Monday 29 July: The Tories need a leader untarnished by the previous government

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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970 thoughts on “Monday 29 July: The Tories need a leader untarnished by the previous government”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s (recycled) story

    The Wasp Killer

    A young husband and wife were sunning on a nude beach when a wasp buzzed into the woman's vagina. The husband covered her with a coat, pulled on his shorts, carried her to the car and made a dash to the hospital. After examining her, the doctor explained that the wasp was too far in to be reached with forceps. He suggested the husband try to entice it out by putting honey on his penis, penetrating her and withdrawing as soon as he felt the wasp. The man agreed to try, but because he was so nervous, he couldn't rise to the occasion.

    "If neither of you objects," the medic said, "I could give it a try."

    Under the circumstances, both agreed. The doctor quickly undressed, slathered on some honey and mounted the woman. The husband watched with increasing alarm as the doctor's thrusts continued for several long minutes.

    "Hey, What the hell are you doing?" screamed the husband.

    "Change of plans," the physician panted, "I'm gonna crush the little blighter!"

    1. All on the left foot except Smarmer, who can't make his mind up – 5 more years, Heaven help us!

  5. 390389+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 29 July: The Tories need a leader untarnished by the previous government

    Monday 29 July: The Tories need a leader untarnished by the previous governments as a point of fact they need a FULL government party content the contamination is nigh on 100%

    We know from past actions that labour really are Country killers
    currently tory (ino) the same, surely the electorate cannot return to selecting a governing political power source on a party name only basis , look where that has got us to date,

    1. The Tories need a leader untarnished by the previous government

      Is there anyone in the current ranks of the Tory party not tarnished by 14 years of feckless governance?

      The Tories need a leader untarnished by the WEF/NWO/Bilderbergers/Trilateral Commission/Club of Rome et al. full stop.

  6. Treasury draws up plans to bring CGT into line with income tax to fix ‘broken’ Britain. 29 July 2024.

    Civil servants will present the proposals to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who in a speech on Monday is expected to prepare the nation for tax rises by claiming she inherited a £20 billion funding gap from the Conservatives.

    Cutting pension tax relief for middle-class workers is another option set to be presented to Ms Reeves, who will announce timings for the next Budget, when any tax rises will be announced.

    Downing Street said that the Treasury assessment of the nation’s finances will “show that Britain is broke and broken”.

    If you are a Socialist you can fix anything by putting up taxes. Of course anyone else finding themselves short of cash would reduce their spending.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/27/cgt-tax-income-equal-labour-plans-hole-funding-budget/

    1. But I thought Reeves had already liaised with the OBR and was "fully cognisant" with Britain's financial condition.

        1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

          Trump’s crackdown on Mexico’s narco-cartels won’t work
          Comments Share 29 July 2024, 7:25am
          Donald Trump has said he would not rule out military action against Mexico’s narco-cartels which he blames for the opioid crisis killing astronomical numbers of Americans. ‘Mexico’s gonna have to straighten it out really fast, or the answer is absolutely. They’re killing 300,000 people a year with fentanyl coming in,’ he told Fox News host.

          The narcos are invisible, deeply embedded within their communities
          This isn’t the first time Trump has talked tough when it comes to drugs. The former and possible future president has mulled deploying commando teams to take out the narco godfathers bin Laden-style. He has also weighed up putting Mexico under naval embargo.

          Trump also isn’t the the only Republican to bang the drums of war in recent years. Last January, Dan Crenshaw of Texas introduced a bill authorising armed strikes against fentanyl importers. Another bill put forward by Republican Lindsey Graham would have classed narcos as terrorist organisations and fentanyl as a chemical weapon, while previous presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called on ‘our military to annihilate the Mexican drug cartels and finally end the supply-driven fentanyl crisis.’

          It’s true that much of the fentanyl in the US originates in Mexico. The Mexicans source the ingredients from China and process the product in clandestine laboratories, before dispatching it to safehouses across America. Mexico, one of America’s top trading partners, has a long, proud tradition of standing up to the gringos, and will not take any breaches of their sovereignty lightly. But can boots on the ground actually work?

          Every self-respecting Mexican crime boss wields their own paramilitary militia: the Jalisco Cartel in particular like to parade their goons in masks with automatic weapons and riding ‘narco-tanks’ (homemade armoured vehicles) in a show of force. But, for the most part, Mexican drug dealers aren’t standing around in uniform. The US military is great at fighting conventional wars; insurgents, not so much. Like the Taliban or Vietcong, two other opponents the US war machine has struggled with, the narcos are invisible, deeply embedded within their communities.

          They’re also closely intertwined with the establishment: you can’t simply liquidate a gang of bandits hiding out in the mountains and claim victory when mayors, ministers and generals are in on it. Historically, police chiefs and politicians have been known to take a cut of the action: in the case of Baja California governor Esteban Cantú, even using the profits to subsidise infrastructure projects and schools. To the extent the Mexican authorities do fight drugs and organised crime, it can be better seen as clearing out competitors.

          Neither can you win by removing the leaders. Last week, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada was caught in a sting luring him on a private jet to Texas. El Mayo was considered the Sinaloa Cartel’s mastermind lurking in the shadows (unlike El Chapo, he didn’t sit down for interviews with Rolling Stone) and possibly the most powerful narcotrafficker on Earth. However, while the term ‘cartel’ is frequently used by American prosecutors to name and shame drug peddlers, it doesn’t quite describe how these gangs operate. The Sinaloa Cartel can be better-described as the Sinaloa Federation: a loose network of traffickers, some with greater reach than others, who sometimes collaborate or ally against rivals like the Jalisco boys.

          So, Trump’s kingpin strategy will only lead to more bloodshed. In 2006, then-president Felipe Calderón declared a war on drugs, deploying soldiers, special forces and helicopters (courtesy of the United States) to capture or liquidate crime bosses. Mighty narco empires crumbled into smaller, warring kingdoms, turning Mexico into the bloody mess it is today. Intensifying violence will also send refugees flooding over the border, something nobody wants.

          Americans want drugs, and if the Mexicans can’t sell them, somebody else will
          Blaming Mexico ignores the United States’ role in the crisis. Washington has poured money and resources into counternarcotics south-of-the-border which end up in the pockets of the narcos’ allies, the security forces. The Zetas, one of Mexico’s bloodthirstiest gangs, were initially made up of ex-special forces commandos trained at the infamous School of the Americas at Fort Bragg.

          Meanwhile, the same cars ferrying dope across the Rio Grande bring back guns the other way. Each year hundreds of thousands of high-calibre firearms flow into Mexico, enough to equip several armies – which the Republicans have no intention of stopping.

          ‘At least 80 per cent of the weapons that go into Mexico come from the United States,’ the DEA’s former chief of international operations Mike Vigil told me. ‘We estimate that amounts to about 300,000 weapons flowing across the border on an annual basis, a lot of which are military-grade weapons that end up in the hands of criminals. The Republican party has refused to come up with a solid gun control law because they are in the pockets of the National Rifle Association.’

          The war on drugs also consistently misunderstands the nature of supply-and-demand. Americans want drugs, and if the Mexicans can’t sell them, somebody else will: before Mexico, most of America’s opioids came from the Italian Mafia and their French and Middle Eastern partners. Disrupting the supply chain will create an even more chaotic, poisonous drug market in the States: as recent studies show, removing established dealers merely replaces them with up-and-comers whose product is less reliable, and therefore deadlier.

          So while Trump talks a good game on cracking down on drugs, he’d be wise to think twice about following through on his threats if he does become president.

          1. Some ideas for Mr Trump:
            1. Persuade the United Kingdom to apologise to China for the devastation and destruction caused by the opium trade in the 19th century.
            2. Lower the price of all processed narcotics and make them freely available in prisons.
            3. Starting 1st January, change the design of the US dollar bill(s), withdraw the current dollar bills in circulation, rinse and repeat approximately every four years. Other countries must agree to co-operate by re-designing their own currencies. If you cannot stop the narco traffic, at least then you can tax the monsters involved.
            4. Driving licences and private vehicle insurance should be linked with occasional blood tests.
            5. Create a DNA database of all US-born babies and all people who enter the USA, whether tourists or immigrants.

          1. A term borrowed from cosmology. A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light and other electromagnetic waves, is capable of possessing enough energy to escape it.

            The term used to be 'A bottomless pit'

  7. Good Moaning.
    An actual Telegraph letter.

    ‘Green’ wind farms
    SIR – Mary Hayter (Letters, July 27) comments on the collateral damage caused by wind farms.

    My son, a civil engineer, is currently working on a tender for one in Australia. He calculates that it will require 40,000 trucks of concrete, 20,000 trucks of aggregate, 15,000 trucks of sand and an incalculable amount of water (in an area where most of these things are not abundant).

    Of course, diesel or petrol will also be needed to supply all the vehicles. And that is just to make the bases. Does anybody ever carry out an environmental cost-benefit analysis of these projects?

    Elisabeth Hopkin
    Bath, Somerset

    1. …and with a £20 billion black hole, the idiot Millipede is offering £11;9 billion for overseas green aid. What a tosser.

      1. Add in the eye-watering sums squandered on the savages and to Ukraine, and that alleged £20 billion black hole is even larger.

        1. Stop the benefits to the savages and Ukraine and you’d quickly save that £20 billion.

      2. He is the child of two stateless foreigners, no loyalty whatsoever to English cultural traditions, a left wing globalist. Edit: yes, his father did at least serve in the Royal Navy during WWII. But I have tried to do costings and comparisons for domestic wind turbines where I live, and photovoltaic panels always win; turbines have gears, so they need oil and maintenance and replacement parts. Offshore turbines will never be cheap to build and the servicing costs would be enormous. When you include any element of land reinstatement and disposal of old components, the whole plan is clearly a fraud on the English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish public.

      3. He is the child of two stateless foreigners, no loyalty whatsoever to English cultural traditions, a left wing globalist.

    2. Yes, I did almost three decades ago which showed that there would never be any payback on the gross resources needed to build and operate onshore turbines. A friend who was a member of HMG's committee establishing the tariff regime for wind farms submitted the paper to the committee and they didn't want to know because it was their job to get "the wind industry" off the ground. Several members of that committee set up businesses to build and operate wind farms because they knew how to milk all the subsidies and tax loopholes. The numbers for offshore turbines are even worse.

    3. 'Does anybody ever carry out an environmental cost-benefit analysis of these projects?'
      Simple answer – no.
      Such concerns are irrelevant in the lunatic advance to nut zero and the return to the stone age.

      1. I just wonder if we'll regress suddenly to the Palaeolithic, or in stages, via steam, Iron, Bronze and Neolithic.

      2. As of April 2024, 17,005,100 trees have been cut down in Scotland since 2000 to make way for wind farms. This figure is based on an average of 2,000 trees per hectare across 8,503 hectares, and most of the trees were commercial forestry that would have been cut down at the end of their rotation.

        The Scottish Government

        1. …and those trees captured and stored Co2 and require it for growth As do most plants.

        2. While some/most of these plantations were somewhat unsightly with their uniform rows of identical trees, replacing them with hordes of heavily subsidised, massive tax turbines has totally destroyed vast swathes of once-beautiful, remote countryside, and devastated previously viable, if limited, eco-systems.

    4. Cost-benefit analysis – lots of cost – financial and environmental – and little benefit from forced reliance on an intermittent and unreliable source of power.

      And as for Solar Energy?

      Emphasis is mine.

      Where is solar energy most effective?
      These factors are       latitude, cloud cover, aerosols, elevation and shading. Not surprisingly, the site with the highest solar energy potential on Earth happens to be near the equator, surrounded by an arid climate away from major sources of pollution, and it also happens to be on a plateau.

      Welcome to the Atacama Desert in Chile: the top solar spot on Earth, with annual solar production of more than 9,000 kWh from an average-sized (5kW) residential solar panel system. Atacama is a plateau on the west side of the Andes mountains and it covers a strip of land about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) long.

      Last time I looked good arable land in Lincolnshire, 53 degrees North, doesn't approach the conditions of the Atacama Desert.

      At what temperature do solar panels lose efficiency?
      around 77ºF
      In the winter, it's also less likely for solar panels to reach their peak temperature, or peak power. Once their temperature rises above that peak temperature, solar panel performance decreases. Research has demonstrated that panels begin losing efficiency around 77ºF.

      Google and Solar Efficiency

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f4959f0f366321d12c7877f2a93d6b82919fdc940e3b8139823b8145f209b31d.png

      1. It's always been interesting to be reminded of that non-intuitive temperature increase that lowers solar panel's efficiency.

    5. Perhaps all that concrete being dumped in various positions all around the world has upset the balance of our planet earth. And the outcome is these changes in weather patterns.
      Similarly long term extraction of coal and other minerals including oil has the same effect.

      1. The Earth's quite big. It'd take hundreds of thousands of kilometres many kilometres deep before anything changed and then there'd likely be earthquakes and collapses.

      2. IMHO it's the growth in water abstraction that is a factor causing problems to wildlife.

  9. 390389+ up ticks,

    In this era of guilty & innocent alike being Ideed on grounds of manipulation then the two arrested MUST surely be identified if only by race & origin the peoples MUST be made wary of ALL threats of this nature and carry some form of protection.

    Dog walker dies four days after early morning assault
    Two arrested and bailed after Anita Rose was found lying unconscious with serious head injuries

    Telegraph Reporters
    28 July 2024 • 9:05pm
    Related Topics
    Suffolk, Ipswich, Crime, Murder, Suffolk Constabulary, England

    CCTV images issued by Suffolk Police of Anita Rose
    CCTV images have been released by Suffolk Police of Ms Rose walking her dog CREDIT: Suffolk Police
    A female dog walker has died four days after she was discovered with serious head injuries on a country path…

    1. 390389+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      I an assuming this could very well be the usual suspects, if so in NOT giving race & origin
      only we, are in a way protecting an ongoing way of life or, as in this case, and many others, DEATH.

  11. Good morning, all. Another fine start to the day here in N Essex.

    From Wayne Dunlap's X feed.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/084ef63f50ee45127311c8cac1441e670fd65485645af152bd6ff2d139ff483a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0fd858f10ae230fd2b44dfb830ab7aa3452fa655802c8708400ce049ee5f482f.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e7150f5b4211589c479c08323794845793493beadb8f9431078435411a5f281.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87d2578f287e75eb08b148d7ef73bafc852fb119918be0799096079b55c99357.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ff3340c5be8725913181bcb244e2dc863b5093c27e74666be5dbc1216bbaf84.png

  13. Good morning all.
    Another bright and sunny start with a clear sky and not a lot of wind.

    1. Is there a new definition of "anti-social behaviour" on the cards?
      1. Being a white male.
      2. Being a white Christian male.
      3. Being a white, Christian heterosexual male.

      Ummm …. that's it.

      1. 4. Being a white, Christian heterosexual married male who refuses to call girls boys.

  15. Tim Stanley gives it some welly.

    "At the Olympics they often sing Imagine, containing the line, “Imagine there’s no countries …” Well, if there were no countries, there’d be no Olympics, which would be marvellous. Who wants to watch two weeks of muscular women throwing sticks and balls at each other? The only entertaining bit is the opening ceremony. Britain did a good ’un back in 2012; so good that it entered folklore, along with the 1966 World Cup and Dunkirk. When our grandkids ask, “What did you do in the clash of civilisations?” we shall reply: “We pushed Elizabeth II out of a helicopter.”

    Paris, by contrast, offered us drag queens doing a parody of the Last Supper – insulting Christians, mocking God. When I described the scene to a priest, he replied: “That explains the torrential rain, then.”

    It was blasphemous, sure, but it was also tacky; the crime aesthetic as well as religious. You have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sell your country to tourists, and what did France go with? A dozen men – one with a beard – twerking to Freed from Desire. Actual culture necessitates discipline and taste. In the 21st century, people just “party”, cos it requires zero effort and any idiot can do it.

    Kicking Christians is very easy because we have no power and, when we’re angry, we don’t fly planes into things. And yet some people cannot leave us alone. They feel a need to ridicule our beliefs and subvert our images, to drag Christ down to the gutter – as if crucifying him once wasn’t enough.

    It’s probably because faith is beautiful. People don’t know how to react to it. When you’ve been raised in ugliness, to be confronted with the profound, transcendent beauty of the Last Supper can inspire awe, yes, but also fear. Think of those apes going bananas at the mysterious monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Beauty pierces the illusion of a comfortably banal existence.

    Imagine if instead of the drag queen parody, the ceremony had paused to display the real painting by Leonardo da Vinci. No music. No fireworks. Just Jesus&Co. Millions would’ve switched off the telly – because they’d find it boring, no doubt, but also strange, unnerving, possibly offensive. There would’ve been thousands of complaints. We have engineered an entire existence around pleasure and distraction. Stop the disco for one minute and people might fill the silence with thought, even prayer … or they might riot.

    Either way, you’ve got a revolution on your hands, and the powers that be can’t have that."

    1. Apes going bananas.
      Flying planes into things because you are angry.
      And worst of all….A man with a beard.

      I think i could warm to Mr Stanley.

    1. Typically these people have no respect whatsoever for anything that existed before they did, but enforce their repulsive and medieval vile attitude.

  19. a typical comment on social media..

    Every news story seems to feature them. To say they "only" make up 6.3% of the population, they sure seem to cause a lot of trouble. Oh, and they make up a fifth of the UK prison population. That speaks volumes.
    We can't even include the word, but have to change it to Slims.

  20. Good morning, chums, and thank you, Geoff, for Monday's NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,136 3/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. Par 4 here…
        Wordle 1,136 4/6

        ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
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        🟩🟩🟨🟩⬜
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  21. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13681315/DR-MAX-PEMBERTON-fix-NHS-Sack-slackers-axe-managers.html

    How to fix the NHS? Sack slackers and take an axe to managers

    Dr Max Pemberton01:58, 29 July 2024
    Published: 01:44, 29 July 2024 |

    "Dear Wes Streeting,

    Last week, in the pages of this newspaper, you wrote about the crisis consuming the NHS. You repeated what you said on the day you were appointed Health Secretary — that the NHS was 'broken'. 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant,' you wrote, asking for frontline staff and patients to diagnose problems so you could 'write the correct prescription'.

    Well, I have worked full-time in the NHS for more than 20 years and I can certainly lift the curtain for you. I am truly shocked by the state of the health service.

    The most important thing is that people are scared — of getting ill, of going to A&E, of needing to see a GP or an operation. They're scared because they fear they won't get the treatment they need, when they need it.

    There is enormous will among staff to turn this around, but you will need to take some very bold decisions. In the long-term, we might need to change the NHS fundamentally — how it operates and how it's funded. In the meantime, here is what needs attention now!

    Health Secretary Wes Streeting wrote about the crisis consuming the NHS in the Daily Mail last week
    Health Secretary Wes Streeting wrote about the crisis consuming the NHS in the Daily Mail last week
    More beds to solve corridor crisis

    In recent years we've tried to save money by cutting the number of hospital beds and moving services into the community. It doesn't work. The UK now has shockingly low numbers of beds: 2.43 per 1,000 population versus 5.73 in France and 7.82 in Germany.

    Don't listen to the management consultants who tell you it's the answer. You said you wanted to know if patients 'are being left unattended, unsafely on trolleys in corridors for hours'. Just go to any A&E anywhere and see for yourself. It's happening now.

    Scrap university fees

    There simply aren't enough frontline staff. We need to encourage the best to train and to keep them when they graduate. Scrap university fees for nursing and medical students and reinstate a full grant. In return, they have to commit to working in the NHS for a minimum of, say, seven years.

    This will help restore the sense of loyalty and duty present in my generation of doctors (who didn't pay fees and got grants) but is often lacking in the younger generation (who did pay). Resist the temptation to plug gaps with physician associates — it takes years to train a doctor for a reason and I worry about patient safety with PAs taking the brunt.

    Take an axe to management

    There are many layers of management that do very little for patient care, and we doctors spend far too long filling out pointless forms for them.

    A consultant friend says the hour and a half of NHS paperwork after a patient assessment takes just 20 minutes in the private sector. When he works privately all he has to do is write a letter to the patient's GP.

    It's interesting that when time is money, all these forms become obsolete and unnecessary.

    You need to axe entire layers. There's no excuse for having managers who just manage managers. Those who survive should spend the equivalent of one day a week on the frontline. This already happens in some trusts — where I work, for example, the medical director spends one day a week in the dementia service assessing patients. It should be mandatory across the NHS.

    Make waiting lists your top priority

    These are out of control. There's no magic answer — but increasing beds, staff numbers and efficiency will all help. Use the private sector in the short-term, but be wary of relying on it for long because it will push up costs.

    Root out slackers

    Matrons have been reintroduced, but we need them on the wards, pushing up care, not in management offices where they spend too much of their time.

    It should be much easier to fire staff who aren't pulling their weight or who don't care. And we need cast-iron protection for whistleblowers.

    In some areas, there has been a real deterioration in attitude and productivity since the pandemic, with some staff having got used to doing less. It's a painful truth to acknowledge, especially when so many are working their fingers to the bone, but we do need to root out slackers.

    Tougher A&E targets

    It's often pandemonium in A&E. Various policies have tried to improve this and the 'four-hour rule', stating 95 per cent of patients should be seen and dealt with within four hours, certainly focuses minds.

    I think it's more than reasonable to ensure that, from the moment someone registers at reception, they wait no longer than an hour before they are seen and, if they need more complex care, they are admitted or referred elsewhere within those four hours.

    Put other specialists into GP surgeries

    GPs are the whipping boys —everyone blames them for the problems in the NHS, yet most are working very hard. Is it any wonder so many are quitting?

    Yes, sometimes it's near-impossible to get an appointment. We need to encourage more young doctors to enter primary care as a career and we need to think creatively about keeping them.

    In my trust, psychiatrists have been placed in GP surgeries to see patients with mental health problems and to offer support with less acute psychological diagnoses. It's a genius idea and means fewer referrals to secondary mental health services. Surely something like this can be introduced nationwide — and with other disciplines?

    Those suggestions are just for starters, Wes. I'm sure there will be readers who will be able to tell you their own stories, and many who will have smart and clever solutions.

    I trained as a doctor because I wanted to work in the NHS. I hate to see it on its knees. Please, do your best. We might not agree on everything politically, but from the bottom of my heart, I wish you success."

    1. That seems like common sense; it will never happen.
      Liebour reform Saint NHS? Pigs might fly.

      1. Oh I don't know. Labour is the only party which could dare to reform the NHS, on the "Nixon in China" principle.

    2. I foresee yet another layer of management (Task Force?) being formed to look at reforming the NHS. This will be a career long appointment for the successful candidates.

      1. Whole new departments, fancy offices, top-of-the-range furniture and company cars (tax exempt for them), DIE sub-departments for each…….

          1. Mini empire building, a disease that is prevalent in most public sector organisations.

    3. I am not sure that I completely agree with Dr Pemberton – students and their parents should be expected to meet the cost of their higher education and loans should be available.

      When I went to university in the 1960s universities charged tuition fees but in most cases these were paid by the students' local authorities except when a student was on the minimum maintenance grant of £50 pa which was means-tested based on the students' parents' income and then the parents had to pay these fees. I was on the minimum grant and so my father had to pay my tuition fees (£83 pa) and my living expenses (the maximum maintenance grant was £375 pa). Now, of course not only are students and their parents responsible for paying tuition fees but maintenance grants have almost entirely disappeared.

      What I deplore is the not the loans but the criminally usurious rates of interest on these loans which mean that in many cases they will never be paid off. In more civilised countries than the UK interest rates on student loans are at 0% interest rate or at a maximum of 1%.

      Student loans should be repaid but every help should be given to help students repay them. The loans should be interest free, that a student should be able to charge against tax when he starts to earn; employers should be given tax advantages in helping their employees pay off their loans and in the public sector those working in public health care and education should have their loans paid off in full after – say – ten years in order to encourage doctors, nurses and teachers to stay in their jobs.

      1. I do think that medical degrees should contain an agreement that if the tuition is "free" then the qualified staff should work in the NHS for the same period of time that it took to gain that degree.

        1. I think policing that would fail – the medics just b*gger off to the USA or wherever.

  22. BBC News..

    Family of kicked man concerned for hurt officers

    BBC
    https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › articles
    14 hours ago — The family of a man who was kicked in the head by police at Manchester Airport have said they are concerned for any injured officers

    2. Yes, a likely story. After the muslim behaviour it's clearly obvious they're trying to earn back public support. Well they don't deserve it. They should have been shot.

    3. Yer. Rite.
      Under instruction from their Human Rights Shark; makes them look like human beings.

    1. How's that eh….Happy birthday to you Lewis Duckworth have a lovely day. 🥂🍾🤩 cheers.

    7. No point in me wishing the poster a happy birthday since he would not receive it. For some reason, unknown to me, he has decided ot block me and, despite asking the moderators of this forum on a number of occasions if they would be kind enough to ask why, I remain in the dark.

      This means that while I can see all replies to his posts, I cannot join in because the OP is invariably hidden.

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    It's a bit cloudy today.
    Brighter later the forecast says, but not the frightening temperatures that our government warned us of.
    Back home tomorrow, if you haven't already been to Northumberland pay it a visit. I can highly recommend it and its friendly people.

    I'm not sure if the Conservatives have anyone available for a stalwart leader who actually knows how to speak the truth and listen to public opinion. They all seem so far ahead of the game they have completely lost the plot.

    1. Northumberland is somewhere MB and I keep thinking about.
      Like Devon, it's a county most pass through to get elsewhere.

      1. There are so many lovely small towns villages. Also so many interesting attractions. But during school holidays as now lots of families and car’s around.

  26. Good morning all,

    Sunny at Castle McPhee, wind South-East, 16℃, expecting 27℃.

    If they think this man is the answer……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/baa92da91a4427383d52ae6fe2d35e2689664d749a9c2b0567629351ca1ba29a.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/28/tories-need-to-pick-an-election-winner/

    ….then there really is no hope for the Conservative Party.

    Nor is there any hope for the Daily Telegraph if it keeps publishing tripe such as this.

    1. AKA "Stupidly" in this house. I also noticed elsewhere "Dimly" which I quite liked!

    3. The wide swathe of voters won't vote Conservative for one person. The entire party has got to get out there and start sellinng genuinely new ideas.

      The problem is, as I've realised, it's all well and good having ideas but far too many people are petty, spiteful, ignorant and stupid. Try to explain that 18% of 300,000 is more than 18% of 30,000 and that the more you tax the less revenue is raised is like talking to a brick.

      People are thick. They want simple, easy, trivialised answers.

      1. The problem, I fear, is to describe ideas that have been flying around since the time of Thatcher and Reagan forty years ago, and have been in the long run discredited, are somehow "new". You mention the Laffer Curve, but at best this is an arbitrary optimum threshold and has proved to be inadequate at generating the revenues required to maintain public services at the level demanded by the public. All we get then is debt, asset stripping and false economies that turn out to be extremely expensive when their consequences must be mitigated.

        I would welcome some mechanism for tweaking the Laffer thresholds, so that books can be balanced and standards maintained, but I hear nothing from those pushing for 40-year-old political doctrine and yet claiming to be the reform the Conservative Party needs today. [edit for senior moment grammar and typing]

        1. Since 20% of the electorate gave us a Labour Government with absolute power, I might add that pushing for more building and social engineering projects and widening the tax base to pay for it is simply throwing good money into a big pit until something is done about corruption, conflict of interest and the attraction of goldplated bling.

    4. Bwahahahahahaha ha ha ha ha …. !
      They really are trying to make us beg for Hunt, aren't they.

    6. The BTL comments are …. how shall I put this? …. not supportive of Master Sitwell's opinion.

      1. He is a descendant of a family that routinely gives weird names to its family members. I give you:

        Sacheverell Sitwell
        Osbert Sitwell
        Reresby Sitwell
        Sitwell Sitwell (I kid you not!).

  27. The Tories don't need a leader. They need to understand why they lost. Then they need to come back with some actual new ideas.

    They've got to accept that massive uncontrolled gimmigration is a bad thing.
    That the tax code is far, far too complicated and needs to be replaced with one far simpler where taxation provides for essential services only, not a mechanism for social control. Underpinning everything must be the acknowledgement that the citizen dos not labour solely for the state, but that the state is servant of the citizen paymaster.
    They've got to permanently abandon this daft conceit of welfare. Government is there to provide the means of employment, not employment. The state is not a job creation scheme.
    They have to acknowledge that government cannot create growth, only private citizens and business can do that.

    They could, alongside this new tax code discuss taboos such as tax hypothecation, failure standards in public sector contract writing, confuse the Left by discussing percentages (as 'progressive' taxation is just abusive) and demonstrate how lower axes raise more revenue. They could discuss scrapping those taxes that hit the poorest, hardest. They could say we'll leave pensions alone for the term of our office. They could announce a doubling of the ISA allowance accepting that it's not their money to take.

    They could present a scheme whereby government lends money for power stations (real ones) and then receives that money back as a shareholder in the power station, capping the profits at 5-6%, not providing subsidy for the losses. That'd have people building nuclear, coal and gas plants and the market restored to energy as the producers sell the most efficient sources and compete for the lowest prices. In the meanwhile they could make solar panels and batteries tax deductible to help people become less reliant on the grid.

    They need to produce the research for the changes Truss was going to make and stick to them.

    1. They'll be busy going through the motion's right at this moment in time.
      But unfortunately they won't notice the smell they have left behind, simply because they are use to it.

    2. All good stuff I'm sure, nothing I could disagree with, but after they've purged the last remaining Wet from their ranks they need to promise and deliver the repeal of every last so-called Reform by Bliar going back to 1997. Plus of course instant withdrawal from the ECHR.

      For good measure they might too benefit from introducing a new constitution. No, not for the country – for themselves. It might begin with the opening lines, 'We, The Conservative Party, renounce Blairism…' and proceed from there.

      That's the starting point from which my interest in them will be piqued.

      1. Blairism has its roots in the Conservatism of Margaret Thatcher, and indeed the Iron Lady herself once remarked that Blair was her greatest legacy – the perpetuation of her policies by the Labour Party meant that they could never be undone.

        1. Morning Jeremy. I don't think I really care what Maggie thought about Bliar. I recognise that he much admired her too, but in the end he became the polar opposite of her thinking. She would have gone to war for a cause while Blair went to war for his own megalomania borne from Liberalism.

          The perpetuation of her policies did not mean that they cannot be undone. The perpetuation of left leaning philosophy by hamstringing future governments with Blairite policies is what has kept us here. That's not down to the lightweight Blair. That's down to the party that followed him. What Conservative rates his outstanding and most enduring legacy as "gay marriage"? Which one as "committing Britain to legally binding" climate targets in perpetuity? Which to "getting Brexit done" and yet doing precisely the opposite? You know you're a Blairite when your so-called Opposition spends your entire term in power simply agreeing with you while claiming that actually you're not being left wing enough. The Conservatives left us "the legacy". They could have undone Blair anytime. Instead they were Chauncey Gardener: being there.

          We will never hear Sir Kneelalot announce that "you cannot buck the market". In fact Bliar wasn't even himself a Monetarist and his insipid goon of a Chancellor even less so. If Blair was a Thatcherite then he was a poor and backsliding one.

        2. The point being made was that she had forced Labour to move away from the Kinnock Foot regime into what she thought was a more centrist social democratic party, little realising how Blair Brown and the wrecking crew would tear apart the civil service, the institutions and courts and give unfettered power to the unelected state. She changed her mind, as on many other things, when she saw the huge damage being done.

          Blair has caused more problems for the UK than any politician before or since.

          1. Yes indeed. It's the central point. What Blair did was betray his party's roots. He sacrificed the working class so that Labour could become a member of the respectable middle classes. The Toolmaker's son is a mere child of that legacy. No one has represented the working class for at least 24-years now, since Bliar's gentrification of the Left. It still spits and snarls like soulless Socialists have always done, but Bliar recognised where the levers of power were housed. As for the working classes, the Labour Party says, "sod off you dirty proles", while sniffly declaring in their Guardianista rags, "there is no working class" and their latest iteration, "there is no culture war".

            This is what will come back to bite them in the end

          2. I certainly hope so, but I can’t help fearing the country will be FUBAR by the end of this administration, whether that comes through passage of time, IMF or uprising I don’t know.

          3. I think our Nige will cause too much trouble personally. He's no radical and that's a good thing; however, I do see a pretty large tranche of the population coming to its collective senses too.

          5. Agreed, but his goal as he keeps stating is to become the Opposition at first. What he does have on his side of course is that Sir Kneelalot is not a very bright boy and neither is his team. I see a muddle coming up despite his best intentions. Not saying it won’t be messy, though.

          6. Sadly no. Something the pandemic uncovered was the ignorance and stupidity of most people. Worse was the eagerness to throw away responsibility for their actions and just let the state control their lives.

          7. Well yes, I don’t think people are quite as stupid as their reputation suggests. But let’s say they really are. Then persuading them to go along with whatever is put in front of them would be a snip.

            To me, the fact that Starmer got in largely by abstention demonstrates they aren’t quite as dumb as they look. They know we have now power and aren’t fooled by playing a game in which they have no say.

          8. Who are the working class though? I know a mechanic who makes more than I do. A plumber nearly on the same. A gardner (ok, he's a bit of a specialist) on £50k + .

            These chaps 'work' but they have the same aspirations I do, one son goes to Winchester Boys, they live in nice big detached houses with big old gardens. What defines the working class? What you do, or what you earn?

          9. Working Class is defined in the way it’s always been defined. The Working Class knows itself. If anyone wants to climb the greasy pole as Blair and Starmer have, then they apply for access to the club. If you show the right credentials then access is possible. The Working Class on the other hand is the hardest class of all to gain access into, however. Show as many credentials as you like and you will be rejected summarily.

            It’s not about money and never was. Some perfectly decent scrap dealers I know are among the wealthiest people you’ll meet, I’ll have you know! A bit like the old sketch, the working class “looks up” to the other two; not as some think because it admires them, but because it’s at the bottom. It is a perspective. It has real credentials. It is defined more by what It does not have than anything else. The killer line was, “I know my place” (subtext: and you do not). It is regarded by the others as having no acceptance in its society. You can have as much money as the richest, but if you say or believe the wrong things you don’t get power. Your values and ideals are for want of a better word, the wrong sort. To Remainers Brexiters are drawn from ‘the Working Class’. They’re wrong of course, but they correctly discern that many of their values coincide with Working Class ones. There are many more indicators besides. The Labour Party used to be drawn from that class, but it hasn’t moved with them as they rise. Because the Working Class isn’t politically Socialist.

            If anyone cannot define what Working Class consists of then it’s probably true that they’ve not been granted access to such an exclusive club. Doesn’t make them a bad person naturally, but that’s the way it is. Everyone’s got to know his place.

          10. Yes indeed. It's the central point. What Blair did was betray his party's roots. He sacrificed the working class so that Labour could become a member of the respectable middle classes. The Toolmaker's son is a mere child of that legacy. No one has represented the working class for at least 24-years now, since Bliar's gentrification of the Left. It still spits and snarls like soulless Socialists have always done, but Bliar recognised where the levers of power were housed. As for the working classes, the Labour Party says, "sod off you dirty proles", while sniffly declaring in their Guardianista rags, "there is no working class" and their latest iteration, "there is no culture war".

            This is what will come back to bite them in the end

          11. I disagree with you. Foot was considered at the time to be a posturing ninny, and Kinnock a Welsh windbag, swaying to and fro with elusive words that said little. More revealing is to look at respective Chancellors and Shadow Chancellors.

            John Smith was, along with the Liberal Democrats of Paddy Ashdown, pledged to put up the rates of Income Tax by a penny or two in order to balance the books whilst maintaining the level of public spending demanded by their respective core vote. They argued that this was an honest way of treating the electorate, but both parties were humiliated on this issue at the 1992 election, and nobody has dared to try it since.

            I see nothing but continuity from every governing party since 1976, the year that Wilson went down with Alzheimers and any pretence at socialism finally given up by the Labour Party when bankruptcy was imminent.

            It was Thatcher herself who dedicated the first two years of her Government reforming the Civil Service in her image, along with pushing forward the special advisers and public relations consultants, and Blair simply followed her precedent.

          12. "I see nothing but continuity from every governing party since 1976"

            Over that I would definitely agree. I think too that they were "humiliated" in 1992, but at that point I think you ascribe too much influence to the electorate. Too much relevance to the issues in that election, real as they seemed to us at the time. This is the point where we have to recognise the amorphous blob known as The Establishment. Telling us all, as they did, the transparent lie that just a penny extra would balance the books leading to a rosy future for all was as far as they were concerned just small beer. A very useful distraction at best. The Establishment simply carried on negotiating among themselves in the background, because the real project was Europe and the super state. Labour / Con / Lib were all agreed over that and anyone who disagreed, as today still, was an outlier ripe for marginalisation.

          13. Yes, I rather agree. It is always a ratchet upward, never a proper reduction in spending to adjust to costs.

          14. The big difference was that Blair deliberately set out to destroy and rebuild in his image.
            And he succeeded with a vengeance.
            People like to try to blame Thatcher Lawson et al for what Blair and Brown did, but the fact is that they did it deliberately.
            I agree Smith would have been a much better bet.

  29. Yes. Completely up himself. And his restaurant reviews are equally tedious.

    1. The Home Secretary is another inadequate appointed far beyond her capabilities. Class pencil monitor would be a more suitable role.

      1. Spot on. She could also help the dinner lady (aka Chancellor of the Exchequer)….

        1. Far too scrawny to be a dinner lady. You need beefy forearms to scoop up and fling down the mash on hundreds of plates every meal time.

      2. The Civil Service love the government. Leave the poor poppets alone with your cutting sarcasm. It's not their fault they resemble a lump of Play Dough. The last lot were fairly easy, but this lot are like new putty for the mandarins to play with.

        2. What an insult to play dough. Play dough is useful, and doesn’t harm anybody ….. except for the adults who have to scrape it up at the end of play.

  31. I am going to start using the term “Cwessida’s mum” as short-hand for stupid Woke middle-class women who think they are a bit special (clearly not any of us, then). Anyway, Cwessida’s mum has got this published in today’s Terriblegraph:

    “SIR – I disagree that sitting children in rows facing the teacher is the best way to ensure discipline.
    When I worked as a primary teacher, I always put pupils in groups around tables. They worked towards weekly star competitions, which fostered peer-led discipline and a sense of co-operation.
    The most important factor in pupils’ behaviour, however, was whether the teacher made their expectations clear.
    Alison Kent
    Derby”

    (fostered peer-led discipline…a sense of co-operation ffs)

    I notice the fragrant and narcissistic Cwesaida is on the front of the Terriblegraph again today, for some reason I am unwilling to read about.

    1. "peer led discipline" aka bullying from other children towards a child that might jeopardise the group prize. Teacher of course can steer the kids to bully a particular victim by telling the class that this kid is jeopardising the prize.

    2. Apart from the children paying attention, if they were all facing the front, the added and unnecessary expense of "teaching assistants" would not be needed.

      1. They'd be useful if, although all facing front, a quarter of the class had "learning and/or behavioural difficulties".

  32. OT – question for Our Susan. Did you attend the performance of Verdi's Requiem at the RAH?

    If so – was it as bad in reality as it was on the recording I made? The "conductor" looked like the chap at the Cardiff Hilton who is sent out to fetch ones bags and then park the car. The differently hued soloists were, er, disappointing. The sound level was dire. Still, the beeboid cameramen managed to find the one non-white violinist and two non-white choir members – and linger on them….

    1. There was a time when Verdi's work was all about music.

      It was him who worked out a theory that the reason so many choirs sing flat is that there is a natural resonance in living cells that responds to C=256 Hz, which equates to A=435 Hz, rather than the A=440 of modern concert pitch.

      In the opening section of the Verdi Requiem is a short semichorus that is all too often glossed over by the Establishment professionals. I have often reflected that if this was sung by four voices, over 80 and under 12 years in age, then the brittleness of the tone would match the emotion the composer intended.

      But I suppose that race and gender rules compliance is more important than music today.

    2. Yes and yes. The (mostly white) choir were magnificent but the soloists left much to be desired. The nice lady sitting next to me noted that their timing was wrong at various points and I was very disappointed with the mess the two sopranos made of the Agnus Dei. They should float their lines and in perfect unison. Instead it sounded messy and laboured. The BBC Welsh are a good band and while not outstanding, they played well.

      1. Thank you. I am afraid that after 20 minutes we stopped watching and deleted the prog.

    2. This is the closest thing to it. As you can see it is very thorough.

      https://www.upcounsel.com/united-states-business-laws

      https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/stay-legally-compliant

      And this 'SBA' Which is what Americans usually call 'The Small Business Administration'. A small business in the USA can be quite large by British standards, employing a 100 or more people and make millions of dollars. What is really nice is that they actually have people who will come and help you, give you advice about how to run your business more efficiently. This aspect of it is done by volunteers, retired people who are a mine of information and free. If I recall correctly the volunteers are members of various business associations. Great people, something we could do with in this country. People who actually help get a business off the ground. Further, in California, it used to be that all businesses paid no taxes for at least two years, in order for a start up to get the maximum opportunity to stay financially afloat during the toddler/teething stage of the business.

    4. Happy 80th Birthday, Lewis! 🎉🎈🥂🍾🍹🎂🍰🍨🎉
      It all looks very peaceful and….. white; where are you (asking for a friend….).
      Enjoy your day.

      1. It’s Aberystwyth and it’s by no means all white …. several fully-covered Asian women w. families. But still safe. Yesterday brought the Bikers …. but they weren’t hellish

        2. I find those creatures VERY intimidating, which is part of the reason the vile men make their women dress in that manner.

    5. Happy Birthday to you! Have a wonderful day and have fun! 🎉🎂🥂🍺

  37. Good Morning all! Batten down the hatches, fans, hepa and mini air conditioner on. It is going to be a hot day here in West Sussex and tomorrow even hotter, 30C or in the civilized tongue of our ancestors 83F.
    First video is a telephone recording from Tommy Robinson in jail, what he has to say is outrageous, we truly live in a police state! I suggest you turn on the text ability to get the whole thing if you find understanding him difficult. It looks like a little credit card, 5 symbol from the right just below the video itself. All you do is click on it, to turn it off just click on it again. Since this recording, Robinson has been released on bail.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcaO_9_OiBo&t=271s

    1. A shocking abuse of power by the state. The decision to arrest must have come from high up, so they are worried by the patriotic movement. I remember the good 'ol days when we guffawed at that awful place, Russia, who sent people they didn't like to prison…

      1. Just a simple Reminder from the government to the chief constable.
        Do what we say or your job is on the line.

      1. It was the Met who said that they had not arrested him. So quite who it was isn't cclear. I would expect by the end of today we will know.

          1. Sorry, don’t know. It does seen obvious that there is a police division, or some such, that we are unaware of. That is not surprising if they operate against terrorists, a counter terrorism unite.

          3. Yes, that shows the tentacles, but not who gave the order (or who would have given the order). The little Khant may well be involved?

      1. I'm no great fan of the police, but given how they and the military are hung out to dry whenever they do their actual job, I wouldn't blame them for turning a blind eye and a deaf ear.

        1. I tend to think that is their fault, their inaction and partiality has alienated people. If they did the actual job of policing I think people would forgive them quickly and support them. In short, they have dug their own grave.

          1. Yep. The M25 jailing would not have happened, the art defacement, the posturing here – none of it would have happened if plod had removed them on day 1. If the law had been enforced properly and the Lefty wasters dealt with they'd not think they could do this.

          2. I believe the rot set in when Blair (yes, him again) allowed graduates to join the force and quickly progress up the ladder. Another example of the long march through the institutions.

    2. I wonder how many heartbroken passengers are going to miss their brothers' weddings?

    4. Entitled brats the lot of them. Better not do it next Monday when my husband and lad are off to join my daughter in NZ. My husband will give them very short shrift.

      1. People should be encouraged to give they a good hefty kick as they pass by.

    7. A BTL I particularly liked:

      'Surely people will rally behind our cause if we ruin their day.'

    8. The Warqueen's flying off somewhere with her girly chums. I wouldn't want to be them when she stands on their hands. She hates airports, hates airport security and has no interest in these spoiled children.

    9. Why the hell haven't they been arrested? ….and sentenced to five years in the chokey?

    10. It needs someone with a big pair of hiking boots on to kick those blocks out of the way.

  40. Dog walker dies four days after early morning assault
    Two arrested and bailed after Anita Rose was found lying unconscious with serious head injuries
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/28/dog-walker-critical-condition-after-early-morning-assault/

    No comment facility.

    No mention of the identity of the attackers.

    The trouble is that if those arrested were white we would have been told. Indeed they may well be white but the truth of the matter is that if suspects' identities are given they are likely to be white; if their identities are not given they are likely not to be white.

      1. By then the PTB will have scoured the web and instructed newspapers to remove any access to articles describing any previous convictions, so that the alleged assailant will have a chance of being found not guilty. The older the accused, the more likely that he has a past.

        1. Leave me out, Tim, I'm 80 and done my time (false accounting to save my brother).

    2. And bailed for at the time of the attack and attempted murder.
      Hoping they'll skip the country which is probably already happend.

    4. I hope Anita's passing wasn't too traumatic for her. Her family will be in bits, though, as will likely her dog.
      RIP.

  43. Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen from a warm and sunny Verwood.

    Just finished this book for the umpteenth time:
    “Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk.”
    Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay.

  44. And this:

    “And, while it was regarded as pretty good evidence of criminality to be
    living in a slum, for some reason owning a whole street of them merely got
    you invited to the very best social occasions.”
    Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

  45. Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro narrowly wins re-election after 109pc of votes counted

    President declares victory but result was immediately called into question by opposition parties after widespread voting irregularities

    Iona Cleave
    29 July 2024 • 9:20am

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/29/venezuela-president-nicolas-m

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

    James Toba
    2 HRS AGO
    The largest oil reserves in the world, and they have to import oil form Iran! This is socialism. It was a rigged election!

    M L Taylor
    2 HRS AGO
    Remember, Corbyn at the time, fully supported by Starmer, held up Venezuela as a model for Britain. You have been warned.

    Jonathan Hartman
    3 HRS AGO
    I predict a similar win by Klamydia Harris.

    royston jennings
    2 HRS AGO
    Socialism = Power to Authority
    Capitalism = Power to the people
    It’s incredible how decades of misinformation and lies from socialist inspired Globalists, has indoctrinated millions to believe the exact opposite.
    The reason should be obvious.

    1. they have a winning formula.. and they're sticking to it. Four more years of Democrat Libtards.

    2. Inn Venezuala they simply print the extra ballots for the government just as the Democrats do in the USA.

  46. "It hasn't gone away, you know."

    This is a rather odd article, telling us that 'it' is still out there but that it might not be responsible for your RTI. I had a cold a fortnight ago, unusual but not unknown – I had one two years ago during the hot weather. Maybe I'm just a bit more vulnerable because of my age. However, planting in people's minds the idea that Covid is still a danger to public health is bordering on the irresponsible.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjm9gez8e8mo

    1. "Around two million people report having, external Long Covid …" Of course they do.

      If there really are more people catching 'summer colds', could that be anything to do with all the jabs & boosters damaging the immune response? They are still pushing the 'vulnerable' to submit to two boosters each year.

      "Around 3,000 people in hospital are now testing positive for Covid – around twice the figure for early April. The infection isn't necessarily the reason they have been admitted, but it is one way of gauging whether we are in a wave." How many of those [patients have at least one other comorbidity? It is quite normal for unhealthy people to 'suffer' more when they have a cold, simply because they are already unhealthy with their bodies under stress from pre-existing conditions.

      1. Summary.

        Hope Not Hate filed complaint. Police acted on Blair's 2000 Terrorism Act in bid to seize mobile phone and stop TR posting film on X.

        TR guilty of Contempt of Court after being found "guilty of libelling" Syrian school boy.. an action started by HNH then screening film at event.
        Civil matter escalates to this.

        1. It’s time the Charity Commission investigated this hateful Charity.

          Plod acting ultra vires?

  48. I had a little sniffle last week – very minor, just a bit energy-sapping. I'd certainly never bother testing to see what it might have been.

    1. Oh, no! Surely you didn't carry on as normal, going out and about and risking killing granny? I hope you wore a paper face nappy and maintained social distancing to be on the safe side ……

        1. Absolutely. Such irresponsible, reckless behaviour. Giving Nottlers a bad name, ha ha.

  50. M.V. Cornish City.

    Complement:
    43 (37 dead and 6 survivors).
    9,600 tons of coal

    At 09.00 hours on 29th July 1943 the Cornish City (Master Henry Thomas Isaac), dispersed from convoy DN-53, was hit amidships by one of two torpedoes from U-177 (Robert Gysae) and sank within one minute southeast of Madagascar. The master, 31 crew members and five gunners were lost. Five crew members and one gunner rescued themselves on rafts, were questioned by the Germans and later picked up by HMAS Nizam (G 38) (Cdr C.H. Brooks, RAN) and landed at Port Louis, Mauritius.

    Type IXD2 U-Boat U-177 was sunk 6th February 1944 in the South Atlantic west of Ascension Island by depth charges from a US Liberator aircraft (VB-107/B-3). 50 dead and 15 survivors.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ce7448a2b6c66b29b367b283e48e44e986a9993c1e06de57a254b6eb88eab64.jpg

      1. Full of coal with zero reserve of buoyancy and no subdivision. The stability curves of some of the vessels would appal you.

  51. They had to get this bit in!
    "The Met Office, external says climate change has the potential to affect hay fever by increasing the pollen-season and the intensity of the pollen – essentially, making hay fever worse and last longer."

  52. Israel strikes Hezbollah after rocket attack kills 12 children,.
    This getting extremely dangerous. We are heading for all out war in the middle east.
    I can't help thinking that the acceptance of so many pro-Palestinian protests and so much anti-Israel sentiment being expressed by western politicians is emboldening Iran.

      1. I really wouldn't mind that. It would spell the end of Erdogan in double quick time. No way the Americans would tolerate his interference.

        1. And if Turkey and all the other predominantly Islamic countries agreed just how would the US stop him?

          1. Strategic bombing. Between the USA and Israel, they could destroy all the airfields and many Arabic governments would not go along with Turkey, in particular its opposition in the Arabic world, Saudi Arabia, which interestingly enough is allied to Russia and might take certain opportunities, in particular threaten European Turkey. We Orthodox would rather like Constantinople back. (Last sentence tongue in cheek but not very) But the Greeks would also join in against Turkey because Erdogan is constantly threatening them with invasion.

          2. I think you have rather too much faith in US and Israeli air power.
            Turkey and Iran have well over 1 million active service personnel; let alone any others who would support their Islamic brothers or take the opportunity to seize lands elsewhere. How many fronts do you think they can fight on?
            This isn't bombing Hamas and Hezbollah, it has the potential to be far greater, and drones and rockets have completely changed the equations.
            You should listen to JD Vance on the subject of the USA's capabilities to produce and replace arms and armaments.

          3. I have listened to JD Vance’s take on the subject. However, I have absolutely no doubt that the USA has reserves for dire circumstances. A full on attack against Israel would constitute that for domestic as well as international reasons.

          4. Not at the expense of leaving themselves totally vulnerable everywhere else. Realpolitik will leave it to Europe, most of whom won’t be prepared to support Israel, given their own huge Muslim populations.

            My fear is that Israel will threaten to and then will take the existential decision to go nuclear once, with the warning that unless attacks stop they will strike again.

            I acknowledge I am very pessimistic regarding the whole situation. I do not trust the Muslims at all.

          5. Strategic bombing. Between the USA and Israel, they could destroy all the airfields and many Arabic governments would not go along with Turkey, in particular its opposition in the Arabic world, Saudi Arabia, which interestingly enough is allied to Russia and might take certain opportunities, in particular threaten European Turkey. We Orthodox would rather like Constantinople back. (Last sentence tongue in cheek) But the Greeks would also join in against Turkey because Erdogan is constantly threatening them with invasion.

      1. He decided not to include the scene of mass rape of white girls by Muslim gangs for 'artistic' reasons rather than because knew he would be killed if he did.

        After all look what happened to the Charlie Hebdo employees when they just printed a cartoon!

        1. On that occasion some French citizens – you know the nationality that, unlike the stolid and dull Anglo-Saxons, finds everything funny – seemed to have a sense of humour failure.
          Or it was their notion of a Gallic joke.

        1. Odd that you should say that. Toy Boy has a penchant for pretty males… Pure coincidence, of course….

  55. Had you noticed that net zero’s not really about climate any more?

    Cheaper electricity is at the heart of Labour’s energy strategy. If only Britain had thought of it sooner

    Ed Conway
    Sunday July 28 2024, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

    Quiz question: how much time do you suppose the House of Commons devoted to debating net zero before it made it the law of the land? The question is of more than academic interest: eliminating carbon emissions is the single biggest industrial challenge humanity has set itself. That we were the first large country to write that ambition into law was a very big deal.

    Yet we never really had a national conversation about why we’re actually doing this and what the consequences will be. In 2019, when that law went onto the statute book, the conventional wisdom was that it was all about climate change — about showing global leadership, even if it required domestic sacrifices.

    Yet the most striking thing about Keir Starmer’s speech at Thursday’s launch of Great British Energy was how many times he mentioned the climate — which is to say, not once. Instead, he said net zero was really about energy security and not having to rely on the Middle East or Russia for oil and gas. It was about trying to rebuild our industries along the way.

    The funny thing is, this is not all that different from the attitude in Beijing. China is charging headlong into making batteries, solar panels and wind turbines not because it wants to prove its green credentials but because it spies an opportunity. It wants to dominate the industries of the future, making billions on the way. And it wants energy security and a fleet of electric cars powered by Chinese coal and renewables instead of petrol cars running on Middle Eastern oil.

    Until now, Britain had pursued a very different version of net zero. The objective was, above all, to reduce our carbon footprint — even if we had to offshore industry and buy all the kit from overseas. In one respect it’s going very well (UK carbon emissions are down by more than half since 1990), but there are a couple of problems.

    First, this all came at a cost to domestic industry, which, in stark contrast to China’s, has neither thrived nor built many of our wind turbines. Second, those early carbon reductions were the easy bit, achieved mostly by shutting down coal-fired power stations. The next bit is far harder and will depend on consumers buying electric cars and replacing their boilers with heat pumps.

    GB Energy is Labour’s supposed answer to all this. In future, it says, more wind turbines will be UK-owned and UK-built. And, Ed Miliband claims, that will bring prices down.

    That last point is the part that really matters — and not just because it’s enticing for consumers. Without cheap energy, it’s hard to see how any of this works.

    After all, one of the guiding principles of the energy transition is that we need to replace fossil energy with electric power. If electricity prices are low, running an EV is considerably cheaper than running a petrol car; same thing for a heat pump compared with a gas boiler.

    Something similar goes for heavy industry. Across the country, companies are eyeing up green alternatives to their fossil fuel plants. But why would a glassmaker or paper mill replace its gas furnace with an electric one if, on top of all the capital costs, it were even more expensive to run?

    And right now our electricity bills are so eye-wateringly high that none of this is a slam dunk. Granted, some of that can be blamed on Vladimir Putin and high gas prices, but even after you adjust for that, British power is more expensive than that of nearly any other country in the world.

    Consider the tariffs paid by heavy industry. In the early 2000s British manufacturers enjoyed some of the cheapest power in Europe. Today they face prices 75 per cent higher than the Continental average.
    Why? Paradoxical as this will sound, it is both because we were so quick to go green and because our power is still not green enough.

    Taking them in turn, the shift from fossil fuel energy to low-carbon energy has unequivocally pushed bills up. How could it not? For most of the past two decades wind turbines were far more expensive than fossil fuels. So a complex cocktail of charges — renewables obligations, feed-in tariffs, contracts for difference, emissions trading schemes — were bolted on top of wholesale energy prices to tax polluters and subsidise green schemes. In Germany all those costs were passed on to domestic customers; here in the UK they are shared with heavy industry, which, by the way, is part of the reason Britain is deindustrialising faster than every other developed economy.

    Happily, these days wind turbines are considerably cheaper and considerably less reliant on subsidies. And while there is still the gnarly question of where we’ll get our power from when the wind isn’t blowing (there’s a whole other column in that), in theory today’s enormous turbines should occasionally be able to provide us with power at rock-bottom prices if the wind is blowing particularly hard. In theory.

    But that’s before you reckon with the byzantine workings of Britain’s wholesale power markets, designed for an age dominated by coal and gas. I’m simplifying enormously here, but the principle is that as long as there’s even a little bit of electricity coming from a gas power station (which there always is), the prevailing price across wholesale markets is the going rate for natural gas, which just so happens to be: quite a lot right now.

    You see the problem. Britain has the worst of both worlds: high prices determined mostly by wholesale gas prices, and then green subsidies on top.

    In an ideal world a customer would be able to pay the going rate for wind or solar — which could be zero every so often. In an ideal world we’d go even further and have regional prices, so areas with more wind turbines would get cheaper energy. Scotland would enjoy the lowest prices in Europe, establishing itself as the industrial hub of the future.

    But that would mean upending how those wholesale energy markets work, upsetting a fair few vested interests along the way. And here’s the catch: Labour hasn’t actually committed itself to that. Instead, GB Energy will be just another energy provider and investor, whose costs might be even higher than the competition’s, given it’s trying to buy more components domestically. Far from bringing bills down, it could actually push them up.

    Still, at least we are now debating this stuff. And, in its defence, in its first few weeks Labour has sketched out a vision and a set of energy institutions that is far more coherent than anything the Conservative Party threw at the sector in 14 years. If only we’d had these conversations in 2019, when net zero actually became law.

    Which brings us back to that question at the top: for how long did the Commons actually debate this complex, far-reaching piece of legislation? Answer: all of 88 minutes.

    Indeed, the original plan was simply to sign it into law as a statutory instrument without any debate at all. But in the dying days of Theresa May’s premiership there was an unexpected gap in the order of business. Enough time for the briefest discussion about climate change, hardly touching on any of the stuff you’ve just read about.

    Then the law was waved through onto the statute book on the nod. MPs didn’t even divide for a vote.

    Ed Conway is economics editor of Sky News and the author of Material World

    1. "Had you noticed that net zero’s not really about climate any more?"

      In reality it never was of course, but I know what you mean, there's a change of narrative.

      1. I used to get cross about the whole thing as it was obvious they were lying. At least give is the credit of telling us the truth. It was never about nut zero. It’s not about transrights. It’s not about keeping is safe, effectively. Stop lying to us.

        And no. Nothing is to Labour’s credit here. They are part of the problem. Stop with your default genuflecting to Liebour, Ed.

        1. You mean, Global Warming!/Climate Change!!/A CLIMATE EMERGENCY!!!/A CLIMATE CATASTROPHE!!!!/CLIMATE ARMAGEDDON!!!!!/GLOBAL BOILING!!!!!!{insert latest panic & scare mongering catch phrase here}

          1. Something like that – anything that appeals to brain-dead spoilt brats and face-rag wearing imbeciles.

        2. I noticed that we've just been given a list of things that we've asked to be put in the Local Plan and which have been accepted or refused. Sensible things like speed monitoring devices have been refused. Anything that had "climate change" attached, whether it was useful or not, has been accepted.

    2. When will a prominent politician publicly admit that man-made climate change is a myth and that Net Zero is a complete con?

  56. Right.
    After recovering shifting a load of old bricks, a stone slab and some bits for firewood, I've just had a mug of tea, 3rd of the day, and it's time to get back to work.

  57. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/59dcf4066380e8f5d88dd1500fb0a966ff9c2525/0_0_3000_1897/master/3000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=b3fcb658e9cc121678147d74b41ee7fb
    Saltee Island, Ireland
    A puffin returning from a successful fishing trip. Saltee Island off County Wexford is home to puffins, gannets, guillemots, razorbills, cormorants, great black-backed gulls, kittiwakes and Manx shearwaters

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/79e09a154a5e979ac9721ea1d194ae6a09e72943/0_0_5112_3303/master/5112.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3dd207b3d07b57bea506a671553588a8
    Saltdean, UK
    Bathers celebrate the restoration of iconic 1930s Saltdean Lido near Brighton with a moonlit dip. A £7.5m restoration project has restored the lido to its former glory

    1. They restored a lido in Ponty but as per the original, its unheated and outdoors. I still remember the cold from when I dipped in as a child.

      1. Hilsea Lido in Portsmouth is undergoing restoration. It featured in the rock opera 'Tommy'.

      2. I learned to swim in a Lido. Not only was it open air and cold, the sides were concrete and rough.

  60. Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86c32a312be5723a8bb8e61856cc49593bc9734ec60b2ee09ddfc49ec7a23dfd.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e31f13b3892a95c79df5356889327e726a64bef4017e408184253b0c05858666.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13a65595b9d31b02e6de21bfe2f7fbdce386f3e61df7e34c65b94f36f61bb219.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b82b1c0538281e67396507151d21872a9e57ee3c9b619abbf59b0cc3b50e95e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8721771a32d0f82a19e4c96991f9fd3e6fff3fa36d67f944002648c670b77e0d.png
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96d5578613681b0275e319c353777efc676042a76b397190a9e71156b97305da.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca81aca2c596536085e257cd2e2abe2719b8d919e152f0fde0ce8629026164a4.png

  61. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57d06310cd37c1319f26c4d8b8fbac84c9e51a3dce4cb370a09415e2f03be882.jpg
    Where's Jules?

    A good friend of mine, another pachydermophile (like you) doesn't know … yet … but I have designed and constructed this light-box curio for her birthday present. The box is made from polished Douglas fir and the design was cut out of 6mm Baltic birch plywood with my scroll saw. The contra-jour illumination is made by a string of tiny lights powered by two AA batteries.

    I hope she likes it. The box measures 420mm x 300mm by 40mm deep.

    2. Birds do it, bees do it
      Even educated fleas do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      In Spain, the best upper sets do it
      Lithuanians and Let's do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it
      Not to mention the Finns
      Folks in Siam do it
      Think of Siamese twins
      Some Argentines without means do it
      People say in Boston even beans do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      Romantic sponges, they say, do it
      Oysters down in Oyster Bay do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      Cold Cape Cod clams, 'gainst their wish, do it
      Even lazy jellyfish do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      Electric eels, I might add, do it
      Though it shocks 'em, I know
      Why ask if shad do it?
      Waiter, bring me shad roe
      In shallow shoals, English soles do it
      Goldfish in the privacy of bowls do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      When the little bluebird
      Who has never said a word
      Starts to sing "Spring, spring"
      When the little bluebell
      At the bottom of the dell
      Starts to ring, ding ding
      When the little blue clerk
      In the middle of his work
      Starts a tune to the moon up above
      It is nature, that's all
      Simply telling us to fall in love

      And that's why birds do it, bees do it
      Even educated fleas do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      In Spain the best upper sets do it
      Lithuanians and Letts do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love
      The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it
      Not to mention the Finns
      Folks in Siam do it–
      Think of Siamese twins
      Some Argentines, without means, do it
      People say in Boston even beans do it
      Let's do it, let's fall in love

      [Cole Porter 1928]

  63. Wokeness will kill the Church of England. Spiked. 29 July 2024.

    When you think about the Church of England, you might imagine tea with the vicar or village bake sales. Most probably don’t associate it with racial identity politics.

    Yet the church has been taken over by an identitarian faction in recent years. In January last year, the church announced a £100million slavery reparations fund in an effort to ‘address the past wrongs of slavery’. The decision followed a report, published in the same month, which found that the church had invested in a company that transported slaves. Since this announcement, the church has been engulfed in a firestorm of controversy. Earlier this month, church leadership was forced to promise that no parish donations would be earmarked for the reparations fund, after parishioners stopped giving cash in protest.

    Like most British institutions that are over a few hundred years old, the church did have some involvement in slavery. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it reportedly held investments in companies and colonies that were directly involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Notably, the church also benfitted from investments in the South Sea Company, which was granted a monopoly on British trade in South America, including the slave trade. Various clergymen and church institutions also owned slaves or profited from plantations in the Caribbean.

    While intended as a gesture of penance, the church’s reparations fund is ultimately nonsensical. Despite the history, today’s parishioners bear no direct responsibility for events hundreds of years ago. Modern-day congregants are generations removed from the individuals who engaged in or profited from slavery. They were neither participants in nor beneficiaries of the injustices committed centuries ago. Holding them financially or morally accountable for the crimes of their predecessors, even indirectly, is inherently unjust.

    More than that, though, these reparations are also deeply impractical. The church’s significant financial resources could be more effectively spent addressing issues directly impacting communities. Investing in education and alleviating poverty could provide much more tangible benefits than making symbolic gestures. Even simply repairing the many decaying parish churches across the country would be a better use of time and money. The diversion of funds towards something as abstract as reparations neglects the very real, urgent injustices that could be addressed.

    Unfortunately, the church has been completely captured by racial identity politics. It recently published ‘myth-buster’ guidance to justify reparations and counter what it calls ‘misleading impressions’ in the media coverage. It is also quite happy to set aside hundreds of thousands of pounds for roles such as an ‘anti-racism practice officer’, whose job it is to ‘deconstruct whiteness’. Earlier this year, at the General Synod’s bi-annual conference, the church even adopted a ‘racial justice’ motion, which will force every parish in England to develop a ‘race action plan’.

    The result of this will not be to fight racism, but to create ever more disconnect between the church leadership and its community. A growing number of parishioners are now refusing to donate to their local church in fear that their money will be spent on this woke nonsense. This indifference toward congregants is particularly dangerous, given that the church is already in a precarious position.

    A recent analysis by the Telegraph found that Sunday church attendance has plummeted to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. More than just a blip, this drop follows decades of decline. Parish attendance has more than halved since 1987. Church leaders appear more concerned with placating this backlash rather than genuinely addressing the grievances of their congregants. In doing so, they are actively alienating their own members.

    Instead of dwelling on past wrongs, the church would better serve its purpose by focussing on the grievances of its remaining parishioners. If it fails to do so, the Church of England’s doom spiral will likely continue. It will soon lose what little purpose it has left.

    It is hard to avoid the suspicion that all this is the doings of that toad Welby who should never have been made Archbishop. There’s a strong resemblance between his effect on the C of E and Blairs on UK society.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/29/wokeness-will-kill-the-church-of-england/

    1. The faithful in my village CofE church (average age about 75) is selling cream teas on Sunday afternoons in order to raise money for a kitchen and a disabled toilet in the Grade 1 listed church.

      How much of this money would be purloined by Lambeth Palace to give handouts to empowered descendants of those who raided their neighbours for sons and daughters to sell on to Muslim slave traders? How much of it too would end up in the Mercedes Fund?

    2. The only race action plan that any CofE parish needs to develop can be found ready-made in St Paul's letter to the Colossians: "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." (3:11)

      And these earlier words in that epistle can be sent back to the church leadership: "See to it that no-one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." (2:8)

      The Apostle seems rather prescient, but it just shows that the Adversary has used the same tactics against God's people for centuries.

  64. In total, Labour pledged not to put up taxes at least 50 times before polling day. But in private, it appears it was planning to do exactly that. Labour’s secret plans were leaked to the Guardian in June, with party sources saying that, once in power, Reeves would claim to be surprised by her inheritance and seek a “doctor’s mandate”, increasing taxes across the board. The sources said she would take a “kitchen sink” approach to tax rises, but admitted, “that is not what they are presenting the public with right now”.

    Everything those sources said is turning out to be true. The newly-installed Chancellor now says, “I don’t think anyone realised quite how bad things were.” She repeatedly claims Labour has inherited “the worst set of circumstances since the Second World War”. Although the BBC fact-checkers appear to have taken an early holiday, this is verifiably untrue. Inflation, borrowing and unemployment are all lower than when Labour last left office. Debt is lower than in the 1950s, and lower than in countries including France, Italy and the United States. The economy is growing.
    [Nick Timothy DT "8 July 2024]

    Rachal Reeves is a f**king liar!

      1. She is a mendacious deep voiced thing of what species I don't know ..

        Wild eyed , and programmed with the same Momentum mantra ..

        This lot are evil, as evil as only our God knows .

        We will soon be in the same situation as Venezuela, Haiti, Nigeria, Zimbabwe , she is trashing what little we have got ..

        We are an oil rich country . I hope Labour end up in big trouble.

        Rishi warned us , sometimes we should listen .

    2. Anyone who believed liebour would stick to such a pledge really should not be allowed to vote.

    4. The Canadian government are denying plans to bring in a tax on home ownership, they have repeated these denials on many occasions.

      in the background, government leaders have had about twenty meetings with some way out lefty group that are proposing that very thing.

      Ppure coincidence they say!

      1. Tony Blair assured us that the draft human rights papers were of no more significance than a copy of the Beano.

        His lawyer wife then made a fortune specialising in 'human rights.'

        1. The Matrix Chambers was being set up before the Human Rights Act had even gone through Parliament.

    5. So what? We know it. They know we know it. They don’t care that we know they know that we know it; Liebour is in lockstep with the Lame Stream Media and its apparatchiks. They don’t care. They are untouchable. They can eat as much cake as they want, whenever they want, and they will be given more. It’s too depressing for words.

      1. And they can't wait to drive us to revolt so that they can then impose martial law "for our own good". They are pure evil.

  67. From BTL from one of the articles on the Daily Sceptic
    https://x.com/DaniElBnChofshi/status/1817844478574797166 also. I was listening to GB News’s Headliners repeat this morning from last night. One of the panel intimated that Tommy had been convicted etc etc. What he probably didn’t know was this “conviction” (for making the film that is the subject of this controversy) was not made in what we would understand to be a proper court of law, judged by a jury of his peers, but by just one judge sitting on his own. This in itself is enough to make us all worried.

    1. If you watch the video that I have posted. The same judge concluded that everyone, even though they were unaware that they were being filmed and therefore incapable of colluding with one another, the teachers, the parents, the pupils and anyone else was lying. The only person telling the truth was the Syrian bully who, it is made clear in the video, is a thug that terrorized the school. Far from being the victim he was the perpetrator and that is why Tommy was forbidden to show the video under threat of jail.

    2. I can't remember where it was, but I did read some years ago that Nick Lowles was alleged to have connections with the Far Left Extremist group suspected of carrying out the Warrington Bombings on behalf of the IRA/INLA.

  68. Back to the story about the Islamist hate-preacher who is buying an island in Scotland, to bring in muslims from the world. So what will stop the newy-formed Islamic Army from encroaching onto mainland UK? A barbed wire fence?

    Why the h£ll isn't he being stopped? It is against our constitution, let alone High Treason – about time the Scotland pretendy Parliament was dissolved.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/28/hate-cleric-raises-3-million-to-create-islamic-homeland-on-scottish-island/#comments

  69. Dear gawd! The Liebour lot have just given junior doctors 20% !🤦🏻‍♀️

  70. Puberty blockers ban is lawful, says High Court

    A ban on puberty blockers introduced by the previous government using emergency legislation was lawful, the High Court has ruled.

    The former health secretary Victoria Atkins curbed the use of the drugs for children and young people with gender dysphoria under emergency powers at the end of May.

    A trans campaign group then took legal action, arguing that she had failed to consult patient groups and misused the emergency process.

    Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he welcomed the court ruling, adding that children's healthcare must be "evidence-led".

    TransActual UK said it condemned the decision by the High Court and would try to appeal.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ng3gz99nwo

    Some of Mr Streeting's recent utterances make him sound almost normal. He won't last long…

  71. Not to him, though. Others warned us as well, but as the saying goes "there are none so blind" etc.

  72. I'm only surprised it wasn't more. Will the lefty doctors' union settle for that or will they keep agitating for even more?

    1. They've got what they want: a compliant Labour government.
      They will now backpedal on the strikes; actually going to work is a different matter.

      1. Before the election, they were asking for something like 35%, but they won’t want to upset their favourite liebour party.

  73. SIR – I was a schoolteacher, and agree wholeheartedly with Nick White (Letters, July 25).
    Pupils should sit at desks facing the teacher – and at the same desks, meaning they can keep their work and books there. Who started this ridiculous practice of sitting pupils round little tables, where they can distract each other?
    Gillian Rogers
    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    SIR – I disagree that sitting children in rows facing the teacher is the best way to ensure discipline.
    When I worked as a primary teacher, I always put pupils in groups around tables. They worked towards weekly star competitions, which fostered peer-led discipline and a sense of co-operation.
    The most important factor in pupils’ behaviour, however, was whether the teacher made their expectations clear.
    Alison Kent
    Derby

    When proper teaching methods have been sorted out, is someone going to make the pupils start eating their meals in a dining hall after being taught simple good manners, proper dining etiquette, and how to correctly use a knife and fork?

    Currently they slop their food into their gobs, out of a plastic sty, with their fingers. Pigs have better etiquette and table manners.

  74. Geert Wilders has called for Turkey to be thrown out of Nato after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested it could enter Israel to help Palestinians.

    “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” the Turkish president said on Sunday.

    “Islamofascist Erdogan threatens to invade Israel,” Dutch firebrand Mr Wilders, who won the general election in the Netherlands last year, said on social media,

    “This guy is totally nuts. Turkey should be kicked out of Nato.”

    The fiercely anti-Islam Mr Wilders is not prime minister as part of the coalition deal that has brought his party into government.
    But his intervention could cause diplomatic problems for Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who was appointed as part of the pact.

    1. He should wise up.
      Nato depends on Turkey to close the bosphorus strait if & when necessary.

    2. He should wise up.
      Nato depends on Turkey to close the bosphorus strait if & when necessary.

  75. RAF squadron drops ‘Crusaders’ nickname after complaint it is offensive to Muslims
    A review of historic terminology is ongoing and it is understood there may be further changes

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/28/raf-squadron-drops-nickname-crusaders-offensive-muslims/

    Good comment !
    Rod Cy
    6 min ago
    Why don't we all just become muslims, then we never need to work again, free money, free house etc and if we ever commit a crime no one will prosecute us.
    The downside is the bigamy.

    Roger Mitchell
    11 min ago
    wait till the Germans here about a squadron called 'The Dambusters'

    Ian Nutley
    17 min ago
    At this rate, we will lose St George as our patron Saint.

    catherine frazer
    40 min ago
    ONE crew member complained and an entire, historical squadron has to drop a nickname????!!!! What total and complete CR*P. Whoever the "senior officer" is who upheld this ludicrous event needs to be laughed out of his/her position and treated to mockery and derision for their upholding of a complaint from ONE person. Madness rules.

    Comment by Biggles Flys-Undone.

    BF

    Biggles Flys-Undone
    41 min ago
    One person complains and the whole "System" collapses. What about the the indigenous majority.
    Are "we" going to burn every history book every library in the country

    Reply by catherine frazer.

    cf

    catherine frazer
    35 min ago
    Trouble is the "indigenous majority" is rapidly stopping being a majority. We are being overwhelmed by incomers who have a radically different view of life to us indigens(sic?)

    1. you can't win. you've lost.. the progressives have total control of every single institution from A to Z.
      all you can do is grumble, fuss or ignore like the wet Tories.. then let nature take its course.
      here's a guy that predicted all this..

      January 1977 Reflections on Religion. "When information flows at the speed of light, there is nothing but violence possible. The violence wipes out every boundary, you cant have hierarchies and there is no need for institutional buildings and there's no place to hide. At the speed of light there is no peace. Our only hope is the apocalypse."

      Nothing like a bit of apocalypse to brighten up a Monday..

    2. I could perhaps understand No 6 Sqn disliking it’s nickname of “Shitty Six” but “Crusaders” when the squadron badge features a crusader is extreme wokeism. It is probably just as well that I am long-retired from the RAF!

  76. Anyone feel slightly bilious after seeing all the Tom Daley articles in the newspaper, perhaps its just me. He certainly puts in a good pike…

  77. TR flees the country..
    I think it's best.. he knows the screws in prison would make sure the jihads finish him off.

    1. 'We understand he failed to co-operate with a port stop and search. The implication is he was attempting to leave the country and therefore was not intending to attend this hearing this morning.'

      He added that Robinson was reminded of Monday's hearing before being released on unconditional bail at 10pm on Sunday, but that it is now believed he 'left the UK last night and there was nothing to prevent him from doing so'.

      1. Oh okey dokey..
        you mean everyone can trust the Law in UK without fear or favour..?
        Haven't seen any evidence of their playing fair. "They wouldn't do that.."

        what would you do?

      2. 100 to 1 the MSM are waiting for the memo on what line to take to report this!!

  81. Multiple people have been injured in Southport amid a "major incident" near a local nursery.

    Officers have confirmed there are a number of casualties following reports of a stabbing in Southport, Merseyside. Unconfirmed reports claim the sttacks happened at or near a nursery – but the Mirror is yet to verify this.

    A spokesman for Merseyside Police said "We can confirm that emergency services are in Southport following a major incident this morning, Monday 29 July.

    "At around 11.50am, we were called to a property on Hart Street to reports of a stabbing. There are a number of reported casualties and more details will be confirmed when possible.

    "Armed police have detained a male and seized a knife. He has been taken to a police station. Please avoid the area while we deal with this incident. There is no wider threat to the public." https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/southport-major-incident-police-live-33349237

    1. I was born in Southport, things like this just did not happen, but then we had our owm Chief Constable and it was a Countyborough in Lancashire.

      1. More, you did not have a horde of illegals from murderous cultures foisted on you.

  82. A man called Mark Henderson has been charged with atempted murder in Southport.

  84. 390389+ up ticks,

    625 morally illegals gained entry these last two ,days that is 625 reasons why this odious issue is of prime importance, on par with mass paedophilia, mass knifings, mass, mass mass.

    If you believe that any of the infrastructure is going to improve
    any you must be main line snorting all the time Dover is active.

    Every day dover operates diminishes our chance of rectifying ANYTHING.

        1. DON'T! Just don't…. Ours are a pathetic mess. Thanks to the cold, wet year.

        2. I was wondering how bottles of beer grow on trees and was slightly disappointed by the picture🙁

          2. They are a French bean, variety 'Cobra', some seeds of which were kindly sent to me a couple of years ago by Billy.

            That is snorting Billy (below) who hasn't got the same knack at growing them as us.🤣

    1. Mental issues. Oh, wait a minute. If he is white, he'll be a far-right extremist.

      1. So an 18 year old “transgender woman” is the same thing as a young adult male. I think.

      2. So an 18 year old “transgender woman” is the same thing as a young adult male. I think.

  87. 390389+ up ticks,

    Two Questions,

    Question one
    What's happened in Southport,

    Southport: 'Major incident' after reports of stabbing and 'number of casualties'

    Question Two,
    When are we marching Down Watling street, destination Dover
    TOMMY.

  89. Russia says forces have seized control of village of Vovche in Donetsk region. 29 July 2024.

    Russian forces have taken control of the village of Vovche in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine after pushing Ukrainian forces out, the Russian defence ministry said on Monday. The Guardian has not yet independently verified this claim.

    On Sunday, Russian troops continued to make gains in the Donetsk province as they pushed westward toward the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken control of two neighbouring villages about 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Pokrovsk, Progres and Yevgenivka. The day before, Moscow claimed the nearby village of Lozuvatske, one of nearly a dozen it says it has captured in the province this month.

    The Russians are beginning to creep forward now. It’s a new village every couple of days. Eventually the Ukie front line will collapse under the pressure. It will probably be quite sudden.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jul/29/russia-ukraine-war-live-fighting-in-donetsk-region-is-extremely-challenging-says-zelenskiy

  90. Southport stabbings: eight people treated for stab injuries after incident. 29 July 2024.

    Eight patients have been treated for “stab injuries” after the incident in Southport, North West ambulance service (NWAS) said.

    In a post on X, NWAS said: “We have dispatched 13 ambulances along with specialised resources of our hazardous area response team (HART), air ambulance and merit doctors to the scene.

    “So far, NWAS has treated eight patients with stab injuries who have been taken to Alder Hey children’s hospital, Aintree university hospital and Southport and Formby hospital.”

    Judging by some of the eye witness comments there might very well be some fatalities on the top of this,

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2024/jul/29/southport-stabbings-police-say-man-detained-and-knife-seized-live

    1. I reckon the politicos will go for the tried & tested.. "shocked".. "shocked at this shocking incident.."

      1. "Congratulate the police and emergency services on their rapid and professional response"

        1. we need to ensure that divisive people don't exploit this divisive shocking incident, with divisive hate speech.

    3. This isn't the same story as the tranny stabbing I've posted below, is it? The other one happened on Saturday and this appears to have taken place today? Both in Southport though?

        1. well, one's dead and the other is sitting in a cell.. suppose it could be Mo outraged at the no show of the drag queen act at the local nursery.

    4. "Ambulance service urges public not to speculate about the attack
      The North West Ambulance Service has urged the public to refrain from speculating about the attack."
      I'm not speculating. I've already written the script.
      From both sides of the 'story'.

  91. Angela Raynor wants more homes built everywhere , and more racial integration .

    Good stable towns and villages , who are part of the legions who gave their lives for this country in 2 world wars have now been betrayed by lawless feckless drug infused individuals .. and mixed race families with children who come from troubled backgrounds .. and incomers who come from other primitive continents .

    The b##### and her cronies , past and present have opened the doors to significant drug taking and the stay at home culture of different colours.

    Domestic strife is ruining everything .

    1. I am English, my wife is Dutch, we live in a relatively rural part of France, we are white we are not troubled by discrimination against us – maybe that is because we and our hosts come from a similar cultural backgrounds. However in Rennes there are racial and social tensions as there are in many cities in France.

      We all know why this is but the politicians are reluctant to admit it even though they know as well as we do.

  92. Even i got excited at the men’s mountain biking (after it had ended). Although apparently the French booed the winner (Tom Pidcock). Admittedly he won by a whisker against a native Frog – but i am led to understand if he hadn’t had a puncture it would have been a bloodbath.

    1. I thought these bikes had special tyres – to avoid punctures.

      Do the riders carry a spare wheel lashed to their backs? Or do that have to get out the little puncture repair kit tin? And try to remember what to do – assuming they remembered the tyre lever!

        1. I think there is a substance you can squirt into the innertube for a temporary fix.

          2. And the second puncture that appears a few minutes after you have done all the needful, forced the tyre back on the whee, put the wheel back on and gone for a trial ride….

      1. Sorry. I normally try to avoid such comments because I too suffer from fat finger (aka carp kyebroad) – but your typo just leapt of the page!

  94. Spot the difference?

    Outraged at the murder of British teenagers Kenneth McBride and Nicola Myers on Braemar Hill, Hong Kong in 1985 the local Chinese community offered huge rewards for information leading to the capture of the perpetrators. Eventually triad members tipped off the police about the five assailants. Subsequently, most were disowned by their families.

  95. Anyone know anything about the Southport attack? DT is begging us all not to speculate. Yvette Cooper is in full hypocritical flow and extremely distressed. And yet Labour fully intend to ramp up immigration (who really believes there are any proper checks when they don't even know how many are actually here) and discharge prisoners who have not fully served full sentences, whilst the mental health service will continue to be unfit for service. Of course, Keir extends his 'sympathy' to all affected. I couldn't read the article in any depth…too angry.

      1. We have decided not to publish the photo in order not to inflame racial tensions.

        1. Yes, they get their priorities right. They couldn't give a to ss about the children.

    2. The number of children would suggest a school of some kind. The comments from the politicians would suggest that there is much worse to come.

    4. As soon as they beg the public not to speculate, everybody knows full well who the sick, evil perpetrators will be.

      1. They are primarily concerned with Kneejerk reactions and then we would have at least localised civil war. The longer they can string it out the easier their job. It's coming anyway because of their attitude.

        1. I can imagine Putin in Zoom call to the saboteur's phone: "Left hand down a bit ….."

        1. Whoever carried out the attacks on French rail infrastructure must have had detailed knowledge of that infrastructure. It was likely carried out with the assistance of a person or persons connected to SNCF.

          1. It is being reported that one who has been arrested had access to SNCF properties.

            It was also announced that a member of a ‘far-left’ group had been arrested on Sunday (July 28), at a site managed by the SNCF in Oissel, close to Rouen (Seine-Maritime).

            Tools were found in the vehicle of a 29-year old man, including ‘wire cutters, ‘a set of universal keys’, ‘access keys to SNCF technical premises’ as well as reading material related to a far-left group, a police source told the AFP (Associated French Press).

        2. They needn't have bothered. God pissed on their parade anyhow. Most of the nobs left before the end. Probably in disgust.

    3. Imagine how “far” left you need to be, to have the tag “far left” affixed to your group. Pretty damn extreme, I would say.

      (contrast “far right”, which is anyone who mildly mutters that they aren’t so keen on illegal immigration and it would be nice to reduce legal immigration as well).

  97. Yvette Cooper
    @YvetteCooperMP
    "I am deeply concerned at the very serious incident in Southport. All my thoughts are with the families & loved ones of those affected.

    I have spoken to the Merseyside Police & Crime Commissioner to convey full support to the police & thanks to the emergency services responding."

    Words are cheap, Sunshine.
    The country doesn't need fucking thoughts, it needs action.

    1. Totaly out of her depth. You can tell labour are back in power. god help us all.

      1. We must hope that it all blows up spectacularly in their faces. And if they say "This was what the Tories left us" they should be reminded that the trouble started with them in 1997-2010 and that they shouted down any opposition to it.

      3. 390389+ up ticks,

        Afternoon JN,

        I do believe that God helps those that are showing to help themselves, I think in that category we have a ginormus shortfall.

      4. Totally out of her depth and swimming feebly.
        My geography teacher said that of me, at the end of my 2nd year at grammar school, but correctly got it as a he not a she.

    2. Action? From labour? From cooper? I'll have a drop of what you're drinking, i.know I'll feel better afterwards.

    3. The only action Labour is likely to take is to make the situation worse and punish the indigenous.

  98. Tommy Robinson leaves UK on eve of court case
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjerxd00rlxo

    How can 'anti-terrorist' laws be used for 'allegedly breaching an order not to repeat lies about a Syrian refugee'?

    As usual, the BBC likes to remind us of the 'type of person' TR is by listing his list of convictions. He doesn't help himself but he is certainly a nuisance where the authorities are concerned. I don't doubt that there are many people who say "Only thugs like TR speak out against Islam. The rest of the country knows that it's the religion of peace and multi-culti UK is a beacon to the world. Let us all hold hands!"

    Actually, much of the rest of the country would like to stay out of court and prison for simply having an opinion…

    1. Actually he has gone on holiday with his children. Which is what he planned to do before this uproar started, his booking for the holiday started today. He mentioned that in the phone call from jail to his ex- wife yesterday. Of course the BBC lies by omission in failing to state that fact.

      1. I thought so. I don't believe Tommy is the type to flee. He knew there was a good chance the authorities would go for him if he showed that film and he did it anyway.

        2. I should also add that the Telegraph has also failed to report the holiday and implies the same thing as the BBC. That he has ran for it. The MSM is completely despicable.

    2. The day a Muslim sits down with me to enjoy the pleasures of a bacon sarnie and a pint of best bitter, will be the day when I will still distrust him, because he is taught to lie to unbelievers. You cannot trust liars.

      1. Bearing in mind the muslim is also instructed not to befriend kuffars, you are right to distrust him.

    3. The day a Muslim sits down with me to enjoy the pleasures of a bacon sarnie and a pint of best bitter, will be the day when I will still distrust him, because he is taught to lie to unbelievers. You cannot trust liars.

  99. I don't know what has happened at Southport but it seems to me that all immigrants to Britain should be given intensive psychological and psychiatric examinations on entry to the UK

    1. Silly boy.
      It's living in the UK that causes it.
      They are so used to living as persecuted victims that the freedoms offered here blow their minds.

    3. 390389+ up ticks,

      Afternoon R,

      As with the electoral majority these past 30 + years, who played, allowed, and gave succour to todays society in its formative years.

    4. …all immigrants to Britain should be given intensive psychological and psychiatric examinations then refused entry to the UK."
      Fixed it for you, Rastus.

      1. …all immigrants to Britain should be given intensive psychological and psychiatric examinations then refused entry to the UK."
        Even better

    3. It's boring. When they don't tell us, it's obviously a muslim/black. When they do, we know it's a white person.

      It's blasted tedious now. Just admit there's a huge problem in that demographic, let us address it and get on with our lives .

    6. He should ask himself why such incidents create so much speculation when even as recently as 25 years ago they would have been genuinely shocking for being so rare.

      1. Fewer than 20 years since the London suicide bombings and only 7 since the Ariana Grande bombing.

        Mass stabbings were almost unheard of and mainly certain ethnic/religious groupings.

        There must have been others but the only major UK incident that comes to mind at the moment, excluding family killings and not involving such minorities, are Hungerford and Dunblane.

        1. "Fewer than 20 years since the London suicide bombings and only 7 since the Ariana Grande bombing."

          As I said, 25 years ago they were rare. 2001 was probably the catalyst.

          1. I wasn't disagreeing, my point was that is is probably much less than 25 years.

  103. This 20 billion black hole – it's silly. It's 5 days government spending. The state must simply spend less.

    What I find notable is the 'budget shortfall', as if the spending is inevitable and must, regardless; be met with tax rises. One paper discussed it as 'unfunded tax cuts'. No, the state does not own all our money. Tax cuts are always funded. It is spending that is unfunded.

    Applied locally no one looks at their overdraft and says 'oh, my spending is unfunded, I'll borrow more to pay off my overdraft' because that's stupid. You cut your spending. Well, most people do. actually, i'll clarify, most sensible people do.

    As I've a chum who aside from waffling on about 'climate change' whinges about the cost of electricity and demands more immigration as it's the right thing to do yet worries about his son finding a job/house, has crippling credit card debt and went on about owing 3 quarters of a million on his mortgage and when he had a bit of a shares windfall bought a landrover.

    1. ”I've a chum who aside from waffling on about 'climate change' whinges about the cost of electricity and demands more immigration as it's the right thing to do yet worries about his son finding a job/house, has crippling credit card debt and went on about owing 3 quarters of a million on his mortgage and when he had a bit of a shares windfall bought a landrover.”

      There are a lot of these idiots about. I have the misfortune to know quite a few similar. Absolutely no critical thinking or self-awareness.

    2. When I had to retire through ill health and my income was reduced to 3/7ths of what it was, I went through all my outgoings and prioritised what I HAD to pay (rates, water rates, electricity etc) and cut all the "nice to have" expenditure.

  106. I only found out yesterday (because Plod had shut the M3 at Sunbury on an unrelated matter) that two young lads were murdered last week in Sunbury. Hadn’t seen it in the press. I suppose it’s too humdrum.

    1. So two families will have to bury a son in Sunbury. A vehicle crash resulted in two deaths.

      2. It wasn’t a car crash, by the sounds of it. I think they were deliberately taken out by other people. Arrests have been made, including one girl from Yorkshire. Only the Yorkshire Post and Daily Express carried the story:

        “FOUR people – includ­ing a woman from York­shire – have been arres­ted as part of a double murder invest­ig­a­tion fol­low­ing the deaths of two men in a crash involving an elec­tric bicycle.
        The men, both in their 20s, died after a col­li­sion involving a black ebike just after mid­night on Monday on the A316 south­bound slip road onto the M3 at Sun­bury, Sur­rey.
        One man was pro­nounced dead at the scene, and the second was taken to hos­pital where he died later on Monday, Sur­rey Police said.
        A 29-year-old man from Sun­bury has been arres­ted on sus­pi­cion of murder, a woman aged 24 from North York­shire has been arres­ted on sus­pi­cion of assist­ing an offender, and two 24-year-old men from Walton-on-Thames and Feltham have been arres­ted on sus­pi­cion of con­spir­acy to murder.
        They were all being held in police cus­tody.
        Senior invest­ig­at­ing officer Detect­ive Inspector Debbie Birch said: "Our thoughts are with the fam­il­ies of the two vic­tims at this incred­ibly dif­fi­cult time.

        "Our invest­ig­a­tion is still in the early stages, and our officers are work­ing around the clock to estab­lish the cir­cum­stances of this incid­ent and gather evid­ence."
        She said police want to speak to any­one with any inform­a­tion that may assist the invest­ig­a­tion.
        Spe­cific­ally, she said this was includ­ing people who were in the Sun­bury Cross area between 40 and 50 minutes after mid­night on Monday, and might have CCTV, dash-cam or hel­met-cam foot­age that might have cap­tured the col­li­sion.
        "We are par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in tra­cing the move­ments and man­ner of driv­ing of a black e-bike and a black Ford Ranger trav­el­ling through the area dur­ing this time," she said.
        Inspector Matt Walton, bor­ough com­mander for Spelthorne, said: "We appre­ci­ate that this incid­ent will have come as a shock to the local com­munity, par­tic­u­larly to those who knew the vic­tims.
        "We are also aware that there has been some online com­ment­ary which has caused great dis­tress to the vic­tims' fam­il­ies.
        "We ask that you do not share any pho­tos, memes, or foot­age you might see in rela­tion to this incid­ent.
        "Our invest­ig­a­tion is still in the early stages, and we ask the pub­lic not to spec­u­late on the cir­cum­stances while we are still car­ry­ing out inquir­ies."”

      3. It wasn’t a car crash, by the sounds of it. I think they were deliberately taken out by other people. Arrests have been made, including one girl from Yorkshire. Only the Yorkshire Post and Daily Express carried the story:

        “FOUR people – includ­ing a woman from York­shire – have been arres­ted as part of a double murder invest­ig­a­tion fol­low­ing the deaths of two men in a crash involving an elec­tric bicycle.
        The men, both in their 20s, died after a col­li­sion involving a black ebike just after mid­night on Monday on the A316 south­bound slip road onto the M3 at Sun­bury, Sur­rey.
        One man was pro­nounced dead at the scene, and the second was taken to hos­pital where he died later on Monday, Sur­rey Police said.
        A 29-year-old man from Sun­bury has been arres­ted on sus­pi­cion of murder, a woman aged 24 from North York­shire has been arres­ted on sus­pi­cion of assist­ing an offender, and two 24-year-old men from Walton-on-Thames and Feltham have been arres­ted on sus­pi­cion of con­spir­acy to murder.
        They were all being held in police cus­tody.
        Senior invest­ig­at­ing officer Detect­ive Inspector Debbie Birch said: "Our thoughts are with the fam­il­ies of the two vic­tims at this incred­ibly dif­fi­cult time.

        "Our invest­ig­a­tion is still in the early stages, and our officers are work­ing around the clock to estab­lish the cir­cum­stances of this incid­ent and gather evid­ence."
        She said police want to speak to any­one with any inform­a­tion that may assist the invest­ig­a­tion.
        Spe­cific­ally, she said this was includ­ing people who were in the Sun­bury Cross area between 40 and 50 minutes after mid­night on Monday, and might have CCTV, dash-cam or hel­met-cam foot­age that might have cap­tured the col­li­sion.
        "We are par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in tra­cing the move­ments and man­ner of driv­ing of a black e-bike and a black Ford Ranger trav­el­ling through the area dur­ing this time," she said.
        Inspector Matt Walton, bor­ough com­mander for Spelthorne, said: "We appre­ci­ate that this incid­ent will have come as a shock to the local com­munity, par­tic­u­larly to those who knew the vic­tims.
        "We are also aware that there has been some online com­ment­ary which has caused great dis­tress to the vic­tims' fam­il­ies.
        "We ask that you do not share any pho­tos, memes, or foot­age you might see in rela­tion to this incid­ent.
        "Our invest­ig­a­tion is still in the early stages, and we ask the pub­lic not to spec­u­late on the cir­cum­stances while we are still car­ry­ing out inquir­ies."”

    1. and from the BBC:
      Huw Edwards' BBC pay increased by £40,000 last year
      Gary Lineker tops BBC salary list for seventh year running, with former news anchor Edwards in fourth.

      1. This from April…

        Huw Edwards resigns from the BBC on medical advice. Yeah right. The default position for the BBC where paedophiles are concerned it to lie and try to cover it up.

        1. Why and how does the BBC attract so many sexual perverts to join their staff?

      3. It's beyond disgusting but I have to remember it's the bbc, full of deviants, wasters and time servers. I'm so glad I pay nothing towards their filth.

    2. Boys or girls?

      Just want to know how thoroughly depraved yet another BBC employee is…

    1. In Spain, the nicknames of people called Francisco or Francisca are Paco and Paca; however, the preferred female diminutive is 'Paquita' which is then contracted to 'Paki' or 'Paqui'.

      1. Understood but it is exactly the sort of things the BBC gets its knickers in a twist over.

      2. My mother-in-law's ama de casa (femme de ménage, daily help) in Spain was called Paca

  110. Le Figaro takes the view (with its tongue in it cheek) that the Southport stabber is a Russian.

    1. Ha.

      MSN with lots & lots of wordies like.. horrified. concerned. children. injuries. impact on you. role to perform wider public. access for paramedics. stabilise. trauma centres. congested roads. regular updates. important updates. significant injuries. air ambulance. eleven ambulances. The House thoughts are with families.. convey support to police. awful incident.

      Go on.. which "news" outlet is going to be the first to mention the M wordie or even daringly.. the I.

      1. Well, if the knife person is white, we would have been told by now to avoid speculation it was an Islamic nutter, wouldn't we?

  111. Puts Covid into perspective!

    Adam Peaty tests positive for Covid after winning Olympic breaststroke silver – as Team GB announce the swimmer is a doubt for relay events
    Adam Peaty won silver in the men's 100m breastroke in Paris on Sunday night
    The Team GB star admitted post-race he had felt ill in the build-up to the final
    Team GB have confirmed Peaty has tested positive for COVID on Monday

      1. They know anyway that they're ill. If you're feeling unwell, you note the symptoms and act accordingly. Stuffing a useless stick up your nose doesn't add anything meaningful. Calling it Covid makes as much sense as ascribing all illness to demonic possession.

        1. He still managed to win a medal though so that makes the covid message look stupid.

      3. Possibly so he can be isolated from the rest of the GB squad. It may not be as serious but it is certainly very easily transmitted.

      3. I suspect that those that are most vulnerable will still qualify, but her responsible?
        Certainly not.

    2. Loss of Winter Fuel Allowance will be a definite blow to many. However, we've got to keep illegals living in the style to which they have become accustomed.

      1. It’s a definite blow to me! May have to raid company pension for Christmas!

    4. It was only a matter of time. How much will that save? Very little.
      Next will be our bus passes.

      1. I shan't miss my bus pass; the only time I've ever used it was in London and I shan't be visiting that foreign city again.

    5. I generally give mine to local charity, looks like this year will come out of my pension.

      1. We don't get it anyway if we live abroad, they clearly think we all live somewhere perennially warm and sunny :D!

        1. When the outlaws moved to Oz, decades ago, they still rec’d it but it was frozen at the amount of the first year they emigrated. Then it stopped entirely.

          1. I didn’t realise it had been going that long. My late husband never got it and neither have I.

          2. It was around 3 decades ago, not sure of the current situation – if anything, likely to be worse. Far as I understand it, today’s workers who pay in are paying the pensions of people like me. Not sure that’s sustainable.

          3. TBH there is a case to be argued for the fuel payment to be means tested in some way. It can’t be difficult, anyone whose income is below a certain level gets it but the level should be at least the minimum wage. Many pensioners relying totally on the state pension don’t even get that. Current workers paying pensions of retirees is sustainable for as long as there are enough of them and there’s the rub! Also, the country certainly can’t afford the gold-plated civil service pensions – lots of savings could be made there :D!

          4. Yes it could be, especially computerised. Pensioners today tend to be quite healthy, happy to do some gardening, odd jobs here and there. Black economy has always been healthy, always will be – especially if the new Chancellor thinks she can target it. I don’t think it’s a sustainable model, the baby boomers stopped some time ago. I’ve read CS service pensions are even worse in your neck of the woods than the UK?

          5. CS pensions in France are also pretty contentious, not least because they vary so much in terms of what the job was and level of pension. Some people can retire much earlier than others. It is quite chaotic and, as in the UK, causes friction between public and private sector workers.

          6. I think I’ve read about them, but some years ago, printed press. During various lockdowns, some worked and some didn’t (but still got paid). Perhaps that’s still a hangover. And as usual, summer makes it worse (what my boss used to call silly season, union leaders agitating…).

    6. "Good King Wences'las looked out, on the Feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even; Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel, When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel".

  116. When will the camel's back break?

    The RoPers are literally armed with knives and metaphorically armed with straws. But they must learn that they are getting to the stage when one more knife attack will be the last straw and there will be mass civil unrest.

    Are the PTB and the MSM aware of this? Are thy worried?

    They bloody well ought to be.

  117. As if it's not shit enough in Gaza, they have just declared a polio epidemic. Joy of joys <sarc>

          2. I was once an advocate of jabs ..MMR etc…not so much since the Covid one. The risk is that a future virus may be a big one, and people won’t ‘lockdown’ or accept vaccines. Especially if they think it’s another one from a lab and not a bat cave.

          3. I think we can say with 100% certainty that the next one, already in the pipeline, will be a more vicious incarnation of the last. And a poisonous jab will not help.

          4. And likely strongly recommended for younger generations too, next time, opopanax. Not if I have anything to do with it.

          5. I have done a 180 degree turnabout on vaccines since covid. I cannot believe how poorly they are tested. Control groups are not saline injected, for the covid jab the control group were injected with a meningitis jab with bad side effects. Read Dr Mary’s Monkey by Edward Haslam – it’s about the polio vaccine – it explains the explosion of cancer from the 1960s onwards. When I was a child (I was born in 1947) cancer was a rarity and childhood cancer was unknown.

            Lockdowns do not prevent the spread, they simply slow it down. I certainly will not ‘lockdown’, neither will I voluntarily accept another vaccine ever. Corrupt people can put anything they like into these things, they by-pass the body’s immediate defences by going straight into the blood stream and there is no one at the top to keep an eye on these people, we are totally dependent on their integrity and the ethos and values of the time. Read ‘Turtles all the way down’ (not the novel with the same title) and ‘Dissolving Illusions’ – the research shows that the greatest advances in health were made by improved nutrition, sanitation and housing and not by vaccines. In the final analysis it is, sadly, always all about the money; data is fudged and manipulated to demonstrate the results that they wish to achieve.

          6. Every word. I understand Johnson was of the opinion to let the virus spread through the population – imo he was correct, but talked round by Cummings, Vallance, Whitty and likely others we’ve not heard of. We still have Covid circulating here, people are testing again. I know of at least two people admitted to hospital with pre-existing conditions who sadly died – on their death certificates cause was ‘Covid’. We all had it even though vaccinated. I was born 1949, there wasn’t a single incident of cancer I heard of growing up. I think Kennedy is correct when he says as you do, improved nutrition, sanitation and housing. I’m gradually improving, not quite as yonderly as I was, and also four years older 🙂

          7. KJ – I come from a cancerous family. It was a word that could not be spoken. Taboo. So whilst I share your distrust of the medical profession and what they are all up to now, I also think that the taboo has been lifted, partly as a result of genuine scientific advances that make it no longer an automatic immediate sentence of dreadfully painful death.

          8. Very sorry to hear that opopanax. Mine too, including childhood leukaemia. The treatment was, and I believe still is, quite brutal – radiotherapy/chemotherapy. Gene therapy may help in future but seems to be still in the future and in the meantime there is more suffering. I know we have a much larger population, many if not most families have been touched by cancer, seems more widespread than it was. I’m not aware of any research into possible reasons.

          10. Sorry to read that. I doubt there’s a family today untouched by cancer, including my own – skin, brain, blood. Not sure there’s much research into the reason/s for the rise.

          11. My mother also died of breast cancer (but she was 90) and my father of stomach cancer at 68.

          12. Somehow, I think there’s likely to be more cases of stomach cancer with modern diets, and also contraceptive pill implicated in breast cancer. I hope not.

          13. My mother wasn’t on the pill (she had to go into hospital for a hysterectomy when I was about 8 so I was looked after by a neighbour).

          14. My mum had the same, I was in my late teens so not as vulnerable as yourself…causes of cancer only seem speculated about in last couple of decades, I don’t think there’s any definitive cause of known as yet other than cell replication and what causes that. Some people think there are more cases simply because there are more of us, and live longer. I suspect diet (processed foods) may be involved somehow, and lifestyle generally (more sedentary) and also living longer than previously (cell replication, more mistakes made). But in reality, all just guesses……

    2. Israel from their track record would more than likely help out here. However Gaza is riddled with Hamas and it's ideology.

      1. Yes. Israel would send them the required drugs and treatments and Hamas would sell them on the black market.

  118. During the recent Jordan Peterson/Tommy Robinson interview in Canada.. he mentions that the Luton Ropers as early as 2004 were actively proposing something similar to the Russian school massacre in the small North Ossetian town of Beslan.

  120. A splendid Birdie Three?

    Wordle 1,136 3/6
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Yep, me too!

      Wordle 1,136 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
      🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. An improvement for me.

      Wordle 1,136 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
      🟨⬜🟨🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Ah well, someone has to come last

      Wordle 1,136 4/6

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

    2. Notice the constant obfuscation of language. Using a definition of the mad-Left "gender" is constructed, debatable but role with it. Even when granting that notion Medics do need to know the sex of their patient. One is subjective the other is objective. To quote another, sex matters.

  127. just listen to the NHS manager demanding we all pretend that Chuck the woman is actually a man.

    1. These managers are a lot of the reason that the NHS swallows money like bottomless pit. Her whole stance is entitled and patronising: people like her are dead wood to the NHS – and we pay for them.

  128. Well it's been 6 weeks since I lost Jill, and things are not much better. Thankfully, I am sleeping OK, but apart from that I am still a bit of a mess. I'll try to get on here a bit more often.

    Jack.

    1. We'd be delighted to see more from you.
      I'm sure you will eventually come to terms, but it will always be there.
      Remember the good times.

    2. 6 weeks is still very early days, so no wonder you are still feeling 'a mess.'
      If you had already happily settled into your new reality, that would not be good.
      Be kind to yourself, and speak freely on here, Nottlers are always ready to listen, and there may be some sound advice from others here who have faced similar loss.

    4. Bon courage jackthelad, six weeks is not long at all. We don't "get over" bereavements, we learn to live with them but it takes time.

    5. It is early days, Jack, and you always will miss her. We'd be very glad to see you here more often – we miss Jill's good humour, but not a fraction of how much you do.

      We're here if you need to offload, or you just need some company. Take care of yourself too.

    6. You have all my sympathy, Jack. If I may use an analogy, what you're feeling now is a sharp, stabbing pain, but, in time, that will change to a dull ache. That ache will never go, but it will be tempered by your memories of all your happy times together.

      Bon courage!

    7. It's good you are sleeping. Try and get some regular exercise no matter how much. Sorry for your loss sir.

    8. We’ll be pleased to see you more often but don’t rush it. Do it in your own good time.
      We all miss Jill.

    10. Be kind to yourself.
      It takes about a year before the emotions subside a little, and so it's wise to avoid any big decisions, eg like moving house etc.

  129. I don't believe it will be, but just imagine if the knifeman turns out to be whitey.
    It will be the heaven sent opportunity for all the pro-immigration nutters to say "told you so, never speculate as to the origins or motives."

    2. Ah – just seen that the miscreant is a "teenage boy – 17 yrs old".

      Funny how they use "boy" – which suggests a 10 year old – rather than a "man".

      So his identity, race, creed will remain unknown until – at the very least – the end of the trial (which will be in late 2025…)

      1. You might be forgiven for wondering what a 17 year old boy was doing out at 5 am ?

          1. Yes, being on holiday I have been out all day I hadn’t seen the most recent news about the terrible incident at Southport.
            I thought the conversation was about the lady out walking her dog at 5 am who was attacked.

      2. Looked sufficiently like an adult to be called a man initially.

        Probably means he won't be named unless it appears on soshul meeja.

        1. He’ll probably turn out to be 32 year old muslim with 4 wives and 16 children l

    1. Rupert Couchman
      22 MIN AGO
      Cutting cash from pensioners while spending billions on fake refugees-the next four years are going to be painfull.

      John Wharrier
      25 MIN AGO
      Here we go. Work all your life, pay your taxes and get punished . Do sweet nothing, don’t plan for your future and get it all.

      Barry Garber
      30 MIN AGO
      Taking away the winter fuel payment for pensioners not on benefits is unforgivable. My 91 year old mum lives on a state pension and a very small private pension and now she's being deprived of £300 winter fuel payment. Is this really the caring compassionate Labour Party one has to ask? EDITED

      1. Traita May called the Conservative Party the Nasty Party but for sheer evil – way beyond the point of being nasty – she was way out ahead of all her rivals.

        1. I think she genuinely believed that she was nice, Rastus, doing good. She embraced the "Let the end try the man" ethos that erodes the intellect and moral fibre of all socialists.

      2. It's been the case for years that being prudent and doing the right thing was punishable, while being feckless was rewarded. I wonder if having an attendence allowance is considered "being on benefits"? The Labour party has never been caring and compassionate. Socialism never is.

    2. I can't keep up with the comments on the DT! Take it from the pensioners and spend it on the immigrants!

  131. I see Stephen has been out and about in drag today:

    "Bath city centre is locked down with police in hazmat suits after shoppers 'fell ill' when woman 'approached them with a bag'"

    1. Was the poisonous old bag Miriam Margolyes or was it Jo Brand, Russell's mum?

  132. Apparently a seventeen year old has been arrested for being the Southport stabber.

    Seventeen is a very convenient age to be because they will not release his name – and of course if we knew his name we might come to some inconvenient conclusions about his origins.

    We remember that several of the "children" who have arrived here illegally turned out to be young men well up their 20s!

    1. Oo-er Rastus. I just read the report and The Adults have said in it that you shouldn't speculate. Tut tut, naughty step for you.

      How they'll go on when a few months before Starmer's downfall they announce 16-yr olds will be allowed to vote I don't know. Being described as a 17-year old "boy" on the News.

  133. That's me for today. Time to go and water the garden. Damned sunshine…! Won't last, of course.

    Have a spiffing evening – trying to forget the ghastly news that just goes on and on getting worse. It is terribly depressing.

    A demain.

  134. A quiet day pottering in the garden? This morning wasn't too bad, rumbling jets at times but this afternoon the Chinook turned up and persisted in flying low and directly over my and my neighbours gardens. What a din.

    Whilst the flying was going on at least five emergency vehicles went tearing down the road with all bells and whistles on full volume. Haven't heard what that was about yet.

    What took my attention on the Chinook episodes is the vehicle they were lifting and flying around dangled underneath was painted a yellow ochre colour, the sort of colour that would be used in a desert for camouflage. I'm certain that all the other exercises I've witnessed these monsters being involved in had the usual green trucks slung underneath.

    Are we getting involved somewhere in the Middle East?

  135. Here are some key points from Reeves' speech:
    Industrial action in the NHS cost £1.7bn last year;
    An agreement with junior doctors on pay has been made, with the union recommending it to their members;
    All departments are being asked to make savings, to a total of £3bn;
    They are also being asked to find 2% savings in "back office costs";
    The Advanced British Standard, which Rishi Sunak announced last year, was forecasted to cost £200m next year, had no money set aside for it and has been scrapped;
    The Rwanda scheme has been scrapped to bring down Home Office costs by "nearly £800m this year";
    A £150m investment fund announced by Jeremy Hunt last year has been scrapped as no projects were supported;
    On levelling up, £1bn of "unfunded transport projects" have been discovered and will be reviewed;
    The Stonehenge tunnel on the A303, and the A27 Arundel bypass and the restoring our railways scheme will all be shelved as there was no money for them
    The chancellor says the sale of the government's owned NatWest shares will be exited by 2025/2026 – but a retail share will not go ahead due to its costs;
    The 40 new hospitals previously promised will be reviewed for a "realistic" timetable;
    Reforms to the care sector have been scrapped as well to save £1bn by the end of next year;
    Only those on pension credit or means-tested benefits will get the winter fuel payment going forward – those on the credit will get £200 and £300 if someone is over 80;
    The budget will face difficult decisions on spending welfare and – notably – tax;

    1. The major key point being that she "didn't know" about the black hole in the public finances before they came to power. Obviously she had not read anything published by the OBR.

      Her pants are on fire.

    2. The major key point being that she "didn't know" about the black hole in the public finances before they came to power. Obviously she had not read anything published by the OBR.

      Her pants are on fire.

  137. Here is another reason to be depressed:

    "Right Reverend Dr John Perumbalath, Bishop of Liverpool…"

  138. Only socialists would deprive older people of their heating whilst trying to cool the planet down.

  139. If you are feeling too happy or contented, I recommend visiting the Spectator to "enjoy" the articles and comments on the fuel payments topic.

    1. 390389+ up ticks,

      Good evening & welcome,

      It is sorely needed in warmer climes via overseas aid, our political overseers suggest
      " put on another jumper" also join a knit to survive club.

  140. 3 90389+ up ticks,

    Heard on channel 4 Tommy Robinson FAR RIGHT activist blah,blah,blah and in the next breath Huw Edwards charged with making indecent images of children
    Presenter faces court hearing on Wednesday
    By the by huw edwards left the bbc in April 2024 on medical grounds grounds, edwards remained on the payroll while suspended plus £40000 pay-rise inclusive.

    These corporations have certainly made crime pay,

    May one ask, in my mind I find 52 % of the indigenous to be
    FAR RIGHT so what makes Tommy so special in that department.

      1. Found this on line … just googled it .

        My two youngest children went to holiday club this morning in Southport for a day of fun only for a migrant to enter and and murder/fatally wound multiple children. My kids are fine . They are shocked and in hysterics but they are safe . My thoughts are with the other 30 kids and families that are suffering right now 🥲

        If there’s anytime to close the borders completely it’s right now ! Enough is enough

        https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eddie-murray-6a4ab648_my-two-youngest-children-went-to-holiday-activity-7223686835179257856-Hrdq?utm_source=combined_share_message&utm_medium=member_ios

    2. Why are we having all these boat people, look what is happenig and labour do nothing.

  144. Buy candles!!!

    Reeves tax raid means ‘game over’ for North Sea oil and gas
    29 July 2024 • 6:18pm

    The North Sea is approaching “game over territory” after Rachel Reeves pushed ahead with an expanded tax raid on oil and gas companies.

    The Chancellor on Monday followed through on Labour’s election pledge to squeeze oil companies harder by ramping up the so-called energy profits levy.

    Ms Reeves said the levy, originally imposed by the Conservatives, will now run for two further years, expiring at the end of March 2030, while the headline rate will rise from 75 per cent to 78 per cent.

    She also scrapped an “unjustifiably generous” allowance that let companies deduct some of what they invested into new oil and gas fields from the total they were required to pay.

    The allowance will now end on November 1, with investment before then unaffected.

    A separate allowance for investment in green energy projects will still be deductible from the tax.

    But the Chancellor’s move was condemned as “reckless, wrong and economically ruinous for the North Sea” by oil and gas companies.

    Russell Borthwick, chief executive of the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, which represents a large chunk of the industry, said: “The new government is pushing the North Sea dangerously close to ‘game over’ territory and this will, in turn, put our energy transition at risk.

    “Instead of seeing the energy sector as the solution to challenges in the UK’s public finances, the Chancellor has taken the wrongheaded decision to tax the industry into oblivion.

    “The consequence of that will be £20 billion lost in revenues to the Treasury, even more reliance upon imported oil and gas – worse for the planet and the economy – and tens of thousands of jobs placed in jeopardy.”

    Before Labour’s election victory earlier this month, Ms Reeves had previously estimated that the expansion of the windfall tax would raise an extra £10.8bn in revenue.

    However, analysts have warned the move is likely to unleash “unintended consequences” that will accelerate the decline of the North Sea.

    An analysis published by Wood Mackenzie previously warned it would prompt oil and gas companies to “freeze investment” until the tax ended, with others likely to wrap up production on older fields early, withdraw supporting infrastructure and slash investments in green technologies such as offshore wind and carbon capture and storage.

    Graham Kellas, of Wood Mackenzie, added that while the new headline tax rate matched that of Norway, the removal of capital allowances and far more frequent changes to the UK rate had made the UK look like a “fiscal wild west” that was less attractive to investors.

  147. Two children have died and nine are injured after a knife attack at a children’s dance class, police have confirmed.

    Six of the children are critically injured, and two adults have also been hurt. All of those injured have been stabbed.

    2. I heard on the radio a few minutes ago that a 17 year old ‘boy’ has been arrested.

      1. Given the lies told by some about their age, wonder if he really is only 17?

        2. Who gives a shit. He should not have been here, just like the rest of them.
          How we have allowed such a callow, gutless, bunch of know nothing cowards to be our government, opposition and total traitors to this country.

  149. Southport suspect was on MI6 watch list and was known to Liverpool mental health services. He was an asylum seeker who came to UK by boat last year.

    say it aint so.. whowuddathunkit.

    1. String him up from a lamppost nearest to the place where the children were murdered. This evening.

      2. My good lady suggests he's a young muslim boy who feels his young female compatriots were being led astray by the fun British way of life, as in dancing and singing.

    1. a set back for progressives.. however the project must proceed. Diversity teething problems.. That's all.

  151. This from Mogwai btl on a Daily Sceptic thread:

    “More on the Southport stabbing of children. This is getting depressingly predictable now;

    ”Police will this evening issue an update after a major incident in Southport was declared following a stabbing involving a “number of casualties”. Police were called to a property on Hart Street at around 11.50am today, Monday, July 29.
    The ECHO understands that one person – believed to be a child – has died, while possibly more than ten others – both adults and children – have been taken to hospitals around the region with major traumas. Alder Hey Children’s Hospital has now declared a major incident.
    A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said: “We can confirm that a 17-year old male from Banks, who was arrested in connection to the stabbing in Southport this morning, Monday 29 July, remains in police custody and will be questioned about the incident.
    “At this early stage, enquiries are ongoing to establish the motive for this tragic incident and we would urge people not to speculate while the investigation is ongoing.
    “We can also confirm that the incident is not currently being treated as terror-related and we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.”

    https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/live-updates-major-incident-southport-29634202

    ”I’ve seen the name of the person who murdered at least one child in Southport. He is alleged to be MI5’s watch list, had “mental issues” & was a Channel migrant.

    He appears to be a Jordanian Palestinian from his name. Certainly a migrant house was raided.””

    https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1817973647296053578

    1. Of course it is terror related, and definitely carried out by an islamist fanatic. Do the authorities really think limiting information, denying terror links and bringing in supposed mental health will fool the public? The savage is 17, virtually an adult, and he will have known full well what he was doing. All the signs are it was a premeditated attack on innocent children.

    2. Jules. I take it you've not seen my elephant light box, a photo of which I posted for your information 8 hours ago.

      1. Perhaps she saw it and wasn't as amused by it as you appear to be.

        Copulating elephants as a decoration would not appeal to most people, even elephant lovers.

        2. One of the many amusing vignettes I chuckle about from going on an elephant scrubbing trip in India is of a huge bull relaxing himself into the river with a groan. It (his appendage) was enormous! It looked as if he was re-fuelling through a huge hose.

        4. I had a look after I was prompted to. Very nicely done but I wondered why they had to be in the act. I have elephants on the wall here but I don't think I'd want to display that one.

  153. Why didn’t they just shoot the b*stard? Not a terrorist attack…what a joke!

  154. Two children killed in knife attack at dance class. 29 July 2024.

    Two children have died and nine are injured after a knife attack at a children’s dance class, police have confirmed.

    Six of the children are critically injured, and two adults have also been hurt. All of those injured have been stabbed.

    They are managing this news to reduce the impact on public opinion.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/southport-major-incident-stabbing-police/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/southport-major-incident-stabbing-police/

    2. FFS the public need to have an informed opinion. Anything else is political censorship.

  156. Major incident in Bath city centre over possible chemical attack. 29 July 2024.

    A major incident is unfolding in Bath city centre over a possible chemical attack.

    Emergency services were called to an incident in Stall Street at around 2.30pm today (Monday).

    A woman is said to have approached people with a bag, leading to some individuals becoming ill.

    What’s this? A distraction?

    https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/major-incident-bath-chemical-attack/

  157. When are our 'king idiots in Wastemonster going to learn ?
    Stop the boats you morons.

      1. The stupid new government are lining up to Rob british pensioners and are already blaming the tories for a massive black hole in the nations finances. But they are still spending a millions each week to fund the on-going invasion.

  158. I see why Tommy R has moved overseas.. his X account can fire away taunting the progressives and beyond the jurisdiction of Nick Lowles Hope-Not-Hate..

    Here lads
    @TerrorismPolice

    Maybe instead of interrogating me over my legal, lawful demonstrations and legal, lawful political opinions.

    Maybe you should interrogate every f*cker that's coming in on those boats!

    Because they keep continously murdering innocent members of the British public, and you clueless muppets have no idea who they are, or what they're thinking!

    1. What is the main difference between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party?

      The Conservative Party are the WEF's useful idiots.
      The Labour Party are the WEF's front line stormtroopers.

    2. What on earth is the point of a watch list , if he wasn't being watched ..

      Why wan't he in Wales , why Southport , why so evil ..

      We are all in trouble , they are everywhere , and County Councils are begging the public to give these youngsters a bedroom.

    3. It really annoys me that they state originally from Cardiff.
      Ha bloody ha.
      It's sick.

  160. Great to see the 17 year old Canadian 400 IM swimmer singing the national anthem right through to the end.
    Real pride from her as a Canadian and Canada should be equally proud of her.

    1. Some Canadian kids are OK.

      That's the second gold medal today for the Canadian team, it almost takes away from the stigma attached to the womens football team.

  161. I do urge people not to speculate …. these 11 stabbings + 2 brutal killings are on our political elite.

    1. Not just the politicians: every single "let them come" socialist who states they should be allowed to move to wherever they like.

  162. PM calls stabbing 'deeply shocking'

    Shocked, shocked I tell you. Shocked. Politicos favourite wordie.
    er, Not really actually.. everyday occurrence if you look closely in the local news.. though yesterday afternoon was quite calm.

  163. A bit done today.
    Finally got round to planting a pear tree I bought last month.
    Recovered a dozen old bricks from the boundary with next door.
    Shifted a large stone doorstep I've salvaged
    And did a bit of tidying up.

    Also did sliced ham, mixed veg and new popatoes I dug up from the "garden" yesterday.
    They've come from some potatoes I found had sprouted in the pantry a couple of months back. Not a big yield, but satisfying never the less.

  165. The women they fight should be allowed a free kick to their groin as soon as the bell sounds for every round.

  166. I have only just looked at yesterday's Daily Sceptic email..
    How on earth can this be allowed?
    'Hate preacher and his followers are in advanced talks to buy the remote isle of Torsa, off the west coast of Scotland.'
    ' ….. says he will negotiate with the Government to allow Muslims “from all over the world” to be given a visa in order for them to live in their new “homeland”.' …     Would anyone like to bet on the likelihood of the liebour government agreeing to such a dangerous move?
    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/28/hate-cleric-raises-3-million-to-create-islamic-homeland-on-scottish-island/

  167. Well, I reckon millions of Britons feel they've had their noses rubbed in diversity today.

  168. Rachel Reeves has already made available:
    £3bn for a foreign war
    £11bn for foreign climate change aid
    £8bn for inflation-busting public sector pay rises (20% confirmed for Junior Doctors)
    She’s created a black hole of well over £20bn and she has only been in Government for 4 weeks

  171. 'Night All
    I'm done I really am 17 year old "boy" you say 2 dead many critically injured
    "Known to authorities"
    This is on you you fuckers all with your panic alarms and armed security 24/.7
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2ccc232ba38ed2fb4028d9eced001773757c71d4fdfecb28661810567a45a56.jpg
    If i get diagnosed with a terminal illness I have a little list
    I wont go quietly into that good night
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2f89c56e9e7ee69c3229639a7556fe18b1592857d8dc505ec41eb17d37501b5.jpg
    https://x.com/PeteJacksonGMP/status/1817992534095970536

    1. " Not terror related, not terror related, not terror related, not terror related"

      OK then let's post the truth;

      Not terror related, but was Islam related.

    2. I think the jug-eared tax-avoiding crisp salesman is also a fan of illegal immigrants

  172. 'Night All
    I'm done I really am 17 year old "boy" you say 2 dead many critically injured
    "Known to authorities"
    This is on you you fuckers all with your panic alarms and armed security 24/.7
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2ccc232ba38ed2fb4028d9eced001773757c71d4fdfecb28661810567a45a56.jpg
    If i get diagnosed with a terminal illness I have a little list
    I wont go quietly into that good night
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2f89c56e9e7ee69c3229639a7556fe18b1592857d8dc505ec41eb17d37501b5.jpg
    https://x.com/PeteJacksonGMP/status/1817992534095970536

  173. Hopefully, it's the last straw, and that government is forced to do something useful rather than platitudes and hand-wringing. If they don't you all should burn the Palace of Westminster, with those bastards in it.

    1. Sadly, at the start of a 5 year mandate and a thumping majority, they know that they can do what they like without any consequences. The main issue being is that many of the social changes that politicians enable these days are irreversible.

      1. One parliament may not bind any ensuing parliament. Common Law and Magna Carta, which precede and override any parliament.

        1. Well, yes, but that's gone by-the-by without many noticing, hasn't it? Along with so much else.

          1. So few people bother to understand or cling to Common (Natural) Law, Opopanax.

  174. How swimming times have improved.
    My hero, when I started swimming competitively, was Bobby McGregor, who won a silver behind one of the all time greats Don Schollander, who would have won more golds had there been as many events as there are now.

    Neither of them would have qualified for tonight's 100 backstroke time swimming crawl!

    1. Swimming times? My early recollections of swimming were school outings to the unheated pool at Mill Hill. Just dreadful. Freezing cold and unpleasant. That pool has long gone.

        1. Me too, Ndovu. I didn't learn to swim until I was 18, and only then very gingerly with my head well above the water (which to me is the whole purpose of swimming, I hate swimming pool water being splashed on my face). Also I was a skinny child and scarcely floated; it wasn't until I was well into middle-age that I realised what an advantage my plumper friends had in the pool.

        2. Me too. The PE teacher was sadistic (aren't they all) and I'm sure – with the benefit of hindsight – that after one swimming lesson in an unheated pool in the early summer term I was suffering from hypothermia. I felt really unwell. Never been in a swimmimg pool since

      2. I count myself lucky; my (state grammar) school had its own heated swimming pool. Lessons were a joy.

        1. I also loved swimming lessons at school. It was the only sport I was at all good at, particularly diving. Useless at everything else (except a mini glimmer at netball, as long as I was centre).

          1. You wouldn't think it to see me now but I was quite good at most sports
            Represented school in Sydney all schools 100m sprint (lived in Oz for a year)
            Played county hockey
            Played Tennis and badminton for school
            2nd in South Wales girls' golf tournament

            I don't play any sport now – barely get any excercise which is something I MUST put right.

          2. The only things I ever represented anything for were fencing (foil) and folk dancing, both for my university.

    3. The number of swimming events is ridiculous.
      Other sports should get a fair representation in the medals table by introducing other varieties of the same event
      Track and field could double their events by having running backwards at each distance
      Javelin, shot and discus – right and left handed events
      High jump with legs tied together
      Three legged long jump
      Blind folded shooting and archery

      All of the above would be far more entertaining to watch

      1. I agree re the swimming as different events, far far too may options; are there any others where people can win six or seven gold medals at a single games?

  175. Well, that's me for tonight. Heading bedwards to reflect over people who would kill small chldren, who could even have been my grandchildren were circumstances different. My thoughts go to the bereaved… no words I have could offer any degree of comfort.

    1. All I can see is a film of our oldest granddaughter when she was about 6 or 7, dancing and giggling with her friends to "I'm a Barbie Girl".
      These mites would have been equally happy and fizzing at dancing to Taylor Swift.
      Jesus, do I HATE British governments of any stripe.

    2. Probably their first morning at summer holiday camp. Absolutely heartbreaking

    1. If Ed Balls has what his name suggests he has he should make a stand and abandon the foul bitch and allow her to wallow in the muck she has created for herself and the country by herself.

      .

    2. You had no problem saying that a far right extremist killed Jo Cox now tell the truth that ghost was a Muslim who committed the heinous act and should be imprisoned for life or even better executed.

      1. Of only he had been a “far right extremist“, rather than a mentally ill old man who happened to be English.

        Still, different rules, depending on your (a) religion (b) race (c) skin colour (4) nationality

      2. Of only he had been a “far right extremist“, rather than a mentally ill old man who happened to be English.

        Still, different rules, depending on your (a) religion (b) race (c) skin colour (4) nationality

  177. A question for the anti death penalty merchants.

    Why should the Southport stabbing savage be kept alive?

    4. To dangerous in his home country for him to be deported now of course…

        1. Give him the real danger in the UK. SEnd back the ashes – after pissing in them.

      1. You are a very bad person; however, creativity ought never to be discouraged. You'll go far.

    7. In the paraphrased words of the Khmer Rouge "To keep him alive there is no gain, to kill him there is no loss".

    8. I think an oubliette sited on the entrance to the house of commons chamber, in full view, and sound of the elected MP's with a rotating filling of scum that make it their business to do things that are aborant in nature to the indigenous population of this country would ausage my feelings of rage for a very limited time.

      1. Funny how years can pass without hearing a word then you hear it twice in matter of days. (Oubliette was one of the answers in last weekend"s crossword )

    9. If fathers and grandfathers had been there, maybe he would be in bits by now. I'd willingly have throttled the bastard, with his face close to mine so I can properly hear his last gasps and feel his black soul leave his body on it's way to Hell.

  178. Today's news stories have made me feel sick………
    Reeves robbing pensioners made me angry – then the poor children being stabbed……… what a sick world and what has happened to our once peaceful, cohesive country?

      1. Well it's certainly taken a turn for the worse since the election…….but we had 14 years of the useless Tories and the rot started long ago.

          1. You have put your finger on it, there, Johnny. Dead fish eyes, the lot of them.

    3. Robbing pensioners while giving billions (again) in foreign aid.
      I wouldn't resent foreign aid so much if I could see it making acdifference but how much have we given over the last 50+ years without seeing one iota of improvent? (And that's not counting charity money)

      I used to give only to foreign charities on the basis that I already pay taxes to pay for things to be done in this country. I changed that self-imposed rule about five years ago.

      1. It goes towards gold-plated rollers and weapons for the corrupt few. Are we nearly there, Mum?

        1. Not a Roller, but there's an utter twat in Woking with a Range Rover with a metallic Gold wrap. Obscene. At least, my elderly Disco was a muted dark grey… 🙄

      2. I only give to animal charities now. The Sheldrick Trust is one of the best, and I’ve visited the nursery in Nairobi several times.

    4. Robbing pensioners while giving billions (again) in foreign aid.
      I wouldn't resent foreign aid so much if I could see it making acdifference but how much have we given over the last 50+ years without seeing one iota of improvent? (And that's not counting charity money)

      I used to give only to foreign charities on the basis that I already pay taxes to pay for things to be done in this country. I changed that self-imposed rule about five years ago.

    1. Although the DT states that: "The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons and is originally from Cardiff, moved to the Southport area with his Rwandan parents when he was aged six."

    1. Local baths in Gloucester. The smell of the chlorine as we walked in made me want to puke. And the time Miss Connop pushed me into the deep end as I was gingerly creeping down the steps……..

      1. Yes, the smell of the chlorine and the acoustics, that swimming pool sound, made it seem an alien environment.

        1. My mother got tired of thinking up excuses. Fortunately it was only in the summer term we had to go there.

  181. The sickening platitudes flowing now from the politicians who are "devastated" by events are truly despicable
    (I wont post the ones I've seen they sicken me to my stomach)
    YOU did this YOU
    Own it you usless tossers

    1. I can understand how revolutions become so bloody.
      I would quite happily accept hanging politicians rather than baskets from every lamp post.

      1. The ravens I trust are licking their beaks, even now. They aren't stupid.

    2. We will hear endless statements and promises about procedures and checks and assessments and reviews of policies ad infinitum. We can expect Labour and the Tories to engage in some grotesquely distasteful finger-pointing. The BBC will tiptoe around the subject, although I wouldn't be at all surprised if Michael Ryan and Thomas Hamilton both get a mention. After all, white men are bad as well, you know…

      1. They'll hurry something else in for the news tomorrow. They'll be gearing up for war to detract us from their traitorous mismanagement of the country.

    3. Sickening indeed. An opportunity for windbags to emote in public and they'll wallow in it as the cameras queue up to film them doing it..

      They don't get it. They are not there to emote. They are strangers at a funeral, as unconnected to events as I am. Sir Kneelalot had the temerity to say, "I know I speak for the whole country when I say…" No you don't, you squawking prat! You do not speak for me, unless you say something along the lines of, "Sorry. I realise an open doors policy towards nasty third worlders who never belonged here and who all along weren't really asylum seekers was in hindsight a terrible misjudgement. Mea Culpa. My government will move to repatriate every one of the infiltrators beginning Tuesday morning."

      I am not interested in your emotions, Kneeler. I'm interested in you carrying out the first duty of government.

      1. A phrase I hate is "The Prime Minister led the tributes…" When he was not acquainted with the deceased yet his tributes tump those of the deceased's family and those who actually knew them?

        1. It grates every time, yes. I’ve had quite enough of it. I consider it offensive.

          It’d be no different than if my old dad died in a newsworthy multiple pile up near here and the leader of our County Council were to get up and start with, “I’m sure I speak for all when…”; then the local rag reported that she, ” led the tributes”.

          No, I’ll be leading the tributes frankly, or some worthy related to him will do so; or knew him in some honourable capacity. Politicians ought to get out of other people’s grief. They aren’t welcome. They should stick to eulogies for their plastic cronies in public life whom they knew personally. They come across as it is like bosses handing out watches to employees that they never met, in any case. I’m sure in the ‘body corporate’ they’ll get a grateful “hrumph” or two.

          1. These expressions of sympathy have multiplied in the Twitter generation. It’s as if they need to make a public statement just because they can. Once the precedent is set, comments must be made no matter what predictable platitudes they have become.

    4. They don't see how they're responsible. They genuinely don't understand that this is their fault.

  182. And now for something completely different. It’s been 30 years since i made curtains but i need to quickly run up a par for a window which is 48” wide i.e. 4’ (or 120 cm if you prefer). Ordinary pencil pleat.

    I have in the back of my mind each curtain needs to be x1 1/2 width. So would that mean each curtain should be ((48/2)*1.5) = 36” wide (90 cm)? I think that’s right. The only question is whether i can be bothered to line it.

    1. Probably worth the bother, if you're going to the trouble of pleating it – or even making it in the first place :- )

      1. Well they are a bot of a stop gap, using up what i have in my sewing box. But i think the answer is to line them. I will need to buy one more length of lining🙁. And i suppose i could run to more matching thread. And proper header tape rather than the voile header tape i have 8’ of🙁. But yes. I will do them properly

        1. NI cousin used to line them with blankets. Depends what they are for (looks or warmth – or both) . I salute your committent to excellence in all things, Mir.

    2. Curtains hang better if they are lined, and also last longer especially in a sunny window.

    4. My bedroom curtains came from Dunelm. They don't quite meet when drawn, but that wasn't the point. They are merely there to finish off the window. I have Venetian blinds, which respond to Alexa. Mostly. Dianne the Ex wasn't impressed, but at 71, she now has a new love interest, and is unlikely to stay here any more. Perhasps I've had my last night on the corner sofabed?

  185. SHAME ON THE MSM

    SHAME ON THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

    Tommy Robinson ‘flees UK’ amid contempt of court case
    Far-Right activist arrested at Channel Tunnel under terror laws for refusing search but left country after being bailed
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/29/tommy-robinson-flees-uk-contempt-terror-folkestone-court/

    Tommy Robinson announced clearly BEFORE the rally that he was going on holiday immediately afterwards.

    The DT is guilty of total distortion – and as you would now expect there is no comment facility.

    2. They don't want the truth getting out.

      Besides, it's a helpful distraction from the slaughter of children carried out by a muslim which the press really don't want to talk about.

  186. Yes, many of their more ruthless attacks have been on youngsters enjoying music and dancing. Including the Israel one (the Bataclan, the Arianna Grande, etc., etc.).

  189. Well, chums, it's almost my 10 pm bedtime. So Good Night to you all, sleep well, and I hope to find you fully rested by tomorrow morning.

    1. Night night, Elsie. I love the way that you always allow hope to triumph over experience. Schlaf gut.

      1. Hi Maggie. I’ve been to a few services at Exeter. I have to say that more happens there than at Guildford, my local cathedral. Actually, my nearest cathedral is the RC one at Aldershot Garrison. Maybe I should ‘Pope’?

          1. Wonderful , playing the organ is almost a science , so different from any other musical instrument .

            How on earth were they constructed to such an exactness .. how were they tuned .. I am so in awe , and will stand and maybe hug a pillar when I hear organ practise .. Sherborne has a nice one , but what do I know x

          2. Hi, Mags. I'm unaware of any other instrument which one can walk inside. Carefully. I've had the intenal tour of the Carlisle instrument. Admittedly before it's last rebuild.

            Sherborne is good. Last rebuild by the late Kenneth Tickell. I'm interested in his work at St Mary le Bow, since there's a sample set recorded there which neatly fits with my virtual organ project.

  193. Evening, all. Lovely day, sunny and hot. Didn't do much after yesterday's exertions.

    The Tories need a leader untainted by complete lack of conservatism.

        1. Trying not to despair, Connors. Taking a leaf out of Elsie's book. Tomorrow is another day, and all that.

          2. Politics used to be similar to catnip for me, and I have had some intense moments .. hilarious and not so funny , but I used to care , still care , but now feel defeated ..

            They don't listen , they don't care . They are hard as nails .

            They are governed by civil servants , like Yes Minister, and they don't bed into their roles/ jobs , do they , their attention to their constituents is shallow ..

            Have you ever attended cocktail parties .. when you have to keep moving on every 8 minutes or so , the hellos and nice to see you and what are you doing these days, is repeated , and repeated , then one forgets names and then back to square one , ( I am talking about my experience as a Navy wife )

            Government is like that I think , and the bores are soon avoided , confined to the back bench!!!

  195. Another day is done, so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless all you Gentlefolk. If we are spared! Bis morgen früh.

  198. BBC1 news at 10pm was actually fairly restrained. "How could this happen and why?" was as far as they went beyond reporting. However, security was mentioned. We already have 'Martyn's Law', which will require every community centre, youth club, church hall and the like to have procedures in place to 'prevent terrorism'. The danger is that life will soon be smothered. Parents of school age children might need a licence to invite their neighbours' kids around for tea.

    We were also treated to a little encomium for the NHS as well as mentions for Dunblane and the Manchester Arena.

    1. To your final point from the BBC, did anyone mention that treating victims of terrorism is not unique to the NHS? How strange. It feels in poor taste somewhat.

  199. Night night, Sir J. You had a really good sleep t'other night – repeat the routine? And why on earth are you setting your alarm so early? Wishing you a deep, peaceful and dreamless sleep!

      1. The story is always a highspot – but we can wait! You need your sleep young man! x

        1. At 80, hardly a young man – just wishing. Glad you find the stories a high-spot. Thank you, Opopanax.

  201. 390389+ up ticks,

    Seeing as things cannot possibly get any worse but will surely stay as they are, could an additive be added to the evening prayer such as,

    Tommy Robinson, lead us along the road to DOVER en masse
    and redemption.

    1. Labour have only just started, it will get far worse for anyone who contributes to life in this country.

  202. I am a pianist rather than an organist (at least I was). When I was allowed to play the Bechstein at Longleat, I admitted I'd learned to play on a Steinway.

    1. I've had several Technics digital pianos. We still have two in the parish. Rumour has it that they were based on Steinway samples. All I can say is that I briefly had a Yamaha Clavinova, and I couldn't live with it. It went to eBay, and I recouped most of the purchace price.

      The 'Big House' in the Parish has a Steinway Grand, in a unique Art Deco case, designed by the chap who did all of the furniture. It's not exctly in tune, but there's no denying it's heritage.

      Apparenly, there are other Steinways in the village. It's Surrey, after all. 🙄

  204. Whenever an ad comes on TV for some overseas child with a begging bowl, I snarl, "you've had billions over the years and my government is still wasting my taxes on overseas aid. Why should I give any more when it clearly hasn't done any good?"

  206. I've found that with weird crossword clues and answers, SiaDc. Jungs theory of synchronicity springs to mind.

  207. 'The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons and is originally from Cardiff, in Wales, moved to the Southport area with his Rwandan parents when he was aged six.'

    This is how much the British establishment cares about your children.

    1. Why is the RNLI Still asking for public donations they are probably making a fortune from the French government.

  209. I don't know how old you are, Storm, but I am quite old enough to feel very tired with it all and only do it if I either enjoy it or feel it is by "bounden duty".

  210. Tuesday 30th July 2024

    Alf the Great

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4e8f7e663623145205ad4c73e84552be3ce77c28e6176b2d357a3c4d5216e12.png
    Birthdays come around and around and yours, like an old shellac gramophone record, has now come around 78 times!

    With very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    We celebrated Oldest Nottler, Delboy, 4 days ago. We have reason to believe that you are the tallest

    2. Thank you Richard and Caroline for your good wishes.
      I am probably the tallest but have shrunk an inch or so over the past couple of years. Now only about 6’4.5”.

  211. Nicked
    "From Rwanda, not from Rwanda, Palestinian according to another source. Probably from Cardiff may be a bit of a stretch and why did plod turn over an immigrant house in Banks.

    17 or not 17, 17 is convenient, no names, no pack drill, my personal view is he is older. Many of the 'vulnerable refugees fleeing from war zones' tend to be older and often not from where they claim to be from. Still we let them in, but that's another story.

    We are unlikely to be told the truth as this may cause disharmony and we know the State can not handle riots. It's better these senseless killings of female children are buried, harmony is more important, innit.

    We can speculate and we can have a gut feeling as to what motivated this brutality but the real information will probably never surface. This, above all is why I despise the spineless wooden tops that claim to be in charge.

    My anger is white hot but in check, may there be a day of reckoning and may I live long enough to see it."
    Mine isn't in check frankly I feel murderous

    1. The present Labour government is in the process of imploding. Their ranks now comprise an assortment of Blair’s failed retreads, many of whom were the very worst offenders in the Expenses Scandal,, a few of Brown’s paedofile excuses yet the majority are newly elected political cretins. Some of the female members have not yet developed breasts and their male equivalents appear to be defunct of balls.

      Our government comprises mostly juveniles. God help us all.

    2. With you there, Rik.
      Time for citizens justice. The State won't do it's job.
      Burn the bastards.

    3. Yes , I agree with you Rik, females are also allowed to feel angry , such me .

      If it were over eighty years ago , I would probably have been in the Resistance .

      Britain is poisoned , and our so called elected politicians have no heft , only mealy mouthed platitudes .

    4. From Rwanda, not from Rwanda, Palestinian according to another source. Probably from Cardiff …

      Obfuscation, Rick. Keep the people guessing until the anger subsides. The 'mental health' schtick is now de rigueur in the PTB's response, it's time for more people to wake up and understand exactly what this and previous governments have planned for all of the decent people in the UK.

      1. The police are now saying he was born in Cardiff, which suggests they have an accurate age.

  213. Remind me to copy this over later to today’s page. Found it btl in the Speccie. A substack, musing on how we have ended up where we are (appeasement)

    https://demosthenes101.substack.com/p/the-truth-of-manchester-airport-has/comments?utm_source=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

    Edit. A lot of subscribers v unhappy with Fraser’s piece on the removal of the winter fuel allowance for “rich” pensioners. It seems Fraser’s friends spaff their winter fuel allowance on single bottles of champagne, ergo it’s a good idea to remove it from everyone who isn’t taking from the State in terms of pension or universal credit. Lots of talk about unsubscribing.

    2. Let's hope it translates to more than just talk about unsubscribing. Voting with one's feet is rather effective.

  215. More for later:

    ”SIR – The only person who could persuade me to return to the Tories is Penny Mordaunt.
    She comes across as sensible and reliable. Sadly, in a fit of pique about the Conservative Party as a whole, the people of Portsmouth voted her out. No doubt many now regret it.
    John Baker Crayford, Kent”

    “SIR – How refreshing: a dose of common sense from the new Chancellor.
    It has long been obvious that winter fuel payments should go only to those in need, not to the many millions who can afford to get by without.
    May I suggest that the nonsensical and outdated £10 Christmas bonus is also thrown on the bonfire?
    Steve Porter
    West Kirby, Wirral”

    ”SIR – In response to the news that Suella Braverman will not be running for the Tory leadership, I think I speak on behalf of compassionate conservatives everywhere when I say: thank goodness.
    Liam Bruce London SE1”

    1. Ah, now that's what I call the Bonfire of Profanities!!!

      Good morning More and all…

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