Monday 10 July: By focusing on ‘woke’ issues, the Church of England is failing its flock

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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655 thoughts on “Monday 10 July: By focusing on ‘woke’ issues, the Church of England is failing its flock”

  1. Good morning all.
    Another bright, dry start with not quite 8°C outside.

    I wonder what Mr. John Birkett is on?

    Nato’s new chief
    SIR – With Mark Rutte’s resignation as the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister (report, July 8), and Germany’s ambivalent attitude towards Vladimir Putin’s war and its consequences, surely Mr Rutte is now the obvious choice to lead Nato.

    John Birkett
    St Andrews, Fife

    1. You cannot believe it. Rutte is a danger to freedom not a keeper of freedom.

    2. We could guarantee that the EU army wouldn’t be marching on its stomach.
      Crawling through starvation, maybe.

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s funny

    A Letter From Barbie

    Dreamhouse, Malibu, CA

    Dear Santa,
    Listen you little troll, I’ve been helping you out every year, playing at being the perfect Christmas present, wearing skimpy bathing suits in frigid weather, and dressing in fake Chanel at one too many tea parties, and I hate to break it to ya, but it’s definitely payback time! There had better be some changes around here this year, or I’m gonna call for a nation-wide meltdown (and trust me, you won’t wanna be around to smell it).

    So, these are my demands for this Christmas:
    A nice, comfy pair of sweat pants and a frumpy oversized sweatshirt. I’m sick of looking like a hooker in a hot pink bikini. How much smaller are these bathing suits gonna get? Do you have any idea what it feels like to have nylon and Velcro crawling up your butt?

    Real underwear that can be pulled on and off. Preferably white. What bonehead at Mattel decided to cheap out and mould imitation underwear to my skin? It looks like cellulite!

    A real man. I don’t care if you have to go to Hasbro to get him, bring me GI Joe! Hell, I’d take Tickle Me Elmo over that wimped-out excuse for a boyfriend, Ken. And what’s up with that earring anyway? If I’m gonna have to suffer with him, at least make him (and me) anatomically correct.

    Arms that actually bend so I can push the aforementioned Ken-wimp away once he is anatomically correct.

    Breast reduction surgery. I don’t care whose arm you have to twist, just get it done.
    A sports bra. To wear until I get the surgery.
    A new career. Pet doctor and school teacher just don’t cut it. How about a systems analyst? Or better yet, an advertising account exec!

    A new, more ’90s persona. Maybe “PMS Barbie”, complete with a miniature container of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and a bag of chips; “Animal Rights Barbie”, with my very own paint gun, outfitted with a fake fur coat and handcuffs; or “Stop Smoking Barbie”, sporting a removable Nicotrol patch and equipped with several packs of gum.

    No more McDonald’s endorsements. The grease is wrecking my vinyl.
    Mattel stock options. It’s been 40 years – I think I deserve a piece of the action.

    Ok, Santa, that’s it. Considering my valuable contribution to society, I don’t think these requests are out of line. If you disagree, then you can find yourself a new bimbo doll for next Christmas. It’s that simple.

    Yours truly

    Barbie

  4. By focusing on ‘woke’ issues, the Church of England is failing its flock

    Another institution that has to be sacrificed for the globalist great reset

  5. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny & cool start to my 41st wedding anniversary.
    SWMBO has the patience of a saint and an infinite capacity for suffering.

      1. Thanks!
        Not really. Were going out for a meal, but a holiday season Monday means that most restaurants are closed – buggers. Maybe save it for the weekend.

    6. Congratulations. Hope you have arranged a special treat for the long suffering one.

    7. Congratulations! At least the sun is shining for your day.
      Anything planned?
      We reach our 43rd anniversary in a few weeks.

        1. I just checked, our anniversary is on a Tuesday this year so that should give us a few options at least for pub lunch.

  6. Nick Timothy on the collapse of the CofE:-

    Britain’s passive surrender to a woke minority risks everything we cherish
    Conservatives are losing because they, like society, have lost confidence and don’t stand up for the truth

    NICK TIMOTHY
    9 July 2023 • 9:00pm

    ‘Iam the way, the truth, and the life,” said Jesus Christ. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” And so Jesus taught Christians to pray to God addressing Him as our Father.

    Now, after two millennia of Christian worship, senior figures in the Church of England believe they know better. The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, says the word “Father” is “problematic”. He says this because of “those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive” and “all of us who have laboured rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life”.

    This follows an attempt, made at the General Synod in February, to introduce gender-neutral terminology in worship in Anglican churches. The Reverend Christina Rees, a former member of the Synod, has supported Cottrell, saying “because Jesus called God ‘daddy’, we think we have to call God ‘daddy’.”

    We can argue about whether this is a respectful way for Rees to make her argument, or if it is right that Cottrell should put concerns about a supposed “patriarchy” ahead of what Jesus taught him to do. But two things are clear. First, in the Church of England – which came into existence during the Reformation, in which Protestants complained that acquired tradition, or culture, trumped scripture – culture now trumps scripture.

    Second, in the name of inclusivity, the Church’s leaders are alienating many of its members. This is neither the first example from within Anglicanism, nor a problem limited to the Church. We have seen Muslim prayers read in Westminster Abbey that refer to Mohammed as “the chosen one”, and the adhan recited in Manchester Cathedral, claiming “Mohammed is the Messenger of God” – both, fundamentally, refutations of the divinity of Christ.

    We have seen, too, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, get behind the Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaign, auditing statues and commemorative names in the Church and comparing British figures to Felix Dzerzhinsky, the mass murderer responsible for the Red Terror. Welby has talked of collective sin inherited by white people and by the British, and claimed there can only be forgiveness for the sins of past British generations “if we change the way we behave now” – a position contradicted by scripture.

    The Church is not the only institution that seems determined to upturn its own beliefs and purpose and repel those loyal to it. From the National Trust – hectoring its members and visitors about our history – to the British Museum – determined, it seems, to surrender the most prized artefacts entrusted to it – so many of our national and cultural organisations are hostile to the interests and values they were formed to uphold.

    The question is why? The answer lies in how zealous anger is met by meek indifference, destructive ideology by passive pragmatism, and activists’ exhilaration of believing history is on their side by the fear of cancellation and reputational ruin. It is a clash between the certainty of extremist activists and the passivity of a society that has lost its confidence and belief in truth.

    Organisations such as BLM and Stonewall are open about their intent and method. Less obvious, however, is the way other campaign groups – Islamist organisations, for example – use liberal principles and identity politics to pursue illiberal objectives. And less visible are the staff representative bodies and individual decision-makers within companies and public services that impose radical values. In a recent ITV News feature on the effects of the cost of living crisis on mothers, for example, the journalist interviewed a trans activist who lives as a woman.

    These invisible, unaccountable warriors abuse their positions within businesses and the public sector to advance their ideological causes. But they would not succeed without the passivity of others. In the Civil Service, where senior officials email their staff with homilies about BLM and hire Stonewall to assess their compliance with trans ideology, it is, as with the Church, because many leaders are wet liberals who want to “be kind”, but mistake conforming with extremism for kindness.

    Sometimes the problem is fear. Throughout Pride month, shop fronts were decked out not in the older rainbow flag, but the new “Progress Pride Flag”, which adds new colours and a circle to represent trans people, non-whites, and the intersex. Government buildings, including the Foreign Office and the Bank of England, have flown the new flag. Parliament has used it on its Twitter feed. A Cambridge college published a grovelling explanation for flying the old flag because they had not applied for planning permission to fly the new version.

    At a time when trans ideology is risking women’s privacy and safety, denigrating femininity with its grotesque caricatures of women and ruining young lives with chemical treatments, the ubiquity of such displays is for many people oppressive and insulting. Yet the decision-makers fear the mob more than they fear the moderate wider public.

    Sometimes the problem is naivety. This explains the decision by the English Cricket Board to commission a report into “equity” – a Left-wing term connoting unequal treatment in the name of equality of outcome – in the game. The report, led by Cindy Butts, an old ally of the race activist Lee Jasper, predictably declared cricket racist, sexist and snobbish – guilty of theoretical, systemic sins invented by American critical race and gender theorists.

    Even those who we can surmise know better – such as Ben Stokes, the England cricket captain, or Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister – go along with these conclusions not because they necessarily agree with them but because to dispute them would cause a distraction from their priorities: Stokes winning cricket matches; Sunak, turning around his government.

    But this is how the problem builds. If we meet forces that want to destroy the institutions and values we hold dear with indifference, those things will be destroyed.

    There is no convenient time for conservatives to defend their values in the culture wars, but every time the battle is deferred we end up weaker than before.

    1. At the PCC the rectorette wanted a catch phrase to sum up what we are and what we stand for. I muttered, “I believe in God ..” Don’t think it went down well (although one of the other members laughed).

    1. I wonder if there are any stats that shows the proportion in the rise of church fires compared to the rise in immigration

  9. Good morning, all. Sunny and calm here in N Essex.

    An interesting discussion between Richard Tice and Alan D Miller of the Together Foundation. The first two and a half minutes again exposes Smarmer as a disingenuous flip-flopper of the first order. In Uxbridge he supports the Labour candidate re ULEZ and declares a that a PAUSE, not an ABANDONING, is required in its implementation and the very next day he is on record saying he supports Khan. Clearly Smarmer has an agenda and it will not bear any resemblance to the manifesto he signs off: I know that’s pretty much the state of play in politics but IMO this prospective PM is taking that state of affairs to a new level.

    https://twitter.com/alanvibe/status/1678103589208596482

  10. I’m not known for being tough on immigration – but we must give the Rwanda plan a chance. Ken Clarke. 10 July 2023.

    I am a liberal Conservative. I have not always agreed with my party in recent years. Indeed, I even lost the whip at one point in 2019. So, I don’t speak from a position of slavish loyalty to the party leadership.

    I also don’t have a reputation for being particularly tough on immigration. I have often advocated the benefits migrants bring to our country.

    But there is no doubt that doing nothing about illegal immigration is not an option. Everyone knows that it is a huge problem, and that, if we cannot find a solution, people will die in the Channel in considerable numbers by taking risks as they come here.

    No he isn’t and nothing has changed here. His words are in fact a continuation of the government’s policy of obfuscation and deception. People are not dying in the channel in large numbers and there is no reason to believe that this is going to change. Like this article the Rwanda Plan is fake. It has absolutely no chance of being adopted let alone implemented. It is a lie designed to mislead the British People.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/09/mps-must-give-the-rwanda-plan-a-chance/

    1. …if we cannot find a solution, people will die in the Channel in considerable numbers by taking risks as they come here.

      Is the issue of illegal immigrants dying in the Channel his sole concern or does he express any concerns for the British people or their lands?
      I don’t advocate death for these people but I do want the government to stop the invasion of illegals and seriously curtail legal immigration. I am, however, concerned about the potential death of our culture that these invaders represent. How soon before we see what is happening in France i.e. churches begin mysteriously combusting here?

      1. 374343+ up ticks.

        Morning KtK,

        ” How soon before we see what is happening in France i.e. churches begin mysteriously combusting here?”

        Yesterday,

          1. 374343+ up ticks,
            Mornin FA,
            Seems to me the Archbishop is more of a threat that the local terrorist.

      2. Churches here may not be combusted but they are being closed or taken over as mosques.

      3. If they turned them back and sank the boats the crossings would soon stop (see Aussie policy for proof) and so people would not be dying in the Channel.

    2. Good morning Minty,
      As far as I am aware, Ken Clarke has never been conservative. He, along with so many other leftie Conservatives, should be banned under the trade descriptions act.

    3. That is the consequence of risk, Mr Clarke. That so few don’t die is because the Home Office pushes a boat out to meet the criminal scroungers and brings them here – a practice utterly repellent to the majority of the public and precisely opposed to the mandate of the Home office.

    1. I did wonder.
      You have to be pretty foul – even in the US – to be banged up for 30 years.

    2. This is the sort of person our tolerance creates. Then, once tolerated they are protected. He is a violent thug and needs to be reminded he is not welcome in society.

  12. 374343+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,
    I’m not known for being tough on immigration – but we must give the Rwanda plan a chance
    Despite protestations, no one has put forward an alternative to the PM’s scheme. We can no longer simply do nothing

    Seeing as the PM & co are a major part of the problem being they are professional firstly problem creators, then rhetorical solvers ( no action ever taken)

    We truly require a person of old English stock MALE / FEMALE birthline going back to 12 July 927 to take up the position of Prime Minister with a cabinet of the same ilk and supplied at the taxpayers expense / consent with large cudgels ( nails inclusive ) to beat the shite out of any political pretenders.

    THEN we can commence to resettle the invaders and any indigenous sympathisers in Rwanda, including the current political ruling overseers / lab/lib/con/current ukip coalition hierarchy if not peaceably then via force.

    We truly can no longer do nothing in regards to the political poison festering within the governing organs of these Isles we urgently need new patriotic players.

  13. Good morning, all. Blue skies.

    Over the last two evenings, we have watched Elton John and Cat Stevens at Glastonbury. The MR was a raver in her youth.

    I must say that I did quite enjoy the old songs …and both performers were in good voice.

  14. A long, 15 post, thread on the real history of slavery:-
    https://twitter.com/KeithWoodsYT/status/1675566139382849536

    And for the non-Tw@terati:-
    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1675566139382849536.html

    A look at slavery outside of the West:

    It has become popular to blame White people for slavery, to the point that many actually believe slavery was invented by or exclusively practiced by Europeans.

    But the history of slavery outside the West is far more brutal.

    2. What the Lefty anti slavery yobs forget is that white folk stopped slavery. It continues today in child trafficking, welfare shoppers people traffickers and so on.

      We stopped it. Why are these activists not looking at muslims and blacks for reparation? They’re the ones continuing it.

  15. Ukraine in push to reclaim Bakhmut. 10 July 2023.

    The destroyed town in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region has once again become the focus of fighting after the Ukrainian counter-offensive met stiff resistance in other sections of the frontline.

    Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said that his forces around Bakhmut were “making progress”.

    “The defence forces continue to advance and the enemy is trapped in places,” he wrote on the Telegram social media messaging system a longside a video of what he said was a sniper shooting at Russian soldiers. “From 1,200m, he kills the enemy with one shot.”

    An attempt is being made by the MSM and the establishment trolls on the threads to represent this as the continuation of the failed Ukie counter attack. It isn’t. These are at most company sized operations designed to mislead, and a futile waste of lives.

    If only I could be a fly on the wall at the NATO meeting tomorrow. It will be fascinating stuff. The Europeans all know that they have reached a dead end. The problem is how to convince the Americans that they’ve had enough and now is the time for negotiations.

    To counter this, the US (who don’t really care about the Ukies) must offer them something that offers hope of Victory. That’s going to be a hard sell even for them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/09/ukraine-in-push-to-reclaim-bakhmut-donbas-russian-retreat/

    1. I would have hoped that Biden’s cluster bombs would have been enough to wake them all up. Looks like not.

  16. Two doctors on BBC Breakfast this morning with advice about dealing with dementia of which they have experience:

    “Do what you can, forget what you can’t” 🤔

    1. Its quite a worry when we now see so many doctors on our TV programmes.
      No wonder it can take three weeks to get an appointment.

      1. Even more worrying to learn that having got a GP appointment they also may have undiagnosed dementia.

  17. Good Moaning.
    Bright yellow thing in the sky.
    I will pull the covers over my head and prepare for the apocalypse.

    3. This society is now so utterly corrupt and decadent that it doesn’t deserve to continue!

      2. For once I think I have to disagree. That’s what our tormentors want. Therefore we need to close ranks and face outwards with determination and intelligence so that like the defenders at Rorke’s Drift, we will win in the end.

        1. The last time we defeated people like this millions died in 2 awful wars. The Left seek to erase history mainly to stop people realising they’re following the same playbook they always have.

    4. How did all this transgenderism suddenly creep up on us and all over Europe?
      We were all going about our lives unaware that this was an issue when all of a sudden the governments of Europe were inventing new laws and corporations were endorsing it all, now anyone that complains can get their bank account closed.

      Now how does that just happens?

      1. Makes one wonder why this smoke screen is being constantly pumped out by the MSM.

        What have they been instructed to conceal?

          1. This must all be part of the globalist great reset, not sure what the strategy behind it all is about.

      3. The
        Frankfurt School was disbanded in 1953 but continues as a global
        network. Its main targets are the Judaeo-Christian legacy of
        civilisation, the individual nation state, and “family” as the basis of
        society. It drew up an 11-point list of principal recommendations:

        1. The creation of racism offences.

        2. Continual change to create confusion.

        3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children.

        4. The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority.

        5. Huge immigration to destroy identity.

        6. The promotion of excessive drinking.

        7. Emptying of churches.

        8. An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime.

        9. Dependency on the state or state benefits.

        10. Control and dumbing down of media.

        11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family.

        Does any of this resonate? Wilcox’s “baying mobs” that seek to destroy
        Trump, Le Pen, Wilders, Brexit? The migrant catastrophe in Western
        Europe? The worldwide attempts to control media and classify criticism
        as “hate speech”? So-called “safe spaces” in universities where students
        are insulated against alternative opinions? Here is a quote from
        Bertrand Russell on education: “The social psychologists of the future
        will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try
        different methods of producing an unshakeable conviction that snow is
        black.”

        Now consider what’s happening in British schools where children as young
        as three are being indoctrinated on notions of “gender identity”.

        I will leave the last word to Willi Munzenberg, one of the founders of
        the Frankfurt School: “We will make the West so corrupt that it stinks.”
        And they are doing so.

        Nigel Pike

        Phang Nga

        See section 11.

        https://www.nationthailand.com/lifestyle/30316005

          3. To rebuild it as a socialist utopia.

            Does build back better, or you will own nothing and be happy, ring any bells?

    6. I think we should stop calling them transgender women. The are not women. They are sad, deluded, mentally-ill misfits.

      2. The Victorians knew what to do with people like that.
        Shame all the asylums have been flattened.

        1. Bedlam is still standing, or at least the main building is – you just need to house the Imperial War Museum elsewhere.

      3. I find it odd that if you go tot your doctor wearing a thick woolly coat and say ‘Baaaa!’ he won’t assume you’re some sort of heroic champion for thinking you’re a sheep. He’ll think you’re off your rocker.

        Why, when a man goes along and says ‘I’m a woman’ is he not treated the same way?

    7. I think we should stop calling them transgender women. The are not women. They are sad, deluded, mentally-ill misfits.

    8. Blimey, how ugly were the other contestants if this ‘thing’ managed to beat them all? I rather suspect this is all political posturing and the pushing of the transgender nonsense which most of us find grossly offensive.

      1. Transhumanism. Transgender is but a step on the way. But transhumanism is the ultimate goal.

        1. But it doesn’t actually and can’t lead anywhere. The only thing that they can leave in their tracks is confusion and desperation for others.

    11. Or to put it another and more correct way, Drag Queen crowned as Miss Netherlands…

    12. Interesting numbers on the comments.
      What criteria do they use for these contests?
      Facial beauty obviously didn’t come into it.

    13. He has stolen something that was once the preserve solely of women. It is simply offensive.

    14. And here is me waffling on about stupidity being an unstoppable worldwide pandemic.

      I need thrashing for my gross under-estimation of the malady!

  19. Man on R4 said that the “refugee” crisis is down to climate change. Nothing to do with reckless population growth, then.

  20. Good morning all,

    Cloudy with sunny periods at the McPhee’s, some rain later, wind in the Sou’-Sou’-West, 14℃ with a forecast of 19℃.

    From the Gatesograph letters:

    SIR – The archbishops of Canterbury and York express fundamental doubts about Christianity. A Conservative government spearheads socialism. Publishers “correct” the work of authors, past and present. The BBC has abandoned political neutrality. Railway stations will no longer have ticket offices to help passengers. GPs drown in paperwork, to the detriment of caring for patients. Banks no longer speak to clients. Public servants, including MPs, no longer serve. Being male or female is no longer clear-cut. Stated facts may be false information. Those who are not digitally competent are excluded.

    What next?

    Christine Stewart Munro
    London SW1

    Well, we are nearly in our Orwello-Huxleyan dystopia, Christine, so it’s a boot stamping on a human face forever followed by compusory euthanasia. It’s what the Rockefeller UN, Club of Rome, World Economic Forum and Trilateral Commission want. And what King Charles III supports.

  21. The £10 mineral that could make your garden as green as Wimbledon’s courts. 10 July 2023.

    It is the world’s oldest and most famous lawn tennis tournament, so it is no surprise that Wimbledon pulls out all the stops to keep its grass immaculate.

    But achieving a garden as vivid green as the courts of the All England Club is not as impossible as one may believe, as its secret ingredient – a rare mineral salt mined beneath the Yorkshire Moors – can be bought for just £10.

    Polyhalite is a naturally occurring crystal made up of four nutrients – potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulphate – which experts say can help to make grass and other crops grow faster and stay healthy when used alongside other fertilisers.

    For Nottl gardeners! (Of whom I am not one!)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/09/wimbledon-courts-fertiliser-green-grass-polyhalite-boulby/

    2. Sulphate doesn’t exist on it’s own, like an element – it’s always associated with an element, such as potassium, calcium, or magnesium as potassium sulphate, calcium sulphate and magnesium sulphate.

      1. Sharpie on GP is writing a series of articles on various elements in the Periodic Table. Other than making my brane hurt, it’s very interesting and she would agree with your comment on sulphate.

  23. To be honest until recently I had never given much thought to transsexual people beyond feeing vaguely sorry for them. But the recent events have changed my sentiments – instead of feeing sympathetic I feel actively antagonistic.

    The way that sex and gender issues are presented must be turning many people away just as I suspect that many people today would privately admit that they are much more racist than they were 20 years ago because of the way the MSM and PTB have tried to manipulate them.

    I am sure that the destruction of social cohesion is the deliberate intention of the likes of the evil WEF and its acolytes, George Soros and Bill Gates. In plain sight the bulldozers are at work flattening the ground for the great rebuild!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1c249bcc54b01bf5d7d9781c8dcdc1caab0c7bc65540f8f85481c282be6e201.png
    A charity which advises medics to refer to a vagina as a “bonus hole” to avoid upsetting transgender men has been accused of dehumanising women.

    Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust offers a guide on its website detailing the appropriate language healthcare professionals should use when dealing with trans men.

    “Bonus hole” and “front hole” are deemed acceptable alternatives to vagina, a word which could “cause someone to feel hurt or distressed”, it states.

    The advice features on a section of Jo’s website under the header “Language to use when supporting trans men and/or non-binary people”.

    The glossary was created in partnership with the LGBT Foundation.

    2. I think that’s the point – to make people angry. That then fuels the activists to push for more control over what people can say and do. As government loves power, it will happily enact this stuff convincing itself only a minority and those are ‘FAR RIGHT’ or insert other demonised term hold these attitudes.

      Eventually oppression reigns, and the activist gets their utopia, where no one can say anything to disagree with them and because they’ve continually colluded with big government, and say they support ‘the oppressed’ they say whatever they want.

  24. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright and breezy not warm.
    I can’t see the point in what the Dopey Wokies are doing to the C of E.
    They can’t change more than 2,000 years of history. It just shows that trying to make changes leaves huge voids. But with all that past experience they know best of course.
    Nails crosses and martyrs etc.

        1. Or, better yet, Hang him in Clifford’s Tower a la Dick Turpin. Both highway robbers of sorts.

          The case stands.

    1. As with all things ‘green’, it is about tax. Nothing to do with the environment or ecology. It is simply taking money from the owners and giving it to a crook. The same applies with ESG, which without central bank enforcement would open them up to legal liability.

  26. Apropos my comment about Glastonbury – my late sister-in-law was at Bloomsbury Methodist Primary School with Cat Stevens.

    Not many people know that…

    1. Usuf Islam , you mean… Sad, he was once a good song writer even if he did claim ‘Morning is Broken’ as his own when we all know it wasn’t.

    3. But it is something we ought to know.

      My friend Jeremy Taylor whose songs I post on this forum from time to time made some of his records at Cat Stevens’s studio before Cat Stevens became a Muslim.

      There are now even more people interfering with our lives than ever before. Here is a demo of Jeremy’s classic song:

      Jobsworth

      https://www.google.com/search?q=Jobsworth+taylor&oq=Jobsworth+taylor&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIICAEQABgWGB7SAQkxMjY3M2owajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:13da1007,vid:6JOX2HfjdJ0

  27. Don’t think this has been discussed on here yet, but most of you will have heard of the plans to close ticket offices at most of our railway stations. It has been given some media coverage but pretty muted. Here is the SWR page about it:
    https://www.southwesternrailway.com/station-change-proposal

    Just submitted my response to the ‘consultation’ but know it won’t make a bit of difference, the decision has already been made. I see it as inevitable anyway and I particularly dislike the trend to move everything to mobile phones and it seems soon the old paper ticket will be a thing of the past. But it is always worth complaining.

    By coincidence I have to go into Reading a couple of times this week for hospital appointments. Noticed on their website last night that the ticket office at my station will be closed all day on Thursday, guess I will have to use the machine…

    If you use the trains worth responding as well.

    1. In the last five times that we’ve gone to London by train, the ticket machine has only been working once.

      May we politely suggest that they get the ticket machines working before closing the ticket office(s).

      2. When we went to Lunnon last week, the MR bought the tickets online AND there was an option to print them (like an airline boarding pass). VERY useful. Saved all the hassle with machines, delays in post etc etc..

        1. Excellent idea Bill.

          Hope that it works around here, although SE Rail isn’t very interested in passengers or passenger service

          1. The MR simply used the Network Rail website. So this excellent system ought to be universally available.

    2. I think It is always worth complaining even if you feel it will make no difference. I feel at least I have made the effort. If there are no complaints proposals of any sort will just go through. At least with LTNs people are making their opinions known. We all should try to do our bit, at least then we feel we’ve tried.

    1. What worries me is the conflation of parliamentary power and democracy. We do not live in a democracy. We are given a choice of multiple parties to vote for. The main 3 use our money to make our lives worse for 5 years and then set about bribing us with our own stolen cash.

      We, the public cannot stop them. Worse, anyone gets the vote. If you’ve paid nothing in, are living on welfare you get the same vote as someone who is paying thousands in tax every month. If you hate the nation, hate everything Britain stands for, hate our history, ideology, state religion – you get a vote.

      Once in office, the public have no say over what the officials do. Often the elected MPs have no control over their departments. What point is there is pretending we have a democracy when the very term – the ‘people hold the power’ is utterly anathema to the entire edifice of state?

  30. ‘Morning All

    Short Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15d5208b643e2f35dc4039d8e81aff0c4ef1ffd49daec3cd6759761c763d4ae1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ed00f3bda4871a15cdc258269f3f82015ed1fa766a19f06be7333b82e69717d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/92726e0027030bfd4a06754746dc34db01fb68234cf7a2f09852b44be4926ad1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a0450e2cae9efa0ff96292193aa469beecc4b3424c751630460e459bad04974.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89265c44daec5ea33e56a75f434377d57e955b2903cc842432605854dbebb5ed.jpg

    1. I had to go out in the rain this morning; if I hadn’t hacked the jungle back, nobody would have been able to reach the house!

  32. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47040365857ca735194e1b79eb44528703ce985107ce1f1bd2d5c1cafbdf31ab.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/10/grant-shapps-climate-change-private-investment-net-zero/

    Here are the leading BTL Comments: (Upvotes at time of posting this). This shows that Shapps and the government are completely out of touch with the thoughts of the DT readers. Climate change is a scam backed by the WEF to flatten the ground before building the great reset.

    Andrew Turner

    What a complete load of tosh. Net zero will bankrupt the UK and should be scrapped forthwith.

    93 Up votes

    Deborah Hutchins

    Or we can just admit climate has always changed and we cannot do anything to stop it.
    However it’s a good ruse to squeeze ever more cash out of the poorer while enriching various green companies via subsidies.

    68 Up Votes

    Andy RoadKing

    Grant, you can’t make the weather do what you want, you moron.

    66 Up votes

    Septimus Smith

    The only thing needed for any climate change is to adapt to it. Bankrupting the country for net zero is the stuff of fools

    66 Up votes

    John Pearson

    Blimey, this bloke has been so indoctrinated.

    61 Up votes

    Just posted by Percival Wrattstrangler

    Man-made climate change is a lie. Carbon dioxide is necessary, not toxic. The whole point is to make money for those who publicise the lie and destroy the lives of everyone else.

    1. I don’t trust any politicians, but top of my don’t trust list would be Tony B Liar, closely followed by Halfcock, Shapps and Sunak – close behind would be Boris!

    2. I imagine that having been so successful with the Covid scam this is now Phase 2 of the PsyOps to frighten the fools once again.

    3. I have never rated Shapps and you can see why. In the same camp as the NHS idiot minister whatever his name is.

    4. John Pearson

      Blimey, this bloke has been so indoctrinated.

      IMO Shapps is a politician of sorts, but not a conviction politician**. Net Zero is a vehicle for politicians and others who desire power and control to utilise and many have clambered aboard. When the severe austerity that Net Zero policies will bring begins to arrive many current advocates of that policy will alight from the vehicle at the earliest opportunity.

      Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.

      **Conviction politics is the practice of campaigning based on a politician’s own fundamental values or ideas rather than attempting to represent an existing consensus or simply take positions that are popular in polls.

    5. Morning all. Have just read his article – sanctimonious claptrap by an oxymoronic idiot (Energy Security/Net Zero secretary). Without exception the 31 replies I read were against net zero.

    6. All Shapps seems to be interested in is how much extra money he can stuff away while he’s in government.
      How green was he as Housing minister ? There were probably more new homes built in his constituency and beyond during that time than at any other short period in the whole history of the area.

    8. I think this article is in response to something I read the other day (the DT) that net zero was on the verge of collapse amongst private companies as they were beginning to understand exactly what it was going to mean for them. So this is an attempt to bolster a failing ideology in the eyes of the public and garner public support. I paid only scant interest in the complete article (there is only so much I can read in a day, my pore brane) but I did clock the message. IIRC this was in particular reference to insurance companies and in general others.

    9. The rectorette put “striving to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth” as one of our goals (5 Anglican Marks of Mission). One of the PCC members opined that we did that quite well, being in a rural area. Oh, no! We’d do very badly – we heat the church, we don’t recycle, we don’t do X,Y,Z … It isn’t about practical things, it’s about virtue signalling.

  33. Good morning everyone .

    Cloudy day ,perhaps rain later , and a drop in temperature , Moh went early to golf , somewhere Somerset/ Wiltshire borders.

    Wondering whether I have Covid , cough and no taste, couldn’t taste my early mug of coffee. Chest a bit rattly .

    Here is a little bit of nostalgia, and the BBC how I remember it when I was child overseas.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssw7cn2TbF0

    1. #metoo with the radio Newsreel, Belle. And the shortwave fading in and out…
      Hope your cold blows over quickly. No taste isn’t fun.

    2. How many jabs did you have? They do damage the immune system. Take your vitamins.

      1. Morning J

        I haven’t had the last 2 jabs , and I am glad I haven’t , but the taste thing is peculiar , no flavours , just hot and cold , and not really smelling anything which is a good thing .. because Jack (the old boy) spaniel’s breath is really pongy .

        1. Cut out ALL sugars and carbs, like I have done. I’ve never felt better in my life.

        2. My taste change after I had Covid Last August. It took 6 – 8 months to return to normal.

        3. Your jabs have changed your system, you will experience things like this. It shocked me how many people had them. you are not alone.

        4. Colds generally do attack the sense of taste and smell. It’s normal for an olfactory infection. Over the last few years people have been brainwashed by covid propaganda.

        5. I have had no jabs, Belle, but the taste thing happens to me as well, one day I can’t taste anything, the next day is ok-ish, then it feels all right again after that, for a while, then off it goes again. I think it is to do with getting older, our senses don’t work as well, they flicker on and off. Losing one’s sense of taste and smell is due to inflammation of the nasal mucosa and an evening sneezing thanks to pollen can do that for me. I have lost my sense of taste for a while with every cold I have ever had, so this odd new symptom specific to ‘covid’ did perplex me.

          1. OH has lost his sense of taste due to taking amiodarone – he’s gone off coffee and lots of other things as well.

          2. The ‘taste and smell’ thing was pure propaganda to make people think the slightest sniffle was going to kill them.

          3. Belle, some info from the NIH in the USA.

            Without the olfactory sensory neurons {high in the nose}, familiar flavors such as chocolate or oranges would be hard to distinguish. Without smell, foods tend to taste bland and have little or no flavor. Some people who go to the doctor because they think they’ve lost their sense of taste are surprised to learn that they’ve lost their sense of smell instead.

            What causes smell disorders?
            Smell disorders have many causes, with some more obvious than others. Most people who develop a smell disorder have experienced a recent illness or injury. Common causes of smell disorders are:

            Aging
            Sinus and other upper respiratory infections
            Smoking
            Growths in the nasal cavities
            Head injury

            Whenever I have a cold – not often thankfully – It’s likely that I will lose my sense of taste and smell. As with poppiesmum, I was amazed that the PTB attempted to use those two symptoms as a special feature of CV-19.

    3. Sounds like a summer common cold. When our daughter was a baby she had a cold.
      Took her to the doctor who said if I treat it it will last 2 weeks if I don’t treat it will last a fortnight.
      Common sense, in extremely short supply these days.

      1. I’ve had some real corkers of summer colds in the past – before I started taking vitamin D. Since 2020 – nothing, apart from a three day sore throat last August, while I was on the summer break from taking vitamins.

        1. Sore throat? Are you sure it wasn’t a life threatening case of Convid? Did you remember to wear double muzzles indoors and take a con-test every hour, just to keep safe? 😁

          1. I had my manservant to bring me drinks and eggs – they were easy to swallow.
            The only test I’ve done was the very cursory pre-flight con trick which cost £70 before I went to Kenya last year.

          3. They were then in February 22. This year none, but I did need to show my ‘vax cert’ at the airport when I arrived or pay an extortionate amount for a LFT. I think all those requirements have now been dropped……..for now.

          4. Very much o.t.t.. Even Turdeau wasn’t demanding tests on top of jab controls to enter Canada last August, though some passengers, supposedly selected at random, had to have tests on arrival.

          5. Even after a week of closely supervised greenhouse, lots and baskets daily watering, my manservant still hasn’t grasped the essentials.
            This morning he had fed and watered all but 2 of the plants from the two cans he filled. Both cans now empty.
            “What about these two?” he asked.
            What went through my mind to say was not very polite!
            Even our 5 year old granddaughter would know what to do.

        2. Similar to vw and me. Why people shun an inexpensive natural product I have no idea.

      2. Two dangerous lunatics with barely a brain cell between them.
        Does either of them have any inkling how much normal people laugh at them?

      1. If Paddington had any sense, he will have hot-footed it out of Buck Palace as soon as the Queen’s life ended.

    1. The Two Ronnies dressed in drag for laughs. Crowning a tranny man/fake woman as a beauty queen is just nonsense which belittles women.

    1. Absolutely correct Matthew all these strikes are also a classic example of how these people do not care a jot about the problems they cause to the people on the streets and of course those who pay their salaries.

    1. 99% of the players are white and all the clothing is white.
      But the BBC planning department like to wind every one up don’t they.
      It’ll be interesting to find out who the culprit is.

    2. Bring back Sue Barker.

      And exhume ‘Peach of a Volley‘ Dan Maskell and bring him back too.

    3. The odd thing to me (apart from the bleeding obvious) is that one of the people knows about horses, one is a cricketer and the other is a current affairs “journalist”.

      Strange that none play, er, tennis….

      1. If one of them is la Balding, she doesn’t know a great deal about horses judging by her comments on the racing.

  39. There is an article in the DT today “The BBC just can’t stop showing its heinous bias against Israel”

    Many people have strong opinions about the Israel/Palestine, situation, as I do, but perhaps I can give my opinion from an unusual perspective, having spent much of my adult life in the Middle East and North Africa and having visited every one of the 22 countries in the Arab League except for Somalia and the Comoros. Furthermore, I am fortunate to be able to speak Arabic.

    I have befriended numerous educated Palestinians over the years, but nearly all of them are scathing about the Palestinian leadership, both in the West Bank and Gaza, and most of them choose to live in other countries, especially Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the UK. Those who live in the West Bank try their best to make Palestine a success but it is an uphill battle against militancy, corruption and lack of democracy.

    Some time ago, on a flight from Tunis to Cairo, the man sitting next to me asked what I did. I then asked what he did. He said that he is the Minister of Culture of Palestine. During a fascinating conversation, I asked him why he thought there were so few bookshops in Arab countries and why so few people read books. He said that he was holding a book fair in Ramallah and he hoped to have one million books on display. He hoped that this would encourage people to read more! A few more people like him would do wonders for Palestine!

    However, there has been much talk over the years about a ‘2-state solution’. How can there possibly be a 2-state solution unless Palestine has the potential to be a stable and prosperous state? As long as Hamas, a group of terrorists, controls Gaza and continues to lob rockets, manufactured in Iran, into Israel, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is riddled with corruption and in-fighting, such a solution is impossible.

    It continues to amaze me that the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, who is very wealthy but has extreme militant views, chooses the comfort and wealth of Qatar in which to live. Believe it or not, he has three sisters who have Israeli nationality and live in Israel! Some of the children of these sisters have served in the Israel Defense Force.

    It’s no wonder that most Arab countries do little to help the Palestinians except for a few empty words, preferring to cooperate with Israel overtly or covertly. The extraordinary success of the Abraham Accords is evidence of such cooperation.

    Here is a small anecdote to illustrate this. I once advised an American company, a household name around the world, when they were changing their representative in Saudi Arabia to two princes. At the final meeting, the documents were signed and hands were shaken. After this, the princes asked the CEO of the US company if he would mind if they brought up another subject. This was to ask, in all seriousness, whether the company would consider appointing them, two Saudi princes, to be its representative in Israel!

    As for the BBC, its gross lack of impartiality, contrary to the requirement in its charter, needs to be stopped. Who has the courage to do this?

    1. Your posts are always interesting and informative, Sguest – as for the BBC I think it is beyond hope.

  41. A few more snippets (ho ho) from the article about the dick in the Dutch cap.
    You could be forgiven for thinking the names, Ponce and Jakrajutatip were especially selected.

    In 2018 Angela Ponce from Spain became the first trans woman to compete for the acclaimed Miss Universe title.

    Thai businesswoman and advocate Anne Jakrajutatip, who bought the Miss Universe organisation in October 2022, also identifies as transgender.

    The pageant system was previously owned by former US president Donald Trump.

  42. Jill Dando raised alarm about ‘paedophile ring at BBC’
    MURDERED television presenter Jill Dando tried to alert her bosses to a paedophile ring at the BBC ­involving “big name” stars, claims a former colleague.
    By JOHN CARR
    00:01, Mon, Jul 21, 2014

    The friend and retired BBC worker said the late Crimewatch host was told DJs, celebrities and other staff were involved in organised abuse.

    But the anonymous source says “no one wanted to know” when Miss Dando raised concerns about the alleged ring and other sexual abuse claims at the BBC.

    She is said to have passed a file to senior management in the mid-1990s, but they never carried out an investigation.

    The 37-year-old TV presenter was shot dead on April 26, 1999, on the doorstep of her home in west London. The crime remains unsolved.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/490169/Dando-alarm-paedophile-ring-BBC

    1. H’mmm. Well it took the Beeb 25 years to come clean about Martin Bashir.
      The Wheels of Justice, glacial progress and all that.

        1. That way, he couldn’t implicate anybody else.
          Dando’s mistake was to believe the BBC would be pleased to have light shone on those kinds of misdeeds, and to root them out. Of course, they weren’t, so somebody organised a hit.

    2. It looked like an organised killing from the start; possibly a team, and my guess is that the shooter did not even know who the victim was.

    3. From the DT….

      The mother of the now 20-year-old who was allegedly paid by the
      presenter for the images told The Sun on Sunday that she had seen a
      phone image of the presenter in his underwear.

      “I immediately
      recognised him,” she said. “He was leaning forward getting ready for my
      child to perform for him. My child told me, ‘I have shown things’ and
      this was a picture from some kind of video call.””

  44. Literary note: especially for NOTTL laydees.
    For a good read I recommend “Shrines of Gaiety” by Kate Atkinson.
    I’ve always enjoyed her books, but this one is a corker. A real page turner.

    1. Thanks for the recommendation.
      Edit: I have just ordered it, along with ‘The Marriage Portrait’.

  45. Four awkward topics for Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak in today’s visit. 10 July 2023.

    Series of splits over Ukraine and Nato, cluster bombs and the environment overshadow the special relationship as president meets the PM.

    Special-Relationship! The only two words in the entire English Language that when joined together are guaranteed to raise me to raging apoplexy!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/10/joe-biden-visit-uk-pm-rishi-sunak-key-topics-meeting/

  46. Literary note: especially for those who care to attend.
    Recently I revisited a famous book by Karen Blixen.

    Her first line is:

    “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”
    It’s a literary equivalent to E=mc², being brief, accurate and encompassing the whole story.

    1. The excellent film of the same name, starring Meryl Streep, uses the quote as its opening line.

    2. “I once had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills.”

      My copy of ‘Out of Africa’ is twinned on my bookshelf with
      ‘West with the Night’ by Beryl Markham.

      Her opening line is:

      “HOW IS IT possible to bring order out of memory?”

      1. Whoops, I edited it within a few minutes, but was anxious to be next to A Allan’s comment.

  47. Back from the surgery having had blood tests to check blood sugar,the results will be interesting as after my last excellent results I have fallen somewhat off the diet wagon (beer and bread my main downfalls) It willl certainly show which is more effective,the medication or the diet
    Whilst waiting the number of admin chunky blubbernaughts wandering around was amazing like a herd of type 2 on the hoof,the contrast with the slim,blonde Polish nurse was startling

    1. Each time we go to the surgery or the hospital we see these huge lumps of blubber – and most of them are staff!

    2. If bread not helping, have you tried sourdough? It has the advantage of no added sugar, and tastes of something, too!

      1. Alderman Knight School used to be for kids with ‘special needs’ so now they take in normal kids as well but I guess a lot ofthem are still ‘special’.

    3. Interesting that after the Police taking away the miscreant the school remained in lockdown.

      The school management obviously consider there are other potential stabbers present in the school

        1. There was an episode with a woodpecker that kept drilling on Tom’s head.

  51. Britain heading towards ‘unprecedented’ territory as El Nino to bring ‘chaotic’ weather

    This is such a dishonest story I honestly don’t know where to start. El Nino is a routine phenomena that takes place almost every other year heating the water around California. It doesn’t bring catastrophe nor is it particularly noticeable. The average person would not be able to tell you if there was an El Nino on a given year or not. We had unprecedented weather in California in years when there was no El Nino and in years when there was one, weather was unremarkable. Trying to pretend that we are in ‘unprecedented’ territory or that it will bring ‘chaotic’ weather is so dishonest it is tantamount to a lie. Another warping of fact in order to suit the propaganda of climate change and so called global warming. I find this sort thing downright evil in intend, designed to stampede the public into complying with a political framework that is against science, fact or truth.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/weather/topstories/britain-heading-towards-unprecedented-territory-as-el-nino-to-bring-chaotic-weather/ar-AA1dCKRG?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cf7bcd9adbc14ef9a514ef5238ad5740&ei=8

  52. Nicky Campbell notifies police after being falsely identified in BBC scandal. 10 July 2023.

    Nicky Campbell has made a crime report to the police after being falsely accused of being the BBC male presenter who allegedly paid a vulnerable teenager for sexually explicit images.

    Campbell said he had had a “distressing weekend” after being falsely named as the household name who it is claimed paid £35,000 over three years to a young person who used the money to fund their crack cocaine habit.

    Neither the Sun, which broke the story, nor the BBC have named the presenter in question, leading to speculation on social media as to his identity.

    The name of this man is obviously known to everyone at the BBC and in Medialand generally. Only the Riff-Raff are being kept in the dark. In such a situation speculation must run rampant.

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/10/nicky-campbell-notifies-police-after-being-falsely-identified-in-bbc-presenter-scandal

    1. Wrong Campbell? Could it be Alistair? He is certainly nasty enough to be a BBC employee! in the public eye!

    2. The news has made it across the Atlantic but the reports are also lacking any mention of who it 8s.

      Normally the UK blackouts are ignored.

        1. Can’t be bothed to look, the name will probably mean nothing to me.

          It’s 5he mainstream media that are probably just taking the BBC story and doing no research.

    3. The people at the top must know and possibly colleagues of the accused, most likely in radio and/or news but the rest of the BBC is being kept as much in the dark as everyone else. We don’t know of anyone in Studios who’s been suspended so the assumption is that it’s a publc service person but that’s just more speculation. The accusations haven’t been verified. GBNews yesterday seemed not to know whether the family of the alleged victim were in touch with the BBC as well as The Sun. There is confirmation today that they are. Apart from that, nothing.

      1. On the lunchtime BBC news the “Media Editor” was questioned at length why the name had not been revealed.

        She explained carefully that the BBC wouldn’t reveal a name when a person was accused, but only when a charge

        was laid against that person.

        I seem to remember the BBC promptly revealing Cliff Richard’s name when he was falsely accused by a nut case.

          2. It was a hefty payout, wasn’t it? I think there’s caution now to avoid that.

        2. It is from that egregious invasion of privacy that the current name is being kept quiet.

    4. While I can understand his being annoyed about being the subject of speculation, he needs to think carefully about going down the legal route.
      He may have other items in his personal closet that don’t stand up too well to public exposure.

  53. ogga1
    a few seconds ago
    374343+ up ticks,

    On the subject of RESET twatspeak,

    What is sorely needed is a non political, unified, pressure group party as in a BOYCOTTING party.

    Activated when issues with high shite content are coming on line, see reginia rebranded as “glory hole”by cervical cancer charity.

    My belief has always been there should be no such thing as a cancer charity especially in current times, untold millions for
    R/R regarding our unwanted guests, arms supply to someone else’s war etc.etc, in real terms genuine government grants direct to Cancer research.

    You can get an awful lot of smarties for the equivalent of cancer charities governing body paychecks.

  55. 374343+ up ticks,
    Listening to vine whilst in the garage sawing up winter fuel,
    subject.being, illegals children centre decorating, and MP jenkins wanting the murals painted over, I do make him right.

    Opposition saying it was a heartless gesture and could harm the children mentally, totally, conveniently forgetting many of the
    protesters cast votes for mass uncontrolled immigration, paedophile importing parties, see rotherham, shutting their eyes also that there are boy soldiers that can kill you as dead as any adult can, then we have the charming duo, who murdered the two year old little Bulger lad,RIP. “Lest we forget” there are children and children.

    1. It looks like the one behind is regretting basing his reign on the great reset and doing things differently

  59. Finally made it although barely. Took a 2nd dose of morphine at 1.45 earlier today and it was a big mistake. Fitful sleep and sweaty and shaking all night. Up this morning and throwing up. No more morphine. Back on the paracetamol which my system seems to tolerate.
    My husband has another procedure on Weds and I go for a probably fruitless consult with the oncologist on Fri. One of us has to be here as a new computer chair is en route between those days.
    Sick to bloody death of this – sod the NHS, sod this government and all the pathetic “advisors” who screwed all our lives up!
    Hope Y’all are having a better day!

    1. Lordy, Ann. That’s not fun. Poor you. Who’d a thunk paracetomol would be better than morphine?

      1. I guess it’s because I have never been a taker of pills apart from an occasional antacid. My system can tolerate Pinot but even a wee dram is out the question now. Anyway, sod it- going to get slightly pissed as it eases things a bit;-))
        You have been warned;-)))

          1. I want to hear the so called options from the oncologist first.
            It’s not just me- my husband is in a bad way too.

          2. I am sorry to hear about your husband, I thought his leg was well on the way to recovery? I do not mean to sound intrusive, best wishes to you both.

    2. I have been wondering how you were coping as have had a very busy weekend, early b’day celebrations with family and friends.
      So sorry to hear that the morphine has had such a bad reaction for you, let’s keep on with positive thinking for Friday changing to an earlier day for you. Have another Pinot in the meantime. Wish there was something I could say or do. Take it easy, Lottie…

  60. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e9102827220193608df299d4baea9b75eb7ad217b4e24014d0c30a76e3a7338.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/10/mark-rutte-prime-minister-netherlands-quit-next-election/

    BTL – Percival Wrattstrangler

    The whole problem was created by Rutte slavishly following EU rules and WEF diktats.

    Next stop : Netherlands quit the EU? Here’s hoping.

    Remember they had a referendum in the Netherlands about the European Constitutional Treaty and 60% of voters voted against it so the EU reintroduced it under a new name : The Lisbon Treaty. But this time the autocratic, undemocratic EU did not allow the people to have a choice in the matter.

    There is a vast amount of anti-EU feeling festering in Holland – let it grow and flourish!

  61. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e9102827220193608df299d4baea9b75eb7ad217b4e24014d0c30a76e3a7338.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/10/mark-rutte-prime-minister-netherlands-quit-next-election/

    BTL – Percival Wrattstrangler

    The whole problem was created by Rutte slavishly following EU rules and WEF diktats.

    Next stop : Netherlands quit the EU? Here’s hoping.

    Remember they had a referendum in the Netherlands about the European Constitutional Treaty and 60% of voters voted against it so the EU reintroduced it under a new name : The Lisbon Treaty. But this time the autocratic, undemocratic EU did not allow the people to have a choice in the matter.

    There is a vast amount of anti-EU feeling festering in Holland – let it grow and flourish!

    1. WE? FFS they do no work, all they do is produce more kids who they can’t feed and they blame US. Nuke the bloody lot

      1. I would prefer we stopped helping them and instead encouraged them to help themselves. As it is, food rotted due to UN paperwork with literally starving people barely a mile away. That’s the problem with monolithic bureaucracies. They have no interest in the outcome, only the process.

    2. I have grown weary of looking up population figures for Third World countries, comparing now with 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.

    3. Organisations like Save the Children have saved too many children. After the famine in 1984, people were guilt-tripped. The population of these countries has been allowed to increase beyond the level the arid lands can support.

    4. Thank you Michael Buerk and Bob Geldorf for highlighting the famine in Ethiopia and pumping £100s of millions of aid that has at least quadrupled the population in the Horn of Africa and it is highly likely there are many more starving in the region and the rest are on their way to England.
      Talk about the laws of unintended consequences.

    5. By giving them aid.

      We give them aid, there’s no impetus to grow their own food.
      No own growing means no demand for infrastructure to sell it.
      Which means no roads. No farm equipment, No irrigation systems.
      No infrastructure, no goods means no markets offering things other than food
      No scientists, no civil engineers. No farm worker jobs, which means the children of those workers cannot improve themselves..

      When we shower them with aid we destroy the impetus to improve themselves. We keep them poor. Is it awful to see people starving? Yes, of course but continuing to do the same thing we have always done is not helping them or us. It’s perpetual welfare.

      As any economist will tell you, the need to eat is the fundamental driver of innovation.

      1. They can starve. Problem is of their own making, and whitey has poured billions into Africa – where has that all gone?

          1. There was a quiz recently where we were asked to name the biggest body of water in South Africa. I said ‘Jacob Zuma’s pool’. and got points for comedy value.

            It’s the one under the Sahara (nubian sandstone aquifer), for those who really want to know.

          4. What happened billions of aid money stashed away in President Amin Swiss bank account, does anyone know?

      2. That’s socialism for you. Keep the poor really poor and you’ve got a vote for life.

    6. That would be East Africa that slaughtered evil whitey and couldn’t wait to get rid of him?
      Tough Ti tty.

    1. FFS. I hope the policemen, all 3 of them, are charged with wasting police time.

    2. Plod didn’t like being insulted? I understand that. They’re just doing a job – a bloody awful one. I imagine they don’t much like the welfare shoppers either but they don’t get to complain.

      Perhaps if the police force had not been politicised by Labour they’d be far less sensitive and, crucially empowered to arrest what is, basically, a twit.

  66. RE this fiasco about the BBC newsreader .

    Was he being blackmailed .. was it a trap, and how did the teenager conceal everything from the mother, unless of course THEY both wanted more money , and how come a 17 year old had a a cocaine habit .. there are things that really need deeper investigation .

    The person involved is now 20 years old .. very very strange , isn’t it?

    1. It’s a mess, whichever way it’s looked at. It does the organisation no good and the individual should have handed themselves in – they my have.

      The problem is, the BBC has a very poor history of handling child abusers. It is frequently deceitful and biased. It goes after those it hates with reckless abandon, but covers up for the ‘in crowd’ with equal fervour. It is also force funded which makes the issue public domain – even when, really; it isn’t.

      It is crying out for a change of funding model. This stops the public domain issue and the biases undermining the public confidence in the BBC.

      1. The BBC have got a poor reputation how they handle entertainment for core licence payers ..

        They have overlooked and dismissed their white middleclass middle aged audience ..

        They have concentrated on smutty soaps , and ghastly stuff for the non indigenous rappers and folk of unknown pedigree .

        They have produced some horrid homegrown queer stuff, and have also enhanced the reputations of lefty luvvies .

        My son number one is an industrial electrician , and works in quite hard arduous conditions .. some of the lesser trades have music blasting .. son says some if it is Arab music and the other lot have rap .. he says people protest , but the none whiteys say that to turn that sort of music off is racist .

        You couldn’t make it up .

        2. We have a ‘silent set’. No music. We’re usually on site and you can’t have music blaring out in a dentists. No headphones either, as you need to hear instruction through the walkies.

    2. 17 is over the age of consent – why would he pay so much money if it wasn’t blackmail? What the kid did with the money is their business.

      2. “17 is over the age of consent”

        But that’s not the relevant law when it comes to allegedly indecent images. The Protection of Children Act 1978 says that it is a crime to take, make, share and possess indecent images of people under 18. The maximum sentence is 10 years.
        A person under the age of 18 cannot give their consent to the images being taken.

          3. Because he’s got more money than sense? (bear in mind that the £35k was over 3 years)
            Because he became infatuated?
            Why would the mother make the complaint in May if she was complicit in blackmail?

          4. Perhaps he’d stopped making the payments, or maybe she was concerned that the drug habit was getting out of hand.

        2. It didn’t say that originally, but was amended a couple or so decades later.

      3. I do find it very odd that the mother did not notice that her son had suddenly become very well off….

        1. They have been careful not to reveal whether the kid was male or female. I think the mother was in on the scam as well.

          7. I have read conflicting reports about them being a boy or girl. Obviously to muddy the waters.

      4. Over the age of consent, yes, but still under the age of being considered an adult with respect to the sexual offences act, which paying for sexual explicit photographs comes under.

      5. Didn’t Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt want the age of consent reduced to 12 and didn’t Peter Tatchell say only a couple of weeks ago that sex between an adult and a 9 year old was fine if it was consensual and the nine year old wanted it?

      1. You’d think Ofcom might be more concerned about a main broadcaster being a safe haven for perverts rather than whether Jacob Rees-Mogg should be reading a news item or not.

        1. Very good point.
          I think that emphasis how disingenuous and absolutely fake these people are.

    4. Presumably the blackmailed one stopped handing over the money.
      For three years a mother doesn’t notice her son has become a drug addict?
      Really?

      1. What was that saying, none so blind as those who will not see, or something like that.
        I cannot believe she had no idea, there must have been signs…..

    1. All public places NOW need xray security .

      Schools must screen their pupils , hospitals , clinics , libraries , football grounds , shopping malls and stations need to screen as well and then shops , carparks and just about everywhere ..

      We have a growing migrant problem , drug problems / anti authority violence .. and a generation of child tyrants .

      Weymouth police are battling with youngsters on scooters who are causing disruption in shops and the streets .

      1. We didn’t need all that before the horde of gimmigrants flooded the country. The right approach is surely to remove the danger, not mitigate for it.

          1. Yes, they do – desperately. The problem is they’ve been so completely disenfranchised they feel kicked into submission.

      2. We didn’t need all that before the horde of gimmigrants flooded the country. The right approach is surely to remove the danger, not mitigate for it.

      3. So they bring in video surveillance and facial recognition in all these places – for your safety……….

        1. We are all scanned before we board an aircraft?

          We all have to have security clearance when we enter certain buildings , even banks and building societies have security .

  70. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/riverford-ceo-guy-singh-watson/

    It is an interesting article. However – without the capital from his parents he wouldn’t be able to grow the vegetables he has built his fortune on. Rather than demanding the state take money from him why doesn’t he pay his workers more? Give the shares away rather than demand payment for them? That puts money into people’s hands, where it is 3 times better spent for cost to value than when the state wastes it.

    It is NOT patriotic to pay tax when that money is spent so appallingly by an corpulent leviathan. Patriotism is a love for country, not a love for government. We know that all government does with money is spend it on itself. Low taxes help the poorest vastly more than inefficient government departments ever will.

    He of course could pay more tax if he chose to. He could just write a cheque and send HMRC £10 million. They’d immediately lose it, and reduce it’s value to half that.

  71. Very busy and tiring few days here in W.Virginia! Delayed 4th July on Saturday, family and friends for barbecue and fireworks to celebrate Jack’s birthday at the end of this week. Lots of good food, company and wine, and family staying over, great times! Now comes the clean-up, I may be gone for a while…..

    2. What did your family and friends taste like?
      Seriously, it sounds wonderful.

  72. The left have stolen my country, and are now in the process of stealing my Church.
    Fortunately to converse with God I don’t need any of the Godless Woke degenerates.

    4. That’s four years old and prior to the UN Compact on Migration in Marrakesh in December 2018 which the Treason May government signed on our behalf. That said, what a firbrand! We could do with a few like her among our pathetic, treasonous shower. I wonder if she’d say the same thing now that she’s in power or would she have to water it down?

  74. Farewell our handsome Hector. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cf4a2ae8623b81c5c6563e65f3555b6688bd22eafa334df94423f9440b819e5.jpg
    He slept away yesterday, and has left a huge space in our lives. He has been buried on our daughter and wonderful son in laws farm, beside his beloved and much loved sister, Lyra. They were born on 25th May 2010 and came to our home 25th July the same year. We are heartbroken, but have so many fantastic memories. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12cfb2d256f0792cc5209288c614e62536b47b31cc9f31ae0fd7eb4a92d1d78d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2940935bd1e76c742e0a300a2bfb03bde7ddc812c16d9d452552c322e37150
    9.jpg
    The bottom photo is Lyra.

    2. Oh no……. another beloved pet gone. Never to be forgotten, but it’s so hard when they go.

      1. They get into your hearts, and then break them, Jules. And that’s why we love them.

        1. Thank you lacoste. I don’t know how our daughter did what she did yesterday, with so much love and care and professionalism. I was in awe of her.

    4. How sad for you, but please console yourself with the sure knowledge you gave him and no doubt his sister, a wonderful life.

      1. Thank you GntnQ! They lived here together for about a year before our daughters first vet job! The house and garden were full of fluff and holes! It was an absolute joy and I regret every moan I made!

        1. I love the top photo:
          “I am being a Gud Boi yet there appears to be not treats. I shall continue looking extremely cute until this situation resolves itself.”

    5. What a week we’re having on Nottle and it’s only Monday.
      Deepest sympathy Sue….heart goes out to you.

      1. Thank you, Ann. Nothing compared to your pain, but I think of you and your lovely man.

    10. He is a very handsome dog, Sue. They are both handsome dogs. The hole that is left in your home is enormous. They take a part of your heart with them, but they also leave a part of their heart behind. It is strange how the sense of their presence expands to fill the whole house, when they are no longer there the house resonates with an emptiness that is difficult to bear. My sympathies to you and your family.

      1. Thank you pm. I know you’ve just been through the hell of the loss, and I appreciate your kind and thoughtful words. My blessings to you and your husband. 💐

    12. Heck. At the moment, this seems to be a daily occurrence.
      I am so sorry; a huge hole has been left in your lives.

      1. Thanks Anne. It’s unbearable at the moment. Such a huge part of our lives.

      1. Thank you Geoff. Even knowing it’s coming doesn’t make that parting any easier. He just slipped away, and then he wasn’t with us anymore.

          1. Had a couple of holidays there as a kid. Always remember running down the dunes and getting a nose full of sand.

  76. Take a deep breath…

    MoD civil servant sues over ‘attack on white people’ in diversity course

    Civilian worker claims ministry harassed him by making research called ‘The Psychosis of Whiteness’ available as resource for managers

    By Telegraph Reporters • 10 July 2023 • 2:20pm

    A Ministry of Defence civil servant launched a discrimination claim after a diversity training course featured an academic paper which he claimed attacked white people.

    Daniel Powell claimed the MoD had harassed him by making research called “The Psychosis of Whiteness” available as a resource for managers who were running the mandatory “Operation Teamwork” exercise.

    An employment tribunal heard that the paper, described as a “detailed academic treatise”, is an analysis of two slavery films and defines “whiteness” as a “Eurocentric worldview that produces the privileges of white skin which can become normalised and invisible”.

    Mr Powell, a civilian based with the MoD in Glasgow, claimed that the paper suggests white people are “psychotic, cannot be reasoned with and must be destroyed”. He sued the Government for race discrimination and harassment, claiming the way that “diversity and inclusion” is being implemented within the MoD breaches the Civil Service Code as he considers that it represents a “Left-wing and Marxist political ideology”.

    His case has been dismissed, however, because while the tribunal found that the “Psychosis of Whiteness” paper had been part of the material given to managers, Mr Powell had “fundamentally misread” its meaning. It also concluded that the MoD had never directly disseminated it to staff, had never used it in training, and did not endorse its contents.

    MoD ‘taken over by subversives’

    But an employment judge did say it is important for democracy that papers like this “challenge” people’s views and, as such, its use by the MoD could not be found to be discriminatory against its staff.

    The tribunal in Glasgow heard that Mr Powell, who works in a witness liaison role in the ministry’s litigation team, began working for the department in 2005. As part of a claim, he said he believes that the MoD has been “taken over” by its diversity and inclusion team – describing them as “radicals, subversives and insurgents”. He alleges that this team has waged “psychological warfare against staff and the British public in general”.

    A tribunal report said: “[Mr Powell] has formed the view that the way in which diversity and inclusion is implemented in the MoD’s organisation goes against government policy and is divisive. He objects to certain… concepts underlying this, such as critical race theory, which he views as an attack on white people.”

    The paper was published in 2016 in the Journal of Black Studies.

    The MoD said Mr Powell’s allegations that he was harassed by its diversity policies were “ridiculous”… Mr Powell simply has a skewed view and sees himself as a spokesperson for downtrodden white men,” the MoD told the tribunal.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/10/mod-civil-servant-sues-attack-white-people-diversity-course

    Here is the conclusion of the paper:

    Whiteness cannot be reasoned with through rational teachings and debate. It is a psychosis, hallmarked by a distorted view of reality that is in part reinforced by producing self-affirming hallucinations. For Whiteness, these hallucinations take place on screen, by presenting distorted narratives and interpretations of history. This article has considered how the only two British major motion pictures about the transatlantic slave trade present as such celluloid hallucinations, feeding the psychosis of Whiteness.

    Both Amazing Grace and Belle depend on remarkably similar discursive devices to minimize the legacy of slavery for Britain. In these British period dramas, far removed from the savagery of slavery, Britain is constructed as active in the fight to end the unjust slave system. Black agency, and even Black characters, are drained from the narratives to present Britain and Whiteness in the role of savior. Race is diminished as a form of oppression for more overarching issues such as class and gender. The narratives of both films allow the viewer to feel that slavery was wrong, but that it is in the past and Britain can be proud of its role, and herein lies the purpose of the psychosis.

    Western capitalism is built on and sustained by a system of racism that exploits the people and nations of the darker parts of the globe. It is also sustained by a series of myths of progress and enlightenment about the good that the West has wrought. The dissonance between the reality and these myths is too great for the system to survive, so Whiteness becomes a psychosis that prevents society from engaging in the disturbing reality. This psychosis of Whiteness is essential to understand when fighting racism. There is no rational argument to those trapped in a psychosis, as there is no reasoning with Whiteness. Until the conditions that create Whiteness are destroyed, the psychosis will govern the thoughts and actions of Western society.

    The films referred to:
    Amazing Grace
    Belle

    1. Until the conditions that create Whiteness are destroyed, the psychosis will govern the thoughts and actions of Western society.

      When Whiteness goes, as it will very shortly, the world will collapse into anarchy and barbarism.

    2. So this nation, formerly composed wholly of white people has not been exploited by the darker skinned people from other parts of the world who have come here and taken over our public services? It’s all just a psychosis?

      Isn’t systemic racism a psychosis? And BLM?

  77. Take a deep breath…

    MoD civil servant sues over ‘attack on white people’ in diversity course

    Civilian worker claims ministry harassed him by making research called ‘The Psychosis of Whiteness’ available as resource for managers

    By Telegraph Reporters • 10 July 2023 • 2:20pm

    A Ministry of Defence civil servant launched a discrimination claim after a diversity training course featured an academic paper which he claimed attacked white people.

    Daniel Powell claimed the MoD had harassed him by making research called “The Psychosis of Whiteness” available as a resource for managers who were running the mandatory “Operation Teamwork” exercise.

    An employment tribunal heard that the paper, described as a “detailed academic treatise”, is an analysis of two slavery films and defines “whiteness” as a “Eurocentric worldview that produces the privileges of white skin which can become normalised and invisible”.

    Mr Powell, a civilian based with the MoD in Glasgow, claimed that the paper suggests white people are “psychotic, cannot be reasoned with and must be destroyed”. He sued the Government for race discrimination and harassment, claiming the way that “diversity and inclusion” is being implemented within the MoD breaches the Civil Service Code as he considers that it represents a “Left-wing and Marxist political ideology”.

    His case has been dismissed, however, because while the tribunal found that the “Psychosis of Whiteness” paper had been part of the material given to managers, Mr Powell had “fundamentally misread” its meaning. It also concluded that the MoD had never directly disseminated it to staff, had never used it in training, and did not endorse its contents.

    MoD ‘taken over by subversives’

    But an employment judge did say it is important for democracy that papers like this “challenge” people’s views and, as such, its use by the MoD could not be found to be discriminatory against its staff.

    The tribunal in Glasgow heard that Mr Powell, who works in a witness liaison role in the ministry’s litigation team, began working for the department in 2005. As part of a claim, he said he believes that the MoD has been “taken over” by its diversity and inclusion team – describing them as “radicals, subversives and insurgents”. He alleges that this team has waged “psychological warfare against staff and the British public in general”.

    A tribunal report said: “[Mr Powell] has formed the view that the way in which diversity and inclusion is implemented in the MoD’s organisation goes against government policy and is divisive. He objects to certain… concepts underlying this, such as critical race theory, which he views as an attack on white people.”

    The paper was published in 2016 in the Journal of Black Studies.

    The MoD said Mr Powell’s allegations that he was harassed by its diversity policies were “ridiculous”… Mr Powell simply has a skewed view and sees himself as a spokesperson for downtrodden white men,” the MoD told the tribunal.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/10/mod-civil-servant-sues-attack-white-people-diversity-course

    Here is the conclusion of the paper:

    Whiteness cannot be reasoned with through rational teachings and debate. It is a psychosis, hallmarked by a distorted view of reality that is in part reinforced by producing self-affirming hallucinations. For Whiteness, these hallucinations take place on screen, by presenting distorted narratives and interpretations of history. This article has considered how the only two British major motion pictures about the transatlantic slave trade present as such celluloid hallucinations, feeding the psychosis of Whiteness.

    Both Amazing Grace and Belle depend on remarkably similar discursive devices to minimize the legacy of slavery for Britain. In these British period dramas, far removed from the savagery of slavery, Britain is constructed as active in the fight to end the unjust slave system. Black agency, and even Black characters, are drained from the narratives to present Britain and Whiteness in the role of savior. Race is diminished as a form of oppression for more overarching issues such as class and gender. The narratives of both films allow the viewer to feel that slavery was wrong, but that it is in the past and Britain can be proud of its role, and herein lies the purpose of the psychosis.

    Western capitalism is built on and sustained by a system of racism that exploits the people and nations of the darker parts of the globe. It is also sustained by a series of myths of progress and enlightenment about the good that the West has wrought. The dissonance between the reality and these myths is too great for the system to survive, so Whiteness becomes a psychosis that prevents society from engaging in the disturbing reality. This psychosis of Whiteness is essential to understand when fighting racism. There is no rational argument to those trapped in a psychosis, as there is no reasoning with Whiteness. Until the conditions that create Whiteness are destroyed, the psychosis will govern the thoughts and actions of Western society.

    The films referred to:
    Amazing Grace
    Belle

  78. Par Four today – hard going!

    Wordle 751 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. It was!

      Wordle 751 4/6

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

      2. Gawd, isn’t that capped Dutch dyke ugly?
        How on earth must the rest of the competitors be feeling knowing that the judges thought that they were even uglier?

      3. Cripes. I hate to say this, but Bennie is more … um … what’s the word I’m looking for?

        1. What and have it confiscated when the Gov’t & BoE panic?!!

          (At least I could legitimately claim to have lost any horde in a boating accident….)

          1. If they feel in a confiscatory mood they’ll certainly grab your bank accounts before anything else.

  81. Another Birdie here

    Wordle 751 3/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Ooh, well done. Par four for me.

      Wordle 751 4/6

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

      1. Par Four today – hard going!

        Wordle 751 4/6
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
        ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. A lowly bogie 5 here.

      Wordle 751 5/6

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

  82. Tomato soup for tea, with mashed potato and soft roll.

    Had three teeth out this morning

      2. It’s you and your OH that we have mostly in our thoughts, Ann.

        I hope you find a sleep remedy soon.

    2. You’ll be £3 better off in the morning (if you remember to put them under your pillow!)

    6. Ouch! Will you be having any kind of replacement? When the last of my wisdom teeth was extracted it had an abscess and looked disgusting. I have an implant replacing another tooth – one that had to be carved up and taken out in three pieces because the roots were splayed. All fun.

  83. ‘Night All

    Looks like the fix is in…………

    “Detectives have met with the BBC but there is no investigation “at
    this time” into allegations a presenter paid a teenager for explicit
    sexual images.

    The Metropolitan Police has said it is assessing
    the information discussed at the meeting and further enquiries are
    taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal
    offence having been committed.

    The force said there is no investigation at this time into the allegations which have rocked the BBC and led to frenzied online speculation as to the identity of the male member of BBC staff.”
    Meanwhile foreign sources are sparking a Huw & Cry……………….
    Edit
    Another 35grand??
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe31faa55d164e99a4e4c5b39b514e8f76aaec1639bf95db9dbd361b34dfe1d5.jpg

  84. That’s me for yet another sultry, uncomfortable day. Rain on the way – THEY say. I’ll believe it when I hear it.

    Saw Nurse – next apptmt Friday. Hole continues to yield “matter” after ten weeks. Antibiotics seem to make no difference.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – prolly ….

      2. Lottie…Taking liquid morphine for pain relief is wrong IMO. Shades of the Liverpool Pathway. A short term fix at best. You need to dilute a few drops in water or fruit juice before bed so you can get some relief. And for you not to go doolally when you do it you need to be sober.

        1. I tried some manuka honey on leg ulcers recently. Cleared them up in anout 10 days.

    5. I think we’ve got and had your rain, Bill.

      Absolutely bucketed down between 19:00 and 20:00 and now at 20:30 it’s trying again.

  85. I wonder if there is a correlation between BBC presenters’ wokeness and the number of malicious accusations!

    1. Our PM – a naïve, incompetent and inexperienced billionaire – is unfit for purpose and heading for the buffers.

  88. A 30-year-old has been charged with the RAPE of a woman at Bournemouth seafront

    AHMED AlMRYAM of Bournemouth was arrested this morning and charged with RAPE, INTENTIONAL STRANGULATION and assault occasioning ACTUAL BODILY HARM

    Dorset Police were called to East Overcliff Drive in Bournemouth at 7.18 am on Friday 7 July

    “Specially trained officers are continuing to support the victim, who has been updated with this development

    There will continue to be an increased policing presence in the area and officers can be approached by members of the public with information or concerns

    Ahmed Almryam will appear at Poole Magistrates’ Court today https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1678463042374213632

    #BrokenBritain

    1. Cultural norm. How dare we evil white colonialists criticise hallowed traditions.

      1. His lawyer will argue that he didn’t realise rape was a crime. Result: suspended sentence.

        2. And ‘indefinite leave to remain’ granted in case he would now be ‘in danger’ in his home country because of his filthy crimes.

  89. A NOTTLers are well aware, I’m not a numbers person; but these factoids I found eyepopping/depressing.
    Stephen Daisley in the Spekkie.
    It’s a long article, so apart from this paragraph, I’ve only posted the link.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/westminster-must-take-responsibility-for-scottish-drug-deaths/

    “This scepticism is understandable given the SNP’s track record and the various practical obstacles. However, that doesn’t change the realities on the ground. There were 1,330 fatalities linked to drugs in 2021. More people were killed by drugs in Scotland that year than died by homicide in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Diego and San Fransisco combined. Between 2000 and 2021, 14,426 Scots died a drug-related death. For perspective, that is more than four times the death toll in the Troubles from 1969 to 2001 and more than three times the number of Israeli civilians killed by Palestinian terrorists since 1948. Or, put even more starkly, every eight hours in Scotland someone dies from drug misuse.”

    1. Yet the pretendy ‘leader’/FM Useless wants to decriminalise drugs. That may well cut the price of the substances, thereby encouraging even more users. I wonder if he’d feel the same way if one of his own family was a druggie.

  90. Dramatic footage shows tensions mounting as protesters clash with police at a demonstration outside a hotel which reportedly sacked its staff to make way for asylum seekers.

    Protesters surrounded four star Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, which is reportedly making all 95 of its staff redundant to begin housing up to 241 asylum seekers across its 76 rooms.

    In chaotic video which has emerged of the protest in Wales, a man is heard shouting at other demonstrators: ‘Sit on the floor, they need four officers to move you if you sit on the floor.’

    The Home Office plans to convert the hotel into a housing facility for asylum seekers have seen the hotel fire 50 full time staff and another 45 part time workers.

    The plans are set to see the hotel house up 241 asylum seekers as they wait for their claims to be processed.

    However, the Home Office’s decisions garnered major opposition from local campaigners who are calling for asylum seekers to be more evenly distributed throughout the area.

    1. They have had the same problem in Wales for over four years. Since the stupid government fill the army base at Penally near Tenby.
      They missed the fact that there’s a firing range across the road.
      What fun that might have been.

    2. Why the heck didn’t they call for them to be sent back rather than spreading the problem? France isn’t war-torn (well, apart from the muslim bits, that is).

  91. A very big hero of mine. I think perhaps a lot of our Woke clergy could learn a lot about caring for their flock from this man:

    Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 4th Class Theodore Bayley Hardy, VC, DSO, MC (20 October 1863 – 18 October 1918), attached to 8th Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment.

    First he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 18th October 1917, the full citation was published on 7th March 1918:

    Rev. Theodore Bayley Hardy, A. Chaplns. Dept. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in volunteering to go with a rescue party for some men who had been left stuck in the mud the previous night between the enemy’s outpost line and our own. All the men except one were brought in. He then organised a party for the rescue of this man, and remained with it all night, though under rifle-fire at close range, which killed one of the party. With his left arm in splints, owing to a broken wrist, and under the worst weather conditions, he crawled out with patrols to within seventy yards of the enemy and remained with wounded men under heavy fire.

    — London Gazette.

    This was followed by the Military Cross (MC) on 17th December 1917, the citation following on 23rd April 1918:

    Rev, Theodore Bayley Hardy, D.S.O., A., Chapln.’s Dept. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in tending the wounded. The ground on which he worked was constantly shelled and the casualties were heavy. He continually assisted in finding and carrying wounded and in guiding stretcher bearers to the aid post.

    — London Gazette.

    Finally came the VC on 7th July 1918:

    Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy, D.S.O., M.C., T./C.F., 4th Class, A. Chapl. Dept., attd. Lincs. R.

    For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on many occasions. Although over fifty years of age, he has, by his fearlessness, devotion to men of his battalion, and quiet, unobtrusive manner, won the respect and admiration of the whole division. His marvellous energy and endurance would be remarkable even in a very much younger man, and his valour and devotion are exemplified in the following incidents: —
    An infantry patrol had gone out to attack a previously located enemy post in the ruins of a village, the Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy (C.F.) being then at company headquarters. Hearing firing, he followed the patrol, and about four hundred yards beyond our front line of posts found an officer of the patrol dangerously wounded. He remained with the officer until he was able to get assistance to bring him in. During this time there was a great deal of firing, and an enemy patrol actually penetrated between the spot at which the officer was lying and our front line and captured three of our men.
    On a second occasion, when an enemy shell exploded in the middle of one of our posts, the Reverend T. B. Hardy at once made his way to the spot, despite the shell and trench mortar fire which was going on at the time, and set to work to extricate the buried men. He succeeded in getting out one man who had been completely buried. He then set to work to extricate a second man, who was found to be dead.
    During the whole of the time that he was digging out the men this chaplain was in great danger, not only from shell fire, but also because of the dangerous condition of the wall of the building which had been hit by the shell which buried the men.
    On a third occasion he displayed the greatest devotion to duty when our infantry, after a successful attack, were gradually forced back to their starting trench.
    After it was believed that all our men had withdrawn from the wood, Chaplain Hardy came out of it, and on reaching an advanced post asked the men to help him to get in a wounded man. Accompanied by a serjeant, he made his way to the spot where the man lay, within ten yards of a pill-box which had been captured in the morning, but was subsequently recaptured and occupied by the enemy. The wounded man was too weak to stand, but between them the chaplain and the serjeant eventually succeeded in getting him to our lines.
    Throughout the day the enemy’s artillery, machine-gun, and trench mortar fire was continuous, and caused many casualties.
    Notwithstanding, this very gallant chaplain was seen moving quietly amongst the men and tending the wounded, absolutely regardless of his personal safety.

    — London Gazette

    He was wounded in action when again trying to tend to the wounded and died a week later in Rouen, France, on 18th October 1918, two days before his 55th birthday.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Theodore_Hardy_VC.jpg/220px-Theodore_Hardy_VC.jpg

      1. I wouldn’t like to presume on God’s Good Grace, but I think it fair to say he was waved through the Pearly Gates without so much as a nod.

    3. Extraordinary courage.

      I have a great uncle who won a VC. Several family members on the distaff side, who served in the army in WW2 were very disparaging of the fact that my father worked in the Navy on radar gunnery as an electrical engineer, instead of being front line.
      I took a lot of pleasure from showing them my great uncle’s picture with the VC on his chest.

  92. Forgive my cynicism, but this stinks. It’s getting worse and worse,.
    What is being dribbled out by those turds in charge (TIC)

    Teenager at centre of the ‘BBC sex pics scandal’ says nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the male presenter and that claims made by their mother are ‘rubbish’ – as police say they are NOT investigating allegation
    A lawyer for the teen says their client had denied the claims made by the Sun
    Police today insisted they are not investigating the unnamed BBC star involved

          1. Had a squirrel in the basement of the house in CT. Called animal control and they came but no sign of wee beastie. It was winter so we put a long plank up and opened the window a touch. Put a trail of peanuts up the plank and next day, no peanuts and no squirrel. Guess it worked;-)

          2. Bad news. Noises from the loft just now. Checked the fresh mortar and the bloody beastie has created a fresh entrance. Squirrel Trap being delivered tomorrow!!

          3. I will not relay that to our two squirrels outside here- Nutkin and Cyril.
            They are buggers in the house- can chew through wires etc. Good luck.

          4. Spray the entrance and the hole with hornet nest destroyer.
            So far it has always worked here to discourage unwanted neighbours.

          6. No way do I want 50 ‘Shades’ of Dray in the loft! Once I’ve caught the offender I will use quick setting concrete to plug the entrance just in case it has invited friends in!

    3. Well I hope the “Teenager at centre of the ‘BBC sex pics scandal’ ” gets payoffs not only for itself but for all its other genders.

    4. Nicked

      The government, the police and the BBC have spent all day deciding how to
      cover this story up because he’s too big and too connected to people in
      the establishment, including the Royal family, to be exposed.

      Shortly after rhe met Mark Rowley announced that there was nothing to
      investigate, the boy involved puts out a message via a high powered international

      law firm(as every crackhead does) saying that his mother
      has exagerated the claim and nothing illegal has occurred.

      Clearly the family have either been bought off or threatened with prosecution.

      The establishment have closed ranks today in an extremely sinister way

      I can smell it

  95. ‘They/them’ quote marks not discriminatory, non-binary teacher told

    Head’s complaint about local newspaper article dismissed by media watchdog

    By Craig Simpson • 10 July 2023 • 3:47pm

    A non-binary teacher has been told that putting “they/them” pronouns in quotation marks was not discriminatory, after complaining to a media watchdog that the punctuation made their identity appear “ironic”.

    Lindsay Johnson, the principal of a college in Skipton, North Yorkshire, had complained about the contents of a local newspaper article about an extended absence after being allegedly escorted off campus.

    The teacher told the press watchdog that the article was discriminatory and harassing because it included the pronouns in quotation marks, claiming that this expressed “irony towards their identity as a non-binary individual”.

    The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) investigated the claim regarding the article published by the Telegraph and Argus newspaper, but the watchdog has published a decision which states that “the placement of inverted commas around their pronouns did not represent intimidation or harassment”.

    Johnson was referred to in an article from February 2023, with the piece explaining that the teacher “presents as non-binary using the pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them’ and the title, Mx”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e785b8c20bd508a15dc549eefb086340751ed20f7e4588e842f6f99ddc493b5.jpg
    Lindsey Johnson, principal and chief executive of Craven College, Skipton

    The piece reported that Johnson, referred to using “they” and “them” pronouns in quotation marks throughout, had allegedly been escorted off the campus of Craven College in Skipton in October 2022, and that staff had received an explanation of the principal’s subsequent long absence.

    Ipso received a complaint from Johnson regarding the article, summarised by the newspaper watchdog as: “They considered the online article’s use of inverted commas when referring to their pronouns was intended to express irony towards their identity as a non-binary individual.

    “They considered this to be pejorative. In addition, they considered that the reference to their gender identity inferred that there was some kind of issue with their gender identity, as it was not otherwise relevant to the story.”

    It was claimed that this breached standards regarding harassment and discrimination, claims which were contested by the Telegraph and Argus, which nevertheless removed reference to Johnson’s gender identity and removed the quotation marks placed around pronouns.

    Ipso subsequently ruled that the reference to Johnson’s gender identity was included as a means to explain the inclusion of the teacher’s preferred “they/them” pronoun throughout the article, and was not intended to be pejorative.

    The watchdog’s decision on the complaint added that “quotation marks can be used for a variety of reasons”, and stated: “Referring to the complainant as non-binary and the placement of inverted commas around their pronouns did not represent intimidation or harassment.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/10/quote-marks-around-they-them-pronouns-not-discriminatory

    I wonder how many of our surviving D-Day soldiers who are still compos mentis are reading reports like this and thinking “Fantastic! This is what we fought for!”

    The Telegraph has missed a trick by not quoting ‘non-binary’.

    EDIT:
    BTL
    Michael Ward
    One teacher gets stabbed, while this one spends his day polishing his pronouns, so to speak. Clearly there is diversity in the teaching profession.

    Barney Tobin
    I tried but can’t read any more of this utter cr**.

    Vee Eight
    I’m fed up with the whole thing – no wonder why kids are knifing teachers in schools, they’re being driven mental by all the nonsense they’re being taught and, ironically, it’s the teacher teaching common sense that’s been knifed.

    1. Not Craven after all, how apt.

      I kept the allotment adjacent to that of the then editor of the Telegraph and Argus in Bradford.
      We spent many evenings discussing the news and how it was presented in the papers. This was at at the time of Peter Sutcliffe and the rapist who drilled through locks.
      Arnold was very discreet, but it was very clear that he was working hard with the authorities. It was fascinating to hear him explaining how “News” worked at the sharp end
      As a result of his very measured approach to the two cases he was appointed to various oversight organisations.
      A very interesting man and a privilege for me to have known him informally.

  96. May I remind you all of the Dunning Kruger Effect- when you are too stupid to realise how stupid you are. I present the government and the MSM.

    1. Actually I’m with ogga on this one. It’s the electorate that’s stupid. The government and MSM are getting what they want.

          4. Interesting thread but the original post asks for captions. Which is what my post was. 😊

          6. Just wondering how you are today, Ann? Hoping you’ve had some relief from the pain.
            I’m off to the hospital tomorrow to have my ‘wound’ checked. While I’ll be glad to be rid of them, I’m hoping the nurse won’t rip off the remaining (and still well stuck) bits of steri-strips, in case that action interferes with the stitches beneath. Coward? Me? Yup!
            Goodnight, and best of luck for a restful night.

          7. Been dreadful today. Have been to bed and now back down… I did post earlier about how awful is was. We have to juggle here as husband has issues also. Am so fed up with it all.
            Good luck tomorrow.

          8. I’m so sorry to hear this; it seems never ending for you.
            I was only here for a short while this morning, then popped back a few minutes ago in the hope of catching you.
            May you at least have a restful night – courtesy of some good vino and/or meds. Goodnight Ann.

          9. After this morning’s yuk I can’t take much more. – may try and bring appt ahead tomorrow. Other than than I can’t think of of what to do….

          10. Being constantly in great pain is unbearable, and can’t be allowed to continue. You definitely need to call them – and lay it on with a massive trowel when you get through all the button-pressing hoops to a human.

          11. I’m sure you’ll find a sleep cure, Ann.

            My best soporific is a glass of ruby port, preferably LBV, just before bed.

  100. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to support Sweden’s bid to join Nato, the military alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg has said.
    At a briefing, he said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would forward Sweden’s bid to the Turkish parliament and “ensure ratification”.
    Earlier, he had appeared to suggest Turkey would back Sweden if the EU re-opened membership talks with Ankara.
    Turkey has criticised Sweden for hosting Kurdish militants.

    Delightful I’m sure….

      1. Erdogan knows full well that NATO will not admit Ukraine and cares next to nothing for Sweden being admitted. He is playing games and as ever trying to provoke Russia for his own ends.

        It is more to do with the Syrian conflict than anything else. Russia has been bombing Turkish backed operatives in the Syrian conflict.

        NATO relies on US money, hardly any of the other members contribute, despite the fact that NATO exists to ensure the security of Europe. Trump when elected will likely stop funding the whole NATO shebang.

    8. Did I miss something? “Leave England” – looks awfully permanent, Ashes. Or is it a long vacation somewhere nice?

          2. I have no idea – maybe they are friends? What’s the connection with Buenos Aires?

      2. I have decided to return to Buenos Aires for as long as they’ll have me. Funny world, where emigrating to a country with a batshit crazy economy feels like a good move…

        1. Exciting! I wish you all the best, and hope we’ll still see plenty of comments from south of the Equator. We need an Argentinian correspondent… 😉
          I guess you need a residency permit and all that kind of stuff?

          1. Yurss – the logistics are proving… interesting. May have to wing it for a while, but then I’m pretty used to that! 🤣🤣

  106. The MSM in a couple of years:
    “Why are kids still being killed in the Ukraine by these horrific submunitions?”

    2. Too true. Biden the Evil Fool will be dead by then and other world events will obscure the pure evil behind the US proxy war in Ukraine and the Ukrainian mafia intent on sacrificing every Ukrainian for personal gain. This fact sums up Zelensky and his cohorts, mirrored by his supporters in the US.

      Harold Wilson I believe stated “a week is a long time in politics” and so it is with the collective memories of most when regarding the numerous foreign wars in which our collective countries have participated.

      As ever we leave it to historians to search for the truth and publish, we trust, the facts. Zelensky was likened to Churchill at the start of the Ukraine War. I prefer to liken him to a diseased rat searching for a safe way to jump from his rapidly sinking ship of state.

  107. Planning to have a bus trip into Derby tomorrow to see mentally ill stepson, he’s not been in touch for over a week and his phone’s switched off.

    G’night all.

  108. Evening, all. I wasted two and a half hours of my life at a PCC meeting tonight. One of the members said she had no faith in the CofE it was “broken”. I have no faith in the rectorette who seems Hell bent on turning the PCC into something it’s never been. She expects us to take turns to hold a prayer meeting before we start. When it’s my turn (assuming I haven’t resigned by then) I’ll do it in Latin.

    2. At school, we all dined in Hall and at lunch, teachers would join us and sit at the end of the tables. At one particularly awful lunch, the Rev. Barnett said the closing grace as “Thank God!” with much feeling in his voice.

  109. Why is it, no matter how much money is given to charities in Africa nothing ever improves there?

    2. They get fed, then have the energy to breed (but not to feed) and the whole cycle starts over …. and over….
      I can remember my old gran in the 1970s knitting for ‘the little brown babies., and saving pennies for them too.

    3. I believe that charity doesn’t work. Education, on the other hand, if it is not government sponsored, can be a life improving thing.

    4. Charity money is Mercedes money – money with which the tin-pot dictators can buy their luxury motors.

      1. Before the donated money reaches the tin-pot dictators much of it has already been creamed off by the CEO’s of the charities themselves.

    7. As I have said on many occasions the charities are the problem and not the solution.

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