Monday 22 September: Keir Starmer has made a grave mistake in recognising Palestine

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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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.

535 thoughts on “Monday 22 September: Keir Starmer has made a grave mistake in recognising Palestine”

      1. "Good moaning", OLT? You are Annie Allan, and I claim my free Liberty Bodice! Lol. (And a Good Morning to you too, btw.)

      2. At Sheringham there was a chap dressed up as the policeman who mangled French. I wonder what the twinners from Brittany thought about him.

  3. Labour politicians still don't understand Englishness

    Scottish and Welsh identity is good, English is not

    Robert Taylor
    21st September 2025, 6:33pm BST

    They still don't get it. They really don't. Even when the flag of Saint George is staring at them in the face, flying from lampposts, bridges and houses up and down the country in a giant outburst of patriotism, they don't get it. Even when a hundred thousand people or so take to the streets of London, many carrying the flag, they still don't. Even now, Labour politicians find Englishness completely befuddling.

    It's been going on for years. They really wish England wasn't a thing. At every opportunity, Labourites talk about "the nations and regions" of Britain. The nations? Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regions? The Southeast, Northwest, Midlands and so on. England doesn't get a mention. No wonder we have parliaments or assemblies for the "nations", while England gets nowt. No wonder the English have to make do with the British anthem before big sporting events, while the Welsh and Scots proudly blast out their own.

    And no wonder Geoff Hoon, Labour's former defence minister, felt able to make the extraordinary declaration on GB News on Thursday that the English should not display their flag except at sports events. He wasn't joking. These were his words: "Why are people displaying the flag of St George and claiming that it is somehow patriotic? … What is wrong is English nationalism. I do not believe it is necessary to emphasise nationalism … We can be proud of England when England are playing football and England are playing rugby but I don't believe it is appropriate to put up flags of St George in substitution for the flag that we owe our allegiance to, which is the Union Flag, because we are British."

    Good grief. Where to start? First, I'd like to see Hoon go to Scotland and make that point. I'd like to see him instruct anyone displaying the Saltire that isn't "appropriate" because "we are British and owe our allegiance to the Union Flag". He wouldn't of course, because like so many on the Left, he has double standards. Scottishness good, Englishness bad. Saltire appropriate, Flag of St George inappropriate. Proud Scottish patriotism, ugly English nationalism. And what about the Palestinian flag? The mind boggles.

    Secondly, how does he have the nerve to tell the English when they should display their flag? Can you imagine politicians in other countries saying the same to their people? Unthinkable.

    It's a good job Hoon isn't in government, because he'd be handing in his resignation. That's what Emily Thornberry had to do after she snobbishly mocked someone for decorating their house with England flags. Jack Straw, former Labour Home Secretary, was rightly castigated for saying that the English have a "propensity to violence". These Labour MPs just can't stop themselves, because, as Orwell said 80 years ago, they genuinely believe that Englishness is an embarrassing, even disgraceful, habit that needs to be stamped out. It's okay once every four years during the World Cup, but otherwise call yourself British, please, not English.

    Labour MP Naushabah Khan nailed it when, after failing to win an election a few years back, she said that many people thought of Labour as the "anti-English" party. When Tristram Hunt begged his party to get to grips with English identity, he had to leave. Labour didn't want to know. And now the party is down to 16 per cent in the latest poll, not least because of a surge of English patriotism and a recognition that Labour finds it all distasteful.

    For years, English people have been telling anyone who'll listen that they feel more English and less British. That's the trend. Yet Labour politicians declare that England flags shouldn't be flown. If they don't get it now, they never will.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/21/labour-english-flags-foolish

    2. Labour have never recovered from Two Jags Prescott and his push for the EU Regional split of England being scorned by the English voters. Blair's devolution plans included such regions but perhaps he knew he couldn't fudge results against English 'nationalists' who were against splitting England up into such EU Regions, unlike in Scotland and Wales where nationalists carried the day. Especially in Wales. Though neither result was overwhelming; Scotland on a 60.18% turnout voted by 74.29% to 25.71% in favour; Wales on a 50.22% turnout voted by 50.3% to 49.7% in favour.

      So devolution in Scotland was voted in by 44% of the electorate, and in Wales by a mere 25% of the electorate. On the bright side, having witnessed the horrors of devolution, the UK electorate turned out en masse for the Brexit Referendum. Lessons learned, though Whitehall/Westminster seem a little reluctant to act on the result almost a decade later.

      1. The Welsh referendum never got criticised as a narrow margin, though, unlike the EU referendum which had a bigger majority.

    3. I have started crossing out “British “ and writing in “English“ where I can, just as I write “Christian “ in place of forename or first name. Become ungovernable and refuse to comply.

  6. 'Morning, off fishing with the boys.

    Wordle 1,556 4/6

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  7. Good morning Geoff and all NoTTLers. Last Monday morning I was in Portugal, pursuing a Taxi firm for not picking me up at the airport. I forgot to post my weekly Chuckles, so here are three more this morning:

    Two old men were sitting down to breakfast. One said to the other: “Do you know you’ve got a suppository in your left ear?” “Really?” said his friend, removing the suppository. “I’m so glad you pointed that out. Now I think I remember where I put my hearing aid.”

    A couple stopped at an English motorway service station for breakfast. They bought two cooked breakfasts, two coffees and two doughnuts. When the husband reached the cash desk, he said to the cashier: “I’m sorry, I’ve only got a £50 note.” “That’s okay,” she said. “Just put the doughnuts back.”

    A businessman received a call urging him to go to his lawyer’s office immediately. When he arrived, his lawyer greeted him gloomily with the question: “Do you want the bad news or the terrible news?” The businessman said: “If you put it like that, I guess I’ll take the bad news first.” “Okay,” said the lawyer. “Your wife found a picture worth half a million dollars.” “That’s the bad news?” queried the businessman. “If you call that bad, I can’t wait to hear the terrible news!” “The terrible news is the picture is of you and your secretary.”

      1. Thanks Elsie.
        D'you think some of us early birds (you, BoB, Citroen, Johnny Norfolk et al) should form a splinter group of Insomniacs within NoTTL?

      2. Thanks Elsie.
        D'you think some of us early birds (you, BoB, Citroen, Johnny Norfolk et al) should form a splinter group of Insomniacs within NoTTL?

        I tried to post this half an hour ago but got a warning, which I thought came from the auto-mod bots. I have reproduced it as a separate image below in case THIS post gets modded out for some infraction. and now it's saying, on a red background:
        You must be authenticated to perform this action.

        Then: You must be logged in to upload an image. But I AM logged in.

        Can't win today. I'll try to post the earlier red message below

          1. roughcommon, it's not that I am an insomniac. I just find myself nodding off at intervals during the day. So I then find myself sleeping less during the night.

  8. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page. Managed a Bogey with today's Wordle.

    Wordle 1,556 5/6

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    1. Big fan of JR, one of Thatcher's advisers. He's never wrong on economics (and other issues eg migration, see Instagram for riots!)

  12. Harry Mount
    Oxford’s decline and fall is no surprise
    19 September 2025, 5:00pm

    What’s the quickest way to make the two most famous universities in the world go wrong? Make it easier to get in. That’s exactly what Oxford and Cambridge appear to have done in recent years. And so – no surprise – it’s just been announced that neither university was in the top three British universities for the first time since the records, produced by the Times, began 32 years ago.

    This decline must at least partly be blamed on the universities offering ‘contextual offers’ or using ‘contextual data’ in assessing applicants who may have lower grades. It appears to be under this flawed system that the president-elect of the Oxford Union, George Abaraonye, got into Oxford with just ABB in his A-Levels. He’s the one who disgracefully gloated at the death of Charlie Kirk this month, with the semi-literate Instagram post “Charlie Kirk got shot loool.”

    Oxford’s slipping standards don’t just apply to those trying to win a place, but also to those graduating. In 1993, when I sat my Finals, just over 16.34 per cent got Firsts. In 2021, it was 36 per cent.

    Have undergraduates got more than twice as clever in the last 30 years? Of course not. In fact, their degrees are much easier. Classics Mods – the second-year exam – were once held up as the second hardest exams in the world, after the Chinese Civil Service exams. When I sat them in 1991, you had to read eight books of Virgil’s Aeneid in Latin and 24 books of Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey in Greek.

    Now, because of the collapse of the rigorous study of classics in most schools in Britain, the course has been dumbed down to avoid a similar decline in exam results.

    The embarrassing thing for the authorities is that the last places where subjects like classics are taught at the highest level are independent schools and grammar schools. Very few comprehensives offer Greek for A Level at all. So, if you kept the old entrance requirements, in classics you’d likely be left with the awkward situation that those who have been selectively educated will do that much better than those who haven’t. The government, of course, is unlikely to be happy about that outcome. The answer? Make it easier to get in. Dumb down the syllabus. Inflate the finals grades.

    One of the fringe benefits of the decline of Oxbridge is the rise of other universities. Very bright pupils – who got much better A-Level results than George Abaraonye – did not get into Oxbridge. So they headed for other universities, whose performance has, in turn, improved.

    Of course, there still remain extremely clever undergraduates at Oxbridge from all backgrounds, who work extremely hard. But their Firsts will be that much harder to pick out among the inflated crowd of people who get the top mark.

    The answer is not to dumb down the universities but to improve the schools of those who’ve been given the contextual offers. The perfect situation is to have a level playing field when pupils apply to Oxbridge, not to put obstacles in the place of those who’ve had the misfortune to be well-educated.

    Oxford and Cambridge degrees don’t last long enough – and the teaching hours aren’t extensive enough – to remedy the unfair gaps caused by a bad school education.

    If you do a three-year course at Oxford, you have nine terms, each of eight weeks. In many courses, you will only have a single one-hour tutorial a week. So that’s 72 hours of teaching – three days of the fabled one-on-one tutorials.

    You top that up with lectures and your own study. But, still: that’s a drop in the ocean compared to the time you spend working at school. There are 13 years of primary and secondary school education, plus nursery school on top. You’ll spend around 39 weeks a year at school, having dozens of hours of tuition every week.

    So how can the unfairly deprived pupil ever catch up with the fortunate, well-educated one? Unless they’re superhuman, they won’t do it in three or four years of higher education.

    I did intensive Latin from the age of nine; intensive Greek from the age of ten. So I’d done eight or nine years of language-learning by the time I got to Oxford. How could someone, starting from scratch at 18, catch up – not least because lucky people like me go on working while they’re at university. It’s not like the well-educated give up at university, and wait for their unluckier contemporaries to catch up.

    The idea of a brilliant university is very simple to define, if hard to achieve. Accept the cleverest 18-year-olds with the best marks. Teach them the best that has been thought, or said, for three or four years. Set them extremely difficult final exams, in which only a small fraction get the top mark.

    Oxford and Cambridge stopped doing this. They slipped down the league tables. QED.

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

    1. "So how can the unfairly deprived pupil ever catch up with the fortunate, well-educated one?"
      As bright and as deeply read in Classical texts as Mr Mount tells us he is he fails to trot out an explanation for the radical equity premise running through his comments. Dancing around a cold hard presumption with huge ramifications for the rest of us must be one of those skills you get from old school Oxbridge.

    2. Good morning. Still no acknowledgment that IQ is largely hereditary therefore the majority of the brightest are likely to be the children of successful ethnic Europeans, Jews and East Asians. The racial component is distasteful but real, like it or not.

    2. Suella Braverman
      21 September 2025 4:29pm BST
      Suella Braverman
      Keir Starmer’s recognition of a Palestinian state is a catastrophic misjudgement that will do nothing to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East.

      By demanding Israel meet impossible ceasefire terms, while giving a free pass to Hamas, this policy has betrayed Britain’s tradition of even-handed diplomacy. It rewards terror, excuses Palestinian governance failures, dismantles the Oslo framework, and surrenders to domestic political forces that are hell-bent on Israel’s demise.

      As we approach the two year anniversary of the October 7 atrocities, Starmer’s timing could not be any worse.

      Hamas’s brutal assault – slaughtering 1,200 civilians, with rapes, mutilations, and over 251 taken hostage – was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Yet Starmer’s plan places no conditions on Hamas: no hostage releases, no renunciation of terror, no commitment to a demilitarised state. Granting statehood now tells extremists that violence wins rewards.

      It was precisely the moment that France, Spain, Ireland, and Norway committed to recognition in 2024 that Hamas grew more intransigent, rejecting ceasefire and hostage deals. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee has warned that unilateral recognition “has disastrous consequences that have proven to do exactly opposite” of fostering peace. Recognition now signals that violence and defiance are more effective than compromise, as Hamas terror leaders have been telling their supporters for decades.

      Advertisement

      The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA), set to lead any new state, is also unfit. Britain and global donors have invested billions, demanding reforms to end corruption and safeguard freedoms. Yet 80 per cent of Palestinians in the West Bank view PA institutions as riddled with corruption. A recent report by the US State Department documents torture, arbitrary arrests, and attacks on journalists. July 2025 saw intensified PA crackdowns to shore up Mahmoud Abbas’s faltering rule. Donor calls for change go unanswered. Recognition would entrench this failure, wasting Britain’s leverage.

      This move also demolishes the Oslo Accords, the 1993 bedrock of peace. Oslo charted gradual Palestinian autonomy, leading to talks on borders, Jerusalem, and security. Israel recognised the PLO; the PLO rejected terror and affirmed Israel’s right to exist. Statehood was the endgame, earned through negotiation. Unilateral recognition destroys incentives for compromise. Why negotiate land swaps or secure borders when sovereignty is handed over? This emboldens hardliners, freezes talks, and betrays Britain’s Oslo role.

      Starmer’s pivot reeks of domestic capitulation. His once-steadfast support for Israel as an ally has crumbled rapidly under pressure from the aggressive anti-Israel faction on Labour’s backbenches. After a difficult first year in office, and now with the party conference looming, Starmer’s team hope they are buying goodwill and time. But, make no mistake, this faction won’t stop here. For many of them, “Free Palestine” means no Israel. Next will surely come calls for sanctions, arms embargoes, reparations for the Balfour Declaration, and further steps to de-legitimise the Jewish state. Starmer is starting down a very dangerous path.

      The Government’s Palestinian policy represents a major break with the US which no amount of pomp and ceremony will gloss over. Even under Democratic leadership, the US was clear that statehood must be tied to a secure, demilitarised Palestine. The European approach, which Starmer has opted for, would instead lay the foundation for a terrorist state in the West Bank – something that no Israeli politician, left or right, would ever allow to happen.

      It is painful to watch Britain’s standing in the Middle East reduced to tatters. Once a trusted mediator and guarantor of Oslo, Britain has alienated Israel, a trusted and vital security partner, while signalling to moderate Arab states that it is not a reliable friend when under pressure from extremists.

      Every right-thinking person longs for lasting peace in the Middle East. But unilateral recognition is a reckless gesture that makes it even more improbable – while, in the meantime, fuelling antisemitism at home and tarnishing Britain’s legacy as a force for stability.

  14. Steerpike
    Ed Davey: arrest Elon Musk
    21 September 2025, 1:23pm

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-2236405819-e1758456873339.jpg
    Liberal Democrat party conference – four words which turn the blood of any lobby journalist cold. Yes, it is that time of year again: the annual five-day bonanza in which the perennial third party of British politics desperately tries to find some relevance. In his never-ending quest for headlines, Sir Ed Davey – the clown prince of Westminster – has alighted on a new stunt: leading a marching band, drum and all. Less Orange Book, more Orange Order…

    But for Davey, who furiously complains that his antics are not getting enough airtime, one wheeze is not enough. The Kingston MP is reprising his Love Actually routine by talking tough on Donald Trump and his administration. His latest target? Elon Musk, the owner of X. Speaking on Sky this morning, Davey was asked if he was calling the Tesla billionaire a criminal. He replied:

    Yes. Not just because of the awful things he’s done in inciting violence, and, for example, he says a civil war in our country is inevitable, that our democratically elected government should be overthrown. They were bad enough. But on his platform, they’re examples of adverse, pushing people on self-harm, on grooming, even selling videos showing paedophile acts, of child sex abuse acts and I think he should be held to account for them, him personally and his business. Ofcom now has the powers under the Online Safety Act.

    He added that if Musk comes to the UK, he should be arrested. Ooh! The world’s richest man must be shaking in his boots…

    1. Considering how insulting and obnoxious Davey is the country would be better off if he were arrested, sectioned and forbidden from ever being seen or heard from again.

  15. Good morning all.
    Autumnal Equinox passed and it straight down to the lowest temperature so far. A dry start, a tad under 6½°C with a beautiful clear sky and not a lot of wind.

  22. Good Moaning.
    For a cold, dingy morning in a country run by a Mozzie RRs licker.
    A childish snigger is needed. Thank you, North Britain and DT journalist for providing it.

    "An SNP activist allied to Nicola Sturgeon has pulled out of the Holyrood election race following allegations that he ran an online “swingers” profile…..

    …. Mr Campbell-Sturgess, a councillor in Argyll and Bute, is regarded as a rising star in the SNP ranks.

    Born in England and a staunch supporter of Scottish independence, he founded campaign group English Scots for Yes.

    He has posed for pictures with Ms Sturgeon and paid tribute on social media to her “humanity and warmth” and “towering intellect” when she stepped down as first minister in 2023."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/21/sturgeon-ally-pulls-out-holyrood-race-swingers-allegations/?recomm_id=484e5ab7-0bb8-475f-8d0f-dd5ce134e207 .

    Visions of the battle bus bouncing on its springs come to mind.

  23. 'Morning All
    Every day is a learning curve who knew 'puter keyboards and a mouse don't mix with a spilled pint of lemon squash
    ARRGGHHHHHHHH

  24. Ring of Kerry today for me and mum and dad.

    I got the hotel to find me a room with a bath; but it turned out to be much closer to reception than mum and dad’s* so i swapped with them, so i am still in a room with only a shower. I am sitting here soaking my feet in a sink. In a £150 a night hotel for heaven’s sake. Nit sure how i can soak my back in a sink. Still, let’s all “save the planet” and “people prefer showers these days”.

    * mum has a bad hip and now “walks” with a snazzy stick (it has a light and alarm and everything). The hotel is a huge sprawling modern affair with long long arterial corridors.

  29. Only a matter of time before Starmer & Macron are pressing for Palestine qualification for the World Cup, Champions League & hosting the Olympics.
    Funded by .. You.

  31. Farage: I'll kick out hundreds of thousands.

    NIGEL FARAGE will today pledge to eject hundreds of thousands of legal migrants in an unprecedented reversal of Britain’s relaxed border rules.
    The Reform leader will unveil plans to force all migrants with permanent residency to reapply for visas under stricter criteria, including a higher salary requirement and better standard of English.

    The party would also change the law to prevent foreign nationals from accessing the British welfare system, saving an estimated £234 billion over the lifetime of the average migrant.

    "Good morning, prime minister. If you cast your mind back, to three years ago, when you were campaigning for the election of your party; one of your firm manifesto pledges was to 'kick out hundreds of thousands.' Now, as we enter the third year of your premiership, it seems that not a single illegal migrant has yet been 'kicked out'; moreover, they still arrive in the country in huge numbers as before. Do you have any comments to add on that fact, prime minister?"

  36. Only a matter of time before Starmer & Macron are pressing for Palestine qualification for the World Cup, Champions League & hosting the Olympics.
    Funded by .. You.

    2. Can you imagine the events? No race track, just tracked by tracer fire. No hurdles, just leaping over rubble.

      They're savages.

      2. I don't understand. In the video the older ginger blinks and moves her arm. The smaller baby's head turns?

        1. The only conclusion to draw is that the children in the video clip are not those in the still image with the caption.

  38. Good morning, all. Couldn't login. Some blasted discurse "error". Seem to be here now. Brief shower plus gorgeous, bright rainbow

    No news, I see.

  41. Morning all 🌄 lovely sunny 🌞 morning here after a disturbed night with water dripping into a bucket in the bedroom. Hey ho. Couldn't postmy first comment so here it is again.

    2. Oh heck. Do you know wherefrom? (Sounds a daft question, but as you know, the drip can appear some distance from the actual leakage.)

      1. The plumbing company who replaced our hot water cylinder above the en suite say someone will come and have a look tomorrow. I think something might need adjustment as it was only done in July.
        We have a separate hot water system in that part of the house, the kitchen and upstairs bathroom hot water comes from the boiler in the kitchen.

    2. I'd far prefer he hadn't been killed at all. I'd far prefer instead of Leftists squealing and fighting and saying 'it was MAGA!' they looked at themselves and said 'Hang on. Are we the bad guys?' and all this nonsense would stop, but they can't. If they could self reflect they'd not be Leftists.

  44. He now says he's going to kick out all foreigners. Wasn't his wife German? I have a German friend who has lived here since1960. More trouble posting.

    1. He now says he's going to kick out all foreigners.
      As if.

      10 Jan 2025 — Reform leader Nigel Farage says government should consider allowing Shamima Begum back home

    2. He now says he's going to kick out all foreigners.
      As if.

      10 Jan 2025 — Reform leader Nigel Farage says government should consider allowing Shamima Begum back home

  47. Good Morning!

    Today we have two short articles for you. The first is Paul Sutton's follow up to his piece on the million plus patriots march on 13 Sept, exposing a Class Division in the Fight For Free Speech , with middle class conservatives looking down on working class ones. The second article, Starmer Rewards Terror , is a condemnation of the shameful recognition of a state that does not exist and does not want to exist by UK, Canada and Australia, which makes the world more dangerous.

    The beautifully written Dichotomy , the adventures of to youths travelling in a (so far) benign, bucolic Britain of the far future where the only law seems to be 'Do No Harm,' is too good to miss folk.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's average power requirement was 29.2 GW, sourced from Gas, 13.8%; Solar, 8.8%: Wind 44.5%; Imports, 15.9%; Biomass, 6%; Nuclear 8.4% and Miscellaneous, 2.6%.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    2. Hilaire Belloc mildly suggests that the Upper Class and the Working Class have more in common with each other than they have with the middle class!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7d940a6c5048120790188f3e1f6364d14be093868552a4d4dd0a1a894e9b0792.png

      The rich arrived in pairs
      And also in Rolls Royces
      They talked of their affairs
      In loud and strident voices.

      The poor arrived in Fords
      Whose features they resembled
      And laughed to see so many lords
      And ladies all assembled.

      The people in between
      Looked underdone and harassed
      And out of place and mean
      And horribly embarrassed.

  48. Farage speaks with forked tongue.. and chooses his words carefully.

    No mass deportations under Farage's PMship.

  51. Good moaning.
    Not really. It is now confirmed that we have a Muzzie RRs licker for Prime Minister.
    How low has this country sunk.

      1. Never tried it. I have just tackled the DT CrossAtlantic crossword; quite different. A weird mixture of quick crossword simplicity, some strange word manglings and down right American references.
        Keeps the little grey cells on their toes.

  53. Morning all 🙂😊🤗
    Sunny start again only 7c, more rain later.
    My word we had a busy weekend with our family. Two birthdays two late lunches.
    Lots of activities from the grandchildren.
    And today a quieter day, a funeral service for an old friend. A quite chap who was well into his 90s.
    Starmer never will take even a blind of notice of public opinion. Same old story……everything he comes into contact with he quite deliberately effs it up.

  54. How many of those Muslim workers at the Home Office will it take to review every foreign resident with unlimited right to remain? How many of those will qualify under Farage's criteria?
    The man's a fool if he thinks that will work. He's going to put a few people off voting for Reform with an announcement like that.

    My 85 year old German friend shouldn't need to worry.

      1. Sit on the river bank for a while, Rastus ….see your enemy's body floating by (or similar, can't recall exact quote).

        1. Good morning Kate.

          You strike me as having a sweet and rational personality but Shakespeare associated the name Kate with a strident character in The Taming of the Shew and in this sailors' son in The Tempest. Our first son is married to a girl called Katy and so far the matrimonial waters have remained calm and they are expecting a baby girl in January.

          The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I,
          The gunner and his mate
          Loved Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery,
          But none of us cared for Kate.
          For she had a tongue with a tang,
          Would cry to a sailor, “Go hang!”
          She loved not the savor of tar nor of pitch,
          Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch.
          Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!

    2. A far simpler way to solve the muslim problem is the same way to solve the Leftist problem. Stop funding them.

      If there wre no welfare for gimmigrants, no housing, no child benefit they'd have nothing and would have to leave. They don't work, they don't contribute. Those legal migrants do work. They have to provide a bond of sorts to stay.

      With so many of the dindu on welfare the simplest route is just to cut them off.

      1. Nah, slowly, then all at once. Let councils decide on banning; 1st cousin marriages, halal slaughter and deportation for spitting at a dog outside a mosque.

      2. Nah, slowly, then all at once. Let councils decide on banning; 1st cousin marriages, halal slaughter and deportation for spitting at a dog outside a mosque.

  55. Good morning all , no frost , sunny, but the brr factor is evident .. 9c..

    Golfer golfed yesterday , so no golf today.

    I must just add that I absolutely admire the aura of patriotism that many Americans have .. I was quite in awe of the display of what ever one calls it where thousands gathered to remember Charlie Kirk , his widow and Trump inspired the masses .. They are proud of their country and their flag and a fine example to all of us .

  56. Betrayal of their flock: A Bishop’s rebuke to Anglican hierarchy who denounce Christians marching with Tommy Robinson
    Bishop Ceirion H Dewar : https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/betrayal-of-their-flock-a-bishops-rebuke-to-clergy-who-denounce-christians-marching-with-tommy-robinson/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-09-22&utm_campaign=TCW+Daily+Email

    The Anglican Church is finished. It is a headless chicken with no Archbishop of Canterbury and a nominal head, The Idiot King, who appears to be more in sympathy with Muslims than with Christians.

    Of course Muslims gobble up the concessions given to them – but they are not grateful because they see whatever they can extort from Christian countries as weakness, surrender and a victory for the cause of Islam.

    1. It has been a very long night arguing with infuriating and complex routing problems so I'm dog tired.

      The bit I am not understanding in this world is why people can't stay where they are, stop exploiting other nations and just live peacefully, minding their own business.

      I've managed it for 46 years. It's remarkably uncomplicated. I get up, I make coffee, I cosplay as a sysadmin for a bit, I play with the dogs, I make tea, I do a poo and go to bed. I generally repeat this day after day.

      I don't tell other people what to do with their lives, they don't tell me what to do with mine – exceptions over cleaning up dog poo and really, really wishing the neighbour's cats wouldn't poo in my garden. I don't even complain when the neighbours play loud music with their door open although I wish they ddi consider other people a bit more.

      Why can't that simple, boring model be adopted by everyone.

      1. Recently I heard a joke from the wonderfully funny Northern comic Al Read: "Don't ask me where I've been, or I'll tell you where to go".

    1. You'd think when Rushdie went through what he did that we would learn to never let muslim into this country. Seemingly the political class wanted to force the issue.

      Now the diversity pollution must be confronted once again.

      1. Many are already here, wibbling, born and bred. Some of those don't want any more either, thinking newer ones take away from them. I suspect it may already be too late.

      2. Sir Terence Hardy Waite KCMG CBE (born 31 May 1939[1]) is a British human rights activist and author.

        Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages, including the journalist John McCarthy. He was himself kidnapped and held captive from 1987 to 1991.[2]

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Waite

    3. Marriage between first cousins will introduce more genetical diseases and malformations (physically and mentally) of any offspring produced as a result.

      Maybe this is what they want.

      Politics and religion — already effective methods of mind control — are effectively working on so-called rational-minded people. Introduce legions of genuine imbeciles and that mind control becomes much more powerful.

        3. Yes, but Hamlet described his mother's o'er hasty marriage to Claudius, his father's brother, as incestuous although there was no blood connection between his mother and his uncle.

          However he also describes Claudius as adulterate implying that the sexual relationship started while Hamlet's father was still alive. This would have given Claudius motivation to kill his brother and have greater access to Gertrude with his rival; out of the way.

    4. In Turkey marriage between close relatives has caused so many genetic deformities that anyone who plans to marry has to be given a DNA test before they are allowed to marry.

      On one occasion the test requirement was waived when an English couple, whom we met on their boat in Marmaris marina, decided to get married. They had been together for some years. They were both in their 70s.

    1. Not Islams fault at all.

      Retribution is required for the wrongs of; CofE, progLibs, Soros, Lefties & mid-wits.

    2. First cousin marriage was legal in this country and probably still is. But it is not a good idea as any hidden defects can come to the fore if carried by both parents.

      My dear, now sadly late, friend who lived in Denmark was born with a hair lip and cleft palate and she suffered many operations to make her look normal and be able to speak normally. It made her shy and retiring and she decided not to have children of her own. She died in May and her husband is in in care home.

      1. Whilst the risk is still there, it's not an occasional 1st cousin marriage that causes the problems, it's the serial 1st cousin marriages over multiple generations.

        1. Yes. The ancient Egyptians didn’t realise it wasn’t a good idea to marry one’s sister. Poor King Tut had deformities and died very young. Their two babies died too.

  62. 413124+ ticks,

    He has copped the HP sauce factories promise vow & pledge virus, this virus has proved consequently to be of a very serious nature when neglected and in hollow rhetorical form only, and bestowed on decent folk outside of the houses of deceit & treachery.

    Dt,
    Farage pledges to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants
    Reform says mass deportation would save £234bn as it warns ‘Boriswave’ of migration will take critical toll on welfare system

      1. Bumper crop of sloes this year and we have made some sloe gin which will be ready by Christmas when we shall filter it.

        1. Same here.
          I've two of the old fashioned sweet jars and one Cadbury Roses jar, about 2/3 the size, on the go at the moment and am contemplating doing another 3 sweet jars worth.

  67. Just came across this so posting it. Still reading the news, back eventually. Please add your signature to this petition.

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/738421

    P.S.
    I also just sent off an email to my MP, he is a Conservative, not saying much now a days. I wrote

    I have just signed the above petition in the hope that this appalling decision by our so called "Prime Minister" Starmer be repealed.

    I am not Jewish but nevertheless like most decent people I fully support Israel.

    Having lived in that part of the world for many years I can say that Arabs and especially the terrorists that support a fictitious country , "Palestine" will understand this to be a victory, an encouragement to continue murdering Israelis and an admission of weakness on the part of the British State. Not just an admonishment of Israel but a sign that Great Britain is ripe for Jihad. I am not going to go into explaining the psychology of Islam here, it would be impractical. But I can assure you that from the Islamic point of view this is seen as cowardice, not decency or a matter of moral conscience. It encourages terrorism against us, it most emphatically does not ameliorate it.

    Please stand up in Parliament to condemn this evil action by Starmer.

  68. One evening when we were out in Switzerland the Warqueen and I got home, went to our room and couldn't get in. We tried everything we could with the key card.

    Eventually, after knocking on the door of our room and seeing a dishevelled little fellow answer it we realised we were in entirely the wrong hotel. He was incredibly polite and decent about it all.

  69. They won't, except through damned hard work and effort. The diversity can't be bothered with that so just want a free leg up. When they are exposed as incompetent and useless diversity hires it's not the state that pays the price: it's the public through a failed system.

      1. As far as I'm aware Rastus, and good morning, Turks among all Muslims are unique in that respect. In Libya the Arabs were very cruel to dogs, obviously did not see them as beings capable of suffering. If they did, then that made their behaviour infinitely worse.

    2. Keep sayin it.. The pair of Mo's Achilles' heels will be their downfall as far as the mid-wits are concerned.
      "Gang-raping white working class girlies is ok.. but abusing dogs & maltreatment of farm animals.. that's just not on.. and I think you better leave."

  71. John Evans post about Quarry Bank High School and its famous pupil John Lennon is a load of bollocks – there were no 3rd floor windows. I was there in the same class as him and many exploits are documented on the web

    1. I did wonder.
      Speaking as a girlie from that era, I always picked up a nasty vibe from JL; I suspected he could be very cruel – especially verbally.

      1. Did you ever meet him? I wonder if you did — as a girlie — and he wrote a song about you.😉

        Is there anybody going to listen to my story
        All about the girl who came to stay?
        She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry
        Still you don't regret a single day
        Ah, girl
        Girl, girl

        When I think of all the times I've tried so hard to leave her
        She will turn to me and start to cry
        And she promises the earth to me and I believe her
        After all this time I don't know why
        Ah, girl
        Girl, girl

        She's the kind of girl who puts you down
        When friends are there you feel a fool
        When you say she's looking good
        She acts as if it's understood she's cool
        Ooh, oh!
        Ooh, oh!
        Ooh, oh!
        Girl
        Girl, girl

        Was she told when she was young
        That pain would lead to pleasure?
        Did she understand it when they said
        That a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure?
        Will she still believe it when he's dead?
        Ah, girl
        Girl, girl
        Ah, girl
        Girl, girl
        Girl, girl
        Girl, girl

      1. Not that I'm one for gossiping, but further back in today's NOTTL, there's mention of ….. noooo ….. I can't do it …….
        Oh, all right, if you insist: Liberty Bodices

        1. How can you complain about John Lennon being cruel when you do something like mentioning that to Our Bill? He'll be in a muck sweat for the rest of the day and the MR won't be able to console him.

          1. Always a brassière (never abbreviated) in my mother's vocabulary. Even though she pronounced it "brazz-ear".

          6. Those were commonplace on the picket lines during the miners' strike of 1984–85. Many's the time we would stand chatting, quite amiably, with the pickets while keeping warm on long night shifts.

            Things turned sour when those appalling creatures from London (the 'Met', not the City police who were wonderful chaps) turned up to "assist". On one picket line a massive length of wooden fencing was ripped apart by members of the force in order to keep the fire blazing. Those twats were bigger criminals than any of the pickets.

    2. What sensible person dons not only a suit but also medals pinned on his lapels when he goes on a country stroll on a hill overlooking the seaside with his next of kin?

      1. That's an old photo – Harry has had a beard for years. He appears to be wearing a Remembrance poppy so they had probably been to a service.

        1. Good point!

          I won a swimming medal when I was at prep school but I don't pin it onto my suit jackets even on formal occasions.

  74. 413124+ Up ticks,

    Give a man a fishing rod & teach him how to fish, good sound common sense.

    For all positives there are negatives,

    Dt,
    UK to give poor countries advice instead of aid
    Foreign Office plans to replace cash grants with tips on collecting tax and boosting economic growth

    Should read,
    UK a poor country is to give advice on collecting tax & economic growth to other poor country's via legalised robbery

  75. Slow start: Lot of rain last night:
    Wordle 1,556 4/6

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

    1. The State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by 151 of the UN's 193 member states

      "Give me one state which recognised Palestine before October 7th."

      A very good point. Proof positive that October 7th was a success which Hamas can repeat again and again without attracting international opprobrium.

      1. As I said in my email to my MP. Hamas will see this as a sign of weakness and encourage them to continue. It will also, by the way, act as a recruitment magnet for Hamas. They are not down now, they will just become resurgent with fresh recruits.

      2. Algeria, Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cuba, Jordan, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Serbia, Zambia, Albania, Brunei, Djibouti, Mauritius, Sudan, Cyprus, Czech Republic (disputed), Slovakia, Egypt, The Gambia, India, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Vietnam, China, Burkina Faso, Comoros, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cambodia, Mali, Mongolia, Senegal, Hungary (disputed), Cape Verde, North Korea, Niger, Romania, Tanzania, Bulgaria, Maldives, Ghana, Togo, Zimbabwe, Chad, Laos, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Republic of the Congo, Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Oman, Poland, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, Nepal, Burundi, Central African Republic, Bhutan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Iran, Benin, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Vanuatu, Philippines, Eswatini, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Papua New Guinea (disputed), South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Timor-Leste, Paraguay, Montenegro, Costa Rica, Lebanon, Ivory Coast, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Lesotho, South Sudan, Syria, Liberia, El Salvador, Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Iceland, Thailand, Guatemala, Haiti, Sweden, Saint Lucia, Colombia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sahrawi Republic, Vatican City.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Palestine

        1. [Rhetorical question} Why is that list not sorted out into alphabetical or continental order of countries? Reading it as a chaotic jumble of country names, like that, is both annoying and frustrating!

          1. It's in the chronological order of each country's recognition of Palestine as a legitimate state. Where dates coincide, then alphabetical order is applied. That's how Wikipedia lists them.

        2. As a list of places one would not wish to live that's an excellent selection.
          I doubt that there are hordes of gimmegrants heading for any of them.

        3. "Which UN states recognised Palestine as a state before October 7th 2023"

          Many third world countries did but several European countries still do not and those that do only did so after October 7th.

      3. I just searched online for maps of the Levant first under Roman then later Ottoman rule and expected to see Palestine marked as a region if not a state but it isn’t there.

        1. Wasn't the region British Palestine, Sue – and didn't Churchill rename it Israel, hoping it would solve the Jewish problem 'once and for all' post WW2, when majority Jews would go and live there. (Albeit simplified version, devil in the detail as per.)

    2. "Give me one state which recognised Palestine before October 7th."

      A very good point. Proof positive that October 7th was a success which Hamas can repeat again and again without attracting international opprobrium.

  77. I see the warmongers are trying for WW3.

    Kaliningrad is strategically import to Russia, is part of Russia but is isolated from Russia.
    Flying there from Russia will almost certainly involve the risk of violating NATO airspace.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15121285/NATO-shoot-Russian-jets-stray-alliance-territory-Call-tough-action-Putins-warplanes-entered-Estonian-airspace-Security-Council-holds-emergency-meeting.html

    Here is a list of the countries and their locations:
    Denmark: Located to the west of the Baltic Sea, with its islands creating a mesh of straits and fjords.
    Estonia: Situated on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, in Northern Europe.
    Finland: Borders the sea to the north, with the Gulf of Bothnia reaching into the European mainland.
    Germany: Has a coastline on the southern Baltic Sea, known for its bays and shallow inlets.
    Latvia: Located on the central-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.
    Lithuania: The southernmost of the Baltic states, with a coastline on the southeastern Baltic Sea.
    Poland: Has a coastline along the southern Baltic Sea.
    Russia: Borders the sea to the east, including the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave.
    Sweden: Occupies the western and southern coasts of the Baltic Sea, opposite the Baltic states.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b8731c0571a46c4271806ee5bda904820e121eac3fdab32ec155f7d009b8076.png

      1. I do not trust any of the countries involved, including Russia, over these incidents. But avoidance of civil or military aircraft and high winds when close to borders could result in incursions.

        Are you keen for NATO to shoot them down?
        I’m extremely wary of doing so.

        1. Even the Russians must know that incursions by their military aircraft at this time into the airspace of NATO countries would be a cause for serious alarm. To do so repeatedly is either from appalling incompetence or deliberate provocation. I don’t think that the situation has yet reached the point at which NATO should shoot them down but it cannot continue indefinitely. If NATO aircraft repeatedly flew well into Russian airspace, what would you expect Russia to do?

          1. Whatever makes you think NATO aircraft and NATO supplied and supported drones and rockets don’t?

            We’ve been doing it for donkey’s years and are now happily using/abusing Zelensky’s Ukraine to do it for them.
            European leaders are champing at the bit for an excuse to try and fight with Ukraine, hoping to overthrow Putin’s regime by defeating the Russian forces.

            They should be extremely careful what they wish for. Do you honestly believe any of Europe’s leaders are actually competent?

          2. It is certainly true that American and RAF aircraft and crews have overflown Russian/Soviet territory (for example, see Operation Robin, Operation Ju-Jitsu and the Jackson Programme) but that was many decades ago and it would be far too dangerous to do this today. After all, the Russians shoot down civilian airliners!

  78. Hamas declares ‘victory’ after UK recognition of Palestine
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/21/keir-starmer-announce-recognition-of-palestine-state/

    Mr Trump states clearly that he thinks Starmer has made a terrible mistake.

    BTL

    Surely Mr Trump can see that Starmer is a dangerous menace to world peace?

    The recognition of the Palestine State will give tremendous support to the fanatical Muslim terrorists in Hamas. The President of The United States now has just a few days in which to stop the Chagos deal being finally ratified. If this is not stopped it will give tremendous support to China, the close ally of Mauritius.

      1. There should be an effective way — enshrined in British law — for the population to get rid of a ruling political party that is clearly shown to not be acting in the interests of the country.

        Failing to defend the Realm (the prime remit of all governments) should be a capital offence.

    2. If you need any further proof that TTK's decision is spectacularly wrong, Ed Davey and the Greens think it's wonderful!

      1. On reflection, looking at Bob of Bonsall's post above, Ed Davey put the poop in nincompoop.

    3. To say nothing of the lift it will give to UK ones, and the fear it will give to many other UK Muslims. Somehow think if Trump had been going to stop the Chagos deal he'd have already signalled that. His focus is on America, especially Southern Border area.

      1. Trump has deployed the armed forces to police the southern border and supplement border guards.

        Trump is posting his desire to retake Bagram Airport in Afghanistan. It seems incomceiveable that Trump will allow Starmer to give away Chagos to China (Mauritius) and for the most flippant of reasons, mythical human rights of folk most of whom have never lived there.

    2. I can see two; where's the other one?
      (The pelican feeding her blood to her chicks featured on my mother's school badge.)

      2. I suppose the pelican is the French version of our own Beasts (such as adorn the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace and elsewhere such as on Britannia gold coins).

        The shot is presumably from a recently reopened tower of Notre Dame. Lead covered cramp visible in stone coping.

  81. I watched part of the memorial service for Charlie Kirk last night. Astonishing number of people turned up. The stadium was full but the crowd outside was much larger. At least three hundred thousand people turned up. It crossed my mind that if he had been a Catholic he would have been declared a saint by acclimation.

    It has, apparently caused panic amongst the Democrats. They thought this was going to be a nothing, they underestimated by a long shot. They are now saying they must go to the centre and disavow the left. A bit late now! People are leaving the Democratic Party in droves. The problem was instead of being quite they continued to mock, make false allegations, and slander Charlie Kirk. The result is masses of people are leaving the Democrats, becoming Republicans or Independents. They realize that they will not win the next election but are in the wilderness for many years now.

    For a taste of the event here's Vice President Vance. The next President. I hope!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t_nff7LqYE

      1. Ohio where he was born and bred is not exactly "hill billy". You have to go a lot further south to hit that culture.

  82. Another little bit of information. There is a rumour that Xi Jinping has been put under house arrest. Zhang Youxia, a general who seems to have been the real person in control for a couple of months is said to have been responsible.

    Hope this is true. It will take pressure off Taiwan and may even bring down the CCP.

    1. Posted yesterday about possible straw that broke..
      'shocking murder' of hugely popular China actor Yu Menglong by the son of CCP No2

      1. Interestingly enough. What has happened in Nepal was not lost on the Chinese population. The people have taken notice of how the people overthrew the government there. It has caused match disquiet to the CCP.

    3. I hope that's true, in terms of Taiwan. It may just be a continuation with a different man in charge. Not read anything yet about downfall/s, personal or otherwise, thanks – will keep an eye n ear out for it.

  84. A nice cuppa — but many have no idea where it is from.

    ONE in five British adults do not know where their cup of tea comes from, researchers found. Almost all tea brewed in homes and cafes across the UK is imported from overseas, with most originating in Kenya, followed by India and Malawi.

    Only a small amount of tea can be grown here, such as on the Tregothnan estate near Falmouth in Cornwall, with climate change making cultivation in more areas increasingly feasible. But the survey of 1,365 adults for Fairtrade, by consultancy Kantar, found that 21 per cent believed their tea was grown in the UK, rising to 46 per cent among those aged 25 to 34.

    The research also suggests that more than a third of adults believe most of their tea comes from India. Tea growers around the world often face significant challenges – including low pay, inequality, and climate change impacts – with Fairtrade finding that only a fifth of Kenyan tea growers earn enough to cover their basic living needs.for all tea sourced on Fairtrade terms, producers are guaranteed a minimum price and receive a premium – an additional amount of money that they can use to invest in their farms and communities.

    Most British shoppers want brands to be more upfront about sourcing, and 75 per cent think it is important they provide clear information about prices paid to farmers in countries such as Kenya. More than half (55 per cent) of respondents said businesses should take a “large amount” or “full responsibility” for protecting the human rights of workers in their supply chains.

    Marie Rumsby, director of advocacy and communications at the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “Public support is growing and these figures show that consumers want action from all stakeholders involved. It’s time to challenge industry myths and scale up change for the people behind our tea, with UK brands and retailers as pivotal partners.” The phrase “All the tea in China” was once well known to any Brit whether or not they enjoyed a cuppa. Few were ignorant of the Indian provenance of the leaf, either. Assam, Darjeeling, Oolong – the names of teas pointed to their origin. The great tea clippers such as the Cutty Sark were a cherished part of the nation’s heritage.

    Nowadays most British tea comes from Kenya and Malawi in Africa, but many drinkers haven’t a clue and think it is grown here. Convincing people that Yorkshire tea does not originate in the countryside around Sheffield is evidently an important educational task. However, tea is grown on the Tregothnan Estate in Cornwall where the micro-climate is favourable. In other words, it rains a lot.

    Imbeciles, employed as teachers, are fulfilling their remit: to make generations of children as compliant and stupid as possible. All part of the WEF's Great Reset.

    1. I’ve become a tea drinker these last few weeks because it has less caffeine than coffee and I like it without sugar. It’s also pretty much on tap in the care home and all liquid is good. I too thought it came from India not Africa. Not surprised that the growers don’t get a good deal. Don’t like Chinese green tea.

      1. I knew it is grown in Kenya but was unaware so much of it came from there. I like both tea and coffee and no sugar is needed in either. Kenyan tea in Kenya is good quality. Kericho Gold is very good.

      2. Good morning tea-drinker [♬"Join the teeeea set!"♬].

        Did you know that a traditional "English Breakfast" blend is made of a mixture of Assam, Ceylon and Kenya teas. Each type brings a different flavour characteristic.

        When I discovered that it the Assam component that gives it its 'punch' I started drinking Assam alone and it is still my favourite tea.

      3. I reckon growers will go wherever the climate/terrain suits, can't afford to lose business. Have become addicted to Pukka Matcha (organic) tea recently, really like it. Having to stop taking VitB12 makes me light-headed. Hope you're still making good progress 🙂

      4. #metoo. Per unit weight (lb. or oz.) most tea has more caffeine than most coffee. But less weight of tea is needed to make a satisfactory brew.
        https://youtu.be/p_LZlsI1rLI?t=116
        A friend in the next village was a tea taster/blender for Twinings. Because of weather variations in the growing countries, the constituents of each blend varies enormously each year to keep the British housewife happy.

        She was lured away to a very chic specialist tea company in London and now operates freelance as one of the top tasters/blenders in the country.

  85. Right……….time to go outside and attempt to plant 120 mixed dwarf narcissus. I had to weed the patch yesterday.

      1. One of the cats left a very dead one in the conservatory yesterday. They rarely catch things. We’ll have to see what comes up in the spring. Mostly bluebells at the moment, but they’re the Spanish ones rather than native English ones.

  86. The ever-impartial BBC’s blatant partiality in sport is wearing thin
    Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell fell short in 800m final but you would not have known it watching cosy and pally post-race coverage
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2025/09/22/bbc-athletics-cheerleading-is-wearing-thin/

    Should teachers praise their pupils for inadequate work or is the truth, however harsh, more constructive'?

    I remember a very good friend of mine who left the independent school in which he was teaching to move elsewhere because of a matrimonial break up: he ended up taking a temporary job in a rather non-aspirational state school. His comment when mediocrity was praised was: "The school's idea of high standards and mine are very different."

    BTL

    "She knows there's no success like Failure
    And Failure's no Success at all."

    (Bob Dylan: 'Love Minus Zero/No Limit.')

    2. Reminds me of one occasion when I applied for a job. "Congratulations, Mr Thomas, you are the runner up….but thank you for applying."

    3. Second best in the world, on the day, is a damned sight better than winning a race by many yards in the fifth division of an athletic league.

      Perhaps the organisers should only award the winners

    4. A generation of the worst parents ever seen has brought behaviour in schools to tipping point
      Most of the families who behave in this manner are not disadvantaged, but the negative impact on disadvantaged pupils is extensive
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/21/dreadful-parents-schools-tipping-point-behaviour/

      BTL

      Some schools need to apply discipline to parents as well as pupils.

      The Michaela School, whose headmistress, Katharine Birbalsingh, imposes very strict discipline on her pupils, achieves remarkable academic results. Some over zealous Muslim parents tried to demand special prayer facilities and extra time set aside for prayers and Ms Birbalsingh did not agree and the dispute went to court. Fortunately the headmistress won.

      1. I am shocked to see how immature teenagers are .

        We watched the Freddie Flintoff prog , where he has selected teenagers who might be interested in cricket from different schools and bad back grounds .. bringing their best skills out , they were learning to bowl and acting with courage when facing a hard cricket ball .

        The attention spans of 16 year old lads was appalling , and the girls he was also trying to encourage and coach were hard work .

        1. We are paying the price for what seems to be majority female teachers (thanks again Libbers). Boys in particular need male leaders – at home, at school, at games/hobbies etc…

          2. Good! Cricket seems to be seen as 'easy' compared to football, I don't think so….I wish schools would have cricket teams again.

          3. Yes. The feminisation of teaching has been a disaster. It has produced a generation of self-centred milk-sops.
            (I know that's a generalisation, but the pupils with spine really do stand out.)

  87. House work this morning .

    Since the great spring clean in March , I am appalled to find remnants of carpet moth and chewed carpet under one of the sofas.

    Moh assisted by pulling out sofas, and I used the old hose vacuum to suck everything up , Jerry G Tech coped with the other detritus ..

    Hells bells , I wondered why tiny grains of rice were strew along the length of carpet by the skirting board.. close examination sent my B/P soaring ..

    Has the hot summer increased the population of carpet moths ?

      1. Hello Katy,

        I didn't know we had them until this morning .. I feel exhausted and quite fed up .. I have seen no evidence of small moths .. but will act quickly now.

        1. Hello Maggie…I had similar with clothes moths..a worry because you don't know where else they've infiltrated, but with clothes moths it's easier, hang some killer deterrent, close the door. Bit different with carpets, could be in other rooms too. Feel so sorry for you, hope you get 'em all killed off, and do they lay eggs too?!

          1. We pulled the sofas away from the wall to vacuum spiders etc , along the skirting board where the carpet finished were what looked like lots of white seeds , looking like rice/ grass seeds , i picked a few up and examined them , they were so tiny and felt shocked because they were tiny empty grub cases .

            Lots of articles say the moth is active between June and September .. We have carpets because we have owned dogs and the sound of skidding clattering dogs paws would have driven me mad .

            I know people who have tiled floors / Karndean etc who have dogs and the poor things end up with injuries because they slide and slip etc and muddy paws everywhere !

    2. No carpet moths here. No carpets.

      Scandies don't do carpets, which are magnets for dust, detritus, mites and all manner of crap. Timber floors are much easier to keep clean.

        2. I vacuum them twice a week, VW, brush them on other occasions, then swab them down with a damn cloth mop every two weeks or so.

          1. Thanks for that. Just had LVT laid throughout looks like wood but isn’t. Was inter to know how you keep it clean.

    3. We found the same problem when moving a chest-of-drawers.
      I have a lethal spray. Eat your heart out, Hiroshima.
      On the plus side, if your carpets have been chomped, it shows they are all wool and therefore posh.

  88. 'morning Geoff, and a sunny one it is 🙂 have a good day x Edit: now afternoon, some reason this wasn't posted although typed around 8am….

      1. I don't know what's going on, Bill – seems OK now? plse let me know if not thx? Been persuaded to take B12 tablets, think it's made me a bit 'off my head'….

        1. I get my B12 from eating meat. No tablets required.

          Vegans do not get any vital and necessary B12 since vegetation does not contain any.

          1. Thx Paul. Have cobbed the B12, possibly re-start D3 end of summer. Deffo still not having flu or covid vaccines.

    1. I suspect that I am not the only Nottler who is interested in any dirt that can be found about the odious Tony Blair.

      I do like to see authentic links – have you got one for the Blair snooping about public lavatories story?

        1. You'd think in the 42 years which have since passed that something more substantial would have come to light, given the desire amongst many to find anything with which to embarrass him. Unfortunately, the alacrity with which some have leapt on this fairly trifling gobbet of smut is a distraction from the rather more serious misdeeds of his political life. Perhaps it's him, perhaps not. The general public has insufficient information to be at all sure.

      2. 413104 + up ticks,

        Afternoon R,
        Seek via old Bow Street Court records concerning one anthony charlie lynton
        found guilty.

      3. This account, written 10 years ago, is the best examination of the evidence I've yet to see. The man is no supporter of Blair. Quite the contrary. He couldn't come up with any definitive evidence to support the allegations and nothing new, as far as I know, has emerged since. In fact, he casts reasonable doubt on some of the details hitherto posted on social media, such as the date of the trial and amount of the fine imposed on Charles Lynton.

        http://ukchildabuseinquiry.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-alleged-cottaging-conviction-of.html

        1. Yes, and are there any reliable links which give credible evidence that Starmer is a homosexual who employs rent boys?

          I vehemently dislike both Blair and Starmer but I would rather attack them with the truth than with speculation and unproven gossip.

    1. Deliberately sabotaged in Blighty by Stoma.
      The man is a complete and utter shiite.
      (Oh, and Hallo, Sue. How are you feeling?)

      1. Due to go home tomorrow. That’s when it gets interesting but I need to begin looking after myself again. Shopping may need to be frequent trips round the corner (M&S Simply Food) for just a few things each time, though Westfield shopping centre is only ten minutes walk away. .

  91. I found out my child was trans when I attended their university play
    A mother shares her experience of learning how to support her child after they came out
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/parenting/children/daughter-came-out-trans-advice-parents/

    Comments on this article are now closed. It is clearly an issue that is 'too sensitive' to discuss freely!

    Being trans seems to me to have become a lifestyle choice rather than a biological fact.

    1. I think it unlikely that gender dysphoria in children would be a lifestyle choice, although I can see how external influences – parents in particular – might play a part in moulding a growing child's sense of self. Where lifestyle choice could play a part is during the transition from childhood, through adolescence to young adulthood. Friendships, fashion and a yearning to emulate celebrities in the public eye would be just some of the factors influencing how a young person sees themselves and how strong the desire is to take the profound step to more closely align behaviour, outward appearance and even anatomy to this self image. More sinister are campaigners and their organisations which actively seek out young targets for radical and irreversible transformations, less with the welfare of the person in mind and more, from what I see, as simply trying to increase the number of like-minded people.

  93. Carney has joined the stampede to recognize a Palestinian state but it gets worse. Trudeau introduced a program to bring Gazan refugees to Canada and now we find that despite promises of applicants being fully vetted, only 46 of more than 6,000 applications were refused.

    Liberals will probably be surprised if Trump makes border crossings harder and requires visas !

    https://www.rebelnews.com/carney_s_liberals_approved_nearly_all_gaza_refugee_applications_despite_radicalization_risks

    2. The 46 were probably refused for being Christians.

      All the biggest rats in the world are now recognising Plastecine as fast as they can. It's the new voting billions of other people's money to Ukraine.

  94. “The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”

    George Orwell

    2. An embassy for a state that doesn’t exist. It has a banking Swift Code too. Are the banks in Gaza or Judea or both.

  97. Good afternoon.

    The star and moon on the Portsmouth FC badge, known as the star and crescent, symbolize the town's coat of arms, which dates back to King Richard I. The symbol was adopted from the arms of the Byzantine Prince of Cyprus, who was associated with King Richard. The emblem serves as a tribute to the King, who granted Portsmouth its charter and town status.

        1. Thatcher referred to him as her ‘brain’ for economical wisdom but she was thwarted by Lawson and others.

          1. A tragic hero falls from greatness because of one fatal flaw in his character: in Macbeth it was his ambition; in Othello it was his jealousy; in King Lear it was his vanity and in Hamlet it was his indecision. In John Redwood's case it was his inability to master the words of the Welsh National Anthem.

      2. Why not? Mine are sitting on a limestone rich soil (as in lots of big rocks) with no trouble at all.

        1. Good for you, jacktl. I have no personal experience, just what we were told by potential installer. Meantime, have solar panels which give us permanently hot water. Apart from that, wood burner.

          1. The only time rocky ground becomes an issue is if a ground source heat pump was proposed – which would need either deepish "wells" bored or trenches cut, which would get costly with rocky subsoil.

        2. There are many drawbacks – the first being that they're bloody ugly. After that we have the plumbing and pipe work involved is convoluted, with expansion vessels, pumps – it's a complex morass.

          1. That's only the horrible air to water things Britain seems fixated on. I have lived with heat pumps since 1981 – air to air providing heating and cooling in summer. They are simple, and reliable. My current house has a hybrid heat pump/gas boiler system using US heat pumps and a German Buderus boiler.

            Guess what? It's all 17 years old now, and the boiler maintenance and repair costs have exceeded the maintenance costs of the 4 heat pumps, which provide "zoned" heating and cooling.

  99. It is a beautiful sunny clear day here on the Ring of Kerry. We have detoured via White Sand beach (1857 Atlantic telegraph-laying); Ballycarbery castle and stone forts), and now having a cup of tea in Potlrthmagee watching the boats that go to and from Skellig Michael. If only i could upload photos already taken on this blasted phone.

          1. Lol! It’s totally hot and miss – no rationale. I get three different error messages – completely random – and the occasional success.

  101. Just stopping for lunch in Schiphol. What a crowd, and so warm! Left Oslo under threat of snow, and the airport snowhandling machinery well visible.

  102. Phew!……… it's hard work planting bulbs in hard stony sloping ground. Less than half done so far and I'm knackered. Nice and sunny but a cold wind.

      1. I will, and I’ll put some of them in a softer patch. Probably a few will go in pots too. But I just thought they’d look good on the sloping patch without really considering the hard terrain. When we moved in 30 years ago it was just grassed over. Then I dug it up one time and planted some annual seeds which looked good that year. Since then it has been a bit neglected. I found some clay pipes with intact bowls when I dug it over before. I saved those. There is also a large Buddleja which appeared one year but that needs reducing. The bluebells which come up every year are the Spanish sort, unfortunately, not the native English ones.

        1. They will look good, I reckon. I follow Trevor Pendelton (ramblings of an entomologist) on YouTube, always fascinating. I wonder what insects/butterflies you will have as visitors. It’ll be a sight to see. Clay pipes sound good, too – but I guess you can use almost anything providing doesn’t get water-logged/dried out. Buddleja seem to come in uninvited (on the wind? badger digging? no idea!) Yes, have a few Spanish bluebells, they seem to withstand drier ground, as I suppose we should expect. Look forward to your photos! K

          1. All I have there at the moment is a largish sloping patch of bare earth with an overgrown Buddleija. I hope the bulbs will put on a good display. The cats use that area as their toilet (especially now it’s been dug) so I will have to watch they don’t dig them up.

          2. Definitely:-) I think there might be some kind of spray to dissuade them from that area? Would be OK, if it’s OK for plants:-)

  104. Caught the bus into town this morning…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/339af6b5176c1c3e27725b8db15d65a199cc9c30eed23b2ad4fd5e73c8fba9fc.jpg
    Whilst having a cuppa I watched a group of individual buskers drawing lots (for which read using an iPhone to generate random numbers) so they could each take a turn on choosing a favourable time and busking location. Once their first choices were made a second round of choosing took place with the results marked up on a small white board which they then photographed to remind themselves of time and places…All very civilised…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/388b3910d4568149b2a0fc3d31c3e9b624e3b1801630982f23cf6c7dcde7adda.jpg

    Walked home along the canal…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea987f99ff40ad2f0488aab4b65f9a29d4f4f6640ac5dafe7c805c43f3738bcc.jpg

      1. No. I thought some folk might be interested in seeing what horse drawn towing ropes covered in grit have done to cast iron in times past..

        2. Along the Canal du MIdi, some of Riquet's bridges have great cuts ground into them where horses towed boats along the canal and then had, sinuously, to change sides.

          1. If changing sides the British used Turnover bridges where the ropes went over the top of the bridge parapet and down the other side…

      1. If you are using an iPhone the photos produced are HEIC which discurse won't accept. The only way round this is to send the pictures to a computer download them to desktop and then File "Export' to desktop as a JPEG Image (under 5Mb).. good luck….

        3. Thanks. Such a shame because it’s beautiful here and i’d love to share the views. 🙁

          1. Dhobi Mick 4 hours ago
            I discovered the following information having been prompted by Grizzly’s post: “iPhones typically save photos in the HEIC (High Efficiency Image Format) format to save storage space while maintaining high quality. However, to ensure compatibility with most devices and platforms, you can change your camera settings to capture photos in the more universally compatible JPEG format. You can do this by navigating to Settings > Camera > Formats and selecting Most Compatible to switch to JPEG, or High Efficiency to return to HEIC.”

        4. I discovered the following information having been prompted by Grizzly’s post: “iPhones typically save photos in the HEIC (High Efficiency Image Format) format to save storage space while maintaining high quality. However, to ensure compatibility with most devices and platforms, you can change your camera settings to capture photos in the more universally compatible JPEG format. You can do this by navigating to Settings > Camera > Formats and selecting Most Compatible to switch to JPEG, or High Efficiency to return to HEIC.”

    1. His view of Russia is very distorted. No mention of the evils that Communism perpetrated, or their subjugation of Eastern Europe post WW11. Or the fact that modern Russia is basically a kleptocratic dictatorship. The British may (and do) put up with things longer than they should, but equally they are not in the habit of using defenestration as a state punishment.

    2. Rather ignores the myriad uprisings we've had. The peasants revolt springs to mind.

      I think he knows a few examples and keeps to them. Britain has resisted all forms of conquerer.

    1. Not seeing the wound I don't know. I don't want to speculate on a man's tragic murder.

      Generally though, when you contest metal with bone, metal wins. Bone is, oddly, designed to shatter and repair.

      1. Weren't hip replacements done partly with ceramic in the past, wibbling? Neighbour of mine had a 'half' replacement (whatever that was, always walked with a limp, in pain – couple of decades ago, tho')

        1. My titanium hip replacement was done in September 2015 – ten years ago.

          It has never given me any trouble so I rarely think of it.

    2. A .30-06 would go straight through and out the other side given its muzzle velocity and stopping power. Would expect a neat entry wound and a nasty exit would. – in JFK's case the assassin's rifle bullet blew off the back of his head. And this was a lighter and slower bullet than a .30-06

  112. Just had a text from my GP surgery. All patients, to make it easier to make contact (lol) must now use Anima.

    Coincides nicely with digital ID.

    2. Easier for them, maybe. Boots persuaded us to switch to online prescription ordering. We found it easier to tick boxes on slips of paper for next month's meds when collecting this month's.

      1. I don't deny there are benefits. But that is the hook. These new data centres will hold every scrap of information about you. Including how much you have in your bank account and how many times you took the bus.

        1. I do share your concerns. The drift towards authoritarianism in so-called liberal democracies leaves me a little uneasy. Having access to the minutiae of our lives gives governments of any persuasion too much leverage in controlling our day-to-day living. Tracking down criminal behaviour is one thing, but nudging us towards approved ways of living is quite another. It's easy to imagine, for example, a world in which unhealthy lifestyles are constrained by limits upon our purchases of frowned-upon food and drink.

    3. I haven’t come across this one yet. I order my repeat prescriptions via the NHS app and also have the Ortus-Health app that Imperial use for pre-surgery monitoring and post-surgery care plans. I could do without any more. The GP Surgery tend to communicate via text and the NHS app info is incomplete. The hospital log everything via “Patients Know Best” email links. A tonne of information overall but fragmented.

      2. I've been using Pharmacy2U for repeaat prescriptions for several years. I highly recommend them. Only minor issue is that my repeat meds are 8 weeks' worth. By week 4, they insist on reminding me to order the next batch.

  113. Wordle No. 1,556 3/6

    🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 22 Sep 2025

    A feather for Birdie Three?

    1. Par today for me.

      Wordle 1,556 4/6

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

    2. Chose wrong one of two (again)…. Par (again again)

      Wordle 1,556 4/6

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

    3. Well done. Par today.

      Wordle 1,556 4/6

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

  114. Evening all. Parked up on the way home to break the journey. Will look at visiting Sywell in the way home as I am only about half an hour away.

    Has Starmer ever done anything right?

      1. I did and I tried to post them, but they failed to upload. I shall have to wait and try again when I get home .

          1. Thank you, Bill. I remember seeing some of them. They didn’t snap me – not sufficiently memorable, even with the dogs (who got a lot of attention).

  115. Right………got to go out now – J has another prescription to pick up and then I'm going to a meeting where I take the minutes. Quite often these meetings are tedious and interminable, so hopefully we can hurry people up a bit tonight.

  117. Well, that's me done for today. It was nice and sunny but with a north wind with a distinctly sharp edge discouraged outdoor work. The MR's trip to Narridge went well – she had a super haircut and looks even more glam than usual.

    Picked up a barrow load of apples to jettison. Took the empties to the bottle bank. A day full of diversity, eh?

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  119. After trying to post this morning and being told by Disqusting that it had failed each time, I went into Belper to do some shopping, hence the multiple posts of Starmer the Turd.
    However, was a bit knackered when I got back, so went to bed for a couple of hours.
    When I got up I had decided not to bother doing anything up the "garden" but it's been such a lovely day I did a mix of mortar and did a bit of the stone facing I'm doing on the lower wall.

    Just had a bite to eat and am half way down a mug of tea.

  120. Yet another volley of hurty word vent by one of you lot.. aimed towards the mostly peaceful gentle ones.

    Bang bang on the door..
    Five armed teletubbies on door bell camera.
    Plus Lesbo nana.
    It's 6am or 11pm at night.
    What do you do?
    See below.. scribble down notes.

      1. Summary:

        I need time to take legal advice. you know I am entitled to.
        Officier Tarquin that is a deeply inappropriate thing for you to have said. I am very sorry for you that you have said it. I will be reporting you for those comments. they are on video.
        you realise you are saying things under threat.
        I only have to come in if you are arresting me.
        are you going to arrest me. yes or no.
        you are bullying. good day close the door.
        I give you a means of contacting me.
        officer you may write to me at this address.
        you have no reasonable grounds to suppose I wont be living here.
        thank you for yr time, I wont be cooperating with you any further.
        forced entry?
        may be if an indictable offence. only big ones. murder drugs. rape. section 16. danger of unlawful violence.
        they is no danger of unlawful violence. if someone has been hurty by hurty words then that is their problem I intend to watch tv.
        contact Free speech union.

  122. That's the way to do it!

    "“We have already issued more than 18,000 tentative job offers. Americans are answering their country’s call to serve and help remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

    DHS said that ICE is offering a “robust” package of joining incentives, including a signing bonus of up to $50,000, enhanced retirement benefits, and student loan repayment and forgiveness options.

    The ICE recruitment drive, “Defend the Homeland,” was launched by the DHS on July 29. At present, the agency employs approximately 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel across some 400 offices in the United States and internationally.

    ICE’s recruitment drive is backed by funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that allocated $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement over a five-year period.

    ICE was granted $76.5 billion, almost 10 times the agency’s typical annual budget.

    Out of that, $30 billion will go towards hiring 10,000 more staff members, with the agency aiming to deport a million people annually.

    In a Sept. 19 statement, DHS said that a recent career expo in Provo, Utah, was a “resounding success,” with over 1,500 people registering for career opportunities.

    “In the first day alone, DHS extended more than 370 tentative job offers for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers. In total, DHS extended almost 500 tentative job offers, and we anticipate additional selections in the near future with over 200 more completed applications received,” Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, said.

    A similar ICE job fair in Dallas, Texas, last month was also a success. Despite protests at the site against the agency and the Trump administration, the applicant flow did not stop."

  123. Nick Clegg’s wife considers entering politics with ‘Spanish Lib Dems’
    Miriam González Durántez weighs up leading a new party with a mandate to stamp out sleaze and corruption
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/22/clegg-wife-politics-spanish-lib-dems-miriam-durantez-sleaze/

    BTL

    Clegg once boasted that he had slept with 'about 30 women' and hence was given the sobriquet of CleggOver|'.

    If he were a sincere and committed Liberal and dedicated to women's equality he would be delighted if his wife proclaimed proudly that she had slept with a similar number of men.

  124. The Palestinian head spokesman didn't sound very grateful that our government has now recognised them as a state.
    It doesn't sound like this move has pleased anyone, well except for the Labour block voters, I suppose.
    But they now want two trillion in compensation.
    More belt tightening and freezing homes for pensioners, that will please the Left.

  125. Body is found in search for girl, 17, after she was reported missing in Greater Manchester: Man, 55, is arrested on suspicion of murder.

    Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.

    Far too old for Mo.

  126. Feeling relaxed and drowsy after a bath.
    Elgar's Dream Of Gerontius is on R3 and I'd love to listen to it, but feel too knackered.

    I'll see how far I get into it.

  127. I've Been in bed all day due to the bug picked up in my 4 days and three nights in hospital. Feeling a little better. I'm turning over again.
    Good night all Nottlers, sleep well 😴

    2. Oh dear……..sorry to hear you picked up a bug – at least you had an enjoyable weekend with the family. The A& E Dr on Friday evening said J would be much better off at home as hospitals are full of bugs.

        1. My good neighbour Jo is home though after 12 days in Bristol Ri. She’d had a heart attack instead of her planned procedure of a node ablation. She will have to wait a bit longer for that bit. She had stopped taking all her medication a few months ago but the blood thinners might have been a good one to keep going.

  128. Better Half very similar, riding on tractor within a couple of weeks, albeit side saddle. Never heard him complain about it – and that’s saying something 😀

      1. That’s odd. When I do a screenshot the result is a .png file. Maybe you have a later model of iPhone than me. Mine’s an iPhone 11.

          1. Your post made me wonder if the photo format could be selected so I checked and apparently it can. Here’s the advice:
            “ iPhones typically save photos in the HEIC (High Efficiency Image Format) format to save storage space while maintaining high quality. However, to ensure compatibility with most devices and platforms, you can change your camera settings to capture photos in the more universally compatible JPEG format. You can do this by navigating to Settings > Camera > Formats and selecting Most Compatible to switch to JPEG, or High Efficiency to return to HEIC.”

          2. I didn’t know that. Mine came with .jpeg as default when I bought it last October. To be fair I’ve never heard of HEIC.
            I wonder if the standard format differs by country. I live in Sweden.

    1. Candace Owens who is currently in litigation with the Macrons is married to the CEO of Kirk's Turning Point..…

      1. Candace has lost the plot of late, hasn’t she? It’s entirely possible that Madame Macron is a bloke but entirely pointless going to court over it.

        1. Agreed 100% re losing the plot.of late. I thought she once had a stellar political career ahead of her but now I'm not so sure….

          2. Isn't it bizarre, opopanax, how some start to think they can say absolutely anything and get away with it. Just for a few headlines, or so it seems.

          5. When she first started waxing lyrical about Hitler (quite a while ago) I fell back on the "out of context" and "misinterpretation" explanation/defense *as I really liked her. But she has now shown her true colours. All the evil in the world is, apparently, and always has been, orchestrated by an all-powerful cabal of hook-nosed Jews. According to Candace.

          6. She even looks a bit wild-eyed. Not followed her for quite a while, but I occasionally see one of those short videos come up on Ig.

          1. Even if she were – is it any one's business but hers?

            While the trans lot dressed up and put on wigs and played pretend no one really cared. The trouble started when some tiny irrelevant lot of them decided that we all had to accept their choices over our own beliefs.

          2. It’s a well-known fact that well-known facts are too often malicious lies spread by people with low moral stndards.

        3. I think Mme Macron releasing various personal medical records she says proves she is female. Agree CC has lost her marbles over this. And if the records prove what BM says they do, might she sue CC?

  131. Armchair historians offer nothing useful on Israel-Palestine

    The Left's selective view of events isn't just idiotic, but has potentially dangerous consequences

    Jake Wallis Simons
    22nd September 2025, 5:53pm BST

    What is the difference between history and deep history? I only ask because yesterday, after Keir Starmer had aligned British foreign policy with Hamas, the elfin liberal opinionator Lewis Goodall appeared to draw such a distinction. "So much of the commentary on Palestine today without much sense of the deep history", he lamented on social media with a virtual toss of his floppy locks. "You can say this is a debt which has long been owed. The Palestinians expected a state a century ago when the British took on the mandate."

    Helpfully, Goodall then posted a link to the source of his "deep history": a page on the Imperial War Museum website featuring a handful of sentences seemingly written for children and a 15-minute YouTube video.

    Deep. Very deep. But in Goodall's rendering, glaringly incomplete. The part that he appeared to overlook was when the Palestinian Arabs, led by the fanatical Nazi collaborator Amin al-Husseini, rejected the offer of a country of their own and instead launched a genocidal war upon the nascent Israel. That marked the first time the Palestinians turned down the two-state solution in favour of bloodshed, a pattern they have sadly repeated many times since.

    Deep history, it seems, is just a version of events that aligns with comfortable liberal prejudices rather than the facts. Shallow history, in other words. You've got to feel for the Left. If only the real world matched their assumptions, they wouldn't have to resort to slight of hand.

    Wouldn't life be easier if the Palestinians hadn't sided with the Nazis during the war; if they hadn't rejected a state of their own in favour of war with Israel in 1948; if they hadn't blown up the Oslo Accords in the Nineties; if they hadn't walked away from the Clinton deal at Camp David in 2000; if they hadn't snubbed the Ehud Olmert plan, which accommodated their demands, in 2008; if they hadn't turned Gaza into a terror enclave after Israel pulled out in 2005; if they hadn't embarked upon an orgy of butchery, rape, mutilation and kidnap on October 7?

    Well, with deep history, all this can be yours. Just pretend it didn't happen. But the real tragedy is that deep history now seems to drive British foreign policy. In this worldview, everything is Israel's fault. In June, Keir Starmer threatened to recognise a Palestinian state unless the IDF withdrew, leaving Hamas in power and their citizens starving in the tunnels. It was as if Israel had started the war and the hostages didn't exist. What did he demand of the Palestinian side? Nothing.

    Hamas, of course, responded by cancelling the negotiations and doing all it could to continue the fighting. Lo and behold, Starmer then recognised a state of Palestine. Well, thank goodness for that. Just when you thought the conflict was intractable! You thought that Golda Meir was right when she observed that "if the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence," but "if the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel"?

    Well, think again. According to the principles of Starmer's deep history, the truth is in fact the opposite: all Israel needs to do is lay down its arms in Gaza and peace will magically descend on the back of a winged horse while cherubim sing hymns to the two-state solution.

    The problem with these liberal elites is that when it comes to the Middle East, they have no theory of mind of the main players involved. The Arabs do not reject the State of Israel because of a dispute over borders or "occupation". They snubbed a state of their own before a single Israel boot trod upon "occupied land". As a matter of honour, they cannot accept a state alongside Israel; they can only accept one that replaces it.

    The problem Israel faces is not the one that the West thinks it faces. The solution imposed by the West, therefore, is inadequate. After all, Israel has already tried the two-state solution to destruction. Now it is supposed to try it again?

    For that matter, Starmer and his Government have not shown any understanding of Israeli psychology, either. How is Jerusalem supposed to respond to British recognition of Palestine? This was the jihadi strategy all along. As Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad reportedly put it, "before October 7, was there a country that dared to recognise the state of Palestine?… The fruits of October 7 are what made the whole world open its eyes to the Palestinian cause."

    Israel remains at war. Its hostages remain in captivity. The current international pressure is just the latest front, with the West now siding with the jihadis. Israel has only one option: to dig in and show that its enemies will never win. Without such deterrence, it is done for.

    'Never Again? How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself', by Jake Wallis Simons, is out on October 2

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/22/armchair-historians-offer-nothing-on-israel-palestine
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    The West is sliding into an anti-Semitic abyss

    Jake Wallis Simons warns that prejudice against Jews is becoming all too acceptable – and points to some reasons why

    Con Coughlin, Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor
    22nd September 2025, 9:30am BST

    It is a reflection of the truly perverse state of the modern world that one of the more alarming consequences of the October 7 attacks carried out against Israel in 2023 should be a steep rise in anti-Semitism. One might expect that the cold-blooded massacre of at least 1,200 people, many of whose bodies suffered vile mutilation, and the taking of a further 250 or so hostages by Hamas terrorists that day might persuade most right-thinking people that their condemnation should be focused on the group responsible for carrying out the atrocity.

    Instead, rather than making sure that the Islamist death cult faced the same level of international retribution as that which al-Qaeda encountered following the September 11 attacks in 2001, it is Israel and the wider Jewish community that has become the principal focus of bien pensant opprobrium.

    This irrational desire to blame Jews for the war that has erupted in Gaza can take many forms. It can result in Israeli academics attending a Holocaust memorial event finding themselves the target of harassment, as happened recently at such an event in Dublin. Or there is the "vanishing-Jew" approach favoured by the likes of Angela Rayner, the disgraced former deputy leader of Labour, who appeared to ignore the fact that Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust when she was pictured, on social media, lighting a candle for "all those who were murdered".

    Jake Wallis Simons's new book, Never Again: How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself, provides an absorbing and detailed examination of how this disturbing new form of anti-Semitism has arisen. Wallis Simons, former editor of The Jewish Chronicle and regular contributor to this paper, draws on a stimulating range of Western and Oriental philosophical thought to provide a provocative account of how complacency among Western elites in recent decades has given rise to a revival of the world's oldest hatred. He also draws on an extensive series of interviews he has undertaken for his podcast The Brink, which he co-hosts with Andrew Fox.

    Surprisingly, Wallis Simons contends that, until October 7 2023, the world was generally experiencing a "golden age" during which anti-Semitism was regarded as taboo, certainly within polite society. But on looking closer, he identifies a number of worrying trends that were already in play, and would ultimately lead to today's shameful situation, where Jews throughout the world find themselves targeted for events taking place thousands of miles away in the Middle East.

    Among the more recent factors that Wallis Simons considers to have contributed to the problem is the fact that many migrants to the UK and other Western countries are followers of Islam. He quotes the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who argued during her successful 2024 leadership campaign that "not all cultures are equally valid". She went on, writing in this paper: "Those we chose to welcome, we expect to share our values… We cannot be naive and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border. I am struck, for example, by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel."

    Ultimately, though, Wallis Simons believes that it was Tony Blair's landslide election victory in 1997, and the dramatic culture-shift that subsequently took place throughout British society, that provided fertile ground in which toxic anti-Semitic attitudes could slowly take root. Suddenly, minority cults, once consigned to the margins of British society, took centre-stage in the nation's culture wars. He quotes a telling observation made by the writer Douglas Murray in an interview for The Brink: "People have treated themselves to completely absurd ideologies, which are all reliant on a set of presuppositions which are not supported by the ideology they've fallen into. Things like human rights, things like tolerance, things like freedom."

    Wallis Simons is particularly critical of what he calls the cult of "centrist fundamentalism", by which he means the well-meaning but ill-informed liberal elites who appear more interested in promoting minority groups and their views than upholding the long-standing traditions that have forged the nation's character over many centuries. He argues, for example, that even though Muslims account for just 6 to 7 per cent of the UK's population, too many national institutions are more likely to respect Islamic holy events such as Ramadan than they are Christmas and Easter. In such a climate, it's unsurprising that anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments have replaced, as the norm, traditional British values such as tolerance and freedom from persecution. The result has been a staggering increase in anti-Semitic activity, with 121 incidents of assault reported in Britain in 2024, together with a 246 per cent rise in vandalism and an astonishing 465 per cent spike in anti-Semitism at universities.

    One of the most compelling passages in Wallis Simons's book is when he interviews young Israeli conscripts charged with the daunting task of doing battle with Hamas fanatics hiding in the complex network of tunnels the terror group had constructed beneath Gaza. Rather than complaining about their lot, the phrase these Israelis often used to justify their commitment to defending their country was "this is our shift": they had no alternative but to tackle the jihadists who threatened their country's very existence. Indeed, their commitment to defending their homeland echoes the sentiments of Golda Meir, the redoubtable Israeli wartime leader who once remarked: "If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

    Yet, instead of making any serious effort to understand why the atrocities committed on October 7 are regarded by many Jews as an existential event, there appears to be more interest in the West in absorbing Hamas propaganda. This is particularly the case on social-media platforms such as TikTok, where recent research has found that, since the 2023 attack, there have been 52 videos that are pro-Hamas or pro-Palestine for every one that's supportive of the Israeli cause.

    While Wallis Simons ranges widely to show how the modern cult of self-loathing has taken root in Western democracies, he can sometimes stray too far from his central theme: how this relates to the re-emergence of anti-Semitism as a threat to 21st-century Jews. No problem could be more urgent. At the end of the Second World War, when the true horrors of the Holocaust were revealed to the outside world, the cry "never again" became a familiar refrain for those determined to ensure history was never allowed to repeat itself. By deliberately choosing the same phrase as the title for his new book, Wallis Simons is making a direct appeal to both political leaders and ordinary men and women: they need to respond "to this great emergency" by "jumping to their feet" and confronting, once again, anti-Semitism's curse.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-never-again-jake-wallis-simons

    1. Jake is correct, "Deep history" is just a way of saying what the Left has re-written and would like to be true, though it isn't true.

      1. Seems a number of Israel's neighbours have accepted Israel and made peace, exceptions being Iran and Turkey for two (confess I'm not up to speed on this). Enemies now in the West, previously their champions.

          1. I suspect Universities/Colleges/online….always a certain kind of protestor, and often female, from footage I’ve seen…g’night, N…crackering sort of day, doh…

    2. It's interesting how the parallels are with narcissism. If Palestine gives in and gets what it says it wants, it no longer has an excuse to kill Jews. They couldn't whinge, rant and complain any more – they'd be exposed as just more violent, savage muslim – which is all they are, if they were honest.

      They think themselves important, special, unique but they're just more evil, spoiled, pandered to, indulged, hateful, hate filled muslim.

  132. Well, I stayed awake through Gerontius, not a work I know well, but am appreciating it more and more.
    A lovely performance and I'm off to bed,

    Goodnight all.

    1. Yes, thanks N…now at 107672. Hopeful, but recognising I've signed quite a few different ones, have come to naught unfortunately. I suspect planning already quite ahead, Starmer/EU being well onboard with DID.

      1. I've just read that there's going to be a big rally to push back against them – outside the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. Email from Together.

        PROTEST & RALLY: Please join us SUNDAY from 12 noon outside Labour Party Conference – to support farmers and tell Starmer NO to Digital ID!

        Will you join us on SUNDAY for a protest and rally outside the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool?

        We want to show support for our farmers – and show that it's a huge NO to digital ID! Farmers will be bringing their Trailers of Truth, tractors and speakers, too. Here are the details:

        LIVERPOOL
        This Sunday 28 Sep from 12 noon
        Meet at: Kings Dock Street (off Wapping A5036), L1 8JS (map here)

        This is just outside of Liverpool City Centre
        Approx 1 mile from Liverpool Lime Street station
        Driving? There's cheap car parking on Kings Dock Street – info here

        1. Sorry, Ndovu…I won’t be around next weekend, with you in spirit, hope to catch it on the news/online…Nottlers, anti-DIDers, Farmers – what’s not to like x

    2. They ignored half a million signatures against the online harming bill and no doubt they will ignore this one too…signed it but not hopeful.

  136. Arafat was born to Palestinian parents in Cairo, Egypt, where he spent most of his youth. He studied at the University of King Fuad I. While a student, he embraced Arab nationalist and anti-Zionist ideas. Opposed to the 1948 creation of the State of Israel, he fought alongside the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Following the defeat of Arab forces, Arafat returned to Cairo and served as president of the General Union of Palestinian Students from 1952 to 1956.

    In the latter part of the 1950s, Arafat co-founded Fatah, a paramilitary organization which sought Israel's replacement with a Palestinian state. Fatah operated within several Arab countries, from where it launched attacks on Israeli targets. In the latter part of the 1960s Arafat's profile grew; in 1967 he joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and in 1969 was elected chair of the Palestinian National Council (PNC). Fatah's growing presence in Jordan resulted in military clashes with King Hussein's Jordanian government and in the early 1970s it relocated to Lebanon. There, Fatah assisted the Lebanese National Movement during the Lebanese Civil War and continued its attacks on Israel, resulting in the organization becoming a major target of Israeli invasions during the 1978 South Lebanon conflict and 1982 Lebanon War.

    From 1983 to 1993, Arafat based himself in Tunisia, and began to shift his approach from open conflict with the Israelis to negotiation. In 1988, he acknowledged Israel's right to exist and sought a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In 1994, he returned to Palestine, settling in Gaza City and promoting self-governance for the Palestinian territories. He engaged in a series of negotiations with the Israeli government to end the conflict between it and the PLO. These included the Madrid Conference of 1991, the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2000 Camp David Summit. The success of the negotiations in Oslo led to Arafat being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, in 1994. At the time, Fatah's support among the Palestinians declined with the growth of Hamas and other militant rivals. In late 2004, after effectively being confined within his Ramallah compound for over two years by the Israeli army, Arafat fell into a coma and died. The cause of Arafat's death remains the subject of speculation. Investigations by Russian and French teams determined no foul play was involved,[4][5][6] while a Swiss team determined he was radiologically poisoned.[7][8]

  137. Bedtime now – I think I've caught up with most things now……………. We're having a power cut tomorrow (oh joy!) from 9am till 3pm while the power people do some tree trimming close to the wires.

  138. Why the posh and prissy don't do patriotism

    A GQ feature on 'What's so great about Britain?' unwittingly exposed the hulking class divide in the flags debate.

    JULIE BURCHILL
    21st September 2025

    It seems members of the British establishment are getting it – albeit slowly. They haven't quite learned their lesson yet about how the common people react, how they raise the flags and rally in defiance when they finally can't take another decade of the liberal elite doing down the country they love. But they are getting there.

    Some, however, are still struggling to work out what people might love about this nation – certainly if 'What's so great about Britain?', a new celebrity 'survey' from GQ magazine, is anything to go by. In this feature, '14 very modern icons', including Emma Thompson, Ian Wright, Anthony Joshua, Munroe Bergdorf, Brian Cox, Jade Thirlwall, Chloe Kelly, Amelia Dimoldenberg and Mr Blobby, 'weigh in on what it truly means to be British in 2025'.

    Those involved (especially the first and the last; only one of them's a figure of fun, and it's not the one we're meant to consider so) give us a clue that it will be a fairly sickening survey. Not actual throwing-up level, but definitely a bit of vomit in the mouth. The intro, however, goes full sick-bag:

    'The Oasis reunion. Nationalised healthcare. Sir David Attenborough. Bannau Brycheiniog. Highland tweed. Baked beans and Barbour coats. There are some things about Britain that are universally, undeniably great. But, let's be honest, there are plenty of others – income inequality, racist riots, crumbling schools and roads and fading institutions – that are not. If you listen to either side of our rancorous politics, Britain is broken… for all its flaws, Britain still draws people from every corner of the world – sometimes even those willing to risk everything to reach it.'

    They just can't help themselves, can they, the stuck-record scolds?

    First of all, the enjoyable things about the survey. You can just imagine every race-baiting miss and mister from Thirlwall to Bergdorf scowling at the beautifully straightforward responses from unashamedly patriotic black Britons like Anthony Joshua: 'Do I identify as British? Yeah, of course I do.' Or Ian Wright: 'My parents are Jamaican, but I'm English and British first. When I was younger, people would say, "Well, where'd you come from?". I'd say, "I come from England".'

    Compare those to the get-me-aren't-I-unique answers on how they 'identify' from the pink-hued brigade, like that of Amelia Dimoldenberg: 'I really connect way more with being a Londoner than I do maybe being British', she says. Or from Mr Blobby: 'Blobby.'

    When asked what Britishness means, Ian Wright isn't having any nonsense: 'Patriotism – long live the king, the queen; "stiff upper lip" and all that sort of stuff. A nice cup of tea, whatever the time, whatever the day, wherever you are. That kind of energy.'

    And I can imagine Anthony Joshua's answer causing a mass fainting fit among his co-respondents with this answer:

    'Conquering the world! You come to Greece and they're like "Alexander the Great!". Be proud, innit? Brits went out there and conquered the fucking world. It's unbelievable. What an achievement. The whole bloody world speaks English or wants to learn English! How mad is that?'

    Then there's Chloe Kelly, another BS-free sportsperson, fresh from her victorious 'I'm so proud to be English!' shocker after her Euros win. She describes what being British means to her as: 'Holding their own. No matter when you're doubted, you want to show exactly what you're capable of – when we're going down, fighting back again.' Take that, Emma Thompson!

    Ah, Dame Emma, originator of the classic Brexit-loathing line about our nation being a 'tiny little cloud-bolted, rainy corner of sort-of Europe, a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island'. (Bet she doesn't bash cake as a leftover relic of empire any more, now that Bake Off's gone all diverse!)

    There's a photograph of her in the GQ survey, wearing jewellery by De Beers, as are several of the ladies (an odd choice, considering that De Beers profited from the savage exploitation of black South Africans during Apartheid). But there are no apparent answers in the feature from Thompson. Is she too grand to get down-and-dirty opining with lesser celebs? Or were her answers just so flamboyantly, gloriously, self-incriminatingly tittish that GQ did the decent thing and sat on them for her own good?

    Still, she wouldn't be any match for the patriots on board, anyway. Asked if Britain is fair, Joshua comes out with the killer punch we expect by now:

    'It's very fair. I was on Jobseeker's Allowance growing up and it was a blessing at a time when I was young and looking for work. Now I'm an athlete, I've got my own company, I pay my own taxes. It's a lot, but it's the game. I go back home, I've got the council who come and take my bins. I've got 24-hour electric. My son goes to a good school. And for me, just the NHS, bro. I've had family in there, and these people are lifesavers, and that's free.'

    There's no stopping this man, is there? Even when asked, 'What makes us embarrassed to be British?', he replies: 'Embarrassed? Nothing.'

    Here's Ian Wright:

    'I don't want to be negative about our country that I've grown up in and it's given me and my family a lot of opportunities. We could talk about the negative things that come with being a black person, but why? There's loads of things that can be done better for everybody.'

    In contrast, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Ambika Mod and Jade Thirlwall (a kind of updated woke version of the Three Stooges) moan about Reform, racist statues and the alleged persecution of transvestites as reasons to be embarrassed. Then they go in for a cursory bashing of Brexit and the mandatory hosanna-ing to the NHS.

    Bergdorf's selfishness regarding the NHS is at least unintentionally funny:

    'I had to wait two years for when I transitioned in 2012, and now it's a seven to 10 year wait just for a first appointment. That's not even to get hormones; you've got a two-year wait after that. No one should have to wait for the best part of a decade in order to just be seen. People are dying on those lists.'

    Sorry, but no one dies from the lack of a fake vagina.

    It's always interesting when the question 'Is Britain a good country?' is asked, which it is in many different ways here. 'Compared to what other ones?' is always my immediate response. Many of the world's nations are dictatorships, whether atheist or Islamist, and no one in their right mind could possibly prefer them. Then there's – hiss! – Trump's America, which most of this lot probably consider worse than the dictatorships. Then there's big sunny Europe, a gâteaux-filled joyous wonderland – but oops, lots of Europeans are transpiring to be even keener on populism than we are, even the proud creators of the panettone and the profiterole!

    But it's not just in comparison, I still love this country, only slightly less than I used to, to quote one reason why – only we could have created Morrissey. The list goes on. The Industrial Revolution. Winning the Second World War. The Kinks. Drunken sex. TERFs. I could take all day, because my love is genuine. Not – the exemplary and likeable sportspeople aside – a series of poses struck by a bunch of shallow, hectoring hypocrites who think that what would really improve the country is getting rid of the people who love it – and filling it with them and their desiccated, deranged, dour kind.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/09/21/why-the-posh-and-prissy-dont-do-patriotism/

    1. I 'identify' as a Barbour-coat (and matching flat cap) wearer.

      Bought meself one three weeks' back (just re reaffirm my Englishness, old bean!).

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