Monday 26 April: Proponents of Scottish independence must acknowledge its drawbacks

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/25/letters-proponents-scottish-independence-must-acknowledge-drawbacks/

602 thoughts on “Monday 26 April: Proponents of Scottish independence must acknowledge its drawbacks”

  1. The banalisation of Islamist terror bodes badly for the West. 26 April 2021.

    Another day, another Islamist murder in France – this time, a 49-year-old policewoman fatally stabbed in the neck by a Tunisian man screaming ‘Allahu Akbar.’ She was murdered in her own station, in Rambouillet, twenty-five miles south of Magnanville, where in 2016 an Islamist stabbed a husband and wife police couple to death in front of their three-year-old child. In the intervening years there have been numerous police officers killed by men of a similar ideology, to the point now where the brutal slaying of a female officer slips down the news pecking order after just one day. Such is the acceptance in France of Islamist terrorism. C’est la vie.

    What’s striking, now, is the lack of outrage. The murder did not even lead the French television news. In today’s Sunday Times the lead item on France is about next month’s 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. Apparently the fact Napoleon was linked to the slave trade is more significant than the murder of a woman by the follower of an ideology which, in Iraq five years ago, enslaved thousands of Yazidi women and slaughtered their menfolk.

    Morning everyone. The lack of outrage is mostly due to the exhaustion in the people’s belief that the Elites will do anything about it and the relentless suppression of any view hostile to Islam in the MSM. The views expressed in this article, while they could have been written by any Nottler, are a rarity in the Public Sphere. The reasons for this situation are simple; the Elites have allowed the Mass Immigration that has created this situation as a part of their belief in Cultural Marxism where the West is Irredeemably Wicked and all others can be saved. This can be seen with the Channel Crossings which continue unabated despite the occasional promises from Government. Not forgetting of course that a healthy Streak of Cowardice runs through their veins; they have a tiger by the tail and any attempt to reverse this position would result in unimaginable violence. Better to keep on course and hope that it falls to someone else to deal with!

    Mortimer’s forecast is also well worth reading though too modest and optimistic in my view which sees nothing but the looming Caliphate.

    Already an unofficial blasphemy law operates across much of the Continent and those who challenge it – such as the French teacher Samuel Paty or the Yorkshire teacher in Batley – lose either their life or their livelihood. The Islamists think that the West is weak, frightened and divided. The lack of outrage over the recent atrocity will reinforce this impression. So the killings will continue as will the ideological assaults.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-banalisation-of-islamic-terrorism-won-t-end-well-for-the-west

      2. These backward, violent tribal area will always be ungovernable and they are bringing their ways here. I abhor that so many of our young servicemen lost their lives or sustained life-altering injuries, both mental as well as physical.

        1. am sure everyone on here and elsewhere fully agrees with your final sentence without question. Your opening sentence is covered in the closing paragraph of the piece. None of the countries mentioned in the piece wished to be invaded and having their lives imposed upon with doctrines of the Western political class who ignored history and made the same mistakes.

          That’s no different to what’s happening in the West currently with a political class attempting to impose their own doctrine on the people without their consent. Hence Saturday’s event goes much deeper than the Freedom Rally slogan / Unite for Freedom march.

    2. I don’t know how many of us were alive in the 1930s, but with dark clouds gathering, thoughtful people with a conscience must too have felt overwhelmed by a looming threat, and felt the elites were doing nothing good to find a better way.

      The President of Brazil is exploiting pre-occupation with Covid to destroy the Amazon, to “do what he likes”. He lies when he assures us he is serious about its conservation, when in reality he has cut all funding for forest protection and diverted to supporting the miners, loggers and ranchers driving out life from the forest and the oxygen from the world’s lungs. This man is the embodiment of the Coronavirus, echoed in the funeral pyres of Delhi.

      All sorts of black dogs are gathering. Who has the capacity to keep them in order?

      1. Morning Jeremy. I’m afraid the Black Dogs have become Rabid and an outbreak of hydrophobia is inevitable!

      2. If they’re gathering in India amid disease and famine, people will soon be asking, “Who ate all the pye dogs?”

    3. Reading the Sunday Times we saw that In para. 5 of an article discussing air pollution in China is the following sub para.-

      “MI6 has thwarted attempts by Islamist terrorists to build and use a dirty [nuclear] bomb in Britain or Europe”.

      We feel that this should have been given more publicity than just Para.5… do we assume that this is being leaked out slowly to
      avoid upsetting Muslims?

      1. Hmm, ‘Morning, Janet, give me a nuclear bomb or two and, avoiding Israel, I’d delight in turning the rest of the Middle East to glass, prevailing winds allowing.

      2. Are Moslem NHS employees smuggling out nuclear bits and bobs from the radiotherapy units so their chums can assemble the dirty bombs?

        1. An interesting thought Anne, but we suspect that it’s more complicated than that.

          But you rather prove our point that the British should have been given more information than para. 5.

    4. Reading the Sunday Times we saw that In para. 5 of an article discussing air pollution in China is the following sub para.-

      “MI6 has thwarted attempts by Islamist terrorists to build and use a dirty [nuclear] bomb in Britain or Europe”.

      We feel that this should have been given more publicity than just Para.5… do we assume that this is being leaked out slowly to
      avoid upsetting Muslims?

    5. Reading the Sunday Times we saw that In para. 5 of an article discussing air pollution in China is the following sub para.-

      “MI6 has thwarted attempts by Islamist terrorists to build and use a dirty [nuclear] bomb in Britain or Europe”.

      We feel that this should have been given more publicity than just Para.5… do we assume that this is being leaked out slowly to
      avoid upsetting Muslims?

    6. “The lack of outrage is mostly due to the exhaustion in the people’s belief that the Elites will do anything about it and the relentless suppression of any view hostile to Islam in the MSM.”
      That really does sum it up.

    7. “The Islamists think that the West is weak, frightened and divided. ” They are of course correct as we do not recognise the long term cancerous threat that is already in the fabric of our society.

    8. Stéphanie M., aged 49, was stabbed several times, especially in the throat, while ‘she was in the entrance hall of the police station at the same time as the assailant. Mother of two children, she was unarmed.
      The perpetrator of this attack, Jamel G., of Tunisian nationality, aged 36, was not known to the intelligence services.

      Motivations inconnues

      “Witnesses claim to have heard the attacker shout: ‘Allahu akbar!’ twice inside the airlock, but they were on the roadway, several meters from the place, ”said a source on the spot. According to several corroborating sources, he had viewed Islamist propaganda videos on his phone just before the attack.

      The assailant has been identified as Jamel G., a 36-year-old Tunisian national. He was unknown to police and intelligence. Originally from the Sousse region, in eastern Tunisia, he arrived (illegally?) in France in 2009 and in 2019 had benefited from an exceptional employee residence permit, then a residence permit in December 2020, valid until in December 2021.

      At the end of the day, a search was underway at his home, located “in a quiet district of Rambouillet”, according to a police source. Three people belonging to his entourage were also taken into police custody in the evening. (As of today there are five family and associates under arrest. Jamel was shot dead by a policeman at the scene)

  2. Mng, the usual offerings:

    SIR – The May 6 Scottish elections offer the people of Scotland an opportunity to consider an important question: why independence?

    The proponents of independence must be honest about the benefits and drawbacks. During its years in power the Scottish National Party has presided over falling education and health standards, rising drug deaths and poverty, and falling life expectancy. The SNP cannot be trusted to run a country, and Scotland cannot afford to go it alone.

    The people of the United Kingdom share a common language, land mass, currency and Armed Forces, including a nuclear deterrent based in Scotland. We have fought oppressors together in many wars and have historically enjoyed the same liberties, security, democratic rights and press freedoms.

    We are better together.

    Mike Fox
    Biggleswade, Bedfordshire

    SIR – As a director of a company based in the Midlands but with a branch in Aberdeen, I know that Scotland would never survive without the support of the rest of the UK.

    Since 2007, when the SNP took control, there has been a steady decline in every area. The Scottish economy has long been lagging behind, and unless the election in May results in a complete change of government policy, we shall have to reconsider the future of our operations in Aberdeen.

    I am hoping that enough people have had their eyes opened to see the true state that Scotland is in, and will vote in favour of a party that is committed to remaining in the UK.

    Chris Shedden
    Evenley, Northamptonshire

    SIR – The bedrock of enduring peace and stability would potentially be at risk if an independent Scotland became responsible for its own defence. A pro rata division of existing UK military assets would leave Scotland woefully ill-equipped to resist resurgent anti-Western powers, and incidentally present the remainder of the United Kingdom with a weakened northern border.

    This issue needs to become a central consideration and topic of discussion in the remaining days of this election campaign.

    Adrian Bedford
    Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire

    SIR – There is far too much fatalism concerning Scottish independence. At the 2014 referendum, 55.3 per cent supported the Union and at the 2019 general election, 54 per cent voted for Unionist parties. The SNP’s high-water mark of 50 per cent support came at the 2015 general election. At the following year’s Scottish parliament election, separatists garnered 47 per cent support and at the 2017 general election, SNP support fell to just 37 per cent.

    The supposedly invincible SNP has never yet managed to win more than half the vote at any election.

    Philip Duly
    Haslemere, Surrey

    Detained in care

    SIR – I read the article by Jemima Lewis (Comment, April 23) regarding care home residents being unable to take time outside the home. For my wife, it has been 13 months since she was detained (and that is what it amounts to) inside her room.

    We have both received our second vaccine, the data show that the rate is at its lowest and I am tested every day before my half-hour visit, wearing full protective clothing.

    The managers at the home have been very supportive but state that they must abide by government guidelines. A risk assessment and common sense must surely prevail. My wife is at greater risk from some of the care home staff who have decided against taking the vaccine.

    Ian Corker
    Carnforth, Lancashire

    Other war graves

    SIR – It wasn’t just Indians who were recognised by the War Graves Commission (Letters, April 24).

    One of the more unusual and, one suspects, least visited First World War cemeteries is that for Chinese non-combatants at Noyelles-Sur-Mer, not far from the mouth of the Somme, with graves in a Chinese style.

    Keith Strickland
    Trowbridge, Wiltshire

    SIR – It was a very moving and humbling experience for a group of family members, on a visit in November 2019, to see all ranks, all creeds and all nationalities honoured together at the Kohima war cemetery in Nagaland, India.

    Ian Ventham
    Bere Regis, Dorset

    The carbon footprint on thatched buildings

    SIR – Britain has 55,000 to 60,000 buildings with thatched roofs.

    The majority of thatched roofs are mainly straw or reed. Supplies of suitable thatching straw have been affected by two successive poor harvests. Reed, however, grows naturally in many places throughout the country but extensively in the Broads, the North Norfolk coast, the Suffolk coast, South Wales and along the River Tay in Scotland.

    Approximately five million bundles of reed are used each year for thatching. There are an estimated 6,500 hectares of reed beds in Britain, but it appears that only 100 hectares are now managed to produce reed for thatching. This means that some 98 per cent of all reeds used for thatching in Britain have to be imported. Imagine the carbon footprint on shipping reed from China, Ukraine and Turkey.

    This year will see 30,000 delegates from around the world meet in Glasgow for a crucial climate conference. The Government’s long awaited Environment Bill has been described as the biggest shake-up of green regulation in decades and will create the most ambitious environmental programme of any country on earth. Defra’s Environmental Land Management schemes are intended to support the rural economy, with farmers and other land managers being paid to deliver clean air, water and wildlife gains.

    Those few landowners and conservation organisations currently practising and, in several cases, supporting the production of reed for thatching deserve a larger slice of the proposed funding to deliver real environmental benefits.

    Andrew Raffle
    National Society of Master Thatchers
    Coleorton, Leicestershire
    Richard Starling

    Broads Reed and Sedge Cutters Association

    Post Office scandal

    SIR – It is hard to think of a more upright and decent sort than the person running the local post office (“Call for public inquiry in the wake of Post Office scandal”, report, April 24).

    That one or two throughout the country might be found to have acted dishonestly is a possibility, but over 700? Did it not occur to those running things that numbers like these, out of the blue, would indicate a systems rather than personnel failure, and should have been investigated as such?

    Vincent Hearne
    Chinon, Indre-et-Loire, France

    Police commissioners

    SIR – Last week I received a request from my local council to vote for the next police commissioner. There were four candidates, all with political affiliations. I don’t know why the duties of a police official should be a political matter.

    To my further frustration, not one of the candidates is known to me – nor has any of them provided any information on their qualifications or experience which might make them suitable for appointment. It seems to me that in these circumstances the appointment to this presumably important role would be better left to an experienced panel of competent assessors rather than the electorate, who, in the absence of useful information, might vote solely on the basis of political preference.

    Michael Edmond
    Hereford

    No safe refuge

    SIR – The campaign advising those who break down on the motorway to “Go left!” is an insult to any driver.

    If your car is on a smart motorway and develops a fault, move immediately into the left lane and abandon the car. Throw any passengers over the nearest barrier without hesitation and follow them. Do not stay to close the doors. Cower in cover as far from the road as is possible until the inevitable pantechnicon demolishes your unfortunate vehicle.

    The faster you react, the more likely you are to survive.

    Alan Werge-Hartley
    Emsworth, Hampshire

    Stage school fees

    SIR – The demise of stage schools has been going on for some decades (Arts, April 21)

    The viability of any private school depends on the ability of parents to pay its fees. When I went to the Corona Academy stage school in the early 1960s, an individual’s fees were largely paid for out of their professional earnings as a child performer. Engagements were plentiful and the school’s agency did its best to distribute available work among the 120 or so children on its books.

    As interest in the arts grew, so did the number of children making themselves available for professional engagements. I was entirely self-sufficient during my time at stage school; but by the early 1980s, that was an unsustainable position for most, and today many aspiring actors have to depend on subsidies from their schools.

    Nicholas Young
    London W13

    A destination offering more than sun and sand

    SIR – I was gratified to note that the Falkland Islands and St Helena are prospective holiday destinations with the second and fifth highest vaccine rating respectively (report, April 23). My wife and I have spent most stimulating holidays in both these British Overseas Territories.

    Neither is a destination with appeal for those seeking sun and sand, nightlife or fine dining. Their fascination for us lay in the fact that they are small self-governing countries with their own constitutions in which most of the institutions of a larger country are replicated in miniature, with some unusual quirks – in the Falklands, for example, every member of parliament holds a ministerial portfolio (there are no political parties).

    Each has a fascinating history and both have an exceptionally friendly population. You are not treated as a tourist, but as a welcome visitor.

    Patrick Hickman-Robertson
    Eastbury, Berkshire

    Enraged by the bell

    SIR – I agree with Jenny Funge-Smith (Letters, April 24) that a bell on a bicycle should be compulsory. However, it seems that 50 per cent of pedestrians are angered by its non-use – while the other half are offended by its use.

    Christopher Timbrell
    Kington Langley, Wiltshire

    SIR – The obsession with bicycle bells is completely unnecessary. I cycle frequently, often along a quiet road with many pedestrians, but cannot find a bell to fit my bike. So I shout “Ding-a-ling!” whenever I would use a bell. It is more effective and creates great mirth at the same time.

    Bill Honeywell
    Clitheroe, Lancashire

    Failure to measure up

    SIR – Having been allowed out after a year, I am alarmed to discover how small 25ml (one official measure of gin) now appears. Has the world shrunk while I’ve been incarcerated?

    Mike Crowe
    Cullompton, Devon

    1. I don’t have a bell on my bike, either, but I do shout “ding, ding!” as I approach. If that gets no response, I yell, “get out of the way!”.

  5. Biggest deployment of UK naval firepower since the Falklands war will set sail next month. 26 April 2021.

    Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who will reveal details of the deployment to Parliament, said: “When our Carrier Strike Group sets sail next month, it will be flying the flag for Global Britain – projecting our influence, signalling our power, engaging with our friends and reaffirming our commitment to addressing the security challenges of today and tomorrow.

    “The entire nation can be proud of the dedicated men and women who for more than six months will demonstrate to the world that the UK is not stepping back but sailing forth to play an active role in shaping the international system of the 21st century.”

    Perhaps it ought to be entitled Operation Hubris?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/26/biggest-deployment-uk-naval-firepower-since-falklands-war-will/

    1. When the carrier leaks and lists and the Type 45 has to receive a tow, kind of thing? Women are not good luck on ships. Just saying.

      1. Miliput and superglue are your friend. I expect to be moaned at on Thursday by my new dentist and my attempts at DIY surgery.

    3. Yo Minty

      The economy of UK will be at risk

      The Torpoint, Gosport, Isle of Wight, Blackwall, Liverpoo, Irish l and all other Ferries operating around UK will be STUFT
      (Ships Taken Up From Trade) how will we survive.

      If only we had some warships

      PS will set sail next month. 26 April 2021. is today

    4. Wallace’s drivel is equivalent to him saying “next week I’ll win the lottery”. He and FCDO may have overlooked, the Empire went a long time ago

    1. Morning Rik!

      Greta turned 18 in January but apparently the media generally have decided she’ll remain 16. Of course her mental age is lower still.

      1. Physically, she appears to be about 6. I wonder why Romanian Olympic gymnasts come to mind?

    2. You can see how The Children’s Crusade took off.
      The West appears to have learnt nothing in the intervening 800 years.

    2. It is significant that there is no Russian presence on this video. The reason for the hostility to Putin is that he does not subscribe to this Globalist enterprise!

    3. If there is one phrase that drives me mad it’s “Build Back Better.” It makes no grammatical sense at all. What on earth is “Building Back?” When do we ever build anything back when “Rebuild” is already a suitable word?

      Doubtless, it’s because this annoying neologism makes three neat bullet points at the end of a speech and is also alliterative. I can’t think of any other reason.

  12. Good morning from another bright and sunny Derbyshire morning with a still chilly -1°C in the yard.

    I’ll be having a run up to Bradway, just South of Sheffield this morning to take the van’s old gearbox back and collect my £100 deposit.

    I see the spat in No.10 is continuing with forces gathering round Princess Nut-Nuts to protect her from SEXIST!! allegations.

      1. Carrie Symonds defended over ‘sexist fabrication’ that she tried to get minister fired
        Lord Goldsmith accuses critics of ‘hate and bile’ over claims PM’s fiancee has too much influence in Downing Street

        By
        Tony Diver,
        POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT and
        Helena Horton
        25 April 2021 • 10:32pm

        A government minister was on Sunday forced to deny that Carrie Symonds had pressured her fiance Boris Johnson to sack the Environment Secretary because she disagrees with his views.

        Lord Goldsmith, a close friend of Ms Symonds, said claims she tried to have George Eustice removed over his record on animal rights were “fabrications” borne of “1950s sexism”.

        Ms Symonds, 33, is now at the centre of a major row between the Prime Minister and his former chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who named her in an explosive blog post on Friday night.

        Mr Cummings claimed Mr Johnson considered halting a leak inquiry because a friend of Ms Symonds had been identified as the culprit and he did not want to upset her.

        The latest dispute between “Team Carrie” and “Team Dom” has led to new claims about Ms Symonds’ alleged influence on government policy, including the suggestion that she asked Mr Johnson to sack Mr Eustice because he was “too close to the farmers and insufficiently robust on her cherished animal welfare issues”.

        Ms Symonds is a committed environmentalist and director of communications at charity the Aspinall Foundation.

        She has previously been credited with pushing the Government to introduce regulations on plastic bags and other single-use plastics which can end up in the sea and harm wildlife. Since Mr Johnson took power, the Government has also taken action against rhino horn exports, an issue on which Ms Symonds has campaigned, and cancelled a planned badger cull.

        Mr Eustice is from a six-generation farming background and previously worked on his family’s farm in Cornwall. The National Farmers’ Union opposed the cancellation of the badger cull.

        The claim Ms Symonds had attempted to have Mr Eustice fired was dismissed by Lord Goldsmith, a Tory peer and junior environment minister, as “the opposite of the truth”. He said a newspaper had “completely fabricate[d] a bunch of stories about someone, and then use[d] those fabrications to pour hate and bile on them”.

        Sources close to Mr Eustice declined to comment on the story. A Cabinet reshuffle is expected later this year, and could see him moved elsewhere or relegated to the back benches.

        Advertisement
        Ms Symonds was also defended by Caroline Nokes, who chairs Parliament’s women and equalities committee, who said on Sunday night that she had been the victim of “vile spite” and “jealousy” as a “competent, clever, attractive woman”.

        Allies of Ms Symonds said Mr Cummings’ attacks on her were “sexism”, adding that the former adviser referred to Ms Symonds in his blog post as the Prime Minister’s girlfriend rather than his fiancee in an attempt “to try and to make her look like some silly little girl”.

        The friends also denied reports that Mr Symonds had fallen out with Allegra Stratton, Mr Johnson’s press secretary, describing the claims as “fabrication”. It had been reported that it was Ms Symonds who masterminded Ms Stratton’s demotion from Downing Street press secretary to spokeswoman for COP26, the climate conference to be hosted by the UK later this year.

        Ms Symonds’ detractors argue that she has unacceptably high levels of unofficial access to government policy and point to her well-placed allies as evidence of her power. After a decade-long career in government and the Conservative Party she is close friends with Baroness Finn, Mr Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, and Henry Neman, a senior Number 10 adviser.

        Lord Goldsmith and Ms Symonds previously worked together on his London mayoral campaign, and she was pictured campaigning for him in the 2019 election.

        Mr Cummings’ blog post accused Mr Johnson of attempting to quash the “chatty rat” leak inquiry out of concern that it would implicate Mr Newman.

        He claimed that after the Cabinet Secretary revealed that “all the evidence definitely leads to Henry Newman and others in that office”, Mr Johnson had suggested shutting down the investigation to avoid causing “very serious problems with Carrie as they’re best friends”.

        Ms Symonds once reportedly described Mr Newman as one of her “favourite people”, and photos show the pair campaigning together on the doorstep. Mr Newman denies the leaking allegation, and Downing Street said Mr Johnson “has never interfered in a government leak inquiry”.

        The blog followed briefings from Downing Street sources on Thursday that Mr Cummings was the “chatty rat” leaker – a claim he denies. Officials also suggested he may have leaked text messages between Mr Johnson and James Dyson about the supply of ventilators last year, which the Labour Party seized on as evidence of “sleaze” and “cronyism”.

        The former adviser said he does not have the text messages that were leaked but said they had been shared with various officials by the Prime Minister at the time.

        An inquiry into the source of the leaks is ongoing, and officials say no one has yet been exonerated.

        Mr Cummings is already scheduled to appear in front of a joint committee of MPs investigating the Government’s response to coronavirus next month, but has said he is happy to surrender all his communications while in government for scrutiny.

        Downing Street is thought to be “terrified” at the prospect of further revelations about the Government’s initial response to the Covid crisis.

        1. thanks Bob. Sped read it – reeks nothing of more than “virtue signal attention seeking” by authors, sorry, word compilers writing from a bedsit. I don’t recall anyone electing Carrie therein how do DT determine it’s responsibility for a political correspondent? Bin the rhetorical Q, enjoy the drive and your deposit

          1. Yep, and who is this Mr Symonds they refer to in the 13th paragraph? Is that Boris’ new title?

          2. pass! Bob thankfully saved the majority here now [and later] from delving into the emotive concerns of utopians. As for Boris’ new title, that threw me as well.

        2. Oh yes – Goldsmith – the “independent” Attorney-General who changed his advice that the Iraq war was illegal to say that – suddenly – it was justified.

          5. This calls the opening stanza of W.B. Yeats’s poem to mind:

            Turning and turning in the widening gyre
            The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
            Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
            Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
            The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
            The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
            The best lack all conviction, while the worst
            Are full of passionate intensity.

        3. Oh yes – Goldsmith – the “independent” Attorney-General who changed his advice that the Iraq war was illegal to say that – suddenly – it was justified.

        4. Why do they insist on calling this trollop Boris Johnson’s fiancée? Will she ever marry him – I doubt it – and can you blame her? Once he has lost his position as PM she will not want to be still lumbered with him. Why can’t the MSM be more honest and call her his mistress or his concubine – or his whore?

        5. Whichever way about, Dominic Cummings was a paid spad. His role was clear.

          Carrie whatshername is the PM fiancee. She has no role in government.

  14. He’s Not So Well

    A man flops down on a subway seat next to a priest.

    The man’s tie is stained, his face is smeared with red lipstick, and a half empty bottle of gin is sticking out of his torn coat pocket. He opens a newspaper and begins reading.

    After a few minutes the guy turns to the priest and asks, “Say, Father, what causes arthritis?”

    “Loose living; cheap, wicked woman; too much alcohol; and contempt for your fellow man,” answers the priest.

    “I’ll be damned,” the drunk mutters, returning to his paper.

    The priest, thinking about what he said, nudges the man and apologises. “I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to be so harsh. How long have you had arthritis?”

    “Oh, I don’t have it, Father. It says here that the Pope does.”

  16. Morning all. Wonderful to see the thousands all smiles in London yesterday and sad to have had the measure of the BBC who as expected completely ignored it. Not a whisper. Wretched organisation.

      1. As the Ossie journalist says accurately and unequivocally – Boris Johnson is a joke. He’s not a Conservative

      2. That throw away remark “Boris Johnson’s a joke because e’s not a Conservative…”

        True, all so sadly true!

  17. From the News;
    The UN has launched an Appeal for help on behalf of St Vincent (and the Grenadines) following the volcanic eruption there. As St Vincent is a member of the Commonwealth why are the other members not rallying to help?
    A couple of days ago the stories about the horrors of Covid in India were being described as untrue, yet the stories grow worse. I wonder if perhaps India was the intended target of the Covid bioweapon all long. There is no love lost between China and India and they have come to blows a few times in the past. The effects of Covid on the rest of the world may have been a happy accident.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-56859335
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-56882167

    1. The Indian Pension League [IPL} continues without a hitch. For India scare stories, nothing more than US money propping up Narendra Modi while Chinese Belt and Road initiative [BRI] goes forward with large sections of Modi’s party supporting BRI. Re the UN agenda re St Vincent, the usual utopian tin rattling for themselves. I don’t recall the UN launching an appeal after the US invaded Grenada, also a Commonwealth member.

      1. I sailed to Grenada in Raua in January 1985 the year after the US forces had intervened. As I sailed from island to island I added new verses to the song I wrote (Hey Skip – Wanna buy some limes?) about the little boys who came out in their makeshift dinghies trying to sell their wares and services to the people in their boats. Here is the verse about Grenada:

        When I got down to Grenada the US Army were there
        Wearing short pants and T shirts and driving Jeeps everywhere
        They screamed and whistled and waved machine guns as they drove by past me
        It made me think that it is not true that worse things happen at sea.

    2. It is interesting that everything seemed to be going along just fine until India rolled out its vaccination programme in January. Just saying.

      Edit: I have just discovered that there had been no deaths in Mongolia until it rolled out its vac prog on 23 February. Deaths then sky rocketed. I cannot post the graph as disqus on my iPad won’t allow this function.

      1. Where is the original info from, just so we can have a squint. I’m heading down to my local beer garden for the first time since last September (thanks to the Great Nictator) and I’m sure my livestream broadcast-viewing acquaintances will be full of their spoon fed tales of woe from the British Broadcasting Cassandra et al.

        Right on cue, today’s forecast is for showers…the first for a couple of weeks. Wet weather gear and a decorative umbrella on my pint may be in order!

        3. Hello. It was a screen shot which I took so I don’t have a link. It was taken from this site: https://ourworldindata.org/ It seems that Mongolia went from zero deaths to 80 after its vac prog was rolled out in Feb. Compared with other world totals it is insignificant but interesting in that it has happened about the time vac started.

  18. 332011+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    “Monday 26 April: Proponents of Scottish independence must acknowledge its drawbacks”

    I will honestly never be convinced that the Scottish peoples want to split the union and rejoin the eu, no way.

    My belief is that as with the English political setup and the herd, many
    via lethargy / disgust have quit on politics / voting accepting what is the political order of the day.

    The party before Country, best of the worst, keep in do not let in ( this is inclusive of pro English / GB parties) has brought us to our present odious state as a Nation.

    IMO The present state of the nation cannot be more damaged by giving
    the Scottish peoples a decisive vote, and call an emergency General Election within these Isles as sure as God made little green apples the HERD will eventually tire of being under a continuing political shit shower
    THEN the peoples reset will commence.

    Ps,
    No way on this planet can I see Jock clasping an empty sporran to his breast.

    1. Sadly, those who need it, won’t listen. Those who don’t need it, will be nodding and improving themselves from it. It is sad. People seem to enjoy the lack of responsibility.

  21. Good Moaning.
    This sounds horribly conceited, but the other evening I actually learnt something from the telly.
    Both MB and I had never heard of quolls; in character, they are Australia’s version of meerkats but with a different social structure. They are absolutely enchanting.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ed5fd52b1cc8334506a77de77b578bdf15a3381fbe6aa8adbe7b1e1588ecec5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f52e8d2efc474c18b2c545cb6098cc4656f03b9a7a8ba30992a7350de18c3fe2.jpg

          2. Yes, Wibbles, they burrow under, use adjacent shrubbery, trees etc to go over fences and often, the cost of miles of fencing is prohibitive.

          3. Sounds like trying to keep out foxes from the hen coop chez Allan Towers. We gave up and let the professionals get on with all that chicken and egg malarkey.

      2. Even the platypus males can do you damage if they get you with their venomous spurs.

  22. Biden-Putin summit could take place as early as June, in test of new US foreign policy. 25 April 2021.

    A summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin could take place within weeks a senior Kremlin aide said on Sunday, in a major test of the new US administration’s foreign policy.

    This is difficult to imagine even on the personal level. Dimmest guy on the block meets the smartest! You could see where that might lead. I would have thought something more formal; a committee type convention with Biden’s nurses and minders present to make sure he didn’t give Vlad the Launch Codes over dinner!

    Besides what would they discuss? The recent attempt to assassinate Lukashenko and draw Belarus into the EU? The clandestine sponsorship of Navalny to politically destabilise Russia? Trying to draw Ukraine into NATO?

    I don’t see Vlad getting anything out of a hostile United States so it will probably not happen, which explains the luke warm reception!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/25/biden-putin-summit-could-take-place-early-june-says-senior-kremlin/

    1. Data not dates, the Prime Minister famously said when he announced our ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown. It turns out that there was no road out and no map.

      In truth, Government policy is now being driven by nothing more sophisticated than a deranged dogma.

      It is dogma of the worst sort, for it is shaped by political cowardice and burnished by discredited scientific advisers who no longer seem capable of reviewing the evidence in front of them.

      Morning Anne. It’s odd how much Cowardice plays a part in the decisions at Westminster! It pervades everything! They must be the most niddering political class in UK history, particularly when one remembers that they are most coddled. Perhaps that is it! They were brought up without challenge or danger. The Eloi at play! Never mind, the Morlocks are watching and waiting for the bell to ring for dinner!

      1. That same cowardice also means that the Head Boys and Girls ru(i)inning the Post office were quite happy to throw thousands of innocent little people under the bus.
        Save face/arris is all that matters.

        2. The cow principally at fault is now – (really) – a C of E priest…

          I expect she prays for them….

          1. I actually know the person who was in charge of the Horizon system. His name hasn’t been mentioned in the press yet.

            Cough Mike Young Cough.

          2. Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells quits roles at Dunelm and Morrisons and steps back from priest duties amid storm over IT Horizon scandal
            *Paula Vennells, a priest, was in charge of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019
            *Calls for her to be investigated as 39 postmasters wrongly convicted of stealing
            *Shortfalls in the accounts of local branches were the result of flaws of IT system

            The Post Office boss who presided over the cover-up of one of Britain’s biggest miscarriage of justice has announced she will step back from regular church duties.

            Paula Vennells, an ordained priest, was in charge of the company from 2012 to 2019 and walked away with £4.9million in pay and bonuses.

            Today, the 62-year-old also resigned as a non-executive board member of high street retailers Dunelm and Morrisons.
            https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/04/26/01/42210692-9510757-image-a-48_1619395632337.jpg
            Mrs Vennells oversaw a failed mediation scheme and sacked a team of independent forensic accountants after they found the losses could have been caused by Horizon. The Post Office continued to recover debts and in 2017 Mrs Vennells chose to fight 550 postmasters through the civil courts.

            In a statement yesterday she said she was ‘truly sorry’ for the ‘suffering’ caused to the 39 subpostmasters. Mrs Vennells has informed the Bishop of St Albans that she would be stepping back from her regular parochial duties following the court’s ruling.
            *
            *
            It came after it emerged Mrs Vennells was helped into a new job in the NHS by controversial Tory peer Dido Harding.

            Mrs Vennells had quit as Post Office chief executive just before a damning court ruling in 2019.

            She became chairman of Imperial College NHS Trust and Baroness Harding, chairman of NHS Improvement, headed the panel that judged Mrs Vennells a ‘fit and proper’ person. Last December it was announced she would leave the role in April ‘for personal reasons’.

            NHS Improvement said it had ‘followed a fair and open appointment process including application and interview’.

      2. How many people who voted for Boris Johnson would have voted for him if they had known that his green, left-wing, woke mistress would be running the show?

        The British have been just as gravely deceived as the Americans were in their recent presidential election.

      3. If it didn’t then they would have to make decisions based on facts and evidence, and those disagree with what the state wants.

        We want lots of energy and higher wages. The state wants to remove our energy producing abliity and raise the lowest incomes, so it can tax businesses more. However, the state never considers the consequences of it’s actions. Higher low end wages mean more unemployment. Higher top end wages mean more money is off shored.

        Less energy and higher costs mean fewer jobs are here which means more unemployment. In the end, it simply circles the drain of destruction. WE’re kept from the plughole because big fat state keeps robbing people ever more and more and more. The problem there is to sustain the same lifestyle means more debt, which means more welfare and… the plughole gets bunged up with debt, tax and poverty until eventually it all gives and the pipe isn’t carrying the lifeblood of wealth, but just waste.

        Switzerland does the opposite. It’s income per capita is twice ours. It’s services better. It’s political class controlled. Why? Because it’s taxes are low.

      5. That soundbite, “data, not dates” ranks alongside his claim to be “dead in a ditch” if we didn’t leave the EU on time. The Fire Brigade needs to deal with his pants.

    2. mng. The usual fossil fuel companies attempting to convince the market they’re “changing tac / rebranding” as their profits bottom out promoting off shore wind given shale gas has gone nowhere. Further down your link https://www.kitco.com/news/2021-04-23/China-s-CGNPC-to-pay-435-million-for-49-stake-in-uranium-operation-in-Kazakhstan.html worth noting. As is buried in that link https://www.kitco.com/news/2021-04-23/M-A-heats-up-in-the-battery-materials-space.html?sitetype=fullsite and that’s key, for this part of the world aka DR Congo et al

      1. Shale has gone somewhere but the state smashed it down as it wasn’t green enough. Luvvies living in the country would far rather our seas and group were polluted – which they can’t see.

        1. Wait until those Cheshire Luvvies are infested with ‘Solar Farms’ all around them – as we are fighting in rural Suffolk – I don’t think you’ll find natural gas under boulder clay.

    3. The cost is irrelevant. The tax payer is paying – not only for the wretched, inefficient, wasteful things but also a fixed, much higher market price. Otherwise the hateful eyesores would never be built.

  25. (Reposted from late last night)

    Monday 26th April 2021

    Harry Kobeans

    A Very Happy Birthday

    and as many happy returns as you can handle!

    With best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    (Incidentally we have a niece called Harriet who was called Haricot Bean when she was a child!)

    2. Happy birthday!

      How many beans make 5, in great haste?!

      2 beans, bean & ‘arf, ‘arf bean, bean.

      1. Our family always said, how many beans make five, a bean and anarf, a bean andanarf, half a bean and a bean and a half.

    4. Am I missing something, Rastus? I second your good wishes to Harry K. but isn’t it Mrs. Rastus’ birthday today as well? I copied your birthday list when you published it some months ago, and my copy suggests that is so. Happy Birthday, Caroline!

          1. Ah Elsie! I’m sure you lived long enough in Scotland to hear the expression “old age disnae come itsel”!

      2. Already posted – it’s her unbirthday – her real birthday is 26th March. – the day before Fallick Alec’s and Maggiebelle’s birthdays.

        1. Good grief, Richard, I must go and have a lie-down. I reckon the next NoTTLer birthday is Johnny Norfolk’s on June the 9th. (None of us have a birthday in May?)

    6. Bonne anniversaire, Harry! Enjoy your day. I hope it is as sunny en la belle France as it is here!

    8. Thanks Rastus and thanks to all for your kind birthday wishes. I wish the numbers were the other way round!

  26. (Reposted from late last night)

    Monday 26th April 2021

    Harry Kobeans

    A Very Happy Birthday

    and as many happy returns as you can handle!

    With best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    (Incidentally we have a niece called Harriet who was called Haricot Bean when she was a child!)

  27. I see that I muddled my Goldsmiths. The one sticking up for Carrion is not the liar who was Attorney-General to Bliar at the time of the Iraq Debacle.

    Too many Lords cause confusion.

      1. Nah – the present one is a son of the philandering litigant “Cur” James Goldshite; the other an “eminent” member of the bar who was a great pal of Bliar. Now earning shedloads at some legal outfit in the US.

          2. I hope the rickshaw puller hasn’t had curry for breakfast.
            That’s the planet fried.

    2. Is it the Greeniac Goldsmith? That would fit in better with CarrieOn’s obsessions (I assume her flock wallpaper and stripey chairs can be recycled).

    1. Oh, the irony of using ‘polling booth’ when each of these criminals will have an equal vote to that man.

      FWIW I don’t blame Patel. I blame the scumbag lawyers, judges and cowardly politicians like Johnson who won’t withdraw the Human Rights Act and stop the on-going colonisation of our country.

      1. 332011+ up ticks.
        Morning D,
        The irony is in the fact the polling booth has gone through a period of lets say three decades, of use & abuse ALL to benefit a party / parties that exist in name only in their race to the bottom.

        That is before family & Country welfare, we could NEVER have got to the atrocious state as a Nation we are in without their persistent support & voting input.

        Make no mistake these politico’s do NOT get a senior position without having an inner core of ready to use treachery.

        The polling booth WILL have to be used in a common sense manner otherwise we are nearing the point where the NHS
        will be under insurmountable pressure via a civil war.

        Jaw Jaw ( polling booth) people power, NOT civil war.

  29. As businesses pay tax on their turnover, VAT, the total amount of VAT collected by HMRC at the end of this Financial Year compared with the last full year will be a good guide to the extent of our economic collapse. Real world figures rather than the percentages being bandied about which are presumably no more than guesswork.
    With the end of the current Financial Year coming up shortly we should see the picture by mid June. Or rather, we would see the picture if the government deigns to tell us.

      1. In her situation, in case she falls in? Good morning, Bill. A sunny one here in s.Cambs.

      2. Cowgirl boots Bill, a family heirloom belonged to aunty mom. …….i’ll get me Stet son 🤠

        1. In the mid 1990s father had a Nigerian carer for about 12 months, he told me he was in the UK to study law. And he used to help himself from their drinks cabinet.

      1. Too right. I was booked into a hotel Christmas 2020 on a four day package full board. I left after lunch on Christmas day. Couldn’t sit at the bar. Only allowed to be served drinks in the dining room with food. Six other guests rattling around. It was bloody terrible. Like sitting alone in an empty barn.

          1. The staff really tried their best but it was ghastly. Over £2000 down the plughole. That’s 2 foreign holidays and Christmas buggered with no refunds for anything. I could weep.

            I’m not getting caught out again.

  33. I couldn’t get on line until right now.

    You may have missed it but on Vine they have just been inviting people to comment on Saturdays London march.

    1. I’m sure if people use words like ‘peaceful’ they will be cut off and cast into the oubliette.

      1. There was one very good lady in the defence of the peaceful marchers, one who was completely stooopid (spent too much of her time with the botox and her appearance) one black ‘activist’ who sanctioned the right to protest and the very leftie Doctor Sarah. Who can’t stand any one criticising her profession.

  34. Last night, MB was watching a rather painful programme on the Queen and St. David of Attenborough looking at trees in Buck House gardens. It was made around HM’s 90th. birthday.
    Among the films, were ones of Prince Harry representing her in the West Indies. He looked alive, engaged and was smiling. What damage has the Californian Becky Sharp inflicted on the man!

    1. I have decided to call her from now on ‘Harry’s wife’ to remind her that she owes her position and friends to being that alone. Anyone who thinks she should be listened to or that Oprah, the Clooneys et al give her a moment of their time through her own achievements (college degree, Z-list acting career, and, er, that’s it) is ignorant and easily-manipulated.

    2. I have decided to call her from now on ‘Harry’s wife’ to remind her that she owes her position and friends to being that alone. Anyone who thinks she should be listened to or that Oprah, the Clooneys et al give her a moment of their time through her own achievements (college degree, Z-list acting career, and, er, that’s it) is ignorant and easily-manipulated.

    3. Harry should have taken his grandfather’s advice on actresses. Bonk and dump. Never marry one.

        1. There were plenty of nice young women he could have married. Most of them the Sloane Ranger types but they would have had an understanding of what was expected of them.

          Edited tpyo…

          1. I think it was they who backed away.
            They weren’t as desperate for money and attention as madam.

    4. I’ve seen it before and than and now my immediate reaction was that when Brenda went back inside she might have said to Phillip . “I or One, Had no idea the DA is such a leftie “.

  35. That’s not bad. Here to Cromford, pick up gearbox from garage then up to Bradway.
    Stop off at farmshop on return, including having a cup of tea & slice of sticky cake, then home and all within 2½h!

    After allowing AntiFa to run riot in Portland and preventing the Police from dealing with the disturbances, does anyone else think that the Mayor of the city is on a bit of a sticky wicket here?

    Portland’s Democratic mayor begs public to help ‘unmask’ members of ‘self-described anarchist mob’
    ‘I’m also asking for your help to make a stand and take our city back,’ Mayor Ted Wheeler said

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/portland-mayor-asks-public-help-unmask-members-self-described-anarchist-mob

  36. Good morning, everyone. Haven’t seen my daughters for over a year. No. 2 daughter and husband are driving down from the midlands to spend a few days with us. Blx to Boris!

  37. The DT is still banging on about Shirley William whom people liked in spite of her complete incompetence and lack of judgement and her determination to ruin the education system which gave financially poor but intelligent children the chance to achieve more through a grammar school education.

    ‘People were attracted to her warmth’: Saying goodbye to Shirley Williams after a 70 year friendship
    Helge Rubinstein walks down memory lane and looks back on her enduring relationship with the MP who died earlier this month

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/people-attracted-warmth-saying-goodbye-shirley-williams-70-year/

    A BTL comment with which I agree:

    She had the ability to be infallibly wrong about everything.

    I remember she said that we would only get better politicians if we paid them more and gave them more generous expenses.

    Now many MPs could never get a job paying even a half of what they receive as MPs. Never before have we had such shoddy politicians.

    When people become politicians because of the money and benefits rather than because of commitment to serving others you are bound to get avaricious and nasty people in the job.

    1. Sorry, Mags. Can’t understand a word of it. The canned laughter doesn’t help…{:¬((

    2. Imagine if that had been done with white interviewers and white audiences being amused. All Hell would be let loose.

      I can’t see why the clips should be considered as anything other than racist, even if it is being done by blacks, because it paints them in a poor light.

    3. They all passed the UK Universities Educational Qualification exams – with flying colours! Dingy trips booked and paid for by the government.

  39. This caught my eye yesterday:

    Betty Boothroyd, 91, ‘investigated by ethics watchdog for missing sexual harassment training’

    The former Commons Speaker is facing a formal probe despite telling the standards commissioner she had been recovering from heart surgery

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/04/24/betty-boothroyd-91-investigated-ethics-watchdog-missing-sexual/

    And I rather liked this popular BTL comment:

    Rudi von Starnberg
    24 Apr 2021 11:08PM
    Quite right.

    It’s those 91 year old ladies with a dicky ticker that are the worst offenders.

    I think that’s right but I’m on my second bottle.

    In another article I read that Isaac Newton invented gravity to oppress black people…shocking racist.

    glug…burp…

    1. I can see why the DT dropped its Way of the World column now. It’s all coming true.

    2. Those ‘ethics watchdogs’ should find out about Newton’s gravity with a noose attached to them, 32ft/sec².

    3. Those ‘ethics watchdogs’ should find out about Newton’s gravity with a noose attached to them, 32ft/sec².

    1. Oh, I dunno, Mags. If he manages to get BPAPM out, he’ll get an uptick from me.

        1. Johnny Mercer for PM. We could do with someone who has actually done a real job in their career. And perhaps he can get some help for our servicemen.

          Good afternoon Maggie.

          1. While I agree – there is not a chance.

            He was browbeaten by TORY MPs (of all people) for sticking up for service personnel. They wouldn’t vote for him as leader because he knows who the barstards are….

          2. Perhaps he could employ Cummins as a SPAD and clear the swamp.

            I know, I know…I’m a stupid boy. :@(

    2. If he succeeds in shíttíng on Bojo, his knocking partner and the rest of the loony ‘Soros Green’ fanatics in Downing St. It will be a service to the country.

    3. You’re probably right, Belle, but if it’s the truth he speaks, I’d like to hear it.

    4. He was provoked in a dastardly fashion, and made a scapegoat. If politicians were honourable, if they were truly rt. hons., this would never have happened. I have some sympathy for Cummings. And the whole thing seems to have fallen apart since he departed. He is a master strategist, which Johnson is not.

        1. I don’t know, but nothing would surprise me now. There is no political conservative conviction in the tory party anywhere. They all seem to be in a jumbled bag together, a political pick-and-mix. The world is going to hell in a hand cart.

        2. From wiki: “Cummings has frequently criticised what he sees as a London-centred political system that failed to countenance the UK’s voting to leave the European Union. He has expressed his dismay that many voters’ concerns, particularly in Northern England and the Midlands, have been ignored by both the Conservatives and Labour and ‘taken for granted’. He criticised New Labour’s attempt at re-balancing inherent structural deficiencies within the British economy following de-industrialisation with a system of tax credits.

          Cummings has said he has never been a member of a political party. He came second in a list by LBC of the ‘Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives of 2019’. Although frequently portrayed as on the right of the political spectrum, he has expressed dismay for the European Research Group led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, describing the group as “useful idiots” for the argument to remain in the EU and that they “should be treated like a metastasising tumour and excised from the UK body politic.”He sought to isolate Nigel Farage from the official Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum believing his presence to not be helpful in winning over undecided voters.”

          1. Hmmmm, yes , thank you for that . I will probably reconsider my opinion of him .

            Men like him are very clever , and of course he is untameable . I suspect he would be a King Cobra if he were a reptile !

            He must have great insight , and has probably seen stuff that is unpalatable .

            Why do politicians get everything so wrong ?

          2. He is the wild card with no political allegiance. It would seem he is on the side of the people which is why he is being rubbished in the media!

      2. I happened to bring MOH a drink when the Bbc was on in full “get Cummings” mode. My thought was that he was a) efficient and b) not out to stab the UK in the back, so it was no wonder they couldn’t wait to put the boot in and get at him in any way possible.

    6. Sorry, Mags, I cannot agree, he has seen the faces of the weasels and wants to rid us of them – by any means.

      Cometh the hour, cometh the man – is Boris’ time like his words running short?

      2. I have just read on Twitter that reporters are gathering outside No. 10. Is something happening this afternoon?

  41. Two elderly ex-paras charged with murder today for a deadly confrontation that happened nearly 50 years ago. The dead man was an IRA member resisting arrest. The paras were assisting the Belfast Police. A continuation of the appeasement policy of the mass murderer, Blair.

      2. Tory, Labour, Liberal, Green, Scotch Nat et al – they are all the same. I just hope the new party gathers enough momentum at the next election to scare the pants off them all.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Ped, never mind scare the pants off them, enough votes/seats to form a rational government.

          I suggest Reclaim and Reform amalgamate and form the Ability Party to get near the top of the ballot paper.

    2. The Generals , Admirals and all the top brass up at MOD, as well as the top police wallahs are strangely silent ..Where are their voices ?

      1. Silence guarantees the gold plated pensions of the donkeys.
        Apologies to all true and brave donkeys.

      1. Afternoon Phizzee. It was an emergency. Loaf of Bread required,though I did buy a bottle of Jack Daniels as an afterthought!

        2. Afternoon, Minty.

          Been a while since i drank bourbon. On to Gin now as the mixer doesn’t make my tongue go black like cola does.

          Cheers!

        1. I would have thought that a visit to Morrisons would definitely take the shine off the day.

    1. She needs +50% in the first round.
      In the 2nd round the other parties bury their differences and block-vote to keep her out.

      1. In the past – bien sûr. I am not so certain this time. A very large number of people are fed to the back teeth with Toy Boy and most conventional politicians. And the EUSSR. If I was a betting man, I’d risk a tenner on Marine.

        1. Last time I was in France, there were plenty of people who wanted to vote Le Pen, but couldn’t quite bring themselves to do so. A lot has happened since then.

  44. Net zero is a disaster waiting to happen

    Eye-wateringly expensive, and promising unreliable energy, decarbonisation is a dangerous daydream

    ANDREW MONTFORD

    You can almost smell the change in the air. A growing number of influential voices are beginning to ask the questions that everyone has been avoiding for the last few years. Can we really nudge people into accepting net zero – the decarbonisation of the economy? Is it practical? Can we afford it any more? Or will it prove to be the white elephant to end all white elephants?

    They are right to be concerned. The bill has already been estimated at £1 trillion pounds – £30,000 for every household in the country – an eye-watering figure that was probably unaffordable even before the pandemic hit. But a moment’s reflection shows that even this number is far too low to be plausible. Although it is a tidy sum, 30 grand doesn’t go far when you are trying to decarbonise. Heating the nation’s homes is a case in point. The cheapest way of doing this is a combination of insulation and replacement of gas-and oil-fired boilers with heat pumps. But a heat pump and ancillary equipment will set the average homeowner back well over £10,000, and retrofitting insulation could cost twice as much.

    Once you have converted 30 million homes, your £1 trillion decarbonisation budget is pretty much gone, before even thinking about the cost of decarbonising the electricity generation system, replacing petrol and diesel cars with electric vehicles, installing charging equipment, reinforcing the grid to cope with the extra demand, and weaning industry, freight, transport, shipping and agriculture off fossil fuels. Quite what all this will really cost is anyone’s guess at the moment, but it will certainly be well over £100,000 per household.

    Forcing people to spend their own money on that sort of scale is hardly going to be a vote-winner, but then coercion seems to be the order of the day. The Committee on Climate Change – the Government’s advisers on decarbonisation – are urging a ban on sales of inadequately insulated homes. Such a policy would land like a lead balloon in the Tory shires.

    And that’s only the start. Decarbonisation’s big secret is that we still have no zero-carbon technology that can balance the electricity grid when it is driven by offshore wind farms. Contrary to common belief, batteries are not even a plausible solution, and hydrogen is so absurdly expensive as to make its use unacceptable.

    We are therefore heading for a situation in which the only way to meet supply and demand in a long lull in the wind (like the one we have seen over the past two weeks) will be rationing. That’s what smart meters are for – they will enable grid managers to switch off appliances in your home so that the grid doesn’t collapse. Yes, your home may be cold, and the electric car may sit idle in the drive, but at least the lights haven’t gone out.

    It doesn’t have to be like this. A study I helped publish a few years ago showed that an electricity grid powered by nuclear and gas could deliver similar emission reductions to the one we are building, but at a fraction of the cost. New technologies like so-called Allam Cycle gas turbines (essentially a gas-fired power station with built-in carbon capture) could make the system zero-carbon. [The writer was on course until this point: (i) We’re fast running out of gas, (ii) ‘carbon capture’ is an utterly pointless exercise.]

    But instead, we in the UK will be stuck with vast, unreliable offshore wind farms, which seem to exist mainly to mop up subsidies. It emerged last week that several of our latest offshore installations are taking home a third of a billion pounds in subsidy each year. Every year. The latest and largest, Hornsea One, will soon be sucking up over half a billion pounds of annual subsidy.

    We have done the easy bits of net zero – replacing coal with gas made economic sense in its own right. The next steps are going to be harder for Tory canvassers on the doorsteps, particularly in Red Wall seats, where heating bills are high, and the kind of money needed to decarbonise isn’t found down the back of the sofa.

    The lessons of the fuel tax rises and the gilets jaunes are there. The public will endure being nudged towards decarbonisation a little bit, for a little while. But if a little nudge turns into a great big shove, they are likely to turn round and give their political overlords a bloody nose. And with the scale of the disaster that net zero is set to be, it will be richly deserved.

    Andrew Montford is deputy director of the Global Warming Policy Forum

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/25/net-zero-disaster-waiting-happen/

    1. It is almost beyond belief that anyone could seriously think that the world’s climate could be changed by Britons giving up the comforts of 21st century living, whilst the rest of the world continues to pollute the atmosphere with increased exploitation of fossil fuels, to satisfy the needs of its hugely increasing populations. There is a limit to growth and it may be in the near future. It won’t be ‘Greenies’ who solve the problem, but huge armies and nuclear weapons. Population growth will be the end of the world as we know it. Now where is my Little Red Book and my Chinese language tapes?

      1. This is one of the chief reasons that I believe that the ‘Climate Emergency’ is a load of bolleaux, driven by the likes of Soros and Schwab and backed by Gates, Johnson and other like-minded twerps who wish to grind us into poverty.

        John Kirby
        26 Oct 2020 4:28AM
        @Kevin Bell ,,,,Hi Kevin, I agree 100%
        As I write the BBC have a group discussing Global Warming.
        All of them believe that carbon dioxide causes it. No scientific debate then, no Devil’s Advocate. They want “De-Carbonisation” of the economy by 2050.
        Successive governments have taken us along this path with the Climate Change Act of 2008.
        No attempt has been made to follow true scientific debate. Any opposition has been treated as some sort of heresy.
        Our politicians have followed the dogma. This is a much greater threat to the economic and intellectual future of Britain than the Covid virus.
        Yet the government continues with this dangerous and wrong-headed policy.
        I repeat some facts:-
        1) CO2 is a trace gas.
        2) At 0.04% it is 1 part in 2,500 of the atmosphere.
        3) But 24/25ths of atmospheric CO2 comes from nature,
        4) From rotting vegetation, volcanoes, wildfires and the oceans.
        5) So manmade CO2 is 1 part in 2,500 X 25 of the atmosphere
        6) That is 1 part in 62,500 of the atmosphere.
        In terms of Statistical Thermodynamics and in terms of Common Sense, that is insignificant
        I think the slight increase in CO2 is CAUSED by global warming, warming up the oceans and driving out dissolved CO2.

        1. In times of madness telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

          However, it’s important to note with the BBC that their pension fund is heavily invested in green. Therefore, they’re not going to present any variation from the climate change is man made agenda.

    1. Hell of a photo. I think that technically a gull (that looks like a great black backed gull) isn’t classed as a raptor. No talons to start with. A bird of prey, yes.

      2. Good guess and very close, Mola, but not quite. It is a lesser black-backed gull Larus fuscus; the yellow legs and feet are diagnostic [great black-backed gull L. marinus has pink legs and feet].

        2. To boldly and pedantically correct, where others fear to tread. Way to go, George!

      3. Got a nasty beak though. Also with those webbed feet it could trample the other bird out of the sky !

    2. Aren’t soldiers supposed to assault? That said, aren’t they now called ‘mostly peaceful introductions of safe spaces’.

    3. Note the sentence of 60 days attendance at awareness days as community service plus 90 days’ monitoring for a series of vicious assaults’ plus dismissal from the Army. A man would have got at least 2 years inside prison. It’s time this unequal treatment stopped, but I’m not holding my breath.

    4. I have just noticed she is not wearing a Royal Artillery cap badge. The rank of ‘gunner’ is certainly an artillery rank.

      1. She’s wearing RA lapel badges in one image. Images aren’t good on my phone, but I suspect you’re looking at one with her in a beret, which I suspect is at basic training.

        1. Basic training? Nasty term the septics use. Our squaddies do the Common Military Syllabus

          2. We always referred to basic training as, well, basic training. Followed by trade training.

          3. Must be a relatively new nomenclature; when my brother did his National Service, he did basic training before specialising in his trade.

    5. So, wife-bashing isn’t just a man thing. Hooray for equality – I don’t think.

      1. Statistically, it is known that the most violent kind of relationships are female-female ones.
        Just one of the facts about gay relationships that don’t fit into the rainbow.

        Anecdotally from my own observation, I reckon a lot of women who end up with women are looking for a partner they can control, who is physically weaker than they are. But that is just my personal view based on what I have seen.

    1. Don’t underestimate people’s gullibility. I have lost count of the number of times my wife believes without question anything she reads in the online newspapers despite my countless times telling her not to and showing her articles are wrong, manipulative or dishonest.

      That said, she’s learnt not to believe a word involving politicians and their advisers. Her views on Johnson, Hancock, Whitty et al are unprintable.

    2. That’s hilarious!
      Well spotted that man

      The two guys live on the roof, clearly, that is the only explanation.

    2. She destroys everything she comes in contact with. That’s why she joined the priesthood.

    1. Garlands ruptured her achilles and is wearing a cast and a boot poor love. Also had trouble logging in and and i told her Geoff probably banned her. :@)

          1. I’m not perfect but I’m British, which is the next best thing :

            (Pinched from someone else’s post a week or so back)

      2. Thanks Phizzee. She and Plum will be able to swap notes. I hope it doesn’t take too long to recover.

        1. Welcome. Hope G doesn’t mind me grassing her up.

          Plum, Garlands and Phizzee now qualify for the three legged race. :@(

  50. 332011+ up ticks

    ,breitbart,

    MUSLIM MIGRANT WHO STABBED GAY COUPLE HAS NO REGRETS, COURT HEARS

    Could it be if he voiced regret he would have qualified for compo. ?

  51. Interesting Takimag article.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/tyrannical-anarchy/
    Conclusion:

    What the long liberal experiment with diversity has shown is that
    diversity plus proximity results in conflict. The more diversity you
    have, the more conflict you have. The closer diverse people are to one
    another, the more often they come into conflict. The great liberal drive
    for maximum diversity will result in maximum conflict. It turns out
    that fences do make good neighbors and the only peace in a diverse world
    is peaceful separation.

    1. That’s probably why TV keeps pushing mixed-race couples as the ‘new normal’.

      1. That’s probably why TV keeps pushing mixed-race couples as the ‘new normal’.
        That’s probably why TV keeps pushing mixed-race same sex couples as the ‘new normal’.
        There that’s fixed it for you!

      2. Ah but only black male white woman couples. If the advertisers claim to be representing the population evidently there is no such thing as a black woman, while male couple.

        1. The next stage is black male abandons white female leaving her with sprog, sprog is successful. QED.
          It must be good.

          1. Shouldn’t it be “Black male abandons mutiple white females ( all pregnant ) while he goes looking for more “.

        4. Seen one in llast hour – was surprised – but can’t remember what it was advertising.

      2. PS, looking at your screen grab it looks almost as if the website’s own security system is blocking you from accessing it.

  52. Funny old world…slagging them off one day and getting your satellites launched by them the next.

    The state-run UK telecommunications company OneWeb has been launching communications satellites to provide high-speed internet to the UK, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, most of the Arctic Sea, and Canada by 2022.

    Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has published a video on his Twitter page of a Russian Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with 36 British OneWeb communications satellites blasting off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East.

    The launch took place at around 1:14 a.m. Moscow time on Monday (22:14 GMT on Sunday).

    1. Scientists cross the boundaries of politics which is in everyone’s interest.

      For $1 million you can go up in Space X Dragon

      1. There are gold temples and exotic mansions , very very rich people , and a caste system no sanitation for them , discarded children , and some barbaric practices .

        Politicians , what are they for , what do they do .. ?

        We will have the same problem here soon , an overcrowded island , 850 miles long , prime agricultural land sold on by landowners for financial gain .. and everywhere smothered in rabbit hutch homes , our infrastructure will be choked to the gunnels .

    1. I made a comment there – because it was Disqus, I thought I could but it’s “pending” and will doubtless remain pending. I can’t even delete it because it doesn’t appear anywhere except in my profile. Irritating.

      1. This happens sometimes on the Spectator Sue. I think it’s a discouragement ploy!

      2. I can only comment on NoTTL. Since the “cancel bot”, I am unable to have any comment actually entered on the forum. Their loss!!

        1. Bill. the solution is to create another account. You may need an alternative email address (such as gmail), but your original Disqus account prolly has a negative ‘upvote’ score of minus millions by now. Disqus will never fix it. So your entirely unearned ‘reputation’ is worki9ng against you. You can post here, because we’ve added you to the ‘trusted user’ list. Good luck getting Fraser Nelson et al to do the same.

          1. Thanks, Geoff. I simply can’t be arsed!

            I actually contacted the woke Nelson (having been a subscriber since before he was born) – guess what? Not a sausage. I then wrote a letter and posted it. Guess what – you’re right…not a sausage.

            I find the Spectator in-groupies far too closes to No 10 for my liking. Marrried to each other; bestest friends then hated enemies* . They remind me of super-hormonal adolescents.

            *Cummings is married to (or lives with) Mary Wakefield.

    2. I watched Dr Bhakdi on Rumble last night. It was a very disturbing interview and the Dr seemed very concerned with the state of play with the vaccines. He confirmed, as others have done, some of what Dr Mike Yeadon was saying before Christmas.i.e. there is potential for a disaster with these gene therapies. He went further, probably because more evidence has come to light.

      It’s clear that our politicos will be in the frame if anything disastrous happens. They have frightened millions into taking these potions and continue to try and coerce everyone to have a jab or two. There is no way out for them if disaster strikes, claiming ignorance and “following the science” will not wash when their exhortations for being jabbed are replayed. How Johnson, Hancock, Whitty et al. sleep at night I do not know.

      1. If people start to die, they will merely claim that the “new variant is far more virulent.”
        That could even be true, if people who have been vaccinated are harbouring more virulent variants in their bodies without getting very sick, and passing them on.
        Who will be able to say what the truth is, and what role the vaccine is playing?
        The authorities have fixed the narrative so that it’s heads they win, tails we lose.

        I might even have been tempted to believe them if the communist, the shills, the cheater with his not-fit-for-the-purpose software and the cheater in 10 Downing St looked a little bit more honest, and if a little bit less money was flowing into the UK from Soros and Gates.

        1. Some months ago I watched an American doctor discussing her concerns re the potions. Her take was similar to yours viz. if people who have taken the potion start to die the PTB will declare it is a new virus and one that is very difficult to control. Perhaps the obsession with “everyone ” has to be jabbed, including children, is so important to the PTB is if a large cohort of non-jabbed people exists and only the jabbed start dying then the game is up.

    3. Months ago I got the Covid jab bumpf to make an appt. I called our local surgery and told them I didn’t want it. OK they said – and that was the last I heard. This afternoon the landline rung ( rare event here ) and a number I didn’t recognise shown up but they rang off as I picked up. Straight away my mobile rung. Not a coincidence. By the time I had found it that had rung off as well – so put the number into the laptop number checkers – and no surprise – the number for the Covid jab appointment line. Clearly they hope to threaten/scare me to make me change my mind. I’ll expect another call tomorrow – or my door being barged off and soldiers/Police with guns and a syringe.

      1. I know the feeling. We’ve both had eight or so each emails, letters, texts and phonecalls. Don’t forget to ask for their full name and department, (you’ll need it for charges of attempted murder in due course). It will throw him or her which is good. Do not confirm any of your details, either.

        1. Just had my repeat phone call – before I read your reply. A very nice young lady called Kelly. I told her that I had told my surgery of my decision not to have the jab on the day I received the original letter and they would pass it on. I didn’t believe her when she said they hadn’t “updated” my records and she would do so. She then asked me, politely, to answer a few questions on my decision. I proceeded to drag the phone call out, while clearly she was trying to end the call, just to play silly sods with her. I told her of several medical problems that the NHS do NOT know what to do about. As several doctors, a consultant, a chiropractor and others have said at various times to me “I have never met anyone like you ” – or – ” I have never seen anything like this in my life – it doesn’t make sense “. Blood thinners seem to have NO effect whatsoever, so me risking the brain bloodclotting jab would be riskier than ever – they wouldn’t be able to clear it. She didn’t even react when I asked her what time the armed soldiers/Police would be kicking my door off with a syringe at the ready !!!
          Anyway, she said they wouldn’t bother me again ( just what the doctors said after I had notified them first time ). I bet they do.

          1. I did reply to this via notifications but I can’t see it anywhere, either here or the notification facility. I have refreshed the page too, several times. Did you receive it? This isn’t the first time this has happened, I think my iPad eats them.

    4. Months ago I got the Covid jab bumpf to make an appt. I called our local surgery and told them I didn’t want it. OK they said – and that was the last I heard. This afternoon the landline rung ( rare event here ) and a number I didn’t recognise shown up but they rang off as I picked up. Straight away my mobile rung. Not a coincidence. By the time I had found it that had rung off as well – so put the number into the laptop number checkers – and no surprise – the number for the Covid jab appointment line. Clearly they hope to threaten/scare me to make me change my mind. I’ll expect another call tomorrow – or my door being barged off and soldiers/Police with guns and a syringe.

  56. FK you BBC I wouldn’t touch it even if it was FREE

    BBC backlash:
    Older voters urged to act now to win back free TV licences-election warning.

    OLDER voters have been urged to lobby election candidates to reinstate free TV licences ahead of the May 6 polls. Thousands of senior citizens have been told to put political hopefuls on the spot about what they will do to overturn the decision.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1428196/BBC-TV-licence-latest-local-elections-may-6

    1. And they’ll get a fudged, obsfuscated and irrelevant answer that will be meaningless.

      The real decision will be made by some civil servant who, on early retirement will take up a 2 days a month consulting job for the BBC board of governors for about £250,000 a year.

    2. Me neither, Plum. Who wants to watch that cesspit of diversity and traitorous propaganda.

    1. It would serve Heineken right if drinkers discovered how much more tasty real ales are, and abandoned lager in their droves.

      2. We had some wonderful micro-brewery beers and ales available in N Essex before Johnson tried to destroy the industry. I’ve been to three pubs since re-opening and found that Greene King and Adnams are still available and yesterday I found a beer from Warwickshire, something Goose or other, and very nice, in a pub down on the coast. Not seen Mauldons, Nethergate nor Colchester Brewery beers yet. More exploration required, hic!

          1. Couldn’t tell you, BT. I haven’t tried Mild since about 1969 and I do not look for it. Same with Porter.

        3. Used to like Greene King IPA at the Dog and Partridge in Bury St Edmunds (Lovejoy’s original pub, and next door to GK’s brewery). Ten miles away at home in Thetford, it had never travelled well. Now it’s available nationally, it is nothing to write home about.

        4. I’m hoping that the Mount Edgcumbe in Tunbridge Wells survives this debacle.

          They support local breweries and usually had three guest beers on offer, which they changed frequently, as well as Harvey’s as their staple.

          1. A pub in the village nearby, the Layer Fox, always had a Mauldons’ beer on tap last Summer. Small brewery based in Sudbury and very good too.

          2. If I ruled the UK, it would be compulsory for all pubs to support local brewers.

            One a week, and if their beer didn’t sell, then the publican would be allowed to stop using them.

          3. My local, the Good Intent in Puttenham, Guildford, has added its own ale to the fray. Along with the Doom Bar, Hog’s Back TEA and Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, they now offer Good Intent Golden Ale, brewed by the Crafty Brewing Co. at Dunsfold. It’s not half bad…

          4. I used to enjoy Doom Bar and TTLL, but they seem to have changed since they became ubiquitous a few years ago. Perhaps my tastes have changed, but to me they are not quite the same as they were.

          5. See my comment elsewhere re. GK IPA. But ’twas ever thus. I remember Boddingtons from my days doing block release at Salford College of Technology. The nationally available stuff bears no resemblance. I prefer Doom Bar to Landlord, but that’s just me. For fifteen years, I lived within half a mile of the Hog’s Back Brewery, but on the wrong side of the ridge to appreciate the brewing odours. I’ve done several of their brewery tours, all of which failed to disappoint. I’m impressed that they manage to brew many different ales from a relatively small number of ingredients. They now grow their own hops, including the almost extinct Farnham White. Farnham used to be a major hop-growing area, until verticillium wilt wiped out all but those on the local Hampton Estate.

            My very earliest memories of beer relate to the state-managed Carlisle Brewery. Suffering from Measles at Christmas 1962, I was encouraged to drink a small quantity of Carlisle Nut Brown, and my appetite was miraculously restored. I was five at the time…

          8. I guess I fell on my feet at an early age.

            The pub was “The Black Horse”, in Chorleywood and the landlord was quite happy for the underage drinkers to inhabit a rear room and as long as we drank mild or bitter or M&B, he put up with us.
            The agreement was that if raided we stated that we had lied about our ages. We were never raided and we all learnt how to drink within reason and to enjoy real beer.

            DD and Red Barrel were not on our menu, by his diktat!

        5. The Three Wise Monkeys in the High Street have set up a micro brewery on the old Jacks site.

      3. I happily drink Heineken, Amstel and other Pilsners when I am in the Netherlands. I tried the British-brewed versions and they were definitely inferior. In Kazakhstan the Russian-brewed versions were also superior the the British varieties.

    2. Amstel is most certainly not premium beer – it’s cut-price Heineken, and horrible with it.
      Moretti is better than Peroni, but otherwise average. Quite nice on a hot Sicilian summer’s day, but no premium beer.

      1. A snake came to my water-trough
        On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
        To drink there.

        1. I reject yellow ‘beer’. I have only ever partaken of it whilst on holiday in Turkey. Since real ale is a stranger to that Godforsaken country. Although I did discover a bar selling John Smith’s Extra Smooth, which is hardly real ale. Frighteningly, my local brewery shop (Hog’s Back) has a wide selection of bottled beers from around the world, including Turkish Efes…

          2. On holiday in Belgium in 1964, I recall ‘little old ladies’ in Belgian pubs – invariably drinking ‘Trappist’ – from wide-brimmed wine glasses …

          4. Much as I enjoy Belgian beers, I have never understood why they have such weird and wonderful glasses, and what conceivable difference the glass can make to the flavour.

          5. I admit I like the large ‘wine glasses’ for beer.
            We have several glasses we bought in Bruges; the beer shop owner looked like Van Gogh – only less cheerful.

      2. I had a drink in a local pub on Friday, the extensive gardens were packed, and I discovered that it is owned by Heineken. It appears that they own quite a few pubs in the UK. However, I did not partake of their slop but settled on a pint of Adnams’ Ghost Ship, a golden ale with a citrus edge. Earlier in the week such was the demand for decent ale that when I called in they only had Greene King IPA: very disappointing and not a patch on the Adnams brew.

          1. White Hart at West Bergholt. Plenty of good looking food leaving the kitchens, too.

  58. I see that the socialists are ahead in Albania’s parliamentary elections. What a surprise!

    Many people in Albania are so thick that they still love socialism. After all, it used to have its own brand of communism under Enver Hoxha. And, after all, Lenin said: “The goal of socialism is communism”. (I Googled Hoxha and a photo of Jeremy Corbyn appeared!)

    Many years ago I used to listen to the English broadcasts of Radio Tirana for a good laugh. They used to refer to the ‘American imperialists’ and the ‘Soviet social imperialists’!

    1. Norman Wisdom was Enver Hoxha’s favourite comedian; which tells you pretty much everything about him! Lol!

  59. Today’s silly (but true) story.

    The Patients’ Group at the GP outfit in Fakenham wish to plant a tree to commemorate the sterling work of the volunteers guiding thousands of people towards the final solution covid vaccination.

    An apple tree was suggested. (An apple a day etc ...)

    Proscribed on “Elf ‘n Safety” – might attract wasps…..

      1. Green wasps? Now there’s a thought… Get Carrion worried… Should she allow herself to be stung in eco-solidarity – or kill them??

  60. I just had a rare, quick look at the headlines on the Daily Express ‘news’ page. It is laced with such vapid nonsense that I am ashamed of myself for having done so!

    It is full of old regurgitated stories about the Royal Family, in general, and Mrs Migraine in particular. There are the usual predictions about the imminent outbreak of WW3.

    As for the weather: “BBC Weather: Last of the sunshine as temperatures turn ‘wintry’ next week”. Next item: “UK hot weather forecast: Sub-tropical heat frenzy (sic) to scorch UK over Bank Holiday weekend”. The ‘heat’ is apparently 15C!

    How it stays in business beats me!

    2. Don’t know why they are bothering, it’s not as though they are going to be driving anywhere.

    2. About a minute. Is there a prize? I found the difference in length of her cleavage first. I always was a tits man.😎

    4. Different coloured feet, presumably a bra in the RH picture, and cupboard door handles missing from the LH one. There’s something on the RH cistern, and something on the RH loo seat. But – who goes to th eloo with their pants still ‘up’?

    1. You do the porker a disservice. A fine pig can feed a family for weeks, Johnson on the other hand is barely worth feeding to swine.

      1. Speaking of porkers. I have heard so many sad tales of people snowflakes whining about all the weight they put on because of lockdown.

        I now weigh 60 kilo and i haven’t been anywhere or been able to walk.

        Lardarses eating because they were bored.

        1. I’m not putting on weight, but I’m certainly getting flabbier.

          Roll on the swimming season, so I can build the blubber better.

        3. I have a foolproof way of losing around 20 kg, overnight.

          But be aware that feet provide a useful counterweight when you attempt to sit up in bed.

          Just saying…

          2. Boris would lose more than that just with his head disconnected, and your feet are more of a loss, Geoff.

        4. I’m afraid I have piled on the pounds during lockdown; I couldn’t get the exercise I normally did and I am what is known as “a good doer” – in other words, I don’t need much feed to score well on the roundness index. Grief does make me lose my appetite (while stress makes me eat for England), so hopefully I’ll manage to shed a few pounds until I get another dog.

  65. Afternoon, everyone. When I voted for Brexit, I didn’t expect it to be a bed of roses, but I felt the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. The Scots, it seems to me, are not being offered independence; they’re being given the choice of Westminster or the EU rather than living their own, independent lives.

          3. I’ve just switched the oil heating back on AND put a Weegie pully on for good measure!

          4. We.ve still been using our boiler. But it was warm in my friends’ garden in Gloucester today.

    2. “they’re being given the choice of Westminster or the EU”
      I doubt that the EU is wanting them without Westminster cash, and so ‘independence’ is a pipedream.

      1. They certainly won’t find the EU doling out money to them, that’s for sure. The Scots PTB, however, appear hell bent on rejoining the anti-democratic institution. Only those suffering from mental health problems could campaign for independence and being shackled to the EU at the same time!

  68. It’s turning really nasty now…

    Boris Johnson: ‘Let the bodies pile high in their thousands’
    PM’s incendiary remark during fight over lockdowns is latest claim in No10 drama amid spectacular row with Cummings
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9510133/Boris-Johnson-said-bodies-pile-high-order-lockdown-sources-claim.html

    Boris Johnson said bodies ‘could pile high’ during lockdown discussion
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56890714

    1. Bojo appears to have lost touch with reality – assuming he had even a passing acquaintance with it in the first place.

    2. I doubt he said that. He may have been unhappy about the lockdown nonsense, but he wouldn’t be daft enough to say that – especially in the vipers’ nest No. 10.

      2. I’m no fan of Johnson but let’s play with that a little:

        Boris Johnson: If that’s the approach you want, fine ‘Let the bodies pile high in their thousands’ we can’t risk it, so let’s play safe.

    1. Looks like bullshit, smells like bullshit, but if you don’t mind I’d prefer for you to taste it, rather than me.

      1. An ignorant pensioner writes.

        The Earth has been shifting its axis since before God was a boy. The eco-freak-scare-mongering-climate-activists are talking bollocks.

        1. Allegedly we are due a polar reversal.
          Perhaps that’s why great white sharks are heading for Bognor rarther than Miami.

          4. I’ll bet you wore a woollen bathing costume too.

            And on that happy note, I’ve a nightmare on the way.

            Your saggy gusset, down by your knees, Djimmy Djangly peeking out, and even the seaside donkeys fleeing for their lives.

            };-O

    2. Well, if the diagram is to scale we won’t have to worry about not having electricity etc, as we in the UK will be on the Equator.

    4. FFS! You bad, bad humans – the earth will DIE if sacrifices are not made, and tributes are not paid to the high priests immediately and regularly thereafter.

        1. Trump was only a slight correction to the leftward lean.

          Trudeau is i trouble again for telling more porkies. I don’t know why him lying is news, now if he told the truth that would really be worthy of a headline.

    7. They seem to be a bit muxed ip. Do they mean the wobble of the Earth’s axis or the Magnetic pole axis which exists due to currents of the hot inner core? Climate is affected by the former to a certain degree not the other way round.

        1. I agree completely, BUT:

          One part of me says; “Tough tit, you stupid, stupid cow.”

          The part that I prefer to think of myself says; “You poor woman, my heart breaks for you.”

          It won’t happen, of course, but the men, women, activists etc who are promoting this deserve to be lined up against a wall and shot.

        2. Those who are unhappy living as one sex will still be unhappy living as another. The unhappiness lies in themselves.

          2. Evening, Rik. I think the same about people who have plastic surgery because they are not happy with their appearance. They are still unhappy even when they’ve had the nip and tuck,never mind having to change their life style to appear to be something they aren’t.

    2. Amazing, there wouldn’t have been so many people listening then as there are now. His books are great. Haven’t read a Flashman novel for a long time. I’ll have to dig a couple out.

  71. That’s me for yet another day of three halves. Grey and cold early on. Sunny/grey and cold midday, very sunny and cold this arvo. In the sun = lovely – BUT there is a bitter edge to the wind that makes it all a bit of a struggle. The wind keeps on and bloody on, drying out the soil, nipping the new shoots. Bloody global warming. I blame the Swish Muppet.

    Anyway, we at outside pretending it was warm to have a glass of medicine – then came in and I am about to jolly up the stove. Again. And it is only eight weeks to the Longest Day…{:¬((((

    A demain. Prolly.

    1. Look on the bright side, at least it’s light. Did the English summer ever get going much before the longest day? I seem to remember feeling that “midsummer” was a bit of a con when I was a child.

          2. I live in a country where somebody got fined around a thousand pounds for upvoting a comment on social media that was deemed to be offensive. NOTTL is searchable to anyone who checks on Disqus which websites someone posts on. My current address is also not known to my ex – neither is this disqus account – but I do not want to take any chances!

      3. We had a friend whose birthday was 6th. June. She said she could never remember it being a warm pleasant day; if it was dry that was a bonus.
        And we all know what the weather was like on 2nd, June, 1953.

  72. Lovely day today with two old schoolfriends – I’d forgotten we set a date so it was a nice surprise to go out. Had lunch in the (sheltered) garden – sun was warm and we also went for a walk. Might share some photos later from my phone.

    1. Wonderful. We do have to ask ourselves why we continue to put up with the nonsense that stops us doing these simple and pleasurable things.

      ***nota…don’t look at any of my other posts… :@)

      1. Sadly, the businesses that provide pleasure and entertainment are barely tolerated by British governments at the best of times. With willing legions of snoops and petty hitlers, they can be assured of compliance.

        1. Our forefathers defeated Hitler and we will defeat Johnson, Hancock, Whitty, Vallance, Van Tam, Ferguson & Drosten (both involved in the PCR Testing connivance), Symonds, and the Chumocracy of bent associates of Johnson and the corporate cabal invested in destroying our industry and our wealth producing middle class.

          We are not all stupid albeit a lot of our populace are scared and subservient. Fortunately the majority of us can see precisely what is going on with this fake pandemic and our actual intelligentsia both in the UK and overseas will ultimately nail these bastards in a ‘Novel’ International Criminal Court of Law. Of that you may be sure.

          Bezos, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Soros, Deutsche Bank, Rothschilds, Rockefeller people, Wellcom Institute people, GSK, Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the rest of big Pharma and their corporate investors will eventually have to pay for their misdeeds.

          Roll on Nuremberg Trials Mark II.

          2. 332011+ up ticks,
            Evening M,
            The way I see it is, it was misguided people’s power via the polling booth that got us into this state of high level sh!te so it can be reversed, only if the peoples want it bad enough.

            Maybe many think the paedophilia actions, knifings, killings are not at a serious level yet and any upset could bring the “party” into disrepute.

            Unity in people power can work as has been seen.

          3. It will happen as sure as night follows day. The sheer magnitude of the offences and crimes against humanity outweigh all other consideration.

  73. Talking about birdies and bird song i am happy to announce that i saw off with my replica Luger air pistol 7 magpies harassing the song birds in the Hawthorns at the back of my bungalow.

    I even think i got one of the little bastards.

    They moved off anyway.

    Don’t tell anyone. 7 for a secret never to be told

        3. No comment record, so deffo a troll. Zapped!
          Morning, Tom.
          I do like the smell of burned trolls in the morning… :-))

    1. ”We leverage policy, legislation and political influence and build strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs and other actors”.

    1. Because it is a scamdemic, a deliberately manufactured ‘crisis’ and nothing more.

      We both know this and knew it from the very start.

    2. We saw exactly the same politicisation with Hydroxychloroquine with that drug being pushed through a set of “trials” that, with hindsight look as if they were designed to fail.

    1. Spring is sprung! My golden gage and cherry blossom have faded, but the pears, plums and apples are starting to open now.

    2. They are beautiful, Ndovu. I love the apple blossom photo. In fact you should get them framed and hang them in your bedroom, they are so peaceful.

    3. I do like those blossoms, the most colour that we have here is the dandelions that have just appeared from nowhere.

  80. Am I alone in finding that as each day passes – and the Covid numbers continue down to low levels – I am getting more and more irritated by people wearing masks when walking in uncrowded conditions OUTDOORS in locations where masks are not mandated…..

    1. Masks are both useless and harmful. The wearing of masks is an act of submission. Always has been so.

      The most worrying aspect of masks is that those masks manufactured in China appear to contain strands of potentially infectious material.

      The same applies to swabs supplied with testing kits and supplied by China.

      Boris Johnson and his utterly ignorant and useless government have taken us to the cleaners, so be it for the present but it we will ultimately lead to their prosecution. ‘Following the science’ is no defence especially since actual science was deliberately excluded from debate and thus lacking.

      1. Hi Corri

        Masks are a nuisance , and the back of my ears have reacted to the string .

        However , one thing annoys me to the point of distraction , people do not carry handkerchiefs , and even people who ought to know better wipe their noses on their sleeves or use their hands to catch a drippy bit of snot .

        On the whole , many many people are disgusting , and have filthy habits , and even when they sneeze the aerosol effect is horrible .

        So when I am shopping I wear a mask .. and practise good hand hygiene.

      2. Hi Corri

        Masks are a nuisance , and the back of my ears have reacted to the string .

        However , one thing annoys me to the point of distraction , people do not carry handkerchiefs , and even people who ought to know better wipe their noses on their sleeves or use their hands to catch a drippy bit of snot .

        On the whole , many many people are disgusting , and have filthy habits , and even when they sneeze the aerosol effect is horrible .

        So when I am shopping I wear a mask .. and practise good hand hygiene.

    2. We never see that over here. Almost the only time you see someone wearing a mask outside is when they are walking between stores and cannot be bothered to unmask for the short walk.

      Inside it is a different story, no mask no service.

      1. I found myself having supper in a pub/restaurant on the North Norfolk coast last week. While waiting for my meal, I found the mask most useful in keeping my chin warm. Hell it was cold!

        1. A gOod reason to wear masks over here in winter. There again you couldn’t tell if there was a mask under the scarf, balaclava and coat hood.

        2. A gOod reason to wear masks over here in winter. There again you couldn’t tell if there was a mask under the scarf, balaclava and coat hood.

    3. What makes me annoyed is the people wearing masks while driving ALONE in their car! WHY? There was one this morning and I just thought, “crackers!”.

  82. Ten minutes to midnight and I’m away to my bed. Good night, chums and God bless.

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