Monday 20 June: A fairer property market would not be a betrayal of Tory principles

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

634 thoughts on “Monday 20 June: A fairer property market would not be a betrayal of Tory principles”

        1. How are you, Elsie?
          My current gardening project is nearing completion after which an invitation for a lunch, washed down with a nice Malbec, will be issued. Perhaps Annie could join us?

          1. Speaking for myself, that would be wonderful. Perhaps the nice Malbec (from Chile?) could be served by the nice weather girl from Chile (see Angie O’Edema’s post). What about you, Annie? (Joining us for a get-together at Korky’s that is, not dressing up (down?) in your bikini, that is). Let’s have a quick phone call and see if we can find a mutually convenient date.

          2. The Malbec is from the Mendoza region in Argentina – Opi Reserve 2020. The ‘ordinaire’ is good so I’d like to think that the ‘Reserve’ will be better.

          4. Nice thought, but we are spending some of the day on first visit to chum whose husband died about a month ago.
            Then back for a house viewing.
            Cue protective cleaner who treats any criticism of Allan Towers as a personal attack on all she holds dear; “Well …. THEY”RE not having this place.”
            However, sheer nosiness means we would like to have a mosey round in the near future.

          5. Good luck with your house viewings.

            I hope that your viewers have more manners than a pair of surprisingly well-spoken people who came to view my flat (40 years ago, now). Having gone into my bedroom (fine) thy then proceeded to open wide the sliding mirrored doors of my wall wardrobe, without asking. Happily all was neat and tidy in there, but I must admit that I thought that just opening my wardrobe without even asking, was the height of rudeness. I was determined not to sell to them, and when they (and another) both put in an offer there was no contest.

  3. Good morning everyone.
    If you have a spare half hour and an interest in money, this interview is good.
    Willem Middelkoop founded and manages a gold mining fund, and he’s one of the most clued up people on Twit. Lots of very clever people disagree about Bitcoin, you pay your money and you take your chance 🙂
    But I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’s right in what he says about the other things.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml4aVSU49mw&ab_channel=KitcoNEWS

    1. Morning BB. Interesting that he sees the Dollar Hegemony under threat. The financial pages usually steer clear of the reasons for this when they are reporting the interest rises on US Treasury Bonds.

      1. The dollar hegemony is already gone, Minty. China, Russia and India are trading oil in other currencies. China has a gold-backed yuan fund for trading oil. Nobody is buying US debt any more.
        The dollar system crashed in summer 2019, we know that. They printed masses more money as an emergency measure and put the world’s economies into a coma to buy themselves time to re-set the world order. It was never about a virus that’s no worse than a bad flu year.

        1. I haven’t completely written the Dollar Hegemony off yet BB. The United States is still enormously rich and powerful. It may yet recover.

          1. The fiat currency won’t recover, because no fiat currency in history has ever recovered from the money printing.
            The US is strong, but a cabal of bankers is deciding what happens with their money, and they have plundered and killed the dollar.

            Their strategy seems to be to re-start with a digital dollar that may or may not be backed by commodities, but probably will, purely because Russia, China and India value gold, so the US won’t get away with another purely fiat currency just yet.
            The CBDC won’t be money for ordinary citizens, because it will be controlled by the bankers. It will be vouchers and food stamps.

            Here’s an article about the European plans for a digital euro.
            Note that they say 3000 – 4000 digital euros per citizen. What about my savings and investments under such a system? (I see no evidence that the BoE is contemplating anything better)
            https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/06/15/ecb-would-limit-digital-euro-to-maximum-15t-euros-panetta-says/?outputType=amp

          2. I think they are arguing that there will be a two tier system running in parallel, the “risk free” digital Euro, a type of electronic gold as it were, and the ordinary euro, which will gradually (I think swiftly) fall in value due to inflation. Hence the reason for limiting the amount that individuals can hold.

            I am extremely wary of the whole concept.

          3. I’m still trying to answer the question “what currency will rich people use when joe public is stuck on the CBDC?”
            NB: I still want to fight against CBDCs, because the concept of the government controlling the simulated money in people’s purses and wallets is inherently evil (and that’s not hyperbole, I genuinely think it’s evil).
            Clearly at first it will be the euro, pound etc. But how long will these fiat currencies last?
            In an increasingly commodities-backed world, I can’t see them lasting long.

            So will they put the dollar, euro, pound etc back onto a commodities peg? Or will they use a commodities-backed cryptocurrency like XRP, XLM, ALGO (these cryptos belong to them, and are already part of various international exchange plans)?

            There isn’t enough gold, so it would have to be a basket of commodities backing whatever currency is used.

            And how does one jump between the CBDC and commodity-backed money? What will dividend cheques be paid in? What happens if you own houses, and your tenants only have CBDCs as income? Will you be able to purchase a kind of money that you can spend freely, without CBDC government restrictions?
            It all boils down to the simple question, will ordinary citizens be permitted to buy or own gold (and other valuable things)?

            This is an interesting Twit account. Clearly from a software developer judging by the diagrams and terminology used.
            Not sure how seriously to take it.
            https://twitter.com/XX_1133_1221_11

          4. The elites will have access to as much as they could possibly need, whatever the currency or its backing, permitted by the politicians they sponsor.
            Short of a revolution and ensuing societal breakdown it will always be thus.
            Those that can produce/subsist for themselves and are strong enough to resist those who would steal from them should be OK, but for the masses, if it all breaks down, it is likely to be truly horrific.

            Then mankind will most likely rinse and repeat, as has always been the case.

            I’m not on twitter so can’t get the thread.

          5. You can view Twit threads as a non-member if you type “twitter @username” into a search engine. But they limit you to a few posts.

            It’s clear that the elites have got things set up for themselves. But I’m more concerned about the middle classes.
            Can the elites be insane enough to visualise a world without middle classes, as Lenin did?
            If yes, then who’s going to staff their hospitals and produce their software, or audit their companies?

            If they admit that they need us, then what’s going to be the incentive?
            Because frankly, why should I write complicated software for a fake money that’s controlled by the government? Why should I innovate for that? I won’t.
            So they will have to give us some more freedom than just a few CBDC privileges.

            Here are a couple of his diagrams. Note that Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) are already set up, and you can buy these tokens on Coinbase or other crypto exchanges (Ripple still being investigated by the SEC, I think). Ripple and Stellar are both WEF partner companies.
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a7eede0adf0d8767a99576082af25b04d3df31b7942daa7ff80d91917a1ac56.jpg
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/357aef41bcc9527315a6e6dc99a9aa0e66c3edcba9aff171c75737d35be03d68.jpg

          6. Pretty picture.
            World population is going to have to collapse and particularly amongst the elderly wealthy and the young poor.

          8. CBDCs are just central banks getting in on the cryptocurrency games, the difference is it will be automatically legal tender.

            Joe public isn’t going to be ‘stuck on CBDCs’ they will run in parallel to conventional money. Again they are not a replacement.

          9. No, that is a fundamental misunderstanding!
            Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero are decentralised. When you spend Bitcoin, your transaction is vetted by Bitcoin miners on the network.
            CBDCs are centralised, and will come with permissions. Transactions are vetted by the central bank. Their sole function is to give the central banks micro control over people’s spending habits, to try and ensure stability.

          10. It’s basically going to be a fiat cryptocurrency. It will be accepted as payment everywhere you can spend pounds. You can read all about it on the BoE site. As yet it’s undecided if it’ll even happen.

            Personally I don’t see the point. It’s not like it’s going to be any different to normal bank deposits spent with a debit card.

          11. It is fundamentally different.
            Today, even if you pay with a card, you have the option of withdrawing your money in cash and paying anonymously. You have the option of doing transactions that the government knows nothing about.
            With a CBDC, that option will be gone. The government will know every transaction you make. They can impose negative interest rates, force you to buy only the foods they want you to buy etc.

          12. Again it’s not a replacement. You’ll still have cash and bank deposits and debit cards which is why I don’t see the point.

          13. Tell that to someone whose only income is the state pension topped up with extra government help.

          14. Fiat is the way forward. Money linked to commodities is bad news. Every currency in the world is fiat.

            CBDCs will run alongside conventional money, they are not a replacement.

          16. The one advantage of the GS is that it helps prevent inflation, but that is the only advantage it has. It tends towards deflation which isn’t good for any economy.

            The disadvantages are numerous but not least deflation, depressions, recessions because gold can’t be mined or acquired fast enough.

            Churchill thought as you do when he was chancellor. Read up what happened and why he’s known as the worst chancellor for 100 years.

          18. That graph shows the effect of neoliberalism more than the effect of ending the gold standard. The first ten years after 1971 show stagflation, then after that the rich line shooting upwards while the poor stay static well that’s Reagonomics/Thatcherism. We let them get rich because a rising tide raises all boats, it was supposed to trickle down, it never did.

          22. Sorry should have said discuss. In depth economic discussion to demolish your Keynesian carp 🙂 would take too long, and I’ve got appointments.

          23. Im a post-keynesian Georgist libertarian, a believer in land value tax and functional finance.

          24. BTW, it was you that got me studying economics with some of your earlier posts

          25. Good for you. I wish it was taught in schools and universities properly. Sadly it isn’t. It’s barely if ever taught in schools, never before A levels, and university courses are not diverse enough to study the many different schools of thought. A lot of things that are taught in ‘class’ simply don’t hold up in the real world. A good example of that is Friedman’s Quantity of money theory.

          2. Do you really expect the Euro to overtake the dollar as the currency most held by the world’s central banks?

            The dollar is likely to be in a good position for many years to come.

          3. No. I expect the current path to carry on, that is to say, there will be a group of currencies in which important transactions occur, roughly forming into eastern and western blocks.
            Note that the Chinese have backed their currency with gold for oil deals, as an enticement. They’ve been building that system since 2012. The break-up of the single reserve currency into a group was also fore-told by the WEF in their notorious “you will own nothing” presentation – this has been underway for a long time.

          4. The average central bank’s foreign reserves are 59% US Dollar, 21% Euro, 6% Yen, 5% GBP, and 10% basket of others as of June 1st 2022. In 1999 The dollar accounted for 70%, Euros roughly 18%, and the Yen about 7% and GBP 5%.

            Still a huge way to go.

  4. ‘Islamophobia worse’ five years after deadly van attack at London mosque. 20 june 2022.

    The chair of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London has warned that Islamophobia has intensified since the 2017 terror attack in the area, as dozens gathered to remember the man who was killed five years ago.

    Makram Ali, 51, was killed on 19 June 2017 when Darren Osborne drove a rented van into worshippers gathered outside the nearby Muslim Welfare House soon after evening Ramadan prayers. Twelve others were injured.

    The mosque’s chairman, Mohammed Kozbar, said Muslims still do not feel safe in the UK. “The problem we are facing is that since this attack took place not much has changed in tackling Islamophobia,” he said.

    This came up on the BBC news yesterday; the fifth anniversary of the “Attack” with a personalised sketch of the victim along with mourning relatives. I’ve never been convinced that this was Islamophobic by nature. Osborne bares a striking resemblance to Thomas Mair in that he’s one of life’s losers. One only wishes that those killed in the UK by Islamic Terrorism were accorded the same attention.

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jun/19/islamophobia-worse-five-years-after-deadly-van-attack-at-mosque

    2. Those non-moslems slaughtered by the followers of islam are, from our PTB’s perspective, mere collateral damage in the greater scheme of their plans to destroy our culture and society. Why else import religious radicals who do/will not integrate into any society they come into contact with.

      1. PTB, Korky? Pretty Tame Budgerigars? (Well, yes, I realise you meant to write Powers That Be, but it took me quite some time to work it out!) Lol.

        1. Your interpretation of PTB describes my PTB very closely when moral and ethical standards etc. are taken into account. No slur directed at budgerigars, they are cute, but they do not achieve much beyond eating seeds, scattering the casings of the latter everywhere and endless chirping that does not mean much to us humans.

    1. 353340+ up ticks,

      Morning BB2,
      There are peoples that do have a bloody good idea of the way to go but are obstructed by four elements standing squarely in the way that being lab/lib/con/supporters.

      A credible opposition needs building before the imams
      stop asking and start telling.

      1. Good morning Hugh! It was the comment above the Grauniad clip that amused me!

    1. Well thank goodness it does, Elsie! The alternative is not so agreeable to contemplate!

  7. In case you do not know of him, Dr Paul Elias Alexander is a Canadian health
    researcher and a former Trump administration official at the U.S.
    Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)/(WIKI).

    During the Canadian truckers protest he had to go into hiding from the authorities before getting back to the USA. His Fathers’ Day message, while not scholarly, is emphatic. 😎

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c7314c6194d40bc90450e2d55f39e96160b20148da80d5ab08c657c443e53396.png

    1. 353340+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK,
      Good post a tad late in the message by two years but better late than…

      A much needed expression that is fast falling under the
      law of suppression but NOT used as much as it was in ” normal ” times.

    1. I don’t know whether to laugh or be appalled that these idiots have a vote.

    1. If ever you’re feeling chilly, you can be sure that it’s much hotter in Chile. Lol.

      1. Willy in his Sunday sashes
        Fell into the fire and was burnt to ashes
        Now even though the room grows chilly
        We haven’t the heart to poke poor Willy.

    2. The viewing figures appear to be 36-24-34 (says an old imperialist!)

      Edited for unforgivable typo!!!

  10. Police fail to solve a single burglary in nearly half of the country. 20 June 2022.

    Police have failed to solve a single burglary in neighbourhoods covering nearly half the country over the past three years, a Telegraph investigation has found.
    Of more than 32,000 neighbourhoods analysed, 16,000 of them (46 per cent) had all their burglary cases in the past three years closed with no suspect caught and charged by police.

    Almost 2,000 of the neighbourhoods – each containing approximately 3,000 residents – recorded at least 25 burglaries, but none were solved. The worst neighbourhood, in Sheffield, went three years without any of its 104 burglaries being solved.

    This is of course just a part of the breakdown of the State. All of its institutions are now moribund. Their eventual and inevitable collapse will usher in the Great Reset and limitless tyranny.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/19/police-fail-solve-single-burglary-nearly-half-country/

    1. If you are burgled the most you can expect from our lazy police farce is a crime number.
      Insurance companies pick up the bills, if your lucky.
      But confront burglar or attack them even in self defence and you will be arrested.

    2. If I interrupt a burglar in my home and overcome the criminal with my long piece of hickory, hard and polished from long use as the shaft of a very heavy sledgehammer, I’m sure that the police will respond: for all the WRONG reasons.

  11. Morning all😃
    We should have the same set up as Scotland does in our property market. Once an offer has been accepted, It stays. I wonder how many people in England have had their offer accepted moved along with their planned purchase such as survey and legal matters and been gazumped by a higher offer being accepted by the greedy seller. Where they are then saddled with the extra costs.

    1. You can still get out of selling the property Eddy but you might have to pay some money to do so and you would certainly have to get another solicitor. Been there and got the tee shirt

  12. ‘Morning, Peeps. A parky 13°C here so far, with the promise of full sun and a whopping 18°C soon.

    The Letters page is hugely uninspiring today. However, this one is short and sweet and expresses a view with which many Nottlers will probably agree:

    SIR – English must be the most beautiful, multi-national, multi-ethnic, diverse, inclusive language on earth, yet universities in the country that gave it to the world are apparently on a mission to destroy it (“English language reinforces ‘white superiority’, academics told,” report, June 16).

    What must those millions around the globe who use it think of us?

    Patrick Kelly
    Chippenham, Wiltshire

    I dread to think what they think of us, Mr Kelly – for lots of reasons. Some kind of supercharged self-destruction is in progress.

    1. The most disturbing part of this story is that people travelling to the bank branches had the status of their Covid app switched from green (vaxxed) to red (unvaxxed, not allowed to travel).

  14. Good morning all.
    A bright start with 6½°C outside. Light scattered clouds at the moment, but I wonder if it will cloud over like yesterday?
    Forecast says not, but we shall see.

    I have been slowly watching the documentary “What is a Woman” by the American commentator Matt Walsh. Very entertaining, but by God it is hard to watch. The academics he interviews are EXACTLY the sort of persons the Germans coined the word Backfeifengesicht for.

    Here is a taster:-
    https://youtu.be/MOK8xPTcbYk

      1. A woman is only a woman :
        But a good cigar is a smoke!

        [Rudyard Kipling]

  15. There is at least some good news – headline in today’s DT:

    French parliamentary elections: Emmanuel Macron loses absolute majority

    In a devastating blow, the French president will now struggle to push forward his ambitious national agenda during his second term in office

    Splendid! Perhaps it will give Little Micron something to attack instead of us….

    1. The BTL posters are also rather pleased:

      Howard Gleave
      JUST NOW
      Good to see Britain’s most implacable enemy (no, not Putin) facing a tough time. Perhaps he’ll have less time and energy for trying to annex N Ireland by imposing 40 times more checks on goods than are warranted by trade volume.

      Peter Irwin
      JUST NOW
      Perhaps will wind his neck in on the international stage and start focussing on home matters and what matters to the French.

      Howard Gleave
      11 HRS AGO
      Good. Jupiter Macron is our most virulent enemy after Putin. I’m a professional French and German translator and I understand them more than most. But Macron loathes Britain and the emotion is reciprocated, against him. Not the French.

    2. The BTL posters are also rather pleased:

      Howard Gleave
      JUST NOW
      Good to see Britain’s most implacable enemy (no, not Putin) facing a tough time. Perhaps he’ll have less time and energy for trying to annex N Ireland by imposing 40 times more checks on goods than are warranted by trade volume.

      Peter Irwin
      JUST NOW
      Perhaps will wind his neck in on the international stage and start focussing on home matters and what matters to the French.

      Howard Gleave
      11 HRS AGO
      Good. Jupiter Macron is our most virulent enemy after Putin. I’m a professional French and German translator and I understand them more than most. But Macron loathes Britain and the emotion is reciprocated, against him. Not the French.

    3. The BTL posters are also rather pleased:

      Howard Gleave
      JUST NOW
      Good to see Britain’s most implacable enemy (no, not Putin) facing a tough time. Perhaps he’ll have less time and energy for trying to annex N Ireland by imposing 40 times more checks on goods than are warranted by trade volume.

      Peter Irwin
      JUST NOW
      Perhaps will wind his neck in on the international stage and start focussing on home matters and what matters to the French.

      Howard Gleave
      11 HRS AGO
      Good. Jupiter Macron is our most virulent enemy after Putin. I’m a professional French and German translator and I understand them more than most. But Macron loathes Britain and the emotion is reciprocated, against him. Not the French.

  16. Another good headline in today’s DT:

    Bishop strips school’s Catholic status for flying Black Lives Matter flag

    The Nativity School in Massachusetts is banned from performing mass as it is claimed the BLM movement is a threat to the church’s values.

    And here is the full article:

    The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is a threat to Catholic values, a US bishop claimed as he stripped a school of its status for flying BLM and Gay Pride flags.

    The bishop of the diocese of Worcester in Massachusetts ordered a Catholic middle-school to remove both a BLM and Gay Pride flag from its campus after students, the majority of whom are people of colour, requested for them to be flown to express support for inclusivity.

    Bishop Robert McManus told the Nativity School in Worcester, Massachusetts, that the flags sent a “confusing and scandalous message” and sought to “disrupt the family structure”.

    “It is my contention that the Gay Pride flag represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle,” he said. “This is also true of Black Lives Matter.”

    School resists removal

    After raising the flags in 2021, the school resisted demands by the Diocese of Worcester for them to be removed, despite warnings it would be banned from identifying as a Catholic school if it failed to do so.

    In a decree issued this week, Bishop McManus said he had “no other option” but to follow through on his threat.

    The decree also prohibits the school from performing mass or sacraments on its premises or any within its Diocese.

    The school is further banned from any fundraising involving institutions linked to the Diocese of Worcester.

    The Nativity School has said it will appeal the decision.

    At the same time, its president Thomas McKenney, said the school had decided to continue flying the flags outside its building “to give visible witness to the school’s solidarity with our students, families, and their communities”.

    Mr McKenney noted that Pope Francis had “praised the outreach and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people” while the US Conference of Catholic Bishops had supported the BLM movement.

    “Though any symbol or flag can be co-opted by political groups or organisations, flying our flags is not an endorsement of any organisation or ideology, they fly in support of marginalised people,” he added.

    ‘BLM seeks to disrupt the family structure’

    In his decree, Bishop McManus stated that the church “stands unequivocally behind the phrase ‘black lives matter’”.

    However he said the BLM movement threatened Catholic teachings on the nuclear family. In a now-deleted section of its website, BLM said it sought to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure by supporting each other as extended families.. that collectively care for one another, especially our children”.

    The movement “promotes a platform that directly contradicts Catholic social teaching on the importance and role of the nuclear family and seeks to disrupt the family structure,” he said.

    “It is my contention that the Gay Pride flag represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle. This is also true of Black Lives Matter,” he said.

    School unlikely to suffer financially

    The Diocese’s ruling has been criticised by the school’s parents and staff.

    The Jesuit boys school caters to children aged 10 to 14 from economically deprived backgrounds.

    Some noted that it came during Pride Month and ahead of “Juneteenth”, a new national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery.

    Ray Delisle, a spokesman for the Diocese of Worcester, said the Bishop had waited to issue the order after the school year.

    He added the decree’s language “affirms our responsibility to love everyone regardless of race”.

    The school is unlikely to suffer financially from the ruling, given it is funded through private donors, foundations and corporations.

    “We receive no funding from the Diocese and our governance and control of school operations are fully independent of the Diocese,” its president said.

    * * *

    Full marks, Bish!

  17. 353340+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 20 June: A fairer property market would not be a betrayal of Tory principles ?

    Monday 20 June: A fairer property market would not be a betrayal of Tory principles, granted but for that you require a genuine Tory party,

    Currently any new build going to an alien whilst we have, for social housing a much abused waiting list been in place for decades, is in your face obscene.

    Still, looking at the past voting pattern these last near four decades
    obscene has become norm to many don’t believe me just look at the treatment a child has to suffer running the gauntlet of childhood,MASS
    paedophilic rape & abuse, slice & dice FGM, dicoftomy to satisfy a loving parents twisted mindset etc,etc.

    These odious issues had the backing of the electorate majority see 2019
    them days will be seen as ” the good old days” judging by the actions taken since then.

    Don’t take much imagination to visualise a kid saying in twenty years time fathers day ” what did you do twenty years ago for reset daddy ?”
    After his / her / it’s answer the last thing he / her / it heard on this mortal coil was BANG.

  19. In today’s DT:

    Gareth Davies: Net zero plans risk being a waste of taxpayer money

    The Auditor General warns the Government must ensure people are not shortchanged by environmental policies during the cost-of-living crisis

    ByCamilla Turner, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    19 June 2022 • 9:30pm

    Net zero plans risk wasting taxpayer money, the head of the National Audit Office has warned.

    Britain’s spending watchdog has urged ministers not to throw public funds at its goal of reaching net zero by 2050, saying the “novelty” of the problem is no excuse for failing to get the “basics right”.

    Gareth Davies, the Auditor General, said that the ambitious target could lead to costs spiralling out of control on projects which fail to deliver “significant environmental benefit”.

    Writing in The Telegraph, he said the Government must ensure the taxpayer is not shortchanged by policies at a time when families are being squeezed by rising household bills and inflation.

    “The risks of waste, escalating costs, and projects failing to deliver significant environmental benefits are high while failing to prepare for a changing climate is likely to impose a heavy cost on future generations,” Mr Davies says.

    “We will be keeping a close eye on how well the Government is spending to achieve both short-term and long-term value for money.”

    Public support needed

    He said the statutory target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the next three decades will not be possible without winning over support from the public, and cited the Green Homes Voucher Scheme as a policy which showed the cost of failing to do this.

    The scheme, which was scrapped last year after widespread criticism, sought to provide families with funding to insulate their homes.

    The NAO later found that the grant, which would have given people up to £10,000 to help make their homes more energy efficient, was poorly administered and plagued by delays, complaints and confusion.

    “The next phase of decarbonising the economy needs buy-in from consumers and citizens,” Mr Davies said.

    “With energy and fuel costs already high, the Government will need to be clear on how the cost of replacing gas boilers or switching to electric cars will be managed.”

    He highlighted three “significant challenges” for ministers tasked with implementing policies that will allow the UK to reach its net zero goals.

    These are “the need for a whole-economy response, the critical role of effective public engagement and the importance of costed programmes with disciplined management”.

    No ‘reliable’ idea of net zero cost

    Earlier this year senior Cabinet ministers urged a rethink of the Government’s net zero plans on the basis that the country faces the biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

    A number of ministers expressed concern that the pace of the planned switch to renewable energy is too fast and is increasing costs for consumers and believe Britain should use more of its own gas in the short-term.

    Mr Davies acknowledged that new technologies and innovative policies will be needed to limit the impact of climate change, but warned that the “novelty of the problem must not distract from getting the basics right”.

    An influential committee of MPs recently warned that the Government has no “reliable” idea of how much net zero will cost the nation.

    The Commons public accounts committee said in March that ministers have “no clear plan” for how to pay for the transition to electric heating and transport, and they may be overestimating consumer willingness to switch to heat pumps and electric cars.

    The Government has “no reliable estimate of what the process of implementing the net zero policy is actually likely to cost British consumers, households, businesses and [the] Government itself”, their report said, and was “relying heavily” on the public to choose greener options.

    We’ll be keeping a close eye on what the Government spends on Net Zero

    By Gareth Davies, Comptroller & Auditor General and head of the National Audit Office

    2021 was a big year for the Government’s commitments to the environment. The statutory target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 was backed up with a strategy and the Environment Bill gives legal force to nature recovery targets.

    The challenge now lies in turning targets and strategies into actions that will combat rising temperatures and restore our natural environment in a way that represents both short- and long-term value for money for taxpayers at a time when households and businesses are under intense financial pressure.

    The Treasury acknowledged in its recent Net Zero Review that “the transition has implications for current and future taxpayers” but “policy to support the transition can help make the most of the opportunities and keep costs down”.

    The scale and complexity of the task is daunting which is why external scrutiny is critical.

    The Government has recognised this by creating the Climate Change Committee and the Office for Environmental Protection to help monitor progress towards net zero and restoring the natural environment.

    Meanwhile, the National Audit Office’s role will be to scrutinise how efficiently and
    effectively public money is spent to achieve those goals.

    The risks of waste, escalating costs, and projects failing to deliver significant environmental benefits are high, while failing to prepare for a changing climate is likely to impose a heavy cost on future generations. We will be keeping a close eye on how well the Government is spending to achieve both short-term and long-term value for money.

    Our long experience of scrutinising government spending already offers many lessons. We see three particularly significant challenges: the need for a whole-economy response; the critical role of effective public engagement; and the importance of costed programmes with disciplined management.

    The changes required won’t be achieved unless government action supports effective market responses, engaging public, private and voluntary sectors. We have seen the cost of failing to do this with the Green Homes Voucher Scheme where the complexity and certification requirements hindered energy-efficiency installers from mobilising to meet demand.

    But when the Government gets this coordination right, as with the covid vaccine rollout, it is a force multiplier.

    The next phase of decarbonising the economy needs buy-in from consumers and citizens. With energy and fuel costs already high, the Government will need to be clear on how the cost of replacing gas boilers or switching to electric cars will be managed. Our work has shown that interventions designed to promote behaviour change need careful testing if they are to be successful.

    The mandatory charge for plastic shopping bags has significantly reduced their use. But the rollout of smart metres saw energy companies find it difficult to get customers to commit to installation appointments.

    New technologies and innovative policies will be needed to limit the impact of climate change.

    However, the novelty of the problem must not distract from getting the basics right. Implementing these new solutions will require costed strategies with clear objectives, active risk management, and ways to evaluate progress so it can correct course when needed.

    We have often seen this go wrong, such as with the Emergency Services Network which has been beset with delays and cost overruns. A lack of robust planning failed to consider first-responder needs and how the new communications technology will integrate with other systems.

    This is why, as with our report that published this week on tackling local air quality breaches, it is important we look at programmes while they are underway to test that they are set up for succes

    We must also consider the longer term. Poor investment decisions for infrastructure such as flood defences could result in far higher costs if they do not make us resilient in dealing with a changing climate. When we looked at the deal the Government struck to build Hinkley Point C we were concerned that it had not fully assessed the long-term costs for consumers. Government will need to learn from that as it seeks to deliver on its energy security strategy.

    The Covid pandemic has vividly shown the cost of inadequate preparation for whole system emergencies. At a time of rising prices for consumers and inflation eating away at government spending power, the Government must not only spend wisely now but also for future generations.

    * * *

    The BTL posts are predictable:

    Richard Lee9 HRS AGO

    Expensive Net zero, expensive electric cars, expensive ban on gas boilers, expensive housing, expensive wars, expensive money pit NHS, big taxes, big government, big bills

    Anyone else believe that it all about us owning nothing and being happy. Welcome to The Great Reset.

    A Sayer10 HRS AGO

    “Risk being short changed”. And the bloody rest mate. We’re being worked over. Again. There is no climate change crisis- it’s all cyclical and full of the usual suspects lying through their teeth in order to scare people into spending a small fortune they can’t afford in order to make the wealthy richer. I’m all for conservation and being mindful of how we treat our environment but this indecent haste to adopt unproven alternative tech which in many cases is far more environmentally damaging ( eg EV batteries) is a bad case of Emperors new clothes . And many are stupid enough to believe it cos they’ve seen it on telly so it must be true.

    The only political party at least seeing through the BS is Reform.

    Simon Emery9 HRS AGO

    Net zero is a complete waste of public money. It is worse than that though because it actually drives up energy costs making businesses less competitive, leading to fewer job opportunities, leaving us all colder, poorer, immobile and miserable.

    And for what?

    The evidence strongly indicates that over geological time CO2 does not determine planetary temperatures. The ice core data suggests that CO2 follows temperature changes. The forcing equations used in modelling projections for the effects of CO2 do not equate to reality.

    We do not live in an exceptional climatic age. The Early Middle Ages, the Roman Warming Period and the Minoan one were all warmer. There is no credible evidence that weather events are any worse than last century. In fact they were probably worse in the early 20th Century. There is no credible evidence that man-released CO2 is having anything other than the beneficial effect of increasing plant growth.

    We are pointlessly damaging our economy and people’s lives and futures for no benefit.

    1. Some very good BTLs there – I don’t think there is any “risk” of being short changed – it’s an absolute racing certainty!

    2. Climate change is a scam designed to soak tax. The inefficiencies of windmills has led to the grid needing to be significantly altered and the tax payer is lumbered with that, not the windmill owners. Which are made in China, by the way. Why? Because we can’t afford the energy/the regulation on steel is too restrictive.

      Oh, they say they’re made in Germany but that’s the motors. Like everything, they’re made around the world by the worst possible countries. There is nothing green about green.

  20. I’ve just seen a railway union leader on the news. Who I would assume do absolutely nothing constructive.
    What an arrogant POS, he seems quite at ease with effing up thousands people’s lives. For the sake of money. Money the public also need to earn but are missing out on because of horrible small minded left wing hitlers.

    2. Little different from extinction rebellion, BLM, anti-hunt etc etc people, but on a much bigger scale.

      Broken windows theory. If the authorities had come down hard on the disruptors perhaps the country wouldn’t be in such a mess.
      Of course it’s equally possible such action would have resulted in a political dictatorship.

      1. I hope the railway companies have the obvious commonsense to cut off the income of the strikers. No work no pay.

      2. As a youth I was an anti hunt fellow. I didn’t believe it right, so made efforts to protest. I did so without the fanfare and by doing things like standing in front of a charging horse or leading a false trail.

          1. There is one about here. I leave him alone, he leaves me alone. Occasionally I throw some chicken bones out for him (or her).

        2. I was and remain anti hunt. Not because I worry about the fox population. Around here they clogged up the roads with their horse boxes and 4 x 4s, milling supporters, and fevered dogs. They ran across fields regardless of ownership or emissions. That is what I disliked.

    3. Rail unions are asking the impossible.

      My thoughts are that the BBC are grooming the public sector workers and of course the rail bods … by promoting TV plays about strikes etc

      The BBC are sowing the seeds of discontent ..

      However , my thoughts are … Sunak deserves a bloody nose .. he is drawing us downwards .. Britain is already weaker than it was , but we don’t need a billionaire chancellor smiling smugly, nor do we need Boris and his toothy bint creating even more expensive wheezes .

      Do we?

      Perhaps a week of angry strikes might get the message home to Sunak and co .

      No pain no gain?

      1. Rail unions are not asking for the impossible, in fact their demands are quite reasonable given inflation is hovering around 10% and they haven’t had a rise in three years whilst continually working whilst others were paid 30k a year to stay in bed.
        Their wages have already lost 20% of their purchasing power. How much more do you expect them to put up with?

          1. Striking for more money is rather pointless in an economy that can only print it.

            But I do not think we should be putting up with this. The government need to know that we intend to hold them to account for what is going on – they are still sending a fortune to Ukraine.

            The usuruous NHS PFIs are still extorting money from the taxpayer, and no doubt countless other scams are going on.
            The government has not renounced on shutting down the economy again which means that business cannot borrow responsibly.
            These scoundrels need to be afraid of us and I do not see why they would unless they see severe unrest.

          3. Unfortunately the general public who our political classes and civil service rely on very heavily for their income, have no say in the matter.

          4. LessIsMore – fortune.. not really. 10bn is about 4 days government spending although that does include 400 m of borrowing.

          5. Striking for more money is rather pointless in an economy that can only print it.

            But I do not think we should be putting up with this. The government need to know that we intend to hold them to account for what is going on – they are still sending a fortune to Ukraine.

            The usuruous NHS PFIs are still extorting money from the taxpayer, and no doubt countless other scams are going on.
            The government has not renounced on shutting down the economy again which means that business cannot borrow responsibly.
            These scoundrels need to be afraid of us and I do not see why they would unless they see severe unrest.

          6. 2019 wages rose by 1.2% over inflation in general.
            2020 wages rose by 3% which was a 0.9% loss against inflation.
            2021 wages rose by 4.3% which was 2.8% over inflation in general.

            So seems not.

          7. I think you’re confused. Inflation has been running overboard as soon as the state initiated QE. Private sector pay rises – because of the pandemic – have been stagnant. Public sector pay keeps seeing the consistent rise because, well, it’s someone else’s money.

          8. Over the past dozen years public sector pay has been held down. QE didn’t cause inflation, there’s no mechanism for that money to be transmitted to the wider economy, it’s bank reserves.

          9. PS pay has increased 2-3% every year. Yes, QE is the ONLY cause of inflation. Oh my skies. No! Please, read about basic economics and quantitative easing. It is the debasement of the currency.

          10. The last tranche of QE was 2016, six years ago. There was no inflation. There were several tranches pre 2015. Can you remember the 2015 inflation figure? I can it was 0.0%.

          11. The current inflation has been caused by the reckless billions the government spent on the covid scam. From substandard PPE, to paying people to not work, the ridiculous test and trace, and of course the useless and harmful ‘vaccines’ – all designed to transfer money from the taxpayers to their already rich mates – and the pharma companies.

          12. No. It’s a global problem linked to failed supply chains, a lack of logistics, and energy prices and the geopolitical situation re Russia/Ukraine. It’s supply-side inflation not demand-side.

        2. Our income has fallen by about 80% in the last two years.

          That doesn’t matter of course because running our own small business is despicable and people like us need to be punished.

          1. Yeah sorry Richard, I feel for you.

            The pandemic would have hurt your income greatly.

            However these railwaymen are employees, who have worked continuously throughout the pandemic and haven’t had a rise for three years despite inflation over that period totalling 20%.

          2. Train drivers’ pay depends on the individual companies they work for, but according to recruitment company Reed the average train driver salary in the UK is £48,500 per year. The company writes: “Train drivers can expect to begin with an average starting salary of £30,000, with the highest salaries often exceeding £65,000.

            New old age pension UK: maximum amount payable is £179.60 a week – £9339 per year.

            Don’t they have to cope with inflation too? Poor train drivers(sic).

          4. To nowhere like a living wage. Most pensioners rely upon familial help.

            As usual, your left-wing arguments fail to strike any chord here.

          5. I don’t have left-wing arguments.

            The state pension was never supposed to be a living wage you were meant to take extra provision alongside it.

          6. No – the state pension is taken by the government as payment toward a pension. Invested wisely the average salary NI payments would easily accrue about 900,000 pot. Government, however, takes that money and wastes it thus leaving pensioners far less than they have put in.

          7. It’s not a fund, there is no investment. Current payers’ monies are used to pay current recipients. Some people put in virtually nothing and get more than they put in. My average NI bill was about 40 quid per month in my last job.
            The state pension was never meant to replace private provision. It was meant to provide a floor so no retiree had nothing to live on.
            If you only get the state pension you can also get pension credit.

          8. And therein lies the fundamental problem. Other countries do treat it that way. Only ours splurges it into general taxation. Then perhaps Brown shouldn’t have stolen from them, should he? No, you’re thinking is muddled. You don’t take them give back. You don’t take at all. You don’t limit what people can save. You don’t set a max pension fund limit. You just let people do what they want with their own money. Statists don’t understand this. Lefties don’t understand economics – even the basic stuff.

          9. If we didn’t have a state pension then those of us paid an absolute pittance would never be able to stop work and retire or they would starve to death because they don’t have work. They’d probably be homeless too as if a state pension didn’t exist what would be the chance of housing benefit existing?
            My thinking isn’t muddled. I didn’t design the system, that occurred before you and I were born.

          10. Yeah, and the extra provision ( supplememtary and v small private pension) is taxed to worthlessness.

          11. 20%? Or you have a thumping great big pension. When’s the 40% rate kick in these days? 50kish?

            You live in Thailand Tom don’t you?

            I think the fixing of pension rates at the time you emigrate is the biggest scandal affecting the state pension.

          12. Earning 50K a year is not a huge amount, nor is it expected that it all goes into a pension. After taxes I am left with about 2500 a month. From that we pay the mortgage, food, fuel, living expenses, maintenance, Junior’s costs (school trips, days out) and Mongo, who eats £500 straight away. It doesn’t leave an awful lot.

            The sad bit as a patriotic fellow who understands this stuff is that the first time the Warqueen got properly paid she dumped it all into her pension lest the state take 78% of her income. That stuffed any further contributions. Her salary pays for our cottage in Interlaken and is taxed in Swiss francs. Instead of that wodge of cash coming into the UK, it never sees a British bank and is taxed at about 6%. Folk talk about capital flight – there is it. Cut taxes and more would be spent here.

          13. I exist in Mid-Suffolk. if that’s equivalent to Thailand in your twisted mind

          14. Annual OAP for 2021 £13, 938.93

            Other Pension, £408.27 (should be £120 per month but that’s what tax does to it).

          15. My uncle lives in Great Welnetham near Bury St Edmunds. My nan lived in Great Cornard then Long Melford in sheltered housing until she passed away.

            Who’s our guy who lives in Thailand?

          16. I am not talking about state pension here but, thanks to Gordon Brown years ago, private pensions were raided and, from having been the best in Europe, are now very far from it. Whilst government officials are extremely well looked after even to the extent of having their pensions uplifted with our money when Equitable Life were in trouble.

          17. Yeah defined benefits pensions were available to my dad’s generation, but not mine. Not even when I left school in my first real job for a proper company. Hertslass is our pensions expert, ask her about what went wrong. I was working for eight years before the Brown ‘raid’.

          18. Well if that’s not a Left wing idea i don’t know what is. How about, if the state doesn’t invest my money, then it lets me keep it to do with it what I want?

          19. Well NI has existed for longer than you and I have been alive. You knew the score when you started work. Why didn’t you go work abroad instead in a country run the way you seem to want. Perhaps somewhere like Chile.

            Again the state doesn’t invest your money, it redistributes it to current retirees. Your state pension will be paid by your children, and theirs by their children and so on.

          20. Well if that’s not a Left wing idea i don’t know what is. How about, if the state doesn’t invest my money, then it lets me keep it to do with it what I want?

          22. Then that’s an inflation rise. As you said, based on CPI.

            Whilst benefits got no raise or rises below inflation that hasn’t affected the state pension.

          23. As you know yourself – inflation is now at 10%. The 3% rise came in in April – well below the current rate of inflation.
            They also broke the triple lock because wage rises were getting inconveniently high.

          24. So you’ll get next year whatever this september’s figure is. Of course there’s a lag. Your pensions may go up 10-12% next year with the possibility than inflation is dropping at the same time.

          25. Yet it won’t. Inflation – as said passim – is enforced by QE. To resolve inflation, we need to do things that this government is set against: namely, cut taxes, bin the green waffle and build power stations but most importantly – stop borrowing and stop debasing the currency..

          26. … stop foreign ‘aid’ … stop illegal immigration … stop squandering treasury accounts at whim, willy nilly …

          30. No they wont. For over 50 years the state pension has increased by at least the inflation rate in september the previous year. Your at least by inflation rise is guaranteed. If Boris broke that implicit promise the Tories would be toast forever. The young hate them, they do not need the aged hating them too.

          32. Didn’t welfare get an increase? I know my brother got a small 1 or 2% in his living allowance – swiftly gobbled up by higher fees from the sheltered housing group. We got a bit for his carers allowance (but it’s about £10 or so ass it’s means tested). Do you know, one of the sickening things is I can’t do more work because then my brother loses out on his independence allowance on the basis that w should be paying for it. Not only do we pay his rent and food costs, my people do a lot for his little business as well.

            I’m sick of this government. Of every bloody government. They exist solely to balls things up out of greed, spite and envy.

          33. Carer’s allowance is an absolute joke. It’s totally effing disgusting that we expect people to give up work and care for another for about 65 quid per week. Totally disgusting. You have to care for something like 35 hours per week to even qualify for it. A care home place would cost very much more.

            Welfare benefits have had some small increases since 2010 but usually under inflation and some years they were completely frozen, whereas the state pension was protected by the triple-lock and has for over 50 years always gone up by at least inflation as measured in September of the previous year by CPI.

          34. Office for National Statisticshttps://www.ons.gov.uk › economy › inflationandpricei…
            The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 7.8% in the 12 months to April 2022, up from 6.2% in March.

            No equivalent Pension Rise. As usual, your answer is incomplete.

          37. Old retirement pension for those who reached pension age before April 2016 is much lower than that.

          39. I missed out on that rise. I reached my retirement age on 22/02/2016, just six weeks before the April cut-off date! My current rate is £167·53 per week.

          42. As these railwaymen are employees their remuneration will be dependent on paying customers. As the number of customers has declined due to the scamdemic it follows that the companies revenue have declined.
            Is the answer to make a third of the drivers redundant and pass some of those savings on to the remaining drivers? If not where is the money coming from? Or, as the technology is there, move to driverless trains.

          43. There are no driverless mainline trains. Automated trains are metros. We’re about 50 years off automated mainline trains.

            It’s not drivers.

            Passenger numbers should pick up again. There’s still a lot of freight moving by train. Paying customers are not always passengers.

            Pay these people properly or have no trains at all. Wages for other jobs are rising.

          44. My son was in a well paid job with over 30 years experience in his industry. He was made redundant during the scamdemic and now has a job, due to his work ethic, that pay him a third of his previous earnings.
            Who should pay the other two thirds? He has had to adjust. As with everything in life you have to adjust or die.

            I contend the train drivers are already well paid.

          45. Again it’s not effing drivers. I agree drivers are well paid but not as well paid as pilots.

            The drivers union is ASLEF.

          46. I’m glad that you’ve brought up the subject of pilots.

            On Sky News this morning it was reported that European pilots are being permitted to fly British aircraft without British licences.

            If the regulatory authority can’t control the safety of the airline industry, what are they there for?

          47. Why is that a problem? They are qualified pilots.

            You can drive on our roads with a foreign drivers licence.

          48. How about qualified British pilots?

            Do you think that they should be allowed to fly British ‘planes without the appropriate licences?

            Oh, and the very latest is that the BBC claims that the CAA now permits pilots suffering from HIV to fly commercially.

            Do you think that is a good idea?

          49. I doubt there’s qualified pilots out of work.

            They have a pilot’s licence, just not a british one.

            I don’t see HIV being a problem. It’s not like the pilot is going to shag anyone while the plane’s up in the air or slice himself and spray his blood all over the plane.

          50. Trains run on railway tracks, somewhat different to flying a plane. And their salary is not the end of the story – free travel for them and their family, not a 5 day week either I think.

          51. Somewhat, although a pilot only needs to take off then turn on the autopilot. Planes can land themselves, they just can’t do the take-off automatically.

          52. Then there’s a reason for that and I’d suggest it is much to do with pro-duc-tiv-ity.

          53. The moving of freight is paid for by the people who want the freight moved.
            They are known as customers and with all the shortages engineered by the government there may be less freight moving.

          54. I don’t know for sure, but I do see regular freight trains every day many times per day. The railway line is 100 yards from our new house. It’s the kings cross to edinburgh line.

          56. I checked the figures. Volumes are down a bit on 2015 highs but fairly stable.

          57. not just the pandemic. Government policy has hammered business into penury. Energy taxes, waste taxes, reams of pointless legislation over who we employ, massive business taxes should we deign to make a profit. You can’t keep money in the bank as the state destroys it. You can’t spend it for the same reason. Should you be successful the state robs you of your achievements. If you hire someone, you’ve a literal ream of paperwork to complete and you’re paying twice more in tax.

            Government is an abomination. A wasteful, useless, staffed with rent seekers; nonsense we could all do without and would be better off for.

          59. That’s France. I care about this country which is run by a bunch of socialist imbeciles, a spiteful, vengeful state machine and for the money we pay could pave the roads with [insert precious thing that wouldn’t cause skids] and instead we get.. rivers of sewage, litter, endless waste, a welfare class, sweet heart tax deals, corruption, fraud, incompetence, nepotism and more waste, more debt. Flush government into the Thames and push Whitehall with it. Close every government department. The decent people will find a way to keep working. The rest – can bash into the barrier.

          61. I often had a similar problem when i was self employed. No work no pay, it was a struggle. And i found many people were quite offensive because they were under the impression that if you were self employed you had the advantage over those who were employed by others and were rich. No holiday or sick pay and long hours were the biggest binds.

          63. TB make sure he puts as much money as he can into some sort of annuity. Having already paid tax on the income when you withdraw it they tax it as well. It stinks.

          65. Also self-employed, Eddy and I could earn about £500 per day but, when it looked like I was ready to retire, whoosh she was off and left me to – nothing.

            I’m afraid that I’m still bitter.

          66. You mean your other half ?
            I once had a bad back injury. I had a job to walk.
            A mortgage a wife and three teenage sons.
            I went to the benefits offices in St Albans to apply for some sort of government support.
            The snooty fat git behind the desk put his hands at the back of his neck elbows out, leaned back in his chair and said of course you won’t get anything. Why I asked.
            Because you’re self employed. I felt like punching him in his poisonous gob. What a disgusting situation.
            Probably started by Wilson’s government SET. Selective Employment Tax.

          67. My then, Swedish Wife, Eddy.

            Even self-employed, you will have paid Tax and NI. Yes, you should have knocked him off his chair.

          68. Yes, it does seem that businesses, especially the little ones get kicked as hard as possible by the state machine simply for the temerity of trying to provide a service from a skill they have.

            It is truly astonishing. The bit that got me was getting a tax bill before we’d even finished a tax year so desperate was the state to get our money.

        3. Then they should demonstrate why they are worth more. You don’t get a pay rise for doing the same job the same way.

          Inflation – from government QE has destroyed all our incomes. What you’re demanding is that they get more of our money for doing the same thing.

    5. Blah blah blah, bruvvas blah blah wich fwends, blah blah bruvvas, socialists, blah blah….

      Something like that? Tiresome, isn’t it?

      1. They have one aim in their lives and that’s to cause as much trouble and disagreement they possibly can.
        Similar to political classes.

  21. ‘Morning All

    Anyone got any follow up on this??

    https://twitter.com/lewis_baston/status/1538423893773504512?s=20&t=6K0qRRiNt2-Mvm40pRDhOA

    Hmmm

    Johnson was in Kyiv when he heard that the story was about to break

    and quickly forgot all about his friend Volodymyr Zelensky’s problems.

    He got his staff on the case and the story was dropped from later

    editions of today’s Times and the story promptly disappeared, too, from MailOnline.

    The ministerial code – which Johnson felt the need to update last

    month – states clearly that “working relationships with civil servants,

    colleagues and staff should be proper and appropriate.”

    https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/boris-johnson-wanted-to-give-carrie-symonds-a-100000-downing-street-role/
    D notice or Libel Lawyers??

    1. Is there a Carrie ‘cover-up?’ 20 June 2022.

      Another good day not to be in Downing Street. Spinners there will be bracing themselves for questions today about the curious case of a story about Carrie Johnson which featured in Saturday’s edition of the Times.

      The report – by veteran scoop-getter Simon Walters – claimed that Boris Johnson tried to make his then-mistress his £100,000-a-year chief of staff at the Foreign Office in 2018. It featured on page five of the paper’s first edition but was pulled from subsequent ones; the story was also published on Mail Online but removed shortly thereafter.

      Morning Rik. Do I detect a Super Injunction?

      https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-there-a-carrie-cover-up-

    2. Boris Johnson must go.

      But when he goes Brexit – even his bungled non-Brexit Brexit – will go with him.

      I can see no way in which the Conservative Party can survive this.

      All pro-Brexit Conservatives must resign their seats and stand in by elections as independents, as Proper Conservatives, Reform Party candidates or form a new Real Brexit Party.

      Anyone got any better ideas?

      2. Referism, recall and direct democracy. Simply remove the ability for the party to matter. Prevent it getting through the legislation the state wants. Stop any budget that does not meet our approval. Hold government to a dead stop until it learns to obey.

        If no MPs can actually pass a law without public approval, if how they vote is dictated by their constituent then who’s in charge doesn’t matter one jot.

      3. Are there any genuine conservatives in the Conservative party – can’t say I’ve spotted any.

    3. Well Boris does have form giving his current girlfriends oodles of public money.

  22. Wordle done.

    Wordle 366 4/6

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

      1. I doubt that.

        Raise tends to be a good starter word. I also use cargo, or tango.

        1. Quite possibly, Alf; however, my money is on it being the real Robertson, by golly! 😉

  24. Biden already in starting blocks for re-election run, say ex-aides

    EVEN those closest to Joe Biden would not be able to dissuade the US President from running in 2024, former aides have told The Daily Telegraph.

    Mr Biden, 79, seems determined to seek re-election despite repeated verbal gaffes and physical stumbles, including falling off his bike at the weekend. He would be 86 at the end of a potential second term.

    You can fool some of the people all of the time. You can fool all of the people some of the time. But you can fool quarter-wit Americans (especially Dimocrats) any time you choose.

    1. Americans were not stupid enough to vote him in last time round, and they won’t this time round either.
      The only question is whether he will still be alive, or already dead and stuffed, when he is inaugurated for the second time!

      1. Shades of Brezhnev.
        At least the Russians weren’t hypocritical enough to pretend he won an election.

    2. Sounds like the best of ideas for the fool to run again and give the Republicans a clear path to POTUS.

      The vote-rigging will not be believable or believed second time around.

    2. Removed by the poster Eddy
      Edit
      On rechecking the last deleted post by author showing in moderation was 2 days ago so I have no clue what has occurred

        1. I referred to the sweet voiced doctor lady as a murderer who cuts up children, kind of thing. I forget my exact words.

      2. Not by me. I have now replaced my vanished comment with a post-ironic film clip.

    3. Was it my comment regarding Dr Forcier? It seems to have disappeared, even from My Disqus file. (Maybe I am being cancelled. My phone may be being tapped again…)

      1. What does Dr Forcier do?
        Dr. Forcier specializes in gender, sexual and reproductive health. She provides consultation services in advanced contraception and family planning, sexually transmitted disease care, puberty and menstrual issues, and a variety of gender affirming hormones and care plans.

        Dr. Michelle Forcier, a professor of pediatrics(sic) who supports early “gender care” that “helps kids express their authentic identity”. New York Post

    2. Unfortunately knowing where it came from doesn’t give us a reason to get rid of blackface, we have no rules demanding that PMs are made in Canada.

  28. New UK Army chief issues Russia rallying cry. 20 June 2022.

    The new head of the British Army has issued a rallying cry to troops – telling them they need to be ready to face Russia on the battlefield.

    Well if I’m not there start without me!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61858476

    4. Another day, another General rooting for war. Drip drip, shouldn’t take long to persuade the population that we should be sending our troops into battle. Maybe Boris thinks he ride the next election on the back of UK troops. No talk of peace, quite odd when you consider all those Europeans who have traditionally been anti war when compared with belligerent Brits.

      1. Even odder when you consider how hostile the Europeans have been to us in the last few years.

        Now one of our generals wants us to sacrifice our young men and lots of taxpayers’ money to protect the Europeans.

        You couldn’t make it up.

    5. Given their current number, perhaps it should read as a rallying cry to the troop. All 20 of them.

      God help us but we can probably defeat Russia by hacking into their armaments computer and turning their weapons against themselves. That’s current military thinking.

      1. It’d be good to have a parliament that isn’t dedicated to ideological agenda. Green is simply a tax scam. Nothing more.

          1. If – IF the costs were private and the profits were – fine. However they can’t exist without subsidy. The grid upgrades are paid for by the tax payer.

            The losses are public, but they made millions last year on the incompetent contracts for difference.

  30. Barbarians 52 England 21

    I appreciate that the team was experimental but for England to lose so badly to an ad hoc selection who were down to 14 men for a significant part of the game is pathetic. George and the rest of his coaching team need to be removed.

      1. It put a harsh spotlight on how little strength in depth England actually possess.

    2. Our eldest was in Hungary last week on Business, after the footballs 0-4 defeat he had to suffer the slings an arrows.

      1. Don’t know if you remember,in the fifties Hungary had this football team
        of fantastic footballers, up to the level of the great Brazilian teams…..
        Then they lost to Germany in the1954 World Cup Final…..

    3. At 60 minutes the commentator said, “the Barbarians will start to tire. They are a man down…” Ho Hum. I bet he wishes he had not said that.

      1. I can remember a lot of things sports commentators have said but wished they hadn’t.
        For instance. The Batsman’s Holding the bowlers Willy.

  32. 20/06/22 Messengers of God – Slow to Anger Rev Augustine Tanner-Ihm. Now on BBC Radio 4 – You don’t know what you’re missing (not).

    https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=97fNfZoz&id=E80707EB5FA1CB8B6280815AB8DB7CFE6694C788&thid=OIP.97fNfZozhIUZtXDzQm9PXwHaFj&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2faugustineihm.co.uk%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2020%2f06%2fHome-Page-9.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.f7b7cd7d9a33848519b570f3426f4f5f%3frik%3diMeUZv5827hagQ%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=720&expw=960&q=Rev+Augustine+Tanner-Ihm.&simid=608001811377885314&FORM=IRPRST&ck=DDE6FC48B03885649370C617B346E04C&selectedIndex=7

    1. As it’s on R4, I assume it’s the usual offensive nonsense.
      One reason why the C of E is so “inherently racist” though is because they have struggled to find black Christians who accept their marxism re-branded as Christianity. Africans and West Indians tend to follow the Bible, which doesn’t go down well at Lambeth Palace these days.

        1. Saved them having to turn him down as a Bishop, or heaven forbid, Archbishop of Canterbury, which the people would actually want!

    2. As a schoolboy I always took note of the phrase: slow to chide and swift to bless in the hymn Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.

      But my housemaster, whose was sobriquet was the Slug, was notorious for being swift to chide and slow to bless and I also believe that wives and all school teachers, particularly the more intolerant and censorious female ones, should take this this precept to heart.

      This is all very well but the Archbishop of Canterbury certainly needs to be far more chid than blessed.

    3. As a schoolboy I always took note of the phrase: slow to chide and swift to bless in the hymn Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.

      Wives and school teachers, particularly the more intolerant and censorious female ones, should take this this precept to heart.

      This is all very well but the Archbishop of Canterbury certainly needs to be far more chid than blessed.

    1. But Lidl is German owned.

      Anyone who is daft enough to believe that marmalade can be halal-kosher needs to buy their own Jaffa oranges and do some boiling.

  35. I had a Martin Luther King moment last night. I had a dream:

    I dreamt that The Archbishop of Canterbury was going to take complete financial responsibility for all the expenses incurred by the invasion of illegal immigrants into Britain – their housing, their food and clothing and generous expense accounts to cover their living expenses. In order to fund this he would be prepared to sell church property including Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey so that they could be made into enormous mosques rather like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul which started as a church and is now a mosque. Other churches should then be either sold or converted into residential properties for the exclusive use of Muslims.

    “It is the responsibility of all Christians,” said Justin Welby, “to save the British taxpayer from all the expenses incurred by illegal immigration.”

    1. Isn’t that what he wants with his continual race-baiting? Shaming the white people to make the blacks feel better?

    2. Well, I’ve read about us inventing stuff, about planting stuff, teaching sports to foreigners, instituting the rule of Law, providing medical assistance, inventing novels and literature and the arts, providing sewing machines and bicycles, even freeing slaves. I always feel good about it.

    3. He’s right.
      Blacks should be told every day that the real drivers of the slave trade were blacks.
      Without their connivance blacks would have been nigh on impossible for whites to purchase.

    1. Good morning, ogga

      As we have said here before we have relied entirely on Vitamin C, Vitamin D and zinc to protect us against Covid.

      We both had Covid in February. Caroline had it so mildly that she did not think it was worth being tested until I was tested and we found that we both had it! A week later we were tested again and we were negative.

      Our experience and observations have led us to conclude that those who have been triple jabbed are not only at risk from the vaccine but will have Covid far more gravely when they do get it.

  38. I dreamt that The Archbishop of Canterbury was going to take complete financial responsibility for all the expenses incurred by the invasion of illegal immigrants into Britain – their housing, their food and clothing and generous expense accounts to cover their living expenses. In order to fund this he would be prepared to sell church property including Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster Abbey so that they could be made into enormous mosques rather like the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul which started as a church and is now a mosque. Other churches should then be either sold or converted into residential properties for the exclusive use of Muslims.

    “It is the responsibility of all Christians,” said Justin Welby, “to save the British taxpayer from all the expenses incurred by illegal immigration.”

    1. Does he mean that Christians should kill muslims to avoid the expense of keeping them? Asking for a friend.

      1. Old Dickie, Coeur de Lion, wasn’t a man with any conscience over doing what needed to be done.

  40. 353340+ up, ticks,

    The things this elected coalition finds acceptable is terribly queer really,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    7m
    This is on the pavement outside my local train station. Presumably paid out of Council Tax.

    I really don’t care who does what to whom, so long as it’s legal & doesn’t hurt or exploit anyone. But this is forcing things down peoples’ throats.

    Remember when it was ‘consenting adults in private’? How long before there is a pedo flag & everyone is forced to fly/accept that ? Five, 10 years? Think that far fetched? Think how far things have gone in the last 20 years.

    Totalitarian states always force people to fly their flags & symbols – or suffer the consequences.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1ewwxb91fb

      2. Very good.

        The “pride” bit makes my tits twirl – I mean, I’m not “proud” of being hetero, I just am. The people I have known throughout my life, who are not heterosexual, are not flamboyently proud of that fact, either. They just are.

        Or “black is beautiful” – well no more beautiful or ugly than any other race. Allegedly. Although different races show different kinds of physical features (or other characteristics) which may be considered ugly by others.

        Or “black lives matter”, as if others aren’t saying that all lives matter

        These minorities really ought to wind their necks in. For the sake of diversity – because I for one am sick of that type of diversity aggrandisement. Of course, be diverse. Live your lives, and make a population that is at ease with itself.

        Or feck off.

        1. I never dreamed I could be called racist (apart from my distrust of Pakistanis) but in recent years I’ve begun to feel very resentful of the continuous finger pointing when ever I question a non-reflectives need to denigrate UK and England particularly, for its racism.
          Unfortunately, as has been mentioned by others, it’s almost as if the left want a conflict between the indigenous population and our uninvited visitors.

          Rudyard Kipling comes to mind:

          It was not part of their blood,
          It came to them very late
          With long arrears to make good,
          When the English began to hate.

          They were not easily moved,
          They were icy-willing to wait
          Till every count should be proved,
          Ere the English began to hate.

          Their voices were even and low,
          Their eyes were level and straight.
          There was neither sign nor show,
          When the English began to hate.
          It was not preached to the crowd, It was not taught by the State.
          No man spoke it aloud, When the English began to hate.
          It was not suddenly bred,
          It will not swiftly abate,
          Through the chill years ahead,
          When Time shall count from the date That the English began to hate.

          1. The left (as useful idiots for other more sinister globaists) DO want us to have a conflict. So that they can put us under martial law “for our own safety”.

            That Kipling poem was once true – now there are now enough indigenous English in this country for it to be of such relevance, sadly.

        2. ‘The “pride” bit makes my tits twirl.’

          Bugger, Dukke! I’ll not sleep tonight! 😇😘

    2. How can it be inclusive if we are always highlighting those that dance to a different beat. Accepting alternate life choices is one thing but being expected to celebrate these perversions is a step too far.

      With no apologies to the cars around me when I swerve at the rainbow crossing, I always avoid the multi colour bits.

      1. 353340+ + up ticks,

        Afternoon R,
        Could prove fatal wearing multi coloured socks when using such a crossing , poof your gone.

    1. It is rather good news. However the endless ranting of Le Pen being ‘Far Right’ is now tiresome.

  42. “There may be trouble ahead”

    https://twitter.com/catchwreck3/status/1538591196557221889?s=21

    https://twitter.com/MarkSleboda1/status/1538193855870210048?
    Yup,keep poking the Bear,what could possibly go wrong……..
    Edit
    Nicked Comment
    “It is clear that TPTB want troops on the ground in Ukraine, and possibly Russia. See comments by that crackpot British General at the weekend. Then lo and behold, Lithuania block Russian access to Kaliningrad. This is to provoke a response, and with Lithuania being a NATO member, an attack on Lithuania, whether real, imagined or faked, will give both USA and UK the excuse they need to deploy troops. And it’ll happen without a parliamentary vote.”
    Uff Da!! I suspect horribly accurate analysis

  43. I was just thinking the other day, how come Ukraine and Russia are relatively quite poor countries despite virtually everything we need for basic survival coming from there, this has only recently become evident since the outbreak of war

      2. Ah Grizzly

        Glad you are about .

        I cooked a delicious rolled leg of pork yesterday , the crackling was scrumptious.

        The juices in the pan thickened up and left pork fat and nice brown tasty jelly. when cool.

        Moh says that his mum used to throw the pork jellified juice away and keep the lard .

        We nearly had a blazing row when I said my mother used to tip everything into a bowl , place it in fridge or cold larder , and the jelly used to be spread on a very thin layer of lard on top of toast , and eaten with a sprinkle of salt and green watercress.

        Moh must have a dim memory because that is something I have done when we have had pork to eat over a long period of years, so he must have forgotten and was just looking for a disagreement ..

        I believe we may have a very difficult north south divide in this household .

          1. Just small amount of fat and a larger bit of jelly on dry toast. Possibly even a little salt. Sublime.

        2. SWMBO puts in in a bowl in the fridge. About a month later, I throw a bowl of blue fuzz away, and SWMBO gets furious…

          1. It doesn’t seem to get blue fuzz in this house. If it gets a bit stale, it makes fat balls for the birds when it’s boiled up again.

        4. His mum sounds as nutty as he is. What an idiot. You can use the jelly in several different ways including flavouring the next pork gravy. You can freeze it.
          Tell the old fool to stay out of the kitchen.

          1. Yes , irritatingly so .

            In the early days of our relationship , Brains Faggots were introduced to me . never eaten them before , and I am sorry to say I cannot bear them or the thought of meat balls makes me ill.

            I will eat most offerings but not things like that.

          2. I must admit i did like Brains Faggots, mash and peas. The gravy was rich tasting too. A childhood memory for me.

          3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e1c6103d36e4670c5645030d75db03137a8ca7024170e2073fa992a5e3a2291.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9921932301dcbd23a1a9a365de5ba19c6fe2a0ee7ae96dd1182ad6ca2bdbcc27.jpg I forgot to tell you about the Chinky meal I made on Saturday. It was delicious. I roasted a rack of tender pork ribs in a Chinese sticky BBQ sauce. This was served with a stir-fry using the ingredients in the first photo. The leftover sticky sauce, mixed with the drippings from the ribs, has been saved (of course!) to flavour a near future pork dish.

        5. Hi, Maggie.

          Oh, yes. Pork dripping (and the jelly) were a favourite ‘snap’ (packed lunch) when I were a young ‘un. I’d not had it for years after ‘they’ told us to stop eating fat, but after I’d researched that all the advice given, re fat, was nothing more than lies and hogwash, I started making my own pork dripping from a roast (in my case, loin) joint. The delight of the first piece of freshly-baked bread spread with this delicious delight (and not forgetting a sprinkling of salt) was utterly knockout!

          I spread some onto a bread cob (roll, bap, bun …) and salt it slightly before adding slices of roast pork, sage and onion stuffing, crackling, apple sauce and Colman’s English mustard for a proper Northern pork sandwich. Utter heaven.

          Mum was very strange when it came to roast beef though. Apart from cremating it to a very dry and grey mess, she would pour the beef fat into the gravy (?) and throw away the lovely meat extracts! Much later I was ahead of her and I would grab the roasting tin and scrape out the black juicy sticky meaty bits before she could throw them away!

          1. So delicious.

            I knew you would respond the way I knew you might .

            I sometimes feel very sentimental , the lovely food my parents and elderly relatives enjoyed , and of course my grandmothers sister was married to a butcher who had his own home farm , and 2 butchers shops in the West riding .. They still exist .

            Grandpa used a special spoon to get the cooked marrow out of the beef bone when we had our Sunday roast .. my sister and I were allowed a little taste .. it was regarded as a delicacy .

          2. I use the thin end of a tiny coffee spoon to dig out the marrow from chops (pork and lamb). I love it. I sometimes buy beef marrow bones from the butcher. I remove the marrow, chop it up and then mix it with minced beef to make sensational home-made hamburgers.

            Today I bought some veal liver (they didn’t have any pork liver) and put it into the 2/98* food processor to purée it. I then mixed that purée with some pork mince, breadcrumbs, puréed onion, some sage, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper to make some faggots. I’ll have some tomorrow with thick onion gravy and mushy peas. The rest I’ll freeze.

            *I call the food processor the ‘2/98’ since I use it for 2% of the time and then spend the next 98% of the time washing up the damn thing!

      1. 353340+ up ticks,

        Afternoon N,
        Many of the political fraternity are short, a long stretch would be beneficial.

          1. 353340+ up ticks,

            W,
            Sorry just came down from the roof wrestling with roof tiles gloves still on accept an O pology.

    3. Ukraine bans Russian books. So if you order War and Peace in Kiev, you get The Great Reset.

  45. Russia blockading grain exports a ‘real war crime’, says EU. 20 June 2022.

    Russia’s blockade of grain exports to the rest of the world is a “real war crime”, the High Representative of the European Union’s foreign policy has said.
    Josep Borrell said that Russia should be held “accountable” if it keeps on blocking the export of vitally needed grain from Ukraine.

    “It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger. This is a real war crime,” Mr Borrell said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

    Blockading is not a “War Crime”. The UK has used it from time immemorial against our various continental enemies. It is a legitimate tool of War!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/20/ukraine-news-russia-war-conflict-latest-putin-british-army/

  46. Off now chums to, hopefully, find accommodation in Moffat.

    Back late Thursday but I’ll try and keep in touch, wi-fi permitting.

    1. NTN

      I am no expert on anything really, however I can be a good listener..

      What ever you do just be cautious and careful .

      Are you sure going to Scotland is a good idea , it is a long way from Norfolk .

      Remember , stress can be dangerous .

      Do your relatives live in Moffat?

      Remember that Nottlers will feel concerned .

      1. No need to be concerned, Maggie you’re probably aware that Judy and I have split. The place in Moffat is provided by Royal Air Force Association (RAFA) and I’m only going to view.

  47. Was woken up rather early in the morning by an almighty crash and a yelp, followed by a ‘aaaggh!’ roar.

    Pootled about until Mongo appeared pawing at an eye and Junior sporting a bruise on his shoulder. It turns out his bookcase had collapsed under the weight of books. After checking that Mongo is OK (as he is the most vulnerable, being unable to communicate) I got Junior an ice pack and we surveyed the carnage.

    Not only double stacked, but books pushed between shelves had lifted them off the hook things and… when the last one went on, it fell off and took the shelf – and the others – with it.

    So two more Billy’s on the way. In a sense, I’m proud of him – he’s reading anything and everything. No gadgets, no iPads (although he has one).

  48. This is brilliant … 😂😂😂
    Matt Hancock was doing an annual visit to a hospital. As always, he was looking for something to beat the NHS with to show how badly run and loss making things were there.
    Hancock checked all the books and then did his tour. While on the tour he turned to the ward manager and said, “I notice you buy and use a lot of bandages. What do you do with the plastic middle out of the roll?” “Good question”, noted the ward manager, “we save them up and send them back to Johnson and Johnson and every once in a while, they send us a free bandage roll. We like recycle whenever possible.” “Oh” he said somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer. But on he went in his tour to the next ward. “What about all these coloured casts you dispense. They seem to be rather a waste of money?”
    “Ah, yes”, replied the ward manager realizing that Hancock was trying to trap her, “we ask that any patient wishing a coloured cast donates £1 which is far in excess of the 10p the colouring actually costs”. Hancock was determined to fluster the ward manager. So on they went to the next ward. “Well, what do you do with all the remains from the circumcision surgeries?” “Here too we do not like wasting”, said the manager.
    “What we do is save all the little foreskins and send them to the government in London and about once a year, at this exact time, they send us a complete prick”. 🤣

    2. When our youngest had a car accident he was supposed to sent to another local hospital for possible plastic surgery assessment. But the manager to us they didn’t have a bed. I rang the other hospital and was told they did have a bed but the problem lay with the other end as they told them there was no transfer transport available. I offered to take him but was told it was not allowed. So I tried to ring the manager and nobody answered. I went behind the scenes and the mangers office was in darkness and locked. A porter came by and asked if he could help. I told the story. He replied go and standby the expensive cars in the car park and a manager will soon turn up.

    3. I heard this joke with a similar idea in riddle form some years ago.

      Q. What is the difference between a Morris Dancer and a Jew?

      A. A Morris Dancer is a complete prick!

  49. From Breitbart.

    Roundly rebuking his neo-liberal globalist

    political philosophy, the French public has refused to grant President

    Emmanuel Macron a parliamentary majority as Marine Le Pen’s populists on

    the right and an ecological alliance on the left surged at the ballot

    box to strip the once self-described ‘Jupitarean’ leader of his ability

    to govern France firmly.

    Just under two months after securing a second term as President of

    France, Emmanuel Macron and his Ensemble! coalition have suffered a

    disastrous result in the final round of voting in the parliamentary

    elections on Sunday, securing just 245 seats, far short of the 289

    necessary to maintain a governing majority and at the low end of polling

    projections leading up to the vote.

    The night’s true victor — at least in terms of exceeding expectations

    — was perhaps Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), which saw a

    surprising result of 89 candidates elected to the National Assembly, the

    most in the history of the party, including its predecessor National

    Front. Le Pen’s party, which previously only boasted eight

    representatives, will now have enough representation to form a

    parliamentary group, providing a major boost to the party in terms of

    prominence in the national discussion and the ability to fundraise.

    Prior to the second and final round of voting on Sunday, posters had estimated

    that RN would win between 25 and 45 seats, suggesting that anti-Macron

    sentiment was strong enough to convince left-wing voters to side with Le

    Pen to prevent the neoliberal president from retaining his grip over

    the parliament.

    Hailing the stunning result for her party, the populist firebrand said:

    “This victory is that of the French people. Tonight, they have taken

    their destiny into their own hands by making Emmanuel Macron a minority

    president. This victory is yours!”

    In all, Macron will lead the largest party in the French Parliament

    but without an overall majority at 245 seats, according to the French interior ministry.

    The hard-left NUPES (New popular ecological and social union) performed

    roughly as polled and won 131 seats. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally outperformed expectations

    to take 89 seats. The Republicans, the once establishment party of

    former president Nicolas Sarkozy came fourth with just 61 seats: just 15

    years ago, they won 313.

  50. Wordle 366 3/6
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    ⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    Phew, first time nothing in the first entry.

    1. My 100th play.
      Wordle 366 4/6

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

      2. My 87th play; a Bogey Five.
        Wordle 366 5/6

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

    2. Did OK today. The clue was the vowels.
      Wordle 366 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. I used a totally different first word and it drew nothing! Had two vowels instead of the usual 3.

  51. Both up at 5.30 and cab at 9.45. Got to the hospital with 10 mins to spare.

    First up- a total bitch, and I mean bitch, of a receptionist. Checked in and she barked at us- put masks on. No, we said, we’re exempt. Then she came out with the “only patients allowed in the waiting room.” There was one man in there FFS. No, we said again, I said I want MH here and he said I am not leaving. By now she was turning a nice shade of magenta. So we sat down about 5 feet apart. Then she had another go; did you park out the front? No, we said, we don’t own a car, we came in a taxi. She was livid. She was going to kick MH out to sit in the car- if we had one.
    What bothered me about all this BS- besides her poisonous attitude, was how many others meekly complied.
    Anyway, was called in and this being the NHS, only one doctor was on duty- the one who was doing my surgery. So she didn’t get started until she’d been to look at another couple of patients.

    It hurt and took longer than I thought but it’s done. She’d just put the last stitch in when there was a knock at the door. Is Mrs.______ in there? asked a nurse, there’s a very anxious husband pacing up and down the hallway. I have a large dressing on my mush but I can live with that.
    He was allowed in, helped me up and we left.
    MH told me outside that the bitch had made him go and sit at the back of the waiting room and that’s when he began pacing the hall.

    MH had already ordered the cab and it was waiting outside for us. Was wonderful to just go out and get in and come home.

    At the risk of being soppy, I have loved this guy since I first met him and he has been so good and kind of late. He excelled himself today; he stuck to his guns, refused to leave me, had the cab waiting and has supported me all the way through this.
    So, hopefully that is it for a while- god I hope so.

    1. My best wishes for a speedy recovery and good that you both gave that ‘uncaring bitch’ a few choice words.
      They forget that you! pay their wages.

    2. Seems to have gone well, Ann. Good news. Did the doc give you an idea of the timescale for healing and removing the dressing?

      1. Yes, but not thinking about it tonight. Dressing can come off in a few days but will reread the paperwork tomorrow. Just glad it’s bloody over.

    3. Glad you’ve been “done” – but what an unpleasant experience you both had there. At least you’re home now.

    4. As Uncle Bill would say if he were on line, Time for a glass or three of Medicine. Wishing you a swift recovery LotL. Forgive the tinpot dictator bear of very average brain……

      1. I poured a hefty Pinot when we got in- I shan’t be up late tonight. Just as a precaution, you understand, for when the local wears off….

        1. Splendid. As I’ve been working in the garden I’ve just had a Pinot top up with 1/3 diet Tonic Water with Lime – it makes a very refreshing spritzer

          1. What a bloody good idea;-) Didn’t the Good Samaritan bathe the stranger’s wounds with wine? Been a long time since I thought of scripture.

    5. The cruel attitude of the bitch from hell who should not be in a place where care and tenderness is required , she should be reported for outrageous bad manners ..

      What a pity you were not both black , you could have hauled her infront of every human rights /blah blah blah lawer and medical council .

      Settle down now and hug that kind loving man of yours and enjoy every little word/ kind act he bestows on you .

      What a lovely special thing you both have together .

        1. I don’t know what people’s circumstances are , but you could have been red / green/ purple , I dunno , but what ever , some groups of people appear to get preferential treatment ..

          Unless you were really a Lady and Lord , and appeared with your valet .

          1. Teasing you;-) Now me mush is sorted, hopefully, my wicked sense of humour will reappear. Watch out.

          3. We know. We have seen your sunny smile. Nice teeth. What was the horse’s name?
            >>>>>>>runs and hides…

    6. Glad it’s over Lottie and damned well done to you both for standing your ground
      To hell with the jobsworths

      1. Rik, all my life I have realised that if you don’t stand up to bullies you might as well not bother. She met her match today!

    7. Good for you…and him. Be assertive without anger or loud voices and there is nothing they can do. Hope that’s it for that.

    8. That makes me bloody furious.
      The cow obviously didn’t appreciate that her attitude could actually have a damaging effect on the patient’s well being.
      The same applies to anyone working in that situation; their behaviour can impede the patient’s progress by causing unnecessary stress.
      Talk about a soviet care system.
      Fingers crossed for you; you have earned this evening’s tipple. And then some.

      1. Trust us Anne- we shall enjoy our tipple ce soir. I don’t think I will make old bones though- been a long day.

    9. I am delighted for you Ann that it’s all over now and bloody well done for both of you holding your ground. Why the NHS still tries to insist on mask wearing I cannot understand. 👍

      I find it hard to believe how absolutely horrible one person can be to another, particularly in this kind of situation, when the patient is already jittery and anxious. I dislike using the word but what an absolute cow the receptionist was.

        1. I bet!
          Now you can relax a bit. Hope you have a damn good zed tonight, and let all the stress slide away…

    12. Well done Ann.
      I hope you have completely spoiled the receptionist bitch’s day and evening and I hope she doesn’t get any sleep tonight.
      Do you have an old doll you can stick needles in?
      I hope she feels totally humiliated.

    13. Write to the CEO and say she verbally assaulted you and demand disciplinary proceedings and that you, the victim, is present to give evidence.

    14. Glad to hear it went ok and I wish you a speedy recovery. Good to hear you have such great support – and a pox on the receptionist

      1. Thanks Mola- what a cow she was and I like cows, having spent many summers on my uncle’s dairy farm. People like that should not be working in hospitals.
        Open mic tonight or are you tired from fishing? Nosy aren’t I?

        1. Will do open mic for sure. The fishing (lure fishing from the rocks) was a complete blank, though we tried hard. A beautiful morning though and for 6 hours we saw some great wild life on the cliffs and not another human.

    16. Ah! Refound your post after being White Screened when I tried to respond!

      You ought to make a formal complaint to the hospital and, perhaps, a letter to your local press might elicit further tales of her nastyness.

    17. Well done, Ann and your darling MH! What a horrible experience! So glad it’s all over and you can relax a bit (lot?) with the jolly old Pinot! Take care and sleep well!

      1. Thanks Sue. My husband is wonderful in my eyes but he proved it today. Pinot on tap and I shall not be up late tonight.

    18. But, but, when you went outside, did you clap for the NHS? Please say you did…

      Sacking is too good for them.

          2. Speaking of magenta. I was summoned to a health check-up a few years ago. The nurse-person couldn’t have been more unpleasant, she had nothing good to say about me (‘Well, you may be 13.2, but that’s only a pound under overweight’, ‘You’re not 6′, you’re 5’11” and 3 quarters’, anything, any opportunity…
            Towards the end, she took my blood pressure (which was soaring at this point). She wrote down the results, obviously unhappy. She said that’s it, goodbye. I looked quizzical. ‘Is that it?’ She looked at me with a look of pure hatred. ‘Yes.’
            Pointing to the blood pressure apparatus, still attached to my arm, I said ‘Shall I just take this with me then?’
            Is there a darker shade than magenta?

      2. They probably took saucepan lids to the hospital, ready to make an almighty din at an appropriate time.

    19. But, but, when you went outside, did you clap for the NHS? Please say you did…

      Sacking is too good for them.

  52. Swim Low Sweet Chariot…
    Swimming’s world governing body has slapped a total ban on transgender athletes that have gone through any form of male puberty from taking part in women’s competitions.
    Fina’s new policy, which was passed by a margin of 71 per cent after its 152 members voted on the issue, will force transgender swimmers to compete in a separate category that only includes those who claim their gender identity is different from their biological sex.

    For transgender athletes who were born men to compete in women’s events, they must have completed their transition by the age of 12.

    BTL Comments:
    I’ve always believed that the best way for women swimmers to deal with the problem was to remain on the blocks at the start of a race and refuse to compete. It involves a lot of short-term personal sacrifice but the sight of a trans swimmer “winning” alone in the pool would for sure draw attention to the issue quite quickly.

    And, from the Book of Fight Club, Dr Durden reminds us that “Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.”

    1. Well done them! I think Sharron Davies’ campaign might have had something to do with that decision.

  53. My younger son and his girlfriend have had Covid for a week. They are both in their mid-20s, they are both triple jabbed and they are still quite unwell. I am 76, Caroline is 60 – we had Covid in February and both got over it straight away – we just took Vitamin C, Vitamin D and zinc.

    We would be interested to hear how the Nottlers who have had Covid recently fared – our impression is that the jabbed are suffering or suffered far worse than the unjabbed.

    Nottler Jab status Unjabbed, 1 jab, 2 jab, 3 Jab. more than 3 jab Vitamin C, D and Zinc Severity of illness

      1. I’m sorry to say this but keep the day job.
        Boris Karloff would run rings around you for stage presence.

          1. I’m sure it will be fine in a couple of months, in the meantime, keep the glass topped up 🍷🙏

    2. Never jabbed, not had covid. I took C, D and Zn. Visited shops, pubs as normal when allowed, and have a worker and 6th former living in the house.

    3. Nottler status jabbed twice – not from any inclination other than to ease MB’s mind after his heart attack (2 weeks after first AZ jab).
      No more since.
      MB probably had covid in January 2020 and recovered. Unless I had a v. mild version by virtue of proximity – nothing to date. Have been tested when visiting elderly chum; clear every time.
      p.s. unlike most of my contemporaries, I still have my tonsils – which are designed to catch and zap bugs before they travel any further into the system.

      1. Gosh, I still have my tonsils too. Rarely had colds, flu only once (after a flu shot) but more than enough tummy bugs.

      2. My tonsils were removed when I was six – but a gp later told me they had resprouted.

    4. Without tempting fate:
      No jabs but Vit D & C with multivitamins as an added precaution.
      Just carried on with life as best we could and ignored the Dire Prognostications that we were told would befall us.

    5. Nottler status. No jabs. Take C, D3 and Zn. May possibly (very mild) have had Covid way back at the beginning. No tests.

      1. Getting Covid was a blessing for us as we were given a six month pass to travel without having had the gene therapy.

    6. 2 AZ jabs, no boosters. No covid; MH- no side effects but me with the red spots and swollen feet.

      1. Just caught up with your news, what a day you have had….hope you will soon be feeling like your old self again…onward and upward…to the medicine cabinet, we will be joining you later!! Yellow Tail is keeping cool in the fridge.

      1. Same as Mrs D and me. I am 86 next month and very fit and Mrs D is 72. We didn’t have the flu jab either.

    8. Triple-jabbed (2-AZ and 1 Pf booster) and take Vitamin C, D and zinc. Had it twice, November 2019, which led on to 15 months of Long Covid, and again in March 2022, with a full recovery after ten days. I am 66.

    11. 2 Pfizer jab, plus 2 booster, no ill effects. Take multi-vitamins daily, plus annual flu shot.

    13. No jabs, no covid, take multivitamins daily. 66 yrs old. Carried on with life as close to normal as possible throughout. Work in the office not at home…etc. Also went on many of the freedom marches in London, crammed in with thousands of maskless others!

        1. No, I had a bad cold last September and thought it might be but there was no positive test. The NHS verdict was, “people seem to have forgotten what normal illness looks like”, though ironically this was of course said on the phone.

          1. Ah….. sorry – my mistake. I remember you being unwell but not that it was not confirmed as covid. People have certainly forgotten that infections are normal and the body’s response is normal, too. That is what all the fear – mongering has done to the population.

            I read an interesting piece this morning on the way the British Government abandoned its better judgement and blindly followed the WHO during the pandemic. https://www.ageofautism.com/2022/06/the-british-government-the-world-health-organization-and-global-coup-of-2020.html

    15. Had a bog-standard cold in April that lasted for just over a week. No jabs … ever!

      I had my one and only ‘flu jab in 1970 and I collapsed with an anaphylactic reaction just ten minutes after having it. I’ve never had one since and nor shall I.

      Three Ω3 fish-oil capsules; one Vitamin D3 capsule; and one Milk Thistle Extract capsule daily. I get all the Vitamin C I need through fruit and vegetables.

      I contracted a severe viral respiratory disease (URTI) that lasted three weeks back in November 2019, just weeks before all the “Covid” palaver erupted. I caught it at Stansted airport on my last visit to the UK. Whether it was “Covid” or not is a moot point.

    16. Our younger son and his wife, same as yours except ‘covid’ last February. Both were really unwell, our son said he had the worst migraine ever with it. He needed two courses of antibiotics to clear it over 3 weeks to a month. Both have had heavy colds since. Both are jabbed, probably more than once. It is not encouraged by them as a topic of conversation. We had the dreaded lurgy at the same sort of time, we recovered in ten days or so but I was tired for some time. We are aged 80 and 75, not jabbed. It just seemed like the usual winter-type virus.

      Our younger son has not needed antibiotics for a chest infection ever before (and scarcely for anything else) in his lifetime.

      Edit: We take vit D3+K2 4000IU daily, vit C in the late-autumn/winter/early spring months, ditto zinc and quercetin.

    17. Hi Rastus. Ok, for the sake of scientific analysis, here are the Ifitfits statistics.
      2 people. Me, 70 on the 4th July (!), Mrs Ifitfits, 58 in September. 3 jabs each. No additional C, D or zinc. Severity of illness – zero. We haven’t had it. Not once. Touch wood.

    18. Ok – here’s mine….. I think we both had it in January 2020 – cough lasted several weeks, but otherwise not much more than a heavy cold. I had two AZ jabs because I had a trip to Kenya booked. 74 next month. OH had 3 Pfizer jabs. He’s 79. We had a possible cold (didn’t test ) in April – his lasted three days, mine, very mild, was gone in less than two. We’ve been taking Vit D3 and Vit C for the last two winters, we eat well, plenty of fruit etc.

    1. All he was looking forward to was, in the words of Mme. De Gaulle, – ”a penis”…..

        1. To the tune of “How do you solve a problem like Maria”:-
          Warning, a bit naughty, but its wot we used to sing in the Squadron Bar
          🎼🎵 Sit on my face and tell me that you love me…
          🎶

    1. I read that they had banned Russian books and music too. Not a great look for plucky little Ukraine.

      1. Yup, who needs Pushkin and Tolstoy when you can read the thoughts of chairman Klaus. Mind, any Russian talent from Crimea or the Black Sea region pre-1922 will probably be rebranded as Ukrainian.

    1. I’m not a fashionista but his top looks like it matches the condition of his skin….

    2. “So what first, Kevin, attracted you to the multi-millionaire Calvin Klein?” (Apologies to Mrs.Merton).

    1. Wordle 366 3/6
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
      ⬛⬛⬛🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      #metoo and after zilch on the first line!

    2. Par four here
      Wordle 366 4/6

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

    3. Par four here
      Wordle 366 4/6

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

    4. Bogey Five here …
      Wordle 366 5/6
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
      🟨🟨⬜⬜🟩
      🟨🟩⬜🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    6. Wordle 366 4/6

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

    7. Me too.
      Wordle 366 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  58. Continuing a theme… Daily Express:

    GET RUSSELL GRANT STRAIGHT TO YOUR IN-BOX Ugh! No thanks!

    1. Well, if there was no cover-up, then everybody knew about it. So that’s all right then. The council is in the clear. No blame attaches. But I expect they will go on camera to say that, “lessons will be learned”.

      1. Yes – next time they’ll put more effort into making sure you don’t find out.

      1. Perhaps the fact there was no evidence shows how successful they were.
        B*st*rds.

    3. 353340+ up ticks,

      Evening TB,

      rotherham is the common denominator of the toxic trio the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition party that is solidly backed by the herd , party before all else however odious.

      Only one party wanted controlled immigration they were treacherously shut down and the leaders personal advisor was jailed for putting the spotlight on paedophilia.

      Virginity in children is lapped twice by the party before
      ALL else brigade

  61. ‘Night All

    Beer o’clock leave you with some odds and sods…….

    The most punchable smug face I’ve seen today

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/834b3a3bbd6160fa23de61f83fff797bf3b59141969b02afdac0abd123d66673.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d739c529de188b6570cba0742ee60b966537d8deff0e38e669b5c510050a366.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47742c60517af6b191ce683c78ab2cd239d7e04787a6d955258a0eb736265948.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e53516c46e9baa9ea7a53fc7884c2911cee73e4fbe606bb5fe2802b331f1eaa.jpg

    https://twitter.com/MarianneSansum/status/1538067698206265344?s=20&t=uZNWqW8aWvkC6VlaNPR-WQ

  62. 353340+ up ticks,

    Woke’ Dogma of ‘Ruling Elites’ Preventing UK from Reaching Full Potential – Brexiteer Think-Tank

    Gettaway

    That has only been clearly evident since the 25/6/2016.

  63. An interesting piece on the changes happening in Russia and how they may affect the West
    A few paragraphs:

    This is the heart of the conflict with the West. American provincialism combined with European chauvinism has produced a Western culture that is a blend of egalitarian utopianism and totalitarian consumerism. The collective West is ignorant of and at war with the great diversity of humanity. So much so that no Western leaders can consider an alternative to Western liberal democracy.

    At the sunset of the West, the war in Ukraine captures the new political and cultural reality that will shape the 21st century. At one end is the Global American Empire, tied to the old ideas of the last century. At the other end is Russia, accepting the reality of this new age. In between is a Europe that is being forced to come to terms with the reality that it is a spent civilizational force.

    It is not all bad news for the West. Perhaps the Russian refusal to fight with a receding American empire over the corpse of Europe will trigger an awakening. America cannot return to normalcy until it gives up its imperial dreams and, most important, accepts its status outside of Europe. Like Russians, Americans must begin to see themselves as the leading people of a unique civilization outside of Europe.

    It is too soon to know if present events will shake the ruling classes of the West out of their trance. Similarly, it is too soon to know if Vladimir Putin will be the bookend to Peter the Great in the long process of Russian self-discovery. A century ago, events in Russia cast a shadow over the West. Today, events in Russia are closing the books on the 20th century and perhaps giving the West a final chance to save itself.

    The whole article is worth a look

    https://www.takimag.com/article/peter-the-greats-bookend/

  64. Latest Breaking News – Boris rushed to hospital for emergency operation on his hooter.

    – Raab steps up to the plate to hold the fort.

    – Government insiders says it could be just a sinus of the times.

  65. I wonder which congenital bloody idiot politicians (probably Yanks) encouraged Lithuania?
    The West may soon pay a very heavy price for NATO and EU hubris.

      1. They might get a surprise when China takes out Washington, San Francisco and New York to protect their business partners with tactical nukes.
        America. The shortest known Empire in history.

      2. I’m not convinced it will be WW3.
        I suspect the rest of the world will watch as Europe and America try to take out Russia and they will stand back and hoover up what’s left or give it to the Africans.

  66. I don’t know if anyone posted this, but it’s good to see an Englishman won the US Open golf tournament

    1. MH has been on about it and very pleased. Brookline is on the Mass Pike and you can see the golf course when you drive up to Boston.

      1. His reward from the Almighty for being so comforting and supportive of you over recent trauma?

        Glad you’re OK and hope you don’t get too much face ache, Faceache.
        };-))

        1. In my new, somewhat, benign mood, I shall not insult you tonight….
          Sos, he has been so great and I am so fortunate that he’s my husband.
          OK, Duckface?

    2. Doesn’t that emphasis the legal system, it’s just a dog fight……here boy 🐕🐶

  68. Flat pack garden furniture, what a PITA.

    We’ve just had to replace all the sun loungers for the pool. Plastic ones don’t take kindly to the gite guests getting out of the pool and just flopping down on them, they split, so we’ve bought much more expensive ones.

    I started in high hopes of putting the four together this afternoon.
    All the necessary bits were in place, all the instructions were clear-ish.

    Every single hole for the screws was fractionally out of position so that everything needed to be adjusted one or two turns at a time, then to add to my frustration a spur of extra hard steel was blocking one of the holes, it required extremely patient drilling to avoid screwing (see what I did there) up the threads for the screw. A job that probably should have taken half an hour each took four.
    Now I’ve got two more to do tomorrow.

      1. To be fair to the manufacturers, they look superb, and at first test are very comfortable.

        1. The left-handed ones are more expensive, but you could always use a right-handed one upside down.

          1. And for screwing them in, Spikey. 😉 We’re talking about the comical, old-fashioned nicknames around the country for a hammer. I think it was Scousers (who hate Mancs) who thought up the “Manchester Screwdriver” moniker.

  69. Just been pricing furniture and nick-nacks for sale from Mother’s house for (hopeful) sale to a dealer. Not used to this, so t’web is helpful to indicate market prices. Gives us a starting point for negotiation, anyhow. Sad to see some stuff go, and sad to see what will be left to go to the house clearers & charity shops. But, hey. Particularly two now-scruffy but comfy chairs that my Father & I used to use when enjoying a G&T a quarter of a century ago…

    1. Get a local auctioneer in to have a look.
      On balance we’ve been very pleased with the service and the prices obtained vs the estimates.
      We’ve also been very surprised by what some turned out to be worth, eg a couple of pottery candle holders that were about to be dumped at the local Red Cross fetched 165 Eur! Even the auctioneer was surprised

      1. Problem we have, Sos, is timescale. Auction finishes soon, then we have 6 weeks to handover. Finding an auctioneer, getting them to the house, removing the stuff they can sell, then dealing with the rest… too difficult when I’m not there. What if stuff doesn’t sell? Nowhere to put it. So, this route seems to be working OK, if a bit awkward.

        1. Just a thought, you could get an auctioneer, possibly the house seller, to sell the whole lot (ho ho) on site.

          I wrote to a local man, he came round almost immediately, and we’ve been pushing stuff through, but he commented that they do do house sales as described
          .
          No reserve, unless it’s genuinely valuable and all the hassle vanishes, it’s the buyers responsibility to collect.

      1. Not yet, Bob. Fly over on 4th July, all assuming the bastard unions are done striking.
        The dealer sent photos of every bit she wants to buy, and asked for our asking price. How the eff should I know? Anyhow, SWMBO & Google have assisted, and we developed a list of what we’d think to pay from a shop, and discounted that so the dealer can get some markup.
        One or two surprisingly valuable pieces of furniture.

        1. Good luck with it all, Paul. Having been through something similar, it isn’t easy.

        2. You should email a link to the Matterport tour of your mother’s house to Sworders (sworder co uk) who have occasional 20th Century design auctions. Simply because some of the modern furniture might be better than you think. If the dealer won’t make an offer, he is trying it on.

        3. I am finding that Facebook Marketplace is a great start for pricing stuff we are getting rid of. Find a similar item, knock $25 off their price and hang on for the ride.

          We really will not need an electric fence in the condo, so making a few hundred dollars for something that we will never need is good enough.

    3. Been through that myself- it’s hard. Doubly hard when you live overseas.

    4. It is one of the saddest things to dispose of your parents’ life at the end. But it would be even sadder in a different way if someone totally unconnected with your family were doing this, with no attachment or memories connected to their possessions. In that moment of recollection the ‘scruffy chairs’ had their glory once again, and connected you to your father.

      1. I’d like to keep quite a bit of it, but we don’t have space, and the shipping cost is fierce.
        So, best it goes. As quickly as possible, please. Get it over with.

        1. I remember packing my mother’s favourite lead crystal rose bowl to bring back to the US, only to be stopped by Birmingham airport customs because it would not X-ray! I told them that I had just packed up my mother’s house and they obviously believed me as they offered commiserations and waved me through …that was in the days of common sense!!

    5. We ended up keeping very little from mothers or mother in laws places, just a few small keepsakes.

      Hardest part was all of the old photos with no descriptions. It might have been great grand parents, aunts, uncles or just family friends, but with no description who knew!

      1. Same here.
        The only person who knows has forgotten, in a haze of daftness.

    6. As I mentioned a while ago, Dr. Daughter & her boyfriend snapped up a property in need of some renovation up in Newcastle complete with contents and have been VERY respectful of the old man who used to live there.
      His old Freemason regalia and several other personal items were sent to the care-home he moved in to for him.

      The old man’s daughter apparently came up from Manchester, spent a couple of days sorting out what she wanted and then left everything else.

      What they have sold has gone towards the renovations.

  70. Bollocks!
    Read LotL’s tale of woe and was about to give encouraging response when Disqusting white paged me!

    Glad you got through it Ann, and you really ought to make a comment to the horsepiddle about the bitch!

    1. Have thought about it but am mellow now- pain minimal- wine maximal. I do wish I had got her name but was not really in a place to do so earlier.
      Thanks for your support Bob.

      1. Return to reception, smile sweetly, and say how pleased you were with what she personally and the hospital did for you, and ask whether she would mind if you mentioned her by name in your letter of thanks for all the hospital did.

        Then stab her in a letter of complaint

    2. That happens to me now & again, too.
      I find that if I scroll the white bit, text soon reappears.

      1. I have problems with scrolling up and being able to check what I have typed.
        It’s very annoying.

        1. I had that trouble this afternoon – I replied to Thayaric and my reply disappeared. I eventually found it again and it was unposted, so I had to press post again.

  71. OK Y’all, seeing as I have been up since 5.30 I am going to bed. Exhausted but pain is minimal thanks largely to Pinot- and some Vivaldi now in my ears.
    Yet again, I must thank you all for your continued support and lovely comments.
    I don’t agree with all your political views but I cannot fault your loyalty and friendship.
    XX

    2. I’m probably a bit late but sleep well. There’s nothing worse sleepless nights.

      1. Le Pen is left-wing.
        Another National Socialist.
        So, not difficult to be to the Right of her & her party.

        2. If you go far enough left you arrive at the extreme end of right wing. Euclid.

        3. The more government control you want the more on the left. The less government control you want ( more Freedom) the more to the right. I think Marine want more control not less, but we will have to see.

      2. Le Pen is left-wing.
        Another National Socialist.
        So, not difficult to be to the Right of her & her party.

    4. 5.30? That’s almost yesterday by my time.

      I haven’t read all of the way back through the comments yet I just hope that everything ended up being OK but I wouldn’t be surprised to find the bureaucrats made it hard for you once more. Are you sure that they don’t have you down as a disruptive influence?

    1. How the hell does a trailer come adrift like that?
      Also note the lack of insurance so I suspect the trailer hitch was not properly maintained.

      1. Don’t you also have to chain the trailer to the hitch in case the ball joint comes apart?

        Even my little 6 foot trailer needs safety chains from trailer to chassis. It would be sheer bloody incompetence to lose the trailer.

  74. Oh my, the idiots are at it again.

    Apparently some people don’t see warning notices on the packs because they don’t buy cigarettes, they just beg cigges from friends. The solution being proposed by the government is to have a health warning printed onto every cigarette or cigar sold in Canada.

    At least they will like it on the reserve, they will just continue selling plain cigarettes.

    1. That bitch needs placing in a dungeon for her own and other people’s (mainly children’s) safety.

      1. Exactly.
        As I said earlier, the documentary is very entertaining but it is hard to watch at the same time!

  77. 353340 + up ticks,

    Give me strength,

    Vacs scandal news, woman offered £120000 a price for the loss of a husband, not bad with me believing they started at a tenner

  78. Right, that’s me off to bed.
    A useful day putting the last bit of the plywood floor into the van. I plan boxing the wheel arches in tomorrow and getting some 4×2 to make a platform to sleep on.

    Good night all.

  79. DM Story

    X Factor star Tom Mann has revealed his fiancée Danielle Hampson died on Saturday – the morning of their wedding day. The singer, 28, shared a heartbreaking Instagram tribute on Monday as he revealed the love of his life and mother of his eighth-month-old son has passed away. The singer-songwriter – who found fame in the band Stereo Kicks – shared a photograph of Dani and their son Bowie as he revealed that he was feeling ‘completely broken’ but vowed to stay strong for the sake of their young son. Tom had just returned from a holiday with PR Executive Danielle, 34, in Sardinia last month. Danielle did not suffer from any known health problems and her cause of death is unknown. Tom auditioned for the X Factor as a solo artist but was put in Stereo Kicks, which made it to the final of X Factor in 2014.

    A tragic story. Her ‘vaccination’ status is not mentioned in the article but SADS (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome) is not at all rare nowadays amongst people who have been triple jabbed.

    1. I fear you might be correct. We are witnessing pure Evil at work. Jabbing six month old babies with experimental serums has to be the low point of this abominable saga to which we have been subjected over two or more years.

      I remain sympathetic and alarmed and have deep sympathy for those jabbed. The State coercion and ‘nudge’ unit behavioural scientist influence on government policy decisions must be closely examined.

      As for that fat Turk Johnson, I truly hope that he and his globalist comrades in Cabinet will shortly be brought to Justice.
      They are an evil globalist cabal, taking instructions from WEF and the bankers and corporatists owning it.

      As for the wretch Biden, Fataturk’s supposed ‘breath of fresh air’, a stinking piece of fetid stinking excrement, I expect the truly American people to bury that particular puppet come the mid-term elections. Let us hope that the senile bastard dies not commit us in the West to war in the meantimes.

  80. OT

    This morning at 10.00, my Lesser black-blacked gull, Morag – Larus fuscus – revealed a THIRD chick.

    Along came Hamish, the Dad; they appear to have a shift system – he does days.

    The senior chick – a mere 24 hours old – was not to be sat upon; he preferred to sit in the sun alongside his Dad.

    At 4.00 p.m., Morag appeared and the two made a fuss of the chicks.

    About 5.00 p.m., Morag returned for the night shift. All three chicks were happy to nuzzle under …

    Hamish and Morag are clearly distinguishable -they are caricatures of male and female.

  81. There are 32,000,000 cars in the UK.
    How many of these are electric?

    Just woke up and scanned FM.
    On 102 FM a Shell ad said a quarter of cars in UK were electric and that all Shell electricity was 100% green from the grid.

    Could either of these statements be remotely true?

    I reckon there are about one million cars that can plug into the grid.

    1. Aren’t all the buses nowadays electric? Perhaps they have counted the milk floats…

      No wonder the grid is under strain, even with one million (which I agree is a more realistic estimate). There is a great push, I have noticed, to try and normalise milk floats.

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