Thursday 8 June: Inheritance tax is driving high net worth individuals from our shores

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

421 thoughts on “Thursday 8 June: Inheritance tax is driving high net worth individuals from our shores”

  2. Good morning all.
    A dull 7°C start this morning with a bit of a breeze ruffling through the trees..

          1. This one wasn’t. A real doc in person wrote a real prescription on a piece of paper.

  4. Inheritance tax is driving high net worth individuals from our shores

    The cost of driving is even worse

    1. Was anyone surprised, after Liz Truss was forced to abandon her original Chancellor’s excellent Budget just before Rishi Sunak ousted her too?

  7. ‘Morning, Peeps. Another fine, if bone dry, day in prospect, and a new max of 20°C forecast for this afternoon. At least the birds sound very happy…

    SIR – Oxfam was forced to apologise for an LGBT video that appeared to demonise J K Rowling as an anti-trans villain (report, June 6).

    Oxfam’s founding mission of alleviating poverty and helping the most vulnerable has now changed, and the charity is aggressively vocal against those who believe that men cannot change their biological sex and should not enter female-only areas.

    Oxfam’s charitable status should be revoked so that taxpayers’ money is no longer given to this woke and divisive organisation. It may also serve as a warning to others.

    Clark Cross
    Linlithgow, West Lothian

    Hear, hear! And the same should apply to all those charities jumping on any passing bandwagon that is unrelated to their stated purpose, not just those who think that woke-preaching is now their mission. In failing to sanction those who stray into unrelated areas the Charity Commission shows itself to be just another useless regulator, happy to see donations and taxpayer funding abused.

    1. We can stop donating to or buying from these “charities”; the government still bungs £squillions to these organisations. It is still our money, but money taken from us under threat.

      1. Yes, that is the problem, Annie. One brief visit to their smug and pious website this morning was enough for me, so I have yet to find out the full extent of taxpayers’ generous support for this shower.

    2. The fact that the Charities Commission has not taken action against various charities who are spending their donors money

      on woke-preaching demonstrates where their sympathies lie.

      Tax relief for woke-preaching?

      The Treasury can’t be short of money to allow this to happen.

      1. The Charities Commission does nothing except register the charity. Years ago I was involved with a charity that was having its funds misappropriated by the trustees in cahoots with two employees.
        They would not interfere. It took a concerned solicitor working pro bono to get things uncovered and find the missing funds.

        1. ‘Morning, N. From their website:

          “We register and regulate charities in England and Wales, to ensure that the public can support charities with confidence.”

      2. The Treasury has no money, Janet, it simply takes money in taxes from us.

    3. And let’s remember Haiti! That stopped us providing any support to Oxfam.

        1. Lunch at a very good local restaurant! We go a lot on unbirthdays too!!

      2. Many apologies.
        I don’t know how I missed your post. I’ve been looking out for you.
        I always like to make my birthday best wishes next to a post by the birthday boy/girl.

        May you enjoy what’s left of today and see many more really great birthday parties in the years to come.

  8. Another crop of letters on IHT today including as always one advocating instead a tax on house “profit”. How they think you can measure this is anyone’s guess. I spend a fortune maintaining mine but if that is going to feed into a tax on the eventual selling price (which is a function of supply and demand, neither of which i have any control over) then they have another think coming. The end result will be a nation of dilapidated housing stock. Meanwhile the really rich are leaving the UK to avoid high taxation and those the middle classes in the south east in particular are being hammered.

    1. Is this idea another government ‘backed’ move in the process of the expropriation of the people’s assets?
      Energy efficiency levels being enforced for landlords and for people selling their homes have been mooted recently. These restrictions would make renting and selling properties impossible in many instances and resulting in the affected properties being, to all intents and purposes, worthless.
      The agenda is: You will own nothing…

      1. The EU plans to force “energy efficiency” onto every property soon. People will be forced to pay for solutions that may or may not make their properties more comfortable.

        One example is external insulation, which is very popular in some countries. All too often, it results in thick black mould between the external wall of the house and the insulation layer. A builder who had seen it stripped off houses told me that he would never install it on his own house by choice. I don’t know whether better products are now available, but this was the official product for which the householder could at that time get subsidies.

        1. Weren’t the Fire Regs in London dating back to 1666 repealed, so that tower blocks could get their external insulation done to budget and keep bonuses up?

          Best thing then is to stuff such buildings with lucky migrants, solving that problem with one dodgy fridge. Pity about the compensation claims, but there’s no accounting for lawyers eager to create wealth.

        2. The EU as the primogeniture of the EPCs ( energy performance certificates). I remember when in 2010 the EPCs we introduced and you had to do something else if you wanted to sell a house – can’t remember what now but it killed the housing market stone dead and was abolished when the Coalition Govt came in.

    2. In a similar vein…Because of rent restrictions introduced by a left wing Maltese government many years ago, landlords stopped improving their properties. Quite a few properties ended in ruin and when sold, tower blocks of flats went up in their place. Same thing happened to the property Her Majesty stayed in when she lived in Malta. It’s now a wreck.

      1. When governments brought in rent controls inn America because the asset eventually becomes worth less than the return some landlords just burned the places down to build non-rent controlled property.

        The end result was a shortage of property, sky high rents and homelessness.

        That is markets at work. What is staggering is that here we have Sturgeon and the oaf Khan suggesting the same be done here. I know Lefties hate history as it exposes all their miserable failures, but even they must have some concept that they’ve got to learn from it? Hah, who am I kidding. If they learned form history they wouldn’t be Lefties!

    3. There is no “profit” from selling houses!
      There is only a rough measure of how much the currency has declined in value since the house was bought.

      1. That’s about it. The real value of the house would have to be worked out first taking account of inflation then if there has been any real gain, the amount spent on mortgage interest, essential maintenance (roof, weather boards, soffits, windows, doors, internal and external redecoration, adequate heating etc etc), also inflation adjusted, must be subtracted before any notional gain is declared. I suspect many if not most home owners would actually post a loss.

        1. I have done the intellectual exercise many times and there’s never any profit.

      2. Gordon Brown removed the index-linking of Capital Gains Tax on property which may rise in monetary value in line with inflation, but are actually worth much the same, which is more than can be said for putting it in the bank or relying on professional insiders to invest it in stocks.

        The idea of course is to punish savers in order to give extra credit to borrowers.

        2. Now, if the Telegraph really wanted to campaign it would demand capital gains were scrapped. I is an egregious tax on an asset already heavily taxed at every stage, built up to be successful and then hammered by the state again.

    4. There’s a group who think that business magically makes money, that houses just appreciate automatically. There’s no interest that if you do nothing with a house it falls to ruin, no interest in the upgrades or maintenance.

      Sadly these people are often fervent Lefties who think they should be given something for nothing. Reason is irrelevant as they’re by nature irrational.

    5. Grattis på födelsedagen, Bleausard. Hope it’s a grand ‘un.👍🏻🥂🎂😊

  11. 373069+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Inheritance tax is driving high net worth individuals from our shores Thursday 8 June:

    It is so bloody obvious that issues such as this have been running for years as with the Dover
    invasion campaign,

    There will never , ever be rectification all the while the majority voter fuels the lab/lib/con /current ukip coalition with NO radical change.

    They know, and I know they know,they will NOT willingly change their misguided allegiance they clutch to regarding a party name, even though it is killing young and elderly alike , maiming, raping & abusing their young children and the Country as a whole.

    We found success once via people power and a fringe party UKIP that showed the way, it scared the current majority voter SO MUCH being pro OUT they returned to the lab/lib/con coalition and proceeded to get BACK IN.

    All I can ascertain from their actions is they find warmth and comfort supporting their regular parties as is found in a nappy full of SHIT.

    1. It is certainly a coincidence that concerns about IHT are being raised simultaneously in Britain and in Germany. Are NOTTLers aware of any other countries where IHT is suddenly a live issue with politicians?

      Is it just a ploy for their manifestos at the next election? (to be followed by “Ha ha – fooled you again, peasants!”)
      We’ve been told on good authority that we are to own nothing and be happy – are they waving a reduction in IHT under our noses because they know that we’ll be owning nothing a few years from now?
      Or do they want the upper middle classes to be safely up the ladder before it’s pulled up from everyone else?
      I know I sound very suspicious, but we have seen too much of the same things popping up at the same time in different countries – and IHT did suddenly appear overnight as a hot topic for the political classes.

      1. ‘Morning, bb2. All party manifestos should be filed on the ‘Fiction’ shelf.

      2. We’re told it was an hot topic in Norway. Now many of the wealthy have left thew country, not so much.

    2. Inheritance tax is a small raising tax but it is a big ‘issue’ for the people who’re likely to pay it, namely middle income conservatives. Thus the Telegraph is promoting it I assume as a sales vehicle no doubt for if the Tories decide to fiddle with it – they won’t cancel it – it can be proclaimed as a giant success.

  12. Good morning all,

    Cloudy but with a sunny day in prospect after 11am, wind Nor’-East, where else,10℃ forecasting 21℃ but we won’t be here. Off to the South Devon coast for a week of sea air.

    So the Daily Gatesograph and the Spectator (The Telegraph Media Group) are up for sale by auction having been taken over by Lloyds Banking Group which is in dispute with the Barclay family over a small matter of a debt approaching £1bn owed to RBS. Wide interest is expected to be generated. Do we think Billy Goat and Georgie Sorearse will be in the bidding? It would be loose change to them

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/07/telegraph-media-group-barclay-lloyds/

    1. ‘Morning, FM. I seem to recall that the Barclay brothers paid around £650m twenty-odd years ago for the Maily Torygraph, but it is now said to be worth a great deal less. My heart bleeds for them…

      1. Still holey. Nurse tomorrow. It seems to be mainly the area that – for five weeks – has been under plaster. It has become raw and uncomfortable.

        2. Good morning Mr T and everyone.
          Sir, you are older and wiser than me. In my ever so ‘umble opinion (rubs hands appropriately), a wound (skin abrasion etc) that fails to heal within 4 weeks is well on its way to becoming an ulcer. Slow or limited healing is not unusual with people who have reached an advanced age. However, I wonder if the long-life dressings currently used by GP surgeries are better at reducing costs than repairing skin tissue. May I tactfully suggest that someone should be photographing the hole in your back every time that the dressing is changed? Traditionally, dressings should be changed frequently, and there is those that reckon a few hours of air and sunshine should be permitted between removing a dirty bandage and applying a clean one. Do you know any retired health worker who might be able to offer a second opinion? Several retired Nurses are Nottlers. NB I have no health qualifications whatsoever.

          1. Thank you. Next week I shall be by the sea in sunshine (and rain) I shall expose the hole – and the surrounding (now scarred) skin when the plasters have been.

          2. As long as you deny it, young people will suspect that the scar was once a bullet wound.

    1. Breed from this woman at your peril! (Assuming that it is one of those, but for goodness sake don’t ask Sir Kneel Hindsight for clarification…)

    2. Breed from this woman at your peril! (Assuming that it is one of those, but for goodness sake don’t ask Sir Kneel Hindsight for clarification…)

    6. So the vilification of Russia, Russians and all things Russian continues. If anyone thinks this is how the women looks they are fools. But then Western propaganda seems to think that its audience are fools, judging by comments below this article, they are right. Does anyone truly believe that a country that produces women that look like the people in the link I have provided would vote for a monstrosity to represent their country in a beauty contest.
      Would angers me too is the shear pettiness of such propaganda. Spite isn’t the word for it when governments and their mouthpieces deal in such trash.

      https://duckduckgo.com/?q=beautful+russian+women&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images

      This, by the way, is what she actually looks like
      https://www.amur.life/res/news/44154/928x_/89a6dbb9b9d6f9ff5c2d15a9e6f1d08e.jpg

      1. They seem to have a more natural beauty unlike the over pumped Western women. Until they become babulyas of course.

  15. Good morning, all. Light overcast and the usual drying breeze.

    Yesterday’s UK Column revisiting the Ukraine situation from 2017. Interesting to be reminded that the May woman was, at the time, very much the hawk.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9cc466d84406496a5fe4af964973bbee76ad29923086181b88cc9bb0bfd6a721.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66b905031251c3a0c49d7a135cdd762b9217c530d6ffe5b809b9ef78376e09e0.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f460133e74734709bde11dec5c1f895c45ddd81c5cebe8050952e393ce0e79cd.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13680b1102e21a47aa1ee59be90f75955000cf5fea17f351165f44a836764061.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c8324298a8c56468e805c32bd8395087958db24aacb5e8b8bcc70c9352c98d8.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3da20ac66b22d3286609121f159a2a21f400908a59a73ea53393c1f1be0aed3.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c192c491be53c87fd88388059c178d827ae79b2a43b867ab4ca2de0c70876b4.png

    1. In the ranks of sheer evil Theresa May is up there with Cruella de Ville, Myra Hindley and Rosemary West!

      1. ………………….and don’t forget tony Bliar, certainly the most evil of all

  16. This excellent article is from today’s DT and fortunately comments are allowed.

    First the article for those without access:

    Oxfam needs to stop fixating on ‘terfs’, and focus on helping the poor

    Even if the caricature transphobe hadn’t looked in the least like JK Rowling, Oxfam would still have been utterly in the wrong

    MICHAEL DEACON
    COLUMNIST & ASSISTANT EDITOR
    7 June 2023 • 8:00pm

    It was, of course, a completely innocent mistake. All that Oxfam had meant to do was to create a little animation for social media, demonstrating its support for trans rights. Nothing more.

    Imagine its bosses’ horror, therefore, when thousands upon thousands of Twitter users pointed out that Oxfam’s cartoon depiction of an evil, scowling, hate-fuelled transphobe accidentally looked just like JK Rowling.

    In response, the charity was quick to delete this part of the animation, and to release a statement insisting that there had been “no intention” to portray “any particular person”.

    I for one am happy to take Oxfam at its word. It’s no doubt only the most unfortunate coincidence that the cartoon bigot so closely resembled a widely published photograph of JK Rowling attending the 2018 world premiere of the film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, right down to her hairstyle and outfit.

    Still, whatever has caused Oxfam to lose its way, I think it’s time it stopped fixating on gender theory, and focused entirely on helping the poor. Yes, some women in this country may hold frightfully unfashionable opinions – but their donations count just as much as anyone else’s.

    Theoretically, I suppose, it’s possible that a starving child in Burkina Faso could shout: “No! I refuse to accept any food that may have been paid for by someone who believes that biological males should not be allowed to enter the women’s Olympic weightlifting!” On the whole, though, I think it’s unlikely.

    * * *

    A few btl comments, and they aren’t holding back:

    Joanne Russell
    10 HRS AGO
    This is a really great article and I, as part of the 51% club, am relieved to be reading it in a mainstream newspaper.
    Can I hope that the silent majority is awakening to the outrageous assault on women’s rights that has been tacitly condoned with hardly a dissenting voice allowed.
    There is no excuse for this cartoon and whomsoever approved it should be made aware that voluntary donations are this charity’s lifeblood and make sure there isn’t a repeat of such stupidity ever again.

    Terry Snowball
    9 HRS AGO
    The animation shows grotesque caricatures of people similar to portrayals of Jewish people by antisemites. It is really disgusting that anyone in Oxfam thought this was acceptable. There are sick people in this organization.

    Cassandra Cassandra
    9 HRS AGO
    You have that absolutely right Terry. It’s was the first thing that struck me. It’s not just Oxfam. No one knows where this trans activism is going to end. But it will end badly.

    Timothy Clarke
    8 HRS AGO
    The backtrack was clearly lie. They know it was a lie, we knew it was a lie and they knew that we knew it was a lie. This was a technique pioneers in the Soviet Union and it is called “Vranyo” and now perfected by Putin. Oxfam have revealed themselves as lying cowardly communists.

    1. I used to respect Oxfam as a decent charity trying to do good. Then you see the salaries paid to the management team and see who they lobby for funding. Fundamentally – and it’s going to be cruel – we’ve got to stop trying to help the third world. We do them no favours at all by continually saving them from their own failures.

      1. Quite so, Wibb. I’ve just Googled ‘Oxfam scandals’…does not make happy reading!

    2. Don’t worry, I’m sure the Charidee Commissioner will be all over it

      /sarc.

  17. The West needs to help Ukraine drive the Russians out of their country, so we can shut down all their farming and save the planet

    1. The busted dam has achieved that. Well done WEF for managing to blame that one on the Russians.

    1. The evil that men do lives after them
      The good is oft interréd with their bones.

      Will Epstein’s client list ever come to light or has been been cremated and buried with his remains?

      1. 373069+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        I’ll bet those odious rodents on the list are at this moment
        blackmailing each other, the truth will out, something will break.

  19. Woo hoo. A bit better than yesterday’s busted flush
    Wordle 719 2/6

    🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  22. Children being force fed the Alphabet soup have to be protected and one can sympathise with their parents’ stance on this issue. However, this reaction is just what those behind the paedophile agenda are hoping for i.e. dividing society. The school boards etc. are being used and should be sufficiently aware of that fact and resign. Grooming children should not be up for debate.

    https://twitter.com/ManInAmericaUS/status/1666543338437091328

    1. The police have a duty to keep the peace and enforce law. The frenzied trans activist mob are the ones causing the problem and should be the ones plod deal with. They have got to be told to shut up and go away. Why, in the name of trousers should the law care that someone is a delusional fantasist?

  23. Still no word from Tom? Anybody heard from him? It’s three days now I think?

    1. This is the start of the third day. Last heard from on Monday, he was around all day Monday from time to time.

      1. Me too. Probably he’s just taking some time away from the internet and doesn’t want to share all information with everyone.

        1. It’s a difficult one.
          Given Tom’s health, you can’t help worrying, but don’t wish to be intrusive.
          I don’t know how much supervision there is in his current abode.

          1. He did say last week that the talk of suicide was just venting off and shouldn’t be taken literally, but then could that be a candidate for the MRD Award?

          2. He also said he had struck up a friendship with a lady in Moffat, so maybe she is helping divert his attention (no sniggering at the back).

    2. I paid £26. I wonder who the new owners will be and how it will change the editorial line? Should be fascinating. The “Speccie” with it too. Thanks goodness for The Critic.

  25. https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Tgt3WC1oF1FrVBoxvq0F1fY6WoUCATxpT70UjD-LtkNmaOD3emJ9ixx3eWneVG03o0olw8Le4K0T5xnoNAsxuW4Zk9kw0FHR48n2RqTmLKkPlsJuIhPywQLzNEuHkX3Y2SGZxyVpzfoWYEt2tVysoCHIy-AMssZnRwCAIWtimLnHGpxzAmmldNH10R_U8o43v0fD5_x1GsA7J-taDRD30LdAtkl8UOkaDjDj4AmjxtGRLsgLo3Z0VIM4g4JYg-hZp5q-SVCK-dNGeApqAmUZooKpXmz6tnZzqBFxj81m1BzT38y3h8B7H5t9uPE=s0-d-e1-ft#https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_36,c_scale,f_png,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack.com%2Ficon%2FNoteForwardIcon%3Fv%3D4%26height%3D36%26fill%3Dnone%26stroke%3D%2523808080%26strokeWidth%3D2
    Dr John Campbell

  26. 373069+up ticks,

    May one ask,
    Can “the left” in all honesty be defined as the
    lab.lib/con/current ukip coalition party, if not ,why not ?

    Dt,
    The arrogant Left are triumphant – and think they have a mandate to destroy Britain
    The Left wrongly conflate public anger at the Tories with an ideological mandate for socialism

  27. Morning all 🙂😉
    Still cloudy but I think I nearly saw a shadow outside this morning.
    We have to face the age old facts, yet again our politicians and Whitehall have effed up and everyone else has to pay for it. 6 million pounds a day just to accommodate thousands illegal invaders. Whilst everything we need to live an ordinary life is increasing in cost.
    The housing market has now taken a standstill probably because of the tax increases. People are being charged massive amounts in tax just to move house. Solely because of politicial effups. They are all, every last one of them, absolutely useless.

    1. Here too. Just tried to post “Sunshine On My Shoulders” by John Denver but it didn’t work!

  29. If I responded to the alluring junk that pops up every day, I’d have about 47 Ninja air fryers. I could knock up a calorific meal for MB to help him could recover from the attentions of all those Russian babes; who he will have paid in bitcoin, natch.

      1. My dietician suggested I get one. I’m put off by the use of it. He suggested it’s ideal to cook vegetables and what not. Are they?

        1. They are great for making vegetable crisps. Healthier too depending on how much salt you use.

        2. We have used for years a simple 3 tier steamer used on the hob. Potatoes in the bottom then one or two layers of veg. in the baskets. Just make sure your timings are correct for the veg and the whole lot is ready in 25mins.max. Its been the most used thing in the kitchen. We do not use or want a microwave or air fryer whatever that is..

          2. We used it today for lunch. We had pork ( out of season ) A whole slow cooked Spanish onion in stock with sage, potatoes, peas, turnips and carrots. I bottle of Austrian red wine.( to drink).

          3. Steamed Jersey Royals with a little butter and salt are unbeatable hot or cold.

      2. I mainly do chicken, sausages and chops in my Tower. 2cm cubes of potatoes tossed in olive oil and paprika make a great snack

    2. Good morning Anne .

      I used my air fryer the other day.. here goes .. I went shopping in Lidl, and noticed ready made moussaka, looked at the ingredients , popped two tin foil containers , meal for one , for Moh and I, in my basket .

      Lidl have improved hugely , bought a huge bag of apples , some small bananas , tomatoes, eggs etc and a very tasty loaf of bread , laundry stuff etc . Their fruit and veg is fresh , much better than a few years ago and the food variety is staggering .

      I put the 2 trays of Moussaka in the airfryer for 25 minutes .. served it up with some salady stuff.

      The flavour was delicious ,not soggy, meaty and probably nicer than my own attempts , certainly tastier and less over sauced than an M+S offering .

      Will buy the same again , for sure.

      2. Their lasagne is great too, I always buy a few and put some in the freezer

    3. I don’t get any junk mail at all. I feel left out. Where’s my Russian babes !

  30. Apologies for the first photo of Roland Rat in the article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/06/07/rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-labour-energy-policy-eco-zealots/

    I found this comical. No, honestly, I did. That Sunak can continually blame someone else for his own globalist enforced refusal to resolve this countries energy crisis is laughable. He knows what the cause is – it’s him. His refusal to grant new licences, his refusal to get fracking, his utter refusal to build SMR nuclear. It is entirely his fault. Oh, he uses weasel words but they’re all the same. He’s a liar. A barefaced fraud.

    As the comments are saying, reverse the headline and you get the same situation.

    1. Are Ladbrokes offering odds as to how long after the general election that Sunak will resign and head for the USA?

      How long was it between the Brexit Referendum result being announced and Cameron’s resignation? Sunak is nothing if not competitive and I am sure he will aim to beat it.

  32. Caroline Lucas standing down as MP to focus on climate change
    Green Party’s only Westminster politician says constituency work has taken away focus from addressing ‘accelerating crises’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/06/08/caroline-lucas-stand-down-green-mp-brighton-climate-change/

    BTL (Percival Wrattstrangler)

    Increasingly people are becoming aware that man-made climate change is a complete scam.

    Has Caroline Lucas been conned into believing her green nonsense? Is she a sincerely deluded scammer or is she well aware of the fact that most of what she spouts is simply just wrong?

    1. Most likely she has been offered oodles more money. Principles don’t come cheap you know.

      1. “Everyone has their price Maddie”.
        House of Cards, Francis Urquhart.

      2. “Everyone has their price Maddie”.
        House of Cards, Francis Urquhart.

      3. My thoughts exactly. She’s already got five houses on the flipping, no doubt going for some more.

      5. She will be sitting in the road in front of people’s cars soon., now that she has profited enough out of the green scam that she never needs to work again.

    2. She has never come across, to me, as a terribly intelligent individual. So yes, I think she really believes all the nonsense about climate change.

      1. She’s a fanatic. It is her whole life. The reality is irrelevant to her. She is obsessed but she has got very rich from that delusion – at the tax payers expense, of course.

      2. She’s a very wealthy woman.

        Why hang around Westminster when one can luxuriate in your good fortune in Brighton.

        1. …or in some highly-paid leftie non-job – like the BBC for instance? Judging by the number of times she has appeared on our local news they think the sun shines out of her rear end. Quite frankly they would deserve each other as their warning of ‘climate catastrophe’ and ‘imminent climate collapse’ become ever more frantic. To those of us with even half a brain it is just the natural progress of the weather, as many past millennia have shown. Everything else is just a hideously expensive scam.

          1. I have heard her several times in interviews as well as on Question Time and Any Questions? and she repeats the same old mantra: more insulation, more wind turbines, a ‘smarter’ grid. She doesn’t seem able to get beyond this.

          3. Another technology illiterate – BA in English Lit and PhD in English – CND activist and Green; probably can’t spell science!

          4. I have heard her several times in interviews as well as on Question Time and Any Questions? and she repeats the same old mantra: more insulation, more wind turbines, a ‘smarter’ grid. She doesn’t seem able to get beyond this.

    5. From memory, an MP needs to serve a minimum of 3 terms in Parliament or a total of 12 years in order to bag a proper pension. Ms Lucas has been an MP since 2010, so has now completed 13 years. Forty years as an MP would achieve a 50% final salary pension (index linked, obviously). In the case of Ms Lucas, the calculation would be based on 14/40; by my estimate that would amount to GBP 15,152.20p as soon as she reaches retirement age.

  34. Several people including children injured in knife attack in French Alps. 8 June 2023.

    Several people including children have been injured in a knife attack in a town in the French Alps, according to France’s interior minister.

    Gérald Darmanin said the attack took place in a square in the town of Annecy. In a short tweet, he said police had detained the attacker.

    “Several people including children have been injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy,” he tweeted.

    Right! What’s the odds?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/08/knife-attack-french-alps-annecy

    1. Odds on.
      Annecy is a lovely town we stayed there on our way to Stigliano Tuscany, about 12 years ago.

    2. An individual armed with a knife. No mention of the attacker so an illegal immigrant. Why are governments forcing this abuse on us? Gimmigrants are not a positive benefit to the countries they land in. France is where a lot of us would go on holiday. I wouldn’t go there now.

      Hell, if we want to go to a foreign country just walk through Lordshill.

      1. We had a holiday in that area many years ago – it’s a lovely part of France.

    4. Six children aged three years old were stabbed by a knifeman in a French playground this morning before the attacker was subdued by police.
      Witnesses told Le Dauphine that a man began attacking the group of young children while they were playing at a small playground in Annecy, an alpine town in southeastern France, at around 9.45am.
      Armed police arrived at the scene and quickly subdued the knifeman, believed to be a Syrian asylum seeker, before he was arrested and taken to hospital for injuries, the French newspaper reported.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12173067/Eight-children-stabbed-knifeman-French-playground-attacker-subdued.html

      These monsters need to be guillotined.

        1. What staggered me were the down votes where people wish the children well.
          eg
          “How terrifying, I hope the children will recover.”
          has two.

      2. The leadership is too afraid it will be turned on them.
        They have good reason.

    1. Dale Vince is also getting very rich off the back of windmills as well. He’s the sort of champagne socialist who parasitically troughs from public money, unable to create any wealth of his own through effort or invention.

      1. Apart from buying the local football team he’s done nothing to benefit this area. He lives in a Victorian folly high on a hill and lords it over the town.

    2. I’d be inclined to wear earplugs and blast these gullible idiots with an airhorn!

  36. I know folk complain about Amazon, but I’ve just had a goodwill refund of £40 for a broken pair of trainers that Sports Direct wouldn’t refund.

    It was infuriating dealing with Sports Direct and they seem determined to put my back up.

    1. As long as he doesn’t mention Jewish money men he should be okay…sort of.

  39. Sat with a mug of tea and bite to eat after a shopping foray to Belper, largely for the greengrocer’s there.
    Three Way traffic lights on Bridge Street meant a BLOODY long, 20min, queue getting in and it’s not too warm out there this morning.
    In fact I’d say a bit bloody cold!

  40. Medley time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f5dcb8415287d3afb69b6dc9751269590b61539786146e99ca1ae88a54b62bd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b36b4367289bc7209569234ef97487d3a3106ac74ab17e37fd499a26586217f3.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3bdd9c304c4453f1b04c57a3d76718fde7f18b9f63c4e3e0ea27c81cd64f72f.jpg

    https://scontent.fbrs4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/352077276_639878217697764_2375735793105126267_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=lEogtzmWy0sAX8qqF-1&_nc_ht=scontent.fbrs4-1.fna&oh=00_AfAXrZvVwU57GwT_Hr9IXkT4GUYW9SUovB8QtEUVUPgByw&oe=6484C1B9

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa89a87130dec5f3c05735f4b3b2ee45f77f0ee4ebbd36a3ce36340195475235.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d35db9febc23d55118a035444852a04c3c076cab51bb3cdfefcc84951b8937d4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60221f2ee004d1bcd2d12f194f4275bc583151dfc358be137d8511ff63563912.jpg

  41. Now grant Ukraine permission to strike Russia. 8 June 2023.

    In such circumstances it is entirely conceivable that Ukraine can achieve a comprehensive victory over Russia, one that would have long-term benefits for European security. A Russian defeat would not only signal the end of Putin’s despotic rule in Moscow – it would send a clear message to other authoritarian regimes like China and Iran that democratic countries are prepared to fight for their freedoms, and win.

    Ahhh! Those democratic countries. I remember them so well. Now of course they are no longer democratic and their rulers are a greater menace to their citizens than a dozen Putins!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/08/now-grant-ukraine-permission-to-strike-russia/

  42. Now grant Ukraine permission to strike Russia. 8 June 2023.

    In such circumstances it is entirely conceivable that Ukraine can achieve a comprehensive victory over Russia, one that would have long-term benefits for European security. A Russian defeat would not only signal the end of Putin’s despotic rule in Moscow – it would send a clear message to other authoritarian regimes like China and Iran that democratic countries are prepared to fight for their freedoms, and win.

    Ahhh! Those democratic countries. I remember them so well. Now of course they are no longer democratic and their rulers are a greater menace to their citizens than a dozen Putins!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/08/now-grant-ukraine-permission-to-strike-russia/

    2. A man cannot give birth. End of story. A woman pretending to be a man can, but that’s because she’s a woman.

  44. A late Good Morning, chums. Late on parade today. I had an early bedtime but got Sir Jasper syndrome so got up again at 2.15 m and did a few odd jobs before going back to bed at 5.30 am and slept until now (11.30 am). Will now look to see if I can find Sir Jasper’s morning funny – he didn’t post for a couple of days and I am once again wondering if he is OK.

    1. I hope the judge throws it out and demands Surrey Police explain themselves.

    2. If the police have these sorts of powers, solely without evidence or trial based entirely upon an accusation of someone’s hurt feelings plod should laugh at the complainant and charge them with wasting police time.

      If their crime figures are so utterly appalling then that’s a different issue. Invented crime based upon hurty feels are just insane.

  46. Just when you thought there might be hope for the Met with its new commissioner…

    LGBT+: Metropolitan Police chief apologises to Peter Tatchell over past failings

    The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has apologised to LGBT+ campaigner Peter Tatchell for the force’s homophobic failings.

    In what Mr Tatchell said was a “ground-breaking step forward”, Sir Mark’s letter said he was “sorry to all of the communities we have let down”.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65840770

    2. How unfortunate that even Rowley has now been captured by a tiny but vociferous minority.

    3. The majority community is the most let down of course but that’s where they employ the myth of intersectional power structures.

  47. Signing off- out this arvo for a cultural event. Then drinks. I’ll look in at the end of the day.

  48. ‘Morning again – just…

    I am pleased to see that the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) has become involved in the Oxfam row:

    Press: Oxfam mocks JK Rowling over gender views

    Dear marriage supporter,

    Oxfam stands widely accused in the press today of targeting JK Rowling in a Pride cartoon video. The video features an anti-trans character seen as resembling the Harry Potter author. According to The Times (£), the figure was a woman “with blood-red eyes and face contorted in hate … wearing a green dress – similar to one worn by Rowling at a film premiere”.

    A caption stating that LGBT people were “preyed on by hate groups online and offline” appeared as the Rowling lookalike came on screen, wearing a ‘TERF’ (‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’) badge.

    Despite having the same hair colour, clothing and body shape as the well-known author, Oxfam claims there was “no intention” to make the figure resemble JK Rowling. Its Twitter account, logo adorned in the colours of Pride, apologised for using the term “TERF”. Oxfam’s statement ends by saying it respects individuals’ rights to hold their “philosophical beliefs” – as if biological reality is simply a philosophical perspective.

    Oxfam has now edited the video to remove the depiction of Rowling.

    This comes just months after Oxfam (£) launched a language guide saying that the word ‘mother’ is potentially offensive, and urging staff to adopt terms such as ‘assigned male at birth’ for men and ‘assigned female at birth’ for women. It is unclear how any of this fulfils the charity’s objective.

    Oxfam sees itself as a defender of human rights, including of women and minorities. Yet, just five years ago, a Times investigation found that Oxfam staff working in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake had hired “sex workers for orgies”. This triggered a Charity Commission investigation in 2019, which criticised Oxfam’s handling of the issue, though progress has apparently been made since. Given this recent past, it is surprising that Oxfam should devote such time and resources to gender ideology.

    At C4M, we know that ‘male’ and ‘female’ are unchangeable realities rooted in biology. The differences between the two sexes are something to be celebrated, not denied, and the best way of celebrating these differences is by supporting the union of man and woman in marriage. We continue to stand by those who defend biology and hope charities like Oxfam stop embracing this dangerous ideology.

    If you would like to support us financially, you can do so using the button below.

    Please Donate  

    Yours faithfully,

    Colin Hart
    Chairman
    Coalition for Marriage (C4M)

    The word ‘Mother’ should be banned in their eyes. REALLY? These people are mentally ill and the sooner we pull the plug on their funding, the better. Meanwhile I suggested in an earlier post that a Google search of ‘Oxfam scandals’ may well result in the red mist descending!

    If, like me, you would like to make your views known, here is the email address:

    feedback@oxfam.org.uk

    1. “The word ‘Mother’ should be banned in their eyes. REALLY?”

      And ‘ladies’ too, according to this article from Allison Pearson. I might not have seen it had I not been reading Allister Heath’s latest ‘end-of-the-world’ article and found this amongst the comments:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/143ee229fa15d613ff04663046f7d547e16bb2f97e6fed0c0a28530cdc740b43.jpg
      It’s certainly open for comments now.

      Pregnancy and breastfeeding belong to women, and women alone

      Whatever Glamour UK magazine may say, pregnancy is not a ‘shared experience’ with members of the trans community, let alone with men

      ALLISON PEARSON • 7 June 2023 • 3:00pm

      Glamour UK magazine elected to put a “pregnant man” on its digital cover for the increasingly annoying Pride month, which seems to be a vehicle for smug corporations to patronise gay people. (Do they really all like glitter and rainbows? My gay friend likes the novels of Henry James.) Those inverted commas around “pregnant man” are doing a hell of a lot of work, by the way. Logan Brown tells an interviewer, “I am a trans pregnant man and I do exist. No matter what anyone says, I am literally living proof.”

      Don’t bother pointing out that a man can’t be pregnant because, in order to achieve that blessed state, you need ovaries, a uterus and a vagina. Such petty insistence on biological facts marks you out as “transphobic”. Better to accept the desecration of the English language, the overturning of millennia of medical understanding, and nod along as Logan explains how he was taking a break from testosterone when he fell pregnant by his girlfriend (I think that’s right, honestly, it’s hard to keep up). Anyway, he wasn’t happy. “All my manlihood that I’ve worked hard for, for so long, just completely felt like it was erased.”

      Somehow, baby Nova was born, although she had some “growth issues”. As a mother (female, full complement of relevant organs), I flinched when I read that, thinking of how we women are told to stop taking the Pill before trying to conceive and wondering what the effect of high levels of testosterone in the womb would have on a developing female foetus.

      As Logan doesn’t believe in biological sex and has lopped off her breasts, which makes it impossible to feed the baby, such concerns will hardly have entered that magnificently self-obsessed mind. If a drug addict were behaving with such casual disregard during pregnancy, social services would swoop in and remove the baby. Of course, that would be evidence of transphobia, so no one dared suggest it in this case, even though I personally do worry for that poor tiny girl.

      Far from reflecting the understandable scepticism of some readers (how many will have recoiled at the term “pregnant man”?) the Glamour interviewer lay on her back with paws in the air and allowed herself to be tickled by a minority opinion which is bullying the majority into agreeing with its preposterous, unscientific assertions.

      The magazine claims its Pride issue “celebrates the allyship that exists between women (cisgender or not) and transgender people through our shared experiences – in particular, pregnancy, healthcare and childbirth – something that is not often talked about with regard to the transgender community”.

      Seriously? Does this reputable publication targeted at younger women (the old-fashioned kind) have no concept of the harm the gender-identity crowd are doing to female experience?

      Take Miranda, a new mother who is nursing her nine-week-old baby boy. Miranda wrote to me on the Planet Normal podcast about what happened when she joined a breastfeeding support group for some interaction with other new mums and to help with such arcane mysteries as “latching on”. (I remember pregnancy well. Like trying to post a melon through a letterbox. Ouch!)

      “Like any new mother it’s been a rollercoaster ride, but I’ve never felt more proud of my womanhood, looking in awe at how my body can sustain this little life as he feeds, as well as healing itself from the physical trauma of childbirth,” said Miranda. “I valued the breastfeeding group and those couple of hours every week where we could be so vulnerable with each other and forge new friendships. I also signed up to the Facebook and WhatsApp groups where we could ask questions, often extremely personal, sometimes harrowing, and often in the middle of the night when you’re in the thick of it and can feel most alone.”

      One member of the breastfeeding group was engaged in a series of questions with the admin team, when she made what Miranda drolly called “the unfathomable error” in one message of “addressing us mothers as ‘ladies'”.

      Miranda attached a screenshot for me of the admin person’s response: “Everyone, just a gentle reminder that we do not use gendered language as not everyone identifies as female.” It’s a breastfeeding group, for crying out loud! How many of the participants aren’t ladies?

      Miranda was furious, rightly so. “I was feeding my baby at the time those messages came through. I felt very sorry for the lady who had caused the so-called offence: you can see her contrition and the patronising response from the admin to her apology. I have no problem with individuals identifying as ‘they/them’, but at the one time in our lives when being made to feel proud of our womanhood has never been more important (or obvious in what our feminine bodies are going through!), I do not agree that de-gendering should be inflicted on the rest of us. I was also incredibly offended, but as I’m a straight woman, does my offence carry less weight?”

      Well, of course it does, Miranda. No one both female and heterosexual is allowed to take uncomplicated “Pride” in their woman’s body as it miraculously does exactly what it was primed to do by Mother Nature.

      How dare they? That’s what I thought when I read that administrator’s appalling, virtue-signalling response to an anxious, exhausted woman addressing her fellow new mums as “ladies”.

      How dare they appropriate the precious, private moments in a female life and claim, outrageously, that those moments might be male too?

      “Needless to say, I promptly left the group as my small stand against this pervading, illogical and (in this context) highly insensitive ideology,” reports Miranda, “As I watch my precious little baby sleeping peacefully on me, I want so much to protect him from such cultural groupthink, but the tide is so strong it is permeating almost every institution. It often feels like we are existing in the world of Alice Through The Looking Glass.”

      Next time you read a jaded male columnist explaining that the trans debate and the “Culture Wars” are just froth whisked up by right-wingers, please think of Miranda longing to protect her baby boy from a world gone mad. This is why we have to fight them. Whatever Glamour may say, pregnancy is not a “shared experience” with members of the trans community, let alone with men. It belongs to women, and women alone. We will not submit to the fatuous concept of “gendered language”, which is just another way of appropriating female experience.

      A message for the breastfeeding mums of Britain trying to get a squirming, hungry bundle to latch on at 3am: ladies, I salute you.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/06/07/pregnancy-breastfeeding-biological-women/

      ‘Logan’ is a woman who had a double mastectomy, shaved her head and took male hormones. If you don’t want to see the result, look away now.
















      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd790ccf40ccd912387548cc94f425990efaf7abf0df7e51a268f09e82031097.jpg

      1. She is right about the breastfeeding LADIES, but I have never understood the pride in creating a new life/giving birth attitude. It’s what our bodies are designed to do – it’s as illogical as feeling proud of breathing.

          1. There is plenty of room for emotions – relief that the baby is healthy, love, joy, depression, awe. But pride? just doesn’t seem right.

          2. I suppose that later on a parent might be quietly proud of the child’s achievements, or good character, or appearance and physique. But of course it wouldn’t pay to boast.

          1. Easy to do. I’ve upvoted myself a few times with rapid and clumsy scrolling.

    2. “The word ‘Mother’ should be banned in their eyes. REALLY?”

      And ‘ladies’ too, according to this article from Allison Pearson. I might not have seen it had I not been reading Allister Heath’s latest ‘end-of-the-world’ article and found this amongst the comments:
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/143ee229fa15d613ff04663046f7d547e16bb2f97e6fed0c0a28530cdc740b43.jpg
      It’s certainly open for comments now.

      Pregnancy and breastfeeding belong to women, and women alone

      Whatever Glamour UK magazine may say, pregnancy is not a ‘shared experience’ with members of the trans community, let alone with men

      ALLISON PEARSON • 7 June 2023 • 3:00pm

      Glamour UK magazine elected to put a “pregnant man” on its digital cover for the increasingly annoying Pride month, which seems to be a vehicle for smug corporations to patronise gay people. (Do they really all like glitter and rainbows? My gay friend likes the novels of Henry James.) Those inverted commas around “pregnant man” are doing a hell of a lot of work, by the way. Logan Brown tells an interviewer, “I am a trans pregnant man and I do exist. No matter what anyone says, I am literally living proof.”

      Don’t bother pointing out that a man can’t be pregnant because, in order to achieve that blessed state, you need ovaries, a uterus and a vagina. Such petty insistence on biological facts marks you out as “transphobic”. Better to accept the desecration of the English language, the overturning of millennia of medical understanding, and nod along as Logan explains how he was taking a break from testosterone when he fell pregnant by his girlfriend (I think that’s right, honestly, it’s hard to keep up). Anyway, he wasn’t happy. “All my manlihood that I’ve worked hard for, for so long, just completely felt like it was erased.”

      Somehow, baby Nova was born, although she had some “growth issues”. As a mother (female, full complement of relevant organs), I flinched when I read that, thinking of how we women are told to stop taking the Pill before trying to conceive and wondering what the effect of high levels of testosterone in the womb would have on a developing female foetus.

      As Logan doesn’t believe in biological sex and has lopped off her breasts, which makes it impossible to feed the baby, such concerns will hardly have entered that magnificently self-obsessed mind. If a drug addict were behaving with such casual disregard during pregnancy, social services would swoop in and remove the baby. Of course, that would be evidence of transphobia, so no one dared suggest it in this case, even though I personally do worry for that poor tiny girl.

      Far from reflecting the understandable scepticism of some readers (how many will have recoiled at the term “pregnant man”?) the Glamour interviewer lay on her back with paws in the air and allowed herself to be tickled by a minority opinion which is bullying the majority into agreeing with its preposterous, unscientific assertions.

      The magazine claims its Pride issue “celebrates the allyship that exists between women (cisgender or not) and transgender people through our shared experiences – in particular, pregnancy, healthcare and childbirth – something that is not often talked about with regard to the transgender community”.

      Seriously? Does this reputable publication targeted at younger women (the old-fashioned kind) have no concept of the harm the gender-identity crowd are doing to female experience?

      Take Miranda, a new mother who is nursing her nine-week-old baby boy. Miranda wrote to me on the Planet Normal podcast about what happened when she joined a breastfeeding support group for some interaction with other new mums and to help with such arcane mysteries as “latching on”. (I remember pregnancy well. Like trying to post a melon through a letterbox. Ouch!)

      “Like any new mother it’s been a rollercoaster ride, but I’ve never felt more proud of my womanhood, looking in awe at how my body can sustain this little life as he feeds, as well as healing itself from the physical trauma of childbirth,” said Miranda. “I valued the breastfeeding group and those couple of hours every week where we could be so vulnerable with each other and forge new friendships. I also signed up to the Facebook and WhatsApp groups where we could ask questions, often extremely personal, sometimes harrowing, and often in the middle of the night when you’re in the thick of it and can feel most alone.”

      One member of the breastfeeding group was engaged in a series of questions with the admin team, when she made what Miranda drolly called “the unfathomable error” in one message of “addressing us mothers as ‘ladies'”.

      Miranda attached a screenshot for me of the admin person’s response: “Everyone, just a gentle reminder that we do not use gendered language as not everyone identifies as female.” It’s a breastfeeding group, for crying out loud! How many of the participants aren’t ladies?

      Miranda was furious, rightly so. “I was feeding my baby at the time those messages came through. I felt very sorry for the lady who had caused the so-called offence: you can see her contrition and the patronising response from the admin to her apology. I have no problem with individuals identifying as ‘they/them’, but at the one time in our lives when being made to feel proud of our womanhood has never been more important (or obvious in what our feminine bodies are going through!), I do not agree that de-gendering should be inflicted on the rest of us. I was also incredibly offended, but as I’m a straight woman, does my offence carry less weight?”

      Well, of course it does, Miranda. No one both female and heterosexual is allowed to take uncomplicated “Pride” in their woman’s body as it miraculously does exactly what it was primed to do by Mother Nature.

      How dare they? That’s what I thought when I read that administrator’s appalling, virtue-signalling response to an anxious, exhausted woman addressing her fellow new mums as “ladies”.

      How dare they appropriate the precious, private moments in a female life and claim, outrageously, that those moments might be male too?

      “Needless to say, I promptly left the group as my small stand against this pervading, illogical and (in this context) highly insensitive ideology,” reports Miranda, “As I watch my precious little baby sleeping peacefully on me, I want so much to protect him from such cultural groupthink, but the tide is so strong it is permeating almost every institution. It often feels like we are existing in the world of Alice Through The Looking Glass.”

      Next time you read a jaded male columnist explaining that the trans debate and the “Culture Wars” are just froth whisked up by right-wingers, please think of Miranda longing to protect her baby boy from a world gone mad. This is why we have to fight them. Whatever Glamour may say, pregnancy is not a “shared experience” with members of the trans community, let alone with men. It belongs to women, and women alone. We will not submit to the fatuous concept of “gendered language”, which is just another way of appropriating female experience.

      A message for the breastfeeding mums of Britain trying to get a squirming, hungry bundle to latch on at 3am: ladies, I salute you.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/06/07/pregnancy-breastfeeding-biological-women/

      ‘Logan’ is a woman who had a double mastectomy, shaved her head and took male hormones. If you don’t want to see the result, look away now.
















      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd790ccf40ccd912387548cc94f425990efaf7abf0df7e51a268f09e82031097.jpg

  49. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhx6N3wuZXI

    Yep, double coats are a right bugger. However, our dog washer – can’t call him a groomer! – has Mongo flop in an old tin bath where he’s washed. Both Rich and Mongo love it. Ozzie is still a bit less enthusiastic but he still goes for the bath.

    1. There was a video doing the rounds on Facebook yesterday of a tiny kitten trying to play with a newfie. The dog sitting flopped down of course and the kittie up on its hind legs boxing its friend’s nose and eliciting no reaction beyond a steady stare.

      1. Yep, they won’t move. If Mongo is actually hurt by anything he moves away. He doesn’t like his claws being clipped but that’s mostly the angle and worse he does there is put his paw up. Problem is that’s also his sign for a hug.

        1. Oscar hates having his claws clipped. Even drugged up with Gabapentin and Trazadone and muzzled, he’s a force to be reckoned with!

      1. Doesn’t get into the double coat! They have got to be completely saturated. After all, it’s designed to keep them warm even in cold water.

  50. The forest fires continue to impact air quality.

    In a move that shows how dumbed down the world has become, last night’s cbc news national broadcast actually had someone demonstrating how to put on a mask .

    After three years of mask mandates, they have a segment about putting on a mask?

    1. Just keeping your skills up to date for next time round!

      I don’t like the way we’re being kept wound up by endless bad news – it feels as though we’re being prepared for something.
      LIBOR/SOFR handover – end of June. US liquidity crisis – August. BRICS conference – August (what will they announce?)
      Can the shaking G7 fiat currencies totter through all this?

      1. There certainly appears to be a large amount of smokescreen.

        We wonder what will be put into place in the next few months?

    2. When the people wearing their masks suddenly realise that they can still smell and probably taste the smoke do you think they will realise how utterly useless the masks must be for even smaller particles?
      No?
      Neither do I.

  51. 373069+ up ricks,

    Move along the country please standing room only, ding bloody ding

    The only way out now I can see, is ALL current
    lab’/lib/con /current ukip member to agree that
    once an indigenous householder passes over inheritance tax problem is solved by the property being turned over to state ownership to supply
    accommodation to those foreign aliens the majority voter deems rightful should abide here.

    15 Birminghams of New Houses Needed to Meet Mass Migration Demands: Report

  52. Leader in the Telegraph – “Putin’s wickedness knows no bounds”. Dr Goebbels would recognised the stamp of the comitted propagandist here. News as the inversion of truth.

    And Coughlin, yapping the neocon fantasy as usual, says the Ukraine should be “granted permission” to strike Russia. If ever proof were needed that Zelensky is a glove puppet of the US and UK parasites this is confirmation from someone with insider knowledge. Ukraine as sovereign state is dead, with a population already half when it was before this satanic adventure.

    https://tarableu.substack.com/p/sunak-liar-and-criminal-wallace-liar

    1. Tsar Vlad III is of course wicked in the same sense that those of us who declined the clot shot are grannie killers.

      The St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2023 is on 14-17 June. Apparently they’re expecting representatives from 84 countries. I hope there are some independent western journalists there. It should be interesting.

  53. France knife attack: lawmakers interrupt session to observe a minute’s silence – video. 8 June 2023.

    A session of the French national assembly was briefly interrupted on Thursday, when its president informed lawmakers of a knife attack that had occurred in the French Alps. Yaël Braun-Pivet said an attacker with a knife had injured children and an adult in the Alpine town of Annecy, and asked lawmakers to observe a minute’s silence for the victims and their families, ‘so that, we hope, the consequences of this particularly serious attack do not lead to consequences that would lead the nation to be in mourning’

    What a gang of hypocrites. No better than they are here!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/jun/08/france-knife-attack-lawmakers-interrupt-session-to-observe-a-minutes-silence-video

    1. They facilitate crime and think a little fake piety puts it all right. Yep, just like our lot. Teddies, tealights and appeasement anyone?

    2. I wonder how many proponents of “refugees welcome” would be willing to explain their stance to the parents of those injured toddlers?

    3. Who goes round stabbing little children? Why did a policeman/gendarme not shoot him?

      1. He was shot,in the leg,more range time needed badly
        Triple tap needed
        “Two in the chest one in the head always makes sure the bastard is dead”

    4. It appears that the knifeman claimed to be a Christian and shouted “in the name of Jesus Christ” whilst stabbing.

      My betting is that supposedly being a Christian was the foundation of his asylum application.

      1. All i heard was him screaming like a banshee. Christians nowadays don’t go around trying to slaughter children in playgrounds. Enraged drugged up muslims do.

  54. Phew!
    The dull start has cleared and become a bright, sunny afternoon and already the sun-trap round Bob’s Folly is warming up!
    I also see that the sweet peas, one of the plants I inherited with the property, have come into bloom along the base of the Folly and very pretty they look too.

    1. If the sweet peas have been there for a long time, they will be lathyrus latifolia.

  57. Sadiq the NIMBY? London mayor Khan angrily rejects Government plan to house Channel migrants on a barge in East End’s Royal Docks near City Hall – after condemning ministers efforts to stem numbers crossing in small boats

    The east London docks, beside City Airport, was named in reports this week
    The barge would join one due to be moored off Portland in Dorset
    Two former cruise ships also expected to be moored off Liverpool and Teesside

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12173073/Sadiq-NIMBY-London-mayor-angrily-rejects-plan-moor-Channel-migrant-barge-Royal-Docks.html

    1. There’s an old ammunition ship in the Thames estuary. Moor it alongside that.

  58. 373069+ up ticks,

    Must contact sis in america, inform her that tha political stick insect in pin stripe posing as the United Kingdoms PM is nothing to do with me.

    As for him discussing the AI issue with biden that surely is a cracker, as for him discussing the AI issue with his political henchmen & supporters is
    black comedy at its best ( henchmen, a faithful follower or political supporter,) especially one prepared to engage in crime or violence by way of service.

    They will lead the world at AI robotic village idiots creation right up until the AI village idiot product goes rogue and stretches the party leaders over common sense rogering barrels

    .

    1. Perhaps Vlad has had enough of being wound up and being pushed into a corner by over zelous Western influences.

      1. It seems to have been whooshed, now. I think the first one was two men trying to get the Syrian, or at least prevent him from getting to the playground. This is from memory, and may be wrong.

    1. In the song The Wild West Show it was the pachyderm – the rhino sore arse – who gave the passive poofters some competition!

  66. Thought I would have a sit in the garden while the sun is out then noticed what looks like a big swarm of bees going a bit crazy.
    Back indoors now window shut.

  67. Princess Diana’s brother first family member to publicly defend Prince Harry in tabloid battle
    Earl Spencer suggested his nephew had a strong case against MGN as the publisher had previously admitted to phone hacking
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/06/08/princess-diana-brother-support-prince-harry-phone-hacking/

    It must be touch and go as to who is the nastier of the two: the uncle or the nephew.

    BTL

    With friends like Earl Spencer who needs enemies?

  68. Ukrainian forces suffer ‘stiff resistance’ and losses in assault on Russian lines. 8 June 2023.

    Ukrainian forces have suffered losses in heavy equipment and soldiers as they met greater than expected resistance from Russian forces in their first attempt to breach Russian lines in the east of the country in recent days, two senior US officials tell CNN.

    One US official described the losses – which include US supplied MRAP armored personnel vehicles as “significant.”

    Ukrainian forces managed to overrun some Russian forces in the east around Bakhmut. However, Russian forces, armed with anti-tank missiles, grenades and mortars, have put up “stiff resistance,” with their forces dug into defensive lines that are several layers deep in some areas and marked by minefields that have taken a heavy toll on Ukrainian armored vehicles.

    No comment from me!

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/08/politics/ukraine-forces-resistance/index.html

    1. Hmm. The fact that they have to explain to civil servants the meaning of the words “integrity” and “honesty” does not bode well.

  70. I guess we’ve all found out that the child stabbing murdering Pile of dung in Annecy was a Syrian immigrant.

    1. Stabbed in their pram: Syrian refugee ‘who declared himself a Christian’ stabs child in a stroller beside screaming mother as four kids aged 22 months to three – including Brit girl – are knifed at French resort before cops shoot and arrest him

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

      Syrian refugee screaming ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’ stabs a child in their pram in front of screaming mother as four kids aged 22 months to three – including British girl – are knifed while holidaying at French resort before cops shoot and arrest him
      Witnesses said they saw a man attacking a group of children at a park in Annecy
      The suspect, identified as Abdalmash H, was subdued at the scene and arrested

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12173067/Eight-children-stabbed-knifeman-French-playground-attacker-subdued.html
      Which means it won’t be relegated to “other news” as quickly as usual.

      1. What are the chances of a Syrian national being a genuine christian ?
        It’s terrible and appalling just how all this ignorant useless sub human shite is being allowed to move into Europe and do what ever they feel like.

        2. 10 % of Syrians were.
          Assad was tolerant of other religions, yet another reason they wanted shot of him.

          1. Begs the question. Why would a Syrian Christian migrate to Europe and then stab children in a playground in France?
            I suggest he is not a Christian but said so to gain entry even though he was in no danger from his government but from murderous regime he actually belongs to if he doesn’t kill innocents. That regime is the Caliphate.

          2. I agree and my bet is that he did the whole rampage to try to paint Christians in a bad light.

    1. I don’t really see why his being a Christian is relevant, but I would not mind betting that had he stated it was against his Islamic beliefs he would not have been fired.

  72. A wee Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 719 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Doh dropped a shot there

      Wordle 719 5/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Just a par here.
      Wordle 719 4/6

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

    3. Par four today.

      Wordle 719 4/6

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

    2. Can’t see Hungary there. Much safer than London, Leeds, Rotherham etc. Can’t imagine why.

  74. Just passing through. Good cultural activity – now on way to drinks.

    What an ENORMOUS relief that the Annecy attacker was NOT a terrorist. Just a lonely, misunderstood, er, slammer*…….

    A demain.

    * I know he claimed to be a Christian – hmmmm. My money is on slammerdom.

    2. “During the incident, the attacker invoked the name of Jesus Christ.”

      BBC of course.

      2. Perhaps the mad murdering fucking muslim filth misinterpreted what Jesus said…Jesus called them
        unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid
        them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

      3. Tell the bastard that he will be buried in a pigskin, facing away from Mecca, after a Christian burial service.

  75. 373069+ up ticks,

    Now there’s a question, when in the United Kingdom the majority voter is out for more of the same, the majority party member / coalition voter have been pro mass immigration since the cottaging PM opened the lock gate to the incoming tide from hell.

    in point of fact the majority have been sacrificing their own for the sake of an ersatz party name

    https://twitter.com/EvaVlaar/status/1666741569309769729?s=20

    1. We need a leader. There was a potential leader out there, but TPTB swiftly identified his capabilities and knobbled him.

      1. 373069+ up ticks,

        Evening PM,

        My way of thinking is the peoples that treacherously undermined GB & the genuine UKIP Have done this nation a very great disservice.

  76. Having a beesy day here,

    Looks like there is a mass of bees in one of my side border shrubs, not sure what to do about them, never had a bees nest before.

    1. Contact your local Bee Keeper (internet Search) he / she will be delighted to collect the swarm for you….

          1. They were coming this afternoon but the bees have been and gone

            Which is a shame as I was hoping for some honey

    2. Bees aren’t so bad just don’t disturb them if you can help it. Wasps need to be exterminated.

      2. Wasps vary. Some are aggressive little blighters, others are good-tempered and can buzz in and out just by your front door for the whole summer without attacking you.
        I have also seen bad-tempered bees.

        1. Firstborn has the occasional psychotic bee. He was persistently mobbed by one last weekend, and some weeks ago one chased me down the farm, only giving up by stinging me.

        2. They’re first year wasps. The 2nd year ones are pure evil. 3rd year and post graduate university of scum ones.. they actively taunt you.

    3. Always imagine bees as wearing top hats and apologising in a Jeevesian manner as they whizz around you.

      Wasps, on the other hand – they’re just evil.

  77. Anyone know about going about a freedom of information thingy and does it cost?

    1. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities. It does this in two ways: public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities; and. members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities.

      https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi-eir-and-access-to-information/guide-to-freedom-of-information/what-is-the-foi-act/#:~:text=The%20Freedom%20of%20Information%20Act%202000%20provides%20public%20access%20to,request%20information%20from%20public%20authorities.

          1. Thanks. I asked my pharmacist today when i was first prescribed certain medicines for a condition i have which has got worse. He became very cagey and asked me questions he was not entitled to. The prescriptions had not been made to him so he did not dispense them with my usuals.

            Turns out the Consultant prescribed these meds but because i didn’t have Patient Access when i asked for my repeat prescriptions i was unaware to ask for the others.

            I also didn’t receive a letter from the Consultant telling me i should ask for them. This was all done over the phone of course.

          3. You can ask for a copy of your hospital Medical record. It may cost you a nominal sum.

  78. From the Guardian….

    This article is more than 1 year old

    Revealed: ‘anti-oligarch’ Ukrainian president’s offshore connections

    This article is more than 1 year old

    Volodymyr Zelenskiy has railed against politicians hiding wealth offshore but failed to disclose links to BVI firm

    Luke Harding, Elena Loginova and Aubrey BelfordSun 3 Oct 2021 17.30 BSTLast modified on Tue 5 Oct 2021 14.13 BST

    It was a storyline that in earlier times would have seemed impossible. For four years, the actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy
    entertained TV audiences in Ukraine with his starring role in the
    sitcom Servant of the People. Zelenskiy played a teacher who, outraged
    by his country’s chronic corruption, successfully runs for president. In
    2019, Zelenskiy made fiction real when he contested Ukraine’s actual
    presidential election and won.

    On the campaign
    trail, Zelenskiy pledged to clean up Ukraine’s oligarch-dominated ruling
    system. And he railed against politicians such as the wealthy incumbent
    Petro Poroshenko who hid their assets offshore. The message worked. Zelenskiy won 73% of the vote and now sits in a cavernous office in the capital, Kyiv, decorated with gilded stucco ceilings. Last month, he held talks with Joe Biden in the Oval Office.

    The Pandora papers,
    leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
    (ICIJ) and shared with the Guardian as part of a global investigation
    however, suggest Zelenskiy is rather similar to his predecessors.

    The
    leaked documents suggest he had – or has – a previously undisclosed
    stake in an offshore company, which he appears to have secretly
    transferred to a friend weeks before winning the presidential vote.Quick Guide

    What are the Pandora papers?Show

    Zelenskiy
    has not commented on the claim despite extensive attempts by the
    Guardian and its media partners to reach him. His spokesperson Sergiy Nikiforov messaged: “Won’t be an answer.”

    The
    files reveal Zelenskiy participated in a sprawling network of offshore
    companies, co-owned with his longtime friends and TV business partners.
    They include Serhiy Shefir, who produced Zelensky’s hit shows, and
    Shefir’s older brother, Borys, who wrote the scripts. Another member of
    the consortium is Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend. Bakanov was general
    director of Zelenskiy’s production studio, Kvartal 95.Still from Servant of the People, the satirical comedy show starring Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the lead as the Ukrainian president. Photograph: Kvartal 95

    All are associated with Zelenskiy’s home town in southern Ukraine,
    Kryvyi Rih. After winning power, Zelenskiy brought these close allies
    into government. Bakanov became head of Ukraine’s SBU security agency.
    Zelenskiy made Serhiy Shefir his first assistant, an unpaid role that
    involves handling the president’s daily schedule. A fourth member of
    this close-knit group, Andriy Yakovlev, is a film director and Kvartal
    95 producer.

    Zelenskiy has said these
    appointments were about personal trust rather than financial cronyism.
    “I have a few people who work with me who have been my friends for a
    long time … They have no relation to business, or to the budget,” he
    told the Guardian in 2020.

    A secret transfer

    Before
    becoming president, Zelenskiy declared some of his private assets. They
    included cars, property and three of the co-owned offshore companies.
    One, Film Heritage, which he held jointly with his wife, Olena, a former
    Kvartal 95 writer, is registered in Belize.

    But
    the Pandora papers show further offshore assets that Zelenskiy appears
    not to have revealed. Film Heritage had a 25% stake in Davegra, a Cyprus
    holding company. Davegra in turn owns Maltex Multicapital Corp, a
    previously unknown entity registered in the tax haven of the British
    Virgin Islands (BVI). Zelenskiy, the Shefir brothers, and Yakovlev each
    held a 25% stake in Maltex.

    On 13 March 2019,
    two weeks before the first round of voting in Ukraine’s election,
    Zelenskiy gave his quarter stake in Maltex to Serhiy Shefir, documents
    show. It is unclear if Shefir paid Zelenskiy. Bakanov witnessed this
    secret transfer and signed the offshore papers.Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena, at a polling station during a parliamentary election in Kyiv, Ukraine, in July 2019. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters/Alamy

    Roughly
    six weeks later, after Zelenskiy’s landslide victory, a lawyer acting
    for the Kvartal 95 group signed another document. It stipulated that
    Maltex would continue to pay dividends to Zelenskiy’s Film Heritage,
    even though it no longer owned any stake in the company. Its main
    revenue comes from activity in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, according to
    a Maltex client profile.

    The Pandora papers do
    not indicate whether any dividends were ever paid or their size. Nor do
    they reveal how many payments might have been made. Zelenskiy’s wife,
    Olena, is now the declared beneficial owner of Film Heritage, meaning
    any payments since 2019 would have flowed to her.

    The
    key document – dated 24 April 2019 – says Maltex holds shares in
    companies that produce and distribute TV films. One reason for setting
    up Maltex was “tax-efficient accumulation of business profits”; another,
    it states, was “legal protection”. Borys Sheifir said Bakanov had
    mostly set up these offshore “financial schemes” in order to protect the
    company from “authorities and bandits”.

    “Speaking honestly, I’m not ready to respond to you. It could be that I’m an owner [of Maltex],” Shefir told the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
    (OCCRP), one of the Pandora papers’ media partners. He said he was
    trying to divest himself of his offshore interests, but said this was a
    slow and difficult process. Serhiy Shefir, Bakanov and Yakovlev declined
    to comment, as did their lawyer.

    1. Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and the worst in Europe, I wonder why anyone should be surprised?

      1. The Guardian carried years of front pages of the corruption and after the elected government was thrown out they did a volte face.

        Our Media behave like cheap prostitutes. Perhaps Harry has a point.

        1. The Guardian is actually a disgrace to journalism, at least The Star acts as what it is and doesn’t pretend to be what it isn’t.

    2. Zelensky has acquired extensive estate properties in Italy and the US.

      The nasty little creep is so brazenly crooked and has now destroyed the greater productive part of Ukraine and presided over the deaths and maiming of both civilians and armed forces. He is presently attacking Russian speaking civilian areas whose populations voted to become part of Russia.

      His government have embezzled billions in monies and armaments given by the US and collective west for his disastrous venture into provoking a war with Russia. His latest act of infamy, the destruction of the dam causing deaths and destruction to the people he claims to represent.

      We now discover that Ukraine is the world centre for child trafficking for paedophilia and child sacrifice.Vile and evil little man.

  79. 373069+ up ticks,

    I’ll second that all the way,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    9h
    The BBC is not ‘biased’ on occasion’ – it is completely & institutionally biased. For decades it has promoted the left-wing, politically correct, man-made climate change, cultural Marxist agenda.

    The BBC is funded by a TV Licence tax & it operates under a Charter that obliges it to provide politically unbiased programmes. That Charter is blatantly broken every day.

    The BBC cannot be reformed. Its Charter should be revoked, the Licence abolished, & its constituent parts & assets sold off & the money returned to the tax payer.

    Translate post
    BBC Is Biased “On Occasion”, Admits UK Culture Secretary

    1. Was at the hospital yesterday evening and this morning and probably 50% of the NHS staff were either obese or morbidly obese. They obviously haven’t tested the drugs on their own staff.

      2. That was part of the reason for lockdownism; many of the NHS workers are either obese or BAME or both.

    1. Of course proper muslims don’t drink or smoke. Probably explains why so many of them are murderous rapists. They need to learn to chill.

      1. Four wives and no alcohol, strewth. Absolute martyrs, maybe I should rephrase that..

    3. Warning that drinking ANY amount of alcohol may raise risk of 60 diseases – including 33 that had never been linked to booze heard of before but Bill Gates is working on them

    4. Me too (he says, draining the bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz). And I’ll continue to do so. I’ve made it to State Pension age. Four more years, I’ll reach three score years and ten. Yet (as is the case in church) I appear to be somewhat younger than all of my contemporaries…

      1. Retirement over here in the socialist paradise is 70. Gotta keep paying tax for the gimmegrants.
        I was the youngest until a couple of years ago, now I’m the oldest. Not worth a career, nor training in much, just a repository of experience and knowledge (I first went offshore 43 years ago…), and grumpiness at the uselessness of folk.

  82. 373069+ up ticks,

    This cannot be the truth of the matter,surely ALL their supporter / voters lied to again,again,again,again,& again surely not, not again,again,& again,ongoing 2019 inclusive, and the next one.

    breitbart,

    immigration Promises Were a Lie and it Won’t be Going Down, Political Establishment Tells BBC

    .

          1. I think one of my cousins was mayor once but I can’t seem to find him on the list. It was when they found the Thetford hoard. Michael Edmond.
            We spent last week staying in Holt.
            Daily trips out Holt is a lovely town.

  85. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    But a brief word about my absence, I was carted of to Dumfries HorsePiddle in the early hours of Monday and haven’t been released until now as I had pneumonia in my right lung. Apolgies for any scares

    Classic Scholar

    Paddy goes for a job on a building site. The foreman tells him, “I’ll hire you if you can tell me the difference between a joist and a girder.”

    “Certainly,” says Paddy. “Joist wrote Ulysses and Girder wrote Faust!”

      1. Absolutely. and more to take for the next three days. It’s really upset my v strong pill regime but I’ll get back to normal – one day.

        1. KBO (Keep Buggering On) as Winston (Mr Churchill) used to say, Sir Jasper.

        2. KBO (Keep Buggering On) as Winston (Mr Churchill) used to say, Sir Jasper.

      2. Overflowing having been fed them intravenously for several days – sometimes (once) a whole day. other times 30 minutes at a time.

        Thank you for caring, T

    2. Glad to see from you, Tom. We were worried! Hope the pneumonia is clearing!

    3. Phew! MB had double pneumonia (he never does things by halves) last November.
      Glad you’re all right – relatively speaking.

      1. Maybe I only have one lung worth infecting, as COPD is rife throughout the breathing apparatus.

    8. Good grief, Sir Jasper, a joke that isn’t dirty but is rather quite clever. Mind you, it might be offensive to any Irish readers, so expect a knock on the door from Mr Plod in the early hours! Lol. PS – So glad to see you back and thanks for the explanation of what happened. I hope you keep well.

    10. How are you now Tom? Did they manage to clear it up? We were worried but I assumed you’d had a crisis of some sort.

  86. Are politicians so terrified of AI because it will expose their hoaxes, lies and deceit then render them – and the entire edifice supporting them – obsolete within days?

    1. You have got there at last. Last weekend I was listening to two coding people discussing how AI is helping them. The ‘team leader’ is quietly developing other projects without telling the bosses that the allotted tasks can now be completed in a fraction of the budgeted time; a small problem is that some of the team are clueless, but if they were to be let go, the extra burden would fall upon the leader. The self employed person subscribes to GPT4 for a bargain $20 per month, and also uses several other tools whose names elude me. Anyway, it’s Dilbert in real life.

    2. You have got there at last. Last weekend I was listening to two coding people discussing how AI is helping them. The ‘team leader’ is quietly developing other projects without telling the bosses that the allotted tasks can now be completed in a fraction of the budgeted time; a small problem is that some of the team are clueless, but if they were to be let go, the extra burden would fall upon the leader. The self employed person subscribes to GPT4 for a bargain $20 per month, and also uses several other tools whose names elude me. Anyway, it’s Dilbert in real life.

    1. By the time Prince Harry has paid off all his legal bills, there won’t be much left to fund her life style!

  89. For Gawd’s sake, why don’t these silly little sods grow up?
    By the standards of most of the planet’s countries, these temperatures are not even particularly warm.
    Everywhere else they survive easily, why can’t the delicate little descendants of the people who powered the industrial revolution and are blamed for all the world’s ills cope?
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12174813/Met-Office-upgrades-amber-weather-warning-UK-heatwave-sweeps-country.html

    1. There’s been a cold wind here; it might have been sunny, but it wasn’t particularly warm.

  90. I’m going to say goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk, looking forward to the warmth of my duvet, as opposed to slip/slide horse piddle blankets.

    Bis Morgan Fruh.

    2. ¨
      There’s the missing umlaut… for your Früh (I was surprised that the system allows umlauts over a space, but there you go…)
      ;-))

        1. New career? Plumber? Well-paid, I believe, and according to the films, lots of porno opportunities… 😉

    3. You may not read this until Friday morning, Sir Jasper, but it’s good to see you back again on this site. Hopefully tomorrow you will post another one of your funnies.

      1. So Sorry Pardon, Jules. I think you might be notified of my death. I’ve asked that it be so. To whom should I bequeath my Bumper Joke Book?

  91. Are you beginning to notice anything here?

    Syrian Christian who stabbed four children including a British two-year-old girl in playground horror had recently divorced the mother of his child and ‘was convicted of benefit fraud’ during ten-year stint as a refugee in Sweden

    Syrian refugee screaming ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’ stabs a child in their pram in front of mother as four kids aged 22 months to three – including British girl – are knifed while holidaying at French resort before cops shoot and arrest him

    1. Just a tad more willingness to shout the murderer’s religious affiliations as long as it ain’t the sacrosanct one perhaps?

      1. Even though the murdering thug is probably lying under Islam’s get out clause of, can’t remember the name of it, acceptable lying business.

    1. “A teenage boy who was riding an electric bike has died after a collision with an ambulance in Salford.

      Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the child was being followed by traffic officers, before their path was blocked by bollards.”
      They play with (simple) peoples minds.

      1. A boy of 13 is a child, but at 19 he would be an adult, although still a teenager.

  93. Six weeks ago, BBC East Midlands reported on human remains found in a field near Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. They have now been identified as those of miner Alfred Swinscoe, who went missing in early 1967.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-65842590

    His last known sighting was at the Pinxton Miners Arms, a pub that was popular with the local mining community before it closed and was converted into a house. The former pub is a “short drive” from where the remains were located.

    That short drive is 5½ miles. The police are unlikely to find the murderer after 56 years. Mr Swinscoe was 54 at the time of his death.

    I expect someone’s already working on the TV rights…

  94. 373069+ up ticks,

    People power as shown victorious via a fringe party, the genuine UKIP, leading the nation OUT of the eu cartell,

    There is no earthly reason on this, Gods green planet, this cannot be repeated

    https://youtu.be/3lLEaLr9Ilo

    1. I should have been in church this evening but had booked to be at the Wigmore Hall instead. When I bought the ticket six months ago, I just noticed that the lead soprano in our church choir would also be singing lead soprano with the period group Arcangelo this evening. A very nice Handel programme.

  97. Good night, chums. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow. Good to see that Sir Jasper is back again.

  100. Friday 9th June, 2023

    Johnny Norfolk

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    Congratulations on achieving 76 years of age today and very many happy returns.

    Very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TCozLbeIz0kyYPSSNzdTKCnKz03Kz0stVshJTVEoyUhVSMpMVyhILEpMSQUAbNIPvQ&q=76+trombones+led+the+big+parade&oq=76+trombones&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i512j46i512l3j0i512l5.8263j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4d5494c9,vid:eBQWsBiM5YY

  101. Friday 9th June, 2023

    Horace Pendleton

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    Congratulations on achieving 76 years of age today and very many happy returns.

    Very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TCozLbeIz0kyYPSSNzdTKCnKz03Kz0stVshJTVEoyUhVSMpMVyhILEpMSQUAbNIPvQ&q=76+trombones+led+the+big+parade&oq=76+trombones&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i512j46i512l3j0i512l5.8263j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4d5494c9,vid:eBQWsBiM5YY

  105. Letters: The country needs a more sensible
    strategy.

    reality,

    The country needs a more sensible strategy going into the future.

    Achieving net zero at this moment in time is a cover for multiple scams that in accumulation are only beneficial to the manipulating
    incarcerating big daddy scam,RESET.

    2. Morning all.

      “ The country needs a more sensible strategy going into the future.” Yeah – scrap it!

Comments are closed.