Friday 25 August: It is only a matter of time before Putin meets the fate of other tyrants

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

424 thoughts on “Friday 25 August: It is only a matter of time before Putin meets the fate of other tyrants”

      1. Too tired to be funny these days. Unless, by “funny”, you mean “weird”.
        Happened to be reading the last of last night’s posts, and Geoff’s morning warning popped in.
        Hope all’s well with you.

          2. Your funnies are a highlight of NoTTL, Tom.
            It’s me that’s weird, and getting worse.
            Wibble…

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    You Are What You Eat
    An Italian family was sitting at the dinner table when the father asks his oldest son

    “Giorgio! Why are you such a fat fuck?”

    The son replies: “Pops, it’s mom’s pasta! I can’t stop eating it.”

    The father says: “You should take smaller bites! It will make you trim.”

    Then the father asks the second son: “Antonio! Why are you such a fat fuck?”

    The son replies: “Pops, it’s mom’s pizza! I can’t stop eating it it’s so good!”

    Papa says: “You should also take smaller bites. Ask your other brother Angelo how he stays trim.”

    Angelo replies: “It’s easy! I eat lots of pussy.”

    To which the father replies: “Pussy?! Pussy tastes like shit!”

    To which Angelo replies: “Yo pops! You should take smaller bites!”

    1. Bu88er. I wanted one of them for a water feature.
      Drill a hole through the base, shove hose up ….

  6. It is only a matter of time before Putin meets the fate of other tyrants

    Unless he can put all his enemies on trial in Georgia.

  7. Good morning, chums. Just finished an hour’s gardening. Now to read Sir Jasper’s morning joke, before putting on the kettle for a well-earned cuppa. Enjoy your day – all of you.

      1. I woke up at 3 am and gave up trying to get back to sleep after 30 minutes so came downstairs to start again on de-cluttering, then outside for an hour’s gardening, then various other odd jobs. Felling rather virtuous after all my efforts today, so I’m looking forward to my normal relaxed weekend.

  8. Deluded Europe can’t see that it’s finished. 25 August 2023.

    More acutely, Europeans will fight over the question of immigration. The experts are very clear in their assessment: given the weak effectiveness of “natalist” policies designed to increase birth rates, there is no alternative to overcoming demographic decline in Europe other than immigration.

    In today’s Europe, it is an euphemism to say that this solution won’t be generally welcomed. When a French minister recently hinted that we may have to accept a limited number of immigrants to deal with shortages of personnel in some sectors, there was such an outcry that he immediately backpedalled.

    The UK left the EU largely to stop immigration even from European countries. In 2015, Germany might have opened its borders to more than one million immigrants from the Middle East, but this was in response to a humanitarian emergency.

    It’s pretty obvious that immigration alone will see the end of Europe. When one adds on its cultural decline it becomes inescapable. None of this was inevitable. Once Marxism insinuated itself through Socialist policies it became so. The UK is particularly badly affected mostly due to the policies of Tony Blair. It will only take another ten years or so and it will be Third World Territory.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/25/deluded-europe-cant-see-that-its-finished/

    1. Why is demographic decline bad? Fewer people in the world will result in less stress on the ecosystems.
      Shortages of people can be dealt with by automation – hell, we barely need bus drivers any more, as robot buses exist, and it’s the lower level jobs (for the moment) that will be replaced, followed by home doctoring via AI, and so on, so the Pols, as usual, are wrong. We DO NOT need more people, we need fewer.

      1. Morning Oberst. The Demographic Decline is itself largely a result of Socialist Policies. There is no reason why it should not recover in a Free System. Sadly that is no longer possible.

      2. Heard from a comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe,

        It’s only males that are afraid of robots’ taking over and ruling us. Women won’t see much difference.

        😄😄

          1. One of my sons, an aerospace engineer, is designing robots and his brother is writing computer programs for Artificial Intelligence. I shudder to think what the two of them would produce if they went into business together.

          2. The funniest remark I heard recently about AI is that you have to click a series of photos, some of which have traffic lights and others which don’t in order to prove to a robot that you are not a robot! Lol.

    2. I think. Minty, that long before the UK becomes a third World Territory.there will be such a backlash that Kristallnacht will look like a huge mistake.

      Dead Arabs littering the streets you wouldn’t think the Brits could be so vicious – wait and see.

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps. Today here will be dry, mostly sunny and a maximum of 20°. Yesterday’s deluge (accompanied by three thunderstorms) has refilled the water butts with 750 ltrs of lovely rainwater…

    SIR – From the 1980s to 2003 I was finance director of a medium-sized building society.

    The highest standards of probity and confidentiality were required of all staff, from the chairman down to the most junior clerk, and we were closely regulated – initially by the Societies Commission, then by the Financial Services Authority.

    The alleged behaviour of Dame Alison Rose (report, August 24) and the reported actions of NatWest would, quite simply, never have happened. To hear that she may just be able to walk away, as though she has done no wrong, simply beggars belief.

    If the regulator does not, as a matter of urgency, step in and take suitable action, it will seriously undermine its future standing and authority.

    Chris Witcher
    Marlow, Buckinghamshire

    Quite right, Mr Witcher. Banking in this country is rapidly descending into the sewer, and with it this country’s once fine reputation for financial probity.

    1. Mr Witcher – rules are only for the little people.

      The Elite are quite at liberty to discuss your bank accounts and financial affairs.

      Probably this is why the board of the Natwest allowed Dame Alison off…….. because they had all been doing it.

      Fortunately the appointed members of the Elite running the FSA will make sure that no person involved is ever prosecuted.

    4. It’s totally against the WHOLE POINT of the FCA’s flagship SMCR (Senior Management and Certification Regime) which was brought in specifically to address bankers’ conduct.

      How this can play out in the public sphere without the FCA asking questions is anyone’s guess.

      1. The FCA just don’t and will not ask questions. Current judicial system – Fcuk you.

    7. NatWest has got the government by the short and curlies.

      If it takes appropriate action and, as a result, millions of people decide to close their accounts with Nat West, then the value of Nat West shares will fall to the floor.

      And who owns a 38% share of Nat West?

      1. Quite so, Rastus. I can’t understand why we are still holding so many shares in this cowboy outfit. Has the share price remained firmly on the floor since 2008? If so, what is the government doing about it? Are we, as taxpayers, expected to retain these shares indefinitely?

  12. 375694+ up ticks,

    Take heed sunak and co, Friday 25 August: It is only a matter of time before Putin meets the fate of other tyrants.

    Peoples at long last have stopped “looking over there” and have now began “looking around here”

  13. A rather lengthy article in today’s DT, but worth reading. It comprehensively debunks the (ridiculous) idea that energy from renewables is the cheapest – it is anything but. Next time the British Brainwashing Corporation, yet again, repeats this load of hogwash you will know better!

    * * *

    Anyone who thinks renewable wind and solar energy will be cheap is dreaming

    Sunshine and breeze are indeed free, but vast amounts of subsidised infrastructure are not

    KATHRYN PORTER
    25 August 2023 • 5:58am

    Politicians everywhere are repeating the mantra that renewable energy is cheap, and we need to use it instead of gas (currently expensive in and near Europe) to bring down energy costs for households.

    As US President Joe Biden said of clean energy before signing the poetically named Executive Actions on Tackling Climate Change, Creating Jobs, and Restoring Scientific Integrity “it’s affordable; because it’s clean; because, in many cases, it’s cheaper… [clean technologies] will ultimately become cheaper than any other kind of energy, helping us dramatically expand our economy and create more jobs with a cleaner, cleaner environment”.

    The Inflation Reduction Act has been designed to make this a reality. Lots of investment in lovely green energy and green jobs. This sounds wonderful.

    Unfortunately, renewables are not cheap.

    To demonstrate, let’s carry out a thought experiment…

    Imagine you build a machine. It’s very expensive to build, but once it’s done, it makes Things. These Things are identical in every way to Things made by other people. Making Things is very cheap: the machine runs on wind/sun/water and has no fuel costs, and no raw materials are required. Making Things is essentially free once you have built the machine. What will you charge to sell your Things?

    Normally you would want to recover the cost of building the machine and make some profit. Ten years is reasonable to recover capital costs, so you work out how many Things you will make over ten years and spread the cost plus some profit between them. After ten years, you’re happy to more or less give the Things away, selling them for a minimal amount.

    But here’s the rub. Down the road is another Thing factory that was built eleven years ago, whose upfront costs have already been recovered. Those Things are being sold for next to nothing. Who is going to buy your Things now unless you also charge next to nothing? But if you do that, you can’t pay back the money invested in building your machine. That means that unless you can earn money from something other than selling Things, you will never build your factory in the first place.

    In the electricity market, we get round that problem with subsidies. Originally, subsidies were paid because the technology for producing renewable electricity was immature meaning upfront costs were exceptionally high, but after more than 20 years of subsidies, this is no longer the case. Today, electricity prices are still determined for the most part by the cost of fossil fuels, so renewable electricity can be sold at much higher prices than the short term cost of production (which is next to nothing). But even then, renewables still require subsidies.

    In fact, subsidies are growing. According to the Energy Information Administration, renewable subsidies in the US jumped to $15.6 billion in fiscal year 2022 from $7.4 billion in fiscal year 2016. In Britain, last year’s subsidy round was hailed as the cheapest and best, but the projects which bid have for the most part stalled as developers ask for more money, despite the high market price of electricity. Only two projects have confirmed they will go ahead and begun construction, while Vattenfall cancelled its Boreas project in the North Sea and Ørsted has warned that Hornsea 3 could be at risk without Government action “to maintain the attractiveness of the investment environment”, saying it is working “very hard” to make the project financially viable but that the electricity prices offered by the Government are not high enough to compensate for surging development costs.

    If projects are not economic when electricity prices are at record highs, how will they work if a time comes when electricity prices are very low?

    That’s the dirty little secret of the renewables game. The very high upfront costs mean developers have to be paid lots of money, and if the money from selling electricity isn’t enough then it has to come from elsewhere. But ultimately it comes out of consumers’ pockets, whether directly through higher bills, or indirectly through higher taxes.

    That’s not all. Developed countries built their electricity grids decades ago when electricity came from a few large power stations. Renewable generation is built where it’s windy/sunny or has good access to water at height or moving fast (for hydro). These places tend to be not where old power stations used to be or where consumers are. This means lots of new infrastructure is needed to connect it all up. Guess who has to pay for that?

    Next is the issue of intermittency: wind and sun vary from moment to moment. Individual clouds make a measurable difference to generation, as do gusts of wind. This creates two additional challenges – one is that if there’s no wind or sun, renewable output falls – the famous California “duck curve” measures the way solar output changes through the day with a major drop at sunset, when gas power stations need to take over.

    Other sources of generation (there is no at-scale energy storage solution) have to be on standby to run when renewable output falls. But no-one builds standby anything unless it’s worth their while – and that’s another big chunk of change consumers have to cough up.

    The other problem with intermittency is that electricity grids need supply and demand to be finely balanced in real time. Grid equipment can be damaged if this balance is not maintained within narrow tolerances. If clouds and gusts of wind change supply from moment to moment, grid operators have to use a range of techniques such as discharging batteries, getting conventional power stations to vary output, or large users to vary consumption, over short timeframes. Unsurprisingly, nobody does any of this for free. Another cost to consumers.

    The final sting in the tail is that the grid infrastructure, despite expansion to cope with renewables, often can’t use all the renewable electricity generated. This electricity is wasted, and the renewable generators have to be compensated through “curtailment” or “congestion” fees, again paid for by consumers. According to consulting firm Grid Strategies, costs to consumers from congestion on the US power grid jumped 56 per cent in 2022 to an estimated $20.8 billion from $13.3 billion the year before. In Britain, data from the UK Wind Curtailment Monitor show that consumers paid £125 million in 2022 to turn windfarms off and £717 million to buy replacement gas-fired generation.

    Even if the wholesale price of electricity fell to zero to reflect the short-run marginal cost of producing renewable electricity, the price paid by consumers would simply be more disconnected from the wholesale price than it is today. Consumers pay the wholesale price, plus a network cost (including congestion costs), plus a balancing cost, plus a subsidy cost, plus the retailer/supplier operating costs, plus some profits for everyone in the chain from the generator to the network owner to the network operator to the retailer. And then some taxes on top.

    And to hit net zero the whole electrical system – expanded renewables, expanded grid, backup fossil, balancing, subsidies, curtailment payments and all – will have to be expanded to multiple times its current size, as fossil fuels used directly in such things as heating and transport are replaced with electricity.

    Anyone who thinks all this is going to mean cheaper energy is dreaming. With respect, Mr President.

    * * *

    Just one of the BTL posters who refuses to swallow the ‘cheap green renewables’ rubbish:

    tony gilbert
    1 HR AGO
    A well-argued piece, as are many from this writer’s blog.
    But who’s listening?
    Tomorrow, next week and next month there’ll be many more articles by politicians, activists and Greenscam plc extolling the virtue of ‘cheap, clean, Green’ energy.
    I fear there’s now too much money and politics invested in the scam. As the old Indian saying goes: ‘who rides the tiger cannot dismount’.

    1. Good point.
      Here’s some input: In oil and gas exploration & production, the baseline for recovery of all costs related to exploration, permits, design, engineering, fabrication, installation, manning, pipelines and so on to get the product ashore is 9 months from first day of production.
      Payback in 9 months.
      This applied back in the 1990s UK, and applies to the project in Norway that I’m working on now. Applies regardless of company, and explains why the start-up date is sacrosanct.

    2. “Developed countries built their electricity grids decades ago when electricity came from a few large power stations. Renewable generation is built where it’s windy/sunny or has good access to water at height or moving fast (for hydro). These places tend to be not where old power stations used to be or where consumers are. This means lots of new infrastructure is needed to connect it all up. Guess who has to pay for that?”

      Philip Johnston referred to this a couple of days ago. His article was about the pointlessness of public consultations and how projects are rammed through however much public opinion is against them. Parking schemes, ULEZ and now the proposed power transmission lines from North Sea windfarms [sic] through East Anglia to London were among his examples. He could also have included HS2 and the East-West railway (Oxford-Cambridge).

      How does he suppose electricity is transmitted? I’m not arguing about the uselessness of wind farms but the need to connect sources and users means few parts of the country are currently without the big HT power lines featured in the photo. And he fails to mention Sizewell C. Coastal cables might be an option for East Anglia but inland the only other option is underground. This is being considered where the route passes through Dedham Vale but that’s even more expensive.

      As gas runs out, more power stations (in the broadest sense of the meaning of that) will be required. This is not a good example for Johnston to use in criticising politicians for their arrogance.

      From Ulez to pylons, ‘consultations’ are being used to quash opposition
      Leaders claim they are listening to the public, but never seem to hear even the most vocal dissent

      PHILIP JOHNSTON • 22 August 2023 • 7:10pm

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/22/consultations-are-being-used-to-quash-opposition/

  17. Good day all,

    Sunny in the McPhee corner of NW Hampshire but it’s going to cloud over with some light rain in the late afternoon. Wind generally West, cooler again at 12℃ with 17-18℃ the forecast maximum for the day so it’s back to 5℃ below the long-term August average.

    They’re a bit slow in the Gatesograph offices this morning. The link to letters still shows yesterday’s headline, not today’s “It’s Only a matter of Time before Putin Meets the Fate of Other Tyrants”.

    Underneath that is a group of letters that illustrate perfectly the power of propaganda or the Gatesograph editorial policy of not publishing the alternative view on the subject of Russia.

    This is the pearl:

    SIR – The suspected assassination of Prigozhin and his fellow Wagner fighters is just another factor that magnifies the farce of keeping Russia in the United Nations Security Council.

    Putin is no believer in security – whether for innocent civilians in the countries he attacks, grain being shipped to African nations or, with the backfiring invasion of Ukraine, his own countrymen. In his speech to the Brics nations, he has openly condemned any Western-based organisation.

    Is it not about time the UN introduced a democratic vote, rather than allowing a dictatorship such as Putin’s Russia to veto Security Council resolutions?

    Everything that happens in the country is subject to the dictator’s rule, but that is no reason to let it spill over into organisations such as the UN, which should exist to benefit the whole democratic world.

    Thanks to Putin and his disastrous actions over the past two years, Russia is no longer a global power. The rest of the world needs to recognise this fact through appropriate action, and Russia’s removal from the UN Security Council would be a good start.

    Barry Gibbs
    Wimborne, Dorset

    Poor, deluded Barry. Vladimir Putin enjoys a popularity among Russians that Western politicians cannot hope to achieve. Western sanctions have not brought Russia to its knees – quite the opposite. Putin is very much interested in security – Russia’s. That’s what the war is about. Furthermore he has very accurately put his finger on what ails the West, the very things we rant about in these pages. But the real laugh Barry raises is that he thinks the United Nations is some sort of paragon of truth and democracy when, in fact, it is where the Rockefeller-inspired global dictatorship is taking shape . He’s right that Russia should be out of the UN Security Council. So should we. Not only out of the Security Council but out of the UN altogether.

    1. The events over the years leading to the Russian action appear to have been quietly slipped into the memory hole.
      Whilst not a justification for the invasion, Putin taking action to stop the ethnic cleansing of Russian speaking Ukrainians by the Azov Brigade puts it into context.

      1. And to stop the NATO encirclement. Who wouldn’t defend their country from invasion (our government, obviously, does not qualify).

    2. A BTL Comment ref. Mr Gibbs:-

      Finian Manson
      2 MIN AGO
      Barry Gibbs misses one very important part about the UN Security Council.
      The other pariah on it is of course China and between it and Russia they control not only the vetoes of the Security Council permanent members themselves but also through their influence with other countries they control the votes of the General Assembly too most the time.
      The UNSC cease to be fit for purpose very long time ago and its incompetence was clearly displayed over Srebrenica and the massacre there for example.

      Can someone with comment access point out to Mr. Manson that the incompetence of the UN was demonstrated long before Srebrenica? As long ago as the Congo in fact.

      1. See my BTL comment to the idiot Gibbs. Don’t forget the WHO and WEF in all this..

        Niggers in the woodpile.

      2. The UN failed in its primary rôle almost at its inception when the Korean War started in 1950 and one member of the UNSC – the USSR – faced off against the rest.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright-ish I hope it lasts through the Bank Holiday weekend.
    Hidden away from view I found reference to a massive building program in Welwyn Hatfield and St Albans areas. Proposals for 15 thousand new homes. That will destroy hundreds of acres of green belt and agricultural land. Destroy wildlife habitat. But will of course make many people much richer. The bungs will be fabulous. It also means with potentially with at least 60 thousand more people in the area a massive strain on the general infrastructure. And public services. My suggestion is that our useless idiot government is at the root of all this.
    Oh what a (a ‘king mess) tangled Web they weave…….

      1. It’s not that so much Aeneas, it’s more WhoTF is paying for all this madness and why is it even happening at all ?

        2. 3756994+ up ticks,

          Morning RE,

          “Why is it even happening at all” because the lab/lib/con majority voter require it to happen as their voting pattern clearly shows.

        3. The answer to your first question is – us. The answer to the second question is debatable.

  19. Good morning all. A tad over 8°C on the yard thermometer, but a beautiful and bright sunny start to the day.

        1. Very dark and overcast here, followed by heavy rain. Ah well, I didn’t intend to do much in the garden anyway.

    1. Perhaps we, the people should have a counter argument with banners displaying JUST STOP IT !

        1. It’s a perfect solution, but its just not going to happen Tom.
          There might be some long winded prosecutions when they start setting fire to people’s cars.

  21. I was reading earlier about our current ‘experts’ opinions on ancient constructions in Peru.
    The article seems to glorify the ‘experts’ but Eric Von Daniken wrote a book called Chariots of the Gods around 50 years ago. And his theory was poo pooed.
    Something very important to be learnt from this is. What is happening to our lives and the world we live in today will probably be discussed in a similar way in the future. As in “I Told You So”.

    1. RE, this place is in Bolivia but has mysteries all of its own. The ‘accepted’ theories about this place do not make sense. The rock, Andesite is extremely hard and difficult to work. Experiments to cut it with modern tools i.e. laser and diamond wheels do not achieve the finish that is found on some of the better preserved un-weathered stones.
      If the rock was cut and shaped by pounding it with other stones how were the straight channels formed and more to the point the equally spaced and sized holes cut in those channels?
      As with much today, it’s accept what your told and don’t question: if you do question then you will be branded a non-conformist, a heretic and someone who needs re-educating.

      PumaPunku Bolivia

      1. Thanks Korky
        It’s long long time since I read his book. I even went to the British Museum to investigate the Mayan displays

    2. I have a lot of Von Danikens books – my first one , Chariots of the Gods, was serialised in the Sun

      1. That was the one i first read.
        There is no doubt that something happen on this planet before we came into existence.

      1. I no longer consider that they did/do flee per se.
        They believe in and liked the system they left and they are very determined to spread it everywhere, by any and every means that they can.

        1. I think they like their system and coupling it with benefits and a ridiculously liberal establishment in this country that lets them get away with far too much, is irresistible for some of them. What’s not to like?

  23. It appears Canada has completed its descent into full fascism. And that’s not a statement I make lightly. And now we know how it happened 90 years ago because it’s happening now – albeit whereas before it was just jackboots and intimidation, now it’s activists on the internet and intimidation.

    Jordan Peterson is being shut down for his views on the “trans” issue and for not being on board with the “climate emergency”

    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/id1184022695?i=1000625602064

    1. I cannot follow it don#t subscribe to Idiot apple- please post a link on a better site

        1. The interesting parallel between Jordan Paterson’s dealings with the Canadian PTB and Nigel Farage’s dealings with Coutts/NatWest is that both Paterson and Farage are able to confront corrupt, manipulative people because they have either the money or the platform (or both) from which to fight back.

      2. Those of us who use the far-superior Apple technology, Tom, do so because we have no wish to contribute anything to Billy Goats’ already obscene largesse (or use his ridiculous inferior software).

        1. Key thing at the moment however is the message gets out, somehow.

          Listening to Nick Dixon’s The Current Thing about the lady in Finland being legislated into submission for her Christian beliefs. We need to be very worried.

        2. Sorry. George that’s just you mouthing the Apple mantra that I do not and will not subscribe to.

          You have a perfect right to be indoctrinated in whatever mantra you wish to subscribe to but please, do not try and indoctrinate us,

          1. Where have I tried to ‘indoctrinate’ you, Tom? You are clearly already indoctrinated by the massively inferior Microsoft ‘mantra’, so what point would there be in me trying to educate you?

            I chose Apple , not through ‘indoctrination’, but because I was shown that it is clearly a vasty superior system 25 years ago. I have remained with its 21st century technology ever since because I had no wish to become a dinosaur using outdated and outmoded inferior technology.

            You are the one that insists on irrationally having a ‘pop’, whenever you get the opportunity, at Apple’s products.

          3. OK, Tom. Explain to me, and list, all the valid, acceptable and rational reasons why (in your opinion) Microsoft is such a superior modern-day product.

            If you can manage that, it will be a first. No one has previously been able to do so.

          4. I won’t bother – it’s just universa; now, please shut up. I’m NOT going for Apple in any way. shape or form.

          6. The reason I prefer – and have always preferred – Windows as an operating system is that it effectively gives me more freedom. Mind you, I’ve had to learn how it works and that has taken time. I particularly value the “right-click” menus which give a quick shortcut to all sorts of extras that I use all the time.

            Apple is a good interface for people who don’t want to mess around with systems; you simply follow the protocol and once you’ve mastered that, it’s a much easier system than Windows.

            Computer whizzes have told me that Apple appeals to right-brained people – creative, artistic types; while Microsoft appeals more to left-brained people – analytical, methodical types. With my love of grammar and Bach, I’m clearly in the second group.

            Ultimately, the Apple vs Microsoft thing is silly because it just depends on what you want or need to do. In both cases, you’re in the hands of commercial companies who want to make money, so I don’t think that’s much of an argument in favour or against either of them.

          7. I am not quite sure by what you mean when you say Microsoft gives you more ‘freedom’. I find that Apple is so intuitive that it is an utter pleasure to work with. Apple also has the ‘right click’ menus (which can also be accessed by pressing the ‘Control’ button when you ‘left’ click).

            I am completely sceptical about this concept (dichotomy) of ‘right-brained’ and ‘left-brained’ people; since I am equally at home with both artistic and scientific methodologies and thinking. Naturally artistic by nature I took readily to scientific disciplines through workplace training (having already excelled in a science-based curriculum at school). Confoundingly, I achieved poor artistic grades at school despite being one of the most gifted natural artists in my class.

            I had access to Microsoft-oriented computers when home-computing first became the vogue. I was all at sea with how they worked. When I bought my first Apple computer (a delicious lime-green iMac, in 1999) I took to its simplicity and user-friendliness like a swan to water. On the odd occasion, thereafter, when I attempted to used a Microsoft-based computer in my work, I was defeated by its arcane and mysterious lack of logic. That is why I have remained a fervent and avid user of Apple products.

            I suppose it is really a matter of horses for courses.

          8. Creativity isn’t limited to art. Just imagine the creativity required to make that great step from horses to steam locomotion, or more recently, from subsonic to supersonic transport in Concorde. Now there’s creative!
            Of course, being able to paint or poem something is also creative, but the engineering / technical aspects can also be creative.

          9. That is precisely the point I was trying to make, Paul. I am well aware of the creativity in science, having been part of it for so long. I was trying to say that I am equally comfortable in both science and art. On a general knowledge tack, I can answer far more questions on science than I ever can on art.

          10. You know how to use computers, our son, Christopher, works with computers and robots as a design engineer and our son, Henry, is an expert who writes computer programs to do with Artificial Intelligence but I am almost computer illiterate.

          11. When I was at art college I had to use Apple Macs as that was all the art departments had. It took me six times as long to do anything as it would have on a Windows machine! I used to say they were the triumph of design over function!

          12. Good morning, Old Friend”

            We can always rely on you to be most emphatic in both your recommendations and criticisms. I doubt if anyone has ever criticised you for being pusillanimous!

          13. Good afternoon, good friend, Rastus,

            And less of the ‘old’. 😉 I was certainly very timid as a youngster until I was exhorted to “project myself” by a lecturer at police training school (he thought I was naturally too reserved and tacit).

            It is always best to have the confidence to stand up for your beliefs, don’t you think? Mrs Thatcher certainly did.

    2. He must move south but choose his location carefully. That said, he’s mentally strong and would survive “training”.

    3. When I was at UEA in the 1960s I wrote a satirical song about students’ protests – but at least I could sing it in the UEA Folk Club in those days – but I couldn’t get away with it now!

      A few lines which are as true today as they ever were:

      I say that what we want is tolerance and peace
      In proof of this I smash up cars and throw things at the Police
      I refuse to hear a point of view that’s different from my own
      A really reasonable debate’s a thing I’ve never known.

      How I hate apartheid,
      But How I love to Demonstrate.

    4. When I was at UEA in the 1960s I wrote a satirical song about students’ protests called : How I hate apartheid, But How I love to Demonstrate. At least I could sing it in the UEA Folk Club – but I couldn’t get away with it now!.

      A few lines which are as true today as they ever were:

      I say that what we want is tolerance and peace
      In proof of this I smash up cars and throw things at the Police
      I refuse to hear a point of view that’s different from my own
      A really reasonable debate’s a thing I’ve never know.

    5. Canada’s path was set back in the ’60s when they chose between continuing British Canada or embracing multi-culturalism and a blank sheet nation. They chose the latter. Shame on it. 🙁

    1. I’ve written a comment in Press Reader.

      My children were at a free school – it was excellent.

      I also have local connections with the West London Free School which is similarly excellent.

    2. I will list the Tory leaders in my lifetime:

      Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Heath, Thatcher, Major, Hague, Duncan Smith, Howard, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak.

      How many of these were deposed or departed under a shadow?

      Macmillan’s resignation seemed to have cured him of his ill health, and despite having an apparent age of about 120, lived on another twenty years.

      Douglas-Home, Heath and Major can be excused, since they were thrown out by the electorate before the party got to them, and Hague resigned after the Tories gained one seat at a general election. Only Dracula lookalike Michael Howard (“Voice of the Peepill”) left well before he was pushed with his standing left intact, except perhaps with Jeremy Paxman.

      1. ….. “and despite having an apparent age of about 120” …..
        You’re right. I think he was born middle-aged.
        Mind you, since I was a teenager at the time, anyone above 30 appeared decrepit.

        1. He used to play on this mercilessly in the Lords. He had this large Victorian-era ear trumpet he used during debates. If he approved of a speaker, he could be seen listening intently through it. If he did not, he would dangle this thing on his arm and the speaker would watch it swinging to and fro as he spoke,

      2. “…… all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”.

        Sunak came to the premiership through skulduggery.

        He lost the leadership election by failing to win the support of the party membership. But by a Machiavellian coup he managed to seize power undemocratically. He deserves to be overthrown just as brutally as Truss was overthrown; he has done far more damage to the country than she ever would have done.

    3. We’ve got one idiot trying to wreck the lives of people who live and travel to London. And a government trying successfully to wreck the lives of everyone else in the UK.

  25. Good Moaning.
    I am as depressed by “Back to School” adverts as when I was a pupil.
    What’s to celebrate about being returned to education factories?

  26. Tried to post a comment last night but it didn’t work- will try later.
    Gently going to do some jobs at the only pace I can manage- slow!
    My sister in law is coming again on Sunday and will visit me a lot.
    The district nurse yesterday was a sweetie as were the 2 paramedics.
    See you later.

  27. ‘Morning All

    Too late I’ve already lost all faith……….

    https://twitter.com/govt_corrupt/status/1694377528046105065?t=798_y9q1tA87Dq3D-RvGAg&s=19

    Rest

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/146/162/038/original/2dda14954ecbdc43.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f00452796e5c6b170e0e3f37713e7ae9eb215858afc89036406e9dbd3c89d966.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1e01000c2e1eb4234540cc01d99daf26e6e3f6c70f69f76cbb16533a6e63067f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f2f3d30488866cc068da30ee40955c5d5c30ae922ac3b34e3e9a510cc1a6235.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d5022a2da7524339cefad6bbd81622ddc0c77662ea5376d945e9ac54ee642f52.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f4d5c94531c88f38cfa29a83d4d48b71cf24fae66c155a77cb56b68900758f1.jpg

    3. Caroline and I are both proud members of the Djokovic Society.

      We are not much good at tennis but we are both Covid Novax.

      2. I never liked him much but I admired him for standing his ground on that. I was sorry he lost his cool (and the match) at this year’s Wimbledon final.

  28. Back from Nurse – next apptmt on Thursday.

    I think the two top Wagnerians were “unwise” to travel in the same aircraft.

  29. Tesco have the 25% off six bottle offer. Combined with club card prices – we have invested in 36 bottles at an average of £4.65. That’s a week’s supply!

    2. 1984
      Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of you own choosing.
      George Orwell.

  32. I often sing the praises of our cab company and today I called to ask if someone would be willing to go to the supermarket and pick up a few items for me, plus cash and whether I could pay for the whole lot upon return. He said he was sure he would find someone willing and let me know. It’s not much but I need some grub and cash mainly.
    Let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed.

  33. S.S. Empire Merlin.

    Complement:
    36 (35 dead and 1 survivor).
    6,830 tons of sulphur.

    At 02.45 hours on 25th August 1940, U-48 (Hans Rudolf Rösing) attacked convoy HX-65A 90 miles east by north of Flannan Isles and hit the Athelcrest in station #13 and the Empire Merlin in station #15 with one torpedo each, claiming two ships totalling 14,000 grt sunk.
    The Empire Merlin (Master David W. Simpson, MBE) was hit on port side amidships by one G7e torpedo and broke in two after the cargo of sulphur caught fire. The stern broke off and sank immediately while the fore part sank after 35 seconds before any lifeboats could be launched. The master, 33 crew members and one gunner (the ship was armed with one 4in gun) were lost. The sole survivor ordinary seaman John Lee rescued himself on a potato locker after swimming for 45 minutes and was picked up later that night by HMS Godetia (K 72) (LtCdr G.V. Legassick, RNR) which had troubles locating him in the darkness and searched in vain for another survivor who was heard for some time until the shouting eventually ceased. The survivor was landed in Rosyth.

    Type VIIB U-Boat U-48 was decommissioned on 25th September 1943 and used as instructional boat.
    Scuttled on 3rd May 1945 at Neustadt.

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

  35. Headline in the DT:

    “Household bills to fall by £150 as Ofgem cuts energy price cap”

    Erm…is that accurate? An interview on the radio this morning never once mentioned the arrangement whereby the government (ie taxpayer) was putting up £600-ish, to be deducted from bills in monthly instalments by your energy provider (the name of the scheme has escaped me). In other words, are we not worse off to the tune of about £450?

    1. They would rather die than go back to Africa. They are nothing more than opportunistic race-grifters. Perhaps the USA etc. could counterclaim for the amount of damage (in life and in property) that some semi-ferals have caused since. Oh and do cc. in the Zimbabwean and S. African governments.

      1. I switched Dan Wootton off last night when he interviewed a young black guy who stated that while black people are more likely to be accused of crimes, they’re less likely than white people to be convicted, which isn’t entirely untrue but he failed to see the flaw in his own argument. The failure to convict doesn’t in itself prove that the crime wasn’t committed.

        2. There is some very limited and simplistic “logic” applied in some of these kinds of arguments, isn’t there?

      2. I just been reading the Herts Advertiser about a British doctor on Holiday in South Africa who took a wrong turning and entered a township in Cape Town he was shot in the head and killed.
        That happened to an old friend of mine early 70s, who after I had returned to the UK, went to live in JHB. Nobody really knows what happened but some one shot him in the head at a set traffic lights. JHB is a tip now, the streets are full of rubbish. Many buildings have been burnt out and the crime rate is appalling. Most of the white farmers and their families have been brutally murdered.
        The strange part of this is the tribe called Hottentots (Changed by the Dutch) from the originally named Khoisan or
        Khoekhoe. They were the original residents of the Cape but I believe many were wiped out by small pox and the other natives have arrived since Jan Van Riebeeck landed in the 1600s. It’s all very complicated and since apartheid was abolished the state of the nation has worsened dramatically.

        1. I wonder if you heard Jeremy sing this song?

          Viva the Old South Africa,
          Though at times it may have irked,
          Viva the Old South Arica
          It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t just – but at least it bleary worked.

          [Jeremy Taylor}

          1. He wasn’t wrong Richard i think i told you i saw him playing in a Hotel in Port Elizabeth. Now re named as an African word.

          2. Yes you did – this is why I asked you if you heard him sing it.

            He came and stayed with us for a week when our boys were little and he not only sang this song for us amongst many others and a seldom heard song which he never recorded because events stopped him from singing it in public again. This was a song about The Caring Carer who cares most carefully and hopes to be the Queen of People’s Hearts.

            Caroline’s Dutch parents were also staying at the same time as the Taylors and they loved his songs as they had spent some time in Southern Africa.

          4. He’s still living in France.

            He has Parkinson’s and is finding it very tough.

    1. And where is that little gits criticism of the Mullahs who ruled Spain and kept white European children as slaves for their sexual pleasure then fed them to the pet lions.
      Spain has many of African slave now, working in the d food production industry. Well, the went there looking for work !

    1. I caught a line on BBC World News earlier with some American reporter claiming the Trump case as proof that no-one is above the law. Went back to my desk mumbling Hunter Biden is above the law, Epstein’s clients are above the law, OJ Simpson is above the law.

      2. The Antifas who beat up journalist AndyNgo and left him with brain damage are above the law

  41. Cab co. came through for me-chap has just dropped off supplies and now I can relax. Called the cab co. and thanked them heartily. They truly are wonderful. So now I have plenty of grub and will make myself a pitta salad cheese sarnie.
    Too often we forget how good and kind people can be.
    Breathing a sigh of relief.

      1. Plus a tip, I also gave him the duck in freezer! My husband had great plans for it – I am not keen on duck and it was going to turn into something Asian. He enjoys duck and they will have it over the weekend. Plus, I have more freezer space.
        Given how wambly I am, have got a bit done and will keep going in steady paces.
        Have even had some info regarding simple funeral plans which sounds useful. Later.

        1. I hope that he declares the duck as income on his taxes!

          One of the best people that I dealt with after my mother’s death was the funeral director, she knew just when to bring a bit of humor into the proceedings and damn it she made a good cup of coffee.

      1. A neighbour of mine had litre bottles of Vodka and family packs of Oreos delivered by taxi several times a week. Taxi drivers gossip.

    5. I think because our usual topics deal with, frankly, mendacious, narcissistic berks – politicians, in most cases – that we forget that the vast majority of folk are ok. Some are even really nice!

  42. Bt has just finished changing my broadband (Fibre To The Cabinet) to Fibre To The Home(FTTH) The external fibre work was done by OpenReach and the internal OpenReach network termination point was sub contracted to Morrisons (Netwoks).

    The Morrisons guy had had three weeks training and this was his first job. He did admit that there would be problems in some premises where customers needed the network termination at the same location as their existing location. This is because intermal fibre cables can’t be bent as easily as copper.

    In my case I had a BT Plan internal wiring with three extensions with the wiring installed by BT in 1976 which is still sitting in original internal ducts, partly plastered in walls with some stretches in the loft space. We achieved a compromise location for the new OpenReach network termination with some degree of old internal copper wiring connectivity being been achieved with the Green phone connector on the new supplied BT Smart Hub 2.

      2. I was going to illustrate with some pictures but because fibre connections need a new router and just about everthing is connected to them noeadays one has spend hours entering very long WiFi passwords to make everthing work again.

        This tablet I’m using is only one of the few things currently working and I can’t transfer images yet. 😞

        1. What I did was to change the WiFi SSID and password to that of the old router. Everything connected straight away.

        2. If it’s like ours, you’ll get a box that the fibre goes into which has a funny square plug as well – that’s ethernet. Almost anything can plug in to that box, so you don’t need to use their router. You can choose your own.

          I get told off by the Warqueen for suggesting people play with their kit then leaving them high and dry, so I’ll just say ‘don’t feel limited’. You can also change the SSID – the wifi network name and the key to something more sensible. Junior, for example connects to mongofarts. The errr, grown ups to wibnet – that is our actual wifi ssid. The password is where we married and her vitals. She hasn’t yet noticed!

    3. Just opened my letter from BT telling me I’m being moved over to “Echo” (or whatever – the digital service rather than the old one, the one you want for the times the electricity goes off).

    5. On the face of it it should have been simple:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce6160f1fb298196ab7cac8d9419e1061f1d23e687f771c322e276713e4c3f6b.jpg

      The snag is that home internal wiring which is now solely the responsibility of the home owner is not necessarioy accommodated by the features of optical wiring.

      I made it easy to get fibre through the wall because I revealed a hole through the wall where the ducted fibre came up outside and there happened to be a former copper network termination point next to it with wires up to the roof space:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c4415c4ab499d7e098e27a7ac7ff03be9f261f48024eb3f7724622ef134be63.jpg

      This was an easy install but not where it was supposed to go in a specially built cupboard for the broadband termination in the kitchen because internal optical fibre isn’t bendy enough.

    3. I watch migration every year. Spring migration from March to May; Autumn migration from July to November.

    5. The state doesn’t care. More, whenever there is opposition to it’s ideology it forces more of it. The public don’t want massive uncontrolled african welfare shopping, so the state forces them here. We don’t want the tax scam of climate change, so the state forces it. We want to be left alone, so it meddles. We want lower taxes so it hikes them. We wanted to leave the EU so it chains us ever closer to it.

  44. Ukraine uncovers corruption scheme implicating top officials. 25 August 2023.

    Two high-ranking Ukrainian officials have been named as suspects in an embezzlement scheme uncovered by Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities this week, involving the procurement of humanitarian aid.

    Ukraine’s first deputy minister of agrarian policy and food and the former deputy minister of economy reportedly misappropriated UAH 62 million (about €1.5 million), the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) found.

    This is just the latest wave of corruption that has swept Ukraine since the war with Russia started in 2022. In January, two major corruption scandals centered on government procurement of military catering services and electrical generators shook the country.

    The parallels between this war and the Vietnam I used to watch on television sixty years ago are quite uncanny. They used to tell us almost the exact same stories until the truth began to leak out in dribs and drabs and then the Pentagon Papers that exposed the whole squalid mess.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-corruption-railway-ukrzaliznytsia-food-volodymyr-zelenskyy/

    2. The “wave of corruption” in Ukraine has been going on a lot longer than “since the war .. started in 2022”! Ask Hunter Biden.

  45. Oh dear……. this is my MP. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/25/nature-gcse-tory-mp-apologises-wrongly-taking-credit/

    It sounds as though this new GCSE is an exercise in environmental brainwashing to push climate change etc. What’s wrong with the kind of basic Biology we used to do many years ago?

    A Tory MP has apologised following accusations she wrongly took credit for creating a new GCSE course.

    Siobhan Baillie, who was elected in 2019, prompted a backlash from campaigners for repeatedly claiming she helped establish the Natural History GCSE, which was announced last year and will be available to students from 2025.

    The
    MP for Stroud states in a video on her website that she “created” the
    course, and wrote in a campaign leaflet that she “won the fight for a
    Natural History GCSE”.

    She claims elsewhere on her website that
    she “secured a Natural History climate change GCSE amongst many other
    things”, and told the Commons in February that she worked with Robin
    Walker, the former schools minister, to “create a nature GCSE”.

    But
    environmentalist Mary Colwell, who launched the campaign for the new
    course back in 2011, said she had never heard of the MP until last week.

  46. Oh dear……. this is my MP. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/25/nature-gcse-tory-mp-apologises-wrongly-taking-credit/

    It sounds as though this new GCSE is an exercise in environmental brainwashing to push climate change etc. What’s wrong with the kind of basic Biology we used to do many years ago?

    A Tory MP has apologised following accusations she wrongly took credit for creating a new GCSE course.

    Siobhan Baillie, who was elected in 2019, prompted a backlash from campaigners for repeatedly claiming she helped establish the Natural History GCSE, which was announced last year and will be available to students from 2025.

    The
    MP for Stroud states in a video on her website that she “created” the
    course, and wrote in a campaign leaflet that she “won the fight for a
    Natural History GCSE”.

    She claims elsewhere on her website that
    she “secured a Natural History climate change GCSE amongst many other
    things”, and told the Commons in February that she worked with Robin
    Walker, the former schools minister, to “create a nature GCSE”.

    But
    environmentalist Mary Colwell, who launched the campaign for the new
    course back in 2011, said she had never heard of the MP until last week.

  47. Aninteresting twist on woke.

    A judge has suspended a deportation hearing because the government documents in the case referred to the defendant as they/them rather than he/him. (Whatever the correct pronoun mix is nowadays). The judge pretty much coached the defendant to say that it confused him.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/federal-court-judge-deportation

    The government are caught between a took and a proverbial hard place. If they want the deportation to go ahead, they have to admit that wrong pronouns are not a violation of rights.

    One for the anti woke side.

  49. From Eugyppius – he’s found that German daycare centre are pushing some nasty stuff at little children, as they are in this country – some very disturbing stuff going on. Children don’t need training on these matters – they will find out for themselves in their own time. Some of the educational matter these days is pornographic.

    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/two-german-childcare-centres-in-nordrhein?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&action=restack-comment

    2. The more I read such reports the greater my hatred grows.
      From my daily ES newsletter.
      Kessler again

      While waiting for a bus on Brixton Road, Michael Smith and his boyfriend, Nat Asabere were subject to a brutal homophobic attack by a total stranger. Their injuries would likely have been even more severe had their bus not pulled up. This assault follows a recent stabbing outside of the Two Brewers bar in Clapham.
      Now, two incidents do not make a trend. But how about 26,152? That’s the number of sexual orientation hate crimes recorded by the Home Office in England and Wales in the year ending March 2022. More alarmingly still, that represents a rise of 41 per cent on the year before, the largest annual increase since this time series began.
      If your first thought is that this could be attributed to rising rates of reporting, think again. If anything, it represents a vast undercounting. It’s a fairly old report by this point, but a research paper for the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that only a quarter of homophobic hate crimes and incidents are reported to the police. Disturbingly, seven in 10 victims report the incident to no one.
      Even current hate crime legislation is uneven. In fact, that’s too polite a way of putting it: there is essentially a hierarchy of protection. In 2021, the Law Commission published recommendations relating to hate crimes in England and Wales, with a particular focus on how the law can better protect people and deliver justice for all victims.
      As Marcial Boo, chief executive of the ECHR points out, “at present, not all offences apply to hate crime against LGBT and disabled people. This includes aggravated offences and ‘stirring up’ offences.” This cannot help but give the impression that hate crimes against some groups are more (or in this case, less) serious than others. The government has yet to respond.

      The more you protect them the more they seize.

    1. I have added this to my bank of Birthday greetings for you when October 7th comes along?

  52. To brighten your afternoon. An illegal in Brussels saw a young woman walk on the railway track two minutes before a train was due. He ran on to the track, picked her up and carried her to the platform – and stayed until the plod turned up.

    This is the best bit:

    “Railway officials said he should not have rescued the woman but called station security, even though that would have almost certainly have meant that help came too late.”

    Translated: The subsequent enquiry showed that, although the woman was dead, all procedures had been followed correctly.

    Initially I thought this was a joke….

    1. And he’s been jailed for ten years for not wearing a Hi-viz safety boots hard hat and goggles.

    2. Santé et sécurité? Look luv, coulda got both’ve yer killed! Hope the woman is OK. The migrant must be wondering what sort of mad house he’s invaded.

  53. Par Four today.

    Wordle 797 4/6
    🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      3. And me. Probably a six tomorrow. Ever the optimist.

        Wordle 797 3/6

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

    2. I felt at home with this one.

      Wordle 797 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟨⬜🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  54. My good lady had to pay her recent Ernie winnings into the bank, the closest is at WGC. So she also shopped at Sainsburys for our weekly shop.
    She was in the drinks isle looking for a couple of bottles of wine and some beer when she saw a 6ft plus black man shoving alcoholic goods down in side his joggers. There was absolutely nobody from the store in sight to tell, so just in case there might have been some sort of nasty adverse reaction from the thieving N word, she sensibly walked away. Baring in mind if she had said anything and he was challenged but escaped, she had to put the shopping in our car in the basement car park and also had to get to a hospital appointment later.
    This country has well and truly been shafted by these stupid ignorant pr$cks in Whitehall and Westminster.
    Where can we buy Tasers for our own protection ?

    1. Afternoon Eddy. The world has changed utterly. Your good lady did the right thing. You have to look after yourself!

      1. We pay for this because the cost of all the robbery’s and shoplifting has rocketed over the past few years.
        I saw a program on TV this morning during my coffee break. There was a black man on a single deck bus with a knife threatening the passengers two police men arrived and kept shouting orders that he continually ignored. And after a few minutes they tried to Taser him but t neither of the Tasers worked. They manged to get him off after probably what seemed like half an hour.
        The verdict after all that he was let off with a caution because of his Mental Health issues……really.

        1. RE,

          I haven’t been feeling on top form for a few weeks. Really down in the dumps , one day I am fine then I am triggered off by events beyond my control

          Moh is being distracted by playing loads of golf , but he feels the same as me .

          We have watched the country slide into a wasteland .
          The Government has no right to be on holiday.. isn’t the country in a state of emergency?

          The Barge fiasco is the last straw .

          4. Considering that our every problem is caused *by* government perhaps their being on holiday is for the best?

        1. I’ve fire a few guns in my time and was an excellent shot.
          Even a German Luger.
          I owned a Tikka triple 2 rifle in Oz with a Lepold scope.

          1. I have several medals for rifle shooting. Interestingly, I always did better at moving targets than on stationary ones.

          4. I own a Walther P99 in 9mm, P22 in .22, and PPK in .32, Ruger GP100 in .357 and Redhawk in .44, a Mauser K98k in .30-06 and a side-by-side 12 bore. Passed my P.38 to Firstborn, who also has a Webley .455. Together with Remington pump-gun and K98k. Second son has a 12 bore over & under, and a rifle in 6.5 Swedish
            We’re a well-tooled up family.

          6. I had a P.38, now with Firstborn. Otherwise, in my cabinet are 5 handguns, two rifles with scope & 2 twelvebores, over&under for Second Son, side by side for me.
            Well-tooled up, us.

      4. Call me old fashioned but a Colt Dragoon for me. Whether the alcohol thief was black or white. Stealing grub for your kids is another matter.

    5. The scum get away with it. Plod aren’t interested. There’s nothing the shops can really do.

  55. Talk about feel old.

    I wax talking to my son last night when he announced that he will be able to retire with a pension later this year.

      1. I retired 5y ago at 66.
        DT should have retired 3y ago at 60, but will not now get her state pension for another 18 months.

    1. Are the democrats aware of just how desperately pathetic this assault makes them look?

  57. Evening, all. I can think of quite a few leaders I would rather see get their come-uppance than Putin. At least he seems to care about the fate of his country.

    2. He’s been expelled from the WEF for refusing to play their games. That makes him the good guy.

  58. That’s me gone for today. Back pain still giving gyp. Just hope and pray that it goes soon. Some alcoholic medicine may help.

    Tomorrow – Colin the Tree Man to reduce in height a fir tree too near the house. He’ll be here at 8.30 – so I’ll be in and out.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain….prolly.

    3. I’m sorry, all our operators are currently busy. Your call isn’t important to us because if it were, we’d have answered it.

  60. Meant to share this with y’all last night but forgot.
    Woke up in the night and saw a tall, shadowy figure by the bedroom door, so realistic that I called his name. Of course, it was his dressing gown :=((
    Just now I was snoozing and thought I heard him say something- again, a figment. Suppose it’s normal…..

    1. I saw my Father several times after he died, Ann. Whether it was wishful thinking or otherwise, I can’t say, but I hope your experiences were comforting and not disturbing.
      Hugs.

      1. Thanks Paul, how I wish it had been the real thing.
        I know it’s early days but it hurts.

    2. I sort-of believe in ghosts.
      There’s a TV programme in Norway called Åndenes Makt (The power of the Spirit) that explores spirit events, and some episodes were clearly not set up. There’s one, from the next-door farm to Firstborns place, where at the end, a medium moved the spirit on “to the other side”. The spirit had the same name as Firstborn’s farm, and used to live there. For us, the feeling at Firstborn’s changed at the same time, from being pleased with what we were doing, to no feeling at all.
      No spirit, no approval.

    3. It is normal. Just a little disorientation. The brain learns set patterns. These begin to fade over time but the memories don’t.

      After my Mother died i kept seeing her in face in the people in the street.

      1. A few weeks after my mother was killed in a car crash in SA in 1986, I was delivering Moh by car to Heathrow from Wimborne to catch the 0720 early flight to Aberdeen and then beyond .

        Whilst on the way home I became frantic because a smiling woman , the image of my mother , stopped in a car at traffic lights next to me , and she looked over and smiled at me .. I freaked and started sobbing.

        These things happen .

        1. A tragedy we have in common. My Mother was also killed in a car crash. In the early 90’s.

          Your reaction gives an insight as to why people behave oddly in innocent circumstances. We don’t know what experiences or thoughts people have.

    4. He’s with you in your heart – you’ll go on seeing him there. Take comfort from him. Yes – it’s normal.

        1. Now, now, chums. No bickering with each other on this NoTTLe site. Make sure you kiss and make up before bedtime. Lol.

  63. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a501aeaf117e0124c5fb3a1b674ae216b6f14bdb10e082d192f1f627847b78c8.jpg

    What is the cartoonist trying to say about Trump and his supporters? Here’s the original. It’s been lampooned many times but perhaps misunderstood by those who thought it was satire when painted by Grant Wood in 1930.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/274bbcfa4a15d62b58f008c9d8544640729b835e32281c2b8d89b14dcb5d95f3.jpg

    This familiar image was exhibited publicly for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago, winning a three-hundred-dollar prize and instant fame for Grant Wood. The impetus for the painting came while Wood was visiting the small town of Eldon in his native Iowa. There he spotted a little wood farmhouse, with a single oversized window, made in a style called Carpenter Gothic.

    “I imagined American Gothic people with their faces stretched out long to go with this American Gothic house,” he said. He used his sister and his dentist as models for a farmer and his daughter, dressing them as if they were “tintypes from my old family album.”

    The highly detailed, polished style and the rigid frontality of the two figures were inspired by Flemish Renaissance art, which Wood studied during his travels to Europe between 1920 and 1926. After returning to settle in Iowa, he became increasingly appreciative of midwestern traditions and culture, which he celebrated in works such as this.

    American Gothic, often understood as a satirical comment on the midwestern character, quickly became one of America’s most famous paintings and is now firmly entrenched in the nation’s popular culture. Yet Wood intended it to be a positive statement about rural American values, an image of reassurance at a time of great dislocation and disillusionment. The man and woman, in their solid and well-crafted world, with all their strengths and weaknesses, represent survivors.

    https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/american-gothic/5QEPm0jCc183Aw

    1. I think the answer is in the review that you posted

      “often understood (i.e. misunderstood) as a satirical comment on the midwestern character”

      The chatterati do love to patronise the working classes, even when they are polluting an honest tribute with their sneers.

  64. I’m watching The Power of the Dog, recorded the other night.

    Can anyone who has seen it tell me if ANYTHING is going to happen?

    1. I quite enjoyed it, Stormy, but to be frank I watch so many films these days that the plots escape me. Is it the one where one brother bullies the other for marrying a woman who already has a son who the first brother thinks is a cissy (other stronger words are available)?

        1. That’ s the one. Stick with it, Stormy, I hope that you will end up enjoying it.

    1. The incomparable Barbra. Her autobiography is apparently to be published in November (in time, of course, for the Christmas market).

      1. And, apparently, Clinton and Mr. Charles Windsor-Mountbatten are worried over what she is going to expose.

        1. Did the Idiot King, when he was the POW, have his ‘relationship with Barbra Streisand before or after she had her nose job?

          (I knew she spelt her first name strangely but am I alone in having thought that she was Streisland rather than Streisand?)

          1. You were mistaken, Richard, she was always Ms Streisand. She was named Barbara, but hated the name so it was she who decided to change it to Barbra.

  66. I expect this has been discussed on here .

    A Woke fat black bint has complained about the song

    Fat Bottomed Girls is an anthem to body positivity – cancelling it is woke lunacy
    Brian May should be given a medal for championing enormous bums, decades before Kim Kardashian made them a thing.

    No one at Universal Music Group was available for comment on Sunday, when it was revealed that the 1978 Queen hit, Fat Bottomed Girls, had been airbrushed from a greatest hits compilation targeted at younger listeners.

    They will have been flapping, flailing and buck-passing in the way woke warriors do.

    “I told you people would notice it wasn’t there!” “But it was your idea to cancel that song!” “So what line are we going with? The anti-bullying one?” You see, these people rarely have the courage of their convictions, even if they’re clear on what those convictions are, which is never a given.

    In the absence of any earnest statement of intent from the record label, however, we’ve been left to assume that the cancellation-worthy issue is either naughtiness – or fatness.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/08/22/fat-bottomed-girls-anthem-queen-cancelled/

    1. Some people are permanently offended. When they’re not offended, they look for something to be offended by.

      Why? So they can gather power over someone else. They are, fundamentally, bullies.

      1. Bullies are often weak people in themselves. Like little people who go all little-hitler when they get an uniform like some police, railway workers, parking officials etc.

        1. I don’t recall Hitler prancing around wearing rainbow-coloured paint on his nails! Lol.

        2. There is something about uniforms and the lack of empathy towards others by those who wear them.

          The German Third Reich understood this very well, not just the hierarchy of uniforms but the high quality of the fabrics and other materials such as leather employed in their production. This is the reason that Hitler seized the Jewish cloth mills and gave them over to Boss.

          We see much the same with our own Police Force before it became a Police Service where immaculate and smart uniforms were ditched for scruffy paramilitary attire. Without the smart uniforms nobody takes the fuckers seriously. Uniforms are important.

          The Royal Family and our late Queen will have spent decades in designing fancy medals and regalia which they then awarded to themselves. Just check out the garb worn by the current Royals at any national display. Those massive medals worn with great sashes and all created by the Royals themselves. What fun!

          Of course the Royals have a lot of despicable quasi heroic history to draw on when it comes to self promotion and embellishment of their inherently shabby globalist operations.

    3. Broad beams are all the rage now. Indeed, the ideas of beauty as slimness or the hourglass figure have been replaced, nay, smothered, by the outsized.

      The writer doesn’t mention that the song was from a double A-side single. The video of ‘Bicycle Race’ is hard to find but the promotional poster is available online (I’ll leave that to Nottlers to find).

      Here’s the single’s picture sleeve:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04401ed34fb0629d7c4ded4e5150ac3fa1e636d65f103c46b05368f1a9b445d0.png

      And the original artwork:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b83edac1f59410bb9ff4aef1751bf1f3f755694e78f4f8fdd0bc69e01043847f.jpg

      It wouldn’t happen today!

      2. It used to be the case that only rich people could be fat. Now it is the other way round.

    5. To be honest – I don’t care! People come in all shapes and sizes and if people don’t like the song they can turn it off.

      I prefer Bach.

    6. Judging by the porkers at York during the Ebor meeting, fat-bottomed girls seem to be the norm these days. Supersize me is the rage.

  67. Going to bed- exhausted yet again, planning on spending tomorrow doing some tidying up somewhat.
    Laundry as well.
    Sleep well as I hope to.

  68. Today has been somewhat busy. A big fibre install, a complete rack rebuild (imagine giant mechano), new switch installs, more house sorting, electrician locating due to house having exactly one plug socket in each room. We’re still working on ‘routines’ as the kitchen is smaller so the usual dance around one another doens’t work any more.

    Working out a way to get the gym stuff washed and hung out with the split level larks. Our own connection goes in soon.

    We’ve moved the smallest comp into Junior’s room so he can watch his cartoons before bed or in the morning. Tomorrow we do our first hoover and bathroom clean. Exciting life!

    1. All coming together at last. A routine will establish itself soon, once the WarQueen tells you all what to do.

  69. I haven’t felt well for days.

    Shoulder and lower back pain.
    And painful gout in my right wrist.

    I wish to KBO.

    But not sure for how long I can do it . . .

    1. 🙁
      Sorry about that, old mate. Wish I could suggest something useful.
      Hot bath, strong alcohol & early bed?

    2. Sorry to hear that. Have you tried black cherries for the gout? Don’t know what to suggest for the shoulder and lower back pain (I have severe degeneration in my L5 and S1 vertebrae so I sympathise).

    3. You have my sympathy.

      I have very similar and the access to a pool is my saving grace.

      Good luck

    4. For shoulders:

      Put your hand, at about should height against a wall and push against it with your body – the intent is to stretch the pectoral muscle that it connects to to loosen it.

      Like this:

      https://jm2b9d.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/external-rotation.png

      Then put the back of your hand in front of you against a wall – with a bit of a gap, say 20cm. Now push your hand/wrist against the wall. That’ll stretch the trapezius muscles on the other side.

      I’ve injured my shoulder and these have really helped me.
      https://clevelandshoulderelbow.com/discharge-instructions/general-shoulder-stretches/

    5. For lower back pain I’d normally suggest a spinal twist, cow and cat stretches but be bally gentle and go slowly.

      Maybe this is easy for me at the age of 45 odd, but the Warqueen is 46 and can’t do these. She has the flexibility of a gold ingot. Just take your time. Loosening the muscles does help.

    6. Try to KBO with KBO. You’ve a nice local up there, which I find helps. Other old beggars with similar pains that can share.

    8. I have shoulder and neck pain. It’s a cervical herniated disc in the neck in my case. I initially bought a Tens machine for it that worked well. Then i YouTubed the yoga videos for this pain and the stretching exercises worked even better.

      KBO mate.

  71. Well, good night now, chums. I hope you all sleep well and awaken tomorrow refreshed.

  74. Did you know that in medieval times, people used to attach a lamp to a horse when riding at night?
    It is the earliest known form of saddle light navigation. 🤣

    2. Now that one I did get, Maggie. And do you remember the end of Sunday Night At The London Palladium when all the stars stood on a revolving stage and waved at the audience. It was always shot from a distance so that you could see every one of the artists and therefore they looked quite small. It was the first example of a Micro Wave.

          3. You for coffee?

            Wasn’t this what the disgruntled Japanese chap said to someone he wished to go away?

          1. Er, Herr Oberst, that is no explanation. You have just repeated the original punch line which I still don’t understand! Lol.

    1. Britain’s airports have become a Third World embarrassment.

      Very probably Oberst. You can see the country slipping into it gradually. The lies, the incompetence, the corruption..

    2. A classic article bemoaning the symptoms while completely ignoring the glaringly obvious; that nobody believes in net zero, and it is being inflicted on us in order to drag our country artificially down to third world status, so that countries like China and Morocco can occupy the heights that we once did. Oh and if white people would stop having children too, that would be most helpful as well.

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