Monday 28 March: Now is no time to talk of lifting sanctions on Russia’s brutal regime

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.

686 thoughts on “Monday 28 March: Now is no time to talk of lifting sanctions on Russia’s brutal regime”

    1. Morning, All.

      Damp, misty and chilly here in N Essex. Looks like a big win for housework over the garden this morning.😓

        1. Sensible chap. You’ve trained Gus and Pickles to use the hoover.
          (Gives Spartie a meaningful look.)

  3. Will Smith throws Oscars into chaos as Chris Rock altercation overshadows win. 28 March 2022.

    The Oscars were thrown into chaos after Will Smith stormed the stage and hit Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, just minutes before Smith was named best actor at the ceremony.

    Sorry I missed that!

    Will Smith throws Oscars into chaos as Chris Rock altercation overshadows win (msn.com)

    1. It’s worth watching, Minty, and to my mind Will Smith’s assault and swearing was definitely justified. A poor joke in appalling taste by Chris Rock was unforgivable. To make fun of an actor is one thing, to humiliate his wife because of her alopecia is not.

        1. Good morning Mr N, and everyone whose body clock is still adjusting to Sturgeonland time.

          No, not thugs, they come from India. Hollywood is different.

        1. Although normally not, sometimes there are times when a short sharp slap is the correct response.

          The person hit was extremely unpleasant to someone who would have almost no way of responding to the verbal attack.

          Short of refusing the Oscar the most effective response actually was a short sharp slap.

      5. Ah, I didn’t understand that that was the case. If a bloke insults your missus in public that’s a fair response.

  6. Morning, all Y’all.
    Windy, but clear.
    Up far too early according to body clock… :-((

  7. Good morning, everyone. Back from my short break. Feeling refreshed and ready to continue the battle for getting the most out of my life.

    1. Good morning Elsie.
      I find that lowering one’s expectations for what one gets out of life works just as well.

      2. Now you tell me, bb2. If you’d spoken up earlier you could have saved me a lot of money in petrol, B&B costs and food and drink.

      1. You’re welcome, Mrs Allan of Allan Towers. Let me know when my postcard to you arrives.

  8. The Telegraph has finally found a new Bogey Man to replace the EU behind which our leaders can hide behind to impose control, enrich the very rich and harm the rest of us.
    Before we had to follow EU law. Now we have to harm Putin.
    They might note that India, and China want none of thise and that even France has kept its Renault manufacture over there.

      1. Well, we don’t know. One of these people might tell us the truth one day and we would simply ignore them by force of habit.

      2. We are lied to habitually, the narrative defined and controlled to give them the greatest power they can have.

    2. Johnson has proved to be a damp (more soaking wet, really) squib and is clearly a follower as opposed to a leader. Doing as he’s told i.e. lockdowns, mass inoculation, green crap etc. from the globalists and now tagging on to time-expired globalist Joe Biden’s coat tails re Russia/Ukraine. Any hope of independent action and/or thought by this verbose 🤡 can be set aside as wishful thinking. The Cabinet are equally culpable as they consistently either support or do not oppose in any meaningful way, his excesses and stupidity.

      1. Did you see Johnson at the recent NATO photocall? Amongst all the well-presented leaders he decided to do an excellent impression of a sack of sh*t – jacket undone, hands in and out of his pockets, scruffy beyond belief. I just cringed.

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – You report that energy companies are “playing fast and loose” with direct debits.

    I have recently come to the end of a two-year contract paying £180 per month by direct debit. I have moved to a variable tariff at £260 per month, which is more than adequate to cover my annual usage at the higher rate.

    I have received an email advising me that next month my supplier will alter my direct debit to £411 per month, but my tariff has not changed.

    Needless to say, I have cancelled the payment until this is sorted out.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    We all know that electricity and gas suppliers like to increase monthly DDs because this provides them with interest-free money. Therefore, perhaps the time has come for the suppliers to pay interest on account credits of, say, more than a couple of hundred pounds. Perhaps this will dissuade them from the more fanciful predictions. Consumers are of course free to resist any increase that is obviously unreasonable – in my case I was in credit but was told to double my monthly DD very recently, just at the time when the need for heating is reducing to the point when it will go off altogether until the autumn. So far this has been accepted, but they must have known this anyway when the demand was made.

    It is high time that OFGEM made this clear to the suppliers.

    1. At least our supplier pays interest on the credit we acquire when they hoik up the Direct Debit.

    2. As I understand it, Mr Rayner`s price per unit will increase by at least 30% on 1st April, and possibly more if wholesale prices increase. Forget the 28p cap, that´s govt policy, about as solid as the wind but less reliable.

      1. Bet the cap doesn’t apply to standing charge, which explains why Mother’s has doubled!

    3. Mother received advice of a rate increase by Scottish Power. A bit on the kWh rate, and doubling the standing charge.
      That means they get their several pounds of flesh, even when you stop using power!
      BASTARDS!

  10. Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine would consider neutrality. 28 march 2022.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his government would consider declaring neutrality and offering security guarantees to Russia, including keeping Ukraine nuclear-free.

    He told independent Russian journalists on Sunday that the issue of neutrality – and agreeing to stay out of Nato – should be put to Ukrainian voters in a referendum after Russian troops withdraw.

    It’s something of a fake offer (referendums can be fixed) but if he’d said this five weeks ago there would have been no war!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-zelensky-neutrality-biden-putin-b990801.html

  11. This is the real fight that’s going on, between the Western globalists and China, who want to put their populations into digital slavery, and Russia, who appears to have broken away from this model of the future:
    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1508186316638457864
    Russia have legalised financial transactions using digital currencies, but they are strictly controlled by the State, eg you have to be registered to use bitcoin. I think this is compatible with Putin’s speech above, it’s a recognition that digital currencies will exist, just that they are secondary to real stuff.

    I was listening to a Catherin Austin Fitts video yesterday; she calls the legacy media “the Shriekometer.”

    1. “Now everyone knows that reserves can simply be stolen.” Vladimir Putin.

      Yes. And private property too!

      1. Yes. And private property too!

        The globalists are claiming that by 2030 we’ll own nothing – I do not believe the happy claim – so there must be a mechanism, either prepared, or in preparation to appropriate people’s assets.

        One idea being floated in the USA a while ago was the imposition of a retrospective capital gains tax on people’s homes i.e. taxing, at a high rate, the difference between what was paid for the home and the current value. Asset rich but cash poor people would be the first to have their home sequestrated/seized on non-payment: eventually the tax regime would reach those who had cash to pay the charges early on. The idea is robbery, clear and simple, but with a manufactured financial crisis a corrupt government could try and make a case that such a move is in the country’s interest i.e. for the good of all. I like to think that such a proposal, or something similar to deprive people of their wealth, would be the final straw that would wake up those who have remained asleep/compliant through these dangerous times.

        1. Yes Korky, there is – it’s called inflation and taxation. Government doesn’t care about you. It just wants to destroy what you have.

        2. Morning Korky. Inflation will take care of the lower orders. The rest can be co-opted! If they are good that is!

    2. Have you got a link for that BB2, please? YT won’t give me anything more recent than several months old.

      1. I watched it on Twit. According to the screen, it’s from Tiktok, apparently there is a @president.putin.fanpage site….

        I think that when Putin showed signs of sticking with the concept of the nation state, the WEF declared economic war on him. They’ve tried to crush Russia, but Russia is fighting back by pegging the rouble to oil and gold.
        The US made a huge mistake freezing Russian dollar reserves, as far as I can see. They thought this would bring Russia down, or else precipitate the fall of the Euro and consequent CBDCs in Europe when Russia defaulted on its debts – but that hasn’t happened yet.

        If Russia and India stick fast by the nation state concept, they could save us.
        If the world goes back onto mineral standards, Britain is fxckd, having sold its gold. Perhaps the government will have a gold grab from private citizens – I don’t see that going down well in the “communities” that traditionally use gold for dowries.

          1. Apparently they tried it in the US in 1933, and it was illegal to be discovered owning gold, or “hoarding” it, as the authorities call it when it’s you and me. I guess many people just kept quiet.
            In Europe, because of money laundering laws, I’m pretty sure that transactions above a certain price are notified to the government, so they will have a pretty clear idea of who’s bought gold since those laws were brought in.
            Wonderful what crimes can be committed if you say you’re fighting crime…

  12. SIR – I applied online for my three-year driving licence to be renewed over a year ago, and am still waiting to receive it from the DVLA (Letters, March 26).

    Would it not be a good idea for the Government to recall all civil servants to their offices immediately so that these huge backlogs can be addressed and normal service resumed?

    Hedley Newton
    Much Hadham, Hertfordshire

    Snivel Serpents seem to do much as they please these days, and no one has the spine to make them do otherwise.

    1. Morning Hugh. I would like to be inside one of these government institutions. I suspect that they have in effect mutinied and as you say the Elites are powerless to compel them to work. It is futile to expect of course that the MSM would tell us this!

      1. You’d find a 10am start and an 11am coffee break until 12, when there would be lunch, then back at half 1, another break at 3 until 3:30-4 and then home at 5.

          1. Sadly, I’ve seen this. You keep quiet when you see corridors of people trotting down to the canteen as you’re lugging a monitor about for them. It’s frustrating, but inevitable. The civil service doesn’t have any need to be efficient.

      2. Well, if they aren’t working, then fire them. The end result (no issue of licences) won’t change, it’ll just be cheaper.
        The Ronald Reagan method.

    2. And no mention of bringing wasteful, expensive government departments to heel inn the budget, just more of the same tax and waste.

    3. I applied on line for mine to be renewed (as I hadn’t used it, I decided to give up my C1D1 entitlement rather than go to all the hassle of keeping it) and my licence came before the date when it actually expired! It doesn’t have a sphincter of stars on it any more, either – HMG coat of arms and a union flag!

  13. Good morning, all. Cloudy and a bit misty.

    Blecks fighting at the Oscars, eh? How diverse.

      1. If Smith was really upset he would have punched him. Women slap, men punch. The slap was staged for headlines.

        Good morrow.

      1. I thought I had read somewhere that the event was to be “hosted” by three foul-mouthed women.

  14. Good morning all.
    Cloudy & dry with a comparatively mild 4°C outside this morning.

    1. The viewing figures for the Oscars have fallen through the floor as people have switched off in their millions because of the slebs all trying to outdo each other in virtue signalling. The slap was staged.

  16. ‘Morning again.

    During I restless night I happened to catch most of a programme called The Climate Question (2.30am World Service, available on Sounds). The half-truths and even lies just poured out of the radio, and I was soon wide awake! Did anyone else have the misfortune to hear this? For all the good it might do I’m thinking about a formal complaint but, with builders here, finding the time won’t be easy. And besides, the BBC motto ‘We are never wrong’ will as usual prevail.

    1. The BBC won’t care. It will keep repeating ‘the science is settled’ because, for them it is. Green is just a con, a religious practiced by zealots.

      Schools pump out the same line. There is no debate, no argument, it is simply forced on children. They’ll grow up thinking bills this high are normal. Of course, nothing will change but the state will have normalised oppression and tyranny.

      We need to get rid of them and reverse the damage being done to this country by the Left. We must, now, actively remove the government – all of it.

    2. I caught some of a similar BBC programme recently, when in the car. Aaaargh!
      Fortunately, there is a station called Classic FM.

  17. Good Moaning.
    Foggy … outdoors – and in my brain that’s trying to adjust to this summertime malarky.

  18. I hear there was a punch-up at some award ceremony or other. If nothing else that should get the viewing figures up!

          1. A totally different set of circumstances. Clarkson was in the wrong and abused his “position”.
            If the person Clarkson hit had been the one doing the hitting, I would have sympathised with him doing so.

        3. Someone who behaved badly got his comeuppance.
          Wonder what would have happened if Smith had been white…

          1. Chris Rock is a black comedian. He has made several jokes over the years at Murphy’s expense. I think it was staged though. It did make headline news around the world. Job done.

    2. Will Smith slapped the chattering host for making fun of his wife who has alopecia. I thought his behaviour quite correct. A man comes to the defence of his wife and doesn’t sit there like a drip while she is being abused and upset. The host got what he thoroughly deserved.

  19. ‘Never complain, never explain’… but never again will Prince William use family mantra
    Duke of Cambridge acknowledges that Royal family’s old saying is outdated following Caribbean tour, aides reveal
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/03/27/never-complain-never-explain-never-will-prince-william-use-family/

    I have always supported the monarchy; I thought my support would even get me through a very short reign of Prince Charles but, ‘fair game’ to William – he has converted me into a republican.

    1. I think he means well and is trying to acknowledge a concern he is finding difficult to square. Frankly, Britain has done amazing things for the world and these ungrateful people should be proud to be considered siblings of this nation.

      Their petulant whining is tedious.

      1. Meaning well is not enough in his position.
        I do feel sorry for him, because he and Kate have been on the sharp end of this, however, one bad tour is NOT a reason to set himself up to be shot at, as Hugh points out.

    2. I agree, Rastus. As soon as he starts ‘explaining’ and ‘complaining’ he will be setting himself up to be shot at. I trust that his advisors will explain the facts of royal life to him.

      1. “As soon as he starts ‘explaining’ and ‘complaining’ “ – like his dumbass brother, you mean?

      2. It will probably outrage some of my fellow Nottlers but I think that he received genes from both his parents which seriously corrupted and impaired his mental faculties.

    3. Oh Dear…..

      One day William will be old enough to realise that the old wisdom is never outdated….

    4. Good morning, Rastus.

      I agree with you fully on this topic. The venomous brainwashing tentacles of Common Purpose require an urgent culling before sanity will return.

  21. Good Morning all, my waking thought this morning was to my shame that if anyone had asked me a month ago what I knew of Donbas I would have ventured a guess that it was perhaps the name of an over the counter veterinary salve for “worm in t’tail” or some such.

    Becoming dull and overcast here which is par for the course as we’re soon off to North Devon for a few days in the tin tent.

    2. It is the place where 14 thousand Russian speaking Ukrainians and 44 children were murdered by the Ukrainian Neo Nazi’s. And the moron who wrote the lead letter in the Telegraph thinks it should be returned to Ukraine. What for, yet more murder?

  22. 315684+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 28 March: Now is no time to talk of lifting sanctions on Russia’s brutal regime

    Agreed keep the sanctions also keep in mind much of this issue is used by the United Kingdom political
    (INO) tory overseers as deflective material.

    NOW is the time on the home front to be considering the
    MAY BY elections and how to execute ( carry out a boycott plan) regarding the lab/lib/con coalition candidates, via the polling booth.

    Unless, that is you really are satisfied with the rape & abuse ( near completed) of a decent Nation, the proven successful handiwork of the lab/lib/con coalition & supporting member / voters.

    1. Progressive America is slowly dying. 28 March 2022.

      America is on the move. A rapid demographic change is underway, reshaping the nation’s economic, political and cultural contours. For as long as anyone can remember, America’s big business clusters were in the northeast, the midwest and California. New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles were the kinds of places where enterprising young Americans would go to make their way in the world.

      Not anymore. In just twelve months between July 2020 and July 2021, these four cities lost over 700,000 people. A very different phenomenon is playing out in conservative states, especially in the south. Almost 80 per cent of the population growth in 2021 happened in a mere ten counties. Five of the fastest growing counties were in Texas and two in Florida. The fastest of all was Maricopa county in Arizona, which is rapidly filling up with large numbers of Californian emigres.

      Hope springs eternal Korky!

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/27/progressive-america-slowly-dying/

      1. The trouble is that these people move into more Conservative states and then start voting Democrat. The problem with liberals is that they can’t help but soil their own nest.

    2. We know a man who is fully vaccinated and boosted and has now had Covid three times.

      Yes he’s lived to tell the tale, but I would ask the authorities, please don’t ever try to tell us the vaccinations do what vaccinations are normally supposed to do, prevent the recipient from getting the disease vaccinated against..

      1. I have not had the gene therapy. I had Covid six weeks ago and, apart from feeling tired for a couple of days and needing to sleep I suffered nothing.

        Our experience – which of course I have to admit is statistically irrelevant – is that those who have had several doses of gene therapy suffer far more when they get Covid than those who have not been jabbed at all.

        1. Of those we know who have had Covid, the vaccination appears (I use “appears” advisedly) to make it less harsh.
          I say that because the few we know who got it unvaccinated had it quite badly.

    3. They don’t care. The statists have become ever more abusive and aggressive in their hideousness.

    5. It would be struck down by the court. Maybe not by the California courts but by the Courts of Appeals or the Supreme Court. It is clearly unconstitutional.

    1. Morning! Someone has commented that Americans shouldn’t have voted for Biden to which someone else has responded, “They didn’t vote for him, he was installed, you know, like a toilet”.

          1. There is indeed. It is 25th Amendment. The problem is through, as I point out above, it would make Harris the Hyena President. Somehow I feel safer with a senile idiot than I do with her in charge. I have been aware of her for decades since she was a district attorney in San Francisco. She is ruthless, without conscience, hurt and ruined many peoples lives in her ambition to power and thus thoroughly dangerous, a psychopath. I would be genuinely afraid if she was President. She could easily take us into WWIII

          2. The chance of WWII should be averted If the Dems lose the mid-terms and true Republicans become the majority. RINOs could be a problem if they exist in sufficient numbers. Congress has the sole authority to declare war, not the POTUS, and so an out of control president can be restrained. The current problem is that the mid-terms aren’t held until the first week in November.

          3. “Congress has the sole authority to declare war…” There is a way around that, The President can declare whatever mayhem he is causing a “Police Action” or you simply declare nothing at all so it doesn’t get to Congress. Vietnam was a “police action”. Libya was a case of being named nothing at all.

        2. The trouble is that if they do, the laughing hyena Harris becomes President. That would be even more dangerous.

          1. I still think that he will hang on until Harris can finish his term without losing the ability to stand twice more, roughly late this or early next year, after the mid-terms. She will appoint a black woman as VP, probably someone like Obama.

          4. In fairness to Michelle, I believe she is actually intelligent, so Cameltoe won’t want the competition.

    2. Good Morning sosraboc and to all the rest. I trust everyone is having an enjoyable day. Another fine day here but still quite cold in West Sussex. It’s only 40f.

      Well apart from starting the obvious that Biden is senile. That is a dishonest article, as we have come to expect from the Western MSM. It vilifies Putin unfairly and then goes on to imply, because Trump has the intelligence to recognize Putin’s cleverness, it means he is pro-Putin and thus a senile Biden is better than a sane Trump! Left wing drivel of the first order.

      Most of you are probably not aware that the Russians have taken the Ukrainian city of Slavutic. The people were asked to surrender peacefully and on refusing the Russians attacked killing 3 people out of a population of 24,685. Hardly the behaviour of marauding troops in the pay of a latter day Hitler.

      1. The Bitchute one?

        The Republicans may be bad, the Democrats are utter crooks; but we’ve know that since the Kennedy’s if not before.

        2. There was a series of articles on ‘Going Postal’ by ‘The Black Swan’, starting in November 2020, about a series of books on LBJ; ‘The Years of Lyndon Johnson Vol 1-4’, written by Robert A Caro between 1982 and 2012.

          LBJ’s shenanigans and skullduggery have been used as a template for voter fraud since the late 1930s.

          1. Did you mean 1980’s?
            The Black Swan used to post some interesting articles.
            I seldom visit GP and don’t comment there.

          2. I mean the 1930s, LBJ’s first forays into senior politics began in 1937; under a cloud as the form was that the spouse of a deceased congressman could run for the seat unopposed. LBJ announced his candidacy and the widow stepped aside. It was all downhill for decency from there on.

          3. Thank you.
            A politician who “sat” for a significant period although not as long as Biden and acceded through, let us say, unusual circumstances.

      1. From the article:
        Nessie took pictures from the area around Gruinard beach.

        I though that mention of the monster was English colonialism.
        Oh, wrong Nessie, it seems…

      2. Since the fire has now cleansed it, time to set up an escape-proof concentration camp to house the illegals until they are deported.

        Australia does it, we should follow a system that works.

          1. Since they’ll be escape-proof, they’ll just incinerate themselves – less work for us to do. Simples.

  26. If the conflict in Western Russia/Eastern Europe continues for long, there will be a shift from price increases to shortages of goods.
    I doubt that the Govt has made any effort to plan for the effects of a medium term conflict, so my humble and well-meaning suggestion is to stock up on long life food and household supplies. Price of sunflower and rapeseed oil in Sainsbury increased by 10% last week, and the local branch of a discounter had no cheap cooking oil at all on Saturday. Normally there is a pallet load of each.
    In a few months, satellite data will enable assessments of crop growth & health. Ukrainian farmers probably have enough diesel to sow crops, but will they have enough fuel for the harvest?
    Nottlers are generally much wiser than me, but a system of food rationing would require identity cards, and that would require a fully functioning civil service.

    1. …stock up on long life food and household supplies.

      Morning Tim. As much of everything that you can cram in! It’s going to turn really nasty!

      1. Now – The civil service suffers from being of two halves. One half likes it’s job and believes in public service. It’s curmudgeon, grumpy, but does good work as well as it can. It works long hours for low pay. It sees no promotion, no improvement.

        The other half – the majority half – say 65% – is there to claim a salary and spend as little time working as possible.

        1. I have to confess – I enjoyed my job at the JobCentre (most of the time) it was hard work dealing with the great unwashed though they were not all like that, and our pay was not brilliant. We were promised the pension on the understanding that it was deferred pay. I’m glad of it now.

          1. A JobCentre i used in South London once had a bit of an upset. An angry Irishman came in armed with an axe and smashed up all the monitors. Not fair on the Staff really. You could be waiting anywhere up to 3 months for help. I have already been waiting that long for PIPS. (Personal independence payment).

          2. They brought in security guards eventually after a number of incidents – we used to have to ring the police if we couldn’t deal with them ourselves. Fortunately the police station was just across the road. When I was in charge of the office we had no back up security at all.

    3. They are simply panting to introduce food and petrol rationing. Think of all that lovely control over hateful fellow citizens, who are probably all unvaccinated anyway!

        1. That assumes we’ll have enough electricity to have the light on (or any candles to light)!

  27. Read and weep…from the DT:

    BBC News changes ‘assigned female at birth’ to ‘women’ after backlash

    Complaints flooded in over wording used in story about gynaecological condition endometriosis

    By
    Jack Hardy
    27 March 2022 • 9:00pm

    The BBC has been forced to amend a news story to change the description of endometriosis sufferers from people “assigned female at birth” to “women”, following a backlash.

    The broadcaster published a feature on the issues surrounding the gynaecological condition – suffered by around 1.5 million women in the UK – which interviewed two women who shared their story to help raise awareness.

    It opened with a description of some of the symptoms of endometriosis, including heavy periods, debilitating pain and infertility, before saying the condition “affects one in 10 people of any age in the UK, who are assigned female at birth”.

    Milli Hill, a bestselling author of books about childbirth and the founder of the Positive Birth Movement, spotted the description and sent a tweet to the BBC, which quickly went viral.

    Dear @BBCNews, sex is not ‘assigned at birth’. Saying ‘1 in 10 people’ obscures the stat. Also, the reason there is ‘no known cause or cure’ is undoubtedly because this is an issue that only affects women, and has been consistently overlooked.

    It led to a flood of complaints to the broadcaster about the phrasing and, within hours, the piece had been amended online to instead say “one in 10 women of any age in the UK”.

    Despite the phrase in question referring to women on a population level, a spokesman for the BBC said the correction was made because the story involved interviews with two women.

    The corporation refused to confirm how many complaints had been received, but pointed out complaints figures are published in a fortnightly bulletin, if 100 or more are received.

    The spokesman said: “This is a news article about two women with endometriosis so we updated the wording to reflect that and make it clearer for audiences.”

    Ms Hill told The Telegraph she had her own experiences of being “attacked and de-platformed for questioning the ideological direction of travel”, after previously being criticised by trans activists for taking issue with gender-neutral phrases such as “birthing person”.

    She said the BBC piece was a “classic example of data being obscured by de-sexed language”.

    “One in 10 people is not the same as one in 10 women, statistically,” she said.

    “We are talking about a women’s health issue here that, historically, has had hardly any attention, women have been fobbed off and left to suffer for years with this condition, so there is a lot of underlying anger among women about this issue.”

    Ms Hill claimed many women increasingly feel they are “being erased by this ideology and are fighting back against it”.

    She continued: “What’s important to understand is that the language used is part of a bigger picture – if you make ‘woman’ an open category then this has a knock on negative effect for women’s rights. Sex is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

    “The situation we see in women’s sports is part of this same picture.”

    It comes after the BBC last year pulled out of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme, saying its participation raised questions over impartiality on issues such as trans rights.

    Critics of the programme have claimed it ignored the concerns of women by promoting the opening up of previously women-only spaces to those who self-identify as female.

    * * *

    Needless to say, after a quick read I was off to the BTL comments. They are coming in thick and fast and I wasn’t disappointed:

    Christine Edwards
    11 HRS AGO
    Probably fear of sacking led to the ridiculous situation in the first place. I am sick of the corporation that takes tax payers hard earned to churn out and perpetuate this unbalanced, unrepresentative, unhealthy, unfair, unnecessary, unethical, unstoppable bloody woke attitude 24/7. Come on Nadine D, go girl, go get the sanctimonious piffle peddlers and do away with the compulsory subscription (tv licence).

    Tony Griffiths
    1 HR AGO
    How? Because there appears to be not a single one among the collection of toady’s craven M.P.s who would stand up and say that there are just two genders, male and female. It would help if one of them was to go further and say that anyone who challengers this biological fact must be some sort of sexual deviant – and clearly intent in causing harm to women by being allowed to invade their private spaces.

    Abolish Leasehold
    10 HRS AGO
    People who wear frilly dresses and chop their genitalia off are not women.

    Malcolm Burch
    1 HR AGO
    Just what is the problem identifying a woman as a woman? Are half the population of this nation being erased into some sort of clinical description to satisfy a tiny minority’s sensibilities? Are half the population being insulted to soothe the feelings of so few?
    Could someone in government just get a grip, ignore divisive views of a lobby group who are increasingly upsetting even some of those they are meant to represent (lesbians,) and stamp out this denial of biological fact. It is a repellent form of sexism, nothing else and does no good for anyone but is increasingly causing resentment, even to the minority it purports to stand for.

    Tony Griffiths
    1 HR AGO
    In more enlightened times people using terms such as “birthing person”, “chest feeding” and holding placards claiming “women can have a penis” would have been laughed out of court and considered as having serious mental problems. Now, for some unfathomable reason, these utterly stupid notions are taken seriously by people in power. Is this surprising? Well, looking at the quality of today’s politicians, I suppose it isn’t.

    Tse DTK
    4 HRS AGO
    When I applied for my first passport few years ago, I was shocked to see they wrote my sex as male whilst all my other documents including brith certificate said “Female”. I was in a hurry and paid extra to have passport issues sooner and this was a blow…
    When I enquired after hurdling through all that nonsense automated answer phones a human came. Guess what he asked?
    Do you have a medical report to confirm your gender???
    He was giggling at the other end of the phone.
    And I replied saying this was your mistake not mine all my documents said female where do I go get medical report…..
    so so so woke!!!
    Not to mention the next time they got my name wrong…..
    nonsense I personally know someone who has been in agony and unable to conceive due to endometriosis

    Roger Wilco
    3 HRS AGO
    To shorten the argument, you should have simply texted him a snap shot of your genitalia.

      2. ‘Morning Annie. You know that, I know that…others are in the business of denying well established facts, egged on (pun intended) of course by the likes of the BBC, Grauniad and other shady organisations.

      3. And that is the moment life begins.

        And if you accept this then what is the difference between aborting a foetus five minutes after conception or 250 days after conception?

        1. Pro-abortionists would say that at the early stage it is nowt but a cluster of cells.

          1. I understand the Catholic Church’s view on abortion as it involves terminating a life which has started.

            However I have never sympathised with the traditional Catholic view on contraception. Apart from things like the ‘day after pill’ contraception does not mean terminating a life but stopping that life from happening in the first place – just as you attach yourself to a safety belt, a harness or a parachute to reduce the risk of hurting yourself yourself when you have a car crash, or hit the ground hard when you fall out of a plane.

            However most Catholics are prepared happily to use contraception but many of them are not in favour of abortion.

            (By contrast I expect Welby is contemplating attaching an extension to the Chancel at Canterbury Cathedral in order to provide a free abortion clinic)

  28. What happened to the declaration by Lord Harrington of Watford, the minister for refugees, that visas would be granted within 24 hours?

    It’s a shambles. Simple: Wrong Religion

    1. Why do we need a minister for ‘refugees’? I suppose it’s a variant on the ‘all must have prizes’ attitude, adds a few bob to their salary…

      1. Payroll vote.
        Out of 300+ Conservative MPs, around 100 are ‘ministers’ to a greater or lesser degree and have to vote with the government or give up their posts.
        And Labour would do exactly the same.

        1. Give up their posts and remain a back bencher but keep their integrity (that is, assuming they had any in the first place)? Perish the unreasonable thought.

    1. The natural consequence of clinics that offer catalogue babies…..wah! wah! I didn’t get the product that I ordered!

      1. The new catalogues will just offer you a baby
        You make of it what you will, iaw LGBTRTY Indoctrination

    2. Assistant Dean for New Student Transitions at CUNY Geneseo Heather Wilhelhm-Routenberg and her wife, Robbie, who also works at the university as a chief diversity officer, are suing CNY Fertility Albany in Latham on 11 counts including breach of contract, medical malpractice and battery. They are seeking unspecified damages. CNY Fertility has refused to comment on the case.

      The couple told the New York Post that they decided Heather would carry their child through in vitro fertilization (IVF) after Robbie had suffered a miscarriage during their first attempt to have a daughter.

      Almost Karma.

      1. I had a secretary whose name was Roberta. Nice lady, she’d been secretary of the Beatles fan club in the early days. She was known as Robbie.

          2. My Nurse is called Charlie and my Doctor is called Andi. Both women. Not that i mind. I prefer to be handled by the ladies. Smaller hands !

          5. Reminds me of the 3 things a Father should tell his son on reaching puberty:

            1. Never drink a claret less than 10 years old.

            2. Don’t hunt south of the Thames – the bastards use wire.

            3. Don’t marry a woman with big hands – she’ll make you feel inadequate.

          7. Just before my lovely (former) GP dived in, she reassuringly said “You are in luck, I have the smallest fingers in the practice”!

    3. This is all rather similar to what happened with Dr Mengele and his experiments.

    4. What worries me about this is will the two women now take their revenge out on the baby because it is the “wrong” sex.

        1. My son wasn’t too bad as a teenager but the food! And when he had mates round, it was as though a Viking horde had been through. Oh and gym socks. Fred, my Golden used to collect them and bury them in the yard- best place for them really 😉

          2. Yes, they were so polite and appreciative of the grub. My son and most of his pals were fans of the TV show Seinfeld; when the final episode was announced I said to him to have a Seinfeld evening. We had a second sitting room with a bar down in the basement. About 6 lads came including one girl.
            I made a huge bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and garlic bread and lots of brownies. Put all the food on the bar with plates etc and left them to it.
            All of them mentioned it when they signed my son’s yearbook that year!
            To me, if you encouraged and welcomed friends to the house, you knew where they were and knew they were safe.

          3. They went to other houses as well and I was quite amazed when one mother said what nice, polite boys they were……….. didn’t sound much like they were at home.

          5. There was a group of about 7 or 8 and they were always in someone’s house. If they weren’t in one, they’d be in another.
            Lots of teens used to get packs of 24 beers- Bud or some similar muck and they’d go into the woods and “party” there. We lived in a state forest and always used to see cans and the empty cartons strewn all over the place.
            Trouble is, some of them drove after these night time events. Bud isn’t that strong (in the US) but it’s strong enough to make kids do stupid things.

      1. Its wrong on all counts to treat children as a commodity. As our society is accepting of such things and believing that trans women are women, we are truly down the pan.

    6. A retired solicitor writes:

      Thank the Lord for lunatics such as these two who keep us in bread and butter!!

      1. If that’s what solicitors want for their bread and butter…then perhaps they are better off retired :o)

      3. It is the most watched TV Channel in the USA by a long shot. I believe its viewership is larger than all the rest combined. Probably because all the rest are so woke they have alienated themselves from the public. Tucker Carlson gets a viewership over 50% of Democrats! Which just shows you. The reality is that Fox is the only game in town because the others are nothing but propaganda for the Democrat left.
        https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-demolishes-cnn-msnbc-combined-25th-straight-week

      4. I don’t think they actually watch TV Bill last time i was there the TV is on all day and every few minutes there was a reiteration of what was on before the advertising. Which is every 5 minutes. It’s impossible to sit and watch anything.

      5. Does anyone bother with TV news channels any more? Apart from that proviso, republicans watch fox, democrats watch CNN.

        It can be interesting to try both and loom for common news coverage.

    2. “Perhaps the powers that be might actually do something about it at last”. Two hopes : Bob hope and no hope. The bigger the crime the less the punishment.

    2. That’s consistently where we’re going wrong, isn’t it? We urgently need new sources of energy but our technology is behind our demand.

      Of course, there are other issues: two many people in this country demanding energy (we’re grossly over populated), poor infrastructure thanks to intentional managed decline, a lack of investment in current energy to fuel the next generation research, frantic scrabbling to subsidise very specific, deliberate things through incredibly complicated paperwork (to ensure only those with the time and money to waste on applying can benefit).

      The political class are hateful and need to go.

      1. I agree with you. We are one of the most densely populated countries in Europe and out infrastructure is collapsing. Meanwhile those to whom we give responsibility are fiddling while Rome burns with crackpot schemes that every layman knows will be a disaster. We need to frack and we need nuclear. And in the mean time use coal. We have abundant resources and frankly I regard the politicians as incompetent, disloyal to this country, and not fit for office. So yes, they have to go.

  32. Roman Abramovich ‘asked me if he could help,’ says Volodymyr Zelensky
    The US Treasury has reportedly held off imposing sanctions on the Chelsea football club owner amid claims he was acting as a peace broker
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/28/roman-abramovich-asked-could-help-says-volodymyr-zelensky/

    BTL

    The British treatment of Russian people who have nothing to do with the Russian state exposes a mindless xenophobia which makes me feel ashamed to be British. In seizing Russians’ property how do we differ from those BLM hoodlums who went a-raiding in the US after the death of Floyd?

    2. I feel that TPTB are noting how easy it is to whip people up into a frenzy to justify theft from the targeted group. Today it’s the Russians, tomorrow it’ll be “rich” people, i.e. home-owners, or the unvaccinated.

  33. Afternoon All
    Wont be around much for a few days full on Bronchitis wheezing,constant wracking cough,every muscle and joint hurts and my stomach muscles feel as if I’ve done 3 rounds with Tyson
    NHS to the rescue only a 3hour wait to talk to a human and I’m assured the duty doctor will ring me this afternoon………..
    We shall see

    1. Sorry to hear that. Good luck with getting a doctor on the phone and all the best for recovery.

    2. Whato Rix, suffering similar myself, 3rd week of a full blown chest infection and on steroids and antibiotics this week.

      I sympathise entirely. Get well soon, rest up.

    5. There is one doing the rounds, someone I know had it a couple of weeks ago, and was on antib’s. Not covid.
      Get well soon!

      1. Talking of covid….anyone heard from Belle? She wasn’t here yesterday and I don’t think I’ve seen her today. Hope she’s OK.

          1. She was a bit under the weather – as were her family – so she may have her hands full.

          2. I sent a happy birthday email last night as she wasn’t around, but the last communication was 3 years ago. Yup, hope she’s ok.

    7. Get well soon, Rik! If all else fails, call a taxi and bother the nearest Emergency department. 111 can sometimes be persuaded to book you a timed slot in A&E. Such things do exist – bin there dun that!

    8. Oh no ! You’re going to miss lunch !

      Don’t take no for an answer, Rik. If you get worse go straight to A&E.

      Get well soon my friend.

    1. Won’t the kind of people who clutch their pearls over a Ploughman’s lunch be eating Thai style avocadoes anyway?

      2. Pearls? Exploitation of nature, brought up from their natural environment by exploited native divers!

    2. What a relief. The former slave-ridden, sexist name had caused me SOOOOO much anxiety.

    3. I will not support such businesses. If everyone complains with their feet they will soon turn it around. Or go bust.

    4. I was equally impressed by the story about a university putting trigger warnings on the copy of the American Constitution.

          2. EWTN is a Catholic TV station founded by Mother Angelica in Alabama. She died some years ago so I don’t know if it’s still primarily a religious network or whether it’s branched out.
            Franciscans as I recall.
            Yale is Ivy League in CT.

            Edit for typo and to add that George W went to Yale.

          3. Let me try to get my head around this. A gang of Left-wing, Democrat-voting, brain-washed, air-headed, over-entitled “students” use their facility for free speech to attack someone else’s similar facility for free speech?

            Is this a case of “my opinions are more important that your opinions?” It’s time someone wiped, then spanked, their arses and told them (showed them how) to behave. They should have been immediately expelled from the university.

          4. I think that is the solution. Such people should be expelled. That would focus the minds of the rest about what they are there for.

    5. Anyone woke enough to appreciate the change probably wouldn’t be eating ham anyway.

  35. I’ve been plucking lily beetles off my lilies, early this year. When squashed, leave the fingers nastily stained red, but still satisfying…

    1. At least they are easy to spot. Not a job i like doing but they are so destructive.

  36. I’ve been plucking lily beetles off my lilies, early this year. When squashed, leave the fingers nastily stained red, but still satisfying…

  37. Well, there’s a very nice turn up for the books. In Nov 2019 we booked a trip to Rome for April 2020. Reserved a room at an hotel. Paid €200 non-refundable deposit.

    Then the plague struck. Couldn’t go. Cancelled. Hotel said they’d hold the deposit against another trip up to 31 March 2021.

    We were unable to go until now. E-mailed them on Saturday. Reply this morning – Yes, they have a room; Yes, the “lost” deposit will be deducted from the bill.

    Good news in the midst of chaos.

    1. I lost thousands on two canceled holidays. Not likely to go abroad again. Going to have long weekends in boutique hotels instead. Oh…and ponce off friends.

      Glad they are honouring the deposit.

      1. That is our plan, too. Apart from the poncing off friends. We haven’t got any.

    2. You are lucky.

      A friend booked a cruise for 2020, it was postponed until 2021 and then again until 2022. They received an email last week telling them that the cruise has now been cancelled, the company was not offering refunds so they should contact their insurance company.

      Their fault I suppose for booking a cruise that included Russia in the itinerary.

    3. My trip to Kenya was originally booked for March 2021 – rebooked for October 21 and then for February 22. No extra charge except we changed our flight times and booked an extra night.

    5. Yay! There are some people who aren’t entirely out to rip holiday makers off, then.

    2. Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Those who scream the loudest in righteous indignation are usually the guilty party. I use as a criteria the quote from Hamlet: “”The lady doth protest too much, methinks”

    1. Blair and May stand out as especially evil; all the other prime ministers since Thatcher are very bad indeed but, perhaps, not quite evil

      1. If the world goes back to precious metal standards, we’re about to learn how evil Broon was, I think!

          1. And people are insane enough to want to remove the monarchy. But actually, so I have read, it isn’t possible. It would take 7 years of full time legislation to correct everything if we did. I think a lot of people fail to realize that it is a cornerstone of our system. As I have said before too. The monarch represents the people against Parliament. It is no coincidence that the monarchs powers diminish in tandem with the diminishment of the powers of the people. Some might want to think on that and hope, as I do, that Charles reasserts the powers of the monarchy and thus increase the power of the people. Powers that the present monarch has neglected.

  40. Apropos the ploughman’s lunch malarkey (below, passim) – are any NoTTLers descended from ploughpeople?

    I have never yet met a ploughman who would eat a meal named after him. (or “them), of course – slaps wrist).

      1. Great book- one of my favourites and the movie is good too- true to the book.
        “I saw something nasty in the woodshed…” ;-))

          1. Have you read it Tom? It really is a great piss take on all the hearty, bucolic novels in the 20s and 30s- I think Stella Gibbons wrote in the 30s. Other writers such as Mary Webb (Precious Bane) wrote rather depressing books about country life and Gibbons takes the piss in no uncertain terms.
            I love it.

    2. Indignant customer at pub when handed his order: “This isn’t much of a ploughman’s lunch!”
      Landlord: “You’re not much of a ploughman!”

    3. Yes; my grandfather ploughed with horses (probably why I’m doomed to be so keen on equines).

      1. It came over to investigate Oscar and sniffed us both. It then capered and pranced around us while I kept Oscar on a short lead. He would have loved to have played.

        1. Far too many years ago now, my first dog, Toby, was a mutt- black and tan and very handsome. He loved licking people. When we lived in the village outside of Rochdale, it was near fields and it was nice for walkies.
          One day, Toby and I were walking along the road when a curious cow ambled over. Toby climbed up and put his front paws on a bar of the fence. The cow leaned down and gave his face a huge lick! You have never seen such a surprised dog. He didn’t know what to make of it. I still chuckle now when I remember it.

        1. Conners said it’s called a “star” even if it looks like a crescent. It is a lovely photo.

    1. I was driving through Liverpool when I got a flat tire, so I pulled up
      on the side of the road and got out to change it. While I was changing
      it, a stranger came over and opened my bonnet.

      I asked “What are you doing?!”

      “Well, if you’re having the tires, I’m having the engine”

  47. 2012 headlines: “End white supremacy: we need more black faces at Hollywood awards”

    2022 headlines: “Black-on-black violence at Oscars caused by systemic racism”

    2032 headlines: “Only 17 shot dead at ‘mostly peaceful’ Oscars”

  48. 351684+ up ticks,
    The lab/lib/con coalition supporter / voters will be very wary of this truth bomb dropper.

    Wet undies in the political / pharmaceuticals fraternity
    with thoughts of a treadmill of jab,jab fools coming into being..

    https://gettr.com/post/p12521z648f

    2. Yet there is now a massive publicity campaign to persuade the over 75s and clinically vulnerable to get a 4th jab. Just watch the ‘eligible’ age group be steadily lowered.

  49. Winning bid to take over Chelsea will be presented to the government in three weeks’ time. 28 March 2022.

    The winning bid to take over Chelsea from Roman Abramovich will be presented to the government and the Premier League in three weeks’ time, according to the organisers of the sale, Raine Group.

    There is no difference between this and the Seizure and Sale of Jewish assets under the Nazi Regime. It is aimed at one group and no others. There is the fig leaf of legality and nothing for Justice. This is what we have become. A kleptocracy ruled by Thieves and Swindlers!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10659883/Winning-bid-Chelsea-presented-government-three-weeks-time.html

    1. Apparently Abramovich is acting as a go-between for Putin and Zelensky.
      I wonder what will happen if he succeeds in brokering a peace agreement, will they still force the sale?

      1. Afternoon Sos. This isn’t really about Peace. It’s just thieving on a massive scale!

        1. I think so, and I think it’s wrong. It is setting a very nasty precedent.

          I could well imagine how Trudeau or the Democrats in the USA would use it.

          1. IMO it’s a trial run for what they intend for the whole country eventually. The Great Reset : you will own nothing and be happy. All the supporters of Ukraine will be gloating, without looking further than their noses.

          2. I think Trudeau’s treatment of the truckers is from exactly the same script.
            Onward and upward:

            …”So Mr & Mrs Smith, you own a holiday home do you?
            We’re confiscating it to house refugees and asylum seekers,”…

          4. Best you burn down your main residence too then.
            They would throw you out and give it away, as a punishment.

          5. I agree, Sos.
            I shall remove what remains of my assets from the UK ASAP to a jurisdiction with a tighter grip on law and justice – just in case.

      2. Will he declare it a draw after extra time and go to penalties or play again on a neutral ground.

    3. I can’t recall the details, but I read that Abramovitch used a considerable sum from his own fortune to support people during the last two years of restrictions. Now he is treated as totally bad.

    4. Its an interesting precedent that measures can be taken against individuals on the basis of nationality. Race and religion next, only if you are not of colour I spose.

  50. “In the pub years ago, the first person to have a mobile phone in the
    bar answers his mobile and says ‘how did you know I was here?'”

    1. A mushroom cloud of anthrax spores.
      Only the new vaccine will save us.
      Unfortunately the lab preparing the miracle cure is in the Ukraine.

      2. The island has been clear of Anthrax for years Sos and I think it gets tested every year just in case

        1. So I understand, but I think it has been “declared” clear. The fact none have been found doesn’t necessarily mean there are none there.

          My comment was tongue in cheek.

          1. I realised that Sos and yes I agree there could be some still there in spite of assurances.

          2. Hopefully they will be destroyed by the high temperatures if there are any (rather than encouraged to breed by same).

  52. Gorgeous afternoon – again. Quite unlike the forecast. Just had a three mile walk – not a soul to be seen. Two buzzards wheeling on a thermal. Bliss.

    3. I read ‘Two old buzzards weeing in a thermos.’
      Been overcast and cool all day here.

      1. Because I need to have a lie down??

        Map measurer, pet. I wasn’t a Boy Scout for nothing…{:¬))

    1. Wordle 282 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      A lucky 1st letter.

  55. It appears that all the DT aeticles that one could Comment on have had the Like and Replies removed and one cannot Comment at atl now

  56. Sir Keir Starmer refuses to answer when asked whether a woman can have a penis

    The answer is of course, the really daring ones, can have 2, 3 or more, all at the same time, so a Film Buff told me

    2. He’s been in movies….Men in Black and Six Degrees of Separation. I enjoyed the latter but have not seen the first.

      1. He was also pretty good in “Enemy of the State” – I liked the Men in Black series and, for what it’s worth, have also seen some Chris Rock films – I’m not surprised that someone gave him a slap – I’m just astonished it took so long!

        1. Me too! If he’s a comedian then I’m Wayne Rooney! Whom I will be identifying as tomorrow! I’d have hit him a lot harder than that!

      2. He was also pretty good in “Enemy of the State” – I liked the Men in Black series and, for what it’s worth, have also seen some Chris Rock films – I’m not surprised that someone gave him a slap – I’m just astonished it took so long!

    5. Someone who thinks its ok to pan someone in the face. I have a long list of candidates who I would wish to do the same, but my collar would be felt soon after any action. Cultural norms for dissing, spose he was lucky it wasn’t something sharp.

      1. I think he did the right thing frankly. Men do not sit back and allow other men to humiliate their wives.

        1. Particularly in front of such an audience.
          I also think he was justified, as they have “history” over such comments.
          However, refusing the award and explaining why might have made a far greater impact.

    7. Played the main character in Fresh Prince of Bel Air. At one time, my younger son could virtually knew the script from watching the videos so much.

  58. Had a reply from Maggie – thanking Nottlers for their concern………

    She and R are feeling grim and exhausted from covid and her birthday treat was cancelled.

    She’ll catch up later when hopefully she’ll feel better.

    1. A shame her birthday has been cancelled. :-(( Hope she gets a second chance when they feel more up to it.

      1. Not nice being poorly at anytime 🙂 Somehow worse when you have to miss a celebration, though.

        1. Or otherwise forced to miss it.
          Last year we planned to celebrate 170 years birthday – 2 x 60, 1 x 30 and 1 x 20.
          Nowt. Zilch. What a pi$$er.

    7. That’s awful but hopefully soon on the mend.
      A friend was involved in a serious car accident last week. 4 surgeries so far, more looming and a lengthy hospital stay. Thankfully no significant head injury or internal organ damage. All her young children have their birthdays this week and next. Guess they will have to wait too.

        1. She’s the loveliest young lady I know. Why can’t terrible things happen only to bad people?

          3. I believe it is compulsory, these days, especially for those who have been vaccinated three times…{:¬(((

      3. Poor bloody lass!
        It puts my rear end shunt on Friday (I was the innocent party) into perspective.

        1. Always somebody worse off but it doesn’t mean one’s own experience is of no consequence.
          Goodnight Bob.

  59. Well, let’s hear it for my cleaner who understands my thought processes (quiet at the back).
    I lost my glasses. Retraced steps, tried to remember where I’d pottered in the garden, whether I’d gone upstairs, checked washing basket as it has been a good drying day ……. Fridge – tick; sides of armchairs – tick…..
    Dawn did the same things and then had a burst of genius; she checked the peg bag.
    While changing the washing, I’d put pegs into my pockets; unloaded pockets into peg bag – including the glasses.

    3. Have you thought of specs on string round yer neck?

      I do it for my reading glasses. So long as I don’t take them off – I’m usually fine. Though the other day I spent several minutes looking for them before realising that they were hanging against my chest…

      1. You must know my husband. He spent some time last week huffing and puffing because he couldn’t find his glasses. After a few minutes of this, I pointed out that they were on top of his head!

      5. I always put my glasses in my left pocket. I have disciplined myself over time to always do that to the point I do it unconsciously. I never lose my glasses. This was a lesson learned after years wandering about the house, the garden, the greenhouses, lifting the cat, and repeat etc. only, eventually to find them in some obvious place after an hour or so. I believe that glasses, long ago, perfected the art of camouflage to blend into the environment just to ruin your day.

        1. I need glasses to see my way out of bed. If I take them off, there’s very little I can do til I put them back on again so they’re never far away.

          1. I’m fortunate, I would say, because I only need glasses for reading, computer, painting and other such close up activities. But that is why I would mislay them all the time because, frequently, I would have no need of them. Have you noticed that a large proportion of your glasses are transparent? That’s proof that they have evolved to hide themselves and thwart us.

  60. ‘Curiouser and curioser ‘, said Alice
    Roman Abramovich and two Ukraine peace negotiators ‘suffered a suspected POISONING that caused the skin to peel off their faces after attending talks this month’
    : Ex Chelsea boss also ‘lost his sight for hours and was hospitalised in Turkey’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

  61. Got my NHS phone call,nearly unintelligible soft spoken Indian lady whose primary concern was my vax status (got quite animated when I explained I was part of the control group) rather than my symptoms
    Still,after pointing out the last prescription from 2 years ago I got what I needed sent to pharmacy,picked up and regime begun,now a hot toddy and some much needed sleep!!

  62. Ever one to jump on a Jeep Wagon:

    “Keir Starmer wades into row over Royal tour of Caribbean saying William ‘could have gone further’ condemning slavery and branding decision to ride with Kate in Land Rover used by Queen a ‘bit odd'”

    If Cur Ikea Slammer had even ONE brain cell, he would have discovered that it was the Jamaican Defence Force that CHOSE THE EFFING Landie….

    1. There’s a photo of Starmer in the Mail today with what looks like a nasty cold sore……… apparently the jabs can trigger herpes…..

  64. Ploughman’s Lunch ….OFF!

    Now the Ploughman’s lunch is cancelled: Fury at ‘woke’ Devon pub as it takes beloved dish off the menu and rebrands it ‘ploughperson’s’ in bid to be gender-neutral
    Daily Mail
    Since it started taking shape some 650 years ago, the alliterative dream poem Piers Plowman has been a touchstone of the English literary tradition.

    Alas no more….

    2. Crass though it might be, that pub has been given £100,000’s of free advertising.

        1. Indeed, but who ever remembers why they became famous?
          You’re famous for being a lawyer, most people hide that kind of thing now.

          };-O

          1. You may be surprised to learn that, when I first started on the radio as a solicitor in 1973 – and was named on the wireless, I had a letter from The Law Society demanding to know why I had the temerity to broadcast “under my own name”. I wrote back and asked them whose name they suggested I used instead..

            Never heard another word!

  65. That’s me for this very unexpectedly lovely day. Sunshine; walk; raptors; pottering in the greenhouse.; Rome hotel come good.

    Now time for a glass of anti-convid medicine. Will watch the Falklands prog this evening. Anyone see it last night? Pity the Monarch of the Glen (Duncan Mac) is not around. As far as I know, he is the only NoTTLer who was there…

    Have a peaceful evening.

    A demain.

    1. My next door neighbour served on Illustrious in the Falklands. It was his first tour of duty. Aged just 18.

      2. HMS ILLUSTRIOUS

        Known to her crew as ‘Lusty’.

        One of three ‘Through Deck Cruisers’ commissioned by Harold Wilson; he avoided the term ‘Aircraft Carrier’ …

    2. Quite a few locally retired tars who I drink with were there and I worked with 4 soldiers, Marines I think, that were there.

      1. You know what sailors are like for nick names. My mate was called by everyone…Shirley. His last name being Crabtree. He made it to Chief Petty Officer. Engineering. His wife made it to Lieutenant Commander. Funny how she outranked him. :@)

      2. An acquaintance of mine was a navigator on one of the ships surrounding the Ark Royal. They were there, among other things, to act as decoy targets for any Exocets sent the carrier’s way.
        He was diagnosed with PTSD in the late 90’s. Never saw any ‘real’ action, just spent every minute of every day expecting to be blown up.

          1. No, that’s what he thought. I think he would have much preferred to be ashore.

    3. I was on my first operational tour at Coltishall. It was a bit of a shock to have a war brewing. But I was thankful that the aircraft needed a very long runway assisted by the curvature of the Earth to get airborne, so I was spared action. The craft was two engined but if one failed the other merely took you to the scene of the crash.

      2. Alas, poor Coltishall. The Rising Sun was a regular after-work watering hole when I inflicted a Sainsbury’s on Thorpe St Andrew. Later, I used to visit a hush-hush construction site at RAF of that ilk in the Nineties. As it happens, it was also the first overnight stop on my one and only *Norfolk Broads holiday, some years before.

        *Floating pub crawl

          3. I was young. But, between pubs, the pace of life slowed right down. On the way home, driving my 1969 MkII Cortina at 30 mph was terrifying for a while.

    4. I watched most of it – some interesting stuff, some horrifying mistakes, a little rubbish – no mention at all about the impact of the MSM revealing stuff that shouldn’t have been transmitted!

  66. SWMBO just finished knitting a childs cardigan, with a tiny teddy that lives in a little pocket on the front, and knitted daffodils up pne sleeve. Charming, it is.

      1. Some decades ago, she knitted me a pale blue sweater with a chest-sized tree frog pattern on the front. Wonder whatever happened to that…?

        1. Lovely. What a talent.
          It reminded me of a dress I had when I was small. My Scots uncle who died during the lockdown used to visit his uncle, my great uncle and cousins in Mass. He brought me back a dress with all sorts of frills and there was a pocket on the front with a little doll in it- she wore the same dress only in tiny. I think it was white.
          It was called the American Dress. No idea what happened to it.

  67. I have just given my husband a “Get better soon” card.
    He’s not sick- I just think he could get better.

  68. Evening, all. Now is precisely the time to stop the pretence of “sanctions” on Russia – all they’re doing is hurting us. Vlad, being a sensible chap who looks after his own country, has made sure that he could weather any storm, rather like Maggie piling up coal stocks before she took on the miners. Bojo, on the other hand, has weakened us beyond repair by insisting on woke greenery which will put the lights out and make Heath’s 3 day week look like full employment!

    1. Oh God. You are right, we’re Arthur Scargill.
      It’s even worse than I thought!

  70. I can see that Will Smith must have been working on his forehand top spin in his latest film

  73. The science behind the NHS’S best weight-loss plan.

    A leading expert at Imperial College tells Charlotte Lytton the secrets of success: bread, mango and grapes are out, full fat yoghurt is in.
    Daily Telegraph 28/03/22.

    Having spent two years “following the science”, Dr Saira Hameed is hoping we can redirect that skill to another area: our weight. The endocrinologist at Imperial College London’s Weight Centre had for some time felt as though she was “leading this double life”: one in which she would read studies about “some cutting-edge breakthrough about the gut bacteria, or hormones or sleep”, which weren’t being translated into treatment for patients with weight concerns. Standard weight-loss advice erred on the broad side of things: telling people to eat less and move more, and what and when to eat, but without rooting their guidance in new scientific findings. “I began thinking, why aren’t we telling our patients about this, because if they knew about it, I’m sure they’d fly with that knowledge,” she recalls.

    So she set up the I-satpro (Imperial Satiety Protocol) six years ago, a fortnightly programme at her clinic, convinced that “if you share the science,” being able to “understand how your body works” could lead to lasting physical change. That programme is recreated in her new book, The Full Diet, which she believes can match the 14 per cent weight loss rate of her in-patient clinic.

    The programme’s approach is both full and full-on: from food to movement, sleep, gut bacteria and exercise, all bases are covered. Like everything else in the world, I-satpro went virtual when Covid hit – which was something of a blessing, Dr Hameed says, because the 14 fortnightly sessions, previously restricted to whatever room wasn’t booked up at Imperial, had their reach expanded significantly. There is no typical patient among the 15-strong group, though three-quarters are women (reflective of referrals generally for weight loss): their ages run from late teens to those in their 80s, from all walks of life, with a BMI upwards of 35. Dr Hameed says she stopped reading fiction two decades ago, when she became a doctor, because “my patients’ stories are more interesting”.

    The programme is stringent, I suggest – the book’s “Choose Not to Eat List” includes offenders such as bananas, mangoes and grapes, “bread of any kind”, couscous and porridge. But Dr Hameed sees the book as a science-driven sum of parts; at the end of each chapter, like I-satpro, “you get given a series of choices” which enable readers to decide what to do for themselves. “That element of choice is so, so, so important,” Dr Hameed, 43, says. People need “agency and ownership” over their health – and a plethora of rules “is probably counterproductive… if you give people information about anything, they should be free, then, to make choices about how they implement that in their everyday life. I think that’s the only way it can work, long-term.”

    Dr Hameed was on the Covid frontline until the summer of 2020 when she became pregnant with her fourth child: she believes most people “want to do the right thing” when it comes to protecting their health – particularly since the pandemic – but are often battling a tide of misinformation. One of the most common is around breakfast – which her patients routinely tell her they “know” is the most important meal of the day, and thus eat in spite of not being hungry. She tells them instead to wait until biology causes their hunger hormone to kick in, and to see each day’s food intake through the lens of an “eating window”. Consuming anything – even the approved foods listed in the book – means sugar ending up in the blood, upping insulin levels that will convert fuel into fat storage; if we get up at 7am and are in bed by 11pm, that could mean 16 hours of food going in. Those following the programme can choose what their window looks like; either it opens or closes at a certain hour of the day, or lasts for a defined period of time. Not only does this keep insulin levels low – breaking down fat and assisting weight loss, as well as reducing the risk of insulin-driven diseases (such as type 2 diabetes) – but it will “give your body the time to carry out essential repairs and resets”.

    What enters within the window makes an enormous difference too, of course. Dr Hameed believes the introduction of dietary guidelines – first produced in the UK in 1994 – has disrupted the “food culture” that existed before, where “we learnt about cooking, food and eating from our parents and grandparents”. She tries to pass on healthy habits to her four children, aged 11 years to 11 months, but admits she has been struck by looking at photos from generations past, where few if any appeared to have a weight problem. Now, in the age of semi-skimmed milk, skinless chicken breasts and margarine, British waistlines have never been bigger, with two-thirds of adults overweight or obese.

    One of the reasons we have got fat, she thinks, is by cutting out fat (which is “delicious. Wouldn’t you rather eat the crispy skin as well as the roast chicken or sauté your vegetables in butter rather than eating them with a low-fat dressing?”), and “satisfying”. Eating creamy Greek yoghurt, full of natural fats, both can’t be overdone and feels substantial; fullness being a key trait for stopping overeating.

    Awareness of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, demonstrates the importance of the relationship between gut and brain – one modern ultra-processed foods are designed to derail even more. High sugar, high salt products with unrecognisable ingredient lists are the go-to for emotionally-driven eating – which Dr Hameed describes as “one of the biggest burdens” to all weight-loss treatments – and the fact it now makes up more than 50 per cent of our diets is a major cause for concern. Stick with one-ingredient foods, such as eggs, fish and nuts, and that issue goes away.

    She prescribes Neat or non-exercise activity thermogenesis; essentially, adding bits of movement to otherwise sedentary tasks. That can be standing on the train (even if there’s a seat); walking around when on a phone call, or offering to fetch something left elsewhere in the house. These are the kinds of small additions on which you can “build until it becomes just a natural part of how you’re living”. Dr Hameed believes that where The Full Diet has the edge is that it features her patients’ stories. “These are real people with jobs, families, commitments, or with busy, busy lives, who have made it work. And I think that should really encourage the readers that if other real-life people can do it, then I can too.”

    THE FULL DIET TOOLKIT

    1. Burning it off is a myth – yes your workout might burn the calories in a biscuit, but the sugar will damage your body.

    2. Eating fat does not make you fat. Sugar makes you fat. Choose natural, healthy fats (dairy, meat, oily fish, nuts, seeds, natural oils such as olive oil) and avoid synthetic processed fats, such as trans fats.

    3. Insulin is the fat controller. You can keep insulin levels low by eating real, unprocessed foods that do not quickly break down into sugar. Food that your body (and your grandma) would recognise as food. Limit carbohydrates that produce high insulin levels, such as cereal, bread and pasta.

    4. Try to tune into your body’s hunger-fullness messages, allowing you to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. Wait 20 minutes after eating a meal as that is how long it takes to feel full.

    5. An Eating Window (ideally eight hours eating, 16 hours not) allows you to harness the powerful health advantages of choosing when you eat.

    6. Feeding your gut bacteria with foods that are high in fibre, fermented and a rainbow of colours will help keep you lean.

    7. Regular daily movement will melt away insulin resistance, you will lose weight and improve your health. A short walk after eating will reduce insulin levels.

    8. You might have weight-gain genes, which are simply the loaded gun. You can choose not to pull the trigger by avoiding ultraprocessed, sugary foods.

    9. Eat one ingredient foods. Cook your own food. Don’t eat or add chemicals, no tricks.

        1. #metoo.
          Advice from diabetes Dr Gro is just that. Plus a small amount of whole fruit.

      1. That’s not really a weight-loss program. It’s more of a pine-box filler program.

        1. I don’t know if my diet comes within those guidelines for a type 2 diabetic
          Breakfast 9.30am – bowl of porridge, gluten free toast and marmalade and tea
          Lunch 12.30 – a tomato and either a banana or an apple plus a biscuit plus tea/coffee
          Evening meal 5pm – meat, potatoes, carrots. Cheese on home made oatcakes or Lidls cheesy thins
          snack 10pm – 2 biscuits and cup of tea
          I may have some dry roasted peanuts during the evening
          My BS level taken before breakfast is usually 7.5 to 8.5 which the doc says is fine and my Hb1ac is 52
          I’m on 40mg Gliclazide 1 after breakfast and 2 after evening meal plus 1 glucosamine and 1 Vit D
          I’m static at 72 Kg

          1. Most sensible people, like you Spikey, know their bodies and also know what’s good for them. A lifetime’s habit of having a good work ethic also helps, as you know.

            Most obese people stuff their faces with all manner of crap: processed foods, sugar laden muck and drinks; poison in the form of “vegetable” and seed oils; and spend all their time sitting on their fat arses watching the telly.

          2. Having lost both legs and much of the sight in one eye to diabetes, I prolly shouldn’t comment. Yet – I have porridge each morning for breakfast. 40g of jumbo oats + 120 ml semi-skimmed cow juice. Sometimes I’ll allow myself a couple of slices of toast, but I/my breadmaker make(s) my own bread, and I slice it to 8mm, which is thinner than anything you’ll find in the supermarket.

            Lunch varies. It might be soup, occasionally a frozen Greggs sausage roll, an omelette, or – as today – a ham sandwich with Scottish* mustard and thinly sliced home made bread. I might follow this with an apple or a banana, but these are – respectively – quite carby and very carby. Prolly best avoided.

            Evening meal – I rarely have potatoes, or rice. Pasta can be problematic, since the quoted carbs never seem to materialise. Which can lead to hypos (I’m on insulin). I’m just about to have a couple of smoked Cod fillets, with tenderstem broccoli. Bugger all carbs there. I may (definitely will) accompany this with a glass of red medicine. Wine is relatively low in carbs, and I find the carb content is cancelled out by the tendency for alcohol to reduce the blood glucose. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it…

            *As for Scottish mustard, I was site quantity surveyor on the new Littlewoods store in Dumfries, subsequently Debenhams, and now closed, and every month would meet the client’s QS. As was the practice in those carefree days, I’d take him for lunch. On one occasion, he chose ham & eggs. ‘Would you like anything wi’ that?’, asked the waitress. ‘Could I have mustard, please?’ ‘Aye, which sort?’ ‘English’, he replied. There followed a sharp intake of breath. ‘We dinnae hae that muck. Ye can hae French or Scottish’. Somewhat perplexed, he went for the Scottish. So she brought a jar of Colman’s, minus a label…

          3. I make my own gluten free bread Geoff – in a breadmaker. It’s very tasty unlike the cardboard bread which the supermarket sells

      1. I’ve heard about that, Geoff. In fact there are some YouTube videos on the subject.

    4. They mention NEAT, which involves fidgeting as well. What seems to have passed people by these days is that when people were slim, most jobs, even so-called sedentary ones like typing, involved a lot of movement. People, in the days before mass car ownership, walked to the bus stop or walked or cycled to work. Lifts were few and far between, like escalators in shops. Jobs weren’t automated. Even using a manual typewriter was harder physical work than using a keyboard – and if you wanted more than one copy you had to go to pick up the paper, insert the carbon (and swear when you made a mistake!) because it wasn’t a case of typing it once and pressing PRINT X number of copies. You didn’t send emails, either. You put things in the post room and somebody walked to the post office to drop the letters into the box.

      1. All very true, Conners, and don’t forget that up to the start of the 20th century, everyone ate loads of butter, suet, lard and dripping and there were few cases of heart disease or cancer. When we were told to stop eating fat and instead use Frankenstein foods like margarine, and so-called “vegetable oils” (in reality an industrial effluent); whilst upping the amount of carbs and processed foods, modern diseases took off like a moon-shot.

  75. Just a thought.
    This year’s Conway award aka an Oscar has been awarded to Will Smith…

      1. Nah, I suspect Oscar would have supported Smith and had Rock’s rocks as an aperitif!

    1. So much progress made and thrown away on the Left wing altar of ego, progressives and unadulterated, spoiled wasters.

      The Left must be crushed. Their racist, intolerant, bitter, divisive, abusive, spiteful attitudes cannot be allowed to breathe ever again.

  77. I’ve watched the slapperoo a few times now.

    In my view, the whole thing looks stage managed. It’s a “theatrical slap”, there is next to no damage done and the reaction of Rock is fake.

    Look at the whole thing closely.

    1. The hittee also ended up with his hands behind his back, and wonder if he didn’t clap ’em for a sound effect. Need a review on ‘Ultra Edge’.

      1. Quite.
        Expect a whole series on how it’s not acceptable to make fun of anyone who is disadvantaged.
        Although that is true and needs changing, it’s not a great way of going about paving the way to such changes.

    2. There is nothing glamorous about the Oscars. Most of the stars are given film roles because they are related to a former star or director. There can be no young talent just recycled retreads.

      I initially thought the slap stage managed but am prepared to view it as a chap defending his wife against a remark that he himself appeared initially not to be bothered by. See the footage as Will Smith initially laughs at the reference to G I Jane.

      Either way such a performance is a sign of the general decline in behaviour we have witnessed over recent decades.

      Most irritating was the three women stooge presenters attempting to mock Florida and it’s great governor, Ron de Santis, chanting “gay, gay, gay” over a bill that makes no reference whatever to the word “gay”.

      1. I can’t comment on any of the rest of it. The Oscars bores me.
        I only saw, and then looked behind the slap, when it was on the headlines..
        The whole thing looks faked to me.

    3. Men do not slap. Girls slap. Nancies slap. Men use their fists. The expression is “a bunch of fives”. A good solid punch with some weight behind it.

  78. John Redwood
    @johnredwood Today on Twitter
    Another day of little wind. Gas generating 63% of our electricity, wind 1%, coal 5%. Good job we still have fossil fuel back up to renewables. Time to find more ways of storing wind power for the days of little wind.

    1. Eat beans, sprouts and sauerkraut. Curried eggs & Guinness. That combo stores an unbelievable amount of wind… or gas, if you prefer.

      1. Oops… just proved it. Another gigawatt to add to the UK’s electricity…

      2. Haven’t had Curried Eggs in years. Thanks for the reminder, I shall make some. Don’t know why I forgot them because I used to love them.

    2. It’s worse than that. Currently, no pun intended, wind is generating 0.49 GW; 1.34% of our requirement. So, Carrie (Boris is irrelevant), how many more bat-slicing bird-munching eco-crucifixes do you think we need?

      1. She probably thinks we need to cover every square inch (sorry, 2.5cm) of land that isn’t used for housing immigrants to provide sufficient capacity. Like the EU, if it isn’t working, the answer is “more of the same”.

        1. 351693+ up ticks,

          Evening C,
          The same aim as the lab/lib/con coalition supporter / voter.

      2. Thing is, they build more thinking that affects the capacity. It’s the unreliability that’s the problem, not the capacity.

        We need gas power plants now. A huge building program should be in action, using shale gas.

      3. Over a decade away, at least. I’d say more like 20.

        We needed them to be built in 2000, not now.

    4. I thought they were going to wait a million years, for the coal to turn into diamonds..

  79. Wasn’t it tricky Dicky Nixon who coined the phrase: “when you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow”?

    “Russia on Monday has issued a firm and unyielding response to G-7 ministers who had dismissed as “unacceptable” its plan to only accept ruble payments for Russian gas going to “unfriendly” nations.

    Game, set and Swan Vesta?

    1. Theodore Roosevelt.
      Either way, it’s a truism!

      As Putin might say:
      “If you want my product you pay my price!”

    2. They’ve said they won’t pay in rubles. Let’s see how that plays out in the UK, Germany, France and Italy by the autumn.

      1. The Russians will find new customers and when the EU start saying “pretty please” Vlad will say “Eff orf”. “The Yanks will say you can have Liquified Natural Gas but it will cost you….”

        1. Some retired politician with a pension of 19000 euros a month has apparently told the German people that they’ve got to Freeze for Freedom and wear Pullovers to fight Putin.

          Roll on September…

        2. I was thinking more along the lines of stocking up on logs – and storing them out of sight behind the house. If everyone with a fireplace is scrambling for logs in the autumn, they will be a lot more expensive, and scarce.

  80. There’s Good News and Bad news.

    The Marrvelous is to be replaced. But:

    “Laura Kuenssberg to replace Andrew Marr full-time.”

      1. I’m past caring. The BBC isn’t capable of balance or in depth discussion. Marr was an obvious communist with decidedly bonkers views, Kuenssberg will be more of the same.

  81. Interesting.
    Maybe somebody should ask Wee Krankie why this is the case:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9931ea12678c0c1da64a0a28dfb50242d3c2511d5d0687194146b08835188e0f.png
    Great Britain’s avoidable mortality rate was statistically significantly higher in 2020 than all years since 2010
    Age-standardised avoidable mortality rates by persons, Great Britain and its constituent countries, 2001 to 2020. In all the measure on this page, Scotland is noticeably worse than England & Wales, who are pretty close together.
    From https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/bulletins/avoidablemortalityinenglandandwales/2020

  82. Totally off-topic.

    Tom Archer. Ugh.
    Alice Aldridge. Kate Aldridge. Double ugh.

      1. The radio soap – The Archers. The everyday tale of country folk. There’s an epic divorce and custody battle looming between ex-alcoholic Alice and lovely Chris Carter. I’m on team Chris/Amy. I hope he gets the child and Amy. I know he won’t get custody of the child however.🙁

        Never liked Tom Archer since they changed the actor (or Tony or Kate for that matter). Tom is just an irritating character.

    2. I used to be an Archers fan up to about 10y ago when it began to get too stupid.

    1. It so inspires one with a feeling of security that such a dangerously incompetent old man is ‘ in charge’. Not the other side’s lunatic is any better.
      Goodnight Sue.

Comments are closed.