Monday 20 May: Cyclists must take more responsibility for keeping Britain’s roads safe

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

810 thoughts on “Monday 20 May: Cyclists must take more responsibility for keeping Britain’s roads safe”

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

    MEN TEACHING CLASSES FOR WOMEN AT
    THE ADULT LEARNING CENTRE
    >

    REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED
    By December 31st 2024

    NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL
    OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM.

    Class 1
    Up in Winter, Down in Summer – How to Adjust a Thermostat
    Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
    Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hrs beginning at 7:00 PM.

    Class 2
    Which Takes More Energy – Putting the Toilet Seat Down, or Bitching About It for 3 Hours?
    Round Table Discussion.
    Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.

    Class 3
    Is It Possible To Drive Past a Supermarket Without Stopping? –Group Debate.
    Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

    Class 4
    Fundamental Differences Between a Handbag and a Suitcase– Pictures and Explanatory Graphics.
    Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

    Class 5
    Curling Irons–Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Bathroom Cabinet?
    Examples on Video.
    Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning
    At 7:00 PM

    Class 6
    How to Ask Questions During Commercials and Be Quiet During the Programme
    Help Line Support and Support Groups.
    Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM

    Class 7
    Can a Bath Be Taken Without 14 Different Kinds of Soaps and Shampoos?
    Open Forum …
    Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.

    Class 8
    Health Watch–They Make Medicine for PMS – USE IT!
    Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

    Class 9
    I Was Wrong and He Was Right! –Real Life Testimonials.
    Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined.

    Class 10
    How to Parallel Park In Less Than 20 Minutes Without an Insurance Claim.
    Driving Simulations.
    4 weeks, Saturday’s noon, 2 hours.

    Class 11
    Learning to Live – How to Apply Brakes Without Throwing Passengers Through the Windscreen.
    Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

    Class 12
    How to Shop by Yourself.
    Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

    I’ll get me tin hat.

    2. Thanks to Labour’s new gender policy you will be able to change sex without your partner’s consent simply by going to see your GP – I think it’s still going to be difficult!

      1. Does it not occur to anyone that changing sex “without your partner’s consent” indicates that there is no deep “partnership” in the first place?

        1. Well it now does look as though you can hold both a marriage certificate and a gender certificate at the same time.

      2. Does it not occur to anyone that changing sex “without your partner’s consent” indicates that there is no deep “partnership” in the first place?

        1. GPs are not that interested in having the responsibility of determining a patient’s gender in order to issue a sextificate.

          1. Indeed I’m very sure that they aren’t. Although it’s coming up 20 years since I worked as a GP and a lot has changed, I cannot imagine that today’s GPs will be any keener than I would have been to rubber stamp this on demand or face a very unpleasant complaint.

    4. No lesson on how to tell left from right? Or is that a longer course?

    1. Reported every 15 minutes on BBC Radio 4. Beramy Jowen(sic), Chief Middle East reporter, says Israelis deny any involvement – but hints , wink, wink, they probably were.

  5. Good morning.
    I see a drone with a thermal imaging camera found the Iranian President’s helicopter from its heat signature.
    It’ll be even hotter where he and his murderous cronies are now.

      1. Given the terrain and fog, and Iranian maintenance. almost certainly an accident.

          3. It depends on how much clout the Iranian young have.
            As long as the old boys and the parents go along with the repression, the youngsters have a serious struggle ahead of them.

  7. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff for posting today’s NoTTLe page. Sadly, I was unable to complete today’s Wordle, even after 6 tries.

    1. Four here

      Wordle 1,066 4/6

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

    2. Moaning, Olaf’s Relict.
      I get really cross and decide I’m going sealion if I have a bad run with the DT cryptic.
      Last week my score was Monday and Tuesday – completed. Wednesday, Tuesday and Friday – absolutely pathetic. Saturday and Sunday – completed.
      I have no idea what drives the pattern; I used to think it was different compilers, but there is no consistency in that either. I blame sunspots/Thatcher/Brexit/white bread …………… mutter, mutter, mutter.

      1. I am working my way through the Ninth Daily Telegraph Puzzle Book which was first published in 1963 which I found amongst my odds and sods. The puzzles strike me as more difficult than today’s puzzles are.

        However this was a fairly straightforward clue in the one I did last night:

        It may be in the collar , a little way above the bow (6)

        Starch of course – but who starches their collars nowadays? When I was at school in the 1960s we had detachable collars which we changed every day and the school laundry washed and starched them.

          1. Imagine being the one who had to launder (wash, dry and iron) 5 shirts a week with a washboard and flat iron. No thanks.

          2. Imagine working under railway carriages and wearing the same overalls for a week!
            And the same work clothes underneath them!

      2. Must admit the recent ones have made me think more but I never fail to complete

    3. Took me 5.

      Wordle 1,066 5/6

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

  8. Russia-China ties are direct threat to democracy, warns Shapps. 20 May 2024.

    Deepening Russia-China ties are a direct threat to democracy, Grant Shapps has said in the first Government reaction to Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing this week.

    The Defence Secretary said that he was particularly concerned about plans to deepen security ties between Russia and China as the West struggles to arm Ukraine.

    The real danger to Democracy in the West are Shapps and his Pals.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/19/russia-china-ties-direct-threat-to-democracy-says-shapps/

  9. Good morning from Audrey and me.
    It was a good day yesterday on the beach looking for fossils, I found some Amber.
    Thing of me this evening and hope lots of people come to the villiage meeting this evening. The Lib Dems wish to build 3000 homes in Hammons Farm area, they wish to build a road and 3 gypsy parks – it’s the 3000 homes which are more homes then the combination of this small villiage and two neighbouring villiages. The Lib Dems say they’ll speak with us next Spring but I am sure there are large black pipes across one field. This area a place of outstanding natural beauty will be destroyed.

    1. Good morning.
      The LibDems are the ultimate political chameleons, saying one thing and doing the opposite.
      Even the Tories’ cannot compete on that.

      1. Good morning Nikephoros Phokas . The Lib Dems are worse then Labour, I’ve no idea what will occur here or when we have a Labour government from the autumn .

    2. I went to the beach yesterday as well since it was hot and sunny. I didn’t find any fossils because the only ones we have round here are to be found in the golf club on a Tuesday morning when the ‘coffin dodgers’ (as the last Pro used to term them) have a competition. I did see a black dog enjoying her morning swim though.😁

      1. Good morning Squire, I sent you something above about Harlech beach and Harlech Done and weather issues with Gods 🙂 I’m pleased it was hot . I’m pleased a Lab enjoyed a swim 😅

    1. Get yourself a robot hoover. They can even do the stairs (though ours can’t).

      2. Google bought a robot hoover company a few years ago.
        Google’s business is collecting information about people.
        Robot hoovers work by maintaining a map of your rooms. Over time, they can figure out where your furniture is and whether you’re messy or not, whether there’s a child in your household or not etc. If they’re controlled with an app, then all this data is being uploaded onto the servers of the robot hoover company.

        If you combine that with information deduced by 15 minute readings from your smartmeter, information uploaded from your internet-connected car about your reaction times etc, information about your internet shopping habits, tagged photos of you that you uploaded onto facebook etc, AI analysis of your web-based email, disqus and social media posts and anywhere else they can get information from…commercial databases know more about you than you know about yourself.

        Some people will say “they’ve won, what’s the point of resisting?” but I try to avoid information collection where I can. I will never have smart gadgets in the house, drive an older car, don’t have a smartphone (survived for years without one, why do I need one now?), keep internet shopping to the minimum, never upload photos to the internet, always use cash etc. Why just give them something as valuable and profitable to them as my data?

        1. We have a Dyson. I don’t think it maps the room as you describe it. It just bounces off things. I don’t, and wont, have a smart meter and though the car asks for internet connection, I always tell it to sod off.

          But you are right, the sinister Blob is collecting far too much info, and we need to stop it.

          1. It has to maintain an internal map of the room in order to know which parts it’s already covered – it can’t just randomly bounce off walls, that wouldn’t be efficient. I think they use GPS.

          2. It scans and maps the room as it works, but I doubt if it uses GPS. Some lawn mower robots do that, but a room is surely too small a space. As ours gets stuck in the same place, I don’t think it processes the scanning very deeply. We have had it five years though, so maybe the newer ones do.

          3. It must have some way of increasing its efficiency rather than just randomly bouncing off walls and starting fresh each time. GPS is accurate to about 10 cm on the former military channel I think.
            It would be insanely annoying to build one of these things…

      3. I have wondered about those.
        And the lawn mowers. Some years back there was a robot mower cutting the grass on the Mound in Edinburgh. It drew a larger crowd than the street performers.

        1. We also have a robot mower. Best buy I made in a long time. He’s now in his sixth season, and the lawn looks great.

        2. We also have a robot mower. Best buy I made in a long time. He’s now in his sixth season, and the lawn looks great.

      4. I have wondered about those.
        And the lawn mowers. Some years back there was a robot mower cutting the grass on the Mound in Edinburgh. It drew a larger crowd than the street performers.

  11. G7 leaders to discuss €30bn loan for Ukraine using Russian assets. 20 May 2024.

    Divisions over whether Ukraine can lawfully be handed an extra €30bn (£26bn) loan drawn from €270bn in seized Russian state assets are likely to be aired at a meeting of G7 finance ministers this week in Stresa, northern Italy.

    In another test of political will over Ukraine, the US has been canvassing support for the plan, with the money intended to help with Ukraine’s reconstruction or pay for badly needed arms.

    There is nothing legal about blatant theft. To some considerable extent this move exemplifies the moral collapse of the West. Our forefathers would never have dreamed of such an action. Even worse it shows an indifference to the effect it would have on future investors. Who is going to place their money where it might very well be siezed on some specious pretext?.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/20/g7-leaders-to-discuss-30bn-loan-for-ukraine-using-russian-assets

    1. Russia has stolen, not just frozen, vast quantities of Western assets in Russia.
      What’s sauce for the goose…

      1. These people have abandoned their assets under instructions from their governments. The Russian state has simply kept them alive.

          1. She is right. The US and it’s puppet vassal states imposed sanctions. Some companies legged it. Those that didn’t carry on trading normally, though some under changed names.

    3. Spot on AS. The West is shooting itself in the foot again, accelerating the move away from the dollar dominated economy that will seriously diminish US power.

      And those rattling the collection tins are utter fools, or worse. Much ‘aid’ stays in the West in the form of arms companies, and is in part a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the likes of Lockheed Martin. Much of the rest is stolen. Ukraine is one of the world’s most corrupt countries. A good example is the total absence of defenses around Kharkov, now under threat from Russia. They were supposed to be built. Billions were ‘spent’ on them, designed to defend Ukraine’s second biggest city. But they were not built, and the money is gone. Arms donated to Ukraine have turned up in African terrorist’s hands.

      The war is lost. Russia has won, and this terrible war – 500,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers – need to be stopped.

  13. Russia has been stealing Western assets there for years. Look at BP’s investments, the Sakhalin theft etc.

    1. The simple fact is that, under US pressure, BP abandoned its stake in oil giant Rosneft. BP had operated without problem for over three decades. The threat was from the US – pull out or face sanctions.

      1. Risible nonsense. BP’s JV partners with Kremlin collusion conspired to force BP to sell for a pittance.

        1. Fire sales usually do end up making a loss. But the root cause was US pressure.

          2. It’s more the reverse JD. With you, the West is always good, always right, and Russia and China evil, and always wrong. But the world is not like that. Your premise had a bit more validity up to the collapse of the USSR, but since then, especially since Clinton, the US has committed more outrages against humanity than any other country. And I say that as a bloke who likes the US, the culture and the people. It’s just their hideous ruling class that gets my goat.

          3. I believe in Western Christian civilisation, that it can recover as it has in the past.
            It is infinitely superior to the alternatives.
            You and others here are the sort of people who in the 1930s, despairing of the state of the West, were praising Hitler and Mussolini as offering a better way.
            We all know how that worked out.
            Your lack of faith has caused you to succumb to the Sin of despair.

          6. For a so-called Christian you seem remarkably keen to watch thousands die for you gratification.

            I get the impression Ukraine to you is what the circuses were to the Romans.
            The war could have been halted months ago, but for Johnson and his puppet masters.

          9. No. People like you blame the Ukrainians, the defenders, for not surrendering. Inverted logic of the worst kind. You and others then invent all sorts of rubbish to de-legitimise the Ukrainians’ right to resist invasion. You go one further by insulting and being personally aggressive to anybody who, being a decent human being, asserts the rights of the invaded to fight back. You are complicit in the evils of the Putin regime by doing so.

          10. I don’t deny the Ukrainian’s rights to defend themselves, I do deny their right to expunge the pro Russian population.
            You ignore all the history when it suits you and refuse to accept that perhaps, just perhaps, the Americans NATO and the EU are deliberately trying to hurt and provoke the Russians wherever and whenever they can.
            People like you, who are driving a great wedge between the “West” and a country and peoples who would be excellent allies in the eventual confrontation with militant Islam and an aggressive China are as much of or even a greater problem than Putin.

            The West is driving Russia eastwards.

          11. I don’t deny the Ukrainian’s rights to defend themselves, I do deny their right to expunge the pro Russian population.
            You ignore all the history when it suits you and refuse to accept that perhaps, just perhaps, the Americans NATO and the EU are deliberately trying to hurt and provoke the Russians wherever and whenever they can.
            People like you, who are driving a great wedge between the “West” and a country and peoples who would be excellent allies in the eventual confrontation with militant Islam and an aggressive China are as much of or even a greater problem than Putin.

            The West is driving Russia eastwards.

          12. Russia has it’s own Christian civilisation – these days more in tune with actual Christian values than our own feeble approximation of Christianity.
            And you are clutching at straws with your absurd assertion that I would have been praising Adolf and Musso. You see, while you have faith, something that can never be more than a belief, I have principles. And those principles are based on on historical fact, that the best form of human organisation is based on the primacy of the individual, free speech, liberty and the smallest State possible. None of these things were on offer from the socialist Hitler and Mussolini.

          13. The Putin regime doesn’t give a damn about any of those things. It’s a kleptocratic gangster state with no rule of law and its allies are the CCP, Mullahs and North Korea, not renowned for those things either. Putin’s regime wears Christianity like a cloak to hide its utterly unChristian nature.

          14. What you say about Putin has merit. But Putin’s regime is not the Russian Orthodox Church. To conflate the two is plain wrong. But Russia being a gangster state does not in any way alter the fact that Biden’s USA is also a gangster state, as is Zelenski’s Ukraine. The world of politics and human affairs is not the good v evil condition of your imagination. Simple observation is that Big Government always results in tyranny, whether in Russia, Britain, the US, China or anywhere else.

          15. The USA, while having corruption, at least has lawful changes of government via largely free elections. It’s a pluralistic society with a magnificent and upheld constitution founded in English Protestant notions of liberty.
            The upper reaches of the Orthodox church are effectively annexes of the state. Protestants, especially missionaries. are persecuted in Russia at the behest of the Orthodox church.

          16. The US has ‘lawful’ changes of government. So has Russia, in accordance with its own laws. And many dispute that the last change of government in the US was entirely lawful, and the next one, if it changes, could well be determined by lawfare. Maybe it’s escaped your notice that Christians are persecuted here, for praying in the streets – to complete silence, even acquiescence, from the Church hierarchy. Not a lot of difference is there?

            The fact is JD, that western governments are little or no better than Russia’s or China’s. There is little real choice and the main difference is that UK and US started from a different position, one of relative freedom and democracy, whereas neither Russia nor China has ever had either. The trajectory of the West however, is moving ever closer to the models prevalent in the USSR and Red China.

          17. The US has ‘lawful’ changes of government. So has Russia, in accordance with its own laws. And many dispute that the last change of government in the US was entirely lawful, and the next one, if it changes, could well be determined by lawfare. Maybe it’s escaped your notice that Christians are persecuted here, for praying in the streets – to complete silence, even acquiescence, from the Church hierarchy. Not a lot of difference is there?

            The fact is JD, that western governments are little or no better than Russia’s or China’s. There is little real choice and the main difference is that UK and US started from a different position, one of relative freedom and democracy, whereas neither Russia nor China has ever had either. The trajectory of the West however, is moving ever closer to the models prevalent in the USSR and Red China.

          18. The USA, while having corruption, at least has lawful changes of government via largely free elections. It’s a pluralistic society with a magnificent and upheld constitution founded in English Protestant notions of liberty.
            The upper reaches of the Orthodox church are effectively annexes of the state. Protestants, especially missionaries. are persecuted in Russia at the behest of the Orthodox church.

      2. Aren’t you starting up your own blogsite soon ? You can have lots of these type of chats there on your own site .

        2. Yes. It’s under construction, but more complex than I thought. My son is doing it for me, but he runs his own software company and does it in his spare time. Soon though, I think. Yes, I do plan something similar, but also article length stuff, from me and contributors.

  14. I was thinking the same actually. Your justification, even if it were true, is morally indefensible

        2. Dogs, especially Labradors are the most wonderful of creatures, I’d imagine most dogs don’t like Muzzies either. With the exception of Bully XL – a canine version of Muzzie savages who attack without exploding 😁

          1. When I meet a dog which snarls at mine I tend to ask its owner whether it is one of those Bully XL’s which I’ve read about. I do it with an innocent expression which is quite difficult to do if the dog in question is clearly a miniature Dachshund or similar.😂

          2. The answer to the enquiry would be that the miniature dachshund suffers from small dog syndrome.

          5. Whenever I see a miniature Dachshund, I whisper a sausage dog in a bread roll 😁

          6. Whenever I see a miniature Dachshund, I whisper a sausage dog in a bread roll 😁

    2. We spent some time in Turkey and found that Turks, who are mainly Muslims, are generally very fond of dogs. The chap who ran the grocery shop at the Marmaris marina had a very friendly, copper-coloured cocker spaniel to whom he was devoted. This dog was much liked by everyone.

      1. This seems to be more or less unique to Turks.
        In most of Islam dogs are cursed because the so called ‘prophet’ claimed the Angel Gabriel was prevented from giving him a prophecy by a dog blocking said celestial beings path.

  17. @squireweston:disqus. Good morning can you explain Harlech Dome to me at some point, it’s where you take the dog for morning walkies, so you’d know it, dig some fossils up for me please. Not very sunny where you are I’m afraid, lightening above Snowdon of which is a grumpy mountain today.. I’ll have another word with Helios .

    1. The Harlech Dome is the hinterland of high ground behind Harlech. I don’t take dog there very much because although the views are stunning every field has sheep. There is an old hillfort up there too which must have been very uncomfortable as it is covered in cloud much of the time. The Dome is, I believe, famed amongst geologists for being some of the oldest rock in the U.K. no fossils as it’s all granite or some such hard rock.

      1. I’ve heard of the dome, the hillfort sounds very interesting. Last year I climbed the sandy cliff to dig for things ( geologists, palaeontologist and gemologists are the expects at breaking up rocks with their axes) they are hugely clever but the geologists I know are a bit geeky but they are the most lovely down to earth people who aren’t lofty or make me feel silly. They have these trips to beaches and quarries but also meetings in a local hall with guest speakers . I couldn’t climb the cliff this year because it was crumbling too much, erosion has speeded up. Not out fault and we can’t do anything about it .
        I did find a piece of amber and the tiniest of sharks tooth and a piece of ancient rock that sparkled with the minerals it contained.

      2. I’ve heard of the dome, the hillfort sounds very interesting. Last year I climbed the sandy cliff to dig for things ( geologists, palaeontologist and gemologists are the expects at breaking up rocks with their axes) they are hugely clever but the geologists I know are a bit geeky but they are the most lovely down to earth people who aren’t lofty or make me feel silly. They have these trips to beaches and quarries but also meetings in a local hall with guest speakers . I couldn’t climb the cliff this year because it was crumbling too much, erosion has speeded up. Not out fault and we can’t do anything about it .
        I did find a piece of amber and the tiniest of sharks tooth and a piece of ancient rock that sparkled with the minerals it contained.

  18. Iran president search latest: Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister dead in helicopter crash; rescuers locate ‘completely burned’ wreckage

    [SKY 07.46]

  19. Good morning all.
    A dull but, with 9°C on the Yard Thermometer almost warm start today.
    No rain forecast, but the cloud is due to clear.

    So, accident? Or well done MOSSAD???

    1. Pretty good bagging a president and a foreign secretary in one pop. Not quite in the same league as when they brought down President Zia and a planeful of his military advisers, but then perhaps a silver medal if assassination were an olympic sport.

  21. Pandemic has cost Church of England 170,000 worshippers a week
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/20/pandemic-has-cost-church-of-england-170000-worshippers-a-we/

    BTL

    Hardly surprising when Archpillock Welby went away to his second home in France, closed the churches and abandoned his flock entirely.

    How such a very bad man is in that position defies belief – unless, of course, Cameron’s intention in appointing him in the first place was to destroy the Church of England.

    And now the vindictive and spiteful Cameron is doing his best to give Gibraltar away to Spain and the EU. The man is a traitor and should be incarcerated in a damp, rat-infested cell in the Tower of London to rot away for the rest of his life.

    1. Could you imagine the early Christians saying this is too difficult and hiding away? could you imagine the medieval churches turning away from lepers, victims of the plague, Spanish flu and other epidemics in more recent times. God is there when we’re at our most weakest but Welby closed all the churches. He could’ve stood up to the government or at least organised outside services ( during the warmer months). No he totally abandoned those who needed support. Many elderly people etc were totally lost without their churches and totally cut off from their fellow congregation.
      It was a wicked and cruel thing to close churches at the time people were brainwashed with fear and cut off from others.

      1. Quite. Did the churches close even during the Black Death? No, of course they didn’t.

      2. It was a massive evangelisation opportunity and Welby couldn’t allow that, but either neither were the RCC etc any better. I do know of small CoE churches that quietly kept going.

      3. It was a massive evangelisation opportunity and Welby couldn’t allow that, but either neither were the RCC etc any better. I do know of small CoE churches that quietly kept going.

      4. By showing some spine and compassion, Welby was hardly likely to suffer Becket’s fate, was he?

    3. Fortunately the Muslims insisted that their mosques be kept open, and the Government did not object.

      1. I wonder how many of them took the jabs ?
        That will never be made public buf interesting to find out.

      2. I wonder how many of them took the jabs ?
        That will never be made public buf interesting to find out.

        1. We certainly both noticed comments about that in the MSM at the time, so not kept too quiet.

          1. We must accept that Muslims are not expected to obey the same rules as the rest of us.

          2. Well I was certainly unaware of it until today. They were certainly in breach of numerous Covid restrictions for which the rest of us would have been fined. How do the police explain themselves?

          4. Well I was certainly unaware of it until today. They were certainly in breach of numerous Covid restrictions for which the rest of us would have been fined. How do the police explain themselves?

    4. Welby as I suspect many other self important brits did, probably had a jab of holy water.

    5. On a point of order – should that now be “Sir Archpillock” or “Archpillock Sir”??

    6. It wasn’t just Welby’s actions. Putting in incumbents that wreck the parish has played a large part.

  22. 387437+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 20 May: Cyclists must take more responsibility for keeping Britain’s roads safe

    In reality I cannot see how the bleeding hell
    cyclist can be made responsible for lorries pulling into lay-bys and illegally fly tipping
    a load of proven, homo sapien, dangerous waste.

    The road from dover to the terrorist hub (london) is in point of fact a successfully
    operating RESET / replacement highway of treachery that really has the current lab/lib/con coalition voter stamping their
    feet in mock anger, PRIOR to casting their supporting lab/lib/con coalition vote.

    I have yet to witness a cycling sheep but both elements seem to be carrying a great deal of blame for this daily shite-show we call a country.

  23. Good morning all and the 77th?

    The Sun is now breaking through the light overcast at McPhee Towers so it’ll be a nice day. Wind still North-East, 10℃ with a forecast of 20℃.

    Two letters on the state of the Conservative party:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03ea1d2683089f28197b49ac8ae3888ce08a84a0af864fcd3b5965e9b70a9994.png

    Well, Mike, I’m not sure they will find them uncomfortable bedfellows. They’re probably closet Marxists anyway. It’s the only plausible explanation for the mess.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24d1baa9f1efa054ab52edd3c1eba0657a58765665bccd388acf2aa339271370.png

    I’d like to propose a plughole with the dirty bath-water swirling down it.

    2. How about a plug hole with the clean water draining whilst filthy water is being poured in?

      1. A plug hole as we know it would not be large enough. Detritus would stop the flow.

    3. MPs should not be allowed just to ‘cross the floor’. There should be a by-election.
      They want everything their own way.
      The now much over used phrase ‘Workjng hard’ is a reflection on their own interests and not anything to do with the constituency they purport to represent.

      1. MPs have grown used to the electorate being of little consequence. They only have to worry once every five years nowadays and even then all you see is the periodic stampede across the floor by those with weak stomachs.

        Politics without consequences. What’s not to like if you’re an MP?

        1. What’s not to like if you’re an MP?

          Absolutely. Basically they are a waste of time money and space.

        2. Not just MPs. The Head of my children’s primary school was always saying how hard she worked, due to governmental requirements. So hard did she work she she had time to become a JP (and was subsequently absent during school time). Until the parents complained, and the newly-painted “JP” after her name on the school front notice board was taken off and she was around a little bit more.

          The woman was appalling, but but many of the teachers and many of the school governers were under her thumb. I saw several instances of mismanagement but could only object – nothing was done and she retired having just received a large pay increase a year before her retirement.

      2. I think it is OK to resign from the party on principle and sit as an independent if the party has abandoned its manifesto and the MP would still vote in line with what they were elected to do. Similarly, that should be the case if the MP has been deprived of the party whip (for reasons other than criminal activity or actively undermining the party manifesto line) because, otherwise, senior party members can get rid of people they don’t like/find inconvenient for a protracted period even if they actually were then to get re-elected at a by-election.
        Losing the whip and joining a new party as done by Lee Anderson and previously by Soubry, Wollaston etc probably needs consideration on an individual basis depending on why they left (take Luciana Berger for example – driven out of Labour by anti-semitism) and whether their new party is following the manifesto promises of the old party that they were elected for or not (especially when the old party has given up on them). In Anderson’s case I would say it was borderline acceptable whereas in `Soubry and Wollaston’s case it wasn’t, but I do accept I may be biased on this.
        Crossing the floor to join HM’s ‘loyal opposition’ as done by Shaun Woodward (married to a Sainsbury heiress but now reinvented as a gay lord), Poulter, Elphicke and whoever that other no-mark was, is a complete betrayal of the electorate and the action of opportunists and chancers.

    2. Looks like the tail section of a light aircraft
      In fact looking at photos of the Bell 212 this isn’t a part of one and military helicopters have camouflage paintwork

      1. The ridge line doesn’t look right – as if 2 photos have been joined

  25. Me too. If he is saying a ground to air missile was used that will become apparent in the study of the wreckage!

    1. I would have thought if a missile had been used the wreckage might have not been as compact.

  26. Sundry villains dead. Good news all round one would have thought, surely?

    1. Depends on who replaces them Squire, and what mileage the mullahs can make out of it, true or false.

      1. They will be replaced, sadly, by other Muslim villains, but at least that lot have had an unpleasant end and are now being viewed by Jehovah in one of his Old Testament moods.😂

        2. I shed no tears for them Squire, but if the mullahs can persuade the Iranian people, who I generally like, that it was the US who dunnit – true or false – then the effect could be to generate sympathy for the regime and outrage at the West, at a very unstable time an part of the world. These things don’t happen in a vacuum, and we need peace and stability more than anything else now.
          And the president who died was actually a moderate in Iranian government terms, and relatively rational, as shown by the spectacular but more or less harmless response to Israel taking out the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad.

          1. Hi Tom. It is likely that thick fog and dodgy aviation maintenance was the culprit in this case.

          2. I tend to agree Del. Keeping an open mind on’t, but you are probably right.

    1. Yes but someone must know TB how can something like this be shoved out of sight?

    2. Oh? I haven’t read about that…….let me take a wild guess…….ex-footballer arrested for rape?

      1. You expect it from footballers but this is a sports presenter. Raided his house at 4.am.

    3. And if it turns out to be false accusation?
      His/her life will be ruined.
      If guilty, they should have the book thrown at them, but if it is a malicious accusation they would be attacked constantly until acquitted and still there would be doubts.

        1. Never heard of him; but even I know there’s not a wendyball pundit called Tesco …..

    5. A certain sports personality suddenly doesn’t seem to be advertising crisps any more after decades.

  28. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not a bad start bright but not sunny yet.
    Cyclists won’t take responsibility for their practiced demeanours unless they are forced to take responsibility.
    Last night we started to watch the recording of the new series of Rebus we had looked forward to. We had to use subtitles because of the strong Scottish accents. But we were appalled by the disgusting language being used. Effing this and that and even the C word. Totally understand how people are in real life these days, but such an exhibition on our TV screens is not entertainment and absolutely unessesary. Deleted.

  29. Good morning, all. Another bright start and a nice day forecast but the northerly breeze will take the edge off of the temperature.

    Working my way through ‘X’ accounts I came across the following from Paul Weston. I’m not overly shocked by the revelations per se, as what has happened over the last few years could not have been accomplished without the connivance of a host of people across many specialisms.

    What does shock me are the paltry sums involved in many of the exposed instances. Doubtlessly there are some people who have made a lot of money out of the Plandemic, but a few thousand pounds here and there? I have to ask, was it worth it, really worth it to lose the trust of the people for no more than a mess of pottage?

    https://x.com/ABridgen/status/1791359243754303800

    1. What we really need now is someone of Andrew Brigdens character in the UK driving seat. That will get us to the destination we need to be. But probably will need more jail spaces.

      1. The government are considering releasing tens of thousands of prisoners to ease overcrowding and doing away completely with short prison sentences.
        What they should be doing is building more prisons.

        1. A huge excavation would be a better idea. It might get a bit smelly but…..

        2. Maybe a tidier and cheaper option is to do what Putin did – pick a fight with someone handy and not too powerful and not too weak, and then send them there as cannon fodder, with a promise of glory if they survive.

          The United States is showing promise – time to make amends for what mad George III lost from the Empire. Nice lot of armed rednecks out in the midwest who might be eager to play.

          1. TBF to GIII, he wasn’t mad at the time the uppity colonials chucked us out.
            His porphyria (?) clobbered him from the late 1780s onwards. There were spasmodic episodes before the illness closed in and made his final years so tragic.

    3. Helicopters do not have a great performance at altitude and with 9 on board, that’s quite a load. There have been a number of instances where pilots have unwisely pressed on in bad weather due to the status of the VIP on board and the pressure to get home. Wonder how the other 2 helios in the group returned.

      1. The Bell 212 doesn’t have a good safety record , over 400 accidents/639 fatalities

  34. Iron Age Wales, superb history, I love these type maps.

        1. I’m not quite sure when the Iron Age began here in the wilds of Snowdonia, but I’m prepared to guess that plenty of the locals grumbled that the new fangled iron stuff rusts quickly in our rainy climate, whereas the bronze just goes green.😁

          1. I’m sure you’re correct dear Squire, I might do some checks as experiments 😁

          2. What you say is the way to tell thr difference between Iron age and bronze age – an easy way to remember.

  35. All we are allowed to know is it’s someone who lives in a county south of London. From the way it’s expressed I’m reading that it might be a retired one and it’s to do with “historic” offences.

    1. The Manchester Evening News seemed to be the paper carrying the story with witness reports of the house raid.

      1. Just going from what I read in the Sun. Your guess as good as mine, but the Sun, even served up by AOL is a pretty dodgy source of anything at all, I might add.

      1. As in aliens from space, or some such? Yes, he did have a thing about them.

  36. Good morning everybody.

    Mountain-shallah. And the President was found to be in a poor state. (apostate, geddit)

    (There is a possibility that some of the other occupants were good and worthy people)

  38. It is so cold here I have just lit the stove. Brrr. Global boiling…!!

  39. Mornin!
    Wordle 1,066 4/6

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

    1. Sometimes they fall into place

      Wordle 1,066 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  40. If only. It is – allegedly – a dark person of colour – so, of course, it could be Garfield, as we all know he identifies as a black.

  42. It will be interesting to see which hard-line nutter replaces Raisi, and whether there will be a celebratory attack on Israel, either directly or by proxy, to show he means business as usual.

    1. There are plenty of them. Though this man was a vile butcher, the real villain is the one still at the top of the palm tree. Unless and until he is disposed of – nothing will change.

      1. I fear you’re right, but I’m hoping this might be the pebble that starts the landslide of regime change, but done by the Iranian people themselves, without help from outside.

  43. Every Monday I meet with a group of female friends in a London restaurant. We sit at a table near the window and discuss our lives.

    We have many things in common. We are all in our mid-50s and highly educated career women. But there is a vacuum in our lives. We are all single and childless.

    I increasingly feel, as do many of my intimates, that feminism has failed our generation. I grew up with its beliefs. No, strike that. I was force-fed them.

    By the age of 13, Christmas presents from my Women’s Lib aunt were books by Gloria Steinem and Simone de Beauvoir, considered the mother of modern feminism. (My aunt was one of those militants who had famously disrupted the 1970 Miss World contest).

    My peers and I watched Mary Poppins, idolising the determinedly single nanny (never noticing the occasional sadness behind her eyes), and sympathising with suffragette Mrs Banks, while wondering why she didn’t leave her dullard of a husband.

    The feminism I was spoon-fed in my youth made the error of telling members of my sex to behave and think like men, writes Petronella Wyatt
    The feminism I was spoon-fed in my youth made the error of telling members of my sex to behave and think like men, writes Petronella Wyatt
    Our heroine was Margaret Thatcher, who, though she would have denied it, was a feminist de facto. In one of those encounters that make life instructive, I met Lady Thatcher at my late father’s house (my father was the politician Woodrow Wyatt) when I was 15. She was our first woman prime minister and, after our introduction, she began to address me on the subject of life.

    The gist of her address would have been greeted with hosannas by every feminist of the age: in summation, a woman’s career superseded by far her relations with the opposite sex. (Her own union might well have been to a cipher as opposed to a husband. Indeed, when the Thatchers dined with us, Denis withdrew to the drawing room with the women).

    At my private school, St Paul’s, we children of Thatcher were similarly educated out of marriage and femininity.

    One of my unmarried school friends recalls: ‘My teachers made me feel as if marriage was shameful. My English mistress once teased me for looking at a bridal magazine, but then she was an arch feminist who demonised men.’

    We both recall being told that ‘Paulinas do not cook, they think’. This is all very well when you are young and aspire to greatness, but not all girls grow up to be executives or high court judges, something that feminism perilously forgot to tell us.

    Historically, the feminist argument had its points. In the old days, when members of my sex were bound first to their fathers and then to their husbands, they led unenviable lives. If a woman had a good education, however, she could make a comfortable living and remain independent of male approbation. When the desire for marriage and children overwhelmed her, she would almost certainly lose her job.

    The world has now changed in a way the early feminists would find incomprehensible. I sometimes think, and so do my friends, that the West has outgrown the feminist philosophy, and that it has become pernicious.

    Where, for instance, does it leave women like us, when we have reached our mid-50s, and find ourselves alone?
    One of the chief causes of unhappiness is the feeling that one is unloved, whereas companionship and the feeling of being loved promotes happiness more than anything else.

    One in ten British women in their 50s has never married and lives alone, which is neither pleasant nor healthy.

    My friend Sally, a lovely 55-year-old with eyes the colour of Eau de Nil, once said to me: ‘I constantly feel unwanted as a woman because feminism taught us that the traditional female was a stereotype invented by men to keep us down. Accordingly, I was anti-men to the point of driving them away. Now, I’m paying for this.’

    According to a recent study by an American medical institute, loneliness is the leading cause of depression among middle-aged females. I should know, as I recently fell prey to the unforgiving maw of mental illness.

    Many of my single friends suffer from depression, springing from a solitary existence that would be eschewed by a race of alley cats.

    Moreover, there are the economic factors involved. It is a truism that two incomes are better than one, and many of the unattached women I know work in low to middle-paid professions.

    A university professor chum bemoans ‘as a single woman, it has been increasingly difficult to pay the bills with no assistance from a partner. For every J K Rowling, there are millions of women who get by on a pittance.

    READ MORE: When America’s richest and most beautiful women trusted acid-penned Truman Capote with their most intimate secrets, he exposed every salacious detail. But PETRONELLA WYATT heard the stories first hand – so what really happened?
    ‘Feminism kept drumming into my head that financial independence was the ideal, but in practice it doesn’t happen unless you are managing a hedge fund or are able to write best-selling novels.’

    Equally depressingly, many single women feel they have failed at life. Far from empowering us, feminism has made us insecure. ‘My career has stalled, I’ve never married and I feel worthless as a person,’ observes my pretty 53-year-old friend Rachel.

    General self-confidence comes more than anything else from being accustomed to receiving love, particularly from the opposite sex. The woman with a husband and children accepts their affection as a law of nature, but it is of great importance to her mental health and success.

    Yet of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past, none is so derailed by feminism as the family. Many women with feminist ideals feel parenthood is a far heavier burden than their grandmothers did, due to long working hours and the vilification of the housewife. Is it any wonder that the birth rate has declined?

    Says another of my Monday group: ‘I was conditioned to have no encumbrances, particularly children. Or at least to wait until I was established in my career, but now I’m too old and that boat has sailed.’

    Recently, after my depression became debilitating, I had a 20-year-old student living in my home. After a week of acquaintanceship, it dawned on me that the notion of not marrying and giving birth before the age of 30 was anathema to her, and she rejected it completely.

    In short, she wanted to conduct her life like a woman.

    ‘Yes, I believe in women’s rights,’ she ruminated, ‘but I don’t believe in the militant feminism my mother grew up with. It went too far.’ Out of the mouths of babes.

    The feminism I was spoon-fed in my youth made the error of telling members of my sex to behave and think like men. This error was a grave one, and women like me are paying for it, like gamblers in a casino that has been fixed.

    It’s time for a cultural reset. It may be too late for me and my friends, but feminism should not be allowed to ruin the lives of future generations as well.

      1. Feminism was designed and manipulated as a tool to fracture and break society. It was never about women per se. Now that those aims have been achieved by the marxists and government (of whichever colour) women are dumped, the results just being seen in women’s sports. And they will continue to be dumped as islam rages through our society. ‘Feminism’ won ‘t stand a chance.

      2. I disagree that the article is nonsense; I could have written every word. The feminism of my youth strongly discouraged ‘settling down’ or ‘settling for’ marriage and children, and this applied particularly if one was intelligent.

        1. I don’t remember marriage and motherhood ever being mentioned at my all girls Oxbridge hothouse school. Being a housewife would have been regarded as failure, not a career.

          Then we all got such high qualifications that our families saw us, and we were encourage to see ourselves, as being worth far more than we really were. I married, but the price was being blamed by everyone for “throwing myself away” and becoming the family pariah. But I was out of my depth, away from my roots and only meeting shallow Oxford cissyboys.
          If one wants one’s daughters to marry well, sending them out into the world as high-achieving adventuresses may not be the best way of achieving that…

          1. Quite so.

            I am occasionally rather overwhelmed by the contrast with my contemporaries here in Argentina. Almost all of them, whether ‘career women’ or not, got married (or nearly 🤣), and had their children early in our terms of reference. They evidently see my singledom and childlessness as something to be pitied, rather than the accepted phenomenon that it is amongst my university-educated friends in the UK.

          3. Just checked the upticks here. There are four names (Belle, Ashes, Poppiesmum & i), yet only the number 2 showing next to the thumb. WTF?

          4. Just checked the upticks here. There are four names (Belle, Ashes, Poppiesmum & i), yet only the number 2 showing next to the thumb. WTF?

        2. If one was intelligent?

          Try telling that to the women who played huge roles in WW1 and WW2 .

          My mother was a Wren, and worked with aircraft and taxied the planes she repaired during the war (WW2, , then afterwards raised her family, and when overseas with my father , became a proof reader for a newspaper .

          Thank goodness I never eschewed so called feminist crazy ideas I always wanted to nurse , so I applied to the RN to be accepted as a student ( QARNN) nurse in the 1960’s, a real male world where we were accepted admired and loved .. (Having said that the selection process was arduous , but life then took on a different buzz)

          People like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susie_Orbach were from a different hippy style planet

          1. I am in no way dismissive of intelligence in women, nor of fhe undoubted achievements of previous generations! If I accidentally insinuated otherwise, I do apologise.

            I am speaking of a particular time. Were you to have evinced a desire to become a nurse then, I can assure you that, given your obvious intelligence, you would have been *strongly* pushed towards becoming a doctor instead. I am *not* saying I agree with this; the point of the article is that my generation has not experienced these changes as an unalloyed good.

          2. Ashes , in those days , blue stocking women were rare , as were women who wanted to become doctors .

            https://50yearsago.today/about/encyclopedia-1960s-university-students/

            My Moh was raised in a working class family , but he worked hard , achieved good GCE grades , O and A level .
            His father wanted him to leave school and get a job , his mother and Uncle encouraged him to sort out a career . Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth accepted him for officer training , and then a few years later for flying training !

            He was one of two pupils in his school class at Grammar School to be accepted into the services .

            No one else went to university , despite good grades , they all had apprenticeships or similar .

            The girls went to work in Banks and building societies , secretaries and teacher training colleges, hairdressing etc.

          3. Your OH (and good for him!) demonstrates why it was a good thing to challenge the assumption that working-claas people did not have the intelligence and personal qualities necessary to succeed. The problem came when it was assumed that *everyone* could do so, not just those suited to it, class notwithstanding.

            I personally still stand by the basic principle of feminism (call it what you will) as I understood it; if a woman excels in a particular discipline, she should not be denied the opportunity to pursue it, even if it is overwhelmingly a male pursuit. The problem came when it was assumed that *all* women really wanted to go into pursuits which are mostly naturally dominated by men.

            It seems to me that what has gone wrong is the loss of nuance; maybe this is the result of giving more weight to the collective than to the individual?

            Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. 🙂

      3. I disagree that the article is nonsense; I could have written every word. The feminism of my youth strongly discouraged ‘settling down’ or ‘settling for’ marriage and children, and this applied particularly if one was intelligent.

    3. Feminism was the Wooden Horse that enabled the victory of Cultural Marxism.

    5. “One in ten British women in their 50s has never married and lives alone”
      That’s a terribly sad statistic, and I wonder why. Feminism – really?
      My oldest friend, Jo, is 58, single, has barely had a boyfriend worthy of the name, has never married, and lives alone with too many big dogs. She’s intellingent, runs her own business, is good-looking (keeps fit walking all those blessed dogs), owns her own house, and you’d a thunk that she’d be a man-magnet. But – she drives them away. Don’t know why. I feel for her, because she’s lonely – I go and visit her when I can, but that’s not so often. And I don’t visit her bed.

      1. People have to be happy with themselves and make their own life choices, life is too short for regrets. Maybe your friend is a solitary person who enjoys life and her dogs. Not everyone needs human companionship and those who do will think she’s unhappy.
        She may also be settled in her own life and is content.
        Maybe whatever man wants her to adapt her life, it doesn’t make her a femininst with a bee in her bonnet, she may be very feminine and enjoys the company of men but ultimately she might prefer the company of her dogs and be happy living on her own .

      2. I think many people get too set in their ways by mid life to be able to settle down successfully with another. It’s not just women.

        1. I think some people are born a certain way, I am naturally solitary some can adapt life and settle down but would’ve been more then suited to a singular life with animals and wild spaces.

          1. Some for sure, but others are as I say and become under to happily make the compromises required for a successful marriage. As our society becomes more narcissistic so do the rates of relationship breakdown.

          2. I’m speaking of people like Obers friend whose already made the alternative life choice and never been married, Obers friend Jo,
            she’s not narcissistic. Others might think her selfish, Obers himself feels sorry for her. But she herself sounds quite content with her choices and is happy

          5. Just occasionally a shaft of loneliness bursts through. The last one was when she lamented that there’s nobody to care for her when she’s ill.

          6. Yes I do understand but maybe she hasnt a siblings, or parents nearby, mainly siblings .

      3. A woman of that age could still get sex if she wanted it. Plenty of young men fancy older women.

      4. My younger sister lives in Cape Town , she is clever , has worked for top CEO’s, owns her own house , now in her seventies , is an excellent auntie friend to many , lover to a few , has many hobbies , red haired and lovely when she was younger , men love her , she is too clever for most men , they feel intimidated , has had many boyfriends , but grows bored . She has lots of hobbies , politics , teaching African children to read and belongs to a U3a group of equally lively minds .

    6. “One in ten British women in their 50s has never married and lives alone”
      That’s a terribly sad statistic, and I wonder why. Feminism – really?
      My oldest friend, Jo, is 58, single, has barely had a boyfriend worthy of the name, has never married, and lives alone with too many big dogs. She’s intellingent, runs her own business, is good-looking (keeps fit walking all those blessed dogs), owns her own house, and you’d a thunk that she’d be a man-magnet. But – she drives them away. Don’t know why. I feel for her, because she’s lonely – I go and visit her when I can, but that’s not so often. And I don’t visit her bed.

      3. Very sorry. I was interrupted several times and the article was difficult to copy due to a paywall and several photographs. Very sorry for such a messy script.

        2. No worries… SWMBO often tells me she needs to say everything four times before I “get it”!

        3. No worries. Wondered if I needed told several times due to poor attention span or something.

    8. Now that feminism has served its initial family breaking purpose women will enjoy LGBTQ+; also designed to destroy the family and to break down Western society. You will observe that the Islamic and sub Saharan African worlds are having none of it.
      The global minority may be in its death throws as we live.

    12. FFS, was she not taught to think for herself? Why is it, whatever their lifestyle choice, people feel the need to bleat ‘woe is me’ – so and so taught me to be like this (and I had nothing to do with it, I always do as I’m told).

  44. Petronella Wyatt writing in the Daily Mail One of the chief causes of unhappiness is the feeling that one is unloved, whereas companionship and the feeling of being loved promotes happiness more than anything else.

    One in ten British women in their 50s has never married and lives alone, which is neither pleasant nor healthy.

    My friend Sally, a lovely 55-year-old with eyes the colour of Eau de Nil, once said to me: ‘I constantly feel unwanted as a woman because feminism taught us that the traditional female was a stereotype invented by men to keep us down. Accordingly, I was anti-men to the point of driving them away. Now, I’m paying for this.’

    According to a recent study by an American medical institute, loneliness is the leading cause of depression among middle-aged females. I should know, as I recently fell prey to the unforgiving maw of mental illness.

    Many of my single friends suffer from depression, springing from a solitary existence that would be eschewed by a race of alley cats.

    Moreover, there are the economic factors involved. It is a truism that two incomes are better than one, and many of the unattached women I know work in low to middle-paid professions.

    A university professor chum bemoans ‘as a single woman, it has been increasingly difficult to pay the bills with no assistance from a partner. For every J K Rowling, there are millions of women who get by on a pittance.

    READ MORE: When America’s richest and most beautiful women trusted acid-penned Truman Capote with their most intimate secrets, he exposed every salacious detail. But PETRONELLA WYATT heard the stories first hand – so what really happened?
    ‘Feminism kept drumming into my head that financial independence was the ideal, but in practice it doesn’t happen unless you are managing a hedge fund or are able to write best-selling novels.’

    Equally depressingly, many single women feel they have failed at life. Far from empowering us, feminism has made us insecure. ‘My career has stalled, I’ve never married and I feel worthless as a person,’ observes my pretty 53-year-old friend Rachel.

    General self-confidence comes more than anything else from being accustomed to receiving love, particularly from the opposite sex. The woman with a husband and children accepts their affection as a law of nature, but it is of great importance to her mental health and success.

    Yet of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past, none is so derailed by feminism as the family. Many women with feminist ideals feel parenthood is a far heavier burden than their grandmothers did, due to long working hours and the vilification of the housewife. Is it any wonder that the birth rate has declined?

    Says another of my Monday group: ‘I was conditioned to have no encumbrances, particularly children. Or at least to wait until I was established in my career, but now I’m too old and that boat has sailed.’

    Recently, after my depression became debilitating, I had a 20-year-old student living in my home. After a week of acquaintanceship, it dawned on me that the notion of not marrying and giving birth before the age of 30 was anathema to her, and she rejected it completely.

    In short, she wanted to conduct her life like a woman.

    ‘Yes, I believe in women’s rights,’ she ruminated, ‘but I don’t believe in the militant feminism my mother grew up with. It went too far.’ Out of the mouths of babes.

    The feminism I was spoon-fed in my youth made the error of telling members of my sex to behave and think like men. This error was a grave one, and women like me are paying for it, like gamblers in a casino that has been fixed.

    It’s time for a cultural reset. It may be too late for me and my friends, but feminism should not be allowed to ruin the lives of future generations as well.

    One of the chief causes of unhappiness is the feeling that one is unloved, whereas companionship and the feeling of being loved promotes happiness more than anything else.

    One in ten British women in their 50s has never married and lives alone, which is neither pleasant nor healthy.

    My friend Sally, a lovely 55-year-old with eyes the colour of Eau de Nil, once said to me: ‘I constantly feel unwanted as a woman because feminism taught us that the traditional female was a stereotype invented by men to keep us down. Accordingly, I was anti-men to the point of driving them away. Now, I’m paying for this.’

    According to a recent study by an American medical institute, loneliness is the leading cause of depression among middle-aged females. I should know, as I recently fell prey to the unforgiving maw of mental illness.

    Many of my single friends suffer from depression, springing from a solitary existence that would be eschewed by a race of alley cats.

    Moreover, there are the economic factors involved. It is a truism that two incomes are better than one, and many of the unattached women I know work in low to middle-paid professions.

    A university professor chum bemoans ‘as a single woman, it has been increasingly difficult to pay the bills with no assistance from a partner. For every J K Rowling, there are millions of women who get by on a pittance.

    READ MORE: When America’s richest and most beautiful women trusted acid-penned Truman Capote with their most intimate secrets, he exposed every salacious detail. But PETRONELLA WYATT heard the stories first hand – so what really happened?
    ‘Feminism kept drumming into my head that financial independence was the ideal, but in practice it doesn’t happen unless you are managing a hedge fund or are able to write best-selling novels.’

    Equally depressingly, many single women feel they have failed at life. Far from empowering us, feminism has made us insecure. ‘My career has stalled, I’ve never married and I feel worthless as a person,’ observes my pretty 53-year-old friend Rachel.

    General self-confidence comes more than anything else from being accustomed to receiving love, particularly from the opposite sex. The woman with a husband and children accepts their affection as a law of nature, but it is of great importance to her mental health and success.

    Yet of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past, none is so derailed by feminism as the family. Many women with feminist ideals feel parenthood is a far heavier burden than their grandmothers did, due to long working hours and the vilification of the housewife. Is it any wonder that the birth rate has declined?

    Says another of my Monday group: ‘I was conditioned to have no encumbrances, particularly children. Or at least to wait until I was established in my career, but now I’m too old and that boat has sailed.’

    Recently, after my depression became debilitating, I had a 20-year-old student living in my home. After a week of acquaintanceship, it dawned on me that the notion of not marrying and giving birth before the age of 30 was anathema to her, and she rejected it completely.

    In short, she wanted to conduct her life like a woman.

    ‘Yes, I believe in women’s rights,’ she ruminated, ‘but I don’t believe in the militant feminism my mother grew up with. It went too far.’ Out of the mouths of babes.

    The feminism I was spoon-fed in my youth made the error of telling members of my sex to behave and think like men. This error was a grave one, and women like me are paying for it, like gamblers in a casino that has been fixed.

    It’s time for a cultural reset. It may be too late for me and my friends, but feminism should not be allowed to ruin the lives of future generations as well.

    One of the chief causes of unhappiness is the feeling that one is unloved, whereas

    READ MORE: When America’s richest and most beautiful women trusted acid-penned Truman Capote with their most intimate secrets, he exposed every salacious detail. But PETRONELLA WYATT heard the stories first hand – so what really happened?
    ‘Feminism kept drumming into my head that financial independence was the ideal, but in practice it doesn’t happen unless you are managing a hedge fund or are able to write best-selling novels.’

    One of the chief causes of unhappiness is the feeling that one is unloved, whereas companthe feeling of being loved promotes happiness more than anything else.

    One in ten British women in their 50s has never married and lives alone, which is neither pleasant nor healthy.

    My friend Sally, a lovely 55-year-old with eyes the colour of Eau de Nil, once said to me: ‘I constantly feel unwanted as a woman because feminism taught us that the traditional female was a stereotype invented by men to keep us down. Accordingly, I was anti-men to the point of driving them away. Now, I’m paying for this.’

    According to a recent study by an American medical institute, loneliness is the leading cause of depression among middle-aged females. I should know, as I recently fell prey to the unforgiving maw of mental illness.

    Many of my single friends suffer from depression, springing from a solitary existence that would be eschewed by a race of alley cats.

    Moreover, there are the economic factors involved. It is a truism that two incomes are better than one, and many of the unattached women I know work in low to middle-paid professions.

    A university professor chum bemoans ‘as a single woman, it has been increasingly difficult to pay the bills with no assistance from a partner. For every J K Rowling, there are millions of women who get by on a pittance.

    READ MORE: When America’s richest and most beautiful women trusted acid-penned Truman Capote with their most intimate secrets, he exposed every salacious detail. But PETRONELLA WYATT heard the stories first hand – so what really happened?
    ‘Feminism kept drumming into my head that financial independence was the ideal, but in practice it doesn’t happen unless you are managing a hedge fund or are able to write best-selling novels.’

    Equally depressingly, many single women feel they have failed at life. Far from empowering us, feminism has made us insecure. ‘My career has stalled, I’ve never married and I feel worthless as a person,’ observes my pretty 53-year-old friend Rachel.

    General self-confidence comes more than anything else from being accustomed to receiving love, particularly from the opposite sex. The woman with a husband and children accepts their affection as a law of nature, but it is of great importance to her mental health and success.

    Yet of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past, none is so derailed by feminism as the family. Many women with feminist ideals feel parenthood is a far heavier burden than their grandmothers did, due to long working hours and the vilification of the housewife. Is it any wonder that the birth rate has declined?

    Says another of my Monday group: ‘I was conditioned to have no encumbrances, particularly children. Or at least to wait until I was established in my career, but now I’m too old and that boat has sailed.’

    Recently, after my depression became debilitating, I had a 20-year-old student living in my home. After a week of acquaintanceship, it dawned on me that the notion of not marrying and giving birth before the age of 30 was anathema to her, and she rejected it completely.

    In short, she wanted to conduct her life like a woman.

    ‘Yes, I believe in women’s rights,’ she ruminated, ‘but I don’t believe in the militant feminism my mother grew up with. It went too far.’ Out of the mouths of babes.

    The feminism I was spoon-fed in my youth made the error of telling members of my sex to behave and think like men. This error was a grave one, and women like me are paying for it, like gamblers in a casino that has been fixed.

    It’s time for a cultural reset. It may be too late for me and my friends, but feminism should not be allowed to ruin the lives of future generations as well.

    Every Monday I meet with a group of female friends in a London restaurant. We sit at a table near the window and discuss our lives.

    We have many things in common. We are all in our mid-50s and highly educated career women. But there is a vacuum in our lives. We are all single and childless.

    I increasingly feel, as do many of my intimates, that feminism has failed our generation. I grew up with its beliefs. No, strike that. I was force-fed them.

    By the age of 13, Christmas presents from my Women’s Lib aunt were books by Gloria Steinem and Simone de Beauvoir, considered the mother of modern feminism. (My aunt was one of those militants who had famously disrupted the 1970 Miss World contest).

    My peers and I watched Mary Poppins, idolising the determinedly single nanny (never noticing the occasional sadness behind her eyes), and sympathising with suffragette Mrs Banks, while wondering why she didn’t leave her dullard of a husband.
    Our heroine was Margaret Thatcher, who, though she would have denied it, was a feminist de facto. In one of those encounters that make life instructive, I met Lady Thatcher at my late father’s house (my father was the politician Woodrow Wyatt) when I was 15. She was our first woman prime minister and, after our introduction, she began to address me on the subject of life.

    The gist of her address would have been greeted with hosannas by every feminist of the age: in summation, a woman’s career superseded by far her relations with the opposite sex. (Her own union might well have been to a cipher as opposed to a husband. Indeed, when the Thatchers dined with us, Denis withdrew to the drawing room with the women).

    At my private school, St Paul’s, we children of Thatcher were similarly educated out of marriage and femininity.

    One of my unmarried school friends recalls: ‘My teachers made me feel as if marriage was shameful. My English mistress once teased me for looking at a bridal magazine, but then she was an arch feminist who demonised men.’

    We both recall being told that ‘Paulinas do not cook, they think’. This is all very well when you are young and aspire to greatness, but not all girls grow up to be executives or high court judges, something that feminism perilously forgot to tell us.

    Historically, the feminist argument had its points. In the old days, when members of my sex were bound first to their fathers and then to their husbands, they led unenviable lives. If a woman had a good education, however, she could make a comfortable living and remain independent of male approbation. When the desire for marriage and children overwhelmed her, she would almost certainly lose her job.

    The world has now changed in a way the early feminists would find incomprehensible. I sometimes think, and so do my friends, that the West has outgrown the feminist philosophy, and that it has become pernicious.

    Where, for instance, does it leave women like us, when we have reached our mid-50s, and find ourselves alone?
    One of the chief causes of unhappiness is the feeling that one is unloved, whereas companionship and the feeling of being loved promotes happiness more than anything else.

    One in ten British women in their 50s has never married and lives alone, which is neither pleasant nor healthy.

    My friend Sally, a lovely 55-year-old with eyes the colour of Eau de Nil, once said to me: ‘I constantly feel unwanted as a woman because feminism taught us that the traditional female was a stereotype invented by men to keep us down. Accordingly, I was anti-men to the point of driving them away. Now, I’m paying for this.’

    According to a recent study by an American medical institute, loneliness is the leading cause of depression among middle-aged females. I should know, as I recently fell prey to the unforgiving maw of mental illness.

    Many of my single friends suffer from depression, springing from a solitary existence that would be eschewed by a race of alley cats.

    Moreover, there are the economic factors involved. It is a truism that two incomes are better than one, and many of the unattached women I know work in low to middle-paid professions.

    A university professor chum bemoans ‘as a single woman, it haso been increasingly difficult to pay the bills with no assistance from a partner. For every J K Rowling, there are millions of women who get by on a pittance.

    READ MORE: When America’s richest and most beautiful women trusted acid-penned Truman Capote with their most intimate secrets, he exposed every salacious detail. But PETRONELLA WYATT heard the stories first hand – so what really happened?
    ‘Feminism kept drumming into my head that financial independence was the ideal, but in practice it doesn’t happen unless you are managing a hedge fund or are able to write best-selling novels.’

    Equally depressingly, many single women feel they have failed at life. Far from empowering us, feminism has made us insecure. ‘My career has stalled, I’ve never married and I feel worthless as a person,’ observes my pretty 53-year-old friend Rachel.

    General self-confidence comes more than anything else from being accustomed to receiving love, particularly from the opposite sex. The woman with a husband and children accepts their affection as a law of nature, but it is of great importance to her mental health and success.

    Yet of all the institutions that have come down to us from the past, none is so derailed by feminism as the family. Many women with feminist ideals feel parenthood is a far heavier burden than their grandmothers did, due to long working hours and the vilification of the housewife. Is it any wonder that the birth rate has declined?

    Says another of my Monday group: ‘I was conditioned to have no encumbrances, particularly children. Or at least to wait until I was established in my career, but now I’m too old and that boat has sailed.’

    Recently, after my depression became debilitating, I had a 20-year-old student living in my home. After a week of acquaintanceship, it dawned on me that the notion of not marrying and giving birth before the age of 30 was anathema to her, and she rejected it completely.

    In short, she wanted to conduct her life like a woman.

    ‘Yes, I believe in women’s rights,’ she ruminated, ‘but I don’t believe in the militant feminism my mother grew up with. It went too far.’ Out of the mouths of babes.

    The feminism I was spoon-fed in my youth made the error of telling members of my sex to behave and think like men. This error was a grave one, and women like me are paying for it, like gamblers in a casino that has been fixed.

    It’s time for a cultural reset. It may be too late for me and my friends, but feminism should not be allowed to ruin the lives of future generations as well.

  45. I feel so sorry for that guy. I can’t think of or remember anything he’s actually done wrong.

    1. He leaked secret documents/emails and thus broke their laws.

      The fact that he exposed the corruption is relevant to them, in that it showed them up for the evil bastards that they are. They want revenge not justice.

    1. That’s going to upset the racing industry (Qatar Racing is run by one of the al-Thanis, a Fahad, but could be a different bin name).

      5. I saw a great version of Rhapsody in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw by the NL jazz orchestra about 7 years ago.

    1. And they wonder why and how this country is in such a serious and ongoing mess.
      Including human waste disposal in our rivers and on sea shores.
      How stupid are all of our politicians and those in Whitehall.

    1. The song of Poor Jean

      He was drinking with barons
      He boogied in the living rooms
      And licked all the tafias
      But don’t forget
      Nothing beats a beautiful girl
      Who shares your stew
      Without love we are nothing at all
      (We are nothing at all)

      1. Goualante is French slang for ‘Popular song’ often sad or sentimental. The word ‘People is a mistranslation of ‘Gen’ Jean. The full title should be ‘Poor John’s Sentimental Song’. In this case it could mean ‘Poor John’s sentimental/drunken Song’.

  54. Modern monster bikes can reach speeds of over 50 miles per hour. They should not be allowed on pedestrianized areas; also, shared highways (pedestrian based) should not even exist. I read the other day that many cyclists have apps which designate certain public areas as racing venues where the apps record personal bests. Regents Park is one such designated area – which is where one pedestrian was recently killed. Unless you have the app you do not know where these places are. You are literally wandering onto some lycra-thug’s personal velodrome. Goodness help small children, the disabled or old-frail people in particular. As cycling is increasingly promoted, there should be far more regulations to deal with them – which takes into account modern technology and their increasing prevalence.

    1. These cyclists can afford to pay £thousands for bikes and equipment, so they can afford to buy time on tracks and velodromes.
      They’re not old Percy the pensioner wobbling along to his allotment.

    2. There’s an argument certainly that bikes being used for racing should carry insurance. You couldn’t get away with racing a car without it.

      1. In the Spanish city where I live cyclists ( and scooters) are going to be obliged to carry accident insurance.

        1. It’s a good move. I’m reluctant in principle, but I’m afraid these people are an accident waiting to happen.

    3. Cyclists on main roads should get out of the way or get squished. 🙂
      The time has come for such bikes to have registration and insurance before being allowed on the raod.

    4. A kitchen knife in the right hands chops onions; in the wrong hands it is a lethal weapon.

      Does not the bicycle depend somewhat on the mentality of the one using it?

    5. Reg Harris was stopped when doing 50 mph in a BUA. That was in the 1950s! Nowt the plod could do, of course… Except ask for his autograph.

  55. Modern monster bikes can reach speeds of over 50 miles per hour. They should not be allowed on pedestrianized areas; also, shared highways (pedestrian based) should not even exist. I read the other day that many cyclists have apps which designate certain public areas as racing venues where the apps record personal bests. Regents Park is one such designated area – which is where one pedestrian was recently killed. Unless you have the app you do not know where these places are. You are literally wandering onto some lycra-thug’s personal velodrome. Goodness help small children, the disabled or old-frail people in particular. As cycling is increasingly promoted, there should be far more regulations to deal with them – which takes into account modern technology and their increasing prevalence.

      1. Such modes of transport always remind me of Prince Harry and how he met his wife………..by helicopter.

      2. Such modes of transport always remind me of Prince Harry and how he met his wife………..by helicopter.

  57. “While the car involved is reported to have been a petrol motor, earlier this month Porsche’s leading electric car, the Taycan from 2019-23, was recalled by Australia’s federal transport department over a risk of short circuits in the battery that could trigger fires.

    Documented Porsche fires are rare but a lawsuit has been filed in Germany by the Japanese shipping firm Mitsui OSK Lines, seeking £25.7 million in damages from Porsche, claiming that its Felicity Ace vessel burnt down in February 2022 because of an electric vehicle battery in one of its cars. Porsche has not commented.

    Last September, a £200,000 Porsche Taycan was reported to have burst into flames in the middle of a busy street at rush hour in Chongqing, southwestern China.”

    And people wonder why insurance costs are rising…

  58. “While the car involved is reported to have been a petrol motor, earlier this month Porsche’s leading electric car, the Taycan from 2019-23, was recalled by Australia’s federal transport department over a risk of short circuits in the battery that could trigger fires.

    Documented Porsche fires are rare but a lawsuit has been filed in Germany by the Japanese shipping firm Mitsui OSK Lines, seeking £25.7 million in damages from Porsche, claiming that its Felicity Ace vessel burnt down in February 2022 because of an electric vehicle battery in one of its cars. Porsche has not commented.

    Last September, a £200,000 Porsche Taycan was reported to have burst into flames in the middle of a busy street at rush hour in Chongqing, southwestern China.”

    And people wonder why insurance costs are rising…

  59. That would penalise the decent respectful folk whilst doing little to prevent the louts working the system. All registration and insurance does is to give more bonus to bureaucrats and corporate directors on the scam.

    Formula 1 cars are not allowed on the road, why should racing bikes?

    Alternatively (and yet another instance of me being ritually ignored by my betters), a mounted bike is a vehicle and should observe the rules applying to vehicles whenever both feet are off the ground. A dismounted bike is a pedestrian and should observe the rules equivalent to someone pushing a pram.

    I doubt dismounted bikes are capable of speeds of 50mph, although I would like to see one try.

    1. When I said ‘such bikes’ I meant racing bikes. Sorry if not clear. Driving to work this morning behind two lorries on a country A road with poor visibility, the traffic was slowed down to 30mph by a racing biker panting his way up various hills and unable to overtake.

    2. When I said ‘such bikes’ I meant racing bikes. Sorry if not clear. Driving to work this morning behind two lorries on a country A road with poor visibility, the traffic was slowed down to 30mph by a racing biker panting his way up various hills and unable to overtake.

  60. Who would have ever thought this?

    “Paula Vennells was close to Dido Harding, chair of NHS Improvement and part of the original advisory panel assessing which candidates had the required experience and the leadership quality to take on the role, the London hospital trust revealed in response to an FOI request.”

    These ghastly people are all of a kind, n’est-ce pas?

    1. Paula Anne Vennells is a British businesswoman who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019. She is also an Anglican priest.
      Vennells was the CEO of Post Office Ltd during part of the British Post Office scandal, in which more than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of theft, false accounting and fraud.

      Diana Mary “Dido” Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe is a British businesswoman and life peer who served as chair of NHS Improvement from 2017 to 2021 and as interim chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency and head of NHS Test and Trace from 2020 to 2021.
      She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to resign after a cyber attack revealed the details of up to four million customers. The company was subsequently fined £400,000.
      .A member of the Conservative Party, she is married to John Penrose, a Conservative MP, and is a friend of former Prime Minister David Cameron. Harding was appointed as a member of the House of Lords by Cameron.

      Cronyism at its best!

      1. Aren’t these incompetent people paid eye-watering sums and unjustifiable expenses while they mismanage large public bodies? The scale of the damage they do is incredible. Most of them, when ‘found out’, seem to walk into the next similar role on the merry-go-round. Absolutely no consequences for their misdeeds.

    2. Paula Anne Vennells is a British businesswoman who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019. She is also an Anglican priest.
      Vennells was the CEO of Post Office Ltd during part of the British Post Office scandal, in which more than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of theft, false accounting and fraud.

      Diana Mary “Dido” Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe is a British businesswoman and life peer who served as chair of NHS Improvement from 2017 to 2021 and as interim chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency and head of NHS Test and Trace from 2020 to 2021.
      She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to resign after a cyber attack revealed the details of up to four million customers. The company was subsequently fined £400,000.
      .A member of the Conservative Party, she is married to John Penrose, a Conservative MP, and is a friend of former Prime Minister David Cameron. Harding was appointed as a member of the House of Lords by Cameron.

      Cronyism at its best!

    3. Paula Anne Vennells is a British businesswoman who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Post Office Limited from 2012 to 2019. She is also an Anglican priest.
      Vennells was the CEO of Post Office Ltd during part of the British Post Office scandal, in which more than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of theft, false accounting and fraud.

      Diana Mary “Dido” Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe is a British businesswoman and life peer who served as chair of NHS Improvement from 2017 to 2021 and as interim chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency and head of NHS Test and Trace from 2020 to 2021.
      She is a former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group where she faced calls for her to resign after a cyber attack revealed the details of up to four million customers. The company was subsequently fined £400,000.
      .A member of the Conservative Party, she is married to John Penrose, a Conservative MP, and is a friend of former Prime Minister David Cameron. Harding was appointed as a member of the House of Lords by Cameron.

      Cronyism at its best!

  61. This investigation about the infected/contaminated blood has been on the TV news all morning.
    It has taken nearly 43 years to carry out this investigation.
    So what is it they have been and are still trying to cover up ?

    1. Read the article in the DT.
      Rarely does a newspaper item reduce me to tears, but that one did.
      I suspect the fact that the boys would be about the same age as our sons added to the anger and sadness that I felt.

    2. It appears that the Post Office inquiry is getting right into who lied, and who emigrated out of the jurisdiction, so

      suddenly every politician wants to discuss something that happened 43 years ago.

      Quite strange.

    1. Some years ago I watched a video which put forward two similar phrases. They gave us a hearty welcome. They gave us a cordial reception.
      The first sentence immediately made us imagine a rustic crowd toasting us with flagons of ale whilst the second a sophisticated group sipping sparkling wine.
      The argument was that with or without prior knowledge of the history of the English language, we already had an ancestral memory, knowing the difference between Germanic and French words and immediately knowing which pertained to high and low class.

      1. A political colleague advised the use of Anglo Saxon rather than French derived words when writing material or orating.

        3. A favorite book of mine, quite short if you are interested and can be found online
          Strunk and White elements of style. It’s American.

          “Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words.”

          It has lots of pithy instructions done as one liners. Another favorite for the humor is
          ‘Omit needless words, omit needless words, omit needless words.’

        4. When Tyndale was producing his translation of the New Testament he avoided latinate words and preferred Anglo-Saxon, so that his work might be better understood by the humble ploughboy. I have a copy in the Wordsworth edition, and most of it is still remarkably clear – and familiar, as a substantial amount of the Authorized Version (KJV) was taken straight from Tyndale, without any acknowledgement of his authorship.

        5. When Tyndale was producing his translation of the New Testament he avoided latinate words and preferred Anglo-Saxon, so that his work might be better understood by the humble ploughboy. I have a copy in the Wordsworth edition, and most of it is still remarkably clear – and familiar, as a substantial amount of the Authorized Version (KJV) was taken straight from Tyndale, without any acknowledgement of his authorship.

      2. A political colleague advised the use of Anglo Saxon rather than French derived words when writing material or orating.

      3. A good example of high/low class words can be seen in the words for animals and the meat that comes from them. Unlike most languages where the same word in used, English has:
        ox (animal) – beef (meat, from boeuf)
        pig (animal) – pork (meat, from porc)
        sheep (animal) – mutton (meat, from mouton).

        The Anglo-Saxons looked after the animals, and the Norman-French ate them.

    2. In his book ‘Mother Tongue’ about the history of the English language, Bill Bryson wrote that some words the Normans never translated. For example the feminine of Earl may be a Countess but Earl never became a Count. The English would have immediately delighted in humiliating the nobleman by mispronouncing the title.

  63. I’ve a friend of some means who I shan’t name whose very much an alpha male. A man’s man ( not gay) prefers the company of men not women and he’s not effeminate leftist who has many women friends instead of male friends . Someone whose clearly been married but isn’t so anymore. He is content with his life,I cant imagine him being married again putting up with some woman disrupting his life and managing him and making tea for her gossipy friends- he’s prpbably too set in his ways . Men and woman are very different whether singular or married.

  64. Archangel Gabriel is a wimp?
    Couldn’t he call upon Graeme Hall? Or Barbara Woodhouse who is probably closer to hand.

  65. Archangel Gabriel is a wimp?
    Couldn’t he call upon Graeme Hall? Or Barbara Woodhouse who is probably closer to hand.

  66. Cyclists on main roads should get out of the way or get squished. 🙂

    That’s how some of them see pedestrians on Public foot paths.

  67. Cyclists on main roads should get out of the way or get squished. 🙂

    That’s how some of them see pedestrians on Public foot paths.

  68. Iranian president’s death was ‘unfortunate incident’, declares supreme leader. 20 May 2024.

    Iran’s supreme leader has described a helicopter crash that killed the country’s president as an “unfortunate incident that occurred while he was performing official duties”

    Speaking hours after Tehran confirmed the death of Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the president as a “noble and selfless” servant to his country and also confirmed that new elections would be held in 50 days.

    Obviously Allah was sleeping on the job!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/20/iran-president-ebrahim-raisi-helicopter-crash-latest-news/

    1. Unfortunate article headline in the Daily Mail:

      Iranian helicopter crash LIVE.

  69. Iranian president’s death was ‘unfortunate incident’, declares supreme leader. 20 May 2024.

    Iran’s supreme leader has described a helicopter crash that killed the country’s president as an “unfortunate incident that occurred while he was performing official duties”

    Speaking hours after Tehran confirmed the death of Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the president as a “noble and selfless” servant to his country and also confirmed that new elections would be held in 50 days.

    Obviously Allah was sleeping on the job!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/20/iran-president-ebrahim-raisi-helicopter-crash-latest-news/

  70. Iranian president’s death was ‘unfortunate incident’, declares supreme leader. 20 May 2024.

    Iran’s supreme leader has described a helicopter crash that killed the country’s president as an “unfortunate incident that occurred while he was performing official duties”

    Speaking hours after Tehran confirmed the death of Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the president as a “noble and selfless” servant to his country and also confirmed that new elections would be held in 50 days.

    Obviously Allah was sleeping on the job!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/20/iran-president-ebrahim-raisi-helicopter-crash-latest-news/

  71. Iranian president’s death was ‘unfortunate incident’, declares supreme leader. 20 May 2024.

    Iran’s supreme leader has described a helicopter crash that killed the country’s president as an “unfortunate incident that occurred while he was performing official duties”

    Speaking hours after Tehran confirmed the death of Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the president as a “noble and selfless” servant to his country and also confirmed that new elections would be held in 50 days.

    Obviously Allah was sleeping on the job!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/20/iran-president-ebrahim-raisi-helicopter-crash-latest-news/

  74. I’d say his birth/conception was an ‘unfortunate incident’ ….. and no doubt being matched many times in our maternity hospitals this week.

  75. I’d say his birth/conception was an ‘unfortunate incident’ ….. and no doubt being matched many times in our maternity hospitals this week.

    1. I see the f*ckwit Belgian “President” of the EUSSR sent a message of sadness….

  77. I have just received a letter from my MP telling me (and presumably every other resident) that a local road is to be resurfaced. What part he played (if any) is not clear from the text. Nevertheless he is claiming credit by notification. How are the mighty fallen!

    1. Don’t forget they are all working hard to make us appreciate they are working hard.

      Only a few weeks before our local council elections the Limps sent out details of how they had stopped certain (some home extensions) developments in the local area and how they repaired some of the equipment in the children’s play ground, and insignificant other items. . But must have forgotten to mention they are planning to build hundreds of new homes on local green belt land.
      Working hard.

      1. It’s like our LD MP; she’s always in the paper, but when I ask nobody can actually pin down anything that she has, in fact, ACHIEVED.

        2. We had a LimpDem Councillor called Shireena Counter who became a non- MP (as she wasn’t elected). So she got a peerage under the Coalition govt. and now sits rather highly in the HoL. Nice work, even if you don’t get it.

  78. Don’t forget they are all working hard to make us appreciate they are working hard.

    Only a few weeks before our local council elections the Limps sent out details of how they had stopped certain (some home extensions) developments in the local area and how they repaired some of the equipment in the children’s play ground, and insignificant other items. . But must have forgotten to mention they are planning to build hundreds of new homes on local green belt land.
    Working hard.

  79. UK sanctions watchdog flops in face of Russia’s war. 20 May 2024.

    LONDON — An unprecedented war in the West should have been an opportunity for Britain’s sanctions watchdog to step up.

    But when it emerged last month that the regulator had dished out zero fines to Russians circumventing their sanctions since the illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, few were surprised.

    Critics fear the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has become representative of the U.K.’s approach to punishing Russia for its war: in name only

    I think that is about par for the course. The US is up to the same trick. It is actually making money out of it.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-ofsi-miss-opportunity-sanctions-watchdog-step-up-in-face-russia-war/

    1. The only reason the USA is involved is it is highly profitable for the likes of BlackRock and Halliburton of the military industrial complex and their political arm, the Democratic Party.

  80. Afternoon All

    Topical

    https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/54b52dbde4b09c18186752fd/1556289591508-EQARS4C1NP2J02AZWBEF/Farside.jpg?format=2500w

    Rest

    Rump steak for me……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a6f61d47f310f971cabdee49c486467babd2c05611af665634761aaadc96828.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3abfa3a354cb3f1853271615a417cd19a546db16df2db9bc345880e7122add01.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b96d3759883877499bb665af981743e407350cb776bff5bad2a7dc94173c50a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8804965dbbca9f16eae9ce2112e8dedd3556f4972302b83e01af11811be15803.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b78a5290e0ff7e3b55fce7e32312563df9201e681ca8281d3f502c42dbb9d42.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fded96fc846b4c1b8a77513f35539aef93ecbcdfb54f25b4a3e86c18b2bef140.jpg

    1. Sigh…giving away valuable commodities to the east for transient pleasure…plus ca change…

      1. The trading ships might have stayed afloat if the girls ashore had had gender certificates because the sailors couldn’t really be that shore.

  81. Putin targets German speakers in Russia in search for cannon fodder. 20 May 2024.

    Russia has launched a propaganda drive targeting German speakers for its army and Wagner mercenary force in the latest case of Vladimir Putin seeking ethnic minorities to be cannon fodder.

    In recent months, organisations claiming to represent the interests of ethnic Germans in Russia have been bombarding the minority group with war propaganda, with a particular emphasis on attracting youngsters.

    Really? One wonders if they have ads on RT. WANTED: Cannon Fodder.

    This is propaganda of the most puerile kind. Why would German Speakers feel any need to sign up? They are presumably already subject to conscription?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/19/putin-targets-germans-living-in-russia-in-search-for-troops/

  82. Putin targets German speakers in Russia in search for cannon fodder. 20 May 2024.

    Russia has launched a propaganda drive targeting German speakers for its army and Wagner mercenary force in the latest case of Vladimir Putin seeking ethnic minorities to be cannon fodder.

    In recent months, organisations claiming to represent the interests of ethnic Germans in Russia have been bombarding the minority group with war propaganda, with a particular emphasis on attracting youngsters.

    Really? One wonders if they have ads on RT. WANTED: Cannon Fodder.

    This is propaganda of the most puerile kind. Why would German Speakers feel any need to sign up? They are presumably already subject to conscription?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/19/putin-targets-germans-living-in-russia-in-search-for-troops/

  83. Benjamin Netanyahu arrest warrant sought for Gaza ‘war crimes’. 20 May 2024.

    The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    Karim Khan KC, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, told CNN that the charges related to the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

    Ahh! What’s Sauce for the Goose is Sauce for the Gander. Perhaps Vlad will give him a lift?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/20/benjamin-netanyahu-war-crimes-arrest-warrant-sought/

      1. Yes, they could arrest him on a warrant, just like the one that Menachem Begin had out on him in 1972. And he actually visited Britain while it was in force.

        Funny enough no one actually arrested him. Wonder why? Oh yes, it’s because if you arrest a foreign leader on a diplomatic visit I believe it’s actually illegal to do that. Perhaps someone ought to tell Mr Karim this awkward fact. Then there’s the other problem. I don’t know where the good KC has his nationality, probably Britain despite his Pakistani sounding name, but if he therefore wants British diplomats peremptorily arrested in Israel on trumped up or possibly substantial charges and Russia too, then yes. Go ahead, arrest away…

    3. Apparently three Hamas leaders similarly being considered for warrants too. Looks like they’ll need a minibus.

  84. Benjamin Netanyahu arrest warrant sought for Gaza ‘war crimes’. 20 May 2024.

    The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    Karim Khan KC, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, told CNN that the charges related to the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

    Ahh! What’s Sauce for the Goose is Sauce for the Gander. Perhaps Vlad will give him a lift?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/20/benjamin-netanyahu-war-crimes-arrest-warrant-sought/

    1. What we have given the world is compensation enough. This is just what we have produced in science and technology. Never mind the hundreds of other contributions we have made in sports, politics, the arts, law, agriculture and in other fields that we have created that makes all of humanity a hundred thousandfold better than if we did not exist as a a nation.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZQS4LBugk

    2. What we have given the world in compensation enough. This is just what we have produced in science and technology. Never mind the hundreds of other contributions we have made in sports, politics, the arts, law, agriculture and in other fields that we have created that makes all of humanity a hundred thousandfold better than if we did not exist as a a nation.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcZQS4LBugk

    3. Presumably he is unaware of the massive cost in lives and money incurred by Britain in suppressing the slave trade? They should be paying us!!

      1. And it’s become extremely obvious they hate this country because they never seem to stop moaning.
        Perhaps they would all like to go back to Africa.

  87. Ebrahim Raisi: There were eight other people accompanying the president who also died in the crash.
    They included Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, as well as the governor of East Azerbaijan province, Malek Rahmati, and Tabriz’s Friday prayer leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, a senior Shia cleric who was also Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s official representative in East Azerbaijan.

    What a waste – A real shame. Only nine on board and it crashed onto barren ground. Not a mosque or a stoning ceremony in the vicinity – could do better!

      3. It’s certainly the case that those are not Gordon Brown’s own words and there is reasonable doubt as to whether they even came from the Home Office.

        This was posted on the AVFTT (Another View From The Tower) forum.

        Apr 4, 2022

        Nazir Afzal was Chief Prosecutor in North West England from 2011 to 2015 and does appear to be a very respected individual. It is, therefore, important to read behind the explosive headline in the publication Politicalite: “GORDON Brown’s Labour Government allegedly urged Police Forces across the UK ‘not to investigate’ grooming gangs,” to see what Mr Afzal actually sad in his interview with the BBC.

        According to Altnewsmedia Nazir Afzal made the comment when he was interviewed on the Radio 4 PM programme on 19th October (2018). What he said was this: “back in 2008, the Home Office sent a circular to all police forces in the country stating: “as far as these young girls who are being exploited in towns and cities, we believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it is not for police officers to get involved in.” This was quoted correctly by Politicalite. However, when questioned about whether the Metropolitan Police had received such a letter the London Mayor’s office stated: “Without further details the Met Police is unable to identify the Home Office circular from 2008 referred to nor the letter in question. Therefore, they cannot state whether any investigations were closed down in response to the letter or whether any order in the letter was later rescinded.” Similarly, in response to a FOI query, West Mercia Police said there was,”No specific recorded information held.” Furthermore, a search of the words “informed Choice” finds nothing on https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk.

        In the International Business Times Nazir Afzal writes….
        “The term “child prostitute” was used to describe victims and the Home Office in a circular to police in 2008 used that term and spoke of girls making an “informed choice” to engage in this behaviour”

        However, there is no mention of an instruction saying that police shouldn’t get involved. Indeed, his IBT article goes on to state: “Following the case, everyone including the prime minister chose to respond to the lessons learnt. I was commended in parliament and in the media.”

        So, what of the publisher of the explosive headline about Gordon Brown’s Government?
        their support us page claims ….”Politicalite is the truly independent news site that reports the unreported news by the people for the people, but we are under attack by the Establishment who are trying to censor real news written by the people for the people.” The search bar at the top of the page contains individual links to Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage. An overview of its contents clear shows that its editorial stance is to support Robinson, Farage and, indeed, Donald Trump.

        Perhaps a cellarful of salt would be in order when reviewing their stories.

        Last edited: Apr 4, 2022

        https://avftt.co.uk/index.php?threads/grooming-gangs-no-police-to-be-charged.30549/post-700747

    1. At least the clown Michel once sidelined Fond of Lying by taking the “top person’s chair” and forcing her to sit on a settee at the back of the room – when they visited another tyrant – Erdogan…..

    2. At least the clown Michel once sidelined Fond of Lying by taking the “top person’s chair” and forcing her to sit on a settee at the back of the room – when they visited another tyrant – Erdogan…..

      3. He certainly appealed to his own lawyer, and got more than a bit of legal advice, it seems. She certainly took a couple of depositions…

      1. I err on the side of Assange having done the world a service, but I do also think he has broken US law/s.

        I don’t think he will get a fair trial in the USA, so I would not extradite him.

        1. When you know that even an ex-president is not immune from legal malfeasance you know that someone like Julian Assange has no chance for justice in an American court.

          1. But an American diplomat (or wife of a diplomat – I’m not sure which she is) can run over and kill a person, in her car (because she doesn’t know that we drive on the left?) scurry off back to the US and not be deported to face charges here. That’s fine. The extradition treaty between the UK and the US is totally one-sided (like everything else with that country) so it’s about time we were more bullish.

      1. It really was breaking news when I put it up. 17mins earlier according to the ES.

    5. Good.
      Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, he has been the victim of an appalling vendetta by the Banana States of America’s government.

      2. We don’t exist…..oh hang on a mo, how much for the photos and the TV interview?

      3. The Beeb had the usual crap at lunchtime, wherein each nominally Conservative government was quoted as blameworthy in this, whilst the period from 1997 to 2010(?) was glossed over. In between their Israel bashing glee, of course, at the little Muslim Pakistani lawyer’s attempt to equate the response to a brutal terrorist attack to a legitimate and just war on the perpetrators.

    1. Some parts of the EU strategy are working according to news from the USA:

      From “The Energy Brief”-

      There is also a rather disturbing story out of the EU, that they are
      importing Russian oil products from Turkey, to go around the
      sanctions imposed by the UN & G-7. Once again, who’s the “Paper
      Tiger”. According to reports, the EU has purchased 3-Billion Euros
      worth of refined products from a Turkish Port that handles mostly
      Russian products and the port is not connected to any refineries.
      Apparently “the rules are for thee, not for me”, is how the EU rolls

  100. The garden at this time of year has its better weeds appearing.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72dc087cb5ea47e9ff655755153d605fb3697cfabc0a877618e82ced9e69e7db.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/185b67b0c16da5d97085e53878b55a5a19cd3e7bd9199a1be335bc36f3860581.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64ca154a365abe04fab8def8effdd3b8f06c343fdd3b5bfd9fff3c95f5878113.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6136abd6182ae8c14bf9e8e7a1d12d8d1bc36a88b986ab84fb7f2d7cb2529a8f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c53164f082d88db41220828810b1cf381e93ed48a22935078d36fef706642bd5.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d875b12077e1f4a576aaf3e4f5aa98fdebfedccec00738b7a53ee0a9cff1a1d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/177bf8ac448e74e0c3bc9fd69a145a9d46773d4bfb6c78f8de15cc31e6fb16b7.jpg

    1. And they will soon produce seed, guaranteeing an even bigger crop of weeds next year.

  101. Some will, some might not, as there are too few potential pollinators of the same variety nearby.
    There are several in the garden where I am only aware of one of their kind being present.
    At least I no longer have to patrol the estate with sticks to mark where they are to avoid accidentally cutting them, because they have done so well in the 15 or so years that I have been encouraging them.
    A really good crop of multiple types of Fungi in the autumn seems to be a key to their spread.

  102. Israel must define its endgame before it’s too late
    By rejecting an exit from Gaza, Netanyahu risks losing the support his nation needs to survive
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/20/israel-must-define-endgame-before-too-late/

    BTL

    We know what Hamas’s end game is:

    The eradication of the State of Israel and the murder of every Jew between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

    In other words GENOCIDE

    And they have sworn to repeat the actions of October 7th over and over again.

    2. Definitions may vary:

      Some people now define genocide as retaliating against an unprovoked attack launched to eliminate your race, religion and country.

  105. From Coffee House the Spectator

    Press freedom means protecting Julian Assange
    Comments Share 20 May 2024, 2:17pm
    James Cleverly won’t be able to move the Julian Assange file out of his inbox quite yet after all. The High Court has allowed Assange to appeal once more against extradition to the US on the basis that no sufficient assurances have been received over his ability to rely on the First Amendment if tried there.

    We don’t know what the result will be (today’s hearing merely gave permission to appeal, with no guarantee as to its outcome). Nevertheless, we should still think twice before we hope that the appeal will ultimately be dismissed, thus allowing the final removal of someone who has been a thorn in the UK authorities’ side for nearly 15 years.

    This is Assange’s second brush with extradition law. In 2012, he stymied a largely ordinary rendition to Sweden on charges of sexual assault and rape (which he denies) by remaining holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years, until the Swedish government lost interest. The present request by the US, the subject of today’s hearing, was on entirely different charges, namely conspiracy to obtain and disclose US defence information contrary to the US Espionage Act, arising out of the Chelsea Manning leaks which he collaborated with the Guardian in publicising, and also in large measure revealed in Wikileaks, in 2010. Assange denies any wrongdoing.

    In law there is no doubt that, subject to any quibbles over assurances from Washington, this is an entirely regular request from the State Department. There are nevertheless several reasons that should give us pause about allowing extradition for state crimes of this kind.

    One is the effect on press freedom. True, technically Assange is alleged to have committed an offence in the US by suborning people there to provide him with secret information. But the essence of Washington’s complaint is that Assange, a journalist in England with no connection with the US, has published, in England, material classified in the US that is contrary to US espionage law. Admittedly in this case the leaks could hurt us too, since we make much common cause in defence with the US. But this will not always be so. Imagine a request from, say, South Africa, India, or Brazil, alleging abstraction of classified information there on the orders of a UK columnist and its publication here. The same would apply. Unless the journalist can show a likelihood of prejudice or oppression if sent for trial, extradited he must be. In short, the vital ability of the press in Britain to publish what it likes about foreign regimes provided it obeys our law, whatever their own law may say, is now seriously in doubt.

    The second reason is more general. Fifty years ago, our law did not only bar extradition of those likely to face persecution. It also, broadly, prevented extradition for any non-terrorist offence of a ‘political character’, something that automatically excluded matters such as espionage and other anti-state offences. Unfortunately, this principle was abandoned as regards European states with the adoption of the European Arrest Warrant (something which, three years ago, nearly led to Clara Ponsati, a vocal Catalonian separatist who later took up a teaching job in Scotland, being forcibly bundled onto a plane to Madrid to face criminal charges of subversion before a Spanish court). Later in 2003 the Labour government suppressed the principle altogether in a new Extradition Act.

    This is unfortunate. An attractive feature of Britain was once a libertarian insistence that, however friendly its relations with another state, friendship did not extend to helping that state with its dirty work in rounding up subversives. But today libertarianism of that kind is unfashionable. Even if you have fallen foul of your government, you are in the UK’s eyes just like any other criminal: if your government makes a request, even for a state offence, the UK will happily hand you over unless you can show that you are likely somehow to receive unfair treatment when sent back to face it: something that can be easier said than done.

    And this raises a third point. Whatever you may think of asylum claims in general, the extradition rules that the courts now have to apply subvert what was once a proud British tradition. In the nineteenth century, our political life was much enriched by the fact that critics of foreign governments were allowed, assuming they were reasonably well-behaved, to carry on their campaigns here. Not only did the law protect them from rendition for offences like sedition; in addition, all extradition requests had to be approved by the Home Secretary, who if he felt that the foreign government was overstepping the mark, could simply refuse to give effect to them. This too has unfortunately gone. The entire process is now legalistic: if the legal requirements for extradition are satisfied, then whatever the Home Secretary’s view, he is bound by law to go ahead with the extradition.

    In short, Britain has now apparently bound itself in a tangled web of law to abandon its tradition of harbouring dissidents, and has to hand over someone in Julian Assange’s position, whatever electors and their representatives think of the case and whatever the knock-on effects on the freedom of the press. We now need a movement to draw attention to this. There is much to be said for Rishi Sunak setting up a body to revisit our extradition law to make sure this kind of thing does not happen in future.

  106. Apologies if this has been discussed before, from the Telegraph – I haven’t had much time online recently, so I may well have missed some things. I seemed to be able to see the article but not the comments…personally I think it is a cheek to call wearing wigs by the judiciary etc. “discriminatory” – it is a British tradition and was not there with discriminating against Afro-haired in mind (long Afro-haired – what’s stopping them cutting their hair?). Plenty of reasons to stop the wig-wearing, (and some to retain it) but not this one! You want to join the Bar you play by its rules – incomers to our country are simply becoming too entitled. We are not here to pander to them, in our own country. Treat them fairly, yes, but this kind of pandering is complete nonsense and should be knocked on the head.

    Courts in talks to abandon wigs amid claims they are ‘culturally insensitive’
    Judiciary poised to update traditional dress code following criticism from black barristers
    Adam Mawardi

    A number of legal professionals have called for the ‘archaic’ headwear to be scrapped
    English courts are in talks to abandon compulsory wigs for barristers amid claims that they are “culturally insensitive”.

    The Telegraph understands that the judiciary is poised to update its court dress code following complaints by some barristers that the traditional headpieces discriminate against those with Afro-Caribbean hair.

    Judges are currently reviewing proposals made by the Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, with changes expected to be made this autumn at the earliest. No decisions have been made.

    It follows widespread criticism from several black barristers who have called for compulsory wigs to be scrapped.

    The potential changes come after Michael Etienne, a barrister who is black and has an afro hairstyle, sparked a public debate in 2022 after being ordered to wear a wig in court or face disciplinary action.

    He branded the policy as hair discrimination, a form of racism.

    A Bar Council spokesman said: “Following questions from barristers about wigs and hair discrimination, the Bar Council set up a working group to consider court dress in the context of all protected characteristics.

    “The findings of the working group are currently being discussed with the judiciary as part of our regular dialogue on equality and diversity matters.”

    Barristers are not required to wear wigs, traditionally made of horsehair, in all courtrooms. Since 2007, they have not been required in family, civil or Supreme Court cases.

    However, Leslie Thomas KC said he hopes the judiciary will scrap barrister wigs once and for all.

    He previously described wigs as a “ridiculous costume” that represents a “culturally insensitive climate” at the Bar.

    Speaking to The Telegraph, Mr Thomas KC said: “The wigs certainly should go. There isn’t any place in a modern society for barristers to be wearing 17th-century fashion.”

    He also called for the judiciary to abandon “archaic” court dress, such as wing collars, bands and collarettes.

    Mr Thomas KC suggested barristers should be allowed to wear a black gown with smart business wear underneath.

    He added: “I think a dress code like that would bring the profession into the 21st century.”

    Rachel Bale, a mixed-race barrister with curly afro hair, said that although she enjoys wearing her wig, they are often impractical and “not fit for purpose” for naturally black hairstyles.

    She said barristers should have the freedom to choose whether or not to wear the wigs for cultural reasons, similar to the religious exemptions already made for Sikhs who wear turbans and Muslims who wear headscarves.

    She added: “Something overlooked often in black culture is that your hair is so inexplicably important and it is completely interwoven with your identity.” [Well tough – this is the UK. What do they do in the Army?]

    A spokesman for the judiciary said: “Senior judges are in active discussions with the Bar Council about the findings of their working group on court dress.

    “We welcome these discussions as part of our continuing joint work on diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/05/18/courts-ditch-compulsory-wigs-criticism-black-barristers/

    2. Coming to a country near you very soon:

      “Slammers demand all-slammer juries.. Cur Ikea Slammer say he understands and will ensure that this is implemented”

      I hope I am kidding – but rather doubt it.

      2. Rather like Democrat courts and Democrat lawyers and Democrat jurors being used to stitch up Trump?

    4. Belated Happy Birthday, HL. Hope it went well. If they don’t like our traditions (and they don’t because they can) they can eff off back to Africa. When in Rome …

      1. Thank you Conners. I couldn’t agree with you more – I just wish they would eff off back…

          1. Thank you – these birthday wishes are making the feel-good factor of the day even better by extending them!

          2. Richard, would you kindly remove me from your birthday list and refrain from posting greeting reminders, come the day. As much as others derive satisfaction from this, I’ve refrained from offering birthday greetings for several months and think it proper that none should be offered to me.

          3. I requested the same prior to my Birthday in February. I don’t think Rastus saw the message.

    5. Long ago I knew a Ghanaian family who were always in deep financial trouble. This worsened when they were done by the BBC for not having a TV licence. It turned out that the money set aside for buying the licence had been diverted by the father towards the purchase of a barrister’s wig as it was his dream to be called to the bar.

  107. From Spectator comments thread
    R
    Robert Liddell
    9 minutes ago
    Another thing that the awful Blair government was responsible for
    −
    C
    CARTER
    33 minutes ago
    I’m no admirer of Julian Assange but feel his incarceration has gone on long enough. I can’t imagine he will ever pose a threat to anyone again and would much rather see the cost incurred of holding him at Belmarsh be used to feed children living in poverty. Cleverly having lost the plot by not refusing extradition to the US it seems we’re now dependent on Biden to drop the case. Perhaps it needs Cameron to step in and use his diplomatic clout to agree a deal between the UK, US and Australia and get shot of Assange once and for all!
    −
    K
    Kolya CARTER
    28 minutes ago
    No, shooting him would be OTT.
    −
    K
    Kolya
    38 minutes ago
    Assange has wittingly done massive damage to Western security. He should be extradited.
    −
    C
    CARTER Kolya
    33 minutes ago
    He has? Can you tell us how it has impacted on Britain?
    −
    K
    Kolya CARTER
    29 minutes ago
    Actually I can’t. Telling you would further jeopardize Western security. And I’m no Assange.
    −
    R
    Robert Bidochon Kolya
    18 minutes ago
    You know too much, the WEF will have to take you out.
    −
    K
    Kolya Robert Bidochon
    15 minutes ago
    The WEF is a debating society. If they decide to take me out it will be to buy me a drink.
    −
    R
    Robert Bidochon CARTER
    30 minutes ago
    Yes I’d like to know what he has done that has been so damaging to the UK.

        1. Not all of them, Sue. That was a bit of a nutterfest, as is the NWO on the Speccie.

        3. Carter and Bidochon (let no one dare speak his real name) are the two most vexatious contributors BTL at the Spectator and no indication of what the rest are like. Carter is probably some sort of troll, is the only known supporter in the forum of Harold and his Nigerian wife and specialises in whataboutery. Bidochon is a bitter Remainiac who gets off on trying to put down Brexiteers as beneath his intellectual standards and who has to have the last word on everything. Kolya was a bit of a Covid lock-down fanatic but is otherwise OK

          1. Kolya is rather a sweetie. He is also a Jew and badly castigated for that but can be very funny on it. For example, his definition of an antisemite: “Someone who hates the Jews more than is absolutely necessary”

      2. You bumped into RHD over there yet More info? A proper steaming anti-Semite.

  108. Thank you sos, I did! I was out and about most of i ; we are thinking of moving and are flitting back and forth between here and the South West, which leaves me only sporadic time for the internet at the moment!

    1. I missed your b/day as well , so sorry .

      I hope you are having a good flit from here there and everywhere , where would you really like to live ?

      Mansions are two a penny because people are downsizing .

      There are some brilliant properties in the price range you require .

      1. Hello, Belle! We have decided to buy a small interim property for a couple of years rather than rent, and then sell it when we have found our final “forever” place. As we don’t know where that is yet, we are looking for our little half-way house around £250-280k but with enough storage for us to be able store some of our things too – we want to downsize, so a mansion is not on the cards! We are independently selling our home, so hopefully all our transactions will be chain-free (on our part). I did some sums regarding Stamp Duty Land Tax, and while we will be punished initially by a 3% surcharge, that is repayable if you sell your other property within 3 years. I have had a couple of conversations with HMRC, but will get something in writing from them – eventually. It’s a nightmare trying to rent – properties go as soon as they are on the market, and anyway it is expensive! The stamp duty + conveyancing etc. actually seems to work out cheaper…well, that’s what we hope.

        We love Dorset and the adjoining parts of Devon and Somerset… but really need to have more time to look around. The coast is unfortunately out, both pricewise and tourist-wise, but we are happy with fields, and a village or a small town ,with a bigger hub reasonably close for other things: hospital, doctor, certain shopping etc. We’ll have to see.

        1. Good luck for a good move T.
          You’ve had enough of Bushey have you, now part of London as is Barnet.
          And anywhere else inside kahrns M25.
          We’ve been talking of moving but we’re slightly committed to our local grandchildren at the moment. We’ll be too old soon.

          1. Thank you, RE,

            I think it is Bushy (West London) that is in London rather than Bushey (still Hertfordshire as far as I know). But it is only a question of time. I can quite understand ties to family, but we have none here, so are not bound in that way – although I have lived locally for 35 years. I don’t like what has happened in that time, and enough is enough. We’re off!

          2. There are also some lovely villages in Somerset. One of my long way back friends lives in one of them.
            There’s a nice hotel there called The Hollies.

    2. Heyup Tine!
      Didn’t see you online, so a belated Happy Birthday from me too.

      1. Wotcher, BoB,

        Thank you for your kind wishes. Nice to get them later – it extends my birthday feeling for longer…

        1. Mea Culpa

          I think my post wishing you a Happy Birthday was the last one on the 18th May so I had to post it again day late on 19th.

          1. It is lovely that you do it at all, Rastus. Plus, as I have written to people, I wasn’t online much recently and it is a added bonus to get well-wishes today. So it as turned out perfectly. Thank you!

          2. Just an addendum – I missed it on 18th and 19th as I was online very little, but would like to thank anyone who sent kind wishes. Like’s rather hectic at the moment: OH has booked us in to go off again tomorrow, and I didn’t know, and got some reduced stuff today when out shopping. Never mind – some goes in freezer some gets cooked this evening…

  109. Phew!
    Got the last bit of work done to the van before I need to get the insulation to go behind the panelling, then, after the compulsory mug of tea, got started on the dinner.
    Made a white sauce with garlic, corriander seed (I think, the label came off) and mixed herbs while I gently fried 4 x precooked chicken breast fillets.
    Put a cauliflower on the steam, added the sauce to the chicken and then the potatoes to the boiling water under the cauliflower.
    Should be ready in 20ish minutes for self & Graduate Son and what’s left will do for the DT and Welder Son.

    Listening to Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto on R3.

    1. Forgot to add, also dropped Grad. Son off at Cromford Station and did an hour’s shopping in Matlock before that lot!

        1. To be honest, Conners, I don’t feel as if I’ve done much!!
          The chicken breast was lovely by the way. The spices in the sauce had permeated through it!

          2. Well, I’ve got two weeks before the van limps down to the garage to have the seized turbo changed so in that time I want to get it ready to load up for going camping.
            First trip will be dropping down to eldest daughter’s in Basingstoke, then meandering across to Wales to pick up the sheeps wool insulation I plan putting under the panelling.
            In the meantime I want to fit a solar panel and charging system to operate a fridge independent of the main battery.

          3. I’m having a drinks and canape party August 10th 2pm. Basingstoke is only 45 minutes away from me.

  111. Afternoon, all. It’s going to be another case of ave atque vale, I’m afraid. I’ve got another AGM to attend. It will be the same on Wednesday as well; ’tis the season of AGMs.

    Cyclists should take more responsibility for their own actions; don’t run red lights, don’t undertake, don’t cycle on the pavements only feet away from a cycle lane, don’t whoosh up behind a horse without warning – I could go on, but you get the gist.

  112. The infected blood scandal “could largely have been avoided” and there was a “pervasive” cover-up to hide the truth, an inquiry into the biggest treatment disaster in the NHS has concluded.

    Deliberate attempts were made to conceal the disaster, including evidence of Whitehall officials destroying documents, the Infected Blood Inquiry found.

    Patients were knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection, the probe found.

    The 2,527-page report published on Monday documents a “catalogue of failures” which had “catastrophic” consequences, not only among people infected with contaminated blood and blood products, but also their loved ones.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/infected-blood-scandal-report-official-inquiry-compensation-b1158918.html

    40 years from now, I wonder what the Covid cover-up enquiry will conclude in its two and a half thousand page report.

    2. There are obviously so many devious people who should be in jail. And the only person in the news who is in trouble for telling the truth, is the one who has been locked up for years.
      What a terrible world we live in.

    3. All enquiries will be performed in camera and the results will be whatever they want.

    4. Whatever it is you can guarantee absolutely no one will ever read it, consult it or reference it ever again. Inquiries are designed to put officials in the clear, not to make things clear.

    5. That it was all Boris Johnson’s fault.
      Every scientist, civil servant and media personality was impeccably virtuous and impartial from start to finish.

  114. From the ES editorial newsletter:

    Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff answers the ‘how’ question in frank terms: “The infections happened because those in authority, doctors, the blood services and successive governments, did not put patient safety first.”
    The infected blood scandal is quite simply the biggest treatment scandal in NHS history. Tens of thousands of patients were infected with viruses including HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s. And it was one that could have been largely prevented, but the truth was hidden for decades by a cover-up and a slew of other failures, an excoriating report published today has found.
    As our health reporter Daniel Keane, political editor Nicholas Cecil and chief political correspondent Rachael Burford report, the long-awaited Infected Blood Inquiry report told in scathing terms how patients were “knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection” with “shattering” impacts on their lives. You can find a timeline of events leading up to the Inquiry here.
    Chillingly, patients were told they were getting the best treatment available while ministers refused to take responsibility to “save face”. At least 3,000 out of more than 30,000 people infected with contaminated blood products or through transfusions have already died and the “number is climbing week by week”.
    Just one example: of the 122 pupils with haemophilia who attended Lord Mayor Treloar College, a boarding school in Hampshire for children with disabilities, between 1970 and 1987, only 30 are still alive. On this Sir Brian said: “The pupils were often regarded as objects for research, rather than first and foremost as children whose treatment should be firmly focused on their individual best interests alone. This was unethical and wrong.”
    The 2,500-page report concluded that the “chief responsibility” for the overall failings lay with “successive governments” including the administration of Margaret Thatcher. It emphasised that “Government decision-making was slow and protracted. ‘Doctor knows best’ was such a strong belief that health departments did not issue guidance to curb unsafe use of blood and blood products”. Rishi Sunak’s government also faced criticism.
    The prime minister’s insistence on waiting for the conclusion of the Inquiry before making a final decision on redress has “perpetuated the injustice for victims”, Sir Brian said in the report.
    Sunak is to make a statement to the House of Commons at around five o’clock this afternoon, in which he is expected to offer a formal apology on behalf of the UK government. The extent of the financial compensation package – anticipated to reach somewhere in the region £10 billion – is due to be unveiled tomorrow.

    Another 10 billion of taxpayers’ money about to be wasted by the NHS, and didn’t you know Thatcher would be specifically put into the frame by the left-wing rag.

    1. As my blood clots very quickly it/I went into a study. At the end of it, a lass came through and introduced me to a young girl who’s blood didn’t clot. She said ‘You’ve saved my life’.

      I thought, right, hand over the cash!

      No, what I really thought was… oh, that’s good to hear. What more do you say?

      I don’t know what happened here or why the problems occurred. I expect it had something to do with time and money. I also think there’s a huge problem with the NHS considering patients an annoyance it would rather do without. Most government departments have no interest in the citizen. half the NHS would rather they went away so they can save the money they (I imagine) find annoying having to spending on the other half the NHS that does.

      1. A wonderful experience for you.

        Being British, and having lived there through mad cow, I am not allowed to donate blood in France. I was a regular donor in the UK before we moved here.

        Perhaps they also knew about this scandal and refused on those grounds too.

        1. I’m not allowed to give blood anywhere. I don’t really know why, but the consultant chap said it wasn’t a good idea. I imagine because it’s a bit like introducing resin to a petrol tank.

          1. I wonder how many will go to prison in the UK.
            Nil, nul, none, zero, or zilch?

      2. Good on you, Wibbling.
        One of the few useful human beings on this planet.

  115. Slept for 12 hours.

    Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) Story. etter late than never.

    MAGIC VAGINA
    Paddy, a quite handsome lad, is sitting on a train across from a busty blonde who is wearing a tiny mini skirt.
    Despite his efforts, he is unable to stop staring at the top of her thighs. To his delight, he then realises she has gone without underwear.
    The blonde realises he is staring and inquires, “Are you looking at my vagina?”
    “Yes, I’m sorry,” Paddy replies and promises to avert his eyes.

    “It’s quite all right,” replies the woman, “It’s very talented, watch this, I’ll make it blow a kiss to you.” Sure enough the vagina blows him a kiss.

    Paddy, who is completely absorbed, inquires what else the wonder vagina can do. “I can also make it wink,” says the woman. Paddy stares in amazement as the vagina winks at him.

    “Come and sit next to me,” suggests the woman, patting the seat.

    Paddy moves over and she smiles and asks, “Would you like to stick a couple of fingers in?”

    Stunned, Paddy replies, “You’re fecking kidding me—you mean it can whistle, too?”

    Two stories in one day – I must be going daft!

  116. The West must strike now, and collapse the Iranian regime. 20 May 2024.

    The Iranian people long for freedom and democracy. We should take this opportunity to liberate them.

    Really? Actually I long for the same thing and I don’t live in Iran. I think that we have tried liberating quite a few people in the Middle East. The Iraqi’s. Syrians. Libyans. Afghans. None of them seem very happy about it. Mostly of course because it was no such thing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/20/iran-president-raisi-death-war-west-first-strike/

    2. “The Iranian people long for freedom and democracy and should take this opportunity to liberate themselves

    4. “Actually I long for the same thing and I don’t live in Iran”.

      I did have a wry smile at this; not least because it is so true.

    5. Just made an opportunity for someone else to become dictator – and kill a lot of people as well.

  117. The neighbour’s dog is barking. He is bored. Mongo does not bark because he has small boy talking to him about lego pieces and is set to carry the bags downstairs.

    I do sometimes wonder what will happen when Junior turns 15 and Mongo simply… isn’t here any more.

    Oscar doesn’t bark because he is sat beside the Warqueen who is outside in her pants. However, she also doesn’t think to get him water or shade, so someone else does that for her. However, he isn’t interested in being grateful to the person who keeps him cool and watered, oh no.

  118. Phew; an uncongenial Six!

    Wordle 1,066 6/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟨🟨⬜🟩⬜
    🟨🟩⬜🟩🟨
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. 5 today.

      Wordle 1,066 5/6

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

    2. As so often happens, there were too many options. Could have been a two, could have gone to seven, eight…

      Wordle 1,066 5/6

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

      1. Yes, but not as many as the dreaded -o-er , which has done for me on three occasions. Lucky par!

        Wordle 1,066 4/6

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

    3. Metoo. Skin of the teeth.
      Wordle 1,066 6/6

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

    2. I remember the tune (especially the Winifred Atwell version) but I can’t remember which programme had it as theme music.

  123. So back in the day were they lefties saying trust the science?
    The blood products are safe, it’s all been peer reviewed.
    It’s all a conspiracy theory.
    In forty years time will a PM will be apologizing for the covid vaccines and the millions ruined lives.
    One thing is for certain, history repeats itself when people fail to learn from it.

    1. You do not need to be a medical expert – let alone a haematologist – to know that using blood from the dregs of society is a wicked and stupid thing to do.

      1. Nail…Head. I wonder if they used those sources and pocketed the difference.

  124. Sunak made the best speech of his life this afternoon, pity it was under such shameful and tragic circumstances.

    1. Too little and, of course, far, far too late.

      No one will be prosecuted. No one will be sacked. No one will lose a penny of pension.

      And the great British public will shrug their shoulders and say – “Well, what do you expect, these days?”

        1. I watched the 1’27” of it. Maybe he was upset that he was too young to have organised the cover up. Why would he be suddenly upset about people dying?

        1. Oh.
          That thing that has only harmed a few thousand.
          I wonder how they’ll word it when this jab catches up with them.

        2. Oh.
          That thing that has only harmed a few thousand.
          I wonder how they’ll word it when this jab catches up with them.

  125. Just about to have a cup of tea and then we’ll go to the meeting which will live in the villiage and concerned councillors in regards to the Lib Dems plans to destroy the villiage, we have only just found out the horrifying extent of their ‘ development plans ‘ no Idea if it can be stopped. Anyway think of me at 7 o’clock, I feel like crying .

    1. Will be thinking of you. What a bummer. Break a leg, Kitty! Make sure that everything you say gets put on record – these people are without moral compass and any consultation will be just for show. You need it recorded that there is robust majority local opposition to their ghastly agenda based on real considerations.

      1. Get together and threaten to sue them individually. They crap themselves.
        Or ‘send the boys round’.

        1. Remain Calm. Speak clearly but forcibly without raising voice. Don’t swear. Look them in the eye.

          1. Foaming at the mouth and threatening to chop their heads off does seem to be the most effective method du jour, though, ma Phizz

          2. Can’t argue with that. Not likely you would go to prison as i am sure a jury would agree.

      1. She lives in idyllic Constable country. The desecration is happening everywhere. You should see what is happening here in South Wales.

        1. Bloody limp dems are planning the same type of destruction of green belt and agricultural land around our village. It will be No longer a village with history going back 2000 years.
          It’s disgusting.

      2. No,but I do and I’m leaving Hertfordshire – wrecked by its politicians. Lib Dem rubbish. The trouble is the much of the West country, where I want to go to, is LimpDumb territory too. I just hope to be dead before it gets as bad as here.

      1. It’s certainly a battle, good luck with you too .
        Btw someone I know online whose blogged on some of same sites as me over the years has given me your email. Hopefully we’ll catch up here at NoTTl before I contact you by Gmail, I know your busy going back and forth atm and when I’m home and on the laptop at some point. I hope you’re making some progress looking at areas. We’re having huge hassles with the wretched Lib Dem Council.

  126. ‘Night All

    There was a “cover up””

    “Victims ‘gaslit for generations’”

    “Politicians should hang their heads in shame”

    “Delays mean those responsible will never see justice”

    “Health leaders ‘did not put patient safety first’”

    “Basic ethical principles ignored”

    “Silence is worse than speaking up”

    In case you weren’t sure, these are sub headlines from the Telegraph”s
    coverage of the infected blood scandal but I know, and you know, what we
    are all thinking about when we read these headlines.

    We’ll basically be copying and pasting these again in the fullness of time.
    40 years,40 bloody years………….still beats Dunblane and Kelley……..

    1. And I wonder which politician will now stand up and state in parliament that this must never happen again, we want the total unvarnished truth about covid, the actions taken and the medicines and vaccines administered, and we want it NOW.

      Ideally they should pass a law stating that all those involved must explain what they did, and why, within the next six months and if they don’t and it is later discovered that they lied or performed a cover up they will get at least five years in prison.

      And then I woke up…

    2. 70 years for Kelly, isn’t it? Until all the culprits are safely dead and their offspring have been awarded earldoms, perhaps

  127. That’s me for this cold, unwelcoming day. The sun did come out late afternoon – but the temperature remained well below global boiling expectations. And I discovered that all the companion marigold plants placed between the tomatoes have been eaten. All 40 of them. Slugs. Worst I can ever remember this year.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

      1. Slug killer has been interfered with by the EU Mafia. They don’t like to see their relatives murdered.

        1. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pestshield-Killer-Pellets-Showerproof-single/dp/B084R983SB/ref=sr_1_11_mod_primary_new?crid=Z6GLIPP2PIKU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MxKdbXDAy3fyqAwLbmpLd1hUsLbvds7DJ_CFHzb9eImovCboOBdKuPofxwGFz5M6TkG1XrdYllMrW2Qwcf1ziOJzX9ZXBkHVKm0ZNDeW1bsxdQQa_f7US857SDPmFQF6_B3UnmC8LvAcDojLBo0FwLXLj9vEC50Z_DXSteNQF8XVs_MYc0wIGMu-ajpk-ubg8CZAPxAu4Xc1P97rEP4xpkaTNejzzR4n7QUdYEWQ-wAVu4hAlRnZFh2lTHNGvvme8kSRYfCQVCgUfJgInY9PWpOek2278tBVmLLEI-g35co.FriLqKDoqtxu1FkZr9sVsx_d6ZeJFrZX91agR6ErSQg&dib_tag=se&keywords=slug+pellets&qid=1716235553&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=slug%2Caps%2C296&sr=8-11

          1. Thanks JN my good lady bought a new packet yesterday when she was out shopping. She was rightly worried for he new plants she’s just added to old spaces.

    4. My sympathy! One of my tomato plants disappeared completely in the night after being planted out. Eaten down to a stump. It was about 3 inches high. Half my baby parsley plants have gone too, and quite a few lettuce seedlings, and all this despite protection.

          2. Good lad! he should avoid it for his own preservation. Knowing how omnivorous is the average Lab, i would say that he has dodged a bullet,

      3. Slug killer needed. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pestshield-Killer-Pellets-Showerproof-single/dp/B084R983SB/ref=sr_1_11_mod_primary_new?crid=Z6GLIPP2PIKU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MxKdbXDAy3fyqAwLbmpLd1hUsLbvds7DJ_CFHzb9eImovCboOBdKuPofxwGFz5M6TkG1XrdYllMrW2Qwcf1ziOJzX9ZXBkHVKm0ZNDeW1bsxdQQa_f7US857SDPmFQF6_B3UnmC8LvAcDojLBo0FwLXLj9vEC50Z_DXSteNQF8XVs_MYc0wIGMu-ajpk-ubg8CZAPxAu4Xc1P97rEP4xpkaTNejzzR4n7QUdYEWQ-wAVu4hAlRnZFh2lTHNGvvme8kSRYfCQVCgUfJgInY9PWpOek2278tBVmLLEI-g35co.FriLqKDoqtxu1FkZr9sVsx_d6ZeJFrZX91agR6ErSQg&dib_tag=se&keywords=slug+pellets&qid=1716235553&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=slug%2Caps%2C296&sr=8-11

    5. Have you tried sharp sand circled around the plants with a circle of stove ash around the sand circles?

    1. Obviously not, but I didn’t think slugs went for marigolds! Don’t they prefer mittens?

        1. The chap who runs the truffle farm (yes, really!) not far from me recommended iron filings. Dog friendly apparently, but extremely slug unfriendly.

          3. Thrushes and hedgehogs are the best control. You need to cut down on your badgers

          4. Having done a bit of research, I think he probably said “iron phosphates” – I wasn’t sitting close to the front when he spoke to us.

          1. You probably don’t need to. They presumably dislike the feel of it on their tummies (upon which they slither), so a fleece would do

        3. I would have gone round gathering tufts from the fences, but the fields which formerly were full of sheep are now covered with housing 🙁

  129. The tainted blood scandal is of such a scale that it is difficult to comprehend.
    This went on for years and the sheer number of NHS managers, politicians and civil servants who knew the truth but gaslit the public anyway, has to be enormous.
    Government after government, manager after manager.

    The state, lying and dodging and intimidating.
    Those responsible must be named.

    2. 22000 or so deaths per year assessed in UK due to medical negligence. That is the equivalent of two jumbo jet crashes with 100% casualties per incident per week.

      https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/237-million-medication-errors-made-every-year-in-england/#:~:text=For%20the%20worst%20case%20scenario,lives%2C%20respectively%2C%20each%20year.

      Can you imagine the hue and cry if that were to happen?

      Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed is an excellent read on this.

    3. The MSM will play it all down. Its dissapeared already from the Mail on Line.

  130. Been busy in the garden this afternoon. Came in for a bit of internet time and we had a power cut! Fortunately all working again now. Nice fine day here but not quite as warm as over the weekend.

  132. You can also get tagetes minutiae which are Mexican marigolds. I’ve been on the lookout for them (unsuccessfully, unfortunately) as they are supposed to deter ground elder.

    1. The latter will be a myth, I betcha. There are only two things you can do with ground elder (apart from spraying): spend hour upon hour every year digging it out (horticultural term – root propagation) or learn to enjoy and live with it. In its favour: it is a specific against arthritis and delicious in salads or sweated when very young, it has beautiful geometric flowers which foam above the leaves and it smothers all other unwanted plants. You can also cut it to the ground periodically or brutally which will eventually destroy its ability to photosynthesise. I’ve gone for the tolerance option in the last few years and do feel much happier for it.

      1. I have tried the spraying, digging out and chopping down options. Nothing appears to have worked as it’s thrived and spread 🙁

      2. Tagetes minuta ? Oh, it’s no myth. The roots emit a biocide that will total ground elder, bindweed, couch, nematodes, and all sorts of other horrors. In our coolish climate you have to grow it as an annual, from seed sown early in the year. Sarah Raven stocks the seeds; Chiltern, too.

    2. I have a small strip in my garden where i have let ground elder flourish. Stony and wet so not good for much else. I like the little purple/pink flowers.

      I have been looking for proper French Tarragon. No luck. The stuff the supermarkets sell is rubbish.

      1. Wrong plant. Phizz. I don’t know what you have cultivated but it ain’t ground elder, which has flowers very similar to, but much more dainty than, yer standard elder flowers

        1. Understood. Still like them though and i can virtue signal about rewilding !

    1. Peter Skellern went to live in Fowey where he kept a very nice boat.

      He died of a brain tumour in 2017 aged 69 but before he died he was ordained by the Bishop of Truro.

      A pleasant and talented musician and a friend of Richard Stilgoe with whom he worked.

  139. Lunch today was lamb kidney and calves liver on sourdough fried bread with a lot of chopped parsley. I really needed the Malbec to go with that. Burp !
    No iron supplements for me.

    1. Just four mugs of tea and two large cappuccinos for me today.

      Tomorrow, I’ll be having deep fried battered cod (in beef tallow); triple cooked chips; mushy peas and a pickled onion.

      1. What ? It’s not Friday ! Try Hake in curry sauce with a salt and vinegar scraps topping.

        1. What the hell has Friday got to do with anything? Are you one of those who has to eat certain foods on specific days?

          3. I just cook what i fancy when i fancy. Singapore pork and prawn noodle today. I get to use my pressure oven today for the first time. Had it a year.

  140. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/684a67ea3e3d659e53484165ce910e67908f2d87d3c1c14caf6f3fb3ee932054.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d5646f4ebc560edee3788f6e18c2759e9d7d225910e7ca00b8cebbf895776c83.jpg Where’s Jules?

    I got quite excited today, out on one of my local nature rambles, when I came across a new butterfly (for me). The Northern Blue Plebejus idas doesn’t occur in the UK but is commonplace on the continent. It is very similar to our Silver-studded Blue P. argus but with a few subtle differences (as well as the fact that it is a bit too early for that species to emerge here yet).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b55e3c832f164b07ad2b6c7d289e4b04fbcbe1c2cb780cf5d13834d320fe9a2.jpg I also got good views of a female Holly Blue Celastrina argiolus. I then saw a dazzlingly gorgeous Camberwell Beauty Nymphalis antiopa, which breed locally; unfortunately it didn’t settle long enough for me to take its picture! It was the same with my favourite, Orange Tip Anthocharis cardamines, which closed its wings upon feeding.

    I’ve also had a successful two days photographing some lovely birdlife, but they will have to wait until tomorrow.

    3. Those are so lovely. We get clouds of Holly Blues on our holly hedges but they have not yet appeared this year. They are so tiny and so intense.

    1. That is a lesser spotted woodpecker Dryobates minor (about the size of a house sparrow). They are very rare in gardens, pet.

      Edit: this is not the case!

    2. I have to ask you, Pet, where you got that photograph from? The reason I’m asking is because I was not satisfied with my initial thought that it was a lesser spotted woodpecker..After searching my books I can see that it is not since that species has red on the top of its head.

      Your photo shows an American Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus, which I don’t think has ever been recorded in Europe (I may be wrong on that point so I’ll check).

      I’m thinking you might have seen the more common great spotted woodpecker, which is common in gardens, and thought this photo showed that.

      Please tell me if I’m wrong, Pet.😘

      1. I googled it! By the time I’d tiptoed into the house to get my iPad, made it back to the garden it had taken off!! So I tapped in woodpecker and that was the pic I used!

        1. Poor old Grizzly has been fretting over the colour of every feather for nought!

      3. Just checked the reference! You’re right, of course pet! It’s the hairy woodpecker! Which, I have to admit, I didn’t even know existed! 💕

  142. Isn’t it an honour? We have them too – in both sizes – and the green jobs, that are even more festive

      1. Not so lovely when they are raiding bluetit nesting boxes complete with young, not yet fledged bluetits.

          1. If you have nests in your garden with young it probably will. We were witness to a sad little event two or three years ago.

          2. I chase every magpie I see but there are a lot of crows this year, one of which attacked a baby blackbird last week and pecked its eye out before I could save it. The twins helped me to bury it but are still keen to look at it!

  143. The Wooden Hill is looking inviting.
    Back in the morning.
    Good night all.
    Lovely sunset.

          2. I should tell Opp that isn’t possible, you’re already corrupted arnt you 🙂

          4. Best not too, he does misbehave at times, he always has 🙂

          6. Playing the God card , very bad, as always , my goodness 🙂

  145. “Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s former foreign minister, has blamed US sanctions on aviation parts for the helicopter crash that killed the Islamic Republic’s president. Mr Zarif suggested on Monday that the punitive measures had compromised Tehran’s access to modern aircraft and inhibited repairs to its ageing fleet of American-made aircraft.

    The helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president, as well as Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister, on the fatal flight was a US-made Bell 212 helicopter, likely to be more than 40 years old, according to Iranian state media. “One of the culprits behind yesterday’s tragedy is the United States, because of its sanctions that bar Iran from procuring essential aviation parts,” Mr Zarif said in an interview with state television.”

    Sanctions DO work.

    1. I guess the USA will also be blamed for the fog and the mountain being moved to the flight path

          2. I seldom know what language I’m speaking at the moment 🤣🤣 so whatever floats your boat. 😉 x

    2. Aren’t these the same people who claim that Mahomet flew to Jerusalem on a winged horse?

      1. This claim annoys me do much. It’s as if every single holy site of every true religion needs to be polluted and usurped by their political rubbish masquerading as religion

    4. Is the Iranian regime so cash-strapped that it cannot procure helicopters and their components from other, less-hostile sources? Iran even has its own helicopter manufacturers.

      2. No simple answer to your question, because your Western logic and priorities may not be the same as that of an autocratic state.

    5. Why are those sanctions there in the first place Mr Zarif?
      I am reminded of the howling about that wall Israel built surrounding the Gaza Strip.

      1. I think “the wall” is in the East Jerusalem/West Bank area. Gaza had (obvs, in view of what happened) more of a chainlink and barbed wire structure. Both designed to counteract the worst of the constant bombardment of rockets and influx of suicide bombers. The “Wall” between Israel and the West Bank has reduced the number of suicide bombers penetrating Israel but it’s enormous and looks brutal, so yet another propaganda opportunity for the antisemtes

        1. Thank you for the geographical correction opopanax. I had some wall in my memory from the October 7th news footage.

      2. I think “the wall” is in the East Jerusalem/West Bank area. Gaza had (obvs, in view of what happened) more of a chainlink and barbed wire structure. Both designed to counteract the worst of the constant bombardment of rockets and influx of suicide bombers. The “Wall” between Israel and the West Bank has reduced the number of suicide bombers penetrating Israel but it’s enormous and looks brutal, so yet another propaganda opportunity for the antisemtes

    6. “Mr Zarif suggested on Monday that the punitive measures had compromised Tehran’s access to modern aircraft and inhibited repairs to its ageing fleet of American-made aircraft.”

      Shame, should have bought Chinese herricopters.

  148. It’s been an interesting evening, good night everyone.

      1. I’ll tell you tomorrow, it was complicated . Sleep well

  149. 387437+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    This evil state of affairs revved up openly after Mrs Thatchers political reign, the likened perpetrators of this horrendous evilness are actually given 5* bed & board
    via the political top rankers and their supporters in this country and have found succour within these Isles , via the polling stations ,for decades,

    https://x.com/AzzatAlsaalem/status/1792526064150778157

  150. Brilliant article on the tainted blood scandal by Sherelle Jacons in the DT tonight.

  153. I know it’s somewhat late in the day, but I found this: https://www.mattgoodwin.org/p/the-elites-still-dont-get-it

    And actually agree with it. It’s a bit like my rants, only calm, collected, researched and rational.

    OK, so it’s nothing like my rants. It’s still a good read though.

    He is, sadly, right. However what we will see when the Left get pushed back is an avalanche of economic, social and ‘climate change’ wealth and freedom crippling policy to permanently destroy the ability for people to fight back. Our own administration has done just this over Brexit. We will see the same in Europe.

    1. I believe that Matt G has said he is going to start a new political party once he has 100,000 subscribers. Such is my desperation to have somebody to vote for that I started subscribing last week.

  157. Labour backs ICC efforts to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes

    Shadow foreign secretary urges Government to recognise jurisdiction of international court

    Mr Lammy told the Commons yesterday: “Arrest warrants are not a conviction or determination of guilt, but they do reflect the evidence and judgment of the prosecutor about the grounds for individual criminal responsibility.

    “Labour’s position is that the decision by the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor to apply for arrest warrants is an independent matter for the court and the prosecutor. And Labour believes that the UK and all parties to the Rome Statute have a legal obligation to comply with orders and warrants issued by the court. Democracies who believe in the rule of law must submit themselves to it.”

    Mr Lammy called on the Government to make the same commitments, asking: “Does the Conservative Party, the party of Churchill, who was one of the founders of our international legal framework, does the Conservative Party believe in international rule of law or not?”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/20/labour-backs-icc-arrest-netanyahu-lammy-hamas-war-crimes/

    My question to the great oaf is “Whose rule of law must we submit to?” Another unaccountable panel of judges, as likely to be swayed by their own political prejudices as those of the ECHR, who think that prisoners should be allowed to vote in public elections and that governments have a duty to protect OAPs from climate change?

    His invocation of Churchill is a measure of the depth to which he will sink. He pretended to be concerned about the vandalism of Churchill’s statue in 2020 during the BLM riots but that was cynical. Thanks to the likes of Sago Lou, he is obliged to despise Churchill and all of Britain’s history: https://treventour1995.medium.com/the-unremembered-when-churchill-shrugged-his-shoulders-at-the-african-war-dead-f7e62fb14ef5

    There are few in UK politics that I would more wish to see publicly ruined than this dangerous race-baiter.

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