Monday 12 September: Queen Elizabeth’s enduring legacy is the sense of duty that King Charles has already displayed

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

664 thoughts on “Monday 12 September: Queen Elizabeth’s enduring legacy is the sense of duty that King Charles has already displayed”

  3. Queen Elizabeth’s enduring legacy is the sense of duty that King Charles has already displayed

    I just wish there were time when her Majesty had been more assertive and said no to some of the mad policies.that have changed our country so much and not for the better.

    1. Oh I think we can rely on Charlie boy being a LOT more assertive but in saying yes to the mad greeniac policies

    1. A lot of countries are now saying “it’s time we got rich from our commodities, and stopped selling them cheaply to the plundering West” – but those commodities would be worth zero without the inventions of the West!!

    2. The Spekkie wasn’t happy when I posted this BTL.

      A Blanket, a Bowl, and a Stick

      In the matter of racial comparisons

      The media shouts to the moon

      About all the historic achievements

      Of the Redskin, Spic and the Coon

      Yet strangely when strolling museums

      The white man’s creations stand thick

      But all we can find of those others

      Is a blanket, a bowl and a stick

      No telephones, timeclocks or engines,

      No lights that go on with a flick.

      No airplanes or rockets or radios

      Just a blanket, a bowl and a stick

      Not one Sioux Indian submarine,

      No African ice cream to lick,

      Not a single Mexican x ray machine,

      It’s a blanket, a bowl and a stick

      So remember when history’s the subject,

      And revisionists are up to their tricks,

      The evidence tells quite another tale

      Of a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

      1. They would have been taken out of the ‘burrow’ (pipe) for a health check including measuring and weighing, and then sometimes to have a ring attached to their leg, though no rings were discernible in this video. I used to do the same with Tawny Owls in Sherwood Forest as part of our nest-box scheme. We would climb a ladder, take the owlets out of their box, place them into a bag, then take them down for processing before returning them to their box unscathed.

  7. Foreign leaders banned from travelling by private jet to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. 12 September 2022.

    Heads of state travelling to England for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral will be forbidden from travelling in private jets and helicopters, according to leaked guidance.

    Foreign dignitaries and their spouses have been asked to travel to Britain on commercial flights, according to Foreign Office guidance seen by Politico.

    This looks to me like a typical Charles suggestion to burnish his green credentials. For a start it’s ill thought out and hypocritical. Is he getting rid of the Queens Flight? Is Airforce One not a private jet? The Americans are certainly not going to comply. The idea of Joe and Jill Biden coming in on American Airlines is ridiculous. Quite frankly even aside from the security and diplomatic issues if I were any Foreign Leader I would regard this instruction as an impertinence and simply not attend.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/11/queen-elizabeth-iis-funeral-foreign-leaders-banned-travelling/

    1. It says banned and forbidden from travelling by private jet

      Then goes on to say foreign leaders have been asked to to travel by private jet

      That doesn’t sound very convincing, does it?

      1. Morning Bob. It’s a mish-mash. I doubt that it could even be enforced. Even assuming they wish to attend, the Third World will simply hijack one of the National Airlines planes or charter one for themselves and their relatives.

        1. Truth doesn’t matter, only how the public perceives it. So much for Charles abandoning green dogma – they are now pretending that it’s inevitable and immutable.

      2. It appears to be a suggestion – however daft – that the #ScumMedia have reported as a diktat. Much like the convid pronouncements of the past few years.

    2. As well as his person the US President arrives with an entourage that includes armoured cars and armed bodyguards. Two or three big cargo planes are required.

  8. Modern Life……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40060de847fc55498f6f0bf6652f301c986ffaf474c14211f9da62aaa5d38213.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1110bfb0de22335a9e56f5851447d43c09eac16ad4599e544aeaad36735038b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a2a0843679cab613f08213837b098bf1164f13e9ac0855c810f46f9b9f4234f.png

    good and evil you say…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12e200b0f448e416abaacd987b53afaa25ccb6ff85f08b811823ce23d2e18e79.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78d8ada96d9689ba4d89b75dc34e0ba096d9933784dc49eb0419cb25264215a7.jpg

  9. 355964+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 12 September: Queen Elizabeth’s enduring legacy is the sense of duty that King Charles has already displayed

    And the latest news regarding the morally wrong invasion
    IS ?

    1. Well, if a man cannot keep his marriage vows can he be trusted to keep true to the Coronation Oath?

      1. From what little I have seen of his oath, did he not swear to be a Defender of the Faith? Yet he said previously that when he ascended to the throne he wished to be a Defender of the faithS, didn’t he?

          2. A particular sect of Christianity even, and with a specific acknowledgement of Scotland’s version.

            I suspect that the oaths are immutable and that he has no choice as to their wording.

          3. That is right. The promise to defend the Presbyterian Church was, and remains, a requirement following the Treaty of Union. Feasibly, dropping it would break the Union.
            He will only take the Coronation Oath when he is crowned.

  11. How has Charles displayed a sense of duty since his mother died and he ascended to the top job?
    Genuinely baffled.

      1. Charles has been involved with the WEF since the early 70s. We didn’t know what was coming when Blair was elected, but Charles must have been aware.

        In the mid-90s, he was publicly frustrated that his mother wouldn’t retire and let him take over – did he want to be WEF King during the first WEF Prime Minister’s time, to push his green extremism?
        People have speculated that HM hung on until the end because she feared that Charles would be unpopular – was she trying to hold back the tide?
        Can’t help wondering.

    2. 355964+ up ticks,

      Morning BB2,

      Rhetorically, in reality he should be down at Dover
      on the landing ground with a loudhailer,
      YEA SHALL NOT ENTER

      2. 355964+ up ticks,

        O2O,

        The leader of the openly hidden army awaiting in hotels nationwide could very well be stepping ashore today, time is of the essence.

      1. Apparently that story originated when he had a broken wrist and was physically unable to do it.

        1. fair enough. You can do it one handed though. Just put the tooth brush on the side of the sink then squeeze a blob of tooth paste onto the bristles. I have had to do it myself before but then i don’t have a valet.

    4. He made a speech. He did a walk-about and checked out the flowers. He allowed a woman to give him a kiss.

        1. Without commenting on his apparent behaviour, I don’t think it was a good idea to have a table barely large enough for a tv dinner to place the documents on. Surely a more suitable piece of furniture was knocking about the Palace.

          1. I’m not sure that after the previous 24 hours I would be at my most patient.
            He has to mourn in public and undertake a huge constitutional change.
            Fortunately, we don’t.
            (p.s. if they’d just asked me, I could have come up with a bigger table; in fact, it would be one less item to move.)

          2. Charles was right to be irritated. You cannot have an ink pot anywhere near such a document. I would have been okay if the table had been larger.

          3. “Surely a more suitable piece of furniture was knocking about the Palace.”

            Exactly.

            I expected the documents to be laid on an enormous, ancient desk of unknown antiquity, covered with carvings, like a giant lectern at which the signatory would have to stand and which weighed so much that a party of Royal Engineers would have needed 24 hours to drag it from wherever it was stored in the bowels of the Palace of Westminster. Instead, Charles squatted in front of what looked like a pair of his mother’s portable picnic tables.

            I also expected the signing to be done in a grand room with a high roof and beams and faded royal standards hanging from the walls. It looked as though the local Conservative club had been hired for the day.

  12. Just spreading the word…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/537627df26136e4ab4b7c15189b23799341cf68c1abb73957c8aa6d2bd3eec72.jpg

    Some clarification on why they keep citing studies where HCQ and Ivermectin don’t work
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d325259ef5ed5a73dfe759dcdc59c4b907a49a0eb9af8aded1acfa390563748c.jpg

    Worrying, from Switzerland
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3023ecc15cf1da7348e5e9f3b71b1f3d7e25a4b6c0915d39a525de822afc53f9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b9dcf7f53ed1c437e9f0c0b0b31fde9ece31c9ba31e779260b491cc45f1c283.jpg

    Cheated!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04436399107e617ade3895afe337f86c9e18f595a8af039a2f042f19d45dc1df.jpg

    1. HCQ,Zinc,VitD and a broad spectrum antibiotic proved out by Didier Raoult one of the most eminent virologists in the world
      His reward??
      Unpersoning,its been an utter scam from the beginning
      Since my first dose of Convid I’ve been on the Quercitin/Zinc/VitD and not a sniffle since
      ‘Morning BB

      1. Good morning Rik.
        Dr Zelenko also recommended Quer/Zn/D/C for anyone who couldn’t get over the counter Ivermectin. As the virus season is just starting, I’ve started taking Quercetin again, will re-start the Vit D/K in a few months as well as the summer wears off.
        Meanwhile a fully jabbed up colleague is off work because his whole family has covid and is ill…:-(

        1. I’ve followed a multi-vitamin plus additional D and C every other day over the spring and summer. I have Quercitin and Zinc on standby if symptoms of flu/cold appear.
          When I did have symptoms of something last Oct/Nov I did not have Quercitin available but I did have pressed (cloudy) apple juice that should have had a reasonable level of Querticin in it. I was not ill as such but the tickly cough was annoying for a couple of days. No flu jab last year and never again.

          3. I had one in 1966. The company for whom I was working offered it to all their staff. It was administered by Crookes Laboratories and was injected by jet injection using air pressure, not a needle. I’ve not had one since.

          5. I don’t know. It is fast and relatively hygienic so ideal for mass injections. The method was not used for Covid. It might have been ideal. Although Covid vaccine was individual doses, whereas the anti ‘flu vaccine was in a bulk dispenser. A thing like a makeup spray in beauty salons.

          7. I was ‘offered’ my first flu jab last year, and informed whilst there I ‘may be offered’ a booster – I took the two AZ jabs as I attend music events. I opted not to have any more jabs. A week later another letter arrived, stating I was now a ‘priority’ for a booster. Nuremberg2 can’t come soon enough.

          8. P.S. I have never downloaded any Anychess apps, unlike many in my local, and only showed an image of my two letters and the document given after each AZ jab. They seemed more concerned that I didn’t wear a mask. I explained that having read the Anychess/Government website I was ‘exempt’ and had downloaded their helpful sign as my phone’s screensaver. Indeed, anyone reading and understanding the website is exempt. It must have been written by someone’s offspring whilst they were ‘working’ from home.

      2. I have been taking quercitin for over 15 years. The notion was to help reduce the spontaneous bruising that happens in my hands and feet. It supposedly boosts collagen. I have been taking zinc for the past year following references to it on here, re effectiveness against Covid. Various daily vitamin supplements for years including A,B,C and D. I no longer have a great appetite for food. I suspect that as you get older your natural internal processes for extracting vitamins from food become weaker.

        1. No, John, that chapter entitled “Queen Consort” is erroneous (as you would expect in an American encyclopaedia). In the main bulk of the article it explains that she was a Queen in her own right:

          Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the last Empress of India from her husband’s accession as King-Emperor in 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947. After her husband died, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

          George VI and Elizabeth were crowned King and Queen of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor and Empress of India in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937, the date previously scheduled for Edward VIII. Elizabeth’s crown was made of platinum and was set with the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

    3. In fact he has a total of four : an heir and three extra spares.

      I wonder how the king would define the word “love” and how well this definition matches his feeling towards Migraine?

  16. Good morning, all. Cloudy start to the day.

    Prolly just me, but there seems to be a touch of “Dianaisation” of The Queens death.

    4. The headlines go on and on about one much loved old lady, who will of course will be greatly missed.

      Meanwhile, a man was arrested after a mother and her 12 year old daughter were killed. The mother had previously informed police that there had been threats.
      In Ireland, 13 year old Jack de Bromhead, son of a successful and popular race horse trainer, died in a freak riding accident.

  17. This isn’t news to those that have been paying attention but now the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) looks as though it is stepping out into the light.

    (NEJM is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one.)

    The Daily Sceptic has the article here

    1. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) shows not only that the effectiveness of the Pfizer Covid vaccine becomes negative (meaning the vaccinated are more likely to be infected than the unvaccinated) within five months but that the vaccine destroys any protection a person has from natural immunity.

      Whoops!

        1. And of course most of the politicians were being paid generous commission for selling the gene therapy.

      2. A very large WHOOPS, indeed.
        A case of swimming towards the safety of the scrambling nets before the wreck of the SS Vaccine drags them down?

        1. When the truth becomes too unavoidable a lot of the most ardent vaccine gene therapy enthusiasts will claim that they were always sceptical about it.

          When Hitler was defeated it is amazing how many French people said they had always supported the Resistance.

      3. An elderly couple that I know out in one of the surrounding villages – he not in the best of health, to be fair – have barely poked their noses out of their front door for two and a half years. Apart from a trip to the local GP to be jabbed with the clot shot, of course.
        They have both caught covid.

        1. BBC Radio4 News reporting that people over 65 can now book on line for the Covid vaccine. Pregnant women can also apply! I have had a letter from the NHS and also from my GP advising me to book for Covid vaccination. I am going to refuse the vaccine politely..

        2. Was talking to my hairdresser earlier. She had the Moderna jab and was really ill. She also works in the care industry and has to be jabbed to keep her job. She thinks that’s wrong. I told her nobody should be forced to undergo medical treatment; that’s what Nuremburg was about. She’s young. I don’t think she’d heard of Nuremburg.

    2. I am highly sceptical regarding the effectiveness and safety of the vaccinations.

      However, the study itself is fairly full of caveats and the Daily Sceptic has been a little disingenuous in my view.

      This is a link to the actual article:
      https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2209371

      This is the final paragraph omitted from the Sceptic’s piece.

      Our study is limited by unmeasured confounding and underreporting of Covid-19 cases. Specifically, waning effects of both vaccination and previous infection may have been confounded by earlier infection and earlier vaccination in high-risk children. In addition, differential ascertainment of Covid-19 cases between vaccinated and unvaccinated children would bias the estimation of vaccine effectiveness.

  18. ‘Morning, Peeps. A dry, sunny day + 21°C forecast here. Just the job.

    Once again the DT letters are all on the same subject, so here is a BTL post that caught my eye, and with which I find myself in full agreement:

    Martin Selves
    4 HRS AGO
    I am overwhelmed with 12 hours of continuous broadcast on the Queen and Charles. The Media have forgotten there is other News to be broadcast. Events in Ukraine are moving fast, and our economy is still in deep trouble and yet all Political Party’s concentrated are on the Funeral. I think this is unnecessary and it might enter a period of hysteria.
    I am a huge admirer of the Queen and the Monarchy. But I am going to be selective now, and try and return to normal life. I will watch the Funeral of course, and watch the really interesting Historical Procedures I did not know about, many dating back to Henry 8th. I find this part of the proceedings really fascinating, and yes I do still fill up sometimes when a sudden and sad moment is broadcast. Millions of people are paying their respect for the Queen, and I do here, but we must not forget we have a new PM with some urgent problems to solve. The Funeral is in safe hands. It will not falter, but our Country might if our HMG does not turn up for work until the end of October. We can do two things at once, so lets get started.

      1. Yes, that is a very nicely and respectfully phrased post, and he makes a very good point.
        He will be disappointed if he expects to get real economic news from the legacy media at any time though.

      2. Yes, that is a very nicely and respectfully phrased post, and he makes a very good point.
        He will be disappointed if he expects to get real economic news from the legacy media at any time though.

    2. Well said Martin and the funeral plans are all running well because neither politicians nor civil servants are involved.

  19. Headline in today’s DT:

    “Fish and chip shop’s windows smashed after owner celebrated Queen’s death”

    As someone who, like many on here, would never condone such acts in the normal course of events, why do I find myself smiling, albeit briefly?

    1. Well, I am fairly sure that everyone* in Scotland is laughing their head off. It is karma writ large. (This was a couple of days ago. DT -do try to keep up.)

      *including republicans and communists.

    2. I smiled briefly and then considered the fact that Jacki Pickett is a disturbed individual, the reference to Lizard Liz signifying the belief that the Royal Family are Alien Lizard Overlords ( that might have started with David Icke ) and a number notices in her shop window proclaiming all the usual wacky conspiracy theories, I think a section 4 is in order with a quick session of ECT ( not that it would help but the thought pleases me ) followed by a nice long stay in a locked room with no sharp edges.

      1. I saw quite a few “Lizard Liz is dead” posts on American media – I think it’s just a nickname used by anti-royalists. The origin of the phrase was a hit job done by the mainstream media on David Icke – he’s been prophesying the digital currencies and the Schwab takeover since the mid nineties at least – if you look back at footage of him speaking from that time, everything he talks about is now happening.
        I think people should be more tolerant of those with different beliefs.

        1. It is becoming almost impossible to distinguish between fake news and real news. Indeed much of yesterday’s fake news has become today’s truth and yesterday’s conspiracy theorists have been proved to be right.

      2. Good morning Datz and everyone.
        David Icke ‘discovered’ the lizards, but obvs they have been around for eons.

    4. It’s because the British are so “reasonable” that an assortment of religious nut jobs, snivel serpents, treasonous politicians and whey faced box tickers have been able to reduce a proud nation to a shiitehole in such short order.
      More windows need to be broken and many more vicious cows like that puffy faced madam need to be metaphorically lynched. (And I’m not too sure about the word “metaphorically”.)

    6. Not a flicker of a smile in my case, because it reminds me of Kristallnacht.

      I may disagree with her opinion, but fully support her right to express it.

  20. 355964+ up ticks,

    Fact,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    8h
    Have you ever heard a Royal talk about their devotion to England?

    Our Monarchs are primarily Kings or Queens of England.

    England is the most populace part of the UK, & English taxpayers subsidise Scotland, Wales & NI.

    A bit of recognition wouldn’t go amiss.

    previewImg
    Prince William vows to serve people of Wales ‘with great humility and respect’ — Evening Standa

    The Prince of Wales vowed to deepen bond with nation’s communities after receiving the title from his father

    apple.news

    https://gettr.com/post/p1qj1p81031

    1. The last Queen of England was Anne. Since 1707, the monarch has been King or Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and from 1801, of Great Britain and Ireland (subsequently Northern Ireland).

  22. Good morning all.
    A damp but sunny start this morning with a light overcast and 11½°C outside.
    Not raining at the moment, but showers forecast through he day.

    1. Typical of the Left. Accuse your opponents of what you are guilty of yourself and do it first.

      Good morning.

      1. Ooh, that reminds me to take him up on the offer of a drink when I venture up north at the end of rhe month!

      2. 355964+ up ticks,

        BB2,
        To clear up the shite generated by the lab/lib/con
        coalition, people of his calibre
        as with Tommy Atkins will once again be called to arms.

        ALL those calling his ilk fruitcakes etc,etc while themselves constructing a political path that led to mass
        murder,mass paedophile rape / abuse, mass uncontrolled immigration,ALL still ongoing.

    1. Why does she scream/squeal? Much more fun dancing the tango with a male rather than a pole, surely? Lol.

    2. Why does she scream/squeal? Much more fun dancing the tango with a male rather than a pole, surely? Lol.

      2. Take out the sleazy connotations and what you have is an artistic activity highlighting strength, athleticism, gymnastic ability and grace.

        1. Some of my best clients were Poles. Long before communism ended, a Polish lady in London died, leaving her the proceeds of her house to relatives in Poland.

          A courageous lady – statuesque (think Queen Mary) volunteered to take $200,000 IN NOTES to Poland – strapped round her middle. I warned her that the authorities would take a dim view if they searched her.

          She drew herself up to her full 6 ft: “Mr, Thomas – they would not dare…”

        2. Like the peasant costumes. Being English, I don’t have a national costume because we never really had a peasant tradition.

  29. Skimming the paper this morning (in between making a loaf) I note that Project Fear continues to thrive:

    “20 hour queues to view the coffin”

    “Funeral bank holiday will add to economy’s woes”

    Please feel free to add your own examples…..

    1. Look on the bright side, Bill, the postal and rail strikes are off. Oh… that should have read “have been postponed”. Lol.

      2. Just as it is only a temporary truce between Princes William and Harry – normal hostilities will be resumed as soon as possible

          1. Even a one-day truce might be expecting too much. Any hint of brotherly love will probably vanish when the book is published, although I do wonder whether rubbishing his family so soon after his grandmother’s death would be too crass, even for those two.

    2. The long queues and huge crowds will ensure a new, deadlier and more virulent strain of Covid will arrive the week after she is interred.

    3. Yes, Operation Frighten the Public is in full swing…miles of queuing, bring your own food (not that bags and rucksacks will be allowed in I imagine) and few loos. Only the most determined or the mad will tbink it’s a good idea.

      No such deterrents for Churchill’s lying in state in ’65, when I and some school chums (all 14 or 15 yo) took the train to London and joined the queue on Westminster Bridge. It was dark, cold and damp that evening (late January). We took our own amusement – a small portable chess set, during the playing of which a flatbed lorry with a BBC camera crew on the back stopped to film our little spectacle. It took 4-5 hours to reach Westminster Hall. Inside it was dimly lit and completely silent, apart from the sound of shuffling feet.

      Once through we ran back to the station to catch the last train home. When we were just short of our destination (Redhill) the train lurched to a halt due to a power failure. After about an hour we limped into the station and from there we all walked home because the last buses had long since gone. My walk home was just over 3 miles, during which time I reflected on the great man and thankful that we had been able to pay our last respects. My father had waited up (no mobile phones of course and, for us, no car then) but I had called him from a phone box to relay progress.

      A most memorable evening.

    4. Very Happy Birthday, Eddy! (for the 2nd time!) Hope you have a wonderful day and have recovered from the golf! 🎂🍾🎉

    5. Many thanks Richard and Caroline.
      I’m having a more relaxed quiter day than yesterday. Phew…….

  31. Mourning Folks.

    I don’t know whether your Bank’s terms and conditions have been updated recently but this short video indicates two banks want their customers to agree that in certain circumstances they can take you money without the need for your consent. And I think our learned friend would concur that, having (by default) agreed to the new terms you won’t be able to sue the bank:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLqHVKVuBaw&t=235s

    1. From experience of a relative they can already do that by opening an account in your name, forging your signature, putting money in that account by way of a ‘loan’ then calling the loan in

  32. Helpful guidance from the beeboids for those wish to pay their respects to the Queen:

    What not to bring:
    Flasks or water bottles – except clear water bottles
    Flowers or other tribute items (flowers only should be taken to the dedicated area in Green Park)
    Sharp items including knives
    Personal defence equipment or weapons
    Paint sprays, padlocks, chains, climbing gear and any dangerous or hazardous items
    Fireworks, smoke canisters or other items which could cause a disturbance or noise
    Coolers, hampers, sleeping bags and other camping equipment
    Non-foldable pushchairs
    Banners, placards, flags, advertising or marketing messages

    I have high-lit some of the banned items which I deem to be essential to any sombre, peaceful gathering……(sarc)

      1. I heard today that XR were intending to disrupt the funeral or lying in state. The chap who told me, ex-RN, said they would get what’s coming to them, given the number of ex-servicemen who would be there, if they showed disrespect for HM.

        1. I hope they do get some comeuppance if they appear.
          I fear that they will try, even so.
          It’s all about publicity.

          If only there were some obscure law that allowed them and anyone who facilitated their actions to be imprisoned for a considerable time for disrespect of the Monarchy if they try something.

          1. I think they may be awarded a bunch of fives without benefit of legality if they are stupid enough to pee off the veterans. It would be no more than they deserved.

        2. Come-uppance is to be welcomed, but at another time. Her Majesty’s funeral should be respectful, not a farce of fighting and XR getting their heads kicked in.

  33. Along with the Queen, Britain is laying to rest a sacred national image that never was. Nesrine Malik 12 September 2022.

    But nothing is sacred. Not the Queen, and not her family, who have in recent years been roiled by accusations, firmly denied, of Prince Andrew’s involvement with an underage victim of sexual trafficking, and of estate investments in questionable funds. And not the country for which she provided not a bridge but an alibi for far too long. That was the job the Queen came to fulfil in her later years: that of a woman who showed up when our public health infrastructure was crumbling, and plugged the gap for an absent government. There is a thin line between boosting morale, and absolving acts of man by treating them as acts of God.

    I feel some of you flinch, dear readers. I understand. Some might think it is too soon to speak of imperfection. But with the Queen’s passing, we are about to enter a new chapter where the only hope we have for a more confident, coherent country is to speak of our imperfections more. The Queen is gone, and with her should go our imagined nation. It is time for her to rest. And more than time for the country to wake up.

    All countries of any worth have National Myths. They are an essential to Social Cohesion and National Identity. Those that don’t, like Ms. Malik’s native Sudan, are doomed to be forever victims. It is telling that she herself chooses to live in Egypt but of course writes nothing hostile about its governance.

    Ms. Malik can hardly contain herself at the Queens passing and the decline and imminent fall of the British State. I myself share the latter view but take no pleasure in it. She like most of her ilk think that when the Lion is dead the Lambs will come into their own. History tells us the opposite. When Empires fall the lambs have to hide from the Wolves. The British Empire and its Commonwealth stood for something much greater than its Myths. It spread the Rule of Law far and wide. It established democratic governance where before only tyranny and Oppression flourished. When it and its heirs finally vanish the world will be a much worse place.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/11/queen-britain-sacred-national-image-national-royal-fallibility

    1. If she and her ilk despise our country so much they can F.O. back from whence she originated which is obviously a land of milk and honey.

    2. IMHO Nothing but a souless drifting female born in the SH Sudan lived in other parts of Africa and the Middle East.
      Little respect for anyone or any thing outside of her own vicious circle.
      Strangely she chose to come and live in the UK. That speaks volumes in its self.

      1. I was born in July 1946 in a hut by the torchlight shone by a friend of my mother’s who happened to be a nurse (because I arrived unexpectedly 3 weeks early) at a small place called Irkowit in the Red Sea Hills in the North of the Sudan.

        I do not think I share many of Ms Malik’s outlooks on life!

        2. Not sure if that’s beatable Richard but thus day 76 years ago my mother gave me life in the Queen Mary Nursing home in Hampstead. On the heath not far from the White stone pond.
          My parents who probably had a good time at Christmas 9 months earlier.
          Were Cyril and Marjorie.

    3. I lived in the Sudan when I was a child and then later on as a teenager , as far as I can remember the Sudanese loved the British , many of the Northern Sudanese who were Muslims were more difficult , but the folk who came from Southern Sudan were accommodating and friendly.

    4. What are the people of the UK supposed to do, wear sackcloth and ashes and perform self-flagellation to atone for our imaginary sins and those of our ancestors? This woman does not want to see a better Britain – she wants to see no Britain at all.

  34. Belated good morning 🙃 all.
    Thank you Richard for the birthday message and good wishes from Nottlers. 🙏
    After our delicious late lunch with all the family and the golf 4 ball with my 3 lovely sons.
    I slept for a total of 9 hours.
    We played a better ball number one and number three sons winning by a small margin.
    Hadn’t played the Mid Herts course for 12 years. Met some old faces a grand day out. 🤩

    Today i’m having an Eagles day and Taking it easy, I’m an old geezer now.

  35. It’s wonderful to see on TV all the Scots paying tribute to our lovely Queen.
    But interestingly I don’t remember seeing Olga Krankie or Sad dick. Passing on their respects.

      1. I’ve just seen the limp leader, can’t remember his name.
        It looked like a pathetic attempt to show his respect. Frowning and grimacing his way through his presentation. As Khant always does.

    2. Mrs Murrell was there. Most of our politicians can separate their personal and political views from the requirements of duty. Mrs Murrell is not against the Monarchy, just the Union. Political policy is independence from the Union, but under the Crown as is Australia, say.

    7. Many happy returns, RE. Someone posted on F/B about the gathering of Scots riders to honour the Queen’s cortege; a lot of people want independence, but this has brought us all together.

  36. Odd feeling just now. The MR – a regular trader on Ebay – has sold my Adler typewriter – that I bought in 1967 second hand for £14 (half a week’ pay) – for £20.

    On it I typed all my books, and thousands of letters. Though it has stood idle for 30 years, it is funny that it will finally leave the house!

    1. Horrifying to think what £14 could have bought you then, compared to what £20 will buy you today.

      I’m guessing, but if that £14 had been invested at the prevailing rates of inflation, the value (ignoring tax) would be sufficient to buy a cheap PC and printer.

    3. I was sorry to see my father’s portable Imperial typewriter go, but it went to a local chap who collects such things.

      1. I left my grandfather’s portable typewriter, which he used in his capacity as a correspomdent for The Telegraph, in the care of friends who put on amateur theatre with a historical bent. It’s had an interesting life!

    4. I would have thought that you would have it mummified Bill and deposited in your tomb for the afterlife!

  38. Two articles that caught my attention in today’s Terriblegraph. Laugh? I nearly cried.

    “City net-zero rules slow­ing elec­tric car switch, warns min­ing chief:
    Self-imposed green investment rules in the City of London risk holding back electric vehicles and battery technology…so-called ESG rules, which encourage investors to put money into green and socially responsible projects, are starving new mining projects of funds because they are perceived as dirty under the current rules.
    That is choking off the supply of key metals needed for batteries, sending prices soaring. Lithium hydroxide prices shot up last year, quadrupling as demand outstripped supply.”

    “ Heaters threat to Ger­many’s grid:
    ELECTRIC heaters could overload Germany’s energy grid this winter, a supplier has warned, after a surge in demand for the products prompted by fears Russia could shut off gas supplies to central heating systems.
    Kerstin Andreae of German utilities industry group BDEW said that households may create “additional problems” with heaters.
    “They can overload the power grids, for example when many households in a district turn on their heaters at the same time on a cold winter evening,” she told the Handelsblatt newspaper.”

    1. ESG is one of the concrete tyrannies affecting our daily lives that have been imposed by the unelected, authoritarian one world government of which our new head of state is part.

    2. Just bought myself a new fan heater, ‘in case’ Though I gather if gas is cut off at the grid it’s extremely difficult to turn on again without lots of manual street by street involvement,

    3. Just bought myself a new fan heater, ‘in case’ Though I gather if gas is cut off at the grid it’s extremely difficult to turn on again without lots of manual street by street involvement,

    4. My goodness – we never thought of that:

      “They can overload the power grids, for example when many households in a district turn on their heaters at the same time on a cold winter evening,”

        1. We had something from Western Power this morning – apparently if you are a pensioner, or fall into any other ‘vulnerable’ category for health reasons you can have special reasons for being quickly reconnected in the event of a power cut.

          They also advise the wearing of a jumper in cold weather.

  39. A tasty wordle today…
    Wordle 450 5/6

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

    Daily Quordle 231
    5️⃣3️⃣
    4️⃣8️⃣
    quordle.com
    🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

    ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨🟨🟨⬜🟨
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Par 4 for me.

        Wordle 450 4/6

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

    1. Two points:
      1. There is no such thing as “Far Right”. That is a fictitious concept invented by Pinkoes to deflect attention from their excesses.
      2. There is no one called “Jimmie Akerson” that is a misspelling. His name is Jimmie Åkerson [pron: “Oakerson”].

  41. Just asking a silly question.. When the colder weather appears , are we still being advised to keep a through draught by keeping our windows open ro ward off the virus .

    Has the virus done it’s dirty work and gone away, and was it wise for Charles and all to mingle and mix with the public/ parliament and everyone else .

    When I had my bloods done this morning , the discussion was the length of Charles’s tenure as King .. swollen hands and tinge to his cheeks and nose,

    Poor King has been under alot of pressure for the past 2 years thanks to Harry and Megain that minx of a wife .

    3. It hasn’t gone away but just stop worrying about it! Did you ever worry about getting a cold, or flu? Anyway you’ve had the vax……..

      I hope the results of your blood tests will set your mind at rest.

      I agree that Charles does not look like a well man.

        1. They’re like huge sausages – he’s probably lost all manual dexterity.

          And his face is very florid.

          5. I don’t see King Charles holding a cocktail glass – his fingers look as though they couldn’t hold anything.

    4. The ‘covid’ coronavirus virus was over, burnt itself out, by July 2020 (Dr Mike Yeadon) but there are other coronaviruses doing the rounds, just as they always have done. The govt kept it going to suit its own agenda. A ‘case’ was someone who had tested positive for a fragment of dna of coronavirus, alive or long since dead in the system – the pcr could not distinguish between alive or dead. Its inventor Kary Mullis said the test was not suitable for the purposes govt required it for. He died from a heart attack in August 2019. Draw your own conclusions…..! All based on a fraud.

        1. Should we reject our own personal experience and accept what they want us to think or should we question what they want us to believe?

          Several of our friends and family members caught Covid at the same time as we did in February – they were all vaccinated and were quite ill; we were not vaccinated and were hardly ill at all.

          Caroline plays the organ in church at local funerals. This year there has been a surge in unexplained deaths of healthy vaccinated people under 60. Is this just a statistical anomaly in our parish?

          1. No – it’s not an anomaly. There have been excess deaths reported in the UK, Germany, Israel and other countries with hhigh vaccination rates. The deaths of youngish people seem to be the anomaly when compared to earlier years or to the covid deaths.

            There has also been a fall in birth rate over the same period in these countries.

            The powers that be are keeping quiet about all this and pushing the untested boosters on the over 50s.

  42. BBC commentator on TV today said that the six hour journey of the cortege from Balmoral to Edinburgh yesterday would normally take two and a half hours.
    Well no. The AA Route Planner suggests just over 4 hours. However, real life experience on real roads with other road users suggests upwards of five hours.
    If only we had nice dual carriageways around Scotland, maybe even real three-lane motorways. But that’s a dream. Building a new road takes half a lifetime. The Aberdeen Bypass was suggested in 1952. After years of protests by greenies a Public Inquiry was held in 2008/09 and the building of it was “completed” in 2019.
    (However the A96 element of the dual carriageway heading towards Inverness stops well short of Elgin, reverting to a single carriageway “death road”.)
    If only the BBC people would check the facts…

      1. All her windows have now been smashed. I daresay if she decides to have them repaired they will be smashed again, over and over. That bag had a true Gerald Ratner moment.

    2. Dozens of local riders turned out to line the route (in a large field), which was a nice touch. I hear even the Archers is going to give HM a mention.

  43. BBC commentator on TV today said that the six hour journey of the cortege from Balmoral to Edinburgh yesterday would normally take two and a half hours.
    Well no. The AA Route Planner suggests just over 4 hours. However, real life experience on real roads with other road users suggests upwards of five hours.
    If only we had nice dual carriageways around Scotland, maybe even real three-lane motorways. But that’s a dream. Building a new road takes half a lifetime. The Aberdeen Bypass was suggested in 1952. After years of protests by greenies a Public Inquiry was held in 2008/09 and the building of it was “completed” in 2019.
    However the A96 element of the dual carriageway heading towards Inverness stops well short of Elgin, reverting to a single carriageway “death road”.
    If only the BBC people would check the facts…

  44. This is a nice recollection which came my way because I’m on a mailing list. Amanda Huntley owns a film archive amassed by her father, John Huntley. Amanda and her husband have restored and digitised the collection and make it available to producers – at a price of course, the maintenance isn’t cheap.

    Some reminiscences of the day we met the Queen.
    By Amanda Huntley

    Huntley Film Archives was amazed and honoured to receive the Queen as part of her Jubilee Tour in 2012. We created a mini cinema for a screening and some of the best archive films were shown. As the meeting took place in Hereford, England, Huntley Film Archives chose to showcase films of British agricultural and rural life.

    On reflection, it really was remarkable just how much the Queen knew about film archiving.
    I have often wondered if she just knew…all things on all subjects…or whether she was prepared, because she knew there was archive film at this event.

    She asked me about nitrate, about preservation, about cataloguing….this wasn’t small talk chit chat, she knew what she was talking about. I was so impressed and really hadn’t expected the depth of knowledge she had on the topic. She didn’t really want to move to the next person, there were things she wanted to talk about, so I am always happy to think of the Queen as a film archive fan…lovely memories we will treasure.

    1. For the Platinum Jubilee, there were some very old films from her childhood – all well preserved – she may have had an interest in them for those reasons. Her parents must have taken a lot of home movies quite early on.

  46. ‘Granny, I’m forever grateful to you’: Prince Harry issues statement ‘celebrating the life’ of the Queen – remembering their ‘cherished memories’ from the first time she met his ‘darling wife’ Meghan to when she hugged her ‘beloved great-grandchildren’

    Harry is wallowing in the Hyper Bowl as most Americans do!

  47. Can anyone recommend a gold bullion dealer other than the

    royal Mint? Gold spot price is £47.47 per gram at the moment. Royal Mint price is £70 per gram.

    2. You should be able to get gold at 4% over spot.
      Is there a premium on coins with EiiR’s face on?
      maybe better deals with Phillies, Kangaroos or Noah’s Arks?

    3. I just had a quick look at a couple of UK dealers and they have coins at much more realistic prices.

    4. Was chatting about this with an Aussie friend on Saturday at the Proms do. He tells me you can buy gold very easily over the counter in Oz and he already has a good stash. No use to thee and me of course. Being of the great unjabbed, I don’t suppose I’d be allowed to go there, even if I had the inclination?

    6. I know there are dealers in Birmingham and London where you can buy over the counter for cash. UK is woefully short of such places though.

      1. Yes. I have dealt with Birmingham before without a problem when i was selling my dental gold. Seemed okay.

          1. £250 from 3 teeth. Not a bad return as the teeth were covered by company insurance when i had them put in. I did check with other buyers and it was a fair price.

    7. Dominic Frisby recommends The Pure Gold Company (.co.uk), and friends have been pleased with Bullion By Post.

  48. Strenuous dentistry this afternoon. 3.00 pm (not tooth-hurty). Wish me luck. I hope I survive. Commencing surgery for two implants. Stitches. I hope I survive.

    1. Oh gosh! Sounds nasty – I don’t enjoy going to the dentist, but the worst part is the hygenist. Twenty minutes of torture – but nothing compared to your treatment. At least you will have an anaesthetic.

    2. I had an implant some years ago – I can honestly say that it didn’t hurt at all, and has never given me a moment’s pain since! Good luck, you will be fine and the results are very nice!

      1. Thank you, I am looking for ward to the end result. I am now gappy toothed for a few months as the roots have to be secured by the bone attaching to it. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

    3. I had an implant a few years back. The extraction was the worst part as the roots of the old badly cracked tooth were splayed. It had to be carved up and came out in three pieces. The bone graft came next and by the time we got to the actual implant, that was the good bit. I didn’t enjoy the process but I’m very happy with the end result.

      1. When the dentist cracked my tooth and the root filling became an abstraction, he was worried that the roots might be splayed. Fortunately, it all came out in one piece.

      2. I have three implants from 16 years ago, they are still doing well and I was really pleased with the result. I could not bear the thought of coping with a prosthesis in my mouth. It was not as bad as I feared (I had an anaesthetist present last time) but bad enough all the same.

      1. Thank you – I have had more dental treatment than I care to think about in my lifetime but it always hits me anew.

      1. I’ll send poppiesdad out tomorrow on a mercy mission. I am in some ‘discomfort’ as they call it but at the moment it is tolerable. All went well, not as bad as I was fearing (I actually did wonder if I would survive as I was feeling I am getting too old for this sort of thing, it does rather shake one up) – but nevertheless still bad enough.

        1. Glad you are okay. Fretting just makes everything worse ! Dentistry has come on in leaps and bounds. Much better than the horrors of my childhood dentist.

          1. My appt was originally for mid-July but mid-day the day before I got a message from the surgery to say that the appt had to be cancelled because the dentist had got the dreaded lurgy. I had psyched myself up for it and so had to ‘deflate’ and start all over again. Too much time then to think about it! The dentist was right – the worst part was the anaesthetic injections to numb the area, the last one felt like a knitting needle being inserted, the surgery part was ‘just’ unpleasantly uncomfortable! But yes, a far cry from the days of yore!

      1. Yes I am now, thank you, Ndovu – I was home by 4.40 pm. Not as bad as I was fearing but bad enough. The dental surgeon was lovely, very personable; not my usual dentist – I was referred to a centre in Cambridge. He give me a running commentary throughout the process of what to expect, what he was doing and why.

        I am now in a bit of ‘discomfort’ which will hopefully clear over the next day or so. The gums need to heal and bone secure itself to the implanted roots before the teeth proper can be attached in four months time. So I will be gappy toothed for a while. Only a good look if one is eight years old!

  49. Afternoon, folks. I’ve got to go out tonight (PCC meeting) so I thought I’d get in early. The jury is still out on Charles. I’ll wait and see what sort of a fist (or a horlicks) he makes of it. My local rag had Harry being at the head of the party to honour his father (ahem). In any case, it should surely have been William as the first-born.

  51. I am not disparaging anyone who wishes to show his respects to The Queen. If I still lived in London, I would do so.

    What surprises me is the very large number of people who – on a working weekday – are not at work. How is that managed?

    3. I’m sure a lot more people would be clapping as the entourage went past if they didn’t have mobile phones, you can’t film and clap at the same time

          2. The throwing of flowers at the hearse started then as well. Not a dignified silence as there was in Wotton Basset when the bodies were repatriated.

          3. It is all akin with modern impatience. The idea of standing still, watching and thinking – is beyond the wit of many folk today.

            They have to DO something.

  52. Must go and retrieve my gun in the loft and complete filling the gaps in the insulation boards with the large gap filler……

  53. Phew!
    Did a couple of mixes of concrete over the past couple of days and ran out of cement yesterday so bought three bags this morning.
    Just carried them up the “garden” to the shed.
    Also paid for a 1 ton bag of building sand to be delivered Friday that will need shovelling into smaller bags & hoiked up there too.

    1. Why did you choose to live in the Peak District? Carting barrowloads of concrete would have been a lot easier in the wide open expanses of Lincolnshire! 😉

    2. You are a glutton for punishment, BoB, but, I suppose, if it gives you the terraced garden you want, more power to your elbow (and shoulder).

    1. He’s just discovered the UK is no longer a democracy? Where’s he been the last twenty years?

      1. 355964+ up ticks,

        Afternoon AS,
        Laying the footings along with supporters to destroy it and finding much success.

    2. He’s just discovered the UK is no longer a democracy? Where’s he been the last twenty years?

    4. “Democracy can be undone, step by step, action by action, falsehood by falsehood!”

      Thus spake Mr Maastricht.

      1. He’s forgotten what happened on 01.01.1973. That was the first step, based on a great falsehood. This was in the 1970 Conservative Party manifesto:

        These policies will strengthen Britain so that we can negotiate with the European Community confident in the knowledge that we can stand on our own if the price is too high.

        Our sole commitment is to negotiate; no more, no less. As the negotiations proceed we will report regularly through Parliament to the country.

      2. 355964+ up ticks,
        G,
        Democracy has been under successful attack these past three plus decades, and that odious success has had majority support ALL the way.

    1. As an annual African farming summit takes place this week in Rwanda, activists, farmers and faith leaders from Seattle to Nairobi are calling on the Gates Foundation and other funders to stop supporting an effort they say has failed to deliver on promises to radically reduce hunger and increase farmer productivity and income.

      Worse, critics say the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, founded in 2006 with money from the Gates and Rockefeller foundations, has promoted an industrial model of agriculture that poisons soils with chemicals and encourages farmers to go into debt by buying expensive seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

      So no change then?

    2. Everything Gates touches turns to ruin. His dodgy software, leaky vaccines against a manmade virus, and the killing of very many children with his other vaccine drives.

      Now he’s buying up American farmland to reduce the amount of food produced in the States.

  56. 355964+ up ticks,

    King Charles,

    Resolved Faithfully’ to Follow Queen’s ’example of selfless duty’

    time will quickly tell if that is to be on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays only

    If he were to phone macron today to stop the invasion fleet and saying
    “stop the armada or the electrical power you seek from us will be via a chair”
    That would consolidate him with a great many peoples.
    ‘
    .

    2. I visited Sandringham once. Turning off the A road onto the estate felt like entering Narnia. The trees, the verges and flowers were sublime. Went around the house and grounds which was nice. I didn’t pinch anything, honest !
      I did buy two decanters with the Sandringham crest from the shop though.

      2. I went to Sandringham once. When a mate and I tried to visit the lavatory block it was padlocked shut. We walked around the back to be greeted by four women, all squatting in joyful contentment, who had had the same thoughts as us but had beaten us to it.

      3. Our Cavalier King Charles used one of the lawns as a loo. She was getting quite old…There is still probably a darker and stronger patch of grass neatly rounded. It was probably a premonition.

      4. I bought a lovely red alstroemeria and a terracotta pot to put it in from the Sandringham garden shop. I keep deadheading it and it’s still producing flowers.

      5. I bought a lovely red alstroemeria and a terracotta pot to put it in from the Sandringham garden shop. I keep deadheading it and it’s still producing flowers.

    1. I think Marcus Walker is seeing what he wants to see…the comments in the Mail were not altogether enthusiastic about Charles.
      On American websites, many were sad about the Queen dying, but I haven’t seen one post that is complimentary to Charles.

        2. Oh, they know alright. Charles’s associations with people like Schwab and Gates are well known.

  60. We had a lovely week in Baconsthorpe. Peaceful and beautiful, the cottage was very old with low celiings and querky. But it was a sad ending as we heard that the Queen passed away on the Thursday ( two days before we left ) but it did enable us to go back into beautiful and friendly Holt on the Friday and find a florist who made up some beautful bouquets and we then took them to Sandringham. It was reasonably quiet on the Friday and people had only started arriving, we put our flowers by the front gate. We saw newspapers this morning – there is now a sea of flowers . The cafe was open to provide people with coffee / tea and sandwiches ( nothing else as the estate is technically closed ) I thought it very kind to provide sandwiches and tea, the Queen would have been pleased .

    2. I thought it was good that the cafe (not the restaurant) allowed you in with your dogs to order food (and sit outside under cover).

  62. Nearly 3,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in two weeks with 253 arriving on Sunday amid calm conditions at sea
    People smugglers tried to take advantage of calm sea conditions in last two days
    There were 253 migrants detained in Dover on Sunday after eight boats seized
    In September so far there has been 2,917 crossings – and now 27,742 this year
    New Home Secretary Suella Braverman set to take a harder line on migrants

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11203787/Nearly-3-000-migrants-crossed-Channel-two-weeks-253-arriving-Sunday.html

    1. They weren’t ‘detained’….they were vaguely processed and put on coaches to their pre-booked hotels.

    2. “New Home Secretary Suella Braverman set to take a harder line on migrants”

      Oh yeah? Priti Awful was going to stop it dead – she sad so when she took office 3 years ago.

      1. If the politicians want to stop it they will do so.

        If they don’t stop it it is because they are not committed to doing it.

        And if the new prime minister seriously believes in Brexit then the NI Protocol will be scrapped before St Andrew’s Day* and the UK will leave the ECHR before Guy Fawkes Night. *

        If she fails to do either of these things she is not committed to a true Brexit.

        *(St Andrew’s Day November 30th; Guy Fawkes Night 5th November)

    3. And didn’t Tony Blair watch Newcastle Football Team playing in a stadium that hadn’t yet been built?

      2. I thought he claimed to have watched Dixie Dean, the great Evertonian striker and top
        goal scorer at St James’ Park.

        Blair remains an unrepentant liar as is Hillary Clinton.

        Anyone claiming that Trump fits that same mould is suffering from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome).

  65. I know the berk is a former PM but I knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his mush and mouth out of this. Boris- just go away and leave us in peace.
    At the Proclamation ceremony he looked like something that cat had dragged in.
    Just go away.

    1. His shambolic appearance – hair included – is quite deliberate. To raise two fingers at us oiks.

          8. ***Smiles benignly….looks over shoulder and asks an intelligent person….’Do we still shoot these people whilst hunting?

          13. He’s not the pheasant-plucker, he’s the pheasant-plucker’s son.
            He’s only plucking pheasants, till the pheasant-plucker comes.

      1. That made me laugh – firstly your pithy phrasing, and secondly fhe thought of a cat admitting a mistake! 🤣🤣 Thanks. This is why I come to this site.

    3. What a thicko!

      He is not doing much to raise the perception of how intelligent the Welsh people are!

      1. Oh, I don’t know…
        He’s certainly raised my perception of how intelligent they are, to have elected him!

      2. Oh, I don’t know…
        He’s certainly raised my perception of how intelligent they are, to have elected him!

    5. Another bumbling idiot – he and his ilk need to be put out to pasture with NO pension, as they are obviously incompetant. Applies to NI and the Wee Pretendy Parliament.

  70. Sigh.
    Heavy sigh.
    🙁
    Reported the theft of the removal boxes we sent from Mother’s house to Norway, at a cost of about £3,000, to Thames Valley police on 30 August this summer. Their reply email promised a review and a crime number withion 24 hours, or a reply at least.
    Nothing has happened.
    Sent them a sharp reminder of their promise just now, but it looks like the thieves get away with the last of my parents stuff, and my childhood, and the police don’t give a flying one – to the extent that they can’t even be arsed to reply, never mind investigate anything.
    What a bunch of cunts.

        1. She’s not late – yet.
          I guess that, living abroad, I might as well shove it up my arse, as far as these useless wankers are concerned.

    3. And all your hard work sorting everything out……… as well as the cost of sending and the loss of the things you wanted to keep.

      1. Indeed.
        Parents Ph.D theses, Fathers OBE citation (we took the medal in our handbaggage), lots of papers relating to family history, birth etc certificates, key items of furniture, a pile of photos, you name it – all gone. Most of the family history stolen. And the removal fees…

        1. How did you send it? Surely the company – if you used one – ll have full details of the transit.

          1. I have all the manifest copies, but after the stuff went off on the van, it’s just… gone.

      1. The removals company never said. They prevaricated when I several times asked for estimated delivery dates in Norway (now recognised as blowing smoke…), checked with tripadvisor and many similar stories of vanished goods and no reply. The last I had from them was to promise a waybill number last Friday, email today bounced…
        The boxes are likely trashed, and the money kept.
        I’d like to break their legs – slowly.

        1. That is rotten luck.

          When we left Laure – a houseful of furniture plus 48 boxes was transported to the UK by an international removal firm – held for 8 weeks because of the plague – and delivered as promised. Nothing missing. £2.200 all in.

          If only I’d known your plans, I could have given you their details

        2. If they’re that unreliable they need sueing and closing down. They can’t be allowed to get away with that.

    5. Did they have to go via the EU, they may be being held up while some bureaucrat works out what they are.
      That could also apply to Norway’s customs people.

      Do you know at roughly what point they vanished from the system, such things must be tracked.

      1. No.
        They have nicked it, plus the fee. Maybe gone bankrupt, I don’t know, but would happily pour gasoline onto them and fire it up. Or, tie them down in a cave and encourage rats to eat them alive.

    7. I am so sorry to hear that Paul. Had something similar when we moved from CT to GA- all my son’s CDs and DVDs failed to arrived. A week or so later we got a call from the moving guy….oh sorry, those boxes were hidden under something. Balls; the driver had pinched them with a plan to sell them on. Obviously didn’t work and we got them back. The guys who moved us from GA to NC were superb.

    9. My suggestion would be to get the family involved with searching Ebay for specific items .. you never know , and by being a sleuth will give you some relief

    10. That is such a shame, Paul, and plod, as usual, ain’t interested. Fcuk ’em

      We need a National Police force, that is held accountable and put Grizzly (George) in charge.

      1. The biggest pisser, Tom, is one that I realised just a few days ago: I have no photographs of my parents any more*. They were in the boxes, too.
        What an idiot, eh?
        * A snap of Mother outside her care home from this summer, in my phone, is all.

          1. Same company.
            I will consult our legal folk in Wales and see if there are any thoughts, but I hoped that TV police might show a glimmer of interest, not just ignore the whole thing completely.
            If I can raise them on the phone, I’ll ask them WTF?

      2. The biggest pisser, Tom, is one that I realised just a few days ago: I have no photographs of my parents any more*. They were in the boxes, too.
        What an idiot, eh?
        * A snap of Mother outside her care home from this summer, in my phone, is all.

      3. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tom, but I would be disqualified. If not on age grounds, certainly for common sense, which is now verboten!

    11. Oh, I’m so sorry, Paul. Losing money and things is bad enough, but to have your childhood memories stolen must hurt. The lack of police responsehas to be salt in the wound. Sending a big hug.

    12. Really sorry to hear this Paul, buggers they are. Wish I could help,somehow. Perhaps you could put a review on soshul meeja?

      1. He posted a link earlier. Given their reviews I’m surprised the company hasn’t been fire-bombed.

      1. No crime number yet. Police promised to revert within 24 hours with their proposed action, and a crime number.
        Nowt received.
        Complaint sent.

        1. Dysfunctional. It’s a word reserved for our public sector. Hence, I’ve abandoned all hope of my Driving Licence renewal ever being dealt with. Thankfully, I now live four minutes’ walk from a railway station, and willing volunteers get me to and from the village churches on Sundays. I could – subject to the communists at DVLA – have a Motability car, but it’s really not worth it.

          Seriously, hope the bar stewards sort it out. There’s always Katie Morley at the DT…

          1. Unless someone has specifically told you not to drive, carry on.

            It would make a splendid test case and you could entertain Nottle for years!

  72. That’s me for this – now – wet day. A wonderful trombetti selected for a pasta sauce. The plants have, quite suddenly, started doing what they have not been doing for three months!

    I feel so sorry for our good friend Paul. He has been done at the time when he needed the most help.

    Tomorrow I take the MR to the dennist (Devon word) -and later to Sandringham. Will look in de temps en temps.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain.

  74. Daily Quordle 231

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  75. Interesting conversation with a fit-ish 94/95 year old.

    “I’m not surprised she went down hill so quickly, the Platinum Jubilee celebrations will have exhausted her totally, and in her position there was never any time to recover properly.”

    1. I think losing Prince Philip last year hit her very hard, but she kept going beccause of the Jubilee.

    2. I think losing Prince Philip last year hit her very hard, but she kept going beccause of the Jubilee.

      1. 355964+ up ticks,
        G,
        It has been getting progressively worse since
        anthony charlie lynten AKA the bog man lifted the latch and knowingly supported via the polling booth, by all of the coalition party.

      2. IMHO due to stupid our political classes, this once safe and fairly successful country is absolutely finished.
        Over G &Ts on ‘the lower terrace’ earlier, I asked one of our clued up daughters in law what was the most popular male name for UK new borns. No prizes for guessing it’s ‘king Muhammad. Really? Well it’s not difficult to understand where that is leading the future of this country.
        Another Islamic conquest. Due to this time to decades of pathetic and weak administration.

  77. Attention…..🤗☺

    Thank you so much for all your kind words and wishes on my birthday.
    I did almost nothing but sat in the sunshine and chopped up, mulch and pressed apples for another gallon of zyder. One more to go.
    Nice almost relaxing day.
    Night all.
    Thanks again, much appreciated. 😉🙂

    2. My belated God Wishes on your birthday, RE; I have been riveted to King Charles III’s busy schedule on TV.

      Have a large one!

    3. Happy Birthday, Eddy! Sounds like a good day, all you need is sunshine to set the scene on the day!

  78. Don’t cancel things: keep calm and carry on

    The elite assumes it’s the ‘right thing’ to do, but even in 1952 the British public weren’t so keen

    TIM STANLEY • 12 September 2022 • 7:00am

    By chance, I was in church when the news of Elizabeth II’s death emerged – the perfect place to be. The priest interrupted, at a natural break, to make the announcement, people gasped (yes, they gasped) and then we continued with the order of service. I have no doubt whatsoever that’s what the late Queen would’ve wanted.

    But now we’re hit with a mania of cancellations: football matches, the Proms, the Great North Run, betting, bin collections, strikes, even the Lib Dem conference. I punched the air when I heard the last one, but the rest – is it appropriate? Is it for the right reasons? Or is that no one wants to be the only person to keep their event going, lest someone ask “why didn’t you cancel?”

    I applaud the desire to “do the right thing”, but I don’t think we should assume it’s always what’s done.

    Plenty of things were cancelled in 1952, when George VI died, including the rugby (though footer went ahead). Cinemas and theatres closed on the day; most, however, reopened. Many pubs never stopped service (well, you need a pint when you get news that bad). According to David Kynaston’s splendid history of the 1950s, Family Britain, the most obvious change in the daily routine was that the BBC fell silent, but for news, weather and dreary music.

    “My husband was so fidgety,” recorded the diarist Nella Last, “he counted up the days till he could expect the wireless programmes he likes” – noting that it made little sense to pull comedies off the air when the late King was known to be a fan of them.

    You’d imagine that 1950s Britain would embrace such deprivation with cold-bath stoicism. They did not. One survey found that 59 per cent of Britons disapproved of the BBC’s coverage.

    This had consequences. The Tory Party swung in favour of ending the corporation’s monopoly, permitting the creation of commercial TV. Labour MP Richard Crossman blamed this on its “high-handed performance during the King’s funeral … if there had been a rival, the BBC couldn’t have closed the service down.”

    Middle-class do-gooders argued that the BBC existed precisely to uphold sober standards; working-class viewers demanded more game shows; the Tories were sick of the bias. “For 11 years [the BBC] kept me off the air,” claimed Churchill. “Their behaviour has been tyrannical. They are honeycombed with socialists – probably communists.”

    See, even the culture war is nothing new. Kynaston’s point is that after the King’s death, the establishment automatically followed a protocol that probably seemed appropriate on paper but was increasingly out of step with how many people ordered their own lives, a tension that is more avoidable nowadays because if you’ve had enough of monarchy on your old-fashioned TV, you can always switch over to Netflix or Amazon.

    Back in the 1950s, society might have seemed more cohesive because technology imposed cultural coherence upon it. There was no escape. Not that I’m implying the feeling of loss wasn’t general, real and powerful. In ’52, two young men refused to take part in the two-minute silence and were almost lynched.

    The novelist Mollie Panter-Downes wrote that the widespread grief “proved beyond doubt the impossibility of Britain’s ever entering into any European federation, since Britons are already federated into a family that loyalties and traditions bred in its bones”. Hear, hear!

    The enigma of Britain

    When someone dies, you pause. You should; you need to. But a critical part of handling death is carrying on, and it’s notable how swiftly the monarchy does this. At the end of the church service I attended, the priest said, “The Queen is dead. God save the King!” There was hardly a breath between sentences.

    Funeral traditions direct grief; they give us space to vent, they give us words to express our feelings. Monarchy adds to this a purposeful overwhelmingness, such that the theatre of ceremony directs emotion away from death to rebirth, endings to new beginnings – emphasising a cycle of change and renewal that feels out of space, out of time.

    Seeing the bearskin hats, the little red soldiers marching and the kilts and bagpipes blaring, I wondered if we were in 2022 or 1952 or 1936? It leaves one breathless, no pausing to notice how anachronistic it is, or its claims entirely undemocratic – and custom cleverly compromises those involved, so that by the time Charles had signed documents affirming the Protestant faith, all that speculation about him redefining his role for a multicultural tomorrow is forgotten.

    And did you notice how excited Sir Keir Starmer seemed to be – a republican in his youth, but who described his knighthood as the proudest day of his parents’ lives? This is how we avoided revolution: by having a divinely approved monarchy that flatters even socialists.

    Charles will be a good King. We will surmount our problems. Britain is always in crisis, always mucking things up and making silly changes we later regret, yet we remain the same people by stubbornly carrying on, by refusing to be swept away by history.

    That’s the enigma of a country where every upheaval is met with, “well, I think I’ll put the kettle on”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/12/dont-cancel-things-keep-calm-carry/

  79. An article from a US magazine that made me smile, nod and well up slightly:
    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-royal-one/

    It is difficult to describe the adoration of the British people for the departed monarch without becoming mawkish. She vowed at her coronation that although she could not lead the British people into battle or enact laws for them, she could give those people her heart. She did, and the people of what Queen Elizabeth II called “these old islands” gave theirs straight back.

    1. One quibble with that article:-
      Charles III will be hoping for third time lucky, as the 17th-century reign of Charles I saw the English Civil War followed by his own execution, while Charles II had to deal with naval defeats, a “Popish Plot” to assassinate him and put his brother James on the throne, and the Great Fire of London.

      The “Popish Plot” of 1678 was an entirely fictitious affair dreamt up by Titus Oates. It cost the lives of several innocent Catholics, and there was never any question of Charles II being deposed in favour of his brother.

  80. Without Willie Whitelaw, Thatcher would not have achieved as much. Liz Truss needs a similar figure

    The new government is facing an unusually heady mix of problems

    NORMAN TEBBIT • 12 September 2022 • 1:20pm

    Liz Truss has moved into the flat above 10 Downing Street to face a host of tricky problems. Many of them are those which Boris Johnson had failed to sort out and left for his successor. After the absurd time-wasting exercise of selecting his successor over a two-month period, the new leader of the Conservative Party and its leader in the Commons finally emerged as Liz Truss, who was then asked by Her Late Majesty in one of her final actions, to form a Government.

    After her trip to Balmoral to see the late Queen came the construction of the Cabinet and then the appointment of junior ministers. That she has conducted swiftly and with good sense, even under the shadow of the death of the Queen. What is more, as the Telegraph reported last week, she has told her male ministers “ties are back”.

    Even since Thatcher’s time the number of issues facing a government has increased, now making it necessary to have at least twenty Ministers of Cabinet rank. However it is not easy to manage a debate on many of those complex matters with approaching a couple of dozen participants at the table.

    Liz Truss has done well to keep the number down to 22, but the immortal words of Margaret Thatcher, in a reference to Lord Whitelaw, “Every Prime Minister needs a Willie”, remain true, and it is hard as yet to see who that might be for Prime Minister Truss. Certainly, however, she needs someone like him to sort out complex matters in cabinet committees and make recommendations to the cabinet.

    I sang “God save the King” in my youth. I did not expect to sing it again

    St. Edmunsbury Cathedral was packed last Saturday for a Requiem Mass for her late Majesty the Queen, which closed with the National Anthem. I do not think I was the only one who choked slightly as we dedicated it not to the Queen, but, as we did in the times of my youth, to the King. Following the Service, queues formed within the Cathedral to sign one of the two books of condolence.

    I felt that there was within that congregation a sense of unease, uncertainty and worry about the future of this Kingdom.

    My own life at home has been very mixed over the past couple of weeks. Since the long hot drought came to a sudden end, broken by the huge thunderstorm around dawn on August 25, my garden has come to life again. To the east of the Cathedral the great brown acres of the Bury St Edmunds Abbey Gardens have turned green once more. The two chalk streams, the Lark and its tributary the Linnet have come back to life with ducks and fish amongst the water weeds.

    In the courtyard behind my house, around the edges of the gravelled car parking area, wild cyclamen have sprung up to give a glorious display. My tomato plants, just two of them in large pots, have yielded more delicious fruit than I can conveniently eat and the buddleia and the roses are abundantly in flower, all in what is but a very limited space.

    Indoors it has been a complex operation as I set about improving and redecorating my live-in carer’s flat, installing new carpets, a new bed and living room furniture.

    What would Mrs Thatcher have made of transgenderism?

    Even as recently as the Thatcher years we had little of the debates now dominating society, such as questions about transgender athletes competing in sports contests and single-sex spaces.

    On Wednesday 7 September, the Daily Telegraph reported that in the Republic of Ireland, Enoch Burke, a school teacher was challenging an injunction not to go to, nor try to teach at, his school after being suspended for his refusal to call a pupil “they”. Mr. Burke told the court that “Transgenderism is against my Christian belief. It is contrary to the scriptures.”

    Sadly, I think it likely that a court in Northern Ireland or here on the mainland, would take a similar view.

    The National Trust must return to its original purpose

    As I read of developments within the National Trust, I am reminded of having resigned my membership some years ago, in disgust at the manner in which the Trust was being run. In my view then, and it remains so now, the purpose of the Trust is to care for the property assets it holds on behalf of the nation. Sadly, it appeared to me that it all too often expresses moral judgements on the former owners of those properties.

    Such matters would look trivial to those brave men of Ukraine defending their homeland against Mr. Putin’s Russian invaders. It seems that they have again inflicted sharp defeats on the Russian army and regained lost territory. I cannot believe that the Russian military has its heart in this aggression and nourish a hope that they might decide to act instead to bring down Mr. Putin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/12/without-willie-whitelaw-thatcher-would-not-have-achieved-much/

  81. Unusually for me, I am actually feeling sorry for Harry and the Harridan, as part of the Royal media circus.

    Every single member of the extended Royal Family is now under the minutest of scrutiny, every blink, every step, every gesture, every word; they are being anal-ysed by reporters who in reality are not fit to lick their piss.

  82. What a shite end to what should have been a brilliant day,attended the wedding of two of the “Awkward Squad” fabulous time had by all good meal afterwards and then an elderly member suffered breathing difficulties (COPD) ambulance,hospital and I have just heard she has passed away
    Just sad now……..

    1. Look at it from the perspective that the old lady had had a fabulous day and passed away content.
      Not a bad way to go I think…

      1. Your right of course but the 40 minute arguement with the dispatcher to get an ambulance on its way left a very sour taste in the mouth,the first offer was 3 hours until they were spoken to very “robustly” TBF the crew were excellent when they arrived………

        1. Sorry to read that.
          I hope that the old lady was unaware of what was happening.
          My mother was finally despatched by COPD.

    2. That’s no fun, Rix. At least, as Sos points out, her last memories were of friends and party. Not such a bad way to go.

  83. Someone’s lying…

    Safety fears scotch plans to use Royal Train to transport Queen Elizabeth II to London

    Decision causes dismay in rail industry, where staff were preparing to play their part in national mourning

    By Hannah Furness, ROYAL EDITOR and Dominic Penna • 12 September 2022 • 7:29pm

    A carriage of the Royal train, modified especially to carry Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin, lies unused after plans for the nation to turn out to show its respects were scrapped over fears for public safety and disruption.

    The carriage is said to have been converted into a hearse built with wide doors and a rotating table to manoeuvre a coffin, ready to be sent to Scotland to bring the late Queen on her final journey.

    Plans had been drawn up for the train to make its way slowly south, with members of the public invited to watch it pass while they paid their own tributes.

    Industry sources on Monday said that the plan had been abandoned at the last minute over fears the route would become a magnet for protestors or reckless behaviour that would make it too difficult to police.

    One claimed the decision was taken in part to give more time for the Queen’s body to lie in state in London, where hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit the coffin.

    A royal source said the plan to use the Royal train had only been a relatively recent option, discussed within the last five years, but dismissed some time ago on the advice of partner organisations, including the police.

    The decision has caused dismay in the rail industry, where staff had been preparing to play their part in the national tribute to the late Queen.

    One source said: “It’s such a shame and has caused a lot of disappointment.

    “I’m sure the public could have been trusted to behave appropriately.”

    One worker at Gemini Rail Group’s Wolverton Facility, located just outside Milton Keynes, confirmed the carriage, called Coach 2921, had been there until last week.

    The Royal Train is usually a diesel locomotive with 10-12 coaches, with the intention of having it hauled by a steam engine to bring the late Queen’s coffin home.

    The plan to use it on the Edinburgh to London route was abandoned in favour of flying it by RAF C17 plane.

    Rail industry sources have been told that the decision was made by Buckingham Palace in line with the Queen’s wishes.

    One said that he did not believe it matched her desire to be “seen to be believed”, saying it was a “great shame” those in the north of England would not have a chance to watch the train carry her through their local stations en route to London.

    The King is now signing off all plans for his mother’s funeral.

    A palace source said the decision had been taken on the advice of numerous organisations, including police, government departments and local councils. It is understood it would have caused disruption to public rail timetables.

    They claimed that the use of the RAF plane had been the original plan, to which they have now reverted.

    Nigel Harris, editor of Rail magazine, said the decision was “wrong-headed”.

    “People have been denied their chance to pay their respects to the Queen,” he said. “I don’t think she would have gone along with that.”

    He added: “Deciding not to use the Royal train to take Queen Elizabeth II back home to London on her last journey was, in my view, a major blunder by the Government, Palace and railway.

    “Millions – and I do mean millions – of folk living south of the Scottish border and north of London have been denied that powerful, humble experience.”

    He argued that the choice not to use it on such a momentous occasion would add to arguments to scrap the Royal train entirely.

    “If the railway can’t use this taxpayer-funded asset, when the longest-serving British monarch dies after a 70-year reign, claiming it will trigger mass trespass [and] be unsafe … when will we ever use it?”

    At 5pm on Tuesday, the coffin will be taken by hearse from St Giles’ Cathedral to Edinburgh Airport, where it will be placed on board an RAF aircraft by a bearer party found by the Royal Air Force. It will then be flown at 6pm to RAF Northolt.

    The coffin will be accompanied on the journey by Queen Elizabeth II’s daughter, the Princess Royal, and the Very Reverend Professor David Fergusson, Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/12/safety-fears-scotch-plans-use-royal-train-transport-queen-elizabeth

    1. Sad

      But because the idiocracy has been allowed, nay encouraged, to take possession of day to day life, what would one expect?

    3. Public disturbance? I’m sure that the REAL public in attendance would soon quell this sort of behaviour, even if the Police Farce wouldn’t/couldn’t

  84. Singing in Gaelic? This service for the late Queen is an astonishing moment in history

    This afternoon’s Service of Thanksgiving will be a dignified, intelligent tribute to Her late Majesty – with one extraordinary gesture

    IVAN HEWETT, CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC • 12 September 2022 • 2:02pm

    A Service of Thanksgiving is normally a time for rejoicing. The last one held in connection with the Royal family, the Platinum Jubilee National Service of Thanksgiving on June 3, had a properly jubilant air, with trumpet fanfares, Parry’s tremendous anthem ‘I Was Glad’, and Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks.

    How long ago that now seems. The Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of Her Majesty the Queen, which is about to take place at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, must strike a more complicated tone: a quiet salute for a life well lived, at once grieving, dignified and tender, with a glance at the late Queen’s own musical loves.

    Towards the end of the service, however, we’ll hear something that in its quiet way is revolutionary: a performance, in Gaelic, by the well-known Scottish folk-singer Karen Matheson of Psalm 118. It would be hard to overstate the symbolic significance of this. Gaelic was systematically hounded to near-extinction over a period of centuries, first by the English Crown and later by the British Government. A Parliamentary Act of 1616 specifically outlawed the teaching of “Irishche” – as Gaelic was then known – in primary schools in Scotland, and more than two centuries later a report from a Secretary of State for Education stated bluntly that “the Gaelic language decidedly stands in the way of the civilisation of the natives making use of it”.

    Until that point in the service, at least, the musical choices are the ones you might expect. Among the three congregational hymns is ‘The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want’, one of the late Queen’s favourites. There are no fewer than four Chorale Preludes by JS Bach, the greatest master of beautiful resignation in music, alongside similarly reflective organ pieces by Parry – who wasn’t always imperially jubilant – as well as César Franck, Louis Vierne and others. No Royal service, even one as liturgically loose and improvised as a Thanksgiving, is complete without a nod to the great English sacred composers of the 16th and 17th centuries. There are short intimate choral pieces by Thomas Tallis and Henry Purcell before the service, sung by the cathedral choir, and during the service itself, William Byrd’s great Latin anthem Justorum Animae (The Souls of the Righteous).

    The Queen adored her Balmoral estate, and died there, so it’s entirely appropriate that the service contains an unusual number of pieces by Scottish composers. There are two pieces by Scotland’s most distinguished living composer James MacMillan, ‘Farewell to Stromness’ by the Manchester-born but long-time Orkney resident Peter Maxwell Davies, and the lovely organ piece ‘Andante soavemente e dolce’ by Charles Macpherson. The Scottish harpist and composer Savourna Stephenson’s setting of Psalm 121 will be sung before the service.

    But after such a long history of official contempt, to hear a Gaelic-speaking folk-singer singing a Gaelic Psalm, at a Service of Thanksgiving for a deceased British monarch, feels like a symbolic act of restitution. It will certainly bring something uniquely beautiful to a service in which music, as always, plays a vital role.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/singing-gaelic-service-late-queen-astonishing-moment-history/

    1. BTL:

      Alan MacColl

      The Act of 1616 was enacted by the Scottish Privy Council and had nothing to do with the English crown or the English parliament. Scotland and England were two separate realms who happened to have the same king. Though the Act established English as the sole medium of instruction, the active suppression of Gaelic language and culture came much later, after the failure of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.

      Besides, including a psalm in Gaelic in such a service is hardly of great ‘symbolic significance’. The rehabilitation of the language and culture of the Highlands and Islands goes back to Sir Walter Scott two centuries ago.

      Grant McCormack

      A little bit of historical accuracy here please. The Scottish King James VI who became King James I of England and Wales in 1603, was to put it simply, anti Gaelic for two reasons.

      The Highlands were unruly and ungovernable; and he wanted all of his subjects to speak with one tongue so that they could read and understand the bible which he had caused to translated into English. In fact, he says that in the preface of the King James bible.

      The demise of Gaelic had nothing to do with the British government which did not come into existence until more than one hundred years after James VI had become James I of England and Wales.

      Mark Connelly

      You could walk through Edinburgh for a year and not find a single person that spoke it.

      And soon you will walk through London and not hear a word of English spoken.

    2. BTL:

      Alan MacColl

      The Act of 1616 was enacted by the Scottish Privy Council and had nothing to do with the English crown or the English parliament. Scotland and England were two separate realms who happened to have the same king. Though the Act established English as the sole medium of instruction, the active suppression of Gaelic language and culture came much later, after the failure of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.

      Besides, including a psalm in Gaelic in such a service is hardly of great ‘symbolic significance’. The rehabilitation of the language and culture of the Highlands and Islands goes back to Sir Walter Scott two centuries ago.

      Grant McCormack

      A little bit of historical accuracy here please. The Scottish King James VI who became King James I of England and Wales in 1603, was to put it simply, anti Gaelic for two reasons.

      The Highlands were unruly and ungovernable; and he wanted all of his subjects to speak with one tongue so that they could read and understand the bible which he had caused to translated into English. In fact, he says that in the preface of the King James bible.

      The demise of Gaelic had nothing to do with the British government which did not come into existence until more than one hundred years after James VI had become James I of England and Wales.

      Mark Connelly

      You could walk through Edinburgh for a year and not find a single person that spoke it.

      And soon you will walk through London and not hear a word of English spoken.

    1. Having just arrived on nottlers today, I am delighted to be one of the first to wish Happy birthday wishes to Anne Allan!! Have a great day, hope you’re able to do something special!

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