Monday 13 June: Knee-jerk policies are not the answer to this Government’s woes

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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451 thoughts on “Monday 13 June: Knee-jerk policies are not the answer to this Government’s woes”

  2. Good morrow, Minty and other Gentle NoTTLers. I’m only here because it’s another night with only 3 hours zeds. I shall take time later for a nap.

    2. I’m not usually an early bird but it’s so bright this morning I couldn’t sleep.

  3. Morning Minty (and everyone) – you just beat me to it. Geoff is up early today.

    2. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah. 5:20.

    3. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah. 5:20.

    5. The two most loathed PMs in recent history – Blair and Thatcher – were also the most loved. True May was loathed but she was not loved by anyone and neither was Brown.

      Major and Cameron were too insignificant to raise very strong emotions.

      1. I prefer to refer to him as Charlie Chester (he’s Earl of Chester in these parts, like Duke of Rothsay north of the border).

  5. Dollar hits 135 yen as U.S. yields climb ever higher. 13 June 2022.

    The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield touched 3.2% on Monday morning, having gained nearly 12 basis points on Friday after U.S. inflation beat expectations, driving bets that the Fed will have to hike rates even more aggressively. The U.S. two year yield extended Friday’s gains to touch 3.159% in early trade, a fresh 14 year high.

    The “yields” referred to here are actually Treasury Bonds that the US Government sells to raise cash to service their National Debt. Whether this circumlocution is a deliberate attempt to mislead the casual reader is of course opinion. Though not mentioned there is no doubting that the increases themselves are due to the lack of confidence that the seizure of Russian Foreign holdings has prompted among other investors. They have gone elsewhere and the only way to get them back is to bribe them with increased rates. Whether that will be sufficient I doubt. When you hear that your bank is stealing its customer’s deposits it’s time to look for another!

    https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14643736

  7. Good Moaning.

    While reading about Jack the Ripper, I came across this passage: I had a feeling of deja vu.
    “He (Anderson) started work as head of CID on the day that Mrs. Nichols was murdered. At the end of his first week Mrs. Chapman was killed. The following day he left on a month’s holiday. He could just as easily receive reports from the office in Switzerland, he told his superiors (one can almost hear his aggrieved tones), he had even moved part of his vacation to Paris for swifter communication with London.”

    The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders.

      1. It appears that it is an investigation of Sir Keir Starmer receiving certain payments against the law.

        Stand by for the roar of hysterical denials from the usual lefties.

  10. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – Charles Moore makes several withering criticisms of Boris Johnson, but concludes that he should not be replaced. His reasons are that it “would be a bold step” to replace Mr Johnson, and that doing so would be “handing victory to the bureaucratic Blob”.

    Well, on the first point, changing leader does carry the risk of the unknown – but, in this case, keeping the present leader carries the certainty of defeat. Secondly, the Blob is already winning, as demonstrated by net zero, high public spending and taxes, and all the nanny-state nonsense. A new leader with some backbone would be no worse at defeating the Blob, and probably better.

    Tim Janman
    London W6

    Not today’s leading letter, but perhaps it should be. No one is effectively standing up to the Blob, and under Johnson that isn’t about to change, despite a few headlines from JR-M. The Civil Service has been allowed to go its own way, and the appalling service from significant parts of it are a scandal. The taxpayer deserves better but government seems perfectly content to live with an administrative shambles and a Snivel Service that openly undermines its ministers. We have sunk to a new and very worrying low

    1. Morning, Hugh J.

      It’s looking very likely that not only has Schwab and his nefarious WEF infiltrated government cabinets around the World it has placemen/women in many areas of influence. Delousing is not going to be easy.

      1. ‘Morning Korky. This BTL post from a couple of days ago seems to sum things up rather well. I particularly like his ‘CINO’:

        Andy McNeilis

        Watching Britain descend into a cesspit of entitlement, trans anti woman, Big State, High Spending, Striking, Working from home, NHS-is-perfect, cancel culture, burn you at the stake if you do not agree with climate lobby, green eco loon, war-on-motorists-high taxation, leaking bordered lunacy is like watching your favorite uncle die.
        Until the “gongs and gold plated pension” culture of the establishment uncivil service is taken on and eradicated the UK is doomed.
        I honestly think if this carries on the only answer will be the great silent majority undertaking direct action.
        Tories- pick a side. you are either pro wealth creation / capitalism – or pro socialism big state spending. The Civil service has picked theirs- pass legislation to do away with index linked pensions and then sit back and smell the fear.
        Presently you are a gutless party with a wasted majority and CINO- conservative in name only.

        1. Sorry, too busy.
          Rummaging around trying to find my flared jeans and cheesecloth shirts; they’re up in the attic somewhere.

        2. I think Andy has struck the metal fixing pin precisely on its head with his brummagem screwdriver.

        3. I had a similar conversation with one of my neighbours a couple of days ago when I was walking Oscar. We both agreed that a) things needed desperately to change and b) the only way they would was if we got out on the streets.

      2. ‘Morning Korky. This BTL post from a couple of days ago seems to sum things up rather well. I particularly like his ‘CINO’:

        Andy McNeilis

        Watching Britain descend into a cesspit of entitlement, trans anti woman, Big State, High Spending, Striking, Working from home, NHS-is-perfect, cancel culture, burn you at the stake if you do not agree with climate lobby, green eco loon, war-on-motorists-high taxation, leaking bordered lunacy is like watching your favorite uncle die.
        Until the “gongs and gold plated pension” culture of the establishment uncivil service is taken on and eradicated the UK is doomed.
        I honestly think if this carries on the only answer will be the great silent majority undertaking direct action.
        Tories- pick a side. you are either pro wealth creation / capitalism – or pro socialism big state spending. The Civil service has picked theirs- pass legislation to do away with index linked pensions and then sit back and smell the fear.
        Presently you are a gutless party with a wasted majority and CINO- conservative in name only.

      3. If the Tories can’t be bothered to delouse the BBC, why do you think that they are capable of delousing the Civil Service?

        1. janetjH, I didn’t specifically mention the Tories but I did say it will not be easy. If we are to get out of this mess, a task being made daily more onerous by the current rabble in power, then some group, possibly a mainly disaffected Tory party with a new leader without ties to the WEF/NWO cabal will be the answer. Whatever the situation, massive change at the top is required, and to repeat myself, it will not be easy.

    2. That was why it was so vital to Carrie Johnson and her former boyfriends such as Squalid Jawdrop that Cummings was sacked because Cummings was the only person who wanted to stand up to the blob.

  11. SIR – The three steps which Lord Frost says Boris Johnson must take can be expressed in three words: become a Conservative.

    Derek Wellman
    Lincoln

    If it hasn’t happened in 3 years and with an 80- seat majority, Derek Wellman, it is time to call a halt.  The clock is ticking and defeat isn’t far off.

    1. Will we have a hung Parliament? A proportionally represented hanged Parliament would be an improvement, pour encourager les autres, of course.

          1. Ah, are you thinking “Belt and Braces”, or hang ’em high and light them up?

        2. Buy shares in piano wire. Supply and demand will send the price through the roof.

    2. When Carrie took over and Cummings was sacked things fell apart and the centre could not hold and I doubt if there will be second coming for Johnson in the elections but mere anarchy will be loosed upon us all. Boris Johnson certainly lacks all conviction and his passionate intensity seems to be reserved only for fornication.

      1. Take your pick. Versions of the same sentiment:

        1) He’s like a feather pillow who always bears the imprint of the last person who has sat on him.

        (2) She was like a cushion who bore the impress of the most recent person who sat on her.

        (3) He’s like a bean-bag chair; he bears the impression of the last person who sat on him.

  12. SIR – Jacob Rees-Mogg (Letters, June 11) writes that “it is helpful of David Frost to call for a Bill to sunset EU law.”

    It seems there is no longer any noun that cannot be verbed.

    Ian Prideaux
    London SW4

    Very good, Mr Prideaux.

    1. Is that Jim Prideaux’s new alias? I thought he was teaching and trying to keep his old Alvin running??

  13. Food strategy for England will back farmers, Boris Johnson says. 13 June 2022.

    Backing farmers will be at the heart of England’s new food strategy, the prime minister has announced.

    Under the plans, farmers are set to produce more home-grown food to help guard against future economic shocks, Boris Johnson has pledged.

    These people are thrashing around inventing ever more ridiculous reasons to convince the peasants that they are doing something.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61778967

    1. Oh, to be in England
      Now that Net Zero’s there,
      And whoever wakes in England
      Sees, some morning, unaware,
      That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
      are cleared for Solar sans relief,
      While the chaffinch’s minced through turbine plough
      In England – now!!

          5. I know, but sometimes I just can’t be bothered! This happens increasingly often as I get older 🙁

    2. Please, will someone save us from Johnson and his pledges? Better that he actually DID something useful rather than making empty promises that he has absolutely no intention of fulfilling.

      Isn’t this the man whose government is seeking to stop meat production in this Country in an effort to save the World from oblivion? End beef production and along with that disaster we would see the loss of dairy i.e. milk, cheese, cream, yoghurt and all associated production. The loss of wholesome food would be a health catastrophe and the follow-on job losses a social disaster. The man is a complete fool with all the bells and whistles as add-ons.

    3. A letter writer is not impressed:

      SIR – What a brilliant idea, so clever that I am astonished no one in Westminster has thought of it before: get farmers to grow food.

      Graham Bond
      Matching Green, Essex

      1. It is a novel idea, but the statist Left are wedded to the climate change scam and as such want farmers to ‘rewild’ rather than grow food.

    4. But will the state now stop punishing farmers/ Will it reduce the paperwork and legislation farmers labour under? Will it talk to super markets to allow farmers to make a profit?

      1. Will it stop building houses, windmills and solar farms on productive agricultural land and importing loads of gimmegrants to fuel demand for accommodation?

  14. SIR – Recently my sister-in-law went to a large asparagus farm. The accommodation that formerly housed the workers (from the EU) was empty, and the farmer had lost 80 per cent of his crop for lack of pickers. Draw your own conclusions.

    Boris Johnson seems more interested in generating headlines to save his own skin than solving a problem that he has helped to create.

    Alan Scovell
    Woodbridge, Suffolk

    And we hear this morning that British egg producers cannot afford the huge rises in feed costs and energy, meaning that many will fold. Furthermore, there is an egg shortage in Europe, so importing the shortfall will not solve the problem.

    1. It seems that the British response to shortages is to cut back on production and increase imports. Loadsamoney to borrow to pay for it.

    2. Egg farmers closing because of higher costs is not how the free market should work – they should simply sell eggs more expensively?
      Are they stuck in restrictive deals with supermarkets that drive them out of business?
      Egg farmers in the US recently re-negotiated as a group with the supermarkets, I seem to remember.

      1. ‘Morning, bb2. Yes, I imagine that the supermarkets dominate the egg market, in which case the suppliers are being well and truly screwed.

      2. But, we don’t have a free market. We have a social democratic market, where (as Wibbling points out) people are paid NOT to work

    4. We have always had seasonal workers (SAWS). That we are having fewer is NOT down to Brexit.

  15. SIR – The Luddites leading the rail unions have created an issue on which all Conservatives will agree. The situation is not unlike Arthur Scargill and Mick McGahey’s miners’ strike, which Margaret Thatcher defeated.

    This proposed strike is particularly selfish and unpatriotic. Self-evidently, it is unreasonable that well-paid train drivers and ancillary staff should exploit the monopoly position of the railways to inflict misery on the rest of the nation, especially as it struggles to recover from the pandemic.

    The Government should use its large majority to pass emergency legislation that prevents workers in monopoly services – like railways and the fire brigade – from striking. An independent body should be created to set their pay. Alternatively, or in parallel, the Government should arrange for elements of the Armed Forces to be trained to carry out these workers’ duties. This would help to eliminate union blackmail.

    Gregory Shenkman
    London SW7

    I was with Mr Shenkman until his penultimate sentence. Unfortunately train drivers are not created overnight. Besides, why should service personnel drive them for a fraction of the pay and the perks?

    1. Because it would give them experience that they might otherwise never have the chance. One of my best remembered is the firemen’s strike, when I was in charge of running the emergency service in a large norther city. I was involved from a few days before the strike to several weeks after it ended and only took three days off in nearly three months. No extra pay but nearly all those involved enjoyed the experience. I did get a flight to the USA and back (cost £10) and two weeks leave for my services. Wouldn’t mind a few weeks driving a train – some friends took me on a trip on the footplate of a steam train once and let me stoke the engine – the smoke, the steam, the sunshine and the wind! Lovely memories. I agree about the pay though.

      1. Ah yes, the firemen’s strike – I remember it well. We were ‘volunteered’ to escort Green Goddesses to local fires, given that their Gurkha crews had absolutely no idea where to go when called out. And no satnavs then, either. Our ‘payment’ came in the form of some excellent curries, consumed at any time of the day or night, depending which shift we were on. We also set up our own sleeping accommodation in a garage at the TA Centre where we were based so that we could work almost normally after a night duty.

  16. 353173+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 13 June: Knee-jerk policies are not the answer to this Government’s woes ?

    Monday 13 June: Knee-jerk policies are not the answer to this Government’s woe, what woes would they be then as far as I can
    perceive everything is going to plan regarding the reset/ replace
    campaign.

    The only woes to be suffered are by the NON supporting peoples
    of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration (ongoing) / paedophile umbrella coalition party.

    The state of this nation currently was programmed and openly put into action from the major era ongoing, nobody but nobody could continue to get things so wrong without it being designed to be so.

    blair the cottager, brown, major the curry fancier, the wretch cameron,
    leg over clegg, treacherous treaser, the yankee / turkish delight this was NOT BAD management, no sir, this was / is planned treachery.

    I really do see ALL these political overseers as a leading part of the anti United Kingdom 48 % brigade & have been so since the 24/6/2016.

  17. Amnesty accuses Russia of war crimes in Kharkiv citing repeated use of ‘cluster bombs’. 13 June 2022.

    Amnesty International has accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine, claiming hundreds of civilians had died in the city of Kharkiv from attacks involving banned cluster bombs.

    In a report called Anyone Can Die At Any Time, the human rights organisation said it had found evidence of Russian forces repeatedly using 9N210 and 9N235 cluster bombs and scatterable land mines in Kharkiv, all of which are banned under international conventions.

    Cluster bombs release dozens of bomblets or sub-munitions mid-air, posing an immediate threat to civilians by indiscriminately scattering over hundreds of square metres.

    The use of Cluster Bombs is covered by the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Neither the United States nor Russia are signatories to it!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/13/ukraine-news-russia-war-putin-severodonetsk-azot-chemical-plant/

    1. We signed up to that convention. But not before we sold a huge stockpile of cluster bombs to the Sauds which they liberally disburse in Yemen.

      Good morning.

    1. Morning! I filled up yesterday and it cost over £100. Feel very fashionable.

      1. Horrific isn’t it.
        I always fill up on Tuesday evenings at about 8 pm nowadays, as I saw a petrol price monitoring app on someone else’s phone that showed this is the cheapest time of the week. Monday evening is the second cheapest according to the app.

      2. £66 for the runabout today. Thankfully with WFH that’s last a few months, but it’s still egregious. Half is tax. No, sorry – at least half is tax.

      3. I put in 9 litres of E10 yesterday (to keep the tank topped up so I don’t have to take out a mortgage) – £16.64.

    2. I hope you drowned your sorrows – same action needed as celebrating a victory.

    3. Good morning, Delboy

      You’ll be back fitter and stronger next time to bowl them over when you are a Delman! Good luck!

    4. Good morning DB
      I expect you had a lovely journey and some fine weather .

      Never mind , I expect the bowling season isn’t over yet , and there will be more nice games to play with good company

    1. Charles may be becoming bolder with his views because he knows, or thinks he knows, that the little people have no power any more, and are even more easily controlled than ever.
      Dominic Lawson lays out a lot of Charles’s well known views, and the difficulties of sustaining the population on organic food, but he doesn’t (and the Mail wouldn’t permit it, I’m sure) make the final connection that Charles’s vision is only possible with a substantially reduced population.
      Put that together with Charles’s dogmatic belief that he can save the world, and his known association with shady foreign billionaires, and it starts to look very sinister.

      1. In a different way, his choice of ‘friends’ would seem to be as ill-advised as his brother’s.
        The Queen’s real friends were girls she had known since her youth.

        1. Very much so. When one looks at the people with whom Charles has chosen to surround himself, one cannot draw very positive conclusions about his character.
          I don’t think HM was cut out for a life of crime, she would have been much happier if her wretched uncle had not abdicated and she would have spent her life in relative obscurity with her horses and her dogs.

          1. After a rocky start, Edward is proving to be a good’un. Thinking back, it took a lot of courage to admit that the army was not for him – especially to a somewhat fierce father.
            And as for Anne – well, modesty forbids me from praising a group of women who keep the world turning.

          2. Princess Anne would make a fine heir to HMQ. The best Queen we’ll never have.

          3. Yes, Edward is quietly loyal, and does boring jobs like flying half way across the world to represent HM at the funeral of a foreign dignitary.
            Anne is a bit of a character, sometimes hard to swallow, but I think she also has many of her father’s good points.

          4. P Anne is very down to earth and will stop and chat about hedgehogs when she’s walking round her estate during the Eventing Festival. After a three year gap, we’re booked in again for the first weekend in August.

          6. The best prime minister is probably somebody who does not want to be prime minister. The Queen’s brilliance lies in the fact that she does not seem to have any thrusting ambition – she has just wanted to do her duty.

            According to Shakespeare Brutus joined the conspiracy which led to Julius Caesar’s assassination because Cassius convinced him that Caesar was dangerously ambitious. By this criterion Boris would be getting several Brutal and fatal stabs in the back – but so would many others.

          7. I watched a programme about HM and Margaret a couple of days ago and that point was made. HM had said that she wanted to be happily married and live in the country with her horses and dogs.

      2. As a great acolyte of both Schwab and Gates Prince Charles is probably keen on population reduction through lethal injection.

        1. The possibility that Charles might be Schwab’s and Gates’s boss worries me even more!

        2. Considering the people desperately taking the vaccine – the vocal, screaming, abusive statists – I’m not seeing a problem.

    2. Good morning Anne

      DL has written a brilliant article , brave man .. HRH is a bumbling old twerp, he hasn’t a clue .

      I am always amazed that people buy his organic stuff and Duchy originals .

      I wonder how he will be received in Rwanda.

      1. That will be interesting: do we utter the word ‘racism’ in the reaction to the Rwanda plan?
        Would somewhere like Norway be more acceptable? And if so …. why?

        1. A lot of the lefties on Twitter are calling it racist – because it doesn’t apply to the refugees from Ukraine.

          1. The Leftwaffe prefer to conflate Ukrainian refugees with illegal, economic migrants.

        2. All those complaining should be made to house 6 or 7 gimmigrants.

          How quickly will those young women want rid of them?

      2. And look at the progeny he has produced – both, in their different ways, just as awful as he is himself.

        As I posted here a couple of days ago Prince Charles should take complete personal responsibility for the housing, feeding, clothing and pocket money of illegal immigrants himself and paying for it out of his own personal wealth rather than dumping the bill on the taxpayer. If he is not prepared to do this he should just shut up.

        1. As he has once again stuck his neck out, I expect the ‘royal’ estates are probably being geared up for re-occupation as we convers. NOT 🤔

  21. As human rights laws only appear to apply to refugees and immigrants,
    Doesn’t that imply that the powers that be do not consider the indigenous population as human?

    1. I don’t think they consider any of us human in the same way that they see themselves, but yooman rites laws are a useful tool for them to beat us with.

      It goes without saying, that they have rejected the Christian view of humanity.

  22. Devon secondary school sparks fury after banning skirts to create a ‘more gender-neutral uniform policy’
    A secondary school in Devon has banned pupils from wearing skirts next term
    Tiverton High School say the rule creates a ‘more gender-neutral uniform policy’
    Parents are angry at the lack of consultation and at changes to the school day
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10909161/Devon-secondary-school-sparks-fury-banning-skirts-gender-neutral-uniform-policy.html#newcomment

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a63ed177db6721d0c637e0f6a54906d2354a2369c263021301c4b7a4c5d7702d.jpg

    BTL

    Looking at her photo the headmistress looks rather gender neutral herself!

    2. I just hope that the parents of all of the pupils come together and counter ‘its’ stupid decision.

    4. Morning Richard

      I would love to believe that the headmistress was protecting the virtue of her girl pupils .

      Tiverton has taken on a huge task.. they were coerced into taking on illegal Arab immigrants, many living in hotels ..in early New Year 2022.

      Local authorities and the Tiverton community are working together to welcome and support asylum seekers who arrived in the town last month as part of the Home Office’s national asylum seeker dispersal process.

      The Home Office block-booked a hotel in the town as temporary accommodation to help cope with the high volume of individuals entering the UK and now seeking permission to stay permanently in this country.

      The initial group that are being accommodated at the hotel are mostly single adults from a wide range of Middle Eastern and other countries, although families with children could also be accommodated as needed.

      All have been initially assessed and registered at a national centre, prior to arriving in Devon.

      Whilst all basic needs for food, shelter, and urgent welfare are being provided at the hotel and funded directly by the Home Office, local agencies including Devon County Council, Mid Devon District Council, local NHS health services and the Police are all working closely together to help and support residents and to ensure the ongoing health and wellbeing of all concerned.

      “We are a close community in Tiverton, and I know that our residents are extending a warm hand of welcome to our guests while they are here. These are people who have fled their native countries out of desperation and undertaken journeys, by whatever means, to find safety in the UK.

      “It is the Home Office’s job to assess and process their applications to stay, but for the short period that they will be with us in Devon, I’d like us all to help welcome them to the town.

      https://www.devon.gov.uk/news/tiverton-extends-welcome-to-asylum-seekers/

      (I wonder what the locals are feeling now , especially so now that these people will be bold and bored )

      1. Rather than moving them around, just deport them. Don’t even let them in to the country. Drag them back to France.

      2. I spent 4½ years living on the outskirts of Tiverton when I was a boarding pupil at Blundell’s.

        I left in 1964 so I should imagine that the place has changed a bit.

    5. I am so glad that my children got through school before this nonsense reached their school system. My son attended a UK FE college for one year and got exposed to the full blast of it. Fortunately he was immune to the lunacy, having grown up in a relatively normal system. At our school, sport included felling trees in a Bavarian forest and sailing, and the kids were not over-sexualised as they are in the UK.

  23. Morning all. 😃
    Is it today at Windsor Castle when the honour of a Knight -hood is once more being reduced to a nod of recognition for being a lifelong AH ? And getting away with it.
    More than half a million people who signed the petition against this can’t be wrong.

    1. They stated that it was feared that Andrew would be booed.
      I sincerely hope Blair is jeered at every opportunity today.

      Perhaps the Royals were being subtle, knowing Blair would be booed and removing the excuse that it was Andrew instead of the real target of people’s anger.

      1. Probs not the royalty Sos but their advisors and the organisation behind them. I don’t think the Royals are clue into what the rest of us brits think. A lot of reality would be filtered out of their lives.

  25. Prince Andrew banned from Order of the Garter public appearance after intervention by Charles and William

    The Duke of York has been banned from appearing alongside senior members of the Royal family at Monday’s Order of the Garter ceremony following an eleventh-hour intervention by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge.

    Prince Andrew, 62, had been due to appear with other royals in the traditional velvet robes and plumed hats for the annual procession from Windsor Castle to St George’s Chapel.

    However, senior royals feared a “backlash” and lobbied the Queen for a change of plan, it is understood.

    Every family has some Dark Horse that everyone dreads turning up at Funerals or Reunions. It’s just a little more obvious if you are a Royal!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/06/13/prince-andrew-banned-order-garter-public-appearance/

    1. I can detect a revulsion in certain royal circles against the jetsetting Hollywood celebrity Kardashian lifestyle, which may well be considered tacky, rapacious and representative of much that is wrong with humanity as it self-destructs, along with much of the best things the world can offer, in a meaningless orgy of flim-flam.

      It is nothing new. People turned against George IV for his extravagance. Victoria and Albert led a sober life and despaired at the flamboyant opulence of their Prince of Wales, as did George V against his. George VI was fortunate in that it was the spare who was the celeb, and the same is true of Elizabeth II and the current Prince of Wales.

      I think both Andrew and Harry are regretting the loss of standing brought on by their lack of “noblesse oblige” brought on by their respective self-absorption. It may be too high a price for either of them to adopt simpler lifestyles in order to merit returning to the fold. A lesson for all of us maybe? Who’s going to vote for true austerity (that doesn’t mean bigger SUVs)?

      1. The problem is that as people cut back – personal austerity – the state doesn’t. As the economy collapses due to high taxes and inflation, people spend less. The state then pumps money into the economy – forcing inflation and generating waste – as money doesn’t go where it needs to.

        You can’t ever really avoid economic contraction. It’s fairly inevitable as people spend too much, get in debt then need to retrench. That’s a normal cycle. The problem is the state never, ever spends less. It always aims to spend more.

    2. Every family has a dark horse…………………… what about [Sir] Tony Blair swanning around in his finery?

    2. If Putin is presumed to be so dangerously opressive and murderous its quite difficult to understand why he hasn’t fired a couple of missiles into both Davos and this meeting.
      Russell does rabbit a bit, but I don’t think he’s wrong.

  27. I disagree. Knee jerk policies are what we need. We urgently need radical change. Not edge fiddling a real difference in economic structure We can’t keep letting government meddle in our lives.

    We need to make work pay and to radically reduce welfare – if we won’t move to a ‘you get out what you’ve put in’ then we should move to local welfare boards, with local folk given a budget to determine who gets what. What better way to get a young kid in to work than a builder sitting on a panel and needing an apprentice chap?

    What better way to energise business than to radically cut taxes, remove employer NI and just leave it to people to invest themselves or spend – *their choice*. Some folk might want to buy metals, another to put it into a house buying fund, another might want to put their money into a 3% pension fund – which, of course, the state must never touch or fiddle with.

    2. Corporation tax is already far too high; raising it from 19% to 25% in April 2023 – making it one of the highest rates in Europe – is hardly a policy which should be enacted by the party which used to be the party which supported business.

      The Conservatives have entirely lost the plot.

      1. The EU wants tax harmonisation and part of that is forcing up corporation tax. You know, we’ve left the EU. We should abandon it’s idiotic policies.

        They’re being driven by the state, Rastus. Big government refuses to diverge from EU policy because it is intent on doing so much damage through remaining aligned to the EU as possible.

        I despair. I really do. The horrific chaos coming up – all because of government policy – deliberate, intentional state policy – is staggering.

        1. The government is not going to employ Article 16 to sort out the Irish problem. It is trying to negotiate a deal which does not appear to please the other parties.

        2. “Big government refuses to diverge from EU policy because it is intent on doing so much damage through remaining aligned to the EU as possible”.

          TPTB refuse to … because they are intent on rejoining the EU (no, I know, we never really left).

  28. Good morning all from Boston.

    That’s Boston Lincolnshire NOT Boston Massachusetts!
    Just had to come into the Halifax to log on so I could make a payment into the Derby Hospital patients bank for step-son!

    Beautiful start this morning, spent a 3rd night beside the old Wainfleet bombing range and was up at 4am to take some photos. More of which later.

    I’ve another half hour on the parking meter then off to Spalding, Stamford, Corby, Market Harborough and Lutterworth to pick up some stuff for t’Lad.

    TTFN!

    1. I’m sure you won’t be stumped in Boston!

      Some good friends of our live there and they tell us that the town has been completely overrun by immigrants.

    3. A lead walk is NOT sufficient for a spaniel , they need a good run, sniffing in hedgerows , they need to do what spaniels do . I was so upset when I saw that poor dog , I could cry .

      2. I thought it was on its way for a nice long walk off-lead! Poppie always starts her walk on-lead for 150 yards or so, until we’ve crossed over the through-village (rat run) road. Then we let her off, and she’s sniffing and cantering along to the next sniff-spot. She’s a small dog but she get 45 min or so hedgerow-field-woodland walk daily, it used to be more but she has said no thanks to the second walk of the day. She will be 13 in July.

        1. Oscar lay down on the rug in the spare bedroom while I was looking for something this morning and did his “we shall not be moved” impression when it was time for his walk. I had to fetch the lead and as soon as I showed it to him, he got up, went downstairs and was waiting for me at the door ready to go.

      3. You’ll cry even more if the woman who says dogs don’t need regular walks gets her way. As a pack animal, a dog needs to go out with his/her pack leader and patrol the territory, marking it and reading the messages left by invaders. It’s one reason (apart from my dodgy joints) that walking anywhere takes me such an age! When I had the once over for my blue badge, the physio asked me how far I could walk in one go. I had to tell her I had no idea because I never got farther than 100 yards max as the only time I walk I’m walking my dog!

      4. One of my neighbours had a little dog who liked to be taken to White City Place where she removed his lead and he just adored running round and round the flower beds. Most of the doggies round here prefer Shepherds Bush Common – big green space with trees and squirrels and stuff. Also a section left wild.

  30. 353173+ up ticks,

    British or Bust: Government to Force Hospitals and Schools to Buy Locally Grown Food

    What a load of absolute foreign codswallop the whole world is potentially
    british via DOVER and the pro eu political latch lifters lab/lib/con coalition.

    Many of us have been purchasing good English local fodder to keep the small shops going for decades.

    There has to be a reason for this ersatz political patriotism & ” pledges”
    altogether now, whats a tory (ino) party pledge worth, must be a couple of by elections in the near future.

    1. With all that’s been going on there can hardly be enough good British food to go round – let them eat fruit and veg from around the world…..

      1. 353173+ up ticks,

        Morning N,
        Way I see it is we should eat English seasonal fruits like we did as scrupping kids, to many “foreign fruits ” here now.

        1. All fruit and veg used to be seasonal Oggy, as you know. Anytime of late when I have bought asparagus, it’s from Peru. (Came with Paddington.)
          Now you can get everything year round.

          1. I only buy English asparagus in season – and it was in short supply this year. Only once or twice did i find any in Morrisons, and a couple of times in Waitrose. Last Friday, when I looked at the origin, it was from Mexico, so I left it and bought broad beans instead. I have to confess to buying citrus and grapes out of season, though.

    2. At the same time as paying farmers not to grow food?
      Yet another utopian policy that will only work if the population is reduced to under half of its current level.
      Are they actively trying to drum up support for population reduction, imminently planning it, or are they just stupid (likeliest explanation)?

      1. 353173+ up ticks,

        Morning BB2,

        Let the people not be fooled ” stupid” in regards to current political actions is in my mind a cover for treacherously highly dangerous to decent peoples

        instance, sorry, how stupidly silly of me to seriously injure you bordering on death via “the jab” knowing full well the real facts.

      2. And smothering good fields in blinking houses.

        Boris will be telling us to limit our water requirements next . Stand in a large bowl.. and a one minute blast from the shower .

        We should have had water pipes bringing water from wet areas of Britain insread of a blinking railway that no one but a rich Indian can afford to travel on .. Birmingham and back .. Our what used to taste delicious Wessex water , tastes foul these days .

        What a load of poppycock politicians spout .

  32. Is Ukraine Losing? June 22 2022.

    The fantasy that somehow “plucky little Ukraine” was going to defeat Russia is gone. Despite media hype, Russia has been very careful to perform what one could perhaps term a “surgical” military operation and has never employed more than a fraction of its combat power. I come to this conclusion from observing that, if Russia had exerted itself, not one brick would be standing on top of another in Kiev or Lviv. Why, Zelensky still has his parliament building! Close attention to media images, for example, will reveal that for every apartment building in rubble, there are many in the background that aren’t. Russia has not been waging total war.

    Ukraine, as many skeptics including myself, warned is just a proxy vehicle to attack Russia. It has served its purpose. The Europeans have committed economic suicide by refusing Russian oil and gas. They are now totally dependent on America for energy. NATO has been invigorated and American dominance over European foreign policy must now be approaching 1950/Marshall plan levels. Sanctions are supposed to weaken Russia although the collateral damage to the world economy continues to increase. American arms manufacturers are rubbing their hands over the forthcoming European orders and American oil producers are doing likewise. So what’s not to like?

    Ukraine is about to be dismembered. Russia has turned its back on the West for at least as long as America forbids its European clients from negotiating. NATO is invigorated with new, scared, members. All in all a satisfying outcome so far…

    Well the heavy type quote is certainly correct.

    https://turcopolier.com/is-ukraine-losing-by-walrus/

    1. You mean to say that sanctions are not working, gosh, who woulda believed it.. That’s not a recession I see coming down the tracks. Autumn is going to be interesting as the winds of winter start to blow.

    2. Of course. If Putin were the bad guy and seriously wanted to hurt Europe, he’d have thrown the switch on the gas supply right at the outset and be done with it.

    1. Another incident which obviously shows that our police are not doing the job the public pay them to do and are dabbling far too much into race politics.

    1. Does anyone know.
      WTF is that regalia he’s wearing and what does it stand for. And who presented it to him and for what particular reason?

    1. I expect the crew will have a quiet outbound flight followed by a few beers before loading up with Rwanda’s exports.

      1. One thing is sure, public money will be sprayed around like there’s no tomorrow.

  38. ‘Only 11’ migrants left on first deportation flight to Rwanda after legal challenges. 13 June 2022.

    Only 11 migrants are left on Tuesday’s first flight to Rwanda after legal challenges, the court of appeal was told on Monday as it considered calls for an injunction to block the plane’s departure.

    Individual legal claims by migrants notified that they were to be sent to Rwanda have whittled the number down from an original 130 – and is expected to drop further as the remaining asylum seekers lodge appeals. Care4Calais later suggested it was down to 10.

    And then there were none! Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/13/11-migrants-left-first-deportation-flight-rwanda-legal-challenges/

    2. As Dick said at Blackheath in Henry VI Part 2.

      “First thing we do: Let’s kill all the lawyers.”

      Where is Dick when he is needed?

    3. 353173 + up ticks,

      Afternoon AS,
      Criminal waste of seating the empty seats could always accommodate Brit, lawyers / current lab/lib/con political overseers

    4. Waste of fuel, time and money. Drag them back to france, destroy the boat. Any get uppity, shoot them.

      1. Or – shoot them & drag the boat to France. Why litter the UK shores with rubber boats?

    5. “And Then There Were None”, the Agatha Christie story also known as “Ten Little Niggers”. Or in this case, 130.

    6. And knowing our useless authorities, they were probably Rwandans hitching a free ride home for their summer hols!

  39. 353173+ up ticks,

    D CRISIS LOOMSUKRAINEBORISUKMIGRANT CRISISEUFAKE CONSERVATIVESFARAGEGERMANY
    Government Dumps Islamophobia Tsar for Fighting to Cancel ‘Blasphemous’ Film About Muhammad’s Daughter

    Those that are for withdrawing the film should be taken to the market square to take part in a trouser dropping / skirt lifting, for the introduction to the rough end of a pineapple ceremony.

    The real; danger lies in these muslim types getting their way, leading up eventually to legalising paedophilia, public stoning, decapitation & much,much more.

  41. I kid you not, I love Mongo with a passion, but next time we move I want bare bricks. The great beast has knocked over two big pots of paint already.

    Outside planters? Forget it. He’ll pull them over. Yesterday he decided he wanted my slippers and after trying to eat my foot I got fed up and lifted him off the sofa. What does he do? He resorts to his old trick of moving the sofa to him. I ask Junior to take him to play outside and after a few hours he’s back indoors, head in his water bucket – with most of the water on the floor -mixed with paw prints. Muddy paw prints.

    Now, the Warqueen has got used to the carnage a dog heavier than her can cause, but there’s limits, so after hoovering, mopping and hoovering the mopping it’s relatively clean – and then he comes in and decides to slide about on the tiles to scratch an itch.

    She is still on the look out for her own dog, despite giving up on the ‘Mongo’s yours for a week’ the next morning when she forgot to feed and walk him. (she still insists we’re telepathically linked). I suggested a little rubber one, but it would be good for Mongo to have a friend he could run about with.

    1. Big dogs- the gift that keeps on giving…I’ve had 3 Goldens and while they’re not as big as Mongo, they can be just as challenging;-))

        1. Fred, my middle Golden was a big chap and he delighted in stealing my son’s socks, taking them into the yard and burying them. Anyone who does any digging in that land will discover buried bones and socks. And scratch their heads in puzzlement.

          1. My Irish setter was a BIG dog (not just tall, but solid – although not fat, he weighed 5 stone!). When I took him for a walk I had to keep an eye out for people opening car doors near him – he would think they were offering him a lift and charge over to climb in! Talk about an unstoppable force …

          2. Fred was tall and substantial- was told his father was a big dog. He was my dog though and so loving and sweet. It was ages before I could bring myself to get another dog. He left a hole in my heart and I still miss him, to this day.

          3. I miss Charlie still. I have loved all my dogs, but I wanted another to fill the void. The house was too quiet, too empty without one.

      2. They don’t have to be big to be challenging! 🙂 To be fair, Oscar is mellowing at last. I’ve managed to take a holly leaf out of his paw and clean his eyes and he hasn’t taken my fingers off. He is also asking for a cuddle before he’ll go to bed.

        1. That’s great Conners. I reckon he’s realised he’s in a good place with someone who cares.

    2. Just something to think about (I’ve had two dogs in the past and may well end up with another couple in the future); three is a pack, so you’ll have to be extra dominant as pack leader when you have two dogs with you.

  42. The opening paragraph fof Chapter 1 rom Todd G. Buchholz ‘The Price Of Prosperity’ 2016:

    RICH NATIONS HATE BABIES

    America has more golf courses than McDonalds …. It’s a story of 40 million retiring baby boomers looking for a place to walk and exercise. …. Japanese retailers sell more adult diapers than baby diapers. These two facts tell you all you need to know about demographics in first-world nations

    2. It’s far more likely that the poor have children to claim benefits. I’ve heard personally that they use kids as a way to get a bigger house. It’s their version of achievement.

      The worker, on the other hand, robbed senseless by tax and waste policies, has one child. They can’t afford more. We must stop rewarding failure. Stop encouraging the wrong people to breed. Ohh, how evil, how nasty! No! It’s blasted common sense.

    1. Currently 5 million unemployed. To reduce unemployment by one million requires the creation of 1000 real jobs every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year for 3 years oh and an incentive to apply for and succeed in getting employment….

      1. Not to mention an intensive literacy and numeracy campaign so they can function properly in the workplace.

    1. It’s the nature of folk who follow the BBC. If you start from the base prinicple that Lefties are wrong by default things get a lot easier.

      They’ll start out saying they want to help the poorest. Great goal, wonderful idea. However, they can’t square that with their own desperation for massive, uncontrolled gimmigration and their obsession with climate change. Their only thought is ‘more welfare’ or state created jobs. These never work. Endless proof exists that this is the wrong option.

      But Lefties don’t really want to help the poor. They want to keep them poor. Keeping folk poor gives them leverage, power over that group. Lefties don’t want to help. They want to control.

      1. Yes, the Egalitarian Myth is predicated on a lust for power. Socialism feeds on poverty in the same way that the charity industry will never make itself redundant by solving any third world problems.

        1. That last opinion is something I often mutter when I see ads begging us to donate X pounds to save some black child from something or other. What have they done with all the millions we’ve poured in over the years? Nothing’s improved.

          5. But… but… the sales of white Toyotas, black Mercedes and Gulfstream jets has benefitted enormously.
            How can you be so critical?

          6. A couple of years ago the Sunday Times did an inquiry as to how many charities in Britain were collecting to drill wells in Africa.

            The answer was 604.

            MOH said that Africa must look like a colander.

          7. It probably would if they didn’t use the money to pay their CEOs exorbitant salaries.

          8. The campaign to build toilets was a much better idea but it didn’t have the glamour. So they continue to pee in the wells.

    1. Unfortunately, talk of inflation becomes a self fulfilling prophecy especially when everyone can point the finger at Vlad.

  46. This 23 stone heap of dog t*rds, a passionate advocate for the plus-size, queer and black communities, has recorded a song which refers to people with cerebral palsy as ‘spaz’ and has been told by disability advocates to delete and re-record her new single, Grrrls, to remove a “derogatory and harmful” ableist slur from the lyrics.

    Oh the irony.

    https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/D01D/production/_125377235_tv075720839.jpg

    Song with lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqEHjjxeHEc Some rude words !!!

        1. I am assuming yours is age related. She is a glutton.
          My knees are giving out too. :@(

          1. Not entirely; I was diagnosed with arthritis in one of my hips when I was 30! That could have been the result of an earlier fall from a horse, though.

        2. I have knackered knees and gouty arthritis in both feet. First thing in the morning I am a bit of a spaz.

          1. Have you tried black cherries for the gout? My brother-in-law (who suffers from gout) swears by it as a remedy to alleviate symptoms.

    3. I remember the expression “spaz attack” from the primary school playground. No-one took offence in those days, or not as such. A clout by way of response was accepted.

      1. On holiday in New York, back in 1983, with another couple (old friends) my male friend dressed one day in sandals with which he wore socks! His wife was indignant and scolded him, “You look like a mong!” I doubt that insult would be acceptable in this day and age.

      2. Yes, me too. If you muffed catching a ball or whatever, you were called a spaz. Quite often fisticuffs in our playground and we had an all girls one;-)

    4. Quite simply, clear evidence of the endemic retrograde evolution in the human species. This deterioration of mind, brain (and morals) is heading back towards the primordial soup, from whence it first emerged, at a far faster pace than I could have possibly realised.

  47. Afternoon, all. Oscar is one contented pooch this afternoon; I had to go into town to pay a bill and, as usual on such occasions, we went for a cup of coffee and a flapjack – this time, unlike last week, they actually had flapjacks! He had to make do with the last few crumbs last time and he was NOT amused. Even getting a doggy treat as well didn’t compensate! 🙂 As for the headline, one of the reasons this government is so useless is that it has no plan that will benefit the country. The only plan they have is to reduce us to penury and take us back into the EU.

  48. Out later so …

    Wordle 359 3/6
    ⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
    🟨🟩⬛🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Four today.

      Wordle 359 4/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
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    2. Birdie Three for me
      Wordle 359 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  49. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8f95f7f5ac22b5d80aa90933eb2d6654ff26d531cfdabea41bf2c29f776daaf.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2721d932bedbf67da4d8fcba10c81e73483cc14e44f7fc348cba7be246a1383e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9849c43d5fc6bea064b136d251dcbe216beeefaeda1091177cf66c9af1ee0e90.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0982d76df2ec24c4519eacf0f16f12d113a5ca53d94f7d31e87fb0876b4cbc3.jpg Just spent an eventful afternoon stalking my current passion. The Marsh Warbler Acrocephalus palustris is a rarity in the UK but more common over here. In the field it is indistinguishable from the near-identical and much commoner Reed Warbler A. scirpaceus and the much rarer Blyth’s Reed Warbler A. dumetorum, both of which I’ve seen in the UK. “My” Marsh Warblers arrive in late May every year and spend most of June displaying and singing their much more musical and varied song, the main thing that separates them from the Reed and Blyth’s Reed. Their song is an utter delight.

    1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4af4cc8765a45b296313d7f2f13cc099c6e51e40ecd008fa5ba9fdb8be1a5e59.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/58a7a7cffdfaf8a8ec1588a588fab9202db03713c1be0974a006ece2a65a23a8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5411e2a244eeaf99031d0a1cce9964c94926c8849645b1a3b5108bfe279f4e34.jpg Also on my field trip I was lucky to encounter, closely, a fledgling Common Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe and a Grey Partridge Perdix perdix. The adult Wheatears were around but elusive. The Grey Partridge is much commoner here than in the UK where it has now, largely, been supplanted by the invader, the Red-Legged Partridge Alectoris rufa, which is absent here. The last photo is of one of my fledgling White Wagtails Motacilla alba alba, which sat obligingly on the roof of my conservatory.

    3. Great shots. From my journal:

      “Towards the end of the afternoon I became aware of some very melodic birdsong coming from the tall reeds 15 feet away on the opposite bank. Although I had never consciously heard it before I deduced the song could only be that of a Reed Warbler. As I peered intensely into the reeds trying to spot the bird, I suddenly spotted three of them, each just slightly larger than a wren but with distinctly different markings. For me it was as close as I will ever get to a David Attenborough moment when he had a very close encounter with a gorilla in the wild.”

        1. I think I just might about cope. Had a close encounter with a full grown wood pigeon flying at my head at full speed earlier. Fortunately the double glazing took the full force of the blow. The pigeon merely bounced and continued its flight in a slight different direction!

          1. One day when I was riding along the edge of a field and it was turning crepuscular, an owl flew towards me and continued right along the hedge beside me. Death (it was hunting) on silent wings. It was really quite ghostly – and I was a pale rider on a pale horse 🙂

          3. The thing about being on a horse is that you are not seen as a threat. I’ve seen fox cubs playing outside their earth and crows mobbing a fox in woodland while I was on horseback. Something that’s more difficult to get close to if you’re a person on foot. Needless to say, we are a hunting country (both sides of the county and country border) so there are plenty of fit, healthy foxes.

      2. I’ve yet to see a Reed Warbler here in Sweden though I saw dozens every year in the UK. My favourite warbler of reedbeds is the slightly smaller but more distinctly marked Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus, which has a lovely sweet, varied song. I saw lots of those at Cley-Next-The-Sea every summer but none, so far, over here.

    1. The caption should read “I’m being paid a lump sum to leave it lying fallow and quit.”

    3. Or the wild boar and other species he wants to rewild the countryside with will root them up or eat them.

  54. WORDLE NYTimes

    Wakey, wakey NoTTlers

    _ _ _ _ _

    uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adc78cb3ce4c2aab3aedfd24cfd08d659a1cbdfe3cdf21576b15868a7a7d4205.jpg

    4 again as per usual….

    1. Already posted, but a 3 for me.
      Wordle 359 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Mine’s a Birdie Three today
      Wordle 359 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          2. Even now, at this very moment, lacoste is trying to decide whether the palpitations require someone to fetch him an ambulance!

    3. Well at least you’ve got skin in the game Plum. A number here don’t bother (me included)!

        1. In my case I don’t bother because it would soon become obsessive – I spend enough time on the Internet as it is (largely thanks to nottl).

          2. I do codewords (on line) and crosswords (from a book). I also do jigsaws on line. Then, of course, nottl keeps me on my toes … 🙂

          3. The less time I spend online the better…
            I detest the techy age …can’t be doing with apps….I’m not a friggin’ robot!

    4. Another bogey for me, I’m blaming the needy dog.

      Wordle 359 5/6

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

  55. WORDLE NYTimes

    Wakey, wakey NoTTlers

    _ _ _ _ _

    uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adc78cb3ce4c2aab3aedfd24cfd08d659a1cbdfe3cdf21576b15868a7a7d4205.jpg

    4 again as per usual….

  56. I love Black Magic chocolates and some kind people from England who came to dinner with us a few days ago gave us a very large box.

    The dimensions of the box were considerably greater than those of the one pound boxes of Black Magic we used to buy 30 years ago: our hopes were high that the box would contain at least 1½ pounds of chocolates.

    Imagine our surprise and disappointment when we opened the box to discover that the gaps in between the spaces for chocolates were far greater than the spaces for the chocolates themselves. Tucked away in small letters on the bottom of the box we were told that it contained 348 grams of chocolates – not even a full pound but a measly 3/4 of a pound.

    What a swiz.

    But they tell me that all American confectionary companies keep the price and packaging the same while reducing the quantity. The American company, Mondelez, soon after it bought Toblerone, reduced the size of the big chocolate bar from 400 gms to 360 gms – a ten % reduction in size – but the packaging remained the same but there was no fall in price just a wider space between each of the chocolate pyramids. And don’t talk to me about Cadbury’s creme eggs!

    1. You should be thankful if they still tasted like the original Black Magic! Paying more for less is what we’ve got at the moment.

    2. Mondelez uses palm oil in their chocolates. Besides the hoof and straw. Find a supplier who will deliver Belgian chocolates to you that don’t use it. Guylian chocolate is palm oil free. Personally i use Confiserie Verdonk. Proper chocs.

    3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a40227c9aa623cb66c2758c7924962e09e68e66ddda1bdb75bf059f4dc873ddf.png The modern bastardised, version of Black Magic, destroyed by the Swiss vandals at Nestlé, bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original delicious confection box manufactured by the late, lamented Rowntree of York. Few, if any, of the 12 delicious classic centres remain. What happened to Montelimar, Toffee & Mallow, Truffle & Nougat, Butterscotch, Marzipan, Chocolate Nut and the devastatingly gorgeous Liquid Cherry?

        1. Hey hey! Merci beaucoup for that. I’d lost contact with many former suppliers of similar cerisettes, so I’ll send for a sample of these little gems. I shall report back anon.

          1. We were given a box as a gift and they really are scrumptious, the problem is that it would be all too easy to eat a boxful over an afternoon.

      2. It was the same with Terry’s of York: founded in 1767 the chocolate works, was closed by Kraft in 2005.
        What gets sold as Terry’s these days is bland and can hardly be compared with what the York factory produced.

        1. My mother’s favourite chocolate selection was a delicious box of milk chocolates by Needler’s of Hull. Unfortunately they no longer exist, having gone the same corporate way as the two York companies, but to complete extinction.

          1. These companies survived for so many years until along came corporate greed (bean counters) that had no interest in the product. They have just one thought: profit for the shareholders!

        2. When I was growing up in York, if the wind was in the right direction you could smell cocoa in the air. My late aunt had connections with the Rowntree family so I’ve met some of them. Nice people and no longer involved in the confectionery business of course.

          1. I stayed for a time in Nestles Avenue, in front of the Nestles
            Factory,the smell was wonderful.

          2. I had similar experiences attending Bournville college., next to Cadbury’s.

      3. My mothers favourites! I have two Black Magic ‘chests’ in which my mum kept her embroidery threads, and two Terrys of York boxes, which house the bobbins for her sewing machines!

    4. Good chocolate contains a lot of expensive ingredients – real cocoa, real sugar, cream. Americans are cheap and think that faux sugars will do, and cut back on everything possible. Mondelez wanted their money back and so immediately reduced the quantity sold. It backfired and sales dropped.

        1. As he was in Boston, Lincs, he could have been popping into Norwich on that side of the country.

          1. The smaller airports seem to de doing okay. Especially if the are not using BA or Easyjet. No cancelled flights from my local airport at all at Bournemouth.

          3. Yes. I worked at Hurn in the kitchens. Feeding 200 engineers and senior/office staff each day. The rallying cry half way through service was MORE CHIPS !

          7. There was always a curry chicken on. I would prepare two trays of four big birds and steam them. When cool enough pick off all the meat in big chunks then cut to fork size….
            (the knives always came back clean ! )
            Very popular. Hence the need for MORE CHIPS !
            They didn’t do badly and there were some other good choices..smoked haddock peas and mash with a poached egg on top and a beef chilli dish with rice.
            Of course we catered to office workers too so a range of salads. (mostly of the feminine persuasion)
            All heavily subsidised by the company at that time.

            Do you know? Even though i had to up at 5am and it was hot hard work i miss it.

          8. I am in awe of your culinary expertise, Pip! Even if work is hard, if you enjoy it, it doesn’t seem such a chore. When I used to do my three (horses – mucking out, setting fair, grooming, etc), it was physically hard work but very satisfying. I would do it again if I were able, but my arthritis means I would never get near industry standard.

          9. Food poisoner to the Clintons, allegedly.
            You’ll go with a smile on your face

          12. I am a cook. Not a Chef. Didn’t have the opportunity unfortunately. Did do some quite large events and weddings though. In my early days and i’m sure you won’t believe it as it is a bit cliched but i spent many hours peeling grapes for a French classic Sole Veronique in the basement of the restaurant!

          14. I was aware of that as i was doing it ! The bonus was on boxing day the management waited on the staff for a belated Christmas lunch. Oh how we laughed at £1.69 an hour in 1982. I think Beulah had it better.
            If i in my good nature agreed to overtime at the same rate and went to the tax paying bracket where i ended up with less money.

    3. Charles should hop on tomorrow and save the air fare on next week’s trip. He should have to whole plane to himself.

    1. I suspect the Birmingham and Manchester figures are not quite portraying the real picture either as many non whites in those areas will have been born here.

  59. Home.
    And more than a bit knackered.
    Why don’t towns have routes through them more clearly marked? Stamford & Market Harborough come to mind!

    1. Perhaps they want people to go round rather than through? 🙂 Some towns tend to make people go round and round (Lewes was one such when I was trying to get back home).

      1. Runcorn was another town I could never find my way in. I ended up going home instead of going to a meeting after I’d been down the same road three times.

      3. Leicester is like that. You go round for hours following signs, until you ignore the signs and follow the compass to the South.

        1. I drove through Paris like that. MOH had the compass and kept saying “that way’s south” (we were heading for the Camargue) so I took the nearest road pointing in the right direction!

          1. Not a bad decision.
            If one travels very late night/early morning you can sail through the centre in no time at all, get it wrong and you’re in one of the circles of Hell!

          3. Actually no, I really did mean through the centre, at those times you can even go straight across place de la Concorde heading South.

          4. I always thought the périfériques in rush hour were the circles from hell 🙂

    2. I don’t know if it’s still the case but Derby was an absolute pig to negotiate.

      1. 100%. I once drove into Derby and couldn’t get out. Probably only took me 15 minutes but it felt like hours, I just seemed to end up where I’d started from.

        1. Grenoble. We traversed it five times before we finally found the road we needed. Before the days of sat nav. Or before the days we had one, anyway.

          1. We did the same in Basel! Kept ending up at the airport – about 3 times! I thought my old man was going to shoot me!

          2. I thought we were going to be condemned for ever to travel back and forth, like the flying Dutchman – the sun was setting and I was getting panicky, if we couldn’t get out in daylight what chance did we have when darkness fell?

          3. Yep! We were trying to get into France, and got caught up in the Tour de France! Not an hotel in 50 miles and 2 unhappy little girls in the back! We had to sleep in the car in a lay-by! Fortunately French lay-bys have showers and loos and hot water!

        3. There is an apocryphal tale that in Cambridge a one way system was proposed that was so good that traffic would flow easily at any time of the day.
          As a joke, an alternative that was guaranteed to make things immeasurably worse, was submitted to the planners.
          The joke was the one they chose!

      2. The first time I went to Derby, to give evidence in a case at Crown Court, I nearly didn’t make it on time despite giving myself plenty of time to get there.

        1. I used to drive from Cambridge to South of Manchester and there was an excellent cross country route via Derby. The planners changed everything and from being a good trip they turned it into a nightmare!

    3. Hah !… Try Chichester ! the one way system where you end up wishing you were in Hell…

          1. Kirkgate Market in Leeds is a wonderful place, as is the Bagel Nash chain for the best filled bagels and decent coffee I’ve tasted in a long time.

      2. They must have copied the design from Metz in France. Round and round you go, with signs pointing everywhere except where you actually want to go.

        1. “We’ll Metz again, don’t know where don’t know when but I’m sure we’ll Metz again some sunny day!

        2. I thought it was the case in France that if you didn’t see a sign for your destination you were already on the right road.

    2. That isn’t the first time. They are looking at more ingenious ways of smuggling that shit across borders. I shall alert my friends in security to take a closer look at your luggage next time you travel.

      1. BT was very off-piste to discover that one can’t take English sparkling wine into France now.

        1. We have a similar terroir along the South Coast and the Frenchies hate it that we can do it better than them. Quelle surprise.
          Several grand champagne houses are buying up tracts of land as we speak. No Unions in wine in England yet and you can still sack the slackers here !

          1. On a positive note:
            If the Houses become major producers they will put pressure on the EU to allow export.

  61. A snippet of Rod Liddle to help pass a Monday evening.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-british-empires-despicable-treatment-of-mermaids

    “The British Empire’s despicable treatment of mermaids

    I may have broken the law this week, without having intended to, so great was my rush to return home. I forgot to put on my seat belt and may have exceeded the speed limit on more than one occasion. The cause of my intemperate haste was, of course, a desire to be back at my house in time to listen to BBC Radio 4’s daily evening arts magazine programme, Front Row.

    I live in a part of the world where the radio reception in cars is thinnish to non-existent, you see. Looking around me, as I depressed the accelerator further than I should, I noticed that everybody else was driving with similar fury, presumably for the same reason: haring back to catch Front Row. The shops were all closed and we travellers envied those inside, work over for the day, huddled around their wirelesses ready for the show.

    I screeched into my drive at 7.20, so missed part of the first item on African music. This was enraging as, like most people in the country, I am a massive fan of African music and think it far superior to that white fossilised Beethoven crap. But luckily I was in time to catch the entirety of the next item, a long discussion about a new book called 100 Queer Poems, with excerpts from several read aloud. I had not known that ‘queer’ now encompasses everybody who is not white, regardless of whether or not they bat for the other side, but apparently it does, according to a slightly deranged woman on the programme.

    My favourite of these ‘queer poems’ – i.e., an anthology compiled not on account of their literary value but simply because of the author’s sexual preference (or perhaps colour) – was one by a man who suggested that the British Empire had ‘forced us to live in a world lacking in mermaids’. Obviously I am fully cognisant of much of the evil we inflicted upon the subjects of our imperial rapacity, but I had not known that we also exterminated mermaids. I suppose that would explain why there are so few about these days. Did we also garrote unicorns, do you suppose?

    Two thoughts occurred as I listened to this artless tendentious bilge. The first was how lovely it was to work for an organisation which is commercially unaccountable and whose producers, therefore, are able to indulge fully their infantile progressive political agendas. This involves a morbid obsession with race and sexual orientation, of course – the following morning I switched on the radio and they were championing some dead black harmonica player whom one interviewee likened to Jimi Hendrix and who everyone concurred had been transgressed by whitey. I switched off again.

    The second thought was that it’s almost impossible to complain about such programming – and indeed the general tenor of pretty much all BBC output – without being cast as a bigot. And so, by and large, we stay shtum: the exception being the excellent Lionel Shriver, who has pointed out the absurdity of this all-consuming obsession and the wholly false picture it paints of our country.

    Liberals – in the modern debased sense of the word – see black and Asian people as their needy clients

    Let me give you another example. On Sunday evening a BBC TV news programme carried five vox pops from ordinary Britons about the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. All five were black or Asian people. Does this matter? In a sense, no. But the intention behind the selection matters: they are lecturing us because they think we are reprehensible. They are making a political point. Because it beggars belief that those were the only five people they could find who had views about the celebrations for our Queen.

    And these same politics are why the new Doctor in Doctor Who is black and his sidekick transgender. Here is the difficulty. I have not the remotest objection to someone black playing the part of the Doctor, not least because I never watch it. I object simply to the reason the new Doctor is black, much as the previous one was a woman.

    And if political considerations were not the reason, then you will forgive me for assuming that they were, because that has been the narrative of the BBC for the last ten years. It is a politically driven agenda and, in its cringing tokenism and patronage, actively racist against the very people it has decided are in need of ‘help’. Liberals (in the modern debased sense of the word) see black and Asian people as their clients, as their needy clients.

    It is not just the BBC, of course. In this week’s issue Lionel Shriver also mentions the bizarre tendency of almost all TV adverts to feature mixed-race couples. According to the Office for National Statistics, 96 per cent of couples are of the same ethnicity. So why do advertisers persist in portraying this reality when attempting to sell their products? There are precious few Chinese or other Asian people in these adverts and it is rare for them to feature a white man with a black partner. I don’t know what that tells us.

    Are we wrong to notice this stuff? Because, believe me, people do notice and the only reason they don’t say anything about it is because they fear they will be outed as racists. Perhaps that is the purpose behind all of this, to have us living in a kind of fear, so that we mend our wicked ways and finally admit that to be white is to be complicit in some form of subjugation.”

    1. I understand Emma Thompson has a new racy film out rubbing our noses, so to speak, in diversity…..

      3. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Emma Thompson that a damn good thrashing with a cat o’ nine tails will not sort out.

        1. Too much effort. Smack her with a cricket bat. She really is tiresome. A hypocritical, spoiled, bitter, deeply ignorant brat.

    2. Those were the only few people they could find to speak about HM who fitted their narrative. It’s the same with the coverage of racing – apart from a hagiography every time Sean Levey rides (he’s the one black jockey riding over here) and their wetting their underwear when they get the muzzie who won ONE charity race on, if there is one black in a crowd of 20,000 they will single him or her out and keep showing them. Then, there is the “expert” Ken Pitterson …

    3. There once was a wog in Calais
      Transgender and ever so Gay
      He paddled the channels
      Of rent boys and camels
      And was welcomed by PC UK

    4. It’s a booming time if you’re a black/lesbian etc actor, presenter or model. Also a a booming time for political satirists, just so bloody much material.

    5. “Liberals (in the modern debased sense of the word) see black and Asian people as their clients, as their needy clients.”

      Oh no, it’s much simpler than that. The black man is a weapon…

      1. Eric July – a foul mouthed youtuber – said much the same thing. The white Left can’t see blacks as people, so they use them as weapons. It’s very sad to realise that racism is still about and practiced fervently, eagerly by the Left.

  62. Is science not truly wonderful?
    Science says these two birds are different species, Willow Warbler and Reed Warbler; https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/557b46459a9531a9399a4b608d1deca50770e231840dcf75c4d6dacb7be2c075.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d17f2f45d505b6f2fc4a66ea3f3aaeff0cd4fa31073906cab149793083694425.jpg

    Science says these two people are the same species, Nurse Edith Cavell, and a leader of Boko Haram;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ce9de0c0d24cf0b689d588a2a900fcb7dc890949bb19f44bec8f87b6bea484a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ebcad5d7d098ecfe25fcd185db3b07de8936eb2f67778b2f285fdb209f2bc4c.jpg

    2. Science is indeed wrong if it thinks that the second bird down is a Reed Warbler. It is, in fact, a Sedge Warbler, the identification of which is given away by its pale supercilium (eye-stripe) and dark brow.

      1. Thank you. Even the best ornithologists may be confused, I suppose. How come those who study humans think we are all one species?

        1. Dunno. I’m sure I’ve come across a few Neanderthals (not to mention a few Ramapithecus) in my time. 😉

    3. They are the same, but one is from an advanced, educated society the other is a sad, unhappy failure who has wasted his life on jealousy and greed.

    4. They are the same, but one is from an advanced, educated society the other is a sad, unhappy failure who has wasted his life on jealousy and greed.

  63. 353173+ up ticks,

    Ukrainian Archbishop: Russian Aggressor Brought ‘Grief and Disaster’ to Our Lands

    In the United Kingdom the ordinary fella said to the Archbishop,, you think you have troubles we have had lab/lib/con coalition and a supporting cast of dangerous fool doing that on a regular cycle for decades

  65. Goodnight, all. I arrived early so am departing early. Firefox is playing up and collapsing from time to time, so I’ve lost patience and will go off and do other things.

    1. Be fair, he has a lot similar on his mind.

      He’s wondering whether to offer Ukraine a few tactical nukes and whether Russia might just obliterate the West and East coasts of the USA in response.

      1. In other words, in the USA it’s the Republican (Red) States which will best survive nuclear armageddon.

        1. And I daresay the folks in those states who turn away from the blasts will truly become Rednecks….

  67. Snigger.

    Black face groped Trudeau has apparently tested positive for covid again. The non believers amongst us are busy searching for the contentious meeting that he is hiding from.

  70. Goodnight Gentlefolk and God bless, I’m really hoping to sleep for a long, long, while, as the last few nights have been horrendous. I’m soooo tired I just feel old and ill.

    1. I hope you get a good night’s sleep, NTN. I don’t want to be preachy but if you’ve been drinking alcohol in the evening (and I love a glass of wine or two with our evening meal) it will disrupt your sleep. We cut out alcohol for several months due to poppiesdad’s blood sugar and upcoming blood test, and it really made a difference to the quality of our sleep. Since the beginning of June we have re-introduced it and I notice the difference, one night it was dawn when I got to sleep and several others I have woken up about 3.00 am and then been awake for ages. It is so wearying and one feels awful the next day, no joy in life. So we decided that alcohol will be reserved for special occasions only from now on. I have found Bach’s Rescue Remedy ‘Night Rescue’ quite helpful (it might only be placebo helpful, but any port in a storm) also Nytol. But sometimes nothing works. Bonne chance.

      1. I sometimes have to take the nuclear option, go downstairs and watch a recording of Midsomer Murders!

        1. Sometimes so do I, get up go downstairs and read for a while. That often helps, it cuts through the toss, turn, can’t sleep cycle.

      2. Thank you , Mum but since mid-May I have been abstemious and just drank beer, until I had exhausted the supply and, funnily enough, with me, the lack of any alcoholic stimulous seems to make sleep harder to come by.

        I shall persevere.

  72. I’m awake like some others of us at:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ce25abb5737d01113698b5d1898a31335d5409be04df943470a9d532260e0b4.jpg

    Weather here now in East Anglia shows temperature of 11 degC outside but the thermal capacity of our brick house means that it is more than 10 degC hotter indoors from the daytime heat yesterday:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b3595eafbc3b9dfb35319d7023d111998fcb3beb7f4c6188e0b71aa4e45c6580.jpg

    and the outlook for nightime temperatures predicts somewhat higher temperatures by Friday.

    It’s still quite dark outside, being cloudy, but the birds are tweeting and the dishwasher and washing machine are running to use Economy 7 electricity at half peak rate.

    1. Fortunately we can take a break at our holiday lodge near the cliff edge at Lowestoft but ironically, whilst it has a much better energy rating, the thermal energy gain means that it gets too hot during the day through solar gain but on a clear night it gets too cold because of the required draughty trickle vents in all the windows.

      We had to return home last week because of excessive temperature extremes and sleepless nights.

          1. Done most of them but some ventilaion needed to prevent carbon monoxide build up.

    2. Fortunately we can take a break at our holiday lodge near the cliff edge near Lowestoft but ironically, whilst it has a much better energy rating, the thermal energy gain means that it gets too hot during the day through solar gain but on a clear night it gets too cold because of the required draughty trickle vents in all the windows.

      We had to return home last week because of excessive temperature extremes and sleepless nights.

    4. Well I was fast asleep till OH woke me up at 6.30. He’s excited because there are swifts flying round the house and one has gone into one of the vacant boxes

        1. How was the fishing – “Many a Mackerel makes a Muckle”, Ne c’est pas?

          1. A very mixed day in brilliant company and fabulous weather and sea conditions. A fair few decent pollack and a large ling followed by a mass bass appearance in the late afternoon. If you can imagine many thousands of bass chasing enormous shoals of fry to the surface and beserker gulls diving for scraps, while we picked off a couple of dozen bass with lures, that would be about right. Only 2 mackerel caught though.

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