Saturday 13 April: Royal Mail’s stamp fiasco is just another case of contempt for the British consumer

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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838 thoughts on “Saturday 13 April: Royal Mail’s stamp fiasco is just another case of contempt for the British consumer”

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) list
    SIGNS OF THE TIMES

    Sign in a Gynaecologist’s Office:
    “Dr. Jones, at your cervix.”
    **************************
    In a Chiropodist’s office:
    “Time wounds all heels.”
    **************************
    On a Septic Tank Truck:
    Yesterday’s Meals on Wheels
    **************************
    On a Plumber’s truck:
    “We repair what your husband fixed.”
    **************************
    On another Plumber’s truck:
    “Don’t sleep with a drip. Call your plumber.”
    **************************
    On a Church’s Bill board:
    “7 days without God makes one weak.”
    **************************
    At a Tyre Store
    “Invite us to your next blowout.”
    **************************
    On an Electrician’s truck:
    “Let us remove your shorts.”
    **************************
    In a Non-smoking Area:
    “If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action.”
    **************************
    On a Maternity Room door:
    “Push. Push. Push.”
    **************************
    At an Optometrist’s Office:
    “If you don’t see what you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.”
    **************************
    On a Taxidermist’s window:
    “We really know our stuff.”
    **************************
    On a Fence:
    “Salesmen welcome! Dog food is expensive!”
    **************************
    At a Car Dealership:
    “The best way to get back on your feet – miss a car payment.”
    **************************
    Outside a Car Exhaust Store:
    “No appointment necessary. We hear you coming.”
    **************************
    In a Vets waiting room:
    “Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!”
    **************************
    In a Restaurant window:
    “Don’t stand there and be hungry; come on in and get fed up.”
    **************************
    In the front yard of a Funeral Home:
    “Drive carefully. We’ll wait.”
    **************************
    And the sign at a
    RADIATOR SHOP:
    “Best place in town to take a leak.”
    **********************
    Sign on the back of another
    Septic Tank Truck:
    “Caution – This Truck is full of Political Promises”

  3. Good morning all.
    Down to 5°C this morning, calm, overcast but dry at the moment.

  4. Good morning, chums. I hope you enjoy your weekend. I am now off to try today’s Wordle and will report back here later.

    Wordle result for today:

    Wordle 1,029 5/6

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

    1. Yo Elsie,

      They are ging to amend Wordle so that they can use words like

      antidisestablishmentarianism

      electroencephalographically

      3. Floccinaucinihilipilification.
        Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
        Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

  6. China supplying Russia with cruise missile, drone and tank parts, warns US. 13 April 2024.

    China is providing Moscow with cruise missile, drone and tank parts, fuelling the biggest Russian military expansion since Soviet times, the US has warned.

    US defence officials warned that China is propping up Russia’s defence industrial base, funnelling weapons technology towards the war in Ukraine.

    Of course they are. It is in China’s geopolitical interests to aid a Russian victory.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/12/china-russia-cruise-missile-drone-tank-parts/

    1. I’m very fond of fruit cake, Ogga , especially with afternoon tea .

  10. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Cloudy morning overhead McPhee Towers, wind in the South-West going West, 10 ℃ going up to 18℃ again later on. Should stay dry.

    A sign of the times we are enduring,

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2349fe7d05926c2eb0a5facef6130896ab609777eb430a01305f51d54de658e.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/gunsmith-forced-to-close-shop-after-100-years-dying-trade/

    The same thing happened to Roxton’s in Hungerford a dozen years ago. They closed the gunsmith part of the business and stopped selling fly-fishing bits and bobs despite sitting on top of the Hungerford Fishery on the Kennett, one of the finest stretches of chalk-stream trout fishing. It’s sad. I suppose I’ve contributed in a way since I gave up shooting and sold my shotguns (through Roxton’s as it happens). Funnily enough, I’ve been toying with the idea of picking it up again (just clays) but I imagine it’ll be much more difficult to obtain a shotgun certificate these days.

    A remarkable part of this story is not in the story itself but the fact that the ‘Telegraph reporters’ felt the need to explain what a gunsmith is!

    The 78-year-old gunsmith – someone who repairs, modifies, designs and builds guns – is retiring at the end of the month and has blamed declining footfall and fewer country shoots taking place on a fall in business.

    Is it because they didn’t know themselves?

    1. Shotgun certificates are still okay as long as you don’t have a criminal record or mental health problems. Rifle certificates are quite another matter.
      Shooting was growing as a sport until Covid killed off many shoots which never reopened. On top of that huge feed prices increases and Avian flu have pushed up prices beyond more people’s reach.

      1. Who carries out armed crime with a rifle? Other than to beat folk with the butt, of course?
        All us lads in the family in Norwaay have rifle & shotgun, and Firstborn & I have several handguns each, too.

        1. Gun crimes in the UK are invariably carried out with illegal weapons. The few mass killings carried out with legally held guns were all by loner males who should never have been allowed to own them on the legal criteria of the day but the police scr*wed up.

          1. The same logic with voter id now required at the local polling booth, but zero checks (other than uploading a signature) on postal voting. So I could upload my impersonation of my children’s signature (for example) and then use that exact same fraudulent signature and I have successfully voted.

            You don’t even need to be an evil criminal genius to defraud the system. They make it so easy it’s surprising anyone sticks to the rules.

    2. Most youngsters, especially those in the ‘new wave’, know that guns (and ammunition) and much more expensive than knives.

      And you can’t stab someone with a gun!

      1. One fine day in the middle of the night, two dead men got up to fight.
        Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot one another.
        A deaf policeman heard the noise and came to arrest those two young boys.

    3. No, the Tel has an international readership. Much of England has become too urban for field sports enthusiasts; I guess that the USA and France retain an advantage there.

  11. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Cloudy morning overhead McPhee Towers, wind in the South-West going West, 10 ℃ going up to 18℃ again later on. Should stay dry.

    A sign of the times we are enduring,

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2349fe7d05926c2eb0a5facef6130896ab609777eb430a01305f51d54de658e.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/gunsmith-forced-to-close-shop-after-100-years-dying-trade/

    The same thing happened to Roxton’s in Hungerford a dozen years ago. They closed the gunsmith part of the business and stopped selling fly-fishing bits and bobs despite sitting on top of the Hungerford Fishery on the Kennett, one of the finest stretches of chalk-stream trout fishing. It’s sad. I suppose I’ve contributed in a way since I gave up shooting and sold my shotguns (through Roxton’s as it happens). Funnily enough, I’ve been toying with the idea of picking it up again (just clays) but I imagine it’ll be much more difficult to obtain a shotgun certificate these days.

    A remarkable part of this story is not in the story itself but the fact that the ‘Telegraph reporters’ felt the need to explain what a gunsmith is!

    The 78-year-old gunsmith – someone who repairs, modifies, designs and builds guns – is retiring at the end of the month and has blamed declining footfall and fewer country shoots taking place on a fall in business.

    Is it because they didn’t know themselves?

  12. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Cloudy morning overhead McPhee Towers, wind in the South-West going West, 10 ℃ going up to 18℃ again later on. Should stay dry.

    A sign of the times we are enduring,

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2349fe7d05926c2eb0a5facef6130896ab609777eb430a01305f51d54de658e.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/gunsmith-forced-to-close-shop-after-100-years-dying-trade/

    The same thing happened to Roxton’s in Hungerford a dozen years ago. They closed the gunsmith part of the business and stopped selling fly-fishing bits and bobs despite sitting on top of the Hungerford Fishery on the Kennett, one of the finest stretches of chalk-stream trout fishing. It’s sad. I suppose I’ve contributed in a way since I gave up shooting and sold my shotguns (through Roxton’s as it happens). Funnily enough, I’ve been toying with the idea of picking it up again (just clays) but I imagine it’ll be much more difficult to obtain a shotgun certificate these days.

    A remarkable part of this story is not in the story itself but the fact that the ‘Telegraph reporters’ felt the need to explain what a gunsmith is!

    The 78-year-old gunsmith – someone who repairs, modifies, designs and builds guns – is retiring at the end of the month and has blamed declining footfall and fewer country shoots taking place on a fall in business.

    Is it because they didn’t know themselves?

  16. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/jobs/earn-salary-over-100k-but-still-feel-broke/
    It’s a long article so I won’t paste it. At first glance one might ridicule those cited and I’m sure they waste money at the fringes without knowing it, but it does raise some profound points about declining real living standards and why ever more decide it’s not worth working. In short it’s the death of aspiration and ambition.
    My marginal rate of tax is 62% so I sympathise with these people – to become genuinely rich you probably need to earn approaching seven figures a year for a number of years. The reasons are fundamentally the remorseless growth of state expenditure and tax rates, the huge amount of foreign money invested in prime real estate in places like London and immigration and its effect on housing costs.
    Mrs Thatcher’s Tories rewarded aspiration for grammar school boys like me, Cameron/Johnson/Sunak’s Etonian/Wykamist Tories have penalised it.

    1. Wykehamists possibly. It was Shirley Williams and Labour that slashed at the grammar schools. Theoretically they were correct, but Comprehensive was the wrong answer.

    2. A friend of MOH has a successful business where he has put in long hours for many years.

      Recently when checking his expenses he discovered that 70% of his income went to the

      Government in one form or another. He is now not bothering to work so many hours.

      Is he the only one in these circumstances?

      1. He absolutely won’t be. People see the waste of our money by government (money to faux charities, NGOs, grants and other quangos) and have downed tools. I read that 13% of government expenditure is on grants. This is staggering if what I read is true and I checked it twice. You can bet your last pound that most of these grants won’t be spent to improve the lot of British citizens who support their country. This money will be spent on politicians’ friends and relatives who have cushy jobs in the quango sector – who want to halo-polish by championing minority interests.

  17. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df0e18cc1e37c4b746a6f70e7c463c6fac77a47d53e9d3b80d67920d6cc51b75.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf9147373dbd47269f1536b8b57f6bb8bb69a6cd554bfc393a627ab16a9d794c.jpg

    https://images3.memedroid.com/images/UPLOADED172/612bd4becaa70.jpeg

    https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=568,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/160/607/602/original/e075cc20a389b50d.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e17587be43caa0cd8c79a84df5e5d58695b2a147db2bd58492abfcfd19ef320a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49b11e40be2c173cbe2bef8e5ceafcaa45f01128a4478d357d59ef553fd17571.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/951316c860cfbbf277c9ecf3ff7e899f35bfdce3a4c4769d376b47a7ce5a4d7e.jpg

    1. “THINKING IS HARD.”

      In that case most women should be happy. They are always telling us that men think with their dicks!

    2. Too many graduates with confetti ‘degrees’ chasing too many jobs.

      Too few craftsmen with practical skills to fill jobs desperate for employees.

      1. It takes 3 years of part-time (ie, plenty of free time) working to get a degree in origami; it took two years of workshop time for Firstborn to finish his apprenticeship – and that meant at work 08:00 to 16:00, followed by cleaning the workplace and himself, as well as driving to & from home.
        That’s why. Acquiring a deep understanding takes time.

        1. My apprenticeship as a plater (fabrication and welding engineering technician) took five years, much of it under the tutelage of an experienced craftsman. On top of that I took a whole day each week (Thursday), followed by an afternoon and evening (Friday), studying for my certificates at the local technical college.
          I was given my own apprentice to train up … after I had finished just four years of my own apprenticeship. Before I left that job I had trained up three apprentices in my seven years at that firm.

  18. Angela Raynor saying she’ll resign if found guilty of criminal charges means she knows she won’t be found guilty of her criminal charges. Manchester Police are stasi Leftwing wokiests and the commissioner of Manchester Police force is a chum of Starmer . We can just get a taste of the wrongdoings Labour will get away with and there will be silence from all comrades .

    1. First Sarah Champion, then Corbyn, then Raynor. Woe betide anyone that gets on the wrong side of a lawyer once safely assured of office by default! No wonder the Shadow Front Bench all look and speak like zombies these days.

    2. I suspect the BBC et al will not be getting into such a frenzy this time, no cake you see.

  19. Men behaving badly on Ladies Day at Aintree. 12 April 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4712c7cfbf1945620dc78451edc2f78ad89f62249826e2977203177f587b3b2f.png

    Five male racegoers have been pictured taking part in a brawl at Aintree Racecourse on Ladies Day.

    The smartly dressed men were seen exchanging punches outside the racecourse grandstands on Friday, the day before the Grand National.

    I doubt the authenticity of this. It looks arranged. Real fights are much more chaotic.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/men-brawling-ladies-day-grand-national-meeting-aintree/

    1. It looks like a girly fight to me, by the looks of their faces they’ve never had a real fight in their lives . They’re just showing off in front of the ladies .

  20. Tory MPs fear the Government has made concessions in trade talks on Gibraltar in order to appease Spain and reach a post-Brexit deal.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/12/tory-mps-fear-gibraltar-concessions-over-trade/

    Sunak has sold out Northern Ireland to the EU with the Great Windsor Sell Out; it looks as if he has already sold out Gibraltar to Spain and the EU; has he still got time before the general election to sell out the Falkland Islands to Argentina?

    If he hurries he may find he has still got time to sell out the Channel Islands and the Isle of Wight to France and The Isle of Man to Ireland so that Rockall is the only territory still up for grabs for Starmer to sell when he becomes prime minister.

    1. I wonder what part of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht they cannot understand. Particularly the part that says ‘In Perpetuity’.

      1. Many people say that however incompetent Sunak is he is still a decent chap.

        This is a lie – he is a nasty, vindictive traitor who is more than happy for Britain to be betrayed and ruined.

        1. Boris Johnson is Touchstone or maybe Puck
          Tony Blair is Caliban
          Sssunak the Snake, I’m struggling to find a Shakespeare character most suited for his brutal treachery .

        2. Sunak is a reflection on all those who selected him, they are all tarred with the same brush.

        4. I wonder if he will do as much damage as he can before the GE. He might be very vindictive seeing as though he knows that he is not wanted as PM. Would a top exec be left in charge of a company for 6 months with him knowing that he is going to be pushed out? Very scary. The MSM don’t report it but he has already given asylum to loads of reffies to ‘clear the backlog’.

    2. The Madrid Government loathes Gibraltar, but it’s the largest private sector employer* in Andalusia. (Likewise, McDonalds has a similar role in France.) Andalusia contains eight provinces, with a total population in excess of 8 million. * i.e. a centre of employment.

    1. Because the unions want Starmer gone and Raynor as Prime Minister

    2. I’m pretty sure you’re right. A couple of years ago Rayner was reported to be preparing a coup against Starmer when he was lagging in the polls. Starmer know she’s a massive electoral liability and wants her gone.

  23. Navy and Marines seize £33m of drugs in double swoop

    HMS Lancaster intercepts smugglers in the Indian Ocean who had 3.7m tonnes of drugs including heroin and crystal meth

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/13/navy-marines-drugs-middle-east-indian-ocean-hms-lancaster/

    Multiply it by 10 and you have

    A Royal Navy warship seized £290.66m of cocaine and narcotics in two huge blows to drug runners in the Caribbean.

    British sailors, Royal Marines and a US Coast Guard team on HMS Trent intercepted a suspected smuggling speedboat south of the US Virgin
    Islands.

    The smugglers began jettisoning their illegal cargo as they fled towards land, but Trent, her fast sea boats and an American patrol aircraft
    gave chase – eventually recovering 94 bales of class-a narcotics, weighing 2,757kg and worth £220.56m.

    This was HMS Trent’s second drugs bust in the space of three weeks, having seized £70.1m of cocaine in a separate operation in January –
    pouncing as darkness fell as smugglers tried to escape.

    https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2024/march/04/240304-trent-300m-drug-busts

    1. I would have preferred it if Lancaster and Trent had been deployed in the Channel.

      1. They should be moored alongside the Palace of Westminster, because the enemy lies within.

    2. No wonder Starmer is proposing to use his default political coronation by winding down the Royal Navy in order to pay for an upgrade to the nuclear deterrent. The RN is bad for business.

    4. Spoilsports. Weird how the Royal Navy can arrest foreigners at vast expense in international waters, but their bosses are relaxed about the English Channel. Wait until fentanyl arrives.

      1. It’s utterly baffling how our politicians are rabid at the protection of borders in other countries but utterly profligate and laissez faire toward the protection of our own. Brainwashed idiots.

  24. William Sitwell telling us what we have known for quite some time. It neatly complements the piece about the closing Ringwood gunsmith.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e91e0070f7582242c7e0069617ee280aaee5f268d1f2b2060c5d71e751205ee7.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/04/12/rspca-rebrand-extremist-left-bigots-animal-rights/

    The safest thing is to assume that every one of our national institutions is a nest of bigoted left-wing extremists. There are no exceptions, I fear.

  25. 386013+ up ticks,

    I believe that each family will be allotted a personal paedophile
    straight from the dover invasion beach-head, which will be extended to being of a Mulberry harbour liking, for health & safety reasons.

    Labour is planning a disastrous second Blairite revolution
    A vote for Keir Starmer is not a vote for change, but one for technocratic failure and decline

    Well meaning foot note,

    A vote for the lab/lib/con mass morally uncontrolled / politically controlled immigration, has proven NOT to be beneficial to well being of indigenous peoples self or family.

  26. Forged Stamps

    I still say that Royal Mail are commiting an offence, by withholding Mail, whilst trying to blackmail the recipient to pay a surcharge.

    The charge cannot be a ‘fine’, without an intervention by a Court

    1. Costing more than a pound to post a letter makes me wonder what the pound is worth these days.

        2. 3d for letters and 2½d for post cards and birthday cards provided the envelope was not sealed up.

      3. I bought my first car, for 15 quid. That would buy me 11 ‘first class’ stamps now

        1. We fancied an ice cream and the smell of sea air .. so bimbled off down to Lulworth Cove.

          2 cornets , £3.50 each … feel such an idiot for handing over £7, ice cream was tasty , but won’t do that again .

  27. Labour hypocrisy

    There will always be one Public School remaining open in UK, for the labourites to send their offspring!

  30. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d507f34e5f41adbe8e30d1374316de52c052a27ca1d69c7bf86f2f75b7ec373e.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/13/richard-hammond-izzy-podcast-drivetribe-top-gear/

    It would have been a better headline if he’d said ‘Not only will the majority of cars still be petrol in 2050 but BEV’s will be dead in the water’.
    Clarkson has said he’ll never buy one. They’ll never replace V8s in his heart.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/876116e663e31007e6806b7b3c7dab9bd3c3427ea1778d2bbe52f5c7583d562c.png

    Worked together for 13 years but I read somewhere that they loathed each other.

    1. When smoking was banned in Television Centre, those three could be seen huddled together outside in all weathers to have a fag. Didn’t look like they hated each other.

    2. I’m suspecting after working together for so long (it’s more than 13 years surely?) they have grown tired of each others company and need a rest from it.

  32. Morning, all Y’all.
    Late start today. Cats were in a weird mood through the night, scratching on the bedroom door waking us up several times. Bastard furries. Managed to get some zeds in the meanwhile until SWMBO came with lifesaving coffee and toast with her low sugar marmalade…

    1. We’re sitting up in bed. Me with my phone, he’s got the paper, cats here too. Ziggy is on my legs & Jessie curled up.

      1. Don’t like cats in the bedroom. One wakes up with their cast-off hair in the mouth- it’s very fine hair and floats everywhere. Previous cat, Magnificat, was a shorthair, so was no problem.
        Otherwise, breakfast in bed, toast with jam, and toast with marmite. Coffee. Laptop.

        2. Never had a house cat. They belong on the yard catching vermin – and as yet the pup is too small to jump on to the bed 🙂

    3. My Ausssie mate just took his daughter to stay with her grandfolks for the next year, up the road from there. She’s in Aussie school, and polishing her Strine… hope she was elsewhere at the time. Don’t need shit like this.Did they shoot the bastard? and if not, why not?

    5. TB, the interesting part is that you re-reported this Australian tragedy on NTTL approximately an hour before the Telegraph was able (or permitted) to publish a whitewashed version of events. So why do I subscribe?

  35. Proof yet again that money cannot buy taste and that even extensive cosmetic surgery cannot disguise mutton as lamb.

    “When an invitation to a state dinner at the White House arrives, most people’s first thought might not be to pick out a dress which contravenes all the generally accepted rules of demure, conservative black tie tradition. But Lauren Sánchez is not most people. The fiancée of one of the world’s richest men, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, she has made her bold, unashamedly sexy style a cornerstone of her persona since ramping up her public appearances in the past few years as their relationship has become increasingly serious.

    For Sánchez, the solution was to reach for a gown which encapsulated her love for anything revealing and figure-hugging, a passion which appears to predate her love for Bezos. She opted for a red strapless and corseted design with sheer panels by Rasario, a label which describes its designs as “a beautiful ode to femininity and sensuality”. The dress ticked the full-length requirement of the black tie dress code but on top, the effect was perhaps more boudoir than state banquet with the lace bustier cut low to reveal Sánchez’s decolletage.

    Online commenters shared a variety of opinions about the gown choice. “Stunning”, “goddess” and “so beautiful” were some of the look’s positive reviews. But others thought that Sánchez had made a misjudgment; “a little inappropriate for a dinner at the White House”, “you were in the presence of the President of the United States and other distinguished guests, so why did you dress like Kim Kardashian” (little did this person know that Sánchez has spoken about exchanging style tips with Kardashian in the past) and “not a good look… where’s your respect” read more comments underneath the post Sánchez shared on Instagram.”

      1. Dolly had it figured. Out of the limelight she removed the wig, the makeup and the sparkles and went unnoticed.

    3. I once worked on a farm near Redditch, and we all sat down in an evening to watch TV. When ‘Miss World’ was on, I had a running commentary from the salt of the earth: “That one’s a good milker”, “bit scrawny that one, best flog it off quick”… In that household, to call it a cattle market is high praise indeed.

    1. As is he the one with the infamous School report: “This boy should go far….Australia perhaps?”

      Morning Belle & All.

  39. 🤢
    There’s a lot of people imitating her. There’s woman in the neighbouring village who must be 85 and dresses like Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’ before she went shopping.

      3. They had the delectable Siddy Holloway on last night with this inflatable that could lift a tube train. Now, that’s value!

  41. In an age when property was the only thing to invest the family savings in without losing most of its value in the discrepancy between inflation and the bank rate, or in “fees” charged by insider professionals as they go about fleecing their clients, maybe we should look at Capital Gains Tax.

    As a tax on unearned income, it seems fair game. However, when inflation went through the roof in the 1970s, it was made index-linked. It was considered unfair to tax inflation where the value of assets actually remained much the same, and only the token money value changed as the currency was debased. Consider the price of a stamp today, compared to what it was when I was born (as discussed below).

    This index-linking was dropped by the Blair Government, arguing that inflation was a thing of the past, but has come to bite property owners hard in recent years, to the benefit of the Exchequer, and the popular requirement of any electable government-in-waiting since 1992 never to raise Income Tax.

    Angela Raynor, by exploiting the loophole over primary residences, is only doing what most of us would do under such circumstances, but does little to support the Shadow Chancellor’s pledge to tackle tax avoidance.

    1. You cannot tax inflation which is largely caused by the state. It would be rewarding the thief for their crime.

    3. There is nothing illegal about tax “avoidance”. We all should do it. It’s tax evasion that’s illegal. Over the years the two have been conveniently conflated.

  42. Chilly morning here, Moh cut the lawn yesterday evening , it looks lovely , smells nice , but wow the ants have created little piles of earth all over the garden , and I expect as the weather warms up later in the week , next month, next year, or when ever , the ants will immerge and take off providing food for early African bird arrivals .

    Brisk breeze, overcast , 11c

      2. Moh’s grass isn’t just ordinary grass, it is lawn grass , weed free ..

        I have begged him to keep the scattering of daisies on the front lawn , they look so pretty.

        2. It’s why I always proof read before posting. Spell-checker always on so, mistakes and typos are underlined

  44. The Bernanke Report to the Bank of England.

    Mail to John Redwood’s Diary…

    The establishment clearly wishes to confirm that what it’s already doing financially is correct. That’s why Ben Bernanke seems the perfect choice to report into the Bank of England which appears to be doing exactly what Soros wants. Soros planned the fiscal expansion 2009 with Treasury and Federal Reserve officials in Washington. Bernanke at the time agreed to the QE policy that Soros wanted along with Gordon Brown. The admission of Soros to the US financial system and the winding up of IndyMac Bank with $14 billion of federal financing entrusted to Soros’ consortium was payback by Obama for Soros financing his election run. That’s why Soros said of QE in 2013 “I think the policy pioneered by Bernanke is actually the right policy.” As Soros told CNBC in an interview from Davos, Switzerland. Soros of course did not admit that the plan came from him, because of his massive QE insider trading profits, which was why he also praised Gordon Brown at the G20 in 2009 for saving the global financial system ending with the words “this was Gordon Brown’s finest hour”.

    Now it turns out that Andrew Bailey worked with Soros’ close friend Mark Carney who was appointed by Soros’ puppet, David Cameron.

    What an extraordinary coincidence that Soros loves QE and that Sajid Javid, who praised Soros on Twitter, appointed Andrew Bailey, who unsurprisingly also loves QE, to chairman of the BoE.

    It’s even more of a remarkable coincidence that the chairman of the OBR has a close connection to Soros too through his previous employment.

    As well as the Financial Services Authority which was chaired by Soros’ puppet Lord Adair Turner during the period when banking was being remodelled after the financial crisis from which Soros made another massive fortune.

    Looks like the BoE, OBR and FSA are Soros clubs just like the Climate Change Committee.

    Doesn’t it, Mr Redwood?

  45. The Bernanke Report to the Bank of England.

    Mail to John Redwood’s Diary…

    The establishment clearly wishes to confirm that what it’s already doing financially is correct. That’s why Ben Bernanke seems the perfect choice to report into the Bank of England which appears to be doing exactly what Soros wants. Soros planned the fiscal expansion 2009 with Treasury and Federal Reserve officials in Washington. Bernanke at the time agreed to the QE policy that Soros wanted along with Gordon Brown. The admission of Soros to the US financial system and the winding up of IndyMac Bank with $14 billion of federal financing entrusted to Soros’ consortium was payback by Obama for Soros financing his election run. That’s why Soros said of QE in 2013 “I think the policy pioneered by Bernanke is actually the right policy.” As Soros told CNBC in an interview from Davos, Switzerland. Soros of course did not admit that the plan came from him, because of his massive QE insider trading profits, which was why he also praised Gordon Brown at the G20 in 2009 for saving the global financial system ending with the words “this was Gordon Brown’s finest hour”.

    Now it turns out that Andrew Bailey worked with Soros’ close friend Mark Carney who was appointed by Soros’ puppet, David Cameron.

    What an extraordinary coincidence that Soros loves QE and that Sajid Javid, who praised Soros on Twitter, appointed Andrew Bailey, who unsurprisingly also loves QE, to chairman of the BoE.

    It’s even more of a remarkable coincidence that the chairman of the OBR has a close connection to Soros too through his previous employment.

    As well as the Financial Services Authority which was chaired by Soros’ puppet Lord Adair Turner during the period when banking was being remodelled after the financial crisis from which Soros made another massive fortune.

    Looks like the BoE, OBR and FSA are Soros clubs just like the Climate Change Committee.

    Doesn’t it, Mr Redwood?

  46. 2 comments re DT letters, so true .

    Pauline Maridor
    2 MIN AGO
    The government has announced that Andrew Mitchell, who speaks for Lord Greensill in the Commons, “has been given the honorific title of Deputy Foreign Secretary.”
    Thank goodness this government has finally got on top of the most important foreign policy matter facing this country.
    No doubt, it is onwards and upward to the House of Lords and a gold-plated pension.
    Remember ‘Plebgate’… Mitchell is very grand and important; at least he told the police he was. The Downing Street police should have tasered him.
    For goodness’ sake, haven’t we been punished enough!
    Cameron and Mitchell, sounds like an old music hall joke!

    Pauline Maridor
    46 MIN AGO
    What happened to diplomacy? How many more must die to sate the egos of delusional politicians?
    The parallels between Cameron and Blair are remarkable – Libya and Iraq….
    Gibraltar has existed as a British Overseas Territory for over 300 years. Of these, fewer than fifty have been spent inside the European Union. There can only be a threat to Gibraltar’s status if the British Government allows it. Forewarned is forearmed.
    Can we really afford Cameron’s mistakes again which are many?
    Greensill Capital… That is all I need to know about Cameron and his judgement… oh dear, where are my high blood pressure pills.

    My goodness , Rishi’s judgement is terrible .

    1. That’s far too kind of you, Belle! Our cats have better judgement that the so-called Prime Minister!

    2. WEF and Gates have no doubt had a word with High risk anus and told him what to do.

    3. The repulsive Andrew Mitchell was a boy at Rugby School. Matthew Arnold and his father must be turning in their graves!

  47. One day in Britain’s asylum courts is all it takes to see why our immigration system is broken
    We no longer know who lives in the country, are unable to remove those with no right to be here and lack a plan to resolve the situation

    To the layman, this week’s story that an Afghan sex offender could be given refugee status because his behaviour towards women may put him at risk in his home country is absurd. For those used to Britain’s asylum system, it’s par for the course.

    After all, just a few weeks ago we heard a similar tale, when the Clapham attacker Abdul Ezedi was granted asylum despite his criminal convictions. As a former immigration official noted of that decision: “It’s not a glitch that you get sex offenders let in the third time around. It’s how the system is meant to work.”

    Over the last year, immigration has hardly left the headlines. Politicians nominally in control of the country have fulminated about the abuses of the asylum system that have seen small boat crossings surge, bringing 29,437 people to our shores last year, and on course for a new record high in 2024. They’ve watched as changes to the legal migration system sent the inflow soaring to 1.2 million, and started to unwind the mistakes they made with dependent visas for students and care workers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/13/immigration-asylum-courts-home-office-rwanda/

    In the last few days, focus has shifted back to the Rwanda plan. Having come to grief in the Supreme Court and the House of Lords, Rishi Sunak is now threatening to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should the human rights court block the scheme.

    The DT article is lengthy , if I copy and paste everything , the contents will make you all feel very angry , as do I feel now after reading it . .

    No comments allowed .

    1. The politicians could start to solve the issue quickly by exiting the ECHR, scrapping all human rights legislation for immigrants and allowing no appeals, and then putting such immigrants on the first plane out.

      2. The politicians are more than happy for the country to be flooded with illegal immigrants.

        I predict that within 30 years we shall have an Islamic government, Sharia Law and very stern sentences for blasphemy. Female circumcision will be provided free of charge by the NHS.

    2. If Sunak had ever been committed to dealing with the problem of illegal immigration he would have started taking the UK out of the ECHR the day when the first and only flight to Rwanda was stopped at the 23rd hour.

      Don’t be taken in by the line that Sunak is a decent chap who is simply not up to the job. No, Sunak is not just a fraud. He is a deceitful and very nasty piece of work.

      1. That Rwanda scam was totally predictable. And I did predict it (as many like-minds did). I predicted when the plan was mooted that it was just a ruse to get Sunak and the Cons back in. Lots of hurdles would appear and the plan would not occur. And then if the Cons got back in, the plan would be dropped anyway as being eventually unworkable. The contempt these horrors have for the electorate. Vote Reform. Something has to stop this downward spiral.

      2. That Rwanda scam was totally predictable. And I did predict it (as many like-minds did). I predicted when the plan was mooted that it was just a ruse to get Sunak and the Cons back in. Lots of hurdles would appear and the plan would not occur. And then if the Cons got back in, the plan would be dropped anyway as being eventually unworkable. The contempt these horrors have for the electorate. Vote Reform. Something has to stop this downward spiral.

    3. Sunak is surrounded by idiots who reinforce his own globalist agenda. He takes advice from focus groups who I imagine have such narrow remit and tightly managed questions, guided to the answer the cabal want, of course that their only possible outcome is the one they want to find.

      Sunak doesn’t actually intend to ‘do’ anything about massive uncontrolled immigration.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb2xFvmKWRY

      OR

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcghKtd-yP0

    4. Sunak is surrounded by idiots who reinforce his own globalist agenda. He takes advice from focus groups who I imagine have such narrow remit and tightly managed questions, guided to the answer the cabal want, of course that their only possible outcome is the one they want to find.

      Sunak doesn’t actually intend to ‘do’ anything about massive uncontrolled immigration.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb2xFvmKWRY

      OR

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcghKtd-yP0

          1. The Ak47? Always preferred the TAR-21. Lighter, just as reliable, longer rangedand easier to use in close quarters.

      2. A -phobia is the suffix for a rational fear. A -misia is a suffix for a loathing.

        I do not have an Islamophobia; I have an Islamomisia.

        I also have an SNPmisia so let the wee Jock pretendy-parliament suck on that and see!

        1. We can only wait for it and the wee pretendy Parliament to subside into darkness, George.

        2. I don’t dislike them or fear or hate muslims. I don’t want them here because they have a barbaric, stone age culture that is utterly opposed to our own. Our country has been made worse for their mass influx.

    3. Sydney stabbing latest: Five dead in suspected terror attack at shopping centre.
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/13/five-killed-sydney-bondi-shopping-centre-stabbing-live-baby/

      The DT is very nervous about posting comments under this article. I am already suspected of having unacceptable views so when I tried I was given this hogwash:

      Full commenting guidelines

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      1. They don’t sully their vaunted minds with annoyances like facts.

        Just another muslim killer. I imagine they’re trying desperately to spin it to blame the shoppers.

        1. With all the problems theses slammers are causing everywhere they go it makes me worry for my family when they go to similar shopping centres. Brent Cross is a classic example.

        2. The Aussie police say that the attack isn’t terrorist-related, so it must be true then.

  49. Covid was a cover for hijacking the US Presidential election
    By Brownstone Institute:
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/two-weeks-to-flatten-became-eight-months-to-change-the-election/

    ‘Just 25 per cent of votes in 2020 occurred at the polls on Election Day. Mail-in voting more than doubled. Key swing states eliminated the need to provide a valid reason to cast absentee ballots. The virus and ‘racial justice’ became justifications to disregard verification methods like signature requirements.’

    BTL

    Any country that condones postal votes which are not scrupulously checked cannot be termed a democracy.

    Whatever your criticisms of France the French system is rigid about postal votes and so France is far more democratic than the UK.

    1. Like many, I have never believed that Biden is the lawful President of the USA, it’s Trump.

    2. “Covid was a cover for hijacking the US Presidential election” Something of a stretch. I call bullsh*t.

      1. Not quite BS. It was certainly a good excuse to up the postal vote significantly and everyone knows that postal votes are the easiest to manipulate.

    3. “Covid was a cover for hijacking the US Presidential election” Something of a stretch. I call bullsh*t.

  52. Gatport Airwick is the worst airport in UK for late take-offs

    my comment

    Awaiting review

    Tongue in cheek

    As most aircraft leaving UK fly South ie to Spain etc, that is downhill, so they can easily make up the time…

      1. My comment vanished.
        But the car park fire must have been helpful when it’s all been demobilised they are going to build a new terminal building. One of their many expansions projects. The current building is to small, at 5 am it’s usually rammed.
        Fits in nicely for them.

    3. That’s also why it’s quicker driving home from Scotland than the journey up.

  53. I am about to claim a Nottler World record.

    SWMBO bought me some new T shirts.
    I was brave and wore one yesterday
    It has survived 24 Hours without getting:
    Porridge, Gravy, Bleach (from washing up) Stir Fry Oils, etc on it.

      1. A pelican bib. Very good idea and I was about to say that unfortunately they’re made too small for adult necks but just googled and discovered there actually are adult versions available.

    1. Beautiful ship but by all accounts a white elephant. Are they hoping to lose it in a fjord?

        1. Do you remember Pip, that a year or two ago I argued that conventional war would become redundant because everything would by done with drones. No soldiers, navy or air force necessary. Mass attacks done with drones. Someone else wrote that I was talking nonsense but I can’t remember who that was. Seems I’m right. Humble pie anyone?

          We were actually talking about the use of drones in those spectacular displays used to replace or supplement fireworks.

          1. I don’t remember that particular conversation but it certainly wouldn’t take much to weaponise drones. They are already being used in that way. The Houthis seem to be having a lot of success with them.

    3. It has no armaments, no aircraft on deck. Yes, I know it has below deck hangers, but what possible contribution is it going to make?

      Once out of the harbour does another boat take up the tugging?

  55. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8752752adaf0303d5f3a7c5715c78ab22b50b929fabff4d461056d90604bdcdd.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0382453a534654fcf50f917aefc722d2ec54af39189c2480accc8a3bdc42d331.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a761b0add53a01b60ec03498efcc9fc2f6dabc054906e275ac843fe0a9e41d0.png I had a very pleasant surprise, t’other day. A cousin sent me a copy of an old newspaper cutting — that he had found on the internet — showing a photograph from 1909. It was the village football team of that year from Pilley, West Riding. Featured on it was our nineteen-year old paternal grandfather, Albert Butler Barstow (third left, back row, directly behind the goalie).

    I only knew that lovely man for the first six years of my life as he died in 1957 aged 67. I have always missed all the stories that he could have regaled me with.

    The third photograph shows what a dapper chap he was outside his home in the late 1930s/early 1940s.

    1. Pilley, West Riding of Yorkshire

      Pilley, a hamlet in Tankersley township and parish, W.R. Yorkshire, 4 miles S of Barnsley, and half a mile from Birdwell station on the M.S. & L.R. Post town and money order office, Whamcliffe Silkstone Colliery, under Barnsley; telegraph office, Birdwell (R.S.) The manor belongs to Lord Wharncliffe. There are an extensive colliery and a mission church.

      1. My father and his siblings were born at Birdwell, a mining village which has a large obelisk in the town centre.

  56. Labour is planning a disastrous second Blairite revolution

    A vote for Keir Starmer is not a vote for change, but one for technocratic failure and decline

    ROBERT JENRICK • 12 April 2024 • 5:28pm

    The British state is costing more to deliver services less well. Radical change is desperately needed. How the system is reformed is one of few questions to which Sir Keir Starmer has an answer. He will methodically strip issues out of the political arena, and hand over decisions to unelected civil servants, quangos, and judges to create technocratic governance unimpeded by pesky debates between elected representatives.

    For a preview of Starmer’s Britain, take a look at the ECHR case this week in which the Strasbourg Court ruled that Switzerland had violated human rights by not decarbonising quickly enough. What should be the preserve of democratic debate is now being absorbed by a legal-administrative elite accountable to no one.

    At the heart of Labour’s plans is a second wave of quangos. Great British Energy will be set up and granted a remit to set energy policy. Education will see a new “National Curriculum Authority”, reinforced by “Skills England”.

    Bureaucracy will balloon. Already the laundry list is endless: a single enforcement body for workers’ rights, nationwide Climate Export Hubs, an ironically-named “Office for Value for Money”. There is seemingly no challenge that Labour believes cannot be fixed with ever-more powerful arms-length bodies. Rachel Reeves intends to “hard-wire growth” with a new “fiscal lock” designed to give the OBR the final say on budgets set by the government. Decisions will not be made by elected politicians, but by these “experts” who subscribe to the economic orthodoxy. Whatever noises Starmer makes about “lowering taxes for working people”, their prescription will always be to raise taxes and grow the state.

    Executive power is already seeping away from Ministers. Last October, when Steve Barclay, then Secretary of State for Health, ordered NHS Trusts to stop recruiting directly to dedicated EDI roles, the chair of NHS England appeared to reprimand him for daring to tell the NHS how to spend taxpayer money. What Labour propose means even less democratic oversight and accountability when, clearly, far more is needed. The NHS has failed to translate significant increases in doctor and nursing numbers, not to mention a £20 billion rise in health spending in real terms since before the pandemic, into more patients being treated.

    Of course, Labour has nothing to fear from the quangos or officialdom that they wish to empower, because they are already ideologically aligned. They believe in racing at breakneck speed towards Net Zero, accept the supposed virtues of mass immigration without question, and recoil at our decision to leave the EU.

    The proliferation of wokery through the civil service will spread. Labour will double-down on the Equality Act with a new Race Equality Act that will mandate ethnicity disparity reporting. Disparities in pay and referrals to disciplinary procedures may be used as definitive evidence of “systemic discrimination” in public bodies, warranting ever more EDI training classes and the employment of third party “EDI consultancies”, at the expense of the taxpayer and to the benefit of those who peddle divisive and false narratives about Britain’s inherent and unique racism and intolerance. As we saw with Labour-run Westminster Council this week, hiring practices risk pivoting from assessing merit to racial identity.

    Starmer has even more radical plans for eroding Parliamentary sovereignty. Many of these were set out in Gordon Brown’s commission on “renewing our democracy”. The report suggests the creation of a new “Assembly of the Nations and the Regions” with powers to strike down legislation made in the Commons that does not adhere to a new Constitution full of positive rights. This act of constitutional vandalism would provide citizens with rights to every possible good thing regardless of practicality, with policymaking reduced to judicial reviews where judges and technocrats have final say.

    It also includes a fresh round of devolution to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This is premised, as New Labour’s devolution plan was nearly thirty years ago, on the grounds it will act as an antidote to separatism and enable better public services. But on both counts this experiment has already failed spectacularly. As the SNP has trashed the once world-leading Scottish education system, Welsh Labour has driven the local NHS into the ground. Both devolved governments have taken the lead in foolish initiatives such as 20mph speed limits. The more power is handed away from Westminster, the more fractured our nation becomes.

    Starmer’s proposals are a direct continuation of New Labour’s constitutional changes to Britain between 1997 and 2010. If Labour is allowed to “rewire” Britain, whichever government follows it will find their control of the system has been diminished even further. A vote for Keir Starmer is not a vote for change. It is a vote to give up control.

    The Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP is a former immigration minister

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/labour-is-planning-a-disastrous-second-blairite-revolution/

    We know this, Mr J, but the average British voter doesn’t see the danger: “The Tories messed up, it’s Labour’s turn. They can’t do any worse!”

    2. Technocratic failure and decline…..

      So same as the appalling, pointless drivel we have now? This is what Sunak doesn’t seem to understand: he’s just doing exactly what Starmer will do.

  57. Morning all 😉😉🙂
    Wadda start to the day 😄 I discovered I had run out of one of my most important meds last evening. Basically because the dosage was doubled few weeks ago and no back ups were prescribed. On advice from the pharmacy I had to ring 111, very helpful I must say. Within half an hour they rang back and have ordered ten as a standby to see me through until I can get a repeat. Next week. Excellent.
    Listening to the horror from Sydney I had to frown several times at the bbcs ‘non judgmental avoidance’s’ on the identity of the murder suspect in a Jewish area of Bondi junction. The well known reporter was hoping he was not in financial difficulties and hoping he had not been suffering from mental health issues. Or anything else that didn’t lead to the most obvious. And well done the common-sense police officer who mowed the POS down.

    1. My Ramipril was doubled and as i was running out early i ordered some more. This was refused by the prescribing team. They said i had 8 weeks supply of 5gms on March 5th. By the time they looked at it the prescription dose had been increased but i had been delivered 2.5 mgs.
      I told them they had made a mistake and that i now had only 8 days left. They arrived this morning after my taking the last two.
      No apology was forthcoming. So yet another complaint to the Practice manager.

  58. What’s the betting that the Sydney murderer will be a deranged lone wolf and definitely NOT a terrorist?

    2. If he really was deranged then surely the charge would have evolved into manslaughter, especially if he was known to the authorities.

      1. A statement from Sydney says he was known to the authorities but without saying in what way. It probably means that he has come to the attention of the police before, although it doesn’t rule out a history of mental illness.

    3. Oh he’ll have “mental issues” for sure.
      We’ve already had the “the motive is as yet unclear” and “speculation on social media is unhelpful” lines cranked out.

    4. Look up the Cronulla riots.
      There’ll be a clue or two in that.
      Mind you the life guards were blamed for that because they were stopping certain people from inappropriately
      touching young ladies on the beaches.

  59. Had a little help . . .
    Wordle 1,029 3/6

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    1. Wordle 1,029 4/6

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    2. Boring old par

      Wordle 1,029 4/6

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  60. The EU is in danger of taking Gibraltar by stealth

    It is not in the interests of NATO for our hold on the Rock to be weakened. Yet that could happen if the EU and Spanish get their way

    David Abulafia • 12 April 2024 • 2:58pm

    The strategic importance of the Strait of Gibraltar cannot be underestimated. It is one of the most important shipping routes in the world. From its iconic Rock, one can look southwards both towards Jebel Musa in Morocco and towards the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, which has been in Portuguese and then Spanish hands for more than six centuries.

    Gibraltar, though, has – quite uniquely – been under British rule for more than three centuries. How that happened is a good example of unexpected consequences. At the start of the eighteenth-century, Britain supported a claimant to the Spanish throne who, with British help, used Gibraltar as a base from which to attempt to win Spain in competition with a French rival. He went off to become Holy Roman Emperor instead (not a bad alternative) and Britain only then decided to hold on to the Rock. It proved to be a valuable asset. A line of British bases was eventually created from Gibraltar through Malta and Cyprus to the Suez Canal, which was of enormous strategic and commercial value.

    Bits of that defensive line still exist: the RAF base in Gibraltar is matched by the two British bases in Cyprus which, like the Rock, remain sovereign British territory, and are proving their worth in the bitter conflicts in the Middle East. It is certainly not in the interests of NATO for the British hold on these bases to be weakened.

    Yet that could very well happen if European Union and Spanish efforts go their way. As talks over the post-Brexit border deal with Spain resume, long standing plans to make its airport into a point of access for travellers to southern Spain – becoming part of the EU’s Schengen Zone – have become entangled with debates over whether joint management of the airport, as suggested by the Spanish, could have a negative impact on UK military activity, since its airstrip is shared between the commercial airport and the RAF base.

    All that is entangled with the question where exactly the border lies. Is the airport part of a neutral zone between British territory and Spanish, as some contest? But how can it be, others reply, since it is used by the RAF as a much valued base in the western Mediterranean?

    Fundamentally, any agreement that appears in some way to share the airport with Spain can be seen as the thin end of the wedge, increasing Spanish influence in the tiny territory to the point where it finds itself to all intents and purposes re-integrated with the EU. Referenda have shown that the Gibraltarians overwhelmingly wish to remain British, despite being opposed to leaving the EU back in 2016. This puts it in a uniquely difficult position in the context of Brexit, which is why it may have implications far beyond the tip of the Peninsula.

    For if Gibraltar were to cede some of the sovereignty of its airport, that would set a precedent. Other countries might look at other British Overseas Territories – such as the Falklands Islands – and request a similar relationship to that Spain has with Gibraltar. If ever agreed, that could mean Argentina sharing parts of British sovereign territory.

    Closer to home, such an approach could once again see the EU have a say over British subjects – the beginning of a ‘mission creep’ which might be used to try and influence our relationship with Brussels and, in the end, draw us closer.

    In the end, if Spain is happy to co-exist in Iberia with Portugal and Andorra, it should put up with the fact that this tiny notch of Britishness is not part of Spain, just as Ceuta is not part of Morocco. Historical claims based on who ruled what hundreds of years ago have set off enough wars, including the current one in Ukraine. That terrible conflict also underlines why it would be so foolish to concede any of our military presence in Europe to anyone: the international context is simply too febrile and precarious. We need a firm grip on everywhere we have.

    While no one is suggesting that Gibraltar will be invaded – even Franco did not manage that – its distinctive identity and its deep loyalty to Britain must not be allowed to be tampered with for any reason. Its significance far outweighs its size.

    David Abulafia is Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/the-eu-is-in-danger-of-taking-gibraltar-by-stealth/

    1. While I don’t dispute what the author has said, our government and administration refuse to allow us to diverge from EU law. Heck, look at water. Water companies have asked for new reservoirs. Eu regulation has always denied them. Now we have left we could have dug half a dozen immediately.

      Then there’s HS2 – only just scrapped but not because it was a waste of British money, no, but because TEN-T has been shelved. Then there’s sewage – emptied into rivers because of EU regulation fines are cheaper than the cost of cleaning the waste.

      Why is it so expensive to clean now? Well, that’d be because the Left green commies want to stop using using the chemicals and energy needed to do so. The Left should face these consequences themselves. Everyone else should have clean water.

    2. A clear thinking and sensible comment. Thank you Professor.

      Unfortunately you only mentioned in passing the democratically expressed wish of the Gibraltarians

      to stay in the EU. About 95% if I remember correctly.

      As the UN Charter Art.1 states that peoples have rights for self determination it appears likely

      that Britain will accede to the Gibraltarians’ wish to stay in the EU.

      I think that the Gibraltarians were unwise, but they voted overwhelmingly for it

      1. Currently, Gibraltarians desire the irreconcilable: remaining British yet wanting to be in the EU. Their best bet is to play the long game by remaining British and hoping for either a change in British public sentiment towards the EU or for the election of a British government willing to rejoin the EU irrespective of public sentiment.

        My prediction is that eventually a major British party will have rejoining the EU in its general election manifesto and, if it forms the next government, will declare it has a mandate to rejoin without seeking British public opinion on that specific manifesto commitment.

        As we know, not every manifesto commitment of a newly elected government has majority public support, but an election victory is usually regarded as a mandate for proceeding with whatever the manifesto contains.

        1. Thank you David for your comment.

          Unfortunately I can’t find the statement from Brussels that the Europeans don’t want

          us to rejoin. Has anyone got a copy to hand please?

          PS: Pretty arrogant of any politician to decide we will rejoin the EU after Brussels has

          clearly stated that they don’t want us.

          1. “We don’t want Britain back in the EU, they can’t just come and go as they please”
            “We’ll pay double what we used to pay”
            “Oh all right then!”

      1. Corsham is lovely – Chippenham not so nice these days. I am out in the back of beyond – Dauntsey.

        1. My mother was born in Corsham.

          The boys from Chippenham attending my school in Bath (City of Bath Technical School) would arrive by train and alight at the adjacent Halt. They were called Moonrakers.

    1. Hi Bill = Just booked a few days in your neck of the woods for June – usually we cruise the Broads but this year we are having a cottage. Daughter thinks the boat might be too much with my health issues. Really looking forward to it – just love being by the water. Sadly we are landlocked here in Wiltshire.

      1. We might get a fine day – you never know! I have lived here 40 years and have NEVER been to the Broads! Too far away…!! Big county, Narfurk.

  63. Junior’s been to the haircutters, Mongo and Oscar has had a swim and a groom, I’ve cut the beard (more ‘can’t be bothered to shave) the washing’s out, dinner is in the oven.

    The Warqueen is still abed.

      1. Back in 1967, when Foinaven won the Grand National at 100-1, I was (un)lucky enough to have an abcess on my neck and was unable to shave.

        Since then, I have had a ‘set’ (a beard)

      2. Maybe all we women should follow suit ant stop shaving our legs and our armpits.

    2. I hate being unshaven. Our 20 year old grandson remarked recently that he’s only ever seen me clean shaven. It will remain that way as long as I’m able.

      1. Just too much faff. Hair still grows. By about half 10 I’d have 5 o’clock shadow anyway.

      2. During the 1970s, MB had a go at growing a beard (maybe he thought he’d be the 4th. Bee Gee).
        With his angular jaw and the Scottish ginger gene, he looked as if he’d just emerged from Belsen.
        Epic fail.

      3. Five upvotes, Alf, and four of them from women…

        I wet shave every morning. I feel unclean until it’s done.

    3. I hate being unshaven. Our 20 year old grandson remarked recently that he’s only ever seen me clean shaven. It will remain that way as long as I’m able.

  64. Another sunny day in Cornwall blotted out by Bill Gates and his puppet Rishi Sunak trying to change the climate by spraying the sky…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ec35f9079bd71ecccea0986848bd7a6f6148105596cf20bbac3839d0a13e5433.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70a3e524da7636b3199c6ba951529d7c9251f80d1f4597aeb429180c28db4428.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/158aca43a85c07287e34e406b8684358868efd3e077d7c6da33216088ccbaf40.jpg

    3. Mr Gates and his merry men tried it in Sweden but were asked to desist. But that sky looks very dodgy.

  66. On Microsoft Start

    12 Factors Contributing to Britain’s Possible Downfall

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/12-factors-contributing-to-britain-s-possible-downfall/ss-BB1lvSlx?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=4bb247fbc81049c28341a20d6684cd40&ei=13#image=2

    I will leave you to guess which very large elephant, the main culprit destroying the family China, is omitted. As per usual the establishment left will only notice it once it is to late, if it isn’t already.

      1. Oddly no. Closest thing to it is the ambiguous term “Political turmoil”.

    2. For transparency, this content was partly developed with AI assistance and carefully curated by an experienced editor to be informative and ensure accuracy.

      In other words, any reference to race or religion and cultural replacement will be AI-rbrushed out.

    3. Of course, Totally missing the real and most obvious problems, that are the causes of and from. Mass illegal (invasion) immigration. Caused by a succession of Totally effing useless political idiots.

      1. My wives could have dressed like that but I would never have been seen in public with any one of them in that state.

        1. “How long does it take to do your hair Dolly?”
          “I don’t know -I’m never there…”

    4. We’re they going to dinner?
      Never wear bare shoulders at the dinner table (Debretts)

    6. When the top echelons of society go from elegant to decadent that society is in its death throes.

  70. I wonder how many potential Sydney style attackers have crossed or possibly been sent across the channel in dinghies?
    Probably dozens, if not hundreds.

    1. From the police spokeswoman;

      Ms Webb told a press conference: ‘Later this evening we became aware of who we believe the offender is and we believe that he is a 40-year-old man.

      ‘However, we are waiting to formally identify him and we cannot speculate yet on his identification.

      ‘But let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased.’

      She added: ‘If in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we don’t have fears for that person holding an ideation – in other words, that it’s not a terrorism incident.

      ‘He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to identify him formally.’

      1. Excellent example of baffling perlice-speak about the plucky WPC:

        “”As she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him. He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.”

        Translated: “She fired her gun and the bloke is dead.”

        1. Twenty-ish years ago some friends were on holiday in Brazil, and were walking into town, away from the beach. There was a commotion a few metres away as a robber rushed out of a bank and jumped on a getaway scooter. An off-duty policeman discharged his weapon and the robber died, although his accomplice escaped. The interesting part is that the policeman continued to squeeze the trigger for some seconds after there were no bullets left. Click click click….

        3. Good on her. That put an end to it. She’s likely traumatised, I hope she gets whatever comfort is needed.

  71. The Times has a picture of Bluebells in a wood near Shaftesbury. It is difficult to place the picture, which doesn’t do the sight justice, but if anyone is in the area I strongly suggest a visit to Duncliffe Woods. The bluebells are spectacular and a meander through the woods is one of the best ways of putting the crap in the world out of your mind, especially if you have a dog with you.

        1. I couldn’t agree more, I love Spring, the buds of new leaf on trees, the sight of the fields with spring growth. That spring green is one of the most difficult images to capture in watercolour.

          2. I love everything about our seasons .. I really do, and feel almost poetic and proud and protective of our glorious countryside .

            Bluebells and their scent , spaniels smell delicious for a while , and the scent of wild garlic and all the blossoms , plus becoming tearful with joy at the sight of a corner of a field of fritillaries and a few orchids proves that our heaven is here isn’t it , despite the fact that utter morons are trying to create our plunge into Hades , back to the dark ages of medieval evil !

          3. Every season is great with so many good things in them I love our English weather.

      2. My little wood should look like that, but covered in thousands of yellow wildflowers. In reality it looks like the valley of desolation with twenty or so trees down or with broken branches. There must have been tens of thousand of trees in this area suffering from storm Cairan, which tore through her about five months ago. I have a loose bone in my left shoulder which is giving me continuous pain which, with age related idleness, is stopping me clearing it up. I must get the shoulder fixed – don’t know what to do about the idleness though!

    2. He doesn’t eat ox, because he is an observant Hindu. And the PM is clearly not a moron, so he’s taking the p1ss out of the British public. When he departs for the USA, or India, will he be entitled to 24 hour protection?

    3. A moron is a person with a mental age in adulthood of between 7 and 10 on the Binet scale. It was once applied to people with an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 51–70, being superior in one degree to “imbecile” (IQ of 26–50) and superior in two degrees to “idiot” (IQ of 0–25).

      He is not a moron, he doesn’t even qualify as an idiot – The man’s a muppet . . . no mind of his own, just operated by others.

  73. I notice the DT has pulled the comments from the Sydney attack.
    I was just about to point out a response to the following in the news feed “Witnesses said the attacker appeared to choose his victims at random.”. Well I doubt that. Who’s going to get targeted first between a 6 foot 4 muscled up man who’s going to give the attacker some bother or a mother carrying a baby? Sure the witnesses are in shock, but it’s hardly going to be random.

    1. It’s a Westfield shopping centre in a Jewish district, yes? Anyone fixated on it will look at me and see Ashkenazim. It’s that simple. So a Mohammedan goes berserk in a Jewish district and kills at random with no motive? Yeah, right! “No ongoing risk” say the Aussie police. Well yes, as long as Islam exists, there is an ongoing risk.

          1. The MR tells me that it is much used by American/Australian teenagers in English essay examinations.

        2. My 1982 edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary (£7.75) has ideate but not ideation.

          1. Ideate:
            verb (used with object),i·de·at·ed, i·de·at·ing.
            to form an idea, thought, or image of.

            verb (used without object),i·de·at·ed, i·de·at·ing.
            to form ideas; think.

      2. Seems that a policewoman stopped the attack by shooting the bastard dead.
        Good on her.

    2. The attacker selected females, and killed six women. One victim appears to have been carrying her baby, who survived.

      2. Dear God. That’s awful.
        Our news has the mother died, but the baby, despite being stabbed, survived.

    3. Note that the dog must have its eyes shut because eating insects really bugs a dog.
      Make no bones about it!

      2. As everyone knows, in the RAF, an airframe fitter is always known as a “rigger” and Guy Gibson so respected riggers (and everyone else!) that he called his beloved sort-of-extremely-dark-grey Labrador “Rigger”. Unfortunately, a fat-fingered clerk typed this incorrectly and so the myth was born.

    5. It’s like the cat food advert that features only a cartoon cat – presumably the food is so awful that no real cat would go near it?

      1. Whoops, I’m assuming the doggy’s gender. But canines all look the same from the front end.

  75. Situation on Ukraine frontline ‘deteriorating significantly’ in last week. 13 April 2024.

    The situation on the frontline in Ukraine has “deteriorated significantly” in the past week amid a renewed Russian offensive following Vladimir Putin’s re-election, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief has warned.

    Oleksandr Syrsky, who took over as Ukraine’s top military leader in February, also said Russian forces had superior weapons and numbers.

    The end is nigh? We must hope so.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/13/ukraine-situation-deteriorating-significantly-last-week/

    1. I honestly think that at this point Zelenskyy is a war criminal. Willfully sending young Ukrainians into battle to have them killed in their thousands, for no possibility of victory, is a form of genocide. That Zelenskyy would do this against his own people is truly evil. I sincerely hope that at the end of all this he is put against a wall and shot by the Ukrainians themselves.

      1. His own people. Are you sure? And I apologise before anyone says the inevitable. Pres Putin is of course a thug, of that I have no doubt, but he appears to have a strategy.

        1. I’m sure and Putin is not a thug but Zelenskyy certainly is. The false perception of Putin is brought about by the same propaganda that makes Trump out to be a thug. Smear tactics that people are only to willing to believe because they fail to get information from all possible sources. Therefore they end up believing in false characterizations rather than facts.

  77. “Nine-month-old baby dey among pipo wey pesin stab for Sydney mall” Wow, the BBC maintains a pidgin section on its website; is that white superiority?

      1. My unreliable test for ‘middle-classness’, aka aspiration, amongst people from non-anglophone countries is whether the children speak, or are learning, English. No idea as to why the BBC should consider that Africans who are affluent enough to have access to the internet should be unable to cope with written English.

        https://www.bbc.com/pidgin

      2. My unreliable test for ‘middle-classness’, aka aspiration, amongst people from non-anglophone countries is whether the children speak, or are learning, English. No idea as to why the BBC should consider that Africans who are affluent enough to have access to the internet should be unable to cope with written English.

        https://www.bbc.com/pidgin

      1. The internal video introducing the new BBC chairman had him interviewed by Myrie. Very subtle…not.

        1. Wiki has now explained to me that pidgin is spoken across Nigeria, and that your employers introduced a pidgin service in 2017. But it is a form of state control isn’t it, repressing rural populations who should be learning international English.

  79. Some foodstuffs have no grey areas; they divide opinion and you either love them or hate them. The three ‘Mar’ foods fit into this category. No one sits on the fence when it comes to:

    Marmalade.
    Marmite.
    Marzipan.

    I wonder when the first arrest, up in the People’s Democratic Caliphate of Jockistan, will take place for the HATRED of one or more of these comestibles?

    2. I like marzipan very much, especially with dark chocolate. Marmite is good in a roast beef sarnie. Marmalade was good when Mum put it on buttery toast for me but I can’t be arsed for myself. What I loathe is anything flavoured with ginger.

      1. I love marzipan, I have just finished a treasured slab of Simnel cake , wrapped carefully and hidden in the fridge .

        I am craving for some more .. The cake was bought locally , perfect and delicious . Moh cannot eat sweet things , so I rationed myself to a little sliver at bedtime .

        1. My mum makes me Christmas cake without the icing which I have to hide from my husband. I eat a small piece every so often when I need a pick me up. I get two a year: Christmas, and April. I will take delivery of my next one in a week’s time. Yummy!

      2. With you so far as Marmalade and ginger.
        I don’t like the former but I do like the latter

        1. Ginger is one of my favourite food items. It is one that works extremely well with both savoury and sweet dishes.

          Mongolian lamb (savoury) and steamed ginger sponge pudding are two favourites.

          3. I only like ginger in savoury dishes – the same applies to most nuts (actually all nuts). I like my nuts roasted and salted. Love Marmite and Bovril. I guess I am a Umami freak and don’t enjoy most sugary food. Eg – I like 100% cocao zero sugar chocolate and I like hot chocolate made with 100% cocoa powder and hot water (to drink). It tastes almost savoury. Montezuma is a brand that supplies this hardcore stuff, so is Original Beans.

          4. I don’t buy into this “umami” propaganda. It has been known for centuries that there are four specific taste areas on the tongue: sweet (front of tongue); salt (middle of tongue); sour (sides of tongue); bitter (back of tongue). Any other flavour characteristic is discerned by a combination of two or more of these areas. Savoury flavours (of which “umami” professes to be) are predominantly salt flavours with a bit of sweet, sour and bitter contributing. There is simply not another, previously undiscovered, dedicated area of the tongue that only detects savoury “umami” flavours.

          1. Here it is then :))

            200g pack of ginger snaps
            50g butter
            1 250g tub mascarpone cheese
            1 250g tub crème fraiche (or thick double cream, but crème fraiche is better)
            40g icing sugar, sifted
            finely grated zest and juice of 2 limes

            A loose-bottomed 7”/17cm cake tin is essential!

            Crush the ginger snaps, but not too finely or the base goes very hard. I do them a bit at a time with short sharp bursts in a blender
            Melt the butter and mix it well into the crushed biscuits
            Press the mixture firmly into the lightly greased cake. If it is not pressed in firmly enough, you won’t be able to remove it in one piece. Chill for about 30 mins while you prepare the filling.
            Put the marscarpone, crème fraiche, icing suger and zest and juice of the orange into a mixing bowl and beat well together until the mixture forms stiff ‘peaks’.
            Spread the mixture evenly over the biscuit base and smooth over with knife. Chill thoroughly for at least 2 hours.
            When chilled, slide a knife round the sides of the cake tin and remove the ring. Gently ease the base off the bottom and transfer to a tart plate. Dust over with drinking chocolate or cocoa powder. You can also grate chocolate over it, decorate with stem or crystallised ginger or anything else you fancy!

      4. Ooooh marmite and roast beef sandwich…nice idea.

        I hated marmite till I was 30 and now love it. I was going to make some marmite butter but my daughter wasn’t too fussed. But I still might. (Flushed with the success of last week’s cheese and marmite bread).

        I do like marzipan but it’s best when it’s homemade.

    3. Marmalade……Good. ( Roses lime today)

      Marmite…………Never tasted it.

      Marzipan………..OK in small amounts.

    4. 20+ jars of home-made marmalade in the cupboard, including some of 2021’s output!

      1. I ran out some time back. I do have three small bags of Seville oranges in the freezer, though, waiting for me to get motivated.

  81. Prince and Princess of Wales ‘shocked and saddened’ by Sydney stabbings. 13 April 2024.

    In a statement on x, formerly Twitter, the royal couple said: “We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events in Sydney earlier today.

    “Our thoughts are with all those affected, including the loved ones of those lost and the heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others.”

    I wasn’t aware that the First Responders were in any danger at all but I think we can put that down to the Press Secretary. Just in passing I watched Albanese (Australian Prime minister) who thanked everyone except his dog. Formulaic doesn’t begin to cover it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2024/04/13/prince-princess-wales-kate-william-sydney-stabbings/

        1. I think you will find it is all your fault, you white patriarchal supremacist privileged cis-heteronormative fascist pig dog . Or something like that. Certainly not the fault of anyone in the South Sudan in the last 60 years.

          1. The Republic of South Sudan only gained independence from Sudan on 9th July 2011, so it’s not even a teenager yet.

    2. “Known to police” “Nothing to do with terrorism” “Don’t look back in anger”
      How I hate and despise these poltroons!!

    3. How much longer are people going to say ‘formerly Twiiter’?
      It’s OK! We know!

  82. Britain and US block trade of Russian metals to stem funding for ‘Kremlin war machine’. 13 April 2024.

    Britain and America have teamed up to block the trade of Russian metals to “prevent the Kremlin funnelling more cash into its war machine”.

    The London Metal Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchanges will no longer trade new aluminium, copper and nickel produced by Russia, in an effort to hinder one of the country’s biggest sources of revenue.

    What could possibly go wrong? Shortage raises prices in the US and UK. Price drops in China and the Global South.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/13/britain-and-us-block-trade-russian-metals-london-exchange/

  84. OMG it’ssoannoyingwhenyouvebeenreading throughallthecommentsfromyoungesttooldestandyourenearlyatheendofthecommentsandyouclickonalinkwhichopensinanothertabandthenwhenyougobacktothecommentsithastakenyoubacktothetopagain.

  85. OMG it’ssoannoyingwhenyouvebeenreading throughallthecommentsfromyoungesttooldestandyourenearlyatheendofthecommentsandyouclickonalinkwhichopensinanothertabandthenwhenyougobacktothecommentsithastakenyoubacktothetopagain.

    1. What about a Hindu network and a Catholic network and a Baptist network and a Shinto network and a Sikh network and a Protestant network and a Scientology network and a Jedi network an….

      2. There used to be a Shinto guy who went in to All Saints Fulham and knelt in front of the altar praying. He told the vicar, “It’s the local holy place”. When the Shinto guy married, he also asked the vicar to conduct the ceremony because, “You’re the local holy man”.

    3. They are worried because the Indians here in Europe are the wealthiest, higher intelligence , less chips on the shoulder , more integrated, music loving , cultured , clever and poetic family orientated and not backside wiping knee bending wassocks, I would rather see head wobblers than bottom wafters praying every few hours a day .

    4. They are completely taking the p-eye-ss. Everyone else in this country will have to help these useless bar- stewards try to repair the absolute mess they have inflicted on the British public.
      And we and our families will suffer more than any of the effing snivelling serpents in government and Whitehall.

    5. This was always going to happen. They get in, infiltrate and then push around.

      As it is, the home office – and every other government department – has got to start doing as it’s told by MPs and MPs start to take instruction from their masters – the tax paying public.

  89. Putin wants to create an unliveable no man’s land in Ukraine. 13 April 2024.

    On the plains of eastern Ukraine, the Russian military machine – flush with new recruits, Iranian drones and north Korean ammunition – is slowly grinding its way forward. After its success in seizing Avdiivka, a small town near Donetsk that had some of the strongest fortifications of any Ukrainian position, it now has several other towns in its sights along the 700 mile front line.

    No. He really doesn’t. What would be the point? My guess is the Dneiper will be the new border.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/putin-wants-to-create-an-unliveable-no-mans-land-in-ukraine/

    1. The Dnieper River and the Black Sea coast are the only natural borders in that region? Even my Ukraine supporting brother thinks they should cede the land east of the river to Russia. His idea is that that’s the only hope they have of keeping the Black Sea ports.

    1. My father told me I’d be a good prop forward as I have broad shoulders! So I became a county swimmer instead! I’ve got to say that these girls are a lot more skilful than the blooming footy women! Lionesses? Not a hope!

    2. My old local Pub the Adam and Eve Ridgeway NW7 was interesting sometimes.
      The then Inglis, army Barracks had a lot of female service members and quite often would get into a quick fight, you wouldn’t want to be in the way. Even the percents of Danger (Patrick McGoohan) Man or Terry (boxer) Downes ( both local) didn’t put them off.

      1. “The then Inglis, army Barracks had a lot of female service member” The Army postal depot. The WRAC ladies posties were well known for their Sapphic tendencies.

        1. Nicely put, we had certain opinions but never became involved because of the obvious.
          There was a similarly ‘sapphic’ Kiwi barmaid. She didn’t put up with any nonsense. She poured a pint over the head of Terry Downes. No idea what he might have said.
          Did you know the Inglis barracks ?

    1. Oh gawd! How embarrassing! It makes me ashamed to be a woman!
      The one in the polka dot was in the DT! How are the mighty fallen!

      3. Actually Sue while you mention it (and any other Nottlers) have you noticed the wildfire like proliferation of “yoga arse”?

          1. Sorry I should of been more precise with my description. Tight lyrcra yoga pants worn at every opportunity.

          3. Leggings! Those things! One might assume a thong, but much effort is used not to stare. They appear to be everywhere.

    4. They just like to wear their’s ‘shorts’.
      You’d love Melbourne Cup day Grizz, some of the things we saw on that day last visit were amazing. And that was in Perth. If Steve and I we had taken photos we might have been arrested.

      1. I’ve never been, but I was there when it was on in 2009 and suggested maybe we go. My companion said very firmly NO WAY!! He’d been once before 😀
        I did pick the winner though and it was at pretty long odds so we dined out royally on the proceeds!

        1. I backed Media Puzzle and my friend (who, in spite of living in Melbourne had never been before) backed Beekeeper (finished third) each way. A good day was had by all.

      2. When my brother got married in Sydney in 2006, all the women went to Randwick races while the chaps went go-karting.

        We then all attended a rugby match between the Waratahs and the Brumbies at the Aussie Stadium (next door to the SCG).

        1. We first went to a pub just outside of Perth on the Swan River. The car park was packed. But there were two women laying on the grass nearby.
          Must have been out of their heads rubbing each other all over. Skirts up to their waists. …..
          We moved on to the Swan Yacht club. Where our friends were members. Lovely bar, band, everything you’d need for an afternoon out. Lots of boozy people enjoying the day. I loved it. ☺️

      3. Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington was an eye-opener. When I say “fancy dress” I really mean it!

    5. Scouse women spending the extra income from their partners profits, after an spring spree stealing wheels from parked cars. It’s that or the increased profits from a resurgent drugs trade.

    6. Ladies? I can think of a number of words to describe them but that isn’t one of them. TBF the one on the left isn’t too bad.

      2. The middle one definitely isn’t. No man develops cellulite like that on his arse and legs. I’m not a prude, but I do think her skirt is too short. It is showing her fandango.

  92. I’ve posted one version of this song recently, but here’s another, more thoughtful, redition with an extra verse and the lyrics:-
    https://youtu.be/Tg920Fpq4Gs?si=wqzq9gxuRA0M8Zv7

    Lyrics,

    When there’s nothing left but the fire in my chest
    and the air that fills my lungs
    I’ll hold my tears and trade my years
    for a glimpse at kingdom come
    On the other side of misery
    there’s a world we long to see
    The strife we share will take us there
    to relief and sovereignty

    Oh by god we’ll have our home again
    by god we’ll have our home
    By blood or sweat we’ll get there yet
    By god we’ll have a home

    In our own towns we’re foreigners now
    our names are spat and cursed.
    The headline smack of another attack,
    not the last and not the worst.
    Oh my fathers they look down on me
    I wonder what they feel,
    To see their noble sons driven down
    beneath a cowards heel.

    Oh by god we’ll have our home again
    by god we’ll have our home
    By blood or sweat we’ll get there yet
    By god we’ll have a home

    The way is dark, the road is lost
    my eyes they strain to see.
    I struggle forth to find a friend,
    to light the way for me.
    Oh brothers can you hear my voice
    or am I all alone?
    If there’s no fire to guide my way,
    then I will start my own!

    Oh by god we’ll have our home again
    by god we’ll have our home
    By blood or sweat we’ll get there yet
    By god we’ll have a home

    With my way lit I gaze upon it,
    The dream we all do share.
    A peaceful life, A child and a wife
    Will be waiting for us there.
    But if we don’t march on and fight till dawn
    How lost it all will be!
    They’ll take it all, leave us dead against the wall
    And our sons will never be free.

    Oh by god we’ll have our home again
    by god we’ll have our home
    By blood or sweat we’ll get there yet
    By god we’ll have a home

    Oh by god we’ll have our home again
    by god we’ll have our home
    By blood or sweat we’ll get there yet
    By god we’ll have a home

  94. Sue
    No doubt about it , the girls are strong and skilful , and surprisingly fast .

    I also have swimmers shoulders , and used to enjoy swimming but not competitively like you.

    My shoulders and back served me well when I was nursing !!!!

    (Plus being the mother of 2 active young sons and workhorse when Moh was away working for years )

    I really don’t like rough and tumble games , or all the shouty stuff.

    (Except of course sitting on a tea tray , sliding down a muddy hill)

    1. Ah, the joys of sliding down a snowy slope on an empty plastic sack of horse feed – whoo – hoo! 🙂

  95. The BBC is helping the Government in reducing the aging population of the UK by introducing an extra episode of The Archer on Saturdays. More old folk die of broken bones and heart attacks rushing across the room to switch off the programme than in casualty hospitals and old folks homes combined.

    How thoughtful of them. The PM and the Chancer(sic) of the Exchequer will be extremely grateful – and no doubt reward them handsomely.

        2. Not sure the NHS can be saved. Absolute reform will be needed with an entire change of structure.

        3. There was one in the middle of one of those crossings at traffic lights which you have to negotiate when you need to visit “Our” local NHS hospital. It had a picture of a badger on it. i eventually found the time and inclination to look up close. It said: “Save the NHS. Cull the Tories”

      2. Save the NHS. Stop bothering them because sure as hell they don’t give a stuff about you.

  96. Women’s Hour on Radio 4 will be discussing why 883 ‘creatives’ (people of colour) have written in support of the new Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet.

    This is the new Juliet: What is the fuss? Shakespeare was an African – his name tells you !

    https://www.westendtheatre.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Francesca-Amewudah-Rivers.jpg

    2. “O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?”

      “It’s dark Juliet, wherefore art thou?”

      3. Disagree. Hate the balloon lips. Jutting jaw looks petulant and like she has attitude.

      4. Does she feel pretty, witty and gay and does she pity any girl who isn’t her today?

    4. Actually Romeo and Juliet does lend itself to an interracial adaptation without much distortion of the text.

      1. Puerto Ricans burst into song while the indigenous New Yorkers click their fingers and poke fun at the policeman.

        https://www.google.com/search?q=Clicking+finger+West+Side+Story&oq=Clicking+finger+West+Side+Story&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIICAEQABgWGB4yCAgCEAAYFhgeMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBBAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBRAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBxAAGIYDGIAEGIoF0gEJMTQ2MjdqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:bf3d38c7,vid:b2ClSABkDp8,st:0

          1. She also played a well-deserved Oscar-winning performance as Anita in the film version of the best musical film ever.

          1. Worked on offshore construction site (Philips Petroleum Judy) a little north of Siracusa mid 1990s. Fabulous place, wonderful people, food, wine… rant, drool…
            Looking at maybe retiring there, if I last that long. Lucky you to have relations from there.

      1. It is better this way round

        If Juliet was white and Romeo Black, he would have ‘put her up the duff’ and legged it

        That is where

        “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thow Romeo”

        Comes from

      2. It is better this way round

        If Juliet was white and Romeo Black, he would have ‘put her up the duff’ and legged it

        That is where

        “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thow Romeo”

        Comes from

  97. Women’s Hour on Radio 4 will be discussing why 883 ‘creatives’ (people of colour) have written in support of the new Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet.

    This is the new Juliet: What is the fuss? Shakespeare was an African – his name tells you !

    https://www.westendtheatre.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Francesca-Amewudah-Rivers.jpg

        3. It is such a shame. She is a good-looking woman and if she had dressed differently would have maximised her beauty. It’s never a good idea for Fattypuffs to take dress advice from and pose with Thinnifers, who always look better in photos and films, especially unclothed.

          Also (was it Ogden Nash? Can’t remember) in a different context: “…you look divine when you advance, But have you seen yourself retreating?”

  99. I got 4th snd 5th in the Grand National and will probably get back what we laid out. Four horses between us each at £1 each way.
    Will push out the boat tonight with a glass of orange squash. :-))

        1. I don’t bet – but yes, in such a large field the fifth pays. I’m glad because of the heartwarming family story.

          2. Depends on the bookmaker. Some will offer odds down to eighth, but you have to shop around.

    2. I had 17th and last!

      I have to go back to 1998 for my best ever result with 1st (Earth Summit) 2nd (Suny Bay).

      3. My best ever result on the National was in 1981 when I had Aldiniti and Spartan Missile in a dual forecast. I have to be honest and say it wasn’t my selection – it was my racing mad boss’s! I was due to go on holiday the day of the race and he said to me “Before you leave here is the result of the National – Aldiniti, Spartan Missile on that order. Put a bet on”. So I did. During the flight the pilot announced the result and when I heard it I was so excited I yelled “I had the forecast!” and one of the stewards brought me half a bottle of champagne 😁

          1. Yes, and Spartan Missile was ridden by an amateur, John Thorne, who was sadly killed in a hunting accident about a year later.

        2. The last time I had a bet on the National, I backed Lord Gyllene. I let it ride when the race was run on the Monday. I later visited the Brookshaws and saw LG in his stable. He was huge!

    3. I had the first to fall, then the first to pull up, and one of the next two who fell at The Chair. {:^))

    4. The only time that I bet on the grand national, the horse fell and broke its leg. Never again.

      A few years later I did some work for a chain of bookies where I built a bet settlement system. Just seeing how luxurious the back offices were when compared to the public spaces showed me that betting didn’t pay.

      1. It pays for the bookies, richard. If you calculate the odds offered, they are always over-round.

  101. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/13/even-remainers-cannot-deny-this-benefit-of-brexit/

    A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money. At the time these words are thought to have been uttered, concern was mounting over federal spending – in particular the 9pc of GDP going towards US defence. But the American military of 1962 may soon have a genuine rival for profligacy: the European Union’s mammoth Covid recovery fund, designed to reboot the Continent’s southern economies and finally forge a full-blown fiscal union.

    It is becoming painfully clear that the huge amounts of money Brussels borrowed is being wasted, with an investigation into fraud underway, accusations of corruption, and misallocation of resources. In reality, Britain had a lucky escape from the whole sorry mess – and while we may have failed to seize many of the opportunities from Brexit, staying out of this disastrous fund was one of them.

    It was launched with huge fanfare. At the height of the pandemic, the leaders of the EU created a €723bn programme designed to help the Continent’s economy recover from the pandemic. To finance it, the EU for the first time borrowed on its own account. The money would be distributed mainly in southern states that had fallen badly behind ever since the single currency was created, and would be used to help kickstart the transition to net zero.

    It was hailed by its cheerleaders as the moment when the EU transformed itself into a genuine fiscal union, issuing its own bonds, and spending money that would even out the differences in growth between regions. It was a “turning point”, according to the economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, while the EU’s hyperactive President Ursula von der Leyen described it as “Europe’s moment”. Well, perhaps. Where the money has been claimed, the EU has managed to issue the bonds, and raise the cash in the markets. Investing it well, however, has proved more difficult.

    Earlier this month, Italian police arrested more than 20 suspects from across the bloc, at the request of EU prosecutors, over a suspected fraud of more than €600m. During the raids, police seized Rolexes, gold jewellery, Lamborghinis and Porches, which gives us an idea of where at least some of the cash went. It does not stop there. Last week, the website Politico reported that the authorities are investigating the way that €2.5bn of Covid recovery funds earmarked for Greece had been awarded to a small group of telecoms companies in the country, with offices raided by the Greek competition commission, and an investigation opened by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

    It is too early to speculate on the possible outcome of these investigations. But the suspicion must be that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Consider how the fund’s biggest project, a bridge linking Sicily to the mainland, has yet to break ground. Despite the words of gushing EU bureaucrats, there was surely always a risk of fraud and corruption in handing out such vast sums.

    The EU now faces two huge problems. First, unravelling what has happened to all the money will take years of painstaking investigations, and the bulk of it may never be recovered. There may have been a short-term boost to growth in Italy and Greece where the money was correctly allocated – though this is to be expected when large amounts of cash are thrown around. But how much will go into the kind of productive investments that will strengthen economies in the longer term?

    Next, there will be an inevitable political backlash. The billions borrowed will have to be repaid at some point, and mostly by German and Dutch taxpayers, and the EU is already discussing extra taxes it may need to impose on the bloc to meet those bills. If it was spent wisely, voters might begrudgingly accept it. If it has simply been wasted, the response will likely be very different.

    To its advocates, the common borrowing was going to be just the start of a whole series of bond issues to pay for climate change, an industrial strategy, and rebuilding defence. Amid an avalanche of fraud scandals, none of that will be possible. The EU won’t be able to borrow again. In reality, the UK had a very lucky escape. Had we stayed in the EU up until the point where the fund was launched, and as one of the largest net contributors to its budget, we could have been on the hook for billions.

    1. I’m not sure whether I am more depressed reading that article, at the level of thieving, or that I am absolutely not surprised at the level of thieving. EU politicians facilitate mass fraud… hooda thunkit?

  102. Par today.

    Wordle 1,029 4/6

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

    1. Surprise three today.

      Wordle 1,029 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      🟨⬜⬜🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. A tough Birdie Three!

      Wordle 1,029 3/6
      🟨⬜⬜🟩🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  103. That’s me for today. It stayed chilly though there were patches of sun.

    I am SOOOOO relieved that the slammer knifeman, who shouted in Arabic and targeted women was NOT a terrorist. I expect he’ll be called “an Australian”…..

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – prolly.

      2. How very odd – aren’t they usually scrupulously truthful and balanced, like our very own BBC?

        1. BBC has nothing on the CBC, that’s what happens when they are government funded.
          What surprises me is all of the other news organisation’s that supposedly are independent (apart from the $600 million government grant) that have not evenmentioned Sydney.

          How can they deny slammer responsibility if we don’t know about it?

          1. It’s not so different, richardl. This country (the supposed United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is ruled completely by precious media types who pontificate and are believed by the masses – given legitimacy by the vast government controlled funds (our money) pushed their way. This became even more apparent during the Covid years. We are no longer a Democracy (if we ever were) and are ruled by people we pay to undermine our interests. Sigh.

      1. if someone murders random people whilst shouting Allahu Akbar I think that is evidence of “ideation”, isn’t it?

    5. Good evening,
      Unsurprisingly, he was already ‘known to the police.’ It is high time all such slammers were locked up in basic but high security facilities. They are not ‘known to the police’ without good reason. Why wait for these ticking time b0mbs to slaughter innocents before locking them up? If need be, employ some of the legions are idle career benefit scroungers to build the facilities. If the buildings then leak, fall apart or whatever, tough.

  104. Good evening everyone, or is it afternoon as it’s still light. Greetings from Helicon home of the muses and the Kingdom of Mercia with axe and marmalade sandwich sandwich In handbag.

    Hope you’ve all had a good day – a day for big hats :- ) 😁

      2. Hello, James Hewitt lookalike with a cheeky smile who named his dog after Harry Windsor. I trust you’re referring to those floral gulfing trousers and not pants ( in England pants are worn beneath trousers ) I don’t want to know about your underwear 🙂

        1. Harry’s name is from Harry Rawlings. Married to Dolly Rawlings who took over the gaff when the men went to prison. Being women they made a better job of gangstering.

          Secondly….i don’t wear underwear.

          2. You obviously haven’t had an opportunity to inspect the equipment. If you had you would have said…hmm. Needs more wire brush to take the rust off.

          4. Ah,I remember Mr Viking from years ago ( Peddy the gargoyle who had a cat called missy ) he used to say he slept commando. Maybe you’re Scottish and wear a kilt when not in your floral TROUSERS 🙂

      3. I haven’t liked to mention this before, but I do also veer towards the floral trouser. It’s a sort of frock substitute for the non-trans (or should I say cis) amongst us

  105. Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen from a very pleasant Spring day here in Verwood.
    I had a bit of a walk in Wilverley Enclosure in the New Forest today, where Mother Nature is starting to shake off Winter, and the beeches are starting to throw out their leaves:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0bec54ca1fdab3bf452c63295da1f22645be171af7649b2209e286a7f138d3f7.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a5beadc4de6f6f7a7ab90c04bc20973ec9e894e662fe3f3b7f332e1dca9ec0a2.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0a57e79003758d7030c44c76e6a241b1157884707ae9504b1504b9f6244b5d0.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc5ed41a3118c21c7e56a8b015d68364fe41e47a5994547cf59025ca4a4a29da.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2cd562f853c996852f05fa118b26c53f1b098e82a43f856eb616b7188d57050f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af3062fe1d2b5a02cfe917d8604fb8703d0cd51ba0bc7eb29196ad9b7973dc0c.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b5599666ec5f4283be069bf5a4e92e2cc6f568ac4db3a255216bf67c445ab07.jpg

    1. Spring’s suddenly arrived. Cherry blossom out, plum blossom nearly finished, bluebells out, trees coming into leaf, frantically trying to get all the vegetables in as the soil is suddenly dry enough and warming up.
      A bit of a shock to the system.

        1. Well, according to Polly. Gates is active in the stratosphere cooling the planet. I do so hope that she is wrong, but don’t know what to believe.

          1. I have a long term friend who thinks exactly the same. She’s been on about it for years.

      2. I don’t have a free day until the middle of next week to shove my veg in; no doubt by then it will be raining again. I did manage to sow some radish a while ago and they have germinated, but the lettuce and turnips that went in at the same time appear to have given up.

    2. Spring’s suddenly arrived. Cherry blossom out, plum blossom nearly finished, bluebells out, trees coming into leaf, frantically trying to get all the vegetables in as the soil is suddenly dry enough and warming up.
      A bit of a shock to the system.

      1. I really love bee flies. They are so endearing. And there is a model with a very long sharp nose.

  106. 386013+ up ticks,

    I do feel that could very well be an emotion shared by many indigenous peoples, seeing as we most likely financed the forgery campaign out of the aid monies the political overseers
    supplied.

    Saturday 13 April: Royal Mail’s stamp fiasco is just another case of contempt for the British consumer

      1. Bloke prances about, shoves a gun in the front of his trousers, then pulls it out again and it goes off…
        It’s called “Appendix carry”, and the problem is, one might shoot ones-self in the family jewels, or femoral artery. Then, it’s lights out, Doreen.

  108. Not saying that anyone is telling porkies but!

    Trudeaus testimony at the latest inquiry into foreign (chinese) election interference was so at odds with other testimony that the intelligence services director was recalled for further questioning and that confirmed that the emporers truth was from a different dimension.

    Then a day later, Trudeau contradicted his testimony during a q and a after a speech.

    They don’t even attempt to pretend that they are not lying any more.

    1. Ross Perot wouldn;t employ adulterers on the basis that if a man could lie to his wife, how could his employer ever trust him?
      Given that Trudeau’s wife divorced him….

      1. Many years ago, MH worked for one of Ross Perot’s companies, and reckoned he was a decent person. He was certainly a good employer.

    2. I just don’t understand why so many people continue to vote for these absolute shysters – same in the UK, particularly the Scottish Caliphate. And Wales is beyond parody.

      1. They are just plain stupid and/or so brainwashed into thinking everything leftie is wonderful. Then they moan when their taxes are badly used.

        1. Most of those voting for the Leftwaffe don’t pay tax or work for the state. I had that discussion with a council chap. He didn’t seem to understand he didn’t really pay tax.

  109. It maybe a little early as they’ve not turned up yet:-) A question for very cultured wine connoisseurs Nottlers ( for when they turn up but it maybe too late as I’ve a dinner party tonight ) I’ve a box of Italian white wine in cartons ( the type you have orange juice inside). Im not too sure about cartons of wine, I ve never had one before and as I’m a wine geek, I certainly prefer a bottle of wine on the table. Will my guests this evening be insulted by the carton of wine – they are academics. Maybe I should chill a bottle too, just incase.

    1. Do you have a decanter? That would be the easy answer.
      Cartons are not elegant and the wine is, generally, just about alright but don’t expect many compliments.

      1. I do have a decanter for red wine, I usually serve white wine in a bottle chilled in the fridge, placed in a ice bucket on the table. Although whilst In Italy I’ve noticed they serve white wine in small glass decanters that can be kept in a fridge – maybe I should order some. I suppose I could empty the carton into a empty wine bottle or two – better then not appearing elegant.

        1. How will your guests know the decanter is for red wine?
          A wine decanter is a wine decanter and not discriminatory.

          4. My fridge is full of food with little room for my large crystal antique decanter of which I’d not want to break as its expensive. I just use it for red wine .

          5. Put the carton in the fridge to chill it and then decant it into the decanter. The decanter doesn’t have to go near the fridge.

          7. OR – you could serve it in chilled stoneware jugs which would look both rustic and stylish

        1. Oh very much so, I don’t know them very well, they’d be scandalised enough by my bare feet – I’m wearing a long Venetian skirt without shoes – they should not see my feet but one never knows. I shall pour the wine into ceramic jugs which I think you suggested earlier .

          3. Yes very much so . I remembered my axe in the handbag In case they get annoying 🙂

        2. Alas, the sherry and port I serve in my cut crystal decanters are not particularly expensive. I’ve had no complaints yet 🙂 Perhaps now I’ve admitted that, I’ll get a few!

    2. Are these 4 litre cartons or individual serving size?

      You could just dump the wine into a kettle and claim that is the new world way of doing things.

      I agree with everyone else that a decanter is good, just pretend to be posh French and call it a pichet.

      1. I don’t have any for this evening but I might buy some, they’d be nice for picnics and serving wine in the garden with lunch .

    4. Make cork popping noises in the kitchen and bring the wine out in glasses on a tray.

    5. Being an academic is no sign of character. Most wine tastes dreadful to me. I far refer apple juice.

  110. Story in the DT.

    Judge blocks police ban on ‘Hamas is Terrorist’ banner protester
    Scotland Yard had tried to stop Iranian dissident attending pro-Palestine marches by imposing strict bail condition

    A judge has told the Metropolitan Police it cannot stop an Iranian dissident who displays a sign branding Hamas as terrorists from attending pro-Palestinian protests.

    Under strict bail conditions imposed by the force, Niyak Ghorbani, who has been arrested three times during his counter-protests, would have been prevented from going near any central London demonstrations relating to Israel and the conflict in Gaza.

    But a judge has now thrown out the conditions, ruling that they were neither proportionate nor necessary.

    The conditions had been imposed after 38-year-old Mr Ghorbani was arrested for a third time during a pro-Palestinian march earlier this month.

    He has become well known for holding up a sign stating “Hamas Is Terrorist” while standing alongside the route of the regular protests being held in London against Israel’s retaliation to Hamas’s Oct 7 attacks.

    He has been manhandled and attacked by some protesters, but insists he is doing nothing wrong in pointing out that Hamas is a proscribed terror group under UK law.

    Niyak Ghorbani lies on the ground as he is handcuffed by police offcers.

    Police attempted to impose strict bail conditions preventing him from attending future demonstrations after he was arrested and accused of refusing to stand where instructed by a police officer during an Al Quds day protest against Israel on April 5.

    He was not displaying his banner at the time, but was working as a video reporter. A hoodie he was wearing with the same slogan was concealed by his zipped up jacket.

    Following his arrest, he was handed a sheet outlining his bail conditions as being “not to attend any protest relating to Israel or Palestine in the City of Westminster”.

    He was told by officers that the conditions would remain in place until at least July, when he is due to return to Charing Cross police station to learn whether he faces any charges.

    On Friday, Mr Ghorbani went to Westminster magistrates’ court to appeal against the police

    Niyak Ghorbani outside Westminster magistrates’ court on Friday CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER FOR THE TELEGRAPH

    Jessie Smith, his barrister, of Doughty Street Chambers, told the court the Met had been wrong to impose the bail condition.

    Pointing out that no further action had been taken by police following Mr Ghorbani’s previous two arrests, she added: “We have here someone who has held up a flag with a legal statement written on it.

    “A condition of this kind at this precise time, imposed for three months, and given that he does not have a criminal record , is not proportionate. It is wholly disproportionate.”

    Deputy District Judge Lisa Towell agreed and ordered the ban to be lifted. She told Mr Ghorbani: “In these circumstances I’m not satisfied that the condition is either necessary or proportionate. At this stage I’m persuaded to remove the condition.”

    Dissident overjoyed by ruling

    Mr Ghorbani said he was “overjoyed” by the court’s ruling and vowed to attend future pro-Palestine protests and continue displaying his banner.

    He told The Telegraph: “It was fantastic to hear the judge say that she disagreed with what the police did. That means I can carry on with my protest against terrorism.

    “The police wanted to show their power to me, but they should be showing their power to the protesters who shout slogans in support of terrorist organisations like Hamas.

    “We live in a democracy, with free speech, but the police were trying to prevent my freedom. I’m doing this for the British people, for the Iranians and for the Israelis, for people who live here peacefully.”

    ‘Topsy-turvy’ policing

    Mr Ghorbani, who wore a pendant in court with an inscription calling for all Israeli hostages to be released, urged others to take up the mantle of opposition to Hamas and lend their support to pro-Israeli counter-demonstrations.

    On Saturday, Mr Ghorbani joined Israel supporters in Hastings, where he held up his banner as local pro-Palestinian activists marched past.

    The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which funded Mr Ghorbani’s appeal, condemned the Met’s response to his protests.

    A spokesman for CAA said: “All Niyak Ghorbani wants to do is point out to anti-Israel marchers that Hamas is a terrorist organisation under UK law.

    “Instead of addressing the threat that the marchers pose, the police have tried to impose draconian measures on Mr Ghorbani.

    “If only the police were half as concerned with the marchers as with people like Mr Ghorbani. How did British policing get so topsy-turvy?”

    The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.

    A judge who is applying the law. The police won’t like that. Good.

    2. Huh. Just wait until someone parades a banner that links Islam and terrorism…

          1. Too much like hard work. When they did this and the police did nothing it was the end of this country.

            What choice do we have when the state won’t enforce the law?

      1. Let’s hope she has a great sense of character, she might with luck be the start of the fight back. I won’t hold my breath but will keep my fingers crossed.

    5. We live in a democracy, with free speech,

      No mate, we don’t. And again, no, we don’t.

      In a democracy the protestors wouldn’t be here as the people would have prevented the mass importation of a voting block. In a democracy the hamas mulsims wouldn’t be allowed to protest. In a democracy plod would have arrested the muslim wasters, not the lone voice of reason.

      We o not have free speech. The race relations act did away with that. As did HRA. The online harms bill hammered the nail int the coffin – all are EU law, by the way.

      Folk come here because we’re a decent, tolerant society. However, the Left, by destroying the thing that makes us a decent, tolerant society replaced attitude with law. Law that is now applied unequally dependent on demographic. They have turned this beautiful country in the very third world middle eastern hell hole toilet folk like Mr Ghorbani are trying to escape.

    6. he is exceptionally brave and risks being killed (yes killed) by the extremists that this country now nurtures. If only there were more like him.

      1. We, in the widest sense of the word, used to be like that but then came the psyops of the scamdemic. Day in day out psychological adverts on every radio and TV programme at every ad break and every news bulletin and in every newspaper and supermarket and posters in the streets. It broke the will of the majority of the people. It was warfare against the people who put the politicians in power. People were coerced into having experimental injections and are still being cajoled into having more.
        This is where we are.
        We have not and will not participate in the destruction of our lives by the lies that continue to be pedalled by the WEF and WHO stooges who now inhabit national and local government and head the quangos.

    1. Is it? It might just be a gesture, designed to take a little heat out of the debate. If not, Lisa Towell might well find herself on the circuit, adjudicating on garden boundary disputes in deepest Herefordshire.

  113. Well,well,well,explains an awful lot

    As always follow the money

    “Off-label dispensing of hormone blockers jumped from a $10 million a year industry in 2017 to an estimated $500 million last year.

    Cross-sex hormones added another $4 billion to the industry’s bottom

    line. Once a patient begins cross-sex hormones they are customers

    forever. Getting patients to start on lifelong medications while they

    are adolescents is a drug industry bonanza.”

    https://www.justthefacts.media/p/the-transgender-money-pipeline

  114. Had AA borrowed the white cat from well known Nottl RichardI?
    I know people by the moggies who own them, there are a few white cats here, a black cat, a pair of light golden cats and a black and white cat ( apologies to the Squires Labrador who isn’t reading this post;-) . I must finish my cooking and deal with the wine – have fun.

    1. I did speculate, some days ago, that the cat might be shared. The wrath of God descended upon me.

      1. Maybe it was the wrath of the Egyptian God, Bastet . Worshipped as a lion and then a cat. Cats were once worshipped as God’s, something they have always remembered.

        1. Well, yes. Cats have always had recognition that they are special in particular ways. Another example would be that they allegedly exercise influence in the subtle and causal realms. I don’t know.

          1. Well yes, cats are mystical creatures. Black cats are seen as lucky in Japan but not so here. They seem to look into the distance as if they can see things we cannot.

          2. I’ve always thought of black cats as lucky, and always had them here (preferred them). But I remember a Brazilian Au Pair who was really distressed about their presence (“How do you avoid one crossing your path?” Which I did regard as lucky). Anyway, they are now all dead and I no longer have any cats. I miss them greatly, but I am winding down towards the inevitable. We are down to two horses, one dog – and that’s it. No poultry, no cats, this dog will be the last – and so forth.

          3. I suppose different countries have different traditions, we’ve had the medieval superstition of witches and black cats . I’ve not had a cat since a child, used to have dogs . Labradors and a collie who thought he was a cat . But it’s been years since I’ve had a dog and sadly don’t think ill have another one, sadly, I do miss them .

          7. I had cats when I was a child but they never lasted long; we lived opposite the church and they went hunting in the churchyard. Unfortunately, a very busy road separated us from their hunting ground. As a consequence I am very much a dog person.

          9. Following the blacks we also had two huge and genial tabbies. Seriously lovely cats.

          10. In between we had a little tortie – Lily. She was elderly when we took her on but she was with us for four years.

          11. In France having a black cat cross your path is considered unlucky. A neighbour has one and it often crosses in front of me – good job I’m not French 🙂

          12. I was born on Friday 13th. I got fed up with being told how unlucky it was, so I defy it by walking under ladders whenever I can. It produces some interesting reactions…

          13. I passed my driving test on Friday 13th. Whether that was a good thing or not is still up for debate 🙂

    1. I so miss having cats. However, the upside is that I know that all the birds (sparrows, swallows. wrens , robins) that come into the house are safe.

      1. yes. It always surprises me that these absolute nonentities make front page news and bloviate upon current affairs – things that matter. Who the f*ck are they?

    2. I passed a bloke out for a walk and he bellowed ‘I’m distancing! I’m distancing!’ He was truly mental. People were afraid. You can make frightened people do anything you want.

      1. To be fair, I think we were all frightened when the pictures came out of Italy (and China). But then things really went off piste

        1. The pictures from Italy of lines of coffins were quickly identified as archive newsreel. I can’t recall all the details now but the coffins held the remains of poor souls who’d perished at sea some years before.

          2. And a couple of crowded hospitals in Lombardy were as a result of mostly Romanian old-age home care-workers abandoning their charges so that they could get back to Romania before lockdown.

          3. Having had massive blot clotting problems, near death from stress induced IBS I’ve come to the rather fatalistic attitude that you’re going to go one day and likely won’t know when or why.

          5. Is that true? I was on Colombia when it was all kicking off, and i don’t watch the news anyway, so i missed all the hysteria surrounding the outbreak. I was “in a different world” so to speak

        2. I was sad to see the young Chinese doctor who knew he was dying as he was killed by the ventilator. You could see the fear in his eyes.

          Other than that, the Diamond Princess lack of morbidity convinced me there was nothing to worry about. We both had a cold in January 2020 which left us with a dry cough for several weeks. We went to Kenya in February and I couldn’t believe the panic that had set in by the time we arrived home in March.

    3. I won’t forgive or forget that we were put under house arrest, denied normal life, forbidden to travel, told to wear stupid masks, coerced into being jabbed – all for nothing.

      1. 386013+ p ticks,

        Evening N,

        The problem is many will, and so sad to say, it will continue.

      2. Never forget who was PM who could have done far more to resist what happened. He turned his back on the people.

  118. I love 50s films ( before I was born ) I love the Englishness, the good manners, gracefulness and I love the dresses and hats ( I have hats for all occasions ).
    I love to dance and to play the violin to Beethovens piano concertos.
    We went to Rome about 7 years ago . I very much am a Audrey Hepburn fan and love the film Roman Holiday. Although Rome had all the history one would expect and wonderful Renaissance art and I expected the crowds . It was too modern, it was full of immigrants and I was foolishly conned out of money by an Italian. The tour guide was useless and lost me – I went on the metro and was worried about immigrant pickpockets – I looked too much like a tourist . maybe I was influenced by those occurrences but I realised im not a city person and I was upset that Rome wasn’t what I expected but I’ll go again one day

    1. Maybe arrange a small party of friends next time. Both for company, security, and for later – when you can start conversations like “Remember when we were in Rome…”
      Much more fun to be able to share the experience. I hate doing things like that on my own, for that very reason.

  119. Did you know that, if you rest one of your tsticles on the top of an empty beer bottle, then warm the bottom of the bottle with a match, the testicle gets sucked in when it cools.
    If you did know this, and know how to get it out, please advise urgently… 🙁

    1. Perhaps warming the bottle will release the gonad. It might sound like a cork – I said cork – popping.

  120. The wreckage of one of two Westland Wessex HU.5 assault helicopters (this one XT464) of 845 Naval Air Squadron operating from RFA TIDESPRING which crashed in severe weather on 22nd April 1982. The two doomed helicopters plus a further Wessex HU.3 from HMS ANTRIM were evacuating a reconnaissance party of members of 22 Special Air Service Regiment from Fortuna Glacier, South Georgia when an extreme blizzard forced them off. The Wessex HU.3 was able to leave and carried the survivors, a total of sixteen people, to safety.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3936ab6713f7aa20fc38e1003a7a64e13c22c0122d8d74ef87e3e1c1becef495.jpg

  122. Iran has launched drones at Israel . . . it will take several hours to reach the target.

    ‘Twas only 24hrs ago that Dopey Joe declared that he will defend Israel . . .

  123. Good night everyone. I’m off to Minsmere tomorrow , an early start at 6 o’clock in the morning to catch a coach. I mentioned I like hats – it’ll be my hard green waxed hat tomorrow, it matches the green waxed coat . Sweet dreams x

  125. Just come home from a very uplifting choral concert – Tallis, Byrd and Purcell…..and one or two others.

  126. Just come home from a very uplifting choral concert – Tallis, Byrd and Purcell…..and one or two others.

  127. News update:

    Large number of drones launched from Iran toward Israel . . .

    Israeli airspace will be closed at midnight . . .

      1. That might be the point, then they lob something else once the system is exhausted. Dunno though, idle speculation on my behalf.

      2. What the Israelis need to develop is some kind of electrical device to interfere with the missile guidance systems and deposit the missiles on the Gazans instead.

  129. I’m going to say night night and very sweet dreams to one and all. To all you lovely people. Sleep well.

  131. My selection for the Grand National unseated his rider☹️ just after the first circuit. Bookies laughing all the way to the bank as the joint favourite and last year’s winner deposited the jockey at fence one!

    I always have bad luck in that race.

    1. The Grand national has always been even more of a lottery than any other race, IMO, Squire. It’s been sanitised, but it’s still a bit of a lottery. Although, this year (and i suspect more and more) it was obviously in the pocket of McManus and Mullins

    2. I thought you were going for I am Maximus. I was not surprised Corach got rid of Derek Fox at the first; it seems to be a bit of a pattern with the previous year’s winner. I seem to recall Aldaniti did it the year after he won.

        1. Oops! Mr Unreliable – not guaranteed to start and an iffy jumper. He did well to get as far as he did. I was delighted for David Maxwell. What a thrill to ride your own horse in the National and finish 6th. Not as good as Marcus Armytage, but still.

          1. Yes. I could see I was in trouble even before the off as he was kept away from the other horses and was right at the back for ages.

  132. I know I’m supposed to be in my basket, but just a quickie re Israel: the IDF needs to plough on with its grim task. If Hamas and the people calling themselves “The Palestinians” release the hostages that they kidnapped 6 months ago and surrender the murderers and rapists that they harbour amongst the alleged civilian population there can be a ceasefire. Why won’t they do this, and why do the idiots in the West support these terrorist murderers and castigate Israel for defending itself in the only way that it can?

    1. It is a fact that Israel could never ‘defeat’ Hamas by bombing Gaza in the way that it has. Hamas has vast resources, mostly stolen from foreign aid, and can survive indefinitely in its deep tunnel infrastructure.

      Hamas is funded principally by Quatar and its upper echelons live in luxury in Quatar. Attacks by Israel on the Iranian Embassy annexe in Beirut are a distraction. The true supporters of Hamas reside in Quatar.

  133. Good Night chums, sleep well and hopefully we’ll all gather here tomorrow morning safely.

      1. The phrase “you couldn’t make it up” has become redundant because you don’t need to 🙁

  135. “Guten morgen my little Joe, is Klaus”…

    “Oh good morning, Herr Schwab, how kind of you to spend your extremely valuable time calling your adoring and obedient puppet, little me. How can I help you today, Sir?”

    “Start WW3!”

    “Yes, of course, Herr Schwab, it is being done!”

      2. Biden and his despotic regime remains responsible for this conflict. Ditto the conflict in Ukraine.

        This farrago is entirely as a result of a stolen US Presidential election.

        Maniacs are running the US and running it into the ground. I can think of no other regime capable of making every conceivable geopolitical decision-making error than the dead-eyed Biden clown show.

  138. David Atherton
    @DaveAtherton20
    Muslims have infiltrated the
    @ukhomeoffice
    . The Islamic Network, which has 700 members, aims to recruit Muslim staff & “influence policymakers” to support “Muslim needs”. It also seeks to “influence policymakers so that policy is more inclusive of Muslim needs”.

    A Home Office whistleblower believes the “Islamic lobby group inside the Home Office represents a serious threat to the Govt’s aims in combating Islamic extremism & granting asylum to those fleeing Islamic countries over religious persecution.”

    Home Office staff celebrating World Hijab Day, saying it was a choice when in many countries like Iran, women have been killed.

    Permanent Secretary
    @MatthewRycroft1

    https://twitter.com/Dandavbac82/status/1779223605903086010
    , the man who who could not answer a basic question to
    @LeeAndersonMP_
    on how many failed asylum seekers had been deported, attended an Islamic Network celebrating Ramadan.

    In an internal blog he wrote, “As the Civil Service Faith and Belief Champion, I was grateful for the opportunity to be involved in this fantastic event”.

    We have a 5th Column amongst us who have no allegiance to this country.

    Rycroft has to go.

    https://gbnews.com/membership/home-office-islamic-network-influence-policymakers

    1. That Muslims have infiltrated the Home Office has been obvious for some time. Those photographs of its senior position occupants where you have to spot the ‘white man’ have alerted us to the fact.

      This diversity and inclusion crap has to be stopped and expulsions made at the soonest.

  139. It has evidently kicked off with Iran now launching multiple missile and drone strikes on Israel.

    We are lacking western leadership and heading towards WW III. Biden and the Democrats have brought the world to this debacle.

  140. Mental illness update: it moved to Sydney from Queensland and the name was Joel Cauchi. My condolences to the families of the victims. Edit: lived with schizophrenia, aged 40, from Toowoomba.

  141. Mental illness update: it moved to Sydney from Queensland and the name was Joel Cauchi. My condolences to the families of the victims.

  142. The world stands on the brink of all-out war. 14 April 2024.

    However this conflict develops, Israel’s allies, including the US and UK, must do all that is needed to stand strongly by their main ally in the Middle East, if necessary with military action. Failure to do so will increase the prospects of escalating conflict in the region.

    And our joining in will de-escalate it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/13/iran-attacks-israel-world-stands-brink-all-out-war/

    1. Reports say the UK & US shot down many drones. Good. The worst damage seems to be a ten year old girl injured.
      Iran threatens Israel to not retaliate. What a bunch of jokers.

      1. We’re so pleased that Britain is getting involved in another expensive foreign war, after

        all, what else could our Government do with all their surplus money?

        1. The civilised world should support Israel to the fullest, or these shits in Iran and elsewhere will have a go at another country, and another. They must be stopped and an example made of them, or nobody is safe.

          1. We’ve heard it all before: “The civilised world should support Cameron Ukraine Israel to the fullest, or these sh*ts
            in Libya Russia Iran and elsewhere will have a go at another country, and another.
            They must be stopped and an example made of them, or nobody is safe.” Meanwhile, I support Israel but Iran is larger than Gaza.

          3. We’ve heard it all before: “The civilised world should support Cameron Ukraine Israel to the fullest, or these sh*ts
            in Libya Russia Iran and elsewhere will have a go at another country, and another.
            They must be stopped and an example made of them, or nobody is safe.” Meanwhile, I support Israel but Iran is larger than Gaza.

        2. Yo jjH

          Wonder how Mr trump would have handled it all.

          Well for a start, he has not got a son involved in Ukraine with King Mafiosa

  143. Good morning everyone , it’s 5.40am .. not quite dawn but nearly .
    Rather mild and the birds are singing. About to have tea and toast and we will drive to the place to catch the coach to Minsmere nature reserve . It’ll be a long day – packed some meat pies etc and tea . Have a nice day x

      1. You’re awake early Tom. Thank you, I’m just about to leave,
        have a good day yourself. From Æthelflæd, if you see any Vikings I’ll lend you my longbow and axe 😁

        1. Æthelflæd was Ælthelred’s wife not daughter.(Born 888)

          I am of viking descent. Earliest ancestor is Egil, King in Uppsala 530.

    2. Good morning Kitty
      How did your dinner party go?
      I hope it was successful and the serving of the wine went well.
      Have a good day.

  145. Someone give Geoff a nudge please – anyone who has his ‘phone number – I think he’s having a Sunday lie-in

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