Monday 4 April: Another week and a sponsored Ukrainian refugee family is still stuck

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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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.

640 thoughts on “Monday 4 April: Another week and a sponsored Ukrainian refugee family is still stuck”

          3. I’m trying the diet route not least because so far as I know the medicals staff at the local surgery have not yet returned from India!

          6. I keep a small bucket by my bedside. Going to the loo in the middle of the night is a dangerous escapade for me. I have fallen twice and hurt myself. No feeling in me toes you see.

    2. Good morning, All.
      Wet and breezy here in N Essex at the moment. Replanning my day as I type.

  5. Your consistent and persistent support for Putin makes me puke.

    http://disq.us/p/2o6kyln

    Just a few words about Geoffrey Woollard’s comment yesterday.

    Ad Hominems are the invariable sign of the Troll. No one else indulges in them! I don’t respond to them because experience tells me that there is nothing behind them except ignorance, or perhaps something more sinister, and beside which it would only lead to additional unpleasantness if I pursued it. It is bad enough trying to ferret out the truth from the Miasma of Lies in the MSM without wasting time on futile personal exchanges. I have never posted anything that I knew to be false or deliberately misleading though this does not mean that I may not be in error. If anyone has any serious critiques of my comments I would be happy to explain them or perhaps even admit to a mistake.

    1. Geoffrey seemed to have had his cage thoroughly rattled yesterday. Left him to rant, and the rest of us to decide who was on the better side. But people get all airegated about contraty views – was recently torn a new one by crazed teacher friend for daring to criticise the vax and point out the unfortunate side-effects that some people get. Not helped by questioning her faith in media impartiality, either. She got quite agitated – I fear another friendship has bitten the dust, and there’s precious few left now.

      2. It is unpleasant to be in the minority, but when someone arrives only to post an insult, things are clearly only going to go downhill.

        I think the problem is that the mainstream media version doesn’t really stand up to the smallest investigation (see interesting Twit thread below). It would be easier to discuss a topic like abortion or euthanasia, where although people have different opinions, there are valid arguments on all sides.

        https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah/status/1510530127813398530

        1. “He says “the French, the Germans, the Russians and the Ukrainians signed the Minsk agreements in 2014 but the Ukrainians didn’t respect the agreement during the entire period since. And the Russians were telling us all the time to get them to respect the agreement but we didn’t.”
          And that is true. Literally, within moments after it was signed the Ukrainians came right out and said they would not abide by it. One wonders why they bothered to sign it in the first place. But, again, it is another instant of how disingenuous their “victim” status is. I believe that with the collusion of the Americans the Ukrainians deliberately created this situation in the belief that NATO would enter Ukraine and come to their aid. A naïve belief at best. But apparently Zelenskyy in his mania actually thinks the rest of Europe would risk nuclear Armageddon for his fraudulent county. The ego of an actor living in a fantasy world of good guys and bad guys unaware that he is one of the latter. As are, in this case, the Americans and member countries of NATO.

      3. Recently I have been going out for drinks with three other people from my old company, two of whom I worked closely with. From their conversation I have deduced that all have taken the “vaccine”, leaving me as the outlier. When the “c” word crops up I hold my counsel. I enjoy their company and along with the number of real ales we are discovering in local pubs. My experience with family and other friends has shown me that on the “c” word there is very little, or no, chance of persuading people who have taken the jab that they have made a bad choice. The fear induced by the government and its control of the narrative have caused unnecessary tension between family and friends. Probably deliberately.

        1. Same here, especially when they are going on about how wonderful the vaccines are and how they are looking forward to their fourth (or whatever). I act like dad and keep mum 🙂

      4. When a person is gently challenged becomes angry very quickly it is a sure sign they doubt their own convictions and are afraid.

      5. When the quantity of friends decreases, the quality invariably increases.

    2. The only person I regularly downvote.
      And I downvoted EVERY ONE of his posts yesterday.

      1. Woollard is one of the very few people with whom I try not to interact. Cochrane was another although I think he/she commented under more than one pseudonym.

        1. He never replies to me! I remember him from the DT years ago, but I was posting under a different username then.

  7. Viktor Orban wins fourth term in Hungarian election. 4 April 2022.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has secured a fourth term in office despite being accused of cosying up to Vladimir Putin.

    With 75 per cent of the ballots counted, Mr Orban’s Fidesz-led coalition had won 54.5 per cent of the votes, while a pro-European opposition coalition, United for Hungary, had nearly 34 per cent, according to the National Election Office.

    Good! One wonders if it occurred to the authors that he won, not in spite of cosying up to Vladimir Putin, but because of it!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/03/viktor-orban-looks-set-win-fourth-term-polls-close-hungarian/

  8. Good morning from a dull & damp Derbyshire. A slightly less cold 4½°, but it actually feels colder for some reason!

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    It has taken 40 years for this to come out.  His letter certainly has the ring of truth about it, so   I wonder why he was only an observer at the Board of Enquiry instead of being summoned to give his evidence?  A bit of face-saving perhaps?

    SIR – It saddens me to take issue with two brother officers, but history must not be tampered with by 40-year-old hindsight (Features, April 2).

    Lt-Col (then) Michael Rose should not comment on the findings of the Board of Inquiry (at which I was an observer) on the loss of Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, for he was not in the naval chain of command. Nor was he privy to the decisions that had to be made for the forward deployment of the logistic ships – thanks entirely to the Army’s 5 Brigade allowing itself to be overstretched along the south coast. Indeed, he muddled the overall chain of command through the use of his own communications direct to the UK, thus bypassing the senior commanders in the field under whose command he ostensibly was.

    Lt-Col (then) John Rickett was not on board Sir Galahad on June 8 1982 and thus has no first-hand knowledge of events that fateful morning.

    On my arrival on board, I noticed that Sir Galahad was not only full of vital munitions but was also carrying two companies of the Welsh Guards. I immediately found two guards ­officers and offered them and their men a lift ashore – a mere cable away. This was declined, as they wanted to go to Bluff Cove – where Sir Galahad, a 6,000-ton ship drawing 13ft, simply could not sail.

    They also refused to embark their men in a landing craft half-laden with ammunition. I argued that Sir Galahad was laden with considerably more explosives and that I would take them to Bluff Cove that night, after the bulk of the logistics had been offloaded.

    I emphasised the danger both ships were in and suggested the guardsmen must get ashore for their own safety. Then they could either wait till dusk for their nautical lift to Bluff Cove or walk. They refused to move.

    Astonished at this unprofessional attitude, I gave a firm order to disembark, but they would not accept such an instruction from a Royal Marines major (then the equivalent rank to an Army lieutenant-colonel). Appalled and disgusted, I went ashore to find a more senior army officer. In the meantime, the ammunition and field hospital were disembarked.

    Brigadier Rickett has explained that “problems with the landing craft” were to blame for the guardsmen remaining on board. This is wrong and a lame excuse for his men refusing to get off in the first instance. When they did, at last, decide to go ashore at Fitzroy, the landing craft’s bow ramp suffered a glitch, but this has never affected any offloading from a logistic ship.

    In summary, I would like to quote Maj-Gen Julian Thompson: “Amphibious operations are not an activity suitable for part-time participants.” Therein lies the fundamental cause of so much that did not go quite according to plan during the Falklands campaign.

    Lt-Col Ewen Southby-Tailyour RM
    Commander of the Task Force Landing Craft Squadron, 1982
    Ermington, South Devon

    1. PS I thought I would ask Mr Google about this gentleman. For some strange reason Disgust will not allow me to post the link, so if you are interested just use:

      ‘Lt Col Ewen Southby-Tailyour’.

      It is to his credit that in his letter he makes no reference to ‘the books wot I wrote’.

  10. Minister rules out energy rationing in UK despite Ukraine crisis. 4 April 2022.

    A cabinet minister [Shapp] has rejected calls for the UK to consider rationing energy, as a plan to drastically increase onshore wind power also appeared to be significantly scaled back.

    Shortly to be followed by a U Turn involving Screeching Tyres and Burning Rubber!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/03/minister-rules-out-energy-rationing-in-uk-despite-ukraine-crisis

    1. They are about to ration energy in France, they are just conditioning us through the MSM for it, the old nudge unit again
      All part of the great reset.

    2. Gas is the way forward and cleaner coal. All our gas used to come from coal. it gave us coke as a by product.

    3. Calls to ration energy by whom? They are just getting us accustomed to the idea.

      2. “…three days…” did a senior policeman have to consult an even more senior policeman who had to consult even more senior policeman who had to consult a senior Civil Servant at the Home Office who had to make an appointment to consult the Home Secretary to find out if it was OK to arrest these people who were breaking the law?
        I suppose all those arrested will have been immediately released to go and do it again.

  11. Minister rules out energy rationing in UK despite Ukraine crisis. 4 April 2022.

    A cabinet minister [Shapp] has rejected calls for the UK to consider rationing energy, as a plan to drastically increase onshore wind power also appeared to be significantly scaled back.

    Shortly to be followed by a U Turn involving Screeching Tyres and Burning Rubber!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/03/minister-rules-out-energy-rationing-in-uk-despite-ukraine-crisis

  12. SIR – By all logic and good engineering practice, trebling onshore wind power by erecting thousands of turbines is madness.

    There are many things wrong with wind generation that are given little attention. How many are aware that to get the always quoted nameplate capacity of an onshore wind turbine, there need to be three or four built?

    With conventional plant, nameplate capacity is what you get when required. Renewables are different. Wind gives between 25 and 50 per cent nameplate capacity on average (best offshore), and none of it on demand.

    Solar generation is abysmal, at about 10 per cent, with virtually nothing for the winter months when most power is needed.

    The past two weeks saw very low wind generation, and this must be made up for by an alternative source that is reliable and can be called for at will. This, in the United Kingdom, is gas. However, gas is more than just a backup. It is the backbone of the grid, keeping supply and demand in balance.

    We are told we will transition from gas and retain a reliable and stable grid. This is an impossibility. There is a limit to how much renewable generation output the grid will accept and still function.

    We are running with very little spare real capacity, making the grid quite fragile.

    Iain Reid
    Oswestry, Shropshire

    Far too complicated for most politicians to understand!

    2. You only have to go on holiday somewhere warm to see what a farce solar power in the UK is. Any solar capacity in the UK should be on people’s rooves, not squandering good farm land!

      1. Lots of recent new builds on the Costa Clyde have solar panels fitted as an integral part of the roof. I have no info regarding the ‘output’ from these panels or the longevity.

        The only ‘winners’ may be the window cleaners as their remit is extended to include such rooftop panels. After all, a covering such as that blown in from the Sahara last week must affect such panels.

  13. SIR – Dr Chris Whitehead (Letters, March 31) asks why Britain cannot run small hydroelectric stations.

    There is little hope, to judge by the failure to reinstate Chester’s 500kW hydro plant, which ran from 1913 to 1952.

    The latest farcical idea is to turn the building into a general exhibition centre about low-carbon energy production. Kafkaesque does not begin to describe it.

    Roger Croston
    Christleton, Cheshire

    No comment necessary!

    1. They want stuff to fail. That’s why permission for new reservoirs has repeatedly been refused – they want an excuse to impose water rationing.

    2. Building micro & small scale hydro at every mill site on the River Derwent in Derbyshire and its tributaries could easily replace all the bird choppers that currently blight the county.

  14. SIR – Charles Phillips (Letters, April 2) notes that weather forecasters called the recent chilly spell cowed. As warmer weather comes, it will be referred to as marlder.

    Anne Brown
    Bingley, West Yorkshire

    I’m sure there are plenty more where this came from…

  15. Good Morning all, back from a very pleasant tin tent session and delighted to have been given the opportunity to observe Nominative determinism in action from a letter today:-

    “Longest landlord
    SIR – I am sitting enjoying a pint in the Ship, Portishead. Mine host is the sprightly Vic Long, a fixture here since November 1973. Mark Justin (Letters, March 31), claiming to be the country’s longest-serving publican in the same establishment, is, at only 40 years, an apprentice by comparison, although I suspect he can also pull a good pint.

    Marshall Westley
    Portishead, Somerset”

    I’ve used the Ship occasionally and not only has Vic been there for a long time he’s also about 6′ 10″

  16. A BTL comment that should serve us well in a similar situation!

    W Stevens
    59 MIN AGO
    Val Greaves, 71, and her pregnancy issues a the NHS & Tills.
    A couple of Christmas’s ago I had a few cans and an odd bottle or 2 on the conveyor belt.
    The “girl on the till”, say mid 50s, decided she wanted to to be thorough.
    She asked if I was over 18 (I was 73) to which I replied
    “Funnily enough I was just thinking about the “alcohol age issue” myself, I was just wondering if you might be old enough to be on the checkout that sells alcohol”
    The woman and her colleagues in the other tills laughed at her being caught out – everybody had a smile & I had a few drinks in for family & friends – our own alcohol consumption verges on nil.

  17. UK public do not believe government will tackle crime, documents show. 4 April 2022.

    The public do not believe ministers’ promises to tackle crime, official documents seen by the Guardian show.

    The Home Office documents reveals polling carried out for the government found a high fear of crime, and low confidence much will be done about it.
    The leak reveals the public are not convinced by a series of flagship initiatives by Boris Johnson’s administration on law on order, such as the Beating Crime plan.

    No kidding? Don’t do a survey on the Dover Crossings!

    The planned response to lack of public confidence planned by ministers is not any policy changes, but a public relations campaign to convince voters the government can tackle crime.

    Lol!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/04/uk-public-do-not-believe-government-will-tackle-crime-documents-show

    1. They are actively doing all in their power to increase crime. Clearly tackling drug gangs is not a priority of the roasting tin Tory who adorned the front page of the MoS yesterday.

    2. Ironic that proven means of actually reducing crime have been constantly attacked by Guardianistas as being “excessive” “oppressive” and “RACIST!!!!!”

    3. Does anyone believe anything they say? They blatantly lie, we know they are lying and they must know we know they are lying but they carry on with the charade anyway. I used to have some faith in Jacob Reese Moog. But he has turned out to be as hypocritical as the rest. There are no politicians I would trust, least of all my constituency MP, a pro immigration, pro EU, pro zero energy, millionaire with a millionaire husband pretending to be a Conservative. I fervently hope that during an election cycle she comes to my door so I can give her my opinion of her and the, so called. Conservative Party.

  18. First they de-industrialised us
    Then they de-religioned us.
    Then they de-westernised us.
    Then they de-democratised us
    Then they de-energised us.
    Then they de-horticulturalised us.
    Then they dehumanised us
    Then they de-civilised us.

    I get the feeling that some higher authority has been playing games with us since WW2

        2. Things fell apart (the centre could not hold) when they got rid of grammer schools – they should not of done that!

          Which reminds me, a few years ago I was having a conversation with an American friend about pronunciation. When I said that Americans don’t know how to pronounce the word ‘schedule’ he replied – “Sorry Richard, I never went to a proper shool.”

          2. That’s the usual American fall-back, here is something to tease (teach) them with:

            Homographs

            Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning. A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.

            You think English is easy? I think a retired English teacher was bored…THIS IS GREAT! It obviously took a lot of work to put together!

            1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

            2) The farm was used to produce produce.

            3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

            4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

            5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

            6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

            7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

            8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

            9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

            10) I did not object to the object.

            11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

            12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

            13) They were too close to the door to close it.

            14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

            15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer.

            16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

            17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

            18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

            19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

            20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

          3. There is a slightly different slant here….. “The notable surgeon was not able to operate because he had no table

          4. Good morning, Rastus.

            I’ve just had an illuminating perusal of The Chambers Dictionary and discovered that there are as many sch… words that are pronounced as “sk” as there are “sh” (school is sko͞ol in English pronunciation, never sho͞ol).

            In addition, the section on schedule is very interesting:

            schedule shed’ ūl or (esp US) sked’ ūl, formerly (as in Shakesp) scedule sed’ ūl, n …

            What is your scedule today, my friend?

    3. Then they de-horticulturalised us.
      Then they dehumanised us
      Then they dehyphenated us

    1. Utter rubbish, but clearly they are coming for meat next, probably with the excuse that wheat is too expensive, so meat must be rationed.

      1. And rationed by smart phone and digital identity. When ‘they’ tried to introduce this by vaccine passport, vaccination was first on the list. Trying again under a new name, digital identity, vaccination will be last on their list, but that is the way they will get the refuseniks. We will be wiped out of social existence. Access to fuel, food, bank accounts, health – everything we take for granted – will be denied.

        Yesterday I met some ladies with whom I worked for coffee. I also wanted to repay a debt to a friend who had paid for me last time, 18 months ago. I offered cash which was refused ‘we’re card only now’. I pointed out that it was legal tender. She repeated ‘card only and we have been since the start of the lockdowns’. You can see where this is going. Once cash is gone there will be complete control. Had I not been with friends, and offering to pay for one of them, I would have walked out. Businesses need to see that this is not acceptable; that they are, however unwittingly, part of the problem.

        During the course of conversation I discovered that one person had had a heart attack at the age of 47 in December had died, another had developed non-Hodgkinson’s lymphoma and another had come down with sciatica. Yet another in our group had bowel cancer. There was also another casualty but I can’t remember what it was. All within the same time frame. I know of two others who have developed sciatica post-vaccination.

        1. Up til now I have managed to boycott businesses that don’t accept cash, but there are always the situations where it’s hard to do so. How very annoying!
          I dread the increased cancer rates. 🙁

        2. I know it’s a matter of principle, but just use the card and stop fussing.
          ‘Card only’ quietly the underclasses, a bit like high prices keeping the riffraff out of Waitrose.

          2. I used hardly any cash during the lockdown years – but since then I’ve gone back to using cash here and there – at table tennis on Saturdays, Music Society yesterday for the programme, raffle and wine……. so I draw some out of the machine every few weeks, even though I mostly pay for things by card.

            If we can ever get back to running the hedgehog stall at events again, it’s essential that people have cash to spend as we have no card facility.

            I did ask someone on a market stall how they manage to use a card payment facility – but the transaction charges look as though they would wipe out any profit we might make.

          3. We have to keep cash going. We have to make a stand. How do we teach children about money otherwise? They will think it comes out of the air. I certainly think twice before buying/spending when I have to hand over cash.

          5. With a card payment you have a record of who paid when and where and what was bought. Cash is much more anonymous.

        3. Shingles is another ailment that seems to be brought on by the vaccines. We both know how nasty that can be. I did accept shingles vaccine last summer as I don’t want to get that again.

          1. 1 jab and it’s sorted, unlike the Covid ‘vaccine’ (gene therapy) 5 jabs and you’ll need more and may still catch the bug.

    3. I sometime wonder if the problems caused by cigarettes were caused by the additives that make tobacco burn smoothly and gently, and not by the tobacco itself.

      1. When you quit smoking cigarettes and start using an e-cigarette (vaping) you quickly find, that all you were addicted to was the nicotine which the e-cigarette dispenses in puff of water vapour and you still get all the other sensations of the old cigarette smoking.

        Take it from one who gave up on cigarettes in March 2017 but has satisfied the nicotine craving for five years by vaping.

        1. Well, not quite. You do not get sensation of pleasure and superiority one got from opening a packet of du Maurier or Sullivan Powell No1 Turkish and offering them round to those who smoked Embassy!

      2. The addition of salt petre to tailor made cigarettes ensures that they burn even when not drawn upon. Roll your owns are a much better smoke, particularly if you add a slice of apple to the pouch!

      3. The addition of salt petre to tailor made cigarettes ensures that they burn even when not drawn upon. Roll your owns are a much better smoke, particularly if you add a slice of apple to the pouch!

      1. Eating meat ‘is just as harmful as tobacco and fossil fuels’.
        By Joe Pinkstone
        Science Correspondent.

        BRITISH farmers and scientists are embroiled in a row after a group of academics said that the harm caused by the meat industry is comparable to that from alcohol, tobacco and fossil fuels.
        Such comparisons “make no sense” and are “reckless and unjustified”, farmers say, who maintain that meat can play a role in improving both human and environmental health.

        Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) published a first-of-its-kind study looking at how six farming organisations in the UK portray the sector.
        The scientists claim the industry may be attempting to minimise the impact of farming in the minds of the public.

        Dr Kathryn Clare, lead author from LSHTM, said: “There is evidence to suggest that current consumption trends of red and processed meat are a threat to both human health and the health of the planet and this is increasingly being recognised in UK policy spheres.
        “[These] findings should act as a call to action for greater scrutiny of the industry, as addressing people’s appetite for meat will be crucial to efforts to avert climate breakdown and improve public health,” added Dr James Milner, senior author from LSHTM.

        Tom Bradshaw, deputy president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “It is reckless and unjustified [to] compare the UK livestock sector with tobacco and fossil fuels, where there is a strong scientific consensus about harm to human health and the environment.”
        He added: “When customers purchase British red meat products, they are buying sustainable, local food, often raised in areas where it is difficult to grow other foods.”

        1. I have canine teeth for tearing meat. It’s the way humans have evolved. I don’t have a huge appendix or caecum to process vegetable matter.

      2. Eating meat ‘is just as harmful as tobacco and fossil fuels’.
        By Joe Pinkstone
        Science Correspondent.

        BRITISH farmers and scientists are embroiled in a row after a group of academics said that the harm caused by the meat industry is comparable to that from alcohol, tobacco and fossil fuels.
        Such comparisons “make no sense” and are “reckless and unjustified”, farmers say, who maintain that meat can play a role in improving both human and environmental health.

        Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) published a first-of-its-kind study looking at how six farming organisations in the UK portray the sector.
        The scientists claim the industry may be attempting to minimise the impact of farming in the minds of the public.

        Dr Kathryn Clare, lead author from LSHTM, said: “There is evidence to suggest that current consumption trends of red and processed meat are a threat to both human health and the health of the planet and this is increasingly being recognised in UK policy spheres.
        “[These] findings should act as a call to action for greater scrutiny of the industry, as addressing people’s appetite for meat will be crucial to efforts to avert climate breakdown and improve public health,” added Dr James Milner, senior author from LSHTM.

        Tom Bradshaw, deputy president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “It is reckless and unjustified [to] compare the UK livestock sector with tobacco and fossil fuels, where there is a strong scientific consensus about harm to human health and the environment.”
        He added: “When customers purchase British red meat products, they are buying sustainable, local food, often raised in areas where it is difficult to grow other foods.”

      1. D.T. It will be a cold day in hell before you catch me reading The Guardian or The Daily Mail.

  20. Good morning, my friends

    Cold and frosty.

    We have been warned by EDF that the cold weather could lead to power cuts so we must be good responsible citoyens and cut back on our electricity use. Oh, dear – in spite of France having more nuclear power stations than anyone else there is a possibility that the lights will go out. Grande peur parmi les singes en laiton. (The brass monkeys are terribly frightened!)

    When Macron first came to power he decided to cut back dramatically on nuclear power stations which has meant that they have not been properly maintained and now over half of them are out of action. Macron has had to do a U turn on his desire to get rid of nuclear power and new projects have been announced – but it may be too late because the War in the Ukraine has had a dramatic effect on energy supplies throughout the Europe.

    And yesterday we read that Boris and Carrie are determined to have even more useless wind generators put up in order to fulfil their evil and futile lust to destroy the few unruined views of the English countryside that still remain.

    How do we let such nasty incompetents get into positions of power?

      1. 351844+ up ticks,
        Morning B3
        I do believe most strongly you are on the right track.

  22. Good morning all. A lot of the headline letters are about the bureacractic difficulties of Ukrainian families coming to the UK. Perhaps they should simply head to France and find a nice man with a dinghy?

    I find it strange for that years we have been unable to stop an invasion of what are clearly just young men on the make, but when women and children fleeing war need our help we make them jump through hoops. Perhaps, it is because our immigration policy is not really about helping those in need, but some other agenda entirely?

    1. Islamophobia is not the problem – Islamophilia is!
      (The fact that the spell check on my computer allows the first but not the second makes the point!)

      Why is the Opposition not prepared to tackle this issue? They are just as tainted by Islamophilia as the government is.

      1. Morning Richard.
        Yesterday on the BBC they were showing live the ladies university boat race. It was hideously white, even the wake and the resulting splash from the oars was white. So much so that the BBC had arranged for a ‘bame’ interviewer to talk to the cox’s and some of the crew members after the event. Then up their stupid little pathetic tricks the BBC slipped in some footage of some school girls on rowing machines, supposedly training for an event which was really and quite obviously a propaganda exercise. Oh, why am i telling this addition to the storey ? All the girls were either black asian and or islamic. Not one white girl to be seen.
        But well done Cambridge.
        And a reversal in the men’s with Oxford winning. Not to the taste of the BBC I expect, also far too hideously white.

        1. Fewer ethnics get to Cambridge or Oxford. You get some Indians and a lot of foreign students, but the home grown ethnics don’t.

          There’s endless initiatives to push more in, over and above competence but then you get the truly tiresome whinging fools blithering on about Rhodes.

          1. That’s probably why good old Clive Myrie is the chair of BBC quiz shows Mastermind and Celebrity Mastermind. It keeps the count going.

    2. The government needs them for a job to do on their behalf. It is a job that a certain sector of our young men will not do. Women and children are not required for this job. And they would get in the way. The endgame is nigh upon us.

  24. 351844+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 4 April: Another week and a sponsored Ukrainian refugee family is still stuck

    Why have they not been routed via calais
    on the government sponsored RNLI importing illegals campaign ? no problem in that department.

  26. A boring four today. Mind you, I did get it within about a minute and a half. I think Wordle should give the time taken to complete aswell. Often, I’ve got the answer in three but it has taken ten minutes of thinking. I’ve also got the answer in twos and ones but I think anything under three is luck.

    Wordle 289 4/6

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

    1. When I started with that “modern-day obsession”, the week before last, I scored a three and a four. Since those heady days I have had a succession of fives and sixes. At least my “100%” tag is still alive.

      So far!

      1. Wordle 289 5/6

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

      2. I’m mostly threes and fours, occasional fives and sixes veering westerly. One DNF.

    2. Wordle 289 3/6

      🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      Happy with a 3 today.

  28. SIR – As a retired British police officer I find the headline, Police ‘should be able to work from home’ (report, April 3) a little more than disturbing.

    Time was when police forces were run on military precision and discipline by people who possessed intelligence, knowledge and skill. It seems that the continual and incessant infiltration by the Common Purpose faction is intent on destroying Sir Robert Peel’s original and unimprovable concept and replacing the force with a disservice that is beyond a joke.

    When clueless clowns are elected to power, they install other clowns and halfwits into positions of influence throughout society. There is then little hope left for what was once lauded as civilisation.

    A Grizzly B

    I think todays failed (unpublished) missive to the DT was a bit too raw, unpalatable and near-the-bone for the letters’ editor of a globalist MSM broadsheet.

    1. Nice one Grizz, but any reference to Common Purpose is an automatic detention!

    2. Police officers used to work from home – they were called ‘local police stations’, where they lived and slept. Well, at least in rural communities.

  29. Another courageous aviator leaves us:

    Flight Lieutenant Douglas Coxell, police motorcyclist turned pilot who towed gliders and dropped troops around D-Day – obituary

    After the Second World War Coxell trained new pilots and flew VIPs including royal families and other heads of state

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    3 April 2022 • 11:58am

    Flight Lieutenant Douglas Coxell, who has died aged 100, towed gliders and dropped parachute troops on the three great airborne operations in north-west Europe during the Second World War.

    He flew Albermarle bombers, converted to tow gliders, with 297 Squadron. After dropping supplies to the French Resistance, the squadron began intensive training on glider towing and parachute drops in preparation for the D-Day landings.

    Coxell took off just before midnight and at 1.00am on June 6 1944 dropped Pathfinder parachutists on Drop Zone “N” near Ranville in the vicinity of the Orne Canal and River bridges. On a second sortie that day at 9pm he returned to the same drop zone towing a Horsa glider carrying reinforcements.

    After a number of further supply drops to the French Resistance, the squadron moved to Manston in Kent. On September 17, Operation Market Garden began, the capture of the bridge at Arnhem, and Coxell took off with a Horsa glider in tow, which was released just west of the city. The following day he returned to drop supplies to the airborne forces.

    After the Arnhem operations, the squadron received Halifax bombers which had been modified to tow gliders and drop paratroops and supplies. Coxell dropped arms and personnel to the Resistance movements in Norway and in France. On March 23, he took part in his third major airborne operation, Operation Varsity, the crossing of the River Rhine, when he towed a Horsa glider and released it near Wesel.

    On April 26 1945 he completed his 20th and last operational sortie, which was a supply drop in a remote valley in what is now the Hardanger National Park, in the Telemark region of Norway.

    On the May 9 1945, the day after VE Day, he landed at Gardermoen airfield near Oslo with a contingent of the 1st Airborne Division to accept the surrender of the German garrison at the airfield and subsequently all German forces in Norway. He was Mentioned in Despatches.

    Douglas John Coxell was born on August 12 1921 in a village near Peterborough. After attending Old Fletton School, he joined the Huntingdonshire police force, where he was a motorcyclist. Although in a reserved occupation, he volunteered to join the RAF in March 1942.

    After completing his elementary flying training as a pilot he sailed on the Queen Mary for Canada. On arrival he travelled by train to Terrell, near Dallas in Texas, where he trained at No 1 British Flying Training School.

    He graduated in May 1943, when he was commissioned. On return to England he converted to the Albermarle aircraft, an unsuccessful bomber, which was transferred to the new 38 (Transport) Group to support airborne operations. He joined 297 Squadron based in the New Forest and flew his first operation on March 11 1944, carrying supplies for SOE. But there was no reception committee, and he had to return with his stores.

    Coxell was released from the RAF in September 1945, and he returned to the police force. He also joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and did weekend flying on Tiger Moths and Chipmunks at Cambridge.

    In December 1952 he re-joined the RAF and over the next few years was a flying instructor, initially on piston-engine aircraft before converting to jets in 1954 and instructing on the Vampire.

    In 1959 he left for a loan appointment with the Royal Malayan Air Force to train pilots on the Chipmunk. After six months, he led a ferry flight of three new Twin Pioneer light-transport aircraft from Prestwick to Kuala Lumpur.

    The flight was completed in short stage lengths of no more than four hours at 95 knots, routing through France, the Middle East, India and Thailand. Each aircraft was airborne for 71 hours and the aircraft arrived in Malaya on schedule 14 days after leaving Scotland.

    Coxell became qualified as a VIP pilot, flying royal families and other heads of state. In June 1962 there was a visit by the King and Queen of Thailand. On a visit to the Cameron Highlands, accompanied by the Malayan royal family, there was some confusion over travel arrangements. In the event, Coxell carried both royal groups to the small 300-yard landing strip at Temerloh. He later commented: “I had on board two kings and queens, two prime ministers and two chiefs of staff.”

    After three years he returned to England where he became the personal pilot to the Air Commander-in-Chief of Technical Training Command, Air Marshal Sir William Coles.

    In March 1968 Coxell took early retirement to join the Alderney-based Aurigny Air Services, ending up as chief training captain and, in 1976, flight operations manager. The engineering base was with Anglo Normandy Aviation in Guernsey, an associate company of Aurigny, and he moved there in 1976, becoming a co-director of Anglo Normandy.

    After 18 years’ flying Islanders, Trislanders and Twin Otters around the Channel Islands and adjacent coasts of France and England, Coxell was obliged to retire from public transport flying aged 65, on December 21 1986. However, he managed to fly until he was 86, as training captain for the Channel Islands Air Search, only hanging up his cap when he could no longer be insured.

    He was invited back to celebrate Liberation Day in Oslo on many occasions and in 2021 was given a Norwegian Medal of Honour by the Norwegian defence attaché on behalf of the King of Norway. In 2019 he appointed to the Legion of Honour by the French government.

    A keen sailor, he owned a number of yachts and sailed the French coast and around the Channel Islands.

    Douglas Coxell is survived by his second wife Jan and by two daughters from his first marriage, together with a stepson and stepdaughter.

    Douglas Coxell, born August 12 1921, died March 10 2022

  30. We are very grateful for the generosity of all our members and donors. Your support will help turn the tide against cancel culture.

    Member’s ‘non-crime hate incident’ record deleted by police

    We’ve succeeded in getting a ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI) permanently deleted from the police record of one of our members, thanks to Harry Miller’s victory in the Court of Appeal. This is a major victory because if we can do it once, we can do it again. The member, who we are not naming, had a nonsensical NCHI recorded against him which could have barred from him working with children or vulnerable adults. We wrote to the local police force on his behalf and the record has now been removed for good.

    Our member said: “Without the help of the FSU I would not have cleared this injustice. I really am so grateful.”

    If you think you have an NCHI recorded against you, take a look at our FAQs on how to find out if you really do and, if so, how to get it deleted. If you are a member, our case team will be happy to assist. You can reach them on help@freespeechunion.org.

    Government throws out plans to censure un-woke MPs

    The Government heeded our recommendations in response to Labour MP Chris Bryant’s proposal to add “respect” to the Parliamentary Code and compel MPs to “demonstrate anti-discriminatory attitudes and behaviours through the promotion of anti-racism, inclusion and diversity”. The Government’s response to the consultation, based closely on our submission, said:

    Whilst the Government does not consider it necessary to adjust the descriptors specifically in relation to Members of Parliament (or the Lords), we think it is of overarching importance to emphasise tolerance of different viewpoints and protect free debate when considering any changes.

    We would not want to stifle legitimate debate on politically contentious issues which are important to our democracy – as an indirect consequence of the proposed new requirement for ‘anti-discriminatory attitudes’ or demonstrating ‘inclusion and diversity’. This could have a chilling effect on free speech on contentious and polarised political issues.

    Guido Fawkes, commenting on the centrality of free speech in the Government’s response, said: “This point is something supported by the Free Speech Union, who submitted evidence as part of the consultation arguing against adding the ‘respect’ principle, which would ‘attempt to regulate’ the ‘attitudes’ of MPs, i.e., their views and opinions.”

    New online regime promises era of chilling censorship

    We are deeply alarmed by the Online Safety Bill, which seeks to prohibit ‘legal but harmful’ speech online. In our press release, we said: “This is an affront to democracy and we will be working closely with our allies across Parliament to help the Government improve the Bill.” Our Chief Legal Counsel Bryn Harris observed that “a government cannot protect free expression while also trying to prohibit harmful speech” in Conservative Home. Our Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs Jennifer Powers said in UnHerd that the “Online Safety Bill is being brought before Parliament with the best of intentions” but “it remains an awful Bill”.

    In the Telegraph, our Advisory Council member Juliet Samuel described the Bill as “a charter for censoring the entire internet” and said:

    It may be true, as the Government tells its MPs, that the worst aspects of the bill are being watered down – not least due to arguments made by a small army of free speech advocates (including the Free Speech Union, whose advisory board I serve on). But even with adjustments, the legislation is still primed to send the repressive instincts of the tech companies into overdrive.

    Guido Fawkes noted that “the Bill has managed to unite Toby Young’s Free Speech Union, gender critical feminists, LGBT groups, and the churches in opposition”. And in the Spectator, I set out how we’d like to amend the Bill:

    So what me and my lot have been lobbying for – so far, to no avail – is as follows. First, we’d like to see a free speech duty included in the bill whereby providers are legally obliged to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the right to freedom of expression is not unduly infringed by excessive measures taken to comply with the duties of care under the bill or the social media companies’ own terms and conditions. Second, a requirement for each provider to publish a policy setting out how it will comply with this free speech duty.

    Failing this, we’d at least like the ‘have regard [for free speech]’ language to be beefed up to ‘have particular regard’.

    No-platforming of Helen Joyce

    The journalist Helen Joyce, author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, was no-platformed by the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital after trans rights activists objected to her presence on a panel at a one-day NHS conference about the treatment of children with gender dysphoria. (You can read about that episode in the Telegraph.) We’ve written to the Chief Executive of the Hospital asking him to apologise to Dr Joyce and re-arrange for her to speak. If he responds, we’ll publish his reply beneath our letter.

    Meanwhile, the FSU was one of several organisations to criticise the Government’s proposal to pass a law banning conversion therapy and, collectively, we appear to have prompted the Prime Minister to think again. (You can read our response to the consultation about the proposed ban here.) In essence, the problem with the new law is that ‘conversion therapy’ isn’t properly defined which means the ban could extend to referring children suffering from gender dysphoria to therapists – anything other than affirming their self-diagnosis, and encouraging them to undergo irreversible medical procedures, could become unlawful. After initially saying it would ditch the proposal, the Government is now saying it will press on with the ban but carve out an exception for the treatment of transgender people.

    Our call for an independent inquiry into harassment of gender critical academics at Cardiff

    We’ve been helping a group of academics at Cardiff who’ve been victimised and threatened by transactivists for asking the University to review its membership of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme. Cardiff has failed to take appropriate action, despite threats of violence against these academics, and has even misplaced evidence relating to the case.

    We wrote to Cardiff’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Colin Riordan, and urged him to set up an independent inquiry into the University’s failure to properly investigate the matter. We also presented new evidence of continuing efforts to threaten and intimidate our members at Cardiff. In his reply, Professor Riordan rejected our call for an investigation, claiming the protests and the threats didn’t take place on campus. We have responded in detail, correcting his misunderstandings and urging him to think again. You can read that correspondence here.

    Freedom of Speech Bill to be carried over into next parliamentary session

    Good news about the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill we campaigned for: the Government has arranged for a Carry Over motion for the Bill on 25th April, meaning it will not be lost and instead carried over into the next parliamentary session, at which point it should become law. We were concerned that the Bill, which had its first reading in the House of Commons in May 2021, had lost momentum, but the Government is determined to see it through.

    Help us challenge indoctrination in schools

    Nadhim Zahawi seems to be taking woke indoctrination in schools seriously, following our success in pushing for guidance to be published on the importance of political impartiality in schools. He told the Conservative Party Conference that this was a “complaint I’m hearing more and more” and that some teachers were “keen to either shut down free speech, or to only present one side of an opinion”.

    We gave evidence to the Department for Education demonstrating the extent of the problem. We’re currently looking for further examples of politically biased teaching in schools, so if you have any concerns please contact us on info@freespeechunion.org. In addition, if you have come across examples of teachers or schools invoking the concept of ‘respect’ to stifle criticism of different faiths or beliefs, or to shut down debate, please send them to us as well.

    Worcester College’s apology for hosting Christian conference

    We’ve written again to David Isaac, the Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, asking him to retract his apology to students after they complained about the use of College facilities by the Wilberforce Academy, a summer school run by Christian Concern. In addition, we urged him to withdraw the ban he imposed on further bookings by the Academy.

    Isaac apologised last year – and announced the ban – after students accused the attendees of the three-day event of “aggressive leafleting” and other misdemeanours, but an independent investigation carried out by a charity lawyer has found no evidence to support these allegations. You can read our letter here and a report in the Telegraph about the episode here.

    Our appeal to the Equality and Human Rights Commission after Nottingham withdraws honour for race report author Tony Sewell

    We have lodged a complaint with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and written to Nottingham University after it withdrew its offer of an honorary degree to Tony Sewell on the basis that Dr Sewell is the subject of “political controversy”. Sewell, who chaired the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, had received criticism and abuse when the Commission published its report last year because it concluded that British society, while far from being free of racism, is not “institutionally racist”.

    We identified a number of people to whom Nottingham has awarded honorary doctorates in spite of being embroiled in political controversy – for instance, the former Chinese Ambassador to Britain who dismissed reports of Uighurs being interned in prison camps in China as “fake news” – and asked whether the University discriminated against Sewell because he holds “views which, in the minds of some, black people ought not to hold”. You can read more about our complaint in the Mail on Sunday here.

    Ousted from counter-extremism think tank for warning about far-left extremism

    This month we’ve helped people from all walks of life – NHS staff, scientists, students, teachers – with cases ranging from people being kicked off social media for questioning trans ideology, to members losing their jobs and livelihoods for comments made outside of work. People contact us every week who never imagined they’d need our support. Help us to help them: if you can, please donate to our general fighting fund.

    One FSU member we’ve been supporting is Craig McCann, formerly of the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right. He wrote in an article earlier this year:

    I am increasingly concerned at the rate at which the so-called ‘CVE field’ [countering violent extremism] is being infiltrated by activists describing themselves as ‘Anti-Fascists’ who advocate for committing criminal offences in furtherance of their opposition to the radical right.

    The response to his piece was a whirlwind of abuse, the resignation of the think tank’s Director, and the expulsion of Dr McCann. He only found out about the expulsion from friends; nobody from the think tank bothered to contact him to notify him or offer an explanation. You can read his account of this deeply troubling case in Quillette.

    Only a small proportion of our cases can ever be reported publicly, but we’ve had some important successes in recent weeks that I hope to share with you shortly.

    FSU Chairman Nigel Biggar triumphs in campaign to protect Rustat memorial at Jesus College

    Congratulation to our Chairman Nigel Biggar who successfully campaigned along with others to retain a seventeenth-century memorial at Jesus College, Cambridge to its benefactor Tobias Rustat, who had some financial involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The Diocese of Ely ruled that the memorial should remain at the College and said that activists seeking the memorial’s removal had created a “false narrative” about the extent of Rustat’s involvement in slavery. You can read a great piece by Dominic Sandbrook on the Rustat affair here and an article in the Times about it by Professor Biggar here.

    Members-only event: Why Free Speech Matters

    Please join us for a members’ event on 21st April in Edinburgh where internationally renowned free speech advocate and author Jacob Mchangama will be introducing his highly acclaimed new book, Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to Social Media. I’ll be hosting the event – read my review of Jacob’s book in the Spectator here. Jacob and I will be joined by a distinguished panel to discuss the importance of free speech and how it can be defended today. Tickets can be booked here.

    Free Speech Nation with Andrew Doyle: audience invitation

    FSU members and subscribers are invited by comedian and FSU Advisory Council member Andrew Doyle to join the live audience of his television show, Free Speech Nation, broadcast on GB News on Sunday evenings. Sign up for free tickets here – go to ‘Current Shows’ and scroll down for Free Speech Nation. Meanwhile, please check out the recording of my recent conversation with Andrew Doyle on our YouTube channel (and subscribe to the channel).

    Kind Regards,

  32. The catastrophe of Zero Covid. Spiked 4 April 2022.

    The approach might be bearable if Zero Covid led somewhere. But it doesn’t. There is no Covid-free nirvana at the end, and no early prospect of a vaccine that stops circulation. Rather, a Zero Covid jurisdiction has two choices. It can remain shut indefinitely, trying to suppress each new outbreak that breaches its borders. Until it fails. Or, alternatively, it can choose to rejoin reality, and allow its citizens to live normally again.

    The simplicity of the truth!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/04/03/the-catastrophe-of-zero-covid/

    1. Some sense emanating from the USA, Kansas has gone against the experts’ narrative and have decreed that the early treatment protocol has to be used. Included are Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine.

      GETTR

  34. I have never seen a documentary on “How Racism Was Introduced to the UK”. We are apparently supposed to believe that it exists, and that it is somehow inherent in the people of the UK. I do not believe this.
    I grew up well aware of sectarianism in Scotland. It has been around since the Reformation. From the age of four I crossed the city each day, wearing the uniform of a prominent Catholic school. It was interesting, like crossing a minefield.
    Later at work any prejudice against me was mostly personal…
    The only racial prejudice I ever witnessed was in the cricket club many years later when a couple of white Rhodesians were ejected for their remarks about our Singhalese players.
    I suspect much of the sol-disant racial prejudice is personal. So where did the notion that we were racist in the UK come from? Who brought it here, who nourished it and who promoted it?
    However, I may have missed something as there is going to be a TV programme about racism in Scotland:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60928666

    1. I have never seen a documentary on “How Racism Was Introduced to the UK”. We are apparently supposed to believe that it exists, and that it is somehow inherent in the people of the UK. I do not believe this.

      Neither do I Horace! The British upper classes are certainly snobs but not racially so; witness their lionising of the likes of the Aga Khan! There is also the point that unlike the Americans vast numbers of the Colonial Services learned foreign languages. To read Haggard or any other Victorian author is to bear witness to the multilingual capabilities of ordinary Brits. When the American Civil War became a reality Lincoln received vast support from the British White Working Classes!

    2. I have never seen a documentary on “How Racism Was Introduced to the UK”. We are apparently supposed to believe that it exists, and that it is somehow inherent in the people of the UK. I do not believe this.

      Neither do I Horace! The British upper classes are certainly snobs but not racially so; witness their lionising of the likes of the Aga Khan! There is also the point that unlike the Americans vast numbers of the Colonial Services learned foreign languages. To read Haggard or any other Victorian author is to bear witness to the multilingual capabilities of ordinary Brits. When the American Civil War became a reality Lincoln received vast support from the British White Working classes!

    3. I think there is resentment, however I wouldn’t call it racism. It is the resentment brought about by our society being destroyed by outsiders. Outsiders that the native people of this island where not consulted about coming in the first place. Outsiders who have turned certain towns and cities into no go areas for the native British. The destruction of our own traditions in order to accommodate these people. It is the consequence of what was a homogenous society not that long ago being fractured and flung apart by an elite that thought themselves so superior it wasn’t important to consult the ordinary people who have lived here for centuries. Our home, for that is what this island is, has been invaded and not once have we been asked if we minded. That is the source of the resentment and yes, it could be seen as racism, because people who are not white are easily picked out. But lets not forget that at the moment most of us don’t want a huge influx of white people coming here either who are not British. I am referring, of course, to the Ukrainians.

      1. I really do not care what colour a person is. What I do resent is the advertising (family always mixed) on tv, moaning from bliks that whites are racist, woke whites moaning on behalf of bliks about racism, BLM followers, indoctrination at schools about white privilege etc. etc. I never used to be racist but I feel as if I’m being pushed to be so.

        If U.K. is so racist why do these people insist on coming here.

        2. The answer to that is the same I gave to Kifaru. The Frankfurt School. It is manufactured resentment deliberately induced by the malicious people on the left who want to bring this society down. They are succeeding because good people do not seem to understand that these people have no decent principles and no conscience. Reasoning and decency do not work. The old adage of fight fire with fire applies here. We did not reason with the Nazis, we destroyed them and the reality is that freedom sometimes means destruction. Just as one would destroy a parasite if it were eating away at your body.

      2. Yes, it is resentment and it is reasonable. We have lots of Irish, Italians and Poles who arrived here between the 19th and early 20th century. They fitted in.

      3. Being dispassionate about it, a group of people turned up here, decided they liked the welfare and healthcare, got given a free house and then when someone asked them to contribute they threw a hissy fit and squealed ‘waycism’, because that’s a damned sight easier than accepting responsibility for your actions and behaviour.

        It’s notable that the quiet, working, decent folk who bought a house, don’t live off welfare, fit in and contribute never squeal racism. It’s always the freeloaders.

  35. Tommy Rob was harassed by police when waiting for his bags at Manchester airport. Apparently, it was a case of mistaken identity, yeh, sure. His book is titled Enemy of the State, he certainly is. Yesterday, We touched on the principle of the state confiscating assets of people they dont like, we are “OK” with that as they are those awful oligarchs. But the state has shown itself capable of victimising an individual for his beliefs. Just hope they dont look in here or we would all be down for non-crime thought crimes.

    1. I thought he had been detained in Mexico, has he been returned to the UK?

      2. Apparently but, as I said, I can’t understand half of his accent so miss what he is trying to say.

      3. Coming to a car park near you……..

        Surely if water power can be used a small pump and a tall tube with a continuous vortex would provide the motion to generate electricity . Any one thought of that one ?

      4. Heats up salt or oil, but I wasn’t listening well enough.

        Good luck with that on a cloudy winter day in Britain. Ukraine is a lot further south and has stronger sunlight. I think he is right about it being better than solar cells though.

      5. Some people have black plastic shower bags on their boats. They fill these with water, let the sun heat them up and then have very hot water with which to have a shower. On cold sunless days these are useless as when it gets cold the water soon cools down so you would need some sort of insulation and a valve system which allowed heat in but not out.

        We have solar panels on our boat. In summer when the sun is shining these give us all the power we need. In the winter they are practically useless.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de78f0418f3d7623bd2626f864438532a3a7a6f7d3b8314372f2023a5aeb52c0.jpg

        1. A week on a sheep station in the Australian outback showed me that black pipes laying across the ground from the water source to the shower block could cause the water to be very hot when first turned on.

    2. Hello to greener energy by using electricity to suck the heat out of the earth’s atmosphere which after all is heated by the sun anyway. The earth acts as a giant heat store that averages out over its surface by rotating once every day – what a clever idea. What is more with global warming we shall never be short of heat energy for heating our homes and getting hot water!

      Only snag – where do we get green electricity from 24/7?
      But you do save on the window cleaner’s bill for clearing the Saharan dust off the solar mirrors!

      https://youtu.be/CljXFAeujIs

        1. Cost of 10 K and when the hot water runs out during the day emersion heater used and extra electricity to pay for.

        2. I don’t think we can fallout with our nuclear generators even though it will cost a pile! 🤔

    3. This idea was used in a science fiction story. There were 50,000 people at a football match. They all had match programmes with reflective silver covers. The referee made a bad decision. They all held their programmes to reflect sunlight onto the referee to dazzle him. He was incinerated. Game over.

    4. We need fusion, or hydrogen. That means we need huge investment in those technologies. It’s going to be inefficient to start, but we need to get on with it.

      Alongside that we need to combine the state, cut, cut and keep cutting until there’s almost nothing left. We need massive deportation of criminals, a tougher criminal code and an end to the welfare culture.

      Folk will call this cruel and barbaric, clamouring for someone else to pay for their lives. Jealous of the achievements of others. I’d call it fair.

    5. Sun-following mirrors are already in use in several hot countries, but unless I have missed something I struggle to understand how solar power generation can also operate at night…

  37. Morning all……….
    
    Or should I say G’day.

    Farm Life in Australia

    A little boy comes down to breakfast. Since they live on a farm, his mother asks if he had done his chores.

    ” Not yet, ” said the little boy.
    His mother tells him no breakfast until he does his chores.

    Well, he’s a little teed off, so he goes to feed the chickens, and he kicks a chicken. He goes to feed the cows, and he kicks a cow. He goes to feed the pigs, and he kicks a pig. He goes back in for breakfast and his mother gives him a bowl of dry cereal.

    ” How come I don’t get any eggs and bacon ? Why don’t I have any milk in my cereal ? ” he asks.

    ” Well, ” his mother says, ” I saw you kick a chicken, so you don’t get any eggs for a week. I saw you kick the pig, so you don’t get any bacon for a week either.. I saw you kick the cow so for a week you aren’t getting any milk. ”

    Just then, his father comes down for breakfast and kicks the cat halfway across the kitchen.

    The little boy looks up at his mother with a smile, and says,

    ” You gonna tell him or should I ? “

    1. The fact that he is still in office underlines that the political classes have no concept of public opinion of any respect for the electorate and don’t give a flying F what we think.
      What has he actually achieved to the positive since he was elected.

          4. I think i’ll go out today and buy a horse Bill. Transport, manure, keeps the grass short. Tread mill perhaps.
            Hay can you see what i did there……….

        2. The economy, flood the place with criminal gimmigrants, create massive unemployment, complete lack of energy, force us to the IMF, IMF forces us to accept the euro as part of their payments, and this country is permanently finished, then, suddenly, things will improve overnight.

          They’re scum. The entirely of Whitehall needs nuking.

      2. Their agenda is to destroy the will of the people so we can be put back in our place and they can rule us again.

      3. What has he actually achieved?

        He was elected to get Brexit done and he has not succeeded in doing that properly.

        1. Absolutely nothing at all.
          I only voted for them because there was a promise to stop the illegal boat immigrants. Which are now costing the UK more than two billion each year. We already fork out 13 billion on overseas aide. And now we are being ripped off to pay for all their mistakes.

          1. No, there was no such promise. In fact, it has become intentional state policy to push ever more illegal criminal gimmigrants on us. It’s out of spite, intentional, deliberate spite for Brexit.

        2. An 80 seat majority. An opportunity to truly reform and rework the hideous nonsense forced on this country.

          Despite this unprecedented opportunity, the oafish whelp has managed to make everything worse. Given he has had some personal tragedies, for which I credit him, and he’s had a shocking time with Brexit, covid, a collapsing economy (them all being his own fault) it really is time he said ‘I can’t be bothered’ and let a truly useful PM take over, one prepared to mash the Left back to the stone age they came from.

          Hell, *I’ll do it*.

    2. The nasty and mendacious BBC this morning were suggesting that as the Queen sat alone during HRH’s funeral service. The people who might have had a drink with and for leaving colleagues in the political sphere, were guilty of her sad state. No mention of maybe in her grief she had chosen to be alone, or those in her family should have been beside her. Just the people at the parties fault.
      How big is the effing insane BBC band wagon ? I hope it falls over a cliff very soon.

      1. I think she chose to sit in the stall where she was, to be private in her grief. Her family was in the same row a few seats away.

          1. They don’t usually show the other pics which show she was not without the support of her family. Just that one.

        2. She refused to be treated differently to the people unlike Johnson and the Torys.

          1. That’s called Leadership, Johnny. If it’s what her subjects must do, then she did it too.
            Walking the talk – respect.

      2. I think she chose to sit in the stall where she was, to be private in her grief. Her family was in the same row a few seats away.

    3. If Boris Johnson has to resign then his back bench MPs must consider their position very carefully because it is very unlikely that any of the suggested replacements as PM – Truss or Sunak, Gove or Raab – would be capable of winning an election except David Frost who is not even eligible as he is not in the House of Commons.

      So their best chance of staying in Parliament would be to resign their seats, join Richard Tice’s Reform Party and stand under their new colours in a by election.

      Paradoxically the best thing for the Conservative Party could well be a mass resignation of their backbenchers! With a contingent of about 50 MPs in the Reform Party to keep the government up to the mark and get Brexit finally and properly completed the Conservative Party might just survive.

      1. I understand and sympathize with your point of view, Rastus, because what to do is something of a quandary. But I would not want a new party contaminated with any Conservative or Labour MPs. To me that would suggest that the new party was as corrupt as the established parties and thus, not worth voting for.

  39. Funny thing. That Carrion has been very quiet lately. I wonder if she has been gagged.

  40. Catching up on yesterdays events I see old man woolly is back causing problems again.

        1. For all his faults, I don’t think he touches young girls and/or sniffs their hair.

    2. I gave him a good thrashing on behalf of Nottle. Liberal Lefties are destroying this once great country. I have run out of patience with them.

      2. Trolls, such as he, keep winding people up in the hope of scoring points when one of us snaps and resorts to their language/behaviour. This can then be used to berate the whole site and it’s followers.

        However tempting it may be, the old adage stands, DON’T FEED THE TROLL.

    4. No, he should be challenged and confronted. Lefties all run away screaming when they’re proved wrong.

      Until they’re forced to face their hypocrisy and idiocy they never change. It’ll take time with the truly demented remoaners, but they’ll be beaten.

    3. Nice to see you back TB, I hope you’re over the worse.

      I cant look at anything on Twitter any more as soon as i open it, it suggests i sign up or else. And blocks the path ??
      Can you copy and paste the leading page ?

      1. Anders Leijerstam
        @andersleijersta
        ·
        15h
        EX-TALIBAN torturer has won the right to remain in Britain as returning him to Afghanistan would breach his human rights.

        What is wrong with our legal system?
        Char
        @Teoschar
        Replying to
        @andersleijersta
        The priority of UK law should be to protect UK citizens. However it seems to focus on providing safety for illegal immigrants and criminals.
        The legal system needs a complete overhaul.

      3. ‘Morning Eddy
        Hit the space bar,you can then close the block and read the tweet and replies

  43. https://twitter.com/Senyor_Esteve/status/1510900336659210246

    About time’: Law set to end child marriage in England and Wales – AFP News. Why do we tolerate this awful culture and religion.
    apple.news
    ‘About time’: Law set to end child marriage in England and Wales
    At 16, Payzee Mahmod was coerced by her Iraqi-Kurdish family in London into marrying a man around twice her age.
    Esteve Amagat Carbià
    @Senyor_Esteve
    Replying to
    @NeilEastell
    A belated enforcement of the law. Now enforce the FGM law, ban Halal slaughter, and stop aiding and abetting polygamy. Also, if an asylum seeker goes “home” on holiday don’t let them back in.
    9:41 AM · Apr 4, 2022·Twitter for iPhone
    7

    1. We don’t usually have our wood burner on during April – but we did on Saturday evening (last night we were out).

    2. Yep. They’ll only learn when they get a thorough beating – a physical one.

  45. A bit off topic, but two female school administration staff in Malmo were tragically and violently killed by a student almost two weeks ago. AFAIK the alleged killer has not yet been charged with any offence, and the limit for detention without charge is two weeks. Surely if he is not charged, the authorities will have to release him.

  47. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/04/drivers-face-petrol-shortages-climate-protesters-blocks-oil/

    When truckers did this in protest at Gordon Brown’s destructive, spiteful fuel taxes he used the military to force vehicles to move.

    Now big fat state is in support of these scum, suddenly they get a free ride. Where is the public good? Why are criminals allowed to hold the country hostage yet decent citizens not?

    Damnit, I hate the double standards and hypocrisy of the state.

    1. What kinder eggs are we talking about? Duck eggs? Ostrich eggs? Ant eggs? Come on, we must be told!
      🤣

  51. We have all been writing and reading articles about identity politics, viruses, and the rest of the excitement for the last two years at least. We now know pretty much who the bad actors are and why identity politics has been a fertile source of popular intellectual anaesthetic for them. It is time to do a little more than discuss.

    The globalists will not go away – they need to be sent away. We should start locally, in the UK, and deal with the Johnson’s, the Hancocks, the local Gates remittance men and the rest. They are all provably guilty of very serious criminal offences. We must insist that judiciary and law enforcement do their jobs, instead of obfuscating, umming and ahhing. Murder is murder. Misconduct in public office is just that. If such a drive can not achieve that by pressure and the
    ballot box it will need to consider measures we have not seen for hundreds of years.

    Time to gird our loins.

    1. We can do little or nothing via the ballot box. Biden was installed. Kahn was installed in London. Yet when Crimea had an 83% turnout and 97% voted for their historic allegiance, the globalists cried foul. As I don’t doubt they’re crying foul over the re-election of Viktor Orban though it’s abundantly clear why Hungarians would vote for their own interests.

    2. The Left start all wars. The Right finish them. Usually, because we’re Right minded, we believe in freedom of speech, human dignity and so on. The Left don’t. They never have. Thus they infest the state and start ruining things for normal people.

      The ext time the Left rise up, we must stop being nice, decent and tolerant and crush the worm before it becomes a snake.

  52. In for a Pfennig in for a pounding….

    “Monday, Germany will take one step toward a return of the dreaded Weimar hyperinflation, when according to the German Retail Association (HDE), consumers should prepare for another wave of price hikes for everyday goods and groceries with Reuters reporting that prices at German retail chains will explode between 20 and 50%:

        1. And with her brilliant: “Everyone is welcome.” the rest of Europe to the reefs. I think of her as being on a par with the Keiser and Adolf in her destructive tendencies.

    2. What do all those nations suffering massive inflation have in common? Absurd energy policies.

  53. OT – Quiz question for you:

    When was the last time that an eldest son inherited the throne of England from his father, and later passed it on in turn to his own son?

    Answers on a postcard.

    I’ll give the correct answer (and a 5/- postal order) when I sign off at pm.

    2. I think….Henry IV who passed it to Henry V who passed it to Henry VI. So many reigning monarchs were second sons or inherited through a mother.

          2. Yes, George III’s father Frederick who died quite young- I think of typhoid but can’t recall.

        2. Princess Charlotte.
          Her husband was Leopold, Prince Albert’s uncle. And also the first king of Belgium.

  54. June Brown best known for her role as Dot Cotton has died. June was 95 and a lifetime smoker.

    RIP June. I hope God has put some ashtrays out.

      1. The American comic George Burns drank brandy, among other things, and smoked cigars all his life. Tragically, his life was cut short at the young age of 99.

        1. Churchill lived to 90. Given when he died, that probably equates to at least 95 today.

  55. 351844 + up ticks,

    Just listening to jeremy vine and the vulnerable children in this case.

    A carer / parent whos dauhter required a continual a controlled heat source said to vine when she grows up she WILL VOTE, I thought on hearing that she could very well ask
    “appertaining to the present odious condition of the country brought about via the polling booth & the closed shop, who did you vote for daddy”

    1. 351844+ up ticks,
      O2O,

      May one ask , do the peoples of pakistan suffer any form of heat rash via our overseas aid payments ?

  57. From today’s DT…golly gosh, what a surprise!

    COMMENT

    My electric car journey from hell shows buyers must beware

    I fear that Grant Shapps’s promise to boost the charging network will not be enough to solve its many flaws

    IAIN DALE 4 April 2022 • 6:00am

    Back in November, I acquired an electric car, something I never thought I would do. Why did I do it? Because it was a perfectly rational economic decision. It was nothing to do with “virtue signalling”, it was all to do with it being cheaper to run, and if I put it through my company, there were significant tax advantages. I calculated it would save me thousands of pounds every year.

    What was not to like? Quite a lot, actually.

    On Friday night, I was invited to speak to Beverley and Holderness Conservatives. The main difference when you drive an electric car on a long journey is that you have to plan. In my old car, I could drive 600 miles without filling the tank, but if I ever nearly ran out of diesel there was always a petrol station around the corner.

    The equivalent is not true if you have an electric car. You have to plan your journey using apps such as Zap-Map, which tell you where the charging points are, and whether they’re being used, or working. I got to Beverley OK, having recharged the car at Donington Park services on the M1, which has a few charging points. Some motorway services don’t have any.

    The return journey proved to be a disaster. I left Beverley at 9am and arrived home in Kent at 7.45pm. A journey that should have taken four hours lasted an astonishing 10¾. It was a day completely wasted. The problem was that the three fast chargers in Beverley were either in use or didn’t work. So I had to use slow chargers to get to the next fast charger, which was 50 miles away. Range anxiety is a real phenomenon. The whole time you’re looking at the screen in front of you, wondering if you will run out of charge before you reach the next charger. And then what?

    This week, Grant Shapps announced a target of 300,000 more chargers across the country by 2030, the year when the Government says it will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel powered cars. Fatally, he’s left it to local authorities to make sure the roll-out happens. Mark my words, it won’t. Not without national direction.

    My advice is this. If you only do relatively short journeys, then buying an electric car is a good decision. If you regularly travel more than 150 miles, it isn’t. In my experience, the car manufacturers lie about the expected range. My electric car is supposed to do 298 miles. The reality is that it does 206, or 215 if the weather is warm. Caveat emptor.

    * * *

    Some (not unexpected) BTL views:

    Little John7 HRS AGO

    Yup, electric cars have driven us backwards.

    My 1989 – yes, over 30 year old technology – Audi 100 five cylinder turbo diesel with intercooler diesel – had a range of close to 1,000 miles. I took it up to 950 miles because I didn’t want the hassle of it stopping in the wrong place.

    Similarly, an Audi A6 with the 1.9TD would take us from Kent to Stoke on Trent and back TWICE on one tank of go-go juice.

    These cars would cruise in the fast lane all day and were quite lively.

    We just bought another brand new diesel car. The range indicator goes UP as we drive. A nice touch.

    Jonathan forrest7 HRS AGO

    Yes they “lie about the expected range” which means they lie about the savings you will make using an electric car. You get nothing like the advertised distance on a full charge of electricity. In addition you spend about 30% more for an electric version of a car. The pay back for this extra cost is usually longer than the expected lifetime of the batteries. There is no financial benefit in owning an electric car.

    Stuart Shackleton
    6 HRS AGO
    I’ll keep my 8 year old diesel car another 4 years and then at the age of 72 I’ll purchase a newer model which hopefully will see my driving days over…….I’ll never ever buy an electric car…..A.because I can’t afford to buy one and B. they are not as environmentally friendly as is made out!

    Best Mate
    6 HRS AGO
    Agree with Ian over EV’s. I would however, go one step further. The whole policy of banning new diesel and petrol sales by 2030, is ludicrous and simply a government virtue signalling exercise. We will be nowhere near ready and people will simply hang on to perfectly sound vehicles as they get older and older. UK new car sales will continue to diminish and Toyota, who are already signalling discontent will be finally gone.
    The government will have by 2028/9, performed a screeching u-turn on this self destructive madness, bringing down the last remnants of the British home produced car industry with it. The whole net zero nonsense is nothing more than a posturing chimera, that is being imposed on us with no electoral say in the matter.

    1. Shoulda taken the mail coach home, Mr Dale.

      You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh!

    3. We are trying to move back into town, probably an apartment somewhere near the important places – Booze store, supermarkets and so on. None of the apartment buildings round here are set up for EV charging.

      Are we supposed to queue up for access to the one charging point in town? Sorry n EV is not for me and I guess that I am not the only one.

    1. I have already heard the official answer to that, which is that Russia, having been found out in war crimes, is making an elaborate attempt to deny them.
      I do not find it very credible, because the Russians have nothing to gain by murdering civilians. The Russian version of events, which they say is provable, is that they left the town four days before any evidence of the massacres emerged.

        1. And this is a lie. As I said the other day. The Russians deliberately withdrew, it had nothing at all to do with some “victory” of the Ukrainian forces. The Russian were there to degrade the military capability of the Ukrainian forces. Having finished with that they then moved on to the Donetsk region. The reason being that there are 100 thousand Ukrainian soldiers there preventing the complete takeover of the region. Along with the Russian forces from Donetsk they are performing a pincer movement to trap and neutralize the large Ukrainian force. Which will, once done, enable them to take over the entire territory. The aim is to take all the territory from Kharkiv (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharkiv) to Odessa. If one watches RT then one knows that they have been saying that is their intention for at least the past week. The Russians make no secret about their intention and do not twist the news to try to pretend things are happening that are not. Hence my contention that they are, in this situation, more honest than the West with its incessant false propaganda against Russia.

        2. More pure bullshit – Putin has already said he didn’t want to capture Kiev and this was a stratigic withdrawal, as he had accomplished his mission.

          2. I pointed this today in the Daily Mail, also that the bodies did have a somewhat staged, dumped look about them. I received an email early this afternoon from the DM to say that after complaints they had decided to withdraw my comment. People are not interested in considering that there may be a completely different perspective on what is happening in Ukraine. They simply want to detest Russia and Putin. I did wonder exactly who had complained, certainly they were those who did not want the truth of the Mayor’s speech being pointed out.

          3. I pointed this today in the Daily Mail, also that the bodies did have a somewhat staged, dumped look about them. I received an email early this afternoon from the DM to say that after complaints they had decided to withdraw my comment. People are not interested in considering that there may be a completely different perspective on what is happening in Ukraine. They simply want to detest Russia and Putin. I did wonder exactly who had complained, certainly they were those who did not want the truth of the Mayor’s speech being pointed out.

        3. The alleged atrocities might not have been discovered – or staged – at the time he spoke.

          1. Local people would surely have known – the corpses were filmed lying by the side of the roads.

          2. As I said, timing is everything. He might have not spoken to the relevant locals, just whipped his smart phone out and started babbling.

          3. As mayor of the town where it allegedly happened, I would have thought he would be one of the relevant locals! I just think this is hard to explain away.

        4. It’s all propoganda, I wouldn’t believe Russian denials more than I believe Ukranian accusations.

          1. The mayor’s speech where he doesn’t mention the massacres would appear to be one of the few bits of hard evidence, is my feeling.

      2. I’m afraid that, regardless of which side is speaking, I treat all information with the same disdain as I do covid figures.

        1. I don’t think either is inherently more trustworthy, so I tend to judge by likely motivation.

      3. I agree Blackbox, the Russians have no motivation to kill civilians at all especially since from their point of view, Ukrainians are Russians. It is the Ukrainians that have been taught, by propaganda, to believe that the Russians are ‘the other’.

        1. They have historic cause to resent the Russians. However, I do not think it is right to blame the current government for Stalin’s crimes.

          1. No. And as I point out, the Russians themselves suffered first. As I know very well from my stepfather and his family.

          2. Just as I do not think it is right for people to blame today’s British white people for slavery when yesterday’s British white people did more than anyone else to stamp it out.

            By the same token I find it odious when politicians apologise for things that happened before their own lifetimes and for which they were not in any way responsible.

            (Remember the odious Blair apologising for the Irish potato famine between 1845 and 1852 when he was born in 1953 – a hundred years after it.)

  59. Good Afternoon.
    There are times when it pays to be a cynical old bat.
    On Saturday I had four calls, over the space of about six hours, from a disembodied voice, informing me that it was my bank calling and that there had been some suspicious activity with my account.
    I though “Ho, yus” and put the phone down.
    No calls yesterday or this morning. To be on the safe side, today I phoned the fraud dept. at my bank and they confirmed that nobody from the bank had phoned me nor was there anything odd about my account.

    1. The idea of my bank calling me as a courtesy would be funny. They don’t give a stuff.

    2. We should set up a Cynical Bat Squad- I left out the “old” because we aren’t. A couple of weeks ago my husband’s phone rang and he was in the shower- in itself a newsworthy occasion;-) I answered and said, ” ——-‘s phone.” A rather posh sounding voice said he wanted to speak to MH abut an investment opportunity. This voice was punctuated with funny buzzing sounds. He kept insisting that he wanted to speak to MH. I said that I didn’t think so as the call was a scam. The minute I said that- call ended.

    3. You have all the fun. We get one nuisance call a fortnight! Almost always from a chap in India.

      1. We used to get lots till we got the ‘call guardian’ phone – now we don’t get any.

      2. I leave the answerphone set. Then I can listen to the message coming in and decide whether the caller is worthy of my attention.

    4. Anyone who has a foreign accent and wants to talk, no matter how vaguely, about finances, is told, by me, to fork orf! I am pestered constantly by some Indians that pretend they work for Microsoft, I think it is, but one sentence in and they get a mouthful. I suppose buying one of those football things that make such a racket when you blew on them would be going to far, but I am tempted.

        1. We used to get them in France. Once, the MR said that she didn’t speak French. The woman replied, in English, that it was a disgrace for a foreign person to come to France and have a house and not to speak French!!

          I once told a French caller to Eff Off – and he rang back and told me that I was disgustingly rude!

    5. I just prattle on about all my ailments whilst occasionally returning to the subject.

    6. I usually say to them “You obviously know all about the situation, so can you tell me who I am?” At which point the line usually goes dead. However, some weeks ago put the same question to the usual Indian-sounding person and he replied “Yes, you are Mister …” (at which point I thought he really knew) ” … Dick Head”!

    7. When I’m in the mood, I’ll put on an ancient quavery voice and lead them on for a while before erupting with a loud mouthful of expletives and slamming the phone down.

  60. How many have noticed the main news of the day in terms of the information highway. Here it is reproduced from the Telegraph

    Elon Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder with $2.9bn stake

    Tesla billionaire eclipses founder Jack Dorsey as shares soar
    Elon Musk has taken a $2.9bn (£2.2bn) stake in Twitter, sending shares in the social media website soaring by more than a quarter in pre-market trading.

    The boss of Tesla disclosed his acquisition of a 9.2pc holding in Twitter, amounting to 73,486,938 shares in a filing on Monday morning.

    Twitter’s pre-opening price soared to $50.60 in pre-market-opening trading. It closed at $39.30 on Friday afternoon.

    twitter’s musk-inspired take-off

    Mr Musk wrote on Twitter last month to say the platform was failing to adhere to free speech principles.

    Mr Musk wrote at the time: “I’m worried about de facto bias in ‘the Twitter algorithm’ having a major effect on public discourse. How do we know what’s really happening?”

    On the same day Mr Musk also suggested Twitter’s core algorithm should be made open source, meaning it would be published in full for others to copy and build their own businesses around.
    The 9.2pc stake makes Mr Musk Twitter’s largest shareholder, ahead of founder Jack Dorsey, who has a 2pc stake in the business.

    The Tesla chief executive, who is the world’s richest man, acquired his Twitter shares on March 14, according to the “13G” filing published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

    According to SEC rules a 13G filing can only be made by someone who does not intend to change or influence the control of a company they acquire shares in.

    In the past Mr Musk has courted controversy over his personal Twitter usage. He reportedly violated an agreement with the SEC from 2018 requiring his tweets to be pre-approved by Tesla executives.

    Messages which drew the ire of US financial regulators referred to taking publicly listed Tesla private.

    Both Tesla and Mr Musk paid $20m in fines over the episode and signed the legally binding agreement.

    In late March the SEC urged a US federal court in Manhattan to keep the agreement in place, despite Mr Musk saying its enforcement amounted to “harassment”.

    1. Does that mean that free speech exists… as long as you can afford to pay the fine?

      Although wiping out the value of shares isn’t an especially bright move.

      1. It means that if Elon Musk continues he will have the controlling power over Twitter and then he will make it open source, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source Musk has an abhorrence of patents and other secrets or controls of any kind. His attitude is to make everything available to the public. His logic is that if anyone can create something using his material it is fine with him if it makes things better for everyone. In short, he is a egalitarian who, true to his word, puts his money where his mouth is.

  61. A Moscow man buys newspaper, glances at front page, throws it straight in the bin.
    Next day and day after, he does the same thing.
    Eventually, the newsagent snaps. ‘Why DO you do that?’
    ‘I’m just checking for an obituary.’
    ‘But obituaries aren’t on the front page!’
    ‘The one I’m looking for will be.’

    1. I’m not quite sure what Lefties will do when the truth (or lack of) in this war comes out.

  62. I mentioned our trip to Rome yesterday. We are flying Norwich-Amsterdam-Rome. Suddenly occurred to me that we’ll need “documents” to enter Holland – even though we are staying the night airside at Schiphol.

    I though I’d check the Dutch govt website. I expected to find a simple page saying, “You will need the following docs – and here are copies to download and print”.

    What a silly old fool I am. Webpage after webpage of thoroughly confusing (and often contradictory) info. Additional links to other muddling webpages.

    Fortunately, the MR is patient and persevering – and will work it all out. Though even she had missed the “individual health form”.

    One might end up feeling that they don’t one to travel………

    And then there is Italy……with its own rules….

    1. They’re all milking ‘project fear’ for their own ends – I suggest, Bill, if you both navigate this morass, make it the last time to travel and check the documents required to enter Norfolk.

      Certainly, after his remarks yesterday about Norwich Airport (RAF Horsham St Faiths) they will stop Phizzee at the border and give him a rigorous intelligence check:

      Q. Ha yor fa gotta a dicka, bor?
      A. Available upon request (this is NOT the answer)

      That’s him done.

    2. They’re all milking ‘project fear’ for their own ends – I suggest, Bill, if you both navigate this morass, make it the last time to travel and check the documents required to enter Norfolk.

      Certainly, after his remarks yesterday about Norwich Airport (RAF Horsham St Faiths) they will stop Phizzee at the border and give him a rigorous intelligence check:

      Q. Ha yor fa gotta a dicka, bor?
      A. Available upon request (this is NOT the answer)

      That’s him done.

    4. Lucky you to not only have a cook but a private secretary too. The MR is worth her weight in diesel. :@)

      Bit of a stir in Fakenham on Saturday afternoon. John Travolta was spotted in Wetherspoons and in the bread aisle in Morrisons. He was good enough to stop for selfies and autographs. He was excellent in Pulp Fiction.

        2. We had a talk at the RAFA meeting today by a geologist. At the end, our chairman asked him about climate change. While not exactly claiming it was a scam, said geologist pointed out that in the scheme of things since the world was formed, cooled, life started, etc, written history is a wafer thin slot. He pointed out volcanos affect the climate, as do other things and man is not a great influence (and particularly the UK compared with the likes of China).

          1. And I would agree with him. It’s a scam. Being a horticulturist I have my own way of measuring, plants. There is not a single plant that I am aware of currently growing in the UK that you were unable to grow 60 years ago. If it were indeed getting warmer there would be an increase in the range of flora that you would be able to grow. I am not aware of a single thing even though I practice “growing on the edge”! the art of growing plants in an inhospitable climate for a species. A type of horticulture that, obviously, requires an acute awareness of climate change as well as other factors.

    5. Note to self: don’t complain next time the Strood is flooded. Mersea will still be there 20 minutes later.

    6. Already have provided a note to self, do not visit EU countries. Caribbean hol booked for next winter.

    2. 5 today; room for improvement …
      Wordle 289 5/6

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

  65. Just waiting for phone call from dog groomer so that I can to pick up one of my dogs who really became very hairy in the past couple of months .

    1. Our two cats have very matted fur this winter, and both will need a close clip to get rid of it. Planned for after Easter.

    3. Our dog groomer comes out to the house with her huge van and all she requires is a 240v mains connection – plus payment.

      She also has a large rural round, so I think she does well.

      I’ve also seen lots of them in Victoria, Oz.

    4. Oscar is like a rat – he had a No 1 haircut as I don’t want him to have to go to the groomer too often (trauma for both of them and expense for me).

    2. Whoopee, something to look forward to a retirement spent staving off dementia as I huddle over the single LED permitted to warm my cell.

    3. I had piano lessons at the age of 10 – does that mean I’m immune from getting dementia or that I will get it because I can’t have piano lessons now to stave it off?

  67. The latest bulletin from the Coalition For Marriage (C4M).

    Dear marriage supporter,
    Transgender activists have successfully pressed for the cancellation of an NHS child psychiatrists’ conference on gender dysphoria after accusing many of the speakers of “extremism” for arguing that biological sex cannot be changed.
    The event, organised by Great Ormond Street Hospital and the North East London NHS Foundation Trust, was due to be attended by a hundred trainee child psychiatrists.
    But activists due to speak, including Chief Executive of transgender charity Mermaids Susie Green, pulled out saying they couldn’t be part of a conference that included speakers who disagreed with them. Some NHS staff used the health service’s official whistleblowing service to claim the speakers made the event “unsafe” for trans people.
    The conference was to come at a critical moment for the NHS, reeling from a scathing report earlier this month by Dr Hilary Cass into the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Cass concluded the clinic was “not a safe or viable long-term option” for children and a “fundamentally different service model is needed”.
    Health Education England, the NHS training body, has said it is rescheduling the conference, adding: “We will ensure the rescheduled training meets the needs of all those concerned, including the curriculum for trainees, and the requirements for patient, carer and public involvement.”
    The NHS is belatedly recognising that it needs to get on top of problems with its treatment of children with gender dysphoria, and this conference was part of that. If transgender activists resort to smearing those who disagree with them, that hardly betokens confidence in their position. In fact, it illustrates exactly the kind of intolerant behaviour that has allowed serious problems in the NHS service to go unaddressed.
    At C4M, we trust that when this conference does go ahead it will not capitulate to the activist bullies who try to keep science out of the trans debate, and that it will be part of the solution not the problem.

    “But activists due to speak, including Chief Executive of transgender charity Mermaids Susie Green, pulled out saying they couldn’t be part of a conference that included speakers who disagreed with them.” Sounds to me as though they can’t cope with any kind of challenge. What a shame Great Ormond Street simply caved in. Surely the conference should have gone ahead regardless? If one side of the debate didn’t want to turn up then tough titty!

    1. Chief Executive of transgender charity Mermaids Susie Green is the woman who dosed her son up with puberty blockers & female hormones before taking him, when he reached 16yo, to Thailand to be castrated and surgically mutilated to imitate a young woman.
      When talking about the mutilation of her son she scoffed at his “tiny penis”, a result of the puberty blockers he’d been on.

      1. She is very creepy. Apart from the Thailand trip, what kind of mother talks about her sixteen year old’s penis in public?

    2. This is all ridiculous. My husband has to go for a scan next weekend…on his form, addressed to him as Mr, it asks if he’s pregnant. As a slightly older woman, I have not been asked this. My response, should I be, will be, I am 68 what do you bloody think?
      The entire world has gone totally mad.

      3. He should write down: “Yes, pregnant with anticipation that you will ask me another ludicrous question.”

      4. That’s clearly sexist, you should complain and demand that they ask you whether you’re pregnant too.

      5. Ah, these days, being 68 (or, apparently, having XY chromosomes) doesn’t stop you “falling” pregnant.

    3. “…arguing that biological sex cannot be changed….”

      It can’t. Next!

      That’s not extremism, it’s a fact. What’s extremism is thinking it can be.

      1. They also talk crap about brain zones. I asked an Oxford professor of psychology if the human brain is hard wired. She gave a simple answer…No. The brain can rewire itself and learn new behaviours. That too threatens the translooney idea of being born in the wrong body. It’s all in the mind and the mind can change.

        1. If it couldn’t we’d be a bit stuck. It’s how we learn things.

          The brain’s like a computer – but in that each processing’ is both memory, CPU and RAM. Tying shoe laces is a structure in the brain. So is speaking.

          The really sad thing is no one gave a stuff about any of this. It was a bit ‘so?’ and folk were left alone to live how they wanted to. Now these idiots seem to want special treatment for their life choices. It’s just a bit silly and is doing the precise, exact opposite as people oppose their daft impositions.

          1. Gives then an unearned advantage in life, and an opportunity to play victim. What’s not to like?

        2. Mine rewired to replace the damaged visual areas after my stroke. My God, but it was exhausting! No wonder babies sleep all the time.

    4. Typical bluddy snowflakes – can’t bear anybody to disagree with them or put up a perfectly valid counter-argument.

  68. “Trans people CAN be legally banned from single-sex spaces in hospitals, sports clubs, shops and refuges if there is ‘sufficiently good reason’, rules equalities watchdog – in victory for women’s rights groups” (D Mail)

    Stand by for screams, protests, stamping feet, twitter storm etc etc etc

      1. Funnily enough, I have just had two home made buns. The MR has a brilliant recipe.

    2. A trans an – or just ‘man’ demanded access to a women’s refuge and got in – then raped his wife who was hiding there.

      There’s going to be a point where we stop pandering to the mentally ill and simply tell these spoiled children ‘No’, as we should have from the start.

    3. Sufficiently good reason? They aren’t what they claim to be, that’s reason enough!

    2. Or said that she could do business with this man, and started negotiating . Better than sanctions when we need their oil, gas, wheat etc

      1. Indeed. Unfortunately we have no politicians of her calibre anymore. Although I have to say that if Trump was President this would not have happened.

      1. It is heartbreaking, LotL. I thought the south-west was fairly safe from ‘that sort of thing’.

        1. It is not. We live in a seaside town renowned for it’s older population. Last few years, stabbings, attacks , rapes and more.

          2. Well, it wasn’t me. Some by “others” but also by some white locals.

      1. I quite like a big mac but only once in 3 months. They do a chicken big mac now which i would like to try.

          1. She hasn’t eaten in Bruges. Good as the fries are there you can’t beat a good fat British chip cooked in beef dripping.

          2. She probably did. She was Americas first Cordon Bleu Chef. Fascinating life if you want to look her up. Was a member of the OSS during WWII, amongst other adventures. The above is Dan Akroyd, of course. But Child was very tall.

      2. I’ve never had one, and I never took our two boys there, either. They are quite proud of that fact now.

        1. My younger son called them McNasty – I’ve never been there or taken my children. We did go once to the rival place whose name escapes me at the moment……

          1. Burger King? Some of their stuff was slightly better but I don’t like fast food.

          2. Yes – I think that might have been it. Not impressed. Real food is much better and nicer.

            Cooking a small joint of lamb at the moment – bought it for last night but we were invited next door.

          3. Made a chicken stir fry with mushrooms, onion and tender stem broc. Enough left for tomorrow.

          4. When it was pointed out that McD had withdrawn from Russia, I remarked that they’d had a lucky escape. The person who told me assured me that McD was very popular in Russia. I said that, thinking about the Russian food I ate when over there, it might have been a slight improvement so probably that was why!

      3. Once, I had a McDonalds’ ‘experience’ – in Milwaukee with Americans returning from a Mining Conference – c1992 – in Chicago.

        I have no wish to repeat the experience.

    5. This isn’t over here, the cars are driving on the right and the number plates aren’t British.The USA, most likely.

    7. Utter scum and of course, the usual suspects. It’s sad, but the genocide in Rwanda, the warlords in Uganda – you can see why those countries devolve into savagery so easily.

      Look at the problems these people cause wherever they go.

    8. Having watched twice- that’s in the US. Look at the side of the road they are driving on.

      1. Their science, there’s been a new scientific enlightenment where Fauci is the science. He has made that claim, ergo, it must be so.

    2. I’m sure I saw a headline in the online German media with the Health Minister still making this claim recently.

    3. Odd. They knew at the time that the vaccine doesn’t kill the virus.

  73. ‘Two years of lobbying!’ NHS quietly expands Covid symptons.

    The new list of symptoms includes a high temperature or shivering; a new, continuous cough; a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste; shortness of breath; feeling tired or exhausted; an aching body; a headache; a sore throat; a blocked or runny nose; loss of appetite; diarrhoea; and feeling sick or being sick.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1590988/Covid-symptoms-NHS-list-new-signs-runny-nose

    ‘Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water….’

    2. I heard that on the radio as I-was passing by! Unbelievable – or not! They can not give it up! So depressing!

      1. At the parish council meeting tonight we were all unmasked bar the one (he’s a Limp Dim by inclination) councillor who sat there with his patterned mask on throughout. You couldn’t understand half of what he said (other than “I’m unhappy”). What good he thinks a bit of cloth is going to do I have no idea.

    3. … symptoms also include shouting at the TV/radio, wanting to prosecute liars and avoiding the news!

      1. You forgot disembowelling although evisceration sounds, and probably is, more fitting.

      2. How about yelling “It’s NOT covid, it’s the bloody hysterical government’s reaction” every time covid is blamed for poor service, schools closing, cancelled trains etc…..
        Does that count as a symptom?

          1. Cheers Lol……..
            Supper – ‘crab’ flavoured fish omelette with spinach……I’ll let you know!

          2. I’m sipping a very nice red Italian Zinfandel as a starter before I attack my sausage casserole made with my butcher’s Old English snorkers with various beans, pulses, peppers and anything else I found laying about. It’s been in the slow cooker since 10 this morning.

          5. We buy that from Aldi but only the French – the Argentinian is not so good.

    5. It’ll all be down to the raw sewage in the bloody water! Talk about covering all the bases.
      Edit: Gastroenteritis covers the squits, vomit and feeling like…

    7. They are holding back on the frogs, lice, boils and death of the firstborn until we need another scare.

      1. Do the pustules, black humour, buboes and bloody flux come before or after those symptoms?

          1. “Verily ’tis ye covid. That’ll be £37 billion, ta muchley. Praise the Lord.”

    8. Apart from the diarrhoea, those are all symptoms from COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) from which I suffer.

    9. All the signs that you might be feeling a bit off.
      I felt knackered and cold yesterday evening. Fine today; but then I’m not a snivel serpent looking for another excuse to avoid work.

  74. That’s me for this grey and very windy day.

    The answer to the riddle was, of course, Henry V. So LotL gets the 5/- PO. And a gold star for neatness. It was interesting to reflect on George V and VI, both second sons. Eddy Duke of Clarence was not all there, was syphilitic and would have been a dreadful King; Edward VIII would also have been an appalling monarch. So the British people were lucky in the unexpected substitutes.

    Have a jolly evening faking atrocity photograhs.

    A demain

    2. Eddy, Duke of Clarence was one of the suspects in the Jack the Ripper murders. It was deemed unlikely but you never know….

        4. 351844+ up ticks,
          Another mass killing was all the fish in Dover harbour belly up was put down to
          Jack the Kipper.

      2. We do know.
        It was a mad Jewish butcher’s son called Aaron Kosminski.
        The police have always known because there was an eyewitness and a positive identification but the witness would not testify at court because of the prevalent antisemitism.
        The police were OK with that partly because when Kosminski was locked up in a sanatorium.
        I know this because we got semi private visits to the NSY museum.
        But this is also verified with DNA on an item of Ripper memorabilia.
        https://albertjack.com/2021/08/07/jack-the-rippers-true-identity-finally-revealed/amp/

          1. It’s fact.
            I’m also an ex RE teacher. Cattle is not kosher if the butcher has to cut the throat twice. These poor prostitutes had theirs cut twice.
            The curator of the museum was interested in that bit of trivia.

            It was later confirmed by the dna.

          1. On the contrary. The fact that he cut their throats twice could indicate that he deliberately did not want them to appear kosher.
            But given that cannibalism is frowned upon by Jews it might just be because he was stark, staring bonkers.

          2. What about some of the other memorabilia – eg the letters? Were they sent by the killer or just another imposter?

          3. There was an imposter who tried to take the blame, if I remember but its been a while since I looked at it.

        4. I really had to search hard, very hard, on Google because it doesn’t list any NSY Museum – instead there is a Crime Museum which is based (for the sake of others) at New Scotland Yard.

          1. It used to be called The Black Museum. When my father was in the Met, only policemen and women were allowed to visit it; part of their training, I gathered.

          2. Sorry. They used to call it the Black Museum.
            But as you’ve found it’s been renamed for some reason.

  75. Just watched last Saturday’s Saturday Kitchen with Matt Tebutt. Special guest Barry Humphries. It’s a laugh a minute. The Rick Stein segment of the prog is in Andalusia. He visits Chris Stewart (first drummer in Genesis). Of course he mentions the book he wrote about the region and its food. Just managed to snag a copy on Ebay for £2.47 free P&P. :@)

    1. Twitter, facebook and so on should be offered the choice of being platform – and not liable for the content they show but also beholden to free speech laws or producer, in which case they are legally liable. At the moment, they pick and choose which they want based on the content.

      1. IIRC PAresident Trump was considering taxing these platforms as publishers, I think that was the idea. Something along those lines anyway.

  77. SWMBO just had a letter from Barclays, telling her to close her account. Apparently, due to Brexit, people resident outside of the UK may not hold UK accounts. Or something like that.

    1. Check on that. I had a Natwest account for years while I was living in USA. I closed it when I moved down here.

    4. Surely, Paul, you have an addressee in the UK who will forward stuff for a small remuneration?

      Don’t kow-tow to the banks – at least you (Norway) are still on the Krone. I certainly wouldn’t bank with the Euro – it’s gonna collapse.

    5. Barclays are complete are$holes – the way they behaved when my mother died and I tried to close her accounts was appalling – no apology and no help!

    1. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… hope tomorrow is a better day, Plum.

    2. I understand Plum. Hang in there and come back- we’d miss you if you weren’t here. X

    2. That’s why they should call them re-chargeable cars under the trades description, razors after all come in re-chargeable and electric which is an ample example of the way in which crappy re-chargeable cars have been miss-represented..

    3. Does the AA drag the car to the nearest 250kV pylon and jump-start it?

  82. 351844+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    Have we acquired a selective department
    made up from gov / MsM when it come to pointing out war criminals, we in the United Kingdom still have them active in politics and with a following.

  83. From The Slog:

    “it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that – one way or another – Herr Schwab is one of the least well prepared humans when it comes to his own Great Reset.

    He is neither vegetarian nor Vegan. And even Wikipedia quotes him as saying that “excessively high management salaries are no longer socially acceptable”. This doesn’t sit well with his own WEF salary audited quite openly as one million Swissies – just over a million bucks.

    However, in a global scoop, I can now reveal that Klaus Schwab suffers from a rare condition we élite experts call PPD, or Personal Pronoun Dyslexia. The best illustration of the condition is – as ever – show not tell. Thus, when Schwab says:

    “Humanity must accept that owning property and eating meat is no longer sustainable”

    …when he says “humanity” he really means you. In no way does he mean me, as in him. When he writes

    ‘We will all own nothing and be happy’

    ….what he’s trying to say is you. Privately, unser geliebter Klaus admits he would be incandescently pissed off if he owned nothing, earned the same salary as an ockle-cockle maker*, and faced the same confiscation of his cash, pension and property assets via the level-playing-field-heist he so enthusiastically embraces.”

  84. Trans gender bollocks…..
    Some years ago now I did a two month plus sub in Kindergarten in CT. One little boy, when it was his groups turn for the Wendy House and dressing up box, he always went for a feather boa. Half an hour later he would be hanging upside down by his knees on the climbing frame. And then wrassling with his chums.
    At no time did it occur to me if he wanted to talk to anyone about it. I just think he liked the feel of the feathers.
    This nonsense MUST be stopped and soon!!

    1. I doubt he did want to talk to anyone about it, it was just a dressing up game. These days, they’d have had him pumped full of hormones and his dangly bits off before you could say “ouch”.

    2. At the age of eight our younger son would have happily agreed to change sex and allowed himself to be captured by the transgender gang – simply because he was madly in love with the colours on girls’ trainers – same design as boys’ but with emerald green and magenta strips and infills.

  85. There was trouble at a football match at Ibrox in Glasgow yesterday. It was an “old firm” game between Rangers and Celtic. It has attracted a lot of criticism from the police and, of course, our own Dear Leader.
    However there is one bright spot, as traditions are clearly being maintained. A goodly* number of the bottles thrown were of that favourite Glaswegian drink, “Buckie”, that is, Buckfast Tonic Wine.
    *Or should that be “Godly” as it is produced by monks. See below a sample of items thrown onto the pitch by exuberant supporters.

    https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/FC76/production/_124003646_20424944.jpg

    1. I expect it was all caused by the Rangers fans, being mostly of the Unionist persuasion.

      1. Do they realise that they are throwing bottles which contained wine brewed by Catholic monks?
        Edit: Apparently it is now brewed under licence by a private company.

        1. Sturgeon condemns ‘thuggish behaviour’ after Celtic man bottled at Old Firm match

          https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/20042842.first-minister-condemns-mindless-thuggish-behaviour-old-firm-match/

          This article? With the mad Sidney Burnett, who might just be a WUM? There are lots of references to the butcher’s apron and then there’s this:

          William Wilson
          Course she did, must keep in with the IRA tendency section of the SNP. The butcher’s apron is one of the IRA’s favourite phrases.

        2. Sturgeon condemns ‘thuggish behaviour’ after Celtic man bottled at Old Firm match

          https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/20042842.first-minister-condemns-mindless-thuggish-behaviour-old-firm-match/

          This article? With the mad Sidney Burnett, who might just be a WUM? There are lots of references to the butcher’s apron and then there’s this:

          William Wilson
          Course she did, must keep in with the IRA tendency section of the SNP. The butcher’s apron is one of the IRA’s favourite phrases.

    2. Aha! The half bottle of Glens! How classy! We have at least 5 of those a week in our lane! My old man goes nuts!
      I told him that it’s better than the condoms in the summer!🙄

      1. I once counted thirty plus discarded Glen bottles with accompanying Energy drink cans (mostly Red Bull) on the verge of a mile stretch of the perimeter road of Ridgewell Aifield at the back of us.

        They have raves in a farm barn on the airfield. The last rave left one dead from a drug overdose and another hospitalised. Some of the hooligans were stranded overnight and it being a cold night sought refuge in our village church, knocking on doors at 4.00am and annoying villagers.

  86. Well, that’s another wood-stack finished, cleared out and ready for restacking.
    Also I’ve dug a hole for the foundations of the next bit of the lower wall and ordered a ton of concrete ballast to get started, delivered Wednesday or Thursday.

    A bit of news on the van front.
    The write off value is £4½k but the insurer has agreed that I can buy it back for salvage but, as it’s a Category S write off (structural damage, no matter how slight) it has to be MOTed before being used again. The buy-back is for £675!!
    The MOT is booked for Thursday afternoon.

    And a bit of music:-
    https://youtu.be/i-iTKXAB0LA

    1. I don’t understand any of that car stuff, but good luck with it all.
      Can you dig an even bigger hole and shove the govt in?
      Am already listening to music… Bach…

      1. A lovely choice.

        When a vehicle is involved in an accident and an insurance claim made, the vehicle is assessed as to whether it is reparable at a cost that makes sense.
        Ones that the insurer decides will be too expensive to repair, i.e. £6½k to repair a van worth only £4½k, will be given a category indicating the type of damage, structural or cosmetic.

        The damage done to my van is largely cosmetic, but the rear of the van floor, adjacent to the rear doors, is slightly buckled. Not serious enough to stop it from being safely drivable, but just enough to put it into that S Category.

        Once it’s been MOTed and confirmed that it is safe to drive, I can start driving it again.

        1. Thank you Bob, I am not sure I am any the wiser but I hope it works out. Bach is always a good choice.

        2. So are you saying, BoB, that the insurance company will pay you £4.5k and take the car and crush it? But that if you pay them £675 they will let you have the written off van and do a bit of work on it yourself and, assuming it passes its MOT, you can drive it from now onwards? My confusion is about the £4.5k. Do you still get this from the insurance company if you pay them the £675, i.e. will you end up with £4,500 less £675 (a balance of £3,825) in your bank account (less the sum you pay the person who does the MOT)? If so, and the look of the van is not really that important to you, then surely you are quids in!

          1. Good morning!
            Yep! That is my understanding, though if I did take the full £4½k I doubt if the van would be crushed intact but rather stripped for spares and given the reconditioned gearbox I had fitted last year, they’d come close to that price in the spares value.

      1. I want to get the rear panelled out, with insulation, but still need it as a load carrier.
        I am toying with fitting a folding bunk though.

  87. Am not going to whinge tonight… but will say this, called the hospital at 2. 30 today. Had to leave a message with my name, hospital number and I also gave my phone number. Not a thing. They told me two days before I got the sodding biopsy results- it will be 3 weeks on Weds.
    Thank god for Bach and Vivaldi!!

    3. Still waiting for my ultrasound scan result (artery near heart might require a stent) after a month or so. Hospital might have sent result to my utterly useless GP surgery which would explain the delay.

      Throughout my own recent medical issues I have felt truly let down by our GPs. Addenbrookes, by contrast, have been excellent.

    1. Batteries will get smaller and smaller – they always do. The future will be replaceable rechargeable batteries.

  90. Becoming transgender a sacred journey of becoming whole, says ex-Archbishop of Canterbury
    Lord Williams of Oystermouth wades into conversion therapy debate as No 10’s stance sparks boycott of its LGBT conference
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/04/becoming-transgender-sacred-journey-becoming-whole-says-ex-archbishop/

    My total contempt for Justout Welby has led me to forget just how truly awful Rowan Williams was. It is high time the Church of England was abolished

    A BTL Comment:

    Maybe Rowan Williams ought to look at The Holy Bible:

    MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM!

    1. Our mediaeval churches were Catholic long before the Church of England. Not much of a choice nowadays between either. Both are corrupt and stand for nought.

      Edit: That idiot, supposedly an academic and Master of a Cambridge College, (last I heard), should invest in a few books by C S Lewis and try to read the Bible.

    2. Yup, Roman Williams is the man who argued in favour of Shariah Law. No principles. Bandwagons R Us.

    3. Oystermouth – says it all! I don’t think those in the top ranks of the CofE have the slightest idea of Christianity and certainly have a weird idea of sacredness.

  91. Evening, all. If the Ukrainian family is stuck in Europe, perhaps they would be better off finding a berth there. We’re full (and broke)!

        1. I’ve lost one tooth to a work related injury at sea when the molar was cracked. Otherwise I’m denticompos. I just made up that word.
          How’s Oscar? My Oscar is upstairs with the OH and I’m always a bit jealous he doesn’t sleep on my bed. Aren’t dogs great?

          1. I had to have four healthy teeth removed in childhood and even so, my teeth were under such pressure that one split down the middle and had to be removed. Hence I am non-denticompos 🙂 Oscar is asleep in Charlie’s old bed beside my computer. He had a bit of a relapse today when I was trying to make a fuss of him and started going for my hand. He had to be reminded that strokes and treats are conditional on good behaviour, so he was deprived of those for an hour or so.

  92. Good night, everyone. Today I went with three other wrinklier to watch THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, a Danish film with English sub-titles. We all voted it a “Thumbs Up” and I can heartily recommend it.

    2. “Today I went with three other wrinklier to watch..” Was that supposed to be a comparative or a plural?

      1. It was a plural, JS. The plural of “wrinkly” is “wrinklies” but Spell Checker changed it to the comparative “wrinklier” as it is an idiot.

  95. 351862 + up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Tuesday 5 April: Brave Ukrainians’ gains show the need for more British Army reserves
    After seeing the way ex Tommy Atkins are treated, vets on pavement beds whilst others are involved in NI court cases will there not be a recruitment problem finding indigenous recruits

    So the plan then could very well be an army reserve made up of potential troops arriving via the Dover government
    orchestrated campaign, as in an internal foreign army, in waiting.

    Those in the electorate majority who have had a hand in bringing us to our present
    unpleasant state of affairs as a nation must be asked ” will you feel more secure knowing we have a mainly Muslim standing army in reserve , waiting”.

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