Friday 30 September: Tax cuts are not to blame for this long-overdue economic reckoning

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments 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.

713 thoughts on “Friday 30 September: Tax cuts are not to blame for this long-overdue economic reckoning”

    1. Morning, all. Ugly autumnal start here in N Essex, overcast, damp, misty and likely chilly – I haven’t ventured out as yet.

  4. Tax cuts are not to blame for this long-overdue economic reckoning

    Considering virtually every other country is suffering the reckoning it would be very shallow of politicians to pretend it is because of something our government has done.

    But they do like the public to only look at events from the small pond perspective.

  5. ‘Morning All

    Funny Old World

    https://twitter.com/Jamin2g/status/1575426537419055106?s=20&t=z9p98OyZAahLF3zK8Jc3Bw

    https://twitter.com/statsjamie/status/1575570052601982976?s=21&t=Z1NM2ZV91sxRz0gogQ8jhA

    Almost as any excuse will do to try and bring down the government with the MSM leading the charge………

    Liz Truss is left reeling with Labour soaring into record 33-point

    poll lead as she prepares for crunch meeting with budget watchdog TODAY

    and Tory discontent at her budget chaos grows – but she REFUSES to

    U-turn

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11264999/Liz-Truss-left-reeling-Labour-soaring-record-33-point-poll-lead.html
    I don’t trust Truss as far as I could throw her but at least she’s upsetting the right people

    1. Morning Rik

      What’s really sickening is that those IMF dweebs who are haranguing HMG wheedled a deal for themselves whereby they pay no Income Tax.

  7. Russian warships and submarines spotted near sabotaged Nord Stream pipeline. James Crisp. 29 September 2022.

    Russian Navy support ships, a warship and submarines were spotted close to the Nord Stream pipelines before the suspected sabotage of the gas supply links to Europe, it has emerged.

    European security officials spotted the boats on Monday and Tuesday. Underwater explosions were registered on Monday evening and four major gas leaks were caused by the “unprecedented” damage on Tuesday.

    In a separate incident, Russian submarines were seen not far from the area in the Baltic Sea, which encompasses Danish and Swedish territorial waters last week, CNN reported.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    Greg O’Neill.

    Telegraph editorial meeting this morning:

    …look chaps, the comments under the Nordstream story have been getting out of hand recently. A lot of the public seems to be engaging in independent thought and logic and this is not what we want. Where have the Nudge Unit Organic Commenter Team been to push the narrative along? I know it’s a tough ask, given how it was obviously the A…sorry, where was I? Yes, Crispy has been given some ‘objective facts’ from someone in NATO to work his magic on and we need to make sure the message isn’t derailed. Anyone step out of line – tell them they’re a Russian troll. You know the drill. ‘What’s the weather like in Moscow, Vlad?’ etc. Maybe ‘what’s the weather like in Irkutsk?’ For variety.’ ‘Bloomin’ cold!’ interjects Crisp to muffled laughter. ‘Yes, James. Now good luck out there everyone…’

    Mr O’Neill’s witty satirical thumbnail rings true. I particularly liked the sly dig at the detail in Crisps article. It is all hands to the pumps now to obfuscate the dreadful reality that the Americans blew up this pipeline. To support it on the threads is to confess to being a troll. Many that I’ve only suspected of being part of 77 Brigade have confirmed it by supporting this ludicrous story about Russian involvement. In Mr Crisp’s case that he is yet another MI6 shill foisted on the MSM.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/09/29/nord-stream-russian-warships-submarines-spotted-near-sabotaged/

  9. “They don’t like it up ’em”

    Leicester police not happy bunnies with Douglas Murray

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.contentstack.io%2Fv3%2Fassets%2Fbltf04078f3cf7a9c30%2Fblt935ff96d60f51767%2F633565a5336df11e17fef2fb%2FScreenshot_2022-09-29_at_10.25.jpg&w=1920&q=75

    Sir David goes on to impress upon me and my editor that his police force

    carries out such violence ‘very well with the thugs they confront

    keeping the King’s peace’. I am pleased that the chief constable of West

    Midlands Police has finally called the gangs on the Leicester streets

    ‘thugs’, but aside from this his letter does not impress me.

    Nevertheless it went down quite well among some other members of the police. They

    congratulated him for standing up for his men, women and LGBTQ+

    officers. Among those to praise his ‘brilliant’ letter was Louisa Rolfe,

    assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police. She added to Sir

    David’s ‘offer’ and boasted: ‘We have room in a carrier for you’ – that

    is, me. She also claimed that it was especially galling to read my words

    after various men and women had been injured keeping the peace among

    other warring tribes in multi-ethnic Britain. At this point there had

    also been fights on the streets of London between police officers and

    various Iranian groups.

    Naturally there are a number of things to say about this. First is that

    it is a demonstration of a modern British delusion – which is that it is

    much easier to criticise anyone identifying a problem than it is to

    deal with the problem. If the chief constable of West Midlands Police

    was as threatening towards various Islamists as he is to me then I

    suspect he wouldn’t have all of the issues he does in his area. But

    then, he leads a force which 15 years ago had a memorable reaction to a

    Channel 4 film exposing jihadist speakers in its area. How did the West

    Midlands Police respond? By arresting the jihadists and prosecuting them

    for incitement? Why no, West Midlands Police responded by going after

    Channel 4 for having the temerity to bring these incendiary preachers’

    remarks to public attention. Quite a set of priorities that force has.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-m-in-trouble-with-the-police

    1. If Douglas Murray had used Social Media to threaten David Thompson, the Chief Constable of West Midlands, with being “put on his backside”, his front door would have been kicked in sharpish. His feet would not have touched the ground until he was inside doing five years.
      May one wonder if Sir David was on the streets with his officers when they were failing miserably and comprehensively to deal with violent rioting?

      1. Builder arrived. Worried about rain – will do prep work only today. Do the main stuff Mon/Tues.

        MR now on way to Narridge. Just printed her boarding pass for the “flight” tomorrow – which we both expect to be cancelled.

        Cats sleep.

  11. Another, “…not me guv,” attempt at massaging history by a newspaper(sic). During yesterday’s The Highwire interview with Dr Aseem Mulhotra it was mentioned that the UK government spent around £500,000,000 on advertising with the MSM during the CV-19 panic.
    It’s Autumn, has this particular money tree started to shed its foliage early and therefore its ability to offer cover from the truth? Our money, their influence.

    https://twitter.com/DrJBhattacharya/status/1575513551019470848

  12. Katy Balls
    Labour surge to 33-point lead over Tories
    29 September 2022, 5:55pm

    Today Kwasi Kwarteng attempted to calm concerns in his party over the fallout from the not-so-mini Budget – telling MPs: ‘We are one team and need to remain focused’.

    That message is likely to face some resistance after the latest polling. Tonight the Times has published a new YouGov poll which gives Labour a 33-point lead. Yes, you read that right. It is thought to be the largest poll lead enjoyed by a political party since the late 1990s. It comes after a poll earlier this week gave Labour a 17-point lead. According to the survey, just 37 per cent of 2019 Conservative voters would stick with the party were an election held now.
    *
    *
    *
    ************************************************************

    PetaJ • 12 hours ago • edited
    I don’t think I have ever seen a witch-hunt whipped up against anyone quite as quickly as the one being whipped up in the media against Liz Truss. Democracy is stone dead and, manipulated by whoever their paymasters are, the fourth estate have killed it.

    Bill Rogers • 13 hours ago
    What a surprise! The first conservative government for 30 years implements conservative policies and provokes media frenzy, market opportunism – and even the totally impartial IMF says no. The polls respond as they inevitably will to this relentless onslaught. We must earnestly hope that the Truss government recognises this for what it is : the furious response of the globalist woke status quo determined to preserve the stranglehold they have held for 30 years. No doubt we can rely upon the Spectator to see through the Rishi tears and present the bigger picture.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-surge-to-33-point-lead-over-tories

      2. I would ask, “who owns Gov ?,” and why are they upset at Truss and Co?
        Let’s see if she holds her nerve on this issue and then continues to enable more sensible policies. If she buckles we’ll know that she is not comprised of the right ‘stuff’ and is likely to be Johnson in a frock. Getting rid of the Coronavirus Act would be a step in the direction of rehabilitating the Tory party with its core support and the nation as a whole.

      3. Mr Horse-Face Ashton. She of the origins of the current Ukraine troubles, on behalf of the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train and it’s current reenactment of Operation Barbarossa.

  13. Another, “…not me guv,” attempt at massaging history by a newspaper(sic). During yesterday’s The Highwire interview with Dr Aseem Mulhotra it was mentioned that the UK government spent around £500,000,000 on advertising with the MSM during the CV-19 panic.
    It’s Autumn, has this particular money tree started to shed its foliage early and therefore its ability to offer cover from the truth? Our money, their influence.

    https://twitter.com/DrJBhattacharya/status/1575513551019470848

  14. It used to be possible to write a cheque as a donation to HMRC – to voluntarily pay extra tax. Not many people did, of course but it was always an option. I’ve just tried looking up if you can still do it, but all the search results are concerned with gift aid or IHT. Nevertheless, maybe Mr Davies will have better luck than I (and all the other lefty-liberal luvvies who claim they want to “pay more tax”):

    “ SIR – I am a 45-per-cent taxpayer and will be significantly better off following the mini-budget.
    As a long-time Tory I can’t disagree with the concept of eliminating the 45 per cent tax rate, but it upsets me that it comes at a time when people I know are struggling to make ends meet due to the rising cost of living. How can it be reasonable that I am suddenly so much better off while others are having to decide whether heating or food is their top priority?
    Even if these tax cuts are the right thing to do, the timing is atrocious. Justin Davies”

    2. Very occasionally, I would have a ciggie after a meal. I gave that up, partly because it wasn’t that enjoyable, but mainly because I wasn’t prepared to give the government any more of my money to p!ss up the wall.

          1. 🙂 The garage at Allan Towers is currently full of carp. You’ve reminded me of another area to sort out!

    3. Justin Davies, then you go out and spread your money around via home improvements, buying stuff from local businesses etc to assuage your guilt.

      1. I’m prepared to bet he/she won’t be paying it.

        There was another good letter today about farmers and the bureaucracy they face (which they didn’t have in the pre-EU days). The point i’m trying to make is that people who have never tried to run a business, e.g. the MPs and bureaucrats who impose rules and paperwork on those of us who have to comply, have no idea of the cost of compliance with their form filling, not to mention the worry in case we fill one of their forms in incorrectly. All our Big State-loving friends might change their minds if they were in the receiving end of it, rather than the initiation end.

  17. There are new coins prepared with the likeness of our new King.
    The BBC report contains this paragraph;
    “The full inscription surrounding the effigy reads “CHARLES III • D • G • REX • F • D • 5 POUNDS • 2022”, shortened from Latin, which translates to “King Charles III, by the Grace of God, Defender of the Faith”.”
    Well, I do not agree. The inscription means “King by the Grace of God”. “Defender of the Faith” is a separate issue. DG only came in with Henry 8*. Elizabeth 1 of England coins had the DG on coins, not DF.

    *James IV of Scotland was given the title a few years before that,
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63073983
    https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces52478.html

    2. Well i would never put it past the BBC to a) get its facts completely wrong snd b) try to sh it stir.

    3. Someone was asking the other day if Charles would take over HM’s racing colours. The answer is yes; he had his first runner yesterday (it finished second). It seemed really odd to see the owner as “The King” after the usual “The Queen”.

  18. Good morning all.
    Overcast, but dry at the moment with 2½°C outside.

    A lot to get done, I’m heading towards Basingstoke today, then to Bridgewater to pick up a “Dividing Head” for t’Lad’s engineering workshop.
    Will probably get home Wednesday.

  19. Handy little cut out and keep calendar of the road ahead
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc654e771e8b7437d2f3fe8d5194cdd8a30b1caa08310842667909822d7c6178.jpg

    Latest supermarket deals
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8dc121dc84593dc5af2cad94bbcf0cd941c6028eb7e7ce418fca3aeb0c6b007.jpg

    Retirement planning…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39706d565df35310a64146041c7fbd3560a1292dbab6ae7790ff578c7eaef4e8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35d20d9a46f3d70daab14d989f4c2ff649db6abaf18483c5cfa2f96d630d2892.jpg

  20. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    A cool, still start to the day, with rain forecast later.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – A tax cut of £6 billion and cancelled tax rises of £40 billion equate to a fraction of the quantitative easing carried out since 2008 – just shy of £900 billion – and the cost of lockdowns – more than £300  billion.

    A reckoning was inevitable. Britain may struggle to service its debt, but this has been 14 years in the making. Blaming the tax cuts is disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst.

    Doug Smith
    Bovingdon, Hertfordshire

    “A reckoning was inevitable…” You can say that again! Successive governments have not heeded our growing pile of debt, and the Johnson-Sunak partnership in particular having enjoyed playing with the the spending taps (£37bn for Test and Trace for instance) just carried on regardless. Prudence was banished from the household some time ago. The longer she took to return, the harder it was to welcome her back. Even now there seems to be little emphasis on reducing public spending and clearing out the waste. The markets seem to agree.

    1. That was £500 for every man woman, child and dog in the UK. they could have hired teams of people to follow us all around for that money.

  21. Plucky little Ukraine is rotten to the core. 30 September 2022.

    In a 2021 index of world corruption, where the UK scores 79, Ukraine scores 32, just above Russia on 29. The Guardian has described Ukraine as ‘the most corrupt nation in Europe’. Writing in The American Conservative in April 2022, Ted Galen Carpenter states that ‘at best, Ukraine is a corrupt, quasi‐democratic entity with troubling repressive policies’.

    A BBC investigation in June 2022 on the plight of 100,000 disabled children imprisoned in 700 institutions in Ukraine exposed abuse on a monumental scale where children ‘are not treated as human beings, they are only kept alive’. Gerard Quinn, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, said this was a problem which long predated the war.

    President Zelensky has shut down 11 opposition parties and nationalised broadcasting, placing all TV channels under a single state organisation giving him total control over news and opinion. Meanwhile world leaders fawn on him.

    According to the German Council on Foreign Relations, from 2012 to 2016, $41million was directed from Privat Bank, owned by the oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, ‘through a series of intermediary companies into the accounts of Zelensky and Co’.

    When Ukraine’s nationalist government took power in 2014 it banned Russian as an official language in the eastern provinces, whose close ties with historical Russia are well documented. When the eastern provinces opted for self-rule the Kiev government bombed and shelled them for seven years. According to the UN’s Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights reporting in February 2019, the total number of conflict-related casualties between Ukraine and the eastern provinces was 40,000-43,000 from April 14, 2014, to January 31, 2019, including 12,800-13,000 killed.

    We are going to War over this?

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/plucky-little-ukraine-is-rotten-to-the-core/

    3. Why is our government unaware of this? Could it be that they do know but are following an undisclosed agenda? If so, Liz Truss is just as rotten as Johnson, May and Cameron and is not to be trusted.

      1. That’s exactly what sprang to my mind.
        I seem to remember that many of the children were the result of botched home abortions because Ceausescu had banned contraception.

      2. That’s exactly what sprang to my mind.
        I seem to remember that many of the children were the result of botched home abortions because Ceausescu had banned contraception.

    1. Morning BB. It places Vlad in something of a quandary. If he lets it slide he risks the possibility of further provocations. If he acts it will in effect be the breakout of the Third World War!

      1. I guess that is what the crazy Biden regime wants.
        Can’t believe it is what the American people want, but then I strongly doubt they voted Biden in.

      2. Pity Putin doesn’t present the logic of the situation, and the US naval activity in that location, and invite the world to work it out for themselves. US would find a lot of people not wanting to deal with them any more – who needs a mad dog “friend” like that?

      3. There’s a meme going around to the effect that the same people who brought in WWI and WWII are stirring to commence WWII.

        Meanwhile, there a thread on Twitter by @MacroAlfred, dated 18.47 on 29 September 22, which lays out the travails of the Bank of England’s tactics this past week.

        Perhaps the ‘sweet asteroid of doom’ or the poles changing polarity will seem harmless by comparison.

        1. There’s a meme going around to the effect that the same people who brought in WWI and WWII are stirring to commence WWII.

          Afternoon Feargal. People don’t change. They may not be the same people but they are the same type!

  24. SIR – The news that an investigation is to be carried out by Audit Scotland into the bidding process for the delayed Ferguson Marine ferries (report, September 28) comes as a shock, as it points to continued abuse of the tendering process.

    It appears that right from the outset there was a political desire that the ferries be built in Scotland. That is a worthwhile concept but not if it is achieved by bypassing all the norms of equality in the bidding process. Ferguson Marine had no experience in building ships of that size and complexity, nor, it would seem, the ability to build the two ferries at the same time, as per the contract. More importantly, it was unable to provide the financial guarantee that the contract demanded.

    In order to be certain that this contract would be awarded to fulfil the SNP’s political ends, Ferguson Marine appears to have been given access to vital information denied to the other bidders. This in turn put it in a “very strong position” according to Jim McColl, the former owner of the yard and a friend of Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister.

    Time and again there appear to be instances of pressures being applied, all to one end: to make sure that the SNP was seen to be capable of saving the shipyard from closure and delivering a major project on time and to budget – all good news just before an election.

    Unfortunately, everything that could go wrong did, and now there is talk of even more delays. We the taxpayers have lost out to the tune of millions that might have been used to good effect in the NHS. Islanders have lost out in so many other ways. The main loss is that of corporate confidence in a government that appears to have no qualms in interfering in a legal bidding process to fulfil its political ends. There is a very strong case for a public inquiry, not as suggested when both vessels are completed, but sooner as a matter of commercial probity. If that points to a police inquiry, so be it.

    Robin Johnston
    Glasgow

    Oh dear, no wonder the Fishwife has been rather quiet lately. Is the brown smelly stuff about to collide with the big whirly thing?

    2. The ongoing problem is sheer incompetence. This affects every facet of Scottish life. The local councils are incompetent and some are demonstrably corrupt. Many MSPs served as local councillors before stepping up. They take their stupidity and cupidity with them. As someone who has compiled a budget for boat construction, I have some slight knowledge of what is required. One of the deficiencies is that almost no one in politics could run a sweetie shop never mind understand a moderately complicated long term management operation like building boats. The politicians all know that whatever the outcome they will never be held to account.
      Audit Scotland is fairly useless. What have they been doing on this matter for the last several years? Audit Scotland do not take complaints or information from members of the public so it is no use contacting them with evidence of corruption, fraud or embezzlement. I’ve tried.

      Edit: PS I do seriously object to the pejorative use of the term” “fishwife”. Do you have any idea what the occupation of fishwife entailed? Any effing idea at all? I have never asked anyone to step outside for “further discussion ” but I happen to be in a reckless bad mood and take this very personally.
      From Wikipedia for your enlightenment.:

      “The Scottish fishwives of Newhaven had a reputation for their beauty and industry and so were celebrated by royalty—George IV and Queen Victoria. They were hard-bargainers though, and all the fishermen of the Firth of Forth brought their catches to Newhaven for the fishwives to sell in Edinburgh. The fishwives wore distinctive costumes of blue duffle coats covering layers of colourful striped petticoats with a muslin cap or other similar headdress. Their fish, such as haddock and herring, were carried on their backs in creels.”

      1. ‘Morning HP. Good grief, it’s even worse than I thought. It seems that even running a bath without flooding the place would be well beyond them.

      3. I thought the term referred to the fact that fishwives were gobby shrews working in a rough industry.

  25. sir – I was Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley for more than eight years. I agree that policing has lost its way (Features, September 29).

    Wokeness and the drastic reduction in police numbers under Theresa May have seriously damaged the force – all compounded by the direction in which the College of Policing is steering it. The crimes that most matter to people – violence and burglary – have been sidelined, and police have become more like social workers.

    Reducing household burglary is not difficult. Thames Valley Police reduced it by 60 per cent in Reading by relentlessly targeting known prolific burglars. If the detection rate for burglary is below 5 per cent, as it is in many areas, it is out of control. It needs to be above 12 per cent, and then burglary rates fall off.

    Anthony Stansfeld
    Kintbury, Berkshire

    And yet the police sail on serenely as if there was no actual crime to pursue. I thought PCCs were supposed to hold them to account?

    2. Is he an ex-PCC through his choice or the choice of the 15% who can be @rsed to vote in the elections?

      1. ‘Moaning, Annie. Just another expensive and unnecessary bureacracy. Here in yer Sussex our PCC seems to think she’s in some kind of partnership with the Chief Constable, instead of getting tough with her. Fewer photo-ops would be a good start, allowing time to be devoted to things that actually matter.

        1. He may have been one of the few worth his salt.
          It appears his decision to stand down from re-election was triggered by him getting slapped down when he tried getting investigations done into corporate fraud:-

          Thames Valley PCC Anthony Stansfeld ‘acted outside jurisdiction’
          The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for the Thames Valley became involved in civil issues outside his jurisdiction, a panel has found.

          A police and crime panel committee found Anthony Stansfeld should not have become involved in an insolvency matter after KPMG, one of the UK’s largest consultancy firms, filed a complaint.

          Mr Stansfeld said he disagreed with the panel’s findings.

          The Independent Office for Police Conduct will now be informed.

          Thames Valley’s police and crime panel (PCP) invited Mr Stansfeld to “explain his actions” after a complaint was made against him by David Standish and Blair Nimmo, from KPMG, and their legal advisers DLA Piper UK.

          The details of the complaint were discussed in a confidential part of the meeting and have not been disclosed.

          The panel upheld the complaint after finding the Conservative PCC “did not have the authority” of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, a national body of PCCs, to become involved in the matter.

          Responding to the decision, Mr Stansfeld said the panel had reached a decision on a subject “they know little if anything about”.

          “The duties of the PCP is to hold the PCC to account, but also to support the PCC. This my panel has failed to do.”

          ‘Impossible for panel to investigate’
          He said as the lead for fraud and cyber crime for the Association of PCCs, it was his duty to be concerned with the issue at hand after “thousands have been defrauded by banks, legal practices and accountants”.

          He cited the case of a former HBOS banker in Reading and five other financiers who were jailed for their part in a £245m loans scandal in 2017.

          Mr Stansfeld said: “Senior parliamentarians from both houses of parliament and from both major political parties support me in this.

          “A great many organisations and individuals have also written in to my PCP to support my efforts to see that victims of fraud are treated properly, fairly, and are recompensed.”

          He said it was “probably impossible” for the panel “to investigate complaints of this nature” and that “it should have the integrity to say so”.

          Mr Stansfeld was elected as Oxfordshire’s first PCC in 2012 and was re-elected in 2016.

          He previously announced he will not be standing at the next PCC elections in May.

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-55996081

        2. Now that Chief Constables are greasy careerists rather than retired military men who love this country, then the PCC sounded like a solution to the problem.
          Alas and alack, once again the career quangocrats have taken to it like pigs to troughs.

          1. The first thing our PCC did when the job came up was appoint a crony as deputy on an eye-watering salary. Crime rates have not improved. Indeed the current PCC said that their priority was “hate crime” (and by implication you could forget about burglars being arrested).

  26. SIR – Thank goodness for the Court of Appeal (“‘Human rights’ is no excuse for toppling statues, appeal court rules”, report, September 29).

    If the toppling of a statue is not violence or vandalism, then what is?

    Jack Marriot
    Churt, Surrey

    Precisely.

  27. SIR – At the opening of the Labour conference, delegates sang the national anthem. What a difference four days makes. It closed with the singing of The Red Flag.

    Stephen Howey
    Woodford, Essex

    Hahahaha…just for once I was right!

    5. We haven’t seen you here lately OLT – have a happy birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 and come back soon.

  29. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with blooded axe and sharpened longbow in handbag with marmalade sandwich. Yes indeed, tax cuts are not to blame for this long overdue economic reckoning. David Frost has said in the Telegraph that Liz Truss policies are sound but sadly her communication skills are dreadful.
    I would say her timing wasn’t brilliant either during the Labour conference, making Starmer look correct. Its a very brave thing to take on the financial, banking cabal and their little champagne cozy club who benefits from the status quo of over 30 years of incompetence.
    To do so in this savage age of hysteria and misinformation needed someone like Thatcher,
    some are saying In the Conservative Party that Liz Truss should be ditched.

      1. I believe she is a conviction politician who knows she cannot win an election in today’s world but just wants to try deal with over 30 years of Incompetence and the financial institutions, she needed excellent communication skills, she is a shy person and her communication skills are terrible .

          1. They knew of her convictions and were not the feral media, BBC, the markets and left leaning pollsters whipping everyone up into a frenzy.

      2. Maggie had a poor speaking voice. she had coaching to smooth it out.
        In today’s world with such an intrusive media, such actions are necessary.

          1. True. Johnson has a mellifluous manner and is charming and articulate; it still didn’t make him a good PM.
            The presentation was poor and I just hope ‘lessens have been learnt’. Cheap credit and easy frittering of public money is like heroin; the withdrawal symptoms are horrendous.
            (And, as we’re in the long drawn out process of selling our house, the headlines are not doing our BP any favours.)

          2. I trust that you will not have to employ the technique of ‘gazundering’ as house prices are, according to the msm, in freefall?

          3. If ‘gazundering’ means swearing every time you bark your shins on box full of books or crockery, then the answer is yes.
            🙂

          4. Stick with it, Annie. We went through 7 months of house purchase antics, until we and our buyer phoned our respective agents on both sides, to tell them we’d had enough and would be pulling out in exactly seven days unless exchange and completion happened before then. Half an hour later the crazy mover at the top of the chain said she would go into rented pending completion of her (half-built!) new house.

            Our pain, and our near-fatal rise in BP, were at least cushioned by the generous contribution of £15k from the chancellor…

    1. Google Claims Censoring Italy Election Winner Meloni’s Speech Was a ‘Mistake’

      Google-owned YouTube restored a viral video of a speech from the winner of the Italian election, Giorgia Meloni, claiming it was “mistakenly” removed from the platform. The speech went viral after Meloni’s win, but had been posted to the platform without problem since 2019.*
      *
      *
      *
      TH30PH1LUS Kevin K • 13 hours ago
      Funny how ALL the “mistakes” just happen to censor traditional conservative thought.

      http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/09/29/google-claims-censoring-italy-election-winner-melonis-speech-was-a-mistake/

        1. I watched an episode of Grand Designs the other night…you know, where some lunatic builds a structure that usually looks like a glazed warehouse or crematorium, is months or years late on completion and where the budget overrun would frighten even a Labour chancellor? Anyway, it included some ads by the retailer who is – now was – never knowingly undersold, which looked like a fabulous and highly exclusive job creation scheme for BAMEs. On this one occasion we forgot to record it and that was our punishment.

          1. We reckon those buildings look like they were designed as a small provincial airport – and utterly uncomfortable with it. I’d not like to live there.

  31. SIR – I am confused by the idea that our late Queen should have a statue on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square (report, September 29).

    Queen Elizabeth was such an important figure in our lives it seems bizarre that a lasting memorial to her should be a vacant plinth overlooked by Admiral Nelson. She needs a lasting memorial that immortalises her and symbolises the deep respect and love held for her by so many.

    Thomas Le Cocq
    Batcombe, Somerset

    SIR – It seems to be agreed that the Fourth Plinth is not the best site for a statue of the late Queen. An equestrian statue would best be displayed in a newly designed Parliament Square.

    As for the fourth plinth, the answer would be to commemorate the ascent of Mount Everest, the announcement of which coincided with the late Queen’s Coronation in 1953. A statue of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay would be a fitting tribute to the Elizabethan era.

    Lt Col Paul French (retd)
    Andover, Hampshire

    It’s a completely bonkers idea that a memorial of Her Maj should follow such illustrious items as a chicken and a pregnant woman!

      1. The fourth Plinth should be in honour of the Labour Party, BAMES, transgenders, Kahn, Climate Change fanatics and the like. It should remain empty, to remind us of their contribution to society.

    3. I think she deserves many monuments and her occupation of the fourth plinth would have the added benefit of preventing all the woke crap that keeps appearing.

  32. This made Oi larf; RL in the Daily Mail.

    “Following Tuesday’s column about the Old Bill ordering thousands of XXL trousers — sizes 40 to 56in waists — I heard from Roger Graham, a retired West Midlands DCI. He wonders what size they’re buying for the men.”

    1. Good morning Anne and everyone.
      Thanks for that; I shall mention it to a retired police acquaintance (ex DCI?) who looks in good shape.

  33. Good morning all.

    Does anyone remember when ‘The Markets’ went into meltdown following the Brexit vote? And the election of Trump? It’s strange how they seem to go crazy when anything vaguely conservative happens, but seem fine with massive money-printing and loading on of debts by socialist governments.

    Truss does need to do more to communicate how much better off people will be due to her policies – how about headlining the 1.25% increase to pay packets from 6th November due to the reversal of the NI increase? Maybe she should get JRM doing the rounds of the studios? He is good at dealing with the ‘When did you stop beating your wife’ -style questions that poor Liz had to endure on BBC radio!

    1. Yes, communication and preparation does seem to be a problem.
      Lord Frost also makes that point in the DT.

  34. SIR – I am old enough to remember farming in the days before we entered the European Union (“Cut countryside red tape, say rural voters”, report, September 27).

    In those days the government held an annual price review to negotiate with farmers a guaranteed minimum price for their products. If the market price fell below the guaranteed price, the government made up the difference.

    At the same time, farmers could apply for grants for capital projects. These were mainly paid as an incentive for production, but could equally be paid for environmental reasons if that was government policy. The system worked reasonably well for all concerned.

    Although it gave the final word on prices to the government of the day, an up-to-date system along these lines would allow the government to steer farming in its preferred direction, but give farmers freedom to make choices for their own farms, without the appalling bureaucracy of the current system.

    Lord Crawshaw
    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    SIR – Jeremy Clarkson and Lord Botham have highlighted the enormous amount of time farmers spend dealing with the extremely detailed bureaucracy imposed on them (report, September 27). Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Business Secretary, called for deregulation last April, and should in future ignore campaigns by the likes of the National Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who have far too much influence over farming policy and create mountains of documentation.

    Just like nurses and doctors, farmers are spending many hours each day on paperwork instead of what should be their primary job of food production. No wonder they work such long hours and many suffer mental-health problems. Over the past 30 years the ever-increasing creep of the environmental blob has left our food security dangerously reliant on imports.

    British farmers are perfectly capable of producing food to our very high standards and looking after the environment sustainably.

    Suzanne Greenhill
    Bishops Cleeve, Gloucestershire

    Good letters, though I wince at the use of the word ‘products’ Lord Crawshaw.  What’s wrong with ‘produce’?  (This morning I heard a mortgage broker talking about a ‘mortgage product’ again.  What is wrong with just ‘mortgage’ or, better still, ‘contract’??

  35. SIR – Sir John Armitt says heat pumps are a viable option for British homeowners (Business, September 29). I would welcome him to my house, parts of which date from the 17th century, and ask him to explain how I should do the required retrofit, and how much it would cost. Or he could go to my son’s flat in a tower block in London and give him some guidance.

    The obvious solution for both of us is to replace our gas boilers with electric ones. This would be cheap and easy to do, but economic madness while electricity is more than three times more expensive than gas. Until this pricing issue is fixed the housing stock will not be decarbonised.

    Dr Alan Hearne
    Woodstock, Oxfordshire

    You were doing well, Dr Hearne, until the last word in your letter!

      2. We had our chimney* swept yesterday! When I was little I worked in an insurance company. My job involved reviewing and coding applications for life assurance, including medical records. Lots of well-off middle-class ladies having D&Cs. Abortion was illegal back then.

        Yes, a visit from Sooty and Sweep!

          1. One of the first things I was taught in the MT yard at RAF Abu Sueir in 1950. After “adjusting tappets”…..

    2. “The obvious solution for both of us is to replace our gas boilers with electric ones.”

      Obvious perhaps for Dr Hearne and his son but not for the nation. Even if the extra electricity required could be generated, the demand for it would melt the grid.

  36. Mornin’ all.

    Yeardle – double bogey
    Wordle – par
    No time for Quourdle – off twerk 🙁

    #Yeardle #192
    🟥🟫🟧🟨🟨🟩🌟🌟
    🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔨🌟🌟
    https://histordle.com/yeardle/
    Wordle 468 4/6

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

  37. Mornin’ all.

    Yeardle – double bogey
    Wordle – par
    No time for Quourdle – off twerk 🙁

    #Yeardle #192
    🟥🟫🟧🟨🟨🟩🌟🌟
    🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔨🌟🌟
    https://histordle.com/yeardle/
    Wordle 468 4/6

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

  38. Martin Selves
    1 HR AGO
    It is unrelenting Tory bashing on Sky and the BBC. Can they not look out of the window, lift a finger, do a little research, even try a little investigation and behave like a journalist, and give a balanced view of the UK position today. Instead it is Truss the wooden, Truss the hopeless, and the Tories have the worst Polling Numbers ever. They wont even have time to blush if the pound recovers back to 1.17, when they start on another leg of fabrication and terror tactics. Does any other Country have a MSM like ours?

    Hear, hear Mr Selves. Yesterday I spent over 6 hours driving up to Aylesbury and back, and in order to protect what is left of my sanity every ‘news’ broadcast was avoided like the plague.

    2. However it seems impossible to avoid British bashing. Last night on the pretext of talking about WW2 singer Emili Sandè went out of her way to slag off British colonialism in Kenya.
      I think she was trying to suggest the country like many other African countries would have been more successful and worldly today if the Whiats had never been there. She found, which seems quite easy, an elderly couple who sat moaning outside their tin shack. Even suggesting that the Mau Mau uprising was a good thing.
      It seemed to me that Kenya was fortunate the brits put down the up rising. And reset the forward path for the people of that green and pleasant land. They might have ended up like parts of present day South Africa and Zimbabwe.

      3. If the trillions in aid had been properly spent, every single sodding Efrican would have clean hot and cold water and proper sewage systems in their mud huts.

        Instead, their jungle-bunny “leaders stole the dosh.

    3. However it seems impossible to avoid British bashing. Last night on the pretext of talking about WW2 singer Emili Sandè went out of her way to slag off British colonialism in Kenya.
      I think she was trying to suggest the country like many other African countries would have been more successful and worldly today if the Whiats had never been there. She found, which seems quite easy, an elderly couple who sat moaning outside their tin shack. Even suggesting that the Mau Mau uprising was a good thing.
      It seemed to me that Kenya was fortunate the brits put down the up rising. And reset the forward path for the people of that green and pleasant land. They might have ended up like parts of present day South Africa and Zimbabwe.

    4. I used to work with a Martin Selves in 1997/1998. Nice chap. I often wonder if it’s the same one.

    1. Apparently, its a price worth paying to support the Ukes. Of course, they were just talking about the increase in what we pay for energy and the £2.3bn for arms. What was avoided was mentioning the £100bn or so on the taxpayer tab and the personal grief arising from the turmoil in the housing market, not to mention the price crash that’s on its way and likely recession across Europe. Oh, and a bit of nuclear war thrown in. Inflation and interest rates would have changed without the war but would have hopefully been more controlled. As I have said before, not a price worth paying in my book. Even worse, there will be a Lab government in 2 years.

  40. The smelly stuff s hitting the fan over in the USA.
    A FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request has uncovered a vast amount of detail including $350,000,000 in patent royalties paid over 10 years to Fauci et al.
    Other revelations show that China is highly implicated in CV-19: not only the possibility of a lab leak but in testing and manufacturing the “vaccine” and becoming deeply involved in the technical side via a deal with BioNTech, a company linked to Pfizer.

    Naomi Wolf and Steve Bannon discuss the revelations (about 26 minutes) here

  41. Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    PayPal backs down and reinstates the Free Speech Union’s accounts

    On 15th September, FSU General Secretary Toby Young was notified by PayPal that it was permanently closing his personal account, as well as the accounts of the Daily Sceptic and the Free Speech Union, both of which he runs (GB News). The reason cited in all three cases was that the accounts had violated PayPal’s ‘Acceptable Use Policy’. Not that that really gave any clue as to the specifics of the alleged misdemeanour, because as the Mail explains, the policy “contains numerous ‘prohibited activities’ including transactions involving illegal drugs [and] stolen goods”.

    The closest we came to an explanation was a message from ‘executive escalations’ in the company’s European HQ in Luxembourg, which included this sentence: “PayPal’s policy is not to allow our services to be used for activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance.” (Spiked). Confusingly, PayPal then told the Times that it had demonetised all three accounts because the Daily Sceptic was guilty of spreading ‘misinformation’ about the Covid vaccines. Even more confusingly, that would constitute a breach of the company’s ‘User Agreement’, not its ‘Acceptable Use Policy’ – so why start out by accusing us of violating the second, not the first? Toby’s suspicion was that someone at PayPal simply didn’t like his politics and had removed his accounts for that reason, without bothering to create a proper alibi (Spectator).

    Perhaps they didn’t think they’d need one; that an organisation like the FSU would go gently into the night, just like so many others it has financially bullied in the past (Critic). They hadn’t reckoned on our General Secretary. After breaking the news of the FSU’s demonetisation on GB News he “went to war”, writing about the episode for the Spectator, Spiked and the Telegraph, undertaking interviews (Disruption Banking, Laura Dodsworth), encouraging his social media followers to boycott the company and making guest appearances on various TV and radio shows (GB News, News NTD, Sky News Aus). The story quickly gained traction. (Breitbart, Epoch Times, GB News, Mail, Spectator, Spiked, Telegraph, Times), and across the British media the company’s actions were roundly condemned, with thousands of people subsequently taking to social media to declare they were cancelling their accounts in solidarity with the FSU and UsForThem, an advocacy group set up by a group of mums to lobby against school closures during lockdown which was also deplatformed by PayPal (Mail).

    The political pushback was similarly ferocious. According to the Sunday Express, politicians “reacted with fury to PayPal’s actions, with one Conservative peer saying she had ‘never seen so much cross-party outrage’ over the move”. Danny Kruger MP took to the floor of the House of Commons to ask a question about PayPal’s actions, and, just as importantly – and pointedly – about the regulatory environment in which companies like PayPal presently operate (Epoch Times). Baroness Fox raised the issue – to loud cheers – on BBC1’s Question Time (you can watch a clip here).

    Dozens of MPs and peers from across the political divide – including 21 Tory MPs and 15 Tory peers as well as four crossbench peers, a Labour peer and a Labour MP – also wrote to Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, urging the government to hold PayPal to account and pointing out that the “common theme” among the organisations and individuals to have had their accounts closed — the Free Speech Union, the Daily Sceptic, Law or Fiction, and UsforThem — was that they were all prominent “champions of free speech” who have expressed “critical, non-conforming views on lockdown policies”. Understood in that context, they suggested, it is a little difficult “to avoid construing PayPal’s actions as an orchestrated, politically motivated move to silence critical or dissenting views within the UK”. Mr Rees-Mogg then gave an interview to the Telegraph in which he accused PayPal of trying to cancel the FSU, and told the company that it must now “justify its behaviour” (also Express, Independent).

    Less than 24 hours later, the accounts were reinstated (Mail, Telegraph) (UsForThem’s account was reinstated over the weekend). At 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, PayPal notified Toby that it had restored all three of the accounts it cancelled a couple of weeks ago — the FSU, the Daily Sceptic and his personal account (Spectator). In each case the email explained that these accounts had in fact been under ‘review’ and that after ‘input’ from its ‘stakeholders’, the company had decided to lift the block (Spiked).

    Have you been affected?

    The FSU will now phase out PayPal from its payment systems. We sent out emails to all our members who are using PayPal to process their membership dues last Tuesday 20th September, asking them to change their payment details. If you did not receive a notification email from us, then you don’t need to take any action. Conversely, if you did receive an email from us and haven’t yet taken action, we would be very grateful if you could change your FSU payment method to one of our alternatives: credit/debit card or direct debit. In order to do this, please log in to your FSU account, click on “My Subscription”, then in the “Actions” box click on the yellow “Change payment” button and select a new payment method. If you experience any difficulty with this, please contact us directly on admin@freespeechunion.org

    FSU to campaign on the issue of financial censorship

    The fact that PayPal has reinstated the FSU’s accounts is welcome. But what happened to our organisation shouldn’t be dismissed as some sort of aberration. As we hurtle towards a cashless economy, it’s part of a global trend towards weaponising Big Tech and financial services systems to suppress dissent of every kind. We saw it in the case of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shutting down the Freedom Convoy earlier this year. But there are other, less high-profile instances of people with dissenting views being deplatformed by companies like Patreon, CrowdJustice and GoFundMe. Nor should it be forgotten that the PayPal account of U.K. Medical Freedom Alliance – an organisation that raises perfectly lawful questions about Covid vaccines – remains frozen. (As in Toby’s case, the head of the UKMFA, Liz Evans, has also had her personal PayPal account closed.)

    That’s why the FSU will now be lobbying the Government to develop a legislative mechanism capable of preventing Big Tech companies headquartered outside the UK from censoring people or groups in this country for the expression of legal but dissenting views (or, as in the case of the Free Speech Union, for simply defending those who express legal but dissenting views).

    If there’s a positive to be come out of this it’s that the publicity generated by PayPal’s actions has brought the wider issue of financial censorship to the attention of both Houses of Parliament. The Telegraph , for instance, reported that financial services companies could soon “be banned from blocking the accounts of campaign groups for political reasons”. That’s because Conservative backbenchers are apparently “considering launching an amendment” to a parliamentary bill that would effectively ban companies from freezing campaigners’ accounts. One source quoted in that Telegraph article said that ministers are likely to accept an amendment. If that’s true, then this could be a big moment in the fightback against financial censorship.

    But legislative work takes time, which means that we need to keep that pressure up, mobilising the extraordinary public opposition to PayPal’s recent behaviour to tell our politicians that we don’t want a Chinese-style social credit system to be rolled out across the West, the only difference being that instead of the Chinese Communist Party enforcing ideological dogma, it’s woke capitalist corporations based in California.

    Using the Free Speech Union’s campaigning tool to write to your MP is a great way to keep up the pressure and remind legislators that there’s strong feeling on this issue among the public. So if you’re as outraged as we are by PayPal’s attempt to cancel the Free Speech Union and other groups, please use this tool to send a template email to your MP, urging them to ask a question about it in the House of Commons. The process only takes two minutes, and the link is here.

    New study reveals multiple threats to free speech on campus

    Researchers have found that more than a third of students think free speech is “threatened” on campus, and that many also perceive a “chilling effect” that discourages open debate. The study, by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, is based on two new representative surveys of UK university students, amounting to almost 2,500 respondents, as well as several representative surveys of the general public that were carried out to identify where views on these issues diverge between the two groups. The study was also designed to allow comparisons with a previous survey carried out in 2019 to reveal trends in attitudes and perceptions since then.

    Focusing on the study’s finding that 34% of students now say free speech is either “very” or “fairly threatened” in their university, the Mail declared that “free speech on campus is under threat”. The Guardian, meanwhile, was quick to spot that that left 65% of students that believe campuses are places of “robust debate” — hence the paper’s headline that “Most students think UK universities protect free speech”. That might be true, but, as the Mail points out, the 34% figure has risen from 23% in 2019, which represents a 47% increase in the proportion of students worried about threats to free speech on campus.

    Sifting through the report’s other findings, it also becomes clear that the intensity of feeling among students who say free speech on campus isn’t under threat has weakened over time: in 2019, 30% felt that free speech on campus was “not at all threatened”, while in the latest data that figure falls to just 18% ­– a 40% decrease. Relatedly, the primary data reveals that 25% of students “very or fairly often” hear of incidents at their university where free speech has been inhibited, a proportion that was just 12% back in 2019.

    The Telegraph and GB News focused on the fact that half of students now feel that those with conservative views are reluctant to express them at their university – that’s compared to just 37% who felt the same in 2019. This perception has grown most among students who say they’d vote for the Conservative Party, rising from 59% to 68% over the last three years. It’s a finding that’s been repeatedly corroborated over the years. A 2020 report from Policy Exchange, for instance, shows that self-censorship in British academia is over twice as high among conservative academics in the social sciences and humanities than among those on the left (23%). More recently, in January 2022, a study by the Legatum Institute discovered that 35% of British academics surveyed self-censor, with levels twice as high among conservatives.

    The King’s College London research found that majorities of students support specific elements of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill when these were put to them, such as a policy requiring universities and students’ unions to maintain codes of conduct relating to freedom of speech.

    The Bill is scheduled to resume its journey through Parliament next month and is designed to strengthen protections for free speech and academic freedom in English universities. We believe it cannot be passed too soon. To ensure that further debate of the Bill is informed by relevant evidence of the free speech problem at English universities, and strong arguments for how it can be resolved, we’ve recently sent our latest briefing about it to allies in both Houses of Parliament. Over the next few weeks – hopefully not months! – we’re looking forward to engaging with those allies to make sure that the free speech protections contained in the Bill are as robust as possible.

    You can find our previous briefings on the Bill here and here.

    New survey explores reaction of PayPal customers to the FSU’s cancellation

    During the period that the FSU’s PayPal account was suspended, campaign group The Democratic Network carried out a survey designed to trace attitudes towards the payment processor among its customers. In total, 3,172 people took part in the survey, all of whom had PayPal accounts. Of those taking part, 1,872 support the work of the Free Speech Union and/or UsforThemUK, 745 oppose that work, and 388 described themselves as “neutral”. The results show that as news of the US company’s actions broke, the vast majority (86%) of supporters stopped or reduced their use of PayPal. Within that group, 45% stopped using PayPal temporarily, 31% cancelled their PayPal account altogether, and 20% reduced their use. Does this indicate that boycotts might be one way for people to fight back against politically motivated financial censorship? Possibly, although if any FSU members who are also academics are reading this, it would be interesting to see an attempt to replicate these findings in a much larger quantitative study.

    Also worth noting is that when asked about their experience of problems with other organisations, 7% of supporters said that they had experienced payment problems with other organisations or payment providers in the past two years, while 21% had experienced other problems with Big Tech companies over the same period. Interestingly, these figures rose to 8% and 30% for opponents, which suggests to the report’s author that they may “have sympathy with the problems experienced by the FSU and UsforThem, even though they may not know enough about them or actually support them”.

    The FSU’s packed schedule of events this autumn!

    Our book launch for Andrew Doyle’s The New Puritans was a sell-out event this week. Members can still buy signed copies of the book at a special rate, using this link. If you missed it, we’ll be publishing the video very soon.

    Register here for our forthcoming Online Speakeasy with comedian, writer, actor and presenter Jack Dee on Wednesday 12th October and here for our Online Speakeasy with historian, author and television presenter Neil Oliver on Wednesday 9th November.

    You can see a calendar of all our events on our Events page. As that is a public page, you cannot book members-only events via that route, so do please look out for regular emails from FSU Events for full details, including links for tickets and registration. Members who have opted to hear about FSU Events should have received an email this week. If you have not received this, do check your inbox, including your junk folder, and get in touch if you can’t find it there, using events@freespeechunion.org.

    We have two excellent sessions at the Battle of Ideas Festival taking place in London in two weeks’ time on the weekend of the 15th and 16th of October. Toby will be speaking on a packed panel, debating Online Safety vs Free Speech on Saturday afternoon and the Free Speech Champions will discuss Winning Young Hearts and Minds on Sunday afternoon, with panellists including Professor Alice Sullivan and Rod Liddle. Members can access special discount tickets by entering the promo code FSU-BattleFest2022 at the top of the ticket page. Do come and say hello to us at our stall where we’ll also be selling some merch.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    And a warm welcome to all those people who joined in the past couple of weeks because they were so horrified by PayPal’s attempt to cancel us. You will be getting your welcome packs in the post within the next fortnight.

    Best wishes,

    1. Thanks for posting, Griz. I would have thought that being both sinister and incompetent at the same time is difficult, if not impossible. However, PayPal have proved me wrong.

      1. Oh. I don’t know, Hugh. The Labour Party are both sinister and incompetent. I think they set the standard!

    2. Have you been affected?
      Yes. I now no longer have a Paypal account, and never will again. I will never contribute to those buggers again.

      1. I started an account with them a few years back in the UK since I have bank accounts in the UK and here in Sweden. This was to enable me to easily make purchase in the UK. For some obscure reason, only known to Paypal, they could not reconcile (understand) that it is possible for a non-Swedish speaking Englishman to have an account in the UK but an address in Sweden. Every time I tried to purchase somhng in the UK using mt UK bank account, the twats at PayPal insisted on communicating with me in Swedish.

        I rang them at their European HQ in Ireland and asked them why they couldn’t move into the 21st century like all other financial establishments had done? I did not get a sensible answer so I told them where to go.

  44. The £ and $ have stabilised and the markets are seeing how things pan out whilst the € is atrocious, its a wide ranging financial issue and not helped by the Ukranian / Russian conflict.
    It a bold thing to take on the financial institutions, in reality Prime Minister has had no individual power over the economy for over 30 years and its all linked with the EU and world wide issues, and bad decisions, none of those the fault of Liz Truss. The financial institutions don’t like their cozy status quo bubble burst. We need to be weened off cheap money and growth is utterly important.

    But alas we have the press, media , BBC, left leaning polls, etc causing hysteria and sending out misinformation without full facts for their own agenda. But admittedly Liz Truss has dreadful communications skills ( regardless of her convictions) and her timing is also dreadful both of which are meat for the mindless feral dogs.

    1. Absolutely correct.
      If I may…… you might have also added yapping, barking, snarling and howling like mindless feral dogs.
      Where is Atticus Finch when you need him ?

    2. Spot on, Ethel! For 30 years our 650 MPs and 800 Peers have been coasting. They are out of practice when it comes to decision-making.

  45. Morning all 😉
    Not too bright today.
    Friends coming to collect us later and we’re all out to lunch. Looking forward to catching up and putting the world to rights. As people of our age group tend to do. 😉
    Slayders.

    2. That’s ‘cos we have all been round the block a few times and have seen it all before.

      Enjoy your lunch!

  48. I would be interested to hear from Latin pedants about the new coins that have been announced today.

    Up until the reign of George VI, the monarch’s name has always been in Latin, in line with the titles “Deo gratia, fidei defensor, and rex or regina. This convention was broken with Elizabeth II, who used the English form of her name, rather than the Latin ‘Elizabetha’. It seems that the new king is now following this break with convention by adopting ‘Charles III’ on the coins, rather than ‘Carolus III’.

    1. To coin a phrase, I don’t care, jeremy, I rarely see or feel coins anymore. I use cash at the pub, but there’s never any change left when I leave.

        1. Not a bad likeness though – you can see that he’s carping away about climate change and too many peasants building their beastly little houses on his countryside.

        1. Me too. My first thought was shirley half a crown was two and six not two pounds and ten shillings. Really dates us, doesn’t it?

    5. At age 73, somehow I doubt there will many re-issued with updated profiles, unlike with his Mother who had five.

    1. I just collect them and shove them in one of the pre-paid envelopes and post the over-weight item back so the recipient has to pay excess postage.

  50. 365695+ up ticks,

    Question,
    If there was a general election today who would be the winners ?

    Answer,
    MAP / PIE

    1. Well, that’s today’s fact. I always thought nerines were Jersey Lilies.
      Oh, and Mrs. Langtry.

      1. There do seem to be different views. I always thought nerines were Jersey lilies, the story being they were washed up on the coast there after some shipwreck. But now there is this story that Amaryllis were named after Lily Langtry because she was born there. Who knows!! I suppose it confirms that accurate Latin naming is the only sensible approach.

      2. There do seem to be different views. I always thought nerines were Jersey lilies, the story being they were washed up on the coast there after some shipwreck. But now there is this story that Amaryllis were named after Lily Langtry because she was born there. Who knows!! I suppose it confirms that accurate Latin naming is the only sensible approach.

  53. Good morning all,

    The weather is closing in .. quite quickly.

    Have a few things to do before the weather breaks .

    Simon Jones
    @SimonJonesNews
    ·
    21m
    The MOD says 499 migrants in ten boats were detected in the Channel yesterday. They were brought to shore in Kent.

    https://twitter.com/stan_deasy/status/1575768995189297154

    My main concern is that we have several fields in the village that will probably be built on soon , nearly 1,000 homes.

    Villages atound here have already been extended .

    Migrants are noticeable now in places like Weymouth and Poole and Bournemouth , they huddle and shuffle in groups .. mostly males .

    I cannot see these illegal people becoming carers or nurses or even doctors , vets. I cannot imagine such an arrogant male dominated culture even wanting to clean the soiled bottom of an elderly person who requires care in the community, nor feed or wash a helpless patient .

    2. I’ve just come back from Manston. That was the complaint of one of the volunteers at the Spitfire Museum. Building on green fields to house illegals. It isn’t only us that’s complaining.

    1. That’s a jolly useful box in the bottom right corner of the pikkie. Would store a good few books.

  55. Just learnt a new word in Dutch meaning splendid, stunning, brilliant – Schitterend.

    Can’t wait to chat up the new young barmaid – she is definitely Schitterend.

    2. Sing this to her at Christmas.
      “Schlittenfahrt, Schlittenfahrt
      Schlittenfahrt im Schnee
      Unser Schlitten fährt uns heut
      Über Tal und Höh”

  56. Good morning all, autumn has arrived. Just glad I cut the grass yesterday, as the forecast is wild, wet and windy for the next few days. And as for the weather…

    1. We were offered (and declined) fried grasshoppers in Uganda – they are regarded as a delicacy. They could have used last year’s plague of locusts as protein instead of spraying them. Nothing wrong with using available insect protein, so long as it’s not pushed on us as a means of reducing meat consumption.

      People can and do live without consuming meat but it should be a matter of choice, not compulsion.

      1. 365695+ up ticks,

        Morning N,
        I was in Hima Uganda when the rains came flying ants etc
        washed of the roof and would be a foot deep along the wall,
        they were eaten by the locals ,
        on the hoof, them and liver on bike spokes over charcoal set one up for the day

    2. Yet the Russians are the bad guys for exporting grain to Africa. We’re living through the looking glass.

    3. Africans to eat bugs, including school-age children

      I hear that 8-year old schoolchildren are particularly tasty … especially when barbecued and accompanied by a Chablis.

  58. What is an Islamic mortgage and how do they work?

    Christians can apply as well.

    Islam forbids interest-bearing loans, so Muslims may prefer to seek a halal alternative when purchasing a property.

    There are a range of Islamic mortgage alternatives available, allowing buyers to get on the property ladder while being sharia-compliant

    https://www.unbiased.co.uk/life/homes-property/what-is-an-islamic-mortgage-and-how-do-they-work

    Now then , I knew you would all find that rather informative 😁😉

    1. The slammers are not allowed to charge interest….Allah was against it for some reason.

      So they simply take a bloody great chunk of the capital at the end of the “loan”.

      2. A little silly thought went through my mind ..

        Is the UK borrowing money on those terms …

        Homes under the hammer .. prog on the BBC box.. many of those chaps purchasing properties at auction are foreign .. is this how buy to let has got out of hand ..

        How do we know the government isn’t borrowing money like that .. and that we are now obliged to take in millions of Muslim boat people .. is it all a scam ?

    2. As far as I can remember, they cannot charge interest (usury). This used to be a Christian belief as well; society got round it by using the Jews and then turning on them when the debtors didn’t want to service the loan. (See Edward I.)
      I think the Moslems share out the profit after the sale has been made – rather like Antonio in the Merchant of Venice.
      I have a friend who knows all about this sort of thing; I’ll have to ask her.

      1. By the Talmud, Jews were (are ?) not allowed to practise usury on other Jews (“Brothers”), but this didn’t apply to their dealings with gentiles (“strangers”), whom they were permitted to stiff for as much as they could manage.

        One of Byron Rogers’ ST columns included the interesting fact that the oldest house in many towns across Britain and Europe is called ‘The Jew’s House.’ There’s a very simple reason for this: any handy riot breaking out would be utilised by debtors to break into the usurer’s house to destroy his financial records and thus wipe out their own debts (quite understandably, given that interest charges seem to have been typically north of forty per cent). To thwart the possibilities of such a gladsome jamboree, the moneylenders began to construct their homes from stone (the first built in towns), hence their survival down to the present day.

    3. I was of the opinion that they effectively buy on hire-purchase. They don’t pay interest but pay a greater price over the payment period that if the item have been purchased in one payment. One might presume that allah might have seen through that one, but who knows.

      1. Hey, Beatnik, that was one hell of a trip, Dude with Mr Kite topping the bill and all the those other hombres giving it the max for all the good folks forking out their hard-earned pennies, man. That really was the scene.

        1. Hey, Dean. I’ve been practising them Somersets on solid ground and they are are really pain in the ass (and everywhere else), Dude.

    2. Interesting bit on the wiki for Mr Fanque:

      ”

      In the mid 20th century, John Lennon, in composing The Beatles’ “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!,” borrowed liberally from an 1843 playbill for Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal.[27] Lennon bought the poster from an antique shop in Sevenoaks, Kent, while shooting a promotional film for the song, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, in Knole Park. Tony Bramwell, a former Apple Records
      employee, recalled, “There was an antique shop close to the hotel we
      were using in Sevenoaks. John and I wandered in and John spotted this
      Victorian circus poster and bought it.”[28] The poster advertises a performance in Rochdale
      and announces the appearance of “Mr. J. Henderson, the celebrated
      somerset thrower” and “Mr. Kite” who is described as “late of Wells’s
      Circus.” Lennon modifies the language, singing instead, “The Hendersons
      will all be there/Late of Pablo Fanque’s Fair/What a scene!”

      The title “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” is taken verbatim from the poster. The Mr. Kite referenced in the poster was William Kite, who is believed to have performed in Fanque’s circus from 1843 to 1845.[28]

      2. As in so many things, he was the first backfella to do something that had previously been done hundreds of times by people of other races. See the ongoing attempt to land the first one on the Moon, and the proposed all-black Everest Expedition.

        1. There was a popular joke back in the early 60s. By the year 2000, half the world’s population will be living on the moon. What does half the world’s population have to say about that? “Me no wanna go massa”.

          1. I doubt we’ll ever get to the moon to live on. It’s a terrible shame. Our nearest satellite, space full of asteroids that are iron, nickel, diamond and anti science big staters keep us rooted to the earth, never to reach out into space treating every scientific advancement as something to stop rather than exceed.

          2. We’ll never get into space while power-crazed lunatics think that enslaving the world and blowing up other people’s gas pipelines are more important.

      1. And of course Henry The Horse who dances the Waltz must not be confused with Damon Runyon’s character Harry The Horse who hangs out with characters such as Regret the Horseplayer and Nicely Nicely Jones.

  60. Morning all, a chilly start to the day this morning 4 deg C. It seemed the right time to fire up the central heating for an hour and check all thermostatic valves on the radiators are still working properly and not seized after months of not being used. It seemed a good time to check the boiler is behaving itself and promises to deliver some heat when we eventually need it.
    Everything checked out so when it is needed in the next few weeks we will at least start the winter season fault free.

        1. He’s still there as well! He it was who decided to put the heating on, as I was prepared to hold out to the end of the month. We almost did………

      2. We are up in London at the weekend, going to see a show. We will make use of the hotel’s heating. If I can figure a way, I’ll try to bring some back with me.
        Not been able to bottle sunshine, heating will be the the same I expect. 😢

    2. I closed my bedroom window last night, as it faces south and a bit of a hooley was forecast. Correctly as it happens.

  61. MH asked what he could have for breakfast- tomatoes said I. And lunch? Tomatoes. Supper? Tomatoes….

      1. Indeed but we have tons of them and the freezers are full of soup, sauce, pasta sauce. Going to attempt sun dried toms. Tomorrow as have another appointment for a shot later.

    4. I suggested a vegetarian diet for a week.

      We started off with waffles and strawberries, lunch was coffee cake, tea was profiteroles and honey comb fudge.

      While the warqueen’s favourite food, even she said ‘maybe not all the time.’

    1. With a great fanfare they have just started another wave of vaccinations in Ontario, proudly claiming that ir is the multi something or other jab that protects against half of the greek alphabet. What is not mentionrd is that they got a big discount on an outdated version of the moderna stuff, it doesn’t help with this weeks variant.

      Roll up, roll up – we have a great deal on some flu vaccines from 2015!

      1. Snake oil salesmen. Just looked up snake oil and find it originates from traditional Chinese medicine. Whoops.

    1. I take a book with me. Sometimes many. Junior does the same. It is only her Highness who doesn’t read on the loo, although she’s played solitaire in there before.

        1. If I were employed in the DoT, I might just get the rail minister to float the idea that what’s really needed is a conventional railway to provide relief for Rugby and Coventry. We’d draw a line on a map. It would branch off the WCML somewhere between Milton Keynes and Northampton and go within a couple of furlongs of Mr Barter’s quiet little hamlet to the north of Towcester…

  74. There were some comments earlier on letters about farming and the environment. Those letters were prompted, in part, by this article.

    It’s time to scrap DEFRA altogether

    DEFRA civil servants create unnecessary extra work for farmers and conservationists

    JAMIE BLACKETT • 27 September 2022 • 5:26pm

    Yesterday Jeremy Clarkson and I, along with 5000 rural voters, called on the Prime Minister to cut bureaucracy in agriculture. Every administration has promised to do that but so far none has, probably because Whitehall turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. So it requires boldness, lateral thinking and the useful military mnemonic KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. The government should simply axe DEFRA altogether, keeping a small animal health department for TB, foot and mouth and other disasters. That was the status quo prior to 1939.

    As every farmer knows, DEFRA civil servants are unnecessary because they duplicate work done either in the environment agencies or the quality assurance schemes. It is impossible to sell grain, meat or milk without complying with very onerous standards. These standards are enforced by rigorous inspections by, in my case, the dairy processor to whom we sell our milk. Markets make us tick lots of boxes already; the civil servants invent more on the pretext that subsidies need an expensive inspection regime to audit public money. But this regulation could easily be outsourced to the private sector without any extra cost. In fact, there would be a saving in public expenditure, something badly needed right now.

    As James Dyson, no protectionist, argued in these pages this week, British farmers need a level playing field. We cannot feed the nation – and mitigate the cost-of-living crisis – if we are constantly being undercut by subsidised imports from the EU or food produced to lower health, welfare and environmental standards elsewhere in the world. The government must level the playing field, either through tariffs on goods not produced with the same constraints, or by subsidies. It was one of Adam Smith’s rules for free trade that it should be fair. If subsidies are to continue then they must be simple to administer. Civil servants in all parts of the UK have so far concocted systems that bear a remarkable similarity to EU bureaucracy – a depressing litany of tiers, pillars, and plans – a recipe for more jobs for the boys and less sleep for farmers.

    There is a better way. Instead, we could agree on what public goods should underpin our great British food brands – food safety, animal welfare, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, water quality etc. – and set standards to be followed in return for a simple flat rate subsidy. The scheme could be umpired by existing quality assurance schemes at no administrative cost to the taxpayer.

    Before the usual suspects scream about our wildlife being sacrificed as a result of ‘cuts’ to their friends in the Whitehall blob, I would gently point out that whereas the Monbiotists and Packhamites moan about biodiversity, it is farmers who are protecting and enhancing it. Jeremy Clarkson and I are both conservationists. In fact, my own wish list for simple rules to be followed by farmers, in exchange for support, would be regarded by many as draconian. I would insist on watercourses having fenced margins; no silaging before the end of May, cutting from the middle of the field out; the breaking up of arable prairies with hedges, trees or wildflower strips; hedges being allowed to grow tall and wide; grass leys containing a proportion of nectar bearing legumes; savage restrictions on worming cattle and limitations on ploughing. Further enhancements to the environment could be funded by carbon credits from polluting industries, administered through the private sector. The result would be British agriculture going further down the regenerative route where it needs to go; and far less bureaucracy.

    If Liz Truss wants to drain the swamp, she should call in the farmers. It’s what we do.

    Jamie Blackett’s new book ‘Land of Milk and Honey, Digressions of a Rural Dissident’ is out now

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/27/time-scrap-defra-altogether/

    BTL:
    Jeff Hutchings
    Until the 80s we had a ministry of Agriculture and ADAS whose regional officers provided face to face help to farmers as they were all qualified agriculturalists with practical experience. DEFRA do not have the right talent.

    English Nature and the Environment Agency also come in for some stick.
    __________________________________________________________

    For the record:
    The UK’s National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS) was established in 1946 as the advisory and research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). It was rebranded as ADAS in 1971, became an Executive Agency of MAFF in 1992 and was privatised in 1997.

    DEFRA was created in 2001 by taking the environmental protection functions from the Department for the Environment and sticking them in MAFF, thus creating a body with obvious conflicts of interest/

    1. We do need someone to keep an eye on things like foot and mouth outbreaks. But like all civil service departments, they do find excuses to continuously expand their rules.

      1. Pest and disease control was part of MAFF’s original function. It failed badly in 2001…

    2. “As James Dyson, no protectionist, argued in these pages this week, British farmers need a level playing field.”

      A level sowing field, shurely.

  75. There were some comments earlier on letters about farming and the environment. Those letters were prompted, in part, by this article.

    It’s time to scrap DEFRA altogether

    DEFRA civil servants create unnecessary extra work for farmers and conservationists

    JAMIE BLACKETT • 27 September 2022 • 5:26pm

    Yesterday Jeremy Clarkson and I, along with 5000 rural voters, called on the Prime Minister to cut bureaucracy in agriculture. Every administration has promised to do that but so far none has, probably because Whitehall turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. So it requires boldness, lateral thinking and the useful military mnemonic KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. The government should simply axe DEFRA altogether, keeping a small animal health department for TB, foot and mouth and other disasters. That was the status quo prior to 1939.

    As every farmer knows, DEFRA civil servants are unnecessary because they duplicate work done either in the environment agencies or the quality assurance schemes. It is impossible to sell grain, meat or milk without complying with very onerous standards. These standards are enforced by rigorous inspections by, in my case, the dairy processor to whom we sell our milk. Markets make us tick lots of boxes already; the civil servants invent more on the pretext that subsidies need an expensive inspection regime to audit public money. But this regulation could easily be outsourced to the private sector without any extra cost. In fact, there would be a saving in public expenditure, something badly needed right now.

    As James Dyson, no protectionist, argued in these pages this week, British farmers need a level playing field. We cannot feed the nation – and mitigate the cost-of-living crisis – if we are constantly being undercut by subsidised imports from the EU or food produced to lower health, welfare and environmental standards elsewhere in the world. The government must level the playing field, either through tariffs on goods not produced with the same constraints, or by subsidies. It was one of Adam Smith’s rules for free trade that it should be fair. If subsidies are to continue then they must be simple to administer. Civil servants in all parts of the UK have so far concocted systems that bear a remarkable similarity to EU bureaucracy – a depressing litany of tiers, pillars, and plans – a recipe for more jobs for the boys and less sleep for farmers.

    There is a better way. Instead, we could agree on what public goods should underpin our great British food brands – food safety, animal welfare, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, water quality etc. – and set standards to be followed in return for a simple flat rate subsidy. The scheme could be umpired by existing quality assurance schemes at no administrative cost to the taxpayer.

    Before the usual suspects scream about our wildlife being sacrificed as a result of ‘cuts’ to their friends in the Whitehall blob, I would gently point out that whereas the Monbiotists and Packhamites moan about biodiversity, it is farmers who are protecting and enhancing it. Jeremy Clarkson and I are both conservationists. In fact, my own wish list for simple rules to be followed by farmers, in exchange for support, would be regarded by many as draconian. I would insist on watercourses having fenced margins; no silaging before the end of May, cutting from the middle of the field out; the breaking up of arable prairies with hedges, trees or wildflower strips; hedges being allowed to grow tall and wide; grass leys containing a proportion of nectar bearing legumes; savage restrictions on worming cattle and limitations on ploughing. Further enhancements to the environment could be funded by carbon credits from polluting industries, administered through the private sector. The result would be British agriculture going further down the regenerative route where it needs to go; and far less bureaucracy.

    If Liz Truss wants to drain the swamp, she should call in the farmers. It’s what we do.

    Jamie Blackett’s new book ‘Land of Milk and Honey, Digressions of a Rural Dissident’ is out now

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/27/time-scrap-defra-altogether/

    BTL:
    Jeff Hutchings
    Until the 80s we had a ministry of Agriculture and ADAS whose regional officers provided face to face help to farmers as they were all qualified agriculturalists with practical experience. DEFRA do not have the right talent.

    English Nature and the Environment Agency also come in for some stick.
    __________________________________________________________

    For the record:
    The UK’s National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS) was established in 1946 as the advisory and research arm of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). It was rebranded as ADAS in 1971, became an Executive Agency of MAFF in 1992 and was privatised in 1997.

    DEFRA was created in 2001 by taking the environmental protection functions from the Department for the Environment and sticking them in MAFF, thus creating a body with obvious conflicts of interest/

        1. When I worked at the BBC, he was generally disliked by all the PAs, engineers, secretaries….

          Just saying.

      1. I put Dolly in decorated body warmers, not costumes. Themed to the seasons. She looked cute in her Rudolph one at Christmas. Whenever i collect her from the groomer she is always wearing a new neckerchief.

  78. The sad case of Molly Russell. Without censoring the internet, I’m not sure how you can stop people looking at the subjects they wish to see. I sense a feeling of parental regret, apparently it was a complete surprise that Molly felt the way she did. So, like many parents these days, one can not interfere or be judgemental, therefore you let them get on with doing whatever they do behind closed bedroom doors. When it all goes wrong, blame someone else. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh

    1. I taught teenage girls for several years and was, of course, one myself. Teenage girls go through a lot of hormonal changes in a relatively short time frame and can get confused, they doubt themselves and once boys come into the mix it can get much worse.
      A fellow teacher and I broke up a fight in our school where two girls were fighting over, guess what? A boy. These girls were bigger than us but we managed to separate them.
      Parents, I am certain; do the best they can but teens can also be very uncommunicative which doesn’t help. Slammed doors, sulks and prolonged silences.
      I have a son and I suspect that boys are easier but who knows.

      2. I have just dispatched an 18yo step daughter to university. She is obsessive about her appearance and spent up to 2 hrs a day ‘getting ready’ for school. She was never late, and having given her the benefit of my advice, if she wanted to get up hours earlier than necessary, then that’s up to her. Her A levels were disappointing, I suspect there was more social meja than educational research going on behind the bedroom door. I have another daughter of 35 who remained very young until she was about 18 and suddenly grew up without having given us any teenage angst. She was the smaller of twin girls born premature but has eventually made it to full size.

        1. Very swiftly the early riser will get fed up.

          Perhaps they’ve low self esteem and feel the need to dress important.

        2. The experience of the 18 year old and the 35 year old will have been worlds apart.
          Smartphones came in in about 2010-2012, and they were a game-changer.
          Model-quality photos on social media means that girls are under enormous pressure to look perfect and criticised if they don’t.
          Hair and skin products are much more sophisticated than they used to be. You can’t just go to school having brushed curly hair out into a fluffy cloud, as used to be the case, for example.

          1. Correct. Information is now available turbo charged and unlimited unlike our experience where guidance and wisdom would be given by parents over time or, for more interesting subjects, ones peers.

          3. Both my girls managed it through school without it destroying them, but they certainly spend more time on their appearance than I ever did. The results are stunning though.
            I look forward to getting the bathroom back when younger daughter moves out – though I shall miss the expensive scent she trails in her wake.

      3. Considering what the body is going through during teenage years it’s a wonder there’s not rampaging hordes of kids smashing up the place every day.

        They sleep because their bodies are molotov cocktails, their brains full of cake mix that rarely sort into proper ingredients and eep mixing themselves up and then un again. As a teenage boy is a pretty girl went past good heavens, volcanic has nothing to do with it.

    2. I’m not sure how you can stop teenagers accessing unpleasant stuff without banning it altogether. Molly’s case is very sad and I can understand the reasoning behind her parents’ campaign, but censorship for everybody can’t be the answer.

    3. Maybe these internet providers should be designated as publishers, That makes them responsible for the material they disseminate. They scream every time that suggestion is made, which probably means it’s the right approach.

  79. It seems astonishing that the more evidence emerges of the potential dangers of the various Covid vaccines the more the ‘vaccine zealots’ are trying to push the gene therapies. Why is the Daily Telegraph so keen to ignore Dr Aseem Malhotra’s findings and so keen to promote Bill Gates’s poison?

    How to protect yourself against a flu and Covid ‘twindemic’
    Shutting ourselves away in the pandemic means we could be facing a dual health threat this winter – here’s what you need to know

    Rosa Silverman: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/boosters-vaccines-jabs-how-protect-against-flu-covid-twindemic/

    It is encouraging that virtually all the top BTL comments under this article express disgust that the DT seems to be under strict instructions to push the case in favour of the jabs

    BTL

    The very people who were telling us ‘to follow the science’ seem to be those who now refuse to follow the evidence.

    1. Richard, I have a neighbour who recently went for his 3rd, 4th or 5th jab, he has had so many I doubt he knows which number jab it was, I certainly lost track a while ago. When I asked if he ever considered the fact that any previous vaccine other than the Covid19 does not require such boosters and it is so ineffective after such a short while, he looked at me as if I escaped from a loony hospital.
      He certainly has been brainwashed with all the propaganda. To be honest I now leave him and his like to it, let them suffer the consequences, there are none so blind as those who will not see. You can’t argue with zealots.

      1. I met my two old schoolfiends for lunch on Wednesday – both are retired professional women – the subject came up and I kept quiet – they had booster appointments booked. Probably their 5th…… both have had covid at least once. I really can’t grasp the logic of it.

        1. Same with the MR and Soldier Neighbour (who served in Afghanistan). Both sensible, practical, realistic women – both in thrall to Project Fear.

          It is beyond me.

          I submitted to the three jabs – but ONLY because I wanted to be able to travel and – at the time – it seemed likely that without, one could not get into any country.

          1. My already booked trip to Kenya was the only reason I had the two AZ ones. My companion on the trip had a booster but they let me in with just the two.

        2. No, neither can I, my neighbour had recently spent 5 days in bed despite all his jabs and there he was telling me he was off for another booster. An intelligent chap, runs his own business but totally captured by this vaccine propaganda publicity.

    2. Let us not forget that the DT has a post of “Health Editor” paid by the B&M Gates foundation if I remember rightly.

          2. Anyone was better than him….{:¬))

            He told his Limp Dumb chums that I was his “stand in”…..

    1. Worse, we have a government seemingly determined to keep people blind, deaf and dumb. After all, if you don’t know anything then you stop asking questions about it.

      1. 365692+ up ticks,

        Evening CS,
        Up until treachery struck via
        the party nec & nige a success story in the making, members joining daily and financially in the black, that was UKIP under Gerard Batten leadership.
        Tailored by patriots without doubt for today’s needs.

        The current party is a hollowed out shell & skint,

      1. This the problem, vw, The number of non- mus who speak the language is minuscule. Who knows what is being chanted, or even being discussed in the streets and parks. It’s not like there are groups of people demonstrating and shouting in French or Spanish.

        1. Ah, but it could be like ‘The Life of Brian’ – the stoning scene. Anyway, nighties is also short for nightshirts. Granted, I didn’t see any candlesticks, but some of them were wearing night-caps, not exactly like Wee Willie Winkie’s, but close enough.

          1. You guessed…!!

            Even though I give them a meal a day – the MR tends to feed them throughout the day…..

  84. So the pound has come back stronger than it was before the ‘mini-budget’ and now the ONS admits it was wrong about a recession and the economy actually grew in the second quarter.

    We don’t have a financial crisis in this country. We have a media crisis.

    2. We also have a stupidity/envy/spite crisis. Far too many people consider they have a right to force – through the state – other people to pay for their every whim.

      It is not unmet needs we have a problem with. it’s unending wants – on someone else’s pocket.

        2. ‘Twp’ is Welsh word meaning stupid. I’ll allow it’s appropriation as long as its spelled ‘twpidity’. 🙂

          1. Network Rail was developing a system to prevent Signals Passed At Danger incidents, SPADs, that they were going to call Track Warning and Protection until someone pointed out the word Twp, so they called it Track Protection and Warning instead.

          1. When the banks and building societies gave themselves the ability to sequestrate my savings to keep themselves solvent i turned all my savings into gold and silver.

          2. I do hope it doesn’t suddenly go terribly wrong, Young Phil.

            What goes up can come crashing down….

          3. I am looking at the longer term. I wanted tangible assets which i could trade/barter or even pay passage on a ship to South America. For the first time in many years the interest rates are rising but i no longer trust the banks.

      1. My laptop weather bar said “rain stopping” just before it got heavier! It now reads, “Rain off and on” but it’s blowing a gale and raining sticks. Update: now it’s telling me, “Rain to stop”. I hope so!

  86. Saw some wild speculation on t’internet that the US regime is planning to ditch Germany and move into Poland. Poland is Ukraine II as it has a lot of commodities (which will shortly become very valuable), is corruptible and hates Russia.
    That would explain why the US might have committed an act of war against Germany by destroying their pipeline…it is pure gossip though, I hasten to add there is NO proof!

      1. No, apparently Poland has silver, copper, titanium and coal.
        It’s something like the fourth largest silver producer in the world, surprisingly.
        Copper is predicted to explode next year. I looked at buying some, but the premiums make it not worthwhile, also you have to have a lot of space to store it. A friend of a friend does speculate in copper, I heard that they buy huge rolls of wire.

        2. I’ve a load of twin & earth I’ve salvaged from here, there and everywhere for possible use on projects I’ll never get round to.
          I’m contemplating stripping it off and getting it weighed in.

          1. Might get more for it if you wait until next year.
            Copper will become more nickable again, so empty houses will get broken into and the pipes stolen 🙁

          2. We were centre right a few years ago. Like Elon Musk, we’re now full on fascist, without having changed our views at all!

          4. Oh goodness, is that one of those weird internet codes that one needs to know about?
            Like random numbers meaning Adolf Hitler or pampas grass in front of the house?

          8. George Orwell was considered to be of the radical left wing – but he would now be considered extreme right.

          12. Soma, I suppose. The television and the Daily Mail/newspaper of choice are an awfully convincing narrative.
            I know loads of people who have been primed by the media not to trust any “conspiracy theories” that aren’t reported by the media.

            I suppose we will know if there is any truth in the above speculation by looking at where Hunter Biden’s next directorships are…

          14. Brave New World…the recreational drug with which the technocratic elite kept the masses quiet and happy.

          17. Klaus Schwab seems to think that the lumpen proletariat will be kept happy if they are given video games to distract them from anything else.

      1. Never in my years in education did I get that excuse. However, a colleague in the Eng. Dept. did get a note from a parent written in crayon.

  88. TORY MPS TOLD TO EXPECT JANUARY 2025 ELECTION

    With the pound bouncing around all over the place, backbenchers already rebelling and a 30-point poll lead for Labour, Tory MPs are seemingly receiving increasing emails from constituents asking when they might be allowed to have their say on the new government. In answering these voters’ inquiries, staffers’ eyebrows have been raised after they received guidance from their Parliamentary Research Unit, a Conservative Party briefing team in parliament who feed lines to MPs’ caseworkers based on information from departments, ministers and SpAds. The line they’ve been sent in full:

    “At this moment, it is my understanding that the Government intends to stick to the election timeline of January 2025, whereby a general election will be held.”

    Guido’s sure activists, MP hopefuls and journalists alike will be joyous at the thought of a January election. Like 2019’s December campaign without the hope of Christmas to get you through…

    https://order-order.com/2022/09/30/tory-mps-told-to-expect-january-2025-election/

  89. The Warqueen was called in to work today on account of the tax changes and the bonuses for an ‘all hands’ meeting. Thus there was much smashing about at 5:30am for the 7:00 train. Junior rouses too late and is chivied along mercilessly, with a lot of ‘let’s go without him’ (sometimes she doesn’t really think properly) so small body was carried out half in uniform and us needing to detour to home to get lunch (that he’d forgotten) and back to breakfast club.

    Ozzie is ok getting into the motor now as he won’t leave my side but Mongo decided to throw a strop – picking up on Junior – and I confess I lost it and hauled him in using main force and closed the boot before he could get out again.

    However, the broth/casserole thing is on slow cooker for tomorrow evening and all set to pick Junior up at 4, her up at 7 and home for 8where they’ll get pizza, because I’ve had e-flipping-nuff.

  90. Does it occur as strange to anyone else that Ursula Fonda Lyin lives with her husband and has 7 children and Georgia Meloni lives with her lover and has only one child? Yet it is the former who attacks and threatens the latter for supporting traditional family values, her sex, her country and her Christian faith?

      1. He/she might have transitioned. That’s a thought – how do trannies make their feet smaller and get rid of their Adam’s Apples?

        1. Surgery. A tranny customer of mine had the AA removed. Not sure about the feet – just get bigger shoes I guess.

    1. It is up here too but I have to brave the weather soon to take my lecky meter reading for tomorrows scam

          1. Ah, but his ankle is playing up and the meter box is on the lane side of the house, down a very steep bank! It really needs a steady trundle! 😘

        2. Yes J, make sure you give them a reading or you will be charged the new rate for electricity you have used at the old rate

    2. Interesting how the Mint has released the design of the KCIII £5 “Crown”.
      Sounds about right though, as it will have about the same purchasing power as the old 5/-.

    3. Technically the pound has been worthless for many years. As soon as we moved away from gold it became fiat entirely.

  94. UKRAINE has officially applied to become part of Nato – just moments after mad Putin vowed to use “any means” to defend the four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed to Russia.
    President Volodymyr Zelensky signed off the paperwork today for fast-track membership to the alliance to “protect our entire community” following the tyrant’s rambling speech.

    If you survive you will be able to tell your grandchildren ” I was there when the EU/USA started World War III.

    1. I thought any country with a current boundary dispute couldn’t join NATO. They really are determined to have a war, aren’t they.

      2. I’m sure the rules can be changed for those poor Ukes. In reality, apart from no boots on the ground, Nato is already at war.

        1. Are you sure about no boots on the ground?

          If the propaganda is to be believed, the Ukes must have some of the best trained soldiers, battlefield tacticians and special services soldiers on the planet.

          And all that created under the noses of NATO and the Russians.

          1. We were there training before Feb and Im sure a few chaps were left behind to make use of all the electronic info being provided.

          2. I’m betting that there are hundreds of “advisors” out there, fighting and contributing to the Ukrainian’s war efforts

      3. Bill Gates is on record as saying we need a substantial reduction in the world’s population and Klaus Schwab has declared that most human beings are unnecessary as the work most of them do can be better done by machines.

        WW3 would be a great benefit to such monsters.

        The PTB use the death of a violent black criminal to promote Black Lives Matter, a racist anti-white organisation, and they back the most corrupt political regime in Europe in this latest conflict when negotiation could have resolved matters.

        1. So, if there are few people, why would any robot need to do any work? Who will consume the results of the work, if there are no people?

          See the quote:
          “Union boss & Henry Ford are walking through a Ford factory. Ford is extolling the virtues of the robots assembling the cars; how they don’t take meal breaks, don’t take vacation, aren’t off sick, don’t need paid shift allowances – the Union man listens quietly, and at the end of the discourse, asked Henry “And how many of your cars will your robots be buying, Mr Ford?”

  95. Any wordlers?

    Wordle 468 3/6

    🟨🟨⬛🟨⬛
    🟨⬛🟨⬛🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    Quordle

    Daily Quordle 249
    6️⃣7️⃣
    8️⃣9️⃣
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par Four for me.

      Wordle 468 4/6
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Posted wordle and yeadle this morning and just got my best score to date on quordle.
      Feeling v smug 😊

      1. Yes, they must be super angry! The Germans are so conciliatory normally; they think they’ve won when a compromise has been reached.

      1. Exactly, SB

        I wish she would refer back to the UK , and confess to the fact that SHE blooming well knows that the UK is being Islamified rather quickly, and that certain areas of our capital city and other cities are rapidly becoming no go areas for Mr Whitey.. and that Britain is being claimed and overtaken by another culture.

    3. Yet as no doubt others have said, that’s like saying Northern Ireland will always be English. It just makes the situation worse.

    4. Oh shut up Truss, you didn’t even know where Ukraine was on the map until this thing kicked off. You don’t give a xxxx about the inhabitants or what they want.

      1. Woe betide that the Donbass Russian-speaking Ukrainians VOTE to be Russian. We all know the PTB’s reactions to the popular vote.

    1. Pity Twatter can’t use the proper designation “moron of the year” – quite an achievement given the competition!

  99. Well that’s my lecky meter reading sent in. Website had a queuing system so had to wait 35 min but it’s done now without hassle. At least this way the website doesn’t crash

  101. Evening, folks. Sorry about being awol yesterday, but the campsite I was on had only patchy internet and I wasn’t prepared to sit outside, squinting at the screen to be able to access it. Thankfully, as it’s hissing down, I can get the Internet inside the van on this site. I shall be home tomorrow, but I decided to break the journey again on the way back and I am glad I did as I was stuck, motionless, on the M25 for ages and then the heavens opened meaning it was very difficult to see anything.

  102. Transgender prison officer caught with £3,500-worth of heroin in jail car park is spared a sentence behind bars
    Ollie Griffiths, 29, smuggled in contraband for inmates at HMP Featherstone. Multiple wraps of heroin were found in car, stuffed in tube of Pringles crisps
    He was sentenced to year community order and ordered to pay £280 in costs

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/30/16/62974709-11267451-Mr_Griffiths_of_Moseley_Birmingham_pleaded_guilty_to_possession_-m-40_1664553308969.jpg

    Here he is taking a selfie with his boyfriend/husband. £280 costs – That’ll teach him, the naughty boy.

    4. The gas companies have been and still are spending millions on replacing gas mains and upgrading connections to thousands of British homes.
      Why are the government pushing heat pumps, they don’t work properly and cost about 8 times more than the cost of a new gas boiler.
      There is something not quite right about a government that pushes expensive inefficiency and doesn’t seem to acknowledge what is actually happening all around the country.

  105. Hurricane….GA – pals are battened down but it looks like it will miss most of GA. Ian has changed direction and looks as though it’s going to go over NC where my son and his wife are. Hopefully it will be mainly rain. I hope they will be OK. Charleston SC got flattened by Hugo and looks as though they are going to get another battering- poor sods.
    Rotten weather here this afternoon but nothing like those poor Americans are facing.

    1. I hope they are OK.
      The storms experienced all over the world make the ones we complain about, and apply red and amber warnings to, look like Spring showers.

          2. Not sure about that- in CT a pretty nasty hurricane came over our small town. It’s name- Gloria;-) We had no power for about 3 days.

    2. The housing seems mostly made of wood. I know it is easier to build like that but why in storm alley do they not make their housing more substantial? I know cellars are not the answer with flooding.

      Speaking from a point of ignorance here.
      Hope for the best for your friends and family.

      2. There are so many poor people in US- black and white- who live in trailers, that is large caravan type dwellings. Of course, they get blown over and washed away.
        The Outer Banks and other coastline places do have houses built on stilts.

        1. So, find a better place to live, otherwise tough tittiy. Work out you’re own future lives. Don’t depend upon us. Callous, I know but these, and many others, need to grow up and not depend upon their elders to support them.

  106. That’s me for this day that started so well and ended with rain. Cats sulking – (a) because of the weather – for which they blame us and (b) because they know that their favourite human being is leaving…. The builders started but left the main work to avoid having the mortar running down the walls….

    I’ll be late on parade tomorrow as I shall wait at Narridge Airport until I know that the incoming KLM flight has landed. It’ll be late. Schiphol says that there can be delays of “Up to four hours” at security….. And i remember just how efficient the Cloggies once were…

    Smoked haddock for supper plus chips wot the MR brought back from Narridge (as a treat for me….simple pleasures!!)

    Have a smooth evening.

    A demain – prolly.

      1. The only way (without driving hundred of miles) that she can get to the Centenary celebrations.

    2. One I particularly liked, even though it does us no good:

      Would you support our government if all the illegals decided to leave the UK by boat and the Government tried to stop them. I think not

    2. Emm

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  109. I have just had a short intermission; the laptop decided to reboot so I’ve just had to log in again. While it was doing that I took the dogs out for a break. They wore macs, I wore wellies and a Regatta set of waterproofs (overtrousers and top). I don’t think we’ll be doing that too often. They’ll have to cross their legs!

  110. Chinese digital currency will expire if you don’t use it.
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Wallstreetsilver/comments/xrwgl0/chinas_cbdc_uan_will_come_with_useby_expiry_date/

    Now, the government is assuming that people will, like automatons, spend all their money before it expires. I foresee one of two things; either people will figure out a barter system and use the digital trash to buy useful things that they can barter, or people will simply work less hard and not bother. Slave societies are notoriously inefficient, and if you can’t put money aside, you are a slave, full stop.
    Of course, a few dimwits will play the government’s game and happily spend all their money in restaurants and video games every month.

    I am freelance, so my income is dependent upon how much work I take on. I’ll simply stop working once I’ve earned enough to cover basic expenses every month. Not interested in working for money I can’t use for my future plans.

    1. Politicians have never understood the psychology of those who work for themselves and run their own businesses as we do. Our priority is to give the best value we can and to make enough money to live comfortably rather than lavishly. If anything we are more frugal than extravagant.

      1. One is frugal because one knows just how much effort is required to make the money and so are reluctant to fritter it away.

      2. One is frugal because one knows just how much effort is required to make the money and so are reluctant to fritter it away.

    1. I hope they have found the child.

      Two more examples of why I believe the death penalty is appropriate.

      2. Too late for the little guy’s mother, if indeed it is he. She died, if memory serves, some years ago. So she will never know 🙁 Poor lady.

  112. Evening all 😊.
    We had a lovely get together with our friends lots of chatter. Decent pub lunch and a couple of pints. Came home sat in comfort in the warm. Cups of tea with home made chocolate brownies later. Then more chatter. More tea. Then home for the guests Stoney Stratford. Who says the oldies don’t have any fun.

  114. Wa-hey. Eagle. First time 🙂
    Daily Quordle 249
    3️⃣5️⃣
    4️⃣6️⃣
    quordle.com
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
    🟨🟩🟨🟩⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. That was Quordle.
        My effort at Wordle;
        Wordle 468 5/6

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

        1. Mine was a Par Four.

          Wordle 468 4/6
          ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
          ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
          🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨
          🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          1. I actually got five on the work laptop earlier and forgot to just copy it onto the phone so did it again from memory and got four.
            Wordle 468 4/6

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

          3. Wordle is a daily search for a selected 5-letter word.
            As in golf, a ‘hole’ in four shots is a good/ average result.

            I know nowt about Quordle …

    2. Well done.
      Daily Quordle 249
      5️⃣3️⃣
      6️⃣7️⃣
      quordle.com
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  115. Goodnight, all. I’m going to snuggle down under the duvet with the dogs (living hot water bottles!) and listen to the rain and the wind.

  116. Guardsman, 18, who walked alongside the Queen’s coffin during her funeral procession is found dead at his Hyde Park barracks
    Trooper Jack Burnell-Williams, 18, took part in the Queen’s state funeral earlier this month
    He was tragically found dead at Hyde Park Barracks in Knightsbridge on Wednesday afternoon

    The Metropolitan Police said they are not treating Trooper Burnell-Williams’s death as suspicious

    Devastated family and friends have paid tribute to ‘wonderful’ Jak, who turned 18 in June

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11267727/Guardsman-18-walked-alongside-Queens-coffin-funeral-procession-dead.html?ito=push-notification&ci=cD1tP5DY2f&cri=y4ItR1xBpQ&si=xYJ0MlrMyMmf&ai=11267727

    4. “The Metropolitan Police said they are not treating Trooper Burnell-Williams’s death as suspicious.”

      They Effing should be …

    5. I suspect that the poor boy was utterly overwhelmed and thought he could never go further and ended it.
      May he rest in peace.

      1. Bollocks!

        Wimps don’t survive three months of training sergeant regime.

        The 18-year-old was a member of a prestige regiment, at the top of his game, honoured for selection to accompany Her Majesty’s funeral; he had everything to look forward to …

        2. It is an unfortunate fact of life that even the physically strong can be pushed over the edge by their achievements.

          I hope for the sake of his family that it turns out otherwise.

    2. What a terrible mess our politicians are making of our, emphasis on our, not their country. They clearly do not have the slightest gram of respect for the electorate. The lump under the carpet is so huge the door is stuck open.

    1. I thought it was interesting that Putin mentioned Satanism in his speech. I would have dismissed that as hyperbole until this year.

  119. Off topic
    Just re-watched Arnie in “Kindergarten Cop”, one of his best, in my view.
    The children were superb.

  121. Off to bed now- totally knackered.
    4th wedding anniversary tomorrow, hard to believe.
    Goodnight Y’all.

    2. Fourth? Many Congrats to you both 🤗…..but where’ve you bin…..ours was 48. 31st 08. 😊

    9. Good luck and well done. We are 30 ahead of you but many Nottlers are way ahead of us.

      My parents were married to each other for 53 years; Caroline’s were married to each other for 57 years but my sister Belinda has the family record – coming up to 66 years.

        1. It was a shotgun wedding – my first niece was born six months after the wedding. But Belinda and Chris both were 20 years old and much in love and that love has endured.

    11. I sincerely hope that it all works well – I have enough sorrow in my own bad marriages, to wish you all the luck in the world to make a success of this. KBO, my dear.

  124. KARMA

    ISIS fanatics are mauled to death and eaten by LIONS while hiding out during battle over gas reserves in Mozambique
    ISIS insurgents in Mozambique were mauled and eaten by lions after a battle
    They died in military operation in Cabo Delgado after killing villagers in the area
    Local police said they died from guns, lions, crocodiles, snakes and buffaloes
    Violence in Cabo Delgado is over multi-billion dollar natural gas reserves

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11267657/ISIS-fanatics-mauled-eaten-LIONS-battle-gas-reserves-Mozambique.html?ito=push-notification&ci=Nlq4nJWL9l&cri=161wLEppxf&si=xYJ0MlrMyMmf&ai=11267657

    2. No more nor less than, they deserved for trying to force their false ideology on the local populace.

  125. I dread Bumbling Biden’s response to Putin’s annexations.

    We are very near to a nuclear WWIII …

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