Monday 14 October: Alex Salmond’s quest for independence transformed British politics

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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737 thoughts on “Monday 14 October: Alex Salmond’s quest for independence transformed British politics”

    1. Morning Sue, you just pipped me 'cos I went off to do my 400 morning stretches while waiting for Geoff's Emporium to open.
      I tried to get a Double First this morning, as I was first to post on John Redwood's Diary today.
      Ey oop – it's 7 AM.

      EDIT: I thought I was first to post on John Redwood's daily Diary today, but there was clearly another insomniac who was ahead of me being moderated by him. Does John R never sleep?

          1. It was a joke Tom! I dragged myself out of bed at 6.30, fed the cats, had a coffee and a cig, then opened Nottl! I went nowhere near a gym! Ido like the Pilate reference!

  2. Good Morning Everyone, especially Geoff
    Today's Theme: FERTILITY
    A group of women from the fertility clinic were having a get-together to catch up on each other’s progress.
    “Look at you!” said one. “You must be eight months gone!”
    “Yes,” said the expectant mother, “but I finally went to a hypnotherapist.”
    “We tried that,” said the first woman. “My husband and I went for six or seven sessions but it was no good.”
    “You’ve got to go alone,” whispered the pregnant one.

    A journalist for a Womens’ magazine was interviewing a mother who had fifteen children.
    “And what are their names?” she asked.
    “George," she said. “They’re all named George.”
    “But what if you want to call one in particular?”
    “That’s easy,” replied the mother, “I use their surnames.”

  5. 'Morning one and all, especially, Geoff, and a big thank you to him for all his sterling efforts on our behalf.

  6. Older Drivers
    There's an advert most days just below the Nottl blog that says:
    'Many Senior Citizens Are Unaware Of Age-related Car Insurance Cover!'
    But it only lists age ranges in 5 year slices up to 80 years. When my father was 94 he phoned a Car Insurance firm and asked if they could insure a 94-year-old like him, with a clean licence.
    "Sure", came the response "We've got quite a few drivers who are over 100".

  7. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff for today NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,213 5/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie
      A close run thing today!
      Wordle 1,213 6/6

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  8. Comet that last passed Earth 80,000 years ago will be visible over Britain. 14 October 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b36936157769b4375bdbb201f095b019a7ba0a71957050017ee040f06c6400eb.png

    A comet that last passed Earth 80,000 years ago will be seen streaking across the night sky on Sunday night.

    Comet C/2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, last orbited the Sun when the Neanderthals still existed, and will be visible for several nights.

    Yes this time it has come to say goodbye to Homo Sapiens.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/13/comet-a3-seen-by-neanderthals-visible-uk/

      1. The most astonishing aspect of this comet, for me, is how it remains within the capture of the sun's gravitational pull, even when it is at its aphelion, way distant in the Oort cloud.

        2. Absolutely, Grizz. The article made me think about the whole Oort cloud being influenced by the Sun’s attraction, especially as the cloud is believed to extend to around half the distance to Proxima Centauri. Voyager has some way to go before clearing that barrier.

          1. Well, I've given an upvote to Grizzly, and to opopanax and Korky the Kat, even though I don't understand what the heck they are talking about. PS – Please do NOT try to explain.

      1. Thank you.
        Any takers for the high wire?
        If Dubai is so wonderful and rich why don't they take all the migrants? Oh wait a moment…

        1. Beautiful but terrifying! Not for me. Isn't this one of the places that does slaves rather than honoured guests migrant-wise?

          1. Both, I think, depending on qualifications and country of origin.
            The slavery in Britain is rather more subtle – migrants can come here and get a flat and a job, and break the law in various ways (though not going against government policy, of course) – but they will never break out of that level of existence, and the weather’s cold and wet too. They are trapped in working for an annual trip home and consuming cheap electronics and bad food whilst thinking themselves superior to the natives.
            That’s not counting the recently arrived army of fit young men, for whom there aren’t enough jobs – what their role is is anyone’s guess.

        2. I think all the Middle East countries do not accept migrants. I know that, if you don’t have a job in Dubai, you have to leave. And they act kept a check on ins and outs. When our family no longer needed their maid she had to go back home to Sri Lanka.
          ETMS: if you don’t have

          1. yes, it was just a joke about how Britain is so dire these days, yet we’re always being told we’re so rich and have a duty to accept all the world’s poor…our country probably peaked in about the 1890s!

  10. Good morning all. A dry start with a chilly 2°C on the Yard Thermometer. Sky also looks a bit overcast.

    Amongst the eulogies for Alex Salmond is one bit of reality:-

    SIR – Alex Salmond has been called a “monumental figure” in our national life – but to me, he was a disaster in terms of Scottish politics, the Union and UK politics generally.

    Although he lost the Scottish referendum, his legacy of Nicola Sturgeon and the scandal-ridden SNP is hardly a glowing one.

    Boris Johnson has called Mr Salmond “one of the great political disruptors of the age” – that, I think, is about right.

    Brian J Bailey
    Reigate, Surrey

    1. He was also meant to be a witness at the trial of Nicola Sturgeon and her husband.

      Now that he has gone there is yet another reason why the Scottish Police can say out loud "SNP".

      That phrase stands for STILL NO PROSECUTIONS.

    2. Alex Salmond has been called a “monumental figure”

      An enormous pile of turds could be described as monumental – it could possibly be nominated for a Turner prize or erected in Trafalgar Square. It doesn't alter its fundamental character – it is still just a pile of sh*t!

    2. First time I've heard her sing. Couldn't understand any of it, and she has a squeaky voice. What is the attraction, has she got big lips or something?

  12. Morning, all Y'all.
    Sunny, but my God was it dark when we left for work. Difficult to tell where the sky ended and the hills began.

  14. Winter strawberries

    SIR – Rosemary Corbin (Letters, October 12) bemoans the importing of tasteless strawberries at Christmas.

    I suggest growing your own, keeping bees, and freezing the fruit, macerated in a generous amount of honey. That way you can have a taste of summer in deepest winter.

    Dani Akrigg
    Lampeter, Cardiganshire

    When strawberries are in season and plentiful i make a sauce with a little brown sugar. Freezing them just makes them mushy.
    The sauce poured over Chantilly coating a pavlova makes for a fine dessert after Christmas dinner.

    1. I would love to grow my own strawberries but for some reason my soil doesn't support them very well. Initially, the plants appear to be thriving and then a large percentage of them wilt and die off and those remaining do not produce many decent fruits. I have tried planting different varieties in different parts of my garden and the result is the same.

      As a project for next year I could create separate bed filled with compost etc. that hasn't been contaminated by my soil.

      1. 'Morning Korky. I grow strawberries in a raised bed filled with domestic compost and rotted horse shit freely provided by the local stables. This year we had a small second crop. The biggest problem is keeping the blackbirds off, they seem to know, with considerable accuracy, when they're ripe.

        1. I have one compost bin that provides around 2 – 3 builder’s barrows of compost a year but I need that for my existing plots. There is a stable a couple of miles away that gives away horse droppings and the straw but it’s fresh and very wet and I am loth to put that in the boot of my car. If I want rotted manure there is a commercial brand, 6X, that I have used in the past.

          I’ll have some leaf-mould next year and i may use that with 6X and commercial compost in a new bed.

          Thanks for the tip, Harry.

      2. I tried as well…and failed. I leave it to the professionals and do a 'pick your own' when there is a glut.

      3. Try growing them in pots, that way you precisely control the growing medium. Works fine and a lot less effort than digging. There is no mystery to growing them. Like anything else they need what is agreeable to them. Once that is done they will cheerfully reward you. I have grown ordinary strawberries that way and the delectable alpine strawberries which are practically unobtainable in the market but of far superior taste to regular strawberries.

        1. There’s very little that I have tried to grow that hasn’t been successful, one is strawberries and the other a particular variety of potato, Home Guard. Tried it a couple of times and it just would not crop in size nor quantity. Onions and leeks failed due to a grey mould that appeared and I didn’t try to grow them for over a decade as advised by the books. Brought them back three years ago and had good results, following year mould reappeared in one area and this year in another area. That’s me done with them.

          Some good advice from you and others thank you. I will consider my options and give them a try next year. Any advice on variety?

          1. On ordinary strawberries not really, they are all delicious if you give them what they need. As far as Alpines go, yes, Mignonette, which are little explosions of sugar in your mouth. I did notice that Sarah Raven is offering a collection of 18 bare root plant varieties for £20.95 for delivery now. You might want to try that and decide for yourself what you prefer. https://www.sarahraven.com/products/strawberry-collection. As for vegetables, I never grow them, to dull for me, fruit and flowers, mainly exotics. But now a days I can’t garden at all. Wish I could but, thus it goes…

      4. The soil needs to be sligtly acidic: Before planting, weed the site thoroughly, then improve the soil by digging in two buckets of well-rotted manure or garden compost per square metre. You can also rake in a high potassium general fertiliser such as Vitax Q4 or blood, fish and bonemeal, using half a handful per square metre. RHS advice.

        1. Thanks, Ped. All tips gratefully received.

          BF&B is my choice for general top dressing with bone-meal at the start of the season to boost root growth. For acidifying soil for raspberries, loganberries etc I use ferrous sulphate.

          My days of having a steaming pile of pig’s muck and pee mixed with straw are long gone. The ammonia released when I turned it cleared my head tout de suite.

  15. We have all come to understand the phenomenon whereby business treats new customers better and will give them a better financial deal than they do their old loyal customers when renewing their insurance, internet / phone packages that sort of thing.

    Well the same thing one can argue has happened with political parties, they will go out of their way to attract new voters, this has led to accusations of two tier Britain, we see it in policing, the justice system, housing, health and schools, with the native population facing far harsher punishments for breaking laws, left at bottom of waiting lists, pensioners left to freeze and without proper care in hospitals, while newcomers are at the top for jobs and schools with positive discrimination.

    It looks like in Western governments zeal to attract immigrants that they get treated by the state just like new business customers. at the expense of the old loyal natives.

    I wonder whether all people in the future can get a better life by simply changing countries, just like we now change energy suppliers, insurance companies and internet providers.

    1. Interesting thought, Bob.
      We moved to Norway because the quality of life was better than the UK, and the government systems worked. I never saw any kind of preferential treatment, in fact, as we couldn't speak Norwegian, a bit the other way.
      Now we've been here over 25 years, I still don't see preferential treatment for incomers, but now there's lots of them.

        1. Changing countries ranks up there with getting divorced and buying a house needing renovation for disrupting one's finances.

          2. Ho ho. If you don’t have any, then it stops you from accumulating them while you figure out what how your new country works.

          4. Would any sane man who has turned 40, has no substantial savings, and is well established and successfully employed in a safe job with a good pension marry a clever and attractive woman in her 20s, scrape together what little money he could to buy a run down property in France, throw up his job and pension and move out of England with no job in sight? Such a chap would be almost Miliband in his madness!

            Would any sane, attractive, intelligent young woman take on such a man?

            Well, we are still here in France 36 years later – and we have two more weeks of courses starting this coming weekend!

          5. Living dangerously, Rastus!
            I have done both the above in the past…
            It takes the insanity of youth to embark on such adventures!

    2. I wonder what loyal Labour voters, especially the old socialists, make of raising taxes by penalising pensioners and small businesses in order to give extra handouts, inducements and exemptions from regulation to global financiers "in order to attract their wealth" and "create growth for hardworking people"?

      No wonder organs like the New Statesman, the Guardian and the Daily Mirror will not permit comment from the proles, especially the intelligent ones, unless they are tweeting about Strictly or Taylor Swift.

  16. 'Morning Geoff and Peeps,
    it's precipitating down here on yer sarf coast. The forecast is pretty dire today so more to come…

    Article in the DT today:

    "Starmer removes paintings of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh from No 10
    PM makes more changes after portraits of William Ewart Gladstone and Margaret Thatcher were also moved"

    What a petty and small-minded political pygmy this man truly is. Power has obviously gone to his head. He's not fit to be PM and demeans his office by his childish and spiteful antics. His actions tell us a lot more about him than those he seeks to wipe from history. Of course, I don't think most of us expected anything better.

    The sooner he's gone the better it will be for all of us.

    Apologies for the early rant.

    1. 80% of the electorate did not vote for his or his party, but it didn't stop the system to transfer votes from Greens and Reform voters in order to hand over unassailable power until 2029.

      All he had to do was to stand there like a stuffed dummy, surrounded by helmet-bobbed cyborgs (identifying as women) as the Tories self-destructed.

      1. 'Morning, JM. I believe it was Mrs T who warned, all those years ago, that a huge majority was a bad thing. Oh the irony!

        The turkeys aren't going to vote to reform our electoral system so we are stuck with it for the forseeable.

        1. I campaigned hard against Mrs T in the 1980s. Not that she minded. In fact, I strongly believe she relished a robust challenge and was disappointed and frustrated with sycophants or worse still limp opponents.

          She reminded me of a dog with a towel in its mouth and someone trying very hard to remove it. The harder you pull, the more the tail wags.

      2. 'Morning, JM. I believe it was Mrs T who warned, all those years ago, that a huge majority was a bad thing. Oh the irony!

        The turkeys aren't going to vote to reform our electoral system so we are stuck with it for the forseeable.

    2. Have just dipped into the BTL comments, but not all of the 5,200 currently showing. These are typical amongst the 'most liked' where the vitriol is almost palpable:

      "Iain Dennis
      15 hrs ago
      I’ve never hated a politician as much as this one – Never have I felt so ashamed of my leader and never have I felt so unwilling to play my part and make my contribution – as a UK citizen, I’m going on strike – no more volunteering to help out, no more paying tax without question and no more going above and beyond. No more compliance.

      Steven Smitherman
      13 hrs ago
      Starmer

      You are a disgrace

      This is our history and our country that we love

      Get that trash off the wall

      10 Downing Street belongs to the people

      You are a guest not a resident and hold a great office so act like it

    3. I am glad those heavyweights haunt his dreams. Removing the pictures won't remove his nightmares.

  17. 'Morning Geoff and Peeps,
    it's precipitating down here on yer sarf coast. The forecast is pretty dire today so more to come…

    Article in the DT today:

    "Starmer removes paintings of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh from No 10
    PM makes more changes after portraits of William Ewart Gladstone and Margaret Thatcher were also moved"

    What a petty and small-minded political pygmy this man truly is. Power has obviously gone to his head. He's not fit to be PM and demeans his office by his childish and spiteful antics. His actions tell us a lot more about him than those he seeks to wipe from history. Of course, I don't think most of us expected anything better.

    The sooner he's gone the better it will be for all of us.

    Apologies for the early rant.

  18. Labour did say they were going to "stop the boats".

    'Not the view of the government': Starmer clarifies..

  19. Labour did say they were going to "stop the boats".

    'Not the view of the government': Starmer clarifies..

    1. Keir Starmer signs UK up for eight more years of migrant crossings with £521m contract

      1. These companies (Serco, Crapita, G4S etc.) that deploy paramilitary foreign goons around the country and requisition buildings to house illegals need looking into. The massive taxpayer bung they receive is not scrutinised by the press.

    1. Don't worry. The Government won't have to raise Income Tax to pay for it – they'll put it on the Council Tax.

      2. Last week we received 2 communications in the same postal delivery from branches of the state. One concerned winter fuel allowance , non payment of. The other required us to go on-line to confirm that we own a second home so that the council tax can be doubled.
        Now, few are likely to feel sorry for us because obviously we aren’t poor but the council tax issue really sticks in my craw because there is no logical reasoning underpinning it other than “here’s some low hanging fruit, let’s pluck it”. It means that as 2 people who own 2 properties between us (one a suburban semi and one a seaside flat), we will be liable for about £8.5 K in council tax next year. If one person owns a 16 bed mansion in extensive grounds they probably pay half of that.
        To my mind, punitive tax on 2nd homes could only be justified if the state had decided that every person is entitled to a specific amount of living space and should be taxed on any excess they occupy. That would be communism and would have to be explicit in a manifesto. Otherwise, it is just the politics of envy – thank you Michael Gove!
        I do wonder if all the people who have London properties as 2nd homes, particularly those who have other homes abroad, are getting stung. I suspect they aren’t.

      3. My county council has frozen making road repairs for the foreseeable future because it has wasted so much money got a black hole in its finances. Third world roads to go with third world invaders making life a misery. Where did I put my pitchfork?

      1. At a currently reported £8Million per day it's a very nice transfer of the Country's wealth (tax revenues/borrowed/printed out of thin air) to private interests.

    3. If the PTB had the remotest intention of stopping illegal immigration they would not give illegal immigrants any of these things and would house them in locked disused buildings until they were deported. How long would the constant flow continue if this was done?

      The truth of the matter is that the PTB do not toss a giver about the indigenous British people who pay taxes.

  23. SIR – I was pleased to read about the re-introduction of water voles in the Meon Valley (report, October 9).

    Some years ago we had a family of voles on a little island in our stream. After heavy rain one spring, the stream was allowed to back up to prevent possible flooding in the next village. The water came a mile upstream and overwhelmed our little family of voles.

    I hope they do it better on the Meon – that way, the voles won’t need re-introducing again.

    Sarah Purssell
    Marlborough, Wiltshire

    I wonder if Sarah knows that voles can swim.

    2. We had a plentiful supply of voles in the local brook. Haven't seen them for ages. Couldn't have anything to do with the building work taking place, I suppose.

  24. 394702+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    There should have been a march on Dover many, many moon ago we have now seemingly settled into a meek type of acceptance and a satisfied mindset being "that kneeling political tool is forty shades of nasty bastard"

    Firmly closing the eyes to the factwe tactical voters put him into number 10.

    No worries, NEXT GENERAL ELECTION we will, en masse, reverse the vote, and so we will continue along the same path
    that being, party IN NAME ONLY before Country.

    https://x.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1845410371173044607

    1. 374702+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      A giant step backwards from 1940 youngsters protecting the English Channel, in a real patriotic battle of Britain until currently we are asked to fund the rnli with their pro invasion rollout.

      A repeated daily slap in the gob for ALL the decent folk past & present.

  25. The flaw at the heart of Ed Miliband’s net zero plan
    In the pursuit of decarbonisation, the Energy Secretary appears willing to blight the environment
    Telegraph View

    Not a day passes without the implications of Ed Miliband’s dash to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030 becoming increasingly calamitous for the environment.

    The Energy Secretary has lifted the moratorium on building onshore wind farms, which will see more spring up around the country. He has given the go-ahead for giant solar schemes on farmland, overturning previous planning refusals. And he is shortly to give the green light to a network of pylons to bring offshore wind power to the towns and cities of the South East. These will scar hundreds of miles of countryside from Norfolk to London.

    Residents in East Anglia have urged the National Grid to put the required cabling underground or along the sea bed to protect the landscape. They have been told this is too expensive and would add to energy bills. Yet a study published by a former subsidiary of the National Grid into the East Anglia project says that if the date was pushed back to 2034 then an underground cabling system would be £600 million cheaper.

    The deadline to decarbonise the grid was brought forward by Mr Miliband to a point that many experts believe is unachievable. A few years will make no discernible difference to global carbon emissions yet will have a major impact on the English countryside.

    His latest plan is for a string of giant dams across Britain’s mountain landscapes. They will store back-up hydro-electric power when wind and solar farms cannot meet electricity demand instead of using gas. By definition such schemes will be built in remote and wild areas, altering the landscape for the worse. In pursuit of net zero, Mr Miliband appears ready to wreck the environment.

    1. What to do if you’re concerned about nearby power lines
      If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and are concerned about your exposure to electromagnetic fields, talk to your oncologist and care team to see what they suggest. At Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), our multidisciplinary care teams provide the support you need as you work through issues that may affect your health.

      If you’re concerned about the level of radiation you’re being exposed to in your home, you may also want to consider buying a gaussmeter, which measures the direction and intensity of small magnetic fields. Or you could contact your local power company to see whether it would take a reading of your residential proximity to the EMF radiation being emitted.

      The Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors’ website provides contact information for each state’s radiation protection program.

      One way of addressing concerns about electromagnetic fields in general is to reduce your exposure to these fields when possible. For instance, while the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t endorse the need for such practices, it suggests these steps for people who are still concerned about their exposure from mobile phones:

      Reduce your cell phone use.
      Keep your phone at a safe distance when not in use.
      Use a speakerphone or corded earphones or headphones to keep the phone away from your head.
      Text instead of talking on your phone.
      If you’re interested in getting screened for cancer or if you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and want a second opinion, call us or chat online with a member of our team.

      https://www.cancercenter.com/community/blog/2023/02/power-lines-and-cancer-is-there-a-connection#Q2

      1. If you have a clamshell phone, the antenna is usually in the bottom part that isn't against your ear while phoning.

          1. Too faffy for me! Simple old clamshell phone is my favourite – added bonus that no vaxx certificate can ever be installed on it

      1. But insane, that's why he doesn't recognise that he's dangerous, ignorant and a brainwashed idiot.

    4. Are these high-up lakes located in areas suitable for the dams, and suited also to retain water in the volumes/weights expected?

      1. I don't know, Oberst; however, I expect that all potential hydro dams were explored several decades ago.

        1. Dinorwig in Wales was a CEGB initiative, to be used as insteant-delivery power storage.

      2. I don't know, Oberst; however, I expect that all potential hydro dams were explored several decades ago.

  26. Morning all, a little rant to start the day, not aimed at anyone in particular but in the collective sense,
    I wish people would stop whining about Starmer and his government, in July they had a golden opportunity to break free of the WEF controlled Uniparty.
    Perhaps people really need to be beaten down to their knees by the Uniparty before their eyes are opened to the possibility of a better way.
    In other news today is Columbus Day, celebrated in many countries throughout the world. Some are having a good time.

    1. I also would like folk to stop complaining and to do something about it, but our political system absolutely precludes the wishes of the voter. The electorate are simply there to change on bunch of fools for another and can do nothing while they ruin the country.

      Besides, complaining is a British past time. I imagine one day we'll all stop and the responding silence will cause some sort of tectonic event.

      We're also right to complain. This government (and the last, and the one before that) are appalling and need to be stopped.

      1. Kick out FPTP in favour of Swiss style voting that includes referenda and recall of idle MPs.

        1. We should have the right of 'Recall'. In California you could have a petition and if enough people signed it, then it was put to a ballot and if it won, that politician was removed.

    2. I voted for Reform, so I feel quite entitled to moan about Starmer and his Government.

    1. 'Morning, Lacoste. Late yesterday evening I read a lengthy, detailed and well-researched DT article on this very subject, but for now it seems to have disappeared. However, perhaps I may offer a short precis:

      With rising demand and falling capacity this can only end in one way.

      That's some legacy, Minibrain! Of course, the failure to provide sufficient generating capacity is down to successive governments, for whom short-termism is the order of the day, but our very own eco-crank has put the whole problem on steroids.

    2. Many people unaffected by Miliband minor's infrastructure plans probably just don't get what he's up to. Here in Essex the blight of huge pylons is an approaching reality: except for Constable Country, an area of outstanding beauty on the Essex and Suffolk border. Here the power lines will go underground and I believe this U/G run has been extended to the north of Great Horkesley and under the A134 road.

      Local people have been kept informed and are horrified by the destructive plans.

      1. And it’s hardly as if Essex is exactly unblighted by pylons as it is. Occasionally I go down to Rainham marshes to watch birds and I feel that I would top myself if I had to live round there.

    1. Will review later. In the meantime I think Reeves is following the Bob Geldof school: "Give us your effing money…..!"

      Good morning BB2 & all

    3. Dailylight Robbery by Dominic Frisby is also a very good read. The book discusses the debasement of currency to both destroy currency and use that to raise taxes.

      1. Take Capital Gains Tax.

        Buy something in 2010 for £100,000 and sell it in 2024 for £200,000. With inflation, both sums are worth precisely the same. Yet the authorities deem that to be a capital gain of £100,000 and tax it accordingly at the higher rate (previously 24%, but it has been mooted that this will rise to 40% in the forthcoming budget).

        This is entirely a tax on savings. For many, this is their pension. For others, it would have been a way to help children and grandchildren get on the property ladder, but are now rendered homeless.

        No doubt the global financiers will lobby for an exemption for themselves [edit for clarity], in order to encourage inward investment, and therefore growth.

        1. Exactly. Broon removed the inflation allowance. There is no point bothering in this benighted country any more.

    5. Will watch later, BB2 – thanks 🙂 I notice precious metals seem on the rise..some gold and silver up slightly again today.

    6. Could you put the You Tube video name on this please.

      i want to forward it to a determined non Nottler.

        1. I always though that Vimeo was a Scottish drink??

          Do you not have a You Tube address for it please?

  29. Good morning all

    Mild temperature compared to yesterday 14c. Very wet , still raining ,slight breeze , and golfer out of the house by 8am !

    How about this then?

    Watch: Ukrainian men dragged out of nightclubs by army recruiters
    Those refusing to show documents exempting them from military service, or whose documents were considered faulty, dragged away

    Ukrainian military recruiters launched targeted raids at restaurants, shopping centres and a rock concert over the weekend, detaining men and press-ganging them into the army.

    “Get away from me!” one concertgoer shouted at three policemen as they pulled him towards a recruiting desk that had been set up on Friday outside the Palace of Sports in Kyiv, where Okean Elzy, a Ukrainian rock band, had been playing.

    The man’s face contorted in fear as he strained against the policemen, video footage showed. Several women filmed the policemen on their smartphones, shouting: “Shame! Shame on you!”

    Policemen also waited to intercept men at Goodwine, a nearby shopping centre, and Avalon, a popular restaurant, according to reports.

    Eyewitnesses said the police checked all the men’s documents. Those who refused to show documents exempting them from military service, or whose documents were considered faulty, were dragged away.

    Under Ukraine’s martial laws, all men between the ages of 25 and 60 are eligible for the army. Men between 18 and 60 are also banned from leaving the country.

    Facing a severe shortage of soldiers, Ukraine reduced the mobilisation age to 25 from 27 and scrapped an “only partially eligible” loophole in April. Punishment was also stiffened for men who did not arrive at their summons. Ukraine has also followed Russia by mobilising its prison population.

    Western intelligence analysts estimate Russian casualties to stand at more than 650,000 soldiers. The data for Ukraine’s war casualties have not been released, but its casualties are estimated to be a third or a quarter of Russia’s.

    Fatigue and fear of being killed on frontlines have sapped Ukrainians’ enthusiasm for signing up to fight in a war that has now lasted for more than two and a half years.

    Oleksandr Danylyuk, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said: “Mobilisation has begun to be perceived as a one-way ticket, where the only way to end service is to die or become disabled.

    Some men are so desperate to escape mobilisation that they are risking their lives to break out of Ukraine.

    In April, the country’s Border Guard Service said at least 30 men had died trying to flee the country since the start of the war, often drowning while trying to swim across fast-flowing rivers or freezing to death on mountain passes.

    Russian forces have been making slow but steady progress along the frontlines in Ukraine, but on Saturday evening Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said hisforces had secured the frontline in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine invaded in August.

    Prosecutors also said that they were investigating the alleged killing of nine Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces in Kursk. They were allegedly stripped naked before being shot.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/13/young-ukrainians-nightclubs-by-army-recruiters-russian-war/

    Namby Bored
    14 min ago
    If the nightclubs are open why are we paying for refugees in the UK?

    Reply by Martin Peddie.

    MP

    Martin Peddie
    12 min ago
    I've seen images of thriving nightlife and towns in Ukraine and wondered the same

    Reply by Welsh Girl.

    WG

    Welsh Girl
    11 min ago
    Exactly!

    Comment by Si Lo.

    SL

    Si Lo
    14 min ago
    Why not arrest the band and I noticed a Ukrainian golfer at the Paris open

    Comment by Elephant McGee.

    EM

    Elephant McGee
    15 min ago
    We've a couple of million fighting age here,

    Welsh Girl
    9 min ago
    Give Donbas and Crimea back to Russia and don't put weapons on Ukrainian soil.

    It's not a difficult conclusion to come to, particularly as the people of those regions voted overwhelmingly to remain Russian… because they ARE ethnic Russian!

    Who do you think you are to deny them their birthright?

        1. Be careful what you wish for. Many people show their backsides to God when they want to express respect and honour.

  31. Waitrose under attack from aggressive organised crime gangs, says boss. 13 October 2024.

    Waitrose staff are increasingly being attacked by aggressive organised criminal gangs, the chief executive has said.

    James Bailey, 50, said that armed assaults on workers had risen by 15 per cent in the past year.

    He said that despite investing in additional security measures, staff were still being targeted by “brazen and aggressive gangs”.

    This is unusual. I think that the breakdown of Law and Order is mostly kept under wraps by the MSM. Bearing in mind various leaks and my own recent experience in Morrisons it must now be very common.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/13/waitrose-attack-aggressive-organised-crime-gangs-says-boss/

    1. Britain's out of control is my impression. The only thing stopping anarchy is the belief by the majority that there's still law and order.
      It would only take a small disruption to strip that away.

          1. More I suggest. I remember the 1970s, and they didn't look like that. I would guess the 1950s at the latest, and more likely the 1930s.

      3. Britain isn't – this problem came about because of a culmination of events all of which were avoidable:

        1. The massive cost of food and fuel. This is down to inflation (currency debasement due to state debt) and the crushing cost of energy driven by the utterly insane 'green' agenda.

        2. The invasion and attempted race replacement of the local population with the diversity. A group of people who do not share our heritage, culture or traditions and for whom taking what they like is entrenched thanks to a big state, high tax welfare agenda.

        3. The permission of the force using element of the state to ignore such criminality despite the victims being the innocent and honest – because the state doesn't care about them at all.

        4. An endless series of lectured 'rights' nonsense that gives the criminal more power than the honest, law abiding citizen.

        At every level the state fails the citizen but should the citizen reject the state's dogmatic arrogance it sets out to destroy those people. This is why people are angry.

        2. It's odd. About 15 or so years ago I would have automatically attributed such ideas as 'race replacement' as BNP nonsense. We arrive at today and I completely agree that is what is happening and that the government is pivotal in that endeavour. A younger liberal me would have thought that I had lost my senses. But here I am, sending off for a DNA test to find out how English I am, I hope 100%, and reading the Anglo Saxon Chronicles and the Ecclesiastical History, completely engrossed in the meaning of Englishness and, to boot, a full blown imperialist. A person who, on the death of Churchill had a huge argument with my step father that it was a good thing that a 'war criminal' was dead. An attitude that I now feel undying shame for thinking so. Age makes you wiser and, for me at any rate, an appreciation for what a great race we are, perhaps, if you take into account what we have done in all areas of endeavour, the greatest race that has ever been and, without which this world would still be a poverty stricken, disease ridden hell, with life nasty, brutish, and short.

    2. My heart bleeds..

      You couldn't get a more woke Exec-Dir than James Bailey. Former Sainsbury's & National Health Service trainee.
      This week Waitrose announced our new partnership with WWF, which will see us work together to protect and restore nature in the UK and globally, with two nature conservation projects planned for East Anglia and India.

      But what is this mysterious increase in crimey-wimey? Who are these brazen thugs? Obv we need more security.. more migrant security partners.

      1. No, I am not having that non sequitur, blaming a crime wave on environmentalists rather than criminals and their facilitators in Parliament. It makes an entire mockery of justice, and you cannot go all pious on us when you yourself make false witness.

        Belittling the debate with baby talk is unhelpful too.

        At present the only sanctions against these gangs is either prison (which is they use for training and recruitment) or release from prison into the community in order to make more room for politicos, such as environmentalists and "extreme-right" (meaning anyone getting in the way or offending someone whose life matters).

        I suggest that neither seem to working very well, and sentencing needs to be re-evaluated and become more creative. Yes, we should be catching them rather than thinking they can operate with impunity, but if they are working in a gang (and that includes religious insurgencies), then their time in prison needs to be in solitary confinement.

    3. My son has just got a job working at his local Co-op in Cardiff.

      i texted the family yesterday when I arrived in India to let them know i had arrived safely and had replies from my husband and daughter. After a while i made a joke about “who is this other person in the group chat, does anyone know him?” He eventually replied that he had just had to deal with the third “crackhead” (his words) robbery of the store that day.

    1. Send Lammy and his family back to Guyana with one way tickets and that should satisfy his desire for reparations and our desire to rid the country of a turnip.

    2. The man is a public servant to represent the people of Britain overseas. He seems incapable and unwilling to do that. Therefore, he should be sacked and removed.

    4. Village idiot, doubtless useful to both USA and Russia. I think a DS post? the one where he's saying hadn't seen a policeman a long time and one was standing in the background.

  33. Morning Nottlers.

    Free Speech today has the second part of Alice Cavendish's essay on ME. Yesterday she wrote of the effects of this debilitating disease, and today she writes of what she sees as an Establishment cover up to hide the facts. Please spare her a minute or so and leave a comment. She will really appreciate it, as would I.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  35. Morning all. Our government is supporting this wretched regime.

    Watch: Ukrainian men dragged out of nightclubs by army recruiters
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/13/young-ukrainians-nightclubs-by-army-recruiters-russian-war/

    Ukrainian men are dragged out of nightclubs and restaurants to be conscripted as Zelensky faces a shortage of soldiers
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

    And I note that our very own fascist, Herr Starmer, has removed the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh from Downing Street. What's next, portraits of Marx and Lenin on the walls?

    1. Good morning Johnathan,

      I commented on that story an hour ago , press ganging , isn't it .

      Nothing will be resolved , the war is appalling , and a cockfight until the end , no winners no losers , and a depleted generation for each country.

      2. Precisely.
        I have to admit that MB and I look at our 18 year old grandson and worry.
        He has two Russian friends from school who have now gone back. Lovely lads; again, a cause for worry.

      3. Good morning TB, and everyone.
        Good analogy, "a cockfight until the end , no winners no losers " except that both sides lose.

    2. The entire Ukraine war is daft. Ukraine can't 'win' because the ethnically Russian people of the 'invaded' region want the Russians there.

      This conflict will be solved through politics. Offer the people of the Crimea a vote on independence or joining Russia.

      2. As far as Crimea goes they had a free vote and chose Russia. They really didn't need to be coerced into that since it has been Russian since the conquest of Catherine the Great, other that a short period under Ukraine as a gift, that considering the USSR's mentality, was a completely empty gesture and clearly just a display of ego on the part of Khrushchev who was half Ukrainian, and which gesture,, as I have pointed out before, was illegal under Soviet law. But then grand empty gestures is what you get when ruled by a dictator. It is the gross dishonesty of the West that pretends that Crimea belongs to Ukraine. Never was Ukrainian and never will be.

    3. Odd now that you mention it, Paula Rego's style is a bit reminiscent of 1930s Russian posters…

      1. I thought that.
        If the women just raised their right arms – preferably flourishing a sickle – those pictures are Soviet approved art.

      2. Paula Rego, born in Lisbon, Portugal.
        From The Guardian
        " In 2017, though, the Portuguese president chose to focus on the fact that his country had set about abolishing slavery in the 1760s after recognising its “injustice”. He did not mention that Portugal was the European country with the longest historical involvement in the slave trade, kidnapping and forcibly transporting about 6 million African men, women and children across the Atlantic between the 15th and 19th centuries. Nor did he mention that his country had only abolished slavery to the Portuguese mainland in 1761 – the trade to Brazil continued and slavery was not completely abolished across all the territories Portugal controlled until 1869."

        1. Nor does it mention that it was the British who forced Portugal to stop their trade in slaves.

        2. A bit of a nit-pick.
          The White slave traders did not kidnap very many Africans to make them into slaves.
          That was, in the overwhelming number of cases, done by other Africans.

          1. Certainly that was the case in West Africa. However, the slave raiders in the East of Africa were generally Arabs and were violent. They supplied markets extending throughout the Middle East and Persia, using places like Zanzibar as their bases.

          2. And that Arab slave raining had gone on for several hundred years before White slavers got involved over on the West Coast.

        3. The Dutch made a healthy profit providing slaves for the production of sugar cane in Barbados.

    5. The king should take action against him, he's not the owner of the property he's just a short term resident.
      He has no official rights or reasons to make such alterations.

        1. Even Achieving anything is not in his curriculum. Too many doors to choose from in a big old house.

      1. They are real alright Anne. It has been going on for quite a while now. What is interesting to me is why are they publicising this now. Has the compliant media been given instructions to suggest, on a subliminal level, that Ukraine is losing and that we shouldn't be supporting scoundrels like Zelenskyy?

    1. Yep, completely. It shows what happens when people – rather than the state – care for something. It's a human investment.

    2. You really should not be drawing attention to things like that Belle, it stinks of whiteness and the privilege of the native people of England. It needs to be dealt with, a bit of graffiti here and there with a good deal of rubbish strewn about and the plants damaged.

    5. Hell of a change to the state of it when I first worked into there on the overhead wire test train Mentor.

  37. I have had a brainwave that we sort of do internally. We split our contracts into hardware and software so a user can choose to have only replacement hardware and sort whatever software they want, or they can have us manage both for them (this was new boy's idea and made a big impact on bottom line in these times). We also let folk choose for on site or remote only support, with some hardware contracts including free site visits and inbuilt hardware updates (as the timeline is 4 years, hardware costs fall against income, so it works out).

    Anyway, this customisation gave me an idea as Junior and I attempted a commando raid of Tesco (hindered by dithering, lost, confused unthinking hoomahns). Customised shopping.

    Let's say you always buy a particular brand of milk. Why not offer that person 10% off buying two of them. You buy a particular type of mince, or chicken, or steak – buy more and get a slight discount. Offer say, a pepper sauce with it. It's unique and bespoke to that customer. No one else can benefit from it. The savings/discounts don't have to be taken up, the 'complementary' products don't have to be bought but it offers a way to sell 'in addition to' what the user normally buys.

    I'm going to write to Tesco as a suggestion but I don't know if it's a sound idea or not. Yes, it's variable but the maths is simple: if profit margin is 20% offer 5% off. If 50% offer ten or something. It might not work but there's a lot of people picking up those handset things now.

      1. All data is collected, Johnny. Your bank a/c even when withdrawing cash. Some people trade in cash only, that will last until we have CBDC .Also here, all going into the great online digital maw.

        1. I have noticed recently at least three establishments that either prefer cash or will only accept cash.

          1. For some businesses, in certain areas, that could well be a problem. But it’s their choice, they must know what they’re risks are.

    2. That is the kind of thing that I hate about big stores – evidence that they are spying on my purchases!

      1. Yeah, but it's also something you can ignore. I'm not suggesting this be enforced, but if they're collecting the data they may as well monetise it for mutual benefit.

        1. My entire shopping experience is dedicated to reducing the amount of information that big corporations can collect about me. Hence cash payments, preferably at small shops or direct from farmers.
          I hate face data collecting big supermarkets with a passion.

      2. Yes, the Big Brother angle makes me very uncomfortable.
        I can foresee the development that when you go to your GP (WHEN!!!) they will look up your shopping history and will block you from certain treatments because you bought butter, meat etc… according to the medical fad of the day.

    3. I've tried Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons for home delivery, wibbling (I hate shopping). Morrisons is by far the best for me. I often get offered Specials' but have no idea if generally or just online. There's also a separate section for 'Aldi & Lidle Price Match' (you have to put that in search bar). The only thing I don't like about it is that husband also uses it and puts items on there I don't want or need :-DD might have to change the p/word…..

      2. I use Sainsbury's as i can get unlimited deliveries Tues/Weds and Thursdays for £4 a month.

        Tell Hubby to open his own account !

        1. I had that too when I used Sainsburys, Phiz. Morrisons have their own version, and so do Tesco. I used to physically shop Morrisons, soon as they opened, staff there were all absolutely brill – lot of crack, weekly drivers are similar. I noticed Sainsburys only ones to have female drivers, lugging food boxes around…I'm all for equality but some of them were quite young and slightly built.

          1. Am I the only nottler who goes to the cheapest shop and buys in person? That way I can choose the produce myself.

        5. I have now gravitated to Sainsbury's. But I also order from Marks and Sparks, Tesco, and Aldi. Never tried Waitrose because they don't deliver here. I have been at this for quite a while now and figured out what to get from where because there are often items that only one store carries or has a better version of something. So smallish orders often.

    4. M&S do a "meal deal". Buy a main course and get a discount on your starter and dessert. The package is usually great value for money.

      1. Compare prices between M&S and Sainsbury's. The latter is much cheaper for the same quality.

      1. Yes, the Left didn't like the idea of people choosing.

        My idea is bespoke shopping – a sort of custom personal shopper where you choose if you want the complementary/discounted item.

        That said, Tesco recommend kitchen roll, coca cola and nappies to us and apart from my only fans it's a long time since i've worn a nappy.

      1. I think they offer coupons based on what you buy or to complement your shopping purchases. I don't buy enough for that!

  38. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not a nice start, it's been raining for hours.
    You have to wonder what Alex Salmond had found interesting in North Macedonia.

    1. Good morning Eddy,

      I must confess , we looked North Macedonia up on the map of Scotland ,it sounded Scottish..
      What a surprise we had when we googled it, wow, it was a real and proper jolly by air ..

      Hmm, my lips remain tightly shut!

      1. He might have been ‘having a word’ about too many illegal invaders turning up in Scotland.

  39. I doubt the goal of the war was anything to do with what the people actually want. The smart ones are dodging the out of control money washing machine!

    1. Reminds me of young US men nipping over the border to Canda during the Vietnam War slaughter.

    2. Spot on, every word – especially the last few, exactly the reason for mass immigration. One favour, Johnny – more please:-)

  41. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ced0cc3a3c42c342835a07a570f1efc38d6474643e344eb985b751d610b040d9.png
    A fortnight ago I tried on my navy blue pinstripe, single-breasted, merino-wool suit (from 2001) and found that the trousers were baggy and too long (just like Bozza the Clown in the above photograph). I took them to a trusted local tailor (female) who pinned up and narrowed one leg while I wore them. I shall collect them tomorrow.

    I have no intention of looking like that half-Belgian chump when I attend the funeral next week.

      1. I share Boris' frame and ability to look dishevelled in the smartest suit. I stopped bothering.

        I wear baggy trousers because they're usually full fo tools. Folk ask why I'm carrying around a precision screw driver set and I look at them funny because.. doesn't everyone?

        I've no interest in what people think about how I dress. It is utterly irrelevant to the person I am and I pay no attention to how others dress either unless it is patently absurd for the environment. They're clothes. They are functional. Beyond that they're irrelevant.

        1. I loll around the house in shorts and t-shirts but when i go out anywhere i dress appropriately. People treat you differently.

          1. As someone of my acquaintance used to remark, "we may be poor, but we don't need to look poor!".

      2. I have never had any desire to look like a sack of shit; hence my retailoring.

        Wearing smart, well-fitting and stylish clothing boosts the condfidence as well as being supremely comfortable.

    2. I like baggy trousers. I wear baggy trousers no matter what the fashion experts tell me. I do not like drainpipe trousers.

      2. In Johnson's case it's not just the trousers, Johnny. I'm sure you always look very fetching 😀

        1. I have never been a fashion victim even if I have been involved in selling fashion most of my working life.

          2. When you see droves of people all wanting to buy the same things due to clever marketing and manlipulation. We try to look at things very carefully thats why we do not have a microwave or an air fryer, for example. When people say I can re heat my coffee in a micowave I despare.

          3. Aldi generally has a good electrical section if you ever need to replace anything home-wise. It’s online too, don’t need to shop in-store:-)

          5. Mine too 🙂 Then e-bay, that’s better than it was but still need to take care. Husband took out Amazon Prime, didn’t realise until shortly afterwards family can all use it too. I sometimes send small gifts to grandchildren via Amazon, they always like to receive them.

        1. I own precisely one suit. I didn't even wear it to my Dad's funeral – mainly because it was 500 miles away from me and try going to a hire shop and saying … have you a suit to fit someone 6'4, size 13 and 65cm at the shoulder in an afternoon.

    4. Good grief, Grizzly…saw the shot before I saw your post…was about to ask you what the heck you were up to trying to scare me like that…

    5. I have been looking for a new suit. Finding a navy or charcoal pinstripe is like looking for unicorn droppings. Perhaps I could find one at a bespoke tailors but they are rare these days and I am told that a bespoke suit would cost well in excess of £1000 – that’s a lot of money for something that will be worn just a few times a year.

    6. There was a woman at my old church who worked in the Palace of Westminster and told me that BoJo always looked as if he'd slept in his suits. I suggested after one of his announcements that he must have got out of the wrong side of the bed. She said the question was not which side of the bed so much as whose bed.

      1. What makes him such a wench-magnet?

        Is it the size of his bank account, or
        The dimness of those wenches?

  42. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ced0cc3a3c42c342835a07a570f1efc38d6474643e344eb985b751d610b040d9.png
    A fortnight ago I tried on my navy blue pinstripe, single-breasted, merino-wool suit (from 2001) and found that the trousers were baggy and too long (just like Bozza the Clown in the above photograph). I took them to a trusted local tailor (female) who pinned up and narrowed one leg while I wore them. I shall collect them tomorrow.

    I have no intention of looking like that half-Belgian chump when I attend the funeral next week.

    1. And those Dopey Wokies in government still have no idea how the financial black hole has occurred. Plus 8 million a day for keeping illegals on top of that.
      Shame it didn't trip over the burka and fall down the steps.

      1. Don’t worry, the “rich”, with their “broad shoulders”, can cough up more! You know they want to!

        1. The problem of course is that the communist charlatans doing the stealing ARE the rich. It's the productive working class that they fleece.

        2. The biggest problem this latest form of government has is, they think any honest person in the UK with a bank account or savings is rich.
          They are really that thick.

    2. There should be no benefits for anyone unless they have worked and have been made redundant.

      That folk down the way can live in a 4 bed house and pay their bills solely on welfare payments is ludicrous. That's £2000-£2500 quid a month net for doing absolutely nothing.

      1. Do you remember a couple of yeats ago a big scam was uncovered, not by the benefits office but by some official overseas who wondered about the amount of money everyone suddenly had?

        Edit. In May 2024 5 of them were jailed for a total of 25 years for the £50m scam, so, an average of 5 years, so out in 2 1/2 and probably already out under the prisoner release in August and probably not deported.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/28/bulgarian-town-boomed-from-uks-biggest-benefits-fraud/#:~:text=The%20UK's%20biggest%20ever%20benefit,%E2%80%9D%2C%20The%20Telegraph%20can%20reveal.

        1. I don’t, more info – many thanks for informing me. Now why am I not surprised, unlikely to be the sole case. Yes, early release (am told around 40% committed further crime and now back behind bars or pending to be so. With the announcement on Employer NIC, a war on small businesses, legal ones anyway. Can’t really blame our so called government because it’s really the CS ‘in charge’.

  44. Good morning all,

    One word: Dreich.

    A bit agog with indifference this morning. Something will crop up.

    1. Salmond believed in something. I can respect that. That what he believed in was daft and detrimental to the people of Scotland is a side issue.

    1. Lovely cat, Bill:-) No pet gives you a foul/loving look like a cat can. Dogs, if they have any sense, always swerve any cat….

      1. Beast used to cuddle up to Wiggy. I think the cat thought the dog was afraid of him but when Wiggy's paw was bigger than the cat's head….

        Mongo is a sort of troop carrier for the neighbour's kittens. He flops over, they climb on him and he wanders off in that 'I came in here for something… what was it' vacant expression only a complete dufus can manage. Meanwhile the tiny kits sort of hang on and get moved from room to room only for the grateful Mum to eventually home in and haul them back.

        2. My setter used to tolerate a friend's youngster. You could almost see him wincing as the toddler climbed all over him, using his fur to scale the flanks. He was mightily relieved when the house was child free again!

    2. I would get the vet to check you out at the same time.
      Appointment on the day and they can treat anything from a goldfish to an elephant.
      Apparently it's illegal for a doctor to treat an animal, but legal for a vet to treat a human. (Though I would draw the line at their method of clearing constipation.)

    3. The Springer is limping on a front leg and the vet thinks arthritis. He is going to x-ray her tomorrow and possibly give her a steroid injection while she is under anaesthetic. She'll be ten next birthday.

      1. Gus’s problem started overnight a week ago. I suspect he has a thorn/splinter in one of the pads. Can’t see anything obvious and there is no sign of infection.

      2. That sort always have the regulation purple/pink hair, screaming expression, nose rings and lanyards.

        They're so individual they all look the same.

        1. I remember an interesting recruitment advertisement for the army during the 60's:

          The Left hand picture showed a group of scruffy long-haired people with beads and flowers in their hair and psychedelic clothes.

          The right hand picture showed a young chap smartly dressed in a suit and tie with neatly cut hair.

          The message was: Stand out from the crowd. Don't be a conformist be an individual – join the army

    1. Do we want this implemented throughout Europe? Don't care what Europe does. Do I want it here? Yes.

      We have a very, very very generous asylum process and for the criminal invaders it's not followed.

    3. If you scroll further down.. you'll see a vid of a very large emboldened crowd all kindly suggesting a slight change in lifestyle for their adopted country.
      Thousands of Muslim immigrants demand Sharia law in Hamburg.

      Labour says #BeKind or face jail time.

    4. If you scroll further down.. you'll see a vid of a very large emboldened crowd all kindly suggesting a slight change in lifestyle for their adopted country.
      Thousands of Muslim immigrants demand Sharia law in Hamburg.

      Labour says #BeKind or face jail time.

  52. I had forgotten I've got a training thing with Oscar. He's a grumpy sod at the best of times so I've taken him on to do obedience training.

    The lad is ok, I suppose, but he's clearly still struggling fitting in. Lucy coming along hasn't helped as I imagine that happened the last time he was moved out. He's taken to hiding under beds and behind chairs so giving him some absolute sole focus and proving to him he'll always come home is probably important.

  53. "Alex Salmond's quest hatred for independence the Sassanach transformed British politics."

    Sorted that then.

  54. I have some Scot mates, James…couple of them became ..well, not mates during SNP reign. Not seen them/had contact for a while tho, be interesting to see how that goes in light of the 'missing' 600k.

    1. I can imagine. The old poison seethed a lot back then. It did during the two years I lived in Scotland, but it was just after we went and won the World Cup, so an obvious point of schoolboy friction I suppose. I was actually called a Sassanach several times back in those days.

      1. I’ve been called worse, James – guessing you might have too:-D Many are quite good people, all can see now how they’ve been sold (and bought) a pup – it’s easy to blame others for your own faults.

        1. Fortunately I’m in every respect faultless, Kate. As I’m sure are you, I hasten to add 🤭

          1. You got there just in time, Mr G :-DD One of my teens saw Judge Judy for the first time at a mate’s house. They both thought it very funny that I was like her. I couldn’t possibly comment.

    2. I can imagine. The old poison seethed a lot back then. It did during the two years I lived in Scotland, but it was just after we went and won the World Cup, so an obvious point of schoolboy friction I suppose. I was actually called a Sassanach several times back in those days.

  55. Better than the Lotto results:
    Wordle 1,213 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨🟨⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Then I would suggest you go over to You Tube and listen to the first couple of minutes of his speeches. It should be easy to find the right one that way.

  58. 394702+ up ticks

    I believe it is pretty decent of them to enlighten the lndigenous peoples of the parties intentions these "centres" will morph into being small transit towns, temporary accommodation before moving on to permanent residence ( possible your house ) as compulsory purchase is introduced in conjunction with "politically aided assisted dying", BIG TIME.

    https://x.com/Suffragent_/status/1845371677019979999

      1. Why, when gimmigrants get in the back of lorries are the drivers jailed yet when border farce and the RNLI bring them in they get away with it?

        Get out there with a gunboat and shoot them. It's the only way.

    2. It's completely sensible Ogga.

      Once the NHS has decided on you being given "assisted dying" you have no further need of your house so

      it can be taken over by the Council to house "asylum seekers".

      So obvious really !

    1. A significant number of outdoor bowls greens have closed over the last 30 years. We employ a greenkeeper to do the following at his discretion: scarifying, spiking, hollow tining, feeding, anti-fungal treatment and so on.
      We do all other work on the green including mowing 3 times a week and the Friday mowing team work 52 weeks of the year as a huge amount of work is carried out during the winter.
      I worked on Friday green maintenance for 8 years including a period as Green Manager. I stopped at the age of 86 when I found I could no longer lift a builders bag of wet grass.

      1. I'm impressed Delboy.
        Despite several invitations to join bowels clubs, I never took advantage of the offers. I played golf for over 25 years.
        Getting permission for that was some times a problem 🤗

        2. It is worth having a go. It requires a lot of skill and is very competitive. I've been playing for 48 years and still love the game.

    2. And closed independent schools as well. You wonder why they bother trying to run a business when they could flog their land off for building on

      i also anticipate the day our Glorious Leaders decide to nationalise golf courses so that they can build accommodation for the new Britins

    3. Our bowling club is council owned but we have a full repair lease until 2039. We have no interaction with the council as we pay for all the green keeping,, about £6,500 per year, and members do the cutting under the guidance of the professional greenkeeper who applies all the treatments etc.
      The cost is all covered by the membership fee of £165 p.a. We have a very heathy membership hovering around the 100 mark. We have natural 'wastage' due to moving house and retirement but hold an open moving around mid-April. this year we got about 25 new bowlers. There are a lot of clubs who struggle with attracting new members but there are 6 clubs within our local area.

  60. Oscar did very well. He was the slowest to complete his tasks but the most diligent. Some dogs came back without the items, Oscar went back for his when he dropped it.

    He is a very good boy and was told so many times. We stopped off at the butchers to get him a nice big meaty bone and because the others haven't got one he's eating it in the park with me.

      1. He seemed happy enough. He's still shy around other dogs and doesn't 'mingle' as the others do, but he's not aggressive. Once we went through a task together – it's 'fetch' (the thing) and 'bring (the thing) he was ok. He's brighter than Mongo, I'll say that. As when there were two things- because another dog had dropped his – he brought both back, as if to say 'I didn't know which was mine'.

        1. Wonderful! 🙂

          (Although from what you've written before, there are teabags out there brighter than Mongo… 🤣 – I'd love to meet him; I have a soft spot for brainless dogs.)

    1. Devastated remainiac leftie doctor Renee Tyers may or may not join up the dots eventually?
      Distant relative terminates allotment lease and seeks planning permission for migrant housing.

  62. Inquiry into Salisbury Novichok attack opens. 14 October 2024.

    The inquiry, chaired by The Rt Hon Lord Hughes of Ombersley, is taking place at the Guildhall in Salisbury from Oct 14-18.

    Mr O’Connor KC has previously appeared at the 7/7 inquests, the Hillsborough inquests, the Litvinenko Inquiry, the Manchester Arena Inquiry and the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

    He acted as one of the counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and was also leading counsel to the Inquests into the deaths of the four young men killed in East London by Stephen Port.

    He is currently acting for the Ministry of Defence in the Independent Inquiry into allegations of misconduct by UK Special Forces in Afghanistan.

    The fix is in my friends.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/14/salisbury-poisonings-inquiry-live/

    2. Just 6 years after the event, suitable time for all involved to be suitably hazy in their recall and the state to put forward their suggested explanation. The Skripals will not be providing evidence, odd, in that they were the main players!

      1. Afternoon KP. The Skripals were murdered to prevent their ever giving evidence in a hearing like this.

    3. Why bother. Foregone conclusion, the satanic Putin did it. But lets put some retired old farts on the inquiry and pay them millions before they are finished.

    4. Russia has defeated Ukraine. This is distraction politics, to distract from the impact on NATO and the EU of shutting down Nordstream pipelines which is leading to the deindustrialisation of Germany and impoverishment of Europe.

      Putin has to be framed as the villain whereas the present predicament is the result of the stupidity of Ursula and the mob in Brussels. It should be noted that the US has given up on its Ukraine project to stoke a war with Iran but leaving the EU and NATO perilously short of funding if not already bankrupt.

      How absurd that Starmer has sent Lammy to kiss Ursula’s arse. Labour are determined to embark us onto the EU Titania as it sinks below the waves of Central Control.

    1. It could have been all balls.
      I had a set of Bowls very old, made from Lignum vitae, no idea what happened to them.

    1. Any and all excess deaths this winter will be put down to Glowball Warming. That will justify the next round of increased taxes and restricted aid for the elderly. You're all going to die! Sooner than you thought.

      1. I often wish we had stayed in Australia. We’ve been back a few times since 1980. And the south West would have been rasher a decent part of the world to have lived in.

  65. "Private sector investment is the way we rebuild our country and pay our way in the world. And make no mistake…this is a great moment to back Britain."

    Starmer speaking this morning at an 'investment summit'.

        1. The horn of plenty is blocked and the buffoons are trying to unblock. it.

          Zeus was kept in a cave with the goat Amalthea, who fed him. Zeus accidentally broke off one of her horns, and the horn then had the power to provide food without end. The Horn of Plenty symbol has been used in art and literature ever since.

          3. "Zeus was kept in a cave with the goat"

            Was this the start of a new religion, the same as the one which has endless access to the food and riches of it's host countries?

    2. But private funding for things we need, like coal, nuclear power, oil, gas, honest health care, nutritious food, weapons used for our protection will simply be denied all the necessary consents. So communist ideology will still block any beneficial growth. The only private sector allowable will be the international corporations on-board with the agenda. Plus we'll still be bled dry to enrich the communists and pay for their pet primitives.

      1. I read that Microsoft are buying a gas power plant for their data centre.

        Extrapolate that and it's not too difficult to see data providers also selling energy.

        Now imagine Microsoft selling power unfettered from government diktat. No heavy taxes as it simply buys fuel from an untaxed region. No special levies. Just energy at price – as the data is the valuable commodity. It'd permanently undo the green agenda of energy rationing.

        It could be that Miliband, desperate to enforce his big state socialist agenda undoes it completely and forces an entirely new era of market capitalism completely bypassing the state machine entirely.

          1. I don't think they could. They might try to, but it'd just be the end of things.

            Put it this way. When the lights properly go out Milibrain is going to be hacked apart by a baying mob. He'll realise too late, far, far too late; that everything depends on energy.

      2. They want control of everything Nazis and Communists always do. Starmer is both all rolled into one.

    3. Well, yes, but private sector investment does not need government as it is market driven. Starmer was only just saying how government gave 'control'.

      I rather worryingly think he means that private wealth should be invested in government projects – which is not how private investment works.

      1. I'd think Kneelalot, when he thinks about how private works in any context I imagine he's got something akin to a collective farm in mind.

    4. "So that when the BoE raises interest rates and people lose their jobs because companies can't re-finance loans, we can blame the private sector"

    5. Steering clear of firms with letters P and O in their names:
      "Left hand down a bit"
      💨💥
      "Ooh, nasty! 😟"

      1. Do you suppose they knoow that P&O ferries and P&O cruises are two completely separate entities. The former Middle East owned and the latter part of the American corporation, Carnival Cruise Line.

  66. Well – the vet lady said that a pad was inflamed – there was no sign of thorn/splinter. Inflammatory juice. KEEP HIM INDOORS for three days – yeah, right. That'll go down well with an outdoor cat….. Kerching £83…..

      1. Knowing Gus (and Pickles, come to that) anything such as you suggest would be off before you could say knife. But thank you for the suggestion.

        1. Dogs are more amenable to wearing coats and shoes? The old pooch my parents had would sleep the night through but in winter he'd wait for mum to put a warm coat on him and arrange the blanket in his basket then tuck him in.

      2. Charlie used to wear boots on his hind feet because he dragged his toes due to wear and tear in his spine. My GSD/woflhound wore Shetland boots on his front legs to support the tendons.

    3. OMG Bill thought I was still on the Starmer thread…Is it a front paw – which pad is it the larger or one of the smaller? Did she have no suggestion as to cause? As to cost – currently have two terriers, have cost thousands between them at vet's 🙁 Peta and I would compare vets' charges – hers, in France, were much lower. I think I recall vets and GPs often work from their own homes in France, definitely not in my English neck of the woods. Both have large buildings, and mostly largely empty.

    1. Removes picture of Elizabeth I, but also removed one of Margaret Thatcher. To take against one woman could be construed as unfortunate and to take against two a mere coincidence I'm sure 😁.

    3. 'Afternoon Sue. I am quite certain that if FreeGearKeir had wanted to retain them then he just had to say so.

    4. Tell Starmer Queen Elizabeth I had a string of sturdy black servants who attended to her nightly needs and her portrait will be pride of place at the entrance to 10 Drowning Street.

    3. On You Tube there is a discussion with Peter Hitchins who knew Starmer in his younger days. He say that Starmer is a Trotskyite and even more to the left than Corbin, in fact he doesn't mince words and calls him a fanatic.

  71. Makes you wonder what he's replacing them with. I imagine Arthur Skargill, Marx and Lenin. Maybe Pol Pot.

    1. Rosa Luxemburg, though that would require a modicum of historical awareness. More likely the brothel owner Mary Seacole. Who wasn't and never claimed to be a nurse but the woke have her as the real Florence Nightingale. Or perhaps RuPaul. Not Danny La Rue, he was very talented and not sufficiently decedent.

      1. It's odd, throughout my day I don't mean to kill anyone. Oddly enough, I don't.

        I think only those people who do mean to kill others actually end up doing so.

    2. Judging by the age of Sara, it would suggest that she was the result of father playing away – with, allegedly, a Polish woman. Why was the lass living with that family and not her mother?
      What was the role of the 'uncle'? How welcoming was the step-mother?
      The three adults are turning on each other like rats in a sack.
      What a foetid scenario.

      1. I haven't bothered reading the article but i already know what was going on.

        I expect the defense argued he was unaware it was wrong.

        1. Haven't read the article either but heard on Al Beeb that he said he had punished his daughter within the law. Wonder what he meant?

          1. Islamic law. Perfectly acceptable to beat women who wear make-up or other supposed transgressions perceived by mysogynistic neanderthals provided the stick isn’t too big.

  73. Gates might be a control freak, but he ain't stupid. If I can see net zero poverty coming down the line then I'm sure he can too. If we want to stay afloat in an energy devouring business and you could afford it I'd probably invest in one myself.

    Poverty for thee but not for me. By the way, wanna buy a computer?

  74. From Which? Magazine:

    This evening, a shocking BBC Panorama investigation will lay bare the stories of Revolut bank customers who say scammers took tens of thousands of pounds from their accounts and that Britain’s newest bank failed to protect them.*

    This comes just weeks after the payments regulator slashed reimbursement limits for scam victims by £330,000, in response to intense lobbying from payment firms and banks.

    None of us fall victim to scams because we’re intentionally careless, but because we’re ruthlessly manipulated by the increasingly sophisticated tactics of organised criminals. The explosive findings of tonight’s investigation hammer home a grim reality: without sufficient financial incentives for banks and payment firms to improve fraud security, we may all be at risk.

    Get the full story on BBC One at 8pm tonight.

    2. One of the 'security' training courses we went on recently flagged an email as dodgy.

      We spotted it, but the signs were: a hidden link, disguised sender digita.233edfkd+2334@… type thing and misspellings.

      I pointed out their own marketing email included all of those entities.

      1. I get emails to my work address purporting to come from dead people. It makes me wonder whether the senders know that their assumed identity is a dead person and if so, what reaction are they expecting.

        1. We did our own marketing at one time, Sue – used to buy mailing lists, we had a few good responses but most were dross (businesses gone bust etc, bit like your dead people).

          1. We send emails to about 200 independent schools but about 10% of our students are from state schools and these find us on out website or from the recommendation of their friends.

            Parents of children in private schools will be feeling the pinch and this is likely to kill us off. We survived and flourished during the 12 years of the Blair/Brown Labour government; we survived "A" level French becoming dramatically less difficult in the last 30years; we survived Covid travel restrictions and were back to being fully booked again until Sunak announced the general election, Starmer won and enquiries for our courses fell off the cliff.

            Caroline is thinking of doing private on-line tuition if our courses cannot continue so we won't need anybody to drive the minibus, prepare lunches and entertain our visitors. I am 78 – I was hoping to keep going and not to retire until I was 80!

          2. Blair/Brown did at least understand business, the life-blood of any economy, although Labour-style. Other than those two, I doubt Labour will understand, certainly not the current one – if anything they think business is some sort of cash cow. Caroline’s idea may be the saviour you seek and I hope she gives it a go – where’s the harm in trying:-) I’m sure you’ll find a way to support her and your business – thinking cap on, Rastus:-)

          1. That reminds me of one of my favourite jokes (from Terry Prachett IIRC):
            Sign on the door of a medium's house: 'Seance tonight at 8pm. Latecomers please use doorbell as knocking can cause confusion.'

    3. Funny, as in peculiar, how any impure thought you thunk over the internet and you are immediately debanked, all service providers withdrawn and you get an immediate audit from IRS or HMRC..

      And yet a scammer brazenly empties a savings account, transfers proceeds to an account via SWIFT.. and somehow the international retail bankers can quite figure out who is involved or what to do.

    4. Plod is on the case of this one. See if you can spot a clue for 3 i-Spy points.

      A UK-founded website used to defraud victims on an industrial scale has been infiltrated – leading to scores of arrests around the world, the Metropolitan Police has said.

      As many as 70,000 UK victims were tricked by the site’s scams, which obtained 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PINs globally.

      Law enforcement agencies have arrested 37 suspects across the UK and around the world, including at Luton airport.

      1. Luton Airport Ooh eee ooh – sadly I can’t find a recording of the 1979 hit to upload.

  75. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a6bb015dc52ae012228d8de7646263e6a35a6c66d69191cc40198f28e4f2b88.png

    Looks familiar.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ad7ee6f2d5d8d90b049d6dd5d6c8d2f611cf7aa6874d47524b922d69f67dfd8.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dc623fa26616118da26bcb52673e7d6192571dafb8fe9919f801888f7df493e3.png

    The above certainly works for Miliband minor.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b5c694339872a732974cd9a6f63dc3c0b48be2332ad456a99dfabd518ec6fe7.png

      1. Lord Alli is a nice guy (after all he is a Labour supporter) so he’d probably rent out his NY appartment For a migrant hostel. Assuming Ange stayed there for at least 7 nights (Christmas and New Year) and declared it as a £1,200 benefit it would cost less than the hotel rooms

    1. The rich will ‘bear the largest burden’ in the Budget, says Reeves

      That's several thousand BBC employees she has offended, The licence fee will have to be increased to make up the difference.

      3. The rich will ‘bear the largest burden’

        Oh, no they won't; the rich have better advisors than Reeves . . ..

    2. I take it, wibbls, that this your response to the above:

      The rich will ‘bear the largest burden’ in the Budget, says Reeves

      [Telegraph, today c.2.00p.m.]

      1. Lunacy. Likely already liquidated some if not all holdings and moved elsewhere. Meanwhile, the rest can eat cake (after they've paid their taxes, obvs).

  78. https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/06/17/reform_uk_manifesto_2024/

    This is a positive thing. It's forcing Reform to think rationally. Personally tax cuts shouldn't fall on the headlines like corporation tax and income tax – initially. They should come about from scrapping those things that hurt the poorest most. Fuel duty, the standing charge, energy taxes and subsidy.

    We should cut taxes, yes, but immediate things come about by scrapping those taxes that really hurt the truly low paid. Get folk onside by demonstrating the damage stealth taxes do then start hacking away at the granite edifice of state by freezing and then cutting quangos. Bring the responsibility back into government departments.

      1. Hmm, had a look. No, I don't think the first taxes cut should be the big, headline ones. I do stand by the idea that we first cut those taxes that hurt the poorest most – fuel, energy.

  79. Home Office prepares for Channel migrant boats to keep arriving for another 12 YEARS despite Keir Starmer's promises of a crackdown
    By Rory Tingle, Home Affairs Correspondent For Mailonline

    Published: 09:56, 14 October 2024 | Updated: 10:30, 14 October 2024

    The Home Office is preparing for small boat crossings of the Channel to carry on for more than a decade after advertising contracts worth more than £520million to manage arrivals.

    The department is seeking private companies to manage the Western Jet Foil in Dover, where migrants are subjected to initial checks after being picked up in the Channel, and the nearby Manston processing centre.

    The tenders cover the provision of security, healthcare, catering, accommodation, transportation and other support services required by new arrivals, and are slated to start in January 2026 and run until January 2032.

    There is an option to extend them for a further four years – suggesting ministers are braced for small boat crossings to continue until 2036.

    The duration of the contracts appears to cast doubt on Sir Keir Starmer's promise to 'smash' the people smuggling gangs behind the crossings, although they contain a break clause 'if the need for the services is successfully reduced over time'. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13957131/Home-Office-prepares-Channel-migrant-boats-arriving-12-YEARS.html

    2. She's thinking, "Nice people, they feed me, I can make myself comfortable here and their dog is nice too".

    4. In our first apartment in Adelaide we had a cat turn up and I use to feed it scraps, thinking it was our next-door neighbours cat. But it wasn't it was a stray. We took it with us when we moved, twice.

    1. A group of 15 Caribbean governments has unanimously agreed to put slavery reparations on the table at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa on October 21.

      Absolutely. Don't blame them.
      If someone said to me..
      Here psst.. there's a moron coming over next month with lots of money, deep deep pockets and a bad case of autophobia, monophobia, isolophobia with a eremophobia rash.. and we've got a plant inside his office called The Tottenham Turnip and he's giving away free money. All you have to do is be very rude and put on a sad face and think of a number.

      kerrrrching.

      1. It's not even the money; it's the blame from billions of morons who will believe that the British enslaved half the world. This is a classic run-up to a genocide; first, you have to make the majority view the target group as evil.

    2. I wondered how Lammy got through Harvard but then I read that he only did a short part-time course intended for DEI candidates.

    3. Perhaps Lammy should become our first Ambassador Planipotentiary to sort out Interplanetary Reparations – beginning with the Moon?

      We must owe a lot for Moon Gazing . . .

  87. David Lammy meets ministers and Sadiq Khan raises UK rejoining the Single Market..

    The only thing the EU want off the UK is for The Treasury to relinquish the GBP£ and adopt the euro. They have everything else.
    Even The Tottenham Turnip couldn't be that silly?

    Hang on a minute.

    1. Ha. Then Rachel Reeves would have a set spending budget from Brussels, and Lammy won't be able to throw reparation back-handers to his friends.

  89. European Union is ‘dividing UK with electric car border’
    Northern Ireland is being made to enforce a ‘protectionist tariff’ on imports of Chinese models in a move drawn up by Brussels
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/14/european-union-dividing-uk-with-electric-car-border/

    BTL

    "We shall never surrender and have a border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland is and will remain a full and an integral part of the UK."

    "We shall never betray our fishermen."

    And the Conservative Party wonders why the electorate did not vote for them on 4th July!

    1. Can't see the problem? People will just buy their cars from the UK?
      If they are dim enough to want a cheap Chinese fire starter electric car, that is.

    2. I would be most surprised if such a technicality figured very highly in the minds of the England, Wales and Scotland electorate.

  91. Alex Salmond married Moira McGlashan in 1981. Moira was a senior civil servant. He was 24 she was 41 and was his boss n the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland in London. Strange, a young civil servant marrying his elderly boss. I wonder what brought that about.

    1. Oi, Ped! 41 is hardly elderly! Anyway it seems to be a pattern for ambitious squirts (look over the Manche)

          2. I was 40 and Caroline was 24 when we met.

            Her parents and I got on well from the very start – indeed, Lourens, Caroline's father, and I became close friends – there was the same age gap between him and me as there is between Caroline and me. According to Caroline I was her mother's favourite son-in-law.

          5. I think the age gap matters less the older the younger one (usually the woman) gets. People are much more likely to know what they really want from 25 onwards!

    2. Oklahoma governor signs bill exempting the state from WHO and UN mandates.
      Bill 426 will go into effect immediately and makes it illegal for the WEF and any of its operatives to push their globalist agenda in Oklahoma.
      This comes as many countries have recently refused to participate in the Pandemic Treaty.

      But just watch Lammy and Starmer sign us up to this.

  93. The BBC has convened a directors meeting to discuss the possible effect of the coming tax adjustments. All members will be reimbursed expenses and receive a large donation (£xxx,xxx) to help compensate for the inconvenience.
    https://scontent-cdg4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/73200806_10157793297844954_4595427406843478016_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=13d280&_nc_ohc=pZ8cgCUnpSQQ7kNvgGzar5d&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-1.xx&_nc_gid=ATCHAuOHLBbOQQi65_c2sez&oh=00_AYDAiXYgVCYYrcijbDD_V2ICjKXQ6-107qpt9pwjMcgjag&oe=6734968A

  94. An extent of Par Four?

    Wordle 1,213 4/6
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Same here, lacoste.

      Wordle 1,213 4/6

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

    2. Lucky three today.

      Wordle 1,213 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Pleased to get a birdie today – the millet's on me!

      Wordle 1,213 3/6

      🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. NNot A word that I use very often
      Wordle 1,213 5/6

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

  97. A fishing friend called my mobile phone a couple of hours ago and I was listening to him as I was mindlessly staring out at the main hanging birdfeeder, 10 feet away. A blue tit on one side, a coal tit on the other and a great tit on a twig a foot away. A dark shape flashes from the right to the feeder, a fraction of a second and the shape heads off at right angles to its approach and gone. Just one tiny feather falling slowly to the floor. I can just visualise the sparrow hawk as a still photo in my mind, a wild and beautiful moment.

    Edited a soelling.

          1. I didn't get back to Friday's discussion before comments on it were closed, so I'd like to post here my thanks for the picture of the remains of Horns Bridge in Chesterfield. I've had a bit of time to retrieve from my memory the recollections that I travelled to Sheffield in 1976 and 1980, when the bridge abutment was still there, and then in the mid 1990s, when I was taken aback by the fact that it wasn't there, having been demolished in 1985 as you reported. For some reason, which I can't exactly explain, the sight of it always had a profound emotional impact on me – perhaps related to events in my very early childhood. Thanks again.

          2. It’s a walk-in cage that I built to hang the bird-feeders inside to keep them safe from (mainly) cats, Katy. It’s covered with a plastic mesh with 2″ square holes. The small birds fly in and out as if it’s not there but cats can’t get in, neither can rooks or magpies, which steal all the food.

          3. Sounds a very good idea, Grizzly bet you see them really close up? What do you use as feed – I use sunflower seed hearts, just enough for a couple of hours. There’s a local chap who shoots grey squirrels, not keen on that myself although they’ve chased out or killed all the reds to take over their territory.

          4. Seeds, fat balls, peanuts and apples mainly. No grey squirrels in Sweden, only reds, which we sometimes get in the garden.

          5. We have a lot of apple fall this year, greys take a bite then move on to the next one – apple tasting. The trees are very old now, younger ones coming alone. Lucky you, having reds – I believe there are just a couple of large groups UK, one Isle of Wight, the other Fleetwood.

        1. Indeed. I shoot a lot of birds in my garden; but only with my Nikkor 200–500 super-telephoto zoom lens.

        2. Indeed. I shoot a lot of birds in my garden; but only with my Nikkor 200–500 super-telephoto zoom lens.

    3. Swoosh , Mm, and yes a similar experience I had years ago.

      I was delivering Tory leaflets in the 200's, chatting to a pair of BT men in a driveway , and swoosh a sparrowhawk went for a collared dove in a tree close by .. all three of us were spattered with little drops of warm blood ..

      The mastery of the kill reduced me to tears..

    5. They are something else, have seen them in woodland (natural habit) just a few feet off the ground, after a small bird. They also take pipistrelles as they come out of the brickwork. Couple of wrens fighting the other day over a patch of ground, that was something. Butterflies fight over patches of sunlight – no butterflies here this year, sorry to say.

  100. That's me for today. 95% – phew. Quiet evening planned. Then an outing tomorrow afternoon for a lecture about Murillo.

    Thank you for your kind remarks yesterday. Much appreciated.

    Have a spiffing evening – thinking of m explaining to Gus why he cant go out……

    A demain.

  103. Evening, all. Quite a Bob of Bonsall day today – I dropped the lilac that was too close to the oil tank ready for the replacement on Wednesday. Have put the trunk on the pile of wood waiting to be sawn up when I put the saw horse together and fix the chainsaw to it. While I was about it, I trimmed the dogwood and cleared the gravel area.

    Salmond would never have got anywhere had not the wrecker Blair put devolution in place. It was Blair who transformed British politics and NOT for the better!

      1. Over a period of over 30 years, our political idiots have done more damage to the UK than hitler ever did.

    2. Busy day Conners you're making me feel guilty. I've spent a lot of time today9 writing memories of my association with my mate Bruce who's funeral we will be able to watch from the UK Friday around midnight our time. I've tried to use some humour.
      No kisses on the bottom.

        1. Cheers Obs 🤗 of course I could attend the funeral, it’s a long way to go and come back from alone, but because we didn’t see each other very often, I somehow feel I might be intruding. Most of our conversation was between the two of us.
          I’m sort of looking forward to seeing his family and his local friends on the film clip at his parting. I’ll probably have a large one during the occasion.

      2. Just as productive in its own way, R E. I'm glad you'll be able to farewell (Aussie use) your friend over the Internet. That wasn't available for me when I lost a close friend about ten years ago. I read the BCP burial service at the time of the funeral.

        1. Yes, I had two other friends pass away during the covid disruption and couldn’t attend one of the funerals.
          Watching it on a screen is better than nothing. But not quite the same.

  104. Here's one for you: Amazon will deliver an enormous range of booze in the UK, at reasonable prices. Just used them, and the service was excellent!

    2. Yes, always good – we have Amazon Prime, all family (at different addresses) can use it too 🙂

  105. Sara Sharif was burned with an iron, tied to heating pipe and suffered bite marks, bruises and 11 separate fractures to her spine in the weeks before her death, a court heard today.

    Honour killings by Labour's beloved Pakistani community rife across the UK.
    For all the gory details just ask Nina Aouilk..
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTOXpJ9fM6o&t=16s .
    For all the denials just ask Sir Keir of Rotherham.

    1. I'm not going there. There's enough shite in the world without my being upset at this one.
      Poor lass. How can people do things like that? They should be coated in honey and tied to an ants nest.

    2. With all this happening now for many decades how does one single individual of our political idiots believe that they have done the right thing by allowing mass immigration ?

    3. If they were as honourable as they like to pretend, these honour killers should actually be committing suicide as they are the ones at fault for not training their daughters to their satisfaction, their shame would be more honourably reflected.

  106. A bit off topic: From Berliner Zeitung, "Nach Tesla-Brand mit vier Toten: Berliner Feuerwehr erklärt, wie gefährlich Elektroautos sind
    Vier Menschen sind durch einen brennenden Tesla in Frankreich ums Leben gekommen. Wie sicher sind Elektroautos? Die Berliner Feuerwehr gibt Antworten."
    Four people die in a burning Tesla in France. How safe are electric cars? Berlin Fire Dept have the answer.
    https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/wirtschaft-verantwortung/berliner-feuerwehr-nach-tesla-brand-mit-toten-elektroautos-schwieriger-zu-loeschen-li.2262539

    2. Yes, these EVs are a serious danger to life not only for passengers but also for first responders, firefighters and haulage operatives.I keep abreast of fire fighting measures for EVs by watching issues raised in this training video series.

      Here is an example short from the series:
      https://youtube.com/shorts/TYAdB7NHyb0?si=aPDU2Ypvmynkd8jT
      The biggest problem created by EVs using Lithium batteries is shorts.

      1. I once banked mine in a few inches of water, it stopped. When it was pulled out, started again straightaway. I still don't like/trust it. Part of the problem is the lowness of the battery under the car.

        1. I reckon batteries under the car, particularly if they are fluid temperature controlled, are less of a problem than air cooled batteries.
          The latter are fan assisted to prevent overheating but are prone to fluffing up the airways and overheating. They also more likely to take on flood water through the cooling spaces between cells and cause shorts particularly with salt water.

          Whatever type of car you have you ought to how to make a swift exit in case of emergency and the doors won’t open after a 12volt failure.

          1. Thanks Angie..good advice. It was fairly near the sea front, and if high tide runs down to the lane. Was my own fault, I panicked a bit. It was obvious I was stuck, larger vehicles were passing me with male drivers/passengers, gesturing and hooting (some even swearing) and/or ignoring me. The only one stopped was a young woman, very kind person, she helped me out.

  107. Alex Dunlop talks to a dodo skeleton this evening on BBC Look East using AI.
    The dodo, sounding like Albert Einstein, said that it was stretching physical science to create a living bird from its DNA particularly as it is physically impossible to create a smart meter that works.

  108. Blackout prevention system mobilised as Britain battles low winds
    First capacity warning in two years later withdrawn

    Matt Oliver Industry Editor
    14 October 2024 3:03pm BST
    Matt Oliver

    ***************************************

    Edward Bentham
    5 hrs ago
    South African style load shedding and energy rationing within the decade are an inevitable consequence of this government’s energy policy.

      1. Buy a generator, Conway? We have one on standby for when leccy cuts out due to lightening, flooding, whatever.

          2. The genny? Petrol and oil. The heating is oil and I have solid fuel as well plus open fires. At the moment, I'm using the oil (going to have the tank replaced on Wednesday), but will light the Rayburn once that's done.

          4. Yes. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. I don't have mains gas; I have Calor for the cooker (summer use only; the Rayburn cooks the food when it's lit).

          6. The Calor stove is just an ordinary cooker – exactly the same as the one it replaced, except that was electric!

    2. Assuming it's only to heat a room or lower floor.

      Get one with a lower level ash tray with a separate door for ease of cleaning.
      Ensure the upper door is big enough to get your standard size logs in easily.
      Buy a heat activated fan for the top to spread the heat.
      Only use well seasoned wood.

      Enjoy it, they're great in the sitting room.

      1. For twenty years we had a Vermont Vigilant top loader but with glass doors. The Vigilant would burn anthracite nuts or seasoned timber. It eventually suffered an explosive crack in the top where there was an aperture for stainless steel
        Warming rods. Stress induced around the hole I suspect.

        We replaced the Vigilant with a smaller more modern downwash type which keeps the glass cleaner if set correctly.

        We have a magnetic temperature gauge on the flue and a fan to distribute the heat as photo attached.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/968ddaeab1cc6f6965ff2878a3469d71c3747e3f19f482af6d356c8da26c0d29.jpg

    3. Best thing we’ve done! We have a Heta 550 and it’s dual fuel, very easy to light and instant heat! We have a very old cottage with thick walls and a large sitting room where the stove is situated. The heat obviously rises and the landing and bedrooms are warm. Easy to clean, and large door!

      1. ^^^ this.
        We only use the woodstove in the winter.
        Consider getting one with an oven as well!
        Some suggestions…
        Don't bury it in the fireplace where you have to stoop down to reach it and all the heat goes up the chimney.
        Have a nice free-standing one that's easy to reach and easy to clean/ load with logs. Get one that you put the logs in through the top (less stooping)
        Consider placing it so that you can fit in a clothes rack somewhere near it.
        Get one with the simplest possible mechanism (subject to current regulations) so that there's less to go wrong.
        Look into water heating / heating systems, eg vents into other rooms
        Check the size of the logs that it takes, eg 33 cm long
        If you cut your own trees, you have to store the wood under cover for at least a year before you use it.
        Pallets are untreated so you are allowed to burn them, though hard wood lasts longer of course.

        1. For some time I've been tempted by a French style cast iron stove for the spare bedroom. It feeds from the top and would be free-standing (a chimney and hearth, but the actual fireplace has been bricked up). Trouble is, while I saw one some years ago (but obviously didn't buy it), I can't find the same thing again.

        3. Modern ones are very effective and give out huge heat. Older designs are less effective, majoring in cosy but not kilowatts…

    5. 394702+ up ticks,

      Evening JB,

      Go the whole hog, get the back boiler oven type,
      for maximum benifit.

    6. WE and Firstborn have one (actually, we have two).
      You need to decide whether you want just heat, or to be able to see a cosy fire as well – we have a stove with a glass window in the living room, and downstairs a cast-iron stove with no windows but several "layers" to emit heat.
      Only burn properly dry wood.
      Ash is lovely wood, burns beautifully to dust.
      Have the chimney swept once a year. Keep a big stack of wood drying, close to the front door.

    7. We've had Austroflamm Stola Stove for around 2 decades. No faults at all, easy to keep clean. Doesn't heat water. Burns solely wood, cut from our own trees, left to dry at least a year in logs (you may find suppliers want to charge you excessively, check locally – you'll need a good supply if you don't have your own). You'll prob need some firesticks cut smaller to get it started – if your wood is a bit damp may even need a firelighter, on top of curled up newspaper. I quite like to start it in reverse – bigger logs at base, building to paper at the top. Chimney never swept after first couple of years – supplier said waste of time and money, Buy from a reputable seller, usually an agent. Hope that helps…any other q's just ask 🙂 (I'm far too lazy to clean the glass, seems to do it on its own from heat.) Oh and you'll need to stand it on s/steel base or firebricks or similar. Immersion heater heats water. Heats a very large room btw with a lot of glass.

    8. I've got an AGA Much Wenlock stove – the SE version (compliant for Smoke Emission zones/areas). No functionality for indirect heating so Air to Air Convectional & Radiant Heat only. Burns wood and smokeless fuels. Net efficiency for both is about 81%. Energy Efficient class A+ and is Eco Design Standard 2022 compliant. Heat output 4.5kW.

    1. It's all part of the slow exposure by the WEF-owned media to demonstrate national governments' betrayal of their people – to funnel them into the gaping mouth of the WEF's/NWO communist One World Government. We get so bogged down by the detail in all this it is difficult to remember their true agenda, the bigger picture. We are being carefully manipulated towards their intended outcome.

      1. Did you see the report of the poor woman who was walking a chihuahua and got trampled to death by a herd of cows?
        Don't walk dogs near cows and if you are approached by the cows let the dog go, it will be able to fend for itself and it's the dog they are concerned with.

        A very sad story.

    2. Yes. I don’t believe it would be done without orders from above (and I don’t mean The Almighty). What’s going on?

      1. Rats
        Sinking ship
        Starting to get their retaliation in first?
        Who knows, but I don't trust any of them.
        In 50 years, assuming it's still their BBC, archivists will be calling the old articles up to show that the organisation really did post all sides.

        Even though you, who was there at the time, know they didn't.

    3. Yes. I don’t believe it would be done without orders from above (and I don’t mean The Almighty). What’s going on?

  115. Here we go again.
    Not content with pissing of Indias Modi with his disastrous efforts over the past few years, Trudeau has now decided to expel the Indian High Commissuoner and five other diplomats because of suspected involvement in nefarious criminal activities. Well maybe. Modi hax said that he has recalled his diplomats from Canada as well as expelling half a dozen Canadian diplomats.

    Would it be crass to suggest that Trudeau is happy to have this distraction after just after news broke of a backbench rebellion that demanded his resignation?

    we can only hope that the emporer falls.

  116. These tales are beginning to become prevalent. So many younger people, fit people in their prime being struck down and then we get a shitstorm of articles blaming something that people have been doing for decades.
    I bet if they actually published the real figures of people who died from lung cancer smokers would be a minority percentage.

    1. At the time, I didn't have a place for it. Actually, I think it was a French stove, a petit Godin.

      1. We joke that one day we see something here and think "that looks good, let's try some",
        the next week you can't find it for love nor money, although that tends to apply to food in the supermarket and the local markets.

  118. If this is true one of the world's best footballers is a goner.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13958981/Kylian-Mbappe-accused-rape-Swedish-hotel-police-investigation.html
    The 25-year-old French footballer earlier dismissed the claims as 'fake news' and wrote on X: 'It's becoming so predictable, just before the hearing as if by chance,' referring to tomorrow's hearing as part of his fight against his former club PSG over £46million in unpaid wages and bonuses.

    What a nasty sordid world it now is.

  120. Steerpike
    Five flops from Labour’s investment summit
    14 October 2024, 3:48pm

    It’s investment summit day for Sir Keir’s Labour government and, like much else about Starmer’s reign, it hasn’t got off to the greatest start. Despite drafting in the King to win over big business, the Starmer army has still managed to rather make a mess of proceedings. From reckless cabinet minister comments to embarrassing email errors, Mr S has pulled together a list of all the lefty lot’s summit slip-ups so far.

    Privacy problems
    It transpired just days before Sir Keir’s big investment summit was due to kick off that the government, er, accidentally leaked the email addresses of a number of industry big wigs – including that belonging to fifth richest man in the world. Sub-optimal to say the least.

    Whitehall spinners blamed an ‘administrative human error’ for the unintentional sharing of French businessman Bernard Arnault’s email address, alongside that of several other summit invitees, last week. It emerged the billionaire founder of luxury group LVMH had his email CC-d into an exchange, meaning that his contact details were shared without his knowledge.

    The Department for Business and Trade has apologised over the possible GDPR breach – and flagged itself to the data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office. It hardly proves the Starmtroopers’ case that the ‘grown ups‘ are back in charge, eh?

    Starmer’s Elon snub
    Despite tech gurus galore featuring at today’s business bash, one rather notable character didn’t quite make the cut. Twitter CEO Elon Musk is not in attendance at the summit – with the Beeb claiming his snub is down to ‘his social media posts’ during the August riots. The government, however, is a little less keen to specify why an invite was not extended to the US billionaire with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds telling Sky News on Sunday: ‘I’m not going to comment on particular invitations for particular personnel.’

    Science Secretary Peter Kyle was similarly tight-lipped on Times Radio today, insisting:

    Elon Musk has never come to any of the past investment summits that have been held under the previous government, he doesn’t tend to do these sort of events, but I stand absolutely ready to engage with him.

    Well, they do say actions speak louder than words…

    Transport Secretary veers off the tracks
    Not long before the business bash was due to kick off, Starmer had his work cut out trying to get on top of a fallout started by his own Transport Secretary. Louise Haigh delivered some stinging remarks about P&O Ferries in an ITV interview last week after it made yet another lay-off announcement. But after declaring that P&O was a ‘cowboy operator’ that should be boycotted, the Transport Secretary appeared to overlook the fact that the company is a subsidiary of DP World, whose chairman was billed to announce a £1bn UK investment plan today. Talk about bad timing…

    The row escalated when Haigh, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, sent out a joint press release critical of the company – which, it has since been claimed, was signed off by Downing Street. DP World then decided to pull its announcement at the summit – a decision which could have cost Britain all of that £1bn. In a hasty effort to control the damage of the spiralling situation, a No. 10 spokesperson declared on Friday that ‘Haigh’s comments were her own personal view and don’t represent the view of the government’, before adding: ‘We welcome P&O Ferries commitment to comply with our new seafarers legislation and we continue to work closely with DP World.’

    After a few days of desperate spinning, all that back-tracking just about worked. DP World was in attendance at the business pow-wow today – and has just unveiled its billion-pound plan to expand the London Gateway container port. No thanks to Haigh, though, eh?

    Calendar clashes
    Back to Sue Gray who – despite her defenestration as Starmer’s chief of staff – is never out of the spotlight for very long. The timing of today’s investment meet is all rather odd, given that Chancellor Rachel Reeves still hasn’t presented her first Budget to the nation. Businesses are griping that they can hardly pledge to merrily invest their millions, when they don’t even know what the fiscal framework is going to look like…

    What with the election timing, recess and conference season, Sir Keir’s business bash is taking place a fortnight before Reeves’ Budget. This is due to meet an election pledge to hold a global summit within its first 100 days in office. Might it not have been better to not make such a pledge and host the jamboree next year, to give businesses a sense of what the future might look like?

    Sue Gray was the woman charged with transiting planning and ought to have been able to see that clash coming. Then again, as one Labour aide told the BBC: ‘If you ever see any evidence of our preparations for government, please let me know.’

    Old promises
    And on the question of how significant the investment summit has been, Mr S is curious about how much of what is being announced is new exactly. Of the £50bn figure being lauded today, Steerpike would point out that this includes a £24bn green energy investment announced, um, last week. ‘It’s hard to know whether some of this stuff is being double, triple or even quadruple counted,’ as Ben Wright notes in the Telegraph.

    What’s more is that today’s grand total also includes £20bn of investment by Australian infrastructure giant Macquarie, to cover electric vehicle charging points and offshore wind projects. Yet two and a half years ago, Boris Johnson announced that leading Australian organisations had pledged to invest up to £28.5bn in the UK – including a commitment from Macquarie to invest £12bn by 2030 in projects including, you guessed it, offshore wind. How curious…

  121. I'm thinking of burning some 20 year old hardwood garden chairs, they're held together by lichen, a wish and a prayer.

  122. At my age Monday, Monday shouldn't bother me but its along time since I became a Papa and my good lady became a Moma.
    Oh Well as Peter Green said
    at the time.
    Early goodnight all.
    Might have a wee dram.
    🥃

    2. I'd love to be Grand-dad. Doesn't look ,ike it'll happen in my lifetime.
      Had boys, so a granddaughter would be interesting.

      1. Our eldest granddaughter will be five late February next year. She’s lovely but going on 15 years old. Her bother is nine this week.
        The other two are boy aged five and a half. And his little sister 16 months.
        Into everything available. Keeps us and their parents on their toes.

  123. I thought the cat was reading Playpussy, but after opening in a new tab and expanding, it's Picasso.

    1. Have you seen the size of the Aygo? It's tiny! Deliberately so because I need to be able to get it in the garage AND get out of the car. The newer ones will be too big to do that, so I don't know what I'm going to replace it with next year.

        1. Me too, Lola. Christo's second comment means "It's brass monkey weather", but I am baffled by his first comment. Can anyone explain it for me?

  126. from Coffee House, the Spectator

    Kamala Harris’s ‘Joe Biden’ problem
    Freddy Gray14 October 2024, 1:28pm
    As Hurricane Milton battered Florida last week, Kamala Harris did her best to look and sound presidential. The Vice President hosted a live broadcast with the leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She then called into CNN, live, to reassure Americans that her administration was tackling the crisis. The message was meant to be clear: she’s got this.

    Alas, Joe Biden also wanted to show that he’s in charge and that muddled matters. On Friday, the actual Commander-in-Chief gave an emergency press conference about the disaster from the White House briefing room, which rather overshadowed Harris’s big rally that day in the critical swing state of Michigan.

    Joe and his wife Jill are said to still be secretly fuming about the way he was forced to move aside
    Harris and Biden are not, it seems, singing from the same electoral hymn sheet. The disharmony is starting to make itself heard. Last week, Harris also attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for being ‘selfish’ in his response to Milton. Poor Joe hadn’t got the memo. He praised DeSantis for his ‘gracious’ and ‘co-operative’ response.

    Such mix-ups are partly inevitable: vice presidents running for the top job are eager to use the power of incumbency to bolster their appeal, but the actual incumbent tends to get in the way. We saw similar overlap issues with Al Gore and Bill Clinton in 2000 and George H W Bush and Ronald Reagan in 1988.

    But the unprecedented nature of Harris’s elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket makes her Biden problem even more awkward. Ever since he was unceremoniously bumped out of the 2024 race over the summer, Biden has done his best to sound supportive. ‘I promise I’ll be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s camp have ever seen,’ he told the Democratic convention in late August.

    Most popular
    Sean Thomas
    The end of the car is now

    But he’s conspicuously failing in that mission. That’s partly down to his declining mental health: he often seems to have no idea what he is saying, which makes ‘message discipline’ a challenge.

    Yet the evidence of bad blood between Team Joe and Team Kamala is mounting. ‘The White House is lacking someone in the room thinking first and foremost about how things would affect the campaign,’ grumbled one Harris aide to Axios over the weekend. There are growing tensions between senior retained members of the Biden-Harris campaign and the newer Harris-Walz staffers.

    The two groups have clashing priorities. In order to protect his legacy, Team Biden wants to boast about the resilience of the American economy. In order to win, Team Harris wishes to address voter concerns about the lingering harms of inflation. She keeps saying ‘it’s time to turn the page’ on the failed politics of the past. But Biden’s staff see the glaring flaw in that slogan: Biden and Harris have been in power for almost four years. She is the page she wants to turn.

    In recent days, the Harris campaign has been struggling on any number of fronts. The ‘internal numbers’ in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin reportedly show her falling further behind than public polls indicate. To address that slippage, Harris went on a media ‘blitz’, yet that misfired because she is hard to like and very bad at answering difficult questions.

    It’s increasingly evident, too, that the Harris-Walz campaign is losing ground with lower-income male and non-white voters. Barack Obama duly went to Pittsburgh last week to scold his ‘brothers’ for being insufficiently excited about the possibility of electing a mixed-race woman to the White House. But it’s never a good idea to accuse your own supporters of sexism and Obama’s intervention only added to whispers of panic in high Democratic circles.

    The serving president is not helping, clearly. Joe and his wife Jill are widely said to still be secretly fuming about the way he was forced to move aside. The Bidens are proud people and the President’s wife has reportedly distrusted Harris since 2019, when she attacked her man on the Democratic presidential primary debate stage. As a campaign flounders, hidden animosities have tendency to bubble up. And we can be sure that, if Harris loses, Team Joe will not resist making the argument that he would have beaten Donald Trump.

    Listen to more from Freddy Gray on the Americano podcast:

    Join Freddy Gray, The Spectator’s deputy editor, alongside special guest Nigel Farage, at Americano Live: US election special on 24th October. Book your tickets here

    1. This was No 1 when my youngest brother was born.
      My favourite negro voice was Nat King Cole.

      1. Facebook came with a short biography of him, how he was adopted by a Jewish family, and went on from there to become a good man and great singer.

    1. The web suggests that the chap was a Lt. Colonel O'Conner (O'Connor?) of 1st Airborne Division. The surrender was at Trandu.

    2. They were luckier than the ones in Czechia, many of whom were killed (murdered) after the war officially ended.

  130. On Monday, Google – picking up on what we discussed last week in "Google Turns To Nuclear To Power Its Data Centers" – announced plans to buy power from Kairos Power’s small modular reactors (SMRs) as part of a growing industry shift toward nuclear energy to meet rising data center demands. By purchasing energy from multiple SMRs, Google aims to send a strong market signal while supporting long-term commercialization.

    According to CNBC, senior director for energy and climate at Google, Michael Terrell, said on a call with reporters that "we believe that nuclear energy has a critical role to play in supporting our clean growth and helping to deliver on the progress of AI."

    Meanwhile the plodders in the UK appear to hum and har over Rolls Royce's proven technology…

  131. Called Mother at her care home today. When they were bringing her to the phone, she threw up and was sensibly put to bed.
    Bugger! Hope she's OK, nothing serious, but she normally has the constiution of a granite mountain…

  132. Well, chums, it's just 15 minutes to my bedtime, so I'll now sign off. I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all bright and early tomorrow.

  135. a thought for today….

    "The First Nation British are Cornish, Welsh and Scots. Anglo-Saxons were immigrant boat people…"…….

    1. Didn’t you get the memo? All white Brits men* are evil. And must be exposed as such.

      *except any that are in the self-proclaimed “elite” bucket

  139. 2 hours ago
    The government says it is allowing some "eligible" Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside the British military to resettle in the UK, after they were previously rejected.

    Under the previous government, about 2,000 Afghans who served with specialist units – known at the "Triples" – were denied permission to relocate to the UK after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

    Armed forces minister Luke Pollard told the House of Commons a review had now found some applications were wrongly turned down.

    Pollard said there was no evidence of "malicious intent" in the initial decision-making process, instead blaming poor record-keeping for any errors.

    The so-called "Triples" were elite units of Afghan soldiers set up, funded and run by the UK.

    On Monday, Pollard said the government has so far overturned 25% of the rejections.

    He said a review had found new evidence that some of the Afghan soldiers had been directly paid by the UK government, meaning they were eligible for resettlement – and this evidence had been "overlooked" during the initial resettlement applications.

    These errors were caused by a “failure to access and share the right digital records, and challenges with information flows across departmental lines", he said.

    He criticised the previous government for a "critical failure" in locating the correct paperwork.

    The defence minister said the government had reviewed many of the cases as a matter of urgency because many of the Afghan troops "remain at risk" under Taliban rule.

    Some of the Triples are reported to have been targeted and killed by the Taliban.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8dl9jdwe7o

    1. Considering how quickly Afghan fell apart the second we left they weren't much good, were they? I imagine they were happy to take the cash but buggered about actually fighting. The last people we want here.

      "Challenges with information flows across departments" – or incompetence, bluntly. Like everything government.

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