Monday 28 April: The whole nation suffers when young people abandon the jobs market

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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533 thoughts on “Monday 28 April: The whole nation suffers when young people abandon the jobs market”

  1. Good morning Geoff and all NoTTLers, am I first?
    It's Monday Giggle time again, about Doctors:

    A guy walked into the doctor's with a lettuce leaf sticking out of one ear.
    "That's unusual," said the doctor.
    The man said: "That's just the tip of the iceberg."

    An 86-year-old man was having his annual check-up. He boasted to the doctor:
    "I've got an 18-year-old bride who is pregnant with my child. How about that,
    eh. doc?"
    The doctor thought for a moment and said: "Let me tell you a story.
    I knew a guy who was a keen hunter, but one day he left home in a hurry aid accidentally picked up his umbrella instead of his gun. Later that day, he cane face to face with a huge grizzly bear. The hunter raised his umbrella, pointed it at the bear and squeezed the handle. And guess what, the bear dropped dead"
    "That's impossible," said the old man. "Someone else must have shot that bear."
    "That's kind of what I'm getting at," said the doctor.

  2. Good morning Geoff and all NoTTLers, am I first?
    It's Monday Giggle time again, about Doctors:

    A guy walked into the doctor's with a lettuce leaf sticking out of one ear.
    "That's unusual," said the doctor.
    The man said: "That's just the tip of the iceberg."

    An 86-year-old man was having his annual check-up. He boasted to the doctor:
    "I've got an 18-year-old bride who is pregnant with my child. How about that,
    eh. doc?"
    The doctor thought for a moment and said: "Let me tell you a story.
    I knew a guy who was a keen hunter, but one day he left home in a hurry and accidentally picked up his umbrella instead of his gun. Later that day, he came face to face with a huge grizzly bear. The hunter raised his umbrella, pointed it at the bear and squeezed the handle. And guess what, the bear dropped dead"
    "That's impossible," said the old man. "Someone else must have shot that bear."
    "That's kind of what I'm getting at," said the doctor.

  3. Good morning Geoff and all NoTTLers, am I first?
    It's Monday Giggle time again, about Doctors:

    A guy walked into the doctor's with a lettuce leaf sticking out of one ear.
    "That's unusual," said the doctor.
    The man said: "That's just the tip of the iceberg."

    An 86-year-old man was having his annual check-up. He boasted to the doctor:
    "I've got an 18-year-old bride who is pregnant with my child. How about that,
    eh. doc?"
    The doctor thought for a moment and said: "Let me tell you a story.
    I knew a guy who was a keen hunter, but one day he left home in a hurry aid accidentally picked up his umbrella instead of his gun. Later that day, he cane face to face with a huge grizzly bear. The hunter raised his umbrella, pointed it at the bear and squeezed the handle. And guess what, the bear dropped dead"
    "That's impossible," said the old man. "Someone else must have shot that bear."
    "That's kind of what I'm getting at," said the doctor.

  4. Good morning Geoff and all NoTTLers, am I first?
    It's Monday Giggle time again, about Doctors:

    A guy walked into the doctor's with a lettuce leaf sticking out of one ear.
    "That's unusual," said the doctor.
    The man said: "That's just the tip of the iceberg."

    An 86-year-old man was having his annual check-up. He boasted to the doctor:
    "I've got an 18-year-old bride who is pregnant with my child. How about that,
    eh. doc?"
    The doctor thought for a moment and said: "Let me tell you a story.
    I knew a guy who was a keen hunter, but one day he left home in a hurry aid accidentally picked up his umbrella instead of his gun. Later that day, he cane face to face with a huge grizzly bear. The hunter raised his umbrella, pointed it at the bear and squeezed the handle. And guess what, the bear dropped dead"
    "That's impossible," said the old man. "Someone else must have shot that bear."
    "That's kind of what I'm getting at," said the doctor.

  6. Starmer plans migrant cuts to fight Reform. 28 April 2025.

    Sir Keir Starmer will unveil a crackdown on immigration after this week’s local elections where Reform is expected to seize hundreds of seats.

    A white paper revealing the Government’s plans to bring down legal migration is due to be unveiled in the weeks following the voting on May 1.

    It is expected to make it harder for foreign students who come to the UK on graduate visas to stay in the country through taking low-paid jobs such as healthcare roles.

    There is of course not the remotest possibility of any of these things happening. The UK’s Political Elites are welded to the idea of Mass Immigration by bonds of steel. It is actually policy. Unspoken. Unwritten, but as real as if it were inscribed over the entrance to Westminster in words of fire. Abandon Hope all Ye Who Believe in England.

    The most interesting aspect of their adherence is how they justify it in the face of public anger. Mostly of course it is an absolute denial to discuss the matter, to admit it even. But what do they say in private? I don’t think that it takes great imagination to know this. They see themselves as engaged in a noble enterprise;, fending off the forces of nationalism and racism. That this requires deception and repression is just an unfortunate necessity.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/04/27/starmer-plans-migrant-cuts-to-fight-reform/#comment

    2. The spoiler for Starmer is that he's saying it to fight Reform and not because it's the correct thing to do. Cynical posturing from the basest political mindset.

      NB only for legal immigration and the invasion via Dover is to continue?

      Farage, despite his equivocation on immigration, should be able to make hay out of such a crass move from Starmer.

      1. I doubt he will. All too many muslim influences going into Reform these days. I imagine as soon as there's a sniff of office they'll be bought, and the muslim rape of our country will continue.

        1. ogga1 has put up a short video that I was going to post as a reply to you. A Scottish accent doesn't necessarily make someone a Scotsman. This is the road our political class seem happy to drive us along. Reform may be in the ascendance at the moment but if it entertains more muslim influences as opposed to supporting the British voter base it may well rue the day it took that direction. The settled British voter base remains the majority despite the muslim publicity programme playing up that particular minority.

    3. Note there's never any actual deadline. Never any real policy. It's just an announcement – a desperate grubbing for votes. The sad thing is, Labour voters will fall for it. They're ignorami. When they interview people on the street for a soundbite and someone says 'I've always voted Labour' you rather have to think 'Why?' What imp of the perverse possesses you to vote for such an appalling bunch of middle school political studies wasters, sharing the braincell?

      1. We will see.
        Shame that large swathes of this country cannot have their say.
        Gerry Mander is alive and well and adapting nicely to life in C21 Blighty.

    4. Nothing to do with keeping England – or even Britain – a happy, prosperous and homogenous society.
      All to do with sticking it to Reform.

    5. Perhaps we should just put the 2 of them in a boxing ring and let them slug it out with winner taking all.
      What a way to run (destroy) a country.

      1. He should be shot. And flogged, flayed, beaten. kicked, punched, pilloried, made to admit his deceitful vicious ideology, corruption and greed.

        Not necessarily in that order

    2. Miliband is lying, openly and no one is saying so. No one inn the media knows enough to actively challenge him and make it clear to the public that the reason – the only reason – energy bills are so high is because of tis demented psychotic's 'climate change act'. Nothing else, it's all down to his insane, bitter, vicious assault on the energy market to force socialism.

    3. It would be a compliment to just say he's fukking mad.
      Sadly, he is also evil.
      We should have left Daddy to the tender mercies of Herr Hitler.
      No good deed goes unpunished.

    4. I felt sorry for the interviewer, trying to get Millipede to admit what's completely obvious! He should have said "if the prices are set internationally, why is electricity in the UK so much more expensive than anywhere else?"

    5. He tried to bring the interview back to his own level. He's totally useless. He should be cleaning toilets. Oh perhaps not……

    6. Something like that should embarrass even the staunchest left wing climate zealot!

    1. 404784+up ticks,

      O2O,
      just think we could have boots on the ground in the Pakistani / Indian conflict,all helps,with daddy away allows the paedophile to play.

    3. They must be expelled. Every last one. Cut off welfare, then make them leave. They're a poison.

      1. Every where they are on this planet earth they are causing as much unpleasantness as they possibly can. They are absolute scum.

    4. Love it.
      For the hard of hearing.. not only do they put it in writing they are actively preaching it plain English. Even a James O'Brien sh1tLib would have trouble spinning this clip.

      Oh and btw.. "South Asian".. LOL Clever play on words for hardcore Pakistani Muslim.

      Gentle reminder: Encourage it. The sooner this civil war gets started the better. Why wait fifty years? By then it will be like Ireland.. outnumbered.

  13. Yo and Good Moaning to all you insomniacs, form a warm and sunny C d S. (and to the lie-in bu**ers when they show up)

    1. Would've liked a lie in today. Unfortunately at about half 6 Oscar decided he was going to push Lucy around, and Lucy nipped him back and they started a fight – only a playish fight but two Newfoundlands make a lot of noise and, despite the robustness of our furniture they still bash in to things.

  14. Breaking News,

    It is being reported that Diane Abbott supports the Dim Sun plans

    She just loves Chinese food

  15. Well only one more week of mainstream media good news for the government looking tough and nudging to the right wing
    Local elections on Thursday, at least where they haven't been cancelled.
    From then on,
    No more Mister Nice Guy.

    1. Starmer won't care. His sole focus is on his own agenda: managed, enforced decline, tax hikes, inflation – and hyper inflation, debt, waste and gimmigrants.

      I imagine the first thing he'll do is give all gimmigrants the right to vote, then lower the voting age. Anything to expand the number of thick, inexperienced grubbing state dependents he can.

      The Reform folk will be stymied, hindered and blocked at every turn by a lazy, incapable state that knows all the stalling tactics.

  18. Here's hoping…

    Labour Peer Predicts Party Will ‘Get its Head Kicked In’ by Farage over Failure to Address Working Class Concerns

    Kurt Zindulka
    27 Apr 2025

    A leading Labour Party peer has warned that his party will “get its head kicked in” by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the upcoming local elections in England as a result of its focus on woke issues rather than those facing its traditional working-class base.

    Maurice Glasman, a peer in the House of Lords and the only Labour Party figure to attend the inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington, has sounded the alarm on the state of his party as it heads towards the first significant electoral challenge since coming to power at the general election last July.

    Speaking to the left-wing Observer Sunday newspaper, Lord Glasman warned: “It’s game over if they don’t change. People are losing faith in government, in the most general way, and someone has to stop that. Labour must be a pro-worker, patriotic party, not talking gibberish about diversity.”

    Glasman predicted, therefore, that Labour will “get its head kicked in” by the Nigel Farage-led Reform UK party, which has soared to the top of the polls in recent months amid Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s failures to clamp down on illegal immigration and turn around the struggling British economy.

    The Labour peer said that even the far-left wing of the party, represented by Jeremy Corbyn acolytes such as MP Diane Abbott, is failing to put forward policies that would help the working class in the modern era.

    “They had the party and they fucked it up, and now they’re not only powerless, they’re useless. They’ve got nothing intellectual; no analysis of capitalism at all. They’re just reactive in their defence of free stuff.”

    Lord Glassman, the founder of the ‘Blue Labour’ faction, has been leading the charge for decades within the party to shift towards reindustrialising Britain, rejecting unfettered free trade, and a return to a sensible, pro-worker immigration system.

    “When globalisation came along, they said the future was everybody leaving where they grew up to go and live in cities. Social mobility was judged by the distance you’d moved away from your mum. But people don’t want to live 500 miles from their mum!” Glasman said, adding: “I get a lot of hate [from parts of the party] because the future didn’t turn out to be what they wanted it to be.”
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/04/27/labour-peer-predicts-party-will-get-its-head-kicked-in-by-farages-reform/

    1. Beautiful!
      “They had the party and they fucked it up, and now they’re not only powerless, they’re useless. They’ve got nothing intellectual; no analysis of capitalism at all. They’re just reactive in their defence of free stuff.”

      1. Morning Obs.
        But they'll be happy losing after all the damage they are committing to our nation. It's all they know.
        We need a ckear out and a general election before the end of May.

    2. People have lost faith in government. It's too late for politicians; they've lied so often even if they told the truth, no one would believe them now.

      1. 404784+ up ticks,

        Morning LIR,

        Like it, like it, keep piling on the rewarding awards.

  22. Morning, all Y'all.
    Light rain. Good, 'cos it knocks the pollen down and gently waters the garden. At work today, so don't care about the weather.

      1. When I retire, don’t know what I’ll do. Hobbies have all dried up, not good at driving after stroke and collapse episodes a couple of years ago so going anywhere means bus & train. Difficult one…

        1. Live with AI

          Though I do not know what your SWMBO will say, when you trade her in for a new Initialism,

      2. I'm so glad I no longer have to wake up and get up at 6am and get on the road to go to work.

  23. When I see this all I think is mortars, daisy cutters, miniguns.

    They're the enemy. Deal with them.

  24. 'Morning All
    Monday Medley
    https://x.com/BigBearF1/status/1916600245460337131
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67ed0d15ece5125e79b40d82041a08975de4c6a69856392b34faa0fa283315cf.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e33ebc8c2a5f169271d8d140edf920c35e14f38bd1c58a0a3a55f5b888c4d9d5.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1318353598317eb077ce28e5ddf188733b9af25c16b442401b3dd49b295637b.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f52c3763e6311c20a21e39d2e3367d58f0e077326fbe93756cf2fe1b7af7274.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/32226a122c1bb7f99d0b42470326a2759147f6cf265123525bb606cdf034ffad.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/acfdb7801143e7b66e927dd77bc949792bb0428f944ea3dcdd9652f49febaa63.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1e42f5a68ce7a6a1de88e2921c374919f8b84948eae704b7b3e5f0253c5badb4.jpg

    2. On the camel's back; why is 'corruption' not at the top of that pile of 'straws'?

      After all it is the prime driver in politics.

    3. I'm sick of it.
      And the camel's back is already broken.
      The rest of it is spot on.
      And apparently mentioned last week, the derelict Church in Wales was set alight by part of the invasion force.

    4. I wonder if she is aware that this is the perception many people have of her.

      If she did become aware there might be some crocodile tears but she doesn't give a toss.

    1. "Research" sounds like a fig leaf for something that's already been in full flood for years.

    2. The version I heard was
      She sat on the bridge at midnight squeezing blackheads on her crutch
      She said "!'ve never had it" I said "Not f**king much"

      1. The lyrics are both vulgar and poignant but the melody is sweet:

        See the little old world cottage
        Where her aged parents live
        Drinking the Champagne she sends them
        But they never can forgive.

    1. TBF. Both she and Priti Patel had absolutely no support from their 'Conservative' Cabinet members.
      By comparison, Sisyphus had it easy.

      1. I have utmost respect for Suella Braverman, who waged a long and intelligently fought struggle against the Blob. She clearly said that Sunak had overruled her at the Home office. Patel's heart is in the right place, but she was over-confident and easily set up for a fall.

        1. Yes. PP made the mistake of expecting a top civil servant to actually earn his keep.

    1. Here to serve ?
      They only serve themselves by trying continually to cover up all the dreadful effing mess they make.

  32. 1,641 council seats up for grabs on May 1st.. It'll be toast for the dud, Kemi Badenoch.
    Starmer will hold on unless there's a landslide Reform win. In which case it'll be Wes Streeting in No 10. LOL.
    "Trump is such an odious, sad, little man. Imagine being proud to have that as your President."

    1. The canvasser that came to see us yesterday did not mention Badenoch which I thought was interesting. I wonder whether that was because she is genuinely no good or whether he thought that a black woman would not be a good sell.

      1. I've nothing against black women, but when I see them in adverts and I'm expected to buy the products (whatever they may be), I can't help thinking, "they don't want MY custom".

    2. Unbidden, as I was hobbling along with the dogs this morning, this little ditty from WW2, suitably brought up to date, came into mind, "whistle while you work, Starmer is a twerp …"

  33. Kitchen Drama

    SIR – It isn’t only fruit, bread and frozen beefburgers [sic] that send patients to A&E (Letters, April 25).

    I sliced a piece of my finger off when cutting a potato with my new mandolin [sic]. The nurse who stopped the bleeding said that this was the new fashionable injury.

    Jane Davage
    Sutton Coldfield

    What the nurse omitted to say was, "This is the new fashionable injury for the irredeemably stupid!"

    I have a kitchen full of sharp knives (including mandolines) and a fully-equipped workshop with hundreds of sharp hand- and machine-tools that need care in their use.

    I also have two hands that have eight fully functioning and intact fingers and two thumbs of the same persuasion. If you are flippant (or airheaded) about your personal safety then you deserve to lose a digit!

    Also, if you cut your fingers on your mandolin, think about swapping it for a lute.

  34. The really dangerous stuff are the cutting implements that are not properly sharp.
    Firstborn is a whizz with a whetstone, so our kitchen knives could slice gold leaf in the plane of the leaf…

    1. That is true; I have sustained more injuries from dodgy vegetable knives quickly taken from a drawer than from carefully honed and properly stored serious kitchen knives.
      And blunt cuts take longer to heal.

    2. Indeed. I have a Tormek T4 grinding and honing machine; a Robert Sorby belt sander; and a block of four double-sided whetstones and two honing pads.

      Oh, and an ancient, German-made, double grinding wheel. All mounted on a specially-designed sharpening station.

      1. Nice!
        I have a 34-year-old son who inherited a lot of skill from his grandfather.

  36. Morning All 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny day already double figures.
    I'm not quite sure what the headline means today.
    But it's not something that has ever effected my own family. All three are solid hard working responsible people.
    Eldest on his way to Warsaw right now. Work wise.

    1. Huge respect to Hitchens. He wiped the floor with that bunch of brain-dead Pinko detritus.

      Poetry by rote? I know a few. Here is a favourite (best spoken in a quiet Irish lilt):

      He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

      Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
      Enwrough with golden and silver light.
      The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
      Of night and light and the half-light.
      I would spread those cloths under your feet,
      But I, being poor, have only my dreams.
      I have spread my dreams under your feet;
      Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

      I have always loved that wonderful evocative piece by William Butler Yeats. Despite being non-religious, I retain my lifelong love of excellent poetry; especially that from a formidable wordsmith like Yeats.

      1. I'm more of a Dylan Thomas man myself – this is, I think, his best (best spoken in a Welsh lilt although he didnt really have a Welsh accent!) – I only know/can recite the first verse

        Fern Hill

        Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
        About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
        The night above the dingle starry,
        Time let me hail and climb
        Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
        And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
        And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
        Trail with daisies and barley
        Down the rivers of the windfall light.

        1. And one in praise of keeping the wild places, and not covering them in pylons, windmills and solar farms!

          What would the world be, once bereft
          Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
          O let them be left, wildness and wet;
          Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

          1. ’tis an unweeded garden,
            That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
            Possess it merely.

            These words from one of Hamlet's soliloquys remind me that I have rather a lot of weeding to do at Le Grand Osier.

            I cannot remember a year when weeds grew as quickly as they are growing now.

      2. We are all becoming old and grey and full of sleep!

        When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
        And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
        And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
        Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

        How many loved your moments of glad grace,
        And loved your beauty with love false or true,
        But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
        And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

        And bending down beside the glowing bars,
        Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
        And paced upon the mountains overhead
        And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

      3. When my Dad died I read out 'Digging' by Heaney. It was a representation of how lives change and the respect hard work brings.

        I'm sure there's a parallel in 'pop culture' with 'My Father's Office' from The Wonder Years but poetry can move us like nothing else – but I can't say I've ever been moved by Benjamin Zephania, or Maya Angelou.

      4. I had to learn "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" to recite at school and I still remember it (along with lots of other poetry, English and French, I had to stand up and recite).

    2. I have a copy of Housman's poems – A Shropshire Lad – and the Blue Remembered Hills features in this.

      Like many of us here my head is full of poetry that I learnt by heart as a child.

      I still frequently dip into my collections of poems and anthologies – many of which were passed on to me by my father.

      Here is one from Housman that has wry wisdom to it:

      When I was one-and-twenty
      I heard a wise man say,
      “Give crowns and pounds and guineas
      But not your heart away;
      Give pearls away and rubies
      But keep your fancy free.”
      But I was one-and-twenty,
      No use to talk to me.

      When I was one-and-twenty
      I heard him say again,
      “The heart out of the bosom
      Was never given in vain;
      ’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
      And sold for endless rue.”
      And I am two-and-twenty,
      And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

      How lucky I was finally to meet the greatest love of my life at the age of 40!

      1. Not for politicians to meddle… yet, they do. All the time. And they keep trying to push appalling law on education and children.

        As for failing to learn from history, isn't that the exact reason Labour still exist?

  38. Why isn’t it racist to ban white men?

    A female theatre director has proposed a year-long ban on plays by writers who are white and male. So long, Shakespeare…

    26 April 2025 6:00am BST
    Michael Deacon
    By now, I’m sure that we white men all humbly accept that the blame for every single one of the world’s ills lies exclusively with us. Even so, I was somewhat taken aback to learn of the latest addition to our ever-lengthening catalogue of shame.

    Apparently, white men are ruining theatre – because their plays are too successful.

    Or so I gather from a story in the weekly arts newspaper The Stage. At a conference next week, leading figures in the world of theatre are to discuss a shortlist of six radical ideas to transform the industry. And one of these ideas, proposed by a female director, is a year-long ban on plays written by white men. I believe the aim is to ensure more opportunities for writers who are not white men.

    Some people, I suppose, might venture to suggest that banning writers on the basis of their race and sex is racist and sexist. But if that point falls on deaf ears, they could always raise the question of money. Quite a few theatres might struggle to stay afloat if they were barred from putting on plays by writers as enduringly popular as Ibsen, Pinter, Beckett, Chekhov, Wilde, Shaw, Stoppard, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, JB Priestley and Alan Bennett.

    Oh, and one other hateful oppressor: William Shakespeare. Imagine what the rest of the world would think of Britain, if we announced that we were banning the greatest cultural figure in our history. It would be like the Italians demolishing the Sistine Chapel.

    “Unfortunately we’ve just discovered that Michelangelo was white and male. So in place of his irrelevant patriarchal daubings we’re commissioning some graffiti by a genderqueer Eritrean asylum seeker. We’re sure this vital new work will attract just as many tourists. And if it doesn’t, it’s only because they’re racist.”

    Some helpful tips for the trans mob
    Last weekend’s protests by trans activists were ugly enough. Their next move, though, sounds even more troubling. Next month, on Oxford Street in London, they’re planning to stage a protest featuring 1,000 trans women – and all of them, for reasons that remain unclear to me, are going to be topless.

    Quite apart from anything else, I can’t help feeling that the trans activist movement is in urgent need of a decent PR adviser. Someone who can sit them all down, and explain the following.

    “Ladies, I appreciate how angry you are about the Supreme Court’s extremely controversial ruling that women are female. But, from a PR perspective, you need to take a step back, and remember the fundamental goal of your movement. Ultimately, what you want is to persuade the public that you are real, genuine, authentic women.

    “In which case, don’t you think you should probably stop holding protests that are liable to make the public think the opposite?

    “For example: the protests where you wave placards suggesting that women who disagree with you deserve to be killed. As a rule, the public tends to see the issuing of violent threats – and, in particular, the issuing of violent threats against women – as something that men do, rather than women.

    “The same goes for the placards telling women to suck a particular part of your anatomy. Believe it or not, such a demand is seen by most people as being unmistakably male. As indeed is the item of anatomy.

    “For similar reasons, I would advise against holding a protest at which you all strut around topless. I’ve no doubt that you’re all justly proud of the work that your plastic surgeons have carried out. Even so, I wouldn’t recommend showing off the results in the street. Because the public tends to think that an obsession with big naked breasts is more of a male characteristic, too.

    “If you keep holding protests of an intimidating and aggressively sexual nature, therefore, there’s a very slight risk that some people will think: ‘How odd. These trans women don’t seem to be behaving much like other women. In fact, they seem to be behaving quite a lot like men.’”

    Rat out of hell
    Ever since the bin strike began, we’ve been constantly told that Birmingham’s rats are “the size of cats”. This week, however, we received some alarming news. It seems the rats have now grown even bigger. Because on Thursday, Alex Burghart, a Tory frontbencher, told the Commons that the rats are “the size of dachshunds”.

    This is extremely concerning. The average dachshund, after all, is more than twice as heavy as the average cat. Perhaps this is the real reason why scientists are suddenly so eager to reintroduce wolves to Britain. Soon they’ll be the only creatures big enough to hunt down the rats.

    At any rate, we should applaud Mr Burghart for his admirable attention to detail. I’d be fascinated to know how he arrived at such a remarkably precise comparison. Why dachshunds, rather than, say, beagles, or miniature pinschers? I like to picture him heaving a rat down from a mountain of Birmingham bin bags, and, with the aid of a tape measure and a set of electronic scales, diligently assessing which breed of dog it most closely resembles in size. “Hmm. No, too big for a shih tzu…”

    I just hope the bin strike ends soon, otherwise Birmingham’s vermin will presumably keep growing and growing. By autumn, the Bullring will be overrun by rats the size of gorillas, while, at Aston Villa, fans watch rats the size of wildebeest sweep majestically across the pitch.

    1. White man has been writing plays since at least the fifth century BC. Black man only recently learnt to write. Tough titty.

    2. Funnily enough I was talking to someone in Birmingham the other day. Aston is apparently still relatively normal, but the centre of Birmingham sounded like a war zone from his description. Faeces, dead animals, drug addicts, piles of rubbish were included in his description of the jewelry quarter. Also, he was about to take a short cut down an alley when he looked down the alley and saw someone being robbed. Apparently there are hardly any white people in the centre of Birmingham at the moment.

    3. PS the lastest Delingpod with Robert Frederick on the subject of Shakespeare is a cracker. V disturbing though.

    4. Thing is, as much as there are some brilliant black poets the simple reality is Britain's output is prolific because of our history. It's better because it is a representation of our culture, heritage and society.

      1. Might just possibly have something to do with our geographical location off the continent of Europe. Europeans are white (because of the lack of sun, not because the continent is racist).

        1. A pale skin means you can utilise the more limited sunshine available in temperate and northern climates.
          Until recently when vitamins became available in pill or liquid form, those with darker skins living at these latitudes would have been crippled by lack of Vit D absorption.
          The women's pelvises would have been so distorted they would have died during childbirth.

  39. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3cc85b8cb5b4f2f6faac4710e6ffb8763be770cde56e0b0abafc51d8b9ccd125.png Every picture tells a story, or so they say.

    I'm wondering what the 5'–6" Dustin Hoffman is standing on to be able to look down on the 6'–1" Harrison Ford.

    This reminds me of Shane, where that film's star, the diminutive Alan Ladd, insisted that his fellow actors be made to stand in a trench to avoid making him look like the short-arsed chap with small-man-syndrome that he really was.

    2. Who is the tallest Nottler?

      I believe there is someone who 6'6" but I cannot immediately remember who it is.

        1. Me too, I got stuck in a door this morning – not my tummy this time, my shoulders. Why are houses built for skinny midgets? Even Junior's finding them too small.

          1. I was 5 feet 7 and a half inches when I joined the Army, 5 foot 7 when I left 22 years later. I underwent chiropract treatment for sciatica and have regained the lost half inch.

        2. I was once 6'2" – I am now just 6'0" and getting shorter.

          One of my sisters produced three sons three of whom are 6'5" – the fourth is a meagre 6'0".

          I remember the bawdy exchange between Cleopatra's handmaids, Charmian and Iras.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/476acf53608dbf3252530224834f89affc64ebd546e3dd9ed30f278cd4a58882.jpg
          (In a previous exchange between Antony and Cleopatra Cleopatra has wiped out Antony by not letting him get a word in edgeways – when poor Antony tries to say something Cleopatra says:

          "I wish I had thy inches")

      2. Not me! I was nothing more than 5'–10½" [1·79m] in my prime but I fear I have shaved off at least that extraneous half an inch by now, through the shrinking of age.

  40. Good morning all. My brother has had his cancer surgery and the prognosis is good. But his wife passed away last night. She had Alzheimer’s and it was a peaceful end. Just bad timing.

    4. Oh Sue. What a sad time for your dear brother. I hope all goes well with him.

    8. Our thoughts are very much with you.

      My very dear sister, Belinda, very recently died aged 89. It was a shock as we all expected her to live until she was 100 as our mother made 97.

      We are going to England on Wednesday as the funeral is on Thursday.

    9. Good news about your brother. My condolences on the death of his wife, but with Alzheimer's it was, no doubt, a relief.

    10. Your poor brother. It must be awful to wake from surgery, disoriented and nauseous, to such news. My sympathies.

    11. Good grief.
      "When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions."
      I am so sorry, Sue. What a horrible sequence of events.

    2. Everybody sees through the Conform Party's clever wordplay.
      "Those that enter.."

      Yes, dear.. and what about "Those that entered.."
      that's about two million and counting.

    1. We are putting off 'doing our guttering' until the birds nest has been abandoned. Thing is, I don't know when that'll be.

  43. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/27/reform-is-on-the-cusp-of-glory-or-humiliation/

    It's going to be humiliation. The Reform folk have nothing to campaign on. There is no consideration of what really needs to be done. No vision of a great repeal bill so urgently needed to unravel the state machine. No discussion of how hard that will be, with so many vested interests fighting change because they're invested in the law as is. No ref to the overlapping and interlocking barriers to necessary changes.

    On deportations – why? Just say 'gimmigrants can't claim any benefits'. If you're a legal migrant you'll have a job to go to. If you're a criminal you won't, and you won't get anything and will be deported.

    They don't seem to understand how to restore the energy market and bring costs down, nor the mess desnez has made of it deliberately to stop it's undoing.

    Where, for example is the awareness of law that would undo the Brum bin strikes, or condemnation of the equalities act that created the mess in the first place, of the residents for just piling their crap up with abandon?

    How will he stop the tide of invasion? It's all talk, no substance. Oh, Farage can argue that it's difficult and legalese and voters don't want to hear that but, well, actually, yes, they do. Why, also is it Farage? where are the other cabinet members promoting the non-existent policies?

    After fighting Rupert Lowe for asking for that very thing I really want someone else to get noticed carrying a Reform banner and making speeches – quiet, calm, reflective ones, not the tedious, repetitive overly bombastic and inauthentic 'British people!' you get from Tice. What will they do day 1? Week 1? What are their success criteria? By the end of three months what do they want to have achieved?

    I understand politics is just a nasty bear pit filled with rabid dogs, all squabbling over votes but it simply can't go on like this, with ego and mania from the politicos and resistance and arrogance from the state.

    1. Farage has successfully killed Reform, just as Cameron, May, Johnson and Sunak killed the Cons.
      A Conservative canvasser came round yesterday. I let the poor man have both barrels.
      The stupid thing is, when we got talking we had a lot in common – he was a right wing Conservative – he just hadn't given up on the party and was still at the "got to vote for them or Labour will get in" stage.

    2. I have to remind people that politics is a process, and not everyone is up to speed.
      There's a YT clip of interviews with the good people people of Runcorn. "I've always voted Labour" should be tattooed onto their forehead.

      Hello? The Labour party are revolutionary, and want you, Britain & western culture destroyed.
      Hello? The Labour party absolutely loathe you.
      Hello? The Labour party absolutely loathe the white working class.
      Hello? The Labour party absolutely loathe the chemical industry you once had.

    3. Farage's treatment of Lowe should herald the end of his vacuous time as a party political leader.

      Lowe only entered politics in his late 60s having had an eventful and successful career outside politics; he was the sort of man to find practical solutions.

      It is as clear as crystal that such a man is feared by the insecure, narcissist Farage.

      1. My only rebuttal would be that narcissism is a specific illness, whereas Farage is more an egotist but you're spot on, Rastus.

  45. This policy will exacerbate the housing crisis
    SIR – Sir Keir Starmer’s latest plan for the housing of illegal migrants simply creates a new problem (“Starmer to rent homes for Channel migrants”, report, April 26).

    I am well aware through my voluntary work how difficult the housing situation is in my town. There are thousands of people on the council waiting list. Many of them have little or no hope of ever receiving a tenancy. The only option for those people is the private rented sector where there is intense pressure and rents are already increasing.

    For landlords, the Government’s scheme is very appealing. Guaranteed rent and property repairs carried out for free obviously represent a great offer. But what happens to the many people already desperately searching for a home in the sector? For those who are unsuccessful, their only choice is to register as homeless, whereupon the council will house them in a hotel.

    It appears that the Government is prepared to put the wellbeing of migrants above the housing needs of British citizens. Is this a fair solution?

    Carol A Forshaw
    Bolton, Lancashire

    The Grenfell Tower, a 24-story residential tower block in North Kensington, West London, experienced a devastating fire on June 14, 2017. The fire, started by an electrical fault in a refrigerator on the fourth floor, quickly spread due to the building's exterior cladding, resulting in 72 deaths. The fire also led to extensive damage to the tower, making it derelict and requiring its demolition.

    Strange really that rumour had it that many of those flats were sublet ..

    Can you imagine how many mud hut dwellers there are and will be housed in tower blocks/terraced blocks .

    How many fires are accidentally started by ignorant occupants , and by the way , how many fridge fires are there , dare I ask , are fridge fires a common occurrence?

          1. Yes…including the numbers of people living there, and so numbers of actual deaths. What makes me think nothing much has changed in that regard.

          2. The sort of incident would prompt a column in Private Eye, years gone by. Not subscribed for long time, sounds to be not worth the sub.

    2. Carol Forshaw is completely correct – homelessness is a crisis and there isn't adequate support – people who are desperate and sleeping rough are being turned away for help because they don't meet the criteria – eg you have to sleep rough for fifty days before qualifying for help, so I'm told. These aren't addicts either. So they become dependent upon station security guards to turn a blind eye while they spend the night in the waiting room for example, or hop from friends sofas to air bnbs or travelodges if they can afford it, while trying to keep their job.
      But the wicked government is taking away rented accommodation to give it to the young men they are bringing over the channel.

      1. 299 breakfasts and 685 cups of tea and coffee served at the Whitechapel Mission this morning and they're seeing requests for advice and support up by 30%.

    3. The current and previous few governments must know that we know they are actively undermining the country. What is the goal they are pursuing? What makes them believe they can get away with such a huge mind controlling scam?

    1. Morning Richard,

      Strange things Wind turbines ..

      No breeze , warm sunny day yesterday , yet all four wind turbines here in the Purbecks were turning .. how and why?

      I can see them from my bedroom window .

      1. They use energy from the grid to maintain systems. If they stop for any length of time they are liable to seize up.

      4. It was quite windy here yesterday – our stall at the event was in the shade and it was chilly there. I had to move out into the sunshine several times just to get warm. There was a cold wind blowing – but not today.

      5. Bearings need to be supplied with oil to prevent seizure and if static for any length of time will get flat spots

      6. Trickle of electricity being run through them to stop the bearings gettinging squished.

    2. There's No sign of a ban on aircraft flights where we live recently seems to be an important part of commercial air space. Saturday all day we had aircraft from Heathrow Gatwick Stansted possibly London City, Luton flying above our mid Hertfordshire countryside homes.
      There must have been 50 plus aircraft flying across during the main part of the day.
      I'm thinking of contacting our local St Albans (no airport) based council for a well deserved refund in our ever rising council taxes.
      Meanwhile despite the 'efforts' to ban oil products the middle east seems to be thriving.
      Let's face the facts it's all about profits and nothing else matters.

      1. Can’t be all about profits – not in the U.K. anyway. HMG is doing its very best to do the opposite and snuff out all entrepreneurial efforts or employment.

        1. The flight patterns have changed a massively in recent months.
          Probably because wealthy areas have been complaining.

    3. Calls to mind a verse from the Auden poem – the lament for his dead lover:

      The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
      Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
      Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
      For nothing now can ever come to any good.

    4. Talk about a good deed never goes unpunished.
      1930's Blighty should have left Daddy Milipede to the tender mercies of Aydolph and his chums.

  48. Good to see that The Sponge is still in the land of the living but this Youtube released by Herr Starmer is utterly pukeworthy. He was on official duty as a representative (with Wet Wills) of the UK at the Vatican but he seized the opportunity to produce a soft-focus video with soppy music and no dialogue in an attempt to portray himself as a player on the world stage as he fondled Zelenskyy. My word, m'lord Alli is going to be as jealous as hell. Disgusting.
    https://youtu.be/VavcPneObEM

    1. He hasn't yet realised how he is being manipulated – I'm surprised Zelensky bothers as TTK has no real standing in the real world, maybe it's just that he's a soft touch for yet more cash?

    3. They don't want peace. I'm not even sure they want victory. Never ending war suits their purposes better.

      3. There will be little sympathy or assistance when the killing stops and the war disappears from the news.

    4. Starmer needs to keep the war in Ukraine going and realises that to do so he has to help persuade President Trump that Zelensky is the statesman and a good man and Putin the villain. Without American aid in weapons and dollars Ukraine is bankrupt.

      Much the same intent motivates the EU and its western members. Without the willingness to demonise President Putin there is no modus operandi left for the EU to justify its continuance.

      Starmer has deliberately sought to cancel Brexit entirely and return the UK to the clutches of a desperate and totally irrelevant EU.

      Starmer is electorally toxic hence the cancellation of key local elections under the pretext that the government is planning more unitary authorities for those districts. Starmer needs the EU for his next WEF posting.

      1. Elections cancelled in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, East and West Sussex and Surrey.
        Apart from being all in the most populated parts of England, I'm trying to figure out what else they have in common. Anyone have any ideas? Surely it couldn't be that they are not Labour supporting areas. After all, this is England – home to the Mother of Parliaments. Epitome of modern democracy etc …. etc…..

  49. Processed foods?

    Surely , every time you put a recipe together , isn't that processed ?

    So , a simple Spag Bol .. minced beef , tomato puree, onion garlic , oil , chopped celery etc seasoning , stock cube, changing the structure of raw vegetables and meat .. and of course , pasta?

    I HATE BBQ's, and and the smell of singed meat ..

    We have not frequented burger/ pizza / chicken takeaways , even when the boys were small.

    Moh likes hot dogs , no no no not for me ..

    Preparing any food is different now, even cooking a ham or bacon.. what on earth is that white gunk that seeps out of a slice of grilled bacon.. Years ago it used to be bacon fat , but nothing like that now, so a bacon and egg breakfast is a rarity .

    Why don't newspaper articles say , wash all fruit properly , goodness knows what it is sprayed with .

    Here am I with a delicate gut , now waiting for an endoscopic examination , what has happened to me ?

    Is it tea, coffee, hot chocolate , I don't drink alcohol anymore, and If I play the game , I will have a sip and grimace /smile and put my glass down ..

    My stomach is now dictating my day/ life style choices .. and I feel fearful .

    1. Hello Belle…moh eventually diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes around thirty years ago, similar symptoms to yours. No way am I trying to diagnose you remotely, but have you been tested for Type 2? He was on various drugs for many years, without much improvement. Dr told him to stop one med due to swollen ankles – I was horrified to see the number of different (all prescribed) meds he was taking. Now, he's been following carnivore diet for around a year or so…no meds, no diabetes, feels better than for many years.

      1. Moh has type 2 diabetes , he is slender and fit !

        I have had pain in my upper right hand side under my ribs , possibly for longer than 10 years , now quite acute .

        Doctor told me years ago , possibly adhesions due to gall bladder being removed the old fashioned way when I was in my twenties .

        Your suggestions were kind , but maybe need investigating .

        1. Morning, Maggie. It is very true what Kate is telling you. Eating fatty meat has now been proven to cure a lot of illnesses and conditions, including Type-2 diabetes. I would urge you to give it a try and to cut down on carbohydrates (which are turned into sugar by the liver). Starchy foods are probably even more responsible for ill-health than pure sugar is, and that is bad enough.

          Since I took up a carnivore diet my health has improved exponentially and I am now off pills.

          When they speak of 'ultra-processed foods', they mean items that have lots of unnecessary ingredients and chemicals added. Any foodstuff that has a list of ingredients on a label is best avoided.

          I know it is difficult to stop eating the foods that you have enjoyed for so very long but, please believe me, they are the very items that cause ill-health. The maxim "We are what we eat" is demonstrably provable.

        2. It seems to affect different people in different ways. I have diverticulitis (gall bladder), I use diet to control it. Good luck.

    2. If I process the food, I know what's gone into it though. If I buy good quality organic or get the veg from my own garden, I know what's gone into the ingredients too.

    3. Processed foods are where they deconstruct food. Put in additives like emulsifiers, colourings and other muck. Normally to increase bulk and lengthen shelf life.

      Then put it back together.

      Buy your bacon from a decent butcher not the supermarket rubbish.

      1. I particularly dislike the fad of trying to present engineered muck as a "healthy alternative" – anything that needs chemicals to remain solid for example [margarine etc] is best left to rot [assuming it can indeed rot?]!

        1. When I discovered what E320 and E321 were (antioxidants for oils and fats), I was alarmed.
          E320 is butylated hydroxy toluene, and 321 is butylated hydroxy anisole. Both used as additives to plastic to stop it being degraded when being injection molded.
          Why would you want to eat that?

      2. I particularly dislike the fad of trying to present engineered muck as a "healthy alternative" – anything that needs chemicals to remain solid for example [margarine etc] is best left to rot [assuming it can indeed rot?]!

      3. Easier said than done. There are no butchers around here (except possibly in a difference sense). I know a proper butcher at church. He recently closed his shop and retired.

      4. The 'Naked' range of bacon and sausages by Sainsburys are without nitrates, I read. Hopefully free from other gunk too.

    5. You also need to be wary of bagged grated cheese. They use silicone powder to stop it clumping.

      1. I never buy that – it goes mouldy after you open it and use a bit. Obviously I tried it that time but never again. I just buy a slab of supermarket cheddar and grate it myself. Not that we use much cheese as neither of us likes the stuff – but it's ok grilled on top of pasta or potatoes.

      1. Exactly the same if you fry it. Since it is dry-cured there is no gunk to emit from it.

        That gunk, by the way, is water and other assorted crap that has been injected into inferior bacon to increase its weight.

    7. There weren't so many takeaway places when the boys were small and we never used them. The first time I went in a MacNasty or Burger King was when the boys had become men.

      1. After we came back from our first US stint in the mid '70's, we took the kids to the Wimpy Bar in Chelmsford. They did the all-American thing and picked up the Wimpy burger and bit into it. People at tables around us were daintily cutting theirs up with their knives and forks and looking askance at our two.

        Then it was grocery shopping at Caters. All a very long time ago. Oldest is now a grandmother.

      2. My mother took us to a burger place in Hull when one opened up, after a lot of (ah, how little we knew!) nagging.

        We were so mortified by her asking for knives and forks that we never demanded that the experience be repeated… 🤣🤣

      1. Hence my cholesterol is permanently "on the high side of normal" but despite the leaky valve, my arteries are in good condition.

        1. This is known as the "LDL Paradox". Since higher LDL (despite what the 'controllers' tell you) is associated with greater longevity.

          1. Since the brain needs animal fat to function, surely reducing intake, let alone deliberately reducing it with statins, would impair its efficiency.
            It's no coincidence that intelligent animals and the top apes are carnivores, or at least include meat in their diet.
            How many patients with dementia are either on a fat free diet or downing the statins?
            Moderation in all things; enjoy butter etc…. but don't pig out.

          2. The spurious concept of "moderation in all things" has now been discredited. All diseases and deleterious conditions are triggered by one thing: inflammation. The biggest enemy to human health is sugar, particularly fructose. ALL carbohydrates are converted to sugar by the liver and the excess is stored as fat (nothing to do with the animal fat you eat).

            Antigenicity is the ability of a substance to cause inflammation in the body; in particular heat, pain, redness, swelling, dysfunction of the cell, damage or death to the cell, damage or death to the organ system. An antigen is any substance that stimulates the production of an antibody. The biggesst and most powerful antigen is sugar.

            The blatant lie, often repeated, that we need to eat a “balanced diet” is pure hogwash with no historical provenance. Humans developed a powerful physique, a massive and sharp brain, by hunting and eating fatty meat. Despite another oft repeated lie — that we are “omnivorous” — that not a single item of fruit or vegetable that we buy from our fruiterers, greengrocers or supermarkets actually existed prior to 12,000 years ago. They were all small, bitter and inedible. Only cross-pollination and artificial development have increased their size and sweetness over the last several millennia.

            W e have been lied to for an extended period of time by those with controlling interests. The billions-upon-billions of tons of ultra-processed products sold as ‘food’, manufactured per annum by the massive global corporations, are not for your health or nutrition, they are only for corporate profit. Similarly the billion-upon-billions of pills, potions, remedies and medicines manufactured by the “Big Pharma” drugs companies and prescribed by their willing (and well-remunerated) flunkies — the doctors — are not designed or manufactured to cure your acute and chronic illnesses, maladies, pains and deleterious complaints. They are made to mask the symptoms only. These unfeasibly gigantic behemoths are working together, hand-in-hand, to first make you ill … and then keep you ill. It is in both their pecuniary interests to do so. The outright lies, untruths and misinformation that have been promulgated, propagated and proclaimed by these corporate colossi — using well-remunerated health authorities and universities to help spread this vile encylopædia of calumny, fraud and deceit — are the biggest crime against humanity since we evolved as a species.

            There is also clear evidence that the now routine buying and consuming of ultra-processed items sold as ‘food’ is a factor in the exponential rise in human stupidity. The manufacturers of these ersatz foodstuffs know this only too well and are rubbing their hands in glee at how progressively feeble-minded the obsessive buyers of their detritus are becoming. Ker-ching, ker-ching!

  51. If I lived close by (and not 1,000 miles away!) I would bring you some of my own bacon and sausages (not to mention Yorkshire pork pies) for you to sample.😉

    1. Firstborn is working up a pork pie recipe just now, meat from his own pigs. Breakfast bacon – from own pigs. Cheese – homemade from next-door farmers unpasteuised milk. The weight is slowly leaking away from his frame, and that's even with him working out massively at a local gym.
      No sugary drinks, just water (from his own well, it's wonderful!) and a cider or two (from his own apples) at the weekend. Honey from own bees.
      As little pollution in the food as possible.

        1. Oooh I love Piglet! I couldn't help an oh! escaping when I saw that – nuts aren't I?

          1. I like the joke but if we were being realistic, brown bears don't eat pigs any more than they befriend them. Pooh would prefer blueberries and salmon to a bacon sarnie.

      2. You mentioned you weren't sure what you would do when you retire.

        Sounds to me like you have the makings of a cottage industry with the cider, honey and cheese. Even the Well water.

        You could be the next Meghan Markle Martha Stewart !

  52. I see that Cur Ikea is dragging Lady Victoria Sponge all over the place. A cynic might think he is trying to make a point….!!

    3. He has always maintained that some womwn – but very few – have penises.

      He will probably insist that Vitoria wears camel toe tight clothing to show she is not one of the very few!

  53. “A GREEN-LED council has been accused of letting a dead tree destroy a family’s garden.
    James Williams, a father of four, took Bristol city council to court after his repeated calls to fell a dead 30ft ash tree were dismissed. The tree, on council allotments, came crashing down on the family’s newly completed swimming pool, trampoline and summer house on Oct 3 2020 – 18 months after Mr Williams first called the council.
    He claims his family could have been killed if they had been using the pool at the time and he lodged a civil claim against the council, which went to trial in February this year.
    But the court found the council “not liable” for the damage caused by the tree because decisions made by workers had been “competent” and “appropriate”. Mr Williams, a school caretaker, has been left more than £85,000 in debt – £77,000 of which is owed to the council for court costs.
    “We were literally going to fill the pool that morning to use with our children,” Mr Williams said. “I still have nightmares about the fact that if it had held on for another 12 hours, it may have killed us all as we would have been in the swimming pool. The tree had hit the wall of our daughters’ bedrooms. It has all been a nightmare.”
    His wife, Leanne, 43, had initially lodged a complaint in May 2019 after reporting that large branches from the tree were falling into the garden.
    “They came out, looked at it, and promised to cut the tree down,” Mr Williams claimed.
    A month later, Mrs Williams made another complaint after hearing the tree might have had ash dieback disease. A council tree officer assessed that although there were signs present in the upper and middle canopy, there was “no imminent risk of failure to the stem of the tree”. The officer suggested the branches should be removed allowing a reduce stem to remain but this was never carried out. The city council initially admitted liability for the incident, Mr Williams claims, when it sent someone to the house to remove the tree.
    But a few hours later, a council member denied responsibility, attributing the fall to a storm. Four years on and the garden has still not returned to its former glory. “The garden is still dishevelled and we’ve started clearing away the brambles and debris,” Mr Williams said. “But considering we now have to do this all on our own, it’s going to take even more time.” Bristol council was approached for comment.”

    1. I can't really understand this ruling. The tree was on the council's property. Regardless of the condition of the tree, shouldn't the council be liable for damage repairs to property caused by the tree falling?

      2. Don't know. Here in the US, it seems that if your tree falls into next door's garden/hoiuse, you each have to file insurance claims, and both insurance companies have to pay their share, your insurance pays for damage on your land, and neighbors pays for damage on their land. Seems loopy to me, but that is the way it is.

        Probably the equivalent of car insurance carving up accident costs – everybody clams on their own insurance and the insurance companies sort it out.

    2. I can't really understand this ruling. The tree was on the council's property. Regardless of the condition of the tree, shouldn't the council be liable for damage repairs to property caused by the tree falling?

    1. Demeter and Apollo have convened a meeting on Olympus. Human sacrifice is needed. Millipede first.

    1. Meanwhile serial grifter.. Leftie hero.. "British Jamaican" whatever that is.. Doreen Delceita Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, OBE, a British Jamaican campaigner is given a peerage.

    2. Meanwhile serial grifter.. Leftie hero.. "British Jamaican" whatever that is.. Doreen Delceita Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, OBE, a British Jamaican campaigner is given a peerage.

    3. Sadly Killed, muderered by islamist terrorists.
      Both Still living at UK taxpayers expense.
      His son would be nearly 14 now.

      1. I wasn’t there (I fly out today. But there are quite a few storks. We can also have colonies of Cranes on trees and
        house rooves passing through in Sept

        1. Our eldest flew out to Warsaw this morning he's there until Wednesday on business with another colleague from the UK.

  57. Afternoon, all. Lovely sunny day and warm with it for a change. Pity I'm so crocked I can't make use of it!

    The whole nation suffers when hundreds of infidels are ushered in and given preferential treatment.

  58. If there is a black pope then many traditional believers would be happy that he would represent their views.

    The irony is that the people who would hate it are the Left – those who say that those with traditional beliefs are racists!

      1. New word to me – thanks. (I had to look it up as I assumed it was some sort of courgette. 🤣)

        1. I thought it might be a new, rather exotic, ice cream dessert, although wearing one might prove to be somewhat problematic.

          1. Ah; you just have to look at the challenge the right way! I have a friend who regularly ends up wearing whatever she attempts to eat. 🤣

        3. That's 'zucchini' – from Italian. 'Courgette' is French. The English call them minature marrows.

    3. Would he dare to interfere with what's happening in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

  59. Phew! It's warm out there today – the wind's dropped and weeding is exhausting!
    Our neighbour is going frantic now as there's another swarm of bees and everyone is out or at work.

    1. 10 flights a day wouldn't be enough to ease the pain caused by all these useless people.

    1. “They” will be all right – money stashed overseas and escape their actions – like many of the Gestapo, Merkel and others. No doubt Millibrain will join his brother in the US after he has destroyed the UK – after all he is a second generation immigrant who obviously couldn’t care less about this country.

      1. Precisely, Hertslass. I just hope that their boltholes are equally horrendous and that they reap what they sow, a thousandfold.

    1. I didn't realise the policeman was black. Desperate role reversal there – in reality the perpetrator was black and the victim white. The arresting officers invariably white too. Utter farce, absolute dishonesty to invert reality.

      It's always the diversity.

    2. Go on.. make a guess.

      the whole of mainland Spain, southern France & Portugal on just one trip switch?
      Putin. obv.
      Solar flare & the weather catastrophe.
      EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) attack!

      2. And for hospitals to fail – there's diesel generators. The one under LINX is huge. Railways to stop working is interesting, and airports?

        Are we seeing the beginnings of failing infrastructure due to load or external factors?

      1. It is getting genuinely silly now. Europe needs power – no, developed nations need power. We should be massively upgrading, replacing and improving our infrastructure by there seems to be absolutely no interest in that.

  64. Robert Jenrick is the latest politician to have an ‘action man’ makeover. But does it work?
    Dramatic weight loss and a new haircut normally means one thing in politics: a leadership bid is on the way
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/28/politicians-action-man-makeover-jenrick-cameron-vance/

    Unlike the lean and hungry Grizzly with his toned physique I must admit that I am a bit on the plump side but I do generally share Julius Caesar's view:

    'Let me have men about me that are fat.'

    Churchill had a comfortable shape as did Horace Rumpole.

      1. Aargh; don't! I've lost weight through dancing (and having no access to good cheese and chocolate 🤣) and my face is a saggy mess. 🙄 I am reminded of the dictum – I think it was Barbara Cartland's – that after a certain age, a woman has to choose between her face and her figure. Well, tango chose me, so jowls it is.

    3. It's easier to dance with a man with a belly! In my world it's referred to as 'la pancha milonguera' – the tango dancer's paunch. 🙂🙂

  65. Water, white vinegar, salt and fairy liquid mixed in watering can will get rid of the weeds.

  66. I saw John Mortimer in his latter years, going in to BBC Centre House (which like him, is no more). Sadly he was a very small bent figure by then.

  67. Well, I've just had my 'dinner' of lasagne. Normally I'd go back for more but I've got to at least try to shift some.

    Thing is, it's a long time until 9ish.

    On the upside, the solid blob that was my tummy is sort of disintegrating. The Warqueen referred to it as gone from a loaf to yeast (she meant well).

    1. Congratulations!! It's damned hard, but it's worth it to keep you around for a bit longer.

  69. If you believe it. He had one the other day, and killed hundreds with bombs and rockets during the "truce".

    1. I want to. I genuinely want to believe this pointless, idiotic waste of life, time and energy is going to end.

  70. RNLI requesting travellers to.. "Make sure to check back here regularly to hear about what is happening with the RNLI and issues that affect you."

      1. I resigned my membership of over 50 years with the RNLI a couple of weeks ago.

        I said I would resume my membership when it started to take the illegal immigrants it picked up back to France and not to the UK.

        1. I resigned and defunded them shortly after the first pictures of them escorting rubber boats not in trouble to the UK. Membership of almost 40 years cancelled.

      1. Several years ago massive grid failures across the Eastern US and Cabada were caused by a single failure that caused a spike that shut down everything.. a
        A single failure might have triggered failings across the interconnected networks.

  72. Spain's state electricity network operator Red Electrica said on X it had begun to restore power in the north and south of Spain, adding it may take some time to bring the whole grid back online.

    Some critics have claimed that Spain's integration of renewable energy sources into the European power network could have triggered the blackout, though the cause has not yet been established.

    Renewable energy sources – wind, hydro and solar power – met the electricity demand for all of Spain for the first time ever on April 16, according to Red Electrica, which says it is leading an 'ecological transition' in Spain's energy sector.

    Other theories include a cyber attack, as analysts pointed out that Europe's energy grid has suffered a substantial increase in cyber attacks following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    Meanwhile, a fire in southern France is reported to have damaged a high-voltage powerline between Perpignan and Narbonne, which may also have contributed to the outages, according to Portugal's national electric company REN.

    Red Electrica is now working with two of Spain's largest electric companies, Endesa and Iberdrola, to investigate the cause of the outages.

    2. Of course it was Putin – silly me. Why-ever did I not immediately think that in the first place, rather than considering dodgy connections, power surges and a fire that may have compromised a powerline.

    3. 'Extreme temperature variations in Spain' contributed to outage – Portuguese grid officials"

      Blame global warming…

    2. Like the Stevie Smith chap who was much too far out all his life and not waving but drowning!

      In our part of Brittany the tidal range is over 40 feet and at Mont St Michel when a Spring Tide rises over the virtually flat sands it travels at the speed of 'galloping horses'. Indeed, people each year lose their lives in the flooding tide.

      1. When I did a navigation course (sailing, not flying), I was shocked by the results for the tides around Mont St Michel.

        1. I think that one of the Adlard Coles pilot books said: "If you are thinking of visiting the Mont St Michel on your boat : DON'T."

          1. "Nobody heard him, the dead man,
            But still he lay moaning:
            I was much further out than you thought
            And not waving but drowning.

            Poor chap, he always loved larking
            And now he’s dead
            It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
            They said.

            Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
            (Still the dead one lay moaning)
            I was much too far out all my life
            And not waving but drowning".

            And I also missed the irony – he was not referring to the poet but to the chap in the poem

  74. Trevor Kavanagh
    When Keir Starmer went to war on journalism
    28 April 2025, 2:38pm

    The Sun's decision to turn on Labour is said to have led to an explosive reaction in Downing Street (Getty images)

    Through the winter of 2011-12, police dragged dozens of journalists from their beds in terrorist-style dawn raids. It was the beginning of a four-year nightmare; a politically motivated witch-hunt triggered, I believe, by a former state prosecutor who today presides as Britain’s Prime Minister.

    So I was astonished when Sir Keir Starmer popped up in my old newspaper, the Sun, recently to say: “This is a government that will always champion press freedoms.”

    It was news to the men and women he dragged through the highest courts in the land, all of whom were declared innocent. Their “crime”, it seems, was to publish true stories that were embarrassing to the Labour governments of Tony Blair and, especially, Sir Keir’s pal Gordon Brown.

    Every story was checked and verified. Many, including the government’s neglect of soldiers fighting for their country, were invariably in the public interest. No state secrets were involved.

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) case hung on the link between the published stories and payments to public officials: a so-called conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. It led to the longest, costliest and most humiliating investigation in the history of Scotland Yard.

    The prosecution collapsed in the Appeal Court when the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justice Thomas, caught the CPS barrister by surprise. “Have you at any stage considered the freedom of the press?” he asked in 2015. Silence from silver-tongued silk brought proceedings to a standstill.

    Every Sun journalist in the dock, or awaiting trial, was ultimately released without a stain on their character. Yet the question from Lord Justice Thomas – aimed like a dart at Starmer as the State Prosecutor who launched Elveden – remains unanswered to this day.

    Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The now PM’s supporters have insisted it was impossible, on his watch, to prosecute sex predators Jimmy Savile or Mohamed al-Fayed, because of the uncertainty of a conviction.

    Starmer did not think twice before putting innocent journalists in the dock. Yet he had the gall to claim, in the very newspaper he once tried to destroy, that journalism “is the lifeblood of democracy”.

    “Journalists are guardians of democratic values,” he preached in October last year. “These simple facts are so woven into the fabric of our society that we often take them for granted. We stand with journalists who endure threats just for doing their job.”

    His words cut no ice with journalists past and present who bear the scars of Keir Starmer’s bid to incarcerate them, literally, for “doing their jobs”.

    Their acquittals were a triumph for British justice – and a savage rebuke to Starmer for the sort of crackdown familiar in Putin’s Russia.

    It is astonishing that until now – and thanks to Toby Young’s Free Speech Union – this travesty is entirely unknown to the British public. We are all aware of the Post Office scandal portrayed so brilliantly on ITV. And we know about the foot-dragging betrayal of tainted blood victims. Yet the sensational collapse of Operation Elveden was a tree falling in a forest.

    The prosecution took four years, the longest and, at £15million, among the costliest police investigations in the history of Scotland Yard – including those into the Great Train Robbers, the Yorkshire Ripper or the 7/7 terrorists.

    Innocent journalists were kept on police bail, a form of non-custodial sentence, some with tags which kept them under virtual house arrest. The police treated them like real criminals: terrorists, murderers and rapists. At worst, this was a white-collar crime. Nobody was hurt in the publication of the stories, apart, perhaps, from petulant Gordon Brown.

    Paying for stories is an established and legitimate practice. No crime was committed. So how does Starmer explain his decision to inflict the full might of the law against journalists he now vows to protect?

    He doesn’t. Starmer, as we have learned after nine months in office, is a peevish, thin-skinned politician who doesn’t like questions. His shabby conduct over women’s rights and his claim that 1 per cent of “women” have a penis, says it all.

    Starmer has been exposed repeatedly as a small man with too much power. Only when his hypocrisy is revealed, as on biological sex, does he change tack – and then, like a chameleon, only until the risk has passed.

    Indeed, it is unlikely that Lord Justice Thomas’ question about press freedom ever crossed his mind. So why did he take such a risk to put my tabloid colleagues in the dock in the first place?

    The story began in September 2009 when the Sun pulled the plug on Gordon Brown’s premiership with the headline: “Labour’s Lost It”.

    The news, conveyed by Peter Mandelson after Brown’s big speech to a Labour party rally, sparked a volcanic reaction. Brown allegedly phoned Sun proprietor Rupert Murdoch and bellowed: “I will destroy you.” The former prime minister has denied saying this. In any case, over the following years, Murdoch’s media empire was nearly destroyed.

    Evidence of phone hacking forced the closure of the News of the World in 2011 after 168 years of publication. The hacking furore led to the Leveson Inquiry and demands for State censorship – still a goal for Starmer’s Labour MPs.

    The uproar over the actual crime of hacking eclipsed Starmer’s phantom charges of conspiracy. The inconvenient fact is that Sun journalists did NOT hack phones. Its most senior reporters refused point blank to have anything to do with hackers.

    That decision was made in the early days of mobile phones after the news desk received a tip-off about a celebrity at a night club. News editor, Chris Pharo, royal reporter Charles Rae and Fleet Street legend John Kay conferred and decided: “It’s not a story. It’s not journalism. We could go to jail.”

    This became newsroom lore. No Sun reporter has ever been arrested, still less convicted of phone interception.

    So how had the Sun unearthed so many stories casting Gordon Brown in an unfavourable light – on immigration, the NHS or the miserly treatment of fighting soldiers? Kay’s biggest scoop revealed that troops in canvas-covered Land Rovers were being blown to pieces by al-Qaeda roadside bombs while American troops were safe in armoured personnel carriers.

    He also detailed how hard-up squaddies had to buy their own boots because Ministry of Defence footwear fell to pieces. In time-honoured tradition, sources were paid for tip-offs. News UK helped police link these payments with their public sector sources. The CPS considered charging journalists with corruption or aiding and abetting a criminal act. But there was no evidence. Finally, they opted for “conspiracy”, the last catch-all resort of a prosecutor without a leg to stand on.

    The appointment of Starmer, a competent but uninspiring silk, as DPP in 2008 came as a shock to colleagues at the Bar. But he had powerful sponsors, including Labour PM Tony Blair’s wife Cherie, also a human rights lawyer.

    Certainly, it was no surprise that Starmer was rewarded after the end of his five-year term with a knighthood, a safe Labour seat – and a shot at the leadership. Nor is it surprising that Gordon Brown has since played an important behind-the-scenes role on policy in the Starmer regime.

    The CPS declined my Freedom of Information query about Gordon Brown’s visits to its offices during Starmer’s stint at the helm, so we cannot say how deep the connection ran. I’ll let you make your own mind up.

    2. Thanks Citroen 1, I'm assuming you know KS' actions as DPP (seemingly nil) when Ann Cryer MP Keighley first reported grooming gangs to him.

    5. And yet few "journos" in 2024 warned us that Starmer would be a nasty piece of work. Here's one that did his job properly.

      Peter Hitchens, people say you're always right.
      Ah, but unfortunately always too late..

      it's astonishing to watch so many people in modern Britain determined to ensure the election of a Labour government even though they don't support it. People are so relaxed about it. What does it matter. Well it does.. it's an important moment.

      I am constantly reminded of how I felt back in 1997 when everybody around me said well what does it matter if we get Blair gets in? Let's give him a go, he looks nice. I said No. He's not nice. And it wasn't nice.

      I promise you when Starmer gets in there will these types of things about to happen. They are vigorous with radical ideas and are geared up to restart the extraordinary ambitious Blair project to transform the country with a green frenzy and continue the sexual revolutionary agenda DEI stuff at expense of anything else.

      We are dealing with dogmatic egalitarian spitemongers..

    6. If Starmer suddenly likes journalists, it can only mean that he has them all in his pocket, or rather his bosses do.

  77. I'm afraid the answer to your problem is to just adjust to it or leave. I can't see your "partner" (presumably not husband) changing to suit your whims. As to Rastus' question, I have no idea. The situation never arose when I was married.

    1. Why on earth is the Telegraph giving space to such childish witterings is what I would like to know!

        1. Along with The Times. Once a great newspaper of record: now, twinned with Hello! magazine.

  78. Unlike the adverts , it took me an hour to wash my kitchen floor .. a bucket and squidgee mop and detergent , plus several changes of water , as well as cleaning the skirting boards , some of the kitchen cupboard doors , nothing was filthy , but just in need of a good wipe over .. The dust and grit accumulates so quickly, plus two loads of washing , duvets sheets and pillow cases and towels , and other things , dried so quickly in the sunshine.

  79. LARF OF THE DAY:

    "Spain-Portugal power outage live: extreme temperature changes ‘caused blackout’"

    Yeah, right…!

    3. That is what happens when carney reduced the carbon tax in canada, Climate change is fighting back.

    4. Is that what caused the kitchen at Television Centre to shut down as well? No hot food at lunchtime today and it's looking like no breakfast tomorrow. The rest of the building is still functioning.

  80. It's lovely out there but I'm knackered! Weeding is a high-energy activity and I've run out of energy.

    2. I bought the twins a set each of trowel, rake and spade in coloured metal with wooden handles! They’ve had a ball today, and really removed a lot of moss! I gave them a big green square garden sack and they’ve filled it and emptied it twice! Well, they’re closer to the ground than I am!

      1. My knees are knackered – they were already sore from the hedgehog photoshoot on Saturday when I was kneeling on prickly stuff in order to get down to the hog’s level…….

          1. Not an event exactly – though we did have a little tea party in the morning……. we borrowed one of the hedgehogs and took it up on the common near our house, as the wild flowers are superb at the moment. The hog was very cooperative and I took some photos of it with primroses, bluebells and cowslips in the background. It does involve a bit of lying on the ground and getting prickled by thistles etc.

            We have the best display of cowslips and other spring flowers at the moment – better this year than for some time. It all depends on weather conditions, which must have been favourable this year.

          2. The primroses in our garden have gone berserk.
            A few weeks ago, the leaves had gone mushy, and MB thought he'd lost the plants.
            He removed the manky leaves, crossed his fingers …. and we've never had such a display.

          3. It was all getting a bit dry out there – but we had a heavy downpour one night last week and everything has sprung up since then.

          4. Blossom is also going gangbusters. Last year we had no blossom at all to speak of on our (admittedly geriatric) apple trees. This year they are smothered. It is heartwarming.

      2. Well done you. They did a good job for you and enjoyed doing it. Bet they felt really pleased with themselves.

        1. Exactly what my old man said! They stack logs and wash cars as well! Well, mine anyway! He doesn’t let them near the Jag!

  81. Wordle No. 1,409 4/6

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

    Wordle 28 Apr 2025

    A right charlie for Par Four?

    2. A very poor start but when there are no other options left

      Wordle 1,409 4/6

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

    3. Five for me today.

      Wordle 1,409 5/6

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

      1. Good one today for me.
        Wordle 1,409 3/6

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

    4. Well done, same here.

      Wordle 1,409 4/6

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

    5. On a bad run at the moment – another bloody Bogey!

      Wordle 1,409 5/6

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

  82. Is the party over? Children’s celebrations put on hold as costs soar
    With the average cost of a party coming in at £524, many parents are having to rein back on their young one’s big day.

    When Dan Jackson went to buy balloons for his daughter Camilla’s seventh birthday party, he struggled.

    “The local party store had closed down and I guessed there might not have been enough demand from parents anymore”, said the father of three from Worthing, West Sussex. “Parties are really expensive, with food and everything you are looking at £400-500 for a two-hour party.”

    https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/parenting/article/is-the-party-over-childrens-celebrations-put-on-hold-as-costs-soar-sdqsz9ltv

    Children need a birthday party to remember .

    Older son is a February baby , so nice cold weather ..
    Before health and safety and stupidity .. Old clothes , wellies , and children who are not afraid of mud .

    We lived near Maiden Castle then , before the bypass was built .. talking about 70' s Best birthday he says was memorable 6years old !

    Snow , a car full of children squidged into a Hillman Hunter estate, lots of plastic sacks ( heavy duty or tea trays ) climb up the slope , and slide down half a dozen times , then back home for grilled sausage sandwiches and tomato sauce , hard boiled eggs , cheese and pineapple hedgehog , fairy cakes , birthday cake and crackers .. a few games of stick the tail on the donkey ( blindfold) and the result , tired happy children , taking home a spare fairy cake and a whistle kazoo thing or something similar .

    Son no 2 was a summer baby , and later , a paddle in the sea and a picnic , but not quite the same as sliding on muddy ice down Maiden Castle .

    1. The chap should have used the Middletons' party stuff company…oh, hang on a mo….

    2. As other children were having birthday parties i begged my mother for a 10th birthday party on February the 11th. She finally said yes after all my nagging, whining and tantrums.

      I was allowed 5 friends. She cooked egg and chips. Served it up and left the kitchen diner switching the lights out on her way.

      No cake. No balloons. Nothing.

      Children are being spoiled rotten if a birthday party costs £500. I don't think it is about cost. I think it is about parents competing or feeling inadequate.

        1. I wouldn't say 'tried'.

          I never asked again.

          I am the youngest of six. When my elder siblings began leaving home and getting boyfriends and girlfriends my parents decided as it would be just the three of us for Christmas they wouldn't bother.

          My mother was a very selfish woman.

    3. Madness Belle! How on earth could anyone spend ridiculous amounts like that? As you say, good games and fun food and plenty of expending energy! Anyone out there play ‘Family Coach’?

        1. Very old game! My grandmother passed it down to my Mum and aunt, and we played it as well! A bit old fashioned , but very energetic and funny!. Nearly as good as transferring dried peas from plate to plate with a straw!

    4. What? How ridiculous! For little ones – some sandwiches, a jelly, a cake, Pass the Parcel, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Musical Chairs…total cost less than 50 pounds even today.
      It does get a bit more expensive between 10-14 – I once took a group of girls to a spa, which cost in those days about a hundred pounds…one boy party was in the woods with nerf guns which cost quite a lot to buy, but they did love it.

  83. Floats in to say good late afternoon, a glorious warm spring day .

    1. Good afternoon. Cooling down a bit now. It was 31c in my back garden. My bedroom come office is at the front of the house in full sun. Curtains drawn and air filter to max because the masses of hawthorn is in full blossom. Looks like it has been snowed on.

  84. There is such a thing as ‘far left’. The DT is running a story about Michael Lavalette who was a candidate in last year’s election is shown in a photograph with several others at a pro-Palesting event. Beneath it the caption reads ‘Mr Lavalette (fart left) tates part in a Palesinian march in 2024’.

          2. Ah yes! My father introduced me to it when I was a teenager, and I always found it hilarious. 🤣

  85. Angela Rayner threatened to resign from the cabinet over the “impossible” target of building 1.5 million homes in the next five years, an updated biography of Sir Keir Starmer has claimed.

    The claim, made by Lord Ashcroft in an updated version of Red Flag, alleges that Sir Tony Blair, the former prime minister, intervened and convinced the deputy prime minister to stay on in government.

    Housebuilding experts have repeatedly warned that the government will fail in its flagship pledge to build 1.5 million homes — 300,000 a year — by the end of this parliament.

    • Angela Rayner could force Trinity College to build new homes

    In the book, Ashcroft said: “She is still prone to stirring up trouble… [on] one occasion she threatened to resign because she felt she’d been set the impossible target of Labour building 1.5 million new homes. It took a call from Tony Blair to talk her down — which, incidentally, tells you how important Blair is to the Starmer project.”

    A source close to Rayner said: “We do not recognise the claims made. Angela is proud to be serving as deputy prime minister in Keir’s cabinet and delivering on Labour’s crystal-clear commitment to build 1.5 million homes as part of our plan for change.”

    Last month the Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, forecast that planning reforms would deliver 1.3 million homes by the end of this parliament. Rayner said this year that there were “no excuses” not to build the homes.

    The book also claims that Starmer takes Prince, a rare breed of Siberian kitten worth £1,500 that the prime minister gave to his children last year, to Chequers, his grace-and-favour home, when he goes for the weekend, to protect him from Larry, the veteran mouser who lives in No 10.

    Larry is kept apart from Prince because of concerns that they will fight. The book says: “One source claims Prince is not allowed out of the Starmers’ Downing Street flat or else Larry, who can be aggressive, would eat him.

    Comments

    A Green
    4 hours ago

    It has always been so in Britain. The underlying tenet of British unionism is that 'workers' must do the least possible work, so that they are not taking employment away from others. They think work is a zero sum game, that overall output can never be increased, and that all they need to do is share out what is available. Paradoxically they expect in this way to enjoy an ever increasing standard of living. Our governments pander to this delusion, and pretend they are improving productivity, but in reality they fund the whole scam by borrowing. One day soon the whole house of cards will crash down.

    Andrew Holland
    10 hours ago
    Replying to Mark Smith

    Better education? You’re having a laugh. Blair has destroyed the University sector- one of the few areas in which the uk was indeed ‘world beating’.

    70 years ago we taught Latin and Ancient Greek in Grammar schools, now we have remedial English taught at in the first year of university.

    Standards have not improved!

    C A Bell
    17 hours ago

    As if we didn't already have enough reasons to dislike Tony Blair…

    We are so badly let down by the political class in this country

    Reply

    Recommend (48)

    Share
    G Frame
    1 hour ago

    We are moving into a new era of being let down badly though. Far down into the abyss . Ministers like Rayner and Milliband are just dreadful

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/tony-blair-stopped-angela-rayner-quitting-over-housing-target-dgjx2dkpn

    1. The comment about education standards is spot on. We also specialized younger – two years before O Level, as I recall. We had 3 main options – sciences, modern languages and classics. Latin however was compulsory, except for the lowest stream who looked in danger of failing their O levels, so they were concentrated solely on being able to get the requisite 4 O's to be considered as having passed.

      After "O" levels, we had two years before our "A" levels – which were really specialized. 8 periods per week for each of three critical A levels, I was doing the maths "track" – pure and applied and physics, which added up to 16 periods of maths and 8 of physics per week. No complaints, as I had more than enough maths behind me when I left school to get me through my Mechanical Engineering degree.

      Week one of the Mech Eng course, we were straight into Thermo and Fluid Mechanics. No remedial anything.

      1. I very much doubt they could find enough qualified teachers to teach at that level now. Seeing as teaching has been taken over by socialists who prefer to teach nonsense.

        1. All our teachers had degrees in the subjects they taught. Most had served in WWII, which meant they took no s**t from us lot!

          1. In my 4th and 5th year at a bog standard comp there were no maths teachers. I got grade 4 CSE.

          2. The deputy head at my primary school was ex military. And yes…there was no mucking about where he was concerned. It's where i first heard the word 'Jankers'.

            Interesting that most teachers are female and those ex mil types are shut out.

          6. Deputy Head (female) would nag girls endlessly. Head (male) would tell a boy to remove his footwear then thrash that boy with his own footwear. Those were the days eh….

          8. There was one male teacher, always eyeing one girl…rumour was ..behind the bike shed…

          9. Good Lord, KJ! We all fancied our only male (music) teacher. He found it very difficult. "Clockwise" a very funny film, nb..

          10. This particular chap was quite creepy, all the girls swerved him wherever possible. Not seen ‘Clockwork’ will look out for it. Clockwork Orange quite good what I remember.

          11. Clockwise – sorry – got it wrong! John Cleese, Extremely amusing, if, as I do, you like that sort of thing.

          12. I’m sure I replied to you on this, opopanax…can’t see it now. Don’t think I know ‘Clockwise’…remember ‘Clockwork Orange’ tho..was that Anthony Burgess? (I knew someone who taught him, said the brightest and best he’d ever taught.)

        2. Brainwashing, Phiz. 🙁 I think most of my younger family are socialists one stripe or another.

      2. I passed Latin 'O' level……..and was persuaded to take it at 'A' Level, along with English and French. I failed miserably and got low grades for the other two, mainly because I didn't work hard enough, and by the 'A' Level year, I was busy going out with boyfriends.

        1. Girlfriend at the time was at our sister girls' school up the road, also working hard, plus I was boarding, so my social life was limited to weekend time – even that was only allowable for 6th formers. With strict "back in dorm" timing as well!

        2. You did much better than I did, Ndovu….laid up one winter tried to teach myself with a book…managed some of it, was very enjoyable. I read BJ wanted to re-introduce Latin into school curriculum, nothing came of it..typical of him.

          1. It’s good exercise for the brain – and enjoyable too to read Roman authors from so long ago. My favourite set book was Horace’s Odes.

          3. I think anything gives our brain a bit of a jolt is better than sitting watching TV (unless it’s a favourite sport). If I need to think about something I generally play MahJong, bit mindless but seems to help me make a decision which I don’t even know I’m making/have made until I stop playing. As my family says ‘weirdo’…

    2. The comment about education standards is spot on. We also specialized younger – two years before O Level, as I recall. We had 3 main options – sciences, modern languages and classics. Latin however was compulsory, except for the lowest stream who looked in danger of failing their O levels, so they were concentrated solely on being able to get the requisite 4 O's to be considered as having passed.

      After "O" levels, we had two years before our "A" levels – which were really specialized. 8 periods per week for each of three critical A levels, I was doing the maths "track" – pure and applied and physics, which added up to 16 periods of maths and 8 of physics per week. No complaints, as I had more than enough maths behind me when I left school to get me through my Mechanical Engineering degree.

      Week one of the Mech Eng course, we were straight into Thermo and Fluid Mechanics. No remedial anything.

    4. How many times is that she’s ‘threatened’ to resign? Just get on with it, you ghastly crass little woman.

          3. Just the whole thing, really, Sue. Suspect it’s going to be a long, hot, difficult summer ahead. Doh.

          5. Exactly….how could she have not known….didn’t she get the Ginger Growler moniker due to flashing her legs during PMQs when Johnson was PM…he lived up to his reputation, as per.

          11. Cupid Stunt as she is……wasn’t he fab. Blasted BBC didn’t they sack him because he was homosexual or something (if so, look at the Beeb now)………

          14. Safely tucked away on my laptop.
            And the same, I suspect, for millions of others.

    5. It is so disheartening that people now see their life's work to be consonant with avoiding any kind of responsibility, rather than the stuff and framework of their life. i remember having the revelation (personal epiphany) whilst performing a very menial task that this is it – here – now – this is it.

  88. That's me for today. Quiet – just sitting in the garden reading a trashy novel, while waiting for my foot to come back to life. Fortunately, I can still drive.

    I'll be away most of tomorrow – risking a trip to Suffolk….to help sister-in-law have a really good look at the house she hopes to buy. Silly girl had to be persuaded. "I didn't want to inconvenience them……" Grrr.

    So have a spiffing evening hoping the "extreme temperature" doesn't make the leccy go off.

    A Wednesday.

          1. A Barbara Cartland liberty bodice ripper.
            The tall, dark hero has a rubber button fetish.

  90. A “must watch” Geoff buys cars video.

    He has been visited by Plod as a putative domestic terrorist after making a comment about pitchforks.

    Whilst it is now resolved, he maked the point that it forces you to self-censor. Which is presumably the point.

    The issue is to do with some scullduggery in the Malvern Hills Trust.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IkSDvBMcU2w

    1. As I said to Mozzy here:

      But please don’t Self-Censor.

      SELF CENSORSHIP WONT SAVE YOU – AS WE SAW WITH COVID — and maybe before that.

  91. For years businessmen, negotiators and even US presidents have taken to the golf course to foster relations and strike deals.

    But now Sir Keir Starmer is looking to take golf diplomacy one step further as part of his government’s efforts to woo President Trump, a keen golfer who is often pictured playing at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

    British officials have been instructed to scope out the possibility of the president’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland returning as host of the Open Championship, one of Britain’s most prestigious sporting events.

    Officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have discussed the prospect with the R&A, one of golf’s two governing bodies and the operator of the Open, the oldest golf tournament in the world.

    Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of the Open returning to Turnberry in phone calls with Starmer. Government sources said he remained very interested in the fate of his two golf resorts in Scotland. His second course is Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire, which opened in 2012 but would not be considered as a host of the Open.

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/open-trump-turnberry-golf-course-wpvwpfrqr

  92. So have Spain and Portugal officially reached third world power supply standards and status, well before us, despite Brexit?
    Which proves the EU is well ahead of us with the great reset agenda.
    No wonder they didn't want us to leave

    2. I don't know, but I would like to say this: Some months ago they took away our access to analogue 'phones and replaced them with digital, The ' phones no longer work, or on the rare occasions that they do, the voices are indecipherable. They produced loads of unworkable but very expensive hardware to "support" this change. We never asked for this, nor consented to it. but nevertheless it happened. Progress, eh?

        1. Quite. They have provided an alleged kit for that. But it doesn't work generally, which they deny,

      2. They keep telling us "digital voice is coming" but so far, not yet. We still use our landline as I hate making calls on the mobile and prefer to stick to WhatsApp or emails for communicating.

  93. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVYXc12UMV4&list=WL&index=50 Anyone still harbouring an unfathomable — unfeasible — suspicion that the carnivorous lifestyle will not cure a whole tranche of illnesses, maladies and conditions; just try and spend a tiny two minutes of your precious time listening to the testimonials of people who have had their lives turned around for the better as a result of adopting this lifestyle.

    So far, personally, it has remedied my obesity, my gout, my arthritis, my brain-fog, my insomnia, my amnesia, my back pain, digestive issues and a number of other maladies and discomforts. For me there will be no going back.

    For the majority people who complain about deleterious and life-threatening conditions that are adversely affecting their lives; this video is a must.

    1. I'm not totally carnivore but I have no painful conditions (apart from sore knees from Saturday) but I have cut down on carbs and eat very little bread. I'm on no medication, not overweight and the last time I checked my BP (after continual prodding from the GP surgery) it was normal. I last consulted a GP in 2019, when I had shingles and got a prescription for anti virals. I eat meat, eggs, fruit, and veg and am healthy. I steer clear of vaccinations now, though I've had many in the past.

      1. Until last November I wasn’t on any regular medication. Not even headache pills and I bothered the NHS very little. Don’t tempt fate. He’s a spiteful bugger!

        1. No – I’m very thankful for my good health and very aware of the things that could be going wrong. My OH was still playing tennis and table tennis until he collapsed in a heap on the floor…. leading to his full triple bypass op just after his 80th birthday. He’s ok now but getting somewhat frail at 82 and has some memory issues.

  94. What are those Ringo things in car parks all about .
    I would still prefer to use a machine then my phone to pay .

    1. I refuse to use my phone for making payments for anything. I'm happier using a card machine or cash. Apparently there are so many different parking apps that they fill up your phone so it must be confusing anyway.

      1. I’m the same, I find it all far too confusing and too complex .
        It’s planned of course, one more step towards a cashless society.

  96. It would seem that Iberia has discovered a down side to NutZero.
    Milipede is rubbing his hands at the inconvenience about to strike Blighty.

  97. This is a link to the original Geoff buys cars video from a fortnight ago, when he ansmd a local councillor in Malvern discuss what is happening at the Malvern Hills Trust snd their suspicions that developments see not necessarily in the best interests of local residents. Worth a watch.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L2B5nbTgVjQ

  98. Orff to bed, good night all Nottlers 😴
    ECG and blood yests and gp appointment straight after in the morning.
    I don't think, well I am assuming that I'm not well from all the problems I've been suffering recently. It's getting very waring and extremely tiring.

  100. There’s talk of giving migrants the vote on arrival. I have a colleague who’s Italian and has lived here for many years. She married an Englishman and has a twenty something daughter who was born here. Her husband is deceased but she still lives in the house they bought together. She works and pays her taxes but can only vote in local elections. She won’t vote LibLabCon because she’s not daft. So no voting in General Elections for her.

    1. I have a German friend in a similar situation. She came here as an au pair in the early 60s and married a much older Englishman. She was widowed many years ago but has lived here most of her life. She can only vote in local elections.

      1. I don't understand. Why can new and illegal arrivals enjoy full citizen's rights. including voting in our elections, and not taxpaying naturalised people such as your friend?

        1. It doesn’t make sense, does it? But even when we were in the EU, European citizens did not have full voting rights here. Except the Irish. And that’s due to history.

    2. My Portuguese neighbour is similar. Married to a Scotsman. She can only vote in local elections and has views similar to us here.

  101. Right, that's me off to bed. I'm going to hit the painkillers and hope that tomorrow sees me more mobile. Goodnight, all.

  102. I've just been watching on BBC4, a programme about VE Day. Original film, reminiscences from famous people, Churchill's announcement etc. I'm going to bed very depressed about what we were then, compared to what we are today.

    It's finished. (England, not the programme.)

    1. I think we can still get it back, Sam. Not the same, but still worth it. It will cost us dearly, though, in the short term. In the longer term, we only have one other option, which is to let it all go, which I see as no option at all

    1. That all seems to make sense. Had a full day on the water around the Eddystone on Sunday, a remarkably lovely day.

  106. Some fucker has knicked my bike from Richmond Park. Pardon the language

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