Monday 3 April: Britain is being ripped off by greedy, sewage-dumping water companies

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

555 thoughts on “Monday 3 April: Britain is being ripped off by greedy, sewage-dumping water companies”

    1. If it’s that simple to block outgoing travellers from Dover why can’t she and the other tools in the government stop the incoming?

      1. 372915+ up ticks,

        Morning KtK,

        Not in the big plan.

        They have never forgiven us for Trafalgar.

        1. And the list of all the other battles they lost.
          Even saving them along with our American allies, from nazi occupation.

  5. Russian propagandist killed in explosion at St Petersburg café. 3 April 2023.

    Russia’s second city of St Petersburg was hit by an explosion in a cafe that killed a well-known ultra-nationalist war correspondent, fighter and propagandist.

    In what appears to be the second assassination on Russian soil since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Vladlen Tatarsky was killed by a bomb hidden inside a statue handed to him during a talk to his supporters.

    Tatarsky, one of the country’s best-known pro-Russian military bloggers, had been giving a talk on his frontline reporting at a bar believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Kremlin’s Wagner mercenary unit leading Russian attacks on Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

    This man was killed by the Ukies for nothing more than his opinions. His death advances their cause not one whit and may actually have brought about the opposite in Russia. The support for it below the line is almost universal, which is rather strange, when one considers that one of the main accusations against Putin is that he murders anyone even slightly critical of himself.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/02/russia-journalist-vladlen-tatarsky-killed-st-petersberg/

  6. Russian propagandist killed in explosion at St Petersburg café. 3 April 2023.

    Russia’s second city of St Petersburg was hit by an explosion in a cafe that killed a well-known ultra-nationalist war correspondent, fighter and propagandist.

    In what appears to be the second assassination on Russian soil since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Vladlen Tatarsky was killed by a bomb hidden inside a statue handed to him during a talk to his supporters.

    Tatarsky, one of the country’s best-known pro-Russian military bloggers, had been giving a talk on his frontline reporting at a bar believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Kremlin’s Wagner mercenary unit leading Russian attacks on Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

    This man was killed by the Ukies for nothing more than his opinions. His death advances their cause not one whit and may actually have brought about the opposite in Russia. The support for it below the line is almost universal, which is rather strange, when one considers that one of the main complaints about Putin is that he murders anyone even slightly critical of himself.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/02/russia-journalist-vladlen-tatarsky-killed-st-petersberg/

  7. Britain is being ripped off by greedy, sewage-dumping water companies

    Although dumping sewage in rivers and the sea is not the most ideal scenario this is a practice that has always happened even when nationalised, I can remember swimming in the sea in the 60s & 70s with richards floating all about and nobody took much notice.
    The tip was not to wear goggles as what you cannot see cannot harm you.

    I just wonder why all the fuss now, we know that the MSM only reports what it wants us to hear, if they are telling us then you can be certain that big rises in the cost of water and restrictions are coming our way, they always have a well prepared excuse.

    1. Hands up any Nottler who does not live within 5 miles of new housing projects,

      That is the cause of our problems, more users, same old systems/infrastructure

  9. 372916+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Ethnicity of grooming gangs cannot be ignored, police told
    Rishi Sunak to launch crackdown amid concerns perpetrators are evading justice because people fear being accused of racism or bigotry

    The bloody GALL of the proven non attentive, non listening,non actionable police “police tell sunak” this odious appeasement has been going on since the first pakistani paedophile touched down courtesy of the bog man.

    They ALL, councils inclusive, I would go as far to say aided & abetted an ongoing crime, whilst childrens lives and futures were totally ruined.

    What has brought this evil issue to the fore? is it the fact that the ballot booth beckons, forerunner to the General Election rhetorical promises, vows, pledges to be made, never to be fulfilled, fodder for fools.

    It still continues today via Dover, paedophile numbers being topped up on a daily basis and it will continue to be with us ALL the while the lab/lib/con mass CONTROLLED immigration, paedophile umbrella coalition party, finds support & votes via the polling booth.

    1. “However, speaking in the Commons in 2015, Sir Keir said: “When I was DPP, I was concerned that there was a cultural inhibition against prosecution in some of the sexual grooming cases, and that was most acute in the Rochdale cases.””
      Golly Gosh. If only we’d listened to him at the time!

      1. 372916+ up ticks,

        Morning Anne,
        Rotherham report ‘reduced me to tears’, says MP who …https://www.theguardian.com › uk-news › aug › rother…
        30 Aug 2014 — ‘ ” Last week, Denis MacShane, the former MP for Rotherham, admitted he might have not done enough about child sexual exploitation by Asian men .

        Rotherham child sex abuse scandal: Labour Home Office to …https://www.independent.co.uk › UK › UK Politics
        31 Aug 2014 — Local MP says former government forced him into ‘grovelling’ apology for voicing concerns on Muslims.

          2. It was a full page opinion piece by MacShane in 2007 that finally caused me to cancel my Telegraph subscription. He was allowed to spout his bolleaux, even after Private Eye had pointed out his chicanery in office. Including passing massive government contracts to his brother, who just happened to keep his Polish name in an attempt to make it look like he’d won the contracts by submitting the best bid.

  10. TV stars scoop Olivier Awards for their theatre debuts. 3 April 2023.

    The ceremony saw stars arrive on a “green carpet” made entirely out of real grass supplied by Yorkshire turf providers specialising in events, as part of a commitment to “making the event net zero carbon”.

    SOLT said the Oliviers were “the first major awards ceremony not to use carpet for our ‘red carpet’ as it is non-recyclable and ends up in landfill”, and its “environmentally friendly green carpet (of grass grown in a bed of felt) will be re-grown and re-used”.

    Information on the net zero plans for the awards stated that all event brochures are recyclable, and star guests are urged to “re-wear outfits, wear sustainable brands, or hire their clothing”.

    I’ll rip up the carpets in the living room and plant some grass!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/02/tv-stars-comer-mescal-scoop-oliver-awards-theatre-debuts/

    1. …real grass supplied by Yorkshire turf providers specialising in events, as part of a commitment to “making the event net zero carbon”.

      There’s virtue signalling and then there’s a level of vomit inducing stupidity. Reduce CO2 by 25% and watch plant life, including grass, reduce by 50%. These people are, like Shapps & Co, clueless and very dangerous.

    2. Yo Minty

      Just stop Hoovering (oops vacuuming) and spread grass seed over your carpets, nature will do the rest and you save on Elektericity!

        2. Oh, give me a home
          where the buffalo roam
          and I’ll show you a house
          with a very messy carpet!

    4. My BLT comment:

      “With the awards in Londonistan and the grass being transported from Yorkshire, what was the CO2 cost in transporting it?

      Virtue-signalling false economy.”

  11. Good morning, all. Clear skies. Sunny – a touch of frost. Looks like it is going to be a nice day.

  12. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Power Cut

    We had a power cut last week and my PC, TV and games console shut down immediately, it was raining- I couldn’t play golf so I talked to my wife for a few hours.

    She seems like a nice person.

      3. “That the truth should be silent I had almost forgot”

        [Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra]

    2. How about a letter to the DT from Nottlers as a virtual round of applause for RH A. Bridgen.
      He more than deserves it.

      1. 372916+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,
        Splendid idea, every little helps as the old lady said when she peed in the Medway.

        There must among us be a person of letters to scribe a letter of support from the combined brain / integrity of those that have been through the time mill.

        1. How about Grizzly. He is known by the DT Letters Dept which appreciates what he writes and publishes his letters?

    1. Really. And the Kennedys and Clintons, Democrats all, left plenty of bodies in their wake.

  17. Good morning all.
    A bright and sunny, but after the clear skies last night, a light frost with a bit below -2°C outside.

    1. Hi Sir J, a very well written article. If only it could be circulated to greater numbers of people. At least it shows that there are a few out there who are still sane and can see the madness for what it is:

      :As a medical doctor specialising in psychiatry, I often interact with patients suffering from gender dysphoria. They have a disproportionately high prevalence of correlated mental health and personality disorders, as well as suicide ideation and completion. While I am fully cognisant of their genuine psychological distress, I do not think the current policy of officially sanctioning their delusions is at all helpful.”

    1. Reading the article, it seems the landlords, some group called “Peabody”, were given ample notice by the neighbours that something was amiss but failed to take any action.

      1. And eventually the terrible smell would have dissipated. Then came the lockdowns.

      1. But did you read how, when her rent stopped being paid, Peabody applied for, and received, housing benefit on her behalf?
        Her rent stopping should have been a warning to them that something was amiss.

        1. Yes – they really should have done better and at least tried to make some enquiries. But she must have already died by then.

    3. And none of her immediate neighbours noticed that she was missing. The smell and flies would have been a clue.
      I say that because around 30 years ago, I worked for a company briefly in north London fitting new door locks and entry systems in blocks of flats similar to those. All the residents had been notified of the work being carried out.
      We knocked at one front door several times there was no answer, looked through the letter box and the smell was appalling and flies were thick. Even some on the outside. We rang the police. A body was found inside.
      The neighbours had no idea.

    1. I used to love singing the Holy Week and Easter hymns when I was in my prep school choir in the 1950s.

      What hymns did other Nottlers have at their weddings?

      Caroline and I had : My Song Is Love Unknown, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind Forgive Our Foolish Ways and Love Divine All Loves Excelling.

  21. Morning all 🙂😉
    Sun poking through the broken cloud. Promising.
    How the French government never miss any opportunity to show their total disregard for the Brits. People with no identity are shoved off on an almost hourly basis from beaches in Calais.
    They turn up and walk ashore here as if nothing has happened.
    People who are landing in France with all forms of identity, even I believe those who are ususing the channel tunnel are delayed for more than 8 hours, just because the French government can do it. How pathetically and relentlessly childish they really are.
    I’m sure the same holdups are not happening in other coastal areas of Europe.

    1. Not another ‘king farewell tour.
      I lost interest in him in the early 70s we my mate and I turned up at the Big Apple in Brighton to see him and he didn’t turn up.
      We had to put up with Status Quo .

        1. 😃😅 that’s a little bit funny.
          We stood at the bar had a couple of pints, over looking the Status Quo head bangers. Went to a restaurant had a steak and drove home.
          At Swiss Cottage on the way to Whetstone, in my black souped up mini with fat tyres, I found my self confronted with the grill of a Roller and the guy got out of his car and kindly and politely pointed out I was in a one way street. Going in the wrong direction. …all good fun at the time.
          By the way I had seen Reggie playing piano in the Long John Baldry band Blues ology. He took his name form Elton Dean the sax player and John Baldry.

  23. Good morning, chums. I slept badly last night. Terrible stomach pains and I just couldn’t get to sleep. Eventually I nodded off at around 6 am and have just got up. Hopefully my morning cuppa and Tom’s joke of the day will wake me up properly. If not, it will be back to bed for me.

    1. Morning Elsie. It sounds like a visit to the doctor would be more productive!

    2. Morning Elsie. It sounds like a visit to the doctor would be more productive!

    3. Hope nothing to bad Elsie, something you ate? Tea, always welcome. No matter how crap you feel there is nothing more uplifting than a cup of good tea. Get better!

    4. Oh for the days when you could buy kaolin and morphine mixture. Banned because it worked.
      Hope you feel better later.

      1. Banned because it worked and was fairly inexpensive.
        This guy was ripped apart by ‘Big Pharma’ because he proved that stomach ulcers could be cured with inexpensive medication.
        But he won his case eventually.
        https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=c6fa314b0d6ea514JmltdHM9MTY4MDQ4MDAwMCZpZ3VpZD0zYjM1ZDdjNi01OGZlLTY1Y2EtMzFkZS1jNTIwNTlkOTY0NjImaW5zaWQ9NTIxMg&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=3b35d7c6-58fe-65ca-31de-c52059d96462&psq=h+pylori+australian+doctor&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvQmFycnlfTWFyc2hhbGw&ntb=1

    5. In our household, the first step in treatment of such is to go & have a massive shit.

  24. Peace in Northern Ireland was achieved without the EU
    Rather than strengthening the Belfast Agreement, Brussels chose to bend and misconstrue its core tenets
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/02/peace-in-northern-ireland-was-achieved-without-the-eu/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    Are the Irish too stupid to understand that they are just used as pawns by the EU?

    In two referenda the Irish voted the wrong way – and each time they were told that if they did not hold a second vote and come up with the right answer they would be punished very heavily financially by the EU.

    And now the Irish people in both the North and the South of the island are being mercilessly manipulated for the EU’s political advantage.

    Maybe the Irish will wake up one day and find that the whole island would be better off as a part of Great Britain and not as an outlying limb of the bullying EU. But maybe they won’t – I am not holding my breath.

    2. Based on the EU shutting down farming, the Irish only have a short while to make up their mind.

    1. There should be a space on the board for a private non NHS work section.

      That is so true. I’ve just sent two accounts (letter and email copy) of my ongoing enforced NHS misery, to my GP. I wont hear back today or maybe not even this week, because I think he’s out of the surgery carrying out his private work.

  27. 372916+ up ticks,

    Braverman: Labour not Fighting Muslim Child Rape Gangs for Fear of Being Called Racist , Fact.

    As is tory (ino) party continuing to take up where labour left off
    as seen currently, purchasing paedophilia via Dover on a daily basis from the french, fact.

    We are witnessing in action a successful lab/lib/con mass controlled immigration / paedophilia umbrella coalition party
    supported via an electoral majority.

    1. Rather agree. The Tories cannot whine when they’re intentionally importing millions of criminals and have done nothing to remove the pakistani muslim paedophiles here.

    1. 32 minutes – too long for me – what is the gist of it? I have skimmed through his Wikipedia entry and the left really don’t like him because he speaks the truth. Wiki doesn’t like him either. We could do with him and others like him in the UK government.

      1. Well, basically he says that Ukraine is forked. Also he talks about the false propaganda in the West. Example. The Russians are taking heavy loses when, he says, it is probably not more than 20 thousand. I would encourage you to listen in that he corrects many false notions concerning this war.

        1. I already know that the press, the western politicians and military are lying through their teeth. He agrees with me then.

        2. The Duran on Rumble esp. Alexander Mercouris have been saying the same thing as Macgregor for months.

          The proxy war in Ukraine is the final fling for the neo-cons, Obama retreads, in the Biden government. Every foreign policy adventure directed by Nuland and company have proven disastrous to the US and its people. The same applies to the UK since we have gone along and joined with much of the lunacy.

  29. ‘Morning All

    Monday Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2faaa87b7738a99f821d33d8e67b07b8b6c53c8dba06e4470b036cdffeed5443.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3e26dc781e9d792c9c56889a1a0b89de53742bde4d7698a470536fe04186fcb.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5779e46cf84c6bcd8c5682aafd92a0a47c4afcfbc8d8e53b4b81cb8c9c4a7aa8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f62dce2735cd642537ef445d2f49173207675b2ee826cb0135d71df6d1d7e25.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95758d6fe93f09d61256e705f4819cd448cc0fe6a3431ef8f44674a6a6a5cc60.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72a3693eb978933b241bf699e0b9c6b0578856bb1ad2deac9adbe713c8f81481.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ae9101f0f8c878e32039444926c432849553f44a91ac54347f04a45272d0d7f.jpg

    2. Like it.
      I see there’s no picture of Africans in Africa… fortunately.

      1. I just wish I could show you the photograph I have from Google earth of the once tidy quiet working class white street I use to live in on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
        If you can, look on Google earth at 59 Hunter Street Judiths Parrl

          1. Yes well done Obs, the house with the gates is were I stayed. The far first floor window through the trees was the bedroom I shared with my old mate John. 1968. Only about a mile from Ellis park stadium. We use to walk down on hot evenings for a swim.
            The house is very spacious and it was well kept by the lady and her family. The road was in decent condition.

          1. Did you see the woman with the kids and the fruit stall ? That’s the house we B&B at for about 8 months.
            Other house were stripped and burnt.
            The closer to town you get the worse the rubbish gets. I often walked back to the house fro town as late as 2am alone.

  31. 372916+ up ticks,

    Politics latest news: Rishi Sunak’s popularity among Tory grassroots surges after migration and Brexit deals

    I believe that to be among the tory (ino) party.

    I believe that among the genuine Tories the surge has been hovering around four, & two of them were found to be illegals.

    ( Brexit is innocent)

    2. If the tino pollsters believe that they’re idiots!

      ETA: Good morning all. Yay the sun has got its hat on …. But there was a ground frost last night!

    3. If the tino pollsters believe that they’re idiots!

      ETA: Good morning all. Yay the sun has got its hat on …. But there was a ground frost last night!

  32. Good grief, what can one say?
    https://www.takimag.com/article/a-big-fat-mess/

    During a recent BBC/Showtime documentary about TV’s funniest rapist Bill Cosby, controversy was sparked by the comments of one of the talking heads, the self-described “superfat queer bisexual non-binary [sex] therapist” Sonalee Rashatwar, who argued that, if only Uncle Bill had made a slight alteration in his alleged modus operandi, all would have been well.
    Famously, Cosby was supposed to have drugged his victims, then climbed aboard while they were unconscious, ostensibly so they would be helpless to resist, but arguably as an act of simple human charity. According to Rashatwar, however, normative Western society’s ingrained sense of “sex negativity” was truly to blame for Cosby’s reported crimes, as “in an idyllically sex-positive world” Bill would have been able to pay prostitutes “to come and be drugged” so he could “get [his] kink out” on them in “a consensual way.” For some unaccountable reason, this suggestion caused outrage amongst certain less progressive-minded viewers, prompting letters of disgusted complaint even from Andrew Tate and Josef Fritzl.
    Please Donut Resuscitate
    Judging by images of Rashatwar on his/her/its (I think Sonalee is a really fat female who adopts male pronouns, but it’s hard to tell) official website, it is easy to see why this aptly named “FatSexTherapist” and professional “donut lover” might approve of the idea of drugging others prior to engaging in sexual intercourse with them. “I’m good at being still and being an anchor for someone,” Rashatwar said in 2019, but judging by the size of her she could make a good anchor for the QE2.

    Only in America?

        1. Sos, there are a lot of arguments going on on British TV regarding the very long waits people are being forced to withstand from crossing the channel to Calais. Some people are adamant that it’s because of Brexit and others are saying it’s the French government being as awkward as they possible can. I wondered, what’s the opinion from your side of the water ?

          1. People on both sides being awkward and travellers not having the correct paperwork.

            Brexit has caused problems, but it’s bureaucratic revenge rather than Brexit itself, there is no real reason why it should be so chaotic. It’s actually very short-sighted on the part of the French, it can only harm their tourist industry as the British are one of their biggest sources of visitors.

          2. Thanks for that Sos, that’s the impression a lot of people have in the UK, except of course for loud mothed left wing journos. I saw one on the TV this morning on Vine, Nina Myskow, she just wouldn’t stop shouting about Brextit. Click and off she went.

  33. My friend the consummate broadcaster K R Bruce made a cracking start on his new radio prog.

    “Ah,” he said, “There you are….last time I played the last track on “Abbey Road”. Well here’s the first….”

    1. It’s nice to have him back – hopefully numbers are plummeting on Radio 2!! And a 39 on Popmaster to get the new show properly started.

  35. Morning all,

    There’s something happening in the US which could well happen in the UK and that is car dealershio marking up also known as price gouging. This is because motor manufacturers are making huge losses trying to sell EVs particulaly after Tesla’s EV price reduction. Ironically car dealers are having to raise prices with mark ups on the recommended manufacturers’ prices to make ends meet.

    This could well detract buyers from purchasing overpriced EVs that dealers want to make money on just because the customer has got to have a car having seen a flashy advert on TV and walks into a dealershio. This video explains what is happening and why Tesla is still managing to sell EVs without having a dealership:

    https://youtu.be/Yg9T9htJ6hI

    With today’s pressure on budgets, EV take up at the rate the Government expects to reach Net Zero will be severely compromised.

  36. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

    Oh? Is that right?

    As The Who warned us, clearly, in their 1971 magnum opus, Won’t Get Fooled Again, nothing ever changes, especially in politics and those with the avowed intent to “lead” us. Out with the old and in with the new is a theory that somehow never makes it into practice.

    Won’t Get Fooled Again.

    We’ll be fighting in the streets
    With our children at our feet
    And the morals that they worship will be gone
    And the men who spurred us on
    Sit in judgment of all wrong
    They decide and the shotgun sings the song

    I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
    Take a bow for the new revolution
    Smile and grin at the change all around
    Pick up my guitar and play
    Just like yesterday
    Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
    We don’t get fooled again

    A change, it had to come
    We knew it all along
    We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
    And the world looks just the same
    And history ain’t changed
    ‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

    I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
    Take a bow for the new revolution
    Smile and grin at the change all around
    Pick up my guitar and play
    Just like yesterday
    Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
    We don’t get fooled again

    I’ll move myself and my family aside
    If we happen to be left half-alive
    I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
    For I know that the hypnotised never lie

    Do you?

    Yeah

    There’s nothing in the street
    Looks any different to me
    And the slogans are effaced, by-the-by
    And the parting on the left
    Is now parting on the right
    And the beards have all grown longer overnight

    I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
    Take a bow for the new revolution
    Smile and grin at the change all around
    Pick up my guitar and play
    Just like yesterday
    Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
    We don’t get fooled again

    Don’t get fooled again

    Yeah

    Meet the new boss …
    Same as the old boss …

    The problem is that we do get fooled again … and again and again and again and again and again … déjà vu, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Voting for a new party means that you will end up voting for the same old, same old. History tells you that. Unfortunately, as a supposedly sentient organism, we serially fail to acknowledge that fact. Stupid is as stupid does.

    “When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?”

    1. People are thick, Richard. They are thick, ignorant, stupid, have immensely short memories, are parochial, frightened, cowardly, dumb and idiotic.

      I always remember a reporter during the second half of the dreadful Blair era interviewing 2 chaps in a pub. Both staunch Labour types. The reporter asked them how they’d be voting. ‘Laybuh! said the Northern fellow.’ Pardy o’t’ werkin’ maaan!’

      The reporter then asked them what they did and when they’d last worked ‘1993.’ Over a decade and a half of unemployment during a Labour government.

      A chum’s wife spends her day sewing. That’s all she does. Not for anyone, not to sell anything, just for her own entertainment. She’s no qualifications, blames the school. Not her own lack of discipline. Has never worked. She’s getting no child benefit, but is down as receiving it so she can claim a full state pension.

      When the welfare system is set against working, when rewards for idleness are free there is no incentive to work. Big government has happily created a welfare class and it loves it, and they love big state. We’re heading for a nasty combination of Idiocracy and 1984.

    3. When I used to teach in a small public school one of my colleagues, a teacher of French and Spanish, was very enthusiastic about the ladies whom he pursued usually with very limited success as he was more the lacklustre lickspittle than the cunning linguist.

      For him the rutting season lasted all year long so we ironically called him The Rutter. One of the Spanish teachers suggested that he might be called El Ruttero.

      1. I had a PE teacher called Rutter. Very short, supremely fit man, strong in’t arm & thick in’t head.

  39. Ethnicity of grooming gangs cannot be ignored, police told
    Rishi Sunak to launch crackdown amid concerns perpetrators are evading justice because people fear being accused of racism or bigotry
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/02/grooming-gangs-ethnicity-political-correctness-rishi-sunak/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    Mark Steyn highlighted this horrible problem of the rape of white girls regularly on GB News. He also highlighted the damage many people have suffered from having had the Covid jabs.

    The result was that Ofcom made complaints to GB News who cravenly sacked Mark Steyn even though what he broadcast was backed up by proper evidence and documentation.

    The problem is clearly not that Mark Steyn lies – the trouble is he tells the wrong sort of truth!

    1. Forced marriage
      Some perpetrators of forced marriage are misogynists. They use forced marriage as a form of control because they believe that women should maintain a certain standard of behaviour, different from men. They believe that women need to be controlled by a man and forcing them to marry means a husband can do that, e.g. ‘She is too wild, she needs a husband to rein her in.’ This enables the ‘man being the head of the house’ belief that misogynists often have and takes away choices from the girl/woman. Not being able to make choices within a relationship can lead to ill mental health and is a form of domestic abuse.

      https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/community_and_living/community_safety__crime_preve/domestic_violence/Tackling-misogyny.aspx#:~:text=Examples%20of%20internalised%20misogyny%3A,is%20to%20be%20a%20mother.

      1. The idea of someone reining in the Warqueen would get them a punch on the nose.

        Although, she dressed for work today and after the 5 minutes of gawping, drolling and dribbling over her I dash upstairs to find a lumpy unflattering very grey turtle necked jumper and plonked her in that.

        Maybe we are weird – well, I certainly am. Maybe I am simply incredibly lucky but my marriage is a partnership. The idea of subjugation of one party is just nuts. As you say, Belle such people don’t want a partner. Thy want ownership

        1. Maybe we are weird dull – well, I certainly am. Maybe I am simply incredibly lucky but my marriage is a partnership. The idea of subjugation of one party is just nuts. – same here, Wibbles. Maybe that’s why this year we celebrate (or otherwise) our 41st aniversary. The concept of “owning” SWMBO is so nuts there aren’t words for it.

          1. Known each other 9 years and married 4 1/2 and we’re a team. Although he frets right now because I am doing the lion’s share because of his limited mobility. He’s doing better and will get there.
            Control within a marriage or any relationship will eventually destroy it.

          2. That’s the fundamental issue really, isn’t it? A dislike of the other carrying all the weight. If there’s no sense of equity in the marriage then there is imbalance, which is a cause of stress.

            Heck, no wonder the state wants to destroy the family.

          3. I’m not allowed to drive for the moment (My God, how frustrating is that?) and SWMBO has to do it all. Makes me feel so uncomfortable, I take her out to dinner frequently, and buy her cakes and the like (I love my woman big…)

        2. Maybe we are weird dull – well, I certainly am. Maybe I am simply incredibly lucky but my marriage is a partnership. The idea of subjugation of one party is just nuts. – same here, Wibbles. Maybe that’s why this year we celebrate (or otherwise) our 41st aniversary. The concept of “owning” SWMBO is so nuts there aren’t words for it.

      2. I dutifully walk one pace behind SWMBO, just in case we encounter a minefield, carrying the Shopping

    2. Mark Steyn is challenging Ofcom on the grounds that all the data he shared came from the government. Of course it’s meant to work in the same way as when footage of BLM riots was aired which clearly showing burning, looting and shooting while the voice-over told us that these were largely peaceful protests. As so often, Orwell comes to mind. ““The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

    2. The Government’s Net Zero legislation has killed the legacy (petrol and diesel) manufacturing industry and now electric vehicles have been made too expensive to buy. There is obviously now no incentive for the Government to introduce a scrappage scheme because the motor industry is doing it for nothing.

      It’s the councils’ loss because people will not be able to park cars in their car parks – not because of removing the cash machines but there will be no cars left to leave there.

      https://www.nationalworld.com/lifestyle/cars/pay-and-display-parking-scrapped-why-councils-are-removing-parking-meters-in-favour-of-smartphone-apps-4076471

    3. The Government’s Net Zero legislation has killed the legacy (petrol and diesel) manufacturing industry and now electric vehicles have been made too expensive to buy. There is obviously now no incentive for the Government to introduce a scrappage scheme because the motor industry is doing it for nothing.

      It’s the councils’ loss because people will not be able to park cars in their car parks – not because of removing the cash machines but there will be no cars left to leave there.

      https://www.nationalworld.com/lifestyle/cars/pay-and-display-parking-scrapped-why-councils-are-removing-parking-meters-in-favour-of-smartphone-apps-4076471

    4. More fallacy from that POS, his father was a London Bus driver. One of my best friends was a London Bus driver with three children, but his then wife worked, they were never short of money.

    1. I wonder if there are Democrats now thinking ‘Hang on. What the hell are we doing here? We call ourselves democrats and yet we are abusing the state to destroy our opponent!’

      There’s always a nutcase contingent of ‘orange man bad’. That’ll never change because some people are simply rabid, but this is wrong – and someone needs to say so.

  43. By the way Godfrey Bloom is 73. Trump is 76. Those who complain about age should ponder the fact that the only people talking sense are old. It is because, we can remember a world that was sane and therefore have sane solutions. The world now runs on lies that the young cannot discern.

    3. That’s true. It’s gratifying too when men such as James Delingpole and Neil Oliver, who are in their 50s, are also aware of what’s happening. Mark Steyn is 63.

      1. I always believe Neil Oliver would be a top notch politician…
        But maybe is too wise to try.

        1. Politics is a snake pit. They may start with good intentions but they soon succumb to the poison.

      2. I think Mark Steyn looks very young for his years. He jokes about wearing a wig – I wonder if he really does.

      3. Yes. I was wondering just where the cut off is with respect to age and remembering a world that was sane. What would you say? I would say around the mid 50 years old.

        1. My elder son is 52 and well aware of what’s going on in the world. He was as sceptical about covid etc as I was. The younger one will be 50 in December and we don’t discuss politics.

  44. Just come in from slitting concrete in one of Firstborn’s barn rooms, prior to beating it with a hammer & removing it – we’re changing the use from sheep accommodation to honey processing. A concrete trough needs removed… and the dust became unbearable, even with goggles and dust mask (I thought the mask had fogged up 🙁 ) so letting it settle whilst washing my mouth out with Polish ale.
    Weirdly, several times, I’m sure I saw a shadow move in the corner of my eye, and the door to the room open – turn around, and nothing, door still shut. Got the feeling of being observed… the next-door farm was on TV 2-3 years ago, as they had a ghost needing to move on, so I wonder if I’m being haunted? Earlier, we felt that the farm was pleased about being worked again, but maybe the trough removal isn’t in the ghosts’s plan (or he made it himself), and so doesn’t approve.
    Back to some hammer & chisel work soon.

    1. We’re convinced our place is haunted. In reality your mind remembers the state of something and as the corner of your eye is the most sensitive to motion (well, not eye, but brain) due to our ancestors looking for danger on the hunt we respond most to change in that region.

      If there’s a lot of dust and what not your brain will play cave man tricks on you to see shapes that aren’t there ‘just in case’ one is a tiger.

      One evening at the gym I was convinced someone was standing in the doorway and each time I looked, the corridor would be empty. No matter how far we advance, the primate still rules us – now hand me a spear!

    5. I had a fright once in CT. Woken up in the wee hours by the sound of someone/thing playing the piano, not very tunefully. Tiptoed downstairs to discover Basil, the cat, walking along the keyboard and thoroughly enjoying himself. Removed him and closed the lid. Mad cat.

  45. Why Russians and Ukrainians wanted Vladlen Tatarsky dead. 3 April 2023.

    After the Russian pro-war blogger was assassinated in St Petersburg, we analyse who could have been behind the bombing.

    As an exercise in sophistry and misdirection it is almost needless to say that like the Baltic Pipeline arguments the article does not arrive at the patently obvious conclusion.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/03/why-russians-and-ukrainians-wanted-vladlen-tartarsky-dead/

    1. What I am finding odd is that no one is pointing out the evil of killing a journalist in a busy restaurant. Did Ukraine do it? Possibly, but doesn’t that paint them as not exactly whiter than white?

      1. Afternoon Wibbles. Like the pipeline and the murder of Darya Dugina everyone knows who is responsible. It just cannot be admitted. Hence this cloud of unknowing that has descended on the MSM!.

      1. Yes it looks like she was a dupe for the Ukrainians. They blew up the statue by remote control!

      2. Yes it looks like she was a dupe for the Ukrainians. They blew up the statue by remote control!

  46. Just back from the Doctor about the lump in my moob. He is referring me for tests at the Oncology Unit. It never rains but it pours.

    1. On the positive side, the doctor is treating it seriously.
      I hope you get a swift appointment.

      It isn’t much comfort, but I had a similar experience many years ago. The lump was removed but left me with a recessed nipple. Every doctor since looks at it strangely until I explain what happened.

      1. Doc said i would hear from them within 7 days and an appointment within 2 weeks of that. I wonder if he has heard about the strikes…

    2. Good luck- I reckon oncology will be my next port of call; dermatology ain’t cutting the mustard.

    3. On the bright side, you actually saw a doctor, and are getting some action.
      Fingers croxed for a good result.

      1. He kept me 20 mins over time last week. He at least apologised. I took my kindle this time but he was on time.

    4. I’m sure you will be fine, Phil, keep up with the positive thinking, we are all behind you…..

      1. Thanks Jill. The Doctor asked if i had anyone to support me and my first thought was Nottle.

    5. I’ve got a lump in front of my right shoulder – doc says it’s a fatty lump and not to worry about it. That was 15 years ago

    1. The French need no excuse to inconvenience us Brits. They were doing it at Dover long before Brexit.

    2. Not sure it’s laziness. I think it’s entirely deliberate. They refuse to accept the result and have fought it all the way. They see this blockage as a good thing – it validates them. That it is their fault is beside the point.

      Doesn’t help that it gives the anti democratic remoaners more ammunition. Having no recourse to punish France for these delays is also disgusting but the state was thinking of how to stay chained, not a future outside of the communist bloc.

      1. As far as I can see, Brexit had no effect on travelling between England anf France, as we were not in Schengen and passport checks are under the Le Touquet agreement which is a bi-lateral agreement between the UK and France,, nothing to do with the EU or Brexit.

  48. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/03/the-ai-disaster-is-already-here-and-we-dont-care/

    were artificial intelligence (AI) a spinning jenny, I’d go at it with an axe. But then I’m a real conservative, and wellbeing is more important to me than economic advantage.

    Err, no, you are not a Conservative as economic advantage – technology – drives mankind forward. Wellbeing is a very socialist term being meaningless and woolly, affected by emotions. If all we were interested in is well being we would never have invented better, more efficient ways of doing things.

    As it is, Ai is nothing to be bothered about. The problem of technology is NOT technology. For every high resolution picture of a hummingbird in slow motion, for every MRI scanner there is the authoritarian abusing the tools to oppress others – ANPR cameras to soak tax revenue, for example. Mankind is not hindered by technology, but by the humans wanting to pervert it.

    Folk argue about the internet but it has done more to bring people together than anything else. They argue that it also brings paedophiles together and yes, it does – because they’re people. It brings morons like Hancock dictating over vaccines to keep the scaremongering up as well. Remove the human from the equation and you solve the problem.

    1. So Disqus facilitates our little community here but the idiot system also made me log in this morning even though I’d never logged out…grrr!

      1. Yes. My disqus auto expander program moved out of the ‘available on all sites’ and stopped working.

        We’re a long way from AI – which is NOT, as some have said, programmed!

  49. R.I.P Ryuichi Sakamoto.

    He wrote the score and starred alongside David Bowie in the 1983 film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

  50. Inquiry into novichok death of Dawn Sturgess to begin in autumn 2024. 3 April 2023

    At a preliminary hearing last month, lawyers for the UK government defended delays in disclosing documents, claiming that substantial redactions were needed to protect sensitive information from the “hostile state that is Russia”.

    The family’s KC, Michael Mansfield, told the hearing that the family would like rolling disclosure, including CCTV of Yulia Skripal allegedly being followed upon her arrival in the UK. He told the court in London that there “must be some material that could be released without sensitivities”.

    Addressing the chair of the inquiry, Lord Hughes, on the disclosure delays, Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: “There’s no hiding from the fact that the disclosure process in this inquiry is taking an exceptionally long time.”

    That should be sufficient time to doctor all the evidence!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/03/novichok-poisoning-dawn-sturgess-death-wiltshire-inquiry-date

    2. I saw that. It is said that there are people in the Appalachians and Blue Ridge mountains that the authorities have no idea about. They don’t register births, deaths or marriages and live in the remote areas of the mountains. They also don’t like intruders.
      There’s another group called the Melungeons whose beginnings are somewhat mysterious.
      Have driven up the start of the Appalachians from Blood Mountain where the trail starts/finishes. There are tracks going off into the hills but no power lines but you can see a pick-up truck or something has been along them. I wouldn’t go exploring up there.

      Edit for misspelling of Melungeon.

      1. And don’t forget the snake handling churches!!! Although I believe there are only one or two left, way down south where WV borders Kentucky and Tennessee.

        1. Pat Conroy touches on some stuff about mountain people in his novels South of Broad and Beach Music. Both very good reads.

          1. Yes, I have thoroughly enjoyed Pat Conroy books, especially as a newcomer to these foreign parts!!! I go back and re-read them when I need something to occupy my brain!

      4. We lived in Norfolk for 12 years and I never came across any of those places.

          1. I think that may be Norfolk VA, Ann but I’m awaiting Johnny’s answer to my question.

            I don’t think Sos’ remark about Norfolk, UK was particularly humorous.

          2. I think that may be Norfolk VA, Ann but I’m awaiting Johnny’s answer to my question.

            I don’t think Sos’ remark about Norfolk, UK was particularly humorous.

    3. That’s not an inbred family. That is the annual convention of the Democratic Party.

      Didn’t you see Joe Biden and ‘Bernie’ Sanders in the background?

    4. When HG worked in the Children’s Hospital in Bradford, probably 40 years ago now, there were plenty of instances of genetic “peculiarities” amongst a certain community well know for its arranged marriages with cousins from their homeland.
      Cause and effect? Who knows but we had our suspicions.
      Of course the off-spring will always need a lot of NHS support.

      2. I can’t verify it but I read once that the Red Injuns have never allowed marriage within the same clan. You’d think if a bunch of illiterate stone age hunter-gatherers could work it out…

        1. I expect that that had as much to do with creating and cementing alliances as recognising any problems of in-breeding.

  53. Back from outing. Excellent nursery garden for plants to replace some killed in the drought/winter.

    Then, two very different churches – North Creake – a Victorian restoration… and South Creake – a very high Anglo-Catholic all statues, monuments etc covered for Lent. Then a ruined Abbey – Creake.

    One of the very few religious foundations NOT to have been Cromwellised. There was a terrible fire and a few years later, virtually all the monks were killed by the plague. The place closed. Very evocative.

    So – to pre-empt my dear NoTTLers, the MR and I have been up the Creakes today!!

    Nice and sunny, too.

  54. Done with slitting concrete for the day. More of it on me than anywhere else. Ugh. Now washed it out of my hair, SWMBO brushed some of it off my clothing (befroe I was allowed in the house), and that’s enough for me today. So another Polish, and feet up.

    1. Beehive #1 shows signs of life. A few bees out, stretching their wings, even though the snow level is above the roof, the snow has melted back from the hive, leaving a funnel of snow with the hive in the centre.. So, at least one hive survived the winter.

        1. Apparently, the first thing a bee does when emerging from the hive in spring is to take a colossal dump… first since October…

  55. BBC1 Red Button News

    Today it appears that Credit Suisse is being sued by investors for reporting irregularities:

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/17/credit-suisse-legal-action-us-investors-banking

    So what’s behind this action?

    Well when UBS took over Credit Suisse recently in somewhat of a hurry it did so whilst writing down Credit Suisse’s AT1 bonds because it did not want to honour the protection that is normally afforded to bonds. It turns out that AT1 bonds were a mechanism contrived during the last big banking meltdown to create the illusion of banks being able to realise their assets when depositors wished to withdraw their investments.

    This is a bit difficult for even bankers to understand so here’s an explanation:

    https://youtu.be/38OmW3vMHvY

    1. That sounds like a remarkably good way for investors to flush whatever money remains to them down the lavatory.
      Where are they hoping to get damages from? You can’t squeeze money out when there’s none left!

      1. Not in the current climate. He’d come out ahead. No. Give it a few years and when he is tried, charged and executed and his estate and wealth dissolved hen we will have won.

        Next after him will be Mandelson, of course.

    2. Every day things get a little worse than yesterday.
      Perhaps they are hoping for an ‘off the record’ punishment.

    3. When he does it again will the judge accept the responsibility for it?

      That child’s life is ruined now and she knows that there is no justice.

      1. As do we all.
        Hope the father & brothers sort it out. Piano wire and lamp-post style.

    4. Where are “The Krays” when you need them

      They certainly would have ‘sorted’ the rapist

  57. And today folks I have a letter from cardio with my proposed appointment, only ten months to wait……….FFS

    3. Good grief. How useless.

      There was an iceberg type sign in the doctor’s surgery. It was ‘all the things Doctor’s do that are not seeing patients’. It had things like staff reviews, care home visits, medication requests, ‘going green’.

      I thought… other businesses do exactly this, and probably more as they don’t get paid unless they produce results. Why should the NHS be any different?

    4. That is dreadful.

      I saw my Doctor this morning and i have an appointment scheduled with the Oncology Unit for the 13th April.

      1. I don’t think any of the workers in the private health sector have been on strike.

  58. Had lunch with the Warqueen. Apparently she’d finished what they expected to be a week’s work in a morning. Give it a month and she’ll be running the place. We had a proper ploughman’s and I’d brought along a still warm lemon drizzle cake. Both dogs enjoyed the sunshine and faffed about. Mongo hovered, doing his ‘Aren’t I sweet and cuddly!’ impression until he had a sausage roll – or four. I spoil him.

    I did, however, leave Woman Hitler (MIL) locked in the house, as she had ‘come for a visit’.

    1. You need to dig a cellar for the MiL. Sound proofed.

      Would you describe the ploughmans lunch for me?

      1. There bread – this crufty warm thing – red onion slices, an absurd cheese that falls apart, a blob of apricot stilton, various chutney’s – she likes a spicy tomato, I like the Garlic Farm sweet ones. I’d made a pork pie – which is really a big sausage roll, if I were honest. Apples and celery bits and my sausage rolls ( I brought 10 along) and some boiled eggs (as they go toward my protein).

        https://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/collections/chutneys-condiments/products/celebration-chutney
        https://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/collections/chutneys-condiments/products/garlic-jam-with-red-chilli

          3. Ah – I see. I have heard of it! I expect you have several freezers. How do you keep up? Records? Reminders? We all know about finding at the bottom of a chest freezer something that had been “overlooked” for several years!

          4. We have two. A chest freezer in my workshop and an upright in the kitchen. I store all my labelled food in the chest freezer: different food types in different boxes within. On top is a small notebook (written in pencil) which tells me the type, location, and date manufactured of all the contents. For example if the second box down at the rear of the freezer contains eight pork pies, I write in the book:
            Pork Pies – – – – – – – –. Each time I take out a pie I erase one of the lines. It’s a tried-and-tested system that works for me.

          7. Most will be eaten by small boy. Any left overs go into a tub for another day. Probably tomorrow.

          11. Ahh, man, you bugger… food porn, especially for those of us deprived of pork pies, either good or bad. :-((
            Firstborn is learning, but yet to produce anything.
            Sigh…

  59. How does New Zealand’s PM not know what a woman is? Spiked 3 April 2023.

    Chris Hipkins was left stunned and speechless when asked to define the word ‘woman’.

    Chris Hipkins, the new prime minister of New Zealand, is the latest politician to have been caught in this trap. At a press conference yesterday, journalist Sean Plunket relayed a recent claim made by UK Labour leader Keir Starmer that 99.9 per cent of women don’t have a penis. ‘How does this government define a woman?’, he asked Hipkins.

    This staggeringly simple question left Hipkins lost for words. ‘I… to be honest… That question’s come slightly out of the left field, for me’, he said. After a long pause, he offered the following definition: ‘The biology, sex, gender… people define themselves. People define their own gender.’

    Another nutter!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/04/03/how-does-new-zealands-pm-not-know-what-a-woman-is/

        1. Not really – each to his/her own………… but I’ll never believe a man can become a woman.

          2. Man: XY chromosomes.
            Woman: XX chromosomes
            How each chooses to dress and behave is up to them.

          5. Yesterday I was asked to fill in an online satisfaction ratings form following a purchase from Apple.
            I filled it in to my satisfaction until it came to the question: What is your gender?
            There was a choice of four boxes to tick: Male, Female, Other, Prefer not to say.
            I simply left the page blank because there was no space, anywhere, for me to say:
            I DO NOT HAVE A ‘GENDER’, I AM NOT A BLOODY NOUN! ASK ME, PROPERLY, WHAT MY SEX IS AND I WILL TELL YOU THAT IT IS NORMAL MALE.

          7. They aren’t and don’t, Jules, but I’m sure you know that. Others don’t, unfortunately.

    3. Another question could be ‘If you were dating a woman and you got to the point where you both wanted to have sex …how would you react to her having a penis’?

      Take your time. I’m here all week.

        1. Lol.

          It’s another question Politicos are uncomfortable with. I think these questions should be asked constantly until they get to an honest answer.

        1. No. He isn’t adventurous enough.

          He is just in the dilemma politicians have made for themselves over Trans rights and though there are a miniscule percentage of Trans they are frightened of negative social media comments. Pathetic really.

      4. Phizzee, we were talking along those lines at a party in London in the 1980s.

        A man said, imagine that you are in a wild party in Hong Kong and someone kneels down (not a politician, obvs), unzips your fly and starts to, you know. And it’s going well, but then suddenly you realise that the service provider ain’t no lady. What would you do?

  60. My dental appointment was interesting .

    The girl who cleaned my teeth originated from Venezuela.. a lovely girl,in her thirties I guess, very talkative .. Her cousins , brothers, sisters and other relatives now live in Britain , mostly either nurses , medics , engineers etc. She worrries about her mother who still lives in Venezuela.

    She says her country has huge difficulties , financial and social, and nearly empty shelves , thanks to Communism .

    From the 1950s to the early 1980s, the Venezuelan economy, which was buoyed by high oil prices, was one of the strongest and most prosperous in South America. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/venezuela-economic-woes-2017-explained/

    https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisis

    To think that Corbyn and his pals supported Communism , and Venezuela ..

    The girl who cleaned my teeth feels fearful for Britain ..

    But you know what, I really believe that is what the Great Reset here is all about.

      1. I have just looked at my mail J, and thank you for writing .

        Moh has sorted things , and paid well below £500 ,

        As usual my investigations mattered not a jot 😊

    3. It’s all about transferring money and power from the ordinary people to those who already have more than enough.

    5. I was at the dentist this morning as well, Belle. I feel as though I have been assaulted, run over by a tank, all shook up. I slept for two hours this afternoon. Two fillings, a gum test (ow!) and I’m done in, I feel as though I’m too old for dental treatment now. It’s all too much.

      The Great Reset (how very Chinese that sounds, straight out of the same stable as their Great Leap Forward) is all about the complete control of our lives and removal of our assets, the transfer of our ‘wealth’ – property and savings – to their very much wealthier élite parasites under the guise of the climate change scam.

      The only way we can fight back is by non-compliance – their next big test of national compliance will be the Major Alert/Warning testing on the 23 April. The next warning after that may possibly come with a message along the lines of “Climate Change Warning: Temperatures will reach 30 C today, do not leave your home under any circumstances. Heavy fines for offenders.” They have already tested our compliance with the lockdowns. If we don’t comply with the demands of the test then they will know that we cannot be reliably controlled in this manner. Such a bloody intrusive cheek! I will be disabling my phone in as many ways possible on that day. My phone is for my convenience and most certainly not for government control.

      1. Well said, Mum, I shall be switching my phone off on St George’s day, 23rd April. I agree with your likening it to CCP in China. Total dictators all around, including our King. WEF ‘Young Leaders’.

          1. That appears to be the objective, Confuse and Comply.

            Damned if I will comply.

        1. Neither did I. I walked out of school the morning of my first two days at just five. I knew then that I detested authority. I didn’t know the name, then, but I certainly understood the feel and what it was from the word go.

          2. Thanks! It’s such an easy thing to do. No sharpening of pitchforks required even!

  61. I see that the bastard who murdered the Liverpool child refused to go into the dock for sentencing. He got minimum 42 years.

    He should have been dragged there.

        1. Then if an offender refuses to appear in court, his/her sentence should be increased – surely it is contempt of court?

          2. Offenders are sometimes sentenced in absentia as, indeed, some people are tried and sentenced in absentia.
            Quite rare but not unheard of.

    2. I believe she was testifying from behind a shield, but the woman who effectively ensured his conviction is extremely brave.
      She’ll now be a target for the rest of her life.

  62. Phillip Schofield’s brother guilty of paedophilia with a young boy! Who would have thought that the ex BBC gay boy had a pervert in the family? Has there ever been another case of perversion in the BBC family? I can’t think of any. . . , . . and why did Schofield ‘come out’ recently? Is there something they aren’t telling us? No! Couldn’t possibly be so with the BBC.

    1. The BBC: PhillipSchofield; Jimmy Savile; Gary Lineker; Rolf Harris; Stuart Hall; Gary Glitter; Jonathan King …

      The gift that keeps on giving. OK, Lineker hasn’t been outed as a nonce … yet …, but he’s still a Grade One BBC twat!

      1. …and who was DPP at the time.

        I can give you a clue; it was the kneeler of the current (supposed) opposition.

  63. Another Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 653 3/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Well done. Another crappy 5 for me.

      Wordle 653 5/6

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

    2. Par for me.
      Wordle 653 4/6

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

  64. That’s me for the day. A really nice one. Excellent outing to see interesting places I lived near for almost 40 years but never visited. All of twelve miles away! Then time in greenhouse. Plus cats. And a similar day – frost then full sun – tomorrow.

    Have a jolly evening prevaricating….

    A demain.

      1. 1. Postpone a decision by confusing the issue;

        2. Proclaim from on high – while exuding white smoke from a bodily orifice.

        1. Looking at a photograph of the current pontificator-in-chief, I suspect it won’t be too long before the white smoke will be pouring forth again.

          1. But will the next Pope be Catholic? I have my doubts about the current one, but – at least – we can rely on bears to continue to defecate in the woods…

    1. That is why I only ever watch sports events between able-bodied male or female athletes. If those who are physically- or mentally-impaired wish to have their own competitions then best of luck to them; however, I have no interest in watching them.

      1. I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the wheelchair rugby. It was very physical and exciting. Oddly enough non disabled athletes can play in the same events on level terms.
        Most of the rest of such sports I take no interest in.

    2. Always thought it was a farce as no disabilities are exactly the same, except perhaps, the totally blind, and even then it would be the blind leading the blind.

      1. I once taught Judo and self defence at a school for blind women and girls.
        They had an instinct for movement that was much better than sighted players.

        1. I know there are cricket matches and such for the blind, using a bell in the ball.

          1. There was a coachload of blind lads on an outing, they stopped at a pub by a village green. The driver said they could have a game of football on the green while he got a bite to eat in the pub. The landlord asked him how the blind lads could play football, he said they had a ball with little bells inside so they could tell where it was. A while later the landlord said to him “You’d better go outside and sort those lads out” Driver asked why, landlord said “Because those lads are kicking the shit out of some Morris Dancers”

      2. I’ve known of blind riders – show jumpers (you have a helper in front of you and you know how many strides you are behind to know when to jump) and blind dressage riders.

  66. Little par 4 today

    Wordle 653 4/6

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

    1. Thanks, Paul. Yesterday was Palm Sunday. The 09.00 service at Wanborough had three attendees – our elderly lay Reader, the PCC secretary (she has the church keys while our long-suffering churchwarden is on an 80 day cruise) and me. On to Puttenham for the 10.30 Communion service. Can’t be certain of numbers, since I played a rather long voluntary at the end. I’m aware that one worshipper escaped before I was able to help her with her problems with BT Digital Voice (don’t ask – this is an entire subject of its own). Maybe a dozen in total. Half of whom were ‘staff’ – i.e. folk who had a specific role to carry out.

      1. Could the catastrophic fall in attendances be something to do with Archbishop Justin Welby, Geoff?

        1. That was the conclusion of one of my RAFA friends at the meeting this morning (he’s got similar clergy problems in his church to mine).

        2. Here at the grass roots, Welby is an irrelevance. Except he pushed a willing Government to close the churches. Result – folk got out of the habit of attending. When they re-opened, the prohibition of singing, the insistence on social distancing, masks, hand sanitiser and the like didn’t help. We still aren’t allowed to take Communion in two parts.

          Wanborough is arguably a special case. It’s a tiny village. The solitary churchwarden is currently away on an 80 day cruise. Several of the regulars were away.

          But I feel I’m working for a moribund organisation. It’s rather depressing…

      3. One of my favourite tracks. The trumpet is so expressive, and the band are so good. Also, the message is good.
        Wish I had some music in me… 🙁

        1. You have! Just have a few nerve tonics and let rip. The shower is a good place to try.
          PS- we all have music in our souls.

      4. There were about a dozen (plus servers – 3 – the celebrant, the donkey and her handlers – 2- and 2 children dressed up who handed out the palm crosses) in the procession into church and more in the pews waiting while we did our circumnavigation.

  68. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11933285/Deni-Todorovi-Non-binary-activist-reveals-struggles-using-public-bathroom-Q-A.html

    Just a suggestion, you attention seeking piece of shit, if you want to dress up, do it in private. If you want to go out on the town, dress as what you really are, a man, and act accordingly.

    A non-binary activist has revealed the taunts still thrown out by cruel trolls and the anxiety and dilemma over choosing a men’s or women’s toilet in public places.
    Deni Todorovič, who recently made headlines when employed by SeaFolly as a swimwear model, gave an insight on ABC’s Q&A on Monday evening into the challenges faced by transgender and non-binary people.
    The author and podcast host explained that the process of choosing a bathroom at a public event such as a concert or a football match, could be complicated and even dangerous for the queer community.

    1. Well, Deni, my advice would be to look between your legs. That will tell you whether you should use the Gents’ or the Ladies’ loo. If you can’t make up your mind, cross your legs, or tie a knot in it.

  69. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f3c23fb7b8b2fea84eaab69e11931e6ef09544efe59833f651da8eec32a2b75.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/afd92e15befa92dc0a6af25d9a5dd7f06792cd99e587d5b0d660446bc0c9fd73.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da579fe3273af0baeb1a81c8ffce322befcaf838561e83a6647eec5675f82a00.jpg Good evening, it’s strange people who keep saying they have Covid when they have a flu or what I used to refer to as “weekend bottle illness” when I missed employees on a Monday.

    1. Biden might think his snub is clever, delighting his leftie base and impressing his Californian pals the Sussexes, but he’s missed the chance to make royal history – and the British public won’t forget his barely concealed hatred towards our great country.

      1. No manners, no matter what he really “thinks” of the U.K. (does he really think?).

      2. To be fair, Presidential security needs would be a potential dampener and distraction.

        I imagine that the US Ambassador would be capable of representing the President and the USA.

        1. It’s amazing really. These most voted for well loved people need rings of steel about them wherever they travel.

      3. Of course Biden hates us but then he hates everything and everyone. The wretch Biden is a nihilist.

        Biden is suffering from advanced dementia. This explains his interludes of total incompetence and the occasional short semblance of civility. The man is evil, always was and always will be, a superficial pretence of a real man, a corpse of a man with zero moral compass and corrupt to the core.

    3. Biden has never shown any interest in Ireland – except to express his hatred of England/ Great Britain.

      His son is a drug-riddled crook; the family has significant financial interests in Ukraine, compromising his interests as POTUS.

      He is of doubtful competence and dubious integrity – and a disgrace to his office.

      1. “The last Chancellor who knew what he was doing”

        Until his German period.

  75. A small point- the only other coronation in fairly recent years was that of HM The Queen. President Eisenhower did not attend.

  76. It gets worse……I had a WhatsApp message from a friend I haven’t been able to get to see recently. He’s also just been diagnosed with AFib. He’s a little bit older than me.
    But I know from previous discussions that he won’t agree that the covid jabs have now caused thousands of elderly people to be affected with cardiac problems.
    We have a great story between us.
    The short version is, we were going through the paper work for me to build an extension on the rear of his cottage. Having signed up, drinking tea on his patio. Chatting about our past lives in London. The subject of cars came up I told him about my souped up black mini.
    He said that he had owned an MGB GT. After he described it, something went click in my head.
    I grabbed a piece of paper and Wrote YYT 6H on it and showed him, he nearly passed out.
    I bought the car from him when he lived in Chelsea. 40 years before. Now he lives a twenty minute walk away.
    Night all.
    I’ve got another brilliant coincidence story as well. Alice Springs was where this one happened. Tmz. 🙃😉
    Slayders.

      1. The other story shows its smaller.
        Oh alright then…….one of my nieces was taking a twelve month working holiday in Oz. She had travelled to the outback town of Alice Springs. On that warm day her and her friend went into a local pub for a couple of coldies.
        They struck up a conversation with some other Pomes on the adjoining table. One of the guys asked where they were from. She said oh Hertfordshire, where he asked. Near St Albans she replied. Yeah but where exactly. So she told him the village she came from. His immediate reaction was……you don’t know (not my real name) Ready Eddy do you ?
        Yes she said he’s my uncle.
        He was Martin who had been my apprentice a few years earlier.
        From Hatfield.

        3. I did a four month exchange withthe Kiwi Army in the late 70s. After out initial welcome (in the bar, natch) our first thing next morning was a briefing, followed by a day off to go into town (Papakura).Four of us jumped in a taxi whcih had just dropped somebofy off and I asked the driver where would be a good place to start in town.
          “Where are you from?”
          “The Uk”
          “I know, whereabouts?”
          “I’m from Birmingham.”
          “Yes, I know – where in Brum?”
          “Small Heath”
          “So am i – H******** Road”
          “That’s at the bottom of our road, *S********* Road”
          So the first civvie I met in NZ was from a few hundred yards from our house. He’d been in NZ since the early 50s.

          Also, my Dad was going, with my brother, to visit his mother’s family. Gets on a train at New Street and strikes up a conversation with another man and asked him where was from.
          “A little place you’ll never have heard of”.
          Dad: “Try me”.
          “Besthorpe in Norfolk”
          Dad: “That’s where we’re going – Mother’s family are from there”.

          On my first work trip to Kazakhstan, the morning after arrival, we were loaded on to a Soviet-era train which Doctor Zhivago would have spurned. Got chatting to another Brit and the inevitable questions begin.
          Me: “Where are you from?”
          “A little place you’ll never have heard of”.
          Me: “Try me”
          “Ulverston in Cumbria”.
          Me: “I must have spent at least two hundred nights staying there when I’ve been working at Barrow gas terminals”.

          1. It’s amazing in the old sense of the word.
            Our next-door neighbour who lives mainly in France comes from JHB. Although I never knew her there, she lived about half a mile from me.

    2. And my fit and active OH who was never ill before the three covid jabs has now even after his triple by pass got a-fib and his heart rate is double what it should be.

      1. M so sorry to hear this. That’s horrible Ellie after all he’s been through. And people are still in denial over the heart problems caused by all those unessesary jabs.

        1. He had two primary Pfizer jabs and one booster. I’m trying to get him to find out from the surgery what his heart rate was like before all this, as he had ECG tests before his hernia surgery and also before the Turp. He was still playing tennis and table tennis last summer and only stopped the tennis due to a pulled achilles tendon. But now with his heart rate double what mine is he can’t do any physical exertion. He probably had none of these tests before the first jabs though. He had the first jab in January 2021. I don’t know how long these things go on causing harm.

          1. It sounds almost the same I my problems.
            We had AZ jabs I refused the booster, I told my GP he agreed in the circumstances I was right and six months later when the second booster became available. He told me that it was up to me to make the decision.
            The Coward.
            We have definitely been subjected to deliberate physical harm. Designed to undermine our immune systems and to provoke established weaknesses.

          2. I think so too. There seems to be a delay before the harm becomes apparent. Othe adverse effects are more immediate. I had no noticeable reactions to my two AZ jabs but I’m not having any boosters.

  78. Going to bed- early start tomorrow as my husband has a hospital appointment which will possibly take most of the day.
    Maybe I will be back tomorrow and maybe I won’t…not much fun around here these days.
    Goodnight.

    2. Sleep well, Ann. I hope all goes well tomorrow for you and your husband.

    3. Sleep well, Ann. I hope all goes well tomorrow for you and your husband.

  79. Evening, all. Britain is being ripped off, alright, but the water companies are the least of our problems.

  80. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk.

    I have to stay in tomorrow, as I have at least 3 deliveries to accept – all to my door.

    Beer, Port and repeat prescriptions. Adieu until then.

  81. Hello any peeps that are still here.
    I’m sorry I’ve been off for so long with no explanation. Thanks to Phizz and Herts, I’ve heard about everyone’s concerns for me. You are all so very kind and caring.

    I’m OK and am pleased to say that I’ve got my mojo back after it went on a trip around the world without me. I’m going to start logging back in again and check what you’ve all been up to while I’ve been away. I hope you’ve all been playing nicely.

    1. Nice to hear from you again, Stormi. I hope all is well with you and just KBO. It’s all we can do under the circumstances, and if we just do that then we have succeeded. Night night and sleep well. We’ll look forward to your logging on again.

    6. Heyup Lass! I believe you’ve been through the mill a bit.
      Welcome back.

    8. Lovely to see you back again and, hopefully, fully refreshed.
      Hopefully see you in a couple of weeks.

  82. Well, that’s it for me for tonight, chums. I wish you all a good and restful sleep. See you all tomorrow.

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