Monday 26 May: Renationalised rail is just one sign of Britain’s slide back to the 1970s

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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577 thoughts on “Monday 26 May: Renationalised rail is just one sign of Britain’s slide back to the 1970s”

    1. He's right, but maybe over time lower costs in energy might mean more money for patient care.

    2. "This will enable us to make massive progress towards the national target of the NHS being the world’s first net zero national health service".

      Bravo! You are well on the way to achieving your aim, you have already achieved net zero in common sense.

  3. Good morning Geoff and all NoTTLers. Time for another couple of Monday Chuckles, this time about Appearances:

    A woman went into hospital to have her wrinkles removed, but she woke up to find that the surgeon had given her breast implants. “What have you done?” she demanded. “I came in here to have the wrinkles on my face removed, but instead you’ve given me these huge breasts.” “Yes,” said the surgeon, “but at least nobody’s looking at your wrinkles any more.”    

    A few days before his son was due to leave for his first semester at university, a father sat him down for a quiet chat. “Son,” he said, “in college you’re going to be surrounded by beautiful girls, so I got you something from the chemist.” “Dad, you didn’t need to. I’ve already got condoms.” “With a face like yours, you won’t be needing condoms, son. I bought you some anti-depressants.”

  5. Good morning chums and thanks, Geoff, for the new NoTTLE site. I must confess that I am really delighted with my Wordle result today. Not being a golfer, is this known as an Eagle, a Birdie, a Par or even a Ma? Someone please let me know!

    Wordle 1,437 2/6

    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. If ever I get may hand on a dollar again
        I'm gonna squeeze it until the eagle grins!

  9. 406327+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Here is a leader in the image of a real man doing real men type things, AND A FARMER TO BOOT.

    A hungry angry intelligent farmer would / will be a major asset to say, the Farmers Food and Freedom party as for the
    supporters / members hunger will, in due reality, be a powerful driving force.

    Dt,
    Farm: Bang on when it comes to loneliness, and the daft expense of tractors
    Jeremy Clarkson’s battles with fatigue, his own incompetence and government red tape should strike a chord with all British farmers

      1. Very good article. Never watched Clarkson Farm and never heard of those mentioned but an interesting read,

    2. 406327+ up ticks,

      O2O
      Do YOU agree ?

      No Farmers, No Food
      @NoFarmsNoFoods
      ·
      1h
      It should be one of the main priorities of any government to ensure domestic food security and support farming and fishing.

  11. Crypto millionaires served ‘airline food’ at glitzy Trump gala. 26 May 2025.

    A dinner at Donald Trump’s $1.7 million-a-head event for crypto investors was labelled “worse than airline food”.

    Guests criticised the food served at the black-tie event for buyers of Mr Trump’s official cryptocurrency, which is estimated to have netted the US president and his family $148 million (£109 million).

    Though it is now some years since I made a flight that required dining onboard I have never lost my conviction that airline food, despite its pretensions, is unspeakably vile. You could eat better in any greasy spoon café on the planet.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/05/25/crypto-millionaires-airline-food-trump-gala-virginia/

    1. My invitation was obviously lost in the post !

      I bought Trump Coin. It dropped by 75%

        1. Turbulence? An Airbus A380 weighs up to 569 tonnes at maximum takeoff weight. It's just like flying in a brick-built Hotel.

          2. Turbulence
            The first A380 in the above clip was subjected to wake turbulence near the ground from the equally heavy A380 ahead. And in the second segment, the wings of all large aircraft are made to bend and flex, otherwise they would break.

            In 1961 I was at a University Air Squadron Summer Camp at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire. I was solo, flying a Chipmunk light training aircraft and rejoining the circuit when the Air Traffic Controller said over the radio "Beware wake turbulence. There is a Bristol Britannia 3 miles ahead on finals to land." Never having had to "mix it" with bigger aircraft I took little notice until my plane started spiralling in big circles in the wake of the Britannia turboprop a couple of MILES ahead. A frightening experience that taught me a lesson (though no change of underwear was necessary).

          3. One of the remarkable things about the long thin wings of the Wellington bomber was how they flexed, apparently.

          4. Turbulence
            The first A380 in the above clip was subjected to wake turbulence near the ground from the equally heavy A380 ahead. And in the second segment, the wings of all large aircraft are made to bend and flex, otherwise they would break.

            In 1961 I was at a University Air Squadron Summer Camp at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire. I was solo, flying a Chipmunk light training aircraft and rejoining the circuit when the Air Traffic Controller said over the radio "Beware wake turbulence. There is a Bristol Britannia 3 miles ahead on finals to land." Never having had to "mix it" with bigger aircraft I took little notice until my plane started spiralling in big circles in the wake of the Britannia a couple of MILES ahead. A frightening experience that taught me a lesson (though no change of underwear was necessary).

          2. So Fallick, I guess you prefer smaller portions, like this at the ANTIQVVM 2 Michelin Star restaurant in Porto:

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1245e41a60b4d9118d26f34cd9161e3fd49b06bd05dca54ff2f7af2404de975.jpg
            or these:
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1f4055b57ee439e9777965c2b2810751c85d85156d0afaeb0c32420b6d0b703.jpg
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6dfaf49b872182ee51ee0e868b9b1e83eb4c83c7de89025e7d9a029af6401da3.jpg
            Mind you, there were 13 courses…

          3. Pretentious? Moi?
            p.s. bar the green leaves, Spartie just regurgitated something very similar to Picture 3.

          5. So Fallick, I guess you prefer smaller portions, like this at the ANTIQVVM 2 Michelin Star restaurant in Porto:

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1245e41a60b4d9118d26f34cd9161e3fd49b06bd05dca54ff2f7af2404de975.jpg
            or these:
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1f4055b57ee439e9777965c2b2810751c85d85156d0afaeb0c32420b6d0b703.jpg
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6dfaf49b872182ee51ee0e868b9b1e83eb4c83c7de89025e7d9a029af6401da3.jpg
            Mind you, there were 13 courses…

    5. I don't think the menu looks that bad. They were probably expecting lobster and caviar.

  12. 'Morning All
    Bank holiday medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcba1c0c6f4110cd965b30168a08a3882f31df8ff8521518d363c22c2d980946.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e5d19e1f2a83b73fad09ea23b2fa646da85d7fd96fd85bd3f6d60f16f79eb956.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8dd0573adc199ea9891930e054bf40aebb945dfce2551a2eaff2d3b5fefb63ce.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1655905e38e8fb179a5122f079f335c478d9a85a4fa3c386c491c7baa9d090e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e06ec495ddf3377e8c96c88f8b71f19185d815bfb4272d29c39ea7a0aac83265.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c4effada2e6aee36f162867ef5540bb3cb4e35fa8ab80482b09858d7cf80741.jpg
    Oops
    https://x.com/yoda4ever/status/1926656933739512107?s=46&t=1X8QCg4BVqY7bqVbNv2HbA

      1. And all too true. I've come home to find furniture moved around or upended. It's because they're bored or lonely. Mongo wanted to sleep on our bed and we'd put him back in his bed. After a while he got wise to this and moved our bed to him.

        1. The first thing Winston did when we went to bed back home was to leap on my bed (he's allowed to sleep on the bed in the motorhome because it keeps them out of the way – the gangway is quite narrow). He got a nasty shock, because I knew he'd do it and was only out of the room a couple of seconds. He squealed and leapt off and fled to his basket (we had this conversation when he first arrived). He's a chancer.

    4. Winston subscribes to the Dog Maths theory. If his bone goes under the furniture and is retrieved (by me), it's still there.

    1. Carbon dioxide does not cause global warming! How have we arrived at so many brainwashed idiots on the planet. A senior UN official has admitted that 'climate change' has nothing to do with the climate; it is about moving enormous amounts of money from one demographic to another.

      2. Maybe the 'carbon dioxide damaging the environment myth' is being pushed by carnivores who want to eliminate vegetation by eliminating the carbon dioxide on which vegetation is entirely dependent.

        But the problem with this is that most of the animals we eat eat vegetation!

  16. Lacerta Viridis
    20h
    We have free speech. And if you disagree, you'll be arrested.

    1. Reality doesn't affect Lefties. I'd suggest if they really believe in their cause then all the synthetic material they're wearing to keep them nice and warm to whinge should probably go in a nice pile – as for that path being cleared for them, that was done by a machine too.

      1. Turning a blind eye at the most obvious is all the far left bandwagon have. Apart from being institutionally stoopid.

    3. The rent boy rumour (along with the story that Starmer's wife has left him) does not seem to be going away.

      I cannot believe it is true – but if it is, what then?

      It would be interesting if there was truth in the rent boy story if a wealthy person acquires concrete evidence and published a highly graphic story in the National press and waited for Starmer to bring a case of criminal libel.

      1. Cyril Smith, Edward Heath … rent boys seem de rigueur for many eminent politicians.

  21. Good morning all.
    Overnight rain has given way to a beautiful sunny morning with a rather cooler tad over 9½°C on the thermometer.

    1. I think we've just got your rain down here now. Washing's still in the machine.

  22. Renationalised rail is just one sign of Britain’s slide back to the 1970s

    Funny how I don't feel any wealthier now that I part own SW trains.
    Just worried now that Starmer will give it to the French

    1. Just look on the back of London's red buses. It says RATP, which stands for Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens, French owned . The Chairman and Chief Exec of RATP is m. Jean Castex, former Prime Minister of France.

  23. Good Morning!

    Today FSB publishes an interview , The Real Covid Catastrophe , with the well known covid hero John O'Looney, the Undertaker who exposed the Government's lies on covid to expose the sinister plan behind the mRNA vaccines, a plan still in progress today. Please do read John's story, it's terrifying and stimulating at the same time. Don't forget to leave a comment.

    Graham Cunningham, in Everyone has lost control of the digital age , makes the case that 'wokeness' now has deep roots in our society and that it will not be easy to uproot, Please read and leave a comment.

    Energy Watch: Over the last 24 hours: Britain's electric power was sourced from Gas, 10.7%; Solar, 9.4%: Wind 56.2%; Imports, 2.5%; Biomass, 2.5% and Nuclear, 16.7%.

    freespeechbacklash.com

      3. “And more serious neurodegenerative disorders such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Parkinson’ disease, and Alzheimer’s-like dementia can occur in younger people as well.”

        reminds me that there was a short article in the Terriblegraph recently about a new case of BSE.

      4. Also, i think someone posted a YouTube once of John O’Looney, who was talking about this. I listened to it and was horrified.

        1. Correct. John Campbell recently also expressed concern in one of his Youtube videos that no one in Authority seems to be the slightest bit interested in getting to the bottom of this phenomenon; which of course makes one suspicious that the cause is already known, they are simply terrified that if it becomes widely known it will be a thousand times worse than the Thalidomide scandal….

  24. Selling British nationalised industries to foreign nationalised industries was a Tory trick. Can't say it was a roaring success.

    1. The railways have never really been prvatised. When you look at the franchise documents it's an absolute mess designed specifically to give the pretence while keeping state control.

  26. 406327+ up ticks,

    I did strongly suspect this political overseeing, morally criminal cartel,were not of humankind but were rogue A1 rejects, as in a prior comment, A1 afterbirth.

    Dt,
    Open AI software ignores explicit instruction to switch off
    Chat GPT maker’s ‘most capable’ model sabotages shutdown mechanism

  27. The other half just remembered that it is our wedding anniversary today, then it took us a while to work out how long, 41 years we settled on.
    I was just ordering something on line as it happened, so made out that was our present.
    Close escape

    1. The Warqueen forgets our wedding anniversary. She bases it from when we first got married, not the for the family farago.

      On the upside as I remind her, I must be something special as she married me twice.

      1. My sister and BiL married 3 times! The ‘secret’ one, the official one and the Greek Orthodox one! Well and truly married!

        1. We had a couple in church yesterday who repeated their vows just a few weeks after getting married. They’re American and usually follow our services on YouTube. They were married in the US but being in London this week, they wanted to come and mark the wedding here too.

          1. My first marriage lasted 17 years. My second, to the love of my life, has lasted 43 years and we've been together for 45 years.

        2. We married twice – once in Lyme Regis in 1988 and again in Brittany in 2016 in order to amalgamate our worldly goods so that everything I own belongs to Caroline and everything she owns belong to me.

          This arrangement defers death duties until the second death.

        1. I'm a new boy at the game – just 37 years so far!

          Mind you Caroline was just a youngster of 24 when we met.

    3. Incidentally, the weather was very much like it is today, so not much climate change in all that time.

      1. Mind you, when I set up a memorable date for a security question I chose the date of our anniversary – when I needed to answer the question, "what is your memorable date?" about five years later, I couldn't remember which date I'd chosen!

    6. We remembered ours is coming up soon, so the new fender we just ordered for the boat will be our present!

  28. Oscar has a very upset stomach and is vomiting. We visited at half 7 and were in time to help the nurse mop up.

    Apparently this is a very good thing. His tail started wagging and he was standing – something he wasn't doing yesterday. His tummy is back to normal and he has eaten – not a lot, 100g or so but it's all looking positive.

    He'll be in for another day but should be home tomorrow. Another scan – I think an ultrasound – to be done later on today but it's looking positive.

    2. Yo Wibbles

      Is your house on the market yet, so you can pay the Vets bill?

    2. I remember having an eek on the Welsh coast a few years ago. It never stopped raining. My old buddy and I ended up in Hastings.

      2. When I was doing my teaching practice at Southampton University in the early 1970s I spent a term at a now defunct little private school near Romsey.

        One of the masters, David Charlton, had set up an adventure training centre at a place called Celmi which was a group of very basic farm buildings in the high hills near Tywyn, a small coastal town in Wales.

        Every three weeks David took a group of 20 – 30 children from the school for a long weekend to the place for special 'themed' weeks which the children enjoyed as it was a completely different experience from school or their pampered home lives. Some of the pupils enjoyed the skiving rather more than the organised activities and also the chance to indulge in activities now frowned upon.

        I went there a couple of times and on 'music themed' weekends and I took my guitar and got the young to write songs one of which began :

        High up in the mountains lies the Celmi Skivers' camp
        Where people come from miles around to frollick in the damp
        They say it's educational but if the truth we spoke
        It's just a good excuse for us to sing, and drink and smoke.

      3. When I was doing my teaching practice at Southampton University in the early 1970s I spent a term at a now defunct little private school near Romsey.

        One of the masters, David Charlton, had set up an adventure training centre at a place called Celmi which was a group of very basic farm buildings in the high hills near Tywyn, a small coastal town in Wales.

        Every three weeks David took a group of 20 – 30 children from the school for a long weekend to the place for special 'themed' weeks which the children enjoyed as it was a completely different experience from school or their pampered home lives. Some of the pupils enjoyed the skiving rather more than the organised activities and also the chance to indulge in activities now frowned upon.

        I went there a couple of times and on 'music themed' weekends and I took my guitar and got the young to write songs one of which began :

        High up in the mountains lies the Celmi Skivers' camp
        Where people come from miles around to frollick in the damp
        They say it's educational but if the truth we spoke
        It's just a good excuse for us to sing, and drink and smoke.

      4. I am contemplating an eek there later this year – or we may venture on to Rosslare and the Ring of Kerry. Tbd.

    3. The point of the shouting is to instill discipline and response to command. Although, that said our Major was a quiet fellow who just expected you to follow. If you didn't, he drummed you out.

      Hard to think that was 30 years ago nearly.

  30. Morning All 🙂😊☺️
    Still windy dry over night sunshine through the rapidly moving clouds.
    I doubt if the current far left 'government' would ever have the faith they have in Singapore or Sydney, as in driverless local trains. Absolutely spotless in side, bang on time and not expensive.
    A slide back to the sixties I'd say.

  33. I divorced my first one after 23 years……. Second time around – 28 years on 19th July. We bought this house together 30 years ago.

    3. "Brigitte you will love it here, lots of pretty lady-boys for us to play with, Queer Starmer's given me some promising suggestions"

  36. 406327+ up ticks,

    Just musing,

    The problem is in regards to global warming co2 etc,etc,
    Gods creation and the actions of MP edward samual minus brain
    the current electorate would wholeheatted support the latter.

    .

  37. Another threesome. My former metier:
    Wordle 1,437 3/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  38. I hope Donny (not a fan) realises that HRH Charles does not seem to represent the opinions of the overall majority of the people of the UK these days.

      1. Haven't Charles and Camilla popped across to Canada in an effort to show our support to the ex banker against the Trump regime ?

          2. Believe me Bill, A day is more than enough in Canada. As I said, it's the only country I would refuse to go back to even if paid.

          3. I have to say I enjoyed my three weeks there, but then, I was staying with Canadian friends.

        2. The King in Canada has been asked to open Parliament in Ottawa. I assume it is the same as here. He reads out a speech that is not his opinion.

          As for Trump, ( a big fan) he probably knows that already. He is far more intelligent than he is given credit for. As I have said before, his uncle was a very prominent physicist in the USA, tasked with vetting Nikoli Tesla's work on behalf of the government, after the great man had died. Trump saw him on a frequent basis. So much so that Obamas science advisor was surprised to discover that Trump was the only person in the White House with whom he could have a scientific discussion. (On cyclotrons.) And it is pretty obvious that he outthinks his opposition besting them at every turn. To the point all they can do, since he has been reelected, is whine on the sidelines as he sails on doing exactly what he promised to do.

          1. Oh well…..
            It just seems that the British media seem to find other interesting points regarding the visit.

          2. Can't think what. Dull country and dull people. All the sensible ones get out of there and move to the USA.

          4. I think it's the fact that he intends to do what he promised to do that they find so scary.

      3. There's a TriPeaks event on today, sos – I was a little put off that it was a full event with 20 levels, rather than the mini event with 10, but I had bugger all else to do this cold and drizzly Bank Holiday!
        Things were going smoothly till level 16 which took me 9.11 – I was a little nervous about the remaining four levels but I sailed through them, probably with a little bit of luck, and finished on 37.45 which has put me 4th in my Group (whatever that is!).

        1. That looks like a very good score.
          I suspect that it would put you on the podium in most groups.
          Have a look at the leader board and see how many 1st 2nd and 3rds the people above you have.
          If they have more firsts than seconds and thirds they almost certainly have a way of fiddling the system.
          I’ll try later and see what happens.

        2. 54.10
          Urghhh.
          6th in group.
          Your score would put you third in my group at the moment

          2. Oddly enough, the mediums.
            I probably tend to go to the next puzzle too quickly.
            Too impatient.
            It’s not important in the real scheme of things, but I get annoyed when I come 5th in the group but in the top 10,000 overall.

      1. I really liked the blackberry goldfish, they had a certain cuteness about them!

    6. I once had to take a swimming survival test in a fjord in southern Norway. There was six foot of snow on the ground. It consisted of jumping off a cliff, removing some clothing and making a temporary air float with it, then swimming to the other side of the fjord and back to the centre. There must have been a million jellyfish in the water about 10 or 12 inches below the surface. It was like swimming through, well jelly! I survived the test but suffered from a short bout of hypothermia. I had to get into a warm shower for a short while. It was the start of a month long endurance test. The worst part was the constant cold – luckily it was 'Summer Course No2'. Wouldn't like to have been on a winter course!

      Edited for hypothermia.

      1. I remember the harbour at Sønderberg being wall-to-wall jelly fish.
        Actually quite creepy.

      2. I did a personal survival swimming test that involved jumping in, removing part of my clothing and making a temporary air float with it. Thankfully, mine took place in an indoor swimming pool!

    7. Love this sort of stuff. I'm especially fascinated by sea slugs, sea pens and deep sea life. So many of them look like jewels, incredibly and fantastically coloured in ways that human beings could not dream of.

          1. Yes. The pouch the male has isn’t a womb. The female puts her eggs there and he adds the sperm. The video i watched was when they were hatched he would eject them. Then if danger lurked he sucked them all back in. Quite wonderful really.

  40. I forgot to hang out the washing – then I noticed it's raining! Not much but we do need it.

  41. Morning all,

    Chilly dry day, no rain , 15c.

    I have been wating over a month for the so called emergency tube down the inside procedure that doc promised ..

    My situation is very uncomfortable , painful.

    When my family doctor who has attended to my condition for nearly 25 years , asked me how long i had had had said condition with so called IBS/ Diverticulitis .. when I said over ten years .. you are the one prescribing me stuff to alleviate my discomfort every month..? He was shocked, so doctors are not reading our notes or taking any notice , are they, just same old same old , and then we get older !

    Moh has booked me into having a private ultrasound tomorrow, it won't tackle the problem, but might give clues as to why my abdomen feels rigid and as if I am having labour pains , if there is anything to detect?

    I haven't lost a great deal of weight , but eating is a no no , smelling the food I cook for the others makes me feel nauseous .. and I feel so uncomfortable .

    I am an active person , but now lack energy , and my stomach gurgles like a blocked bath drain , I have a watch that informs me of the steps I take each day

    Usually 6,000 to 8,000 and more on a very busy day .. I know MOh accomplishes about 12,000 when he plays golf .. but I am not playing 18 holes of golf or walking 6 miles during a game , more like 3 to 4 miles for me and how many times do I climb my stairs?

    1. I hope they can come up with some answers for you Mags – it's not nice feeling ill and being in pain all the time.

    2. Living with constant pain and what seems to be an undiagnosed condition is so horrible.
      I hope tomorrow's MRI will help to identify what is causing the problems, followed by a swift resolution for you.
      needless to say, if you had arrived on the south coast in one of the many rnli (they no longer deserve capital letters) or border farce boats, you would get priority service to deal with your problems.

    3. No-one should have to suffer that for so long. Good luck with the scan and best wishes for the future.

    4. Hope all goes well for you, Maggie…good idea to have someone with you, they often notice/hear things you may not? Be interested if doctor/s mention diet to you at all, as specialist did with me. Good luck x

  42. Searching, yesterday, for a French phone book for 2000 (as one does) – I came across a ring binder full of law reports which I had carefully preserved dating from 1974 to 2000. It was the time when I made a chunk of my living from writing.

    Extraordinary to read, these days. The House of Lords still the top judicial body. Sensible judges. Lots of cases thrown out which, today, would result in enormous damages.

    (I didn't find the French phone book…!)

      2. No – we brought it back to Blighty. I think there must have been a bit of a clearout…..

  44. Woo hoo! I'm happy with that, especially being new to the game.
    Wordle 1,437 3/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. …the accused have all pleaded guilty and will be receiving a strong warning saying not to do it again. Oh, and if you dare speak to the papers we will tell Vlad & Zelenksky where you live.

        1. In and out verdict, KP….nowt to see here…(I’d be more scared of Zelensky than Putin).

      3. Just a small missive to say that F Alec was wondering whether you would be amenable to private posting, as you are in the same neck of the woods. If you are I do a vetted post-box for initial enquiries. People can write to ask if a named other person would be OK to contact more privately (mostly used for sending things like seeds, DVDs, meeting up etc. or just stuff that might be too personal or tedious to post on NoTTL) There are about 50 people who are signed up to this – nobody’s details are ever given out without full agreement of both parties concerned.

        If it is of any interest, the email is hertslist@gmail.com.

        1. Thanks for email address, Hertslass…hadn’t realised F Alec and I were in same neck of the woods:-)

  46. Well, that was a good start to the day. No interwebby. Ran through my limited repertoire of Wot To Do.
    No luck.
    MB found a message from BT telling us there was a problem; no shiite, Sherlock. MB cannot cope too well with phones so it would be over to me to really get to grips with the matter.
    I decided bath, coffee and breakfast took priority. Then I settled down to accumulate Information before I tackled BT.
    Shuffled paper and rambled through my BT email files. Phoned Sonny Boy to warn him that we might be incommunicado. That we might also be in need of Practical Grandson.
    Noticed that the gizmo in the hall had returned to blue again; switched on laptop and all was back.
    For the last few weeks, OpenReach have been diddling around with the telegraph poles in our area; blue markers on the road, blue ropes sprouting from the ground and finally coils of wire hanging from the tops. Now we look closer, there is a black box thing on the side of the pole. We reckon OpenReach chose a bank holiday to make any disruptive switch overs.

    1. "Ran through my limited repertoire of Wot To Do."

      I take it you've sluiced all the bedpans and scrubbed all the steps?🤣

    2. Could be upgrading to fibre from analog. We’re still analogue and that means ‘smart meters’ are not so smart when confronted with an analogue telecommunications system and won’t send messsges.

      1. I upgraded to Toob recently. Free installation. Promised 10 times faster than what i had. It's 5 times in actuality. Still, £5 cheaper than the other provider.
        Plus i still have the box on the wall from the other lot so i can go back to them in the future if they offer a better deal.

  48. 406327+ up ticks,

    Won't never happen all the while the lab/lib/con tribals rule the political roost, they would go for a General Election tomorrow after a reshuffle,I do believe, for many a a quick coat of "change veneer"although transparent would suffice.

    Two new parties are required we have one in REFORM we require another, two required each as an anti treachery safeguard against the other, such is the state of British politics today.

    https://x.com/PeteJacksonGMP/status/1821169962695700726

  49. Red Lips Riot at it again.

    Red Lip Riots
    @RedLipRiots
    ·
    2h
    The British police are now investigating a Christian preacher not for violence, not for threats, not for incitement…

    …but for praying.

    Why?
    Because someone claimed his words caused them “anxiety and distress.”

    You can chant “Death to the West” in a city centre and get police protection.
    You can block roads for Hamas and Met officers will pour you bottled water.
    You can literally stab a bishop on livestream and it’s “complex.”

    But pray in public as a Christian?
    Quote the Bible?
    Dare to believe in truth with a spine?

    Now you’re the threat.

    JD Vance is right. Britain is lost.
    Not because we’re weak but because our institutions have turned against their own people.

    They don’t fear Islamists.
    They don’t fear groomers.
    They don’t fear drug gangs or mobs.

    They fear a man with a Bible and a backbone because that man won’t kneel to their lies.

    The UK isn’t post Christian.
    It’s anti Christian.

    But here’s the good news:
    The fire hasn’t gone out.
    It’s rising. From pulpits, pubs and platforms just like this.

    Cross + Country. We preach louder. We stand firmer. And we never apologise for the Gospel.

    1. The state punishes those who oppose it. It doesn't care about it's clients – rapists, welfarists, scroungers, murderers, diversity.

      However, if you oppose it's doctrine, stand against it the entire state will set out to destroy you.

    3. In the degenerate pagan jungle that London has become, the pockets of resistance that do exist are strong. I sat in a full church yesterday morning. Latecomers struggled to find a seat. There are a lot of young people – the annual retreat for under 35s is well supported. On the multiculti front, there are very few black but a noticeable Hong Kong Chinese presence.

    4. Ahh yes, that Malicious Communications Act strikes again. It has been ruled in court that there is no right 'not to be offended' but this Act neatly bypasses the ruling by introducing anxiety and distress. As absolutely any words can be said to cause A&D, then free speech is dead in the water.

    5. But.

      We should all be reporting Kneecap, the pro-Hammas protesters, the South African “kill the boer” visitor citing anxiety and distress. The Leftards are always complaining to Plod about everything they don’t like. But we sit here and do nothing.

      We should break the system. But we don’t. We only have ourselves to blame.

    1. Brilliant composition of pictures and tunes. Worth listening to twice, three times, more!

    2. Lovely. I don’t suppose the folk songs of the British Isles are taught in English schools now?

          2. I am thank you, Kate. Hope you are too.😘
            Just busy at the moment with lots of domestic projects.

          3. Yes I am, only negative is old dog (not black dog, never that, although actual dog is actually black). DIY….? have a good day, whatever 🙂

    5. Marvellous, stirring, proper music.
      I remember singing 'What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?', and other traditional folk songs, in school when I was about 7-9, back when (I suspect) most primary schools had regular 'singing in the hall.'

      1. I was in primary school when the Elizabeth became the Queen. We all sang "Hearts Of Oak", "Soldiers of the Queen", "Crest of the Wave" etc., along with the usual Pomp and Circumstance stuff (1 & 4, IIRC). School put on a concert for the parents and it was as they say these days, SRO.

        1. I was three. I was only four when the Coronation took place, although I do remember watching it on a tiny B&W TV screen.

    6. Marvellous, stirring, proper music.
      I remember singing 'What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?', and other traditional folk songs, in school when I was about 7-9, back when (I suspect) most primary schools had regular 'singing in the hall.'

      1. Chagos is looking very dodgy, all the people in on the deal from all sides appear to be his mates.

        1. He's brussen with it, Bob…doesn't care who sees/hears it. Always follow the moolah.

      2. Isn't that the same one as Arsongate, Sue (they're up before the beak on 6th June, I think?)

          1. KayPea tells me guilty plea already lodged, Bill….a case of open and shut? May not even appear in court, solicitors only.

    2. When Trump finds out that Diego Garcia is one of the Chagos Islands and not a Mexican car manufacturer

    3. When the WHO treaty is safely passed and binding under British law, at a guess.

  52. Some say there is no difference between the words complete and finished.

    The difference between complete and finished in simple terms:
    When you marry the right woman, you are COMPLETE.
    When you marry the wrong woman, you are FINISHED.
    If the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are COMPLETELY FINISHED!

    1. Personally I don't think the entire extended family of an immigrant to be worth a single square inch of British countryside.

    2. KK I think it's already been established that the government has already made yet another huge mistake, in that here in the UK there is not enough materials to build even a quarter of the house's they have in mind.
      But they have already mentioned cutting trees down to make up for losses. I don't we make many bricks roof tiles anymore.

  55. Spain's blackout throws doubts on the reliability of a 'green' grid.
    Scottie goes into technical detail of the timeline of the Spanish grid failure and finds it very wierd that it will take until October to explain what happened:

    https://youtu.be/bYAdCTuj1dk?si=gzaPcE49M7HJMtBn

    I'm starting to think that Scottie has already come to the conclusion that there has been a problem with the beryllium sphere.

    1. Caught a snippet on the local telly. Sounds like a Spanish company has dropped out of smothering a chunk of Suffolk with plastic panels.

    3. That's an interesting presentation, the guy seems to know what he's talking about, and works out the logic of the situation.

      Of course, it will take five months for the socialist government of Spain to work out how to cover up the real problem of grid instability, cover their own backsides from blame, and hang on to power so that they can continue their program of economic destruction.

    1. I enjoyed the contortions the media went through to suggest it was other than it looked.

      You don't put your hands to someones face and push as a sign of love. She was angry about something.

      Probably gave her Syphilis again from his nights on the tiles with his Moroccan rent boys.

      1. Laughed out loud, Phiz. Could well be. Candace Owens amusing, think she was one of the first to notice. Wonder if the blue swimming suit pic was AI. Rent boys seem to be doing quite good business with various politicians.

  59. Kremlin denies Russian links to Starmer firebomb attacks. 26 May 2025.

    Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the UK routinely blamed Russia for incidents on its territory, calling the suggestion that Moscow had ordered the attacks “ridiculous”.

    “London is inclined to suspect Russia of involvement in all the bad things that happen in Britain,” he said. “As a rule, these suspicions are false, unsubstantiated and often ridiculous.”

    I’m surprised that the Russians didn’t take the opportunity for a dig at the story though there is the possibility that they have done so and its been censored.

    NO COMMENTS ALLOWED.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/05/26/kremlin-denies-russian-links-to-starmer-firebomb-attacks/

    2. I suspect TTK of involvement in all the bad things that happen in Britain! Разве это не правда?

  60. The 'arsonist' in Stone Bridge Park who seems to have killed three of his family, has been sorry, detained, under the mental health act……..

        1. I expect it will be said that he is as English as you and I are….. cf The Welsh choirboy.

      1. Yes of course Bob.
        But how long will this dreadful stupid appeasement Government BS continue for. It’s a form of surrender.

  61. The male seahorse is equipped with a brood pouch on the ventral, or front-facing, side of the tail. When mating, the female seahorse deposits up to 1,500 eggs in the male's pouch. The male carries the eggs for 9 to 45 days until the seahorses emerge fully developed, but very small. The young are then released into the water, and the male often mates again within hours or days during the breeding season

    1. What a tosser. How on earth do they get elected and what sort of party hierarchy appoints such a specimen of incompetence to high office? The Tories will not get my vote until they clear the Augean stables.

  65. 406327+ up ticks,

    A great many peoples do NOT realise that there is a great difference betwixt a farm shop and a supermarket the major one being a reputable farm farm shop could not be taken for a pharmaceutic outlet, whereas a supermarket with sprays & additives regarding the food chain can easily be done so.

    Then you have halal, what the dictating political overseers and dictating muslims would have you do with dogs is NO decent persons business t,o the farmers a top asset .

    We are in the last chance saloon, we either politically wisely think, or as a nation SINK.

    https://x.com/NoFarmsNoFoods/status/1926919922917036142

    1. Just been to a butchers today to get home made sausages, a nice Welsh lamb leg steak and some dry cured bacon (that doesn't have any white gunge).

        1. I don't buy NZ meat for that very reason.
          Eat English; more expensive, but just eat it less often.

    1. Blanket…check.
      Stick…….check.
      Bowl…….check.
      Mud hut.check.

      Stonehenge…Nope.

    2. Equally, the only reason the Arab world prospers (in parts) is that they are sitting on oil – which would still be in the ground if it were not for non Arab companies. Do they make anything? Cars, TV's, etc.? Nope. Too much IBM – Inshallah Bukra Malesh or "God willing, tomorrow, never mind".

      1. Middle Eastern culture has had waves of dynamism (over how many millennia?) but it degenerated as the Ottoman Empire became moribund and the states created post-1917 are still in their gestation period. Still finding their identity and Mohammedanism doesn’t help.

      2. In Egypt, they used to say, "Maleesh, backsheesh and hashish" (The late 40s, early 50s.)

  67. Quote of the day

    On Starmer’s EU surrender deal handing 12-year fishing rights to the bloc, the president of the Hauts-de-France regional fisheries committee Olivier Lepretre told France3:

    “We couldn’t have hoped for better. We are very satisfied and relieved. This changes a lot of things. If we no longer had access to British waters, we would have suffered a significant loss of revenue. We had a completely blocked horizon, and this agreement gives us visibility.”

  68. Afternoon, all. Surprisingly I didn't sleep very well last night; too much on my mind, I suppose; things that needed to be done to catch up for one thing.

    Renationalisation is just one of many things that will recreate the '70s; strikes, three day week, power cuts, fiscal irresponsibility (leading to IMF intervention telling us we must rejoin the EU?), inflation, the brain drain … ah yes, I remember it well. That's why I would NEVER vote Labour whatever they pretended to be.

      1. I usually do practise calming techniques, but they didn't work this time so I read a book until I was ready to sleep. It isn't as though I had to get up early and meet a deadline. I'd already decided not to go to the WW2 weekend in Telford and as it turns out it was a wise choice; typical Bank Holiday weather – dull, grey, miserable, cold (I've put the heating on and am contemplating lighting a fire to supplement it!) and drizzling.

        1. We've just turn down the chance to go to the Suffolk Show.
          It is vast and has far too many Big Tractor stands which gets rather monotonous.
          And the weather forecast is crap.

          1. When I lived in Suffolk as a child, the biggest tractor around was the Fordson Major…tiny by today's standards.

          2. I always wanted one of those little grey Fergusons.
            Some years back, a horsey friend got one for carting fodder etc.. around.
            I was soooooooo jealous.

          3. When I was doing my NVQ 2 Horse Care the woman who ran the stables had a grey Fergie. It was very temperamental.

      2. I can sleep soundly on a 94 bus rattling along Bayswater but lying in bed at 3am I just cough. The pretty graphic won’t help.

          1. I suppose I could leave it on. It automatically switches to standby after 3 hours.

          2. For me, it is not the going to sleep that is the problem; it is the waking every 1½ hours….{:¬((

          5. Accidently coined when the daughter of one of the civilian instructors at Chepstow was reading from the script of the College Pantomime and misread “balderdash”.

        4. Well, I arrived at a particularly rowdy and entertaining party yesterday and instantly fell asleep , Slept blissfully throughout the duration. A most restful experience. Why does this happen? I've a;ways loved falling asleep amongst friends having fun. The result of an extremely insecure and abusive childhood?

    1. So, TTK is out of the country yet again!

      Is it my imagination, or are TT and Ange getting fatter by the day!?

    3. When you read political books you start to understand that to them it's all a game. There's no real interest in government or the direction of the country, it's just a greasy pole to the next wafflejob.

      1. Interestingly, when the TV series The West Wing, was on here, a lot of comments were made to the effect that the show was a lot more informative and civilized than real life political debate.

    5. In fairness to Chuck, I would imagine Big Ange is better company than Stoma.

  70. Don't buy it, then. If more people follow that advice, see how things change.

    1. A lot of people have no choice but to buy on price point. So they end up with the mucky stuff. It is also what is in all those curry shops people regularly use and at the end of the day they don't really care.

      Me on the other hand. A 400 to 500gram Welsh lamb rump will do me at least 3 meals.
      But then i am not trying to feed a family.

      1. For Asian food – whether take aways or eaten in the restaurant – I always choose fish or veggie dishes.

        1. I don't eat out in Asian restaurants. If I want that sort of food I cook it myself, cuisinearily challenged as I am.

          1. The family tends to choose them.
            If it were left to me, there is only one in Colchester that I would actively choose.

  72. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is an organisation set up to distribute aid in Gaza. It's effectively an Israel/USA joint venture, created because of the mistrust in UNWRA. The UN has said it will not work with GHF because it's not neutral or independent.

    1. In the same vein as the unelected Ursula fond of Lying complaining about threats to “our democracy”.

      1. When they say "our" they do not mean yours and mine, the collective "we", they mean "theirs". Qv: "our" NHS, "our" government, "our" democracy, etc.,etc..

  73. Is it the pigeons who call, “Wipe-the-plate c-l-e-a-n ki-tty”? I hear it all the time and the only other birds I see around here are seagulls, who sound quite different. The gulls fly in to the Thames Estuary and up river. I assume they also find their way back out to sea?

  74. Do boys in boys' schools sill pick up what are euphemistically called Rugby Songs?

    Seeing Sue's comment (below) reminded me of the ditty Mobile. To the tune of "She'll be coming round the mountain"

    Oh, the eagles they fly high in Mobile, in Mobile,.
    Oh the eagles they fly high in Mobile.
    Oh the eagles they fly high, and s**t right in your eye,
    It's a good job cows don't fly in Mobile.

    There are many other, much more ribald songs, They circulated at school and when we went off for a couple of weeks playing soldiers at the annual CCF camps, the squaddies would teach us new ones.

    Especially happy memories of going to Catterick – we had glorious weather and we came back tanned and healthy from lugging packs and rifles around the local landscape.

      1. Due to parental requirements – and house moves, I only got to do a couple, Castlemartin and Catterick. At Castlemartin it rained a lot – little rivers under the paliasses. Lovely.

        But that's where I learned that a .303 would accept a round pencil dropped down the barrel, and combined with the blanks we were issued, made quite the weapon…

        1. Castlemartin 1956; Pirbright 1957 and 58. We were affiliated to 2nd Bn Coldstream – who treated us as men not boys.

          1. I think we were associated with the Lancashire Fusiliers, an infantry battalion. It's a long time ago now!

          3. Took O's in 1957, A's in 1959. And no, it was not just the other day – I wish it was!

      1. My brother-in-law's rugby club was looking for a scrum half for their Extra B side. His skill at rugby was immaterial – what was far more relevant was whether he could recite Eskimo Nell in full and faultlessly after having drunk six pints.

        1. When a man grows old and his balls grow cold, and the tip of his prick turns blue, and it bends in the middle like a one-string fiddle, he can tell you a tale or two….

          Our Rugby Club President could actually do this (very well as it happens) and it was always his party piece at the end of season Club Dinner…

          1. A different rhyme:-
            There's a dirty stinking piss house to the North of Waterloo,
            There's another one for ladies further down.
            And it's kept by Sally Tucker…..

          2. For a shilling you can f*** her
            You can sleep with her for only half a crown

            Now she’s the dirtiest of bitches
            And from the colour of her britches
            You’d think that she had never had a wash
            But the smell from her vagina, was infinitely finer
            Than any whisky, rum or lemon squash

            One day she had a rattle with a sailor from Seattle
            She wondered why he held her long and close
            But when he’d finished with his screwing
            She saw what he’d been doing
            He’d gone and left her with a f*cking dose

            Well she gave it to her cousin, who gave it to a dozen
            Who gave it the Reverend Percy Brown
            Who gave it to his Mother
            Who gave it to his brother
            And now it’s halfway round the f*cking town

            One day it came to pass, it reached the sailor’s ass
            It travelled halfway up his f*cking back
            Where it rotted and it festered
            His very life it pestered
            Twas the vengeance of Tallulah Johnson Black….

        2. When a man grows old and his balls grow cold, and the tip of his prick turns blue, and it bends in the middle like a one-string fiddle, he can tell you a tale or two….

          Our Rugby Club President could actually do this (very well as it happens) and it was always his party piece at the end of season Club Dinner…

        3. I doubt she still can, but HG’s party trick at the rugby club was to recite Eskimo Nell, whether she could recall all the verses was irrelevant, it was that one of the “ladies” could even do such a thing that amused the opposition..

    3. Ok, this one has a load of verses, but the one I like best (sorry it's also the crudest!)

      Now there was a man called Hunt in Mobile
      Now there was a man called Hunt in Mobile
      Now there was a man called Hunt who thought he had a cunt
      But his arse was back to front in Mobile

    4. Went to Camp with the Army Cadets several times, both summer and weekend camps.
      Summer Camps were Hornsea, Penicuik, Fort George, back to Penicuik and Bellerby.
      Weekend camps were usually at Ponteland rifle range.

  75. Wordle No. 1,437 2/6

    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 26 May 2025

    Buzz for an Eagle?

      1. I can see you're itching to do this sos – we always welcome new members to the 'Five O'Clock Club'!!

    3. Twice The fun again
      Wordle 1,437 4/6

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

    4. Well done, I was happy with a birdie.

      Wordle 1,437 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. The Wordle dictionary contains 12,972 five-letter words that are valid guesses in the game, Sue!

  77. Blimey, look at you lot! And I thought I was doing alright with a Par!

    Wordle 1,437 4/6

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

  78. A bit of a hero of mine:

    Thomas Hopper Alderson, GC (15th September 1903 – 28th October 1965).

    Alderson worked as a part-time Air Raid Warden during the Second World War, leading a detachment of rescue and demolition parties in Bridlington. The coastal town was soon attacked by Luftwaffe bombers, and residential areas were hit. On three occasions in August 1940, Alderson led rescue teams and entered dangerous buildings to rescue trapped civilians. For his work, he was awarded the newly-instituted George Cross. It had been created to recognise acts of bravery in non-battle situations.

    The citation, published in The London Gazette, read:

    A pair of semi-detached houses at Bridlington was totally demolished in a recent air raid. One woman was trapped alive. Alderson tunnelled under unsafe wreckage and rescued the trapped person without further injury to her.
    Some days later, two five-storey buildings were totally demolished and debris penetrated into a cellar in which eleven persons were trapped. Six persons in one cellar, which had completely given way, were buried under debris. Alderson partly effected the entrance to this cellar by tunnelling 13 to 14 feet under the main heap of wreckage and for three and a half hours he worked unceasingly in an exceedingly cramped condition. Although considerably bruised he succeeded in releasing all the trapped persons without further injury to themselves. The wreckage was unsafe and further falls were anticipated; coal gas leaks were of a serious nature and there was danger of flooding from fractured water pipes. Despite these dangers and enemy aircraft overhead the rescue work was continued.
    On a third occasion, some four-storey buildings were totally demolished. Five persons were trapped in a cellar. Alderson led the rescue work in excavating a tunnel from the pavement through the foundations to the cellar; he also personally tunnelled under the wreckage many feet into the cellar and rescued alive two persons (one of whom subsequently died) from under a massive refrigerator, which was in danger of further collapse as debris was removed. A wall, three stories high, which swayed in the gusty wind, was directly over the position where the rescue party were working. This was likely to collapse at any moment. Alderson worked almost continuously under the wreckage for five hours, during which time further air raid warnings were received and enemy aircraft heard overhead. By his courage and devotion to duty without the slightest regard for his own safety, he set a fine example to the members of his Rescue Party, and their teamwork is worthy of the highest praise.

    He was the first person to receive the GC from King George VI, and in a radio broadcast at the time insisted that his award was for all the rescue parties in Bridlington.

    https://i0.wp.com/victoriacrossonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Thomas-H-Alderson-GC-RSPCA-Gold-Medal.jpg?resize=311%2C518&ssl=1

      1. It makes me wonder what dust he breathed in under those buildings.
        The refrigerator of course would be insulated with asbestos.

        2. MB's father died in the same year at the age of 61. I don't think we thought his age was unusual.

          1. Yes, I remember my Dad telling me that, in the fifties and early sixties , it was seen as something to celebrate when a man reached the retirement age of 65 as it was relatively unusual (for women it was 60 then, as their husbands were more likely to die earlier!).

          5. My forearm. It appeared quick so i don't think it was a 'knock'.

            Changed to dark quickly too

          7. Is that worrying brown stain at the bottom of the picture a mark on your appendage or just a trick of the light? (I'd be far more worried about that than the little thing above originally posted)

          9. Get it looked at, Phiz. Mind you, I have some really worrying things going on on the old phisog that I would not trust "their" NHS on. Why can;t things be like they used to be?

          11. Mosquito bite? I had a school friend who reacted to gnat bits by producing a huge blood blister with a visibly beating pulse.

    3. Google has all kinds of photos of things that look like that – look up blisters and allergic reactions.

  81. Visited Oscar. The ultrasound showed he's quite badly bruised (although it just looked like blue smudge to me) around the tummy from distension, so is on liquids only and has cool packs around his tummy and is on painkillers but was out of the cage / pen (it's got runners so they can get big dogs in and out quickly, with hydraulics and what not – not some barred metal box) and is on a soft bed thing.

    He's listless and tired, but was whuffing.

    Vet suggested another overnight and monitoring and I'm incliined to agree. Another walletectomy.

    1. Better it goes to treat Oscar than that Reeves nicks it to treat undeserving dindus.

      1. It rather annoys that that wretched bint will still rob us blind – between us we pay sufficient tax for 2 minium wage earners – that's money not going into the economy.

        I don't understand why Lefties can't see that if you pour other people's money into a scheme which fails without that money all you're doing is pouring money away. It's not a job. It's just even more expensive welfare.

      1. I filled up the motorhome when I got back yesterday. "Small mortgage," I said to the girl behind the desk. She smiled.

          1. Yes, I think so, plus travelling with two dogs on trains and staying in hotels is a problem.

  82. It's a slow watch (put it on 1.25) but it's quite important that Starmer's argument that we have free speech is a lie – we're controlled by not speaking as we want to. It is censorship – but of course, we have freedom of speech, just… as long as we say what the party agrees with:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-iSxM8Xt8o

    1. Went into advertising. Mistake.
      Should learn how to fix plumbing, suddenly he will find that the woke will never turn him down. Plus he'll earn more.

    1. I should have thought no village would want to own up to harbouring Starmer.

  84. That's me for today. Raining now. Chilly. About to light the stove.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  85. Sonny boy had bis bypass surgery on thursday afternoon, a full triple bypass with half of his internal plumbing rearranged so that the essential bits now receive a decent blood flow.

    Friday night he was just technically recovering from the anesthetic but that was as far as we could say. Saturday he was paying a little bit of attention and looking around. Sunday it was Ooh those nurses are cute! So I guess he is recovering.

    A useful facility at the hospital, they have places where family can stay when a family member is in hospital. About as basic as Travelodge but we were able to stay in a one bedroom apartment that was just a five minute walk from the heart Institute

    Now it's just a case of getting stronger without forcing it and having a relapse.

  86. https://x.com/ClaptonCFC/status/1926641367037391031 There's the usual guff in the replies. However, there is sense elsewhere:

    #1: "SHOW GENOCIDE THE RED CARD" is now considered an unacceptable thing to display. That's appalling.

    #2: Apparently so is "SHOW TERRORISM THE RED CARD" and "SHOW ANTI-SEMITISM THE RED CARD". And so on. Awful. How beautiful it'd have been to see all three, together, side by side…

      2. Palestine has to do with everything in the UK nowadays, silly! Nothing is untainted.

  88. Hardly a huge enthusiastic crowd there to greet the King in Canada.
    I think they would have preferred a Trump visit.

    1. Unlikely,. We were in Ottawa at the weekend and they are completely woke lefties. I wouldn't be surprised if they drove their EVs to Starbucks for a Chai latte

    1. I like it, it's very jolly! But what does it have to do with them all being bald?

  92. JONANTHAN SUMPTION
    Lucy Connolly is in prison where she belongs. But free speech truly is under attack elsewhere.
    Her offence was serious. We would do better to focus on the many other genuine cases of repression.

    How disappointing! I had thought this guy was fair minded, but I suppose his tribalism won the day. Once a Judge…

    1. She was expressing an opinion, in my view, and is a political prisoner. Starmer let it be known that he wanted any anti immigrant commentators locked up. As the official follow up report on the riots concluded, the violence after the murders was not as a result of right wing concerted actions.

          2. There was a post about young people preferring to stay at home rather than go to pubs. No surprise, is it. Unless they have Alexa nobody is going to report them for what they talk about and the drinks are cheaper.

        2. I studied in the Soviet Union in 1968. What I'm seeing here is reminiscent of what I experienced then. The difference being, those in power wanted to protect the Soviet Union.

    2. Expressing an opinion should not result in months of gaol. Even if it might upset someone.
      You are wrong. And, supporting repression, just like in the Soviet.

    3. If her offence was serious, what about those calling for beheading the kuffar?

  93. I guess Lineker is in a bit of a dilemma at the moment over the events in Liverpool

    1. No doubt his Woke leftism will work out the conundrum for him.

      1. A choirboy accidentally drive into a huge crowd of Liverpool supporters.

        No doubt asking directions to a loo and a snack bar.

        Day 1: not terror related. Not gimmigrant
        Day 2. Might have been terror related, was immigrant but has been here ages
        Day 3: Not known to security services
        Day 4: was attending prevent, had bomb making kit, well known to security, on watch list, gimmigrant muslim.

        It's tedious how desperately they lie to protect these vile savages.

    2. Comments on the Telegraph are telling:

      'Police out in force… monitoring twitter…'

      'The car didn't kill anyone, the driver did, but I can't say that…'

      'Starmer waiting to make a speech… silencing free speech'

      'We all know who did this but I don't want 31 months in jail for telling the truth.'

      Utterly disgusting. This country is broken. Expect the usual playbook.

    2. Starmer will certainly be relieved that the driver's white; he'll be cheering if he turns out to be a Reform voter.

      On the other hand, if he's a convert to the desert death cult…

      1. We don't know the driver is white, only that a white man has been arrested. Maybe he shouted some hurty words as "the car" drove into the crowd.

    3. Not yet sure they're talking about the driver – the words are very specific.

      "A 53-year old white British man has been arrested as a car drives into..". etc etc.

      There was a bloke getting a kicking from the cops, and what looked like pepper sprayed, in the aftermath who was not the guy in the vehicle.

      1. That sentence implies that the car was driving into the crowd at the same time as the white chap was being arrested.

        1. Unfortunately that’s the way crap journalists write these days. The Daily Mail is full of it every day.

          2. A lot better but still a bit tired. Got another day’s worth of antiboitics to take.

    1. At no stage have the police said that the arrested man was the driver of the car. Funny, that.

      1. That's what I was about to post. The implication is that he was the driver, but that's only because the sentence sequences the events. The two are not necessarily connected. It's the fallacy of affirming the consequent.

        1. It is shameful that we have to parse the police statement but that is the state of the relationship between the authorities and the people. We have been lied to too often.

          1. To be honest, I have started watching exactly what is said or written (rather than what they intend us to understand) since Blair came to power.

      1. Especially from statists. They called Afro oh British despite his being Rwandan.

  103. MB and I were discussing the apparent marital tiff between Macron and his missus.
    She is painfully thin as if she is not eating. That, and her lashing out reminded us of patients on the geriatric wards.
    Is she going senile?

      2. They say a man is not complete until he is married….and then he is completely finished!

      3. I think she was his teacher in school, Rastus…been together a very long time, so that wouldn't be surprising.

      1. Some of the AI ones are quite funny – the one in a blue costume complete with tackle bulge. I suspect they were just goofing around for the cameras and journos, and possibly laughing their socks off at the ease of them jumping on the hook.

    5. Cursed harmer syph-it-is; caught from Ukrainian bottom dwellers and passed secretly to Macron via a rear passage?

    1. Merseyside Police say a 53-year-old white British man has been arrested after a car drove into pedestrians in Water Street, Liverpool.

      Police did not say whether the man is the suspected driver, and have warned people "not to speculate on the circumstances surrounding" the incident.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn5xnlkegz0t

      2. Read carefully. 'Has been arrested after a car drove into pedestrians…' Deliberately misleading so people would make assumptions. There was a 53 year old white man being wrestled on the ground whilst someone was being pushed into the police van with possibly a blanket over his head.

      3. they want an arrest to deflect. It is obvious a diversity carried out this atrocity. Why do they keep lying?

        Just wait for the obvious, predictable playbook now. By Friday, when they’ve hushed it up and silenced the dissenting big fat state will admit what everyone knows now.

  106. And, with a serious case of bladderdash, that's me off to the toilet and thence to bed.
    Goodnight all.

  107. Liverpool
    one plus one appears to be making far more than two
    As I write, something doesn't add up with the reporting.
    We shall see…

    2. Perhaps they're on the phone to no. 10, discussing tactics to avoid another Southport-style protest.

      1. They are too dim to realise that the more they try to gaslight us, the worse the situation will end up.

        2. If one accepts that any incident involving an actor is probably faked, then it seems clear that a lot of deliberate pot-stirring is going on.

      2. No, I think they want more protests at that level so they can arrest and imprison more dissenters for "speech crimes", whilst the favoured ones commit genuine crimes of violence which go unpunished. I think they are pushing for serious discontent so that they can impose martial law. Then it will all kick off – but only the government forces, the criminal classes and the Islamists will be armed.

  108. No comment on the incident itself, but it's a bit depressing how much litter has been deposited in the course of just a few short hours.

    1. It seems pertinent to activate that team after the car ramming when you don't know what you are dealing with. Is the question were they present before the incident?

  110. Right, folks, that's me for the night; it's so cold I'm going to put some hot water bottles in the bed before I retire.

  112. Well, chums, I'm off to bed now. Sleep well, and see you all tomorrow morning.

    1. I feel in the interest of science I should point out this is not 4 gallons of liquid. This is 1 gallon of boiling water poured over 4 quarts of dandelion petals, which will go on to make 4 gallons of wine.

  114. Remind me to post this letter again later. Love it when the middle class lib-dem types think they know everything:

    “Sir – I think we are all frightened at the prospect of Donald Trump being in office for another three and a half years (Letters, May 26).
    And isn’t it time that he ditched that dreadful red Maga cap? It’s so undignified and unstatesmanlike. I do hope that he leaves it at home when he comes to visit the King later this year. Patricia Reid
    Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire”

    You don’t speak for me, love.

    2. The crazy thing is that when the fifty year world fiat currency era implodes, Patricia Reid will believe it's because of Donald Trump and his frightful hat.

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