Monday 11 April: If Putin is allowed to steal Ukraine’s gas he will retain control of Europe

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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707 thoughts on “Monday 11 April: If Putin is allowed to steal Ukraine’s gas he will retain control of Europe”

  2. ‘Morning, Peeps. A nice sunny day in prospect and – allegedly – a much warmer week to come.

    SIR – Am I alone in thinking that the Department for Transport is a little behind the times?

    The sign (pictured) currently in use to warn road users that there is a level crossing without a barrier or gate ahead, still features the silhouette of a steam locomotive.

    How many modern-day drivers have even seen a steam train?

    Keith Edwards https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89854972fee7e3688ad56fe2301ab889cab9b55ada9a8741d4110d747829f5bf.jpg

    If the supply of steam come dries up, as seems likely, then this rather charming and instantly recognizable road sign really will be out of date!

    1. It illustrates the point. If it was a diesel train, the sign would soon be nicknamed “Beware Mars bar ahead.”

        2. Bronica? Mamiya? Rolleiflex? Pentax?

          Other medium-format camera systems are available! 🤣

  3. SIR – Rishi Sunak’s wealth is not a problem (“Sunak faces questions over ‘blind’ investment holdings”, report, April 10). Thankfully – particularly during the recent lockdowns – we have had a Chancellor whose financial wealth was earned, not inherited, and who consequently understands money.

    Keith Mungham
    Potto, North Yorkshire

    SIR – We finally get a Chancellor who knows which way up to hold a spreadsheet and we nitpick about his wife’s legitimate tax arrangements.

    Nick Trevor
    London SW4

    Quite so.  I hold no brief for Sunak, but to hound his wife for a perfectly legal arrangement is a low blow.  It’s a pity that Sir Kneel and his grubby little party can find nothing else to shout about.  Perhaps it is because their only current policy seems to be a wish to soak the oil and gas industry with a windfall tax, and probably not just once, either.

    1. Steerpike
      Is Labour behind Rishi’s tax woes
      9 April 2022, 4:40pm

      Who’s out to get Rishi? That’s the question allies of the Chancellor are asking after a week of revelations about the Richmond MP. They include the non-domiciled tax status of his wife, Akshata Murthy, Sunak’s decision to hold a US green card and pay tax in America for his first 18 months in No. 11 and his own alleged links to tax havens. There have also been leaks over briefing battles, including the Treasury’s opposition to insulating homes in the energy strategy and a proposal to double the energy rebate.

      The timing of such stories – coinciding with Boris Johnson emerging from the darkest period of his premiership – has raised suspicions about Johnson loyalists seeking revenge for Sunak’s lukewarm support during partygate. ‘It’s all coming from No 10,’ one ally of Sunak is quoted as telling the Telegraph. ‘Ever since he sat down from the Spring Statement, it’s been one thing after the other. I don’t think it’s in anyone’s interest other than the Prime Minister’s.’ Another ally is quoted in the Times as saying ‘I’m absolutely certain that No 10 have got an operation against the Chancellor. Ukraine has only suspended the issues around Boris. They’re trying to hit the most credible contender.’

      Someone within government certainly does appear to be leaking, given the confidentiality surrounding personal tax affairs. The Mail reports that there is ‘white-hot fury at the Treasury’ over the leak of Murthy’s tax status, which had been revealed to ‘only a few senior officials to comply with conflict of interest rules.’ Yet it is by no means clear that it is Johnson lieutenants who are responsible. The finger of blame has also been pointed at ‘Labour-supporting officials.’ Remember that it was just last spring that some ministers feared there was a ‘Redthroat mole’ at the heart of government, wreaking revenge for Dominic Cummings.

      As usual with such leaks, the truth about who is actually responsible will likely never emerge. Mr S does note however that it was less than eight weeks ago that some prescient ‘Labour figures’ were telling the New Statesman that they thought the issue of ‘questionable tax practises’ would ‘eventually become a political headache’ for Sunak. This was because his wife’s wealth was ‘tied up in so many ventures.’ Excellent political judgement has been a rare thing in the Labour party in recent times, suggesting perhaps some level of involvement in Sunak’s recent woes.

      Cockup or conspiracy? Nostradamus or Machiavelli? Steerpike will leave that one to his readers to work out.

      2. Rishi Sunak is an MBA, and one of the few politicians capable of understanding figures, so undoubtedly he is disliked

        by the civil servants in the Treasury.

      3. How did he get a Green Card? Because he studied in the US? In any event some one with the right to permanent residence in the US surely has a conflict of interest with the interests of the UK?

          1. Well, he can leave the wreck of the UK any time. Handy lifeboat and rich wife. We surely need British politicians with all their eggs in the UK basket? The job is not like being a manager in a private business, it directly effects the lives, and pockets, of everyone in the UK.
            Nor do we have much choice as regards what is on offer, unlike beer or margarine.

    2. Someone decided to unleash an attack on Sunak over the weekend. I doubt it was Labour, because they don’t control the media. More likely someone suspected that Sunak might not be an obedient little globalist.

  4. SIR – My 88-year-old mother-in-law was installed in a care home last year. She has been forbidden to see her family for the past six weeks “because of a Covid case”.

    In the middle of this period, while locked in and attended to only by people wearing PPE, she caught and survived Covid with very mild symptoms. She is still locked up.

    Dr Simon Crewe
    Plymouth, Devon

    I can’t imagine what Dr Crewe’s family must be going through with farcical arrangement lije this one.

  6. SIR – We bought an electric car and are generally very pleased with it (“Beware: your new electric car could run out of steam”, Business, April 9). But why, oh why, did the Government not take control of the charging point issue? Why are they not standardised, so you can use any point, anywhere?

    On our first long trip to Cardiff, we had to make a stop in Ross-on-Wye, where allegedly there were four charging points. The supermarket one was out of action, and the two others in the town centre required rebooting. As the mobile signal was poor, we lost touch constantly with the telephone contacts to sort this out. We went to the last one, which actually worked, but the fitting we had was not right, until it was pointed out to us we had to remove a “little rubber bit” to connect. We missed the rugby match in Cardiff.

    There are not enough points on motorways, there is generally a queue and we end up answering questions from other motorists who are also on a learning curve. The Government has missed an opportunity to make the process easier.

    Sylvia Welberry
    Morecambe Bay, Cumbria

    Apart from the excessive cost of an EV, did she not see beforehand article after article in the press about the shambolic state of the charging network?  Is it only now that she is likely to face frustration and delay during a journey like this, when she could have bought a conventional ICE car that would have made the trip in one hop with room to spare?  She is now an unwilling participant in this government’s ‘net zero’ madness where longer trips are deliberately made more difficult!

    2. Interfear with the market and look what happens. There is only limited use for EVs.

      1. Yes, and they reached that optimum market position some years ago with milk floats!

    3. Morning, all. Bright and calm, again, in N Essex. Had to chuckle over the following:

      But why, oh why, did the Government not take control of the charging
      point issue? Why are they not standardised, so you can use any point,
      anywhere?

      Not only caught up in the government’s ‘Net Zero’ scam, Ms Welberry thought the government would behave with a bit of sense and plan ahead re charging points. Double whammy!
      Passing thought: have manufacturers/government planned to run a test drive programme including, non-motorway at night in winter; on A roads in all weather conditions; across counties with hills on A and B roads etc.? Surely a range of test drive scenarios should be run to ensure those with the money to buy an EV are fully informed. Or maybe not, for reasons that are obvious to thinking people.

  7. SIR – Lauren Almeida’s article on electric cars and their stated maximum ranges (Business, April 9) was based on a drive from London to Edinburgh.

    However, if you do this trip by motorway on a cold winter’s day – say, at 5C – then the quoted range of the cars tested will be almost halved. Do it when the car is three or four years old, and that halved range will be reduced again, as the batteries deteriorate with age.

    Manufacturers’ figures are based on a factory-fresh car in the best-case scenario. Potential electric vehicle buyers need to do their homework.

    Bill Parish
    Bromley, Kent

    Take note, all aspiring EV owners!

    1. Similarly, Hugh, manufacturers figures on heat pumps are worked on a very best case scenario.

      If you buy an heat pump be prepared for far higher electricity bills than manufacturers forecasts.

  8. As Brown blasts Putin, isn’t he forgetting something? 11 April 2022.

    Ian Sinclair, writing in Morning Star online, asks: ‘If Putin is a war criminal, why not Gordon Brown?’ Stating what no MSM commentator will, he declares that ‘allowing those who are brazen and unabashed breakers of international law and killers of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans to lead the condemnation chorus on Russia’s violations is establishment hypocrisy distilled’.

    ’Twas ever thus. Very few global leaders are unsullied, and fewer yet will ever face Nuremberg-style war crimes trials, regardless of how much blood drips from their hands. They are a pack of self-righteous jackals who should be reminded of Jesus’s admonition to the Pharisees: ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.’

    Amen to that!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/as-brown-blasts-putin-isnt-he-forgetting-something/

    1. I believe that there have been fairly recent changes to International law that mean the likes of Brown Blair Cameron Bush et al cannot be brought to account but Putin could be under the new rules.
      There was a recent analysis in the DT by a QC explaining the differences. (It made my blood boil).
      I can’t provide a link, I saw it in the herd copy edition.

  10. Good Moaning.
    And hear, hear…. I remember the old Passmore Edwards convalescence home.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/doctors-diary/time-nhs-recover-lost-art-convalescence/

    It is time for the NHS to recover the lost art of convalescence

    Appreciating the need for rest and recuperation would do much to address the current crisis in relations between doctors and patients

    Dr Michael Fitzpatrick11 April 2022 • 5:00am

    ‘The most helpful approach is not to think of illness categories as concrete, immutable destinies but as stories of the mind and body’

    In his new book, Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence, Edinburgh GP and writer Gavin Francis recalls local hospitals, sanatoriums and asylums where patients were once admitted for rest and recuperation, that have now been closed or redeveloped for other purposes. When I was a medical student at a London teaching hospital patients were commonly transferred, after 10 days in hospital for removal of a gall bladder or some similar operation, for another couple of weeks of convalescence at a seafront hotel in Clacton. These days it seems that you can have a heart transplant and expect to be home for the weekend, at the tender mercy of an NHS phone line.

    I recall that when I was a junior hospital doctor in obstetrics, women were expected to stay in hospital for at least a week after childbirth. This was becoming increasingly unpopular with mothers having their first baby, but was much appreciated by those who already had young children at home, especially those in less affluent circumstances. Now stays in maternity units are measured in hours rather than days, even after caesarean section deliveries. In his thoughtful reflections on the changing culture of medical practice, Dr Francis wonders whether the anti-institutional pendulum has swung too far away from the traditional role of the doctor and the hospital in the relief of suffering as well as in the restoration of function.

    The pandemic has brought renewed attention to the management of persistent symptoms of fatigue and debility as well as the treatment of acute illness. Because “everyone has a different tempo of convalescence” patients with long Covid will require different strategies to assist their recovery, “pacing” themselves according to their symptoms of breathlessness or exhaustion.

    The tempo of convalescence is dramatically at variance with the culture of urgency that prevails in contemporary medical practice, which emphasises “rapid access”, early diagnosis, fast-track treatment, and the vigorous rehabilitation of the gym rather than the restful recuperation of the seaside hotel.

    Dr Francis acknowledges both the benefits of scientific medicine and the disappointments of both patients and doctors at its limitations. He recognises the paradox that while categorising illnesses offers some comfort it can also “offer a false sense of definition, locking us into an expectation that becomes self-fulfilling”. He concludes that “the most helpful approach is not to think of illness categories as concrete, immutable destinies but as stories of the mind and body. Within limits stories can be rewritten.”

    Recovering the lost art of convalescence would do much to address the current crisis in relations between doctors and patients.”

  11. Jack Higgins, author who shot to worldwide fame with his novel The Eagle Has Landed – obituary. 11 April 2022.

    Jack Higgins, who has died aged 92, made his name with The Eagle Has Landed and became one of the most prolific and successful thriller writers of the 20th century.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Steve Lee.

    Another novelist, read by millions, who never was considered for the Booker because his book wasn’t pretentious, unreadable garbage read by no-one. RIP Jack.

    I think that I have read all of Higgin’s early books but like Mr Lee have never knowingly read a Booker Prize entry, let alone a winner. One suspects that like Pearl S. Buck that intellectual doyenne of an earlier and Reader’s Digest age that they will all vanish into deserved obscurity!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/04/10/jack-higgins-author-shot-worldwide-fame-novel-eagle-has-landed/

    1. One of the first serious adult novels I read was Pearl S. Buck’s “Command the Dawn”, set in The Manhattan Project, when I was about 13.

      1. To me, Anne, the book that caused me to think seriously about politics, was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand – that was in the mid-50s.

        Her follw-up, The Fountainhead, was also very thought-provoking.

        I too have read Schindler but the original was titled Schindler’s List.

        1. The film was Schindler’s list, which was adapted from the book Schindler’s Ark.
          It was published as Schindler’s List in America.

      2. I read Hilary Mantel’s first two books about Cromwell but they were a bit of a struggle.

        1. The first of those Mantel books is among the very few books that I have given up on and not finished!

        2. I’ve read them, but I agree that using the present tense is rather wearing.
          Shame, because behind that irritating conceit is good and atmospheric story telling.

  12. Do not forget Germany is paying for Russia to attack Ukraine with the ammount of gas they buy from Russia. Well done the leader of the EU.

  13. Do not forget Germany is paying for Russia to attack Ukraine with the ammount of gas they buy from Russia. Well done the leader of the EU.

  14. Do not forget Germany is paying for Russia to attack Ukraine with the ammount of gas they buy from Russia. Well done the leader of the EU.

  15. Good morning all. Bright but dry overcast start with a less cold 1½°C outside.

    I’m feeling a lot better this morning after an early night and a better night’s sleep, though the DT, still in bed asleep, had a couple of coughing fits through the night.

  16. Russian rage is spiralling out of control. 11 April 2022.

    There isn’t much choice on Russian TV any more: you can flick between war hysteria, bloodlust or sanguinary propaganda. Before Russia invaded, many analysts were sceptical of claims of imminent war precisely because there hadn’t been a media onslaught to prepare the population, such as in 2014 before the annexation of Crimea. Now, Russian state media are making up for lost time.

    The tone is becoming ever shriller as the media churn out conspiracy theories about how Ukrainian troops massacred their own civilians in Bucha to make Russia look bad, or pedal the line that to rid Ukraine of Nazis, even the idea of the country must be destroyed. This echo chamber of hysteria has unleashed on the Russian people a whirlwind of horror, anger and gore, which only justifies more war.

    This hysteria renders peace even less likely, as it makes it difficult for negotiations to progress, let alone succeed.

    Has this woman not read or seen the MSM? It’s like a Madhouse! Everything is either an Atrocity, Genocide or a War Crime! I’ve had to cut down on my already rationed exposure!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/11/russian-rage-spiralling-control/

    1. Well they are certainly describing the western media’s coverage of the conflict.

      1. Morning, Del. Another glaring example of the plummeting standards of a once-unimpeachable broadsheet.

  17. From today’s DT:

    COMMENT

    This is a perilous moment for the Conservative Party

    Mired in problems of its own making, this Government is drifting towards electoral defeat

    NICK TIMOTHY10 April 2022 • 9:30pm

    If the Labour Party had written a script for the Tories to follow, they would not have dared to come up with anything as outlandish or destructive as recent events have been for the Government.

    First came the fines, issued by the police, for officials who had breached lockdown laws and partied in their Whitehall offices. Then David Warburton lost the Conservative whip after allegations of drug abuse, sexual harassment and lobbying on behalf of a Russian businessman from whom the MP had borrowed £150,000. Next came the controversy about the tax status of the wife of Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the admission by Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary and former Chancellor, that he was once a non-dom and had benefited from an offshore trust.

    The details and legalities matter little. Javid has explained that he collapsed his trust and paid full tax on the assets he repatriated to Britain, while as Labour admit, nobody has suggested that Sunak or his wife, Akshata Murty, have acted illegally. But the accusation levelled at the Tories – that there is one rule for them and another for the rest of us – is a dangerous one, because it taps into a popular perception that they sometimes behave as the selfish party, concerned too much by the interests of a fortunate few.

    And of course, these are not isolated stories. We have already had the Greensill scandal, in which David Cameron lobbied ministers and officials on behalf of a company that sought to profit from the needless financialisation of public assets. We had the failed attempt to overturn the suspension of Owen Paterson, culminating in the Tory by-election defeat in North Shropshire, after Paterson broke the rules and lobbied ministers for a company that employed him.

    And we have the ongoing police investigation into whether Boris Johnson himself broke lockdown rules by attending events in his flat and the offices within Number Ten. Here there is already a concerted attempt by loyalists to downplay the significance of the moment should the Prime Minister be fined by the police. Their job has been made easier by the strength Johnson has shown in arming Ukraine and standing up to Russia. They are aided too by the sense that Sunak’s recent difficulties mean he is less likely, for now at least, to win the race to succeed Johnson. And they will use Sunak’s example as a warning against taking a chance on other less experienced candidates.

    Regardless of their good fortune, however, the loyalists’ arguments will not wash. It is not sustainable, for example, for Downing Street to keep the names of senior staffers or officials secret after they have been fined. Nor is it sustainable for fines issued in relation to events in the Downing Street flat to be kept secret. Nor can the Prime Minister or his spokesmen get away with refusing to accept that it will be established, if he is issued with a fine he accepts and pays, that he has broken the law.

    However much the loyalists may wish to convince themselves otherwise, the idea that a prime minister should survive a process that finds him guilty not only of breaking the law, but breaking extraordinary laws he imposed and implored the public to respect, is simply absurd. So too is the idea that he should survive after denying breaking those laws and issuing emphatic denials in Parliament.

    The Conservative Party might be capable of deluding itself thus, but if it does the public will draw very different conclusions. They will see a Government – already struggling with inflation and finding it difficult to get things done – closing ranks and showing appalling double standards.

    This is dangerous enough for the Tories, but if part of the strategy to prop up the Prime Minister is to limit and discredit potential successors, there follow two more problems. Keeping tall poppies away from high office will mean the quality of day-to-day government will continue to suffer. And it will risk a crisis of leadership following the Johnson premiership, whenever it ends, as the choices are narrowed unnecessarily. It is ridiculous that the likes of Tom Tugendhat and Jeremy Hunt remain on the backbenches, and ridiculous that some in Downing Street see only advantage in Sunak’s recent difficulties.

    With notable exceptions – such as Nadhim Zahawi’s vaccine rollout, Ben Wallace’s work arming the Ukrainians, and Priti Patel’s forthcoming plans to establish offshore processing for asylum claims – much of what the Government is doing is piecemeal, technocratic and often contradictory. The Tories want to intervene in the economy, but have junked their industrial strategy. They say they want lower taxes, but keep putting them up. They promise to level-up the country, but while Michael Gove has the ideas, he lacks the spending power for them to make a difference quickly enough.

    As with the questions of ethical standards in government, this lack of coherence can be explained in part by the Prime Minister’s style of leadership. Johnson has deliberately formed a third eleven cabinet, to avoid creating powerful rivals. He has set lofty targets, but neither formed detailed plans to achieve them, nor empowered ministers to do so. He has appointed a chancellor with whom he was always going to clash thanks to their contrasting methods of working and starkly different views of fiscal policy.

    Tired governments, made complacent by years in office, come to believe that their position of power will last forever. They lose sight of the bigger picture, drift into technocratic decision-making, and their fights with one another grow more important than those with opposing parties and vested interests.

    Unfortunately, this government now suffers all these ills.

    So now seems a good time for Conservatives to remind themselves of the binary nature of power in our parliamentary democracy. You either hold power, or you do not. You can change the country, or you can watch the other side change it in ways you dislike.

    The Tories face a choice between the privilege of power and the emptiness of opposition. If they are not careful they will soon suffer the latter.

    * * *

    A couple of leading BTLs:

    cameron munro9 HRS AGO

    The Tories are not just looking at defeat in 2024 but a wipe out, even with a Labour party totally unfit for government.

    Johnson and his One Nation Tory govt have brought it on themselves. Johnson thought with an 80 seat majority he was in for at least 2 terms. As many such leaders do he decided to ignore the 2019 voter coalition of Libertarians, Red Wall and Shire Tories and go for some Lib/Lab mishmash set of polices. He has delivered not a single policy that the 2019 voter coalition thought they were getting apart from Brexit. Even Brexit is not done – the NI Protocol hanging around like a bad smell.

    They were warned by some of us when they went all extreme lockdown and splashing the govt cash at the same as pushing extreme greenism. Nobody in Johnsons govt was listening.

    jim webb22 MIN AGO

    Build a bunch of new Nukes and sell the intermittent Wind power to the EU supergrid .

    Net Zero protecting the UK from Energy Instability from abroad .Don’t import it make ourselves.Zero CO2 make the Eviromental Marxist loons an irrelevance.

    Interesting from B1M Construction Magazine YouTube site

    Crossrail two year late and 13 billion over budget because of a geological fault at Bond Street and they had to revamp all the new stations Cladding after Grenfall Tower fire.

    HS2 scrapped or actually suspend the Eastern leg because of Covid.but still on schedule on budget.

    Hinkley Point ,london super sewer ,5G roll out ,Cardiff Suburban rail electrification all on schedule and…

    Mark Lilley
    6 MIN AGO
    Last one from me, as the dogs need to go out, but what I find totally bemusing is that Johnson having been elected with an 80 seat majority and so much hope from traditional and new Conservative voters seems to have spent the last two years doing his level to throw away what could, no should, have been the opportunity to give the country 15years at least of Conservative Government.
    Many of us have frequently listed the reasons we have for now despising this ghastly Government of Failures, but the real question must be “Why are they doing this?” I wish i knew the answer.

    1. None of it would matter if they hadn’t eliminated the Tory Right, who are the connection between the toff and working/lower middle class voters.
      Cameron and Gove thought they were so clever to destroy the new generation of Thatchers and Tebbits, and prevent them from entering the House of Commons – this is the logical conclusion towards which that greedy, gullible, stupid policy was always heading.

      The Thatcher and Tebbits didn’t fit in with the new Schab/Soros/Gates/Charles Conservative party.

      Now we’ve got nobody with the courage to stop Net Zero, conflicting with Tory voters. I doubt Schab, Soros and Gates and their pals care much about the future of the Conservative Party in Airstrip One.

      1. Well put, bb2. We’re being sold out to the Globalist cabal. For what, a mess of pottage? The value of the future will be for the ‘cabal’ and not the people. Shortsighted gross stupidity reigns at the top of the Tory party.

        1. Thank you. Mixture of bribes, flattery and threats, I should think. Has worked on the greedy and amoral since the dawn of time.

        2. Thank you. Mixture of bribes, flattery and threats, I should think. Has worked on the greedy and amoral since the dawn of time.

    2. It takes a BTL comment to raise the single, greatest reason why the Conservative Party is now a busted flush.

      The Net-Zero nonsense that at leasr 65-70% of the electorate see as fallacious nonsense.

    3. Boris Uturn Johnson. Priti ridiculous Patel. Grant ‘stinking rich’ Schapps. Michael snake Gove. Lizidiot Truss. Rishi runaway Sunak. Plus 10,000 spads.

      What a complete shower of shite.

      The Conservative party is finished for a generation.

      1. So, given that Labour can’t even define what a woman is, wtf do we vote for?
        I’m thinking it’s going to be a case of abstain and then batten down the hatches.

  18. Just made it
    Wordle 296 6/6

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    Morning all

    1. Very similar.
      Wordle 296 6/6

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      1. One better than yesterday.
        Wordle 296 3/6

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        1. Moi? One worse than yesterday!

          Wordle 296 4/6

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      1. A very good lunch, Bill but the drinks prices were rather painful. Two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc: £23.80. Two small bottles of Fevertree tonic: £5.70.

  21. Putin’s mysterious Facebook ‘superfans’ on a mission. 11 April 2022.

    The overall aim of the groups seems to be to promote Mr Putin as a hero standing up to the West, with overwhelming international support.

    The images often show the Russian leader “walking confidently, holding puppies, staring longingly into the camera, saluting troops, and riding an array of wild animals, including bears and lions”.

    These groups have gained more than 100,000 new members since the start of the invasion on 24 February.

    Sour grapes? In the last six weeks the BBC and the rest of the MSM have probably carried out the greatest disinformation and demonization campaign in history about Putin and Russia. It even exceeds the Covid 19 program. I haven’t yet noticed personally that it has had any effect on the ordinary person.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-61012398

    1. Is it too early to believe that the incessant ‘C’ word programme of lies and obfuscation has woken up more people and hardened their attitude towards the government directed MSM’s propaganda on so many issues?

      1. Morning Korky. I did think to put in a comment about that but instead added the cachet about personal. I don’t actually know if the great mass of the population have swallowed all this guff but it is difficult to see how it could not! It pervades every MSM outlet of every description!

        1. Agreed.
          Our local CofE church is flying Ukraine flag.
          Only to be expected when you look at the previous and current ABCs.

          1. Sitting at the Bar last night there was a collection bucket and Ukraine flags. Now that i think about it…that was what ‘triggered’ me.

          2. I played the keyboard for a local charity do in aid of the Ukranian refugees. We limited attendance to 40 people because of covid and raised £500 which went to the Red Cross appeal

          3. I was asked last night to make a donation to the Ukraine. I passed and muttered, “I’ve given at church”. Not entirely untrue as my church wanted bandages and paracetamol and I contributed to that.

        2. I went to my local yesterday for a quiet pint – I’m one of today’s fourball sponsored by my local at the Prestwick GC charity day and wanted to synchronise clubs – there were a few friendly comments along the lines of ‘Hello stranger’, as I’ve not been in since the 6 Nations rugby ended.

          As ever, some wanted to hear my opinion on troubles to the East and, true to form, I was the only one who hadn’t swallowed the meeja angle. Everyone else in the group was convinced Putin was the devil himself and that Zelensky walks on water.

          I mentioned that the current trouble began as the Soviet Union collapsed – we all know that it goes back much further than that but even mention of 1991 was surprising to many. Before commenting on how Clinton and co reneged on so many of the earlier agreements as NATO and the EU pushed their wagons East. To no avail, they’ve drank to deeply from the meeja well.

          The upshot, we are friends, we disagree on Ukraine, the vax and many other meeja politico sponsored nonsense. So having discovered that, we agree to disagree and we carry on getting our rounds in.

    2. Boris looking lovingly into Carrions eyes. Boris holding Wilf upside down. Boris letting Dilyn lick his face just after the dog had licked its arse…..

    2. I made the mistake of reading down, Belle. Those with excessive blood pressure should avoid reading about the latest eco-BS by the XR nutjobs.

  23. 351941+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 11 April: If Putin is allowed to steal Ukraine’s gas he will retain control of Europe

    To me this smacks strongly of ” Ho look over there what putin is up to in regards to the eu”

    All the while the front bench coalition political millionaires are following their own policies in the United Kingdoms parliament safe in the knowledge that the herd majority will continue to support the party name regardless of consequence’s to country,the Dover coalition (all overseers inclusive) is a prime example, they are bringing in the NEW ELECTORATE that can be sent to any part of these Isles that is showing signs of
    patriotism breaking out, priti is doing a damn
    fine job directing placement operations.

    1. No need for it for people with white skin that don’t wrap themselves up in curtains all year round

      1. I would ditch the sugar as it is not necessary. There are sufficient sugars in the flour to feed the yeast. Try it.

        1. Morning Grizz, I use gluten free flour so unfortunately I have to add sugar and also eggs

          1. Morning, Spikey. And I bet your bread is delicious. The gluten-free cakes that a gluten-intolerant friend bakes are very moreish too.

          2. It is when it’s freshly baked but after a day it’s better as toast because its texture is like cake. I have 2 slices of the toast every morning after my porridge

      2. Got my rye sourdough loaf, which I started last night, just baking in the oven now.

          1. It’s more finicky to bake from start to finish, but I’ve been addicted to it for 16 months now. Once you get the method rolling it’s as easy as making a plain white loaf, just more steps.

    3. If M&S were owned by the grasping Markle couple, they would be trademarking the word ‘just’.

  25. I was reflecting on the 21st century history unfolding in central and eastern Europe as I write.

    A few years ago, I pondered the resurgence of Vienna within the heart of the continent, rather than the backwater it was during the Cold War. Judging by the number of multilingual notices cropping up there, I saw how Austria deeply wants its empire back, to give justice to those grand imperial buildings in its capital, and is forging friendships with Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia and Bavaria. Nothing like the Habsburg Empire, since times have moved on, and an enlarged and enhanced Visegrad Group within the EU would do just as nicely. It would move the pivot of Europe away from Benelux and into its true heart.

    I also wrote at the same time how Erdogan has aspirations to revive the Ottoman Empire – with a new Caliphate based in his country, rather than Arabia. If Byzantium can head Christianity for a while, then why not Islam?

    Now, following the emboldenment of Ukraine at the hand of a brutal Russian invasion, I see a third piece emerging, also dating back to the same period – the Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth, with its major cities of Warsaw, Vilnius and Kyiv, to be followed in due course by Minsk. Again, it would itself claim an affinity with Visegrad, shifting the axis of Europe up and down the Danube, the Vistula and the Dnieper.

    Now, it is Russia that becomes a backwater, and certainly not what Putin intended when he embarked on his “Special Military Operation” adventure.

    1. You are obviously aware that there was no such place as Ukraine during that period of history. It was occupied land by the Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth. Thus reinforcing the Russian contention that Ukraine is an artificial construct, a country without a history. I also posted almost at the very start of this conflict, a British history of Russia, from its very beginning under Rurik 824–879 until the Russian Revolution. Not once in the entire documentary is Ukraine mentioned, Kiev is, as a Russian City, as well as several other places that you are supposed to believe are Ukrainian. I’m aware that you are only doing a “thought experiment” but I don’t understand its relevance to the present situation since all you say simply reinforces the Russian contention that Ukraine as a country is a myth.

      As for Erdogan, his foolish policies have guaranteed that he will go the way of all things, maybe from a lamp post, considering that he has left the Turks in the impossible position of being on the verge of starvation thanks to inflation entirely brough on by his Islamism.

      The EU will fall apart of its own accord, its adventurism and authoritarianism will see to that.

      1. History is constantly inventing countries. Belgium is an invention. Israel only existed in scripture after Judaea and Samaria were renamed ‘Syria Palaestina’ by the Romans nearly 2000 years ago. East Prussia became a Russian province after WW2. The UK did not exist before the 1700s, and the Republic of Ireland has only existed since the 1920s. Some nations still do not exist – I feel that the Kurds were very badly treated after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire a century ago, and have earned their nation after bringing order and stability to their province in Iraq, and then clearing the Euphrates of Islamic State when all else failed in this task. Many folk consider ‘Kurdistan’ an artificial construct, based on a legendary confederate empire from many centuries ago, but I am happy to fly its flag.

        For me, I was first aware of Ukraine in the early 1960s as a territory on the ‘Risk’ game board, which also included Moscow within its borders.

        My feeling is that modern history also validates nations, and Ukraine’s brave resistance under Zelenskyy has earned its status as a bona-fide sovereign nation in its own right.

        1. This is the reality of your “brave Ukraine”. Which is not to dispute the fact that the people of Ukraine, led down the garden path by politicians are not brave. But it is bravery without purpose because they are not going to get what they want either from the West or from Russia. They will end up in exactly the way that both the West and Russia wants. That is, a neutral state and not a member of NATO. This war is not about Ukraine and it is naïve to think it is. And, like most, you ignore the 14 thousand Russian speaking Ukrainians as well as the 44 children murdered by their own government by the use of the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who arbitrarily bombed Donbass in a terrorist act since 2014, all because they wanted to be treated in exactly the same way as non-Russian speaking Ukrainians. The idea that Ukraine is a “Democracy” is pure cant put out for propaganda purposes. But, you and most Westerners, subject to propaganda, even more outrageous than that used against the Germans in WWII you probably wouldn’t know that. It is, of course, why all sources of an alternative narrative have been shut down in the West, they don’t want people to know the truth because they are the liars in the first place, not the Russians.

          Is Ukraine a democracy?
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gorD1TGd0tI

  26. Good morning folks, an overcast morning with a light breeze. I’ve just finished ironing my shirt and buffing my shoes as I’ll need to be booted and suited for lunch at the Prestwick GC charity day. This will be followed by 18 holes around the course that hosted The Open for the first 11 years. Sadly the forecast is for the wind to pick up and perhaps a spot of rain as the afternoon goes on. Hopefully lunch will act as ballast and I’ve packed plenty of golf balls.

      1. A four time winner and a founding member of Prestwick St Nicholas GC; the course my golf balls call home, as they wander freely around the gorse.

    2. Good morning Fergal. A nice day here in West Sussex, clear sky and 50f. Enjoy your lunch and your golf. Hope it doesn’t rain on you.

    3. Prestwick . how lovely, was last there in 1971 /1972… when Moh was flying Sea Kings with the RN.

      We lived near Hollybush .. and can remember the miners strike and Jumbo jets 747’s doing their flying trials .. over our house . Huge monsters and rather beatiful .

      1. These days, between the RyanAir flights and cargo aircraft, there is a procession of C-17s, C-130s and A400M doing circuits around the area with USAF C-17s and others passing through.
        Indeed it’s been like that for much of the past two years, which is why I was surprised when one of the Scottish rags decided to make a headline out of this activity. No doubt they hoped to tie it to the current nonsense just north of the Black Sea.

  29. PROJECT FEAR LIVES:

    NHS chiefs call for the return of masks and limits on indoor mixing as they accuse government of ‘abandoning interest’ in Covid and warn of ‘brutal Easter’ as infections hit record levels

    1. We’re disturbing GP’s with demands to see them for illnesses. Bizarre behaviour on the part of the public given the circumstances. It’s only reasonable we proles only get a phone call in between rounds of golf.

      1. What conclusions should one draw when so often one sees that those who have not been vaccinated within a millimetre of their lives fare rather better when they get Covid than those who have been triple pumped full of gene therapy?

  30. How to save money at the pump. 11 April 2022.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    Graham Bedford Pretty Polly • 9 minutes ago

    There is currently no diesel in the Norwich/Yarmouth area. But I did manage to get some petrol in a can for my old motorbike. Owning an EV does appear attractive at the moment, but not if you are a prole living in a terraced house with on street parking. These people are going to be forced out of car ownership, as per the globalist’s plan.

    I guess when things get really bad next winter the threads will be the most reliable way to find out what’s happening!

    http://disq.us/p/2obbqzc

    1. Good morning,
      Alleged relatives claimed, he hasn’t ‘got a bad bone in his body’. If he was such a saint, why was he carrying a machete? No mention of his skin so, coupled with him using a machete, we all know what his background is. Nothing but savage scum, probably fully funded by our taxes. I’m also guessing it was black on black.

      1. Good morning.

        Relatives said the suspect was acting normally in recent weeks and gave no cause for concern. “[He’s] never done anything like this, he’s never been in trouble with the police,” the suspect’s cousin said. “I’ve known him all his life, he’s not got a bad bone in his body. He’s always gone to school,” he added.

        Police negotiators are believed to have spoken with the family. Another relative added: “He’s a religious guy, he’s not a naughty boy, none of that stuff. He’s really nice and a religious guy, a load of people give him respect. We’re just shocked.”

        “A load of people give him respect”? What does that banal utterance tell you?

          2. Bit ironic really – those savages talking about ‘respect’. They give none and deserve none.

          3. I’m trying to find a meaning and I’m trying to write a song.
            But the words come out as clichés and they don’t seem to belong
            And I wish I were original and gained and earned respect
            And I wish my mind was real and not a pseudo-intellect.

        2. “He’s a religious guy.”

          Some religions advocate violence and murder against people who do not hold the same religion.

          1. That is why I have no need for any religion. Every ill of humanity can be traced directly back to religion and/or politics. I have my own set of ethics and I manage quite well.

      2. Back to the PC Blake-lock era.
        Why would any sane law abiding person need a manchette on the streets ?

    2. A police officer has been slashed with a machete during an attack in east London.
      Officers rushed to the scene at 11.50am following reports of a man armed with a machete suffering a mental health crisis at Skelton Road in Forest Gate.

      My bold/underline.
      Cannabis related?

  32. Have been on the phone for 30 minutes waiting in the queue to speak to my GP practice receptionist .

    I have a post covid cough and bunged up sinuses , really gunky… I just need an antibiotic .. thats all.

    The practice is overwhelmed , and I can’t get a phonecall from GP untill next week .. although I was advised to ring tomorrow at 8.30… just to get in the queue

        2. Sorry to hear you feel poorly Belle. Have you tried inhaling olbas oil or something like it? It can help loosen up the gunk on your chest. What about lemsip? Do hope you feel better soon. Perhaps a visit to your local pharmacy would help, I’m sure they would come up with some suggestions.

        3. Ask the GP for Flixonase nasal spray and use this after cleaning nostrils with Sterimar.

          It might be that you have Sinusitis in one or other of its forms.

          In my case, with similar symptoms, I was eventually diagnosed to have chronic sinus disease combined with late onset asthma.

          Edit: I also take Carbocisteine capsules which make the phlegm or mucus less sticky and easier to cough up or swallow.

        4. Once you have gone to the pharmacy and brought £100.00 of recommended cures. Pile eucalyptus oil on top too. Put it in hot water and breath that in. It is highly effective.

    2. Good morning, Maggie.

      I get rid of sinus congestion (very successfully) by injecting (from a huge 60ml syringe) a lukewarm saline solution up each nostril. This was advice given to me by an ENT surgeon, here in Sweden. You can buy the syringes from a pharmacy.

      1. My mother used to sniff up warm salty water – quite disgusting but it did the trick.

        1. A five-minute session over the bathroom washbasin is all that is needed. The feeling of relief afterwards is immeasurable.

          1. Good morning, Grizzly

            My mother used to get some Friar’s Balsam in a jug with boiling water and got me to breathe in the steamy vapour with a towel draped around the jug and over my head. It certainly cleared the passages but they soon blocked up again.

          2. As an RAF apprentice whenever we reported sick with a cold that what the treatment was twice a day. Soon got rid of it.

          3. Good afternoon, Rastus.

            My mother used to do the same with Vick’s eucalyptus rub in boiling water in a basin. Same towel ritual.

      3. The dawn chorus in North Africa would consist of birds singing and Arabs clearing their nostrils on the pavement. The result is any activity, even vaguely, of the sort you mention sends me rushing to the bathroom to worship the porcelain God. Even thinking of it makes my stomach rebel.

        1. I must have a stronger constitution than you, JR; not to mention a bigger desire for relief from sinusitis or rhinitis.

        2. Many years ago we briefly had an Indian family living in our little cul-de-sac, this was the morning routine for Grandad, Dad and his 4 brothers, each came to the front door and hawked up gobbits of vomit inducing goop. They stayed but a few months but when we heard they were due to move out in November 🎵I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas🎵 took on a very happy dimension.

        3. The dawn chorus in North Africa would consist of birds singing and Arabs clearing their nostrils on the pavement.

          I heard similar things were happening in North London not too long ago.

    3. I used ephedrine nose drops. Removed blockages instantly and the associated headaches vanished. Now withdrawn by NICE.

      1. Any idea why they were withdrawn? We have used them in the past, as you say, very effective. If they’ve been withdrawn by not-nice-NICE, are they available over the counter?

        1. Not available at all. Previously they were limited to one purchase. I was told that this was because the stuff could be used to make crystal meth. But you’d need thousands of bottles I would suppose.

          1. Nanny state over-reach, again. The only people adversely affected are normal folk wanting some relief from miserable symptoms.
            Anyone wanting to use it for illicit purposes would know where and how to get the required quantities..
            it’s the same with paracetamol being limited to just 32 tablets at a time. Anyone wanting to top themselves that way will simply buy from several chemists/supermarkets. When we are next in Canada, we will buy an over-the-counter container of 500 paracetamol. Similarly, pseudoephridine (spelling?), can be bought in more practical quantities.

          2. If you buy the Paracetamol in Canada and bring it back here, customs will confiscate it. I brought that back as well as a bottle of Aspirin. Both were removed by Nanny’s agents at the border.

          4. The Canadians also confiscated three tiny bulbs of Lachenalia viridiflora on the way in, a present for someone. The barstools, said they could contaminate other plants. Nonsense invented by barbarians. So I was screwed by the Canadians and by the British. Would this be the longest screw in history considering the distance?
            https://live.staticflickr.com/7172/6427978185_3cdffbefae_b.jpg

          5. My wife brought a small cactus plant in Arizona, the Canadian customs tried to confiscate it because it is an endangered plant (in arizona?).
            They said that they were going to destroy the plant but in the end a little bit of common sense prevailed, we were allowedto bring the plant in.

          6. It is a perfect example of bureaucratic stupidity. An endangered plant? Oh dear, we better destroy it!

          7. Don’t put it in your carry on bags- pack it deep in your suitcase inside shoes or summat. I have successfully smuggled pork pies and jars of Branston into the US, neither of which are allowed, by hiding them well.

          12. This is where being a horticulturist comes in useful. Ephedrine comes from a plant, Ephedra sinica. Here is where you can buy the seeds
            https://www.zamnesia.com/uk/4429-ma-huang-ephedra-sinica-20-seeds.html

            Considering, apparently, the NWO is coming down the pipe and Klaus Schwab will get you if you don’t behave, it might be useful for people to start growing their own medicinal herbs. Use them yourself or trade them for the occasional sheep or barnyard fowl to eat!

            Seriously though. Things are going to start getting expensive so prudence is probably in order. Growing your own is probably a good idea. I am going to convert my small greenhouse into hydroponics for food just to see how it goes. Although I consider growing veg rather boring.

          13. As a PS, I forgot, sorry. Mormon tea is also a type of Ephedra and, I just checked, it is available on Ebay. The powers that be probably don’t realize what it is so it is available. I have noticed when it comes to the government and plants their methods of control are haphazard and often based on ignorance, so things get through that shouldn’t by the criteria they set up. DEFRA at customs is ignorance personified. Arbitrarily destroy plants and seeds on the most stupid and unscientific grounds.

      2. I used to use Sinotar, a herbal treatment that was excellent for sinus problems. It’s gone. Presumably a victim of the EU’s war on herbal medicines.

    4. Are you sure it’s a bacterial infection, Belle, if not then antibiotics will not work.

    5. OTC Sudafed might help? Sudafed “for Blocked Nose capsules – ublocks your nose to ease breathing, non-drowsy, with Phenylephrine hydrochloride effectively clears stuffy noses associated with colds and hay fever, resulting in a clear head” – says the blurb. I have used in the past to clear the remnants of a winter virus that simply wouldn’t budge and found it effective. Don’t get the Sudafed that contains paracetamol, there is less of the ‘active ingredient, it doesn’t work as well.

      For the cough, Buttercup Syrup we have always found works very well.

  33. France should take a leaf out of Brexit Britain’s book

    Tim Stanley: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/11/france-should-take-leaf-brexit-britains-book/

    I am not sure that I agree with the headline – the last thing anyone needs is a Boris Bodge Job.

    Some of my fellow Nottlers may remember that at the time of the last general election I said that if Farage caved in to Johnson and did not contest Remainer held Conservative seats then the best Johnson would achieve would be a watered down Brexit.

    With none of the ‘advantages of Brexit being taken, with the disgraceful treatment of British fisherfolk, with the mess in Northern Ireland with the EU still holding sway there then, as I feared we have not got a proper Brexit. This BTL comment makes a similar point – there is too much wokery in the existing Conservative Party and unless some conservative forces can have more influence on the government then the Conservative Party will soon be dead and buried.

    BTL
    We desperately need a back bench rebellion from the Conservatives.

    If 50 Conservative backbenchers resigned and joined the Reform Party and won enough seats in the by elections to to form a coalition with the Conservative Party then Johnson would be forced to honour his election promises, get Brexit properly done, end the prosecutions of veterans who fought in Northern Ireland, restore our borders to restore our fishermen’s waters and take firm control over illegal immigration etc. etc.
    And then, who knows – a real Conservative government in coalition with the Reform Party would be far more secure than the absurd situation we now have.

    1. 351941+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      The hand will no longer be
      trusted as an honest gesture more like a shake down attempt, picking up YOUR spore.

    2. And if, like me, you are temporarily housebound and need someone to shop for you, are you then required to have your hand chopped off so someone else can use your chip?

      1. 351941+up

        Morning A,

        Their continued voting pattern has without doubt created a hell on earth,
        mass uncontrolled immigration/ mass
        foreign paedophilia, covertly concealed for 16 + years ( ongoing)
        Jay report.

        On par with the active foreign felons the indigenous can clearly see the results of their voting pattern over the last 4 decades.

  35. No need to call last orders on the drunken monkey theory

    ‘The proclivity of humans to consume alcohol stems from a deep-rooted affinity of fruit-eating primates’

    HUMANS inherited a taste for alcohol from primate ancestors that gorged on fruit millions of years ago, according to a study.

    Robert Dudley, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, posited the so-called “drunken monkey” theory in 2014 based on his idea that monkeys used the smell of alcohol to lead them to ripe and nutritious fruit, and research suggests that there “may be some truth” in the hypothesis.

    Prof Christina Campbell, of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), studied fruit collected by black-handed spider monkeys in Panama and found they used the alcohol for energy.

    She said: “For the first time, we have been able to show, without a shadow of a doubt, that wild primates, with no human interference, consume fruit containing ethanol.

    “This is just one study, and more need to be done, but it looks like there may be some truth to that ‘drunken monkey’ hypothesis, that the proclivity of humans to consume alcohol stems from a deep-rooted affinity of fruit-eating primates for naturally occurring ethanol within ripe fruit.”

    In his book, Prof Dudley said some fruits known to be eaten by primates have a naturally high alcohol content of up to 7 per cent, half that of wine.

    But at the time, he did not have data showing that monkeys or apes sought out fermented fruits to eat, or that they digested the alcohol in the fruit.

    For the study, CSUN’S researchers teamed up with Prof Dudley to analyse the alcohol content in the fruits. They are conducting a parallel study of the alcohol content in the diet of chimpanzees in Uganda and Ivory Coast.

    Prof Dudley said: “The new study is a direct test of the drunken monkey hypothesis. Part one, there is ethanol in the food they’re eating, and they’re eating a lot of fruit.

    “Then, part two, they’re actually metabolising alcohol. Secondary metabolites, ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulphate are coming out in the urine. What we don’t know is how much of it they’re eating and what the effects are behaviourally and physiologically. But it’s confirmatory.”

    The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, was conducted at a field site on Barro Colorado Island, Panama.

    If you wish to see modern-day drunken monkeys, in their dozens, just stand outside any town- or city-centre nightclub at 2:00 a.m.

    1. Don’t,……….. i’m on ‘tenterhooks’ i have a cardio appointment this month and have waited over a year for it.

      1. Get yourself a little rubber boat, some dark brown shoe polish, ‘arrive’ on the south coast, speak a bit of broken English and …. voila! A GP will promptly examine you and refer you to hospital as a priority.
        Seriously though, the long delays for hospital treatment for serious medical issues is criminally negligent. I wish you luck!

          1. I forgot that essential part of the disguise.
            I’d never get away with it – my phone is only a 2015 Galaxy. Second hand at that but it works for me ….. not too technical and, what a shame, not enough space/memory for the NHS app.

    1. Mirror image eh !
      She’s paid about half a million a year by the public via the BBC.

      1. Another left wing parasite syphoning money off of people and in return giving them pap.

        1. The BBC are being the usual bunch of sickening bastards again over the french election.
          They use the caption Far Right candidate Marine Le Penn as many times as they feel at liberty to do so. They are through and through Pathetic.

          1. I don’t watch TV at all. If I did it would be damaged very quickly by me hurling heavy objects at it. The last thing I want contaminating my space is the liars of the BBC or the rest of the MSM. Apparently they even use those inane Soaps for propaganda. Why would anyone bother to watch TV? Had a wonderful time last night laughing myself to sleep with Robin Williams and other comedians on You Tube.

          2. Judging by coverage here, I am beginning to believe that is her name. – without exception, every mention carries the far right tag.

            Did she marry Fred Far Right?

          4. As I tried to convince my French friends who always refer to her as “extrême droite”.

  38. This map shows how dependent eastern Europe is on its lifeline energy sourced from Russia.
    Ukraine has as many nuclear reactors as the UK plans to have built in ten years time and oil and gas seem to flow through that country on its way to the west.

    In cardovascular terms, stopping Ukrainian energy transit is like giving Germany and Austris a stroke.
    That’s why Nord Stream 2 would be like an arterial bypass to keep a troublesome Ukrainian blockage out of Russia’s energy equation.

    The UK has enough fossil fuel reserves, clean energy sources and nuclear future proofing to be self sufficient.
    The only problem is that we are part of a global trading system where energy is now the currency.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f7470d5b0bc31fdec617011f1258c3a5e542eacb348ad84683a8911b86ae099.jpg

    https://www.nationalgeographic.org/photo/europe-map/

    1. More, it is government blocking the flow. I understand that they just want the tax revenue. I understand that they’re ignorant, desperate for the tax sewage.

      What they also don’t seem to understand is that we need energy like never before. If they won’t let us use it, then we must remove them. Permanently.

    2. The clot stopping the flow is the blasted government.
      The Thrombosis Party; sometimes wears a red rosette, sometimes a blue one. Makes no difference.

  39. Amateur cricket clubs on sticky wicket over threat to tea break

    FOR LOCAL cricketers, a ready supply of cakes, sandwiches and sausage rolls can often revive ailing spirits after being slogged around the field during a day’s play. However, the decades-long tradition of clubs offering teas for visitors, players and umpires appears under threat with more than 100 clubs now forced to abandon their mid-game staple.

    Cricket leagues say its members fear being sued if someone has an allergic reaction and there is no official guidance given by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The governing body refused to be drawn on the issue yesterday but its website states all food businesses must provide allergen information about the food they provide.

    Clubs are, however, unsure of their status and committees are confused and worried over who would be held liable if someone has an allergic reaction to a sandwich, cake or scone. Mike Mitchenson, chairman of the Eden Valley Cricket League, which covers Cumbria and southern Scotland, has told its 42 clubs they should no longer host teas to protect from a “[liability] situation”.

    Mr Mitchenson said: “I have to say that nobody on the committee is comfortable about having to suspend teas. A lot of clubs rely on players, wives, partners, making the teas and that creates a difficulty in getting official guidance. “I would really like them [the ECB] to give some clear guidance to all cricket clubs regarding food hygiene and the allergy laws and how clubs can be helped to make sure they could provide teas in a safe way without the risk of anyone being sued.”

    The ECB said they have no plans to issue any guidance on how clubs should prepare their teas and stressed it is left up to the discretion of each individual club if they want to host them.

    Peter Gardiner, the secretary of the Cumbria Cricket League, said approximately three-quarters of its members have decided not to offer teas any more.

    “It’s too difficult a thing for them [ECB] to make a decision on it, as far as the league is concerned. “They have just kicked it into the long grass and hoped that each league would specifically try to come up with a solution.” It has become harder for some clubs to put on a tea in the first place because of a dwindling of “tea ladies” to organise the spread, Mr Gardiner added.

    After two years of the pandemic, many clubs are now used to players providing their own food and drink for matches and see no reason to change.

    In 2020, England’s largest league, the Sussex Cricket League, which comprises 335 teams from 140 clubs, decided it would no longer be mandatory to serve refreshments for players between innings.

    But after the move sparked uproar, a re-vote led to its initial decision being overturned by 114 votes to 82.

    How much stupider is it possible for the modern-day variant of the human species to become? England’s national summer sport has been a staple part of the nation’s fabric since the late 16th century. Its traditions, including the provision of tea, is part of the legend. It is about time this modern woke brigade were given the sound thrashing they richly deserve!

    BTL: Much ado about nothing ! How often is someone taken ill because of an allergic reaction after a match ? How do you prove that that any allergic reaction was due to the food eaten during the tea interval ? I would think there is more chance of players being affected by handling a ball that might have been contaminated by animal droppings.

    No one is forced to eat what is produced. Leave it up to the players to decide. My wife and I ran a Charity and we went on a course run by the Council on food hygiene.

    1. Clubs should just display a sign saying that any food provided is eaten by the consumer at his/her own risk.

      1. It’s on a par with all the recent nonsense of daffodils being cut down in public spaces in case children eat them! The more of this BS I read, I wonder how I made it to the very young age I am now.
        Surely if you saw your child or any child come to that, beginning to chow down on some daffs you’d tell them to stop.

        1. Tut tut – that would be child abuse and/or hate crime. Children must NEVER be told to stop….

          1. Some kids really push you. My ex’s sister had three of the most horrible kids I have ever known. Yep, daffodils for them 😉

    2. “I would really like them [the ECB] to give some clear guidance to all cricket clubs regarding food hygiene and the allergy laws and how clubs can be helped to make sure they could provide teas in a safe way without the risk of anyone being sued.”

      I’m confused,……….. How’s that ?

      2. For goodness sake. Inform all visiting clubs that, should any of their players or supporters have food allergies of any kind, they should bring their own food.

    3. How absolutely pathetic we have become! I made sandwiches and pea and ham soup for cricketers when I was 7 years old. My Dad played rugby and cricket for a local team, my grandmother ran the sweetie shop, my Mum and the other wives did the catering! My sister helped with the cricket scoreboard (I wasn’t much good at numbers!) and I was allowed to take out the orange quarters at half-time! I haven’t died yet!

      1. Pea and ham soup? Why-aye, pet. I’ll ha’ some o’ that! My favourite!

        And made by a lass who doesn’t like pease pudding!

        1. A nah pet! But I was very young and I wasn’t allowed to refuse any food! We had to eat 5 of everything we didn’t like! My hated things were butter beans, broad beans, string beans, yellow split lentils and dried peas! Are you getting the vibe?

          2. Being an immediate post-war baby there were not many things I was allowed not to like. Baked beans was one of them, tripe was another. It was presented to me as looking like a cream, woolly blanket on a plate. It was liberally doused in vinegar. I obligingly tried a mouthful and choked. I scared my mother to death. She didn’t try that one on me again. As for the baked beans, I encountered them at other friends houses from time to time, they were not part of our family’s diet. I will eat a tablespoonful of them today if I must, but tripe I have not encountered from that day to this. It is disgusting stuff and is well seared within my memory.

    4. Our small volunteer run clubs are suffering the same attacks from officialdom.

      It started when the exhaust fan in the kitchen had to be updated to a stainless steel one. Then they came back to have the kitchen upgraded to commercial standards followed by a demand that all volunteers passed a food safety exam. We are now allowed to make a sandwich, but only if the weekly fire safety checks are completed.

      Catch covid at the club? Don’t worry, our liability insurance has doubled “because of covid”, the downside is that covid is excluded from risks covered.

      And so it goes on, making it harder to keep running

    5. Dig a large deep hole in the long grass beyond the boundary, sufficient for a cricketer, then take a photo and cover the hole safely.
      Find a stick of the sort the Chinamen use for killing pets who test positive and mount it on the wall in the clubhouse, alongside the photo.
      Inform anyone who wishes to eat or drink on the premises that allergies can be fatal.

    6. Dig a large deep hole in the long grass beyond the boundary, sufficient for a cricketer, then take a photo and cover the hole safely.
      Find a stick of the sort the Chinamen use for killing pets who test positive and mount it on the wall in the clubhouse, alongside the photo.
      Inform anyone who wishes to eat or drink on the premises that allergies can be fatal.

    7. Yet another harmless pleasure expunged from grey, joyless Blighty by grey, joyless apparatchiks – or just the sheer thought of these parasites descending on the little people.

  40. The floor people turned up. They started taking up the laminate and saw that there was no concrete, but chipboard underneath.

    And that chipboard was rotted. It’s dry, but the texture of polystyrene. Thus the chaps said ‘sorry mate, no can do. You need to call your insure.’

    So I have. And, I’ve had enough. I’m tired of this. I just wanted a new floor. I’m going to pootle and get the deposit back but first, I’m going to get a vast quantity of cake.

    1. What a bummer of the first magnitude. Why cannot just one or two things be easy??

      1. Yep.

        It would just be nice to have one thing – just one – that’s not a massive, expensive problem.

    2. Eat the cake, together with a suitable hot beverage, then thank your lucky stars that your property is not in the Ukraine, or Somalia, or even Scotland.
      Now look closely at the rotten cheapjack jerrybuilt floor and see it as an opportunity to make it good. A simple screed, or possibly someone could dig down and lay concrete, together with solid insulation foam and possibly underfloor heating.

    1. When you look at those websites what they ‘advertise’ at the outset only appears after much clicking forward. And is completely boring.

    2. You recovered, then?

      What on earth will you do when you have finished this mammoth task?

    3. That is some serious hard work. We once had a house with a very steep garden. Fortunately, the previous owners had built some hefty retaining walls and steps that wound to the top of the garden – the top was higher than the roof of the house.

      1. Our house is built into the hillside, so the back wall of the sitting room is underground and the upstairs is level with our neighbour’s ground floor. The garden is terraced. We have 11 steps up to the front door.

  44. And I came across this last night. With the passing of Robin Williams we lost a treasure.
    He does a piece about the Pope that I have never seen before, extremely funny. A good antidote to todays world. Wish he was still with us.

    Robin Williams – Parkinson interview [2002]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LaJDOD5cJI

  45. Oh well have fun peeps i must get on,……… I have at least got to try and cut the grass.

      1. At least the dogs and cats don’t worry what we think – but friends, even the sensible people who’ve been friends for years, still think the masks and vaccines are a good thing.

        1. I think the mark of a true friend is someone who you can fervently disagre with on most points, but still respect that person.

          And Mongo has never thought ill of me. I’ve confused him (when we tried ot teach him to count), annoyed him (with the constant house maintenance) and scared him, by lifting him bodily into the car and closing the boot on him.

          Only this morning we had a staring contest over who was most stubborn. We got half way around on our walk and he pops himself down. The only thing I notice is that the huffing and snorting has stopped.

          I turn around and there he is, sat on his bum a good hundred yards away. So I did the same. After a while he forgot who had started it and came to find me and we carried on.

          3. Of all the dogs I’ve owned, Wiggy was aloof, calm and a great thinker. He would take his time and consider life but when he acted, nothing would stop him. He was far more ‘my’ dog than the family’s. Maybe because we spent our formative years together before i met the warqueen.

            I remeember that when Mongo’s litter arrived, Wiggy would do that half eyes closed expression as he held down one of the brutes – always gently, but very firmly a ‘no, behave.’.

            Mongo charges at everything like a giant beachball and is very much more like Junior than me.

          4. My second Golden, Fred was my dog although he loved everyone. Smart, gentle, loyal and loving. Required an endless supply of tennis balls though 😉

          6. My second adult dog (as opposed to the family ones when I was a child) was a PhD of a dog. He had a vocab of getting on for a thousand words, I reckon and could SPELL! He was allowed everywhere in town (and even recognised when he ventured to other towns as well – he was greeted by name in Llandudno!), even places that had “no dogs” signs.

          7. All my dogs could spell some words…especially vet! We had to use different words. Fred could count also and sing on demand. “Tell us a story Fred.” Cue some yowling…great fun.
            How is Oscar doing today?

          8. He seems somewhat more relaxed – but then, I haven’t tried to take anything he considers his food off him! He “helped” me move a couple of rugs earlier – by standing on them every time I tried to shift them. We got there in the end, but it was harder work than it needed to have been!

        2. I mentioned the problems sportspeople are having after the vaccination to crazed teacher friend. She went ballistic, screeching at me and shouting. I suspect she needs relabelled as crazed teacher ex-friend.
          Bugger.
          Not many green bottled left… 🙁

        3. The old friend I thought I’d lost over the BLM issue is no longer with the boyfriend who triggered her fervour and another friend of hers whose opinion she rates highly has also refused the jabs, so our friendship is back on an even keel. When I wasn’t well, she was very kind and caring.

          1. I just avoid controversial issues with good friends – we have plenty of other stuff to talk about. Lots of people seem to have ‘colds’ at the moment – ours was no more than that, but some are getting ‘cold after cold’ and they are all triple jabbed.

    2. Evil savages. If they had to kill them, why couldn’t they have done it humanely?

      1. I think they must be doing it on purpose to stop people from becoming westernised and sentimental. They want their citizens to have children, not pets like the Germans do.
        It is horrible, and no regime has ever managed to police people’s personal preferences for long. They are on the same cycle of prosperity as the West, and this display of disgusting brutality won’t stop it.

          1. I have still not recovered from the internet videos on Chinese eating habits that I was foolish enough to watch in 2020. Not going to delve into that again!

    3. The Aliens in the Simpsons were worse – they had nails in their sticks.
      The Russians in Ukraine were worse than the Aliens – they had bullets in their guns.
      Perhaps Startrek got it right by setting their phasers to stun – on the other hand they were trying to liberate the Klingons by killing them. 🤔

  49. I suppose in a contest in the UK, beeboids would refer to the “moderate, centrist, Cur Ikea Slammer” versus “the far-right Johnson”.

    1. I saw someone on Twit referring to Johnson as “far right” the other day. (The same Twitterer had just referred to me as a right wing extremist.)
      So yes, the BBC probably do think Boris is a Nazi!

      1. The National Socialists were ‘far left’……… I guess if they go far enough they join in the middle.

        1. Curious, isn’t it? The BBC could spot neo-nazis on the surface of the moon but cannot see them when they’re under their noses in Ukraine.

        2. It has always been ever thus. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. The UK has chosen which side to be on and this time I hope it jolly well loses.

    2. When one looks at wealth re-distribution, apart from the stance on immigration there isn’t an awful lot of difference between her and Mélenchon’s policies.

      EDIT for spelling mistake

      1. Quite – one hopes that Mélenchon’s supporters will vote for her- though he urged them NOT to.

        1. They’ll all urge their supporters not to, probably because they dread her being successful if in power.

          If she was she would gather future support from all parts of the political spectrum and could even get two or more terms.

  51. Here’s the blurb for Radio 4’s afternoon play. How can there ever be a proper discussion on the subject, including energy policy, when the BBC produces material like this? The R4 announcer talked of “the man who proved global warming was man-made”. What? All of it?

    Smoking Guns

    Climate scientist Dr Ben Santer proved global warming was due to CO2 back in 1995. The true story of how he was vilified to prevent the world reducing emissions, starring Shaun Evans

    Ben Santer is American, but was educated in a British Army school on the Rhine and his ground breaking work “fingerprinting” global warming began at University of East Anglia in the mid 80s, (with US funding). He then worked with 2021 Nobel Prize Winner Klaus Hasselmann at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, before moving back to the States. A mountaineer and Anglophile, he became a pawn in a bigger game of climate change denial.

    Based on original documentation and testimony, and featuring Dr Santer as himself.

    Ben had to fight to try to salvage his reputation as the misinformation spread even among his peers. A quiet and measured scientist, an expert in the computer code of climate models, he became the subject of major articles in The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and TV and radio across America. Ben says now, “You spend years defending the ‘discernible human influence’ conclusion. You encounter valid scientific criticism. You also encounter non-scientific criticism from powerful forces of unreason.”

    Ben Santer was the Convening Lead Author of Chapter 8 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1996. In its conclusion he wrote, “The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.” That one sentence changed his life. He became the hate figure of the energy industry and they came after him through their attack dogs of lobbyists, politicians and the media.

    When the report was published, powerful forces led by Cold War hawks Fred Singer and Fred Seitz, set out to discredit Santer. His attackers were backed by the oil and gas industry and had contacts right at the top of government. The impact of their campaign changed the debate not just in America but across the world.

    Singer and Seitz used the same tactics they had pioneered in other science based issues that threatened the industrial status quo. They had fought against bans on smoking in public places, and against stopping ozone depleting CFC emissions.

    Before the attacks on Santer and the IPCC report, President Clinton’s State Department were briefing that climate change was man made and had been minded to put significant resources into a low carbon future. Seitz and Singer helped stop that, and decades were lost in the fight to stop climate change.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016814
    _____________________________________

    Writer/ Producer, David Morley is a Sony Gold winner and recent Aria award winner, who The Stage described as “unrivalled in turning true events into radio dramas”.

    As a writer, he specialises in contemporary stories, often based on primary research. These include the Civil Rights struggle in the Deep South of the USA, the shooting down of flight MH17, the creation of Tony Blair’s Iraq WMD Dossier, and how Boris Johnson and Michael Gove fell out after winning the 2016 Referendum.

    The Independent on Sunday described him as “a perceptive journalist and a fine writer” in their review of his book “Gorgeous George: The life and adventures of George Galloway”.

    “The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.”

    This could be true. The question is how much and is it worth the crippling of economies in pursuit of a theoretical solution?

    The BBC has recently shown a few signs of a move away from its left-liberal stance. This isn’t one of them.

      1. Tut tut – just look at the success of Prof Branestorm – One million dead in a month…

        1. Quite. Climate scientists, epidemiologists…all just number crunchers really and their samples can never be big enough to generate meaningful stats.

      2. According to the saner climate scientists, no. But they, of course, are not given a voice. You have to scratch around for them on the internet, usually by non-climate sources, James Delingpole’s pod cast, for example. Freeman Dyson, now sadly deceased and probably as intelligent and knowledgeable as Stephen Hawking, if not more so because his interests were broader, thought it was utter garbage.

    3. Does Ben’s dissertation identify that Carbon is a non-producible mineral, like diamonds and coal and that the gas, CO² is merely a trace gas at 0.04% in the atmosphere; that the only influence upon our climate is that big yellow thing that regularly appears each morning and goes away again at night-time.

      The man is a prat with a sense of, “See me, I’m always right.”

  52. Oh dear; it would seem that it’s not just the old farts who are sceptical about the clot-shot.
    This afternoon, I’ve received a message on my phone from our local practice.
    65 appts. available tomorrow afternoon at one surgery; 78 available at another surgery on Wednesday afternoon.
    Final pleading sentence: “Please help us to fill these empty appointments”.

    2. Ten quid a go, isn’t it. What with Golf club fees due and the new tax year, every little counts..

    3. They can take a hike; I think that 2nd AZ jab poisoned us both. Not to bang on about the red spots but now they are on the left arm and are scaly and itchy and bleed if scratched.
      No way is anyone injecting anything else into me unless it’s masses of local when I get me mush done.

    4. Wow, surprise, surprise, after taikling with him at 08:45 this morning, I have an appointment to talk with my doctor tomorrow about the painful fluid retention in my legs, at 11:00 before my INR at 11:25.

  54. Death of the English village:
    Boris is warned of backlash at local elections as sprawling towns ‘swallow’ rural areas in Tory heartlands amid push for 340,000 new homes a year
    Villages are losing their identity as they become part of a wider sprawl from towns, campaigners fear
    Concerns over called ‘rural flight’ of young people leaving villages because of lack of housing and jobs

    This results in lack of affordable housing being built in areas because it is less lucrative for developers
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10635303/How-expanding-towns-swallowing-rural-communities.html

    Is this the end of life as we know it….

    1. Johnson says these things as if its nothing to do with him. What an ass he is.

      1. Residents of the Oxfordshire village of Bucknell are up in arms about the development which will see 3,100 new homes built…

          1. At even six gimmegrants per house it won’t even start to scratch the surface of the illegal numbers flooding in, let alone the “legal” ones, such as HK Chinese, Ukrainians and other refugees.

      2. Perhaps it’s not. Perhaps he really is just the mouthpiece, the words are nothing to do with him, they are issued by the WEF/NWO.

        1. The whole thing is out of control as they try deminish the population and break our morale. Johnson is part of it.

    2. Thousands of homes planned for rural Dorset ..

      We are all being murdered by choking the life out of us..

      Modern rural homes do not have enough parking… communal parking .. most rural homes own 2 cars .. homes are jammed in tightl, no decent gardens , and whilst you are about it have alook at Poundbury .. so many rules … the Duchy have the last say.. dare you hang your washing out to dry, nah

      2. I’ll guess, Maggie, that none of the new houses have Solar Panels on the rooves or even EV charghing points as standard.

  55. Ali Harbi Ali guilty of murdering MP David Amess in terrorist attack. 11 April 2022.

    A man has been convicted at the Old Bailey of the terrorist assassination of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess.

    Ali Harbi Ali, 26, stabbed Amess to death on 15 October 2021, fuelled by Islamic State propaganda and having spent at least two years researching which MP to murder.

    Cue deafening silence from Westminster!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/11/david-amess-verdict-terrorist-attack-ali-harbi-ali-guilty

    2. Well done sweetie ! … x
      Only a 4 for me
      Wordle 296 4/6

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

        1. Bit restrained, I would have expected six figures at least! Why leave anything in the trough after all?

  60. She just gets better and better….

    Steerpike
    Nicola Sturgeon’s adolescent troubles
    11 April 2022, 6:25am

    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/bltf4fed09e89805c4b/6253bcad8d01f82bb976b6bb/GettyImages-1197825971.jpg?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=crop

    After the Derek Mackay scandal, you’d have thought the SNP would want to distance itself from 16 year-olds. Far from it, it seems, for the bairns of tomorrow are central to Nicola Sturgeon’s ambitions today. Support for independence is flagging. The public sector services are creaking. Calls for an investigation into the ferries fiasco are growing. So, if you are First Minister, how do you regain the initiative?

    The answer, apparently, is to let kids become MSPs too. For this weekend, the SNP unveiled their latest constitutional wheeze: reducing the minimum age of election candidacy from 18 at present to just 16 for Scottish parliament and local council elections.

    The move would bring it into line with the voting age for those elections, despite people still having to be 18 or over to vote in a general election. The plans would allow those under 18 to become MSPs at the next Scottish parliament election in 2026 and councillors at the local election due to be held the following year.

    Leaving aside the question of whether devolved authorities ought to have the right to grant such constitutional change, the proposal seems to be yet another example of the SNP project trying to accumulate political capital for an eventual independence vote rather than expending it on meaningful policy initiatives.

    It would also mean people who are too young to learn to drive, get married without parental consent or drink alcohol would be able to help run the country. A teenage MSP would walk out of the voting lobby into Holyrood, to be denied service at the bar, before being required to take a taxi or public transport home to their constituency. Ironically, there’s a chance they’d be older than both some members of both the UK and Scottish ‘youth’ parliaments, the latter of which caters up to 25-year-olds.
    They’d also be exposed to the vitriol and venom of the whole toxic Scottish independence debate, with all its trolling, death threats, hatchet jobs and online abuse. Can 16 and 17 year-olds cope with that? Nicola Sturgeon didn’t seem to think so as recently as, er, three years ago, when she fought to introduce her controversial ‘named person scheme’.

    Under this proposal, a named person would safeguard the welfare of every child in the country. Presumably the SNP vision of Scotland is to see ministerial-approved minders escorting elected adolescents through the chamber, holding their hand as they opine on the fate of a country.

    Still, given the behaviour of some of its incumbents, it wouldn’t be the first time the SNP have elected children.

    3. Is this, maybe, the time to shut down this wee pretendy parliament of the north and take the powers (including voting rights) back to Westminster?

      While you’re at it, close down the idiot assemblies – all of which are just costing us money – as they suck on the tax-payer’s teat without producing an iota of positive good sense.

      Oh, and raise the voting age and age of majority to 21 (or even 25). Some sense may have permeated through by then.

      These are the policies I shall look for at the next General Election – if missing, no vote.

    2. Trans people: “Bigots are weaponising the actions of a tiny minority of criminals against us.”

      1. How about ” A tiny minority of people with mental health issues are weaponising their neuroses against us”.

    5. 351941+ up ticks,

      Afternoon Bob,
      Bed it down with a couple of paedophiles he can then ID as a Brontoesorearse.

    6. Further proof that these deviants are mentally deranged and a danger to decent people. That man’s vile behaviour seems to have prematurely aged him too.

    1. Dimwit. People need to start telling actors that just because they are celebrities does not mean they are intelligent. Some are, James Woods has an IQ of 157 which is probably why we hear so little from him. He would be no-platformed by the likes of Emma Watson and the other mediocrities. And, horror of horrors, he supports The Donald.

  65. In medieval times, people used to attach a lamp to a horse when riding
    at night. This is the earliest known form of saddle light navigation.

    I’ll fetch my coat of arms

  66. Everytime i drink Magners or Bulmers I start swearing, must be some sort of Cider Fecks.

    I’ll get me coat!

    1. The charm of the place is ruined by those who buy a holiday house there because it’s so charming… as well as displacing any locals.

    3. Same thing as the village I used to live in before living here, Stedham, beautiful village but all the locals are leaving because no one can afford the prices. £425,000 for what was a two bedroom workers cottage. The village is dead, no shops, no facilities of any kind. Full of Londoners who complain about “dogs” it’s actually foxes, craping on their lawns whilst not giving a fig as they promenade on their horses down the street dumping manure as they go.

      1. Our little hamlet of about 20 houses has no shop, pub, or any other facility apart from a streetlamp and letter box and that’s how we like it. Very rarely that a house comes on the market. One did last year and it was bought by a nice couple in their 40s who grew up locally – they have two children. We’ve been here 27 years and most people a lot longer. We certainly couldn’t afford to buy our house now.

        1. The little town in CT we lived in was a typical quintessential New England town. Now it’s full of McMansions and the population is sky high. As there are only 4 schools in the area- 2 ES, 1 middle and 1 high, I cannot imagine how they’re coping with the increased numbers.

          1. Democratically. At least there will be no books permitted to sully the children’s minds….

          2. I read that even the Ozarks have been cleared out and turned into holiday homes for the Urban savages, is that true? I’m not all that up on that part of the country.

      2. If all the locals are leaving because the can’t afford the prices, where are they living at the moment?

        1. They have simply scattered like the old Londoners did. The younger ones have gone to urban centres although some remain to do jobs like gardening or housework for the new residents, some have jobs in Midhurst, the nearest town. The old ones die off and their children cannot afford the price of the home, taxes etc. and so a newcomer buys it and the downward spiral continues.

    1. No eye deer, but if you put it back through Google Translate, presumably you’ll get flawless Chinese.
      You’re welcome.

    2. Seriously. Does it have the instructions in Chinese Ideograms? Because if it does, putting it through Google translate is probably your best bet. Chinese to English through that method comes out as straightforward English. Or, at least it did when I tried it.

      1. No. That sheet of gobbledegook is all that came with it. To be fair, I didn’t need any instructions since it came in one piece, already assembled.

    6. Sorry, forbid does thanks to roller print with hand operated cranker. No limit trousers. See the Wednesday morning picture handle for effect not. Rotate yes through plane flying to wearing watch.

  70. Afternoon all. A friend has just sent Alf two pictures of Boris, one in Kiev the other in Liverpool. In Liverpool he is wearing a mask . In Kiev, guess what … Niet! What a virtue signalling idiot he is.

    1. Also there is no sign of any destruction in Kiev. The Liverpool photo was taken at night to hide the destruction.

  72. The chap who killed Amess will spend the rest of his life training like-minded would-be assassins in prison.

      1. Probably, maybe even by armed British police (he is reported to have said that he wanted to be shot and become a ‘martyr’). The first policemen who turned up and arrested him were armed only with batons, not even equipped with stab vests.

        Strange, isn’t it, that Christian martyrs are prepared to die for their faith whilst Muslim ‘martyrs’ are prepared to kill for their faith.

        1. Christians have done their fair share of wanton slaughter in their time. Admittedly, a long time ago and now they’re at their most lethal pouring tea and buttering scones at a village fete.

          I just wish islam would go the same way. Alas, it seems to revel in barbarian savagery.

          2. The founder of Christianity preached peace and non-violence (turn the other cheek).

            The founder of Islam preached hate and violence against anyone who would not accept Mohammedanism.

          3. Yes, but to be fair look what happened to the turn the other cheeker…he was nailed to a cross.

            It doesn’t always work. We can’t always tur the other cheek – sometimes we are forced to fight.

          4. Yes, but to be fair look what happened to the turn the other cheeker…he was nailed to a cross.

            It doesn’t always work. We can’t always tur the other cheek – sometimes we are forced to fight.

          5. And there is also plenty of preaching of death and destruction. The Bible and the koran are very similar books, from the same source – the codification of tribal survival made innto stories – stories that used to be told around the camp fire, then get controlled by someone preventing access to the oldest man in the village, then those people set about defining religion – because it got them out of the hunt (a generic term for working for a living).

            Eventually Christianity was replaced by a secular consciousness, learning and education. Now, comically, people seek new religions and government is desperate to provide them – again, for the same tired, pathetic reason: to avoid the hunt – the work. In political terms it’s easy to get elected if you can rob Joe of his cash and give it to Frank. What’s joe going to do? Not vote for you? Who cares. There are hundreds of voting Franks.

            Also that very same congregation, the takers, the wasters, the statists now have the delight of ignorance and power – in the form of the new religions of green, high tax – on their side in plod, who are now not really different from the old church armies.

            I don’t mean to insult folk who hold belief or religion dear but in it’s every form (Catholicism, islam, green , taxation, the NHS) – it has done and continues to do monumental damage to mankind.

          6. Taking your 2nd Paragraph, Aeneas, that was pretty much the attitude of the Catholic Church until we Protestants stepped in an on them..

            Now we need to do the same with Islamists – accept our way of life or leave – now.

          7. Protestants weren’t exactly non-violent either, as is shown by persecution of Catholics for several centuries in Britain. Catholics burnt Protestants, whilst Protestants hanged, drew and quartered Catholics, or crushed them to death with heavy weights.

            The point is that Jesus preached non-violence whilst Mohammed preached the opposite. Christians who practised violence were disobeying the founder of their religion, whilst Muslims who perform violent acts are obeying the commands of the founder of Islam.

          8. It’s 10/09/1443 if looking at the Islamic Hijri calendar.
            They have a lot of catching up with the Gregorian calendar and Christian atrocities against non-believers during that period.

          9. Actually I don’t agree with that. The modern world, Christian or not, has advanced and they live in it. They have no excuse at all at this juncture in history other than to accept the reality that their religion is nothing more than religious totalitarianism based on violence and discrimination against others. Other religions don’t look for an opt out, they face the modern world and deal with it constructively because it is to their advantage for their adherents. Islam, in that sense, its refusal to accept reality, is not only destructive to others, it is self destructive. As many of us are aware in the numbers who although nominally Muslims have turned against it and just pay lip service because they dare not do otherwise.

          10. I should never get involved in a discussion about the three middle east religions – there be dragons.
            I don’t disagree with your thinking, but like Christianity, it will take time for the majority being able to have a less fundamental attitude towards their beliefs.

          11. Well Andrew, I must disagree with your remark that: “… it will take time for the majority being able to have a less fundamental attitude towards their beliefs.” Because unlike Christianity during its most intolerant period, they had nothing to compare their behaviour with. It was all they knew. With Islam in the modern world it is very different. Modern communications make it quite clear there are alternatives and that they can choose them if they wish to. I grew up in an Islamic society so I know very well that they are perfectly aware of the rest of the world. The problem with Islam is that it teaches that everyone not Islamic be subservient to them and that a Muslim by the simple expedient of being a Muslim is superior and has nothing to learn from anyone. Centuries ago, they deliberately slammed the door against learning in the belief there was nothing else to learn. It has produced a toxic mentality that very few Muslims can get beyond because it has been installed in them since birth. It makes Muslims believe that the rest of the world is there to serve them. If you actually got in to the mind of a Muslim you would know that the way they think, we Westerners and our inventions, are Allah’s way of having us serve Muslims. Like slaves we do what is required, they have to put no effort in, but reap the rewards. Allah put oil in the ground for that purpose, for them to have a means to acquire the riches of the West and all else, without effort because that is Allah’s plan. This is really how they think or variations of that warped thinking.

          12. Sorry, Johnathan, it’s not even religious, it’s an ideaology that cannot face up to modern Western living and wishes to eradicate it.

          13. Actually, I often describe it as a political ideology with a religion attached for motivation.

          14. Most of the violence that we see in UK as Islamic fundamentalism is carried out by the Sunni Salafi movement.
            Predominantly Saudi/Pakistani Wahhabi adherents.

          16. No!
            But like Catholic and Protestant followers: there are those that are very fundamentalist and a lot who live in the real world.

          17. But the vast majority of Christians have moved on to the real world, the vast majority of Muslims don’t seem to.

          18. That was the point of my date indication: modernity will slowly overtake the fundamentalism, as it did with Judaism and Christianity.

          19. One might think, that with modern communication, that it should be happening a lot faster.

        2. Christians have done their fair share of wanton slaughter in their time. Admittedly, a long time ago and now they’re at their most lethal pouring tea and buttering scones at a village fete.

          I just wish islam would go the same way. Alas, it seems to revel in barbarian savagery.

    2. Not a lot of people know that despite comprising barely 8% of the UK population, muslims are 70% dependent on welfare – income and ousing – and comprise 30% of the prison population.

      It seems there’s a problem in that demographic, and we need to talk about it.

      1. I dare you to do that anywhere but here.

        Even making that suggestion (however true) is a hate crime.

        1. Oh you can’t. Despite the facts (and they’re old ones I’ve remebered) for some reason people don’t like hearing them.

      2. Could you please put those figures on a very large poster and stick them up all over our once proud land?

      3. Sssssh, don’t tell everyone, they’ll start claiming racial discrimination and let them all out of prison.

      4. Wibbling. I don’t doubt those statistics for a minute, but can you give the source? Would love to have it for reference.

      5. I knew a large proportion of them live on benefits but didn’t realise it was that high. So many of them, in spite of living here for decades, can’t speak English so are unemployable. No need to learn English – free interpreters on demand.
        Lots of the males work as taxi drivers, and I’d be willing to bet they only declare a small part of their fares.
        Any prisoners even remotely suspected of muslum extremist leanings should be held in sound proofed solitary.

      6. More to the point, Wibbles, we need our supposed government of Tory MPs, to talk about it, do something positive, like expel them to our ‘Friends’ in Saudi-Arabia and all points East.

    2. Does this mean his career as an MP is well and truly buggered or will he just be elevated to the Lords?

      2. In the corrupt and useless chumocracy that is the state, he’ll do time, a min sec prison and on his release be made chair of a quango or given a peerage – likely something to do with children.

    4. A gay moSlum? I’m surprised his ‘community’ hasn’t killed him. Slimy monster.

        2. White children, whether boys or girls, are considered worthless, so they feel free to indulge their depraved urges.

      1. Elon has declined to sit on the board of Twitter. I suspect because if he does he is limited in buying more shares. My guess is that he is going to try and become the majority shareholder. That would put the cat amongst the pigeons. It would certainly ruin the lefts harassment of people it doesn’t agree with.

        1. Believe at the current holding, he has the greatest individual pot of shares – at 9%.

          1. Yes, but I think he plans to buy more. Buy out the others. Since he is well on his way to becoming the first trillionaire, I doubt he is bothered all that much about the money. But he certainly is out to make a point. At the moment, as in the conditions they gave him about sitting on the board, he is not free to do as he wants. He can change that if he has enough shares I think he wants a controlling interest so he can make Twitter a true open platform for ideas without censorship.

          1. Great minds think alike and all that😊 See my latest post at the very top of the page. It seems we are right.

    2. Apparently Elon Musk has declined a seat on the Board of Twitter. Had he accepted their terms he would have been restricted from purchasing more than a total of 15% (?) of the company shares.

      Make of that what you will.

      Elon Musk is likely planning to take over the company, get shot of the present Board members and put in on a different track where it makes more money by allowing a less discriminatory and more balanced access. The cancelling of President Trump alone will have lost Twitter millions.

    1. You need to provide the proof.

      Wordle 296 3/6
      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. An inebriated 6.
      Wordle 296 6/6

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

      1. I don’t know whether it is true or not, but I was once told by a FRHS that in the early 1900’s Musk flowers throughout the world lost their scent. .

          1. They fought the dogs and killed the cats
            And bit the babies in their cradles
            And stole the food right out of the vats
            And drank the soup from the cooks’ own ladles.

            Or something like that. Twas a long time ago that I learnt that.

          2. And ate the cheeses out of vats
            And licked the soup from cooks’ own ladles,
            Split open the kegs of salted sprats
            Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats
            And even spoiled the women’s chats
            By drowning their speaking
            With shrieking and squeaking
            In fifty different sharps and flats…..

            You did good ;-))

    1. I would love to have laughed, Rik but my old man has been sitting around on the sofa in his moon-boot for the past 6 weeks and can do amazing things if he wants a beer, but can totally ignore the dishwasher! He can even walk to the Coop, (200 yards away)to buy a bottle of wine, but can’t get a bowl of cereal from the kitchen!

        1. You do realise that from his sofa of pain he has sold his old car, and bought an automatic Jaguar F Pace from a dealership in Peterborough! It was delivered last week! The dishwasher is a minor detail!

      2. Please don’t mention dishwashers – ours gave an error message this morning that wasn’t listed in the handbook. An internet search suggests the heating coil is duff; apparently it’s part of the circulating pump – the fault means the whole pump has to be replaced, which means the whole unit has to be removed and the side panels taken off! It’s expensive to do – might not be worth it, but replacing the dishwasher is tricky as the old one is integrated into the kitchen unit – GLOOM!

        1. Sorry to hear that, Still Bleau! I could probably live without ours, but having the twins 2 days a week, 2 cats and the Hector creates more washing up than I care to do!

      4. Give a couple of beer cans a damn good shake and stand back when he opens them….

  79. Ref the French election. My mate Henri – life long Communist, who believes that Mme Le Pen is Adolf in a skirt – told me on Saturday that Mélenchon would come in an easy second – leaving the run off between him and either Toy Boy or Le Pen. And that Mélenchon would win the second round.

    Now, 48 hours later – he knows what actually happened. Mélenchon is telling his supporters NOT to vote for Le Pen (though many of their policies are not dissimilar).

    I asked Henri about this and he said that he would vote – but with a blank paper – showing that he did his duty as a citizen and voted, but not for either candidate.
    If this line is followed, it could be that blank votes will be the winner…..

    2. My French friends support Le Pen but will “voter blanc”. I can’t convince them that if they want change they have to vote for it.

  82. Evening, all. Ukrainamania seems to have rotted people’s brains, judging by the headline letter. I was unaware that Vlad controlled Europe in the first place, let alone being able to “retain” it. The local chemist has an Easter display with Ukrainian flags and the antiques place, which I won’t patronise because they had a Vote Lib Dem sign in the window, now has Ukrainian flags in its place. Two good reasons to give them a miss.

        1. Tyranny, oppresion and murder don’t recognise the rule of law. I’m afraid it’s a question of fighting fire with fire, not with reason.

      2. Yer Chinese PTB have absolutely no problems with many millions of dead Chinese.

        1. Yer British PTB have no problem with killing off our old folks under the guise of covid – or our children with their lethal jabs. Or us.

          Neither do they care about killing our country by letting in crap, and of course making us pay for the priviledge.

        2. Yer British PTB have no problem with killing off our old folks under the guise of covid – or our children with their lethal jabs. Or us.

          Neither do they care about killing our country by letting in crap, and of course making us pay for the priviledge.

    3. The sight of 30-storey tower blocks as far as the eye can see is chilling enough without the screaming…

    4. Could they/Would they (The Chinese Dictators) shoot down 20 or 30 Million protesters?

      Take to the streets, take over the radio/TV stations and then head for the government buildings. Revolution.

    5. Easy peasy! One is a muzzie! The other is a moron who can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman!

      1. So the latter one ought to know better, the former can’t be expected to know better because his beliefs forbid it. I know the one I think might be prevailed upon to change his stance a bit – but it would take a lot!

        1. I think you’re being far too kind to the latter! The former is completely irredeemable.

          1. That’s why the former is worse (FOR US) IMO. Nothing ever can be done about him and he shouldn’t be here, let alone in the position he is in.

          2. When you look at the make-up of the Cabinet, London authorities, North Western cooncils etc. you have to wonder how we have allowed the insidious creep of these incomers who care nothing for the indigenous population, nor our culture.

          3. Except it’s not insidious- it’s deliberate and we, the indigenous, do not count any more.

          5. But Sue, why can we see it and those numpties in governments not see it? Because they don’t want to and it is a policy to remove us. See Anne Allan’s post earlier about the number of vacant booster appointments she was texted about; they have discovered that we’re on to them and not falling for it any more.
            Edit for daft spelling.

          6. I’m not sure that most people DO see this stuff happening. Living in Scotland I have seen the SNP turn from being a Nat loon party into a Marxist, green eco-loon thieving, incompetent and lying bunch of morons, but still their saltire painted, knuckle-dragging cult, will vote for them!

          7. We didn’t allow it – our politicos and woke liberal hand-wringers brought it in. We weren’t actually asked or allowed even to protest.

        2. I think you’re being far too kind to the latter! The former is completely irredeemable.

    6. Easy peasy! One is a muzzie! The other is a moron who can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman!

    8. Simple solution,bring back the GLC,London was a better happier and
      safer place to live,in those days long ago.

          2. Bother, wrong. So why didn’t they tick on my Groan? I can’t credit a stupid bot with intelligence…

          1. IZAL loo paper in the 1p public loos, with “Now wah your hands please” written nicely at the bottom (snigger) of each sheet. All so civilised.

          2. Same bog paper, Lass, but ours had “Government Property” printed on each sheet – the great temptation was to send the used version back to Government.

  87. That’s me for the day. Quite a lot of sunshine but still an edge to the wind.

    Have a jolly evening. Well, try, anyway.

    A demain.

    1. As one wag points out: “So basically the US is the same as the Sahara Desert and the Congo – that figures….”

    3. Whats the aim of this comparison? Africa is a continent, the rest are countries.(Except Europe)

      1. Africa is obviously very big and it’s therefore a great place to go and hide (It took ages to find Dr Livingstone even though they gave him just a 100 count head start!!!)

    4. Yet we can save the planet by deliberately making energy too expensive for the masses.

    2. What a bloody silly game! I knew that song (and band) instantly but it told me twice that I was wrong! Then, when I skipped the next four tries, it confirmed that I was correct first time!

  94. Re the discussion about Elon Musk’s intention with regard to Twitter. According to Mahyer Tousi just now: ” Elon Musk To TAKE OVER Twitter”.

      1. I think you will find that under Musk, it will become an open platform rigorously devoted to free speech. It will become a force for good. The left, who now use it as their major communication weapon, will be routed. It symbolizes their waning power and their eventual defeat.

  95. Well, got half the digging out done for next lot of shuttering when I decided there were other, more mundane matters to attend to such as hanging the towels on the line, deciding what to do for an evening meal, getting it started and getting the van tanked up.

    Decided on a Waitrose cheese flan I’d picked up at a discount with boiled tatties & salad for the 3 of us, but first put a cauliflower on the Rayburn to steam before I went to Wirksworth Co-op in a vain effort to find diesel.
    Did a bit of shopping, essentially salad bits for the evening meal and avoided buying items for the already stuffed freezer.

    Then went to Sainsbug’s in Matlock where I got 74.33 litres, 16.35 gallons, at £1.75/litre. Not bad, I got 41.63mpg out of that tankful over 680 miles and I still had at least 150 miles in the tank.

    Got home, things unloaded and put the cauliflower into a plastic box for further attention as Cauliflower Cheese and got the tatties put on.

    Got the washing in, it had dried beautifully, and had my meal.
    By then it had started raining so I didn’t get the planned extra digging done.

    Looks like being a bit damp tomorrow, so I’ll see what I can get done, but I do need a run to Manchester to pick up some machining bits for t’Lad I’ve bought for him on an auction.

    I hope no one is finding my “Wot I Did Today” too boring, but I’m nearly ready for bed.
    Very chest at the moment, so I’ve slathered a load of Vick on my chest and had a Lemsip augmented by a LARGE spoonful of honey and a generous dollop of Lamb’s Navy Rum.

    If I don’t get back on here tonight, TTFN All.

    1. Bloody hell Bob, I am knackered after reading that. I was thrilled I got the laundry done today;-)

      1. I was chuffed to NAAFI Breaks I got not only the towels dried, but a large load I’d hung up before I even started digging!
        All folded and put away!

          3. Got that run to Manchester later this week. Might make it an over-nighter and stop in the Saddleworth area.

          5. Still is.
            I was the 1988 Saddleworth Rushcart Wrestling Champion and the runner up in ’89!!

        2. Since you are “chiffed to NAAFI breaks”, BoB, I can only conclude (by your use of that phrase) that you have also served Queen and Country in HM Forces. Good on ya, troop.

    2. Never boring Bob, it’s really interesting. You’re incredibly productive in what you’re doing. I wish I had half the practical talent you do.

    1. A fantastic Argentinian Mass. This is just the beginning of the Mass, with several other movements in different Argentinian styles of music. And “Navidad Nuestra”, the story of the Nativity, from the Annunciation on to the Flight into Egypt, is another fantastic series which is included in this CD. Part of it was featured in a film starring Robert Mitchum, whose name currently escapes me.

      1. The remaining movements follow on on youTube courtesy of the Universal Music group….

  98. Found a bottle of Chivas Regal 12 at our local Tesco for £12:80 ! end of stock? not going to complain at that price.
    So as an end to an uneventful day, a large glass (or two) and Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis on my headphones.

    1. We have some Miles Davies CDs- MH likes them more than I. Although I bought them for him.

      1. His interpretation of Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez got my attention and it was downhill ever since 🙄
        LA Four do another jazz version that I like.
        For the original: the Pepe Romero’s 1992 recording is excellent, with Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner.

        1. Have you ever heard Gato Barbieri? Rather raw sax but somehow very pleasing. Try Fenix- and no that’s not a misspelling.

          1. No, but I have now. Will drag myself over to YouTube and see what I can find.

      1. I know and did look twice at the shelf price lable, but checkout said it was £12:80 so who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  99. Good evening. I think it worth posting Paul Craig Roberts latest update on Ukraine. (paulcraigroberts.org) This guy is, like Paris, worth a mass…

    “No useful information about Ukraine can be obtained from Western media. The Russian military operates without the need of news releases,
    so little information is provided.

    Last week Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, “Of course they [Ukraine] can win this. The proof is literally in the outcomes that
    you’re seeing everyday.” Kirby must get his information from CNN. I don’t know of any battles the Ukrainians have won. I don’t know of any
    Ukrainian forces that are not surrounded and trapped, cut off from supplies. There are no offensive actions being conducted by Ukrainian
    military or Azov militia. Ukrainian military infrastructure and command and control systems have been destroyed. When the West delivers weapons,
    the weapons are destroyed on arrival as was the S-300 air defense system from Slovakia.

    The Kremlin appointed a new commander of the operation, and the change in command has been presented by the Western media as an attempt
    to free Russian forces from a stalemate.

    As there is no stalemate, the commander might have been replaced because of objection to the restricted use of Russian heavy weapons, which have
    mainly been restricted to the destruction of the Ukrainian military infrastructure. The Kremlin’s strategy means casualties among Russian troops who have to clear the surrounded areas in street fighting. Most generals don’t like this use of troops when heavy weapons can eliminate the opposing force.

    It is necessary to understand that there has been no Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops are operating only in eastern and southern Ukraine. The troops served the purpose of preventing a large Ukrainian army, now encircled and trapped, from conquering the two Donbass Russian republics recently recognized by Russia after an eight-year delay. The other task assigned to the Russian troops is to exterminate the neo-Nazi Azov militia that has committed atrocities against the Donbass Russians. The process has gone slowly, because the fighting is mainly in Donbass, which is populated by Russians, and the Kremlin wants to rescue the people, not kill them.

    The mistakes the Kremlin made were eight years ago and in the eight years since. The Kremlin, focused on the Sochi Olympics, did not intervene and prevent Washington’s overthrow of the Ukrainian government. The Kremlin failed to pre-empt the crisis in Donbass when the Kremlin refused the Donbass appeal to be reincorporated in Russia like Crimea. The Kremlin, stupidly relying on negotiation with the West to enforce the Minsk Agreement to stop Ukraine’s attacks on Donbass, permitted eight years of Azov attacks on Donbass and erosion of Donbass territory, while Washington equipped and trained a Ukrainian army. In
    other words, the Kremlin had learned nothing from the Washington-organized attack on South Ossetia by Georgia in 2008.

    Russia would rather the conflict end without having to destroy the trapped Ukrainian army and for this reason keeps negotiating with Washington’s puppet Zelensky who has no authority to agree to anything. As it is not usual for the victor to pursue negotiations, the Kremlin’s proclivity for negotiation makes Russian arms look weak, and this encourages the West to keep the conflict going.

    I think the limited nature of the Russian intervention was a mistake. Nevertheless, if Russia can’t achieve its goal in the limited way chosen, the option remains for a wider attack.

    I believe the main problem for Russia is that the government tries to be Goody Two Shoes in its dealings with Satan. I see the Kremlin has
    now backed off its plan to nationalize Western businesses, because it wants to show that Russia, unlike the West, respects private property. And despite Germany’s hostile actions against Russia, the Kremlin is still supplying Germany with energy in order to demonstrate, again, that Russia, unlike the West, adheres to contractual obligations. It is this kind of stupidity that can defeat Russia. The West doesn’t respond by saying, “Look how reliable the Russians are.” Instead it says, “Look how stupid the Russians are. We are doing everything possible to frustrate them in Ukraine, and in Slovakia, Finland, and Sweden, and are putting more troops and bases on their border, and they sell us the energy with which to do it.”

    Perhaps the Kremlin is betting that the EU’s attempt to ban Russian energy from Europe, which has met strong opposition from European countries, will end with NATO’s breakup, but Russia itself could break up NATO and the EU by turning off the energy. Apparently, this sensible step is blocked by the Russian central bank chief, who advises the Kremlin that Russia has to have export earnings from the West, thus effectively blocking Russian counter-sanctions and contributing to the success of the sanctions against Russia. A government that cannot get its act together can lose the benefit of its military superiority.

    Meanwhile Stoltenberg continues to issue meaningless NATO threats. The British press reports that:

    “NATO is drawing up plans to deploy a permanent full-scale military force on its border in an effort to combat future Russian aggression following the invasion of Ukraine, the alliance’s secretary general has revealed.” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/09/exclusive-full-scale-nato-military-force-defend-borders/

    According to the report, “a full scale military force” consists of “eight multinational NATO battlegroups all along the eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea.” https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nato-plans-massive-military-buildup-russias-border-citing-major-reset A battlegroup consists of 1,000-1,500 soldiers, so Stoltenberg thinks a NATO tower of babel force of 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers scattered over thousands of miles from the Baltic to the Black Sea suffices to stop a Russian invasion! What kind of world does Stoltenberg live in?

    Russia has no need or intent to invade Poland, Romania, the Baltics, Finland, Sweden. Missile bases in these countries can be eliminated with precision weapons from a great distance. Russia sent troops into Ukraine in order to liberate Donbass from Azov attack and occupation and to prevent the invasion of Donbass by a 100,000 Ukrainian army.

    If Russia had acted sensibly eight years ago, the current intervention would not have been necessary. One wonders what new mistakes the Kremlin will make that will necessitate further interventions in the future.”

    .

    1. Thank you for posting. One gets nothing sensible out of the media, and no sense of what is actually going on. I had wondered why it had taken Putin 8 years to assist in the Donbass.

    3. In the UK we read with despair that our PM, the dolt Johnson, is throwing millions of UK materiel at Ukraine in feigned solidarity in order to fuel the conflict whereas the Russians are simply picking off our every contribution, and that of others foolish enough to donate armaments to Ukraine, on arrival.

      We are truly led by an ignorant fool of the first water. Not in my name, ever.

  100. Le Pen derangement syndrome in full flood on R4. It would be wonderful, just brilliant, if….

  101. Did you see that fire at the wedding venue in Bristol? It was the solar panels blazing away.

  102. A few new open mic musicians tonight. Very good. I think the better the musicians, the more attraction there is for other good musicians.
    I can’t lose.

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