Monday 28 February: Putin’s insane dream of restoring the Evil Empire must never be realised

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

690 thoughts on “Monday 28 February: Putin’s insane dream of restoring the Evil Empire must never be realised”

  2. ‘Morning, all. A couple of crass letters in the DT:

    SIR – After watching television footage of an elderly Ukrainian woman putting on a uniform and collecting a rifle to defend her country, I was ashamed of the democratic world that I have always so strongly believed in.
    Ray Warren
    Mandurah, Western Australia

    Mr Warren, you only have to look to your home state to see where democracy disappeared

    SIR – How many more people does Putin have to kill before the Russian power of veto at the UN is removed?
    David Sherman
    London N3

    Mr Sherman, probably as many as China – another ‘Permanent’ member with a veto.

    2. It is surprising how many people seem unaware that the five permanent members of the UNSC have the power of veto, which they have been using/abusing since the formation of the UN.

    3. Is that the old lady who is being taught by one of the soldiers from the Azov battalion who has NAZI insignia on his uniform that the Western media conveniently didn’t notice? ,

  3. It’s time to stop letting despots weaponise our Western freedoms. 28 february 2022.

    And consider Russia. Global interconnectedness was supposed to make the world safer. Countries that trade with one another, went the theory, will not fight one another. But Russia, like China and Islamists, has worked out how to exploit our open societies and economies. It has used its presence within them to corrupt and weaken us, empower and enrich itself, and develop post-modern, post-truth offensive hybrid capabilities.

    It’s pretty obvious from this and the similarly slanted Evans-Pritchard article that the Whips have been around to get them both to fall into line. The “despots” weaponising our supposed “freedoms” are home grown. Vladimir Putin does not run 77 Brigade. He is not importing vast numbers of aliens across the Channel, he is not rewriting our history. He does not control the MSM! Neither Trudeau nor Scott Morrison with their hatred and repression of their own people work for him nor does the unfailingly corrupt and debauched Biden.

    Very soon inflation and energy costs will take off in the UK in a fashion not seem since Weimar Germany and this too will be laid at Putin’s door but in truth it is all the creation of a decadent and corrupt Leadership in the West and the Doctrine that it espouses. It should never be forgotten that unless Patriotism has become a Philosophy Vlad has no ideology

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/27/time-stop-letting-despots-weaponise-western-freedoms/

    1. This is a really disgusting article. With regard to Russia it is so dishonest it simply qualifies as naked lies and false propaganda.

  4. It’s time to stop letting despots weaponise our Western freedoms. 28 february 2022.

    And consider Russia. Global interconnectedness was supposed to make the world safer. Countries that trade with one another, went the theory, will not fight one another. But Russia, like China and Islamists, has worked out how to exploit our open societies and economies. It has used its presence within them to corrupt and weaken us, empower and enrich itself, and develop post-modern, post-truth offensive hybrid capabilities.

    It’s pretty obvious from this and the similarly slanted Evans-Pritchard article that the Whips have been around to get them both to fall into line. The “despots” weaponising our supposed “freedoms” are home grown. Vladimir Putin does not run 77 Brigade. He is not importing vast numbers of aliens across the Channel, he is not rewriting our history. He does not control the MSM! Neither Trudeau nor Scott Morrison with their hatred and repression of their own people work for him nor does the unfailingly corrupt and debauched Biden.

    Very soon inflation and energy costs will take off in the UK in a fashion not seem since Weimar Germany and this too will be laid at Putin’s door but in truth it is the all the creation of a decadent and corrupt Leadership in the West and the Doctrine that it espouses. It should never be forgotten that unless Patriotism has become a Philosophy Vlad has no ideology

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/27/time-stop-letting-despots-weaponise-western-freedoms/

  5. Morning, all Y’all.
    Spring started yesterday! Yaay! heat in the sun, sunny all day, even saw double digits (plus) temperatures!

    1. Yes, it got quite warm up the “garden” where I was chopping logs!
      Then again, a south west facing hillsides do have a tendency to become sun traps.

  8. Putin’s insane dream of restoring the Evil Empire must never be realised

    I suppose Putin is getting fed up being sandwiched between China’s emerging evil empire and the West’s fast emerging evil empire.

    1. Best advice to Ukrainian refugees who want to come to Britain is to get yourself to Calais and get on a dinghy – that way you’re guaranteed entry to the UK.

      1. And a hotel room for a year or two. And priority healthcare. And pocket money. And the right to work in the b economy.

  12. Good morning.

    Klaus Schwab has come out in favour of Ukraine. Does he represent a country? Yes, hundreds of them!

    RT has just reported that “Russian Central Bank raises annual key rate to 20%”

    Given that the Federal Reserve is going to raise interest rates in March, is this the beginning of the end of the West’s fiat currencies?

      1. I first read the reports in the 80s!
        But since 2008, there has really been a feeling of the last days about the dollar. No currency can be so abused forever and survive, surely?

    2. If you could choose five people who should be exterminated whom would you choose? Schwab would surely feature on many people’s lists.

  13. Morning all,
    Wordle 254 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    😃

  14. It is a matter of life and death. So the EU will provide weapons for Ukraine’s armed forces. Josep Borrell. 28 february 2022.

    The Kremlin propagandists call the invasion “a special operation”, but this cynical euphemism cannot hide the fact that we witness a fully fledged invasion of Ukraine, with the aim to crush its freedom, legitimate government and democratic structures. Calling the Kyiv government “neo-Nazi” and “Russophobic” is nonsense: all manifestations of nazism are banned in Ukraine. In modern Ukraine, extreme rightwing candidates are a fringe phenomenon with minimal support, without passing the barrier to enter the parliament. The Ukrainian government did not cut the Donbas off and it has not prohibited the use of Russian language and culture. Donetsk and Luhansk are no republics, they are Ukrainian regions controlled by Russia-backed and armed separatist groupings.

    Aside from the blatant lies all this is from someone who has never stood for Office; who not one ordinary person has voted for! So much for Democracy!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/27/eu-will-provide-weapons-for-ukraine-josep-borrell

    1. You said it Araminta. A series of blatant lies and again, although there is mention of Donetsk & Luhansk, no mention of the fact that the Ukrainians have been indiscriminately shelling the population for 8 years and that there are thousands of dead, including children. No mention of the violation of the Minsk Agreement. And our Western governments pretend they are the good guys. I am really amazed that people fall for this blatant propaganda. Obviously education does not make people immune from such crudeness.

  15. Good morning from a dull, dry, but slightly less cold Derbyshire with 2°C on the thermometer outside.

  17. Pictured: A mysterious ripped-up road in Wiltshire

    A B-road that looks like it has been ‘torn up by an earthquake’ could cost millions of pounds to repair

    By Telegraph Reporters 27 February 2022 • 2:14pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/02/27/TELEMMGLPICT000287569543_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680

    The B4069 near Lyneham, Wilts has been severely damaged by as-yet unexplained forces. The section of the road has been so badly damaged that the tarmac is completely snapped or lying a 45-degree angle in some places.

    Wiltshire Council say the road has been closed since February 17th, but some drivers still are still attempting to use it according to police.

    The ‘earthquake-like damage seems to have come from unexplained movements underground that will now be investigated.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/02/27/TELEMMGLPICT000287569525_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqtGQB12KHxxQCrwnTZkX0nwgWqwm85JEWpGVhFb46TTg.jpeg?imwidth=680

    Local residents claim the subsidence has been getting worse over the last year and a landslip was inevitable.

    Wiltshire Council said it is now waiting for a report from geotechnical specialists before taking further action.

    Dr Mark McClelland, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for transport, told BBC Radio Wiltshire: “It could costs hundreds of thousands or up into the millions [to fix].

    “There is significant damage to the road. It could be up to 12 months in total. It’s not something that can be resolved in a matter of days or weeks.”

    Dr McClelland added in some places the road had ‘buckled’ up to four feet, and descriptions of it looking like an earthquake were accurate.

    He added: “The underlying ground has slipped and we need to understand why that has happened.

    “The police have been very clear that it’s very dangerous for motorists to ignore signage.”

    The remarkable damage is also affecting local business, with local pubs like the Peterborough Arms suffering huge losses in bookings since the closure.

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

    240+ BTL comments

    What everybody seems to be ignoring is that the REME Museum is a couple of miles down the road and some of the lads may have been taking out bits of kit for Top Gear style Road Tests.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ebc2e5fd4973b64a2593c00cb224e2387ba7146667f377ae54a7bc32d1028b1f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f143b93ff98442c116aa6bee16868fd5def4514db6787c74c6df4d82aeabbe6.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dccc3934abd151245e049cb1607e6ea3fd60910f9cb47c86ed1050b6b68da459.jpg

    1. I read that story last night. It does look bizarre – some unforeseen subsidence for some reason – but £millions to repair??

      3. I suspect a small spring, running along the length of that bit of road for some years, gradually washing out the base of the road, suddenly going onto steroids in the recent storm.

        1. On the BGS it looks as though it is close to an interface between limestone and the Oxford clay – could well be springs along that and clay is always subject to landslip.

    4. There’s construction work going on up the hill you can see in the first photo. Perhaps they’ve removed trees and vegetation that were holding that hillside together.

    5. Usually tanks using tarmac roads leave obvious track marks, so I don’t think it’s reme. Unless they have a new underground worm device creating tunnels.

    7. It’s simply slipping down a steep hillside. That hill is the north-western edge of the Wiltshire Downs and faces Dauntsey Vale. It’s probably covered in glacial clay.

    1. Good morning BoB.
      If that is true, then it is excellent news. We can but hope the success will spread.
      Australia needs to take note too, especially after their police (I can’t do the crossing out text! For police, read thugs) used the sonic torture weapons on peaceful protesters in Canberra.
      https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/australian-police-use-sonic-torture-weapons-on-vaccine-protesters/

      It would be interesting to hear smug Turdeau’s reaction to the news. At the very least, he’ll throw a tantrum.

      1. For the “crossing out text”, when you type your comment you should see an S with a line through it at the bottom of the box. Highlight the word or phrase you want to strike through (that’s what the S stands for) and then click that. It will do it for you automatically.

        1. OK, sounds simple enough, here goes:
          police
          edit: Looks weird until posted then – Woo hoo, it worked! Thank you!
          And what a way to end the day. Goodnight Conway. I shall play with the new toy tomorrow 🙂

          1. Good luck! The other toys are bold (b), italic (i) and underscore (u). Have fun.

  19. “Our Government should rebuild the Armed Forces…”
    Dr Colin Brown.

    Easier said than done Dr B. Recruitment has been failing for many years now, even though entry criteria have been made easier and easier.
    The Army should scrap the civilian run centralised recruiting process and go back to letting each regiment look after itself.

          1. To further blight the mood, don’t forget this Doozey is in charge of our external security.

            Richard Moore@ChiefMI6 · 25 Feb

            “With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights. So let’s resume our series of tweets to mark #LGBTHM2022”

      2. The RAF used to have recruiting officers. WE Johns was one – he turned down TE Lawrence (of Arabia) when he applied.

    1. Very interesting, thank you JN.
      I do admire people who can speak for so long without notes. I notice his eyes didn’t once look away from the camera.

    2. Well, somebody else who more or less agrees with my version of “human rights”. I’ve always said that the UN Convention on Human Rights was concocted by some drunken UN delegates in a hotel room in New York for a joke. Thereafter they were astonished that it was accepted, incorporated and promoted.

      1. My politics tutor at Edinburgh university was very down on the concept of universal rights, so I caught onto the scam early on, thanks to him.

    3. I wonder why David Starkey is so unpopular with the woke and has become a hate figure for them.

    4. It’s just a pity that more people, especially young people, won’t hear that. I’ve been drilling it into my children for years, to counter the la-di-dah BS that they get from the school!

      1. Actually, I would go further than he does, and say, we don’t need to re-arm with the idea that we are going to defend ourselves, or heaven forbid, spread, our wonderful “values” in the world.
        We should re-arm with the idea of defending that bit of land we call home.

  21. Morning all

    Share

    Putin’s insane dream of restoring the Evil Empire must never be realised

    A protester holds a placard at a demonstration in support of Ukraine in Trafalgar Square

    A protester holds a placard at a demonstration in support of Ukraine in Trafalgar Square

    SIR – Vladimir Putin’s sense of humiliation at the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 continues to drive him in the same way that the humiliating defeat of Germany in 1918 drove Hitler.

    Russia is a physically divided country. John Peat (Letters February 26) mentioned Konigsberg, once part of East Prussia, now the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Significantly, it cannot be accessed overland from Moscow without passing through Lithuania and Estonia, which declared their independence in the early 1990s.

    The difference between invading Ukraine and invading Lithuania and Estonia is that Ukraine is not a Nato member. But having seen that the West is not prepared to stand in the way of the Ukrainian invasion, how long will it be before Putin demands a slice of the Baltic states, countries he also thinks have no right to exist?

    Nicholas Young,

    London W13

    SIR – Russia’s invasion brings war to Europe for the first time in a generation. Boris Johnson promises that “of course” Britain will accept refugees fleeing the conflict. But, unbelievably, his Government is trying to pass a bill that would criminalise Ukrainians who make their own way to safety in Britain.

    The UN refugee agency and senior British jurists have warned that the Nationality and Borders Bill violates the Refugee Convention in dangerous ways. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is right to say that it would threaten the integrity of the global asylum system.

    This anti-refugee bill faces a crucial vote in the House of Lords today, where the Government will try to force through provisions to penalise and turn away people fleeing torture or abuse who arrive here seeking asylum.

    Any parliamentarian who votes in favour of this bill is voting to slam the door in the face of Ukrainian men, women and children in need.

    Sonya Sceats,

    Chief Executive, Freedom from Torture

    SIR – When nuclear weapons are being readied, it is time Switzerland fully committed to sanctioning Russian money.

    Resistance to Putin has to come from within as well as from outside Russia’s borders. Hurting the mega rich and their privileged lifestyles will make them question whether a megalomaniacal narcissistic psychopath is a good friend to have.

    Most Russians, rich or poor, do not want this war any more than we do.

    Roger Willatt,

    Lyndhurst, Hampshire

    SIR – In the light of recent events in Ukraine and China’s response, surely Britain should formally recognise Taiwan as a sovereign nation.

    Dr Michael Fopp,

    Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – One hopes that the situation in Ukraine will remind the West that ensuring national security, food security and energy security is one of the most important functions of government. After 60 years of peace in Europe we have forgotten these vital requirements of all nation states.

    Our Government should rebuild the Armed Forces and recognise the green agenda for what it is – an unnecessary burden on the country’s finances. Wind, wave and solar power will never be enough for our energy needs and we need to get on with fracking and nuclear power as soon as possible.

    Dr Colin Brown,

    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    SIR – I am an ancient widow and unable to do much, but I will support the people of Ukraine by planting some sunflower seeds, their national flower.

    Jennifer Hammond,

    Broadstairs, Kent

  22. Morning again

    Driven to distraction

    SIR – For those of us waiting months for the return of our driving licence, would it not be possible for the DVLA to send an email or letter, to act as confirmation that our licences are in its possession, or mark our online status as such?

    Having managed once, in late December, to speak to someone in Swansea, I do know that my application reached it on November 9, but I have no written proof of that should it be needed. I am sure from the many letters to your paper that my frustration is shared.

    Joan Morrell,

    Clevedon, Somerset

    SIR – It is now five months since I applied to the DVLA to renew my driving licence. I cannot find out what the hold-up is, the website is automated, the phone rings off and emails are automated. I have now written to my MP to see if he can help.

    What is going on at the DVLA, and is it even fit for purpose?

    Anne Stern,

    Henfield, West Sussex

    1. My wife’s renewal was completed on line in less than a week. Obviously the need to send the actual license causes problems.

  23. Old-fashioned values

    SIR – David Frost (Comment, February 19) set out his plan to save the Conservative Party – and the country – under three headings: the rebuilding of our unity as a democratic nation state; the promotion of economic freedom; and the need to stop useless intervention by government. While these deserve serious attention by politicians of all parties, there are other elements affecting the quality of our daily lives and public behaviour that require equal consideration if the country (let alone the Conservative Party) is to be “saved”.

    They concern the preservation of old-fashioned values, such as truth, honesty, courtesy, tolerance, respect and thrift. Although less so than in the past, the British remain among the world’s best exemplars of these qualities, and there is still abundant evidence of them at the individual level. Nevertheless, the negative consequences of national policies and personal behaviour are all too often allowed more publicity, even encouragement, than the positive.

    Paralytic bureaucracy and police inaction comfort law-breakers; criminals appear as heroes, while innocent victims suffer; the “public interest” trumps the right to privacy; anonymous defamation in social media goes unpunished; irresponsible minorities thrive, while the trustworthy majority are discouraged; truth is tempered by “political correctness”; excessive borrowing and spending are promoted, but prudent saving is devalued; those who admit criminal damage and wish to “cancel our culture” go unpunished, while those seeking to defend our history are dishonoured; rights are granted without concomitant responsibilities, and so on.

    Achieving national unity, increasing prosperity and limiting state intervention will not be successful without public confidence that government policy is designed to encourage and reward those who try to do their honest best for themselves, their families and their country.

    John Hosking,

    Charing, Kent

    1. Achieving national unity, increasing prosperity and limiting state intervention will not be successful without public confidence that government policy is designed to encourage and reward those who try to do their honest best for themselves, their families and their country.

      So that will be NO then John?

    2. 351147+ up ticks,

      Morning E,

      Currently unachievable, and will not be achievable all
      the while the 650 are in place.

  24. We need to talk about energy. Spiked. 28 February 2022.

    But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all bets are now off when it comes to sourcing supplies of hydrocarbons, especially in Europe. The first casualty of the Ukraine debacle was inevitably the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany. At the same time, Brent crude oil hit a high of $104 per barrel. Whatever happens in Ukraine over the next few months, we will not be able to depend on gas and oil supplies from Russia for the foreseeable future. We are therefore increasingly on our own. In an emergency like this, the case for allowing fracking to go ahead is now irresistible, as is that for allowing further offshore gas developments.

    What of the environmental lobby? The government must, however painful this may be, face it down. If it doesn’t, and we continue to run down our own fossil-fuel capabilities in order to keep the greens on side, we risk catastrophe in two ways. First, it is increasingly likely that we won’t be able to keep the lights on. And second, the damage to democracy will be immense if the government has to tell very large numbers of working people that they will have to put up with a disastrous drop in their living standards because successive governments, cheered on by a green minority, have closed off potentially more preferable options.

    The war against Russia is not one that we can afford. It’s most likely outcome, assuming it doesn’t go nuclear, is the collapse of the World Financial System.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/27/we-need-to-talk-about-energy/

  26. Good morning, all. Just passing through while waiting for the Boss to be ready to leave.

    My heart nearly stopped when I read that that deranged Van Der Liar woman said yesterday that, “The Ukraine must join the EU – they belong with us.”

    Clearly this consummate idiot does not understand WHY Russian tanks are surrounding Kiev. Or perhaps she really DOES want to bring the world to an end. She obviously does not realise the damage that the EU has done in the regon.

        1. I value all opinions. The cause of the present crisis is more than just the EU/NATO issue but imho it is a major factor.

          2. I hope Putin got the memo that the UK has left, before he obliterates every capital city in the EU.

        3. Good morning, Geoffrey

          Maybe that is because they have rather more rational thought processes than you do?

        4. Only fools fail to be cognisant of all points of view. It guarantees that they will be on the losing side.

    3. ‘Morning Bill. Ursula Fonda-Lying is just another grandstanding politician, enjoying a brief spell in the limelight. She raises stupidity to new heights so she is at least consistent.

      1. “She raises stupidity to new heights so she is at least consistent.” Liz Truss is catching up fast in the outside lane.

    4. Well, she was a failed Minister for the Military, before she was not elected to her present post – at which she is also failing.

    5. Good morning Mr T, and everyone.

      No, unfortunately UvdL is not deranged.

      Some 80% of German military casualties in Part II of the World War series occurred in the Ukraine.

      Fertile soil.

      1. I would challenge your 80% figure being in the Ukraine.
        That figure is for the whole of the Eastern front.

  27. An interesting take on the rise of American antifascism by “The Z man”. The article is well worth reading.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/all-hitler-all-the-time/

    In the 1990s, Peter Brimelow used the term “Hitler’s Revenge” as part of his critique of American immigration policy. He noted that the U.S. political elite emerged from the war obsessed with cleansing itself of racism or xenophobia. One result of that was the Immigration Act of 1965. Brimelow warned that the resulting flood of migrants would threaten to unbalance the culture of the nation if allowed to happen.
    Like Sibyl Moholy-Nagy in 1968, Brimelow was referring to a strange phenomenon among political and intellectual elites. The people who had vanquished fascism in Europe remained haunted by it. The fear that some hint of fascism could lie in the soul of the West led them to search out new versions of that which they determined was the opposite of fascism. Antifascism has come to define the West.

      1. Self-destruction writ large.
        Although the article is essentially regarding America it applies equally to most of the “West”.

      2. Left-wing fascists is a tautology. Fascism is Left Wing as it originated as a non-Marxist form of Socialism.

    2. And now, of course, we have, in the real sense of the term as defined by Mussolini, a fascist government in Washington.

  29. SIR – I am an ancient widow and unable to do much, but I will support the people of Ukraine by planting some sunflower seeds, their national flower.

    Jennifer Hammond

    Aah bless.

      1. No need, Tom. Russia is already reeling quaking in their boots after being banned from participating in the Eurovision Song Contest.

    2. Fair do’s to Jennifer. Her letter rendered me speechless.
      My family would be dead impressed.

  32. Impact of climate crisis much worse than predicted, says Alok Sharma. 28 February 2022.

    The impacts of the climate crisis are proving much worse than predicted, and governments must act more urgently to adapt to them or face global disaster, the UK president of the UN climate talks has warned on the eve of a landmark new scientific assessment of the climate.

    Alok Sharma, who led the Cop26 climate summit last year, said: “The changes in the climate we are seeing today are affecting us much sooner and are greater than we originally thought. The impacts on our daily lives will be increasingly severe and stark. We will be doing ourselves and our populations a huge disservice if we fail to prepare now, based on the very clear science before us.”

    If this is so why can I not see it? Why do its supporters have their own private jets?

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/environment/impact-of-climate-crisis-much-worse-than-predicted-says-alok-sharma/ar-AAUoIUx

    1. Any evidence for this that we have not already seen in the last 3 centuries when no one had conceived of the concept of global warming?

    2. ‘Morning Minty. Prayer for Today on R4 was in ‘global warming’ mode this morning. No wonder; it was presented by an ‘environmentalist’. It contained some fairly extreme statements, which are right up the BBC’s street. Complaint sent (for all the good it will do).

    3. The reason you cannot see it is because the source of the light and the cause of real change, that big yellow thing in the sky, is being blocked out by the CONtrails of the hypocritical COProphagiacs flying around in those private jets

    4. Scare-mongering from the UK president of the UN climate talks just before a new assessment of the climate is revealed. Is ANYONE the least bit surprised?

        1. I’ve noticed a drop-off in masks in Lidl and on Saturday evening I went with 15 others to the Cricketer’s Arms at Eight Ash Green. The place was heaving with diners from before 7 o’clock and up to gone 9: not a mask in sight, customers and staff.

    5. That’s the chosen global topic for the week is it? Good. Glad they’ve stopped baiting Russia. We co-existed very happily with the iron curtain for many years. If they want to go back to that scenario, it’s fine by me.

    6. A Climate Changer’s Wet Dream of Proof.
      The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from the Consulate at Bergen, Norway.

      Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone.

      Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.

      Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm

      Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

      Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

      Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coast cities uninhabitable.

      I must apologise. I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post 99 years ago. This must have been caused by the Model T Ford’s emissions or possibly from horse and cattle farts.

      1. From the Beano(real news) 29 Feb 1972

        Dramatic drop in water temperatures in Arctic Waters

        Global Cooling is on its’ way

        Get igloo building lessons now.

        The lion will be replaced by the Polar Bear, in Africa

    7. A Climate Changer’s Wet Dream of Proof.
      The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from the Consulate at Bergen, Norway.

      Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone.

      Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.

      Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm

      Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

      Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

      Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coast cities uninhabitable.

      I must apologise. I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post 99 years ago. This must have been caused by the Model T Ford’s emissions or possibly from horse and cattle farts.

    8. That the same Alok Sharma who spent a lot of last year jetting around the world to er, encourage people to fly around the world less often? Oh, wait – that only applies to the plebs!

    9. “Impact of climate crisis climate crisis measures much worse than predicted, says Alok Sharma. 28 February 2022.”

      That’s fixed it.

  33. SIR – It is now five months since I applied to the DVLA to renew my driving licence. I cannot find out what the hold-up is, the website is automated, the phone rings off and emails are automated. I have now written to my MP to see if he can help.

    What is going on at the DVLA, and is it even fit for purpose?

    Anne Stern
    Henfield, West Sussex

    To answer your closing paragraph:

    1. Not a lot

    2. No

    It’s just another part of the public sector that is providing a shameful service and where wholesale reform, including a new boss, is long overdue.

    1. Mrs Stern should contact her MP. He has nothing to do at present – and will be able to apply pressure to achieve what the lady want.

      1. He

        Yo Mr T, you naughty boy-girt-gurl-trannyradio etc

        Yo should send him a letter first, asking him how he wants to be pronouned

      2. He

        Yo Mr T, you naughty boy-girt-gurl-trannyradio etc

        Yo should send him a letter first, asking him how he wants to be pronouned

      3. He

        Yo Mr T, you naughty boy-girt-gurl-trannyradio etc

        Yo should send him a letter first, asking him how he wants to be pronouned

      5. Better still, write to Huw Merriman, chairman of the H of C Transport Committee. He got my 5 month old application sorted out in a couple of weeks. The more people who write to him about the DVLA’s pitiful performance, the better.

    2. Vehicle and driver licencing should never have been taken away from the county councils.

      1. As was mentioned around here before, that is why updates which can be achieved online are hassle-free, the trouble comes when those sitting at home don’t have access to offline records or competent colleagues to deal with their inabilities.

      3. Had occasion to talk to Barclays about Mother’s account. A nice lady working from home was quick & efficient in sorting out the problem, so it is possible – if you have the will, of course.

        1. From what my son and his girlfriend have said, they are actually working harder while working at home. No distractions from colleagues stopping for a chat. many more like them but too many using it as an excuse to be idle.

    5. Public sector pay when the service is poor should be reduced by 5% each month until it starts to improve.

    6. If you work for the DVLA you are not paid by the public other than through their taxes, so you don’t have to please them. You work for the government so the likelihood you will ever be sacked is basically zero. So you can take as much time off as you like because of Covid and simply leave people to their fate. What is great about this automated system is that people often have no choice but to drive. So if they get caught without a license, that’s just great, more revenue for the government. All round it is a win win for the government as they have found yet more ways to leech of the people.

    7. I’m in a similar position. Have decided I don’t need to worry about not having licence – if I get nabbed for anything, I’m damned sure they’ll be able to find me.

      1. You won’t be in trouble if the application was made before expiry, and you haven’t been told in the interim not to drive on medical grounds.

        1. I’ve still got my Section 66 (I think it is) letter from the DVLA telling me that from the last time they effed it up. I did get a six month extension on my licence, though. I’m shortly going to have to go through it again, but this time, I’ll do it on line and not bother keeping my D1/C1 entitlement. I can’t get a medical anyway and it’s £70 I can spend on heating.

          1. Yes, dropping those categories would have made life a lot easier, but having driven community buses for the past 11 years I wanted to hang on to mine until the first signs of going ga-ga appear. (My children think tbis happened some time ago.)

          2. I wanted to hang on to mine, too, which is why I had such a problem last time. This time I thought, “I haven’t driven a community minibus in the last three years and it’s even longer since I drove a steamroller, so I’ll take the route of least resistance”. The camper is just within the 3.6 t limit to be driven on an ordinary licence (and I’d like eventually to downsize a few feet), so it doesn’t make that much difference. It’s just annoying that it’s been taken away from me when I’m perfectly capable of retaining it.

    1. What have they done to the world with kindly people in it in which we grew up?

      One of our former students did a PGCE in order to became a primary school teacher. A little girl fell over in the playground and grazed her knee quite badly when she was doing teaching practice and so she went over, put her on her feet, hugged and comforted the little girl. One of the other teachers reprimanded her and said that on no account should she do that sort of thing. She decided not to become a primary school teacher after all. A poor little boy got the end of his willy caught in a zip but the teachers were so worried about trying to do anything that they did nothing and the poor little chap had to wait, unhelped and uncomforted until “professional” assistance turned up.

      1. One of my friends is a teacher at a primary school for the less academic children.
        If one of them has a ‘toilet’ accident, the teacher or her assistant is not allowed to help them clean themselves. She has to stand outside the door and hand in extra tissues.

      2. Grandfather-in Law Pat, the nicest man you could ever hope to meet, had the same experience as your teacher trainee. His was at the seafront in Bexhill, where the little girl fell off her little bicycle. He pucke her up, brushed her down, and helped her to find her parents- who responded by heavy threats about calling the police and insults of “pædo” nature.
        Poor Pat was terribly upset, as would anyone coming to the aid of a hurt child be.

    2. What have they done to the world with kindly people in it in which we grew up?

      One of our former students did a PGCE in order to became a primary school teacher. A little girl fell over in the playground and grazed her knee quite badly when she was doing teaching practice and so she went over, put her on her feet, hugged and comforted the little girl. One of the other teachers reprimanded her and said that on no account should she do that sort of thing. She decided not to become a primary school teacher after all. A poor little boy got the end of his willy caught in a zip but the teachers were so worried about trying to do anything that they did nothing and the poor little chap had to wait, unhelped and uncomforted until “professional” assistance turned up.

    5. Happy Birthday, Jeremy.
      I won’t sing it because that would offend your musical sensibilities.

  36. I note that Tim Stanley, who ought to know better, de-gendered John 15:13 on the God-spot this morning.

    3. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
      “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

      In these over-sexualised, over-thinking times it might be misunderstood, but I resent being demoted from being a Man to being a neutral, harmless “one”.
      Man is something noble and tragic, a being that encapsulates all our human strength and frailty, the best or the worst of humanity.

      1. I despair that such people (which includes most CoE priestesses) are so ignorant that they do not understand that the term man used in such contexts (especially in the Bible) refers to the universal mankind, not just the male of the species. When will the despoliation of the English language end with these hooligans?

      2. God created a companion from the rib of Adam, who said I will call her “woman” because she came from man.

    4. It’s degendered in my father’s 1932 pocket Bible, given to him at the age of seven in Methodist Cornwall in the 1930s.

    2. Thank you both for your good wishes. I celebrate on the 28th. I could celebrate on the next nearest day, 1 March, but I usually haven’t recovered from the day before. I still read the posts on here but have refrained from commenting for a while. I was ill with something, probably Lyme’s disease, but they didn’t find it in my blood sample so I didn’t get any treatment. Lethargy doesn’t even begin to describe it. Been invited to a restaurant meal with friends tonight. Thanks to those who respond, I shall start making post on here again.

  40. Morning all. Cold and gloomy here, thank god. Suitable weather for this time of year here.

    Todays letter: “Putin’s insane dream of restoring the Evil Empire must never be realised”. Is, as if any proof were needed that people haven’t a clue about Putin or Russia or what it is all about.
    I saw another headline this morning that Ukraine is winning the propaganda war. Winning, how could he not win that aspect of the war. Can anyone recall any airing, in the MSM of the complaints of Russia?

  41. ‘Morning All

    Satire is dead……

    Yesterday I posted a meme about about the Go Compare Meerkats being arrested/interned

    Today…….

    “Compare the Market is to review its advertising campaign depicting an

    animated Russian meerkat to ensure it is not played around news

    bulletins reporting on the Ukraine war.

    The price comparison

    website insisted it would not suspend the campaign but that it was

    examining its marketing and would be “sensitive” to when it plays the

    adverts, which feature a Russian meerkat named Aleksandr Orlov.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/compare-market-reviews-russian-meerkat-advertising-sensitivity/

    Obviously ther has been pressure to remove them!! and many other interferences by the sound of it!!

    “Multiple firms have come under pressure to adjust their advertising and branding following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

    2. Sadly, I predicted this would happen by last Saturday.
      Maybe if they renamed them Oleksander and Serge things would calm down.

    1. In the top one, why is the man listening to the traffic news in German, if that’s Ukraine?? Not going to be much use to him getting traffic updates about the A3 motorway, is it.

    2. Reminds me of those pavement artists who produce such realistic pictures.
      You know darn well they are a chalk creation, but you still daren’t challenge what your visual brain is telling you.

      1. Four decades ago, there was a Queen Mary trailer and a couple of Studebaker cab units heaped up and abandoned as scrap between Bittern & Woolston. They all vanished during the ’80s.

  43. Almost 1,000 people seek compensation over ‘severe disability from Covid vaccine’

    Government scheme provides payments of up to £120,000 to anyone who suffers significant harm as a result of a jab

    The Final Score

    Patients + Families £100.000.00 …………….. Bliar Witch & Co £500,000.00

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/27/almost-1000-people-seek-compensation-severe-disability-covid/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-onward-journey

    1. Caroline and I both had Covid a couple of weeks ago – it made us sleepy and we slept a lot for a couple of days but that was all it did in spite of the fact that, according to the dire warnings, it should have killed me at my age, my vaccination status and with my ‘co-morbidities’.

      However Covid did successful kill:

      Our business
      Much of our social life
      Our ability to travel to see our sons in England
      Our trips to our boat berthed in Turkey

      Yes, the politicians are right in saying that it is a killer because it does kill so many things but in truth it kills a fraction of one percent of the people who actually get it.

      I have commented before on how many funerals Caroline has had to play at recently. More for people dying of things related to Covid (e.g.s gene therapy and suicide) than of the actual malady itself. We woke up this morning and the phone rang to ask Caroline if she couldplay in four more funerals in our parish this coming week.

      When the full truth emerges – if it ever does – will the PTB be able to wriggle free?

      1. I too had COVID about a month ago. My daughter, who had dropped off her son for us to childmind, phoned us later that same day to say she had just tested positive. Three days later I developed mild symptoms – headache, runny nose, slight sore throat. If I had been unaware of COVID, I would have assumed I had a slight cold, and one which would not have prevented me going into work if I had not retired. I tested myself a couple of days later, as we childmind for two other grandchildren. The test was positive. At no time did I ever feel unwell. I am 70 and in good health. Personal experience of this ‘pandemic’ is that is has been much exaggerated.

          1. It was the first time I had taken a test, and that was purely because I wanted to confirm my suspicion that I had contracted COVID and not wanting to pass it on to grandchildren. I would not contemplate regular testing without symptoms.

      2. “When the full truth emerges – if it ever does – will the PTB be able to wriggle free?”
        Yes. They always do.

  45. Ukraine………

    https://twitter.com/ScottJa93317027/status/1497978371120431104?s=20&t=jMDR-1AjRs0MFijhmU3SIA

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5726abdf3e991a58dd310b991212f66703d791118092655137577baf116a40f9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2fe2cf5e5fdf90aa195b23574245ec4e99cf88276959db1f6faf2da8d9a6a1a0.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03c64473f8f004b6aa634671c7406bc95bc722972f5745a748700080f39364c8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df2cf2fce7fbb248b7cb72d89f743fb5abf2546abfc6932135ad55d8a0fa0ee2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22a4ce40c6467dec29d27a33612ee45ac84dfe2acc31ac969fed2e6249bee038.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0685e4f385e3994ccc3d28083e6902fde40ec7347b725c60c2ed795e0cbeed1e.jpg

    1. Very well said, Rik

      With people like this in the government’s party no wonder we are in such a mess.

      1. He may have lotsa slammas in his CONstituency

        President levels of Postal voting can alter results too

      1. Can I suggest that we also kill all breeds of Russian dogs as we did Dachshunds during the first world war. I would advocate, especially, the stoning of puppies by the children.

    4. Another utter twerp.

      People like Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale are the ones who have made our magnificent Northern cities unliveable in by Islamifying huge areas with knife throwers , backside benders , pyjama clad men who worry western women and young girls and mosques replacing Christian churches .

      Islamic types who have turned cosy northern streets into ghettos of unrest and violence .

      I will never ever ever ever ever put a X on a ballot paper ever again.

      We have all been betrayed .

    5. Is it a competition to see which politician can produce the stupidest quote now?

      I think U. van der Leyen is still way out in front, but she has tough competition.
      Perhaps we should save them and award a NOTTL Wooden Spoon for Political Fool of the Year?

    3. Another absurd exaggeration from the Express. Perhaps it’s an in-house running joke…

  48. Impact of climate crisis much worse than predicted, says Alok Sharma. 28 February 2022.
    Absolutely Correct
    The Greenscam has raised my energy prices by 50% now and probably by another 80% at the end of the year
    As you look down from your private jet I’m sure your thoughts are with the impoverished UK pensioners……..
    Tosser!!

    1. In a self serving study, some Canadian psychiatrists union is claiming the climate crisis is apparently increasing the need for mental health services, especially among the young.

      Basically give us more money.

      1. I suspect a lot of Canadian children (and those in other countries) will be developing mental health issues from all the scare-mongering they have been exposed to for the last two years (and continuing) . Our older grandchild there is already extremely anxious about ‘germs’ and getting too close to other children, believes masks are essential for their ‘safety’. It’s been instilled in them that other people might give them and their parents terrible germs that could kill them all.

    2. In a self serving study, some Canadian psychiatrists union is claiming the climate crisis is apparently increasing the need for mental health services, especially among the young.

      Basically give us more money.

  49. Good morning everyone.
    Now I’ve heard it all. A local care home has gone right down the pan with this.
    They posted on farcebook that “TODAY IS OUR RAINBOW DAY TO SHOW OUR SUPPORT FOR THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY #loveislove #lgbtqpride”
    At best, I doubt any of the 35 residents give a stuff, and would be far better served by having a nice chocolate biscuit or two with their cup of tea.
    Maybe one of the staff is an lgbtqxyz member but that should never be even remotely brought into work.

    1. Morning! Andrew Doyle on GB News yesterday evening was talking about how many gay people like him are thoroughly fed up with this nonsence too. They just want to get on with their lives and not be defined by rainbow flags and silly costumes.

      1. Similarly, some years ago and long before all the lgbtqxyz was rammed in our faces, I used to see a man/woman in the local pharmacy. Looked strange, clearly still a man in spite of the clothing and wig, but not bothering anyone. I dare say that person just wants/wanted to live life quietly with no interference. Such people probably get more ‘looks’ and negativity these days. Same with the non-whites, the aggressive publicity, ‘positive discrimination’ and stupid hate laws have actually stirred up far more resentment and negative feeling.

        1. A looks like a woman server in our local coffee shop wears a small preferred he/him badge and apart from a shocking lack of dress sense, that is it.

          We have chatted over several months about the changes she is facing (well what else do you talk about when your coffee is being prepared?), but apart from that, life is normal.

          Just as it should be – an adult making his/her own decisions with a full understanding of what lies ahead.

          1. As long as these people mind their own business, I don’t have an issue with them though I do wonder about their state of mind. Their life, their choice.

        2. There used to be a haberdashery shop in Leytonstone run by two women. One was a real homely housewife type – sensibly dressed in something drip dry; the other was very much elegant and Jaegar – particularly her nice scarves.
          After a while, I realised she was a man; the scarves hid the Adam’s Apple but nothing could hide the wrists and hands.
          I always wondered if they were husband and wife.

      3. I had a very good homosexual friend when I was in my early 20’s and he died of AIDS before they had any idea of how to treat it.

        He was very good-looking, civilised, musically talented, humorous and excellent company and he was very much liked by the girls in our social group. Nobody was nasty to him but we might have teased him as one teases one’s good friends – I am myself teased by my best friends and I am glad of it: it shows that I am held in affection by them!

        I have always had many good male friends but I never been able to understand the sexuality of homosexuality. One of my friends put it succinctly when he said: “I cannot understand homosexual men but I can fully understand lesbians because they don’t fancy men and nor do I, and they do fancy women and so do I.”

      4. There are a couple of gay men who sometimes visit our pub- quite elderly and have been together for close to 40 years. They also despise all this nonsense and simply want to be left to live their lives in peace

        1. Exactly.
          When you look at the moral decadence of The West, is it any surprise that the likes of Putin despise us so much?

          1. In my holiday job in the jewellers, there was a gay guy there. This was in the early 70s. He was charming, hard working and efficient and not at all “camp”. He confided in me and the assistant manager that he was gay and begged us to keep it quiet as he was terrified of losing his job. He didn’t flaunt it just got on with his life and never regaled us with any anecdotes about encounters.

          3. Not sure, maybe a need to tell someone and he knew that we were good guys. Other than that- your guess is as good as mine.

    2. A local care home where no doubt the residents weren’t allowed to see their families over the last two years, and now they have to be annoyed with having left wing extremism rammed down their throats.

      1. Many of them will be too far gone with dementia or real health concerns to understand what is being done in their name. They will simply think the rainbows are very pretty and wonder where is the sun & rain mix.

  50. Now where did I put those beans….NoTTlers?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2810cd82b2d8cf721c66711d27162a39876e458e82b9a361fd88086a4483c96d.jpg

    Uni dropout, 25, who quit international relations degree for OnlyFans reveals she has made more than £2MILLION on the platform – where men ask her to pour beans on herself and pretend to be a giant that squashes them.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10557855/Uni-dropout-25-quit-degree-OnlyFans-reveals-2MILLION.html

    1. Why do young people disfigure themselves with unintelligible tattoos? Just imagine what they will look like when they are a saggy-skinned octogenarian.

      1. When meeting younger son’s future mother-in-law for the first time, I made a comment about women & tattoos. it turned out she had several :)) But, much to son’s disgust, I stood by my opinion. It is never a good look on females, young or old, a view I suspect her own mother held. .

      2. Body graffiti is like the graffiti found in the commonest and grubbiest streets and subways.

    2. She appears to be putting her limited knowledge of ‘international relations’ into practice!

      1. I thought you were referring to Liz Truss there and began wondering who’d been playing seabirds with her!

    3. What a shallow slapper!
      As for those ridiculous scraps of fabric that pretend to be a bikini top, is she too stingy to buy something that actually fits?

    4. She has Tramp Stamps .

      Women and girls who cover themselves in ink have deep pyschological issues , and by abusing their bodies like that, will only lead to more abuse.

      2. Plenty of work for my niece.
        Don’t knock it.

        Amazingly, many of the tattooed get their skin lasered – C21 version of scraping down parchment – to provide a blank canvas for the next artwork.

        Skin cancer – here we come.

  52. The price of natural gas in Europe had risen by 35% at the opening of trading on Monday, data from the London Stock Exchange ICE shows. Higher energy costs are being propelled by supply worries due to sanctions against Moscow related to the conflict in Ukraine.

    Russia provides around 40% of the continent’s gas supplies.

    April futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands jumped to $1,454 per 1,000 cubic meters.

  53. We now have “royals” etc talking about protecting women.
    We used to have this:

    To fear God and maintain His Church
    To serve the liege lord in valour and faith
    To protect the weak and defenceless
    To give succour to widows and orphans
    To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
    To live by honour and for glory
    To despise pecuniary reward
    To fight for the welfare of all
    To obey those placed in authority
    To guard the honour of fellow knights
    To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
    To keep faith
    At all times to speak the truth
    To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
    To respect the honour of women
    Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
    Never to turn the back upon a foe

    The Code of Chivalry from the Song of Roland.

    2. The 7 Acts of Corporal Mercy:

      1. To feed the hungry.
      2. To give water to the thirsty.
      3. To clothe the naked.
      4. To shelter the homeless.
      5. To visit the sick.
      6. To visit the imprisoned, or ransom the captive.
      7. To bury the dead.

      The 7 Acts of Spiritual Mercy:

      1. To instruct the ignorant.
      2. To counsel the doubtful.
      3. To admonish the sinners.
      4. To bear patiently those who wrong us.
      5. To forgive offences.
      6. To comfort the afflicted.
      7. To pray for the living and the dead.

  54. Araminta. I could not find your post concerning climate earlier on today because I went to look for the video below, finally found it, but lost your remarks in the process. Seems that censorship, regardless if it is war or climate, is now the new society we live in where group think reigns.

    Google pulls ads on meteorologist tracking climate for ‘unreliable and harmful claims
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZy8mgD05QA

    1. He’s white, male and is using examination and evidence to question a theory.

      As far as the Left are concerned, he’s public enemy number 1. The lie cannot be denied, questioned or challenged. That makes it not science at all, but religion. We all know that green is just a tax scam.

    1. Well yes, they are fighting for our propaganda, so that makes it OK. Even though our propaganda is a pack of lies about what the war is about. It seems that now a days we do not fight for truth or decency but for a subjective truth that is manufactured for us and which we are expected to swallow. If you actually have an inkling what the truth is then you are a traitor, a danger to society, worthy of being eradicated. Pretty soon all dissenters will be rounded up and given treatment to cure them of their delusion that objective reality really matters. We are only one one step from that since, already, police will knock on your door to ‘check your thinking’.

      1. Is that yes they are different?

        Edit, Damn pressed post instead of para return.

        I was going to add that essentially so were those going to fight against the evil dictator Assad.

        1. Exactly. They are on the side of Righteous Indignation and Boris the Fat. May he reign in glory.

    2. Well, yes. These are volunteers who are approved by the UK government, what one might call the “Truss Brigade”. As freelance fighters one suspects that they have no umbrella of the Geneva convention and may be shot if captured.

      1. They are fighting for their beliefs, as were the Muslims, I fail to see any real difference and I’m afraid I can’t support their actions any more than I could support Begum, who I think should be shot.
        Taking the Truss Brigade analogy to its logical conclusion why don’t we pay for a bunch of mercenaries to go out?
        If it really is “our” conflict we should declare such, much as I shudder at the thought. I greatly fear that we are going to be dragged into an appalling war on the backs of such people.

        1. It could be said that Ukrainians haven’t been blowing us up on our buses or at pop concerts.

          1. True.
            But how can you be certain that they might not do so under a false flag to get the UK into their war?

        2. I’d have thought that we would have taken neutral stance (if not actually pro-Russian). That would have been sensible. It may be that the USA threatened to extend sanctions to “neutrals” who continued to trade with Russia, and we chickened. Being neutral would have meant no sending any aid to Ukraine. We have lost any semblance of neutrality and are close to taking very dangerous steps. Nor do I really think it is legal to shut down people’s bank accounts. It is certainly not ethical or morally right.

          1. Agreed, but just for once there is a sense of pleasure in a few of the wealthy elites, of whatever persuasion, suffering a little.

    3. Well, yes. These are volunteers who are approved by the UK government, what one might call the “Truss Brigade”. As freelance fighters one suspects that they have no umbrella of the Geneva convention and may be shot if captured.

    4. It appears that Truss not only cannot distinguish between various seas, but thinks that going to fight for another country isn’t actually illegal!?

      1. Or the Kurds or any other group fighting for what they believe in..
        It just strikes me that there are an awful lot of contra (ho ho) dictions in the whole approach.

    1. There is another video doing the rounds of the outraged Ukrainians throwing Molotov cocktails at a Russian tank. It turns out that the video is from the Maidan Revolution in 2014.

        1. If you are doing propaganda it is. After all it follows Joseph Goebbels dictum that if you repeat a big lie often enough people will accept it as the truth.

          2. I learnt one interesting thing about cataracts. They are not automatically the product of age. I had an accident on my bike, I hit a lamp post in the dark. Goes without saying the lamp was not working. But I violently jolted my head/neck as a result. Then a few months later I started to develop a cataract. That one was removed in the USA, in a procedure radically different from the one in England. But I was told that it is common for a cataract to develop in the other eye, a sort of sympathetic effect and sure enough along came the other cataract in the UK and that is why it was removed here. So there you go, cataracts can be caused through trauma and are not invariably a product of old age. Learn something new everyday.

          3. If you have an eye operation, you have a 50% chance of developing a cataract in that eye.
            I suppose to your body, the eye has been traumatised; whether it is by accident or by an operation is immaterial.

      2. Also the one of Ukrainians shooting down Russian planes. Actually a computer game. And planes in formation flying into Ukraine – actually a fly past at a ceremony in Moscow in 2020.

    2. There you see the biggest bunch of criminals in the world with Nancy Pelosi, the richest woman in the senate who made her money without ever doing a days work in her life. Evil and corrupt to the core. She also makes money out of Ukraine, just like her boss and his son.

    4. The only way they could ever address, try to alleviate or disencumber themselves from all of their sins is to lay their heads on a well used railway track.

    1. They conveniently forget that Labour privatised 30% of NHS services when they were last in power.

      1. The PPI contracts that are still costing NHS trusts a small fortune. I think a hospital in our area, Hinchingbrooke, was one such afflicted. Already needs multi-millions spending to repair defects and shoddy building.

        1. Why aren’t the PPI firms doing the work, given that’s what they are being paid for? Or did the NHS bungle the terms of the contract, like No 10 did with GP contracts?

    2. Before having to get treatment for cancer the only treatment I had on the NHS was for a cataract. The people who dealt with it were a private South African firm under contract to the NHS. That is 10 years ago. They’re a bit late if they thing the NHS is only now being privatised.

    3. Perhaps they should be reminded that they are our employees and it is OUR NHS not theirs.

    4. If it were mine, it’d run better. I’d sort out my knee operation much sooner. Junior’s eye appointment – his ‘urgent’ eye appointment – wouldn’t be arranged for June the 3rd. 2023.

      Clearly, it’s not ours at all. It’s the blob’s.

    2. They aren’t soldiers, they are spoilt brats who think they’ve joined the army to promote alphabet spaghetti and veganism.

      1. I cannot for obvious reasons reveal my sources. If of course you were to torture me with Gin & Tonic all afternoon i would probably cave in… :@(

        1. Plenty of gin here – left from our (thankfully) ex daughter-in-law’s boozy visits. Ditto the tonic – she didn’t seem to like the gin too diluted.

        1. Used this time to glue them selves to the road, in case of emergency they cane get up and run for it. They’d need to.

    1. Nor do their husbands and other male members of their families gang rape and sexually abuse young white girls.

  68. A Middle Eastern student who was studying at the university of Kiev was
    interviewed by a reporter who asked what he thought about the war going
    on around him … he replied that for the first time during his stay in
    the Ukraine, he no longer felt homesick …

  69. An interesting article

    What is Really Going on Ukraine? An Alternative Scenario
    The Western media is filled with stories of the brave Ukrainian people rising up to fight the evil Russians and the Russians are paying a terrible toll, or so we are told. But if you step back and look at what is actually transpiring you will note the following:

    Unlike the U.S. “shock and awe” unleashed on Baghdad in 2003, which caused significant civilian casualties and destroyed infrastructure and damaged power grids and destroyed bridges, the Russian military is avoiding hitting population centers. The power is still on in Kiev and Kharkov last I checked.
    You are not seeing raging battles in the streets of Kiev or Kharkov between Ukrainian and Russian military forces.
    Some believe this indicates Putin’s troops are bogged down and making little progress. But I think there is an alternative explanation. First, Russia has not deployed its most sophisticated weaponry. It remains in place in Russia on the Ukrainian border but showing no signs as of this writing of being activated. Second, little attention is being paid to eastern Ukraine where the bulk of the Ukrainian Army is deployed. Jacob Dreizin offers some important insight on this:

    You won’t hear this on CNN, but Putin’s Army of Darkness, in the most complex and ambitious ground maneuver operation since World War 2, following the Soviet “deep war” playbook, is also working on cutting off the Ukrainian army group in the Donbass from Kiev. This is by far the most capable (or only capable) large portion of the Ukrainian army. Yesterday, its main reserves of diesel fuel were destroyed from the air. It will soon be cut off and immobile.

    Once that happens, the entire Donbass front collapses (they will no longer have a “front”), and BILLIONS of dollars in U.S.-funded or U.S.-supplied weaponry will be captured almost without a battle. (To be clear, it’s almost all U.S. funded or supplied—even most of the Soviet vintage stuff was bought and shipped in from Poland, Czechia, etc. by the CIA, “off the books” but well documented in videos of tank trains crossing the border into Ukraine, in 2015-2016.)

    The Russians have finally entered Kharkov, Ukraine’s second largest city, very close to the Russian border. Previously, they had bypassed it the same way that America bypassed every town in southern Iraq to reach Baghdad in 2003. On Saturday night, they finally wasted all significant, organized resistance with a rain of thermobaric death in the outskirts. Today, they started to go in and mop up. Of course, it’s not a job for one day.

    The Ukrainian army is falling back (mostly in organized fashion) throughout the Donbass. They have largely evacuated Mariupol, a very pro-Russian, major steelmaking and steel-shipping center (responsible for billions of dollars in exports) on the Sea of Azov. The sole garrison in Mariupol is now said to be the Azov regiment, a group of bona fide, tattooed Nazis—you know, your typical Ukrainian democracy guys, the ones the MSM doesn’t tell you about, and our State Department prefers to ignore. The kind of guys you must use to garrison a pro-Russian city that hates you.

    The “real” army looks to be falling back to Dnepropetrovsk, about 60 miles west of Donetsk, if the Russians don’t cut them off—that’s now the big “if.” Either way, they’ll get hit badly from the air.

    They are leaving behind lots of brand spanking new, British and American weaponry. I wish I had time to make a photo collage for you. It turns out, the stuff doesn’t work well. Among other things, you have to charge the battery on those Javelins or whatever. No charge, no fire. No one told them. I guess they had so many dumped on them, it was not realistic to plug them all into the wall, and sit there and wait. I can relate, I don’t even like waiting to charge one new smartphone.

    The Ukrainian Air Force, what is left of it, is now flying on Helen Keller terms. It seems that Ukraine combat aircraft rely on ground controlled radar to conduct air to air intercepts. Guess what the Russians obliterated in the first hours of their invasion on Wednesday? If you said, “ground controlled radar” you are a winner.

    Without that radar the Russians have air superiority. They have castrated the Ukrainians ability to provide close air support and disrupt Russian air cover. They are flying blind (if they are flying and can find an operational air field.) Then there are the lines of communication for the Ukrainian Army. Critical military fuel dumps are on fire and the ability of the Ukrainian Army to keep their tanks and trucks running is slipping away.

    This perhaps explains the volte face of Zelensky in being willing to sit down with the Russians and try to negotiate an end to the evisceration of Ukraine’s military capability.

    1. The Russian Army has announced in the past few hours that none of the arms from the EU countries will reach its desired destination.
      There are no military airfields in a fit state to receive aircraft and if they try by road or rail the transport will be destroyed.

      1. Interesting to see if the EU will start WW3 on its doorstep if arms convoys are attacked en route. No chance in my book.

    3. “They are leaving behind lots of brand spanking new, British and American weaponry. I wish I had time to make a photo collage for you. It turns out, the stuff doesn’t work well. Among other things, you have to charge the battery on those Javelins or whatever. No charge, no fire. No one told them. I guess they had so many dumped on them, it was not realistic to plug them all into the wall, and sit there and wait. I can relate,” I have said for a while that there’s no point in shipping sophisticated weaponry without the support & training it needs to be properly used.
      So, now Russia has the newest UK and US shooty bangy stuff. Good-oh.

    4. Cutting off the fuel supplies was what bombing the synthetic oil plants was all about in WW2. German tanks ran out of puff. Taking out the GCR is the equivalent of knocking out Chain Home and Chain Home Low in 1940. Fortunately, the Germans didn’t think it important, but Putin knows better.

  70. Headline from Russia Today:

    Ukraine ‘deserves’ emergency EU accession – Zelensky
    By defending the European Union from a Russian attack, Ukrainians are paying for a place in the EU, the president has said

    …Hell, no!

    2. And that, of course, would drag us all into the war and, at that point, we would all end up dead. And people think Zelensky is rational and Putin mad.

      1. Ursula van der Leyen is probably rolling out the red carpet as we speak, if she hasn’t been restrained by anyone with the remnants of sanity.

        2. The Russian are advancing and the Ukrainians are pretending that the locals are putting up a tremendous resistance. The fact that the Russians have been ordered not to harm civilians is neither here nor there. The Russian targets are of a military and strategic nature. I did post a latest up date a couple of hours ago, if you can find it. Now talks are going on in Minsk between the two sides. The lunatic who runs Ukraine has requested that Ukraine be instantly recognized as a member of NATO. Of course that is really lunacy because it would make the rest of Europe a target and we would all probably die from thermonuclear war. And, as I said earlier on, Putin is supposed to be the one that’s insane!

  72. O/T As i was having roast beef yesterday i decided to open a Cahors Malbec. Drank half of it throughout the afternoon. It was smooth with a capital SMOO.
    I was hunting around for a muffin tray for my Yorkie puds. Couldn’t find my usual one. I did find a heavy bottomed tin which is for the mini muffins though.
    The yorkies came out looking like little mushroom clouds which i thought appropriate.

    1. I admit, I have consistently failed ot make good Yorkshires. I mostly buy the M&S ones and pass them off as my genius.

          1. I prefer my batter puds as individuals. :@)

            That doesn’t look cooked on the bottom !

            I don’t use recipes very often either. Just trying to help out the people that haven’t managed it.

          2. It’s very common for soft southerners to have individual Yorkshires. God knows why.

            Moreover, my pud was well-cooked, delicious and enjoyed fully by those who shared it.

            I don’t use recipes: I know the proportions by feel and intuition.

            So there!

          3. A deep Yorkshire pud filled with sausages and RBG.
            😋 and a couple of bottles of Black Sheep milk stout.

          8. The on-line butcher i use also sells beef bones for stock. Periodically i will make up a batch and freeze in half pint or pints then just thicken with a little cornflour or the veg from the trivet.

            Cooking is my thing.

          9. As I’ve come to realise after reading some of your comments.
            You are very lucky to have the ability. I’m still recovering from MRE’s (meals rejected by Ethiopians).

          10. You of course have other skills. It suited me to go into catering and feed people. Yours tended to stop them from eating. :@)

          11. Very true, but dare I say – your skills are far more refined and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

          14. PS. this milk stout is very good and not to be confused with some that I remember from the 60’s/70’s.

          15. A deep Yorkshire pud filled with sausages and RBG.
            😋 and a couple of bottles of Black Sheep milk stout.

          16. I know you Northerners just care about big heaps of food on the plate but arranging the food nicely and with individual puds, makes it look more appealing and less trough like.

          17. Grandma used to make a huge dish of Yorkshire pud ..The custom was to eat the YP before the roast beef , so it was served with lashings of proper beef gravy, then the main course was then carved and served up on the same plate , if the beef was on the bone which it usually was , the marrow in the bone was a delicious tasty treat .

        2. What’s wrong with hoodwinking, if it’s good enough for the government, it’s good enough for me.

    2. That’s the same as we had for dinner. Erin had been busy all day with family things. I was challenged to make the Yorkshires and I was quite successful. they did rise well but needed a bit longer, but they had started to brown, But we had a McGuigan Black label shiraz.

    3. Off topic a bit, I was recommended to try Gunpowder Gin, when I next fancy a G&T, have you heard of it?

      1. Irish roots. Good quality but you have to like your botanicals.

        I much prefer the simplest as in London dry Gin or any dry Gin for that matter.

        Though Fevertree make great tonic water it can become confusing to the palate unless you stick to the basics. Just my opinion.

      2. If you want to try something else “gunpowder”, sample some gunpowder tea, an acquired taste but certainly different from ones usual tea.

          1. Thank you, I didn’t know that.

            I prefer my gin to be fairly “standard” in style, but as I like gunpowder tea I’ll keep an eye open for it.

        2. I read something about that a while ago… an old chap had been in the habit of drinking a cup of gunpowder tea every day for the last 40 years. When he died he was cremated.
          He was survived by his family and also by a 70 foot hole where the crematorium used to be.

        3. Had gumpowder green tea – tasted of old sprouts, and the gunpowder effect thundered through me shreddies for the next few hours… {:-))

    2. Funny 😄 ………..but having worked at kitchen fitting for a few years, you might be surprised to see what is hiding below the old cabinets when they are removed. Even the rich, educated and famous, have the same problem as the rest of us.

      1. There are mice in my building (1937, Grade II listed) and when my kitchen was refitted, we found holes in the wall behind the old fitments. They’d been getting in and, the dear little things being naturally incontinent, leaving their calling cards. All sealed up now.

        1. We had an invasion in our attached garage when we first stored the dog food in there. The mice also found a way into the kitchen. All sorted now.
          We live close to countryside and also we have people nearby with chickens. And rats frequent our kitchen waste garden compost bins, if do catch them after they have found they can’t swim for long in deep water. I recycle them via the local red kites.

          1. Why bother going all the way to the park where they could starve to death ! Just pop them through the neighbours letterbox. Sheesh !

      2. When the Royal Navy had Warships, the innards were regularly sprayed with chemicals to eradicate cockroaches
        The problem was, that all shipborne cockies seemed to have undergone the same NBCD (Nuclear Biological Chemical Defence) Training
        as the matelots. We believe they even had mini gas masks and suits.
        When the spraying was over, the ‘Roaches marched out of their hidey holes

        1. Ship’s cat had obviously been eliminated by Whitehall beancounters.
          Whether cats eat ‘roaches I have no idea, but I was told that they enjoy playing with them.

      3. When the Royal Navy had Warships, the innards were regularly spryaye with chemicals to eradicate cockroaches
        The problem was, that all shipborne cockies seemed to have undergone the same NBCD (Nuclear Biological Chemical Defence) Training
        as the matelots. We believe they even had mini gas masks and suits.
        When the spraying was over, the ‘Roaches marched out of their hidey holes

    5. The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.

      Adolf Hitler.

      2. The left side of his face looks pleasant. But if you focus only on the right side…..serial killer.

        1. Of the two I rate the lucid, objectivity and rational analytical perceptiveness of Alfred E Neuman far more highly!

        1. Talking of nonsense – which is what our friend Geoffrey usually speaks – one of Lewis Carrol’s nonsense poems contains the line: “He only does it to annoy because he knows it teases.”

          Geoffrey admits that he comes here to tease and annoy the regular Nottlers so he is fair game and deserves to be teased back!

          5. To scratch what?
            An itch, a bitch a witch or a snitch
            or wake up in a ditch without a hitch, with Mitch giving a US pitch, you titch,
            As usual?

        2. Talking of nonsense – which is what our friend Geoffrey usually speaks – one of Lewis Carrol’s nonsense poems contains the line: “He only does it to annoy because he knows it teases.”

          Geoffrey admits that he comes here to tease and annoy the regular Nottlers so he is fair game and deserves to be teased back!

    7. Mr. Woolard, have you ever tried to understand why Putin might feel disdain for the West or even looked into the background of Russian/Ukrainian relations?
      David Starkey has this excellent video, on Youtube, which was, incidentally posted earlier.
      https://youtu.be/he25Rl0fE1c

      No, I am not trying to claim Putin is right, but merely pointing out that it is better to understand your opponent or enemy than to simply parrot the mindless mantra “Putin is literally Hitler”.

      1. Bob, I have come to the conclusion that he only posts these comments to wind people up, a bit like msm click bate.

        1. My impression too.
          I do sometimes wish my fellow NOTTLers would not abuse him, but I will admit he does ask for it.

          2. I agree, it’s nice to have a constant contrary view, no matter what the subject; although can get a little repetitive.

    9. Good afternoon Geoffrey

      I am surprised you are not one of Adolph’s greatest admirers – after all you are keen to take the UK back into the EU and be under German rule and so did Hitler want Europe to be under the control of Germany. And like the Fuhrer you are eager to ignore the democratic vote.

          1. Unless it’s green tea because boiling water should never be used, it will spoil the delicate flavour.
            Don’t even mention milk in China teas

          3. Indian tea has never had the subtle quality of the vast array of China tea that is available.
            I am always surprised when people tell me China teas are expensive: if one brews a pot of leaves with just the right amount of water for the number of cups. Those leaves can then provide several cups with each refill of water. The flavour changing with each brew.
            I sure you know this, but many don’t.

          5. Ha, I get exactly what you mean.
            I love China tea and use a brown unglazed terracotta type teapot that never gets washed. It lets the tea breath while brewing.
            Sorry, China teas along with a good malt whisky are one of my little pleasures that make life worth living.

  77. Late last month the Suchet family celebrated ascending to the very pinnacle of the British establishment. The actor David Suchet, 75, best known for his career-defining role as Poirot, was knighted by the Duke of Cambridge at Windsor Castle for services to drama and charity after a career spanning more than 50 years.

    As Sir David described the ceremony as the “proudest moment of his life”, his older brother John Suchet, the 77-year-old Classic FM presenter, was among those to tweet his congratulations.

    And yet there is a third lesser-known Suchet who is provoking outrage by parroting Putin’s propaganda and casting aspersions while his troops invade Ukraine. This week Rory Suchet, one of John Suchet’s three sons from his first marriage, has been a constant presence on the Kremlin-backed broadcaster Russia Today (RT) where he has worked for more than a decade as its main news anchor.

    A few years into his time at RT he married a co-worker at the station in a ceremony at a Moscow registry office. The reception was held afterwards at his luxury apartment near Red Square. However the marriage reportedly only lasted around 18 months. He is later said to have started a relationship with another co-worker (a member of his production team) although is not thought to have any children. It is not thought that he speaks Russian either – despite its withering view of the West, the RT newsroom is English-speaking.

    Some on social media have likened Suchet to “Lord Haw-Haw”, the nickname for the radio presenter William Joyce who broadcast Nazi propaganda from Germany to British audiences during the Second World War. Hefin David, a Member of the Senedd in Wales, is among those criticising him this week, tweeting:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/27/did-rory-suchet-son-one-britains-loved-newsreaders-become-putin/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    3. He’s a bloke doing a job. I’ve worked for Russians before. Doesn’t make me a Russian spy.

      (The bloke was a human loudhailer but he didn’t interfere with our suggestions or kit choices.)

    4. I think the above is a bit off. These idiots seem to be trying to talk us into war with Russia. I do not think most of the gobshites have the smallest idea what that means. Do they seriously believe that our LBGT-supporters will go over there and kick Russian ass and let those Russkies know which darn pronoun to use?

  82. Email from British Gas.

    Hello Minty.

    You may have seen lots in the news about the energy market and the sharp rise in energy costs. We need to let you know that as a result of these continuing increases in the cost of wholesale energy and a highly turbulent market, Ofgem is raising the level of the energy price cap from 1st April.

    These considerable changes in gas, electricity rates and standing charges mean the estimated annual energy bill will rise by an average of 54%. This is an estimated figure – every household will be different depending on the amount of energy used and how you pay. See below for more detailed information on how this will affect your costs.

    At this time, your current Standard tariff is still our cheapest available. All variable tariffs, regardless of supplier, will not be above Ofgem’s energy price cap.

    There’s nothing you need to do – you’ll be switched to the new rates automatically from 1st April.

    We understand that everyone’s circumstances are different and that some may find this price increase especially difficult. We’re here to help.

    Yes we are here to help you to absolute poverty. Drop Dead!

    2. This is what happens when politicians (spit) get involved in price controls. The laws of (un)intended consequences?
      Most of us remember the days of Harold Wilson’s Prices and Incomes Policy which eventually led rampant inflation.
      These days that proves that politicians never learn.
      Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.

    4. I got one very similar from my energy company, who also offered me a better tariff if I agreed to a smart meter; this morning they rang me to ask me to book an appointment for the meter to be fitted and seemed very offended when I told them I wasn’t having one!

      2. What do the SNP need a Defence Spokesman for? I wonder what his salary is in that bunch of money grabbing shysters.

    2. As a holiday rep in Tenerife he would be accustomed to dealing with angry drunken louts, which is excellent experience for facing the Ruskies.

    1. Note that there is a time limit set on the white refugees, but none at all on those from Africa or the middle east.

    2. have been given settled status will be able to come over for 12 months.

      Is that there is 12 month window, for their arriaval
      or
      That they can remain for 12 months?

  85. Well, what a totally different day to yesterday! A slightly warmer start, but it then failed to get any warmer.
    About 2ish a light drizzle began which then turned to heavier rain.
    At least I got the last couple of logs up the “garden” chopped & stacked, then did a load of logs beside the house.
    The log shelter I’m filling is now about a quarter to a third full and I’m going for an early bath before S@H gets back from work!
    I believe he’s working at Tunstead Cement Works, t’other side of Buxton, doing maintenance work on one of the kilns.

  86. Another ad for equity release from “Readers Digest” blatantly trading on the old name. Except Readers Digest went bust and this outfit using the name seems to have rather murky ownership. Ofcom and the ASA are out of control..

    2. The lady is doing well for 80.

      Now Plum…If you had ever read her three ‘How to cook’ books you would know how to boil an egg without setting fire to the house !

      11 million on a football club. Not entirely sane is she?

    3. Delia was immaculately turned out, her kitchen spotlessly clean. Felt I could eat off her kitchen floor!
      Today’s chefs sporting scruffy beards and constantly using their hands for mixing, are a turn off………
      Take note Hairy Bikers!

      3. I have that one upstairs , I have a large collection of cookery books .

        I don’t do so much cooking these days apart from simple basics .
        Moh developed type 2 diabetes in his late forties .

        2. Oddly enough, because I dislike cooking, I, too, have a large collection of cookery books. I think that’s more because I’m a bookaholic 🙂

      4. We gave each of our sons a copy of the Delia Smith book when they went off to university and they both found it very useful and they both still enjoy cooking.

        As I remained a bachelor until I was 41 I did quite a lot of pretty basic cooking but fortunately my wife is good at cooking (as well as virtually everything else she does) and decided she preferred eating the food she had cooked rather than the food I had prepared.

        1. Yes, it was one of that classic series that they produced in the 70s and 80s. Farmhouse Cookery was another one.

    5. She didn’t teach anybody in the north of England to cook. Her first programmes were only aired in the south of the country. By the time she eventually appeared nationwide, two dozen other “celebrity” cooks had already been on the telly.

      1. Oh tut. Delia’s programs didn’t appear in the North because they knew no one would understand plain spoken English. And as for Fanny…that would have been worse !

        All you had was Spanakopita pie. Not that you knew it was called that……………….. :@)

        2. Fanny and Johnny once pulled up next to me when I was cycling, deliberately stopping my progress.
          The window of the Rolls Royce was wound down and a very distinctive voice asked directions to a local “fine restaurant”. I knew precisely where they wanted to go.
          I gave very specific instructions, which if they followed them would have ensured they would have been very late.
          Snooty cow.

    6. Smelia Diff’s cookery book still graces the kitchen bookshelf in Janus Towers. Well thumbed, too!

    2. Evening BB. I’m following the same regime as with Covid. Strict rationing! Five minutes TV today I think!

    4. Good link.
      Bits I agree with and bits I quarrel with.

      Ukraine is situated between two greater powers, Russia and the European Union. That makes Ukraine a buffer state. Geopolitical logic dictates that buffer states cultivate and maintain cordial relations with the greater powers that surround them, unless they want to be swallowed up by one of those powers. That’s because siding with one great power against another often leads to catastrophe.

      Good analysis, but the EU isn’t a “power”, it’s a jumped up bureaucracy, little more.

      Conversely, Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in 1994 in exchange for U.S. security guarantees in the event its neighbors, Russia in particular, turned hostile.

      Ukraine never had a nuclear arsenal, the USSR did, and that arsenal just happened to have been located in Ukraine.

      In 2013, the European Union offered Kyiv a trade deal, which many misunderstood as a likely prelude to EU membership. Young Ukrainians very much want to join the EU, because they want access to Europe so they can flee Ukraine, which remains one of the poorest countries on the continent.

      This is crazy, Ukraine is potentially one of the wealthiest countries anywhere, anyone with drive would want to be building there (Oligarchs/crooks/kleptomaniacs notwithstanding).
      Democrats of any colour are crooked warmongers and having the EU doing the stirring suits them down to the ground.

      And that was only the beginning. Just as Russiagate seemed to be coming to a close in July 2019, U.S. national security officials injected yet another Ukraine-related narrative into the public sphere to target the American president. This one appears to have been initiated by Ukrainian American White House official Alexander Vindman and his colleague Eric Ciaramella, a CIA analyst who had served as Vice President Biden’s point man on Ukraine during the Obama administration. When Vindman told Ciaramella about a phone call in which Trump had asked the Ukrainian president for information regarding allegations about the Biden family’s corrupt activities in Kyiv, they called on help from U.S. intelligence services, the State Department, the Pentagon, Democratic Party officials, and the press. Quick, scramble Team Ukraine—Trump is asking questions!

      Trump delusion syndrome. Arseholes

      1. “This is crazy, Ukraine is potentially one of the wealthiest countries anywhere, anyone with drive would want to be building there”
        That’s certainly the case if that list of wheat exports, mineral resources etc that’s been doing the rounds is true. Just what’s holding the country back? Logically the answer is corruption.

        1. That would be my take on it too!
          I have little doubt that Paddington bear’s voiceover has his paws deep in the till.

  89. Well, we can all relax- the Russian meerkats have been banned. Just when you thought you’d seen and heard it all.

          6. Have we done courting yet? I would like to get to the ‘nittygritty’. I like blonds. Your move sweetcheeks….

          7. I’m a guessin’ you like squash courts, grits and you’ve got nits.

            Your idea of sweet cheeks is the bits left over from producing Andouillette

          8. The French eat pissy and shitty Andouillettes. I prefer the deep fried version server in Singapore.

          9. I prefer the deep fried version server in Singapore.
            I don’t think we’re interested in your sexual proclivities.
            };-((

    2. When I read your post I thought it was fake news, turns out it’s true.

      How unbelievably +*&^%$ ing stupid can the mother *&^%%$ ing “£$%! s of b *&^&*s be?

    2. FIFA has said Russian team can play matches under the Russian FA flag, not as Russia. Poland and some other countries have said they will not play against a Russian team, whatever its construct. So, if e.g.Poland is drawn against “Russia” in the World Cup, does that mean the Rooskies will get a bye?
      It’s a mess. Not that I care overly much.

    1. Seeing as we have run out of third rate hotels perhaps they should consider Chequers? Plenty of rooms and for tents in the grounds. if there are a couple of million more than they suggest.

    4. Priti Patel should return to Uganda,Idi Amin is now dead and it’s safe to go back home….

          3. Well, more to the point: what have WE done to deserve that…(did you see that I’m being really woke and now ascribing it with a pronoun?)

    5. No worries about you being inundated by regugees,
      Trudeaus pet assistant PM has a Ukrainian background and she is pushing our responsibility (really, our responsibility?) to accept Ukrainian refugees. If only they weren’t so hideously white!

      Now the truckers are gone, Trudeau and co came out of hiding to kneel in support at pro Ukrainian demonstrations – then expressed surprise at Russian anger.

      We’ve done our bit though, they are taking Russian made vodka off the shelves in the liquor stores, that’ll teach them! One million dollars a day in oil imports continues unabated – well it has to, our resources are so badly managed that the east coast will freeze without Russian oil.

  93. Some bloke on BBC News (extended edition) has just been explaining what “nuclear deterrence”is. I was just drifting through the channels looking for something sensible, like a game show.
    However, the tone is odd. Are they actually planning a nuclear war?

    1. All this loose talk is worrying me too. They seem to think it’s a new series on BBC1, or something.

      2. They’ll be repeating some of their post-apocalyptic series from the 70s soon, as a ‘what not to do and a to do guide’.

    2. Well, I hope they bloody wait until I’ve had me Yorkie puds and gravy for supper. I refuse to be blown up on an empty stomach.

      1. #Metoo!, I need to get me open mic done and will have a look in the direction of Plymouth naval yard (for any odd glowing clouds) on the way home.

        1. As I know that you are a selfless and noble man, please consider having a pint for MH and a half for me ;-))

    3. “They” are not planning; they are “reacting to events, Dear Boy”.

      If Putin is cornered – or not making sufficient progress with (old & rusty) conventional weapons – he will probably resort to tactical nuclear weapons.

      We will then await Dopey Joe’s ‘considered response’.

      God help us!

    1. Serious but stable.
      I don’t think she’ll be doing much activism in future.

      And no, I do not think she was the innocent bystander she’s portrayed.
      I’m pretty much convinced she was up to her neck in the drug dealing activities.

      1. Or very unlucky, black gangsters have a tendency to fire away indiscriminately without giving a damn about who gets hit.

        1. From an account of what happened the gunman actually shot her at very close range. The description gave me the impression that she’d been deliberately targetted.

    2. Why did the case collapse? Who fouled up?

      I don’t care any more. They want this violence and thuggery – that’s the code word ”activist’ meaning racist bigot who wouldn’t shut up her spoiled, over privileged mouth.

  95. There’s a clickbait headlines showing on my Nottle page which is “Top Eighteen Reasons Why Your Cat Follows You To The Bathroom”

    Only the top eighteen, mind you.

    1. ‘danielle’ seems a posionous snake, desperate to blame someone she hates for something she doesn’t understand.

      Their entire mindset is toxic, fixated on one man they unthinkingly hate. As for paying more for petrol… they don’t understand economies of scale.

    1. Why not just reduce them to zero? Why not just get rid of every single stupid tax these fools levy?

  98. Evening, all. It isn’t Putin who wants to restore (in fact, create) an “evil Empire”. It’s the apparatchiks in the EU. Meanwhile, while Putin has proper soldiers, this is what ours have been up to:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/27/soldiers-call-vegan-uniforms/?utm_campaign=2126777_28%2F02%2F21&utm_medium=dotmailer&utm_source=Countryside%20Alliance&dm_i=44G9,19L15,1MJH5T,5U595,1#comment

    We are well and truly fokked. On a personal note, while the weather has been foul here (so dull that my solar-powered lights were going out by 19.25, whereas last night they were still bright at 23.25), I’ve been busy indoors. I now have NO boxes of stuff from the conservatory cluttering my sitting room! Yay! The new flooring is down in the spare room as well and the wardrobe has been put back and nearly filled, so my clothes are almost all neatly hung up for once. It’s amazing the difference it’s made to my mood!

    On the Oscar front, I cannot fault him today. He came and found me and asked to go out so he could wee and poo. He didn’t attack the chap who was doing the flooring, despite the plywood and roll of vinyl that was brought in, nor did he leap up and go for the toes when he was unexpectedly woken up. That is MAJOR progress! I only hope it continues.

      1. He’s asleep and snoring at the moment, so I won’t push my luck! 🙂 Will do it later when he wakes up.

      2. He’s just woken up and received a pat (and a hug for good measure). I told him, “that’s from Auntie Ann” 🙂

    2. Reward good behaviour as soon as you see it. Make such a silly fuss of him that he’s silly with joy.

      Eventually he’ll stop doing the bad. Distract them when they go a bit sideways. When Mongo started tree pulling – whole trees – I wouldn’t tell him no, rather I’d call him over to look at something else, and fuss him for coming back to me.

      Now, folks are thinking ‘how sweet, what a great idea.’ It didn’t bloody work. The great moose still likes pulling trees along.

      1. I do reward him for doing the right thing and I spend a LOT of time fussing him and making him go gooey-eyed through endorphins. He’s come a long way in just over eight months.

      2. One of my Golden Retrievers dragged what seemed like half a tree into the house once. He was so proud of himself.

        2. When my two PCs were kittens they would always bring in a twig when they came back after gadding about of a night. There would always be a couple of twigs on the hall floor in the morning. It went on for a good couple of years.
          It used to make me chuckle to think of them trotting along the path and spying a twig lying on the ground and thinking “Ooh, Stormy would like that twig. I’ll take it back as a present for her”

    1. Note remoaners, that the nations chained to the EU have no say in the sanctions that will affect their economies.

  107. Things are seriously wrong….our TV is actually working tonight! Must be something wicked this way coming…

  108. The EU is responsible for goading Putin with their threat to absorb Ukraine into the EU and most recent offer to waive the usual ‘requirements’. The problem remains the predominance of stupid Germans in authority in the EU from Merkel to the present EU chief, a failed German defence minister with no practical experience.

    Russia could easily be put back in its box were the west to return to self sufficiency in oil and gas and to drop the mad economically suicidal green nonsense which is bankrupting us daily.

    Trump understood this bare fact but Biden and his Obama-Clinton backers are determined on the destruction of America.

    Putin is obviously a nasty piece of work but so too are Biden and the EU chiefs.

    1. As nasty pieces of work go Macron should go as soon as possible and never come back.

      At the moment it looks as if he will win the presidential elections in France whoever his challenger is in the second round. It will be a tragedy for France if he does.

      1. I think Macron is angling to be the voice of Europe. Good luck with that when Putin flexes his muscles.

        I agree the French deserve better than Toy-boy, a figure of fun in our household. But then so was Hitler and his successors, Biden, Trudeau, Ardern, Johnson and the other flawed liars running their countries into the ground.

      2. What is wrong with people? Blair elected three times in the UK; Trudeau, Ardern re-elected in their countries.
        Our form of democracy is a failure by any standards, proved in many countries.
        One vote per man and woman over the age of 18 does not work.

    2. Don’t worry, Biden is giving a state of the union speech tomorrow. I am sure everything will be rosy, inflation will be non existent and he will have sent a strongly worded message to Putin (all before rushing back to his hidey hole in Delaware).

        1. Yes, I know that as does Rastus, which is why he posted the birthday wishes to Ped at exactly midnight. My cousin only has a “real” birthday once every 4 years.

    4. Happy Birthday Peddy! Hope all is well and that you have a great day – whichever one you choose! 🎂🍾🎉

  110. Should people who want to do so go and fight for the Ukranians?

    I don’t know – but you could argue that, like having Covid gene therapy, it should be a matter of personal choice.

    Did the people who went to Spain in the 1930s to join the Spanish Civil War have to get permission to do so?

    1. What of those that went to Syria and fought for ISIS ?

      A very different cause but there is a precedent there for fighting in z foreign war.

    2. Personal choice. They have the right to be brainwashed idiots.

      The question of the ISIS supporters is a little different because islamists are opposed to democratic, non-islamic government as well, which includes the UK. So their emnity is also directed at those whom they perceive as non-muslim Britons.

  111. Well it seems that Mola is back from the pub- now here is the pressing question…did he have the requested pints for me and MH? Open to you challengers;-)

Comments are closed.