Monday 18 March: Hope that assisted dying could lessen suffering for patients and families

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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625 thoughts on “Monday 18 March: Hope that assisted dying could lessen suffering for patients and families”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    THIS OUGHT TO MAKE ALL GRANDPAS FEEL WARM & FUZZY
    A six-year-old goes to the hospital with her mother to visit her Grandpa.
    When they get to the hospital, she runs ahead of her mother and bursts into her Grandpa’s room.

    “Grandpa, Grandpa,” she says excitedly, “As soon as Mummy comes into the room, please make a noise like a frog!”

    “What?” said her Grandpa.

    “Make a noise like a frog – because Mummy said that as soon as you croak, we’re all going to Disney Land!

    5. The Bishop was a guest at the Vicarage. The Vicar’s little daughter was handing round sherry. She gave sherry to the Bishop and stood watching him, so the Bishop said kindly, “What is it, little girl?”
      “Please, Bishop, would you do your trick.”
      “What trick is that, my dear?”
      “Daddy says you drink like fish.”

  2. “To work, to work, it’s off to work we go,”
    “With taxes to pay and benefits scroungers to feed”
    “It’s off to work we go…”

    1. It’s one thing to have our own layabouts scrounging, but funding luxury lifestyles to gimmegrants is on a whole new level. Genuine refugees tend to show their gratitude by working and integrating.

  3. Good Morning Folks

    A bright sunny start here

    Wordle 1,003 3/6

    🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  5. Good morning, chums. Back to some sense of normality after my Wodehousian bash in Bath. I did today’s Wordle in five, posted at the tail end of last night’s NoTTLe page a short while ago. Enjoy your day.

  6. Putin is a modern-day Stalin, says Shapps after Russian leader wins sham election. 18 March 2024.

    Vladimir Putin is behaving like “a modern-day Stalin”, Grant Shapps has said after the Russian president won a fifth term in office.

    Writing for The Telegraph (read the article below), the Defence Secretary accused Putin of having stolen the Russian election after having opponents such as Alexei Navalny “imprisoned or murdered”.

    He’s not really Stalin I’m pleased to say. More Peter the Great. Unlike Mr Shapps and Co he is saving his own people from the tender mercies of the Globalists. This sadly necessitates some duplicity but I have a suspicion that the Russian people are aware of this. The election results cannot simply be explained as a sham. There must be real and massive support there.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/17/vladimir-putin-stalin-grant-shapps-russia-election/

    1. Shapps badmouthing Putin?

      Denis Healey had it right: akin to being “savaged by a dead sheep”. I doubt that Vlad has lost any sleep over Shapps’s statement.

        3. Here’s the quote:

          On 14 June 1978, Healey likened being attacked by the mild-mannered Sir Geoffrey Howe in the House of Commons to being “savaged by a dead sheep”.

          2. I recalled the quote but had forgotten the personalities involved. At times like that Google is helpful with lapses of memory.

    2. That’s been my take so far but I’ve just started to read “The Perestroika Deception” by Anatoliy Golitsyn so I may have to be prepared to readjust my position a little.

  7. Hope that assisted dying could lessen suffering for patients and families

    Plus saving the NHS money, freeing up housing for immigrants, more death duties, less on pensions, reduces the carbon footprint a win win win all round .

    2. Good morning,
      After watching my dear Mum suffering for over 7 weeks following a major stroke, unable to move or speak (we didn’t even know if she could understand us, or know who we were), and with absolutely no hope of even the tiniest improvement, I will be making it clear to my family that, should I ever be in such a hopeless state, I would wish to be ‘ended’ as soon as possible, whether by extra morphine or other means.

        1. We just hoped that, as she seemed calm enough, she was not suffering or aware of her situation. Possibly, her calmness came from knowing she might soon be reunited with Dad. Those final weeks still haunt me, and I wonder if I could have insisted on higher morphine doses to end the suffering, though my brother would have been reluctant.

  9. If the next election was a toss up between the mainstream parties and Putin, I think I would vote for Putin.
    Our lot behave just as badly as him, but at least he still has a viable country

    1. I’d emigrate. A choice between a corrupt tyrannical gangster with delusions of imperial grandeur and our bunch of nation loathing incompetents is no choice.

      1. Emigrate to where JD ? There aren’t many countries with much sanity in western society these days.

    2. Our own idiots have criminalised him because he’s individually 99% cleverer than our lot put in together.
      They hate him because he’s out standingly successful in his professional life.
      Do you see what I did there ?

  10. General sent home in disgrace from Afghanistan after drinking champagne. 18 March 2024.

    One of the UK’s most senior military figures in Afghanistan was sent home in disgrace after drinking champagne with colleagues, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Maj Gen Charlie Herbert OBE took up a post in June 2017 in Kabul as deputy advisor to the ministry of the interior, the government department responsible for law enforcement, civil order and fighting crime.

    This was seven years ago and has emerged now. Why? Best guess he’s treading on someone’s toes. Probably political.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/17/general-sent-home-disgrace-afghanistan-drinking-champagne/

    1. The headline doesn’t quite match the story. Disgrace? For a glass or two of bubbly? Why is this even news?

      2. Unlike the EFL moslem students in Britain, he was found out.
        (Says she with memories of fights and clearing up vomit in the stairs at 3.00 am.)

    2. Does the good General ever watch ‘Yes Minister’?

      Surely he would have set up a top secret Special Operations Room, where thirsty officers would be summoned from time to time by the French Special AttachĂŠ, one Monsieur MoĂŤt Chandon.

          1. You can write down the cost of an EV in one year (or could – I don’t know if you still can). We used to claim the very small proportion of our car expenses that reflected business use against tax. The year we replaced the diesel with an EV coincided with a new accountant taking over and the first draft of the accounts suggested that HMRC would be giving us a hefty refund. When I got to the bottom of this somewhat unusual situation I informed the new accountant that I did not fancy defending this if HMRC launched an investigation. We agreed to just move to declaring mileage at whatever standard rate is allowed. However, I imagine that a high proportion of the high end EVs are driven by the self-employed who have fewer scruples and/or are company cars.

    2. The Emperor’s new clothes come to mind. Some irritating little kid is going to wander into a meeting and ask “does it work?”.

      Hot water sitting in a tank fit for bathing or washing must be heated to 60ÂşC from time to time to kill off legionnaires. A gas boiler can achieve this. A combi boiler gets round the problem by keeping the water moving from a fresh supply. Can a heat pump? I had always assumed that anything that didn’t meet Building Regs didn’t get signed off.

      1. Exceptions to building regs will be written into law for these useless, inefficient pumps. If, as a result, people start popping off because of legionnaires, it would be another route to reducing the population.
        These cultists want us taken back to the dark ages.

        1. Anyone fiting a heat pump will regret it. They will not save money and you will never be warnm enough.They are not fit for domestic use.

          2. Around this area there are a lot of people willing to sell you an heat pump, and install it, but very few trained

            maintenance people able to maintain them.

            To get the government grant you are required to have annual maintenance so don’t buy an heat pump

            until you have a maintenance contract signed.

          4. Heat pumps are just one of a whole raft of ways to make us suffer. I would bet my savings that the likes of politicians, the idiot king, wef (such a dastardly, criminal outfit does not deserve capital letters) members, gates, soros etc will not have to rely on heat pumps.

      2. I’ve known people with ‘ ground source heat pumps’ and with only two people living in the property have to use an emersion heater mid to late afternoon because they’ve run out of hot water. And therefore have become vulnerable to legionnaires.

      3. Good morning Jeremy, and everyone.
        Building Regs? That’s an easy one; Greenfilled Tower was reclassified as a recycling incinerator, so there was no need for fire escapes, linked smoke detectors, sprinklers etc.

    1. Someone on this site put me on to the Germ Warfare podcast. It is interesting but sometimes even i think his guests are a bit mad.

      Today i listened to the latest one with Ana Mihalcea, an internal medicine physician, who argues that electromagnetic radiation and nanotechnology drive the implementation of Agenda 2030, Sustainable Development, the transhumanist agenda, and mass control of humanity.

      It is worryingly believable and frightening at the same time. I want to dismiss her as a crank but don’t think I can. Especially at the end, where she says what they are doing is all out there in plain sight.

      I didn’t want the vax but reluctantly agreed, mainly because my husband and parents were concerned (and I do have to travel for work). I wish I had been stronger and said no. I would do it differently now. So please, no smug comments to make me feel worse than I already do. My kids had two doses too. I worry immensely but try and imagine it is basically Ok and the people who have been harmed just had contaminated doses and those of is who don’t appear to have had a bad reaction have “survived”.
      https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/jerm-warfare/id1475255493?i=1000649536296

        1. And when after taking every opportunity to be jabbed and still get covid. The excuse is variants.

    2. The scale of redactions just makes the public more suspicious and still waiting for answers.

    3. There have been Canadian government document releases receiving the same level of opacity. This normally happens when the subject matter refers to government corruptionl

  14. Medley Time

    https://media.greatawakening.win/post/0l4CD5uFRmD3.jpeg

    https://twitter.com/kunley_drukpa/status/1769489626417209810

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e5fd5c23fbb0ed33693791b62ec390af7480de16e6ed024310216f786e366a9a.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ee726dacf716138353e3907046947e87f576ae1e80a5bd504ab185ca7c326cb.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c71eb29efd482d32796a4d36955c087eb5938d4c9d0668034557407ae951b4f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f424b818a224480d820902076f403c4273b0c53e3baf54854176661ee695b2e5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/260e87f2de4523788adb37c553d350a59ac0067fba70d0d26dfa9a973c3d1756.png

    1. Excellent as usual.
      But I don’t there is such an item as a ‘British’ muslim.

      1. There is.
        I have a white English mate lives in Bristol who converted a couple of decades ago.

        1. Equally, Paul – look at the white women who have “converted” and become bloodthirsty killers.

      2. There is no such thing as a ‘moderate’ muslim, either. There are just muslims.

      4. Why don’t the the homosexuals and Trans crowd go and visit Gaza? They would not need to get return tickets.

        John Milton described Samson after he had been blinded by the Philistines as

        Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.

        It seems that the pro- Palestine LGTBQ++ supporters are eyeless in the UK. They have forgotten that Pym Fortuyn, the Dutch politician, was murdered because he was homosexual. He was initially a communist who campaigned against the Muslim invasion of the Netherlands because he saw that if Muslims gained too much influence in his country the liberal, tolerant approach of the state towards homosexuals would be destroyed.

        1. They might need the return ticket because there are no tall buildings (for the throwing gays off) left in Gaza.

      1. Since we can never be sure, we must assume it is. To have such a principle embedded in your way of life renders you inherently untrustworthy.

  16. Good morning all.
    A beautiful but chilly start to the day. 1°C with little, if any wind and it’s actually forecast to stay dry, though clouding over later on.

  17. Good Moaning.
    There is no question to which Shitz is the answer. He must have some impressive pictures and/or recordings.
    On this occasion, the letter writer was right to include his rank and (retd).

    “The MoD must be held accountable for waste

    SIR – Many MPs have argued that the Government should increase defence spending (“Shapps wants 3pc of GDP spent on defence”, report, March 14). I applaud their motives, but before any more funds are given to the Ministry of Defence, its wastefulness and incompetence should be addressed.

    We have two aircraft carriers that cost more than £6 billion instead of the predicted £4 billion. They can only operate the F-35B jet because the MoD inexplicably decided not to fit a catapult and arrester wire system. The F-35B is the most expensive and least capable of the F-35 variants.

    More than £4 billion has been committed to the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle, which has unacceptable noise and vibration levels and has yet to be fully delivered.

    We used to have the finest pilot-training system in the world, but the MoD decided to contractorise it. It is now unable to train enough pilots to maintain our front-line strength, so it has to send students overseas to be trained at a cost of yet more millions.

    Two factors perpetuate the problem. The first is that no-one in senior positions is ever held to account for the waste. The MoD currently has a £16.9 billion spending gap, yet the individuals that allowed this gap to appear remain in post.

    The second problem is that parliamentary oversight committees appear powerless to deal with the waste, even when it is clearly identified. In recent years the National Audit Office has found waste and inefficiency in defence spending running to hundreds of millions of pounds. The Public Accounts Committee and Defence Committee have instigated inquiries that have confirmed the waste – yet have done nothing to remedy the situation. What, then, is their purpose?

    Experience shows that, unless the MoD is reformed and proper oversight exercised, increasing defence spending will be a case of pouring good money after bad.

    Wg Cdr Stephen Orwell (retd)

    York”

    1. I read that only ten people were involved in the catapult decision.
      Huge cuts should be made to the MoD itself but I’m afraid the Top Brass aren’t much better or more competent., being diversity obsessed political officers.
      They’d do better to look for a new generation of leadership from Colonel level, people ideally with not too distant direct experience in the field and can most of the very senior ranks.

      1. Therein lies my beef with Reform, which thinks that tax cuts for oligarchs will somehow make everything right. Is actually reforming our corrupted national institutions beyond them?

      2. “They’d do better to look for a new generation leadership from Colonel level,”
        Isn’t that the level that traditionally coups are lead from??
        Well we could but hope……….

        1. The seniors only seem to know all the answers after they have settled down in the countryside with their pensions.

    2. Are bonuses still being paid and remuneration agreements still being made legally watertight? What is this non-mattering pensioner complaining about?

  18. Rwanda wants staged start to deportation flights. 16 March 2024.

    Last week, The Telegraph revealed that the first deportation flights are unlikely to take off until the end of May because of the six to 10-week appeals process for migrants set out in the legislation.

    The Home Office is planning to issue around 100 migrants with deportation notices for the first flights by the end of the week if the Bill is backed by Parliament.

    That will be one boatload then? This is all a farce of course. Even if they manage to get a few off before the election (the real reason) it would make no difference.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/17/rwanda-flights-start-sunak-votes-lords-amendments-bill/

  19. Good day all and the 77th,

    Nice clear morning at Castle McPhee. Wind South-West, 8℃ with the Met Office climate cultists forecasting 14℃.

    Boy, am I glad I no longer have to drive to Gatport Airwick for a day’s work!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3be518812911ef89d5ba4097f11c02058dc59f7e7f2053bd81e274a1ab803ff5.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/17/m25-closure-day-two-live-traffic-updates/

    In my experience over 14 years of driving round that section, any closure of any section of the ’25’ creates total gridlock in the the whole of the South-East. I remember once having to drive to Airwick when the A3 Hog’s Back was gridlocked as a result of a closure so I set off to go through the South Downs via Petersfield, Midhurst, Petworth, Billingshurst etc and approach from the South. It took only 25 minutes longer than normal and was a far more enjoyable run.

    3. Sadly, because of the use of motorways, knowledge of alternative routes is not being gained and people can only follow the signs when a motorway is blocked.

    4. Good morning FM

      5 miles of motorway completed so quickly.. incredible .

      I wonder whether Highways agency used a few thousand illegals to assist them in completing the task .

      If they can complete that repair and improvement in a matter of days , just think how quickly our national potholes could be fixed ?

      1. That would be slavery TB, we haven’t had too much of that since the victorian era.

        1. Since almost before the Victorian Era.
          The Abolition of Slavery act was before she actually acceded to the throne and her reign was characterised by the Royal Navy’s anti-slavery patrols to suppress the practice.

      2. Did they roll them into the surface? Good idea actually as it would save putting the cats eyes in

      3. To be fair, I think give credit where credit is due. The fuss over that in the MSM was really OTT, anyone would have thought the whole M25 was one massive traffic jam. Repair works on roads and motorways need to be carried out. It is sometimes inconvenient for some people. They did well which just goes to show what can be done.

    1. Thank you.
      I’m treating myself to a day of pottering around and being pathetic.
      By an amazing co-incidence, my chiropractor is ill today. As I was trying to phone to postpone my appt. the surgery rang to change it.

      1. I’m having a pottering day today of nibbling at assorted tidying up jobs, though I am cooking a pan of broth for which the pulses have been steeping since Saturday evening!
        As stock I’m using the cider that the “flog-it-off-cheap” gammon joint that I unearthed from the freezer got cooked in last week.

    1. Media still having a meltdown down over any suggestion the Abbopotamus should be shot. Personally i favour stringing all MPs from lampposts. This clearly makes me an ultra far right racist patriarchal terrorist. Or maybe it’s just a figure of speech, a bit of hyperbole to indicate that we don’t approve of someone and the way they behave. Let’s think. Which is more likely?

      1. Good morning to you,

        Abbopotamus’s son went beserk and tried to kill her a few years ago .

        He was as high as kite on drugs .

        We all used to be encouraged to say , when we were small children “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me ”

        The British have a wonderful way with words .

        “Though men can cover crimes with bold, stern looks, poor women’s faces are their own faults’ books.”
        William Shakespeare

      3. I got banned from the DT a few years back for saying that St Jacinda should be strung up from the nearest lamp-post – apparently I was inciting violence🤣

        2. You would have got away with it if you had said she needed to be put out to pasture.

        3. They are just useless aren’t they? Does everything have to be so literal?

          1. Just a serious sense of humour fail really. I got myself reinstated pretty smartly though 😁 I pointed out, among other things, that their own journos often said far worse and luckily one of them had, in the same issue. Something to do with a vat of boiling oil for some other politician if I remember correctly, and one far closer to home too!!

          2. If it’s reported to have been said by a Tory…Yes!
            It could be just the congenital absence of a sense of humour that afflicts so many on the left or it could be cynical opportunism 🧐

    2. Let’s recall the Washington Post’s description of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on his death as “an austere religious scholar”. Watching the utter derangement unfold in Western media from 2016 to 2020 was breathtaking and has changed my view of it for the worse. The subsequent soft touch and water bailing for the bitter accusatory unstable old coot President Biden, as his mental acuity continues to decline for all to plainly see, has only strengthened my distrust bordering on contempt. Not only has MSN diarrhoeaed the bed during the Trump presidency they have been gleefully rolling around in it for the past 4 years.

  24. Tax cuts are just one small part of the measures required.
    That’s why Truss was so hopelessly out of her depth.

    1. Who pays for statutory services when the Exchequer cuts headline taxes? I hear that two-thirds of the budgets of the bankrupt councils are now going on social services, imposed on them from above. Much of this must be going towards the antisocial habits of entitled migrants and their extended families. The tax on this – Council Tax and a modest rebate on the National Business Rates, are both highly regressive and damaging to local enterprise, and yet since they are not “headline”, they don’t feature on the Laffer Curve.

      It is much harder to sell up the family home or close down the family business than it is to click a few billion cryptodollars to a tax haven.

      1. I don’t disagree but let’s open up statutory services for big reform. Nothing can be off limits.

  25. Yo Grizz
    Continuing on the raw teacakes withe cheese and branston.
    (1) on Press Reader i am 1982224 and I wouldn’t have a pop at you. I do despise troll 13778251 and it takes all my will power to ignore him/her/it. Wish there were a block function!
    (2) according to my Mum, her uncle used to enjoy and iceberg lettuce, cheese and banana sandwich. It sounds terrible but Mum assures me it is delicious. Any views?

    1. I like some unusual combinations too but i can’t get my head around cheese and banana.

      1. I sometimes nibbled a banana with a bit of Stilton after dinner.

        GOD, I miss Stilton!! 🤣🤣🤣

          4. What ever can you be thinking? The naughty pleasure i am talking about was a banana split with cherries on top. Eaten in secret under the duvet.

        2. Strong Cheddar or Stilton with rich fruit cake or very fruity bread pudding.
          Food of the gods.

    1. We went to England last week.

      Amongst the things we brought home were: Stilton cheese, chocolate digestive biscuits, a couple of pork pies and Branston pickle.

    1. It gets worse Tom

      DE
      “Thousands of sex offenders let off their crimes for apologising to victims.

      Over 2,000 sex offenders, including rapists, have dodged serious punishment
      in the past four years by simply saying ‘sorry’ to their victims.
      Instead of going to court, the police and Crown Prosecution Service
      agreed to a ‘community resolution’.
      In the past three years, officers
      in Durham, Lincolnshire, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire have used this
      method for dealing with rape attacks on girls under 13. Norfolk police
      also used a community resolution in a case involving the rape of a young
      boy.
      Merseyside police used this method to deal with a case of rape
      of a girl under 16. Derbyshire and Devon and Cornwall police also closed
      two rape cases involving women in this way.”
      “community resolution” you say,I wonder exactly which “communites” are involved in this??

      1. Good morning Rik

        Seems to me that the identity of the UK is now similar to a pick and mix counter .

        What will happen when the great unwashed , as millions are now , start to use their uneducated/educated charms the way they do in Thailand, Philippines etc .

        The way I see life now is that the UK is prostituting itself to BLM and Muslims .. for fear of upsetting nurse , and finding out the hard way, there’s more to fear in getting something worse .

        Soon there will be Sharia areas , no whites , no Christians and Jews .. and no Shakespeare or Chaucer !

        1. It looks as if apartheid is the only answer. Those who are incapable of integrating and accepting English history, religion and culture should go and settle in Scotland which will be far more welcoming to them as a Muslim is currently in charge there.

          Indigenous Scots will be allowed to come to England.

          They can then rebuild Hadrian’s wall and put an electric fence on top of it.

      2. I’d give them “community resolution” – with a sharp blade.
        Bastards.

      4. From the article in the DM
        My bold italic. And I would respond:
        Was there a common denominator with a religious or ethnic aspect?

        Kevin Moore, a retired detective chief superintendent and former head of Sussex Police CID, said: ‘On the face of it the figures appear to be appalling and most members of the public will be concerned why such serious recorded crimes are being finalised through community resolution.

        ‘As a former senior police officer and having led such investigations or supervised others doing so, in my opinion the majority of these cases should culminate in a criminal prosecution.’

        The National Police Chiefs’ Council said there was a ‘complexity’ and ‘nuance’ behind the cases that the bald statistics did not show.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13207919/sex-offenders-let-crimes-just-saying-sorry.html

        1. “OK. She may need surgery and have suffered life changing mental and physical injuries.
          But you’ve said ‘sorry’.
          Off you go.”

    2. Too big for their boots ?
      As we take yet another dive into versity.
      And after the next election, it will just become worse by the day.

  28. Morning all 🙂😊
    Still here, still grey but lighter. The ‘old current bun’ still up there.
    More rain forecast later.
    What’s new, about assisted dying, except an admission and more tested approval. It’s been happening for decade’s. I’m not sure why but it was earlier referred to as ‘The Liverpool Pathway’.
    Which was witnessed by my wife and myself, when her mother was terminally ill. More than twenty years ago.

    1. My Father was eased out by judicious administration of drugs. He had a lot of pain, was terminally ill and fading. I wish they had chosen a day I could have made his bedside before being about an hour too late – got to their house and Mother was in a state, was just about to rush to the nursing home when the phone went, and took all the need for rushing away.
      Mother couldn’t manage to be there whilst he died, it was all too much for her. I would have gone anyway, but was too late.
      I’m glad they eased his passing, he was in constant pain with no end to it..

      1. Brompton Cocktail.
        Morphine and cocaine in an alcoholic spirit of the patient’s known preference.
        Later on, chlorpromazine was added to alleviate nausea.
        A GP who visited his patients and knew them and their family would advise.
        The Shipman farrago put a stop to what had been a working arrangement.

    2. They’ve been doing that in France for decades and everyone knows it. It has never been formalised or thought of as “assisted dying” but rather as a merciful release. Which is why Macron’s latest wheeze of making it legal could well turn out to be yet another own goal.

  29. Is this a new one?

    Kevin dropped into the local bar for a drink on his way home. He met a very attractive redhead who later suggested that they go back to her flat. After a few more drinks at the flat, they jumped into bed and were having a wonderful time.

    Kevin lost track of time, and before he knew it, it was 2 a.m.

    “God!” said Kevin. “What am I gonna tell the wife?”

    “Put a piece of chalk behind your ear and tell her the truth.” said the redhead. “I guarantee it’ll work.”

    Kevin was creeping into his bedroom when suddenly the lights came on, and there was his wife, with her arms folded on her chest.

    “Where have you been ‘til this hour of the morning?” she demanded.

    “I’ve been in bed with a beautiful redhead that I picked up in the bar.”

    “You liar!” roared his wife. “You’ve been playing snooker all night with your deadbeat mates. Do you think I’m stupid or something? You’ve left the chalk behind your ear.”

  30. Without more gas-fired power stations, support for net zero risks collapse
    Britain’s over-reliance on renewables needs to be offset for a transition to succeed

    Liam Halligan : //www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/17/without-gas-fired-power-stations-support-net-zero-collapse/

    Reading the BTL comments it would seem that the vast majority of DT readers have rumbled the fact that we have been conned.

    I wonder how many Nottlers seriously believe that we have not been conned!

    BTL

    Carbon dioxide is both beneficial and necessary.
    Man-made global warming is a myth.
    Net Zero is a scam.

    Most of us know it. The politicians are so deeply in the mire that even though they know it as well as we do they cannot admit it – just as they cannot admit the damage done by Covid 19 jabs.

    1. “I wonder how many Nottlers seriously believe that we have not been conned!”
      Arguably, if they believed this crap they would not be NOTTLERs.

        1. I think I will embroider that onto a cushion.
          I suspect I’ve ordered more crewel wool than I need for my first stab at the work.

          1. Embroidering naughty words onto things in exquisite fashion is a pastime highly to be recommended. 😈🤣

          3. Whichever takes your fancy, Richard. Just make it look beautiful! 🎨🤣

    2. Politicians are not deeply mired in net zero, they are simply profiting from the green scams that support it.

      My beloved leader inherited a measly 1.5 million from his father, he is now supposedly worth about 90 million. That kind of wealth growth only comes from selling your soul.

    3. I’m glad to be wrong. When I posted this story on Saturday, I suggested the complaint had been made by a ‘snotty vegan LibDem’.

  32. SIR – Instead of giving MPs an inflation-busting pay rise, why don’t we all go outside and clap?

    Paul Webster

    Swettenham, Cheshire

    Honorary Nottler…

    1. A great number of them have the clap already. It is usually given to each other after long sessions in the Westminster bars or in the local parks on the way home.

    2. A great number of them have the clap already. It is usually given to each other after long sessions in the Westminster bars or in the local parks on the way home.

  33. Could have been a three – changed my mind.
    Wordle 1,003 4/6

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

    1. Tied your par.

      Wordle 1,003 4/6

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

  34. On a much lighter note , away from politics and everything else , I follow a variety of posts on Twitter .

    If this sounds silly to you , okay, but there is a softer side to Twitter and a very sweet tenderness ..

    Relax a little bit and pretend you are a Furpal welcoming your pals over the Rainbow bridge , because all Furpals need a pal to guide them ..

    https://twitter.com/SirRasmus/status/1769509712112857412

  35. Regarding the ‘sudden’ fashion/support for assisted dying, AWS on going-postal.com does a weekly review of the cringe that is the bBC QT programme. This review usually comprises of two parts; a background on the panelists that is certainly much fuller than the bBC would ever allow (lies by omission is their real motto), then a quick breeze through the futility of the show. Some weeks his review of the show is very short as even AWS has his endurance limits.

    This past week his review began with a rattle through the show. The main part of his article concerned the chicanery and funding of the latest push to bump off the nonproductive. I realise some of you may have already read the piece, but without having indulged in readundery it’s certainly an eye opener.

    https://going-postal.com/2024/03/question-time-review-14-mar/

    P.S. I have the view that if that awful Rantzen woman is in favour of something, it’s normally a smokescreen for chicanery within and without the bBC.

    1. I did ponder that if Dame Rancid is so keen on dying – why does she not simply take an overdose? Quite simple to do.. (I’m told)…

      3. It is curious that her attitude to the Grim Reaper has changed. During lock-down she was extremely vociferous in demanding more of same on the grounds that she and her daughter were ‘vulnerable’ and needed protection. I don’t know where they live but it is reasonable to surmise that it is somewhere fairly roomy with a decent size garden. I suspect also that the Rantzen-Wilcox ménage was not worrying about how to pay the bills as their business went t!t5 up.

        1. Up and about and will spend the day being fragile.
          No point in being grotty if you can’t milk it.
          Also waiting for garden shed type thingy to arrive, so I have an excellent excuse to stay at home.

    3. I can sympathize with assisted dying for someone really suffering from disease where there is only more pain on offer. I certainly would like the option if I ever get to that stage.

      However, the way it has been implemented here in Canada is way out of line.
      MAID (cute name for assisted death) has been offered to veterans with PTSD as an option instead of help.
      There are also examples where cancer patients have been refused treatment because of the lack of resources so instead of viable treatments they get offered a quick death.
      Homeless drug addict? Have I got the best drug cocktail for you!

      I guess that they backed off on MAID for the mentally ill when they realized that most of the liberal government would qualify.

        1. Medical Assistance In Dying.

          So nice and soothing isn’t it but your interpretation is valid because we now have families unable to afford funerals.

      2. I have the same problem with ‘assisted’ dying as I do with restoring the death penalty. I don’t want to hand such control to Westminster/Whitehall and their pliant stooges in the legal and medical businesses.

        As was mentioned up/down the thread (not certain if it was TrueBelle or AnneAllan) the ‘Brompton Cocktail’ was a compassionate alternative, but Harold Shipman rather over egged that method.

        As you point out the ‘mission creep’ of Canada’s MAID should serve as a warning to us all.

  36. Peers urged to reject bill to legalise assisted dying: BBC

    I am greatly in favour of assisted dying – starting with the BBC, the press and both houses of Parliament.

  37. Just listened to ‘Be thou my vision’ on the radio – sent a shiver down my spine.

    Strange really – I don’t know any of the words but the tune was so familiar I could almost sing along.

      1. ‘Morning PJ, ongoing problems at Spectator, if I go on Disqus I’m told I can’t post to Spectator as it’s banned me. No wonder subscribers are leaving. Will stick to my promise to stay until end of this week, then I’ll be offsky myself. Onward n upward, will continue to look for you, opopanax, and others, here. Off now to look for recording of that hymn, see you later perhaps.

        1. Utterly shocking how censorious they’ve become. I’ve lost all respect for Fraser Nelson.

          1. Thanks Michael. I have a suspicion that FN outsourced messenger to 3rd party who are struggling to replicate Disqus facilities ..no surprise there Disqus well established. Got a slightly panicked reply a while ago assuring me working hard to fix. Still ending sub end of week,along with a number of others already left, although possible I may just resubscribe later as I like some of the column writers. Last straw was Disqus telling me banned from Spectator. Meantime nttl and Unherd. I lost respect FN after bragging article he’d seen Redbird off, think that was more to do with Jenrick although FN might have been active behind scene. Apologies for length of reply. Takes time for me to lose it but then I go on a bit 🙄🤣

        2. Morning KJ 🙂 That’s odd because I know you have been commenting there even though I have somehow been banned from reading your comments 🤣 It really is a dog’s breakfast, isn’t it? I’m starting to think that they actually did want to break up the Speccie BTL community but if so, it is a massive own goal. Jonathan Miller, who writes there on France mostly, is upset about it too – he has said that it is/was the best BTL community in the MSM. There are loads of new ones there now, but mostly a bit boring. Enjoy the hymn – I am sure you will recognise it :))

          1. Ha..that’s two of us, I can only see you on nttl. Do you happen to know if the Telegraph comments have fallen over, too? I still suspect something to do with the potential sale, clearing out comments from non-subscribers and trying to bring in-house, with no clear plan of how to get there. I recognise name Jonathan Miller, possibly he and a number of others pretty tee’d off with it. I’d noticed the new ones, wondered if they’d either come from DT or stumbled on it by accident. As you say, bit of yawn. Baron is still there, and Andrew H., and I think Moira G too, amongst others. You probably saw the post I put up earlier about the Spectator banning me on Disqus. I did indeed recognise the hymn, and even joined in :-)) PS Nelson column trying to claim credit for seeing off Redbird was the last straw, for me. I will keep my promise to the end of this week before I cancel sub and leave.

          2. The DT is still the same. At least when you put up the comments they tell you if you have had any responses to any you have posted which is something! Maybe the new commenters in the Speccie are from the App which apparently you couldn’t use for comments before. Don’t know why, but FN originally said it was being done so they could comment and “more features” would be added according to “demand”. Well, I think the “demand” must have been made pretty clear by now – every time he pens an article he is inundated with them 😆 Yes, agree with you about him trying to claim credit.

          3. Unfortunately we can only vote with our subscriptions to leave, rather than for a new editor (suggestions welcome tho:-D) Bring Back Boris?

          7. Yes…I know that…are you watching GBN…more about boats/Rwanda, will it bring Sunak down…never anything about legal migration, the enormous elephant sitting in the corner waving its trunk ‘over here,I’m over here’….Sunak finished I reckon..anyhow good news chez K…bats out! bit early again…yippee…

          8. No, not watching news yet. About to get supper then will watch while I eat 🙂 Agree about legal migration btw. Haven’t seen any bats yet but haven’t been paying attention either….will let you know 🙂

          10. Mine was very simple too – fresh green asparagus, wedge of delish local hard cheese and bread, fruit yoghurt. Plus glass of red wine, natch :))

          11. Sounds delicious, especially cheese. Just re-watching one of my favourite re-runs…Friday Night Dinner…:-DD

          12. I replied a couple of minutes ago, likely being moderated. Meant to add, Spectator seems to have disappeared altogether from Disqus choices….:/-

          13. No, I don’t think you have been moderated. I think the Speccie has disappeared from disqus choices though the basic format is still the same. It’s all too technical for me :D!

          14. Just looked on the app to check if comments facility. Polite version naught naught naff all blank 🙄🤣

          15. Oh, so where are all these new commenters coming from then? Maybe FN is bussing them in 🤣

          16. They’re probably in the Spectator offices, multiple aliases. If any software update isn’t tested, re-tested and re-re-re-tested before despatch, not a good thing, as I know from support desks I have loathed.

          17. Might have been the one where I mentioned possibility of new editor- Bring Back Boris?! …other suggestions welcome 🤔🤯

          20. Btw, we both look to be on Disqus nttl, where you are, but I’m on Spectator, can’t really be piggy backing on nntl can they…! My Disqus spectator a/c has now disappeared….again….

          21. Forgot to say that I can see responses to my old Speccie comments (they are re-running some old articles) here in nttl notifications, but not to any new ones.

          22. And now I just received from Disqus (not nttl, but from other a/c which I think was previously Spectator), messages going back 13 hours or so…clown world :-DD

  38. OT – garden tip. For years, my greenhouse has been fallow in the winter months. Two years ago I tried an experiment – repeated in 2023. In September I sowed in pots a dozen broccoli. Ten of them germinated and grew. Around Christmas, I planted them out in the (unheated) greenhouse. They thrived. We had a dozen full sized heads – followed by half a dozen little heads on each plant. Had some last night with roast beef on a bed of (home grown) rocket. Brilliant. Shall definitely repeat in 2024.

          1. It WAS Calabrese but NOT that variety. Maddeningly I have thrown away the packet – but had to order online.

          2. Breaking news. The variety was Calabrese “Green Magic”. Previously we grew one called “Green Belt” – but that was not available last year. Though it appears to be about THIS year.

  39. Agreed but meanwhile on land, we had workhouses and hundreds of thousands of people living in absolute poverty.

    2. And an army of reformers trying to record and categorise such abuses so that they could be tackled.

  40. Energy bill errorsSIR –
    My modest holiday flat had energy supplied by SSE on a direct debit of
    ÂŁ30 per month. I never went into debt, and usually had a credit of about
    ÂŁ100 in my account.

    Last autumn, SSE notified me it was being taken over by Ovo (Letters, March 16).
    Shortly after, I was informed by Ovo that my direct debit would be
    rising to ÂŁ242. I rang and spoke to an operative, who told me that what
    the computer says is what goes, regardless of billing and credit
    history.

    Within an hour, I had changed my provider to British
    Gas, which assured me that it wouldn’t do anything like that. However,
    once the switch had taken place, British Gas indicated that my monthly
    payment would be rising to ÂŁ601.

    After several calls, I was
    assigned a personal customer-support operative, who said she would fix
    the problem. After providing her with my billing history, she reset my
    direct debit at ÂŁ50 per month.

    She explained that the direct
    debit error had been caused by Ovo providing an estimated annual
    consumption of 77,000 kWh. The average consumption for a family house is
    12,000 kWh.

    What on earth is going on?

    Sue Peart
    London SW18

    Some people won’t notice. Or care for that matter. Even if they only have your money for a short time they get to use it and make more money for a service not supplied. I don’t believe their systems are so error prone and only in their favour.

    1. Cancel the DD and set up a Banker’s (Standing) Order..YOU are now in control of the payments and they cannot change it. Only YOU can.

    2. I take pictures of both my gas and electricity meters and update the readings to my respective suppliers from my antique desktop computer. Einstein was a theoretical physicist and he didn’t have the practical means of connecting his typewriter to the internet which hadn’ t yet been invented.

      1. Ah but, Angie, he had a time machine in the shed! Does that advert irritate you as much as it does me? Almost as bad as the Alexa ad where a Roman running away from Vesuvius speaks English and knows the Christian calendar.

    1. Yes, dodgy meters will be the next Horizon scandal. Asian hackers could gradually falsify your apparent consumption. But as you nominally own the Smart-a-lot device, you would struggle to seek any compo.

  43. Equality under the law?
    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-writings-on-the-wall/
    Melia is the sticker man who received two years in prison

    The Law Is an Ass, So Fuck It
    The double standards of Britain’s two-tier legal system are obvious for all to see. In the wake of Melia’s sentencing, social media lit up with normal people with eyes Evil Nazis highlighting the (very many) examples of non-white immigrants in the U.K. handed down way more lenient sentences for crimes rather worse than stickering—that of Hamoud Al-Soami, for example, a Kuwaiti rape-gang member currently busily colonizing Newcastle who was recently convicted of sexually assaulting girls ages 12 and 13, before receiving a pathetic “punishment” of 180 hours community service. The biggest service he could have performed for the community would have been to kill himself.

    One quote—possibly fake, as I couldn’t find it cited in any mainstream media reporting of the Sam Melia trial, although that means next to nothing these days—appeared online, to the effect that the judge, when handing down Sam his two-year incarceration, supposedly said, “The sentence would have been much longer had you actually committed a crime.”

    Even if literally false, the quote tells a far wider truth: that, in Great Britain today, it really is one law for them, and one law for us. I’m off to order a big bunch of weed from my nearest lamppost to take my mind off matters. It can’t lead to any greater florid opium dream than the contemporary liberal fantasy that we all currently enjoy a state of “full equality under the eyes of the law,” can it? The only way in which British “Justice” is now genuinely blind is to its own blatant flaws.

    1. Once the respect for the Law is lost we are on the road to lawless anarchy.

      But the implementation of the Law no longer commands any respect.

    2. The sentencing of the rape-gang members was as follows.

      On Friday, March 1, at Newcastle Crown Court, three of the men were jailed as follows:

      Omar Badreddin, 26, of Cowgate, was convicted of five counts of rape and violent disorder and jailed for 18 years. He was also made subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, handed a lifetime restraining order and will remain on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.

      Mohamed Badreddin, 23, also of Cowgate, was convicted of six counts of rape, one count of assault by penetration and violent disorder and was jailed for 13 years. He was also made subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, handed a lifetime restraining order while he will also remain on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.

      Huzaefa Aleboud, 23, of Throckley, was convicted of two counts of rape, assault by penetration and assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was jailed for five and a half years. He was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years, handed a lifetime restraining and will remain on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.

      Co-accused Hamoud Al-Soaimi, 21, of Byker, was convicted of three counts of sexual assault and assaulting a child under 13 by penetration and given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.

      He was also made subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, handed a lifetime restraining order while he will remain on the Sex Offenders’ Register 10 years.

      https://www.northumbria.police.uk/news/northumbria/news/convictions-and-sentencings/three-men-jailed-following–investigation-/

      The sentence for Al-Soaimi is far more lenient than that handed down to the other three. I note he was not convicted of rape, although sexual assault and assaulting a child by penetration seem serious enough to me, but I don’t have details to hand.

      What counted in his favour, though, is that he was 15 at the time, whereas the other three were adults in the eyes of the law.

      Al Soaimi, who was 15 at the time and from Kuwait, was heard by a passing witness saying it was his “turn” with the girl after she had been raped.

      He also sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl, the court heard, with Judge Rippon saying he was copying the behaviour of Badreddin brothers whose “swagger” he “foolishly held in high regard”.

      In mitigation for Al Soaimi, Joe Hedworth said his family moved to the UK from Kuwait in 2016, adding he was “immature and easily led”.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-68446855

      1. The fact that some members of the gang got appropriate sentences does not change my opinion that the 15 year old has got away extremely lightly. If he’s that easily led one might argue that there is all the more reason to keep him off the streets.

        I can’t be certain, but I would not mind betting that a similar British boy would not have got away as lightly.

      2. If A Soami was easily led perhaps some public-spirit person would lead him out of this country.

  47. Even BETTER news:

    “Scottish Widows staff told not to use the word “widow”….”

    I’d say that “Scottish” was far more offensive…

    1. So how do they answer the phone to a customer – “Hello, this is Scottish bereaved female or non-binary spouse – how may I help you?”

      1. It’s worse than that – they’ve been told to use the word “separated” apparently. As in “permanently”? 😕

        1. Sos, i have in the back of my mind you are ex-internal audit. In the next few days, i’ll post you some of the latest DIE & ESG nonsense emanating from the UK & Ireland Institute of Internal Auditors.

          Honestly. They tell us we need “professional scepticism” and then swallow “Group think” hook, line and sinker. It’s embarrassing.

          1. I can well believe it.
            In the late 80’s Compliance was becoming the big thing and swathes of my job became concerned more with that than with financial internal controls and accuracy. So much box-ticking that people were losing sight of the financial risks, and while I accept reputational risk has financial implications the focus on non-core functions led to numerous losses which might have been avoided.

      3. Slap. Everyone knows a person with a vagina is “someone who menstruates”. I don’t know what this “female” thing is, of which you write

        1. As far as I can tell, the vagina doesn’t heal up when you stop menstruating. I once queried why a work colleague had a reputation for promiscuity. I was told he’s afraid it’ll drop off if he doesn’t use it.

    5. Are they going to change it to “Windows”? You can see right through them and their history changing methods.

    6. Are they going to change it to “Windows”? You can see right through them and their history changing methods.

  48. Yo and a Good moaning Afternoon to you all.

    I was out and about and did some shopping for SWMBO.

    I got her some thingies for her feet.

    What I want you to do is read the name of the product out loud.

    Boyes

    Scented Halfsoles

    1. That reminds me of a limerick.

      There was a young man from Australia
      On whole bottom was painted a dahlia
      The drawing was fine
      In fact quite divine
      But the scent was a bit of a failure.

      3. I thought it was tuppence a smell
        Was all very well
        But thrupence a lick was a failure!

      4. I thought it was tuppence a smell
        Was all very well
        But thrupence a lick was a failure!

        1. There was a young fellow from Ankara,

          Who was a terrific wankerer.

          Till he sowed his wild oats,

          With the help of a goat,

          But he didn’t even stop to thankera.

          To make sense of this limerick, and why Boris Johnson wrote it, and the various reasons that it won a £1,000 prize, we have to poke around the politics of a few years ago. It started when a German video mildly mocked the authoritarian and repressive President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Turkish government summoned the German ambassador to “explain and justify” the video. As Turkey had become extremely repressive to journalists, German TV comedian Jan Böhmermann then decided to show Erdoğan what free speech meant, by broadcasting a deliberately offensive poem.

          1. I penned this ditty at the time:

            Bohmermann Bohmermann, what have you done?
            “I’ve been oh so rude about Attaturk’s son”
            Bohmermann Bohmermann, why be so harsh?
            “I wanted to kick the fat Kanzlerin’s Arsch
            Bohmermann Bohmermann, what’s to do now?
            “I’ll pen some more lines ’bout this treacherous Frau”
            Bohmermann Bohmermann, better take care
            “We’ll all shall be Spartacus, daring to dare!”

    2. That more than highlights the self constructed and self inflicted
      dilemma of Western society.
      Stand up and be counted those who thought it was a good idea and let it happen.

  50. 384314 +up ticks,

    Monday 18 March: Hope that assisted dying could lessen suffering for patients and families

    In my book this is the type of shite being pumped out via the coalition
    political overseeing / pharmaceutical hierarchy cartel, culling department.

    They have turned heathy peoples into patients, and have given heathy peoples a course of suffering to last the rest of their lives.

    These politico / pharma WEF / NWO leaders / minions have honed via lies,deceit & treachery to a fine successful cutting edge, the peoples manipulation.

    Lest we forget,
    We could never have got to where we are today
    as a nation without fully supporting the lab/lib/con coalition ALL the way these past forty years.

    1. There are quite a few people from the top down, who if treated to, or with ‘assisted dying’, would make the rest of the population’s lives worth living.

  52. The Bansters are at it again……..

    Historic toy steam train firm may close after ban on chemical in fuel

    Hexamine can be used to make explosives, but Mamod has been using it for decades

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/17/toy-steam-train-firm-may-close-after-ban-on-fuel-chemical/

    Somehow I doubt a box of 25 fuel tablets is going to make enough explosive to blow up the Commons (pity) a simple limit to order sizes would surely suffice??

    Meanwhile acetone is available in litre lots

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acetone-99-6-Quality-Varnish-Remover/dp/B086SJ19TT/ref=sr_1_5?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RB8HCaJFpBPiF9suGmzuOLLL1-FpJEOVGVWUQx0-lG5A8oBds-jzr8Hioizv4s3rhygp_JzSDyLa80Dsw7mxL3oH_ptGMdHUFYVMBwQgPS-N4_2N9n5ZB9A3-1XzMZaGkgbTJXqP3pcesYVpYSbw-qTfFsmgBkONIsJb1U68U1wvchwAhW7UvzBp_wo9BgWeHZcfflJiKJtKjcVIhBCtO5_FInjfnR0qMFbI_EdesqzqvwPWbO2Wd1DI2noLwlLp0svfW99YX7NkCN480SKTqynO4vcSb-CQKwlFFxi8VFk.XAhi5qw5WDQMJtxRh9Z7Ge8nB3xVB9PaH3MfPxcfqiw&dib_tag=se&keywords=acetone&qid=1710768742&sr=8-5

    1. There are so many household items you could make explosives with if you know how (google). It sounds like an attack on the company. Probably didn’t pay the regulator enough in bribes.

    2. The authorities must ban the sale of petrol because rioters sometimes use it to make petrol bombs.

    1. You would expect to see that type of WHO advertising in the Guardian, not the Telegraph.

    4. Population of Ethiopia 1973. 30,694,316 million
      Population of Ethiopia 2023. 120,694,316 million

      Remind me who is plundering the planet (shorthand for breeding like rabbits)

    5. That’s a fair warning that the WHO laws will be used for “climate change” purposes.

  54. Oblique aerial photograph taken during an low-level attack on two German trawler-type auxiliaries south of Heligoland, by Bristol Beaufighters of the North Coates Strike Wing. Two Beaufighters are seen clearing one of the vessels after raking it with rocket projectiles and cannon fire. This trawler was left burning fiercely while the other was torpedoed and blew up.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a9b172cc878f133519c5bf937e27a4eab2209c6591f26f64513854f579532b95.jpg

  56. Cameron: Putin election result reveals ‘depth of Russia’s repression’ . 18 Martch 2024.

    “These Russian elections starkly underline the depth of repression under President Putin’s regime, which seeks to silence any opposition to his illegal war,” the foreign secretary said in a statement, referring to the conflict in Ukraine.

    Hollow laughs from Libya!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/18/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news2/

    1. Possibly Lord Greenswill hasn’t noticed the “depth of repression” that Zelensky has inflicted on Ukraine?

    2. That would be Lord Greenswill who was an elected MP when he was “elevated” to the post of Foreign Secretary.

  57. Who congratulated Putin and who refused to? 18 March 2024.

    Western countries have dismissed the results of Russia’s election.

    Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, has said on behalf of the bloc that the election took place amid systematic repression. Several EU countries, including France and Germany, have outright said they would not congratulate President Putin.

    The EU! God Almighty. It doesn’t actually hold any people’s elections for its executive. They are appointed by some mysterious power and then confirmed by the apparatchiks.

    Anyway I’m going to congratulate Vlad. If we have no Democracy at all we should support those who support the people against their enemies.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-68536879

    1. Ah, the democratic EU. Which ignored the “No” votes of the Netherlands and France to the proposed EU Constitution.
      Pots and kettles.

      1. Don’t forget the craven Irish who said NO twice in referendums (Maastrict and The European Constitution Treaty) and were forced each time into having a second referendum and blackmailed with threats to vote as they were told the second time or else.

        Haven’t they just voted the wrong way yet again over the definition of families and parents? How long before they give in on that one too?

        1. Just long enough for the Hindoo Teapot to ensure that the ballot boxes are stuffed with the “right” answer…..

        2. The Government got such a beating on that, they won’t ask again. What will likely happen is that they will say that an election victory for a party with the re-written constitution in it’s manifest will override the referendum result. And as all the main parties supported the “Modernised” constitution…..

    3. I understand they congratulated Vlad on his decisive victory BEFORE the polls opened!

  58. Who congratulated Putin and who refused to? 18 March 2024.

    Western countries have dismissed the results of Russia’s election.

    Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, has said on behalf of the bloc that the election took place amid systematic repression. Several EU countries, including France and Germany, have outright said they would not congratulate President Putin.

    The EU! God Almighty. It doesn’t actually hold any people’s elections for its executive. They are appointed by some mysterious power and then confirmed by the apparatchiks.

    Anyway I’m going to congratulate Vlad. If we have no Democracy at all we should support those who support the people against their enemies.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-68536879

  59. The heat pump fantasy is dead – only our blinkered elites haven’t noticed
    Expensive and unreliable, heat pumps are a nightmare for consumers. It’s little wonder the government has resorted to bribes
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/18/heat-pumps-net-zero-green-energy-fossil-fuels/

    This BTLiner often goes for the throat of a debate and grabs the vein!

    Carpe Jugulum

    I retired from teaching chemistry and biology in sixth form colleges and am very far from being a conspiracy theorist. ‘Global warming’ and ‘Net Zero’ are reducing that distance.

    Science IS scepticism. There is something very very wrong when an unproven theory is treated as Holy Writ and sceptics are attacked as heretics and careers threatened or even destroyed. There is something even more wrong when governments commit to ÂŁtrillions of expenditure with no funding whatsoever to sceptical research. That is not only not Science it is not even rational.

    There is not one single functioning model that marries together historic data, current data and predictions. All of the models predict temperature rises that did not or are not occurring. In a rational world that indicates the operation of an unknown factor that is a mitigating factor. Where is the search for that factor? Where is the Red Team analysis of the assumptions within the models?

    And then we have the outright and often repeated lie that there is a scientific consensus. There may well be a consensus amongst generalist climate scientists but climate includes multiple branches of science and there is NO consensus amongst physicists, chemists and biologists.
    Before we destroy jobs, livelihoods and living standards wouldn’t basic common sense demand someone begin to look at what is happening to the sceptics of an unproven theory and listen to what they are saying?

    1. If it were possible to get an abundance of power from windmills and solar panels, do they not think that everyone would have done so already? Do they think that countries actually enjoy being held to ransom by OPEC? Why would any of these solutions need thousands of millions in subsidies if they’re so very efficient. Anyone constructing them could make a fortune without any government assistance.

    2. I always enjoy Carpe Jugulum’s comments, but I fear anyone hoping to see “basic common sense” from Parliament is doomed to disappointment!

    3. CJ needs to join a few more dots and work out who is pushing the fraud and why! Still it’s impressive that s/he remembers that glow-bull warming is unproven – it morphed seamlessly from theory to legend without ever being proved correct!

  60. Here’s another reason to avoid John Lewis. One of the comments was, ‘Do they also stock habits for nuns and robes for vicars? Vicarhttps://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95ff1bfca9eb72043fe6956ae1470a5cbcda63be4159d87b70e377fcb2022877.jpg

    1. Had to remove the ‘Vicar’ from the url before it displayed correctly.

      And the name of the garment is ‘Wee Willie Winkie’ (candlestick and nightcap optional).

  61. Barack Obama arrives at No10 for meeting with Rishi Sunak. 18 March 2024.

    Barack Obama, the former US president, made a surprise appearance in Westminster this afternoon as he arrived at Downing Street for a private meeting with Rishi Sunak.

    Mr Obama, who served in the White House from 2009 to 2017, smiled and waved at members of the press before he entered No 10 through the famous black door shortly after 3pm.

    The purpose of Mr Obama’s visit was not immediately clear but a No 10 source described it as an “informal” meeting.

    Yes he was here to tell Rishi his time was up and to hand over to Starmer.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/18/rishi-sunak-latest-kemi-badenoch-tory-rebels/

    1. ‘Head Globalist arrives to hand out orders.’ Happy Democracy Day, by the way…

      1. He looked a bit queer. Oops, that’s what his Chef said after Obarmy made a pass at him. Sad he died so young in a paddle board accident in calm water.

    4. He came with updated instructions on how to destroy us before Sunak leaves office and goes to work for 5 minutes a month at Moderna.

    8. Just updating Sunak on the Biden replacement project and when Sleepy Joe will resign.

  62. On the subject of screwing with our history and traditions. I recently commented on kits for England and Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Olympics) having their badges reworked to erase our history, and the colours bearing no relation likewise. Well, here it is. The new England football kit. Note what they’ve done to the Cross of St. George. And a purple away kit…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/03/18/england-euro-2024-kit-harry-kane-away-purple/

    1. Stinks. Don’t know why they don’t send them out in rainbow tutus to go wiv their alice bands.

      1. The last Euros, I actually wanted Italy to win against England. That’s how low in my estimation the England team now is. They’re taking everything from us.

      2. With their pronouns on the back of the shirts, to be clearly visible while they take the knee.

    2. St. George’s Cross is a red cross on a white background. Anything else is not St. George’s Cross.

  63. Just back for two hours ladder work – removing ivy on the north facing wall – it was up to the gutters.

    Now a nice cup of verveine tea and a bun.

    1. That should help the maintenance crew replace parts that fall off. Who needs to be able to read when it is colour coded.

      Interesting that the engine is white. Is that to recognize the fact that normal white people are the driving force that keeps the world going?

      1. Surely it would be against the equality drive if people who were colour blind were stopped from doing the job.

  65. The delight on the faces of friends receiving presents thusly embroidered. 🙂🙂

    2. Appalling. Mind you, we’re gearing up to mass killing of old, disabled and sick people by the state, and we routinely kill the vast majority of downs syndrome people in the womb, so who are we to talk?

  68. Politicians interfering with officer promotions won’t de-politicise the armed forces. 18 March 2024.

    Colonel Jonsson seems to be facing punitive measures for endorsing a controversial book called “White Fragility.” Regardless of one’s personal stance on the book itself, it’s a troubling precedent that an individual in the armed services of a democracy could be penalised for such views, especially when such views are part of a broader dialogue on improving inclusivity and understanding within the ranks. The idea that expressing an opinion – regardless of the book’s contentious nature – could impact one’s career advancement is absurd.

    Senator Schmitt’s decision to block Jonsson’s promotion based on his advocacy for DEI and his commentary on racial injustice signals to military personnel that their promotions can be jeopardised by their views on social issues, even when expressed within a framework of seeking to improve military culture and effectiveness. This politicisation risks creating an environment where officers are incentivised to remain silent on important issues, potentially stifling discussion and progress on matters that could impact unit cohesion and the well-being of service members. Ironically, this is almost Soviet.

    This is typical Woke Reasoning. Jonsson’s promotion was blocked for advocating Woke Principles ergo he’s non-Woke.

    It was Cromwell’s New Model Army that set the West onto the path of military supremacy. His stricture about its soldiers: “The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it – that satisfies.” Made sure that it obeyed the orders of its political masters and sought no power of its own. It was so successful that when the Commonwealth passed away the Army remained. The other model;, which is what the author here is advocating, is a Marxist one; where the army becomes a reflection of the State. We have seen where this leads in Soviet Russia and China. The army becomes the means of Repression and Murder.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/18/politics-armed-forces-jonsson-senator/

    1. R. Spowart
      JUST NOW
      Message Actions
      By nailing his political colours to the mast so publicly, Colonel Ben Jonsson’s promotion would have added to the increasing politicisation of the US Armed Forces.
      The Senator, perhaps, has a valid point.

  69. Here’s an interesting thought via Twitt:

    COMBATE |🇵🇷
    @upholdreality
    Prof. Michael Hudson: “There’s a blind spot in Western civilization, not only of how civilization really began in the ancient near East and then diffused, but also about the basic dynamic that has polarized western economies and is leading today to the western economies polarizing just in the way that Rome’s empire ended in a dark age.”

    “The regular need to cancel interest-bearing debt was woven into the beginning of civilization… this idea of restoring economic order was based on the understanding that there’s no automatic self-correcting economy, which is the myth of modern time that is promulgated by oligarchs”

    “Once you realize that, you realize that today, why is it that China is pulling ahead? Because it centralized money creation, debt creation, banking and credit as a public utility, which is how it was all over ancient society.”

    1. Surely the ancient world had prosperous city states. That’s the opposite of centralisation. The whole point of the Tower of Babel story is that communist centralisation doesn’t work. In terms of the living standards of its people, China is not a success.

      2. I’m a bit dubious about the last paragraph, but debt cancellation would be good for society. They won’t do it because it would be good for the little people, and they aim to come through this financial reset having hoovered up even more of the world’s wealth, and without the common man having a clue what happened.
        Debt cancellation happened in Zimbabwe when they had hyperinflation – they just cancelled everyone’s mortgages because they had become pointless to administer for the then small sums involved.

    2. That’s amazing. Shows that God got it right when his instructions about the year of Jubilee were conveyed through Moses to the People of Israel, as recorded in Leviticus chapter 25. See:

      https://www.jubileeusa.org/faith/faith-and-worship-resources/debt-cancellation-a-biblical-norm.html

    1. If local people were so offended they wouldn’t buy his fish & chips. It is blatantly obvious what the real reason is.

      1. At lunch with old friends yesterday in WGC, I was very generous with my respect for other long established cultures. On arrival I took off my showerproof casual jacket to leave on rack close by. But as it was St Patrick’s day, I folded the tartan lining inwards so as not to offend anyone, or perhaps start a fight.

      1. His fish shop had already been voted the best. I don’t think he needed any more publicity.
        Publicity for the council, yes. Vote for us…we hate Britain too…

  71. Crash Dive Six!

    Wordle 1,003 X/6
    🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩⬜🟩⬜🟨
    🟩⬜🟩🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩

    2. Agree, there were too many possibilities!
      Wordle 1,003 5/6

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

    3. Oh bad luck! Par four here. I’m guessing you spent the possibilities?

      Wordle 1,003 4/6

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

    4. Yup, me too after a decent run.
      Wordle 1,003 5/6

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

    6. I made the right guess

      Wordle 1,003 4/6

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

  72. This chap on Twitt is wearing down my resistance, I shall have to buy one of his books soon.

    Robert Wilkinson
    @robertwlk
    Went to the beach and fed the birds cannabis laced cake
    They seemed to like it.
    I left no tern unstoned.

    2. If you ever got despondent at the seaside after a gull has pinched your 99 and your kiss me quick hat didn’t work its magic, throw a piece of lithium in the air. Make sure you are under an umbrella.

    2. What is it anyway? Don’t wish to offend anyone but the only pronoun i can think of is ‘fucking pervert’.

    5. Wikipedia entry shows that she is an ideal person to be in politics.

      Carolyn Harris faced allegations of making homophobic remarks by a former colleague in July 2018, as well as an alleged assault. She apologised for her conduct, which occurred before Harris was an MP, but added that her remarks would have been “office banter”.[26] Due to the equivocal nature of the apology, some party colleagues called for her to step down as a Shadow Equalities Minister.[27] However, party leader Jeremy Corbyn, First Minister Carwyn Jones, and other LGBT colleagues supported Harris.[28]

      Harris was criticised for inviting Nicole Elkabbas, a convicted criminal, to speak at a parliamentary event on anti-gambling in February 2021. Two months earlier, Elkabbas was found guilty of eliciting tens of thousands in donations by faking a cancer diagnosis.[29][30] Harris gave Elkabbas a character reference at her sentencing, which she defended as being “in connection with her addiction leading her to crime.”[29][31]

      Harris resigned as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Starmer on 11 May 2021, accused of inflaming party tensions following the 2021 local elections and subsequent shadow cabinet reshuffle.[32] The Guardian reported that a Labour MP had made a formal complaint about Harris’ conduct and comments about the private lives of shadow cabinet ministers,[33] which The Times reported to include Deputy Leader Angela Rayner.[34] Harris denied being forced to step down, attributing her decision to personal issues and a high workload.[8]

          4. I used to say “Which one?” to that, Bill, but then the Pope Emeritus went and died on me. Lol.

      2. I have never either seen or heard of this person before now and i live in this God forsaken Principality. Where TF did she come from and how has she been kept so well hidden?

          1. I know. Is it chick or dick? Whatever, it genuinely is the first I;ve heard of it and i do wonder what else they have up their sleeve

  74. No money for the homeless, especially service personnel, but plenty for the criminal tide.

    Given the particular history of Scampton, I have the wickedest of ideas on how to return failed claimants to their homeland sh!tholes.

    Home Office ‘wastes’ millions on turning Dambusters’ base into asylum camp

    Tory councillors accuse ministers of ‘lying’ as RAF Scampton becomes ‘white elephant’ housing no migrants

    Charles Hymas, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR • 18 March 2024 • 4:40pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/edb1e545e5d96fab0b6b8060768b5fb31ea6087879733213b62624e955c0b865.jpg
    CREDIT: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    The Home Office has been accused of wasting tens of millions of pounds on converting the Dambusters’ former base into an asylum camp without a single migrant being housed on it.

    RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire was taken over by the Home Office in April last year to turn into an asylum camp for 2,000 migrants as part of efforts to slash the ÂŁ6 million a day asylum hotel bill.

    But the base, which was used by the crews who flew the Dambuster missions in the Second World War and most recently by the Red Arrows, has remained empty for a year.

    About 20 temporary cabins installed for migrants are still not even connected to water, gas or electricity supplies despite soaking up a sizeable portion of the ÂŁ290 million cost of developing large and detained sites for asylum seekers.

    The poor value for money is expected to be criticised by the National Audit Office, Parliament’s spending watchdog, this week. However, in a climbdown, the Home Office announced on Monday that the number of migrants to be housed on the site will be capped at 800, down from the original plan for 2,000.

    It means the local West Lindsey Council may be able to go ahead with its ÂŁ300 million plan to turn a large part of the site into a centre of aerospace technology and create 1,000 jobs while preserving its rich heritage. The scheme was at risk of being scrapped if the Home Office had not scaled back the numbers.

    However, the 20 cabins transported into the site will now be abandoned and removed from the site as the asylum seekers will be instead housed in renovated buildings.

    Roger Patterson, Conservative councillor for the area, said the about-turn was good news but added: “They have wasted an enormous amount of taxpayers’ money to get to this point. It was turning into a white elephant.

    “The Home Office has just lied to us from the word go. They said the asylum seekers were coming in May, June, July, September but they have still not got anyone in.

    “The whole thing could cost more than the money the Home Office would have spent on housing them in hotels. They have not only had to fund setting up the site but they also have to hand it back to the Ministry of Defence in the same condition as it was when it was handed over to them.”

    West Lindsey Council is taking the Home Office to the appeal court over its “inappropriate” decision to take over the former RAF base to house asylum seekers after losing an initial judicial review in the High Court.

    The 617 squadron – the Dambusters – was formed at the airfield from where 19 Lancaster bombers departed for the raid in 1943 to destroy three dams in the Ruhr valley in Germany’s industrial heartlands with “bouncing bombs” designed by Barnes Wallis.

    The campaign to block the base’s use as an asylum camp was backed by 40 of Britain’s leading historians including Sir Antony Beevor, Sir Max Hastings and Dan Snow. They warned, in a letter, that to erase its heritage rather than preserve and protect it would be a “scandalous desecration of immeasurable recklessness”.

    The council is also fighting plans by the Home Office to extend its temporary use of the site for at least a further three years by using special powers to get planning permission.

    Sir Edward Leigh, the Tory MP for Gainsborough, who was told of the decision on Monday, said: “What we need, however, is for as much of the site to be released for regeneration as possible.”

    In a letter to Sir Edward, Tom Pursglove, minister of state for legal migration and delivery, said: “It is important that we are reducing hotel costs and delivering our asylum accommodation sites in a safe and orderly manner. Implementing a cap on occupation demonstrates that our priority is listening to local concerns, mitigating impacts, and managing the site safely.”

    Scampton is one of three large asylum sites. The other two are RAF Wethersfield in Essex, where there are 600 asylum seekers on site, and the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/18/home-office-wastes-millions-on-converting-dambusters-base/

    1. World pandemics ?

      I don’t want to sound mean , but if 3rd world populations are growing faster than anything , do they have more natural immunity even though they are living in appalling conditions , they are survivors ..

      So how quickly will the population in the UK grow by , say in ten years ?

      After having a discussion from an elderly couple who had sold up in Croydon and moved here to Dorset , they were bird watching the week before last , when I was walking Pip in the Purbecks, they carefully informed me , that although they were born and brought up in the Croydon area , now in their eighties , they cannot believe how quickly the population they were brought up in changed colour , and the shocking behaviour of BLACK children convinced them to sell up and move here to the sticks. Violence and noisy neighbours and the stench wore them down .

    2. I spent a couple of years at Scampton on the Blue Steel missile and the Vulcan

    3. Scampton is said to be haunted by Gibson’s Dog’s ghost. Let’s hope he visits all the muzzies.

        1. Oooh, You are going to be stoned to death with hot crust pastry non halal pork pies.

      2. I’ve been as puzzled as you lot over the weekend. The rash spontaneously appeared on my forehead on Thursday evening. It is neither painful nor itchy, just a bit ‘tight’. It was accompanied by a tenderness at the joint of my right jaw.

        This morning, at 9:00 a.m., I rang the GP for an appointment with the nurse. At 11:45 a.m. I attended the surgery and it was immediately diagnosed as Shingles by the nurse. Luckily, it seems, it is contained and should not spread, since I have no further rashes anywhere else on my body.

        1. I hope you’ve been given suitable drugs; it’s an absolute bastard if it gets into your eyes, good luck.

          1. My brother suffered a terrible bout of it around four years ago; however, he had just recovered from prolonged treatment for a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, so his immune system had taken a beating. In my case I am relatively fit so the nurse considers that I shall soon shake it off.

            She told me that drugs only work if you report the symptoms within 72 hours of onset; after that it is of no use. It has certainly not spread in the direction of my eyes since I first noticed it.

          2. Again good luck, you must have been close on the 72 hours window.
            When I got it I was lucky and could take the drugs and recovered quickly. My father missed the window and it caused him no end of problems, ruined his eyesight and to all intents and purposes he never did active sports afterwards.

        4. I was about to suggest shingles, Grizzly. These photos are so ambiguous – I must say it didn’t occur to me that it was your forehead, and i feared the worst.

          Hubby had this on his chest and a particular antibiotic (aclovir?) cleared it up in no time (his photo was even more suggestive)

    9. Oh Mr. Grizz! I’m so sorry for you! My old man had it on his 40th birthday and his mother told him that if the rash joined up round his waist, he’d die! Such an inspirational old b she was! Do take care of yourself and have lots of fluids. Thinking of you!😘

      1. My mother told me when i was 10 years old the my father had been diagnosed with emphysema. She told me he was going to die. 40 years later he did. Long after she had died in a car crash. I think this was used as a way to control rather than actually be a loving parent.

      2. Thank you, Mrs Macfarlane. Mine hasn’t spread anywhere but I’ll take it easy in case it does.😘

          1. No. The nurse told me that antivirals are pointless after 72 hours. I was well over that time limit when I was diagnosed.

      1. Not in the least. I’m fighting fit and have been busy in my workshop all week. It came as a complete surprise.

        1. Just like my heart attack.

          Joking aside, be careful with it, it can be extremely unpleasant.

        1. Philip is incorrigible. He frequently attempts to wind me up but serially fails. He’s only a bit of a lad: and a warm shandy-drinker at that. 🤣

          1. I am sorry Grizz. Are you in pain? I only ask as a poncy Southerner.

            Seriously. I had Impetigo as a teenager and it was fucking horrible.

          2. No pain at all, but they do say where there is no sense there is no feeling.

            [I said that just to beat you to it!😝]

          4. Something has fucked up my post…anyway send me all images and i will make you a star on onlyfans…any other irregularities we can capitalise on? :@)

          5. If you manage to survive your plague i might possibly accept the fact that you may or may not have the ability to accept an invitation from a Southern Poofter this Summer. Want to go for it? Geoff is looking at North of M25. I even know a South Derbyshire Cop that you could argue with about how to make Tea.

          7. I still have quite loose plans to visit friends in North Norfolk, possibly sometime in late spring, but nothing concrete planned yet. I’ll come back to you when we’ve made a move on this.

        2. That’s Phizzee you’re addressing, it’s his natural state, as you will learn.

          Not only can he tell you what it is, but also where he caught it, and how many times he’s had it; plus all possible signs and symptoms.

          You might even get the impression he was a consultant in an STD clinic, when in fact he was a master chef

          3. I know at which point diatomaceous earth becomes less a seasoning and more a slug killer.

          5. Speaking of which……….For me to get to Colchester/East Anglia for the next possible Nottler lunch we could all arrive on your Petit Maison by the coach load for the same price :@)

          6. Joking aside
            Unfortunately we have stopped letting it pro temps and unless I get the all clear it’s even possible I won’t be able to get the pool up and running. The work load is too great and we can’t afford to get people in.

          8. True, but it is frustrating knowing that what were 5 minute jobs are major exercises.
            I instinctively do things and then realise I really shouldn’t have, eg lifting a heavy hose reel so a van could get past.

          9. One of my dear friends is a specialist in STD’s. And if you diss her she might not treat you when you need it. StorminaDcup !!!

        3. Can’t help it, sorry. It’s my HRT. Gets the better of me. Still like to see the full damage though. So at least i know what to expect.

    12. It’s a stress related rash and coincides with the installation of a Smart meter the side effect of which induces the Einstein-Barr virus causing anxiety in the user after watching the increasing cost of energy. 😉

    13. I misinterpreted the photo, Griz; I assumed it was of your left shoulder and injections thereto!

      Must go soon to Specsavers …..

      1. I’ve got this huge extended forehead, Lacoste.🤣

        Others have this thing called ‘hair’.

          1. We can all laugh about being bald but why ………oh. I get it. Post a pic that looks like your back and it turns out that’s how big your bald head looks like. You are beginning to sound like the Duchess of whatever.

    14. It looks a little like shingles, although I would have expected a few more clusters. Edit: it does seem determinedly to one side and following the track of a nerve.

  77. That’s me gone for today. A very nice, mild, sunny day. Had a line of washing out – all dry now. Two hours ladder work. What could be better?

    Watching a lovely sunset right now. Likely to rain tomorrow – so it was just as well that my handyman asked if he could give the grass its first cut today instead of tomorrow. And the autovents in the greenhouse that caused so much aggro – WORK!!

    So – time to get a nice glass of cranberry juice (Lent, innit?)

    A demain.

  79. i do find it interesting that there is a huge prevalence of shingles since November 2019

      1. Very well done. I wasn’t taken in, either, but was blackmailed by “our” NHS, as I would not have been allowed to see my son (who lives in a care home) unless I took it. Only had the first 2 (Astrazeneca) but deeply regret it as have had balance problems ever since.

        1. You could consider taking more water with it.

          Admit it, you were unbalanced to start with, you’ve joined in on Nottle

        2. Our two sons were also blackmailed by our ‘caring’ nhs. I have had no peace in my heart or life since.

          1. Please…slow. We though virtual will help in any way we can. Deep breathing. focus on us.

          3. Not that any GP would suggest because they don’t get paid but there are ways without drugs. Breathing exercises are good. Controlled slow and breathe out through the mouth slowly. And i do mean slowly. focus on exhaling. slowly. Helps to slow heart beat too…

          4. Thanks Phizzee. I had forgotten that – to breathe out as though you are pushing your breath through a straw until you have truly emptied your lungs (I hope I don’t fall over….!) I think the weather has a lot to do with how I feel, we all feel so much better when the sun shines.

      2. I had shingles at the start (i.e. first few weeks) of the ‘vaccine’ prgramme. I have not had any of the jabs. However, I do wonder if I came into contact with someone who was ‘shedding’ from the vaccine. I had a very easy time of it regarding symptoms, just a few days of feeling off colour and the rash scarcely caused any irritation. However, it took nearly two years for the blisters to stop forming, they would heal and another cluster would start. I was at the dentist during the summer months 18 months’ later and the dentist asked me what on earth I had done to the back of my neck during a head x-ray for implants – because I looked as though I had been pulled through a brambly hedge. I explained and he said it looked like viral ulceration now. He produced a small tub of Sudafed and I never looked back. Sudafed is soothing and healing for skin eruptions whatever they are.

    2. Shingles is one of the ‘adverse effects’ of the vax. There are nine pages of adverse effects, incidentally. In the case of shingles, it is because the ‘vaccine’ clobbers the immune system. A friend’s 13 year old grandson came down with shingles very shortly after the vax. Just 13 years old….

  80. Another dishonest piece in Spectator’s coffee house. Sam Leith twisting the facts
    ‘First, the amateur sleuths of Twitter spotted some visual inconsistencies in the image. Then the conspiracy theorists came out to play. And before long the major press photo-agencies had withdrawn the photo, with a great show of fastidiousness, from circulation’. The Spectator is determined to follow what it considers the party line. Perhaps a great deal is at stake, legislation is in progress to protect it from being taken over from abroad threatening its editorial independence. Better not to rock the boat is perhaps the kindest interpretation.
    It was of course the reaction of international news agencies which caused most people to suspect that something was amiss.

    1. Nepo-babe extraordinaire Sam is a definite argument for NOT continuing with the Speccie, however good the occasional writer may be. Him’n’Matt (Parris) should defs Get a Room.

      1. I have a policy of ignoring Leith’s articles. Unfortunately I sometimes click on a headline before realising who the author is.

          1. Nepo nephew feted at the Spec. Their idea of an intellectual, what with the serial dumbing down

          2. Thank you, Opopanax. Mine was a wild guess based purely on the surname. I have her cook-book.

          4. Her nephew Sam. Son of Penny Junor . Commonly derided by the Spectator BTL commenters for penning lightweight articles.

        1. It’s very likely to have been caused by all the rubish they can’t seem to be bothered to clear up. Where ever they are.

          1. That is true of so many middle and far eastern countries. I have only been to North Africa, but I would imagine that Wakanda is not dissimilar, in reality.

          2. Don’t go to Djibouti.
            Last time I was there there was a body in a canvas bag on the street. A rubbish skip by a market you couldn’t see across the top of for swarms of flies..

          4. Isn’t it.

            After the Suez canal. The ship
            stopped over for a few hours on our journey to Freemantle.
            Four of us together went into town and into a bar for a drink.
            Not long after we sat down they rubbed out the prices on the chalkboard. To double the costs.
            When we left we put the amount of the original cost on the table and walked out.
            Some of them chased us and tried to grab our ladies hand bags. Dave and I had to tip over table’s and chairs behind us to stop them catching up, It was like a scene from Indiana Jones.

    3. Source of protein?
      Quick prayer and drown them in their own blood.
      Cultural norm in Londonistan.

    4. Many, many years ago I was working in New York.
      We were walking back from the restaurant close to China Town, fairly late at night, and I was explaining/mansplaining to the team that NY had a major rat problem.
      The ladies were unconvinced, so I bashed the side of the next large rubbish bin we passed.
      Their shrieks could probably have been heard in Harlem as literally hundreds of rats emerged from the row of bins.

      I must admit that I was also started by how many appeared, even though I was expecting them.

          1. Les negres commencaient a Calais? Sorry I can’t do accents on the laptop and I didn’t see the picture.

  82. Vlad said in his latest speech “Now we move forward together shoulder to shoulder”.
    Better than anything our idiots would have ever have been able to say in their whole lifetimes.

      1. The left have a completely different definition of Democracy which does not involve voting. it’s weird.

  84. BBC verify has checked this and their conclusion is
    FALSE
    It’s arriving through Dover

  85. There’s an oft repeated ad on GBN that begins with a guy saying, “Tired of mine-tins…” I don’t know what he’s selling because I never get past that. Mountains? I like mountains.

  89. Evening, all. Amazingly our team came first in the ROC Association entertainments quiz. All I can say is, the other teams were even worse at Music, TV, Radio, Cinema and Theatre than we were!
    As fo the headline, it would be the triumph of hope over experience. We already have the example of abortion of how it would go. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.

  90. Well, chums, I wish you all Good Night. I hope you sleep well and awaken refreshed (and in your case, Grizzly, shingles free). Until tomorrow, all.

        1. I have to ask. A Nottler emailed me. Not from you and not from me. Where did it come from?

  92. I must say that his back was not the first thing that sprang to mind in my case. Maybe i have an irredeemably smutty mind, though.

    2. Doesn’t look much like a thank you to me. Looks more like a face off (which the machine won)

    3. Yeah that doesn’t look right, I suspect pushing the elephant like that with the digger arm could of been very painful.

      1. I would’ve said chinchilla but you are right, the eyes are too big, Maybe a Furbee or a Gremlin? IRL?

    5. I make no bones about my lack of environmentalism but I really do wish there were far fewer people on this planet. We’re everywhere, causing all sorts of problems, destroying habitat, meddling, interfering.

      Our technology has given us long lives and huge potential. We’ve no real predators, complete environmental control. Why can’t we use it to manage our own population?

    1. Only if deranged half naked men and boys whip themselves so the streets run with blood. The white bit is us.

  97. And that’s me off to bed.
    Off to Stoke tomorrow but taking the DT’s car as the van is poorly.

    1. I think he’s more saying “If you wanna keep that green card and get the six figure sum per speech and the WEF red carpet plus a huge sinecure in my little fiefdom called the USA, just keep to the script, you little weeb – I got my eye on you. Nearly there!”

      1. With the MSM awash with rumours of a leadership challenge having Obama walk in the front door of No.10 was perhaps not the wisest of moves 😆 Apparently though, all they did for an hour was have a cup of tea and talk about A1🤣

        2. They just don’t f*cking care, do they Peta? It is completely overt and in-ya-face.

          1. They don’t seem to. Perhaps they are so confident that they have rendered us so totally helpless that they no longer feel the need to hide their contempt. To be honest, when I look around me at huge swathes of the population they could have a point too.

      2. More likely they are discussing the failure of their warmongering in Ukraine and the Middle East.

        Obama is doubtless shitting bricks over the disintegration of his promulgation of the proxy war in Ukraine and the resounding victory of Putin in the Russian elections.

        Where to go, who to blame, buddy can you spare a dime. Our Federal Reserve printers are down. You will have to pick up the bill for NATO and pay for the Ukrainian ministers to drive around in the latest Rolls Royce Sceptres and purchase large mansions around the globe.

        You must prepare for another bloodbath.

        My husband Michael and I are now retiring having achieved our principal objectives viz. the destruction of the collective west including the UK, your small insignificant country.

    3. You may laugh, but that Honiton exMP had the same problem. It’s clearly more widespread than one might think.

    6. Suffolk man had sex with 450 tractors

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      By Hugh Dunnett, Crime Correspondent

      A
      Suffolk man with a bizarre sexual attraction to tractors has been
      banned from the countryside and forced to sign the sex offenders
      register.

      Ralph Bishop, 53, was found by police with his
      trousers around his ankles “interfering” with a tractor parked in a
      field outside Saxmundham.

      He
      was arrested on suspicion of outraging public decency and admitted to
      having had sex with around 450 tractors all over the Suffolk
      countryside.

      When officers searched his terraced home they found a collection of more than 5,000 tractor images on his laptop.

      The photos showed Bishop had a special desire for John Deere and Massey Ferguson tractors, particularly green ones. Object of desire

      A
      police insider said: “We couldn’t believe it when we found him in the
      field. He was wearing a white t-shirt and Wellington boots and very
      little else. He was clearly in a state of high excitement at the rear of
      the machine.

      “Thankfully
      nobody else was around, but the field is close to a village primary
      school so we had to arrest him and educate him about the error of his
      ways.

      “He told us he was particularly ‘into’ axle grease and the
      presence of this around the back of tractors was all too much for him.”

      Bishop,
      twice divorced, was released without charge on condition he sought
      psychological help. He was put on the sex offenders register.

      “He
      is also banned from the countryside and is now forbidden to go within
      one mile of a farm,” the police insider added. “So he has to live and
      remain in the middle of Ipswich to comply with that.

      “However, we are watching him because we are worried about the safety of several street-cleaning machines.”

      Another
      source, WPC Lorraine Fisher, 34, added: “He’ll also need to keep away
      from the town’s gardens – if he takes a fancy to a lawnmower he might
      find he loses more than just his liberty.”

      EDITOR’S NOTE:
      Three months later, things had not improved for Mr Bishop, who was
      caught out trying to get a job at an agriculture college, where he
      wanted to give the farm machinery a vigorous scrub down.

  101. Another day is done so, I wish you goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen frĂźh.

    1. “If it moves, salute it! If it doesn’t move, paint it!”

      Naval Ratings Handbook, 10th Edition.(1960)

      1. I was told that in 1960 at summer camp when I was in the ATC. I was at RAF Catterick an RAF Regiment establishment.

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