Monday 15 September: Starmer’s beleaguered Government has lost the respect of the public

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

721 thoughts on “Monday 15 September: Starmer’s beleaguered Government has lost the respect of the public”

  1. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page. Today's Wordle was a Bogey.

    Wordle 1,549 5/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      same here…more cofevfe needed…
      Wordle 1,549 5/6

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  5. Good morning all.
    13½°C, damp after overnight rain & heavy rain yesterday, heavy cloud and windy, but the sky is starting to lighten as the sun rises.

    A few responses to a BTL post of mine:-

    R. Spowart
    24 min ago
    Message Actions
    Ref. page headline, did it have any respect in the first place???

    Ben Alder
    22 min ago
    Reply to R. Spowart
    Well, it had sufficient to give Labour a landslide Commons majority a little over a year ago.

    R. Spowart
    20 min ago
    Reply to Ben Alder
    Message Actions
    A landslide in terms of seats won perhaps, but when considering the actual numbers of those who bothered to vote against those who couldn't be bothered, the real winner was The Apathy Party.

    James Joyce
    18 min ago
    Reply to R. Spowart
    More fool those conservatives who decided not to vote or to vote for an insurgent newcomer trying to destroy the Conservatives. They had it coming and were warned about the consequences. Labour won their supermajority fair and square. Time for some on the right to learn how a first-past-the-post voting system works.edited

    Alan Haile
    16 min ago
    Reply to Ben Alder
    On less total votes than the party won under Corbyn in 2019

    William Downey
    11 min ago
    Reply to James Joyce
    Just how long can you keep rewarding failure?

    R. Spowart
    4 min ago
    Reply to James Joyce
    Message Actions
    What Conservatives were those former conservative supposed to vote for?

    The real Conservative Party had already been destroyed, taken over and replaced by Mr. Cameron's Blairite sycophants, transformed into the New Labor Lite Conservative-In-Name-Only Party.

    1. A response to my posts and a counter response:-

      James Joyce
      12 min ago
      Reply to R. Spowart
      That is an utterly ridiculous analysis and, if that was your justification for abandoning the Conservatives, then you have been given a real wake up call and reminder about what Labour politics really means.

      R. Spowart
      1 min ago
      Reply to James Joyce – view message
      Message Actions
      Sorry James, but I abandoned the TINO Party long before the last election as the Leftward drift gathered momentum under Mr. Cameron.
      As for being given a wake up call regarding Labour, please, do not patronise me. I knew EXACTLY what we were in for, but given the performance of the Tories and the way the wasted the Boris Majority, even allowing for the COVID Hysteria, was the last straw for me.
      The Conservatives at the grass roots now have two options.
      Either kick out the TINOs currently running the party and replace them with real Conservatives, or accept that the party they supported is now dead in the water and sinking and look for a replacement.

      1. I voted Labour in 2015 and 2017, spoilt my ballot paper in 2019, and my vote in 2024 went to the Liberal Democrats. How can I be held responsible for Conservatives failing to get the vote out?

        1. The equivalent of the Tories here in Norway, Høyre, had a terrible election, and no wonder. We never heard anything from them, so hardly anyone voted for them – instead voting for Fremskritt (Progress Party), the equivalent of Reform (ie, ultra-right wing Nazis who eat babies for breakfast). Their leader, Sylvi Listhaug, is rather more photogenic than Farage, too.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a13c71f93f14345ebaf9ca2af9f1ed3a86a7e9b8bc5a4f67c790d424233c20e1.png

          9. One thing in particular sticks in my mind from a few years ago in certain parts of London I think 2020, Jewish people did not get their ballot papers in time to vote.
            The excuse was, administration errors. What Absolute BS.
            But it was never seriously followed up.
            If it had have been our country might not have the ongoing problem we have now.

          11. It just goes to show what a lot of nasty devious people there are floating around in our useless political system.
            If something had been said at the time about Kahnt it would have been charged up as racist.
            They use that sort of code of practice far too often.

        2. My constituency has been true blue for decades. It voted Lib Dem at the last two elections. Disillusionment has been building a while.

    2. If the Conservative government had taken notice of public opinion and stopped the effing boat invasion we wouldn't have been in the situation we are in now. Those in Wastemonster always seem to consider themselves to be 'the hierarchy'. A total misnomer. But let's face it, they are only interested in what they can get out of it and lying to try to cover up their many stupid mistakes, never mind public opinion prior to all the errors or after.

    3. For Labour's landslide win, I blame the Conservative voters who obstinately stuck with their failed party.

  8. Morning all 🙂😊🤗
    11c rain imminent. I Must have a word with Dave our opposite neighbour, his security light kept coming on because his Wisteria was flapping about in the wind in front of the light sensor.
    And Yes indeed our current government needs shifting out of office. They are extremely obstinate and are particularly annoying in so many ways when it comes to overall and obvious public opinion. And seem only interested in wrecking our country and anything else that they can deliberately destroy.

      1. Oh dear that could have been dangerous. 🤔
        Perhaps you should have a sliding bolt fitted for safety.

      3. The porch doors blew open one windy night. I certainly noticed the difference in temperature in the hall, even though the front door was still closed.

  9. Simon Webb.. Hello again, does an interesting comparison of headlines from all the MSN concerning the violent 650K strong far right march and the annual family friendly stab-fest in Notting Hill. Reform friendly Daily Mail & Daily Express match word for word with The Guardian.

  10. Shopping for groceries now seems to produce a bill for £35 each visit. This time last year, it was around £24.

    I don't know how they calculate CPI, but I suspect some creative accounting. They say that inflation is not a "tax on working people", so that makes it all right then?

    1. Well, I expect they are right – inflation isn't tax, and affects everybody not just working people.
      Prices rise due to scarcity of product, scarcity of the components of the product, cost increased in making the product (labour, ingredients, fuel, transport, environment, taxation on these).

      1. On the contrary, inflation IS a tax that reduces the value of our savings so that Government interest payments on its debts become more "affordable".

        1. I know that, and you know that, but political advisers feel they can spin that this is not a "tax on working people".

      2. Is the utter disdain for the plight of family farmers, kicking them with punitive taxation and bankrupt sale of their land, in order to build housing estates for migrants and make loads of dosh for party-backing developers the way to deal with a spring and summer when the grass didn't grow. Council Tax is of course not a "tax on working people", since it is levied disproportionately on the poor.

        Britain has the best beef and lamb and milk in the world, but it seems that when flocks and herds are sent to the knackers for Christmas, we will have to import or pay yuppie prices.

        1. I think the majority of people are going to have to face hunger before they wake up. That's not a good thing but people are far too complacent about the food supply.

          By then it'll be too late because once farms are gone, swallowed by the likes of Blackrock, it'll be very hard to get them back.

          1. We don't need the homes. We need fewer people.

            Is Farage talking about scrapping child and housing benefit?

      3. Inflation is printing more money (inflating the money supply).
        Prices rising is a consequence of that. There isn't much scarcity at the moment, but there is an abundance of funny money that's been magicked into existence at the behest of the Bank of England.

    2. We spend £200 – £240 per week in the supermarket and that includes alcohol. We eat well and don't buy junk food. That is double what we used to spend.

  12. Decorated former detective Jon Wedger uncovered a trove of evidence suggesting that there is organised sexual exploitation of children in the capital on a level that goes way beyond notorious scandals in towns like Rotherham or Rochdale.
    His cop bosses also stonewalled detailed reports about grooming gangs operating in Tower Hamlets, Croydon and Westminster.

    Westminster!

  13. Decorated former detective Jon Wedger uncovered a trove of evidence suggesting that there is organised sexual exploitation of children in the capital on a level that goes way beyond notorious scandals in towns like Rotherham or Rochdale.
    His cop bosses also stonewalled detailed reports about grooming gangs operating in Tower Hamlets, Croydon and Westminster.

    Westminster!

      1. Ah, but Oberst, you're thinking that the carnage these fools have caused is an accident.

        It isn't: this is planned, intentional economic ruin.

    3. Awful woman Camilla Tominey.
      Listen to what Laura Trott said. FFS.
      Keir Starmer has a right to defend the accusations.
      Of course he won't resign.. Starmer has mastered the art of lying and blaming others.

      2. Neither of them come out well. No point in due process! The very term is a nonsense. They lie and get away with it.

  15. Good Morning Folks,
    Bright & Breeezy.
    Central heating going on, it seems earlier every year, despite global warming.

    1. Improving things isn't actually remotely complicated. The problem is not economic, social or inherent. It's entirely political. Their policies created this mess deliberately for the last 25 years.

    1. This cartoon sums up the narrative spun by the mid-wits for the mid-wits.

      If you multiply the attendance by say a factor of say x20 or even x50 to estimate the voter base.. then you have a serious voting block.
      I reckon Farage & Tice, and indeed Rupert Lowe will rue the day they declared.. "we want nothing to do with that lot."

      1. I thought it was “Unite the Nation”, so I just googled it. I didn’t get an answer – just a lot of far-left websites calling Saturday’s event a violent, far-right blah blah rally. None of which accords with what I saw, or the accounts of those who were also there.

        It is quite unbelievable.

      1. Ahoy!! Trevor Phillips is talking loadsa sense. The cartoonist is out of step as is often the case.

    4. Was talking about this yesterday. There's a sense of incredible unfairness at every level. Of systems simply not working as they are expected to. Of paying and paying and paying and paying and getting nothing.

      People are sick of it.

      1. tommyrot
        by 1884, from tommy in sense of "a simpleton" (1829), diminutive of Tom (as in tom-fool) + rot (n.).

        tom-fool (n.)
        "buffoon, clown, trifler," 1640s, from Middle English Thom Foole, a personification of or quasi-personal name for a mentally deficient man or a jester (mid-14c.). By 18c. treated as an emphatic of fool.

  18. I was just thinking this morning that maybe they are engineering a way out for Starmer before the Ukrainian male prostitute arsonists court cases come to pass.

    1. And there's another one in the background too.
      We always wanted to grow giant pumpkins when we were children.

    4. We got caught up in that on our way from Dalkeith to Edinburgh.
      We thought that someone had a had a riding accident.

  21. There was a post last night about the numbers on the march being 150,000 and an aerial view of the crowds.
    Now, I believe from looking at the film that it was more people.

    BUT, let's assume it really is the true number.

    Records of crossings began in 2018 and there are now more than 180,000 illegal boat immigrants that we know about. In other words Saturday's crowd numbers are considerably less than the gimmegrant invasion, allegedly.

    This should be brought to the attention of people who can get proper airtime using that film and making the point.

    We are right to be deeply concerned. We have been betrayed by our politicians.

    Edit for spelling mistake.

      1. I'm sorry True_Belle, I don't see the relevance, unless you're suggesting Toby Young might make the point well.

        2. I'm a member of his Free Speech Union, he invariably makes the point well, now a Lord and hopefully continue to make his voice heard – second chamber needs a shakeup imv.

      2. It just won't work, Maggie…when coffins start piling up is when everyone realises and the rage starts.

  22. Right, two mugs of tea drank, bilges pumped so I'm off to Witham's to pick up my purchase for t'Lad.

  24. I see that the mainstream media in their vain efforts to find something to discredit the Unite the Kingdom rally and portray all those that attended as far right are now turning to what Musk said in an attempt to divert attention away from the huge momentous event that it was.

  25. Either “Helen” used to be “Harry”, or her brother is. She is of course correct – most transsexuals (in theold days) just wanted to live quietly and peacefully. But the so-called “trans-gender activists” (aka thugs) have changed all that. So she is being disingenuous by totally missing the point.

    “Fears around transgenderism are linked to fears around male violence. This is why nobody seems to mind about trans men; they are often physically slighter, and, having lived the first part of their lives in a female body, they will have experienced intimidating male behaviour and are unlikely to want to replicate it.

    It is possible that, very occasionally, a man will pretend to be a transgender woman in order to access female spaces. However, the vast majority of the time, men don’t bother to do that. Men beat their wives, commit violent assault, and abuse their children, just as they are. This is the tragic reality, and all this transphobia is a distraction to stop men from having to look at themselves clearly. Good men, too, because we need them to call out the bad ones.

    I wonder if the loudest transphobic voices have ever knowingly met a trans person. I have. They’re just people, trying to live their lives, and to create an outside that matches how they feel inside. They are not the cause of the horrors going on in this world. Men – normal, ten-a-penny men – are. Helen Clutton Bristol”

    1. I had a trans 'customer ' when I worked at the Jobcentre. He had a huge chip on his shoulder. He tried his best to appear female but he wasn't. He even had his Adam's apple removed. I don't know if he ever got a job as I moved offices while he was still unemployed.

      1. It's really a mental illness in children quite often caused/exaggerated by their (single) mother and/or with a weak father.

        1. Absolutely. As I little girl I wondered what it would be like to be a boy but I didn’t want to be one. I was a bit of a tomboy that was all.

          3. You mean nettles? friend of mine remembered that happening to him when he was just a few years old, still remembered it years later..awful..

    2. In the reasonably good "Secrets of the Underground" series on t'telly – occasionally a man in a frock appears. He is a signalman. If one ignores the exhibitionism (pink hair, hideous garment etc) he is very knowledgeable and interesting about his trade.

    3. I’ve met both flavours. One is a eunuch in a frock and the other is a flat chested tomboy with a chip on her narrow shoulders. He calls himself Tina and she calls herself Ricky. Neither can hide biological reality.

        1. With only 10 blokes you'd probably find a significant number of birth defects and abnormalities.

          Or, if the men each took ten wives no society at all as they'd all build a boat and get away from the nagging.

  26. Good morning Nottlers, 13°C, showers and breezy all day on the Costa Clyde. Starmer’s beleaguered government never had the respect of the public. He got in with less votes than Corbyn, when he lost in GE19, and only garnered around 20% of the low turn out. Starmer’s mantra about 'his' government being given a mandate by the country, would have had the Brothers Grimm blushing.

  27. Yo and Good Moaning all, from a cold dank C d S

    SWMBO and I have had a terrible few days, computerwise, with both of us having new ones.

    There are many handfuls of hair about the place, as we tried to get the machines to work for us

    But we have finally reached the bottom of the hill

    1. Setting up new kit can be tiresome. It can also be a bit of a declutter, getting rid of what you don't use or want?

  28. Jonathan Sacerdoti
    The truth about the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march
    15 September 2025, 6:36am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2235377029-e1757914471999.jpg
    Crowds gather during the Unite The Kingdom rally in central London (Credit: Getty images)

    On Saturday morning, I skipped synagogue and went to the Tommy Robinson march instead. By the time I arrived at Whitehall to collect my press pass for the Unite the Kingdom rally, the sun was shining and the stage was still being set up.

    I had optimistically planned to go straight to Shabbat prayers and return by 1 p.m., when the march was expected to reach its endpoint. But that proved unrealistic. So I stayed put, somewhat overdressed in a suit, and spoke with two Scottish women setting up tables of homemade cakes and snacks backstage. One told me she had been volunteering for Tommy Robinson ever since she first heard him speak about the Pakistani Muslim paedophile rings. Years earlier, her daughter had been raped. She hadn’t realised it was part of a broader pattern until she saw his work.

    I had come with some apprehension. The media had warned that this would be a far-right, racist march. I wanted to see it for myself. To talk to the people there. To listen to the speeches. And quite soon, as volunteers arrived and the crowd began to swell, it was clear this would be a day unlike any I had experienced.

    My husband, who is also my podcast producer, was with me to film for my YouTube channel. As we arrived, he reached into his pocket and took out a kippah, the Jewish head covering, which he wore all day. I wear mine only during prayer. Many greeted him with ‘shalom’ or offered a hug. None were hostile. Those who started conversations with him were warm, friendly and candid. Most didn’t react at all. The only abuse he received was later, from a woman in the so-called anti-racist protest we passed on our way home. (He is a non-white immigrant to the UK.)

    The event itself was a varied mix of speeches, patriotic songs, short film clips and a black gospel choir. It culminated in a surprise live Zoom call between Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk, in which Musk called for a dissolution of parliament and fresh elections – a suggestion met with cheers. Robinson, in turn, praised Musk for restoring free speech on X, which had allowed much of his work to reach the public once again. There were tributes to Charlie Kirk, including a solemn minute’s silence that ended with bagpipes. Among the thousands of Union flags, some held photos of Kirk, visibly moved by his assassination.

    Most speeches focused on recurring themes: British identity, Christian heritage, the damaging effects of Islam in Britain and Europe, unassimilated immigration, and the scourge of paedophile rape gangs. The rally was framed as a defence of free speech, and on that point, it undoubtedly delivered. Many of the views expressed were met with rapturous applause and cheers. Countless people I spoke with expressed the same sentiment: people felt seen, heard, and less alone. They had long been told their views were racist, bigoted or ignorant. Now, they stood among thousands who were unafraid to speak freely, and proud to do so.

    ‘They think we’re common people and we don’t count,’ said one woman attending her first Robinson rally. She had taken shelter under my umbrella as the heavens opened and a sudden downpour drenched the crowd, just as a dramatic Welsh preacher took to the stage and, with a booming invocation to Jesus, appeared to clear the skies once more. With all four seasons in one day, even the weather felt very British.

    Yet not all speeches sat comfortably. While the multiple calls to reaffirm Britain’s Christian foundations were understandable, one New Zealand preacher went too far, calling for the banning of non-Christian places of worship and halal food. A stranger behind us tapped my shoulder and joked, ‘Don’t worry, not you lot!’ I laughed, but the speech left a sour taste. Later, a formidable Māori troupe performed a fierce haka, ripping apart flags of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and a jihadi banner. They ended by waving the flags of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to a roaring ovation. One sensed the crowd had tired of the other kind of march London has seen repeatedly over the last two years.

    It should not be surprising that a festival of free speech would include opinions that some find disagreeable. That is the point. For the most part, the speeches were serious and stirring, delivered by well-known figures of the right-wing internet. Katie Hopkins gave a characteristically expletive-laden address. Visibly emotional, Tommy Robinson delivered a carefully crafted speech, one that was both defiant and hopeful, addressing the social ills that had drawn the crowd together. Whatever one’s view of Robinson, it is hard to deny his determination. Again and again, he has faced formidable obstacles. Still, he endures, and the crowd adores his mettle. Victims and families of the rape gangs spoke with heartbreaking candour. A little girl who had been sent home from school on ‘culture day’ for wearing a Union Jack dress captivated the crowd. Throughout the day, a steady procession of right-wing political figures delivered variations on the same message: frustration, anger, defiance.

    There was confusion over the size of the crowd. Helicopter and drone footage suggested a vast turnout, possibly over a million. At one point, an organiser claimed three million were present, though no one could explain where that figure came from. News outlets reported between 110,000 and 150,000, but that estimate did not match the enormous overflow of marchers filling adjacent streets, eventually surrounding a rather dismal-looking 5,000-strong counter-protest by PLO flag wavers.

    Whatever the number, it far exceeded expectations. Police maintained control for the most part and eventually guided the hard-left marchers out via Trafalgar Square. By day’s end, at least 26 police officers had been injured by protestors throwing planks, bottles and a traffic cone. At least 25 people were arrested.

    None of this was visible from where I stood. The atmosphere throughout was mainly jubilant, though at moments, palpably angry. The most frequently heard spontaneous chant was ‘Keir Starmer’s a wanker’, sung to the tune of Seven Nation Army. Putting aside the more extreme voices, the day was, at heart, a powerful expression of justifiable anger. Anger at political leaders who have dismissed the concerns of millions on matters that are neither fringe nor abstract but urgent and real.

    The government’s response the following day offered little reassurance. Peter Kyle called Musk’s comments ‘incomprehensible’ and ‘totally inappropriate’. Keir Starmer said Britain ‘will never surrender’ the flag to those using it as a symbol of violence, fear and division. Friends and family asked me, wide-eyed, what it was like, as though I had returned from some exotic expedition. But I had not been on safari. I had gone to Whitehall to meet a crowd of fed-up fellow Britons.

    This was a day of pride and dissent, of flags and forthrightness, of people who refuse to be silenced or shamed. That patriotic songs, open speech, and the waving of our national flag are now seen as dangerous by many in our parliament only ensures this will not be the last such march. I left the rally as the gospel choir sang Jerusalem, the anxiety I’d felt on arrival replaced by a warm sense of British pride and a quiet feeling that something is shifting.

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

    LukeAitch
    2 hours ago edited
    I have been looking everywhere for a straight, intelligent account of what happened on Saturday without any luck – until now. Thank you.

    Rosie M Banks LukeAitch
    2 hours ago
    There’s another by Trevor Phillips in The Times.

    Nicola Grevatt Rosie M Banks
    an hour ago
    His monologue on Sky was excellent, forthright and honest, he was there too and so speaks with informed authority. I think Sky took it down because it was a too honest assessment as above… but you can find it on The Daily Sceptic News Round Up.

    Arminius
    2 hours ago
    One the issue of rape in the UK, it is fascinating to see the massive media interest in the alleged ‘racist’ rape if a Sikh woman in the West Midlands.

    Compare and contrast with the situation in over fifty cities and towns where white girls, not women, were not merely raped but groomed, beaten, raped, prostituted and murdered by rape gangs of Pakistani men of Mirpuri heritage.

    These victims are conservatively estimated to have numbered over a hundred thousand and this abuse took place for decades.

    Two-tier justice in the UK?

    Whittaker
    an hour ago
    According the Diane Abbot "There were significantly less than 100,000 people there. Maybe as low as one million."

    1. Extremists always leave a sour taste. You go to a gathering and find yourself mixing with all sorts. I remrmber a meeting against the Common Market in 1975 and encountering anti Jewish activists blaming the international Jewish conspiracy for Britain's woes.
      Here in Spain this year I went to a demonstration demanding the release from prison of a friend's son unjustly incarcerated and found the Palestinians marching with us. Nothing to do with us, they just showed solidarity they said I never went to the next demonstration.

      1. What is an extremist?

        Commonly held views 50 years ago are now deemed to be far right and extremist.

  29. Good Morning!

    Paul Sutton gives us a view from the street report on the mammoth, peaceful and good natured Unite The Kingdom Free Speech rally in London on Saturday. Please read The Unite The Kingdom Rally – The View From The Street and get the true flavour of what many of us think was a game-changing event.

    Graham Bedford wrote on the evils perpetrated on the world and him by Bill Gates, one of the globalist angels of death. Bill Gates and the Excel Pandemic reveals all. Graham is desperate to share his ‘Doom scrolling’ spreadsheet. As he does not want to be the only miserable bugger around. Please make the grumpy old git happier by sending him an email asking for that spreadsheet or preferably his whole collection. His email address is now in the article.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's average power requirement was 26.7 GW, sourced from Gas, 26.7%; Solar, 2.9%: Wind 43.5%; Imports, 17.2%; Biomass, 5.7%; Nuclear 11.5% and Miscellaneous, 4.1%.

    Please sign the petition " Stop the double tax (IHT & Income Tax) of pension funds & death benefits "

        1. Happy birthday VOM, hope you have a great day and don't stand too close to the candles. 🥳🎶🍻🎂🥂

    7. Many thanks for this, but things seem to have got a bit confused as 31st August is the fateful day. However, I'm more than happy to have a couple of weeks shaved off my age!

        1. I like the sound of the regal approach!

          Perhaps I should mention how 'Very Old Man' name came about: I became a parent for the first (and only) time at the age of 44. Therefore I've always seemed very old to my son, especially compared to other much more youthful parents at school events. Think he starting introducing me – in tongue-in-cheek way – as 'very old man dad' quite early on and now, at 74, I definitely qualify!

      8. I think they may have been thinking of me although I post little these days, still read comments as and when I can. Expressing my thoughts would cost me a fortune replacing kicked in front doors after visits from the thought police and truth be told what I would say has been expressed by all right thinking people already.
        I had this given to me today which leads me to think it is that time of year again for another celebration. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4169e06d2899eecf228a5ba2a971d60134df10a8ba10291c568595e3c89bc81.jpg

  31. SIR — Like Richard Cowdell (Letters, September 12), I too prefer a shandy which is half beer and half ginger beer.

    It is, I believe, known as a “shandy gaff ”: an excellent, thirst-quenching drink which is very handy if you are the designated driver, and it is referred to in H G Wells’s The History of Mr Polly.

    Sadly, almost nobody serving me has ever heard of it, so one must be extremely specific when ordering. The combination of ginger beer and lemonade Mr Cowdell mentions is not one I wish to sample again.

    If you are driving, great care must be also taken to ensure that the ginger beer is not itself alcoholic.

    Simon Rose
    London SW18

    A blast from the past.

    "Shandygaff" is a name I have not heard for over 60 years. When I were nobbut a sprog, the nearby mining town of Staveley, near Chesterfield, boasted two rival comapanies that manufactured soft drinks ("pop").

    Hardy & Martin and Kendall & Elliott made a selection of flavoured fizzy water beverages which included the said "shandygaff". This soft drink did have a beer component but was limited to just 1–3% alcohol content making it a suitable beverage for children, invalids and (when warmed) southerners.

    Both aforesaid companies ceased trading in the 1970s so I have never come across the name "shandygaff" since. I certainly was not aware of the ginger beer component.

    1. When I were a nipper of 7 or 8 two of my mother's older sisters lived with us in my mother's family house in St Mawes. The household comprised my mother, my father, my two sisters, a maiden aunt, a married aunt and her husband and me.

      Aunt Bill used to send me down to the Rising Sun for her packet of Olivier cigarettes and a bottle of gin and I was rewarded with a ginger beer and to this day I enjoy a ginger beer shandy.

      Of course the landlord knew me well and knew that the cigarettes and gin were for my aunt and so he was happy to serve me. Nowadays of course a busybody would make a complaint to the authorities and he would lose his licence.

      1. I knew kids who bought cigarettes pretending they were for their parents. Some kids started smoking really young. People would tell me they started at 8 or 9. Luckily I waited until I was 15. But that's because I was less streetwise I suppose.

        1. First person to offer me a cigarette was my mother, I was around 14 at the time. She was doing it to be sociable, not to warn me off. I didn't smoke then, that was later when I stopped to save for house deposit.. None of my children/grandchildren have ever smoked – why pay your hard earned to make yourself ill.

          2. My mother-in-law used to offer cigarettes to my boys when their ages hit double figures. Neither of them have become smokers as I did. Caroline has never smoked but her parents, between them smoked 100 cigarettes a day.

            I gave up cigarettes on December 31st 1987 and married in April 1988.

            I took up a pipe but I very rarely smoke it and never became addicted – indeed I haven't done so for over a year.

          3. Good that you’ve stopped, Richard…I think if some knew the taxes Government collect on tobacco, that might be an incentive to stop. But then, they’d increase other taxes accordingly…more tax, more waste…off to watch Farage’s ‘important announcement’ at 11am….

        2. When I was a child it was usual for people to leave boxes of cigarettes around to which people could help themselves.

          A couple of silver cigarette boxes have been passed on to me but as neither Caroline nor I smoke cigarettes we do not use them for their intended purpose.

          2. Mine died of stomach cancer at 68. Not smoking didn’t help his longevity. My mother, on the other hand, made it to 90 before breast cancer got her.

          3. Father died of oesophagal cancer aged 72. Might have been the late after-effects of smoking, but he stopped in his 40s. His first wife also died of the same. A potential cause for them both was that, at ARE Harwell in the 1950s, they found a case of uranium metal in jars in jars under the marital bed…

    2. Small beer was drunk by everybody at any age.
      It was the only way to make sure water was potable.

    3. The most common use of gaff is as the name for the spear or hook used for lifting heavy fish out of the water. Another gaff refers to loud laughter (as in "his resounding gaffs filled the room" or "he gaffed merrily")—senses found in dialectal Scottish English. There is also gaff meaning "a fair" or "a place of lower-class amusement (as at a theatre or music hall)." In a 1918 collection of essays entitled, fittingly, Shandygaff, American writer Christopher Morley links the word shandygaff to the lower classes, "Shandygaff is a very refreshing drink, being a mixture of bitter ale or beer and ginger-beer, commonly drunk by the lower classes in England, and by strolling tinkers, low church parsons, newspaper men, journalists, and prizefighters." As early as the 17th century, shandy was also being used in dialectal English as an adjective to refer to people who were wild, boisterous, or slightly crazy. Perhaps, the "place of lower-class amusement" sense of gaff and this sense of shandy were blended together. It's certainly not unreasonable to think that people drinking shandygaffs in lower-class establishments got a little wild—we just need to find evidence corroborating this etymology.

  32. SIR — Like Richard Cowdell (Letters, September 12), I too prefer a shandy which is half beer and half ginger beer.

    It is, I believe, known as a “shandy gaff ”: an excellent, thirst-quenching drink which is very handy if you are the designated driver, and it is referred to in H G Wells’s The History of Mr Polly.

    Sadly, almost nobody serving me has ever heard of it, so one must be extremely specific when ordering. The combination of ginger beer and lemonade Mr Cowdell mentions is not one I wish to sample again.

    If you are driving, great care must be also taken to ensure that the ginger beer is not itself alcoholic.

    Simon Rose
    London SW18

    A blast from the past.

    "Shandygaff" is a name I have not heard for over 60 years. When I were nobbut a sprog, the nearby mining town of Staveley, near Chesterfield, boasted two rival comapanies that manufactured soft drinks ("pop").

    Hardy & Martin and Kendall & Elliott made a selection of flavoured fizzy water beverages which included the said "shandygaff". This soft drink did have a beer component but was limited to just 1–3% alcohol content making it a suitable beverage for children, invalids and (when warmed) southerners.

    Both aforesaid companies ceased trading in the 1970s so I have never come across the name "shandygaff" since. I certainly was not aware of the ginger beer component.

  34. 412905+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    I believe individual A/C fans are to be installed on the green benches in the odious tall story club, AKA parliament.

    The fear campaign they rolled out along with a royal seal has majestically backfired leaving them seeking relief from the perspiration of fear, and collars in strangle mode.

    https://x.com/RichardBurgon/status/1967299661623865745

        1. Oh, not you at all, ogga. You'e a bit of a hero. I was replying to Burgon.

          Sorry! I'll add a caveat!

    3. Who is that clown?
      We do face a fascist government, if you define fascism as the merging of big corporations and the state. But that will be the case whichever rosette wins the next election!

      1. I wouldn't. The combination of big government in cahoots with big business is corporatism.

        Fascism is the use of state power to achieve private ideological goals – Labour's clause that promotes socialism, for example. National socialism by the Austrian. Pot's great leap forward. Stalin's purges. Caecescau's… everything.

        1. That is famously Mussolini’s description. Do you count as a private ideological goal, world domination by a tiny billionaire class achieved via the merger of corporate and state power? If yes, then => fascism.
          The UK and US have both fallen.

          1. I don't subscribe to the billionaires are running the planet. They're too greedy to make such a lash up as they are.

            The political class – the mindset of someone who desperately wants control over others – that I would believe.

          2. Western politicians today are just tools. There is not one politician in Britain today with a realistic chance of winning an election that is not compromised from outside the country, and if there was, the compromised civil service would stop them. If anyone goes seriously against the agenda, their country gets attacked (Ghaddafi, Iran) or they get assassinated – and not in a Hollywood style public shooting either. RIP John Magalufi.

            There is ample evidence that billionaires have various organisations dedicated to running the planet (all that WEF/Bilderberg/Committee of 300 stuff is not just tea parties, it’s about buying politicians and other ‘leaders’ and deciding policy for them). It doesn’t bother me as long as they leave me and my family alone. But we are currently in the middle of a vast, orchestrated depopulation event that affects all of us.

            Here’s a fairly mainstream commentary on that, which ignores the elephants in the room (the Georgia guidestones; billionaires until about 10-20 years ago publicly saying that the world is over-populated and something must be done about it; billionaires funding feminism (the most effective way to stop women having children); covid jabs, abortions, billionaire-funded LBGT promotion, contraceptive pills, plastic softeners and other common environmental factors that have been known for years to damage fertility. ) Loss of fertility is not a mystery that baffled doctors and scientists – there are many reasons for it and most of them can be traced back to big corporations or billionaire patrons, all of whom know exactly what they are doing.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfkUc69xFw

    4. The danger is that far lefty Corbyn could replace Starmer .

      Some bods on the media platform say that Starmer presented a slightly right alternative to the Tories , it appealed to the electorate , they thought they were getting sensible politicians .. I mean , a pm with a Knighthood , and a female orientated frontbench and a selection of Muslims representing the ever growing vote base , and then of course In the current Parliament at least: https://www.lgbt.mp/

      75
      MPs are LGBT+

      5
      parties have LGBT+ MPs

      Well now, what could possibly go wrong?

      A record number of Muslims won seats in Britain’s parliamentary elections despite rising Islamophobia, a major Muslim news outlet reported.

      A record-breaking 25 Muslims, up from 19 in 2019, were elected to the House of Commons, the lower house of parliament, said the Muslim Network.

      Among those elected, 18 are from the Labour Party, four are independents, two are from the Conservative Party and one is from the Liberal Democrats.

      The outlet highlighted that Muslim voters’ support for Gaza significantly influenced the election, with five independent candidates, including four Muslims, winning seats.

      Noting that more than 3.4 million Muslims are living in the country, it said the election marks a significant milestone in the UK’s political landscape, reflecting the increasing diversity and the impact of Muslim communities on British politics.

      1. Corbyn's policies appeal because they're basically theft of other people's money for their own gain.

        This collapses when people simply stop working because … well, why would you?

    5. This Burgon guy is a fascist twat. Robinson has friends who are Muslim, black and Jewish. If he wants to know about Tommy Robinson he should google Robinson's address to the Oxford Union.

      1. He doesn’t want to know anything. He’s happy in his echo chamber. Reality would be too much for him to handle.

          2. But most of us (at least the ones who learn from history) knew that change was not going to be for the better.

    8. Words fail me! I agree it’s a dangerous moment, but not for the idiotic fantasy that he burbles on about.

    9. Burgon – A very dangerous moron. How can someone with camel shit for brains be elected to Parliament?

      A clue here perhaps:

      His Leeds constituency profile:
      This seat includes several large council estates. The seat is ethnically mixed and residents are poorer than the UK average.

  35. The “one hundred years ago” section of the Terriblegraph was interesting today, a proposal to mark roads using white lines, to improve safety.

    I had never thought about it before!

    1. When they closed the arterial here to pour speed restrictions all over it – a wide, straight road, limited to 30 from 40, that no one obeys – they also managed to scrub out the white lines.

      As the diversity don't know how to drive, they often sit in the wrong lane. You can be pootling along only to find a dindu deliveroo mopeder right in front of you.

      1. I have just come back from speed limit central (North Wales). At one point the limit changes from 50 to 20 mph – just as you’ve come round a bend. Kerching!

      1. To stretch the metaphor – the blacks carry all the load and the whites set out where the work goes.

        However, this is nonsense, as the diversity don't work.

      2. Quite. They should use black; and to hell with the resulting carnage.
        (Oh heck, now we've given them ideas.)

    3. Norway uses white lines for lane markings, and yellow lines to indicate the division between the driving directions.

      1. The first thing I noticed when I moved to Sweden was the fact that there are no "cat's-eyes" on any road. It was very unsettling at first.

        1. Hello Grizzly 🙂 half the ones locally don't work, having been run over by heavy/constant traffic. Similarly road lights – kaput and not repaired/bulbs not replaced.

          1. Hello, Kate. 😘 Not having driven on roads that have them for some time I'd nearly forgotten about them.
            Old Percy Shaw, who invented them, became rich overnight but still lived in a hovel.

          2. Thanks Richard.😘…roads are so poor in country areas, patches of tarmac gradually sinking…wish I still had my old diesel LandRover….at times feels like I still do 🤨! x

          4. Aaaarggh, so sorry…why I’d do that I have no idea, have made quite a few mis-steps lately. Alan George it is x

          5. Not to worry. By the way, family call me Alan; friends call me George. Long story but started by an old school teacher. I answer to either.

          9. Eric Morecambe once said that if Percy Shaw had seen that cat from the rear, he would have invented the pencil sharpener.

          2. And in Scandinavia, we have a lot of snow, and a lot of ploughing. Breaks the roads up, despite the crews trying to be careful.
            It's tyre change time soon – winter tyres to be put on all cars. Our Golf is the first, 29th September.

          3. December 1 until April 15 here in yer Sverige. Many people, though, (including me) put them on much earlier.

        3. The French use reflective studs at the sides of roads, particularly on autoroutes, but I can't recall seeing them in the centres of roads.
          The effect is similar to that of the old British cat's eyes, but I don't think they self clean if a car runs across one.

      2. I think so does the UK, but in Soton no one uses them. Like indicating, lane discipline is atrocious. Mostly because folk are weaving around pot holes.

        1. Ours also have a sign (in blue and white) on a pole at each end.
          Makes no difference, nobody knows how to use them, anyway.

          1. Swedish cars have indicators fitted, apparently. No bugger knows how to use them though!

            When I was taught advanced driving in the police, on the approach to a hazard I was instructed:

            Mirror – signal – manoeuvre – cancel signal – mirror. It was a mantra we all had to follow.

            Here in Sweden the locals do this: Maneouvre.

            Occasionally you will get: Manouvre – signal (a second later).

            As for mirrors? What they?

          5. Same here, Grizz. Not just road users, though.
            Pedestrians just march into crossings, whether the traffic has seen them or not.
            Cyclists suddenly turn and ride over pedestrian crossings with out warning – hell, they do everything suddenly and without warning.
            Nobody knows how to use a roundabout. And how to use an indicator. Especially on a roundabout.
            Nobody can do a handbrake start – apart from us expat Brits. The rest sit there burning up the clutch.

          6. I learned to drive in the centre of Sheffield, so plenty of hill starts for me. My instructor even took me to a very hard-packed snow site for hill starts and skid work.
            I also recall the massive roundabout in the centre. As I waited for a chance to join the the mess, a bus came up behind me, the driver hooting the horn with impatience. Not to be rushed, I simply waited until it was safe to enter the circus. My instructor said that had I chanced it sooner, I would have received a major fail if it I did that during the test. Of course, if a double decker bus pulls out into moving traffic, most cars would slam on their brakes and let it in.

          7. Swedes drive all the way around a roundabout in the widest (outside) lane! Or they just straddle both lanes. Either way it drives me mad.

      4. I found the Canadian road markings confusing. Thankfully I didn’t have to drive while I was there.

        1. When we have been driven in the centre of Toronto by older son when we have been visiting, I am amazed at how he had adapted to the driving there. Cars (and trucks) seem to weave in and out of congested lanes at the last minute, often with a distinct lack of signalling. It's not much better on the Gardiner and other big highways, though severe congestion slows the speeds (but not the weaving in & out!) at times.
          Until he emigrated 11 years ago, he often seemed to be a somewhat cautious driver.
          To me, it was an absolute nightmare.

          2. When we went to Palermo for a few days, our hotel was close to a main road in the city. The constant blaring of horns was impressive.

          3. I found the rule that pedestrians had right of way at junctions scary. I could never trust stepping off and believing drivers would stop.

          4. On the busiest city streets, we certainly wait at the designated crossings, as do most people.
            But on quieter streets, still very central, we have observed this happening. Cars really do approach each junction on the assumption they may need to stop for pedestrians. We still 'look left, look right …'; it's ingrained from early childhood.
            When son drives us for Sunday lunch at the in-laws in the suburbs, he diligently slows right down and pauses at all junctions.
            i guess it works because it has been that way for so long, and certainly before there were so many vehicles around.

    4. One of those things you take for granted.
      There was a generally accepted system before road markings.
      I think the French drive on the other side because Napoleon wanted to be different.

      1. I learned accidentally while researching something else that Austria used to have one part driving on the right and the other driving on the left! I have seen a Shelf map where the line between the two was shown . The Anschluss ended that, of course. Everybody then drove on the right.

      2. Last year, on arrival from Canada, older grandchild (then aged nearly 9), asked why we drive on different side of the road to Canada.
        MH looked it up, and he came up with, "In the late 1700s, however, teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road." That makes sense.
        Initially, most of the world used the left side. "In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.
        Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword (which would be worn on the left). It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road.

        This article also explains why Napoleon changed to the right.

        https://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/driving-on-the-left/

        1. I was in Ireland last week and one of the youngsters in the office wanted Ireland to switch driving sides…

          1. Carnage. It’s one thing when it’s a relatively few drivers used to the other side of the road, but the mere thought of an entire country changing………

          2. Was in Nigeria when they swapped over. Don't recall too much carnage – well, more than usual.

          4. When working in Nigeria, (Bonny Island) I used to buckle up in the back if any vehicle and keep my eyes closed!

        2. In Ireland they drive on the left but are considering driving on the right. They intend to do this gradually, at first all cars will drive on the right and a week later if this is successful the lorries and buses will drive on the right

          7. Yet Irish drivers are far more likely to drive in the UK than in the rest of Europe so why change?

    5. The next improvement was cats eyes, which were brilliant, but seem to have disappeared from the centre line.

      1. The UK design was good – a stout cast iron socket for protection, and the rubber housing would be pressed down by being run over by tyres, wiping the "eyes" clean on the side of the socket. Well thought through.

      2. I know.. why not..
        double yellow lines parallel to a kerb mean no waiting at any time.

        fast forward fifty years..
        cheaper and less fuss to paint double yellow lines parallel to a kerb to mean one can actually park here.

      3. Invented by Percy Shaw of Halifax when he saw a cat walking towards him at night.
        As Ken Dodd said, if the cat had been walking the other way, he'd have invented the pencil sharpener.

      7. Years ago, while driving at night down the A1 through Lincolnshire, I followed a big lorry for many miles, simply to see where the road went. White lines had worn away to almost invisible. Unfortunately, the lorry turned off at Grantham, then I had to rely on the intermittent cats eyes. White lines wear out many times faster than cats eyes, and are frequently not repainted for donkeys years.

  36. It is becoming apparent that (similarly to muslims) there are two types of leftist; those who would murder you for disagreeing with them and those who would blame you for being the victim of the first type.

    1. I presented a series of questions to a Leftist once. They simply don't know anything. They are just loud, hypocritical, thoroughly thick berks.

    2. The political left theorise without recourse to empirical evidence. I see that “Adolescence” has won a raft of Emmy awards. US federal records show that the 13% of the population who are of African descent commit 48% of violent crimes. The disconnect cannot be acknowledged.

      1. I see the overpaid crisp muncher won "presenter of the year" at some recent ego-fest, presumably due to the pinko bedwetters all voting for him? At least it meant Ant'nDec missed out this year, I suppose.

      2. Crikey. I didn't realise the figures were so stark. Probably the same in this country, though even stronger in our capital city.

    3. Prof Edward Dutton aka Jolly Heretic after the murder of Charlie Kirk went on a 1 hour rant about Lefties.. + several bottles of vin. LOL

      "You only care about yourself. You promote all about kindness & and love of minorities when actually you are only motivated by power. But you are too mentally unstable to launch a fair fight. So you virtue signal yr way to power.. manipulating yr way to power like some teenage girl. You are about resentment. You feel you should have more than you have. And you want to destroy all symbols of power.. all symbols of beauty.. all symbols of that which is good. You promote you should be proud to be mentally unstable & don't do anything about it. Proud to hate your country & yr people. Proud to be a failure. . They tell themselves they are morally superior. This delays confronting what they truly are. They cannot deal with it otherwise they will go mad. People invest in this, and fear it is being challenged."

      This goes on for another 40 mins rant!

  37. Good Moaning.
    From a rather grey Edinburgh.
    We had our quota of sunshine earlier.
    Lovely birthday lunch at the Balmoral; far too much to eat. Thank goodness we didn't have a starter.
    Today, we take granddaughter and her chums to the Surgeons' Hall Museum so they can revel in all things gruesome.

      1. A day spent being chauffeured by Sonny Boy Senior.
        The A1 is quite bearable when all you have to do is sit still and occasionally stop off for a coffee and a bun.

  38. Morning all. Just cooking breakfast (I am off on my travels so I am using up perishables, in this case, bacon and sausage).

    I am not sure Starmer and co had much confidence to lose. Most people I spoke to thought it would be bad. The shock has been just how bad.

    1. Incidentally, on this day 85 years ago the Battle of Britain was was finally won. It didn’t end for another month but the Germans had been defeated in the air.

      2. Churchill believed the defeat of the German air force signified the end of the war with an inevitable victory for the Empire.

          1. On land maybe. But Churchill thought control of the air was more important. Which makes sense I suppose.

      4. I fear that if an imaginary Battle of Britain was fought again with the Luftwaffe equipped with the same armada as they had in 1940 and the RAF with our current force of Typhoons (Eurofighter variety) and Lightnings (F35 variety), the Luftwaffe would win hands down simply by weight of numbers.

        1. They had weight of numbers then. What they didn’t have was Chain Home and Chain Home Low and they didn’t realise the significance of it, so apart from Ventnor, which was soon back in operation, they didn’t really target the stations. Plus, of course, the aerials were difficult targets.

          1. My point was that we have depleted our armed forces to the extent that we would be hard pressed to defend ourselves against a 1940’s enemy. We have some very good kit but in woefully small numbers.

      2. Thank you, Bill. I should arrive on Thursday taking the trip in easy stages. High winds are a menace in a high sided vehicle. It’s pretty windy and cold here at the moment.

        2. Or as the DG of Israel's defence ministry put it "a profoundly dishonourable act of disloyalty"

      1. Peter Mandelson is incandescent with Starmer for ditching him. He thinks he was ‘hung out to dry’ – and is out for revenge.

        2. "Dear Donald,
          You wouldn't believe the dirt I've got on the Labour politicians and the UK establishment.
          It's all yours for a mere $100 mn and US citizenship."

  42. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce97cdeb28e4544e02bcde2e71935cdb3ddfc23dd0d611083f9d0e912f86d297.png
    Point for discussion    .

    Are those countries (highlighted in orange) — where the police, in 2025, still do not routinely carry firearms when on duty — safer as a result of that policy, or should they follow the rest of the world where all police are routinely armed?

    From my own point of view I have long-resisted the need for armed police. That opinion has not changed in recent times since the standard of individual chosen to become a police officer, these days, has deteriorated to such a point whereby I would think that arming them would be a danger to themselves and anyone else around them.

    If we had sensible and trustworthy politicians, who governed over a state where the police were still public servants, then maybe I would change my mind. As it stands, I still think that routinely arming the UK police might be a recipe for disaster.

    1. China doesn't really count. Their method is to beat you, drag you off and disappear you, harvest your organs, or send you to a lunatic asylum. The people fear them and so the last thing you want to do is drew the attention of the police. Another reason is the police aren't armed is because the CCP fears an armed population that hates them. What keeps the police in check is the guarantee of a regular wage. A guarantee no one else gets other than the military or functionaries of the CCP.

      1. But, but!

        China is a communist system where everyone is equal and gets exactly the same. You cannot really be saying that those in charge are beastly to the 'people' who vote for those running the one-party system.

        [Sarc!]

        1. Lately they haven't been able to pay the police or the army on time. Things are starting to unravel in China.

    2. Interesting that China is another.
      I agree with you Grizzly. It's unnecessary most of the time in England and they can be armed when they need to be.

  43. Morning all. I'm going to start of the day with two videos. Dave Rubin hoisting the arch leftist, Skunk Wesel (Cenk Uygur) with his own petard and getting as furious as a cornered rat.

    Second video is Godfrey Bloom discussing the true size of the Unite the Kingdom crowd in London yesterday. Interestingly his calculation was the same as an American who calculated it by comparing it to a Superbowl crowd leaving the stadium. Superbowl crowd is 76,000.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYC-S5IsXa0
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHkWF0v_W4Q

    1. Members of Parliament swear an oath of office upon taking up their seats. Each time they lie afterwards they are committing perjury

      Perjury: the offence of wilfully telling an untruth or making a misrepresentation under oath. Why are these scum not tried and gaoled for perjury?

  44. I'm not quite sure how to put this, but I've recently seen a TV presenter seemingly calling all of the people who took part in the march/gathering in the Capital of England, their home country, as being far right. As they seemed to be condemning theses hundreds of thousands of people for their alleged political opinion, it seems to indicate that they himself are very, very far left wing and possibly should not be allowed to be in a position to be able to broadcast any particular form of extreem or biased opinion.

  45. Many years ago had to provide microphones for very respectful Battle of Britain talk by historian Malcolm Brown. He did, though, mention that 'Never has so much been owed by so many to so few' could also refer to the bar bills run up by the pilots!

    1. Oh dear……..they've had a massive cull in the Forest of Dean and we saw none on our recent visit there.

    3. They cause a lot of damage around here. Fortunately the garden (ha ha) was fully fenced when we moved in.
      Roughly half a mile of fence!, but it works.
      Moles are my bête noir.

      2. We used to have a lot (I like them) none now for quite a few years….perhaps a disease, or weedkiller? No badgers, no foxes…

          4. In Oz with a few mates we use to put our dirt (motor) bikes on trailers and drive up to Narran lakes in land of NSW.
            Stay in the shearer’s quaters of sheep stations ride around with hunting dogs to flush the boar out. And bang, bang, bang.
            Great fun.

          6. The farmer use to give us a whole sheep carcass, we only ate the small piglets because the older ones usually had some sort of disease.
            Left were they were shot most of the remains were gone in a couple of days. Cannibalism.
            We also caught and ate lots of Yabbies in the farm’s water reservoirs.

    5. I can remember seeing them Tuscany about 12 years ago.
      I've mentioned previously that they were also running wild in parts of Oz and use to target sheep in the lambing season. Being attracted by the after birth and even killing and eating baby lambs.
      This also happened a couple of years ago in the UK in the area mentioned. And the idiot reporter blamed domestic dogs for the attacks. Another unessesary silly mistake that was made by those dedicated to 'Re-wilding'.
      The most recent now being Beavers..

          1. You were right, Auntie Elsie. Korky the Kat was on the front page of the Dandy.

            Biffo the Bear was on the Beano.

      1. Hear you, Rik. I suspect he didn't get the support from colleagues he should have with his resistance to Assisted Dying Bill. Badenoch on GBN just now talking about economy (I have no idea what she proposes). Reform will likely form the next government…look forward to the battle with Civil Service.

        1. TBF Cynical as I am about all politicians he was pro-brexit not keen on Convid and sound on another few issues looks like an useful capture for Reform they need experienced operators

    2. 412905+ up ticks,

      Morning C1,
      Adding to the political morphing,warm water, taking place, we really are in need of a back up party.

    3. He was at the Barts debate last year, arguing against socialism with Winston Marshall and Ann Widdecombe?

    4. He was at the Barts debate last year, arguing against socialism with Winston Marshall and Ann Widdecombe?

    5. I'm not keen on these Conservative MPs defecting to Reform because they are not Conservatives, they are LibDems.

      3. Not all the Tories are wet Lib Dems. Kruger is more of a traditional Conservative and has concluded that the Tory Party cannot be saved from the wets.

        Matt Goodwin has written on his substack very positively about Kruger's defection to Reform.
        A few extracts:
        "Danny Kruger is an intellectual heavyweight, somebody who stands firmly in the Scrutonian tradition of conservative thought.
        He is taken seriously across Westminster, including by his opponents. He is seen as a man of integrity and courage. He has written impressively about politics, including authoring the well-respected book Covenant, in which he rejects a politics based upon individualism, social chaos, and narcissism and argues that we need to get back to the three words that now underpin Reform’s revolt —family, community, country."
        "And for these reasons, I would argue, he is also completely aligned with the self-described People’s Army and its foundational principles, including the return of popular sovereignty, national preference, and renewing the social contract."
        Full text (subscription) at:
        https://www.mattgoodwin.org/p/breaking-danny-krugers-defection

    7. I bet he doesn't vacate his seat and put himself forward in a by-election.

      This is the big problem with the electoral system in the UK. Sitting governments who are failing the country should be able to be got rid of!

  48. Good guess today – A pleasant threesome:
    Wordle 1,549 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩🟨🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. 150,000?

      Double that would be my guess, judging by the aerial shots, when you compare memories of 100,000 Wembley crowds marching to the ground for major events.

      2. If you were there it would be difficult to tell. The drone footage shows just how many there were.

        1. By comparison, when one looks at jubilee crowds and football crowds it is very clear the MSM have been playing it down

          1. And when you scan the crowds from both events they are majority white with a spattering of colour.

            Obvoiusly no one from Tower Hamlets or Croydon could make it.

    3. What an nasty minded effing plonker.
      He is.
      And all these lies about the turnout.
      Horrible hate filled creatures.

  50. Bluss – it's chilly here today. Very strong wind blowing. Had to change from shorts to warm trousers. As I did so, an e-mail arrived from my oldest grandchild – 32 today – on holiday in Menorca! Bright sun and 25ºC. Huh!

  51. No comments allowed on this piece. Article by Abbotapotamus. Naturally, no comments allowed. The piece came up randomly, and I'm not sure the link works, so I've c&p some of it.

    "What I saw at Saturday’s rally was racism, pure and simple. Labour won’t tackle it until we can call it what it is.

    I have been on a great many political marches in my time. But Saturday’s rally, facing up to Tommy Robinson’s 110,000-strong “unite the kingdom” march in London, was the only one where I actually felt threatened.

    I was on the anti-racist counter march and we were outnumbered 20 to one. This was startling: on anti-racist marches, we usually easily outnumber the racists. The march organised by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was billed as “a free speech rally”, but free speech in this case seemed to mean people saying anything they wanted about only one subject: immigration.

    Some commentators like to say that mobilisations such as this are only expressions of discontent by people who feel a little ignored. If they had been in central London on Saturday and seen the sea of men (and they were nearly all men) defiantly waving their St George’s flags, some of them attacking the police and spitting at people like me, they might want to reconsider that view. The kind of people who were marching usually take exception to being called racists. But it is hard to know what else to call those of them who gathered in the capital to demand mass deportation and insist that black and brown men are a unique threat to white women.

    Apart from its size, the other thing that was remarkable about Robinson’s march was that it was addressed, via video link, by a billionaire, Elon Musk. He may be a hugely successful businessman, but his grasp of the British political system seemed less than sure. He said, “violence is coming to you, you either fight back or you die” and “I really think that there has to be a change of government in Britain … Something’s got to be done. There’s got to be a dissolution of parliament and a new vote held.” That’s not how we do democracy in the UK.

    And it goes on, and on. She even slates the liebour party now that she has sided with the even more evil extremist Corbin.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/what-i-saw-at-saturday-s-rally-was-racism-pure-and-simple-labour-won-t-tackle-it-until-we-can-call-it-what-it-is/ar-AA1MwZVO?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=68c7f22b7b0c4695ab7ddae66068b0a5&ei=16

      1. Of course not. As well as being plain dumb, she only parrots what suits the agenda, toeing the party line. In other words, she lies.

    4. She should have joined in if she felt so strongly about it. Perhaps being racist her self she wouldn't have felt comfortable amongst so many English citizens..

      1. Or they assumed only a few would actually dare to turn up, so it wasn’t worth them getting out of bed.

      1. But she only has 5 digits on each hand, and forgot she also has another hand and 2 sets of toes to use.

    8. Poor Diane. She should try attending a Tommy rally. There’s always a good racial mix. Yes, the majority are white but any sensible person would compute that that’s because we’re in Northern Europe and evolutionary biology responds to climate.

      The last TR presentation I saw was in Trafalgar Square and there was a young black lad carrying an Israeli flag with a placard declaring his support. A nice looking Jewish lady ran over to give him hugs and kisses. He didn’t appear to be regretting his choice.

      1. She also conveniently didn’t mention that there were scores of women, whole (normal) families, just lied by saying it was mostly men. Well, if lots of men were there to protest against the real danger to our women and children by the hordes of vermin arriving daily…..

    9. She is talking out of her arse. What a race-grifter. What a thoroughly nasty, lying piece of work.

  52. Interesting Comment from GP(Antiochman)
    "Ignore the theatre.

    Reform aren't the solution, nor the future.

    They are the fulcrum for the revolution.

    Those who unseat the old order never thrive in the lee of the changes they have wrought.

    What comes after – only a fool would claim to know.

    Hopefully it will include a comprehensive process of Truth and Retribution so that it will be many generations before those who might wish to enslave us are emboldened to try again"
    We are in danger of a "purity circle" splitting the Right Reform might not be ideal but they are the best chance for some electoral change the alternatives are too hideous to contemplate

    1. Something needs to happen desperately.
      We have more 650, plus the Lords and the hundreds probably thousands in Whitehall who obviously could not run a bath between the lot of them.

    2. They certainly are the fulcrum for the revolution, however, the result is already being planned and the fulcrum is part of the plan. You are supposed to vote Reform, so that they can use the wave of popularity to put through changes that you wouldn't accept from the Tories or Labour.
      They have even told us straight out that the chaos for which they are responsible (end of fiat currencies) is the perfect moment to put through a "great reset."

      Pandemic planning:
      https://jamesroguski.substack.com/p/stop-the-pabs-negotiations?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
      Rewilding most of the world and banning humans from setting foot in it:
      https://iucncongress2025.org/
      Controlling money
      https://www.globalgovernmentfintech.com/
      Controlling us:
      https://www.id2020.org/
      etc etc.

      If even 5% of the population rejects these things, the great shyte reset won't happen as planned. Just opt out!

    3. The advantage Reform UK have now is a large lead in the polls (I won't say unassailable) and more than 3 years to organise a working government. Danny Kruger's recent defection (he's a true conservative too) might well be the start of something more. He also has a voting history in Parliament that bears up to decent right wing values. Today's news conference alongside Nigel Farage was good.

  53. The French newspaper, France-Soir, has used aerial photographic evidence to show that the crowd in London was well over a million.

    Why are the MSM and the politicians in the UK lying to us and saying that the crowd was between 100,000 and 150,000!

    Foule monstre à Londres, Tommy Robinson fait le plein
    France-Soir avec AFP : le 15 septembre 2025 – https://www.francesoir.fr/politique-monde/foule-monstre-londres-des-incidents-avec-la-police

    Une foule monstre, estimée à plusieurs millions d'après les images d'hélicoptère, a participé samedi à Londres à un rassemblement à l'appel du militant de droite britannique Tommy Robinson………. .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcc87edf15a902532d4a6f045c16f51b87c96c309207cd904bc6a48bfd53f045.png

    2. Answers rhetorical question:

      Pretty obvious really. One Hundred thousand you can dismiss as irrelevant noise however a million would ned to npbe acknowledged.

    3. Oh dear.. with those kind of figures.. and if the momentum holds.. and if Farage & Labour keep digging their holes.. could easily translate into an Advance_UK lead in the polls.

      1. I think you might find an awful lot, if not a majority, of Reform UK voters among those attending.

      2. Apparently a lot of Farage refugees are joining Advance. Not surprising really. Farage aught to be called the Grand Prevaricator. Less charitably, the two faced hypocrite.

        1. I quite like Habib, signed up to receive Advance emails several weeks ago. Think I've had two, one welcoming me, and the other about something else, I forget what.

  54. Wage fairness

    SIR – The UK's minimum wage policy, while well-intentioned, is now actively damaging our economy. Real wage levels are determined by market forces – by the balance of supply and demand for labour. When the state imposes an artificially high minimum price for selling one's labour, it upsets this balance and creates unintended consequences.

    The most visible of these is worklessness. One million people under the age of 25 are currently not in employment, education, or training – a figure that should alarm any policymaker. The combination of elevated wage floors and generous welfare entitlements has created a disincentive to work, particularly in entry-level and low-skilled roles.

    Recent analysis from the Centre for Policy Studies shows that taxes now account for over 21 per cent of total labour costs for minimum-wage workers: the highest on record. Employers, especially small businesses, are facing a double burden: rising wage obligations and increased National Insurance contributions. This is not just squeezing margins; it's preventing new businesses from forming, particularly in sectors like hospitality, retail, and agriculture where low-wage roles are essential to viability.

    I therefore propose a bold rethink: scrap the statutory minimum wage and allow wages to be set by market conditions. This would enable small businesses to flourish, create more entry-level opportunities, and – contrary to popular belief – lead to higher average wages over time as competition for labour increases and productivity improves.

    Let us not confuse wage control with wage fairness. True fairness lies in opportunity, not artificial constraint.

    William Burgess
    Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

    Abolish the minimum wage! Dash food from the mouths of babes!

    1. All true, but there are not a million jobs available or anywhere near that so if the handouts were cut, what would these people do?

  55. First sitting Tory MP, Danny Kruger, defects to Reform
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/15/politics-latest-news-nigel-farage-reform/

    BTL

    I hope that Danny Kruger has the integrity to stand down and then run again in the by-election as a Reform Party candidate.

    Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless did this when they switched from the Conservatives to UKIP.

    By contrast, Anna Soubry – and many others in the past – left the party under whose colours she had been elected – without any reference to the voters.

      1. The problem with the Union Jack is that flying a flag upside down is a sign of distress. Who would know with the traditional flag?

        1. I take that story with a pinch of salt. Certainly no-one from another country would be able to tell the difference (and a good many people in the UK, judging by how many Union Flags are upside-down on lamp-posts and being carried around on marches).

      1. I'm not much bothered where the dragon goes. It could go up in the left hand quadrant as an alternative, I suppose. But it would be nice if the Welsh were properly represented even if they speak some primitive unintelligible language and live off leeks and daffodils.

  57. Kemi Badenoch's reaction to defection.. LOL Pitiful.

    After a million plus Advance_UK voters descended on London you'd think she would read the room and declare Phase II of her tenure by committing to:
    Undoing Blair..
    Mass Deportations..
    The enforced Abdication of The King of Diversity..
    Banning of Islam in any position of power & government..
    The public execution of: Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, KC3, Campbell, Khan, Lord Haw Haw O'Brien, Grieve.

    1. I don't think she even wants to be PM. She is not as stupid as Rachel Reeves, she doesn't want to be put in the hot seat to be hated because of the laws she has to put through. Much better serve her term as leader out quietly and be rewarded with a seat in the Lords.

      1. I feel rather sorry for her. But why did she ever apply for the job?

        Caroline and I applied for a couple of Headships when we first got married and, Thank God, we didn't get them.

        We have a much better life – a life we could never have had had we not been self-employed.

  58. And back from Colsterworth, which is actually the closest village to Whitham Vehicle Sales, after a rather pleasant, if somewhat windy, morning's drive.
    After a bit of a detour to get round a closed road just after Melton and picking up my purchase, I stopped off at Buckminster on the way back to look round a Junk Emporium/Farm Shop/café and had a mug of tea but did not eat there as I was planning a breakfast at Asfordby, but did buy a few food items.
    Got to Asfordby and the bloody café is shut on a Monday!!
    So after a nose ache round the rather good charity shop and quick glance through the Yellow Flash shelf of the Co-op, headed home, but did manage to get to t'Lad's to drop off his new surface plate.
    Now sat with mug of tea and have just had a bit to eat.

  59. Britain is now treating Israel as an enemy state

    Labour seems to be terrified of losing votes to sectarian Muslim candidates

    Stephen Pollard
    14th September 2025, 6:31pm BST

    Speaking at a press conference last week in which he announced sanctions against Israel, Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, bemoaned not having any nuclear weapons – because it meant he couldn't use them to threaten Israel.

    It's certainly true that neither Sir Keir Starmer nor any member of the British Government has yet threatened the Israelis with nuclear apocalypse.

    But every week brings another example of how, under Labour, Israel is now being treated as an enemy state. Today we learn that the Royal College of Defence Studies will no longer accept students from Israel, the first time it has barred Israelis since that nation's creation in 1948.

    As Amir Baram, the director general of Israel's defence ministry (who studied at the college) put it in a letter to the Ministry of Defence, the ban on Israelis is "a profoundly dishonourable act of disloyalty to an ally at war" and a "disgraceful break with Britain's proud tradition of tolerance – and plain decency".

    For decades Israel has been a key ally of the UK and vice versa. Our military cooperation has been intense, to the huge benefit of both nations, and Israeli intelligence has been pivotal in preventing terror attacks here. But while no formal announcement has been made, it is clear that the Government has decided from day one that those decades as allies are now over.

    From the very beginning of its time in office it has treated Israel not as an ally fighting a proxy war on behalf of the West to defeat Islamist terror, but as a rogue state to be punished. Within weeks it restored UK taxpayer funding to Unrwa, the UN aid body some of whose employees were reportedly found to have taken part in the October 7 2023 Hamas massacre; it blocked the export of some arms to Israel; and it backed the ICC's arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defence minister.

    And, most perniciously, in July Sir Keir Starmer pledged to recognise a Palestinian state if there was no ceasefire in Gaza – in effect rewarding the terror group for its massacre, and explicitly refusing to make this conditional on the release of the remaining hostages.

    It is difficult to think of much more the Government could do to signal that it regards Israel as a nation to be punished, short of perhaps going one step further than the Spanish prime minister and actually threatening Israel with nuclear weapons if it does not unilaterally give up its military action to destroy Hamas.

    The Royal College of Defence Studies' website makes clear that Israel is no longer being treated as an ally by the Government. It says that: "we offer extensive training to our international allies." Since Israelis are no longer welcome, it is clear they are no longer viewed as allies.

    None of this should come as a surprise, and we are going to see more of the same. Much attention is focussed on how Labour is under threat from Reform, but not enough has been paid to the other side of the pincer movement which is giving Labour nightmares: the threat from some sectarian Muslim candidates. There are 37 constituencies with a Muslim population over 20 per cent, and in a further 73 seats the Muslim population is between 10 and 20 per cent. Labour's vote fell by over 14 per cent at last year's election from 2019 in those constituencies where the Muslim population was above 15 per cent.

    This is what is driving Labour's policy towards Israel. At the very least it is reckless. And although Israel has no real need for any of the arms it buys from the UK – less than 1 per cent of its arms spending – the opposite is not true. Our army relies heavily on the world-leading defence tech supplied by Israel. Labour is putting all that at risk through its craven fear of voters driven by their hostility to Israel.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/14/britain-is-now-treating-israel-as-an-enemy-state

  60. Bob Vylan represent the worst of Britain

    As much as Tommy Robinson embodies extremism, so does Pascal Robinson-Foster

    Nicole Lampert
    14th September 2025 7:06pm BST

    There was much gnashing of teeth by the liberal establishment over the Tommy Robinson march. John Simpson, the BBC's veteran reporter, spoke of his horror that "extremists and rich American ignoramuses" wanted to take "calm, peaceable, tolerant, rational, stable, essentially moderate" Britain away from him.

    But when extremism comes from the Left, there seems to be silence. And perhaps it is that silence that has led to some people marching.

    If we want to talk about extremists who represent the worst of Britain, yes, there is the convict Tommy Robinson, so beloved by the global far-Right, but there is also the punk rap duo Bob Vylan, whose violent chants from stages around the world shame our nation.

    The band's frontman, Pascal Robinson-Foster, became famous overnight for his condemnation Zionists and cry of "Death, death to the IDF" from the Glastonbury stage, repeated by a rapturous crowd, which was aired on BBC iPlayer. By the time the BBC had taken it down and apologised, the chant "Death, death to the IDF" became a new global demand for the death of Israelis, echoing from Somerset in England to Melbourne in Australia, where it was subsequently repeated in anti-Israel demonstrations.

    Although UK police are still investigating him over the Glastonbury incident, Robinson-Foster went one step further at a gig in Amsterdam's Paradiso venue on Saturday night.

    First, he gleefully rejoiced in the horrendous murder of American Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at a university event in Utah, grinning: 'I want to dedicate this next one to an absolute piece of s*** of a human being.'

    Miming a gun being shot, he added: "The pronouns was/were. Because if you talk s*** you will get banged. Rest in peace Charlie Kirk, you piece of s***."

    During the performance, he also urged attacks on Zionists. "F*** the Zionists," he screamed. "Go find them in the streets." And once again, he led the chant, "Death, death to the IDF." Throughout it all, a rapturous crowd roared their approval of his screams of violence. That is the most chilling thing of all.

    His inflammatory comments came in a city which nearly a year ago some Dutch Muslims attacked Israeli football fans over two days of violence which they called going on a "Jew hunt." It had led to Dutch MPs across the political spectrum condemning the act. Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Party for Freedom accused this British band of trying to instigate "a new Jew hunt" while liberal leader Rob Jetten said that this was not freedom of speech which should mean people can "disagree with each other" without violence.

    The murder of Charlie Kirk and the joy some on the Left have taken in it is a sign that something is deeply wrong in our society. As much as Tommy Robinson represents extremism, so does Robinson-Foster. And it is hard to say which of them is more dangerous.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/14/bob-vylan-represent-the-worst-of-britain

    Perhaps Ms Lampert could tell us when TR called for the deaths of his political opponents.

    1. Brendan O’Neill has an article on this in Spiked. Here are the last two paras:

      “Bob Vylan are basically Guardianistas with guitars. They’re an episode of The New Agents put through a feedback amp. They’re Rory Stewart with dreadlocks. ‘I heard you want your country back. Ha, shut the fuck up!’, they wailed at Glasto, thrilling the assembled entitled arses with a hit of Remoanerism, hands down the most elitist ideology of our time. That taunting of Britain’s riff raff who ‘want their country back’, for the titillation of a sea of EU-loving poshos, is Bob Vylan summed up. ‘Death to the IDF’, they yelped, when the only thing they’ve ever killed is punk rock.

      Here’s the thing: that the cult of nihilism now washes over the conformist middle classes reveals what a worrying moment we are living through. ‘Where they burn books, they will in the end burn people’, said Heinrich Heine. Yes, and where privileged youths will cheer the cancellation of ideas, they will in the end cheer the cancellation of life. Let’s give the final word to a proper punk, Johnny Rotten, who knows a fascist when he sees one: ‘Hamas are basically just Jew exterminators, that’s their only real purpose.’ Wait, you don’t want people to be killed by fascists? Fancy that. Rock on, John.”

    2. “Calm, peaceable, tolerant, rational, stable, essentially moderate Britain” was taken away from us by multiculturalism. Mr Simpson needs to step outside his bubble.

    3. Let's not forget that Holland was a country that enthusiastically turned its Jewish population over to the SS.

      1. No, many Dutch families sheltered Jewish people, but didn't shout about it.
        On the other hand, the French authorities enthusiastically deported Jewish children in spite of the fact that the Germans had only asked for the adults.
        Yes, there were Dutch collaborators, and an elderly lady once told me that in her school class there was one pro-German boy and he was severely insulted, etc by the rest of the children.
        If you ever want to hear about bravery in the Netherlands, please read this:
        https://ww2escapelines.co.uk/article/the-two-pennies/
        (apologies, I have posted this previously)

          1. There are suspicions but never any solid evidence of this. The Germans who arrested the Franks and others were in the building for over an hour investigating rationing fraud before they discovered the secret staircase.
            The Arnold van den Bergh accusation doesn't make sense because I cannot see why Jews in hiding would be on a centrally held consolidated list of those in hiding.
            https://search.brave.com/search?q=who+betrayed+anne+frank&source=desktop&summary=1&conversation=dd94937e2277e887b851b3

        2. Sorry, Tim, but it is sadly true that even the Germans were surprised (and there is written evidence for this in letters and telegrams they sent to their superiors in Germany) at the level of support they got from the Dutch population in rounding up the Jews.
          70% of Dutch Jews died in concentration camps, which is much more, as a proportion of their population, than in any other country, even in Germany itself.
          The Dutch are very shy of speaking openly about this, and are quite rightly very proud of those people – such as my great-aunt – who sheltered Jews. The less said about the scum who collaborated, the better – but please don't get the impression that most of the Dutch were such heroes, that is huge self-deception on the part of the Dutch (and I speak as a Dutch national myself!).

          2. Not very courageous – my family were on the right side! My mother, living in Rotterdam, became a messenger for the Resistance at the tender age of 12. My father lived in provincial and still pretty rural Maastricht where they had a much easier time of it all. I recently discovered that my great-aunt had been arrested under suspicion of harbouring Jews, and that she was tortured; the latter I didn’t know as she never spoke of it, even though she did tell me about how she lost her temper at a young whipper-snapper of a German soldier who made difficulties about her riding a non-regulation bicycle, which she shouldn’t have done because she had Jews in her flat at the time. Fortunately the chap crumbled under her steely eye (she was quite a formidable teacher!) but it could have ended in disaster. A close call, that was. I don’t know what the circumstances of her actual arrest were, but we were told that it gave her nightmares for the rest of her life.

          3. What a wonderful story of how ordinary people can show extra-ordinary heroism. I hope that you are recording it in some way so that future generations, particularly in your family, will know what true unsung courage means. Frankly, I don’t know if I could do what your family members did – I would like to think that I would but I am not certain. If you ever get the chance, visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre in Israel as it pays tribute to the Righteous Among the Nations – Gentiles who helped Jews during WW2.

        3. One of my friends is a Dutch retired policeman. He wrote a book about the collaborators and those who turned in the Jews. They did more than was asked of hem.

  61. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a60373184218465d17f79f5cf0bd330836ae94140ac522bcd82a8d7f118a8a2.png Bovril: an essential.

    Since I moved to Sweden, 14 years ago next month, I have relied on mail-order outlets to supply me with many English food essentials that are unavailable in this food desert.

    My favourite online source is BritSuperstore which I've used for a number of years and who are are yet to let me down. A few weeks ago an order was made for a number of products necessary for a healthy larder. I waited and waited but this order was taking its time, despite being advised by BritSuperstore that the consignment was en route.

    This afternoon the company made contact to inform us that the whole parcel of goods had been returned to them by Swedish Customs!

    Postnord, the Scandinavian postal service (who also act for Customs) were contacted to find out why. They informed us that one if the items in the box — a jar of Bovril — is a 'meat product' (you don't say?) that is not permitted to be imported by EU regulations! This is despite that product being available for sale (at an exorbitant price) at various outlets within the country. Curiously another 'meat product' within the consignment — Atora beef suet — was permitted.

    I have bought jars of Bovril from the same source on numerous occasions over the past 14 years without a problem. I am now wondering who was the malnourished little vegan EU rodent who rummaged through my parcel to discover this 'contraband'?

    BritSuperstore will return my parcel — minus the Bovril — but I shall have to pay the post-and-packaging fee yet again. This is before Swedish Customs take their import duty charges and taxes on top of that.

    I might have been better advised to buy jars of already-imported Bovril and take out a second mortgage to pay for them!

    SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY, Customs!

    2. Sorry to hear that. I have bovril and marmite at home and work, for drinking and putting on toast.

    3. Yikes, what meanies….try contacting BritSuperstore ask if they can label your goods any differently, explain your dilemma? think they'll possibly used to it, they export a number of countries. Good luck x …….or a friend/s in the UK to post you some?

    4. Bovril was put on the US "s**t" list in the aftermath of the whole mad cow mess. I rely on any visitors to bring it over. My brothers know that the price of free accommodation is a supply…. I tried to track it down in Canada, but it was not clear it was the same product.

      But, Bovril is far from the product it used to be; it was very thick and tended to go solid over time. I guess the rules about amounts of salt in products got it. We used to always bring back the big jars they used to sell in Britain.

      Also for ages, HP disappeared completely – the proper brown suff, not the fruity variants, but I recently found some in a local "Irish" shop. That also used to be thicker than it is today.

      1. We were given some Australian Marmite by some Australians we met in Turkey when we were sailing in the Med. It tastes completely different from the UK Marmite and is not nearly as nice.

    5. You should have stocked up when you were over here last and hidden them in the false bottom of your suitcase!

  63. Sky Sports has been blessed today. It is broadcasting coverage of the County Championship match from The Oval between Surrey and Nottinghamshire. Eight other county matches ought to be in play, but all, bar this one, have yet to start. Rain and/or wet outfields have prevented any action elsewhere but only brief interruptions have disrupted proceedings in Kennington, South London.

      1. I'm not convinced that the flight of a cricket ball is much affected by high winds, but commentators claim otherwise.

        1. I think slow bowlers can benefit from a cross wind – it helps the 'drift' of the ball.

          I recall the canny Glamorgan and England slow bowler Robert Croft who was said to rely on 'flight and drift' – which generally meant that he didnt spin the ball…….

          1. The trick is to grip the ball loosely and release it from the fingertips such that the ball itself is hardly spinning in the air.

            There are a few quicker bowlers who can do this such as Sam Curran.

      2. From AI, Sue: 'Cricket ball speeds range from slow (under 65 mph or 105 km/h) to fast (over 80 mph or 130 km/h), with professional fast bowlers exceeding 90 mph (144 km/h) and some historical records showing speeds above 100 mph. Speed is measured at the point of release and decreases over time due to air resistance, with speeds recorded using a radar gun that employs the Doppler effect.'

    2. They don't want to stop the invasion. The massive influx of criminal welfare shoppers is nothing but malicious spite by the state.

  66. BBC News: "Sir Keir Starmer has said he would "never" have appointed Peter Mandelson as his ambassador to the US if he had known the full details of his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In his first comments since sacking Lord Mandelson, Sir Keir said the Labour peer went through a proper due diligence process before his appointment, but he added: "Had I known then what I know now, I'd have never appointed him."" Presumably the multi page briefing that was prepared for him also didn't cross his desk?

    2. Skronk on a ruddy trouser press. All they do is lie. Starmer knows Mandelson's dodgy history. Did he amazingly forget?

      The whole farce stinks. They're utterly corrupt.

    4. How come anyone with two eyes and half a brain, knew that Mandelson was a sleazy, slimy little creep, but our ex-DPP, who really should know better, didn’t recognise the facts?
      I’m very confused!

        1. Please, both of you, do not tar "sleazy, slimy little creeps", with same brush you use for Starmer: he is far worstester

          1. Did you ever visit HMS Dolphin , submarine base adjacent to RNH Haslar ?

            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/15/britains-oldest-sea-fort-could-become-migrant-hotel/

            The Submarine Service stayed at Blockhouse – then known as HMS Dolphin – until 1998 when the Navy’s submarines relocated to Faslane in Scotland

            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/15/britains-oldest-sea-fort-could-become-migrant-hotel/

            Kick Start
            17 min ago
            Awful!

            Blockhouse is part of our proud submarine history and was home to SM1. I am utterly dismayed to hear this as a veteran who served on boats. Those in power simply don't give a damn about what they ruin.

            Just stop them coming in the first place!

          2. All RN ships sailed past it as they went in or out of Pompey Dockyard

            I visited it once as a visitor to the The RN Museum: I was left wondering how they cleared the rigging, on HMS Victory, to launch/recover the Budgey, back in the day. I was surprised that the Victory had a Fire Main ans electricity

          4. Talking about the brush with which to tar reminds me of the general visiting the army sanatorium during WW2

            General: Well, young man, what are you in here for ?
            First Soldier: Athlete's foot, Sir!
            General: What treatment are you receiving?
            First Soldier: Every morning the nurse comes round with a tooth brush and rubs ointment on the infected area, Sir.
            General: Jolly good! And what's your ambition?
            First Soldier : To get out of here and get back to fighting the Hun.
            General: Well done, you're a good chap!

            General: Well, young man, what are you in here for ?
            Second Soldier: A dose of the the clap, Sir!
            General: What treatment are you receiving?
            Second Soldier: Every morning the nurse comes round with a tooth brush and rubs ointment on the infected area, Sir.
            General: Jolly good! And what's your ambition?
            Second Soldier : To get out of here and get back to fighting the Hun, Sir.
            General: Well done, you're a good chap!

            General: Well, young man, what are you in here for ?
            Third Soldier: A sore throat, Sir!
            General: What treatment are you receiving?
            Third Soldier: Every morning the nurse comes round with a tooth brush and rubs ointment on the infected area, Sir.
            General: Jolly good! And what's your ambition?
            Third Soldier: To persuade the nurse with the toothbrush and the ointment to visit me before those other two.

      2. I sent Sos a comment the other day re Mandleslime when B liar was pm. It all seems to be coming to fruition now.

          1. The biggest liars and or maybe those who dare to reveal all the terrible sneaky vile matters that the others have been dishing out to the honest and very gullible British public.

      1. And some people even suggest that our political idiots are not actually stupid. They are no better than the digestive system of cattle. And the end results are the same.

    3. Yet the casualties of the cruel Covid lockdown will never ever have any decent justice .

      The soldier will be in his eighties now , or even nineties .

      How disgusting .. Politicians .. are equally so.

  68. 'Shag, marry, kill' ?

    A game of 'shag, marry, kill' relating to Diane Abbott.. Paul Ovenden the best brain in the Labour Party resigns.

      1. I think it was Bob3 who suggested that all this stuff that's been known for years is being dripped out slowly to give Starmer the chance to resign before the Ukrainian arsonist' trial. That seems a very plausible explanation.

  69. 'Shag, marry, kill' ?

    A game of 'shag, marry, kill' relating to Diane Abbott.. Paul Ovenden the best brain in the Labour Party resigns.

    1. So he should. If this story is true, he's too stupid to know that email is never private. Prolly studied PPE.

      1. There are too many silly explanations and wordy missives , nothing sexy or salacious .

        Labour members are flaccid .. literally , they possess no charm or purpose , just rude common grunty types .. and I daresay they don't come up to the manful handful they believe themselves to possess ..

        Just utterly useless twerps who not fit to be leading the genuine masculinity or femininity this country is famous for ..

        Blah , posturing idiots, all of them .

        1. Oh yes TB an excellent assessment of all of absolute shite that dwells under the auspicious nature (giving a sign of future success) of our suposed political environment.
          They are all as far as I’m concerned ‘king Useless.

  72. https://order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Featured-Images-39-1.png
    Lord Frost: Maybe It’s Time for Me Go Too

    Lord David Frost has just penned a piece in The Telegraph on Danny Kruger’s defection to Reform this morning. He says he’s unlikely to be the last MP to defect…

    Frost said:

    “Expect plenty of criticism of Danny, in sorrow or in anger, over the next few days. But many MPs on the Right will also be thinking: maybe it’s game over for the party. Maybe it’s time for me to go too.”

    Reform figures will no doubt be on the phones. Frosty towards the Tories…

    September 15 2025 @ 15:49

    35 minutes ago(Edited)
    Sad to see the Labour and Conservative parties convulsing in their death throes.
    No wait, sad is the wrong word. I mean absolutely glorious.

    Windsor Bloke
    43 minutes ago
    Looks like Danny is the tipping point.

  74. didn't have much time to myself at the Village sshow but on the way back from a 'comfort break' i ventured a fiver on the Tombola. 2 winning tickets came up a large (in date) Heinz Tomato Ketchup and A Bogle Vineyards Vintage 2017 Petite Sirah which the internet tells me is drinkable until 2026… Quick where's the corkscrew!!!

    2. Bogle Petite Syrah used to be a go to cheap red for us, but it has progressively become harder to find here on the US East Coast.

    1. The sisters of an asylum seeker who died on the Bibby Stockholm want to know why he was moved to the controversial barge when his mental state was 'not well'.

      Leonard Farruku's body was found on board the barge in Portland Port on December 12, 2023.

      The 27-year-old Albanian was found dead in a communal bathroom with the police being called at 6.22am.

      A full inquest into his death was opened today at Dorset Coroners’ Court, presided over by Senior Coroner for Dorset Rachael Griffin.

      Mr Farruku's sisters, Marsida Keci and Jola Dushku, were present via a live link, aided by an Albanian translator.

      Mr Farruku was known to his sisters as ‘Nardi.’

      A statement read out on their behalf said: “I wanted to tell you about who Leonard was so that you hold my brother in your minds during this process.

      “He was a good man. He was kind, dedicated and ambitious. Nardi was named after our older brother Leonard who sadly died at nine months old."

      Mr Farruku arrived in the UK by boat from France in 2023. According to reports he paid almost £3,500 to travel to the UK in a small boat.

      In the statement, Mrs Kaci said: “He was positive at first and seemed to be well at the time. After Nardi had been in the UK for a while, it became more difficult to keep in contact with him. We then found out that he had moved into a Home Office hotel.

      https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/25466796.bibby-stockholm-inquest-opens-death-asylum-seeker/

      1. "The 27-year-old Albanian was found dead in a communal bathroom with the police being called at 6.22am."
        Strange that; I stayed on the Bibby Stockholm in Lerwick harbour during 2012 – 2014 and the rooms were all en-suite.

    1. Saw a heavy electric bike (Small motor bike) with massive tyres going at around 25mph along the towpath, irrespective of the blind bend ahead. I fear fairly soon there will be a report of a walker on a towpath being killed by some reckless idiot.

        1. Last time I tried that with the centre line tied to a fence post to hold the boat against a very strong wind whilst trying to bash in mooring pins front & aft a young female cyclists gave me a very foul mouthful. Fortunately she braked in time!

          1. Alternatively, as the biker goes past – a gentle (and entirely accidental) tap on his should should end up with him in the water. I am told… {:¬))

    1. These people who are excoriating Charlie Kirk are obviously unaware of the saying "De mortuis nil nisi bonum".

  80. Lacoste appears to be a little delayed so I'll start the thread.

    Not much to write home about though – thought this was quite tricky, Bogey…….

    Wordle 1,549 5/6

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

    1. A 3, but I needed to check previous words quite a lot.

      Wordle 1,549 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. Those Eagles are truly repulsive.

          When you have three letters with two in the correct position it is surprising how narrow the choice of words becomes.

          In my solution the middle letter eliminated most of the five letter words in the dictionary. That letter had to be either a start or else an end letter. This narrowed the choice to about four or five possibilities only two of which seemed likely. I chose correctly from those two words.

          2. I have been doing Squaredle for a month now. It seems to help me with word associations from available letters.

            At present I am a bit worried about my inability to recall names from years past. Hitherto I had almost perfect recall. I do the puzzles, and crosswords, in an attempt to keep my mind sharp.

    1. Then Farage was asked about the march at toady's press conference.
      er, waffle..waffle.. I get it.. waffle.. waffle..
      Elon? I want clarification about what he meant.. "fight"..

      Farage has lost control of the narrative.

      1. Send for Lowe and Habib.

        The new defectors from the Conservative Party to Reform will discover to their horror that if they had delayed for a couple of months they could have defected more happily to Advance UK instead.

  82. Wordle No. 1,549 4/6

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

    Wordle 15 Sep 2025

    Onwards for Birdie Three?

    2. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,549 4/6

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

  83. As this has been a cold day, apart from taking the empty bottles to the bottle bank down the road, I have been re-reading a C P Snow novel. An author whose books, when published, seemed to have been liked or disliked in equal measure. I have always liked them.

    Anyway, in the present one, published in 1964 I came across this:

    "I knew that political sorrows did not last long. Political memory lasted about a fortnight"

    Quite relevant today, I'd say.

  84. As this has been a cold day, apart from taking the empty bottles to the bottle bank down the road, I have been re-reading a C P Snow novel. An author whose books, when published, seemed to have been liked or disliked in equal measure. I have always liked them.

    Anyway, in the present one, published in 1964 I came across this:

    "I knew that political sorrows did not last long. Political memory lasted about a fortnight"

    Quite relevant today, I'd say.

  85. Well, I am off now. Tomorrow is a momentous day. First and most important, beloved grand-daughter is coming for a couple of nights – which is wonderful.

    Secondly, and yet another example of the accelerating rate at which time passes, tomorrow Gus and Pickles are FIVE. I'll try to get a snap of them to mark the day.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  86. Madeline Grant
    Danny Kruger is Reform’s best recruit yet
    15 September 2025, 1:44pm

    In fairness, I suspect plenty of Tory MPs are looking for reasons to get out of party conference this year. East Wiltshire MP Danny Kruger – who this afternoon appeared at the Faragean elbow to defect to Reform – has probably found the single best, if drastic, get-out-clause available.

    Kruger isn’t the first MP to tread this path of course, but because of his character and standing within the party he leaves, this defection isn’t like the others. Nadine Dorries has probably fallen out with more people before breakfast than most of us will manage in a lifetime. Andrea Jenkyns seemed to have defected with the sole purpose of finding an audience for her questionable singing talents. The sad decline of TV talent shows in this country has a lot to answer for, as the nation’s deranged am-dram egotists are forced to turn to politics for their kicks.

    But Kruger is more than someone who wore a blue rosette for a bit. He is an intellectual Tory, with ideas and positions which he doesn’t take to be fashionable or popular but because he believes they are true and because they resonate with a political tradition going back 350 years. His defection will give pause to long-time conservatives who might have viewed Reform as a wrecking vehicle. That Kruger thinks the cause of conservatism is best served not by the Conservative party but by Reform is a major blow to his former party’s intellectual credibility and, possibly, to its survival.

    ‘The Conservative party is over. Conservatism is not’ said Mr Kruger. He delivered this in his sort of ‘considered but pained’ style. He has the slightest air of Princess Diana.

    This style probably comes from his knowledge that the path ahead isn’t simple. Many supposed intellectual heavyweights of the Conservative party have trodden this path before and been welcomed with open arms by Good Ol’ Uncle Nige, only to find themselves in an anaconda-like grip once divisions emerge. I can imagine Peter Kay now does a good line in nostalgia comedy – ‘ooo remembers Douglas Carswell? What were all that about?’

    What’s more, Kruger enters a party with plenty of libertarian instincts which are not necessarily natural bedfellows for his more traditional Toryism. During the Q&A session, while Farage was all smiles and pub-garden bonhomie, there was a more visible tension about Kruger. Having earlier condemned her leadership, he was careful to emphasise his personal regard for Kemi Badenoch and kept his answers considered and respectful. Perhaps he knows that, as much as today represents a major shift in British conservatism, the way ahead is not necessarily a clear one.

    2. He came across very well.

      ‘The Conservative party is over. Conservatism is not’ said Mr Kruger.

      "The party's over
      It's time to call it a day
      They've burst your pretty balloon
      And taken the moon away
      It's time to wind up the masquerade
      Just make your mind up, the piper must be paid
      The party's over"

      Apologies to Nat King Cole.

  87. I am disgusted by my former friends on the Left who are applauding the murder of Charlie Kirk
    Suzanne Moore – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/15/i-am-disgusted-charlie-kirk-murder-cheering-it-on/

    "Many of his views were indeed quite vile, but no one had to seek to make them more vile, as the likes of Alastair Campbell sought to do by suggesting they were even more extreme than they were."

    Ms Moore does not say which of Kirk's views were 'quite vile' but she certainly does not sound like the sort of person with whom I would want to have anything to do!

        1. I remember her! She was one of the reasons I stopped reading the DT and didn't take out a subscription!

      1. NoseRing fool seems unaware that people with right wing views have been sacked for similar for years. Or had their flats trashed, or been beaten up by anty-fas and Hate not Soap. Or been raided at dawn by police.

        Still, this is not OK. We are now being pushed and encouraged to sink to the level of lefties by cancelling them. Yes, it does give fleeting satisfaction, but it's not worth it. And it does seem awfully pat that after years of encouraging people like NoseRing Fool to bleat out their most extreme views, Microsoft is suddenly pulling the plug on them.

        I see nothing to change my opinion that all the events of the last ten days or so are a giant theatre and we're being led by the nose towards civil conflict, probably timed to kick off just as this does

        copied from Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-12/us-funding-markets-enter-new-era-of-volatility-amid-rising-costs
        "If liquidity keeps drying up and borrowing costs continue to mount, as many on Wall Street bet, that spells more volatility in markets and even raises the risk of a sudden skyrocketing of overnight money market rates as happened six years ago.

        “We are seeing a level shift in funding and it is consistent with a different funding paradigm where money funds no longer have excess cash to deploy to the RRP,” said Mark Cabana, head of US interest rate strategy at Bank of America Corp, referring to the Fed’s overnight reverse repurchase agreement facility.

        While he doesn’t believe in a repeat of the September 2019 episode — dubbed by some the “repocalypse” — (and we all know what happened in the wake of autumn 2019) he does see higher overnight financing rates taking hold. In a sign that’s already happening, overnight rates climbed well above the Fed’s own target rate at the beginning of September and have remained elevated since then.

        Against this backdrop, traders are girding themselves for a possible shortage of funding as soon as next week when a combination of auction settlements and corporate tax payments threaten to drain more money out of the system."

      2. Assuming it's not a spoof, this creature has almost certainly been training people to do unto others what has just been done to him.
        Poetic justice writ large.

    3. Is this the same Suzanne Moore who the fabulous (well, I think she is) Germaine Greer referred to as;

      "her hair bird's- nested all over the place, fuck-me shoes and three fat inches of cleavage"

      Bravo, ma'am!

      1. Greer used that expression once on an edition of Have I Got News For You.

        Paul Merton then asked her, "Can you have fuck-me socks?"

    2. "…and it will work a treat should the Net Zero critics be right about where the sun actually shines from!"

    1. It's interesting. I was at a local community meeting here on Saturday, with a mix of residents – old, young, conservative and probably some liberals as there was a gay couple there. Not one mention of Charlie Kirk, and this is a conservative area. Some of us went for a few beers afterwards – still no mention, and I did not hear anyone else in the place refer to it either. I suspect the PTB are making a lot more of it than the average citizen.

      2. I often got the impression when working there that Americans were not as obsessed with the news as we seem to be.

    2. It's interesting. I was at a local community meeting here on Saturday, with a mix of residents – old, young, conservative and probably some liberals as there was a gay couple there. Not one mention of Charlie Kirk, and this is a conservative area. Some of us went for a few beers afterwards – still no mention, and I did not hear anyone else in the place refer to it either. I suspect the PTB are making a lot more of it than the average citizen.

      1. Oh do be kind.
        Even i have bad pant and hair days !
        Sorry. My Meds have just kicked in.
        Now where did i leave my AK47?
        My Muesli tastes a bit off.
        Obviously i have to kill everyone because my live yogurt is more intelligent than me and supports the IDF.
        Kill all yogurts !!!

    2. If you were a refugee you might not notice. You would be glad to get to safety.
      Then when you had a chance to catch your breath and gather your children you would again run and be a refugee somewhere else.

    1. I am probably out of turn here, but I don't believe MLK or JFK were killed for free speech in quite the same way as CK.

      3. Correct. MLK was killed by a good old fashioned Southern white supremacist. And we really still do not know the reasoning behind the JFK murder. One theory is that the Mob went after him due to his crackdowns. Another points to dissident CIA elements, as after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he talked about shutting it down and starting with a new agency. Most theories tee up Oswald as a patsy. And certainly the swiftness with which he got shot by someone who definitely had Mob connections might suggest the first theory.

          1. The only one we have factual information on is MLK. ANd he got shot 'cos he was for civil rights for blacks. Well documented.

        3. Wasn’t there also some ill-feeling regarding the way his support for S Vietnam regime was changing?

  95. Oh dear I know it's early but I'll pop orff for the rest of the day. I had to prop up one of our full panel fences. Wobbling back and forth in the very strong wind. Doors all locked now, nearly dark already. ECG in the morning. Pulse seems to have settled down a bit now. Typical…..
    I'll sprint to the surgery tomorrow…..not. 😉🙃

    2. Are you suggesting they retweeted and spread misinfo because it suited their old haggard mindset?

      Even you look better than those old wrecks and that's saying something !!!

    3. Anyone know who writes Stephen King books? It surely ain’t him.

      Alastair Campbell is a moronic individual who latched onto Tony Blair and became a sort of press spokesman for that evil bastard.

      When are these charlatans going to leave us in peace?

      As regards their offensive comments about Charlie Kirk I can only say that they are mistaken. Charlie Kirk was an honest man and simply explained that men are born men and women born women just as God intended.

      His challenging of the mental illness of the “trans” lobby was ultimately what triggered his demise. Most if not all of the mass shootings of innocents in the US can be laid at the feet of “trans” nutters. This applies to the deranged madman who shot him.

    1. Thank you for posting this delightful version Bob. I've only heard Maddy Prior sing 'The Lark in the morning'

      1. Reminds me of another Rugby song, with respect to Maddy Prior;

        All around my hat I will wear the green willow
        All around my hat for a twelve month and a day
        And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm wearing it
        It's my f*cking business, it's my f*cking hat

        There was a second verse…..

        All around my f*ck I will wear the green willow
        All around my f*ck for a twelve month and a day
        And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm wearing it
        It's my hatting business, it's my hatting f*ck

        Poetry…..

    2. I clicked on the Blackbird only to find that they have swapped the sexes, so that the girl sails away and the man is left at home….I despair at lefty fantasies.

    3. Alan Wagstaff-songwriter

      Description
      This is where I post my original songs: singer/songwriter, folk, country, rock, music theatre, jazz. I'm always looking to. connect with performers who want interesting songs with good lyrics. I post original folk, singer-songwriter, melodic rock, and ballad songs weekly, drawing on Irish, American, and contemporary folk traditions.
      Subscribe for heartfelt stories in song.

      Here's how these songs are produced: 1. I write the lyrics (or assemble them from various sources) 2. I compose the melody lines on guitar. 3. I write the melody line in notation. 4. I harmonize the melody for voices, fiddle, whistle, harp, accordion, and guitar and write this into a master score. 5. I sing over this score into Garage Band. 6. I ask AI to convert this work into a studio performance. The entire process takes a couple of weeks per song. I've been building up my catalogue for about 6 years.

  98. Identitarian Leftism is an inherently violent ideology

    The abhorrent celebrations of Charlie Kirk's killing are unsurprising

    Frank Furedi
    15th September 2025, 1:34pm BST

    When you see a fresh-faced teenager gleefully chanting to a crowd "We got Charlie in the neck", you could be tempted to draw the conclusion that this is simply a one-off case of infantile posturing. However, there are far too many ghoulish social media posts of young people laughing and enthusiastically cheering the killing of Charlie Kirk to dismiss it as the acts of a few morons. Leftism – especially in its identitarian, post-colonial form – is an explicitly violent ideology.

    But what, specifically, is driving this fetish of savagery?

    Well, for one, it's the theory young people are exposed to at universities. Humanities students now study the works of the likes of Frantz Fanon, the Algerian post-colonialist who suggested that violence could serve as a "cleansing force" that helps the colonised process their subjugation. From this therapeutic perspective, violence loses its negative connotations. It is reframed as an act of self-care, which, in course, dehumanises its victims.

    For the Left, capitalism and colonialism are tied together, so Fanon's advocacy for cathartic and violent expression of Algerian identity against the French is readily adaptable to whoever or whatever they perceive to be oppressing them today. They have internalised the sensibility of victimisation, and from this identitarian perspective the so-called victims of the system are thought thoroughly justified in embracing the politics of violence.

    Just look at their response to the callous cruelty of Kirk's murder, and observe how the conservative activist has been cast into the role of a non-person and others are fair game to be targeted.

    One TikTok post stated, "We need to find people with better aim", implying that other conservative figures too should be murdered. Others have actively incited people to have a go at killing prominent Right-wing personalities. The podcaster Joe Rogan, the commentator Ben Shapiro and Harry Potter author JK Rowling were just some of the individuals designated as suitable targets of political violence.

    Listen to Charlotte Hayes, the progressive TikToker, calling on her two thousand followers to "kill them all!". And such statements were not just confined to the online world. Spray-painted graffiti saying "Kill All Charlie Kirks" at Seattle Central College illustrates the febrile celebration of violence the student community, just as rap due Bob Vylan's mocking of Kirk's killing on Saturday did for Left-wing music fans.

    One of the tragic consequences of the politicisation of identity is that it renders differences and disputes very personal. Unlike the traditional ideological arguments about competing policies and visions of the world, the politicisation of identity leads to the projection of negative sentiments and hatred towards people holding opposite views.

    It is principally directed at individuals who are not like them. Smartly dressed Charlie Kirk, a young father of two children, with strong religious beliefs personified someone that in the eyes of Left-wing activists is OK to hate. When they chant "Kill them all" what they really mean is that it is OK to slaughter those who are on the wrong side of the cultural divide. Their unrestrained hatred seamlessly leads to the dehumanisation of their victims.

    See, for example, the way sections of the Left reacted to the barbaric murders Hamas committed three years ago in Israel on October 7. Their self-satisfied endorsement of this massacre indicates just how much they have become distanced from the norms of civilised democratic behaviour.

    Or look at the murder of Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old CEO of United Heathcare, on the street in Midtown Manhattan last year. Online, thousands of people were liking and 'hearting' it, some even gave it the "clapping" reaction. Within 24 hours of his murder, a post about Thompson had received more than 36,000 "laugh" reactions. As far as they were concerned the CEO of a private health insurance company had it coming.

    We must wise-up to the fact that reactions such as these are not the actions of a few infantile or radicalised individuals, it is baked into the modern Leftist world-view.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/15/identitarian-leftism-is-an-explicitly-violent-ideology

    Have we been informed of the attitude towards other religions of those who celebrated Kirk's murder?

  99. And that's me off to bed.
    After my trip this morning I did a pan of stewed apple and got it into a couple of large sterilised jars for medium term storage.
    Will do a few more tomorrow.

  100. What a stupid muddle the law is.

    It's becoming impossible to deny that free speech is in crisis in Britain

    Why should crime be punished more severely if it's motivated by hostility towards certain characteristics?

    Toby Young
    15 September 2025, 4:24pm BST

    The assassination of Charlie Kirk was a dreadful reminder of the low regard in which free speech is now held, even in America. That someone should murder him just because they disagreed with his opinions is profoundly disturbing, as was the gleeful response by swathes of Left-wing activists. Don't they realise that if violence is considered a legitimate response to a point of view you disapprove of, they'll be next?

    But those of us on the Right aren't above reproach, with some calling for the ghouls celebrating Kirk's death to lose their jobs or be thrown out of universities. Tit-for-tat cancellations are not the way to promote the cause that Charlie Kirk died defending. Yes, many of the comments about his murder were deeply offensive, but no one has a right not to be offended.

    As Lord Justice Sedley said in a landmark case in 1999: "Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having."

    I've been asked by Kemi Badenoch to lead a new policy commission on freedom of expression and I like Sedley's caveat – "provided it does not tend to provoke violence" – because it's a clear line. One of the problems with the laws regulating our speech in the UK is the absence of such an unambiguous standard and I'll be exploring whether some of them can be amended (or repealed) to introduce more clarity.

    Take the concept of "protected characteristics". In England and Wales there are three characteristics you can be prosecuted for stirring up hatred against, as per the Public Order Act 1986: race, religion and sexual orientation. When Graham Linehan was arrested by five armed police officers at Heathrow two weeks ago he was told he was being investigated for stirring up hatred against trans-identifying men, but "transgender identity" is not one of the protected characteristics referred to in the "stirring-up" offences.

    Perhaps the police commander that authorised his arrest was confused because in Scotland it is an offence to stir-up hatred against a trans person, but not here. Or perhaps he mistook a "protected characteristic" for a "monitored strand". The Public Order Act also makes it a criminal offence to intend to cause someone harassment, alarm or distress, or to say or do something likely to have that effect, and those offences can be aggravated if the defendant is motivated by hostility towards one of five "monitored strands" – the three characteristics referred to in the stirring-up offences plus disability and transgender identity.

    Prosecutors can apply for an uplift in sentence for those convicted of a criminal offence that was motivated by hostility towards one or more of those strands. To further confuse things, there are two more "monitored strands" in Scotland (age and variations in sex characteristics), with one more to be added shortly (sex), and nine "protected characteristics" in the Equality Act 2010.

    The "monitored strands", which were created by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020, introduced the concept of "hate crime" into British law, something I'm instinctively uncomfortable with. Why should a crime be punished more severely if it's motivated by hostility towards one or more of these characteristics? Shouldn't everyone enjoy the equal protection of the law, with no particular identity groups given special status? It's also tantamount to criminalising certain thoughts, with courts tasked with peering into the minds of defendants to discover what they were thinking while committing a crime.

    One of the things I'll be looking at is whether some speech crimes can be replaced with something more like Sedley's standard. Instead of stirring up hatred against people with "protected characteristics" being an offence, would it not be simpler – and fairer – to just make inciting violence a crime, regardless of who's being targeted? In the United States, the only speech that isn't protected by the First Amendment is that which is intended to – and likely to – incite imminent lawless action, with both limbs of that test having to be satisfied before someone can be prosecuted.

    Three senior police officers wrote recently to the Home Secretary in the wake of Graham Linehan's arrest suggesting a similar test be applied when deciding whether to investigate offensive statements made online. Sir Mark Rowley, head of the Metropolitan Police and one of the letter's authors, told the BBC: "As an immediate way of protecting our officers from the situation we find ourselves in today, we will be putting in place a more stringent triaging process to make sure only the most serious cases are taken forward in future – where there is a clear risk of harm or disorder."

    The three officers also backed up calls by Sir Andy Cooke, the HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, to scrap non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs). Earlier this year, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that would have done away with NCHIs and even though it was defeated I'll be tabling a similar amendment in the Lords. The police's dogged investigation of hundreds of thousands of "non crimes" in the past 10 years when so many actual crimes go unsolved risks turning them into a laughing stock.

    One of the encouraging things about the response to Linehan's arrest is that it seemed to shake Sir Keir Starmer out of his complacency about Britain's free-speech crisis. When asked about the arrest, he said the police must "focus on the most serious issues", suggesting he thinks they're spending too much time getting involved in spats on social media. It has been reported that when the Prime Minister meets with President Trump on Thursday, he will promise to do more to uphold free speech. Dropping the Government's plans to roll out an official definition of "Islamophobia" would be a good start.

    It's wishful thinking to say a cross-party consensus is emerging about the need to better protect freedom of expression in this country, and the number of cases being taken on by the Free Speech Union, the organisation I set up, is constantly increasing, with 72 people reaching out to us for help last week. But I'm encouraged that Kemi Badenoch has asked me to lead this policy review and am hopeful that it will bear fruit.
    ________________________________________

    Lord Young of Acton is the General Secretary of the Free Speech Union.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/15/its-becoming-impossible-to-deny-that-free-speech-is-in-cris

      1. It is. I don't know what Toby is up to and i really hope he has not joined the flock– for money and a sinecure,

        1. We'll see what he comes up with, opo…father's son. I think he already has sinecure, now Lord Acton. For now, prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt…

      2. "One of the problems with the laws regulating our speech in the UK is the absence of such an unambiguous standard and I'll be exploring whether some of them can be amended (or repealed) to introduce more clarity."

  102. Well, chums, it's my bedtime again. See you all early tomorrow morning. Good night and sleep well.

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