Friday 21 February: Europe needs a bold new plan for defence if it is to support Ukraine

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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600 thoughts on “Friday 21 February: Europe needs a bold new plan for defence if it is to support Ukraine”

    1. How can you sack your councillors when councils have cancelled this May's local elections?

    1. Her crime was refusing the state line. In Starmer's communist Britain that is a bigger crime than any other.

    1. There are millions of criminal gimmigrants in this country. We should send them to Ukraine. Then send the 'rights laywers', the MoD officials and Labour. All of it, including the membership.

      1. US speak. Very good.

        Having them goose-stepping would be interesting but I fear the skirts are a wee bit tight.😇

    4. Just how dumb is Starmer? Putting NATO boots on the ground and aircraft in the skies is the most provocative action to contemplate doing in Ukraine, short of officially declaring war on Russia. Trump has to inform Starmer/NATO that they will be on their own if they take this action.

      If the forcing of this action doesn't unseat Starmer, and possibly his government, then the arrival of body bags in the UK should bring him down.

    5. Red Ed Davy on Radio 4 this morning: We must attack Russia as soon as possible to prevent Putin from taking over the European Union.
      If necessary, our children's lives must be sacrificed for our comrades in Brussels, Berlin and Paris.
      Not exactly those words but that was the general sense.

    6. That first video was a painful watch. Repeatedly going around in circles. It seems to come down to whether the European NATO members will devote forces to work for a Brussels/Kiev hybrid, or realise that Trump spoke the truth six years ago, and that Vance was also honest about the European NATO membership hiding under the US military umbrella.
      The video also seems to confuse a 'peacekeeping' force and a 'deterrent'. Frankly, without the combined political will of the European NATO members, it's just Starmer, Micron, Rutte and Co. screaming into the void whilst saying 'after you'.

      As for the second video, all I can say is WRAFs have changed a bit since my day.

  10. Good morning all.
    A dry, dull start to the day. Overcast with 11.5°C outside when I brought the milk in.
    Yesterday got up to 13.2° with a low of 6.3°C, probably during the brief downpour we had in the afternoon.

  13. Europe needs a bold new plan for defence if it is to support Ukraine

    We all know that is impossible as nobody gets on while France & Germany will want to be in control while contributing very little.

    1. Why would Europe want to defend the most corrupt country on the continent. The hypocrisy is palpable when the bunch of Marxists, the EU calls it a democracy.

    1. And what is not said is once they have killed all the Jews the Christians are next.

      The Christian population living under Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas rule has steeply declined. In 1922, Christians constituted 11% of the population of geographical Palestine. In 1946, they constituted 8%, reflecting the greater relative growth of Jews and Muslims due to immigration.
      In 1967, Christians in Judea and Samaria were 6% of the population. In 1997 they constituted 1.5% of the total Palestinian population, in 2007 – 1.2%, and in 2017 – 1%.
      In Bethlehem, Christians frequently face violence and intimidation, and are left defenseless. A member of the Protestant clergy explained: “Christians feel unprotected due to the failure of the PA police to intervene on their behalf in confrontations with Muslims.”
      In 1950, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86% Christian. By 2017, Bethlehem’s Christian population had dwindled to 10%. The mass exodus of the Christians risks undermining the survival of Christianity in its birthplace.
      Palestinian Christians report systematic employment discrimination, forcing many to leave their communities to seek opportunities elsewhere.
      A 2022 study indicated a strong desire among Gaza’s Christian population to emigrate, twice as strong as that of Muslims. This explains how the Christian population of Gaza dwindled from 5,000 people before Hamas took control to just 1,000 in October 2023.

      https://jcpa.org/article/demographics-dont-lie-the-christian-population-in-pa-and-hamas-controlled-areas-is-declining/

  15. Macron: Trump cannot be weak against Putin. 21 February 2025.

    Emmanuel Macron will challenge Donald Trump to stand up to Russia in peace talks on Ukraine when he visits Washington next week.

    The French president said it was his role to “convince” Mr Trump that “his interests are the same as ours, whatever he thinks”, in his first public comments since the US president called Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator.

    Lol. Good luck with that.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/20/macron-trump-cannot-be-weak-against-putin/

    2. While comic, it's notable that Trump is the only one who brought a gun. The rest brought a flag.

    3. I believe President Trump called Zelensky a dictator to force him to prove otherwise. Namely, to have an election.

      1. Zelenskyy is a gay-boy, isn't he? I'm sure he would like to have an erection, preferably with Macron or Starmer . . . or both of them at the same time. . . or with senior army officers – a general erection!

      2. Zelenskyy is a dictator Pip. He has had his opponents murdered. Shut down media that opposed him and refused to hold an election. It is also true that he is unpopular in Ukraine. And for icing on the cake. He had two peace negotiators that were involved in the Minsk effort to broker peace, shot. And I shouldn't omit his conduct to the traditional Orthodox Church of Ukraine which he has outlawed in order to put his yes men in power.

  19. SIR — I note the growing interest in loose-leaf tea over tea bags, with the associated teapot becoming fashionable again (Lifestyle, February 18).
    However, I write to challenge the belief that a teapot is essential for making a proper cup of tea. While it has its place, a saucepan is just as effective for brewing tea with loose leaves, and is easier to clean.

    In South Asia, where tea is deeply embedded in daily life, this is the most common method. Water, tea leaves, milk and often spices such as cardamom and ginger are simmered together to create a rich, full-bodied flavour. This practical approach ensures better control over strength and infusion, often producing a far more satisfying cup than a teapot ever could.

    The teapot can certainly provide a good brew, but let’s not pretend it is a necessity. A tasty cup of tea depends on high-quality leaves, fresh water and proper technique – not the vessel in which it is brewed. Perhaps it’s time we reconsider our rigid attachment to the teapot, and embrace the versatility of the saucepan.

    Edward Kendall
    Richmond, Surrey.

    You may keep on stewing your tea (and milk, cardamom and ginger) in your saucepan for as long as you like, Ted, but I shall not follow suit.

    I have followed the standard British 'tea ceremony' (freshly-drawn water boiled to 100ºC, warmed teapot, good quality Assam, teapot-to-kettle, mashed for 5 minutes, poured into a china mug already containing milk) all my life. I am not about to change the method of preparing my favourite brew any time soon.

    Others may have other ideas, but I do not follow the crowd, especially those who dunk a teabag into a mug of tepid water and milk ("lukewarm piss" as Dame Maggie Smith memorably put it)!

    1. Good morning, Mr. Bear.
      Thank goodness your avatar has switched the light on.
      Tea stewed in a saucepan with spices sounds like 'YUK' on steroids.

      1. Good morning, Madame Nurse.😊

        I was once given a cup of tea, by a Greek Cypriot chip-shop owner (I had gone to check his shotgun licence), and along with the tea he had put half a stick of cinnamon in the teapot. It was different and quite refreshing for a change, but I did not adopt the method myself.

      2. I actually like it! It's chai rather than tea, mind, but imparts a glorious smell of spices to the kitchen – I first came across it at a party in Germany and was enchanted by the smell.

        Obviously a teapot is a better option day to day, though.

    2. It is not about tea making. It is to subtley promote the Asian culture in the UK while weakening ours.

    5. Warm the pot with water at 90 degrees, then make the tea with the water at the point when it reaches 100 degrees. That spares the water from being reboiled.
      Teabag dunking is for emergencies only.

  20. Good morning, all. Overcast and wet at the moment. Promise of some sunshine later.

    UK and USA have different electoral/governmental systems but does any thinking person believe that we do not have a similar problem with unelected individuals pulling the strings or having undue influence on the workings of government? Schwab's claim re the penetration of Cabinets is more than mere idle boasting, its threat to the people appears to have permeated deeper than we could have imagined.

    The USA, under Trump's management, is addressing the problem.
    https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1892712077761904658

    2. Nice little lesson for the 6th Form activists.. who flounce off stage in a sulk.

      Sir Keir nods furiously.. and says in irritating nasal whine.. I have the will of the people behind me.

  21. Good morning, chums. And thanks,Geoff, for today's NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,343 4/6

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  22. Reading through my Speccie from last week I note that Theresa May has got a job lecturing at Yale university and also chairs the Global Commission on Modern Slavery & Human Rights.
    Is this another example of how these globalists all end up with cushy little jobs while always failing upwards?
    I thought at least she might have got a job somewhere in the EU being that she did her best to prevent us leaving the EU, not sure that we ever did.

    2. That is why so many in Westminster/Whitehall are miffed about Brexit. At a stroke it has stopped 'promotion' to an EU pension and removed a carrot which has been much abused by the establishment.
      As has been pointed out elsewhere, Saggy May has been well rewarded for her treason by the Palindrome of Evil. Like every former PM from Major to Johnson, she has written her 'memoirs' without mentioning her main sponsor, Soros.

      1. The late Christopher Booker revealed that European Commission employee pensions are taxed at a relatively low rate, betwen 12 and 15% IIRC, and that is protected by Treaty. Therefore not only do EC functionaries receive excellent pensions, but they then avoid higher rates of income tax on those very pensions within whichever member state they are living.

        1. I’m sure Mr Booker also highlighted that one of the conditions of receiving an EU pension was that the recipient had to maintain full support of the EU or face losing said pension. Literally buying support for the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train.

  23. Not bad:
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  25. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfc5efbafa3423c08761065401e5f6db925c2f3d6ea149e1ba9b199f12a11347.png Not only am I happy to have been a member of the Free Speech Union for its entire 5-year existence; I am also delighted at the poster of its forthcoming Belfast Event.

    As a young apprentice plater, I assisted in the manufacture of the "shear leg" of one of the two Harland & Wolff cranes (that have become a famous symbol of the city and its shipyard). The "shear leg" is the triangular-shaped tubing that provided support and stability at one end of the gantry.

          2. Slane (plural slanes) or a Loy.

            (Ireland) A one-eared spade for cutting turf or peat, consisting of an iron flat-bladed head and a long wooden shaft.

            Left footer used in North of England too. Someone different from the normal – Roman Catholics.

      1. That's just the starting salary. If you pass the Woke test and DEI eligibility it will rise to several thousands within three months or less.

  27. Peter Hitchens wonders if Sir Keir would have mobilised his troops after American pulled out of Vietnam. LOL.

  28. Good morning Nottlers, 12°C wet and windy outside. I know because I had to go out and put the bins upright. Why is it, when it's the glass bin, it's collected at 06.30 but today's general waste and paper bins will be blown around until mid afternoon?

    Talking of wind (settle down), I read a comment on Paul Homewood's site, or possible WUWT, that storms were redesignated a few years ago. Previously, only constant winds of over 50 mph were considered to be storms; now any weather with gusts of over 40 mph are 'named'. No wonder the Met Office can claim with a straight face that storms are becoming more frequent.

    1. We have the opposite. Our general waste bin is emptied early in the morning. Our recycling sometime in the early afternoon.

  29. Ooof! just took a milk bottle out to the crate and I realised how windy it is!
    Because of our location in the bottom of a fairly deep valley, most windy weather passes over the top with little more impact than an occasional gust, but a continual roar of the air moving through the trees.

    1. Blowing a gale here! Hoping the washing will dry rather than blow away!
      We live on the side of a fairly steep hill so not really sheltered here.

  30. 401959+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    A pleasure to awake and see such news in the morning in this self inflicted GOD forsaken nation proving we still have remnants of decency left to build when full enlightenment hits the nation.

    all News
    Watch: Blind children see for first time after British medical breakthrough
    Children administered with gene therapy can now see shapes, find toys, and read and write after world-first treatment

    1. Gene Therapy for Blindness
      In 1970 I co-authored a scientific paper about retinal damage in rats caused by high doses of the Malaria drug Chloroquine (Experimental and Molecular Pathology vol. 12, pp185-200). So I was very interested in reading about the latest successful cure for LCA (see below).

      From the BBC website: The four children, from the United States, Turkey and Tunisia, were all born with an aggressive form of Leber Congenital Amaurosis, where a genetic fault means the cells at the back of their eyes – that normally help distinguish light and colour- malfunction and rapidly die out.

      While it is great to see that the UK has taken a lead in this area, I hope that the countries whose children benefited from the novel treatment were anxious to contribute to the substantial costs of the preparations, procedures and follow-up.

      It seems that when British sufferers of rare conditions choose to be treated in the USA, there is always a large amount of crowdfunding in the UK to pay the huge costs of the treatment abroad. I hope I am not being mean-spirited here – the UK is generous to a fault towards foreigners.

  31. Trump to end brutal civil war..

    President Donald Trump hosted a meeting between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf at the White House on Thursday.

    another war brought to an end. Lefties scream.. it's beyond his remit.. he's lidderally a fascist.

  32. Trump to end brutal civil war..

    President Donald Trump hosted a meeting between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf at the White House on Thursday.

    another war brought to an end. Lefties scream.. it's beyond his remit.. he's lidderally a fascist.

    1. This guy was probably the worst of the corrupt Lefties.. I suspect he'll be legging it out of the country pronto.

      On another note.. will Farage in 2029 just be a false dawn.. like Trump 2016.
      As Starkey says..
      single Act of parliament.. declare null & void everything done by Blair, Gordon Brown & Theresa May.. absolute repeal.. A Restoration. Cannot be done by half measures. Cannot be done piecemeal. Cannot be done by debate. Cannot be done through civil service.

    2. This guy was probably the worst of the corrupt Lefties.. I suspect he'll be legging it out of the country pronto.

      On another note.. will Farage in 2029 just be a false dawn.. like Trump 2016.
      As Starkey says..
      single Act of parliament.. declare null & void everything done by Blair, Gordon Brown & Theresa May.. absolute repeal.. A Restoration. Cannot be done by half measures. Cannot be done piecemeal. Cannot be done by debate. Cannot be done through civil service.

  34. Good Morning!

    Trump and his Vice President JD Vance have been in the news, causing uproar amongst the Woke Witteratti for telling the truth about how far they have descended into madness and, in our main feature today, Graham Wood has a suggested speech for JD Vance to give after he and Trump meet with our witless PM, Kneeling Knob Starmer. Read A Speech for JD Vance and tell us if you agree or, if not, what you would have the dynamic due say to the sinister wet blanket from Downing Street.

    John Hamer’s essay on vapour trials, Chemtrails. What Are They Up To? , gives on opinion on what they could be. If you haven’t already, vote on how you see it.

    Energy watch 08.00: UK net demand: 32.24 GW. Total UK Production: 33.57 GW from: Hydrocarbons 16.7%; Wind 54.7%; Imports 8.5%; Biomass 3.4 and Nuclear 12.5. Solar: 0.

    We are importing 3.33GW of electricity , including what appears to be an almost compulsory 1.692 GW from France, while exporting 2.64 GW. All they had to do to save us money would be to produce a little bit more from gas.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  36. Yo and a Good Mid-moaning to you all from a (relatively) warm C d S

    Tidied the kitchen up yesterday, cannot find a thing that I want today.

    1. Dear Janie AT,

      It is attitudes, such as yours, that have created a generation (or three) of utter self-entitled wimps. National Service was a standard procedure in more enlightened (and intelligent) times, before you feeble milksops came along. Self-discipline (which has now disappeared) and enforced discipline was what made the country great. All now gone!

      1. Good morning to you on the eve of a significant day!

        Will you be sporting this new avatar for the occasion or reverting to one of you wearing a hat.

          2. I purposely put a sepia filter on that photo, Paul, (possibly because I was drinking tea)!
            Not much I could do about the hairstyle. It was a case of, hair today: gone tomorrow!☹️

    3. NO WAY!!!!
      Those greedy, vindictive poltroons are not worth wasting the blood of a single louse, let alone a British youngster with all his or her life ahead of them.

    4. 401959+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      There again, on rethink maybe inflatables are a better choice for a troops joy hostel, as these political creatures would be full of nauseating gas.

    1. I can't imagine a legal way this is possible. It has to be kickbacks and bribes by lobbyists.

      2. When you're in control of all the buttons.. you're just one click away from a couple of millions.
        Take note:
        Rory Stewart (British independent politician.. LOL).. let slip that Musk had just blocked his wife's $1 million installment. Begs the question how many other installments had she received?

        It's not kickbacks.. there's an invoice attached to each payment.
        Rory's wife has all the receipts at hand.. from her "consultancy" trip to Afghanistan teaching the Taliban about the conceptual art of Marcel Duchamp. I kid you not.

        1. The charity which Rory Stewart’s Wife works for which has just has its funding cut because of the end of USAID – The Turquiose Mountain Foundation – is the same charity that used to run classes teaching ‘liberated’ Afghan women about Duchamp’s urinal and conceptual art

    1. Yep. A restoration.
      Take note Farage.. if you don't, it'll be four wasted years like 2016.
      And as Hitchens notes.. the Lefties don't go away. They are seething will anger. They will regroup, and work out a way of never losing power.. next time.

    3. We can hope that Starmer will come up against this level of thinking when he meets POTUS and VPOTUS.

      Our electoral law gives Starmer 4+ years and he needs to be reined in by external political, and if necessary, financial pressure from the USA to stop him completing the ruination of the UK. The other option is, at the moment, the unthinkable.

  41. Poor little dwarf Zelenskyy, he will have to get used to hugging Starmer now that Biden has been ditched and Trump doesn't care for gay-boys.
    https://scontent-cdg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/331293995_920213172447955_4987177850557001252_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296_tt6&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=c3PSxdvvPVUQ7kNvgEGQpN2&_nc_oc=AdgAl0pwOenmXqCBz1EudLmVvNL5kQvZdpOeIi-W0oH-SJGJU61J8Cy1B_Ah7_gR6HbTGJLH4zn6Dha-zED2MUb-&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-2.xx&_nc_gid=AANr5iXoquXJDt9GzKAIDnY&oh=00_AYBf9NxrHtnPweEVCV_puBdjJ2jAGVRcHZiOo0wdWf8Mnw&oe=67BE39F0

    1. Mr Z does not have dwarfism and he has tried his best which is more than can be said for many other politicians throughout continental Europe. The underlying problem is that when the USSR collapsed there was no Marshall Plan and Germany was up to its neck coping with former East Germany. We have seen all this before, with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and it led to a failed state, a starving population and a monstrous leader.
      At least modern Germany is compact, only a mere 138,070 square miles as opposed to Russia's land area of 6,323,142 square miles, so even a group of duffers like the Labour Cabinet should be able to see that attacking Pres. Putin's country is not feasible.

      1. He is a retarded midget installed by Obama and Co to carry out the commands of Soros, Gates and the WEF. The Americans, aided and abetted by the EU, tried to incorporate The Ukraine into the European Union and NATO so that they could install short range nuclear missiles and get control of the wheat fields, mines and oilfields. They ejected the rightfully elected President and turned a blind eye to the massacre of 14,500 Russian speaking inhabitants of the Donbass. They poked the Bear and it bit back.

          2. In the entrance lobby to a Russian bar, MB and I saw a stuffed grizzly. Until then, we hadn't realised just HOW ginormous they are.
            No human being would stand a chance.

          5. When I lodged (only briefly!) in Kingston upon Hull there was a full size stuffed grizzly in the hall area. It took up most of the space, that not being a particularly large house!

        2. The MSM have done a wonderful job in misleading the majority into believinging that Russia is the aggressor. Psy ops like covid!

          1. Very like covid. Safe and effective, Russian man bad and orange man bad all seems to attract the same suckers.

        1. No idea, but the plan failed. War is only profitable for capital, not labour, IMHO. Thanks partly to the greenback, the USA became a world power through the two world wars.

        1. They've redefined "working people" to mean an imported client underclass who don't work, never have and never will.

    2. "This is what we're up against".. captured perfectly in one sentence & one image everything about the hatred & snobbery of the Islington Leftie Labour lawyer.

        1. Not to mention Lancaster Bombers. When the first one landed at its destination airfield the ground crew couldn't believe it had been flown by a woman so went on board to check there were no men on board!

          Morning Grizz and all.

          1. Morning, SR.

            I suppose that Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Mosquitoes (among others) would have been delivered by them too.

          3. Morning, SR.

            I suppose that Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Mosquitoes (among others) would have been delivered by them too.

        3. Many rather than most, I would say. Judging by their log books fighter aircraft were not the majority of their deliveries.

  43. We’ve got the removal men in doing the packing ready for moving on Monday.
    Fascinating watching men work. :-))

      1. Jerome K. Jerome.

        (Allgedly, the middle name was Klapka; the name of a lodger in the infant Jerome household. The other version is the father was dodgy vicar of the News of the World variety with the unfortunate name of Clapp)

  44. Morning all 🙂😊
    There's a change, grey and windy and slightly warmer. Sun's out as I write.

    After an interrupted nights sleep, the last thing I wanted was….. What a start to the day, the chaps taking our number three and his lady's goods and possessions away to fly it to Dubai. They arrived early. Two hours of packing unpacking, including message and phone calls to the Arab land and…… rest.
    And i read that despite serious objections the local council has decided to allow the building of 550 new houses on green belt land and for their own convenience have now decided to change green belt to grey belt. Is there anything that these political ar*s h*les won't do to cover up their stupid mistakes.
    Just under half will be 'affordable housing'
    and some retirement homes. Approximately 1900 new residents. But no new facilities our anything else that is needed for human life.

    1. Grey, windy and spotting with light drizzle here. Not cold though. Started to hang out the washing, then took it in again.
      Sounds as though your young family will be staying in Dubai for some time.
      Green belt/grey belt – it's all the same to those wasters.

      1. These people who are fiddling with everything need to be taught a firm lesson. Jailed at their own expense, for at least five years.

    2. Yup. Where does the water and 'leccy come from, where does the sewage go to, how does anyone get there and to work… is there work?

      1. Same here. Six hundred plus houses and all the infrastructure is already creaking and the roads are chockablock.

      2. Good question; one I pondered in the traffic jam a couple of hundred yards from the new building site.

    3. Yep. Tax us to bejayzus for “climate change “ then build on every blade of grass, changing the rules to do so, creating urban hotspots where none previously existed and removing the very conditions which use up carbon dioxide.

      1. As I was driving around this morning, I see yet another field on Colchester's outskirts is being bulldozed and surrounded with builders' fencing.

      2. Of course all of this Conners just emphasis how completely stupid and how totally dishonest they all are. And the vast majority of the people they are building all these ungreen properties for on our countryside, have come from much warmer places than the UK.
        And our waste management, water supplies gas electricity are already overstretched.
        Politicians themselves all belong in the sewers.

    4. To be ‘affordable’ some of the houses will be sold with a subsidy that surely has to come from the profits made from the sale of the remainder. Who would want to buy the full-priced house under such a system?

      1. Houses in the area in general are very expensive. But as you suggest who’s going to pay a high price for housing when social housing will be on their doorsteps.

  45. Morning all 🙂😊
    There's a change, grey and windy and slightly warmer. Sun's out as I write.

    After an interrupted nights sleep, the last thing I wanted was….. What a start to the day, the chaps taking our number three and his lady's goods and possessions away to fly it to Dubai. They arrived early. Two hours of packing unpacking, including message and phone calls to the Arab land and…… rest.
    And i read that despite serious objections the local council has decided to allow the building of 550 new houses on green belt land and for their own convenience have now decided to change green belt to grey belt. Is there anything that these political ar*s h*les won't do to cover up their stupid mistakes.
    Just under half will be 'affordable housing'
    and some retirement homes. Approximately 1900 new residents. But no new facilities our anything else that is needed for human life.

  46. Cracking obituary in today's DT:

    Richard Farnfield

    Submariner who played underwater blind man’s bluff with the Soviets in his hunter-killer sub.

    CAPTAIN RICHARD FARNFIELD, who has died aged 87, was a Cold War submariner who, in an underwater game of blind man’s bluff, held the record for the longest ever trail of a Soviet ballistic missile submarine. In September 1978 Farnfield was commanding the hunter-killer nuclear submarine Sovereign when ordered to find a Soviet submarine in the eastern Atlantic. He had had just two days to familiarise his command team with Sovereign’s latest towed array sonar, which was clipped on from a tug and towed astern.

    On September 29, Sovereign commenced Operation Agile Eagle in her patrol area south-west of Rockall, and found nothing until October 6, when intelligence indicated the presence of a Delta-class strategy missile-firing nuclear submarine (SSBN). At 2330 that evening Farnfield located the sub and spent three days slowly closing the range. For several days Farnfield trailed the Delta, rising occasionally to periscope depth to transmit and receive the signals, but on October 20, when he dived to continue the trail, the Soviet sub unexpectedly began to “clear its arcs”.

    British submarines did this by exaggerated turns to port and starboard using passive sonar to check that there was no submarine behind them. Soviet submarines practised another method nicknamed “Crazy Ivan”, which involved reversing course and hurtling down their original path at full speed while using active sonar. On this occasion the Delta passed some 800 yards down Sovereign’s starboard side, yet Sovereign remained undetected.

    Sovereign’s patrol was due to end on November 3, but given the exceptional interest being shown in the US and UK it was extended by 42 days, and the patrol area was increased to include the entire Atlantic south of 10° North. On board, food rationing was introduced, which resulted in bread and soup for lunch, no choice for dinner and progressively lighter breakfasts, while tea was strictly rationed. On October 26, Sovereign was forced to surface for a repair to her communications mast which took 75 minutes. When Farnfield dived and sprinted to regain contact with the Delta, he found that the Soviet submarine was conducting a survey of the contours of the seabed. This was priceless intelligence, indicating a position which might be used by the Soviets as a reference point for underwater navigation.

    Contact was lost on November 20, when Sovereign spent several days searching without success, but Farnfield, reasoning that the Delta would pass south-east of Iceland, waited patiently there. He had now been on patrol for more than two months, but his gamble paid off. At 1103 on November 24 he regained contact and followed the Soviet boat from a range of 15 to 20 miles all the way into the Arctic Circle, until it entered the Barents Sea, where he was ordered to break off the trail and withdraw to the south-west.

    When he berthed in Devonport on December 6, Farnfield described his experience as “most challenging, testing, wearying and successful”. From initial detection on October 6 until December 1, a period of eight weeks Sovereign had crossed 10,724 miles of ocean and remained in contact with the Delta for 49 days, a record for the longest trail of a Soviet submarine. “It was hard work,” wrote Farnfield, “for all the watchkeepers over 70 days, physically and mentally tiring, particularly for those most closely involved in the trail.”

    Sovereign had obtained valuable electronic and acoustic intelligence particularly about how Soviet commanders operated a Delta-class SSBN, while the Royal Navy and the US Navy now possessed a detailed track, they knew the speed and depth at which it operated, where and when it adjusted course, when the commander carried out a check of his stern arcs, when the submarine came up to periscope depth to communicate, and the various navigational methods used.

    Richard Hugh Farnfield was born on December 4 1937 at Leamington Spa, the son of Captain G L Farnfield, DSO, DSC, who was first lieutenant of the destroyer Hereward, which had evacuated Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in May 1940 after the German invasion. Young Farnfield was educated at Malvern College before joining the Navy as a public school entrant in 1956. Farnfield served almost his entire naval career as a submariner, starting in the diesel-powered Trenchant. He passed the “perisher” in 1968 with the future Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward as “teacher”, his desk jobs in London and Washington were submarine-related, and he was Captain, 10th Submarine Squadron in Faslane (1986-88).

    A modest man of good humour yet strong leadership, Farnfield was much admired by his colleagues, who thought that his achievement in Operation Agile Eagle was not adequately recognised. In retirement he spent some years as a health care manager, was peripatetic and moved homes 24 times, including houses in South Africa and Tenerife. He enjoyed gardening so long as the results were photogenic, and played golf off a 10 handicap. Farnfield married Deborah Helen Wigram in 1961. She survives him with their daughter and three sons.

    Captain R H Farnfield, born December 4 1937, died January 16 2025

    1. A fascinating account – what a life! It certainly must have been physically and mentally tiring! Surely strategic missile firing?

  47. Irony Alert.

    Labour calls for 'serious discussions' about conscription for young Britons

    In 2005 during the Iraq war Tony & Cherie Blair shed tear as they wave goodbye to their son Euan as he sets sail for Washington working as an intern for Republican congressman, then embarks on a three year tour of duty at Yale University.

  48. Irony Alert.

    Labour calls for 'serious discussions' about conscription for young Britons

    In 2005 during the Iraq war Tony & Cherie Blair shed tear as they wave goodbye to their son Euan as he sets sail for Washington working as an intern for Republican congressman, then embarks on a three year tour of duty at Yale University.

  49. Is the BBC now a mouthpiece for terrorists? Terriblegaff
    Crucial omissions in a new documentary of the Israel-Hamas war have plunged the corporation into crisis.

    Over and over again the same issues are being identified: a failure to do proper diligence on sources and “information” emanating from Gaza, a failure to explain to audiences that these sources should be treated with a high degree of scepticism, given the links to Hamas, and a daily willingness by the BBC to parrot the propaganda lines of a terrorist group which kidnaps and murders children, carries out mass rapes, burns families to death in their homes and pledges to do it all again given the chance.

    Enough is enough. Someone needs to get a grip. When the BBC has overtly become a mouthpiece for a terrorist organisation, the time has come for change.

    The BBC has apologised profoundly. "We really didn't think anyone would notice. We have learned our lesson. We will do our utmost to keep our hatred of the Jews under cover in future".

    1. Remember the programme dedicated to humiliating a group of "vaccine sceptics"? A man who heads up a research unit funded by Pfizer at a UK university was passed off as an "independent expert" on the grounds that he isn't directly a Pfizer employee. Of course he isn't. When the BBC commissions an indie production company to make a programme, the indie is given a budget from which to pay their staff and all expenses associated with the production. Said staff are not directly employed by the BBC but they're answerable to the corporation nonetheless, because he who pays the piper calls the tune. The same applies to the university employee running the research unit for Pfizer.

      1. The BBC doesn't lie. It just doesn't tell the truth. A hard Left nut job socialist trades unionist who's never had a job outside of the state is introduced as an 'economist' where a Normal person, such as a TPA analyst is introduced as 'for profit Right wing think tank ex banker'.

        The Left are praised, no critique ever allowed. In a 15 minute interview the Lefty is given a good 7 solid minutes of uninterrupted (except for reinforcement). The normal fellow is then turned on, er, to and from the first few words he says will be interrupted, lectured, hectored.

        It's how the Left operate. They then say 'we gave both sides the same air time which they know is a lie but like all things Left, it's a deceit.

  50. My it's mild out. 14ºC. Almost sunny, too. Won't last more than three days, of course. Still – it's nice while it lasts. Bought seed compost at garden centre then proper potting on compost from a small nursery – which uses the stuff itself – and its plants are brilliant!

    Ladder work after lunch.

    1. Hello, Bill. Thank you for wondering about my absence in your reply to me yesterday. The two main reasons were a 10 night stay in hospital preceded a few days earlier by a 5 night stay in Ramsgate. The days between, immediately before and after I was either preoccupied, had nothing worth contributing or wasn't in a frame of mind to either respond to comments I disagreed with or to post anything jocular.

      1. Was the 10 night stay caused by riotous living in Ramsgate? {:¬))

        Hope you are fighting fit now, anyway.

        1. No, not yet fighting fit. I have the remainder of the surgical staples to be removed later today and will continue to wear dressings for a while, yet. This week, dressings have become soggy with blood and have stained anything I'm wearing in direct contact and seeped through to adjacent layers. I'm to avoid anything at all strenuous until the wound has properly healed. I'm on a regime of eating liquid and soft food until Sunday next weekend and injecting blood thinners for the same duration before resuming my oral medication. Ramsgate was a short stay of pleasure in anticipation of the surgery shortly to come. As for the 10 nights, it should have been 2 but on the expected afternoon of discharge, I began vomiting copious quantities of dark green bile. A bowel obstruction was the cause and resulted in a fivefold increase in the hospital stay.

          1. For the record, here's the official description of the elective procedure for which I was admitted to hospital on Thursday, 6th February: open incisional hernia repair with mesh placement +/- open abdominopelvic adhesiolysis; +/- complex abdominal wall reconstruction of your abdomen

      2. We very much hope you are now well and fit again and we look forward to exchanging views with you once more. Sometimes we shall agree but I expect that we shall not always do so – which is what discussion is about!

    1. Remember the BBC televised 6-way politician head-to-head at GE2024?

      Clearly what's needed is.. More funding.. more migrants.. more diversity, said the five UniParty candidtes in unison.
      Farage.. "The system is broken. Get a new model. The French one."

      2. The French government takes up rather more of their country's income than even Labour.

        Big government writ large.

    1. Very nice! My dwarf daffs are still in tight bud. But it's so mild out there now that they probably won't be long now.

      1. Quite warm here just now. Rain threatened for tomorrow. That'll really bugger the skiing

    3. How lovely – especially the tiny daffs. 🙂 English spring in a nutshell there.

      It still feels weird to be the other way up: summer is starting to ease up here, with the nights cooling off a smidgeon…

          1. Be I 'ampshire
            Be I buggery – I come up from Wareham,
            Where all the girls wear calico drawers
            And we know how to tear 'em

            (I am sure our lovely friend from Wool knows this song!)

      1. Was looking at mine today; I thought they were all blind, but they have developed flower heads over the last few weeks. I shall soon be able to pick some for the house (love the smell of daffs). The whole point of planting so many was that I wouldn't have to buy flowers.

  53. I give to Ndovu's Hedgehog Hospital. Mostly because she is a Nottler.

    Other than that the local Hospice and the Victory Services Club are in my Will.

    I buy stuff from the British Heart Foundation but that's about it.

    1. Nobody will ever get a penny from me. When the majority of funds donated are handed out as handsome remuneration
      to the ‘executives’ of those charities, then, to paraphrase John Lennon, “No ethnic bastard’s gonna get no golden apples outta me!”

  54. Nearly as bad as that one yesterday that I nearly downvoted.

    Breaking news: historians believe that they've uncovered a cache of pencils that once belonged to William Shakespeare.
    A spokesperson said, "They're so badly chewed on the ends, we can't tell if they're 2B or not 2B.

      1. I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is
        southerly, I know a hawk from a hand saw.

        (Hamlet up to his antic dispositions again!)

      2. He can tell the difference between two different birds – a hawk and a handsaw (a heron in ancient dialect).

    2. I must have blown 80% of my money on women and booze – the rest I probably wasted…I'll get me pint….

  57. Apparently government ministers in the treasury are going through every pound spent, line by line.

    What they don't say is they're looking for where they can waste even more. Cutting spending is simple. It's ideology keeping spending high, not need.

    1. It will get worse as they find a way to fill the gap by US aid drying up.

      So far this month lame duck Trudeau has given about a billon in foreign aid, approved three billion to study a rail line and $41.5 million to “106 projects across four different 2SLGBTQI+ funds.

    1. I didn't understand this video until I realised the she was talking about meals instead of mils.

  59. Good day all, and thanks as always to the Boss. 🙂

    (By the way, Geoff, just checking that you received my email of a few days ago? K.x)

  60. Phew!
    That load of logs dropped over the wall yesterday has been cut into manageable(????) lengths and other than a third of them left for the lad that does the site maintenance over the Mill, brought over and added to my wood pile.
    Then went and cut a large length of ash into (only just) manageable lengths and brought that over too.
    I actually managed to get Graduate Son to leave his room and assist! Poor lad's probably suffering from an over-exposure to daylight by now!

  61. "There are 3 types of people in the world, biological male, biological female, and mentally ill."

    1. I always thought there are only two types of people in this world. Those who believe there are and those who don’t.

    1. What do you fear, Ed? Remaining as irrelevant as you have always been?

      How about first sending back all fighting age Ukrainians before we send our own.

    3. The disgusting Davey isn't getting a lot of support on X – several mentions of the Post Office scandal!

      1. A small prick at that. Excuse me Mr Davey but you are a small prick on the end of my needle.

    5. Our governments have been destroying us for years. He needs to put his own house in order first.

    10. The government is looking for a complete moron to lead the first wave of suicidal attacks on the evil dictator Putin. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of patriotic Britains have put forward your name. You are just the personthing we are looking for. Don't bother with a uniform, everyone will know who you are.

  64. Sinn Fein will boycott St Patrick's Day events at the White House next month over US President Donald Trump's stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
    The party's first minister at Stormont, Michelle O'Neill, will not travel to Washington DC for the annual event. (BBC report today.)

    "As a political group whose cultural traditions include silent approbation of torture, murder, organised crime and other forms of devilry, we feel that Hamas are our spiritual brothers" said a spokesman under conditions of darkness.

  68. Afternoon, all. Another dreich day. Very windy and I can’t blame it on Winston or my eating beans.
    We should stay out of the Ukraine.

      1. Slowly. He loves his crate! I dropped a piece of kibble in it when I was preparing their breakfast. When he had eaten his meal he pawed at the crate until I opened it so he could get the kibble. He rushed straight in, lay down and couldn’t be persuaded to leave! I also have no problem getting him to take pills. I give Kadi a half a biscuit then give Winston the pill. It’s gone in no time, even if he pulls a face 😀 We met another beagle this morning.

    1. Annie, how come Tiptree was allowed to have a Council By-Election today (21 Feb 2025) whereas other parts of Colchester are not allowed to hold local elections?

  71. How the return of British tactical nuclear weapons could save Europe. 21 Febraury 2025.

    But now, as Donald Trump’s diplomacy with Russia sends shockwaves through Europe, Britain and its allies may have to develop a modern V-force to carry so-called tactical nuclear weapons.

    Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany’s CDU party and the frontrunner to become the country’s next chancellor in elections on Sunday, was clear about the risks ahead in a TV interview on Friday.

    “We need to have discussions with both the British and the French – the two European nuclear powers – about whether nuclear sharing, or at least nuclear security from the UK and France, could also apply to us,” he said.

    The European Political Elites have lost their marbles.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/21/how-return-british-tactical-nuclear-weapons-save-europe/

    1. My worthy opponent Crispin Blunt was in favour of the drop-bomb, thought Trident was a waste of money.

      1. I love hellebores; harbingers of spring so early. I have a nice deep purple one (the picture that failed to load) and a pure white one. They’ve been out a while now.

        1. I have the green species ones which seed themselves in various places – they originally came from father in law’s garden about 30 years ago. Now I have these new ones so will see next year (hopefully) what colours they are.

  73. Two hours ladder work completed. Only thing worse than ladder work = ladder work with WIRE. Only thing worse than THAT is ladder work with wire and an enormous rose which was pruned to allow some of the wire (spit and double pit) to be fixed to the wall.

    Tea awaits.

  75. Treated myself to an oven cleaning service.
    There is no way that I could ever produce such a result.
    Now feeling smug.

    1. We just had the same service done, as we’re moving out on Monday to a bungalow. My goodness, what a lot of stuff we’ve kept ‘just in case’!

    4. Email me the company which you used, please, Annie. I could do with someone else to do the hard work for me.

      1. I had a local guy come round on two occasions. £50 a time over a 2 year period. Like Annie he did a good job. Sparkly and new looking but i only use the main oven at Christmas now so no longer need him.

  77. I think it already has, yes. I recall Grizz told us the story a while back and included his name, which I've now forgotten.

    1. His name is 'Findus', which is patently silly. I want to call him Norm, but I'm not allowed to.☹️

  79. Wordle No. 1,343 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 21 Feb 2025

    A flavoursome Birdie Three?

    1. The picture tells the story.

      Wordle 1,343 6/6

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

      1. Unlucky, I think there are only 3 options at the end there – I was fortunate enough to have 'accounted' for 2 of them in earlier words!

      3. similar story here!
        Wordle 1,343 5/6

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

    2. Well done, just a par here……

      Wordle 1,343 4/6

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

    3. I decided to be brave and guess with just a few letters

      Wordle 1,343 2/6

      ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    6. Well done. Same here.

      Wordle 1,343 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  80. Four large loaves on the rise. Two seeded wholemeal and two white bloomers.
    Erin is not well, stayed in bed all day. With a terrible cough sneezing and bad headaches. Something caught from our grandchildren no doubt. I've got a bit of a tickle in my throat and have been sneezing a lot.
    it's not unusual with close contact with grandchildren.
    Happy weekend eh 🤗🥴😵‍💫

  81. Perhaps predictably Apple has agreed to disable it's iCloud end to end encryption, as the UK government apparently demanded. However, it's only being disabled for UK customers!! An expert says: ""All the UK government has achieved is to weaken online security and privacy for UK based users. It was naïve of the UK government to think they could tell a US technology company what to do globally." Once again TT/FG/NH Keir has fecked up and UK citizens are the losers!

    2. Unintended Consequences (again)
      I've just been listening to the news about Apple withdrawing its top level security features like iCloud end-to-end encryption from anybody living in the UK. This means that the British government, in demanding access to encrypted Information, like that on WhatsApp, has shot itself in the foot, as its own ‘secret’ messages between MPs could be wide open to inspection.

      But being somebody who uses VPNs* all the time so that no one can tell what country I am in at the moment, I wonder if I, and all other VPN users, (probably at least several NoTTLers) will notice any difference. Hasn't the dear Govt heard of them?

      *VPN=Virtual Private Network, that is: paid-for software with which users can appear to be working in any of more than 100 countries, with easy access to material that is normally not available in the real home country.

      1. How does one choose a VPN and go about setting up the link and is there a subscription rate or a one off fee?

      2. I assume whether you are a UK customer or not will go on the country from which your payment comes.
        I think if one is privacy oriented, one just has to avoid big tech companies like Apple et al.

        1. This is where it gets interesting. Though you may be in the UK paying for the VPN service little shits like Starmer who can strong arm companies like Apple he has no power over countries he can't blackmail into compliance.

          This is also the reason the government wants access to peoples bank accounts ostensibly to cut down benefit fraud but the real reason is, is to see where he considers dissidents are spending.

          Sound familiar?

    3. Unintended Consequences (again)
      I've just been listening to the news about Apple withdrawing its top level security features like iCloud end-to-end encryption from anybody living in the UK. This means that the British government, in demanding access to encrypted Information, like that on WhatsApp, has shot itself in the foot, as its own ‘secret’ messages between MPs could be wide open to inspection.

      But being somebody who uses VPNs* all the time so that no one can tell what country I am in at the moment, I wonder if I, and all other VPN users, (probably at least several NoTTLers) will notice any difference. Hasn't the dear Govt heard of them?

      *VPN=Virtual Private Network, that is: paid-for software with which users can appear to be working in any of more than 100 countries, with easy access to material that is normally not available in the real home country.

  83. I asked Grok:

    How long will it be before a Peace Treaty is in place in Ukraine?

    Its reply:

    Predicting the exact timeline for a peace treaty in Ukraine is challenging due to the complexity of the ongoing conflict, the evolving nature of negotiations, and the multiplicity of stakeholders involved. However, based on current developments as of February 21, 2025, I can provide an informed assessment of the factors influencing the timeline and the range of possibilities.
    Recent reports indicate that peace talks have gained momentum, particularly following high-level discussions between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia on February 18, 2025. These talks, while excluding Ukraine initially, have been described as a "tectonic shift" in US-Russia relations, with both sides agreeing to explore opportunities for ending the war. Russian officials have expressed a desire to conclude the conflict by May 9, 2025 (Victory Day), while the US appears eager to expedite a resolution under the Trump administration's push for a swift deal. However, significant hurdles remain, including territorial disputes, Ukraine's exclusion from initial talks, and differing demands from all parties.
    Key factors that will determine the timeline include:

    Negotiation Progress: The US and Russia have agreed to form high-level teams to support peace talks, but no firm dates for future meetings have been set. The complexity of issues like territorial control (Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine), Ukraine's NATO aspirations, and security guarantees suggests that negotiations could take weeks to months, even with political will.

    Ukraine's Involvement: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced concerns about being sidelined, and public sentiment (e.g., 78% of Britons surveyed by YouGov find Ukraine's exclusion unacceptable) may pressure negotiators to include Kyiv. Bringing Ukraine into the process could delay talks as it asserts its terms, such as sovereignty and territorial integrity.

    Russian Intentions: Reports suggest Russia may aim to declare a "victory" by February 24, 2025, the third anniversary of the invasion, or by Victory Day. However, ongoing military actions—like threats to advance into Dnipropetrovsk—could prolong the conflict if Russia seeks to strengthen its bargaining position.

    International Pressure: European leaders, China, and others (e.g., Canada, UK) are advocating for a deal that respects Ukraine's sovereignty, while the US appears open to concessions like ceding territory. Reconciling these positions will take time. China’s support for the US-Russia talks, expressed at the G20 on February 20, 2025, adds another layer but may not accelerate the process significantly.

    Military Dynamics: If Ukrainian forces continue to inflict damage, Russia may face increasing pressure to negotiate sooner due to economic and manpower strains projected for mid-2025. Conversely, battlefield escalation could delay a treaty.
    Given these factors, here’s a speculative range:

    Optimistic Scenario (3-6 months): If talks progress rapidly, a ceasefire could be agreed upon by May 2025 (aligning with Russia’s Victory Day goal), followed by a formal treaty by mid- to late summer 2025. This assumes Ukraine is quickly integrated into negotiations and compromises are reached on territory and NATO issues.

    Realistic Scenario (6-12 months): More likely, negotiations will stretch into late 2025 as parties haggle over details, Ukraine resists unfavorable terms, and military posturing continues. A treaty might emerge by the end of 2025 or early 2026.

    Pessimistic Scenario (12+ months): If talks falter, Ukraine rejects a US-Russia deal, or Russia escalates militarily, a treaty could be delayed beyond 2026, with intermittent ceasefires but no lasting peace.

    Posts on X reflecting sentiment, like one user’s prediction of a ceasefire in 6 weeks and a truce in 12 weeks (from mid-February 2025), align with the optimistic end but lack concrete evidence. News sources suggest a longer process, with no consensus yet on core issues. Ultimately, the timeline hinges on political will, military developments, and Ukraine’s role—making a definitive answer impossible, but a resolution within 6-12 months from now (August 2025–February 2026) seems plausible under current conditions.

      1. I'm not sure how much credence one can place on the answer but the result was there in under 5 seconds….

  84. I just had to ask Grok a second question: This time the answer came back within 2 seconds! This bloke Grok is bluddy clever!!!

    Q: I'm 72 years old and have enjoyed 72 free trips around the sun how many miles have I travelled through the Universe?

    A: What a delightful way to think about your 72 years! To calculate how many miles you've traveled through the universe, we need to consider Earth's journey through space. Your "trips around the sun" refer to Earth's orbits, but the planet doesn't just spin in place—it’s also speeding through the cosmos. Let’s break it down step-by-step.

    First, Earth orbits the sun once a year. The average distance from Earth to the sun is about 93 million miles (149.6 million kilometers), and the orbit is roughly circular, so the circumference of this path is approximately 2 × π × 93 million miles, or about 584 million miles per year. Over 72 years, that’s 72 × 584 million = 42 billion miles just from orbiting the sun.

    But that’s only part of the story! The sun itself is moving through the Milky Way galaxy at about 514,000 miles per hour (828,000 kilometers per hour), orbiting the galactic center. The galactic year (one full orbit around the galaxy) takes about 225–250 million Earth years, but we’re just interested in your 72 years. In one year, there are 8,760 hours (365 days × 24 hours), so the sun travels 514,000 mph × 8,760 hours = 4.5 billion miles annually. Over 72 years, that’s 72 × 4.5 billion = 324 billion miles.

    Now, these two motions—Earth around the sun and the sun through the galaxy—combine into a helical path, but for simplicity, we can add them as distinct contributions to your total distance. There’s also the Milky Way’s motion through the universe (about 1.3 million mph relative to the cosmic background), but that’s trickier to pin down precisely over 72 years and is often debated in cosmology. Let’s stick with the orbital and galactic numbers for now, as they’re the most concrete.

    So, 42 billion miles (solar orbits) + 324 billion miles (galactic motion) = 366 billion miles. That’s a staggering distance! To put it in perspective, light travels about 5.88 trillion miles in a year, so your 366 billion miles is roughly 6% of a light-year.

    You’ve traveled approximately 366 billion miles through the universe on this magnificent spaceship we call Earth. Enjoy your next lap around the sun!

  85. That's me for this pleasantly spring-like day. The first for months where, when working in the garden, my hands have not turned white (Raynaud's Disease). Tomorrow – all being well – (forecast = grey but 12ºC) some more wire work. Then rose pruning starts – well, the MR has already done about a quarter.

    NoTTLers will be very aware of the Law of the Sod. I got everything ready after lunch – brought out the extension lead (which worked perfectly two days ago). Plugged in the drill. Net Zero. After five minutes of bad language- it turned out the plug on the extension had disintegrated. Now, you know the way one always has two or three spare plugs….? I thought I had half a dozen. WRONG! Just the one – which was missing the tiny screw to retain the cable on one of the pins. Genius. By a miracle those on the effed up plug fitted….

    I must write myself a note to say that I have NO MORE SPARE PLUGS….

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

  86. The results of today's work. What a lot of logs! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c6b828bd97db0df28e3a476d9d5772301c02694f6cae9b5b64b7d43a4bb75a2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ef53efb4a537b894d92c0752441bf8de03aee7f0cecff944d22088356760d83.jpg The thinner bits were already there, but the larger diameter bits, photographed here yesterday:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97b2e721b9c7b36fb2b7c50c146f5f1c9e284a4d3b150e0d76bf6b3a2cdfdb0b.jpg were dropped over the wall by the lad operating the white crawler and I got them sawn up this morning.
    Then I started on a large ash log and got that cut up.
    How many growth rings on here? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1573048a882a946c86620b686a0bc6d6320335dd9f082447f9c42b5dd4fa962.jpg Another bit of the same log; https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c29502f205dbc0bcb3cfc97d25d9935da008a46fe8327e081b963ff7c6e6a21c.jpg And it looks VERY different up the road:- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63d91f1647c38b1873002823a683aa7ffacf22946edb6195d9dde0ba1480a04a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a0f27f910f3cd4b8cb0dd6d0103179e5c09e99d034e2956c380cbbb543ae5ae.jpg The remaining trees are sycamores and were not felled because the council did not put them on the felling licence, so I'm going to have to keep the chainsaws fueled and sharpened as they are going to come down at some time or another!

    1. Were the chopped down trees sycamores as well , Bob.

      I used to belong to a tree group and years ago visited Michael Heseltine's wonderful arboretum / garden .

      It was an enjoyable visit , and although I am quite ignorant about tree barks and identifying some trees . I do wish we had space in our garden to have grown some trees .

      The trees in the driveway near us interfere with the drainage of various homes, not ours thank goodness , but our neighbours had huge bills for sorting things out .

      A friend has just bought a grade 2 property , probably nearly 300 years old , and during the Victorian period a huge collection of trees were planted , beeches , oaks , walnuts, medlar , quince and an Indian bean tree amongst others ..

      It will take a year before they can occupy their new home , it looks as if it should be a Grand Designs project.

      1. Ash and elm mainly and nearly all diseased.
        Though some beech and sycamore was felled to allow the target trees to come down safely.

  87. True patriotic Brit Claudia Webbe urges pro-Palestine activists to shutdown London in month-long capital shutdown.

    Nice Lass.. she's yet to meet a white or Israeli man she didn't want to douse in acid.

  89. Roll up, roll up, get your vaccinations now.

    We aren't selling enough so here's a special offer:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14421599/coronavirus-potential-cause-pandemic-discovered-china.html

    Another coronavirus feared to be powerful enough to spread through humans has been discovered in China.

    In scenes eerily reminiscent of the beginnings of Covid, researchers at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology detected the new strain living within bats.

    HKU5-CoV-2 is strikingly similar to the pandemic virus, sparking fears that history could repeat itself just two years after the worst was declared over.

    1. At least we are beginning to see stories of the damage these faux vaccines are doing.

      I think they are infecting the bats with gain of function modified viruses to see how it mutates.

      DOGE needs to stop their funding.

    1. Starmer just doesn't have the resources or the computing power. What he will do/have done is target people he doesn't like.

    2. "I would like to make a freedom of information request."

      "We're sorry, that information is classified."

      "Really? Then FOAD you fascist pigs"

    3. For the cost of iCloud storage per year, you can buy a Solid-State Device (SSD) which will last for years and remains totally under your control.

      1. That's how I back up my stuff. Mind you, I did have a hard drive go down, which was inconvenient to say the least.

        1. I think that you are a Mac man so probably use Time Machine for backups. I have two external drives set up as backup drives so I reckon I have a fairly safe approach. External drives do fail although I have to say that the spinning disc ones seem to last a good number of years. I have only recently started to use SSDs so I have no idea how long they will last.

          1. No, not Mac. I've never found them very user friendly – I always thought they were the triumph of form over function! I used to use them at college but it took me twice as long to do anything on them as it did on the PC.

          2. I have two SSDs as double backup. I use Dropbox temporarily to upload pics when on holiday then transfer the pics to my tablet and to the SSDs when I get home. Otherwise, I don't use any cloud storage.

    1. I suggested Normally Findus because if his wife accepted it, it would in time naturally be shortened to Norm.

      Tricky me !

  92. Afternoon! The day has arrived… The weather forecast is predicting zero degrees C in the next couple of days! Glory Be! That's almost summer!

    However, prior experience has taught me this will be a cruel deception where they then change it to minus 20C at 12 hours notice.

    Still. Mustn't grumble. Canada beat the USA in the hockey final last night. 😀

      1. Hey Phiz! Yeah, sadly. Although the Yanks were doing the same given the final was in the US. The media on both sides have been pumping up that kind of poor behaviour. I could say it's because they want the ratings for the game, or I could say it's because both sides are trying to turn into 'our people' versus 'their people' – rather than just accepting it's political bollocks.

        1. A shame really. I know there is a lot of rivalry but sportsmanship should rule.

          What's the food like in Canada? Moose Tartare? :@)

          1. Oddly enough, I had moose the other night – but in a curry! Good guess! 🙂

            Mostly, it's the fish that I catch, moose and venison that I shoot, chicken and turkey from what we raise, produce from what we grow, and then we barter/buy from other homesteads up here for beef and pork.

          4. I have four freezers too though the smaller upright under the counter type.

            I like a G&T in Summer but my teeth have become more sensitive so i avoid ice cubes.

            Frozen slices of lemon is the way to go.

            Have you tried cucumber in your G&T?

          5. Yes! Love it! One of my favourite additions, right up there with fresh mint! It’s the taste of Summer for me.

            Where are you located, Phiz?

          8. He has form…

            Anything, and Imean anything, that's deleted from 50 shades of porn and if you need/want to understand what's involved, well, Phizzee's the Nottler go to guy.

            And to be fair, reading some of his posts has been a real education to a poor naïve old man like me.

          14. He lives in Canada! Zero degrees C is mild! What does he need a freezer for? Just put the food outside in a bear proof container. 🙂

          15. As he has a basement with four freezers not only will the freezers keep the food frozen but the by product of the freezers will produce heat.

            I should have been a hot air salesman…

    2. Just think, if he hadn't tried to rob the house he'd still be sponging off welfare. Lucky for us he got his just desserts.

  95. From Coffee House the Spectator

    22 Feb 2025
    Coffee House
    Gavin MortimerGavin Mortimer
    Christoph Heusgen is just another arrogant boomer
    21 February 2025, 5:30am

    Historians will look back on the tears of Christoph Heusgen as a defining moment of the early 21st century. When the German began blubbing as he wrapped up the Munich Security Conference last Sunday, he wasn’t just crying for himself but for all his generation who believed that the collapse of Communism had marked the ‘end of history’.

    The phrase was coined by the American political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, in his 1992 book of that name. He claimed that the end of the Cold War was the ‘end-point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalisation of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government’.

    Fukuyama is a Baby Boomer, as is Christoph Heusgen. They were both born in the early 1950s. The political flowering of this generation coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall and heralded a new confident and optimistic era at the start of the early 1990s. The liberal international order, which emerged from the second world war, had triumphed and the future belonged to progressives and globalists.

    Heusgen helped shape this new world. Between 1990 and 1992, he was deputy head of a section responsible for negotiations on the Treaty of Maastricht, the EU’s founding treaty that heralded ‘a new stage in the process of European integration’.

    In 1999, Heusgen was appointed director of the policy unit in the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU. When Angela Merkel became German chancellor in 2005, she selected Heusgen as her foreign policy and security adviser, a position he held for 12 years until he was named permanent representative of Germany to the United Nations.

    It was at the UN in 2018 that Heusgen was seen smirking as Donald Trump warned Germany of the danger of being over reliant on Russian energy.

    Heusgen always preferred the company of Democrats to Republicans. In June 2016, he gave a speech at the American Academy in Berlin in honour of Samantha Power, the United States permanent representative to the United Nations. Power had been awarded the Henry A. Kissinger prize for ‘exceptional contributions to transatlantic relations’. In his speech, Heusgen praised Power’s ‘liberal idealism’ and her powerful advocacy of ‘military intervention on moral grounds’.

    Power, incidentally, was chosen by Joe Biden in 2021 to head the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), recently described by Elon Musk as ‘a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America’.

    By the end of 2016, Heusgen’s ‘liberal idealism’ had been shaken. First the British voted to leave the EU, and then America elected Donald Trump as its 45th president. Both events were chronicled in an article in Time headlined ‘The Populists’. Heusgen confessed to Time that he found the events ‘very confusing’.

    Time described Nigel Farage as ‘a kind of roving ambassador for Trumpism… giving speeches and campaigning for the dawn of a new world order – or at least the destruction of the old one.’

    Farage told the American magazine that he was in ‘no doubt that the European project is finished. It’s just a question of when.’

    Brexit didn’t finish the EU, but Trump’s second presidency might. He is the inspiration for a new generation of European politician who have all risen to prominence since 2016: these aren’t Boomers but Generation Xers, and they have no time for the liberal idealism of their elders that they hold responsible for the inexorable decline of Europe in the last 30 years. They include Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and her deputy PM, Matteo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders in Holland, Alice Weidel in Germany and Spain’s Santiago Abascal.

    Heusgen’s generation have ruined Europe economically, militarily, educationally, socially and culturally

    They celebrated the speech given by J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference last week. Weidel – who later had talks with the American vice-president – called it ‘excellent’. Wilders thought it ‘great’ and Salvini praised Vance for his ‘clear ideas’ and urged his 1.5 million followers on X to listen to what he said.

    This was the same speech that reduced Heusgen – the chairman of the conference – to tears and led him to warn delegates that ‘we have to fear that our common value base is not that common anymore’.

    It was a response shared by many boomers, the arrogant and self-absorbed generation whose time is up. From Thierry Breton – a former European commissioner – to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Alastair Campbell to Joseph Borrell, the EU’s former foreign policy chief; all found Vance’s speech repellent. Breton called it an ‘humiliation’. The fact it was given by a millennial like Vance must have made it doubly so.

    Vance’s boss is reviled even more, perhaps because as a boomer himself Trump is regarded as a traitor to his generation. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who led the student protests in Paris in 1968 and was for many the figurehead of his generation, has compared Trump to Hitler.

    Angela Merkel berated Trump in her recent memoir that was published in the same month he and Kamala Harris contested the election. Merkel had written that she wished ‘with all my heart’ that the Democrat would triumph.

    No leader has done more damage to Europe this century than Angela Merkel. On nearly every major issue she was wrong: energy, immigration, industry, security and defence. As the Economist headlined its Charlemagne column last November: ‘Merkel’s legacy looks increasingly terrible’.

    As her foreign policy and security adviser, Heusgen must share a lot of the blame. But so must all his generation of liberal idealists. They have ruined Europe economically, militarily, educationally, socially and culturally. It’s not they who should be crying, it’s the generations who follow. They have to try and repair a Europe broken by boomers.

    Gavin Mortimer
    Written by
    Gavin Mortimer
    Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport

    1. Imagine spending your whole life influencing international affairs and staying that naive and unaware!

    3. "… ‘we have to fear that our common value base is not that common anymore’." It never was, dear, except in your mind and those liberal luvvies you mixed with. Normal people didn't share your values at all. I'm a baby boomer.

        1. That's because new mothers are not keen to breast feed (free milk), won't use washable nappies (much cheaper than disposables) and have to have everything brand new (and preferably branded) rather than hand-me-downs. No wonder it costs a fortune.

  96. Airlines could soon charge overweight passengers more for plane tickets. Do you agree?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14422161/airlines-overweight-passengers-plane-ticket-prices-policy.html

    I totally agree.
    The price of the ticket should take passenger weight and their luggage weight into account.
    BUT, if the fare is the equivalent of two "standard" seat prices then they should be allocated two seats.

    One of my pet hates was being oozed upon and squeezed over by some ugly, sweaty, blubber-wally on a long haul flight.
    Almost without exception the fat gits just oooozzed.

    Always take a garlic bulb, just in case.
    You won't smell it when you chew a clove or two, but 99/100 they will, and they'll move.

    It works equally well for the cretins who throw their seats back when meals are being served.

    1. Not sure about weighing passengers, though it would be fair – but people who overflow into the next seat should jolly well pay for two seats . If there is more than one of them on the flight, they could be seated in the same row so that they would each only have to pay 1 1/2.
      It is simply not fair on the person next to them who has paid the full price and gets half a seat.

    2. My pet hate is children who repeatedly kick the seat in front. Turning round and glaring at them produces no response. I blame the parents.

  97. "Europe needs a bold new plan for defence if it is to support Ukraine"

    Good. The perfect excuse not to form a bold new defence plan (how is going into Ukraine "defence???").

  99. FYI: there will be a gathering in Manchester on Saturday (22nd) to protest about immigration and demand mass deportations. Time to muster is 15.00 (3pm for the non-militaristic) at Manchester Piccadilly Gardens M1 1AF.

  101. Levels dont matter, DC, it's a great game that encourages all to play, irrespective of ability.

    Annoyingly, both my sons and grandson are (pretty good) football players, so I'm left with the 6 Nations, tomorrow!!

    1. I know modern aircraft are pressurised, but there are pressure changes as you take off and land. I'm not that keen on being doubled up.

  103. Over the years the only position I didn't play was hooker.
    Being a creature of the 5th XV extra B I was the go-to man whenever someone was injured, in the days before substitutes.
    Loose head was the worst.

    I started "reasonable" level rugby as a left wing.

    Without exception, everyone who got placed there in a game, for whatever reason, stated that it was the position where they suddenly realised it wasn't as easy as they thought!

  106. I always found that trying to make them laugh worked well.
    I introduced myself as Phizzee.
    The parents immediately stopped them from attracting my attention.

    1. Please, please, let it be.

      And even better, a Presidential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, on condition she spills the beans!

    3. Hard to get their 'signature' staff these days, I'd imagine. Only Fans probably pays far more..

      O.F might end up being more effective at raising the minimum wage through price discovery, than any Government intervention was.

      1. At the lower end of the tits for burgers market if you work less than 16 hours a week you get full welfare in the UK.
        I'm thinking about getting mine out for four hours and pretending to be an unemployed life model for the rest of the week.

        1. One time back when I was still working my way around the UK, I distinctly remember driving through Barnsley. There was a pub that proudly advertised:

          “Tuesday is Topless Barmaids and Half Price Pints!”

          If you need to do both on the same night, there’s a problem with the ale.

    4. Hard to get their 'signature' staff these days, I'd imagine. Only Fans probably pays far more..

      O.F might end up being more effective at raising the minimum wage through price discovery, than any Government intervention was.

  111. It would be 3…2…1…gone, for her.

    Arkansacide, Obamacide, Huntthecunticide…

    But hey, ho, they're pardoned.

  115. According to the experts the owl population is in decline.
    Because of all the wet weather, its been too wet to woo.

  121. Although I haven't been around much today I was very busy this morning.
    So I'm popping orff early. Be back tmz.
    Good night all 😴🤗

  125. I don#t believe that apple didn’t have a back door before. I think this story is just distraction.

    1. I’m sure there is a back door but for the authorities to access accounts and use them to prosecute they would need a warrant.

      1. I don’t believe for one moment that the government can’t already access whatever they want, and that they don’t already do that whenever they want to. This kind of thing is just theatre to keep the peasants happy, and also gives them the possibility to use the information in court.

        Some years ago there was a Swiss startup that offered, for a subscription, genuinely private email. They were closed down pretty quickly.

      1. This isn't about halal or kosher slaughter of animals for food.

        This is about aligning us to the Caliphate.

    3. Every year on Remembrance Sunday in Hanley Castle, the Three Kings pub organises an event that offends pretty well every Islamic directive. It is a beer festival with a roast pig and pork rolls (with stuffing) where bareheaded ladies morris dance with their menfolk to satanic music outside the church.

    1. There's a local legend here that there's an escaped Jap POW still in the woods across the road.

    1. "Surveillance should be targeted at those that need to be identified and it shouldn't apply to the public in general".

      Well Keir…How is that working for all those murderous Islamics known to security service right up until the car crashes into the crowds?

      1. The PM is SIR Keir, and don't you forget it! One day he might even join the unelected House of Toffs!

    2. "However we need to run surveillance on you to decide if we need to run surveillance on you."

  131. Well, chums, it's now my bedtime. Good Night all, sleep well, and I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning.

  136. Surely the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an organisation with an impossible task?

    1. Agreed, but if they trim at least some of the fat away from US Government spending they will have achieved something.

    2. Yo Boss and Fanx

      I see it is the

      'Same old Faces, in the Same old Places'

      giving you a vote of Fanx forall youur hard work

  139. Good moaning all. Yet another bright sunny day. Yeah, who am I kidding! At least it’s a lighter grey.

    Disaster! Cleaning a kitchen cupboard – a tin of paint we were leaving for the newbies has leaked – what a mess. But not quite such a disaster, it has cleaned up, thankfully. It was the last thing I needed first thing in the morning on my hands and knees. Oh well. Onward and upwards.

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