Monday 9 August: What happens when an electric car breaks down at the side of the road

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/08/08/letters-happens-electric-car-breaks-side-road/

818 thoughts on “Monday 9 August: What happens when an electric car breaks down at the side of the road”

      1. Fine thank you , as my dear departed Father-in-Law was wont to say “All parts are taking an equal strain”. I’m not sure if that was from his days as a submariner or an oil engineer.

    2. “Wake up, wake up you sleepy head
      Get up, get up, get out of bed”
      (When the Red, Red, Robin goes bob-bob- bobbin’ along)

      1. I’ll slip a bit of personal info in here and admit to having the first and only christian name of Robin, now this sat very well on a rotund rosy cheeked brummy baby back in the ’50s but not so much on a crusty old septuagenarian

    4. Gawd. Did I hate that programme or did I hate that programme!
      Up (or down?) there with The Clitheroe Kid.

        1. The creme de la creme was Beyond Our Ken/Round the Horn.
          Take It From Here was also in the same league but a bit earlier.

      3. The Light Programme’s soundtrack to Sunday dinners in the 1950s (straight after Two-Way Family Favourites).

  2. Good Morning Folks,

    Drab wet morning here, golf put on hold.
    All this climate change has done nothing for outdoor activities.

    1. So do something indoors, Bob3. I intend to work in the garage giving a mobile (wheelbarrow type) BBQ a thoroughly good clean prior to offering it up to someone who can make good use of it. gardening can wait until tomorrow.

  4. Why Tucker’s trip to Hungary has sparked outrage. Spiked. 9 August 2021.

    The globalist media have succeeded in establishing a cordon sanitaire around Hungary. In effect, this means there can be no two sides to the situation in Hungary. Consequently, the media’s version of events – which suggests that democracy is dead in Hungary, that its government is an authoritarian dictatorship, and that fascism is just around the corner – enjoys hegemonic status. This dishonest, politically motivated representation of Hungary is so powerful that if anyone dares challenge it they risk the accusation of serving the cause of right-wing authoritarianism or fascism. Even commentators at conservative Western publications have started to internalise this narrative.

    For the first time in recent years, a representative of a major media organisation has bucked the trend. In effect, Carlson’s broadcasts from Hungary threaten to undermine the cordon sanitaire around the country that has been carefully constructed as a problem by globalist NGOs and media organisations.

    Morning everyone. I did indeed notice the international reaction to what was after all only a single interview with Viktor Orbán on Fox News. It was the sort of coverage that is usually reserved for Vladimir Putin and for much the same reasons. Unlike those who now rule the faux democracies of the West, neither of them, hate, distrust or despise their own people or their history Both men are patriots. They each actively adhere to the idea of National Sovereignty, the Culture of the Enlightenment and the Religion of Christianity. For these reasons alone they must always be the mortal enemies of the Moral Decadence and Political Corruption that now informs the West in its entirety.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/08/09/why-tuckers-trip-to-hungary-has-sparked-outrage/

  5. Chinese spies pose as refugees in UK visa plot
    Chinese spies are posing as refugees in an attempt to enter Britain through a resettlement scheme designed for Hongkongers, The Times can reveal. Government sources have said they are aware of sleeper agents applying for British National (Overseas) visas under the pretence of seeking refuge from the totalitarian state.
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-spies-pose-as-refugees-in-uk-visa-plot-g0fdfv37v
    Gosh, colour me surprised.
    What about “refugees” from other states?
    Morning, all Y’all!

  6. Mondays offerings: Mohamed Amersi would do well to take his toe out of the car charging socket – how is the ongoing coup going in Tunisia for example? Rob Kendrick seems to overlook the reality expats don’t use the Royal Society of St George as a fulcrum to have a pint:

    SIR – The continued reluctance to switch to electric cars (Letters, August 5) suggests people think that the policy to move towards this form of propulsion is unwise. The lack of suitable charging facilities, the costs and length of life of replacement batteries, and the generating capacity needed are all prominent in the minds of car owners.

    A further issue concerns the problems of breakdown. The batteries are very heavy, so that in the event of (say) a punctured tyre, lifting the vehicle by traditional methods becomes impracticable as raising one corner can distort the chassis or frame. It is recommended that the vehicle be raised on a platform hoist. This would make roadside recovery either impossible or very expensive, and certainly not achievable by a stranded motorist.

    Peter Gray
    Tunbridge Wells, Kent

    SIR – How can electrical battery-driven vehicles and other massive battery-based installations be considered as major components of our future sustainable energy strategy when the materials used for these batteries have a finite and rapidly diminishing supply?

    Dr George Lindsay
    Kinross

    SIR – I am lucky enough to be a Tesla owner with a home charger. It is great fun to drive, fast yet practical, and very cheap to run.

    Contrary to Dr Michael Blackmore’s point (Letters, August 4), I believe that electric vehicle car costs will come down as technology advances – but otherwise I agree with him entirely. How will the Government recoup the billions in fuel duty and road tax? What is the plan to install enough high-speed chargers to make electric vehicles practical? How will people with no off-road parking or fixed parking space cope? Finally, how will the thousands of worn-out batteries be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner? I feel like my Tesla and I are on our honeymoon before taxes, costs and charger queues all become bigger.

    Duncan Johnson
    Bromsgrove, Worcestershire

    SIR – Electric car batteries and computerised control systems use irreplaceable rare metals such as lithium, which are toxic to mine and process. They are also difficult to recycle. The 1989 UN Basel Convention prohibits the movement of such toxic heavy metals as hazardous waste. Both the US and European countries refuse to abide by this and presently export much of this waste to Asia and Africa. Not only is the ecological cost of this unsustainable, so too is the
    economic cost.

    New policies using fuels such as hydrogen and alternative materials to rare metals require urgent consideration for future transport to be truly green and sustainable. Clearly, electric cars are neither.

    Elizabeth Marshall
    Edinburgh

    Simplified taxes

    SIR – It is of the greatest importance that Britain should present a measurably more attractive prospect for inward investment and global trade than other entities, particularly the EU.

    To that end a complete redrawing of the tax system becomes an urgent imperative. Tolley’s Tax Guide should be able to return from 1,000 pages to the slim volume it once was.

    Neale Edwards
    Chard, Somerset

    Entitled to NHS care

    SIR – Dr Anthony Hawks (Letters, July 29) suggests that those who decline to be vaccinated should be made to take out health insurance to cover the cost of their care should they contract Covid-19. By this logic, the obese should pay for their diabetic care and the smokers for the treatment of their lung cancers. Declining to treat people in the NHS because of their lifestyle choices is a very slippery slope.

    Dr Irving Wells
    Yelverton, Devon

    Olympic medal haul

    SIR – The Olympic medals have piled up (report, August 6). It was a very different story at the first Olympiad of the modern era in Athens in 1896.

    Britain’s first two medals, out of a measly bag of seven, were won by John Pius Boland, then an Oxford undergraduate and later an Irish Nationalist MP. He went to Athens as a spectator, entering the lawn tennis tournament “on the spur of the moment” with “a tennis bat of sorts” bought at a local bazaar. He won the men’s singles, and then replaced an injured player in the doubles, winning that too. Fortunately, he wrote, the Games “were held about Easter, and it was
    possible to be back at Oxford in time for my last summer term”.

    Someone should present a Boland trophy to Team GB in memory of this charming Irishman.

    Lord Lexden (Con)
    London SW1

    Embracing the idea of a truly United Kingdom

    SIR – The Archbishop of York is to be applauded for his support for greater devolution for the English (Commentary, August 7). When devolution occurred it failed to recognise England as a separate nation in the same way that it recognised Wales and Scotland by giving them devolved powers and separate parliaments. Northern Ireland already had this facility.

    England should have its own parliament, with Westminster remaining as the federal UK Parliament with representation from all the devolved nations. Only by moves like this will we get away from the idea that England controls the other UK nations and thus help to embrace the idea of a truly United Kingdom.

    Jack Haddon
    Burgess Hill, West Sussex

    SIR – I commend the Archbishop of York’s call for pride in England. It is regrettable, however, that he favours regional devolution – a politically toxic yet perennially proffered idea that serves only to carve England into competing fiefdoms and alienate the devolved nations.

    Quite how further atomisation of our national identity is meant to foster unity is very much beyond me.

    Adam Parratt
    Aldershot, Hampshire

    SIR – Devolution was a huge and unnecessary mistake, doing little for the Scots or the Welsh other than to bolster their misplaced sense of grievance.

    There is no evidence of any desire in the English regions for regional assemblies – indeed, the North East voted decisively against one in 2004, and the Labour government abandoned the proposals it had put forward the year before. It would be wrong to revive the idea now.

    Andrew Dyke
    London N21

    SIR – English patriots do have a place where they can celebrate all things English. It’s the long-established Royal Society of St George.

    It is not only active in England but also has an international reach, promoting England and providing a meeting place for expats in more than a dozen countries.

    Rob Kendrick
    Lincoln

    Reusable plastic

    SIR – Many of us are keen to use less plastic, especially containers of regularly purchased items such as shampoo, shower gel and household cleaning products.

    Why aren’t Procter and Gamble and the like urging supermarkets to have a refilling area, where we can continue to buy the products we rely on but reuse the containers?

    Barbara Smith
    Stafford

    The Tories and Iran

    SIR – I am surprised that your article, “The ‘Butcher of Tehran’ is not out for peace” (Comment, August 5), appears to portray me as a stooge of the Iranian and Russian states using my financial resources in order to extend Iranian influence in the Conservative Party and British politics.

    Following a career as a deal-maker, primarily in the international telecoms sector, I am proud to be a supporter of the Conservative Party. I am also proud to have answered the party’s call to lead the establishment of a new group, the Conservative Friends of the Middle East and North Africa (Comena), which is supported by a large number of prestigious parliamentarians and others.

    Comena is designed to promote better relationships between the party (and its parliamentarians) and the region of the Middle East and North Africa. The idea that an organisation of this nature could be a pro-Iranian outfit is frankly incredible, as well as being utterly untrue and extremely offensive to me, Theresa May, Lord Lamont and a host of other senior parliamentarians who have agreed to be part of Comena.

    The article states that “the prospects of Comena winning official Conservative approval now look exceedingly remote”. Much as those with an axe to grind would wish to see Comena fall dead in its tracks, the dull reality is that Comena still intends to apply for Conservative Party board approval as planned.

    I applaud The Telegraph’s desire to shine a light on the reprehensible actions of the Iranian state, but would urge it be done with balance and responsibility, both as to form and substance, and not to fit a particular narrative.

    Mohamed Amersi
    Founder, The Amersi Foundation
    London W1

    Grandmothers are tired of being patronised

    SIR – Jan Etherington (Comment, July 30) is correct about society’s attitude towards grandmothers.

    As a modern grandmother in my seventies, I have long been annoyed by age discrimination, especially the patronising word “Bless”, addressed to me, often by professionals, in response to something I have said. Next time it happens I may clobber the culprit with my brightly coloured walking stick.

    Joy Boddington
    Reading, Berkshire

    Public inconvenience

    ]

    SIR – Following on from the article (Money, August 7) about organisations refusing to accept notes and coins, I want to alert readers who only carry cash with them when going for a stroll in the park.

    The Royal Parks in London have replaced the coin slots in their public lavatories with a contactless device. Last week, in Richmond Park, I had to use my debit card to pay the 20p entrance fee.

    Pat Woods
    London SW1

    Bitten by the bug bug

    SIR – The use of the word “bug” as a general term for insects (Letters, August 6) is not a recent phenomenon. At my grammar school the Natural History Society was known informally as the “Bug Club”.

    This was 60 years ago.

    Mike Henley
    Devizes, Wiltshire

    Squeals on wheels

    SIR – On holiday in Vietnam I saw scooters carrying incredible loads (Letters, August 7). Families of five or six were a common sight.

    Some scooters had boxes on wheels attached to the front so that they could carry furniture; one was carrying a full-sized fridge-freezer. However the prize went to a man carrying six full-grown live pigs – two lashed horizontally each side, behind the rider’s legs, and two horizontally across the back.

    In more than two weeks of travelling we never saw a single road accident.

    Chris Gordon
    Boston, Lincolnshire

    1. I would be very wary of any organisation which has as members Theresa May and (Lord) Norman Lamont. (The Amersi Foundation.)

    2. Bad News Mr Haddon. Scotland and England are not separate nations. Read the Act of Union. Technically both ceased to exist 300 years ago. “Wales” had already been subsumed into England.

  7. No obligation to provide accommodation for destitute failed asylum seekers during the Covid-19 pandemic
    Monday August 09 2021, 12.01am BST, The Times. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-obligation-to-provide-accommodation-for-destitute-failed-asylum-seekers-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-vh7bb6xmc
    Queen’s Bench Division, Published August 9, 2021
    Regina (Secretary of State for the Home Department) v First-Tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber)
    Before Mr Justice Chamberlain [2021] EWHC 1690 (Admin) Judgment June 22, 2021

    The home secretary’s failure to provide accommodation for destitute failed asylum seekers during the Covid-19 pandemic, unless they were taking reasonable steps to leave the United Kingdom, was not in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

    Mr Justice Chamberlain so held in allowing a claim for judicial review by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, challenging the lawfulness of a decision of the defendant, the First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber), taken by Principal Judge Storey on April 26, 2021.

  9. Politicians must not abandon those who sacrifice blood on their orders. 9 August 2021.

    But it belies an ongoing problem in this country when it comes to looking after the people who actually get their hands dirty and often sacrifice everything in the pursuit of political aims dictated from Whitehall.

    I’ve asked the last three UK prime ministers face-to-face why this is. David Cameron understood my anger, but got swept away by Brexit. I think Theresa May just thought I was weird. Whilst Boris Johnson talks a good game, he can’t seem to ignore those around him who still believe looking after people is not worth the political capital.

    The politicians of Westminster both Left and Right have only contempt for those who serve in the Armed Forces of the UK. They are regarded as expendable assets too crude to be regarded as human. Once they have served their purpose they can be discarded like used condoms.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/08/politicians-must-not-abandon-sacrifice-blood-orders/

      1. Morning Nan. Yes I know but Mercer along with three other MP’s is exempt from my criticism by being former members of the Armed Forces. None of them are popular!

        1. ‘Morning, Minty, I too, was a member of the armed forces in the days when you were expected to do your job, think for yourself and use your initiative, all whilst obeying the rules.

          It worked well in the 60s and 70s but with more and more Common Purpose education and fewer armed forces, the lessons are now stood on their head in pursuit of socialism and not offending anyone – except those that cause the offence – I always thought Johnny Mercer to be a good MP but, as you say, they are few and far between.

      2. Morning Nan. Yes I know but Mercer along with two other MP’s is exempt from my criticism by being former members of the Armed Forces. None of them are popular!

    1. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
      Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
      To the last syllable of recorded time;
      And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
      The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
      Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
      That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
      And then is heard no more. It is a tale
      Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
      Signifying nothing.

      (from Macbeth, spoken by Macbeth)

    2. Did she ever get within striking distance of actually trying to answer the question? What an appalling performance – your loved ones could die!

  12. Sensitive

    Three guys were working on a high rise building project: Steve, Bill and Charlie.

    Steve falls off and is killed instantly.

    As the ambulance takes the body away, Charlie says, “Someone should go and tell his wife.”

    Bill says, “OK, I’m pretty good at that sensitive stuff, I’ll do it.”

    2 hours later, he comes back carrying a 6-pack.

    Charlie says, “Where did you get that, Bill?”

    “Steve’s wife gave it to me.”

    “That’s unbelievable, you told the lady her husband was dead and she gave you beer!?”

    Bill says, “Well not exactly. When she answered the door, I said to her, ‘You must be Steve’s widow.’

    Then she said, ‘No, I’m not a widow!’ And I said, ‘Wanna bet a six-pack?‘”

    1. mng ogga. Simple summary as in point not question – “If I need to wear a mask for yours to work and if I need to take a vaxx for yours to work then why is it that when I use my brain yours still doesn’t work?”

      1. 336511+ up ticks,
        Morning AWK,
        It comes under the heading selective choices open to use when combating common sense.

          1. 336511+ up ticks,
            AWK,
            Lest we forget there are a few Islington wine cellar dwellers on here.

  16. UK betrayed by allies’ Afghanistan retreat: Defence Secretary claims Nato countries snubbed plea to stay on after US withdrawal. 9 Augustb 2021.

    Britain tried desperately to form a military coalition to support Afghan forces after America pulled out – but Nato allies refused to take part, the Defence Secretary has revealed.

    Ben Wallace told the Mail the UK had urged ‘like-minded’ nations to stay on after US troops withdrew.

    But after they declined he decided that Britain could not go it alone.

    It was all only ever about sucking up to the Americans! The people who were sent and died there were sacrifices to Foreign Relations! Once the Americans withdraw there is no purpose in remaining!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9874765/Defence-Secretary-claims-Nato-countries-snubbed-plea-stay-Afghanistan-withdrawal.html#comments

    1. What about not going there in the first place? Anybody with a brain-cell in their head would have seen this to be one of the stupidest decisions of the centrury, and My God, there were some stupid decisions.
      Nobody has ever succeeded in The Stan. Build a wall round it and let it fester, not pander to US hubris and think that a couple of Hershey bars and a swift kick in the pants (sic) will sort it out. Wallace is therefore even more stupid than the a-hole who decided the original invasion was a good idea.
      God give me strength.

      1. If the Victorians, who had self belief and a government on the side of this country, couldn’t crack AfGaff, what chance does spavined C21 Blighty have?

          1. Exactly. Soviet Russia didn’t exactly go in for that feely touchy, ‘I feel your pain crap’.
            And even they said “к черту” and called it a day. (Blame Mr. Google if the translation is wrong.)

            Personally, I think if the West had had the sense to buy up the opium crops for pharmaceutical use, the increased income would have bought some form of loyalty at least for long enough to withdraw with face saved. The greatest destructive fanatics are those who have nothing to lose.

          2. I agree with the idea of buying the opium crop for pharmaceutical use, at a proper market value. The Afghans could have made a living, albeit with their internal corruption stirring the pot, and the crop could have done some positive good.

            Instead we followed the US down the rabbit hole with John Reid suggesting it unlikely British forces would need to fire a shot in anger.

    1. ‘Morning, Bill, it just shews how your disposition can change once you get out of bed. Go and towel off and see about that blonde rinse.

          1. Which reminds me.
            Last week I nipped into town and on my shopping list was MB’s hearing aid batteries. He gets them from Specsavers.
            I knew where Specsavers were – except they weren’t. Who would dare to wander up and down a town centre street asking passers by for the location of Specsavers?
            Thank goodness I stayed schtum; in Colchester, they have moved to further up the other side of the same street and into premises at least twice the size of the original site.

          3. “Who would dare to wander up and down a town centre street asking passers by for the location of Specsavers?” Ah, Anne – thanks for the laugh!

          1. Having been up for too long (and had 2 coffees), I was feeling uncharacteristically brave, Anne!

      2. Run away and play!

        (Gosh – that came to me from 75 years ago in the playground)

    1. The Olympics millionaire Lord Coe looked as if he had slept in his clothes. His shoes would have disgraced a tramp. Just saying.

    2. On the plus side the games apparently cost less than half of the amount wasted on Test & Trace!

    1. “...what we think it will say.”
      How about waiting a moment and reporting what it ACTUALLY says?
      Just a thought.

    3. Don’t they talk crap !
      Experts In what ? Do these so called scientist ever observed the goings on in their own back yards. As even insignificant me has noticed and even taken the trouble to observe when a piece of grass (especially with trees and wild life) land has virtually no carbon foot print and is ploughed up concreted over and turned into yet another effing housing estate to house people from warm climates with virtually no carbon footprint where they have come from. The new carbon emissions are almost visible as the fumes rise above each and every new home. This, aided and (wallet lining) abetted, has been allowed to happen all over England for many decades. When are the so mis-named experts going to make reference to this, okay I know it is not on the agenda, but never the less it is happening. And the subsequent consequences are going to be catastrophic. But as ever it is everyone else fault especially the public.

    4. “…the six warmest years the Earth has ever recorded…”

      Correct. Met Office records go back the 1880s, the Central England Temperature records to the 1650s. It’s not the history of the Earth though, is it?

  22. Great article by Daniel Miller in Conservative Woman about social credit passports titled….

    “We have limited time to stop the vaccine control project”

    ” WE HAVE a limited time to act. The essence of the situation now is clear: what is still perceived by many as a medical emergency is in reality a highly organised global corporate and political agenda. This agenda is directed towards imposing unimaginable control over the global human population though mandatory vaccination, connected to a digital passport, which will be linked to digital currency and a social credit score.”

    Continues…

    Can’t link on this phone.

  23. 336511+ up ticks,
    Monday 9 August: What happens when an electric car breaks down at the side of the road ?

    It becomes an arterial road blocker that could have you blue in the face.

    4. When most of the cars on the road are electric it will be a chaotic disaster when it rains and is very cold and dark because having to use the heater, the lights and the windscreen wipers as well as running the engine will result in a mass of cars at the side of the road that have had to stop because they do not have enough juice left in their batteries.

      The AA and RAC will have to invest in thousands of diesel powered mobile chargers to get these stranded cars moving again!

      1. 336511+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        Wind turbines will save the day / night….. I think, maybe,
        even a little bit.

    5. Morning Ogga, The car is loaded onto the back of my recovery truck and transported to wherever the customer wants in accordance with the terms of his breakdown insurance. Bear in mind that electric cars can suffer the same causes of breakdown as an ordinary car with respect to punctures and suspension damage, the problem occurs when the ordinary 12v battery, which operates the door unlocking, drive selection and other functions, is flat, in this case we have to connect jump leads to that battery to enable those functions which need to operate to get the car onto the truck. There may be facilities forthcoming to charge the big battery with enough power to get to a charging point.

      1. What happens to the human beans inside the car if the lecky runs out? Are they trapped?

        1. There is a handy little handle on the inside of the car’s doors that, when pressed, magically opens those doors. That Henry Ford thought of everything.🤣

        2. Unfortunately not Anne. The door handles are manual – it’s the locks which are electric. Post amended :o)

          1. So (ooops) if the driver and passengers travel with the doors unlocked, they can escape.

          2. Driving in a car with locked doors is the craziest thing to do imaginable. In the event of a crash, it makes access far more difficult for the emergency services. I was given this sound advice during my training and I have followed it ever since.

            For those who moan that they lock the doors because they want to safeguard their handbags from being snatched by opportunist thieves the answer is simple: hide the handbag!

            What is more important: quick access to save your life … or your bloody handbag?

  24. Good morning from an overcast but currently dry Derbyshire with 9½° min the yard.

  25. Website for those interested in what is going on legally re CV-19 and the “vaccination” programme. Website refers to the (long) letter addressed to
    Sir Simon Stevens, Chief Executive Officer, NHS England, re Dr Sam White, a GP suspended for expressing his concerns. Gates and his foundation get an airing regarding their involvement and influence on government policy.

    Link to website:

    Legal Class Action

    Link to letter:

    pjhlaw – Letter on behalf of Dr Sam White to CEO NHS England

      1. #me too. There is already a court case in Germany. Hopefully something will come of these.

        1. ‘Morning, John, a question best directed to Mrs Slocombe in Are You Being Served.

          2. Only Otis and Lucky Wilbury still standing, John.

            Nelson, Lefty and Charlie T. Jnr have left the stage.

      2. Fear not, Tom – they have devised a way of drying themselves on our trousers!

        1. A skill well-honed by all of ours over the years, albeit Flossie, our long-hair, actually asks to be towel-dried.

  28. A BTL Comment on Forest Fires and my response:-

    Frederick Hanniffy
    9 Aug 2021 8:30AM
    There has been a great deal made of whether or not climate change is the cause of the apparent increase in the number of grassland/forest fires. Indeed lots of speculation on the so called increase in temperature being due to climate change being the cause, or, just plain normal nature doing what it does, or, even careless visitors to the countryside dropping a lighted cigarette, say, or, even arson.

    Some years ago during this century there was a forest fire in Greece and speculation was rife that after a fire in remote forest areas it was much easier to develop the land as some law of the land made development less onerous than for land which was not razed to the ground from whatever cause.

    Forgetting ‘climate change’ for a while is there another explanation for the cause of these fires?

    Flag9UnlikeReply

    Robert Spowart
    9 Aug 2021 8:49AM
    @Frederick Hanniffy Forest Fires are natural phenomena, caused in the main by lightening strikes, and happened on a regular basis, removing the forest detritus in the process.

    Many areas hardest hit by Forest Fires have a past history of smaller controlled burns that emulated the natural fires to get rid of that detritus in a controlled fashion.however, modern “Green” Forest Management eschews such traditional activities, preferring to leave the detritus where it is.

    In time it builds up and, when the next lightening strike occurs, adds more fuel to the resulting fire, intensifying the damage done.

    1. Robert Spowart’s comment on the stopping of controlled burns – isn’t that what happened in Australia recently?

      1. Quite a few of those were started by arsonists and exacerbated by the dry undergrowth.

        1. A French colleague told me that the French fire brigade (pompiers I believe) are paid by the number of fires they attend. On occasions they are apparently known to start fires themselves so they can get more pay. How true this is I have no idea.

          1. I have heard of that happening – I seem to recall reading a report in a local rag about it.

      2. Apparently there were controlled burns up until a few years ago, when the greens stopped it. Even the Aboriginal folk used to burn off the undergrowth, as I understand it.
        Then, years of accumulating dry brush, add an arsonist or two – and whoosh!

    2. Also, BoB, the greenies detest the idea of incorporating fire-breaks, wide enough to stop the fire jumping it.

    3. Good morning everyone, weather is windy and wet.
      In Mediterranean member states the forest undergrowth was traditionally grazed by sheep and goats, and labourers also did a bit of trimming. Post WWII, much of the younger rural population moved to urban locations to seek better employment opportunities. Result, fewer shepherds, less transhumance. After politicians in countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal were persuaded to join the EEC, the subsidy regime (Common Agricultural Policy) started to change rural land management and usage. Increased subsidies for arable. So-called environmentalists added their wisdom to the process. Marginal activities such as woodland grazing simply disappeared, and the grasses and weeds flourished in the cool damp springtime. Then the hot dry summer arrived. Fire brigades and politicians have budgets and PR people, and so the emergency remedy of controlled burning was outlawed. Even in the UK, stubble fires were prohibited.
      All around the affluent western world, naive people delight in building houses in woodland, eg Portugal, California, Australia. But curiously they never seem to bring any useful flocks of sheep or herds of goats or pigs to the locality.
      NB I wish Jennifer SP were here to correct each tiny unintended mistake, but I have just tried to jot down a summary of the difficulties of balancing an out of control human (& human-reptile?) population with the needs of the natural world.

      1. I once met Dr John Walmsley, the great Australian naturalist who set up the Warrawong Nature Reserve in the Adelaide Hills, but over-reached himself commercially when venturing out into an ambitious ‘Earth Sanctuaries’ project and went bust doing so.

        The first thing he did at Warrawong was to erect a very tall electrified fence around the reserve and then shoot every cat, fox and rabbit within the compound. This allowed the small endangered marsupials such as the Potaroos and the Bandicoots to survive and thrive without exotic introduced predators. Some got out and colonised local gardens in the hills.

        There was a huge bush fire in the area on Ash Wednesday in 1983. Much of the local area was burnt, but the fire stopped at the electric fence at Warrawong. Dr Walmsley put this down to the bandicoots. They have very strong jaws strong enough to crack open gum tree seeds, allowing them to germinate without fire. Like squirrels, they would then bury them everywhere and wait a year or two for the seedlings to emerge. The seedlings are their favourite food. They were in effect farming the reserve. Most of the trees therefore were either mature and barely growing, just shedding seed, or saplings too small to be a fire risk. It kept the litter down to levels that were not threatened by wildfire, and hence the reserve was spared the wildfire.

    4. Good morning everyone, weather is windy and wet.
      In Mediterranean member states the forest undergrowth was traditionally grazed by sheep and goats, and labourers also did a bit of trimming. Post WWII, much of the younger rural population moved to urban locations to seek better employment opportunities. Result, fewer shepherds, less transhumance. After politicians in countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal were persuaded to join the EEC, the subsidy regime (Common Agricultural Policy) started to change rural land management and usage. Increased subsidies for arable. So-called environmentalists added their wisdom to the process. Marginal activities such as woodland grazing simply disappeared, and the grasses and weeds flourished in the cool damp springtime. Then the hot dry summer arrived. Fire brigades and politicians have budgets and PR people, and so the emergency remedy of controlled burning was outlawed. Even in the UK, stubble fires were prohibited.
      All around the affluent western world, naive people delight in building houses in woodland, eg Portugal, California, Australia. But curiously they never seem to bring any useful flocks of sheep or herds of goats or pigs to the locality.
      NB I wish Jennifer SP were here to correct each tiny unintended mistake, but I have just tried to jot down a summary of the difficulties of balancing an out of control human (& human-reptile?) population with the needs of the natural world.

    5. Morning Bob. I’ve just watched the (cue sombre overtones) Great Global Warming Announcement on BBC News. Tiring of the accents and mumbled presentation I flicked over to Sky News and there it was again. In synch I believe!

    6. The problem is that what is good environmental practice in the UK is not necessarily a good thing in places that dry out, especially in places such as Australia where there local trees thrive on fire and rely on it for their seeds to germinate without competition from other plants or being browsed by animals. Fire is also pretty good at clearing out humans, who are the biggest danger of all with their damned chainsaws and rapacious attitudes.

      I leave brushwood to rot down in my garden, but there are all sorts of creatures that bring this about, converting it all to topsoil. They rely on reasonably damp weather, which we still have in Britain. I would not do this where my brother lives in the Adelaide Hills though. There forest litter must be cleared away, including leaves from gutters, and burnt in winter when it is safe to do so. The Green approach there would be to use it as a fuel source, instead of fossil fuels. The CO2 generated this way is overwhelmingly offset by the CO2 not created by wildfires.

    7. Captain Cook’s log mentions seeing fires on the mainland in the 18th century. Some Aussie flora won’t germinate unless subjected to extreme heat.

        1. Alas, no. It wasn’t a CHC assessment, it was just an “assessment” – quite how many of these there will need to be before we get to the two part CHC real deal, I have no idea. MOH was completely vacant and didn’t know me at all. Far worse than before going into hospital. The social worker told me that CHC wasn’t NHS funded, which is wrong. The only good thing is that we have got an extra two weeks of NHS funding.

          2. Been referred to the Orthopaedic, but when that will happen, the Lord only knows. Have been prescribed more painkillers, which I’ll have to collect tomorrow. I’ll go into town and then have a coffee afterwards.

          3. Thanks. Didn’t mean to make you update me personally. Should have read further before. KBO.

  31. ‘Morning, all.

    Waiting for Mrs. Mac to cook breakfast this morning, I sat down with a strong coffee, a wee deoch-bhleith and the first cigarette of the day. Thinking of nothing particular, I found myself idly musing on the meaning of life – as you do – when a startling thought came into my head.

    What if the Hokey Cokey IS what it’s all about?
    :¬(

          2. Indeed. I was explaining to a youngster on Saturday that waking up was a good start.

          5. They already got me. My smoking cessation drug Champix has been withdrawn worldwide as Pfizer have just discovered it contains unacceptable levels of nitrosamines. Cancer of the brain anyone?

            Now the witch doctors want me to go on Librium.

            I don’t know why they bother. Just install an electric chair in hospital reception and be done with it.

          7. They already got me. My smoking cessation drug Champix has been withdrawn worldwide as Pfizer have just discovered it contains unacceptable levels of nitrosamines. Cancer of the brain anyone?

            Now the witch doctors want me to go on Librium.

            I don’t know why they bother. Just install an electric chair in hospital reception and be done with it.

          11. I used to think that, but since dying is a significant event in life, it would be a pity to miss it because you were sleeping… that would be the time to be somewhere else, I think.

  32. what happens when an electric car breaks down at the side of the road? In the UK’s inner cities the thieves will strip it of useful parts quicker than a vulture strips a carcass.

          1. You’d be amazed to know that (with a crossbar and without the basket) that could well BE my bike!

          2. Good choice. That particular one is a Royal Enfield.

            My E-Bike is a step through. (without a crossbar). Not because i am a lady but because i am a shortarse.

          4. I rode a Dutch step-through sit-up-and-beg in Ostfriesland. Very high off the ground. The whole area is billiard-table flat.

          8. We used to do bicycle drill at Sandhurst. Those were the days……….When passing an officer you had to “ride to attention”, and stop pedalling. One bastard officer used to wait till we were cycling up the hill then walk past us……

    2. Satnavs will be programmed with warnings to help keep EV drivers away from such areas!
      There is not much worth having on a Tesla, because you can be certain that any spares would need to be fitted with software permission. But the occupants tend to be affluent, so they could be robbed or worse. My guess is that criminals will gradually identify the main weakness, which is currently the flammable battery pack, and the secondary design flaw which is that a low profile trolley jack could be used distort the frame. Tenner to look after your car, Guv?
      (I glanced at youtube an hour ago)

      1. The thieves will hack the software in the night & have the car drive itself to a collection point to be held till a ransom is paid & if not the car will go to the chop shop.

    3. I would have thought it broke down on the road, not at the side of the road. It only got moved to the side of the road after it broke down.

    4. I would have thought it broke down on the road, not at the side of the road. It only got moved to the side of the road after it broke down.

    5. You’ve got to get to the side of the road first. There’s a length of the M5 near Bromsgrove where they’ve put a barrier to stop this happening. If the vehicle is carefully dismantled by a passing juggernaut driven by a sleeping driver forced by his legal contract to “go the extra mile”, then it makes it much easier to strip the surviving fragments for spares.

      Oh, and you are advised to stay in your car “for security reasons”. Unless you are Covid-positive or in a protected category, real vultures are more likely to get there before the paramedics, and they are an endangered species and deserve to be fed while the zoos are strapped for cash.

          2. Yes poor Albion, from the 1st world to the 3rd world since the end of WW2 & what does the future hold? In a few decades the UK will be part of the Caliphate of the West & after that when Communist China has gobbled up the Asia-Pacific region it will reach out & grab the UK & Europe’s rotting Islamic carcasses . In a century from now any humans still alive will be Mandarin speaking slaves of the Chinese Empire.

          4. Now’s the time to take a 70 year mortgage – in 20 years the Sharia Bank of Engladesh will ban usury & the payment of interest so there will be no more to pay as long as you can prove that you have a flock of goats in the garden, all the females of the house wear hijabs & have beards & that the toilets do not face east towards Mecca.

          6. 711–718 https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/06/eusi.html
            An army of Arabs and Berbers, unified under the aegis of the Islamic Umayyad caliphate in Damascus, lands on the Iberian Peninsula and, through diplomacy and warfare, brings the entire peninsula—except for Galicia and Asturias in the far north—under Islamic control. The Visigothic leadership is forced out of Toledo, but a large Christian population remains under Muslim rule. In 718, a Christian kingdom is formed in the Asturian region, the northern part of the peninsula beyond the Duero River. The new Muslim territories, called al-Andalus, are administered by a provincial government centered in Córdoba.

          7. And yet, Spain is a large country with a complex history. Although both Jews and Muslims were expelled (1391, 1492 etc etc) intermarriage meant that many Spaniards have jewish and moorish ancestry. I know of Roman Catholics who can trace their jewish origins back more than 800 years, and DNA testers would have a wonderful time examining test results in some Spanish cities.
            Al-Andalus was a big cultural thing in the 1990s, but Spain’s extensive jewish history was not so celebrated, who knows why.

  33. Barbara Smith makes a good point regarding the re-charging of plastic dispensers with fluid, Take all these spray bottles of oven cleaner, window cleaner etc – you have to buy a spray container every time yet the amount of fluid is small – they would be my first choice for being refillable

      1. We have bulk replenishers for some items in the NW Highlands – privately run

    2. It is a non starter. The possibilities for spillage, customers slipping over and breaking limbs, chaos.

      1. Plus shop staff having to reload larger container of the products and probably far less effective than in factory in terms of numbers than in a factory.

      2. Plus shop staff having to reload larger container of the products and probably far less effective than in factory in terms of numbers than in a factory.

    4. Why do we need all this crap..

      Oven cleaner – Vim + elbow grease
      Window cleaner – hosepipe… Indoors – damp Jay cloth.

      4. Window cleaner: warm water with a drop of vinegar and a drop of Sqezy in it. Rub the windows with old, scrunched-up newspapers dipped in that solution. Dry the windows with a piece of dry scrunched-up newspaper. Result: gleaming windows.

    5. The Body Shop used to do shampoo etc … refills.
      I haven’t been in one for years, so I don’t know if they still do so.

  34. Concerning electric vehicles I came across this fascinating invention from the past. Apparently it was to good for its own good, the railways opposed it and it got nowhere even though, almost 100 years old now, it would still be superior to HS2 and not half as destructive. With a little updating and modernization I can still see it being used today.
    The George Benny Rail Train
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHP6tFNzKeM

    1. And if and when it rains the water (no new storage) companies still let most of it flow into the sea and the scientist bang on about the rising sea levels.

    2. No surprise there eh !
      What happened to the Egyptian taxi driver whose family were not at home over night when his fridge caught fire ?

        1. That’s the one……..
          As far as i know there has never been a mention of him since, nor a mention of all the household rubbish that had been dumped on a lot of the landings and stairwells.

          1. Cultural norm.
            It is not for the mugs taxpayers to judge the habits of our enrichers.

          2. Possibly changed name, got a different passport and ID just like the groomers do, and carried on. I recall one immigrant Driving test examiner, who was found to be handing out passes and licences – for cash – He legged it when they tried to catch him – no trace of all those crap drivers he has allowed onto our roads.

          4. Nowhere near the enrichment they get from coming here to commit crime etc, while WE give them free everything.

          5. As i mentioned a week or so ago, the standard of driving in the UK has plummeted so badly over the past two decades I would estimate that at least 40% of drivers have never taken or passed a driving test in the UK.
            Our government are pathetically irresponsible.

    1. Too many fires to be all coincidences. I’d put money on a lot of those so called wild fires were deliberately set, as was found in Oz, people were arrested but they police have been too busy with mask dodgers.

      2. In Oz and elsewhere they used to have controlled burns to diminish the build up of detritus etc in the undergrowth. Of course the greenies frowned on that so that preventive action rarely takes place now. Any bushfire now is that much more intense, no matter how it started, by nature or by design.

        1. I know VVOF I used to live in Oz and they had fire fighters on stand by as they burned the fire breaks. But the big problem is the Eucalyptus and the inflammable vapour they emit. It’s like petrol when it is warmed up.

          1. I have family in NSW and what brought it home to me was driving up the Putty Road when I was visiting on one occasion. For mile after mile after mile it was like driving through the middle of a fuel store. I cannot imagine how bad it would be if went up in flames.
            Whilst I was there I was invited out to a Eucalyptus farm, run by friends of the family to see the stars. After a swim in the dam I was given a tour of the place, most interesting and I will never forget the aroma.

      3. In Greece that is actually a serious problem. Corrupt real estate developers encouraging the burning down of pristine forests, what little is left of them so they can build tourist villas etc. Such people deserve to be burnt themselves, in my opinion.

        2. I remember a news paper report on the tragic consequences of being a farmer in Greece. They were all pleading poverty and the only place out side London and New York where more people owned expensive SUVs was in Greek agricultural areas. But on paper none of them earned enough to buy one. Plus all the camouflage netting over the out door swimming pools as seen for the air.
          Have you ever noticed all the buildings Greece and the islands that have pieces of steel reinforcing protruding from the tops, as in
          not quite finished ? They don’t have to pay tax on unfinished buildings.

          1. I’ve only once had a Greek Island holiday – in Kefalonia in 1997 – all the buildings, as you say, had unfinished roofs with steel poking out.

        2. They’re going to ramp up the fear and hysteria like it’s Covid-19’s bigger badder brother.

          3. If the world governments really were serious about climate change and mankind they would have just let Covid run its course without attempting to stop it.

          5. Perhaps so they had an excuse to inject the population so that significant numbers become sterile.

          2. Yes they are a complete turn off. No you are not alone, not be a long shot.

        4. They need to crank up the volume before their next wankfest at COP26; the first one in which all attendees will be walking to the venue?

      2. I’ll believe it all when the Indians and Chinese stop burning coal and the Brazilians stop clearing forests and Africans stop their people breeding like rabbits and Muslims and Catholics encourage contraception.

        2. I am from a very large extended Catholic family* and it is clear to me that the Vatican’s 1960s rulings on artificial contraception are and largely were, ignored.

          *Now Atheist.

      3. You missed this. Main headline in the Telegraph:

        ‘Code red for humanity’: Paris 1.5C climate goal set to be breached within two decades
        IPCC landmark report warns the window to meet the target is ‘rapidly expiring’ and governments must commit to ‘immediate’ emissions cuts.

        It is accompanied by a background in flames with a little old lady clutching her breast with a woe is me on her face.

      1. We’re going to be bombarded with this claptrap now with the COP26 coming up in November. I’ve alrready heard more than enough.

      2. Thankfully, my beautiful dog (Oscar) has not done that yet! Given that he doesn’t like being washed and dried, I am extremely grateful.

          1. I dread something like that happening, as he is really bad about being handled. I even have trouble drying him off if he gets wet in the rain. Something unpleasant must have happened to him in the past as none of my other dogs has had a problem with being towelled down. Charlie even used to put up with having the hair dryer used on him to dry him off. I can only hope that time and persistence will overcome his dislike.

          2. I remember a geology field trip to SW England and staying at a hotel in Torquay. I got pushed into the pool when we were drinking one night and the lad I was sharing with, who had the keys, wasn’t around. These two nice young student girls invited me to use their room. I was a ‘mature’ student and I enjoyed the ‘towelling off’.

    7. Well, let me think.

      You control population – of anything – by food supply, predators and disease.

      If you can remove those threats, your can create an ecology that is unaffected by environment. Mankind does that through technology. However, that’s OK for us in the West where we’ve the money and tooling and naturally reached an equilibrium and the birthrate was falling to reflect our society –

      ————

      segueway: Government punished the worker with tax and inflation. Thus fewer children were born to those you wanted to have them. Government, fearing a collapse in tax revenues sought popluation replacement and imported millions of immigrants.

      Now we have a situation where the workers are having fewer children and getting poorer and the shirkers are getting richer at the expense of the workers. Government has created a mess through it’s meddling.
      ————
      – however, in the third world – the unsuccessful population continued to get fed by the surplus of the West, given healthcare and war was hindered as well due to intervention (yet they still managed atrocity such as Rwanda).

      We have sustained the failing evolutionary branch with our own success. Left alone, that society would be forced to adapt, improve and change and it isn’t being allowed to.

      As with evolutionary dead ends, you end up with a failed species living alongside a successful one. The result is conflict – resources, mates, safe habitat.

      Government created the mess (by punishing the locals), perpetuated the mess (by feeding the third world) and then by importing it to live here perpetuates conflict and encourages the death of the successful species.

      It’s not a particularly nice thing, to just look at different cultures under the harsh light of evolutionary success, but that’s what we come down to. The real travesty is the way we, in the rich, fat West think it’s kind to hinder the development (trading, infrastructure, research) of the developing world.

      1. Another example is where when the third world locals do get an education they are promptly leaving their place of origin and moving to the West.
        That they are taken in is as bad as sending excess aid.

        But who, in all honesty, can blame them.

    8. Ever wonder why they preserved a certain site near Oswiecim?
      Ever wonder why Cambodia is flourishing 40 years after a touch of firm discipline a la Khmer Rouge?
      Genocide might work wonders, only problem is that the world population would need to decline by such massive amounts, that the process could worsen climate change.

      1. I am not advocating genocide, merely pointing out how convenient the powers that be might use any excuse.

        Do you believe with absolute certainty that there won’t be:

        Wars over resources?

        Civil wars on racial or religious grounds?
        That governments scientists and politicians won’t deliberately cull populations on grounds of age or disability?
        That governments wouldn’t release a new disease or resurrect an old one?

        all for the good of the planet, of course.

    9. Just added my comment to those of the burgeoning disbelievers, viz:

      Just one more of the ‘doomsday’ predictions which have been rife since the 1960s, none of which, apart from the climbing planetary population have come true. Wildfires are rife because the greenies won’t allow management of forests (making firebreaks, clearing the undergrowth detritus, etc.) and the floods are due to mismanagement of rivers (no dredging allowed) and building on established flood-plains. But, no we’re not green enough and the sun is responsible for climate change.

      1. Reminds me of the song from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid…

        “I just did me some talkin’ to the sun
        And I said I didn’t like the way he got things done”.

      1. Ask Elsie. She rocked up at Allan Towers with the jar.
        Whether she has stocks piled up her garage, I wouldn’t know.

  40. 336511+ up ticks,
    What’s all this ere then ? the brexit group £ 25 a pop funding a party that only a committee of nige approval
    could unseat him, now retitled the reform party.

    Debank the Right: Rebranded Brexit Party Has Bank Account Closed Down

    Best be on the safe side divert funding to Anne Marie Waters”For Britain” she meets our growing problem
    the dangers of islamic ideology head on.

    1. Did you see her recent post on You Tube at Speakers Corner, the Muslim making throat slitting and gun gestures at her?

        1. They should be arresting the one making the gestures – just like they should when it is clearly shown them threatening police that they “know where their kids live and go to school ” – use the army – fully armed – and grab them – film them – arrest them, charge them – but NOTHING happens. A green light to carry on and ramp it up. Govt permission.

          1. It isn’t that they do it, it is that the state endorses it. Big fat state actively protects the terrorist, the violent and the abuser. It calls this ‘multiculturalism’.

            Any fool knows that multiculturalism is a nonsense joke.

        2. As they did to the man who recited Churchill’s speech on islam.
          I have quite a longish piece on islam i don’t think it’s a good idea to post it i don’t want my home destroyed.
          I have no idea who wrote it or were is came from.. I can email it to any one interested.

      3. 336511+ up ticks,
        Morning Jr,
        When you are taking flak you are over the target and she is the only one dropping the truth bombs, no others.

          1. 336511+ up ticks,
            Jr,
            On long term reflection and the pro johnson actions, he is tory( ino) With a touch of carpet bagger, rounderbout jumper thrown in, IMO .

  41. Whitehall’s £3 million Stonewall spend. ( August 2021.

    Since 2018-19, organisations have been paying for guidance on issues such as gender-neutral spaces, pronouns, and transgender inclusion.

    Examples included a ‘Queering Children’s Literature’ event (costing £396) at Goldsmiths University of London, ‘Unconscious Bias Train the Trainer’ workshop (costing £1,620) at the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust and ‘Being A Better Ally to LGBT People of Colour’ webinar (costing £48) at the Bank of England.

    At least 20 organisations, including the House of Commons and National Assembly for Wales, signed up to Stonewall’s ‘Trans Allies’ programme or trans training/inclusion workshops.

    Queering Children’s Literature I’m actually beginning to look forward to the Muzzies taking over. We will then at least be rid of this filth!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/whitehall-s-3-million-stonewall-spend

      1. Afternoon Wibbles. There’s a whole raft of them, all funded by the taxpayer!

      2. Afternoon Wibbles. There’s a whole raft of them, all funded by the taxpayer!

    2. I used to see right through my mother and father when I was a child, does that mean I had transparents?

        1. I’m totally gormenghasted at that.
          I read those when I was quite young, found them intriguing but probably missed a lot of their subtleties.

  42. Whitehall’s £3 million Stonewall spend. ( August 2021.

    Since 2018-19, organisations have been paying for guidance on issues such as gender-neutral spaces, pronouns, and transgender inclusion.

    Examples included a ‘Queering Children’s Literature’ event (costing £396) at Goldsmiths University of London, ‘Unconscious Bias Train the Trainer’ workshop (costing £1,620) at the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust and ‘Being A Better Ally to LGBT People of Colour’ webinar (costing £48) at the Bank of England.

    At least 20 organisations, including the House of Commons and National Assembly for Wales, signed up to Stonewall’s ‘Trans Allies’ programme or trans training/inclusion workshops.

    Queering Children’s Literature I’m actually beginning to look forward to the Muzzies taking over. We will then at least be rid of this filth!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/whitehall-s-3-million-stonewall-spend

  43. Whitehall’s £3 million Stonewall spend. ( August 2021.

    Since 2018-19, organisations have been paying for guidance on issues such as gender-neutral spaces, pronouns, and transgender inclusion.

    Examples included a ‘Queering Children’s Literature’ event (costing £396) at Goldsmiths University of London, ‘Unconscious Bias Train the Trainer’ workshop (costing £1,620) at the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust and ‘Being A Better Ally to LGBT People of Colour’ webinar (costing £48) at the Bank of England.

    At least 20 organisations, including the House of Commons and National Assembly for Wales, signed up to Stonewall’s ‘Trans Allies’ programme or trans training/inclusion workshops.

    Queering Children’s Literature I’m actually beginning to look forward to the Muzzies taking over. We will then at least be rid of this filth!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/whitehall-s-3-million-stonewall-spend

  44. “The masses have never thirsted after truth.
    Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever
    attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” — Gustave Le Bon

    1. The masses are lambs to the slaughter. Their gullibility ensures that … and their masters know it.

  45. An extreme climate event is occurring outside. Oh, sorry, I mean it’s pissing down with rain.

    3. Alan Coren (remember him?) and Punch (remember that?) on the Idi Am skit: “Here am de weather forecast, we am been on de Air Meenestry roof and eet am peeesin’ down wid rain.”

    1. Don’t tell the experts Plum they will be offended and have a mental breakdown.

    1. Morning Phizzee and Nottlers all.

      What drives me nuts is that the article calls for the gumment to reduce the cost of the tests. Instead of scrapping them altogether! And people who have the app on their phone must be mad. For goodness sake delete the blasted thing.

      2. Friend I was going to have coffee with on Friday says she was pinged…………sigh.

        1. Oh dear. I’m afraid imo it’s all a great big con. I just don’t understand why others can’t see it.

          3. She did say: ” So annoying as the rules change next week anyway. I’ve taken tests and
            haven’t got covid but better not go to the café on Friday. Wish I’d
            taken the app off my phone.”

      3. Husband just tried to sign up to Lloyds Chemist’s prescription service. It required scanning a QR code, and getting a six-digit text on his smartphone (which he doesn’t have). Then he tried to book a hearing test with Specsavers – couldn’t do that online without a mobile, either. Though they did book him in over the phone (landline).

    2. I know folk who religiously shove their lateral flow tests down their throats and ram them up into their brains. Not that I consent to having anything to do with any of this stuff but it apparently works just as well if you spit on it, then all you have to do is register the negative result on your government surveillance app, THEN toss it in the bin.

      1. I must be one of the few members of the population who haven’t yet taken either kind of test. This country tests three times as many as any other country in the world.

        5. I had my first LFT this afternoon. The woman gave me the package and said, “you know what to do with it, don’t you?” I bit back the crude answer and said, “no idea!” She did the honours. Yuk! I shan’t be doing it again in a hurry.

  48. BREAKING NEWS

    Dick Head of the Yard (with the full agreement of Sad Dick, Caliph of Londonistan) has announced that from today, all police persons will be fully occupied with hurty words and unmasked people. No other crimes will be investigated. So don’t bother to report any murders, burglaries, rapes, theft etc.

    1. There was a group of masked-up Met Plod hanging around Wood Lane tube station yesterday. They ignored me but handed a card to a young woman who passed me at the entrance. I wonder if it said something along the lines of, “Here pretty girlie, go get your sterilisation jab”!

      1. Prolly his phone number – inviting her to visit him for a “short time”….

  49. Sainsbury’s Pulls Ads from Farage Show After Woke Campaign, Despite Topping BBC and Sky in Rating

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/08/09/advertiser-boycott-campaign-attacks-nigel-farage-gb-news/

    Haven’t shopped at Sainsbury’s for many years because of their woke nonsense. Wanted today to cancel credit card I have with them as a token gesture against their recent action. However, this can’t be done online and after waiting for 30 minutes on the ‘phone gave up.

    Is it, though, better to keep a credit card I haven’t used for many months, and don’t intend to – thus incurring them in some very small cost to keep the account open – or to close it? Any thoughts?

    1. I don’t know – I just have a Barclaycard which I use (infrequently) for things like airline tickets…………..sigh.

    2. When you feel that you are on the way out, you might consider the completely morally wrong and irresponsible possibility of going on a spending spree with store cards.

      CC debts are not easy to recover from a deceased person, unless linked to a bank account containing funds.

    3. Revert to statements by post (if you’re not getting those already) and spend £1 a month on it. I dropped Sainsbury’s some time ago for similar reasons.

    4. Pathetic weaklings. Shows how far from the reality of people’s lives they are. All this wokery does is alienate people.

      You’re a business. Sell stuff. Have policies against racism and whatever, but those wouldn’t be needed if you treated people as individuals, not labels.

    5. The satisfaction of telling them to go to Hull, and why, would be missed, VOM. They might get a clue as to how their clientele feel, as well, so you’d be doing them a favour.

    6. Good luck with that, Sainsbury’s, despite your possessive apostrophe, I’m not shopping there.

  50. A Catholic priest has been killed in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, a commune in the Vendée by a man who had reportedly been placed under police supervision having set fire to a cathedral in Nantes in 2020.
    On Monday, a catholic clergyman was found dead in the town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre. Sources told the French news outlet that the suspect had already turned himself into the police.

    In a tweet, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed the horrific incident and announced that he would travel to the scene of the crime. “All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic assassination of a priest in Vendée.”

    The victim has been identified as Father Olivier Maire, by Bruno Retailleau, senator of the Vendée, who described the clergyman’s death as “a great loss” in a tweet.
    Retailleau state that Maire was HOSTING THE VICTIM AT THE TIME.. “His death testifies to the kindness of this priest whom I knew well and whose depth of faith I had been able to appreciate,” he added.

    Sources told BFM TV that the suspect had already served prison time for his role in a fire at Nantes Cathedral in 2020 and was under police supervision.

    Will they ever learn?

          1. All “do-gooder, allow them all into whichever country they choose” advocates should be forced to look after and finance one or more of the asylum seeker/economic migrants.

            You want them, you pay for them.

          2. “Emmanuel Abayisenga, 40, is said to have confessed to killing Father Olivier Maire”
            To another priest in a confessional box?

      3. If the suspect is not named it’s a gimmigrant, probably a Muslim.

        We all know this. It’s boring now.

      4. Reports say Rwandan national Emmanuel Abayisenga, 40, arrived at a police station on Monday morning claiming he had killed Father Olivier Maire, 60.

    3. Sources told BFM TV that the suspect had already served prison time for his role in a fire at Nantes Cathedral in 2020

      Not in prison for very long,was he

    4. A church volunteer admitted being behind a fire that severely damaged Nantes’ St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 18 and was charged with arson. The 39-year-old man was taken into custody and questioned shortly after the incident due to the fact that he had been closing the cathedral on Friday evening. He got released on Sunday 19, but was taken into custody again on Saturday 25 and later charged with “destruction and damage by fire” before being put in pre-trial detention. Lawyer Quentin Chabert told local newspaper Presse-Océan that his client is “consumed with remorse” and said he was “liberated” after admitting the incident. The suspect told the examining magistrate he lit three fires in the cathedral, which resulted in the severe damage of a 17th-century organ and stained glass windows. He could now be handed “a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of €150,000 euros,” Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennès explained.The rector of Nantes cathedral, Father Hubert Champenois, said last week that the volunteer was a Rwandan citizen who came to France as a refugee “a few years ago”. He said he had been serving “as an altar” and had known him for “four or five years”.
      https://www.euronews.com/2020/07/26/nantes-cathedral-blaze-volunteer-admits-setting-up-fire

      1. So, how is this destructive Muslim going to pay €150,000 fine?

        Get real, justices and just order a 20 year jail sentence followed by deportation.

  51. Heard a bloke on the wireless called Roger Harrabin (aged 65), lots of doom and gloom and criticism of Messrs Trump & Johnson. Shouldn’t he be retired by now, having been a BBC staffer for 35 years?

    1. Odd that in 35 years he’s not had to learn a thing, change his opinion or adopt a different viewpoint. It’s a strange form of absolute stagnation.

        1. Alan Coren again, Idi Amin skit: “Here am de puberlick announcement. Ah’s getting dammed sick o’ de puberlick. Any more o’ dis complainin’ and like, and someones grandmodder is goin a becom’ seriously ill.”

          1. Hi Richard I use to like the Idi Amin weather forecast skits like ” I just been up on de roof of de weather ministry to throw off a few of dem opponents of mine and it was pissing down ! “

          2. I made a similar comment earlier to a post by molamola about the weather, someone said it was pissing down so I replied with that quote.

          4. Not a problem, I often don’t look back at what someone might have posted a few hours ago.

          6. I made a similar comment earlier to a post by molamola about the weather, someone said it was pissing down so I replied with that quote.

          1. Must do better as my teacher told me….!

            I didn’t comply like the rest of the sheep and was often given 500 lines … staying in after school.
            Which made me more of a rebel…….

    1. I have a natural suspicion of websites that make 2 attempts to bamboozle you into allowing them to track you with cookies and sign up for their newsletters before proceeding to read the article & judge for yourself if its truthful or not and have at the top of the page a request for donations. A Red warning light flashes in my brain that says ” Scammer Alert, Con artist territory ! “

      1. Much the same as criminal mastermind Tony Blair pushing vaccines 99.5% plus don’t need. As well as vaccine passports which are predicted to morph into social credit passports incorporating digital currency in place of cash.

        What could possibly go wrong, particularly as Tony Blair, who works for the Davos billionaires, is so keen?

    1. When I told the cardiologist last week that I had a severe allergic heart reaction to both jabs he agreed that it was not an unusual occurrence.

      1. Stay safe & well Eddy and seek a 2nd opinion about vaccination, an allergic reaction does not necessarily mean that the jabs will cause you any long term harm.

      2. When I went on a routine cardiology checkup last year I did raise concerns with the registrar about the impact of the COVID virus on my cardiovascular system. He said there were no worries there as they were routinely treating COVID cases with heparin – the same treatment for people like me who are currently on anti-coagulant therapy.

        1. I think, Angie, with the heart disease plus warfarin and complicated with COPD, I’d rather steer clear of the poison.

          1. I am steering clear of it as long as I have breath in my body, my heels are well dug in.

        2. Right from the start it seemed to me that the people who were being hospitalised by ‘covid’ were actually people with long term health issues that had been exacerbated by either the jab or catching the virus. But of course will will never know the truth.
          I read this morning about a football fan in his 30s who was at the Wembley final, who died of covid despite being double jabbed because he had had a kidney transplant some time ago.
          And we still have the ready made excuses regarding the variants personally I don’t believe a word of it Angie, they are just covering up the deaths of people in cases such as these.

          1. It’s ironic that the less time we have left the more time we have with long term health issues.

  56. In a new move, scientists emphasized how cutting airborne levels of methane — a powerful but short-lived gas that has soared to record levels — could help curb short-term warming. Lots of methane the atmosphere comes from leaks of natural gas, a major power source. Livestock also produces large amounts of the gas, a good chunk of it in cattle burps.

    https://apnews.com/article/europe-science-climate-environment-and-nature-united-nations-1d89d5183583718ad4ad311fa2ee7d83

    I spent many holiday hours on a Devon farm sketching with my back to a fence that surrounded the farmer’s herd of cattle.
    It was so peaceful there at the isolated farm that I think I would have noticed if the cows had been burping behind me as they chewed away at the cud only inches behind me.

      1. Yes NTN, but our labrador just loved lapping up the cow pats – it was a struggle trying to keep her nose out of them on the track to the milking shed!

    2. Also lots from landfill rubbish dumps. I think it has even been used commercially.

      1. Ah, good point! I see a potential Catch-22 in the offing. We all give up eating meat so no animals required, thus no animals eating green stuff and burping methane. So far, so good. Except that the green stuff will continue to be grown in even larger quantities to feed humans. The humans will now burp methane, but won’t have the pleasure of eating lamb chops. Sounds like a plan dreamed up by XR.

  57. 336511+ up ticks,
    Until they hear the call to unite via the arms depot and ALL will be revealed.

    My only hope is that they will renege on the safety clause for politico’s.

    breitbart,
    Hundreds of Illegal Migrants Disappear Into Britain After Absconding from Taxpayer-Funded Hotels

      1. 336511+ up ticks,
        Afternoon HP,
        They don’t like to be truthful & say thousands it would upset their member / voters, for maybe a long fleeting moment.

      2. At least they are being paid for at someone elses place now. And the latest arrivals hopefully give the cleaners chance to get the new guests rooms ready for them. SARK

  58. 336511+ up ticks,
    Funny old world,poor old Lama is going to get the chop
    for having TB which was nigh on eradicated within these Isles until it was re-introduced,courtesy of the lab/lib/con
    mass uncontrolled immigration coalition,the popular choice via the polling booth.

    2. Just a slight accuracy check, Ogga, It’s an Alpaca which is not a Lama – they’re Tibetan priests – and it’s not even a Llama.

          1. First plane I travelled on (a hop across the channel from Gatwick to Le Touquet) was in a Vickers Viking.

          2. My first flight, March 1970, was a De Haviland Rapide from Netheravon.
            I got out at the top.

          1. 336511+ up ticks
            Afternoon NtN,
            I have made a peoples apology for my horrific error tell me what more is required ?
            Besides the message content even poorly spelt although
            understandable is far more important than the spelling.

    3. 336511+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Read Alpaca for lama, sorrys all round, comes from travelling at woke speed.

  59. How many invaders (insurgents) have landed at Dover today as a result of the daily Hegira?

    Hegira: “a flight to a more desirable or safer place,” comes from Medieval Latin hegira, a Latinization of Arabic hijrah “emigration, flight, departure,” a derivative of the verb hajara, “he departed.” Hijrah specifically refers to the flight of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution in July c.e. 622. The Arabic form hijrah (more fully al hijrat) for Muslims marks the beginning of the Muslim Era. Hegira entered English in the late 16th century; the spelling hijra in the late 19th.

    How much more desirable or safe will the place they are escaping to become after they have converted it into the same shithole they are escaping from?

    1. Pity, George, that the idiot wasn’t captured and beheaded before he reached Medina.

      Oh, how the history of the world turns on a small mistake.

    2. Escaping from? – Why bother working at improving your own country when you can get rewarded for getting to the UK illrgally? Free everything here.Even the right to march chanting that the infidels should be slaughtered – which shows their mentality – destroy the very people whose taxes you enjoy a better life on. Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe them. Life must be absolutely horrible being so warped and full of hate 24/7.
      https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ahmed+the+dead+terrorist&view=detail&mid=F35091F9AAE3D65E87C8F35091F9AAE3D65E87C8&FORM=VIRE

      1. The Mayor of London and Ms Dick, the Commissioner of the Met police are going to concentrate of hate crime.

        However they will be very selective in their indignation and they will target all their usual suspects while actively encouraging the hatred of others.

    2. They’re actually demonstrating in the apartment building that used to be Television Centre and haven’t noticed that the BBC offices are now in a completely different wing of the same complex. I’m in TVC and it’s quiet over here.

        1. They’ve found us now but I had to go over to the other side of the building to see them. A very youthful crowd and quite a big demo. A lot of police out there too.

          2. The queue of police vans looks like the typical Stasi overreaction. Hope they keep their batons to themselves. It’s heartening to see so many young folk resisting.

          6. It’s in the DM now! They are described as anti-vaxxers whereas in fact they are anti-tyrannyers.

          1. Bugger! Forgot. Never mind, if it falls down in the next week or 2, I’ll get funnier pics for you.

          3. Good grief. Is that still running? Full of darkies, I expect. Prolly closed the Rovers as “unislamic”….

      1. The Left were the same in 2019. They’ve not changed one bit. They’ve always been vicious fascists.

  63. Enough debates. Just go out and get one already. It protects you, your
    family and everyone in the community. It’s been scientifically,
    mathematically and statistically proven to make everyone safer. The
    communities that got them are overwhelmingly safer. The chances of side
    effects or accidents are so unbelievably small that is completely absurd
    not to get one already. Quit being selfish, quit arguing online and go
    get yourself a gun.

  65. Q: Why not make it necessary to have double vaccination before one is allowed to buy a BBC licence?

    A: Not sure about that, but it’s good insofar as it’ll mean that the BBC will have an audience which is more in accord with BBC preferences.

  66. The deal between the US and Germany over the controversial Nord Stream 2 project will have absolutely no effect on the construction of the gas pipeline and isn’t even legally binding for the two signatories, let alone for Russia.
    That’s according to Sergey Nechayev, the Russian ambassador to Berlin, who also noted that the completion of the gas project is just weeks away.

    “Firstly, it’s important to clarify the terminology. The US and Germany did not make an ‘agreement’ on Nord Stream 2. They released a joint statement, which is not a legally binding document for the signatories,” Nechayev explained.

    “And it certainly carries no obligations for Russia.”
    Last month, the US and Germany struck a deal that would see the Americans drop their opposition to the pipeline in exchange for Berlin promising extensive investment in Ukraine. Germany also pledged to push Russia to extend the current gas arrangement with Ukraine, which provides Kiev with $3 billion in annual transit fees.

    You can just imagine the conversation in Berlin in 2024…
    “It looks like being a cold Winter Chancellor.Perhaps we’ll postpone pushing the Russians and wait for a milder Winter”

  67. A couple of stories in the red tops about “anti-vaxxer families dying”.

    Hidden away in the very small print in each story (I won’t bother you with links) are the words …”most had underlying health conditions…”
    I bet the propagandists wish they could have left those words out – to move Project Fear along…….

    1. Nothing about those doubled jabbed dying of covid AFTER having their ” now you are totally safe” injections?

      1. Ah but…
        Those people will have caught their super-dooper-extra-deadly-no-survivors Covid from asymptomatic anti-vaxxers.

    2. The sad story of the couple from Fife – they had both been ‘shielding’ for 18 months due to their other conditions……… so scuppering any natural immune system they had left.

  68. So, I wonder when the leadership of all these thousands of ‘illegal immigrants’ feel they have reached critical mass and are ready to make their move?

    The US Marine approach in WW2 was that an opposed amphibious landing required a 3:1 superiority in favour of the attackers. Of course, no-one is suggesting that ours is an opposed amphibious landing – far from it.

    So any day now is my guess.

    1. When you entire tactic involves running up to an emplaced enemy and hoping you’ll get close enough to shoot back, 3:1 is the minimum.

      Life is pathetically cheap when generals spend it.

      1. At Alamein the 8th Army mustered around 190,000 troops to the entrenched Panzer Army Africa’s 116,000. With those figures it comes down to generalship, grip, determination and morale, and not overwhelming odds.

      2. Especially when your 3 includes the cooks, secretaries and assorted rear-echelon ‘specialists’ who never actually leave the ship.

    1. 336511+ up ticks,
      What is her take on this issue,

      breitbart,
      Migrant Who Burned Cathedral Has Stabbed Priest to Death After Release: Reports

    2. I wonder what Roy’s attitude to the “Ollie Robinson” situation was.
      He got pilloried,lost his place in the England team and nearly lost his career.All for 5 tweets from 9 years ago.

          1. Only nine? As no one would speak English at home – the cultural misunderstanding still stands, m’Lud!

          2. No doubt a product of first cousin marriage and therefore of low intelligence.

          3. Breed like …..oaches. They should not get taxpayers’ money to breed. But they do –

      2. It’s a bit more complicated than calling her a racist. As a practicing Muslim she regards anyone who isn’t a Muslim as Kuffar, it means ingrate or infidel – one who rejects, hides, denies, or covers the truth about the message of Islam. It is a highly derogatory term worse than calling someone a filthy dog, which is about as low as low can get if you know that dogs are detested in Islam. Dogs are regarded as dirty to the point that they are a contaminate if touched, you must ritually clean yourself if you have contact with one. So Kuffar is a fighting word, so to say. Any practicing Muslim regards non-Muslims in that way and for that reason they should be totally excluded from positions that give them power over others. It also goes without saying, that such people are anti-Semites, which is another reason that they should not be allowed to have power over anyone. So, to her, we are filth, sewage of the lowest type hence the attitude of Muslims to others in the process of dehumanizing the other and justifying slavery. Islam is an evil ideology and it should not be tolerated in this country at all.

    5. Mr Smith, she’s a disgusting racist who is out of uniform.

      A short, snivelling worm who has no business whatsoever being in the police force. If you see nothing wrong with her, then perhaps you should go as well.

    6. If those tweets were reported to the Met as hate crimes, but from a Millwall fan about blacks, the Millwall fan would be in serious trouble and vilified all over the BBC etc al.

      1. 336511+ up ticks,
        S,
        Correct,
        The herd has suffered mass lethal selection before this is but selective reporting non lethal….
        as of yet.

    7. Bless. Are we really – really – convinced that shutting the loony bins was a good idea?

      2. 336511+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Anne,
        Fair play to the politic’s Anne, give credit, they did open the BIG ONE.

      4. Fortunately Jack Dorsey came to the rescue and opened a new one where they can all hang out.

    2. Import 100k lorry drivers – from Islamic countries – what could possibly go wrong putting those nice people each in charge of a 40 ton wagon?

    4. I think that is the government’s intention. More than one way to skin the population cat.

    5. That would make banning the unclean from entering supermarkets a bit pointless…

  72. DT this evening – Toy Boy’s revenge for Waterloo:

    “Holidaymakers in France are facing are being turned away from events as well as bars and restaurants because their NHS codes are not being accepted.

    France extended its health pass to cover bars and cafes on Monday, as well as museums and other crowded settings.

    Although Britons can load digital QR codes provided by the NHS on to the Tous Anti Covid app – also known as the health pass – some venues are unable to read them.

    Unvaccinated people can take Covid tests to gain access to venues, but the results of these must either be printed out or uploaded to the app.

    Other businesses across France have refused to accept British proof of vaccination, insisting that either the domestic pass or European Union-recognised accreditation is needed instead.

    These include some of the venues takeing part in Les Rencontres d’Arles, the world’s largest photography festival, which is taking place in the Cote d’Azur.

    James Hyman, 54, an art dealer and collector from London, is attending the event with his wife Claire, an NHS surgeon, and told The Telegraph it had been “a lottery” as to which venues accepted his NHS QR codes.

    “At every single venue you have to present proof of vaccination and show your ticket, but you can’t get into anywhere without showing your pass,” he said. “I went somewhere yesterday and they turned me away and said ‘we don’t accept the NHS app and you have to get the French one’, which I’ve not got access to.

    “The rule seems to be that, unless you can talk your way in, they won’t accept the NHS app as proof and they seem to think it’s legitimate. I’m trying again today but I can’t be sure that we can get in anywhere.”

    Mr Hyman claimed there should have been clearer guidance on the Government website after France was removed from the UK’s “amber plus” travel list, meaning fully vaccinated Britons are no longer required to quarantine on their return home.

    “Someone should still warn you that if they enforce what appears to be their law, they’re not going to give Britons access, and the first I’ve heard of this shouldn’t have been in France itself,” he said.

    Nine of the 10 most popular visitor attractions in France require a health pass, including the Louvre Museum, the Eiffel Tower and the Pompidou Centre.

    France’s vaccine passport system has been the subject of four weekends of consecutive protests. The measures have been introduced in a bid to improve vaccination rates. Fifty-seven per cent of the French population has been fully vaccinated against Covid, compared with 69 per cent of Britons. “

      1. I expect it is much the same in any country that has brought in one of these “passes”. Ils ne passeront pas…

        1. Interestingly for us, the French family are only single jabbed. They get stopped, recorded and promptly waved through.

          1. Ah, yes – but I expect they have a French appli on their French phone or a QR wotsit.

          2. Apparently not.

            They did what we do, present a paper one that the digital thingamajig can’t read!

          3. I look forward to your comments from Fresnes….{:¬))

            On the other hand, they ARE Franch – which prolly helps.

          4. I suspect that we are treated reasonably well because we’ve been going to the same venues for years and the stall holders and many gatekeepers recognise us.

    2. Hmm, Bill, not just Waterloo but Agincourt, Crecy and more recently WWII.

      Small wonder they are known as cheese-eating surrender monkeys who are currently lead by a Micron.

    2. Poor things have been over-bred – they struggle to breathe, are usually overweight, and have short lives.

      1. And yet cost a fortune to buy – and then in vets’ bills to deal with the health ishoos you describe.

        1. I met a guy on the towpath a week ago. he had with him a ‘British’ Bulldog bred in Russia. He told me they are very expensive in the UK but cheaper imported from Russia…

      2. Perfect …. Represents the British spirit!

        Churchill, was nicknamed the “British Bulldog”. With his jowly face and portly figure, Churchill did look a little bit like a bulldog

        1. My local barber breeds the things. He is always talking about their physical problems and the vet bills. Frankly I find it disgusting that he breeds them considering how the poor dogs are being tortured by their very existence. Those hypocrites at the Kennel Club should put their foot down and demand that these unhealthy characteristics be bred out of them and all breeds for that matter. But, it seems to me that animal welfare is secondary to their egos.

          1. Low IQ, low class people love cartoon aesthetics without functional integrity.

        1. They look a bit more healthy and doglike. The modern ones have been bred to look like footstools.
          The Kennel Club has a lot to answer for with other breeds as well – who could forget that poor, deformed Alsation with the sloping back that won at Crufts a few years ago?

  74. Well, you slimy great slug – what about those self-employed people who have been ruined by your crass stupidity?

    Coronavirus latest news: Civil servants who refuse to return to office won’t have pay cut, No 10 confirms.

    1. Send in the ping-polizei.

      Any civil servant not found at their computer to be sacked immediately for gross misconduct.

      1. If they have to log on to a network, it’s easily monitored? Outlook tells me from people’s BBC email profiles whether they’re online. Big Brother knows everything.

    2. The old, one rule…

      Time people woke up to the fact that there will be three tiers of society: the elites and their direct minions, the “vaccinated” and the unclean.

      1. “….. the ‘vaccinated’ and the uncontaminated pure bloods.” There, fixed it for you!

        1. Thank you, poppiesmum.

          Yesterday I attempted to convince a sibling not to have the booster/flu jab. My explanation why fell on very stony ground and I received a look that indicated that I was an idiot looking for a village. Appears that an aged friend of sibling was very ill during the flu season and it was, of course, cv-19. No other explanation e.g. Influenza A or B, both very nasty infections for some elderly people, would be entertained. My sibling knows that I’m not a fool but the government have done a wonderful job in convincing many people to believe the cv-19 story and keep them scared.

          1. It has been prolonged mass hysteria which has spiralled into mass hypnosis, mass psychosis, depending on the personality. The single most important thing anybody can do is switch off the tv, for ever. And spend the time one would have been watching by reading State of Fear by Laura Dodsworth.

            All that has ever been isolated is Influenza A or (and?) B in so-called covid patients and suspected Midazolem deaths in the care and nursing homes.

    3. It is because of civil servants we have a shortage of HGV drivers. They say it is because so many people went home but if you want to take a test you can’t.

  75. I assume covid is over.
    The Beeboids are wetting themselves over ‘Climate Change’. Talk about apocalyptic.
    Fiona Bruce is doing her best ‘your dog has died’ voice to show how much she cares.

    2. You may begin to understand why I have not watched or listened to ANY beeboid (or other TV/radio channel) “news”, politics or current affairs output since June 2016.

    3. Really? You are one crisis ahead of us. Our mob are still telling scare stories about Mr delta and Ms lamda.

    4. Probly just trying to distract us from covid passports before an autumn clampdown on those evil unvaccinated people who are killing people.

  77. 336511+ up ticks,
    We surely are suffering a liking to overlapping orchestrated doom & gloom relay one passing the odious baton to tother as in covid 19 / climate change, keeps the herd on its hooves while DOVER receives more potential Kapos.

    May one ask,when will the climate change mob start recruiting like people with a urge to take china / pakistani
    OUT, that has got to be a nuke job for starters ?

      1. They all stood terribly close together coming off the plane. Perhaps they will all die – after infecting everyone they know….

    2. No they aren’t.
      You’ve lots of Paralympics still to enjoy.

      I admire their spirit and what they achieve, but I still can’t help thinking it is a well marketed freak show.
      0/10 for empathy.

  79. That’s me for the day. It didn’t rain. About an hour ago, there was glorious sunshine and we had hoped to have a little glass outside. Then the dark clouds rolled across – and it became very chilly – thus proving, of course, how right the UN Project Doom story is….global warming is a certainty (apparently “Professor” Unbalanced is part of the team assuring us that it is so. Really comforting, doncha think?

    So I am having to drink indoors….contemplating that the MR going away tomorrow for the night. I shall miss her terribly – but the cats will more. They do not care for me feeding them. All the time I can hear them muttering, “She doesn’t do it like that”; “She opens a nice tin…” “I hate that man…” sort of thing!!!

    Anyway – have a jolly evening. à demain.

          2. Your house looks quite nice on Streetview. I need a holiday. About a month should do it. I’m good with kitty cats.

    2. SWMBO was away a few nights 10 days ago. First time in ages. Really missed the tatty old bag, so I did.
      I guess absence makes the fart go “HondAA!”

  80. Evening, all. Been a depressing day. The doc didn’t ring until 10.00 so I was waiting since 08.30 and couldn’t go out or get on with anything in case I missed the call. Upshot is, they are going to refer me to the local centre of excellence orthopaedic (probably next year, the way things are going!). Then I got geared up for what I thought was the DST assessment. I rang the care home 25 minutes before I was due to arrive to remind them I was coming, only to be told to bring the results of my lateral flow test. What LFT? You can’t come in without a negative one. If you haven’t got one you’ll have to come in 30 min before your appointment. 30 mins? There’s only 20 mins left now! Why didn’t somebody mention it on the two occasions I’ve been in contact with the home to talk about the appointment? Answer came only, “it’s the rules”. I turned up on time and made everybody wait after I’d had the stick shoved down my throat and nearly thrown up before I was given the all clear and allowed in. What a disappointment. It turned out not to be the DST assessment, but just the chance for the social worker (an African with such a strong accent I could barely make out a word behind the mask) to ask the same questions as previously done on the telephone, write down the answers and get corroboration from a nurse while MOH was present in body only – not a flicker of recognition of who I was. It seems that once the social worker has typed up her report and passed it to her supervisor for approval, then they might consider funding and I will have to go through the whole rigmarole again with a panel. She claimed the CHC wasn’t NHS funded – I know that to be untrue, but she’s new to the job and I don’t think has much of a clue, well-meaning though she might be. At least I’ve had a dry run and the nurse backed up my assessment that MOH qualifies with at least two “severe” categories and possibly “priority” on behaviour. It was upsetting on so many levels. I can definitely say MOH won’t be coming home as the nurse was adamant that it would be impossible for care workers to deal with what was needed in 30 mins. The social worker had no idea I only lived a short distance from the care home and was talking about care being in other homes until I pointed that out. All in all, it’s been shambolic. I came home and planted 2.5 kg of daffs (I bought a net by weight) in my orchard, did some weeding and harvested strawbs and peas. I took the first of this year’s crop of raspberries last night.

      1. Yes, thanks, Bill. Alas, I would have probably ended it all if I hadn’t been able to have a dog.

          1. I know, lacoste, and I’m grateful. I feel much less depressed now. For one thing, I have Oscar and for another, I have had the strain and stress of my daily life reduced significantly.

    2. Sorry to hear of your ongoing troubles. Puts mine in perspective. Stay strong Conway.

    3. I’m 69 and approaching the age where all this stuff could soon be all too real for me. On the basis that the only unavoidable things in life are death and taxes, I sincerely hope they invent an ‘off switch’ soon, I don’t want to be at the mercy of ‘trainees’.

      You have my sympathy, Conway, all the best.

    4. Oh, bugger.
      What a trial for you, Conners. That kind of thing really takes the energy out of you. At least YOH is not troubled by all the hassle.
      Maybe it’s different rules in Wales, but my Mother currently gets 3 x 1 hour visits a day, and we’re trying to find an agency with the resources to increase that to 7 hours a day – with me paying for half. Agency fees seem somewhat variable, looking at a new one today has “saved” £6 an hour…
      The SS want Mother in a home (don’t know why), and are trying subtly to sabotage the arrangement. Fortunately, they couldn’t fart in their own knickers, so I can keep ahead of them.

      1. MOH needs care 24/7 and can’t be left unsupervised. That wouldn’t be catered for by visits.

        1. We looked at a live-in, or day & night care. That costs a bit.
          They offered someone without a car… Mother lives in the back of beyond, what kind of stupidity was that? Except for 2 x £25 cab fares, of course.
          Wish I had a solution to offer.
          Thanks for the CHC and NHS funding links. Processing (slowly), but I’d not seen them before, so that’s already better than before. 😀

          1. I am fighting to get CHC funding. It seems the social worker doesn’t have a clue. MOH ticks all the boxes for funding so I shall be appealing if they do eventually turn it down. There is a two week extension at the moment, so I don’t have to worry about cash.

          2. Fingers crossed for you.
            Looks like an open-and-shut case, but then this is social bureaucracy, so who knows? Also, no sense of urgency.
            Grit your teeth, relax with Oscar, and KBO, mate.

          4. Not recently, although I have been in touch previously. Perhaps it’s time to email them again.

          5. Do; I am sure you will find it well worthwhile. MB and I are rarely impressed by organisations, but I am sure they could help you with information and probably much more.

    5. Oh, Conway. I am sorry; what a bloody day and a bloody situation.
      Thank heavens you and Oscar found each other.

      1. As I said to my French friend on the phone the other day, he is Oscar le dieudonné.

    6. I understand that writing a diary helps and if it came to it it might also be useful evidence at any appeal.
      Good luck.

      1. I have kept a diary for decades. It started as part of my rehabilitation after being invalided out from work.

    7. Oh Conway, how upsetting. I am impressed by your self-control. Bet the daffs were well bedded-in with excellent swear words. Thinking of you and Oscar.

      1. Thank you, ashes. I find gardening therapeutic and I’m looking forward to spring when the apple trees will be surrounded with golden trumpet daffodils. I have a modest orchard of apples (a Spartan, a Lord Derby – cooker – a Cox’s Orange Pippin and an Unknown which was supposed to be an Egremont Russet, but is no russet of any description). Plus a golden gage, hazel, President and Victoria plums and a Concorde pear. Elsewhere I have a Braeburn, a Beurre Hardy and a Doyen de Comice, plus two more unknown pears – one of which is prolific – and another unknown apple. These unknowns were gifts from a neighbour who was getting rid of them to have landscaping done.

        1. I like the idea of an Orchard of Unknowns! Underringed by a glowing throng of daffodils. Splendid!

          1. There is only one unknown (I suspect it’s a Gala or James Grieve – the only certainty is that it is NOT the Egremont Russet I bought it as!) in the “orchard” part of the garden. The others are in borders. There is an unknown rose as well, which came with the pears and apple and which is now flowering happily as it’s got established.

    8. All very distressing and upsetting. I hope you can get some stability in the situation soon.

      1. I just want to get CHC funding in place then I can relax. MOH is being well looked after – much better than I could manage – it’s just the financial aspect that’s a weight on my mind at the moment.

  81. Evening, all. Been a depressing day. The doc didn’t ring until 10.00 so I was waiting since 08.30 and couldn’t go out or get on with anything in case I missed the call. Upshot is, they are going to refer me to the local centre of excellence orthopaedic (probably next year, the way things are going!). Then I got geared up for what I thought was the DST assessment. I rang the care home 25 minutes before I was due to arrive to remind them I was coming, only to be told to bring the results of my lateral flow test. What LFT? You can’t come in without a negative one. If you haven’t got one you’ll have to come in 30 min before your appointment. 30 mins? There’s only 20 mins left now! Why didn’t somebody mention it on the two occasions I’ve been in contact with the home to talk about the appointment? Answer came only, “it’s the rules”. I turned up on time and made everybody wait after I’d had the stick shoved down my throat and nearly thrown up before I was given the all clear and allowed in. What a disappointment. It turned out not to be the DST assessment, but just the chance for the social worker (an African with such a strong accent I could barely make out a word behind the mask) to ask the same questions as previously done on the telephone, write down the answers and get corroboration from a nurse while MOH was present in body only – not a flicker of recognition of who I was. It seems that once the social worker has typed up her report and passed it to her supervisor for approval, then they might consider funding and I will have to go through the whole rigmarole again with a panel. She claimed the CHC wasn’t NHS funded – I know that to be untrue, but she’s new to the job and I don’t think has much of a clue, well-meaning though she might be. At least I’ve had a dry run and the nurse backed up my assessment that MOH qualifies with at least two “severe” categories and possibly “priority” on behaviour. It was upsetting on so many levels. I can definitely say MOH won’t be coming home as the nurse was adamant that it would be impossible for care workers to deal with what was needed in 30 mins. The social worker had no idea I only lived a short distance from the care home and was talking about care being in other homes until I pointed that out. All in all, it’s been shambolic. I came home and planted 2.5 kg of daffs (I bought a net by weight) in my orchard, did some weeding and harvested strawbs and peas. I took the first of this year’s crop of raspberries last night.

  82. BBC Look East

    Questions being raised about the wall art in the Eastern resorts – many thought to be by Pranksy.

  83. Cornwall – Too many visitors…. FFS.
    Locals threaten to block roads…

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-58099906
    Cornwall’s services are struggling to deal with an influx of visitors.
    With more Britons holidaying in the UK, Visit Cornwall estimates there are about 210,000 visitors, up from a usual peak of 180,000.
    Beaches are busy, traffic heavy and the situation at cafes/restaurants offering cancellations.

    1. Dear oh dear – all those terrible Grockles pouring money into Cornish coffers. Just how ghastly THAT must be.

      1. Bill

        Down there, the tourists are Emmets

        Emmet

        Cornish Emmet is a word for the Cornish dialect of English that is used to refer to
        tourists or holiday makers coming to Cornwall. There is debate over whether the term is pejorative or not.

        1. Yo, Tryers. A Cornish emmet is an ant. They think that tourists are like ants at their picnic.

        2. Watevva – It just pisses me orf that the Cornish wanqueuers should COMPLAIN about thousands of people giving them MONEY.

          They whinge if the incomers didn’t

          1. My brother and nephew are both incoming resident Emmets in Cornwall. You should hear my nephew ranting about Cornish small-mindedness.

    2. Money… fill those bank accounts.
      Why are the cornish such miserable barstewards? Too may people, too few people, bla bla bla. Even a sour Yorkshireman would be considered deliriously happy in relation to those folk.

      1. About all they seem good for is arguing whether to put jam on or cream on first…

        2. Jam and cream have no business being on a bloody scone. Proper scones have raisins in them and are spread with nowt but butter!

  84. An air source heat pump was shown on BBC TV this evening as being the solution to replacing our almost 100% efficient condensing gas boilers.

    But what is the efficiency of an air source heat pump?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a10124e28f6090f68aee8c52aa494b49c17386ba6a85258d777dfd21ff1c1aab.jpg

    https://www.renewablesfirst.co.uk/water-source-heat-pumps/heat-pump-introduction/

    So an installation of so-called ‘Coefficient of Peformance’ or CoP of 5 (the most optimistic performance) would mean that getting five kilowatts of energy out the environment would take one kilowatt of electricity.

    Simply, that means that the efficiency of an air source heat pump will be less than (4/5 x 100)% i.e. <80%.

    If British gas found that you were using a boiler with less than 80% efficiency they would pester you to change it for a more efficient one!

  85. Test and Trace boss Dido Harding to step down from NHS role
    https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58151615
    Baroness Dido Harding, who ran the government’s Covid-19 test-and-trace programme in England, will step down from her NHS role in October. The Conservative peer recently applied to be the new boss of NHS England, but the job went to Amanda Pritchard. The testing and contact tracing scheme has been criticised repeatedly during the pandemic.

    But the government has always defended the system, saying it helped curb the spread of the virus.

    Baroness Harding became chair of NHS Improvement in October 2017, before being chosen to head up Test and Trace – a role she stepped back from in April.
    At the time, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a “world-beating” system, but a BBC investigation found it was failing in areas which had some of the worst infection rates, and was beset with IT problems.
    A report from the Commons Public Accounts Committee in March said there was “no clear evidence” the £22bn venture contributed to a reduction in coronavirus infection levels.
    And in June, the National Audit Office found there were still significant weaknesses in the performance of Test and Trace, particularly around slow turnaround times for test results.
    Before being employed by the NHS, Baroness Harding was chief executive of TalkTalk and had held senior roles for Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

    1. ‘No clear impact’ from £37bn NHS Test and Trace
      They spent £37 000 000 000 on test and trace.
      How do you do that?
      To be generous and approximate, that’s about 19 000 000 man-years of work… where do rhey all come from?
      How the fuck did they do that?
      To compare, that’s about 19 major offshore production platforms, with drilling, engineering, pipelines, the lot.

    2. Dildo Harding clearly has some powerful connections. How on earth an individual with a CV full of failures like hers gets these jobs I have no idea.

      2. Are you perchance suggesting she should change her name to Dildo on account of all the alleged Fiick ups?

        1. Not particularly, just making a bit of fun with her name in the same way I refer to Emma Thompson as Emetic Thompson.

          1. Nope. He destroyed the British cattle herd and caused the demise of hundreds of farmers.

            During the Swine Flu hoax his doom laden prophesies also caused the government to blow half a billion on Tamiflu vaccines which were found to cause adverse reactions, cancelled, and subsequently destroyed.

            A large part of the billions wasted by our stupid government during the present hoax fall squarely at the feet of Ferguson, his distinguished colleagues at SAGE and his great friend Professor Drosten in Germany.

            The lot of them will find themselves tried in a Nuremberg style court for crimes against humanity in due course.

  86. The climate madness has been mentioned more than enough on here that there ought to be little more to say on the subject but listening to the news this evening (tv and radio) was a genuinely frightening experience. Not for the forecasts of apocalypse but the certainty of the proponents and the utter lack of opposition. The message was: “It’s happening and we’re responsible. It’s almost too late.” The opening of the 6pm news and the procession of doom-mongers was like an edition of Chris Morris’s ‘The Day Today’.

    David King, the former chief scientific officer, was quoted on R4 saying something like “We can’t manage the climate now”. We never could, Mr King. Meanwhile, Bonjo says: “Make coal history.” Can we look forward to XR protestors storming stately homes, sinking restored canal boats and paddle steamers, blockading farm and country steam fairs, picketing heritage railways?

    People will soon be scared to speak out. It will turn nasty.

      2. This was a step up in the propaganda war. Soon it won’t be a laughing matter.

        1. Perhaps we will be rescued by Mother Nature and the Sun with a couple of chilly years? – see my post above.

        2. WS – They are realising a LOT of people now see the “deaths within 28 days” thing is a pile of misleading BS. Also when funeral directors say they are no busier than normal – while the govt figures are going up and up? – – the govt has been found out- cannot get out of it – so keep on digging the hole.
          Tturhey were warned NOT to let in thousands of violent culture fanatic immigrants – they ignored us – and who are now a MASSIVE threat to everyone – including the govt themselves. They are up sh*t creek.

    2. Meanwhile, the Chinese and Indians are building hundreds of new coal-fired power stations. The UK produces about 1% of CO2 emissions whilst China produces about 30%. As the Americans say – go figure.

    3. Nothing they have forecast has come true. The mugs still take it all in and believe it.

      1. That’s why they switched to “extreme weather events” so as to convince us they are something new.

    4. It’s already nasty – it’s the new religion. Dissenters and heretics will be put to death.

  87. Great Britain won the third highest number of medals at the Olympic Games despite Brexit. They won the fourth highest number of gold medals despite Brexit. They won more than twice the number of gold medals (22) than any EU member country; The Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy all got just 10 apiece despite Brexit. I feel the EU will be miffed about this and take even more punitive measures against the UK, despite them having far inferior sports men and women in their countries.

    1. Hence Verhofstad wanting a EU entry, not individually by country.
      UK wiped the floor with them.

    2. The joke’s on us. Yer Euro countries don’t waste money paying an elite group to run around in circles, throw sticks, jump into water etc

      1. Yer Euro countries are lesser humans, that’s why. Sport invokes the gladiator spirit. Survival of the fittest. Warriors. That’s why we are the best.

      2. There is something resembling the antics of the former Eastern European nations and Russians in the British promotion, public funding and subsidisation of Olympic Games.

        It is all bread and circuses for the masses and a device by which politicians are enabled to pose on the ‘world stage’.

        There is nothing gladiatorial about any of it.

    2. Fabulous!
      :-D)
      My favourite is the steam organ… and Showman’s engines, of course.

        1. I can recommend Bressingham where they have a similar Merry Go Round, steam trains and historic carriages and the beautiful gardens of the Bloom family.

    3. Quite wonderful. So glad there are folk with the interest and commitment to maintain these wonderful machines.

    4. Greta to operators: “Dirty polluting monsters! You’re killing people!”

    6. Carter’s Steam Fair visits Wheatsheaf Common every September.
      All the traditional fun fair attractions.

      1. Malpas has a vintage steam rally every September. If you’re lucky, you can even get the chance to drive a steamroller 🙂

        1. There’s a good steam rally in Pickering every year. Lots of fun.
          Ferried over from Norway every year until the ferry stopped.

    1. They’ll just say that “look, the anti-warming actions are working! We need more!”

      1. I fear you may be right- ‘Let’s kill all the dogs to stop the bubonic plague’- that worked well…..

    2. “Man made climate change doesn’t just cause warming you know”
      The BS factory will be cranking up to run full tilt to deal with this one.

  94. Fine topical BTL comment:

    duffncustard on August 9, 2021 at 2:43 am
    I did my bit for the planet today, I roasted a very nice rump of beef which I served with good rich gravy, Yorkshire puddings and assorted vegetables, thereby removing a flatulent bovine from the herd that is causing climate change. do your duty and EAT BEEF!

    1. I’ve eaten beef for the past three days. Barbecued sirloin steak on Saturday; roasted rib-on-the-bone yesterday; roasted fillet slices today.

        1. I’ve heard other people like Mike Yeadon and Dolores Cahill saying the same things. It was predicted early on that vaccinated people would spread more dangerous variants of a virus which would in the normal course of events burn itself out with ever weaker variants. He’s not saying anything new, but his illustrations are interesting.

  96. Today I was accosted on the street by a masked young man who told me that his passion was helping refugees and did I want to sign up to donate to the UN refugee effort?
    I told him that I was not interested in the refugee fraud, or in idiots who wore masks in the fresh air.
    I do not think he was expecting this response, but it was good for him to hear it.
    Edit: yes, I was grumpy, but I think it is very aggressive to accost people on the street and ask them to donate their hard earned cash towards the destruction of their nation states, as well as pushing the mask nonsense.

    2. Much better to ask him if he’s passionate enough to pay for them on his own, as otherwise he’s really demanding that other people pay for his ‘passion’.

      As for helping refugees, fine, but only those ones who have applied from the first safe country they get to, with a valid reason to be in this country, who speak the language and have a skill we need.

      Refugees are not something you can be passionate about. That’s entirely the wrong approach. One must be cruel, brutal and fair – you’re dealing with people’s lives, not the colour of your walls.

      1. Good one, I didn’t think of that. The combination of UN/masks made me see red.
        He was a typical young fool.

        1. I would have put my face next to his and asked him if he was going to fook off under his own steam or if he’d like some assistance!

    3. It must have been 20 years ago when I was on holiday in the UK in August & went up to the West End of London to meet an old school friend for lunch. I had come up to London by train from Essex where I was staying with my cousin & after a delightful lunch & lots of catching up gossip, it was early evening & I headed back to Fenchurch Street station for the c2c train back to Essex when I was accosted by a tattooed small & scrawny 16 – 18 year old teenager with spikey hair & a nose ring wearing an Oxfam T-shirt & torn jeans who was working the outside of the station with 2 tattooed underage young girls who were similarly attired with Oxfam T-shirts & some sort of charity worker photo ID’s dangling from a cord around their necks ( I couldn’t manage to read their names & have no idea if the ID’s were genuine or not ) . Likewise they started on about the starving masses in Africa , the Mid-East & Asia & wanted me to donate just £ 5 a month by fixed bank instructions ( Giro ? ) to feed a whole village or provide clean drinking water , blah , blah, blah etc etc etc. They were like a squad of Daleks spouting off their Oxfam Commie script from a clip board with the donation forms. I stopped their inane nincompoop ranting by telling them in no uncertain terms in a loud voice to fuck themselves & get a job, to fuck Oxfam who are a terrorist group supporting the PLO & to get out of my way or I will beat the crap out of them. They were left aghast for a few seconds & then seeing that I had rolled up my sleeves & stood there quite menacingly they simply scarpered from the vicinity of the stairs into the ticket office & in an instant had crossed the street to disappear down an alleyway. I had a good chuckle & went to the platform to await my train. Later that evening I told my cousin about the incident & he told me that half of the charity workers are naïve kids working for contractors who take a cut from the money & the others are scammers using false ID’s hoping to con you out of your name, address, tel. number & bank account details to sell to other crooks and the Police do absolutely nothing to stop people being fleeced in this way.

      1. I haven’t seen as many street “chuggers” like those in the last few years – I think the charidees must have got wise that those tactics just put people off.

        1. Well it was as I wrote 20 years ago & I only came across it on visits to London as out in country where my cousins live there were not any of the “Chuggers” even at the regional shopping centre that they used to go to .

          1. They were there in the small town where I used to work at that time, and also coming round here door-to door. This is a rural area – just a small hamlet. I sent them packing but they can be very persistent.

          2. Like the Jehovah Witness’s ? When I was a lad there were some JW’s who were stupid enough to knock on the doors of some of my Irish Catholic neighbours in South London & got themselves a black eye for their troubles !

      2. On the rare occasions when there is a tiny bit of surplus, I am happy to help a few children in East Africa, because I know they will get 99% of the funds raised. A micro-charity, no salaries in UK.

      3. On the rare occasions when there is a tiny bit of surplus, I am happy to help a few children in East Africa, because I know they will get 99% of the funds raised. A micro-charity, no salaries in UK.

      4. Well done! I didn’t know that Oxfam supported the PLO, but I suppose I should have guessed…a thoroughly vile organisation in my opinion, and so is the PLO!

        1. Happy Tuesday blackbox2, thank you. Two Oxfam staff from the UK were expelled from Israel decades ago for misusing the semi-diplomatic status many international charities & NGO staff have in Israel. What they did was use their vehicle to transport tools & equipment used to sabotage water pipes to Jewish settlements in Judea & Samaria ( AKA the West Bank ) . They used their Int’l Aid Workers ID’s to pass unchecked through IDF checkpoints carrying the tools from place to place & met up with local Palestinian Oxfam staff ( who were all members of the PLO ) who used the tools – saws, shovels, pickaxes, bolt cutters etc to dig up, saw up & damage fresh water pipes & sewage pipes leading to Jewish settlements. The Palestinians would be stopped & sometimes searched at checkpoints so they passed through without the tools & met up with the Oxfam UK staff outside the location of their sabotage target & then afterwards the Oxfam staffers would collect the tools & return to their East Jerusalem office unchecked at IDF checkpoints & the Palestinian saboteurs would head off back to their towns & villages. This went on over the course of a year or so until our Shin Bet local security service managed to get a PLO member to inform on who was doing the sabotage . An ambush was arranged & the 2 Oxfam staffers were arrested at a checkpoint on the way to Jerusalem with the muddy tools in the boot of their station wagon & the PLO saboteurs detained on their way home . The actual sabotage was filmed including the arrival & departure of the Oxfam staffers & the PLO team. The British Foreign Office intervened on behalf of the 2 UK staffers & instead of facing trial a diplomatic compromise was reached in expelling them as persona non grata & downgrading Oxfam’s semi-diplomatic status for its other staffers in Israel. The PLO members themselves were tried & sent to jail. There was mention of it in the media in Israel but absolutely none in the UK media.

          1. Never heard that story before, wow.
            I’m happy to say I’ve never donated to Oxfam, largely because my parents saw through them from the moment they were founded, but that’s disgusting. They should have gone to jail.

  97. Just got back from a meeting – OH puts the telly on and they’re banging on about climate change.

    1. Climate Change is a Religion with the Left, it has equal status with LGBTQ rights, Multiculturalism, Recycling, Carbon Emissions, a Palestinian state in place of Israel & membership of the Holy EU, woe betide anybody denying them their fervent religious beliefs , for they will be classed as heretics & hounded publicly & prosecuted by use of the insane laws passed by every UK govt. since Thatcher was forced out of office.

      1. Like most religions, at its core is a nugget of truth that has been perverted by its followers.

        1. Man made Climate Change is an invention of the wealthy Globalist Communists that rule most Western nations, our climate changes naturally over the eons from the time of the Earths creation to the current era, irrespective of mankind’s industrial development.

  98. At the foot of article by Daily Telegraph’s Tom Harris, on global warming:

    “Are you prepared to make personal sacrifices to tackle climate change? Have your say in the comments section below”

    “This conversation is currently closed to new comments.”

    1. Hi tim5165!
      They had to close the comments – they didn’t like that most of them were extremely sceptical about the existence of ‘global warming’!

      1. Hi Sue,
        to be fair, they may well re-open the comments tomorrow when the mods return.

        1. Have the mods gone to Brighton on their scooters for a bit of argy-bargy with the rockers?

          :-))

      2. No smoke without fire – but is the fire caused by global warming – or is it just a smoke screen?

  101. I’ve just read that Stormzy (a gentleman rapper) has launched a scheme to give thirty black Cambridge students £20000 grants.

    Why is that not waycist?

  103. Goodnight, all merry NoTTLers, Just order 6 x 1 litre whisky from Aldi – hence my eternal jolliness – God bless you, one and all. Off to my righteous bed.

    5. Thanks everyone! I’m now counting down to pension freedom in days rather than years! Looking forwards to a BBQ in the back garden with my girls and my Old Man

    1. Morning, AWK.
      Dark here, due to thunderclouds. A day to stay in and work at earning money.

      1. mng Obl. first time for over a month decent weather here. Did the dhobi stuff at 05.30, now onto the decent coffee and set what is and isn;t happening

        1. Pawpaw for breakfast, with the good coffee?
          About the best breakfast you can get.

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