Friday 7 July: The irony of Tony Blair dispensing advice on how to save the NHS

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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648 thoughts on “Friday 7 July: The irony of Tony Blair dispensing advice on how to save the NHS”

    1. I don’t think anybody else has hail, ogga – rain, cold winds, sunshine, yes but hail …. 🙂

    2. Beautiful here, but cool. Apparently, we will have summer this weekend – whether we like it or not!

  3. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cold. Heating came on last night, on the thermostat.
    Where’s that glowball warming when you need it?

  5. 374246+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    A walking ,talking role model of depravity, a walking ,talking common denominator of all political shite

    Friday 7 July: The irony of Tony Blair dispensing advice on how to save the NHS.

  7. The irony of Tony Blair dispensing advice on how to save the NHS

    Are we still paying off his PFI contracts?

    1. I can’t remember when PFI started (2000?) and continued for a decade or two, the contracts were typically for 30 years. So in conclusion the taxpayers are probably still continuing to pay for them.

      3. However and I’m not defending T Bliar the Cons continued with other contracts.

      4. “I can’t remember when PFI started (2000?)…”

        Mr Underpants, 1992.

        1. Under fairly strict controls I believe.
          Guess which cyclops re-restricted it and expanded the scheme?

    2. One of the first acts of his administration was to cancel tax relief on payments for private health cover.
      The other was to stop the Assisted Places scheme that gave bright children a chance to attend decent schools.
      Labour – the party of aspiration?

      1. I have been banging on for years about the fact that the assisted places scheme was abandoned; it was an act of educational vandalism laid at the altar of inverted snobbery which seriously hurt intelligent aspirational young people to fill the cistern of the mean-spirited politicians of envy.

        Blair promised that the assisted places scheme would be replaced with more being done in the state system for intelligent schoolchildren – but of course it was an empty promise.

        1. I fully agree with the gist of that, but isn’t the concept of ‘inverted snobbery’ simply a fallacious invention of real snobs to deflect attention away from their own arrogant, condescending, haughty, affected elitism?

      2. As I pointed out yesterday, Labour hates aspiration. Working class children who get on no longer vote Labour in most cases.

  8. Good morning folks a study to warm the cockles of your hearts:
    Carnival Cruise Ships Emit More Toxic Fumes Than All Of Europe’s Cars, Study Finds

    A new study commissioned by the European Federation for Transport and Environment revealed that toxic emissions of sulphur oxides from 63 cruise ships belonging to Carnival Corporation were 43% higher than all the combustion engine vehicles in Europe. This stunning statistic comes as EU leaders have decided to ban small combustion engines for cars by 2035. But what about ‘green’ cruise ships? Only crickets…

    “The most polluting cruise ship operator was MSC Cruises, whose vessels emitted nearly as much sulphur as all the 291 million cars in Europe. When looking at parent companies, as in our original 2019 report, the Carnival Corporation comes on top with the 63 ships under its control emitting 43% more sulphur oxides than all of Europe’s cars in 2022,” the study said.

    For cruise ship operators to achieve carbon-neutral status, this might take decades. According to the study, about 40% of cruise ships in the order books of global shipyards are dual-fuel LNG engines. “When running on LNG, these ships will cause less air pollution, but they are more damaging than fuel oils from a climate perspective due to methane slip from their four-stroke engines,” the study noted.

    The study continued, “Cruise companies should discontinue investing in LNG-powered vessels and prioritize zero-emission technologies, such as hydrogen fuel-cells, batteries, and wind-power.”

    Cruise ship order books currently have limited to no zero-emission vessels in shipyards. The most immediate fuel switch is from heavy fuel oil to LNG.
    https://www.transportenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-return-of-the-cruise-June-2023.pdf

    PS An astute individual then points out think about all the extra pollution caused by the additional shipping needed to transport oil / LNG when a pipeline is blown up. Not to mention the vast numbers of container ships and bulk carriers. It occurs to me that we really should be advocating ‘5 (sic) minute cities’!!!

      1. I’ve never been on a cruise. Some that have refer to them as Butts at sea!

        1. Wehave never been on a cruise. We made the mistake of going on a coach holiday to Austria many years ago . Never again.

          1. It’s the hoi polloi with whom you have to rub shoulders that’s probably the problem!

            The only cruising I have done has been in my own sailing boat with my own friends and family but some of my friends and my wife’s parents have gone on cultural cruises which had serious lecturers and experts on art, music and history giving talks in the evening and string quartets rather than rock bands providing the music.

          7. You need to tell Vocabulary.com that, Conners, not me. I didn’t write it.

          8. I didn’t mean to imply that you did, Grizz. It was a general comment because it’s such a common mistake.

          10. We flew to Venice 17 years ago and had a 6 day coach (ABC) tour of the cities.
            ABC………. Another Bloody Church !!! We enjoyed that.

          11. Made a tour of concentration camps with Firstborn’s class about 15 years ago. So much bus… never again. Awful mode of transport.

        2. We sailed to Australia vi the Panama Canal in ’71 and back via Africa a year later. It was marvellous. Not bling and chivvy as it is now.
          Outward journey was seven weeks, the return ten weeks (included a three week stop in Johanesburg to visit cousins). We sailed because it was cheaper than flying!

          1. Our’s was six weeks through the Suez. To Freemantle/Perth then Melbourne. It was good fun, not many tourist’s aboard.
            I had also sailed from Southampton to Cape town via the Canaries 12 days of fun as well.
            Didn’t enjoy the extravaganza from Southampton to the Fjords as much, but the scenery was fabulous.

          2. How superb, Stormy!
            You must have been nobbut a tiny lass back then.

        3. Depends entirely on the cruise line Stephen.

          The worst are absolutely ghastly.

          The best are a delightful holiday in a five star mobile hotel.

          Careful research plus asking around will find you the cruise line that suits you best.

        4. Nor me – I can’t think of anything worse, if you don’t like the company you can’t just get off (unless you’re a good swimmer)

    2. Bunker fuel is evil stuff, barely refined at all, and full of sulphur. What a surprise that they emit nasties when burned, hooda thunkit? And the loss of LNG from a 4-stroke engine reads like bollux. It would be burned, just like LNG automotive engine, or even the cooker in your kitchen.

    4. I have vague memories of sulphur tablets that were supposed to cool your blood.
      Am I getting confused?

    5. Do they mean all the cars in Europe, or all the cars in EU member countries?

          1. Does that make everything factual and honest Far Right? No wonder the country’s in a mess. The Left keep denying reality!

          2. She’s a lefty who uses far right slogans to get attention – having said that, she’s more sensible than Macron

  11. Wagner’s ‘coup’ was just the first act in its plot to destroy Putin. 6 July 2023.

    Yevgeny Prigozhin’s march on Moscow may have been aborted, but two weeks on the Kremlin is still reeling from his overt challenge to Vladimir Putin’s power. According to reports, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) has gone so far as to run an initial inquiry into levels of public support, gauged by monitoring social media posts and internet searches by ordinary Russians.

    Its findings, intercepted and leaked by Ukrainian intelligence, suggests that 17 of Russia’s 46 regions sided with Prigozhin. Putin had support from just 21 regions, while the remaining eight remained split. Moscow apparently backed the Russian President, but his home city of St Petersburg was ready to throw its support behind the Wagner chief. Public support for Prigozhin in the republic of Dagestan was reportedly as high as 97 per cent.

    The stories these people tell become more stupid every day.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/06/prigozhin-coup-was-just-the-first-act-plot-destroy-putin/

    1. Despite the massive NO vote on that, I fear that a very large number of people WILL comply.

      1. All too many British ‘bulldogs’ revelled in reliving life in the old GDR.

      2. 374246+ up ticks,
        Morning Bob,
        As the voting pattern dictates,i’m counting on sanity breaking through as eyes are truly beginning to open.

        1. Sorry Ogga, you’re going to be disappointed. As an individual some people might be bright, erudite and witty. Collectively? They’re thick. People will behave according to trope because they are too scared to do otherwise.

          Some – SOME – might become so sick of the farce of state that they simply withdraw from society, ignoring the propaganda, refusing to engage – but they will be forced in how to behave by the actions of others to continue to exist.

      3. Watching the Tour de France, I was stupefied by the number of people, at the end of each day’s race, wandering about wearing face-nappies. These people are beyond help and should be committed to an asylum.

        1. Two young, slim, female workers in my local Sainsbury’s wear these useless things.

          1. A chap the other day in Tesco had one on. A great floppy thing, with huge gaps either side. People are thick. They don’t understand the why, so they comply unquestioningly. Fear keeps them complying.

          2. And nothing else? he wrote hopefully, drooling slightly from the mouth…

          3. And nothing else? he wrote hopefully, drooling slightly from the mouth…

        2. I think it’s been made a requirement by the organisers of the TdF at the pre race and post race gatherings, allegedly to protect the teams.
          Absurd?
          Yes.

          1. I cycled into work yesterday and left to come home about 6pm. My route involved Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park. You wouldn’t know there had been a “pandemic”.

          2. I wonder how many different nationalities you might have spotted on the ride.
            Pan is demonically infecting London

    2. But people will. They’re cowards, ignorant, tiresome and weak. The state will pronounce some grand terror and people will swallow it and happily lock themselves up.

    1. Gove doesn’t care less about global warming. All he wants is the taxes from the con trick to keep pouring into his pocket.

  15. Good morning all.
    Another bright sunny start with clear sky and 9½°C outside.

  16. Good Moaning.
    Paint brushes cleaned and stood down until late summer.
    Now we’ve had time to draw breath, we know what we can’t find, so a weekend of scrabbling through attics and boxes beckons; beckons as in boney finger luring us to our doom.

      1. Certainly in my observations, although I gather that Germans are overtaking us.
        The problem is that these tend to be generalisations, I find many Americans abroad to be obnoxious, but in small town America they are welcoming and generous; in cities less so..

    2. Before I comment, we once removed our selves from the close proximity of a noisy crowd of
      ‘Brits’ on a beach in Tenerife.
      But I’d say that Mr Dlrylwimple should, as the old song suggests spend some of his spare time, he clearly has lots of it. Up on the roof. As it seems this old world is getting him down.
      He’s not much fun is he ?
      It seems that he has registered that he actually knows these people. Let me guess he just wasn’t invited to join the pleasure seekers, because they knew who he was ?
      Why does he see people who are obviously enjoying themselves in another deserted French village as offensive ?

      He had no particular or even interesting point to make whatsoever.
      It’s not his business to run down people he’s never met, he obviously didn’t want to meet or fraternize with the strangers. Mind your own business. Perhaps he has more than one lesson to learn.
      Get your self a life.

      1. Oddly enough I agree with many of his observations.
        But then I’m a miserable, judgemental bastard.

        I dislike intensely people who make so much noise, whether vocally or mechanically that one cannot have a conversation.
        I find tattoos unpleasant, I don’t like looking at landwhales who seem to try to accentuate their deformity by wearing inappropriate clothes for the occasion.

        He’s correct about the death of many small French towns, we’re lucky in that many are thriving around here, but out in the country they are often like ghost towns, where once there would have been bars and restaurants and butchers and bakers there is, as he says, one if one is lucky.

        2. We tend to be equally as scathing as far as certain applied looks are concerned. We have several names for what we observe.
          Fats and Tats is one of our favourites.
          But because we are never trying to prove anything, we usually try and get on most people we might meet on holiday or there abouts. At least its something that we will have in common.
          But it reminds me of our our grueling two day plus journeys from Adelaide to the three sheep stations at Narran Lakes, in land NSW. All those miles and no qyestions of route no mention of hold ups, road works, loose chippings, being shaken to pieces on the dirt roads. Or staying at a strange creepy Hotel in Wilcannia. But good old ozzie style G’day Mate howyagoin ? A hand shake and Nothing else. 🤠😎

      2. PS I don’t think he did know the people in question, he was referring to English people as a culture.

        “What an unattractive people the English have become, how utterly charmless! They are not necessarily bad people in themselves as individuals, but their contemporary culture has turned them into the least appealing people in the world, at least of those known to me.”

    3. It depends who you count. Do you nip off to the Cotswold’s or do you go to Bristol or Brixton?

  18. What Just Stop Oil really wants. Spiked 7 July 2023.

    Forget the tactics of these activists. Their creepy, authoritarian, anti-human ideology is easily the worst thing about them.

    I have no curiosity about JSO’s aims or motives. I assume that they are those in its title. On the other hand I am very interested in who organises it and how it is financed. Why has no reporter (as admittedly would once have occurred) joined it and found out these things? This is a commonality to all these protest groups that have seemingly sprung into existence without scrutiny or explanation. Even when their actions verge on the criminal it excites no attention from the authorities. Why?

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/07/06/what-just-stop-oil-really-wants/

    1. I had to laugh when I read thar Lewis Ham supports them.
      Oh the hypocrisy.

      1. Morning Ndovu. Yes but that is just the cash. Who is administering it? Where do these people meet? Who selects and organises the marches? Let’s see some faces and names!

  19. Savour your steak and cheese – they won’t take a bite out of your life expectancy [Daily Telegraph, 07/07/23]

    EATING red meat and cheese does not increase the chance of an early death, a global study has found.

    The findings come after widespread claims by nutritionists that meat and dairy products increase the risk of heart attacks and harm long-term health. But research involving almost 150,000 people, the first of its kind, found the healthiest diet can include red meat and whole fats from animal sources.

    People consuming a well-balanced range of foods including vegetables, legumes, fruit and fish, were found to be 30 per cent less likely to die than those on a poor diet during the 10-year period covered by the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (Pure) study.

    They were also 18 per cent less likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease and 19 per cent less at risk of a stroke. The study covered more than 20 countries and the findings hold true internationally, the scientists say.

    Dr Andrew Mente, study lead author from McMaster University in Canada, said the results “have profound implications for diets globally”.

    “It indicates that the biggest gains in avoiding premature cardiovascular disease and deaths globally is expected to occur by increasing the intake of healthy foods to a moderate degree,” he said. “On this basis, current advice to restrict dairy, especially whole-fat dairy, to very low amounts in populations globally is not necessary or appropriate.”

    The study found that the ideal daily diet includes a person’s five-a-day of fruit or vegetables, half a portion (48 grams) of legumes such as peas or lentils, 28 grams of nuts, a similar amount of fish, two servings (185 grams) of dairy, half a serving (55 grams) of red meat and 22 grams of poultry.

    Dr Mente believes that the issue of cardiovascular disease and early mortality in society may not be the result of overindulging in meat, dairy or saturated fats but actually under-nutrition caused by people not eating enough key food groups. He believes there is now evidence to suggest that dairy foods, especially whole-fat dairy, may be protective against hypertension and metabolic syndrome which are common drivers of cardiovascular disease.

    The study, in the European Heart Journal, scored a person’s diet on a scale of one to zero for six different categories, creating a perfect score of six. The closer to zero, the worse the diet. The average was 2.95, and those above five, the top 20 per cent, were 30 per cent less likely to die early than those in the bottom quintile of less than one.

    Independent research has confirmed this for years. Eating natural animal fats has always been healthy. It was big business concerns telling us all a huge lie that animal fat is bad and so-call ‘vegetable’ oils (and margarine) are good for you, when the opposite is true. Seed-oils were invented as industrial lubricants and cleverly ‘modified’ and marketed for human consumption. They are the prime cause of metabolic syndrome, the precursor to all modern diseases, such as cancer, heart conditions, strokes, obesity and a good number of others. previous generations knew the benefits of eating a meat and fat diet (as do the inuit, eaters of fish and whale blubber, who have no vegetables and remain generally free of modern diseases).

    Those people (millions of them) who still follow the ‘advice’ of ‘health authorities’, universities and global corporations and eat poisons will never recover in either mind or body. I eschew sugar, processed foods, seed oils and carbs and enjoy good meat, fish, eggs, animal fats, cheese, butter, lard, suet, tallow, leafy veg and some fruits and I have never been in better health.

    1. EATING red meat and cheese does not increase the chance of an early death, a global study has found.

      A Minty study would have discovered exactly the same and been cheaper. I am a monument to bad eating practices from Bacon Sandwiches to Fish and Chips and yet here I still am at seventy six!

    2. I was brought up on whole milk- including gold top. Always ate meat and veg & fruit. I’ve reduced my carbon intake but not cut out completely, but I’ve lost a bit of flab round my waist and feel better for it.
      Still use whole milk, some cereal with nuts and fruit, eggs & bacon etc. Very little sugar and I avoid processed foods as much as I can.
      I take no medication and am 75 this month.

      1. If you don’t eat enough protein – and the biggest source is from meat – then your muscles atrophy and you weaken.

        This is why vegetablists are so pathetic.

    3. I’m a cheeseaholic, especially blue cheese. Found a new one, Yorkshire Blue, in a farm shop in a small village, Assington just across the border in Suffolk. They had Suffolk Gold too, but no Suffolk Blue. Yum yum!

    4. Ah yes, of course it does. Let’s not admit the bias and deceit behind these tiresome outpourings on what we should do and how we should live our lives.

  21. 374246+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Generation Rent has forgotten how lucky it iis

    Renting is largely risk and responsibility-free – unlike owning a property.

    in the main it was freedom of choice.

    Sure it was ,it fought in a major war, numerous mini wars, then set about rebuilding the damaged decent nation, post wars.

    These last 40 years that has ALL been reversed via the political governing bodies and a multitude of party before country ” fools,
    not sheep , humam dangerous fools.

    1. Ah, but property increases are unearned income. All that maintenance, updating, gardening – doesn’t count. It’s unearned income. And nothing to do with government policy forcing the population up, either.

      Same for any type of investment. All unearned. It’s wrong that you should benefit from it, so the state will happily destroy that money. You didn’t earn it, you see.

    3. Men cannot lactate. The plumbing’s there, but we lack the necessary chemicals to do so. If a man were to ingest so many such chemicals to simulate it, testosterone would get rid of them very quickly but they would also be poisonous to the child.

      Therefore, this isn’t about the child, it’s about the perverted adult performing child abuse.

  23. ‘Morning All

    The Convention on

    Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits all

    use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of cluster munitions, a type of explosive weapon which scatters submunitions (“bomblets”) over an area.

    Except fom the USA to the Ukies……..

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/7/us-to-send-cluster-bombs-to-ukraine-despite-humanitarian-concerns

    Rest of the medley

    https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/57d675fc46c3c43b07adb974/1cf5d4af-f2a0-4fe6-bf20-59b20867e41e/SHAME+200.jpg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg&format=750w

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7dae4243bd00f0bba9740a098422b932be8303b6a40d8b9efbaefc95d78fd2ea.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17c2d2acd5c766ad7b1994457639e7bc63af34c165d699af07a9b5e8093d9b6b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55fed6c67e6cfbf1992e20e0f674310ff7880d08a6d24ad7932efd9e82ff628a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74910708962793050a5b9fc371237b4c2d4079c8a95d3e683071bfce832ae9c5.jpg

    1. The convention was signed off in Ottawa in the late 90s, Robin Cook signed the UK up to it. However, the US and Russia weren’t daft enough to restrict their armed forces in such fashion.

    4. It won’t make any difference. The state is intent on doing so much damage to the currency that there will be no option. Interest won’t be accrued on currency, so the state can destroy your income on a whim. Money would be completely owned and at the mercy of big government.

      When people realise this they might take action,, but I doubt it as too many people are thick.

      1. I agree about what the state is intent on doing, but I do also think that GBN possibly has a wider potential audience than some petitioners. Sometime these things unfortunately only trickle into public consciousness.

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny start.
    I knew this would happen, effing tube strike 23rd – 28th my two year wait for my hospital appointment already looks in possible jepody.
    I might get there but there are others involved.

    1. Taxi/relative give you a lift. Don’t miss an appointment because of this shit, Eddy.

      1. Thanks, but I think/hope we’ve Got it sorted Obs, we were thinking of staying in London overnight.
        But both being mid 70s we couldn’t believe that those hotel people are charging over 200 pounds per night. Bolero to that. We can take the train from Sorbens to St Pancras 🤭 and jump on a single decker 46 bus which stops right outside St Barts.
        Job done. As the underground will be on strike I have a feeling that there might be fewer people around.
        Shame our bus passes don’t kick in until after 9:30 am. We’re all for saving some money in these days of planned daylight robbery. 😁

      2. Our eldest has just called in with our eldest grandson.
        He’s offered to take us directly to hospital. And his car is not eligible for Khants payment scheme.
        Fingers crossed 🤞.

  27. Hallo all. Sunny day here promising to reach 80f. this afternoon.

    My home page is Fox News and this article was there today. I haven’t seen it in any British paper.

    UK schools push ‘gender badges’ on 7-year-olds, LGBT ideology on religious students: watchdog
    Curriculum from Just Like Us suggested LGBTQ behavior is compatible with major religions

    A London-based Christian nonprofit is raising an alarm about teaching materials in thousands of U.K. schools that suggest LGBTQ behavior is compatible with Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

    The lesson plans, which consist of slides and activities compiled by the LGTBQ organization Just Like Us promote instruction regarding same-sex relationships to students as young as 5, according to copies of the curriculum obtained by Christian Concern and reviewed by Fox News Digital.

    Christian Concern is a nonprofit that has supported multiple Christian parents in their legal battles against U.K. schools that promote age-inappropriate sexual material, including some Church of England schools.

    Just Like Us is behind School Diversity Week, an annual “U.K.-wide celebration of LGBT+ equality in primary and secondary schools” in which thousands of schools choose to participate, according to its website. Schools in the U.K., where the school year extends into July, celebrated School Diversity Week from June 26-30.

    Activities encouraged in the materials for children in “Key Stage Two,” which encompasses students aged 7-11, include waving a rainbow flag and wearing badges that display their preferred pronouns. Lessons also ask pupils to change the pronouns of pop stars Ariana Grande, Harry Styles and Sam Smith.

    The curriculum, which was made with the assistance of LGBTQ faith-based charities One Body One Faith, Quest, Keset and Hidayah, also teaches secondary school students in its religious studies program that the LGBTQ lifestyle is consistent with the major Abrahamic religions. Other documents in the lesson plans include stories of gay Hindus and Buddhists.

    Students were encouraged to watch videos, and reflect and discuss various examples of “Just Like Us ambassadors” who grew up as an “LGBTQ+ person of faith,” which includes the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Muslim traditions, according to the lesson plans.

    In the religious lessons, students learn about a person named Ruth who identifies as a non-binary lesbian Christian, a bisexual Jewish woman named Taliya and a man named Sam who identifies as a gay Muslim.

    “I wanted to form my own belief” about sexuality, Ruth says in one of the videos students are encouraged to view and discuss.

    “We hope the videos will encourage young people to [empathize] with our ambassadors and to see the different ways in which it is possible to be an LGBT+ person of faith,” one presentation slide states.
    English and math lessons for younger primary school students include discussions on gender pronouns, and materials for math taught to children in Key Stage 1 — as young as 6 — also touch on same-sex families and feature math problems involving same-sex couples.

    “In this session students will [practice] their strategies for across the math curriculum in an LGBT+ inclusive way,” a lesson for Key Stage 1 students states. “Zain’s mums are getting married! They need help [organizing] their wedding party.”

    Zain and his two mothers make another appearance in a later version of the math curriculum, when 7-year-olds are asked to calculate their journey to a wedding.

    “It is usually 28km but there is a diversion, so it is an extra 17km,” the problem states. “Luckily they find a shortcut which cuts out 8km. How far do they travel together?”

    Students as young as seven are also instructed to examine data graphs about “diverse families” that include families with two fathers and two mothers.

    Students between the ages of 14 and 16 are encouraged to study math “using examples from the television [program] ‘Queer Eye,’” according to the lesson plans.

    In 2018, Just Like Us received backing from major political leaders in the U.K., including then-Prime Minister Theresa May, according to Christian Concern. The organization has also secured financial support from companies such as Facebook, Blackrock and JPMorgan Chase for its School Diversity Week in the past, the nonprofit noted.

    The instructional material from Just Like Us is targeting people of faith, according to Steve Beegoo, the head of education at Christian Concern.

    “What is most concerning about the Just Like Us resources is that they are targeted specifically at people of faith and even faith schools,” Beegoo said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The teaching materials are designed to train the thinking of children away from the traditional beliefs of the Christian faith.”

    Begoo maintained that homosexuality and transgender ideology permeates nearly every subject in the curriculum from Just Like Us, which he said is attempting to present them as “an accepted orthodox belief in the major world religions.”

    “This is another attempt to undermine Christian teaching on marriage and the biblical and biological understanding that we are born male and female,” Begoo said, adding that “targeting children at such a young age without the knowledge of their parents is wrong.”

    “Parents must urgently and consistently ask what their children are being taught on these issues in schools and which organization resources are being used,” he said.

    None of the organizations involved in the development of the curriculum responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by time of publication.

    1. These activists are doing incredible harm to the cause they seek to promote. Perhaps that’s the intent. Do provoke rather than simply leave people alone? After all, if you can provoke you force a reaction which you can then scream about to demand ever more restrictions on those you hate to push the activist message knowing any opposition will simply be insulted and eventually silenced by your bigotry.

      One day they’ll go too far and beyond promoting paedophilia to actually forcing pupils and at that point – well, if it were Junior there wouldn’t be anything left of the rapist.

      But of course, the state machine will attack the parent defending the child. Can these Left wing, mentally ill nutters really be wanting to normalise child abuse?

      1. “Can these Left wing, mentally ill nutters really be wanting to normalise child abuse?”

        Yes, of course. Because it is about destroying the family and individuality so that you become a compliant cog of the machine. Have you ever read about the methodologies to gain compliance of the citizenry by the USSR and Communist China? Non of this is new, it is just being refined and perfected by the modern left from lessons learnt from their precursors.

        1. If pædophiles were to be ritually shot in public, as is the correct approach, that would soon stop that bastardry.

      2. Harman allegedly had historic connections with support of paedophile groups, particularly PIE – although of course she denied it.

    2. It’s insidious grooming. Chidren don’t need to have these perverted views forced on them.

  29. Ground not floor

    If Sir Keir Starmer is worried about the “class ceiling”, he should start at groundfloor level. At Wimbledon this week, Venus Williams was reported to have “collapsed to the floor before bravely playing on”. She was playing on grass, which grows in the ground, not the floor.

    Lavatory, not toilet.

    This is the big divider. Both are euphemisms; the only difference is as indicators of class. Anxious parents would rather hear their darlings use a four-letter word than say “toilet”. Loo is acceptable informally.

    Tea, not drink.

    If you offer someone a drink, it means something alcoholic: whisky or sherry, perhaps. If you are inviting them to have a hot beverage, then say cup of tea (or coffee).

    Woman, not lady or female.

    To refer to anyone as “a lady” is prissy. To call them females is zoological. Woman is the word, except for old ladies or cleaning ladies.

    What, not pardon or say again.

    Pardon goes with Frank Spencer’s “done a whoopsie”. Pardon is used by those aspiring to be genteel, when they burp or can’t hear. “Say again” sounds like a ship’s radio instruction, like “mayday”. “What” is a plain, useful indication of not hearing or understanding.

    Die, not pass.

    To talk of someone passing sounds like a happy report of a toddler who has swallowed a marble and succeeded in bringing it, in the end, to see the light of day. People die. It is a hard fact. They do not pass away or, worse, pass.

    Please may I have?, not Can I get?

    This is to do with manners. “Please” shows you regard the barista or shop assistant as a human being. To say “get” wrongly suggests you might go behind the counter and fetch the goods yourself.

    Dinner, not tea,(or supper) as the evening meal.

    Children have dinner at lunchtime. But meal names are conservative: Christmas dinner might be at 3pm and a big meal at a wedding was, until recently, the wedding breakfast. Supper is a good old word for an informal evening meal.

    Shirt or blouse, not top.

    Call it by its name. If it’s a T-shirt, say so. Or a pelisse, polo-shirt, peplum, smock or whatever the madness of fashion imposes. But don’t boil everyone down into undifferentiated anti-elitist tops and bottoms ( jogging probably).

    A lot, not a bunch.

    Grapes come in bunches; people come in knots, crowds or lots, unless they’re the Wild Bunch. Bunch is derogatory.

    Pudding, not dessert.

    There is such a thing as a dessert. Dons may leave high table to go for dessert in their common room at Oxford or combination room at Cambridge. The rest of us eat a pudding course, whether it is roly-poly or ice cream.

    The before a vowel, not th’ (‘thee’, not ‘thuh’).

    This might appear subtle but failure to pronounce “the” like “thee” before a vowel is annoying. Everyone says “th’” (with an indeterminate vowel) before a word beginning with a consonant: “th’ Labour Party”. Before “EU”, for instance, “the” should rhyme with “see”.

    Sweet peas, not petunias.

    This class marker is based on things. Some flowers are vulgar, just as it was once vulgar to have antimacassars on easy chairs. I’m afraid petunias are vulgar, like fibrous-rooted begonias, partly because they are too easy.

    Napkin, not serviette, is a well-established shibboleth.

    Surprisingly, “serviette” was an early Scottish word. Gavin Douglas in this translation of Virgil (1513), writes of “soft serviatis to mak thar handis cleyn”.

    Posh.

    The word is used to describe class enemies. We are posh, but only in the eyes of the socially hostile or envious.

    Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph 07/07/23.

          1. When I was in the Pays Basque last year, I saw a public convenience marked “WC communal” (also something in Basque ).

          2. I’ve seen them here too.
            Apparently it’s English and originally referred to a wash down closet and evolved to WC, and it’s become ubiquitous usage

          4. The outside one was the privy at my grandparents.

            In my wife’s village, even into the 1970’s, there were still inhabited cottages that had no bathroom and only an outside privy at the bottom of the (small) garden. Gazunders were the norm indoors for night use.

          5. That’s maybe why my parents, (Father born 1895) (Mother born 1903) continued to use the term.

          6. Surely a privy is an outside toilet – at least, accessed by going outside. As is a netty or a dunny.
            A bog is another name for a shitter, also a crapper (I worked with a Mr Crapper years ago, who was getting married to a lady with a young daughter, so he changed his name to hers, for the daughter’s sake).

          12. So 19th Century.

            But not so from the early 20th century as my parents came to understand

          13. My grandmother in the 1950s had a flushing privy at the end of the yard and some friends of my mother, living in rural Worcestershire in the 1950s had an earth closet down the garden. They had to pump water from the well and used paraffin lamps.

          15. My grandmother lived in one of a line of terraced houses. They were all like that. The other was a farm worker’s cottage; it was common for rural cottages to have no amenities like running water or electricity in the fifties.

          17. I have no idea. I left Worcestershire when I was 17. I’ll be 75 in September!

          18. …and I’m now 79 and don’t understand everything.

            One lives and learns.

          21. I thought that was how it was referred to in Tudor times. Elizabeth I had one installed in Westminster Abbey, I believe. Her godson organised it.

    3. I saw the Warqueen in one of my polo shirts today. Nothing else, just the shirt.

    4. Tea/drink reminds me of the Sheldon character in the sitcom Bing Bang Theory, who always reminded himself out loud that, “I believe in this situation it is customary to offer a hot beverage”.

    5. I was faintly surprised to find, on scrolling down, that that was written by Christopher Howse and not by you…

        1. It’s in your style, not his.

          I don’t get worked up about ‘dinner’ but ‘get’, ‘pass’ and ‘thu’ are irritating.

          2. I wasn’t doubting that he wrote it, merely observing that it was more like you!

    7. Rather than just, “What?” we were taught , “What did you say?” as a more polite form.

      A Napkin is made of cloth and a serviette is paper.

        1. Or Danish “hvad beha’r” (or “hva’ ” in the lazy way so many of them speak now – a bit like the British “wha’ “!)

    8. Good God, Grizz.
      It that lot a guide as to how to sound like a softie Southerner?
      How’s summer treating you? Chilly & dull here.

    10. Francesca Cumani (on ITV racing) seems incapable of using the “thee” pronunciation of “the” when it’s required. I drives me wild.

      1. It’s yet another banal Yankee import; Americans are pathologically incapable of correctly pronouncing the definite article as ‘thee’.

    1. Very interesting; so much for all those idiots who claim summer 1976 wasn’t as hot as this June!

    2. Richard, as you well know, Welby is an “agenda contributor” member of the WEF. He serves mammon.

    3. I know I’m going to be castigated but I do think some of the slammers should go as well, if they don’t assimilate. Even if that girl and her family has, (but only to some extent, by the way she is dressed) I doubt very much if she has spared much thought to what has been done to others.

      Much edited as my original didn’t reflect what I was trying to say!

    1. PAEdophilia. From the Greek root for child, you illiterate, stupid yankee doodles!

      1. In that case I live in a bangalo and wear pai jamahs at night. There are literally thousands of words that we misspell and or mispronounce if we wish to stick to word origins. Americans are obviously not illiterate unless you regard Ben Franklin as a ‘stupid idiot’, a man regarded as one of the most brilliant men of his day in the UK, Europe, and the USA.

        Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705][Note 1] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher.[1] Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the first Postmaster General.[2] Wikipedia.

        And I don’t think an old friend of mine, sadly deceased, Glen Seaborg, a Nobel Prize winner, would take kindly to being characterized as a “stupid yankee doddle”.

        Seaborg was the principal or co-discoverer of ten elements: plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium and element 106, which, while he was still living, was named seaborgium in his honor. He said about this naming, “This is the greatest honor ever bestowed upon me–even better, I think, than winning the Nobel Prize. Future students of chemistry, in learning about the periodic table, may have reason to ask why the element was named for me, and thereby learn more about my work.”[5] He also discovered more than 100 isotopes of transuranium elements and is credited with important contributions to the chemistry of plutonium, originally as part of the Manhattan Project where he developed the extraction process used to isolate the plutonium fuel for the implosion-type atomic bomb. Wikipedia.

        1. Good on Seaborg!
          My Father might have known him, being in the same business at the same time…

          1. He was a very nice guys, wife was a delight too. I knew him at Berkeley.

      2. A bit like their alumiNUM. Much of their language does seem to be lazy-speak/lazy spell English(although not always, who wants to take an elevator when you can take a lift?)

    2. “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good folk to do nothing.”

  34. Good morning all,

    Wall to wall sunshine overhead the McPhee holding this morning and not a cloud in sight, wind in the South, 18℃ going to 25℃. Not perfect for my planned day of trouting on the Avon but you can’t have everything; weather back to normal tomorrow.

    Speaking of weather, I had a look at temperatures at Oxford during the dip in solar activity in cycle 20 between 1965 and 1975:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1f8eb6406584996ebc216c83bfbda25d0f76aa8a8c38fa862121646794b7759.png

    There was no significant dip with the average June Tmax at 19.58℃ and July at 21.26℃. Looking at the previous long-term data from 1934-1964 gave average Tmax for June at 19.51℃ and July at 21.75℃. This obviously doesn’t fit Prof Valentina Zharkova’s proposition on solar minima but considering the Met Office has changed the page content and presentation for historical data there has to be a suspicion that it has ‘adjusted’ the figures. However there are other factors at play. Look up variable Earth-Sun distance and solar system barycentres. Prof. Zharkova talks about those too as they will affect how much solar energy is received by the Earth.

      1. Thanks, Joseph. I know about the Milankovitvh cycles and generally ‘buy it’. Superimposed on them is the Halstatt cycle of variable Earth-Sun distance which Prof. Zharkova talks about. You could listen to this podcast she did with Tom Nelson:

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

      2. Thanks, James. I know about the Milankovitvh cycles and generally ‘buy it’. Superimposed on them is the Halstatt cycle of variable Earth-Sun distance which Prof. Zharkova talks about. You could listen to this podcast she did with Tom Nelson:

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

  35. Good morning all,

    Wall to wall sunshine overhead the McPhee holding this morning and not a cloud in sight, wind in the South, 18℃ going to 25℃. Not perfect for my planned day of trouting on the Avon but you can’t have everything; weather back to normal tomorrow.

    Speaking of weather, I had a look at temperatures at Oxford during the dip in solar activity in cycle 20 between 1965 and 1975:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1f8eb6406584996ebc216c83bfbda25d0f76aa8a8c38fa862121646794b7759.png

    There was no significant dip with the average June Tmax at 19.58℃ and July at 21.26℃. Looking at the previous long-term data from 1934-1964
    gave average Tmax for June at 19.51℃ and July at 21.75℃. This obviously doesn’t fit Prof Valentina Zharkova’s proposition on solar minima but considering the Met Office has changed the page content and presentation for historical data there has to be a suspicion that it has ‘adjusted’ the figures. However there are other factors at play. Look up variable Earth-Sun distance and solar system barycentres. Prof. Zharkova talks about those too as they will affect how much solar energy is received by the Earth.

    1. Design a more compact version, sling it beneath a helicopter and use it for crowd control.

  38. James Delingpole’s latest podcast is with Feargus O’Connor Greenwood, author of ‘180º – Unlearn The lies Youve Been Taught To Believe’. Well worth an hour and a quarter of your time:

    https://odysee.com/@JamesDelingpoleChannel:0/2023-07-03—Feargus-O:4

    The book can be bought at Amazon or direct from Feargus through his email feargusgreenwood@protonmail.com. There was a .pdf download (which I have) but I don’t think that option is available any more. If you are a serious truth-seeker it’s a ‘must have’.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/778cfbd5cd5ee47bacef4d2cf122f9acc5ca3ee2809989fc1b2875eb370debd4.png

  40. Morning all,

    Ironicallly China has acres of unused new cars that sellers can’t shift because they’re too expensive and that is the case for one of China’s biggest manufacturers BYD (Beyond Your Dreams) EVs.

    Tesla’s are selling well by comparison so Elon Musk can afford to drop the price of Tesla’s to increase sales further. This has led to truce between Tesla and BYD to moderate their price reductions.

    However an imminent big slump in vehicle sales for both EVs and ICE cars is predicted by analysts:

    https://youtu.be/wZrMWhCeBlo

    This will further encourage buyers to stick with the cheaper legacy internal combustion engined cars, convince Shell to keep drilling for oil and finally make Government realise that using electricity to save the planet was not a good idea in the first place.

  41. Gardening can be a hit and miss hobby but when you make a hit it is a pleasure to see the results. Rather like cooking, as I have found out.

    Back from fruit picking; quite a harvest this year of raspberries and loganberries. I wasn’t going make any more jelly but I haven’t the room in my freezer for all this fruit, with more to come, and so jelly it is tomorrow and Sunday. Blueberries are very poor this year after two previous very good harvests.

    Raspberries – 4th picking = 4 1/2 pounds. Row is 18′ long by 3′ wide. First productive year’s harvest after reshaping the bed and erecting the new wider support trellis.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f940457913e4e1bc216a24a8f963da2ae246334fc0e2d801e2b0a12e6042ebb.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa6790d48a55906c1f642689add38b2497fbba63ae900194aec9c61104b94375.jpg

    Loganberries – 3rd picking = 3 1/2 pounds. 1 plant with around 12 canes. Tied the canes in differently this year, giving more vertical space between the canes. Appears to have worked. I have to rebuild the blackberry supports this autumn and so I’ll go for an identical method for that plant.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb92f5a7958e7676de2c92f8a9ead49190366459667f91dc58340e8f7f716bca.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/85535eb1e928fe913314f36e16935fee3d5f0576e6981162ed54c8ce2bfc33b6.jpg

    Blackberries to come, some are turning red already. 1 Oregon Thornless plant.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dc73da5d94010f0b1aeb0ad034969e1f65180729c30aaaaae553a783c8e142f5.jpg

    White grape looking good too.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c88e136dd879a9286de45cf45c0df53c47cc0a9b0cb38b178f984c8a5facc38e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a448ec14a1009a0d684249d6c190e84a935a8796943866a066f84ada665f80d8.jpg

    The seedless red grape in my other greenhouse is in its second year and has put on some serious growth but no fruit this year. Next year perhaps.

      1. No, can’t say I’ve seen them for sale in garden centres, perhaps a specialist fruit grower e.g. Ken Muir in Weeley might have them. Another import from the USA?

        1. I think they were cross cultivated there initially.
          My father grew them and they were easy to cultivate and if I remember correctly have no thorns. The fruits are large and tasty and can be used for jam.

          1. Thanks, sos, sounds interesting but I’m a bit pushed for space. Earlier this year I constructed a new support for a second loganberry that I will train into a fan shape.

          1. I’m not, jr.
            Just had a look at their website and amongst a host of fruit plants is a hybrid Boysenberry that sos recommended. I am probably going up that way in late September and if I have time call in and have a look. Need to find some space first.
            Thank you for the info.

      1. I had one neighbour, an old BT chum, drinking partner and at one time my boss, round last week for raspberries. No charge!

    5. Have you considered trading with neighbours? Or even having a table with an honesty box out front?

      It all looks superb. Well done.

      1. None of my immediate neighbours grow fruit and veg. We have large plots but grass, shrubs and flowers are what they want. I give family members pots of jelly, with the proviso they return the jars!

        1. Beautiful healthy looking plants. They all look marvelous. very well done Korky.

    8. Lovely!
      It’s a toss-up between raspberries and gooseberries for my favourite fruit off the bush.
      Grapes make wine, so…

    9. My raspberries are autumn fruiting. I’m still using up the jam from last year’s batch.

    1. There’s a thread by @MikeBenzCyber which lays out why Elon Musk restricted users on Twitter last week. ‘Intelligence’ agencies (east and west) and other nefarious companies were data scraping twitter, to glean information on the tweeters.

      How this ties in with refuting Ukie rumint is not immediately apparent, but I’ll wager some politico will recognise an opportunity for political oversight to ‘safeguard’ against such chicanery. TPTB really do not like independent thought.

  43. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s funny, rather late but I had a lie – in.

    Never Too Old

    A whorehouse gets busted. The girls are lined up out front, and a cop is going down the line giving them all tickets.

    A little old lady approaches one of the girls at the end of the line and asks, “Why are all of you lovely ladies here in a line like this?”

    The smart-ass whore explains, “Lady, we’re waiting in line for our lollipops.”

    “Oh, that’s nice dear,” says the little old lady. “I haven’t had one of them in so long. I think I’ll get in line too!”

    A few minutes later, the cop is standing in front of the little old lady.
    “Lady, aren’t you a little old for this?”

    She looks him right in the eye and says, “As long as they keep making ’em, I’m gonna keep sucking ’em.”

    1. Afternoon, Tom.
      After a lifetime of hard work, the occasional lie-in must be one’s reward!

      1. Good thinking, Paul.

        I must do it more often and get off that damned night shift.

  44. Fruit simmered and smashed into pulp with the potato masher. Juice extraction lash-up in my utility room using my dear late wife’s shower chair. I was going to get rid of it but re-worked it does the job. She’d be pleased as jam/jelly making was something she enjoyed doing. I’m keeping that particular summer tradition going.
    Off now to sow some late White Lisbon (winter hardy) and Oignon de Paris onion seeds plus carrot and beetroot for a late harvest. Late runner beans next week. Must top-up the jelly bag with more pulp before I go out.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73e7122bd61c41cec51f863b89a465d97244caf94496c89d24fc0456e75e69d3.jpg

    1. That looks most unfortunate, Korky – but I’m glad to read about the juice and jelly-making.
      Firstborn bought a honey press from Finland earlier this year, with the specification that it must also be good for pressing fruit (apples particularly) – to be tested in production for both this autumn.

    1. It has the same shortcoming of wind turbines and solar panels – a vast number are required to provide a small amount of electricity. And I don’t fancy their chances in a storm Force 10.

      1. I suppose we could always rub two sticks together in a cave, hunt wild meat and drink from the spring? The evolutionary principal of the survival of the fittest would reassert itself of course and the old social order would return by default because guys are stronger than gals, end of.

          1. I support Fracking and nuclear energy. But I don’t see any reason not to experiment with alternatives. After all at one time the steam engine was regarded as a completely whacko idea. Same with cars. If I recall correctly the belief was that if you went faster than 20MPH it would be fatal. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

          2. “But I don’t see any reason not to experiment with alternatives.”

            There’s been plenty of experimentation. We’re in the middle of it. We’re the subjects. The results of the experiment are clear – it doesn’t work. Other than hugely expensive nuclear, no one has the answer to producing electricity on the scale that will be required when gas and coal reserves are exhausted. Attempting to power the world by the sun, the wind and the waves is doomed to failure. We will be back to the days of living by the clock, the calendar and the weather.

            And the above applies to fixed installations. Transport is an even bigger problem.

          5. There is no climate crisis on the horizon. At least not in the way the zealots think.

          7. All I’m pointing out is that, at the moment, is just as much pie in the sky as all the other alternatives.

          8. You wrote as though it were a practical possibility and that I had dismissed the idea.

        2. One of the things that I liked about living in the USA was their ‘can do’ attitude. Here in the UK the default is ‘can’t be done’.
          I don’t know why that is because it wasn’t always so. Obviously the industrial revolution was done by people with a ‘can do’ attitude. But something seems to have happened. At what point I don’t know but it needs to be overcome. In the USA when something is wrong, citizens form serious groups to get stuff done, Ralph Naders fight against Ford is a famous example, there is a lot of grass roots activity for all sorts of things. In the UK it seems the response is to expect politicians to do something and when they don’t, people just relapse into negativity.

          I have a personal example of that. Invented something that enables the growing of plants from seed to the age of 6 months or so, completely free of pests and with only one initial watering and one initial dose of fertilizer. Americans were curious when I said that I could do that. In the UK the immediate response was ‘that’s impossible’ and no, I’m not going to say how, that idea is now in the hands of my daughter to do with as she wishes commercially. My point is that if you don’t cultivate a positive attitude, you are never going to get new things that will work, you just become fossilized in your thinking.

          1. 100% agree, Johnathan. That’s one of the attractive things about the US.
            The flip side, as I saw some years ago, was their blind denial that they were in financial trouble, even when their division financials showed it clearly. Two months later, almost everybody fired. Pity, some really clever people there.

          2. I agree Ober. I was warning of doom in the USA over a decade ago, they thought I was a crank but I thought it obvious that things were going badly awry. So yes, there is a blind denial when things go wrong. Somehow, I think you will agree, there has to be a middle way between the British attitude and the American attitude to life. They are to optimistic the British to pessimistic.

          3. There’s plenty of ‘can do’ in the UK. It’s just that the wrong things are being done, hence the wrecking of our energy supply function by highly motivated half-wits.

          4. Things move along so rapidly nowadays that people saying: “It can’t be done,” are always being interrupted by somebody doing it.

            Author unknown

        3. One of the things that I likes about living in the USA was their ‘can do’ attitude. Here in the UK the default is ‘can’t be done’.
          I don’t know why that is because it wasn’t always so. Obviously the industrial revolution was done by people with a ‘can do’ attitude. But something seems to have happened. At what point I don’t know but it needs to be overcome. In the USA when something is wrong, citizens form serious groups to get stuff done, Ralph Naders fight against Ford is a famous example, there is a lot of grass roots activity for all sorts of things. In the UK it seems the response is to expect politicians to do something and when they don’t, people just relapse into negativity.

          I have a personal example of that. Invented something that enables the growing of plants from seed to the age of 6 months or so, completely free of pests and with only one initial watering and one initial dose of fertilizer. Americans were curious when I said that I could do that. In the UK the immediate response was ‘that’s impossible’ and no, I’m not going to say how, that idea is now in the hands of my daughter to do with as she wishes commercially. My point is that if you don’t cultivate a positive attitude, you are never going to get new things that will work, you just become fossilized in your thinking.

        4. Read that as “… hunt for wild mead”… Firstborn can sell you some, with the geographic coordinates of where it’s from!

      2. Well no, but I don’t think the intent is to use it in such places where storms like that prevail. But it would be perfectly practical in the Mediterranean, foe example, off the coast of countries there. It survived off the coast of Scotland and that says something for it. It doesn’t do just electricity. What struck me was its cost saving in desalinization which is an expensive process right now.

          1. No the machine is driven by wave motion. Plenty of those in the Med.

      3. It’s also in the sea, an environment hostile to anything with metal and electronics in it. In the sea, it’s also liable to be run down by a massive 100.000 tonne ship, as well.

          1. Well two generation have been doing perfecting this thing so I’m sure they have dealt with the obvious.

        2. Only one in N France still operates and requires constant maintenance. That’s why Swansea Bay and the Clyde Estuary were abandoned.

          1. Is that this type, a prototype or another maker? This one strikes me as being mostly plastic and is the latest iteration of an idea going back two generations of individuals, as the man says in the video.

  50. Just off up to the “garden” after a run into Belper, but has anyone mentioned today’s date?
    😢😢😢

      1. And I don’t suppose you would offer very good odds against there being even more potential recruits in London and the rest of the UK today.

      2. Is the BBC mentioning the muslim bombings that killed so many, or is it completely ignoring it and running pro stories?

  51. Many front pages this morning feature the unfortunate incident of a Landrover Defender ploughing into a school party.
    Whilst little will be known about how the driver got into this predicament it is on record that these cars and many other marques do suffer from Sudden Acceleration Syndrome (SAS) which can be an intermittent fault.

    https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr3-28/sudden-acceleration-syndrome-sas-97712/

    Manufacturers of automatics do make it incumbent on the driver to take responibility for their vehicle’s unpredicable behaviour.

    1. Being a simple soul, I assumed that the car was automatic and that the driver mistakenly put her foot hard on the accelerator rather than the intended brake.

      1. It’s often the case – Mother-in-Law crashed her automatic some decades ago despite shoving frantically on the brake pedal, subsequently discovered to be the accelerator… Oops!

        1. Been there, done that. Horrible realisation. Fortunately no one and no property was injured/damaged.

  52. As I was pondering 7/7/ I wondered how easy it would be for a smuggler to use the gimmegrant rubber boats to transport weapons or explosives into the UK. The boats are met and towed into harbour or onto beaches.

    I don’t suppose the boats are checked all that carefully, merely carted off for storage. A corrupt employee at the storage site could turn a blind eye to their removal.

    2. Then Home Office staff will be killed. Maybe then the state will stop taking revenge for Brexit and tow any future welfare shoppers to France and get deporting the ones here.

  53. Cops in France have been granted the authority to remotely activate a suspect’s cellphone camera, microphone and GPS, after the passage of a provision in a wider “justice reform bill” on Wednesday night.

    The bill allows the geolocation of crime suspects, covering other devices like laptops, cars and connected devices, just as it could be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offences, as well as delinquency and organised crime.

    1. Start by tapping the UK government. They’re aiding and abetting criminality every day – but then, so are the french. When will they start arresting officials?

    1. Better to make your own. And Hollandaise. It will keep for a week in the fridge and only takes a minute or two.

      I have never been able to find a shop bought Hollandaise that tastes as good as i can make it. I like it very lemony.

      2. What oil do you use? In the trusting days before I began reading ingredient lists and just going by the taste and texture, I expected it to be made with egg, cream and vinegar.

        1. A light virgin olive oil. Not the dark ones, too strong a flavour though you might get away with it with Aioli. Hollandaaise is made with clarified butter.

          I wouldn’t put cream in Mayonnaise or Hollandaise. Besides, cream masks flavours.

      3. I like chilli in most sauces. Not enough to cauterize, but give just a little warmth.

      4. Recipe says ‘add the oil a small drop at a time’ – what is considered a drop? A literal drop off the end of a spoon, a quarter of a teaspoon, half, or a whole mega teaspoonful?

        1. Bearing in mind I am no cook, I should imagine it will be a literal drop because otherwise it’s going to curdle, surely?

          1. Yes, you are probably right. I’m going to have a go at this tomorrow, we have only one egg at the moment!

      1. Thank you! Apparently Selfridges stock Hunter & Gather foods so I’ll look out for it next time I go there for my fluoride free sping water in glass bottles! Getting there slowly. I’ve given up margarine in favour of butter. Wish I could drop soya milk in favour of full fat cows milk but my stomach resolutely says no.

        1. Since ‘the jab’ our younger son has been dairy intolerant, sigh. I did tell both our sons, but I think they were coerced by their wives’ conditions – one was expecting at the time and the elder son’s wife’s health is fragile, allergic to many things and auto immune illness.

    3. I use a light olive oil since I find extra-virgin olive and other oils (avocado?) are too strongly flavoured.

      1. Our Amaryllis are either shrimp pink or vamp scarlet.
        Not such a deep, sophisticated colour.

      1. Interesting because it was some family friends in France who brought the seeds to over to the UK. 🌻

  57. That’s enough from me for the moment. Off to Firstborn’s for the weekend of building and similar. Will be carrying firearms! Bear shot just down the road from his place, as it was killing sheep.
    See from y’all after (early) dinner tonight, I hope.
    Hope all’s going OK with LotL/Lottie/Ann: directing positive energy her way. All Y’all be good.

      1. What is the alternative – a zoo? If it kills sheep it is not going to stop by being told “no”.

        3. One of our neighbours in south London used to close the garden gate to keep the birds out! I am not kidding;-)

    3. The other evening I bumped into Brian who was carrying his single bore shotgun. He was hopping to bag a wood pigeon for his supper as he had recently come across a recipe for Pigeon Paella!. I left him to his stalking and about 30 minutes later I heard a single shot. I’ve yet to see him to ask if he dined well that night….

  58. As a GP, my diagnosis is clear: The NHS is dying. 7 July 2023.

    As Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer, Steve Barclay and NHS England chair Amanda Pritchard offered fawning tributes to the NHS at Westminster Abbey yesterday, I couldn’t help but wonder if their time might have been better spent drawing up emergency plans to fix our ailing health service.

    Working on the front line in general practice, it does not feel as if there is much to be celebrating. From the difficulties that patients face in getting GP appointments, to the time that many have to wait for hospital outpatient services, the appalling situations unfolding daily in emergency departments and the agonising waits that have become associated with calling for an ambulance, all is clearly not well. The NHS is dying.

    I have no medical qualifications whatsoever but I already knew that!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/07/as-a-gp-my-diagnosis-is-clear-the-nhs-is-dying/

    1. The Doctor is right to question their virtue signalling whilst doing nothing.

    2. I’ve an appointment for these kidney stones. Diagnosis was in 2022. The removal surgery will be in mid 2024.

      I think folk should be reimbursed when they go private. That money should come from reduced funding for the NHS. Once the beast is starved it will collapse, and the market facing insurance model prevail and taxes be reduced as a consequence.

      Ah, I can dream.

      1. Are you booked for Lithotripsy?

        Lithotripsy is a non-invasive procedure involving the physical destruction of hardened masses like kidney stones,[1] bezoars[2] or gallstones. The term is derived from the Greek words meaning “breaking (or pulverizing) stones” (litho- + τρίψω [trips

  59. Update- I rescheduled today’s appointment as I simply wasn’t up to it- have spent much of the day in bed. Forget codeine; it made me feel sick and totally drugged. I confess I am not doing well. No appetite but have managed a few fruit gums and a little Pinot.
    Thanks Paul for your good thoughts.

    1. Get in some tins of Baxters chicken broth. It will help keep your strength up. £1.50 in Asda or get hubby to boil up a carcass. It’s easier to get get a liquid down when you have no appetite

      1. We have tubs of homemade stock in the freezer. Thinking of some cream of chicken later.

          2. I only say leave the cream out because a stock or broth is easier on the stomach. You could always water it down i suppose.

    2. Wasn’t going to say anything because of bias. I can’t take codeine either, makes me feel quite ill. Try the morphine. I was in some trepidation about that too and constantly refused it, eventually I capitulated and found it much better than I anticipated.

      1. I might well, I want the codeine effects to go first. Am sitting here nodding off.

    3. Codeine can make you feel a bit wobbly. I found I slept through a lot of my recovery.

      1. I am going to leave it and stick to paracetamol and morphine at night if it gets bad enough. Today has been rough.

    1. Biden is showing clear signs of dementia. Putin isn’t. Must be all that Wodka for breakfast.

      1. Putin is almost a teetotaller who has spoken out about his disapproval of drink. He will have the occasional drink for making a toast, that sort of thing, but doesn’t drink other than that. He is not known as ‘The Monk’ for nothing, he is in his personal habits, apparently, quite austere.

      2. Are the signs of dementia an act though? So that he can plead insanity should he ever be prosecuted (unlikely, I know) for treason? It enables him to push some of the wilder stuff through under the cover of dementia as well – people shrug and say what else can you expect of him? Nothing surprises me now after (and during) ‘covid’ – I fear we have been lied to for decades.

    2. No official announcement. I didn’t think he was going to stand. My impression was that he wanted to take care of this Ukraine business and then retire. It would complete his life’s work. We will have to wait and see how the War goes. There’s still time to finish it and fade gracefully from the scene.

    3. No official announcement. I didn’t think he was going to stand. My impression was that he wanted to take care of this Ukraine business and then retire. It would complete his life’s work. We will have to wait and see how the War goes. There’s still time to finish it and fade gracefully from the scene.

  62. Scorchio. Too hot to do anything in t’garden. Cats slumber. Vet said that it was very rare for her to see cats in such an excellent state of health.

      1. Been nice here today and warmer although I have been sleeping through most of it. A very nice evening.

      2. Blowing a gale here – but it’s sunny and the wind is a warm one from the south west. Not like that biting cold wind we had for weeks in June.

    3. Very close and humid up here, cut the grass despite the squadron of flies on CAP

  63. About 11:00 pm yesterday evening there was a patter of feet in the loft above the bed… after 20 minutes or so silence resumed. I explored the attic this morning couldn’t see where the creature had got in but found a few ‘calling cards’. Took my binoculars outside and scanned the roof eventually found a small round hole in the flaunching of one of the valleys. Contacted builders to remedy the defect – awaiting their response.

    Later had to move the boat in bearable temperatures:….. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3236836cda73f82e7c51da017666ff0c39a3dc5f37d8ad80f8ee557b9b19436.jpg

      1. ‘Tis an untidy line. There is only one rope on a ship and that’s the bell rope…..

          2. Indeed! And that bloody thing was said – twice – every time the train left a station (or “station stop” as the wazzocks call them). I almost started throwing things….

          3. A year ago I was waiting on the platform for a train, accompanied by a friend, when the recorded announcement began: “If you see something suspicious….” I turned to look at my friend to discover his arm outstretched and finger pointing at me!

          8. I only take these photos to be able to prove to the Canal & River Trust that I’m moving the boat in accordance with their mooring restrictions….

        1. Rubbish, it’s nowhere near centre, one nudge and it would fall over the side and propeller your fowl.

    3. I recognise the town house on Bathwick Hill and assume you are in Sydney Gardens, the only surviving C18 pleasure gardens in England.

      The GWR also cuts through the gardens, proof that with intelligent design transport can be successfully integrated into the townscape.

      1. 100% + 2 for neatness!

        It’s the original toll house for the canal. There’s a hole in the roof of the tunnel where a box could be lowered from the house to collect the tolls from the passing boatmen.

    4. Flaunching in one of the valleys? I don’t understand the terms – I assume these are the peaks of the roof?

      1. Corim can explain it much better than me. When two sections of a sloping roof meet at a right angle lead flashing is used across the join to form a valley. The flaunching is the mortar applied both sides under the leading edges of the tiles so that rainwater stays in the valleys until it reaches the gutters…

        1. Much obliged Stephen, that helps me visual where things are and what they do.

        2. Never heard of it – I’m not a builder though – but thank you Stephen for a concise definition.

    1. There’s no question it’s awe inspiring, a great example of mankind’s ingenuity and technology.

      1. They’ve got a better chance than hi risk anus’s Tories, that’s for sure.

  66. Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 748 3/6
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. And me.

      Wordle 748 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟨⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Par here. Bloody Yank spelling.
      And a bloody schoolboy error on 3rd go.

      Wordle 748 4/6

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

    3. Par 4
      Wordle 748 4/6

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

  67. Like so many towns and cities across the UK and the rest of the world, the ’15 minute city’ plan is being implemented. Rachel and Carinna, in Colchester, Essex, have engaged with the City Council to educate the councillors in the misguided nature of these dystopian plans.

    https://youtu.be/xQOFqjlz-Wc

    2. Not before time that these feisty Ladies’s point of view was put forward. As hard and a reasonable as their arguments are.

  68. That’s me for this very hot day. Mid-afternoon, there was a power cut – no leccy for two hours. Ah, i thought, I’ll make use of the time by drawing water from the well………doh!!!

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. “While no one doubts the importance of stamping out racism in society…”

      Hmm. A lot of people will be asking “But what is it?”

      “Haddy Njie, Chair of IERUK, said its researchers had taken a ‘deep dive’ into the Census figures…”

      Has Haddy Njie ever had a real job?

      1. I do
        I’m not
        And come up with zilch, zero, nada, just bottom sludge
        I doubt it…

    1. Here too.
      The pool cover keeps most of them out but if we get a swarm when the top is off it can change the ph of the pool and cause it to go cloudy.
      Very annoying, as I try to keep the balance correct and hygienic with the absolute minimum of chemicals.

    1. They should be sent back to Africa. Where did most of the slaves come from? West Africa?

      1. I tried to reply, so if there are a few others I apologise.

        Most were captured from all over the area and sold.
        Whitey was the end user, the real predators were other Africans

    2. Some woke singer changed the Canadian anthem from “Our home and native land” to “Our home on native land”.
      The odious Trudeau piped up with a comment that it sounded like a good change, he would consult with itself indigenous mob about making it official.

    1. Because they’re savages who have never been taught how to behave, who have no family structure, no discipline and no concept of civilised society.

      1. You must all be aware of the old saying……you can take a person from their historic environment, but not the environment out of the person.

        1. They come from single parent – ecause black fathers are most likely to abandon their families because they lack the Christian cultural heritage – unemployed, welfare dependent homes. They fall into gangs to gather the stability a father should provide.

          The gang then teaches all the wrong lessons because the members all have the same background. They don’t see what they do as wrong. The solution is to have a much bigger stick and to use it, repeatedly to break the cycle and provide a better example once the savage is cowed.

          Sadly, it’s the same process you use to train a vicious dog. For those who argue that it’s horrible to compare black savages to dogs. – yes, it’s horribly unfair on the dog who knows no better. The humans have the choice.

      2. A Blanket, a Bowl, and a Stick
        In the matter of racial comparisons
        The media shouts to the moon
        About all the historic achievements
        of the Redskin, Spic and the Coon

        Yet strangely when strolling museums
        The white mans creations stand thick
        but all we can find of those others
        is a blanket, a bowl and a stick

        No telephones, timeclocks or engines,
        No lights that go on with a flick.
        No airplanes or rockets or radios
        Just a blanket, a bowl and a stick

        Not one sioux indian submarine,
        No african ice cream to lick,
        not a single mexican x ray machine,
        it’s a blanket, a bowl and a stick

        So remember when historys the subject,
        and revisionists are up to their tricks,
        the evidence tells quite another tale
        of a blanket, a bowl and a stick
        A poem by A.Wyatt Mann

  75. Today we were offered, by Mongo’s breeder if we would take on an older Landseer Newf called Ernest. He is 8, and has hip dysplasia. While not abandoned, his owner has been in hospital for some months and isn’t expected to recover, and asked if Ernie could be rehomed.

    On the one hand, I’d love to take him in. On the other Oscar wouldn’t like it, Mongo can’t cope with his own toilet at the moment, Junior’s confused and while I can take two Newfs in to work with me, I’m not sure if three would cope.

    I’ll visit Marion tomorrow to see the fellow and go from there.

    1. That’s a hell of a decision, wibbling. Wish I was closer, and could lend a hand (or several!). Life has a way of working things out. 😘
      Best of luck.

      1. It’s a bit ‘do we want to adopt a child’ and I honestly don’t think it would be fair on him, or the current two.

        1. Some people would say that a dog is not a child! Frankly my dear….I would not agree!

          4. A dog is NOT a child, it’s a dog! That doesn’t mean that the commitment is dissimilar.

          5. Thanks Conway! I really do know that – but as you say, the commitment…..

          6. I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t know that, it’s just that some people do treat them like children rather than dogs and the dogs suffer for it.

  76. Not to worry, I’m sure Ben Wallace and Hamish the Cretin will lead us to victory.

    Fight Russia? Britain has just 40 tanks and around a dozen frigates and destroyers ready to go war – the lowest figures in modern times
    The head of Britain’s armed forces is not ‘happy’ about Britain’s tank shortfall
    Britain is now investing in armoured vehicles – ready by the end of the decade

    My emphasis, bold italic and underlined.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12264611/Britain-just-40-tanks-dozen-frigates-destroyers-ready-war.html

    We’d better pray that Ukraine doesn’t declare war against us for not supplying enough arms and ammunition!

    1. No use for fighting Russia but sufficient to capture the Palace of Westminster?

    2. We haven’t had enough weapons for generations. During the Afghanistan war the MoD was so obsessed with FRES – future vehicles – that it didn’t bother with the current in theatre casualties.Notably the crap Ajax tank is one of that program. A program nearly 20 years old, massively overbudget has delivered one utterly useless, undergunned, slow, undrivable overheating prototype. This is why if we imposed failure standards the MoD would very quickly find itself with no staff.

      It is the one thing Brown did right, to bring emergency funding for the existing, and cheap Cougar, Foxhound and Mastiff vehicles.

      1. If Brown was involved it was to garner votes and probably to obfuscate a different procurement disaster.

        1. Any other time I’d agree. Certainly his catastrophic arrogance in wasting tax payers money on unnecessary, obsolete and utterly useless air craft carriers – again, 20 years late – to buy votes in Scotland was pathetic.

          The vehicles he didn’t mentoin. There were no press releases. No hoo ha. No publicity.

          1. In which case he didn’t even know what one of his minions had put in place.
            Brown is like Blair, a wrecker.

          2. Brown’s biggest wrecking effort will come when Starmer gets into power. He’s the lead author on the New Constitution.

          9. Perhaps the propeller-shaft-compromised HMS Prince of Wales should be used to accommodate large numbers of ‘small boat people’ without ever bringing them ashore?

      2. 1. AJAX is not a tank
        2. A number of vehicles have been manufactured(not ‘one’). I can’t remember the exact number but I was involved in the independent testing/approval for service. Fair to say, it could have gone better.

    3. And the RAF with about 150 front-line jets won’t qualify to be called The Fewer or The Even Fewer. It will have to be The Fewest.

  77. I thought these were supposed to have been banned.
    Biden is far more the war criminal than Putin.

    REVEALED: The controversial cluster bombs Biden is sending to Ukraine: M864 shells each contain SEVENTY-TWO grenades and have 6% failure rate, sparking fears they’ll cause horrific civilian injuries
    The much-criticized munitions explode in the air over a target and shoot out smaller ‘bomblets’ over a wide area
    At least four of each of the 72 submunitions would remain unexploded posing a serious threat to civilians, potentially decades after used in conflict

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12275051/The-controversial-cluster-bombs-Biden-sending-Ukraine.html?ico=topics_pagination_desktop

    1. The USA and Ukraine are not signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
      Note that the UK as President of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, made a statement on grave concerns about reports of their use in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

      1. A new name, presumably created to post just now.
        Welcome to Nottle.

        I had seen that that was the case, but it certainly doesn’t change the fact that Biden, as the ultimate authority, is by the standards of the signatories to the convention, a war criminal.

        1. No, that’s always been my name.
          I believe the convention requires signatory states to pass domestic legislation. The US isn’t breaking any law, as far as I am aware.

          1. At that point you had only made one post under the “name”. Either way, welcome.
            That is the “only obeying orders” argument.
            If the use of such munitions is to be considered a war crime by the signatories, but those who don’t sign carry on regardless but lose the war do you think they will get away on the technicality if it comes to trial?
            Not that it will!

        1. I don’t know but I imagine they have been ‘decommissioned’ or otherwise put beyond possible use. I can tell you that the WiKi entry on BL 755 is peddling some bullshit. The bomblets did not have parachutes and we didn’t plan to deliver them from 300 feet.

          What else on WiKipedia is bullshit?

          1. A major problem with Wikipedia is that so many people can edit entries and there is insufficient control over clearly biased content. If you are knowledgeable, and can be bothered, you can correct it.

  78. Normally I would have put cloudless skies and 26C in July down as.a day for not bothering to go to the river until evening. But how wrong can you be?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b1656faaf065b460c1a1a8bf1d4c70717b348fdc8e40875424aa5e76f1d1b96.jpg

    The first of 8 beautiful brownies taken between 1230 and 1700 from here:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bcec809df33dd96ac3e62be0a7ae122976926c2b89647779d2d80e4e45e31b06.jpg

    River Avon near Netheravon, Wiltshire.

    2. Are you a part of a syndicate or fishing club that has access to the Avon?

      1. Yes. The Services Dry Fly Fishing Association. The stretch of river flows through Salisbury Plain military training area. If you’re a fly-fisherman you’ll probably have heard of Frank Sawyer; it’s the stretch where he was keeper virtually all his working life.

          1. SPTA? What’s that? Please Identify, we don’t all understand your abbreviations.

          3. Since I’ve never been there, is it it surprising?

            My training has all been with Royal Air Force.

            No Pongoes involved.

          5. Tim xx yz has already identified.

            I also know several airfields like the back of my hand.

            Unsurprising as I’m Ex- RAF.

            No Pongoes involved.

        2. I did a Bailey Bridge over a stretch of that several decades ago when I was in 8 Field Squadron!

    3. Lucky beggar. Wednesday’s effort at ‘Bum Beach’ Whitsand was a weeded out disaster. Not one fish between 3 of us. Nice couple of pints on the way home though.

  79. A photographic progress report on Bob’s Folly, part one.
    I need some more concrete blocks!
    59 blocks as delivered in Dec22, the 60th was used elsewhere:- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/182f1012440cc3c7c588ac9cdf194484bce11fe993c45240728d80d4aecbe209.jpg

    After about half of them had been used by Apr22:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/498b0357268d750e0aa8b31ce7be43740652277207acbc43e99afab33ad8b22a.jpg

    Current state now. Not quite enough blocks to finish the last bit, I need another half dozen or so:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a667526a0b1cc2eda6350a7e29de8d3f4c59194d16060927fe49f3f96eff991.jpg

    Where they went to:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d7a5a78d485378fad7306967391dd87229ce6a2131b5826bcfe46d965c40162.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c060b75cdbcc7e31b7edc7a8db6b6db183ce78250eb65e6a54b770aa7ecb1b20.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8575e2e1c587f659672da480d759f5c110c31d803bdad6d1e0c806f159608d03.jpg

      1. It kept me busy during the Lockdown and also provided a reasonable amount of exercise.

      1. If he asks nicely, I’m sure the British Museum could provide a few, complete with statues…

    4. What Bob isn’t providing is a sense of scale. It’s when you realise each of those stone blocks is 5 metres long and Bob lifts them with one hand that it becomes really scary!

    5. A nice new box on a level flood plain would have been much easier to handle.

      Much more than I would have taken on

  80. A photographic progress report on Bob’s Folly, part two.
    After getting the blocks laid, I will then need to clad the front and top of the wall in stone and that will be that project finished:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa63c7fd89496c295e8891e4553be649a5011c92058fc1543acca485c9d2a589.jpg

    and this needs to be set on top:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b7294f926dd931bdea43b90da3629b66fde2c16e35233f48b36016c52e01ffb.jpg

    As I was there, I lifted it up on top “more or less” where I intend it to go:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bab64ad066321425eaec75c27cc876a5685268ee4fefbc8c7ebbe51e2320d54.jpg

    So, I need to order another 60 blocks. What will I do with the rest of the blocks I hear you say?
    Well, I’ve a couple of other walls that need a bit of extending. The upper wall by 4 blocks towards Cromford will take up 20:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/632ac7cd7b40625ed823dc91d870ea4267ed2864b3eed01b7c9431a9e94b6e63.jpg

    The bank retaining wall behind the sheds will need another 20 towards Cromford. It’s rather shy so is hiding behind the chop-saw workbench:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb9ba49149932a394c6ecb2abd7f0554ccd9420b496d9a60bb99e65e1f1ef103.jpg

    The other end of that wall needs tidying up so I can possibly get a small greenhouse against it:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/815d48bf18cf4117b1157ba6ce7f8da7260861fdd3dd0b80e1c3c47671df884c.jpg

  82. Seems that mother-in-law’s sister had a stroke, and the daft husband waited a day and a half to take her to the doctor’s surgery… It’s not going well. Poor Pam. Apparently she can’t speak sense.
    Call 999 rather than dither, comrades.

    3. It’s not always as obvious as people think. My father had a stroke when he was staying with me and it took a couple of hours before I realised due to the existing ill health indicators.

      1. Indeed.
        MiL criticising her sister’s husband, but I’m with you, Rupert.
        Welcome, BTW.

    4. The first hour is absolutely crucial, Paul. When our SiL had his stroke he was just very lucky that the the first responder was a fairly stroppy bloke who demanded an ambulance! SiL would not otherwise have lived!

      1. My stroke was when I had just loaded Firstborn’s floor tiles in the car. Became blind. Swapped drivers & Firstborn drove me to A&E like a rally driver. Was in the CT within 10 mins of the stroke, so recovered 90% or so.
        Time is of the essence.
        Strokes are no fun, I assure you.

        2. Some people are born lucky.
          When bad luck strikes, good luck breaks in to save day!

          I’m glad you’re lucky.

          };-))

      2. My stroke was when I had just loaded Firstborn’s floor tiles in the car. Became blind. Swapped drivers & Firstborn drove me to A&E like a rally driver. Was in the CT within 10 mins of the stroke, so recovered 90% or so.
        Time is of the essence.
        Strokes are no fun, I assure you.

    1. The state doesn’t care. The criminal horde is revenge for Brexit. They’ll force ever more of the vermin on us until we are forced back in to the hated EU.

      The only solution is to repeal the endless laws permitting them to arrive here and not be immediately removed, but big government would fight that desperately – it won’t have it’s plan stopped.

      Let’s be blunt – the criminal welfare shoppers have stabbed, murdered, raped, assaulted, stolen, mugged and sold drugs. The state does not care. It *wants* this.

      1. It is the only logical conclusion. Otherwise, it would do something about it. The state wants us gone.

    2. The state doesn’t care. The criminal horde is revenge for Brexit. They’ll force ever more of the vermin on us until we are forced back in to the hated EU.

      The only solution is to repeal the endless laws permitting them to arrive here and not be immediately removed, but big government would fight that desperately – it won’t have it’s plan stopped.

      Let’s be blunt – the criminal welfare shoppers have stabbed, murdered, raped, assaulted, stolen, mugged and sold drugs. The state does not care. It *wants* this.

    3. My reply:

      “Swat up and review your attitude to COMMON LAW as defined in Magna Carta 1215, long before any Parliament held jurisdiction over us, however illegal.“

      1. Under Common Law, we have the right to sweep up and deport all these illegals, as being a threat to the nation.

  84. Off topic
    Earlier, before swim time, the sky became very dark and there was thunder rumbling in the distance and the odd bit of lightning.
    Completed my lengths so all is well.
    The sky has changed colour to an aggressive pink, really weird; the wind is blowing a Hooley, the pollarded weeping willow looks like Medusa as it swings in the wind. Leaves and grass are blowing all over the place. Branches are falling.
    Lots of work clearing up to look forward to.
    The chimney is howling as the wind blows across the roof. I hope we don’t lose tiles
    The power is going on and off.

    What fun.

    On the plus side, I put the cover on the pool so hopefully most of the debris can be recovered from the top of rather than the bottom of the pool.

      1. If it is, it’s taking its time!
        All quiet on the chateau sosraboc front.
        .
        .
        For now!

  85. Just came across this in my inbox:

    “Ofcom has opened an investigation into GB News following a complaint relating to its recently launched “Don’t Kill Cash” campaign.

    Rule 5.4 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code requires all broadcasters to ensure that their programmes – whatever their genre – exclude all expressions of the views and opinions of the person providing the service on matters of political and industrial controversy or current public policy. This reflects the statutory requirements in the Communications Act 2003 as set by Parliament.

    Ofcom guidance explains the “person providing the service” is the licensee, the company officers and persons with an editorial responsibility for the service – rather than the individual presenters or guests that appear in the broadcaster’s
    programming.

    Our investigation does not seek to question the merits of the campaign itself.” Pity they don’t remind the Bbc.

    2. Sorry, Corri, “Communications Act 2003 as set by Parliament.”

      An illegal law as defined By Magna Carta 1215 and enshrined in COMMON LAW before there was an illegal parliament.

      1. In 2003 Common Law took second place to corpus juris because we were in the EU.

        1. But, supposedly we are no longer in the EU and therefore their laws and rulings, no longer apply (or shouldn’t)
          ,

    3. Ofcom is getting very tiresome. I suspect vexatious complainants.

      Edit. I read this below the line earlier this week on Spiked. It was in response to the article on Al Beeb about the “Mother” (read: man) who was “breastfeeding”. Link to article here:

      https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/07/05/that-breastfeeding-bloke-is-the-last-straw/

      The poster recommends complaining to Ofcom and provides further useful detail:

      “ With regards to the ITV News segment on the trans bloke; make a complaint to Ofcom on the grounds of insulting women and reinforcing sexual stereotypes. Encourage friends and family to do the same. I know you might think this is worse than useless but each complaint has to be logged, and if thousands of us do it, they have to take notice.

      You can make a complaint here; https://ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCSLEStandardsComplaints

      It was on ITV News at Ten (22.00) on the 28th of June.”

    4. Ofcom is getting very tiresome. I suspect vexatious complainants.

  86. If I may test the water on this forum.
    I note on similar forums that some people still believe Boris was ousted because he lied to parliament and/or due to ‘Partygate’.
    It’s not just Boris of course. The pack is now circling on his key allies. The weapon of choice being the somewhat ironically named Privileges Committee.
    It’s not Boris per se they needed to oust. It was upcoming legislation.

    1. The NI Protocol – which would have at least made a start to re-establish UK sovereignty throughout the kingdom.
    2. The Bill of Rights – yes, in very early draft but a threat all the same.

    So the soft coup that saw Boris out also needed a globalist in. Hence Sunak (those silly Conservative Party members thinking they had a say!).
    What’s the first thing Sunak concentrated on? Stop the NI Protocol and work with like minded parties to create the Windsor Agreement. This is the golden egg that keeps NI tied to the EU which, in itself, means the remainder of the UK can’t move away either. Despite what Sunak claimed, the Windsor Agreement is the EU’s dream (well they did help write it) which took away the threat of Article 16 and cemented our loss of sovereignty. The DUP and ERG both carried out detailed legal audits of the Agreement which proved the actuality was at odds with Sunak’s words.

    The Bill of Rights needed to be abandoned because Labour will be introducing The New Constitution. The lead author is Gordon Brown. Amongst the horrors included will be the re-positioning of the judiciary above parliament. Gone will be parliamentary sovereignty.

    I appreciate most readers on here may scoff at the suggestion that Ukraine is at the front line of defending our democracy and sovereignty. The irony being that, those who value our freedoms and have no desire to live in a globalist desert, must hope that Putin prevails.
    Russia poses no threat to the UK. But the globalists do.

    1. I think that you will fit in well here, if you choose to continue posting.

    2. Hi,

      Is this the first forum on which you’ve tested the water? If no would you please tell us which other ones have been sampled? Thanks.

      1. Mainly reading other forums but I comment on TCW, The Daily Sceptic etc but under different names (not for any nefarious reason but to avoid being ‘cancelled’ by association).

    3. Rupert, Forget the ‘Bill of RIghts’ 1689, all of which is superseded by MAGNA CARTA 1215.

      Long before there was a parliament.

      Parliament can do nothing in the face of Common Law (based on NATURAL law) to change what our rights actually are.

      This is what needs challenging on a daily basis, to ensure that we are treated fairly under any judicial law, enacted by an illegal parliament.

    5. I think you’ll find most people hear won’t quibble at that. I see Putin as an old-fashioned nationalist who is looking after the interests of his own people having been goaded into a war by the US deep state and mad neo-cons.

    6. I am glad that you have joined us, Rupert; I share your views re Boris, Sunak, Ukraine and Putin.

    8. Boris showed himself to be the buffoon everyone thought he was, but I still wonder how much advance notice he had that these gatherings were being planned.
      I still consider it possible that, by & large, he was actually surprised by them and, being the jovial buffoon he is, joined in.
      What we have seen has been a witch hunt followed by a kangaroo court.

    9. Ukraine is a distraction, an easy to blame event. Heck, insurance companies are blaming it for their price hikes. The government blamed it for massive fuel costs – when we could simply have dug up our own.

      The enemy is the state itself. A monollithic, all consuming poison. One that cannot be controlled because the people who would do that are part of it. The people who *should* be doing that are too frightened to.

      Our entire system of government is broken at a fundamental level. Our tax code is a laughable, greed driven joke that creates and enforces poverty, removes choice, freedom and development. Is it designed to enforce decline.

      Inefficiency and waste is everywhere, and the state loves these. It has weaponised criminal invasion out of spite. There was no plague on gohnorrea so it delighted in covid. The economy kept going so the statists – Sunak – destroyed it. The elected PM threatened the globalist agenda and had to be removed, and he was. Then the other elected official was installed and quickly knifed by the blob who wanted their stunted runt in place – overturning democracy, just as they are doing to Brexit.

      That’s the fundamental problem: we do not live in a democracy. The sham is there, but the parties all say and do the same things – tax hikes, waste, debt. The PM isn’t elected, he’s chosen by the state. The public sector continually soaks up money without expectation of outcome or improvement. It doesn’t want to change. It likes things as they are.

      Until the blood – the money – is cut off from government nothing will change. It must be forced to accept responsibility for it’s failures and that means the individual goes – not to another department, they’re out. Permanently. Same for MPs, who, frankly, should have a noose around their neck as a reminder of whom they serve and the eas of which we can dispose of their pathetic, petty arrogant stupidity.

  87. Am off to bed yet again, husband watching a horror movie. Whether I’ll sleep is another matter so may be back later.
    Sleep well y’all.

    1. Sorry, open goal, irresistible.

      You’re lucky to have a husband watching over you.

      Sleep well, and hopefully relatively pain free.

  88. RE earlier comment on weather.

    Everything has suddenly gone very quiet, perhaps we’re in the eye of the storm?

    I went out to survey the damage. A few biggish branches down, bits and bats scattered everywhere, no trees down as far as I can see in this light.

    The hares were nonchalantly chewing away, “what’s your problem?” they seemed to be implying.
    “Well mates, the birds have stopped singing”.

    It’s a strange feeling being blown around by gusts that are in the 30° range although the temperature is dropping quickly.
    Oddly enough, it’s these quick variations that add to the pleasure of living here

      1. Me too. Nothing better than being out in a downpour when it doesn’t matter if you get wet.

  90. Recent postings have reflected on the misconceptions that we perceive largely from the MSM.
    The Monty Python song embodies the irony of life where enduring pain and sense of despair can be overcome by singing these lyrics sung and accompanied here by the massed choirs and musical performers of the peoples of North Korea:

    https://youtu.be/ifLqzLEB3E0

    Goodnight all

        1. I am up because of pain and I did sleep a lot today. Having some more nerve tonic and down here so I don’t disturb husband too much.

          3. Needed a wee.
            Cant get back to sleep, and it’s 05:45 here, 04:45 with you.
            Ran out of wine last night, box was empty! 25 minutes drive to nearest offlicence, so likely a beery weekend of farm work for me.

          4. Going to try again…tomorrow night will be morphine I think.
            Have a good day with your beery farm work.

          6. Enjoy your Zeds, Ann. it is my refuge also – not from pain but from life.

        2. Up to pump bilges and couldn’t get back to sleep.
          Going back up now. See you all later.

    3. They have wrecked the countries they were born in, now it’s time to move on and wreck another country.

  92. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolks. I’m away to my bed (thinking of putting the duvet back on), as I’m so cold these nights.

    Maybe I need a warm female body next to mine.

    Ah well, dream on.

  93. I’m sitting here on my night shift next to a dead rat caught in a trap in the staff room.
    No humane trap used, just a neck breaker.
    Nurses and docs, stop whining about your pay – let’s invest some money into crumbling NHS estates. (This hosp I’m working in is the oldest inpatient hospital in the country)

        1. Best deliver it to the mortuary. A wounded heron is capable of playing dead.

        2. Best deliver it to the mortuary. A wounded heron is capable of playing dead.

        3. As it cools all the fleas are going to be looking for a warm host. Be afraid.

    2. You’re lucky; if it had been a humane trap you would have had to kill it yourself. It’s illegal to release the quarry species once it’s been trapped.

    3. Ugh! Not nice.
      Whose job is it to remove dead rats?

      Good morning by the way!

    4. Couldn’t you just pick up the trap and throw it out side somewhere the rubbish Stormie ?

    6. Charming. Florence Nightingale will be turning in her grave.
      Sorry you have to put up with this Stormy.

      1. Thanks Box. The other staff have seen a rat(s) running across the office – I don’t know which is the worse environment to work in – sitting next to dead or live rats.
        Someone came eventually to take it away.

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