Monday 10 February: The Health Secretary should stop complaining and start fixing the NHS

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

689 thoughts on “Monday 10 February: The Health Secretary should stop complaining and start fixing the NHS”

  2. Good morning Geoff and NoTTL chums,
    This Monday Chuckle is for fishing fans.
    Trigger Warning – better read AFTER breakfast.

    It was a bitterly cold winter day. A man went fishing and cut a hole in the ice,
but didn't catch a thing. Then a young boy came along, cut a hole in the ice
nearby and proceeded to catch fish after fish. Eventually the man went over to
the boy and said: "I've been here six hours and haven't caught one fish. Yet
you've been here 45 minutes and you've caught at least ten. What's your
    secret?"
    The boy replied: "Roo raf roo reep ra rurms rarm."
    "Sorry," said the man. "I didn't catch that."
    "Roo raf roo reep ra rurms rarm."
    "I'm sorry. I can't understand a word you're saying."
    The boy spat a wad of ugly brown slime into his hand and said:
    "You have to keep the worms warm!"

      2. All very well for the Muslims to wish peace to be upon their prophet when they care so little for the peace and tranquillity of anyone else.

  6. 'Morning All
    Well that was a good sleep I went to sleep on the 9th Feb and woke up on April the First
    " Albanian criminal’s deportation halted over son’s distaste for chicken nuggets

    Evidence about child’s picky eating helps convince immigration tribunal that being forced to leave UK would be unduly harsh "
    FFS

      1. P.G Wodehouse wrote a story about a very obnoxious little American boy whose parents were so rich that Ogden – as wretched child was called – was the a target of many kidnapping gangs who referred to him as The Little Nugget (the title of the novel) because he was worth his weight in gold in the ransom they could demand.

        O Henry wrote another story – The Ransom of Red Chief – about a kidnapped boy who was so repulsive that the kidnappers had to pay his parents to take him back!

    2. Why do the regularly demonstrating idiots say that the Jews are genocidal Nazis?

      You would have to be brain dead and blind not to see that it is Hamas who are the Nazis and their victims, just as Hitler's were, are the Jews.

  12. Well having finally exited my overtraining symptoms I now have a slight cold. Par for the course really innit?

    1. Oh dear , I missed what you refer to as overtraining , Minty .

      Colds are a nuisance, hopefully it will ease in a couple of days , cups of tea and stay warm .

    1. How will updating the process make housebuying cheaper? Just putting it on an app won't change the price.

    5. OMG. HMG interfering in something else is bad news. And their ‘efforts to streamline and digitise the process’ will inevitably mean more expensive. It always does. Thank goodness we’ve already exchanged and move later this month.

  14. Morning, all Y'all.
    A tad chilly this morning, but beautiful clear sky & sunrise.
    Moon last night – like a burglar shining his torch in your eyes… :-o)

  16. Monday Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed2b9df7b52cd448842056e6999a7d896b8406d0cf79f03a1bdc5083063c31af.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3341775be66d1390f761c42e5cf21f49fccf5b7851810e843d6d055de85ddc4.jpg
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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0975184e66589245fa049a9b47ad0c92644035a78c0198a6374c0ed65a1c7f8.jpg
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b7be3a14010006dd44eeed62dab820c08394ddaedec8637e807cc3f0c6b69046.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5100ffe807227b17f91b43cee89823542f78877ebcdf1fc7188793f5aba77c7a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcfe5460ca9e1020afa3ca595e95cf0cacb8b8f5846ecd113a419da7587d04e1.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9df0cd34be6273bdd39cf14ab6e05f0681799a70b57bad757fd400277e696e1e.gif

    2. The Pedants' Revolt is one we have seen before. I think the use of less/fewer should not be the only thing to which the Pedants revolt.

      How about the chap on horseback saying:

      "DUE TO to your ignorance we're here to confront you!"

      and the reply:

      "OWING TO!"

      There are several other possibilities. Any suggestions?

      1. That and the RAF made me laugh. Both wonderful. The latter reminded me of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (train) competition to name the shuttles they used between stations. The winner, 'Humphrey Go Bart'.

  17. Morning OB ,

    Whatever we say now, they are gaining traction , and there are how many million living here and in local government / and now MPs.

    Indigenous Brits have lost their backbone .

    I cannot for the life of me believe that our dear much missed Sir Winston Churchill would have locked us up for dispensing hurty words towards Prophet worshippers ..

    1. "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die: but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome. "

  19. Overtraining Belle? Well I now weight train to keep my blood sugar levels down. Very effective. Unfortunately last week this coincided with the council blocking the road and stopping the buses. To catch one I had to hike down to the Main Road (and back of course) to get to the village. It was too much and eventually wore me down. Exhaustion and poor sleep are the main symptoms.The only cure is absolute rest. Do nothing. I find this very difficult.

  21. Morning Phizzee. I do more reading than Telly watching. Its telling that I have watched a film every night over the weekend.

  22. 401397+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    ,
    priorities,priorities,priorities,

    Monday 10 February: The Health Secretary should stop complaining and start fixing the NHS.

    Should truly read,

    Monday 10 February: The patriotic peoples should stop complaining and start fixing the political criminal,governing cartel that is annealing this nation, to reshape into their chosen image.

    We are now left with three options (spoilt for choice) we either fix the NHS, staff it with invaders to treat invaders, (already in action), as a nation SHAPE UP, or SHIP OUT.

    If we take the latter option we can, in a country vacated, resettle,
    rebuild, the education,medication, incarceration, accommodation, infrastructure then await the pro BRIT satellite
    ALERT,

    THE BOATS ARE COMING.

    Currently we are leaving a deadly poisoned chalice in way of a legacy.

  24. Have the local elections been postponed as Labour like to call it or have they been cancelled until further notice.
    How can you postpone a council ward election when they will likely as not, not exist under the new system they are imposing without public support.
    They are effectively cancelled.
    I can see why those imposing this new EU style system will not want a new batch of councilors holding them to account and scrutinising what the are doing.
    The public has no idea what they are going to be presented with to vote on.
    Why would anyone want busy body mayors imposing the C40 cities and globalist agendas on their neighbourhoods.
    The three mayors of London have made a right mess of London trying to price people of the roads and heaping costs on business while letting crime rip.

      1. And soon after with the advent of the Carrie trade he became benighted!

        Morning Ndov and all.

        1. As long as Boris was married to Marina Warner, he was reasonably able. Eventually she got understandably pissed off with his 'adventures'; especially when she was being treated for cervical cancer.
          However, he then became a silly old man enslaved to an entitled bit of skirt.

    2. The excuse is setting up "unitary authorities" in those counties – which just happen to the areas where Labour and Conservatives will get a good kicking.
      It will take more than a year to amalgamate boroughs and districts into single authorities taking on county council responsibilites.
      At least past 2029 when the general election will be "postponed" because of a confected national emergency.

  25. What a fuss over methods for boiling eggs , and the letters are just as idiotic .

    My ideal egg , large , boiled for 5mts , softish whites, runny yolk and a buttered lightly Marmited well done piece of toast cut into soldiers .. yum yum .

    I de cap the top of the egg with a neat little gadget similar to a little pair of scissors , had it for decades , does a neat job.

    I cook mine in a pan of cold water brought to the boil.. putting them in a pan of boiling water risks the eggs cracking if they are brought out straight from the fridge .

    2. Three minutes in a rolling boiling water has always given me a delicious soft yolk with a perfectly half-set/half-snotty white, which I love.

      My eggs never crack because (like tomatoes) keeping eggs in the fridge is not advised; they should be stored at room temperature. My eggs are stored in a kitchen cupboard and any tomatoes in the house are kept in an open dish also in the kitchen.

      Good morning, Maggie.

      2. Good morning Grizzly,

        Well mine must take three minutes to cook once they have been placed in cold water then brought to the boil for five minutes ?

        I keep mine in the fridge because my shelf space elsewhere becomes warm when I have drier running , always busy doing the laundry .

        1. 'Morning, Katy.

          Funnily enough I have never heard of the Barefoot Contessa before now. I have looked up the website and it needs more exploration.👍🏻

          On the question of eggs storage. Refrigerators have only been common currency in kitchens for well less than a century. I wonder what all the previous generations, going back thousands of years, did with just a pantry/larder at their disposal.🙄

          1. My mother and her sisters were farmer's daughters.
            On a slate slab in the pantry a bowl of milk would be put aside for the cream to rise to the top.
            My mother and her nearest sister used to watch the mice swim through it. That aunt lived to 101 and most of the sisters coasted up to 90. (My mother wasn't among them.)

          2. Both my grandmothers had a pantry attached to their kitchens, part of which was built on the outside of the house. Pantries both had a shelf where eggs/milk/meat stored (being covered over by a net). Vegetables kept on a shelf. Once bought an old house where there was a locked door in the kitchen – you guessed it – old pantry with stone shelves, loved it, had no fridge – not big on freezing food….

          3. Before renovation my parents’ house in Bath had a skullery in which was a pantry cupboard. The house had an outside loo and a tin bath and mangle in the yard.

            When I was very young I ventured to open the pantry door to find a pig’s head on a platter gazing at me. Later my father took one of the pig’s large ears and placed it as a cap on my head. The old man loved his offal, thought rabbit stew with carrots and tripe and onions done in milk his extravagances.

            God only knows how I survived childhood in that house.

    4. I never keep eggs in the fridge. They live in the baking ingredients cupboard.
      Haven't managed to kill anyone in (cough) many, many, many years.

  26. Good morning all.
    A Dark, Damp and Dreary start to the day. A tad under 4°C just now after yesterday's max of a mere 6.2°!

  27. One of the key instruments the EU uses to snare its victim is the surrender of a nation's currency. Once in the euro there's no way out (unless it implodes). Anyhow there was a reason Bretton Woods collapsed in 1971.. and the good people of Slovenia & Croatia are currently experiencing the joy of joining the wonky euro union in 2023.
    They now have a hike in prices (just like Greece in 2000).. and a sudden drop in living standards.. (just like Greece in 2000).
    and appear to be boycotting certain shops.

    A series of boycotts have been held against retail stores in Southeast Europe since late January 2025. The boycotts started in Croatia on January 24 in reaction to rising retail prices across the country.

    1. The faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) plans to campaign on calls for the country to quit the European Union, the Paris climate agreement and the euro .

      The question is.. if Germany re-introduced the DM would Alastair Campbell, Rory Stewart & Sir Keir still dream of joining the euro?
      Course they would.

      2. The euro is so unpopular that two countries use it against the wishes of the ECB. (First person to name them correctly gets a Guernsey one-pound note. To redeem the prize, the winner will need to send me an sae.)

        1. They used to print the issuing bank on each note.. I believe they stopped that.. for good reason.
          Anyhow.. Yugoslavia is the answer. Kosovo & Montenegro

    2. "Once in the euro there's no way out…" In fact, during the euro crisis many ways of leaving it were explored. Never happened, of course, but let us recall the case of Mali, which left the CFA franc (and later rejoined).

    2. Actually there is one reason Iv'e noticed. A refrigerated egg will not spread but remain compact compared to a non refrigerated egg. So the whites don't sprawl all over the pan.

  31. Morning all 🙂😊
    Looking out at the weather conditions is depressing enough let alone having this mob of morons ru(i)nning our lives and the whole country.
    And of course there is NHS admin, (not front liners) everything that goes wrong is the fault of the patients. Who seem to have become victims now.

    1. I have to admit that I approach a visit to the GP's surgery with the same dread as being summoned to the headmaster's study.

  32. Reposted from late last night

    Monday, 10th February, 2025

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2160613ba9d31184af3398ca4855b50ef12d776ed1db9d0268ffae984f73e8b6.png

    The Dandy Front Pager – Korky The Kat

    Congratulations on your entry to the 76 Club!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f3c2a88dff3101027488c98cb228c9e6e10bb4e7eade308df2ebd0f27d60c55.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f15108925be65a9a2608d8e25edca14c950fe7218c958fddb1d38927a117d0b9.png

    With very best wishes from

    Caroline and Rastus

      1. Thanks, Anne.

        Light lunch, or what I thought was to be light, at the White Hart, West Bergholt. Two other Feb 10 Birthdays going on there. Partially healthy, mucho bacon and brie in seeded wholemeal but I won't mention the accompanying side dishes.

  33. Do you not have a garage, shed or outhouse?

    Our laundry dries on an outside line in summer, and on two clothes horses in winter.

    1. Mine dries on the line when the weather is fine , and yes the heavier items dry on clothes horses indoors , but OI use my machine for cotton items when the weather is foul.

      1. I use my machine only when it's sunny – free electricity! When it's not sunny they hang on a rack in the garage

  34. Good Morning!

    Some of you might have signed a petition calling for the repeal of the lunatic Net Zero legislation, to which the government responded recently. That response was, of course, mendaciously and arrogantly dismissive, treating the British people with the contempt we have come to expect from the corrupt Establishment. Today, Iain Hunter in his Response to Government Lies , replies to the government’s statement in an open letter to Kneel Starmer.

    This is an important subject, crtitical for our future. Please copy the letter and send it to everone you know with a link to the article, including your MP and anyone else you can think of.

    And if you missed it, yesterday’s (related) article from Nanumaga on Labour's Plan To End Democracy is also a very good read.

    Energy watch 07.45 Total generation: 42.543 GW from: Hydrocarbons 32.1%; Wind 41.3%; Imports 6.6%; Biomass 6.8% and Nuclear 10.7%. Solar: 0. 4%. UK demand: 40.66GW, UK generation 38.2GW.

    And, at Frederica's request, fully endorsed by me, can we all PLEASE sign this petition:

    Raise the income tax personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000

    Raise the income tax personal allowance from £12570 to £20000. We think this would help low earners to get off benefits and allow pensioners a decent income.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  35. Their aim is simple: to destroy the UK and make it ripe for Communism.

    No successful country with contented and prosperous citizens will ever become a Communist country. Communism needs economic and social collapse to get it started.

  37. Happy Birthday Korky give all those trombones a good blast, have a lovely day 🤩😉🥂🍾🎺🎺🎺cheers.

  38. BTL Comment:-

    Cuthbert Thomasson
    20 min ago
    Cost of carbon capture

    In the theory of world-saving Carbon Capture how is that hideous world-ending evil carbon terror gas to be made for ever safe ?

    Where and how is it to be imprisioned for all eternity in such a way it can never escape and return, to End the World as foretold by Apocalyptic Climate-Quack Catastrophists ?

    None can say for no one knows but nevertheless…

    Net zero nazi theocracy shall have its way with subjugated humanity,

    And we shall watch on, helpless, through dead eyes of millibands impassive as capitalist economies collapse into bankruptcy.

    But smiling smugly nonetheless with that eternal fat-headed milliband futility to the manner born of world leading net zero tory-labour party sacrificial victims of eternal fraud-science psychosis…

    And so, hand in hand with the lionization of ed milliband the demonization of the Gas of Life as a planetary Nemesis continues .

    To make utter fools of all who could suffer to see the World Saved by the Cult of Carbon Capture Experts.

    Believe The Gas of Life made Nemesis and put beyond the reach of nature for all of time a blessing of millibands, an absolute planetary essential to the future of Life on Earth, and everything.

    Lest it let plants grow !

    human life thrive mwarrant wealth creation by sane and virtuous industries.

    And so we indulge the madness of those who plan to part us from reality for evermore , to serve only the ends of evil incarnate : bbc 'Activists'

    1. Morning Bob ,
      You are familiar with this area , aren't you?

      Look at thsi government project for Carbon Capture .. The mouth of the River Frome which exits into Poole harbour appears to having a huge huge project re flooding the Arne area for new salt marshes in the belief that it will create peat beds for Carbon Capture .

      https://hellorayo.co.uk/greatest-hits/dorset/news/tower-carbon-monitoring-poole-harbour/
      Local people are puzzled .. the project is immense , costing £millions and millions , and the landscape on one part hosts diggers, pipes , hundreds of wagons and a few huts and a lot of earth disturbance, and is if we don't have enough problems with silt and phosphates in the harbour ..

      https://www.phc.co.uk/port-of-poole-takes-further-steps-towards-renewable-energy/

      https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/our-cause/nature-climate/climate-change-sustainability/how-were-capturing-carbon

      Now , some wag suggested that if global warming is real , and that salt marshes are increased , won't we be plagued with mosquitoes , midges and Malaria Anopheles mosquito as the climate gets warmer , and won't evaporation increase ?

      Some times I don't understand the thinking of some people .

      I remember the Sud marshes in the Southern Sudan , and the Niger Delta and the swamps , rife with disease!!!

          1. Another reason why development experts remain sceptical of Easterly’s insistence on the link between development and human rights is that some of history’s worst tyrants have also been champions of public health, a powerful marker of development. Mussolini eliminated transmission of malaria in Italy by draining the Pontine Marshes. He then established Littoria—meaning Fascistville, according to historian Frank Snowden—a Utopian colony for forward looking, politically uncomplicated Italians. Even Hitler promoted smoking cessation and healthy eating, at least for heterosexual ethnic Germans.

            https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60705-4/fulltext#:~:text=Mussolini%20eliminated%20transmission%20of%20malaria,forward%20looking%2C%20politically%20uncomplicated%20Italians.

      3. It takes a peat bog thousands of years to form. Fat lot of good that is for carbon capture in the present or the future. By the time a bog has formed we would have solved the problem, as if there is one anyway, by technology. Stupid idea by stupid people.

        I was listening, yesterday, to a programme in which it was remarked that it has become quite dangerous for politicians to decide things where the need for technology is employed. They don't understand it because it has become far to sophisticated for them to understand and their ideas and decisions are therefore invariably wrong, the days of a quick read is long since over to make adequate judgements. Thus they end up causing more damage that the initial problem itself. An example would be the disastrous solar farm in California that I posted yesterday and which the millipede wants to imitate. Actually, I think it was Elon Musk talking.

    2. In which state will 'captured' Carbon Dioxide be stored? IIRC from my GCE Chemistry days, this substance will exist as a solid if sufficiently cooled, aka dry ice. However, at normal pressure and temperature solid Carbon Dioxide changes to a gas without becoming liquid, this phenomenon is known as sublimation.

      Had to go to Google for the 'liquid' information.

      As for existing in liquid form:

      Yes, carbon dioxide can exist as a liquid, but only under high pressure and at temperatures below its critical point, which means it needs to be both compressed and cooled significantly to become liquid; at normal atmospheric conditions, it is a gas; when rapidly expanded, it turns into a solid called dry ice.

      Cooling it to a solid will require energy and to a liquid much more energy(?) than to the solid state. Containment? Sounds very complicated with the potential for catastrophic consequences if the containment fails. Nothing is perfect but trees come very, very close.

      Miliband is a complete and utter prat. What have we done to deserve someone like him in a position of power?

  39. UK willing to renegotiate online harm laws to avoid Trump tariffs. 10 February 2025.

    The Government is willing to rework its Online Safety Act in order to swerve tariffs from Donald Trump’s administration.

    The law, which regulates online speech, is thought to be heavily disliked by the president’s administration because it can levy massive fines on US tech companies.

    Downing Street is willing to renegotiate elements of the Act in order to strike a trade deal, should it be raised by the US, The Telegraph understands.

    Good on yer Donald. That’s what you call moral pressure. There has obviously been some “unofficial” contact and the UK Government is bending to the prevailing wind. Mind you we need these laws repealing not revising.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/02/09/uk-willing-rework-online-harms-bill-avoid-trump-tariffs/

    1. 'Renegotiate elements'. Scrap it. It is censorship. They know it, we know it. It was imposed solely to ensure the state could control what people say and do.

    2. And if anyone should be sensitive to the excesses of free speech, it is the Donald. Good for him; more tolerant than the "be kind" ones opposing him.

    3. How about we adopt the 1st amendment? Slightly altered for the UK

      "Parliament shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

      Solves the problem nicely.

        1. That too would be good. we do, after all, by the English Bill of Rights, have the right to bear arms.

          I quote: "Subjects’ Arms.

          That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law.

  43. Starmer is seen on BBC taking an HIV test to promote the Terence Higgins trust , apparently millions don't know they may be HIV carriers!

    So why has he volunteered .. very very strange.

    Keir Starmer has taken a public HIV test in an effort to destigmatise testing for the virus and to highlight HIV Testing Week.

    The prime minister took a home test at 10 Downing Street alongside the soul singer Beverley Knight. “It’s really important to do it and I’m really pleased to be able to do it. It’s very easy, very quick,” he said.

    Told by Richard Angell, the chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, an HIV and sexual health charity, that he was thought to be the first prime minister of a G7, European or Nato nation to take a public HIV test, Starmer said he was surprised.

    “Let’s try to encourage other leaders to do the same thing, because it’s really important, it’s easy, it’s convenient and it is much better to know,” he said.

    About 107,000 people live with HIV in the UK, with about 4,700 thought to be unaware of their status.

    During HIV Testing Week, which runs from 10-17 February, members of the public can order one of 20,000 free, confidential home tests that provide a result in 15 minutes.

    Starmer has pledged to end new transmissions of HIV in England by 2030, and on World Aids Day last year he announced £27m for an expanded testing programme in NHS emergency departments.

    Knight said: “Living with HIV today is a world away from the experience that my late best friend Tyrone endured in the early 2000s. People living with HIV can now easily know their status, can access effective treatment and live a long, healthy life. I wish this was the case for Ty.

    “In his memory, I’m using my voice alongside the prime minister to make everyone aware of how easy it is to test. People need to hear the crucial message that thanks to effective medication people living with HIV can’t pass it on, so we can end this epidemic once and for all.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/10/keir-starmer-takes-public-hiv-test-in-push-to-destigmatise-testing-for-virus

    My post script..

    Illegals are bringing some ghastly sex diseases into Britain , as are rapacious idiotic holiday makers ..

      1. Starmer has pledged to end new transmissions of HIV in England by 2030, and on World Aids Day last year he announced £27m for an expanded testing programme in NHS emergency departments.

        £27 million .. yet there are people waiting for treatment and diagnosis of dread diseases .

      1. My prediktiff texcst wrote 'vice' for 'voice' when I was typing in the DT comments.
        I was soooo tempted to leave it.

    6. Well, he must have had a previous one showing negative; even he would not go blindly into a public test

      1. 401397+ up ticks,

        Morning JR,
        A small additive to your excellent post,”as islam takes hold in the UK”
        As islam is politically given succour and cultivated in the UK I would say was more apt, I believe you will agree.

  45. Surely, by now, letters on how to cook boiled eggs must have reached their limit

    Can we discuss:

    How to 'butter' bread

    How to peel and boil potatoes

    How to make toast

    Or even, heaven forbid, how to get a proper government to run the country.

        1. Looks delicious. Cornflour is great stuff, every American kitchen has it but I have noticed it's uncommon in the UK.

  46. Good Moaning.
    Global Boiling postponed for another day.
    Today is MB's birthday – and the poor chap's been smitten with D&V.
    Thank goodness the "boys" treated him over the weekend.

      1. :-). I did wonder. But both places where we ate are fine. Ditto everyone bar MB himself. And he barely touches the wine; just enough to be polite.
        He had definitely NOT inherited his father's Scottish genes on that one. One beer with a whisky chaser would have floored him even in his youth.

        1. Look on the bright side, he must have been sober when he chose you; a good move on his part!

          };-O

          4. In a coffee bar.
            A real one in the cellar under a High Street shop; with Demerara sugar in the bowls and what appeared to be the Flying Scotsman dispensing coffee.

    2. Oh no .. not a good morning .

      Imodium , imodium ,imodium .. and be careful yourself

      Happy birthday to your MB ..

      Flat cola helps rehydrate , so they say !

        1. Thanks. I have noticed that after 40- years out of the UK, although I think of myself as readapted after a decade plus of being back, there are still gaps and pronunciations that I get wrong or have no clue about.

        2. As i am sure you are aware that is a dangerous combination. Get on with making that chicken bone broth to stop him dehydrating.

    6. Oh, poor thing!

      Please tell him Happy Birthday (with a slight lag in celebrations) from me x

  49. Morning all. What a gloomy day. Very dark outside. Lights on in order to see. But it isn't that cold today in West Sussex. Did you know that this is the sunniest part of the UK the boasts of Costa del Cornwell not withstanding.

    Thought this was very interesting. So why can't we have such a policy? The more I read of what other countries are doing, the less reason or excuse do I see for our governments, regardless of party. I don't believe it's even lack of will but a deliberate policy to eradicate the UK, the native people, and our long history. In short our politicians lie to use about the issue and are, essentially, traitors to the country.

    "Denmark’s ‘zero refugee’ policy drives down asylum admissions to record low

    Denmark’s strict immigration policies resulted in the granting of 860 asylum requests last year, the lowest number bar 2020, when Covid-19 lockdowns halted new arrivals.

    Denmark’s immigration approach has been influenced by Right-wing parties for more than 20 years, with Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister and leader of the centre-Left Social Democrats, pursuing a “zero refugee” policy since coming to power in 2019.
    The country of around six million people received 2,300 asylum requests last year.

    “Last year, authorities granted the smallest number of residency permits to asylum seekers that we have seen in recent years,” Kaare Dybvad Bek, the immigration minister, said, calling the figure “historic”.

    Home Office figures showed that the UK, which has a population more than 10 times that of Denmark, granted a total of 67,978 asylum claims in the year to June 2024 – more than triple the 21,436 in the previous year.

    The figures from Denmark come as the European Union is preparing plans on how they will implement overhauled rules for asylum seekers to be operational by mid-2026.

    Denmark has already managed to negotiate an agreement to keep it outside the EU’s common asylum policy, and Copenhagen has over the years implemented a range of initiatives to discourage migrants, while making Danish citizenship harder to obtain.

    Ms Frederiksen told the Financial Times last year that the country’s hardline approach to crime and immigration, which included revoking residency permits for Syrian refugees in 2021 and 2023, was popular with Left-wing, working class voters.

    “An unsafe society is always a bigger challenge for people without a lot of opportunities. If you have the money, you will always be able to defend yourself.”

    ‘Broad consensus’ over limiting immigration
    In 2018, the country introduced the so-called “anti-ghetto law” that aimed to reduce the number of “non-Western” residents in certain housing areas to less than 30 per cent by 2030.

    The laws, which were updated in 2021, gave municipalities the right to set up “prevention areas” where they can refuse to rent to those who are not originally from Denmark, the EU or EEA or Switzerland.

    Local police chiefs were also given powers to double punishments for crimes such as vandalism and theft.

    The legislation also called for social housing in these areas to be reduced to 40 per cent.

    Critics have said the policies are discriminatory, and a group of residents from one designated area in Copenhagen are currently seeking a European Court of Justice ruling on the government’s use of the term “non-western”, which they argue breaches EU anti-race discrimination laws.

    Mr Dybvad Bek said in 2024 that there was a “broad consensus” in Denmark towards limiting migration, with only “a few parties on the far-Right and the far-Left” outside of it.

    “I would say 80 to 85 per cent agree that on the one hand we cannot accept an endless number of refugees, and on the other, we are of course part of international conventions – human rights, refugees’ rights – and we strictly have to respect these as well,” he said."

    1. It must be blindingly obvious to any one who has more than two brain cells, that the past 7 months has demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that there are many stools in the Tool's box…

  51. I usually counsel against underestimating the enemy, but 2TK is so incompetent that I struggle to believe that it's all an act.

  53. Lord Hermer ‘advised Caribbean nations on slavery reparations’

    Attorney General said to have helped human rights lawyers to prepare legal case for payments from Britain

    Lord Hermer, now the chief legal adviser to the Government, is said to have helped human rights lawyers a decade ago to prepare a legal case for slavery reparations that Caribbean nations could bring against the UK.

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    He needs to be sacked and charged with Treason

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/09/lord-hermer-advised-caribbean-nations-on-slavery-reparation/

    1. Memo from Starmer to Home & Foreign Office..
      We've only got 4 and a half years left to print£ & send£
      Crank her up baby.. use Western Union.. less scrutiny. Actually, doesn't matter. MSN won't report it. There are no proper journos. We can just blame it on the Tory Black Hole.

    2. Memo from Starmer to Home & Foreign Office..
      We've only got 4 and a half years left to print£ & send£
      Crank her up baby.. use Western Union.. less scrutiny. Actually, doesn't matter. MSN won't report it. There are no proper journos. We can just blame it on the Tory Black Hole.

    3. This is where our 'foreign aid' is going as well. Labour don't se a problem with that. It's a stark contrast: one side is focussed on the public and value for money, the Labour vermin are out for big government, and stuff whoever is lumbered with the bill.

  55. Good morning, chums (including Geoff). One of the problems of going away for a break (you didn't really think that I sat in my house nursing an AK47 in case Ann Allan or Korky the Kat took it into their heads to burgle me whilst I was away did you?) is that on my return I have a mountain of emails to deal with. So you won't see much more of me today. But I discovered that Korky had had a birthday (many Happy Returns old bean) and that I managed to crack today's (Monday's) Wordle when I finally got back home at around 2.30 am. the results are below:

    Wordle 1,332 5/6

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

      2. My question is was she paid to endorse or did she voluntarily? If paid, it's meaningless. If personal, then that's a PR mistake.

        She's a rich woman in America. She has people who do her shopping for her and fuel her jet (let alone her cars). She is immune to the costs her fans pay. Heck, her wealth makes her immune to almost anything.

        When she promotes someone she has to think of the impact on the people who do not have the wealth she does.

  58. The extra 1½ hours in bed was a real treat!! And rare, too. The outside day is still just as miserable, though. Seems to be endless greyness.

          1. A Molotov figure.

            "Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov[c] (né Skryabin;[d] 9 March [O. S. 25 February] 1890 – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. Molotov served as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (head of government) from 1930 to 1941, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 during the era of the Second World War, and again from 1953 to 1956.
            An Old Bolshevik, Molotov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906 and was arrested and internally exiled twice before the October Revolution of 1917. He briefly headed the party's Secretariat before supporting Stalin's rise to power in the 1920s, becoming one of his closest associates. Molotov was made a full member of the Politburo in 1926 and became premier in 1930, playing a central role in implementing Stalin's policies of forced agricultural collectivization, which resulted in widespread famine. He also oversaw the Great Purge, during which mass arrests and executions were carried out against political dissidents and ordinary citizens. As foreign minister from 1939, Molotov signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany, and during the Second World War was deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee and Stalin's main negotiator with the Allies. After the war, he began to lose favour, losing his ministership in 1948 before being criticized by Stalin at the 19th Party Congress in 1952.
            Molotov was reappointed foreign minister after Stalin's death in 1953, but his staunch opposition to leader Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy led him to join a failed coup against Khrushchev in 1957, after which he was dismissed from all of his positions. Molotov was sent to Mongolia as an ambassador before being expelled from the party in 1961. He continued to defend Stalin's legacy until his own death in 1986."

  59. Throw those seed oils away now.

    Grizz is right as usual. (big head)

    When mainstream dietary health guidelines are telling humans it’s ok to eat engine lubricant, you know there’s something wrong.

    And no, this isn't a joke…

    Yep… Canola (also known as Rapeseed) really used to be an industrial oil used to lubricate machinery.

    But the ‘Great White North’ realised they could make more money if they could convince us to eat it (Oh, Canada! 🇨🇦)

    A couple of decades later, the oil was rendered “safe” for human consumption…

    And Voila! Ultra cheap oil for the masses.

    Now it’s one of the most popular oils used in cooking and found in most ultra-processed foods.

    But so what? Surely if it was rendered safe then it’s ok, right?

    We won’t turn this into a chemistry lesson, but here’s the deal…

    Seed oils like canola, soybean, palm oil etc. are really unstable and high in polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acids (PUFAS) like linoleic acid which cause inflammation within our bodies.

    They can also break down into nasty toxic byproducts when oxidized like 4-Hydroxynonenal…

    Seed oils were only introduced into our diets in the last 100 years…

    Before that, we used to use animal fats like grass-fed tallow, butter and ghee to cook.

    And since this takeover, chronic diseases like CVD, diabetes and heart disease have SKYROCKETED.

    Western medicine would have you believe there’s no link here…

    But there’s a ton of evidence pointing to the fact that seed oils are linked to mitochondrial dysfunction – a hallmark of just about every chronic illness.

    We have a whole bunch of studies on mice showcasing negative health outcomes when fed a diet high in linoleic acid (like this one).

    We also have a GINORMOUS human randomised control trial called the ‘Minnesota Coronary Experiment’ from the 1960s…

    The researchers looked at what happens when you replace saturated fat with seed oils rich in linoleic acid…

    Know what they found?

    A 22% higher death rate for each 30 ng / dL reduction in cholesterol from linoleic acid (1).

    …basically, that’s NOT GOOD.

    Weirdly, they brushed this trial under the rug and have ignored it ever since…

    And today, the “experts” still tell us to fear saturated fat from meat, butter and eggs while promoting seed-oil rich fake foods like Beyond Meat burgers.

    Since these are the same experts who say Cheerios are healthier than ground beef (no joke, read it here)…

    We think it’s safe to say if you want to be healthy…

    Just do the OPPOSITE of what they tell you.

    What does that look like? Easy.

    Avoid seed oils as much as possible and you’re good.

    Instead, use nutrient-dense animal fats for cooking like grass-fed butter, ghee or tallow.

    Replace seed oil-infested processed foods with organic whole foods.

    It’s not complicated.

    But of course, they don’t want you to know that 🙄

    -The APE team

    P.S. – We’re pretty democratic when it comes to which whole foods you should eat…

    But if you ask us…

    Well-rased meat and organs should form the bulk of your food shop. This is because they provide you with the most concentrated source of bioavailable vitamins and minerals…

    like B-vitamins, Choline, K2, Iron, Zinc and Copper…

    You know, the stuff that makes you strong and smart so you can say 🤬 to engine oil.

    If you can source grass-fed organs and like the taste, more power to you.

    If not, you’re always welcome to grab our desiccated Beef Organ blend right here.

    2. I'm fat. I eat too much.
      I eat too much chocolate, too many biscuits and cake.
      I eat these things because I am unhappy
      I am unhappy because I eat.

      I've a really difficult meeting now and guess what? I want chocolate to soothe the stress it causes, yet that stress I can literally feel in my heart.

      I am eating myself to death.

      1. Don't put cake or biscuits in the shopping trolley. Dark chocolate is okay. Good for the blood pressure.

        1. I've tried that. I buy them anyway.

          I did want to get some cauliflower florets but couldn't find any. Biggest problem is not having/making time for lunch, as we tend to work through it. As I work with a bunch of burly 30 year olds who spend all day carrying, lifting and pushing things there's always cheap food (biscuits and so on) about. Before i know it I've eaten half a pack and am sat on my capacious bottom writing code for an ansible script.

      2. I am fat.

        I eat and drink too much. – I like chocolate, biscuits, beer, cake, cream, meat and gin mixed with sweet Cinzano.

        Fortunately I am happy.

        2. That means you will enjoy: a happy heart attack, a happy stroke, happy cancer, happy dementia, happy diabetes …

          [Three hundred other 'happy' diseases, ailments and conditions are available …]

          1. You are ever the optimist!

            We ought to have a tontine – if you outlive me I shall ask Caroline to send you a hamper of prime fresh beef; if I outlive you your surviving lady will have to send me a large consignment of fresh lobster and crab.

            (To have a level playing field then as you are 4 years and 7 months younger than I am then should I die before you you will have to live for another 4 years and 7 months after my death to get your prize!)

        1. This last few months have been hell. My posts are relentlessly miserable because I am. Even the Warqueen has gone from 'get on with it' to 'bugger, what do I do.' I forgot to feed the dogs yesterday so worried was I about this morning's meeting. I only remembered as when I went down to get a drink at 2am they all followed me.

          1. Perhaps it's a question of priorities. Make a list of what is important and chuck out all the rest.

        1. You can get the temperature very high with ghee and it doesn't burn. If you make your own you can use the milk solids in other dishes…by adding them to cooked rice, incorporating them into flatbread dough for added flavor, mixing them with sugar for a sweet snack, or even lightly browning them to sprinkle on vegetables or toast for a nutty taste.

    4. I remember there being a similar discussion with Grizz some time ago. We use groundnut oil for browning meat for casseroles and anything that needs a quick fry. Think Grizz okayed that!

      As for ‘organic’ food I’m quite suspicious of that label. I’m not too sure it actually means anything at all other than ‘especially expensive’!

      1. Not all organic is more expensive. Depends where you shop.

        Organic doesn't use chemicals. Most produce is treated with glysophates which are toxic. The EU sets the allowable levels which are half as much as in the USA. So they are getting something right.

      2. There are two organic veg that, in my opinion, are worth buying for the better flavour; carrots and cucumbers.

      1. If i am doing a roast i use animal fats. If i am cooking at a high temperature as in a stir fry i use Ground nut/peanut oil.

        Olive oil is for lower temperature cooking. The most expensive olive oils go into dressings/vinaigrette.

        I don't skimp on the butter either. Welsh preferably.

    6. And which Barstewards are trying to eliminate Beef cattle and cows? One might to inclined to think without butter & tallow the general population would have no alternative but to cook with seed oils to the detriment of their health and longevity! Almost as if the whole thing is planned?

    8. Whenever I attempt to pass that vital, life-saving, message on, I getting pooh-poohed by all and sundry and they simply carry on eating vegetation, carbohydrates, sugar-laden food, alcohol (pure sugar), ultra-processed 'food' and all manner of crap.

      They then rejoice in telling everyone how much their health is failing and how ill, sick and at death's door they have become. When they could have easily averted all that by eating proper nourishment in the form of fatty meat, fish, cheese and eggs.

      Try telling them that we were once a powerful and intelligent apex predator before we started eating grains and vegetation.

      Try telling them that no one suffered from heart attacks, strokes, cancer and a thousand other 'modern' diseases and ailments before seed oils (and Kellogg's corn flakes) were introduced.

      They simply ignore you, pour another drink, and make a salad sandwich (with rape-seed oil 'mayonnaise'), and they do this thinking they will live forever!

      1. Waitrose have a mayonnaise which they promote as being made with olive oil. It actually contains…
        INGREDIENTS: Rapeseed oil, pasteurised free range egg (8%), extra virgin olive oil (5%), spirit vinegar, pasteurised free range egg yolk, sugar, salt, lemon juice from concentrate, mustard extract, colour (paprika extract).
        This is the only commercial brand I've found that seems to genuinely be the real thing.
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ba5ec131a41d84dc54d157b4f93a7a807cf93ca76ad60c6617936f6fa651e45.png

  60. Why does this clown put out communications like this? If he's using X comments as a barometer to check his popularity then he will know that he's in a deep, deep depression, popularity wise.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c0c00454e0e06df42c83681bc974367e437c36f0d95b90e978310c0ec3bfd55.png
    His communique's first sentence should have read, 'Too many people are able to come to the UK.'

    "and work illegally" puts a different slant on the statement. No cigar this time.

    1. His answer would be to stop them working and put them up at the taxpayer's expense – for ever – not illegal then!

    2. His answer would be to stop them working and put them up at the taxpayer's expense – for ever – not illegal then!

      1. Car wash, nail bars, hairdressers, fruit and veg pickers, restaurants.

        Not muslims or black Africans though. They do bugger all.

    4. I think someone needs to explain something to him, in how most of them are getting here, I believe another 1500 have arrived this month.

    5. Something on the news today about arresting x thousand illegals who were "working" in nail bars, barbers etc. All very worthy, BUT here's the big question – what is going to happen to them? If we can't deport an Albanian gangster because of his son's problems with chicken nuggets [not sure I read that properly, BP too high!] then I suspect we won't deport this lot either – just meaningless showboating!

    6. By making it legal to just rock up in the UK and be given all the bennies going. Not by stopping them.

    7. I bet he signs the deal with the EU giving access for 70 million young men and women the right to settle and work in the UK.

    8. Problem solved says Sir Keir..

      Amnesty with wave of limp-wrist.. They're now as British as a two sided sharpened machete.
      Home Office to issue citizenship.. online..
      Be Kind Help Desk in every mosque & high street Hamas outlet..
      Funding approved for Be Kind Help Desk..
      Home Office issues new definition of term "work".
      Reparation Vouchers buy one get two free.. scheme commences.

    9. Quite. It's not even that he lies. If you look at what he's actually written, it's meaningless anyway. Most illegal migrants don't work. He hasn't promised to stop putting up the unemployables in expensive hotels and generally providing them with a lifestyle they're incapable of earning.

  61. Got there in the end:
    Wordle 1,332 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  62. Do they never learn ? It takes 30 plus years to grow a tree and 3 minutes in a furnace to burn it. It just doesn't add up. How can it ever be sustainable.
    And dear Guardian those towers featured in the picture are cooling towers, now obsolete.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/uk-halves-subsidies-for-drax-and-says-it-must-use-100-sustainable-wood/ar-AA1yJNfv?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=5f76669ded1049b4eb0788b8060a0fea&ei=30

    Plus this ….. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/ed-miliband-prepares-to-hand-taxpayer-millions-to-drax-power-plant/ar-AA1yIbln?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=f830f49c45bd42d7807acbb03d7e0389&ei=142
    The yars (years) have it….

        1. Ah! I inferred that they had come up with a new way of cooling the steam. Or even overcoming whichever of Newton's three laws applies here. Should have used Ockham's razor.

    2. Once you understand that 'climate change' is a tax scam, that unreliables are just a tax scam and that 'renewables' are anything but you then realise the whole farce is nothing more than the Left's latest attempt at social control.

  64. I used spreadable butter for a few years but went back to proper butter some years ago. Ditto sunflower oil – ditched that 28 years ago for olive oil.

  65. We use spreadable butter – it's the ordinary cow juice stuff, not kept in the fridge.
    Easy!

    1. Domestic abuse is horrible. However in her case, Pixie Balls and Raynor i wish their husbands would slap them around a bit. Every morning before work.

      1. Nah, I wouldn't want that.

        I want to do it, every time they say something stupid. Then of course they'd say 'oww, what did you do that for!' and I'd have to slap them again.

    4. Imagine if it was the Monkee's Story: that'd cause Netflix all manner of problems from the hard Left.

  68. 401397+ up ticks,

    Currently who else would object besides the lab/lib/con coalition close shop supporter / voters to , switch the welfare paid to non contributing immigrants to extending the lifespan of the elderly instead of seeking ways of killing the elderly off ?

    Little wonder heat pumps among the politico's are popular for the
    true anti Brit Arseholes, they transport heat directly from hell, by the by, the political devilish imps are about to suffer a 2 K rise hows that for robbing bert & daisy to pay reeves & fellow thieves.

    https://x.com/benonwine/status/1888603848882676102

    1. If we stopped paying gimmigrants welfare they would leave. Oh, they'd fall back on their organised crime, but if we deal with that as well they'd go.

    3. I'm confused. Did GB News get told off for interrupting the great leader, Hier Kier or did Farage issue the warning about Hier Kier?

    1. If we speak up, we're put in jail. I've a son to raise and a home to pay for. I can't stop the state pouring a million tons of brown sewage on this country any more than you can. The only option we have – because the state has no interest in public opinion – is to vote for a political party that will do something about the problems the others have caused us.

      1. 401397+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        United is the answer,short term individual stance / thinking begets long term children suffering.
        In my book there are only two parties currently,
        RIGHT / WRONG.

    1. This clip make a very good point. What good is overseas aid to the people whose taxes pay for it?

      Has the current Labour government done anything to advance the interests of the UK taxpayers?

      1. 401397+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R,

        Quite the reverse in fac,t they are literally
        killing the golden geese as they
        ( the geese) get older.

    3. USAID competing with UK government organisations in giving taxpayer's money to most unworthy foreign pseudo charities. Who is winning this game? We all know who are the losers!

      1. It bothers me that our idiot masters are going to step up and fill the gap left by zTrump acting sensibly and ending this excess.

        After all Canada already gave over $800 million to BBC Media, what's a few billion more.

  74. OT – the curious story of the expat couple found dead in yer France. First theory: a burglary gone wrong. Second, a gangland killing because he had been in bank fraud investigation

    She had head injuries. He was hanged.

    Do burglars (or hired assassins) hang people?

    Discuss.

    2. Both burglars and gangland members are quicker and more efficient.
      We're suspecting the same thing.

  75. 401397+ up ticks,

    So there you have it, indigenous children continue to suffer
    whilst pakistarni perverted paedo seemingly gets leave to work from home.

    Pakistani paedophile escaped deportation because it would ‘harm his children’
    Home Office appeals ‘plainly wrong’ decision after judge ruled it would be ‘unduly harsh’ on his two toddlers if he was forced to leave UK.

    The driving force behind this verdict wants arse kicking the length of the British Isles.

      1. 401397+ up ticks,,

        Afternoon R ,
        You got a hankering for porridge
        comments of that nature, or enriching that paedo with a hefty payout for injured feelings.

  76. Tractor day again in Whitehall and Nigel making a speech, excellent. Shame they can't run a few furrows through the Westminster brows.

    2. The muslim invasion hasn't finished – and it will not end until all of Europe and the western world has been subjugated unless we react . . . and react soon!

      1. Unless we act very soon it is already to late. I think we should implement draconian rules by declaring Islam a terrorist ideology and the closure of all mosques.

      2. Unless there is a pushback PDQ the UK will be subdued under the yoke of Islam in my children's lifetime.

  79. Last year, when this execrable Labour government made the decision to cease making Winter Fuel Payments (WFP) to pensioners there was a not-unexpected furore.

    At the time they did also state — upon being pressed — that this would not apply to expat UK citizens living in the EU since all their pre-Brexit benefits were safeguarded under the Brexit separation treaty. Ever the cynic I decided to test them since I had applied for, and been granted, a WFP for every year since I reached pensionable age in 2016.

    I looked into this further and the Department of Works & Pensions (DWP) website encouraged me to apply for the WFP again this winter. I did so.

    This morning I received a letter telling me that since I was notin receipt of any of the following:

    ● Pension Credit
    ● Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
    ● Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
    ● Income Support
    ● Universal Credit
    ● Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit, or
    ● An equivalent means-tested benefit to a relevant UK benefit from Switzerland or the EEA country that I live in …
    … for at least one day during the qualifying week of 16/09/2024 to 22//09/2024,

    then I would not be granted a WFP.

    I did not require to be in possession of anyof the above-listed 'benefits' between 2016 and 2023 in order to be previously granted the WFP, as I am fairly sure no one else was.

    Why am I not surprised?🙄

    2. All Starmer does is lie about things like this just, like no increase in council tax this year, another lie.

    3. Between the dates you give, one did NOT have to be in receipt of any of the benefits you list. The benevolent Liebour gang changed the rules. As they do.

    4. At least you managed to waste some bureaucrats time by applying.

      I always apply for income support on my tax return just to cost them time in mailing me the rejection letter.

    1. Johnny, I think his vindictive streak is beyond acceptable.

      He has plenty to do sorting out the mess, he doesn't need to delve back into past slights and abuse government power for petty revenge.

      1. Of course he must. His people want him to. they want the crooks locking up. he had over 4 years of persecution.

        1. What has he achieved by ending military cooperation with New Zealand – just because decades ago they wouldn't let .nuclear armed warships into the country.

          He is lowering himself to the dems level.

    1. Tariffs on aluminium coming today, no matter where it comes from. As the US imports 50% of it's aluminium, that could cause a few upsets in US industry when costs go up.

      Trudeau is hob nobbing it in Paris as an artificial intelligence conference (no, please the jokes about that are too easy) and doesn't seem to care about this hit to an 11 billion dollar export market.

  83. Today I wore my Make America Great Again cap in public for the first time. Overwhelmed by the lack of reaction.

        1. Allah was a sick paedo who should never have left his Aunt in charge of the donkey. (she fell off and broke her neck).

          Oh how i laughed.

      1. Earth mother. Nothing wrong with that shape. It's the ones that look like they left the coat hangers in their clothes i find a turn off.

    4. She is untouched by tattoos thank goodness , and is pinkly comfortable in her own skin ..

      At least she has had no enhancements and infills .

      Don't body shame her , I suspect she has no vanity or narcissism, and no doubt she struggles with her weight .

      Life can be cruel , and so can people .. at least she isn't a scrawny hag .

      2. Can't see what's wrong with her, Belle. She's just "traditionally built" and neither surgically enhanced nor photoshopped.

  91. The Grimes

    Calls for ‘arrogant, progressive fool’ Hermer to go as Labour rift grows
    Lord Glasman says attorney-general has to quit and vents frustration at Starmer for ignoring working-class concerns

    A leading Labour thinker has demanded that Lord Hermer be sacked, calling the attorney-general an “arrogant, progressive fool” in a sign of the ideological split at the top of Sir Keir Starmer’s government. Lord Glasman, founder of the traditionalist Blue Labour group, said that Hermer “has got…

    1. It's Bauhinia blakeana. A beautiful tropical tree that can be grown in a large pot in a conservatory. I have grown it and a couple of others. There are quite a few species of Bauhinia's. Some quite manageable as a pot plant. Bauhinia blakeana is hardy to -4C. You can get seeds of several types on the internet. I think the lobed leaves are very attractive they unfurl a sort of coppery colour before becoming green.

      B. galpinii is almost hardy. If you live in the south of the UK you could probably get away with it against a warm wall. I have never tried but it's supposed to be possible. Not the same colour as blakeana but beautiful non the less. Hardy to -6C.

      https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/70000/velka/red-bauhinia-galpinii-flower.jpg

        1. That is a "foxglove tree" Paulownia tomentosa, unless my eyes deceive me. It is very beautiful. I have one, but it is planted in the wrong place so has a very high and diminished canopy, and we rarely see the flowers, which are way out of sight above everything else. Your picture reminds me to plant another – and this time not to be so stupid as to import a mature one from Italy at huge expense (that was very tall with no laterals). Be warned.

          2. It is ravishing, isn't it, O King? I believe there are other sub species that thrive in some micro climates to the point where they can become a pest

    4. Ashes, that is soooooo beautiful! Have travelled much of the rest of the world but never seen one of those. Thank you. (If only I were at least 20 years younger).

  93. I've been booked for a transoesophageal echocardiogram on Wednesday afternoon. This bothers me because I gag on my toothbrush. I threw up trying to swallow a vitamin pill this morning and got coffee all over my skirt. I can throw up just thinking about a tube going down my throat. There is partial sedation but I'd prefer a general anaesthetic.

    1. I am the same with hypodermic needles

      Three times, I have 'passed out' prior to being operated on, when jabs or catheters are required

      With blood samples, you cannot beat
      Well dressed, Middle aged ladies, who can chat about the offside rule

      Student, of any description, can F off

    2. Can you not ask for a general, Sue? I had an endoscopy, but I couldn’t have dealt with it otherwise!

    3. Thinking about it makes it worse. Use breathing techniques and distraction. If a general can be avoided you should. Perhaps take some codeine before the procedure to relax you.

      I had the cameras down each nostril and another up my bottom in the same month !

      Different cameras i might add !

    4. Just confirm that they cleaned the tube properly after any previous upyerbumoscophies,

      I have had a couple of those endoscophies, nothing to it. They must have used a general because I dozed off and woke up in the recovery room. The only thing I remember is that I went for a pee just before the procedure, then I had to run after the nurses wheeling my trolley towards the OR (in a hospital gown with nether bits flapping in the wind).

    5. Just confirm that they cleaned the tube properly after any previous upyerbumoscophies,

      I have had a couple of those endoscophies, nothing to it. They must have used a general because I dozed off and woke up in the recovery room. The only thing I remember is that I went for a pee just before the procedure, then I had to run after the nurses wheeling my trolley towards the OR (in a hospital gown with nether bits flapping in the wind).

    6. Thy gave me the choice of partial and general last year. Just breathe through your nose. It's not pleasant, but I took the partial because I hate the waking up sensation after a GA. It was a trainee too.

    8. If you can pronounce transoesophageal echocardiogram, without stumbling, I suspect you will cope.
      Good luck

        2. I will look forward to your recital at Lunch at the Lanesborough.
          I'm expecting Julie Andrews mode.

          Super …oh forget it………….

    9. Ex had to have at tube put down her throat – she was given drug to make her responsive but indifferent, something like a pre-med, I think. ATB!

    10. I had one immediately before my atrial ablation. I felt as you do but the sedation made it not as bad as expected.

    11. Oh, man, Sue.
      You have my symapthy. Hope you get the general, but it does make going home afterward more complex.

    12. Sue
      Look, at least they have you in their hands and will do their bestest ever for you.

      Understandable to be fearful , and yes you are , aren't you .

      The cardiac people will have many resources to make you feel comfortable , so please relax between now and Wednesday .

      You will be alright , and will have much to tell us later I hope .

  95. That's the way to do it.

    Danes launch bid to 'buy California' after Trump's Greenland threats

    BUT, I suspect DT might well be happy to sell it, once Musk has moved Silicon valley out of State.

    1. Sell it? He would pay them to take it especially if they add in Washington state with Microsoft.

      hell take the lot from California up to BC, offload all of the lefty tree huggers.

    2. I understand that Gavin Newsome is currently “Trump proofing” California, spending half a billion dollars on measures to prevent the deportation of illegal immigrants.

      1. Trump will say:

        "Fine, if that's what you want."

        "Californians can pay, the State doesn't get a brass cent of federal funding."

        "And by the way, the rest of the USA will be given carte blanche to pass illegal immigrants straight to LA."

  96. If the Royal Navy went out and sank one day's worth of rubber boats – and hundreds drowned (sorry, and all that) the trade would stop overnight.

  97. 401397+up ticks,

    I really don't know what will galvanize the Brits into action, mass rape & abuse of the nations children, a covid vaccine culling program parallel with the " bring out your dead " black death, maybe conforscate their golf clubs, cars, or footballs
    would do the trick.

    Explore Tax, Property, Banking…
    The ‘bankrupt’ Labour council spending £283m on gold-plated pensions
    With front line services in free-fall, retirement nest eggs remain untouchable.

    Rob White
    Rubbish in the streets, library doors slammed shut and vital support services decimated from cradle to grave…

  98. The joys of diversity:

    "Armed police have descended on a busy main road in southeast London after a man was seen waving a large knife from a third-storey window.

    The emergency services were called to Lewisham High Street shortly before 11am on Monday morning. The surrounding area has since been closed off, the Metropolitan Police said.

    Officers are still working to ascertain if anyone else is in the property with the man."

    They have blanked the thug's face but his hands are a giveaway.

    3. Next time chavs hang about at the end of the lane I'll learn out of a window with a cleaver. Last time we asked them to do something they weren't interested.

      1. Blimey.. the whole of the UK, well the sane ones.. must be clairvoyant.. because on social media they're predicting he was a darkie.

  99. Ahead of lacostes daily reveal, here is my dismal effort

    Wordle 1,332 5/6

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

    What a start, 15 letters down and just one match.

  100. Wordle No. 1,332 4/6

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

    Wordle 10 Feb 2025

    A prize for Par Four?

    1. A five here.

      Wordle 1,332 5/6

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

    2. And me. Wordle decided it didn't know me today. Had to log in with my old email address.

      Wordle 1,332 4/6

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

    3. Five here – bit of an odd word, I thought….. (well, that's my excuse)

      Wordle 1,332 5/6

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

  101. Revealed: Tories in WhatsApp war over how to tackle Reform threat
    Conservatives who lost seats in July predict Nigel Farage’s party will be in next government, but others want to ‘stop focusing on them’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/10/tories-in-whatsapp-war-over-how-to-tackle-reform-threat/

    BTL

    The only answer is for the Conservative Party to hold a referendum amongst its existent MPs and their parliamentary candidates who lost their seats in 2024

    The question:

    The Conservative Party is going to disband immediately.

    Will you join: a) The Reform Party, b) The Labour Party, c) The Liberal Democrats; d) (None of the above.)

    Reform should have no interest in having wets joining their ranks just as no wet should want to join Reform.

    Conservatives must be brave enough and realistic enough to face the fact that there is no longer a future for the Conservative Party. At the moment they are writhing about and lashing out like a fatally wounded dying animal.

    Enobarbus:

    'Tis better playing with a lion's whelp
    Than with an old one dying.'

    (Antony and Cleopatra)

    1. If the Tories are not capable of understanding why they lost then they are not Conservatives. If they can't come up with, defend and support new policies that are considered and viable then they don't deserve office.

      I don't want to not just vote Reform. I want a choice. I want a viable opposition that realises it has utterly failed and is prepared to do something about that.

    2. 401397+ up ticks,

      491397+ up ticks

      I feel I must repeat yesterdays comment,
      we need two new parties in the running for when treachery strikes, as I believe it will.

      Unless " best we forget" is applied.

  105. That's me gone for today. Frey, cold miserable day with no positives except that the MR saw a GP to review test results – and was told that she is one of the healthiest, physically fittest women in Norfolk. So that's good news – that there is one able-bodied person living here!

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

      1. 491397+ Up ticks,

        Evening N,

        You are in the right department with hooves, she's an imp AKA little devil.

      1. How did a chav like her get to be deputy PM? Did she sleep her way to the top? Horrible thought…..

    2. They are merely animals who think they're higher in the pecking order, instead of being below the waste product of the animals they despise.

    3. Yes – I have been worried about my terrier for some time. But recently we had a semi-black beardy delivery driver (who drove on the grass, btw) and my fears were confirmed. She barked at him in a marked manner. And when he kicked her she yelped. I mean to say.

  108. Breaking..

    Lord Hermer promises hostage taker in Lewisham £1 billion now, and £1 billion later for reparations.. if he puts the knife down.
    Martinique now want to renegotiate.

  109. Breaking..

    Lord Hermer promises hostage taker in Lewisham £1 billion now, and £1 billion later for reparations.. if he puts the knife down.
    Martinique now want to renegotiate.

  110. Last post – let me introduce the daft bint who has replaced the WhatsApp tosser:

    "I like llamas. I’m sure many readers do. If it wasn’t for the guinea pig, I’d say they were my favourite Peruvian mammal. Even then they’re a close second. But I’d hardly describe myself as an expert. Without Googling, I don’t know much more than that they have curly fleeces, like carrying things, and should make a tasty Sunday roast for an Incan family of four.

    But even without an MA in Higher Llama Studies, I would be confident that I could spot the difference between a South American camelid and a human being. Yet, remarkably, this act of recognition seems to be beyond Keir Starmer’s new Health Minister.

    Following Andrew Gwynne’s sacking and suspension for his gratuitously offensive texts, Ashley Dalton has been appointed in his place. In the past, the openly gay MP for West Lancashire has tweeted her support for gender self-identification, that “trans women are women” regardless of biology, and that “we shouldn’t have gendered bathrooms at all”.

    Whilst Dalton’s stance on transgenderism might put her on the wrong side of public opinion, she is hardly out of place in a Labour Party where, until recently, its leader struggled to work out what a woman is. But in fairness to Starmer, his new minister takes her devotion to gender woo-woo to more ludicrous and embarrassing conclusions than he has ever managed.

    When quizzed whether people should take someone seriously if they identify as a llama – not a habitual occurrence, I grant you, but surely not a hard one to navigate – Dalton replied: “Yes. And treat [them] with dignity and respect”.

    I might be sympathetic to #LlamasLivesMatter if it was an anti-poaching campaign. But not when it is the policy of the public health minister – especially as gender identity services fall under Dalton’s remit.

    Labour might claim Dalton’s comments are sufficiently dated that they can be ignored. But her llama confusion only marks the start of her woeful record.

    Dalton has criticised the use of the private sector to reduce waiting lists – a very different note to that struck by her new boss Wes Streeting. Starmer’s chum Donald Trump won’t like hearing she called him a “toddler” and a “racist idiot”, or that she called more than half of the voters in the 2016 referendum “short sighted and stupid” for voting Leave.

    In short, a quick survey of Dalton’s record suggests she embodies the sort of Labour Party that Morgan McSweeney has desperately been trying to yank Starmer away from: woke, anti-Brexit, and more preoccupied with leftist posturing than delivering for voters. She seems to be exactly the sort of “arrogant, progressive fool” that Lord Glasman has today condemned Lord Hermer as.

    McSweeney’s fingers were all over today’s reports that Labour were dropping plans to make changing genders easier, fearing they would be “catnip” to Reform. Claims by ministers that that is untrue, combined with Dalton’s appointment, show just how much of an uphill battle Starmer’s Chief of Staff, Glasman, and the Blue Labour boys have ahead of them in their campaign to knock some common sense into their party.

    2. One should start off by treating everyone with dignity and respect, but that should not prevent one from avoiding them and ignoring them having acknowledged their existence and nor should one be "in trouble" for doing so.

          2. Hm. Cats have something else on the go. I really do doubt that they know nothing of our follies, but believe that they do hold our aspirations in healthy contempt and pursue their own agenda, whatever that may be. Or so I opine.

            I would so much rather be taken over by the mysterious cat agenda than by the obvious Islamic one.

    4. BTL commenters are going mad over this one….

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/10/im-biologically-female-insists-trans-nhs-doctor-born-male/
      A transgender NHS doctor who got changed in front of women colleagues has claimed to be a biological female.

      Dr Beth Upton, who was born male and now identifies as a woman, stated in evidence to an employment tribunal that “I’m biologically female” and said sex had “no defined or agreed meaning in science”.

      Dr Upton is at the centre of a landmark case after Sandie Peggie, a female nurse, claimed she faced harassment as the result of being forced to share female changing rooms with the A&E doctor.

      In tense exchanges at the tribunal with Naomi Cunningham, Ms Peggie’s lawyer, the doctor repeated the claim of being female and suggested that colleagues uncomfortable with a trans woman using female-only spaces held “misinformed, biased, unpleasant or bigoted” views.

      1. That’s a so called Doctor that I’d hope was unable to offer me any form of medical care – utter feckwit!

  111. Popping back in 'cause oi laffed
    "Gareth Edwards was interviewed after the game in Rome yesterday. The interviewer asked if the Welsh team of the 70’s would beat the current team. He replied only just. The interviewer was astonished. Yes added Gareth. You have to remember that six of our team are no longer alive and the rest of us are well into our 70’s."

  112. Al beebera is showing lots of working illegal immigrants being rounded up and deported.

    I'm sorry, but I would prefer to see all the non-working, benefit claiming, illegal immigrants being rounded up and deported first.

    1. A decade or three ago I knew a Māori who outstayed his UK work permit. It was a pointless act of defiance on his part. But he was otherwise hardworking, pleasant and useful. Once found out, he was deported very promptly.

      2. I think the point about the nail bar, car wash and barber/taxi people is that they are a front for far more sinister but lucrative trades. The black economy in the UK thrives, whilst the official economy dives. None of these people pay tax. They contribute nothing – yet they use services, they vote and they receive benefits whilst "earning" more than most on the QT. It really is not fair.

  113. Phew ……Well feet up and relax 🍷🍸. We have had our lively but very lovely 18 month old granddaughter with us for most of the day. And her just 5 year old (yesterday) brother after school. It's was quite exhausting.
    Fourty years ago we could have coped.
    Another fith birthday tomorrow, eldest sons equally lovely daughter (brother nine) but I have a relaxing day tomorrow, second cataract removal tomorrow in the afternoon.
    We will drop by on the way home.

    2. I'm jealous, Eddy – of the grandchildren, not the cataract! Enjoy, and good luck with the cataract.

      1. Thanks Obs, first removal was done in a jiffy. I’ll be so happy to be able to get some new reading glasses and manage to read again.

  114. Have just been watching a bit of "Dewbs" and, unnervingly, find myself less enthusiastic about R Lowe. Our MPs underpaid, on c100K (just south)? Most of them cannot believe their luck. Most of them – the huge majority – are blatant scammy dross. A big salary does not guarantee a good performer in the public sector. Look at Amanda Pritchard, for example – What the FUCK does this woman do for her hugely inflated salary?

    1. It's the problem of the role of "chief executive" which came across from the USA:
      To get the best you must pay the market rate.

      Here, as soon as one gets the title one is suddenly worth the money.
      Absolute bollocks, of course, but that's how they think.
      They then apply it to MPs.

      OK, let's do so logically:
      Every MP should be paid 5% more than they were in their last job before becoming an MP, subject to an overall cap of say 5x national average wage, the lower of the two applying.
      Some might cost us a lot, but most would find a large drop in salary.

      1. ”To get the best you must pay the market rate”. That is a “set your own salary” ploy. In almost every facet of public and commercial life, a job doesn’t need the best and can do just as well with the second-best at a far lower remuneration.

        1. Agreed.
          I’ve long suspected that a clear out of top dogs to be replaced by their deputy, but on their current salary would save considerable money and make little or no difference either way.

    2. Rupert Lowe stated that he was not opposed to better salaries for MPs but that many were not worth what they are paid. He invests his own MP salary in local charities. He said that MP productivity should be gauged by our economic success not a reward for failure of our economy (or words to this effect).

      1. i know what he does with his salary, corim, and it is laudable. However, he did not say what you say he said. He said that MPs should be paid more like 1/4 £mi££ion pa, although he did concede that many are nor worth that. I profoundly disagree – personally i would be hard put to find any that are worth that vast yearly sum. They should be paid the national living (note, I am not mean enough to stipulate minimum) wage and be expected to work bloody hard for it.

    3. The whole set up is a fetid vicious circle.
      They live off the actions and verbalism of others all in the same boat.
      Jointly they never seem to achieve anything that is of benefit for the general public. I believe maybe a dozen robots would make a better and fairer job of running our lives. Correctly programmed with the facts and conditions. Most of us would be better off.
      The 650 plus, are a complete waste of time and billions of our hard earned money.

      1. We do not need anyone running our lives, though, Reddy. We need defence of the realm, both within and without, first and foremost. Beyond that, we need an efficient and cheap energy infrastructure, the bins emptied and the potholes filling. Simple stuff, but beyond these treasonous despots who will shovel our money into anything but these bare essentials.

  115. Have you read anything like this before?

    The daughter of a Georgian billionaire and her husband have been granted a refund after buying a £32m London mansion that was infested with moths.

    Iya Patarkatsishvili and Dr Yevhen Hunyak bought the early Victorian seven-bedroom Notting Hill home in May 2019. It boasted a pool, spa, gym, wine room, library, cinema, and a “snoring room” designed for peaceful sleep.

    Days after moving into Horbury Villa, the couple spotted signs of an infestation that would go on to destroy clothing and ruin their wine. They sued the house seller, William Woodward-Fisher, in an attempt to reverse the sale.

    John McGhee KC, representing the couple in court, said at the peak of the infestation, Hunyak was swatting about 100 of the insects daily.

    Before buying the property, the couple and their staff visited the house at least 11 times, the court heard.

    Hunyak, a paediatric dentist who works in Chelsea, told the court that moths were landing on their children’s toothbrushes, cutlery and meals.

    He said he was forced to tip out glasses of wine after discovering floating moths due to the infestation.

    On Monday, high court judge Mr Justice Fancourt ruled that Woodward-Fisher, an elite property developer, had given “false” answers about the state of the property in west London and failed “honestly to disclose” the “serious infestation”.

    Fancourt acknowledged that Woodward-Fisher, who formerly competed for Great Britain as a rower, had not deliberately tried to deceive the purchasers, but added he had “simply wanted to sell the house and move on” and knew disclosure would cause the sale to “go off”.

    The judge ordered the sale be rescinded, with Woodward-Fisher required to reimburse the purchase price, minus about £6m to recognise the couple’s use of the property.

    The developer was also ordered to pay the couple an additional £4m in damages for the infestation, including £15,000 for ruined clothes and £3.7m paid in stamp duty.

    Appearing for the developer, Jonathan Seitler KC said Woodward-Fisher had been honest when dealing with the inquiry about possible previous “vermin infestation”, having told his solicitor that the property had experienced problems with moths only to be assured that “moths were not vermin and therefore not relevant to this inquiry”.

    Chris Webber, of Squire Patton Boggs, the firm that represented the couple, said: “[The couple] hope the case will serve as a warning to unscrupulous property developers who might seek to take advantage of buyer beware to sell properties by concealing known defects.”

    The court previously heard that Woodward-Fisher bought the site in 2011 and lived there with his wife, Kerry, an interior designer. The house was extended and radically remodelled before being sold to the Georgian heiress.

    Patarkatsishvili is the daughter of Badri Patarkatsishvili, a businessman who fell out with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, before coming to the UK in 2000. He died of heart failure eight years later.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/10/couple-win-refund-after-buying-moth-infested-london-mansion

      1. HTF can moths ruin wine? How long does it take to find moths floating in your wine (clue: no filled glass would stand a chance in this household, and we're not complete alcoholics – at least not all of us). These are classic weasel words, lawyerese, rubbish designed to clobber an impressionable, naive, woke Judge, of which there are many, many too many..

      2. Clousseau : Do your cats scratch?

        Concièrge : No.

        Clousseau : Argh – You said your cats don't scratch!

        Concièrge : They're not my cats.

      3. Clousseau : Do your cats scratch?

        Concièrge : No

        Clousseau : Argh – You said your cats didn't scratch.

        Concièrge : They're not my cats.

    4. Gosh, you are soo clever.

      Don't we all wish we could be so sneering of those who don't "get" it.

      I'm willing to bet that you had to have it explained to you too, you supercilious smart arse.

        1. Why?
          I’m not keen on being told almost daily what to think, what to eat and how to live by Grizzly

        1. He is incapable of taking it easy. He arbitrarily decided to be my personal troll years ago.
          It's certainly a good job I don't know where he lives in France or I might have paid him a personal visit before now.

          1. I dont want to get involved with anything that's going on between you and him, that's up to you two.

            I will state, however, that I very much enjoy the input from both of you on this forum – sos and I are TriPeaks nerds (dont ask) and I very much enjoy your Scandi input on here.

            One thing I will say, however, is that the occasional spat is not a problem, and, in my view, actually livens up the thread!

            I came from the Speccie, where punch-ups were pretty much the norm and I found it great fun. I hope neither of you loses any sleep over it!!

      6. Shut up, W⚓️. Of course I didn’t know it. I just thought it would be fun for others to have a go.

        That is something called fun, you useless, joyless W⚓️. Try waking up and growing a brain instead of having constant pops
        at me; someone you chose to be a personal troll to on this forum.

    5. Well, I don't get it and I'm not spectacularly thick (I do know others thicker) – so I give up. Would somebody please explain?

  118. I happened to be in south London today and could hear the heartwarming airhorn cacophony of our blessed farmers in their tractors on their way to protest at the unfair tax rise on family farmers.
    It made one proud to be British for once.

  119. From Coffee House, the Spectator,

    Crucial brain development in the first few years of life depends on the ‘serve and return’ interaction with parents and carers; baby talk, storytime and games. Sitting in front of a screen is one-way traffic: a child is only in receive mode. Maybe that’s why we are seeing the terrible impact of excessive screen time on pre-school children at the start of Reception. According to Kindred’s latest school readiness report, a third of children starting Reception can’t dress themselves or communicate their needs to an adult; 45 per cent are reported to be unable to sit still for a short time. Up to a quarter of children who begin Reception are not properly toilet trained.

    Why aren’t we also discussing what could be far more effective: a ban on under fives having excessive screentime?

    Both teachers and parents told us that a significant factor is the increased amount of time children spend on phones and tablets, with 54 per cent of teachers and 49 per cent of parents agreeing that parents spending more time on devices than with their children contributes to children not being ready for school. Additionally, 54 per cent of teachers and 43 per cent of parents believe that children spending more than the recommended two hours a day on screens is a contributing factor.

    Around half of secondary schools in England ban pupils from using smartphones. Yet new research suggests such bans do not by themselves improve academic grades and children’s wellbeing. However, the researchers from the University of Birmingham did find that spending longer on phones and social media in general was linked to lower grades, poor sleep, disruptive behaviour and a lack of exercise.

    So we know screentime is having a detrimental effect on children; hence increasing numbers of school bans. Given we know how important the early years of development are to mental and physical health and educational attainment in adulthood, why aren’t we also discussing what could be far more effective: a ban on under fives having excessive screentime? The World Health Organisation guidance is unequivocal: infants and children under two should have no screentime at all, yet it’s hard to find evidence of this in information provided to parents. That’s perhaps why mums and dads told us that 57 minutes per day is appropriate for one-two year olds ,and 13 per cent think over 100 minutes a day is fine. In addition, a false distinction is made by many parents believing that screentime for babies is acceptable as long as it’s ‘educational’. As one parent put it, ‘As long as it’s for educational purposes, it’s great – it can teach them a lot. We just need to keep the balance.’

    We’re probably all guilty of a bit of mindless scrolling, but let’s start with how much time we let our children stare at screens, as well as how much time we spend as adults on phones and tablets in front of children. If we understand how detrimental screentime really is to our children, this is something we can all control, no matter how rich or poor.

    There has always been government squeamishness about talking about parenting for fear of being branded a ‘nanny state’. It will take a brave minister to tell parents how much screen time they should be allowing their children to have or even to be straight with adults about the need for us all to ‘put the phones down’ around their children.

    So, by all means be shocked at the sheer number of children currently starting school behind before they begin. You can be concerned about the impact on other children of teachers losing a third of their teaching day by providing catch-up support to these children. Alongside that shock, perhaps we should be looking at the effect of screentime not just on teenagers, but on the very youngest before they even start school; after all it’s only then, perhaps for the very first time in their lives, they will have their screens taken away.

    WRITTEN BY
    Felicity Gillespie
    Felicity Gillespie is the director of Kindred Squared, a charitable foundation working to improve early years education

    1. It's awful the number of mums pushing a pram or pushchair and completely ignoring the baby or child because mum is on her phone. Even crossing the road!

  120. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    So, did they speak? How often? What about? The very coyness around the question of whether Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone – Trump says so, maybe more than once, while the Kremlin is neither confirming nor denying – suggests that pre-discussion discussions on the war in Ukraine are indeed already taking place.

    General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for the war, has stated that no peace plan will be unveiled at next weekend’s Munich Security Conference (the Davos of the security set). But in some ways that is disingenuous. As one Foreign Office staffer suggested, ‘It’s not necessarily the time and place for a public reveal, but it is a great place to float some ideas and see who thinks what.’

    The Russian position is that Moscow and Washington can and should settle this matter between them

    The particular challenge is that, for all the ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ rhetoric, this will be a negotiation process with three and a half sides: the Ukrainians, the Russians, the Americans, and, sadly making up the half of a side, the Europeans. It is in itself a mark of the degree of diplomatic phoney warring that everyone is making a point of sounding tough to bolster their initial positions.

    Trump wants to end the war, or as a minimum impose a ceasefire – not least, a cynic might suspect, in the quest for a Nobel Peace Prize. He has spoken with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky but also, it seems, Putin. When asked on Airforce One about a conversation with his Russian candidate, he replied ‘I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it…And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.’ He claimed that they were making progress and that Putin also wanted an end to the war. Meanwhile, Kellogg is playing ‘bad cop’ to the Donald’s ‘good’. He is suggesting that economic pressure on Moscow could still be tightened significantly, as sanctions enforcement is at present ‘only about a three’ on a scale of one to 10. In particular, he identified room for more controls on Russian oil exports, adding that ‘if there’s anybody who understands leverage, it’s President Donald J. Trump’.

    The Russians, true to form, are maintaining their tough line. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was equivocal on whether there had been direct contacts at the presidential level, but admitted that ‘many different communications are emerging’. Extremist politicians and pundits continue to talk up Moscow’s demands, but this is normal practice, intended to allow the Kremlin to sound moderate. However, Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament’s international affairs committee and also the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic party, went so far as to suggest that preparations for a Trump-Putin summit were at ‘an advanced stage’ and could happen this or next month, possibly in Saudi Arabia or the UAE (though Turkey is also keen to be in the running). The Russian position, after all, is that Moscow and Washington can and should settle this matter between them, and Kyiv will just have to accept its fate.

    Needless to say, this is not what the Ukrainians are willing to accept. After a rocky start to their relationship, Zelensky is trying hard to woo Trump. In particular, Kyiv is looking for new ways to make its war an American priority. From making a moral argument and presenting its struggle as also a fight for Europe, it has pivoted to the kind of transactional language closer to the new president’s heart, offering privileged access to its rare earths and other mineral deposits. At present, admittedly, the conversation is around the opportunity to invest, rather than the outright ownership Trump raised, but it demonstrates that Zelensky realises he is in a bidding war, too.

    Of course, if the US gets special access to Ukraine’s wealth as part of some end-of-war settlement, this will leave Europe in a tough spot, not just deprived of economic opportunities but also, frankly, humiliated. Europe – including Britain – has not yet managed to adapt to the Trump 2.0 era, still relying on the mantras that passed for policy under Biden. The Russian state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta published a commentary which stated that Kyiv:

    has realised that Trump loves speed, and so for the next hundred days they have decided to gently slow down the peace process he announced and not to agree to anything concrete. Then either Trump will get tired, or the anti-Trump, European-British coalition will regroup and pull up its reserves.

    Mired in concerns about trade wars, and with London seemingly still unsure about how far it is willing to take a bullet for Europe in order to demonstrate its friendship, it is hard to see such a ‘coalition’ taking the initiative, though.

    So, the manoeuvres and behind-the-scenes discussions continue. No peace plan yet, let alone any meaningful negotiations, but signs from every quarter that they expect something to happen sooner rather than later. Whatever it may be.

    Mark Galeotti
    WRITTEN BY
    Mark Galeotti
    Mark Galeotti heads the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and is honorary professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the author of some 30 books on Russia. His latest, Forged in War: a military history of Russia from its beginnings to today, is out now.

    2. I haven't read this all the way through (got bored very early on) but do want to say that I really do hope that Trump and Putin are in regular conversation with regards to ending the killing machine in Ukraine.

  121. Just watched the documentary on TSR 2 which is on Youtube. It was cancelled by the then Labour Government. They have a long history of being two faced lying turds.

    1. It was a good decision. The TSR2 required technology that simply was not available at the time.

        1. It would have required such extensive work to, for example, replace analogue computers with digital ones or thermionic valves with solid-state-state devices, that it wouldn’t have been cost effective. Better to start afresh (not that they did).

        2. For some maybe – but hopefully he will recover. Sad about the concert though – it would probably be difficult for the other musicians to all be available again at a later date.

    1. Yes, they are typically small but elegant and perfectly formed. Ours, unfortunately, is very tall, inelegant and imperfectly formed. Mistake importing the bugger – should've bought a sapling. Twat.

      1. Thanks for the advice – I’m tempted to move one of the three Magnolia Stellata trees I’ve grown from seed and buy one of these – they are astonishing!

        1. Agree. The Stellatas are lovely too (as are all Magnolias). Much smaller mature trees, though, and very slow growing. Lovely shape and gorgeous flowers in the same very restricted timeline as the more glamorous foxglove tree. Both have lovely, big leathery leaves after the main event but I would (and will again) go for the foxglove tree for that one week or so of stunning exotic beauty in early spring.

    4. Apparently, nana knob*ng is all the rage according to June Slater. What with the Waspi women and loss of WFA, you have to be inventive in looking for extra income. Ill stick with the young ones myself,…

      1. 401397+ up ticks,

        Evening MM,
        Best I can do, covers my feelings also.

        Lynda S
        @16Elless
        ·
        8h
        Which life saving jab is it this time? I’m mid 60’s & have been called for C19, Flu & Shingles shots over the last couple of months. No thanks. I’ve asked to be taken off the list to save some paper. FFS

  130. Tuesday 11th February 2025

    PHIZZEE

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7050a93c3d31733ce9e3e3c6998e39ac5d7b1ce91e024818144f74d36bb6df73.png
    We hope you'll be having a Bubbly and Effervescent Epicurean Birthday Feast

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9253ca303e83d68c62aa2b6866bd87e8ba30e33ea245c4fcc45eb9a053e011c3.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f15108925be65a9a2608d8e25edca14c950fe7218c958fddb1d38927a117d0b9.png
    With very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

  131. Evening, all. Very late on parade because I had a committee meeting to attend in Shrewsbury. Alas, the chairman didn't run a tight ship and added his own rambles to those of other members 🙁 Add to that the horrendous wet conditions and it wasn't the most pleasant evening I've ever spent.

    The NHS needs root and branch reform. It'll never get it.

  133. Well, chums, this is way past my bedtime, but I fell asleep at around 9 pm and have only just woken up. So I'll wish you all a belated Good Night. Sleep well and I'll see you all tomorrow hopefully. Today has been a full-on day, but much email culling accomplished. Now to have a go at Tuesday's Wordle before returning to bed..

  134. Well, chums, this is way past my bedtime, but I fell asleep at around 9 pm and have only just woken up. So I'll wish you all a belated Good Night. Sleep well and I'll see you all tomorrow hopefully. Today has been a full-on day, but much email culling accomplished. Now to have a go at Tuesday's Wordle before returning to bed..

  137. I hope you have a really happy birthday, and however you treat yourself that the food meets your expectations.
    Cheers

  138. That’s one way of looking at it.

    I don’t block people, but I am prepared to challenge opinions and approaches that I disagree with.
    To read his comments one might get the impression that the fault is all mine. It might be, but I don’t think so.

    1. I am sure if you met in person over a nice lunch you would get on like a maison en flambe.

      Don’t forget text is different from speech.

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