments Share 19 July 2024, 5:00am
        The pop star Sam Smith appears not only to have a magic mirror which affirms that he’s stunning and brave, but also that he’s a lovely little thinker. During lockdown, self-isolating in his £12 million home, he filmed himself weeping because he was already bored with his own company. ‘I hate reading,’ he cried, suggesting that if you have no life of the mind, you’ll always be a bad companion to yourself – even if you do refer to yourself in the plural. Having said this, he then had the nerve to say: ‘When people mess up a pronoun or something… It kind of ruins conversations. It’s going to take time. We’re changing a language here.’

        I don’t expect everyone to have my almost ‘parasexual’ attachment to the English language
        Someone who hates reading dares to make a claim that he is set on changing the loveliest tongue known to man; the language of Shakespeare, Churchill, and Burchill. Surely this cannot be allowed? But I fear that the damage has already been done. The language is changing, due to what we might call syntaxidermists, who get hold of something beautiful and make it weird.

        There’s not an area of modern life that’s safe from the dead hand of the syntaxidermists. Naturally, the political arena has taken the biggest hit, with words that used to be treated with appropriate restraint – fascist, Nazi, genocide – tossed around with the carelessness of frisbees in a park. ‘Extreme right-wing’ means anyone who believes that there may be worse places to live than the UK; if you are one of these people, you will be encouraged to ‘do better’ (do nothing but agree with me) ‘educate yourself’ (always prompts me to think of the books I haven’t read, particularly the great Russian writers – as opposed to the modern meaning of ‘stay up all night watching a man in a dress yelling online’) and come over to ‘the right side of history’; failure to comply will see you blocked on X – luckily, by the kind of people you’d happily pay not to see.

        Then there’s ‘sustainable development’ – let’s all live in caves again! – and ‘net zero’ – death to all humans! There are ‘activists’ who believe in throwing paint around to persuade people that these things are desirable, but the majority of activists aren’t active at all, but rather people who stay indoors with the curtains drawn screaming at others on the internet. Then there are ‘fat activists’ – the same, but while eating cinnamon swirls as a gaggle of similarly chunky girlfriends call you ‘kween’.

        Activists are often ‘non-binary’ (a boring person’s idea of being interesting), ‘neuro-diverse’ (ditto, but also a fidget) or ‘on the spectrum’ (same again, but a fidget with a stage mother). A friend says, ‘working as a mental health professional, almost every diagnostic category has been co-opted into the diminished sense of self that has become the motif of the age; over 15 years working in this field, barely a day goes by when I don’t encounter someone who’s “a bit bipolar” or “a bit OCD”. Strikingly, the only psychiatric condition that remains unfashionable is schizophrenia. The rest are fair game.’

        Most popular
        Freddy Gray
        Donald Trump sounds sombre – and strange

        They often have ‘allies’ (hangers-on to unhinged people in order to make themselves feel edgy) who are ‘joyful’ (spend a great deal of time interfering with themselves while cry-bullying online). These people are invariably slavishly devoted to ‘inclusivity’ (fetishising 4 per cent of the population in order to look down on the remaining 96 per cent) and ‘diversity’ (people of a variety of hues parroting the same opinion on everything from breakfast to Brexit – see the BBC); herd-thinking is essential for both, and those who refuse will be excluded and divested by captured institutions. But they probably deserve it, as they’re ‘divisive’ (an opinion popular with the majority of people that the ruling class don’t like) and ‘toxic’ (the same, but females defending their rights from angry transvestites). So remember, ‘Be Kind’. (Shut up, women, the men are speaking!) These people always ‘identify’ as good, though they are obviously bad – but not in a fun way, ‘bad’ itself having been through several incarnations.

        You can’t get away from the vandalism of our lovely tongue in the personal realm either; there’s bound to be some ninny ‘living my best life’ and ‘making memories’ in their ‘forever home’ on their socials. They may well have a ‘fur-baby’, the poor desiccated souls; they’re probably ‘super-busy’ too (spending too much time on their socials). They’re keen on ‘journeys’, ‘narratives’, ‘lived experience’ (rewriting of history starring Brave Little Me), ’my truth’ (lies a lot) and ‘my authentic self’ (whole life is a lie). They may well be ‘passionate’ (always on the verge of a temper-tantrum) and a ‘perfectionist’ (nit-picker who never finishes anything). They will probably have a ‘partner’ (who won’t marry them as they’re waiting for something better to come along). They will likely ‘struggle’ (complain) with ‘mental health’ (a vague feeling of discontent with their lives – understandably) and ‘trauma’ (someone once laughed at their pronouns).

        Never mind, let’s have some ‘retail therapy’ (sure sign of a shallow grasping half-wit). Do you fancy something ‘artisanal’ (looks like it was dropped down a flight of stairs between making and point of sale)? Or ‘vintage’ (some old crap that might be better sent in a landfill site)? Or even a little ‘pre-loved’ number (clothes that you love so much you get rid of them, and not even in the bin where they belong). You might want to go to a ‘makers’ collective’ (two squabbling step-sisters making £350 un-dyed linen dresses inspired by the shape of a bin-bag). But don’t mock it, because it’s ‘curated’, as it now appears that every semi-literate dunce who puts together a collection of stuff, however banal or ill-considered, is now on a par with the experienced, knowledgeable and distinguished kingpin of a museum. And it’s probably ‘iconic’, which everything is these days, reaching a tipping point in 2022 when I heard the Mayor of Leicester, Peter Soulsby, use it on Radio 4, referring to Ugandan Asian immigration to Britain in the 1970s. This was undoubtedly a good thing – but how was it ‘iconic’?

        I don’t expect everyone to have my almost ‘parasexual’ attachment to the English language. I sometimes think that I love words more than anything else on earth – and this is probably not quite appropriate. But they’re there for all of us, and those who seek to ‘change a language’ – whether silly Sam Smith insisting on pronouns or some sinister swine insisting that a penis can be female – will eventually degrade your life if you let them succeed. It’s true that language is a living, changing thing – but what’s going on now isn’t part of that lively tradition. Instead, our language is being held hostage by people who hate it, as they hate everything beautiful and grounded. That’s why I’ve named it syntaxidermy – because while our captured words look like they always did, they’re now dead inside.

    2. There are almost three times as many Muslims (8.5%) as a percentage of the population as the city average (3%), although these mostly live within the Gipton & Harehills ward, where they make up 22% of the population.

      How many Muslims are in Leeds?
      In Leeds, Christianity was the most common religion, with 343,311 people choosing the response, while 325,334 people selected “no religion”. After this, the most common answers were “Muslim” (63,054 people), “Sikh” (10,047 people) and “Hindu” (9,217 people).2 Dec 2022

    1. NHS overwhelmed as hundreds of thousand are taken to A&E suffering from heatstroke.

  115. 389899+ up ticks,

    Will the sound of the " over the top " whistle change the voting pattern in any way, you WILL receive your mandatory jab along with your mandatory call up papers, indigenous only, as they do not know any of the "guest's " whereabouts.

    A culling we will go, a culling we will go WEF / NWO theme song,

    Dt,
    Defence Secretary suggests Ukraine can use Storm Shadow missiles in Russia
    John Healey says the delivery of the missiles ‘does not preclude’ Volodymyr Zelensky from using them to hit targets aimed at the country

  116. Since reopening after lockdowns, our local, independent garden centre has only accepted card payments across the site, including the concessions units. 'For your safety.' I wonder if they are regretting that now. The normally busy car park was noticeably empty when I drove past yesterday and today. Oh dear, what a shame ……..

  117. Blackburn

    Religion. According to the 2021 census, 38.0% of the population was Christian,

    35.0% Muslim,
    0.3% Hindu,
    0.2% Buddhist,
    0.4% followed another religions (including Judaism, Sikhism and others), 21.1% were not affiliated to a religion and 5.0% did not state their religious views.

    Just google figures for any city/town in the UK and you will be appalled.

    As of mid-2023, Bradford's population is 560,200, which is a 1.4% increase from the mid-2022 estimate. Bradford is the fifth largest metropolitan authority in England by population and has the second highest percentage of people in the country who identify as Pakistani. Bradford is also considered the youngest city in the UK, with 26.3% of its population under 18, compared to the national average of 21.4%.

    https://citypopulation.de/en/uk/agglo/E34004684A__leeds_bradford/

    1. Although I am not especially religious, I now always put Christian on any forms which ask for religion. Years ago, I would tick 'none' because I rarely went to church (except for hatch, match and dispatch events).

    2. I would not be at all surprised if large numbers of illegal immigrants/asylum seekers did not complete the census.

      1. There’ll be a good number who’ve been here for some time but still can’t read the census form as well.

  118. Project fear over bird flu is building. We're doomed. 52% of us who catch it will die. Hordes of gullible people will believe it.

    Clip is from a farcebook post. One comment – 'Don't worry, they have a 'Rooster Booster.'

    : https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f0954d8d40d15aed1e6dc61143080337c72bfced705be3a1b764bdfb598c2c09.png
    Headline on the linked GB Bullsh** News article:: 'UK faces 'immense suffering', warns bombshell report as pandemic far worse than Covid is on the horizon'
    https://www.gbnews.com/health/bird-flu-symptoms-pandemic-2024-2668772853?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR36FMd8K6C2rOYiSDlHJUlw2yYkHklp9Nol3BlDX2ScGKEY4W_mm6eMVDE_aem_7WCnKNZ5rBh84HrfRhc9tw

    1. Professor Ferguson promises that ten million people will die in the UK by the end of July

      2. But but, he tried that around fifteen years ago. The worldwide total of suspected cases was about two hundred?

        1. You silly person. The science is settled. Ten million it is. Just look at the BBC. They’ll confirm….{:¬))

          1. I guess the fur coat in the summer is a lot to contend with.
            I always use to take our lovely Lab to the river. She loved it wether hot or middle of winter.
            I think if I was fitter and more able than I am I’d (we) would like another lab.

          2. He's been clipped so his coat isn't too heavy, but I don't like the pavements getting too warm for his feet.

    2. Is GB News really pushing that utter crapola? Should be ashamed of themselves if so.

      1. Their XTwitter account always promotes bullshit. In the interests of “balance” I suppose.

      2. GB News has been bought out by the usual suspects, and is no longer the same organisation it initially was.

    3. Covid was a bio-weapon i.e. an "infectious replication defective," pathogen that could not be transmitted between people. Had it been a virus transmissible between people clearly it would have been uncontrollable and the 'elites' would have been equally susceptible to infection.

      H5N1, or whatever the pathogen is, will also have to be controllable so that only the 'useless eaters' will be infected. We must expect very many more infectious public sites e.g. airports, railway stations, the tube/metro/subway, large shopping malls etc.

      Mr Gates has predicted that this one will catch the people's attention.

      It will be interesting to discover how different the new inoculations will be from the CV-19 potions. La Quinta Columna will, I'm sure, be after a phial ASAP.

      Two 'Pandemics' in 4 years is total bullshit and anyone falling for the naturally occurring virus story for a second time hasn't woken up.

  119. Judge Sawal of the ICJ condemns Israel's occupation of Gaza:

    A BTL pinched from the Grimes:

    This wouldn’t be the same Judge Nawaf Salam who defended Iran’s use of stoning as a method of execution and who as Lebanon’s UN rep voted against Israel 210 times and consistently with Iran whenever the General Assembly sought to condemn its human rights abuses?It couldn’t be the same one who sought Hezbollah’s approval to stand as president of Palestine. Or the one who praised Castro and votes with the Iran, North Korea Venezuela and Russia club at the UN?

    It is heartwarming that such objective, dispassionate caps are working away at the ICJ….

  120. That's me for this rather warm day. Some gardening done – but it is very humid – and being in the sun not that agreeable. Better than rain, of course….

    I hope you all have a marvellous evening – celebrate being alive. It is all we can do.

    Flower Show day tomorrow – the MR is hoping to find enough roses for her entry….quite tricky. They have been so bashed about and suffered from the cold. We thought it might have been cancelled.

    A demain

  122. They're going in..
    Lesbo Nana has been given authorisation from local elder Mothin Ali, to retrieve burned out bus from Harehill, Leeds.

  123. Courtesy of Wayne Dunlap's X feed.

    USA leaning but some items can be seen in a UK light.

    We have this potential situation in the UK.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dad62ec3f4ec207a6a5ee541f2a04f9fab1e868029600b30018d9c5268f91ac1.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eba1dccb6dc366fe7a8d2ee65369c033a2d85b43e01c63aa9e104e876f620f3f.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/54a55e44e4dcc6c3d723ed1933fa508167f0156c91c4a3da8c3fae6a4762c15c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/013ac1b4912efd115c80e9727f450639209b7ebbe32d13785b6a259f3a6c0ce7.png

    To finish.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c70ca546d125e62b4035db56be461bfeb080eedcfa1f09f34adc08af9794a56.png

    1. WRT finish, I had just played a Peppa Pig video on the TV for young granddaughter but grandson was insistent that it was his turn next to choose a Minecraft video.

      Ructions followed which on the face of it looked insoluble.
      However I found this video which combined both granchildren's wishes by featuring Peppa Pig with an element of violence.

      I've never heard the two children laugh so much during this video:
      https://youtu.be/xJIN3HYQy5U?si=jseKVMdWoZ6tFkeX

  125. – I wonder if Ed Miliband is watching The Open in Troon.
    Maybe he forgot to tell them about climate change, up there.

    1. Ed Miliband?

      For starters, he'll cover Royal Troon Golf courses with solar panels.

  126. – We are starting to see rioting and demonstrations by generational immigrants on our streets over things that are happening in their old country of origin.
    If they do serious damage to others and people working for public services trying to keep the peace and protect property.
    Then if caught why not deport them to their old country so that they can demonstrate there instead of here?

  127. David Lammy is dangerously naive about Hamas

    In taking the claims of UNWRA at face value, the foreign secretary has proven his inability to satisfactorily serve in his new role

    STEPHEN POLLARD • 19 July 2024 • 4:20pm

    Well, that didn't take long. David Lammy has been foreign secretary for just two weeks, but it's now clear where he stands on those who enable terror. To put it bluntly: he couldn't care less.

    Speaking this morning in the Commons, Mr Lammy confirmed what had been expected – that the UK will resume funding to UNWRA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, to give it its full title).

    In January, the Conservative government stopped funding UNWRA when the Israeli government claimed that some of its employees had taken part in the October 7 Hamas massacre – and that UNWRA had a long history of doing nothing about Hamas' infiltration of the organisation.

    Lammy's response to this, as he told the Commons today, is that, "I was appalled by the allegations that UNWRA staff were involved in the October 7 attacks." But, heh ho, all's well: "We are reassured that after Catherine Colonna's independent review, UNWRA is ensuring they meet the highest standards of neutrality and strengthening its procedures, including on vetting."

    Pathetic doesn't come close. An organisation that has been alleged to have employed murderers says it is actually thoroughly decent and will also be in the future – and Mr Lammy's response is to nod his head and ask how much money they would like.

    The problems with UNWRA go far deeper even than their employees' alleged participation in the October 7 massacre. Last week, for example, the IDF said it found evidence of UNWRA facilities being used by terrorists in Gaza, with a complex of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad war rooms used for surveillance as well as a large cache of weapons including parts for UAV assembly, tactical drones, rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosives and grenades in UNWRA's Gaza City HQ.

    As the IDF tweeted to UNWRA after the discovery: "How many more times will your facilities and infrastructure be exploited by terrorists?" Last Wednesday, IDF troops of the 99th Division were engaged in a close-quarters battle with terrorists operating from the UNWRA HQ.

    None of that concerns Mr Lammy. Nor, it seems, is he bothered by the list of 100 UNWRA employees named by Israel as allegedly being members of Hamas in a letter sent by the Israeli Foreign Ministry last week to UNWRA's head, Philippe Lazzarini and to its funders – including the UK. Who cares, eh?

    One group is certainly not satisfied by UNWRA's alleged role in enabling Hamas's terror. 101 victims of the October 7 massacre have filed a lawsuit in the US against UNWRA for "aiding and abetting" Hamas. They claim UNWRA "helped Hamas build up the terror infrastructure and personnel that were necessary to carry out the October 7 attack". The plaintiffs (up to 800 are expected to join the lawsuit) include hostages, Nova festival survivors and families of people who were murdered.

    Specifically, the lawsuit claims that UNWRA was "deliberately paying its local personnel in the form of cash US dollars, requiring them to turn to Hamas-affiliated moneychangers to receive the local currency (Israeli shekels) they actually need to be able to make purchases, thus predictably generating millions of dollars per month of additional income for Hamas from the spread charged by the moneychangers – money that was not merely denominated in dollars but was in cash. By doing so they provided Hamas with access to hard US currency which Hamas desperately needed to pay its illicit weapons procurement network to smuggle into Gaza vast quantities of weapons, ammunition, explosives, rockets and the other materials needed by Hamas to perpetuate the October 7 attack as well as numerous other genocidal attacks on civilians."

    The lead plaintiffs include hostage Ditza Heiman, who claims the owner of the home where she was held for seven weeks told her he was a teacher at an UNWRA school for boys – and that she was fed with food labelled for UNWRA schools.

    UNWRA has repeatedly denied all allegations that its aid is diverted to Hamas or that it teaches hatred in its schools, and has questioned "the motivation of those who make such claims." The agency has condemned the Hamas attack on October 7 as "abhorrent."

    Mr Lammy is happy to take those denials at face value. Let's be charitable and put it down to naivety – not exactly a quality one looks for in a foreign secretary. British policy, it seems, is heading into dangerous chaos under David Lammy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/19/david-lammy-couldnt-care-less-about-terrorism/

      1. He isn't just thick and naive, he is astoundingly ignorant and he is bigoted into the bargain.

  130. The police have lost control. Welcome to the era of mob rule

    Public disorder like that seen in Harehills will soon become the norm if justice is not seen to be done

    RORY GEOGHEGAN, founder of The Public Safety Foundation • 19 July 2024 • 4:25pm

    Public disorder broke out in Harehills, a part of Leeds, yesterday. Large crowds smashed up a police car, looted a delivery van, pelted police vans and officers with missiles, and burned a double-decker bus to the ground.

    The trigger? Apparently, social workers trying to take one or more Roma children into care.

    A visit from social services is far from remarkable amidst the social and family breakdown underway in modern Britain. But it would seem that some in the multicultural community of Harehills were simply not going to stand for agents of the British state daring to interfere in their tribal affairs.

    A crowd soon formed and morphed into a mob. The police attempted to maintain and regain control on a couple of occasions, including through the mobilisation of more specially trained public order officers who attended with riot shields and riot vans.

    But the mob – united in a seemingly gleeful desire to send representatives of British authority packing – successfully saw them off, pelting the officers and their vans with bricks and anything else they could get their hands on.

    Social media was awash with clips and live streams of the violence – complete with the demoralising scenes of police officers, cars and vans fleeing the scene, surrendering the streets to the mob for the night.

    Such scenes may be celebrated by troublemakers, but put fear in the hearts of the law-abiding who, in these moments, come to realise how wafer thin the veneer of law and order is in modern Britain.

    There was chatter and expectation on some of the feeds that the army would need to be deployed. All too predictably, nobody turned up – save what seemed to be a solitary police helicopter keeping an eye on things.

    There will, no doubt, be decision logs and rationales that set out why the police took the decision to withdraw and let the buses, fires and mob burn themselves out. But, if we were being really honest about it, we'd acknowledge that the British police simply don't have anything like the clarity of mission, political backing or range of tactics and kit that their Continental or North American peers do.

    Political and policing leaders in West Yorkshire may think that they successfully got away with standing back last night, but there is no escaping the fact that had the police urgently needed to take back the streets, it's far from clear that they would have been able to.

    The Irish Garda learned this the hard way after serious disorder spilled onto the streets of Dublin last year. [Yes, but only to put down 'racist' anti-immigration demonstrations]. They've upped their game, including the roll-out of large capacity irritant sprays that the rest of the world – but not Britain – make regular use of during public disorder. [Does the author think Max will authorise any such measures against anyone other than the white ancestral British?]

    What scale of public disorder and ensuing damage, destruction or loss of life will be required for our police and political leaders to learn similar lessons?

    We also need to be honest about something else. What we saw in Leeds yesterday is not a new phenomenon. We have seen how local populations react to the legitimate activity of police officers, teachers, and in this case social workers. Some, with or without the help of rabble rousers, default to tribal allegiances with often violent and threatening consequences.

    When this occurs, do we really want to be a country that allows the mob to run amok? Smashing up police cars, burning buses, and looting delivery vans should never be considered acceptable behaviour. It merits a response in the moment, even if it risks bursting the bubble of Britain as Europe's multicultural success story.

    We have, of course, also allowed a new religion to take hold of our institutions that celebrates and champions difference, irrespective of whether the differences are compatible with our own values and laws.

    We must not let the discussion of these grave national challenges be shut down or mischaracterised by those who would label such legitimate concerns, shared by a law-abiding majority, as "far right" or "divisive". They may bristle at any suggestion that multiculturalism is not a runaway success, but if we can't talk about the problems we face, we will never solve them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/07/19/the-police-have-lost-control-leeds-ri ot/

    _________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Britain stands on the brink of a terrifying new era of violence, crime and disorder

    The rioting in Leeds, harassment of MPs, and mob rule all add up to an alarming picture for the country

    CAMILLA TOMINEY • ASSOCIATE EDITOR • 19 July 2024 • 4:00pm

    Arguably the most disturbing aspect of the Harehills riots in Leeds was the number of young people who seemed to be involved in the wanton criminality we witnessed on Thursday night. As grown men took lighters to an abandoned double decker bus outside a schoolwear shop, teenage boys could be seen excitedly filming footage on their mobile phones as it slowly turned into a charred wreck.

    A young girl, her hair braided in a plait, was in the crowd as a group of twentysomethings violently rocked a police car and overturned it. In another video, a boy of around 11 or 12 seemed to take great delight in pelting the police car with rocks.

    As fires raged into the night, a succession of men – most under 30 – could be seen hurling things into the pyre. Children screamed as fireworks were let off and a brawling mob marauded through what is usually a quiet residential corner of Leeds.

    Some have made much of the diverse nature of the population in that part of the city. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, rather unhelpfully commented: "The politics of the subcontinent are currently playing out on the streets of Leeds. Don't say I didn't warn you." His Reform colleague Lee Anderson doubled down: "Import a third world culture, then you get third world behaviour." (Had they bothered checking the population stats, they'd have discovered that more than 70 per cent were born in the UK or Europe).

    I studied at Leeds University for three years and know the city relatively well. Barring the increased hostility experienced by Jewish students (and indeed university chaplain Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, who was forced into hiding by pro-Palestinian protesters) since October 7, Leeds's diverse community has always rubbed along together pretty harmoniously. This wasn't some sort of racially motivated, sectarian protest. It was a display of pure thuggery.

    West Yorkshire Police officers were initially called to an incident involving agency workers and some children. There was a bit of a disturbance, which then attracted the attention of others. As people started descending on the scene, the police decided to move the agency workers and children to a safe place. But as a baying mob continued to gather, things quickly spiralled out of control.

    As an eyewitness called Paul, who has lived in the area for 20 years, explained: "It was just that one incident and then I think everybody jumped on the bandwagon. I don't think it was one particular people, I think everybody thought it was an excuse to have a go at the police." So what happened was even more disturbing precisely because there was no good reason for it.

    Yobs apparently wrought this senseless mayhem simply because they thought they could get away with it. As soon as the police went into retreat, it emboldened a load of mindless hooligans to do whatever they liked – with easily influenced children following their terrible example.

    It was left to community members to plead with the rabble in a bid to restore order. Questions must surely be asked of West Yorkshire Police, which courted controversy in February for arresting a Leeds 16-year-old for saying an officer looked like her "lesbian nana".

    But the truth of the matter is that violence, disorder, intimidation, and mob behaviour have become worryingly common. There are plenty of examples to choose from.

    Former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth's revelations about what he went through during his election campaign were appalling. The ex-politician, who was forced out of his Leicester South constituency by a pro-Palestinian independent candidate, revealed he was chased down the street in "a campaign of such vitriol, such bullying, such intimidation built on the foul and obnoxious lie that I was responsible for genocide." Other MPs have had their homes and offices surrounded by threatening throngs of protesters.

    Why are we not confronting this behaviour more determinedly?

    Part of the problem is undoubtedly the limited resources of the police. Only this week, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley was forced to admit the force is a "shrinking organisation", plagued by a recruitment crisis and dwindling budgets.

    But other factors have also been undermining law and order in this country in recent years.

    One is our seemingly supine court system. There have been a spate of cases where criminals have been able to avoid proper punishment – sometimes for ludicrous reasons. A prime example came this week when a Jordanian asylum seeker who assaulted a female police officer argued he could not do community service because he can't speak English. Instead Mustafa Al Mbaidin, 27, was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £26, to be paid at a rate of £2 per month.

    This week, we also witnessed another two asylum seekers, who robbed a man of his £25,000 gold Rolex in London's West End, walk free from court. Egyptian Yousef Garef and Algerian Amin Abdelkadar admitted to robbery but were both spared jail and handed community orders instead. Why not just deport them?

    Even when the courts do come down hard, judges face a backlash from the radical Left. If it wasn't bad enough that we have cretinous do- gooders trying to prevent convicted rapists and other foreign criminals from being deported – we've now got a band of idiotic eco-warriors complaining about the five-year sentence handed to Extinction Rebellion activist Roger Hallam.

    As the court rightly pointed out, this eco-nut went from "concerned campaigner to fanatic" when he conspired to cause gridlock on the M25, with activists climbing onto gantries over four days of disruption in November 2022.

    Hallam was given five years in prison while his fellow radicals were given four-year sentences. Boo hoo. I'm all for peaceful protest but this dangerous activism was designed to be as disruptive as possible. Such a harsh sentence teaches these maniacs a valuable lesson: don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time.

    Sadly, another reason why we are struggling to maintain law and order is the crisis in our prisons, which is resulting in thousands of criminals being let out of jail early. What message does that send out to serial offenders?

    Labour's response to all this has been predictably feeble. The King's Speech outlined new legislation to make assaulting a shop worker a specific offence and scrap the £200 limit on the amount of goods stolen so police are required to investigate. Yet last time I checked, assault and theft were already crimes. An extra 13,000 neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs are to be deployed as part of a crime crackdown – but where will they come from?

    Young people used to grow up wanting to be police officers. Now they are growing up ridiculing them on social media.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/19/britain-on-brink-of-new-era-violence-disorder-crime/

    "…what happened was even more disturbing precisely because there was no good reason for it…."

    Camilla Tominey has forgotten what happened in 2011 after the Mark Duggan business. The original disturbances in North London were in protest at the shooting and though inexcusable should have stayed there. What followed was simply nihilism on a national scale.

      1. The police have now become incongruous. And have become a danger to he law abiding public

    2. I'm not sure that Camilla T is completely sound. A wobble that can be detected in many who write for the Telegraph and broadcast on GB News. Even the previously divine Charles Moore is showing signs of a possible pod takeover.

    3. Born in Britain they may have been, but culturally they have been brought up with the culture of their parents original home.

      2. I refer the gracious lady to the comment by the 1st Duke of Wellington regarding being born in a stabel not necessarily making one a horse.

  131. The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), 31st July – 10th November 1917.
    Assault on Passchendaele 12th October – 6th November 1917.
    Most of the men (about forty only) left in the 8th Australian Battalion after the opening push of the second battle of Passchendaele on 26th October. Photograph taken as they were on their way from the trenches on 28th October and the men look dirty and grimly relieved.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1d5eb9568a181fc02fe42886672e5dc3ac9823d49189597c3a91c6b62853885.jpg

  134. Feeling very worn out, old and sad. What have we allowed this country to become – and all because we were too polite to stop it!

    2. I feel the same .

      Our country is under threat from brown rats, the last time brown rats invaded Britain, they brought the plague .

      Great Plague of London
      epidemic, London, England, United Kingdom [1665–1666 under the reign of King Charles 2nd

      1. I'm not particularly troubled by the colour – it's the tribalism and the utterly ignorant air of entitlement that frightens me. Koestler talks about it in his novels re the Soviet Union – the barbarians of a new world order taking charge

        1. I have seen tribalism and colour and the result .. colour on colour , whether white on white or brown on brown .

          Not pleasant .

        1. Oi! Though I suppose I am technically not one of these, and would not survive in the UK anyway. Feel for you, buddy. I know that most would rather have a garden full of you and your relies than of the thuggish greys

    3. Round here, things are much the same as normal. We see these things on the noos, or in the papers, and it's not like it's our country. I haven't been to London since 2019, that's a different country. I realised one day in 2011, I got off one bus and walked a short distance to catch another, and it was like I was in Bangladesh.

    4. I know how you feel, we are off to Bamburgh Sunday and probably taking the train into Edinburgh for the day next week.

  135. Well we've been out for a meal – lovely warm evening and we sat outside as they were very busy, although we'd booked a table, we had to wait quite a while. Still it was an enjoyable evening. There was a Swiss couple on the next table who were joined by a local who'd met them last night as well. He never stopped talking.
    It's a full moon tonight as well. Our anniversary as well as my birthday – 27 years – who knows how many more.

    1. Fantastic Ellie it's so nice to hear of people having a nice time these days and you're only 27 eh 😍😎

      1. Well a bit more than that – my sons are both over 50, but my second marriage is 27 years.

      1. We had some crusty bread with pesto while we waited instead of a full starter, as we both have small appetites these days. He had ham, egg & chips, and I had lamb with dauphinoise, tenderstem broccoli, and red cabbage. We didn't have room for a pudding.

    5. How lovely that you had such a good time. Wishing you many, many more to come.

    6. I’m not one for sharing the date of my birthday, but let's just say it was sometime in the past seven days. Due to Mrs Bee’s illness, we didn’t go out, and I continued as chief cook (mother got me and my two brothers cooking from an early age). Did us steak, potato and ratatouille followed by a victoria sponge done as a loaf with a bit extra cream on the side.

  138. Fortunately my hospital visit this morning gave me some antibiotic's to get rid of another respiratory infection.
    Dosed up, good night all.

  139. Another day is done, I desperately need sleep so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless all you Gentlefolk. If we are spared! Bis morgen früh.

  141. Starmer refuses to intervene over lengthy Just Stop Oil prison sentences

    Left-wing Labour MPs have demanded that PM repeals protest laws enacted by Tories

    Sir Keir Starmer has refused to intervene over Just Stop Oil prison sentences as Left-wing Labour MPs demanded that he repeal the Conservatives' protest laws.

    MPs including John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, condemned heavy sentences given to five Just Stop Oil protesters as "brutally unjust".

    Lord Falconer, who was Sir Tony Blair's justice secretary, said he felt "uncomfortable" with the sentences for people who were not "violent criminals".

    However, Downing Street made it clear that the Prime Minister would not intervene on a judgment made by independent judges, and also indicated that there would be no change in the protest laws for the time being.

    Their comments came after Roger Hallam, a founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, was given a five-year prison sentence after a judge said he had "crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic." Four other eco-activists were jailed for four years after they were also found guilty of conspiring to block traffic as part of a Just Stop Oil campaign on the M25 over four days in November 2022.

    It is understood that the five are "highly likely" to appeal on the basis that they are the longest prison sentences for non-violent protest in modern history, and that they would have got less than four years for violent protest under sentencing guidelines.

    A Number 10 spokesman said Sir Keir believed "judgments and sentencing is rightly a matter for independent judges. They have all the facts and evidence before them, and it's not for politicians to interfere in such decisions." Asked whether the Prime Minister would "look again" at the protest laws, the spokesman said: "I don't have any updates for you on that."

    Mr McDonnell said: "Post Office destroys lives, water companies pollute our rivers, CCRC leaves innocent people to rot in prison, Covid ministers' incompetence costs thousands of lives, but nobody is punished. Stop traffic on M25 and get five years in prison. This is brutally unjust."

    Richard Burgon, who was shadow justice secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, said he was "deeply alarmed by the sentences handed to climate activists over peaceful protests", adding: "I'll be raising this, and our draconian anti-protest laws, in Parliament."

    Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, said: "Our current government must not only undo the damage the last one did to our democracy, but it must also strengthen and protect our democracy with new laws and institutions that protect it in the knowledge that authoritarian governments may follow them in the years to come."

    Ms Abbott, the Mother of the House, said the sentences represented "a draconian approach to civil disobedience", warning: "The right to protest is under threat."

    Lord Falconer said. "I am not criticising the judge, because I am sure the judge is going with whatever the sentencing guidelines are. But these are people who are not violent criminals. They cause enormous irritation to a large number of people.

    "However, to be sentencing people to four and five years in prison for that is maybe an indication as to why the prisons are so full. Maybe prison was appropriate, I don't dispute that. But for that length of time, I feel uncomfortable at that. But there can be an appeal."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/19/former-justice-secretary-uncomfortable-just-stop-oil-prison/

    Anything that upsets the likes of Falconer, McDonnell, Lewis and Burgon is fine by me. As for the sad wreck of a human being that is Diane Abbott, I agree the right to protest is under threat – from the likes of Hallam.

    Elsewhere:

    Green extremists could turn violent, warns political violence tsar

    The Government's political violence tsar has warned that extremist environmental protest groups like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil could turn to violence following the imprisonment of co-founder Roger Hallam.

    "If you get into a position where you think the democratic system is broken, the cause is so fundamental, millions of people are going to die, then that puts on the table, potentially, therefore, a limited violent act [that] is not only justifiable but the right and responsible thing to do for humanity," Lord Walney told Spectator TV.

    "And we can't allow ourselves to get into that space, so we've actually got to do more to show that the democratic route, that there is a route to change through that. That's one part of it, but also we can't allow that argument to say, 'Well, I feel really strongly so I should be able to do what I want'."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/19/politics-latest-news-starmer-brexit-tory-leadership/

    "If you get into a position where you think…millions of people are going to die [from climate change]" you really should be off the street.

    1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Just Stop Oil fanatics deserve their lengthy jail terms
      Comments Share 19 July 2024, 1:13pm
      The prison sentences passed on the Just Stop Oil protesters who immobilised the M25 – five years for Roger Hallam and four for the others – were certainly stiff. With prisons overflowing and some violent offenders receiving less harsh sentences, a small reduction in the jail terms might have been justified. But despite the backlash from environmentalists, justice has been served. Those who say that the protesters are merely conscientious practitioners of civil disobedience – and that the punishments imposed amount to a stamping on the right of peaceful protest – are wrong.

      Roger Hallam’s casting of himself in the role of a civil disobedience advocate is both disingenuous and incorrect. Civil disobedience involves a willingness not only to disobey, but take the punishment: witness Mahatma Gandhi’s frequent and provocative demands to be sentenced to the maximum possible penalty after his acts defying British rule in India. Hallam, by contrast, is seeking the advantage of being a civil disobedience martyr coupled with the avoidance of any substantial penalty. He cannot have it both ways, and should not be allowed to do so.

      Roger Hallam, who was sentenced to five years in prison (Alamy)
      References to peaceful protest, which JSO types like to mention, are a red herring. It’s true that no blood was shed. But there’s more to peaceful protest than refraining from punching people on the nose. The reason we say it ought to be allowed is the fact that it relies on persuasion rather than coercion.

      That is not so here. In this case, coercion was used – and in spades. Admittedly the JSO activists did not exert it themselves; instead they climbed up motorway gantries in November 2022 with the quite deliberate aim of harnessing the power of the state, through the police, to stop drivers using the road for safety reasons. But by doing this, they were still seeking to foist their views forcibly and willy-nilly on large numbers of ordinary people, most of whom did not wish to be troubled with them. The fact that they got someone else to do the physical dirty work is beside the point.

      Most popular
      Julie Burchill
      Don’t let the syntaxidermists ruin language

      And impose their point of view they did. The gridlock that resulted was intentional and spectacular: some 700,0000 vehicles were immobilised. Flights, funerals, exams and hospital cancer appointments were missed. This is not peaceful protest.

      Equally specious was the suggestion that because Hallam had not climbed a gantry himself, but simply engaged in a Zoom call about co-ordinating the protest, his only crime – in his words – had been ‘giving a talk on civil disobedience as an effective, evidence-based method for stopping the elite from putting enough carbon in the atmosphere to send us to extinction.’ Er, no. That Zoom call was deliberately aimed at creating gridlock, as Hallam himself admitted. His excuse is no more convincing than a drug lord’s plea that by taking part in a phone call arranging a drop by someone else, he is doing nothing more than extolling the pleasures of recreational drugs.

      It remains to be seen what will happen now. One thing is concerning: throughout this case there have been attempts not only to condone JSO’s actions but quietly to influence what should be an impartial judicial process.

      Before the hearing, for instance, Michel Forst, a UN apparatchik and so-called ‘Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders’, made a highly questionable intervention calling on the government to ensure a light sentence for Daniel Shaw (who was jailed for four years this week). During the trial, there was a chorus of misguided criticism when the judge refused to allow the defendants to try to sway the verdict by addressing the court at length on their no doubt sincere, but legally irrelevant, views on climate change.

      After the sentencing at Southwark Crown Court, the pressure remains. Dale Vince, one of the biggest Labour donors, has called for intervention ‘because it is an injustice to give four or five years to people who simply protest’; Chris Packham, meanwhile, not to be outdone, has alleged a ‘grotesque miscarriage of justice’ and demanded action by the Attorney-General.

      For the moment, the Labour government has stood commendably firm; it has said it cannot intervene, and that it has no plans to change the legislation under which the JSO activists were convicted. But its line might well subtly soften later. It remains to be seen whether the Crown Prosecution Service will, in future, be as assiduous in pursuing protests of this kind.

      We must hope the government holds its nerve, since a lot rides on this. JSO is no doubt sure of its cause, but its position is frightening. It claims, in effect, the right to immobilise the country and decide who is allowed to go where (for example, by its ‘blue light policy’ it arrogated itself the power to say that the police would be allowed to use the M25 but no-one else would). No state can allow such a corrosive policy: any private group that tries to say that citizens can only go about their lawful business with their say-so needs to be suppressed, and hard. A firm deterrent to such pretensions was necessary last week. It remains so today.

  142. Starmer refuses to intervene over lengthy Just Stop Oil prison sentences

    Left-wing Labour MPs have demanded that PM repeals protest laws enacted by Tories

    Sir Keir Starmer has refused to intervene over Just Stop Oil prison sentences as Left-wing Labour MPs demanded that he repeal the Conservatives' protest laws.

    MPs including John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, condemned heavy sentences given to five Just Stop Oil protesters as "brutally unjust".

    Lord Falconer, who was Sir Tony Blair's justice secretary, said he felt "uncomfortable" with the sentences for people who were not "violent criminals".

    However, Downing Street made it clear that the Prime Minister would not intervene on a judgment made by independent judges, and also indicated that there would be no change in the protest laws for the time being.

    Their comments came after Roger Hallam, a founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, was given a five-year prison sentence after a judge said he had "crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic." Four other eco-activists were jailed for four years after they were also found guilty of conspiring to block traffic as part of a Just Stop Oil campaign on the M25 over four days in November 2022.

    It is understood that the five are "highly likely" to appeal on the basis that they are the longest prison sentences for non-violent protest in modern history, and that they would have got less than four years for violent protest under sentencing guidelines.

    A Number 10 spokesman said Sir Keir believed "judgments and sentencing is rightly a matter for independent judges. They have all the facts and evidence before them, and it's not for politicians to interfere in such decisions." Asked whether the Prime Minister would "look again" at the protest laws, the spokesman said: "I don't have any updates for you on that."

    Mr McDonnell said: "Post Office destroys lives, water companies pollute our rivers, CCRC leaves innocent people to rot in prison, Covid ministers' incompetence costs thousands of lives, but nobody is punished. Stop traffic on M25 and get five years in prison. This is brutally unjust."

    Richard Burgon, who was shadow justice secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, said he was "deeply alarmed by the sentences handed to climate activists over peaceful protests", adding: "I'll be raising this, and our draconian anti-protest laws, in Parliament."

    Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, said: "Our current government must not only undo the damage the last one did to our democracy, but it must also strengthen and protect our democracy with new laws and institutions that protect it in the knowledge that authoritarian governments may follow them in the years to come."

    Ms Abbott, the Mother of the House, said the sentences represented "a draconian approach to civil disobedience", warning: "The right to protest is under threat."

    Lord Falconer said. "I am not criticising the judge, because I am sure the judge is going with whatever the sentencing guidelines are. But these are people who are not violent criminals. They cause enormous irritation to a large number of people.

    "However, to be sentencing people to four and five years in prison for that is maybe an indication as to why the prisons are so full. Maybe prison was appropriate, I don't dispute that. But for that length of time, I feel uncomfortable at that. But there can be an appeal."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/19/former-justice-secretary-uncomfortable-just-stop-oil-prison/

    Anything that upsets the likes of Falconer, McDonnell, Lewis and Burgon is fine by me. As for the sad wreck of a human being that is Diane Abbott, I agree the right to protest is under threat – from the likes of Hallam.

    Elsewhere:

    Green extremists could turn violent, warns political violence tsar

    The Government's political violence tsar has warned that extremist environmental protest groups like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil could turn to violence following the imprisonment of co-founder Roger Hallam.

    "If you get into a position where you think the democratic system is broken, the cause is so fundamental, millions of people are going to die, then that puts on the table, potentially, therefore, a limited violent act [that] is not only justifiable but the right and responsible thing to do for humanity," Lord Walney told Spectator TV.

    "And we can't allow ourselves to get into that space, so we've actually got to do more to show that the democratic route, that there is a route to change through that. That's one part of it, but also we can't allow that argument to say, 'Well, I feel really strongly so I should be able to do what I want'."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/19/politics-latest-news-starmer-brexit-tory-leadership/

    "If you get into a position where you think…millions of people are going to die [from climate change]" you really should be off the street.

  143. Good night, chums. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all, bright eyed and bushy tailed, tomorrow.

  144. Good evening all.
    I cut my trip short after an awful backache resterday which was repeated this morning so headed home today instead of another 2 or 3 nights away.
    But, however, I had an excellent night with my old Morris Side last night and I think my singing impressed them, especially my rendition of Tom Bowling.
    Now got the van to sort out, though the food has been brought in, but that can wait a day or so.
    I've still got my photos to sort out, but that's for another day.

    Goodnight all.

      1. When as a boy I was placed in Muller’s Children’s’ Home in Uphill near Weston super Mare I attended the Uphill Junior School. I dreaded the country dancing class. Firstly, I was always left isolated or else going in the wrong direction but worst of all was having to clasp the sweaty hands of my girl classmates.

          1. I did but then i always was a show off ! I danced the Maypole at the village fete. :@)

          2. But still we were doing it whether we liked it or not , and the convolutions of steps and sequence and the music is now a lost art .

          3. We did – and I don’t suppose modern kids do it now. They did at my sons’ primary school, but that was 40 years ago.

      1. So do I!!!
        Feels a lot better this morning but still twinges if I turn awkwardly.

        1. Well, no hauling large lumps of rock around like a mountain goat on speed, then x

      2. Done that, twice over, Opopanax.

        But I think Connors is referring to a 1940s Bash.

        Gay days, long gone, never to be repeated.

      3. It was very good. Lots of aircraft, lots of re-enactors and Kadi managed to cope with the people, the noise and getting a fuss! I am trying to desensitise him and embolden him. That he allowed some people to give him a fuss without running away and hiding is progress.

  146. I always thought Keir Starmer a fool but irrefutable proof was this wanker’s invitation to Zelenskyy to speak at a British Government Cabinet Meeting.

    Ukraine is lost along with the billions invested in that benighted country by this country and the idiots in the EU and US in particular.

    Starmer and his repulsive government will surely be visited by the Zelenskyy curse. I really cannot see this Starmer shower of Blair retreads and failures can survive on their record so far.

      1. They are oblivious to the feelings of the nation as a whole. They assume their massive majority in members of Parliament is a worthy majority. It is not. Their majority is an accidental event arising from the rejection of an utterly useless conservative government.

        The Labour government has no mandate and no God given right to implement its stupid policies. The Labour government is almost universally loathed.

        1. "…Their majority is an accidental event arising from the rejection of an utterly useless conservative government…."

          …and a freak result of the out-of-date FPTP electoral system

    1. 'Morning, Geoff and thank you for all the work and effort you have put in to keep us all going. Well done!

      Still hoping for a stuff-up by labour and a swing to the right.

  149. Talking of useless proxy puppet governments; could I ask you all to pop over to free speech backlash and read the fantastic series of three articles on the scam that is climate change?
    It really is worth reading and makes you think.
    I have suggested that from time to time, they allocate some space to extended writing on a particular topic so that people can understand why the author believes what they do and then judge for themselves. This series is a good start.

    1. Exceptionally good, well written and well researched articles, I agree, Mrs Croc.

  150. Talking of useless proxy puppet governments; could I ask you all to pop over to free speech backlash and read the fantastic series of three articles on the scam that is climate change?
    It really is worth reading and makes you think.
    I have suggested that from time to time, they allocate some space to extended writing on a particular topic so that people can understand why the author believes what they do and then judge for themselves. This series is a good start.

Comments are closed.