Friday 30 August: The country needs an effective opposition to hold Labour to account

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

575 thoughts on “Friday 30 August: The country needs an effective opposition to hold Labour to account”

    1. A thought occurred to me when I heard about the proposed ban on outdoor smoking – how will it be enforced? The police have enough to do. Publicans will probably not want to attempt to enforce it, especially as it will drive some of their trade away. I believe the ban will also apply to outdoor space at hospitals. Well, there is already a ban on outdoor smoking anywhere on site at my local hospital, but plenty of people ignore it – even sitting in wheelchairs smoking outside the main entrance!

      Starmer will be a fool if he attempts to push this through (and I speak as an ex-smoker – I stopped 47 years ago). It's an illustration of his mentality – "I'm right and I know what's good for you – so do as you're told".

      3. snitchers. Surveillance. They have proven they can do it using these methods.

        1. Sadly, as was proved during the convid terror, all too many Britons took to the snitch culture with Messianic zeal.

      4. The British are reputed to be a tolerant people. However we are expected to be selectively tolerant – we should be tolerant of child rapists and anti-Semites but we should be totally intolerant of someone who wants a quiet gasper in a pub garden.

        When I gave up cigarettes 37 years ago I determined not to become infected with the Messianic zeal that many ex smokers have!

      1. Your post has been reported by the BBC Equality and Diversity department to the Metropolitan Police Rainbow Division and your name registered on the 'Undesirable List' – Number 27,999. . . Book 43.

    3. ”SIR – Of course smoking should be banned in pub gardens.
      In summer, most of us like to have a pint and a pie alfresco, without our enjoyment being ruined by the acrid smell of cigarette smoke.
      My right to enjoy fresh air trumps the right of a smoker to poison me.
      Stan Labovitch
      Windsor, Berkshire”

      I am no fan of smoking and I am as frustrated as the next man in the summer when I want to be outside and I have to put up with smoke. But what are smokers supposed to do? They are not allowed inside. So it is churlish of non smokers to complain – after all, if they don’t want smoke, they have the whole inside of the pub to sit in. Stan – put a sock in it.

      1. Yet I've seen a smoker go outside, light up outside of a window.

        Smoking is a disgusting habit. There should be some sort of box they go into to smoke and can't come out until the air has been purged, condensed and the smoker made to eat the poison.

    2. Harris once said, to an huge audience of jibbering Democrats 'There are things we must do and we will do those things.'

      The tame press didn't bother asking what the things were, when they would be done or what the impact of those things was.

      They just repeated it.

  4. I wanted to share this. The opening few lines on Joan Brady’s obituary. Some of you may remember I am reading my way this year through my unread book collection. Her book, Theory of War, was one of the first and was amazing. But, as I think I commented at the time, it wouldn’t be allowed today because it focuses on white slavery, which existed in the US long after black slavery was abolished.

    “JOAN BRADY, who has died aged 84, cut short a promising career as a dancer with the New York City Ballet under George Balanchine; married her mother’s lover, on whom she had set her heart at the age of three; moved to Totnes and became a novelist, winning the Whitbread Book of the Year for her 1993 Theory of War, about a young white boy sold into slavery in postcivil War America.
    It was, in fact, a true story about her own grandfather, the son of a Union veteran and one of “a crop of kids nobody wanted”, as the novel put it. Theory of War was praised by The Spectator as “one of the most remarkable and accomplished fictions to come from these islands perhaps since William Golding’s great seafaring trilogy”, its anger and vast subject compressed into 209 disciplined pages.
    The then-unknown Joan Brady beat the other Whitbread category-winners – Andrew Motion, Anne Fine, Rachel Cusk and Carol Ann Duffy – to take Book of the Year, the first woman to win it.
    It was a small consolation for the curse that Joan Brady believed had been handed down through her family since her grandfather’s slavery. Four of his children died by suicide, including her own father, Robert A Brady, a Marxist economist whose 1937 book The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism sold 40,000 copies in England….”

    Edit. Turns out she is the mother of the chap who wrote: “Stuart, a life backwards” (Alexander Masters) which was the most brilliant book, about how the system let down the eponymous Stuart. If you haven’t read it, I urge you to, and weep at how the system lets down those who need it. It’s enough to make me want to tear down our useless expensive government structures.

  5. I wanted to share this. The opening few lines on Joan Brady’s obituary. Some of you may remember I am reading my way this year through my unread book collection. Her book, Theory of War, was one of the first and was amazing. But, as I think I commented at the time, it wouldn’t be allowed today because it focuses on white slavery, which existed in the US long after black slavery was abolished.

    “JOAN BRADY, who has died aged 84, cut short a promising career as a dancer with the New York City Ballet under George Balanchine; married her mother’s lover, on whom she had set her heart at the age of three; moved to Totnes and became a novelist, winning the Whitbread Book of the Year for her 1993 Theory of War, about a young white boy sold into slavery in postcivil War America.
    It was, in fact, a true story about her own grandfather, the son of a Union veteran and one of “a crop of kids nobody wanted”, as the novel put it. Theory of War was praised by The Spectator as “one of the most remarkable and accomplished fictions to come from these islands perhaps since William Golding’s great seafaring trilogy”, its anger and vast subject compressed into 209 disciplined pages.
    The then-unknown Joan Brady beat the other Whitbread category-winners – Andrew Motion, Anne Fine, Rachel Cusk and Carol Ann Duffy – to take Book of the Year, the first woman to win it.
    It was a small consolation for the curse that Joan Brady believed had been handed down through her family since her grandfather’s slavery. Four of his children died by suicide, including her own father, Robert A Brady, a Marxist economist whose 1937 book The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism sold 40,000 copies in England….”

    Edit. Turns out she is the mother of the chap who wrote: “Stuart, a life backwards” (Alexander Masters) which was the most brilliant book, about how the system let down the eponymous Stuart. If you haven’t read it, I urge you to, and weep at how the system lets down those who need it. It’s enough to make me want to tear down our useless expensive government structures.

    1. Morning, all Y'all. Sunny, not a cloud to be seen, and a heavy dew.

      "That's novel, Mr Barraclough. A file with a cake in it!"
      Superb programme with a superb and understated cast. Where are these kinds of programmes now?

      1. Dad and I used to roar with laughter at every episode. The spaniel was very puzzled and hid.

  9. Morning Oberst. Political Correctness has killed comedy. Laughter is probably extinct at the BBC.

    1. The Beebettes daren't laugh because they are worried that they will appear unfashionable.

    2. SWMBO was watching an old episode of Friends last night. Christ-awful, it was, with every line from the cast greeted by screams of studio laughter – including the most banal lines. I guess yer average Merkin needed instructon on comedy, but it reinforced why I never watched that crap when it was new.

      1. I've never watched a single second of any episode. Yank studio 'comedy' has never done it for me.

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

    Wordle 1,168 4/6

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  11. 'Morning All
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a421b17bc82c875e5df903ca8765b1b0ecf12f4b57b1ad40ce2765fb665c5f04.jpg
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  13. The Tories didn’t defend liberty in office. But it’s never too late to start. Fraser Nelson. 30 August 2024.

    The Conservatives talk about freedom but, in office, seldom stopped curtailing it. The overall debate is such that liberals – in the English sense of the word – are now dismissed as “libertarians”. Of whom very few remain in parliament.

    Fraser Nelson on Liberty. Lol. This is the man who closed down the Spectator disqus threads because they didn’t toe the Globalist line. I think of him and the editor of the Telegraph every time one of my comments is “Removed”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/29/tories-did-not-defend-liberty-never-too-late-to-start/

    1. There are no libertarians in parliament. The very basis of the concept has no place for a controlling authoritarian unwanted, unaccountable state edifice.

  14. Good morning all,

    Sunny at McPhee Towers, wind East-Nor'-East, 10℃ with a forecast of 23℃ this afternoon. A nice day. Off to Chichester today to see offspring and grand-offspring.

    They wouldn't dare. Would they?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db93a5f8f3bcb08b2a46827f21d5951c278daa8be755b5fea7b22fbaaefb8e3b.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/state-pensions/labour-plot-means-test-state-pension-disaster/

    During my working life, the three pension schemes I paid into all incorporated the assumption that they were additional to the state pension hence an abatement in both contributions and the eventual level of pension was a feature. This would be tantamount to a breach of contract, or fraud. It's more than just a proposed theft. Much more.

    I've got an idea for Rachel Thieves: You can have my full state pension provided the rest of my pension income is entirely tax-free.

    1. If the state pension is to be means tested then I don't want to pay national insurance. It's already a socialist construct. I pay more in but get the same as someone who has paid nothing.

      How about we make it fair and say if you've not contributed you get nothing. If you've lived on welfare your entire life you get nothing. If you've conntributed you get a minimum. If you've paid more there's a ceiling.

      Stop paying for the wasters to breed. Stop paying jobsworths to do nothing. Stop expanding the bloated, corrupt, useless state. Enforce the law equally for all. Get rid of the criminal gimmigrant get off our backs. Cut taxes, shred the state.

      2. Means testing those pensioners who have retired abroad will require a monster Government department.

  15. Good morning all,

    Sunny at McPhee Towers, wind East-Nor'-East, 10℃ with a forecast of 23℃ this afternoon. A nice day. Off to Chichester today to see offspring and grand-offspring.

    They wouldn't dare. Would they?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db93a5f8f3bcb08b2a46827f21d5951c278daa8be755b5fea7b22fbaaefb8e3b.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/state-pensions/labour-plot-means-test-state-pension-disaster/

    During my working life, the three pension schemes I paid into all incorporated the assumption that they were additional to the state pension hence an abatement in both contributions and the eventual level of pension was a feature. This would be tantamount to a breach of contract, or fraud. It's more than just a proposed theft. Much more.

    I've got an idea for Rachel Thieves: You can have my full state pension provided the rest of my pension income is entirely tax-free.

  16. Good morning, all. Blue sky all around.

    Mass immigration is an issue here in the UK, the EU and certainly in the USA.

    This week's The Highwire has a report from Jefferey Jaxen on the attitude of some states to the influx and the impact it is generating, especially the astronomic costs.

    Oregon put out this information in a very professional looking flyer but when challenged on the "not American citizens" phrase, backtracked and claimed it was a mistake in the text that was missed before publication. OK.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/583f1b3ecf531f149cf866abaf6a126e99ea460cab836adcc1c54d31bb34efa3.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24c2c6d8c91a80c2664f581e7950bb1db4214b81ea3f07bd258e5dd7b72e2cba.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ecb16a1f6911415b3958ee7f245563c182d0f372b2c8cc6c0530f9644d328275.png
    The rebuttal.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7137ac01fc9bc0903478d5d59d053fa5dfb3fa10dc0b6ce8897af7c44db590af.png
    California is on a similar track…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2948331e0dc1d6b15a83f14dafe296b89c5a8a749de1d963b1800f1d12ccd2d6.png
    …at $150,000 a pop. The Governor has yet to sign this into law.

    It doesn't stop there…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/250f05eff332907b75896d972a6e257fe69e27435f0d1dc65919d4ef718e27e8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f85845e01f7b9dc7551e6e411e318967576efd5d631b79b81913c208d1e4d48.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/786bf9175e72904f74133341ff97261705cafc37f445662378df5d322fec22c6.png
    How Harris (Border Czar) will convincingly explain this away is not known. It's doubtful that the legacy MSM will push this issue that is costing $Billions.

    1. Read it and weep, and whilst doing so also consider that asylum seekers and illegals are not included in these totals.

      Record numbers of migrants living in Britain are jobless with more than 1.6 million unemployed or 'economically inactive' people costing taxpayers an estimated £8billion

      The figures may be overstated due to education and welfare costs. What extra welfare is available to students who are immigrants, I thought students were supposed to bring money in and cover their own costs.

      A Government spokesman said last night: 'It is incorrect to apply an average cost to migrants out of work as estimates need to take into account individual circumstances. Most education and welfare costs are not applicable to working-age migrants who are not students.'

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13794959/Record-numbers-migrants-living-Britain-jobless.html

      1. So, the line we were fed about vast numbers of hard-working, tax-paying, migrants might not entirely be true!

        1. Recently the Sunday Times pointed out that 1.1 million migrants wrote on their application

          that they had no intention of working.

      2. Ah, so now government wants to consider individuals, not a demographic. Odd how they change the rules when it suits them.

        Bluntly, most immigrants are unemployed. They've no skills, no utility, no value. They arrive, claim bennies and live a life of riley on the tax payer.

    2. That Hacienda group will claim it was an error but as soon as a white person applies – slammed door. All the dindus will get waved in and free handouts of course, but not the locals.

  17. He's screwing up everything…

    STARMER FAST-TRACKING HONOURS FOR “RESPONSE TO RIOTS”

    Government departments have been asked by Downing Street to urgently identify and put together honours nominations to reward “unity and defiance” to this month’s riots. Guido can reveal that Starmer has instructed civil servants to find “community leaders” who “made sure targeted groups felt safe” and members of the public who showed “community spirit.” Departments are also told to consider public sector workers who went “above and beyond” in their response to the unrest. The latest in the PM’s project to fill his “societal black hole”…

    Extraordinarily, departments were only informed of this “urgent commission” yesterday with a deadline to submit nominator forms by… Friday 30th August. Permanent Secretaries will then take this weekend to submit finalised nominations by Monday 2nd September. Civil servants have been told that the process is on “extremely tight timescales” and that “Citations are not expected to be as detailed as usual, given the time frame.” Reducing the usual timeline for background checks for nominations…

    This suggests the civil service is in a massive rush to get the list sorted in time for the upcoming New Year Honours. The usual selection process takes 12 to 18 months – this has been given 3 days. Hardly enough time to follow due process. One sceptical Westminster insider says: “Typical – Starmer has created a two-tier honours system, rushing it through for political advantage, the King could end up handing a gong to a wife-beater”.

    UPDATE: The Cabinet Office says anyone can nominate someone for an honour at any time. Not at the specific request of Starmer to Permanent Secretaries with a 3-day deadline, though…

        2. You're just jealous because Tom is now Sir Jasper, aren't you Citroen 1? (Good morning, btw.)

    2. This is an attempt to create a permanent overclass that will keep the peasants in their place.

    3. Unsurprisingly, lots of attention to the symptoms of the problem and nothing to the causes.

  18. Caught a clip of Kamalarse's "interview" on Mike Graham's show just now.
    Talk about softball questions and prepared answers wrapped up in a meaningless word salad.

  19. ULEZ TAX EXPANSION ONE YEAR ON: NEGLIGIBLE EFFECT ON POLLUTION

    Today is the one-year anniversary of Khan’s hated ULEZ expansion – forcing all 32 London boroughs to cough up £12.50 to drive if they happened to have one of the 700,000 non-compliant cars. The tax collects a whopping £715,000 a day from motorists…

    Late last month City Hall pushed out an unauthored taxpayer-funded report claiming that emissions had fallen “drastically” thanks to the expansion – it showed roadside Nitrogen Dioxide concentrations were a measly 1.93% lower on average since ULEZ’ expansion. Quite the reward for an anti-worker tax…

    Buried in the middle of the report is the admission that it doesn’t measure either the expansion itself or ULEZ in isolation:

    “The analysis for the ULEZ shows the impacts of not just the ULEZ and its expansions, but all of the Mayor’s policies to reduce emissions from transport, including those within the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. As such, it is not straightforward to isolate the impact of the ULEZ and its expansions. Therefore the analysis for the ULEZ can be seen to show the impacts of not just the ULEZ and its expansions, but of all the Mayor’s policies to reduce emissions from transport.”

    On top of that new analysis claims ULEZ is responsible for £875 million of the total revenue generated by these zones since 2019. Seeing as it cost an extra £500 million to roll out, that’s a pretty hefty price tag. Now non-compliant cars are being forced off the road, Khan will have to think of a new money grab. Have no fear – pay per mile charging is on the way…

    1. Yesterday’s post brought the joy of a letter of intended prosecution by the Met.
      The crime: driving at 24 mph on a road that is a dual carriageway.
      It will (I hope) just mean a speed awareness course, but it is yet one more grotesque example of the culture of extortion and the criminalisation of ordinary people in a city where shop-lifters, drug peddlers and knife wielders walk free.

      2. The bully state always picks a victim who will not fight back.

        Starmer is a cowardly bully at heart which is why resistance from an imaginary far right fills him with terror and he wants it nipped in the bud.

  20. If Ukraine’s Invasion Of Russia’s Kursk Oblast Was A Diversion, It Has Failed. 30 August 2024.

    One generous reading of Ukrainian strategy in Kursk is that the invasion was meant to draw Russian regiments away from the east, relieving the pressure on Pokrovsk. In that sense, the invasion of Kursk may have been a diversion.

    If so, it failed. “The offensive in the Kursk region not only failed to prompt the redeployment of some Russian forces from Donetsk, but also exacerbated the shortage of [Ukrainian] personnel in the region,” the pro-Ukraine Conflict Intelligence Team concluded.

    I’m not in the military and it was obvious a week ago that the Kursk Operation was a mistake. Probably terminal to the Ukies ambitions to reclaim the Donbass.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/08/28/if-ukraines-invasion-of-russias-kursk-oblast-was-a-diversion-it-has-failed/

    1. Ukraine is trying to invade a region of it's own country that does not want to be part of Ukraine any more.

      Russian wants the port access. Donbass wants to be part of Russia. The war ends when Ukraine admits defeat or the West gets involved.

      The best outcome would be for Trump to raise an eyebrow at Putin and bring the nonsense to a stop and get both ides negotiating.

      1. I think that people have been as conned about the Ukraine war as they were over Net Zero and Covid jabs.

        1. I asked a bloke waving a Ukraine flag which region had been invaded. He said 'Ukraine'. I asked him why it had been invaded. He said 'Russia's evil.'

          People don't understand because they're not told the truth because the truth is complicated, involved, requires significant awareness of multiple events. It's messy, muddled, annoying and difficult.

          1. It's a version of wealthy, protected women dishing out white feathers to men who hadn't yet submitted themselves to the meat grinder aka the Western Front..

        2. I've always been sceptical about the heroics.
          I know enough about the history of Russia and Ukraine to realise how little I do know.

  21. Yo and Good Moaning to you all, from a SUNNI Costa del Skeg.

    We are venturing into Skeg itself today and going to its' Cultural Centre: The Tip

  22. If one assumes a round figure of 10 million of working age ~80% might be; although I doubt it.

  24. If my calculations are correct, we have had nine Prime Ministers since Lady Thatcher, and after every one of them I have said "Well, this one can't be any worse".
    Yet incredibly they are.
    Every. Damned. Time.

    1. It's because at hear they're all the same: big state, high tax socialists. All of them take orders from someone else. If they don't, then they're in hock to the blob. Boris was offered a free house to get the subsidy through for Zach Goldsmith. May pontificates about green on the lecture circuit and has a plum job in the EU.

      They're all corrupt because there is no way for the public to stop any of this dribbling nonsense. It all comes down to a complete lack of democracy.

        1. I don't know why she did what she did, but net zero is an absolute abomination of policy. I can only put it down to pure spite.

          1. If the majority of MPs thought that net zero was incorrect, it would be cancelled tomorrow.

            …………..now there's food for thought.

    2. 392690+ up ticks,

      Morning GTTQ,

      From the WEF / NWO stance an ongoing success, but surely the electoral majority know this via their voting pattern.

  25. Been having a ponder, about when the last time HMG decided that they would raise money by increasing the Fuel Tax.

    People stopped travelling for leisure and pleasure.

    Tax Revenue went down, other prices rose

      1. Then Brown brought the army out to force his way. The Left, proving they're fascists to the core.

    2. And prices go up as business has to factor in the additional costs. Now imagine you're a lorry full of goods. Now imagine you're a haulage firm carrying goods. And your wage bill has just gone up, your fuel taxes have just gone up and the state is going to force pay per mile on you.

      Can we say 'inflation'? Eroding people's wealth through ever heavier taxes (of which inflation is one) means people buy less, as they can afford less, which means unemployment, unemployment compounded by higher taxes.

      Which both mean more welfare demand.

      It's simple. Labour can keep hiking taxes and keep saying 'da wich will pay!' but they won't. The poorer, lower earner will. Socialism does not, never has and never will work. Labour refuse to learn this because none of them ever have a job or have done anything of merit or value.

    3. I suspect all the sin taxes will go up sharply, fuel tax has been kept down hor a while. We are all about to be screwed.

      1. Apologies kaypea, but taxes are not kept down. They are not raised. It is something the state loves to say 'we're saving you money by not hiking taxes!' or 'we can't afford to cut taxes'.

        This is a reversal of the truth. Spending is what needs to be paid for, not taxation. Saving money is not achieved by spending the same amount.

        It's pure linguistic deceit to control the narrative and make people think that not increasing a tax is a good thing where in reality, tax cuts should be the default along with the state cutting spending. It never does. Brown started calling private spending just that, but the government 'invested'. It's the other way around. The state wastes, the individual invests – because they get what they want.

      1. On a dual carriage way? Where national speed limits should apply? Where there are minimum speed limits?

        However, yes, you're right. It is wholly insane the amount of effort big fat state puts into forcing any law that gets it money and ignoring those that cost other people money.

        It just shows the priority of the state machine – same as when it used authoritarian powers to crush dissent, yet has done nothing about two muslims who assaulted police officers. Nothing works. Everything is back to front.

        1. There are many sections of urban dual carriageway where a 20mph limit has been imposed.
          More than a few of which had a 40mph limit in the past!

          1. There's a few roads down here that were 30 and ar enow 20. The yobs still roar up and down them completely uninterested in the speed limits.

            But then, the council also shoved a zebra crossing at a roundabout, a confluence of 4 roads, another at a set of sodding traffic lights and another at the top of a hill – so you can't see it.

            The morons inn govt don't see a problem with this idiotic placement.

  28. Good morning all.
    A bright but chilly start with a mere 4°C on the Yard Thermometer when I took a milk bottle out an hour ago!

    1. Comment now removed on DT, but did you win an award as an official Moscow bot! Sadly, the DT readership are mostly warmongers but the published letter brings some common sence for a change.

  29. 392690+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Understatement of the decade,

    The proven dangerous fools lament,

    Friday 30 August: The country needs an effective opposition to hold Labour to account

    When the call went out for Country saving unity UKIP hit the front
    and achieved, on the 24.6.2016 the biggest political success in many a decade.

    Unity of party members won the day and the key to independence and FREEDOM of spirit.

    I can still hear echos via the members as they returned to the pro eu bosom of the MASS UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION ,PAEDOPHILE UMBRELLA lab/lib/con coalition party "no need of UKIP any longer,JOB DONE"

    We most certainly have the right peoples for wrongdoing via the polling stations in parliament currently.

    After winning the referendum and witnessing the electoral knockback we had an undeserved second chance via UKIP under the Gerard Batten leadership please don't comment unless
    you have the full state of the UKIP party in 2019, prior to the treacherous take-down.

    Personally I would have welcomed Tommy Robinson as a UKIP party member not just as a Batten personal advisor.

    The lab/lib/con coalition party political top rankers, tribal members / voters have made it near impossible for a second coming in regards to returning to being a nation of integrity,
    decency, and independence

    We are truly witnessing the odious fall out of having faith again & again in false political gods, as in the contents in total of the palace of westminster.

    1. After the Brexit vote what we saw was how the ludicrous spectacle of MPs fighting against it and doing everything possible to undermine it – with impunity. There was nothing we could do as they squabbled, fought and whinged, bringing in third parties – the Miller creature, the EU, the courts to overturn it.

      This should have been a wake up call that our system of government did not work and hasn't worked for many decades.

      No one has any faith in politicians. The problem is the system is controlled by the very people who would have to reform it. That's why it's broken. It's been built to protect the incompetent and keep them untouchable by those whose lives they ruin.

      1. 392690+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        We surely by now have learnt, " Do not feed the political animals in current residence" with NO exception.

        1. Many people have. This is why turnouts continue to fall. What doesn't change is the system.

          If only 5 people bother to vote whoever gets more than the rest, takes office. The ludicrous spectacle was seeing Cameron coalition with Clegg. No one wanted them, it wasn't on the ballot but up yours! Someone wanted power and that's how they got it.

  32. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    Doctor’s Orders

    A man went to see his doctor. He had a bad case of piles, causing him excruciating pain. The doctor gave him a case of suppositories.
    The doctor asked the man if he would like him to put the first one in for him. A little embarrassed, the man agreed. He bent over and held his breath. He felt a sharp pain, then the doctor said, "Right, you’re done. Insert the next one in about five hours. If you can't manage it yourself, ask your wife to give you a hand."

    The man went home and laid down to recover from the experience. About five hours later, he tried to put the suppository in himself, but he couldn't get the angle quite right, so he asked his wife to help him.

    She told him to bend over, and put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. When she stuck it in him, he let out a scream.

    "Sorry! Did I hurt you? I was as gentle as I could be," his wife said.

    "It's not that," he said. He stood up and looked at her. His face was as white as a ghost. His wife asked him,

    "What is it then?"

    He replied, "When the doctor did it for me, he had both his hands on my shoulders."

  33. I would wager a hundred that Two-Tier Kier Rodney was bullied at school. He has the face (and stupid head shape) that is screaming out for it.

    I would also wager that this provoked his peeved, petulant attitude; one that says "I'll get my own back: I'll show you!"

    Funny, but I've never yet come across a handsome — or even normal-looking — Lefty. They are all as physically deranged as they are mentally demented.

        2. But is Starmer any better than Corbyn would have been? I have a horrible feeling that Starmer will be more difficult to get rid of.

    3. The people most of us naturally despised for being sneaks, bossy and humourless at school have become those in far too many positions of power today.

  34. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b7fddf0383c97a79253f70651d5cf546971a61ed/0_200_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=980&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=39466153e0831d4516456532a9bc98fd Hundreds of sea lions gather at San Carlos beach in Monterey, California.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8b6242e38a7c1c80c9c814424d6ef52ca2b4c2aa/0_73_3500_2244/master/3500.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=add1f726c364c6aa740034b439523e68 Northumberland’s Farne Islands

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c19a1fca9ee921ac9fda9c70fd54e06398648fb3/0_0_2113_1407/master/2113.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3e8dadd0679b75a93a8aba47c96be960 A young great crested grebe feeds on fish caught by one of its parents in the Docklands area of east London,

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/acb45e0f18f7107ab2427732faec823b6ca51862/0_0_4000_2667/master/4000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=5be3af69a98d6a36a12eddce61bd28c9 A pure green sweat bee covers itself in pollen while pollinating a squash plant in Toronto, Canada

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/09712d2d5a77b4145ee30d08f521213eaaf87f86/0_0_3000_1864/master/3000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=282613a56c1ac18b680f7cb7d62d1b69 Wild elks in the Tiaozi Mud Wetland of Dongtai City in Yancheng, China

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9f78001f1b678b9ab09ab450981c516fc943412e/0_0_3936_2624/master/3936.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=a48d47735f57448e3fe617d70cb6e925 A peacock displays its feathers after monsoon rains on the outskirts of Ajmer, India

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/869de533baf172039be6a21c3db317db1953253c/0_0_6853_4449/master/6853.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=bf0011c4ef0d501d730e9baefc5d5e22 A male lynx sprints into the forest after his release near Eibenstock, Germany as part of a reintroduction programme

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4ccfb3ac8df78f5f27768bec3450b50920578d71/0_0_5272_3948/master/5272.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=16d1fcd60c86ffb51e8490bb8711c823 Wild horses in the foothills of Mount Erciyes run in herds across the Hürmetçi meadows in Kayseri, Turkey

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5001407395b54aec0c8c119f65d3967c0c63c2eb/0_0_1551_1034/master/1551.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=ef4aa8b4765788f533a7fc60e396d1ac A kingfisher catches a fish on the Avalon Marshes in Somerset

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/73fcce63d9577236a049675a72e5f011d3d2927e/0_0_3560_2514/master/3560.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=6561ef22fd9db1dbd8ca8c9c7abcd524 A barn owl flies over the Avalon Marshes in Somerset

    1. Thank you. We have to get right back to basics and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. It’s the only thing that’s going to keep us sane in the next 5 years.

    2. Good morning. Are the sea lions staging a protest against bad government in California or plotting a takeover? I hope they were safe. Congregating like that must make them vulnerable.

      2. We saw them in Monterey 30 years ago. They stink to high heaven but not as much as Starmer and his Labour Party.

  35. Good morning all! Our elder daughter is selling the best of her Blue Texel sheep at Borderway Mart in Carlisle today! It’s quite exciting as there’s a livestream online, and we can watch from here. She did very well last year but with the hellish weather and cold this Spring we’ll need to wait and see!

      1. Yes, I remember hearing that Afrikaans(?) translation on one of BBC R4's panel games way back in the '60s or '70s!!
        Voiced by Dennis Norden perhaps?

  37. Flintoff's Flying Circus was a bit disappointing last evening. Adnan turns out to be 53 and the Afghani Ambassador to the Court of St James!

      2. cytokine release syndrome
        What is cytokine release syndrome? Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) — sometimes called cytokine storm or cytokine-associated toxicity — is a condition that develops when your immune system responds too aggressively to infection. It can also happen after certain types of immunotherapy, such as CAR T-Cell Therapy.
        Sounds about right! All that toxicity!

      3. cytokine release syndrome
        What is cytokine release syndrome? Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) — sometimes called cytokine storm or cytokine-associated toxicity — is a condition that develops when your immune system responds too aggressively to infection. It can also happen after certain types of immunotherapy, such as CAR T-Cell Therapy.
        Sounds about right! All that toxicity!

    3. I'm beginning to think quite fondly of Jezza.
      Oh, and the portrait of Maggie that Sturmer has hidden because it makes him realise he is a worm, was commissioned by Gordon Brown.
      Whatever his faults, he could at least recognise greatness, even when it was ideologically opposed to his beliefs.

  39. If you're familiar with the work of Prof. Valentina Zharkova at the Univcersity of Northumbria about the Modern Grand Solar Minimum, you need to watch and listen to this update which she did with Paul Burgess recently.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek5VK_TdKSA
    If you're not already familiar, read this first: https://www.freespeechbacklash.com/article/solar-radiation

    We've got three years, folks. Get a diesel generator, a wood-burner or two and start buying fur-lined parkas. And, with longer, deeper winters for twenty to thirty years, work out what you're going to eat.

    Our regime's energy policy is more than an absolute disaster. It's criminal. Especially the covering of productive farmland with solar panels.

    2. That's what I have been looking for, Fiscal.
      I am a Chemist and Physicist with a lifelong interest in astronomy.
      Valentina Zharkova rings true: Thank you!

      In our remaining years, we can look forward to regular Hot Toddies!

  42. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny start again rain coming tomorrow. It's our golden wedding anniversary 31st exactly to the day. 45 guests for lunch. I hoping to change my family rain man reputation.
    The only and purposeful opposition to this dreadful Labour government will be a battalion of Marine commandos.
    Nobody else seems to be bothered about their overindulgence towards the British taxpaying public and the elderly.

    1. Congratulations Eddy. I hope you have many more anniversaries. You are very lucky. As you no doubt know.

    2. Many congratulations Eddy, and fingers crossed for the weather! Lovely sunshine where I am, and the sunrise wasn't red either!

    3. Many congratulations on your golden anniversary! Hope your special day is wonderful 🥂

    4. Congratulations to you and Mrs Ready! Hope you have a wonderful day with family, friends and nae rain!🥂🎂

    6. Congratulations.
      Poignant to realise that, had my 1st time round not gone tits up I'd be approaching my 52nd.

      1. We have done our time .. 56 years .. and many more to go I hope .

        But … Moh and I shake our heads because how have the years gone by so quickly ..?

        Most of our coupledom friends have divorced several times , or died or just vanished into a ghastly mind numbing state, early dementia etc

        Moh and I have just ten months age difference between us .

    7. Golden wedding anniversary? My goodness; what an achievement! Many congratulations, and may the sun shine on you to your hearts' content.

    8. Congrats Eddy, hope your 'do' goes well and you all celebrate this momentous occasion in a nottly manner

    1. Soviet era modular units – 'bottom end specs' is only way to get near HMG annual targets for new houses but will make minimal contribution to Rachel&Ange's targets for economic growth. They are lying but are too dumb and ignorant to realise that they are lying. This shitshow is getting worserer and worserer.

    2. LLantwit Migrant Housing
      I see from the drone shots that all units have free electricity from Solar panels on the roof, as well as nice fences and grassy gardens. But where is the car parking for each unit? And there are no visible SVPs (Soil and Vent Pipes, found in all UK houses to take the toilet vapours away). Ah, I know, they just use the gardens.

  44. Good Morning all!
    This morning this was in my You Tube feed. It's a new video of Tommy Robinson talking to Dr Jordan Peterson & his wife. I honestly don't know what to say about this. Toward the end, after Jordan asks him what he is expecting in the future, Tommy speaks, obviously from the depths of his heart, in such a way that I had the feeling that I was actually listening to a person of tremendous goodness & courage going toward martyrdom. It is almost blasphemous to say or think such a thing but that is what I believe I just witnessed. I just felt very humbled. Watch and see what you think.
    Crime and Punishment | Tommy Robinson | EP 476
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv0TW2LF_dE

    1. If Tommy Robinson had the suave and civilised manners and accents of Douglas Murray he would be just as respected by most people for the views he expresses as Murray is.

      The problem he has is that he is the victim of snobbery from both the left and the right who wrongly believe they are better human beings than he is. Yes, many of us here may not like his use of obscene language and his appearance but this should not blind us to the appalling way in which he has been treated and his very reasonable views.

      1. A passing thought.
        Yesterday I visited my sister-in-law who lives in house right against the church that houses Simon of Sudbury's head.
        (ponders deeply)

      2. I agree Rastus. But if you haven't watched this part of the interview, please do. You will see what I mean at the end of the video. He really does come across like a Christian martyr, it is as if the pressures on him now are so great there is no room for pretence or bravado, he is afraid but cannot stop because it is his fate to continue. Prior to that what he has to say about the government and its machinations makes it obvious that we already live in a totalitarian state. It is just so sophisticated that it is more subtle than such states in the past. Petersons opinion of Starmer is non to flattering either.

  45. Just hung the washing up the garden. Still a bit chilly.
    As I commented to several up in Northumberland at the weekend, "The backend has come in early this year!"

      1. In Norf Essex, the nice bit of Autumn is arriving.
        An early St. Martin's Summer. (Up yours, Yanks).

    2. Dang, meant to do the towels today.
      Tomorrow is gym kit day, Sunday will be bed linen.

    5. Yes i hadn’t realised how cold it was riding in but it took my hands half an hour to thaw out!

    6. Apparently we are about to be blasted with heat from the continent. Could be 40 c.
      But they do quite often get it so wrong.

    7. 'Backend-ish' is a word rarely heard here in the (sort of) south of England. It describes certain autumnal conditions perfectly.

      1. The backend agyen is whey us,
        And the rain blaas cald and chill.
        A nightly hoarfrost whitens every valley and each rill,
        The shepherd lads are aal at it, whey theor useful collie dogs,
        Bust cutting haaling, shedding cutting for the dosing of the hogs.

  46. Just browsing round Twitt and found this gem….

    Daniel O’Reilly
    @dapperlaughs
    A day in the life of an English man.

    Picture this, you’re in london, it costs more than you earn to live here, you slowly accumulate debt, you cant afford a holiday so you just use drugs to escape.

    The weathers shit & the people that live here hate each other with a passion but you cant afford to leave.

    You wake up one morning to you find out your tax is going up after ulez, the cost of living crisis, energy prices & interest rates have eat the last bit of spending money that was left from your monthly wage.

    While you’re sat on the toilet reading tweets from the metropolitan police about online trolls a swat team smashes through the bathroom window, past you on the shitter & arrests your 11 year old son for shouting at a police officer.

    Your sister rings you (she recently got fired from her job as a doctor for refusing to ask biological men if they are pregnant) & tells you grandma just froze to death because Keir Starmer gave her winter allowance to country on the other side of the planet that’s wealthy then us to help them with climate change.

    It all gets a bit much so you go for a pint and try to relax by smoking a cigarette in the beer garden & find out its illegal & get barred.

    So you decide to go for a walk to clear your mind & get violently stabbed to death.

    The Guardian then plasters your face all over the news for randomly jumping on a perfectly good knife 54 times that was held by a choir boy.

    Your sister tweets about it & gets nicked.

    Your son comes out of prison & protests about it, but this time he shouts at a police horse, gets nicked but the prisons are too full, so they let out Ian Huntley to put him in back in.

    Mad thing is, that don’t even sound far fetched now does it, its now all a perfectly believable turn of events 😂
    11:40 PM · Aug 29, 2024
    ·

    1. Which is par for the course. It is a fundamental malaise of corruption, incompetence, arrogance, socialism and unaccountable spite.

      1. Anarcho Tyranny.
        As Mark Steyn put it:
        Britain, where everything is policed except crime.

    2. Well he sounds like a faaaar right ultra extremist and will undoubtedly face the Tommy Robinson treatment.

      I listened to a very good podcast with him just last week and he seems like a good man.

  47. Yes thanks JR only a few friends and family are ahead of us. Big sister over 60 years.

        1. Luchino Visconti directed a much lauded film starring Dirk Bogarde who played a man who died in another well-known Italian city.

        1. Nearly right. It was two children begging in rags who were:

          ♬Both touched with a burning ambition
          To shake off their lowly-born tags … they tried.♬

          Marie-Claire was, of course, one of them. The other was her friend, the minstrel, singing her praises.

          A wonderful song of my late teen period.

          1. There is at least another verse to that, but what a lovely and VERY poignant song with a very effective arrangement. The 'cellos coming in at the start of the last verse is magical!

          2. You talk like Marlene Dietrich
            And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
            Your clothes are all made by Balmain
            And there’s diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes, there are

            You live in a fancy apartment
            Off the Boulevard St. Michel
            Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
            And a friend of Sacha Distel, yes, you do

            But where do you go to, my lovely
            When you’re alone in your bed?
            Tell me the thoughts that surround you
            I want to look inside your head, yes, I do

            I’ve seen all your qualifications
            You got from the Sorbonne
            And the painting you stole from Picasso
            Your loveliness goes on and on, yes, it does

            When you go on your summer vacation
            You go to Juan-les-Pins
            With your carefully designed topless swimsuit
            You get an even suntan on your back, and on your legs

            And when the snow falls you’re found in St. Moritz
            With the others of the jet set
            And you sip your Napoleon brandy
            But you never get your lips wet, no, you don’t

            But where do you go to, my lovely
            When you’re alone in your bed?
            Won’t you tell me the thoughts that surround you?
            I want to look inside your head, yes, I do

            Your name it is heard in high places
            You know the Aga Khan
            He sent you a racehorse for Christmas
            And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha

            They say that when you get married
            It’ll be to a millionaire
            But they don’t realise where you came from
            And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn

            Where do you go to, my lovely
            When you’re alone in your bed?
            Tell me the thoughts that surround you
            I want to look inside your head, yes, I do

            I remember the back streets of Naples
            Two children begging in rags
            Both touched with a burning ambition
            To shake off their lowly-born tags, they tried

            So look into my face, Marie-Claire
            And remember just who you are
            Then go and forget me forever
            But I know you still bear the scar, deep inside, yes, you do

            I know where you go to, my lovely
            When you’re alone in your bed
            I know the thoughts that surround you
            ‘Cause I can look inside your head

            Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na
            Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-na

          3. you go to the embassy parties where you talk in Russian and Greek
            and the young men who move in your circles
            they hang on every word you speak, yes they do

            you're in between twenty and thirty, a very desirable age
            your body is firm and inviting, 'but you live on a glittering stage, yes you do, yes you do

            https://youtu.be/j_t8iWyH3r4?si=vpngc8Gcby2VlLNL

    1. The Left DO NOTCARE. The intent was to destroy this nation so compeltely, so thoroughly that it could never be recovered. We want those migrants who have somethign we want, who turn up with skills and willingness to learn, work and integrate. They're very welcome. What we don't want is who the Left force on us.

      I is nothing more than the rape of a nation.

      1. It appears that the unholy alliance between the communists and islamists has come about because each sees the other as the wrecking ball of choice in their plans for domination and the commies are too ignorant and stupid to see that the muzzies have the upper hand in the conquest game and will happily crush their allies as and when it suits their interests to do so?

        1. Yes, they think we're all communists/socialists at heart (we're not), whereas the Muslims all know they're Muslims.

  50. Alasdair Macleod
    @MacleodFinance
    What is Jake Sullivan actually doing in Beijing? He is Biden's top security man.
    Note that US Carriers in the eastern Med are able to nuke Russia, Ukraine having destroyed the radar coverage in southern Russia. Russia is warning that in a nuclear war she would have no hesitation in prioritising attacking the US and WW3 will not be confined to Europe.

    This is how close the US is to setting off WW3.

    I believe Sullivan is sounding out Beijing: would China stay out of it? I hope that Xi will have made it clear that the US cannot count on China's neutrality and in extremis she would side with Russia.
    Only by taking this position can WW3 be averted. We must all hope for this outcome.

  51. Good Moaning.
    Gorgeously warm and still out in the garden.
    Soft September light.
    We is doubly, triply, quadruply doooooomed.

      1. Morning, Maggie.
        Can't see any birds. Neither could MB this morning.
        Perhaps they're now spending so little time round the nest that we're lucky if we catch them.

    1. There is already a housing boom. What's needed are skilled craftspeople to repair all the faults in the ones already built.

    2. This is true. My gas-engineer husband comes home fuming most nights on account of it.

      1. There are hundreds . . . but they only work at night and gain entry through windows and doors with faulty locks.

  53. I see that Lloyds is going to let first-rime buyers borrow 5 1/2 times their annual salary. Now, class, can anyone suggest what this might lead to?

    4. Planned impoverishment is what the PTB want.

      It is the same with unrepayable student loans – a person with crippling debts is easier to control.

  55. Morning all. Are we on a four day week yet?

    Today on Free Speech we have an very well-written article by Richard Scott on the importance of the forthcoming Tory leadership battle, and the struggle for leadership of the Right with Reform UK. And in case you missed it, yesterday’s leading article by a former communist Red Guard on her very positive experience of living in Britain, and her astonishment at the Establishment’s obvious desire to ruin it, attracted a good debate. Other leading articles are on the decayed state of democracy and free speech, the AI revolution and a comparison of Starmer with Enver Hoxha, the former Albanian dictator.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  57. The wealthiest 350 people in Britain have a combined wealth of £400 billion. But those with the broadest shoulders are apparently pensioners on eleven grand a year.

  58. WSJ Calls Out United Nations for Its Climate ‘Alarmism’

    THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.30 Aug 20245
    3:09
    An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published Thursday scolded United Nations chief António Guterres for spreading climate alarmism based on phony data.

    In his article titled “U.N. Casts Little Light on Heat,” climate expert Bjorn Lomborg observes Guterres’ notoriously hyperbolic language on global warming and its effects ignores the fact that high temperatures are “mostly a result of seasonal changes that have long existed,” rather than of climate change.

    The U.N.’s “latest climate-change alarms are more about demagoguery than data,” Lomborg writes.

    A groundbreaking 2024 study found that “the global death rate from extreme heat has declined by more than 7% a decade over the past 30 years,” he states.

    More importantly, perhaps, Lomborg points out that seasonal rises in temperature kill far fewer people than cold weather.

    “In Europe, cold kills nearly four times as many people as heat — a danger that a warming climate helps ameliorate,” he notes.

    While 155,000 people die each year from extremely high temperatures, 4.5 million people die from the cold, he adds.

    Along with the U.N.’s alarmist-in-chief, Lomborg also calls out the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) for publishing a wildly inaccurate report on deaths from extreme heat.

    In early August, the W.H.O. declared that in Europe alone, more than 175,000 people die each year because of extreme heat, a figure that overstated the real figure by some 400 percent.

    Another U.N. group — UNICEF — its dedicated child-welfare organization — “also rang a false alarm in late July,” Lomborg writes, lamenting in a policy brief the deaths of 377 young people in 2021 from high temperatures across Europe and Central Asia.

    The brief fails to mention that the very report it references shows that annual heat deaths of young people have declined by more than 50 percent over three decades and that “cold causes about three times as many child deaths in these regions each year.”

    Deaths of young people from heat pale in comparison next to malnutrition, which claims 26,000 young lives across Europe and Central Asia every year, Lomborg writes.

    Ironically, falsely attributing heat deaths to “global warming” is likely to lead to more heat deaths, Lomborg suggests, since the recent decline in mortality from heat is largely due to greater access to electricity and therefore to air conditioning, something that alarmists detest.

    Economic growth and cheap, reliable energy are the greatest antidote to heat-related deaths, he observes, but these are only possible by prioritizing energy availability over climate ideology.

    Guterres’ remedy to the so-called “climate crisis,” which involves abandoning fossil fuels, “would cost quadrillions of dollars, spike electricity costs, and spread poverty,” Lomborg writes.

    1. Is the Wall Street Journal about to be shut down or do the powers that be feel confident that too few read it to make any difference.

  59. Since Margaret Thatcher was stabbed in the back the Conservative Party has failed to choose a good leader.

    The leader used to "EMERGE" mysteriously – but this produced Sir Alec Douglas Home so they introduced a voting system which they keep messing about with.

    For example Heath—who was Shadow Chancellor at the time, and had recently won favourable publicity for leading the fight against Labour's Finance Bill—unexpectedly won the party's leadership contest, gaining 150 votes to Reginald Maudling's 133 and Enoch Powell's 15.

    I would say the party made a very wrong choice then and, with Thatcher being to the sole exception, they have continued to get it wrong.

    Cameron, May, Johnson and Sunak have been exceptionally poor choices.

    1. I remember Home being pronounced Hume but I was eight years old at the time and a Yorkshire lass so may have just misheard the posh accents?

      1. Sue, I remember when Lord Home (pronounced Hume) was briefly ill. Some wag said "Is he Hume in bed with Flu or Home in Bed with Flo?"

      2. Sue, I remember when Lord Home (pronounced Hume) was briefly ill. Some wag said "Is he Hume in bed with Flu or Home in Bed with Flo?"

      3. It's Scottish:

        The name of Home originates from an Old English word Hôm, which in its dative form described a place on an hilly outcrop or height. The situation of Hume Castle (Kelso) readily explains this origin and through the ages it has been spelt in several different ways, appearing in documents over the past eight centuries in up to 8 various spellings. Always pronounced Hume, the barony, castle and village retained the Home spelling until the end of the 18th century; many families over the centuries have switched to the Hume version to avoid confusion of pronunciation for those living away from the Borders, whilst others have retained the Home spelling.

        1. He lived at The Hirsel, near Coldstream. Hirsel is a flock of sheep, or a place where they graze.

      4. My father's side of the family are Yorkshire folk. It was, therefore, not much of a shock to learn that my surname is of Viking derivation.

        It translates as, "A place where berries grow."

          1. Probably lingonberries, cloudberries or buckthorn berries, since all are popular in Scandyland.

            Bar comes from bär [pron: 'bear'] which means 'berry'. Stow simply means 'a location' [Edwinstowe, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Felixstowe are all places with a Viking component] The similar surname Bairstow has the original pronunciation and etymological root.

            In Sweden, a cherry is a körsbär [pron: 'shers-bear'].

          2. We went to see the memorial to the British and the allied service men under British command who died at the Normandy landings. It was very moving.

            On our way there we went to Tracy-Bocage – a tiny village from which the Tracey family came before going to England with William the Conqueror.

          3. Memorial to the dead British and the dead under the command of the British at the Normandy landings.

            Each silhouette represents a person who died on June 6th, 1944

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a84a58a8f2bb56070aaf771b91ea0579841706983ecdd9ab20742ffc62619e5f.jpg

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/991ae98e528c8b21954dc975240e7572fa580c07d658b6ed7f385428d0a1fa08.jpg

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2614fba3e2b0ba2fe8d37d8616e6222951f02a6ca6e103cdbcf4f266293b6940.jpg

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/346039b87b4421c15bc531afd7d2c8b6845cc4dce507e53705f841a6776fa1e1.jpg

          5. We were keen to get to see it while it was still there.

            It was certainly impressive and very moving.

          1. I know that, I have a brother with the same name. I am talking about the original of surnames.

            Does yours have a priapic root?

          2. Yes it does. Though not the surname i have now. My family name is derived from Potok 'kite' (Old English *putta 'hawk kite'.

            No wonder you like me. I'm a birdie.

      5. Sir Alec was originally Lord Home (pronounced Hume). He gave up his peerage following Quentin Hogg's example (ex Lord Hailsham). I hope I've got the names right.

    2. Richard Austen 'RAB' Butler, Enoch Powell and David Davis were just three of the outstanding candidates for Conservative leader of the past 70-or-so years. Unfortunately for the country, all three were considered "not suitable material" by the gin-sozzled halfwit Ruperts of the 1922 Committee.

    3. Jenrick seems to be their next choice, Rastus…hmm…think his mouth's a little too pert….:-D

      1. Another clown. All the candidates are two- (or three-) faced liars And eco-freak limp dumbs. Not a true conservative to be seen.

        1. Tend to agree. Patel just been online, at least trying to sound tough :-D….they could do worse than search here for a candidate, Bill….

  60. Walked in to work today. The bus caught up with me just as I arrived so nothing gained but a bit of exercise.

    The Glyndebourne production of Carmen at the Proms last night was high on musical quality but low on presentation, which to be fair is par for the course these days. I had a good seat but the subtitles were displayed at the wrong height for my varifocals. I managed to read though and am convinced that the English translation was dodgy. Not because my French is anything other than minimal but because I've read this work in English before!

    The cast had very good strong voices and sang beautifully but the acting left much to be desired until the final scene when Don Jose strangled Carmen, which they, err, pulled off very well. I went up to the Gallery in the interval to see some friends who'd decided that this Carmen was an Essex girl straight out of TOWIE. They weren't wrong.

    Apart from a matador costume for Escamillo, the wardrobe mistress seemed to have either bought a job lot in Primark or asked everyone to just wear any old stuff they could find at home. Micaela was trousered and generally got up like a tourist in Benidorm but if I didn't look, she sounded perfect. The kiddie chorus also sang very well.

    All in all a good evening and finished earlier than advertised. I was home by 10 pm. I only have to travel from Kensington to Hammersmith but it's too far to walk so helpful when the buses arrive on cue.

    1. Sounds an excellent evening, Sue, including the TOWIE Murder Mystery…one to dine out on 😀

      1. TOWIE means "The Only Way Is Essex (UK TV) – 426 episodes. Never seen it, someone on here will know.

        1. The only way to be/do what? Be a moron? Be a slapper? Have an IQ with a negative score? Be a complete and utter waste of space/oxygen?
          I was going to ask if people actually watch this shit, but knowing how many knobheads there are in this day and age it would be a rhetorical ,if not pointless, question.

          1. It ran for 30 seasons (series in English). That speaks for itself. I don't think I ever saw a complete episode either.

        1. Aha. That looks like it might be something so far-removed from my sphere of interest that it might as well be situated on Pluto.

  62. Thought of the Day.

    Isn't a government that wishes to ban smoking both inside and, now, outside shooting itself in the foot?

    Tobacco is one of the most highly-taxed commodities. I thought they would be encouraging it.

    1. Old saying from my family, Grizzly…'tha' knows what thought did.'…seriously, much more to come from the Starmer Quango now calling itself our government.

      1. Me dad used to say that an all, Katy. He also said, "Tha' can allus tell a Yorkshireman … but tha' can't tell him much."

        1. Tha can tell ‘im nowt (especially if it was dad)…:-DD election time, he had a sign on the front lawn ‘no hawkers, no canvassers, no ******* politicians’……

          1. See all, hear all, say nowt.
            Eat all, sup all, pay nowt.
            An' if tha' ever does owt for nowt …
            Do it for theesen.

          4. Much more of this I’m going to need a copy of Yarkshire Dictionary, Grizz…I think there is one online somewhere……When I first read John Clare poems, many years ago, quite a few words in his Glossary I recognised from listening to my paternal grandparents. Once saw a turn of the century photo of Breton fishermen, dead ringers for my grandfather – high cheekbones, steely eyes, waxed moustache and most of all strong forearms…possibly no surprise my DNA shows me to be shall we say not the full English :-D…ahl ave thi no…..

    2. They're going to legalise and tax cocaine and heroin instead. C'mon, you wouldn't put it past them?

      2. 9 out of 10 toilets on the Westminster estate tested positive for cocaine. If they tax it they will then just claim it back on expenses.

    4. They are up to something else, but it's hard to see exactly what at the moment. It has the feel of a psyop. Utterly pointlessly annoying people.

    5. It won't stop people smoking at home or behind the bike sheds. They'll still buy their ciggies regardless.

  63. Deeply sinister (and not merely in the heraldic sense)…

    Toby Young
    How to exploit a crisis
    From magazine issue:
    31 August 2024

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/TobyWebPA.jpg?resize=1536,976 Rt. hon. Peter Kyle MP

    The phrase ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ is often attributed to Winston Churchill, but it’s something the left is better at than the right. Take the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a lobby group that campaigns for more online censorship run by Imran Ahmed, a former adviser to Hilary Benn and Angela Eagle. Earlier this month, the CCDH held an ‘emergency’ meeting to discuss the role of social media in fuelling the public disorder that followed the murder of three girls in Southport, and on Tuesday it published the policy recommendations that emerged from that meeting.

    The most eye-catching of these is that the Online Safety Act should be amended so Ofcom can apply for ‘emergency powers’ during a crisis that would allow it to demand social media companies remove content that poses a threat to national security or the health or safety of the public. It wouldn’t be Ofcom that decides what type of content falls into this category. Rather, under the CCDH’s proposal, it would be up to Peter Kyle MP, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, to direct Ofcom when applying its new supercharged censorship powers.

    You might think: ‘So what? Hate speech should be removed from social media.’ But the difficulty is that ‘hate speech’, along with related terms like ‘fascism’ and ‘extremism’, is often used by people on the left, including those in power, to justify censoring the views of their opponents. For instance, the Soviet delegation to the UN’s Commission on Human Rights in 1946 argued that the free speech clause in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should not protect ‘fascism’, which it defined as including any defence of western capitalism or democracy. Then there’s the Southern Poverty Law Center, a US non-profit that publishes a list of ‘extremists’ that includes the political scientist Charles Murray and once included former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson.

    The CCDH is no slouch in this respect, either. The word ‘hate’ in its name appears to cover a multitude of sins, including ‘misinformation’ about Covid-19, which it campaigned against in 2020; ‘climate denial’, which it targeted in a report published earlier this year; and the Federalist, a mainstream conservative news and opinion website, which it urged Google to demonetise. Incidentally, the CCDH’s efforts to demonetise right-of-centre news publishing sites are often successful. It boasts of having helped to shut down Westmonster, an online publication set up by Aaron Banks, the co-founder of Leave.EU, and Michael Heaver, a former aide to Nigel Farage.

    How seriously will its latest recommendations be taken by the government? Judging from the attendees of the ‘emergency’ meeting, very seriously indeed. According to the CCDH, they included ‘top officials’ in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Home Office, Ofcom and the Met’s Counter Terrorism Unit, as well as representatives of the Community Security Trust, Tell Mama, the Incorporated Society of British Advertising and current and former MPs. If that doesn’t sound influential enough, it’s worth noting that the CCDH was set up in 2018 by Morgan McSweeney, head of political strategy at No. 10. He is listed on Companies House as the original ‘subscriber’ of Brixton Endeavours, which the CCDH was called before it changed its name in 2019, and was the first person to be appointed a director, a position he held until 2020.

    Kyle is a close confidant of Sir Keir Starmer’s and, judging from interviews he’s given about the shortcomings of the Online Safety Act, it’s a safe bet he’d be in favour of amending it to grant himself the power to order Ofcom to remove content that, in his view, poses a threat to public safety. Nor should we be reassured by the CCDH’s stipulation that he would only be allowed to exercise this power during an ‘emergency’ or a ‘crisis’. Those terms, too, have a remarkable tendency to expand to suit the agenda of our would-be censors. For instance, we’re frequently told by environmental lobbyists that we’re in the midst of a ‘climate emergency’. I can easily imagine Kyle persuading himself that ‘climate denial’, which the CCDH defines as ‘arguments used to undermine climate action’, is causing significant harm to the health or safety of the public and issuing a directive to Ofcom to remove this dangerous ‘misinformation’.

    You may think I’m being unduly alarmist. But never underestimate the ability of the left to exploit a good crisis to crush their opponents.

    [P.S. For anyone interested in handwriting, here's Kyle's signature

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/Peter_Kyle_MP_signature.svg/248px-Peter_Kyle_MP_signature.svg.png ]

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

    Julian Hodgson
    a day ago
    Not at all alarmist. To effectively hand a functional non-entity like Peter Kyle powers to censor social media is chilling in the extreme.

    Tibbs Portland Cushion
    a day ago
    I don't think you are being alarmist at all, having watched what has been done by Labour to the people who watched, re tweeted, things about the protests surrounding the murder of little girls I believe there is no depth to which they will not sink to shut down dialogue or dissent in regards to their style of government, or the ideology it is imposing on the population.

    jollyfarmer
    a day ago
    Someone did say that when the Fascists return, they will call themselves "liberals".
    Starmer is a Davos man.

    1. Is this Center for Countering Digital Hate an English quango?

      Shame they can't spell it in English!

    2. "Public disorder that followed the murder of three girls in Southport". No mention of what causes murders of this nature to becom ever more frequent of course. Shout about the effects. Never discuss the cause. Charles Murray is of course the author of The Bell Curve. No surprise that the Southern Poverty Law Center want to shut him down. Waterstones will order a copy. Worth having before they're prevented from selling subversive books.

  64. Want a cheer up? Watch Hitler Parodies (YouTube) trying to make sense of Kamala Harris……

  65. Do you know the story about the first screening of Death in Venice for its financial backers? One them said that he couldn't believe he'd paid for a movie about a man chasing a young boy's ass and another remarked that the music was good though and asked who wrote it? When informed that it was Gustav Mahler, he exclaimed, "Gentleman, sign him"!

  67. Q: How would you improve the quality of MPs?

    A: by having a prohibition on them taking any new employment, other than previous sources of (pre-MP)income, for a period equal to their time in the House.

    1. or

      A: by having a prohibition on them taking on the task of MP, unless that have beenpreviously employed in a non-potical business/organistion and have report from that company which describes their
      Ability
      Work Ethic
      Responsibilities held
      etc

    2. No ex lawyers, no-one who has never held a responsible job in industry, no-one with a degree in political studies, psychology, sociology or media studies..
      Your answer Lewis presumes they are already MPs and that becomes a condition of employment – my answer is preventing them from becoming MPs in the first place

        1. I told our younger son to leave his media studies 'A' level off his CV if he wished to look like a credible applicant and be taken seriously. Years later he is now a Principal Design Engineer.

    1. Will you be permitted to smoke whilst being cremated?
      Possible loophole in Labour's plan to live healthily by not smoking!

  69. Draper Expert 18 Piece Metric Socket Set | Ratchet Tool and Case | 3/8" Square Drive | HI-TORQ MM/AF Sockets | DIY Home Professional and Car Kit |Hand Tools | 16359

    An Amazon deal £23.25 -16% now £19.49

    It is a Back to School deal

    1. Thankfully, I have one. I just had to turn the garage upside down to find it. At the same time I found two other items that I thought MOH had given away. In that belief I bought a new one – now I have three! 🙁

  71. OT We have a lockable room in the garage – where we keep drinks, tinned food etc. I went in just before lunch to select a beer, and, as I opened the door, out came Pickles…. He must have followed the MR into the store when she put away four jars of freshly made tomata. That was about an hour before lunch. To say that Pickles was pleased to see us would be the understatement of the week!

          2. It was from Geoff. He likes malt . I ..er don’t. Perhaps next time i should do a tombola. Wish i had more time to speak with you

  72. I spoke to a psychiatrist, the father to the doctor who owns the next-door house. We found we had some common ground, in both being twice-married, and still with our second …

    He said " do you know the secret to happiness?"

    "No", I replied.

    "Simple", he said, "marry the second one, first!".

    1. Marry later in life. You've a better idea of who you are and what you want. I'm still a prickly, thin skinned sort, but I am vastly more patient and self aware than I was 10 years ago.

      The Warqueen has always been more switched on than most others. She's still hurt by the snide comments of the school gate crowd though.

  73. Nice bit of gossip doing the rounds in yer France. The Russian trillionaire owner of "Telegram" who was arrested in France and is charged with heinous crimes is claiming "close friendship" with Toy Boy. Toy Boy claims never to have met the chap. I suspect this may run and run.

    However, in the interest of accuracy – and knowing Toy Boy's predilection for pretty faces – I thought it right to show just how unattractive Mr Durov is…(in a manly sort of way…!!!)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d65060879c963370962f553565b87b8add9521c4023722e3b078b297a3201d0.jpg

    Obviously no possible connection between his ugliness and Toy Boy's denial….

    Larf a minute, yer French.

        1. Toy-boy has a plethora of possibilities…how does he keep track? Perhaps Maman runs his diary.

    3. In a (leaked?) press report he is said to have fathered over 100 sprogs. Busy, busy boy {:^))

    1. hmmm.. after the initial giggle.. the uneasy feeling sits in your stomach that this sketch will return in five years time with the caption.. omg, not far wrong..

  76. Pilot killed after first F-16 crash since delivery of jets last month. 30 August 2024.

    One of the F-16 warplanes that Ukraine received from its western partners to help fight Russia’s invasion has crashed, killing the pilot, Ukraine’s Army General Staff said on Thursday. The fighter jet went down on Monday during a major Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine, a military statement posted on Facebook said.

    The scuttlebutt is that it was shot down by a Ukie Patriot battery.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/30/ukraine-war-briefing-pilot-killed-after-first-f-16-crash-since-delivery-of-jets-last-month

    2. Funny how the rabid non smokers want smokers banned.
      If they feel that strongly why don't they go to another pub?
      What gives them the sense of entitlement that says their rights/preferences outweigh the rights of others?
      If the publican finds he makes more money from banning smokers than he loses by allowing them it's his decision not that of some jumped up holier and more special than thou non smoker. And the worst are usually ex-smokers.

      I write as one who has never smoked but brought up by parents who did.

        1. Good for you, one of the fine exceptions to my observation;

          Every reformed smoker I know tends to be very intolerant of anyone smoking nearby and I admit I don't like to be downwind of them, particularly if they are puffing strange smelling vapes.

          That said, if they are smoking somewhere that it isn't banned, that's their right and if I don't like it it's up to me to move..

  78. Daniel Hannan: The shameful story of how a Vote Leave volunteer was hounded by the Electoral Commission

    If you doubt the malign power of our quangocracy, consider the horrifying case of Alan Halsall. Halsall is the entrepreneur who bought Silver Cross Prams out of receivership and turned the company around. He is a big, enthusiastic, cheerful man, impossible to dislike.

    Because Halsall happened to be the volunteer who signed off the paperwork for Vote Leave, he became a target for those who wanted to overturn the result – or, at the very least, to lash out at the winners.

    And that impulse came, not only from Remain irreconcilables but, disgracefully, from organs of the British state. For four years – four years, think about that – Halsall’s life was turned upside down by what now looks like an obviously politicised investigation by the Electoral Commission.

    The charges were trivial. No one was claiming that the amiable Lancastrian had connived to cheat, let alone engaged in false accounting. In effect, he was accused of filling in some paperwork incorrectly.

    But that did not stop the Electoral Commission pursuing a vicious campaign against him which culminated in his hearing on the Today Programme, with only 15 minutes warning, that his file was being referred to the police – all the more astonishing because the Electoral Commission had declined to talk to anyone from Vote Leave (though it falsely claimed otherwise on air).

    Eventually, the police found that he had no case to answer. But try to imagine what it is like, day after day, month after month, waking to the knowledge that you are under criminal investigation. Imagine what it is like to have to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds – far more than you would have been fined had you actually been guilty – clearing your name. The process is the punishment.

    The whole sorry episode is recalled in Halsall’s memoir, Last Man Standing. It is a short book, cantering through his life before the referendum and the campaign itself before taking the reader matter-of-factly through the abominations that befell him afterwards.
    *
    *
    https://conservativehome.com/2024/08/28/daniel-hannan-the-shameful-story-of-how-a-vote-leave-volunteer-was-hounded-by-the-electoral-commission/

    1. I believe somewhat due to cases like this that Toby Young set up the Free Speech Union. Lawyers work pro bono, it's an organisation worth supporting. (Also, it was in Lockdown Sceptic, again Toby Young, (now Daily Sceptic) where I first read it suggested Covid wasn't what it was cracked up to be by various governments/organisations.) So for me, TY should be Journalist of the Year, for the last few years.

        1. Thanks very much, kowloonbhoy…is it OK to forward to others, please? I noted a few names there they’ve protected, eg Posy Parker…

    2. Remainers wash themselves each morning in pig manure; non-Christian sect remainers may choose horse manure instead for religious reasons!

      1. I had the pleasure of living in Edgbaston for 5 years. Jess, just like Clare Short have no idea what they are doing.

  80. Germany deports Afghan migrants after talks with Taliban

    All the deportees were convicted criminals

    A chartered jet took off from Leipzig airport shortly before 7am local time on Friday, headed directly to Kabul. The decision came three months after Olaf Scholz promised to start sending migrants back, despite safety concerns in their home countries.

    It will never happen here

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/30/germany-deports-afghan-illegal-migrants-taliban-secret-talk/

      1. Well echoing 6 – 7 mins, in that case, 2TK is not my Prime Minister and he is a fascist to boot as well. So there.

        Not my Prime Minister. Not my Prime Minister (repeat to fade)

  85. Article today in the DM about premium bonds. It says the average pay out is 4.4%.

    My Nationwide bond matured yesterday at a rate of 5.5%.

    The average payout from premium bonds over the same period was 8%

    Someone is telling porkies.

    2. Assuming you are referring to your own experience.
      Don't forget that not everyone wins, and that some do rather better, eg those who win the big prizes, you happen to have been lucky.

      Your round I believe.

      2. I just hosted a party where some of the guests were Nottlers.

        I ended up with more booze than i started with. Two bottles of Vodka, countless bottles of wine, a crate of Abbots Ale and a crate of San Miguel, a bottle of Champagne and a bottle of Tobermory Malt.

        I was serving Pimms Punch !

        I think i am developing a business idea. :@)

  86. This will be fun. It's a tradition that goes back to the 12th century but was cancelled in the 19th because it was said that the Bartholomew Fair "attracted licentiousness". The fair was revived last year by the Corporation of London as a one-off to mark the 900th anniversary of the founding of the priory and hospital and the debate went down so well that it's happening again this year without the fair. In the Middle Ages it was a theological debate of course but it long ago became political.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/54fa159dbc29bb450d92a6ea09790b878232c6a87060fddc3d3a0f8cdcce5b54.png

    1. They couldn't get a single Bishop to argue that Christianity is not socialist? Appalling. Still hopefully the MPs will wipe the floor with the socialists.

      1. It's a bit much expecting modern day bishops to be anything but left wing. They don't get appointed unless they tick the diversity/right on box.

          1. It was a leaving present for my Grandad when he retired as Chief Telegraphist for the GPO in 1932

  89. A roguish Birdie Three?

    Wordle 1,168 3/6
    🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Well done. Double bogey here.

      Wordle 1,168 6/6

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

    2. Just back from fishing, took me a while to suss this one. Wish I'd seen your hint first.

      Wordle 1,168 5/6

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

    3. Well done Rene – bogey boy here……

      Wordle 1,168 5/6

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

  91. Just found some delectable stickers of Margaret Thatcher on Amazon – the background being a Union Jack. Will affix one to a blank postcard and send one to 2Tier, tout de suite. I guess he must be missing that portrait by now.

  92. Bit late . . .
    Wordle 1,168 4/6

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

    1. I am even later but I hide behind the time difference.

      Wordle 1,168 4/6

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

  93. That's me for today. Half way through picking (yet more) raspberries, I was stung by some small, black biting thing. Didn't wait to identify it. Great lump appearing on my arm. So I shall rest until it goes away – with a glass of special medicine to hand.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – if I survive.

      1. Yes. AND the MR – my live in nurse, cook, companion….without whom life would be worthless.

      2. +1 for Sudocrem, Sue. My poor stumps spend at least 18 hours a day in silicone gel-lined stump socks (which obviate blisters and are far more comfortable than cotton (Terry) socks alone), but they have a tendency to repay me with a sweat rash.. Daktacort has helped in the past, but I became aware of Sudocrem only in the last few months, and they're now much happier. I guess it was adult nappy rash… 😟

        1. It is indeed wonderful stuff! I’ve been using it for 40 odd years and it rarely fails! Doesn’t irritate skin either!😁

        2. If one day you find the sudocrem isn't doing the job, may I suggest you try a honey dressing….

    1. He really is a weakling, can you imagine Maggie backing down like this?

      1. I think she plagiarised the title of a Christopher Fry play and replaced a B with a T.

    5. Why did nobody accuse him of hate against women, for wanting to remove the portrait of the first female PM of the UK? Double standards, or…?

        1. In due course, when the mad Mullahs take over.

          Even then they will state they they were lying, to allow Islam to progress.

  100. Story so far: Our grandson turned 10 in March. He became totally deaf at 4 and has had cochlear implants. This enabled him to hear enough for him to learn to speak and was doing really well at school in the circumstances. However in the last 6 months he has lost control of muscle power in his jaw and also the ability to control his hand movements. He is unable to get his words out or even use sign language and cannot write. Eating solid food is very hard for him. The school teachers and his friends can't understand what he is trying to say and this state of affairs has meant that he takes his frustrations out on his mother violently. There are no speech therapists in the county and long waiting lists in neighbouring ones. He is being taken for an assessment today but I fear a very bleak future is in store.

    He was given an appointment in Cardiff to see a neurologist, the same one who saw him at the time he went deaf. She had recently been asked by the local team to arrange an MRI scan but she refused as it would have meant the cochlear implant team would have to be involved to avoid damage to his hearing.

    As his symptoms have suddenly worsened before Christmas, losing control of his legs at times he was in desperate need of a proper diagnosis. She cancelled the appointment this week at the last minute.

    He has been prescribed a sort of milkshake which contains nutriants so he can get something inside him as he is losing weight and energy to do anything that a lively 9 year old wants to do like playing football and doing gymnastics. The chemist can't get sufficient quantities to keep up with the prescriptions however.
    A wheelchair will need to be ordered.

    Now we were waiting for another neurologist to call and arrange an urgent MRI in Wrexham.

    —————————

    Update 1: What a week it has been. My daughter and I at last got an appointment for my grandson with Neurology in Cardiff. Suddenly they realised that further investigation was urgently needed and an MRI scan was to be done pronto ie this week. However it would involve removing the magnets in his head so they could get a clear brain image then the MRI and also a lumber puncture. It would require all teams to be available plus a free bed on the children's ward. There was a junior doctors' strike also on that week and being Easter holidays there would be fewer staff at work. By Sunday night nothing had been heard so we were feeling that nothing was going to happen.

    Late Monday afternoon she got a call from Cardiff. It was one of the surgeons who started by saying "just ringing about tomorrow". It seems everything had been organised … apart from notifying the patient!

    Just back home now. Patient in bed fast asleep. All procedures done.

    He has to wait until Sunday to try his Cochlears so we won't know if his hearing is affected. In the meantime communication is very hard work.

    This morning you would never have thought he had had surgery 2 days ago.
    Up at 7:30 and off to play football in the snow with his uncle for a couple of hours and then dragged uncle into a hotel for a big breakfast. He now has a mobile phone. I am messaging him on Whatsap. I think he will cope for a few days with no hearing.
    —————
    Thank God his hearing was back as soon as he put on the cochlears.

    His regression in motor skills and eating difficulties have remained about the same but his speech has deteriorated a lot more. He has finally had an appointment in May to see the consultant neurologist.

    He is now being referred to Gt Ormand Street hospital as all tests to find out why all this is happening to the poor child have been exhausted by the Welsh NHS.

    ———-

    Update 2: And now the dreadful news we all feared. His condition will never improve. I attended an appointment with his mother last week to tell us the outcome of his genetic tests.

    A very very rare genetic disorder (DDON) passed only to males by females with this condition.

    Symptoms are early loss of hearing and dystonia and later in life blindness. Early onset has brought about survival only into teens. There is no cure.

    His Mum writes:

    My heart feels so worn, I'm so totally broken
    With whispers of worry, a child bruised and torn.
    Each word is a battle, each moment a fight,
    Yet silence surrounds us, a void in the night.

    I watch as he struggles, my heart aches in pain,
    A mother’s deep sorrow, a love wrapped in chains.
    Where are the voices that once filled the air?
    The people who promised to be there?

    They say they’re just busy, caught up in their days,
    Yet laughter and plans seem to fill up their ways.
    I sit in the shadows, the tears freely flow,
    While they share in the joy that I long to know.

    I reach for connection, a hand to hold tight,
    But find only echoes that fade loudly into night.
    The world moves around me, a blur of delight,
    While I’m trapped in this stillness, alone in the fight.

    Each heartbeat is heavy, each moment so long,
    With no one beside me to help me stay strong.
    The fear wraps around me, a shroud I can’t break,
    As I cradle my child, my heart’s arching ache.

    They say they’re not good at reaching out to share,
    But I’m lost in the silence, the weight of despair.
    And though I keep hoping for miracles to bloom,
    Reality lingers, a dark, heavy room.

    In this deep sorrow, I hold on so tight,
    To the love that I carry, a flicker of light.
    For my child is a warrior, brave, fierce, and true,
    And I’ll stand in the shadows, my heart beats for you.

    —————

    Meanwhile the young man continues with life as best he can with a smile that melts everyone's heart.

    Now he is recovering from chicken pox!
    After staying the night with us he suddenly decided he wanted a cooked breakfast so I took him to the Lakeside café where we ordered a "small" breakfast and milkshake.
    I divided in two. He demolished the sausage egg bacon tomato beans mushrooms and hash brown and finished the large strawberry milkshake with marshmallows cream. You would have thought he hadn't eaten for a week (he hadn't). I was sooo pleased to watch him.

    Back to school next week, which will give his mother a bit of a break as she is a blubbering wreck as you can imagine.

    2. My heart aches for the young man and his mum and the rest of his family. Words are not enough in these situations. I am so sorry.

    3. So sorry, RT. When it gets to the bit on Sunday morning where we are invitied to pray for someone on our mind, "Rusty Twig's Grandson" will be featured. Bigly…

        1. Really there are no words for a situation like that. Like the others, I'll say a prayer for you all on Sunday.

    4. Oh, my God, man.
      Poor wee lad, it's heartbreaking to read – worse, of course for you and parents who know and love the lad. I wish I could come with something comforting, but I can't – in fact, teared up here after reading that.
      On the side, at least he has an experience all others of his age has – fcukking chicken pox!

    5. That's heartbreaking. The lad's problems (and his mother's) put our "problems" into perspective.

    6. How dreadfully sad, Rusty Twig. My heart goes out to the boy, his mother, you and his family and friends.

      Tomorrow morning I shall ask my Rosary group to pray with me for him and also of course for his mother and family.

    7. Such a huge sadness for a young man, and his mother and family. Sending love and good wishes to you all, and the strength to face the future.

    8. I know for the most part we are virtual friends but we feel your pain. I am so very sorry.

    9. Oh goodness. A situation so sad and poignant that it renders all words pointless.
      I really feel for all of you, especially the lad himself.
      How absolutely tragic.

    11. That was so sad to read. I can't begin to imagine how it must be for you all.

      Share hugs, hugs, and more hugs at every opportunity; for him, his mother and father and all around the family.

      It doesn't cure anything, but it connects you physically and emotionally.

      God bless you all.

    12. Poor bugger has certainly drawn one of life's short straws.
      I hope he improves and is able to live a more normal life.

      1. They say not unfortunately and there is a worry about our two sons as well now as they would have inherited the bad gene.

        1. So very, very sorry. It's always a thousand times worse when some illness hits a child and infinitely more so when he's your own kith and kin. You have my deepest sympathy.
          May I suggest that your daughter & son in law might consider joining some established group such as
          https://www.ataxia.org.uk/ who will have accumulated experience dealing with the authorities about support.
          The online pages about DDON suggest that inheritance is 50%, but that is clearly from a very small sample. In the not too distant future it should be possible to detect a range of genetic variations during pregnancy via non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT, using a sample of the mother's blood or placental tissue to look at foetal DNA), but that of course would raise ethical questions. (edited slightly)

        2. So very, very sorry. It's always a thousand times worse when some illness hits a child and infinitely more so when he's your own kith and kin. You have my deepest sympathy.
          May I suggest that your daughter & son in law might consider joining some established group such as
          https://www.ataxia.org.uk/ who will have accumulated experience dealing with the authorities about support.
          The online pages about DDON suggest that inheritance is 50%, but that is clearly from a very small sample. In the not too distant future it should be possible to detect a range of genetic variations during pregnancy via non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT, using a sample of the mother's blood or placental tissue to look at foetal DNA), but that of course would raise ethical questions. (edited slightly)

  101. 2TK orders faux arrest to dispel myth of two tier policing..

    British human rights activist and reporter Sarah Wilkinson was arrested by UK police on Thursday morning, and subsequently released, allegedly for content she published online in support of Palestine and against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

    1. Roger Waters gets angry.. (now).

      “We know that these are policies that Keir Starmer doesn’t agree with … This is wrong. If you allow this to stand, the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson and the persecution of my friend Craig Murray among others, then you have absolutely accepted that England is now a fascist state. 1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom. Over my dead body.”

      Different now, eh Roger?

      1. There's another way of looking at it. Max & Co have to pretend be on the side of the Israelis merely for effect while they set about banning all anti-immigration debate.

    2. Roger Waters gets angry.. (now).

      “We know that these are policies that Keir Starmer doesn’t agree with … This is wrong. If you allow this to stand, the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson and the persecution of my friend Craig Murray among others, then you have absolutely accepted that England is now a fascist state. 1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom. Over my dead body.”

      Different now, eh Roger?

  102. Garden is looking good for late August:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0937d72a75fead51ec90b848886cc69bd68f587b0c2e5bfeca4c09ca0eca7b0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/213fb8e89373e468f3f4e3f98a0e1ec03623e4c79b6069f04c0e5c1b80f81342.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d202177bb2853ff5fa60fa3098e76491e0f6f1d000819b207a1164890025003.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f2edcd65ea075277ac2677d0cde4728b7007ad51d3f9d1cfca60264a288f80c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/202ea3c9aaa4ead69be1c803c76945d68a89eb6602075e93c9fc37077aa2a796.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24408ec94fce7b1ebc6612195b47fef89c6ac6282cc48502299daf77e35a6902.jpg

      1. I don’t do a lot Bill, just buy and then plant them. The Head Gardener does the dead heading because First Assistant Gardener, (i/c picking up heavy things and anything classed as ‘icky’) “doesn’t do it right and misses some”.

    3. Lovely. Though the last one makes me think of England and St George. Which could give you a prison sentence.

    4. Beautiful Begonias. Used to grow 6 tubs of them, that lined the garden path, when I was able to garden, love them. Like that rose too, what is its name?

          1. It keeps looking like it’s going to chuck it down and then suddenly brightens up.

        2. David Austin, good roses. Don’t like his reconstruction of old roses very much, they tend to hang their flowers as if they were to heavy. Had three of those and gave them away. Pity because I really like the idea.

      1. Jess represents in Yaaaardlay. She asked if the Hamas supporters could be removed while she felt she should have more local brummees cheering for 'er when she scraped through on election night.

        The stupid fucking bitch is ignoring what is going on in other areas of Birmingham and still expects to be elected. Take a look at the Demo's in the suburbs. All either black or muslim.

  104. So despite everyone falling on hard times after just a few weeks of a Labour government, they have still managed to rake up £ 84 million in aid for the Middle East and Africa.
    I wonder if they have to negotiate a 250 page form in order to claim it, like the pensioners have to in order to claim their heating allowance?

  105. Refugee among men jailed for part in disorder
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74j7yx5lg9o

    It's telling that Mr Elmuoden required a translator in court. Did he understand so little English that he had no idea why white people began the riots or was he staying safe by joining in with people who we are told would like to have killed him? Or does the case show that people just like to riot, whatever the cause?

    Mr Elmuoden might be able to claim ignorance. This one can't. He's simply a dunce!

    Rioting student 'destroyed' chance of becoming lawyer
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y8gx20zy6o

  106. 'Ants are everywhere': Labour MP's tenants reveal condition of flats
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyg1j0lv1go

    A Sikh. Oh dear. The language in the report would be much more strident if he were a Tory. Ten years ago, the media, especially the Guardian, were reporting on the terrible conditions of Eastern European migrants in Wisbech.
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/08/wisbech-migrant-workers-exploited-gangmasters-eastern-europe
    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/16/fear-anger-wisbech-cambridgeshire-insecurity-immigration

    One case, reported by BBC East, featured a Conservative councillor as evil landlord. It didn't ask any questions as why so many were prepared to put up with the squalor.

    2. It's pure trouble-making by the BBC. Where there's a landlord, there's a tenant complaining about mould.

          2. Ebenfalls, at least that’s what I think ‘ditto’ is in German (or ‘likewise’) but mine was only 55 years ago…. johnny come lately!!

          6. Muß i denn, muß i denn
            Zum Stadtele hinaus
            Stadtele hinaus
            Und du, mein Schatz, bleibst hier?
            Sei mir gut, sei mir gut
            Sei mir wie du wirklich sollst
            Wie du wirklich sollst
            Weil ich kein Holzherz habe

          7. Dont know that one, but I do like Marlene (albeit in English only)…

            Falling in love again
            Never vonted to
            Vot am I to do
            I cant help it!!

          9. Ah yes, thank you, now that makes sense – I'm not a huge Elvis fan but my wife is so I sort of know a number of his songs by osmosis……

          10. It’s the bit of cod-German sung by Elvis Presley (63 years ago!) in his song, Wooden Heart.

    2. I had a bowl of Oasis soup today for lunch at the pub.

      I asked 'Why is it Oasis soup?'

      They said 'You get a roll with it!' (I'll get me coat….)

  111. Evening, all. Been a lovely day but I've had to be inside. I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to put the shredder together. The instructions seemed to assume that one was an old hand at assembling such things. It is now put together and only needs oil and petrol for the big start up and shredathon. Unfortunately, that is going to have to wait a while as I don't have any free days for the next fortnight 🙁 As it can't be operated in the wet, I may not be able to dispose of any prunings until Christmas.

    We haven't had an effective opposition for decades; they've all been singing from the same score. Why anybody should think things will change now is beyond me.

    1. It may work so well Conway you'll try other things…you ever watched Malcolm in the Middle….:-DDD

    2. Oh dear!
      Electric or petrol?
      Not used mine for a while, but it worked ok last time I used it.

      1. Well, I think the clue might be in the phrase "only needs oil and petrol" 🙂 It does have an electric starter (with arthritic hands, I wouldn't like to rely on the pull start, although the generator has one. I suppose in the case of needing the genny, the adrenaline will give me the strength).

    3. You must have a hell of a lot of paper to get rid of

      (Once working, if we send you TT Starmer………)

      1. I have a big garden, OLT and the council is about to start charging me extra to have my green waste taken away. I have too much for the green bins to cope as it is.

        2. My council (Blackburn with Darwen) has been charging me extra for the 'brown bin' (garden waste) for a number of years now and, you're right, the bin isnt big enough for my needs – I do numerous additional runs to the council tip myself.
          Still, local authorities, great value for money, eh??

          1. I have decided I already pay too much for what little I get (the most useful thing is the green bin collection and that's only once a fortnight), so I am not going to cough up. I am going to shred everything and compost it.

          3. That's why I've bought a shredder – hopefully it'll take the hard work out of doing it.

          4. We take our stuff to the tip – every couple of weeks in the summer. We don't pay for a garden bin – we have far too much for that. Another car load ready for Monday.

          5. Our tip, whilst saved from closure in the latest round of cuts, has started to operate an appointment system. I'd rather compost my waste (and dig it into the garden to improve the soil for my veg).

          6. Ours started to do that during the lockdowns – it's actually quite efficient and no longer are there long traffic queues waiting to get in or get by.

      1. I meant change in terms of an effective opposition rather than change in the nastiness of government. There are always people who get their rocks off on making others miserable.

  112. Give BoJo his due, he has a way with words:

    I bet Maggie's portrait is glad it no longer has to share an office with Starmer Chameleon – the only PM in history to look at the world through sleaze-tainted specs

    1. I suspect MT very happy at the thought of no longer sharing an office with B Johnson, sos, I know I would be…..

      1. That too, but I liked “Starmer Chameleon” and some of his articles can be amusing, even for a buffoon.

  113. I see that Labour has managed to push the value of the pound up, so the tax taken from us will be even higher

  115. It’s an American sitcom, about a family (father is Bryan Cranstone/Breaking Bad, if you’ve seen that) with a handful of boys who all do outrageous things seemingly with the purpose of annoying their long suffering mother (Jane Frances Kaczmarek). Depends on your sense of humour, I like it find it very funny and so do my grandchildren.

  117. Bad stuff going down in Ireland

    Enoch Burke
    @EnochBurke
    BREAKING: Four Gardaí have arrived at the Burke home to arrest teacher Enoch Burke after he refused to endorse and affirm transgender ideology.
    It’s a sad and dark day when the Gardaí, many against their will, are tasked by the courts with denying citizens their constitutional rights.

  118. Well it's 10 pm, so I'll now wish you all a Good Night, chums. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

    1. 392690+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Every payment to france has the strains of the chinese laundry blues in the background.

    2. 'Morning, Geoff – and a lovely one it is too here, hope it's the same with you and that you're doing well 🙂 Lol, Kate x

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