Friday 20 October: How truth can become the first casualty of war faster than ever before

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

656 thoughts on “Friday 20 October: How truth can become the first casualty of war faster than ever before”

    1. Morning, Bob.
      Edit: Morning, all Y’all.
      Last night’s wind seems to have blown the sun away (and I’m referring to the gales, not internal gas).

  5. How truth can become the first casualty of war faster than ever before

    Since virtually nobody believes a word they hear in the media anymore their power to herd the masses behind a narrative is somewhat diminished these days.
    If one thinks the exact opposite of what you are hearing especially from the BBC then, you will be much nearer to the truth.

      2. Ah, but you can comment on phrases like “pre-ordered”, Minty. (Good morning, btw.)

  6. Israel and Ukraine are two fronts in a new fight for freedom. Boris Johnson. 20 October 2023.

    We are now battling for the same values and the same ideals, against the same anti-democratic and terroristic forces.

    Wow! Cry me a river bro! Freedom! Democracy! Pretty soon it will be White People in the television ads! Strange no one is bothered about those things here. I don’t recall any of us voting for the Online Harms Bill or Mass Immigration. The attacks on Iraq, Syria or Libya.

    We can tell the nature of this coming war by the people who are promulgating it. Liars all! If Boris is so interested perhaps he ought to get his boots on and give us a demonstration of Martial Prowess!

    P.S. No Comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/20/israel-ukraine-are-two-fronts-in-a-new-battle-for-freedom/

    1. Good morning.
      I do wish there was somewhere secluded and soundproof we could put ex-PM’s. Somewhere like that place in The Prisoner where they can go around all day making very important statements to each other and not bother real people.

      1. Put all other politicians there, and let ordinary folks sort themselves out in peace ‘n quiet, to get it right.

    2. We could start by not calling him ‘Boris’, Johnson will do. Or the “potato in a wig” à la Katie Hopkins. I learned form the latest Delingpod that Johnson’s father Stanley worked for John D Rockefeller III which is why Johnson was born in New York. Stanley Johnson was/is a Rockefeller stooge. More light shed.

      “There’s a crack, a crack in everything
      That’s how the light gets in”

      Leonard Cohen

    3. The only freedom Bojo valued was the freedom to deploy his todger whenever opportunity arose …. I hope a hot place in Hell is being reserved for him.

  7. SIR – I am always intrigued by the term “pan-fried” on a menu. How else would you fry something?

    Sam Kelly
    Oldham, Lancashire

    On a flat sheet of heated steel, Sam, often with a gas burner under it. I believe that’s how they fry the burgers at McDonalds.

    1. Pan fried sounds better than griddled.

      Pan fried in our award winning butter with home grown micro-herbs and spices lovingly tended until cooked to perfection.
      Or
      Flipped on a griddle.
      :@)

  8. A Allan
    3 MIN AGO
    If Marx and Lenin are the two best examples of readers in the British Museum, maybe it should never have existed.

    Indeed, succinctly put.

  9. US troops attacked in Middle East. 20 October 2023.

    US troops in the Middle East came under attack from suspected Iran-backed militias on Thursday night in an escalation that threatened to pull global powers into the Gaza conflict.

    The US Navy also said it intercepted missiles and drones fired from Yemen and headed “potentially towards targets in Israel”
    .
    Bases housing US soldiers came under attack in Iraq and Syria, raising fears Iran was mobilising proxy forces against the West, which backs Israel in its war with Hamas.

    Of course they were! They introduced themselves! The flying fish in the Gulf of Tonkin anyone?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/19/israeli-trrops-prepare-gaza-invasion-hamas-war/

  10. Time, gentlemen

    SIR
    – Many years ago I spent a day in the dining room of the House of
    Commons. I was astonished that I, as a taxpayer, contributed to the cost
    of the meals, but I was horrified that we subsidised all the alcohol (“Parliamentarians ‘too drunk to remember bad behaviour’”, report, October 18). Time to stop.

    Margaret O’Connell
    Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

    Troughers!

    1. BTL Comment:-

      R. Spowart
      JUST NOW
      Message Actions
      Well said Margaret O’Connell. I wonder how much decision making at Westminster is affected by not only the amount of alcohol consumed during the day, but other substances, as shewn by past investigations which have revealed traces of cocaine in many of the toilets.
      I’ve long held the view that MPs, Peers, Government Advisors and Senior Civil Servants should be subject to the same Drug and Alcohol monitoring and screening as I was expected to abide by during my career on the Railways.

      REPLY
      0
      0

    2. Only in it for what they can make out of it. Plus expenses.
      Let’s see how many of our ‘dedicated marvels’ turn up for Andrew Brigden’s debate this afternoon. Mentioned earlier by Ogga.

    3. Margaret will be delighted to know that any attempt to reduce food and drink subsidies in the Houses of Parliament will be met by an increase in parliamentary salaries to compensate them for their loss.

  12. The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
    Bus routes and departures to be cut due to 20 mph speed limits in Wales.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-67162541
    The Welsh government has a target to reduce traffic miles by 10% per person by 2030 and ensure 10% of all journeys are either made on public transport, foot, or bike by 2040. But with 20mph pressures and budget cuts to services, one expert said this was unlikely to happen. “The way the bus service in Wales is declining is quite rapid now”, said transport journalist Rhodri Clark.
    “The bus is vital for what the Welsh government want to do in reducing carbon emissions but at the moment the Welsh government is underfunding the bus industry by quite a few million pounds.
    “On top of that we’ve got the effect of 20mph so they outlook is looking pretty bleak,” he said.

    1. The one good thing about the Welsh debacle is that it shows everyone how not to run a transport system.

  13. Housing and births

    SIR – South Korea is to be applauded for its pro-family and pro-housing attitudes (report, October 12).
    We should follow suit. Birth rates in the UK have decreased two-fold
    since the 1940s, while house prices have increased beyond affordability.

    Naysayers
    may complain that easing mortgage costs will inflate house prices even
    further. However, the only realistic way to lower house prices would be
    to build millions more homes, and doing so would take decades, which we
    do not have.
    Already 40 per cent of women at the average age to have
    a first baby are forced to rent. In 1996 it was less than 15 per cent.
    The Government needs to act now to help families.Bartek Staniszewski
    Senior Researcher, Bright Blue
    London EC4

    More than 50% of the population of Germany rent rather than buy. Why is home ownership the be all and end all?

  14. Good morning all.
    Another foul start. Chucking it down and barely a glimmer of dawn in the sky with 9°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    1. Schedule your outdoor jobs for dry days, BoB, and stay indoors for other jobs when it’s wet – have you thought of buying a jigsaw puzzle? Lol.

      1. They have a lot to say but not enough candidates.
        I’m certainly not voting for any of the three or green.

    4. Turn-out around the same as for local elections.
      The Apathy Party – aka P!ssed Off Conservatives – won a resounding victory.
      I wonder if any Conservative High Heid Yins will now unblock their ears and even attend to the needs of the country they purportedly represent.

    5. Oh dear not that bunch of useless hooligans again. 1.5 million new homes coming to everyone’s back yard.

    2. Anyone who is granted refugee status because they are fleeing war or persecution and who then goes back to their country of origin for any reason whatsoever should not be permitted to return.

  17. SIR – We have a green woodpecker (report, October 16)
    that has so far drilled 13 holes (with a diameter of about 75mm) into
    three sides of our wooden-clad church bell tower. This had new stained
    wood panels screwed on the inside to
    stop its entry (or the entry of
    other birds or wildlife). It has obviously annoyed the bird, which is
    starting to drill through these as well.

    Has anyone any ideas as to how to stop this bird making further attacks on our bell tower?

    Nick Morgan
    Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire

    …Air rifle.

    1. Find a joiner who understands timber and other materials, and birds. Perhaps line the case with copper or brass sheeting?

    2. Find a joiner who understands timber and other materials, and birds. Perhaps line the case with copper or brass sheeting?

  19. SIR – Allister Heath (Comment, October 19) discusses “anti-Israel bias” in the West.

    Many of us have long believed that our hard-won values are shared by the majority in this country. I still believe that to be true, but we have allowed ourselves to forget that honesty, logic, fact and reason require us daily to defend them. Instead, we have allowed social media to dominate with its spread of disinformation and partisan views. We have to stand up against this and keep making the case for truth.

    Linda Hughes
    Newton Abbot, Devon

    RS

    R. Spowart
    JUST NOW
    Message Actions
    Hmmm. “…anti-Israel bias” in the West…”
    I wonder how much of that “anti-Israel bias” is due to the constant barrage of Left Wing pro-Arab propaganda we keep getting?

    1. Instead, we have allowed social media to dominate with its spread of disinformation and partisan views.

      Morning Bob. Is that why she’s posting online? She sounds uncommonly like someone from a Nudge Unit!

    2. “A senior member of staff at BBC News has admitted that the corporation made a “mistake” while covering the immediate aftermath of the deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza City.”

      “Ooops …. those pesky tax payers noticed.”

  20. 377834+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The King is right: our history and institutions make the United Kingdom especially resilient
    His Majesty’s speech was optimistic and upbeat, explaining why the country and its people are up to the challenges ahead

    Fact,
    The King is right: our history and institutions make the United Kingdom especially resilient

    His Majesty’s speech was optimistic and upbeat, explaining why the country and its people are up to the challenges ahead,
    No he ain’t as he speaks history is being re-written, and the institutions are, in the main, as bent as nine bob notes.

    He is currently ruling over a mongrel / rabid nation, leaving the decent indigenous peoples in the treacherous hands of his political overseeing colleagues in the WEF,

    As for”his speech was optimistic and uplifting” of course it was, more fodder tor fools, standard patter these last forty years, rhetorical only, no further action to be taken,

    The labs turn next that is the way coalitions work.

      1. And there’s always the vision of bungs to keep them quiet.
        Politicians in general stink.

    3. Good for him and well done, it’s about time someone addressed this terrible issue.
      Just check to see if your mp can’t be bothered, then tell them you’re not going to vote for them.
      The leader of the house is obviously an anti debate dick. Remind these lazy self centred politicians of their duty.
      What happened actually amounts to mass murder.
      I had three friends who died after their jabs. One would have been 77 tomorrow.
      Good luck today Andrew.

  23. Good Moaning.
    When the rain stops for long enough, MB plans to nip out and put away the garden hose.

  24. ‘Morning, Peeps, from a dry (for now) deepest Dorset.

    I imagine that this heartfelt BTL comment on the lunacy of Net Zero will be echoed by many:

    Pauline Maridor
    7 HRS AGO
    Turning on my central-heating this week is a major worry.
    Fortunately, I have learned to be frugal and will probably just about survive a harsh winter.
    Net Zero is the longest suicide note in the history of the UK.
    It is worth remembering that the commitment to Net Zero was made by the thoroughly second-rate, duplicitous Mrs May, by Statutory Instrument (so without debate or vote) in 2019.
    Our politicians are scientifically illiterate and none too bright; that no one investigated if NZ was achievable in the time scale, no proper cost analysis is beyond amateurish; its criminal.
    The deceitful approach the corrupt Climate Change Commission has taken to this staggering policy of self-destruction is very slowly becoming clearer.
    It is of course a massive scam, not to save the world from CO2, more of which, would benefit us all.
    It will force the people to use just one source of power, electricity, which will be controlled by smart meters and restricted in supply. Blackouts and rationing will become the norm.
    The cost of this scarce resource will go beyond what could be imagined today.
    I have been reading that the UK averages 1403hrs of sunlight, assume a 50/50 split night/day equals 1.93hrs per day.
    So no matter how you fudge it, our going completely over to wind and solar is going to give the country plenty of time to sit shivering and stare into the darkness; wondering if the rest of the world appreciates our destruction of living standards to save them.
    The lights will now go out. Perhaps that is what is needed to bring a furious population to realise what Net Zero is all about – 3rd world poverty and unnecessary hardship.
    It would be National Suicide on steroids.

    * * *

    Perhaps the Tories’ rout at the two ‘safe seat’ by-elections yesterday might just persuade someone to sit down and think about the reasons for these – apart from the desire to punish, of course.

      1. Yet if they’re the opposition, where is their counter to these insane policies of this government? Saying they would do the same, only more is not opposition, it is collusion!

        It is one single party dominating the House with policies the public do not want or need.

      2. It’s rather worse than that, N – Liebour want to go further and faster with this lunacy! In view of the low turnout yesterday I’m guessing that yer traditional Conservatives mostly abstained, knowing that this might provide a kick up the ar5e…

        1. They might do the same in a real election. I can’t see the Tories winning any time soon. Not till the country has been punished by Labour for a few years.

    2. Why are they pursuing it?
      Why are they no building reservoirs?
      Why are farming payments so appallingly low?
      Why are they borrowing 600 million a day?
      Why are they not repealing the acts that are letting dangerous criminals into this country?
      Why are they not removing those parading on the streets last week?
      Why are the police so obsessed with woke?
      Why was the online harm bill allowed to pass?
      Why is net zero any where near statute, considering it is self serving law from greedy, ignorant sewage?

      1. Yo Wibbles

        Why are they not building reservoirs?

        Shoud it not be “Dig” reservoirs…..
        just asking

        1. Depends on the lie of the land.
          If the surrounding countryside is flat, yes, they are dug.
          In other areas a dam needs to be built.

  25. BTL Comment:-

    R. Spowart
    JUST NOW
    Reply to Brian Thorne – view message
    Message Actions
    Are guitar solos the new Triumph Herald?

    1. I took my driving test in a Triumph Herald in Edgware. A German instructor and passed.
      And I knew a young lady who owned a drop down Vitesse. She scared the life out me and some of our friends. Along Totteridge Lane to the pub.
      All hanging on for dear life.

        1. My first car was a Black mini with alloy wheels and fat tyres. Souped up engine and brakes that didn’t match.
          Second MGB GT Bronze Yellow. YYT 6H still on the road somewhere.

        1. The best example of dedicated political service on earth.
          Been there for years and achived absolutely nothing.

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not just grey, leaden sky’s. And more rain on the way.
    And with reference to the type of people who are wrecking our country and the rest of the world, as colonel Nathan Jessop sumed up. “You (they) can’t handle the truth”.
    Lying is thier full time job. And we are forced into paying for it.

    1. I keep coming back to this fundamental question. Why.

      The stat wants net zero. The costs, economic are monumental and disastrous.
      No one in the public wants to be told what to drive.
      No one wants to be cold
      No one wans to pay ruinous amounts for energy
      So why is the state forcing it on us?
      More importantly, why can we not stop them wasting our time and money?

      2. I wonder if most of them have what is described now, as having mental health issues.
        Ex school bullies. Birds of a feather.

  28. Dark and dreary here today….
    Last night we did the draw for the Hedgehog Hospital summer raffle – pizza first at the Brewery. This was our main summer fundraiser and we probably made about £1500 but until we have good count up it’s hard to be exact.

    This morning we’re going to visit two middle aged cats who need a home. Ours has been a bit empty since lovely Lily left us in July, though she’s in the garden.
    Hopefully these two will settle in with us.

    1. Is that a pizza up at the Brewery? ‘Morning all! Howling gales and horizontal rain here!

      1. They do good pizza ups at our local brewery on Thursday evenings 😋 We brought a couple of bits home for lunch.

        1. Wishing you good times with your new cats! I’m sure they’ll love their move to pastures new!😘

    2. So glad you are offering a home to older pusscats , what colour are they?

      I would love another cat , but now that Pip is on his own , he behaves like a cuddle wuddle cat , snuggling in , and he chases cats out of the garden .

      Years ago , when we had a previous trio of spaniels , we had a ginger tom called Scud , he was loved by the spaniels , almost a proxy dog and a proper mouser .

    3. Our 4 in February lovely grand daughter has suddenly become interested in hedge hogs.
      We use to have some in our garden. I made a hibernation box but it was only used once.
      I’m going to print off some sketches for her to sit and colour in.
      She’s has a little hedge hog 🦔
      likenesses made by nanny. She wasn’t aware they had prickles. She’s going to call her little fella spikey.
      Our grand daughter is Lily.

      2. Lovely Lily our tortie cat left us in July and is much missed. But now we’re ready to welcome Jessie and Ziggy here.

    4. Ndovu. What charity is this and does it have a presence online? As I said about a week ago, the only charity I support now a days is the Lancashire Hedgehog Care Trust. Stopped all the human charities some years ago. They all seem to be in the business of corruption rather than service. Besides that I love hedgehogs. Would like to be healthy enough to start a hospital down here in West Sussex. Hedgehog help is rather thin on the ground.

      1. Help a hedgehog Hospital. Based in Stroud, Glos and run entirely by volunteers. This is our website http://www.helpahedgehog.org/ and you can see who we are on the ‘about us’ page. Annie started the hospital in her garden in 2008. We’ve been part of the team since early in 2010. There’s also a Facebook page which Annie runs, with pics and stories of the patients.

          3. Lots of people make a monthly donation a bit more than the suggested amount which we’ve never changed over the years.

      2. Help a hedgehog Hospital. Based in Stroud, Glos and run entirely by volunteers. This is our website http://www.helpahedgehog.org/ and you can see who we are on the ‘about us’ page. Annie started the hospital in her garden in 2008. We’ve been part of the team since early in 2010. There’s also a Facebook page which Annie runs, with pics and stories of the patients.

      3. Hi Johnathan – I hope you will find Help a Hedgehog worthy of your support. We’re all volunteers doing our bit.

  29. Good morning all

    The sun is shining , birds are singing , slight whisper of a breeze , and feeling blessed that these Purbecky parts are bright and normal for the moment.

    The power of these nasty storms in other parts of the country is appalling , and clearing up the mess is an arduous task.

    We have also had some fierce stormy weather in the past few months , but the poor communities who are NOW suffering from the floods must be a nightmare , where on earth does one start to clear up?

    Moh is playing golf .

    Rattle of the dustbin collection is on time and reliable.

    Nadine Dorries, I hope you are happy now .. you wasted years flirting with Boris with your doe eyes!

  30. Good morning all,

    Dull day here at McPhee Towers and staying that way for the most part. Wind in the West, backing Sou’-West, 12℃ rising to 14℃.

    It’s been a bit of a struggle here this morning. I decided to update my iMac to Sonoma 14.0 last night and getting it to work after doing so has been a bit like giving birth to an elephant. At first I couldn’t get onto the internet at all so went I to trouble-shooting using my iPad. In the middle of that this morning- Bingo – all is suddenly back as it should be. However I can’t get onto the DT website using Safari. I haven’t been able to for a couple of weeks and have to use Firefox for that. I had thought the new IOS would fix it but no, it hasn’t. Does anyone else using an iMac have the same problem with Safari and the DT website?

    1. So Fiscal, what you are saying to other Mac users is wait a while until Apple have fixed the initial bugs before attempting the upgrade?

      1. That might be a good idea. Also check compatibility first. Mine’s a Retina 4K, 21.5 “, 2019 which is ok but earlier models may not be. Some are, some aren’t.

        1. I don’t have to worry my 2017 machine won’t play with the new OS. I suspect in a couple of years it will be regarded by Apple as obsolete!

  31. Ukraine to receive ATACMS ‘regularly’ from US. 20 October 2023.

    Ukraine will receive US-supplied long-range ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) on a regular basis, its foreign minister has said.
    Asked whether regular shipments and larger numbers of missiles were expected, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said they were.

    Yes let’s keep it going!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/20/ukraine-russia-war-live-biden-aid-atacams-latest/

    1. Seems like an invitation has been issued to the Russians to wipe out Ukraine’s military….

        1. Wouldn’t they like something a bit more modern and accurate or is indiscriminate slaughter more their modus operandi?

          1. I suppose they would but getting them into Gaza would be something of a problem.Lol!

    2. Good morning to all. Nasty weather day!

      It’s rather curious that Ukraine are “victims” after freely bombing the Donbass for 7 years and killing thousands. Strikes me that Ukraine is a victim in the same way that Hamas is a victims.

      As for Boris. I don’t think many of us are interested in his opinions anymore.

      If this video is correct there is some hope for the ordinary people of Gaza
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnUW6vMXnLA

    3. Has he done as much long term damage to Britain as May and Blair did?

      He failed completely on Covid policy and bankrupted the country with Sunak’s help and he completely failed to deliver a proper Brexit.

  34. Not for a generation has the world felt so dangerously febrile. How will freedom’s enemies in the USA, the EU the WEF and the UN exploit the spiralling crisis? Few are as well qualified to answer as MARK ALMOND – and he doesn’t pull his punches…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12651425/Not-generation-world-felt-dangerously-febrile-freedoms-enemies-Russia-China-Iran-exploit-spiralling-crisis-qualified-answer-MARK-ALMOND-doesnt-pull-punches.html

    Yeah I know.
    That wasn’t the headline but read the article on that basis and I doubt you will find much to change within.

  35. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef0096c05b742d3fe623ad55182c765514948d09d9fe015edad9fc05f790e082.png

    “There is a tide in the affairs of men
    Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
    Omitted, all the voyage of their life
    Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
    On such a full sea are we now afloat;
    And we must take the current when it serves,
    Or lose our ventures.”

    [Julius Caesar]

    The tide and time for the right of centre Conservative MPs to defect to the Reform Party is NOW.

    The Conservative Party will lose its ventures to the point of total extinction if they omit to take the tide and what is left of the miserable voyage of the Conservative Party’s life will be bound in shallows and in miseries.

    1. Serves them damn right for betraying Conservative principles and common sense. I look forward to their complete collapse and that from the ashes a true Conservativism will arise to serve the people of Britain.

      1. If true Conservatism doesn’t begin well before the election it will be too late though it is unlikely that true Conservatism will ever be reborn in the Conservative Party.

        1. Agree Rastus, it will be a new party with some members of the old Conservative party participating in its creation.

          1. It is time that Rees-Mogg, Redwood, Frost, Francois and others who claim to be Conservatives got off the fence and confronted the fact that the Conservative Party is no longer Conservative and that they must defect to another party without any further shilly-shallying.

            Funnily enough Rees-Mogg told Farage a couple of weeks ago on GB News that he ought to join the Conservative Party for patriotic reasons. The truth of the matter is that any true Conservatives in the Conservative Party have a patriotic duty to get out of it.

            Those who have studied Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra will remember that the plain-speaking Roman soldier, Enobarbus, who sees that his Antony’s cause is lost says: “I’ll follow yet the wounded chance of Antony though my reason sits in the wind against me”.

            The reason of those Conservative Conservatives who are staying put is certainly faulty.

          2. Yes, I thought Moggs suggestion was rather silly,a product of sentimental blindness to the shell of what remains of Conservativism. If, like Moses, he was to lead the true Conservatives out of the now dying party, that would be far more realistic than suggesting that people remain shackled to a rotting corpse. What would be the point?

          3. It is time that Rees-Mogg, Redwood, Frost, Francois and others who claim to be Conservatives got off the fence and confronted the fact that the Conservative Party is no longer Conservative and that they must defect to another party without any further shilly-shallying.

            Funnily enough Rees-Mogg told Farage a couple of weeks ago on GB News that he ought to join the Conservative Party for patriotic reasons. The truth of the matter is that any true Conservatives in the Conservative Party have a patriotic duty to get out of it.

            Those who have studied Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra will remember that the plain-speaking Roman soldier, Enobarbus, who sees that his Antony’s cause is lost says: “I’ll follow yet the wounded chance of Antony though my reason sits in the wind against me”.

            The reason of those Conservative Conservatives who are staying put is certainly faulty.

      1. True. The actual number of votes cast for Labour went up a little in Tamworth and down a little in Mid Bedfordshire compared with the 2019 General Election. It was the plunge in votes cast for the Conservatives that made the big difference.

  36. Has anyone using Microsoft come across problems with McAfee post the October Windows updates? Both of my laptops ‘lost’ their McAfee shortcuts: on one laptop I’ve managed to get McAfee available from the task bar but the older machine appears completely to have lost access to McAfee.

  37. Still a gale here. Plus a flood – caused by the drain under the road being blocked. Reported twice to Norfolk CC Highways dept – who do, natch, SFA about it. It is irritating rather than anything else. Trying to get the local councillor involved. That’ll be fun….

    Incidentally, isn’t it maddening when a well loved and very accessible website is “upgraded” and becomes terrible? That has happened overnight to
    https://www.meteoradar.co.uk/en-gb GRRR.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef95cecdd0ea61996cff33b0e38e1e553e43f1f86580dd1bf92179272a8f485d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59add7159e1781d88928404a69da542d986beb8e6a4b46a558abe56e2af41729.jpg

    1. And we’re told that water is a precious resource. Totally agree with regards to website “upgrades”. The Wigmore Hall site used to be well laid out, attractive and easy to navigate but the recently re-designed version looks messy and it’s a pain trying to find useful information and/or actually book tickets.

      1. I tried to order a box of wine from Laithwaites yesterday – I couldn’t do it on the laptop but lots of things don’t work on here any more. But the desktop was just the same – it didn’t accept my password but no matter how many times I tried, it didn’t send a reset email so eventually I gave up.

    3. Blimey William, when you wet yourself you really do let yourself go. Try going to the privy a little more often.

      1. It is the only way in which to persuade the otherwise dormant council that there is a problem.

    5. Absolutely agree with you about meteoradar. I went to it yesterday and it is close to useless now.
      If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

    6. Nobody can deny that William is less corpulent than I.

      A line influenced by Philip Larkin’s character, Arnold, in Self’s The Man and by the comment (above) Bill made to pies under the picture I posted of our New Year ham.

  38. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story V late – my apologies

    Whatever Turns You On
    Twelve monks were about to be ordained. The final test was for them to line up, nude, in a garden while a nude model danced before them. Each monk had a small bell attached to his privates, and they were told that anyone whose bell rang would not be ordained because he had not reached a state of purity.

    The model danced before the first monk candidate, with no reaction. She proceeded down the line with the same response, until she got to the final monk. As she danced, his bell rang so loudly it fell off and clattered to the ground. Embarrassed, he bent over to pick up the bell…

    …and all the other bells went off!

    2. None of them were ordained, but it had a happy ending – eleven of them were signed up by the BBC. The other one went into politics.

    3. On a similar line of humour:
      {Found on farcebook, or – as my late neighbour used to call it – twitface 🙂 }
      “Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl.”
      The priest asks, “Is that you, little Joey Pagano?”
      “Yes, Father, it is.”
      “And who was the girl you were with?”
      “I can’t tell you, Father. I don’t want to ruin her reputation.”
      “Well, Joey, I’m sure to find out her name sooner or later so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?”
      “I cannot say.”
      “Was it Teresa Mazzarelli?”
      “I’ll never tell.”
      “Was it Nina Capelli?”
      “I’m sorry, but I cannot name her.”
      “Was it Cathy Piriano?”
      “My lips are sealed.”
      “Was it Rosa DiAngelo, then?”
      “Please, Father! I cannot tell you.”
      The priest sighs in frustration. “You’re very tight lipped, and I admire that. But you’ve sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself.”
      Joey walks back to his pew, and his friend Franco slides over and whispers, “What’d you get?”
      “Four months vacation and five good leads…”

  40. Israel orders 20,000 civilians to evacuate from Lebanon border. 20 October 2023.

    Israel’s army has announced the evacuation of the city of Kiryat Shmona, after days of clashes with Hezbollah fighters along the border with Lebanon.
    The northern city which housed around 20,000 people before the current conflict will be emptied after rocket attacks by Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions intensified in recent days.

    ”A short while ago, the Northern Command informed the mayor of the city of the decision. The plan will be managed by the local authority, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Defence,” the military said.

    They are going to attack Hizbollah. The last time Israel did this it didn’t work out too well to say the least. I would guess that this is to draw in Iran so that the Americans can intervene and attack them directly.

    I have no idea how all this is going to work out. Not very well I imagine.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/20/israel-gaza-latest-news-updates-hamas-palestine-day-14-live/

    1. It takes Israel to stand up to these people when we all should have, many years ago.

        1. I was driving to my elder sisters house In Harpenden on Christmas eve a few years ago, to deliver presents for them and their offspring. In the road called the Uplands i could see a chap in a white raincoat ahead walking a dog. As there were not many street lights. I flashed him and he turned round smiled and half waved is glasses as he use to on TV. Good old Eric, never off duty. I also heard stories of him entreating fellow passengers on the trains to and from London.
          He use to live near by in Redbourn Lane, his garden over looked the thirteenth Tee on Harpenden golf course. Now demolished and three detached homes on the same plot.

  43. Hmmmmm…

    Israel: We had no clue Hamas would breach our border defences and kill 1300 civilians.

    Also Israel: We know Hamas bombed the hospital. If you don’t believe us, here’s a recording of them talking about it.

    1. One wonders whether:
      1. the attack was allowed to go ahead so as to not compromise intelligence assets, and turnd out to be so much more appalling than was expected – misjudgement. Or/and
      2. allowed to go ahead, knowing that it would bring Israel lots of sympathy – deliberately allowed. Or,
      3. not forseen – incompetence.
      (3) doesn’t seem likely, judging by other Israeli intelligence actions – so my thoughts are to go with (1), because the scale of destruction would have been indicated by the intelligence.

  44. I was at a restaurant in Spain when a local fisherman turned up with
    a squid delivery, only to be told they didn’t think he was coming until
    next week…

    No-one expects the Spanish inky fish man.

    Hope i haven’t started a fish pun thread !

    1. The nasty cretin wanted to go with Biden to Israel to keep his self aggrandizing self in the news, the American told him to bugger orf. A truly repellent man. There are no schisms in the Orthodox Church and here is a man, an atheist, trying his best to pit brother and sister against brother and sister. Evil man.

      1. Just what I guessed.
        I expect Zelensky is “my enemy’s enemy” according to the Western powers. I don’t agree.
        EDIT: One day, I might be able to type in English.

  46. Just spent all day so far reviewing Mother’s archives of papers, photos and the like. Wow! Lots of stuff I never knew, and investments all over the place – how valid, I don’t know, but I do know it’ll be a nightmare to get the current status and lots of PoA certificates at £10 a time sent off. Sigh
    Good thing I seem to have no hobbies any more, this stuff looks like a life’s work.
    And then Barclays Bank online help doesn’t work! Do no banks have UK-based, English-speaking staff any more?

    1. Only guessing, but it is possible that financial services people would return the Power of Attorney Certificate when they have seen it and scanned it.

    2. Trying to find a wallet of papers deposited with Barclays Bank, shifted by them to BarclaySafe, who seem to have no “Contact Me” other than the Barclays Bank app, who deny any knowledge… No idea what the papers are, which is why I want them sent to me.

        1. No, just an old letter with a reference number. For all I know, it was returned years ago, but I’d like to be sure. Likely to be share certificates, I guess.

        2. No, just an old letter with a reference number. For all I know, it was returned years ago, but I’d like to be sure. Likely to be share certificates, I guess.

      2. You can go into a bank / building society branch and get them to Photocopy a certified copy of the POA. They then stamp and date the photocopy as original seen in brach and attache it to any papers / statements / savings books that need sorting and paid into an appropriate account.

        Don’t forget to get a receipt for any documents handed over!

        Same process applies to probate documents when you get them.

        2. Indeed.
          My guess is they charge a fee (hell, everybody does) of the order of £10, as does Mother’s lawyers.
          Access a bit difficult, too, from here.

          3. No fees are involved as they require the proof that what you say is true, and the staff simply verify the documentation and sign the copy as a true copy. (I do appreciate the fact that one has to go to the bank /building society to accomplish this).

    3. I had to deal with Barclays when my mother died – they were awful! They seemed far more interested in selling me their probate service than handing over the relatively small amount of money in her account. They also cut up the card that gave me access to her accounts, which it subsequently turned out was also required to check progress and/or make a formal complaint! The web address they gave me to access their bereavement services/advice didn’t actually exist and to cap it all they made two payments from a supposedly frozen account! Truly awful – they didn’t even give me an apology for their appalling service and the mistakes they made. I did all the probate stuff myself and that took less time than prising the money out of Barclays when probate was granted!!

      1. My mother died in 1989 and our local Barclays was very helpful – transferred everything to me with no problems at all. I inherited her Barclays shares and still hold them. I get a few more each time they declare a dividend.

        1. Sadly my more recent experience suggests things have gone downhill as regards both competence and customer service at Barclays – maybe I was just very unlucky with the people I encountered but even contacting the CEO didn’t get me far!

          1. They seem to have gone full machine service in Barclays now – though there is also a person hovering to tell you how to use the machine. It’s certainly not how it used to be.

    4. We had no problems with the banks but the Post Office was another issue.

      We wanted to get mail redirected and they insisted on receiving a copy of one of our utility bills as proof of address – driving license, health cards were not acceptable. In the end I had to go online, login to the electricity company site and print a copy of my latest bill.

      Their claim was that it was to provide security and verify the address but honestly it would be so easy to adjust a downloaded copy of a bill whereas modifying / creating an alternate health card (like a credit card) takes skill.

  47. Just spent all day so far reviewing Mother’s archives of papers, photos and the like. Wow! Lots of stuff I never knew, and investments all over the place – how valid, I don’t know, but I do know it’ll be a nightmare to get the current status and lots of PoA certificates at £10 a time sent off. Sigh
    Good thing I seem to have no hobbies any more, this stuff looks like a life’s work.
    And then Barclays Bank online help doesn’t work! Do no banks have UK-based, English-speaking staff any more?

    1. People keep talking a bout democracy, I doubt if we have ever really had such a thing. After the votes are counted and the new government is installed there were usually more people who voted against the new government, than for it.

      1. Isn’t that invariably the case? Has there ever been a UK government elected by more than half the votes cast?

        1. Only 33% of Canadians were idiotic enough to vote for Trudeau. A long established fix to riding boundaries gave the liberals more seats than other parties.

          1. In answer to my own question, on just two occasions since 1918 has a government secured the votes of more than half of those cast. Both were 1930s Conservative governments. In 1931 they were elected with 60.8% of the votes and at the following election of 1935 they secured 53.5%. They received almost half the votes cast in the 1950s: 1955 49.6%, 1959 49.4%. The lowest vote share for a governing party was Labour’s 35.2% in 2005.

            https://www.statista.com/statistics/717004/general-elections-vote-share-by-party-uk/

        2. Precisely my point Stig. As thought, we have never had a realistic and acceptable democracy.

        3. If people cannot be bothered to vote they are effectively saying they could not care who wins.
          Those non votes should be added to those of the winners to get a clearer (albeit the same logic can apply the other way) view of the support.
          It’s why I regard the leave vote for Brexit to be nearer 65% than 52.

  51. Experts, don’tcha just lurve ’em.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12602793/Britains-secret-biosecurity-blunders-revealed-including-two-accidents-occurred-Covid-experiment-gone-wrong-involving-smallpox-like-virus.html

    Britain’s secret biosecurity blunders revealed – including two accidents which occurred during Covid and an experiment gone wrong involving a smallpox-like virus
    EXCLUSIVE: None of the incidents uncovered by this website were of high risk

    And just how the Hell can they be so certain they were not high risk?

          2. Yaay!
            A fan club of one!
            Thanks, Sue. A few days off work is doing wonders for my mental stability and sense of humour.

      1. These temples are around 1000 years old. The Indians themselves don’t understand what they are about. Lots of guess work and supposition but no firm facts. They do represent, however, the material world and are only to be found on the outside of the temples. That is, when you enter the temple, the materialistic and decedent world is left behind. That seems to be the key, they represent the decadence of the world of the senses.

        Modern Indians are embarrassed by the sculptures because modern Indian society is as prudish and embarrassed by sex as any Victorian schoolmarm stereotype, modern Indians are fearfully sexually repressed. In Bollywood movies it is forbidden to depict kissing. Usually if a couple is going to kiss the music will swell and the camara will spend an absent minded moment admiring the clouds in the blue sky or admire the stars at night. Give you little idea how prudish. My best friend is an Indian and when I have asked him about such matters he clams up and adamantly refuses to discuss such things.

          1. It’s to do with poverty. Middle class Indians have families as big as the middle class here. The poor, because it isn’t a welfare state, see the children as an investment, Insurance for when the parents can no longer work. And children as income providers during their productive years as adults. The same pattern is prevalent in almost all poor countries. Children = survival. IN fact, in India, the birth rate is plummeting fast as the country becomes more wealthy.
            India says nationwide birthrates drop below key ‘replacement rate’
            https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/25/india-birth-rate-replacement-population/

        3. Like the fifties films which didn’t show love-making. The camera cut to shots of waves surging up the shore.

    2. As one BTL suggests – odd that someone who looks like the Grim Reaper called Sunak “Dr Death”.

      1. They’ve only been with Mary, the carer, for about 10 days. But they had been with another rescue who took them after they’d been to two homes with young children and they clearly don’t like young children. They both let us stroke them and came out from their beds. Unlike Lily, who hissed at everyone, but once she’d settled in over a couple of weeks, was as loving a cat as you could wish for. Next door we have Tilly, who had been neglected and took more than a year to come round, but she is gorgeous and friendly now.

        The lighter coloured one is Ziggy,aged 10 and the dark tabby is Jessie, aged 8. Ziggy has a tail like a lemur! We should be able to get their microchip details later on today. They’ve both been checked over by our vet.

        2. I am pleased to report that Oscar is finally coming round to being a loving dog (it’s only taken two and a bit years).

    2. What Plimer says is very hotly denied. But they would deny it, wouldn’t they?

      I am no geologist and my science “O” level does not qualify me to have a reputable opinion but my gut instinct tells me that Plimer is right!

    1. Only those of us above a certain age remember The Beverly Hillbillies. In its heyday it averaged 57 million viewers each week in the US.

      1. Jed
        Clampett: I reckon you done what you done because you didn’t know we
        was who we was. And if we hadn’t been who we was, we’d have still been
        much obliged for you to have done what you done.
        Probably wouldn’t get away with making it now.

        1. Without a doubt! I was ironing one afternoon watching ‘The Thin Blue Line’ with Rowan Atkinson, and written by Ben Elton (spit) but it was very funny and beautifully observed and diverse! Apparently it only lasted 2 series because the Marxist tw*ts at the beeb deemed that the audience had had enough of the stereotyping!! From Mr. Elton? Shirley knot?

  58. Someone I was arguing with on twitter said I was stupid, arrogant and probably believed everything I said was Ex Cathedra. Stupid idiot. I don’t even like cheese.

  59. Lots of worry here in the Oberstleutnant household: Firstborn’s tiny cat has vanished, missing two nights now. Perkins (because of bass tone in the purr, plus joke on diesel engines…) is about the size of a small slipper, and hasn’t been see for 2 days now. Lives in the country, as a farm cat.
    We hope he has gone a’courting (since his bollox are about the same size as he is), but as he lives in the country, he might have fallen foul of badgers, and God knows what else with teeth.
    Firstborn looks like a cross between the Hulk and Big Daddy – a scary outside camouflaging a really soft inside, and will be devastated if Perkins has come to harm. He loves that wee cat, and it’s reciprocated, so we’re all on edge. Complicating the issue, we’re flying to UK on Sunday…

    2. My daughter’s horsebox, Bernie, had a Perkins diesel engine which made so much smoke when starting that the vehicle nearly disappeared. However, the Perkins was so reliable that it was used in many ocean going yachts and I was thus able to maintain it using parts from the local chandlers in Levington boatyard.

      The Perkins could go far and wide and could be relied on to get Bernie and daughter with horse back home even if it got a bit hot under the collar a few times.

      1. Perkins Diesel had a plant in Colchester. I turned down a job there just after I’d graduated.

  60. Lots of worry here in the Oberstleutnant household: Firstborn’s tiny cat has vanished, missing two nights now. Perkins (because of bass tone in the purr, plus joke on diesel engines…) is about the size of a small slipper, and hasn’t been see for 2 days now. Lives in the country, as a farm cat.
    We hope he has gone a’courting (since his bollox are about the same size as he is), but as he lives in the country, he might have fallen foul of badgers, and God knows what else with teeth.
    Firstborn looks like a cross between the Hulk and Big Daddy – a scary outside camouflaging a really soft inside, and will be devastated if Perkins has come to harm. He loves that wee cat, and it’s reciprocated, so we’re all on edge. Complicating the issue, we’re flying to UK on Sunday…

  62. Those in charge of the Great Reset are again attempting their scaremongering tactics on food consumption. They have clearly funded ‘research’, ably aided-and-abetted by their foot-soldiers: the Global Corporations and ‘Big Pharma’. {Joe Pinkstone (Science correspondent) D.T. 20/10/23]

    Tucking into one fry-up a week increases risk of Type 2 diabetes

    TUCKING into a full English breakfast once a week is enough to increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes, a study shows.

    Red meat, both processed and unprocessed, is increasingly being linked to various health conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.

    The research has found that just two portions of red meat a week, such as two rashers of bacon and two sausages, raises the risk of Type 2 diabetes by up to 10 per cent.

    Data also show that the most carnivorous, who have around two red meat servings a day, are 62 per cent more likely to get diabetes than those who eat barely any, or half a portion a day.

    However, eating more meat than your body is used to increases health risks regardless of your regular intake.

    Adding an extra portion to one’s average regular daily intake – whether that is two portions a day or half – increases risk of diabetes 46 per cent.

    The risk is cumulative, so, for example, every extra portion of processed meat, such as a sausage roll, increases the average risk of developing the condition by 46 per cent. For unprocessed meat, the risk goes up by 24 per cent for every extra portion.

    Scientists gathered information on health and diet from more than 200,000 people in the US back to 1980 and found one in 10 developed Type 2 diabetes,

    They split the cohort into five groups based on how much meat they ate, with the biggest eaters having more than 1.5 servings a day. The lowest group was around half a portion a day.

    “The risk of Type 2 diabetes in the top quintile was 60 per cent higher versus the bottom quintile,” said Walter Willet, study lead author and professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

    “However, we could see a significant increase in risk with two servings per week greater intake. Participants with approximately two servings per week had a five to 10 per cent increase in risk. For this reason, limiting intake to not more than about one serving (100 gram) per week would be reasonable to keep risk due to red meat to a low level.”

    The study, in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that swapping out a portion of meat for a legume or nut lowered risk by 30 per cent.

    Having a nut-based meal instead of processed meat reduces risk of diabetes by 41 per cent, data show.

    “Of course what we eat instead of red meat is important… and the best replacement would be plant protein sources (nuts, legumes including soy foods) or a modest amount of dairy foods,” Prof Willet added.

    Previous studies have indicated a link between red meat consumption and Type 2 diabetes risk, and researchers say this study adds a greater level of certainty about the association.

    First author Xiao Gu said: “Our findings strongly support dietary guidelines that recommend limiting the consumption of red meat, and this applies to both processed and unprocessed red meat.”

    Prof Willett added: “A limit of about one serving per week of red meat would be reasonable for people wishing to optimise their health and wellbeing.”

    I commented on this BTL and it wasn’t long before I attracted a mind-altered imbecile. I wrote:

    This report is a load of dangerous and erroneous rubbish and lies. Archaeological research has now proved, conclusively, that mankind is a naturally evolved carnivore and that eating meat is the best way to maintain optimum health. “Research” such as this is funded, heavily, by the global corporations and Big Pharma who want to ensure that humans continue to buy their products, of mainly vegetation (which is alien to the human digestive tract). Big Pharma want to continue selling their drugs to people made ill by becoming vegetarians and vegans. These are the same clowns who urged everyone to use seed oils and cut the nutritious fat off meat. I, for one, have a functioning brain and I shall keep it that way by remaining a carnivore.

    Grizzly: Utter b*ll*cks! And I’m now convinced you are clinically insane! If you were truly a carnivore then your health would be appalling, as you would be missing out on vital vitamins and carbohydrates. Just look at the effect a meat only diet had on Shackleton and his crew, when they were forced to overwinter in Antarctica. Man has never been a carnivore and there is no conclusive archaeological proof of this, however many times you claim to the contrary. How about you provide a single peer reviewed reference published in a reputable journal to back your ideas up? Early man had an omnivorous diet, eating berries, nuts, leaves and meat. The final proof that your theory is nuts is to open your mouth, stare at your face in the mirror and look at the makeup of your teeth. You have 12 teeth that can be classed as for tearing flesh (8 incisors and 4 canines) and 20 teeth for grinding other types of food. That’s if half of them haven’t already fallen out from scurvy. Carnivores have a preponderance of sharp teeth!

    The global corporations and Big Pharma are merely tools of the Great Reset. They want to make the eight billion people on this planet eat more and more unnatural vegetation and cereal crops because they know it keeps them stupid enough to believe their lies about proper nutrition (as clearly displayed by demented stool pigeons such as “nickname27037558”). Type-2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance brought on my eating too much sugar and carbohydrates (which are also sugar). There is neither sugar nor carbohydrate content in meat and fish, which are proteins. Protein consumption does not cause insulin resistance, the major driver for Type-2 diabetes. Veganism is a mind disease, precisely what those in charge want to perpetuate to control a docile and subservient populace. The evidence for this is all around.

    Thos running the Great Reset are all too aware of how eating vegetation makes people into complicit imbeciles, who refuse to look at the bigger picture and continue to destroy their own health.

    1. What crap.
      Diabetes from bacon and sausage, my left buttock.
      It used to be blamed on sugar, now they blame it on meat, what next? Sunshine? Fresh air? Fairy dust?
      They buggers can go jerk themselves off in the corner.

    2. They said to eat less red meat so i thought i would stock up. ” 2 X Hawksmoor whole fillets of beef. 2 X 3 bone fore rib. 2 X extra thick sirloin chops bone in. That’s the Christmas and Easter parties sorted out.

          1. Good lad. I’ve got some dry-curing (for a change) in the fridge. I ground up some black peppercorns and some allspice berries to add to the curing mixture.

        2. In years to come that will signify that you have a stock of some gm modified bacon like tasting root vegetable.

          You will enjoy your bacon with its strong turnip overtaste

      2. I’m having a roast fore-rib of beef, on the bone, for my (English) Christmas dinner this year. I don’t like turkey (no matter how many times I’m ‘advised’ how to cook the flavour-free rubbish). Some years I have loin of pork, other years I have duck, goose or capon.

        1. I did capon last year. 2 lots of neighbours involved and we split the duties. I still had a enough left for Easter too.

          I ordered it for Christmas delivery by Ocado. You can keep adding to the order before delivery. In the last week the 4.5 kg bird was reduced to half price. So i emptied it out of my trolley and then put it back in with 50% off.

          3. I had capon at Christmas for 30 years. I acquired it from an excellent butcher in mid-Nottinghamshire. Many times he would bone it and prepare it as a Galantine that could be sliced as you would a loaf of bread. Utterly delicious.

          6. Superb center piece. Not many people are prepared to put in the effort nowadays. I always like to make a showstopper when entertaining. Gives the guests something to talk about other than how their day was. (as if i want to know).

          7. I too had a capon two years ago. For some reason the turkey order i put in with my butcher had gone astray but he had a spare capon.

          2. Why it is acceptable to castrate bulls for beef meat and not cockerels for capon meat is beyond my comprehension.

            Amongst the PTB there must be someone who wants to stick up for cocks!

          2. I see you had a healthy appetite. What did Caroline and any others present have to eat?

        5. The last two Christmases we have had a whole shoulder of lamb, cooked quite slowly. It was lovely. In 2020 there were just the two of us, so we had a duck. Probably last had turkey in 2019. I’m not fond of it.

          1. I’ve never had lamb at Christmas (shoulder is my favourite). I’ve always been outvoted.

    3. I meant to tell you last week that one of our interesting little discussions in the crypt at church (which the serving team use as a vestry) was about veggie diets. There were three vegetarians saying how odd it is that soem people give up real meat only to eat fake meat. A point we all agreed on. Then one of the ladies, who’s a retired hospital pediatrician, said but why would you not eat meat when human beings are clearly designed with teeth and a digestive system intended for meat consumption. That put an abrupt end to the topic.

      1. When I was at school, humans were omnivores. Thus, meat, vegetation and insects are all part of the diet – we are NOT vegetarians, as we don’t have a digestive system to ferment vegetation (like a ruminant), or one that facilitates eating and re-eating vegetables (like a rabbit), so we can actually get a decent nutrition from it.

      2. I got told off for pointing out to a veggie that they killed vegetables – you could dig up a spud and replant it and it would grow, but by the time you’d cooked it, it was dead.

    4. The type of people who write this kind of propaganda have never been anywhere near a book on nutrition. They are dangerous nutters!

    5. The quarterwit wouldn’t give up:

      Grizzly: Well done, you understand some of the causes type-2 diabetes! Since you seem to understand little else I guess we should all be grateful for small victories. The key phrase though is TOO MUCH sugar/carbohydrate. Just about any food type is harmful in excess and lack of certain food types is also harmful. And I have never denied the dietary problems that large swathes of Westerners have. Diet should be balanced and a human carnivore (still don’t believe your statement here) most definitely does not have a balanced diet. I do notice you have no refutation regarding the different teeth we possess, no reference regarding your nonsensical claim that the archaeological record shows we are natural carnivores and have previously provided no argument against the know benefits of a Mediterranean/Japanese style diet (high in grains, vegetables and fish, whilst very low in red meat). All you come back with is calling me a stool pigeon 😂. Finally, anyone who witters on about this mythical Great Reset really needs to invest in a better tin foil hat.

      Yes, nickname27037558, poor old Shackleton and his crew. What about those poor Inuit (Eskimos) who have never had access to any form of vegetation and have had to suffer — in excellent health, mind — by having to subsist on a diet of fish, seal meat and whale blubber. It is on record (medical records, that is) that those Inuit only contracted Western diseases after they were visited by members of western populations. They only started to get clinically obese and unhealthy when introduced to a western diet of junk food and weeds. Watch this and learn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_1fiN-1SI&list=WL&index=23

      You can’t educate cabbage!

      1. There is nothing like meat. We eat it very day and have done for over 75 years. I never read all these scare stories .We use as much salt and sugar as we like and always have done.

        1. It is the ultra processed foods which i am sure you never eat like ready meals takeaways that are the problem. They have tried to demonise salt, sugar and fats/butter and dairy but we know better.

        2. “We use as much salt and sugar as we like and always have done.” – If my understanding of you, Johnny, is correct, this should be qualified by “sparingly”.

          1. We are both from Lancashire we use nothing sparingly. Thats Yorkshire that uses things sparingly.

      2. I saw this Grizz when i was reading Terriblegraph on Pressreader. He (she?) is a definite jerk!!!

  63. Here’s one for you: 5th November is also All Saints Day.
    Will that make the fireworks sound better?

    2. Perhaps in some Lutheran Churches. In much of Western Christianity, All Saints’ Day is 1st November.

      1. Caroline and I used to teach in a small public school called Allhallows near Lyme Regis – we all sang this lustily on November 1st

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffM1jNA6BuU

        Sadly, ten years after we had left, the school folded after a history of nearly 500 years as a consequence of extremely incompetent management .

    3. Perhaps in some Lutheran Churches. In much of Western Christianity, All Saints’ Day is 1st November.

    1. I found his letter over long, rather self congratulatory, “aren’t I good, and aren’t I so virtuous because I have resigned.”

  65. BBC News at One today reported on how a couple were unable to open the doors and became trappped inside their hybrid car whilst partially submerged in flood water.

    I realised, whilst working out how to escape from my EV in an emergency, that the only way out is to unlock the driver’s door from the outside with the mechanical key or use that key from the inside to release the rear hatch door through a small aperture in the boot.

    It also raised the question as to whether it could also be difficult to escape from an ICE vehicle.

    1. It’s very difficult to open any car door underwater until the internal pressure equals the external pressure and the quickest way to get that (other than smashing the glass) is to open a window which with electric windows might not work if the electrics have failed

  66. Completely OT but we’re renewing our house/contents insurance from Direct Line. The premium has gone up 33% so OH phoned to tell them he’d found the same cover+ with Privilege Premium for lower premium. After 40 mins the DL bot said OK and that was it! After 10 years – zippo! It turns out that Privilege are the same company as DD!

    1. Loyalty never counts. They simply don’t give a stuff. Insurance companies are dedicated to ensuring they never, ever pay out.

  67. Good afternoon all

    Earlier on I mentioned I was going out to our local heathland to have a walk with Pip spaniel .

    I parked the car in my usual favourite spot , gathered stuff like my handbag , dog whistle phone etc and wandered off with dog through banks of gorse that had overgrown the footpaths and much to my horror … the low lying heather was like a marsh , saturated , huge puddles and red Devon cattle up to their ankles in slosh.

    So I whistled Pip in to heel , and back tracked through the gorse and he reluctantly climbed back into his travelling crate.

    I wasn’t wearing a coat, no need , sun shining and 17c.. But … there were HUGE Cu Nimbs gathering on the horizon .. enormous peaks , massive shapes .. and not a sign of rain or thunder .. just ginormous marshmallow shapes in the sky.. going where , I dunno.

    I managed to have a short walk with Pip on the village playing field, just 3700 steps and 181 calories used up. I had hoped to achieve at least 8,000 steps or more.

    Clever things these watches .. excellent £60 worth.

    1. It’s grey, dank with occasional drizzle here in Stevenage but mild with almost no wind.

        1. It was fairly fine most of the day here, and I got a load of washing dry outside. But it rained quite hard while we were having our dinner.

      1. Why doesn’t she attempt to stop the construction of coal-fired power stations in China?

          1. It’s because the UK is a soft target. It tolerates just about any kind of disruption other than that in support of anything which was thought to be conventional and mainstream before the present century.

          3. According to Ogga, the Great British Public in its voting habits is largely supportive of the “tidal-wave of crap”. If he’s correct, paedophilia, transexualism, subservience to minorities, veganism, public transport, cycling & walking, heat pumps, a rejection of British history and traditions, pronoun badges, looting, graffiti, body piercing, tattoos, ripped jeans, 15-minute cities, emotional incontinence and offence-taking are just some of what now commands broad public support.

          1. I doubt it, but as FGR are sliding down to League 3, perhaps he is feeling the pinch funding their new stadium.

      5. Three years ago she said we had twelve years left.
        So only another 9 of her rubbish to tolerate.

      6. It’s the last paragraph that interests me. Roger Hallam, a BBC hero and a vandal cleared of his crime because his actions ‘were a proportionate response to the climate crisis’, and Indigo Rumbelow, who shrieked at Mark Austin of Sky News ‘Do you love your children more than you love fossil fuels?’ and was told to shut up.

        They’ll probably get cautions. Forty years ago, Old Bill would have fitted ’em up good and proper to silence them.

    3. Your cumulo nimbus came our way but didn’t drop any rain. I was late hanging out the washing as it didn’t look too promising this morning. I left it out while we went to the surgery for a blood test and then did the shopping. It’s in now and dried pretty well. Just the underwear to air a bit.

      We’ll be collecting our new cats over the weekend so it felt good to be buying cat food again!

        1. I posted photos earlier – gleaned from the charity’s Fb page – you’ll have to scroll back a few hours for those. They are two tabby girls, aged 8 and 10, who need a quiet home with no young children. They are both gorgeous and friendly. Jessie and Ziggy. Those were their original names, though the temporary owners (with young children) had changed them. They will keep their own names.

        2. I posted photos earlier – gleaned from the charity’s Fb page – you’ll have to scroll back a few hours for those. They are two tabby girls, aged 8 and 10, who need a quiet home with no young children. They are both gorgeous and friendly. Jessie and Ziggy. Those were their original names, though the temporary owners (with young children) had changed them. They will keep their own names.

      1. I was made to read a book by Rev Richard Coles (?) for book club. Throughout, he referred to himself as a widow. I did actually throw the book at the wall at one point. And it was a library book which i am usually very reverential of (not sure that’s English but you get what I mean).

        1. It infuriates me. It’s indoctrination. He who controls the language controls the narrative. We need to fight back and constantly point out that it’s incorrect.

  69. iPlayer Parliament 2:30 pm broadscast

    When replying to Andrew Brigden on the matter of Excess Deaths the Health & Social Care Minister made reference to recent high levels of deaths due to the increased number of cases of influenza. – I thought flu mostly killed off elderly patients. A. Brigden made the point in his speech that the greatest number of excess deaths post the administration of the nMRA jab was in the 15-50 age group.

    Also FUCK the BBC for running ‘reassuring’ text messages about the safety of vaccines which was very distracting whilst trying to listen to his speech.

      1. Much to the annoyance of one Conservative MP on the Front Bench, there was a massive cheer from the public gallery when Brigden began his speech and an even louder one at the end!

  70. The Nationwide Building Society has sent me a love letter (unsigned) telling me how much it loves me and that without reference to its saver members is going to spend squillions “modernising its logo”. Why FFS?

    It just keeps getting worser and worser

      1. There was a bank which boasted:

        “Our roots are our branches”

        It is ergo rootless without its branches.

    3. It’s rather like the beeboids spending several million changing their logo from “BBC” to “B B C”

        2. The loonie green Canadian witch Lorna Green, who along with the disgusting Patrick Harvie,I keeps the revolting SNP afloat!

    1. Oh wonderful, here comes a boring kick and chase by the flat-track bullies; as bloody usual.

      With rain forecast on Saturday evening, Grayson believes England will move it via the boot, buying territory at the expense of possession.
      “England need to get rid of the ball before they make a mistake,” he added.
      “Play enough to get yourself on the front foot and into a decent position, put your boot through the ball, and force the Springboks to play out from deeper.”

      https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/67171844

      It would serve them right if the Springbok back three leave Daly, May and Steward in their wake on the run back and cards are issued for head-hunter tackles.
      Every side that has run at England has shown them to be vulnerable to elusive runners.

      1. Give it a rest, sos! I hope you may be amazed! I’m certainly a bit more optimistic than you are!

        1. This is the first really top tier side they’ve played so far.
          I suspect Scotland would have beaten them, let alone France or Ireland and probably Wales.

          As an Englishman I would like to see them win, but not in exchange for another decade of kick and chase.

          One thing in their favour is that SA will probably be knackered.

          1. I think the plan to give away possession at all costs is brilliant. One might call it the Ben Youngs Style.

          2. Good Lord! How much anti English stuff have you read? Every cliche for the last month in there!

          3. Not anti English, anti the style of play and that’s down to the coaching and selection.
            The curse of Eddie Jones, which is what Steve Borthwick inherited. Borthwick is a great forwards coach.

            We shall see.

  73. S.S. Whitford Point.

    Complement:
    39 (36 dead and 3 survivors).
    Convoy HX-79
    7,840 tons of steel

    At 01.48 hours on 20th October 1940 the Whitford Point (Master John Edward Young) in convoy HX-79 was hit by one torpedo from U-47 (Günther Prien) and sank 90 miles southwest of Rockall. The master, 33 crew members and two gunners were lost. Three crew members were picked up by HMS Sturdy (H 28) (LtCdr G.T. Cooper, RN) and landed at Londonderry.

    Type VIIB U-Boat U47 has been missing since 7th March 1941 in the North Atlantic south of Iceland. 45 dead (all hands lost).

    Atlantic convoy HX-79 lost 12 vessels during the 20th & 21st October 1940.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/br/whitford_point.jpg

    1. Although on the wrong side, one respects Günther Prien on his daring and courage – both in entering Scapa Flow and afterwards.
      He was rather effective in getting U-47 to sink British ships. Especially the Royal Oak, in Scapa Flow.
      Pity nobody sank him earlier.

    2. The UK signatories are an interesting cross-section. I wonder how many of them would be in favour of the necessary legislation (or, more correctly, repeal thereof) to free the country from its straitjacket?

      Alan Miller, Together Association
      Alan Sokal, Professor of Mathematics, UCL
      Andrew Neish, KC
      Andrew Roberts, Historian
      Andrew Tettenborn, Professor of Law, Swansea University
      Brendan O’Neill, Journalist
      Claire Fox, Founder of the Academy of Ideas
      David Goodhart, Journalist, Author
      David McGrogan, Professor of Law, Northumbria University
      Diane Atkinson, Historian, Biographer
      Dominic Frisby, Comedian
      Doug Stokes, International Relations Professor, University of Exeter
      Dr. James Smith, Podcaster, Literature Scholar, RHUL
      Eve Kay, TV Producer
      Francis Foster, Comedian
      Helen Joyce, Journalist
      Iain McGilchrist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
      Izabella Kaminska, Journalist, The Blind Spot
      James Allan, Professor of Law, University of Queensland
      James Orr, Associate Professor, University of Cambridge
      Jeremy Hildreth, Independent
      John Cleese, Comedian, Acrobat
      Julia Hartley-Brewer, Journalist
      Julius Grower, Fellow, St. Hugh’s College
      Kira Phillips, Documentary Filmmaker
      Konstantin Kisin, Author
      Laura Dodsworth, Journalist and Author
      Matt Goodwin, Politics Professor, University of Kent
      Matt Ridley, Journalist, Author
      Niall Ferguson, Historian, Stanford
      Nick Dixon, Comedian
      Nigel Biggar, Chairman, Free Speech Union
      Nina Power, Writer
      Patrick Hughes, Artist
      Peter Hitchens, Author, Journalist
      Piers Robinson, Organization for Propaganda Studies
      Richard Dawkins, Biologist
      Robert Tombs, Historian
      Stella Assange, Campaigner
      Steven Berkoff, Actor, Playright
      Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology, Oxford
      Toby Young, Journalist, Free Speech Union
      Winston Marshall, Journalist, The Spectator

        2. But he did have a funny walk which most of us would have difficulty doing without falling over!!

  76. A BTL Comment via the US: Any ex-lawyers or ex-police officers able to comment?

    “Is eating.. Ooops “taste testing” your way around a supermarket considered shop lifting ?

    It sure is happening around here. Family of three kids and a mum:
    4 slices of ham, 4 of roast pork, 4 of pastrami, some processed cheese and a small bottle of milk, followed by bananas and a nice apple each. Just before leaving go to the Ice-cream fridge and break open a packet of 4 choc coated vanilla ice-creams on a stick. Smiles all around and $25 dollars saved, see you at closing for evening eating.”

  79. 377834+ up ticks,

    A Bridgen, a man for all reasons.

    HE stood there today in a house of echoing silence, completely on his lonesome, and put into words what many of us have taken to be the truth whilst suffering the loss of loved ones.

    Leader material definitely, no LMF in his character.

    The politicians, AKA kapo overseers mass absence surely confirms their mass guilt.

    CHARLIE SANSOM
    @CharlieSansom
    ·
    1h
    One man stands alone speaking up for excess deaths and vaccine damage.

    Remember that this same chamber was full to the brim when MPs were voting to take away your freedoms, force-vaccinate, sack care workers and mandate masks.`

    Check this out.

    https://x.com/Lewis_Brackpool/status/1715379948230176972?s=20`

    ,

      3. Oh, be fair; it’s a Friday adjournment debate, so all the MP’s will have had to get back to their constituencies to work hard on their constituents’ behalf. /sarc

        Notwithstanding that one might argue trying to establish whether they are likely to suffer early death might be considered to be in those constituents’ interests.

        1. Why should we be fair to these anal orifices when they are not interested in the truth which affects their constituents?

  80. I spent much of the day going through Mother’s “archive” that we recovered from Wales when we sold her house last year.
    Pictures of people I’d almost forgotten, or never knew – including relatives. Certificates of birth, marriage, and death… found out that Mother changed her name by deed poll after divorce and before marrying Father, to the same surname (assume hanky-panky afoot then) in 1959 or so, causing some confusion in their wedding certificate!
    Letters and notifications from Nigeria – “British West Africa”.
    People whose names I’d heard but cannot associate faces to.
    Total financial confusion after Father died. Money every place. Tracking the current situation will take a long time.
    Masses of papers – many for Family archives.
    Reading letters preserved by Mother, and sent to Father – moved to tears by how clearly she loved him, never saw that before. That was hard work.
    Need some red medicine. Getting old is hard work, when there’s this stuff to take care of.

    1. It is a challenge many of us have to deal with. Well done for making a confident start!

      Incidentally – family photographs. I have a great box full – inherited from various relatives. When my father was living here for his last few months in 1988, I had the (rare) brainwave of asking him to go through them and write on the back all the names of people he could recognise AND a rough date. Kept him busy for weeks. And solved lots of problems of identity.

      1. I have a few boxes of old photos, which I have been scanning and downloading to my PC. Many of them have a brief annotation on the back, so I am able to give a name to these photos (place, people, date). Many of them, however, do not have any note, so I find myself taking a guess at the approximate year and place (and sometimes person or persons).

          2. Yes, of course a common enough name , but bungalows were not that common in those early Edwardian days. Our own home years ago was a 1930’s bungalow .. similar in looks .

      2. Smart plan, Bill! Problem for me is a) Father is no longer, and Mother has dementia. Need to find some way of getting her to identify the subjects, without getting upset… Hmm… red thought-loosener required!

        1. Take some with you on your visit – photos are good memory jerkers for people with dementia. She may have some moments of insight.

        2. I did wonder whether her long term memory for faces etc might override the current dementia. My father was far gone at the end but still, in a coma, recognised the names of cricketers

      3. I have inherited a lot of photos and memorabilia and also been given a lot from relatives I have traced through family history research. Some are named and others not – but I must go through them and identify the ones I know.

    2. Not an easy task Obs.
      A few years ago our family were asked to cleat the home of one of my wife’s Aunts. All the paper work photo albums. All the old items in the loft.
      I found scythe in the shed. I couldn’t bare to part with it. It’s in one of my sheds now. I found 4 old 50 pound note in an envelope on the ground behind the fridge freezer. I had to send the BOE because the notes were out of date.
      I took the furniture to the skip. The old wooden sofa frame jammed the crusher. The flat was sold and we had to send a third of the money to relatives in Canada, they didn’t even that us.
      Fond memories of the lovely old couple. Eleanor and Joe.

      1. When we cleared Mother’s house, much was sold off and much wasn’t. Kept a few pieces, books to charity shop, that kind of thing.
        The worst bit was the house clearers getting rid of the leftovers… they threw all the kitchen glassware and pottery into a bin, with the most appalling crashing sound – can hear it still, and it’s most upsetting even now. Wish we’d saved a couple of pieces, especially my favourite pint tumbler with Boddington’s logo on it – used to drink cider with Father with that.

        1. Don’t – just don’t! The stuff I have thrown away from the parents’ various homes…..the trips to the tip. Getting rid of father’s £10,000 fully equipped workshop for £100…….(the house was sold everything just HAD to go in a fortnight).

          Still grieve over the lost items…

          1. We at least managed to find a charity shop that would take the books and clothes.
            The 1970s drinks globe went to Second Son.
            I kept the triangle oak glass-fronted cabinet. And the Bedouin brass-topped folding table.
            But the rest… that was hard work. Wish I’d been sharp-witted enough to kepp the glass.
            Lots of 1970s Ercol teak furniture had to go. I’d have liked to keep the matching armchairs where Father & I had numerous chats, but Norwegian house not big enough. Ah, well.

          4. We at least managed to find a charity shop that would take the books and clothes.
            The 1970s drinks globe went to Second Son.
            I kept the triangle oak glass-fronted cabinet. And the Bedouin brass-topped folding table.
            But the rest… that was hard work. Wish I’d been sharp-witted enough to kepp the glass.
            Lots of 1970s Ercol teak furniture had to go. I’d have liked to keep the matching armchairs where Father & I had numerous chats, but Norwegian house not big enough. Ah, well.

    3. I don’t think many of us recognise how much love most of our parents had for each other, we took so much for granted. Best wishes for your trip, as they say, “been there, done that” and it’s not easy.

  81. I don’t know what it will mean, but it sounds very ominous

    Israel reveals plans for ‘three-phase war’ in Gaza, starting with airstrikes and ground manoeuvres, then moving in to eradicate pockets of resistance and then ceasing Israel’s ‘responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip’
    Israel says it wants to cease its ‘responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip’
    Increased Israeli military activity was seen near the Israel-Gaza border today

    The Israelis are in grave danger of losing the sympathy and support of the “undecided”
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12653619/Israel-reveals-plans-three-phase-war-Gaza-starting-airstrikes-ground-manoeuvres-moving-eradicate-pockets-resistance-ceasing-Israels-responsibility-life-Gaza-Strip.html

      1. Indeed, and for my money they should get as many pumps as they can muster and the necessary pipework to flood all the tunnels with sea water and shoot the rats as they emerge.

          2. Too bl**dy true. They don’t think like us – and even those who would like to really assimilate don’t dare to, because then they would be apostates. What a religion!

          5. When it was merely people of the same underlying beliefs and backgrounds it tended to.

            Once the very diverse appeared the whole edifice collapsed.

          6. No doubt the puppet master didn’t think that it would work – that’s why it has been forced on us.

  82. By the magic of the internet, I am playing Beethoven’s 5th – the Emperor – via the TV (which has good sound), and it’s sublime.
    Superb rendition of my favourite Classical piece. Hope to be buried/funeralled to the 3rd movement.
    Covered in huge fuzzy, warm cats…
    Smells of steak pie from the kitchen, too… can things get better?

        1. I know – most kyebroads are like that. It was a crool jest to humiliate a man with finger trouble!!

          5. That will be me, later. It’s too early yet for me, but I would certainly forget my lunchtime ban if Lottie appeared…..

          2. Shame?

            I thought you were once a lawyer.

            Ah, you’re that Bill Thomas, on the side of the good guys.

        1. It is not the right time of the year for a cat walkabout. Is it possible he’s stuck up a tree somewhere? Our little cat went missing for several days, so one evening after the noise of the day had settled and it was almost dark, we went out and called him. And then we heard it: faint answering constant miaows in the distance. He was stuck up a tree in the churchyard 100 yards away or so and couldn’t get down. Poppiesdad got the ladders out and rescued him, fortunately it was a pollarded tree, so not too high, about 25 x 30 ft and kitty was sitting in the middle. Of course, when pd was part way down the ladder the cat made a jump for it and bolted home and was through the cat flap in an instant, very hungry. However, we would never have heard him during the day. It is worth having an evening search, calling for him. Although we live rurally there is still a surprising amount of background noise during the daylight and early evening hours.

          4. Just a thought: presumably a cat’s hearing is very good.

            Just wandering around a bit calling out might reassure the little beastie that someone is looking?

  83. By the magic of the internet, I am playing Beethoven’s 5th – the Emperor – via the TV (which has good sound), and it’s sublime.
    Superb rendition of my favourite Classical piece. Hope to be buried/funeralled to the 3rd movement.
    Covered in huge fuzzy, warm cats…
    Smells of steak pie from the kitchen, too… can things get better?

  84. The conspiracy theorist in me is wondering whether these by-elections were deliberately thrown in order to herd people back behind the two main parties and away from the small parties like Reform.
    Listening to the radio coverage while in the car they are really laying it on thick especially when the by-elections hardly got a mention this week in the run up.

  85. That’s me for this damp day. It rained on and off – not hugely but enough to piss the cats off. They have been mooching round the house with “I’m BORED” faces…

    Should be bright ad sunny (and windy) tomorrow but the wind will help dry out the land.

    Have a spiffing evening drinking a lot (to lower the water table, you understand).

    A demain.

  86. Already starting to doze off so I shall say, Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk until I finally get round to publishing the morn’s story.

  87. The UK doesn’t have a duty to take in a single Gazan refugee

    We are already paying a heavy price for an asylum application system that seems to say yes first, and ask questions later

    ISABEL OAKESHOTT • 19 October 2023 • 6:44pm

    Pity the people of Scotland. Humza Yousaf is their First Minister, but the beleaguered SNP chief appears to have mistaken himself for head of the UN, and is busy telling the world that the UK should be first in line to welcome Palestinian refugees. What utter madness, when this country is worryingly divided over the dreadful conflict, and unable to cope with all the refugees and asylum seekers we already have.

    With his wife’s parents and other close relatives trapped in Gaza, Yousaf is feeling this crisis very personally, and is naturally desperate to do whatever he can to help. It would take a peculiarly cold heart not to be moved, as he is, by the fate of all the innocent civilians cowering in Gaza as their homes and streets are reduced to rubble. Living on a strip of land no bigger than the Isle of Wight, many are without food, water or light, and have no way out. As a mother, I too wish there were a way of scooping up all the terrified little ones and whisking them to a place far from the terrible reach of Hamas.

    Such safe havens must be found – but emphatically not here. For this is a crisis made in the Middle East, and it is for countries in the region to come to the rescue of those fleeing the rockets and bombs. As Egypt and Jordan stand firm in their refusal to open their borders, the latter having already been overwhelmed by the exodus from Syria, calls will doubtless mount for us to “do our bit”. Yet we are already grappling with the socio-economic consequences of an influx of migrants that our shabby public services cannot cope with.

    Having welcomed 174,000 Ukrainian refugees from a war in Europe; accommodated about 25,000 Afghans fleeing a country that became more dangerous when our troops left it; and in total accepted more than a million more individuals from all over the world in the space of one year (June 2021 to June 2022), we are bursting at the seams.

    To usher in an additional cohort of traumatised people, many, if not most, of whom will not share our values; will not speak our language; and will not find it easy to build new lives here, would be insane. With the right support, most would probably integrate – but we must face up to the uncomfortable truth that a very small number will not wish us well, and may repay our generosity by fomenting division and hatred in our communities – or worse.

    At the thin edge of this wedge are the kinds of scenes we have witnessed on our streets in recent days, in which individuals with questionable allegiances have joined marches featuring the chanting of vile anti-Semitic slogans. Some have barely troubled to disguise their support for Hamas terrorists. Angrily brandishing Palestinian flags, marauding youths have exploited this country’s proud tradition of tolerating all forms of peaceful protest to verbally abuse Jews, their identities concealed by balaclavas and other sinister face masks.

    The scale of these demonstrations, the odd paraglider symbol visible amid the sea of angry red, black and green paraphernalia, has rocked the Jewish community. But the images should unsettle anyone who cares about our togetherness as a society. Who knew there were already so many enraged supporters of the Palestinian cause in this country?

    That so many of these protesters appear convinced that the plight of the people of Gaza is the fault of the Israelis, as opposed to the cruel Iranian-sponsored militia that controls the territory, has grave implications for community cohesion. How much more dangerous will this already febrile situation become, if we naively import thousands more people brutalised by war and confused about who is to blame for their plight? The Manchester bombing, perpetrated by the son of Libyan refugees who were granted asylum in the UK in 1993, is an example of the very worst case scenario.

    After a torrid six months, during which his party’s reputation has taken an unprecedented battering, Yousaf may see the Israel/Hamas crisis as a chance to shore up his ailing leadership. He has called on the Government to start crafting a refugee resettlement scheme, saying Scotland is ready to be the first country in Britain to provide “safety and sanctuary” for Palestinians. Amid a chronic shortage of social housing, where exactly does he propose they go?

    Across Britain, communities are paying a heavy price for an asylum application system that seems to say yes first, and ask hard questions later – if ever. Housed in hotels while the Home Office grapples with ever growing backlogs, individuals claiming to be fleeing war and terror, or persecution for their sexuality, understandably prefer to make cash on the black market than sit in their rooms twiddling their thumbs. At best, this can dramatically depress local wages. At worst, some of these characters are drawn into the criminal underworld. We cannot afford to exacerbate any of this.

    Travelling to the Middle East, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, declared that Benjamin Netanyahu now has a “duty” to restore stability to Israel. Fine: but the UK does not have a duty to take a single one of those escaping the fall-out.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/19/israel-hamas-gaza-uk-refugees/

    2. Good article but most we are suffering with are neither refugees nor qualify as asylum seekers the are illegal immigrants and should never have been allowed into our country.

    3. “With the right support, most would probably integrate – but we must face up to the uncomfortable truth that a very small number will not wish us well, and may repay our generosity by fomenting division and hatred in our communities – or worse.” The first is wishful thinking. Muslims will NOT integrate; the kuffar is “lower than cattle” according to the koran. Certainly they don’t wish us well; they positively hate us for being non-muslim and will deliberately foment division and hatred to get us to submit. Never forget that islam means submission.

    4. “With the right support, most would probably integrate – but we must face up to the uncomfortable truth that a very small number will not wish us well, and may repay our generosity by fomenting division and hatred in our communities – or worse.” The first is wishful thinking. Muslims will NOT integrate; the kuffar is “lower than cattle” according to the koran. Certainly they don’t wish us well; they positively hate us for being non-muslim and will deliberately foment division and hatred to get us to submit. Never forget that islam means submission.

    1. …and we’re hoping to fly to Bristol for Grandma’s birthday and friends visit, plus a couple favourite boozers… 🙁

    1. The list of policies to piss off Conservatives is long and deep. It’s been a suicide mission.

    2. Start fracking
      Use North Sea oil, gas and coal
      No more wind turbines
      No more solar farms
      Don’t allow Stonewall anywhere near schools
      Etc

      1. Get the Royal Marines to meet the migrant boats, not Border Farce and RNLI. And the Parachute Regiment onto the beaches.

      2. Those are the basics. I can think of more elaborate and developed solutions to the Stonewall issue. It involves high buildings and follows the Koran.

    2. Should be the other way – Gimmegrunts learn English and integrate – cheeky bastard. Certainly sounds like he wants Londistan

    4. No, he didn’t. It’s a widely circulated fabrication. There should be enough true reasons to dislike the man and his policies without inventing others. All it does is fuel the notion that he’s a victim of a misinformation campaign to the extent that people won’t believe it when they read the truth about him.

  92. https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/23869513.major-airline-cut-back-cardiff-airport-flights/
    “IT IS time to sell Cardiff Airport,” the Welsh Conservatives have claimed after one major airline announced it is slashing its winter schedule in half. Budget airline Ryanair says it will make 50 per cent fewer flights from Wales’ only international airport compared to last winter, while ramping up services in Bristol. Flights to Belfast International will also end on November 5 after being introduced this spring.
    Malaga in Spain and Faro in Portugal will also be cut from the winter schedule.
    Cardiff Airport has continued to run on a commercial basis after being acquired by the Welsh Government in 2013.
    Ryanair has chosen to base one of the newest aircraft in its fleet at Bristol Airport this winter, which they say will support more than 1,700 local jobs, including 30 new pilot and cabin crew roles.
    Head of communications Jade Kirwan declared: “Ryanair is pleased to announce more growth, investment and jobs for the South West.
    “We have had a long and successful relationship with Bristol Airport and the terms are right for us to be able to operate as a low cost airline.
    “The number of flights from Cardiff are 50 per cent less than last year, but we have found that most people are willing to travel to Bristol. There is so much going on there and we are happy to be growing our base.”
    Commenting on the news, Welsh Conservative shadow transport minister Natasha Asghar MS said it showed Wales was “grinding to a halt”.
    “It is concerning that Ryanair are moving operations away from Cardiff Airport. [Welsh] Labour’s transport plans for Wales continue to stall, with blanket 20mph speed limits, bus service cuts and a ban on road building, Labour are grinding Wales to a halt.
    “With passenger numbers dwindling at Cardiff Airport and affordable airlines moving away, it is time the Welsh Government swallow their pride and sell the Airport back to the private sector, to a company with a vision and strategy.
    “It is just another example in a long list of Labour’s pet projects wasting Welsh taxpayer’s money.”
    A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We’re committed to maintaining an airport in Wales because of the benefits it brings to the Welsh economy and its local supply chain.”

    Yet more proof that government couldn’t run a cold bath, let alone an airport.

    2. I’m not surprised airlines are cutting their flights from Cardiff. How can any passenger aircraft take off at 20mph?

    1. What Absolute filth, excrement and stinking Sewage.
      We need to clean up our country to make it safe for brits to live in.

    1. Because they’re not human. Not normal. Their fanaticism is such that they believe they can do anything to anyone their sky man says is not them. we can’t understand it because we’re not deranged religious psychotics. They are.

      2. It is because they are drugged up to the eyeballs with drugs that apparently relieve them of any sense of and for humanity, drugs which enable them to avoid sleep and keep going murdering people and inflicting the most horrific injuries on their captives.

        Anyone with knowledge of the means by which the Nazis and SS were able to dehumanise and murder countless millions of innocents will know that the soldiers themselves were fuelled on psychotic drugs administered by their government The Third Reich.

        There is nothing new in terms of the history of vile conflict. The same rules and techniques apply.

      3. It is because they are drugged up to the eyeballs with drugs that apparently relieve them of any sense of and for humanity, drugs which enable them to avoid sleep and keep going murdering people and inflicting the most horrific injuries on their captives.

        Anyone with knowledge of the means by which the Nazis and SS were able to dehumanise and murder countless millions of innocents will know that the soldiers themselves were fuelled on psychotic drugs administered by their government The Third Reich.

        There is nothing new in terms of the history of vile conflict. The same rules and techniques apply.

  97. sosraboc dies and goes to Hell.

    He is greeted by Mohammed who says;

    “If nothing else in your life, you got this one right”

      4. I’ve never believed in heaven or hell. When that which is us, our brains dies; the only way we live on is in the memory of others.

        I’d love to think when I go I’ll get to see Claudius, Mr Beast, Wiggy and so on with my Dad in the next town so I can visit on traffic free days (every day) where he lives with a version of mother that he deserves, where my brother’s autism simply isn’t but no such exists.

        There might be muslims in heaven, but they’ll not be there because of religion, they’ll be there because they are have earned it through good deeds and lives of quiet decency.

      5. My idea of hell would be to die and go to heaven and thereby discover that god obviously doesn’t give a shit about human behaviour .and lets humanity continue.

  99. Yeah, yeah, I know. Boring o’rugby again:

    I will laugh my socks off if the final turns out to be England vs Argentina after all I’ve written about England’s easy route.

      1. Were you too busy wetting yourself over Lewis Hamilton’s car doing well in the US GP?

        until the better driver surpassed him.

          1. I have always maintained that it’s down to the car.

            No matter how good the driver, if the opposition have better cars they tend to come out on top.

    2. Watching it on and off, but there’s not the difference I would have expected between the teams.

  100. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12653811/palestine-supporters-tear-posters-missing-israeli-children-hamas-terrorists-kidnapped.html?login#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

    Water cannon is expensive and runs out. I suggest a cordon, bordered by fire or military and then to spray napalm jelly on these wretched scum and throw a match at them and laugh as they desperately try not to catch fire.

    Then, because the point is to exterminate these scum, damned well burn them out anyway. They bring nothing to this country but bitterness, bigotry, hatred, spite, evil. They cost a fortune at every level. Be done with them. They leave in a shipping container or they burn.

      2. Diversity is our strength said Trudeau at some meeting with the unthinking masses today.

        I guess that spouting his little slogan is much easier fir him than confronting the rabid Muslim apologists in his caucus.

      3. Has the BBC fabricated the documented counts? Has it utterly invented the figures purely to project a stance in favour of Muslims and against Jews or anybody else who happens not to be a Muslim?

        1. Their usual tactic is to tell the pro-muslim side of a story, while ignoring salient facts that would change people’s perception.

      1. I thought it was rather feeble, especially the report on BBC London tv news.

        It’s the second report I’ve seen counting anti-Semitic and Islamophobic ‘hate crimes’, as though it’s a contest between equals…

        1. I’ve no idea what the documented counts are supposed to represent. Are they true numbers of threatening, intimidating and frightening incidents? Are they exaggerations of mild resentments which most of us would shrug off? Or are they complete inventions by charlatans attempting to influence public opinion? I’m in absolutely no position to know because I wasn’t there. In other words, we believe whatever we prefer to believe based on who we have decided to dislike beforehand and then filter whatever information comes our way, trusting that which supports what we already believe and rejecting whatever counters it.

      2. The specifics are the documented counts of hate crime incidents. However, just how intimidating, threatening and frightening they happen to be is purely anecdotal.

    1. Quite the most blatant bit of biased refereeing in the first half, which ruined the game. I was expecting the oz ref to appear in a black shirt after half time. Appalling!

        1. Oddly enough I thought the predicted final was going to be France v Ireland! Goes to show what I know!
          Some tosser on the DT rugby page just wrote ‘I posit that you have never watched a rugby match before’! I put him straight!

          1. I’ve seen many minutes of rugby, both union and league. It remains incomprehensible in its detail. I know a try, a conversion, a dropped goal and a penalty when I see one, but infringements are utterly beyond me. I see them in forensic slow motion with expert explanations of what’s being laid out in front of me and I almost always cannot see the infringement. There’s just a maul of arms and legs and I cannot see anything that resembles a contravention of the arcane rules. It’s Mandarin in sign language for all that I can make of it.

    1. In addition to the floods, my electricity was off this morning. No phone, no microwave, no central heating, no lighting. A foretaste of what’s to come.

  107. Long day. Par on Wordle.

    Wordle 853 4/6

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

    2. Par as well
      Wordle 853 4/6

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

    3. Me too.

      Wordle 853 4/6

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

  109. Just under 20 minutes to go, result beyond doubt, just about to become one-way traffic, I’m off to do something more interesting. I hope tomorrow night’s match is more of a contest.

  110. Evening, all. I hope you are all still above water. It has been horrendous here; I had to abandon attempts to attend a meeting locally because the approach roads were all under water and the alternative had been blocked by someone whose car had got stuck in the flood. Even getting back along the main road wasn’t easy; the roundabout was flooded, the road was flooded in several places and the garage, although operating, had a flood across its exit. I’ve sent my apologies for tomorrow; I was due to go to Cosford for the RAFARS AGM. Judging by the state of the A41 from Chester, the A41 to Wolverhampton isn’t going to be easy to navigate either. My dog sitter who was going to look after Oscar and Kadi while I was away is marooned by floods and won’t be able to get here as well, so all in all, discretion seemed the better part of valour.

          1. Agree. We have not seen much colour here, still green with some yellowing of the Sycamores but an awful lot of leaves on the ground so we are not seeing the usual gorgeous fall colours.

  111. Good night, chums. Sleep well, and I’ll be back at around 7 am (0700 hours) tomorrow.

    PS (at 5.30 am): Well, I woke up at around 3 am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I came downstairs and did a few odd jobs. Now I am feeling tired, so will go back to bed for a while. I may not wake up until much later, so “Good morning, chums” and I’ll be with you all later.

    1. Of course it was. (I am not being sarcastic). It was evident almost from the start.

      Edit: G’night, Sue.

    2. The transcript of the incident was there for all to hear the truth. The trial was a show trial that was only ever going to have one verdict, an absolute travesty of justice.

    3. It’s not just how the Democrats want black people to be – it’s how the globalists want us to be.

    4. It’s not just how the Democrats want black people to be – it’s how the globalists want us to be.

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