Friday 24 February: Without a plan for growth, Britain is at risk of becoming a poor country

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

584 thoughts on “Friday 24 February: Without a plan for growth, Britain is at risk of becoming a poor country”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    A Narrow Escape

    A squaddie narrowly escaped serious injury recently when he attempted horse riding with no prior experience. After mounting his horse unassisted, the horse immediately began moving.

    As it galloped along at a steady and rhythmic pace, the Rifleman, who has not been named, began to slip sideways from the saddle. Although attempting to grab for the horse’s mane the Rifleman could not get a firm grip.

    He then threw his arms around the horse’s neck but continued to slide down the side of the horse.

    The horse galloped along, seemingly oblivious to its slipping rider. Finally, losing his grip, the rider attempted to leap away from the horse and throw himself to safety…However, his foot became entangled in the stirrup, leaving him at the mercy of the horse’s pounding hooves as his head and upper body repeatedly struck the ground.

    Moments away from unconsciousness and possible death, to his great fortune a Royal Air Force Engineer, shopping at Tesco saw him and quickly unplugged the horse from the mains.

    6. Ridiculous story – No RAF personnel would be seen dead in Tesco’s, even their skivvies only shop in Ocado when Deliveroo are too busy to deliver. 😀 🍺🍷 🍾🍸🍹

    1. Not yet, Bill, he’s still to be crowned (on May the 4th, summit to do with Star Wars).

  9. Without a plan for growth, Britain is at risk of becoming a poor country. 24 February 2023.

    For many years we have believed that we live in a rich country – one that can afford top-class services such as the NHS, social support and good roads, railways and other infrastructure, and can buy whatever food it needs from abroad rather than growing it.

    Sadly this is no longer the case. Britain does not generate enough wealth to support its needs, and has been borrowing ever more to make up the shortfall. Unless we make a fundamental change and start to grow our economy, we will not be able to afford the things we think we are entitled to.

    Peter Knowles

    Ah Blessed be the innocent. Britain is to be poor Mr Knowles. That is its fate. A nation of serfs. Its children and women the sexual doxies of the incomers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/02/24/letters-without-plan-growth-britain-risk-becoming-poor-country/

  10. SIR – Matthew Lynn (telegraph.co.uk, February 22) is right: air source heat pumps are an awful product.

    We have three, made by two different manufacturers. Our first one was
    installed in 2014, and I rue the day. They are top-of-the-range machines
    and had a corresponding price tag.

    That they are expensive is
    well known, as is the fact that they only achieve a marginal efficiency
    improvement compared with gas. What is less well known – and should be
    shouted from rooftops – is that heat pumps are not mature technology.
    They keep breaking down – at least once a year and certainly when there
    is “extreme weather” (as the maintenance people call it; really this
    means any sub-zero temperature).

    The pumps need to be serviced
    annually, at a cost of £400 each. This contract is more expensive than
    the equivalent for a gas boiler, and the price far outstrips the energy
    saving that the pumps are supposed to achieve. And then there are repair
    bills. Ours this year is particularly high at £5,000 – because, guess
    what, replacement parts aren’t cheap.

    Toby Schumacher
    Maplehurst, West Sussex

    You rue the day do you, Toby? Tell me then why you bought two more? Is that a Nissan Leaf parked on your drive?

    1. Many of these electrical cars are leased to company employees; surely someone is going to be facing a loss when the returned vehicles hit the car auction scene. Where is Honest John when you need him?

      1. In the late1980 s early 1990 s NatWest managers were issued with cars. The bank was buying in huge numbers and getting big discounts from the manufacturers. As a result the bank could sell in the second hand market at quite a good profit, the cars issued were changed frequently, and depending on the car allocated one might get a new one every six months and seldom longer than a year. A friend of mine had three new cars one year.
        I doubt EVs would ever be the same, but who knows?

  11. Good morning all.
    After yesterday’s glorious sunshine, it looks like a dull and cloudy day ahead with a splash of rain forecast. Currently 3½°C outside but dry at the moment.

  12. One thing is clear: Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to win. Tony Blair. 24 February 2023.

    The West needs a broader strategy to push back not just against Russian aggression in Europe, including support for the brave people and leadership of Moldova, but also, for example, in Africa. It’s a campaign of de-stabilisation, involving large scale disinformation, the malign actions of the Wagner Group, the provision of arms and even the support of coups. Watch the Sahel. It will be the source of the next wave of extremism and migration to Europe if we do not coordinate and focus Western policy.

    That Blair is on our side really tells you everything you need to know about this war! A Liar of the first calibre and saturated in the blood of countless innocents. He makes Vlad look like a choirboy!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/23/one-thing-clear-vladimir-putin-cannot-allowed-win/

    1. As I have said many times and will continue to say whenever I see his name, Tony Blair is the stinking turd in the shitpan that will just NOT flush away.

      1. Is there a single thing that the Blair/Brown axis did that hasn’t come back to harm Britain and in many instances continues to hurt Britain and its people?

        1. It’s also possible that many of the illegals are from the middle Eastern country, namely Iraq that Blair ruined..
          Now Out for revenge.

  13. SIR – For many years we have believed that we live in a rich country –
    one that can afford top-class services such as the NHS, social support
    and good roads, railways and other infrastructure, and can buy whatever
    food it needs from abroad rather than growing it.

    Sadly this is no
    longer the case. Britain does not generate enough wealth to support its
    needs, and has been borrowing ever more to make up the shortfall.
    Unless we make a fundamental change and start to grow our economy, we
    will not be able to afford the things we think we are entitled to.

    Peter Knowles
    Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

    Plenty of GP appointments available. No homeless. No pot holes or train cancellations. I’m moving to Leigh-on-Sea !

  14. Vehicles damaged after incident involving samurai swords in Reading. 24 February 2023.

    Police said there were reports of up to eight people armed with samurai swords and machetes, as well as damage to vehicles.

    Perhaps it’s the Yakuza? Lol! It tells you a lot about the UK that it is unable to report even the simplest incidents truthfully and openly.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/reading-samurai-swords-machetes-police-regent-street-b1062773.html

    1. May I fiddle.

      Vehicles damaged after incident involving PEOPLE with samurai swords in Reading,
      unless of course it is from a Disney cartoon

  15. Good morning everybody.
    As ever, the BTL comments are often more amusing than the actual Telegraph letters
    Someone posted this:

    “The picture at the top (of the Letters page) shows how desperate and widespread poverty has become in the UK”
    You have to scroll up to the main photo, but it’s worth the effort.

      1. I’m sorry – it may be irrational but the mere sight of his asinine face infuriates me.

        1. You are not alone, Rastus! The urge to pick him up by his jug-ears and rattle his empty head, is overwhelming!

          1. People in South America call him “El Principe Idiota”. No translation needed (except perhaps for Joe Biden).

          2. People in South America call him “El Principe Idiota”. No translation needed (except perhaps for Joe Biden).

  18. 371518+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Face it, for the last three decades plus we as a nation have been a monopoly, the player are the electorate, the money fiat.

    No one goes to jail, the political overseers have bought up all the hotels for foreign guest players, any housing stock has been sequestered by what passes for parliament for those embarking at Calais, their wishes to be housed immediately given immediate attention.

    Friday 24 February: With the supported plan, the WEF are successfully fulfilling via the polling booth, the downfall of Britain.

    Britain has become a poor destitute country lacking the will to fight for right, mass victims of lab/lib/con coalition syndrome, as in falling in love with a party name.

    Currently we are willing prisoners of our own stupidity, but I do believe the political overseers / pharma are about to release a pill
    they swear will successfully combat stupidity, they strongly advise we suck it and see.

    Friday 24 February: Without a plan for growth, Britain is at risk of becoming a poor country

  19. Majority of public backs UK’s current level of support for Ukraine. 24 February 2023.

    A majority of the British public back the UK’s current level of support for Ukraine or think it should be increased, a poll for The Telegraph has found.

    A year on from Vladimir Putin’s invasion, 49 per cent say Britain should remain as involved as it is, with 16 per cent saying it should be more involved. Twenty-seven per cent want the UK to be less involved, with Londoners more likely to think that than people from other regions.

    No link is provided to the survey itself so we have no idea how the questions were phrased or the results collated so it’s pretty much Hobsons Choice. Nevertheless that 49% is now become a majority and only 16% seeking more involvement tells us that this is a good effort at obfuscating what must be a disappointing survey for the war mongers. A year of the most overwhelming propaganda and misinformation and no real change in public opinion. I suspect that the one really important question wasn’t asked at all since its answer would be political dynamite: Are you prepared to go to war with Russia in support of Ukraine?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/23/majority-public-backs-uks-current-level-support-ukraine/

    1. Yo Minty

      27% want us to be less involved, with Londoners more likely to think that than people from other regions

      Could that be because most ‘Londoners’ now come from other regions

      Me, I think we should leggit from over there.

      We need to hang onto our weapons and ammunition, to use if we have to protect ourselves from the Gimmy Grants, who
      outnumber or Armed Forces by at least 2 to 1

        1. Yes, I had to take a bit of time over that too!

          Twenty-seven per cent want the UK to be less involved, with Londoners more likely to think that than people from other regions.

          Could that be that most “Londoners” now come from other regions?

  20. Majority of public backs UK’s current level of support for Ukraine. 24 February 2023.

    A majority of the British public back the UK’s current level of support for Ukraine or think it should be increased, a poll for The Telegraph has found.

    A year on from Vladimir Putin’s invasion, 49 per cent say Britain should remain as involved as it is, with 16 per cent saying it should be more involved. Twenty-seven per cent want the UK to be less involved, with Londoners more likely to think that than people from other regions.

    No link is provided to the survey itself so we have no idea how the questions were phrased or the results collated so it’s pretty much Hobsons Choice. Nevertheless that 49% is now become a majority and only 16% seeking more involvement tells us that this is a good effort at obfuscating what must be a disappointing survey for the war mongers. A year of the most overwhelming propaganda and misinformation and no real change in public opinion. I suspect that the one really important question wasn’t asked at all since its answer would be political dynamite: Are you prepared to go to war with Russia in support of Ukraine?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/23/majority-public-backs-uks-current-level-support-ukraine/

  21. SIR – When will the Chancellor and Prime Minister remember that taxation discourages whatever it falls on, and that, in many cases, raising tax rates leads to lower overall receipts?

    To misquote Neil Kinnock, we have ended in the grotesque chaos of a Conservative government – a Conservative government – scuttling around raising corporation tax at precisely the moment it should be lowering it in order to encourage businesses to set up and invest in our economy.

    Nick Green
    London SW6

    Hear, hear! This will do great damage to our economy when it is already struggling. This will be painful, and all in the name of a ‘giveaway’ (ugh) pre-election budget next year. Madness.

        1. Nobody provides a link when they parrot that “higher taxes lead to lower revenue”. In fact, it would be hard to accurately define the sweet spot, because there is always so much noise in economic statistics. There is no counter-factual, but I note that France has a much higher tax-take than the UK, and has for a long time, yet level-pegs us year after year, while having much better public services.

          2. Many thanks, to be read until the ink drops off. Let us consider the examples of low-tax low-welfare Switzerland and high-tax high-welfare Sweden. Both very successful economies. What do they have in common? Business-friendly legislation, and swerving two world wars.

          6. It’s certainly possible.
            If I was getting an acceptable life living purely on benefits and working a 40 hour week made me £10 better off, I’m damned if I would bother to work and I’m fairly sure there are millions like me.

      2. At a surprisingly high level.
        The concept has been over-simplified, but there is no doubt that too high a level can produce a reduction in revenue.
        The degree of freedom of movement for labour and capital can affect matters significantly.

        1. That’s visible here in Geilo. The ski centre has significantly increased prices for lift passes to the extent that tney are about 50% higher than last year.
          Result: The whole town and the slopes are deserted, there’s almost nobody here, yet the snow is lovely, as is the weather. We scaled back our skiing too, and went for lunch – almost nobody in thow, restaurants, shops.
          So, they seem to have misjudged the desire to pay, and it’s hurting all the businesses in town. Even the hotel we stay in is very quiet, and seasonal staff have not been engaged this year.

      3. Yet folk also deny that it exists – although they see money flowing out of the country, a collapse in savings, pensions and investment.

    2. I am convinced that Hunt has been specifically instructed by Schwab, Soros and Gates to destroy the British economy as soon as possible. Raising corporation tax will be seen as the best Decline Accelerator!

    3. The state does not care. It wants more money to ‘balance the books’.

      That the reason there’s a deficit is not because of tax receipts but because of state spending is beyond it. It is a drunk continually buying more booze on the credit card, then mugging people to pay the bill uninterested in the chaos and misery he causes.

    4. However, our lords and masters at Al Beeb, who appear to run this country, don’t know this as money appears in their corporate bank accounts for free.

  23. For the ongoing debate about heat pumps – but Nottlers won’t be surprised:

    SIR – Matthew Lynn (telegraph.co.uk, February 22) is right: air source heat pumps are an awful product.

    We have three, made by two different manufacturers. Our first one was installed in 2014, and I rue the day. They are top-of-the-range machines and had a corresponding price tag.

    That they are expensive is well known, as is the fact that they only achieve a marginal efficiency improvement compared with gas. What is less well known – and should be shouted from rooftops – is that heat pumps are not mature technology. They keep breaking down – at least once a year and certainly when there is “extreme weather” (as the maintenance people call it; really this means any sub-zero temperature).

    The pumps need to be serviced annually, at a cost of £400 each. This contract is more expensive than the equivalent for a gas boiler, and the price far outstrips the energy saving that the pumps are supposed to achieve. And then there are repair bills. Ours this year is particularly high at £5,000 – because, guess what, replacement parts aren’t cheap.

    Toby Schumacher
    Maplehurst, West Sussex

    1. The best advice is not to follow government advice on anything and especially on diet, heating, power, medicine and transport. What they tell you to do now they will contradict in a few years time.

      We eat butter (once bad now good), we drive a diesel car (once incentivised for being the cleanest car fuel), we have woodburner stoves (wood is a renewable and good now it is CO2 emittingly bad) – all things on which government advice has changed completely. And what about Covid jabs?

  25. BBC defends Shamima Begum documentary after hundreds complain

    Corporation says Shamima Begum Story is ‘important investigative journalism’ and not a platform for an unchallenged story

    ************************************

    Andrew Williams
    15 HRS AGO
    BBC defends the indefensible- there’s a surprise. How’s about some “ important investigative journalism” on Asian grooming gangs?

    215

    Yvonne Leonard
    14 HRS AGO
    Reply to Andrew Williams
    The BBC’s silence is almost palpable regarding the children who continue to be raped by Pakistani gangs in Rotherham, Bradford, Telford and Oxford. These are children who have suffered, through no fault of their own, since infancy, and yet this evil woman, for some reason, is thought to be interesting and exceptional and continually plugged by the BBC.
    She had a family, a country, a creed but this was not enough for her. She must now accept she must work, if only to give something back to the society she has chosen, and stop wasting British taxpayers’ money on appeals. She is not wanted here.

    1. It’s accepted by many that the BBC is one of the important, perhaps the most important, propaganda mouthpieces of our rotten to the core government and its supporting political class of all colours. Would it be too much of a stretch to imagine that some politicos would like to use this woman’s return as yet another kick in face to the public?

    2. I wonder if it’s possible for a refund for part of the licence fee, for programmes we don’t watch, or might be seriously offended by.

  26. Good morning, all. Bright with scattered cloud after an early light frost.

    The attack on real food continues whilst one of the proposed replacements may have hit a problem after a study.

    https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1628335442067177474

    “The problem is that the materials used to make the product – ‘immortalized cell lines’ – replicate forever, just like cancer. Which means, in effect, that they are cancer. Industry types are ‘confident’ that eating such products poses no risk. But it’s not difficult to see, even if the products are ‘proven’ safe, how people might be put off by the thought that they’re eating a glorified tumor.”

    Link to News Punch article:

    News Punch – Study of Bill Gates’ Lab Grown Meat

    1. Ah, drat! I didn’t read under, but posted a link to the Chudov substack above. Sorry.
      Those self-righteous stickers on the meat packs are guaranteed to raise blood pressure. You can just see an army of little blackshirts eagerly sticking them on in supermarkets, while the adults stand by sheepishly and let them do it (but will call the police if anyone sticks one saying “guaranteed halal free” on the pork).
      Still, I suppose it causes less aggro than blocking roads.

  29. Kent University says everyone should be called ‘they’ until you know their pronouns

    The institution says these are guidelines, not policies, and ‘are there as a useful resource and support tool’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/02/23/TELEMMGLPICT000326528645_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqIThesJjkTRSwOkntcMntpnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpeg?imwidth=680

    *********************************************

    George Carter
    12 HRS AGO
    So let me get this right – it’s being suggested that we deliberately mis-pronoun 99.9% of the population to avoid the risk of mis-pronouning the 0.1%? And someone thinks that’s ok?

    Robert Pratt
    1 MIN AGO
    Those running Kent University should be called ‘idiots’ because that is their identity.

    2. We should be proud of our world-beating universities that give young people an unrivalled training in wokeness. Kent graduates will be well equipped to glue themselves to roads all over the liberal west!

      2. Unless it’s a lady with a fair-sized bosom, when the query, “How are they?” might not be out of grammatical place.

    1. Thanks Phizzee – that’s made my day, nay week! I have American cousins who thought she was wonderful – can’t wait to rub their noses in it.

  31. OT Yesterday – The trip was to go to the Spanish expo at the Royal Academy. That was stunning – all stuff from a single collection in New York. Artefacts and art from the Celts to the 20th century. Mouth-watering!

    We also went to Sotheby’s and Christie’s (where the best coffee in London is made by an Italian chap – and is free) as they had views for sales next week of Surreal and Contemporary “art”. Most of it was garbage – like primary school children’s efforts – think the charlatans Emin and Hirst – but, nonetheless, it was interesting to see. Hidden among them were some gems by Renoir, Morisot, Luce and Loiseau. Also, at Christies, the “theme” was the Magritte “Le retour” (see below) which they estimate at six MILLION pounds…

    Sotheby’s was in some renovation mode “the make our premises a safe space for our staff and visitors”. Not sure what that meant! Christie’s is always much more friendly.

    Apart from losing my hat and gloves in the car park on the way back the only NIGHTMARE was the said car park. I went equipped with coins and a credit card – which I thought would do the trick. Not a chance. You MUST have a smart phone, download an “app” and then go through the rigmarole of trying to enter your car number and the date etc etc. I do not have a smart phone, so, had I been alone, would have aborted the trip. Fortunately, the MR does have one, and she went through the whole malarkey. It took her (and she is a whizz at IT) 20 minutes. There are some aspects of modern life that I loathe….

    The trains were on time – the Tube running efficiently and we had an agreeable walk through the West End and St James’s.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfae8e8c696edc5350b0c820efa7b2ace5c275a0c7ea566f2884213e77544885.jpg

      1. It was brilliant. And in all three venues, decent, friendly, interested people just like ourselves. Not a tattoo or a fat person to be seen….

    2. The exhibitions sound wonderful.

      Re the car park; at a certain point, we are all going to have to decide what we go along with, and what we avoid. For a lot of people, that will be digital ids, for others digital currency. Others will go along with everything that big business and their government lackeys shovel down their throats.
      That car park effectively blocks anyone who doesn’t have a smartphone from using it – something that I find unacceptable. I have never had an internet-connected phone as a deliberate choice. Not sure where that’s going, and whether I might have to get one at some point.

      1. My phone broke recently. Found an old one in the drawer, works OK, label inside indicates that it was made in 2006.

  33. The “Flying Scotsman” Edinburgh to London train first steamed on its journey 100 years ago.

      1. Morning Bill – it was, I am told, the first train to reach 100 mph. The fire men must have had to work very hard on that train service.

        2. The 1st train CLAIMED to have reached 100mph was an Up Paddington hauled by City of Truro which allegedly touched the ton on Wellington Bank, just after Whiteball Tunnel or the GWR though the timing method was not particularly accurate.

          In 1934, as part of a series of brake test runs prior to the introduction of the streamlined A4 class, Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive to reach the officially authenticated speed of 100 mph (161 km/h) while hauling a light test train which, I believe, included a dynamometer car.

    2. Oh dear! The Flying Scotsman LOCOMOTIVE first steamed 100 years ago.
      The trains service named The Flying Scotsman, originally the 10:00 departures from Edinburgh & London KX began in 1862 as the “Special Scotch Express” and quickly gained the unofficial nickname of The Flying Scotsman.
      The service was not officially name as such until 1924.

      1. Morning Bob – The media must have split the two events you mention and decided this year should be celebrated as the centenary. My mother’s family were railway men. My grandfather was a fireman before he became the train driver. He had to get up early in the morning to light up the fire box to get the engine ready for the driver.

        1. Big sheds had firelighting crews, and firebox cleaners, all kinds of support staff, so the locomotive crew could (almost) just roll up and drive off (it was never that easy, but you get the idea).
          I used to fire a tiny 0-4-0 ST locomotive here in Norway at a railway museum. That took a mobilisation to the loco at 07:00, use a diesel to get it out of the shed, light the fire using wood, inspect the loco, grease, oil and water, fill with coal, and we’d be ready to pull visitors trains at 10:00 first departure.
          Regular re-coaling, refilling the tank, messing with couplings when running round the train for the return journey. Let alone shovelling coal, and topping the boiler up by steam injectors.
          Closing up at the end of the day – drop the fire, rake the firebox, steam into the shed, and use remaining steam pressure to top up the boiler. You’d be finished around 18:00, last train arriving about 16:00.

      1. Replacement bus service from Drem to Peterborough.
        Terrible hold-ups on the the Great North Road.

      1. 371518+ up ticks,

        Morning Bob,
        Replying to
        @BeardedBob7282
        Morning Boc,
        I really do see boots on the war front ground coming shortly, ALL P/P of the killing game in an as “they” say
        overpopulated planet.

      1. Bloke I know was a mechanic in the RAF. He’s been called back. His first question was ‘who’ll keep his business going in the meanwhile.

        Although knowing Kev he’s more danger to our side than theirs.

      2. 371518+ up ticks,

        Bob,

        I do believe in current times Attack is the best form of defence, surely whoever sent that letter in times such as these is at fault.

  36. The Reform Party must get its ambitious policies out in the open. Richard Tice is not a fan of Net Zero. His ambitions should be shortened publicly with reference to more detail in the party’s internet publication which describes what he intends to achieve, how he will do it and the estimated cost.
    Lawrence Fox has a slot on GB News, will he join up with Reform? He should.
    The next election could happen any time soon and Reform should be prepared to seize a chance of seats from chaos in the the Conservative and Labour parties.

    1. Laurence has offered to make an Alliance.
      It is Reform & Richard Tice who insist on going it alone.

      1. Then Reform and Tice will just split votes and ensure a Labour victory, to the detriment and final ruin of our country.

        1. Tice is showing that he is/was essentially a business man, – the plodding sort, not the wild charismatic sort – and not a politician with a necessary sense of strategy , or wily calculation, one might say.

          1. We are going back to where I was in 2019 when I spoilt my ballot paper.

            I felt that the current generation of politicians are a wash-out, and we need to start afresh, training up a new breed. Someone socially conservative, anti-woke, but both fiscally responsible and public spirited. Tice still believes the old Reagan trick that one can cut taxes, push public finance onto borrowing and the little people, and expect a decent nation to come out of it. Maybe in Hollywood it works?

            I actually wrote in the name of my teenage muse, whom I think fits the bill even though she is more interested in writing operas than running countries.

            However, someone like Kate Forbes, although a bit older, would do.

      2. Perhaps Reform President Nigel Farage should knock their heads together or , as we believe, most politicians are idiots.

          1. He is an excellent journalist who expresses himself very lucidly and as an orator he is unparalleled in today’s political world.

            However he is vain, boastful and arrogant and far too fond of sycophants and he does not take criticism, from which he could learn, seriously. For example he far too readily said that the terrible Boris Johnson Brexit deal was acceptable and he does not admit that he was weak when he surrendered to Johnson and did not field Brexit Party candidates in seats held by remainer Conservatives in the 2019 election.

            Remember when the conspirators are seeking recruits for the assassination team for Julius Caesar they reject Cicero for the very reason that he is not a team player and doesn’t want to be involved in anything unless he is the leader.

        2. From listening to him, Farage reckons 2024 will be too soon for a new centre-right re-alignment. But. after a heavy defeat in 2024, there would be a chance by 2026 of such an alliance with Tories like Braverman, Badenoch, and Anderson amongst its leading lights.

      3. I am far from being convinced that Richard Tice will be firm enough on Brexit or the scams on Covid ‘vaccination’ and man-made climate ‘crisis’, carbon dioxide and non-functional, impractical renewal power sources.

        I still feel nothing will change until there is a mass defection away from the Conservative Party by disaffected MPs.

        1. It does look bleak.
          The worst thing probably is RedWall voters, feeling betrayed (correctly) who intend to revert to Labour.
          Oh why on earth.
          Starmer is already ringing every alarm bell.

          1. Sunak gives me the impression that the total destruction of the Conservative Party is entirely deliberate.

  37. Morning all 😉 😊
    Light grey today could go either way.

    How can there possibly be a plan for growth if our idiot politicians have stuffed the country with immigrants, most of them have never done a day’s work since they arrived, but have taken everything they can get their hands on.
    Let’s be perfectly honest compared to 40 years ago this country is now quite appalling.
    Here’s the list of the saboteurs, Major, Blair, Daft Vader, Cam moron, May, Johnson, I won’t mention Truss she didn’t have time to inflict any damage. And now we have the leader of the Conservative Party also known as PM.

    1. Truss was a warmonger as Foreign Secretary.
      Definitely didn’t help the Russia situation. Her geography was poor, I recall.

    1. Morning OLT. Essentially yes. He’s opposed to the Globalist Agenda and must therefore go!

      1. Plus, Orthodox Christian.
        In case anyone is in doubt (!) Christians are being persecuted for their traditional faith, worldwide.

          1. Gates says in the clip I posted how they intend to “immunise” people who are religious.
            Specifically selecting their genes.

    2. Russia is already well on the way to winning. When I was very young I used to wonder why my father repeatedly stated that the Americans couldn’t win the war in Vietnam. I get it now. Ideologues have tunnel vision that filters out objective reality. They fight unjust wars by unjust means, with zero understanding of what motivates their enemy.

  41. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114089_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq1F9N6pUIu4QWFka9jlJHP1fJF0EM4dK0APHdPHIua_0.jpeg?imwidth=640

    The Flying Scotsman first entered service on February 24, 1923 – 100 years ago today. To celebrate, the Railway Museum in York has an extensive centenary programme, including an exhibition, a virtual reality experience and the chance to ride behind the locomotive on multiple railway lines across the country. Here, we chart the history of the engine, from the record-breaking early days to its modern refurbishment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114116_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqUQzOoJpBPlRbWCUOHzyg-EILJJpwdHwkstMv3u0Srgc.jpeg?imwidth=640

    The Flying Scotsman was built in Doncaster in 1923 as the first locomotive of the London North Eastern Railway (LNER). The following year, it was chosen to appear at the British Empire Exhibition, held in Wembley Park.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114092_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqsT8WkHhIIGcqf-eU4anH8SH0-jRUT4rHK8EgtaGoQwQ.jpeg?imwidth=640

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114103_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqmO-pQeSKXI1-v5uUXLgtu2KVK6gxRyE6wCEjL05gX-k.jpeg?imwidth=640

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114094_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqrdGkU9iw1AX1zDzHVC7NAuTIg_UJUfaXZgg_L3G-w1c.jpeg?imwidth=640

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114120_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqlNNc2GEvksBqps04dxteAAT_CjHPKWgnv4GSTYNX8Wg.jpeg?imwidth=640
    This image of the steam locomotive was taken by Bishop Eric Treacy, a railway enthusiast and renowned photographer, at Leeds station in 1956.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114086_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqrnykcIhNBTQGIhNzmTaT-bRxN3k0gyKMaHVGwcklXbA.jpeg?imwidth=640#

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/01/25/TELEMMGLPICT000323114107_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqCKQT0PXyAw9lN4HQjnBQHf4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=640

    1. Good morning, Citroen

      My maternal grandfather, Charles Bowen-Cooke, was a prominent steam locomotive engineer in Crewe. Here is an account of his work:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d509e913b99db730054d94274cf468bd5d4f223b27db77df4764f2639de77d09.jpg

      Here he is:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89ed5bbe3b949e40e517ad08671f3b968d480997b3925ecfe16b3e2d80b40115.jpg

      and here is one of his locomotives:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2884b9a08ba959801f71e27f6fc4f2de70859115ff8ab5df3d38d5a2c33cdd76.jpg

    2. Good morning Citreon . Another Weni story from me .. but I have been so lucky in my earlier years .

      I travelled on the Flying Scotsman from Newcastle to Kings Cross when I was a child, on my own , with a label attached to my school uniform blazer , with the guard keeping an eye on me as an unaccompanied junior.. to be met by what was called a Universal Aunt who would escort me across London to London airport .. I was off to visit my parents in Nigeria for Christmas .1960.

      From A Railway Carriage
      By Robert Louis Stevenson

      Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
      Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
      And charging along like troops in a battle
      All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
      All of the sights of the hill and the plain
      Fly as thick as driving rain;
      And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
      Painted stations whistle by.
      Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
      All by himself and gathering brambles;
      Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
      And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
      Here is a cart runaway in the road
      Lumping along with man and load;
      And here is a mill, and there is a river:
      Each a glimpse and gone forever!

  42. Excellent and quite reassuring article on CBDCs from Alasdair Macleod
    https://www.goldmoney.com/research/cbd-cs-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly?gmrefcode=gata

    From the article:
    “There has been much comment over the likelihood that central bank digital currencies will be introduced. I conclude they are unnecessary — a red herring. But it does allow us to discuss their possible relevance to a new Asian super-currency….”
    (interesting examination of what a new cross-border gold-backed BRICS currency could look like)

    “According to the Bank of England and the Treasury, there are two basic reasons for issuing a digital pound: people are not using cash as much as they used to, with digital payments becoming more common. And “there are new forms of money on the horizon, some of these could pose risks to the UK’s financial stability.”

    Let us address these two issues. Digital payments are indeed becoming more common. Credit cards have been around for decades, so there is nothing new there. The Bank is referring to debit cards, which authorise the transfer of a bank’s obligation a customer in accordance with the customer’s instructions. This form of payment has become progressively more efficient, leading to a public choice for paying with debit cards. A separate wallet for a CBDC, as proposed by the Bank, is unnecessary. That leaves us dealing with fear of the unknown — the new forms of money on the horizon, and the risk to financial stability.

    This is a straw man fallacy. There is no threat from private sector currencies (Bitcoin etc). As pointed out earlier in this article, they lack the legal status of money and credit, and are entirely unsuitable. But what the bitcoin revolution has done is create a lot of excitement amongst the progressives, who feel a response is necessary. And reading the Britcoin’s consultation paper, we see that the intention is for a CBDC which is limited in its scope compared with some of the ideas coming out of the Bank for International Settlements’ own consultation documents.”

    1. I’m sure the only reason the BofE and Treasury want a central bank digital currency is control.

      1. My feeling as well. But Macleod’s quite cheery conclusion is that

        “The whole CBDC story is a red herring. The plan outlined above for a new Asian trade settlement currency does not require a CBDC. It can be progressed within current banking systems. And as for the time taken to implement CBDCs in the western alliance’s fiat currencies, it is highly likely that they will have collapsed into worthlessness long before CBDCs can be adopted. “

    2. Why did Sunak instruct the Bank of England, when he was Chancellor, to develop a programmable CBDC if the intention is not that it should operate in exactly the same way as its Chinese counterpart? What is described above does not need to be programmable.

      1. I agree that the creepy WEF only wants them for control. The consultation document is intended not to scare the horses, and Alasdair Macleod quite rightly debunks it.

        See below, my answer to RichardSk with the final paragraph of the article – Alasdair Macleod thinks that fiat currencies will collapse before they can implement the CBDC.

        I think they will try to hoodwink the people as long as they can – and if forced back onto some kind of gold standard, will try to fob the people off with a worthless CBDC – but it will all end in tears.

    1. I remember a song which goes:

      “I’m sitting on top of the world,
      Just rolling along,
      Just singing my song….”

      2. I’d like to make our grandchildren aware of what will probably happen to their country in their future lifetime’s. But they are far too young to understand. And we now have another grand-daughter on the way.

  45. ‘Morning All

    “That’s the way to do it!”

    https://twitter.com/N0TINSERVICE/status/1628695444426563584?s=20

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6cc87bfba2e183befdb9ba648466d7a1ce63fa1725e426a176bb921a8112b4b4.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0a3c91e9220175884121696d8e33bef6f0f18f63ada0c01fdcb1a2965d30da99.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/772f1a512e4c30339a21810ef54323c0817d2b13589d6f03100349a55665e135.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d036db3b5be598fd03f08294761e614e2b1a440c1621afbcfbd80466c1acfe2d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1e77cfa5455fa397e56f229adb742d342a35cd0982ef7c2c8f436eb49bb6fbb5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d51d165696a0d6b692065f838d9d587878029933bf7f7352b03a10982f467427.jpg

  46. I forgot to mention that on the train back to King’s Lynn, a slammer couple used their mobile phones to play some stupid game – that bleeped each time either made a move. All the way from Cambridge for an hour….. And his sodding ring tone was the Muzzie’s howl from the minaret…

    Pity one couldn’t open a window and throw the phone out.

      1. Quite. They also spoke loudly in arabic. A cynic might think they were winding the white people up…..

    1. If it was Lammy squared
      It would be

      I ate u

      He cannot spell/use words with more than Free Letus

      1. She is quite active on Twitter as well. She is on our side, as it were, and so far hasn’t put a foot wrong. She was defending the ‘anti-vaxxers’ from the start.

        1. This is the only site we use, don’t do twitter, or instagram or whatever else. We do WhatsApp or Skype within family only. Good for her.

          We heard today of a 23 year old daughter of a friend of a friend who has recently had a stroke, was taken to hospital and still just sitting there unattended 3 hours later. (?TV advert anyone? FAST – in case of strokes). And this daughter’s friend had a brain problem of some sort. Both fully jabbed of course.

          1. Oh, I am so sorry. I hear so much of this happening on Twitter, it gives one an idea of the scale and depth of what is happening. I always knew that those with adverse effects from the injection would be on their own, that the nhs would be reluctant to pick up any pieces. Your poor friend’s daughter – that is so young, I hope she makes a good recovery. Whatever happened to those ‘golden hours’ the nhs told us were vital for a good outcome.

            I joined Twitter because I felt as though I was the only one for miles around who saw through all this, apart from the people here on nttl. It turned out that there are thousands of us. One gets to hear about protests, what is going on – Thailand and Switzerland are both independently taking Pfizer to court – a Thai princess has been in a coma on life support for over six weeks as a result of the jab and understandably the Thai Royal Family is pretty mad. We don’t hear about this from the msm. Twitter is worth a look, there is a lot of dross out there and the site is bewildering at first but one does become accustomed to it.

          2. The problem here is that anyone adversely affected by these experimental jabs would have to instigate legal proceedings on their own, seeing as HMG has given the Pharma companies immunity from prosecution. Presumably Thailand and Switzerland were not so stupid or hasty.

      1. Perhaps all their classmates should refuse to attend school until these lasses are returned and receive an apology from the school.
        What an utter farce.

    1. I never rated Wallace. He is in the position he is through connections and nepotism, not capability.

          1. One certainly never saw soldiers armed when standing around listening to the creeps. But then again, it would take silver bullets or stakes and garlic.

    2. Hang on a minute. Wasn’t it Wally who said there will be a war by 2030 or something? Will the U.K. have anything to fight with? He is talking out of his backside. He probably feels very important.

      Idiot.

        1. “If there is, and we’ve hit net zero by then, we’ll lose that war within a very few weeks hours.”

          Fixed it for you, Sos.

          1. We’re not France saving Paris, we won’t surrender that quickly. The politicians will fight to the last drop of British blood.

  52. Open the dreamies NOW!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6074ed69d7b6f47bd8b0701729ca62437e339fdd75ead445637eb146c07d8721.jpg

    Coat time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8931d610ac367d8836dab57ed0cc8edb7acd8325eec7bf5f94c843ef8d0ff341.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bbfdc4c995d76e36936ab8db53237fcd96390ca5893365f4449b0bdcca1e990e.jpg
    Edit
    Even worse
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea5d9f5f0c7cbe52c393a635f0049c2ac558c5ef89a29783d303aa30bc508e1a.jpg
    Even worse

    1. Another version of the last one. “I went out drinking last night so I left the car at home and took the bus. It’s amazing driving a bus when you’re drunk”.

    2. Just had a box of vegetables delivered from my local grower.
      Freshly picked & gorgeous including celeriac leeks etc.
      Only thing he doesn’t have is cauliflower.

  54. Much is being made of the Queen’s speech saying that authors should say what they like and not allow themselves to be censored.

    Of course Roald Dahl’s books are being censored and re-edited but this is not anything new.

    Remember Agatha Christie’s novel Ten Little N*gg*rs first had its title changed to Ten Little Indians whch proved equally unacceptable and so it is now called And Then There Were None.

    And that other great(?) children’s novelist, Enid Blyton, has had her work Bowdlerised and the naughty golliwogs have been completely removed from the Noddy books. Even Hergé’s adventures of Tintin have been amended and his adventures in the Congo (from which this picture has been taken) is no longer available.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c5838d0ad162f5f66b7e4c770b8adcacc0b7d74d03dd668e30f55d5aef4a7779.jpg

    1. I have a copy, Richard, and need to read it before passing it on to someone. Would any NoTTLer like it?

    2. Some of Enid Blyton’s stuff was genuinely offensive though. She was my favourite author as a child – nobody ever created an imaginary world as good as the Famous Five’s – but there’s at least one book (the Castle of Adventure?) which has a black character in, where the black man is rather spitefully described as a half-wit. Even as a child, I just didn’t like that book.

  55. Oh bugger.
    Puts on my old fleece jacket & boots to go up the “garden” and just as I opened the back door it began to rain!

    However, it seems that the brood have just had a bit of good news in the form of letters from a Berwick upon Tweed solicitor concerning my sister’s will.

  56. An excellent Dalrymple
    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-triggers-of-history/

    I am hesitant to write in a satirical vein because, as I and others have remarked, satire is prophecy. A number of current policies would have been regarded as satirical exaggeration only a few years ago. Who would have thought, say a decade ago, that a serious, or at any rate a prominent and powerful female politician (I refer here to the First Minister of Scotland), would argue that a man convicted of rape was actually, that is to say in reality, in fact, in every sense, a woman? Such propositions now elicit only irritation, not laughter; and irritation declines before long to resignation. Absurdity is first discussed, then adopted by a vanguard of intellectuals in search of a cause, and finally becomes an orthodoxy that it is socially unacceptable to question. Intelligent people give up opposition because it is boring to argue against what is not worth entertaining in the first place.
    The American journalist Lincoln Steffens famously (or infamously) said on his return from Bolshevik Russia, “I have seen the future, and it works!”

    I have seen the future, and it is absurd—as well as nasty.

    1. Hence when regressive-progressives laugh it’s an expression of derision for their opponents and not a natural response to the absured, since they are the absurd?

    1. Irrespective of the politics I think the Russian National Anthem is one stirring piece of music.

      1. I wondered if they’d reverted to an old anthem or kept the Soviet era one and it seems that the Duma voted to keep the tune but commission a new lyric that references God and the Motherland in place of communism and the Soviet Republics. The anthem of Imperial Russia was God Save the Tsar so not really possible to revert?

    1. I started listening but I think this is one I will have to psyche myself up for. I will try again later today, I want to enjoy my one coffee moment of the day!

      1. Yes, sensitive time of the day in the morning…
        I thought I had heard everything about their evil intent, but this really shocked me.

    2. “The virus would immunize against that VMAT2 gene”
      (at the end)
      What is he even talking about?
      It sounds like pure hocus to me.
      At least one member of the audience doesn’t sound too convinced either.
      I know I keep on about the Kennedy book, but when you read the account of all their scams and frauds over the years, you realise how much of what they say is pure BS, just put out there to attract government money.

      1. “Immunise”?
        He also mentions “eliminate”.
        Which does he mean? Or does “immunise” = “eliminate”?

        1. How is a virus supposed to eliminate someone’s DNA anyway?
          His intentions are undoubtedly evil, but the whole thing has a strong whiff of BS about it.

          1. I agree. He is dabbling in something he is too ignorant about.
            However he does mention that ‘the religious person…has a strong expression of this gene”…& the other person not so much, so I suspect they are dabbling in manipulation of which genes express & which remain passive or inactive or less expressed.
            I don’t know enough about it myself, but I do know that certain groups of genes will only express in specific Ph environs ( & other genes will produce proteins/enzymes which give the requisite Ph, etc).
            This includes for example the HIV virus which is inhibited until a specific state encourages prolific activity.
            We know there is much interest/manipulation re the HIV virus (including in one of the Bio labs in Ukraine, allegedly).
            Heaven knows what they imagine they are doing.
            Playing God, or rather playing Satan, by the look of it…
            He needs to have his own genes manipulated in order to give him some empathy for human beings.

  63. 371518+ up ticks,

    I do believe that the United Kingdoms electorate majority are all for it as the voting pattern clearly shows.

    Tunisian President Criticised For Pointing Out Illegal Migration Is Deliberate Bid to Change Demographics of Host Nations

  64. I took Mongo and Ozzie down to the shore today. Usually Ozzie won’t move unless the Warqueen goes with him but we had fun once we got there, with Mongo trying to move from the back seat to the passenger and then decided to learn to drive half way around.

    All fun in a small hatchback.

    After they played in the sea for an hour we all flopped on a bench and for the first time I had Mongo sit his great head on my lap. Ozzie might never really be ‘my’ dog, but he’s tolerating me.

    We’re now off to the groomers for a scrub, a shampoo and a trim.

    2. Oscar decided this morning that he REALLY didn’t want to go for a walk. If I hadn’t been wearing thick gloves I would have lost my fingers – I couldn’t even get a muzzle on him. I took Kadi and left Oscar in the garden. When I came back he was nowhere to be seen; I eventually found him lying behind the oil tank whence he took some persuading to emerge. Eventually he deigned to come into the house, but he spent ages hesitating on the doorstep. I wondered if he knew he shouldn’t have done what he did and he expected to be thrashed for it. Needless to say, he wasn’t and he’s been fine all day.

  65. Just had the repair man here- same young chap who helped me across the road a few weeks ago. We played an interesting type of hide and seek; he wanted to turn off the water and I had no idea where the thingy was. We looked in cupboards and he looked out the back and out the front. He found it behind the bloody washing machine! Such fun.
    Heading to supermarket soon- we both want a weekend of no interruptions and not needing for me to go anywhere.
    Husband got off to hospital in good time so hope all that goes well.
    Listening to some Vivaldi to soothe me.

    1. Just to clarify, why are you and the repairman wanting a weekend of no interruptions and your not needing to go anywhere?

      }:-O

        1. I know what you meant but there was a certain ambiguity (deliberate?) in the way you said it.

    2. Yo Lottie

      I recommend that you get your nice repair man to fit one of these i the house
      (I did first say fit you with one of them)

      Shutting the water off is as simple as using a light switch but it is Air Pressure operated, not electrically

      https://surestop.co.uk/product-range

  66. Am I being shadow-banned?

    I made a remark under Johnny Norfolk’s comment about getting all the fruit and veg he needed.

    My comment stated that there was plenty in our local co-op.

    I also mentioned supermarkets and their low pricing to suppliers.

    The whole comment has disappeared.

    2. After posting the comment can sometimes vanish but then reappears as a post, if you refresh the page.

        1. Perhaps you deleting it instead of posting it.
          It’s happened to me a few times today and I’ve noticed there have been several instances of identical posts appearing twice.

          1. Deleting not only requires a definite action, using the second of the two black characters to the far right but also shews. “This comment was deleted.”

    1. Tatchell has always been a closet paedophile. He made a slip some years ago but was able to recover.

    2. That is more or less what Milo Yiannapoulos was arguing, and he was challenged by a lefty – he then admitted that he was arguing from his own experiences – and it first dawned on him that he had been abused as a child.

      I suppose Tatchell thinks he can get away with anything.

    1. I can’t see him being elected again, much as I agree with his sentiments.

      I would not be surprised should it look as if he were to succeed that he would become an unexplained death. There are too many deep statists with too much to lose.

      1. Any unexplained death could be covered, as with many vaccine deaths, as simply ‘old age’ – his time had come.

      1. If Londoners were still resident in London it would be known as “Chicken Lane” immediately.

    2. Unbelievable. And apparently not far from the Russian embassy too. How embarrassing these idiots are.

    1. Good to repeat what the little pervert is up to but i posted that yesterday.

      You’re forgiven. :@)

          7. To think, I used to live in London! Five minutes there would seriously raise my blood pressure these days…

  72. Los Angeles has first blizzard warning in decades. 24 February 2023.

    Blizzard warnings are in place for parts of Southern California for the first time since 1989.

    A coast-to-coast storm that paralysed roads and blacked out nearly one million homes and businesses was set to pound the Golden State on Friday, sparking warnings about floods and blizzards.

    The National Weather Service warned of a “cold and dangerous winter storm” through Saturday. As much as five feet of snow could fall in some mountains near Los Angeles, which could create whiteout conditions as winds gust to 75 mph and an increased risk of avalanches, forecasters said.

    Global Warming strikes again!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/24/us-winter-storm-blizzard-weather-warning-southern-california/

    2. A number of yanks over on ZH point out that in the mountains an hour’s drive or so from LA in winter there is usually a lot of snow so much so that it’s possible to going skiing!

  73. We owe it to the people of Ukraine to bring Vladimir Putin to trial for war crimes. Gordon Brown. 24 February 2023.

    It is time to bring Vladimir Putin and his enablers to justice – and the US should now take a lead from Europe. Having witnessed first-hand the devastation inflicted on Ukraine, Joe Biden should mark 24 February, the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion, by announcing American support for a special tribunal to try Putin and his henchmen for the crime of aggression.

    God almighty. Gordon Brown. The Man who sat next to Blair. Irony is dead. The man who voted consistently for the Iraq war and against investigations into it, though he mostly made sure he wasn’t around come voting time.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2023/feb/24/people-ukraine-vladimir-putin-trial-war-crimes

    2. “Exactly 30 years ago, with the US’s endorsement, the UN security council created the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia”. Yep, they bombed the hell out of Serbia, deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure and on the entirely false premise that there was an attempted genocide in Bosnia (there was no more evidence of that than of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction), then put the Serbian leaders on trial for NATO crimes. They also created Kosovo based on the same arguments denied to the people of the Donbass.

      1. My Serbian colleague described the creation of Kosovo as “the theft of a piece of Serbia by Albanians.”

        1. I received an email yesterday from the Jules Verne tour company advertising holidays in Albania and really bigging it up as a holiday destination. As Minty says, irony is dead.

    3. This seriously underlines the problem we have in our country with people who enter the political side of events.
      Most of them are As (Daft Vader) is, absolutely and unforgivably stupid.
      And therefore extremely dangerous.

    4. … and others to war crimes tribunals, let’s see, G Brown, T Bliar, there’s many of the bastards.

      1. …and not least Zelensky for the actions of his Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Donbas, as authorised by him.

  74. NoTTlers strike again!!!

    Publisher to release uncensored versions of Roald Dahl classics after backlash

    Puffin UK had made hundreds of changes to the original versions to avoid causing offence

    By Will Bolton 24 February 2023 • 12:10pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/02/24/TELEMMGLPICT000326615092_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq5pJYy8WIJKGC_ZvYYh2T9nQLc7oStgmvaG4-UuvogPE.jpeg?imwidth=680

    *******************************

    den Krane
    1 HR AGO
    Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.” — Orwell “1984”
    We must fight back whenever we see this evil at work.

  76. The loft clear out is complete, the local recycling centre now knows us on a first name basis (Very and Mrs Very) but I am please that my original factory workshop manuals I purchased in the early 1970’s for my Triumph Vitesse’s has found a worthy home. The local Triumph 6 owners club has them and I’m sure they will be put to good use. The local charity shop has been restocked by us as well.
    I have made a disturbing discovery though, a photograph has turned up suggesting the family has been involved with a Temperance Society in years past.
    I realise that such an admission could well lead to me being black balled and being asked to leave this forum. The shame of it, being mixed up with people who frowns on alcohol.
    My only defence being it must have been the other side of the family, those that are considered persona non grata, certainly by my side of the family. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b4cd54738b15459c1316548a794d12961d036e96c9e6836a8ac0ba0682fd31b.jpg

    1. My father’s parents were Friends, and insisted that, nay forced, him to sign the Pledge. He didn’t follow it, his reasoning being that coercion made the contract null & void.
      Booze or not booze, you’re always welcome here in Geoff’s House, VVOF!

    2. Not all of us are knocking it back like fishies!

      One side of my family was also in the Temperance movement – but family lore has it that home-made wine didn’t count!

  77. Well, I’ve had a successful morning frying Gaia.
    The Noddy car has been to the tip, the hospice collection point, taken MB to the horsepiddle for an appointment and collected a parcel from the Royal Mail depot. Oh, and done a bit of food shopping.
    Of course, if I’d done all that by bus, the planet would be soooo much healthier.

    2. I do a similar round on Saturday mornings. Tip – Supermarket – farm shop – Russian shop – sundry other shops. Each journey is perhaps 3 miles or less – but the total is far too long to accomplish with a blinking bicycle as the Greeniacs want us to!

    2. They say that a girl may have to kiss a number of frogs before finding her prince. I wonder how many princes she would have to kiss to find her frog or how far she would have to go to find her toad.

  81. Rishi Sunak will call on G7 leaders to supply Ukraine’s armed forces with longer range weapons on the one year anniversary of the conflict.
    The G7 is holding a teleconference on Friday afternoon along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
    The Prime Minister raised the possible provision of the longer range weapons with President Zelenksy during his visit to the UK earlier this month.
    Mr Sunak is also expected to reiterate his offer of support to eastern European countries able to provide jets to Ukraine to help in the immediate conflict.

    Assuming we survive the ensuing nuclear holocaust will Sunak be held to account?
    A hi risk anus indeed.
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/ukraine-war-anniversary-latest-news-russia-putin-zelensky-london-b1062777.html

    1. I hope Putin is ready for these long range weapons, & can likewise launch long range items to take them out at source.
      That seems to have been one of their main tactics to date. Last year Putin said something about having ultra new weapons in reserve, obviously not giving details.

        1. What I really wish for is for the war to be de-escalated from Washington (& thé London poodle).
          Some hope.

    2. Hmmm. There are really three scenario’s for me

      1) We just keep enough weapons to arm a stalemate in which case Russia has 145M to Ukraine’s 44M in a war of attrition that will keep costing us until we get bored and stop and let Putin win

      2) We supply a lot in a short space of time and force a Ukraine win

      3) We pull out and let Putin win, in which case who is next and when?

      1. If everyone had let them just get on with it, it would have been over by now and Russia would have the Donbas through to Crimea, with the rest of Ukraine independent but forbidden from joining NATO.

        Even if weapons are poured in there aren’t the personnel to operate them, providing those personnel would be a clear declaration of war where Putin always retains the upper hand due to MAD.

        Given their experience with the Ukraine and Afghanistan I don’t think Putin/Russia would have the appetite for a next and if Ukraine ie Zelensky and Biden want millions of deaths who is really the guilty party here?

        China, on the other hand?

    3. He’s spending a good proportion of his vast wealth on nuclear bunkers for himself and his family.

  82. I have a very tiny Brainwave, when exiting from Lidls

    There were the usually begging bins for Foodbanks, the distribution of food which you have no control.

    If you do feel in a giving mood, may I suggest

    Baked beans and sausage
    Bacon flavoured Crisps
    Bacon
    Sausages
    Tins of Ham
    Belly Pork
    Gammon……

    Get the drift.

    2. We’ve been doing that for a couple of years. Caroline says she got the idea from a Nottler but can’t remember whom.

    4. From Wiki:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6156115d7253648883fa231c9238bb07d3642b840324a23395a4bb209eb2d525.jpg

      What items are made with pork?

      Yes, ham, bacon, pork chops, pork loin and sausage all come from pigs…but so does insulin, heart valves, footballs, gelatin, burn dressings, matches, crayons and a whole host of other items. Want to learn more about by-products from pigs?17 Jan 2023

      Let’s make sure that muzzies don’t use these medical supplies

  83. How Russian president’s physical and mental state has deteriorated after a gruelling year since ordering invasion of Ukraine. 24 February 2023.

    Vladimir Putin was accused of being ‘terribly scared’ by a former Russian secret service General on Friday, adding to speculation that the Russian president’s position at the top of the Kremlin is growing increasingly untenable.

    Rumours about Putin’s declining health, mental acumen and unstable position have swirled since long before he ordered the invasion on February 24, 2022. In the year since, the rumours have only intensified as the war appears to have taken its toll.

    Video from official meetings and appearances have shown him gripping a table for support, tapping his feet seemingly uncontrollably, and looking unsteady as he walked – while in recent years he has grown puffy and bloated.

    God! I’ve got that as well! I wonder what it is?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11788913/Putin-Russian-presidents-physical-mental-state-deteriorated-year-war.html

    2. Would the people who checked Mr Putin over, please do the same to Biden

      Is falling down aircraft steps deemed to be a problem,

  84. There have been several photographs of Mrs Fishi this week – mainly taking the mickey out of her wardrobe. She is, today, snapped standing outside No 10 wearing what in France are known as “Clown Trousers” of a curious hue.

    Does what a billionaire wears really have any importance?

    3. I sat in the Wigmore Hall yesterday evening trying hard to tell myself that the quality of the singing matters so much more than the hideous outfit but I lost the argument. The singing was fabulous but the vision before me was disastrous. Close your eyes Sue, just listen. The lady in question uses a publicity pic taken when she was younger and slimmer. She now looks stout and middle aged and still has the vocal power and bel canto dexterity but should steer well clear of trendy trouser suits with tight too short grey pinstripe wool pants and a huge double breasted shiny sequined black jacket with satin lapels and leg-o-mutton sleeves.

        1. From Sue’s description of the sartorial horror show it sounds like Phizzee after a bad night out. {:^))

          1. I confess to a bad thought. The sequined jacket made me think of Phizz but I suspect this one would be a tad too big for him.

  85. Just glanced at the DM.
    Bernard Ingham is dead, at 90.
    Risks being remembered for his fantastic eyebrows….
    RIP.

    And pupils are rioting over new lavatory rules – including one school where girls were told to show a red card when on their period – presumably to get extra toilet privileges. Can you think of anything more embarrassing than admitting in front of a class of 15 year old boys that you are on your period…..

    2. 371518+ up ticks,

      Afternoon BB2,

      The lesson of the day is first demean the gathering you intend to manipulate and comply with your mindset.

      2. Well the DM is probably stirring as usual. On the whole, I think it is not bad if teenagers are learning to challenge and disrespect authority, given the awful corruption of that authority these days. Sad though.

        1. All the girls, every single one of them, should use the red card every time they go to the loo. Is there some kind of benefit if they show it? The authorities are bloody stupid.

          2. If the boys at the school are like the ‘male’ employees of the BBC, they will be entitled to the Red Cards, by right, by declaration of their ‘pronoun’

          3. A good ploy would be for ALL pupils – male and female – to carry red cards and flash them each time they want to go to the lav.

    1. “I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”

  87. https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/ukraine-russia-war-volodymyr-zelensky-vladimir-putin-one-year-anniversary-b1062949.html

    Utterly brainwashed, but he’s probably got this bit right:

    Ultimately, wars end through negotiation. The US public position is that any peace agreement will happen at a time of Kyiv’s choosing. It seems unlikely that Zelensky could, as of now, accept a line drawn while Russia remains in the Donbas. Which means that the war is likely to drag on into a third year.

    1. Zelensky was up for peace talks (in Istanbul, wasn’t it?) but Johnson was sent to tell him not to negotiate.

  88. US to deploy a lot of soldiers on NATO’s eastern flank.
    Let us hope this is just more bluster and won’t lead to WW3.
    A banner at the peace march in Munich last week read “Today tanks, tomorrow aircraft, next week our sons?”
    I doubt Americans are any more keen to sacrifice their sons and daughters to protect Hunter Biden’s business interests.
    https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/status/1629091465480622080

    1. The Bailey’s, Mr Dr and Mrs Dr, don’t believe that any viral pathogens exist and they do have an interesting case. It’s said that viral pathogens are not living organisms therefore can’t be bred in a Petri dish and can’t be seen under a microscope independently of the infected tissue but can nonetheless be identified as a gene sequence taken from infected tissue. Does the end result actually identify the cause? Is it a circular argument as Sam Bailey claims? If it is, what does cause the infection and why do there seem to be group breakouts?

      1. It is thought that there are group outbreaks, family outbreaks because we are ‘influenced’ or triggered in some way not yet understood when we are in close contact with someone displaying these symptoms to produce these symptoms ourselves of what we understand to be a ‘virus’. It is thought we are actually detoxifying. Because of this ‘influencing’ process is how the name ‘influenza’ came about.

  92. ‘Effin’ Bogey Five; I don’t like the word . . .

    Wordle 615 5/6
    🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟨⬜🟩🟩
    🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too. There’s a place in the US called Ann ***** isn’t there? I always itch to add an H and a u.

      Wordle 615 5/6

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

    2. Got there by the skin of me teeth!
      Wordle 615 6/6

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

  93. Thought for the day:
    How many airfields are there in the Ukraine where the fighter aircraft to be supplied have sufficient runway to land and take off?

    If I was the Russian strategist I would wait until all the NATO/US/EU supplied aircraft have arrived, and then blitz nine flavours of shit out of all of them.

    2. “… all the NATO/US/EU supplied aircraft have arrived.”

      Why would one wait?

      The first available aircraft should be used for immediate attack, surely?

      1. I’m not sure what you mean there, attack the first as it comes in?

        I would be looking to maximise the damage to as many aircraft as possible and to ensure the airfields were wrecked.
        Hitting the first might stop the rest from arriving temporarily, but saves the rest too; allow a few hundred to land and destroy the lot of them and it would really hurt.

        1. Obviously, the first aircraft should be used to attack Russian targets – not sit on the ground, srb

          1. As you have stated “obviously”, you’ve completely missed my point.

            Those aircraft can’t just arrive and immediately take off to attack, and they almost certainly won’t be arriving one at a time.
            Let us assume the US/NATO/EU provide 200 aircraft at a minimum of 50 million a shot and they are all sent to Ukraine.
            Take them out on their airfields (because I very much doubt that the Ukrainians can fly them 24/7, they don’t have sufficient pilots, let alone ground crew) and that’s 10 billion dollars worth.
            And as to attacking Russian targets, are you suggesting they will head far enough into Russia to destroy the weapons that can attack the airfields?

  94. That’s me for this dreary, cold, occasionally raining – and very strong windy – day. I had hoped for a bonfire – but the wind was too much. The first north wind for four months…

    Have a jolly evening keeping warm and looking out your old military kit. Belts, webbing may need letting out a bit…!!

    A demain.

    1. Yes, I have some tomatoes, I bought some tomatoes today. Small plum toms and I got 2 tubs- limit was 3. I love them with cheese.

          1. The only thing not available is bell peppers but they have long sweet red peppers at £1.99 for a bag of four. They go to Western International Market every morning and have a large array of fruit and vegetables.

      3. I’m planning to plant some 🍅 seeds in the morning. I’ve got a propagator 🐊 set up already.

    2. I was accused of an offence yesterday at Morrisons at the checkout. I had 4 cucumbers and the limit was 2. The checkout person (a bloke unusually) laughed a bit and we joked about it. I said they were my ducks’ treats. He suggested I leave with my shopping and put it into the car and return for 2 more cucumbers. It’s a sad, sad world we’re moving towards.

    1. Indeed, but doesn’t it make you wonder why this can’t be done everywhere at a fraction of the cost of “diversity” managers?

    2. Takes me back a few years. I was out with some mates mid sixties, a pub in Highgate. Rod Stewart came in with some mates. The four of us said hello to him I told him we had seen him with the band Steam Packet at The Cooksferry Inn. He bought us all a pint.
      A Decent bloke.

      1. Perhaps if we weren’t taxed to death, we could use our money to chose which causes we would wish to support.

        Putting illegal immigrants in 5star hotels might not get the funding.

        1. I agree; I’ve just done a poll for my electricity company about charity donations. I said that if electricity prices weren’t so high because of subsidising “green” energy, I’d have money spare to donate to good causes of my own choosing.

      2. Perhaps if we weren’t taxed to death, we could use our money to chose which causes we would wish to support.

        Putting illegal immigrants in 5star hotels might not get the funding.

  99. Watching the reporters in Ukraine, dressed up in their helmets and flak jackets, hunkering down where the probability is that there is next to zero threat, makes me yearn for the days of Martin Bell and his white suits.

        1. Frank Gardner was injured in an al-Qeda attack in Saudi in 2004=and is paralysed in the legs.

          1. Real reporters, not like the current crop.

            BUT, I’m not wishing should be harmed, merely that I get the impression they are not nearly as close to the real front lines as their predecessors were.

  101. Perhaps the young are finally waking up to the poison that is being poured into their ears.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11789183/Violent-protests-break-schools-Cornwall-Yorkshire-Lincolnshire.html
    TikTok protests cause chaos at schools nationwide as headteacher blames social media trend for violent clashes over ban on using toilets during class, skirt-measuring and girls told to show a red card when on their period as students slam ‘prison rules’
    The violent protests have broken out in Cornwall, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
    Pupils are demanding an end to new toilet policies, slammed as ‘prison rules’

    1. Children no matter their age, should not be denied access to the loo. Older children have somewhat more control but if you tried preventing primary age kids from being able to go when they need, you would end up with a lot of puddles on the floor or worse. School nurses keep spare underwear and trousers etc in the event of accidents.
      I have said before, one cannot be squeamish when in a classroom.

      1. All joking aside, at the other end of the age spectrum, knowing a few very elderly people who have such “issues” I couldn’t agree more.

        1. Also.
          Girls should not suffer any humiliation for a monthly event which is beyond their control.
          I went to an all girls school and the staff were mainly sympathetic and supportive- notable exceptions were the lesbian gym teachers.

          2. And it is not at all unusual to have irregular periods, perhaps 3 weeks, perhaps up to 5 weeks. In the initial years things are not settled. One can miss a period (it may be anaemia or low blood count).
            It is very personal, & should be completely private.
            There is no need for anyone else to know, at all.

    2. Let’s hope they do the same about all this transvestite nonsense as well. So good to see the youngsters rebelling as I thought they were taking this all too meekly.
      I think it absolutely appalling that anyone should ask young women to show a red card when they have a period. Whoever thought of that should be named and shamed.

    3. Looks like the Dopey Wokey interference with past literature might have been turned around as well.

        1. We must keep up the pressure, what ever people say on social media will.get out there.
          I read it on FB earlier it had terrific support.

  102. When a so-called Christian trust suggests such things, one knows the world has really lost the plot;

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11790419/Re-educate-children-make-non-politically-correct-comments-Christian-trust-tells-teachers.html

    ‘Re-educate’ children who make non-politically correct comments, Christian trust which runs 11 schools tells teachers
    Christian trust told teachers to ‘re-educate’ kids who make non-PC comments
    Aquinas CoE Education Trust warned by ex-No10 adviser it appeared ‘sinister’

  103. Cat amongst the pigeons
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11787659/New-poll-Ron-DeSantis-wins-9-candidate-GOP-primary-field-40-support.html

    Ron DeSantis would win 2024 Republican primary between nine GOP rivals and would beat Trump by 24% in a head-to-head showdown, new poll of GOP voters reveals
    A new poll shows that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wins with a commanding 40% in a hypothetical nine-field GOP primary contest
    Former President Donald Trump comes in second place with 31%
    All other candidates in the matchup all got less than 10% of the GOP primary voting bloc, including Nikki Haley, Mike Pence and Tim Scott

    1. This is just going to turn into another ‘right wing” division that will secure a new left wing president.

      1. That’s my take on it too.
        From a “drain the swamp” perspective, DT is the better choice, but for a “get elected” perspective RD-S is more likely to win

    1. ‘This could have been a homicide’: Horror moment hulking 6’6 schoolboy weighing 270lbs has to be dragged off an unconscious female teaching aide he knocked out and pummeled for taking away his Nintendo Switch
      The student, 17, oviolently attacked the teaching aide after telling another student he was ‘going to kill her’ for taking his handheld game away
      Surveillance footage from Matanzas High School, in Florida, shows him rushing up to her and knocking her unconscious, before beating her
      The special needs student was charged with felony aggravated battery and is currently in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice

    1. Canada moves one step closer to euthanizing CHILDREN: Critics slam ‘reckless’ and ‘horrible’ panel urging government to pass law allowing minors under 18 with terminal illnesses to die by assisted suicide
      Top government panel recommends assisted suicides for ‘mature minors’
      Law could change as soon as this year; critics slam a ‘reckless’ proposal
      Canada already has the world’s most expansive program of assisted dying

    2. Try it that panel of perverts first. When it’s been done to them that can go back to their committee and have a rethink. (Yes I know they’ll be dead but not missed).

    1. Or alternatively/
      Only very rich countries can be so much in debt that their default could collapse the Ponzi scheme so it won’t be allowed to happen?

    2. Our current and rising debt level is probably being use as a ‘persuasive tool’ Conners.
      We know how the Brussels mafiosi operates.

    1. Rasvitali yabloni i grushi, paplili tumani nad rikoi – the apples and pears are in blossom, the mists are swirling over the river. Russia meets Riverdance?

  109. Just finished the ironing and watching snooker. Advert: HMG advertising “help” for everyone with energy bills. I can’t describe how utterly pi&&ed off I am at HMG. “Supporting” us with our own money ! And when it’s their fault bills are so high in the first place. I could scream.

    1. Maybe we should all designate an evening and go out and scream on our porches. If twerps could go out and bang pans for the NHS- why shouldn’t we have a group scream?

        1. OK- a long day- 7 litres of fluid removed. However, and this is a first, the doctor who put in the drain actually agreed with my husband when he told her that his stent became blocked after the AZ jabs. She said that the vaccines had been known to cause clotting.
          Anyway, he’s home and we want a quiet and peaceful weekend.

          2. Glad he’s getting better Ann.
            I’ve said this before, but when I had to go to A&E after my two original jabs. Every one I spoke to back then, agreed it was the covid jabs that had caused the heart problems.
            And I’m still waiting for it to be fixed.

          4. Totally agree.
            A good life long mate of mine had treatment for his heart at Papworth. I’m going to see if I can get transferred there. The cardio I have to deal with seems too busy with private work in London.

          5. Papworth is now in an exotic new building on the Addenbrookes site in Cambridge.

            The old Papworth treated my late FiL for Tuberculosis after the war. He was on Motor Torpedo Boats and Fleet Minesweeper during the war.

  111. OT.
    Tom Tierney former Ireland rugby international dies suddenly aged 46.
    Another victim of the faux vaccine?

    3. What a stupid buffoon he is. I believe the Royal Family’s wealth is fictional, that they are as penniless now as they were when Churchill gifted them the rents on leases to properties in The Strand to save their embarrassment.

  115. I hope tomorrow will be a better day for both me and my dear wife. Both fed up with different illnesses, both been in bed nearly all day.
    I might stop coughing enough to get to sleep.
    Night all.

    2. Earlier today I was given a Russian remedy for my asthmatic cough. Finely chopped red onion in a cup, add sugar, cover, leave overnight and drink the syrup. Am about to try it.

  117. Going to bed now- worn out. Has been a long day and I am glad it’s over.
    To quote Scarlett O’Hara….Tomorrow is another day.
    Sleep well Y’all.

    1. I can’t remember what time I went to bed yesterday, ’twas early, Elsie, and I think I missed most of Friday and didn’t get up until 03:30 this Saturday morning.

      Funnies later.

  119. Good morning, chums. Busy today (Saturday) watching the 7-UP series on YouTube, so my official Saturday posts won’t happen for a while.

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