Monday 14 February: Only by the West showing strength can Putin be kept out of Ukraine

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

661 thoughts on “Monday 14 February: Only by the West showing strength can Putin be kept out of Ukraine”

  4. Good morning gentlefolk, another day of nose to the grindstone and no let up in the ‘woke’ adventures to get our thinking right.

    As we say in Norfolk, ” I oun’t”.

  6. Good morning all! 40 years today since the old man and I got engaged! He sent me a card with ‘fiancé’ on it (he didn’t like French!) and I put a message on Ceefax!

    1. Happy Engagement Anniversary, Sue! What a nice story – brought a smile to my face this drear morning.

          2. Lightweight! 45 for us next month, and Mrs HJ is no longer 66 today. I can still remember her 21st when she celebrated by falling down the stairs (no she’s teetotal!)

            ‘Morning, N.

          3. If I was still married to the first one it would be 53 years in April. So no chance of 45 this time round.

          4. Ditto, J, it would be 57 for the first and 19 for the second. Best Beloved and I struggle on through to 5 in August.

  7. It is not ‘appeasement’ to oppose war with Russia. Spiked. 14 February 2022.

    The pathological narcissism of these weak Westerners posing as strongmen has real consequences in the world. It leads to wars, loss of life, destruction. Look at Iraq, Libya, Syria and, worst of all, Afghanistan. And right now this self-regarding thirst for war is intensifying tensions around Ukraine. We are witnessing something quite striking, and deeply worrying, in relation to Ukraine/Russia: a coming together of ‘liberal’ laptop bombardiers and old-style neocons, of the woke and the anti-woke, many of whom seem to have put aside their domestic squabbles in the interests of beating a collective drum for war with Russia and branding as an appeaser anyone who tells them to calm down. These people frighten me more than Moscow does.

    Amen to that Brendan. It is a singular fact that all the threats of war and invasion over Ukraine have come from the West through their mouthpieces in the MSM. The supposed coups (three at the last count) the purported (every day for the last three months)invasion. The only announcement from Moscow during this period has been that they have no intention of attacking Ukraine. This is not to say that peace is going to prevail. Prophecies have a habit of being self-fulfilling. Is it really possible for the warmongers in London and Washington to retreat? Much more likely is a False Flag to set things off. I must say the present President of Ukraine looks a likely case for treatment here. He’s less than enthusiastic and occasionally critical of the coverage. He would make a good sacrifice in the cause of Peace, Freedom and Democray!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/14/it-is-not-appeasement-to-oppose-war-with-russia/

    2. The thing that gets me is that almost everyone seems to think that a fight with Russia will be a bit like the war in Afghanistan – something that happens somewhere else, doesn’t noticeably affect us here in the West except for a trail of coffins arriving in Brize Norton, so remote & so clinical (as seen from the news and with feet planted firmly in the UK.
      But:
      Ukraine is very much closer, physically and culturally, as is Russia
      The Russian bear can and will bite back. He has big claws. Fighting the Bear will be quite a different game than fighting a few towelheads. It has the great potential to be a proper war, with annihilations and utter devastation all round, mostly in the crowded West, with it’s much more vulnerable sophistications. Why would anyone think that this is a good idea? All apart from the fantastic cost of a war (for which the UK is not prepared), and the appalling loss of life.

      1. Morning Oberst. We are led by Fantasists who themselves have no experience of war, indeed no experience of hardship whatsoever. Just look at them! They all live in an MSM dreamworld. I caught a glimpse of Boris on the BBC News the other day. As I live and breathe this Faker and Walter Mitty clone was imitating Churchill!

      2. Nobody has really won wars against Russia in the last 200+ years. Victories have been achieved, such as Tsushima, but not conquest. Before embarking on a mad military venture the West should consider what is the objective? Russia may invade the Ukraine, but what would be the point? As Russia wants a buffer between them and NATO maybe that could be agreed in the form of demilitarised zone in the NATO countries and Russia? Or maybe the USA could stop rocking the boat? Maybe our Prime Minister could stop dancing on the end of an American string like a fat, disjointed monkey?

        1. Read in a paper yesterday that the Ukraine President was telling everyone to STFU about war with Russia. It wasn’t going to happen, and the uncertainty caused was very damaging to the Ukraine economy. He called the Russians “our partners”.

  8. Good morning all. Woken up by the Still @ Home getting up for work!
    A horrible wet start to the day with barely 2½°C on the outside thermometer.

      1. Just back from Derby and it’s been on and off rain the whole morning.
        Will be down your neck of the woods tomorrow. T’Lad & I will be stopping at the motel in Alveston for the night before heading down to Filton to look at an old vehicle they heritage place has.

  9. Van Gogh gallery underfire for selling ‘insensitive’ £6 ear-aser.
    The gift shop has been accused of embodying ‘late era capitalism’. The gift shop range includes a straw hat and painter’s coat similar to those the icon wore, as well as sunflower socks, scarfs, and seeds. But an ear-shaped rubber eraser costing £6, attracted criticism for mocking van Gogh’s self-mutilation after fighting a fellow artist Paul Gauguin.

    After the argument van Gogh began to hallucinate, lose consciousness but managed to use a knife to cut off his left ear. He could later recall nothing about the event.

    Charles Thomson, a co-founder of the Stuckist group of artists, said: “Suicide is not a joke and mental illness is not a joke.”

    “This is shallow, nasty and insensitive,” he told the Mail on Sunday. “What next? Van Gogh’s suicide pistol?”
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/van-gogh-museum-underfire-for-selling-insensitive-ps6-eareraser-b982341.html

    1. Charles Thomson a classic example of ‘wokey snowflake’ who cannot tell humour from bigotry.

      1. Morniing, Tom.
        Why are there so many humourless bastards in the world these days? As if van Gogh cares? He’s dead, FGS!

        1. ‘Morning, Paul – that’s two of us (at least) who neither know, nor care for their wokery.

    2. Oh, for goodness’ sake! The fact that they chose the ear, as a joke, and not the damned pistol, surely speaks for itself.

    5. I thought it was tasteless but so are a lot of things. If it appeals to someone then let them buy it.

  10. Democracies die when the truth becomes whatever you want it to be. 14 February 2022.

    Because, more than anything, the truth matters. In autocratic societies, as one chronicler of modern Russia puts it, “nothing is true and everything is possible”. Leaders lie, the public knows they lie, and the leaders know they know. The culture of deceit and distrust is pervasive. Corruption and crime, intimidation and brute force, injustice and the arbitrary use of power are facts of everyday life and are met, mostly, with a defeated shrug of the shoulders.

    All true but the wrong country. These things have already come to pass here. Democracy in the West has been extinguished. That it still has any reality is the greatest lie of all!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/13/democracies-die-truth-becomes-whatever-want/

      1. Whether your vote will be given to your chosen candidate is a different matter’ hence,
        in the election for POTUS, the Runner UP OAP seems to have won

      2. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the government always gets in. It isn’t who votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes.

          4. It might conflict or confirm a few suspects.
            Let’s wait and see who that nasty Khants preferred candidate for the role of his judicature is.
            My bet is who ever it is they won’t have obvious European roots.

    3. A couple of BTL responses:-

      Peter Benson
      13 MIN AGO
      Another lie is that a man can call himself a woman or ever become a woman. This is more dangerous to us all and to our society even than the lies politicians usually tell.

      REPLY4 REPLIES 10FLAG

      CM Charles McNarles
      12 MIN AGO
      Reply to Peter Benson
      So paranoid. Why do you care? Sounds like you might be denying your own nature. The most homophobic boys at school always turned out to be gay in the end.

      REPLY2 REPLIES 0FLAG

      PB Peter Benson
      11 MIN AGO
      Reply to Charles McNarles
      What a stupid response.

      REPLY 9 FLAG

      RS Robert Spowart
      1 MIN AGO
      Reply to Charles McNarles – view message
      Message Actions
      Are you REALLY that ignorant of the damage being caused to our young people from the Trans Ideology being promoted by a tiny, but VERY loud minority?
      Perhaps you might like to educate yourself by reading up on “Dr.” Sidhbh Gallagher, an Irish plastic surgeon involved in sex change surgery who delights in “zeeting the teets” (carrying out double mastectomies” of young girls?
      https://lilymaynard.com/wielding-the-sidhbh-gallagher/

      REPLY
      0

  11. A BTL Comment and response:-

    Frère de Clouseau
    1 HR AGO
    ‘New trans laws in Scotland could open up ‘loophole’ for rest of UK
    Fair Play for Women said the SNP plans would allow people from England, Wales and Northern Ireland to obtain a legal change in gender’
    Does that mean that one could be one on one side of Hadrian’s Wall, and the other once one had crossed it ?
    Mind you, I seem to recall in the film ‘Braveheart’, Mel Gibson wore a skirt !

    REPLY1 REPLY 3
    FLAG

    RS Robert Spowart
    JUST NOW
    Reply to Frère de Clouseau – view message Message Actions
    Emm, why do you include the bulk of Northumberland and a fair chunk of Cumberland in your comment?
    If you mean to refer to the Border between England and Scotland, then refer to the Border, not a Roman artifact tens of miles to the South.

    REPLY
    0

      1. Thank you both!
        I am getting more and more aggressive towards those who equate Scotland with “North of Hadrian’s Wall” and ignoring my own county!

        1. The Saxon kingdom of Northumbria extended to the Forth, its capital was Edwin’s Borough (Edinburgh).

        1. Many of us would be guilty in that case Elsie – I have the world’s worst sense of direction!

          1. It’s why I bought what I thought was a SatNav, bb2. But I ended up with a *!@”:~ (i.e. Silly Sausage).

          2. Elsie, if you have anything like a ‘smart phone’ download the Google Maps app – it works any where in the world, I have used it in Spain, France, UK and Tasmania. It also shews congestion ahead.

          4. Thank you, Tom, it worked, i.e. the download. I now need to work out how to use it. So far I have managed to see the route I need to take to walk to my destination (11.5 hours). I guess I will soon see a map route for driving there (allegedly 40 minutes). Thanks again!

          7. Aha! I found what you were pointing me to. I also noted that suggested route of 40 miles would take me one hour and five minutes. So clearly I somehow confused the 40 miles as being a journey of 40 minutes. At last I’m getting somewhere. Thanks, Tom.

          9. Morning Tom – is it only free if the data downloaded comes within your allowance? I know the app is free.

          11. I used to have a photographic memory for maps, know at all times which was was North, and never got lost.
            Then I had a stroke.
            Now, I even get lost in the shopping centre (have visited for nearly 25 years now), and occasionally, in shops. Not good.

          1. I got to Halstead, then on to Sudbury, then back to Halstead, then on to Brentwood. Then I gave up and went home.

  12. Good morning all.
    Boring DT letters today, perhaps Nottlers could plan a compilation CD for Vlad.
    Am hopelessly unmusical, but let’s start with Bucks Fizz, ‘Making Your Mind Up’.

  13. Fears Cambodia is rolling out China-style ‘Great Firewall’ to curb online freedom. 14 february 2022.

    A China-style internet gateway scheduled to be imposed in Cambodia this week would grant the government far greater powers to conduct mass surveillance, censor and control the country’s internet, rights groups have warned.

    China? Rubbish! The Cambodians are obviously trying to catch up with the UK!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/14/fears-cambodia-is-rolling-out-china-style-great-firewall-to-curb-online-freedom

  14. Morning all

    Only by the West showing strength can Putin be kept out of Ukraine

    SIR – My old boss, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, is right to say that Vladimir Putin is no Hitler. But he is an admirer of Stalin and an apologist for him. And history tells us that the only way to deal with such leaders is to show strength.

    Would Putin take the risk of plunging the world into war by attacking Ukraine if US and British forces were there? Instead of withdrawing those of our forces who are in the country on training missions we should reinforce them and make it clear that they would defend themselves if they came under attack.

    I accept this carries risk and ups the stakes. But by appeasing Putin we simply put off the day of reckoning, as Chamberlain and Daladier did in 1938.

    Paul Laing,

    Counsellor, FCO (retd)

    Ixworth, Suffolk

    SIR – Of course the Russians won’t re-invade Ukraine. They only want to admire the famous cathedral in Kyiv.

    Bob Burgess,

    Chester, Cheshire

    SIR – The feebleness of Western leaders and Nato have made a Russian invasion of Ukraine a one-way bet.

    At the very least, Nato could by now have made it clear that a Russian invasion would provoke a strong response in the form of Nato battle groups coming to Ukraine’s aid with supplies of the latest weapons to train a large Ukrainian reserve army, which could turn Ukraine into a Russian Vietnam. The threat of more sanctions is like water off a duck’s back to Putin.

    Only a strong response with a military element will have any deterrent effect on Putin’s dictatorship and his intention of rebuilding the old Soviet Union.

    So it’s time for this intervention now, or we face a re-run of Munich and total Western humiliation.

    Noel Baptiste,

    Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire

    SIR – Sorry, but isn’t the situation in Ukraine resolvable without war? Putin needs telling there is nothing to fear from Nato if he behaves himself and stops bullying neighbouring countries.

    Indeed there are ethnic and patriotic Russians within Ukraine who would quite like to rejoin the old motherland. But a huge majority in Ukraine would not, and simply want to embrace an independent country with its traditional culture.

    Putin doesn’t want Nato near his borders, but even if he occupied Ukraine (cue never-ending civil war thereafter) he would immediately have Poland and others at the fence.

    How can a man with the mentality of Hitler be allowed to perpetrate his ambitions in this day and age?

    Phil Glass,

    Trethowel, Cornwall

    SIR – Vladimir Putin’s sabre-rattling prompted me to check the heights of troublesome leaders, past and present. Napoleon 5ft 6in; Putin 5ft 7in; Hitler 5ft 8in; Mussolini 5ft 6in; Kim Jong-il 5ft 3in; Stalin 5ft 5in; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 5ft 2in; Lenin 5ft 5in.

    Jo Bird,

    Slapton, Devon

    1. I propose that these letter writers are shipped straight out to the Russian-Ukraine border and given rifles so that they can be amongst the first to see and decease.

    2. Would Putin take the risk of plunging the world into war by attacking Ukraine if US and British forces were there? Instead of withdrawing those of our forces who are in the country on training missions we should reinforce them and make it clear that they would defend themselves if they came under attack.

      It seems scarcely possible that anyone could write such tosh! If the Russians did attack such a force would be destroyed almost immediately! What message would we send to their families? “They died defending the borders of Ukraine.”

      1. …would provoke a strong response in the form of Nato battle groups coming to Ukraine’s aid with supplies of the latest weapons

        Noel Baptiste
        The Germans invaded the Soviet Union with Army Groups and whilst having initial success in destroying many Soviet armies/divisions the Germans were amazed at the number of replacement divisions that appeared. As for the latest weaponry, the Russians are almost certainly very well armed and again referring back to WWII, the Germans were startled when they came up against the ‘vastly superior’ (Gen Heinz Guderian) T34 tank. Historical evidence can be a right ‘bugger’!

        1. And the whole place turns into a mire in the spring thaw – coming shortly. Miserable to move through.

    5. I think the first letter clearly shows the quality of those employed by the FCO! No wonder our foreign policy is such a mess!

      1. The really, really dispiriting aspect is that it was frequently claimed that the brightest and best (and most left-wing) went into the FCO.

    6. If Britain can’t defend it’s borders from illegal immigrants I wouldn’t be too hopeful if I was Ukrainian that my borders would be safe with British troops there.

    8. There is much to fear from NATO, O Phil Glass, thou benighted fool. Ask the former Yugoslavia.

    9. “How can a man with the mentality of Hitler be allowed to perpetrate his ambitions in this day and age?”

      Where have you been for the last couple of years, Phil Glass? It’s been happening under your own nose.

  15. Heart attack 999 calls

    SIR – The NHS is encouraging more people to dial 999 if they experience symptoms of a heart attack. After I had a heart attack on February 4, my wife rang the emergency services at 5.50am and was told that an ambulance would not be available for at least an hour.

    Fortunately she had the good sense to call our son (a copper) and his girlfriend (a paramedic) who got me to Royal Stoke Hospital, after 75 wasted minutes waiting for an ambulance.

    What is the point of creating more work for an already over-stretched service if, as one would expect, this rallying call creates more call-outs from over-cautious individuals?

    Fortunately (and obviously), I survived, thanks to the speedy action of hospital staff once I eventually got there.

    Iain Findlay

    Audlem, Cheshire

    1. Ambulance drivers and associated staff are still leaving the job in droves (in Devon at least) as I was told again yesterday by my daughter’s beau. He stopped being a full time driver as of today and starts training with a heating installation company but will do the odd ambulance shift on weekends.

      1. The central ambulance boss gave a talk to a parish council near Shrewsbury (as related to me by one of the councillors who heard it) and explained that the reason they closed all the local stations and centralised them was that the crews had to do their own maintenance and so ambulances weren’t available if all the equipment wasn’t ready. That’s a bean-counter’s excuse. They aren’t available anyway and have to travel so much farther to reach people out in the sticks when they are coming from a “central” location.

    2. When we drive past Chertsey ambulance station, about once a month, there are usually a dozen or more parked.

    3. He’s lucky he doesn’t live a few miles down the road, over the border in Shropshire. People have died waiting for ambulances (and nearly died on more than one occasion). If you need an ambulance here, get a friend to drive you to the nearest A&E.

  16. Apropos Russia/Ukraine and China/Taiwan.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/reality-always-wins/

    It looks like the rulers of the Global American Empire are ready to put their favored ideology to the test in the real world. Multiculturalism is pretty much a religion with the ruling classes, despite the fact that most of them live like white nationalists. For them, “diversity is our strength” is not just a marketing slogan. They really think that diversity in all of its forms is the key to creating a global paradise.

    So much so, in fact, that the United States military is making diversity its No. 1 priority up and down the chain of command. Pedro Gonzalez reports in Chronicles that Bishop Garrison, senior adviser to the Secretary of Defense, is pushing ahead with Critical Race Theory and a Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity program to make the military the most diverse institution on earth. They will be the rainbow warriors of the glorious future comrades!
    As opposed to the university or even corporate America, the military is an unforgiving place when it comes to theory and practice. The point of the military, of course, is to project the power of the ruling class. It is the physical manifestation of ruling-class authority and power. If it cannot do that, then the ruling class has a serious problem, so this commitment to diversity is quite a gamble. The Global American Empire needs the military to maintain itself.
    Adding to this, of course, is the looming confrontations with Russia and China at the edges of the empire. Joe Biden has been trying to start a war with Russia over Ukraine, which means the U.S. military would face its toughest test in generations. The Russians are tough and smart. They are not Afghan goatherds or desert nomads, both of whom proved to be too much for the American military to handle in the long run.

    In the end, it is wise to bet on reality. The ideologues of the new religion of multiculturalism are not much different from their predecessors. They are sure reality can be whipped with the right amount of enthusiasm. They will come to learn, like their current opponents, that reality is that thing that does not go away when you stop believing in it. Reality is undefeated for a reason.

    The whole article is worth a few minutes.

    2. One wonders how many of the ‘diverse’ will break and run, as soon as they come under fire from an enemy.

        1. If it did, Sos, the runners would be the first to be mown down, thus ridding us of a problem.

      2. A very quick growing-up experience when you hear zzzwip! It tends to leave a brown stain in the underwear.

    3. The US and allies had it’s collective ass handed to it on a plate in the ‘Stan, and left all their gear behind for the towelheads to sell to Russia / China / break. Why would they think they would come out ahead against the Russians, who don’t bother with Woke carp?

    4. The USA has not won a military confrontation on its own in the last 75 years. The USA destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of people and nearly 60,000 US military died in Vietnam. This was the result of the US applying the “domino” theory regarding the spread of communism, and throwing thousands of conscripts against a determined indigenous people. That theory looks bit silly now. One might argue that the USA needs wars to use up the output of the military industrial complex and keep these businesses in production and profit.

        1. Maybe. There is no evidence that the USA was ever on our side at any time, other than because it was both expedient and might be used against us. The USA has worked against the Empire and the UK throughout the 20th century. We have been used to bolster their righteous views and give them some sheen of respectability. They have not hesitated to put the boot in a la Suez.

          1. Had the USA not joined in on Britain’s side in WW1 and 2 you would probably be speaking German or Russian.
            By and large Democrats have tended to be more likely to go to war and to be anti-British, some vehemently so.
            Even Eisenhower, who stitched us up over Suez, later acknowledged it was an error.

          2. I agree, but they were late enough to the party to see the way the wind was blowing (and they didn’t really want to join in until Pearl Harbor made the average Joe thirsty for war).

          3. Slightly off topic.
            We watched “A bridge too far” yesterday.
            Brits useless Yanks fantastic.
            As usual.

          4. We have to remember that there would have been no D Day had we, all alone, not withstood the might of the German Reich to provide a place to launch it from.

        2. The American are not on anyone’s side, they are out for themselves and they are a menace when controlled by the insane Hawks of Biden’s administration lead by a senile fool. The American attitude is typifies, to my mind, in the fact that they continued to trade with Germany until Pearl Harbour. If that hadn’t have happened they would have continued trading even if the UK had fallen and Europe had been turned into a massive concentration camp. Americans have few principles other than materialism.

          1. That doesn’t change my view.
            I agree that they are out for themselves, but I would rather have them fighting with me than against me.

          2. Well it would be impossible to fight them anyway. Their military is designed to fight three major wars simultaneously. The deluded Chines could try but they would be defeated in double quick time. The rest of us might as well chew popcorn on the side lines. But, hopefully the Democrats have managed to destroy themselves with their corrupt shenanigans this time round and the American public, this time around, will not be so foolish as to vote for that Party in again. The Democrats have always been warmongers and unsafe hands for the USA.

          4. Thanks for the article sosraboc. Read it and it is true that the Han, to be specific, are racists. They make any Western racist pale into insignificance in their behaviour. As you know I have had dealings with Tibetans for many years, long before it became popular. The stories I have heard from them with regard to the Hans attitude to their minorities is truly appalling. To put it simply, the attitude is that if you are not Han you are barely human and therefore mistreatment and even killing is quite in order. This is not just an attitude of Communist Party apparatchiks but the attitude of ordinary Chinese too. I actually had an argument once with three Chinese sisters about Han treatment of Tibetans and pointed out that the Han had been condemned by the International Court of Human Rights, in the Hague for genocide in Tibet. They simply dismissed it as of being no consequence and nothing but a plot against China. There is a guy on You Tube Serpentza, who lived in China for years and has a Chinese wife and children, he also speaks fluent Chinese. He shows a video of an ordinary Chinese man talking about foreigners and the proper attitude to them if you are Han. He makes a member of the KKK look like a paragon of virtue. I will try to find it and post it.

          5. I’m fairly aware. A chap I have known for 25 years teaches in China and has a Chinese partner. He’s been teaching there for about ten years.

          7. I’ve always been of the view that everyone is racist, they just don’t always recognise it in themselves.
            I believe racism is hardwired into humans. To get rid of it is extremely difficult.

      2. Not quite Horace. They bravely invaded Grenada all on their owneo, if you recall, Marine boots a pounding and war horse helicopters awhirring. I had a friend there studying medicine. David told me that the marines pompously announced that they were there to rescue all Americans from danger and were to be evacuated. That none of the resident Americans had a clue what was going on and that life was carrying on as normal was not an issue. The military told them they were to be evacuated like it or not! I suppose it would have been embarrassing for the Americans to trot off home without a single evacuee in tow. As it was they took the Americans back to the USA and gave a brave press conference in which non of the evacuees were allowed to speak.

        1. Yes, I had not forgotten. I just didn’t think that there was much of a confrontation. As you have just confirmed. I guess that the islanders did not care much either way.

          1. It was a brillient move on the part of the USA. Technically their behaviour put them in a state of war with the entire commonwealth!

  17. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f017ad42155ddd0c04ab6c0286cc8ef81d1e22289365f6e9964253119f1da7c.png

    Short people got no reason
    Short people got no reason
    Short people got no reason
    To live

    They got little hands
    And little eyes
    And they walk around
    Tellin’ great big lies

    They got little noses
    And tiny little teeth
    They wear platform shoes
    On their nasty little feet
    They got little baby legs
    And they stand so low
    You got to pick ’em up
    Just to say hello

    They got little cars
    That got beep, beep, beep
    They got little voices
    Goin’ peep, peep, peep
    They got grubby little fingers
    And dirty little minds
    They’re gonna get you every time

    [with apologies to Randy Newman]

    1. This personal mockery of Putin’s height is just foolish, as is calling him “troublesome”.
      He’s the very successful leader of the biggest terrain in the world, with genuine concerns, and ridiculing him just makes us look silly.

        1. No time! Pursued by the dragon of failed tests!
          I only go on NOTTL while my code is building, so I can’t do anything else.

    2. I’m 5ft 6in and i’m not a psychopathic war mongerer………

      Look upon my works ye mighty and laugh.

        2. Caroline is 5’4″ Christo is 6’2½”; Henry is 5″8¼”; and I am shrinking and now stand a full inch lower than I used to do.

          Having said that we all enjoy Randy Newman’s Short People but here is the antidote by Chevy Chase which says that short people have great advantages in life.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWtwAJxN0h0

      3. I once worked alongside a 5′-8″ copper (minimum size back then). One breaktime, he was struggling to reach a shot whilst playing snooker, so a couple of brawny, 6′-0″ plus, coppers picked him up and held him over the table. He stormed off in a huff.

        1. No British force now requires its recruits to be of any minimum height. The MacPherson report of 1999 recommended against height restrictions, arguing that they may discriminate against those of ethnic backgrounds who are genetically predisposed to be shorter than average.

          Funny how being genetically predisposed to be short is racial and thus an unacceptable criterion but if intelligence had also been a requirement for a police officer and a similar statement was made about intelligence there would have been an outcry.

      1. Politicians, Eddy. They come in all shapes and sizes and the only thing that unites them all is their uselessness.

        1. They might be politicians Grizz but………..
          Quite often taller people succeed because they intimidate others they consider to be inferior.
          Being of shorter stature my self (mothers legacy) but school goalkeeper because I was so good, when I use to play golf it was quite a significant event after thrashing the ars8 off a much taller and more often than not, pompous business man. Especially Bankers and accountants.

    4. I wish to put in for the title of Emperor of the World, in that case – I’m only 5′ 3″! I was taller, but I’ve shrunk, unfortunately.

  18. Morning all.
    I can’t wait for the forecast weather later today 😩.
    I watched a great film last night, one I had recorded and forgotten about. It happens already 🙃
    It’s called Spotlight. The acting is excellent and the story line fascinating. If you get the chance………..

  19. Interesting article linked from the tweet quoting historic evidence that is almost certainly not compromised by any other considerations. Basic science i.e running a test and recording what is revealed, no fancy modelling, no bias, no narrative to follow and no political end-game.

    Usual trolls in the comments to the original tweet but that is expected now if anything comes to light that doesn’t support the agreed narrative.

    https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1493117831243829252

    1. Scientifically illiterate politicians, and many others, do not understand that the output of modelling is not evidence.

    3. I have been arguing something on the same lines for years. It is not well known apart from weirdo’s like me, into sea slugs! That the warmer seas around Malaysia have exactly the same corals happily growing. How come, in the much less warmer ocean around the Great Barrier Reef, are corals dying from the sea warming up? It does not compute until you know what actually causes the bleaching. The answer is cold water coming down from the Antarctic, which, apparently, happens when conditions are right. For some odd reason the global warming hysterics never mention that fact. But, I think, you will agree that given the information about the same corals existing in far warmer waters, it makes a great deal more sense.

      By the way, the researcher who tried to publicise this fact, some guy from the University of Kangaroobilabong, or some such was fired and silenced in the interests of science, naturally.

  20. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a52f345d01aedc98abaa3fce784b134d89a1b3911e393f22d320cd6801752572.png And therein lies the problem. When I commenced work in the police in the early 1970s the CPS stood for “County Prosecuting Solicitor”. We had a dedicated prosecutions department, headed by a chief inspector who was in direct contact with solicitors at the County Council. He, and his team, would evaluate prosecution files, often sending them back to officers with recommendations, before submitting then to the CPS with suggestions and advice. Sometimes the CPS would send them back with advice of their own but, in the main, most prosecutions went ahead.

    That all changed when the new centralised system of Crown Prosecution Service (conveniently also “CPS”) was brought in to replace the old system. This centralisation not only replaced the very effective local system that had served us well for decades, but it introduced the now-too-familiar lack of communication between the police and the prosecutors. No wonder police are frustrated that crimes, they have spent a good deal of time and effort in bringing to prosecution, are summarily ignored by disinterested clowns at the CPS who are not fit for purpose.

    1. It’s all turned into the old joke when they guy rings 999 and tells them someone has broken into his shed and is stealing his lawn mower. He’s fobbed off and given a crime number.
      He rings back 5 minutes later and tells them, oh its okay I’ve sorted it, loaded my 12 bore and blasted them off the planet. Then all hell breaks lose the weapons unit arrive and surround the area. But he was only joking…….

      2. These days, you would only need to call back and tell them that you called the burglar by a hurty name.

  21. Are the scales beginning to fall from the eyes?

    They are beginning to think about whether it is a good idea to continue vaccinating everyone in Denmark

    https://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/covid-19-pourquoi-le-danemark-s-apprete-a-renoncer-a-la-vaccination-20220214

    La première ministre danoise Mette Frederiksen recevait sa première dose de vaccin en juin dernier.

    FOCUS – Après avoir décidé de lever la plupart des restrictions, le pays scandinave pourrait abandonner totalement son programme de vaccination d’ici la fin du mois de février.

    2. A total end of covid vaccinations in Denmark by the end of this month will hopefully get the ball rolling elsewhere.

      1. “The Danish First Minister, Mette Frederiksen, received her (or his – don’t know how Mette self declares) 1st dose of vaccine last June. FOCUS – after having decided to lift the majority of restrictions, the Scandinavian country could totally abandon its vaccination programme between now and the end of February.” Better now, Tom?

  22. Totally off topic, but I’ve just read this in the DT:-

    ‘Paul Robson, who is serving a life sentence for attempted rape and indecent assault, absconded from an open prison in Lincolnshire and was reported missing at around 7am on Sunday, Lincolnshire Police said.

    The force has urged people not to approach the 56-year-old as he “can cause real harm to anyone he comes across”.

    Newcastle-born Robson was jailed at Oxford Crown Court in 2000 after he entered a woman’s home through a cat flap before tying her up, putting a pillow case over her head, and brutally assaulting her while holding a knife to her throat.

    He had only been released from prison three weeks before the attack and was on licence – with the sentencing judge describing him as a “menace to females”.

    Robson, who walked out of HMP North Sea Camp in Boston, is described as a white male with a bald head, a long goatee beard and is of a slim build.

    Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox said: “We are still working tirelessly to locate Paul Robson and are still working through numerous lines of inquiry.

    “He could be anywhere in the country, and we are really keen to hear from the public with potential sightings so we can take this man off our streets.

    “Robson is a dangerous sex offender and while he presents a particular danger to women and young children, I believe he can cause real harm to anyone he comes across.’

    I know I can be a bit slow sometimes but I’m finding it difficult to understand how a ‘dangerous sex offender who can cause real harm to anyone he comes across’ can be whiling away his time in an open prison…

      1. Psychiatrists. Always reluctant to admit they have a real nutter on their hands. Remember that Cambridge rehab unit that was releasing murderous Islamics because they believed what the ‘patient’ told them…

    4. Did you hear the recent statistic given out on one of his broadcasts by Paul Joseph Watson. You now have a 93% chance of getting away with it if you commit a crime. Of course if you are a real criminal, denying that men can become women or something equally absurd, you will quickly come to the attention of Plod and be dealt with accordingly. With a system as useless as that, is it that surprising that a murderer is in an open prison?

    5. “Robson, who walked out of HMP North Sea Camp in Boston”
      It conjures up a 1960s holiday camp with warders in red jackets.

      1. If the look of the old Clacton-on-Sea Butlins was anything to go by, holiday camps were much more secure than HMP North Sea Camp.😎

  23. Wayne Rooney – a normal bloke who was freakishly good at football
    There is something deeply human and authentic about the Rooney portrayed in a new Amazon Prime documentary

    ALAN TYERS: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/02/14/wayne-rooney-normal-bloke-freakishly-good-football/

    I tried to post this BTL comment under the article quoting from it but the message came up:

    THIS COMMENT BREACHES OUR COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

    The mere mention of prostitutes is clearly too much for the delicate sensibilities of DT readers!

    “…… a decent bloke”?
    I suppose we all judge people by different criteria but do ‘decent blokes’ betray the wife, the children and go of with prostitutes?

    3. A difference to value between politicians and footballers is that the latter are selected and retained or sold based on their merits (give or take the odd cat-kicking or rape) … Also, it is worth noting that the top footballers tend not to cheat on expenses …

    4. TBF – he keeps the cost down by buying the services of grannies coasting up to retirement; do they charge more if they have their own teeth?

    5. A chap destroyed by fame and fortune. I’ve been trying to do the same for years but failed miserably!

    6. Same with the lauded football hero George Best. Adulterer, wife beater, alcoholic and drug addict.

    2. To be pedantic, the pilot did not climb out of the aircraft. Both aircrew ejected, as shown by the lack of the ejection seats in the cockpit.

    1. She’s not doing a good job. Of the 100s of Network Rail employees I’ve seen working on the railway at the back of my house of 10 years all have been able-bodied men. Where are the women and the disabled?

  27. Pitiful to see the Telegraph beating the war drums. And disgusting. Putin’s position on the matter is clear as a bell. Keep NATO off my western border or risk war. Exactly JFKs position during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The conduct of the US and the EU has been egregious since they procured the violence of the Maidan and overthrew the democratically elected government. They have been prating about Ukrainian sovereignty ever since despite having been directly asked by Zelensky to back off with the rodomontade.
    It is no thanks to the Telegraph and their “defence” writers that we did not have war in Europe in 2016. We were saved by 2 things, Firstly the American people looked at Mother Clinton, who was cheering NATO on in their mass manoeuvres on the Russian borders from the ~Baltic to the Black Sea, and held their noses and voted Trump. And secondly the internet allowed events to be seen by a wider audience than the ministries who up unitil the internet had effectively controlled the narrative at the cost of millions of lives down the years,

    1. When the Soviet Union collapsed the Americans with the rest of NATO promised that they would not encroach on what the Russians call their “near abroad”. NATO has consistently violated that promise and it is what has brought us to todays pass. The belligerent in this case is undoubtably NATO lead by the Americans. To blame the Russians is false. After the fall of the USSR the Russians even asked if they could become members of NATO but were rebuffed. The world would be a far better and safer place now if NATO had accepted Russia. Certainly, our troubles with the real enemy, Communist China, would be far less. And by the way, Russia has not broken one single promiser it made to NATO since the collapse of the USSR.

      1. Or in short, ever since the collapse of the USSR, The West, largely in the guise of NATO and the EU, have, despite their promises to the contrary, made a sport of Poking The Bear With A Sharp Stick.

    2. Putin is the one beating war drums. If he wasn’t threatening the Ukraine then they wouldn’t be interested in joining NATO.

      1. He never threatened Ukraine, he doesn’t want Ukraine, he is not “beating war drums”. You might notice that all the threats are going one way, from the USA to Russia. But you should look up a map of the demographics of Ukraine. Much of it is Russian speaking people who have no desire to be allied with a corrupt state like Ukraine.
        What we really have here is unsettled business from Soviet times in which unnatural borders were created. And please don’t bother bringing up Crimea. It is Russian historically and was only given to Ukraine in drunken gesture in order to please his mother a Ukrainian, by Nakita Khrushchev. Even by Soviet law his gesture was illegal. Crimea is Russian, the majority of the population is Russian, 75%. Crimea is only used in a very dishonest way to “prove” that Putin is a “criminal”. It is a cynical and dishonest ploy if one knows the history of the place.

        1. Ha ha, All those thousands of troops massing on Ukraine’s borders are due to the West threatening Russia?

          Crimea? Learn history. It may have been given to the Ukraine, but its ownership was confirmed when the USSR broke up. Various votes at the time led to the inhabitants of the Crimea voting to be an autonomous region of the Ukraine, which is the way it remained until Putin took it. Allowing historic claims to trump the wishes of the inhabitants is a recipe for disaster, particularly as most of central Europe has been owned by many countries over the centuries.

          Oh the irony of a Putin apologist calling the Ukraine corrupt. Pot and kettle.

          1. To your first remark. We would do exactly the same thing if hostile forced were threatening our borders. They are in Russia, are they not? So what is your problem, they aren’t in Ukraine, are they?

            I know my Crimean history. In fact I know my Russian history better than you do. What you and people like you can’t face is that circumstances change and when Ukraine started to threaten the Russian navy in Crimea do you seriously think that they would have not taken back their own territory? And, by the way the vote in Crimea was free and fair even though people like you would not like to admit it. They voted overwhelmingly to return to Russia, that is called democracy. Something that propagandists like you have little regard for.
            And, of course, your last remark simply demonstrates that you believe any old propaganda. I suggest you go watch him at length on You Tube. You will find he isn’t the tyrant you like to pretend. But, of course you wont do that because you would rather project your shadow on to Putin, rather than deal with the facts.

  28. Morning all! Finally back and able to type because I can actually see thanks to new glasses and being somewhat recovered from Radiotherapy treatment. An example, if ever there was one, of treatment making you feel far sicker than the disease. Although, if left untreated I’m sure I would have ended up a lot worse. And, by the way, weather in West Sussex is really nice today. Sunny and 50f.
    Now to start being argumentative. The Telegraph letter on Putin makes a false claim. Well, actually it makes a lot of false claims. It says: “Vladimir Putin is no Hitler. But he is an admirer of Stalin and an apologist for him.” That is completely false. Here is Alexey Tereshchenko on the matter:

    “Putin declared more than once that he sees Stalin in both positive and negative lights. For him, it is under Stalin’s leadership that Russia became an industrialized country and won World War 2. Without this victory, the fate of Russia would have been much worse.

    However, he also declared that Stalin was a tyrant, that millions of people suffered because of his purges, that Stalin destroyed Russian agriculture and Russian peasantry, that Stalin’s time was the time of crimes against the population of the country. He condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the Katyn massacre.

    As a result, Putin is criticized for his attitude by both Stalinists and liberals. The liberals accuse him of failing to condemn Stalin completely. For them, Stalinism is rampant in Russia. Stalinists accuse Putin of spreading lies about the great leader and downplaying his achievements.”

    And from my experience, that is a view shared by most Russians. But, of course, it doesn’t help the propaganda of the Democrat Party of the USA who wish to have a war in order to distract from the disaster that they are at home. Further more, Putin has no intention of going to war. If it happens it will be because the Americans create a false flag operation in order to justify their belligerence. Some of you are probably aware that even the Ukrainian leader has told the idiot Biden to tone down his rhetoric. The general population of Ukraine are not behaving like people who are about to be invaded and the general population of Russia are not behaving like people about to go to war. Putin is by no means perfect but he is a far more decent person than Biden, who, by the way was the recipient, recently, of a 31 million dollars in a kickback from the real enemy, China. Not publicized by the MSM. Said kick back a gift to the entire Biden family and has nothing at all to do with bribery, naturally! And don’t forget the lucrative deals that his son has made with the Ukrainian gas companies, Ukraine and its dealings being numbered as the 9th most corrupt country on earth. The pretence that it is a Democracy fit for NATO is laughable So, of course on that score (kick backs and cash), Biden has no interest at all, obviously.
    ,

      2. Thanks Phizzee. It wasn’t fun and it still isn’t fun! It seems to take a long while to recover. What upset me more than the discomfort is how badly it effected my eyesight, to the point I could neither read or type without becoming severely nauseous. They don’t seem to mention that as a side effect, but it incredibly depressing. Far worse, in my opinion, than the pain and discomfort. I ended up doing little more than watching and listening to You Tube!

          1. Thanks Conway. Things are improving,. What is odd it seems to improve by leaps, not gradually. I must ask one of the Consultants about that because it isn’t what one expects.

    5. Nice to see you back, Johnathan! Being argumentative is a good sign that you’re feeling better! And being spot on is even more encouraging!

          2. Oh! Let’s go the whole hog! But I’m warning you, I’m recovering from a 24hour sickness and diarrhoea bug! Not a happy soul, I’m afraid, but it’ll kick start the much-needed diet!

          6. Thanks hinny! So do I! I’ve got the twins today and they’ve been a bit trying – as in trying to concuss themselves! They’re asleep now but I have to keep checking them! Unfortunately, they have a new trick which is blinking, and they kept doing it after they’d bashed themselves! Not good for pore ol’ Grans heart rate!

          7. Ooh, sympathy. I had a 72 hour bout the week before last and emerged with a brand new plump prolapsed thrombosed thingummyjig which may not be life threatening but it’s a bummer!

          8. Ooeer missus! Dare I ask which thingummy was jigged? The old man started on Thursday and I followed on about 4am on Saturday! Absolutely hellish and exhausting! I look like death warmed up but at least had an excuse for Lucozade! Even that didn’t taste the same! Hope you’re feeling a lot better!😘

    6. Good to see you back, Johnathan. Hope your eyes get back in full working order soonest.
      Strange thing, vision. After my stroke a few years ago, I noticed a hole in my vision – not because there was a black patch (the brain filled in with similar-looking background), but that when I put my coffee mug down, as my arm and cup headed for the table, it “vanished” behind the background! Very Harry Potter, that was, and slightly discombobulating too.

      1. Now that is weird! I think that would have freaked me out. For me it was just badly blurred vision and nausea if I was trying to do anything detailed like concentrate on typing.

    7. Morning Johnathan! New glasses make such a difference, don’t they? Hope you continue to recover from the Radiotherapy and of course that it has the desired effect.

      Oceania desires constant war. War is Peace. One could also point out that Hitler did good things for Germany, as well as slaughtering millions. I expect if we dig deep enough, even George Soros has done someone some good.

      I’m disappointed that GB News is going along with the Ukraine narrative. I had to switch to RT to see both ordinary people and officials in both Kiev and Moscow saying that they’re not expecting invasion and war. Al Jazeera are presenting a more balanced view than the UK and US media too.

    8. Oh, the perversity of saying that Stalin destroyed Russia’s agriculture to back Putin’s bullying of the Ukraine when the Ukraine was by far the biggest victim of Stalin’s polices on agriculture, the Holodomor resulting in millions starving to death in the Ukraine.

      1. I don’t know if you realize it but your remark makes absolutely no sense. It just seems to be the usual foaming at the mouth demonization of Putin that bears no semblance to reality.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Jonathan, a bit like those who reviled Trump and look what they got instead.

          Happy to hear that you’ve recovered enough to come back and tickle a few bumptious pates.

          1. I don’t “worship” Putin. I actually have listened to what he says at great length because I’m not willing to believe any old thing that I’m told. You obviously are. I suggest you go and listen to his annual reports to the press on You Tube, they are at least an hour and a half long and include Americans, British and any Westerners asking him questions, often hostile. He acquits himself without the usual evasiveness of Western politicians, no equivocation or evasive rhetoric.

    9. Glad to see you back, after a gruelling treatment. Totally sympathetic about the glasses. These days, I feel as though I have super-powers when I put my reading glasses on! It’s VERY demoralising not to be able to read easily.
      Thank you for clearing the record about the is-Putin-a-Stalin-admirer question. I’d also heard that he was, but the reaction above is much more nuanced and intelligent.

    10. Hells bells! You’ve been through the mill!
      Agree about Putin. He is not as the West tried to paint him.

  29. Worth a listen.

    Ben Habib, a former Brexit Party MEP, voices the view that Brexit has not been achieved in any meaningful way. I agree with him – as far as Brexit is concerned Boris Johnson has been not only incompetent but insincere, hypocritical, treacherous and mendacious:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhmOfJe2soo

  31. Tory peer Lord Moylan sparks backlash after saying he fears Yorkshire has ‘transformed into a county of leftist whingers begging for handouts’ in tweet ahead of planned trip
    Moylan, a former banker and adviser to Boris Johnson, caused the outrage Friday
    He said feared he would find ‘leftist whingers begging for handouts’ in Yorkshire

    It comes after a Yorkshire Post headline ripped into the Tories’ ‘Levelling Up’ plan
    The tweet was met with a harsh backlash, including from the Editor of the Yorkshire Post and the Labour Mayor for West Yorkshire

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10508369/Tory-peer-Lord-Moylan-sparks-outrage-branding-Yorkshire-county-leftist-whingers.html

    Bankers……!

      1. Continuous,no end date
        Edit
        Can cancel at any time but reading reports of other contracts I’m sticking like glue!!

      1. I think the government are gambling on having beaten the truckers before that can happen. They will make sure the case spins out for years.
        The people who did it should be personally responsible, that might concentrate a few minds.
        Parts of the police are out of control – but they only reflect the mindset of the authoritarian liberal elite.

        1. I think the truckers have taken up the gamble and they (and I) think they’re going to win. Wait for the hysterical out pouring from Turdeau about how his hand has been forced – it’s exactly what the truckers aimed for.

    2. He is measured, balanced and well spoken.

      After listening to him we now understand why GP’s went into hiding en mass. I know hospital staff have been disgusted with what GP’s did.

  37. Good afternoon, im late on parade and haven’t read through the comments (yet).
    However, this background to the possible reasons for the West v East land grab of Ukraine may be of interest…and it doesn’t even mention the gorgeous women! 😉
    Copied from another site.

    For those who ask: “Why does Ukraine matter? “
    This is why Ukraine matters.
    It is the second largest country by area in Europe by area and has a population
    of over 40 million – more than Poland.
    Ukraine ranks:
    1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
    2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;
    2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world’s reserves);
    2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);
    2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;
    3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)
    4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;
    7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)
    Ukraine is an important agricultural country:
    1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
    3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world’s volume);
    1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;
    2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;
    3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
    4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;
    5th largest rye producer in the world;
    5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);
    8th place in the world in wheat exports;
    9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
    16th place in the world in cheese exports.
    Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.
    Ukraine is an important industrialised country:
    1st in Europe in ammonia production;
    Europe’s 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system;
    3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
    3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);
    3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;
    3rd largest iron exporter in the world
    4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
    4th world’s largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
    4th place in the world in clay exports
    4th place in the world in titanium exports
    8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;
    9th place in the world in exports of defence industry products;
    10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).
    Ukraine matters. That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world.

    1. And if you were Russia would you be keen to see all that just handed to a control freak, expansionist organisation, like the EU?

      1. The unelected Horse-face Ashton, Barrosa and Drunken Juncker certainly gave it some effort. The hornets nest they stirred up still hasn’t settled. Stay strong Vlad.

    3. Ukraine is an independent nation that both Russia and the West signed to protect. Russia and the EU should keep out and let the Ukrainians decide their own future.

      These problems come from the way that Russia has treated the Ukraine in the past, of which the Holodomor is just one example, so that the Ukrainians reject Russia but fears its power but Putin wants power over them.

      1. The EU is trying to create the fourth reich by stealth. How anyone could want anything to do with it is beyond me. ( perhaps only self interest)

  42. Nicked comment

    “Britain’s capacity to fight a war is non existent. Where are the
    shipyards to build the ships? Where are the factories to build the
    bombs? Where are the manufacturing facilities to make the hardware?
    Where are the plants to make the aircraft? In previous wars factories
    were converted to new purposes. They no longer exist. If all the gear is
    coming from China I just hope the government is signed up to Amazon
    Prime for next day delivery.”
    All too true,the sabre rattling is pathetic

    1. Any idea how long it takes to build a warship? Years and years, so if you don’t have them at the beginning, then you won’t be able to build them before it ends. Everything is so complex and involved these days, and the electronics come from the Far East – see the delay in deliveries of electronics now delaying car production…

      1. ‘The US built 150 Aircraft Carriers, 8 Battleships, dozens of Cruisers, hundreds of destroyers, hundreds of submarines, and over 4000 cargo ships from 1942 to 1945. Thats over 5000 ships in just over 1400 days – but many of those ships were built in 1944 and 1945, the totals per day are skewed due to that – it averaged out to 5 ships per day

        The US had shipyards all over the coasts and even in the Great Lakes

        By 1945, U.S. shipbuilders were cranking out 1 new warship every 5 days… and around 3 merchant marine vessels every single day

        The manufacturing capacity of the United States was completely unmatchable by any other nation on the planet – if sufficiently motivated… and every American manufacturing facility across the nation that existed on December 6th, 1941 was quickly converted into something that fed the U.S. war machine one way or another.’

        Cheap and cheerful, not the technological behemoths of today, it couldn’t happen these days.

        1. One wonders, Iffy, how many shipyards do we have?
          How much steel is available.
          How many plants might be turned over to aircraft production (and I’m not talking Spitfires – well, maybe).

          1. I’d settle for Spitfires at the moment! I think the generalised answer to your various questions is the square root of sweet fa.

            Pearl Harbour so incensed the entire US population that they threw everything they had into inflicting retribution on Japan. Geographically they were in a good place, surrounded by oceans, with massive reserves of raw material and far enough away from the enemy that they could work the factories 7 x 365.

            Even so, it was a massive achievement. Not just ships, but planes, tanks, artillery and all the rest of it that was not only used by them but supplied to the allies as well.

          2. Spitfires were more complicated to build than Hurricanes, so we might have to make do with those 🙂

        2. The US had:
          Steelworks
          Skilled labour
          Shipyards
          Some years to get going
          A massive industrial base anyway

          These days, the UK has:
          Bullshit

        3. It could happen in the States, which is one of the reasons the UK maintains a strategic alliance with the USA.
          I remember chatting with a man (ex US Coastguard) who had worked for Kaiser Shipyards during the war. IIRC, for merchant vessels they could start from scratch and have the hull in the water within two weeks, possibly sooner.
          Another story worth knowing is about the Norden bombsight. Told by Peter Drucker, it shows how to achieve the apparently impossible, though sadly the tale had an unhappy ending.
          Google the words superannuated, Dreystadt, Detroit, Drucker.

    2. We are carefully extending the lives of our warships, by keeping them alongside and taking their engines out

    3. Admittedly, if we bought it from China it’d work and we could return it and get our money back. That’s never happened on anything the MoD has ever bought.

    4. Can’t the government wait five days and get the deliveries free of charge? After all, we can’t have them wasting taxpayers’ money.

    5. We can’t even use carpenters and cabinet makers to churn out a fast light bomber as we did in the last war – good carpenters (and decent furniture) are a thing of the past.

      1. Well, apart from Biden, who is very, very, very adult.

        Not only does he not know where Ukraine is, three quarters of the time, he does not know

        Where he, himself is

        Why he is there

        Who he is

        How he got there,and how long he is staying there

      1. My hopes reside with the insurance companies now! Another sentence I never thought I would write!!

          1. From or with?
            I am as wary of such statements as I am of Covid from/with deaths.
            Is this hearsay or autopsy evidence? I suspect the former.
            It doesn’t alter the fact that more research needs to be done on these jabs’ adverse side-effects

      2. It would be interesting to know how many people have been buried for real, after being force fed Pfizer vaccines

  47. The search for the origin of Covid-19. Spiked. 14 February 2022.

    Does Viral find the origin? No, not conclusively. But it finds plenty of circumstantial evidence that points away from the natural spill-over theory, and towards another hypothesis – that Covid-19 leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, with the Wuhan Institute of Virology the prime suspect.

    Nottl was posting about this long before those knobheads at WHO started sniffing around.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/14/the-search-for-the-origin-of-covid-19/

      1. Bruised but fine thanks for asking. Have to take it easy and no heavy lifting. Not that i do that anyway. :@)

        1. I used that excuse when I carried the warqueen up the stairs the other day.

          Bally woman hit me!

          Good to hear you’re well.

    2. Just buy a basic block of flats; allocate a flat to each constituency.
      That is where the MP stays when in London on Parliamentary business.
      If they want something more fancy, they pay the difference; out of their own pockets.
      I am absolutely sick of all these fiddles by people who are not short of a bob or two.

  50. Doctor died after fall from Lake District ridge where he proposed to wife. 14 February 2022.

    Dr Jamie Butler, from Altrincham in Greater Manchester, fell from the Striding Edge section of Helvellyn when hiking with his wife, Margaret, last year. They had returned to the mountain to find the exact spot where he had asked Margaret to marry him in 1994.

    An inquest heard the 54-year-old must have fallen from the mountain amid misty conditions and poor visibility on 2 November.

    When the couple reached Striding Edge, a rocky scramble before Helvellyn’s summit, Margaret was too tired to continue and so her husband carried on alone, according to a report from the Messenger newspaper in Trafford.

    In a statement read in the inquest, she described seeing her husband walk off into mist. After a while she shouted after him but received no response and called the police, “concerned something had happened to him”.

    I have to say I smell something of a rat here! I’ve walked along Striding Edge in both Summer and Winter conditions and I don’t see it! A misty day. A quick “Look at this Jamie!” an even quicker shove and then sit down and call the cops. That’s what my Poirot-like vision says!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/14/doctor-died-after-fall-from-lake-district-ridge-where-he-proposed-to-wife

    1. I have been on Striding Edge overlooking Red Tarn and can fully understand how someone could fall in bad conditions We were relieved to make it to the top.

          2. According to my local rag, the Mountain Rescue were called out to rescue some bods (in Snowdonia, I think) recently. The mist came down and they weren’t prepared. Why do people go mountain walking without a) consulting a weather forecast and b) taking proper precautions against a turn in the weather? Apparently the rescue took seven hours.

          3. It’s unfortunately quite common on Snowdon, I’ve seen it very sunny and warm of a morning, but by late afternoon vis about two or three feet. People have no concept of fast weather changes, especially when
            they take the train up and then walk down.
            I was often asked why my backpack was so heavy when out trekking with others: the answer was “I’ve got everythink you haven’t thought of and hope I never need to use” especially when going into the desert or mountains.
            Another thought: Mobile phones/Gps, why have you not got a map and compass? and the blank look when I’d explain about batteries.

        2. Crib Goch ridge on Snowdon is another place that can be very hazardous when the clag comes down.

      2. Me too Johnny! I was about 8 and went up one glorious July day, with my Dad and sister. The mist descended and we couldn’t see a foot in front of us! We stayed still until it lifted a bit, but the thought that we could have gone over the edge still wakes me! My father was horrified! And that was Swirrel Edge from Thirlmere!

    1. It’s a running joke in our house that my wife appears to be the only person in the UK who has never been to Whitby.

      Just showed her the DM pictures… you can guess the rest.

          1. They had two fires, if memory serves me well, in 2017. Which meant a complete refurbishment.
            Fortunately avoiding modernisation, which is what usuall happens in these circumstances.

    2. My wife is from Whitby, I have spent many happy days there.
      I remember the fishing fleet coming back on a morning tide – fresh fish straight from the boat 😋
      The town went through a bad phase when the fleet was decimated, but picked themselves up and now making the most of their history and just having fun by involving locals and visitors.
      Kippers from Henrietta Street since 1872 and selling Whitby Jet, popular from about 1808. Samples have been identified coming from Whitby since the Bronze Age.
      The Abbey ruins of a once very important site, first being established in 7th-century as a Christian monastery. Not forgetting Captain Cook and also Dracula supposedly visiting.

      2. My ex, my parents and my small son went there on our last vacation in the UK. Started out in Scarborough where it was freezing and windy. Went on to Whitby and by mid afternoon it was so warm that we all baked. A very nice place.

        1. Never really liked Scarborough, you’re right about it being cold.
          Robinhoods bay is another nice place although the walk up and down the hill is a bit daunting: only local cars allowed.

          1. And this was in July! I wanted to visit Anne Bronte’s grave in Scarborough but it was just too cold.

      1. Whitby may be Northern but someone told me they identify as Southern. Better class of tourist you see…

        1. As I said below, it has certainly improved in recent years: for some time in the 80’s and early 90’s it became what I think is colloquial known as a ‘busman’s’ holiday resort.

  52. We found M&S’s Valentines meal good value particularly with the Valdemadera Gran Reserva 2015 thown in.
    I do find however that decorating every single food item in the meal with heart is going a bit over the top.

    Reflected in this ASMR video which is best appreciated whilst wearing headphones {it’s supposed to be soothing!):

    https://youtu.be/CgfP7nYnNpA

    2. The ‘woke’ lobby requires treating with the same methods as the Canadian truckers are dealing with the Canadian government.

      It behoves all normal people to attack this idiocy since it is in danger of getting out of control.

    1. I seem to be missing something. There’s no video on the page.

      However – I used to live ‘dreckly’ under the flight path to Farnborough. Come to think of it, having moved three miles away, I’m still under the flight path. A few years ago, and a few days before the Air Show, I was in the garden when the Red Arrows overflew. They didn’t quite leave tyre marks on my thinning scalp, but it was close.

      Then something fell out of the sky, and lodged in the winter jasmine along the NE side of the house. It was an upside down and – apparently dead – blackbird.

      I thought I’d give it a chance, and carefully placed it in a shoe box, with holes for ventilation. After an hour or so, it came round, so I released it into the garden, from where the ungrateful barsteward buggered off.

      I believe the pressure waves from the planes caused it’s sudden descent.

    2. He had hair then! It is a lovely photo. It’s possible he has hidden charms of course but my first thought was what did she see in him? Was he already wealthy?

  58. Happy Valentine’s Day- we are celebrating in style; I have come down with a cold and MH has a tummy upset. Sods law, innit?

    3. Still, it could have been worse – you could have tested positive for Covid and your OH might have parvovirus 🙂

  66. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10510897/HMRC-seizes-NFT-time-1-4m-sophisticated-VAT-fraud-case-police-arrest-three.html

    Ah, not quite. There is no charge of VAT on NFTs as there’s no country of origin. What this means is HMRC wanted someone’s money and used powers they have no right to to claim other people’s property.

    While the people exchanging the items were no doubt crooks and *that* is how they were caught out, the simple reality is governments are utterly terrified of blockchain. A currency they cannot control? A currency they cannot inflate? One with a fixed cost, controlled by an unbreakable, independent entity that no amount of legislation can affect?

    They’re crapping themselves. No ability to manipulate the currency to force inflation or render currency worthless? No way to fix interest rates or the value of that currency. Worse, no way to *tax* it? Cripes. it’s their worst nightmare.

    1. My crypto has halved in value. Not bothered. Everything i invested i withdrew on the upswing.

      Still got £300 of other people’s money. :@)

    2. I don’t understand it, but anything that gives greedy governments a punch on the snoot is OK by me.

    4. I don’t think governments are worried about such currencies’ being used as currency. They can still tax transactions and those that want to avoid tax can do so effectively just as easily with normal currencies. Variations in the value of crypto currencies make them very difficult to use as payment for goods (pity the person who bought a pizza with Bitcoin when it started out).

      Only a tiny proportion of cryptocurrency is actually used as currency. They’re essentially vehicles for speculation and theft, with a secondary use of making money from mining them at a great cost in electricity.

    5. Recently a case was reported where a BC thief was caught, by unwinding the transactions back to the wallet from which it was stolen, to prove that it was the same BC.
      Other cr currencies have anonymity built in, eg M o n e r o. I don’t know how the anonymity works though.
      But BC isn’t anonymous. Catherin Austin Fitts thinks it belongs to Mr Global anyway, and was an experiment to see what the possibilities of a cr currency are.

      It does have a legitimate use in moving currency around between countries. Not everyone moving currency around is a criminal. But if you look at the volumes of minor cry ptos traded every day, you have to wonder about the size of the illegal sector
      https://www.coingecko.com/
      Look at the 24 hour volume column!

    1. Dan Bongino is all over this on his podcast on Rumble. Obama is in it up to his neck as is Hillary Clinton. Obama’s legal council Kathryn Rumbler (?) is a key figure throughout.

      Whether prosecutions will be forthcoming depends on the Department of Justice and a return to lawful action.

  69. Looking for a bit of advice…
    What’s the best number of Roses to give the girlfriend for Valentine’s Day? –
    6? 12? 24?
    Or the whole tin?

    4. If your’e looking for a night of excessive sex go for 6 ….you may be disappointed!
      If your’e looking for a lifelong relationship ie marriage go for 24..
      If you’re not sure re gender go for a baker’s dozen….

  70. DT headline:

    “Met Police commander who wrote force’s drug strategy accused of taking cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms
    Commander Julian Bennett alleged to have taken narcotics while on holiday in France and refused to provide a drug sample.”

    Makes a change to have someone in authority with actual knowledge of their subject.

    2. What’s wrong with these idiots? Perpetual children, all of them. Nobody who is in charge of anything is serious any more, they are all grasping, greedy and dishonest.

      2. No need. Just ask the nearest school pupil. When we discussed drugs and school with our children, we learned that they all knew the pupils who were selling them

    1. The Wild Rover (translation by RCT)

      J’ai joué le vagabond toute ma vie
      Et j’ai jeté mon argent pour vin du pays
      J’ai jeté mon argent pour cidre et bière
      Mais je ne ne peux plus jouer le vagabond fier.

      Et c’est non, non, jamais
      Non, non, jamais mon vieux,
      Puis-je jouer vagabond
      Il faut que je sois mieux.

      J’ai rencontré une jolie fille à Dinan,
      Elle m’a dit que je n’étais qu’un sale fainéant,
      Elle m’a dit que je n’étais qu’un très mauvais homme
      Elle m’a dit qu’elle ne pouvait aimer d’vagabonds!

      Et c’est non, non, jamais
      Non, non, jamais mon vieux,
      Puis-je jouer vagabond
      Il faut que je sois mieux.

      Elle a tout essayé pour me reformer,
      Elle a tout essayé mais sans aucun succès,
      Corrompons-la, c’est que je me suis dit,
      Et peu de temps après elle venait à mon lit.

      Et c’est non, non, jamais
      Non, non, jamais mon vieux,
      Puis-je jouer vagabond
      Il faut que je sois mieux.

      J’ai pensé que la victoire était la mienne
      Mais son père disant que sa jeune fille était pleine
      Avec son fusil à l’église m’a conduit,
      Donc mes jours de vagabond sont vraiment finis.

      Et c’est non, non, jamais
      Non, non, jamais mon vieux,
      Puis-je jouer vagabond
      Il faut que je sois mieux.

  73. Liz Truss is pontificating on the Ukraine. Meanwhile Mauritius has seized the British Indian Ocean Territory (or at least the bits that are not Diego Garcia, the US base that is part of the ring of steel around Russia).

    In other news, with the pump prices of petrol and diesel for cars now reaching record levels the UK government has not decided to reduce Fuel Duty and be content with the extra VAT being raked in.
    (Let’s remind ourselves that the planet is awash with oil and less than 2 years ago the oil companies could hardly give it away. Who is in charge around here?)

    2. Mauritius hasn’t seized the BIOT. It’s helped a few of the former inhabitants to holiday and do some geographic surveys there, albeit a bit like Putin’s little green men.

      Whilst I think about the little Green men, Putin claimed they weren’t in his armed forces and to have nothing to do with him, and that he had no intention of invading the Crimea, all of which turned out to be lies/maskirovka. How anyone can believe him when he says he has no intention of invading the Ukraine beats me.

      Edited for grammar.

      1. Russia didn’t invade Crimea.Russian soldiers were already there legally at the base in Sevastapol.
        Also a lot of the Ukrainian military who were there changed sides when given the opportunity.The rest were allowed to return to Ukraine.

        1. Of course Russia didn’t invade. The little Green men were on holiday there.

          You’re just playing semantics. Even Wikipedia says Russia invaded, then annexed, the Crimea. A large number of Russian troops were in the Crimea with the agreement of the Ukraine, but to suggest their subsequent actions were nothing to do with invasion is absurd. Very few, if any, members of the Ukrainian forces stayed in the Crimea.

      2. I exaggerated for dramatic effect and fun! Nevertheless the islands are our responsibility and squarely within Truss’ remit. The visit was apparently unauthorised by us.

    3. It’s funny when Boris says he has saved tax payers thousands by not increasing fuel duty taxes.

      I know it’s spin and lies, he knows it’s spin and lies, but the reality is he’s just not robbed us of more of our income. Thats not saving us money, it’s not robbing us.

  74. The Olympics have abandoned any sense of fair play – it is time athletes considered a boycott
    The Games deserve so much better than the calibre of people who run it

    Oliver Brown : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/winter-olympics/2022/02/14/olympics-have-abandoned-sense-fair-play-time-athletes-considered/

    BTL Comment:

    Big Pharma is making a mint out of Covid gene therapies and they ought to consider moving into the Olympics and then each athlete can sport the logo of the company which is providing the drugs which enhance his or her performance.

    1. Got to laugh about the Americans being so umphy about the doping! They’ve always been quite good at it themselves! Perhaps that’s why they’re so furious – they’re not as good as the Russians and Chinese!

    1. I bought one of Morrisons’ Meal Deals and we ate it on Saturday evening. Good value – sirloin steaks and a bottle of Merlot, also starter, sides and pud.

          1. Yes thanks, but we had some terribly bad news, I wont spread this around the rest of the Site Ellie, but our just two years old grandson had chicken pox last week and now it’s possible he has Leukemia. He’s been dreadfully ill and his parents took him to the Lister Hospital A&E and after about 6 hours of tests and examinations they have transferred him to Addenbrookes children’s wing. We are still waiting for the results of further tests.

          3. We heard today they have carried out lots of tests and so far have not found anything very serious but lower red cell counts. They are taking marrow samples later this week. His mum is staying over, dad has to run back and forth from St Albans to Cambridge. There’s not much grand parents can do except worry.

      1. We agreed when we got together not to bother about Valentine’s day; if we are well we have a nice meal but don’t bother with cards, flowers, candy etc. This evening it might be some soup and a sarnie, maybe not.

        1. I think we once went to a Valentine’s dinner somewhere in Devon quite a few years ago. We’ve never done cards.

          1. I had a Valentine’s Dinner with my first love. The person I was later married to for 42 years, however, didn’t want to bother with celebrating Valentine’s Day. Whether that reflects badly on me or not, I don’t know!

    9. Wel, I got chocolates.

      Oh no, not from her indoors. We always go to the golf club for dinner on Sunday and this week everyone got treated to chocolates.

      1. Bugger! Where were you earlier today? Because I felt urk I left it until today. Done now and put away.

      2. And cooked supper today, and did the washing up again (our racing-snake Polish cleaner is coming tomorrow. Can’t have her washing-up!)

    12. I bought myself some flowers to cheer the place up. I like flowers about the house anyway, particularly when there aren’t any out in the garden. Amazingly, Lidl weren’t ripping people off with their bouquets because it was Valentine’s Day.

      1. I got the dozen red roses! Lidl’s philosophy is that they’re not there to rip people off on ‘occasions’ as they’re unlikely to return!

          4. I am always impressed by the way Lidl’s flowers last. I usually buy alstroemeria – cheap, but cheerful, colourful and they go on for weeks.

      2. I got the dozen red roses! Lidl’s philosophy is that they’re not there to rip people off on ‘occasions’ as they’re unlikely to return!

    1. Ah you posted while I was trying to remove the autocorrect errors.

      Not just Rebel news, it has made it to some of the mainstream media as well.

    2. Where are the MPs in all this? Is nbody holding turdeau to account? Has Canada become North Korea?

        1. Nobody seems to be saying “These are my constituents you are mistreating”. That is disturbing.

  80. Word is that the little sh*t is about to invoke the emergencies act in his ongoing efforts to break the truckers protest.

    The act has only ever been invoked once before, that was in 1970 when trudeau senior invoked the act to allow the use of the army against the Quebec terrorists who kidnapped and then murdered a British trade official.

    All because the spoilt brat has refused to allow any dialog with the truckers.

  83. Evening, all. Been a truly miserable day weather-wise; wet, windy, dull and cold. Otherwise, it’s been quite good. I have continued the clearing away operation (and burned masses of out of date paperwork), moved some furniture around and engaged some tradesmen to do work (insulate external walls so a very cold room will be usable and to lay some flooring because the original floorboards are in a terrible state and I don’t want carpet in a bedroom ever again). Money is made round to go round, not made flat to stack! As for the headline, we should keep out of it; if “the West” wants to show strength we should stay neutral and let them get on with the willy waving. Thanks to New Labour and Blue Labour, we don’t have the boots on the ground, the materiel or the kit to get embroiled in a war.


  84. Met Police Federation has ‘no faith’ in London mayor
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60375845

    As bad as one another?
    __________________________

    The Paul Robson case – BBC radio news reports that ‘Labour says Dominic Raab has questions to answer’. Umm…
    __________________________

    Petrol has reached £6.73 a gallon. Thirty years ago it was about £1.85; today, that would be £3.90 by RPI, £4.30 by wage inflation.
    __________________________

    A Derby man has been charged with seven arson offences, four of them involving churches. Not a Roper, though…
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-60376884
    __________________________

    Tonight on Panorama:

    A Cow’s Life: The True Cost of Milk?

    Most of us drink cow’s milk, but are we paying enough for it? Panorama investigates the dairy industry to find out whether animal welfare is being compromised in the drive to keep milk prices low. The film features disturbing undercover footage of farmworkers abusing cows, while reporter Daniel Foggo speaks to farmers and vets about the lives most dairy herds can expect to lead.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014mkh

    It was notable that PM on R4 featured the abuse (of one cow). Genuine public interest or part of the growing campaign against meat and dairy?

    1. When I was throwing away old BT bills (the Telephone Co’s, not lawyer’s) I was struck by how little I paid compared with now. Then (early noughties) it was quarterly, now it’s monthly and my bills have more than quadrupled.

    3. “Not a Roper, though…”
      When it is a Muslim you don’t get a name, which is why we know when it is a Roper. The BBC and MSM just can’t help themselves with their biased reporting.

      1. And how much are you willing to bet he doesn’t turn out to be a convert or a member of a mainly Muslim group?

    4. I would happily pay twice as much for milk if it came from happy cows. In fact I bet the milk would be better. Milk is very cheap, unlike where our energy is headed.

      1. Firstborn’s pork was amazingly tasty – the pigs had lived a nearly-free range life (sometimes too free range, when they broke out…) resulting in happy, tasty porkers.
        He buys milk from the next-door dairy farm, straight from the cooler. The cows are usually run on Firstborn’s land after the grass has been silaged, and seem to live a happy life – they can take themselves to the robot milking parlour to be milked when they like, so no overfull udders! Farmers mistreating their livestock are rapidly ostracised.

        1. Those robot milking parlours are a rare example of technology really being used for good purposes.

    5. Hi William

      Last night on Twitter , some one had filmed secretl the abuse that low life farm workers use on the animals , whilst the animals were being milked , sadists were prodding the backsides and legs of the cows with PITCHFORKS, bashing them with spades on the head etc etc and treating newl born calves appallingl .

      If farmers are hiring cretin workers / or if the farmers themselves are utter B####ds , cruelty seems to be very widespread .

      The film I caught a glimpse of was in Wales , so we have barbarbaric farmers , lousy egg production, murderous dog breeders , people who just do the worst ever acts of cruelty to the animals in their care .

      We were meant to have the best rules and regulations for animal welfare , well turn again Gungadin , because there appears to be no regulation whatsoever.

      If farmers are employing w–s to look after animals , well we know what they are all about , don’t we .

    6. I pay extra for milk from farms with an average of 25 cows, who stick to traditional farming methods and high welfare standards, eg cows outside in the meadows. Products derived from animals are not something that one should buy at the cheapest price.
      I am an extreme cheapskate when it comes to saving money on things like electricity, but it’s not ethical to compromise on animal welfare.
      (I know this sounds a bit self-righteous, but I do feel extremely strongly about this!)

      2. I have exactly the same feeling, I never buy fresh meat from a supermarket. Fortunately we have a very good traditional butcher, it cost more but I know it’s from local farms.

        1. Mine is organic or free range from the supermarket, which I hope means better standards.
          Two of my children did a work experience on an organic chicken farm, which was excellent. Birds had far better lives than they would in the wild.

      3. I have exactly the same feeling, I never buy fresh meat from a supermarket. Fortunately we have a very good traditional butcher, it cost more but I know it’s from local farms.

    7. And just how much does a pint of almond milk cost as a product and what is the cost to the planet?


  85. Met Police Federation has ‘no faith’ in London mayor
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60375845

    As bad as one another?
    __________________________

    The Paul Robson case – BBC radio news reports that ‘Labour says Dominic Raab has questions to answer’. Umm…
    __________________________

    Petrol has reached £6.73 a gallon. Thirty years ago it was about £1.85; today, that would be £3.90 by RPI, £4.30 by wage inflation.
    __________________________

    A Derby man has been charged with seven arson offences, four of them involving churches. Not a Roper, though…
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-60376884
    __________________________

    Tonight on Panorama:

    A Cow’s Life: The True Cost of Milk?

    Most of us drink cow’s milk, but are we paying enough for it? Panorama investigates the dairy industry to find out whether animal welfare is being compromised in the drive to keep milk prices low. The film features disturbing undercover footage of farmworkers abusing cows, while reporter Daniel Foggo speaks to farmers and vets about the lives most dairy herds can expect to lead.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014mkh

    It was notable that PM on R4 featured the abuse (of one cow). Genuine public interest or part of the growing campaign against meat and dairy?


  86. Met Police Federation has ‘no faith’ in London mayor
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60375845

    As bad as one another?
    __________________________

    The Paul Robson case – BBC radio news reports that ‘Labour says Dominic Raab has questions to answer’. Umm…
    __________________________

    Petrol has reached £6.73 a gallon. Thirty years ago it was about £1.85; today, that would be £3.90 by RPI, £4.30 by wage inflation.
    __________________________

    A Derby man has been charged with seven arson offences, four of them involving churches. Not a Roper, though…
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-60376884
    __________________________

    Tonight on Panorama:

    A Cow’s Life: The True Cost of Milk?

    Most of us drink cow’s milk, but are we paying enough for it? Panorama investigates the dairy industry to find out whether animal welfare is being compromised in the drive to keep milk prices low. The film features disturbing undercover footage of farmworkers abusing cows, while reporter Daniel Foggo speaks to farmers and vets about the lives most dairy herds can expect to lead.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014mkh

    It was notable that PM on R4 featured the abuse (of one cow). Genuine public interest or part of the growing campaign against meat and dairy?

    1. Two intelligent, conservative women having a discussion – something you would NEVER see on the BBC!

      1. Be fair.
        It’s the USA.
        Where in the UK would you find two intelligent, conservative women at the same time in any TV studio?

  88. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrZd-yOdC8&list=WL&index=46
    It is beyond time that the normal people of this world took a hint from those wonderful Canadian truckers and banded together against the idiotic cretins that make up the “woke” community.

    These people need telling, in no uncertain terms, that if they continue to be “offended” and made to “feel unsafe” by normality then it is time they grew up. The powers-that-be who pander to these imbeciles should have their powers revoked.

    Time for everyone to grow a pair (balls for men; breasts for women) and tell these soft, mindless wimps to grow up, or else they will be given a spanked bottom and sent to bed with no supper.

  91. Groaner

    A young man and woman got married.

    At the time of their marriage, the husband noticed his wife carried a decently sized metal box and shoved it up at the top of their closet.

    Curious as he was, the wife told him to never to look in it no matter what the circumstances.

    Over the years, he saw that metal box in the closet, but never peered into it for the sake of his wife.

    One day, though, the wife had a stroke and was rushed to the hospital.

    As the husband sat grieving at home, he thought of the box, snatched it up, and sped to the hospital where his wife remained
    with her death coming soon.

    The husband bolted to her hospital room and pleaded and begged her to allow him to open the box by her side
    “Well” she said, “I suppose now would be the right time.”

    The husband unlatched the hook and peered inside.

    On one side sat two crocheted dolls, and on the other, to his surprise, sat one million dollars!

    “Honey, before we got married, my mother gave me this box and told me that whenever I got mad at you,

    I should go to the bedroom and crotchet a doll,” said thewife.

    The husband was thrilled and thankful.

    He absolutely couldn’t believe his wife had only been mad at him two times!
    “That is amazing!” said the husband to his wife.

    “Honey, I’m grateful beyond belief you’ve only been mad at me twice, but how on this earth did you manage to get one million dollars?”

    “Oh, honey” said the wife, “That’s the money I got from selling the dolls.”

    2. Remind me – when was the Labour Party NOT at war with itself? Back in the sixties when I was studying British Constitution A Level, the point was made that Labour was always riven with dissension among the ranks. The Tories were, too, but they presented a united front.

  93. Given that Kiev is now named Kyiv will the supermarkets have to repackage all their frozen packs of Chicken Kiev?

    1. With this announcement, they have provided all the genuine entertainment they are ever likely to.

    4. White audiences should black ball anything with blacks throwing their humour around .

      Our own culture and history should have protected status.

      I am sick and tired of diversity on the TV, radio, especially Radio 4 , The Government , adverts etc Sainsbury…… but but …. I don’t mind Mastermind , Clive whatshis name handles that quite well .

      1. There were lots of thighs, from one contestant who did not win

        I am sure eye saw an eye winking at me from under her skist

    5. Oh no. It’s ‘actors of colour’. He’ll be cancelled and docked for a heinous crime of racism.

    6. Perhaps Lammy would be better explaining why the number of black people that are victims or perpetrators of knife murders in his constituency is massively higher than their proportion of the population.

    1. I hope, but don’t expect, that the whole episode will be given full investigation and that Trudeau will be given the Canadian equivalent of impeachment and ideally be imprisoned.
      For a very VERY long time.

      1. No impeachment here. There have been several investigations into wrongdoing that have found him guilty, he just carries on. Several parliamentary committees were investigating nefarious deeds but were closed down by last year’s election, somehow they are very slow to get back to business.

        Backbench MPs seem to speak independently when critical of top dog, then they get thrown out of the party. Trudeau has his caucus on a very tight string.

        His advisors are good at shenanigans, I bet they wanted this mess just so that they can extend their post covid rule.

        1. So the covid BS was a real gift to this guy and his cohorts. As just about everywhere else.

          1. Still playing the game and finding ways to tighten the screws on the unvaccinated, even though most provinces are relaxing rules and restrictions.

    2. It was the Russians. No wait a minute, it was the Chinese. Actually, my money is on the Canadian Government.

  98. Goodnight, all. Going to put my feet up having managed to sort a lot of the boxes of stuff to be sorted then variously stored or destroyed. The sitting room is nearly liveable in!

    1. Have a wee snifter, Conners and relax. I won’t be late tonight having sneezed my way through most of the evening, I am feeling a little better. Sleep well.

      1. Glad you’re feeling a little better. I’m trying to cut down on my alcohol intake. I need a few days’ break from tippling!

        1. Yes, better today and managed to get to Asda before the nasty weather arrives. So we have plenty of bread, eggs etc . Still a bit tired but will live, DV, to fight another day 😉

  100. A description of my nose….

    ….And those who watch at the midnight hour
    From hall or terrace or lofty tower,
    Cry as the wild light passes along-
    The Dong, the Dong!
    The wandering Dong through the forest goes.
    The Dong! The Dong!
    The Dong with the luminous nose! …..

    Have left out a lot. Perhaps I should add that this is by Edward Lear.

    1. One of the masters at a school at which I taught was called John Bardolph. He had the reputation for being over-fond of the wine and the consequence was he had a large, red, bulbous nose.

      Life really does imitate art. I had to teach Henry IV Part 1 to a class of Fifth Formers and imagine their sheer delight when Sir Johns Falstaff says:

      “Thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop, but ’tis in the nose of thee. Thou art the knight of the burning lamp.”

      Of course the person he was addressing was Bardolph.

      In the subsequent play, Henry V, the young king has Bardolph hanged for looting. That, coupled with his failure to recognise the obese knight, Sir John Falstaff, made me lose all sympathy with the monarch.

      “I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers.
      How ill white hairs become a fool and jester.      ”

      Unforgiveable cruelty.

      1. Falstaff is not a sympathetic character though.

        When we studied Henry IV part I for O level, our teacher said that this was to show that Henry was a monarch, with Kingly responsibilities, and that this was to make a break with his misspent youth. The role was bigger than the man, also he couldn’t afford any weakness from his past.
        Perhaps other people at the Court felt the same way as you, and that is why they requested the Merry Wives of Windsor?

      2. Falstaff is not a sympathetic character though.

        When we studied Henry IV part I for O level, our teacher said that this was to show that Henry was a monarch, with Kingly responsibilities, and that this was to make a break with his misspent youth. The role was bigger than the man, also he couldn’t afford any weakness from his past.
        Perhaps other people at the Court felt the same way as you, and that is why they requested the Merry Wives of Windsor?

    2. I loved Lear when I was a boy; we had ‘More Nonsense‘ and I devoured it from cover to cover.

  101. Good night, everyone. (15 of we Wrinklies went to watch DEATH ON THE NILE this afternoon. A good “fun” film which 11 of us loved, with 3 of us voting it as “So-so”. The 15th person bolted without telling me what she thought of it).

    1. Why is it billed as a murder mystery when there have been so many films of it that it cannot be a mystery to anyone?

      1. Agatha Christie books are formulaic, full of stock characters and plots that one can figure out about halfway through.
        That said, the TV series of Poirot with David Suchet was super as were most of the Miss Marple series.
        Kenneth Brannagh seems determined to redo any other Christie movie and not do it as well- I don’t know- I don’t go to the cinema anymore. I loved the version of Murder on the Orient Express with Albert Finney.

          1. I agree. I thought Julia McKenzie was good but have retained a memory of her singing alongside Millicent Martin in ‘Cole’ at the Mermaid Theatre back in the seventies. When Bernard Miles ran the place.

      2. Well, I had forgotten “whodunnit” but, having watched LES DIABOLIQUES last week, I was able to guess Poirot’s conclusions reasonably well in advance. I shall say no more, although the painter’s tool box rang bells.

    2. From the lights I see in the house opposite, our good friends and neighbours have now arrived home from their week on the Nile.
      I pleased they didn’t end up in denial it could have been quite awkward. A wave on the morrow might suffice 🤗🥸👋

  102. ‘I was only looking for my dog’s ball!’ RAF deputy head, 54, who shocked neighbours with naked display told police he was trying to retrieve a lost tennis ball for his pet and had only taken off all his clothes because he was HOT
    One of the country’s most senior RAF officers has now been suspended
    Neighbours complained to police they saw Air Marshal Andrew Turner naked
    The RAF man, 54, sent a letter to the family last week apologising for the incident.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10511331/RAF-deputy-head-54-trying-retrieve-tennis-ball-shocked-neighbours-spotted-naked.html

    What on earth is wrong with this prudish country ?

    There are medium sized gardens around here and quite private with hedges , but a neighbour of ours mowed his lawn naked , and why not ?

      1. Nooooo.

        I was delivering Parish magazines at the time I saw him … he had a nice much older lean leathery looking body , pretty fit .

        His ride on mower had a towel on the seat to stop him sticking to it..

        1. Were you channeling your inner Mrs. Naughtie ( from Hamish and Dougal?) I was teasing you Belle!

    3. Presumably if he had been female the Police would have arrested his neighbours for voyeurism?

    4. It depends what he was doing. If he was just without clothes he has done nothing wrong, being in his own garden. If he was displaying like a peacock then that is exhibitionism and possibly flashing.

      The neighbours do seem somewhat prissy. They should have just looked away. Not got the bino’s out.

Comments are closed.