Monday 7 August: Where is the value for money in paying Gary Lineker’s vast BBC salary?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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516 thoughts on “Monday 7 August: Where is the value for money in paying Gary Lineker’s vast BBC salary?”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s short and simple

    Stationary or Stationery

    While vacationing in the hills of Alabama, a businessman discovers he has no writing paper for his personal correspondence. So he goes into a small town nearby and finds only an old-fashioned country store. Behind the counter is a really nice-looking young lass, obviously a local farm girl. She looks him up and down, as if she’s sizing him up.
    After checking the shelves, he turns to her and asks: “Do you keep stationery?”
    “Only until I have an orgasm,” she says. “Then I just go wild and crazy!”

    1. Good for you, Sir Jasper, I hope that the site gains you at the very least a good friend.

  5. Where is the value for money in paying Gary Lineker’s vast BBC salary?

    The value for money is proving to the public how easy it is to waste their money when a provider has no incentive to provide a service and where the customer is undervalued and looked down upon .
    Just like any public service, I suppose.

  6. Morning Geoff and all,

    Whist the car industry is putting pressure on governments along with motorists to save the main way of personal transportation in the world there are literally thousands of all kinds of vehicles at the bottom of the sea.

    This video explains why but it useful to appreciate the dangers of EV fires when the rules about storage and transportation of such vehicles are unregulated:

    https://youtu.be/IUTiJsoFNgE

  7. Morning Geoff and all,

    Whist the car industry is putting pressure on governments along with motorists to save the main way of personal transportation in the world there are literally thousands of all kinds of vehicles at the bottom of the sea.

    This video explains why but it useful to appreciate the dangers of EV fires when the rules about storage and transportation of such vehicles are unregulated:

    https://youtu.be/IUTiJsoFNgE

  8. NatWest imposes new cash limits in latest de-banking row. 7 August 2023.

    NatWest has granted itself “sweeping new powers” to limit cash deposits and withdrawals, fuelling warnings that banks are forcing customers towards a “cashless society”.

    The high-street bank has told current account holders it is bringing in new conditions “giving us the right to set limits on inbound and outbound payments”.

    In a leaflet it said that could include imposing “daily and annual” cash withdrawal and deposit limits and “limiting the amount of cash” paid in or taken out.

    So it’s no longer your money?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/06/natwest-cash-limits-cashless-society-coutts-debanking-row/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    2. Someone we know banks with Santander, and they have placed similar restrictions on her account.

    3. I don’t remember which country. In Africa i think. They tried to go over to digital currency or another currency and there was a rush on the banks. These new rules will protect banks from that.

      Invest in gold and bury it.

  9. Good morning, chums. I slept really well last night, despite my need for a three hour long mid-morning session of ZEDs (do our friends in the USA take ZEEs?) and here I am, back again for what looks like a busy but not a hectic week. I wish you all the same.

    1. Apologies, Elsie.
      I am hoping this week to catch upon things I haven’t done; the story of the past 6+ months.
      Yesterday disappeared down the tubes when someone popped in and blew yet another day apart.
      I know I should be grateful that anyone wishes to visit the old farts, but her timing could not have been worse.

      2. Glad to read that, Annie. For a time I was beginning to think that I had inadvertently upset you somehow. Keep plodding on with your painting, decluttering, taking Spartie for a walk and unpacking boxes from the attic. And give me a ring, but only when time permits. If I am, it will be good to chat; if not, just try another time.

    1. No idea, Annie. How about phoning me to let me know? I really would appreciate a brief chat. Yours, Elsie, aka …..

    4. 375255+ up ticks,

      Morning Anne,

      Could it possible be an injured leg rest, if not bloody wel.l why nor ?

      1. 🙂

        Apparently it is a “gout stool”; a Victorian invention.
        In other words painful swollen feet are raised.
        I found a battered version in a junk shop some 40 years ago.
        We have just got round to asking our curtain and upholstery lass to recover and revive it (including the end where the late George, the JR puppy, exercised his teeth c. 20 years back).

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35a3922ac7b7e297827c397911d62465997953b8ba097377320ec9e0e33d7edc.jpg

  11. 375255+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    . Now they will put the blame on the politicians to save their skins, (reminiscent of rodents in a sack) I would say equal blame with greed, manipulation, and treacherous power being
    major dominant factors.

    Surely a vote for these current politico’s / “governing “parties before this odious issue is sorted to EVERY ONES satisfaction, is to declare you are a member of an electoral fifth column.

    https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1687391211592486912?s=20

  12. Good Morning All. 13C clear blue sky no wind. looks like a great day to come.

  14. Here is Chris Bryant’s plan to clean up Parliament – it may baffle you. 7 August 2023.

    But what readers will primarily want to know is how Sir Chris would sort out Parliament. His proposals include a ban on MPs having second jobs (with certain public-spirited exceptions, such as ‘NHS nurse’); extending the scope of the Lobbying Act; creating a new system for suspending MPs; slashing the number of peers to 180 (there are currently almost 800); and introducing cameras in the division lobbies (to discourage strong-arm tactics by whips).

    His suggestions seem perfectly reasonable. On the other hand, I’m not sure they live up to his claim that they’re “vital for the reinvigoration and survival of parliament and representative democracy”. They aren’t earth-shatteringly radical, and some sound like fiddling at the edges. If you were to tell voters, for example, that Sir Chris is anxious to raise the quorum for the Annual General Meeting of an All-Party Parliamentary Group from five to eight, their first response would likely be “What?”, and their second, once the idea had been explained, a shrug.

    The only solution to what ails Parliament is Revolution and the destruction of the Political Elites!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/chris-bryant-review-code-conduct/

    1. Underpants Bryant…how on earth was he appointed to chair such an important parliamentary committee and given a knighthood, when he hid behind parliamentary priviledge to accuse Nigel Farage of taking Russian money – an accusation he hasn’t had the guts to repeat outside? Was he really the best person for the job?

      ‘Morning, Minty.

    2. ‘The only solution to what ails Parliament is Revolution and the destruction of the Political Elites!’

      Starting with Bryant.

      Good morning.

  15. ‘Morning, Peeps. A lovely sunny start to the day with 20 degs C and more to come – apart from a possible shower around lunchtime.

    SIR – Most countries go out of their way to back local industry, but not Britain.

    Rolls-Royce has been making small nuclear power plants for submarines for many years very successfully, but instead of backing Britain by going ahead and developing this technology for small nuclear power stations – creating many jobs and generating huge export opportunities – Grant Shapps, the Energy Secretary, has opened this up to foreign competition, with the possibility of our importing them and all the profits going abroad (“Rolls-Royce ‘in holding pattern’ awaiting decision on mini-nukes”, report, August 4).

    Tony Blair’s government decided to use the Chinese firm Huawei for our telecommunications, so Marconi, one of the world’s oldest telecommunications companies, went out of business, with the loss of many jobs. I hope that Grant Shapps’s constituency party calls him in, ticks him off and says “Back Britain”.

    Andrew Rixon
    Hertford

    SIR – In 1962 America agreed to supply the UK with Polaris, a submarine-launched ballistic missile. In 1964, design of the Resolution class nuclear-powered submarine – able to carry 16 Polaris missiles armed with British nuclear warheads – was started.

    The submarine was designed from scratch and the first Polaris missile was successfully fired from a British boat in 1968, on time and on budget, largely due to the unstinting efforts of senior Royal Navy officers who stayed with the project from its inception.

    The Rolls-Royce pressurised water reactor in each Polaris submarine provided enough power for a small town and gave safe service for nearly 30 years in four boats. Rolls-Royce also provides power for the current Trident deterrent.
    Why this Government has decided to prevaricate and delay the introduction of Rolls-Royce small modular reactors is beyond me, and probably many others.

    Brian Farmer
    Braintree, Essex

    Unfortunately anything involving that charlatan Shatts will almost certainly end up as yet another expensive shambles. Given the urgency of the situation and the fact that the RR technology in SMRs has a very good track record, why in God’s name are we seeking foreign involvement in such a project? Andrew Rixon’s reference to Huawei is well made, and even now we have yet to finish the removal of their dodgy equipment from our IT systems. Will we never learn?

    2. Good morning Hugh ,

      Ministers don’t learn from their predecessors, so they?

      The Westland affair in 1985–86 was an episode in which Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and her Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Heseltine, went public over a cabinet dispute with questions raised about whether the conventions of cabinet government were being observed and about the integrity of senior politicians.

      The argument was over the future of Westland Helicopters, Britain’s last helicopter manufacturer, which was to be the subject of a rescue bid. The Defence Secretary, Heseltine, favoured a European solution, integrating Westland with a consortium including British Aerospace (BAe), Italian (Agusta) and French companies. Thatcher and Trade and Industry Secretary Leon Brittan, while ostensibly maintaining a neutral stance, wanted to see Westland merge with Sikorsky, an American company.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_affair#:~:text=The%20argument%20was%20over%20the,(Agusta)%20and%20French%20companies.

      1. ‘Morning, Belle. I remember the Westland affair and Tarzan striding off down Downing St…

      2. Given Westland’s long association with Sikorsky, particularly with developments of the S55/Whirlwind and S58/Wessex, that would probably have been the better option.

    4. Throwing open the project to foreign competitors goes along with the EU way of thinking. Yes, I know we’ve left . But we all know we haven’t and that HMG is doing everything in its power to ease our way back in.

      Every big decision this government has made has been disastrous for the U.K. all so that it can say Brexit was a catastrophe and we need to rejoin.

      1. Delay, delay, delay, hold up, waste, delay. No doubt the civil service has continued the tendering ideology from the EU (AS VW has said) and is using this deliberately to stall the whole process. All to ensure net zero lies can continue, all to keep energy expensive, solely to drive down demand and make everyone believe that rechaining to the EU s the only option.

  16. Good morning all. An initially dull, overcast start, but the cloud is clearing as I type and it’s 8½°C outside.

    Mr. Holgate’s daughter might have been better of had he bought premium bonds and had whatever winnings received re-invested.

    SIR – Fourteen years ago, my daughter was born and we were given £250 to invest in a trust fund. We did so with NatWest and agreed to add £10 per month to the account. We have contributed £1,960 over 14 years, so the capital sum is £2,210.

    My current statement shows that the fund is valued at £2,245. After 14 years, we have just a £35 increase.

    Andrew Holgate
    Wilmslow, Cheshire

    2. Look on the bright side. Growth figures are held up by the level of market-led bonuses competitive with American Best Practice given out to banking executives, who are surely entitled to their hard-earned pay!

    3. I’m surprised Mr Holgate didn’t wind up the trust fund a lot sooner seeing as it was performing no better than sticking your hand down the back of every sofa he sat on in 14 years.

      1. Yes. A Vanguard high risk shares account would have got him 7% over the period. He’d still have lost money compared to inflation, but it would at least bring money in.

      2. Yes. A Vanguard high risk shares account would have got him 7% over the period. He’d still have lost money compared to inflation, but it would at least bring money in.

    4. That’d be because Gordon Brown suppressed interest rates for 10 of them to keep borrowing vast amounts of money. Then Osborne pushed QE to devalue the currency. If he thinks that is a paltry sum then imagine the effect that would have on wages, prices and oh look! Inflation!

      I do wish people would stop blaming shops and energy companies for the price of things. The fault lies solely and totally with the state.

    5. Even worse, we were given a small sum invested in Children’s Bonds when my daughter was born. When she was 16 and the bonds matured, we were overseas and she had only a savings account and they refused to pay out.
      When she got a UK bank a/c last year and cashed them in, the total was much reduced, as they had deducted a fee every year since she was 16, for holding the money for her! We had been of course completely unaware of that.

    6. With the taste of inflation over those 14 years, in fact I reckon he has lost money instead of increased his lump sum by £35. Did it really take him 14 years to discover that it was time to stop investing and move his cash elsewhere?

  17. Beautiful sunny morning here. If only we had had this sunshine all weekend for Gatcombe. Yesterday was fine but the event was cancelled on Saturday evening after the torrential rain made the ground impossible.
    Being towed out by a nice young man in a big tractor was fun though!

    1. Many years ago I and others had been ‘volunteered’ to assist with a country horse show. It rained heavily mid-afternoon and we had borrowed a tractor from the local farmer to tow out those who unfortunately left it late and got stuck in the mud.

      A well-spoken and rather pushy individual came over to me and demanded that he would be next in the queue of people waiting to be towed. I pointed out that there were others ahead of him and therefore he would have to wait his turn. Having made sure that his was the last we needed to tow I went over, with the tractor. His was the biggest horsebox I had ever set eyes on. – it was an absolute monster! In addition to his two horses, the family was sitting down in the accommodation section, eating their tea. I explained that we were charging a fiver a time with the proceeds going to the Riding for the Disabled charity. He point-blank refused to pay. My response was “Have a good evening, Sir” before walking away and leaving him to it. He soon came running after me to plead that we couldn’t leave him . Listening to his much-modified tone was a joy! I told him that in view of the size of the task the cost had gone up – to twenty quid. (Worth something 40 years ago.) Additionally, I would need both horses and his large family off the horsebox before a tow would be attempted. He said that this was unreasonable (the rain was becoming even heavier) and refused. Then the farmer arrived, wanting his tractor back because he needed to feed his pigs. When he was aware of the situation he told the owner, in a stream of the most impressive bad language, that he had two choices – take it or leave it. I thought we were heading for a punch-up, but then Mrs Owner intervened and told her beloved to grow up and get on with it. After much sniggering we eventually got it out after horses and people were off. Fortunately we had demanded payment up front, and after detaching the hawser he drove out of the showground and away without a word of thanks – in stark contrast to the gratitude expressed by the others similarly rescued. Happy days…

      1. Great put down for the unpleasant bloke. Did he manage to get his horses and people back on board?
        Most of the horses and large horse boxes were up on higher ground at the weekend and a lot had left by lunchtime yesterday. The main trading and arena area was where the quagmire was.

        1. Yes, although he didn’t find it easy because the vehicle was listing and the horses were.reluctant to get back on board.

      2. An excellent story that one!

        Coming out of a not quite yet totally boggy Hartington Steam Rally in the pouring rain, I noticed a VW Camper stuck in a rut and the lass driving trying to use simple engine revs to get out.
        Making sure my Transit was on firm ground, I walked over and asked if she needed a hand. When she said “Yes” I told her to hop round to the passenger seat and got in.
        I then proceeded to talk her through how to “rock” a vehicle out of a rut as I demonstrated, getting it out on about the 3rd or 4th rock.
        I always regret not asking her for her phone number!

        1. I learned to rock my way out in a Land Rover as it would otherwise cost a Herfie ten-pack for the REME crew. And always try to get back out the way you went in.

  18. I keep an eye on ‘Situations Vacant’ ads from my former employer to get an idea of comings and goings.

    Every job, no matter how mundane, is described as ‘exciting’ and generally ‘hyped’. Have also noticed how ‘management speak’ has permeated the wording, but normally can work out what is meant. However, the following had me puzzled:

    ‘Health and Safety Advisor’ states ‘Reporting in a matrix to the Head of Operational Risk with a dotted line to the Executive Director of Collections and Governance and Director General …’

    Any ideas about what ‘matrix’ and ‘dotted line’ mean in this context?

    4. Does matrix mean no individual can ever be held to account for a bad decision, and dotted line means you can sneak on your colleagues’ woke failures in secret?

    5. I am guessing that the matrix is some sort of shared responsibility, so you’ll be reporting to one or more bosses, but you’ll also have responsibility to the bosses of equality and health and safety?
      and the dotted line means that you bypass the power structure to report directly to the Executive Director of Collations.
      sosraboc hits the nail on the head.

      Boy, I bet you are glad to be out of that!

    6. They are BS terms to hide the complete lack of actually doing the job.

      We provide a glossary of terms in our documentation to either be printed or read from the site to explain the jargon we throw about. As someone who isn’t technically capable wrote it, it’s quite understandable.

  19. Just a small adjustment needed to the letters’ headline…
    Where is the value for money in paying Gary Lineker’s vast BBC salary?

  20. Just a small adjustment needed to the letters’ headline…
    Where is the value for money in paying Gary Lineker’s vast BBC salary?

    1. Doesn’t take 5 minutes to say, “Get back to doing the effing job you’re paid to do”.

      1. 375255+up ticks,

        Morning KtK,
        Another issue people power
        could solve via unity in the form of approaching the area council with,
        we want our council tax adjusted so as not to agree
        to our funding being spent with such gay abandon.

    2. For flip’s sake. I don’t care – or want to know – about your sexual proclivities. Get on with solving crime. Nothing else matters.

      On that note, we had a scrote belting about on a scooter, beeping his horn as he was driving dangerously. My neighbour had called plod but they weren’t interested, so I suggested telling them there was a kid lying in the road knocked off his bike by a car.

      Amazingly, plod arrived and told the brat to get lost!

    4. I thought they had announced that LBQT etc month was July. It looks as if month means 2/3/4/? months.

    1. Education in this country is sadly lacking. The stupid use of the wrong pronouns merely adds to the confusion.

    2. Suggested new terms:

      i. Efftoem and Emtoeff
      ii. Mantowo and Womtoma
      iii. Hadanob and Hadaboob
      iv. Wasman and Waswom
      v. Maninadress and Womanintrews

      1. I like iii. Then we can replace the unpleasant “cis” with “Hadenuff” too.

    3. Let’s make it really simple. If you’re a man who thinks he’s a woman, then we will call you a man. If you’re a woman who thinks he’s a man, then we’ll call you a woman.

      It makes life so much simpler to keep to the facts.

    2. Whatever the cause, small increases in water temp have huge effects that might not be immediately apparent. An example is that as the water near the surface warms even a little, fish and other organisms in the sea start to inhabit a deeper, cooler zone. This affects dolphins, porpoises and whales as they are not able to swim to the new depths needed to feed.

      There’ll be a myriad other effects such as this on the flora and fauna of all ecosystems. I’m not certain we can do anything about it but it is very sad, all the same. Evolution is always hailed as a marvellous march to the top, ignoring the plight of those species that didn’t make it.

      1. I thought whales could swim quite far into the depths. Here is a quote from American Oceans website in response to “How Deep can Whales Dive?”:

        While the normal depth for most whales is around 100 meters (328 feet), some species are capable of diving much deeper. For example, the Cuvier’s beaked whale has been known to dive to depths of up to 2,992 meters (9,816 feet), making it the deepest-diving mammal in the world.

      2. They might just move into more northerly waters though. The climate has always changed, and species have always adapted, including ours.

      3. Yet evolution isn’t a static event. It is on going. Apes are starting to use tools to cross rivers from observing that logs float, for example.

        The problem is the apex predators ‘can’t’ evolve any further. Sharks being a prime example. They are perfectly adapted to their purpose and environment. It’s like asking a torpedo to be a depth charge. The redesign would have to go backward.

    4. The assumption here is that sharks can get angry. I would be surprised if an ichthyologist agreed with that assessment.

      Don’t leave your home. It’s tooooo dangerous !

      1. I know Mongo can get frustrated – he paces. I know dogs can be scared, nervous, anxious as Oscar would growl and whine when we got him (he’s now flopped over my feet). I know they can be tired, bored, happy, grumpy, excited – surely any animal can share these emotions? The only lack is ways to express them?

          1. No, I don’t think so. When he’s bored he’ll flop his head on his paws. When upset, he hangs his tail and head and ‘slouches’. When excited, he’ll bound about, moving a bit more animatedly. When angry he’ll huff. I’ve never known Mongo to growl. He did once and I couldn’t work out what it was until his earth moving bark arrived soon after.

            When he’s waiting for his tea he’ll go around inn circles, with his battering tail going nine time to the dozen. When he’s snaffled a plate of sausage rolls and looks up and to the left, and back at you, then away, then back as if guilty.

            The Warqueen thinks he and I share a telepathic bond but he’s not difficult to read.

    5. Next this useless government will be arranging counselling sessions for them – ignoring that there aren’t any ruddy sharks in English waters!

  24. West must protect Kosovo from Serbia and Russia, senior politicians warn. 7 August 2023.

    The West is failing to protect Kosovo from Serbian and Russian aggression because of its naive and biased policies, senior politicians from Britain and the US have warned.

    In a letter shared with The Telegraph, they said that the West’s approach to nation-building in Kosovo was “flawed” and will leave its Balkan ally vulnerable.

    “Kosovo is a sovereign country and functioning democracy,” the 54 politicians said. “Attempts to disrupt democratic elections in Kosovo by Serbia must be criticised publicly as foreign interference.”

    Who’s going to protect them from Britain and the USA?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/06/west-must-protect-kosovo-from-serbia-russia/

    1. “Kosovo is a sovereign country and functioning democracy,” the 54 politicians said.

      Kosovo is 95% Muslim. Serbians have never forgotten the Battle of Kosovo, 1389.

  25. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bcecc59d8abb520878d2fd81061a22df09408c47719910bf0d002222d58df773.png

    “Government wants marking standards to return to pre-pandemic levels.” Marking standards should return to pre-Blair standards. Indeed standards had already started falling in the 1970s.

    We remember waking up to the Today programme when Blair was PM and David Miliband was an education spokesman. As year by year better and better exam grades were announced Miliband assured us with Panglossian certainty that standards were higher than ever, teachers had never been so dedicated and school children had never worked harder. This was a complete lie as anyone involved in teaching with a scrap of honesty knew.

    Soon after we started running our courses we bought a copy of the Daily Telegraph Schools Guide and saw that in 1992 St Paul’s Girls’ School was top of the independent schools’ “A” level results table and 80% of its pupils achieved A or B grades.” In 2022 St Paul’s Girls’ School was 2nd in the table but this time over 95% of the girls achieved A or A* grades!

    At least politicians are admitting that standards have fallen – but have they fallen beyond any hope of repair?

    BTL

    Since 1990 we have been running intensive “A” level revision courses in France.

    In that time standards have dropped beyond belief – a student who, in 1990 would have been lucky to have achieved a C grade would now easily achieve an A or and A* grade.

    Many of today’s “A” level French candidates have no concept at all of grammar and are even incapable of conjugating their verbs – not even the essential auxiliaries avoir and être!

  26. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bcecc59d8abb520878d2fd81061a22df09408c47719910bf0d002222d58df773.png

    “Government wants marking standards to return to pre-pandemic levels.” Marking standards should return to pre-Blair standards. Indeed standards had already started falling in the 1970s.

    We remember waking up to the Today programme when Blair was PM and David Miliband was an education spokesman. As year by year better and better exam grades were announced Miliband assured us with Panglossian certainty that standards were higher than ever, teachers had never been so dedicated and school children had never worked harder. This was a complete lie as anyone involved in teaching with a scrap of honesty knew.

    Soon after we started running our courses we bought a copy of the Daily Telegraph Schools Guide and saw that in 1992 St Paul’s Girls’ School was top of the independent schools’ “A” level results table and 80% of its pupils achieved A or B grades.” In 2022 St Paul’s Girls’ School was 2nd in the table but this time over 95% of the girls achieved A or A* grades! In my day several people managed to get into Oxbridge with three B grades and in the 1970s my niece got into Oxford with A, B, C grades. B grades are now not even worth recording in the league tables and C grades aren’t even on the radar.

    At least politicians are admitting that standards have fallen – but have they fallen beyond any hope of repair?

    BTL

    Since 1990 we have been running intensive “A” level revision courses in France.

    In that time standards have dropped beyond belief – a student who, in 1990 would have been lucky to have achieved a C grade would now easily achieve an A or and A* grade.

    Many of today’s “A” level French candidates have no concept at all of grammar and are even incapable of conjugating their verbs – not even the essential auxiliaries avoir and être!

    1. During the early 1990s, a Maths professor friend told me that she was spending the first year taking her students through work that should have been covered in ‘A’ levels.

      1. The International Baccalaureate (with which the MR is deeply involved) has a “top rate” of 8% Just as the top rate of A Level was in the good old days before it was decided that all should have prizes.

        1. After being home-schooled by Caroline and me up to the age of 15 Christo (now 29) did the IB at Gresham’s; Henry (now 27) chose to go to a boarding state school in Ashby-de-la-Zouch and did 4 “A” levels.

          Christo got a 2.1 B.Eng in Aerospace Engineering; Henry got 2.1 B.A. in Philosophy and Politics at UEA but after a couple of years working in the computer business he did an M.Sc in Computer Science and Data Analytics at York University, was top of his year and was awarded a distinction.

          Though we paid for them to go through university so they did not start their working lives in debt we haven’t had to subsidise them at all since then and both have bought their own properties and earn considerably more than we do!

          Caroline finds that in general “A” level students of French have reached a higher level than those studying IB French at Higher Level.

        2. After being home-schooled by Caroline and me up to the age of 15 Christo (now 29) did the IB at Gresham’s; Henry (now 27) chose to go to a boarding state school in Ashby-de-la-Zouch and did 4 “A” levels.

          Christo got a 2.1 B.Eng in Aerospace Engineering; Henry got 2.1 B.A. in Philosophy and Politics at UEA but after a couple of years working in the computer business he did an M.Sc in Computer Science and Data Analytics at York University, was top of his year and was awarded a distinction.

          Though we paid for them to go through university so they did not start their working lives in debt we haven’t had to subsidise them at all since then and both have bought their own properties and earn considerably more than we do!

          Caroline finds that in general “A” level students of French have reached a higher level than those studying IB French at Higher Level.

    2. I studied French only to O Level but feel I’m reasonably fluent. I couldn’t get a job as a ‘terp in the UN, but chat away merrily on my hols.

      My friends who don’t speak French are always very impressed but anyone listening who does speak French will realise its gobbledegook. I’ve never been great at conjugating irregular verbs, guess most of the time whether a noun is feminine or masculine, and if I don’t know a word, just say the English one in a French accent.

      I must sound like the policeman from ‘Allo ‘Allo! Hee hong hee hong. 🤭

      1. I’m similar. I happily speak to French people at functions and they reply, and I’ve had many a pleasant evening where I might well be the only Englishman there.
        A useful tip I’ve found is that almost every common word ending “ation” has a similar if not identical meaning in both languages.
        (the fluent Nottlers will doubtless correct me)

          1. Oddly enough, it’s a subject that can make interesting conversations.
            We make a point of attending the 11 November and 8 May commemorations if we’re here and people are delighted that we take an interest in battlefields and war memorials as we travel around France.

        1. I remember a film called ‘There’s a Girl in My Soup’ in which Peter Sellers arrived at a French hotel with a pretty young bride played by Goldie Hawn.

          As he headed towards their room the booking clerk wished him great a pee ness.

      3. I passed “O” level French in 1962.

        Before coming to France I worked my way through bits of Whitmarsh with Caroline and I was soon on a par with the best of our students who were heading for Oxbridge in the early1990s.

        To be honest my French could do with a great deal of improvement and Caroline corrects my mistakes – especially in front of our students!

          1. I think so. I used to invigilate A Level papers when I was teaching and I could answer the questions from general knowledge!

      4. Saying the English words in a French accent is not necessarily a bad thing (to others than the Academie Francaise, of course). If you want jump leads, you ask for “des jump leads” – with a French accent, of course. Same for le weekend, le five o’clock, le parking …

    3. Standards are not higher. Exams are getting easier and children are taught to pass the tests, not educated to think. We took on an A star level graduate who cannot write. Worse, he doesn’t see why it matters.

      1. Indeed. Ref my comment below about 8% of IB candidates getting the top grade.

        When I was nobbut a lad, with my 8 O Levels – just 8% of children went to university – instead of the 130% who go now – to study mathematics.

    4. I learned German in my 30s. I took the O level after one year – went to the school where my boys were pupils. I took the oral with great trepidation. At the end the teacher said ” well done – that was better than most of the boys”. I got an A.
      Two years later I did the A level and passed with a B.

      1. I did a couple of years of German but dropped it at O Level.
        Funny story with our French oral exams. We all did the conversation exam with the teacher and her advice after some fumbled over straightforward things was, don’t worry about answering questions truthfully, learn a lot of words about a particular topic and try to bring them into all your answers.
        When the day arrived, six of us got duly selected for test by the externaI examiner, went in one by one for about fifteen mins conversation and came out again and met in the JCR where our teacher came to find us. He said that examiner was intrigued at the coincidence that five of our fathers were travel agents.

        1. I was an Army map reading instructor. I gave one class a test on the symbols on OS maps. One such symbol was for an archaeoligical site. Amazingly four students sat together all managed to spell “archaeoligical” with a Q instead of a C.

          1. I was a Signals Instructor and often taught BATCO to the Standard II cadres.
            There was one time when I was reading out a msg to be decoded that went something like
            “Hello W10 this is 0. DRG CT SD RF AQ… etc”
            One of the squaddies put up his hand and asked me to speak more slowly. He’d got as far as Delta Romeo Golf

        2. When I took my O Level French oral I had prepared pretty much what I was going to say and when they asked about my family, I mentioned, en passant, that my grandfather was Welsh. I was a bit taken aback when asked to describe my grandfather as I never actually knew him, he having shuffled off this mortal coil before I was born. “Il est mort” I answered truthfully. The examiner laughed.

      2. I did German in my second year at grammar school. The really bright ones did Latin. I got on well in the first year until they introduced the third gender. The confusion reigned in my head.

        I am still confused by gender! :-))

        1. I did French and Latin at school but not German. I took both at A level and got low grades at French and English and a miserable failure at Latin . I spent that year enjoying life with boyfriends instead of knuckling down to hard work at school. My mum was disappointed but she didn’t say too much.

          Gender is an odd one – it does seem quite irrational that a table should be feminine and other things masculine or neuter. Probably related to the declensions rather than a sexual attribute.

          3. My father got a double first in classics at Cambridge and won all the academic prizes after having served in the First World War. For some reason rather than becoming a don, as his college, St John’s, wanted him to do he decided to go out and govern the Sudanese instead.

            I found this rather more inhibiting and daunting than encouraging so instead of trying to follow in his footsteps I got rather mediocre “A” levels and went to UEA rather than Cambridge and have ended up having a pretty good life!

          4. I’m like you; I did French and Latin, not German, but I learned a lot of German vocab testing my friends in the B stream on their learning homework! I did pass my A Level French and Latin (and S Level French). Many of the romance languages take the genders from the declensions in Latin. Mensa (a table) is feminine, so une table, una tavola etc.

        2. We had the odd system where the supposedly bright ones did Latin at “O” level and the less bright ones did woodwork.

          I wish I had done woodwork – I do a lot of bodge work making bookshelves and running repairs. I did woodwork during Activities Afternoon in the excellent school carpentry shop and Mr Fisher was very patient with me. Dove-tail joints were beyond me – but I am quite handy with screw and glue and doweling.

          1. I won the 6th Form Languages Prize for French and German at boarding school. Never spoke either again until I was in my sixties. Remembered the grammar but the vocabulary had disappeared.

  27. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6783b9138825ddde96c2ffa1dbc23cb5b2547b2e22d49f2d0052a512121ffeb1.png

    What sheer hypocrisy from the grubbiest MP in the House!

    BTL

    The first thing Bryant should do is to try and stop MPs being able to use the shield of Parliamentary Privilege to slander and libel people and escape legal consequences by not repeating their slurs outside the House of Commons.

    Bryant said in the House of Commons that Nigel Farage had dishonestly received money from Russia. Farage not only denied this charge but he also challenged Bryant to repeat what he had said outside Parliament. Bryant was too craven to do so.

    3. More emphasis on how the HoC needs to be updated. It’s well past its sell by date. And it stinks.

    4. A first step is to move all MPs into IR35 immediately, back dated to when they started as MPs. That’ll put a stop to their fiddling – and IR35. Do the same to the Lords, scrapping the daily allowance. It is a duty, not a cash register.
      Then a rule that none can stand for more than 2 terms, unless expressly requested by a majority of their constituents.
      Immediately invoke referism, recall and direct democracy to allow the public to stop their stupid laws.

      Remove 90% of the lords leaving only 300 or so, those who have contributed the most.

      Investigate Blair’s tax affairs and fine him as appropriate. The Warqueen described his myriad companies as ‘elegant’, which is high praise for what is tax avoidance.

      Then hang Blair, Mandelson, Neather, Campbell and the entire Labour front bench. Beat Shunk to their knees and force them to admit that they’re deliberately trying to ruin the economy to force us back into the EU and to admit that the only way to grow the economy is by cutting state waste and taxes.

      Then get on with repealing the many hundreds and thousands of laws that hinder this country, re-write the tax code to a single, flat income tax, and drive a combine through Whitehall.

      1. I’d put them in the stocks and have people throw rotten eggs and tomatoes at them rather than making martyrs of them.

      2. Let them claim subsistence at the same rate the Army pays i.e., about £8.50 a day

    2. It’s not too late to start to stand up against this creeping anti social and destructive state. But we don’t have the wherewithal. Our leaders are far too stupid. The idiots would rather see people fined for parking and other minor ‘offences’ rather than the sneakingly planned and obvious destruction of our culture and social structure.

    3. Why do they come here? 70% are totally dependent on welfare. Free house, car, benefits. They’re given special treatment by the law so can scream and shout their putrid religion wherever they want, the police and state – which they’ve infiltrated – protect their rape of children.

      That’s why they come here.

      1. They come here for jihad. To force the kuffar to submit to islam (after all, it means ‘submission’) and pay jizya. They are pretty much already there.

    4. T_B, while I agree totally with the sentiment, the obvious edit inserting ‘the UK’ in a non-Serif typeface above the skull and bones suggests that this was originally about ‘America’. Am I wrong?

  29. Morning all 🙂😊
    My word it’s a lovely day out there today.
    Great day yesterday for the family barbie.
    I wast Just set up to start the cooking and (they call me rain man) and the heaven’s opened. But after half an our it had all cleared.
    And cushions on seats we all sat around the big table. The children have their own little table it all works out rather well.

    And as a licence fee payer and someone who cannot stand Mr Smug Lineker and now never watch him. I think I’m in line for some sort of compensation. We should all knock 25 quid off the fee next time.
    There are taking the P eye ss.

    1. Gosh, he really is stupid isn’t he. He thinks that the billionaires will extend the same protection to him as they enjoy themselves. He hasn’t yet realised that he’s expendible.

  33. UK may try to send small boat arrivals to Ascension Island, minister confirms. 7 August 2023.

    Plans to send people who enter the UK on small boats to a volcanic island in the south Atlantic are being considered in Whitehall, a government minister has confirmed.

    It was reported on Sunday that ministers were resurrecting the plan, which was rejected as unworkable when floated in 2020.

    On Monday, the Home Office minister Sarah Dines said the proposal to send people to Ascension Island could replace the government’s plan to deport people to Rwanda, should that policy fail.

    Lol. And next the moon?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/07/uk-may-try-to-send-small-boat-arrivals-to-ascension-island-minister-confirms

  35. The first 50 asylum seekers are due to arrive at the Bibby Stockholm today – as a minister insisted the barge won’t be luxurious because cross-Channel people smugglers were using the prospect of nice hotels to lure more clients.

    Some 500 men aged 18-65 will be housed in the hulking ‘floatel’ in Portland harbour on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast as they wait for their asylum applications to be processed.

    The first 20 guests will check in very soon and receive goody bags containing toiletries, a map, notebooks and pens and details of a phone-a-friend hotline if they want to chat.

    The three-storey Bibby Stockholm is the Home Office’s solution to its rocketing £6million-a-day hotel bill for new arrivals. The enormous barge, the length of a football pitch, has 222 en-suite bedrooms, TV rooms, a gym and a 24-hour canteen.

    Asylum seekers living on the barge will be given a taste of British life including cricket, cycling, tending allotments and going on guided hikes in the Dorset countryside.

    They will also take part in organised ‘cultural events’ and get free buses and taxis to enjoy local towns. Buses every hour from 7am to 11pm will ferry men to Weymouth, a nearby seaside resort with a beach, fishing boat fleet and marina.

    If they miss the 11pm bus back to the barge, free taxis are available by phoning a special number. On top of free food, accommodation and transport, each migrant is given £9.58 a week pocket money.

    1. If they miss the bus…!

      They’ll scarper the minute they’re off the bus and won’t be seen again.

        1. Are you sure? They can disappear into the – ahem! – black economy and still benefit.

    2. “The first 20 guests will check in very soon and receive goody bags
      containing toiletries, a map, notebooks and pens and details of a
      phone-a-friend hotline if they want to chat plus a rape kit”.

  36. This morning I’m preparing to boil an egg in a microwave.
    First of all however I wanted to find out how much energy would be needed to get 250 ml of water up to boiling:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b9a4a7601960f83613a370e4a2156cdcf45278538dd53d1561dc160503a5463.jpg

    So I made a BingAI prompt to get the shortest possible answer and I downloaded it in text format and this is the response:

    ## Bing
    To calculate the energy needed to raise the temperature of water, you need to know the specific heat capacity of water, which is 4,200 joules per kilogram per degree Celsius (J/kg°C) . This means that it takes 4,200 J to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1°C.
    Since you have 250 ml of water, which is equivalent to 0.25 kg, and you want to raise the temperature by 80°C (from 20°C to 100°C), you can use this formula:
    Energy = mass x specific heat capacity x temperature change
    Plugging in the values, you get:
    Energy = 0.25 x 4,200 x 80
    Energy = 84,000 J
    To convert joules to watt hours, you need to divide by 3,600 (the number of seconds in an hour):
    Energy = 84,000 / 3,600
    Energy = 23.33 Wh
    So, it takes 23.33 watt hours of energy to raise 250 ml of water from 20°C to 100°C.

        1. True. Timings and temperature are critical though. A small non stick pan will give a better result and you just need to wipe the pan out with kitchen paper.

          1. Depends how you like your scrambled eggs – timing is critical and constant stirring. I’ve never used a microwave and never will.

          5. We do not jhave one and thats why we do not eat out. When you read this about them just look at the get out clauses.

            Based on current knowledge about microwave radiation, the Agency believes that ovens that meet the FDA standard and are used according to the manufacturer’s instructions are safe for use. Microwave ovens are a convenient means to heat food and are generally safe when used correctly.20 Mar 2023

          6. It’s something I’ve never owned and never wanted. People used to heat up their lunches in them at work but I was never tempted.

  37. I expect this has already been askedcand answered but why have some people got a little head and shoulders silhouette and a small plus sign after their name?

    Edit – I just tried clicking on one and it went red.

  38. Just read this story in the DT – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/05/teacher-resign-pupil-glue-gun-burn-sarah-mead-tra-enfield/

    An “outstanding” and “adored” teacher was told to resign after a 10-year-old pupil suffered a “small” glue gun burn on his hand.

    Sarah
    Mead had an “unblemished” teaching career and became deputy headteacher
    at Meridian Angel Primary School in Enfield, north London.

    This teacher’s career has been ruined because the children disobeyed. The boy’s mother took him to hospital for a very minor burn.

    These people would have been aghast at what we as teenagers got up to in school chemistry lessons! One girl ended up with acid burns down her legs.

    2. As far as I can make out because the telselfgraph restricts access. No mention of where the mother comes from originally.

        1. There a lot of people originally from Somalia in Enfield now. The council had a huge problem with the men spitting the remains of the leaves they were chewing onto the towns pavements. But as usual in this country there are certain priorities that need to be met.

        1. I wonder what the outcome would have been had the boot been on the other foot?

          No I don’t really.

          2. Certainly a white mother organising a petition to get a black teacher sacked in similar circumstances.

        1. And what a fuss about nothing. That poor teacher probably didn’t even see the ‘burn’ before the kids went home. It had clearly been picked at in that photo.

          1. It’s an absolute disgrace.
            Obviously the teacher must be white. If this is true, this complaint is nothing but some sort of revenge racism.

          1. These people come to this country accept as much as they can get their hands on but never stop moaning.
            Why should they even be allowed to make such ludicrous demands not a single one of them has made any recognisable contribution to the UK.
            It’s Nothing but take and demand.

      3. And of course, it’s a gimmigrant. How, when a glue gun has a trigger do you get glue on the back of your hand?

        I showed Junior how to use a hot glue gun and we do a whole Breaking Bad gas masks thing for the 3d printing. This is a child who didn’t behave, didn’t listen and got hurt. It’s a tiny wound that’ll heal in no time. The mother should have said ‘your fault, kiddo. And apologise to the teacher.

      4. Ah. That photo reeks of professional victimhood. Look at the medications laid out.

    4. The teacher probably has the ‘wrong views’ and they used any excuse to get rid of her. Tribunal time.

      1. I think Caroline and I were wise to leave our jobs teaching in the UK in 1989.

        1. I think I dodged a bullet by not completing a PGCE course back in 1975. I decided teaching wasn’t for me. Even then, back in the day, I found the left-wingism stifling and oppressive. I would not have retired until 2007.

          1. I only ever taught in independent schools but the woke cancer is spreading even there.

            Alleyn’s School in Dulwich seems to be having a Ratners moment in messing about with the English Literature “A” level syllabus to challenge the pale, male and stale teachers such as myself who rather enjoy teaching proper English Literature.

        3. I was asked by a friend this afternoon if I missed teaching. After I’d stopped laughing manically, I told him, “only like I miss beating my head against a brick wall”.

      2. I wondered about that too. It’s utterly ridiculous. By the time we got to primary school, we had burned ourselves on a woodstove, the open fire, bonfires and the matches with which my parents lit the gas stove.

        1. Snapped zip line over old railway embankments, wheels falling off go carts and crashes, falling out of trees. I’m surprised i’m still alive…not.

          1. Falling off my bike and getting run over by my best friend who was following close behind …

    5. Awonder that we are not insanely dead after the chemistry labs.

      Oh look, magnesium tape burns brightly but that was not as much fun as rolling gobsof mercury around in our hands to see how it could split and reform. About the only thing they really controlled was phosphorus.

      Straight from there to schol dinner and no hand washing on the way.

  39. Well, the Essex birthday party passed off without incident. The Essex folk had “travelled” (clearly some pikey gens in some of them) to Clare Country Park in, er, Clare, Suffolk. Very nice place.

    About 75% of the women were fat – one or two must weigh at least 300 kg. And half the men. The odd (and refreshing) thing was that despite the humungous size of some of the parents, virtually all the children were normal size. There was only one chubby girl.

    It was a bring and share event. The MR and I provided homemade potato salad and coleslaw; the hostess sausage rolls and cupcakes. Every other item was shop bought…. I was surprised that our offerings were touched – as there were no “use by” dates!!

    The birthday boy – 40 – was, I think, rather embarrassed by the whole surprise event.

    And then we drove home through very agreeable country between Clare and Newmarket. And hardly a car in sight.

    Arrived home at 4.45 – Gus and Pickles were still in their baskets where we left them at 10 am!

  40. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8068c3a173d774bcb78e6dfb401f2d6a9d8be1ea77e82679cd7b2cd493352b11.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/07/ascension-island-migrants-rwanda-plan-supreme-court/

    And while they are waiting for the Supreme Court to tell them that this is not a solution then how about camps like this on the remoter islands off Scotland?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4e11530ace217803decf4fab2aac29467855b2605b933e9d0f9167aec8c2de50.png

    1. If we want to put them somewhere else how about Calais? It was English once. We could annex it.

    3. Ascension island looks too nice. How about Rockall instead, it’s much closer.

      Has anyone asked the islanders what they think about this move?

      1. …and you could easily moore about 50 Bibby Stockholms around it. That’s 25,000 gimmegrunts sorted and less in hotels

  41. A little boy ran up to me “Please help, my Dad is in a fight”.
    I followed and we came across two men fighting. I said, “Ok, which one is your Dad?”
    “I dunno, that’s what they’re fighting about”

  42. Oh well – the footie’s finished and England are through on penalties. I saw one of our players stamp on a Nigerian’s back and that was quite uncalled for. Disgraceful and shameful.

    I have a carload of stuff to unload before I go to Gloucester for 20 minutes of toture with the dental hygenist….. toodleoooo

  43. Belated Morning All

    Watch the birdie !

    https://media.128ducks.com/file_store/e5ba16ca0b57d9c38f96d87a8c27bafbd63e750e4f2ebed933ec8baeee294f90.mp4

    Rest of the medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07178f7cc07e62aacc187895ac19d1c1e486248e7f45fadb0ecec25262972e3a.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2dacf7ec6b6bfd08ff93e401c28454c116c246172624f857a01be0a60656d3ab.jpg

    https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad79daef-6a03-498c-8ddb-f125b6b67e7c_834x768.png?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ac692c6941d2718451ec9602cd4e4c4c33f39711a3eb4c97056be7b713d9ac0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40ab115316095ae409f741cc09f458ea837b484d0914b6531909d729db1e08cf.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04cf7e43631fdf1be18cc6790522f1281e0373303af04227215efa0540f2fd04.jpg

  44. This podcast with Ahmad Malik and ex banker Mads Palsvig is very long (an hour and a half), but Mads Palsvig makes three assertions that contradict the mainstream narrative, that he says can be proven by looking at facts. The number of German soldiers killed after the end of the second world war by the Americans, the pushing of Greeks onto mortgages after their economy crashed in 2008 and in the last 15 minutes or so, the nature and size of the explosives used to blow up the Nord Stream pipeline.
    https://rumble.com/v33yafh-mads-palsvig-a-former-banker-discusses-money-tax-and-the-evil-world-of-bank.html

  45. There’s is no middle ground in debates involving Trump and Farage, as the comments on this article demonstrate. Farage’s meetings with Trump in the past cannot be hidden yet some are so inflamed by their indignation about those that they appear to have read Farage’s remarks about Ramaswamy as being about Trump himself. Farage merely makes the point that Trump is likely to win the nomination. As we know, the writers of articles don’t write the headlines, which sometimes misrepresent the text.

    One man can help Make America Great Again

    With Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate, Trump could storm to victory at the next election

    NIGEL FARAGE • 6 August 2023

    I am one of very few people in Britain with a political or media profile who has met the Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, but I don’t think it’s going to be long before he is better known here. Much better known, in fact.

    I first encountered him at the Conservative Political Action Conference held in Maryland in March. We both gave speeches there, and afterwards met for a chat. We discussed campaigning, messaging and Brexit, and have stayed in touch since.

    Although Ramaswamy will celebrate only his 38th birthday this month, I could tell very soon after meeting him that he has what it takes to be a force in American politics. For those of us who aspire to a return to common sense in the Western world, I believe he can also be a force for good more generally.

    The story of his life so far is a sort of modern-day representation of the American dream. His Hindu parents migrated from India to America. Ramaswamy was born in Ohio in 1985 and raised there. He attended Harvard University, worked in finance, obtained a law qualification from Yale University and has already built a fortune via the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. It’s safe to say that his intellect, capacity for hard work and all-round ability are not in doubt.

    This year, he has attracted attention in America via one of his main messages: that Western society must not be blighted any longer by the Left-wing ideology that underpins identity politics, wokeism and political correctness. His belief that these things divide people rather than uniting them has been hard to ignore among the centre-Right.

    He also has a lot to say about the disastrous Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) orthodoxy that is so pervasive in the corporate realm and which led to the sorts of problems I’ve experienced at the hands of Coutts and NatWest. Quite simply, this highly successful entrepreneur knows that if companies hire or promote people on the basis of class, race or sex they are very likely to stop focusing on their main mission – to generate profits – and even more likely to start treating their customers according to their own narrow-minded world view.

    Ramaswamy will be in Milwaukee this month for the first televised debate between the Republican candidates who want to take on Joe Biden in November 2024. I will be there as well to watch the debate. He is fighting to win and has made it clear to me that he wants to be in politics for the long term. Despite his energy, I’m not sure that he – or any of his rivals – will be able to overcome Donald Trump, whose nomination looks assured at this point. But I do think that Ramaswamy could become Trump’s pick for the crucial role of vice-presidential candidate.

    All the polling I’ve seen suggests that, despite the indictments against Trump, he should have no difficulty securing 42 or 43 per cent in a presidential contest. It’s no secret, however, that he does not appeal to the all-important suburban “mom” vote. It’s in this area that I think Ramaswamy, as Trump’s running mate, could be decisive.

    When I was in touch with Ramaswamy a few days ago, he told me that some of his main concerns include “stopping our children being poisoned in schools”. He added that, as a father of two, he has a personal stake in this battle and, more broadly, in America’s future. The extreme messages being peddled in classrooms about the environment, race, sex and sexuality have shocked and dismayed many parents, eroding their right to inform their children about sensitive issues in their own way.

    I asked him whether he thought being Hindu is a handicap when so much of the conservative base in America is deeply Christian. He responded that he fully endorses and personally embodies the Christian principles of the founding fathers of our country. “In many ways,” he said, “I think I represent those values more than those who outwardly profess to be Christian.”

    Ramaswarmy wants order to be restored to our increasingly topsy-turvy world, and he is not frightened to take on the interests of the powerful Left-wing establishment to achieve it.

    The hopeful may not end up being the Republican presidential candidate for the 2024 race. But he has already won the right to play a big role in getting Joe Biden out of the White House.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/06/one-man-can-make-america-great-again

    1. Vivek Ramaswamy is saying all the right things, but it was said very early on that he is one of the false flag candidates designed to pull support away from Trump.

  46. Who on earth would want to go to Niger on holiday, apart from trafficking , organ transplant , arranged marriage, illegal animals , bush tucker etc etc?

    It comes after Niger’s coup leaders were given a week to restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoumby or face the possibility of military action from the regional bloc Ecowas.

    With the deadline passing last night, Niger’s mutinous soldiers closed the country’s airspace and accused foreign powers of preparing an attack, and said any attempt to fly over the country will be met with ‘an energetic and immediate response’.

    John Foreman had been on a London Heathrow-bound British Airways flight with 500 or so passengers for 10 hours when the pilot announced the plane would be landing back in Johannesburg.

    Mr Foreman told MailOnline he was travelling with 13 other family members – including children – after a one-week holiday and was expecting the flight to land in the UK within the next hour.

    ‘We had done the full flight and thought we were going to land in London and were told we had gone back to Johannesburg – I mean, it was quite right [the airline crew] didn’t want to tell anyone,’ he said.

    ‘It was a bit of a shock and you thought “why can’t they go somewhere else?”. Apparently they didn’t have enough fuel.’

    Mr Foreman landed back in the South African city to be greeted ‘by no one’ from British Airways and absolute chaos in the airport.

    He said there was ‘no information’ for passengers, with hundreds wandering aimlessly around – some in tears – and congregating around the bus station after rumours began to swirl the airline would be transporting them to a hotel.

    ‘Some people were crying and they were incredibly upset, confused, and frightened. They didn’t have a clue what was going on,’ he said.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12380229/Niger-coup-heathrow-flights-total-chaos-Brits-stranded-Africa-no-information-wandering-aimlessly-tears-Nigers-airspace-closed-notice-refuses-reinstate-president.html?ito=push-notification&ci=saHFsIP5WZ&cri=5oGg86w7n_&si=p3DSQ2YwOLik&ai=12380229

  47. THE SUN SAYS Sir Keir Starmer has still not provided a proper vision of how to tackle the immigration crisis

    THE Government’s declared aim of stopping the boats looks as difficult as ever.

    Yesterday the number of migrants who have crossed illegally this year passed 15,000.

    It will be some comfort to the Prime Minister and his Home Secretary that this figure is 15 per cent down on the same time last year.

    But every Channel-crosser adds to the headache of where to house them.

    At the current rate, Labour claims it will take until 2036 to clear the current backlog of failed asylum-seekers.

    More than 40,000 are still awaiting removal and holed up in hotels at vast expense.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/23372306/keir-starmer-proper-vision-tackle-immigration-crisis/

    1. There is a much quicker way of clearing the so called asylum seekers.
      It’s so simple, stop the boats now and kick them all out.
      Political classes don’t have the slightest amount of common sense between the useless lof of them.

      1. They do – hey want the criminal welfare shoppers here. If they didn’t they’d get revoking the laws that permit them to stay reversed or, just damned well tow the scum back to frogland.

    1. I bet the residents of the north coast (18°C) will be ecstatic about those ridiculous flames!

  49. I never visited this pub on my forays into the West Midlands. I won’t now.

    ‘Britain’s wonkiest pub’ burns down one month after sale to developers

    Former regulars ‘heartbroken’ at news the 18th-century Crooked House in Himley has been virtually destroyed

    By Martin Evans • 6 August 2023

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c732f9291ef100addfeb66aba20e97d648dbcf6bb0fe0b62370f6c383134335.jpg
    Police are investigating a “suspicious” blaze that destroyed “Britain’s wonkiest pub” just weeks after it was sold to developers. The Crooked House pub in Himley in the Black Country became an unlikely tourist attraction thanks to its uneven walls, floors and surfaces. For decades, customers flocked to the 18th-century hostelry, fascinated by the illusion that allowed them to roll a coin uphill along the bar.

    In recent years it also became a popular wedding venue for people wanting to tie the knot at a location with a quirky backdrop. But there are fears the historic building will now have to be demolished after fire tore through it on Saturday night, leaving it a smouldering shell. The blaze comes just days after the brewery confirmed that The Crooked House had been sold to developers and would never operate as a pub again.

    Fire crews were alerted to reports of a blaze at the isolated property just after 10pm on Saturday night. Witnesses said six appliances attended the scene and firefighters battled for more than an hour to bring the flames under control.

    Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service said no one was believed to be inside the building at the time and no injuries had been reported. But Staffordshire Police confirmed that an investigation had been launched in a bid to determine the cause of the fire, amid local reports that it had been started deliberately.

    One local claimed that intruders had been spotted inside the pub, which has been closed for some time, on Friday, and appeared to be partying and playing loud music. Others questioned the timing of the fire, coming just days after the property was sold.

    A spokesman for Staffordshire Police said: “We are appealing for information after a fire at a derelict building in Himley late Saturday evening. Officers were called to a report of a fire at what used to be The Crooked House pub on Himley Road at 10:45pm on 5 August. Crews from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service were already in attendance and had extinguished the blaze. No one was believed to be inside the building and no one has been reported injured.

    “We are now working with fire investigators to establish the cause of the fire. Fire investigators are inspecting the scene this morning and officers are making local enquiries to secure any information that might help the investigation.”

    The building was originally built as a farmhouse in 1765 but due to mining in the area suffered substantial subsidence in the 19th century, leaving one side considerably lower than the other. In the 1830s, it became a public house and was initially called The Siden House, “siden'” meaning “crooked” in the local Black Country dialect. It was later renamed the Glynne Arms, after the local landowner, Sir Stephen Glynne, on whose land it stood.

    But in the 1940s the pub faced the prospect of demolition when it was condemned as structurally unsafe by engineers. Local outcry over its potential loss led Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries to purchase it and rescue the building.

    Using buttresses and girders, builders were able to secure the structure while retaining its lopsided appearance. It then became known as The Crooked House and began to attract tourists from far and wide with visitors fascinated by its unsteady angles. Despite the affection in which it was held and its continuing popularity, the pub was recently closed with the owners, Marston’s, putting it up for sale with a guide price of £675,000.

    Thousands of people signed a petition to keep it as a public house but last month it was confirmed the building had been sold to a private buyer for “an alternative use”. It is not clear what the new owners were intending to do with the property and there were not thought to be any planning applications lodged with the council.

    A message posted on the Facebook page of The Crooked House read: “So after 10 months of hard work, very long hours and constant obstacles it’s quite annoying to see your place of business end up like this…time, effort, gone, money, gone, and one of the greatest buildings/oldest pub and heritage gone.”

    Carla Smith wrote: “I’m heartbroken. It’s beyond belief that this is allowed to have happened to such a special and iconic building. Had a meal the week before it closed and it was really busy, everyone was loving it. It finally had potential again.”

    Fiona Rumble wrote: “Oh my goodness! What a shame. I was so hoping it could have been moved and kept in the Black Country Museum. We got married here in 2018, it would have been wonderful to share those memories and revisit again when our daughter was old enough to understand. A crying shame it’s gone.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/06/britains-wonkiest-pub-burns-down

    An older feature on the pub here: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6854239/inside-crooked-house-pub-dudley/

    1. All those words when one of 5 letters begining with A would have been enough.
      Arson ?

      1. It was profitable although, like many, affected by Covid.

        Marston’s were once champions of beer and pubs. Now they’ve turned into a greedy, grasping national, taking over several brewers then disposing of their brewing operations to Carlsberg to become a pubco. Ironically, they had been taken over by Wolverhampton & Dudley (Bank’s as in the picture) in 1999 but the new operation became Marston’s in 2006.

        Other breweries to disappear into the maw: Jennings, Wells, Ringwood, Wychwood, Thwaites. The takeover of Wells gave them the titles of Young’s, McEwans, Youngers and Courage. They also brew Draught Bass after Interbrew closed down the brewery. Bass was fermented in Burton Unions; Marston’s have the last union room in the country.

        Marston’s also runs the estate of Cardiff brewer Brains.

    3. Gosh – burned to the ground. Just like that. Few days after sale. What on earth could have happened???

      I am just, like, OMG, WOW – with the coincidence….

      (Yawns and drops off)

    4. Where I take all my visiting friends; one of them, now in Saudi, saw the report and emailed me a picture of us there 20 years ago. Amazing to watch the ball roll up the slope. Happy days.

    5. I used to go with my parents when I was a child. Because of the twisted nature of the rooms you could make a bottle appear to roll uphill along the table.

  51. Things were going well until I looked at the Daily Mail. Lo and behold, a photo of the Idiot Trudeau dressed up in pink at a showing of that Barbie film.

    Thanks DM for something that we don’t want to see at breakfast time.

  53. Humpback whales migrating in historic numbers down Australia’s eastern coast. 7 August 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13ed90979da03b8b1cad26448329f0ac817e445cbfd407ba4fcd373b229ce9a5.jpg

    Nearly 5,000 of the mammals were spotted in a single day across Queensland and New South Wales.

    A spectacular image of a leaping humpback whale has been captured in Australia as an historic number of the animals migrate up the country’s eastern coast.

    Close encounters with whales have increased in Australia this year as up to 60,000 of the mammals travel north from Antarctica to breed in warmer waters.

    They’ve read On the Beach and They Know Man’s Time is Up!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/07/humpback-whales-migrating-historic-numbers-australia/

  54. 375255+ up ticks,

    Awaken the climate change zombies they must get themselves to sea in the surplus rubber boats along with echo sounding equipment, if one of these wales jobees fart then it is open season to net em & kill em.

    Humpback whales migrating in historic numbers down Australia’s eastern coast
    Nearly 5,000 of the mammals were spotted in a single day across Queensland and New South Wales

    4. At least they aren’t into pickled onions over here, a small mistake could ruin a ploughmans lunch.

        1. But when it’s HIS in the fridge it is still an oxymoron to call them ‘hers’ No matter what is done He cannot become a she. The DNA , not changing, will not allow it.QED.

        2. Her testiculary duty to be done, to be done
          A transperson’s lot’s a very gruesome one, gruesome one.

  58. If aliens land in the West in 2030 when we are at net zero

    They will ask to be taken to our oppressor not to our leader

      1. It’s what happens just before you’re turned into a kebab :o)) Apparently it’s an acceptable alternative spelling, though I’m not convinced. Still made me laugh though.

  60. I had already cancelled my pet insurance for Fatty and Booboo (Dolly and Harry) because of ridiculous increases. Now i find their 3 monthly treatment of Nexgard (to stop fleas, Ticks and other parasites) has doubled in price to £90.

    They will just have to take their chances.

    1. Mongo’s renewal was over £500. More than our home and car insurances.

      I don’t mind the insurance cost. I do mind the 11% tax slapped on it.

      1. I pay into a savings account £100 per month for them. If they don’t get ill i still have the money. Vet fees are getting bloody stupid.

      5. They wanted £860 per annum for Oscar (up from £700 the previous year). They also increased the excess. Until his recent problems with his eyes, I was better off putting it in a savings account.

    2. Have you considered Frontline instead (no prescription needed). Or, get a prescription for Nexgard from your vet and search online for a supplier. Should be much cheaper.

          2. A bit like with ‘own brand’ stuff. The ‘active ingredient’ is never quite as active as the branded commodity, be it toothpaste, bleach, detergent, tinned/frozen goods etc.

      2. I doubt the Vet would be prepared to give out a prescription. The market is stitched up.

        1. Our vet (Pets at Home) has no problem writing a prescription for our Lab which we then source online. The vet even does the electronic paperwork to liaise with the supplier.

        2. Our vet was happy to provide a prescription for tablets that could be bought online for about a quarter of the price in the vet’s. They will charge you for writing the prescription though, so factor that in.

        3. My friend’s vet will write a prescription for her dog’s Cushing’s Disease treatment. You have to pay for the prescription, but then you can order it more cheaply off the internet. She saves a small fotune that way.

          1. Nexgard isn’t available without a prescription. Even on line. The Vet won’t play ball.

    4. I used to dust Jazz and Charlie with louse powder from an animal health place (usually when they’d been dealing with hedgehogs). It did them no harm (both lived to 17+) and saved me a fortune.

    1. Net Zero for the British Isles (a geographical concept) is a nonsense.

      Assuming for just one second that CO² might be dangerous, the emissions from the British Isles is less than 1% of the global emissions so the British Isles contribution will be less than a gnat’s cock to the total.

      The World and the British Isles within it have all gone fcuking doo-lalley.

    2. Net zero means zero food for us. Phasing out meat so we will either starve or eat the bugs.

        1. No fertiliser for the barren fields of grain and soy either. No feathers, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, gelatine, lard, tallow…

          It’s perfectly obvious that vegan farming won’t work, therefore the logical conclusion is that they aren’t going to phase out meat. They are simply planning for a much reduced population. Look at what Charles is saying, he’s all for organic meat production.

    3. Northern Ireland was still part of the UK last time I looked. They want to starve us into submission.

      1. The intent is enforced change. To make us live how the Left want us to – almost back to the Dark Ages.

    4. A better idea would be to wipe out those people who want to do this. Humans use up vast amounts of ‘carbon’ and we, unlike cattle serve no useful purpose.

        1. I read an extract, I think it was from “In Gold We Trust” report that said they think the coming crash will be so big that it will wipe out grandiose central planning like the WEF.
          Let us hope. All that has to happen is about ten percent of the population refusing digital ids and CBDCs…

          1. I got some cash out of a machine today. Then got rid of a £20 note on a small purchase.

        1. The rest of the Nottlers will defer to your experience in this (faecal) matter, but thank you for letting us know.

    7. What about all the farting vegans when they’ve stopped us eating meat products?
      We’re gonna need a bigger pandemic…

    1. A Huge references to it being a fire risk. The quicker they fill it and tow it off shore the better.

  63. Xi Van Fleet is a Chinese American woman who tries to educate people on the evils of Communism.

    See new Tweets
    Conversation
    Xi Van Fleet
    @XVanFleet
    This is how CCP rewards the very ppl that put them into power: a caste system called Hukou (household registration).

    Hukou has been in place soon after CCP took power. Every household was required to register for their residence. which has become permanent & hereditary. Peasants can no longer become legal residents of any cities; nor do small town residents who want to live in big cities. To have Beijing or Shanghai Hukou is regarded as privilege.

    Hundreds of Millions of rural migrant workers who provide cheap labors in cities to fuel the CCP’s economy do not have access to basic services such as schools for their children.

    Mao’s revolution was a peasant revolution. But Mao took away their basic rights of choosing where they want to live to keep them forever at the bottom of the social ladder.

    Just another history lesson of the evil of Communism where state controls every aspect of ppl’s lives.

    2. “Xi Van Fleet is a Chinese American woman who tries to educate people on the evils of Communism.”

      Greta Van Fleet is an American rock band who try to imitate Led Zeppelin – and quite successfully (well, they were at first but they’ve gone off a bit of late).

      Just to keep up to date with the modern world, the lead singer apologized last year for wearing ‘indigenous costumes’ on stage and has recently come out as one of the Alphabet People.

      It wouldn’t have happened in the days of the real Led Zep. Oh, for the days of excess when they DGAF…

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJg4OJxp-co

        1. Three of the four members are brothers of Polish/Irish descent. The choice of name is odd, almost banal. Apparently one of the members knew a woman called Gretna van Fleet; they adapted and adopted the name.

          Captain Beefheart was as mad as they come…

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq6fCOGyVJg

    1. Emojis – what a great pass for the following which I found on a forum more than a decade ago.

      A little known fact: Johannes Gutenberg trialled the use of “print faces” in the second edition of his bible. The Vatican had noticed that sermons in Latin were confusing to some congregations and wanted to find a system that would alert priests to change their style of delivery during important passages, thus keeping the laity engaged. So the “smiley” was born.

      The plan had some drawbacks, however. These Latin faces, whilst comprehensible in Romance speaking countries, did not translate correctly in Germany, The Netherlands, England, Scotland and Scandinavia, where “awe” translated as “anger” and “sad” translated as “wtf?”. Mobs took to the streets, smashing images of religious figures demanding that the church be reformed.

      The Vatican placed Gutenberg’s pamphlet “Enlivening Text Through Faces in Print” on its Index Librorum Prohibitorum, where it languished unknown until it was mysteriously “leaked” in the 1990s.

    2. Just be careful what you do with the glue teacher lady you could be sued and lose your job.

  65. This barge thing. Firstly, if we only push 500 criminal welfare shoppers into it we will need 200 a year. Therefore I suggest we push 5000 in per barge. As we will need over 20 per year at the rate of criminal invasion, we should lash them together and float them off Ireland – about 200 miles off. Maybe 500. But that seems a waste of fuel.

    If they can still be seen, then a bit further.

    Then forget about them.

    1. Obviously the greenie eco louts would be against such a plan. Stick a mast and sail on it and wave goodbye.

  66. Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 779 3/6
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    1. Bogey five for me.

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      1. Wordle 779 4/6

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    2. A nasty brute of a double bogey here.
      Wordle 779 6/6

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    1. The Australian Government wanted to stop the boats; it decided to do so; it succeeded.

      The British Government said they wanted to stop the boats – but they didn’t really want to do so so they too succeeded because they haven’t stopped the boats which is the outcome they wanted all along. If they had succeeded in stopping the boats they would have failed because they would not have got what they wanted.

      There’s no success like failure
      (And failure’s no success at all)

      Bob Dylan: Love Minus Zero.

    2. Its time to call on the military.

      Call a meeting of the Chiefs of General Staff to draw up a plan – within four weeks – using all necessary military resources to deter the invasion by illegal immigrants.

      2. The way they’ve been diversifying the military I’m not sure they would be on our side!

    3. They can stop the boats, but they are too thick and ignorant to understand the future consequences of their terrible errors.

      1. They’ve been promised a seat at the top table when the rest of us are eating bugs and catching the bus.
        I suppose we will have to give them a fair trial…

    4. TBF it’s the fault of chuffin’ HR lawyers thet keep sticking their oars in

  68. Russia says it has advanced 3km in northeast Ukraine. 7 August 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f40595b351ad30e08d7dd1577d8d3ceb6d908481c66cc77679d630fddcbc305.png

    Russia claimed its troops had advanced three kilometres (two miles) along the Kupiansk front in northeastern Ukraine.

    The Russian defence ministry said that it had “improved” its standing along the front line in the last three days and continued to repel Ukrainian counter-attacks.

    “Over the past three days, the advance of Russian troops… amounted to 11 kilometres along the front and more than three kilometres deep into the enemy’s defence,” the ministry said.

    I just thought that I would put these up. They are “pinned” comments. I first spotted their like last week. They are at the head of all four comment columns so no voting will remove them. Only someone as suspicious as myself might think it is because they cannot guarantee that the “Right view” will prevail on the thread. This is aside from a couple of trolls who are ghosting the Ukie articles and reinforcing them. An ominous sign for the official narrative!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/07/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-missile-drone-strike-crimea/

  69. Scientists are now preparing for ‘Disease X’
    Perhaps too many people survived the first attempt to wipe out half of the world’s population.
    Aparently 200 people at Porton Down are working their socks off for a vaccine cure, for the yet unknown virus. How does that work ? There is no specific idea of what it might be. They say it’s Probably related to climate change and animals spreading deadly viruses.
    Can a human actually catch a deadly bullshit virus ?
    Time to stop the illegal migrants arriving on our shores there is clearly a huge risk of it arriving in rubber boats.

    1. I read today that they are preparing for bird flu.
      Honestly, how gullible would a person have to be to be not even the tiniest bit suspicious?

      1. They seem to be making it up to order. I don’t think this situation is comparable to public opinion.
        If at you don’t succeed……

    2. The secret- which is not so secret now, is you invent the vaccine first and then concoct the virus.

        2. They’d need to be stupid to partake in these whacky, Big Pharma, poison experiments

  70. That’s me gone for this really rather nice day. Sunny – mostly. Only damper – the belts detaching themselves from the mower drive shaft. Prolly cost the price of a replacement mower….

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    1. Sounds like a mis-alignment if it keeps happening – I’ll fix it if you can get it up to me

      1. Thanks, Spikey -BUT it would cost £1000s to get the large mower to you and back!

  71. Problems in Niger Africa. The usual suspects.
    Every where they go and set up shop.

      1. Not this time Sos probably the same as had happened in South Africa with the white farmers, they’ve murdered all of them already.

  72. For once I think Lineker has a point:

    DM Report

    Gary Lineker has compared Lauren James’ stamp against Nigeria in the Women’s World Cup to David Beckham’s infamous red card against Argentina in 1998. With the sides level at 0-0, England Women star James stamped on the back of Nigeria’s Michelle Alozie in the 86th minute of the round of 16 clash. Following a VAR check, James was sent off and Lineker compared the incident to Beckham’s red card in the 1998 World Cup.

    I have never understood the adulation that Beckham receives. He has never won a single football competition in an England team and in the Argentina game – one of the few times England had of advancing far in a football competition – he committed a stupid, petulant foul which enabled Argentina to win.

    2. I am 100% in agreement. He was, and remains, a limited talent nonentity. I simply get sick of seeing his vacuous gurning physog lurking in every newspaper.

      2. I think you lot 😊 are being unfair to ppor old Dahyvid I don’t he actually made contact with the Argie who had down him.
        But he did make contact with the young man who’s car had broken near WGC and after half an hour of being stuck the only person who parked his 4×4 on the adjacent grass verge and help the chap with his two young children in his by helping to push it to safety.
        The guy phoned in a radio programme and the DJ said “what did you say to him” ?
        The young father replied “I luff you David”. Point made.

        2. Sven-Göran Eriksson got it wrong … in my humble opinion … in selecting him for the England team. Even worse, making him captain.

          I would have selected Paul Scholes in his place and paired him in central midfield with (my captain) Steven Gerrard.
          I would then have pushed Frank Lampard forward to support Alan Shearer. This would have made the team better balanced and much more effective … in my humble opinion.

          3. I’m insufficiently expert, but it was an era where we had a lot of real talent, Beckham’s dead ball skills were exceptional, whether he was “carried” because of them, I’m unsure.

    3. His fame owes a great deal to his marrying a Spice Girl, whereby he became a ‘sleb and not just a footballer.

  73. Extinction Rebellion supporter gets life for stabbing her boyfriend to death while high on drugs- heroin.

    “Wallace graduated from St. Mary’s University, Twickenham with a law degree in 2017 and when arrested was one month short of completing her Masters in Human Rights & Legal Practice at the University of Roehampton.”

    She can do her PhD in the pokey.

    1. Thank you, Bob. A tenuous link, but Thomas Tallis was organist at St Mary at Hill, between 1538 & 1539. My former assistant organist, who took over from me at Brandon, Suffolk, while still at school, has been Director of Music there for several years…

  75. Hooshing down with rain here – Storm Hans. Gutters overflowing… effing miserable weather, where does all the airborne water come from? Fire brigades and their pumps apparently very active.

    4. Not warm either Obs according to the weather forecast and northern winds.
      I have a cousin in QLD she and hubby with friends have been in South Island NZ for two weeks, snow and frost have been rife.
      She’s back home now, but it’s still winter and not warm.

    5. Same here. Our first proper rain in months and, for the past two days, its been belting down horizontally on a strong westerly.

    6. That’s what we had on Saturday.
      Very unusual in East Anglia to have a whole day of constant downpour.

  76. Oh well I’m orff, we’ve had the three most lively grandchildren again today. It really is a treat to be alive…..sometimes. Daddies collected them about 6 pm. I’ve just been trying to tidy up the garden. No shuttle cocks to be found anywhere, no cricket (tennis) ball. Goal net football and other all and sundry now in the shed.
    No wonder we sleep so soundly. 🤗😴

    1. No he’s part of name of a well known town in North East England were steel has been an important production for many years. Something thorpe I believe.

      1. North East England???? Bloody Scunthorpe’s the North East Midlands, or, perhaps, Northern East Anglia!

        1. Typhoo may have put the ‘T’ in Britain but who put the ‘c**t’ in Scunthorpe?

          9. Now it’s who put the same thing in London ?
            Didn’t it also defend the 7/7 London bombers ?
            What a massive mistake was made letting that horrible revengeful git into the mayor’s office.

          1. But it’s not Yorkshire.
            And no, the East Riding of Yorkshire is still not the North East.

          2. Bob I didn’t say it was Yorkshire, from where we live it’s the North East.
            I worked at one of the steel rolling Mills for a couple of weeks. Forming new arches for some of the gas burner blocks. The union people were a pain in the arse. There wasn’t a lot of room in the switched off burners and it was still quite warm. If we need cutting or any welding we were always held up with six people turning up. In the end my colleague and I did it ourselves. We had to get the job done.
            The union didn’t like that, one of them chased us shouting as we drove away after we were finished. Fur cough we told him.

  78. I predict a major fire with multiple deaths in Portland Harbour within 2 weeks. It will be the excuse the Globalists need to foist more of these third world savages onto local communities.

      1. I had a very pleasant meal there 20 years ago when I did my gas courses.

        2. Had a beer there a couple of times when a student at Cranfield.
          Sad end to a weird pub.
          Either set by someone who reckoned it should stay a boozer, or by someone who wants to clear the site and build tiny crappy boxes for people to live in.

          1. I think the reason it was such an odd shape was because the local area is riddled with uncharted mine workings.

          2. Indeed, all held together with straps and wires and steel beams.
            Sad that now it’s a wreck. Poor old pub.

          3. Who’d want to buy a house in such an area, unless it’s reasonably certain that there will be no more subsidence. It was about 200 years that it first began to sink.

          5. The Colchester Syndrome; we had a spate of old, rather inconvenient buildings that caught fire.
            The empty Sergeants’ Mess, the great hall at Severall’s hospital and (twice) an ugly Edwardian house that the local social services were keen to offload.
            All in danger of being listed.
            An awful lot of housing now covers those sites.

    2. The Britain-haters will try to spin it as a heartless Tory government locking up poor refugees on a floating prison hulk. The stuff that is already being said in other countries is unbelievable.

      1. Fcuk ’em.
        If it troubles them that much, they can take the gimmegrunts themselves.

        1. It’s the African countries now. “only seeking a better life” which is a moot point in Britain today.
          Then they will turn around and sanctimoniously blame us when the western currencies collapse under debt.
          BRICS have already said that countries can borrow from their bank, and they won’t count it if the countries have defaulted on their debts to the dollar system.

  79. “Extinction Rebellion activist stabbed boyfriend to death as he pleaded ‘I love you’

    Law student jailed for life over fatal knife attack following an argument while under the influence of heroin, cocaine and cannabis”

    Oh well, she certainly understood the word “extinction”.

    1. Husband’s glued to the footie – and he watches other sports. So he gets his money’s worth – I don’t get much for my share. Though there is the occasional thing.

      1. When MOH was alive, the TV was on all day. Now, I only watch the racing on ITV – and I record that! I still have to pay. Bring back free licences for the over 75s.

  81. That’s me for today.
    Part of a bid team, much work today, but some progress – and I’m knackered.
    If she looks in, tell Ann I’m thinking of her, and worrying about her.
    ‘Night, all Y’all. Bis später!

    2. Rearrange these words into a recognisable phrase or saying. Regarding the bbc.
      Have Plot they lost the.

  83. Good night, chums. I hope you all sleep well and awaken refreshed – especially Ann (LoTL).

  84. That’s me off to bed.
    A bit of tidying up of the verge done, but not a lot else. I did do a nice sausage stew using a pack of precooked cocktail sausages that have been lurking in the freezer for the past year and the new potatoes actually survived boiling dry too!

    A bit of music from the mediaeval Spanish Sephardic tradition.
    https://youtu.be/2WIl0hFSHmI

  85. Phew indeed.

    Wordle 779 6/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. No argument from me, Stormy (see what I did there?)
      Wordle 779 6/6

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

      1. Only slightly better
        Wordle 779 5/6

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

    2. Not alone.
      Wordle 779 6/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

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