Friday 9 February: Is there any policy that the Labour Party is prepared to stand by?

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

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

473 thoughts on “Friday 9 February: Is there any policy that the Labour Party is prepared to stand by?

  1. Good morning, chums. I’m halfway through the Tucker Carlson interview with Vladimir Putin. It’s fascinating.

    Wordle 965 5/6

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

    Now back to the Putin interview.

    1. Good morning, Elsie (and any other insomniacs like myself). Thank you, Geoff. The racing is off tomorrow so I’ll be having a lie-in.
      One policy the Labour Party is prepared to stand by is tax and waste; they will create more dependent underclass client state and continue to wreck the culture of this country.

      1. I’ll repeat what I said to you on the previous day’s post: “Good night Conners – and Oscar and Kadi.” Sleep well and enjoy your lie-in.

      2. I’ll repeat what I said to you on the previous day’s post: “Good night Conners – and Oscar and Kadi.” Sleep well and enjoy your lie-in.

    2. Good morning. Similarly uninspired here, but looking forward to an evening with Tucker Carlson and Putin!

      Wordle 965 5/6

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

    3. Same score
      Wordle 965 5/6

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

      They really are attacking the putin interview over here, anything but look at the content and review that.

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    THE FIVE-MINUTE MANAGEMENT COURSE

    Lesson 1

    A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, ‘I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.’ After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.
    The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, ‘Who was that?’
    ‘It was Bob the next-door neighbour,’ she replies.
    ‘Great,’ the husband says, ‘did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?’

    Moral of the story:

    If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure

    Lesson 2

    A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her habit to reveal a leg.
    The Priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.
    The nun said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’
    The Priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.
    The Nun once again said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’
    The Priest apologized ‘Sorry Sister but the flesh is weak.’
    Arriving at the convent, the Nun sighed heavily and went on her way.
    On his arrival at the church, the Priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, ‘Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.’

    Moral of the story

    If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

    Lesson 3

    A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, ‘I’ll give each of you just one wish.’ ‘Me first! Me first!’ says the admin clerk. ‘I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.’
    Puff! She’s gone.
    ‘Me next! Me next!’ says the sales rep. ‘I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.’
    Puff! She’s gone.
    ‘OK, you’re up,’ the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, ‘I want those two back in the office after Lunch.’

    Moral of the story:
    Always let your boss have the first say.

    Lesson 4

    An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, ‘Can I also sit like you and do nothing?’
    The eagle answered: ‘Sure, why not.’
    So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

    Moral of the story:

    To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

    Lesson 5

    A turkey was chatting with a bull.
    ‘I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree’ sighed the turkey, ‘but I haven’t got the energy.’ ‘Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?’ replied the bull. They’re packed with nutrients.’
    The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.
    The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally, after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
    He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

    Moral of the story:

    Bull Shït might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.

    Lesson 6

    A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.
    A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

    There are several morals to this story:

    (1) Not everyone who shïts on you is your enemy.

    (2) Not everyone who gets you out of shït is your friend.

    (3) And when you’re in deep shït, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!

    Here Endeth The Five-Minute Management Course

    1. The implication is that climate change is real and polar bears are under threat. The reality is far from that.

  3. SIR – I was appalled to read that Rowan Atkinson has been blamed in a report by the House of Lords for “damaging” the public perception of electric cars because he wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian about his experience.

    He is perfectly entitled to his view and has a right to express it, even if it is negative. Attacks on freedom of speech belong in dictatorships.

    Andrea Deakin-Radkov
    Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

    and

    SIR – Only two of the 13 members of the House of Lords environment and climate change committee drive electric cars. Have the others all been influenced by Rowan Atkinson’s view?

    Roger Tagg
    Newark, Nottinghamshire

    1. I haven’t read Rowan Atkinson’s article; I knew before that it was loopy to go for EVs and certainly not green.

  4. BTL@DTletters

    The Old Brigadier
    20 HRS AGO
    You do wonder what charities like the RSPCA, The National Trust and World Wildlife Fund among others actually know about Rural England and what the words ‘Racist Colonial Legacy’ means. Is it the remains of Roman Britain? or is it the Castles and Cathedrals of the Norman Invaders?
    I doubt very much it’s the now pretty cottages that were once agricultural hovels where generations of privileged white people slaved away on the land for a pittance. I don’t suppose it’s the remains of Quarries and Mines where the idea of safety of the privileged white miners was never thought about. I don’t suppose it was the remains of Mills throughout the Countryside where thousands of privileged white children and women worked intolerably hours on dangerous machines again for a pittance.
    I wonder do they mean rural England that is last in the queue for any public handouts? Do they mean the rural England that younger people are being forced out of because of the lack of affordable homes, no public transport, few shops, no post offices, no Doctors or Dentist, the police car that drives through villages twice a day if your lucky and the nearest hospital 15 miles away.
    Do they mean the rural England that is having Wind and Solar Farms dumped on them, so those in the Big Cities can have a 24 hours economy.
    The author of this absurdity is a Mr Benwell a former Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate of the Wildlife and Countryside Link. A chancer who has lived his life on the largess of the public purse and the donations from the Charities that he is supposed to represent.
    Any one is welcome in the Countryside but please leave you Knives and Machetes at home, we don’t wear Rolex watches so there’s no need to mug us and shut the bl…dy gates. EDITED

    J McMenemy
    18 HRS AGO
    Reply to The Old Brigadier – view message
    Excellent comment.
    Apparently Mr Benwell is/was a director of a solar farm (cooperative) in Oxfordshire. It covers 30 acres & Wikipedia believes it to be the largest community-owned photovoltaic power station in the world. There are connections to a wind farm too.
    So Mr Benwell is obviously an expert in covering up our precious countryside & farmland with loads of Chinese made objects & preventing anyone , whatever colour or race, from enjoying the true delights of the open countryside, flora , fauna & home grown produce .
    Mrs M

      1. Same for us with lack of facilities. There is a chronic shortage of dentists and you can’t get a doctor’s appointment very easily. Doesn’t stop the council (not, I hasten to add, the Parish Council) approving the building of hundreds of new houses, though. Kerching!

  5. Is there any policy that the Labour Party is prepared to stand by?

    I don’t think so, but they might kneel by a few

    1. Sorry I cannot manage two hours. I will have to watch it in bits and pieces. Ironically from what I have seen so far it could have done with some serious editing!

      1. Hi Minty. Carlson made it clear that he would post the unexpurgated version so that his critics could not accuse him of altering it to suit his requirements.

    2. Drat and double drat, Johnny. It cost me £72 to listen to the interview. last night. (Good morning, btw.)

        1. I went to his site and it appeared that was my only option. It was a total surprise to see Johnny posting of the interview this morning.

  6. Good Moaning.
    Or is it afternoon? Is that nice Mr. Wilson still Prime Minister?

    “Joe Biden forgot when he had served as vice president and could not remember when his son had died, federal prosecutors have revealed, as they warned of “significant limitations” in his memory.

    Lawyers who interviewed Mr Biden in October found he had “hazy” recollections of his time in office under President Barack Obama, and struggled to remember key details.

    Robert Hur, the Department of Justice’s special counsel, published a report on Thursday into the storage of classified documents in Mr Biden’s garage.

    The report concluded that the president should not be prosecutedover an apparent security breach, but warned that his memory had faded.

    “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended, and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began,” Mr Hur wrote.

    “He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.

    “Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”

    ‘Elderly man with a poor memory’

    The report revealed that Mr Biden asked the lawyers interviewing him: “If it was 2013 – when did I stop being vice president?”. He also asked: “In 2009, am I still vice president?”

    Mr Hur, who concluded that Mr Biden had inappropriately stored classified documents, said that he may not have been aware at the time and that if he faced trial, a jury would find him to be a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

    Mr Biden said he was “pleased to see they reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach – that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed”. “

  7. Good Moaning.
    Or is it afternoon? Is that nice Mr. Wilson still Prime Minister?

    “Joe Biden forgot when he had served as vice president and could not remember when his son had died, federal prosecutors have revealed, as they warned of “significant limitations” in his memory.

    Lawyers who interviewed Mr Biden in October found he had “hazy” recollections of his time in office under President Barack Obama, and struggled to remember key details.

    Robert Hur, the Department of Justice’s special counsel, published a report on Thursday into the storage of classified documents in Mr Biden’s garage.

    The report concluded that the president should not be prosecutedover an apparent security breach, but warned that his memory had faded.

    “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended, and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began,” Mr Hur wrote.

    “He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.

    “Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”

    ‘Elderly man with a poor memory’

    The report revealed that Mr Biden asked the lawyers interviewing him: “If it was 2013 – when did I stop being vice president?”. He also asked: “In 2009, am I still vice president?”

    Mr Hur, who concluded that Mr Biden had inappropriately stored classified documents, said that he may not have been aware at the time and that if he faced trial, a jury would find him to be a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

    Mr Biden said he was “pleased to see they reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach – that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed”. “

  8. This is a sad indictment of society. You would think at least some green Wokesters could have stepped up to the plate. But it seems talking is easier than doing.

    “A TOWN’S 89-year-old floral clock has been covered over in concrete by its caretakers because so few volunteers were willing to water it.

    Weston-super-mare’s Lions Club had been responsible for maintaining the local landmark, which dates back to 1935, for the past 10 years.

    However, the club’s president admitted that they had been forced to completely cover the floral display with concrete after only two members had offered to water the 20,000 plants on the monument.

    Chick Parkin told the BBC: “Over the last three years we found it harder and harder to look after the clock.

    “We put out a plea last year for people to come out and help us water it, but only two people reacted to our cry for help.”

    Mr Parkin said that they had been watering the flowers three times a week in summer and it was still not enough to keep them alive.

    The club has said that an artist will paint a mural of sunflowers on the concrete and there will be permanent flowers to attract bees.

    The clock was built in 1935 and was later restored in 1951. North Somerset council said that it did not give permission for the concreting to take place.

    Cllr Mike Solomon said that he plans to meet with the group, but admitted that “it’s difficult to think of a way forward”.

    He said: “It’s been important to Westonians and I am a Westonian.

    “But we are talking about 20,000 plants being planted every year and maintained.

    “We are in a place now where we just don’t have that money to spend. It’s difficult to think of a way forward.”

    A spokesman for North Somerset council said: “North Somerset council was not given notice that work was planned, and, as landowner, we did not give our permission for work to be undertaken.

    “We appreciate the hard work of the Lions volunteers over many years and look forward to finding an acceptable solution.”“

    1. I remember the floral clock. I used to stay in Weston with my aunt and uncle when I was a child. It must have taken a huge amount of maintenance.

      1. Various varieties of grasses? You can get them in all shapes, sizes and colours and they don’t take much looking after.

  9. The public are sick of politicians’ dishonesty about what net zero entails. 9 February 2024.

    Net zero sits in the latter camp. It was decided upon after Theresa May had agreed to stand down, while the country was occupied by Brexit debates, and nodded through the Commons with fewer than 90 minutes of debate. The consequences of this statutory instrument will make the decision to leave the EU, and the incessant debates that followed it, seem trivial.

    As a Treasury minister at the time it was clear the costs associated with this intervention were likely to be astronomical. The plan to achieve this goal had not been given anywhere near the level of scrutiny it warranted. To his credit, the then Chancellor Philip Hammond bristled at the vaguery of this announcement and firmly pushed back. Banning plastic straws had been subjected to more detailed analysis for goodness sake, we protested. He was overruled.

    They say that confession is good for the soul but it doesn’t do much to change circumstances. Like Mass Immigration and meddling in the Middle East we are stuck with the consequences. These look to be terminal.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/09/public-sick-politicians-dishonesty-about-net-zero/

  10. The public are sick of politicians’ dishonesty about what net zero entails. 9 February 2024.

    Net zero sits in the latter camp. It was decided upon after Theresa May had agreed to stand down, while the country was occupied by Brexit debates, and nodded through the Commons with fewer than 90 minutes of debate. The consequences of this statutory instrument will make the decision to leave the EU, and the incessant debates that followed it, seem trivial.

    As a Treasury minister at the time it was clear the costs associated with this intervention were likely to be astronomical. The plan to achieve this goal had not been given anywhere near the level of scrutiny it warranted. To his credit, the then Chancellor Philip Hammond bristled at the vaguery of this announcement and firmly pushed back. Banning plastic straws had been subjected to more detailed analysis for goodness sake, we protested. He was overruled.

    They say that confession is good for the soul but it doesn’t do much to change circumstances. Like Mass Immigration and meddling in the Middle East we are stuck with the consequences. These look to be terminal.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/09/public-sick-politicians-dishonesty-about-net-zero/

    1. It’s cold when the boiler’s gone off and won’t come back on. Probably something to do with yesterday’s power cut.

      1. A few weekends ago the heating went off in my building due to power cuts during the night that affected the boiler room. Turned out to be a fault with a bank of fuses in the electricity sub-station and the cuts caused a further fault with our boilers so that they couldn’t be reset. The electricity people came to fix the substation and the firm contracted to service our boilers sorted the fault there. Lord knows what the latter cost to have done on a Saturday. The cost will be absorbed into our service charge.

      2. One of my friends rang up for a chat and said they didn’t have their heating on, it was so mild! I said mine is always on unless it goes out (which it did last night and had to be relit). The plus side was that I did cook my lunch (fish, chips and peas in case you’re interested, it being Friday) on it.

  11. Finally got the Internet back on Mt phone but we’ve got no heating this morning. Just the single bar fire. And two cats.

    1. Gawd, you’re having a right session.
      On the plus side, you’re in training for the Greeniac future.

    2. Two cats! Under Sir Kneel Starmergeddon’s incoming government, households will be restricted to one cat in line with his Nut Zero policies.

  12. Labour plots to protect top public sector workers from pension tax raid
    Reintroduction of lifetime allowance cap risks penalising private sector workers

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/labour-plots-protect-top-public-sector-workers-pension-raid/

    BTL

    This emphasises the sheer evil of Brown’s and Osborne’s raids on private pension funds.

    Apartheid about race in South Africa was considered despicable; pension apartheid favouring the public sector over the private sector is also despicable.

    1. When Mann lost to Dr Tim Ball, he never paid a penny in damages or Ball’s costs and it clearly helped end Dr Ball’s life. One has to hope that Mark Steyn does not take a hit- to his health or his wealth. It’s a fact that the DC jury pool is composed of creatures that have an affinity to the swamp.

    2. Steyn’s polemical style doesn’t help his cause. Having read some summaries of the case, it seems that repeating a suggestion – made by the other defendant – that Mann’s reputation as a climatologist was akin to that of a convicted sex offender, a coach who engaged in sexual activities with numerous boys, was deeply offensive and helped sway the jury against him. Both Mann and the coach were employed by Penn State University and Steyn maintains that the original insult was against the university and the laxity of its employment policies. It had not only retained the coach but continued to allow him access to boys despite the accusations that began to flow against him. Anyway, it seems the jury made the link between Mann and the coach that Steyn denies and punished him for it.

  13. Good morning, all. Wet with rain moving off to the north-east.

    And so it continues.

    Whether you’ve been vaccinated or not, the Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test is safe for everyone to use. It’s designed to detect active COVID-19 infections, …

    Why would anyone who is fully “vaccinated” want to test for infection if the multi-dose “vaccine” is effective?

    Is this advertising blurb an admission that the “vaccine” doesn’t prevent infection?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78dd079e9390e4e4702fc2ce1843e704f458ec9f3a174a845a56057aa8b612bb.png

    https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1755630429409808425

    1. It’s widely accepted that Covid-19 vaccines, much like influenza vaccines, are not full-proof against infection. The virus mutates often enough to defeat vaccines. The current claim is that vaccination will reduce the impacts of any infection.

      1. Snow was forecast here for the last two days. It has, so far, resolutely stayed away. Frankly, I hope it continues to do so. I don’t really want to have to drive to Wolverhampton in a blizzard.

        1. Only a small minority of the planet’s population are aware of his existence. There will be billions not only unaware of him but also of his organisation. Of those who are aware of him, many will not hate him, mainly because they either won’t know what he stands for or have any interest in finding out. Millions of others will actually support him and his aims.

  14. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cold.
    Watching Putin in chunks. The timeline with subjects is listed under the picture. I jumped straight to Nordstream, as I was part of the project.

    1. Having worked on Nordstream you must have been gutted to see your work negated in an instant like that.

  15. Five key moments from Tucker Carlson’s interview with Putin. 9 February 2024.

    Asked by Carlson who “blew up Nord Stream”, Putin replied: “You for sure.”

    The former Fox News host joked he had been “busy that day”. Putin said: “The CIA has no such alibi.”

    Asked whether he had evidence to support his claims, the Russian president said he “won’t get into details” but you should “look for someone who is interested” and who “has capabilities”.

    Vlad is of course the only politician of any stature to assert this obvious truth. Everyone else is too afraid. It would be political extinction to admit it. Even Scholz dare not say so though it has helped the rise of the Afd and brought about the sudden decline of the German economy due to having to buy American Gas.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/02/09/tucker-carlson-putin-interview-highlights-top-key-moments/

  16. Five key moments from Tucker Carlson’s interview with Putin. 9 February 2024.

    Asked by Carlson who “blew up Nord Stream”, Putin replied: “You for sure.”

    The former Fox News host joked he had been “busy that day”. Putin said: “The CIA has no such alibi.”

    Asked whether he had evidence to support his claims, the Russian president said he “won’t get into details” but you should “look for someone who is interested” and who “has capabilities”.

    Vlad is of course the only politician of any stature to assert this obvious truth. Everyone else is too afraid. It would be political extinction to admit it. Even Scholz dare not say so though it has helped the rise of the Afd and brought about the sudden decline of the German economy due to having to buy American Gas.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/02/09/tucker-carlson-putin-interview-highlights-top-key-moments/

    1. Vlad also said it was a good thing that Tucker had not joined the CIA (and followed in his father’s footsteps).

  17. Culture Secretary vows to protect press freedom amid Telegraph takeover review. Lucy Frazer said she would do ‘everything possible’ to protect UK press.

    The Culture Secretary has vowed to do “everything possible” to protect press freedom amid a review into a planned UAE-backed takeover of The Telegraph. Lucy Frazer, who has intervened in the planned swoop by RedBird IMI, described the UK press as “outstanding” and said she would do “everything possible to protect its freedom”. Speaking at an event in Parliament on Wednesday, she said: “With geopolitical instability across the world and the rise of disinformation, journalism that people can trust really matters. “Journalism that is free and without favour really matters.”

    Translation: “The Culture Secretary has vowed to do “everything possible” to ensure press regurgitation of Government propaganda, further the woke agenda and prevent control of the press and media going to anyone with an independent view. …..With geopolitical instability across the world, the rise of Government disinformation and journalism that we control really matters. Journalism that is as free as we permit really matters.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/08/lucy-frazer-vows-protect-press-freedom-telegraph-takeover/

  18. Culture Secretary vows to protect press freedom amid Telegraph takeover review. Lucy Frazer said she would do ‘everything possible’ to protect UK press.

    The Culture Secretary has vowed to do “everything possible” to protect press freedom amid a review into a planned UAE-backed takeover of The Telegraph. Lucy Frazer, who has intervened in the planned swoop by RedBird IMI, described the UK press as “outstanding” and said she would do “everything possible to protect its freedom”. Speaking at an event in Parliament on Wednesday, she said: “With geopolitical instability across the world and the rise of disinformation, journalism that people can trust really matters. “Journalism that is free and without favour really matters.”

    Translation: “The Culture Secretary has vowed to do “everything possible” to ensure press regurgitation of Government propaganda, further the woke agenda and prevent control of the press and media going to anyone with an independent view. …..With geopolitical instability across the world, the rise of Government disinformation and journalism that we control really matters. Journalism that is as free as we permit really matters.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/08/lucy-frazer-vows-protect-press-freedom-telegraph-takeover/

  19. Item from The Oldie magazine.
    Good points. I like to think that youngest granddaughter and I both got something out of our London jaunt last summer.

    “RIP IAN LAVENDER, 77, STUPID OLDIE BOY

    Life is increasingly segregated, with the generations divided by technology, and different types within generations separated by identity politics.

    One of the miseries for the young working from home is that they don’t get to meet older people, whether they’re heroes or monsters.

    Work used to be the great generation-mixer. I had the great joy of sharing a desk for five years with WF Deedes – the Dear Bill of the Private Eye diaries – into his nineties. Every day, I sat next to Bill – a war hero who’d won the MC; a Cabinet Minister; and a former Daily Telegraph editor. Better than sitting at home in your dressing gown, staring at a screen and munching toast.

    The late Ian Lavender, who’s sadly died at 77, had the ultimate cross-generational working life, as Pike in Dad’s Army. Lavender won our Stupid Oldie Boy Oldie of the Year Award in 2015.

    As he writes in his Oldie article, below,

    ‘Each year brought the joy of another couple of months to learn from John Laurie and Arnold Ridley about their very different wars and lives. There was more time to learn about jazz and movies from John le Mes at Ronnie Scott’s; more to learn about variety theatre from Clive and Bill Pertwee; more to learn about doing my job.

    ‘Little did I know, on that first day we all met to go on location filming, that Arthur Lowe was going to become not only one of the seven new people to work with; but one of my seven new teachers each summer, and eventually seven new friends. The down side of having these seven new older friends was that I was going to lose them early in my life. I was not long out of teens and they were my dream oldies.’

    RIP dear Ian.”

    1. What a lovely story.
      And for those now of a similar age to young Ian, ‘offscreen’ as if were the same thing is happening all around us with friends acquaintances and relations.

    2. The down side of having these seven new older friends was that I was going to lose them early in my life.

      I feel exactly the same.

      1. I kept telling myself that when I took on an older dog I knew we wouldn’t have long together. It didn’t help. Still, we have a few more weeks (and who knows? maybe more) to enjoy each other’s company.

  20. A BTL Comment to raise a smile:-

    Roger Fowles
    33 MIN AGO
    Ahh, the countryside.
    A friend of mine went on a camping holiday and his wife fell pregnant. A couple of years later the same thing happened
    This year he’s taking her with him

  21. 623k upvotes now. It was 607k when I looked earlier this morning. I see from the daily TCW email that Mark Steyn has lost his case? All that money to prove what many of us knew about the US legal system. I hope his health can withstand the disappointment. Good morning!

    1. I think the US Justice system is similar to the comment I heard in the 60s about boxing in the US. If you weren’t American you had to get a knock out to get a draw.

    2. I think the US Justice system is similar to the comment I heard in the 60s about boxing in the US. If you weren’t American you had to get a knock out to get a draw.

    3. Robert Barnes always said it was impossible to get a jury in Washington that would not be totally biased as it’s the centre of the Global Warming cult.

    4. Mark Steyn knew very well that the US justice system is completely corrupt – and told us so when he was o GB News – so he will doubtless be disappointed but very far from surprised.

      1. Reminds me of Dr Samuel Johnson who was caught by his wife in flagrante dilecto with his mistress .

        Mrs Johnson: Samuel, I am surprised by you.
        Dotor Johnson: No Madam, I am surprised; you are astonished!

    5. Will have to look up the Mark Steyn decision in his case. Will look it up today. Ended up very busy yesterday, hence slow reply.

  22. Morning all 🙂😊
    Late waking up, I think it rained most of the night. The met office are on the ball they are telling everybody where it’s been snowing.
    And the labour party, don’t make any definitive plans or never do, they will play the usual game of suck it and see.
    Mind you that is the reason our country has been wrecked by the government we have now.
    If they claim that they know what they are doing why can’t they tell us, or explain what they are doing and what is the reason for this flood of illegal invaders and why does it continue on a daily basis.

    1. 383136+ up ticks,

      Morning RE,

      This government currently continued the wrecking process, the pm who crept from the crypt in the park crapper whilst on a cottaging mission was the initial latch lifter.
      The “illegal immigration invasion” is the adhesive shite that binds the toxic trio
      lab/lib/con coalition together.

      1. I don’t know if it was true, but i was told ages ago that someone was caught playing the cottage upright in an office at number 10.
        There was a rumour that the daughter of one of them walked in during and then tried to commit suicide.
        Not made public of course due to one of many D notices issued at the time. Don’t quote this, it might not be true at all.

    1. Putin is very articulate as we know – it would be difficult for a look-alike to keep up that degree of eloquence for so long, even with prepared answers to pre-arranged questions. It would be unusual to get exactly the same qualities wrapped up in a look-alike’s physical presentation.

  23. Good morning all

    Wet windy and 11c.

    https://twitter.com/True_Belle/status/1755891969518190708
    BH

    Good comment here

    Bryan Haswell
    44 MIN AGO
    The Country can’t afford 4 years of a Labour Government, as the damage they will do will be irreparable! :-
    Amnesty for all illegal/ economic Immigrants in Hotels!
    More unrestricted immigration!
    Voting age reduced to 16!
    More benefits given to the work shy !
    Higher Taxes!.
    Continued increases in the numbers of Public service employees with increasing wage bill and unsustainable Gold plated pensions!
    Unrestricted Unions!
    More taking the Knee!
    Vote Labour get Muslim!

    1. Too true, the damage carried out by Blair and Daft Vader, Brown will be with us forever.
      And that matches the current damage deliberately caused by this mob in Parliament now.

  24. Just received an email from a long-standing friend who lost his wife to cancer a year ago.
    It bears the hallmarks of suicidal depression, as he’s been abandoned by his family as well (it’s a complex story).
    I’m going to have to think a bit how to approach getting him help, and giving him support. It’s a bugger, so it is. Any advice warmly welcomed.
    I’ll start with coffee.

    1. Is there no way to contact his family Obs and bring them upto date on how he is feeling.

      1. Ach, it’s a right clusterfcuk, I’m afraid.
        Back in 2000, he had an expatriate contract to Malaysia, including Norwegian wife & daughters. I warned him that, in my experience, Western engineers went to Malaysia/Thailand with the Western family, and returned with a Malay / Thai family. After a few years, his Norwegian family returned to Norway, divorced, and one daughter killed herself – I never found out the reason, if anyone knows for sure. He then married a Malay lady he worked with, after she divorced her husband, and took on her 3 sons as his own. (see where this is going?) It’s the Malaysian wife (a very, very nice lady, good-looking and very intelligent) who died this time last year, and the three sons absolutely hate him (for “stealing” her from their father), so they aren’t at home and are not on speaking terms anyway.
        So, short version, there’s no family a far as I know, who would do anything else but pour burning gasoline on him.

        1. How interesting. But a sad story.
          I knew a guy from about 50 years ago that happened to. Divorced his British wife and he ended up living there. And might still do.
          And another in Perth WA whose brother worked in Oil and Gas who also has a Malaysian wife in WA.

    2. I saw an item on the local news last night about a group that had been formed for men who were struggling with various issues. Its not a solution in your case, but I thought that many of these issues were solved in the past by male bonding down the pub. In our new virtuous society and in place of the boozer, these meeting groups seem to be the way to go. Companionship, problems shared and realising you are not alone are the first steps to a solution.

      1. “Just” talking it through to a sympathetic person is often enough – the issues are aired, and that’s often enough, but sympathy is offered and one realises one is not alone after all. Had a similar talk to my GP, as I seem to have post-stroke clinical depression, and it made the hell of a difference, so I’ll see if I can get him to talk to his GP, who can also offer pharmaceutical support if necessary.

          1. A good massage can make you feel better. Also pampering yourself in others ways can lift the mood.

    3. Call Sir Jasper. Seriously, ask him if he has updated his will, and imply that he should leave the lot to some charity, or a relation whom he particularly dislikes. When he objects, tell him emphatically not to spend any money on a holiday/cruise/case of wine/something that might deal with his depression. Does he have any pets? Even a guinea pig might cheer him up.

    4. He needs to seek out help himself. They are out there. Why not call the Samaritans yourself to ask advice on the best approach. They deal with that sort of thing all the time. I hope both he and you can come back to the light.

    5. Is he in the UK? Difficult at a distance. Can you ring him up? It’s good to talk. Just unburdening yourself and having a good moan (thanks, Nottlers!) can make you feel better.

  25. There seems to be a lot of discussion about ‘Soup de Jour’ – let me throw a bit of light on the subject – the term originated when the waiter approached the table and said “Here’s jour soup”

    1. I was working in Islington and we use to used the local cafes for lunch.
      There was one on the high street named Sylvia’s. She had soup on her menu every day. I asked what type of soup it was and she answered “Soup that you like dear”. Well no argument eh Sylvia. A nice old lady.

      1. I used to work in Islington Public Health Dept in Upper Street in the late 60s.
        Used to go to the canteen for grub. One day they had, for pudding, Tricel pudding with custard. I asked what that was and was told it’s treacle pudding. I asked for the treacle pudding with custard and was told I could either have treacle or custard but not both. I gave up at that point.

        1. 😉😆
          We were converting a large house in Percy Street. Half way down on the left.
          Almost opposite, I think was The Peabody buildings.

          1. Great Percy Street just off Pentonville Road. I was born and brought up about a mile from there just off Goswell Road EC1.
            Great Percy street and Circus not far from Sadlers Wells. Brings back memories of childhood and courting days. vw lived in Highbury when we met in ’62.
            Grand houses in that area off Amwell Street and Middleton Square.

          2. What I found amazing was the houses would probably have had stable facilities behind.
            I don’t know if you remember but there was one empty plot on the first turning on the left, RH side as you turn in. Lost during WW2.
            We were asked to build a new home on the site.
            But we were too busy at the time.
            I bet those properties are worth millions now.

          3. I’ve just been looking on Google earth and realised it was Actually Great Percy Street.
            I think the old house that was bombed was on the corner of Lloyd Street.

    2. Reminds me of one of Billy Connelly’s tales from Ireland. At the hotel, one of the menu items was ‘Potatoes of the Night’. Imagining some concoction akin to a variation of ‘champ’, he asked what it was. Only to be informed, “Tonight, it’s chips.”

        1. Wasn’t that like the description of Keith Joseph? “Something of the night”? or was that Norman Tebbit?

          1. Itchy and Peed off. But thanks for asking. My Father’s definition of a bore – someone, who when you ask how they are, tells you.

          2. Apply it to a cloth or flannel. Then take a corner and hang it over your back. Grasp the other corner with your other hand and dance like an Egyptian. You can do it.

      1. There used to be a cafe/gift shop on the A9 at Dowally (?) where they had the same soup every day – it was lentil with croutons. Whether they made it daily or just topped it up I don’t know but it was nice

  26. Cue endless soup jokes of the type:
    “Waiter, what’s this fly doing in my soup?”
    “Drowning, Sir!”

    1. “Waiter, this soup is cold.”
      “It’s gazpacho, sir.”
      “Waiter, this gazpacho is cold.”

        1. Not one of us could tell a cold gazpacho from paella
          Easy! Gazpacho is some kind of Argentinian cowboy, and paella is the medical term for kneecap.
          See? Simples!

  27. So the Ukies initialled a peace deal with the Ruskies in Istanbul, but Boris flew to Kiev to tell Zelensky to ditch it. Who knew? (Anyone who has been paying attention.)

  28. Ireland’s anti-Varadkar rebellion is just getting started

    A chasm is opening between the pro-immigration elites and the public who suffer the consequences of porous borders

    MICHAEL MURPHY • 7 February 2024 • 12:49pm

    Leo Varadkar’s flirtation with open borders has awoken the sleeping beast of Irish nationalism. A nursing home in Co Dublin which was being considered for housing for asylum seekers has this week been destroyed in a suspected arson attack. Hundreds of people have thundered through the streets of the capital in recent months, brandishing Irish flags and chanting “get them out” about the government as part of an anti-immigration protest.

    The public has grown tired of the state’s ever-more porous borders and inadequate public services. This has mostly manifested as peaceful, local demonstrations against the housing of asylum seekers in small rural towns and deprived urban areas.

    But Monday’s demonstration took on a more nativistic, muscular tone. One seldom sees streams of Irish tricolour flags outside of an international sports fixture – and the anger of those waving them was palpable.

    There was an air of sedition. Protestors lambasted the government for “taking the Queen’s shilling”, an old term for Republican apostates. Sinn Fein, the traditional home of bellicose Irish nationalism which is nevertheless supportive of mass immigration, were called “traitors”. And the unprecedented number of asylum seekers arriving into the country in recent years – up nearly 200 per cent from 2019 to 2022 – was repeatedly cast as an “invasion”.

    “There’s thousands of patriots here today to oppose this new plantation”, one protester said.

    “And if the people of Ireland don’t stand up and stop this invasion, Ireland will be gone forever…Cromwell himself would blush about what’s happening in this country.”

    That many Irish people are now framing their fight against mass immigration in existential terms is a significant departure from the comparably pedestrian issues of housing, services and GDP, which have dominated Irish politics over the past 30 years. But that this is being spoken of in the language of anti-colonial struggle is a development which should alarm Mr Vardkar’s government.

    Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, nationalism has become a largely innocuous force in Ireland. But over the past year, there has been spate of more than a dozen arson attacks on migrant facilities, and venues wrongly thought to be housing migrants, with no arrests made. This is a fringe but potentially combustible new form of political violence in Ireland – aimed at the government’s immigration policy, which it seems unable to get a handle on.

    There are also mainstream political revolts afoot. More than a third of people in Ireland say they would now consider voting for a party or candidate with strong anti-immigrant views, according to a recent poll. This is a first for Irish politics and could sway next year’s election.

    The Irish government often says the mass influx of asylum seekers cannot be helped. Ministers are wont to remind the Irish people of their need to fulfil Ireland’s “international obligations”. This has stoked anti-EU sentiment, with the Irish government regularly described by immigration sceptics as “puppets” for Brussels. This further lends itself to the sense of Ireland being under the cosh of a new empire – one that is aloof from the concerns of ordinary people.

    In Britain, vast post-war migrations into the country were often justified by a misplaced sense of guilt over the legacy of the Empire. Brits were told they owed a duty of care towards their former subjects. Sceptics could be dismissed as hypocrites in their selfish dereliction of this obligation.

    But Irish history is different. Many Irish people view their nation as a historically oppressed underdog, which won its freedom after a bloody and bitter struggle. This story – immortalised in the canon of Irish songs, literature and films – can tug on the heart strings of even the most sober Irish people.

    It is a potent genie to let out of the bottle. But the Irish government’s cocksure loosening of the state’s borders – widely perceived to be at the behest of the EU – is breathing new life into Irish nationalism. People are beginning to ask questions that have been set aside for some years. What does it mean to be Irish? The more nebulous the government’s criteria for “Irishness” becomes, the more the Irish people’s definition is likely to contract.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/07/irelands-anti-varadkar-rebellion-is-just-getting-started

    Sinn Fein/IRA’s Marxist internationalist period in the 60s led to the rise of the nationalist, nativist Provos. What will happen this time?

    I look forward to those commentators who condemn the idea of English identity as evil ethnocentric nationalism coming out again the new Irish nationalism.

  29. Douglas Murray
    I’m embarrassed by modern Britain
    From magazine issue: 10 February 2024

    I’m not sure I recognise this country any more. Characteristics that I grew up with have been eroded to the point of disappearance. What were those characteristics? I’d say they included a certain doggedness – an indefatigability, a quiet strength and resilience. Where did they go?

    We have decided that the men of violence are winning and we must just keep our heads down

    A little over two years ago, when Sir David Amess was murdered, I remarked here on the appalling ‘tribute’ that his colleagues paid in the parliamentary session given over to eulogies to their recently butchered colleague. Of course the MPs all spoke warmly of the man, but you might have come away with the idea that he had died of natural causes. Nobody saw fit to mention that his killer – Ali Harbi Ali – was an Islamic extremist. Nobody saw fit to call for the rooting out of this ideology. Instead they wittered on about the ‘Online Safety Bill’, which had absolutely nothing to do with Sir David’s murder.

    Of course some people said then – as they always do – that it would be wrong to jeopardise a trial or tar a whole community. This despite the fact that when Jo Cox was also brutally murdered nobody had any problem describing her killer’s foul ideology, or of tarring all Brexit voters with her murder. Anyhow, the killer’s trial came and went and nobody has had anything more to say after it than they did the day after his murder.

    Then came the news last week that the Conservative MP Mike Freer was stepping down from politics after threats. The MP listed a number of causes. It turns out that he was one of several MPs Ali Harbi Ali had been thinking of targeting. Freer has also come under repeated harassment because of his support for Israel. He was sent death threats by a group called Muslims Against Crusades and said that an arson attack on his constituency office was ‘the final straw’.

    Yet once again his colleagues seemed to have nothing to say. People lamented the sad fact that he was stepping down, but there was no especial outrage. This seems strange to me. It strikes me that had it been far-right extremists who had been targeting Freer, MPs might have had something to say. They might even – rightly – have said that this country should do everything it can to stop far-right extremists attacking MPs. But this was different. The hatred comes from a different direction, so they were silent. Freer himself gave an interview last week in which even he tried to get around the truth of his own situation. He refused to identify the ideology of the people who have been targeting him and even said in one interview that he didn’t know what had motivated Ali Harbi Ali to kill Sir David Amess.

    Although I know it is a darn fool position to stand up for someone more than they appear willing to stand up for themselves, let me make an observation. The people targeting Freer are Muslim extremists. It is possible that they include some far-left anti-Israel lunatics. But generally when it comes to the violent bit it’s going to be the Islamists. Yet even now neither Freer nor our political class in general seem willing to make such obvious observations. You get an idea why whenever you see them interviewed.

    Last week we also learned of the case of Abdul Ezedi, the 35-year-old suspected of carrying out an alkali attack on a mother and her daughters in Clapham. Newsnight ran a segment on this particular form of cultural enrichment with the Conservative MP Caroline Nokes as a guest. Asked to comment on Ezedi’s asylum status, Nokes announced grandly that she thought it ‘wrong to comment on that’. She proceeded to talk about the risk of ‘microaggressions against women’.

    Similarly, in an interview with Trevor Phillips, the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was asked how it was possible that someone turned down twice for asylum, who had already committed more than one sexual offence, had then been granted refugee status? And what was Keegan’s answer? ‘This is not really about asylum.’

    Of course it isn’t. It never is. Just like violence is never about Islamism. We live in a society where people seem utterly incapable of identifying problems in front of them.

    I experienced a touch of this myself this week. Last Sunday I was due to speak to a capacity audience at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue. The event was a fund-raiser for an Israeli university which lost a number of its students on 7 October. A number of its other students have since re-enlisted in the army and are losing their education. So the fundraiser was to help these students back into education when the war ends.

    But word got out that this was an ‘IDF fundraiser’. Various Islamists got active. Theatre staff reported that they were worried about turning up because of threats. Staff from another theatre were drafted in, but somebody leaked their emails and they were threatened in turn. On the morning of the event the theatre pulled out. They had one job – to let the show go on – and they failed. We managed to transfer to the only venue able to be secured, which was a nearby synagogue. But a bunch of Islamists kept trying to find out where the event had relocated to, and meanwhile stood outside the old theatre shouting abuse at me through a megaphone.

    I had imagined that in such a situation the Metropolitan Police might be called in. That the authorities might agree that violence and intimidation cannot be rewarded. I’d have thought that in a city where you can openly call for violence against Jews, Jews might be allowed to gather to support other Jews. But no. Chased to the synagogue they were.

    As I say, I remember a different Britain. A Britain where Margaret Thatcher stood in Brighton after an attempt on her life and told the world that the men of violence must not be allowed to win. But we don’t live in that society any more. We have decided that the men of violence are winning, and that we must as a result all just keep our heads down. Well that’s not my Britain, and I trust it’s not yours either.

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

    anitawales123
    a day ago edited
    This is breaking my freedom-loving, free-speech-loving, democracy-loving heart.

    We are losing in a decade what took a thousand years of social and political evolution to achieve. We can no longer speak freely, or joke about absolutely anything- essential British characteristics and phenomenal societal stabilising tools.

    These threats as far as I can see, derive from an unholy alliance between Marxism and Islamism. These factions benefit from no precedence of historical success- in fact, the glaring opposite. Such societies built on these principles are/ were hell-holes.

    The irony is that once this alliance has won, they will inevitably fight each other, as there are jarring disagreements between both philosophies. This will promote endless wars. And whoever wins, the whole process of evolution will have to start all over again, and take another thousand years to achieve the almost utopian freedoms and stability we had circa 1970- 2010.

    The Marxists accuse us of colonising- yet colonise our institutions and negate any good that came from the UK (which in all objectivity- is vast). They will always accuse us of what they themselves are guilty of. See Starmers’ performance in parliament weaponising a trans murder.

    The wokists accuse us of racism- yet CRT and BLM have polarised race relations more than anything within my lifetime.

    The Islamists are the enforcers, who threaten to behead those who fail to comply. We have a teacher and his family in hiding for showing a religious cartoon. How are teachers throughout the UK meant to react? They mostly comply and do as they are told. They have less than no support if they object.

    And Douglas no doubt receiving serious threats sticking up for massacred Jews. Even the theatre attendants involved. Israel gaslighted by the UN. How are we letting this happen?

    We have to start fighting intolerance with intolerance- and the law needs to seriously step up. Big time, and soon.

    Anglomicronesian anitawales123
    a day ago
    “….derive from an unholy alliance between Marxism and Islamism.”

    Not between Marxism and Islamism. Between Marxism and Islam. 85% of Muslims who live in Britain vote Labour. For tribal reasons, benefits reasons, and because the left hate Israel/Jews. I used to differentiate between Muslims and Islamists but no longer do. They are one and the same. Until so-called moderate Muslims definitively disassociate and shop their intolerant coreligionists, then they must all be considered the same: an existential threat to Britain.

    Quercy
    a day ago
    Excellent piece which should be reprinted in every newspaper and magazine across the nation, though it won’t be because we have become a nation of spineless dimwits with our faces glued to screens which hide the truth of what is happening to our great country.

    Mohamedism has no place in these islands and any MP who denies this should be replaced.

    Birdy Quercy
    a day ago
    The Rushdie case in the late 1980s was the time to have this battle. It is now far, far too late. All you can hope for now is basic containment.
    The people of Britain have been systematically betrayed.

    1. On November 28, 1995, an agreement was signed in the European Union that was never shared with the citizens of European countries and remained hidden from them. The Barcelona Agreement.

      I’d just like to point out that the “we” mentioned above is not the general British public, that we is well aware of what’s going on. It is the House of Commons who have granted Muslims “special status”, whether officially or not. Whatever Muslims do is protected. Parliament had passed crazy “hate” laws that seriously disadvantage the white population all prompted, of course, by the Barcelona Agreement entered into by the EU on behalf of all EU member countries.

      The European Act of 1972 should have been repealed by the Cons when the Brexit vote took place. But no political party ever wanted U.K. to exit the EU.

      Apologies – having problems with pasting so half the article has been missed off. Anyway look it up.

    2. When the Nazis came for the communists,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a communist.

      When they locked up the social democrats,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a social democrat.

      When they came for the trade unionists,
      I did not speak out;
      I was not a trade unionist.

      When they came for the Jews,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a Jew.

      When they came for me,
      there was no one left to speak out.

      1. The problem with that little ditty starts with the first verse.

        Nazis and communists are both forms of socialism: i.e. brothers in arms. Both of the Left and both into totalitarianism and complete control.
        As for “social democrats”, they too are a wishy-washy form of socialism too (the clue is in the name).
        Ditto trade unionists.
        As for the Jews, a good many of them are Left-wing.

        A lot of infighting between various factions of socialism, then.

        Now, it is interesting they didn’t “come for” the Right, i.e. the Correct, the individuals, the industrious, the resourceful, the hard-working, the innovative, the intelligent, the just, the peaceful, the law-abiding, the self-disciplined, the good mannered, the graceful, the free.

        Sorry to dismantle the ditty, Paul.

    3. It’s not that we keep our heads down because the men of violence are winning, it’s because we’ll be prosecuted if we try to stand up against it.

    1. Skin of teeth today. Fortunately guess number 6 couldn’t be anything else.

      Wordle 965 6/6

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

    1. 383136+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Gerard Batten wrote the road to freedom 15 years ago, Lord
      Monckton views one year ago.

      On reflection, Mrs Thatcher, Batten, Monckton, HAD to be tar brushed and taken out as being, far right fruitcakes..

      Under G. Batten leadership, so far right was much nearer the truth.

    2. In my (real) UKIP days, I attended a meeting where he was the star speaker. He made so many mistakes of fact that I can’t remember all of them. I met him again at a later meeting and (discreetly) told him about this. To his credit, he took it in good part.

  30. Not allowed pets, time in the RAFA house I live in. I would consider a cat since I’m unable to walk a dog.

  31. Prince Harry agrees ‘substantial’ hacking settlement with Mirror, claiming ‘overwhelming’ victory
    Duke of Sussex confirms deal after claiming 148 articles written about him were obtained illegally
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2024/02/09/prince-claims-suke-sussex-victory-mirror-phone-hacking/
    BTL

    In a dispute between a grubby newspaper and a much loved prince it would take a miracle for the general public to feel more sympathy for the newspaper than the prince.

    Harry has pulled off this miracle!

  32. Is there any limit to the hypocrisy of these people? No mention of the aftermath of Bush’s War on Terror after the US was attacked on 9/11?

    Israel’s war in Gaza “over the top”, says Joe Biden. Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip to the October 7 attacks by Hamas has been “over the top” and has “got to stop,” USPresident Joe Biden said Thursday. “I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” the Democrat told reporters at the White House. “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s got to stop.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/09/middle-east-crisis-live-us-strikes-houthis-latest-updates/

        1. A friend of mine used to work for the Imperial War Museum leading sleepovers on HMS Belfast for parties of schoolkids. The kids loved it and it was very successful but the IWM decided it cost too much and made her redundant.

          1. We visited the IWM twice in 2 days on a trip to London! Wonderful place but I believe it went woke!

    1. Cosford (Air Museum) is putting on lots of activities for half term. Entry is free, but I think they charge for participation in the events themselves. Still, there’s plenty to see even without that. You can go by train – Albrighton station is right by the entrance.

      1. That would be a good idea. I went a long time ago but didn’t allow sufficient time to go round all the exhibits.

        1. They have significantly enlarged it and now have a Cold War Hangar. I think you can also watch the restoration process.

    1. David Atherton’s tweet is a little confusing. On the face of it, it seems that “Mark” the adult – thought by Dr Siddiqi to be a 14-year-old boy – sent the obscene images. I presume it was the doctor who sent them.

      As for Duck Pictures & Art, had the NHS checked references or qualifications – assuming it doesn’t – would it have revealed that Dr Siddiqi has a sexual interest in adolescent boys?

      1. A few years ago I chatted briefly with a couple of ‘pedo hunters’ aka vigilantes. It is almost a sport for them, and they were big blokes, not the sort you would argue with. One was 40 watts, but the other was nearer 120. Big surprise, they had ‘funding’ from sort of community chest.

  33. Nigel Farage suggests West should be open to negotiations with Putin

    Nigel Farage has suggested that the West should be more open to negotiating with Vladimir Putin.

    The founder of Reform UK said that he was “shocked” by the “absolute reluctance” to consider negotiations with Russia since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.

    It comes after Putin accused Boris Johnson of sabotaging a peace deal with Ukraine in the spring of that year during an interview with US broadcaster Tucker Carlson.

    We should of course allow Ukraine to negotiate and stop sticking our nose in!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/09/nigel-farage-west-open-negotiations-putin/

    1. Sooner or later, the war will have to be concluded by negotiation. “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war”.

      1. Even one of my brothers who is very anti Russia and pro Ukraine said at Christmas that he thinks Zelensky should let the Donbas go and concentrate on keeping the Black Sea ports. The longer the war goes on, the more territory Ukraine will have lost when it’s over.

  34. The ‘anti-racists’ want me to hate Britain. 9 February 2024.

    Nobody divides us more than the so-called “anti-racists”. And the damage they are doing to our society, I fear, will soon become irreparable.

    Barely a week goes by without another self-appointed, self-anointed do-gooder telling me that I should feel unwelcome in my country. This week, I found out from a new report that the British countryside is “racist” and “colonial”, governed by “white British cultural values”, and that the perception that the countryside is a “white space” prevents people like me from enjoying the outdoors.

    It’s irreparable now!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/09/the-anti-racists-want-me-to-hate-britain/

    1. The purpose is simple: provoke a violent white backlash and then cry “We told you so! That’s what they’re like!”

  35. Inside Royal Mail conman’s £3 million luxury mansion with swimming pool, five en-suite bedrooms, a private gym and fleet of supercars on the driveway – as crook is jailed for ‘biggest ever’ postal scam
    Narinder Sandhu, 62, lived in mansion in Buckinghamshire with Bentley on drive
    By ELIZABETH HAIGH and MATT STRUDWICK

    PUBLISHED: 13:19, 9 February 2024 | UPDATED: 13:30, 9 February 2024

    The £3million luxury mansion of a conman who fleeced the Royal Mail out of £77million while buying himself luxury cars is complete with a swimming pool, five en-suite bedrooms and a private gym, MailOnline can reveal.

    Narinder Sandhu, 62, lived in a multi-million-pound mansion in Buckinghamshire where he kept a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce on the driveway.

    Narinder, the owner and director of Pack Post International LTD (PPIL), ran the decade-long swindle from 2005, along with brother Parmjeet Sandhu, 56, and James Mooney, 44, between 2008 and 2017.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13065513/royal-mail-post-office-scam-luxury-mansion-jailed.html

    1. Unfortunately, the few who are brave enough to speak out and try and do something about it are hounded by the state but also seen as rather toxic to those who will go no further than hurumphing on their keyboards. I compare Tommy Robinson as an activist, and myself, who grumbles but would not jeopardise a comfortable retirement by brushing up with the law. In the past, we had that thing called a general election where it was possible to change the direction of politics. Nowadays, the law abiding are truly stuffed.

    2. I daresay you will find most council housing departments have at least their fair share of diversity hires…..

  36. Pinched from Facebook…

    “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”

    Marcus Aurelius

    Greeniacs take note.

  37. Shopping trip to Belper done and van tanked up with 80 litres for 595 miles. Getting 33mpg, so happy with that.

  38. WEYMOUTH town council has proposed a move to use more gender-neutral language in referring to councillors and council officers.

    The word “chairman” has been updated to “chairperson” in the written rules of the council and language referring to the chairperson as “he”, “him” and “his” has been changed to “they”, “them” and “their”.

    At a meeting of the town council’s finance and government committee on Wednesday, February 7, members voted to approve recommendations to update the council’s standing orders.

    Standing orders are the written rules of a local Council, they are essential to regulate the proceedings of a meeting.

    Councillors and council staff must ensure they are followed and complied with at all times.

    The standing orders have been adjusted so that the word “chairperson” is now used instead of “chairman”

    Where this relates to the Chairperson of the Council this is the Mayor.

    The Chairperson of Weymouth Town Council is entitled to be called the Mayor of Weymouth.

    The term Proper Officer is used in these Standing Orders. This relates to the person holding the office of Town Clerk, or an officer duly delegated to fill this role.

    The terms “he”, “his”, and “him” have also been replaced with the terms “they”, “their”, and “them”.

    Cllr Luke Wakeling said: “We have removed references to ‘him’ the chairman from it and made it say chairperson because we are in the 21st century.”

    Cllr Hope said: “I am pleased to see that the removal of referring everyone to be a bloke is being changed.

    “I emailed the town clerk and the chair of the governance group about this on February 22, 2023.

    “That is my only disappointment that something as simple as that has taken twelve months to change.

    “I am pleased it is there now and that our standing orders now will be the correct way going forward.”

    The recommendations made were unanimously approved by members of the committee.

    https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/24106385.weymouth-town-council-rules-move-gender-neutral-language/

    No words for Woke idiots , and they are claiming expenses and so called acting on behalf of the residents as if council tax isn’t soaring to heady heights , unbelievable stupidity

    1. Where the general confession in church refers to “our neighbour” I still mutter “our fellow men”.

      1. In the creed I still say “who for us men and our salvation”. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

      2. When I had to go to Sunday School in the late 1950s/early 1960s (Methodist, FFS, even though my parents had baptised me as C of E) the hymn book had two versions of “To Be A Pilgrim”. The Methodists played and sang the modern version while I resolutely sang the original version.

        The modern version had no references to ‘hobgoblins’ or ‘foul fiends’, which annoyed me to distraction.

        1. Some of the words in the hymn book at church have been “modernised”. I still sing the old version.

    2. I simply ignore all that vacuous, empty crap and carry on as normal. No one is capable of telling me what I can or cannot say.

      No one!

  39. Back from a coffee morning and then shopping. Catching up with online stuff now. The boiler packed up following yesterday’s power cut so we had to call the man out. Apparently there’s a valve OH didn’t know about which shut it off. So we had to pay the call out fee but it was easily sorted and now we have some heating. Plus it’s turned a bit milder today.

  40. Driving across Cumbria and the Scottish borderlands earlier this week I couldn’t help but notice the jaw achingly beautiful scenery was not improved by the hundreds of windmills that have been put up.
    The utter, utter twats.

        1. Blake’s reference was about the churches – even more appropriate today….

          Afternoon Michael and all.

      1. Saving the planet, at tax-payers’ expense, one non-recyclable wind turbine that will never repay its carbon footprint after another.

        Still, someone’s getting filthy rich on the back of it.

  41. Apropos absolutely nothing, but the twins mum ‘phoned to say that she had them in the car at 7.50 this am. on the way to the childminder, when she went back into the house for something. When she got back in the car, twin one said ‘get a move on, mummy’! She said it was as though I was in the car!

    1. My mum and dad have a couple of phrases we use, based on things the grandchildren said when they were little and staying with mum and dad.

      My sports-mad son, about aged 6, asked grandad to take him to go and play golf so that grandma would have “time to do all the things she likes to do, like the cleaning and the ironing”. So we now refer to our chores as “all the things we like to do”.

      My daughter, when she was about 5, was being chastised by my mother for something and was told she would be punished if she didn’t behave. Apparently she said “I don’t care”, so we say “I don’t care” a lot now, even if we do.

      My brother’s children were brought up as ex-pats and had an Ayah. When they were with my parents and quite young, my mum told one of them off for leaving her stuff lying all over the place. The elder granddaughter said: “don’t worry grandma, somebody will pick it up”, so we say that a lot too.

      My grandma’s expression, which I remember fondly and use, was “ I’ll cut you a piece of cake”, if she felt people were expecting too much of her.

      Happy days.

      1. Your post is one of the reasons why i love this site.

        Brings back a memory from my childhood. My mother would ask my sister to do something. My sister became known as ‘It’s always me !’

        She probably was rather put upon.

    2. My mum and dad have a couple of phrases we use, based on things the grandchildren said when they were little and staying with mum and dad.

      My sports-mad son, about aged 6, asked grandad to take him to go and play golf so that grandma would have “time to do all the things she likes to do, like the cleaning and the ironing”. So we now refer to our chores as “all the things we like to do”.

      My daughter, when she was about 5, was being chastised by my mother for something and was told she would be punished if she didn’t behave. Apparently she said “I don’t care”, so we say “I don’t care” a lot now, even if we do.

      My brother’s children were brought up as ex-pats and had an Ayah. When they were with my parents and quite young, my mum told one of them off for leaving her stuff lying all over the place. The elder granddaughter said: “don’t worry grandma, somebody will pick it up”, so we say that a lot too.

      My grandma’s expression, which I remember fondly and use, was “ I’ll cut you a piece of cake”, if she felt people were expecting too much of her.

      Happy days.

  42. Apropos absolutely nothing, but the twins mum ‘phoned to say that she had them in the car at 7.50 this am. on the way to the childminder, when she went back into the house for something. When she got back in the car, twin one said ‘get a move on, mummy’! She said it was as though I was in the car!

  43. Afternoon, all. I’m here early because the racing was abandoned and I’m going to a quiz tonight. Some good news for a change; the vet rang this afternoon and she wants to give Oscar another month to give the medication every chance to kick in. He’s no worse and that was enough to stay the execution. If he does go off his legs altogether, of course, that will mean curtains. At the moment, he’s just a bit unsteady and limping on his near fore.

    I’ve just received a “newsletter” (aka self aggrandisement propaganda) from our LD MP. She has been “trying” to get things done, which means that, actually, nothing has improved. Her solutions all seem to involve speed limits (rather than road improvements) and the “government” giving more money (i e the taxpayers stumping up yet again and probably another hike in taxes to pay for it). She seems to think that giving the NHS more money for beds will solve the ambulance delays problem. What she needs to be doing is ensuring the GPs only get paid for the patients they SEE, not the number on their books. The reason A&E is clogged and ambulances can’t unload is that many patients are there because they can’t see a GP.

    1. Good news for Oscar! From what you’ve written before, “a bit unsteady and limping on his near fore” does seem like an improvement?

      1. No, he was unsteady before and limping. He still occasionally does the splits, but it seems to be worse at some times than others. There’s nothing wrong with his appetite – he’s just reminded me it was time for his evening meal! If he goes off his legs (falls down and can’t get up) I shall have to pull the plug.

    2. Delighted for you and Oscar, Conway! And Kadi! You sounded a bit defeated a couple of days ago, so onwards and upwards! You’ll know what’s best!

        1. I know, but the hope is there, otherwise I don’t imagine your vet would have given him more time.

          1. She told me I was a realist! She said it could take up to six weeks to see improvement with neurological conditions, but what she was concerned about was that it could deteriorate very quickly. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to have done that.

          2. Fingers crossed and a few prayers Oscar’s way, Conway. We would miss him too, over the last few years he seems to have become an honorary Nottler.

          3. Thank you, pm. He’s only been with me 2 years and 8 months so far. So little time, but he’s come a long way. He comes for cuddles now.

          4. That is the worst of taking on a rescue dog, but whatever happens, you have given him 2 years and 8 months and hopefully a lot longer, of affection, security and safety as part of your “pack.”

          5. I knew when I took him on, it would only be for a relatively short time, but when push comes to shove, rationality flies out the window 🙁

          6. She sounds like an eminently sensible lady. I’m pretty sure our daughter would have said the same, but then I’m her mother, and a bit biased.

        1. What does Librela do for dogs?

          It is a biological therapy that works like your dog’s own immune system. It targets and neutralises a protein that stimulates pain in patients with arthritis.
          Through this action, one Librela injection alleviates pain for a full
          month in addition to the benefit of a positive safety profile.

          Librela – Mulberry House Vets

    3. In the Canadian system doctors get paid for what they do, so after diagnosing a problem it is in their interest to ask anything else?.

      The downside is that there is no need to stack the number of patients on their books and as a result several million Canadians have no access to a GP.

      1. Even though they stack patients on their books here, many English people have effectively no access to a GP! I do have to collect the meds (kerching!) within 7 days because the vet put them aside although I said I have enough to last until Monday (when I intended to pick them up).

    4. Happy to hear that Oscar has another month, my daughter’s golden, Bentley, also has improved. After much soul searching, they decided to have him home and let nature takes its course, the surgery was going to be invasive and he may not survive. But he seems to have bounced back, so perhaps Oscar will continue to improve.

  44. Son , Moh and all runners are outraged and sick and tired of the Wokes meddling with everything .

    Now Parkrun removes all gender, course and age records from its website amid row over trans women athletes holding the fastest times in female categories
    Parkrun sees thousands of athletes take part in runs every Saturday morning
    But controversial entry rules allow biological men to self-identify as females

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13061567/Parkrun-removes-gender-course-age-records-website-row-trans-women.html

          1. Transhumanism. Transgenderism is a step on the way. ‘They’ are very nearly there, the end game is nearly completed. However, they are moving too fast and the world is stirring – the last few minutes will be interesting. Dénouement approaches.

          2. There is an explanation on Twitter about all this, if I come across it I will post it here on nottle. Once things go out of sight (literally) on Twitter (X) it is very hard, nearly impossible to find them again. But eventually someone reposts it and it ends up back in one’s personal Twitter feed. What it was intimating is that if a person can be persuaded that they don’t know whether they are male and female, then the next step is to persuade them they are unsure whether they are human or a machine – this would be where they will operate on an individual for inserting chips into the brain whereby the ‘they’ will control people. We have got to this stage by the breaking down of society, all the social structures that held us together – marriage, the church, close knitted family, – and introducing ‘bad’ education and latterly drag queens in schools, loose morality.

          3. Oh what a tangled Web our political classes have weaved since first they practiced deceive.

    1. Inconvenience the overwhelming majority of people to appease a tiny minority (less than 1%) of the population.

      1. Appeasing less than 1% of the people.
        Has great similarities to U.K. Net Zero influence on CO2.

    2. It’s way beyond time that people should now at events like these, should stand in a line and sing the Okey Cokey. With a slight change in the lyrics. To Dopey Wokey. It’s time we took revenge on these ignorant despicable bastards.

      1. Ridicule is a possible means – the establishment uses it on us to knock us into line often enough. Humans hate being ridiculed and humiliated.

    1. Probably thought it was the same as the Bombay Express and you could hitch a ride on the roof with no consequences (except, perhaps, for falling off).

        1. Happy Birthday, Korky.

          We are the birthday boys !!!

          I was speaking to my window cleaner the other day and i told him i was fast approaching my 60th. He said his 65th was February 24th. My response was 🎵 Summer lovin’. 🎵

  45. Just had a parcel. An early 60th birthday present from Garlands. Some infusions and a whole side of smoked salmon !!!
    I rummaged through the packing…She must have forgotten the Dom Perignon… :@)

      1. I certainly will. I will be getting the Basildon Bond out on Monday. This being a party weekend.

        Garlands also has a significant birthday early March. 180 i think… :@)

    1. How are you feeling today? Has the raised temperature done a runner, packed its bags and left you for the weekend?

      1. I do seem to be okay now. I was a little worried because the same people who invited me for Christmas which had to be cancelled through me being ill are my guests tomorrow !

        Just finished my annual cardio review and BP is normal too. So……firing on all cylinders !

        Thanks for asking.

  46. My FiL was upset one day because he couldn’t find the keys to the van he hadn’t owned for over ten years and Biden has the codes to launch several thousand megatons of instant sunshine.

    1. An assistant carries the codes so he will not lose them. That is probably a bad thing because he might not understand what he is doing in a time of crisis.

      Trump is making a campaign speech near to where we are staying. It will be interesting to hear his take on the latest Biden news.

  47. Just had an invitation to renew a car insurance (Full 9 years NCs)- last year £325. New Quote £541…..! Will be shopping around

  48. Just been reading the full transcript of Tucker’s interview with Putin. It’s interesting. The link is on TCW.

  49. In the end it was no contest. Tucker Carlson, bloviating broadcaster for the pro-Trump MAGA movement, was blown out of the water by President Putin, dictator of all the Russias. Carlson thought he was doing the Russian leader a favour by going to Moscow to give him a platform to explain why he invaded Ukraine. Carlson, bar a couple of feeble interjections, just sat there with an increasingly pained expression…
    Andrew Neil D Fail

    Exposed as an incompetent waffler and just another puppet controlled by his political paymasters!
    .
    .
    Yes Andrew – that’s you to a T (I leave it up to the readers to interpret the T)

    1. I watched Tucker Carlson on his channel to which I subscribe. Tucker was relaxed in Putin’s company and sensibly allowed Putin to speak without interruption.

      Putin was brilliant and displayed a complete mastery of his brief which was to explain his actions in both an historical and present day geopolitical context.

      Sour grapes from Andrew Neil.

      1. And Putin gave a twenty-plus minute explanation of Russian / Ukraine history without notes or hesitation… meanwhile, Biden can’t remember the name of the French president, or when his own son died.
        Compare & contrast. Remember Russian dolls, so many layers – Putin let us see just a few – and the USA came out badly, as did the UK.

  50. That’s me gone for today. A miserable, wet, dreary one. Mildish, but unappealing.

    Tomorrow I’ll not be around much. Colin the Tree Man is coming to take down five trees – so there will be a lot of debris removal. Wish I was 30 years younger…

    Have a jolly evening. Seems as though Carlson (whose interview I have NOT watched) missed opportunities to go for Putin – but let him off the hook.

    A demain

  51. There has been a spike in car thefts in Canada in the past few years and the Justice Minister finally acted and called a meeting to discuss what could be done to resolve the issue (Liberal so all talk and no action except to blame the conservatives).

    It has now been discoved that the Justice Minister should have been aware of the problem because he has seen his ministerial car stolen three times in the past few years.

    What an absolute shame. Maybe he should be told to use the bus.

    1. It’s astonishing how quickly Canada has gone so very badly wrong. I can still remember the last conservative government that was ticking along just fine. The most they had to complain about was reintroducing the ‘Royal’ title to the armed forces.

  52. We are in South Carolina which is where they harvest trees to make wood pellets to ship over to the UK as fuel for power stations.

    If the wood chips are such a good fuel, why is the power station in the middle of these forests using coal?

    Just asking for a friend!

      1. Here’s another one…”A 2012 inquest found his death was unnatural and likely to have been “criminally mediated”. Although a coroner concluded in 2012 that Williams was on the balance of probabilities unlawfully killed, a police investigation found he had probably died accidentally on his own”.

        Gareth Williams was murdered but the police prefer annual holidays in Portugal pretending to look for a little girl who was killed years ago.

    1. All nice and tidily swept away.

      Only trouble is….shit like that floats to the surface.

      MetPol are a fucking joke. When the going gets tough they employ a third rate PR.

  53. I built a Bogie Five!
    My 4th shot was a choice from seven!

    Wordle 965 5/6
    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. You did better than me.

      Wordle 965 6/6

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

      1. Phew! Just

        Wordle 965 6/6

        🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜y
        🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜
        🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. A flaccid four for me

      Wordle 965 4/6

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

    3. Late back. Me too.
      Wordle 965 5/6

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

  54. JW
    @baronlordvader
    Several pounds of human hair was stolen during a burglary at a wig factory last night.
    Police are combing the area, and claim there’ll be hell toupee once the criminals are rooted out.

  55. Don’t come to England – there’s nothing here, warns Channel migrant

    Alaa Eldin, who fled Syrian civil war, says he has been left homeless and unable to work by UK’s ‘broken’ asylum system

    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    9 February 2024 • 5:15pm

    A small boat migrant has warned other asylum seekers not to come to England because “there is nothing here”.

    Alaa Eldin, from Syria, said he had been homeless for the past five months and had to sleep rough under a rowing boat on a beach because he was unable to work after his asylum claim was withdrawn.

    Mr Eldin, who crossed the Channel in a rubber dinghy more than two years ago, said he was now desperate to leave Britain and head to Germany to find work.

    The 25-year-old, who told his story to local reporters after being found on the beach, said he regularly tried to sneak into the back of lorries at the Port of Dover, in Kent, to get back to mainland Europe.

    “I want to work and get a job as a plasterer. But I have been here for more than two years and I’ve been out on the street for five months,” he said.

    “I don’t have money. I don’t have anything. I’m tired and I want to leave. Because I don’t have a home I have to sleep on the beach and sometimes it’s so cold I have to light a fire.”

    Mr Eldin, who fled the Syrian civil war nine years ago, warned other migrants that delays in the asylum system meant the chances of securing the right to remain and working were limited.

    “Don’t come here any more – the system is broken. England has come down. It’s not like before. There is nothing here,” he said.

    Mr Eldin, who escaped to avoid conscription into the army, initially moved to Germany, where some of his family are living. After falling out with them, he crossed the Channel on a people traffickers’ dinghy in August 2021 to seek asylum in the UK.

    He stayed in Leeds, where he hoped to settle and earn money as a plasterer, but quickly discovered that asylum seekers are not allowed to work while their claims are being processed.

    Mr Eldin claims the process was dragging on, so he decided he had no future in the UK and applied to voluntarily leave. He said that as a result, officials withdrew his asylum case, meaning he was no longer entitled to any form of state benefit or accommodation.

    Home Office data show that of the 112,138 initial asylum decisions made between January and Dec 28 last year, 35,119 were “non-substantive decisions”, which include withdrawn or paused applications.

    This would mean that 31 per cent of 2023 asylum decisions were withdrawn or paused, up from 22 per cent in 2022 and 16 per cent in 2021.

    Mr Eldin admitted he would stay in Britain if he could get his asylum status returned and be guaranteed to win his application. He said he needed a solicitor to do so, but because of the backlog of cases he would face a wait of five months.

    He returned to Dover five months ago in the hope of sailing back to mainland Europe. He has made friends locally, who put him up a couple of nights a week, but they cannot do so permanently because it would breach their tenancy agreements.

    He is being helped with legal advice by the Dover Outreach Centre, a homelessness charity, and uses its Sunrise community cafe for meals.

    Noel Beamish, the trustees’ chairman of Dover Outreach, told KentOnline: “Alaa is one of many asylum seekers wanting to leave the UK. The asylum process takes a considerable amount of time and they are put in accommodation that doesn’t suit them. They find things don’t work for them in the UK so they want to go elsewhere in Europe.”

    A Home Office spokesman said: “It is long-standing government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases. If an individual does not have the right to be in the UK, we will make every effort to return to their country of origin or a safe third country.”

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

    Martin Peckham
    47 MIN AGO
    ““England has come down. It’s not like before.” he said.
    Dead right England is not like before. No, it’s not the same, in fact it’s been ruined by the uninvited arrival of parasites like yourself. The entitlement of these people is breath-taking. He thinks he can just wander round Europe, picking and choosing where he wants to live and work. Let’s hope the Germans wipe that sickening smirk off his face as well.

    1. I also found this headline vomit-inducing. I feel very sorry for the poor child who appears to have been used and abused by so many people.

        1. I’ll match your tranny and raise the stakes with my boy (Doreen Lawrence).

          Identity Politics = sorts both victims and murderers into hierarchies of good and evil.

    1. IMVHO the President of the USA could be in the early stages of vascular dementia. I hope not, for his sake. His memory lapses might be causing confabulation.

  56. It’s all gone a bit quiet here. We’ve had one fourth birthday today and another tomorrow.
    Two of our lovely grandchildren.
    More excitement tomorrow.
    Good night all. 🤗😴

  57. Well, that’s me for today, chums. Good night, sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  58. 383136+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    How about we replace large numbers of the police with legal bounty hunters, paid on body cam results for different type felons.

    In all seriousness the point has been reached where the “police” or courts are going to be bypassed by local militia, mistakes or no mistakes, this I am sure will will pick up power
    countrywide as with the camera destruction

    https://x.com/KTHopkins/status/1756027795099001212?s=20

    .

    1. Beilliant! But they don’t like white women doing 23 in a 20 either!!! Soooooo dangerous!

  59. The BBC’s latest climate coverage makes XR look moderate

    There can little doubting the Today programme’s view on Labour’s decision to finally slay their proposed £28 billion green elephant

    ROSS CLARK • 8 February 2024 • 5:23pm

    Keir Starmer’s abandonment of the pledge to spend £28 billion a year on green projects is a terrible idea which will deprive Britain of the massive wealth which Joe Biden has created with his Inflation Reduction Act. It will fry us and drown us.

    I know it must be true because I heard it this morning on the Today programme. There were no fewer than five separate items on it, by my count. First we had Justin Rowlatt telling us we are all going to go to hell in a handcart because global temperature last year averaged 1.5 Celsius above 19th century levels.

    Then we had Prof Sir Bob Watson, former chair of the IPCC, telling us that the Earth’s weather “far exceeds anything that is unacceptable” – as if it were somehow something that is decided by world leaders. That comment says much about the mentality of people who populate these international global non-government organisations: they really do see themselves as gods. Watson went on to claim that climate change is damaging agricultural productivity when data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation shows the direct opposite – that yields for most of the world’s most important crops are increasing.

    Then there was Barry Gardiner, Labour’s former climate change spokesman, hauled on the show and invited by Nick Robinson to say that Starmer had got it utterly wrong, and allowed to spew out spurious guesstimates on how much climate change is costing the UK. “Storms are getting bigger,” he said, again directly contradicting the evidence – the State of the Climate report published annually by the Royal Meteorological Society shows a distinct downwards trend in average and extreme wind speeds in the UK in the past 30 years.

    It has come to something when Dale Vince comes across as the – relative – voice of reason, suggesting that it might actually be a good thing for the Labour Party first to review public finances before it piles another £28 billion a year on the massive debts that face future generations. In vain did I wait for someone on the Today programme to make the point that previous attempts by UK governments to subsidise green industries – like the infamous Britishvolt factory in Northumberland – haven’t exactly created wealth or jobs. I waited, too, for someone to argue that actually Biden’s green bungs aren’t the only story behind the US having faster economic growth than Britain.

    Another somewhat crucial matter is the much lower price of energy in the US, which has come about mainly because US administrations – Biden’s included – have unapologetically pursued a policy of energy security and self-sufficiency, built on huge expansion of shale oil and gas. Nor, by the way, did I hear anyone make the point that Britain’s carbon emissions are less than one per cent of the global total – and that Starmer will not have his fingers on the Earth’s thermostat even if he reaches Downing Street.

    Global temperatures are clearly rising [but not as much as the warmists say]. It will be in everyone’s interest if the world reduces carbon emissions [no, no, no!] – even if it is far from obvious why the climate of the 19th century represented optimum conditions for human civilisation. Investment in green technology should be encouraged, but preferably not through government ministers trying to pick winners – lower taxes would be a good start, to encourage the market to separate the good from the bad. But no, Labour’s £28 billion a year pledge wasn’t going to save the world, and no, Starmer is not condemning us to a long, painful death by extreme weather by dropping it. That is just a little fantasy of the Today programme.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/08/the-bbcs-latest-climate-coverage-makes-xr-look-moderate/

  60. I’m not long back from the pub quiz. We didn’t win, but we didn’t come last, either, which wasn’t bad since there were only two of us (there were about half a dozen in the winning team). I am going to bid you good night and sleep well.

    1. Well done, Conners. I love a pub quiz. I reckon we could scrape together a pretty formidable team from the Nottler club.

    2. I am waiting for my daughter to come back. We need a ringer for tomorrow’s match and she has agreed to help. Don’t tell anyone!

  61. The political class is only just realising that voters prefer prosperity over climate jingoism
    Labour’s green U-turn reflects the shifting sands of climate policy

    Charles Moore: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/09/political-class-voters-prosperity-climate-jingoism/

    BTL

    Rightly or wrongly many people are beginning to doubt whether man-made global warming is happening and if Net Zero is a scam devised to impoverish and manipulate people.

    As with Covid and the Covid jabs many eminent scientists in the environmental field have views which do not support the accepted narrative. This censorship is becoming counter-productive as it is beginning to make even those who did believe that climate change could be a grave problem to question why the PTB are so determined that only one side of the argument should be heard.

    1. What is becoming so illusive in this age of identity bluster and political Realpolitik is the truth and effective ways of addressing the truth. This seems to be endemic in very many fields including climate change and Gaza, with constant sniping for Wrongspeak, even when the truth is palpable and there to be seen in plain sight. Do they offer any alternative explanation for melting glaciers and wildfires that can no longer be fought and controlled? All we get from the sceptics is that the climate was different in prehistory and that therefore negates anything suggested in the century when the global human population rose four-fold with no reduction in its material appetites nor its capacity for destruction. It is years since I last saw a frog or a hedgehog; they used to be common.

      It seems that it is more popular to believe lies if those that are speaking these lies possess more influence than those who speak the truth. Taylor Swift is made an international heroine for saying “you make me so happy” as if the happiness of a money-bloated, harsh-voiced, ugly and talentless strumpet is the only thing that counts in this world they are making.

      What has become of commonsense?

      I do challenge the motives of those doing down environmentalists. Do their bonus pots rely on rubbishing those that only want the best for the world? When they project their own guilt onto the innocent, many of them victims of gross miscarriages of justice, then I’m afraid that my own feelings drift into hatred for these callous, greedy and cynically self-righteous fifth columnists of the Right, even if they purport to speak from the Left. It is what puts me off Reform, who seem hell-bent on pushing more of the same, than any return to sense. All the party of Tice and Farage and Truss seems to want is tax cuts for their cronies, so they can grow their bloat at any cost to the public; they don’t speak for me. They offer me no antidote to woke lunacy and fascism. Nor does the Official Opposition nor does the Official Government: I have nobody fit for my vote, and must resort to a sick and elderly king for hope.

      1. Not wishing to get involved in the pro/anti environmentalist argument, I would like to point out to jeremy that in this area

        hedgehogs used to be common, but since badgers were made a protected species and numbers multiplied there are now

        many badgers and very few hedgehogs.

        1. This is true. I wonder if badgers are edible? There’s certainly a lot of meat on a badger.

          1. We knew someone living in the sticks many years ago who ate all sorts of wild products.

            He said that both badger and fox were edible, but he was not keen on either.

            PS: Badger is now a protected species.

      2. Not wishing to get involved in the pro/anti environmentalist argument, I would like to point out to jeremy that in this area

        hedgehogs used to be common, but since badgers were made a protected species and numbers multiplied there are now

        many badgers and very few hedgehogs.

      3. Tax cuts leave more money in the pockets of the people who earned it and can spend that money far more wisely than and government can.
        Perhaps you could inform me of the countries that have managed to tax themselves into prosperity.

          1. You are asking me and I have already said I know of none.
            Please provide link for your assertion.

Comments are closed.