Friday 19 May: Britain’s great universities must resist chilling attacks on free speech

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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451 thoughts on “Friday 19 May: Britain’s great universities must resist chilling attacks on free speech”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Handicap or Allergies

    A man is sitting next to a woman on a jet, which is getting ready to take off. Suddenly, the man sneezes.

    He unzips his pants and wipes the end of his penis off with his handkerchief. He zips up, and continues reading his magazine.

    The woman cannot believe what she just saw. Then the man sneezes again, unzips, pulls out his penis and wipes it off with a handkerchief.

    The woman says, “Excuse me sir, but that is disgusting and rude, and if you do it again, I am going to call the Flight Attendant and have you removed from this plane!”

    He says, “I am so sorry that I have offended you. I have this very rare, embarrassing physical handicap that causes me to orgasm every time I sneeze.”

    The woman, disarmed by the man’s honesty, and somewhat embarrassed by her own callousness, says, with sympathy, “Oh you poor man, what are you taking for it?”

    “Pepper,” he answers.

  5. Britain’s great universities must resist chilling attacks on free speech

    I guess they just do what those that fund them pay them to do.

  6. Good morning.
    These are the Bilderberg meeting participants that wanted to make their names public. I must say, being an evil villain plotting to destroy the world is not what it used to be. You just can’t get the tools these days!

    UK participants include David Lammy and Tom Tugendhat. Also various Economist/FT journalists – not to cover the meeting, but to be delegates at it, which is VERY different.
    Radek Sikorski is there too. Who was recruiting them at Oxford in the late 80s?
    https://bilderbergmeetings.org/meetings/meeting-2023/participants-2023

    1. MoL of Ryanair, gosh! Quite an odd assortment of delegates from Supreme Allied Commander Europe to Prime ministers and CEO Pfizer.

    1. It’s a funny old world, compared to back in the day the air quality is infinitely better than it was back 50 years ago, the rivers and the sea is so much cleaner, yet they have managed to persuade people that everything is worse and that they need to take all your money and freedoms while changing your life completely to rectify it.

  8. Russia has ‘the intent and ability’ to sabotage the West’s critical infrastructure. 19 May 2023.

    The Defence Secretary’s comments on Russia came as the UK and Norway signed a partnership to counter undersea threats after last year’s attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

    Nothing better sums up the West than this story about the pipeline. Pretty much everyone knows that it was the Americans and yet no one can be found to break ranks and say so. Even the Germans who have suffered a major economic blow from it are now on board. I think that what this shows us is the utter moral degradation of the Western Elites. They are unable to tell their own people the truth at the same time as they are putting all our lives at risk. If they are prepared to lie about such a matter why should we believe them on those of lesser moment?

    I’ve noticed quite recently that I’ve become completely estranged from the Western narrative with its lies and propaganda. We share no mutual beliefs or values. I’m as far from them as it is possible to be. Vlad and Russia are in my eyes less of a threat to the ordinary indigenous people of the UK than our own leaders and their allies.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12100535/Russia-intent-ability-sabotage-Wests-critical-infrastructure.html

    1. Morning, Araminta.

      Vlad and Russia are in my eyes less of a threat to the ordinary indigenous people of the UK than our own leaders and their allies.

      Classic enemy within the gates scenario. Our elected representatives and their agents clearly have declared war on the people.

  9. Good morning all.
    A cloudy start with scattered patches of blue appears to be turning into fully overcast with 8°C on the thermometer in the yard.

    Looks like British Academia is screwed in more ways than one:-

    British universities no longer want British students. They’re hooked on Chinese money
    Our leading universities are awarding an unconscionable percentage of places to international candidates

    ALLISON PEARSON

    As the Government hides behind the Whitehall sofa, bracing itself for the release of the net migration figures next Thursday (750,000 if we’re lucky, I reckon), it’s astonishing to see the vast number of foreign students now being admitted by UK universities. Invariably, this is presented as a great British success story – “global talent” is attracted, £28.8 billion allegedly contributed to national prosperity! What’s not to like? Scratch the golden patina, however, and a much grubbier picture is revealed. Universities are the new opium addicts, high on Chinese money and discriminating against our own bright young people to feed their insatiable habit.

    Far from attracting “global talent”, many low-rent universities (hardly worthy of the name) are offering low-rent courses to less than stellar students. Can it simply be the sparkling quality of tuition at the University of Ripoff in the East Midlands that entices young people from China to pay eye-watering fees for the promise of three hours of in-person tuition a week from world-renowned Professor Bog Standard, but more likely from his doctoral student, Priti Hopeless?

    Don’t be ridiculous. Those students are not buying education: the unis are selling the right to work in the UK. Here for three to five years, many are granted a further two years to do any job, with significant numbers never leaving at all. Alan Manning, Professor of Economics at the LSE, admits, “The Graduate Visa creates demand for UK degrees just for the work rights even if the qualifications themselves are worthless.”

    At the genuinely world-class level, the Russell Group of leading universities are awarding an unconscionable percentage of places to international candidates. Arguably our finest scientific institution, Imperial College, has 60 per cent of students coming from outside the UK. At University College London, more than 15,000 students are from China. And they are not reading criminology or French. They are snaffling up the STEM places that should, by rights, belong to gifted British kids like Jamie.

    Jamie’s mum, Jilly, wrote to me this week in despair. “My son is a pupil at X [a leading private school]. At GCSE level, he elected to take 12 subjects and achieved 12 grades at level 9 (the top result). At A level, he is doing Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics and Biology and is predicted 3 A*’s and an A – although I suspect he will get four A* grades. Jamie set his sights on Bristol, Imperial, Durham, Bath and Southampton to study Computer Science. He was rejected, without reason, by four of those universities. Why? He has outstanding references, plays sport to a high level, and is involved in any number of extra-curricular activities.

    “Jamie now informs me that of the 17 pupils studying Computer Science at A level, 14 have offers from Jamie’s preferred choice universities. Why? Well, the three kids that don’t have offers are white and British. The other 14 are ethnic minority and, crucially, are international students willing to pay £29k a year in university fees. They are almost all Chinese nationals.”

    Jilly is furious with Rishi Sunak and those ministers who preach about the need to get more of our teenagers studying STEM subjects “and then there are no places for them. Why aren’t we training our brightest and best?” The universities, she says, have suggested Jamie could be accepted for a more general business degree. “Why should he downgrade his studies? This country is failing my son and many others like him. As Jamie says, it is a broken contract; he was told to work as hard as possible and his future would be bright. I expect that he will now take his considerable talents to the US.”

    What is the moral of this story, if moral it can be called? Don’t be white, don’t be privately-educated, don’t be British if you want a science or technology place to study at one of your own country’s best universities?

    Nor is Jamie’s case a shocking one-off. A reader reports that a pupil from China in their daughter’s year at school received an offer within a week while it took months before the other youngsters even heard anything. In another case, a girl from China, conspicuously less talented than her peers, got a prized place at Cambridge to general astonishment. A third, a father who lives abroad, told me that his son had been rejected outright by a top London college as a British applicant, but was then awarded a place as a high-paying international student. With exactly the same grades!

    Hooked on squillions of foreign moolah, universities furiously defend their “business model” which some critics point out is nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme. Vice-chancellors pay themselves drug-cartel salaries – Imperial College London, £714,000 per year, University of Oxford, £542,000 – while teaching staff are often stuck on modest pay. When did this become acceptable, let alone the norm?

    As of 2021/22, a total of 559,825 students were in the UK to pursue their qualifications from countries outside the EU. Almost half a million student visas were issued in 2022 alone. A large proportion went to China. Nor, according to one former Oxbridge Master, do many students from China contribute to college life. They consider themselves to be paying customers, staying in their rooms and unwilling to learn about the native culture.

    “The UK is consistently increasing in popularity among international students,” burbles the Study In the UK website with nary a care for domestic applicants, “With its world-recognised universities, culturally diverse environment, and highly skilled academic staff, the UK is truly the epitome of academic success!”

    Well, the UK is certainly going to be “culturally diverse” after the university sector has brought the world and his wife here. Last year, the number of “dependants” of students soared to 135,788.

    Have we completely lost our minds? I know academics are famously unworldly, but apart from the naivety of becoming dependent on Beijing for anything, there is surely the worry of IP (intellectual property) being lost to the CCP. Not long ago, Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, said that all students from China could, in the nicest possible way, be regarded as “spies”. Give them a quarter of our STEM places, why don’t you?

    Such is the scale and speed of this influx, the Government has already hit its 2030 target for the number of foreign students in its International Education Strategy. Yet, Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, is said to be among the Cabinet ministers who have rejected plans by Suella Braverman to cut the crazy numbers of foreign students and their family members.

    As with the wider increase in net immigration, the dismayingly short-termist attitude seems to be, “Pile ‘em high, rake in the cash, and sod the consequences for people who actually pay taxes here.”

    You know, I am livid on Jamie’s behalf. And deeply upset for his parents who worked hard to provide their boy with an excellent education. Universities should primarily exist for the benefit of our own young people, inculcating knowledge and skills to be used to enrich our country’s future, not for training wealthy foreigners who owe the UK no loyalty.

    See how the ivory towers grow grimy from this revolting greed. Put the opium addicts of academe into rehab, and give British kids the opportunities they deserve.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/18/british-universities-no-longer-want-british-students/

    1. Now I know the UK is fcuked. Time to look out the change nationality forms.

    2. Little Jamie needs to pull his socks up and start thinking for himself. There are many possibilities to get an education, and a brainwashing British “university” probably isn’t the best one these days.
      Everyone carries on voting LibLabCon and staying comfortably inside the system until suddenly it doesn’t work for them any more. Poor people have been suffering from the invasion for a quarter of a century while the middle class were looking down their noses at Tommy Robinson, not realising that it was coming their way too.
      The last people holding up the corrupt structure will be the politicians and civil servants, because they’re the last ones benefiting from it.

    3. Foreign students bring in over £15,000 a year. Home only £9250. Universities love foreign students because it’s real, cold cash. What they do afterward isn’t their concern.

      However, this short termist, egocentrc view is most of the problem!

  10. Good Moaning.
    What a corker of a reply in response to the demand that photos of the Sussex’s latest fantasy be given to them. BackGrid’s lawyers have a wonderful (if slightly inaccurate) sense of history.

    “In a pithy response, Backgrid’s lawyers said: “In America, as I’m sure you know, property belongs to the owner of it: Third parties cannot just demand it be given to them, as perhaps Kings can do”, TMZ reported.

    They suggested the lawyers sit down with Harry and Meghan and explain “that his English rules of royal prerogative to demand that the citizenry hand over their property to the Crown were rejected by this country long ago”.

    They added: “We stand by our founding fathers.””

    2. Good Morning to you of the Dower House

      Truly a corker

      Can’t find the source of that gem. Any linx?

        1. Lol.
          Their litigiousness is the only interesting thing about them. I look forward to the implosion.

    3. Property rights apply equally to the Monarchy as they do the citizen in the UK. We had a revolution about that one.

  11. Morning, all Y’all. Beautifully sunny again, woken by bleating of tiny lambs + 20C expected!
    New page opened whilst I was emptying the dishwasher, so I’m in tenth place today, apparently.

    1. I was awake when the site went live, but was paying more attention to my ablutions.

  12. Morning, all Y’all. Beautifully sunny again, woken by bleating of tiny lambs + 20C expected!
    New page opened whilst I was emptying the dishwasher, so I’m in tenth place today, apparently.

  14. Tweet tweet

    Wordle 699 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  15. Good morning, chums. I stayed up until 3 am then switched off the alarm at 6 am, fell asleep again and just woke up at 7.30 am. Hopefully I am now back to normal sleep patterns.

  17. Morning, all. Bright at 05:45 but high cloud has appeared.

    Endorsed by Fauci. Make your own mind up.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e5dc0c165558de4bef0d4a444f236b7b03de44fb4f757f15fbf376cca8f0b81.png
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    Janssen Research and Development LLC (Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) also chipped in $17.4 million in grants.

  18. 371430+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The Tories should embrace national conservatism
    A greater focus on nation is important post-Brexit. The party should ignore the Left’s hysterical attacks

    Should read,

    The Tories should embrace national conservatism
    A greater focus on nation is important post-Brexit. instead the party is in collusion and leading the Left’s hysterical attacks they are in point of fact, for the dumb of the dumbest, A COALITION PARTY.

    They are NOT as once said “the nasty party” but are very,very nasty,vicious, devious, political overseers ruling by proxy the
    paedophilic rape & abuse of children, the killing & serious maiming through ersatz ( no medical test history vaccines) orchestrating & giving comfort to a potential enemy via the Dover invasion.

    ALL this is witnessed daily, what is the support magnet they have
    if it is not the full destruction of the United Kingdom, what is it ?

    3. Morning, Korky.

      There are two prime reasons for this. 1. Stupidity. 2. Eating crap.

      2. Being neither stupid nor especially eating crap, I am well aware that I eat too much. I don’t think I’m stupid because I know why I do and 4/10 I do stop myself but the other 6 can see me polishing off yesterday’s fruit salad without really noticing.

    4. Morning, Korky.

      There are two prime reasons for this. 1. Stupidity. 2. Eating crap.

    5. DO NOT use the word fa ……… aaarrgghhhhh ….. thah goes our front door.

        2. At least when the farms are all closed down there will be plenty for the rest of us to eat. She’s a walking larder.

    10. Lass, you’re half again as wide as I am, and I am horribly overweight. I find air travel horrific. Heck, I find bus travel intolerable. And train.

      What it isn’t is discrimination. Yes, the aisles are narrow. Yes, seats are packed in designed for people who’re 5’6 but you are also very overweight.

    11. A late reply
      I would love it if airlines at check-in tried to put these blubberwallies into the same row of seats so that they can experience what the rest of us have to put up with when one gets put next to us.

      1. Morning, Bob. My phone said 70% chance of rain but radar says a sunny day.

  21. Maps of Vladimir Putin’s secret underground lair leaked. 19 May 2023.

    Vladimir Putin had a massive underground lair built beneath his secret palace by the Black Sea, according to plans posted online by the engineering firm behind the project.

    The Russian president was said to have ordered the construction of tunnels, which lie about 50 metres below the surface, out of concern for his survival in the event of a revolution or war
    .
    This story is doing the rounds from Propaganda Central. I commented on the Business Insider version on Thursday. There’s a New York Post account as well. They’ve learned to spread them out so that they don’t all arrive at the same time. It is needless to say utter bunk.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/18/maps-putin-secret-underground-black-sea-lair-leaked/

    2. “Secret underground lair”?

      I have a vision of Putin sitting in a swivel chair stroking a white long-haired cat.

      1. Surrounded by white bubbles of plastic housing DOS era computers. Ah, the good old days.

    1. I refuse to have any more to do with BT ever since their customer services department put a late payment charge on a bill they sent three days after it was due to be paid, and routinely put up their prices each March by CPI plus 3.9%. Horrible company.

      As for AI chatbots, I don’t listen to a long sales spiel, then to be told effectively “these are the Rules; like it or lump it”. The only function of any service operating in a market cartel and lightly deregulated by the authorities is the size of the remuneration package of those making the decisions. Who would soon be artificial, made in China and managed by Google.

        1. Virgin don’t invest in upgrading their network, which has left it catastrophically fragile.

        1. I made that decision some years ago. Must be at least 15 years since I paid them a penny.

    2. I guess it must have been1963-4 when I with colleagues
      worked in the gallery of the PO tower shortly after it was built. We made and fitted display cabinets for I believe the local veiw photography.
      Unfortunately we didn’t get an invitation to the opening.

      I don’t know if it’s true but I saw a headline that Lidle are closing down completely ?

      1. I know they are shutting some sites but have not seen anything about total closure.

    3. I put a customer question into chat GPT and it responded perfectly well with clear information on the OSI stack layers, suggestions on performance tuning and so on – none of which would have helped my customer.

      It’s not AI when it’s just a data search/aggregator. Much like IVR that says ‘why are you calling up today?’ and proceeds to give you nothing useful – this is not intelligence. It’s cost cutting.

      1. you cannot rely on AI in this manner. All Chat GPT can do is to search the internet for references – it cannot verify them.

        Talking to a scientist recently who experimented with it to write a paper.
        At first sight all looked good until he got to examine the “references” half of which did not exist simply because the data the app used was inaccurate.
        Garbage in Garbage out is a long held IT maxim and it holds good in this case.

  24. OT – recently, we have been watching some of Portaloo’s progs about Asia. I can’t stand the man – with his stupid exhibitionist’s clothing and patronising voice BUT it opened my eyes to Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. What I had imagined were poxy third world countries turned out to be highly efficient places with state of the art railways etc.

    In Malaysia the best thing was the pride with which independent countries regard the colonial legacy. So unlike the ghastly Olowogso (and his ilk) – so called “British” people who loathe us.

    1. His trek across ‘the pair of knees’ is on again. The scenery is wonderful as he walks around the villages talking to the locals with his gifted 500 quid hand made Basque walking stick. There’s no way he could have walked all of that. I expect a handy helicopter was involved. And who would go mountaineering wearing a friggin overcoat ?
      Cheat eh.

      1. Indeed. That “walk” would take about 60 days. He did it in four! Helico, fast car, nice hotels… It was interesting to see the landscape, though.

        2. Maybe he did walk it but the content was edited for television? No point showing 40 miles of empty road.

        3. He did the same sort of thing on the Cornwall coast path walk. I seem to remember people moving about in the lake district at a similar pace a few years ago.
          We have Clive Myrie in (all over) Italy on BBC in the early evenings OMG he’s such a bore. And he’s been wearing the same clothes every time he appears on the screen. Not that (Cl) i’ve noticed.

    2. I rather like him as he makes the programmes entertaining and he does root out some fascinating places.

  25. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/426ed5a762e0658b047d246d5baac727f69ff3fd06e491735e0244e5bb03b039.png Meanwhile, back at the Daily Dismal Telegraph (which has a far lesser standard of journalistic and editorial staff than The Beezer) they continue to promulgate the idiotic myth that adders are ‘poisonous’. They are not since there are no records, in history, of anyone ever having died from eating one.

    The idiots running that rag cannot comprehend the difference between a venom and a poison. I shall help them, venoms kill by injection: poisons kill by ingestion.

    Adders are NOT a ‘poisonous’ snake. They are, however, a venomous snake. The difference really does matter.

    2. However the elderly and frail can die without urgent care……sounds like covid jabs.

      1. My thoughts exactly. There’s always money for virtue-signalling to the middle classes, but never the ability to resist invasion or authoritarianism.

      2. Indeed they can, Eddy, but that still doesn’t excuse deplorable journalism.

    4. Speaking of Adders – my God-daughter had a sick horse on Wednesday. She called the vet who asked “do you have adders around here?”
      The diagnosis is that the mare had been bitten by an Adder.
      It is being treated.

    5. When we first came to France 34 years ago I was sorting out a hedge when a very large viper emerged – he must have been nearly 3 feet long. We did not trouble each other (!) and I left him alone and I have not seen any adders in the garden since then.

      However last week it was reported that a brown bear had been seen again in a wild part of Brittany. The last reported sighting was in 2021.

      500 ans après la disparition du dernier Ours en Bretagne, un grand ursidé a été aperçu, ces derniers jours, autour du lac de Guerlédan (Côtes-d’Armor).

      Le dimanche 28 mars dernier, trois témoins ont observé un ours lors d’un bivouac au bord du lac de Guerlédan, sur la commune de Caurel (Côtes-d’Armor).

      1. Bit worrying, that. It isn’t far from my place. I believe there is a wolf in the area about 35 km to the west of me too, the first to be seen in a hundred years. Are they being reintroduced by rabid ‘greenies’?

      2. Last week there were two separate reports in our local rag, Ystads Allehanda, telling that a wolf has been seen on a few recent occasions just outside our village and the next.

  26. Too pissed to take photos but Hertslass was wined and dined big style for her birthday. The booze bill was so high i offered to sleep with the Maître D. He declined for some reason.

    1. Good morning Grizzly..

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4180ca585bcc765baa528c1dffdc27d7c3f20dfe79babe3d3bc21ea84075c18.jpg

      Oh yes , he is a character , has a mind of his own and can show guarding tendencies , is ball mad , would have made a very good police drug dog . Excellent at agility, has won prizes …. more pussycattish , but does have a temper .

      We had springers when the boys were small, but have had working cockers for over 30 years ..

      I don’t think w/cockers or show cockers are ideal family pets , really and truly.

      My 2 sisters and brother are auburn haired , and they can be VERY temperamental .. it is the red gene, of that I am certain .

      2. Morning All 🙂

        I have to agree – these dogs need a purpose.
        The idea that the solid colour cockers (it is not just the reds) are more aggressive than their tri-coloured brothers and sisters is not new. I recall from around 20 years ago that they were described as having “rage syndrome”.

        1. I have “rage syndrome”, too, especially when I see what the idiots in Wastemonster are doing to the country.

      4. A former girlfriend of mine had a black and white Cocker Spaniel who was not aggressive but very much her owner’s dog. My goodness, she was rankly odiferous – to be frank she stank to heaven. (I refer of course to the spaniel not the former girlfriend!)

  28. Morning all 🙂😉
    Hey it’s grey, rain in an hour, what can we do?
    The universities are old enough to stand up for themselves. If they don’t, their destiny will be judged in time.

  29. “Opera buffs should brace themselves as Steven Knight, who played so fast and loose with his source material in the BBC adaptation of Dickens’s Great Expectations, has written a film about the last days of Maria Callas. Angelina Jolie will star as the diva, who died of a heart attack at just 53. Jolie, 47, left, said: ‘I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy. I will give all I can to meet the challenge.’ ”

    Here’s what my limited imagination can conjure: Callas will be a black trannie – one leg will add realism to the script. She will be found in bed with a trio of lesbians (or are they?) who will conveniently have a defibrillator to hand.
    Oh, and Callas will have not only founded the Beatles, she will have written “Imagine” and then then taken “Champion the Wonder Horse” to the No.1 slot in 1986. And don’t forget that she signed the Maastricht Treaty

    2. What point are these people trying to make? You can’t change history it’s seems two planks to describe some of these people is not enough.

    1. I guess it will all be revealed eventually. But like thalidomide it will come out eventually and unfortunately after the terrible damage has done.

  31. Good article from Dalrymple re Tranny refusal to accept reality and freedom of discussion where a contrary opinion is offered.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/open-letter-from-a-closed-mind/

    When I read the conclusion I couldn’t but help thinking about the science is settled climate scientists as well.

    That 800 intellectuals could be found to protest against the publication of the book illustrates an alarming development in our society; namely, that the greatest enemies of freedom of thought and expression are to be found among the very people one might have hoped were fiercest in defense of it. On the pretext of protecting eggshell sensitivities, they want to prevent discussion of contentious matters and enforce their own views as an unassailable orthodoxy. I suspect (though I cannot prove) that this is because, at some level of what one must call their minds, they are only too aware that their views and careers are built on a foundation of shifting sands.
    It is as well to remember that intellectual freedom is not the default position of human history, rather the reverse.

  32. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e0aeeaadbb397bb027d51270451a4a7a3ed3ef31d4141308871d7e9efeaa79e.png I really don’t want to go on about the execrable standard of journalism and editing at the Deplorable Telegraph … but I shall.

    According to this ‘report’, from last night’s football match of Sheffield Wednesday v PETERBOROUGH UNITED, the reporter, someone called ‘Sunny Badwal’ (I wonder where he comes from?), decided to change the name of PETERBOROUGH UNITED to NORTHAMPTON TOWN (twice) for the second half of his ‘report’.

    And the sub-editor passed it for publication.🤬🤯😳

    1. I made a comment last night on the Newcastle/Brighton game where the idiot Luke Edwards wrote about a ‘repost’ instead of ‘riposte’!! 🙄

          1. Indeed. I had (shamefully) written them off. It won’t be an easy final, though, against either Barnsley or Bolton.

  33. Rishi Sunak says he aims to bring immigration below level he ‘inherited’. 19 may 2023.

    Rishi Sunak has set a new goal of bringing migration down below the level he “inherited”, which was about 500,000 net arrivals a year when he became prime minister.

    He redefined his target on immigration after earlier in the week backing away from the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto promise to reduce it below the level then of about 220,000.

    Even this; it might be observed by a cynic like myself, is just a target. Like Rwanda and stopping the Channel Boats it is just another lie.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/19/rishi-sunak-says-he-aims-to-brings-immigration-below-level-he-inherited

  35. ‘Morning All

    Belated medley

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6a89a11234d592d086611a4fea1c4dd2523d24c200aac7980a4b394256a432d.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b7ee90cd2f20eec5287cae54143a0d091bc0c204c86519895fa7d74b6c5347d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f42e50bf0c23e6d3a1f42b028c16f54cde16683fe2b467adc026bb140b67f7a7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/950782c3b185a18db9db65ae6a14e8892e36d919a8753fa19a8e9bf45ce7e3ab.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b8ebb809dd1eed3dc269f518324bd23683132a9bd2ac216be780c8f4924b47a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51c2572d5aaf66e23871148f62b476dfc0172a63a5914651c139733d32193353.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/498a0d655bc8e1918a7d510d29c6cdc0b9dd4a7a650e3d0a400ccfdbd6d0ed8c.png

  36. I recommend this article in TCW (The Conservative Woman) this morning:

    Farmers, don’t fall for Sunak’s sleight of hand:
    Timothy Bradshaw https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/farmers-dont-fall-for-sunaks-sleight-of-hand/

    As many of us here noted immediately that the details emerged Sunak’s Windsor Sell Out was a complete betrayal and Sunak knew very well it was a betrayal. The sooner people realise that Sunak is every bit as evil as Teraita May the better.

    The fact that so many people were taken in says a great deal about how stupid and easily deceived the British have become

    The Bank of England and Treasury are dominated by Remainer economists after Sunak’s tenure as Chancellor. He has cancelled his promise to revoke the 6,000 EU laws. The Windsor Agreement (WA) is a sellout to Brussels in plain sight, in fact gifting Brussels even more that the Northern Ireland Protocol required, but with some easing of the trade hindrances between parts of the UK – very kind, but under the aegis of the EU court and with nothing to stop the worsening of these hindrances at EU demand. Forensic deconstructions of this particular conjuring trick are to be found in Briefings for Brexit’s expert analyses by Harry Western and Caroline Bell. The latter concludes her article with these words: ‘As it stands, the “Windsor Framework” is a staggering political and legal sleight of hand devised to facilitate the transfer of legislative control over crucial areas of UK economic policy to the EU, through the mechanism of the Northern Ireland Protocol. It takes the Protocol backwards, to follow the colonial path set out in May’s backstop, and cements it as a permanent arrangement which not only carves out Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, but allows the EU to make new laws which are enforceable throughout the United Kingdom. You cannot really undo Brexit more thoroughly or more sneakily than that.’

    Sunak is no fool and must know that his claim that the WA ‘takes back control’ by the UK is utterly specious, an act of political betrayal, but successfully sold to the public by a credulous and wholly uncritical mainstream media.

    1. Virtue signalling – followed by rapid volte face as profits and share prices tumble.

  38. Isn’t this just sooooo caring?

    Cambridge University offers adult colouring books and Lego-building sessions to students stressed about upcoming exams

    Activities on offer also include yoga sessions and a DIY nail bar in libraries
    the university said evidence suggests the activities promote ‘mindfulness’

    1. Goo goo, ga ga, wont my mumeee!

      One of the major characteristics of the covid campaign was to foster an infantile appeal to authority but aside from the authorities to which we were encouraged to appeal being corrupt and therefore lacking all credibility, where will the successors to the technocrats come from if they insist on infantilising and withholding education from the next generation? Is there a whole class of people being schooled privately and out of sight to take over or are they programming artificial intelligence to do that?

      1. Sorry, Our Susan – can’t help. Suggest you ask your black dwarf “colleague” for advice.

        1. After I’ve asked him where he comes from of course. I once asked my dentist where she comes from and she said London. Since then I’ve heard quite a lot from her about her family in India. Her dental nurse needs no encouragement to talk about being from Ukraine. Hey ho.

          1. How many Nottlers with British passports, such as myself, were not born in Britain?

          2. My father was born within the sound of Bow Bells and raised in Cardiff but he was neither a cockney nor Welsh, as 48% of my own DNA testifies.

          3. ♬”Give us a bash o’ the bangers and … er … laverbread that me fatther use ter make, look you!”♬😘

          4. Good morning, Grizzly

            Do you remember this rendition by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren?

            https://www.google.com/search?q=peter+sellers+bangers+and+mash&ei=CFlnZPe_M6ntkdUPnr2iqAo&ved=0ahUKEwj347yyn4H_AhWpdqQEHZ6eCKUQ4dUDCA8&oq=Peter+Sellers+Bangers+and+MAsh&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQDDIFCC4QgAQyBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeMhMILhCABBCXBRDcBBDeBBDgBBgDOgoIABBHENYEELADOgoIABCKBRCwAxBDOg0IABDkAhDWBBCwAxgBOg8ILhCKBRDIAxCwAxBDGAI6BwgAEIoFEEM6BwguEIoFEEM6CAguEIAEENQCOgUIABCABDoLCC4QigUQ1AIQkQI6CAgAEIoFEJECOhkILhCKBRDUAhCRAhCXBRDcBBDeBBDgBBgDOggIABCKBRCGAzoHCC4QDRCABDoGCAAQHhANOggIABAIEB4QDToVCC4QDRCABBCXBRDcBBDeBBDgBBgDSgQIQRgAUKcIWMNRYJ5waANwAXgAgAHxAogByxaSAQgxLjE1LjIuMZgBAKABAcgBE8ABAdoBBggBEAEYCdoBBggCEAEYCNoBBggDEAEYFA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5b7739cd,vid:sPYdnkK9Fqc

          12. Yorkshire born and Yorkshire bred. Fair of face and widely read. . . .

            No, not what you were thinking. That phrase is a corruption of a Scottish definition by jealous Lancastrians. 😀

          13. Can lead to problems if too many generations are born outside Britain, and then you have no right for a British passport any more, and your descendants have to row across the channel in a dinghy…lots of families have at least two generations born outside Blighty.

    2. I hope there are instructions as to which end of the colouring pencils should be used for the best effects.

    3. Terrible. Giving sharp objects to the students without any Health and Safety training. Should be reported.

      1. An old joke for old Nottlers!

        When Christine Keeler went on holiday she left her pet parrot with Mandy Rice Davies.

        “Won’t you miss him?” said Mandy.

        “Don’t worry about me,” replied Chrstine, “I mean to have a cockatoo when I’m away!”

        1. What’s the difference between Christine Keeler and the M1?

          The M1 knackers your tyres.

          1. CK gets her toe stuck in a bath tap, Mandy rings a plumber Christine says you better find something to cover my privates, she comes back with a cardigan and bowler hat. Oh that’ll do nicely. The plumber walks in and says Okay keep still it wont take me long. He gets her toe out the tap very quickly. She says thank you very much for that. how much do I owe you ? No charge, it was a pleasure to meet you the plumber replies, but i’m not sure if I can help Acker Bilk out as well.

          2. CK gets her toe stuck in a bath tap, Mandy rings a plumber Christine says you better find something to cover my privates, she comes back with a cardigan and bowler hat. Oh that’ll do nicely. The plumber walks in and says Okay keep still it wont take me long. He gets her toe out the tap very quickly. She says thank you very much for that. how much do I owe you ? No charge, it was a pleasure to meet you the plumber replies, but i’m not sure if I can help Acker Bilk out as well.

    3. I had to collapse your piece as it made me feel sick. not you the photo.

      1. It’s just a rather camp swimsuit for a man. Would not have raised eyebrows had they not listed it under women’s clothes in a pathetic attempt to stir up controversy.

  40. British footballer, Salim Kouider-Aïssa, 27, ‘carried out a sex attack on a woman as she slept before heading to training’, court is told. D Fail

    Kouider-Aïssa’s father is Algerian and his mother is Scottish. Dirty, stinking, British pervert!!!

  41. Rishi Sunak vowed to protect “our green spaces” as he tried to draw a dividing line with Sir Keir Starmer on housing.

    Starmer revealed in an interview with The Times this week that he wants to open a “discussion” about making it easier to build on green belt land. He is determined to put housebuilding for growth at the centre of Labour’s election pitch.

    Asked about the interview, Sunak said: “I was very clear over the summer what I was going to do, which was move away from a system of nationally imposed top-down housing targets on local areas. I don’t think that is the right approach.

    “In government, as prime minister, that is what I have delivered, relatively shortly after taking office. I wanted to make sure our green spaces are protected. I think that is what local communities want.”

    He added: “At the same time, we have made it easier for local communities to adopt local plans so they can have a more meaningful say in the type of development in their areas . . . What I find is that it’s not necessarily an opposition to housing itself, it’s how and where exactly it is done and the infrastructure that comes alongside it.”

    Sunak spoke en route to the G7 summit of world leaders in Japan.

    Michael Gove, his housing secretary, wrote to Starmer with a series of questions about his new policy. He said: “Your shadow cabinet colleagues with constituencies in England regularly oppose development, including in their own areas. At the last count more than three quarters of them had been blockers not builders. Is this not a case of do as I say but not as I do?”

    In his interview Starmer accused the Conservatives of killing “the aspiration of homeowning for a whole generation” and warned that housebuilding was on course to fall to its lowest level since the Second World War. He said Labour would give councils and residents more power to build on the green belt to meet local housing need.

    In December Sunak dropped mandatory targets for housebuilding and introduced an array of planning restrictions, including enhanced protections of green belt land.

    Lichfields, a planning consultancy, has said that the combined effect of the measures could result in the number of new homes built in England falling from 233,000 to 156,000 a year.

    Starmer told The Times that he would be “tough enough to take on vested interests” and accused “developers and landowners” of building too few houses in order to drive up prices. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ill-protect-green-space-from-housebuilding-insists-rishi-sunak-xkr3rhxnv

    1. Of course unlimited migration and therefore demand and scarcity drives up property prices. As for vested interests, let’s start with yours Sir Keir. Comming from a commie, “the aspiration of homeowning” is a sick joke. You vil own nuthing. You vil be dependent on the state and vote for your universal basic income till the state decides you vil starve, you useless eater.

    2. They are all such stinking liars every last one of them. Nobody can ever believe a single word they say.

    3. The ‘green spaces’ are being extended to enable Zil lanes to be constructed to join up the 15 Minute City centres and provide sufficient distance from the ‘peasants’ so that they can’t see which fascist autocrat is passing through.

      1. It’s so obvious why can’t those Westminster and Whitehall idiots face the facts and see what they are doing to our country. If they stopped the rubber boat invasion of thousands of illegal immigrants there would be no need to even think about a further threat to our green belt.

    4. This is because the north is overrun with foreigners but has lots of greenspace. The South is also overrun and has no green space. However, southerners don’t vote Labour.

      1. “However, southerners don’t vote Labour”

        However, southerners don’t know better than to ever vote Labour.

    6. While I accuse Starmer of not addressing the real reason for needing more homes – importing the equivalent of a city the size of Sheffield on a regular basis.

  42. Europe is beginning to turn against the prophets of climate alarmism
    Levels of eco-anxiety are rising among the young, but the planet’s future is brighter than many think
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/18/europe-turning-against-prophets-of-climate-alarmism/

    This is typical of many of the BTL comments:

    The sooner this climate change nonsense is dropped and the sooner the PTB and the MSM get to grips with the fact that carbon dioxide is beneficial and not malign the better. And you could add that a bit more truth about Covid and the so-called vaccines would not come amiss.

    1. 371430+up ticks,

      Afternoon R,

      Nothing but the whole truth and nothing but the truth will suffice.

    2. After all the rain in Northern Italy and Croatia, you’ll probably find cities like Venice will be the next to be flooded. 😉

      1. It was caused by Brexit and a band called Wet Wet Wet who were making a eco-funding tour of Europe.

  43. Europe is beginning to turn against the prophets of climate alarmism
    Levels of eco-anxiety are rising among the young, but the planet’s future is brighter than many think
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/18/europe-turning-against-prophets-of-climate-alarmism/

    This is typical of many of the BTL comments:

    The sooner this climate change nonsense is dropped and the sooner the PTB and the MSM get to grips with the fact that carbon dioxide is beneficial and not malign the better. And you could add that a bit more truth about Covid and the so-called vaccines would not come amiss.

  44. Meet the latest religion: Neurodivergence

    https://cdn.imagine.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/113/2022/10/image-6.png

    The degree and presentation of this deviation or different-ness varies from person to person and can depend on the underlying cause of their neurodivergent classification. As we’ve come to build our understanding of neurodiversity, we’ve also learned that this comprehension is only the first step in cultivating a truly inclusive workspace environment and maximizing your company’s productivity and profitability.

    1. I was trying to read it like a Venn diagram, but it doesn’t make sense. None of the stuff in the interlapping parts is made up from the stuff on either side. I assume “Mental Health” is supposed to be depression?
      I think the author has forgotten “Woolymindedness.”

    2. So…. people are different? Cheers. Marv. Thanks for saying that. Have Lefties only just realised?

    3. The image that came immediately to mind when reading that was a half remembered Monty Python scene with medieval prisoners chained up high on a dungeon wall. Hard to explain why but it just seemed to embody Python comedy logic.

    4. A friend’s very naughty (genuinely down to poor parenting) grandchild was recently given the adhd ‘label.’
      The other popular label to self apply these days is ‘my anxiety.’ Give me strength.

  45. Seems that nice Rishi & Mrs Rishi lost over £200 million last year as Infosys share price crashed. Now their worth is only £529 million.
    Shame.

    2. They will recover it when the British government pays them the next installment for constructing the digital prison.

    3. What pisses me off also, is the gutter press referring to Mrs. Fishy Rishi as “First Lady” of the UK. She is not! The first lady of this land is Queen Camilla now that her late majesty has left us.
      Edit for missing letter.

      1. And remember that odious Jack Straw who said that Blair was the Head of State? Was this a deliberate lie or did Straw know no better?

        1. I must have been Stateside then as I don’t recall that but I can well believe it.

      2. The PM is the First Lord of the Treasury but the present post holder isn’t a peer so his first lady of the kazi doesn’t get a courtesy title?

        1. Sorry, Sue but Khazi has an ‘h’ in it, as any ex-service man/woman knows.

          1. Sometimes an “r”: Kharzi.
            As yer Cockney sparrer knows… (lived close to Bow Bells, several lifetimes ago).

          2. I looked it up before posting and it beng slang of dubious origin, there are multiple spellings and none of them correct since it isn’t a correct term in the first place.

          3. I suspect it comes from one of the180 Indian dialects, in the same way as having a charp (nap) comes from the Indian Charpoy (a light bed).

    2. Wouldn’t it be simpler, our being a democracy and all that, if citizens simply said no to Khan’s tax raid?

      1. 372450+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        It would be far easier to change your name to mohammed as in birmingham where the fines were written off

    1. For the want of a nail the shoe was lost.
      For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
      For want of a horse the rider was lost.
      For want of a rider the battle was lost.
      For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
      And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

    1. Good afternoon, Tom.

      I pinched the cartoon I posted below from this article in TCW.

  52. The headlines in the DM this morning were all about ‘Holland’s Night of Shame’ with a smattering of ‘hooligans’ and ‘thugs’ in the mix. I suspect the British population is in for a spot of manipulation in the same manner as that dished out towards Russia and Putin because:

    ” Chairman of Farmers Defense Force, Mark van den Oever, has called on farmers to “prepare for battle”
    WEF Communist Technocrat, Mark Rutte, won’t back down in destroying Dutch Farming in the name of “sustainability” @2MuchSpin https://pic.twitter.com/maHmArkUuE ”

    Our Government cannot afford to have British sympathies directed towards Dutch farmers; British farmers may well find themselves in the same plight before not too long.

  53. Our local online rag, Bracknell News, has just added a note from the editor underneath every article:

    A message from the Editor
    Thank you for reading this article.

    Staying informed about what’s happening in Bracknell is more important than ever before. That’s why we are committed to providing you with comprehensive and accurate coverage of the events and developments that matter most to you.

    We do this through our dedicated team of local reporters and staff, who work tirelessly to cover the stories that affect your daily life. However, trusted local journalism comes at a cost, we need your support.

    By subscribing to the Bracknell News, you’re not only investing in quality journalism, you’re also supporting the important work of our local team and investing in our local community.

    Subscribe today and in return you’ll get unlimited access to all of our articles, puzzles and a host of other subscriber benefits.

    We appreciate your support.

    It like many local newspapers is part of the Newsquest organisation and similar appears on some of their other newspapers.. Maybe they are in hard times but can’t see how subscribing will improve the standard of their news. It is no longer local, anything up to 50 miles away gets shown as ‘Bracknell’ and I see in ‘From Across Berkshire’ they have the latest Harry and Meghan disasterous car chase – didn’t think New York was in Berkshire.

    It is reported elsewhere that the Metro has reduced its distribution to save costs. But still a big pile of them in our local station this afternoon. That and the Evening Standard have really gone downhill recently with virtually nothing in them apart from a few ads.

    1. Can one enquire of the Editor how he ensures that no disinformation is included in the jounalism (have they criticised any of the “popular” positions on Ukraine war, climate, covid, immigration, buiding all over the Green belt, woke, you name it) , that he highlights the position taken by his employer on the subject of the articles in relation to spin, and how they strive to ensure that government lies and propaganda are excluded? If the answers suggest they write the truth as best they see it, then it might be quality journalism, otherwise it’s propaganda and lies that they want you to pay for.

      1. I’d pay good money to read a paper that stood robustly for truth rather than spin & propaganda.

        1. I’d pay good money to read a right-leaning newspaper but there aren’t any. Either that, or I am Ghengis Khan/Atila the Hun/Badgerman (delete as appropriate)

    2. Many local papers are syndicated, with news reports appearing on more than one site e.g. Northampton and Banbury, with reporters producing material for both. Local papers lost a great deal of revenue with the rise of internet and the collapse in print sales and consequent loss of advertising. Many have closed their town centre offices and operate as collectives from a business centre or trading estate. They need any source of revenue they can get, though I’m not sure subscription works if it restricts availability of material.

      1. Here, material that appears in the Chester version gets repeated in the North Wales edition.

    3. Many local papers are syndicated, with news reports appearing on more than one site e.g. Northampton and Banbury, with reporters producing material for both. Local papers lost a great deal of revenue with the rise of internet and the collapse in print sales and consequent loss of advertising. Many have closed their town centre offices and operate as collectives from a business centre or trading estate. They need any source of revenue they can get, though I’m not sure subscription works if it restricts availability of material.

    4. Many local papers are syndicated, with news reports appearing on more than one site e.g. Northampton and Banbury, with reporters producing material for both. Local papers lost a great deal of revenue with the rise of internet and the collapse in print sales and consequent loss of advertising. Many have closed their town centre offices and operate as collectives from a business centre or trading estate. They need any source of revenue they can get, though I’m not sure subscription works if it restricts availability of material.

    1. I assume Zelensky would have been speaking in English, Assad speaks English.

      EDIT
      On a YouTube video he appears to be using English

      1. Indeed. Zelensky did address the Arab League in English. The caption is rather pointless but the expression says a lot and of course Russian support helped to keep Syria from going the way of Iraq so it’s unlikely that Assad will have much sympathy to offer Ukraine, let alone material aid.

    1. They leave a shit-hole because it’s a shit-hole, then come to the UK with the same attitudes that caused their original country to be a shit-hole. Result – country they migrate to becomes a shit-hole.

      1. But in this sh** hole, they get everything handed to them on a plate for the rest of their lives.

    2. The word TIP comes from the acronym ‘To Improve Performance’

      How giving a machine a tip will improve performance, I fail to see. Unless the tip is along the lines of, “Improve your speed.”

      1. A tired-looking man walks into a pub and asks tha bargirl for “A pint, a pie and a kind word”.
        Silently, she hands him the beer and a sad, beige thing on a plate.
        “What about the kind word?” he asks.
        “Don’t eat the pie!”

        1. I try to be a nice person- but sometimes my mouth just doesn’t cooperate.

      2. Tip (verb)
        “Give a small present of money to,” c. 1600, originally “to give, hand, pass,” thieves’ cant, perhaps from tip; “to tap.” “to strike, occur suddenly,” of uncertain origin, possibly from Low German tippen “to poke, touch lightly,” The meaning “give a gratuity to” is first attested 1706.
        The popularity of the tale of the word’s supposed origin as an acronym in mid-18th century English taverns seems to be no older than Frederick W. Hackwood’s 1909 book “Inns, Ales and Drinking Customs of Old England,” where it was said to stand for To insure promptitude (in the form to insure promptness the anecdote is told from 1946). A reviewer of the book in The Athenaeum of Oct. 2, 1909, wrote, “We deprecate the careless repetition of popular etymologies such as the notion that ‘tip’ originated from an abbreviated inscription on a box placed on the sideboard in old coaching-inns, the full meaning of which was ‘To Insure Promptitude.’

    3. The word TIP comes from the acronym ‘To Improve Performance’

      How giving a machine a tip will improve performance, I fail to see. Unless the tip is along the lines of, “Improve your speed.”

  61. Nationwide Building Society are paying out a £100 dividend to all customers as they have been making big profits. I get mine in June. They are also offering 4.75% on a bond. Better than what the money grubbing stingy banks offer.

  63. A wee Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 699 3/6
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 699 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Almost an eagle, but a birdie will do.
      Wordle 699 3/6

      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
      🟨🟩🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. It makes you wonder at what point house prices in the £1m plus bracket collapse. What happens then? Or will the Govt assess the “value” of your property for you?

      The carve-out for NHS pensions is disgraceful. We in the real world work hard too.

  67. King Charles backed these care homes for 40 years – now net zero is forcing them to close
    Elderly residents’ lives are at risk due to pursuit of costly upgrades, charities warn
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/care-home-closures-net-zero-rules/

    Another triumph for the Idiot King who has no inkling of the effects of his WEF blind dogma! Or if he does he doesn’t give a toss about mere proles – he is truly despicable.

    The victims of this absurd Net Zero policy ought to go and squat in the royal palaces and grounds.

    1. Mrs Eddy use to be the secretary to the then CEO at their Head office in St Albans a few years ago.
      Some of the residences are lovely buildings well looked after, with lots of happy elderly people in them.
      Quite a few celebs were involved with it all and she was a do when Charlie was there.

    2. I suspect that his pretendy care for the peasants was fake, and Net Zero is what he really cares about.

    3. ‘She said: “For people nearing the end of their lives, a move can have a serious impact on health and even hasten death. One resident in her 90s told us when her care home closed she felt as if a pit had opened at her feet and that she would never recover from the shock of her ‘home for life’ being taken away.”‘

      Hey, a win win solution to get rid of these old people taking up space and using scarce resources.

  69. Rummaging through my (oh go on then) drawers, I found two separate Abbey national share certificates both for 100 shares each, dated May 1999 does any one know if they still have any value ?
    I’ve been looking on line but it’s not easy.

    1. ANBS became ANplc – and was taken over by Santander.

      From a smurf of Santander:

      “The quick answer is that Abbey National plc share certificates are no longer valid – Abbey’s shares were cancelled and ceased trading on the London Stock Exchange after Santander took over Abbey in November 2004.”

      Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

        1. Surely the Abbey shares wouldn’t just be cancelled, they’d be converted into Santander shares.
          IIRC, that’s what happened to SWMBOs small shareholding.

          1. Your probably quite right, i’ll check it out with Erin and get back to you all.

        1. Not on my screen.
          I wish the system gave a warning…

          And by the way ANBS became ANplc – and was taken over by Santader.
          it’s Santander

          2. The problem with doing that is that what were “new comments” cease to be so, so one misses interesting threads unless one re-reads everything.

          3. Funny – I don’t get that. The “new comments” are still indicated with a blue line.

          5. I refresh ever time I look at the forum.
            Things still slip through though.

  71. “Tesco chairman quits after harassment allegations”

    It seems that one simply has to make an allegation – nothing more serious – and a senior person is out of a job virtually overnight.

    This chap is alleged to have made “inappropriate comments about someone’s appearance” (eg: “Gosh that is a nice outfit – really suits you”) and “touched a woman’s bottom”. I have done that to women while dancing, smooching – and propositioning them (all long before I was married, of course).

    What has the world come to?

    1. Perhaps she wanted him exclusively, and he refused. These days, an allegation is clearly good revenge for a woman scorned. It gets the man destroyed, reputation, finances, everything.

      1. Indeed – a woman solicitor complained recently about another solicitor (male) making lewd remarks FOUR years ago – and he was heavily penalised by a tribunal.

      1. Indeed, Belle.
        I believe it can be hard for attractive women, when blokes come up to them often and hassle them because the lass is good looking. And if it happens wherever you go, it must be bluddy pesky – and in the case of some blokes, downright scary (I “saved” a spectacularly attractive German lass from some creepy bloke about 12 years ago).
        From the blokes’ side, pretty well never does anyone, attractive or otherwise, come up to us and try a pick-up, so it’s difficult to understand the problem.
        It must have happened to you, Belle. Is my blethering even slightly right?

      2. My recipe is only to compliment a lass on her clothing, and only someone I know reasonably well. This gets used, ooh, about once every two years.

  72. That’s me gone for the day. A cold day suddenly became sunny and warm (well, warmish) abut 2 pm. Cleared the 20 yard long dahlia bed – behind which is a copper beech hedge. The hedge will be trimmed tomorrow, then the bed treated with well-rotted, volcanic ash and fertiliser – then several dozen dahlias will be planted to provide food for slugs ans snails….

    Then there are the edges to do – the tomatoes to water – the greenhouse to sort out….. Thank God a chap is coming to cut the grass.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – DV.

    2. I haven’t managed dahlias yet. I do love them, but the slugs eat every shoot down to the ground as soon as it appears. If I plant them out with leaves, the leaves are reduced to skeletons.
      Touch wood, there appear to be fewer slugs this year. Perhaps my onslaughts on the population have made a difference.

      1. I’ve managed engineers and technicians, field operators and inspectors, but dahlias refuse to take direction.

        1. My dad grew beautiful dahlias. I have not inherited his green fingers although I did remove a giant dandelion today. It was huge and had claws! Nasty brute.

          1. My father grew dahlias, too. Our problem was not slugs, but earwigs – ugh!

          1. Good to hear its not just me that has refused to be taken in by the lies. ie birds die from eating dead slugs that they never eat. Birds only eat live slugs. The only dead birds I have ever found are by cats or flying into windows.

        1. Not yet. I need to find a supplier and then give my attention to it at the correct time.

    3. Good grief, Bill, just reading about your day has exhausted me! Sunny dreams to the MR and yourself.

  75. Alastair Campbell just can’t let go
    The Telegraph’s weekly Peterborough diary column offers an unparalleled insight into what’s really going on at Westminster and beyond
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investigations/

    BTL

    Is Alastair Campbell really a decent, friendly, and generous man who behaves like a nasty, spiteful, sadistic, vindictive yob to throw us of the scent and cover up his innate decency and charm of which he is rather embarrassed?

    1. Loved the meme,

      after two hours the paparazzi finally escaped from Harry and Meghan.

    2. My cunning plan to stop these, these people, is to stop reading, commenting and looking at anything they do. My only knowledge about what they are up to is on this forum.

  77. 372450+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Rochdale grooming gang charged with nearly 80 alleged sex offences against two teenage girls
    The alleged offences include rape, sexual activity with an
    underage girl and trafficking

    Any paedophile loss will be promptly made up via Dover, so no threat to the voting pattern, thank hell.

  78. Dear Meghan and Harry.
    I hope you are well, although by the latest “stunt”, one does begin to wonder.
    Who in their right mind would suggest a car chase in Manhattan, FGS? Everbody knows that the traffic is slower than the pedestrians, and in any case, the whole stunt is just so desperate and needy, I think someone needs a holiday. I mean, the likes of TCW, Spiked! should be your biggest fans, not the first ones to start taking the pee… really! https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/05/18/harry-and-meghans-relentless-pursuit-of-victimhood/
    Can I suggest that you get over yourselves, and get your feet back on terra firma ASAP, before the whole world laughs you both to scorn.
    Best Regards
    O.B. Leutnant (Ph.d)

    1. As I posted yesterday- the traffic is so blocked it would be impossible. Another of their many fantasies.

    2. There are a couple of car chases in new york city on record but they certainly don’t last ten minutes let alone two hours.

      Serves them right for acting like paupers, they should have taken a helicopter across to whatever airport th3ir private jets were at.

    3. “….Starbucks…where motor oil identifies as coffee…”

      !!!!!!!!

  80. 20:53 sunset I don’t think I’m gonna make it I might wake up later.
    Thanks for the help with the Abbey national shares I think it’s sorted now.

      1. Yeah,….. my shout sport. Line em up.
        After work on a Friday in Gladstone QLD the pub was packed. You would queue at the bar, we all drank the same. You asked for 4 beers, gave them ten dollars they shouted 4 from ten you moved along grabbed four beers and your change and sat down. Perfect.
        And a large plate of Free salted chips were place on each table.
        I loved the ozzie way of life.

          2. Not a problem Ann. I only like salted crisps and not the ghastly flavoured ones. It’s worth it to the landlord as they make you thirsty. Small cost for increased sales.

          3. I quite like cheese and onion crisps but don’t often eat crisps at all.

          4. That was the idea Alf. 😉
            And back in the mid 70s there were drink driving regs in Oz.

  82. On this day in 1536 Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded at the command of Henry VIII. Poor lady and what a sorry excuse for a man he was.

  83. Goodnight Y’all. Was up at 4 today taking paracetamol which temporarily helped.
    We had roast chicken, mash, brussels, carrots and sausage stuffing for dinner. ‘Twas nice and plenty left and then stock to be made.
    Forecast looks good after some showers today. Boy, do I want some sun and warmth.
    Sleep well.

    1. Sun and Warmth – my eternal dream and why I lived in Southern Spain for 5 years.

  85. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk until the morning’s light or insomnia, whichever comes first!

  86. Evening, all. Chilling attacks on free speech have been happening since 1997. Have they only just noticed it?

  87. In Australia now they taser a 95 year old woman with dementia in a care home. She was holding a knife. You’d think they could manage to take the knife off a frail old woman.

    2. Does it not occur to them that using a taser on a 95-year-old might well kill her?

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