Friday 24 May: Voters will discover during the coming weeks that Keir Starmer is no Tony Blair

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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760 thoughts on “Friday 24 May: Voters will discover during the coming weeks that Keir Starmer is no Tony Blair”

  2. Good morning all, and Happy Birthday Tom! Have a great 80th! 🎂🥂🎉

  4. Voters will discover during the coming weeks that Keir Starmer is no Tony Blair

    There can be only one Dark Lord

    1. All my lefty liberal friends are slavering at the thought of getting rid of the Evil Tooooooorrries and replacing them with Liebour. Their lack of awareness, and tribalism, is truly terrifying.

    2. Moloch, Belial, Mammon and Beelzebub all debated in the Satanic parliament of Pandemonium in Hell. (See Paradise Lost Book 2)

      Moloch was certainly extreme right; Mammon was a capitalist; Belial was a defeatist and Beelzebub was a pragmatist. Satan himself kept a firm grip over his minions.

    1. Margaret Thatcher once argued on ‘Blue Peter’ (the BBC’s flagship political forum at the time) that there were good Pol Pot and bad Pol Pot, and her Government was supporting the good guys.

      Surely there are good Hitler and bad Hitler, and AfD is clearly not supporting bad Hitler.

      1. Brutalisation, a technique used by many revolutionary groups. The Khmer Rouge were Maoists whose usage of the expression Year Zero is close to the current term ‘Net Zero’. As with many South East Asian populations, they had an obsession with slow torture ‘pour encourager les autres’.

      2. Brutalisation, a technique used by many revolutionary groups. The Khmer Rouge were Maoists whose usage of the expression Year Zero is close to the current term ‘Net Zero’. As with many South East Asian populations, they had an obsession with slow torture ‘pour encourager les autres’.

    2. “The AfD has gone mad…” No, not the whole party, one particular MEP who was daft enough to suggest that not all Nzs were 100% war criminals.
      Wiki has this:
      “Lauri Allan Törni (28 May 1919 – 18 October 1965), later known as Larry Alan Thorne, was a Finnish-born soldier who fought under three flags: as a Finnish Army officer in the Winter War and the Continuation War ultimately gaining a rank of captain; as a Waffen-SS captain (under the alias Larry Laine) of the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS when he fought the Red Army on the Eastern Front in World War II; and as a United States Army Major (under the alias “Larry Thorne”) when he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces in the Vietnam War.
      Törni (Thorne) died in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam War and he was promoted to the rank of major posthumously. His remains were located three decades later and then buried in Arlington National Cemetery; he is the only former member of the Waffen-SS known to be interred there. ” His remains consisted of a few fragments of bone.

      Most Nottlers must have heard of Wernher von Braun, rocket engineer, who was a member of the N*z Party and the Allgemeine SS, yet who died as an American citizen.

  7. Good morning, chums, I hope you all slept well. And thanks to Geoff for today’s NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,070 4/6

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      1. As Starmer reforms his party under its new name “Change”, does anyone remember Change UK, a party dedicated to restoring the status quo as it was under Major and Blair?

  10. Bit early in the morning:
    Wordle 1,070 6/6

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  11. Macron’s supreme arrogance is now tearing apart the French empire. 24 May 2024.

    In the ongoing blame game, it’s hard not to point to Macron himself as the arsonist in chief. He’s the one who set in motion a parliamentary vote in Paris, approving a constitutional amendment that would allow recent arrivals in the territory to vote in local elections.

    He then dismissed weeks of protest marches from Kanak citizens, the indigenous population of New Caledonia, remote as they were from the fulcrum of politics in the capital, 17,000 kilometres away. Last week, the marches turned violent.

    Perhaps France, as before, will start the revolution? I’ll contribute to the Guillotine fund.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/23/macron-arrogance-tearing-apart-french-empire/

    1. I thought that was an interesting article so thank you for posting it. The French Government has reneged in a deal it made with the Kanaks to protect them. This is all avoidable. A bit like Ukraine was avoidable.

    2. I thought that was an interesting article so thank you for posting it. The French Government has reneged in a deal it made with the Kanaks to protect them. This is all avoidable. A bit like Ukraine was avoidable.

  13. 387612+ up ticks.

    Morning Each,

    Tales from the crypt, took some doing via the polling stations but I believe we have finally reached, for many, the terminist.

    Baton changing has been the name of the political game for decades given succour
    on a regular basis & giving no quarter to fringe party, successfully building, construct.
    I honestly believe that RK was right and
    “The beginnings” really ought to be taken out and given a very serious coating of looking out, before we become outlines on paving slabs, “for the good of the party”

    https://x.com/basedgnostic/status/1793624082791223770

    1. 387612+up ticks,

      O2O,

      🎵,
      It’s good news week,someone dropped a bomb somewhere, contaminating…………

  14. Is Rishi trying to do an impersonation of Johnny English throughout the election campaign?

  15. Morning, all Y’all. Thundery, hoping for proper rain to wash the dust away. Can count the individual splodges in the dust on the car 🙂

  16. I wonder how many (if any) Tory MPs who are standing down will campaign on behalf of their potential successors in their former constituencies?

    SFA would be my guess, they won’t waste valuable job hunting time.

    1. They already have jobs – for the boys, and plethoras of directorships.

      1. Many of those may be at risk, because they can no longer lobby behind the scenes. And I doubt they are useful or suitably skilled otherwise.

      1. Yes, especially our “Tory” MP who’se been talking LibDem twaddle for the last nine months or so.

        …………..but he’s never believed in Conservatism, he just claimed to be a Conservative in order to get a safe seat.

    3. As our MP is standing down, Sonny Boy and I were having that discussion yesterday.

  17. I was impressed by the political skills of Kate Forbes right now on the Today programme. The BBC interviewer was attempting to skewer Forbes on Gender Recognition. This is official SNP policy and passed in the Scottish Parliament, but to which Forbes is personally opposed. Do her Christian principles take priority over the Will of Parliament?

    Forbes was having none of it, as she kicked her predecessor’s baby into the long grass. She refused to concede that SNP’s policy had changed over gender recognition since her restoration to cabinet responsibility under Swinney. However, she talked of priorities and that it was only political opponents that were eager to keep pushing the issue. She had better things to do, and Gender Recognition was going nowhere fast. I have the feeling that this could be stalled indefinitely as far as she is concerned.

    What this seems to be doing is putting Scottish independence back on the agenda, after Humza Yousless has all but killed the prospect, at least in my lifetime. I think it is entirely Forbes’ intention to show up Westminster hopelessness as something that is best discarded, leaving the hapless English with nobody fit to vote for. Not her problem.

    1. Who will pay the bills when the English are foreigners? Will Scotland be in Nato?

      1. Indeed. This is what defeated Scottish independence in 2014.

        The SNP will make no progress on this issue until they have a reserve bank, a sound economic foundation, and become self-reliant from the UK financially, and also can defend itself from its enemies without leaving the rest of Britain vulnerable.

        1. They could go the way of Montenegro and Kosovo and unilaterally use the euro. Still leaves the problem of access to international capital markets.

          5. The New Testament talent was the equivalent of 6000 denarii. A denarius was a silver coin weighing 60 grains. At $5.42 an ounce, the silver in one denarius would be worth almost 68¢ today. Thus, a talent would come to slightly under $4,080.

            We are certainly short of talented people in public life.

          8. What about the Joey, florin, Crown, sovereign, guinea, doubloon, piece-of-eight?

          9. Current exchange rate for the sovereign is about £450. If the sovereign was supposed to represent the pound, not long therefore before the new pound reaches parity with the old halfpenny.

          10. I think you are getting confused, Mr Grizzly, Sir. A joey is a small Australian kangaroo. Charles the III is our Sovereign, a guinea is a type of fowl, and both doubloons and pieces of eight are items in a book called Treasure Island. Lol.

          11. Since decimalisation, pieces of eight have been pieces of ten. I’ll get me groat.

        2. Distracted by a whooshing sound, I just glanced out of the window; ’twas a convoy of flying pigs.

          1. There be spinach in that there North Sea, as Danish pig farmers will tell you.

      2. Maybe they think Scotland will be in the EU and coining it. If so, they are deluded.

    2. Ach so, she is not prepared to answer ze questions.
      A political and religious skill she has.

  18. Good morning, all. And greetings on Empire Day. Grey, cold and dreary in yer Narfurk.

    2. Good morning Bill,

      Empire day , when Britain had the heart and roar of a lion , and sadly now we have the squeak of a mouse , the so called Commonwealth is descending on us

    1. Morning Oggy. Incredible as it may seem the soaking was almost certainly intended.

      1. According the DM, it was Sunak’s choice.
        Part of the ascetic, teetotal, non smoking, starve yourself while trying to run a country thought process.

      2. 387612+ up ticks,

        Morning AS,

        As in, soaking up the sympathy element, make you right.

    2. Perhaps it was a good and appropriate look, as he became wetter and wetter. And nobody came to hold a simple brolly over him.
      And labour’s awful noise drowned out some of his words. Now re-named as Drowning Street.

    3. Icke still exposes himself as a nitwit. “As a government you can call the Weather Centre and get this direct.”? or just look on the Met Office website. Silly grandiose man.

    2. What hell it must be for the man’s Jewish wife!

      How can she bear to live with a man who supports anti-Semitism?

        1. And they are being brought up in the Jewish faith.

          This odious man is quite capable of betraying his family for political gain.

    3. He also defended the right of illegal immigrants to claim welfare – this has cost us £billions

  22. I have been putting off paying my bills as they are never ending and even I run out of money eventually (no matter what the Government might think). This weekend’s grand chore is preparing a cash flow forecast for the next six months; it’s like going back 20 years when we were newly married and with two small children. I had hoped to be past that by now. We see people who seem to have so much money and I honestly wonder how they do it*. And then I think of the families who aren’t on the salary I am and wonder how they cope. I was going to say we aren’t extravagant; but we do run four old cars, one of which isn’t ULEZ-compliant, and a motorbike so I suppose it’s difficult to feel too sorry for us.

    *accepting of course all my lefty-liberal friends cheat on their taxes, and I suspect plenty of other lefty-liberals that I don’t know cheat on their taxes too.

  23. Anti-Semitic vandals
    SIR – A London cinema was vandalised on Thursday morning, the casualty of a climate that permits any acts in the name of “free speech”.

    The cinema’s “crime” was scheduling the screening of a documentary called Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre about the pogrom of October 7, and the resilience of the human spirit in the survivors.

    Such vandalism and intimidation risk shutting down free speech by deterring venues from hosting future events that don’t fit the protesters’ narrative.

    This country and its institutions must scrutinise and apply the law to stamp out these hate-filled expressions and single-minded crusades, devoid of all nuance and dialogue – be it at university campuses, national monuments or marches in the streets of our cities.

    Sharon Kleinberg
    Edgware, Middlesex

    The media has remained silent , why?

    1. Publicity could ruin any police investigation and also encourage more alleged criminal damage?

  24. 387612 + up ticks,

    They wouldn’t listen before Gerard,

    🎵
    Perhaps they’ll listen now.

    Gerard Batten,

    What else would we expect them to do?

    If you fight a proxy war don’t be surprised if the other side takes it personally.

    We are either at war or we’re not. You can’t have it both ways.

    Russia says it will strike British targets if UK weapons are used to hit its territory – Reuters,https://apple.news/AZRxb0veOTjax4…
    Russia says it will strike British targets if UK weapons are used to hit its territory — Reuter
    Russia says it will strike British targets if UK weapons are used to hit its territory — Reuter

    Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Moscow will retaliate with strikes on British targets if British weapons are used by Ukraine to strike Russian territory.

    1. Morning Ogga.

      Russia has retaliated with evil little acts of nastiness here on UK soil, they are capable of mean wicked acts of terror .. poisoning?

        1. Russia has retaliated with evil little acts of nastiness here on UK soil…

          Morning Joseph. There is a clue there. These events are almost all confined to the UK.

      2. 387612+ up ticks,

        Morning TB,
        Duly noted, but by the same token we have suffered via domestic
        political / pharmaceutical
        Agents a strongly alledged, IMHO, corporate killing campaign.

  25. Good day all and the 77th,

    Cloudy again. Despite a Westerly wind it’s 10℃ with 15℃ the forecast maximum at Castle McPhee. Is this the coolest May on record?

    So Farage says he’s sitting this one out but will be back in the saddle for 2029?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d90ff8ce223511d33b47f3aec2111d126b3405e3c043c83fbaf5fbe218552392.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/23/why-farage-not-standing-could-be-bad-news-for-sunak/

    By which time, Nige, it may well be all over for us. Too late the hero.

    1. By which time it will be too late for better late than never!

      Has he been outmanoeuvred by Sunak by the call for an early election?

      A man who can be outmanoeuvred by the vacuous Sunak is hardly a brave hope for the future – even a postponed future!

  26. Mary Jones
    3 MIN AGO
    “I don’t know”, “I didn’t know”, “I don’t recall”, “I didn’t understand”. How on earth did a woman like Ms Vennells ever become CEO of a major British institution? Could it be because she is a woman? Over recent times we seem to have had a number of major companies etc. under the rule of women who have failed. Dame Sharon White at John Lewis, the woman from Coutts who spilt secrets about Nigel Farage’s private business to a journalist over dinner. There are some others whose names I can’t remember, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Amanda Pritchard of NHS England turns out to be another since she seems to be invisible enough to make me wonder if she actually exists. As a woman, I’m sorry to reach the conclusion that women don’t seem to be all that successful at the top of the business tree.

    Was this her get out of jail card ?

    From 2002 to 2005, Vennells trained for holy orders on the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course.[1] She was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 2005 and as a priest in 2006.[1] She has served as a non-stipendiary minister at the Church of St Owen, Bromham, in the Diocese of St Albans.[1][14] On 10 January 2024, BBC News reported sources told them that, around 2017 when Richard Chartres’s tenure as Bishop of London was drawing to a close, Vennells had been interviewed for the post and reached the final shortlist of three.[15] She relinquished her clerical duties in 2021, but remains an ordained priest.[16] Her membership of the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group was terminated in 2021.[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells

    1. We have all met people who are evil, cruel, vindictive and mendacious and yet who try to give the impression that they are holier than thou and virtuous.

      The sad truth is that Christianity attracts some repulsive hypocrites who use it as a mask to hide their nastiness without true belief in Christ or his message to the world.

      Blair, Welby and Vennells all fit into this category.

    2. The box ticking chickens are coming home to roost.
      A mediocre female in the right place, at the right time, saying the right things.

    4. It’s not women as such Belle, it’s just that they pick women with the same woke mindset as the rest of them, which reduces the talent pool still further.

    5. And Hilary McGrady of the National Trust. She sounds and writes like a not so clever sixth former. She only has a qualification in graphic design and not a degree either.

      Don’t think it is because they are women but because there has been an arrogant, bull-headed push to promote women (or ethnics). Thickie self-promoters have been enabled to apply for positions way beyond their intellect and/or competence. It has happened with our government too.

    6. Is this appropriate here?
      “Book of Common Prayer:
      Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

      2. Hello J

        Does anyone have Tom’s mobile number . He has left it on here many times hasn’t he .

        Perhaps a mobile greeting might be useful?

    8. Happy Birthday Tom! Singing loudly from an unexpectedly chilly Buenos Aires!! K x

  29. Good Moaning.
    Starting the day with a rather jolly and uplifting obituary.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/05/22/roy-cross-airfix-model-kits-artist-painter/

    Roy Cross, artist who brought excitement to Airfix boxes in the golden age of modelling – obituary

    He made children believe ‘you’re in that scene; it isn’t little bits of plastic, it’s a real aeroplane and you’re flying it,’ said James May

    22 May 2024 • 2:29pm

    Roy Cross in his studio: in the Second World War, he had worked as a technical illustrator for Fairey Aviation

    Roy Cross, who has died the day after his 100th birthday, captured the imagination of generations of young boys as the principal artist for Airfix during the model kits’ heyday in the 1960s and 1970s.

    His paintings, reproduced on the cardboard box lid or bag-tag, went beyond a simple guide to which paint colours to use, and injected an air of romance and jeopardy – a Lancaster limping home with engines aflame against mackerel skies; a Fokker triplane plunging from a queasy angle in a dogfight; a Short Sunderland flying boat above bomb-churned seas. Cross expressed speed with liberal use of “whoosh!”-style white lines.

    By 1971 Airfix was Britain’s leading toy manufacturer, and Cross’s illustrations promised all the swashbuckling adventure of a Commando magazine to children who had feverishly saved up their pocket money and might have been daunted when they tore open their kits to be confronted with cryptic sheets of plastic pieces.

    The Top Gear presenter James May recalled, aged nine, the “pants-wetting excitement” induced by Cross’s boxes: “The picture means that when you start making the model you’re in that scene; it isn’t little bits of plastic, it’s a real aeroplane and you’re flying it and there really are bandits at three o’clock trying to shoot you down.” Based on the sheer amount of time schoolboys spent thinking about Airfix artwork, May reckoned Cross “the most influential British artist of the 20th century”.

    Cross had suggested himself to Airfix in 1963, having seen their bagged kits in Woolworth’s, and he knew he could do better. During the Second World War he had worked as a technical illustrator for Fairey Aviation, and Airfix would draw on his expertise for more than the artwork: Cross also advised on the moulding of the Airfix Spitfire – a bestseller – after extensive correspondence with Beverley Shenstone, the aerodynamicist behind the Spitfire’s unique elliptical wing shape.

    Vintage Years Of Airfix Box Art

    Cross went on to illustrate more than 200 kits for Airfix, including ships, cars, tanks and military vehicles, railway engines and even space rockets, until the work petered out in 1973 when the oil crisis drove up the cost of plastic. He then turned to marine art, and was noted for the accuracy of his paintings of historical vessels.

    From the late 1970s Airfix began to reissue Cross’s art , but in increasingly anodyne form, airbrushing out the bombs and bullets that had appealed to young boys in the first place. “It’s completely sanitised,” he said, “and [takes] all the excitement away, as well as spoiling my original painting.” More recently, Airfix have returned to his vision.

    Cross’s painting of the ‘ship to ship’ duel between the American heavy frigate Constitution and the less powerful HMS Guerriere in 1812

    Cross’s painting of the ‘ship to ship’ duel between the American heavy frigate Constitution and the less powerful HMS Guerriere in 1812 Credit: Courtesy of family

    He was born in Camberwell, south London, on April 23 1924, to John and Ethel Cross, and spent his summers with his aunt Nell in Hertfordshire, where on rainy days he would study her books on Constable, Turner, Frederick Leighton and Alma-Tadema.

    This was the golden age of aviation. Young Roy recalled being taken at the age of 12 to the de Havilland airfield at Hatfield and poring over the exploits of airmen and women, celebrated in children’s magazines such as Popular Flying, edited by Capt W E Johns, creator of Biggles. In 1938, Johns politely declined 14-year-old Roy’s submission of a three-view plan of a Nieuport Scout biplane.

    By that point, having attended Reay Central School in Stockwell, Roy had joined the Air Defence Cadet Corps (later renamed the Air Training Corps), and was attached to No 343 Camberwell Squadron, and promoted to Cadet Flight Sergeant. His draughtsmanship had won him commissions for technical aircraft drawings from the Air Training Corps Gazette, and he was his squadron’s lecturer on aircraft recognition. With invasion by the Germans seemingly imminent, he recalled his NCO’s command to go down fighting and “take one with you, lad”.

    Cross left school in 1940, before his 16th birthday. His poor eyesight meant he could not enlist as aircrew, so he took work at a Thameside shipping office, where seeing the barges and the last of the sailing coasters gave him a lifelong love of sea and ships.

    By 1942 his pamphlet on US Army aircraft in use by the RAF was in wide circulation, and Cross was given Air Ministry accreditation to join press trips to RAF airfields. James Hay Stevens, an older ATC Gazette contributor whom Cross idolised, recommended him for a job at Fairey Aviation in the technical publications department. He went on to illustrate Air Force maintenance books, pilots’ manuals and his first book – The Birth of the Royal Air Force by Air Commodore J A Chamier – as well as contributing to journals.

    More Vintage Years of Airfix Box Art

    After the war, he joined a commercial art studio and became an initiate in the what he called the “mysteries of the de Vilbis airbrush”; he later attended two art colleges. In 1951 he produced a Morris Minor owner’s manual and diagrams of the new Routemaster bus to help staff with maintenance.

    The boom in civilian aviation brought work at The Aeroplane and other magazines, through which he got to meet his aviation heroes, including the aces Douglas Bader and Robert Stanford Tuck, and Joseph Smith, the driving force behind the Spitfire programme at Supermarine.

    Cross’s 28 colour paintings of famous civil aircraft for the Shell-Mex book Know Your Airliners allowed him to break out of technical drawings and into colour advertisements, which were easier to do and more lucrative.

    Know Your Airliners

    As Britain’s aviation industry declined, he reinvented himself as a car artist, like his illustration hero Frank Wootton, and in 1962 he did a series of motoring covers for the boys’ comic Eagle, with aviation covers for Swift. His first order from Airfix was for artwork for a Dornier Do 217.

    As a marine painter, he had many one-man shows and sold his work through a fine art gallery in Pall Mall.

    He illustrated many books, including The Jet Aircraft of the World (with William Green, 1955) and Spitfire (with Gerald Scarborough, 1971), and his work was the subject of several others, including Celebration of Flight: The Aviation Art of Roy Cross (with Arthur Ward, 2002), Celebration of Sail (2004), and Airfix: The Vintage Years of Airfix Box Art (with Arthur Ward, 2009).

    Celebration of Flight

    He was one of the founding members in 1954 of the Society of Aviation Artists, and was elected to the Royal Society of Marine Artists in 1977.

    His passions, apart from his art, were frequent changes of car (“wish I could drive them all”), and cream cakes.

    His wife Rita, whom he married in 1952, died in 1985. Their son survives him.

    Roy Cross, born April 23 1924, died April 24 2024.” https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0ce455df918e618b28577036a37f13cfc0467e1d3c78f706cd07a86281cf0e9.jpg

    2. There was a model shop in Mill Hill Broadway NW7called Blunts. They must have sold thousands of those kits with his drawings on. Wonderful.

    3. I had a room full of Airfix kits suspended from the ceiling in the ’60s. That Capt W E Johns had a lot to answer for!

    1. Gosh, Belle! 4 eggs! 3 at Loch Arkaig – 2 hatched on Wednesday ,one to go!

        1. Just spoken to Tom! He’s still in bed but quite chatty! He may be around soon!

        2. When I posted his birthday greeting late last night he responded immediately.

    2. I remember as a child asking my mother how it would be if women laid eggs. She said, “There’d be a lot of omelettes”.

  32. Good morning all!
    A late start after a bit of a disturbed night, was awake from 3 to 5!
    7½°C outside at the moment, was down to 6½° at four this morning, but at least it’s dry at the moment.

    1. From a seaside village in Valencia

      19°C
      Friday Mostly cloudy High: 22°C Low: 15°C

  33. Morning all 🙂😊
    What a nice surprise, it’s sunny again.
    One of our neighbours filmed an intense meteor shower last night. A Superb sight.
    It’s not clear what is meant by Kier Starmer is no Tony Blair. There are many aspects to the ex pm that should be hopefully avoided.

    2. It refers to Starmer’s lack of salesmanship.
      In short, he can’t lie as successfully as Bliar.

      1. I always thought, and still do, that Tony Blair is an excellent politician.

        That is not praise.

        1. I remember that when our son Henry was being tormented by his older brother he wanted to use the most insulting epithet he could muster. He settled on:

          “You — you — you – POLITICIAN.”

  34. Ah of course B liar 🤥
    My word these self promoted people are so horrible.
    The problem is as I see it Anne Starmer has nothing to sell.
    Everyone knows what happens when we get a labour government.
    5 years of disaster and revengeful behaviour.

      1. Especially the Con men 🤔.
        All they had to do was stop the boat invasion. 9 million a day its costing us.
        They would have been home and dry. Well not Richie of course.

        2. I agree Eddy and the fact that they could not manage that in 14 years tells me that they are not worth voting for. But I dread a Labour government, they have a tradition of bankrupting the country and this time round that will cause real damage because the country is so demoralized and polarized. And by the time they have finished Islam may well have a knife to our necks.

  36. One of my favourites is “Wastemonster is filled with habitual and pathological liars”.
    Money grabbing fits in nicely as well.

  37. So we are to have six weeks of lies – and “promises” that everyone knows will never be kept. Where to go to avoid it?

    I see that the “dangerously ill” Cur Simon Case was able to hobble in to the covid enquiry to say how awful it all was. Compelling evidence, eh?

  38. “There is nothing in the box, but I insist that I would like there to be” may not be lying, but is not terribly inspiring.

    1. He never has been JM, but if that’s all they have were in for a rough ride.

  40. From the Daily Mail

    JAN MOIR: Paula Vennells’ tears (for herself ) provoked about as much sympathy as acid rain…
    21:08 EDT 23 May 2024, updated 22:18 EDT 23 May 2024 By Jan Moir for the Daily Mail

    Finally, finally, finally. Like an old parcel lost in the post, Paula Vennells made her appearance at the Post Office Inquiry in London.
    The former CEO has not spoken in public about the Horizon IT scandal for over a decade, even though it is widely believed to be the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history.
    Hundreds of innocent men and women were wrongly convicted of crimes under her watch; some were eventually sent to jail after being falsely accused of stealing. There were at least four suicides. Lives were ruined. Reputations and relationships shattered, never to be repaired.
    Little wonder the public gallery at Aldwych House was filled with more than 100 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses. They have waited decades to hear Vennells properly account for herself and the organisation she presided over for seven crucial, chaotic years between 2012 and 2019.
    And what happened when she began giving evidence? Paula promptly started crying — but who were her tears for? Herself, of course.
    Yet the 65-year-old executive was never wrongly accused of being a thief and a criminal. And there were no tears from her when many who worked for her were wrongly criminalised or had their lives destroyed. Or when, in a dystopian nightmare that is still hard to believe, hundreds of sub-postmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and forced to pay back Post Office money they had not stolen from the Post Office in the first place.
    Instead, she was busy receiving £3 million in scrumptious bonuses, trying to keep the Horizon scandal off newspaper front pages and accepting a lovely CBE, since handed back. It is never pleasant seeing anyone cry, but Paula’s tears elicited about as much sympathy as acid rain.
    Jason Beer KC, counsel to the inquiry, had some seasoned advice. ‘Rather than trying to talk through your tears,’ he told Mrs Vennells early in the proceedings, ‘just pause, try to compose yourself if you can, and then continue your evidence, please.’
    Paula grabbed a Kleenex Balsam, mopped her eyes and nodded. She would try her best. And you had to hand it to her, she really did.
    For when she wasn’t crying, she was blaming everyone else, particularly her luckless legal team. ‘I can’t really comment on the criminal or legal side of things, I am not a lawyer,’ she said primly. ‘I took advice from the legal team and the lawyers,’ she insisted. ‘I was relying very heavily on the legal team to lead and advise,’ she protested.
    And when she wasn’t throwing her lawyers under the bus, she was scrambling together a defence of sorts. One that not only shone the best possible light on her actions, but perhaps was even worthy of — whisper it — a halo. ‘I was too trusting,’ she said, shamelessly.
    Mrs Vennells is an ordained Anglican priest and was once even shortlisted to be the Bishop of London. If she knows her scriptures, she knows that cursed be the woman who trusts too much, for looketh where she has ended up — at the wrong end of a public inquiry, Bible-deep in the damning accusations of others.
    Occasionally she was stunned into silence by Beer’s line of questioning. ‘How could an individual case indicate systemic problems?’ he wondered. ‘I’m not sure that I can answer that,’ she said after a long pause. Indeed.
    However, apart from the early-onset sobs, Paula Vennells was as dry as a stick and hard to like.
    A tiny sparrow of a woman with bloodless hands and boyish cropped hair, she favoured sludge-coloured separates and a bearing she perhaps hoped was still commanding.
    T here can hardly be a corporate reputation more shredded than hers, yet there were moments when she clung to the status and rank her former life once afforded.
    ‘That is not how I operate,’ she said, rather grandly. ‘I am happy to accept that,’ she would nod, as we waded through the statements given by Alice or Donald or Susan or any number of hapless lieutenants. ‘This is an important point,’ she told Beer. ‘I know, that is why I am asking you about it,’ he deadpanned.
    Vennells’ memory is selective, to say the least. Perhaps it will win her another CBE, this time for devotion and services to obfuscation. ‘I don’t remember,’ she would say.
    More verbatim gems from my notebook: ‘I wasn’t consulted about that; I do not recall; I wasn’t involved in that conversation; I personally did not know that; I’m not sure, it is not a term that I would use; I wasn’t told about it; I didn’t see it; I’m not entirely sure; I have no recall of this at all; I don’t think so; that is not what I understood; I don’t know that I can answer that question; I don’t believe so; to be honest, I don’t know; I wasn’t involved; I can’t help you; I don’t know; I don’t remember; I don’t recall; I don’t remember having any conversation about that; I’m not entirely clear; my recollection on that is that I don’t recall it; that I cannot remember; I’m not entirely sure; if that conversation took place at all, I wasn’t involved in it; I am not entirely sure; I don’t recall making a conscious decision.’
    It is amazing how someone with such a powerful lack of recall rose so high up the corporate ladder. Or perhaps she really is, in the mocking words of Jason Beer, ‘the unluckiest CEO in Britain’.
    While Paula Vennells continues her evidence, many are hoping that this inquiry will bring clarity to one of the murkiest episodes in recent history.
    Yet will it ever be able to explain the repellent and pitiless behaviour of so many Post Office executives over so many years? Even now, in the sober surrounds of Aldwych House, the moral urgency has been centred on all involved protecting themselves instead of righting their terrible wrongs.
    And we are being asked to believe that on her own little lifeboat, stuffed with memory-lapse excuses and burdened by her chronic trust issues, Paula did not see the suffering on the giant ship of despair that steamed past, over and over again. Perhaps she was blinded by her own salt tears?
    The inquiry continues, but if this really is the biggest miscarriage of modern times, when is it going to end up where it belongs — in a criminal court?

    1. The criminal court is just the start, and a long overdue and necessary start, to a process that must mend the reputational destruction of the working reputations of pretty well all our national institutions and professions. There is a lot of work to do, and precious few left not already of retirement age, with the will, talent and imagination to get it done.

      Isn’t this what a General Election is supposed to set in motion?

    2. Ah yes, if in doubt use the old job interview trope: ‘so Ms Vennels, tell us about your weaknesses and those things you have to work on for your own personal development’.

      ‘Its a good point. We all need our CPD. I think if anything my basic uncompromisingly honest approach to difficult problems and tendency to put all the extra hours in could be my downfall’.

      1. “My only fault is that my faith in others was betrayed. I was too trusting. Not everyone has my high moral standards”. Etc, etc…

        1. I think it’s how you get to become CEO these days. You don’t diligently polish brass knobs anymore. You proclaim that it’s all about self mastery of me me me.

          1. Actually very true. Most job interviews in the public sector are about selling yourself to the interviewers. I’ve known an ex-salesman with no knowledge of IT become Head of IT in a local college, and worked in a department where the head of Finance had no financial qualifications.

    3. Wonder if Beer will call her a ‘self-serving liar’?

      Loved the line ‘my recollection on that is that I don’t recall it’.

      1. This is how the administration of the whole country works.The Post Office has just got found out.

      2. I fear it’s always been like this. I wrote this the other day but I think it’s worth repeating.
        These scandals such as the sub postmasters’ tragedy are only the tip of the iceberg. It’s all like that, coverups, approved by an administration which only seeks to protect itself.
        If what I say doesn’t ring true, read the comment of Lord Denning, the darling of the legal establishment.
        He had expressed a similar controversial opinion regarding the Birmingham Six in 1988, saying: “Hanging ought to be retained for murder most foul. We shouldn’t have all these campaigns to get the Birmingham Six released if they’d been hanged. They’d have been forgotten, and the whole community would be satisfied … It is better that some innocent men remain in jail than that the integrity of the English judicial system be impugned.”

  43. If Labour get into power , the Balkanisation of the UK will rapidly increase .

    I have a horrid feeling that momentum are waiting in the wings , and Corbyn will gain a foothold .

    1. Corbyn is standing as an Independent in Islington, and I wish him well.

      Momentum did offer us a radical proposition to address the issues, which is more than be said for all the huffing and spinning coming out of the mainstream. We may not like full blooded Socialism, nor even consider it does much good to the lot of the nation, but he has every right to put that card on the table for us to scrutinise.

      Has anyone else come up with something better?

      1. I considered voting for Corbyn but then i thought to myself ‘can i really vote for someone who supports muslim terrorists who behead babies in their cots’. Tough one.

        1. How does someone who might believe in the dictatorship of the proletariat, and that The People is one collective entity, be applying group blame for the actions of a number of rogues under the same category?

          If that were so, then is there a great difference between beheading a baby in a cot and blowing it to smithereens with a bunker-buster?

          Humanity can be pretty nasty, and without some sort of discrimination, we are all liable.

          How does Corbyn support freedom fighters in Palestine without also supporting the terrorists?

          1. “How does Corbyn support freedom fighters in Palestine without also supporting the terrorists?” By saying so. By not rubbing shoulders with foaming anti-Semites. By not standing in front of grotesque anti-Semitic inflatables.

            What does freedom fighting in the Gaza Strip look like? Freedom from what, Hamas? No. It means freedom from “Zeeeee Jooooooze” who had the affront to make a civilised nation state in that area after 1948, seeing the State of Israel being built on stolen land.

          3. “How does Corbyn support freedom fighters in Palestine without also supporting the terrorists?” By saying so. By not rubbing shoulders with foaming anti-Semites. By not standing in front of grotesque anti-Semitic inflatables.

            What does freedom fighting in the Gaza Strip look like? Freedom from what, Hamas? No. It means freedom from “Zeeeee Jooooooze” who had the affront to make a civilised nation state in that area after 1948, seeing the State of Israel being built on stolen land.

    2. Balkanisation whilst selling out to one world government Globalisation. The nation state is their enemy.

    3. Balkanisation whilst selling out to one world government Globalisation. The nation state is their enemy.

  45. Yo and Good Moaning all.

    I have just received this from BT

    Hello,

    Our engineer, Mohamed is now on their way.

    Thanks,
    BT Customer Support

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

      1. Being pedantic, surely a man and a knife is a “they”. Must get the pronouns right if we are to avoid a visit from Plod.

    2. You’d think by now they would have latched on to the implications of the name.
      Mo ham head.

    4. Tell them, ‘One Last Try’ is not going to pay ‘their’ bill. Not until they can track down the others who obvs should be paying it too.

  46. Yo and Good Moaning all.

    I have just received this from BT

    Hello,

    Our engineer, Mohamed is now on their way.

    Thanks,
    BT Customer Support

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    1. It is beyond the remit of the legal profession to prosecute offenders.

      Have we learnt nothing from the number of convictions following the Great Fraud of 2008 that has ruined the nation’s finances ever since?

        1. They call it “Change”. A great soundbite and very convincing to the electorate, so I am told.

          1. The electorate has a memory span of a sparrow. They’ll forget everything that happened in covid, BLM, postmasters, blood scandal, banks banning customers etc etc etc.

            A party which “promises” fuel price reductions will win by a landslide – only for the great unwashed to discover that it was all lies – and, in fact, prices will continue to rise…

          2. The last time Ofgem lowered the price, my bill went up because they slapped even more on the Standing Charge.

          3. “Time for change”, “Just 28-days to Save the NHS”, etc. All the political greats.

    2. It’s taken so long to get this far. Unlikely that they’ll get any further than ‘the lessons to be learned’, ‘faults on both sides’ stage.

    3. Hopefully when the grillings are over the subpostmasters/mistresses will bring a private prosecution against her and the lying gobshite Mike Young.

      1. What would Starmer do if his Jewish wife and children who are being brought up in the Jewish faith were killed in an Islamic terrorist outrage?

        Not a nice question to raise – but is there anything other than his vaulting ambition to act as the spur to prick the sides of his intent to be PM?

    2. The classic bait and switch by the Cultural Leftist. They use the term “diversity” then switch Multiculturalism for skin colour when it suits their needs, crying “racist” if you disagree. It’s gaslighting. Most in the UK don’t have a problem with skin colour. Our culture gave voice and action to the Christian idea of us all being the same in front of God, thus laying the ground argument for ending ours and others involvement in the slave trade.

      What most of us are sick of is the refusal to adopt British cultural values and norms. Multiculturalism is a different beast entirely, all cultures are not the same. Sam Harris has been excellent on this notion recently on his solo statement podcasts.

  49. The final report will take its place on a very long – and VERY dusty – shelf of similar ignored reports.

    2. A lot of effort will be required in this inquiry to keep the … erm… innocent completely unharmed. More than usual, I suspect.

  50. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74d5e2def06891d3f88a76c08a0d64a3f6f459137167f85dd6036293933eb9d2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d7b2f481b60345d2c2477b3c1e89cd60ee1c3630d323071b5efe521aa144ee42.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d106071b045e0df4ac555f30dfcf6a30a913d903a8e04e79365ed57dd18a3545.jpg

    Phizzee…you just might be able to see the sprites, in their crystal house at the top of the steps, has some selenite inside…
    & froggy bridge…

  51. Sir Keir Starmer said he would roll out Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private school fees “straight away” if the party wins the general election.

    Asked if the plan would be implemented on “day one” of being in power, Sir Keir told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “As soon as it can be done. Obviously there will have to be financial statements etc.

    “It is a question of the timetable in Parliament. But these first steps are intended to be done straight away.”

    Labour has promised to end private schools’ exemption from 20 per cent VAT. The party has estimated the move could raise £1.6 billion a year which it would then spend on a series of state education pledges.

    However, the policy has sparked fears of a pupil exodus from private to state schools because the rise is likely to be passed on to parents.

    You can follow the latest updates below and join the conversation in the comments section here.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/24/general-election-rishi-sunak-latest-news-keir-starmer/

    B/school offered me a wonderful learning experience in the short time I spent there then any state education acquired elsewhere .

    The experience was wonderful , and one of the best gifts ever. Hindsight is a wonderful thing .

    Small classes , brain storming lessons , and excellent teachers and individual tuition when it was necessary .

    1. He clearly knows this country’s finances are struggling.
      Perhaps one of the most important things he should consider is to get the millions living on handouts and multiple benefits out to work and paying taxes. Instead of getting everything for nothing including the NHS services. They have never contributed a single penny and get everything for doing and earning absolutely nothing.

      2. Every parent who cannot afford a 20% rise in school fees and every private school which has to close will produce an avalanche of pupils to be educated by the state.

        This will save the state no money – indeed it will cost the state a fortune!

        Why has the pathetic Conservative Party said virtually nothing about this?

        We must not forget that when Cameron was prime minister he took his own children out of private schools and then, when he bottled out of the PM job because of the Brexit vote, he put them back into private schools!

        Few things show just how morally and financially bankrupt the Conservative Party has become as the re-introduction of this odious twerp back into the government.

        1. As I recall, he put his children in the London Oratory School, which is not just any old state school and places there are much sought after.

          1. Wasn’t that Blair?

            Blair’s children received extra coaching from teachers at Westminster School.

        2. Would you have wanted David Cameron to remain Prime Minister to both lead the leaving negotiations with the EU and push the relevant legislation through a remain-dominated parliament?

          1. As far as I’m concerned Blair and Cameron should ride together on the Tandem to hell.

    2. The saving grace may be Labour’s born incompetence. I wouldn’t trust them to roll out a carpet, let alone a policy.

    3. Starmer and his ilk will still be able to afford private education for their own. Likewise the wealthy foreigners who have long had their children educated here. International socialists don’t want their serfs to be educated. They want them brainwashed.

        1. I’ve been fishing the Sound all day, sorry, and internet down last night. Callum Daniel Bushrod is the Reform UK candidate for your constituency.

    4. I had ten years, due to parents working in Africa and school there not the best. Also, parents not very keen on children.

  52. The problem we have is that the country is crying out for a real conservative option; and the Conservative party is not it.
    Wets control the selection process for parliamentary candidates, and they are refusing to select real conservatives like David Frost as
    candidates, preferring instead the usual blue tie wearing LibDems.

    But to vote Labour is unthinkable.

    To imagine the half throttled chicken Anneliese Dodds anywhere near a position of power makes you shudder.
    She ought to be in the loony bin, not the House of Commons.

    1. The justice system has become thoroughly politicised. How you are treated depends on what political views you hold, or what “identity” group you belong to.

  54. Romeo & Juliet, Duke of York’s: Tom Holland mesmerises in this once-in-a generation production. 24 May 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c318556129b18b3d30f0109558b4cf4d010bdda49ec0a472dc496b0476e3e6b9.png

    Spidey grapples with Shakespeare! Result: a frenzy at the box-office and the talk of the West End. Sure, 27-year-old Tom Holland – the London-born actor turned Hollywood A-lister – has other feathers in his cap besides his youthful, likeable Peter Parker. And anyone lucky enough to see him tread the boards in this Jamie Lloyd-directed Romeo and Juliet is treated to a bio in the programme that details other recent, gritty credits.

    A generation too far for me I’m afraid.

    No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/romeo-and-juliet-duke-of-yorks-review-tom-holland/

    1. It’s Romeo and Juliet but it isn’t Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. He set his play in renaissance Italy and there aren’t any Sub-Saharan Africans in the story. End of.

      1. As part of my O-Level English i watched Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet 1968 film. Watching the film was the only reason i passed my O-Level. It was spellbinding.
        In class we had 12 records of the play. All parts were voiced by an elderly man and woman. It was just hours and hours of incessant droning.

        I regularly fell asleep to it.
        Watching a play or a film requires the suspension of disbelief. Not sure if colour blind casting can manage that.

      2. It would be a turn up for the books if Diane Abbott could trace her ancestry back to the Doge of Venice!

      3. Indeed. It was an exploration of the Italian sense of vendetta between feuding families, where a member of each side fall in love, often tragically. It works best in that context.

        However, the same theme has been repeated many times and a similar tale set in the Deep South of the USA during a time of racial segregation, Black Power and the Klu Klux Klan might work well on its own terms.

        Stanford set an old Irish yarn, Phaudrig Crohoore, gloriously celebrating Irish culture, which was essentially the same story. It starts with Phaudrig himself, a big lad and strong as an ox, whom all the ladies loved, but he had eyes for only one – Kathleen O’Brien. Here we had a gang of families, the O’Briens, the O’Hanlons, the Murphys and the Cartys. All of them hated Phaudrig, so they arranged for Kathleen to marry O’Hanlon. During the wedding celebration, everyone gets drunk and who walks in, but Phaudrig. O’Hanlon challenges Phaudrig to a fight. Phaudrig flattens O’Hanlon and runs away with the bride, never to seen again.

        Even last year’s ‘The Emperor’s New Waltz’ by Alma Deutscher was a story about the clash of classes and styles of favoured music. Rich young, Mozart-loving heiress meets guitar-playing ballad-singing gardener’s son. In her version though, they have a common dislike for avant-garde atonal modernism and find they actually have a great deal in common, and her version does not end in tragedy, since Deutscher herself prefers happy endings.

        1. West Side Story works extremely well. Sondheim and Bernstein used the same story line to great effect. As long as it’s published and presented as a new work inspired by Shakespeare, there’s lots of scope for innovation and that’s fine.

          1. Rita Moreno was brilliant in that production. She was the first Latina woman to win the E.G.O.T. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

        2. We used to sing Stanford’s Jubilate at school. It was always performed on Old Boys’ Day as the opening words are O Be!

          This rendition put together during Covid regulations is surprisingly good. The other performances I have found on the Internet take it at too slow a tempo for my taste.

          https://www.google.com/search?q=Jubilate+Stanford&oq=Jubilate+Stanford+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyCggAEEUYFhgeGDkyCAgBEAAYFhgeMggIAhAAGBYYHjIKCAMQABgKGBYYHjINCAQQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAUQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAYQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAcQABiGAxiABBiKBTIKCAgQABiABBiiBDIKCAkQABiABBiiBNIBCDg4OTBqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:1bb0509d,vid:2OtfdOo_178,st:0

      1. Zeffirelli was a homosexual (his preferred term) devout Catholic conservative whose art always stayed true to the original work. His opera productions are wonderful.

  55. Romeo & Juliet, Duke of York’s: Tom Holland mesmerises in this once-in-a generation production. 24 May 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c318556129b18b3d30f0109558b4cf4d010bdda49ec0a472dc496b0476e3e6b9.png

    Spidey grapples with Shakespeare! Result: a frenzy at the box-office and the talk of the West End. Sure, 27-year-old Tom Holland – the London-born actor turned Hollywood A-lister – has other feathers in his cap besides his youthful, likeable Peter Parker. And anyone lucky enough to see him tread the boards in this Jamie Lloyd-directed Romeo and Juliet is treated to a bio in the programme that details other recent, gritty credits.

    A generation too far for me I’m afraid.

    No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/romeo-and-juliet-duke-of-yorks-review-tom-holland/

  56. Morning Araminta. Yes, that is certainly the direction of travel. Only certain opinions are allowable and we are being Sovietised by slogans. Emotion is trumping truth, and that can never end well.

  57. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/787dd6f09047a64fe21fb33b0aae6569f6051f3b22244a4e44bae56775815547.png

    Any excuse to delay any opposition to the Net Zero Scam!

    email just received.

    You recently signed the petition:

    Repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 and Net Zero targets
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/657353

    Because of the General Election, the closing date for the petition you signed has changed. All petitions now have to close at 00:01am on 30 May. This is because Parliament will be dissolved, which means all parliamentary business – including petitions – must stop. This means the petitions site will be closed and people will not be able to start or sign petitions.

    We’re sorry we weren’t able to give you more notice that this would happen.

    The petition will be available for people to read on the site even though it will be closed for signatures. This petition won’t be reopened after the election.

  58. John Redwood is to step down. The reason Mr Sunak was dripping is that no-one was willing to hold his umbrella.
    Since long before 2016 the Conservative & Unionist party has been a grouping of Leavers and Remainers, always bound to dissolve, like that cake which was left out in the rain.

    1. However long it took to bake it the cake was still only half-baked before it was left out in the rain in Macarthur Park.

    2. Have to say that I am disappointed in Redwood, He poses good questions but seems not to offer solutions

      1. Typical of many right wing Conservatives, who are happy to spend lucrative careers bewailing how left wing the party is and hoovering up right wing votes while nothing changes!

    1. Do you think that Vinegar Joe reads the Mail? Or anything else, come to that?

    2. So what? Biden gets a free ride no matter what the scoop. His son could rack up a cheeky fat line on the White House balcony in full view of the cameras, and not a squeak from the press.
      On the other hand.. gawd forbid if a Trump attorney or fund raiser takes two scoops of ice cream.

    4. Several Sepitc commentators have made totally irrelevant references to a house being sold with all contents.
      Here is my BTL comment:-

      There is a huge difference between buying a property and finding items of value after the sale and finding something confidential inadvertently left behind in a hotel, clinic or “half-way” house.

      Here in the UK, lost property still belongs to the owner and there is a crime called “Theft by Finding” and items of value that have been found should be passed on to the police where, if they are unclaimed after a period of time, the finder can claim them and legally take possession.

      That the Florida woman who found the diary attempted to sell it on to a newspaper would support the allegation of theft.

      Had she merely GIVEN it to the Press, it could be claimed that she was hoping the press would return it to the rightful owner.

      All that aside however, the major part of this story is not the finding/theft of a diary belonging to a tragically disturbed young woman, but the increasingly undeniable fact that the current POTUS is a paedophile!

  60. Bluss – it’s cold outside. Just been to the woodstore to collect logs for the stove.. Global boiling…ha ha ha.

    1. Not so warm up here either, Bill.
      Just shifted & stacked a barrowload of logs and not only had to put my fleece on, also had to put a pair of gloves on too!
      One barrowload (it equals two large builders’ buckets full) ready to drag down the steps and another barrowload ready to shift & stack after that.

    2. I have got the Rayburn lit. It’s been in for three days now. June is bustin’ out all over? Not here is isn’t, it’s hiding in the coal hole.

  61. They’d have to be elevated to Lord Redwood and Lord Cash? The King’s Birthday Honours List in June would be an opportunity to do that but would Sunak and his puppet masters want it?

  62. What is disturbing about this is that he talks about Wahabism/Salafism being destroyed in Saudi Arabia and other places. Because the Saudis are ending funding for extremist Islam but that England is now becoming a centre for such extremism. It’s another reason why we need to wake up about Islam.

    Is Islam Going to End in 30 Years?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPCNmpxU8K4

    1. Islam to end in 30 years? Please God let it be so (note I didn’t say Allah, since Allah is Satan).

      1. I tend to suspect he is more like the antichrist. Who, according to Orthodox tradition come with gentleness and then with increasing violence. That is exactly how Mohamad behaved. First with ‘decency’, as a deceiver, but then, when he got the upper hand, with violence which, as Islam progresses, with increasing misery on its victims.

  63. I know this is a bad.. but you’ve got to admire the Israelis standing up for themselves against the Lefties & Progressives.
    Here, an IDF soldier sent overseas to UCLA tries to debate the current conflict with a brainwashed Libtard.
    https://x.com/hashtag/UCLABoardSlammer?src=hashtag_click

    And another interesting outcome was the instant identification by AI courtesy of Libtard Silicon Valley of the perp.. Eliran Bismut.
    Funny how they didn’t bother with that trick during the mostly peaceful protests of BLM.

    1. It’s asking me for a log in. If this is the same as the one I have seen recently the anti-Semities do their gross Jew hate tantrum at him.

  65. Good afternoon all.

    It’s been a rocky week for me but things are looking up.

    Firstly can I ask a couple of old friends who have my email address contact me? Thanks.

    Then – wow a GE.

    Sunak wants out. Lots of people politically homeless – I find myself drawn back to UKIP – not keen on the Leader – she needs to mellow a bit but the policy document is spot on what is needed.

    Take a look folks. Might be worth getting your big boys pants on and giving them a shot. It wont change the inevitable but hey it would send a loud clear message to the establishment.

    1. Good morning m’Dear.
      Not too rocky a week I hope!
      I’m not keen on UKIP after they stabbed Batten in the back, but, as opposed to Reform, they do have a decent set up so I’m tempted to also return.

      1. Bob I was Battens Comms Director. I can tell you he never wanted the job. He told me Lena, his wife, had said she would leave him if he accepted the role. She was persuaded to let him do an interim position to hold the fort for that period only. It was not UKIP that stabbed him it was the ultra right Christians who ganged up and got a petition going whilst he was on holiday. When he got back he told me that he had been blackmailed into running again. In the event he did not come to the meeting – asked for another 24 hours to consider his position but never submitted his paperwork.

      2. Should they not join The Reform Party and become the Reformed United Kingdom Independent Party?

        Mind you the word ‘reformed’ has lost its value since Cameron said the unreformable EU was ‘reformed’ when, at the referendum, he wanted voters to vote to stay in the EU.

        1. From what I hear UKIP have tried and tried again again to talk to Tice but he is too arrogant to talk to the likes of us. He just wants to steal UKIP policies – albeit to water them down.

    2. I’ve seen her on GB News – I had no idea she had become leader of UKIP and that Brown Envelope Hamilton had resigned.

      Mind you Neil Hamilton seemed an affable old chap and his wife is rather good value.

      I rather feel that Hamilton was stitched up by the MSM, Blair and Al Fayed. We must remember that Fayed wanted his son to marry the Princess of Wales so that he could become the Queen’s daughter-in-law’s father-in-law.

      1. I am inclined to agree with you. Fayed in trying to bribe a MP was a criminal act – why was he never charged with anything? Because Hamilton was one John Major’s Bastards and expendable?
        There is a little known case herd in Edinbrugh where HRMC took Fayed to the cleaners.

      2. There is a fascinating book about the Fayed affair that speaks volumes on how our justice system can be so easily corrupted.

      3. I have never warmed much to Neil H but I did feel that the whole thing was extremely dodgy. Two particular issues that struck me were:
        1. Al Fayed’s testimony was an admission of attempting to bribe a holder of public office. Why did this not lead to Al Fayed being prosecuted?
        2. George Carman QC, on behalf of Al Fayed, slaughtered Hamilton’s reputation, portraying him as greedy because he had issued a hefty invoice for to a large corporate (from memory it was Mobil but I could be wrong) which had approached him for advice on some issue of government tax policy. This struck me as broadly OK as why should a corporate expect free advice? While it was for an amount that would be huge to the average member of the public (I think about £10K), for Carman to imply that that level of fee-charging was excessive looked like extreme chutzpah.

    3. 387612+ up ticks,

      Afternoon N,

      Ukip done it in their collective trousers when the Nec/ farage took the knife to Gerard Batten.

      Tis my honest belief that they, between them, done more damage to these isles in taking down the party that was then building successfully under the Gerard Batten leadership.

      1. Ogga – you could not be further off the mark. Honestly – you were not in the room – I was. Farage was long gone and not involved.

        1. I think that the thing for Gerard Batten to do now is to join the Reform Party and say honestly who is responsible for him being deposed as leader of UKIP.

          There is no room for both Reform and UKIP – they must join forces.

          1. I think Reform’s role is to wreck the alternative party scene by refusing alliances, drawing votes to themselves and sitting on their hands at crucial moments. Tice is too close to the Westminster establishment.

        2. 387612+ up ticks,

          Afternoon N,

          Seems to be we have a conflict of
          interest on this issue,
          Ukip civil wars: Nigel Farage calls for Gerard Batten to be …

          Ukip civil wars: Nigel Farage calls for Gerard Batten to be sacked over hiring of Tommy Robinson as adviser. The UK Independence Party looks set to be plunged into more leadership strife after Nigel Farage called on Gerard Batten to quit over his appointment of Tommy Robinson as an adviser.

          The Telegraph
          https://www.telegraph.co.uk › politics › 2018/11/23 › t…

      2. Ogga – you could not be further off the mark. Honestly – you were not in the room – I was. Farage was long gone and not involved.

    4. I wondered how you were as you’d gone silent again. You seemed to be doing so well till the hospital visit last week,

      I think Rishi’s been given his marching orders and clearly they’ve done nothing to stop the boats.

      1. Ah – pain in the butt. Consultants cannot agree the way forward. So up one day with hope of more radiation and down the next when radiologist says no, They do not seem to consider what their shillyshalllying is doing to my state of mind. – not helpful at all.

    5. I think Lois has more connection with the youth side of things (and PR) than Bill, although I like Bill. The trouble with UKIP in my area is that members have been dying and haven’t been replaced. There are no boots on the ground to do the leafleting (and no money to pay for leaflets anyway). We need a risorgimento membership drive.

  66. I know I praise living up in the sticks but my hot water went off yesterday – called the plumber at 11am, he arrived at 12, problem fixed by 12.30 – bill £10 (gave him £20)

    1. Reads like the intro to porno flick!
      Good afternoon, Spikey. Hope all good with you.

      1. I’ll take your word for that Paul 😜 I’m fine thanks, trust you are too

      2. I got a horrible missive via email, attempting blackmail, saying they had been spying on me through the webcam whilst I was watching porn. I never watch porn. And I have sticker over camera bit on my PC as a camera on there creeps me out anyway. What I would really like is advice on what to do about it. Any suggestions anyone?

        1. Ignore it as you know it’s not true. I’ve had those in the past as well but not recently. Just ignore and delete.

          1. Should I forward it to the police? Just worried they send one to someone vulnerable.

        2. Probably best to block the email in Outlook. Not sure what else can be done.

          1. Feel like blsckmailing them back saying I’ve found out who they are so they can pay me gazillions in bitcoin to keep schtum. Creeps. Makes my blood boil that they can so glibly send such nasty stuff and get away with it. I’ve not got anything to worry about so really do feel like flagging them.

    1. This is another ongoing example of how stupid our political idiots and Whitehall have become. Everything they come into contact with.

    2. Anyone with half a brain cell (no pun intended) could see that putting a fully functioning male in a female prison would lead to problems.

  71. 387612+up ticks,

    May one ask,

    Seeing as the lab/lib/con coalition party supporter / voters have, these past four decades been working on the final solution,may shortly realise their aims coming to fruition via WW3.

    Seeing as the innocents of these isles have had no say as in what is signed off in their names, the question is “prior to war
    breaking out will the mandatory conscription allow us t o choose which side gets our services ?.

  73. Afternoon all,

    MOH handed back our family holiday lodge to site this morning and I took a last picture out of the East facing windows towards the crumbling Suffolk coast early.this morning:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0373c3078cc069273b30d6d6ed835c70878dc9c1118d785e0a3f54126112841.jpg

    Net curtains drawn for the last time before handover:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9078805e536e5ad476e34a9a79921a9a9bb4d8075b94c7f85b680e8e894afe50.jpg

    Car has never been so full coming back to family home. 🤔

      1. Well MOH’s lodge was sited near a church but we could hear the bells ringing despite it being above water at Corton.

        1. Ah! No underwater bells as the tide swings them back and forth, after all. Still nice where you were.

          1. The bells at Corton church were silenced for some time until shortly before we left. We missed them but when they rang again they had been significantly muffled – I think one of the visiting holidaymakers had complained.

          2. Not muffled bells again? The CofE is a thorough waste of space these days with its incessant hand wringing dithering apologies.

  74. Afternoon all,

    MOH handed back our family holiday lodge to site this morning and I took a last picture out of the East facing windows towards the crumbling Suffolk coast early.this morning:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0373c3078cc069273b30d6d6ed835c70878dc9c1118d785e0a3f54126112841.jpg

    Net curtains drawn for the last time before handover:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9078805e536e5ad476e34a9a79921a9a9bb4d8075b94c7f85b680e8e894afe50.jpg

    Car has never been so full coming back to family home. 🤔

  75. More tears from Vile Venal Vennells – I expect her next job will be with a water company.

      1. Mail-in ballots already printed and boxed up. That’s how Pennsylvania elected a dead man last time. He was alive when the ballot papers were completed.

          2. Schwab – he was admitted to hospital a few weeks ago as, I understand, some sort of emergency.

  79. Both Kneelalot and Sunak posing as workers today I see, by donning yellow jackets and blathering on about energy. Neither committed to tackling the Net Zero elephant in the room, just saying that the other side would make it worse for people’s bills using the route they would get there.

    Same old, same old then. Oh, and in the interests of journalistic fairness I have to report that Ed Davey says they’ll “slash” energy bills by making everyone insulate their homes. Presumably this is to stave off energy rationing before the Lib-dumbs also reach their own Net Zero target.

    So you see boys and girls. Vote Net Zero. You know it makes sense!

      1. I can only assume that since good Ed hasn’t actually trumpeted that it’ll be done by massive State handout freebie he’s hiding something….

      2. You will – from the savings brought about by your installing a useless heat pump….

    2. Nutsak is a man of the people..
      Prime minister asks workers in a Welsh brewery if they’re looking forward to watching England at the euros.

      1. Agreed.
        No doubt they’ll be forcing older homes to be demolished so they can be rebuilt to a higher standard of insulation.

        1. Funnily enough, we’ve just had a planning application put through which intends to do just that. It will probably get passed on the “sustainability” ticket, although the new building looks a lot bigger than the original (despite its “footprint” supposedly being smaller).

          1. The Bungalow on the Cromford side of me, done up by a couple of previous owners, then neglected for several years by the now deceased last owner, is being sold as a knock down & rebuild job.
            It has a large garden pond that is home to rather a lot of newts.

      2. Quite so. They’re politicians. They live in a fantasy world consisting of simplistic solutions where every wish is their command.

  80. Afternoon All

    FFS

    I see Lord Frost has been banned from applying to be a conservative candidate MP.

    Proof positive a Conservative party does not exist.

    https://www.gbnews.com/politics/boris-johnson-ally-david-frost-banned-standing-tory-candidate-general-election

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c05a8830d01554c9e791364e26a95d63fbd8fc77860aea09eba09f584caa508.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9bb6c67132289f9e1a5d284627548cc19e83c1fb4da2f83b123e22281f5cbf4d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9870021bad6297e867c2f183e924a5a08f115409ff6d7c8139cf5262d647f67.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5362919300515fdb1455addc48f80de0ba57ebbb8a5cdf7457e053de13769b91.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0290521374eeded5a9e646e4d7f3328843da942238dfef24343507fcf051965.jpg

      1. If he stands for Reform in a very conservative Conservative seat he could win and damage the treacherous Conservatives even more than if he stands as an Independent.

        1. He could stand anywhere so long as he could produce sufficient people to back his candidature.

          1. You need a proposer and a seconder and, I think, eight more electors in the constituency.

    3. I love the ‘Existential Threat’!!

      As regards the admirable Frost, I am always amused to read that anyone can stand to be a Member of Parliament apart from ‘Felons, Lunatics and Peers of the Realm’ – always in that order!

      1. Strangely though quite a few MPs turn out to be felons or lunatics and some get elevated to the Peerage….

    5. I’m on the side of Thomas Sowell.
      Stupid is the right word. But evil seeps out of stupidity.
      But i don’t get the last one.
      Not all humans are insane.
      Those who are are sadly trying to prove something that we really don’t require to survive safely.

  81. EU already looking ahead to a ‘serious post-Brexit relationship’ with Labour. The Independent.

    Single Market. Adoption of the Euro. Administration of Gibraltar & The Falklands. Handover of the remaining 25% of fishing stock. Fair share of migrants. Abrogation of Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty…

    in return for.. A firm promise from EU to end 14 years of cantankerous relations between London and Brussels.

    1. “A firm promise from EU to end 14 years of cantankerous relations between London and Brussels.” by 2060.

      1. Will Starmer manage to squeeze us back into the EU just before it implodes?

        We shall pay the re-entry fee in full and the day after we have paid it the EU will collapse and we shall not be given anything in recompense, indeed we shall have to pay the dismantling fee because in every single deal we have ever made with the EU we have come out worse.

        1. Hung Parliament, Labour-LibDem pact, condition which LibDems demand is – return to EU.

          1. A hung parliament would suit the majority of the public. But do we have enough rope ?
            The support beams are already available in Westminster Hall.
            What a wonderful sight that would be.

          7. Definitely a down vote.
            And I suspect Labour would be in favour and like to be able to blame the dumpsters.

          1. I wouldn’t bet on that, as long as you remain healthy.

            The French people I speak to want Frexit. The Dutch seem similar, and the ultra-right-wing fascist members of the EU are also kicking up.

      2. I misread it as firm promises of 14 year olds. – and it didn’t surprise me. What a world.

  82. I wonder how many covid jabs the very courageous Craig Mackinlay received before the terrible sepsis set in….

    1. What a terrible thing to happen to anyone.
      A Huge round of applause in Parliament when he returned.

    2. I wondered about that. The film on GBN about him was very good but that subject was avoided. I had septicaemia when I was 24 and it was nasty but I still have my limbs and extremities intact. I was covered all over with small bruises and my right knee swelled up to the size of a football. All that could be done was to treat the symptoms. The fluid was drained off, though inevitably some remained and hardened in the knee and I was given massive doses of ibuprofen and distalgesics. Fluid from the knee, blood samples and a throat swab were sent to the hospital laboratory and they identified meningococci.

      1. Blood poisoning was much more common when we were young, Our Susan. Medical folk were very aware of it – and what to do about it.

        1. Yes, our family GP came straigh to the house when Mum called him and he took one look at the bruises and said that’s blood poisoning. He called an ambulance, which also came very swiftly and within hours I was being treated for the symptoms. Discharged two and a half weeks later.

          2. Those were the days. Now you’d be waiting 2½ weeks for the ambulance to arrive – and, of course, no doctor would dream of visiting you.

      2. That was a very nasty experience for you , Sue .

        Infections like that can appear overnight , we are all at risk .

        When the dog pulled me over and I fell on a hedgehog in the middle of the lilac tree , my leg swelled up overnight and my thigh and knee were covered in holes caused by the hedgehog bristles , my jeans did nothing to protect me . My leg still hasn’t recovered , prickles left their mark , A+E gave me antibiotics and a refresher tetanus jab ..

        Animal claws , bites / scratches etc can cause appalling injuries , including rose prickles and plant abrasions .. soil, and contact with vermin wee .. rat wee in particular is dangerous

        People have no idea .

  83. Well I made it, despite my knee problem a decent walk today. 4 miles. Light jacket at the beginning tied around the waist towards the end, all up hill. Out of breath and knackered. But feeling satisfied and rewarded by my efforts.

  85. A surge in raven attacks during lambing season has left one farmer distraught after the loss of more than 200 lambs.

    Finn Yorston, 45, said he considered quitting his lifelong career on the day he picked up 30 dead lambs who had been pecked to death by the birds.

    Ravens have killed 220 of his lambs on Balnabroich Farm, in Strathardle, and five ewes had to be destroyed after they were attacked.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lambing-season-horror-ravens-kill-200-sheep-5vrmfzbdb

    Corvids in this area are a nuisance , one field here seems to attract crows and rooks who go for the eyes of sheep and their lambs .

    1. That’s dreadful surely some farmers could have shot some of the ravens. And left the bodies out. They are quite intelligent birds and might have caught on.

  86. I am watching Chelsea FS at the moment .. lots of chatter about sensory gardens .

    I have a few delicious looking pretty plants in our garden , a pair of mature Salvia called Hot Lips , so pretty and the aroma is heady , also have lavender , carnations , and curry plants , orange blossom , ceanothus , and a pretty yellow buddleia which was pruned harshly last year but is now full of yellow bobbles , smells like honey .

          3. That was rather lovely. I’ve never heard of him, nor come across him, before. Thank you

          4. Try this one. I have several of his albums on vinyl.

            https://www.google.com/search?q=foo+the+peace+of+all+mankind+Albert+Hammond&sca_esv=832bfc491017b489&ei=FcpQZrYwn4aR1Q_A9rWgBQ&ved=0ahUKEwj2jpz846aGAxUfQ6QEHUB7DVQQ4dUDCBA&oq=foo+the+peace+of+all+mankind+Albert+Hammond&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiK2ZvbyB0aGUgcGVhY2Ugb2YgYWxsIG1hbmtpbmQgQWxiZXJ0IEhhbW1vbmQyBRAhGKABSPNdUJ8KWJ9FcAF4AJABAJgBmgKgAaoFqgEFMC4zLjG4AQzIAQD4AQGYAgKgApMCwgIIEAAYgAQYogSYAwCIBgGSBwMwLjKgB4QG&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:229f7a5e,vid:bQIRRoLGmlE,st:0

          6. His name was once double barrelled but public derision forced him to drop the -Eggs.

          1. That Angela Rayner (the well known landlady) would be a good banger, I reckon…

          5. 🫖. Don’t think I’ve ever been known to refuse a cup; the way I know I’m poorly (love that word!) is if I couldn’t face a COT or GOW – then it’s time to stay in bed till the feeling passes.

  87. An effortless Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,070 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Impressed. A regular par four for me.

      Wordle 1,070 4/6

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

    2. Wordle 1,070 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
      🟨⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      bit of a surprise. #metoo

      1. Well done you! Boring boring for me…..(and a lucky one at that!)

        Wordle 1,070 4/6

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

    4. Just done it after back from fishing.

      Couldn’t think of another word.

      Wordle 1,070 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Not so effortless
      Wordle 1,070 4/6

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

    1. Bizarre – I think some of it was in English – it was so heavily accented it was very difficult to make out.

      Either which way – Allahu Akbar!

    1. If Africans wish to return to their tribal heritage then it is their business, not ours. Neither are we responsible for such choices, nor for their insistence on having multiple children that they cannot support. The same applies to all the multi-cultures entering the UK and demanding that we both support them in relative comfort and obey their cultural dictats. No.

        1. Quite, AA. I see no reason why we should welcome this kind of “philosophy” into our previously uniquely tolerant and beautiful country

          1. Has anyone come up with the answer to how tolerant people are expected to deal with intolerant people who wish to annihilate them?

          2. The only one that could work is to offer large financial incentives to repatriate. They are, after all, coming for easy money and their own countries are in desperate need of an entrepreneurial workforce – plus, from the UK’s point of view, a one-off payment to get shot would save us billions in the long term. We simply cannot afford to support all these people.

          4. So the tolerant will be overthrown by the intolerant as happened in Lebanon which was a Christian country and is now an Islamic one.

      2. OK – then let’s kick all the whites out of Africa and all the blacks and browns out of Europe?

        1. It’s not the colour, it’s the attitude that we could do without, Rastus

      3. I’ve worked in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Nigeria. I actually saw mud huts being built in Mozambique. I have no intention of helping Africa unless Africa gets off its collective backside and starts to help itself.

    1. This *creature* was installed as a dog in the manger, as were all the interim PMs except Truss. Just to stall anything that needs to happen from happening. I do feel quite sick about it.

      1. The electorate has been gang-raped by these bastards.
        They won’t be charged, and their replacements will be like Pakistani groomers on speed.

  94. Putin has declared war on British democracy. 24 May 2024.

    As such, the UK needs to put the Kremlin on the defensive in the information space and aggressively counter Russian narratives. Moscow is interfering with democratic institutions, and it is time for Britain to take action. Exposing Putin’s propaganda is a good first step, as is the use of sanctions to name and shame individuals involved in Russian and information warfare.

    Lol. What “democratic Institutions” are they? The present General Election is a farce. There is no real choice. Whichever is elected the Globalists will be in office for the next five years.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/24/putin-has-declared-war-on-british-democracy/

    1. Talk of the WEF etc usually puts me at loggerheads with my three siblings but when I pointed out that what passes for democracy now is being presented with an orangutan, a chimpanzee and a gorilla so that we can be told well, you voted for an ape, they all agreed with me. The youngest (72) says he’s just not going to vote anymore.

    2. I think it might be called a Judas Tree, although ours flowers much later in the year

      1. I will have to rename ours (which I always knew by both names). The official Judas tree looks very interesting, flowering, as it does, all along its bare limbs.

  96. OT – I observe that not only is the “Chief Prosecutor” of the International Court a slammer (and so-called English) but the president of the Court is a Lebanese slammer – Nawaf Salam.

    Lucky for Israel that there are impartial judges, eh what?

    1. So Sharia Law will be administered by the ICC? Organisers of Pride Festivals should take heed…

    2. To be fair, the Chief Prosecutor is half Scottish and his younger bro was a Tory MP until he got busted. The technical part is that his spiritual heritage, Ahmadiyya, is a subset of Islam that is considered to be beyond the pale.

  97. Evening all and I add my congratulations and best wishes to Sir Jasper for his Big Birthday (and many more to come!)

    1. I’ll say just one more time – those f*cking flags – they really get me.

  99. That’s me gone – it is wine o’clock on this (yet again) cold and miserable day.

    Have a spiffing Empire Day evening.

    A demain.

      1. Same in S Wales, Phizz. I don’t know where those complaining of the cold live. It is barmy/balmy here.

          1. Is it a kind of grumpy-old-git thing? (Because I might suffer from the same affliction, if so)

          2. Is it a kind of grumpy-old-git thing? (Because I might suffer from the same affliction, if so)

        2. Sun in the afternoon, but well chilly inside in the evenings in the depths of Pontyclun.

      2. “What is the meaning of Empire Day, why do the canons roar”? That one? My Dad had happy memories of singing that at school. Sadly the empire was gone by the time I started school.

        1. When we had an Empire, it was celebrated on mine and Queen Victoria’ birthday. I loved to hear the National Anthem played. I was only 4!

      1. 18c outside here and 22c indoors. I could do with it being a degree or three warmer.

        1. I forgot to hang out the washing till this afternoon. Hopefully it’s dried a bit by now.

    1. Evil warmongering barstds. Wonder what they’ve got on the Lithuanian government…the usual I suppose.

      1. Outside Firstborn’s local restaurant. French chef who knows his stuff, nice locale.

      1. Me too. It’s dinner now – if I were really posh it would be supper….. Supper where I come from is cheese and biscuits/crackers with a cup of tea if one is feeling a little peckish before bed.

        1. ” if you are still hungry have some supper” before you go to bed.
          Still hungry. ” have some bread and butter”

    6. Outstandingly beautiful view of the trees and blue sky, enjoy your dinner.

    8. Why are you having a glass of water with tomato ketchup for dinner, Herr Oberst? Lol.

  102. Good evening from Audrey and Me, a clear blue sky this evening.
    Not online much at all atm or looking at gadgets just popped by . I understand from the news that we’ll be having a general election on 4th July ? That’s rather unexpected and very soon . So from July 5th it’ll be Starmer, Lammy etc – God help us !

      1. We’ll notice the difference with the elephant in the room.
        The huge increase in Muslim PMs replacing indigenous Labour MPs on the government benches and an increase of Antisemitism.

    3. We dont normally get pantomimes in the summer. Ali Starmer and the 40 thieves will run and run…. unfortunately.

  103. Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.
    The roses have finally decided to earn their keep, especially Just Joey:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6a19a3635eb68b3867c8e5bb223259f80d75902db0dc15c2726aaf8be38e753.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/900a68c75922d0c29e214a4e40aae38a1c828786da447ea74d57f1bd8219bb90.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/652132dc09f85dc99ce9e03082678cdf896282511dd9a4685a4077220aedb0ef.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a4f6fe48faec19299ee9198bff8015e714d48de7720c61e57f3aec61c6ffd3a.jpg

    1. They are so beautiful, redolent of a summer’s evening peaceful stroll in the garden.

        1. MoH often complained that I never bought her any flowers. So one day I took a trip to Woolworths and forked out £12 for a dozen roses -“Arthur Bell” Brilliant yellow and heavy scent. They were duly planted in the front garden border for MoH and others to enjoy. They gave many years service. But I was rather taken aback when some old dear demanded to know why they weren’t labelled!!

        2. A friend with very green fingers said that some of her better roses have come from supermarkets, that they have done really well.

          1. We had a couple in the front that did very well for years, right up to when the deer found them and stripped them bare.

    4. Lovely.
      We have one particular and tall rose Bush that was given to my wife by an old friend when her mother passed away. Every time I prun it, it attacks me. ….

    5. Mine have buds, but they are hiding their light under a bushel. At least now there is a clear demarcation line between the lawn and the rose bed.

    2. Do you rhyme Aires with pears or varies?

      (Hilaire Belloc raised this question)

      1. Neither! (However you pronounce that… 😉). Spanish doesn’t do dipthongs, so each vowel is pronounced separately and elided. ‘A’ pretty much as in ‘land’, ‘i’ as in ‘feel’.

        However one runs the usual risk of coming across as a prat if one pronounces it authentically when speaking English. 🤣🤣

    4. “eco park”
      Something clicked in my mind and I thought of the “Harry Bosch” novel ‘Echo Park’.

  106. Exbury Gardens tomorrow.
    May last year:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a8a5fcfe9b60b5ae7c2a0106795c37f572e1b33e7f6df3907c0697d8bfe295e6.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a753ceb3704153f6970aea966d0afefc6773a03a9a20c5cfdace8f27e02ab2de.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c02c0aefccb728860f27c788f354e95836a7df8b2a99a78825cc2e0ff7ce0ec5.jpg
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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1b494226ca83eec6a044b0101bacb4045f513c0cb3da13ec7c2b24da8c22998.jpg

    1. Lovely. Only one of my rhododendrons has burst into flower. The others have massive buds but show no sign of opening.

    1. I hope the door doesn’t bang him on the arse on his way out.

    4. What a slimy so-and-so he is – and formerly married to the dreadful Sarah Vine, presumably before he found his true calling.

      No doubt he will find lucrative alternative employment (to quote the late, great John Junor) – ‘playing piccolo in a pissoir’……

    5. So many rats are leaving the sinking ship that it would actually be very amusing if it didn’t., because they left.

    6. Strong competition between Michael Gove and Chris Bryant as to who is the slimiest and most repulsive member of Parliament.

      Actually Gove leaving will probably improve the Conservative Party’s chances!

  108. Yes, I usually have blood dripping from at least one finger when I’m done pruning.

  109. I’m doing an uncle Bill.
    Slayders folks, I’m in the red, my battery has run out.
    🙁

  110. Sounds like my brother had fun on his bike ride from Milton Keynes to Brentford along the Grand Union Canal (I did Tring to Wolverhampton with my daughter during one of the breaks in Lockdown). He had to rescue a guy on a mobility scooter who had managed to topple it into the canal!

      1. No, he was in the water and the mobility scooter was half in, half out. There’s a picture of the rescued gentleman and he is at least smiling, and his vehicle still worked (which was good, obvs)

    2. Did the guy on the mobility scooter take emergency action to get out of the way of an oncoming cyclist? 😉

      1. No. By all accounts he lost control coming down the path from a bridge. My brother had to cross over the canal to help him. So no, not anything you can blame on cyclists.

  111. You’re coming up to 68 in July – I do hope you live long enough to see it collapse!

    (I’ve looked up life expectancy tables which suggest that a man of 68 can expect to live until he is 86 – that gives the EU 18 years – I hope you make it but that the EU doesn’t!)

  112. “Ai” rhymes with “My” and “res” with “Mess”, Rastus, but I suspect that – unlike Mr Belloc – you already knew that. Lol.

  113. Evening, all. The dull, miserable weather relented for a brief moment this afternoon so I rushed out and started to edge the lawns. Alas, the sunshine didn’t last long, but I’d started so I’ll finish and I did manage to complete both lawns and it didn’t rain despite looking black and ominous. I then had a long soak in a Radox bath so I can move and am now quaffing a glass of port. You may wish to look away now as I’m in my pyjamas and slippers!

    I am not sure what the headline letter writer is trying to imply. Blair was horrendously bad for the country, but I can’t see Starmer being any better.

    1. Sunak and co have been pretty awful but Starmer and the Growler will be even worse.

      1. Starmer is just an absolute non-entity. A useless, backward idiot who has no convictions of his own.

        His government will be yet another Labour tax, waste and ruin. I fully expect within 3 years the economy to be so completely wrecked that he’s going to the IMF and then they will force us back in to the EU, as the establishment wants. We won’t be given a choice. Even if we were, so many people will be desperate to resolve the chaos of socialism that they’ll vote to rechain regardless.

        That is how liberty dies: by the state deliberately doing so much damage it presents the only solution to the problems it has caused: the abolition of democracy.

  114. Climate Change due to Brexit and Trump.
    We were warned.

  116. From the DT:

    77 Tory MPs stepping down
    Michael Gove has become the 77th, and most high-profile, MP to stand down at the election, surpassing the previous record of 72 who quit prior to Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide win for Labour.

    Now that’s what I call the 77th Brigade aka: “The Fold Guard’….

    1. It’s odd that they resign. They’ve not accomplished anything so can’t have been very busy or had a high caseload.

      I imagine they’re all off to trough, picking up the dozen or so directorships and quangocracy that runs… err, ruins this country.

    2. I wonder how much “compensation” they are in line for, for being sacked with just cause.

  118. Just received three slightly contradictory emails re postal voting.

    It might confuse the Muzzies }:-)

    They recommend using a proxy, the Muzzies will be delighted }:-(

  119. Mail to John Redwood’s Diary..

    Climate Change Act 2008 – Critical Points.

    I read with interest your article in the “Telegraph” about green energy. It was all very informative but you omitted the critical points about the Climate Change Committee and the Energy Transitions Commission.

    The first chairman of the Climate Change Committee set up under the Climate Change Act 2008 was Soros’ friend and “ally” Lord Adair Turner from 2008 to 2012 appointed by Soros’ friend Gordon Brown. From 2016 Lord Turner became chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission. So for 12 years out of 16 years, Soros’ friend and “ally” Lord Turner has been directing Britain’s transition to green energy which is exactly what one would expect because Soros clearly bought the Climate Change Act 2008 from Tony Blair, David Miliband and David Cameron, in a supporting role, with the promise of future riches. All of them received Soros related jobs.

    In the other 4 years, Lord Turner actually worked for Soros as chairman of Soros’ Institute for New Economic Thinking!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9963050/Lord-Turner-forms-unlikely-alliance-with-Soros.html

    Other members of the Climate Change Committee also have Soros connections so as we can see, Soros’ friends and allies have the Climate Change Act and it’s consequences all sewn up!

    1. Ignoring George Soros, who you clearly have a problem with, the simple fact is parliament could completely ignore the climate change committee. It’s full of biased troughing wasters getting rich off tax payers money over the scam, after all.

      Government chooses not to. Government continues to force dehumanising, immiserating laws that continue to make energy expensive. Government as a whole could simply refuse this nonsense and close the quango down. Why doesn’t it?

      1. Why doesn’t it?

        Clearly because every administration since at least 1997 except Truss has been working with Soros. The Climate Change Act is undoubtedly Soros legislation which Tony Blair authorised for him.

        So they can’t reverse out even if they wanted to.

      1. According to the Telegraph article I linked, Turner was in line to be chairman of the BoE but in the event, Soros’ other friend Mark Carney got the job and Turner went to work for Soros. Andrew Bailey was appointed by Sajid Javid who praised Soros on Twitter. The chairman of the OBR Richard Hughes previously worked for a board member of Soros’ Best for Britain and Soros’ Institute for New Economic Thinking.

        So I think it’s perfectly plausible that in effect Soros might be chairman of the BoE and OBR which would explain a great deal!

    1. The surrender is good news. The concept of law in war is idiotic. Kill the enemy. Kill so many, so fast, so indiscriminately at such scale that they no longer want to fight ever again.

        1. A sadly necessary, but inglorious, part of our history – had we lost he would have been prosecuted for war crimes!

          1. We won and he very nearly was! He was denied a peerage unlike the other military leaders. What people don’t understand is, Butch had to work to “Directives”. He didn’t have a free hand, although he did believe that reducing German cities to rubble would make a ground campaign unnecessary. Nor did he have the technical equipment to do pinpoint bombing until very late in the war and he never had the resources in aircraft to land a knockout blow. Bomber Command lacked a long-range fighter escort so was restricted to bombing at night for most of the campaign. The American losses were worse than ours (they persisted in thinking they didn’t need a fighter escort for daylight trips for a long, long time).

          2. Debatable. Also the US air force suffered about 26,000 fatalities in Europe compared with the 55,573 of RAF Bomber Command.

    2. They dont look like terrorists to me – certainly not all of them! – there were a number of youngsters in there you can just spot as the camera pans.

      If this is supposed to justify the actions of the IDF in Rafah – broadly with which I am in agreement but it’s a pretty narrow line – it really doesnt help.

      1. If they are Hamas supporters, by definition they are terrorists.

        A youngster carrying ammunition is as culpable as the man firing that ammunition from the weapons.

        1. Who said they were Hamas supporters?

          They are people who have been rounded up by the IDF, not known for their ‘soft touch’ approach (and, to be honest, with good reason!) – they might well be Hamas supporters but I suspect at least some of them are not.

          Just to be clear, I am a fervent supporter of the right of Israel to exist, and the right of Israelis to defend themselves using all means possible – but the optics here are not good.

          1. The optics are never good for Israel. Jews can do no right. Don’t fall for it. GGGG. Am Yisrael chai.

          2. I dont disagree, however that should not translate to a ‘carte blanche’ for Israel to do what they want.

            They probably will, anyway, and that is understandable on so many levels – but it should never absolve them from being held to account or receiving any criticism whatsoever.

          3. Unless Israel has some undercover operatives there, which I doubt, I would put money on them all being in favour of Israel being utterly destroyed. You can split hairs, but that makes them Hamas supporters in my view..

          2. “After Hamas’s terror attack on October 7, when the group massacred around 1,200 people and took another 240 hostage, he appeared in propaganda videos, his face concealed by a red keffiyeh scarf. Little is known about him but his real name is thought to be Hudhayfah Kahlot.

            I’ll tell you who – the Israelis

            Who’d he f*ck a lot

        1. Well, I guess somebody who looks older than 10 – look at the video and pause it regularly – there are a lot of kids in there!

          3. Just remember GG, the older we get the younger the policemen seem to get, so the same probably goes for terrorists 😀

          4. Yes, PJ, and our eyesight (and everything else) continues to fade – well mine certainly does!…

      3. 387612+ up ticks,

        Evening G,
        Boy soldiers are not an unknown factor in today’s world, with the capacity to kill as with an adult.

        1. Evening ogga,

          Yes, I know that, but I’d rather give youngsters the benefit of the doubt.

          If I get blown up by one, well fcking tough!

      4. What did they expect when they attacked Israel. They asked for all they got.

        1. It must never be forgotten that Israel warns Hamas of when and where they will be attacking so that innocent people can move away.

          But Hamas is using the innocent as human shields and stops them moving to safety so it is Hamas that is killing the innocents in order to try and win the propaganda war.

  121. Yes, they could. Any legislation can be undone.

    Ignore Soros as you’ve a weird problem there. Why does government continue to push the utter lie of climate change?

      1. I loathed cabbage as a child, both at home and at school. I found out years later that it was because when boiled forever it releases sulphurous compounds.

        It was much later that I discovered if steamed lightly, or sautéed in butter, it tastes wonderful. Sauté some finely shredded summer cabbage in butter then stir it into mashed spuds and you have the classic Irish colcannon, which is wonderful with a gammon steak and mushrooms.

  123. Surely it’s obvious why not?

    Because Soros’ money is behind the whole thing and any reversing out risks exposure and jail for corruption.

  124. No, I said to stop thinking of Soros. What’s the real cause? What’s the real problem?

      1. Why can’t you think beyond George Soros? Why can’t you look at the fundamental bigger picture? The *real* problem?

        1. The real problem is Soros and other billionaires bribing politicians and officials to change the world to how they want it to be

          1. No, it isn’t. That’s your obsession. The problem is democracy – a fundamental lack of it. You need to stop obsessing over one thing and look at the big picture to the real problem.

          2. It’s Democracy that the toads are using and abusing.
            What is your alternative suggestion to replace Democracy to stop them doing so?

          3. Catherine the Great believed she could be a benevolent autocrat and maybe she was. The problem with that is that it requires a remarkable individual and tends to only last one generation?

          5. Democracy is an inherently unstable system that only ever lasts until voters realise they can vote themselves the contents of the Treasury. We reached that point in 1945.

          6. Simplistic.Even with a functioning democracy, everyone has a different criteria, a different opinion.

        2. The real problem?
          Soros, and all the other Blairalike, Gatesalike, Swabalike and other WEFalikes who are are pulling the strings of our useless political puppets and civil servants.

          I think you underestimate the problems that Soros is underwriting all across the USA and, by extension, the world.

          1. Yes, they’re appalling but the fundamental problem is the lack of control the public have over the state machine. If government were forced to obey the public then whatever it wants would make absolutely no difference. It would be impotent.

          2. That’s chicken and egg.
            The only way the public will regain control is if the elected politicians actually did what they were elected to do AND had the power to remove the civil servants who block what the public wants.
            But, the only way the public will regain control is if the elected politicians enact the compulsion/requirement that they should do as the electorate want.

          3. The only way that the segment of the public broadly in agreement with you will regain control is through acts of violence and terrorism. Mass murder and bloodshed will cow into submission the millions who do not want what you propose. Voting will never achieve it.

          4. The World Economic Forum was originally a debating chamber where politicos and other whackos could vent their mad ideas and predictions.

            Since those early days the WEF attracted significant persons to its ranks including our own Prince Charles (now King Charles III). Charles was accommodated because of his environmentalist concerns.

            The WEF then morphed into a sort of training institute for future ‘Young Business Leaders’ and sought to train these ambitious invitees to the WEF in globalisation policies.

            We have records of the lot of them such as Tony Blair, Matt Hancock, Sunak, Trudeau, Ahern, Cameron, Johnson and on and on the list goes.

  125. The post election mocking email to my MP, one Simon Hoare is writing itself at the moment.

  126. With all these Conservatives stepping down they are going to need a bigger U-Boat

  127. Just come to the end of our last ever week in Florence with a day in Pisa. It was very emotional, knowing that we were leaving the place of the pinnacle of civilisation and returning to the place of the end of it. What the hell, I am nearly eighty and have seen the best of it. But stil…

    1. That’s hard, Sam. My sympathies. But why not go the other way – quit the UK and take permanent residence in Pisa?

    2. I’m the same age Sam, just back from Madeira and feel much the same. What a complete horlicks our dear beloved politicians, since Mrs Thatcher, have made of our country . Not one with a principle between them. Money grabbing, self centred trash is probably the kindest I could say about them.
      I feel so sorry for our grandchildren we didn’t do anything to stop those bastards..
      Hindsight is wonderful, but very painful.

      1. It worries me that if we ever get back to the UK, the place will have degenerated so much since we last visited s3veral years ago.
        It is probably just as bad in Canada but we hardly see gradual change that goes unnoticed by us locals,

        1. I return to the UK roughly every 6 months.
          Every time I return it’s clear that things have degenerated.

          1. As a matter of interest, sos, from which particular paradise do you return?

          2. France
            The Dordogne.
            I drive to and fro, mainly using minor roads. These are generally clean, well surfaced, edges trimmed, and a fraction of the litter one sees in the UK.

    3. The modern demise of civilisation started when the British Empire ended and the American hegemony began.

  128. So do I, it’s a surprisingly versatile vegetable, but don’t really see it as a wonder food!

  129. Just recovered from acting like Bonsall Bob yesterday and doing heavy lifting stuff.
    We are upgrading the curling club building, so we have been ripping off the old rusty cladding and installing rigid insulation boards before covering it all with new siding.
    Not exactly hard work for a young guy but it took a couple of holes on the golf course this morning to loosen up stiff muscles. Not not a single mug of tea was consumed (or spilt) during the day.

  130. 387612+ up ticks,

    The great scattering is fully operational before the herds eyes are fully opened in regards to the excess deaths and lifelong injuries in their full ongoing magnitude.

    A beneficial pro realm move would be make Gerard Batten an offer he could NOT refuse to head up a government, inclusive of Tommy Robinson as a cabinet minster
    after first making them peers of the realm.

    We are living through what the majority voter has laid upon the innocents these past forty years, radical change is needed.

    1. Sorry, ogga, but you are going to have to exterminate many millions of people to get your way.

      1. Has it escaped your notice that many millions are being exterminated right now, not by ogga, via abortion, falling birthrate since the jabs and increased death rates in all highly jabbed countries?

      2. 387656+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,
        If that were the case only for those that deserved it.

        This creature will kill off the innocents.
        Dt,
        kier starmers plan for a decade in power, ” I find it easy to be ruthless”

      1. Could be an age thing. I loved her, being a child when she got married and just coming out of a recession that seemed to have lasted all my life.

        1. I never liked her. I was seventeen when they got married. I remember saying at the time it wouldn’t last. Thank goodness it didn’t (Not that I would have wished her sad life and ending on her)

          1. When a 36 year old marries a 20 year old, it seems very odd to me to blame the 20 year old…

    1. It seems that nearly everyone on here (except for those that inhabit Scandiwegia) lives in France.

      1. Not really; some of us used to live in France but have returned. Some of us (probably the majority) are soldiering on in Blighty, Wales, Norn Irn or Scotland.

  135. The Conservatives have given up, they are passing the buck and want to go.
    Labour want to totally dominate for the next generation.
    Lib Dems are wokiest political whøres .
    Reform want to destroy the Tories and have rather grand hopes without Farage .

    They all have their agendas whilst the true enemy who cares little about Left or Right in politics and hates us. Our our enemy watches us tear strips out of each other lauthing at us whilst it plots to take us over. How hate is spreading . From 5th of July – that elephant in the room Islam will be in the House of Commons an the majority of Labour MPs – more or soon to be more then indigenous Labour MPs – its one thing them living In our communities- it’s quite another thing with them making our laws in the House of Commons before having its own party via its useful idiots in Labour.
    There is nothing anyone can do when we thing fellow indigenous people are the enemy when the real one is within our gates.

    1. I wonder if there will be a civil war or just a tame roll.over by the indigenous and
      ,probably out numbered population.

      1. I look at small indigenous children with sadness, what future do they have when we hope each generation has a better life and we know that’s in the past. Brainwashing into subservience and wokeism and far worse is Islam. Islam is an evil inhuman death cult of which has no value of life it’ll put it’s own children into suicide vests and blow them up, they don’t fear death- they welcome it . A future civil war will not be like wars of the past where you’re up against an enemy that wouldn’t want to die and of which wouldn’t want their children to die. We have humanity whereas they are monsters. They have been Invading out countries, living amongst us and now they’re soon be making our laws in our Parliament whilst no political party speaks their name.

        1. It’s over fifty years since I was a soldier, but I would gladly fight for family and friends. As for the establishment I would stick them in front of a wall and shoot them.

        2. I’m feeling as if I’m supposed to be miserable yet this is a good time in my life. Should I fake unhappiness?

          1. Good for you. It’s not a good time for indigenous children who are the minority in their school, and are being sexually harassed and bullied because they are white, and the school does nothing about it because it goes against the teachers’ marxist beliefs – as I have personally witnessed.

  136. There are some who live in Trudeau’s Empire and a couple who live in the States (West Virginia, Mountain Roads …).

      1. I live in The Bush. The shepherds have gone. (Technically Hammersmith W6 but W12 is just a few yards away.)

      2. I can’t speak for WV (never been there), but Canada is very far from being Utopian these days!

      3. We bought our house in Brittany in 1988 the year we married. We moved out here to live permanently in 1989. We set up our business – which we are still running – and had our two sons who now live with their respective wife and fiancée in England but we wish to spend the rest of our days in our home near Dinan.

        This was our home when we bought it:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b34a7012a9e68bea937de4ddfa94e40ab06023ecc9e955c6e7381e44dd1723f.jpg

        and here it is after we had the ruin renovated so that we could run our French courses, and then built the garage and the extension ourselves with the help of a builder friend from Devon.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07f013da01d3a3ed9ecb547676215da42e24ba018591e80ca8edce0552ddbc1c.jpg

  139. Well chums, it’s now time for bed. So I’ll wish you all Good Night, sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

    1. What a belting track! I think everybody of our age must have a ‘moment’ connected to this but I’m not saying what mine is!!

  141. Andrea Leadsom is going too, sorry if this is old news .

    1. I struggle to have an opinion. Tell me what to say and I’ll parrot it.

  142. Much of the comment in the DT is not ‘Why you should vote Tory’ but ‘Why you shouldn’t vote Labour’. And who would argue? Even if the circumstances of the country were a little better, who would look at Max or The Fakir and say “He’s the man!”. God save us.

    Allister Heath is not his usual enjoyably robust self. Here he is on Mr Half-Mast:

    He needs to get on the front-foot, make a toughening of Rwanda laws a centrepiece of his manifesto, and shock the Left by promising to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and other international treaties preventing UK control of its own borders if he is re-elected.

    He mustn’t be scared of the ensuing fight: Sunak will need clear dividing lines. He needs to convey to the electorate that he will fight for the majority against the tyranny of an out-of-touch, pro-Labour elite. He needs to take on the human rights lawyers.

    On every important issue, the Prime Minister must distinguish himself from Labour, and show that they are still radically to the Left of the mainstream voter. He must promise a much tougher reform of the welfare state. He has already pledged to halt sex education for young children. He is far more sensible on trans rights than Starmer, who would still make it easier for people to change gender. Sunak must demonstrate how Labour’s embrace of critical race theory would divide British society and heap costs on business.

    On net zero, Sunak needs to position himself as the moderate, pro-consumer, pro-motorist, anti-20mph and anti-Ulez voice, and contrast that to Labour’s hair-shirt green zealotry. He must explain how Labour’s dislike of achievement won’t end with its hideous war on private schools, but will involve a power grab over state academies and a decline in standards.

    Starmer isn’t Jeremy Corbyn, but he will lead a historically Left-wing government that is immensely more woke, more socialist and weaker on foreign policy than the Blair-Brown administration ever was. Sunak has six weeks to save Britain from a truly sorry fate.

    There are just 1,000 hours to save Britain

    Camilla Tominey goes for Max and Idi Amin II:

    Starmer’s launch video for his Labour leadership campaign, released in January 2020…could easily be mistaken for the trailer of a Ken Loach film starring Maxine Peake.

    In it, Starmer and his supporters speak of their pride in the man who wants to be the next prime minister defending environmental activists, securing benefits for asylum seekers, and standing up for the trade unions. We are reminded that he was opposed to the Iraq war, battled to stop Brexit, and fought any attempt to “sell off” the NHS. He boasted of wanting to “stand up for the powerless against the powerful” with a “green new deal” and to “promote peace and justice around the world with a human rights-based foreign policy”.

    Inviting Labour members to “unify around a radical programme”, he suggested that our economic model needed to be “rebuilt in place of the failed free market one”. He also called for a halt to the division in our country – before taking the knee five months later at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests.

    He may have since distanced himself from these unashamedly Left-wing pledges, but as he said back then: “I’m a socialist.” All the flip-flopping in the world cannot change the fact that this man has only ever walked a progressive walk.
    ….
    Elsewhere we have David Lammy, who is hoping to be the next foreign secretary, showing himself to be completely unfit to hold one of the great offices of state by implicitly supporting the application by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek arrest warrants for two senior members of the Israeli government, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a win for the murderous terrorists of Hamas, Lammy has also jumped onto the bandwagon of backing the recognition of Palestinian statehood, following the knee-jerk, virtue-signalling example of Ireland, Spain and Norway.

    It should hardly be surprising, since the Tottenham MP nominated Jeremy Corbyn, a former chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, for the Labour leadership in 2015, and refused to vote for the renewal of the Trident nuclear submarine fleet. He is now in the process of sucking up to Republicans in the US, having once undiplomatically denounced Donald Trump as a “neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath”. Presumably he thinks the Americans have short memories. But the electorate never forgets.

    Labour is still the party of Greta Thunberg, trans extremists and pro-Hamas hate mobs

    What a choice…

  143. Right, been doing other things, so I hope I’ve not missed anything important.
    Good night all.
    I’m off to bed.

    1. Oh Bob loads of important stuff has happened on here while you have been out working/enjoying yourself/doing the right thing*….loads

      *delete as applicable

  144. Rishi Sunak insists Lord Frost could stand for Tories in general election

    PM denies claims that former Brexit negotiator cannot apply for any of the 93 vacant constituencies

    Nick Gutteridge, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT • 24 May 2024 • 1:49pm

    Rishi Sunak has given the green light for Lord Frost to stand as a Tory MP after denying that he had been barred from being a candidate.

    The Prime Minister denied claims that the former Brexit negotiator, who has been a fierce critic, had been told he could not apply for any of the 93 vacant constituencies. Mr Sunak told GB News on Friday: “David Frost has not been blocked from standing as a candidate at the election in July. That is just not right. The process only opened on Wednesday night and it takes time for the process to conclude for candidates selection. It is not true to say he has been blocked.”

    Lord Frost, who is a popular figure on the Right of the Conservatives, has said he is willing to resign from the House of Lords to fight the election. He welcomed Mr Sunak’s announcement, which will be seen as the Prime Minister effectively ordering CCHQ to overturn the ban.

    Writing for The Telegraph, he said: “I wasn’t clear whether I could apply to stand for Commons seats at this election. So I am grateful to the Prime Minister for clarifying that I can do so. It is very late in the process, and time is short, but I will now consider the options.”

    The former Brexit negotiator was a leading supporter of Boris Johnson and has publicly criticised the direction the Tories have taken under Mr Sunak. He has criticised the Government over its net zero policies and has urged ministers to go further in cutting taxes on workers and companies. In recent months he has also proved a hit with ordinary members as he has toured local associations talking up traditional Conservative values.

    The reports that he had been blocked from standing as an MP prompted a furious response from the grassroots Conservative Democratic Organisation. John Strafford, a member of its board, said the move showed “contempt for party members” adding: “We must stand and fight these disgraceful dictators.”

    David Campbell Bannerman, a former Tory MP who is the group’s chairman, said that he had also been effectively “banned” from standing by CCHQ. He hit out at the candidate selection process as “very Stalinist” and said he had written to Richard Holden, the Conservative chairman, to outline his concerns.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/24/conservative-bosses-bar-lord-frost-from-standing-as-mp/

    1. He’ll be selected for Glasgow Central. If it doesn’t exist, pick any other constituency in Glasgow city centre.

    2. There is something very deliberate about the sudden call for a July Election.

      At first I thought it was the drowned rat’s realisation that Farage might re-enter politics and stand as an MP and thereby an attempt to thwart this by giving little time for Farage to organise his campaign.

      With the tens of Tory MPs now refusing to stand at the next Election it now seems obvious that Sunak has no interest in regaining his position and that neither has he any desire to prevent Keir Starmer from taking the reins of what is increasingly a bankrupt and wantonly misled country.

      It is also now apparent that Sunak would also have wished to clip the wings of his obvious successor Lord David Frost who if given more time would be able to mount a successful campaign for re-election as an MP and leadership of the Tory Party.

      It is said that Sunak foresees the loss of Ukraine, a corrupt ‘country’ from which the UK government hoped to profit greatly at the expense of half a million or more dead Ukrainians. Sunak’s obvious friendship with the crook Zelensky is well recorded.

      Then we come to Sunak’s investments in Moderna and its deadly mRNA vaccine products. I assume Sunak has a safe compound somewhere where he might hope to sit out the coming reprisals viz. Nuremberg 2.0 Covid Trials.

  145. Time for me to coil up and take a nap, good night, God bless and don’t let the bed bugs bite.

    1. I cannot think of anything much to say about Tony Blair.

      I’m not a fan of cottage cheese. Will that do?

  148. Another day and another birthday is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

    1. Late on parade today, so I missed wishing you a Happy Birthday! Better late than never, hope it was a good one.

  150. I read an article earlier today that Zimbabweans are praying for the return of the white farmers their government evicted. The poor people are now starving and their country is broken. Prior to the evictions, murders and land grabs Zimbabwe was the ‘Breadbasket of Africa’.

    There is a parallel with the poor blacks and Hispanics in the US who have finally realised that their lives and prospects have suffered greatly after four years of the evil Biden regime.

    Trump’s impressive rally in the Bronx proves that blacks and Hispanics are waking up and good luck to them. They deserve better.

    1. No doubt we will be asked told to take in (edit: black only) Zimbabwean refugees because Rhodesia was once a colony.

    2. No doubt we will be asked told to take in (edit: black only) Zimbabwean refugees because Rhodesia was once a colony.

    3. No doubt we will be asked told to take in (edit: black only) Zimbabwean refugees because Rhodesia was once a colony.

  151. I read an article earlier today that Zimbabweans are praying for the return of the white farmers their government evicted. The poor people are now starving and their country is broken. Prior to the evictions, murders and land grabs Zimbabwe was the ‘Breadbasket of Africa’.

    There is a parallel with the poor blacks and Hispanics in the US who have finally realised that their lives and prospects have suffered greatly after four years of the evil Biden regime.

    Trump’s impressive rally in the Bronx proves that blacks and Hispanics are waking up and good luck to them. They deserve better.

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