Monday 27 February: The consequences of Britain’s failure to give its farmers a fair deal

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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614 thoughts on “Monday 27 February: The consequences of Britain’s failure to give its farmers a fair deal”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story – a long one but I found it funny.

    How Do Court Reporters Keep Straight Faces!

    Picture yourself sitting in a court room listening to a lawyer questioning a witness sitting in the witness chair.

    If you can avoid laughing while reading these, — you’re getting old!

    These are from a book called Disorder in the Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by Court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place.

    LAWYER: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
    WITNESS: He said, ‘Where am I, Cathy?’
    LAWYER: And why did that upset you?
    WITNESS: My name is Susan!
    _______________________________________________________

    LAWYER: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
    WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
    ______________________________________________________

    LAWYER: Are you sexually active?
    WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
    _____________________________________________________

    LAWYER: What is your date of birth?
    WITNESS: July 18th.
    LAWYER: What year?
    WITNESS: Every year.
    _____________________________________________________

    LAWYER: How old is your son, the one living with you?
    WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can’t remember which.
    LAWYER: How long has he lived with you?
    WITNESS: Forty-five years.
    __________________________________________________________

    LAWYER: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
    WITNESS: Yes.
    LAWYER: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
    WITNESS: I forget…
    LAWYER: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
    _________________________________________________________________

    LAWYER: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep,
    he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
    WITNESS: Did you actually pass the exam?
    ____________________________________

    LAWYER: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
    WITNESS: He’s 20, much like your IQ.
    ___________________________________________

    LAWYER: Were you present when your picture was taken?
    WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
    _________________________________________

    LAWYER: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
    WITNESS: Yes.
    LAWYER: And what were you doing at that time?
    WITNESS: Getting laid
    ____________________________________________

    LAWYER: She had three children, right?
    WITNESS: Yes.
    LAWYER: How many were boys?
    WITNESS: None.
    LAWYER: Were there any girls?
    WITNESS: Your Honour, I think I need a different Lawyer. Can I get a new Lawyer?
    ____________________________________________

    LAWYER: How was your first marriage terminated?
    WITNESS: By death..
    LAWYER: And by whose death was it terminated?
    WITNESS: Take a guess.
    ___________________________________________

    LAWYER: Can you describe the individual?
    WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
    LAWYER: Was this a male or a female?
    WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
    _____________________________________

    LAWYER: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your Lawyer?
    WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
    ______________________________________

    LAWYER: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
    WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
    _________________________________________

    LAWYER: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
    WITNESS: Oral…
    _________________________________________

    LAWYER: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
    WITNESS: The Post-Mortem started around 8:30 PM
    LAWYER: And Mr Denton was dead at the time?
    WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
    ____________________________________________

    LAWYER: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
    WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
    ______________________________________

    And last:

    LAWYER: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
    WITNESS: No.
    LAWYER: Did you check for blood pressure?
    WITNESS: No.
    LAWYER: Did you check for breathing?
    WITNESS: No..
    LAWYER: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
    WITNESS: No.
    LAWYER: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
    WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
    LAWYER: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
    WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

    1. The sky is just lightening here in the borders and it’s not even 07:00.

      I just cannot wait for Summer’s warmth.

      1. I wear big sweaters – except when in the shower. For me, daylight and sun is what I miss in the winter. But I’m jealous of my mate who’s in Queensland just now – late summer, warm, sunny, sit outside in shorts, with a stubby or two… Sigh

        1. I have a lady here Dowding House who, after I bought the wool, is knitting me an Arran Sweater.

          I need something like that to keep out the bluddy Scottish cold.

  7. A pointed reply

    SIR
    – On two separate occasions last Friday I was asked by young people on
    customer services to explain what a propelling pencil is. How should I
    have answered?

    Margaret Clark
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    Ask a mechanic.

    3. When writing with paper, I only use a propelling pencil. Excellent implement, and with an eraser in the cap, too.

      1. A real rubber eraser or plastic smudger?
        I find the modern plastic “erasers” bloody awful to use!

      3. The only propellig pencil I use now is my eyebrow makeup. White hair = white brows. Dye hair = need to colour brows.

    5. A mechanical pencil, also clutch pencil, is a pencil with a replaceable and mechanically extendable solid pigment core called a “lead” /ˈlɛd/. The lead, often made of graphite, is not bonded to the outer casing, and can be mechanically extended as its point is worn away as it is being used.

      Other names include: microtip pencil, automatic pencil, drafting
      pencil, technical pencil, click pencil (generally refers to a specific
      brand), pump pencil, leadholder, Pacer (Australian English, ca. the
      1980s), propelling pencil (British and Australian English, often refers
      to higher-end mechanical pencils),[1] pen pencil (Indian English), and lead pencil (Bangladeshi and American English).

      Mechanical pencils are used to provide lines of constant width, without need of sharpening, for tasks such as technical drawing
      as well as for clean looking writing. They are also used for fine-art
      drawing. Since they do not have to be sharpened, they are also popular
      with students. Mechanical pencils were first used in the 18th century,
      with many designs patented in the 19th and 20th centuries.

      1. “A propelling pencil is a forerunner of the technical pencil, in which the lead is advanced by a twisting motion instead of pressing a button.”

      2. “A technical pencil in which the lead is advanced by a twisting motion instead of the pressing of a button.”

  8. A BTL Response:-

    Helen Rivans
    15 MIN AGO
    Many people today don’t look like they know what a vegetable is. Perhaps they thinks it’s the other person slumped on the sofa with them?

  9. Seems an accurate description:-

    Luci Enne
    2 HRS AGO
    Some might quite reasonably enquire that in the absence of food security, energy security, border security and personal security, what purpose does the government actually serve ?
    I came across another of those labels recently.
    Anarcho-tyranny.
    A toxic mix of chaotic anarchy and repressive tyranny. Essentially, this means that the authorities no longer perform legitimate functions such as keeping violent criminals off the streets. Yet at the same time, the government performs illegitimate functions such as suppressing dissent and criminalising the legitimate views of peaceful citizens. A system under which government swells in power, crime goes largely unpunished and law-abiding citizens wind up being repressed by the state and attacked by the criminal elements within society.
    Some might reasonably argue that it has a certain resonance to it.

    1. That is so frighteningly true and accurate.

      Who will rid us of this turbulent (useless) government?

          2. 371606+ up ticks,

            JN,
            Tis my belief sad to say, that we will be found standing at the graveside of the United Kingdom brought about by continued abuse via the polling booth in
            continued support of the lab/lib/con
            coalition.

    2. It means forcing the law-abiding to book their trips to the tip while allowing homicidal aliens the human right to slaughter passers by on the streets.

  10. Xi and Putin have declared a new Cold War. 27 February 2023.

    It’s time to wake up before it’s too late, and for Britain to lead the way in defending Western values

    The UK Government should acknowledge we are in a new Cold War. It would place a fresh perspective and greater clarity in how we advance our defence posture, protect our trade and work with like-minded nations to once again begin to robustly defend our values and standards.

    Western Values and standards? Ah yes. I remember them. They are gone now. Along with my country and its institutions and beliefs, and very soon its people. The UK is now a quasi-Marxist Third World Police State. It is true that we are in a new Cold War. One of America’s seeking in order to maintain its Hegemony. Unlike the old one we no longer have “Western Values” to recommend us. There is in fact very little to choose between them. A “Plague on both their Houses” say I!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/27/xi-putin-have-declared-new-cold-war/

    2. The values of our enemies appear more honourable than ours in some ways.
      At least they are trying to defend what was their own people.
      While we give away Northern Ireland to the EUSSR

      2. How can we defend Western Values when all cultures are equal and when rape and murder are considered acceptable in one culture but not in another and Western Leaders cannot decide which side to support?

        .

    2. The Tunisian President was accused of racism and various unsavoury epithets the other day for saying that mass illegal immigration is a “criminal enterprise” directed toward changing the demographics of his country. He is.is absolutely right and not afraid to say what most of us think. Only the Left, trying to undermine western civilisation, will disagree. This obviously incudes Tunisia where many people from West Africa reside illegally. But Tunisia doesn’t hand out largesse to such people who then resort to criminal activities.

      Immigration is an organised assault on European nations by criminals who make money by getting these poor people from their home countries, across deserts and seas. They are ably assisted by leftist politicians who care nothing for their home countries, and by those suffering from the woke disease, such as the so-called Archbishop of Canterbury.

      Western heritage, culture and traditions are being diminished by the day. Unless there is someone in Europe, like the Tunisian President, the west will fall, just like Rome did.

      In the meantime, the Guardian, always detached from reality, hates the Tunisian President but praised the Tunisian “National Salvation Front” the other day. Never has a political organisation been so blatantly misnamed. It is a coalition of radical Islamists, Salafists, Takfirists and assorted supporters of terrorism, including the bête noir of Tunisia, Rachid Ghannouchi! These people are absolutely loathed and despised by the vast majority of Tunisians, Ghannouchi himself being on an 8% approval rating!

      2. Similarly, Sguest, misnamed, the Guardian.

        Who is it guarding apart from the stupid woke lefties?

      3. Does the president of Tunisia have any spare time?
        Maybe if he popped over to Blighty every other Thursday, we could become a well run country again.

    3. One might surmise that a level of outside control is being exercised over antifa’s actions.

  12. Good morning, all. Rain over night. Now trying to be sunny.

    I see Fishi claims to have”won concessions” from the EUSSR. Huh!

  13. I want to thank Rastus and Caroline for their very kind birthday greetings three days ago, along with many other kind Nottlers.

    It is rather a long time since I have been AWOL but, despite my 82 years, I have been very busy and the days flash by without my having to do all the things that I would like. I will try to make amends!

    I am very fortunate to be in excellent health, not having seen a doctor for 8 years, a dentist for 23 years (still excellent choppers) and an optician never! I do hope everyone here enjoys such good health.

    We are what we eat and, in my case I am omnivorous but I never eat ‘fast food’ and very rarely processed food. On the other hand, I have eaten, inter alia, boiled spinal cord and raw liver (Lebanon), osbane, like haggis but made from the offal of camels (southern Tunisia), barbecued ‘mountain oysters’ (Rapallo, Italy) and a disgusting slimy stew made from fish, ‘meat’ and okra, eaten scooped up by hand with pounded yam, while seated on the floor (Nigeria). And I’m still alive.

    My best wishes to all!

    1. Brilliant to see you Sguest, and to hear that time is not ravaging you! Hope you had a good birthday and that we see more of you, if you can fit us in! 🍾👏🏻😁

    2. I didn’t see you on your birthday to wish you a happy day, and I don’t care to do it by proxy on Rastus’ site.

      Here’s wishing you many more.

    3. Belated happy birthday, I don’t always see all the posts. As for, “We are what we eat”, so true. My problem is my liquid intake.

    6. Great to see from you again! Hope you had a grand birthday, Sguest, and glad all’s well.
      Judging from the comments here and in the newspapers, there’ll be many soon who haven’t seen a doctor for years… 😉

    1. I think we have to be the gruff billy goat, though that looks like a Nanny goat.

      Perhaps we all have to take my pseudonym to heart

    3. Rishi is the goat. The other two are prominent Ulstermen (one is wearing a sash), presumably Jeffrey Donaldson.

  16. The consequences of Britain’s failure to give its farmers a fair deal

    I thought farming wasn’t part of the great reset plans, why would they get a good deal?

  17. 371606+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    In my book the great Charter ( what’s left of it ) is out, the great treachery is in, and thanks to the continuing voting pattern finding success and making daily headway.

    Monday 27 February: The consequences of Britain’s failure to give its farmers a fair deal

    Monday 27 February: The consequences of Britain’s failure to give its trawlermen a fair deal.

    Monday 27 February: The consequences of Britain’s failure to give its raped & abused children a fair deal.

    Monday 27 February: The consequences of Britain’s failure to give its elderly & vulnerable a fair deal ( quite the reverse).

    Why are we still dealing with what is plain to see as an
    enemy / enema the eu hierarchy, that is, not the peoples but the same political shite as we have here.

    Plus the fact the friends 4 calise are a siren call, dangerous consequences as witnessed in this last horrific disaster.

    These types must have the bog man b liar as a role model, topping up the numbers of paedophiles, & mass trouble purveyors
    on a daily basis.

    We await the next episode in the fall of a decent nation.

      1. 371606+ up ticks,

        Morning Anne,
        If so she was not lonely, unless we forget
        (which many do ) 39 /45 plus.

  18. How Putin killed the romance of radio. 27 February 2023.

    Phil Riley has AM frequencies seared into his memory. “In my youth, Radio 1 was at 247 and then just a bit further up was Piccadilly on 261, or you went down to 208 to get Luxembourg,” the veteran radio executive says.

    “You knew what these numbers were because you needed to know,” says Riley, who runs Boom Radio. “That for our generation – the older generation – was all part of the romance of radio.”

    The headline is quite probably the most ridiculous piece of propaganda so far!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/26/how-putin-killed-romance-radio/

    1. So you don’t like your ‘new’ house? Still getting lost on your way to the bathroom? Sparty biting the neighbours?

      1. We are reaching the stage where we can enter about 4 rooms without barking our shins on boxes.
        Sadly, cupboards need building/replacing so we are running out of storage space until the carpenter works his magic.
        We thought we had been pretty ruthless with furniture and stuff before leaving Allan Towers. We need to be even more merciless.

    2. Yes, a bit like up here except that we have a VERY light drizzle and it’s forecast cloudy all day.

      Yesterday was lovely sunshine with clear skies interspersed with just enough cloud sporadically rolling across to stop the temperature from getting anywhere near warm, even up that suntrap that calls it’s self a “garden”!

  20. Good moaning all,

    Just gone a bit cloudy at McPhee Towers but it has been frosty overnight. Blasted wind still in the NE and it will be for at least the next week, 0℃ outside.

    Listened to the latest Delingpod when I woke up this morning – Michael Malice whom I was aware of but have never listened to before. It’s a good one if you are as dedicated an anti-commie as I am. Here it is:
    https://odysee.com/@JamesDelingpoleChannel:0/malice:4

    Malice’s book The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil is available on his own website
    https://michaelmalice.com

    Also on Amazon including a Kindle version.
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Pill-Tale-Good-Evil-ebook/dp/B0BQ5PJ96W/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BHM4SOD1ZOSP&keywords=michael+malice&qid=1677483978&sprefix=michael+malice%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-1

  21. Good moaning all,

    Just gone a bit cloudy at McPhee Towers but it has been frosty overnight. Blasted wind still in the NE and it will be for at least the next week, 0℃ outside.

    Listened to the latest Delingpod when I woke up this morning – Michael Malice whom I was aware of but have never listened to before. It’s a good one if you are as dedicated an anti-commie as I am. Here it is:
    https://odysee.com/@JamesDelingpoleChannel:0/malice:4

    Malice’s book The White Pill: A Tale of Good and Evil is available on his own website
    https://michaelmalice.com

    Also on Amazon including a Kindle version.
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Pill-Tale-Good-Evil-ebook/dp/B0BQ5PJ96W/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BHM4SOD1ZOSP&keywords=michael+malice&qid=1677483978&sprefix=michael+malice%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-1

  23. Lab leak most likely origin of Covid pandemic, says US. 27 February 2023.

    The Covid-19 pandemic is most likely to have originated from a laboratory leak, a US government department has concluded.

    The study carried out on behalf of the US energy department is considered authoritative as it oversees a network of 17 laboratories encompassing research in advanced biology.

    The FBI has also blamed a leak from a Chinese laboratory for the pandemic.

    The Covid-19 pandemic is most likely to have originated from a laboratory leak, a US government department has concluded.

    The study carried out on behalf of the US energy department is considered authoritative as it oversees a network of 17 laboratories encompassing research in advanced biology.The FBI has also blamed a leak from a Chinese laboratory for the pandemic.

    Wow! Imagine that! Who would ever have guessed? I’m gobsmacked, as are all Nottlers one suspects!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/26/covid-19-lab-leak-us-energy-department-concludes/

    2. “The FBI has also blamed a leak from a Chinese laboratory for the pandemic.”

      And from where did Wuhan get its version of the virus?

      Why, a US sponsored ‘Gain of Function’ laboratory, in Ukraine of all places.

      Who’d a thunk it?

    4. Conspiracy Theories are not what they used to be – they used to be promulgated by lunatics now they are presented by the seers.

  24. Taking care of their own needs and interests…

    China approves biggest expansion in new coal power plants since 2015, report finds

    Concerns about energy shortages drive increase as projects progress at ‘extraordinary’ speed

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c7b136d2475d3ac3bc94cab995eba54be9fcea9e/930_258_2616_1570/master/2616.jpg?width=700&quality=45&dpr=2&s=none
    In 2022, 50 gigawatts of coal power capacity went into construction across China – up by more than half compared with the previous year

    China approved the construction of another 106 gigawatts of coal-fired power capacity last year, four times higher than a year earlier and the highest since 2015, research shows.

    Over the year, 50GW of coal power capacity went into construction across the country – up by more than half compared with the previous year – driven by energy security considerations, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said on Monday.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/27/china-approves-biggest-expansion-in-new-coal-power-plants-since-2015-report-finds

    2. For comparison, Wikipedia shows the UK total generating capacity as 75,8 GW.
      So, China started construction of 2/3 the UK capacity as coal power, in just one year.
      And Sunak whines on about heat pumps – that’s what he’ll need to power the damned things! And then comes the ‘leccy cars…

    1. Against this background, what of Russian relations with, and the involvement of, the West – and indeed the East? In his speech Putin confirmed the return to a Cold War confrontation, underlined by his withdrawal from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. He has, it appears, negotiated a deal on a new drone system from China – no doubt just the beginning of a stream of equipment which the Chinese will be eager to see field-tested ahead of any move on Taiwan.

      I have also wondered whether, by supplying arms to Ukraine, that this is what NATO and the EU are doing too.

      1. But much more dangerous. He is utterly opposed to capitalism and claims that socialism is the only way. The nauseating buffoon has not yet persuaded the Yanks to follow his crazy ideology.

        1. A surprising number of the Democrats did in 2016. If it had been Biden instead of Clinton I can’t help wondering if he might have done even better.
          In the Democratic National Convention roll-call vote on July 26, 2016, Sanders received 1,865 votes (39% of the vote), which consisted of 1,848 pledged delegates won in primary and caucus contests (46% of the total) and 17 superdelegates (4%).
          After the roll call, Sanders put forward a motion to formally nominate Clinton, which passed by voice vote. Although Sanders lost, he and the political movement his campaign created succeeded in moving the Democratic Party platform as a whole to the left, including support for a $15 minimum wage, marijuana legalization, the abolition of capital punishment, and criminal justice reform.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders_2016_presidential_campaign#

          1. An English pinko acquaintance of mine, here in Sweden, is a fervent supporter. She also claims to have a WhatsApp conversation with his son most days.

          2. I’m sure she would fit in well in LA or SF.

            Within a suitably guarded and gated community, naturally. Take that either way!

          1. He also has an equally retarded son, called Levi [he insists it is pronounced “Levvy”], who had similar senatorial ambitions but his father flatly refused to endorse his candidature.

      2. My father used to say of the Foot family that Judas Iscariot has had many reincarnations.

        But Dingle and Michael have nothing on Sunak and Hunt.

    2. Odd that he charges money for his book.

      what i find funny about all the communists and Lefties decrying market capitalism is that they have the ability, time and money to complain precisely because of that market capital. They know nothing about it except that someone else has told them how to think.

  27. Morning all, SUN, HOORAY. Up early for me for Ocado order delivery.
    Todays letter is actually nonsense. I have noticed that there is a shortage of all fruit in the stores except for Marks & Spencer, which does’t surprise me. But my point is that most of the fruit is not grown in the UK and never has been. Unless we have masses of greenhouses growing papaya, cranberries, apricots and peaches at this time of year. A quick look at packaging will tell you that these sort of things are from Africa or South America. Neglecting British farmers has nothing to do with it.

    1. I try not to buy out of season fruit but I do like grapes and tangerines. I leave the rest till they are more in season.

    2. Beside the road between Pulkovo Airport and St. Petersburg are acres of glasshouses, presumably built to make sure the St. Peterburgers get their 5 a day.
      I bet the Russians aren’t smothering productive land with solar panels.

  28. Good morning all,

    Bright and sunny, frosty.. 2c .

    Moh was out of the house early wrapped up warmly for golf comp.

    Did anyone see the Northern lights late last night, apparently they could be seen as far south as the I of W.

    We are lucky here, not much light pollution, the stars and planets were sparklingly bright… when the dogs were in the garden doing their late last and finals before bedtime .

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11797435/Temperatures-plummet-freezing-Met-Office-warns-snow-hit-Britain-March.html

      1. Thank you, Sue.

        Just done a Google maps and checked the distance from Moffat.

        You are to be congratulated on your perseverance, in getting to our Nottler’s Luncheon.

        1. Thank you Tom! It’s only an hour and a half in my super-speedy Toyota! Will do it again soon!

  29. Hallo again from Kenya. I’m in Samburu and it’s hot and dry here. The big river is reduced to a trickle. Wildlife is surviving but there are cattle in the park – one killed by lions last night.

  30. 371606+ up ticks,

    Suggestions like this could very well find one in a stiffend condition in the woods.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    Feb 24
    Another story like the last. The Govnt (sorry the tax payer) will give Southend Council £2m to house ‘refugees’ but the Council will have to match it with £2m of its own – while already anticipating a £7.3m budget deficit for this year.

    Here’s an idea: the Govnt should start a register of tax paying citizens who want us to have more refugees & migrants. Those registered will sign a legal contract to house, feed & clothe the refugees/migrants until they can afford to house, feed & clothe themselves.

    Let’s see how many peoples money match their mouths.

    Southend Council set to get almost £2million to provide homes for refugees
    Southend Council set to get almost £2million to provide homes for refugees

    SOUTHEND Council must find almost £2 million to help provide 14 homes for refugees from war-torn countries.

    https://gettr.com/post/p29krpr76ca

    2. I reckon zero people will put their money where their mouths are.

      At the end of the day, lefty-liberal luvvies are only interested in virtue-signal signalling and spending Other People’s Money.

  31. The ‘trans’ and ‘drag shows for children’ phenomena are appearing here and the USA in what is clearly a planned operation. For many of these people it’s not sufficient for them to live their lives as they wish, they want to force-feed their choice on everyone else, especially the children.
    Comments are not supportive, no surprise there.

    https://twitter.com/FreyjaTarte/status/1630044232063893505

    2. It’s disgusting to force these perversions on children. They used to be just for pantomime dames but now they try to make it the norm.

          2. Now you tell me, you Silly Sausage. (Don’t worry, Annie, I’m only joking. I already have the complete collection of EAGLE annuals.)

          3. Now you tell me, you Silly Sausage. (Don’t worry, Annie, I’m only joking. I already have the complete collection of EAGLE annuals.)

        2. A bouncy English and Scottish nickname name, which originally started out as a term of endearment, either meaning “lamb” or (more probably) “plump”. It has been in rare but regular use as a full name in Britain since at least the early 20th century, thanks in part to the popular comic play “Bunty Pulls The Strings” (1910). Bunty is also sometimes encountered as a pet name for Elizabeth or other unrelated names.

          Most Elizabeths, these days, end up as a Liz, Lizzy, Beth or Bess.

          My cousin took Bunty comic (and its sister comic, Judy) religiously when she was a pre-teen.

    6. I was scared of clowns when I was a child – their makeup made them look sinister. These overdone ridiculously over-made-up (edited) drag-tarts are enough to frighten any child.

      1. I was often taken to Blackpool Pier where there was a Pierrot(?) show. I used to hate what I now know as a harlequin because of the thick white paint on his face

        1. Yes. I’m sure some children have drag-coulrophobia. Plus, it puts a very bad image of women in their mind – over-painted, nasty tarts, at an age when women and mothers are supposed to be their havens for comfort. (Men too, but then women don’t tend to dress in Darth Vader costumes and pretend to be daddy’s sex.)

  32. To all those lamenting food shortages, I offer them three words of advice: Dig for victory!

    My alternative advice is just as succinct: Eat seasonally!

      2. I love cabbage: raw, in salads, steamed, sautéed. Today I shall sow this year’s summer cabbage crop.

        I refuse to eat salads in winter. Imported tomatoes, in particular, are flavour-free and utterly pointless.

        1. Morning Grizz. Have you tried Chicken Tarka? It’s a bit like Chicken tikka but a little otter.

          2. The book was on the CSE book list and was known to us as TTBO- Tarka the Bloody Otter. The girls loved the book and the staff disliked it.

          7. Morning, Philip.

            I haven’t, but I was once serve some Chilli-con-Coney, and I wasn’t too impressed!

          9. Nothing wrong with rabbit.

            As children we would be out with catapults and rabbiting sticks to find food for the table and, even though most rabbit now comes from China, it can make a damn good stew but I’d avoid George’s chillis.

          10. The thing with rabbit is you need lots of veg to go with it or you die from malnutrition if rabbit is your only food (survival tip for living off the land).

          11. Nor mine. It was those pesky Romans, followed by the pesky Normans, who introduced the vile vermin into the country as “food”.

        3. I doubt if I’ll ever get round to doing any meaningful gardening for vegetables, but I do like brassicas and always steam them rather than boiling them.
          I’ve also pickled red cabbage before now and need to get round to doing some more.

      1. Thank you and good morning, Rastus.

        One has to keep one’s pedagogic skills acute, doesn’t one?

    4. Morning Grizz – looking at some of the population now it looks like they got those mixed up – eat for victory

    5. Given that the country is vastly over populated to the tune of about, ohh, 60 million and most don’t have gardens where are they supposed to grow vegetables?

      Then there’s the welfarists who would steal them/destroy the place simply because they could.

      1. Animal slaughter by a certain sector of our society takes place in tiny private garden spaces, though. As many of these houses are no doubt Council-owned, perhaps they could be forced to grow veg instead. Or perhaps the councils have sold them the houses at a knock down price…

  33. Latest Breaking News – Queen Camilla has decided to replace the controversial Koh-i-Noor diamond in her coronation crown with a tomato, it has just been announced

  34. US papers cancel Dilbert after cartoonist says ‘get the hell away from black people’. 27 February 2023.

    The latest row erupted following his YouTube show, Real Coffee with Scott Adams.

    Discussion turned to a Rasmussen survey in which respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement: “It’s OK to be white.”

    It was a phrase given oxygen by an obscure internet discussion forum and later taken up by white supremacists.

    Barely over half the black respondents agreed with the sentiment. This angered the 65-year-old cartoonist.

    This is of course blatant racism but cannot be called out. We all know where the demonization and vilification of certain groups leads!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/26/us-papers-cancel-dilbert-cartoonist-says-get-away-black-people/

    1. One of my best friends, a very black Nigerian had his car windows done in and apparently racist scrawl in spray paint. It wasn’t their big people carrier for the children lark, just hit little fiat that he goes to work in (he used to drive a flashy sports car but his formidable wife stopped that).

      Now, I know Deji and we mock one another relentlessly, and he hasn’t a racist bone in his body. He was born in Nottingham to Nigerian parents – a civil engineer and a hospital porter.

      We are, as a society going backward. And it’s because of the Left. The ‘liberal progressives’

  35. EU chief flies in to seal Brexit deal as Tory revolt brews
    Conservative MPs issue warning over European court’s role and insist accord is put to a vote
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/26/ursula-von-der-leyen-brussels-rishi-sunak-brexit-deal-announcement/

    BTL (Wrattstrangler)

    Remember how Johnson refused to let us know what was in his ‘oven-ready’ ‘fantastic’ withdrawal agreement; remember the lengths he went to to conceal what was actually in it before the 2019 general election; remember how he managed to worm out of being interviewed on live TV by Andrew Neil as to what was actually in it?

    And remember it was in fact Mrs May’s deal and it lumbered us with a border down the Irish Sea, the effective confiscation of Norther Ireland by the EU with the ECJ holding more power there than the British Law and the EU continuing to ravage British fishing waters.

    Remember too that the EU is not interested in any deal that will do Britain any good at all – the EU wants to damage Britain.

    And in case you forget remember that secrecy from the Conservative Party means they are trying to con you into something you don’t want that will damage the United Kingdom.

    1. All sadly true. What I continue to find odd is the desperation the political class have to spin their deceit.

      When I see Sunak and Liar sat there I see two unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats installed without election, unwanted by the public pushing policies they’ve no democratic mandate to impose on a public that has already rejected them.

      We used ot laugh at banana republics. Now we are one.

        1. All because we don’t have the energy to produce them under glass.

          I despair. If food production is not an energy intensive operation what is? The state must be shredded.

          1. Now working for “non-profit” International Rescue for £854,000 per year. Very good non-profits if you can get it …

  36. Morning all 😉 😊
    Only light grey today, aren’t we lucky.
    I expect we’ll eventually find out its the EU mafiosi have stopped us importing fruit and veg. And our government has allowed them to get away with it. Soon we will be able to get a view of the piles of surplus food rotting away. And a huge increase on supermarket shelves in the can tomato ranges.
    Oh yes, ‘fond of lying’ is here, not a large person but very influencential with the thumbs.

    1. It’s very bright here in deepest ‘Ampshire. Still got the curtains closed on that burning ball of gas. Soon it’ll be 80’c inside and we’ll all be suffering the nuclear fire.

        1. Something I would like to install is solar panels and a battery. Not because of the ecomentalism, but just to save some bally money.

          1. I’m not sure the panels pay for themselves as rapidly as is expected.
            We have a small solar light above our front door. If the sun hasn’t shone that day, it doesn’t work at night.

          2. The same applies to my solar powered garden lights. Dull, miserable day = no lights on the arch or the trees.

  37. 371606+ 7up ticks,

    Would that be tears appertaining to blood, or a rip ?

    breitbart,

    Climate of Fear: UK School Pupils Suspended After Quran Sustains Small Tear, Smudged Page

    1. Why is the Quran being taught in our Schools?

      Are the following also taught:

      Gita – Hinduism.
      Torah – Judaism.
      Guru Granth Sahib – Sikhism.
      Tripitaka – Buddhism.

      If so, why?

      2. 371606+ up ticks,

        Morning NtN,

        Why indeed, why is it an oath taker in parliament, why is halal on the parliamentary canteen menu, why does it obviously find favour with the voting majority ?

        Because the dangerous headbangers now outnumber the sane of brain.

      3. I caught a very quick glimpse of a cookery program on TV recently and the much loved Mary Berry was teaching two females in headscarves how to stir something in a pot.
        She has gone down in my estimation, they don’t have to be taught to stir.

  38. Drivers warned of potential fines ahead of big licence plate changes

    Motorists face hefty fines if they fail to display their car’s registration plate properly

    New number plates can now only display solid black lettering, as two-tone registration plates that used different shades to create a 3D-like effect have been banned. The rule change was introduced in September 2021 to help Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras identify vehicle number plates on the roads.

    (PS: Sorry about where the link comes from!)

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/drivers-warned-not-risk-fines-29290698

    1. I’ve seen people have number plates so caked in mud that you can’t read them. 3d plates might be illegal, but dirty ones are not.

      1. It is an offence not to have a clearly legible registration plate. Similarly irregularly spaced letters so that the plate appears to make up a word like MYJ 33P being spaced MY J33P on a Jeep.

      1. Another reason why guns were effectively banned.
        Most of these cameras are too high for anything other than a rifle.

  39. Drivers warned of potential fines ahead of big licence plate changes

    Motorists face hefty fines if they fail to display their car’s registration plate properly

    New number plates can now only display solid black lettering, as two-tone registration plates that used different shades to create a 3D-like effect have been banned. The rule change was introduced in September 2021 to help Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras identify vehicle number plates on the roads.

    (PS: Sorry about where the link comes from!)

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/drivers-warned-not-risk-fines-29290698

    1. If there are any books that need rewriting in a modern contex it’s at least two religious tomes.

  41. Martin Lewis has been ripping the government to bits over their energy price rises in April.
    The wholesale cost is now going down.
    Another voice of fiscal intelligence who appears to think our government is made up of drongos.

      1. 😉🤭
        Net zero,….with more homes being built in England since the early 1940s ?
        I’ve always been under the impression the prices were hiked so the profits could be milked, to try and cover up even more mistakes from our government. Noticeably the massive and rising costs of housing the thousands of illegal invaders.

        1. What bothers more is how much is for social housing. Government force buying property to house ‘whoever’, breaking the maret by giving to people what they cannot buy themselves.

          1. “by giving to people immigrants (whether illegal or not) what they ordinary taxpaying Brits cannot buy themselves”.

    2. It is! The idea that we mustkeep paying such offensively high prices for energy is entirely down to statist machination.

  42. Just imagine how surprised we shall all be if we discover that the Sunak deal gets both the EU and the ECJ completely and permanently out of Northern Ireland.

    It is the cloak and dagger secrecy and duplicity that makes us think this is very unlikely.

    From the DT in the last hour:

    “Ursula von der Leyen to meet the King at Windsor Castle
    The King will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for tea at Windsor Castle this afternoon, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

    A palace spokesperson said: “The King is pleased to meet any world leader if they are visiting Britain and it is the Government’s advice that he should do so.”

    If the deal is rejected by the DUP and the ERG then the plan is to discredit them by saying that they have sabotaged a chance for better relations between the UK and the EU and it is entirely their fault and not the fault of the squeaky-clean and always honourable EU!

    That our despicable King is prepared to get involved in such seedy politics is outrageous but, I must say, par for the course and not surprising.

    2. From the same DT article:

      ‘Almost inevitable’ Brexit deal will include continued role for ECJ in Northern Ireland – Starmer
      Sir Keir Starmer said it is “almost inevitable” that the European Court of Justice will continue to play a role in Northern Ireland’s affairs under Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal.

      The British voted for the UK to leave the EU nearly seven years ago. Has Brexit happened or not? As afar as I can see Brexit from start to finish has been a fraud.

      1. 371606+ upticks,

        ” As afar as I can see Brexit from start to finish has been a fraud.”

        Afternoon R,
        I can assure I worked with many other activists in the creation of a referendum
        and a chance of freedom that we won only to find our own kind returned to supporting the lab/lib/con eu asset parties, post victory.

        It is very hard to combat treachery from within.

        Look upon home turf for those that stabbed Brexitexit in the back, the govn. parties & supporters, and are still at it.

    3. Von der lying is NOT a world leader. She’s a bureaucrat, imposed without election. She has no nation, no country, nothing. She is simply the current figure head of a bunch of overpaid, unwanted wasters

      .

      1. I cannot help but agree, Wibbles, and our wokey jokey monarch is defying the Constitution by meeting with it.

      2. A FAILED bureaucrat – who was sacked from her post as Minister of Defence in the 4th Reich.

      1. Doesn’t wash, vw, he is a constitutional monarch and, as such, should know the points of no return if he transgresses. I await to see his Coronation Oath.

  43. Welcome to wartime Russia… where you can’t protest, buy clothes or go on holiday. 27 February 2023.

    Vladimir said that prices for everything had risen and that life in wartime Russia has become more tedious and fragile.

    “When it comes to money, things have gotten much harder,” he said. “You can’t get sick. You can’t buy clothes. You can’t go to a cafe or a movie. You can’t go on holiday.”

    Sounds like the UK!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/27/ukraine-invasion-one-year-life-russia-boring-dangerous/

    1. Price of fabric softener now 4.50 instead of 4. Washing tablets £12 instead of 10. milk now £2.75 instead of 2.50.

      All because of government malice. We’re at war – our enemy is the state.

  44. Well tie me Kangaroo down sport!

    “Australian firm Recharge Industries has bought the defunct battery maker Britishvolt out of administration.
    Britishvolt had planned to build a £4bn battery plant near the Port of Blyth in Northumberland but it collapsed last month after running out of money.
    Its downfall was blamed on a lack of battery experience, proven technology, customers and revenue.
    Recharge Industries has in many ways a similar profile – it is a start up with little manufacturing experience.
    The Australian company is ultimately owned and run by a New York-based investment fund called Scale Facilitation.

    1. Its downfall was blamed on a lack of battery experience, proven technology, customers and revenue.
      So:
      …No idea what they were doing technically
      + Couldn’t run the production machinery
      + Couldn’t sell the product to anyone
      = run out of money

      Who’d a thunk it? How much did the government throw in to disappear forever into someone else’s bank account?

      1. The same as it has thrown into many other bank accounts of companies which have no idea and no experience, no doubt.

    2. Its downfall was blamed on a lack of battery experience, proven technology, customers and revenue.
      So:
      …No idea what they were doing technically
      + Couldn’t run the production machinery
      + Couldn’t sell the product to anyone
      = run out of money

      Who’d a thunk it? How much did the government throw in to disappear forever into someone else’s bank account?

  45. 371606+ up ticks,

    Tell me who was it of the lab/lib/con coalition who wanted to trigger article 16 post referendum ?

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    1h
    From the start this has been presented as a problem between Brexit Britain & Ireland. Its not, its a problem between Ireland & its EU masters.

    The UK is a major trading partner with the RoI. They get most of their energy supplies from the UK & RoI ciitizens have equal rights in the UK with UK citizens, to vote, for benefits & the NHS.

    The Irish need to ask themselves who their real friends are? The only ‘deal’ on offer should be for the PM to say ‘you can have the same deal you’ve always had, just tell the EU to get lost. Trade & everything else can continue as usual’.

    The RoI claims to be a sovereign nation yet it allows its vital interests to be dictated by the EU. The same EU & its ECHR that floods Ireland with waves of immigrants & ‘refugees’. Wake…more
    Northern Ireland Protocol: Can PM sell a revised deal back home? — BBC News
    Northern Ireland Protocol: Can PM sell a revised deal back home? — BBC News

    There’s a lot at stake but a lot to gain from solving the Brexit issues in Northern Ireland.

    https://gettr.com/post/p29vtjh30c2

  48. Betty Boothroyd RIP

    Certainly by far the best Speaker since I have taken an interest in politics.

    1. Agreed. Her predecessor, Bernard Weatherill was also a good speaker. After her it went downhill until it reached the bottom with Bercow.

  49. 371606+ up ticks,

    What skulduggery is afoot,

    King will meet with Ursula von der Leyen at Windsor Castle
    Buckingham Palace said ‘the King is pleased to meet any world leader if they are visiting Britain’

    1. On the one hand it could be more WEF instructions. On the other, a buttering up exercise to make Leyen feel important. On another it could be Charlie asking what he can do to push the UK back into the EU.

    2. He should not have arranged to meet her. She is not a head of state and is not on an official visit.

      1. The failed Cherman politician is also going to meet the joke woke “king” – God help us.

    3. Skulbuggery it most certainly is. Sunak and the King are determined to bugger up the integrity of Great Britain’s borders.

      The sooner this wretched man abdicates and the prime minister resigns, picks up his blue card and goes off to the USA the better.

    4. Von der lying has never been and never will be a World Leader while in the EU.

      She may be classified as a ‘Young Leader’ by the WEF but that smacks of the Hitler Yoof.

    5. Is that why the King is going to Germany France?

      Sunak has been slammed for politicising the King. Surprise, surprise, Sunak is a foreigner with no idea about this country or its institutions.

      1. The King should have told Sunak “No. Not my role”.
        His Mother would have, and his Sister, too.

        1. Successive governments have breached our constitutional rights. With the acquiescence of our monarchs.

  50. Just passing through. At 9 am I decided to attempt a bonfire. The stuff has been building up alarmingly. It took up 200 square yards……. Now, 3½ hours later (thanks to the tremendous work by the MR – it was all too much for me alone) there are 15 sq yards left to burn after lunch. A great relief.

    So I’ll not be around much until tea time. Just make sure there isn’t any news….

    1. Bonfires are now banned in much of France for environmental reasons.

      Funnily enough one of my best university friends (whose son is my godson) was the founder of Friends of the Earth in Britain and spent his life working for International Environmental Organisations and he loved bonfires and even had them in his own garden in Wimbledon!

      But of course environmentalists love moving the goal posts and we were encouraged to buy diesel cars and woodburners for the good of the environment but now these are ruining our planet!

      1. They were banned in Laure at various times simply to prevent the garrigue and forests catching fire. They were OK in winter.

  51. Comment by a Tory MP on the NI Protocol.

    Senior Tory Brexiteer: ‘It’s good to read it before you decide whether it’s a good deal or not’. Theresa Villiers, a senior Tory Brexiteer and a former Northern Ireland secretary, said she had learned from “bitter experience” to wait to read the final text of a Brexit deal before deciding whether to back it or not. She told Times Radio: “Very often agreements with the European Union have been portrayed in a certain way. And then when they’re published, they turn out not to deliver the outcomes that people were promised. “So I’ve learned from slightly bitter experience that it’s good to read it before you decide whether it’s a good deal or not, whether to vote yes or no.”

    This implies she votes on matters without reading up on the subject. Hmmmmmm.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/27/rishi-sunak-ni-brexit-deal-latest-dup-eu-der-leyen/

  52. Mate of mine is suffering from paranoid delusions, he thinks he’s a chocolate orange.

    I’m really worried that he’s going to get sectioned.

    Get well soon Terry.

  53. JK Rowling’s abusive former husband claims he helped her write Harry Potter and says she’s ‘delirious’ for claiming that he held books hostage so she wouldn’t leave him
    The abusive ex-husband of JK Rowling has branded her ‘delirious’
    Jorge Arantes, 54, disputes claims he tried to hide her Harry Potter manuscript
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11798149/JK-Rowlings-vile-ex-husband-claims-helped-write-Harry-Potter-says-shes-delirious.html

    As the case of the murdered head of Epsom College shows it is a very grave mistake for successful and competent women to get involved with nasty, inadequate men.

    And yet they do – and we probably all know attractive and successful women who marry pathetic men and ruin their lives by so doing.

    Why do they do it?

    2. We don’t realise just how nasty and inadequate they are when we meet them. They only show their true colours once the ring is on their finger…

    3. It takes a strong man to marry a successful woman. By strong, I mean someone confident in himself who is capable of taking a “back seat” to raise the children. See the Saturday interview a few weeks ago with the Dutch CEO whose golfer husband runs the home. Not many men have the ability to do it (as they are conditioned to being “the breadwinner”). Where it works successfully, it can be great.

  54. On holiday in Spain I saw a sign saying English speaking doctors, I thought what a good idea.

    We should have them in England.

    …conseguiré mi abrigo.

    1. If a patient can’t speak English properly the taxpayer pays for a translator. If a doctor can’t speak English properly the patient will have to pay for a translator. (Unless, of course the patient comes from the same country as the doctor, in which case they can get together, charge for a translator and split the proceeds.)

      2. I was rather annoyed that a oman had rocke up to A&E and was unable to speak a word of English. How are they surviving in this country unable to speak the language? What do they do? If they won’t learn the language they should be deported.

        2. They have no need, wibbs. Their owner doesn’t let them out unless it’s necessary to leech off us.

  55. Afternoon All

    Very late due to ‘puter problems

    What an absolute shiteshow who the hell do these people think they are??

    https://twitter.com/MahyarTousi/status/1629936772498038789?s=20

    https://twitter.com/Adrian_Hilton/status/1629546651730706433?s=20

    https://twitter.com/RafHM/status/1629566586133663746?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba0fedcd67e53d3c0df9f5d786a985ec647b641bebba308050b946fc1d194d14.jpg
    Child who drops a book pilloried and expelled,those who made death threats??
    All good
    I’m beginning to hate this country

        1. Someone pointed out recently that we don’t have sufficient numbers in the armed services to confront all those who might kick off in our major cities over perceived slights to their religion of peace……far easier to kettle the normally non-violent folk.

          1. Yes, but they have guns and missiles and armoured vehicles. The simplest solution is to turn the islam areas into no go zones that shrink every years. Strict curfew, absolute control. Don’t give them a millimeter.

          2. Time to take some lessons from the Nazi playbook with regard to controlling certain sections of the population.

    3. The koran should be used as a colouring book. It’s a dreadful work of fiction.

      If these wasters don’t like it, they can leave. Why are the police involved? Why have they not arrested and charged the scum threatening the boy? The whole world is back to front. Frankly, the muslims should be removed – eradicated permanently from society.

  58. Brambles from the field below invaded my garden. Some of them were over 20 feet in length. This week I’ve hired a Brush cutter to clear the patch, which is larger than a Tennis court with brambles over 6 feet in height, immediately below my garden. The photos below show before and after (so far):

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9da03deb3995df2e8c2cb14beb8c4fa6035f127f005483f36fa0b04c2990851.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/540b78f6473e863f94efac414bc5193299dfd93d62b31ff03830e09e623a1e84.jpg

    1. We planted them and grow them up frames at Firstborn’s farm. Bedford Giants (that describes the thorns as well as the fruit).
      Worth a lot of money in Norway, so they are, a rare delicacy. The bees like the brambles, too.

      1. There is an even larger patch further up in the field which will be left for the wildlife. The patch I’m levelling has a wonderful crop of nettles underneath I can feel them saying good job – with all that extra light we’ll really show you what we can do.

        The thicket to the left in the photo is a dense collection of Hawthorne….home to roosting Bramblings so it will be left largely untouched within in it’s present boundary…

          1. I’m pleased to say I don’t own the field – which is firmly within the boundary of ‘An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. As for the canal – it is but a five minute walk away down the lane and footpath adjoining the field….

          5. Now I’m the king of the swing-bridgers
            Oh, the Boatman VIP
            I’ve reached the Lock and had to stop
            And that’s what botherin’ me
            I wanna be a Huffler
            The Cut goes into town
            And be just like the other boatmen
            I’m tired of poling aground!

      3. Do you mean that your lad grows Blackberries?

        What English people call “brambles” are the wild, fruitless natural barbed wire that can overrun a hedge or fence and needs a flamethrower to get rid of.

        1. Yup. Perfect description except the fruitless. These are huge, tasty berries, about £10 a pound.

          1. Well be clearer in future!! I used to grow blackberries – but they began to overtake the area of garden – so went.

      4. My Dad had Himalayan Giant in the garden at Newbiggin and I have wild ones running riot up the hill above the “garden”.
        I like blackberries but hate brambles.

    2. The people next door don’t look after their garden well, they just use one of those firms for ‘maintenance’. There is an area to the back of my greenhouses where they’ve let the brambles run riot and their aerial stems have grown into their trees and bent back down over one of my sheds. The stems are extremely vicious and some are now about an inch across. I know if I mention this to them they’ll get someone to trim it all back, but they’ll leave all the roots and they’ll come straight back…

      1. I have neighbours like that. They have mile-a-minute which has grown up into the school playing field behind my fence and then back onto a silver birch, which it is strangling. They also have a (currently small) oak within 12 feet of my rear window.

        Their lack of any husbandry has already cost me £1000+ worth of damage. They simply deny any responsibility for anything. In the past I put up with a bit for the sake of good neighbour relations, but I have got to the stage where I have told them that any more damage to my property and I will sue them.

        The trouble is that I can see the problems coming, but I have to wait until the damage has occurred before I can do anything.

        Edit: the school were very helpful and cut back the plant where it was climbing into and smothering my tree, but the neighbours haven’t taken it out, so it will come back.

          1. Litigation between neighbours is a nightmare. Even if you win – you still have to live next door to them. I used to tell clients that it was better to move if the problem really bugged them.

          2. See below – and anyway I don’t want the cost and hassle of moving. They are both quite old and I just hope that they go to a great unkempt property in the sky first.

          3. Litigation is a last resort. I will be taking them to the small claims court, unless their tree roots undermine my house (which is a possibility). I can’t sell my house because any surveyor would pick up on two enormous goat willows just their side on the small wall at the front.

            I just have to sit and wait for the damage to be done – which I DON’T want!

          1. Firstborn won’t allow us to hand targets on trees and shoot at them for exactly that reason.

          2. Are you talking about the oak, the goat willows or the mile a minute plant? In the case of the former, I can’t reach the trees to put the nails in and the neighbours would see it (they have cameras at their door in the front and I would have to climb over a nearly 7ft fence in front of a rear window in the case of the oak at the back).

            I have been cutting from my side and pouring vinegar over a thick ivy similar to one that previously toppled my fence (I also had to have concrete stirrups (?) put onto the fence posts to stop the fence from crashing).

            What gets me is the sheer hypocrisy of the couple – they publish little “I love you Mummy” and “Thought for the day” type of books but are completely oblivious to anyone else. Another of the neighbours once described them as “the most selfish people I have ever met”. I would love to be able to embarrass them, but they are impervious to everything.

            Initially I tried being nice, but they just took and took and never gave anything back so now we just ignore each other.

          5. Squirt of aerosol paint on camera (when they are out shopping) then rotten kipper…

            A friend told me….

          7. Thank you. Yes, I have read it, but the reasonableness part is totally lost on those two. I have been friendly, I have given the benefit of not realising the damage their ivy was causing to my fence (they refused to come over to see it), but they keep on with their trees and their unkempt growth . That is fine (if unslghtly) if it stays in their garden. The trouble is that it extends to me and my property and I have to pay for the damage done.

            So I have had enough, and I have told them that any further damage and they are on notice. I just dread what their huge trees might do to my shallow foundations…

          8. Thank you for that – I comply with all the stuff offering the branches to the neighbours when I have to cut back branches to boundary level (which is expensive as they are so high!). I send them in a note stating when I am going to cut back the branches and telling them to let me know if they want the branches. They never respond.

      2. I pull up any brambles I see in the “garden” and try to get as much of the root out as I can at the same time.
        Same with the ramblers further up the hill.

  59. Caerphilly Earthquake Appeal

    A major earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale hit caerphilly
    & surrounding areas on 25th Feb with it’s epicenter of South Wales.

    Victims were seen wandering around aimlessly muttering ‘faaackinell’.
    & updating there Facebook statuses

    The earthquake decimated the area causing almost £30.00 worth of damage.

    Several priceless collections from B&M bargains were damaged beyond
    repair.

    Three areas of historic burnt out cars were disturbed.

    Many locals feared there gyro’s would not be arriving in the post after
    this weekend.
    Local radio DJ, Andy Badger Miles from ‘The Wave’ and his giggling
    friend Emma, reported that hundreds of resident’s were trying to come to
    terms that the fact that something interesting had happened in
    Caerphilly and the surrounding areas.
    One resident, Tracy Lloyd, a 15-year old mother of 5 said, ‘It was such a
    shock, my little Chardonnay-Mercedes came running into my bedroom
    crying. My youngest two, Tyler-Morgan and Victoria-Storm slept through
    it all because they had a skinfull earlier that night.
    I was still
    shaking when I was skinning up and watching repeat viewing of Jeremy
    Kyle show the looting, muggings and car crime were unaffected and carried
    on as normal.
    The British Red Cross has managed to ship 4,000 crates of lager and
    sunny delight to the area to help the stricken locals.

    Rescue workers
    are still searching through the rubble and have found large quantities
    of personal belongings including benefit books, jewellery from Elizabeth
    Duke at Argos and bone china from the Poundshop.

    HOW CAN YOU HELP

    This appeal is to raise money for food and clothing, parcels for those
    unfortunate enough to be caught up in this disaster.

    Clothing is most sought after – items needed most include:
    Fila or Burberry baseball caps, Knappa tracksuit tops (his and hers),
    shell suits (female) White sports socks, Rockport boots and any other
    items usually sold in Tesco’s or Asda.

    Food parcels may be harder to come by, but are needed all the same.
    Required foodstuffs include: Microwave meals, tins of baked beans, ice
    cream, cans of Colt 45 or Special Brew.
    22p buys a biro for filling in the compensation forms.

    £2.50 buys chips, crisps and a blue fizzy drink for a family of 9.
    £5.00 buys a packet of B&H and a lighter to calm the nerves of those
    affected.

    £10.00 buys a wrap of crack to help those really disturbed.

    2. I wonder if anyone has pointed out to HM that the goal of the EU is to abolish sovereign nations, and in the event that this should come to pass in the UK there will be no need for a Sovereign?

      1. He wouldn’t probably care that much – his family will still be filthy stinking rich and he would no doubt be happy to be “king” in title only.

        1. Same with Sunak – he has so much money that his political career is financially inconsequential to him.

      2. He is far too thick to understand that – unless he is on a mission to destroy the monarchy just as Sunak is on a mission to destroy the United Kingdom.

    3. The King’s antecedents started WW1.

      His uncle abdicated .. he was a Nazi lover ..

      Prince Charles is an entitled nasty bit of work, he drove his first wife mad .

      He is meddling in politics , not good.

          2. Not only by her parents divorce as such, Belle, but the way they behaved towards her, her younger brother and towards each other around the time of the divorce. The two children were used as pawns and held hostage by the father to get what he wanted in the divorce. Her sisters being slightly older escaped some of the damage but Sarah McCorquodale has suffered from anorexia in her life.

            Edit: I think the problem lies in the fact that Diana was not even nearly adequately emotionally parented by her parents and ditto Charles in his relationship with his parents, thus neither could ‘parent’ each other in the marriage, so it quite simply fell apart. Camilla mothers Charles, so the relationship works, sadly Diana was not so fortunate.

      2. A thoroughly nasty man.

        The late Queen and his father wanted Edward to have the Duke of Edinburg title because of the work he had done for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme and because Sophie Wessex was much loved by the Queen but Charles decided to spite them both by passing the title to William’s daughter.

        His brother Andrew has not been convicted but Charles has decided to treat him like a leper.

        And look at how he rashly rushed to condemn Lady Susan Hussey when she asked perfectly reasonable questions to that fake African woman in bogus native dress, Ngozi Fullanus.

        He is mean-spirited, totally lacking in wisdom, common sense and good judgement and if he does not abdicate the British monarchy will die with him.

  61. Sir Kneel Starmer supports Rishi’s deal with NI even though he hasn’t seen it yet.

    What is the point of an opposition if they are just going to roll over.

      1. I always get the same impression when I see photos of Starmer as when I see photos of Verhofstadt – they look like they have halitosis (if you see what I mean!)

        2. Even the girls the bard chased had dragon breath!

          I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
          But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
          And in some perfumes is there more delight
          Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

  62. Everything from the huge piles has now been burned or is chuntering away on the fire. VERY satisfactory. Nearly a year of garden stuff. Now for a sit down for half an hour.

    2. When the old disorientated chap who stayed with us ffor 6 months because his cottage was condemned and full of rats .. He had to clear his stuff out .. he had been living there for decades . Born and bred in the area , but had been a para , and also helped his brother on his farm .

      We arrived to see how he was getting on with his bonfire in the huge garden .. OMG I might have mentioned this before , but he had had a blitz of mega proportions .. Old US army flying jackets , leather , paper work, clothes , model aircraft , photos , art , ou name it , it was on the bonfire .

      Moh and I nearly had a heart attack.. lying in the embers was the remains of a blue bezzled Rolex watch .. and we asked him why, why.

      He said it was not working and couldn’t be asked to get it fixed .

      Well of course it was none of our business, but if we had arrived earlier to watch him stoke his bonfire , perhaps some items could have been saved .

      1. Possibly a Rolex Submariner, auction price in the region of £10,000 plus, depending on condition etc.

    1. Surprise bloody surprise.
      The supporters who managed to dupe the judges should now be arrested and charged with aiding and abetting murder. I know they won’t but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t.

      1. They will be telling anyone who cares to listen that that murder is evil whitey’s fault.
        If only he had been showered with money and respect, as is his due as a black man, that would not have happened.

  64. SIR – Farmers Weekly magazine tells me that, in 1984, the United Kingdom was 95 per cent self-sufficient in indigenous food production, and 78 per cent self-sufficient in all foods. In 2009, the figures were 78 per cent and 59 per cent respectively.

    As we continue to destroy prime agricultural land for housing and other developments, is Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge that, under Labour, “50 per cent of all food purchased by the public sector will be food produced locally and sustainably” even possible?

    David Abell
    Portsmouth, Hampshire

    Exactly. No forward thinking at all.

    2. Don’t forget that in 1984, despite the date, the destruction of the English way of life and culture had not begun through unlimited inimical immigration that aims to outbreed us.

    1. Final arbitrator is the ECJ… Expected from a socialist WEF man and his cronies. We will be ruled by corrupt minor Eastern European states.

  66. The Deal with the EU has been signed.

    MPs will be given a binding vote next week after they have had time to pore over the legal details. Presumably if Starmer and most of the Conservatives are in favour the NUP will be stuffed and outvoted and in all likelihood violence will return to the streets of Northern Ireland.

    Unless the ECJ and the EU are completely out of Northern Ireland then the Union has been sacrificed, sodomised and completely buggered.

      1. In the queue at the cafe in my local John Lewis yesterday, the woman in front of me asked about the meat in the stew and was told it’s venison. She didn’t understand and the guy servining wasn’t getting anywhere trying to explain so I said, “Deer, as in Bambi”. Felt slightly guilty telling her it was Bambi in the stew but she understood!

      1. Ken Bruce (Radio 2 presenter for 30 years) gave notice to the beeboids that he was leaving in April. Vindictive beeboids respond (after saying how very sorry they were that KB was leaving) by ending his contract a month early…

          1. Childish?? They have replaced Ken Bruce with the overgrown schoolboy with the naff accent, Vernon Kay! 🤡

          2. Actually I rather like Vernon; not Ken but better than a lot of other options – Rylan, Scott Mills, Anita Rani etc!!

        3. As long as they paid him why should he care, apart from depriving him of the opportunity to say long farewells.

          2. Me or the BBC?

            As I understand it, he was the one who resigned, all they have done is to say: “fine, no need to work your notice”

  73. A (naive) puzzled pensioner writes:

    If the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an independent, sovereign state – can it not tell anyone who wants “influence” over a small part of it – to take a running jump? Eire is in the EU. Fine – have a hard border between the Six Counties and the Oirish. Passports, customs restrictions etc etc.

    I know the border is full of holes – but so were the OLD borders between EUSSR member states before the Treaty of Rome.

    1. If the proposition were true, we could (given the will to do it among those who had the power). As we have neither the will, nor independence …

      1. Married a 6-year-old and consummated the marriage when she was 9.

        The whole ideology is founded on paedophilia.

  75. Par Four today.

    Wordle 618 4/6
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too, much to my surprise.

      Wordle 618 4/6

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

    3. Bogie here, too many options.
      Wordle 618 5/6

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

  76. ‘Night All

    Late Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da2c5330a3d4787aaf75aed8a7f6ea0c843f1c01541ba4a761e0fbfdd21550b7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/422e347e9c9d2ee47ddec5d0804ca468cb1f01de3caba252a8d17166ba9d2f54.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4b403c4d7bcf942f6855776a23a9bd5aeecf12b817fe10a7a1c9cf28b57d6a7.gif

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/446a9ba5dedf70cea549c6524d06f327be13bcf3d074fbff28bace31a96ae0fd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3edbbc944eb4d32d7fbf9d810829d0e43fee5c6a0ee2130db3821d822aefb189.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ad7420e821b0ac77895ffe9756f736de3bd5e689aa2982cc58b4262ac7a3b3f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3af98ffed33874bc62420914ba079162e16d1346f11af4f1a93c311b48240797.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd115a4838b13a3db84f7a369c7e05132d9673bd071ac7e4a4f16aa3e0ab2aa9.jpg

  77. Apropos Tom’s (NtN) lawyer list this morning a friend of mine, I worked with as a Court Usher, sent me this list he’d made over the years.

    Neighbour sent me that recently and I mentioned that I had made a lot of similar notes in Woking Mags. I also sent him a list of rather apposite names that I’d garnered….

    Also some apposite names –
    Mr Tite, Mr Perrier, Mr Drinkwater, Ms. Thirsting ( drink drivers);
    K A Rush. Mr Ambler, Mr Fasth (speeders);
    Mr Dyall (using mobile phone in a car);
    Petty and Steel (theft);
    Mr Hopper came into Court on crutches;
    Crook (deception);
    Mr Pike ( possess bladed or pointed article);
    Mok (trial);
    Mr Hadhur (indecency with female);
    Mr Wang Qi (don’t what he was up for but I had fun calling him into Court);
    David ANGEL ABH against GABRIELLE King – Angel later went on to murder Gabrielle

    1. A driver who lost control and smashed into me was called Lawless.

      The policeman who turned up at the scene effectively wrote my statement for me to ensure he would be prosecuted and found guilty, which he was.

  78. That’s me gone. A VERY successful day. The bonfire is now just a heap of smouldering ash – which will burn through the night. The heaps that were really bothering us have ALL GONE!!

    The only drawback is that my left elbow hurts like anything. And, towards the end of the afternoon, my right hip came out in sympathy..!

    I shall take a glass of healing medicine at 6 pm. The MR is not drinking alcohol as it is Lent – so I may have hers as well!!

    Have a pleasant evening mulling over the new N Ireland sell out.

    A demain.

        1. I saw them many times over the years when flying close to or inside the arctic circle but never as vivid and colourful as that.

    8. Is that your own photo or from the press. There is a DT article up now about how the Lights rarely as portrayed in photos. In all my years over the Atlantic, I never saw anything more than gently shimmering areas of green.

      1. I’ve never actually seen aurora, but I have worked stations using it. It gives the transmissions a whispering sound.

      2. It was my neighbour who took the photo.
        I went out with my camera tonight but there was very little activity

  80. Evening, all. Farmers could be freed of all the paperwork engendered by the EU, but as far as I’m aware, all the restrictions on what they can use, all the reporting and everything the statist EU put in place is still there.

    2. Evening Conners. It would have been a bit of a stretch for our political idiots to have made any constructive consideration for the people, our farmers who work their collective socks off, most of their entire lives, to try to feed us all.

  81. 371606+ up ticks,

    The meeting,

    The politico’s are so treacherously adept with the knife that we did not feel it go in,YET,

    The Meeting betwixt King, cobras, had to be held in Windsor for the simple reason that there ain’t no snakes in Ireland and Paddy wants to keep it that way.

    Trust NOTHING govmental currently with a political tag on it if it walks & talks it lies.

  84. Good evening
    Apologies if this has already been discussed; I’m only dropping in for a few minutes to greet you all and vent my fury at the radio news item that I heard earlier; a bunch of decadent entertainers has turned down the invitation to perform at the Coronation due to previous engagements.
    Poor Elizabeth; her life’s work negated within five minutes.
    Lefty luvvies have NOTHING to do with a Coronation. Or if they do, then we’ve got a Disney monarchy.

  86. No animal is half as vile as Crocky-Wock, the crocodile,
    On Saturdays he likes to crunch six juicy children for his lunch,
    And he especially enjoys just three of each, three girls, three boys.
    He smears the boys, to make them hot, with mustard from the mustard pot.
    But mustard doesn’t go with girls
    It tastes all wrong with plaits and curls.
    With them, what goes extremely well
    Is butterscotch and caramel……

    & etc Guess who?

        1. There was some point in babysitting brats and reading their favourite books to them after all! For my part, I preferred Tales of the Unexpected.

  87. Jacob Rees- Mogg’s first presentation on GB NEWS at 8pm was excellent. He had some well known people, David Davis, Mr Pound former Labour MP, David Starkey and Toby Young. He is taking over from Mark Steyn on Monday to Thursday at 8pm

    3. 371606+ up ticks,

      Evening CS,
      He escorted treacherous tresa to the wire too many times, playing defence / attack, regarding may the former always a tad stronger.

  88. A bit of trench digging up the garden for the footings for the next bit of the wall. I did about 5′ on top of the 2′ I’d already done, shifting over a dozen bucket loads and will put one of the shuttering boards in next then dig out a bit more and level off over the next few days.
    Will have to take pictures tomorrow, weather permitting.

    Off to bed now so goodnight all.

    1. When you dig the moat, please ensure it is suitable for swimming. A few laps would be good for escaping Nottlers.

      1. Yo, Big Sis. Have you seen BofB’s garden? A lap would involve swimming uphill, then down again. I’ve known architects who would find this uncontroversial (not you, Corim), but really… 😉

        1. I haven’t but it does sound at times as though he’s building a fortified building. I simply assumed the moat was inevitable.

          3. Actually, a few more floors would be nice…there might be a few of us- so he needs to build upwards and outwards;-)

    2. What is he’s talking about, why wasn’t he arrested ? What he’s saying it’s vile and absolutely disgusting.

      1. 371606+ up ticks,

        Evening RE,
        Most likely a valued lab/lib/con coalition voter as the ballot booth proves votes have more value than kids.

        1. But he was breaking the laws of this country.
          I remember a few years ago a chap reading the Churchill speech on islam alongside Westminster. He was arrested and what he read out was fact.

          1. 371606+ up ticks,

            RE,
            Proving my point that is the result of continuing to support /vote for the lab/lib/con coalition party.

  90. I’ve got Junior watching Rising Damp. He thinks it’s hilarious. He already thinks I’m Reggie Perrin.

    (after we finished The Fall and Rise of..)

  91. Don’t tell me this page has gone woke? No-one other than Sue liked Crocky-Wock?
    Well, sorry, I will not censor any literature or history.

        1. She’s right Sheila 🤠 I’m gettin’ into the dingo pit to keep warm in this bloody pommie eski.
          Copyalayder. 🤭😏

  92. We’ve been watching Better. It’s a police drama series. Quite intriguing.
    So it’s good night from me. 🤗🌜 no northern lights but a clear sky. Bins are out for emptying I expect the guys will be waking us up early as usual.

  93. Oh, just beam me up, Scottie. The third day of the boiler not working, no end in sight. Tired, cross and grumpy and irritable.

    1. How awful. Had 4 nights and 5 days without heat and water in CT after an ice storm. No water because we had a well and it only worked with an electric pump- no electricity.
      Almost froze- wore two pairs of PJs and my dressing gown in bed.
      Hot toddy and warm woolies!

      1. That reminds me of when we first moved in here years ago and the weather was invading via the window frames – I wore a striped, woolly pompom hat to bed as well as a shetland jumper and thick socks. No water is the killer, I hadn’t thought about that – we do have mains water but not mains gas, no gas in the village. In some ways I would love to be completely off grid but probably not such a good idea in one’s eighth decade.

    2. For what it is worth we have just had a new Heritage Stove installed and new water system to replace the Rayburn and replacement of the 30 year old vented system for heating and hot water replaced with an unvented system.

      The engineer has spent the day trying to find a fault whereby the various controls instruct the heating and hot water motor in the stove to fire up, but without success. The cooker and its motor works with no problems. As I remarked this could only happen when we have the coldest of days
      and the greatest desire for central heating.

      Given the costs I was surprised that our engineer, whom we have known for twenty years, was confounded by the problem which seems to be with the electrical wiring within the new stove.

      Meanwhile we rely on electric floor heaters and the trusty wood burning stove to stay reasonably warm.

      To add insult to injury our engineer tells me that our four year old wood burner is now about to become redundant and past its useful life when we sell the house. Apparently all new wood burning stoves have to comply with new particulate standards. Ours does not. Meanwhile China and India build massively polluting coal burning power plants yet I am to believe my own tiny contribution to particulates, from burning a few logs, is a potential danger to our atmosphere, climate and society.

      You really could not make this fucking farce up if you tried.

      1. I sympathise entirely. This morning my husband phoned Vaillant and arranged for an engineer to come out tomorrow! Then something that was said during the course of the conversation prompted him to check one of the cylinders (it gets complicated here) and joy of joys! – the system started working again. Husband cancelled tomorrow’s appt. All working well until three hours later it wasn’t. He has just spent an hour on the phone trying to get the care plan cancelled that he had just taken out and reinstate tomorrow’s appt. He was transferred all around the world….

        Regarding the climate scam, there seems to be no end in sight. It is difficult to believe that so many seem to have been taken in by it.

  95. By here has been no reporting of the widespread demonstrations in the U.K., France and Germany in particular, of those citizens opposed to the war in Ukraine and those opposed to NATO expansion.

    As Europe under the EU falls apart, our utterly useless government led by the diminutive WEF placement, Sunak, remains intent on binding us to the sinking ship of the EU. It is as though we are in the lifeboats as the Titanic sinks yet seek to re-board the ship in order to rescue a few baubles from the impending wreck.

    I read today a commentary that prescribed a solution to our present predicament.

    1.00 Provide exile for Zelensky to Costa Rica.

    2.00 Allow Parliament a free vote on whether we will accept WWIII.

    3.00 Remove NATO from countries threatening Russia.

    4.00 Arrange the dissolution of NATO.

    5.00 Reopen negotiations on the Nuclear Arms Treaties with a view to drastically limiting the quantity of nuclear weapons.

    6.00 Cut the US Defence budget by 50%.

    7.00 Pare back and reduce the annual US deficit to more manageable proportions.

  97. Time for bed. Gripping conclusion to the Test Match in Wellington. And I’m not going to tell you the result, so there!

    1. Well, for those who want to know the result, here it is: One side won, and one side lost, or it was a (goal-less) draw. Lol.

      1. Having seen this little gem twice now, I guess, Elsie,. you keep them up the leg of your drawers for handy reprints as required.

          1. I’m not looking, Elsie, merely guessing, as traditionally that’s where elderly ladies stored their treasured gems and lace handkerchiefs.

          5. Aunty Mary had a canary, up the leg of her drawers, When she farted, it departed, with a round of applause! up the leg of her drawers.

      2. Having seen this little gem twice now, I guess, Elsie,. you keep them up the leg of your drawers for handy reprints as required.

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