Monday 18 September: The Government needs to find the courage to scrap HS2 altogether

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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344 thoughts on “Monday 18 September: The Government needs to find the courage to scrap HS2 altogether”

  3. Good morning, chums. Off to see the latest Kenneth Branagh film in which he plays Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot today. See you all later.

      1. You, Sir, are a Very Silly Sausage! Lol. The film starts at 12.40 pm, but I have lots to do before then. (Good morning, Paul, btw.)

    3. It would be interesting to hear what you make of it. David Suchet was considered the definitive Poirot, having done the complete works over several decades and bearing an uncanny resemblance to the illustrations on the original books. Agatha Christie hated the character, considering him an odious little creep, and wanted to kill him off, but her readers wouldn’t let her.

      3. Of the Branagh three Poirot films, I preferred the one I saw today – with some reservations (see my reply to Rastus on Tuesday evening’s post).

      1. Everyone has their favourites, Conners. Do you prefer Oscar to Kadi or can you accept them both?

      2. Don’t judge a film by a still photograph, Conners. Having watched it today I found the whodunnit aspect of the film quite good, but didn’t care much for the Halloween-type shock cuts – suddenly a screeching parakeet screams through the cast with an explosion of loud sound and music, and similarly a rat suddenly emerges from the mouth of a gargoyle. These are the usual Haunted House shock tactics which I find simply silly. Overall, though, not a bad film for a wet and windy day.

        1. I wasn’t judging the film (I haven’t seen it), just the interpretation of the character. He didn’t epitomise Poirot as I envisaged him from reading the books, whereas David Suchet, I thought, caught the essence of the character well. The still I saw didn’t have Poirot snappily, if eccentrically, dressed, symmetrical and precise.

  4. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cold ‘n wet. Fog rolling out of the trees. Much rain forecast for today.

        1. It’s a very descriptive word, dreich. Even sounds like what it is.
          Never heard it until I moved to Aberdeen in 1990.

  5. ‘Morning All

    Oi Laffed

    https://twitter.com/DawnWestgate/status/1703421777584459934

    Rest of the medley

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  7. Good Moaning.
    A plug for a local institution. This coming Thursday, I had booked a visit to the local theatre for a friend and me. A family crisis blew up for my friend, and I cancelled so the Mercury had a chance to resell the seats.
    Problem sorted and the money was credited for another occasion.
    Family crisis was dealt with (friend wisely decided she’d had enough and wouldn’t get involved). Last night, I was able to rebook that same evening – seats not far from original spot. Credit was automatically applied and the only extra expense was rebooking the parking.
    Well done, Mercury theatre. When you read about or experience the hassles that can be involved in getting credit, such a seamless process was balm to the soul.

  8. Good morning, all. Rain over night and overcast this morning.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6832cb2b0aca787b542669b9ae12b38a67125b6abe9823d0dfe6040abf37b45e.png
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    Home truths?

    1. A brief look at how our society and its social structure has been deliberately destroyed by our vile and hatefull political classes.

      1. 376085+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,

        In the main elected as a party via the polling stations by the peoples.

          1. 376085+ up ticks,

            Afternoon VW,
            In the nicest possible way I beg to differ. the treachery rot openly set in with the major reign, polished to odious perfection by the rodent b liar
            then past to brown, followed by the wretch cameron who was outshone in deep treacherous actions by the may plague.
            in my book there was more than enough evil actions via the lab/lib/con coalition visited upon this nation to cast more than a little doubt as to their true nature and intentions.

            Seemingly the “you gotta vote tory (ino) to keep out labour” voting pattern has won the day, regardless of the evil consequences these past 40 years.

  9. Brutal awakening for a police hater. 18 September 2023.

    According to Ms Sathanandan’s understandably angry and indignant Facebook post, on Tuesday evening, the day after the Labor Day holiday, ‘Four very young men, all carrying guns, beat me violently down to the ground in front of our kids. The young men held our neighbors up at gunpoint when they ran over and tried to help me. All in broad daylight.’ She added a photograph of her face covered in blood.

    This might have been titled: Neoliberal Discovers Reality. This woman was hoist with her own petard.

    Strong words, I hear you saying, but the woman in question was one of the leading advocates for de-funding the police in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in the late spring of 2020. In a June 2020 post, Ms Sathanandan thanked two Minneapolis City Council members for their ‘radical leadership’ in working to ‘dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department [MPD]’, adding, almost triumphantly and slightly dementedly, ‘We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me. Dismantle. The. Minneapolis. Police. Department.’ She also praised the University of Minnesota, her alma mater, when it cut all ties with the MPD. Significantly, the pabulum which counts as news reporting in this DFL-dominated city failed to mention in their accounts of the attack that she had called for the dismantling of the police, either completely ignoring it, or just saying that she had called only for ‘reform’ – an Orwellian sleight of hand if ever there was one.

    Unlike the author I shall bask in warm fuzzy feelings of Schadenfreude and self-righteousness that this woman suffered the fate that she wished on others. .

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/brutal-awakening-for-a-police-hater/

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps. A few local thunderclaps in the early hours (noisy outside, too) but currently dry and sunny. The Met Orifice says that it should be heavy rain and storms right through to lunchtime. XC Weather says mostly sunny with a small chance of the occasional shower. Think I’ll go with the latter!

    In the knowledge that the taxpayer has just handed over an additional £200m to the NHS ‘to see us through the winter’ the following headline in the DT will come as no surprise to Nottlrs:

    “NHS to spend millions creating ‘woke’ diversity and inclusion jobs”

    What did I say to Mrs HJ when the extra dosh was announced? “Stand by for yet another load of non-jobs”. And there you have it. Of course, any government should know by now that the cowboys in the NHS should have been told in the clearest terms what the money was for, and woe betide the bosses for spending it on anything else. That would require balls, of course.

  12. Good morning all,

    A showery morning here in North-West Hants, wind in the South going West, 15℃ with 17℃ the forecast maximum. A cool day.

    David Starkey is a national treasure. The latest in his excellent series of talks on the Constitution neatly summarises the damage done by the Blair/Brown government of 1997-2010. The real failure of the faux-conservative bunch now in charge, and the cause of our current travails, is that it has done nothing to reverse any of it. It’s 22 minutes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu22nG7CN8Q

    In the light of this how can one not feel that it is the duty of each and every one of us to defy our government?

    1. Morning McPhee. We owe no allegiance to Westminster or its lackeys. We should each of us defy it where we can to the limits of our own safely and wish its members and their ambitions all manner of ills.

    2. Morning McPhee. We owe no allegiance to Westminster or its lackeys. We should each of us defy it where we can to the limits of our oown safely and wish its members and their ambitions all manner of ills.

  13. The hypocrisy of brand Brand – his real addiction is just power. 17 September 2023.

    There has always been “something of the night” about Russell Brand, to use Ann Widdecombe’s phrase. Widdecombe may indeed be one of the few women that Brand would not try to seduce, but Brand has always revelled in his own shadow – a darkness that has served him well.

    More slagging off. As usual no comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/09/17/the-hypocrisy-of-brand-brand-his-real-addiction-is-power/

  14. SIR – Whatever the consequences of the allegations levelled against Russell Brand, which he denies (“Brand accused of rape and sex abuse”, report, September 17), the public was given an insight into his character when, in 2008, aided and abetted by Jonathan Ross, he phoned the actor Andrew Sachs on air and made lewd comments about his granddaughter. Just two years earlier, the singer Dannii Minogue had referred to him as a “vile predator”.

    I would be surprised if The Sunday Times and Channel 4 had aired the allegations without being pretty sure of their facts.

    Robert Readman
    Bournemouth, Dorset

    I watched the Ch4 documentary about Brand on catch-up yesterday evening, and found it professionally produced and believable. Having always regarded Brand as a lewd and sex-mad ‘broadcaster’ I always avoided him, but in so doing I was unprepared for the sheer stomach-churning depravity shown in the programme. Even on the basis that some of the five complainants could be making up their stories (unlikely in my view) “vile predator’ is a completely inadequate description of this animal. It just shows how far broadcasters, and the BBC in particular, are prepared to go to satisfy their craving for yoof audiences.

    1. I haven’t watched it but i would be surprised if it were worse then the program ‘EuroTrash’ or any of those Japanese programs that rely on people humiliating themselves. I could be wrong.

    2. All these Russel Brand sexual exploits begun under Blair’s New Labour, the left can hardly complain about the age of his conquests when the were giving the nod to the child grooming gangs.

      The Mail and channel 4 were calling him shagger of the year at the time

    3. Though Brand may indeed be, for all I know, everything that he is accused of sexually we should not attribute noble motives to his accusers. They are motivated by his political views and public influence which, since it is counter to the official narrative, they wish to bring to an end.

      2. ‘Morning, Minty.

        “They are motivated by his political views and public influence…” This may or may not be the case, and furthermore we are never likely to know. It might just be an incident so awful that is simply too embarrassing to report and, if neccessary, too awful to recount in open court.

        For 11 years I had the dubious pleasure of investigating reports of sexual misconduct in a national youth organisation, and I really have seen it all. On several occasions I was obliged to contact the Child Protection Unit at the local police, the result of which was for the alleged perpetrator to be arrested and, if the evidence was good, charged and sent for trial.

        I came accross only very rarely the odd case where the alleged victim – usually girls under 18 but not exclusively – was alleging sexual misconduct for obviously other than genuine reasons. They are not usually difficult to spot at an early stage.

        In the case of multiple victims there were some who could not be pursuaded to say what had happened, preferring instead to put it behind them. This understandable reluctance probably means that we were only seeing the tip of a very ugly iceberg. However, those under 18 cannot be accused of ‘leading on’ or of being a willing participant because under the Sexual Offences Acts this is of no consequence, even if it did happen, where the perpetrator is an adult. What counts is the evidence that certain acts took place as alleged. Any malicious intent is not difficult to spot, but regrettably just the occasional case slips through the net…

        In the documentary, which I assume you have seen, Brand has recounted, on national television no less, his obvious enjoyment in treating women as whores. In particular, he revels in making mascara run down their faces as a result of forceful oral sex. Where are the feminists in all this? Why no outcry from them? In what way could it ever be acceptable to broadcast even brief clips like this? And let’s not forget that at least one of his alleged victims was 16 at the time, which should have triggered an immediate police investigation by now – unless it already has but the victim doesn’t want to give evidence. That seens unlikely as she has already given graphic evidence to the documentary makers.

        What I also find completely inexplicable is that Brand is said to have a huge number of followers on social media, notwithstanding the overt sexual content of his so-called comedy routines. I wonder how many of them are under age, and others who think that treating women so badly is perfectly normal?

        1. Presumably these women with mascara running down their faces knew what they were doing……….and knew what he was doing……….. why didn’t they stop him? Was he threatening them?

          I think for predatory men like him it is normal to treat women as something to play with.

    4. Two things about the Brand story:

      1. He has a huge on-line following, especially in the USA, for his counter-narrative podcasts so he is an irritant to power.

      2. It’s a distraction (don’t look there, look here) at a time when the use of midazolam in the NHS and care homes during the scamdemic and the continued existance under another name of the Liverpool Care Pathway is being brought into the light.

      1. “He has a huge on-line following, especially in the USA, for his counter-narrative podcasts so he is an irritant to power.”

        His tirade against corporate profiteering from Covid, Ukraine and climate change doesn’t mean he’s against governmental actions in respect of them. However, it’s entirely possible that the PTB, stupid and dangerous as they are, see it that way and wish to silence him.

      2. Russel Brand story is a convenient cover up for the WHO IHR pandemic treaty which, apparently, is to be signed by HMG on Wednesday. Legally enforced gene therapy injections, lockdowns, etc. etc.

        TPTB don’t want us to know all the ins and outs.

    5. His behaviour has been reprehensible. He’s clearly a wrong un but that’s different to being legally guilty.

      There’s a huge difference between being a vile human being and convicted of assault, rape and so forth. It’s this trial by media that I hate.

  15. The complex and corporate rise of the Tony Blair Institute. 18 September 2023.

    As prime minister, Tony Blair oversaw a few hundred Downing Street staff and one country. Sixteen years later, he is now responsible for more than 800 staff who help advance his policies in nearly 40 countries.

    Since leaving No 10, the former prime minister has arguably become more powerful thanks to the work of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), which has exploded in size and revenue during the last few years. Its accounts show it made over $81m (£65m) in revenue in 2021, a 78% increase on the previous year.

    The Tony Blair Institute is simply a Globalist Pressure Group. It has nothing to do with individual Freedom or Democracy. It supports any cause or measure that can be paid for.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/17/tony-blair-institute-rise

    3. 376085+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,

      Will also I believe, finance park public toilets

      for prowling cottagers to operate in sheltered areas.

      The name anthony charlie lynton will always be revered ( Bow Street court) among world wide willy watchers.

  16. 376085+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 18 September: The Government needs to find the courage to scrap HS2 altogether

    Did anyone else notice the three little discrepancies?
    “The government” currently known as the sunak league of scammers& manipulators.

    If “courage” can be linked to treachery in a beneficial manner
    then we have a pride of lions roaming parliament, that can also be witnessed as the three party leading hierarchy as being a coalition of brave lions, I think not boo boos, anything but.

    ” To scrap HS2″

    The jewel in the political scammers crown,hitting ALL anti English spots to the benefit of the eu/wef/nwo, anti indigenous, destructive, of NO benefit to the nation BUT as a lifestyle creating scam has NO equal.

    The electorate majority really do seem happy via the polling booth to be “kettled” first in cities then towns, villages, hamlets,
    down to going next door without a bloody good reason, surely the mindset of brain dead idiots.

    The next demand from the brain dead electorate majority will be to build bigger viaducts to shelter the indigenous homeless.

    This cannot be achieved without your continuing lab/lib/con
    coalition vote.

    1. You’re angry at people who don’t know there are other options. Who are not interested in politics. Who have better things to do. Yes, the rail against the idiotic stupidity foisted on them but they are either defeated or frustrated or simply don’t care.

      1. 376085+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        We have witnessed in the past lab/lib/con vote tactically to keep the then genuine UKIP party out,while all the while setting in place what we are now receiving in our daily lives, many of those complaining are those who helped place the pro eu/ wef / nwo
        footings, blossoming into the road to RESET in place under the, party before country banner.

      2. 376085+ up ticks,

        W,
        Not so, angry, more so, disgusted, the
        party before Country supporter/ voter
        has a great deal to answer for.

  17. Good morning. After finally getting a face to face and sorting out a new prescription i told the Doctor that one or more of my medicines or supplements was giving me diarrhoea.

    He immediately brought up on his screen clopidogrel adverse reactions.

    He suggested i try Aspirin for a month.

    This made me think about clopidogrel versus Aspirin.

    I found that clopidogrel would be prescribed for people with diabetes and or secondary stroke prevention.

    I looked further and found this…

    Clopidogrel was as effective as aspirin for prevention of recurrent stroke in real‐world practice. However, the mortality rate was significantly higher in the clopidogrel than in the aspirin group.28 Sept 2018

    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.118.009856

    My inner conspirascist suggests that Aspirin doesn’t make big pharma any money.

    1. My OH left the JR last Christmas with a bagful of drugs, one of which was Clopidogrel. It was dropped after a few weeks. He’s still with us.

      1. I am highly suspicious of the amount of crap MB is taking every day.
        But it has to be his decision.

        1. He’s obediently taking everything he’s told to. I told him statins did no good at all, and could be harmful – but he’s still taking Atorvastatin. He took the Amiodarone, but it made him feel so ill that the pharmacist at the gp surgery asked the cardiologist if he could stop, and they said yes. Perhaps it’s something to do with his upbringing – but his father was a pharmacist.

          I’d be very reluctant to take anything at all – I keep away from the surgery (except when I accompany him) and so far am as well as I’ve ever been.

    2. As a blood thinner Apixaban has no obvious side effects.
      I’ve been taking two a day for around 5 years. No problems.

    3. Good morning Phizzee

      I am prescribed Clopidogrel , sadly had a TIA 6years ago.

      Aspirin sometimes has side effects , inflamed stomach, and possibly an ulcer

    4. I’ve been on Clopidogrel for 13 years now. I was on Aspirin and Clopidogrel but a bleeding duodenal ulcer almost did for me. The doc on the stomach ward blamed it on “The Huge Aspirin Experiment.”

    5. I wax prescribed clopiwatsit after my bypass surgery. It was so effective at lowering blood pressure that I started having fainting spells.

      The doctor just told me to stop taking it. Blood pressure back to normal and no side effects.

  18. Good morning. After finally getting a face to face and sorting out a new prescription i told the Doctor that one or more of my medicines or supplements was giving me diarrhoea.

    He immediately brought up on his screen clopidogrel adverse reactions.

    He suggested i try Aspirin for a month.

    This made me think about clopidogrel versus Aspirin.

    I found that clopidogrel would be prescribed for people with diabetes and or secondary stroke prevention.

    I looked further and found this…

    Clopidogrel was as effective as aspirin for prevention of recurrent stroke in real‐world practice. However, the mortality rate was significantly higher in the clopidogrel than in the aspirin group.28 Sept 2018

    https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.118.009856

    My inner conspirascist suggests that Aspirin doesn’t make big pharma any money.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    My word what a downpour around 1am. I had to get out of bed and close the windows. Thunder and lightning as well.
    No matter what, our government don’t have the courage to do anything the majority of the people want. As this once safe and pleasant land slides into the ditch of what they like to refer to as diversity.

  20. UK fails to prosecute any China spy suspects. 18 September 2023.

    It emerged in September that two men, including a parliamentary researcher, had been arrested under the Official Secrets Act amid allegations they had spied for China. The men under criminal investigation, who both deny the accusations, were arrested in March and bailed until next month.

    But it remains highly unlikely that the men will be charged under the Official Secrets Act, which dates back to 1911, and which the intelligence services have condemned as outdated. The parliamentary researcher, who is in his 20s, issued a statement through his lawyers protesting his innocence, denied being a Chinese spy and instead said he had spent his career trying to “educate others” about the “threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party”.

    As suspected it was all about giving Rishi something to brag about at the G20.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/16/china-spying-mi5-secrets-mps/

      3. Considering the damage the socialist Hunt an the globalist Sunak are doing to the country China doesn’t need spies.

    2. Not just the UK:

      OTTAWA – A joint report into Chinese interference in Canada drawn from an RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service investigation found evidence of foreign agents working in this country to “influence…important leaders” and “neutralize” criticism of China.

      The report was written 25 years ago.

      Article content
      Finalized in 1998, now partially declassified, the report was the result of a joint RCMP-CSIS investigation dubbed Project Sidewinder, examining links between Chinese government intelligence agencies and Chinese organized crime. An early draft version of the report had been leaked before now but was controversially discredited by Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee.

      Don’t worry though, a public inquiry with Trudeau defined terms of reference and headed by a Trudeau judge is about to start looking into the issue. >

    1. What’s the betting if you showed that to Paul Simon he’d be completely nonplussed, just as Bob Dylan was when left wing activists adopted “Maggie’s Farm”.

  22. Good morning all

    Well now , the thunder storm circled over us for a couple of hours yesterday evening , a real cracker. A few savage bolts out of the blue .
    Raining gently now , Moh not playing golf this morning .

  23. Good morning! It isn’t about courage or the lack thereof. HS2 is a money laundering scheme and they’re all in on it.

    1. Morning Sue. The fix is in here, is it not? The whole thing is clearly a failure but there is still money to be made out of it.

    3. Rather I think it’s a way to give very pointless people jobs for a good long while without anything having to be actually achieved. It’s also a part of the TENs/TEN-T project, and thus an EU effort, so the state will keep pushing it because it’s all part of the EU.

    1. That’s the real issue. This isn’t a trial by law, with facts and evidence it’s trial by media to achieve the same vindictive result without all the annoyance of facts and process. This approach is becoming very common amongst the Left.

    1. Get the army out & shoot them.
      Open gang warfare in Stockholm. Several shot dead this last week.

    2. No, we have hundreds of thousands of them. There’s a lo of historical comparisons here. The holocaust of course springs to mind, where one group was rounded up and an extermination carried out. Then there’s the native American situation where the invaders set about destroying a way of life for those there. The Same for the Aboriginals in Australia.

      The difference though is that we’re not trying to exterminate these gimmigrants. They shouldn’t be here legally or morally. The settlers set about encroaching on Native American land – just as these invaders are – ditto for the Aboriginal situation.

      The Africans and Middle easterners are the invading force, the destabilizing group. Defending ourselves against them is not only expected, but necessary.

  26. UK weather: Flooded airport to reopen as half a month’s rain falls in one hour
    BTL comment
    And? We’ve always had weather like this. Normal weather patterns, that we now call Biblical, will continue to disrupt our lives. In the olden days, when people were considered to be uneducated, they built homes above flood plains, dredged rivers, wore thick coats in winter and enjoyed glorious summers. They didn’t colour their weather charts in the deepest colour purple to frighten themselves indoors on a sunny day or tell themselves that expanding or shrinking ice caps would spell the end of our world.
    And just to say, have you noticed that the doomsayers who walk the streets with placards telling us that ‘The end is nigh’ actually have a job for life. 😂

    1. I don’t mind the doom mongers wittering on their drivel demanding our entire way of life be shut down, but these same people refuse to live how they demand others do.

  27. Good morning all from a bloody foul Barrow in Furness.
    Askam wasn’t much better either! Windy with heavy rain, a repeat of Friday.
    I had planned having a drive along Walney Island to take some photos, but that idea has been kicked into touch.

    I’m going to take the scenic route to Ulverston in the hope the weather MIGHT just improve, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

    I decided on a pub-less stop last night and parked up at an old quarry just after Foxfield.

    Hope everyone is keeping well.

    1. We had thunder and lightening during the night – lovely sunny start this morning but it soon clouded over and is now raining again. At least it’s filling up the sadly depleted pond and water butts.

  28. Am I being pedantic here.
    I have just seen Rebecca Jane Sutton on TV.
    And she’s quite put me off UKIP.
    I can honestly admit that I absolutely hate to see women who have had their lips pumped up. What is she trying to prove, she is already the most attractive person in British politics.

      1. She was on with that revolting idiot Vine and that horrible far left journo from the guardian. Owen Jones.
        Who hates everything and everyone. Except him self.

        1. Do you watch them to punish yourself? I’ve just read an article in the DT about Brand, but it doesn’t make me want to watch his stuff.

          1. Whenever there is a dark revelation about someone’s past its always about someone I never liked anyway.
            Maybe I should publish a list of all the people I don’t like so thay can all be looked into.

          3. Only while I eat my breakfast. 🤗
            I’ve had things to do around the house. Still having problems with the water softener.

    2. The mother is quite rightly protesting against gay propaganda. Perhaps she needs to do it in a less confrontational manner, though.

      1. Perhaps less confrontational manners don’t work – these ‘educators’ ride roughshod over parents with their dogma bit beween their teeth, hell-bent on their indoctrination at all costs. I think many in the UK are at that stage now, holding back because this is a path we haven’t been down before.

  31. A couple of pictures from St.Bees:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a630a73935758d82a4b76e0bfd6c7f61943afd55d635621542a06d869fae75dc.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b859a7f7970c033e97a06188ec1e8ada72aa0e1ebe84875d09d67e43f2d330b7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/119db36d9a2a5721d6338825da07468736768a1ee4a1aab8321b42bb43348700.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/425218c2910499d03e8ff63082176a3ec4be6ae22defa401cbe63e954f46e8ea.jpg

    There is a legend that you can see the Isle of Man from the headland just north of St. Bees, I think it’s just a myth!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/545b5e2c26cd777d88ccc885f0da21f6c3d2ebc33508d5d9a3b5c50ab2304da7.jpg

    But another view:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ea6cb47fc98ae4e7b04f734df58a99692cc37a4da41f4954fdb3d2aec4bd8d7.jpg

  32. The ‘naive cynicism’ of Russell Brand’s hasty defenders. 18 September 2023.

    If nothing the mainstream media says can be trusted by virtue of its being the mainstream media (and serving as one the agenda of the World Economic Forum, or the paedo-lizards, or Big Pharma, or the Neoliberal Establishment, or the Postmodern Marxist Deep State, or what have you), you are adrift in an entirely post-truth environment. You don’t know more than the ‘sheeple’ who watch the news and read newspapers: you know less. You’ll pick your guru, ‘do your own research’ down a YouTube rabbit-hole algorithmically serving you ever more conspiratorial content, and you’ll lose touch with the boring, fastidious, fact-based-and-needing-to-be-careful-not-to-be-sued work of professional reporters that might help you back to reality.’

    This of course is an endorsement of every totalitarian news system that has ever existed. Believe it because the State says that it is true! Hitler’s Germany, the Soviet Union, both relied upon the uncritical acceptance of what appeared in the approved News Media.

    It would seem to me that the MSM has realised that its propaganda efforts are not working and perhaps they should strike back against the opposition! Brand and his followers would appear to be the optimum target.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-naive-cynicism-of-russell-brands-hasty-defenders/

    3. Sam Leith.
      Nepo-baby Extraordinaire.

      Mother – Penny Junor
      Father – James Leith, long term Beeboid
      Aunt – Prue Leith
      Cousin – Danny Kruger

      Also a super sneery Spekkie journalist who regularly gets ripped to shreds under his articles. Hence, they are often a comment free zone.

  33. The ‘naive cynicism’ of Russell Brand’s hasty defenders. 18 September 2023.

    If nothing the mainstream media says can be trusted by virtue of its being the mainstream media (and serving as one the agenda of the World Economic Forum, or the paedo-lizards, or Big Pharma, or the Neoliberal Establishment, or the Postmodern Marxist Deep State, or what have you), you are adrift in an entirely post-truth environment. You don’t know more than the ‘sheeple’ who watch the news and read newspapers: you know less. You’ll pick your guru, ‘do your own research’ down a YouTube rabbit-hole algorithmically serving you ever more conspiratorial content, and you’ll lose touch with the boring, fastidious, fact-based-and-needing-to-be-careful-not-to-be-sued work of professional reporters that might help you back to reality.’

    This of course is an endorsement of every totalitarian news system that has ever existed. Believe it because the State says that it is true! Hitler’s Germany, the Soviet Union, both relied upon the uncritical acceptance of what appeared in the approved News Media.

    It would seem to me that the MSM has realised that its propaganda efforts are not working and perhaps they should strike back against the opposition! Brand and his followers would appear to be the optimum target.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-naive-cynicism-of-russell-brands-hasty-defenders/

  34. A small domestic task which illustrates the stupidity of man.

    The handle on the door of the freezer compartment of our fridge/freezer has broken.
    I went to the Bosch website to look for a spare.
    You need to start with the model number.
    The website says the model number is either on the inside of the door of your fridge compartment, the inside of the door of your freezer compartment or on the back of your ‘cooling appliance’.
    It is neither in the fridge compartment nor the freezer compartment so it must be on the back.
    This necessitates emptying the fridge, emptying the freezer and dragging the appliance out of its housing to read the plate with the model number on it (if it’s there).
    Which German numbskull came up with this?

    1. Have you still got the booklet which came with it, or the invoice when you bought it? They might have the model number.

          1. So do I but I didn’t look there first because my experience has always been that model numbers are only found on the appliance itself.

    2. I make a note on the destructions booklet of the model number and serial number of anything I buy which has one as soon as I get it

    3. Here, and at the last place, I’ve had numerous Bosch and Siemens appliances, and have never had to move them to find the SN / rating plate. Ditto, friend with new house dated 2019, with Siemens stuff. That took some searching to register the warranties, but no appliance was moved in the process. Bad luck if it’s on the back. Can you not just get help to ease it from the wall? Or move the wall? At least, Bosch etc. spares are relatively easy to find, if injuriously expensive…

  35. Mor Afternoon all.
    Gosh is that the time?
    Home from my week away and no sleep last night due to the loudest and longest lasting thunderstorm I’ve ever heard.

    Did I miss anything?🙂

    1. There was no news at all on Saturday. Probably whetting people’s appetite for the shock news that Russel Brand shagged every woman he ever met. It came as a complete shock and surprise to absolutely no one.

      Did you enjoy your break? Where did you go? West country wasn’t it?

      1. Yes, a chalet just outside Totnes. I spent time looking up places that we’ve traced our ancestoŕs to – found a cottage in Kennford that may well have been my great (x4) grandmother’s

        1. Given yesterday’s downpour, I think you escaped Totnes in the nick of time… Up the coast, Exeter Airport, and large parts of the city were inundated. Topsham Road (less than quarter of a mile from friend Dianne’s place looked like this:

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47e008ba845308abf1636083037839f8764e75c177a2cd5a00e0dc26f4c5bcf4.jpg

          I can see the problem – there is an usually piddling stream coming from the right of the road, which goes into a culvert under ‘Plants Galore’ (left of picture, run by pikeys, but satisfyingly cheap. And they get extra brownie points for refusing to close during the ‘fauxdemic’ lockdown, in defiance of Exeter Council).

          The River Exe is around 350 m to the West (left of the photo), but the culvert clearly wasn’t designed to cope with flash flooding…

      2. I had a lovely time. I rented a chalet just outside Totnes. Weather was hot hot. V relaxing week.

  36. Jeremy Clarkson has seen off the cancel mob…and Meghan’s fans will be furious

    The tide is finally turning in the culture war – and this week’s events prove it

    MICHAEL DEACON • 16 September 2023 • 7:00am

    What a disastrous week for fans of cancel culture. They tried to cancel the singer Roisin Murphy – only for her new album to shoot into the top five, the biggest hit of her career. They tried to cancel the comedy writer Graham Linehan – only for his new book to fly into Amazon’s bestseller list at number two.

    Then, to cap it all, it was reported that Amazon Prime Video is about to give Jeremy Clarkson a new series of Clarkson’s Farm. This follows months of rumours that Amazon was planning to scrap it, in panic at the social media outrage over a Sun column he wrote attacking Meghan Markle.

    If the deal is officially confirmed, the Duchess’s online armies of followers will be furious. For supporters of both free speech and good TV, however, it’s a pleasant surprise. Only last month, an Amazon Prime Video executive told the Edinburgh International Television Festival that she and her colleagues had been “shocked and disappointed” by Clarkson’s column. She then added, bizarrely: “I think the thing that I want to say is that the show is so much bigger than Clarkson.”

    To which the only response is: what? No it isn’t. The show is specifically about Clarkson. It’s filmed on his farm. The clue’s in the title. How exactly would Clarkson’s Farm work, if it didn’t feature Clarkson or his farm? “Hello and welcome to a new series of Clarkson’s Farm, presented by me, Amol Rajan. In Islington.”

    Anyway, I don’t see how Amazon could sack Clarkson for a mere newspaper column. The only reason they were able to sign him in the first place was because he’d punched a producer at the BBC. Evidently that didn’t put Amazon off hiring him. So if they were to sack him now, it would suggest that writing rude things about Meghan Markle is a more serious offence than physical assault.

    But then, to the cancel mob, perhaps it is. It’s practically their motto. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will always hurt me.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/16/jeremy-clarkson-meghan-markle-clarksons-farm-cancel-culture

    For Christ’s sake, don’t give Rajan ideas!

    1. It’s all a bit pathetic really. The Left knew what Clarkson was blithering about, they deliberately took his comments out of context to make it suit their own narrative.

      Frankly, Clarkson shouldn’t have apologised and made them get on with it.

      1. BTL:
        “The BBC thought Top Gear was bigger than Clarkson. How did that turn out?”
        “Clarkson’s Farm has done more for farming than 30 years of Countryfile.”

    1. I warned, years ago that something would have to be done about the out-of-control explosion in the human population of this small planet.

      It was blindingly clear that the human species, in general, possessed neither the intelligence nor the selflessness to control their numbers to manageable levels; i.e. keeping to a number that retained the diversity of wildlife and not destroying the balance of nature. Clearly this was not going to happen with a species that has its head so far up its own arse as to shut out all common sense.

      I forecast, years ago, that if mankind could not curb its rapidly rising population levels then something would simply have to be done to keep that population explosion in check, or make valiant efforts to reduce it. It was clear to me that one (or many) of the following courses of action would occur in a desperation to return to the crucial balance of nature that is vital for the survival of all species.

      1. Widespread famine.
      2. Global drought.
      3. Thermonuclear war.
      4. A pandemic of an incurable disease.

      It seems that those with the clear determination to tell the rest of us what to do have already stepped up with option 4. Since nature had not yet created such a disease, they gave it a helping hand.

      I fear this will be just the tip of the iceberg; moreover, what is — probably already — planned for accelerating the depopulation of this growing wretched mass of humanity will be, by a country league, massively more nightmarish than anyone could possibly envisage.

      1. I’m more concerned about the out-of-control hubris and diktats of the Mathusians who think they know better than the rest of us.

        All species will not and never have survived. Extinction is natural. It’s been going on for hundreds of millions of years, sometimes in great waves.

        1. Famines are a creation of mankind itself.
        2. Global drought will never happen unless the planet becomes a second Venus.
        3. A distinct possibility.
        4. COVID was a trial run. I fear Bill and his mates are working on something much more deadly. What else are all those bio-labs for? The only question is will we take him out before he takes us out. It’s slow progress.

        1. Don’t stop there. Explain what you mean. I’m not a ‘Malthusian’, I’m just a wide-awake thinker who realises that the human population on this tiny planet has quadrupled within my own lifetime. That escalating population needs more and more shelter; much more food; an endless supply of potable water; plus a facility for safe disposing of its ever-increasing masses of waste (not to mention the accelerating increase in pollution).

          More and more land needs to be given over to producing food for this non-stop explosion of just one species. This means there is less and less land available for all other species of plant and animal, consequently extinctions are rapidly gaining pace. The imbecilic human does not possess the common sense to realise that a planet with a monoculture of one species (humanity) does not stand a snowball-in-hells’ chance of survival.

          The irrebuttable facts are glaring you in the face. By all means bury your head in the sand and catcall those whose opinions do not accord with your own ‘world view’. However, the facts remain; unless the human population of this planet is vastly (and I mean vastly) reduced ,and soon, then the future will be a nightmare beyond comprehension for those living today and, more especially, for their non-stop conveyor belt of offspring.

          1. Don’t worry Grizz – the clot shots are doing their work of killing and maiming and causing sterility and still births. Or perhaps you have some other means in mind of reducing the population.

          4. They are lining up for their boosters. They can also boost the flu jab to have the same effect. If you have the flu why can you not go to the docs for a jab to cure you.?

          5. I don’t have the time to go into detail right now but here’s one to chew on: How is it that global crop yields are increasing while less land is given over to agriculture?

            Here’s another: extinctions are not rapidly gaining pace. That’s green misinformation.

      2. Perhaps all those telling us there are too many humans on this earth would volunteer to commit suicide? And, while they’re at it, tell us what will be the optimum number permitted to exist? And also what gives them the right to decree these things?

        In any case the western world has, by and large, been limiting their own progeny for many years. Hence the importation of so many immigrants.

        2. I think the Club of Rome/UN/World Economic Forum complex has decided that 500 million of us, confined to 15 minute cities and experiencing the planet through virtual reality, with about 8,000 of them lording it over us, would be just dandy.

        3. I think the Club of Rome/UN/World Economic Forum complex has decided that 500 million of us, confined to 15 minute cities and experiencing the planet through virtual reality, with about 8,000 of them lording it over us, would be just dandy.

      4. Thermo-nuclear would be my preferred option as you can target those who are not worthy of living in a civilised society – ie Nuke the Middle East and Africa

      5. The world’s population will level off at just over 10bn, according to Hans Rosling.
        He has some very good lectures on You Tube with novel presentations of the stats. Here’s one, but there are many others.
        I hope he’s right – any more than 10bn and we’ll all starve, at least those of us not killed in the wars that will arise.

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2LyzBoHo5EI&t=481s

    1. I always have a look at the comments under these videos. It’s amazing how many people who lazily swallowed what they were told about Katie Hopkins have now changed their minds.

  39. Telegraph running scared: main Live story not allowing any comments.

    They should station policemen in Ladies toilets, then Brand’s lasses could all complain en masse.

    2. I expect RB’s next move will be to identify as a gay woman so he can go into the ladies’ loos

      1. It was a play on women choosing to urinate socially; now they are all denouncing him in a group. (the Russell Group)

  40. A bit late but…

    :Relying on wind – or the French – is not a sensible energy policy

    Unless we can get them to fart in our general direction more frequently.

    1. Ian that Fry’s voice on the intro? I’m sure his answerphone must just say “Yes I’ll do it”.

  43. Lampedusa population: 6,000
    Immigrants in one day: 7,000
    Reception centre capacity: 400

    UK population: 60,000,000
    Typical ‘Illegal’ Immigrants across channel in one day: 600
    Inappropriate floating reception centre capacity: 500

    If you watch the responses of the Lampedusians and the Italian Prime Minister together with the military border responses of France and Germany in this video you can understand how the EU would welcome the UK to negotiate a revised Brexit agreement allowing the UK to receive its fair share of unwanted EU immigrants.

    Ursula von der Leyen’s clip on BBC yesterday was an admission that EU must find a solution to this problem – oh, here comes Sir Kier Starmer!

    https://youtu.be/yC5aO5gzH8M?si=e777WJY6OY9twBPu

    2. It’s very simple. They’ve got to be returned and stopped from coming. It’s really not complicated.

      1. It is a mock up but it is still all true. And we have human rights campaigners here condemning the bombing of Isis Yemen by the Sauds.

    2. Maz Kessler, Catapult’s founder and creative director, says: “Thankfully, these are fake magazines. Unfortunately, these are real problems.” The campaign was launched to stress that International Women’s Day is “more than just a cover story.”

      Here are the reasons given for why:

      14m girls — some as young as eight years old — will be married against their will in 2014.

      An estimated 1.2m children are trafficked into slavery each year; 80% are girls.

      In New York City, the average age at which a girl first becomes a victim of commercial sexual exploitation is 13.

      https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2014/mar/06/international-womens-day-sex-trafficking-slavery

    2. Like so many continental languages, there are agreements marking the genders (and I do mean that as it’s a grammatical term).

    4. These people just want to be noticed. Their talents are few so posing as a disordered couple will get them the attention they seek.

      1. They must pretend that they want to win the next election but, like Sunak, they have given up and actively now want to lose it.

    2. Yeah…. no, it won’t. What would is scrapping net zero now. Abandoning the climate change nonsense. Reversing any and all energy taxes. Allowing wind mills to be built but to remove all subsidy from them, now and forever. To scrap VAT on fuel, to open a referendum on council tax for any amount except a reduction. To scrap the business tax hikes and admit they were a tax on workers. To abolish import and export duties in the majority.

      Scrap the tax code and replace it with the Singaporean one, abolishing 125,700 pages. Reverse Brown’s pension tax raid. Implement a flat tax on income of 20%. End all government subsidy of charities, cull any quango with Chakrabalti in it or within 6 degrees of it.

      Cut taxes, shred the state.

    3. In invisible ink just below the headline is written, “so we can renege on this promise, like all the others, once we’ve conned you to vote us in”.

  48. Russell Brand is dominating the news again, the newspapers , every bit of print space is given over to his goat like sexual adventures with WOMEN who should have known better .

    HANG ON A SECOND

    WHERE the blazes is the media attention .. which should be directed at Muslim groomers, all groomers of underage girls . Where is the media outrage where all the Indians and Muslims have taken very young girls as brides .

    WHERE the hell is the media outrage which should be directed against RACIST BLACKS in PECKHAM or anywhere else in our Towns and Cities .

    Why don’t the media delve into the race hate of whites and the threatening language used by flag waving gangs here in the UK.

    2. The state supports and endorses the actions of muslim paedophile pakistani rapists and other such welfare shopping criminals. It hates and seeks to destroy those who confront it.

      1. 376085+ up ticks,

        W,
        Which then begs the question WHY does it continue to find continuing support via the governing parties from the peoples may one ask ?

  49. The Wet Office forecast thunder and lightning. Some heavy drizzle – eventually – and a short light shower.

    Project Fear fails again.

    1. The world’s gonna end Bill! Why can’t you see that! Mankind is solely responsible for the entire universe!

      The Left want to keep us prisoners on this planet and to retard our progress when the only real option we have is to get out into space and exploring.

      1. May I fiddle

        UK alone is solely responsible for Global Warming of the entire universe.

        Except for iron making, we pinched how to that off a Caribbean Islanders

      1. Here too. Immense storm, went on for ages. I thought the water would be up to the windows when I looked out.

    4. We had the rain here, instead. Not quite the deluge of Biblical proportions forecast, but enough to flood the roads because the drains (as usual) couldn’t cope.

  51. To be honest I dislike Russell Brand but these allegations should be heard in court not in the MSM.

    Brand is very keen to voice anti-vax opinions and, with new vaccine terror policies planned and on the way he must be silenced which is why the allegations have arisen now and not when the alleged events took place very many years ago.

    I never realised just what a repulsive man Andrew Pierce is.

    This interview with Beverly Turner about the Brand scandal shows what a total an utterly unspeakable person he is!

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

      2. He obviously doesn’t have any respect for women only promoting himself.
        Usual journo lets take a flimsy allegation, pronounce the object of the allegations guilty without any evidence and without there having been a trial.
        I detest him and people like him who ask questions but never let the person answer.
        Scum bag.

    1. He may be a repulsive womaniser, but apparently women just loved him. I can’t see the attraction myself, but none of these women complained about him at the time. So they find four women who want to shop him 15 years later.

      1. At the time he would have been considered exciting and unpredictable. A wild child.
        He is happily married and settled with children now.

    1. City and the Stars. Still the greatest Science Fiction novel ever written. Why has it never been made into a film?

      1. Sci-Fi in those days was considered a small nerd/niche market.
        It is virtually impossible to make the Space Opera genre into films.
        They produce series like the Expanse and after a few seasons cancel because it is not giving a return their hedge fund investors require.

        2. I still found it watchable. Even though it diverges from the story so much. One of the problems in getting it to the screen.
          They have tried Dune many times. The mini series wasn’t bad and the new film is okay.

          1. It ay be, and some of the cast are amazing actors but the basic story isn’t there in favour of promoting a mindset.

          2. The latest Dune film (first of 2, waiting on the 2nd) I found excellent. The only attempt to actually do justice to Herbert’s novel.

  55. That’s me gone for this day of several halves. Sun and some rain and drizzle and sun and now rain. Went to B&Q for some grass seed. An enormous flood right outside the store! Great advert for a DIY outfit!!

    Has it come out yet that Brand kept slaves? I can’t stand the bloke – but I hope that he uses his immense wealth to hire the best legal people to take the appalling one-sided meeja to the cleaners.

    A demain.

    1. Exactly my feelings.

      Andrew Pierce is a particularly offensive, sanctimonious sodomite who has jumped on the Lets Lynch Heterosexuals Without Giving Them A Fair Trial bandwagon.

    2. I visited Wickes in Woking a few years ago. There was a massive puddle in the cenre of the car park. Wickes had placed barriers around the flood, but some bright spark had added a “Danger, Deep Water” sign, with a shark pictogram…

  57. Russell B has about 6,610,000 subscribers (followers) on Youtube.

    As a comparison, CookieSwirlC has in excess of 20,000,000 subscribers, but she is an unboxer with ten years experience, and she appeals to young children. If we take a median point for RB’s popularity with advertisers, that converts into VERY APPROXIMATE royalties of $3 per 1,000 views. The web says that high earners, such as Cookie, can be paid ‘up to’ $6 per thousand. Thus a typical Youtube video could gross RB several thousand dollars. Guess what? If advertisers were to drop the RB ‘channel’, his share of the loot would fall drastically. A ball park figure for RB’s gross annual receipts from Yootube would be £400,000. Of course no one knows, but it will be somewhere between £100,000 and £600,000.

  58. Another wordle par four.

    Wordle 821 4/6

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

    1. A ‘Phew!’ here.
      Wordle 821 6/6

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

      1. Same here

        Wordle 821 6/6

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

    2. Ot the best result ever

      Wordle 821 5/6

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

  59. All
    I have been out of the country on a work charity fundraising event. This is my first wifi for 3 days and I am waiting for a (very) delayed EasyJet home. Given I have not read any papers for 3 days would someone please very quickly summarise what this Russell Brand issue is? Thanks

    1. Formerly the darling of the wokey lefties, he’s gone over to the dark side (anti vax, etc). Brand delenda est.

    2. Russell Brand, a creation of the BBC, has broken away from the image he projected back then and has essentially grown up and dare I say it now presents mature views.

      He was a self confessed womaniser in his BBC days but is now a more mature individual who has commanded several important interviews with such as Tucker Carlson and RFK Junior to name but two on his popular Rumble free speech channel.

      Fox News hate him and as with anyone whose political views and sympathies are not in accordance with those of Rupert Murdoch and his demented family has to be cancelled.

      Edit:

      80% of women search out 10% of men. Nobody refers to this fact. The women have not been victimised but the men become the persecuted even 20 years after the event. You then have multiple false accusations and the damn thing spirals out of control..

  60. Inside South Africa’s Operation Dudula: ‘Why we hate foreigners’

    South African anti-migrant group Operation Dudula has become notorious for raiding businesses belonging to foreign nationals and forcing shops to close. BBC Africa Eye has gained rare access to members of the country’s most-prominent anti-migrant street movement.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66808346

    In about 1,600 words, ‘xenophobia’ appears just three times, ‘racist’ not once. The style is oh-so-reasonable. I just have this feeling that white ancestral British people worried about immigration in their own country might not be given the benefit of the doubt by the same BBC…

      1. Given how many police officers there are in Wales it’s really not rational to waste their time ensuring everyone is driving at 20mph. Heck, you’ll spend so much time staring at your speedo that you’ll inevitably have an accident.

        1. Just got back from a day driving in Cardiff and I am absolutely knackered trying to concentrate on my speed with all the varied limits now in operation.

        2. Ah, but Wales is a Labour country, so rational doesn’t apply. It has a long history of persecuting motorists who go 1mph above the imposed limit. The Spider (Wales’ head Heddlu honcho) used to hide speed cameras in horse trailers to catch the unsuspecting motorist. I used to spend all my time with my eyes glued to the speedo as I pulled out of Plas Coch (main campus of Glyndwr) into a dual line of traffic because there was a Gatso just where you needed to accelerate into the traffic to catch the unwary – never mind that there was a bus stop and lots of pedestrians around.

          2. I last visited Wales about ten years ago (or so it seems) when working on a Carluccio’s in Cardiff Bay.

            After leaving the new Severn Bridge I was bamboozled by the plethora of signage including brown signs in Welsh. My father was born in Newport yet over the years I have developed a dislike of the Welsh. They are second only to Glaswegians in their hatred of the English, or maybe third if one includes Joe Biden and his Irish.

  62. Evening, all. Wet, dull, cold and miserable here – and the weather’s not much better! I needed to put the light on about 18.00 so I could see to read. As for the headline, it isn’t courage that’s lacking, it’s the will to say no to the EU and their projects. That applies to more than just HS2 (part of the TEN-T network). It also applies to GDPR, the ECHR, the jursdiction of the ECJ, the border in the North Sea and a whole load of other things.

    1. More, the will needs to be there to diverge from EU regulation, not simply either not adopt it or even adopt it. They’ve got to start pushing our country away from the hated EU, diverging on tax, industrial, military, social, agricultural, environmental and economic policy

      1. But, but, but … if they do that, they won’t be able to slip us seamlessly back in without consulting us (because they know we’d say, “NO!”).

      2. It’s quite apparent that those who actually enacted Brexit did so enthusiastically and even some of its most vocal cheerleaders didn’t want to diverge very far from the EU. They just wanted the same or similar policies with a Union Jack flag on them rather than the EU’s twelve yellow stars arranged in a ring on a field of blue.

      3. It’s quite apparent that those who actually enacted Brexit did so enthusiastically and even some of its most vocal cheerleaders didn’t want to diverge very far from the EU. They just wanted the same or similar policies with a Union Jack flag on them rather than the EU’s twelve yellow stars arranged in a ring on a field of blue.

  63. It was the BBC that first built Brand’s brand

    The comedian proved himself to be unfit to appear on the national broadcaster with his 2008 on air antics

    CHARLES MOORE • 18 September 2023 • 7:13pm

    The BBC, like Channel 4, is now “urgently looking into” what it might have done about Russell Brand when he worked for it. Yet it already knows the main thing it did. It helped make Brand famous and, in 2008, it broadcast, on Radio 2, a pre-recorded programme of Brand and Jonathan Ross leaving four messages on the answering machine of the elderly actor, Andrew Sachs. The relevant BBC executive regarded the broadcast as extremely funny.

    In the broadcast phone messages, the pair shrieked that Brand had “f—–” Mr Sachs’s granddaughter (20 years old at the time).

    They pointed out that many grandparents have, next to their telephone, photographs of their nine-year-old granddaughter on a swing. Brand, they said, had “enjoyed” Mr Sachs’s granddaughter on a swing. One of them shouted, “I’ll kill you!” They joshed with one another that they might visit Mr Sachs’s house, “kick in his front door and shout apologies into his bottom”. For such entertainment, the BBC was paying Brand £200,000 a year and the more senior Ross £6 million a year.

    People tend to forget that it was precisely the fact that Brand had slept with Mr Sachs’s granddaughter which inspired him and Ross (presumably without her permission) to make the “prank” phone call. That was their idea of the joke.

    The BBC was facilitating the “culture” on which Brand was trading – one in which he could sexually exploit young women and build a career on trying to be funny about it, demeaning them in the process. The current specific question – whether a BBC car drove a young alleged victim of Brand to his house – is only one part of the picture. The central point is that a BBC channel with an audience of millions drove this predatory show-off to fame.

    At the time, I wrote in this space that I would refuse to pay my television licence fee until the BBC sacked Brand and Ross. I gave the fee (then £139.50) to Help the Aged instead, as a mark of sympathy to Mr Sachs, whom Ross and Brand had teased for being lonely.

    First Brand and then eventually Ross did leave the Corporation, but the process was so slow that by that time I had appeared in Hastings Magistrates Court and been fined (so far as I remember) £550 plus £250 towards the BBC’s costs for non-payment.

    Neither Brand nor Ross was disgraced, as both should have been, though Brand did leave for more “alternative” platforms. He now uses this career switch to claim that he is a victim of a campaign by the mainstream media. Actually, that mainstream media indulged him for years – Channel 4 as well as the BBC, a football column in The Guardian, a Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman. Comedy: what crimes are committed in thy name!

    Perhaps I should explain, for the benefit of Brand’s lawyers, that when I say “crimes”, I use the word loosely and would not wish to imply that their client has been anything other than utterly lovely to women at all times.
    _________________________________________________________________________

    (Mis)Defining Islamophobia

    The word “Islamophobia” is much used but has never been officially defined. The more militant Muslim leaders tend to resent any criticism of their religion. They try to devise Western versions of the blasphemy laws which prevail in countries such as Pakistan.

    In 2019, however, our Government refused official blessing to a definition proposed by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. This stated that “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” This is obviously untrue, since Islam, like Christianity, is a universal, proselytising religion. Its adherents can (and do) come from every race on earth. You can attack or embrace Islam regardless of ethnicity.

    The APPG definition of Islamophobia is also dangerous because it threatens free speech. Freedom of religion is rightly protected by law, but it follows that freedom to criticise any or all religions must be similarly protected. All faiths make universal truth claims. No faith should be allowed to prevent criticisms of those claims being made, even when some of its adherents consider them insulting. One government minister vividly described the APPG definition as “a heckler’s veto”.

    This same freedom should apply, by the way, to denominations of the same religion. When I was a Protestant boy, I was told that Catholics “worship the Virgin Mary and a piece of bread”. I later came to realise this was rude and untrue, but God forbid (I use the phrase deliberately) that such remarks should ever be against the law.

    Unfortunately, though, many public authorities, particularly those controlled by the Left, have accepted the APPG definition, and so the censorship society should avoid is creeping in. In a new pamphlet (“Islamophobia” Revisited), published by the think-tank Civitas, for which I have written the foreword, Hardeep Singh has used the Freedom of Information Act to quantify the extent of the problem.

    He has investigated all 369 local councils in England, Wales and Scotland and discovered that one in seven uses the controversial APPG definition. These include 52 councils in England, of which 34 are Labour, nine have no overall control, and five are Liberal Democrat. Four are Conservative – Basildon, Harrow, Walsall and South Kesteven (now Independent-led). The percentages are worse in Scotland, where a quarter have adopted the APPG definition, and in Wales. It is depressing to find that councils, elected in a free society, sometimes prove such poor defenders of the freedom of speech which underpins it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/18/it-was-the-bbc-that-first-built-brands-brand/

    No comments allowed…

    1. Why would you tell the BBC that you’re watching it? They’ve no way of knowing. The endless lies and threats pouring through the letter box are followed up only rarely and then you simply tell them to go away.

    1. Does he think the programmes about Jimmy Saville and Bill Cosby shouldn’t have been aired?
      That was how their crimes were first exposed.

  67. What is all this Russell Brand hysteria a distraction from? I would hazard a guess at the WHO conference and the signing away of our individual sovereignty and personal health freedoms on the 20 September.

    2. It’s a classic. Every media outlet with the same headlines and often the same words. Reminded me of the first Covid screeching. A very, very few mentioning the fact that Brand has reinvented hiself as a really quite effective enemy of their masters. Which is of course the reason for the dump of so much BS.

      A man who Rupert Murdoch’s oily rags says is a criminal probably deserves our support. Russell Brand has never endeared himself to me after that revolting episode with Jonathan Ross, but my enemies’ enemy is definitely my friend.

      It is the world’s shame that we have lost every newspaper title to the filth. I used for example to love the Telegraph and number of people working there, but now it and its fellows are simply heaving bags of cowardly mendacious propaganda for the actions of evil men. Some good writers who should know better still cling to their positions and I feel very sad for their demeaned state. Dispiriting times….

      1. I do remember some time ago seeing him talking on TV and that he seemed to be making salient points and sense.
        But I can’t stand his mannerisms.

  68. Leicester disorder: Panellists named for review into unrest
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-66840533

    The unrest was the Indo-Pak war of last September following a cricket match. When Ian Austin was named as the chairman of the panel, there were rumblings from the desert faction, who thought that he had ‘history’. The panel is ‘diverse’ (natch) – a Hindu, a Muslim and a sociologist. She (for it is a female of the species) is Hilary Pilkington, who, four years ago, said “Women are joining the far right – we need to understand why.” You’re in the right place to find out, mi duck!

    What this report doesn’t mention but was featured on this evening’s East Midlands Today was that there is a rival inquiry going on just down the road. It didn’t say who set it up and what authority it has but it’s a fair bet that disgruntled Ropers are responsible. Its chairman is a former UN adviser, Professor Juan Méndez. Apparently, Méndez is a name that can be traced back to the period of the Spanish Inquisition when individuals with Jewish ancestry adopted Christian surnames to avoid persecution. Jews, Christians, Spaniards, Muslims. What could go wrong?!

    1. I briefly switched on to Tipping Point on the TV yesterday afternoon.
      And although I was under the impression that Islam bans its followers from gambling, they appeared to make an acception in that particular programme.
      Why I wonder, what pont are they trying to make ?

      1. We saw some of that. She was a ‘teacher’ she said and had a degree in History. One of the questions was ‘Who was US President in 1989’? She couldn’t decide whether it was JFK or Abraham Lincoln.
        I kid you not.

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